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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?

I was doing a reread of TWOK, and at the end of chapter 26:Stillness, there is noted that purple ichor spurts out of a chasmfiend as Adolin reaches inside to grab a gemheart. I also recently listened to the Five Scholars shardcast in which they reference the importance of Yesteel being the one to discover ichor alcohol. Could this possible mean that Yesteel has been to Roshar and developed it from the purple ichor from the animals of Roshar? I say animals because in the prologue of TWOK Kalak notices purple blood on the ground, as well it is stated in the books that axehounds have purple blood. Is this just coincidence I am noticing or is there something noteworthy here? I am not good with the timelines on when each book in the Cosmere unfolds. Could Yesteel be responsible for some life on Roshar, like the chasmfiends? My speculations, probably common speculation would assume that Roshar's Shattered Plains and surrounding areas could have been underwater at some point, given the description of life and environments. Chasmfiend being very crustacean esque, and the plant life being very ocean like. Is this life on Roshar strictly due to evolution or experiments of Yesteel in his pursuit to discover ichor alcohol? Or is all of this just a huge rabbit hole tangent my brain went down? Either way any thoughts or speculations?

Apologies if this has already been discussed and I missed it, but do we know why the Listeners were hunting chasmfiends so vigorously on the Shattered Plains? We know they have been experimenting with capturing spren in gems, but that doesn't seem to account for why they would need greatshell gemhearts. And it can't be just about killing them, because then why bother fighting pitched battles with the Alethi? I have a vague sense it has something to do with thunderclasts, but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe I'm just missing something obvious. (I've only just crawled out of the woodwork because I'm re-listening to the series from the beginning.) Anyway, hi folks!

Parshendi Forms: From Eshonai's prologue, after Gavilar explains the fabrial: When Venli first meets Timbre, at Eshonai's body: And then Venli bonds with Timbre: And then when talking with the Fuzed named Rine: So the Nahel bond is more powerful than the Parshendi forms bond from capturing spren inside their gemhearts during highstorms to transform, presumably because the only stormlight needed for the Parshendi bond to work is during the bonding itself but not for any of the surges that come after the bond. When Aesudan and Amaram bonded with the Unmade spren, that seems to be a Parshendi bond since they swallowed gems (spheres) to make the bond, with Amaram's purple gemheart glowing in the end and Aesudan's gemheart glowing through her dress. Thunderclasts From the Thaylen City battle: So the stone has gemhearts that, when inhabited by Voidspren, transform the stone into something else. No wonder Szeth's people aren't stonewalkers, right? Does stone have other forms? Chasmfiends Chasmfiends obviously have gemhearts. I think they must have other forms, too. We know chasmfiends, skyeels, and greatshells all have the same spren. From the Kaza interlude, we know that greatshells do also have gemhearts. Are these three different forms for the same being? Do chasmfiends have other forms? Are they also thunderclasts? From Adolin's fight with the thunderclast: Urithiru And then: So we wake it just as the Fuzed woke Thunderclasts from stone, right? We bond Urithiru with a spren. Or multiple spren. Spren that can be trapped in a heart of emerald and ruby. And from the gem library: Dude, is Urithiru the Sibling?!!!! Sibling to the Nightwatcher and the Stormfather? So the Sibling was stolen away? And from the Stormfather's conversation with Dalinar: Slumbering! Sleeping! Just like Dalinar said Urithiru was! And this is why the Radiant says goodnight to Urithiru, goodnight to the Sibling! So we need to find the slumbering Sibling spren and restore her (or probably "them" because the Stormfather refers to the Sibling in the singular and the plural) to Urithiru's heart to waken Urithiru, right? And what will a wakened Urithiru be like? Will she move? Will she protect? Will she destroy? *************************** Related ideas: Fabrials are similar but not as alive as it would seem Urithiru will be and certainly not as alive as Parshendi, chasmfiends, or great shells. Parshmen may not have had gemhearts until the first Everstorm, which restored their gemhearts and thus enabled them to now have forms, including Voidforms. Different Parshendi forms likely come from different types of spren, with Voidform (forms of power) coming from corrupted or Unmade spren. Dullform might be having a gemheart with no spren bond since dullform is so close to parshmen. Are there secrets to other cities, not just Urithiru? Kabsal draws Kholinar as a triangular shape with three outlying wings and a peaked center (Pg 510 of WoK), which incidentally is the symbol on Gavilar's shardplate (Pg 29 of WoK), saying that the city was built on a rock formation already there. The stone windblades of Kholinar seem particularly significant, where Kaladin says the interior corridor of the windblades reminds him of the strata at Urithiru (Pg 785 of OB). I'm equally interested in the City of Shadows and even the City of Bells, but perhaps these cities are special in different ways.

