Pattern

Pattern
by Isaac Stewart, User: Awesomeness
Species	Cryptic
Homeworld	Roshar

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“ I know that you have forgotten much of what once was. Those lies attracted me. But you cannot continue like this; you must admit the truth about me. About what I can do, and what we have done. Mmm... More, you must know yourself. And remember. You wish to help. You wish to prepare for the Everstorm, the spren of the unnatural one. You must become something. I did not come to you merely to teach you tricks of light. ”

—Pattern to Shallan Davar on remembering the difficult truths of her past

Pattern is a spren on Roshar. He is a member of the race of spren called the Cryptics. His bond to Shallan Davar grants him sentience in the Physical Realm and allows her to use the Surges associated with the Order of Lightweavers, Illumination and Transformation.

Name

Pattern says that his real name is composed of many numbers, making it difficult to say. Shallan started calling him "Pattern" while she was studying him upon Jasnah's orders.

Appearance and Personality

In the Physical Realm, Pattern most often takes the shape of a complex and constantly shifting geometric pattern slightly raised off a surface or object. On occasion he can also manifest as a floating three-dimensional mass of twisting lines. Pattern is unable to turn completely invisible like honorspren, but he can blend in with the surface he currently inhabits such that only people who are looking for him will notice his presence.

In the Cognitive Realm, Pattern appears as a tall and willowy creature clad in a robe made of a stiff material. A complex pattern of sharp lines and impossible geometries form his head.

Pattern is particularly fond of concepts that involve creating falsehoods from truths such as metaphors, flattery, sarcasm, denial, and illusions.

• Images of Pattern
• 

  In Shadesmar Cognitive Realm form by User: Sheep

• 

  In Physical Realm form by User: Sheep

History

“ My memory is weak. I was dumb so long, nearly dead. Mmm. I could not speak. ”

— Pattern

Pattern was one of the first Cryptics to try to form a Nahel bond with a human in the current period, as a "guinea pig" of sorts.

Pattern bonded with Shallan when she was just a child. At some point, the bond had developed to the point that Shallan could summon Pattern as a Shardblade. When a Skybreaker acolyte persuaded Shallan's mother that Surgebinders had to be killed, the eleven-year-old Shallan had to use Pattern to defend herself, killing her own mother and the Skybreaker acolyte in the process.

After the traumatic event, Shallan's father took Pattern's Shardblade form from Shallan and stored it inside a strongbox. This was ineffectual, as Pattern vanished from the strongbox the moment it closed, but from that day onward the strongbox appeared to glow in Shallan's eyes. Nobody else could see the glow, but she could see it even after a painting was was placed over the strongbox to hide it.

Knowing that her mother tried to kill her because of what she could do, Shallan began to resent Pattern. She used the Lightweavers' mnemonic ability to hide all memories of her spren from her mind, forcing Pattern to withdraw to the Cognitive Realm. After this, she no longer knew Surgebinding, although she retained knowledge of somehow having a Shardblade. She also retained her mnemonic ability.

Kharbranth

Shallan fleeing from Cryptics, by Petar Penev.

When Shallan departed from her family's estate to seek out Jasnah Kholin, Pattern followed her. In Kharbranth, he and other Cryptics watched over Shallan, although she could not see the spren directly.

While sketching a portrait of Taravangian, king of Kharbranth, Shallan unconsciously drew a couple of Cryptics who had been standing in the room invisible to the humans there. Shallan had used her mnemonic ability to assist her drawing, and the presence of the Cryptics were somehow included in the Memory. It is likely that Pattern was one of the Cryptics.

Several weeks later, while Shallan puzzled over the Soulcaster alone in her room, Pattern spoke to her, attempting to obtain a new Truth. Shallan was alarmed by the disembodied voice, but dismissed the sound, reasoning with herself that it had been caused by the maid who had been cleaning in the room next door.

