How do the Ghostbloods have so much anti-Stormlight?

[coolsnow7]

The process of creating anti-Stormlight is pretty intensive. The Ghostbloods are a small group of thieves literally on a different planet than their own. 

So how do they have an anti-Stormlight factory running in the background?

I don’t think that they could have already known about anti-light, and then come to Roshar equipped with it - if that were the case, they’d have been using it befor Navani’s discoveries. I think it’s more likely they have knowledge of a more efficient process of creating it.

[Ninth of the Night]

Not all Ghostbloods are from off world. Mraize himself is Thaylen. And I wouldn't consider them a small group.

They have spies seemingly everywhere, including within Urithuru. Mraize also had dealings with Raboniel. It's rather logical they would find out about Anti-Light soon after it was first discovered. And it's not difficult to assume they had the resources to replicate the process.

[feruchemicalrockband]

Agreed, seeing as they're offworlders they likely have some kind of technique to isolate light from its pure tone, then invert it. Probably some use of metalminds. We find out in RoW that the most important part of changing Light is intent, same as hemalurgy. We also know they have cryptics and inkspren (or lightspren) which allows for more materials to create the necessary tools through soulcasting.

 

Actually, seeing as how Enlightened Truthwatchers have their secondary surge (Illumination) corrupted into a new variant, maybe all orders have their secondary surge corrupted? If that's the case, then the Ghostbloods would have to have a Willshaper and not an Elsecaller to access the same version of Transportation.

[alder24]

15 hours ago, coolsnow7 said:

The process of creating anti-Stormlight is pretty intensive. The Ghostbloods are a small group of thieves literally on a different planet than their own. 

So how do they have an anti-Stormlight factory running in the background?

I don’t think that they could have already known about anti-light, and then come to Roshar equipped with it - if that were the case, they’d have been using it befor Navani’s discoveries. I think it’s more likely they have knowledge of a more efficient process of creating it.

There are Azish Viziers among the ranks of Ghostbloods and many other rich and influential individuals from all across Roshar as well. They would have no problem with acquiring necessary tools to produce anti-light in relatively large quantities, like the vacuum tube. They are however limited by the access to Raysium - which they probably got from Fused directly. In RoW Mraize traded Lift and some other valuable relics (a silver chain from Threnody) for the access to the Oathgates, it is reasonable to assume that their trade relations didn't simply stop there and they continued and might have even traded anti-light technology.

Or it was simply stolen from Navani using the same method they used to spy on Dalinar's secret conversations - using Sja-Anat and her spren. If they had means of hearing Dalinar's talk about Ascending to Honor, they had means to spy on Navani when she explained to her scientists how to create anti-light. From there it isn't just a matter of a few tries till they get anti-light. I’m not surprised at all that Ghostbloods have anti-light already and not just one gemstone of it. The only thing you need to have is a vacuum tube and a metal plate to create vast quantities of anti-light. It's not that hard to do.

Also, since the new prologue we know that Vasher worked with Gavilar and it was him that discovered anti-light for the first time. In RoW, during the invasion of the Tower, he mysteriously disappeared, it's possible that Ghostbloods got to him and managed to either convince him to work for them, or forcefully get this information out of him even before Navani rediscovered it. We still had no Vasher PoV so we don't know what's been up to in those last weeks.

[BinarySecond]

Is there potential that they already had the technology to produce it - They almost certainly have the Cosmeric knowledge to produce it.

 

But you wouldn't tip your hand unless absolutely necessary - especially as a clandestine organisation.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

This also begs the question, where is Vasher, really? We know he can make Anti-Light and is mysteriously missing. Maybe the Ghostbloods have him?

[+robardin he/him]

On 11/18/2024 at 5:24 PM, coolsnow7 said:

The process of creating anti-Stormlight is pretty intensive. The Ghostbloods are a small group of thieves literally on a different planet than their own. 

So how do they have an anti-Stormlight factory running in the background?

I don’t think that they could have already known about anti-light, and then come to Roshar equipped with it - if that were the case, they’d have been using it befor Navani’s discoveries. I think it’s more likely they have knowledge of a more efficient process of creating it.

I don't think we need to posit an automated way to create anti-Stormlight based on seeing the GBs with two crossbow bolts and two daggers armed with it, both given to their two most senior agents on Roshar (Iyatil and Mraize). It required normal Stormlight or Voidlight captured in a gem, placing it in a vaccum, inverting the tone (Honor's or Odium's, depending on the Light) with the explicit Intent of inverting it to anti-Light, and then giving the anti-Light another gem to go into.

It should be terrifyingly easy to construct anti-Stormlight once this process is known, as Stormlight is renewed with each passing highstorm, and the gems need not be perfect (anti-Stormlight eventually just leaks/dissipates away, just like regular Stormlight does). And the anti-tone can be recorded, as Navani did with a steel plate and using a bow drawn across it.

Really the only limiting resource for making anti-Stormlight on Roshar is what is needed to make a vacuum box, which in RoW was some kind of specialized Thaylen weather experiment stuff that Navani had to "special order". But it's not hard to make, and I would assume off-worlders from Scadrial or Silverlight could be very familiar with how to create an ordinary vacuum already.

The intent, so far as we know, has to be supplied by a living agent, e.g., human or listener. We've gotten hints that in the future, Cosmere tech would exist that can provide Intent on its own, but I don't think even the GBs are there yet as of SA4/SA5.

Edited November 20, 2024 by robardin