Gemstone’s perfection

[WandererNearby]

I just read the following passage in Rhythm of War during my first reread. It is from Adolin’s perspective during their journey in part 2. 
 

Quote

Jasnah had mentioned something else about these near-flawless gemstones that troubled her. She found it odd that the gemstones in circulation as spheres were always so flawed that they lost Light quickly. She said that they should vary, and more perfect ones should be found on occasion—but that wasn’t the case. Why was she concerned by that? He pondered the question as he waited for Shallan, and tried to trace Jasnah’s thoughts. What if someone had been in the know, while everyone else thought gemstones were all basically the same? If you knew the supreme value of gemstones that could hold Stormlight over long trips through Shadesmar, you could spend years gathering them.

This is probably the Ghostbloods, right? Is there a thread that accumulates possible hints at their activities?

In the interest of fairness, maybe it’s just a volume thing. As in, larger gemstones are inherently better at storing Investiture.

[mathiau]

I don't think it has anything to do with the Ghostbloods, jewel grade gemstones from Scadrial and other planets are probably perfect enough gemstones for their purposes

[AquaRegia]

I thought the same thing when I read that.  Just like rare or valuable coins, e.g, pre-1964 silver quarters, most people would simply spend them like any others... but the few who realize they are different would gradually remove them from circulation.

I agree with your interpretation: we are supposed to think that SOMEONE has been removing the high-quality spheres from the Rosharan money supply.  And the Ghostbloods were also the first suspects who came to my mind.  

[Kingsdaughter613]

15 minutes ago, DougTheRug said:

I just read the following passage in Rhythm of War during my first reread. It is from Adolin’s perspective during their journey in part 2. 
 

This is probably the Ghostbloods, right? Is there a thread that accumulates possible hints at their activities?

In the interest of fairness, maybe it’s just a volume thing. As in, larger gemstones are inherently better at storing Investiture.

I’d suspect it was the Spren. The Ghostbloods have only been around for 300 years. That makes it highly unlikely that they could have removed such stones in great volume.

Worth noting though that IRL the larger the gemstone, the more flawed it tends to be. So tiny gemstones that can only hold small amounts of light are far more likely to be perfect than bigger ones. Large perfect gemstones are extraordinarily rare.

 

[mathiau]

After thinking about it a bit longer, I think this sentence is a complete red-herring. If there's some variation there should be some significantly worse versions of the gemstones

[WandererNearby]

Honestly, I think there's a couple of other possibilities. First, the better stones could just be in Shadesmar like you suggested @Kingsdaughter613. For a long time, gemstones just had to be good enough to keep light for 10 days or so to work in the Physical Realm. Any that could last longer would thus be inherently more valuable in Shadesmar so it seems reasonable that the gemstones that last longer would just be traded to Shadesmar. Second, the stones are used as currency so it makes that they would be uniform in size and cut to begin with. Since we know those factors affect Stormlight capacity and rate of loss to the environment, there are innocent, in-world reasons explain why a broam is a broam is a broam. Moreover, looking to IRL examples, we know that making stuff at scale only works with standardized stuff. 

[Bejarden]

Honestly I think it’s the shin collecting them

along with honorblades shardblades unmade...

[Honorless]

We've already seen the gemstones in the spren's vaults (Lasting Integrity vaults), heard of it back in OB too (Celebrant trade), I think that answers that

Edited February 19, 2021 by Honorless

[apepi]

The small theory about gemstones I have is the perfect gemstones create a vacuum, like Navani did to separate the tones of Roshar. And that is what makes the gemstones perfect, the imperfect ones have 'holes'.

And it would make sense for the Ghostbloods to collect them to try to transfer investiture. They could even perhaps be used to transfer other investiture than just light?

[Vissy]

On 2/18/2021 at 8:45 PM, Kingsdaughter613 said:

I’d suspect it was the Spren. The Ghostbloods have only been around for 300 years. That makes it highly unlikely that they could have removed such stones in great volume.

Worth noting though that IRL the larger the gemstone, the more flawed it tends to be. So tiny gemstones that can only hold small amounts of light are far more likely to be perfect than bigger ones. Large perfect gemstones are extraordinarily rare.

 

This is something I thought as well. Additionally, if gemstones can be manufactured, and made more 'perfect', then it would make sense that the gemstones kept getting smaller and smaller over time. As a bit of an aside, but this is how I would imagine space age Rosharans transported light. Tiny tiny gemstones that are near-perfect.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Vissy

[Could Be Fire]

On 2/18/2021 at 10:26 AM, DougTheRug said:

This is probably the Ghostbloods, right? Is there a thread that accumulates possible hints at their activities?

 

Yeah, I figured it was just a nod to the fairly robust cognitive realm trade networks that we hear about in WoB or offhand but that no main characters have experience with. Sanderson's been pretty deliberate so far about only hinting at the scope of Cognitive realm connections but know it's seriously widespread. Hold mentions in Secret History and there might be a WoB that there was a bunch of trade through the Pits of Hathsin and I think there's some talk in Dawnshard about trade moving through the Horneater Peaks. That's not to mention Silverlight. 

The length of the ability to hold stormlight is the basis of value in Shadsmar and little more than a novelty in the Physical realm Roshar. It's simple economics that the perfect gemstones would end up on the Cognitive realm side. It doesn't need to be the Ghostblood specifically, it could be any merchant with that knowledge. It would be super easy if you ran a sphere infusing exchange to slowly filter out the more flawless stones. 

I think Shallan's theory is exactly right and is just supposed to point out to us (and lay the groundwork for her understanding) that groups on Roshar have been in long-term contact with the Shadesmar. Like, she doesn't know the Ghostbloods are worldhoppers. 

[Stigmadiabolicum]

This was answered later on in RoW, remember? As others in the thread said.

"The wealth of Lasting Integrity: gemstones—gathered over millennia—so flawless, so perfect, that they didn’t leak"

Of course that doesnt rule out other factions doing the same thing, but that's definitely the answer to that thread brought up by Adolin. But probably just breeze past that on rereads since its a one off line. 

On yet another relisten now and was also curious about other possibilities, but after Mayas revelation, i feel like thats a huge addition to the radiants, especially if dalinar can overcharge them haha. 

Its probably a thread setting up things for the back 5, like Kaladin wanting to revolutionize medicine, as a lot of tidbits in Lost metal were meant for era 3