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I've wondered about that Santhid that Shallan Encounters. We've seen that Brandon hasn't told us everything about Greatshells and their gemhearts, and left the scene with the cremlings vague. There's a lot to find out about the fauna of Roshar. 1 - Why did the santhid choose to save Shallan? 2 - What is the relationship between santhids and greatshells? 3 - Are santhids actually a small kind of greatshell? 4 - Would santhids have the same kind of spren-bonds as greatshells? People wouldn't know, because they wouldn't have found any gemhearts because it's considered unlucky to hunt them. (Mraize, a seemingly high-ranking member of the Ghostbloods has a santhid scull in his collection. Maybe he would know?) 5 - How does the anatomy of a santhid work, because their tentacles I don’t think would work like a jellyfish’s. Perhaps it would move like a portuguese man o'war, but faster, and it would be able to steer with its fins. 6 - How intelligent are the greatshells? That santhid seemed very intelligent. 7 - How sentient are the spren bonded to greatshells? 8 - What do the spren get out the deal of binding with them, and how big are those spren, compared to the kind that lessens the effect of gravity? 9 - How do greatshells have gemhearts in the first place? They’d be pretty old, each one, if an actual gem that big forms inside of them, and if that’s how it works, what do they eat that gives them the minerals needed to form them?

Has there been any discussion of why the Santhid saved Shallan? Do you think it was just because she looked it right in the eye when she was lowered to study it or was it because she was a proto-Radiant? I know there has been no mention of her having any power over animals or anything, but I feel there must have been something about her to attract the help of such a creature.

I've read recently that the orders in the KR table were stylized to represent swords (WoB), this lead others to theorize the orders on the Voidbinding Stained glass to represent animals. Well if that's the case and the Santhid was significant enough to be one of the Shallan sketches for WoR why wouldn't one of the orders be a stylized Santhid? Here's my guess. The rounded seeming shell at the top, the flowing bottom and an "eye in the center top seems to line up pretty good. If anyone thinks it could be anything else or maybe that any other Voidbinding orders represent any other unique Rosharian Fauna let's hear it. I haven't included an actual Santhid pic for obvious reason but also notice the super cool design in the Iris.