IceBaka Posted November 8, 2013 Posted November 8, 2013 Or, I'd guess the Stone Shamans have some suits, even if they don't actually use them. My search fu is not strong, so I'm not really sure if this is something that's come up before. If so, will someone please share a link? Thanks. Anyway, in some of the recent threads a few of you have mentioned Szeth not using plate because it was problematc with his lashings. This prompted me to go back and read the prologue and prelude again to see exactly what he says about it. There were a couple of things that jumped out at me. His Lashings interfered with the gemstones that powered Shardplate... Side note: even though I've read this a couple of times, I always thought the plate interfered with Szeth's lashings, not the other way around. But back to the point. Szeth reached underneath the front of the man's breastplate, tapping the straps there. They unfastened, and he pulled the front of the breastplate free, exposing the gemstones on its interior. Two had been cracked and burned out. Three still glowed. Numb, Szeth breathed in sharply, absorbing the Light. So, there are three things here that Szeth knows: He couldn't lash and wear shardplate at the same time. How to take off the shardplate easily. He knew that all he had to do was tap. He knew where to tap. That shardplate was powered by gems. Or more specifically, where some of those gems would be. That's why he removed the breasplate, to get more stormlight. While #3 (powered by gems) may be more generally known, I have a hard time believing Szeth could know #1 and #2 without having previous experience with shardplate. Perhaps he gained that knowledge as a Truthless slave working and fighting for stonewalkers, but would they have given him shardplate to experiment with. If not, how would he know his lashings interfere with the gems? We know Szeth was trained in a fighting style known as kammar. Presumably, that was in Shinovar before he became Truthless. I speculate that it was during that time that he had exposure to shardplate. Which means the Shin have at least one set of shardplate. How did they get it? If they only have one set, then there are many plausible scenarios for obtaining plate. But what if they have more? This is where my speculation gets a little wild... Maybe the stone shamans have an ability to detect invested objects that have no connection to any people. They could retrieve any blades or plate that have been lost in circumstances where nobody was there to take them up. After thousands of years, they may have a stockpile.
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