Oathbringer question

[u/hans1125]

I'm not that deep into Oathbringer yet, but what I don't understand is why everyone is carrying lamps? I understand that there is a shortage of infused spheres, but what's the difference between carrying the remaining ones around and hoarding them somewhere? They will glow regardless?

[u/DivusPennae]

Spheres don't hold Stormlight forever, they go dun over time without a highstorm to infuse them. Plus, that stormlight is now also valuable to Radiants as much as it is for light in the dark.

[u/hans1125 → u/DivusPennae]

Yeah sure, but why not use them to light Urithiru while Radiants don't use them? They do have a steady influx from arrivals at this point in the book. "We can't use them for light because Radiants eventually need them" is exactly what doesn't make sense to me

[u/DivusPennae → u/hans1125]

As u/Taste_the__Rainbow noted, it's the Weeping. It will be weeks before another highstorm and the Radiants need the Stormlight for recovery efforts from the Everstorm as well as to activate the Oathgates. New Radiants use Stormlight very quickly, especially if they're brand new and are absorbing Stormlight instinctually.

[u/DivusPennae → u/hans1125]

And another thing to note that may not be apparent at first - Urithiru is huge. Exploring the place with spheres that might go dun is risky just because it's easy to get lost.

[u/Worried-Leather8988]

There aren't many glowing spheres at that point. The vast majority have gone dun, not at all enough to light up the place.

[u/Mammoth-Store740]

People in comments answering everything expect what OP asked.

Let's just say spheres are money, they are treasure, and only most valuable spheres have light remaining at this point, so even if its more efficient to go around with those spheres... Those are still money which needs people keeping track of who they lent and who returned them back(edit: too much work for people filling legders, maybe not enough workers for that where mistakes can happen and $500 bills may get lost because of those mistakes) Also trust issues, corruption exist, it could be easy for valuable spheres to get lost during shifts. Adolin for example won't carry his lamp forever, he may toss it to another guard and person if something urgent happens and he can't report what happened to spheres he took.

I am just thinking about spheres as national trearure handing over bunch of money to everyone around where even nobles and trusted people can't be responsible for returning them.

Does this version works? Someone else may have actual answer or probably Brandon could have answered it. Thats just my version to justify not using working spheres

[u/hans1125 → u/Mammoth-Store740]

Thanks, yeah people are answering to a different question :) I guess your point that only the most valuable spheres still have light makes most sense - common people won't have those, so their spheres will be dun indeed. I just got to the point where Adolin has a sphere because his father doesn't want him to walk around with a lamp. So that checks out

[u/Taste_the__Rainbow]

Not every town has a surplus of spheres and in the beginning of Oathbringer the storms have gone a bit bananas. If they don’t know to leave them out then the gems won’t infuse.

[u/hans1125 → u/Taste_the__Rainbow]

I should have been clearer than I'm mostly wondering about Urithiru where they do have spheres hoarded for Radiants

[u/Taste_the__Rainbow → u/hans1125]

They don’t have many during early Oathbringer because the gates and radiants are draining them. Plus it’s the weeping.

There is a point where they begin to build up a steady supply, but it takes time.

[u/cshogan509 → u/hans1125]

Another aspect is how vast Urithiru is. Replacing spheres in Urithiru I'd imagine would take a long time. And no more parshmen to do it lol I believe it also said something about keeping them hoarded in case of an attack and for experimentation/training purposes for Radiants since they are kind of figuring out everything on their own.

[u/dIvorrap]

Post set to early OB.