What happens when an immortal falls into the unsea?

[Walter The Moral]

In the book, Dusk seems to describe the emberdark as an infinite deep, without a bottom. It also doesn't seem to exert any friction or buoyant forces on uninvested items. We know that it's at least very deep from the skullsnake which was so deep that Dusk mistook its size.

However, Starling doesn't seem to really care if she falls into the emberdark, saying that Dajer would be able to fish her out while falling.

Quote

 Starling—indestructible but unable to transform into her winged form—could safely be allowed to fall through the darkness of the unsea until the crisis was over. Then she could be recovered from the still-plummeting wreckage, snatched from among the corpses of her friends.

How would she be rescued from the unsea? Can they travel through it in a sort of submarine?

Edited July 6, 2025 by Walter The Moral
Found quote

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Presumably a Scadrian fighter could operate in it.

[Atlas333]

Shallan falls to the bottom of the sea floor of Roshar's subastral in WaT.

While sub astrals are weird, it's possible there's a bottom of the unsea as well. We just have no clue how far down it is.

 

[lacrossedeamon]

15 hours ago, Atlas333 said:

Shallan falls to the bottom of the sea floor of Roshar's subastral in WaT.

While sub astrals are weird, it's possible there's a bottom of the unsea as well. We just have no clue how far down it is.

 

I don't think there is a bottom to the unsea. Starling doesn't describe subastrals as jutting out of it but that is just becomes incorporeal. This implies to me that one could fly under the solid ground of a solid subastral.

[teknopathetic he/him]

On 7/7/2025 at 7:30 AM, Atlas333 said:

Shallan falls to the bottom of the sea floor of Roshar's subastral in WaT.

While sub astrals are weird, it's possible there's a bottom of the unsea as well. We just have no clue how far down it is.

 

Near a planet I could see people thinking there’d be a “sea-floor” and thereby causing there to be one. 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

38 minutes ago, teknopathetic said:

Near a planet I could see people thinking there’d be a “sea-floor” and thereby causing there to be one. 

I would actually argue that the trappers would consider the sea mostly indefinetly deep, because they might not have all the technology to properly go down there yet.

[ChipsAHoid He/Him]

55 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

I would actually argue that the trappers would consider the sea mostly indefinetly deep, because they might not have all the technology to properly go down there yet.

It depends how educated they are. I think if the homeislers know how deep it is there may be a bottom. If they don’t know, it likely will be endless

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

Just now, ChipsAHoid said:

It depends how educated they are. I think if the homeislers know how deep it is there may be a bottom. If they don’t know, it likely will be endless

I would assume that the sea between the islands are perilous enough that it would be very very dangerous to check.

[ChipsAHoid He/Him]

1 minute ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

I would assume that the sea between the islands are perilous enough that it would be very very dangerous to check.

In the physical realm? I thought they killed or drove away the shadows and such

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

5 minutes ago, ChipsAHoid said:

In the physical realm? I thought they killed or drove away the shadows and such

Trappers still had preconcieved notions about the water and there would likely still be many dangers there. After all, in Patji, there are more dangers than the (land shadows? Deaththingys?).

At least, that is my theory.

[ChipsAHoid He/Him]

1 minute ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Trappers still had preconcieved notions about the water and there would likely still be many dangers there. After all, in Patji, there are more dangers than the (land shadows? Deaththingys?).

At least, that is my theory.

I guess that makes sense, but also aren’t most of the people not trappers?

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

Just now, ChipsAHoid said:

I guess that makes sense, but also aren’t most of the people not trappers?

That is a good question. I guess that is where my theory falls apart.

After all

Its just a theory

A Cosmere Theory

Thanks for watching

[ChipsAHoid He/Him]

Just now, CoderDrag0n8 said:

That is a good question. I guess that is where my theory falls apart.

After all

Its just a theory

A Cosmere Theory

Thanks for watching

*eyeroll*
So I think we can assume that even if they have the tech to scan or have scanned or sent somebody down to check, or even used like a rope to test depth, they likely still subconsciously think the depth to be endless.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

8 minutes ago, ChipsAHoid said:

*eyeroll*
So I think we can assume that even if they have the tech to scan or have scanned or sent somebody down to check, or even used like a rope to test depth, they likely still subconsciously think the depth to be endless.

yeah

that is what i was thinking

In fact, I think that in some scenerios where the worlds know what space is, distance could actually be longer in shadesmar. Like Eldritch Horror stuff.

[lacrossedeamon]

Even if they now know, it would have only been for a few years, probably not long enough to reflect in the cognitive realm yet. Might need a generation or two, for people to have grown up their whole life with that concept rather than adults who learned it later in life after having internalized something different.