Mushroom Catalog Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 (edited) I was reading something that briefly covered gem worth, and why people thought it was the way it was. So, here is my theory, correct me if I'm wrong. When investiture flows out of an object, it creates a rush of cold. Kaladin, in the tower scene, has frost crystallize on him. This is similar to the way heat works- "cold" isn't really a thing, just the absence of heat, and getting burned or freezer burns can be caused by flow of heat in or out of an object. Similarly, investiture affects the objects it flows in or out of. Any radiant using tons of investiture are gonna freeze themselves. Gems can crack when exposed to sudden cold. Investiture flowing out rapidly causes "cold". So, the amount of investiture used in soulcasting is going to affect when the gems break, the more it flows out, the more likely a break is. [Edit: The following part is wrong] I think gems worth naturally arose based on what they were able to be used for- the ten essences are just happenstance where you get emeralds being the only gems able to store enough investiture to soulcast the complex patterns needed for food- and you can't mess up, because it's poisonous. And so, since large emeralds are used basically only for food soulcasting, only the ones that break into tiny tiny pieces are used for the money. Basically, leftover gems from soulcasting that are no longer able to hold enough investiture are turned into the money. In a soulcaster, you only get one gem to do this with. However, Radiants can use more than one sphere. When Jasnah soulcast Shallan's blood to heal her of the poison, she knew a few things. She needed a lot of stormlight to soulcast her blood multiple times and have enough to do the complexities needed to not kill her in the process. The servants aren't likely to carry small change on them, and the rich people who come on a regular basis aren't likely to bring spheres of high denominations, so she asked for the lowest possible worth of sphere she could use. This meant a garnet, which for some reason has enough stormlight as a sphere. Yeah, I dunno. Anybody else have a reasonable explanation for this? Basically- Gem stormlight holding capacity caused their worth over time. They came to be associated with the ten essences. Thus, Jasnah needed a garnet because it holds that much stormlight for blood. Also, don't use investiture too fast or you'll freeze. Edited October 9, 2019 by Mushroom Catalog I should do my homework first... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pathfinder Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 21 minutes ago, Mushroom Catalog said: I was reading something that briefly covered gem worth, and why people thought it was the way it was. So, here is my theory, correct me if I'm wrong. When investiture flows out of an object, it creates a rush of cold. Kaladin, in the tower scene, has frost crystallize on him. This is similar to the way heat works- "cold" isn't really a thing, just the absence of heat, and getting burned or freezer burns can be caused by flow of heat in or out of an object. Similarly, investiture affects the objects it flows in or out of. Any radiant using tons of investiture are gonna freeze themselves. Gems can crack when exposed to sudden cold. Investiture flowing out rapidly causes "cold". So, the amount of investiture used in soulcasting is going to affect when the gems break, the more it flows out, the more likely a break is. I think gems worth naturally arose based on what they were able to be used for- the ten essences are just happenstance where you get emeralds being the only gems able to store enough investiture to soulcast the complex patterns needed for food- and you can't mess up, because it's poisonous. And so, since large emeralds are used basically only for food soulcasting, only the ones that break into tiny tiny pieces are used for the money. Basically, leftover gems from soulcasting that are no longer able to hold enough investiture are turned into the money. In a soulcaster, you only get one gem to do this with. However, Radiants can use more than one sphere. When Jasnah soulcast Shallan's blood to heal her of the poison, she knew a few things. She needed a lot of stormlight to soulcast her blood multiple times and have enough to do the complexities needed to not kill her in the process. The servants aren't likely to carry small change on them, and the rich people who come on a regular basis aren't likely to bring spheres of high denominations, so she asked for the lowest possible worth of sphere she could use. This meant a garnet, which for some reason has enough stormlight as a sphere. Yeah, I dunno. Anybody else have a reasonable explanation for this? Basically- Gem stormlight holding capacity caused their worth over time. They came to be associated with the ten essences. Thus, Jasnah needed a garnet because it holds that much stormlight for blood. Also, don't use investiture too fast or you'll freeze. So few things: 1. soulcasters (the fabrial) are more limited in what they can do than soulcasters(the radiant) 2. What a gemstone can do has more to do with its color, which differentiates gemstones, than stormlight capacity. 3. Cut deals with how efficient a gemstone is in holding stormlight. Size deals with how much stormlight a gemstone can hold 4. Depending on the soulcaster (fabrial), or skill as a radiant, you can make multiple things. So for instance a radiant soulcaster could make plutonium so long as the radiant understood it, and could get that concept across to the spren. So interesting idea. I disagree, but interesting idea! If you are curious to learn more about soulcasting, go to the arcanum tab, type in soulcast to find every WoB associated with it, and it is very informative! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushroom Catalog Posted October 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 34 minutes ago, Pathfinder said: So few things: 1. soulcasters (the fabrial) are more limited in what they can do than soulcasters(the radiant) 2. What a gemstone can do has more to do with its color, which differentiates gemstones, than stormlight capacity. 3. Cut deals with how efficient a gemstone is in holding stormlight. Size deals with how much stormlight a gemstone can hold 4. Depending on the soulcaster (fabrial), or skill as a radiant, you can make multiple things. So for instance a radiant soulcaster could make plutonium so long as the radiant understood it, and could get that concept across to the spren. So interesting idea. I disagree, but interesting idea! If you are curious to learn more about soulcasting, go to the arcanum tab, type in soulcast to find every WoB associated with it, and it is very informative! Oh. Well, thank you for correcting me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pathfinder Posted October 9, 2019 Report Share Posted October 9, 2019 56 minutes ago, Mushroom Catalog said: Oh. Well, thank you for correcting me! No problem. Soulcasters can get confusing because there are the fabrial, and the radiant types which act differently from each other. Brandon likened the fabrial to a computer drawing a circle over and over again, versus a radiant who can "draw" a variety of shapes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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