[OB] Parshendi Soulcasters

[Seeker861]

We know that extended use of a Soulcaster changes a person's body and that it is something similar to Savantism. We also know that the Parshendi used Soulcasters to supply their food during their war with the Alethi. Would a Parshendi be susceptible to the affects of prolonged Soulcaster use? I personally feel that they wouldn't be as they have a more malleable cognitive aspect. 

[notsawerd]

The Parshendi did not have soulcasters.  The Alethi thought that they did, but they used the stormlight from gems to make their crops grow faster.

[Seeker861]

Man I feel dumb for thinking they had Soulcasters. 

[DiamondMind]

2 hours ago, notsawerd said:

The Parshendi did not have soulcasters.  The Alethi thought that they did, but they used the stormlight from gems to make their crops grow faster.

Is that info from the book or a WoB? And how exactly would that work?

[Calderis]

1 hour ago, DiamondMind said:

Is that info from the book or a WoB? And how exactly would that work?

We don't know. We just have a WoB from a signed book that says "stormlight makes plants grow" 

[Ciridae]

In one chapter Eshonai is relieved to see that the listeners had won another gemheart and says something along the lines of that her people would continue to eat as a result. I'm sure they use stormlight near plants to encourage growth too, but unless they were soulcasting they would not need replacement gemhearts. Leaving the gems near plants should not crack them, like soulcasting would. 

Their declining population makes it unlikely that they need more gems because they were growing more crops, so I think this is pretty good evidence that they do have at least one soulcaster. 

Also, as a sidenote, I think having many small gems spread out among the crops makes for a better stormlight distribution compared to a gemheart. I think they use gemhearts only for soulcasting but grow crops with the help of smaller gems as well.

I really like the question in the OP of what soulcasting savant listeners are like. It's something I haven't ever seen mentioned or discussed and I would very much like to know the answer. 

[notsawerd]

I had assumed that the Listeners were using only gems since we had the following from the Last Legion chapter in WoR

"They were hauling rockbuds harvested on one of the nearby plateaus, plants which had been encouraged to grow quickly by use of Stormlight-infused gems"  

They could be using this method and a soulcaster in tandem.  The first interlude with Eshonai does mention the gemheart they just won will allow them to eat.

I learned something today. yippie.

Edited September 29, 2017 by notsawerd

[Mulk]

Or it could mean they are struggling to produce enough food between high storms, or to stock up enough food for the Weeping so that they don't have to skip meals in their rationing.  A new gemheart might have made the difference in that respect

[Calderis]

@Ciridae we have no idea how Stormlight growth in plants works, or how quickly it uses the stormlight up. The gems may crack, or consider the way plant life works on Roshar, may be incorporated into the plants shell and be unrecoverable without cracking it. We do know. 

My main argument against Soulcasters, is that if they do have Soulcasters, why aren't they being used for anything else? 

 

 

[notsawerd]

I don't see any evidence that they have a soulcaster.  That doesn't mean that they don't have one.

Their demand for gemstones is high due to their discovery of capturing spren in gemstones and then breaking the gemstone during a highstorm to release the spren and change forms.

[Catladyman]

Growing plants with the help of stormlight sounds a lot like Progression, hmm? It makes me wonder if the Parshendi have ways of accessing surges via gemstones, rather than the spren-capture fabrials we see the Alethi use.

[Ciridae]

@Calderis We don't know enough to say for sure, but I think that Eshonai's thoughts make most sense in a scenario where a soulcaster is available.

It may be that they only have a ready access to emeralds, and aren't capable of soulcasting anything else in significant amounts. It may be that they have a limited soulcaster, only capable of using emeralds. It may be that they are using it to soulcast other things, but we've not been made aware of it. 

@notsawerd We don't know the minimum size of a gemstone needed to capture a spren. I don't see them fighting the Alethi for gemhearts only to break them into bits to hold spren. And, more importantly, Eshonai's thoughts were directly connecting the new gemheart with a supply of food.

 

I have one quick question, does the amount of stormlight a gem can hold grow exponentially to the gem's size? Or is it only that large gemstones are more valuable because they allow for larger amount of matter to be soulcast from one gem making it easier to transform big things?

Edited September 29, 2017 by Ciridae

[treblkickd]

1 hour ago, Catladyman said:

Growing plants with the help of stormlight sounds a lot like Progression, hmm? It makes me wonder if the Parshendi have ways of accessing surges via gemstones, rather than the spren-capture fabrials we see the Alethi use.

Not just a lot like, that sounds exactly like what Lift does with Progression, though maybe a less strong/fast version of it. The implication here is that all (or at least a significant subset of) Parshendi can surgebind, albeit at a weak level. Or perhaps that some Parshendi forms essentially bestow very weak surgebinding abilities. This could actually explain how the warform Parshendi are so strong/agile (i.e., able to leap chasms in the Shattered Plains).

This idea of Parshendi as natural weak surgebinders also makes a ton of sense in light of the information from the Parshendi Song of Spren about the Parshendi being "broth" to men being "meat", in that men are capable of building strong bonds with spren, thus gaining strong surgebinding abilities. Parshendi, on the otherhand, may be universally able to acquire very weak surgebinding abilities via a low-level bonding process with the lesser spren to adopt their various forms.

[Aleksiel]

If stormlight makes plants grow, how come no one else seems to know this? Is anyone certain of the exact wording of this WoB?

 

[Calderis]

55 minutes ago, Aleksiel said:

If stormlight makes plants grow, how come no one else seems to know this? Is anyone certain of the exact wording of this WoB?

 

I'll try to find it and link it soon. But it's signed in a book and is literally "stormlight makes plants grow" 

[Aleksiel]

1 minute ago, Calderis said:

I'll try to find it and link it soon. But it's signed in a book and is literally "stormlight makes plants grow" 

I found it here.

 

Quote

 

QUESTION

For Words of Radiance, could you put a comment about something in the upcoming books, something not too specific, just something I can think about? Something like "Renarin has a spren" you wrote for somebody else in The Way of Kings?

BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)

Brandon wrote "Stormlight makes plants grow" in the guy's book.

 

 

 

I admit I'm still confused as we haven't seen any alethi farmer using this and it seems like something they would know unless it's more complicated than it sounds.

[FollowYourMuse]

I assume they cut the large gemstones into smaller ones. 

Onmy phone so can't look up quotes right now. But from what I can recall, on stormlight and plants...

There is a comment by kaladin on stormwster better for plants than, river water.

Edgedancer 

Spoiler

While lift sleeps the plants around her grow.

I think in general stormlight has growth/regrowth, since for all that can invest it squires included, stormlight causes healing.

[Catladyman]

@FollowYourMuse I always read that as being because stormwater has crem which contains more nutrients for plants

 

and Lift also has access to the surge of Progression, the plants don’t grow around her simply because she holds stormlight

[Calderis]

13 minutes ago, Catladyman said:

and Lift also has access to the surge of Progression, the plants don’t grow around her simply because she holds stormlight

Except Lift digests food into stormlight, and Stormlight leaks. So it could be the stormlight itself and not her surge. 

We just don't know enough. 

[FollowYourMuse]

@Catladymani agree it could be crem related, those were just the couple references i remembered, that could point to stormlight making plants grow.