Hi everyone! I've been a lurker for quite a long time on these forums and finally decided to contribute to the awesome discussion here. I searched the forums and nobody seemed to have brought this topic up yet. I was re-reading WoK for the release of Words of Radiance and noticed something really interesting. After the hunting party kills the chasmfiend, Dalinar is observing the body and notices some spren rising from its body. I'm going to quote the passage (from chapter 15) because it's so easy to miss: So, there are spren that look like smoke that leave the chasmfiend's (or any greatshell's) body after it dies. Then reading Dalinar vision a few chapters later I come across this: The "Midnight Essences," which are not Voidbringers but are a harbinger of the coming Desolation, seem to be filled almost entirely by smoke. A couple more things: Also, a picture that Jasnah found of a Voidbringer looks suspiciously like a chasmfiend, and even though Dalinar dismisses the rendering, I can't believe that's all there is to it. Spoiler from Words of Radiance: My theory from all of this is that smoke is a sign of Odiom's investiture in Roshar. The chasmfiends greatshells are a leftover from the last Desolation, and there is still a residual amount of Investiture left over that leaves when the chasmfiend greatshell is killed. When the next Desolation comes, Odium or will take over and control it. I had a whole 'nother tie in with deathspren and red eyes, but this is long enough as it is. What do you guys think? Edit: Changed chasmfiend to greatshell

I was checking out the Introduce yourself forums and I came across Rererak's post. He asked a questions about how the highstorms affect the pupation of chasm fiends. It makes perfect sense considering their "heart" is a gemstone that would absorb the storms' stormlight. It could fuel their growth or change, among other things. I'm not sure if this has been brought up, but thanks for posting that question and answer Rererak and Shardlet, It's what caused my consideration I wonder what implication this could have on the origination of great shells. Which came first, the chasm fiends, or the highstorms.

Noone has really brought up a super awesome piece of worldbuilding added by WoR. Chull senescence. Via this image we learn that adult chulls having (as far as I know) no natural predators pupate one last time in maturty and turn into natural gardens. That's a bit of a joke but seriously folks they look really cool in the state known as Senescence. Chull drivers must feed their chulls a special diet to make sure their "cash cows" don't turn into rocks during highstorms. This is super cool, and I think it has a very real world implication. Multiple times WoB has popped up saying that the rampant slaughter of un-matured Chasmfiends known as the Shattered Plains Warwould eventually have big real world impact by greatly decreasing the population of CHasmfiends. What possible boon to the environment could these massive things be. Obviously they're going to be eating many many smaller creatures.. But what else? Chasmfiends obviously have no natural predators besides man so I postulate that Chasmfiends also acieve Senescence at full maturity. Why is this important? I don't know, but I can postulate. 1. Mountain Seed : Senescence level chasmfiends would be huge. What if the majority of Rosharan mountains started as giant Greatshell Senescence pods? Thousands upon thousands of years of crem later, BOOM, Mountains. Moutains with a big chull gemstone right in the center. Thus the Shin and Horneater reverence for the spirit of mountains. 2. Investment Release: The massive planetwide investment that Is a high storm leaves being millions of gemstones full to the brim with light. Light that slowly drains until the stone is dun? Is this invested energy used up simply thru the process of giving off this light? Or is there another answer. The Secescent Chull shown in the drawing looks ornamental, even to a spiritual nature. What if these pods are the Nexi by which stormlight leaves the physical realm to be redistributed in another Highstorm. 3. The looks super cool. I don't have any other uses for giant Senescent Pods. What do ya'll think about this? Is it significant or just super creative and cool worldbuilding?