#mistspren

[erratic-dragon-fruit]

doodles of some glyphs and a shardblade :D

[theartvolt]

Made myself as a Mistspren from The Stormlight Archive! Her name is Guided-Without-Paths :3

I'll do her shardknife form later..

[chill-reading-books]

THIS IS SO COOL

The Sja-Anat touched mistspren show up as a future image of the person they're bonded to!!

[lamaery]

some enlightened mistspren…

We didn’t yet get a description for how these two look in The Cognitive Realm, so I like to hypothesize. The depictions but rspixart on their coppersmiths page certainly have been some inspiration (like Glys‘ red crystal mask), but I enjoyed creating my own tweak for them. Also Renarin does need a puffy vest... Or at least a warm vest. He does look a bit cold in those listener clothes. Give that man some stormlight!

--------------------------------------------- [Image description: 1) portait of Glys, showing his misty, lanky physique in full colour in front of a green background and wrapped in a quilted vest with strings of large, interlocking hexagons of a darker colour on a lighter ground and a green collar and trimmings. His grey pants are padded but in a pattern of long strips and come down to under his knees. There are several small pouches on his belt. His overly long arms are covered in long gloves that go over his elbows and shift in colour from a muddy green on the hands to a bright red further up. His face is a mask of porcelain with a thick layers of red crystal on top, the original white colour only still visible around his chin an mouth but then smoothly shifting to the deep red. He has big glowing eyes and the misty parts of his body glow where the lights hits them directly. There his a thick hazy line of red in the midst of his torso, neck and limbs. Whisps of mist fan out behind his facemask, like hair strands caught in the wind. His expression is attentive and slightly tense. The right fingers are posed like his is about to snap them. 2) Portrait of Tumi. They are wearing a warm brown tunic and pants of a slightly cooler shade. Their body is broad-sholdered with a small head and small hands in dark red gloves. The orange-red crytals on the white porcelain mask are small and scattered along the rim of his, dappling part of the forehead and the cheeks more akin to freckles. There is an almost rosy glow to the misty body peaking out from where it is hidden beneath the clothes. 3) six versions of Glys standing with his head slightly crooked as if curious about something. His face is a mask with crystals sprouting from his forehead. His misty figure is lean with overly long legs and arms. His attire each time a combination of a short cape or vest leaving his midriff bare and knee length breeches with narrow stripes, a check pattern or one leg another colour. His long arms are covered in gloves that stop short under or go over his elbows. On his feet he wears different kind of sandals 4 and 5) sketches for the Glys' and Tumi's portraits. more simple line drawings. In this first draw Glys wears a short cape instead of the patterned vest.

6) four full body drawings of Renarin in different outfits. One monochrome one on the left shows him with Glys' padded vest with the hexagonal pattern and the high collar. He is wearing his uniform shirt, trousers and boots underneath. His sleeves are rolled up and his hand in his trouser pockets. The other three to the right are in colour and his is wearing differing listener attire. The first includes an open striped vest over a bare chest and a grey, blue wrap with a colourful cord as a belt. The next one is a short cape with a rhythmic pattern, bunched up and bound with a thin cord at one shoulder. It is short enough to show his midrift. underneath he wears grey wrap trousers. The last one has an orange shawl wrapping over one shoulder and his hip held in place by several cords with the same pattern he has earlier. His beige trouser are more an alethi style and close in tight with buttons under his knees. he wears sandal on his feet in this one. (in the other two drawings his feet are bare). also he has the beginnings of a beard in the last one making him look older.]

[stew4]

Me when I think about mistspren for too long. Specifically Enlightened ones.

[cosmere-powers-tourney]

Six more days left to vote for the first tournament! As that poll runs, here's a bonus one:

does "being a spren" count as an Invested Art?

yes

no

results/other?

Voting ended onApr 19, 2025

I mean, they're made of Investiture, after all.

This entire tournament was inspired by a friend asking me which invested art I'd most want to have— and I haven't decided yet, but said maybe I'd want to be a Cultivationspren. This was not the answer they were expecting.

Follow this blog to make sure you see the upcoming tournament polls, and if you'd like to, reblog this post and the other post to encourage more Cosmere fans to participate!

Askbox is open for real this time—ask questions, tell me your favorite use of Investiture, or just come say hi :)

[blindradiant]

Young Szeth might have been a budding Truthwatcher

Canon evidence:

There’s not much in canon to support this theory, but there are hints that something was going on with Szeth in his youth. In chapter 92 of Oathbringer, he has an exchange with Nightblood that really sounds like he was in the process of bonding a spren when he was young.

Szeth tells Nightblood that he knew a voice like its once. Nightblood asks if Szeth is talking about the whispers and screams he hears in his mind, and Szeth says something like, “No. A single voice in my mind when I was young. I hope things go better this time.” The conversation ends there, and we’re never told more about that potential bond in any of Szeth’s point of view sections after that moment.

