ecohansen Posted June 30, 2015 Report Share Posted June 30, 2015 So, a very simple speculation with almost no supporting evidence. It's obvious enough that I'm sure someone has come up with it before, but if so I can't find it. We know of two nonhuman intelligent races on Roshar: the Parshendi/Listeners and the Aimians. We know that the Parshendi hybridized with humans to make the Unkalaki/Horneaters and the Herdazians. The Unkalaki are typified by red hair, echoing the partially red skin of the Parshendi. The chief identifying feature of Herdazians--crystalline fingernails--is more ambiguous, but might echo the warform armor. Parshendi have red skin and left red-haired, mostly-human descendents. The Aimians have blue skin. There are two other races with blue skin: "blue skinned Natans" and Selay, with translucent skin showing a network of blue veins. The implication that Natans and Selay descend from Aimians is obvious. The Natan connection raises a few questions. First, it's on the opposite side of Roshar from Aimia. Since Derethil was from the west, maybe some of his crew was Aimian, and the Wandersail crossed the Origin and crashed in Natanatan? Second, Aimia was Scoured, and Natanatan was Shattered: two of the most violent events in Roshar history which haven't been definitively tied to desolations both happened to peoples that I'm proposing are related. Finally, having the Parshendi arise in a region belonging to a scion race of the continent's other nonhumans is intriguing. Anyway, sorry again if this has been proposed before. Discuss! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParadoxicalZen he/him Posted June 30, 2015 Report Share Posted June 30, 2015 This...is quite interesting, something that completely vanished from my mind. I like it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelek's Breath he/him Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Not a bad theory actually. Now, if we could see in a book if their shadows point the wrong way, it can be confirmed. I remember reading that the Selay have skin ripples, and the people of Babatharnam (considered Selay) have the above mentioned vein patterns that sit shallowly in the skin, but do you have a reference for the translucent skin? On a different note: Aimians= close to Cognitive/Shadesmar. Selay have skin ripples (Like rock or bark?). Long-time SoulCasters have rock-like skin. Coincidences?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecohansen Posted July 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Yeah, the translucent thing was headcanon. It seems like if the veins are visible, then the skin should be very pale and almost see-through, but it could just e straight-up varicose veins. And somehow I forgot that all the Selay were around the Purelake, hich was itself cataclysmically generated! Three peoples with blue features, three cataclysms. No wonder the Aimians have such a bad reputation, if this theory holds water. Last, I also recalled that the Marebethians are Selay, and it is the Marebethians who created the "eyes of red and blue" expression. Could the expression actually be older than its current explanation, and actually refer to what happens when a blue-featured person encounters a red spren? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Bard he/him Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 (edited) We know that the Parshendi hybridized with humans to make the Unkalaki/Horneaters and the Herdazians. Wait... Is the Unkalaki and Herdazian connection with Parshendi confirmed or speculation? If so, why don't Rock and Lopen go Voidbringer on Bridge 4? Edited July 1, 2015 by TheYoungBard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParadoxicalZen he/him Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Believe it was confirmed by WoB not too long i think. I think it is because the connection isn;t that strong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natc Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Wait... Is the Unkalaki and Herdazian connection with Parshendi confirmed or speculation? If so, why don't Rock and Lopen go Voidbringer on Bridge 4? Well, humans can't transform for one. Even Rlain is still fine while locked into Warform, I doubt a stormspren can just force themselves onto a person that can't bond them and morph in the first place. It's like how demigods in myth are still basically mortals, except a bit more awesome and more friends (and enemies) upstairs. They have Listener blood, their anatomical weirdness and WoB says as much, but they're mostly human. Especially after who knows how many desolations. In fact, weren't Unkalaki originally persecuted according to Rock's story? Maybe it was the early days when everybody still knew where they came from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecohansen Posted July 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 WoBs for Unkalaki and Herdazians being Parshendi hybrids: http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2ytg2h/-/crds34r?context=3 http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1084#9 WoB for Aimians being nonhuman: http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=977#179 The Parshendi Theoryland link actually says "There are *several* Roshar races that have Parshendi blood in them"--I'm now wondering, given the "eyes of red and blue" expression, if the Selay (or at least their Marebethian subgroup) might be a three-way human/Aimian/Parshendi mix. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meg Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 As for nobody objected I took the three posts as quotes from the other thread to this one because I think it's better placed here. . Thank you for your clarification. Did you post that theory somewhere else as an own thread also? If yes, could you link that thread? Be it as it is, I apologize for staying off topic in regard to the basic intention of this thread, daring to add some of my thoughts here. I see your points though I don't have made up an opinion about your idea yet. There are too much variables around, I'd say. No offense meant. As for the "eyes of red and blue" that "term" doesn't stem from the Marabathians's optic but from a (cruel) way of punishment. Sigzil tells about that in Chapter 40 in TWoK. I'll quote the paragraph but put it in spoiler tags (not because of potential spoiler-ism but because my quoting might be redundant). TWoK Chapter 40 As for the Scouring of Aimia I understand "scouring" as an active thing, as in other people "scoured" Aimia from the Aimians, which seems also to have caused the dying of the lanceryn (TWoK Chapter 36). I kind of barely dare write that (given what is happening around our world) but I thought the scouring of Aimia has been more like a ethnic (or racist) cleansing. Though what caused that, I don't have any ideas. Where I want to go: I understand your theory more as the Scouring was something that was passively caused not actively. Thus I wouldn't agree about that with you at the moment. And thus there might be some wholes in your theory? I might -- how has Pathfinder put it -- be utterly and completely wrong, though. And if I misunderstood the meaning of a "Scouring" I'd appreciate help. Hi Meg (last off-topic post, I swear) The idea evolved out of the thread where I proposed the Aimian-Natan-Baatharnam connection. My second post in that thread had the nucleus of the idea. http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/32999-speculation-selay-and-natans-are-human-aimian-hybrids/ And yup, what we know about the Scouring is pretty vague, but ethnic cleansing is the most natural interpretation. Have you ever read C.J. Cherryh's Faded Sun Trilogy? It involves a race of people who, for one reason and another, were universally hated wherever they went. Although they themselves did relatively little that was wrong, every planet they settled on wound up getting nuked into oblivion by other cultures that hated them. One wonders if the Aiminas might be like that: innocent themselves, but still bringing doom to every place they settle. I don't have much else to back up this speculation, but if you think there's enough community interest, we could definitely start up a new thread to discuss it, or necro the old one. Hi Eco, I didn't intended to make you feel guilty because of off topic. Honestly, I don't know if there is "enough community interest" but I'd beg someone from the staff to move my previous message (that from today) and your answer to your other thread. IMHO that wouldn't be thread necroing but instead putting topics together. Let's see what the staff does and I'll think about a further answer in the meantime. Btw. I don't know that trilogy. 'Night . Your theory is prompting some additional questions that are not clarified (or canonized) yet. For example, when the Day of Recreance and the Scouring of Aimia happened, when the Shattered Plains were shattered, and such. Those would be off topic here. . I'm under the imagination that the Scouring of Aimia didn't happen that far back. . Do we agree that the Marabethians are "out of discussion?" . I apologize, I'm too tired for further thinking aside of probably things I have in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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