Does the type of spren captured in the gemstone of a fabrial affect the magic of the fabrial

[LilyBlossom9876]

Is the gemstone more important than the spren type, and if so does the spren type have any influence over the fabrial's function?

I've always thought that it mattered a lot what kind of spren you used but I was doing research and I can't find anything on spren types affecting a fabrial's function in any way

If anyone has a better article I could read, or a quote from the book to clarify, that would be wonderful.

 

(Sorry if this was hard to read lol)

[Frustration]

The spren is arguably the most important part

The spren determines what the fabrial affects, heat, air, water etc.

[alder24]

Yes it does. You need to catch a proper spren type in a proper gemstone. What do you think would happen if you catch a coldspren in a Heating fabrial? Would it generate heat like flamespren/heatspren in heating fabrials? Logicspren are used to make fabrial clocks.

Spoiler

MoriWillow

I happened to notice that Aon Ene in AonDor, which is said to represent debate, is used to control timing in Aon sequences. Is this an intentional connection with logicspren, which are drawn to debates, being used for timing in fabrials?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it is. There are a few more connections like this in some of the other magics I hope to be able to get to before too long.

Rhythm of War Preview Q&As (Oct. 21, 2020)

 

If you want to read more about fabrials, you can read Coppermind wiki : https://coppermind.net/wiki/Fabrial

[Werewolff Studios]

35 minutes ago, LilyBlossom9876 said:

 

Hi! The Coppermind article references Oathbringer 33, with their line being the following - "Creating modern fabrials requires trapping the proper type of spren in a gemstone cut for that purpose". So you are correct - the type of spren matters a lot. 

The gemstone/ polestone being used is more to do with housing the spren, as certain types, colours and cuts of gemstone will be more appealing to different spren. From there, the metallic cage that goes over and around the caged spren will determine the fabrial's function/ effect. 

[Quantus]

For what it's worth, there are some instances where the type of spren makes less of a difference in the actual effect while still being important.  Spanreeds, for example, will totally function if made from a variety of spren, but Flamespren are the easiest to divide and provide the fastest response time, making them the gold standard. 

 

An example given in RoW (opening of Ch.9) is that a spren in a Pewter cage will cause the Spren to express itself in a Physical force, Heat from a Flamespren, for example, and in that case you'd need a ruby for the Gem to attract and hold a Flamespren.