Tamriel Wolfsbaine Posted March 14, 2024 Posted March 14, 2024 Do you think that certain materials cost more to soulcast than others? Is aluminum a very expensive material to soulcast in terms of stormlight usage? With the suspected infinite stormlight at the tower what industry is ever needed again on Roshar? This is an infinite production line of everything waiting to happen. Especially since Jasnah can soulcast out of thin air now... just soulcast the air into wax or stone and have other radiants or artisans who can shape it turn it into whatever you want. No siege can ever break it down right? You will never starve while there. Heck lightweavers could make illusions and then soulcast the illusions and air into preshaped.... anything. You could do an assembly line of perfectly fit armor via lightweavers creating the perfect illusion and then soulcasting the air into what they are seeing.
Trusk'our he/him Posted March 14, 2024 Posted March 14, 2024 4 hours ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said: Do you think that certain materials cost more to soulcast than others? Is aluminum a very expensive material to soulcast in terms of stormlight usage? With the suspected infinite stormlight at the tower what industry is ever needed again on Roshar? This is an infinite production line of everything waiting to happen. Especially since Jasnah can soulcast out of thin air now... just soulcast the air into wax or stone and have other radiants or artisans who can shape it turn it into whatever you want. No siege can ever break it down right? You will never starve while there. Heck lightweavers could make illusions and then soulcast the illusions and air into preshaped.... anything. You could do an assembly line of perfectly fit armor via lightweavers creating the perfect illusion and then soulcasting the air into what they are seeing. Good points, but I doubt that even with virtually infinite Stormlight that the Soulcasting Radiants could produce everything needed by all of Rosharian society. There are just too many mouths to feed, too many buildings that need to be built (though they often use Soulcasting for that anyway), and too many other resources needed. I think that Urithiru could sustain itself off of Soulcast food/resources, certainly, but that's a far, far smaller population to worry about. They could also give temporary aid to ther nations via the Oathgates and their Soulcasting, but trying to feed litteral billions of people with only a few hundred Soulcasters at most seems like a stretch. Also, skill is definitely an issue when Soulcasting complex things like suits of armor or crafting the non-Invested portions of Fabrials. Even with Lightweaving to form a better base for visualization, I don't think it would be so easy to create complex items via Soulcasting. Also, doesn't using Stormlight exhaust the Surgebinder? That would quickly lead to hard limits as well.
Tamriel Wolfsbaine Posted March 14, 2024 Author Posted March 14, 2024 40 minutes ago, Trusk'our said: Also, doesn't using Stormlight exhaust the Surgebinder? That would quickly lead to hard limits as well. Well I believe I remember a pewter drag sort of effect on kaladin when his stormlight ran out. But the op thing about stormlight is that while you are using it it heals you of all adverse effects. With the Tower becoming what it is, Radiants can instantly and permanently heal back everything with literally no downside. There is no risk of soulcasting forever.... I honestly don't even think that savantism is possible with surgebinding soulcasters, only the fabrial users.... even if it is savantism has been reworked a bit to be less punishing than the allomantic physical powers. Pewter and tin are really the only two powers that true downsides make any sense for anyway. Every other case of savants besides pewter, tin and soulcasting fabrials appear to be 100% to the benefit of the user.
Rorzikel Posted April 17, 2024 Posted April 17, 2024 Brandon's explored this concept before with Elantris. The Elantrians actually had to make laws so their post scarcity capabilities to create goods didn't outcompete the merchants' labor. It's definitely a concept he's thought about before with powers and industry. Two things I think should be considered are: Currently they have bigger worries with the apocalypse and depending on SA5's outcome, such concerns may not matter. The theoretical potential of Surges is bound by the practical and logistical limitations of skill, oath level, knowledge and group coordination. I will agree though that Roshar was never going to develop into an Earth analog. They just don't have the same conditions as we do. Even without the Bondsmiths, Roshar has a built-in massive source of renewable energy that acts as both fuel and light source. I'm not even sure they'll bother inventing electricity and implementing it on a mass scale. They already use Stormlight for heating fabrials so there's no need for electric or gas heaters, gems instead of lightbulbs, conjoiners/reversers for propulsion. 2
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