Can a Soulcaster...

[Honorless]

Can you Soulcast gemstones?

Crystal is one of the Ten Essences... 

Edit: I asked this over on Discord, Dr Rockso showed me this page:

from Ch 33 of Way of Kings

"said to be impossible"

Edited July 29, 2020 by Honorless

[Quantus]

I think this is just one of those things that flows out of the local Cognitive Realm. I think it's similar to the way Shards cant read what's carved on Metal on Scadrial because (I suspect) of the way the Spiritual Realm shines through metals on Scadrial. Gems are similarly tied up in the local investiture ecosystem, and while natural gems exist most are crystallized Investiture leakage from the Spiritual realm that occurs in the native Rosharan species.  We also know Gems are actual conduits to the Spiritual Realm (which is how Perfect Gems can give off infinite Light without recharging). So it makes sense to me that gems on Roshar are closer to the Spiritual realm in a way that interferes with attempts to create new ones with Soulcasting. 

It likely has something to do with why you cant use Perfect Awakening to make something go Grey to White and back to Grey in an endless cycle.  We know that using the color from a gem for Awakening will make it useless for Stormlight, so it would be a reasonable theory to think that there is some similar mechanism preventing Stormlight surges from crystallizing more Stormlight conduits.  My best guess is that it's a power balance issue, a lesser version of why you "cant" soulcast a Godmetal; you theoretically Could, but it would take astronomical amounts of stormight to provide the equivalent Investiture. I see it as akin to tying to make a cheeseburger with pure electricity by the E=MC^2 matter/energy conversion, technically possible but wildly impractical. 

[Frustration]

I see no reason a radiant couldn't do it, while a fabrial might not.

[GoWibble]

15 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I see no reason a radiant couldn't do it, while a fabrial might not.

Well, what is the major difference between a 'human' soulcaster and the fabrial? If the only large difference is that the bond protects the Radiant, I don't see why they are any different. I think that it is still going to be very hard.

maybe a crystal savant Soulcaster turns into a gemstone...

[Frustration]

32 minutes ago, GoWibble said:

Well, what is the major difference between a 'human' soulcaster and the fabrial? If the only large difference is that the bond protects the Radiant, I don't see why they are any different. I think that it is still going to be very hard.

maybe a crystal savant Soulcaster turns into a gemstone...

Radiants can soulcast at a distance, always have access to all 10 essences etc etc.

[+Krox]

Creating aluminium oxides to form the correct crystals could be possible, but having the correct amount of impurities to get the correct colour and such would be very difficult to achieve - I imagine! And as far as I've read the WoBs, colour is of great importance..!

But then, soulcasting don't physically do anything - it just convinces the "objects" to change.. What is so special about gemstones anyway?

 

[Friendshipspren]

 Hmmmm I mostly agree with quantus. But I did find this 

So in a highstorm perhaps it's possible. 

 

Also it mentions that more complicated stuff is harder to create. Like blood is easy. Fruit juice not so much.

 

Now 4 of the essential crystals are aluminium oxides , 5 are silicates. They have small amounts of impurities , esp metals trapped . And the colour is esp important so I'm guessing it's like trying to create fruit juice. 

But diamond is easy I think. If the required Diamond is supposed to be clear , then we'll that's easy. It's just pure carbon atoms hyper bonded with each other. If so I think u could create diamonds in abundance. 

Given that lucentia the adjacent essence literally means clear or shining I'm guessing it's colourless. So should be easy to create. 

If it requires some colour then yeah might be hard. 

 

Then u have smokestone . We have no idea what it is. 

So that's a ambiguous thing.

P.S : nalan and the skybreakers do sound like an awesome band. Hmm I'm just imagining him as the lead singer singing a heavy metal song without expression while szeth plays drums behind with his bloodshot eyes wide open and blinking as little as possible and with Nightblood screaming evil. 

 

Now that would be really dark . They would be so popular. Lol.

Edited July 29, 2020 by PrinceGenocide
A little polishing

[Honorless]

2 minutes ago, PrinceGenocide said:

Then u have smokestone . We have no idea what it is.

Current assumption is that it's smoky quartz

[Friendshipspren]

 

9 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Current assumption is that it's smoky quartz

Wait u sure it's not just coal ?  Wait no. Jasnah used it and it was hard. Or it could be graphite 

 

I imagine it must be hard to find coal on Roshar. No plants . Way too much crem sediments. It would make coal very expensive. Jasnah does regret losing her smoke stone when frees taravangians daughter. 

 

Hmm it would be cool if it was just coal. 

Edit : hmm ok. Probably coal doesn't have that reflection property but I wonder like if it were to be created as a gemheart. 

 

Idk I like to think it's coal or graphite since that would be hard to find naturally on Roshar and only on Roshar. 

Edited July 29, 2020 by PrinceGenocide
A little polishing

[Weltall]

We know that synthetic gemstones could work in place of the polestones, so while it's currently beyond the technology of Roshar it should be possible in the future for stones to be created. Ambiguities about Radiant Soulcasting and supercharging via Highstorms aside, I'm inclined to agree with @Quantus that you simply can't Soulcast polestones because it would be too easy to break the system that way, like how it's practically impossible to soulcast godmetals (imagine having an infinite supply of lerasium...) and how slatrification was retconned out of the end of White Sand's graphic novel due to how it broke Sand Mastery's chief limitation.

1 hour ago, PrinceGenocide said:

Wait u sure it's not just coal ?  Wait no. Jasnah used it and it was hard. Or it could be graphite

Coal is a sedimentary rock formed from peat due to heat, pressure and lots and lots of time. All of the polestones are explicitly gemstones, which means crystals. Graphite could qualify but Brandon has told us it's quartz and Karen has told us that it's translucent. So yeah, smoky quartz is the general assumption.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Weltall

[Honorless]

8 hours ago, Weltall said:

...and how slatrification was retconned out of the end of White Sand's graphic novel due to how it broke Sand Mastery's chief limitation.

Stratification was retconned? I'm pretty sure it was mentioned in the graphic novels

[Weltall]

28 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Stratification was retconned? I'm pretty sure it was mentioned in the graphic novels

And yet it wasn't used in the ending, Brandon has said this was deliberate and he'd previously made it clear that he regretted allowing it into the first volume to begin with and that it's something small enough that he could change it.

[Friendshipspren]

@Weltall damnn. Well thanks