User:Skaa/Fabrial Theory

Skaa's Fabrial Theory
Author	skaa
Status	Unproven
Espousers	skaa

This theory seeks to explain fabrials based on my theory on the natural Surge-Essence arrangement on Roshar. This is basically a revision of my first fabrial theory.

In my first fabrial theory, I made a table showing a theoretical mapping of gemstones to Essences and Surges. Here's a revised table taking into account my new Surge-Essence theory (as illustrated by this diagram):

Spren Classification[edit]

Spren can be classified either according to their Essences or according to which Shard/s they belong to. Essence combinations are the reason why there are so many kinds of spren. Wyndle, for example, is a spren that contains both Pulp and Lucentia Essences.

All naturespren come from Cultivation. These are the spren representing natural forces and phenomena like heat, weather, etc. The Surge of Progression, Cultivation's God Surge, exists in all naturespren, which makes them Pulp hybrids. This fact is not very easy to see due to the extreme variety of naturespren. A windspren, for example, is in a strict sense a Zephyr-Pulp hybrid. But for simplicity's sake, I will only label naturespren via their non-Pulp Essence (in the case of windspren, that would be Zephyr).

All emotionspren are of Honor. These, again, are mostly hybrids. For example, fearspren are a Spark-Sinew hybrid. I will use the "-Sinew" suffix when referring to emotionspren below to differentiate them from their naturespren cousins.

Voidspren are spren corrupted by Odium. I suspect that only naturespren were corrupted initially, though perhaps it is possible for emotionspren to be corrupted as well. For now I will assume that in the context of spren-gemstone attraction, voidspren work exactly like non-corrupted spren.

I suspect that the Spark Essence (and therefore the Transformation Surge) has a special connection to Adonalsium, as it is the Essence closest to the soul, the source of conception. I therefore associate it with the Power of Creation. This is why the Transformation Surge can produce physical manifestations of all the Essences. I think it is possible that the spren of Adonalsium that existed on Roshar before Honor and Cultivation arrived are Spark-based conceptionspren. One of these, I believe, are the creationspren that are attracted to feats of creativity.

Cohesion and the Use of Metal in Fabrials[edit]

Fabrial gemstones are always placed in a metal setting, often a latticework that surrounds the gemstone. Aside from decorative purposes, there is a reason behind this. Metal is the Essence of Cohesion, the Surge of alignment, harmony, and resonance. When an infused fabrial gemstone touches a piece of metal, the metal aligns itself with the Surge pattern of the gemstone.

This alignment of the metal is sustained by Cohesive forces, and it remains there as long as the piece of metal stays intact. This alignment allows for the replacement of a cracked gemstone without having to attract a new spren, since the Surge pattern of the original gemstone still exists in the metal setting.

Spren attraction and Fabrial effects[edit]

Below is a table that allows us to easily see which spren is attracted to which gemstones.

Explanation[edit]

Each type of gemstone can attract only certain spren types. The type of spren attracted depends on the cut of the gemstone.

When a spren has been trapped inside the gemstone and is infused by Stormlight, the resulting effect depends on the gemstone's relationship with the spren's type:

If the spren represents the gemstone's primary Essence (e.g. a windspren in a sapphire), then it will almost always absorb the associated Surge from its environment. This usually causes a diminishing effect (hence the term diminishers), though not always. A heliodor with Sinew-based spren will act as an alerter. A diamond with a Lucentia-based spren makes the Stormlight inside it glow many times brighter (due to the nature of the Illumination Surge). Ruby diminishers have spren that are Spark-Sinew hybrids because Spark by itself is diffracted by rubies.

If the spren represents either the gemstone's partner Essence (e.g. a windspren in a garnet) or Spark, then it will transform that Essence's associated Surge before emitting it to produce a combination of that Surge and the gemstone's primary Surge. I call this Essence Diffraction. All types of gemstones can diffract Spark, which allows for a Soulcaster to produce the gemstone's primary Essence. Spark is the only Essence that smokestone can diffract. If a topaz with a Foil-based spren is infused, the resulting diffraction will immediately destroy the topaz.

If the spren represents the Essence opposite to the gemstone's primary Essence (e.g. a windspren in a diamond), then it will simply emit the associated Surge towards the environment rather than absorbing or changing it, creating an augmenting effect in augmenter fabrials. Note that there are no amethyst augmenters as amethyst already diffracts Foil's opposite Essence (Spark). There are also no heliodor or emerald augmenters since their Essences diffract each other. See the Theoretical examples section below for a special type of diamond augmenter.

A gemstone usually cannot attract a spren of its opposing Essence. The exception is topaz, since its opposing Essence is also its partner Essence, but such an attraction will simply yield to the destruction of the topaz.

All gemstones can attract Spark-based spren. This is due to the Adonalsium connection I mentioned above.

