Sylphrena, Ancient Daughter – Stormlight Archive Character Biography & Information

Sylphrena the Ancient Daughter, often called Syl, is an integral character in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series. As the honorspren bonded withKaladin Stormblessed, one of the series’ primary characters, she grants her Windrunner access to powerful magical abilities, and also serves as an ever-present companion. Despite being a side-kick in many ways, her role in Kaladin’s life cannot be overstated.

_{The wonderful art for the featured image above is by Ashley Coad}

In this article, we’ll cover the most important events in Syl’s life, discuss her relationships, and dig into what an honorspren actually is.

Biography

What follows is a summary of Syl’s personal history. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather seeks to include only the most important moments, especially those that relate directly to the core narrative of the books.

First Bond and Dormancy

• Syl was one of the first Honorspren created by the Stormfather once he began making them (instead of Honor doing it). She was formed sometime before the Recreance.
• She was very young when she bonded her first Knight Radiant, Relador. He was elderly, and died in the very next battle — the shock of his death, combined with Syl’s relative unpreparedness and youth, caused Syl to fall into a kind of hibernation or sleep.
• She remained dormant in Shadesmar for hundreds of years before being discovered by the honorspren and awakened. The Stormfather, in order to keep her safe, tried to lock her away her in one of the honorspren cities.
• Syl ran away from the honorspren, and entered the Physical Realm. Upon leaving Shadesmar, Syl — like all sentient spren who do so — loses most of her memory and personality. She instinctively seeks out someone to form the Nahel bond with, and finds Kaladin while he is in Amaram’s army.

Bond with Kaladin (The Way of Kings)

• Syl is still following Kaladin during his time as a slave, acting like a windspren and playing tricks on him — Kaladin mistakes her for a windspren because of her behavior and appearance. At this point, she has recovered enough of her cognitive abilities to speak with him, and begins to do so.
• The first conversation they have is Syl asking Kaladin why he has blackbane leaves, since they seem to make him happy — Syl doesn’t understand that they are a deadly poison.
• Kalain is sold to Brightlord Sadeas’ army, and ends up in the bridge crews, running bridges in combat.
• Kaladin has given up hope after a few weeks running bridges, and goes to the Honor Chasm to end his life. Syl, who has left because she couldn’t stand to see him so down, returns with a blackbane leaf. She has brought it to cheer him up, because the leaves had made him happy before. The irony of her bringing him poison when he’s about to commit suicide is funny and surprising enough to stop Kaladin from jumping into the chasm, and Syl eventually convinces him to try his best to save Bridge 4.
• Syl helps Kaladin and Bridge 4 find valuable healing reeds during their daily chores, and when they are on chasm duty, allows them to more easily find the valuables they have been sent to collect.
• After learning the oath from Teft, Kaladin swears the First Ideal of the Knights Radiant: “Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination,” solidifying their bond.
• During the battle at the Tower at the end of Way of Kings, Syl appears as a human-sized version of herself, and encourages Kaladin to say the next Words. Kaladin then swears the Second Ideal of the Windrunners: “I will protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

Growing Sentience (Words of Radiance)

• Kaladin becomes part of Dalinar’s personal guard, along with much of Bridge 4.
• As Kaladin’s powers grow, Syl becomes more aware and sentient, evolving from a playful spirit to a (sometimes) wise and protective companion — but retains her silliness and continues pulling pranks.
• She helps Kaladin learn about his powers, reminding him of his oaths and responsibilities as a Windrunner.
• Syl encourages Kaladin to speak to Dalinar about Amaram and what he did to Kaladin’s squad, and tries to convince Kaladin that it’s OK to trust Dalinar (even though he’s a lighteyes).
• Kaladin struggles with upholding his Oaths, as his friend Moash plots to kill Elohkar — the king that Kaladin and his former bridge crews are supposed to be protecting. When he is imprisoned by Elhokar, Kaladin falls into a deep depression, and starts to no longer believe in his Oaths mentally — this causes Syl to lose her sentience.
• She manages to give Kaladin a bit of Stormlight when he falls into the chasms with Shallan, but then disappears entirely.
• The Stormfather prevents Syl from dying due to Kaladin mentally breaking his Oaths. He also prevents her from returning to Kaladin.
• Kaladin returns to his Oaths, protecting Elhokar from Moash and his co-conspirators. He swears the Third Ideal: “I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right.” This allows Syl to escape the control of the Stormfather, and also lets Kaladin summon her as a Shardblade.

