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Did Lopen bond a spren or is he a squire?
As of right now, Lopen is a squire.
Okay, as of right now. So it's a potential RAFO.
Uh, I answered your question exactly. *questioner laughs* That's not a RAFO, that's an exact answer to the question you asked.
You mentioned that half(-ish) Shards are whole at-- during Shadows of Self. Is that counting Splinters?
Okay, one more time.
You mentioned that half-- like I think it was at the Bands of Mourning release party-- you said that "half-ish Shards are whole" during Shadows of Self.
"Half-ish Shards are whole?"
Yeah, you didn't want to do the math, because it was-- *interrupted*
Oh, I get it. You're saying-- Okay, so I'm sorry. I'm trying to think of Shards that are half-powered. That's not what you're saying. Half of the existing Shards.
Yes, yes.
Okay, got it. Yeah.
And does that-- is that counting Splinters? Splintered Shards?
Um, no. I mean, a-- Splintered is one of the ways that they are not considered whole.
Like completely Splintered as in Dominion and Devotion.
Yeah. That's what-- That's the opposite of whole.
But having a Splinter, like Endowment...
Because I-- I was kind of going with "Shattered" <and> "Splintered". So Shattered would be kind of what I was going with Devotion and Dominion.
Okay.
And then Splintered would be more like... You mentioned that Honor kind of Splintered himself off to create the spren before--
Oh, and that's mentioned isn't it?
Right, but you've got to keep in mind that-- um... So in Scadrial, Ruin and Preservation did the same thing. Their bodies are part of the world. They-- if their exist-- like, the things on the Spiritual Realm don't matter where they are in relation to each other and things like this. All those <piece> spren are still Honor, when he was alive. Does that make sense? Like, yes those are little Splinters of Honor, but they are still Honor. It's not like he's diminished, because his whole essence is the world, right? There is no diminishing that. And so that thing is we're talking about the fracturing of the mind and the killing of the Shard. That's the distinction between whole and not whole as I was making it for you there.
Can spren fall in love and have emotions like that?
Yes.
If Kelsier had visited Roshar, what spren would have been attracted to his character?
Gloryspren because he pretty much always feels like he's done something awesome. :)
What happens when a... spren picks up a Shard?
What do you mean picks up a Shard? Shardblade or Shard of Adonalsium?
Picks up a Shard of Adonalsium.
A spren is a Shard of Adonalsium so it just--
Picks up one of the big ones like could a spren do the same thing that Kelsier's spirit did after he--
*hesitantly* It's like you're asking if electricity can gain a charge of electricity and get electrified. Does that make sense? I mean-- It's a question that doesn't make a lot of sense.
If a Shard were to somehow-- They would just combine into a bigger Shard and get larger-- if that makes sense?
The foundation of that question was I thought that maybe the Stormfather spren was basically doing what Kelsier's spirit did.
Oh, um *sighs* Not really... It's really a not really There's some similarities but it's a not really. It's not quite a RAFO though. more of a--
More of a "doesn't quite work that way".
--doesn't quite work that way but you're thinking along the right lines?
So Nightblood is sentient, he can make choices, and now he is in Roshar. Could Nightblood bond a spren and become a Radiant?
Could Nightblood bond a spren-- *drowned out by laughter* That one's just a bit farfetched. *laughter* I rarely say anything is impossible but let's just say that one's pretty farfetched.
So for most of your planets do you just assume that gravity is 9.8 m/s, and do you have a reason for that, or--
It just depends on the planet. Like Roshar… it's 0.7 Earth gravity on Roshar.
Oh really?
Yeah, otherwise they couldn't lift those bridges, and you couldn't have the-- Even with the help of the spren, you couldn't have the giant beasties. So it's a high-oxygen, low-gravity environment. So fire acts a little differently on Roshar than it does on other planets. People are taller, like if you put a Rosharan next to someone else the low-gravity would have had that effect.
