Cryptic

Cryptics are sentient spren that reside primarily in Shadesmar, where they rule one of the greater cities.
There exists a relationship between Cryptics and Lightweavers which imparts the ability of the Surgebinder to Soulcast.Cryptic relationship ...
Cryptic is the name by which liespren prefer to be called. It is their own name for themselves. They don't like the term liespren.
==Appearance==
Cryptics appear as " ... willowy creatures with cloaks that split down the front and hang at the sides too stiffly, as if they were made of glass. Above the stiff, high collars, where their heads should be, are large, floating symbols of twisted design full of impossible angles and geometries."
The symbols of some Cryptics are always changing, never repeating. Yet the speed at which they change, and the general feel of each one, to Adolin, is distinct.
==Characteristics==
Syl sees a Cryptic at the duel between Adolin/Renarin/Kaladin and Relis/Elit/Abrobadar/Jakamav, which she mentions to Kaladin afterward. She tells him that a Cryptic is a revolting type of spren, but not an evil one.
Ivory tells Jasnah that Cryptics are trouble. That they enjoy lies. Feast upon them.
Further, he states that one does not war with Cryptics, as one does honorspren. That they have but one city, and do not wish to rule more. Only to listen.
He thinks that perhaps Pattern is better, with the bond.
According to Brandon, Cryptics have a bad rap among other spren in part because they're extra weird. They can get to be a bit much, and because they'll start talking in numbers and in mathematical formulas, they often seem like they're planning something, when in reality they're just not quite getting what's going on in the same way. Still, there have been some very smart, very dangerous Cryptics in the past, and spren have long memories. So their reputation isn't entirely unearned, but it's perhaps too liberally applied as a stereotype to an entire race, when a small percentage of them might have earned this reputation individually.YouTube Spoiler Stream 4, 6/16/22
==History==
There are no longer older Cryptics who experienced the bond that were alive from the time before the Recreance. Pattern describes them as dead, which means to present-day Cryptics that they are mindless, as a force cannot truly be destroyed. He further explains that these old ones are now patterns in nature, like Cryptics unborn. Further still, that they have tried to restore them, but such doesn't work.
He elaborates by saying that spren with minds were less plentiful then, and that the majorities of several spren peoples were all bonded. Further, that there were very few survivors. While the Stormfather lived, others - the rest, thousands of them were killed when the Recreance occurred.
==Abilities==
Cryptics can impart the power to Soulcast in exchange for truths. They can also grant access to Shadesmar to a Surgebinder. Pattern is a Cryptic who has bonded with Shallan with the exchange of a powerful truth, thereby giving her the power to Soulcast and access to the Cognitive Realm.
==Bond-holders==
*Shallan to Pattern - Initially, as a child, she sees her father's strongbox glowing brightly, thinking there was a monster inside it. Next, Shallan summons Testament as a Shardblade in order to kill her mother - and her purported lover - both of whom had been attempting to kill Shallan for her burgeoning abilities. Later, Shallan sees Cryptics in her drawings. Then, she sees only Pattern as she is set on her path toward becoming a Lightweaver.
*Elhokar - Peripherally, he saw Cryptics in mirrors, believing them to be assassins. Brandon has said that Elhokar would have been a Lightweaver had he not been doomed from a long time ago.Emerald City ComicCon, 3/1/18
*Wit - Wit has now bonded with the Cryptic (which he has named Design) with which Elhokar had attempted to bond.
==References==
Category:Spren
Category:Magical Creatures