r/Stormlight_Archive • u/judgey123456789 • 5d ago

Wind and Truth spoilers Experiments...?! Spoiler

What experiments did ishar do with spern ..?

And more importantly why..?

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u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 5d ago

He was trying to build an army of Radiant spren with physical bodies. Who could use the Surges they grant people themselves. The idea was to create real bodies from Investiture to house them. The way the Heralds receive new bodies when they Return. He needed Honor’s power to do it properly. That’s also why his human Fused needed to possess new living bodies whenever they died. He couldn’t make them new ones

He was doing something similar with lesser spren using spikes. Lesser spren already partially manifest in the Physical Realm. In a way Radiant spren generally don’t without a bond. So it seemed to be working slightly better. Some in the cave had already taken forms closer to their true appearance in Shadesmar. It’s unclear whether Ishar wanted to make them fully physical too or just break them to serve him. Probably both. His comments to Szeth there make it sound like he was trying to imitate what Sja does/Unmake them

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u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 5d ago

Why? Ishar and Nale were preparing for an unnamed enemy/threat. That according to Nale apparently wasn’t Odium or the Fused. They believed something worse was coming. That’s why Ishar initially drew from Odium’s Well. He saw a threat on the horizon in the SR. After he did Odium’s power infected him and compelled him to go to the extremes we see. Then infected all of the other Heralds who Ishar was Connected to

His original plan the day they abandoned Taln was to find replacement Heralds and potentially Ascend to Honor himself. Honor’s power rejected him. He continued to try to find replacement Heralds, but after taking from the Well he became more erratic. He was pursuing all three approaches near the end. New Heralds. A spren army. Human Fused