Stone and Spren

[Scott]

I was looking for info about Szeth when I noticed something odd.  We see a lot of spren, but there are only a dozen or so explicit mentions of how spren appear.  While searching through the novel for them I noticed a pattern.  Here are all of the instances where spren are appearing that also include how the spren is appearing.  I've bolded the method in each case.

 

Fearspren:

He looked down at Szeth. Down at the spear tip pointing directly at his heart. Violet fearspren crawled out of the stone ceiling around him.

- Szeth Interlude 1

 

A thick wooden door stood at the end, and as he approached, small fearspren—shaped like globs of purple goo—began to wriggle from the masonry, pointing toward the doorway. They were drawn by the terror being felt on the other side.

- Szeth Interlude 1

 

Why was this squad at the very front, where casualties were bound to be the greatest? Small fearspren—like globs of purplish goo—began to climb up out of the ground and gather around his feet.

- Chapter 1

 

Fearspren—wiggling and violet—sprang up through the wood and wriggled in the air. The bridge lurched, growing much harder to push as they suddenly lost those men.

- Chapter 6

 

It was too dark to see the fearspren he suspected were climbing up through the ground.

- Chapter 19

 

 

Painspren:

Foolish, idiot girl, she thought, a few painspren crawling out of the wall near her head. What made you think you could do this? You’ve only set foot off your family grounds a half-dozen times during your life. Idiot, idiot, idiot!

- Chapter 8

 

Small, spindly painspren—glowing pale orange hand shapes, like stretching sinew or muscles—crawled from the stone around him.

- Chapter 16

 

She gasped, painspren pulling from the ground and gathering around her.

Chapter 46

 

Painspren wiggled out of the ground, sinewy and orange.

Chapter 65

 

 

Anticipationspren:

A few anticipationspren—like red streamers, growing from the ground and whipping in the wind—began to sprout from the rock and wave among the soldiers.

- Chapter 6

 

Among them, anticipationspren began to spring from the ground, streamers connected by one side to the stone, the others whipping in the air. Some fearspren boiled up among them.

Chapter 26

 

 

Angerspren:

Vamah was watching them stand there, and his expression was as thunderous as a highstorm, angerspren boiling up from the ground around him like small pools of bubbling blood.

- Chapter 15

 

 

Gloryspren:

Gloryspren—like tiny golden translucent globes of light—began to pop into existence around him, attracted by his sense of accomplishment.

- Chapter 12

 

Dalinar lowered his Shardblade, the metal gleaming, gloryspren winking into the air around him. Chapter 56

 

Gloryspren sprouted around him.

Chapter 65

 

 

Rainspren:

Near Kaladin, a rainspren sprang up, forming as if out of the water. It stared upward, unblinking. Chapter 44

 

 

Lifespren:

Silent green lifespren began to fade into existence around him, bobbing around the moss and haspers.

Chapter 55

 

 

We see two broadly different types of spren;  spren that represent emotions and spren that represent concepts or things.

 

Almost all of the emotionspren seem to come directly out of the stone (ground, walls, or masonry), or out of something sitting directly on the stone as in the case of the fearspren in chapter 6 crawling from the bridge.  The only exception here is the gloryspren, which are said to "pop into existance" or "wink into the air".  The third gloryspren instance is "sprouted around him", which could mean either coming out of the ground or just appearing out of the air.  

 

In contrast, the lifespren and rainspren appear out of or nearby the things they represent;  the rainspren sprouts out of a puddle, and the lifespren fades into existance beside a plant.  There are many mentions of creationspren, musicspren, etc, that don't explicitly say where they're coming from but I believe they're in this second catagory.  They represent things.  

