Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive

Current fabrial technology in Roshar is clearly far behind what it's been at points in the distant past; Oathgates and Soulcasters are testimony to that. Their attempts to replicate Shardplate could simply be like an ancient Roman attempting to replicate a smartphone.

As for why there weren't more Shardplates, or ones designed for more mundane tasks, a few explanations come to mind. The most obvious is that the Radiants hoarded Shardplate for themselves because they didn't trust that sort of power in the common people's hands. Another possibility is that the materials needed to create a Shardplate are incredibly rare, limiting their proliferation. Yet another possibility is that there were once great numbers of Shardplate used for a wide variety of tasks, but one Desolation or another ended up destroying almost all of them, as well as the technical know-how to build more, with only a small armory maintained by the Radiants surviving.

I think so far we´ve seen three types of ancient fabrials that can´t be replicated by modern means, the Oathgates, the Soulcasters, and the Healing fabrial Nale used. All three of them are Surges while Shardplate seems to be something completly different (although i have to admit that argument isn´t the strongest...)

…

One think we can rule out is Shardplate being made of dead spren, else Renarin wouldn't be able to wear his.

Maybe it's just measurement-locked spren? After all, that chapter had to have been there for a reason.

You know, on the Shardbow idea...a Windrunner (or a Skybreaker) could make a damn scary Archer.

Have the Spren be the bow probably means you get a magic compound bow, ie serious drawing power. Then you use some really big and heavy arrows and put a lashing on them.

You'd be basically shooting Battle Tank Sabots at this point

Why bother.. Lash that thing at a target and you have a homing missile moving at terminal velocity until it runs out of stormlight.

A bow can fire something at much higher than terminal velocity, and has the added benefit of reaching top speed immediately rather than needing time and space to accelerate. Lashings could replace siege weapons like catapults, but not really personal weapons like bows.

Unless your personal weapon happens to be crushing your opponent with a two-ton boulder.

Which lashing would that be?

Don't you need touch in order to do that?

Find boulder, lash it fifteen times in the direction of the enemy, get the hell out of the way. Profit.

Things are going to get interesting once they figure out how to put Surges into fabrials. Having more Soulcasters will be nice, but the others will have their uses. The basic lashing can be used for elevators—or even those freestanding archer platforms Navani was looking into. Flight might be too complex for a fabrial, but who knows. Put a reverse lashing on a siege tower and you're rendered your army immune to arrows, without the downside of a Knight having to stand there with his hand on the thing. Just remember to turn it off before your own army starts shooting. Regrowth will obviously be wonderful for healing, but even basic growth will accelerate food production. And if they can figure out Elsecaller fabrials, then the world will suddenly be much smaller.

Interesting that only Soulcaster fabrials survived to the modern day. Perhaps because they have such a wide variety of uses, they're more valuable than the others?

You might be able to manage flight with a system of interlinked fabrials, and an operator trained in their use.

I wonder if the Soulcallercaster thing is a quick of the surge that it uses.

Because Regrowth in particular seems like one that would be held onto carefully.

edited 2nd Sep '17 5:24:20 PM by 32ndfreeze

That's a good question. Maybe that's something else that can be blamed on the Hierocracy. They're the ones who were most likely to hoard all the religious artifacts like that, after all. But I can't think of any obvious reasons why they would value Soulcasters over Regrowth.

…

Because the guys we've seen so far are ALETHI and they're war-obsessed?

Soulcasters are supposed to be pretty rare. All current ones may come from a single crate of the things that managed to luck out of being destroyed.

Why would that make them more likely to keep Soulcasters? Sure, they have indirect military applications, but even most modern Vorin forget about how important they are to the war effort.

Maybe that's it. Like maybe when the Recreance happened, there was a box of Soulcasters in some Radiant outpost.

Because Vorinism is basically 'die gloriously to get into heaven' mixed with an RPG job class and levelup system. They'be essentially based on the holy martyrdom model of religion (no judgement, EVERY religion that's lasted this long has been through that phase), and a healing fabrial… keeps them from dying. Soulcasters, however, allow for Easy Logistics, so they can keep fighting for longer.

...sort of? But not really? I mean, yeah, when soldiers die, everyone just brushes it off with "they will be rewarded in the afterlife," but they have surgeons and care for their wounded. They've degenerated into Blood Knights, but they are still soldiers, and even more so during the Recreance, before they had a chance to be corrupted by the Thrill. They've never been Viking-style "the only true death is a glorious death in battle" warriors.

Maybe it's a matter of efficiency. Healing needs a lot of stormlight just to save one person. Soulcasting can use that same stormlight to make a lot of supplies to sustain a significantly larger number of people.

Alethi are a warrior culture, and one that deconstructs how shitty that would be, but nothing indicates a mentality towards A Million Is a Statistic or We Have Reserves. If anything, one would think they'd be all over technology that let them keep their highprinces or assorted heroes in the game.

Maybe in the past, some idiots disassembled them for the big jewels?

"Healing!? In my battles? What a bunch of wusses. I'm dismantling those for more fortifications."

You know... what if it's the opposite? What if people were running around destroying anything to do with the Knights Radiant, but didn't notice the Soulcasters? They don't look like fabrials, after all, they just look like weird artisinal chain-gloves. Jasnah was able to create a fake easily. Maybe all the other fabrials got smashed or ripped apart for their gems, but nobles thought Soulcasters were a pretty way to wear gemstones, and then discovered their powers later on?

https://www.tor.com/2017/09/05/oathbringer-by-brandon-sanderson-chapters-4-6/

Chapter 4-6

I'm honest here, if that ended on the same cliffhanger again I might have been...ungehalten.

Well, its pretty much certain the author of Oathbringer (in universe) is Jasnah.

In other news: Kaladin finally got the hug the man deserves.

And Roshone gets the punch he deserved.

edited 5th Sep '17 8:03:35 AM by 3of4

Yep, the in-universe book Oathbringer seems to be Jasnah's. Was it written while she was in Shadesmar, or after she got back? Probably the latter. She seems to have been too busy while she was actually there.

AHAHAHAHA. Oh, Dalinar. "I guess if the priests won't marry us, I'll ASK A GOD TO DO IT." You wonderful bastard. Also good that he finally told someone about his wife. That could have been very bad going forward. Unfortunately, the ardents aren't pleased. Kadash mentions Kharbranth; I wonder if Taravingian is trying to have Dalinar labeled a heretic to undermine him.

So we've got an explanation for why Dalinar was shamelessly acting like the king the past few chapters: Elhokar has been on bed rest. He's still been acting like the king in general, but this explains the rather sudden shift.

The Stormfather mentions "true spren" and "subspren," paralleling men and animals. Presumably those are the nonsentient spren we've been talking about, like windspren to honorspren.

Confirmation that the Everstorm does not carry Stormlight. Also semi-confirmation that the highstorms don't recharge gems in Urithiru, but that's fine because they have special baskets on chains to lower them into the storm.

Kaladin reaches Hearthstone shortly after the Everstorm. No one recognizes him, but he quickly gives up on pretending to be some random deserter. He hasn't revealed his powers yet, but I think sucker-punching Roshone was a good reason to hide them.