Oh, I didn't even know that.
Generally you should assume when I'm using numbers they're in-world numbers. So, for instance, a Rosharan foot is actually larger than a foot in another-- Stuff like that. I have to do some jockeying of these things to not be completely off-putting and confusing to people who are not expecting-- to the casual reader, but like days. A Rosharan year is 500 days, but they're twenty hour days, I made an hour basically our hour just to keep it from being too crazy for people. But that means when it says Kaladin's 18 he's really actually like 20 years old and a little over, or something like that, I forget the numbers. Everyone's a little bit older than they sound but it works just for the average reader.
If Shardblades were spren, then what is Shardplate?
Good question. It's a great question.
And you're not going to say are you?
I'm not going to answer you.
Shardblades are essentially spren that have died--
Not all of them have died but yeah.
Oh, my question was if they could be revived?
Um this… According to the understanding of those in-world it would require the same person who broke their oath. So it would be possible if any of them were still alive. I'm not ruling out other ways, but that's how it's understood by--
It would be the traditional way.
Yeah, mmhmm.
If the spren turn into any weapon how come all the dead spren are Shardblades?
Good question.
Read And Find Out?
It is a Read And Find Out.
Is the gender of a spren bonded to a surgebinder based on sexual preferences?
It-- A lot of people are curious about this one… Not strictly but there is an influence there. But it's not strict. In other words Renarin having a male spren does not necessarily mean--
What some think it means?
-what some thinks it means. How about this you are more likely to bond a spren of an opposite gender-- a spren who identifies as an opposite gender, because spren don't actually have gender. But you are also more likely, statistically, to like members of the opposite gender. Those things have a correlation. Whether they have a causation is not a thing I am canonizing.
Would you be able tell us a little more about what Pattern looks like as a Shardblade?
I'll try to get a drawing into the next book. I've realized that we really should have one.
Is there any relation between Shardplate and the spren like there are with the Blades?
RAFO. :)
If an Awakener went to Roshar and bled color from a gem, would this gem still hold Stormlight?
If an Awakener bled-- No it would-- Oh wait yes it would because a colorless gem could still hold Stormlight. It just would not have--
Would not have the properties of the original color.
Yeah, the color is integral to what's going on because molecularly some of these gems are the same except for the different coloring. The coloring is kind of what--
What defines what magic.
Yeah. It has to with fabrials and some of the effects, and that relates directly to the spren and what spren-- anyway.
If Breeze, Dalinar, Sarene, and Shallan played a game of Apples to Apples, without powers or spren, who would win? *laughter*
Alright, alright, alright, alright. Name the people playing again.
Breeze, Dalinar, Sarene, Shallan.
Okay, Jasnah. *laughter*
Are Ruin and Preservation separate in Sazed or are they fully combined together like can he give one of them, or does he have to give both.
They are not fully combined. I mean that's not the way this works. He could pull off a piece of one even and make-- stuff like that. That's totally, totally viable. I mean it's basically what happened with the spren. The spren existed before even Honor was destroyed and things like that.
So, did the-- my gosh, on Sel-- the Aons-- not the Aons-- the seons did they exist before the Splintering?
They did not. That's a good question. But they are not the majority of the power. They're just little pieces, they are like the sparks when something gets destroyed. The sparks are not the majority but they are the sparks that were thrown off, if that makes sense?
If you went to Shadesmar on Scadrial would there be spren there?
"Spren" is a term for things on Roshar. So yes, there are a few, but they're from Roshar originally.
At first, I was thinking of only a small number of important spren. So Syl started as simply "the East Wind".
I just read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell and loved it. How did the first shade come to be? Are there shades in other worlds? Do shades have bones?
Shades are what we call "Cognitive Shadows" in the cosmere. They're basically "spren" or "[seons]" created from human souls. (Where Investiture--or magical power--keeps a consciousness alive after it has lost its Physical connection.) Yes, shades all once had bodies.