 

The second catagory makes sense;  if Spren represent things, they appear near said things.  It works.  The emotional spren, on the other hand, confuse me.  Why do all but the gloryspren manifest themselves in stone before appearing?  After some thought, I may have an answer.  "Glory" isn't really an emotion at all, but something attributed to a person, group, or event by others.  You feel pain, anger, fear, and anticipation.  You would also feel pride and satisfaction in victory.  However, you wouldn't walk up to someone on the bus and say "I feel glory-full today".  They'd look at you funny and edge backwards.  If glory is a thing rather than emotion, then we have a pattern.

 

And so, I present the following theoryspren:   Emotionspren emerge from stone.  Thingspren (for lack of a better word) emerge around the things they're drawn by.

 

Corollary, if Shallan drawns a creationspren, then creationspren will be drawn by the drawing

[The Rooster he/him]

This could help explain why the Shin find stone so sacred.  it could also relate to the absence of spren in Shinovar.

[Shardlet he/him]

Upvote for the analysis.  I think though you've made a couple of leaps.  Particularly with lifespren.  The quote you provided does not describe any proximity of lifespren to the plants but rather says "around him".  The other leap I think may be better termed an oversight.  The quote you provided about fearspren indicates that they emerged from the wood of the bridge.  This also does not fit your pattern. 

 

As to gloryspren and glory, it must be remembered that these names have been assigned to the spren by people and people don't always describe things well.  Particularly things they don't really understand.  Also, sometimes people simply use imprecise terms.  I think exulltation might be a more accurate desciption of the emotion felt when gloryspren appear. 

[Kurkistan he/him]

Interesting theory. I would note, though, that these spren "emerging" could also be a matter of perceptual convention: fear "sweeps over you" and all. All these spren coming from the ground is highly suggestive, though.

 

Note Shardlet's point that it seems to just be "the ground," though, not actually "the stone" that just so happens to normally be the ground.

 

@Shardlet

 

Oh, I think people describe things quite well; perfectly, in fact...   

[Shardlet he/him]

Oh, I think people describe things quite well; perfectly, in fact...   

 

I meant the choice of word used rather than the meaning behind the word and you know it Kurk  .  I think Plato would agree that, if his forms applied properly to spren, it would be what is meant that is more important than what is said.

[Argent he/him]

It sound sensible. But like a good little scientist, when I see a theory that takes a single phenomenon and makes two out of it, I want to generalize things and eliminate the exception. Unfortunately that would either devalue your theory or show that I don't know what I am talking about - neither of which is nice, though I much prefer the former

 

I think your observation that spren associated with concrete objects seem to come from those objects is a good one. Kaladin's mother would support you in this - she tells young Kal that everything has a spren (inside); in this regard, they are like spirits of things. So it makes sense that they would walk, crawl, sprout, or otherwise appear out of their... hosts is a bad word... sources?

 

Usually, given this information, I would try to look at the emotionspren and fit them in the already* existing hypothesis. If all spren behaved the same way (as a Unifying Theory of Spren Emergence would suggest), then emotionspren should come out of the source of their respective emotions - the humans (brief aside: have we seen emotionspren around the Parshendi?). But humans are, unless I am mistaken, already Invested - all human races are created by Shards, and Shards have to Invest living things they create; it's how creation works (I don't know this for a fact, but I think I do). And because Investitures don't play nicely with each other, not to mention that we don't even know if it's possible for the Cognitive aspects of two living things (a human and a spren, bear with my stretching of the definition) to mix.

 

Bottom line, I don't believe emotionspren come out of stone and air because there is a special significance to stone and air. I believe they try to manifest themselves inside the source that has drawn them to the Physical Realm - the human experiencing the emotion - but they can't, because humans are alive, or because they are already Invested, or because they have a strong Cognitive presence, or for some other similar reason. So what do the emotionspren do? They appear inside the thing nearest to their source (or target), and move towards it. Air is practically everywhere, so it is no wonder that gloryspren (though why gloryspren specifically, I don't know) appear there. Stone is practically everywhere, so that's no surprise either. 

 

This would make all spren behave the same way without making the theory implausible. And that's nice.

