Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Brandon Sanderson RAFOlympics at JordanCon 8 (Verbatim)

Spren. The phenomenon that creates spren. Is that Roshar-specific or is that a general effect?

Well, yes and no. The general fundamental rules that create spren are Cosmere-wide. Spren are pieces of Investiture, usually pieces of Investiture that come straight from one of the Shards of Adonalsium, split off in some way, that because of human or other sapient creatures thinking about it or interacting with the power, the power starts to take on a life of its own. The power develops personality and comes alive, so to speak. And this can happen on any pla - in any place where there is Investiture. So it could happen on any planet in the Cosmere with significant amounts of free Investiture. The places you’ve seen this happen most commonly are Sel and Scad - Roshar. You haven’t seen it on Scadrial, and you’ve seen little kind of hints of it on Nalthis, but not quite. But it’s possible for it to happen anywhere. Seons and spren are basically the same thing with different powers kind of pushing them, pushing growth out of them - that said, the non-sapient spren, the spren that are not quite as...They’re not going to stand up and talk to you. But those all existed…not all, but most of them existed on Roshar before the Shattering of Adonalsium.

Spren, Seons, Investititure, Adonalsium,