[OB] Spren Behavior and Surges

[Steeldancer he/him]

I've been thinking about this for a while, how spren behavior relates to their surges. This particularly comes to mind in how spren move and such, like with the difference between how Syl floats, Pattern glides across the floor, and Ulim sort of zaps across surfaces. So, here I am going to compile the spren, their surges, and the relationships in behavior, as well as some predictions for what other spren we haven't seen as much might behave like. 

Honorspren-Adhesion, Gravitation- Honorspren float, and can stick things together. They also can change shapes, although I'm not sure if that relates to the surges or not.
Highspren- Gravitation, Division-Highspren also appear to float. They are smokey, and depending on whether the petals that appear when Szeth swears his third ideal are the highspren, might also be able to change shape. They also are smokey and somewhat indistinct. Described as rips in the sky. These are one of the spren we need to see more of. 
Ashspren-Division, Abrasion- We have not seen these at all in the physical realm. However, we have seen them in the Cognitive, and they lose ash off of themselves, but regrow. Spark is the name of Malata's spren, so it is possible that they look like a spark or flame, which would add to the idea of them looking indistinct, like highspren, which would relate to Division perhaps. 
Cultivationspren-Abrasion, progression- This one's pretty clear. Cultivationspren grow along their path, and seem to be tied to the ground entirely. This may relate to their surges of progression and abrasion specifically. 
Mirrorspren*-(me making up a name for them)- Progression, Illumination- They seem to be stuck on surfaces, and they seem to be an effect of light. This in particular is important, especially when looking at Glys... almost makes me wonder if they are some kind of crystal spren... We didn't see them in the cognitive realm, so there's still a lot we don't know, and we can't really use Glys to figure things out. 
Cryptics- Illumination, Transformation- This is the one that made me think about this, when in WoR, Shallan describes Pattern as almost being like a pattern of light on the floor... but not. This is interesting in context of truthwatcher spren pretty much being patterns of light on the floor. They are also black, and for transformation, seem to be limited to their shape, but can change their size. I think this relates to transformation.
Inkspren- Transformation, Transportation- They look like ink over stone, and stay the same shape, but change size. I'm pretty sure the first is due to transportation for some reason, and the second is transformation. Not entirely sure why the coating would have anything to do with transportation, but the idea of a coating is the only connection I could make with Lightspren, and the changing size thing seems to be something Inkspren and Cryptics share. 
Lightspren- Transportation, Cohesion- They appear to be balls of light, comet spren. I imagine that that might surround a bronze core, given what we saw in the cognitive realm of reachers. As for cohesion... I have no idea. I also have no idea why they are able to float, according to their surges. 
Stonewardspren- We've seen practically nothing of these guys. Really, I have no idea. 
Godspren- they're weird, and don't fit any sort of pattern. They have a lot more investiture to them, so I'm not sure how much the surges are an effect on them as it is. 

Well, that didn't work as well as I wanted it to. The most important thing is that I'm almost certain there is more evidence to support this, because this is literally what spren are- the surges. The surges define how they can interact with the world, which is why syl can float and Pattern generally doesn't. If you have any more thoughts on how the surges are related to how spren interact with the world, it would be nice for you to share it. 

[Nathrangking he/him]

@SteeldancerI might argue that the transportation surge has something to do with the direction of the inkspren shadow. Could it transport/transplant the location of the shadow in relation to light?

[whattheHoid she/her]

Very interesting. See I took the personality traits of the different groups of spren to be related not just to their surges, but also as a quirk. For example, most of the spren that bonded with humanity after the Recreance were the boldest, the rebels if you will. And it is true we haven't seen a large group of particular spren together (except maybe more than a couple of honorspren), however the honorspren that we did see all tended to be almost arrogant? Headstrong, definitely. We see that with Syl; she is headstrong. Cryptics, and it's true we have only really gotten to know Pattern, (maybe we'll get to see more of the Cryptic Hoid picked up) they seem to be a scholarly, yet practical type. As far as Ivory and inkspren I always took their shadow as the direction of where they could go or had been, since they transport? Kinda like what @Nathrangking said. Cultivation spren, like Wyndle, for some reason remind me of Hobbits. They like to garden and create and grow beautiful things. When I think of them, they feel almost gentle, nurturing to me which would tie in with Edgedancer abilities. But again there are always outliers for any group. I'm excited to see more of some spren cities, like Celebrant and see how the spren act and are. 

 

[Steeldancer he/him]

20 hours ago, Nathrangking said:

@SteeldancerI might argue that the transportation surge has something to do with the direction of the inkspren shadow. Could it transport/transplant the location of the shadow in relation to light?

oooh, interesting. The inkspren shadow was backwards? interesting. I had forgotten about that. 

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

Beings mostly of the CR have shadows pointing the wrong way. Inkspren are the Elsecaller spren, elsecallers are the main CR interactors as both their surges interact most strongly with CR, ergo Inkspren will have opposite facing shadows.

[NoiseSpren he/him]

Stoneward spren.

I think they are these lava-stone-like spren. Aren't they?

(chapter 102 Celebrant, at the first page)

[Steeldancer he/him]

10 hours ago, Bigmikey357 said:

Beings mostly of the CR have shadows pointing the wrong way. Inkspren are the Elsecaller spren, elsecallers are the main CR interactors as both their surges interact most strongly with CR, ergo Inkspren will have opposite facing shadows.

Yeah, but why? 

6 hours ago, NoiseSpren said:

Stoneward spren.

I think they are these lava-stone-like spren. Aren't they?

(chapter 102 Celebrant, at the first page)

Yup, those are them, with no canon name as of yet. 

[whattheHoid she/her]

Stoneward spren are presumably for the order of stoneward. Doesn't Dalinar do "stonewardy" stuff in Thaylen City, when he repairs statues and walls? Do we know what they do? Or, since Dalinar is a Bondsmith, was he just reaffixing the bonds of the broken stones back together? Do we know of any current Stonewards? 

[MountainKing]

Spoiler

 

Bondsmiths and Stonewards share the surges of Tension.

[Steeldancer he/him]

11 minutes ago, whattheHoid said:

Stoneward spren are presumably for the order of stoneward. Doesn't Dalinar do "stonewardy" stuff in Thaylen City, when he repairs statues and walls? Do we know what they do? Or, since Dalinar is a Bondsmith, was he just reaffixing the bonds of the broken stones back together? Do we know of any current Stonewards? 

Um, he used tension on the walls. Stonewards have Cohesion and Tension. Taln is the stoneward herald ()

[Bigmikey357 he/him]

The Cognitive Realm is a weird place, often reflecting the Physical Realm interesting ways. Shadow points towards light, the sea is as solid as stone, Land is a bunch of beads you cannot swim in, Stormlight itself is currency and sustenance. Doesn't it make sense that the both surges that heavily rely on Cognitive Realm to work would have a Spren that mostly relies on thought? Inkspren are cousins to Logicspren after all.