I’ve thought of that moment from Oathbringer a lot over the past few months, and I’ve wondered what order would have fit young Szeth best. That’s hard to answer, since we know almost nothing about his personality before he was made Truthless and exiled from Shinovar. Oathbringer gives more insight into Szeth’s current personality though, and that, combined with things I’ve gathered from the other books, has helped me make some guesses.

I wasn’t really getting anywhere with speculating about what Order young Szeth could have potentially joined, then a conversation with friends on Discord made me consider the Order of Truthwatchers. I don’t remember the conversation or the context around it. I only remember a sphere lamp coming on in my brain as I realized that Szeth pre-exile could have been a Truthwatcher.

__________

Information about Truthwatchers:

The Coppermind has several things to say about Truthwatchers, so I’ll point out the things that stand out to me the most.

“Those who join the Truthwatchers generally subscribe to a philosophy of finding the ultimate truth and sharing it.”

This could be an interesting thing for Brandon to explore in Szeth’s past, especially given modern Szeth’s difficulty with discerning the truth for himself. We do know that he spoke up and told the leaders of the Shin what he believed, which definitely goes along with this aspect of the Truthwatchers.

“The order is concerned with the fundamental truths of the universe, and whether or not those in power are being truthful with the people they lead.”

Again, this could be a great contrast with modern Szeth. Before, he didn’t push back or challenge the leaders. Now, he’s going to return to Shinovar to (violently) do exactly that. This sentence might not be the strongest support for past Szeth being a potential Truthwatcher, since we know that he followed the things the Shin leaders said so exactly. That might have been a contributing cause to the budding bond being broken, which I’ll touch on more in a little bit.

“The order will make their opinions known loudly and forcefully, particularly if they think someone in power is abusing that power or lying about fundamental truths. They tend to attract scientists, scholars, or thinkers of all types.”

I don’t know if Szeth has ever been loud or forceful, but again, he did speak up when he was younger. That could mean that he once shared his opinions and beliefs more readily than he does currently. He didn’t hold to his convictions strongly enough though. If he had, his life would have gone much differently.

I’m more interested in the second sentence of that last quote. Oathbringer shows that there’s an element of curiosity and desire to learn in Szeth’s personality that we didn’t really see before. Before that book, we just know that he’s good at memorizing palace layouts and lists of orders he’s been given. In Oathbringer, though, we see Szeth actually asking questions and trying to understand things around him. He asks the Skybreaker Masters about things related to the Order, the Ideals, and the various tests he’s given. We even see him ask Nale a few questions. He also asks Nightblood about its nature, saying things like, “Can you actually see things, Sword-Nimi?” And, “Do you count yourself as a man?” These are deep and thoughtful questions from someone who we almost never saw ask things before.

We also see that Szeth is highly observant and able to put pieces together to work out things that have happened. He’s a very intelligent and thoughtful person, and I don’t see that being much different in his past.

All of this is based on my understanding of information we’re given about him in canon. We still know very little about modern unenlightened Truthwatchers, so I can’t say much about things related to that. What I can do is speculate on what might have happened with Szeth’s budding bond to a Radiant spren.

__________

Speculation:

At some point before becoming convinced that the Radiants and Voidbringers would return, Szeth starts interacting with a strange kind of spren that talks to him, saying things about old Oaths needing to be spoken again and a coming danger. Spren seem to have some kind of religious significance in Stone Shamanism, so Szeth is probably confused and in awe. Maybe it takes the Mistspren time to convince Szeth of what they’re saying. Szeth swears the First Ideal at some point. He probably has at least a partial understanding of what’s going on, because the Shin obviously maintained some kind of knowledge about the Surges, Radiants, Heralds, and Honorblades.

The Mistspren encourages Szeth to share the truth of what’s coming, which will be his Second Ideal. Szeth probably pushes back for a while, knowing that what’s happening is blasphemous and goes against everything his religion teaches. The spren is persistent, though, so Szeth eventually approaches the leaders and speaks of his convictions. The leaders say he’s wrong, that he’s a liar, and that the Radiants and Voidbringers are no more. They bind him to the Oathstone, and exile him from Shinovar.

Szeth doesn’t hold to what he knew to be true, which is the first thing that leads to the bond being broken. Another is the way that he unquestioningly accepts what has happened to him. He abandons his truth, believing what the leaders told him.

If there was a conversation or exchange between him and his spren that caused the bond to break, maybe it went something like this:

Mistspren: “Remember what is true. You can still hold to that, even if you weren’t believed.”

Szeth: “I am Truthless. The Oathstone is my only truth now.”

Mistspren: “Do you deny that this is true?”

Szeth: “Yes. I was wrong to ever question.”

The bond breaks, leaving Szeth Truthless with Jezrien’s Honorblade. Events go on from there until we see him in the Way of Kings prologue.

