Lashing spren

[Jondesu he/him]

Okay, so I found an apparent contradiction that I’m sure there’s a reason for, but I’m trying to sort it out.

In Oathbringer, Kaladin lashes the gang including the spren to fly towards the perpendicularity and Dalinar:

Quote

Kaladin Lashed them one at a time—and fortunately, his arts worked on the spren as they did humans. They took to the air and started the last leg of their journey.

Yet, in Rhythm of War, we get the following passage:

Quote

Syl, flying beside Kaladin, eyed the spear Rock had thrown. Despite the wind rushing in his ears, Kaladin heard her dismissive sniff. Well, she couldn’t be infused with Stormlight. Trying to push it into her was like trying to fill an already brimming cup with more water.

In the RoW passage, she’s in the Physical Realm, vs the OB scene in the Cognitive/Shadesmar. Are spren less Invested in the Cognitive? Does the Nahel Bond Invest them in order to bring them into the Physical Realm, all the time, rather than just when doing particular things with Stormlight?

Basically, why can Syl be infused/Lashed in one case but not the other?

[+Bzhydack he/him]

I think this is about physical body of Spren. In Cognitive Realm Spren have more or less human-like bodies, so they also behave human-like. But in Physical Realm they behave differently. They don't have body.

[crème de la crèmling]

I've noticed this, too. Shallan actually experiments with infusing Pattern with Stormlight in WoR, when she learns to attach an illusion to him. 

Quote

"Can you hold Stormlight?" Shallan asked Pattern.

"I don't . . . I mean . . . Investiture is the means by which I . . ."

"Here," Shallan said, pressing her hand down on him, muffling his words to an annoyed buzzing. It was an odd sensation, as if she'd trapped an angry cremling under the bedsheets. She pushed some Stormlight into him. When she lifted her hand, he was trailing wisps of it, like steam off a hotplate fabrial.

WoR Chapter 60: Veil Walks

Shallan also places an illusion to Syl in the Cognitive Realm. In the quote from RoW about Syl being a brimming cup of water, context suggests that Kaladin is probably talking about how he can't Lash her in her manifested Shardspear form like he can a regular weapon. I think he's describing the inability to Lash a god metal manifested in the Physical Realm, just as Shardplate can't be Lashed (or manifest in the Cognitive Realm, for that matter.) 

[apepi]

It might be because infused things are harder to mess with magic, while none infused things aren't. Syl being very invested while some random non-high spren is easier to infuse with magic.

[Frustration]

I don't think it's the spren themselves so much as their Shardblade forms.

In the CR they can just attach it to their bodies, Shallan just attached it to Pattern

But the Shards themselves are too invested to lash

[Jondesu he/him]

On 7/13/2021 at 2:32 AM, apepi said:

It might be because infused things are harder to mess with magic, while none infused things aren't. Syl being very invested while some random non-high spren is easier to infuse with magic.

It’s Syl in both quotes (well, not just Syl in the first, but she’s one of the spren he lashes).

5 hours ago, Frustration said:

I don't think it's the spren themselves so much as their Shardblade forms.

In the CR they can just attach it to their bodies, Shallan just attached it to Pattern

But the Shards themselves are too invested to lash

That makes more sense, but she’s flying next to him when he says it, not in Blade/Spear form. It was implied though, I suppose.

[Lunu’anaki he/him]

Kaladin could put stormlight into Syl, it just wouldn't do anything to her in the physical realm. It would be like trying to lash another radiant I imagine.

[mathiau he/him]

37 minutes ago, Jondesu said:

but she’s flying next to him when he says it, not in Blade/Spear form

I don't see why that would mean Kal is not thinking about her Spear form