KevinTheHerdazian Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 Okay guys, while I do agree that spheres make up most of the economy, they still use trading. That one guy traded soulcast metal, that used to be wood, for chickens. I'm guessing that not all countries use spheres for example; the shen and the reshi. Please keep that in mind before you go criticising Brandon about not being a good author for not thinking about the economy of roshar. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheese Ninja Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 I was just reading the Wiki and think I found an error, but wanted to get some opinions on this before changing anything. According to the Wiki, only 9 gems are used for Sphere's and the missing one is unknown. But when I read the reference chapter, it reads as follows: "To get enough light, she was forced to use spheres of all nine colors and all three sizes, so the illumination was patchy and varied" At first blush, this seems to indicate only 9 types of spheres, but I don't think it does. If I have 10 pencils, I might only have 9 colors if 2 of them are the same color. Even if we assume each gem emits a distinct color, diamonds emit pure white light which we know is not considered a color in the Cosmere (think Warbreaker), again giving us a total of 10. Pretty much what I said in this exact thread on page 2, about 2.3 years ago. I also think whoever edited the wiki decided to use that line from chapter 8 for that bit, so I don't quite trust the "only 9" thing. I think it's also arguable that Diamond spheres generate white light, which could be considered to be a light of no color/all colors. 9(varied) + diamond(white) The stranger bit that she had that many different denominations on her at that point in the story, when so few ever get mentioned in the rest of the story. I'm surprised we haven't seen more letters of deposit or larger gems being used as currency instead. 1000 Diamond chips : 1 Emerald broam sounds like a large discrepcancy, but it really isn't when you've got 30 denominations along that spectrum, some of which are the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeiryWriter Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 Okay guys, while I do agree that spheres make up most of the economy, they still use trading. That one guy traded soulcast metal, that used to be wood, for chickens. I'm guessing that not all countries use spheres for example; the shen and the reshi. Please keep that in mind before you go criticising Brandon about not being a good author for not thinking about the economy of roshar. Who exactly is criticizing Brandon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudeis Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 I'm not sure we can conclude either that people of Nalthis don't think white is a color, or that this cultural bias would for any reason spread to Roshar. Remember, in Idris, people wear black because they don't want Awakeners being able to Awaken. They think "black" is a lack of color, and as far as BioChroma is concerned, they're absolutely wrong. Black is a strong fuel for Awakening. So it's not even a consistent cultural belief within just Nalthis itself. I can't think of why it's reasonable to assume that Roshar would think that white light isn't a color. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
name_here Posted March 3, 2015 Report Share Posted March 3, 2015 White is a color of light but not pigment.Nalthis uses pigment, Roshar uses light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinTheHerdazian Posted March 5, 2015 Report Share Posted March 5, 2015 I disagree on that, I think a good storyteller should take care of all those details and try to make the story as consistent as possible. The answer could not be 100% accurate, or could be a bit unlikely, but there has to be an answer. I can accept a "just roll with it" only for humoristic purposes. That said, there can be plenty of reasons the value of the spheres stay fixed. The easiest is that while originally the respective values were based on the soulcasting use, with time they became fixed. probably there was some kind of agreement on that, and they became a fiat currency. At this point I expect the value of the coins would not change even if the market was flooded with gemhearts - even if maybe the value of the gems would go down. As for why we haven't felt the effects of inflation by now, it's because those kind of things would take time to happen in a society like that - only our society today reacts to changes very quickly. the price of gems will eventually go down, but it will take some time. I am more concerned with extinction of the greatshells. an animal that big can't have a very high population density, and the shattered plains aren't that big. if the armies have killed a few each week, their numbers should be starting to dwindle. And then the army could not soulcast food anymore. Weiry Writer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impact Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 I know I'm super late to this post, but was anything ever solved with the nine colors of light deal? I can't even find that mention on the wiki, so i'm going nuts trying to figure it out 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 2 hours ago, entrip said: I know I'm super late to this post, but was anything ever solved with the nine colors of light deal? I can't even find that mention on the wiki, so i'm going nuts trying to figure it out My best guess was that diamonds' transparent light just doesn't count as a color, so the other gem types give you a total of nine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karger Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Rubies and Garnets are basically the same color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man moomba Posted June 4, 2019 Report Share Posted June 4, 2019 Hold on... I thought that garnets were more of a purplish color, while rubies were actually red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 50 minutes ago, Dr. Dapper said: Hold on... I thought that garnets were more of a purplish color, while rubies were actually red. Correct. Brandon's notes call garnets "deep violet" while rubies are "deep red." 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 (edited) 6 hours ago, Argent said: My best guess was that diamonds' transparent light just doesn't count as a color, so the other gem types give you a total of nine. Smokestone and Diamond give basically the same color light. Smokestone is just dimmer...more muted? https://coppermind.net/wiki/Spheres Edited June 5, 2019 by RShara 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 4 hours ago, RShara said: Smokestone and Diamond give basically the same color light. Smokestone is just dimmer...more muted? https://coppermind.net/wiki/Spheres I wrote that page Those are pretty much the two interpretations that make sense - you either count the 8 definite colors, add smokestone, and drop diamond because it's transparent; or you start with the 8, and then count diamond & smokestone as the same "color." 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 1 minute ago, Argent said: I wrote that page Those are pretty much the two interpretations that make sense - you either count the 8 definite colors, add smokestone, and drop diamond because it's transparent; or you start with the 8, and then count diamond & smokestone as the same "color." Hahaha fair enough. I'm trying to say, I've actually shone a light through a smokestone (smoky quartz) and the light is basically white, just has a kinda different quality to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impact Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 11 hours ago, RShara said: Smokestone and Diamond give basically the same color light. Smokestone is just dimmer...more muted? https://coppermind.net/wiki/Spheres That was one of my original theories when reading it. Because translucent and transparent are kind of nebulous, especially in terms of light. I feel like all light is translucent, because I don't really know how light can be opaque. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bookish Ocelot Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 Sapphire and topaz are both blue. (technically topaz can be many other colors, but it is blue on the surgebinding chart.) Smokestone is grayish. How do you even make gray light? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pathfinder Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 Not sure if this WoB adds anything, it is probably already known, but adding it just in case: Phantrosity If polestones glow in colors appropriate to their gem, what color does smokestone glow? Peter Ahlstrom Grey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShara Posted June 5, 2019 Report Share Posted June 5, 2019 So I've actually got a big chunk of quartz and smoky quartz, and I've tried shining a light through it. The light's white both times, it's just muted with the smoky quartz. Not the best pictures, but I'm not at a place where I can take my own right now and I'd need three hands, anyway! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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