Rosharans are Cannibals... Sort of

[Fatebreaker]

I love steak...

[Bow Tie Bandit]

Touché fatebreaker. I can truthfully say I didn't see that one coming.

[Vibronicgoose]

A good point well made Darkarma, but I feel that the fact that Jasnah could make a bad tasting jam due to her lack of knowledge of soulcasting jam is not the same as not being able to make other biological things. She still soulcast jam, just it tasted bad. To me this means that when soulcasting meat you can make any type you want. You'd just have to have experience in making the type you would like.

 

Perhaps soulcasting ardents have to eat their own produce when learning in a similar manner to the japanese chef that makes that super poisonous fish edible (can't remember the name of the fish). If they get it wrong, bam they've eaten human flesh.

 

Edit:

 

I forgot to add that the simplistic nature of the warcamps structures are due to efficiency not the simplistic nature of soulcasters.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Vibronicgoose

[Horatio Spifflewicket]

Well, and I think Jasnah's soulcaster works differently from the Ardent's fabrials, anyways.

[Darkarma]

I forgot to add that the simplistic nature of the warcamps structures are due to efficiency not the simplistic nature of soulcasters.

 

I forget what page it was but when Andolin was watching them soulcast a new building he specifically states there are certain shapes and layouts that can't be soulcasted due to the fabrial's limitations.

[Ketek]

I love steak...

 

Somebody should add him to the list of people you don't want to meet in a dark alley

 

Also... WHAT IS THIS?! Just as the horrors of the spren were fading away, we now have cannibals. Guys, what if the Voidbringers were actually trying to scour Roshar of all its depravities?!

[Fatebreaker]

 

Voidus: 

Have you considered joining the glorious brotherhood of 'people who I don't want to run into in a dark alley'? 

 

Already recruited.

[Fatebreaker]

The cookies there are great.

[Lightsworn Panda]

"Rosharan Soulcast meat, unlike most Soulcast food, actually has taste. Reminiscent of pork, it's tender and delectable. Just don't ask us where it comes from".

 

I can just imagine that as a product description.

[Fatebreaker]

And vegans don't have to worry because no animals were actually harmed. (I need an evil laughter emoticon)

[Fifth of Daybreak]

And vegans don't have to worry because no animals were actually harmed. (I need an evil laughter emoticon)

Vegan cannibals! This is the best oxymoron to ever become true (in fiction.)

[Kruppe]

If you can soulcast various flavors of meat why does everyone complain about it all tasting the same?

[Arondell]

One of the points that is made repeatedly is that soulcast food of any type doesn't really taste like normal food.   Only simple things are likely to get an edible result.  Jasnah also specifically explains that blood is an exception to the normal rules because it is one of the essences.

 

 

“But you said you aren’t good with organics,” Shallan said. “You turned the strawberry jam into something inedible.”

 

“Blood isn’t the same,” Jasnah said, waving her hand. “It’s one of the Essences."

Sanderson, Brandon (2010-08-31). The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive) (p. 978). Macmillan. Kindle Edition.

 

I suspect that the reason even simple food tastes bad is cognitive in nature.  Soulcasting appears to be a process where you take something like a rock or other relatively homogenous object and in some way convince it to turn into something else.  Since a rock doesn't really "know" anything about grain or meat the result is just a general approximation of what that is.   A ball park guess if you will.

 

So when a rock turns into meat the resulting meat won't be particularly human. It will be what something with the intellect of a rock guesses might be meat.  Which would also explain why it always tastes bad without a lot of spices.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Arondell

[menacekop]

Well, and I think Jasnah's soulcaster works differently from the Ardent's fabrials, anyways.

 

You have no idea. 

Edited September 8, 2014 by menacekop

[Steel]

Somebody better disprove this. Please. Please. Pleeeeeease.

[killersquirrel59]

This is not necessarily the case. Soulcasting seems to work based on two different cognitive factors. The first is the intent and experience of the person doing the Soulcasting as well as his/her ability to picture or convey his/her desires. The second factor is on the receiving end since the thing being soulcast is being directly negotiated with in the Cognitive Realm, therefore its own perceptions would play a role in the final product. Based on these two factors it is not at all necessary that what is being soulcast become human. In the case of blood, that was both a primary essence and thus able to be manufactured more easily, and secondarily exactly what Jasnah was trying to produce. In the case of meat, I rather doubt that most of the ardents are trying to create human meat, and therefore it is likely to be something in between the meat they picture when they think of meat (most likely Chull) and as much of that idea as the original material can comprehend. 

[Dankworth]

Wonder if it tastes like chicken....

 

I mean, EVERYTHING tastes like chicken, right? Or does it taste like Rosharan chicken?

 

Man, this is disturbing to think about.  It's the Rosharan version of Soylent Green!

