User:WeiryWriter/Sprendex/Quotes

This is a listing of (almost) all information on spren currently availiable form references in the book(s) to interviews.

Things I need to add:

General Information

The Way of Kings

“…larger spren could change shapes and sizes…”

— Chapter Two

“ Spren were all around; you just ignored them most of the time.”

— Chapter Two

“ Spren didn't use people's names. Spren weren't intelligent. The larger ones—like windspren or riverspren—could mimic voices and expressions, but they didn't actually think.”

— Chapter Two

“ Many of the larger ones were invisible except to the person they were tormenting.”

— Chapter Two

“ Anyone could end up drawing a spren, but you learned early that talking to one was pointless.”

— Chapter Two

“ With such curious eyes. Like no other spren he'd seen.”

— Chapter Four

“ Large spren like her could move small objects and give little pinches of energy.”

— Chapter Six

“ Like other spren, they were said to always be around, but usually invisible.”

— Chapter Seven

“ …all spren are, in a sense, virtually the same individual.”

— Chapter Seventeen

“ 'Besides, there is mafah'liki who always follows you.' The large Horneater bowed his head reverently to Syl, then made a strange gesture with his hand touching his shoulders and then his forehead.

Kaladin started. 'You can see her?' He glanced at Syl. As a windspren she could appear to those she wanted to—and that generally only meant Kaladin.
Syl seemed shocked. No, she hadn’t appeared to Rock specifically.

'I am alaii'iku,' Rock said, shrugging.”

— Chapter Twenty-One

“ With a start, Rysn realized she couldn’t see any spren. Not a one. No windspren, no lifespren, nothing.”

— Interlude Four

“ Spren, however, could be very elusive. Sometimes, even the most common types—flamespren, for instance—would refuse to appear.”

— Interlude Five

“ They weren't nearly as prudish as the Vorin peoples to the east, and were rarely inclined to bickering or fighting. That made it easier to hunt spren. Of course, there were also spren you could find only during war.”

— Interlude Five

“ 'Spren live in everything,' Hesina replied.”

— Chapter Thirty-Seven

“ Spren appear when something changes—when fear appears, or when it begins to rain. They are the heart of change, and therefore the heart of all things.”

— Chapter Thirty-Seven

“ Most people in the cities, however, saw the Voidbringers as spirits who stalked at night, a kind of evil spren that invaded the hearts of men and made them do terrible things.”

— Chapter Forty-Five

“ That isn't the kind of thing the Dawnsingers did. They were healers, kindly spren sent by the Almighty to care for humans once we were forced out of the Tranquiline Halls.”

— Chapter Forty-Five

“ She'd taken the light from the sphere and given it to the goblet—the spren of the goblet—as a bribe to transform. Was that how Soulcasting worked? Or was she just struggling to make connections?”

— Chapter Forty-Eight

“ There were supposed to be thousands of kinds of spren, many that people never saw or didn't know about.”

— Chapter Forty-Nine

“ The spren change when I measure them… Before I measure, they dance and vary in size, luminosity, and shape. But when I make a notation, they immediately freeze in their current state. Then they remain that way permanently, so far as I can tell.”

— Interlude Eight

“ One of the two flamespren danced about atop a log, shape changing and length flickering like the flames themselves. The other had taken on a far more stable shape. Its length no longer changed, though its form did slightly.

It seemed locked somehow. It almost looked like a little person as it danced over the fire. She reached up and erased her notation. It immediately began pulsing and changing erratically like the other one.

'It's as if it knows, somehow, that it has been measured. As if merely defining its form traps it somehow.'”

— Interlude Eight

“ I wonder at the precision of the instrument… If I use one that is less precise, will that give the spren more flexibility? Or is there a threshold, an accuracy beyond which it finds itself bound?... I need to research this more. Try it for luminosity, then compare that to me general equation of flamespren luminosity as compared to the fire they’re drawn to dance around.”

— Interlude Eight

“ Most consider her [the Nightwatcher] to be just some kind of powerful spren.”

— Chapter Fifty-Two

“ …he wasn't certain what harm he could do a spren.”

— Chapter Fifty-Seven

“ 'Do rotspren cause sickness,' Syl said idly, 'or are they attracted to it?'

'Everyone knows they cause it.'
'And do windspren cause the wind? Rainspren cause the rain? Flamespren cause fire?'

He hesitated. No, they didn't. Did they?”

— Chapter Fifty-Seven

“ And yet, the Nahel bond gave him no more wisdom than a regular man. Alas, not all spren are as discerning as honorspren.”

— Chapter Sixty

Words of Radiance

“ 'Shadesmar,' she thought. 'That is what it is called in the nursery tales.' Shadesmar, the mythological kingdom of the spren.”

— Prologue

“ 'What are spren?' Jasnah asked.

...
'Nobody knows what spren are,' Shallan said, 'though many philosophers have different opinions on—'
'No,' Jasnah said. 'What are they?'
'I...' Shallan looked up at a pair of windspren spinning through the air above. They looked like tiny ribbons of light, glowing softly, dancing around one another. 'They're living ideas.'
...'By my best guess, spren are elements of the Cognitive Realm that have leaked into the physical world. They're concepts that have gained a fragment of sentience, perhaps because of human intervention.'
'Think of a man who gets angry often. Think of how his friends and family might start referring to that anger as a beast, as a thing that possesses him, as something external to him. Humans personify. We speak of the wind as if it has a will of its own.'
'Spren are those ideas—the ideas of collective human experience—somehow come alive. Shadesmar is where that first happens, and it is their place. Though we created it, they shaped it. They live there; they rule there, within their own cities.'
'Cities?'
'Yes,' Jasnah said, looking back out over the ocean. She seemed troubled. 'Spren are wild in their variety. Some are as clever as humans and create cities. Others are like fish and simply swim in the currents.'
'Shallan nodded. Though in truth she was having trouble grasping any of this, she didn't want Jasnah to stop talking. This was the sort of knowledge that Shallan needed, the kind of thing she craved. 'Does this have to do with what you discovered? About the parshmen, the Voidbringers?'
'I haven't been able to determine that yet. The spren are not always forthcoming. In some cases, they do not know. In others, they do not trust me because of our ancient betrayal.'
Shallan frowned, looking to her teacher. 'Betrayal?'

'They tell me of it,' Jasnah said, 'but they won't say what it was. We broke an oath, and in so doing offended them greatly. I think some of them may have died, though how a concept can die, I do not know.'”

— Chapter One

“ 'They were involved,' Jasnah said. 'They brought you to me. And they are still watching you, it appears. So no, Shallan, you no longer have a choice. The old ways are returning, and I don't see it as a hopeful sign. It's an act of self-preservation. The spren sense impending danger, and so they return to us. Our attention now must turn to the Shattered Plains and the relics of Urithiru. It will be a long, long time before you return to your homeland.'”

— Chapter One

“ Spren don't suffer from human society's prejudices.”

— Chapter Three

“ Most spren manifest differently here than they do in Shadesmar.”

— Chapter Three

“ Spren politics are not something I've been able to devote much time to. This spren will be your companion—and will grant you the ability to Soulcast, among other things.”

— Chapter Three

“ The knights' breaking of their oaths was very painful to the spren. Many spren died; I'm certain of it. Though Ivory won't speak of it, I gather that what he's done is regarded as a betrayal by the others of his kind.”

— Chapter Three

“ Alai says that the spren are fragments of the powers of creation.”

— Chapter Three

“ 'So, before the spren were alive, they were something. Power. Energy. Zen-daughter-Vath sketched tiny spren she found sometimes around heavy objects. Gravitationspren—fragments of the power or force that causes us to fall. It stands to reason that every spren was a power before it was a spren. Really, you can divide spren into two general groups. Those that respond to emotions and those that respond to forces like fire or wind pressure.'

'So you believe Namar's theory on spren categorization?'
'Yes.'

'Good,' Jasnah said. 'As do I. I suspect, personally, that these groupings of spren—emotion spren versus nature spren—are where the ideas of mankind's primeval 'gods' came from. Honor, who became Vorinism's Almighty, was created by men who wanted a representation of ideal human emotions as they saw in emotion spren. Cultivation, the god worshipped in the West, is a female deity that is an embodiment of nature and nature spren. The various Voidspren, with their unseen lord—whose name changes depending on which culture we're speaking of—evoke an enemy or antagonist. The Stormfather, of course, is a strange offshoot of this, his theoretical nature changing depending on which era of Vorinism is doing the talking...”