 

* I accidentally typed alreaxy here. It sounds kind of rad.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Argent

[Kurkistan he/him]

@Shardlet
 
Just making sure.
 
EDIT:

I think your observation that spren associated with concrete objects seem to come from those objects is a good one. Kaladin's mother would support you in this - she tells young Kal that everything has a spren (inside); in this regard, they are like spirits of things. So it makes sense that they would walk, crawl, sprout, or otherwise appear out of their... hosts is a bad word... sources?

 

It's fairly sure that Hesina wasn't actually talking about the visible spren we normally talk about. Rosharans conflate sous/Cognitive aspects with spren as we normally discuss them.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Scott]

@Shardlet

Upvote for the analysis.  I think though you've made a couple of leaps.  Particularly with lifespren.  The quote you provided does not describe any proximity of lifespren to the plants but rather says "around him".  The other leap I think may be better termed an oversight.  The quote you provided about fearspren indicates that they emerged from the wood of the bridge.  This also does not fit your pattern. 

 

As to gloryspren and glory, it must be remembered that these names have been assigned to the spren by people and people don't always describe things well.  Particularly things they don't really understand.  Also, sometimes people simply use imprecise terms.  I think exulltation might be a more accurate desciption of the emotion felt when gloryspren appear. 

 

Thanks for the constructive criticism.  I agree I've made a few assumptions, but I thought there were good reasons

 

With the lifespren, there are two different location descriptions;  "fade into existence around him" and "bobbing around the moss and haspers". I took the second part as describing where the spren were appearing, and the first part as modifiying the location of the moss and haspers to be near Kaladin.   In other words, I read it more like this:  "Silent green lifespren began to fade into existence around the moss and haspers around him".  I could be misinterpreting it.

 

As to defining spren, you're right, we tend to assign labels to things we may not understand very well.  However, in some cases spren are defined by things that people do.  When Geranid measures the flamespren, it is constrained to that size until she erases the measurement.   I made an assumption that their label was accurate based mostly on this.   

 

For the bridge/fearspren, I have no good answer.  The spren could be appearing from the wood.  They could be appearing from the stone under the wood and then having to move through the wood to reach the air.  I almost didn't post the theory because of that one (I italicized it so people would notice though).  The spren may just emerge from the closest thing physically touching ground of Roshar, and stone is simply the most common material.

 

@Argent

Parshendi have exhibited at least one instance of fearspren:

 

 

The Parshendi rolled awkwardly, holding his arm, no doubt shattered as he was thrown down.  He looked up at Dalinar, terrified, fearspren appearing around him. 

He was only a youth.

Ch 65

 

Also good points in the rest of your post.  I have to think about your comments some more...

[Daishi5]

I think there is something here, in the "I can't believe I missed that" kind of way.  The thing is, I don't know what to make of it.  But, I need to try to pay attention to how spren appear in my next re-read.  

[bartbug he/him]

Just something I noticed while reading the comments. I think that we should make note of some of the spren that do not seem to fit the categories. Lifespren, for instance, make no sense when you think about it categorically,  but when you think of it as a misconception, it makes more sense. All that this shows is that I am excited for some more Axies.

[marianmi]

Thunderclasts also emerge from stone - probably from a corrupted (emotion) spren.

 

Edit: emotion being hate/odium?

Edited November 13, 2013 by marianmi

[Argent he/him]

Eh, that seems far-fetched. Plus, thunderclasts leave bodies. If anything, I'd treat them as golems - creatures of stone, created (possibly) through Voidbinding, given life through a form of a spren bond.

[Gloom he/him]

Still haven't seen hatespren, or love spren for that matter. Honestly, if such spren existed it would seriously change the dynamic of personal relationships.

[EmagSamurai]

Still haven't seen hatespren, or love spren for that matter. Honestly, if such spren existed it would seriously change the dynamic of personal relationships.

 

^ Good point, that!