Important Discovery by Interlude Character

[cem he/him]

This has probably been discussed before but I came across a very interesting quote while I was looking through the Theoryland interview database:

http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=533#9

YetiStomper
The Way of Kings serves mostly as an introduction to the world of The Stormlight Archives but only hints at the larger story arc. With the long wait before Book 2, can you provide hungry fans with any teasers?

Brandon Sanderson
What Jasnah is trying to do in this book becomes very important to the next two books. That's a very big teaser. The second book will delve much more deeply into the magic; particularly, Shadesmar will be much more of an important aspect. I don't want to give spoilers.
A lot more magic. I'm telling the story about the awakening of an Age of Legends-style world of mechanical magic, and you can look forward to seeing a lot more of that. We only hint at it here. A very important discovery was made by some characters in a random interlude that will have long-lasting ramifications.

It's an interesting answer by Brandon all around but I'd only like to talk about the last sentence. It's not exactly certain but it feels to me like Brandon's talking about the return of Surgebinding here.
 
First, I want to start by eliminating characters that I don't think is our innovative culprit here:

• Szeth: Brandon specifically says "random interlude" and I don't think the Szeth interludes can be classified as such. They are like character development chapters for Szeth but not necessarily important to the overall plot of the book. Additionally, I can't think of anything important Szeth discovered in the interludes. Most important things are in his regular chapters.
• Nan Balat: No discovery here. The chapter shows how screwed up the Davar children are.
• Ishikk: Again no discovery, not one that is important to the plot anyway. It shows a different part of the world, expands Hoid's story a bit and introduces us to the Seventeenth Shard. Important for cosmere probably, but not much for Roshar. Also Galladon is back, so that's good.
• Baxil: There is some stuff about Old Magic here, but I don't think this is it either. I think this just shows us Shalash.

So what's left and what do they discover?

• Rysn
  • No spren in Shinovar
  • Shin culture, He Who Adds, farmers being ranked highest, no mining
  • Szeth becoming Truthless and being sold to Vstim

• Axies the Collector
  • Alespren
  • Cusicesh
• Geranid and Ashir
  • Spren size and shape are locked if they are measured and recorded

Note that, all three discover something about spren.
 
Which do you guys think is what Brandon was talking about? Can you think of anything else?

[Altonahk]

Alespren will obviously prove to be the downfall of Odium, Unite the shards, and turn everybody into Power-Rangers!!!

 

Seriously, considering that Fabrials use captured spren to work.... the ability to control spren by "defining" them could be huge.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

I think it is referring to the quantum-locking of spren discovered in Geranid/Ashir interlude, it is what the phraseology indicates.  Out of your last three candidates (I agree with discounting the others) they are the only ones that actually make a discovery.  Rysn is just learning preexisting knowledge, the only thing that could be construed as a "discovery" is Vstim having held Szeth's oathstone but that feels more like an easter egg than something with "long-lasting ramifications".  And Axies... He is more collecting knowledge?  If that makes sense?  And nothing that he learns in the interlude fits with the requirement of "long-lasting ramifications.
 
Also Geranid/Ashir are the only ones of the last three that could really count as "random" since both Rysn and Axies are planned to show up again. 

They already make an appearance in WoR and it has been implied that it will not be the last we see of either of them.

[The Rooster he/him]

Alespren will obviously prove to be the downfall of Odium, Unite the shards, and turn everybody into Power-Rangers!!!

Seriously, considering that Fabrials use captured spren to work.... the ability to control spren by "defining" them could be huge.

Agreed.. I remember reading this chapter for the first time and thinking. "is he really attributing quantum mechanical electron level principals to spren?!.. This is not random or unimportant"

[Aether he/him]

• Geranid and Ashir
  • Spren size and shape are locked if they are measured and recorded

I am fairly certain he was talking about the Geranid and Ashir chapter. Given that Fabrials are basically trapped Spren, and that the brightness, pattern the light makes and several other attributes are what decides the effect of any given Fabrial, this could have huge implications for future studies and inventions in the artifabrian community.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

I'm going to put my probably worthless opinion here. I agree with everyone else that it is most likely to be discovering how to control spren. I can see this being a huge part of the magic.

[Shardbearer he/him]

"Hmm, we need a fabrial that a person can pilot through the air."

 

"Oh, we've got thousands of spren locked up in this room with different recorded configurations. Experiment with those until find one that works."

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Yeah I definitely think it was the 'Quantum Spren' interlude. Those are very important implications. I really hope we get follow-up Interludes in following books, I am very interested in the development of that research.

[Natans he/him]

I vote fo Geranid and Ashir.

 

Thinking about this all fabrials lack a certain level control, like they give heat of move things but there aren't really great precision there.  If you could define the power output or define with precision the efects of that a fabrial could generate you would have a pretty cool pseudo-tecnology setting here.

 

I already imaging a fight in the futre with "Roshar space slip ship" and a "Scandrial time-dilating travel ship" =)

 

Crossing finger for they invent some form of gun spren powered weapon.=)

 

 

Like a "Gravitational Accelaration Honor Assault Gun" .44 " GagaG. 44  The ketek gun

 

PS: For the fun a googled the accelaration in G of a bullet and this was what Dr. Wiki told me.