Recovering Memories (Oathbringer)

• Syl continues to recover more of her memories, and shares what she learns with Kaladin.
• She accompanies Kaladin to his home of Hearthstone, meeting his family, and then ventures with him on a scouting mission across Alethkar.
• Syl goes on the mission to Kholinar, and therefore also ends up back in Shadesmar, where she manifests as a full size person. Her behavior also becomes more “human”, as it seems she more fully recovers her personality and memories while back in the Cognitive realm.
• While in Shadesmar, she recognizes an honorspren ship and gets everyone aboard, but is taken prisoner — there is a bounty for her in Lasting Integrity, the honorspren capital; the Stormfather still wants her returned and kept safe. However, the strength of Kaladin’s bond with Syl is part of why the honorspren are eventually convinced to free Syl.
• While in Shadesmar, Kaladin almost swears the Fourth Ideal multiple times, but is unable to. Still, their nearness to this next step allows Syl to speak in Kaladin’s mind now.
• Syl is able to return to the Physical Realm with everyone else through Dalinar’s perpendicularity, and she helps Kaladin defeat Amaram at the Battle of Thaylen Field.

Role in Kaladin’s Healing (Rhythm of War)

• Syl remains a constant presence for Kaladin, helping him through his struggles with PTSD and his decision to step back from active combat. She serves as a bridge between Kaladin’s mental health journey and his responsibilities as a Windrunner, urging him to take care of himself while still fulfilling his oaths.
• She goes to Dalinar and asks him to help her understand Kaladin’s negative emotions. Through Connection, he allows Syl to recall the memories of her first Nahel bond with the Radiant Relador — this makes her sad, but this sadness allows her to connect more easily with Kaladin.
• While the tower is occupied, Syl loses Connection with Kaladin when he is trapped in a well. She stays close by instinct, and he is able to call her back to him when he escapes.
• Kaladin attempts suicide a second time by falling off of the top of Urithiru, after seeing his father thrown from the same spot. Dalinar and the Stormfather stop time for Kaladin, and Dalinar sends him a vision of Tien that allows him to swear the Fourth Ideal: “I accept that there will be those I cannot protect!”. This further strengths the Nahel bond between Kaladin and Syl.

Sylscribe (Wind and Truth)

• Syl wants to serve as scribe for Kaladin — she is practicing manipulating writing implements (it is difficult for spren to interact with objects in the physical realm).
• She goes with Kaladin and Szeth to Shinovar on their mission to “cleanse” the country and help the herald Ishar.
• Counsels Kaladin as he works to support Szeth with his mental health issues, and helps Szeth in his quest to defeat the Honorbearers at each of the monasteries.
• Confronts Ishar with Kaladin and Szeth, suffering the darkness Ishar Connects them to when he “shares” his pain.
• Creates a Honorblade with Kaladin and Ishar, as Kaladin becomes a Herald.
• Goes with Kaladin to the hiding place Ishar creates for the Heralds.

Physical Appearance

Honorspren in the physical realm are able to appear in a variety of forms, seemingly limited only by their imagination, and by practice. Syl has appeared as leaves, a stormcloud, and often a ribbon of light. However, she usually she takes the shape of a young woman about half a foot tall, wearing a flowing dress and with long flowing hair — both dress and hair fade into mist. She is blue-white and glows slightly. She has learned to change the color of her “clothes” that she wears, though her skin appears to only be able to manifest as her trademark light blue.

When manifesting as a Shardblade, Syl is most often in the shape of a spear, Kaladin’s favored weapon. As a blade, she has silvery metal and is engraved with glyphs, with no other decoration except the swirl of metal by the tip, as seen in some official illustrations.

Syl is invisible to most people unless she chooses to show herself to them, though Kaladin can always see her, as can Rock.

Personality, Strengths & Weaknesses

Syl is most often happy and silly. Unless there’s something serious to discuss, she tends to be joking, playing pranks, or otherwise working to make the people around her happy. This aspect of her personality is especially obvious when she tries to help Kaladin with his mental health struggles — she hates when he is unhappy, and inevitably tries to cheer him up.

She is very curious, not only because she has lost her memories, but because she has a child-like wonder about the world that seems unique to Syl — most of her honorspren kin are much more conservative. This child-like behavior does also include a tendency to be distracted, however. While Syl seems very different than most honorspren, one way she is similar to her brethren is her adherence to the concept of honor. She finds lies, or people acting cruel or dishonorable, particularly upsetting.

Syl’s positivity is one of her strengths, as it helps her see the best in people, and allows her to maintain an optimistic outlook even when things look bleak. It is also often exactly what her Knight Kaladin needs. However, sometimes her belief in people is misplaced, which can lead to her giving the wrong advice (such as when she convinces Kaladin to initially talk to Dalinar about Amaram) or being disappointed when people don’t live up to her expectations. Her curiosity is a boon, as it lets her learn and grow — but it’s unlikely that the people she spied on while they were having sex would be happy if they knew what she had done.

The connection between Syl and Kaladin is also both a strength and a weakness. She most likely derives pleasure or satisfaction from being a Radiant spren, given how she sought to form another Nahel bond even after her first Knight’s death put her to sleep for a thousand years. The bond also lets her impact the physical world — through Kaladin — in a way that would otherwise be impossible. Given the danger Odium poses to all of Roshar, in both realms, being able to affect change in both realms as a Radiant spren is a huge advantage for anyone who would seek to protect, as Syl clearly desires.

