Deadeye

Deadeye
by Casta
Type	Spren
Abilities	Splinter
World of Origin	Roshar
Universe	Cosmere

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“ You use her corpse on the other side, don't you? Well, I won’t blame you. ”

— Captain Ico about Mayalaran

Deadeye spren are spren who were bonded to Knights Radiant and were killed when their oaths were abandoned.

Creation

A spren becomes a deadeye when the Surgebinder they've been bonded to breaks their Oaths. It requires the Surgebinder to have previously sworn a sufficient number of them for the spren to manifest as a Shardblade -- if the breaking happens earlier, the spren appears to simply vanish. Regardless, the process causes the spren significant pain.

Abandoning the Oaths breaks something in the Spiritual aspect of the spren. Even broken, however, the Oaths continue to affect it, locking it in the form of a Shardblade and preventing it from returning back to the world.

Appearance

In the Physical Realm, deadeye corpses are Shardblades. There are several differences between dead Blades and living ones -- they do not glow, they are incapable of changing their shape, and they require a gemstone to be inserted in order to be bonded. They also need ten heartbeats before appearing, as opposed to materializing immediately. Moreover, when a dead Shardblade is dismissed, a deadeye spren doesn't appear in the Physical Realm the way a living one does, but rather remains in Shadesmar.

They can be any type of Radiant spren, with Mayalaran being cultivationspren and Captain Ico's Father being a lightspren. Their eyes appear to be scratched out, though not like empty eye sockets, but rather like a painting that's been defaced. Presumably, it's this that the name "deadeye" came from.

There appear to be more physical changes in a deadeye spren's appearance, with Maya being described as having features made of ashen brown cords similar to dried-out, brown vines, while live cultivationspren appear as though woven from live ones.

Behavior

“ It hates you—but less than it hates others. ”

— Stormfather about Oathbringer

Deadeye spren cannot talk, only screech. They scream when someone attempts to summon them. In the Physical Realm, a Surgebinder who touches a deadeye Blade will hear it shriek. Someone touching the Blade alongside a Surgebinder will also hear the screaming, which will apparently continue for some time after the Surgebinder lets go.

In Shadesmar, deadeyes are generally placid and unresponsive. If left to their own devices, they'll try to reach the location of their Physical form. They also seem to feel attracted to the people their Blades are bonded to. In their desire to reach their goal, deadeyes ignore any obstacles in their way, which can be problematic when, for example, they waltz right into the sea of beads. Fortunately, it's easy to prevent them from movement -- Mayalaran only requires her hand to be held, and Ico locks his father up in a cargo hold.

A deadeye retains some small level of consciousness; however, it's unclear just how much sapience they have. While they usually seem dull to external stimuli save their desire to reach the Blades, there have been several cases of deadeyes showning higher awareness of their surroundings. Oathbringer's spren is aware of who holds it, and can discern Dalinar from others, reacting differently to him. Mayalaran, in turn, follows Adolin around and tries to protect him.

The Shadesmar location of a deadeye relative to the Physical location of its Shardbearer does have a minuscule impact on the speed at which the Blade is summoned. It seems that to become a Shardblade, the deadeye travels to the desired location at the speed of light, or something approaching it.

Resurrection

This page or section deals with theories or speculation.

Please read carefully and note that this is not necessarily canonical.

It may be possible that a deadeye spren can be resurrected. When Dalinar inquires about bringing Oathbringer's spren back to life, Stormfather states that he knows of no way to do so. Pattern, on the other hand, speculates that if the original Knights Radiant who had broken their Oaths and killed them were still alive, it might be possible for a deadeye to come back. Brandon has also confirmed that if the person who broke the Oaths re-swore them, the spren could return; however, a different person swearing the same Oaths would not be enough. He's also implied that large quantities of Stormlight would be an important, but not key element of the process.

Whether it's possible in the present day, with the Knights Radiant of old all long gone, is unknown. Mayalaran's behavior, with her growing awareness in Shadesmar and her budding ability to communicate with Adolin suggest that bringing a deadeye back might indeed be possible, albeit what the necessary steps are, and what the result of such a resurrection would be, is unknown.

Notes

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