Shardplate WoBs

[Bort]

Sorry to disappoint, but this is a request for information, not a new WoB.

I'll be seeing Brandon on the 1st December, and I was going to ask him something about shardplate. But, before I do, I wanted to check to see if it had already been asked.

My question for him is this:

Are suits of shardplate made up of the bonded Spren's 'lesser' cousins? If so, are they still alive?

Then, if time and Brandon permits, I will go on to ask about the images from the US version of Oathbringer, with the Heralds - Does each image show the type of spren that would make up their orders' shardplate? If you look closely, one has Lifespren, one has Windspren, one has Gloryspren. The only one that doesn't have them is Ash, but for her and the Lightweavers, their armour would be Creationspren, so that could well be represented by the shards of glass/crystal and the masks on the ground.

So, can anyone provide me with, or point me in the right direction for, WoBs on shardplate please? Thanks.

[Wreith]

Not disappointed. Way to plan ahead.

http://www.theoryland.com/intvsresults.php?kw=shardplate

The ones I thought most relevant to your question:

Spoiler

Quote

INTERVIEW: Mar 8th, 2014

WOR-University Bookstore (Paraphrased)

AHOYMATEY

Does Shardplate use a spren?

BRANDON SANDERSON

That's a RAFO.

Quote

INTERVIEW: Jan 17th, 2015

Firefight Tour - El Cerrito, CA (Paraphrased)

QUESTION

My question was about Shards actually. So at the end of Words of Radiance Syl is turning into a Shardblade as well as other different weapons. And Kaladin has a whole bunch of Windspren around him. And I am wondering if that is a precursor to Shardplate?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I think you are a very smart man and you are asking wise questions.

Quote

INTERVIEW: Jan 7th, 2015

Central Library, Seattle, WA (Paraphrased)

QUESTION

Will we find out soon where Shardplate comes from?

BRANDON SANDERSON

You will eventually, but it is not the next book.

Quote

INTERVIEW: Oct 9th, 2015

Shadows of Self-San Jose

QUESTION

What’s the relation between spren and Shardplate?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I’m saving that one on purpose, it’s a gun on the mantle. You will eventually find out what’s going on there, but not right now. In part because I’m being recorded for online forums who want to know all the answers to all the things that I say to people [whoops!]. [People going through everything I’m saying] is intimidating sometimes, fortunately I’ve got a good team and Peter catches most things.

 

 

I'm really not sure how you could phrase it to get a better answer.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Wreith
frmatting

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom]

48 minutes ago, Wreith said:

I'm really not sure how you could phrase it to get a better answer.

Well, if his guess is accurate enough, he might get a shocked response from Brandon, or other non-verbal confirmation of the theory. It wouldn't be the first time. If I remember well, that is what happened with the worldhopper in Warbreaker.

[Bort]

I'm hoping so. I've had that response from Brandon twice before, once while asking another question about Shardplate, and once when I asked if Wayne had really stolen a Ryshadium, or otherwise invested horse.

[+Extesian]

21 minutes ago, Bort said:

I'm hoping so. I've had that response from Brandon twice before, once while asking another question about Shardplate, and once when I asked if Wayne had really stolen a Ryshadium, or otherwise invested horse.

Omh were you the guy who asked that (in a British signing iirc)? That is one of my all time favorite wobs to listen to. I transcribed it recently and even though I'd read it before, oh man I lost it. 

[Bort]

Yeah, it was in Newcastle, but I forget what the tour was for. I think it might have been Shadows of Self, but I could be wrong. His reaction was great. I'd love to see the transcription, if you've got a link. I tried recording it all, but was too far away from him to get a good copy.

If you were there for that one, will you be going to the Oathbringer signing on 1st December? If so, I'll see you there

Oh, and the question in this thread will be the one in my copy of Oathbringer, but I already have another one to ask him, unrelated to Stormlight Archive - How much fun was it to write Steris, and does she know more about the Cosmere than she is letting on to Wax?

[+ElephantEarwax]

On 11/1/2017 at 0:09 PM, Brightlord Maelstrom said:

Well, if his guess is accurate enough, he might get a shocked response from Brandon, or other non-verbal confirmation of the theory. It wouldn't be the first time. If I remember well, that is what happened with the worldhopper in Warbreaker.

What worldhopper was that?

[Fezzik]

@ElephantEarwax, the terriswoman nurse that demoux falls in love with in HoA is a worldhopper just like him, and she appears in Warbreaker, not by name, which was why she was so difficult to find.