Since I’m thinking that Szeth was only at the First or Second Ideal, the Mistspren wouldn’t have become a deadeye. They would have been deeply wounded, but maybe would have been able to eventually recover and form another bond if they wanted.

__________

Conclusion:

I’m sure there are things I’ve missed here, but writing this out actually convinced me more of my own theory. I don’t know if anyone will agree or have thoughts/angles/details I overlooked. Regardless, I’m looking forward to reading Szeth’s flashbacks in book 5, and learning what really happened with his broken Radiant bond.

[youngmasterwisdomperson]

Contemplating Traits that Mistspren Look for in a Radiant

Some radiant spren are a little more intuitively named with regards to what they’re attracted to, like honorspren, who are attracted to people with a strong sense of morality, and cryptics (lie spren) who are attracted to people who are lying to themselves. But others aren’t so intuitive, like Highspren, Cultivationspren and Inkspren, so we have to fill in the gaps based on examples we’ve seen and what we know about their associated oaths.

Skybreakers bond Highspren, and their oaths are all about law, so they’re probably attracted to individuals who care a lot about following a strict set of rules, as opposed to a loosely defined code of morals like with honorspren. Cultivationspren have been stated to actively meet and choose candidates to send one of theirs to bond, but they probably still seek out those most likely to swear the associated oaths of looking out for the little guy. They were considering Ym, who went out of his way to give free shoes and medical care to orphans, but the Mistspren seem to have gotten there first. And it’s Truthwatchers in particular that I’m interested in knowing more about, as the radiant quiz says I’m one of them, with Edgedancer as a close second.

This close call makes me ask the question of whether I’d have ended up with a similar situation to Ym, where both Cultivationspren and Mistspren were interested but one got there first. And it makes me ask which one, regardless of which of the two orders better suits me personally, I’d have been more attractive to. Trouble is, I’m uncertain what exactly Mistspren look for in a radiant. We don’t have many examples of Truthwatchers in SA so far, and what examples we do have are given few perspective chapters to use as a reference. We don’t even know for certain what the oaths they take look like.

We’ve been told that Truthwatcher oaths involve discovering universal truths, and they’re adjacent to Lightweavers, who must accept truths about themselves in order to level up. Therefore, it is reasonable based on limited information to assume that Truthwatchers have loose, personalized oaths as well. To advance, you likely have to present your Mistspren with a truth about life, the universe, and other broad, impersonal subjects that are hard to define, and then accept those truths. This, naturally, doesn’t give us a lot to go on when it comes to what traits might attract a Mistspren.

Perhaps analyzing the common traits of those Truthwatchers we’ve seen could help with this conundrum. The Stump and Ym both spent their time helping orphans and street urchins, so a tendency toward altruism and kindness could be considered. Renarin and Rlain are both generally kind and well-meaning as well, so that could be part of it. But a lot of radiants are good people, so that’s probably a little too broad. Both Renarin and Rlain have demonstrated a feeling of not belonging among their peers, Renarin’s autism making it harder for him to relate to the other Alethi, and Rlain being the only Listener among a society of humans. Perhaps Mistspren are attracted to people who don’t belong?

I think perhaps the final piece of the puzzle might be found in what little we know about Mistspren themselves. They are supposedly very empathetic and curious creatures, fascinated by the perspectives of other people. Corrupted Mistspren can hide within the bodies of their radiants and enter gem hearts, something they can apparently use to influence Cremlings, almost literally stepping into someone else’s shoes. Could it be, then, that Mistspren are attracted to individuals with an unusual perspective on life? That would certainly match Renarin and Rlain, Renarin being neurodivergent and Rlain having viewed the perspectives of both humans and Listeners. Perhaps they’re similarly attracted to people with high levels of empathy for others, or people with a tendency to try to understand the world around them.

If Mistspren are curious by nature and want to explore other points of view, then naturally they’d gravitate toward a radiant who could help them fulfill such desires. They’d always be looking for someone with unusual sets of experiences, such as Ym, who used to live a life of revelry fueled by his parents’ inheritance, but was implied to spend quite some time as a homeless man when said money ran out, giving him empathy and understanding toward orphans and urchins while also having had experience in a higher social class. This would have been what gave him his unique point of view on why people live different lives and how we’re all just parts of the same universe trying to experience itself in all sorts of different ways. That may have even been his second ideal!

I’d be interested to hear from my fellow Truthwatchers on this subject. Would you say you have an unusual point of view on life, or do you think it would be inaccurate to describe yourself that way? Would you say your particular set of experiences gives you greater than average amounts of insight on how some aspect of the world works, or do you believe your perspective to be more down-to-earth? Do you perhaps feel unusual or out of place amongst your peers, or do you actually have a fairly strong sense of belonging? Are you perchance neurodivergent, or from a different culture than the one in which you currently reside?

And for those of you who have spent significant time interacting with people you know to be Truthwatchers, but are not of that order yourselves, how would you reply to the above questions if you were asked to describe such people?

I’m curious to hear your answers.