Think of them like petrified souls, where instead of stone replacing the tissue of a corpse, magical power replaced the parts of a soul that connect that soul to the Three Realms.
Can a person who dies but somehow hasn't passed Beyond the Three Realms (a la Kelsier) serve in place of a spren for Radiant purposes?
This is theoretically possible, but it would require an unusual sequence of events.
We know that the Stormfather is a Cognitive Shadow and is also acting as a spren for Dalinar but is he able to do that because the "unusual sequence of events" took place or is there something else going on specific to the nature of the Stormfather?
RAFO. :)
If Kelsier became a "spren" for a Radiant, would he grant Surgebinding or Allomancy?
RAFO.
I name my computers and smartphones after spren. But I am out of names. Is there a name you wouldn't mind revealing?
Well, do you need good spren? Or is the occasional evil spren acceptable?
Your call! And evil spren would be fantastic for my new phone.
Ulim. (Also, the Unmade count as spren. You could look those up.)
I didn't think spren could be good or evil??
Most spren are neither. Sapient spren (capable of making choices) can be either one.
How did you come up with the idea of windspren?
Windspren in specific? I was thinking about the way the wind is often anthropomorphized, right? It's treated as if it's something alive. And that, for years, just stuck in my head. For a while there were only four windspren, one for each of the quadrants: the north spren, the south spren, the east spren, the west spren, or the west wind and things. But eventually I split them into many more, because I was working with the honorspren and things like that.
So I take it that a spren exists simultaneously in both the Physical and Cognitive Realms...
They do.
But are they conscious simultaneously of what's happening in both.
No, they do have to transition.
They have to transition. And does a spren's intelligence affect its ability to transition? So like a more intelligent type of spren finds it more difficult to move over--
Yep-- But the moving over creates a lot of-- Yeah, like some of the ones you'll sometimes see, you'll think that they are-- Some of the spren that aren't intelligent are actually mostly in the Cognitive Realm and you're seeing a manifestation here, but they're not really conscious of what's going on here, they're responding to stuff in the Cognitive Realm.
Ok so they could be pretty damn clever but there's no one to talk to?
Yeah.
Have romantic relationships ever occurred between surgebinders and their spren? And if so what were the results?
That is a RAFO.
Why are there so many Kholins that are Radiants? Is there a story reason or...
There is a story reason, kind of. So the Kholin family is in Alethkar, which was the hereditary-- one of the homes of the Knights Radiant. It's still kind of in the forefront of the-- how shall we say-- the collective unconscious and things like this. Plus there's--
And then they are on the forefront of that.
Yes. I mean-- Yeah. And so the spren, some of them are naturally looking for where a lot of Radiants used to be. So it's just a higher concentration of spren around the area, if that makes sense?
[Something about spren]
There is a component to that going on, but I will say that denying Odium is an important part of that in the books through his various different manifestations.
Are the scholars influencing the behavior of the spren with their beliefs?
Belief and expectations influence all the magic systems.
Are the spren's behavior (in the scholar scene) related to how subatomic particles behave when separated over long distances?
Yes.
Does Glys hide intentionally or is he just invisible to other spren that are not his kind of spren?
A little of both.
With Adolin you say there that he feels a connection to his sword. And all the other Shardbearers, when they touch a Shardblade they get the screaming in their ears. Does that mean he’s not going to be a Radiant.
It means he's- number one he's not on the path to being a Radiant, that's the main thing that means.
If the spren that bond people scream when they touch a Shardblade, but then at the end of Words of Radiance Kaladin holds Szeth's honorblade and they do not have a problem with that, why does the Stormfather force Dalinar to get rid of his Honorblade at the end Words of Radiance?
So... He does not have an Honorblade at the end of Words of Radiance.
He does not. Oh, I thought he got it from... [Taln]
Yes, that's what the assumption is. If you look very closely, the blade that you think he ends up with is described differently from the one that he actually does.
