Cosmere
This community is a place to discuss books in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere--the shared universe where most of his novels take place. Please take a moment to review our rules!
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I don't have good answers, so I'll speculate with a bit of possibly relevant information. I hope someone asks Brandon about these, as it's really interesting.
It's also possible that their functionality requires them existing with a foot in both worlds, so to speak. They're not dead spren nor typical living spren. They're willfully imprisoned in some special way. Like, the Oathgate spren are the Oathgates, and seem like they're more responsive, but we know it's the same process as the Soulcasters and they're basically inert. Sanderson has said they're something like Shardblades, but he doesn't say they're just like Shardblades. They do act differently and affect things differently. Presumably they just work differently.