Well fabrials just got even more powerful.

[Frustration he/him]

So Fabrials effects are determined by what type of spren is caught and the gemstone used.

Deathspren exist.

So using fabrials you can just make a death ray, or at least an area where if you enter you die.

Dang Brandon that's scary.

[That1Cellist he/him]

Cool, but I seriously doubt that any will ever get made. We know they exist, but mostly, people on Roshar have no idea. The ethics of capturing one is really not good. So I guess villains could get death rays, maybe? Do we know if all spren have an effect in fabrials?

[Frustration he/him]

7 minutes ago, That1Cellist said:

We know they exist, but mostly, people on Roshar have no idea.

They have enough awareness of them to consider the possibility.

8 minutes ago, That1Cellist said:

The ethics of capturing one is really not good.

Hanging out around a dying person? Or using dying animals?

[+Invocation]

Behold the transcription of the first time someone attempts to harness deathspren for a fabrial

[That1Cellist he/him]

1 minute ago, Frustration said:

Hanging out around a dying person? Or using dying animals?

I suppose that could work, but you would think then that more people would have seen them due to the quite violent nature of the planet. I think that they are either really rare, or only appear to the dying creature (Though I'm not sure how the latter would work) Either way, that makes them mostly impractical for use in fabrials. Plus, they might not have the effect you are thinking of. It would be totally amazing if we saw something like this in the future though, and I guess it's not impossible.

[Rg2045]

Lol maybe a way to immortality? 
a death damper?

Edited July 5, 2022 by Rg2045

[Quantus he/him]

13 hours ago, Frustration said:

So Fabrials effects are determined by what type of spren is caught and the gemstone used.

Deathspren exist.

So using fabrials you can just make a death ray, or at least an area where if you enter you die.

Dang Brandon that's scary.

In a Cosmere setting, a Death Ray might transform it's target into something akin to Shades which would be both cool and horrific.  

But that might only be with an Active/Physical fabrial arrangement. With all the shape and metal variants you could probably do a few more things too, especially on Roshar.  A Death detector might work, especially one to detect Moelach's influence (or even recreate the Rattles?).  Something to detect Cognitive Shadows might be possible with a Deathspren (detect the Pull of the Beyond or something similar...) which should ping on Fused, Returned and Heralds and have lots of nice tactical use; they might ping on other forms of Immortality too but the "ghost & zombie" crowd would probably be "louder" to such things.  

[Duxredux he/him]

That's the question isn't it? Are windspren attracted to the wind or do they create it? I don't think the presence of deathspren immediately means a death fabrial, but the question of what exactly the effect is that they have on someone that is dying. A possibility is that an augmenter wouldn't kill someone unless they were already close to dead. For example, Navani's painrial augmenter has a few or knives that cause pain and then greatly amplify it, though apparently she still gets hit by the backwash. Similarly, I'd be surprised if a diminisher with a deathspren would make someone impossible to kill, even with an insane amount of Stormlight powering the device, though I guess it depends on what the Stormlight usage was for the Regrowth fabrial that Nale used to resurrect Szeth. Either that, or Brandon decided to bake in immortality here.

[Quantus he/him]

50 minutes ago, Duxredux said:

That's the question isn't it? Are windspren attracted to the wind or do they create it? I don't think the presence of deathspren immediately means a death fabrial, but the question of what exactly the effect is that they have on someone that is dying. A possibility is that an augmenter wouldn't kill someone unless they were already close to dead. For example, Navani's painrial augmenter has a few or knives that cause pain and then greatly amplify it, though apparently she still gets hit by the backwash. Similarly, I'd be surprised if a diminisher with a deathspren would make someone impossible to kill, even with an insane amount of Stormlight powering the device, though I guess it depends on what the Stormlight usage was for the Regrowth fabrial that Nale used to resurrect Szeth. Either that, or Brandon decided to bake in immortality here.

Windspren dont create the Wind and Rotspren dont create decay in the world, but in fabrials it can be a lot different, where a flamespren is used to actually create Thermal Energy (from Investiture) from teh cogntive association.  So a literal death effect might not be off the table...

[Olmund]

A couple thoughts-- feel free to repudiate/corroborate as you see fit:

1. Deathspren seemed almost entirely confined to the cognitive realm. This lines up with what we know about cosmere death, which draws an individual into the cognitive realm (or manifests their cognitive shadow, at least) before they transition to "the beyond." I think in TWoK after Kaladin is left out in the Highstorm and Syl is fending off the deathspren, she's able to do so partially because they are all more present in the cognitive realm than usual (since Kaladin is dying). I think witness accounts of deathspren come entirely from those with near-death experiences, as those who are around the dying can't actually observe them.

2. The physical realm plays an important role in capturing spren within gemstones. In shadesmar, where spren are more solid/tangible, I doubt you could trap a spren in a gemstone.

This leads me to believe that deathspren would be difficult, if not impossible, to capture in a fabrial.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Olmund

[Frustration he/him]

6 hours ago, Olmund said:

A couple thoughts-- feel free to repudiate/corroborate as you see fit:

1. Deathspren seemed almost entirely confined to the cognitive realm. This lines up with what we know about cosmere death, which draws an individual into the cognitive realm (or manifests their cognitive shadow, at least) before they transition to "the beyond." I think in TWoK after Kaladin is left out in the Highstorm and Syl is fending off the deathspren, she's able to do so partially because they are all more present in the cognitive realm than usual (since Kaladin is dying). I think witness accounts of deathspren come entirely from those with near-death experiences, as those who are around the dying can't actually observe them.

2. The physical realm plays an important role in capturing spren within gemstones. In shadesmar, where spren are more solid/tangible, I doubt you could trap a spren in a gemstone.

This leads me to believe that deathspren would be difficult, if not impossible, to capture in a fabrial.

Even if they are almost entirely in the cognitive realm Raysium daggers should do the trick.

[Stormtide_Leviathan]

On 7/5/2022 at 9:34 AM, Quantus said:

In a Cosmere setting, a Death Ray might transform it's target into something akin to Shades which would be both cool and horrific.  

Hmm. That makes me wonder, could you make a Shadebrial?

[cometaryorbit]

2 hours ago, Stormtide_Leviathan said:

Hmm. That makes me wonder, could you make a Shadebrial?

In theory, possibly if you got someone who knows fabrial mechanics to Threnody. Although it might take extra steps: Kalak says in the RoW epigraphs that you can't trap a Herald in a gem (they just go Beyond due to lack of valid Connections) so depending on how Threnodite Shades work, you might need some Connection forming ability.

Edited August 3, 2022 by cometaryorbit

[Procrastination she/her]

On 7/4/2022 at 5:09 PM, Frustration said:

So Fabrials effects are determined by what type of spren is caught and the gemstone used.

Fabrial effects are determined by the metal used for the cage as well. Although, with the death ray idea, could you make a diminisher fabrial with a deathspren inside and place it next to somebody who’s dying? What would that do?

…Fabrials are weird.