Sult, the World of the Hungry Sands (Light Cosmere spoilers)

[Argenti he/him]

I’ve had a kinda cool idea for a Shardworld, which I’m gonna call Sult, to explore some more mechanical forms of investiture with a cool backdrop. In this thread, I'll outline the ecology, world building, and some examples of magic devices.

 

Basic Worldbuilding

 

Essentially, the entire planet is a desert of red, ferrous sand. At the same time, invested winds blow constantly from east to west, picking up, weaponizing, and investing the sand. When invested, the sand will move at incredible speeds, shredding anything that goes in the way of the wind. Anything invested, including the innate investiture in humans and other life, attracts the sand, which often speeds up after passing through anything invested, having absorbed the investiture and converted it into kinetic energy. Even if somehow captured, the sand will not stop moving until it’s depleted its investiture. At that point, it can still be re-activated with either blood or an infusion of investiture.

 

This, of course, asks the question of if there’s hungry, life-eating sand, how on earth does anything, much less higher life, like humans, still exist? The answer is simple:

 

The Cradles.

 

Each Cradle is a mountain of steel glass, the result of an ancient battle; remnants of the red sand turned into boiling glass and infused with the carbon of the long-dead life, curved into a sort of dome. (Think of that mountain from Evangelion that was melted by Ramial’s laser). Since these mountains are steel-infused, the realmatic powers of steel come into effect, repelling the sand enough to create a sort of “shadow,” where the sand doesn’t go, and life can exist safely. 

 

Over time, the humans native to Sult have discovered this interaction and have begun to figure out that the sand also interacts with other metals as well. The Allomantic metals each have an effect, much like they do in the rest of the cosmere.

The Metals.

Spoiler

Steel: Repels the sand. It’s used in the mountains to not die, duh. Can also be used in personal suits to aid in avoiding the sand.

Iron: Attracts the sand. Typically, it’s used to harvest the sand or used in weaponry to draw the sand to someone you don’t like and also to extract the sand to stop it from burrowing deeper into their flesh.

Pewter: Preserves speed of the sand. Stops the sand from slowing down as its investiture depletes. 

Tin: Decreases the speed of the sand, until it halts, preserving investiture.

Zinc: Increases how fast the sand is traveling, but the investiture remains finite, so it lasts shorter. Used in weapons and sandtraps.

Brass: Slows the sand down, but the investiture remains the same, so it lasts longer. Used in backup safety systems.

Copper: Hides Life from the sand. Acting in an aura, enough copper surrounding an individual masks them from the sand. Used in personal suits to aid in avoiding the sand.

Bronze: Allows one to measure how invested, and thus the top speed, of a given amount of sand. The faster a bronze rod vibrates when in contact with stationary sand, the more invested it is.

Duraluminium: Forces sand to use all of its investiture at once, creating uninvested sand moving at a the highest speed possible. Used in weapons.

Aluminum: Is immune to the invested damage of the sand, EX the sand will not accelerate in an attempt to break through. Also, if someone is in an aluminum lined room, the sand can not detect them.

Nicrosil: Allows for safe man-made reinfusion of the sand. When non-invested, or otherwise stationary sand makes contact with sand, the investiture present within blood or other investiture sources can be applied from a distance.

Chromium: Drains the investiture of sand, and thus the speed. When near Chromium for an extended time, the sand will lose investiture in ways other than speed.

No idea for the temporal Metals. Thoughts? (On the metals and in genreal)

(I wrote this on my phone, so forgive any spelling mistakes.

Edited January 7, 2025 by Argenti
Spelling

[Atlas333]

Sounds cool. But will there be an invested art on this planet? While it's possible for planets to mostly rely on magitech (Lumar and Komashi come to mind), there are usually people who still have access to magic (Roshar is a good example of this). Of course, you don't have to have an invested art, I'm just curious.

Also, how much has this planet been influenced by a shard? Is it the home of a major shard, an avatar, or no shard? (Sounds to me like it could be a creation of Invention if you're going for a mechanical focus).

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

Seems like a pretty cool idea, a deserty place where the sand is literally trying to kill you.

20 hours ago, Argenti said:

Each Cradle is a mountain of steel glass, the result of an ancient battle; remnants of the red sand turned into boiling glass and infused with the carbon of the long-dead life, curved into a sort of dome.