Edited November 3, 2017 by john203

[The One Who Connects]

On 11/3/2017 at 0:24 PM, john203 said:

@ElephantEarwax, the terriswoman nurse that demoux falls in love with in HoA is a worldhopper just like him, and she appears in Warbreaker, not by name, which was why she was so difficult to find.

Please remember that Brandon has not yet clarified whether or not Aslydin is the Nurse in Warbreaker. She might be, but to quote Oversleep:

Quote

Yeah, I know. But so far it's only a speculation that she and the Warbreaker nurse are one and the same.

I personally think, given that information:

Quote

...You’re not supposed to be able to guess who the Terriswoman is, by the way.

DrogaKrolow

So we will see her somewhere else?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you will see her somewhere else. Yeah, you're not supposed to be able to guess. So that's why I'm surprised.

that the Warbreaker nurse is someone who we have yet to meet. It could be Aslydin but it's far from confirmed. We jump at conclusions too often.

[Kered]

As an aside, I wonder if "live" Shardplate will be as flexible to change as live Shardblade. Would be pretty sweet to see new KR's change from light to heavy armor on the fly.

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom]

7 hours ago, Kered said:

As an aside, I wonder if "live" Shardplate will be as flexible to change as live Shardblade. Would be pretty sweet to see new KR's change from light to heavy armor on the fly.

Depends on how the Shardplate is made. If it is made of spren, as seems to be a common though, then it would depend on A. whether those spren had enough sapience to morph like that, and B. if you had some way of making them all morph in unison.

[Kered]

12 hours ago, Brightlord Maelstrom said:

Depends on how the Shardplate is made. If it is made of spren, as seems to be a common though, then it would depend on A. whether those spren had enough sapience to morph like that, and B. if you had some way of making them all morph in unison.

If they do end up having a level of sapience, it'll create an interesting dynamic with Syl.

[Yata]

11 hours ago, Kered said:

If they do end up having a level of sapience, it'll create an interesting dynamic with Syl.

I think they Will not be able to reach sapience. This would out them in the Radiant Spren's tier and there would be no reason for many of them to spent their Life to make a single Plate.

In the end, It's almost impossibile the Plate is made by Sapient Spren...for the whole Plate's mechanics we saw in action

[Bort]

3 hours ago, Yata said:

I think they Will not be able to reach sapience. This would out them in the Radiant Spren's tier and there would be no reason for many of them to spent their Life to make a single Plate.

In the end, It's almost impossibile the Plate is made by Sapient Spren...for the whole Plate's mechanics we saw in action

I agree. I don't think the Spren that make up Plate will be sentient. The clues are there.

• Patterns comments and contempt about Creationspren - "They don't do anything, they just are..." (Paraphrasing)
• Syl's comments about attracting Spren of her own - What if they are not bound to the Knight, but rather their Spren? This could also explain why, if the Plate-spren are still alive, they do not change form, or even seem to recognise their wearer.
• The fact that someone can pick up and use someone else's Plate without having to get proper permission from the owner. Kaladin using someone's helm during the 4-on-2 dual in WoR comes to mind here.

[Calderis]

2 hours ago, Bort said:

I agree. I don't think the Spren that make up Plate will be sentient. The clues are there.

• Patterns comments and contempt about Creationspren - "They don't do anything, they just are..." (Paraphrasing)
• Syl's comments about attracting Spren of her own - What if they are not bound to the Knight, but rather their Spren? This could also explain why, if the Plate-spren are still alive, they do not change form, or even seem to recognise their wearer.
• The fact that someone can pick up and use someone else's Plate without having to get proper permission from the owner. Kaladin using someone's helm during the 4-on-2 dual in WoR comes to mind here.

And biggest of all, always, Plate doesn't scream. 

[Bort]

5 minutes ago, Calderis said:

And biggest of all, always, Plate doesn't scream. 

I knew I had missed something important...

[Yata]

18 minutes ago, Calderis said:

And biggest of all, always, Plate doesn't scream. 

It's the main point I don't believe the Plate's Spren (if there are at all) are Sapients.

IF the Plate is composed of Spren, those Spren have to be alive and fine as they don't scream. This implies the Spren formed and remain as Plate because they want or (as I see this) they have no actual desire to be something else.

I honestly I can't see a Sapient Spren to remain as Plate and be used mostly for disgust stuffs for centuries without react in any way. 

[Bort]

3 minutes ago, Yata said:

It's the main point I don't believe the Plate's Spren (if there are at all) are Sapients.