But she is in great danger from the bond as well, given the damage it could do to her if it was broken — the unspeaking deadeyes all throughout Shadesmar are a testament to this possibility. It isn’t clear exactly how Syl can “die”, or if it’s even possible, but the way the honorspren talk about the danger of the bond, it seems that damage could be done. At a minimum, Syl would once again lose her memories and cognition in the Physical Realm. On a more practical level, Syl cannot stray too far from Kaladin in the Physical Realm, or she starts to “lose herself”.

Radiant Bond & Powers

When an honorspren forms a Nahel bond with a person, the spren gains the ability to be sentient in the Physical Realm, while the new Knight Radiant gains Surgebinding powers, and the ability to use Stormlight for Surgebinding and healing. Anyone with a Nahel bond is able to heal themselves, even from otherwise fatal wounds, so long as they have access to Stormlight.

Radiants bonded with Honorspren are known as Windrunners. As a Windrunner swears more ideals, their close friends and associates can become Squires, people who don’t have their own Nahel Bond but gain the ability to use Stormlight and the surges, so long as they are near the Knight.

Honorspren grant two surges to their Windrunner:

• Gravitation – By infusing objects with Stormlight, Kaladin can change both the strength of something’s gravity, as well as its direction. A “Basic Lashing” can be used to cause people or objects to hover in the air or fly in a given direction, depending on the strength of the Lashing. A Reverse Lashing changes the gravitational pull of an object, allowing a shield to pull in arrows, for example — these Lashings require that the Radiant maintain contact with the object.
• Adhesion – By infusing an object or substance with Stormlight, it can be made to stick to other objects (or people) who come in contact with the infused object or area.

The combination of surges Windrunners have also gives them Resonance, which allows them to have more squires than other orders, and allows those squires to be more powerful.

Syl can be summoned as a Shardblade, a weapon that can take many forms. She has formed as an axe, sword, and spear, as well as a shield. Shardblades can cut through any material, though when passing through living beings, they do not cut the physical elements of the being, instead severing the soul — limbs will die if hit, while strikes to the torso, neck, or head tend to be fatal.

The Nahel bond grants Kaladin Shardplate, powerful armor that can withstand many blows for normal weapons, and even deflect Shardblades. A Windrunner’s shardplate is made up of armorspren that hang out around Kaladin at all times. This armor can be sent to protect other people.

There are Five Oaths, also called Ideals, that a Windrunner can swear. Each oath gives the Radiant more power from the Nahel Bond. As of the beginning of Wind and Truth, Kaladin has sworn up to the Fourth Oath.

• First Ideal – Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.
  • Grants some access to the surges and Stormlight
• Second Ideal – I will protect those who cannot protect themselves.
  • Grants greater access to the surges and Stormlight
• Third Ideal – I will protect even those I hate, so long as it is right. (as sworn by Kaladin)
  • Allows the Knight to summon their spren as a Shardblade, and to have squires.
• Fourth Ideal – I accept that there will be those I cannot protect. (as sworn by Kaladin)
  • Grants the Knight access to Shardplate – for Windrunners, the armorspren are windspren.
• Fifth Ideal – I will protect myself, so that I may continue to protect others (as sworn by Kaladin).
  • Grants the Knight greater access to the surges and Stormlight.

Relationships

This section is a work in progress as we review the books for mentions of Syl’s relationships with other people. Feel free to drop us a line in the comments if you have suggestions!

Kaladin is obviously Syl’s most important relationship. Their Nahel bond grants her sentience in the Physical Realm, and in return he gains the powers of a Windrunner. She behaves like a mother/sister/friend/therapist to Kaladin, sometimes chastising him, sometimes being silly with him, and always trying to make him happy by making jokes and generally being mischievous.

Relador was the first Knight Syl bonded, and although their time together wasn’t long, she remembers him being a kind person. When he died and their bond broke, it affected Syl deeply, sending her into a sleep for hundreds of years.

The Stormfather created Syl, and therefore is sort of like her father. He is very protective of her, especially because she was the only original honorspren to survive the Recreance. Because of her curiosity and eagerness to explore the world, she grates against the Stormfather’s protection, and on multiple occasions has escaped him to return to the Physical Realm. The Stormfather was initially against her bonding Kaladin, but eventually the Stormfather formed his own bond, and so had to accept Syl’s choice as correct.

Dalinar is one of the few people besides Kaladin that Syl has had a long conversation with in-book. She asks him to help her understand Kaladin’s dark moods, so she can understand him better and therefore be better able to help him. Dalinar Connects Syl to her memories of Relador, which does indeed make her experience dark moods — and this does in turn help her relate better with Kaladin.

We hope this biography of our favorite honorspren was helpful! If you have questions, suggestions, or want to argue about Syladin shipping, please do so in the comments below.