— Chapter Three

“ Dalinar shouted, jumping back, pointing his spear downward. 'That was a face! In the water!'

'Riverspren?' the knight asked, stepping up beside him.

'It looked like a shadow,' Dalinar said, 'Red eyes.'”

— Dalinar's Vision

“ What good would it do to catch a spren, though? You couldn't catch them. Not with any method he knew.”

— Chapter Four

“ I was surprised when these orders arrived. I did not teach my Heralds this. It was the spren—wishing to imitate what I had given men—who made it possible”

— Chapter Four

“ In her quarters, Pattern moved up the wall beside her, watching without eyes as she searched for a passage she remembered, which mentioned spren that spoke. Not just windspren and riverspren, which would mimic people and make playful comments. Those were a step up from ordinary spren, but there was yet another level of spren, one rarely seen. Spren like Pattern, who had real conversations with people.
'The Nightwatcher is obviously one of these', Alai wrote, Shallan copying the passage. 'The records of conversations with her—and she is definitely female, despite what rural Alethi folktales would have one believe—are numerous and credible. Shubalai herself, intent on providing a firsthand scholarly report, visited the Nightwatcher and recorded her story word for word...'”

— Chapter Six

“ that spren cannot attract spren”

— Chapter Nine

“ Syl had carried a leaf once. She had some physical form, just not much.”

— Chapter Nine

“ 'Yes. And no. Coming here risked death. Without you, without a mind born of this realm, I couldn't think. Alone, I was just another windspren.'

'But you’re not windspren,' Kaladin said, kneeling beside a large pool of water. 'You're honorspren.'

'Yes,' Syl said.”

— Chapter Nine

“ 'There are others like you,' Syl whispered. 'I do not know them, but I know that other spren are trying, in their own way, to reclaim what was lost.'”

— Chapter Nine

“ 'Where were you before?'
'Another place. With lots of spren. I can't remember well...it had lights in the air. Living lights.'”

— Chapter Nine

“ 'It has to do with my abilities,” Kaladin said, glancing at Syl, who sat on a cleft in the rock nearby, one leg draping over and swinging.

'But Rock—'
'I am alaii'iku,' Rock said, raising a hand to his breast.
'Which means?' Sigzil asked impatiently.

'That I can see these spren, and you cannot.' Rock rested a hand on the smaller man's shoulder. 'It is all right, friend. I do not blame you for being blind. Most lowlanders are. It is the air, you see. Makes your brains stop working right.'”

—Chapter Twelve

“ The old songs spoke of hundreds of forms, now they knew only five. Well, six if you counted slave form, the form with no spren, no soul, and no song. The form the humans were accustomed to, the ones they called parshmen. It wasn't really a form at all, however, but a lack of any form.”

—Interlude One

“ She spoke to Reprimand to the mateforms, her words so passionate that she actually attracted angerspren. She saw them coming from a ways off, drawn by her emotion, moving with an incredible speed—like lightning dancing toward her across the distant stone. The lightning pooled at her feet, turning the stones red.”

—Interlude One

“ her exhaustionspren finally fading, the spren spinning away to search out more fresh sources of emotion.”

—Interlude One

“ 'But you are certain that Jasnah was right?' Shallan said. 'The Voidbringers are going to return?'
'Yes. Spren... spren of him. They come.'”

—Chapter Thirteen

“ Storms, what a mess. She needed an edge. 'The Knights Radiant formed a bond with spren,' Shallan said, more to herself than to Pattern. 'It was a symbiotic relationship, like a little cremling who lives in the shalebark. The cremling cleans off the lichen, getting food, but also keeping the shalebark clean.'

Pattern buzzed in confusion. 'Am I... the shalebark or the cremling?'
'Either,' Shallan said, turning the diamond sphere in her fingers—the tiny gemstone trapped inside glowed with a vigilant light, suspended in glass. 'The Surges—the forces that run the world—are more pliable to spren. Or... well... since spren are pieces of those Surges, maybe it's that the spren are better at influencing one another. Our bond gives me the ability to manipulate one of the Surges. In this case, light, the power of Illumination.'

'Lies,' Pattern whispered. 'And truths.'”

—Chapter Seventeen

“ 'Yes,' Pattern said. 'The knights killed their spren.'

'How? Why?'
'Their oaths,' Pattern said. 'It is all I know. My kind, those who were unbonded, we retreated, and many kept our minds. Even still, it is hard to think apart from my kind, unless...'
'Unless?'
'Unless we have a person.'
'So that's what you get out of it,' Shallan said, untangling her hair with her fingers. 'Symbiosis. I get access to Surgebinding, you get thought.'

'Sapience,' Pattern said. 'Thought. Life. These are of humans. We are ideas. Ideas that wish to live.'”

—Chapter Seventeen

“ 'Interesting,' Shallan thought, scribbling away at her notebook. She wasn't so interested in the nature of truth at the moment, but in how Pattern perceived it. 'Is this because he's from the Cognitive Realm? The books say that the Spiritual Realm is a place of pure truth, while the Cognitive is more fluid.'

'Spren,' Shallan said. 'If people weren't here, would spren have thought?'
'Not here, in this realm,' Pattern said. 'I do not know about the other realm.'
'You don't sound concerned,' Shallan said. 'Your entire existence might be dependent on people.'
'It is,' Pattern said, again unconcerned. 'But children are dependent upon parents.' He hesitated. 'Besides, there are others who think.'
'Voidbringers,' Shallan said, cold.
'Yes. I do not think that my kind would live in a world with only them. They have their own spren.'
Shallan sat up sharply. 'Their own spren?'
Pattern shrank on her table, scrunching up, his ridges growing less distinct as they mashed together.
'Well?' Shallan asked.
'We do not speak of this.'
'You might want to start,' Shallan said. 'It's important.'
Pattern buzzed. She thought he was going to insist on the point, but after a moment, he continued in a very small voice. 'Spren are... power... shattered power. Power given thought by the perceptions of men. Honor, Cultivation, and . . . and another. Fragments broken off.'
'Another?' Shallan prodded.
Pattern's buzz became a whine, going so high pitched she almost couldn't hear it. 'Odium.' He spoke the word as if needing to force it out.

Shallan wrote furiously. Odium. Hatred. A type of spren? Perhaps a large unique one, like Cusicesh from Iri or the Nightwatcher. Hatredspren. She'd never heard of such a thing.”

—Chapter Twenty-four

“ He[Pattern] could be practically invisible when he wanted to be, though unlike some spren he could not vanish completely.”

—Chapter Thirty-four

“ The one with that spren Zahel could sense always spinning about.”

—Interlude Six

“ '...changed even when he was in the other room,' Rushu mumbled, flipping to another page. 'Repeatable and measurable. Only flamespren so far, but so many potential other applications...'”

—Chapter Thirty-five

“ 'Spren have genders?' Sigzil asked, amazed.

'Of course,' she said. 'Though, technically, it probably has something to do with the way people view us. Personification of the forces of nature or some similar gobbletyblarthy.'
'Doesn't that bother you?' Kaladin asked. 'That you might be a creation of human perception?'

'You're a creation of your parents. Who cares how we were born? I can think. That's good enough.'”

—Chapter Forty-one

“ When people crowded about like this, spren were rare, even though the emotions seemed to be very high.”

—Chapter Forty-five

“ "...So the Unkalaki, we were nearly destroyed. But our tana'kai—is like a king, but more—went to the gods to plead for help.'

'Gods,' Kaladin said. 'You mean spren.'

He sought out Syl, who had chosen a perch on a rafter up above, watching a couple of little insects climb on a post. 'These are gods,' Rock said, following Kaladin's gaze. 'Yes. Some gods, though, they are more powerful than others...'”

—Chapter Forty-six

“ 'Is not just water,' Rock said. 'Is water of life. It is connection to gods. If Unkalaki swim in it, sometimes they see place of gods.'

Kaladin leaned forward at that. His mind had been drifting toward how to help Bridge Eighteen with their discipline problems. This struck him. 'Place of the gods?'
'Yes,' Rock said. 'Is where they live. The waters of life, they let you see place. In it, you commune with gods, if you are lucky.'
'Is that why you can see spren?' Kaladin asked. 'Because you swam in these waters, and they did something to you.' ...

'Is not part of story,' Rock said, eyeing him. 'It is... involved. I will say no more of this thing.'”

