Deadeyes, Invested Classification, and Why This Exposition

[Crylorenzo]

"He gestured with his chin toward Syl, flying down beneath them as a ribbon of light. 'She’s what I now call a Type One Invested entity. I decided that had to be the proper way to refer to them. Power that came alive on its own.'

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So we know that Spren are Type I. Many people are of course abuzz with a discussion about the different Types now and how they connect across the cosmere.

One question I have is how deadeyes fit into this classification (if at all). I have the feeling that this exposition is NOT just here so that we cosmere lore fans can have more to talk about, but because this knowledge is going to be essential in both fixing Maya and later on Urithiru. We now know that the Sibling is a deadeye and people have long suspected that it is connected to Urithiru. Now that we know about these classifications, how will this information come back to be useful in the narrative? I believe that as we understand these classifications better it will help us have better insight into how to fix or change certain Types. For instance, are Lifeless a form of Type II Entity that has been broken (or is incomplete in some way) similar to a deadeye for Type I? Is Nightblood a broken form of a Shardblade, but that somehow twists its power (instead of cutting the soul, it unravels the soul?)

I believe we have seen another Type I Invested Entity become broken and then be fixed. Perhaps I am late to the discussion here, but I believe that we have in Seons in Elantris - For instance Ien, Raoden's seon - is a Type I entity. And once the Reod took Raoden he was broken (is there a Nahel bond here too and does that create a new entity? Where do Elantrians, Mistborns, and Mistings fit here?). Ien seemed to often try to seek out Raoden or be near him if I remember correctly. Deadeyes always try to find their blade. Ien was fixed when Elantris and the connection to the Dor was restored. Is there a connection to the power that needs to be restored with Deadeyes? What is the parallel here?

[FatherV]

Being a handicapped human being doesn’t make you less human. What kind of thing you are is not effected. Spren are Splinters.

[Zedseayou]

I do think that the exposition is likely to be plot relevant, but this section seems much more likely:

Quote

They’ve lasted thousands of years already, and seem Connected to Odium to feed directly on his power. You’ll have to find a way to disrupt their souls. You can’t just rip them apart; you need a weapon so strong, it unravels the soul.

Of course Nightblood is around, but it's entirely possible they can figure out something that kills Fused without killing literally everything like Nightblood.

What I find difficult with the part you're talking about re: Maya and the Sibling:

Quote

“She’s what I now call a Type One Invested entity. I decided that had to be the proper way to refer to them. Power that came alive on its own.”

“You can see her!” Kaladin said.

“See? No. Sense?” Zahel shrugged. “Cut off a bit of divinity and leave it alone. Eventually it comes alive.

to me at least, is that this doesn't tell us much about how you kill a spren. The key thing is that we don't understand deadeyes, as you noted; what exactly is missing? So far we just know that investiture comes alive if you leave it. My sole hypothesis is something to do with Intent, which Zahel also mentions. If you shape Investiture into a Type I, perhaps its sentience is tied to its Intent? This could make some sense:

• Truespren can lose their sentience if they shift their Intent to be focused on the oaths, and then that is lost
• Seons might have an intent of being attached to a master, and if that person became inaccessible because of the partial Shaod, their Intent is not fulfilled?
• Returned have an Intent to achieve whatever Endowment returned them for?
• No idea about the Sibling, though. Its Intent is presumably something to do with the tower but that would reverse the chain of events I previously had (something happens to Sibling -> tower breaks)

[Crylorenzo]

I like that idea, especially because we know that intent plays such a large role in cosmere abilities.

Another thing from what you quoted that stood out to me is how Zahel comments on how he can sense them and justifies it by stating how they have come alive. We know from Warbreaker that drab and Lifeless can be harder to sense. Isn't the same true for deadeyes? I seem to remember Maya surprising a character or too in Oathbringer by suddenly being near or behind them without them sensing it. Does this mean that that the power/life has been stripped from them as well?

[Pathfinder]

Sorry to be a buzzkill, but below is a favorite WoB of mine. It details the situation with the deadeyes, and why it is different than Hoed:

 

Jerich

Is the Hoed from Elantris similar to the state of [dead] Shardblades? If so is it possible to awaken a Shardblade if the bearer speaks the oaths of the Knights Radiant?

Brandon Sanderson

The status is... I would say not as similar as you're probably thinking, but it does have a similarity in that two bacteria causing a disease are both caused by a bacteria, so there is a similarity there.

I can imagine a sequence where a Shardblade would be reawakened, but I think it would be very difficult.

It's not the same that they're in the middle of a transition, like in Elantris.

Jerich

Oh, okay. So you have to actually... it'd be harder.

Brandon Sanderson

It'd be harder, yeah. It's not the same, they're not in the middle of a transition. They have had something ripped from them, and it's very painful and it's left them mostly mindless.

Jerich

So they have to have that something added back?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. So what you've got going on: the spren gain-- the bond lets them have sentience in the physical plane, like they can think and all these things, and when that was ripped away from them-- imagine... (this is a very bad metaphor, it's the first one coming to my head though): imagine you had wetware, you had a head-jack or something like that, and someone just ripped it out of your head. 

Jerich

*stunned/horrified*

Oh.

Brandon Sanderson

Instead of surgically operating it out. Like that's what's happened, a piece of their soul's been ripped off.

Words of Radiance Seattle signing (March 8, 2014)

[Crylorenzo]

Thanks for sharing! Very useful here!