[OB] Black Orb

[RShara she/her]

I'm confused on a point about Gavilar's death.

In Way of Kings, Gavilar, as he was dying, gives Szeth a black orb:

Quote

Gavilar coughed, hand quivering, reaching toward his chest and fumbling at a pocket. He pulled out a small crystalline sphere tied to a chain. “You must take this. They must not get it.” He seemed dazed. “Tell…tell my brother…he must find the most important words a man can say….” Gavilar fell still. Szeth hesitated, then knelt down and took the sphere. It was odd, unlike any he’d seen before. Though it was completely dark, it seemed to glow somehow. With a light that was black.

However, in Oathbringer, Gavilar gives the orb to Eshonai, and tells her to use it to find their gods.

Quote

Gavilar removed something from his pocket. A sphere? It was dark, yet somehow still glowed. As if it had … an aura of blackness, a phantom light that was not light. Faintly violet. It seemed to suck in the light around it.

He set it on the table before her. “Take that to the Five and explain what I told you. Tell them to remember what your people once were. Wake up, Eshonai.”

He patted her on the shoulder, then left the room. She stared at that terrible light, and—from the songs—knew it for what it was. The forms of power had been associated with a dark light, a light from the king of gods.

She plucked the sphere off the table and went running.

So did Gavilar have TWO such spheres?  Or are they the same sphere and there's a continuity error?  I presume that the sphere(s) hold an Unmade.  So if he did have two, which ones were in each?

[Ryshadium she/her]

I assume he had two, unless Eshonai gave it back to him at some point. which wouldn’t make much sense.

The gemstone used to trap the Unmade in Oathbringer was much larger and quite specific (perfectly cut, etc), that these spheres don’t really jive. I’m all sorts of confused on this one. Especially since there are only three (I think?) unaccounted for Unmade by the end of OB.

[RShara she/her]

Their descriptions seem similar to the appearance of the King's Drop after it captures the Unmade.

Quote

He lethargically unwrapped his uniform jacket from around a large ruby. It glowed with a bizarre light, deep and dark. Somehow, it seemed to be trying to pull the light around it in.

 

[Argent he/him]

Yeah, it looks like he's had two spheres. If the theory about Bo-Ado-Mishram being trapped in Kholinar is correct, then it may be that Gavilar could just go to her perfect gem prison and drain a little bit of Voidlight whenever he wanted. 

[kmosiman]

The smaller size could also indicate lesser Voidspren that could be unleashed. A spren like Ulim might be trapped in a smaller stone.

[Ryshadium she/her]

I somehow forgot that the Unmade came in different sizes and varieties. 

[RShara she/her]

19 minutes ago, kmosiman said:

The smaller size could also indicate lesser Voidspren that could be unleashed. A spren like Ulim might be trapped in a smaller stone.

That actually makes a lot of sense.  It's still weird that Gavilar managed to have two of them, though.  And was so worried about people seeing the one he had on him that he gave it to the man that killed him.

[Pattern he/him]

1 hour ago, RShara said:

So did Gavilar have TWO such spheres?  Or are they the same sphere and there's a continuity error?  I presume that the sphere(s) hold an Unmade.  So if he did have two, which ones were in each?

In a reading of an earlier version of the prologue, Gavilar said to Eshonai something like "take this, I have another one". This has been removed in the final version. I still tend to think of both spheres (Szeth's and Eshonai's) as two different ones.

And the spheres seem to be perfect gems (the perfect cut being made of (nearly) infinite facets, making the gem a perfect sphere), filled with a trapped Unmade, voidspren and voidlight.

Edited November 16, 2017 by Pattern

[RShara she/her]

Okay, so he definitely had two separate spheres.  Were they just filled with voidlight?  Or voidspren, or unmade?

[Leyrann]

1 minute ago, RShara said:

Okay, so he definitely had two separate spheres.  Were they just filled with voidlight?  Or voidspren, or unmade?

Probably Voidlight, maybe Voidspren. It's unlikely that a simple sphere could hold an Unmade (I would argue the same holds true for a Voidspren, actually), if you look at the size of the King's Drop that could trap the Thrill. I mean, a sphere is actually a pretty small gemstone encased by glass.

[RShara she/her]

I don't think they're spheres like the money.  They're described as crystalline spheres.

[Leyrann]

In that case it could be a Voidspren. Still, I think the Unmade need something bigger.

[Alfa he/him]

Notably, there might be a third sphere in circulation: one of Szeth's masters (a merchant who got murdered soon after) claimed to have stolen one from the nightwatcher. While the part with the nightwatcher is possibly crem, the description is remarkably specific. 

The guy might have sold it to Gavilar or one of his people, so it could be one of those two.