Gem Questions

[Quantus he/him]

I have an accumulation of Gem Related questions:

 

We had a conversation a while back about shardworlds going to war, and it was stated that the Roshar forces can fill gems by exposing them to any shard's Perpendicularity, and also that offworld gems would work the same way offworld metals work for scadrians.  Is that correct?  I cant find any specific WOBs to confirm them.  IF so, are they filled with Stormlight, or something entirely different.  Assuming for the sake of argument that Voidlight in gems taking more specific steps on Odiums part, if some rando worldhopper took a gemheart to Nalthis would they instead get..I dont know, "Chromat-o-Light" from Endowment's perpendicularity?

We know that Stormlight in Gems predates Honor's arrival, so Gems were something that could hold Stormlight back when it was operating on an Adonalsium-era magic.  So if there is nothing special about Rosharan gems or about the rosharan Perpendicularities, and Stormlight as a type of Investiture predates Honor and Cultivation, it sounds like stormlight, and maybe even the Surges to some extent, are actually a cosmere-wide magic system from pre-shattering?

 

Other Gem Questions:

-Can you Soulcast one gem to another (using Diamond or Topaz), and how does that affect their economic value? 

-If the color of the gem, rather than the chemical composition, is the important aspect due to the Perceptions of the residents of Roshar, have those associations changed over the long history (they've certainly gained new/different religion associations. 

-If the Parshendi have a "mikly white, bone colored" Gemheart, is this an 11th Essence?

EDIT:  New question

- If Bones are/were Living enough to only require normal Type III Awakening rather than the 9th Heightening version like for normal Metals/minerals, what about Gemhearts? Or Coal or Pearls for more mundane mineral examples? 

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by Quantus

[+Invocation]

2 hours ago, Quantus said:

Can you Soulcast one gem to another (using Diamond or Topaz), and how does that affect their economic value?

I think due to the way you have to "push" Stormlight into the object of soulcasting, the gem would just store the Stormlight.

 

2 hours ago, Quantus said:

-If the Parshendi have a "mikly white, bone colored" Gemheart, is this an 11th Essence?

I'm pretty sure one of the gems from the Essences can be a milky white. Most gems come in a large variety of colors.

[Quantus he/him]

10 minutes ago, Invocation said:

I'm pretty sure one of the gems from the Essences can be a milky white. Most gems come in a large variety of colors.

The only one that can be considered pure without being transparent is the Smokestone (Vapor essence), but I cant see how that (or any single Essence) would work for the Universal Spren housing that the Singer Gemhearts would need to be (as compared to soulcasting and fabrials where different Spren have very specific gem associations.  Put that way, it sounds reminiscent of Atium in Hemalurgy, to the point where I wonder if Singer's Bone Gems are some sort of "God-Gem"?

[+Invocation]

Just now, Quantus said:

The only one that can be considered pure without being transparent is the Smokestone (Vapor essence), but I cant see how that (or any single Essence) would work for the Universal Spren housing that the Singer Gemhearts would need to be (as compared to soulcasting and fabrials where different Spren have very specific gem associations.  Put that way, it sounds reminiscent of Atium in Hemalurgy, to the point where I wonder if Singer's Bone Gems are some sort of "God-Gem"?

I mean we do know that Adonalsium tinkered around with that entire system, including (I think) creating the Parsh as we see them, so he could have changed their gemhearts. Of course it's also possible that because they've adapted/evolved to change forms a lot, their gemhearts are an amalgamation of every type of gem.

[Quantus he/him]

Oh, New Question (Ill add it to the OP):  If Bones are/were Living enough to only require normal Type III Awakening rather than the 9th Heightening version like for normal Metals/minerals, what about Gemhearts? Or Coal or Pearls for more mundane mineral examples? 

[RShara she/her]

3 hours ago, Quantus said:

I have an accumulation of Gem Related questions:

 

We had a conversation a while back about shardworlds going to war, and it was stated that the Roshar forces can fill gems by exposing them to any shard's Perpendicularity, and also that offworld gems would work the same way offworld metals work for scadrians.  Is that correct?  I cant find any specific WOBs to confirm them.  IF so, are they filled with Stormlight, or something entirely different.  Assuming for the sake of argument that Voidlight in gems taking more specific steps on Odiums part, if some rando worldhopper took a gemheart to Nalthis would they instead get..I dont know, "Chromat-o-Light" from Endowment's perpendicularity?

We know that Stormlight in Gems predates Honor's arrival, so Gems were something that could hold Stormlight back when it was operating on an Adonalsium-era magic.  So if there is nothing special about Rosharan gems or about the rosharan Perpendicularities, and Stormlight as a type of Investiture predates Honor and Cultivation, it sounds like stormlight, and maybe even the Surges to some extent, are actually a cosmere-wide magic system from pre-shattering?