31 000 G 9 × 19 Parabellum handgun bullet (average along the length of the barrel)

To make a Gravitational spren gun, we need a gem to lash the bullet in the direction of the target at 31 000 G.

 

Szeth lashead a big rock about 20 G ( i don't remember exactly).  Let says that the weight of the object is important. and let say that the rock was 1/2 Ton (500KG a conservative number). Let also say that a have bullet 10g, so =)

 

500Kg = 500,000g

 

500,000(block weight) / 10(bullet wight) = 5000 to 1 ratio

 

 

If you could lash 500,000g about 20 times applying the weight ratio a bullet could be lashed 

 

20(lash paradigm) X 5000(weight ratio) = 100,000 (lashs or G)

 

And we now have the math to a functional Lash/Gravitational gun =)

 

 

Now we only need trap a honor spren and bond it in a way that he lashs everthing in one direction(the diretion that the barrel is pointing) with the around 30,000 G (a possible number). 

 

Tcharammm Ketek gun =)

 

PSS: I'm only joking people =)

Edited December 15, 2013 by Natans

[Gloom he/him]

Alespren will obviously prove to be the downfall of Odium, Unite the shards, and turn everybody into Power-Rangers!!!

 

Seriously, considering that Fabrials use captured spren to work.... the ability to control spren by "defining" them could be huge.

 

I think you were on the right track until you got all serious. Alespren will change the world. Axies will introduce the Alespren to the Parsh and they will all take on the hobo form which makes them immune to Odiums influence.

 

If I'm wrong, and it was those zany artifabrian scientists that were important, then it should be noted that a guass rifle is based on magnetics, but could just as easily be actuated through gravity manipulation. set a projectile in a long tube and accelerate it to about 20 gravities and you have a very deadly weapon. At those velocities each projectile would create an explosive impact that could rip through the ranks of thunderclasts with ease.

[+eveorjoy she/her]

• Geranid and Ashir
  • Spren size and shape are locked if they are measured and recorded

 

I think this is the important thing. From the Lift's Interlude from WOR, released by Tor, we know that Spren are from the cognitive realm.

 

Now, jumping to a quote from another story of the Cosmere, "The Emperor's Soul" page 53:

 

“All things exist in three Realms, Gaotona. Physical, Cognitive, Spiritual. The Physical is what we feel, what is before us. The Cognitive is how an object is viewed and how it views itself. The Spiritual Realm contains an object’s soul— its essence— as well as the ways it is connected to the things and people around it.”

 

So measuring a spren defines how a spren is viewed and locks it in that form.

 

The other two facts are interesting, but only Geranid and Ashir's discovery relates to the truths of the cosmere.

 

Edit: To be clear, I'm not saying the important discovery is in Lift's Interlude. I brought it up to point out why Geranid and Ashir's interlude is so important.

Edited December 18, 2013 by eveorjoy

[marianmi]

I wonder if this will be the thing that will turn the tide in the Desolation - locking the corrupted spren in their shape, such that they can't become thunderclasts or something else...

[Aether he/him]

I think this is the important thing. From the Lift's Interlude from WOR, released by Tor, we know that Spren are from the cognitive realm.

I don't know if we can call this "a discovery" though, as Wyndle is simply talking at a completely uninterested Lift.

[+eveorjoy she/her]

I don't know if we can call this "a discovery" though, as Wyndle is simply talking at a completely uninterested Lift.

 

That wasn't the discovery I was referring too; I merely brought that up to point out that we, the readers, learn spren are from Shadesmar, the cognitive realm, in that interlude.

 

The discovery by a random character that has long-lasting ramifications is the discovery by Geranid that measuring spren locks them into a shape,

[dj26792 he/him]

Considering the interview is from 2010 I would guess that it is almost definitely a book 1 interlude, not  words of radiance... 

 

But i agree that the lift interlude contains some pretty interesting stuff.

[Mr_Doe]

Agreed.. I remember reading this chapter for the first time and thinking. "is he really attributing quantum mechanical electron level principals to spren?!.. This is not random or unimportant"

Two points:

 

1)  The things in quantum mechanics about the observer affecting the outcome have to do with the instantaneous collapse of the wave function and some other stuff I'm not going to get into, in short it is for physical reasons (whereas the fictional spren seem to be affected by thought).

 

2)  The discovery made in the TWoK seems to be in agreement with the reveal in the preview chapter with Shallan where she describes spren as "living ideas".  This means that the idea is causing the spren to be "locked" into a certain size/state/whatever.  This makes sense given what we know about shadesmar so far (it being the cognative realm and home of the spren), it only makes sense that ideas can influence them.  The key point in this discovery seems to be the part about writing it down versus just saying it.  Both are ideas so to speak, but only the action of writing it down affected the spren, which seems to hint at a larger underlying mechanic that I haven't made sense of yet.

 

lmk what you guys got out of that interlude!

Edited February 12, 2014 by Mr_Doe

[Macen he/him]

I think all of you guys talking about quantum gibberish is making my head hurt. I'm going to go take an Aspren now.