—Chapter Forty-six

“ She climbed into the tub as Pattern moved along the wall above her. She had decided not to be bashful around him. True, he had a male voice, but he wasn't really a man. Besides, there were spren everywhere. The tub probably had one in it, as did the walls. She'd seen for herself that everything had a soul, or a spren, or whatever. Did she care if the walls watched her? No. So why should she care about Pattern.”

—Chapter Forty-seven

“ 'A revolting type.' She paused. 'But not evil, I don't think.' She sounded begrudging. 'I was going to follow it, as it fled, but you needed me. When I went back to look, it had hidden from me.'

'What does it mean?' Kaladin asked, frowning.
'Cryptics like to plan,' Syl said slowly, as if recalling something long lost. 'Yes... I remember. They debate and watch and never do anything. But...'
'What?' Kaladin asked, rising.
'They're looking for someone,' Syl said. 'I've seen the signs. Soon, you might not be alone, Kaladin.'

Looking for someone. To choose, like him, as a Surgebinder. What kind of Knight Radiant had been made by a group of spren Syl so obviously detested? It didn't seem like someone he'd want to get to know.”

—Chapter Sixty-two

“ '"Mad" has two definitions,' Shallan said. 'One means to be angry. The other means broken in the head.'
'Ah,' Pattern said, 'like a spren who has lost his bond.'”

—Chapter Sixty-three

“ 'I was not me when the Knights Radiant existed. It is complex to explain. I have always existed. We are not 'born' as men are, and we cannot truly die as men do. Patterns are eternal, as is fire, as is the wind. As are all spren. Yet, I was not in this state. I was not... aware.'

'You were a mindless spren?' Shallan said. 'Like the ones that gather around me when I draw?'
'Less than that,' Pattern said. 'I was... everything. In everything. I cannot explain it. Language is insufficient. I would need numbers.'
'Surely there are others among you, though,' Shallan said. 'Older Cryptics? Who were alive back then?'
'No,' Pattern said softly. 'None who experienced the bond.'
'Not a single one?'
'All dead,' Pattern said. 'To us, this means they are mindless—as a force cannot truly be destroyed. These old ones are patterns in nature now, like Cryptics unborn. We have tried to restore them. It does not work. Mmmm. Perhaps if their knights still lived, something could be done...'
Stormfather. Shallan pulled the blanket around her closer. 'An entire people, all killed?'

'Not just one people,' Pattern said, solemn. 'Many. Spren with minds were less plentiful then, and the majorities of several spren peoples were all bonded. There were very few survivors. The one you call Stormfather lived. Some others. The rest, thousands of us, were killed when the event happened. You call it the Recreance.'”

—Chapter Seventy-five

“ Then they dropped dead and something wiggled out of their chests—small red spren, like tiny lightning, that zipped into the air and vanished.”

—Chapter Eighty-one

“ 'So they're all spren,' he said. 'Shardblades.'

Syl grew solemn.
'Dead spren,' Kaladin added.
'Dead,' Syl agreed. 'Then they live again a little when someone summons them, syncing a heartbeat to their essence.'
'How can something be "a little" alive?'
'We're spren,' Syl said. 'We're forces. You can't kill us completely. Just... sort of.'
'That's perfectly clear.'

'It's perfectly clear to us,' Syl said. 'You're the strange ones. Break a rock, and it's still there. Break a spren, and she's still there. Sort of. Break a person, and something leaves. Something changes. What's left is just meat. You're weird.'”

—Chapter Eighty-seven

“ 'Any man who holds this weapon will become a Windrunner,' Syl explained, looking back at Kaladin. 'The Honorblades are what we are based on, Kaladin. Honor gave these to men, and those men gained powers from them. Spren figured out what He'd done, and we imitated it. We're bits of His power, after all, like this sword. Be careful with it. It is a treasure.'”

—Chapter Eighty-seven

Interviews

“ Yes, there is. But I will not elucidate any further at this time.”

— Is there a relationship between Soulcasting and Spren? (533-6)

“ There are a lot of things that get spren where the spren are not noticeable, or they only occur in very rare circumstances or in certain regions, as Axies explains”

— Do you have rules for deciding what "gets" spren and what doesn't? (585-6)

“ It is special to certain types of spren.”

— Can all spren imprint on someone—like Syl has with Kaladin—or is this ability special to certain types of spren? (585-7)

“ Objects with almost sentient behavior like Nightblood in Warbreaker share important links with the spren from The Way of Kings. If you understand the spren you will understand a lot about the connection between the books.”

— Links between magic systems (608-16

“ Not all types of spren bonded to Radiants. You will find out more about this in the future. However, if you're speaking specifically of spren that were bonded to Radiants, then yes, you're on the right track.”

— Is spren lost their memories and personalities because of the loss of their attached radiants? But retain a basic attraction to things associated with the radiants they bonded to previously? (697-7)

“ But the spren you are running into are all (something) of either Honor or Cultivation, or some mixture between them. And you can usually tell the ones that are more Honor, and the ones that are more Cultivation.”

— Are all spren that can Nahel Bond called honorspren or just Windrunner spren? (747-5)

“ There are other sentient spren. ”

— Are there any other sentient spren like Syl? (755-14)

“ They're creatures of nature and so good and evil aren't as, as big a deal to them. There are some that may be put in that sort of alignments, certainly honorspren are going to be of a certain type, but there are many spren of many different temperaments and they are kind of aligned to their temperament, having to do with who they are and what they are.”

— Would that also mean that certain spren had an alignment or would some spren be catered toward good or evil or not? (755-14)

“ Yes, spren can die.”

— Can spren die? (836-26)

“ No, Roshar does not have the same problem. There are some differences going on. (One reason being that the spren are far more extensive on Roshar, and provide something of a "release valve." The Seons and the Skaze on Sel are not numerous enough to fulfill a similar function. Though, of course, that's only one part of the puzzle. Raw power is dangerous.”

— Does Roshar have a similar problem, with Honor being Splintered? (944-7)

“ You will get plenty in the next Stormlight book. But more than one type of spren live there.”

— Tell us something new about Cognitive Realm, please. (977-25)

“ Human perception has a lot to do with why spren act like they do...”

— You have mentioned that certain spren are an embodiment of concepts. How does that work for the concepts like honor, that can mean opposite things to different culture groups? (979-7)

“ No, they are cousins to one another, but not exactly the same thing.”

— Are all wind spren really just unbonded honor spren? (979-61)

“ Yes. These things all work according to the same fundamental framework.”

— Are the changing beauty standards of Returned and the "plausibility" of Forgeries determined by the same kind of "cognitive ideals or concepts which have taken on literal personification over time" that some types of Spren represent? (979-165)

“ Well, it depends on how you're defining spren. In the books, they don't make a distinction, but there are several varieties. At the basic level, everything has an identity--a soul, you might say, but more than that. This is based on how it is viewed, and how long it has been viewed that way. Feces would have this, but wouldn't have a very strong cognitive identity because of its transitional nature.

Other types of spren, the type that characters see and interact with, are cognitive ideals or concepts which have taken on literal personification over time. These are usually related to forces or emotions, and don't relate to this particular topic.

And that's far more than I ever expected to say on this...”

— Are there poopspren? [1]

“ Yes.”

— Is the bond between a Seon and its master similar to the Nahel bond between a Surgebinder and his spren? [2]

“ So, any piece, for instance there were some spren on Roshar before Honor and Cultivation got there. Those were already splinters of Adonalsium where he had left power which attained sentience on its own.”

— Please explain what you will about shards and splintering and slivers.

adonalsium spren link

Alespren

The Way of Kings

“ Test successful. Have noted spren who appear only when one is severely intoxicated. Appear as small brown bubbles clinging to objects nearby. Further testing may be needed to prove they were more than a drunken hallucination.”

— Interlude Five

“ The stories he'd heard called them sudspren, but that seemed silly. Intoxicationspren? No, too unwieldy. Alespren?”

— Interlude Five

“ Why did they appear only in Iri? And why so infrequently? He'd gotten himself stupidly drunk a dozen times, and had only found them once. If, indeed, he had ever really found them.”

— Interlude Five

Angerspren

The Way of Kings

“ 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 Fifteen

“ Angerspren began to appear in small pools at his feet, bright red.”

