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Sand Mastery and Sandling theory


ReadAndFindOut

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Transcript of the actual theory: 

Theory: sandlings NEED water, because they actually feed off investiture.
First: the experiments done by Khrissalla in White Sand 2 show that sand that has passed through the digestive system of a sandling has been stripped of the investiture-absorbing microorganism, making it similar to Darkside sand. This implies that sandlings eating white sand must be a common enough occurrence for post-digested sand to be possible to retrieve.
Second: while it’s known that sandlings will avoid areas where Dorim vines grow because of the large amounts of water, we also see various species attack and consume living, carbon-based, water-filled prey. So water must not be fatal to them, or else consuming a person whose body is made of 80% water would kill them. It must just dissolve carapace.
Third: Sandlings, like greatshells, do not obey the square-cube law - they should collapse under their own weight, but sandlings don’t have the benefit of decreased gravity or floaty spren bonds, which means there must be something else keeping them alive. What better way than pure investiture?
So what if they don’t consume larger prey for nourishment, but rather for a water reserve? Then they use that water, housed within their digestive tract, to activate the white sand that they consume, sparking the investiture into a kinetic state and absorbing it. The microflora coating the sand is then also consumed, and used to build the terken carapace. Because it is no longer invested, it appears black or grey, but it is still sensitive to water and starts to unbind when it comes into contact with it. Similarly, when a terken carapace touches kinetically invested sand, those same macromolecules naturally either spark or leech away the investiture, making Sand Mastery ineffective.
Sandlings then can be thought of as a sort of giant earthworm, eating dirt, absorbing necessary nutrients, then pooping out the stripped minerals. Also kind of like any number of birds that eat rocks, which they store in their gizzard and use to help digest food. Sandlings just have a water-gizzard.
 

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I think it's not mentioned in the GN, but in the prose, the sandlings do completely melt if exposed to enough water. They actually make their food out of sandlings that have been melted into goo, spiced, dried, and shaped into various dishes. They probably had to leave it out due to size and time constraints, since it's not really plot relevant.

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18 hours ago, RShara said:

I think it's not mentioned in the GN, but in the prose, the sandlings do completely melt if exposed to enough water. They actually make their food out of sandlings that have been melted into goo, spiced, dried, and shaped into various dishes. They probably had to leave it out due to size and time constraints, since it's not really plot relevant.

To be fair, humans need several substances and elements which, if taken in excess or in the wrong form, can kill. And lets not forget, as described this makes water to the sandlings like stomach acid is to humans, and if stomach acid gets anywhere else on the body it can be very painful. Perhaps the sandlings have an anatomy which allows them to extract the water from what they eat without the water coming into contact with the rest of them?

 

I like this theory :-)

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Just now, Ixthos said:

To be fair, humans need several substances and elements which, if taken in excess or in the wrong form, can kill. And lets not forget, as described this makes water to the sandlings like stomach acid is to humans, and if stomach acid gets anywhere else on the body it can be very painful. Perhaps the sandlings have an anatomy which allows them to extract the water from what they eat without the water coming into contact with the rest of them?

 

I like this theory :-)

Right, but the point being was that their entire bodies melted, no bladder or anything left over, when exposed to water. Sort of like what's left after you sprinkle salt on a snail.

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Just now, RShara said:

Right, but the point being was that their entire bodies melted, no bladder or anything left over, when exposed to water. Sort of like what's left after you sprinkle salt on a snail.

Fair point, though it could be the outside of this hypothetical structure is vulnerable to water (as it is the mucus lining the stomach that makes it resistant) and maybe whatever lines its inside itself is broken down by water-melted shell. Still, fair point :-)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Sandlings, Sand Mastery, water, terken and Slatrification can make sense under @ReadAndFindOut's theory though, if we take into consideration that the prose is semi-canonical and the graphic novel is the canonical version (minus those stereo systems in Vol 1). I don't think there was anything in the GN about water completely melting down the Sandlings.

Oh, and I've subscribed to your channel and seen & liked the videos, great work! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/21/2019 at 3:56 AM, Honorless said:

Sandlings, Sand Mastery, water, terken and Slatrification can make sense under @ReadAndFindOut's theory though, if we take into consideration that the prose is semi-canonical and the graphic novel is the canonical version (minus those stereo systems in Vol 1). I don't think there was anything in the GN about water completely melting down the Sandlings.

Oh, and I've subscribed to your channel and seen & liked the videos, great work! 

Don't they still eat the same stuff?  Is it no longer generated the same way?

On 9/27/2019 at 0:33 PM, RShara said:

Right, but the point being was that their entire bodies melted, no bladder or anything left over, when exposed to water. Sort of like what's left after you sprinkle salt on a snail.

It is possible that some other chemical process dissolves the stomach.   Remember this is an organ.  Many different biological systems require extremely well done maintenance or they break down.  If you store a human in the right liquid solution of acids we dissolve down to our bones.  However we still drink lemonade.

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46 minutes ago, Karger said:

Don't they still eat the same stuff?  Is it no longer generated the same way?

