Atlas333 Posted March 28, 2025 Posted March 28, 2025 The physical similarities between Chasm Fiends and Sandlings (the big ones specifically) are fairly obvious. Both are large crab like fauna that can grow to massive sizes. However, in WaT we learned that Chasm Fiends are actually quite intelligent and can even communicate via the rhythms. Can we expect Sandlings to have a similar level of intelligence?
ChickenBonanza Posted March 28, 2025 Posted March 28, 2025 (edited) I’d attribute the intelligence of Chasmfiends to… their nature, I guess. Likely case that greatshells of all kinds were designed by Adolnasium to be intelligent and interact with Spiritual and Cognitive forces. Hearing the Rhythms, their special communication abilities, the purposeful bonding of spren. Such things would require some level of higher thought, I’d say. Alternatively, one could attribute such things to side-effects of Investiture, like from bonding Luckspren. I’d say this is way less likely. Sandlings, however, were likely not instilled with higher purpose as a representation of the beauty of order deriving from nature by Adolnasium, if they were at all. Pretty certain they weren’t. Taldain was implied to be made by Autonomy, was it not? (edit: I’ve seen Words which state that Scadrial is unique in its creation, or just that such a thing is uncommon. I believe my thoughts here derived from Words on the Taldain System’s intentional design by ‘someone,’ which I assumed was Autonomy. Theoretically, for Autonomy to do so would not necessary mean to create Taldain and its suns from scratch, as Leras and Ati did Scadrial, but who knows.) Sandlings also do not seem to utilized greatly Invested functionalities that might attribute to higher intelligence. They do eat Invested Lichen, and have Terkin shells, but we cannot be certain as the effects of those. Besides, those big Sandlings were pretty aggressive for no reasons other than predation, as far as I remember. Chasmfiends had their own ritual combative culture goin on. Edited March 29, 2025 by ChickenBonanza 1
Nitpicking Posted March 29, 2025 Posted March 29, 2025 On 3/28/2025 at 12:58 AM, ChickenBonanza said: Sandlings, however, were likely not instilled with higher purpose as a representation of the beauty of order deriving from nature by Adolnasium, if they were at all. Pretty certain they weren’t. Taldain was implied to be made by Autonomy, was it not? I believe there's a WoB that only Scadrial was made by Shards. All the other Shardworlds existed before the Shattering. That possibly does not apply to Canticle, which Brandon himself hadn't created when he said that ....
Treamayne Posted March 30, 2025 Posted March 30, 2025 (edited) On 3/28/2025 at 12:03 AM, Atlas333 said: The physical similarities between Chasm Fiends and Sandlings (the big ones specifically) are fairly obvious. Both are large crab like fauna that can grow to massive sizes. Related, in that they are both extrapolations of divergent ecologies (megafauna on Roshar, because of the low gravity, high oxygen environment - on Taldain because the Sand supports their lifecycle, growth and movement). WoB: Spoiler Blightsong Are sandlings from White Sand an early concept for crustaceans on Roshar, with greatshells being a parallel to deep sandlings? Brandon Sanderson No, um, the idea for white sandWhite Sand came first, and it was more that I was exploring divergent ecology, but I've been doing that in Dragonsteel and in White Sand and in here with Roshar. I would say that the fact that white sand hadn't been published meant that I could do something's that were similar without worrying about repeating myself, but it's not like I used them specifically as models. Blightsong *jokingly* So are we going to get to see little dragons running around in Dragonsteel? Brandon Sanderson Uh, well, in Dragonsteel the dragons are sapient, so when I write Dragonsteel I will put dragons in there, but the dragons are intelligent and uh, can take human form, but there are actual little dragons. Blightsong Wait, they can take human form? Brandon Sanderson Yes, yes, yup. OdysseyCon 2016 (April 8, 2016) Greatshell Sapience is likely tied to their Nahel Bonds (like Chiri-Chiri in Row after the bond in Dawnshard) 13 hours ago, Nitpicking said: I believe there's a WoB that only Scadrial was made by Shards. All the other Shardworlds existed before the Shattering. That possibly does not apply to Canticle, which Brandon himself hadn't created when he said that .... I think this may be the WoB to which you are referring: Spoiler Thorondir (paraphrased) Who names the planets? You've said once that "Scadrial" was the name of the planet as Ruin and Preservation knew it, but where'd they get that name? Do the Shardholders all get together and vote on it or something? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) He said thay already had their names and that the all the planets existed before the shardholders got there. Footnote: This is true for all worlds save Scadrial, which was created by Ruin and Preservation. Oslo signing, 2011 (May 30, 2011) But please note that it is from 2011, and only paraphrased because it was not recorded. So, it's not entirely correct. Scadrial was confirmed to have been created by Ruin and Preservatino working together. Roshar was created by Adonalsium. Taldain was at least modified by Autonomy, but may have also been created that way. Nalthis is still a questionmark, because we know it's not old enough for a Fossil record to exist, but we don't know if Endowment created it, or terraformed it and brough people from somewhere else. WoBs: Spoiler Quote Paleo The placement of Taldain, the solar system, was it done by someone? Brandon Sanderson So...Taldain, yes. Paleo Has it to do with the travel in the Cognitive Realm? Brandon Sanderson Not 100%. That's a side effect Leipzig Book Fair (March 24, 2017) Quote potterhead42 On Scadrial, humans were created as a result of the deal between Preservation and Ruin. But what about the rest of the humans on the other worlds of the Cosmere? Brandon Sanderson It's split. Some predate the shattering; others were created. The humans that existed before were always a model, which is why they're so similar to one another. /r/books AMA 2015 (March 12, 2015) Quote Questioner My question is about Ruin and Preservation creating life. Is that an example of two individuals having a super team up? Or is there some co-influence, cross-influence that let them do something that would be outside of themselves? Brandon Sanderson Rephrase that for me. Talk around a little bit. Let me see if I'm gonna get the right answer, okay? Questioner Ruin ruins, and Preservation preserves. If they're creating life, well, that takes a little of everything, right? Is that an influence, like Ruin being in proximity to Preservation and vice versa? Would their co-mingling happen... and how would that influence other dual or triple Shards? Brandon Sanderson I get what you're saying. Each of the Shards has certain strengths and weaknesses, and they're capable of certain things and not other things. Some of them can do what was done by Ruin and Preservation on their own. Most cannot. Most combinations of two could; some would need three. So, it really kind of depends on the situation and the Shard. Each pairing and grouping of Shards will have different sort of augmentations to what they can accomplish, and things like this, because the Shards aren't all-powerful, they're just part of something that once was, if that makes sense. (That's not how math works in infinity, but it is how infinity works in the cosmere.) FanX 2024 (Sept. 26, 2024) Hope that helps Edited March 30, 2025 by Treamayne SPAG/WoBs
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