— Chapter Sixteen

Words of Radiance

“ She spoke to Reprimand to the mateforms, her words so passionate that she actually attracted angerspren. She saw them coming from a ways off, drawn by her emotion, moving with an incredible speed—like lightning dancing toward her across the distant stone. The lightning pooled at her feet, turning the stones red.”

—Interlude One

“ Angerspren boiled up around him, like pools of blood in the sand.”

—Chapter Sixteen

Anticipationspren

The Way of Kings

“ 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 Six

“ Anticipationspren sprung up around members of the army, but not his team.”

—Chapter Thirty-Two

Awespren

Words of Radiance

“ A single awespren, like a ring of blue smoke, burst out above him, spreading like the ripple from a stone dropped in a pond. Shallan had seen such a spren only a handful of times in her life.”

—Chapter Seventy-eight

Bindspren

The Way of Kings

“ He thought he could faintly make out tiny spren, dark blue and shaped like little splashes of ink, clustering around the place where the rock met the wall.

'Bindspren,' Syl said…
'They're holding the rock in place.’

'Maybe. Or maybe they’re attracted to what you’ve done in affixing the stone there.'”

—Chapter Fifty-Seven

Words of Radiance

“ 'Spren,' Rock said, pointing. 'They pull the stone against the wall.'

...

Kaladin walked over and joined them. He could make out the tiny purple spren if he looked closely.”

—Chapter Twelve

Interviews

“ Hmm, it might depend on the lighting.”

— In WoK bindspren are dark blue but in yesterday's pre-release chapters Kaladin describes them as purple. Is that a mistake? [3]

Captivityspren

The Way of Kings

“ 'It appears I'll have another chance to search for captivityspren.' Odd how those had eluded him all these years, despite his numerous incarcerations. He was beginning to consider them mythological.”

—Interlude Five

Words of Radiance

“ He stood, waving away some strange spren like taut wires crossing before him, then forced himself to do a set of push-ups.”

—Chapter Sixty-two

Coldspren

The Way of Kings

“ cold”

— Navani's Notebook: One

Lightspren/Reachers

Words of Radiance

“ Eshonai waved her hand as she climbed the central spire of Narak, trying to shoo away the tiny spren. It danced around her head, shedding rings of light from its cometlike form. Horrid thing. Why would it not leave her alone.”

—Interlude Eleven

“ That rhythm! It sounded like... like her own voice yelling at her. Screaming in pain. What was that? She shook her head, and found that she had reflexively pulled her hand to her chest in anxiety. When she opened it, the cometlike spren shot out.”

—Interlude Eleven

Creationspren

The Way of Kings

“ Creationspren began to gather around her pad, looking at her work. Like other spren, they were said to always be around, but usually invisible. Sometimes you attracted them. Sometimes you didn't. With drawing, skill seemed to make a difference.

Creationspren were of medium size, as tall as one of her fingers, and they glowed with a faint silvery light. They transformed perpetually, taking new shapes. Usually the shapes were things they had seen recently. An urn, a person, a table, a wheel, a nail. Always of the same silvery color, always the same diminutive height. They imitated shapes exactly, but moved them in strange ways. A table would roll like a wheel, an urn would shatter and repair itself.

Her drawing gathered about a half-dozen of them, pulling them by her act of creation just as a bright fire would draw flamespren. She'd learned to ignore them. They weren't substantial—if she moved her arm through one, its figure would smear like scattered sand, and then re-form. She never felt a thing when touching one.”

— Chapter Seven

“ A few of them attracted creationspren, the tiny shapes rolling across the tops of their easels of tables.”

— Chapter Twenty-Two

Words of Radiance

“ The art consumed her, and creationspren popped into existence all around. Dozens of tiny shapes soon crowded the small table beside her cot and the floor of the cabin near where she knelt. The spren shifted and spun, each no larger than the bowl of a spoon, becoming shapes they’d recently encountered. She mostly ignored them, though she'd never seen so many at once.

Faster and faster they shifted as she drew, intent...

When she finished the last line, she found herself breathing hard, as if she'd run a great distance. She blinked, again noticing the creationspren around her—there were hundreds. They lingered before fading away one by one.”

—Chapter Three

“ The last creationspren faded away, this one imitating a puddle that was being splashed by a boot. Her sheet of paper dimpled as Pattern moved up onto it. He sniffed. 'Useless things.'

'The creationspren?'

'They don't do anything. They flit around and watch, admire. Most spren have a purpose. These are merely attracted by someone else's purpose.'”

—Chapter Seventy-eight

Cryptics

The Way of Kings

“ I'm dying, aren't I? Healer, why do you take my blood? Who is that beside you, with his head of lines? I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky.”

— Collected on the 3rd of Jesnan, 1172, 11 seconds pre-death. Subject was a Reshi chull trainer. Sample is of particular note. (chapter four)

“ She had drawn something standing in the doorway behind the king. Two tall and willowy creatures with cloaks that split down the front and hung at the sides too stiffly, as if they were made of glass. Above the stiff, high collars, where the creatures' heads should be, each had a large, floating symbol of twisted design full of impossible angles and geometries.”

— Chapter Twenty-Nine

“ The creatures hadn't been part of the Memory she'd taken. Her hands had simply drawn them of their accord.”

— Chapter Twenty-Nine

“ …sweeping, breezelike lines to form the legs and robes of the creature standing behind—
Shallan froze, fingers drawing an unintended line of charcoal, breaking away from the figure she'd sketched directly behind Kasbal. A figure that wasn't really there, a figure with a sharp, angular symbol hovering above its collar instead of a head.”

— Chapter Forty-Five

“ And five symbol-headed figures in black, too-stiff robes and cloaks. Each had a different symbol, twisted and unfamiliar to her, hanging above a neckless torso. The creatures wove through the crowd unseen. Like predators. Focused on Shallan.”

— Chapter Forty-Five

“ She was interrupted midway through by a voice, uncanny yet distinct:

What are you?...
'What am I?' she whispered. 'I'm terrified.'
The bedroom transformed around her.

The bed, the nightstand, her sketchpad, the walls, the ceiling—everything seemed to pop, forming into tiny, dark glass spheres. She found herself in a place with a black sky and a strange, small white sun that hung on the horizon, too far away.”

— Chapter Forty-Five

“ It depicted one of the symbolheads. No eyes, no face, just that jagged alien symbol with points like cut crystal. They had to have something to do with the Soulcasting. Didn't they?”

— Chapter Forty-Eight

“ They watch me. Always. Waiting. I see their faces in mirrors. Symbols, twisted, inhuman…”

— Chapter Fifty-Eight

“ They lurked around her, always. At some times, she thought she saw them in the corners of her eyes. At others, she could hear them whispering. She hadn't dared speak back to them again.”

— Chapter Seventy

“ 'Creatures,' she said in her head. 'Can you hear me?'

'Yes, always,' a whisper came in response. Though she’d hoped to hear it, she still jumped.
'Can you return me to that place?' She asked.
'You need to tell me something true,' it replied. 'The more true, the stronger our bond.'
'Jasnah is using a fake Soulcaster,' Shallan thought. 'I'm sure that's a truth.'
'That's not enough,' the voice whispered. 'I must know something true about you. Tell me. The stronger the truth, the more hidden it is, the more powerful the bond. Tell me. Tell me. What are you?'
'What am I?' Shallan whispered. 'Truthfully?' It was a day for confrontation. She felt strangely strong, steady. Time to speak it. 'I'm a murderer. I killed my father.'
'Ah,' the voice whispered. 'A powerful truth indeed...'

And the alcove vanished.”

— Chapter Seventy

“ 'What of the creatures with the symbol heads?' Shallan asked. She flipped through her sketches, then held up an image of them. 'Do you see them too? How are they related?'

Jasnah frowned, taking the image. 'You see beings like this? In Shadesmar?'
'They appear in my drawings,' Shallan said. 'They're around me, Jasnah. You don't see them? Am I—'

Jasnah held up a hand. 'These are a type of spren, Shallan. They are related to what you do.'”

— Chapter Seventy

Words of Radiance

“ Raised, like an embossing, it had a complex pattern with a haunting symmetry. Its tiny lines twisted and turned through its mass, somehow lifting the surface of the wood, like iron scrollwork under a taut tablecloth.”

— Chapter Three

“ Pencil was wonderful for drawing the soft shades of life, but this thing she drew was not life. It was something else, something unreal. She dug a pen and inkwell from her supplies, then went back to her drawing, replicating the tiny, intricate lines.”