Interesting, so perhaps it's the result of Shards clashing on the planet?

Perhaps this is a world that, like Threnody, was caught in a battle between Shards and was twisted into a quite terrifying place?

I imagine there isn't a Perpendicularity, since it sounds like there isn't a Shard in residence.

52 minutes ago, Atlas333 said:

Sounds cool. But will there be an invested art on this planet? While it's possible for planets to mostly rely on magitech (Lumar and Komashi come to mind), there are usually people who still have access to magic (Roshar is a good example of this). Of course, you don't have to have an invested art, I'm just curious.

It kind of sounds like it's a world directly affected by and changed by, but not Invested by a Shard.

The way things work in the Cosmere is that Shardless worlds have magic, but it's more environmental and less focused directly into the people, like the difference in Allomancy and Aviar. 

Though I imagine a Sand Master would have a field day here, would it be easy or difficult for one to control the Red Sand? 

Overall, an interesting starting point for an idea, and I'd love to see this idea expanded upon.

I'd imagine that a story on this world would probably be set in the Space Age, maybe with a Scadrian Colony due to the expansive understanding of how metal effects the Sand?

Does the Sult Sand have a name like Taldain's White Sand? Would it be Red Sand, Blood Sand, something along those lines?

[Argenti he/him]

2 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Interesting, so perhaps it's the result of Shards clashing on the planet?

Yes, that's what i'm thinking. Perhaps part of Ambition's trail of blood across the cosmere? I'm not really sure, since the exact shards that fought here don't really matter. Maybe Invention was involved?

2 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

I imagine there isn't a Perpendicularity, since it sounds like there isn't a Shard in residence.

3 hours ago, Atlas333 said:

Yes, you'd be correct. There's no perpendicularity, at least not naturally. 

2 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Does the Sult Sand have a name like Taldain's White Sand? Would it be Red Sand, Blood Sand, something along those lines?

Blood Sand sounds good.

2 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

I'd imagine that a story on this world would probably be set in the Space Age, maybe with a Scadrian Colony due to the expansive understanding of how metal effects the Sand?

 

Very much in the space age. Think Komashi esque tech level on Sult: they're figuring out spaceflight (Put a bunch of sand at the end of a rocket. It will fly fast.)

I think a scadrian colony could be good, but more research station esque is more appropriate. Sult isn't a very attractive place to settle, with the blood hungry sand in all.

3 hours ago, Atlas333 said:

Sounds cool. But will there be an invested art on this planet? While it's possible for planets to mostly rely on magitech (Lumar and Komashi come to mind), there are usually people who still have access to magic (Roshar is a good example of this). Of course, you don't have to have an invested art, I'm just curious.

Technically, there's a temporary luhel bond that can be made with the sand (with direct blood to sand contact, and the proper inntent), reminiscent of Sand master, but in practice, it's nearly impossible to use without at least some deaths. The sand drains blood at a faster rate than white sand drains moisture, and of course, blood is much harder to replenish. It's a constant fight with the intent of the sand, it wants to consume blood and investiture, including yours. When a cognitive bound is made, the thousand hungry whispers of the sand fill your mind, demanding blood, and demanding to be used, often making it difficult to muster the necessary focus to control the sand. The whispers of the sand, and it's hunger, can be sated with other sources of investiture, including that present in other life. Killing someone with Blood Sand will drain them of their moisture, and prevent it from consuming yours. For obvious reasons, most Sultians consider such a bond incredibly evil, and the various governments have banned them entirely: bonding the red sand is worthy of the death penalty in most Cradles.

Most uses of the sand are mechanical, and thus are not nearly as risky or morally dubious. 

3 hours ago, Atlas333 said:

Also, how much has this planet been influenced by a shard? Is it the home of a major shard, an avatar, or no shard? (Sounds to me like it could be a creation of Invention if you're going for a mechanical focus).

Now that is why I keep saying "at least not naturally,"  no shard resides here, but Autonomy, being Autonomy, has invested an avatar in the system. Through this avatar, and the cult they command, Autonomy has co-opted the resident system, providing those who go through their mysteries a trickle of investiture which enables a permanent, and safer bond with the Blood Sand. A sand master or two has also come along.

2 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Though I imagine a Sand Master would have a field day here, would it be easy or difficult for one to control the Red Sand? 