The day before she was scheduled to return to her family's estate in Jah Keved, Shallan again interacted with Pattern. After breaking the news to Kabsal that she would be leaving, the ardent requested a portrait as she had not yet created one of him. Like with her sketch of Taravangian, Shallan unconsciously added several Cryptics into the background of the drawing. Panicked, she fled the room, taking Memories as she went and drawing the scenes as a way to track the spren. Pattern and his associates followed Shallan to her room within the guest quarters, where she attempted summon her Shardblade to protect herself. This act of summoning her spren (even unintentionally) changed their situation somehow, and Pattern succeeded in getting a Truth out of Shallan. Their bond strengthened, Shallan used Surgebinding once again, Soulcasting a goblet into blood.

Pattern and his fellow Cryptics continued to follow Shallan while she was in the hospital. During her stay on the ward, Shallan noticed the spren several times, adding them to sketches she did of the room. Later, after she had been moved to a private room, she also found them lurking, whispering to her, though she chose not to respond. Shallan called on Pattern to help her transition to the Cognitive Realm when she confronted Jasnah about the fake soulcaster, and confessed to him that she had killed her father. Pattern accepted the Truth and Shallan's mind was transported to the Cognitive. After nearly drowning in the sea of beads, Shallan was saved by Jasnah who brought her back to her body in the Physical Realm.

The Wind's Pleasure

Their bond strengthened by Shallan's Truths, Pattern transitioned once more from the Cognitive Realm to the Physical, losing much of his mind in the process. Several days after Shallan and Jasnah had set sail from Kharbranth, Shallan saw Pattern's Physical form while she sketched on the deck of the ship. Seeing a pattern rising like an embossment from the page of her sketchpad, Shallan did not initially understand that she was interacting with the Cryptic, thinking instead that she had done something herself or that the pattern had appeared as a side affect of drawing the Cognitive Realm. Pattern moved, disappearing from the drawing when Shallan touched the page, and caused the young woman to jump in fright. A while later he was seen once more by Shallan as she spoke with Jasnah, this time floating on a wave. Again he vanished, seen only for a brief moment.

“I thought I saw something in the water, just now. A pattern of sharp lines, like a maze”

—Shallan to Jasnah

Pattern continued to appear to Shallan, vanishing whenever she caught a glimpse of him until she finally managed to capture him in a Memory while reading in her cabin. Her subsequent sketch seemingly helped to anchor Pattern, and he was able to completely transition from the Cognitive. Like all radiant spren when they first entered the Physical Realm, the journey damaged Pattern, who lost much of his cognitive abilities becoming non-sapient and mindless. Like Syl, Pattern initially acted playfully, reminiscent of a young child exploring the world. After Jasnah joined Shallan in her cabin, the young proto-Lightweaver tried to interact with the spren, poking him with a pencil and found that he responded much like an animal might in the same situation.

Jasnah, after learning what she could from Shallan, had looked further into the symbol headed spren that had followed her ward around in Kharbranth. She mentioned to Shallan that most spren manifested differently in the Physical to how they did in the Cognitive, evidenced by the different form Pattern took after transitioning. Both scholars agreed that Pattern was of the same order as the symbol heads that Shallan had encountered previously, although later Shallan wondered whether this particular spren had been with her in the City of Bells. Pattern's childlike behaviour and lack of intelligence disappointed the women though Jasnah suggested that he simply needed more time to regain his mind. The spren called themselves Cryptics, Jasnah explained, though they would likely be called liespren if seen by other humans - a name of which they themselves were not fond. Jasnah likened the Cryptics to lighteyes, the rulers of at least one of the great cities in the Cognitive. Shallan postulated that Pattern was similar to a spren prince, though Jasnah was not sure as she had not been able to delve far into spren politics. Jasnah tasked Shallan to study her spren, pointing out that she was likely the first person in centuries that had the opportunity to interact and learn from the Cryptics. In his diminished state, Pattern was hardly impressive to Shallan, who half-heartedly agreed to Jasnah's orders to spend the next few days studying the spren.

“The Cryptics have a fearful reputation, and yet this one – the first specimen I’ve ever seen – seems . . . ‘Imbecilic?’ Shallan asked.”