— Chapter Three

“ The pattern seemed impossible to capture. Its complex repetitions twisted down into infinity. No, a pen could never capture this thing perfectly, but she was close. She drew it spiraling out of a center point, then re-created each branch off the center, which had its own swirl of tiny lines. It was like a maze created to drive its captive insane.”

— Chapter Three

“ The pattern somehow moved from paper to floor. It came to the leg of her cot and wrapped around it, climbing upward and onto the blanket. It didn't look like something moving beneath the blanket; that was simply a crude approximation. The lines were too precise for that, and there was no stretching. Something beneath the blanket would have been just an indistinct lump, but this was exact.
It drew closer. It didn't look dangerous, but she still found herself trembling. This pattern was different from the symbolheads in her drawings, but it was also somehow the same. A flattened-out version, without torso or limbs. It was an abstraction of one of them, just as a circle with a few lines in it could represent a human's face on the page.”

— Chapter Three

“ The Cryptics have a fearful reputation.”

— Chapter Three

“ That is their own name for themselves, though we would probably name them liespren. They don't like the term. Regardless, the Cryptics rule one of the greater cities in Shadesmar. Think of them as the lighteyes of the Cognitive Realm.”

— Chapter Three

“ There is a complex sort of conflict between them and the honorspren.”

— Chapter Three

“ At the moment, he had lifted himself up off the surface of the deck, forming a ball of swirling blackness—infinite lines that twisted in ways she could never have captured on the flat page. Instead, she wrote descriptions supplemented with sketches. ”

—Chapter Six

“ Pattern connects increasingly complex thoughts, Shallan wrote. Abstractions come easily to him. Early, he asked me the questions 'Why? Why you? Why be?' I interpreted this as asking me my purpose. When I replied, 'To find truth,' he easily seemed to grasp my meaning. And yet, some simple realities—such as why people would need to eat—completely escape him. It—”

— Chapter Six

“ 'You like lies?' Shallan asked.

'Good lies,' Pattern said. 'That lie. Good lie.'
'What makes a lie good?' Shallan asked, taking careful notes, recording Pattern's exact words.
'True lies.'
'Pattern, those two are opposites.'
'Hmmmm... Light makes shadow. Truth makes lies. Hmmmm.'

'Liespren, Jasnah called them,' Shallan wrote. 'A moniker they don't like, apparently. When I Soulcast for the first time, a voice demanded a truth from me. I still don't know what that means, and Jasnah has not been forthcoming. She doesn't seem to know what to make of my experience either. I do not think that voice belonged to Pattern, but I cannot say, as he seems to have forgotten much about himself.'”

—Chapter Six

“ The spren hovered nearby in his three-dimensional form full of twisting lines and angles. Sketching him had proven difficult, as whenever she looked closely at a section of his form, she found that it had so much detail as to defy proper depiction.”

—Chapter Forty-seven

Interviews

“ There is indeed a similar relationship there.”

— Is one of the symbolhead-spren (or maybe all of them) responsible for Shallan's ability to Soulcast (in the way that Syl is responsible for Kaladin's Lashings)? (977-67)

“ As for the symbols making up the heads of the cryptics, those are not glyphs. But it's possible you would recognize them...”

— And on an unrelated question, they have symbols on their heads. If Shallan managed to draw one of these would it be some glyph?[4]

“ They are spren, that should be pretty obvious. They are the spren connected to what Shallan is capable of doing.”

— What should we call Shallan's Symbolheads? [5]

“ Yes, you may call the symbolheads "Cryptics" which is what they call themselves.”

— Is "Cryptics" the canon name for the spren Shallan draws? Should we use that instead of symbolhead/truthspren?[6]

“ Shallan and the Cryptics have a "special connection" that allows her to draw them.”

— Why can Shallan draw the Cryptics without seeing them, and can she do the same for other invisible (to her?) spren? [7]

Cusicesh

The Way of Kings

“ At precisely seven forty-six in the morning—the locals could use it to set their timepieces—an enormous, sea-blue spren surged from the waters of the bay. It was translucent, and though it appeared to throw out waves as it rose, that was illusory. The actual surface of the bay wasn't disturbed.”

— Interlude Five

“ It takes the shape of a large jet of water… The center is of the deepest blue, like the ocean depths, though the outer edges are a lighter shade. Judging by the masts of the nearby ships, I’d say that the spren has grown to a height of at least a hundred feet. One of the largest I've seen.”

— Interlude Five

“ The column sprouted four long arms that came down around the bay, forming fingers and thumbs. They landed on golden pedestals that had been placed there by the people of the city. The spren came at the same time every day, without fail.”

— Interlude Five

“ They called it by name, Cusicesh, the Protector. Some worshipped it as a god. Most simply accepted it as part of the city. It was unique. One of the few types of spren he knew of that seemed to have only a single member.”

— Interlude Five

“ But what kind of spren is it?... It has formed a face, looking eastward. Directly toward the Origin. That face is shifting, bewilderingly quick. Different human faces appear on the end of its stumplike neck, one after another in blurred succession.”

— Interlude Five

“ The display lasted a full ten minutes. Did any of the faces repeat? They changed so quickly, he couldn't tell. Some seemed male, others female. Once the display was finished, Cusicesh retreated down into the bay, sending up phantom waves again.
Axies felt drained, as if something had been leeched from him. That was reported to be a common reaction. Was he imagining it because it was expected? Or was it real?”

— Interlude Five

Deathspren

The Way of Kings

“ Deathspren and rotspren hate water.”

— Chapter Ten

“ …even if deathspren cannot be seen.”

— Chapter Ten

“ He saw the deathspren. They were fist-size and black, with many legs and deep red eyes that glowed, leaving trails of burning light. They clustered around him, skittering this way and that. Their voices were whispers, scratchy sounds like paper being torn.”

— Chapter Thirty-Eight

“ Only the dying could see deathspren. You saw them, then died. Only the very, very lucky few survived after that. Deathspren knew when the end was close.”

— Chapter Thirty-Eight

Decayspren

The Way of Kings

“ I didn't know men got this old. You sure he's not decayspren wearing a man's skin?”

— Chapter Seventeen

Edgedancer spren

Words of Radiance

“ As the boys finally stopped arguing and started climbing, a thin, twisting trail of vines grew out of the darkness and approached Lift. It looked like a little stream of spilled water picking its way across the floor. Here and there, bits of clear crystal peeked out of the vines, like sections of quartz in otherwise dark stone. Those weren't sharp, but smooth like polished glass, and didn't glow with Stormlight.
The vines grew super-fast, curling about one another in a tangle that formed a face.”

—Interlude Nine

“ Wyndle grew up to her, leaving a small trail of vines that people didn't seem to be able to see. The vines hardened after a few moments of sitting, as if briefly becoming solid crystal, then they crumbled to dust. People spotted that on occasion, though they certainly couldn't see Wyndle himself.”

—Interlude Nine

“ Wyndle curled along the ground beside her, his vine trail sprouting tiny bits of clear crystal here and there. He was as sinuous and speedy as a moving eel, only he grew rather than actually moving. Voidbringers were a strange lot.
'You realize that I didn't choose you,' he said, a face appearing in the vines as they moved. His speaking left a strange effect, the trail behind him clotted with a sequence of frozen faces. The mouth seemed to move because it was growing so quickly beside her.'I wanted to pick a distinguished Iriali matron. A grandmother, an accomplished gardener. But no, the Ring said we should choose you. "She has visited the Old Magic," they said. "Our mother has blessed her," they said. "She will be young, and we can mold her," they said. Well, they don't have to put up with—'”

—Interlude Nine

“ 'Your bond to me grants two primary classes of ability,' Wyndle said. 'The first, manipulation of friction, you've already—don't yawn at me!—discovered. We have been using that well for many weeks now, and it is time for you to learn the second, the power of Growth. You aren't ready for what was once known as Regrowth, the healing of—'”

—Interlude Nine

“ 'They can't see me,' Wyndle said, growing up beside her to create another line of handholds, 'because I exist mostly in the Cognitive Realm, even though I've moved my consciousness to this Realm. I can make myself visible to anyone, should I desire, though it's not easy for me. Other spren are more skilled at it, while some have the opposite trouble. Of course, no matter how I manifest, nobody can touch me, as I barely have any substance in this Realm.”

