Would a Dysian Aimian be able to become a Radiant?

[Stick The Savant]

I know that Dysian Aimians (Sleepless) can form into humanlike colonies and have a hivemind conscience. If one wanted to bond a Spren, would they be able to? I assume the bond would be with the consciousness instead of an individual hordeling. This also brings to mind questions such as, what happens if the Aimian splits into two bodies(whitout creating a new Sleepless), do both get radiant abilities? would a single hordeling be able to use a surge like a human radiant can? 

 

[Treamayne]

13 hours ago, Stick The Savant said:

I know that Dysian Aimians (Sleepless) can form into humanlike colonies and have a hivemind conscience. If one wanted to bond a Spren, would they be able to?

Yes - it was implied by the back cover of Way of Kings and Oathbringer:

Spoiler

Way of Kings:

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The world can change. Surgebinding and Shardwielding can return; the magics of ancient days can become ours again.

Oathbringer:

Quote

We may soon hold Surges again, for Radiance has returned to some, and shines toward others.

 

Since we now know all of the back-cover synopses were written by Sleepless. Also, confirmed by WoB:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

So, the Sleepless ARE capable of Radiant bonds. (I believe the back jacket of the first book implies as much, if I remember correctly.) However, things they at first thought were great are making them increasingly worried, for reasons that will come up (not related to them specifically) in this book and the next.

Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A (Nov. 6, 2020)

Quote

I assume the bond would be with the consciousness instead of an individual hordeling. This also brings to mind questions such as, what happens if the Aimian splits into two bodies(without creating a new Sleepless), do both get radiant abilities? would a single hordeling be able to use a surge like a human radiant can?

Well, location would matter, since we see that even a Radiant must have their Spren nearby to maintain the bond. So, if both "bodies" were close to each other, it probably depends on the Swarm and their Spren and if they think it should work that way. If one "body" is not near the Spren, than it may not be able to access the bond, like a Radiant separated from their Spren.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Treamayne
WoB/SPAG

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

5 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Well, location would matter, since we see that even a Radiant must have their Spren nearby to maintain the bond. So, if both "bodies" were close to each other, it probably depends on the Swarm and their Spren and if they think it should work that way. If one "body" is not near the SPren, than it may not be able to access the bond, like a Radiant separated from their Spren.

It would really be something to see, if a Radiant Spren had the perception of multiple selves/the sum makes the whole, and a sleepless could become its own small squad.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 12/13/2023 at 6:02 AM, Stick The Savant said:

I know that Dysian Aimians (Sleepless) can form into humanlike colonies and have a hivemind conscience. If one wanted to bond a Spren, would they be able to?

The very first prologue of Aharietiam features three kinds of blood and something that looks like burnt insects.

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

23 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

The very first prologue of Aharietiam features three kinds of blood and something that looks like burnt insects.

And I had read TWoKs 5 or 6 times before that one small detail jumped out and hit me in the head.

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

And I had read TWoKs 5 or 6 times before that one small detail jumped out and hit me in the head.

To be fair, it's the re-reads after Edgedancer that count. I don't think we were meant to get that detail before then. 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 12/15/2023 at 9:14 PM, Treamayne said:

To be fair, it's the re-reads after Edgedancer that count. I don't think we were meant to get that detail before then. 

Well, we knew three species at a minimum were present. And I have to correct myself. The burnt arthropods are from one of Dalinar's visions.

It seems to me that we were to get that a multispecies battle had been fought. Though even to this day, we strictly speaking do not know on whose side the corpses of the violett blood had fought nor whom they were bound to. Though I suppose if they had been bound to voidspren the mechanics would be the same.

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:14 PM, Treamayne said:

To be fair, it's the re-reads after Edgedancer that count. I don't think we were meant to get that detail before then. 

Yes and no. The color of blood is mentioned several times throughout WoK and WoR. I don't think we were supposed to know why, but the connection was always there. Stuff like this makes me wonder what else I've been missing over and over.

[Treamayne]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:14 PM, Treamayne said:

To be fair, it's the re-reads after Edgedancer that count. I don't think we were meant to get that detail before then. 

4 minutes ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

Yes and no. The color of blood is mentioned several times throughout WoK and WoR. I don't think we were supposed to know why, but the connection was always there. Stuff like this makes me wonder what else I've been missing over and over.

Right. Poor word choice on my part - I meant "get" as in understand, not receive.

 

[Quantus he/him]

Im going to make several guess here, but I suspect all the hordlings are likely to be able to use Surges, a Distance from their single spren with range comparable to their normal limits or Squires (whichever is shorter).  I also think that while each hordling can do surges they will each only be able to hold a very small amount of Stormlight so they'll be sharply limited in what they can do without some amount of the collective present.  But they can most likely breed specialized Hordlings with Gemheart-based Stormlight storage.