—Jasnah and Shallan discussed Pattern

Initially, worried what the sailors would think of the spren, Shallan tried to keep both herself and Pattern contained to her room, though quickly abandoned the plan. Similarly, Pattern had not responded to her suggestions to stay inside and hidden and soon became known to the other occupants of the ship, who found the Cryptic discomforting. Four days after his transition found Pattern on the deck of the ship with Shallan. Using limafruit as an example, Shallan attempted to explain to him the concept of food and eating. Following her lead, Pattern tried some of fruit, and became horrified when he realised that it involved the destruction of the food consumed.

While the spren had problems with understanding simple tasks such as eating, Shallan had found him to take readily to complex thought, particularly abstraction. Even as he struggled to form coherent sentences, Pattern was able to understand the concepts of truth and lies as well as identify lies told by others. Pattern was pleased by the lies Yalb told aboard the Wind's Pleasure, deeming them to be good lies as they were based in truth. Similarly, while he himself could not remember much, he grasped the concept of memory quickly, prompting Shallan to begin to remember a time from long ago, when they had first known one another. Without meaning to, Shallan used stormlight and turned a patch of the deck of the ship green, as she began to recreate the memory. Horrified, she pushed the memories away, unable to think on that time without panicking.

Some time later, Shallan went to find Jasnah to borrow some of the woman's infused sphere's for light to read by. Surprised to find Jasnah without her mask of composure, Shallan tried to sneak away without being seen, however was given away by Pattern. Though Jasnah initially tried to placate Shallan and send her away, the young woman stayed to talk. Pattern watched over the conversation silently as the women discussed Urithiru, the Shattered Plains and the Voidbringers. When Shallan retired to her rooms to sleep, Pattern accompanied her.

A page from Shallan's sketchbook depicting her spren Pattern, by Ben McSweeney.

Shallan was woken by screams and the scent of smoke. When she went to see what had happened she accidentally drew the attention several assassins after she witnessed one of them stab Jasnah through the chest. When she tried to hide in her room, Pattern pushed her to summon him as a Shardblade, however Shallan refused instead creating an illusion of herself with Pattern's help. Pattern followed the men as they gave chase to Shallan's illusion which escaped past them and moved onto the deck of the ship before jumping overboard. Above, he found the crew members of the Wind's Pleasure, one of them dead and the rest tied up and at the mercy of the attackers. Pattern returned below, leaving the men he had been following to search the water where the illusion had disappeared and joined Shallan as she moved to Jasnah's room to check on her.

They found no body within the room. In the distance, Shallan could hear the ships crew being executed and to buy them time asked Pattern for his help in soulcasting the boat. Pattern was confused by Shallan's decision, not understanding the logic behind her actions, however helped her see into the Cognitive. She was startled to see him in his cognitive form, and for a moment did not realise that the symbol headed creature was her spren. Pattern urged her to find the glassy sphere for the boat and acted as a translator between Shallan and the object, claiming she was not yet ready to speak with it directly. She successfully convinced the boat to change and was pulled back into the physical realm. The ship collapsed into water and she was pulled deeper into the ocean away from the surface.

Pattern and Shallan survived the sinking ship, and Shallan was carried ashore by the Santhid she had seen several days prior. Unwilling to sit and freeze, Shallan moved down the coast to try and find shelter of some kind and Pattern wandered off ahead. Further up the coast, he found one of Jasnah's trunks, which had been washed ashore. Excited, Pattern raced back to Shallan to get her attention before he brought her to where he had found the trunk.

Within the trunk, Shallan found not only Jasnah's books and research but a number of infused sphere's, one of which she tried to use to soulcast a fire. Unlike her previous ventures into the Cognitive, Shallan was able to hover between the Realms instead of falling through and becoming trapped amongst the sea of spheres. Returning to the Realm reminded Pattern that it was where he had once resided, though he could not remember much of his time there. Being in the Cognitive made Pattern anxious and he appealed for Shallan to hurry in her endeavour. As he had done previously, Pattern translated for Shallan, acting as an intermediary between the Lightweaver and the stick she wished to turn into fire. The stick refused and Shallan and Pattern slipped back into the Physical Realm.