[cris34b he/him]

I wonder what qualities you can lock into or change about Spren, since you can lock in anything that is possible, aka give it a size within a range it can manage. Here is a list with some interesting potential, you guys give me a yes or a no on each.

 

1. Size: How big is it?

2. Shape: What does it look like? (This has some interesting possibilities with changing spren like artspren)

3. Color: What shade/color (Flamespren cannot be green. /cry) 

4. Translucency: is it see through?

5. Reflective: Can I turn a spren into a mirror?

6. Movement: Is it moving in a specific way? (Falling, marching, breaking, perfectly still, etc. Could you use this to move a spren from one location to another, which brings up another one.

7. Location: Could I write down coordinates and teleport the spren away? Perhaps the coordinates have to be in a close location the spren could have moved to on it's own, or perhaps it has to be possible to get to (Not in a closed container)

8. Tangibility: Can I touch it? Because I wanna touch it.

9. Visibility: Invisispren.

 

Note, if you can change both location and tangibility, could you make a spren tangible, grab it, and then have someone teleport it to get a cheap knockoff of the Transportation Surge? Probably not, but it'd be funny to watch the scientists try.

 

Edit: visibility is probably too similar to translucency to keep there, but I won't change it for the sake of the original idea.

Edited February 13, 2014 by cris34b

[AerionBFII he/him]

I think all of you guys talking about quantum gibberish is making my head hurt. I'm going to go take an Aspren now.

See what you did there.....clever..

[Nightblade]

On 12/14/2013 at 0:15 PM, cem said:

This has probably been discussed before but I came across a very interesting quote while I was looking through the Theoryland interview database:

It's an interesting answer by Brandon all around but I'd only like to talk about the last sentence. It's not exactly certain but it feels to me like Brandon's talking about the return of Surgebinding here.
 
First, I want to start by eliminating characters that I don't think is our innovative culprit here:

• Szeth: Brandon specifically says "random interlude" and I don't think the Szeth interludes can be classified as such. They are like character development chapters for Szeth but not necessarily important to the overall plot of the book. Additionally, I can't think of anything important Szeth discovered in the interludes. Most important things are in his regular chapters.
• Nan Balat: No discovery here. The chapter shows how screwed up the Davar children are.
• Ishikk: Again no discovery, not one that is important to the plot anyway. It shows a different part of the world, expands Hoid's story a bit and introduces us to the Seventeenth Shard. Important for cosmere probably, but not much for Roshar. Also Galladon is back, so that's good.
• Baxil: There is some stuff about Old Magic here, but I don't think this is it either. I think this just shows us Shalash.

So what's left and what do they discover?

• Rysn
  • No spren in Shinovar
  • Shin culture, He Who Adds, farmers being ranked highest, no mining
  • Szeth becoming Truthless and being sold to Vstim

• Axies the Collector
  • Alespren
  • Cusicesh
• Geranid and Ashir
  • Spren size and shape are locked if they are measured and recorded

Note that, all three discover something about spren.
 
Which do you guys think is what Brandon was talking about? Can you think of anything else?

Rysn's babsk has a yellow gemstone that glows and pulses when people are nearby, That same gemstone shows up in the Secrets of Mistborn with the Eyree.                            Baxil's mistress is athe world jumper known as Khriss. In this interlude she was destroying art I think she was looking for stamps from Emperors Soul.                                                                                                                                        

[asterion137 he/him]

that guy who got a black stone from the nightwatcher is my first guess

[Eki]

1 hour ago, Nightblade said:

Baxil's mistress is athe world jumper known as Khriss. In this interlude she was destroying art I think she was looking for stamps from Emperors Soul.

The prevalent theory is that she is Shalash. There are other references to destroyed art of Shalash in particular (for example on the night Galivar was assassinated, the statue of Shalash was destroyed while the other Herald statues were whole). It also fits with the theory that the Heralds have turned into corruptions of their former selves. I think there are other major hints I'm forgetting, as well. And if Khriss wanted to find soulstamps on Roshar for some reason, I think she would rather steal the artwork than destroy it.

[Darkness he/him]

N-n-n-n-necro!

[Nightblade]

12 hours ago, Eki said:

The prevalent theory is that she is Shalash. There are other references to destroyed art of Shalash in particular (for example on the night Galivar was assassinated, the statue of Shalash was destroyed while the other Herald statues were whole). It also fits with the theory that the Heralds have turned into corruptions of their former selves. I think there are other major hints I'm forgetting, as well. And if Khriss wanted to find soulstamps on Roshar for some reason, I think she would rather steal the artwork than destroy it.

That might be true but, Kriss is described with the same clothing style and skin color from the White Sand book. Kriss also likes formal names like Mistress or Duchess. 

And Kriss dosent seem to be the kind of person to take paintings for keepsakes, Say she was hunting a forger down destroying the art wold be the easiest way to find forgeries

[Blightsong he/him]

Yea, i think he is talking about WoR here. Wverything else in the paragraph is ablut WoR, it would be weird if he suddenly switched to talking about WoK.

 

This is probably about Stormform.