White sand and stormlight

[Nothing-Ridiculous]

Hi there, I have a little theory I thought of while rereading Oathbringer. In chapter 67 when Shallan sees Hoid for the first time in Kholinar. He’s telling the story of the moons when he is started by something in his pack, he later looks for Shallan in the crowd, and at the end of the chapter she notices a jar that is full of a black substance however the side facing her is white. The substance is presumably sand from Taladin. My theory is that the sand fed of Shallan’s stormlight recharging it, which is why Hoid was surprised (I would assume he knows the sand can recharge with stormlight, however I’m not sure that he would know there was a surgbinder in the crowd) and made him seek Shallan out in the crowd.

[Calderis]

It did. The sand can be charged by any type of Investiture, and because of that, it can be used as a detector of sorts. 

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Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

Mraize's Basement Emporium. Is that more like a trophy room or a "In case of emergencies" room?

Multiple people [PENDING REVIEW]

Or a bank vault?

Or a weapon's vault?

Or both?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

So, yes. 

*multiple people talking*

I mean, he can't use the Aether, right? He can't use the Aether, he doesn't have an Aether. But the sand, the sand does stuff. So a handful of sand is a really useful amount of sand to have if you're not a sandmaster. Because sand reacts to investiture. So if you let it fade and you take it somewhere, as soon as investiture goes kinetic, it'll turn white again. So you'll be able to use it to tell who's using inve..it works just like a Seeker, like bronze pulses.

So having white sand, having sand around is really good. If you can keep the little beasties that are growing on the sand around, they will react to basically the investiture equivalent of radiation. So that's handy.

source

 

[TrдVψLшR 0115]

That rules

[Nothing-Ridiculous]

Thanks for the WOB, that’s really interesting