—Interlude Nine

“ She could feel the crystals jutting out between the tendrils, but they were smooth and faceted—not angular and sharp. She dropped, vine smooth between her fingers, pulling herself to a stop just before the floor.”

—Interlude Nine

Elsecaller spren

Words of Radiance

“ However, as the words slipped out, several distant shadows originating in an intersection up ahead stirred to life. Her breath caught. Those shadows lengthened, deepened. Figures formed from them, growing, standing, rising.

...

One took the shape of a man of midnight blackness, though he had a certain reflective cast, as if he were made of oil. No... of some other liquid with a coating of oil floating on the outside, giving him a dark, prismatic quality.”

— Prologue

“ A small figure made of inky blackness—shaped like a man in a smart, fashionable suit with a long coat—stood in her palm. He melted away into shadow as he saw Shallan.”

— Chapter Three

Exhaustionspren

The Way of Kings

“ The men began to sit down among the painspren and exhaustionspren...”

—Chapter Sixty-Eight

Words of Radiance

“ A few dizzy-looking spren, like jets of dust rising into the air, appeared around Jasnah's head. Exhaustionspren.”

—Chapter Six

“ As she touched it, she noticed something sweeping through the air above her. She cringed, looking up to find large, birdlike creatures circling around her in Shadesmar. They were a dark grey and seemed to have no specific shape, their forms blurry. 'What...'

'Spren,' Pattern said. 'Drawn by you. Your... tiredness?'
'Exhaustionspren?' she asked, shocked by their size here.

'Yes.'”

—Chapter Eleven

“ Though she said it to Resolve, she sounded tired, and she drew exhaustionspren. They came with a sound like wind, blowing in through the windows and doors like jets of translucent vapor before becoming stronger, more visible, and spinning around her head like swirls of steam.”

—Interlude One

“A few exhaustionspren rose around her, little swirls of dust spinning into the air”

—Chapter Twenty

Fearspren

The Way of Kings

“ Violet fearspren crawled out of the stone ceiling around him.”

—Prologue

“ 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.”

— Prologue

“ Small fearspren—like globs of purplish goo—began to climb up out of the ground and gather around his feet.”

— Chapter One

“ Fearspren—wiggling and violet—sprang up through the wood and wriggled in the air.”

— Chapter Six

“ To their credit, there weren't any fearspren either—not that they didn't feel fear, they just weren't as panicked as the other bridge crews, so the fearspren went there instead.”

— Chapter Thirty-Two

“ He looked up at Dalinar, terrified, fearspren appearing around him.”

— Chapter Sixty-Five

Flamespren

The Way of Kings

“ Tiny flamespren danced around them [torches], like insects made solely of congealed light.”

— Prologue

“ Her drawing gathered about a half-dozen of them [creationspren], pulling them by her act of creation just as a bright fire would draw flamespren.”

— Chapter Seven

“ The room inside looked very inviting, with large, comfortable easy chairs beside a hearth. Flamespren danced on the burning logs there…”

— Chapter Eight

“ …she said, leaning forward to inspect the room’s hearth, where two flamespren danced on the logs’ fire.”

— Interlude Eight

“ The spren change when I measure them… Before I measure, they dance and vary in size, luminosity, and shape. But when I make a notation, they immediately freeze in their current state. Then they remain that way permanently, so far as I can tell.”

— Interlude Eight

“ One of the two flamespren danced about atop a log, shape changing and length flickering like the flames themselves. The other had taken on a far more stable shape. Its length no longer changed, though its form did slightly.

It seemed locked somehow. It almost looked like a little person as it danced over the fire. She reached up and erased her notation. It immediately began pulsing and changing erratically like the other one.

'It's as if it knows, somehow, that it has been measured. As if merely defining its form traps it somehow.'”

— Interlude Eight

“ I wonder at the precision of the instrument… If I use one that is less precise, will that give the spren more flexibility? Or is there a threshold, an accuracy beyond which it finds itself bound?... I need to research this more. Try it for luminosity, then compare that to me general equation of flamespren luminosity as compared to the fire they’re drawn to dance around.”

— Interlude Eight

“ Rock pulled out a ragged old blanket—used for kindling—and tossed it over the fire, disturbing the flamespren…”

—Chapter Seventy-Three

Words of Radiance

“ '...changed even when he was in the other room,' Rushu mumbled, flipping to another page. 'Repeatable and measurable. Only flamespren so far, but so many potential other applications...'”

—Chapter Thirty-five

Gloryspren

The Way of Kings

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

—Chapter Twelve

“ Elhokar held aloft the grisly prize, golden gloryspren appearing around him, and the soldiers yelled in triumph.”

—Chapter Thirteen

“ Below, his men cheered, sending up calls that rose above the Parshendi war chant. Gloryspren sprouted around him.”

—Chapter Sixty-Five

Words of Radiance

“ She soon caught bursts of laughter from the men near him, and when she glanced at him, gloryspren danced around his head—they took the shape of little spheres of light. He was apparently very proud of the jape he'd just made”

—Chapter One

“ A swarm of small glowing orbs materialized around Kaladin's head, spren the shape of golden spheres that darted this way and that. He started, looking at them. Gloryspren. Storms. He felt as if he hadn't seen the like in years.”

—Chapter Nine

“ 'I still find it incredible,' Kadash said, looking up at the stone barrier. 'Even after all these years. If we needed proof of the Almighty's hand in our lives, this is certainly it.' A few gloryspren appeared around him, spinning and golden.”

—Chapter Thirty-five

Gravityspren

The Way of Kings

“gravity”

—Navani's Notebook: One

“ The assassin, who had—according to both Adolin and Dalinar—somehow manipulated gravityspren.”

—Chapter Thirty-five

Greatshell Spren

The Way of Kings

“ Tiny near-invisible spren were floating out of the beast's body, vanishing into the air. They looked like the tongues of smoke that might come off a candle after being snuffed. Nobody knew what kind of spren they were; you only saw them around the freshly killed bodies of greatshells.”

—Chapter Fifteen

Words of Radiance

“ 'Well,' the creature said, 'don't ask about the soul of their god. They don't like to speak of that, it turns out. Must be spectacular, to let the beasts grow this large. Beyond even the spren who inhabit the bodies of ordinary greatshells. Hmmm...' He seemed very pleased by something.”

—Interlude Three

“ 'The spren softened your fall.'”

—Interlude Three

Interviews

“ They are in a symbiotic relationship with the chasmfiend, and are part of what allow the creatures to grow to the size they do with an exoskeleton. (Along with a high-oxygen, lower-gravity world.)”

— What are the smoke-y spren that appear around a dead chasmfiend? (977-158)

Groundspren

The Way of Kings

“ Groundspren didn't pull her downward as they did everything else.”

—Chapter Forty-Nine

Heatspren

The Way of Kings

“heat”

—Navani's Notebook: One

Highspren

Words of Radiance

“ I'm no highspren. Laws don't matter; what's right matters.”

—Chapter Fifty-nine

“ If it's not happening as it did before, then everything I know could be false. The words of the highspren could be inaccurate. The records I seek could be meaningless.”

—Epilogue

Honorspren

The Way of Kings

“ I bind things… I am honorspren. Spirit of oaths. Of promises. And of nobility.”

— Chapter Sixty-Seven

Words of Radiance

“ There is a complex sort of conflict between [the Cryptics] and the honorspren.”

— Chapter Three

“ She said that she's honorspren... So why does she still keep up the act of playing with winds.”

— Chapter Five

“ 'I am the only honorspren who has come,' Syl said. 'I...' She seemed to be stretching to remember. 'I was forbidden. I came anyway. To find you.'

'You knew me?'
'No. But I knew I'd find you.' She smiled. 'I spent the time with my cousins, searching.'
'The windspren.'
'Without the bond, I am basically one of them,' she said. 'Though they don't have the capacity to do what we do. And what we do is important. So important that I left everything, defying the Stormfather, to come. You saw him. In the storm.'

The hair stood up on Kaladin's arms. He had indeed seen a being in the storm. A face as vast as the sky itself. Whatever the thing was—spren, Herald, or god—it had not tempered its storms for Kaladin during that day he'd spent strung up.”

— Chapter Nine

“ Syl might only be a cousin to windspren, but she obviously shared their impish nature”

— Chapter Nine

Interviews

“ She [says she's] an honorspren, but you will find out.”

