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Ghostbloods have the Gemstone Reserve


Crylorenzo

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Another simple theory as I reread ROW.

 Adolin mentions how Jasnah is troubled by the lack of perfect gemstones in circulation - how some should naturally come up and yet almost all gemstones in circulation are flawed except for some in the Thaylen reserve. 
 

Who could be the one causing the more perfect ones to disappear? Well this topic is brought up as Adolin is pondering how to get Stormlight further in Shadesmar and who do we know who wants to transport large amounts of Stormlight long distances? Obviously the Ghostbloods.

A simple theory, see? Or have I been thrown off somewhere? Also, if it is the Ghosrbloods as I suspect, are they just sitting on a wealth of Stormlight or are they doing things with it (and if so what)? I’m guessing we won’t get another moment like in Mistborn, but I could see such a wealth of Stormlight being a pivotal plot moment in Shallan’s story in book 5 as the Ghostblood plot is wrapped up.

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Eh, I'm not so sure.

I could definitely see them having hoarded some, sure. 

Given what we see in Lasting Integrity, I find it more likely that lots of them have gone to the spren over the years.

It might also be a case of people holding onto perfect and semi-perfect gems if they happen to get them, rather than letting them circulate in the economy. A sphere that holds Light for years or even longer is just darn convenient, so if you're well to do enough to not need to spend it, it might just stay with you.

Most likely all of these are true to some extent, in addition to perfect gems being naturally scarce.

 

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The Honorspren got an entire vault of perfect gems full of Stormlight, so I agree with Inquisitor and think that's where they are.
How the spren got hold of them is a completely different topic, though. I wouldn't be surprised if they worked together with one of Roshar's secret organizations (or even the Ghostbloods). And now it gets interesting imo, what's their reason for accumulating all these gems? Is it only wealth? I don't think so.

Edited by TranslucentPhilosopher
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Since this is my reread I’d forgotten about the gemstone reserve. But as you say, how did it get there? Jasnah send to think it’s someone whose been around for hundreds of years, which could imply the Ghostbloods. Another possibility just occurred to me and that is the Heralds. Kelek lives in Lasting Integrity and the Heralds as a whole are pretty cosmere aware and are similarly looking to figure out how to get investiture off-world. And now I’m curious if there’s a connection back to Gavilar.

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58 minutes ago, TranslucentPhilosopher said:

And now it gets interesting imo, what's their reason for accumulating all these gems? Is it only wealth? I don't think so.

As the currency in Shadesmar seems to be Investiture, primarily Stormlight in the Rosharan subastral, the gems themselves seem to simply be a storage medium.

As Stormlight doesn't naturally enter Shadesmar, unlike the Physical, but still dissipates over time, perfect or near-perfect gems are simply the only easy way to reliably store it for later.

It's like someone investing in a fridge or freezer in an economy based on food, it makes your money keep longer.

 

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12 minutes ago, Inquisitor #5 said:

As the currency in Shadesmar seems to be Investiture, primarily Stormlight in the Rosharan subastral, the gems themselves seem to simply be a storage medium.

As Stormlight doesn't naturally enter Shadesmar, unlike the Physical, but still dissipates over time, perfect or near-perfect gems are simply the only easy way to reliably store it for later.

It's like someone investing in a fridge or freezer in an economy based on food, it makes your money keep longer.

 

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Yeah, you're absolutely right about the storage medium but I think that actually may be just part of the reason.
While we do not know whether other spren keep similar stores it's especially the Honorspren that are mentioned to have this kind of wealth.

As Stormlight is so closely tied to Honor and the Honorspren were almost completely destroyed when radiants abandoned their oaths and seeing how especially the older spren reacted at the trial - I can't help but wonder if there's not more to it (i.e amassing lots of investiture prevents Honor's power from reforming (as Harmony wonders)? Or perhaps avoiding a situation similar to the one in Sel's cognitive realm etc.)?

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I agree - although the spren have these perfect gemstone reserves, which do hold the mist form of Honor's investiture, I don't see the spren as the ones who did the majority of the collecting - it had to be the other secret societies on Roshar.

I keep mentioning the Ghostbloods as being the primary gathering and I've now thought of another reason - at its head is someone who knows just how important it can be to horde parts of a god.

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1 hour ago, Crylorenzo said:



I keep mentioning the Ghostbloods as being the primary gathering and I've now thought of another reason - at its head is someone who knows just how important it can be to horde parts of a god.

Yeah him and Hoid maybe don't see eye to eye but they are on the same page in that regard. 

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I wouldn't be surprised if Vasher has obtained a perfect gemstone for use during the Weeping so as to not slowly drain his Breath reserve on an annual basis. Assuming a gem capable of being easily concealed among an ardent's possessions without attracting notice can store the equivalent of at least three Breaths (Returned need one every seven/eight days and the Rosharan week is five) he can make it through an even-numbered year's Weeping without losing any Breath. Seems like it would be really handy for him to have.

Related to the idea of perfect gems, we know that synthetic gemstones can work for holding Light and a perfect one should hold it for, if not forever, at least a comfortably long time. I suspect that those are going to become a very popular trade item in the future.

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