Pattern
| House / Order | Lightweavers |
|---|---|
| Race / Culture | Cryptic (Sprencryptic / liespren) |
| Status | Alive |
| Origin | Shadesmar; bonded to Shallan Davar |
| Born | Cryptic of the Cognitive Realm |
| Died | |
| Weapon | Manifests as Shallan Davar's living Shardblade |
| Fate | Shallan's bonded Cryptic and conscience |
| Portrayed by |
Pattern is a major character in The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. He is a Cryptic -- a spren of the order of Lightweavers -- bonded to Shallan Davar, forming the partnership that makes her a Knight Radiant. Appearing as a shifting, three-dimensional geometric pattern of black lines, Pattern is fascinated by lies, humanity, and the act of creation, and he serves as both Shallan's power source and her conscience.
Cryptics are drawn to lies the way honorspren are drawn to oaths, and Pattern's affection for Shallan's clever deceptions and self-deceptions is central to her identity as a Lightweaver.
Background
Pattern is a Cryptic, one of the spren native to the order of Lightweavers. Cryptics dwell in Shadesmar, the Cognitive Realm, where they have a society obsessed with truths and lies. Pattern was sent into the Physical Realm to bond Shallan Davar when she was a child -- a bond that her traumatized mother, fearing it, attempted to destroy, leading to the violence that shattered young Shallan's psyche. Pattern's early presence in Shallan's life is therefore tangled with her deepest wounds; the bond was severed and her memory of him repressed, only to be reformed years later.
Biography
Pattern reawakens to Shallan Davar as she travels with Jasnah Kholin, at first a barely-there hum and pattern she sketches without realizing. As their bond reforms, he becomes a full companion: hovering on surfaces near her, buzzing with curiosity, and delighting in the lies and stories she tells. He helps her understand her powers of Soulcasting and Lightweaving and gently pushes her toward confronting the truths she has buried -- the very process by which a Lightweaver advances, since their oaths are truths the Radiant must accept about herself.
Pattern manifests as Shallan's living Shardblade, though doing so is painful for both of them given that he was the Blade her mother once tried to use the bond to fight. Throughout the series he remains her constant, loyal companion, sometimes naive about human social norms (and morbidly curious about death and violence) but unwaveringly devoted.
Character
Pattern is earnest, curious, and endearingly literal, fascinated by human behavior and especially by lies, which Cryptics find beautiful. He can be socially oblivious -- cheerfully discussing murder or pointing out Shallan's self-deceptions at awkward moments -- but his loyalty and care for Shallan are absolute. As the embodiment of the Lightweavers' relationship to truth, he is essential to Shallan's slow journey toward psychological wholeness.
Powers and abilities
- Main article: Lightweavers
As Shallan's Cryptic, Pattern is the conduit for her Surgebinding. Through their bond she wields the Surges of Illumination (Lightweaving) and Transformation (Soulcasting), powered by Stormlight. Pattern can move along surfaces as a pattern of lines, hover, and manifest as a living Shardblade. Cryptics are sapient beings with their own civilization in Shadesmar.
Relationships
- Shallan Davar -- his bonded Radiant, whose lies he loves and whose truths he draws out.
- Shallan's mother -- who, fearing the bond, tried to destroy it, triggering Shallan's trauma.
- The Cryptics -- his people in Shadesmar, who deliberate over bonds with humans.
- Sylphrena and other Radiant spren -- his counterparts in the reborn orders.
Quotes
A lie. A wonderful, wonderful lie.
Mmm. Humans are so strange. You can lie, even to yourselves. It is beautiful.