 

A sand master would indeed have a good time here. While the bond is slightly different, their natural ability to control White Sand does carry over. They'd have better control over the sand itself, better "terms" of the bond, and a lower chance of draining themselves.  They might experience some difficulty though, because the sand does act differently, moving forward even when you don't command it to, and draining them faster than white sand (Though it drains slower for sand masters than the average person.)

 

Edited January 8, 2025 by Argenti
SPAG

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

8 hours ago, Argenti said:

Technically, there's a temporary luhel bond that can be made with the sand (with direct blood to sand contact, and the proper inntent), reminiscent of Sand master, but in practice, it's nearly impossible to use without at least some deaths. The sand drains blood at a faster rate than white sand drains moisture, and of course, blood is much harder to replenish. It's a constant fight with the intent of the sand, it wants to consume blood and investiture, including yours. When a cognitive bound is made, the thousand hungry whispers of the sand fill your mind, demanding blood, and demanding to be used, often making it difficult to muster the necessary focus to control the sand. The whispers of the sand, and it's hunger, can be sated with other sources of investiture, including that present in other life. Killing someone with Blood Sand will drain them of their moisture, and prevent it from consuming yours. For obvious reasons, most Sultians consider such a bond incredibly evil, and the various governments have banned them entirely: bonding the red sand is worthy of the death penalty in most Cradles.

Most uses of the sand are mechanical, and thus are not nearly as risky or morally dubious. 

Ooo, Blood Sand Mastery, perhaps even Blood Sand Cults that live outside the Cradles by using human sacrifices to survive.

Maybe even a opposite to the Diem, where the Diem are meant to be protectors of Lossand, these Blood Sand Cults would just be ravenous bandits.

8 hours ago, Argenti said:

Now that is why I keep saying "at least not naturally,"  no shard resides here, but Autonomy, being Autonomy, has invested an avatar in the system. Through this avatar, and the cult they command, Autonomy has co-opted the resident system, providing those who go through their mysteries a trickle of investiture which enables a permanent, and safer bond with the Blood Sand. A sand master or two has also come along.

Ah yes, so there's probably a hidden Artificial Perpendicularity on the world somewhere, so Worldhopping is feasible.

 

8 hours ago, Argenti said:

A sand master would indeed have a good time here. While the bond is slightly different, their natural ability to control White Sand does carry over. They'd have better control over the sand itself, better "terms" of the bond, and a lower chance of draining themselves.  They might experience some difficulty though, because the sand does act differently, moving forward even when you don't command it to, and draining them faster than white sand (Though it drains slower for sand masters than the average person.)

We know that White Sand 'sings' to the Sand Masters, so I'd imagine that Blood Sand screams at them, demanding blood for motion.

[Argenti he/him]

1 hour ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

We know that White Sand 'sings' to the Sand Masters, so I'd imagine that Blood Sand screams at them, demanding blood for motion

Ooh does it? White sands is the one cosmere book I haven't read. Yes Blood Sand screams

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

23 minutes ago, Argenti said:

Ooh does it? White sands is the one cosmere book I haven't read. Yes Blood Sand screams

I'd think that Sand Masters would be more sensitive to it than a normal person making a Luhel Bond with it.

Maybe instead of a Scadrian Colony, there's a Taldain Colony? If Sand Masters and an Autonomy Avatar are hanging around, it'd make sense if there's even some of Taldain's culture being exported to Sult en masse.

Perhaps that could lead to an interesting conflict, with the original inhabitants of Sult trying to protect their own unique culture from the influence and control that Autonomy is trying to force on them? With some Scadrians in the background trying to muck around, perhaps even being some off-world agents working directly against Autonomy as part of a campaign in the interstellar wars going on?

[Argenti he/him]

8 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

I'd think that Sand Masters would be more sensitive to it than a normal person making a Luhel Bond with it.

Maybe instead of a Scadrian Colony, there's a Taldain Colony? If Sand Masters and an Autonomy Avatar are hanging around, it'd make sense if there's even some of Taldain's culture being exported to Sult en masse.

Perhaps that could lead to an interesting conflict, with the original inhabitants of Sult trying to protect their own unique culture from the influence and control that Autonomy is trying to force on them? With some Scadrians in the background trying to muck around, perhaps even being some off-world agents working directly against Autonomy as part of a campaign in the interstellar wars going on?

