How do the Parshendi utilize Gemhearts

[SzethIsBadAsHell]

During the six year war of the shattered plains the parshendi and Alethi fought to the death for gemhearts . Everyone , myself included just assumes they had soulcasters.

“The gemheart is ours. We will continue to eat.”
“That is well,” Venli said. “And your human?”

Excerpt From
Words of Radiance
Brandon Sanderson
https://books.apple.com/us/book/words-of-radiance/id717847678
This material may be protected by copyright.

this was never confirmed on screen. The more i thought about it , the more I began to wonder was this true . 

         The parshendi lived for a long time in dullform could they utilize a soulcaster in that form? Fabrials are a human invention and it takes skill and deteriates the body of the human using it . 

       Everything we have seen about the Dawnsingers suggest thier bodies were made to survive on Roshar . They can Survive highstorms to transform. If in the right form they can jump chasms. They are more connected to the natural way the planets ecosystems works. They leave thier dead alone so there corpses can fertilize the soil because they possess gemhearts and we know Stormlight causes plants to grow . A body left out in a highstorm will be infused with stormlight , the body retains the stormlight , gets covered by crem and boom plants grow. All seems natural . 

         So why do they need a Gemheart ? I think they have a natural way to soulcast . Perhaps thier body acts as a fabrial , allowing them to change something into food . The Fabrials we have seen are limited to one essence . Some can change stuff into gas , others into stone , some into grain . So if the parshendi have soulcasters then they must have several to satisfy the needs of an army . And several different kinds of soulcasters.

        Doesn’t it seem that they have a better way of doing it . One that is not limited to just one essence . 

         If I am wrong and they do have soulcasters . Does it effect them like humans? Does it cause thier body to change into vines or gas like we have seen . If it does can they repair the damage by changing forms . It’s a lot of unanswered questions , all of which make me think they utilize the gemhearts differently than we do . If they do have soulcasters why have they never attacked and tried to steal any more soulcasters to replace ones that have been damaged? 

       

[Quantus]

Im having trouble laying eyes on the specific WOB, but I recall this being asked before and the answer was that crops would naturally grow at an accelerated rate in the presence of Stormlight, which is why the Parshendi also needed them.  

[SzethIsBadAsHell]

14 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Im having trouble laying eyes on the specific WOB, but I recall this being asked before and the answer was that crops would naturally grow at an accelerated rate in the presence of Stormlight, which is why the Parshendi also needed them.  

So they don’t use a soulcaster , they use it as basically a mega fertilizer ! Or perhaps growth surge? Well I guess that makes sense . I admit I was hoping for something along the lines of a magical surge combined with the Listners anatomy to function in a way that humans cannot perform. What you are describing means anyone can do it , even humans . Which makes me wonder why humans haven’t discovered it and utilized it in the same way ? 

        As far as the WoB goes , I’m sure @RShara exactly where is . Do you mind posting it so we can review it? Please.

[Quantus]

1 minute ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

So they don’t use a soulcaster , they use it as basically a mega fertilizer ! Or perhaps growth surge? Well I guess that makes sense . I admit I was hoping for something along the lines of a magical surge combined with the Listners anatomy to function in a way that humans cannot perform. What you are describing means anyone can do it , even humans . Which makes me wonder why humans haven’t discovered it and utilized it in the same way ? 

That's more or less how I see it.  The base-effect of Stormlight seems to mimic lower-level surges at times.  All Radiants and Squires Heal similar to ReGrowth, for example, and per this example all plants grow in it's presense similar to Growth.  Granted, it seems odd to me that both examples I can think of are the Progression Surge.  

So far all their surge offering Forms have been Voidish Forms of Power that (this time around, at least) only arrived after the Everstorm, so it couldnt be part of the recent Listener culture that ruled during most of the Shattered Plains war.  

1 minute ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

        As far as the WoB goes , I’m sure @RShara exactly where is . Do you mind posting it so we can review it? Please.

