Search the Community

Shin typically only experience the minor effects of a spent highstorm. The storm's power is used up for the most part while it is sweeping across the continent. Consequently, there is no reason for them to build buildings with highstorms in mind. We are told that the rest of the continent slopes their roofs to block the wind, but they presumably also use strong, heavy materials (like stone) and they have a near infinite foundation of stone to build on. Shin don't use stone in their usual buildings (I believe), they have soil instead of bedrock everywhere, and we don't have evidence that they have any reason to build particularly strong structures (such as frequent storms, earthquakes, etc). So with the everstorm sweeping from the west, can we conclude that most of their buildings were destroyed? Are the Shin left in the storm without protection, and therefore dead? There is a mountain range protecting them to the east and west, but I doubt tempers the storm enough to protect them. So here is my theory: The Shin as a people are nearly wiped out. The Stone Shamanate survived. This is because they use stone in their temple/religious building, which is OK for priests to walk on it because they are holy and for people participating in holy rites. There is a small cluster of people that gathered at the temple, but for the most part the Shin are wiped out. Depending on the number of stone buildings (if there are any) more or fewer people would have survived. Edit: I am also including caves in the "stone buildings" category. So when Szeth comes home to confront the Shamanate, they will be the leaders of a very small population (fewer than 500?) that survived the everstorm. He will then have to decide if he will kill even more of his people. It's possible that in the process he will become the last survivor (that he knows of) of the Shin which will make for an even more emotionally unstable character. Yay problems!