ByDanielD
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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:
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.
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.
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