gremlin303 Posted November 10, 2020 Report Share Posted November 10, 2020 TLDR: Cord’s new plate was made by Honour and bestows powers to its wearer. Now this is really just a mostly unfounded thought I had while thinking about the lore surrounding the Dawnshard on Aimia. One nugget of information that I feel was easy to overlook amongst the massive info dump that was the latter part of the book, was Cord’s new Shardplate and Nikli’s reference to it being used by guardians of the Dawnshard. I feel that there is something odd there. Firstly, who were the guardians? The Larkin? The Sleepless? Neither seem likely to use or even need plate. So who were these guardians, and why did they have such a seemingly mundane tool for the defence of what seems to be the most powerful weapon on the planet. One set of plate seems hardly sufficient to defend from many of the threats on Roshar alone let alone the rest of the Cosmere. Another oddity about the situation is the plate itself. How did it get there? Where did it come from? Currently the only way we have seen ownerless shardplate created is through the breaking of a spren bond. So did a Radiant purposely break their oath to give this plate to the guardians? Or was it simply recovered post-Recreance and there is nothing more to it than that. Anyway, to the point of the theory. This plate is no regular shardplate. It is instead a set of Honourplate (name pending). I believe that the plate was, like the honourblades, created directly by Honour specifically to be used in the defence of the Dawnshard. I also think it bestows special abilities on its wearer, just like the blades, making it much more useful for defending the Dawnshard. No idea yet what these powers might be. Anyway, if you have managed to make it this far, thank you and sorry. I did try to keep it brief but I got away from me. Would love to hear your thoughts. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bremen Posted November 10, 2020 Report Share Posted November 10, 2020 5 minutes ago, gremlin303 said: and Nikli’s reference to it being used by guardians of the Dawnshard. I took this to mean that in previous times Radiants served as guardians of the Dawnshard. But this leads to a problem, where are their swords? Being created by Honor solves that problem, but how was it powered? Living plate can be summoned/dismissed at will, I assume plate created directly by Honor would function similarly, or as elegantly if not similarly. The other, perhaps more boring solution, is that some orders get plate before swords. Although I feel I'm very likely to be contradicted by WoB 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halyo_Alex Posted November 11, 2020 Report Share Posted November 11, 2020 I mean, we won't know unless Cord decides to try and see if her new Plate actually does grant extra powers like an Honorblade would, and why would she do that? Someone will have to spill the beans later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregk Posted November 11, 2020 Report Share Posted November 11, 2020 If it is in fact something like Honorplate, maybe it can't be damaged even by regular Shardblades? Only an Honorblade could damage it. Although that would make the wearer almost invincible so probably too powerful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halyo_Alex Posted November 11, 2020 Report Share Posted November 11, 2020 7 hours ago, Gregk said: If it is in fact something like Honorplate, maybe it can't be damaged even by regular Shardblades? Only an Honorblade could damage it. Although that would make the wearer almost invincible so probably too powerful. New hypothesis: It's something called Dawnplate and that's why it's specifically for the protector of the Dawnshard. Something different from normal Radiant plate, but not entirely unfamiliar... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine Posted November 15, 2020 Report Share Posted November 15, 2020 This is interestng speculation, but the one problem I see with this theory is that the plate Cord aquires has been modified to be powered by gems. Correct me if I'm wrong, but honorblades don't have gems, and if this was honor plate it's seems strange to me that it would have the same fabrial like modifications that dead radiant plate has to make it functional. Here's a WoB that shows one of the clearest differences between honorblades and shardblades, namely that a bonded honorblade when dropped remains a physical blade: Quote luke.spence (paraphrased) You mentioned that human can’t bond Honorblades, but Nalan tells Szeth that his bond with his Honorblade has been broken. Can you clear this up? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) Humans CAN bond Honorblades. There's a crucial difference between Honorblades and Shardblades. When you drop an Honorblade, it does not disappear, even if it has been bonded. A Shardblade will disappear when dropped. Words of Radiance Dayton signing (March 19, 2014) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gremlin303 Posted November 15, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2020 8 hours ago, hoiditthroughthegrapevine said: This is interestng speculation, but the one problem I see with this theory is that the plate Cord aquires has been modified to be powered by gems. Correct me if I'm wrong, but honorblades don't have gems, and if this was honor plate it's seems strange to me that it would have the same fabrial like modifications that dead radiant plate has to make it functional. Here's a WoB that shows one of the clearest differences between honorblades and shardblades, namely that a bonded honorblade when dropped remains a physical blade: That is a good point about the plate needing spheres for power, but I think that is just a basic functionality of plate, it must be powered by stormlight. No blades (nightblood excluded of course) require stormlight to function, whereas dead plate (powered by spheres) and assumedly living plate (powered by the Radiants themselves) need stormlight. So maybe the plate needs stormlight, and as Cord isn’t a surgebinder, it needs it from spheres? I’m not particularly convinced by this either but that’s my best explanation for it. The part about the difference between honourblades and other blades is interesting to think about, but I’m not sure It really changes it. No one is bonded to the plate when Cord finds it so I don’t think that is really a way we can determine what kind of armour it is. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trutharchivist Posted November 15, 2020 Report Share Posted November 15, 2020 I must be missing something, but if I remember correctly, Nikli just said that at least the soulcasters, and maybe the plate(?) were given as gifts to the guardians. Of course, there is the problem with why give them something they don't need. I do believe the guardians are the lanceryn. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gremlin303 Posted November 15, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2020 21 minutes ago, Trutharchivist said: I must be missing something, but if I remember correctly, Nikli just said that at least the soulcasters, and maybe the plate(?) were given as gifts to the guardians. Of course, there is the problem with why give them something they don't need. I do believe the guardians are the lanceryn. As far as I recall they said the soulcasters were gifts to the guardians, but specifically says that the plate was traditionally used by the guardians 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebma55 Posted November 17, 2020 Report Share Posted November 17, 2020 I think it's the Shardplate from the Willshaper who left a gemstone in drawer 16-16, found in Oathbringer. 16-16 amethyst "I returned to the tower to find squabbling children, instead of proud knights. That's why I hate this place. I'm going to go chart the hidden undersea caverns of Aimia; find my maps in Akinah." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreamwa1ker Posted November 17, 2020 Report Share Posted November 17, 2020 In one of the WOBs on the reddit thread, Brandon said that Sleepless ARE capable of Radiant bonds. Could there have been a Sleepless Radiant who did also participate in the Recreance, and left their plate there? Maybe for different reasons than the human Radiants... https://wob.coppermind.net/events/444/#e14336 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinsukolo Posted November 21, 2020 Report Share Posted November 21, 2020 Maybe I'm miss remembering it already... I was still reading at 1am last night. But I thought it was mentioned the plate was Gold in color? Also only 1 set.. What if the reason there is no sword, was it's the Plate of a Bondsmith? If it is, I'd be more tempted to chalk this plate to Cultivation's Bondsmith over Honor's since the Dawnshard involved is Change. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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