Kandra and Sustenance.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

I know I remember that Kandra are carnivores. I am curious to what end they get all of their sustenance. 

I assume Kandra could eat a regular diet to fit into society but what is their body actually running on?  

Do they require water the way other animals do?  Could they die of dehydration or just starvation?

Can a Kandra use any sustenance to regrow limbs or is it limited to consuming meat and bodies?  

I know some of this was covered in the 101 tricks started by @Trusk'our but I am curious about this specifically. 

If a Kandra got ahold of F bendalloy could turn all of that storage straight into more mass?  Continually growing or regrowing? 

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Do they require water the way other animals do?  Could they die of dehydration or just starvation?

This, at least, was covered in HoA (Ch 2):

Spoiler

The “cell” was actually nothing more than a grate-covered stone pit. It was barely large enough to hold his mass. His captors dumped food in from the top, then periodically poured water in to hydrate him and wash his excrement out through a small drainage hole at the bottom. Both this hole and those in the locked grate above were too small for him to slide through—a kandra’s body was supple, but even a pile of muscles could be squeezed only so small.

So, the captive Kandra required water to survive. Also note that they covered the Homeland's basic diet in Ch 20:

Spoiler

Other adult kandra went about food preparation. They would stew a mixture of algae and fungi inside stone pits, not unlike the one in which TenSoon would spend eternity. Despite his former hatred of mankind, TenSoon had always found the opportunity to enjoy outside food—particularly aged meat—a very tempting consolation for going out on a Contract.

So, meat was not necessary for survival; just for mimicry or creating more muscle mass.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

This, at least, was covered in HoA (Ch 2):

  Reveal hidden contents

The “cell” was actually nothing more than a grate-covered stone pit. It was barely large enough to hold his mass. His captors dumped food in from the top, then periodically poured water in to hydrate him and wash his excrement out through a small drainage hole at the bottom. Both this hole and those in the locked grate above were too small for him to slide through—a kandra’s body was supple, but even a pile of muscles could be squeezed only so small.

So, the captive Kandra required water to survive. Also note that they covered the Homeland's basic diet in Ch 20:

  Reveal hidden contents

Other adult kandra went about food preparation. They would stew a mixture of algae and fungi inside stone pits, not unlike the one in which TenSoon would spend eternity. Despite his former hatred of mankind, TenSoon had always found the opportunity to enjoy outside food—particularly aged meat—a very tempting consolation for going out on a Contract.

So, meat was not necessary for survival; just for mimicry or creating more muscle mass.

Thanks for these its been a while since I visited this book.  For some reason I thought Kandra only lived off of meat and eating anything else was just plain gross. 

[Trusk'our he/him]

5 hours ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

I know I remember that Kandra are carnivores. I am curious to what end they get all of their sustenance. 

I assume Kandra could eat a regular diet to fit into society but what is their body actually running on?  

Can a Kandra use any sustenance to regrow limbs or is it limited to consuming meat and bodies?  

Well, we know that they can survive on a mixture of algae and fungus that humans can't, though they don't like it.

Quote

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/270/#e7531

Brandon Sanderson

Why the Lord Ruler Created the Kandra as They Are

You may have noticed something in this chapter. TenSoon mentions the food pits that the kandra people cultivate, a mixture of algae and fungus that they grow in holes in the ground. Yes, they can survive on this. No, it doesn't taste very good. However, it doesn't need light to grow.

Humankind couldn't survive on this mixture, unfortunately. However, one thing that is never brought up in the text is something that not even the kandra know. There are several reasons that the Lord Ruler created them as he did. One of those reasons was so that there would be a people who could survive beneath the ground, should the world above be destroyed by the mists. In other words, he created a race of subterranean dwellers to outlast humankind, should that become necessary. He was the one who gave them the Homeland as their inheritance and taught them to begin growing food that would survive underground.

Then, of course, he decided to add the Resolution to their code of law. That was a precaution in case Ruin decided to claim them as his own. A bit self-defeating, true, but the Lord Ruler felt it was better for them to die than to become pawns of his most dangerous enemy.

My current assumption is that they can convert any digestible substance into any other biological tissue (except for bone, enamel, and keratin) that they need, including for shapeshifting, though meat may just be easier. They wouldn't be able to survive on the algae and fungus for long otherwise, since their bodies would eventually deteriorate.

Edited January 19 by Trusk'our

[Treamayne]

5 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

My current assumption is that they can convert any digestible substance into any other biological tissue (except for bone, enamel, and keratin) that they need, including for shapeshifting, though meat may just be easier.

And I will counterpoint and say that the impression I had from Era 1 is that they can derive Nutrition from the same ranges as most mammals - but require proteins (meat) to create muscle mass. Once the mass exists, then they can dissolve, reform and change the tissues into organs and such. Based on TenSoon's repeated use of "dissolve the muscles and form <organ>" and showing that each time he needs mass he requests an animal to eat to add mass. 

[KSub]

I imagine that since the Kandra are just mistwraiths given sapience that they could eat whatever a mistwraith could eat. So pretty much anything. I picture mistwraiths as land jellyfish, just passively cruising around until food finds them. But in the modern age they eat Kandra Kibble.

 

Kandra Kibble! It’ s loaded with amino acids, vitamin K and all the things your Kandra needs.
Kandra Kibble! It’s what Kandra’s crave! 

[Duxredux he/him]

On 1/19/2024 at 3:56 AM, Treamayne said:

And I will counterpoint and say that the impression I had from Era 1 is that they can derive Nutrition from the same ranges as most mammals - but require proteins (meat) to create muscle mass. Once the mass exists, then they can dissolve, reform and change the tissues into organs and such. Based on TenSoon's repeated use of "dissolve the muscles and form <organ>" and showing that each time he needs mass he requests an animal to eat to add mass. 

I'm a bit late, but this could just be TenSoon milking the Contract to get aged meat at every opportunity as the dietary change is one of his main motivators for leaving the Homeland as you so nicely found and quoted in your first post. It's basically the only form of payment he gets to keep, since the Atium that purchased his Contract just goes to the Trustwarren and so he'll ask for meat whether or not he really needs it. In that respect he reminds me of Lord Admiral Delius from White Sand as that's one of his only ways to inconvenience his hated masters.

Besides that, this habit of consuming a large variety of animals and memorizing organ and muscle patterns likely contributes to TenSoon being one of the best at changing and adapting his forms on the fly. A Kandra that wants to be similarly fast should preferentially eat meat and practice at every meal. Mushrooms and algae won't help in that department.

I think a Kandra could gain mass from any range of animal diets, particularly if they've adapted their digestive system to match the respective animal as the cow is remarkably good at converting grass and other scrubby plants into personal muscle mass with its four stomachs. Now if you want quick mass gain, then yes, the stiff soup of denaturing proteins that is carrion is probably the easiest way to get the necessary nutrients in approximately the right proportions into an easily and swiftly digestible format for a Mistwraith's standard digestive system. If speed is the need, don't bother with an ungulate's digestive system and chew the same wad of grass three or four times to extract maxiumum nutrition, particularly if you have zero plans to turn into grass.