Shin and Stone

[Jescape]

I was rereading ROW and came to the section where Venli was practicing with her powers and the Tower showed her in the very ancient past singers(?) shaping stone into all kinds of things, even dipping a stick into the stone and pulling out a perfectly shaped axe.  The Tower seemed to imply that the stone of Roshar desired and still does desire to be shaped and changed, now this could just be the Tower but I don't think so, I think this is true all over the planet. 

Which brings me to the Shin.  Shin do not walk on stone let alone shape it or work with it, they say because it does not want to change citing its hard nature as opposed to wood's relative softness.  My question is where did they get this idea.  Did they see how the stone didn't move for them and think that that meant it didn't want to change?  Is it something about the stone of Shinovar in particular?  It could be a holdover from Ashyn but I find that extremely unlikely.  Is there something more sinister at play?  Do the shape the stone with honorblades or is that also forbidden?  Just what the heck is up with the Shin?

[adouloumis]

I always thought that rule was remiscient from a treaty of the ancient singers with the ancient humans for the latter to stay in Shinovar where the ground is not rocky but grassy. So for the Shin the stonewalkers are those who broke the pact with the singers or it has simply become a cultural heritage. What basis this has I am not sure honestly.

Note though that the Shin practice Stone Shamanism so they should have some rituals revolving around stone.

It is very exciting to see the Shin finally in the next book. Brandon has managed to be very mysterious about them unlike the singers.

[Draigwyrdd]

On 25/12/2020 at 8:10 AM, adouloumis said:

I always thought that rule was remiscient from a treaty of the ancient singers with the ancient humans for the latter to stay in Shinovar where the ground is not rocky but grassy. So for the Shin the stonewalkers are those who broke the pact with the singers or it has simply become a cultural heritage. What basis this has I am not sure honestly.

This was my thought as well. The humans were given Shinovar as theirs, and told not to expand outside of it. This became deeply ingrained into the Shin people and culture over many thousands of years so that even though the milk has already spilled and humans are all over the place, they still largely keep to the prohibitions today (whether or not they truly understand why they exist).

I do wonder what Stone Shamanism is all about, though. The "shamanism" suggests something a bit more active than "we like stones a lot". Like if it had been called "Stone Idolatry" I'd assume it was a boring "we worship rocks" deal, but "shamanism" is suggestive of something more.

[teknopathetic]

Seth also said the stone shamans had a way of recovering the blades from a distance, so I do wonder if there is some way to take back the blades that have left Shiniovar. 

[Lunu’anaki]

4 hours ago, teknopathetic said:

Seth also said the stone shamans had a way of recovering the blades from a distance, so I do wonder if there is some way to take back the blades that have left Shiniovar. 

That's really interesting. I always just thought that they had experts ready to retrieve the blades if they were lost, but this makes me think that there may be some sort of remote retrieval method for the honorblades? Like an ancient artifact left in Shinovar that operates like an oathgate that retrieves blades?

Also, I wonder if the stone shamans are related to operating this 'bladegate'? These stones seem extraordinarily important after RoW.