All gemstones can attract hybrids of their own Essence. Hence, emeralds can attract all naturespren since (as I said above) they are all Pulp hybrids. With the exception of Spark-Pulp hybrids (which will produce Pulp Soulcasting), such fabrials will produce effects that somehow diminish the Progression Surge, filtered by the naturespren's non-Pulp Essence.

When a gemstone attracts an emotionspren that is a hybrid of its primary Essence and Sinew, it will not absorb its primary Surge. Instead, it will absorb Adhesion, filtered by the gemstone's primary Essence. This is how emotion-based fabrials work, as can be seen in the analysis of painrials below.

While diamonds can only attract Lucentia, Sinew, Talus, Spark, and Zephyr-based spren, there is a theoretical potential for diamonds to emit other Surges, as discussed in the theoretical examples section below.

Examples with evidence from the Stormlight Archive[edit]

Conjoiners like spanreeds augment the Cohesion Surge, such that the motion of the two conjoined pieces become cohesive with respect to each other. They are rubies with a Foil-based spren.

Reversers diminish the Cohesion Surge, such that the two reverser pieces will always move in disharmony with each other. These fabrials are amethysts with a Foil-based spren.

Painrials are ruby Adhesion diminishers. These fabrials temporarily unbind a human mind from a certain type of fear (which, according to this illustration, is associated with the Spark Essence): the fear of pain. Without the ability to fear pain, the human mind also loses the ability to detect it, since pain is a fear response. Painrials contain a Sinew-based spren, possibly painspren or fearspren.

Alerters are special types of Adhesion "diminishers" that do not affect their environment. Absorbing the Adhesion Surge from the environment provides information regarding all sorts of Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual bonds, which can then be filtered by whatever Sinew-based spren is used. Some alerters contain emotionspren, allowing for the detection of particular emotions.

Heating fabrials diffract the Essence of Lucentia through Spark, creating heat energy instead of light. As Renarin can attest, these are ruby fabrials.

The garnet Attractor fabrial that Navani used to pull moisture from the air is a Zephyr diffractor, meaning it mixes the Transportation Surge with the Essence of Blood, which is why it can cause anything that has a Blood Essence (e.g. water) to move towards it. It contains a Zephyr-based spren.

Fabrial clocks contain a smokestone. They are Friction augmenters that regulate the speed of a clock's dial by releasing very precisely timed bursts of friction, ensuring that it moves at a highly regular rate. (Alternative explanation: They are Gravitation diminishers that slows the flow of the time dimension of spacetime around the moving dial.)

Theoretical Examples[edit]

A diamond containing a Talus-based spren (a.k.a. a Talus diffractor) might be a very dangerous fabrial to make, as it could theoretically emit an unpredicable wave of random Surges. Perhaps if such a fabrial is paired with another gemstone, the secondary gemstone could act as a filter, creating a two-gemstone diffractor fabrial.

If the Talus diffractor theory above is correct, it is possible Vapor is an exception to the rule. Vapor is the Essence of Darkness, the opposite of Light, and thus cannot be produced by diamonds even via Talus diffraction.

It is possible that the smokestone-ruby-diamond type of Soulcaster is a Talus diffractor with a ruby-focus attached to a smokestone Soulcaster. In other words, it consists of a diamond with a Talus-based spren, an empty ruby to focus on the Transformation Surge, and a smokestone with a Spark-based spren to create Vapor transformations if needed.

The durability of Half-shards is probably caused by Tension augmenters, topaz gemstones containing Blood-based spren.

Another form of Attractor fabrial mentioned by Navani is one that attracts smoke (Shallan sees one of these in the Ghostblood den). This is supposedly the more known kind of fabrial. This is probably a sapphire containing a Vapor-based spren (smokespren?). By diffracting the Gravitation Surge, a typical-sized fabrial of this type can effect a weak form of Reverse Lashing, capable only of attracting the lightest of nearby airborne material (e.g. smoke particles). Perhaps much larger versions of this can be used to attract enemy arrows and other projectiles.

Gemstone	Essences Absorbed	Essences Diffracted	Essences Refracted	Essences Refused
Diamond	Lucentia	Talus, Spark (and potentially others)	Zephyr	Vapor
Ruby	Spark-Sinew	Lucentia, Spark	Foil	Blood
Smokestone	Vapor	Spark	Tallow	Lucentia
Sapphire	Zephyr	Vapor, Spark	Lucentia	Tallow
Garnet	Blood	Zephyr, Spark	Talus	Spark
Zircon	Tallow	Blood, Spark	Vapor	Zephyr
Amethyst	Foil	Tallow, Spark	(none)	Talus
Topaz	Talus	Spark	Blood	(none)
Heliodor	Sinew	Pulp, Spark	(none)
Emerald	Pulp	Sinew, Spark	(none)