Cymatics (spoilers, maybe, I don't know.)

[Turos he/him]

She shook her head. “What are the chances that a series of plateaus would take the exact same shape as those on another part of the Plains? Not just one, but an entire sequence . . .” “The Plains are symmetrical,” Kaladin said. She froze. “How do you know that?” “I . . . it was a dream. I saw the plateaus arrayed in a wide symmetrical formation.” She looked back at her map, then gasped. She began scribbling notes on the side. “Cymatics.”

Sanderson, Brandon (2014-03-04). Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2) (p. 846). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

 

 

What are cymatics?

 

Have a look:

Video

 

 

Cymatics (from Greek: κῦμα "wave") is the study of visible sound co vibration, a subset of modal phenomena. Typically the surface of a plate, diaphragm, or membrane is vibrated, and regions of maximum and minimum displacement are made visible in a thin coating of particles, paste, or liquid.^[1] Different patterns emerge in the excitatory medium depending on the geometry of the plate and the driving frequency.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics

 

So if Shallan is correct, the plains weren't shattered by a normal earthquake. A specific frequency shook the ground, perhaps from a loud, clear note that could be heard for miles. Do we know of anything that could create such a sound, aimed at or originating at, above, or beneath the surface of the center of the Shattered Plains?

 

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On another note, this video is just plain cool:

Video

Edited May 26, 2015 by Turos

[Redbird he/him]

I don't know, but dawnsingers might have something to do with this.

[DreamEternal]

And the listener songs say that whatever shattered the plains wasn't of their gods.

[Voidus]

The Listeners live there too so I think you may be on the right track.

[Zea mays she/her]

So is Hoid. Remember, he really wanted Kal to learn to play that flute...

Music is somehow a great power on Roshar. The right song can summon an everstorm. Could another dispell it?

[Voidus]

Could another cause everyone to do the hockey pokey at the same time?

[Varyn he/him]

Could another cause everyone to do the hockey pokey at the same time?

And you turn around. That's what it's all about.

[Zea mays she/her]

Could another cause everyone to do the hockey pokey at the same time?

Egads! Is this Odium's ultimate plan! Run! Run! Hide the children!

[Turos he/him]

From the Way of Kings in chapter 33, which happens to be titled Cymatics.

 

Kabsal sprinkled white, powdery sand on the sheet of metal, coating it. Then he got out a bow, the kind drawn across strings to make music.

 

“You came prepared for this demonstration, I see,” Shallan noted. “You really did want to make your case to Jasnah.”

 

He smiled, then drew the bow across the edge of the metal plate, making it vibrate. The sand hopped and bounced, like tiny insects dropped onto something hot.

 

“This,” he said, “is called cymatics. The study of the patterns that sounds make when interacting with a physical medium.”

 

As he drew the bow again, the plate made a sound, almost a pure note. It was actually enough to draw a single musicspren, which spun for a moment in the air above him, then vanished. Kabsal finished, then gestured to the plate with a flourish.

 

“So…?” Shallan asked.

 

“Kholinar,” he said, holding up his book for comparison.

 

Shallan cocked her head. The pattern in the sand looked exactly like Kholinar.

 

He dropped more sand on the plate and then drew the bow across it at another point and the sand rearranged itself.

 

“Vedenar,” he said.

 

She compared again. It was an exact match.

 

“Thaylen City,” he said, repeating the process at another spot. He carefully chose another point on the plate’s edge and bowed it one final time. “Akinah. Shallan, proof of the Almighty’s existence is in the very cities we live in. Look at the perfect symmetry!”

 

She had to admit, there was something compelling about the patterns. “It could be a false correlation. Both caused by the same thing.”

 

“Yes. The Almighty,” he said, sitting. “Our very language is symmetrical. Look at the glyphs— each one can be folded in half perfectly. And the alphabet too. Fold any line of text down across itself, and you’ll find symmetry. Surely you know the story, that both glyphs and letters came from the Dawnsingers?”

