Theory: Shardstone

[lil_literalist he/him]

After seculding myself for several more months, I have returned with another brilliant, half-baked theory.

In most of Sanderson's other worlds, there are different creatures and plants from the ones common to Earth, but the fundamental non-living parts of it are the same. We have the same metals, gems, elements, and rocks on other worlds that we do here on Earth. Even the metals in Mistborn with funny names are just alloys of familiar metals. Except for lerasium. Likewise, everything that we've seen on Sel has been fairly Earth-like. Except soulstone. It is incredibly easy to carve (soft as chalk, but doesn't chip), and it has the peculiar quality of hardening when exposed to fire--something that doesn't seem like it would appear naturally.

Lerasium is the power of Preservation. Is it possible that Soulstone is the power of one of the shards (Devotion or Dominion) in a condensed form?

Her ancestors had worshipped rocks that fell from the sky at night. The souls of broken gods, those chunks had been called. Master craftsmen would carve them to bring out the shape. Once, Shai had found that foolish. Why worship something you yourself created?

Soulstone was once thought of as the soul of a broken god. This could either refer to the Shards of Adonalsium, or the splintering of a Shard (which I doubt, considering the implication of the letter in WoK that the splintering of the Shards of Sel is a fairly recent event). Still, I believe that Soulstone is not naturally occurring, but was placed on Sel by a Shard, as a means of letting humans more easily practice magic.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I doubt it.

It doesn't have weird enough effects.

[RenegadeShroom]

I doubt it.

It doesn't have weird enough effects.

Not that we know of. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we've only seen it used in relation to Forgery. What if an Elantrian carved an Aon into it, or potential applications with Dakhor and Jindo magic? It's like if we only ever saw the Feruchemical effect of atium, which doesn't seem all that odd or powerful, and concluded that it couldn't be related to a Shard because it's not weird enough.

[Kurkistan he/him]

Soulstone may well be Shardicly introduced, and perhaps even Invested somehow, but it's almost certainly not the "rocks that fell from the sky" in that passage. Shai never even implies, let alone says, that that was the origin of using soulstone, or that these rocks that fell from the sky were soulstone. We never get a "soulstone could only be found in meteoric craters, making it unspeakably rare" line, and my reading of the book was such that soulstone seemed to be as rare as ivory or gold, but not as rare as any amount of intact meteoric rock has to be.

Perhaps the rocks that fell from the sky were in fact the bodies of Shards, but I doubt they were made of soulstone.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Kurkistan

[lil_literalist he/him]

Soulstone may well be Shardicly introduced, and perhaps even Invested somehow, but it's almost certainly not the "rocks that fell from the sky" in that passage. Shai never even implies, let alone says, that that was the origin of using soulstone, or that these rocks that fell from the sky were soulstone. We never get a "soulstone could only be found in meteoric craters, making it unspeakably rare" line, and my reading of the book was such that soulstone seemed to be as rare as ivory or gold, but not as rare as any amount of intact meteoric rock has to be.

Perhaps the rocks that fell from the sky were in fact the bodies of Shards, but I doubt they were made of soulstone.

Funny. I was practically certain that she was talking about soulstone in this passage, and that even if I was wrong about the shardic nature of soulstone, it was a given that the soulstone is the rock her ancestors worshipped. But you are correct in that it is rather vague. However, I should have included the context of this passage, since in the paragraphs directly before and directly after this paragraph, Shai is admiring the soulstamp that she created. You are right in saying that it isn't certain, and you can make a case that it isn't likely.

She remained in place, kneeling. That stamp seemed the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Her ancestors had worshipped rocks that fell from the sky at night. The souls of broken gods, those chunks had been called. Master craftsmen would carve them to bring out the shape. Once, Shai had found that foolish. Why worship something you yourself created?

Kneeling before her masterpiece, she understood. She felt as if she'd bled everything into that stamp. She had pressed two year's worth of effort into three months, then had topped it off with a night of desperate, frantic carving. During that night, she'd made...

In light of this, I think that it's perfectly reasonable for her to be talking about soulstone.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Not that we know of. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we've only seen it used in relation to Forgery. What if an Elantrian carved an Aon into it, or potential applications with Dakhor and Jindo magic? It's like if we only ever saw the Feruchemical effect of atium, which doesn't seem all that odd or powerful, and concluded that it couldn't be related to a Shard because it's not weird enough.

But it doesn't even have super forgery powers. It's *useful* for forgery, but heck, I've got a ball of 'precious metal clay'. It's freely moldable and'll turn into a solid silver model once I stick it in my furnace.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[lil_literalist he/him]

But it doesn't even have super forgery powers. It's *useful* for forgery, but heck, I've got a ball of 'precious metal clay'. It's freely moldable and'll turn into a solid silver model once I stick it in my furnace.

It's not moldable. It is still a stone, but just not very hard or brittle. Think of it as a bunch of sidewalk chalk that's been left out in the rain and has dried out again.

[Satsuoni he/him]

Err... I think he means the fact that it doesn't boost Forging or anything. It cuts cleanly and solidifies then heated. That is about it. As Shai put it, "you could carve a Soulstamp on a turnip, and it would still work." Clay works similarly, and there are many mundane materials that change structure upon heating (like clay), so soulstone might be shardic, or it might be just a fancy name for some mineral.

The unforgeable metal is much weirder in that regard.

And in the passage she merely referred to a fact that she never understood craftsmen worshiping statues they made themselves, until that moment. And, as mentioned above, soulstone seems rathe abundant for something that fell out of the sky, unless Sel was battered by meteoric storm of epic proportions. (Which might have happened when the Shard were shattered).

[RenegadeShroom]

But it doesn't even have super forgery powers. It's *useful* for forgery, but heck, I've got a ball of 'precious metal clay'. It's freely moldable and'll turn into a solid silver model once I stick it in my furnace.

I still wouldn't rule it out. With the atium example again, it's Feruchemical power seems fairly useless without Compounding. So far as we know, we've only seen soulstone in TES, being used only for Forgery. We don't know if it has any potential applications in other Selian magic systems, and if they exist, what they might be.

All I'm saying is, consider that we have so little information about it, and our information about Shardic matter (that is to say, god metals and their equivalents on other worlds) is also rather scarce. Would the Shards being splintered have an effect on their "god-metals", or other things? There's just too little information that we have to dismiss this theory out of hand, I reckon.

Personally, though, I don't believe that soulstone is Shardic in nature. If anything, the substance in the quoted passage seems a better candidate, but we also know next to nothing about that, or if that too is soulstone, or whatever.

[NewbSombrero he/him]

I think the red flecks in soulstone, which are explicitly mentioned in a way that makes me think they're important, may point to a Dominion connection. This of course depends on the Shardic Colors theory. That was the thought I had while reading anyway.

Edited February 9, 2013 by NewbSombrero

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I still wouldn't rule it out. With the atium example again, it's Feruchemical power seems fairly useless without Compounding.

There's a huge difference between 'has a useless magical trait' and 'has no magical trait at all'