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

11 minutes ago, The Lost Ookla said:

Im going to make several guess here, but I suspect all the hordlings are likely to be able to use Surges, a Distance from their single spren with range comparable to their normal limits or Squires (whichever is shorter).  I also think that while each hordling can do surges they will each only be able to hold a very small amount of Stormlight so they'll be sharply limited in what they can do without some amount of the collective present.  But they can most likely breed specialized Hordlings with Gemheart-based Stormlight storage.

Which would beg the question, can they breed hordlings with perfect gemhearts?

 

[Quantus he/him]

7 minutes ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

Which would beg the question, can they breed hordlings with perfect gemhearts?

 

Probably not Perfect Gemhearts, since that seems to be random even in animal sourced Gems, and also related to the Gem Cut and these would be living and uncut.  But I think they could certainly breed hordlings with oversize gemhearts for lots of personal Capacity, even if it's not literally Perfect in the sense of infinite storage duration.  

[JohnnyKaizen he/him]

We don't know where perfect gemhearts come from atm (AFAIK?) and other than gems being grown in a lab, I can't really think of a more likely source? Jasnah has already pointed out that there are far fewer perfect gems on Roshar than statistics would indicate there should be, just through chance. The ability to breed hordlings into the wild things Sleepless already can, would make me think that with enough time, they could breed perfect gemhearts and then larger and larger versions of them.

If not them, I don't really know who could outside of an advanced laboratory. One that shouldn't exist on Roshar atm anyway. 

[alder24]

1 hour ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

Which would beg the question, can they breed hordlings with perfect gemhearts?

Yeah, I think they would be able to breed perfect gemhearts. 

30 minutes ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

We don't know where perfect gemhearts come from atm (AFAIK?) and other than gems being grown in a lab, I can't really think of a more likely source?

They exist naturally from gemhearts:

Spoiler

Questioner

We know that finer gemstones like the King's Drop can hold Stormlight longer and encases other things that I won't say because of spoilers. Is that because of the craftsmanship, connecting their Identity in the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

Excellent question. "You can hold Stormlight in gemstones, and the more perfect a gemstone the more Stormlight it'll hold. Is the craftsmanship required to create it part of the reason why?" And no, it's actually the crystalline structure. Fewer flaws in the crystalline structure means fewer places for the Stormlight to wiggle out.

Questioner

Do gemstones exist naturally on Roshar? Or are they all gemhearts?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but you gotta dig through lots of layers of cremstone to get to them, so most of the time you're getting them from gemhearts.

New York Comic Con 2022 (Oct. 8, 2022)

 

[Quantus he/him]

22 hours ago, JohnnyKaizen said:

We don't know where perfect gemhearts come from atm (AFAIK?) and other than gems being grown in a lab, I can't really think of a more likely source? Jasnah has already pointed out that there are far fewer perfect gems on Roshar than statistics would indicate there should be, just through chance. The ability to breed hordlings into the wild things Sleepless already can, would make me think that with enough time, they could breed perfect gemhearts and then larger and larger versions of them.

If not them, I don't really know who could outside of an advanced laboratory. One that shouldn't exist on Roshar atm anyway. 

Lab grown Gem have fundamentally different grain structure than natural gems (curved/spherical grain instead of parallel) so they would not work without a bunch of additional work to develop new gem cuts to contain the Stormlight which are  likely to be distinct from the standard ones.  Also, Gemhearts are innately Chemically Pure to a degree that modern earth technology struggled to match.  Not impossible with Fabiral Magic but probably  ways down the line for Rosharan development.  

[Stick The Savant]

10 hours ago, Quantus said:

Lab grown Gem have fundamentally different grain structure than natural gems (curved/spherical grain instead of parallel) so they would not work without a bunch of additional work to develop new gem cuts to contain the Stormlight which are  likely to be distinct from the standard ones.  Also, Gemhearts are innately Chemically Pure to a degree that modern earth technology struggled to match.  Not impossible with Fabiral Magic but probably  ways down the line for Rosharan development.  

I would think that lab grown gems would also hold Stormlight and should be able to be made into perfect gems.

 

edit: I just checked an lab grown gems would hold Stormlight

Spoiler

Songstream

Q1: Can synthetic diamond contain Stormlight?

Q2: if yes, can a perfect gemstone that never loses Stormlight be made of synthetic material?

Q3: Has anyone already tried bringing synthetic diamond to Roshar at this point?

Q4: Is the increasing heaviness caused by Connection limited to Shadesmar, or does it also apply to the Physical Realm?

Q5: Will Mraize ever say, “He who controls the Stormlight controls the Cosmere”?

Brandon Sanderson

Answer to one is yes. Answer to two is, "Never is a LONG time." Three is not yet. I'll RAFO the other two.

VergenceScatter

Do diamonds have to be clear to hold Investiture, or can they be of any color?

Brandon Sanderson

On Roshar, part of the definition of a diamond would be that it's clear.

Rhythm of War Preview Q&As (Oct. 1, 2020)

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Stick The Savant
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