Nalthian Shardplate

[Calderis he/him]

We know that in Awakening, the mental images, and intent behind a given command are just as, if not more, important as the command itself. 

So if you were to take a suit of plate armor, and were of a heighten to invest Awaken metal and uses a command like "enhance my strength and senses" I think you could make a pretty effective analog to Shardplate. 

The armor is already mostly human shaped. The investiture itself should enhance the protective qualities of the armor. The command should allow you to gain the strength and tactile sensations similar to Shardplate if you are capable of envisioning it correctly. 

As long as you don't accidentally make a humanoid Nightblood, I think it could work fairly well. 

Edited June 15, 2017 by Calderis

[Crucible of Shards he/him]

If you made a humanoid Nightblood, would it be able to walk around... or, dare I say it, use Nightblood?! Also, it would be very painful and expensive to put on. Talk about fancy pants.

[+hwiles He/Him]

We do know that Nightblood can transmit thought to its wielder and enhance their physical abilities, which, in my opinion, demonstrates that your proposed strength/sensory enhancing super armor ought to be possible.

I do see a couple issues though:

1. In order to enhance the wearer, the armor would probably have to establish a bond with them on the spiritual level, as this is how Nightblood appears to function.  Meaning: it would probably have to be sentient and you couldn't get the Breath back once committed.
2. In most cases, I would think that a few squads of Kalad's phantom-type monsters would offer better protection from harm for a equal or lesser amount of Breath
3. You couldn't swim in it, and the region around Hallandren is loosely modeled after Hawaii.  I'd rather awaken a surfboard, but that's purely a matter of opinion 

[Calderis he/him]

23 minutes ago, hwiles said:

In order to enhance the wearer, the armor would probably have to establish a bond with them on the spiritual level, as this is how Nightblood appears to function.  Meaning: it would probably have to be sentient and you couldn't get the Breath back once committed.

I disagree. We see Vasher use his clothing to strengthen his limbs. I think that the armor could do the same for the wearer. The point is to not make a Nightblood armor. Armor that sucks your soul out when you wear it would be... Bad. 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1 hour ago, hwiles said:

In order to enhance the wearer, the armor would probably have to establish a bond with them on the spiritual level, as this is how Nightblood appears to function.  Meaning: it would probably have to be sentient and you couldn't get the Breath back once committed.

45 minutes ago, Calderis said:

I disagree. We see Vasher use his clothing to strengthen his limbs. I think that the armor could do the same for the wearer. The point is to not make a Nightblood armor. Armor that sucks your soul out when you wear it would be... Bad. 

Personally, I thought that in Vasher's case, the clothing became stiff and acted like a brace, "enhancing" his strength in the sense of being an extra arm or two, rather than physically boosting his muscles.

I'd have to reread the scene(s), but if I'm right, then armor could probably work just as well since it's more protective that clothing would be when not in enhance-mode. I don't know if you could reach Shardplate level(the tactile boost, the strength boost, the etc...) without either multiple commands or really, really skilled mental skills, but I don't think that it becoming a Type IV like Nightblood is guaranteed. Quite possible, but not a certainty.

[+hwiles He/Him]

Something I hadn't considered in my original response, you could probably achieve a boost in combat effectiveness similar to that granted by shardplate by awakening clothing/ropes/leather like Vasher did to "strengthen" himself, then just wearing thick plate armor that would normally be too cumbersome.

Sure, it wouldn't be able to stop a shardblade, but it also probably wouldn't need to.  You wouldn't get the tactile transmission, but I also feel like that wouldn't be a huge deal.

[CaptainRyan he/him]

3 hours ago, Calderis said:

So if you were to take a suit of plate armor, and were of a heighten to invest Awaken metal and uses a command like "enhance my strength and senses" I think you could make a pretty effective analog to Shardplate. 

The armor is already mostly human shaped. The investiture itself should enhance the protective qualities of the armor. The command should allow you to gain the strength and tactile sensations similar to Shardplate if you are capable of envisioning it correctly.

I think this theory is pretty sound. You would have to have a very firm grip on the visualization aspect so that the armor responded to the verbal command appropriately but it is, fundamentally, the same thing Vasher has been doing. Obviously, Awakening the metal involves a lot more Breath and control but it should be doable.

The real disadvantage, in my mind, is that Shardplate can be regrown using Stormlight whereas Awakened armor probably would not have a self-repairing ability. How often would you have to recreate the armor I wonder?

[Calderis he/him]

1 minute ago, CaptainRyan said:

The real disadvantage, in my mind, is that Shardplate can be regrown using Stormlight whereas Awakened armor probably would not have a self-repairing ability. How often would you have to recreate the armor I wonder?

Assuming that you didn't create a type IV the disadvantage is somewhat mitigated by the ability to recover the breath. I agree though, that it would be inferior to true Shardplate.

The possibility of withdrawing the breath and reawakening with a different command has some nice possibilities for versatility though. 

[CaptainRyan he/him]

7 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Assuming that you didn't create a type IV the disadvantage is somewhat mitigated by the ability to recover the breath. I agree though, that it would be inferior to true Shardplate.

The possibility of withdrawing the breath and reawakening with a different command has some nice possibilities for versatility though.

Oooo, good point. It would be recoverable, eh? 

Depending on how skilled you were as an Awakener you could probably swap suits of armor pretty quickly. And, depending on how you made the armor, it could have some versatility beyond even Shardplate. We saw instances of Vasher's clothing preemptively protecting him before he even knew he was in danger. Plate armor reinforced with Awakening that also had cloth or leather straps on it... well, a skilled Awakener with enough Breath could make a devastatingly protective set of gear!

[The One Who Connects he/him]

6 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Assuming that you didn't create a type IV the disadvantage is somewhat mitigated by the ability to recover the breath. I agree though, that it would be inferior to true Shardplate.

The possibility of withdrawing the breath and reawakening with a different command has some nice possibilities for versatility though. 

Just now, CaptainRyan said:

Oooo, good point. It would be recoverable, eh? Depending on how skilled you were as an Awakener you could probably swap suits of armor pretty quickly. And, depending on how you made the armor, it could have some versatility beyond even Shardplate.

If it got damaged, you'd probably lose some of the breath the same way you lose some of the stored attribute in a broken Metalmind, but being able to quickly don another suit of normal, mass-producable armor and repeat the process is a massive advantage over Shardplate, as you have to spend time regrowing that. This could potentially help negate the disadvantages this has over Shardplate.

You are both correct that the biggest advantage Awakening has over everything lies in its versatility. It's one of the reasons why AonDor seems so overpowered to us, and Awakening is no different.

[Oversleep]

12 minutes ago, CaptainRyan said:

Plate armor reinforced with Awakening that also had cloth or leather straps on it... well, a skilled Awakener with enough Breath could make a devastatingly protective set of gear!

Eat your heart out:

 

[Calderis he/him]

13 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

If it got damaged, you'd probably lose some of the breath the same way you lose some of the stored attribute in a broken Metalmind, but being able to quickly don another suit of normal, mass-producable armor and repeat the process is a massive advantage over Shardplate, as you have to spend time regrowing that. This could potentially help negate the disadvantages this has over Shardplate.

I only meant it would be inferior to plate in its strength/protection outright. The lack of downtime when it's broken would be huge.

7 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

Eat your heart out:

 

I remember reading that when you wrote it (I believe just before I really got active here) and yeah, I'd forgotten about it, but that is amazing.