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I have a theory that I want to work with everyone. Chasmfiends. We have seen them throughout the books and we only know so much. We saw two major things in RoW from the perspective of the Listeners (I will talk about them lower in case you haven't read and did not realize that there will be spoilers... for some reason, ya know) I think that Thunderclasts are fused Chasmfiends. I don't specific references and my academic brain hates me for that but here we go with why I think this. First, in book WoK we have two moments that play into this: 1) the misunderstanding that the chasmfiends are the "gods" of the Parshendi. We know that they aren't, but there is the idea that they are greater than the Parshendi (and this is mentioned again with a flashback by Eshoni) and I think this is a classic misdirection by BrandoSando, where he clearly says something, but later "disproves" it to end up being right on the money (see voidbringers being humans is mentioned in the epigraphs in the first part of WoK.) I think that the chasmfiends are feared (for being so large) but also make up some of the gods that should not be worshipped anymore because they are fused. 2) after Shallan is taken on by Jasnah, Shallan draws a picture of a Chasmfiend attacking a village for Dalinar via spanreed where Jasnah says the description calls it a "voidbringer". Again, could be bad communication and loss of information, but I feel the misdirect here is more likely because it could have been some chasmfiends that fought alongside the singer fused that later became themselves fused. In WoR, we have one major part that I can remember, and that is the fight. Both Shallan and Kaladin saw the intelligence of the Chasmfiend in the, well, chasm. (The Alethi are not very creative with their naming of these things). We also know that Shallan notes the Chasmfiends have the same arrow spren (luck spren, which Dawnshard explains help them not be crushed and are bonded to the Chasmfiends) that follow chasmfiends and Santhids (in the art of both). I believe Santhids are intelligent due to a connection with tehse spren and bein invested, the same way the Rashadium are invested so therefore intelligent. This makes me feel that the Chasmfiends could be souls that come back as fused souls because they are invested enough to persist after death. Khriss only mentions the sapience of the Rashadium (sp?) but that might be cuz a) she hasn't played patty cake patty cake bakers man with a chasmfiend yet, and has not been lucky enough to see a Santhid. So, I think Chasmfiends are invested due to their bond with luckspren (I'll come back to this more). In Oathbringer there are a bunch of spots: 1)When the Odd Group first enters Shadesmar through the Kholinar oathgate, Kaladin gets all angsty and makes the Heart of the Revel angry, and they see a GIANT crustacean claw break the sea of beads. Maybe it is the soul of a Chasmfiend that was unmade, (because I am going with the assumption that the unmade are all people once that were unmade, and some are more unthinking because they were beasts that were unmade, so not fully sapient, but clearly intelligent (man this is another tangent that I wanna go down but I won't, but I think the thrill is an unmade Rashadium.)) This is the first time we see something of the unmade in Shadesmare. 2) I can't remember where, but when one of the humans see a thunderclast they remark that it's head is triangle shaped, like that of a Chasmfiend. The head reminds them of that, because maybe the thunderclast has the same soul, so it takes something familiar, even if the rest of the body is more humanoid (even if it is skeletal, so it could be the legs, i dunno, this part is weaker, I agree.) 3) At the battle, in shadesmar there are 3 GIANT shadows and one smaller that enter the fight and disappear with the army of fused souls. One is the thrill. One is the gem unmade that Amaram eats, and the other two become thunderclasts. So why are they so much bigger than regular fused souls? Because I think they are of Chasmfiends, or at least a greatshell. And in RoW there are other ideas that have cemented my ideas that thunderclasts are dead chasmfiends that are now fused. 1) the fused maintain their patterns through each incarnation. They can be different body types or even gender, but the patterns persist (see the head shape). The fused maintain some of their past, and because the singers are more sapient, they would be able to maintain whatever they see as what makes them "them". Thunderclasts would do less of that I think. 2) Venli mentions that the thunderclast fused souls are not singer souls. They are something else. This was huge for me, because if they are not singers they easily could be another sentient creature on Roshar. 3)The flashback where Eshoni is stared down by a Chasmfiend and she knows that it sees her, and there is kinda a "well, I guess I won't eat her, she won't be fun. I'll let her go." kind of vibe happening here. 4) Humans can be fused as well. We might not have seen one, but we know that there threats that Odium makes. 5) The chasmfiend helped the listeners escape the chasms instead of eating them. EDIT: I forgot! 6) Chiri Chiri is intelligent and talks! They also bond the luck spren (maybe different types of luck spren, but still, Chiri Chiri feels a kinship to other greatshells). This might be species specific but I think it is the same connection to a spren that makes these creatures intelligent, as Khriss mentions in Arcanum unbound. Now, y'all might call be straight up cookie dooks, but I can't get this out of my head and I clearly have thought a bunch about this. What are all y'all thoughts?