Double-layering Shardplate?

[Irkutsk he/him]

We know that a suit of Shardplate will mold to it's wearer over time, evidenced by Eshonai's plate fitting over her Warform carapace. (I believe it is stated as well, but I need a quote on that)

So the all-important question is, would it be possible to mold a suit of plate to fit over another suit of plate, thereby gaining twice the benefits and becoming NIGH-UNSTOPPABLE?

[Nyali she/her]

There's no "over time" to it. Recall Kaladin sticking his arm into a Shardplate helmet and having it mold itself to his hand like a weirdly shaped glove. The Shardplate melds automatically to people. But, I'd expect that Shardplate, which interferes with and blocks investiture, would block the second Shardplate from melding properly. I'd imagine that, even if it succeeded in molding itself around the other suit, it would just fall off.

[BrightVoid he/him]

The shardplate only forms around humans, otherwise we would have noticed it binding to all the tables and stools that you sat it on.  Double layering would probably not work, and we don't know that much about how they are made too assume more about them.

[Vander]

Upvote for "NIGH UNSTOPPABLE." I don't know why, but I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

[Nyali she/her]

The shardplate only forms around humans, otherwise we would have noticed it binding to all the tables and stools that you sat it on.  Double layering would probably not work, and we don't know that much about how they are made too assume more about them.

 

The counterargument to that is that people wear padded clothing under the shardplate and it still melds just fine over the clothing. So, if that is fine, why not full armor under there? I actually think that you could meld full plate under the shardplate if you really wanted to, but that's pointless, heavy, and ineffective (blows could still deform your full plate underneath the shardplate from the force that translates through the plate (despite that force being severely dampened), eventually causing the plate to become a detriment over time. Also, why wear flimsy, heavy, crappy plate under the best armor ever made?).

 

Wearing a full suit of shardplate underneath though, I think the problem there is really with the investiture blocking aspects of the plate. Like, the outer suit of plate won't be able to sense and bond with the human under the inner plate because the inner plate interferes.

[galendo]

It's a cool idea, but unless the strength-boosting properties stack, there's no real benefit to having a second set of Plate.  Shardplate, we know, is really heavy (it has to be put on from the bottom up, so that the wearer isn't crushed by the weight), so lugging around a whole second set of plate on top of the first seems like it'd slow you down quite a bit.

 

And for what?  You'd get some extra defense for having a second set of Plate, since now your opponents have to break through two sets -- but you'd be way better off giving the second set to a trusted ally (see Adolin vis-a-vis Dalinar, though technically IIRC Adolin inherited his Plate from his mother) and making your opponents fight two shardbearers at once.

[BrightVoid he/him]

It's a cool idea, but unless the strength-boosting properties stack, there's no real benefit to having a second set of Plate.  Shardplate, we know, is really heavy (it has to be put on from the bottom up, so that the wearer isn't crushed by the weight), so lugging around a whole second set of plate on top of the first seems like it'd slow you down quite a bit.

 

And for what?  You'd get some extra defense for having a second set of Plate, since now your opponents have to break through two sets -- but you'd be way better off giving the second set to a trusted ally (see Adolin vis-a-vis Dalinar, though technically IIRC Adolin inherited his Plate from his mother) and making your opponents fight two shardbearers at once.

Adolin his plate from Shshshshsh?

[Nashan’Elin he/him]

Adolin his plate from Shshshshsh?

Probably her side of the family

[Rasarr she/her]

Adolin his plate from Shshshshsh?

 

Yep. It's been mentioned in WoK, and in WoR it was said he wagered his mother's Plate in his duel for a Blade.

[A Windspren he/him]

Yep. It's been mentioned in WoK, and in WoR it was said he wagered his mother's Plate in his duel for a Blade.

 

I have a theory that Shshshsh is Cultivation, or maybe the Nightwatcher (as it's spelled in both books, Shshshsh has the same number of syllables as Cultivation, so yeah).

 

I have a second theory that the spren that make up Shardblades are either of Honor and Cultivation (well, that is confirmed) and the spren that make up Shardplate (a separate theory) are of the other Shard, so you would have Syl making up a Shardblade (an Honorspren, of Honor) and windspren making up Shardplate (naturespren, which are of Cultivation).

 

Anyway, if Shshshsh is Cultivation, she could have actually made a new set of Plate for Adolin, or maybe used her Shard powers to get ahold of an already existing set.

 

Okay, so in one of Dalinar's visions, he says that one of the Radiant's sets of Plate looks like Adolin's, so it's more likely that Cultivation just used Shard powers to "recover" the Plate from whoever owned it.

[Rasarr she/her]

I have a theory that Shshshsh is Cultivation, or maybe the Nightwatcher (as it's spelled in both books, Shshshsh has the same number of syllables as Cultivation, so yeah).

 

While I like this theory, the reading Brandon was giving while on Calamity tour points in another direction. Can we actually discuss things said at readings? I mean, there is a recording available... Anyway

In the Dalinar flashback, Gavilar and Navani intend to marry Dalinar off to a sister of an Iriali (? golden-haired) nobleman whom Gavilar grants something like political asylum (or was it money?) in exchange for his Plate and Blade. Unless Cultivation can convince a man that he's known her all his life as his sister, your theory might not be very probable.

 

This being said, the idea about spren making Plate and Blade being from opposing "sides" is interesting.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Rasarr

[A Windspren he/him]

While I like this theory, the reading Brandon was giving while on Calamity tour points in another direction. Can we actually discuss things said at readings? I mean, there is a recording available... Anyway

In the Dalinar flashback, Gavilar and Navani intend to marry Dalinar off to a sister of an Iriali (? golden-haired) nobleman whom Gavilar grants something like political asylum (or was it money?) in exchange for his Plate and Blade. Unless Cultivation can convince a man that he's known her all his life as his sister, your theory might not be very probable.

 

This being said, the idea about spren making Plate and Blade being from opposing "sides" is interesting.

 

Well, Cultivation could have just faked the nobleman and his sister. Yeah, this is getting really overcomplicated.