The Thrill Posted March 26, 2018 Posted March 26, 2018 (edited) I'm wondering if Brandon Sanderson got his inspiration for Sprens and Shadesmar from The Jinn World, which is a 'concept' in Islam that these beings that humans cannot typically see live within the same space as us, but in a parallel world that we cannot interact with or see due to it being held together by a different set of physical laws. The parallels: Invisible entities that live in a lateral or parallel realm They are supposed to worship the same God as humans (The Almighty?) They have various abilities that they can wield Are able to possess (bond with?) humans on some level Thoughts? A quick search on Google yields this: Quote The Jinn are beings created with free will, living on earth in a world parallel to mankind. The Arabic word Jinn is from the verb ‘Janna’ which means to hide or conceal. Thus, they are physically invisible from man as their description suggests. Quote “The Angels were created from light and the Jinn from smokeless fire.” (Saheeh Muslim) It is this description of the Jinn which tells us so much about them. Because they were created from fire, their nature has generally been fiery and thus their relationship with man has been built upon this. Quote Abilities That which clearly distinguishes the Jinn from mankind, are their powers and abilities. God has given them these powers as a test for them. If they oppress others with them, then they will be held accountable. https://www.islamreligion.com/articles/669/viewall/world-of-jinn/ Edited March 26, 2018 by The Thrill 1
The One Who Connects he/him Posted March 26, 2018 Posted March 26, 2018 It's an interesting parallel(to something that I haven't heard of, so I get to learn too ), but I don't think Brandon made those parallels on purpose. He's primarily mentioned pulling from Plato and the Shinto. Quote Questioner Do you get any of yours [inspiration from mythology]? Like I know you mentioned sciences and physics. Brandon Sanderson Yeah a lot of science and physics is where it's coming from. A lot of, I mean, having lived in Korea for two years, and speaking Korean, a lot of my linguistics come from Korean, and the idea of Spren comes from Asian mythology: the idea that everything has a soul. So that's an inspiration. Brandon Sanderson Syl's inspiration came from a lot of different places. I'm not sure if I can point to one thing. The spren are inspired by Japanese mythology, that everything has a soul. That is the original inspiration for it. But Syl as a character, I'd been toying with forever, and I think she came about as a counterpoint to Kaladin's darkness; a figure of light that I knew that the story would need. Ant The use of spren are a brilliant idea, what was the inspiration for these creatures? Brandon Sanderson In part, they stem from the underlying cosmology and overarching rules. Also, I wanted this book and this series – and everything about it – to feel different from fantasy worlds in the past. I wanted something that could consistently remind the reader, "Oh, I'm in a different place. Wow. Their emotions manifest visibly when they feel them strongly. This place is bizarre." That was one of the main inspirations. Looking in our world, one inspiration is certainly the Eastern concept in Shinto mythology of everything having a soul, every rock and river and tree having something living inside of it that is a manifestation of it. Since I was working with the idea of Platonic realms and the like, I spun that off into the spren. Brandon Sanderson So spren in The Way of Kings. I honestly think the earliest seed of this, years and years ago, was reading Perrin in The Wheel of Time where he can smell people's emotion and I thought that having an actual different sense to recognize emotion was so cool I think that is what planted the seed in the back of my brain. The other thing that that is mashing-up with though is kind of Shinto ideas, because I was relying a lot on some Eastern philosophy when I was building Roshar and The Way of Kings. And the Shinto believe that everything has a soul and a spirit, a kami as they call it, and things like this and wanting to expand that into not just the rock but your emotions have a soul and they manifest and things like that. And then I was working in the cosmere and all this stuff but in the end I think it is a mash-up of those two concepts. Wanting a cool way, a different way, a way that changes society that emotions play out mixed with this idea of the kami and the Shinto beliefs. Kurkistan Okay, so it's all like these highfalutin Spiritual ideals? And are there like, median Cognitive ideals that gradually kind of influence these, or-- Brandon Sanderson Yeah, they transcend between the three. I mean the original concept for the Three Realms is Platonic philosophy. Questioner Where did you come up with the idea for spren? Brandon SandersonSo, the spren are based a little bit on Platonic philosophy, and a little bit on Shinto philosophy. And it's kind of a melding of those two concepts. Of the few entries on Arcanum containing the word "Islam," there is this: Quote Questioner What theologies and philosophies did you draw on to create Vorinism? Brandon Sanderson Vorinism is a hodge podge of a lot of different things. Part of is the Jewish Kabbalah-- Questioner The mysticism of Jewish-- Brandon Sanderson Yeah, the Jewish mysticism. Part of it is Jewish mysticism, part of is [Islam], but there are a lot of things that are just drawing from philosophies rather than theologies. I'm trying to remember what specifically we were doing... But the main concept was the idea of a church that had been subsumed by a monarchy to the point that the [the church] would be very servile. And that concept led me to a lot of the Vorinism discussions. Not sure how related Vorinism is to Spren and Shadesmar, but there is a little bit of Islamic influence in his writings of Roshar. 1
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