Mhhh I like that. Taldians are trying to colonize, the Scadrians are mucking around, working against the Taldains mostly on principle, rather than out of the interest of the Sultians.

I'll outline the geopolitics.

[Hoid’s #1 Soldier]

I was drawn to reply to this based on you wanting feedback on the magic system (my favorite thing to do!). First off though, would most of these metals that adjust the sand be used as flakes of metal, and mixed into the sand? And then, once Invested, the metal flakes fly with the sand and form a light Luhel bond with it (the sand being the mind behind the bond). It also kind of sounds like the sand would possess some sort of cognitive activity that is being made manifest when it's Invested. 

You talked about the wind Investing the sands. If that's how the sands get turned on, how do you think rockets can use them for fuel? I imagine if the Invested wind is from a specific direction, then there must be a source for it. It'd actually be really cool if the direction is because the "wind" is for some reason orbiting the planet. Or there's an origin. I just thought of the orbital winds just now.

Anyway.

I think bronze could also have an aura-based power similar to copper, where it vibrates more in the direction of the nearest pile of sand. That would make it able to create a sort of compass from bronze where it will point you towards where sand is. Or, if you were to place the vibrating piece of bronze under a dish of water, it could make a radar image sort of like cymatics (where it shows a dot for sand in relation to where the bronze is). And then, if you can look closely enough or listen closely to the vibration, the sound can also tell you what else that cloud of sand is empowered by. 

Gold could impact the sand by creating a delayed reaction with the sand; the sand's instinctive (or scientific/natural) functions are set back by a few seconds (could also be explained by the sand's spren viewing things late), causing it to harmlessly slap against your face before it then catches up with what's happening. 

Electrum could be to the sand's benefit, then. It gives the sand a degree of realization if it sees that something will stop it from moving, allowing it to use some of its Investiture to redirect its path. 

Cadmium is excellent for the sand; it slows down time the moment it makes contact with a target. The bubble created is thin, and expands around the particles of sand in a large enough radius that a coating of sand is enough to slow someone down in place. The sand moves so fast anyway that the effects of cadmium on the particles is somewhat negligible. 

Bendalloy is also very good for the sand. The resulting time bubble creates a little sphere where the Invested wind is trapped with the sand, allowing it to consume the wind. And then, when the bubble ends, the sand fires out with alarming speed due to the air rushing to fill the space. Could be good to make small, but extremely powerful bullets. An alternative for duralumin. 

[Argenti he/him]

37 minutes ago, Hoid’s #1 Soldier said:

I was drawn to reply to this based on you wanting feedback on the magic system (my favorite thing to do!). First off though, would most of these metals that adjust the sand be used as flakes of metal, and mixed into the sand? And then, once Invested, the metal flakes fly with the sand and form a light Luhel bond with it (the sand being the mind behind the bond). It also kind of sounds like the sand would possess some sort of cognitive activity that is being made manifest when it's Invested. 

 

Ah so this is on me: I wasn't picturing it as flakes, morso as like plates/ tubes. I don't think flakes would work well, since when the sand moves, each grain moves on its own, rather than as a collective. Flakes would probably just drop out, especially when it turns.
 

39 minutes ago, Hoid’s #1 Soldier said:

You talked about the wind Investing the sands. If that's how the sands get turned on, how do you think rockets can use them for fuel? I imagine if the Invested wind is from a specific direction, then there must be a source for it. It'd actually be really cool if the direction is because the "wind" is for some reason orbiting the planet. Or there's an origin. I just thought of the orbital winds just now.

 

There's not really a specific spot where it starts. The wind is constant, around the world, it doesn't have an Origin. My idea is that when the investiture landed, it was like a blow to the spiritweb of the world, and just as a planet struck by an asteroid might shift its tilt or rotation speed, the spiritweb of the world spun, bleeding investiture everywhere. You could probably power a ship with it if you could Unkey the investiture and transfer it into something other than the bloodthirsty sand (or, use a method outlined below to use the sand).

Oh, also if taken off world, the sand stops paying attention to east to west, and just starts going towards life.

47 minutes ago, Hoid’s #1 Soldier said:

Gold could impact the sand by creating a delayed reaction with the sand; the sand's instinctive (or scientific/natural) functions are set back by a few seconds (could also be explained by the sand's spren viewing things late), causing it to harmlessly slap against your face before it then catches up with what's happening. 

