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What Shardplate really is and how it's created is still a big mystery even though we've learnt what Shardblades are. But it seems like Shardplate can't just be made of spren like Shardblades or Surgebinders would be able to hear their screams. This theory owes a nod to cris34b's thread about the Surgebinding Chart, which got me thinking about the relationships between the different orders of the Knights Radiant. He noticed that as well as lines connecting the orders that share Surges there are also lines connecting the "opposite" orders who would seem to have nothing in common. In particular we have a line connecting Windrunners and Lightweavers, and we know just how different those orders are. So my theory is this: in order to create Shardplate for someone, a Knight Radiant must co-operate with a member of the opposite order. I don't know how exactly it would work, but any two Surgebinders working together would be very powerful and possibly have some very strange co-operative abilities. The reason I think this might be true is that it adds another level of checks to the power of a Surgebinder. They progress in strength as they speak ideals (or ideal-equivalents) and with each ideal they are bound to behave in certain ways in order to retain their abilities. That solidifies each order's specific mission, which should serve to make them a unified body, but it doesn't do anything to make the different orders part of a greater whole. If the only way to create Shardplate is to work together with the order with which you have the least in common, then the entire organisation of the Knights Radiant are bound together. To get stronger, to do more, they have to work together. On a storytelling level this would mean that Kaladin and Shallan need to continue to work together, and that Dalinar will have to help Renarin create his Shardplate. I suspect that won't be so easy for Dalinar to accept, but that might be a discussion for a different day.