Sanderson, Brandon (2010-08-31). The Way of Kings (pp. 510-511). Macmillan. Kindle Edition.

 

Its a recurring theme.

[Blaze1616 he/him]

Just thought I'd like to point out that the cause of the Shattering is the collision of the Everstorm and a Highstorm. It's right in WoR, though Sanderson deftly states it and continues on as though nothing happened. I don't recall exactly where it is, but it's during the climax, and the line is something along the lines of "and the Plains shattered once more."

[Turos he/him]

Words of Radiance, chapter 87, The Riddens:

 

The Shattered Plains had been shattered again. Kaladin strolled across them with Szeth’s Shardblade on his shoulder. He passed heaps of rock and fresh cracks in the ground. Enormous puddles like small lakes shimmered amid huge chunks of broken stone. Just to his left, an entire plateau had crumbled into the chasms around it. The jagged, ripped-up base of the plateau had a black, charred cast to it. “This is going to happen again?” Kaladin said. “That other storm is still out there?” “Yes,” Syl said, sitting on his shoulder. “A new storm. It’s not of us, but of him.” “Will it be this bad every time it passes?” Kaladin asked, surveying the wreckage. Of the plateaus he could see, only the one had been destroyed completely. But if the storm could do that to pure rock, what would it do to a city? Particularly since it blew the wrong way. Stormfather . . . Laits would no longer be laits. Buildings that had been constructed to face away from the storms would suddenly be exposed. “I don’t know,” Syl said softly. “This is a new thing, Kaladin. Not from before. I don’t know how it happened or what it means. Hopefully, it won’t be this bad except when a highstorm and an everstorm crash into each other.”

Sanderson, Brandon (2014-03-04). Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, Book 2) (pp. 1043-1044). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

 

Excellent point Blaze1616! Hmm. If I remember right, the Everstorm travels at a different speed than a highstorm, right? If so, this will happen all over the world. I wonder why the Shattered Plains were shattered in the first place, and only the Shattered Plains, at least only the evidence surviving there.

 

That's strange though, now that I think of it. The way cymatics works, mass gathers around specific areas, which happen to form symmetry. I guess if the earth was compact enough, it would simply split.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Turos

[Blaze1616 he/him]

I don't think they travel at different speeds. At least, I don't ever recall seeing anything hinting at such.

[DreamEternal]

It is said by the stormfather that the everstorm would come periodicaly like an highstorm, but less frequently, so it is slower. Plus, the way the plains originaly shattered doens't fit with the collision of storms, wich threw plateaus into the sky, something very diferent from turning stone to dust along weakened lines and blowing it away. And the listener songs say that it wasn't their gods who shattered the plains.

In general, I believe it is quite unlikely the breaking of the plains was caused by the storms.

Plus, the stormfather says the Everstorm is something new, and Hoid says this desolation is not like the others.

Edited May 27, 2015 by CognitivePulsePattern

[SedatedDragon]

I've always had the impression that Cultivation is behind a lot of this. Perhaps even the power of Shardplate. I mean, it even matches perfectly of what I'd imagine her Shardic Intent would be...long term protection and growth.

I like to think that Fabrials, representing a fantasy-equivalent of advanced technology, are also brilliantly aligned with ideal, long term progression and creation.

I'm not near my books right now so I'm going off memory alone here...but Navani did say that they've proved the gemstones on Shardblades weren't originally part of the weapons, and some writings even mentioned that they'd changed shape to adopt (we know that living ones can).

It would paint a suitably poetic picture...Honor arming men and Cultivation protecting them in their fight against Odium.

Now, about Cymatics. I think this could be tied with Cultivation's power. How? I've no idea. But I now recall Shallan, as she's struggling to discover instructions for her stolen Soulcaster, coming across an idle comment that "humming, of all things, was said to make the transformation more effective". We've also seen the ardents in book 2 create a stone breakwall, while singing together. The Parshendi sing; they tune in to Rhythms that only they can hear. The major cities (or rather, the stones that protect them) mimic the behavior of sounds through a physical medium.

damnation this man. He gives us SO MANY PIECES but still not enough to connect any yet. It's maddeningly genius.

