cometaryorbit Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 On Scadrial, the 'focus' or whatever for magic is metals. On Roshar, gems are magically significant instead. (HOA Spoiler) Spoiler And solidified Investiture - Shards' solid bodies - takes the form of metals there: atium and lerasium. Since Shardblades are Splinters in physical form, why do they take the form of metal rather than gems - something like Diablo II "Crystal Swords"? It just occurred to me that they aren't - Shallan's sketches look just like regular (if large and fancy) metal swords. I had been envisioning them as blades formed from a single crystal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retsam Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 I think it's because the Spren are imitating the Honorblades, which seem to be actual blades that are physically made of metal. (We don't have a ton of information on them, but this seems to be the case, and certainly the apparent similarities to Nightblood would suggest it) Shardblades, on the other hand, are cognitive realm native entities that are choosing to manifest in the physical realm in the appearance of metal blades, but I don't think they're actually metal, really. Certainly, live shardblades are able to glow in ways that metal doesn't. And I think the spren can transform into other materials other than metal: is the entire Shardblade, including the hilt, metal (or metal appearing)? What about when Syl becomes a spear? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pagerunner he/him Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 The physical manifestations of Investiture, the 'bodies of Shards' so to speak, may take similar forms on all worlds. We've seen three different forms of physical Investiture: gaseous (stormlight, mists), liquid (shardpools), and solid (atium, lerasium, shardblades). It looks to me like the physical form of a Shard is always metallic. Scadrial, with metal being the key to the magic systems, can utilize the god metals directly into those systems, regardless of the other properties of those metals. It might be similar to aluminum - in the rest of the cosmere, it's Investiture-resistant, but on Scadrial it can be used by Allomancers, Feruchemists, and Hemalurgists in addition to being allomantically inert. But the god metals don't exist because of the importance of metal on Scadrial; every Shard might be able to produce a god metal on their world, but only on Scadrial do they tie in so naturally to the magic of that world. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sovereign Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 (edited) @Pagerunner Quote The physical manifestations of Investiture, the 'bodies of Shards' so to speak, may take similar forms on all worlds. We've seen three different forms of physical Investiture: gaseous (stormlight, mists), liquid (shardpools), and solid (atium, lerasium, shardblades). It looks to me like the physical form of a Shard is always metallic. We have reason to believe the Tears of Edgli may be physical manifestations of Endowment's power. Quote Interview: May, 2010 Ancient 17th Shard Question and Answer (Paraphrased) Chaos Is Edgli Endowment's real name? Brandon Sanderson RAFO, however the flowers are related to Endowment somehow... (<- Emphasis mine) Tags warbreaker, shards, endowment, As @Argent mentioned I confirmed in my copy of Elantris Anniversary edition that Edgli is indeed Endowment's Vessel. Quote Interview: Aug 4th, 2014 WOR-London Question What would happen if you made a cup of tea from the Flowers of Edgli? Brandon Sanderson You would have a very interesting cup of tea. Tags edgli, spot of tea, With that said, they may just be regular flowers that were invested due to their proximity to Edgli's Perpendicularity. Edited October 3, 2016 by Iron Eyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argent he/him Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 I believe @Retsam has the truth of it. @Iron Eyes, somebody - recently - confirmed that Edgli is Endowment's Vessel's name. I am about 98% sure of this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argel he/him Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 18 minutes ago, Argent said: @Iron Eyes, somebody - recently - confirmed that Edgli is Endowment's Vessel's name. I am about 98% sure of this. Rings a bell with met too. Maybe from a book personalization? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sovereign Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 (edited) 2 hours ago, Argent said: I believe @Retsam has the truth of it. @Iron Eyes, somebody - recently - confirmed that Edgli is Endowment's Vessel's name. I am about 98% sure of this. It was me. I had referenced that WoB because of the other part of Brandon's answer... I have clarified it in my post. Edited October 3, 2016 by Iron Eyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cometaryorbit Posted October 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 Yeah, I agree that probably means Tears of Edgli are Endowment's "body"/physically manifested Investiture. As for the 'very interesting cup of tea', I'm thinking that ingesting them wouldn't likely do anything - they're special only when used in Awakening, just as (HOA spoilers) Spoiler atium has to be used in the Metallic Arts - a non-Allomancer eating atium wouldn't get any magical effect. On 10/2/2016 at 11:53 PM, Retsam said: I think it's because the Spren are imitating the Honorblades, which seem to be actual blades that are physically made of metal. (We don't have a ton of information on them, but this seems to be the case, and certainly the apparent similarities to Nightblood would suggest it) Shardblades, on the other hand, are cognitive realm native entities that are choosing to manifest in the physical realm in the appearance of metal blades, but I don't think they're actually metal, really. Certainly, live shardblades are able to glow in ways that metal doesn't. And I think the spren can transform into other materials other than metal: is the entire Shardblade, including the hilt, metal (or metal appearing)? What about when Syl becomes a spear? That makes sense. But if the Shardblades are just that way because of copying Honorblades, what would the 'natural' solid form of Shardic Investiture on Roshar be? Maybe gemhearts are 'Cultivation's body'? Yeah, it seems live spren can become other things, but a dead Shardblade seems to be metallic in nature - there's a WOB about Steelpushing/Ironpulling on them that says they'd be hard to push on because they're Invested, but they're 'metal enough' for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir of the Void he/him Posted October 8, 2016 Report Share Posted October 8, 2016 I'd weigh in favor of the solid-physical manifestation of a Shard being typically metallic, or prehaps 'defaulting' to that state if there is no reason for it/them to appear differently. In large part this is simply because the extreme similarity between Stormlight and Mist; both are described as white vapor with not-quite-natural behavior. The only real difference is that Stormlight glows, but that could simply be a consequence of the fact that Stormlight seems to be much more concentrated than Mist. The same behavior is observed between Devotion's Pool and the Well of Ascension, the only two liquid-physical forms of a Shard we have signfigant observational information on. Both appear as pools of clear-unnatural liquid, with the much more dramatically powerful pool glowing. Unless I am very much mistaken, we've never seen a sample of the Tears. We don't know anything about their physical properties or behavior, let alone their natural state, the method of collection, and so on. The only thing we know for sure is that they are a valuable dye and that they are somehow connected to Endowment. I don't feel like that's enough information to use in any sort of solid judgment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts