Stormseat/Shattered Plains Confusion

[Jofwu he/him]

I'm on my second reread of WoR and have discovered that I was apparently never clear about what we learned about Stormseat and the Shattered Plains.
 So... DID something shatter the plains or not?

Between Eshonai's revelations and events towards the end of the book, we find out that at least some of the plains are essentially ancient structures covered in crem. By the end of the book, I was assuming that ALL of the plains were explained by this. I was under the impression that each plateau was some multi-story building covered with millennia of crem, and that the chasms are where the streets once stood. A top comment in a Reddit thread not long ago argued that this was the case.

But this is apparently wrong. Stormseat seems to have stood only at the center of the plains. In her first interlude, Eshonai narrates, "Much of the Shattered Plains had once been populated, but the largest city had been here at the center." So the edges of the plains are only outskirts, if not the site of other (smaller) cities completely. And the plains are huge. Even if you took away the need for bridges it would take you a great deal of time to walk across them. When you throw all of this together, there's no way that the Shattered Plains consists of large crem-covered buildings all the way across.

So... are we still wondering what shattered the plains after all?

I'm left with the assumption that the ruins are ON TOP of the plains. We see them in the uneven ground, occasional spires, etc. There may be plateaus where you walk on top of ancient buildings... But they only extend a little ways down into the ground- not all the way to the chasm floor. Does this sound right?

Are there any interesting discussion threads about what shattered the plains?

Do we know why the pattern formed? I can only guess that it was a case of cymantics in a real world situation... Some powerful force vibrated the entire area and only the ground in more stable areas wasn't reduced to rubble, with relatively few plateaus still standing.

And what's the deal with the 10 craters on the outskirts? They don't seem natural, and are likely related.

[Massik he/him]

At least for the craters, I believe those were the old home of the listeners, before they were forced to retreat to the planes. 

For the rest, I am guessing this is as relable as anything known.

http://coppermind.net/wiki/Stormseat

[Jondesu he/him]

My impression is that something/someone shattered Stormseat, and with a big enough impact that the cracks traveled far beyond the city itself. The buildings were all on top of what is now the plateaus, and the cracks just didn't exist prior to that event. Kaladin remarks on the shape being like someone cracked a plate, I think, or hit something with a hammer, and of course there's Shallan's perfectly symmetrical pattern she finds.

Whether that something was a Voidbringer, Herald, Dawnshard, etc, I have no clue. Perhaps it was a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias.

jW

[CalaCrisp88]

3 hours ago, Jondesu said:

Perhaps it was a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias.

Oh no, not again.

[Eki]

There is an epigraph about the shattering of the plains, where I think a Listener song says that their gods are not who shattered the plains (if anyone has the e-book maybe they could supply the actual quote). It doesn't tell us much, but it's some sort of a clue, at any rate.

[Blightsong he/him]

I think it was cymatics. When she realizes that the shattered plains are symmetrical Shallan relates it to the cymatics that Kabsal showed her, so I always thought that it might've been some huge kind of vibration that did what happened.

 

It just doesn't seem likely to me that something falling and hitting the plains, or that some powerful blow, would create a symmetrical pattern like that.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

I'm with Blight on this; each of the Silver Cities has a cymatic frequency and a pattern and I think a group of someone's (my bet's Dawnsingers) tuned this frequency/exceeded it (akin to tuning an object's natural frequency and breaking it, a lá a wineglass). The resulting effect and energy caused the chasms to form along the cymatic pattern lines

[Eki]

12 hours ago, Blightsong said:

It just doesn't seem likely to me that something falling and hitting the plains, or that some powerful blow, would create a symmetrical pattern like that.

Well, a powerful blow can create vibrations like that, in drums for example. Obviously a different situation when it's ground shaking, but if you allow for magical elements, vibrations and a powerful blow aren't necessarily contradicting.

[+hwiles He/Him]

On 8/23/2016 at 9:12 PM, Blightsong said:

I think it was cymatics. When she realizes that the shattered plains are symmetrical Shallan relates it to the cymatics that Kabsal showed her, so I always thought that it might've been some huge kind of vibration that did what happened.

 

It just doesn't seem likely to me that something falling and hitting the plains, or that some powerful blow, would create a symmetrical pattern like that.

I think you're right and that it couldn't have been from an impact, at least, not directly.  That sort of force would typically result in a crater rather than opening up rifts in the stone.  Vibration seems like a safe bet.  There are mountains all around the shattered plains which implies some kind of serious tectonic activity in the past.  It could be that whatever, or whoever, shattered the plains did so by making use of the energy stored in the rocks in the form of tension/compression (releasers?).  That would kind of help explain why it was the only place that was shattered.

[Jondesu he/him]

51 minutes ago, hwiles said:

I think you're right and that it couldn't have been from an impact, at least, not directly.  That sort of force would typically result in a crater rather than opening up rifts in the stone.  Vibration seems like a safe bet.  There are mountains all around the shattered plains which implies some kind of serious tectonic activity in the past.  It could be that whatever, or whoever, shattered the plains did so by making use of the energy stored in the rocks in the form of tension/compression (releasers?).  That would kind of help explain why it was the only place that was shattered.

Yeah, or the other theory I've seen is that it may have been a Dawnshard, which were theorized to have created the cities that show the cymatic patterns.  They may work using vibrations or something related to them.  We still know next to nothing about the Dawnshards, so it's hard to say.

jW