I admit I've looked none of this up. It could have been talked about a thousand times over by now. If it has...my bad.

[StoneWalker he/him]

When Jasnah soulcasts the huge stone in Kharbranth, there's this:

Shallan heard a sound. A low thrumming, like a distant group of voices, humming together a single, pure note. Jasnah’s hand sank into the rock. The stone vanished

It's not much, but a single, pure note? Sounds like there might be at least one surge capable of cymatic interaction.

[DreamEternal]

There is a parshendi song that says it is possible to blend the surges of Men to theirs, and it has happened before. This points towards the theory that the parshendi bonded with surgespren in the past, perhaps because of a pact with Honor and Cultivation that they would gain powers so long as they helped humans adapt to Roshar, becoming the dawnsingers. Sadly, after humanity was ready, and the dawncities built, the surgespren started to bond humans, and left the parshendi with their old forms. Them Odium came.

As additional, very doubtful and circunstantial evidence, there is the fact that both dawnsingers and voidbringers are believed to be some sort of spren by most of the rosharan populacy.

Edited May 28, 2015 by CognitivePulsePattern

[Blaze1616 he/him]

It is said by the stormfather that the everstorm would come periodicaly like an highstorm, but less frequently, so it is slower. Plus, the way the plains originaly shattered doens't fit with the collision of storms, wich threw plateaus into the sky, something very diferent from turning stone to dust along weakened lines and blowing it away. And the listener songs say that it wasn't their gods who shattered the plains.

In general, I believe it is quite unlikely the breaking of the plains was caused by the storms.

 

Keep in mind that when the Plains first Shattered, they could only have "shattered" if they were whole before. As such, the first instance "Shattered" the Plains, then the second time completely demolished them. It's like a battering ram. Just because you don't break through with the first swing does not mean it is hopeless. Keep swinging, weakening the structure, and eventually you will get through.

[DreamEternal]

So the listener songs are lying, the everstorm is not something new, and it dissipated before being able to go around the world and colide with the highstorm somewhere else? Seems too overcomplicated and confusing, even for Sanderson.

[Redbird he/him]

I've always had the impression that Cultivation is behind a lot of this. Perhaps even the power of Shardplate. I mean, it even matches perfectly of what I'd imagine her Shardic Intent would be...long term protection and growth.

I like to think that Fabrials, representing a fantasy-equivalent of advanced technology, are also brilliantly aligned with ideal, long term progression and creation.

I'm not near my books right now so I'm going off memory alone here...but Navani did say that they've proved the gemstones on Shardblades weren't originally part of the weapons, and some writings even mentioned that they'd changed shape to adopt (we know that living ones can).

It would paint a suitably poetic picture...Honor arming men and Cultivation protecting them in their fight against Odium.

Shardplate being of cultivation would make sense, especially since the heralds, who are splinters of honor, do not have any.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Shardplate being of cultivation would make sense, especially since the heralds, who are splinters of honor, do not have any.

 

The Heralds are not Splinters of Honor, the honorblades are.

[Redbird he/him]

Oh, well they did make a contract with Honor specifically, so that still works with what I meant.

[natc]

We don't know who first created them though. Hell, we don't know if they're even the local species of human. What they have contracts with aside they could be made of anything. You can probably slap shardplate on them without weirdness.

Edited May 29, 2015 by natc

[Turos he/him]

Unless they are mistwraiths. Then it would totally be weird.

[natc]

Shardbearer mistwraiths are legit.

Also accidentally upvoted you somehow (silly phone), but I'll sound like a jerk asking someone to fix it so you can keep the upvote.

[Turos he/him]

Don't worry. Most of my reputation comes from touch screen bumps. That's how I stopped worrying and learned to love the touch screen, then proceeded to hack the mobile skin so that my upvote button has a hidden touch zone that covers about half of any screen, but you didn't hear that from me.