Shardplate comes from the Radiant's Spiritual Identity/Web

[Preventer Wind he/him]

In listening to the Shardplatecast episode of Shardcast, I came up with what seems like a new (or at least different) theory on the formation of Shardplate.  I apologize for the superlong post.  I am also not deeply versed in Realmatic theory, or the wide variety of Words of Brandon or other forum posts.  I've read what I can.

First I want to list out the things we know without argument about Shardplate. I'm taking from the books, the Coppermind, and Words of Brandon

• It can withstand a lot of damage by conventional weapons/impacts/pressure, but will eventually shatter.
• It can stop a Shardblade, though repeated blows will cause it to shatter.  (Ergo is weaker than a Shardblade)
• It is originally from the Knights Radiant, and was abandoned during the Recreance.
• Radiants 'got' their plate by swearing the Fourth Ideal.
• The original Knights could summon and release the plate, or portions of the plate, at will, similar to Shardblades.
• Modern (dead) plate cannot be summoned or released.
• Modern (dead) Shardplate seems to be powered by Stormlight in the form of gems, When it runs out the plate stops functioning.
• Flawed gems cause the plate to shatter faster.
• It can be regrown by feeding the damaged pieces Stormlight. This can replace whole sections. Separated sections will 'die' as they main plate is regrown.
• It automatically fits itself to the wearer.
• It provides increased strength, dexterity and speed to the wearer, though not endurance.
• It is very heavy. (potentially around 1400 pounds)
• Higher spren don't scream/react to plate like they do when their Radiant touches a dead blade
• Plate is keyed to Radiant's Identity. Plate interferes with another Radiant's abilities (specifically lashing in Dalinar's visions)

Theory point (I don't have a justification on this one). Dead Plate doesn't bond like dead Shardblades. Conforming to the wearer is not the same as keying to the summoner allowing it to be controlled, called, dismissed, etc. the way a blade is. Although Brandon did say it was a 'lesser bond', I argue that we aren't seeing the same strength as the blade/bearer bond.

From this point, I want to lay out my theory, and explain how it touches to all the known parts above.

We know that Shardblades and Plate are gained by Knights Radiant by strengthening/deepening the Nahel bond. We can see that with each 'level' the Radiant can use stormlight more effective/efficiently. From WoB we know that as the bond deepens the spren and the Radiant are melding into one individual. It follows that the bond between Radiant and spren is much stronger when the plate is formed than it was when the blade is formed. Their identity is more closely bonded. Yet the plate is weaker than the blade.

My theory is that Shardplate is the manifested soul of the Radiant via their connection with their spren. They have pulled part of their spirit web into the physical realm and woven it with Stormlight to create armor. This allows for the plate to be keyed in identity to the Radiant. It follows from the idea that the spren and Radiant must be more closely bound (and that the bond weakening could take away the ability "Talk to your spren about it" in Dalinar's vision). 

Why did the plate stick around after they broke their oaths? It's similar to the way that hemalurgy can steal powers form an allomancer. Since the armor was part of their spirit web, when they abandoned their oaths it literally ripped a part of their identity/soul away from them. That's the reason why the Radiants in Dalinar's vision don't respond to him. "The former Shardbearer pulled his arm free and continued to walk away"  and later "They walked with eyes forward, not speaking to one another, steps slow but resolute."  Breaking their oaths has hurt them deeply, and has damaged them even as it killed their spren (Who are only as dead as their oaths). While the blades are the manifestations of the spren, the plate dies at the same time, and fades when the oaths are broken.  I remember hearing on Shardcast that light is usually tied to the spiritual realm, so for the plate and the blades to lose their living light is to say that they have been severed from their connection to the spiritual realm. 

Why is the plate so heavy? Because it bears the weight of betrayal and broken oaths (metaphor made real by perception). Why is it weaker? because men's souls are weaker than ideals. Why did it stay behind after it was abandoned? As Mark Anthony remarked, the evil that men do lives on after their deaths, the good is often interred with their bones.

We know that the Shardblades are spren that have manifested themselves physically in the physical realm. They must leave some aspect behind in the Cognitive Realm (deadeye spren are still present in the Cognitive Realm when their Blades are summoned, evidenced by the spren who says that the deadeyes are always wandering around, seeking their bodies). The dead spren are reminiscent of people who are killed with blades, who are referred to having their souls killed. Why would their be so much build up to the spren being blades, but not being armor?  Where would be the deadeye armor? (for lack of a better term).

Because stormlight comes from a connection to the investiture in the Spiritual realm, the stormlight allows for a bit of broken soul, the part of the spirit web that is the armor, to be strengthened, although it can never be completely made whole, restoring the Radiant's full being together. Stormlight does allow (similar to the heartbeats of a bearer bringing life to a deadeye to manifest) energy for the plate to remain strong.

Spren wouldn't scream at the armor because it is more closely aligned with the radiant than with the dead spren. The psychic shock isn't as great.

Well, that's the larger gist of it.  I've been reading and typing on this for an hour and a half, so I may come back and flesh it out some more later, but at least it's a different take from the 'lesser spren' theory.  It's probably unlikely, but it's a new idea.

Edited July 11, 2019 by Preventer Wind
Corrections for post noted below.

[Karger he/him]

59 minutes ago, Preventer Wind said:

Fifth Ideal.

forth

1 hour ago, Preventer Wind said:

Modern plate

Dead plate

 

1 hour ago, Preventer Wind said:

Why is the plate so heavy?

It got heavier, when?

The only real major problem I have with this theory is that it means that a Radiant during combat would be taking hits on their soul.  I find it difficult to believe that you can have your soul damaged and or broken without it being bad.  Otherwise I think this theory is quite interesting.

[Preventer Wind he/him]

Corrected for Fourth instead of Fifth Ideal, and clarified that what I referred to as modern plate was dead Shardplate.

I laid in bed last night thinking about the 'when did it get heavier' question.  I suppose the question comes from when we could measure the weight of plate at all.  I imagine the old Radiants didn't keep it on armor stands in their rooms if they could summon/unsummon it. How would we know what it weighed if they never took it off? I suppose they could have stood on a scale when in armor, or used themselves in armor as counterbalances for the elevator...

I would have to think, for my theory to work, that the armor by a Radiant who had sworn their oaths would be nearly weightless, if it was formed of a spiritual energy and stormlight. It would only take on weight when abandoned.  At the same time, we don't have a good idea of why Shardplate would weigh something close to 30 times what our world's medieval plate did. (Given an average for medieval plate being between 35 and 55 pounds, so 42-27.5 times)

If I work on the idea that stormlight is spiritually repairing the broken part of your spiritual web when the plate is dead, living plate could be feeding off stormlight from the Radiant and being repaired at a greater efficiency as part of the bond with your spren.  Maybe. Spiritual mumbo jumbo.  But is a flaw in the theory.

Edited July 11, 2019 by Preventer Wind
Corrected typos.

[Elsecaller_17.5 he/him]

I could see the Radiants Spirit Web acting as a wire frame, with ultra condensed stormlight actually filling out and creating the armor. IIRC the plate bursts into a flash of stormlight when it’s destroyed.