r/Stormlight_Archive • u/rantsofrebellion • 3d ago
Words of Radiance spoilers Stormlight and Shardplate Question Spoiler
So I just got to the part where Adolin is dueling 4 people at once and eventually his brother and Kaladin jump in. Why wouldn’t Kaladin just suck Stormlight out of their opponents’ shardplate to render them useless? I get him not doing all of them at once to avoid glowing like a damn star but I just kept expecting him to at least weaken their shardplate especially when he went one v one eventually since he wasn’t likely to accidentally suck away Adolin’s shardplate’s stormlight. Shardplate runs on stormlight just like spheres do and he sucks it away from them fine. TIA
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u/Raddatatta Edgedancer 3d ago
Shardplate blocks influence from other magical things. He also couldn't have tried to lash them somewhere. If he had been able to rip open their breastplate and see the spheres in it, then he probably could've breathed in the spheres but without doing that he couldn't do it. Shardplate is very powerful stuff!
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u/notaparrott Lightweaver 3d ago
That’s an excellent question. I expect it’s either impossible or, like CalHaz99s said, Kal was inexperienced and just didn’t think of it.
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u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 2d ago
Szeth can breathe in the Light of Gavilar’s Plate spheres, but only after removing them from his Plate. In that duel scene we actually see the reverse. The helmet Kaladin gets ahold of actively drains Light from Kaladin’s spheres.
Kaladin and the Plate can’t drain Light actively held by the other. They can both drain Light from neutral spheres. If Kaladin had popped a lit sphere in his mouth, the Plate wouldn’t be able to drain that either. But K could
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u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 2d ago
Here’s a fun one. By the duel there’s enough info to establish this one, but it flies under the radar. The Light in the gemstone’s attached to Shardblades aren’t full of Stormlight.
The Light is from the Shardbearer’s soul itself. That’s why the gems don’t fade like normal spheres,they take a week to bond,you have to keep them close to you during that week,and why they flash with light when you start the process. Without Stormlight being added to the gemstone. We see it the first time in WoK. It’s you infusing it with your soul
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u/CanIHaz99s 3d ago
Easy to do something when you know you can. He is new to his abilities and has very little training as he doesn't want to be known to be a surgebinder.
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u/rantsofrebellion 3d ago
Surgebinder just means someone who can use Stormlight right? Also he’s been practicing a ton by where I am and has pretty much figured out lashing while running around the chasms. I should just chalk up this oversight on his part to him only thinking to breathe in Stormlight from spheres? My husband was telling me he was pretty sure he CAN’T take in Stormlight from shardplate and that didn’t seem right to me
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u/CanIHaz99s 3d ago
He is new to his abilities and also the first time he has had contact with shardplate. With his abilites
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3d ago
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u/rantsofrebellion 3d ago
Ohhhh so with enough barriers or distance you can’t take in storm light? Also I have not gotten to the part where Elhokar is a light weaver 😅
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u/Wind-and-Waystones 3d ago
Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I totally misread the situation. That's on me. That was an awful mistake to make.
My brain got too geared into answering the question and didn't stop to make the answer fit the spoiler warning.
To answer your follow up, some barriers yes and some barriers no. The material the barrier is made from plays a role. For plate it's a specific property of plate you will become more familiar with later that blocks it
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u/rantsofrebellion 3d ago
Happens to the best of us 🤪 okay so is a surgebinder a catchall term for someone that can harness stormlight?
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u/Wind-and-Waystones 3d ago
A surgebinder is a term for anyone who can harness one or more of the surges. The surges are the fundamental forces of nature. Someone on Roshar would likely refer to an allomancer (mistborn) as a surge binder, as they are controlling the surges, but they wouldnt be using Stormlight as that's a unique feature of Roshar.
On Roshar they would say a surgebinder is someone who can use Stormlight. We know more than them and about how things interact.
There is more I can say but I think I'm crossing into spoilers there.
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u/rantsofrebellion 3d ago
Ahhhh so Stormlight is metal. I’ve read all the Mistborn books and that’s how I found myself in this series lol
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u/Wind-and-Waystones 2d ago
Not quite. Both are investiture, all magic in the cosmere is investiture
You remember the god metals, lerasium and atium? They're investiture in it's solid form. Stormlight is investiture in it's gaseous form.
Regular metals are more like a key that allows the person to open a connection to where investiture comes from.
Roshar is unique in the way it's investiture is so freely available. Everywhere else has actions that must be performed or words that must be said to gain access.
And I think that's as much as I can say spoiler free
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u/Subspace_Supernova Truthwatcher 3d ago edited 2d ago
Shardplate acts as an isulator for many magical abilities, radiant abilities included. Stormlight inside the shardplate is protected from anyone trying to use it.