Syl identifies herself as an honorspren.
Yes.
Would Wyndle identify himself as a cultivation spren?
He would definitely... Yes. I think you could say that he would.
By the same logic, would a voidspren follow the same naming convention, so to speak?
Here's the thing. Certain spren have decided that they are the most pure forms of Honor, or that they are the most pure form of whatever, where all of them are kind of... Syl's got a good argument for what she is. But there are other spren that would be like "well, I'm an honorspren too, I'm just this variety of honorspren." Does that make sense? Syl's like "I'm an American!" and I'm like "I'm an Nebraskan!" Yes, you're an American. I'm an American too. It's kind of similar to that. But she would be the most pure... many would view her as the purest form. Wyndle would view himself as the purest form of a Cultivationspren.
Kandra can eat nonhumans. What happens when they eat a spren?
Kandras have never encountered spren in any relevant way, except for the occasional worldhopper, and they have never had occasion to try to eat a spren. Good question.
So, the Shardplate, are those also spren or <specific> spren?
It's a RAFO!
Are Cognitive elements like spren and seons only present on physical planes on worlds where Shards have been [Splintered]?
No. But it does require <Cognitive *inaudible*>. Alternately the Shard would have to give up pieces of their power for that. But it doesn't have to be that they were [Splintered] by someone. Seons existed on, sorry, spren existed on Roshar before the Shattering of Adonalsium. Not as many.
The Oathgate fabrial has an opening for a living Shardblade to make it functionable. Does this mean the opening is made from a spren?
You will find more about this in a future book.
If another Shard came to Scadrial, would that be enough to create a metal like atium, or...?
If another Shard just came to visit, probably not.
If they brought a spren or--
If they came and completely Invested the world, then things might start happening. But there's some special circumstances, remember. Ruin and Preservation created that planet. Specifically. And so there's some goofy things that happened because of that. For instance Roshar was not made by Honor, Cultivation, or Odium. That's one of the big differences about what's going on there.
Syl always sees Shardblades as dead spren, these terrible things. But she never mentions the same of Shardplate. Is Shardplate made of non-sentient spren?
RAFO
I am curious about, if sprens are pieces of the god power, and investiture is the power of the god, then can Nightblood consume spren?
He could theoretically -- yeah, he could totally consume spren. There's not even any “theoretically” to that.
I've noticed that Seons and Spren are very, very similar but i haven't seen anything like that in the Mistborn world.
In Mistborn the Investiture took other forms. It never obtained sapience in the same way. Its theoretically possible that it could have but it.. yeah.
So it wouldn't be like the Mist?
Yeah, you could say that the Mist has a bit of sentience to it, so yes, but there are a bunch of different things going on. On one hand, you've got, right up to the end, Preservation's Cognitive Shadow still around doing stuff, basically still there, so that's preventing it. It's just a very different situation.
Supposing that a skilled Hemalurgist got hold of some a Shardblade or some Shardplate, how would he best use it assuming that the best way isn't to put it on and kill people with it.
That's probably the best way, to put it on and kill people with it. I'm not sure why a Hemalurgist would want one more than anyone else would because the metal is already Invested which means its not useful to him.
So there is no way that he could use a Hemalurgic spike to take some power from the Spren that's crafting it.
Oh, that's what you're saying. You want to grab something off the Spren? That's gonna be way harder than grabbing one that's not already made into something. So I don't see why he would want the Blade, just go grab it from them. Even then its going to be worse then, probably in most cases, a person. Maybe its possible that spiking yourself with a Spren would be valid, but you don't want to take it out of the Shardblade. That's gonna be harder, but you would probably have to go to the Cognitive either way to make it work, so yeah.
When you're designing your magic systems, what is it you typically go into?