Electrum could be to the sand's benefit, then. It gives the sand a degree of realization if it sees that something will stop it from moving, allowing it to use some of its Investiture to redirect its path. 

Cadmium is excellent for the sand; it slows down time the moment it makes contact with a target. The bubble created is thin, and expands around the particles of sand in a large enough radius that a coating of sand is enough to slow someone down in place. The sand moves so fast anyway that the effects of cadmium on the particles is somewhat negligible. 

Bendalloy is also very good for the sand. The resulting time bubble creates a little sphere where the Invested wind is trapped with the sand, allowing it to consume the wind. And then, when the bubble ends, the sand fires out with alarming speed due to the air rushing to fill the space. Could be good to make small, but extremely powerful bullets. An alternative for duralumin. 

Eh, I don't love it. It's a little too close to allomancy for me, and while I think the general trends should be the same, I don't think every effect should be identical. The bubbles feel weird: the sand isn't burning anything. It doesn't have a spren, it's more... animal in intelligence, not really aware and can't really plan. These are my thoughts:

Gold: Causes Blood Sand to “scream.” When a grain of blood sand is pressed to solid gold, it begins to vibrate, releasing a profoundly unsettling sound reminiscent of a woman's blood-curdling scream of agony. When exposed to this sound, Blood Sand freezes, ignoring living things and flinging itself at the gold, attempting to destroy it and remove the grain pressed against it. Gold is often used as the last line of defense to buy time.
Electrum: Calms Blood Sand. While pressed to Electrium, the sand temporarily loses its bloodlust. However, the Blood Sand will continue on its origin path, east to west. Widely considered useless.
Cadmium: Dulls Blood Sand. After being exposed to Cadmium, Blood Sand becomes sluggish, temporarily slowing down and becoming slow to respond to stimuli. Used in storage.
Bendalloy: Quickens Blood Sand. After exposure to Bendalloy, Blood Sand becomes hyperactive, temporarily speeding up and becoming hyper-reactive to stimuli, prone to missing its target. Used in weapons.
Silver: “Kills” the sand. After making contact with the silver, the sand turns ash white, dropping to the ground and refusing to interact with investiture. It can also be used to slice the Connection between one bonded with the Blood sand, which results in a loss of control and the prevention of any more moisture being drawn from the bonder. The silver corrodes with every grain of sand that makes contact, slowly turning into black dust.


Oh and the blood sand is totally what's left of ambition's mind, splintered and stretched out in a tortuous existence. That's why it screams.
I'm still working on the cradles.
 

[Hoid’s #1 Soldier]

I like your ideas more! I agree that mine were too allomantic, but also, most of the Realmatic metal effects we see are reflective of Allomancy (zinc and brass increase and diminish pain, respectively, in fabrials). 

I will say that I think that your ideas for cadmium and bendalloy would be better for zinc/brass, respectively. Then, you could port zinc and brass's effects to cadmium and bendalloy so that the planet has a reason to pursue cadmium/bendalloy production; zinc and brass would be more inefficient comparatively, but useful until they can start producing metals that can be more precise with the Sand. 

Or maybe shift zinc and brass's effects to pewter and tin (so that pewter and tin only effect the physical attributes of the Blood Sand at the cost of Investiture), have pewter and tin previous effects be cadmium and bendalloy's effects (pewter and tin seem like the best). 

Obviously, these are all small points. You could also use the feruchemical table for zinc and brass actually; perhaps brass causes for the Blood Sand to also become super hot! And perhaps that could be mechanically useful-- Blood Sand could be used as a sort of air cooler, with the brass sapping heat from nearby to give to the Blood Sand as it passes through. And then zinc makes the Blood Sand hyperactive (a la bendalloy) to reflect Feruchemical zinc. 

 

Do you have any idea for how the sand would be used in machines without the winds? You mentioned unkeying the Investiture. 

 

22 hours ago, Argenti said:

... the sand isn't burning anything. It doesn't have a spren, it's more... animal in intelligence, not really aware and can't really plan. 

I meant that, since everything has a reflection in the cognitive realm, there is some small spark of thought that happens when the Blood Sand is Invested. I called it "spren" as shorthand for its cognitive reflection. 

Edited February 11, 2025 by Hoid’s #1 Soldier