"Sand" Mastery

[Jult]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I was recently re-reading White Sand and got really interested in the lichen-like organism that Khriss discovers.

It seems like this organism is what is actually responsible for Sand Mastery via a Luhel bond with Sand Masters. So, the main question I have is.. Is this really Sand Mastery? Couldn't the lichen be used to manipulate any sufficiently small substance? Could you be Spore Master if you brought it to Lumar (assuming you found a way to keep it Invested)?

[Treamayne]

7 minutes ago, Jult said:

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I was recently re-reading White Sand and got really interested in the lichen-like organism that Khriss discovers.

It seems like this organism is what is actually responsible for Sand Mastery via a Luhel bond with Sand Masters. So, the main question I have is.. Is this really Sand Mastery? Couldn't the lichen be used to manipulate any sufficiently small substance? Could you be Spore Master if you brought it to Lumar (assuming you found a way to keep it Invested)?

We don't have enough information yet - but the implication from the Omnibus is that the microflora is symbiotic to the sand (it could grow and spread on darksider sand, but not on other rock materials). Also, Aether Spores use a Luhel Bond as well, so I would expect that trying to bond both silumtaneously would create interference patters, or even just block each other (much like sand ribbons cancelling each other). 

Hope that helps.

[Jult]

15 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

We don't have enough information yet - but the implication from the Omnibus is that the microflora is symbiotic to the sand (it could grow and spread on darksider sand, but not on other rock materials). Also, Aether Spores use a Luhel Bond as well, so I would expect that trying to bond both silumtaneously would create interference patters, or even just block each other (much like sand ribbons cancelling each other). 

Hope that helps.

Do ALL Aether Spores use a Luhel bond? I know midnight spores do. But the others we know about just seem to react to water. I think I maybe remember Verdant and Roseite reacting somewhat to Intent as well, but I may be conflating those with the Aethers from AoN.

[Treamayne]

Just now, Jult said:

Do ALL Aether Spores use a Luhel bond? I know midnight spores do. But the others we know about just seem to react to water. I think I maybe remember Verdant and Roseite reacting somewhat to Intent as well, but I may be conflating those with the Aethers from AoN.

Verdant was shown to definitely use a version of the Luhel Bond - and it was implied that an accomplished Sprouter can do similar with any Spore. 

Tress Ch 44:

Spoiler

In that moment, the last vestiges of Tress’s spore fear died away. She’d made a mistake, and she would be careful in future experiments. But today, her mistake had merely cost her a little dignity—traded away for the pleasure of knowing what it felt like to be a grape trellis.

“In my bag,” Tress said, still chuckling. “Fetch me the silver knife.”

As Huck scrambled to obey, Tress noticed the ends of the vines were still growing. As before, when she thought about them, they turned toward her. In this particular case, she didn’t want them to constrict her further, and so she thought of them pulling away. Remarkably, they did.

It wasn’t perfect control. Plus, she couldn’t do anything about the already grown vines and had to use the knife to cut herself free. But it left her wondering how far her control could go.

She carefully added more zephyr spores to each of her charges. The next experiments were less amusing. All three flew as she wanted, though one of the flares bounced free without releasing vines.

The other two exploded with vines just as she’d hoped. During the last experiment, she tried thinking about the vines as they grew, willing them to not grab onto anything. This time, instead of taking hold of the wall and the ribs of the ship, the vines stretched toward her—then the entire mass fell to the floor.

Hope that helps

[Jult]

On 6/26/2025 at 1:59 PM, Treamayne said:

Verdant was shown to definitely use a version of the Luhel Bond - and it was implied that an accomplished Sprouter can do similar with any Spore. 

Tress Ch 44:

  Hide contents

In that moment, the last vestiges of Tress’s spore fear died away. She’d made a mistake, and she would be careful in future experiments. But today, her mistake had merely cost her a little dignity—traded away for the pleasure of knowing what it felt like to be a grape trellis.

“In my bag,” Tress said, still chuckling. “Fetch me the silver knife.”

As Huck scrambled to obey, Tress noticed the ends of the vines were still growing. As before, when she thought about them, they turned toward her. In this particular case, she didn’t want them to constrict her further, and so she thought of them pulling away. Remarkably, they did.

It wasn’t perfect control. Plus, she couldn’t do anything about the already grown vines and had to use the knife to cut herself free. But it left her wondering how far her control could go.

She carefully added more zephyr spores to each of her charges. The next experiments were less amusing. All three flew as she wanted, though one of the flares bounced free without releasing vines.

The other two exploded with vines just as she’d hoped. During the last experiment, she tried thinking about the vines as they grew, willing them to not grab onto anything. This time, instead of taking hold of the wall and the ribs of the ship, the vines stretched toward her—then the entire mass fell to the floor.

Hope that helps

Sorry to dredge this up like 6 weeks later, but I was just flipping through TotES for a different topic and came across this Hoid quote:

Spoiler

Quote

"Most aether spores - like the verdant spores and zephyr spores - don't involve any kind of bond. Using them is a simple matter of cause and effect. Compressed aether drops to the planet in the form of spores and a little water encourages it to grow in an explosive burst.

Midnight spores are different - in fact, they're closer to how aethers are supposed to work. Bringing midnight spores to life creates a temporary bond, a kind of symbiosis between host and aether..." -TotES Chapter 31

I think, in this case, I trust your word over Hoid's. What Tress is doing in the excerpt you provided certainly sounds like a bond to me. Does this imply Tress is special somehow? Or, more likely, that Hoid didn't study the spores very thoroughly? Or is he just lying to his in-world audience? 

[Treamayne]

6 hours ago, Jult said:

What Tress is doing in the excerpt you provided certainly sounds like a bond to me. Does this imply Tress is special somehow? Or, more likely, that Hoid didn't study the spores very thoroughly? Or is he just lying to his in-world audience? 

I think he is simplifying for his (presumably Eelakin) audience. The fact is, he's not wrong - drip a little water and spores and they'll do "something" without any kind of bond at all. That does not preclude a skilled Sprouter from learning to use the Luhel Bond to affect more Control over how the Spores express themselves when activated. Hoid's just not explaining the entire truth. . .