— And Syl's what, a Bonding Spren? (836-26)

“ Honorspren would be termed Splinters. (I think the careful wording is irrelevant here, he then added "Yes, yes," so it looked like it's definite)”

— Are Honorspren Splinters, or do they hold Splinters? [8]

Hungerspren

The Way of Kings

“ As he spoke, he attracted a few hungerspren. They looked like brown flies that flitted around the man's head, almost too small to see.”

—Chapter Two

Joyspren

Words of Radiance

“ Once they were out of earshot, Shallan looked at the boots, then started laughing uncontrollably. Joyspren rose around her, like blue leaves that started at her feet then moved up in a swirl before flaring out above her as if in a blast of wind. Shallan watched them with a big smile. Those were very rare.”

—Chapter Twenty-eight

Laughterspren

The Way of Kings

“ He laughed in a deep-bellied way. The others joined him, shaking their heads at Kaladin's speech. A few laughter-spren—minnowlike silver spirits that darted through the air in circular paterns—began to zip about them.”

— Chapter Fourteen

Lifespren

The Way of Kings

“ Tiny lights rose around the plants. Lifespren. They looked like motes of glowing green dust or swarms of tiny translucent insects.”

— Chapter Three

“ A few lazy lifespren—like specks of glowing green dust—flitted from one frond to the next.”

— Chapter Eight

“ Lifespren—little green blips of light, brighter than Syl but small as spores—danced among the plants, dodging raindrops.”

— Chapter Eleven

“ A few lifespren—tiny, glowing green specks—floated around the shalebark mounds. Some danced amid the rifts in the bark, others in the air like dust motes zigzagging up, only to fall again.”

— Chapter Thirty-Nine

“ A skull protruded from one, wavy green moss growing across the scalp like hair, lifespren bobbing above.”

— Chapter Fifty-Nine

Words of Radiance

“ Most of the bodies here were mere bone, though he did steer clear of one patch of ground crawling with the red dots of rotspren. Just beside it, a group of frillblooms wafted their delicate fanlike fronds in the air, and those danced with green specks of lifespren. Life and death shook hands here in the chasms”

— Chapter Nine

Logicspren

The Way of Kings

“ There were said to be logicspren—in the form of tiny stormclouds—who were attracted to great arguments, but Shallan had never seen them.”

—Chapter Seven

Words of Radiance

“ By the time he reached her, the other scholars were chattering among themselves and furiously making notes. Logicspren, in the shape of tiny stormclouds, rose around them.”

—Chapter Thirty-five

Luckspren

The Way of Kings

“ They [skyeels] are so graceful and fluid in the air, often accompanied by dozens of tiny spren, flying aroung them in a swarm as if riding their wakes. The sailors call them 'luckspren' — I doubt it is their true name.”

—Shallan's Sketchbook: Skyeels

Words of Radiance

“ 'Those spren,' Shallan whispered, so soft he could barely hear. 'I've seen those...' They danced around the chasmfiend, and were the source of the light. They looked like small glowing arrows, and they surrounded the beast in schools, though occasionally one would drift away from the others and then vanish like a small plume of smoke rising into the air.
'Skyeels,' Shallan whispered. 'They follow skyeels too. The chasmfiend likes corpses. Could its kind be carrion feeders by nature? No, those claws, they look like they're meant for breaking shells. I suspect we'd find herds of wild chulls near where these things live naturally. But they come to the Shattered Plains to pupate, and here there's very little food, which is why they attack men. Why has this one remained after pupating.'”

—Chapter Seventy

“ The chasmfiend's head lay nearby, massive eyes cloudy. Spren started to rise from it, like trails of smoke. The same ones as before, only...leaving?'”

—Chapter Seventy-two

Supplementary Material

“ Skyeels are often accompanied by tiny blue spren in the shape of darting tiny, arrowhead like fish. (Think of how a shark or whale often has tinier fish darting around it, swimming in the same direction like an entourage.) One of the pictures should show this, though the others need not. It is thought the spren help it fly somehow.”

— Description on Inkthinker's deviantart [9]

Musicspren

The Way of Kings

“ Musicspren zipped through the air around them [drummers], the tiny spirits taking the form of spinning translucent ribbons.”

— Prologue

“ Some women had taken to playing flutes, musicspren spinning around them in the air.”

— Chapter Twenty-Two

“ As he drew the bow again, the plate made a sound, almost a pure note. It was actually enough to draw a single musicspren, which spun for a moment in the air above him, then vanished.”

— Chapter Thirty-Three

Nightspren

The Way of Kings

“ Many people in more rural places whispered of them [Voidbringers] and other monsters of the dark. The rasping, or stormwhispers, or even the dreaded nightspren. Shallan had been taught by stern tutors that these were superstition, fabrications of the Lost Radiants, who used tales of monsters to justify their domination of mankind.”

— Chapter Forty-Two

Painspren

The Way of Kings

“ Painspren—like small orange hands with overly long fingers—were crawling around him, reacting to his agony. They began turning away, scurrying in other directions, seeking other wounded. His pain was fading, his leg—his whole body—feeling numb.”

— Chapter One

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

— Chapter Sixteen

“ That set afire the wound in his side, and the painspren scampered across the ground, latching on to Kal's side, looking an orange scar as they fed on Kal's agony.”

— Chapter Sixteen

“ He looked up with frenzied black eyes, orange painspren waving around him.”

— Chapter Seventeen

“ There were painspren all around the man, tiny orange hands stretching up from the ground.”

— Chapter Seventeen

“ Painspren swarm around him.”

— Chapter Forty-One

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

— Chapter Forty-Six

“ Painspren swarmed the ground, like small orange hands or bits of sinew, reaching up from the ground amid the blood of the fallen.”

— Chapter Forty-Seven

“pain”

—Navani's Notebook: One

“ Painspren wiggled out of the ground, sinewy and orange.”

—Chapter Sixty-Five

((quote| The men began to sit down among the painspren and exhaustionspren...|Chapter Sixty-Eight}}

Words of Radiance

“ Painspren wiggled out of the wall beside her, little orange bits of sinew—like hands with the flesh removed.”

—Chapter Thirteen

Passionspren

The Way of Kings

“ Passionspren, like tiny flakes of crystalline snow, floated down in the air around them.”

— Chapter Sixty-One

Rainspren

The Way of Kings

“ A few rainspren sat in puddles, like blue candles…”

— Chapter Thirty-Four

“ They passed some rainspren standing in puddles, glowing with a faint blue light, shaped like ankle-high melting candles with no flame. They rarely appeared except during the Weeping. They were said to be the souls of raindrops, glowing blue rods, seeming to melt but never growing smaller, a single blue eye at their tops.”

— Chapter Forty-Four

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

— Chapter Forty-Four

Riverspren

The Way of Kings

“ It [the Purelake] was filled with tiny fish, colorful cremlings, and eel-like riverspren.”

—Interlude One

Words of Radiance

“ 'Or maybe a riverspren?' Those were somewhat rare, but supposedly able to speak at times in simple ways, like windspren.”

—Chapter Forty-six

Rotspren

The Way of Kings

“ If he'd had a mirror, he could probably have spotted tiny red rostspren gathering around the wound.”

— Chapter Two

“ Deathspren and rotspren hate water.”

— Chapter Ten

“ Either way you are always to wash your hands. You can see the effect it has on rotspren with your own eyes…”

— Chapter Ten

“ Finally, he spread pungent lister's oil across the hand to prevent infection—the oil frightened away rotspren even better than soap and water.”

— Chapter Ten

“ None of the wounds looked infected with rotspren yet, but it would only be a matter of time in these dirty confines.”

— Chapter Twenty-One

“ Rest… and keep that wound clean. We don't want to attract any rotspren. Let me know if you see any. They are small and red, like tiny insects.”

— Chapter Twenty-One

“ Rotspren and disease killed far more men in war than the enemy did.”

— Chapter Twenty-One

“ 'It [antiseptic] scares away rotspren… They cause infection. This [knobweed] milk is one of the best antiseptics there is. Spread it on a wound that's already infected, and it will still work.' That was good, because Leyten's wounds had begun to turn an angry red, rotspren crawling all over.”

— Chapter Twenty-Two

“ But no. The [knobweed] sap had worked on Leyten's wound, making the rotspren flee and the infection retreat.”

— Chapter Twenty-Seven

“ Rotspren tended to cluster around the dead.”