Actually, I've read that humans taste like pork once they've been cooked. (This is completely based off of newspaper interviews with serial killers, not the aftermath of my alleged hemalurgic experiments--I swear by the Survivor's spear, the Iridescent Tones, and the tenth name of the the Almighty, it wasn't me!)

[Shaggai]

Actually, I've read that humans taste like pork once they've been cooked. (This is completely based off of newspaper interviews with serial killers, not the aftermath of my alleged hemalurgic experiments--I swear by the Survivor's spear, the Iridescent Tones, and the tenth name of the the Almighty, it wasn't me!)

I believe the culinary term for human meat is "long pork."

Edited December 20, 2014 by Shaggai

[king of nowhere]

And I have heard that it tastes of horse, bassed from interviews to survivors of disasters that were forced to resort to cannibalism.

And I also have heard that it depends on one's dietary habit.

So, maybe a human fed with soulcast meat will taste of soulcast meat. which, of course, tastes of person fed with soulcast meat. it's a bit like the paradox of a chamaleon on top of another chamaleon...

[Inkthinker]

...I'm thinking very hard about what it would be if NOT chull. We have some fauna that's yet to be introduced, and some of it might be farmed for meat... but nothing on Roshar is particularly analogous to Terran fauna except for a few exceptions. It's a pretty alien world.

 

And it's all very well and good to say that it's just... "essence of meat" and not any meat in particular, but I know Brandon is enough of a steak fanatic to appreciate the differences between different cuts of beef, never mind the varieties of chicken and pork. And that's just the staples, humans farm some interesting meats. Still haven't tried snake in anything but jerky form, and that could'a been fake snake. Gator tastes neat. Squid is interesting.

I imagine chull tastes like something between beef and lobster, if only because it's basically a bull-sized crab. But I don't think there's any reason for soulcast meat to taste like chull in particular. And if it's based on the Essence of (presumably human) blood, then...

Chicken may or may not taste like chicken, depending on whether or not the chicken is a chicken.

Fish is presumably fish. So far as I know, the variety is sufficient to cover whatever you'd like to imagine. But it's still fish.

There are no appearances of pigs in the books so far, and the word "pig" does not even appear in WoR, but we do have the mention of a "Mabrow Pigherder" in WoK (NOOK, 577). I'm not sure what to say about that, but I'm curious enough that it's going into my box of Brandon questions. I'll ask about it next time I get a chance, but that might be a while, we're in Mistborn stuff right now.

Edited December 20, 2014 by Inkthinker

[WeiryWriter]

There are no appearances of pigs in the books so far, and the word "pig" does not even appear in WoR, but we do have the mention of a "Mabrow Pigherder" in WoK (NOOK, 577). I'm not sure what to say about that, but I'm curious enough that it's going into my box of Brandon questions. I'll ask about it next time I get a chance, but that might be a while, we're in Mistborn stuff right now.

 

Well we do know that they have pigs, (they bred them to produce more milk--this is one of my favorite quotes ever... it's just hilarious to me)

 

 

The characters eat all of these crustaceans... do they have some sort of butter to dip into—even without cows, although maybe they have cows in shinovar? (I can’t be the only one who envisions himself on Roshar eating dinner every time I eat crab or lobster)

 

Their milk products are much lesser used, but they do get cream and whatnot from sow’s milk. The pigs on Roshar produce more milk from years of natural genetic modification—breeding and whatnot—in the same way that humans have bred cows over the centuries. So they do have milk products. Some of their curries will have different types of cream. Whether they’re dipping the crustaceans depends on the culture. For instance, Horneaters have teeth that break claws. Their back molars are different from standard human molars. To a lesser extent, the Herdazians have the same thing going for them. For those two cultures, they’ll chew the shells and eat them. For the Alethi, they’re probably dipping the meat in a curry, or just preparing the curry with the crustacean meat in it. There are other cultures where they’ll sauté it or have a sow’s milk dipping sauce or things like that.

 

(source)

 

Edit: Pigs are also kept as pets.

Edited December 20, 2014 by WeiryWriter

[Inkthinker]

There you go, good catch.

So then presumably there is pork and pork products, including... pig dairy. Which is, apparently, similar to cow in terms of protein, fat and lactose.

Learn something every day.

[Arondell]

There are quite a few references to hogs hide in regards to shoes.  In Ym's interlude.  I believe Adolin's shoes are referred to as high quality hogs hide on at least one occasion.

 

It also would not surprise me at all that hogs on Roshare don't resemble Earth hogs all that closely.  Thousands of years of selective breeding in a significantly different environment and all that.  They might not even be the same species at all just whatever they are calling "hogs" is the closest linguistic equivalent.  A bit like the Rosharan concept of a season isn't really what we would call a season.

[Redbird]

Or the way they call every bird a chicken.