 

Other Gem Questions:

-Can you Soulcast one gem to another (using Diamond or Topaz), and how does that affect their economic value? 

-If the color of the gem, rather than the chemical composition, is the important aspect due to the Perceptions of the residents of Roshar, have those associations changed over the long history (they've certainly gained new/different religion associations. 

-If the Parshendi have a "mikly white, bone colored" Gemheart, is this an 11th Essence?

EDIT:  New question

- If Bones are/were Living enough to only require normal Type III Awakening rather than the 9th Heightening version like for normal Metals/minerals, what about Gemhearts? Or Coal or Pearls for more mundane mineral examples? 

 

Since synthetic gems would work for holding stormlight, then gems from other planets should work too--taking into account that they might not be as "pure" as Rosharan or synthetic gems. Like how pewter is an alloy that can have varying percentages, but only a specific one will work, and the farther you deviate from that, the less power/more problems you'll get.

Can you cite the source of gems being able to refill from any perpendicularity? It makes sense but I can't find it at the moment.

I'm pretty sure you can't soulcast *to* another polestone. If that were possible, Diamonds would be worth almost as much as Emeralds, since they would then be able to use Diamonds to make Emeralds, instead of being one of the least valuable.

It appears so.

Quote

Darkness (paraphrased)

Further on in that… do different gemstones hold a different flavor, or different "frequency" of Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Umm…. Nnnnnnnnooooooo… But kind of? Here's the thing: So with the gemstones on Roshar… scientifically some of these gemstones are just really close to one another. Like chemical formula and whatever. But, their cognitive selves and their spiritual selves are gonna be very different because of human perception, right? (sure) And so, the answer is both a no and a yes because of that. So people's perception has sort of changed how the magic works, to an extent… but it's the same amount of investiture, just with slightly different flavorings.

Darkness (paraphrased)

Right, so… is it easier for a Soulcaster to turn rock into smoke with a smokestone as opposed to a ruby?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

So… Soulcasting… is gonna really depend on whether you're using a soulcaster.

Darkness (paraphrased)

First is for a Soulcaster, second is for a Surgebinder.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

A Surgebinder is far less constrained than someone using a device accessing surges, right? A Knight Radiant is far less constrained than somebody using a mechanical means of accessing magic, and I would include Honorblades as a mechanical means of accessing a surge.

Darkness (paraphrased)

Cool! So with the whole Jasnah scene, she inhales Stormlight, for using Soulcasting. So how is it the Soulcaster appears to glow more fiercely instead of growing dimmer in that scene?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Um… heh heh heh… So… this is perception on Shallan's part, watching and kind of resonating with the Soulcasting, and some weird things are happening that she sees, and not necessarily anyone else is seeing.

Darkness (paraphrased)

I love that! Alright… Also, did Taravangian recognize that Jasnah was not Soulcasting traditionally? Like was it the hand sinking into the rock that gave it away?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Taravangian knew and already suspected.

source

 

I think the Parshendi gemhearts are something different that we don't know much about yet. They don't seem to actually store stormlight so much as store spren. I mean, if they did store stormlight, the humans would be harvesting their bodies for the gemhearts, right?

 

Unknown on the gemhearts/coal, etc, thing. I think they'd be a bit easier, but we won't know until/unless that happens or someone can get Brandon to tell us

 

[Quantus he/him]

20 hours ago, RShara said:

Since synthetic gems would work for holding stormlight, then gems from other planets should work too--taking into account that they might not be as "pure" as Rosharan or synthetic gems. Like how pewter is an alloy that can have varying percentages, but only a specific one will work, and the farther you deviate from that, the less power/more problems you'll get.

Can you cite the source of gems being able to refill from any perpendicularity? It makes sense but I can't find it at the moment.

No, and it's frustrating me to no end.  Ill go back and find the Versus thread it came up in, see if anyone actually cited a references.  Im starting to fear that it was a conversational assumption. 

20 hours ago, RShara said:

I think the Parshendi gemhearts are something different that we don't know much about yet. They don't seem to actually store stormlight so much as store spren. I mean, if they did store stormlight, the humans would be harvesting their bodies for the gemhearts, right?

Maybe not, the WOB that revealed them having Gemhearts really focused on the fact that it was hard to notice, made me think the Humans simply hadnt been doing exploratory autospies on their enemies, and that they werent obviously Gems enough be noticed on the battlefield. .

20 hours ago, RShara said:

Unknown on the gemhearts/coal, etc, thing. I think they'd be a bit easier, but we won't know until/unless that happens or someone can get Brandon to tell us

Fair enough.  Closest thing I thin we can say is that fossils should be easier to awaken for the same reasons that Soulcast people-statues are.