— Chapter Twenty-Seven

“ Some rotspren—tiny, red, translucent—scrambled across the corpses. ”

— Chapter Twenty-Seven

“ Even with the rotspren, this was too rich a place to pass up. ”

— Chapter Twenty-Seven

“ ...clean with antiseptic to ward away rotspren.”

— Chapter Thirty-Eight

“ Lirin dunked his hands in the water bucket, then quickly wiped them with knotweed sap to frighten off rotspren.”

— Chapter Forty-One

“ ...she was bathed regularly and her arm washed with antiseptic to frighten away rotspren.”

— Chapter Forty-Eight

Words of Radiance

“ Most of the bodies here were mere bone, though he did steer clear of one patch of ground crawling with the red dots of rotspren. Just beside it, a group of frillblooms wafted their delicate fanlike fronds in the air, and those danced with green specks of lifespren. Life and death shook hands here in the chasms”

—Chapter Nine

“ Ym undid the rag, and found a nasty cut on the bottom of that foot. It was already infected, crawling with rotspren, tiny motes of red”

—Interlude Two

“ The glow in Ym's other hand vanished.
The rotspren fled from the wound.”

—Interlude Two

Santhid spren

Words of Radiance

“ A group of strange spren shaped like arrows moved through the water here around the beast.”

—Chapter One

Shamespren

Words of Radiance

“ Shamespren fell around her, shaped like white and red flower petals that drifted on a wind.”

—Interlude Three

“ A whirling group of translucent flower petals stirred among them, fading into view. Shamespren.”

— Chapter Thirty-nne

Starspren

The Way of Kings

“ It was the time between moons, and so he was lit mostly by the firelight; there was a spray of stars in the sky above. Several of those moved about, the tiny pinpricks of light chasing after one another, zipping around like distant, glowing insects. Starspren. They were rare.”

—Chapter Forty

Words of Radiance

“ Some of the stars moved—starspren, nothing to be surprised by—but something felt odd about the evening.”

—Chapter Thirty-one

Stormfather

Words of Radiance

“ Eshonai preferred a shield. It felt more like facing the Rider straight on. This one, the soul of the storm, was the one the humans called Stormfather—and he was not one of her people's gods. In fact, the songs named him a traitor—a spren who had chosen to protect humans instead of the listeners.”

—Interlude Five

“ I AM HIS...SPREN, YOU MIGHT SAY. NOT HIS SOUL. I AM THE MEMORY MEN CREATE FOR HIM, NOW THAT HE IS GONE. THE PERSONIFICATION OF STORMS AND OF THE DIVINE. I AM NO GOD. I AM BUT A SHADOW OF ONE.”

—Chapter Eighty-nine

Stormspren

Words of Radiance

“ 'Spren like red lightning,' Syl said softly. 'Dangerous spren. Spren I haven’t seen before. I catch them in the distance, on occasion. Stormspren.'”

—Chapter Nine

“ 'A stormspren,' Bila said to the Rhythm of Skepticism as she turned the stone over in her fingers. 'Will it help me kill humans? Otherwise, I don't see why I should care.'

'This could change the world, Bila,' Eshonai said. 'If Venli is right, and she can bond with this spren and come out with anything other than dullform... well, at the very least we will have an entirely new form to choose. At the greatest we will have power to control the storms and tap their energy.'
'So she will try this personally?' Thude asked to the Rhythm of Winds, the rhythm that they used to judge when a highstorm was near. 'If the Five give her permission.' They were to discuss it, and make their decision, today.
'That's great,' Bila said, 'but will it help me kill humans?'

Eshonai attuned Mourning. 'If stormform is truly one of the ancient powers, Bila, then yes. It will help you kill humans. Many of them.'”

—Interlude Four

“ 'Stormspren,' Pattern said. 'They are a variety of Voidspren. It is not good. I feel something very dangerous brewing. Draw more quickly.'”

—Chapter Eighty-one

Thunderclast

Words of Radiance

“ 'I'm chasing a spren,' Dalinar said under his breath. 'It's what we've been hunting. It looks like a little face, a shadowy one with red eyes. It swims in the water like a fish. Wait, there’s another one, joining it. A larger one, like a full figure, easily six feet. A swimming person like a shadow. It–'”

— Chapter Four

“ The larger spren twisted and dove downward into the water, vanishing into the rocky ground.”

— Chapter Four

“ A long arm! Slender, perhaps fifteen feet long, it burst from the water, then slammed back down as if to get a firm purchase on the lakebed. Another arm rose nearby, elbow to the sky. Then they heaved, as if attached to a body doing a push-up.

A giant body ripped itself out of the rocky floor. It was like someone had been buried in sand and was now emerging. Water streamed from the creature's ridged and pocked back, which was overgrown with bits of shalebark and submarine fungus. The spren had somehow animated the stone itself.
As it stood and twisted about, Dalinar could make out glowing red eyes—like molten rock—set in an evil stone face. The body was skeletal, with thin bony limbs and spiky fingers that ended in rocky claws. The chest was a ribcage of stone.

'Thunderclast!' Soldiers yelled.”

— Chapter Four

“ Imagine the tactical advantage such a thing would have. Spren move quickly and easily. One could slip in behind battle lines, then stand up and start attacking the support staff. That beast's stone body must have been difficult to break. Storms... Shardblades. Makes me wonder if these are the things the weapons were truly designed to fight.”

— Chapter Four

Truthwatcher spren

Words of Radiance

“ The spren had been coming more often lately—specks of light, like those from a piece of crystal suspended in a sunbeam. He did not know its type, as he had never seen one like it before.
It moved across the surface of the workbench, slinking closer. When it stopped, light crept upward from it, like small plants growing or climbing from their burrows. When it moved again, those withdrew.”

—Interlude Two

“ It shied away, like a reflection off a mirror—translucent, really just a shimmer of light.”

—Interlude Two

“ The spren inched forward—tentative, like a cremling creeping out of its crack after a storm. It stopped, and light grew upward from it in the shape of tiny sprouts. Such an odd sight.”

—Interlude Two

“ Nearby, the sparkling light spren peeked out from underneath a stack of leather squares.”

—Interlude Two

Unmade

Words of Radiance

“ A spren that doesn't act like it should... Once Sja-anat touches a spren, it acts strange.”

—Chapter Four

“ 'I agree,' she said. 'It gives us a further reference point. The Thrill is at least as strong here as it is in Alethkar. Maybe stronger. I will speak to our scholars. Perhaps this will help pinpoint Nergaoul.'
'Do not spend too much effort on that,' Taravangian said, approaching another group of Veden soldiers. 'I'm not sure what we would even do if we found the thing.' An ancient, evil spren was not something he had the resources to tackle. Not yet at least. 'I would rather know where Moelach is moving.' Hopefully, Moelach hadn't decided to slumber again. The Death Rattles had, so far, offered them the best way that they'd found to augment the Diagram.”

—Interlude Taravangian

Windspren

The Way of Kings

“ The figure was amorphous, vaguely translucent. Windspren were devious spirits who had a penchant for staying where they weren't wanted… as Kaladin tried to toss his wooden bowl aside, he found that it stuck to his fingers.
The windspren laughed, zipping by, nothing more than a ribbon of light without form… Windspren often played pranks like that.”

— Chapter Two

“ It must be your beautiful face that brought us this favorable wind! The windspren themselves were entranced by you, Brightness Shallan, and led us here!”

— Chapter Three

“ Kaladin noted a half-dozen windspren flitting overhead, their translucent forms chasing after—or perhaps cruising along with—the highstorm's last gusts.”

— Chapter Four

“ A few windspren danced past in the air, nearly invisible.”

—Chapter Twenty-Six

“ The stormwall approached, the visible curtain of rain and wind at the advent of a highstorm. It was a massive wave of water, dirt, and rocks, hundreds of feet high, thousands upon thousands of windspren zipping before it.”

— Chapter Thirty-Four

“ …a few windspren danced in the stormwinds.”

— Chapter Thirty-Four

“ They [windspren] were common out on these rocky plains.”

— Chapter Forty-Seven

“ wind”

— Navani's Notebook: One

Words of Radiance

“ They passed a merchant cursing as a windspren darted through his enclosure, making objects stick together.”

—Chapter Forty-five

“ The windspren he'd attracted scampered away now that he wasn't riding upon the winds. Funny. He'd never realized one could attract windspren as one attracted the spren of emotions.
All you had to do was fall into the sky.”

—Chapter Fifty-two