Spanreed as a weapon

[AceGambit]

Could a spanreed be used as a weapon?

especially considering you know where the person on the other end will in all likelihood be sitting in relation to the device...

[Farnsworth]

You could probably attach the gems that make spanreeds move to a knife. Just go to a person’s house, and leave a knife with a gem on it somewhere inconspicuous. Attach the corresponding gem to a stick or something, and wave the stick around madly when you know the other person is home.

Of course, if you’re Jasnah, you could just write to them, and that’s the best weapon in all of Roshar.

[Kurkistan he/him]

Huh. I don’t see why not.

The logistics would be challenging and it would be hard to confirm the kill, but yeah if you got lucky I don’t see why you couldn’t manage to stab someone through the eye or something. 

[Dunkum he/him]

36 minutes ago, Kurkistan said:

Huh. I don’t see why not.

The logistics would be challenging and it would be hard to confirm the kill, but yeah if you got lucky I don’t see why you couldn’t manage to stab someone through the eye or something. 

probably the best use is as an impolite disconnect from the person at the other end.  basically hanging up the phone on them and slapping them in the face (probably literally) at the same time.  practically using it to really harm or kill would be a bit implausible in most scenarios.

[Sparkrunner he/him]

Just this last halloween I was thinking of putting a spanreed fabrial underneath a sheet and using it as a ghost...

Spanreeds have all kinds of practical applications, in theory.

[AceGambit]

What about span reed arrows. One archer with a crystal divided into multiple parts. The control crystal on an arrow shaft and the rest on other arrows. The archer draws and launches the span reed arrow and the rest take flight along the same trajectory. You now no longer need a battalion of archers just one with some ridiculously expensive arrows.  

[RShara she/her]

I don't know if a spanreed is sturdy enough to kill someone, but give them some nasty scratches, sure. As for other applications of Paired Fabrials yeah, there are a lot of potential uses, like the archery platform Navani used in WoR.

[Weltall]

2 hours ago, AceGambit said:

What about span reed arrows. One archer with a crystal divided into multiple parts. The control crystal on an arrow shaft and the rest on other arrows. The archer draws and launches the span reed arrow and the rest take flight along the same trajectory. You now no longer need a battalion of archers just one with some ridiculously expensive arrows.  

Three problems. First, you probably can't split the gem that many ways; all the known applications involve a single gem split in half and trying to split beyond that might just break the connection. Second, the archer has to simultaneously lift the weight of every arrow, not just the one in their hands, so even if you could split a ruby more than once, there would be a practical limit to how many you could actually fire at once. Third, someone would have to line them all up just so beforehand, since with a spanreed you still have to pre-position the pen in the right spot. If someone doesn't put every single arrow in the same position relative to the archer, you're going to have paired arrows doing some very weird things as they're fired at the wrong angles, or have force applied to them in unintended ways.

Not a bad idea for out of the box thinking but I'm not sure it's all that practical.

[+robardin he/him]

It seems that spanreed technology, essentially that of paired, parallel motions of small objects via split infused gemstones of a specific kind, could be used for a number of things other than teletexting, though I suspect there isn't enough mass to a spanreed "pen" to allow for dangerously stabby motions, unless poison were involved.

But it would be fairly ideal to use as remote device switches, right? Or triggers for traps an such. If you could manage to infuse the gems regularly, anyway - that's a limiting factor, in that absent a Radiant who could do walk-up infusions of Stormlight, you'd need to be able to expose the gems every now and then to a highstorm, so gems embedded in a wall or floor to trigger a hidden device or panel would eventually be problematic.

I forget - do infused gems "run down" if not used, or is the Stormlight in them good forever until used? If they'd last until at least used once, you could still do a paired spanreed gem trick for a one-time throw of a trap door or mechanism that nobody would be expecting.

[Calderis he/him]

In addition to what @Weltall said, when that first arrow hits a target its going to leech momentum from all of the paired Arrows as well. Once a couple Arrows hit your going to rob the momentum from all of them. 

[+robardin he/him]

Another problem for spanreeded arrows - doesn't the "master" reed (the one whose actions are being replicated) get heavier than its remote pair? When operating a spanreed, the "active" writer is literally writing with both pens at the same time, feeling the remote one's weight. So if you used the master reed as a projectile weapon, you'd have to use twice the force necessary (assuming the "slave" one was identical in mass) to get the remote one to behave the way you wanted it to do, and without seeing its direction or effect.

 

[Windrunner2319]

4 hours ago, robardin said:

I forget - do infused gems "run down" if not used, or is the Stormlight in them good forever until used? If they'd last until at least used once, you could still do a paired spanreed gem trick for a one-time throw of a trap door or mechanism that nobody would be expecting.

Yes. Infused Gems run down. These is why you have to change the spheres in the lanterns. Spheres go dun after a couple of weeks.

Oathbringer Spoilers

Spoiler

That's why stormlight is so rare at the beginning of Oathbringer. The highstorms haven't come for weeks and the spheres are all running low.

There are perfect gems that don't get run down though. The King's Drop is one of them.

 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

7 hours ago, robardin said:

that's a limiting factor, in that absent a Radiant who could do walk-up infusions of Stormlight, you'd need to be able to expose the gems every now and then to a highstorm, so gems embedded in a wall or floor to trigger a hidden device or panel would eventually be problematic.

It's a good thing Aluminum isn't common on Roshar, or else that could be put into effect immediately

That makes me wonder though, can a Spanreed still "connect" with it's partner if that one is coated in Aluminum?

[AceGambit]

6 hours ago, Windrunner2319 said:

Yes. Infused Gems run down. These is why you have to change the spheres in the lanterns. Spheres go dun after a couple of weeks.

Oathbringer Spoilers

  Reveal hidden contents

That's why stormlight is so rare at the beginning of Oathbringer. The highstorms haven't come for weeks and the spheres are all running low.

There are perfect gems that don't get run down though. The King's Drop is one of them.

 

But what about linked gems. Could charging one charge the other? It's never been mentioned, but then has it been attempted while the are connected?

[Windrunner2319]

4 hours ago, AceGambit said:

But what about linked gems. Could charging one charge the other? It's never been mentioned, but then has it been attempted while the are connected?

You would have to place one out in the highstorm, or be a Knight Radiant. I don't know if it would go through though.   

Now that I'm thinking about it, do they put the whole spanreed out in a storm, just the gem or something?

It would be unfortunate to get all your spanreed gems mixed up.

[Darkwalker]

On 4/26/2018 at 2:51 PM, The One Who Connects said:

It's a good thing Aluminum isn't common on Roshar, or else that could be put into effect immediately

That makes me wonder though, can a Spanreed still "connect" with it's partner if that one is coated in Aluminum?

no we get an example of this in oathbringer

[Zelly]

The paper must be sort of necessary bonding platform, so that only actions applied to the paper are transferred.

Otherwise every time someone tapped a reed to their lips while contemplated what to write or idly scratch their nose, the receiving person gets an unexpected reed to the face.