At that thing I said, brandonsanderson.com/writing/advice, I've got three essays on magic systems that can cover it way better than talking about it right now. That'll get you really into it. I would suggest those, they're called Sanderson's Laws, because I'm really humble. Asimov has them, and Clarke has them; so I can have them, there's not fantasy guys who have laws. So go read those, and they will talk you through how I develop a magic system.
I was wondering about the background behind one of them. Stormlight.
Background behind the magic system in Stormlight traces back to my early history as a science major. I was a biochemistry major in college, before I jumped ship to English. And I've always been interested in the sciences quite a bit, and you'll see that in writing as a theme through my magics. The magic system of Roshar is based on the idea of the fundamental forces. I love the idea of the fundamental forces. This idea that there are certain interactions between parts of matter and energy that transcend everything else and rule how our entire world works was fascinating. So I wanted to come up with this idea of ten fundamental forces that worked with the magic system of the cosmere. Because there are extra forces, because there's weird stuff in the cosmere. Some of them are one-to-one. Gravitation is just one of the fundamental forces. And the strong and weak forces, I played with and came up with some things for that too, so you'll see that. But on the other hand, we've got things like transcending between the Physical Realm and the Cognitive Realm, which is a very cosmere-type thing. So, I built ten fundamental forces. And then I was playing with the idea (which I have in the cosmere) of pieces of energy becoming sapient. You've seen it happen in Elantris, you've seen it happen in Warbreaker. Way of Kings is one of the places I really wanted to show off how this works. So, the idea of the spren connecting a bond to the force that they're related to in certain ways, that just grew out of that.
In Stormlight, are there lovespren?
Lot of people've been asking about this. There are passionspren. Lovespren, I haven’t really talked about much...
Is it possible for spren to move from one planet to another?
It is possible for them to get to other planets. They are tied to certain realms… A lot of them reside in the cognitive realm and are pulled into the physical by their bonds--
Would they bring the same magics?
That you will have to wait and see.
In The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, you covered the relationship between Shardblades and spren...you never get around to Shardplate.
I’m saving that one on purpose, it’s a gun on the mantle, or armor on the mantle. So, you will eventually find out what’s going on there, okay?
Is the key to the [Oathgates] dead spren?
*dry laughter* That’s an excellent question, you will actually find out a lot more about the Oathgates when you see them from the cognitive side.
Does the spren have to be present for a Surgebinder to have their abilities? Because with Dalinar, the Stormfather won’t be around all the time...
Good Question! Fortunately, the Stormfather is a little more omnipresent. Normally you’re gonna have to have your spren close, but the Stormfather absorbed... is basically Honor’s Cognitive Shadow, which means he’s got a connection to a lot of different things, so he’s not bound by a lot of the rules that others are.
Is crem something like spren poop? Or similar, because I know poop is important.
It's more like... Yes, but it’s more like... Shard poop?
Do you have a shardpen, or what? Does it change to a shardbrush or a shardpencil when you have to use those tools? And can a spren change into a shardPhotoShop, or what?
Funny thing is, working digitally is kinda magical. I mean, you can turn back time. You can stack a hundred invisible sheets of paper and draw on each one separately, with the result being no thicker than a single page. You can cut and paste and warp and blur and save a perfect copy trapped in time just in case your next experiment goes horribly awry.
And if you do it right and well, nobody will never know the difference.
It ain't a shard, exactly, but it'll do. :)
What is your conception of how spren would appear to the average person? Do they have a solid physicality of some kind or are they more ethereal/ghostlike?
Back during the pitch I did illustrate a few spren ideas for Brandon, but my understanding of them has expanded greatly since then. There's a lot I don't know, but I think I've got the basic idea down.
I see them as looking like they're made of Stormlight, sorta like many common sci-fi "holograms". I don't think any spren have physically solid forms unless the manifest fully, and the only examples we've seen of that so far are Blades.
In terms of their appearance, the text descriptions are always the first place I look. Never contradict the text, it's the common basis for all our interpretations.