Her attempt at building a fire a failure, Shallan decided to walk inland, Pattern at her feet and eventually the pair stumbled upon the campsite of Tvlakv and his fellow slavers, where Shallan, exhausted, collapsed. The next morning, Shallan insisted that the slavers help her get to the Shattered Plains, while Pattern watched on silently from his place unseen on the side of the slavers wagon. Tvlakv reluctantly agreed and after fetching Jasnah's trunk, Pattern and Shallan began their journey north.

Journey to the Shattered Plains

To not alert their travelling companions to his presence, Pattern stayed out of sight, hidden as per Shallan's request. When the caravan stopped for the midday meal, Shallan asked to be relocated to the empty slave cart where she could rest and relax away from prying eyes and the heat of the sun. Inside she found Pattern waiting, hidden within Jasnah's trunk which had been moved inside the empty cage.

Pattern, eager to learn more about human reasoning, was curious as to why Shallan had decided to continue on to the Shattered Plains and try to seek Urithiru. Shallan explained she had fallen into the trap of seeing Jasnah's research as a theoretical puzzle that needed to be solved, ignoring the real world ramifications that could occur if they were to fail. Her words reminded Pattern of why he had initially sought out Shallan, though his memories were vague and incomplete. The Cryptics, worried about the return of the Desolations, had sent Pattern to bond with Shallan, who had been chosen because of her lies about her family. Shallan diverted the topic when Pattern tried to have her remember her past, unwilling to think about the time. When she found one of her drawings in the bottom of Jasnah's trunk, her first drawing of the Alethi princess, Shallan broke down in tears. Pattern offered her comfort and did what he could to help her through her grief, as the weight of what she had been through and what she had lost, finally settling onto her.

“I will not stop vibrating. The wind will not stop blowing. You will not stop drawing.”

—Pattern comforting Shallan

Several days later, Shallan confronted Tvlakv to discuss his payment for helping her, after Pattern had been sent to spy on a conversation between the slaver and one of his men. Tag had worried about the trouble Shallan could cause and suggested that they should abandon her and move on, however, Tvlakv disagreed, instead seeing the opportunity to hold her hostage and earn a reward. Pattern's report worried Shallan, who was uncomfortable at how Tvlakv viewed her as little more than a slave. To preempt the possibility that his behavior would begin to match his thinking, Shallan confronted the slaver, insinuating she was aware of his scheming and reminding him of her promise of payment. Bluth returned as the exchange ended, reporting that mercenaries were in the area and prompting the group to hurried break camp to try and get away.

Their efforts were unsuccessful and it soon became apparent that the caravan was being followed. As they passed into a more frequently travelled part of the Frostlands, a second smoke signal was spotted in front of the party, which Tvlakv, reluctantly, began to head towards at Shallan's insistence. Decision made, Shallan chose to travel in her quasi-carriage so she could speak with Pattern, who had once again hide inside, away from the slavers. Unsure of how she had been unconsciously Lightweaving she asked Pattern for his help, however in his diminished state, he was unable to give her any useful suggestions. Shallan eventually managed to inhale the Stormlight and while they talked learned that the spren was a scholar sent to study her. Unintentionally, Pattern began to mention that he only had a limited amount of time in which to learn of humans, before cutting himself off. He attempted to pass the comment off with a lie, but when pressed by Shallan, admitted he was expecting to be killed by the young woman. Shallan was shocked, not understanding why Pattern would have this idea, however related it to what had happened centuries ago with the Knights Radiant. Pattern's mention of Shallan's past oaths caused her to break off their conversation and she returned above to ride with Bluth.

“Truth is individual. Your truth is what you see. What else could it be? That is the truth that you spoke to me, the truth that brings power.”