IF the Plate is composed of Spren, those Spren have to be alive and fine as they don't scream. This implies the Spren formed and remain as Plate because they want or (as I see this) they have no actual desire to be something else.

I honestly I can't see a Sapient Spren to remain as Plate and be used mostly for disgust stuffs for centuries without react in any way. 

This is one of the reasons why I wonder if the Plate was bound to the Radiant Spren, rather than the Radiant him/herself. Once the bond between Radiant and Spren was broken, the Spren's mind was broken, and they were, for all intents and purposes killed, hence the screaming, which doesn't happen to Plate. So, how does that leave our poor non-sentient Spren? Locked to a specific form because their guiding mind has been severed, and unable to communicate with anyone or anything?

Or, does Plate come from expectation? Once the Spren have formed up and created the Plate, are they then form locked because that is what is expected of them? Or maybe they've been recorded that way?

Oh, here is an interesting way of asking the question... "Does Shallan's (or anyone else's) sketches of Shardplate help or hinder it's attempts to adapt to it's wearer?"

[Calderis]

There has to be some element of the surgebinder in the plate itself. 

The only explanation for Plate to block surgebinding from every source but the Radiant who it belongs to, is that it is keyed to the surgebinders identity. 

The Spren a Radiant is bonded too is a unique entity to itself the Sprens identity should not match that of the Radiant. 

[Yata]

3 hours ago, Calderis said:

There has to be some element of the surgebinder in the plate itself. 

The only explanation for Plate to block surgebinding from every source but the Radiant who it belongs to, is that it is keyed to the surgebinders identity. 

I mainly agree with this part (with an *)

3 hours ago, Calderis said:

The Spren a Radiant is bonded too is a unique entity to itself the Sprens identity should not match that of the Radiant. 

I disagree here, I believe the Spren and Radiant share enough Identity to avoid Interference. Their Soul is intermingled and I assume it's mostly the same stuff that happen with Hemalurgy, where the foreign Spirit-Web contribuite to the total identity.

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom]

On 11/7/2017 at 7:15 PM, Calderis said:

There has to be some element of the surgebinder in the plate itself. 

The only explanation for Plate to block surgebinding from every source but the Radiant who it belongs to, is that it is keyed to the surgebinders identity. 

The Spren a Radiant is bonded too is a unique entity to itself the Sprens identity should not match that of the Radiant. 

Aren't there some in-book references that make it sound like the surgebinding is done through the spren, thus that a connection between the spren and the armor would be enough for the surgebinding to be unaffected.

[Calderis]

5 minutes ago, Brightlord Maelstrom said:

Aren't there some in-book references that make it sound like the surgebinding is done through the spren, thus that a connection between the spren and the armor would be enough for the surgebinding to be unaffected.

I suppose this is an issue of my preoccupation with the bond focus. 

I don't think it comes from the Spren itself. I think they gain access from the bond itself. 

If the surges come from the Spren, then the Sprens sapience comes from the person. I don't think it's that simple. 

[Brightlord M. Alhstrom]

5 hours ago, Calderis said:

I suppose this is an issue of my preoccupation with the bond focus. 

I don't think it comes from the Spren itself. I think they gain access from the bond itself. 

If the surges come from the Spren, then the Sprens sapience comes from the person. I don't think it's that simple. 

Well, one way you could see it, sapience is natural for mankind, and a limited use of the surges is natural for spren. The bond allows each of them to access the other's gift as limited or accented by the bond. Of course, it's probably not accurate, but I think it is still a possibility. After all, before Syl started talking she was causing mischief using the surge of adhesion, and Kaladin wasn't overly surprised. To him, it was just a particularly annoying windspren, as though windspren can use a limited form of adhesion normally.

[Storyspren]

Crazy idea here: it would be kind of neat if shard plate was to radiant as

shard blade is to spren

such that the radiant’s plate is part of them but current plate used by others is sort of like half dead skin in a Petri dish. So every person currently wearing shardplate is basically doing what Kayla’s in did with the carapace armor but without knowing it.

[Head Crabs]

On 11/6/2017 at 0:31 AM, Brightlord Maelstrom said:

Depends on how the Shardplate is made. If it is made of spren, as seems to be a common though, then it would depend on A. whether those spren had enough sapience to morph like that, and B. if you had some way of making them all morph in unison.

Hearing you say that makes me picture these lesser spren behaving in a way similar to the cremlings that make up aimians. Perhaps the combined form can think and move with highly intelligent hive type instincts to make different shapes? The high spren all copied honorblades, but the lower spren copied the aimians? We know that the KR and Aimians were friendly from what arclo said in edgedancer.