The Coppermind just references WoR Interlude I-1, for what that's worth.  

[RShara]

19 minutes ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

So they don’t use a soulcaster , they use it as basically a mega fertilizer ! Or perhaps growth surge? Well I guess that makes sense . I admit I was hoping for something along the lines of a magical surge combined with the Listners anatomy to function in a way that humans cannot perform. What you are describing means anyone can do it , even humans . Which makes me wonder why humans haven’t discovered it and utilized it in the same way ? 

        As far as the WoB goes , I’m sure @RShara exactly where is . Do you mind posting it so we can review it? Please.

Try searching for Stormlight+grow on Arcanum.

[SzethIsBadAsHell]

14 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Im having trouble laying eyes on the specific WOB, but I recall this being asked before and the answer was that crops would naturally grow at an accelerated rate in the presence of Stormlight, which is why the Parshendi also needed them.  

So they don’t use a soulcaster , they use it as basically a mega fertilizer ! Or perhaps growth surge? Well I guess that makes sense . I admit I was hoping for something along the lines of a magical surge combined with the Listners anatomy to function in a way that humans cannot perform. What you are describing means anyone can do it , even humans . Which makes me wonder why humans haven’t discovered it and utilized it in the same way ? 

        As far as the WoB goes , I’m sure @RShara exactly where is . Do you mind posting it so we can review it? Please.

[Karger]

I am actually with Sigzil.  The Parshendi must have soulcasters.  It is the only way the gemstones would get used up as opposed to just being used forever.

[SzethIsBadAsHell]

15 minutes ago, Karger said:

I am actually with Sigzil.  The Parshendi must have soulcasters.  It is the only way the gemstones would get used up as opposed to just being used forever.

That produces more questions than it answers . How were they trained in its use? Soulcasters are extremely rare the Ardents can’t even make any , they use the ones that they have . They can make span reeds and half Shard shields , but the Fabrials that cause regrowth and growth are beyond them . Are thier soulcasters for grain ? Create meat ? I assume soulcasters that make stone , Metal and gas. Are useless to Parshendi for the most part. 

       I agree that gemhearts crack over time by being used in a soulcaster . But what if however the parshendi use them causes them to crack overtime as well . So many questions . But you can’t say that soulcasting is the only answers . The Parshendi body acts as an organic fabrial to change forms . They trap a spren , attune a Rhythem , and focus on a mindset and transform . What if they have something similar for soulcasting

[Karger]

16 minutes ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

How were they trained in its use?

Soulcasters are not hard to use.  You tap the right stone and visualize what you want.

16 minutes ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

they use the ones that they have

Same as shardbaldes.  The Parshendi have some of those as well.

17 minutes ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

Are thier soulcasters for grain

Soulcasters for grain exist.  This is how the plains feeds itself(for the most part).  The parshendi also need to get food somehow and we know it is tied to their ability to get new gemhearts.  These gemhearts are prized by the Alethi because they can be used to make food.  With a soulcaster.

19 minutes ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

But what if however the parshendi use them causes them to crack overtime as well .

We know of literally no other method by which gemstones are a unreusable resource.  Is another method possible.  Sure.  Does that meen we should speculate the existence of a new method?  Probably not.

21 minutes ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

But you can’t say that soulcasting is the only answers

I can say with confidence that soulcasting is the only answer we currently have.  I will not knock the possibility of another answer but it fits the facts with no discrepancies and we don't currently have another possibility that makes any sense.

23 minutes ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

The Parshendi body acts as an organic fabrial to change forms . They trap a spren , attune a Rhythem , and focus on a mindset and transform

The forms are interesting.  I can also say with confidence that as of the war with the Alethi the Parshendi only had 5 forms(workform, slaveform, warform, needleform, and mateform) and did not yet know how to create fabrials.

24 minutes ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

What if they have something similar for soulcasting

A form that grants a surge almost certainly would be a form of power.  The singers lost those ages ago.