—Pattern discussing the meaning of truth with Shallan

Eventually, Pattern, Shallan and their companions caught up to the group they had seen in the distance, and found another group of caravaners, who had recently been attacked by bandits. When the bandits returned, Shallan took Bluth and confronted the soldiers that had been following them. In exchange for their protection and help against the bandits, she promised to absolve them of their debts once they had reached the Shattered Plains. Their leader, Vathah, resisted her attempts to recruit them, however the other men did not and moved off to help defend the caravans. After the battle, Vathah - distrusting of Shallan and disbelieving of her promises - angrily confronted her. Pattern calmly interceded, hidden on the back of Vathah's uniform so as to fool the man into thinking he was hearing voices. Shallan played along, pretending that she was unaware of Pattern's presence and shortly after the soldier stormed away.

The highstorm came later that night. The storm agitated Pattern, who buzzed angrily and ranted in a foreign tongue, spooking the soldiers whom Shallan had invited to shelter in her cart. None of the men, however, brought up the incident, which Shallan attributed to their expectation for strangeness during the highstorm. The next day, Pattern debated the meaning of 'truth' with Shallan, who found herself frustrated with the biases shown by past scholars. Pattern disagreed with Shallan's assessment that truth was universal, instead claiming that it was based on an individuals experiences. Shallan's questions shifted the conversation towards the existence of spren and in turn to the Voidbringers. Pattern, despite being unwilling to speak on the topic, named Odium as a third influence on types of spren, though doing so distressed him greatly.

As they neared the Shattered Plains, the group happened across a miniature lait filled with plants, protected from the storms by a rocky windbreak. Pattern accompanied Shallan as she explored the spot of greenery, occupying himself with counting leaves while she sketched. Later that night, the highstorm came again, however, unlike the last storm, which had caused Pattern agitation, this one caused him fear. There was something wrong about the storm and despite Shallan's attempts, Pattern would not stay quiet, frightening the slaves who sheltered with them.

Eventually, the storm passed and Shallan met with Tyn to learn what she could of her homeland. Within the message sent by Tyn's associates, relayed via a communication station in Tashikk, was information about the attack on Jasnah and the Wind's Pleasure. Tyn, who had been hired by the Ghostbloods to assassinate the Alethi princess, attacked Shallan when she learned of her identity, with the intention to kill her. Pattern attempted to intervene, impersonating Jasnah to try and distract Tyn while Shallan escaped. When it became apparent that Tyn would not allow Shallan to get away, Pattern hastened to find Vathah to bring him and his men to Shallan's aid. The men did not understand that it had been Pattern speaking to them, though Shallan later confirmed his existance, however they still obeyed, attacking Tyn's soldiers who blocked their way. Pattern was pulled back to the tent when Shallan summoned him as a Shardblade, killing Tyn.

When Vathah and his men reached the tent, they found Shallan, Patternblade in hand, who instructed them to search Tyn's belongings, however, had them avoid breaking the lock on the chest of clothing. The next morning, Pattern unlocked the chest for Shallan, so she could access the outfits stored inside and find something appropriate to wear to meet Dalinar Kholin.

Abilities and Attributes

As his name implies, Pattern has the ability to recognize and decipher complex patterns and codes. He often aids Shallan in her various pursuits by opening locks, breaking codes, translating languages, and mimicking voices. When Shallan attempts to Soulcast, such as changing a stick into fire, Pattern serves as translator for the object she is trying to convince to change. When Lightweaving, Shallan can anchor her illusions to Pattern, allowing them to move and draw Stormlight even when they are not in close proximity to her.

Nahel Bond

The bond Pattern and Shallan share grants him sentience in the Physical Realm and gives her access to the Surges of Illumination and Transformation. Like other orders of the Knights Radiant Shallan had to verbally or mentally state the First Ideal to initially form the bond, but after that point the bond is strengthened by her admitting certain deep truths about herself. She has not yet stated enough truths to be a full Radiant but their bond has strengthened enough for Pattern to become a Shardblade when needed.

Trivia

• Pattern originally came from a Dark One draft.

Notes

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