Just that water hurts them, nothing about completely melting them.

The GN is frustratingly vague on the mechanics of its magic while still teetering on the edge of a breakthrough.

Also there's slightly more behavioural reason for their aggression during the specific attack situations (or unknown circumstances).

Basically I didn't find out anything extra but the contradictory parts were smoothed over, that's it, sorry.

Edited by Honorless
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On 11/1/2019 at 0:07 PM, Honorless said:

Just that water hurts them, nothing about completely melting them.

The GN is frustratingly vague on the mechanics of its magic while still teetering on the edge of a breakthrough.

Also there's slightly more behavioural reason for their aggression during the specific attack situations (or unknown circumstances).

Basically I didn't find out anything extra but the contradictory parts were smoothed over, that's it, sorry.

Perhaps it does kill them to eat a human.  After all we have no proof humans are native to dayside.  Maybe they just try and eat people because they can't tell the difference and because humans are deadly to them none survive to learn the lesson. 

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46 minutes ago, Karger said:

Perhaps it does kill them to eat a human.  After all we have no proof humans are native to dayside.  Maybe they just try and eat people because they can't tell the difference and because humans are deadly to them none survive to learn the lesson. 

That's dark, Karger

But from their behaviour, I don't think they're that stupid, some of them anyway (they have sub-species). It might be a possibility though...

Edited by Honorless
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8 hours ago, Calderis said:

am I conflating the prose and the GN? Cause I swear one of the ones in the deep sand ate someone and died. 

Like... Blood is water and water dissolves them 

Even the terkin. 

I don't remember that.  In either and I have read both several times.

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3 hours ago, Karger said:

I don't remember that.  In either and I have read both several times.

Wel, I don't have access to the GN at the moment, but this is the prose version. 

Spoiler

Kenton’s robes tore as flipped backward in an arc, landing on the dune behind him.  The DelRak attacked its meal, the Kershtian, still barely alive, screaming inside its grip.  A second later, the screaming stopped.  The DelRak shuddered suddenly, shaking violently, then it too stopped moving.  Its three legs opened limply, a bloodied corpse slipping free.  The sandling did not move again--it had been killed by the blood of its intended meal.

 

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4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Wel, I don't have access to the GN at the moment, but this is the prose version. 

I just checked that section.  Nada. Sorry.  Kenton kills the massive Sandling that tries to kill everyone before it can eat anything.

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13 hours ago, Honorless said:

That's dark, Karger

But from their behaviour, I don't think they're that stupid, some of them anyway (they have sub-species). It might be a possibility though...

I wouldn't say my cat is stupid, but one day a firefly found its way into my house. My cats are great hunters. Anytime a cricket rears its head, they tear it apart. So I thought my boy would knock it down, and pin it while I get a paper towel to finish it off and throw it away. I come back and my cat's mouth is foaming. I freak out, and use a wet wash towel to clean his mouth. He seems fine, but it seems he didn't swallow the fire fly, because I see it pop up on the couch. My cat, who just had the worst taste in his mouth, and started foaming, ran full tilt towards the bug again to try and get it. I had to pick him up and put him in the other room to have enough time to kill it. I later look online, and find out the bioluminesce in fireflies are poisonous to cats, some dogs (dependent on size), and small children. It is bad enough that I had to call poison control. Cats can die from it. Luckily I think he just sank his teeth in, and then spat it out, so he didn't swallow it and was fine. Yet he was more than ready to give it another go. So long story to say, if it looks like a meal, walks like a meal, sounds like a meal. Poisonous or not, an animal will try to eat it. 

 

edit: To give you an idea on how I perceive the intelligence of my cat. He learned that if he kneads the curtains over the radiator (without using his claws so they won't be shredded), it makes a vibration noise loud enough to wake up my wife and I. That way since we are awake, we can feed him. We jokingly call it "ringing the bell". Since then we found ways to prevent that, so he has found other ways to try and get us to do so. 

Edited by Pathfinder
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Meh. Like I said, it was a conflation. 

Frankly though, I don't think anything of the world building has actually changed in Canon, and I'd really like to get a WoB from Brandon on that. Because the GN because of format, can't fit all of the small world building aspects in. 

Hoid's little diddy at the end speaks to that very issue. 

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4 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Frankly though, I don't think anything of the world building has actually changed in Canon, and I'd really like to get a WoB from Brandon on that. Because the GN because of format, can't fit all of the small world building aspects in. 

They got rid of saltrification.

Edited by Karger
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21 minutes ago, Karger said:

They got rid of saltrification.

They didn't. Brandon's spoken about wanting to do that and Drile didn't use it in the fight at the end, but it's still mentioned in the first volume. 

There's nothing yet saying that slatrification is a lie, or a retcon, so no it isn't gone. 

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14 minutes ago, Calderis said:

There's nothing yet saying that slatrification is a lie, or a retcon, so no it isn't gone. 

Growls with frustration.  Come on!  We got the best Cosmere magic scholar ever next to a magic system and we still know next to NOTHING about it!

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