[SzethIsBadAsHell]

56 minutes ago, Karger said:

We know of literally no other method by which gemstones are a unreusable resource.  Is another method possible.  Sure.  Does that meen we should speculate the existence of a new method?  Probably not.

Sanderson whole writing style revolves around secrets ., foreshadowing , and hidden clues . Digging for those secrets is why we reread again and again . Have I speculated  on things that  I was wrong about , several times . But I have been right before as well . I do not mind being wrong . It’s intruiging to me just to talk about these theories . Some people will Be prompted to think about things they overlooked . And sometimes thier is nothing there . When it comes to Sanderson I never tell someone they shouldn’t speculate , it’s never a waste of time .

[Honorless]

Here's the WoB:

Quote

Questioner

For Words of Radiance, could you put a comment about something in the upcoming books, something not too specific, just something I can think about? Something like "Renarin has a spren" you wrote for somebody else in The Way of Kings?

Brandon Sanderson

[written] Stormlight makes plants grow. 

Words of Radiance Chicago signing (March 22, 2014)

And there are supposed to be Soulcasters which can transform multiple essences

[SzethIsBadAsHell]

9 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Here's the WoB:

And there are supposed to be Soulcasters which can transform multiple essences

Yeah I went looking for it on Arcanum. I found it and was real disappointed. It doesn’t give enough info to shed llight on anything . So either they have soulcaster use them to make grain . Plant the grain to create plants that grow superfast in a highstorm.  Or They use the gemhearts to plant in the soil and cause them to fertilize plants . Which doesn’t explain why they need a constant supply . Or Lastly they have another way to utilize the gemhearts

that produces food and eventually. Burns the gem out. I won’t be surprised if it’s that option . I admit soulcasters seem likely , but just because we haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist . 

[Honorless]

2 hours ago, Karger said:

Soulcasters are not hard to use.  You tap the right stone and visualize what you want.

Going by Kaza's Interlude, I'd disagree

[Karger]

1 hour ago, SzethIsBadAsHell said:

Some people will Be prompted to think about things they overlooked . And sometimes thier is nothing there . When it comes to Sanderson I never tell someone they shouldn’t speculate , it’s never a waste of time .

Good luck theorizing.  I am the last person to tell you not to overindulge yourself in Sandman's work.  However I do like to put a sanity check on this kind of thing from time to time especially if no one else is.

32 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Going by Kaza's Interlude, I'd disagree

I do not think that Kaza who is in the last stages of soulcasting savantism is a typical example.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Karger

[Honorless]

@Karger, have you completed Oathbringer?

[Karger]

1 minute ago, Honorless said:

, have you completed Oathbringer?

You know I have why?

[Honorless]

3 minutes ago, Karger said:

You know I have why?

You might want a reread

[Karger]

44 minutes ago, Honorless said:

You might want a reread

For what?

[Honorless]

3 minutes ago, Karger said:

For what?

Kaza mentions her skill level and demonstrates her skill to rather than transform the entirety of something, only transforming part of something. 

So Soulcasting varies by skill.

[Karger]

8 hours ago, Honorless said:

Kaza mentions her skill level and demonstrates her skill to rather than transform the entirety of something, only transforming part of something. 

So Soulcasting varies by skill.

Sure at the savantism level variations in skill are possible.  However soulcasters at the base level do not require much of any practice also Kaza never indicated she learned that skill anywhere she sort of picked it up over time.

[Honorless]

17 minutes ago, Karger said:

Sure at the savantism level variations in skill are possible.  However soulcasters at the base level do not require much of any practice also Kaza never indicated she learned that skill anywhere she sort of picked it up over time.

 

12 hours ago, Karger said:

Soulcasters are not hard to use.  You tap the right stone and visualize what you want.

 

Thank you for agreeing with my point 

[Karger]

1 hour ago, Honorless said:

Thank you for agreeing with my point 

Sure