The Parshmen and Parshendi

[Gloom he/him]

The Alethi brought the ten largest military forces on the planet. I think this task was something larger than the Parshendi could do on their own; they needed help. They needed someone to watch almost half the territory of the Shattered Plains, to keep sending out forces when their own troops were wearied. I'm not sure the Parshendi had enough troops on their own to do it. Until the Tower, the concern was that the Parshendi slain in any specific battle were too small a number; almost like they wanted to fake an engagement, while secretly they're fine with the Alethi killing the Chasmfiend, as long as someone did it before it pupated.

 

I agree with Aether. I find it hard to accept that the Parshendi require the presence of the Alethi on the Shattered Plains for any reason at all. They have, or at least had, sufficient numbers to oppose the Alethi for over five years. They lost far more warriors, and Shards, fighting the Alethi than they would have killing pupating Chasm Fiends. I would even go so far as to say that were they not at war with the Alethi on the Shattered Plains they could have been far more effective at eliminating Chasm Fiends.

[Windrunner he/him]

On the intelligence of mistwraiths:

NINJAMETIMBERS
How intelligent is a mistwraith? Could you raise and train mistwraiths like dogs or horses, controlling what forms they take by the bones you give them? Would you be able to train yourself a horsewraith steed by giving it only the bones of a horse?
BRANDON SANDERSON
This is feasible. One thing to keep in mind is that mistwraiths are people who have a blockage between the physical and the cognitive realm, messing with their ability to think. Think of them as mentally-stunted people. There's enough there to train, but then you have to dig into the ethics of it...
Source

[Swimmingly he/him]

Could you then make a Cultivation kandra by binding a spren to a mistwraith, in theory?

[Windrunner he/him]

Or spike a parshman with a human attribute to bring him to the intelligence level of a Parshendi?

 

It would be cool to see someone try. I think they both have that Cognitive blockage, because their personalities are all unique, independent of the forms, so they must be there inside of every parshman.

[Oudeis he/him]

 

Could you then make a Cultivation kandra by binding a spren to a mistwraith, in theory?

 

 

Or spike a parshman with a human attribute to bring him to the intelligence level of a Parshendi?

I would suspect that the hemalurgic spike would work on a parshman; not so sure about the spren/kandra. We've heard that hemalurgy is comerversal, so presumably it would work with anything. The parshmen, on the other hand, seem to have a specific, biological mechanism built in to themselves that allows for the bonding of the spren. We have no way to know if spren could bond with a kandra absent this mechanism.

[Ren he/him]

 

Warform was a good form, versatile. It didn’t impede thought like mating form did. You were yourself when in warform, same with workform. But each had their quirks. A worker had difficulty committing violence, there was a block in the mind somewhere. It was one of the reasons she liked the form, it forced her to think differently in order to get out of problems. Neither form could create art. Well, not well at least. Mating form was better, but came with a whole host of other problems. Keeping those types focused on anything productive was almost impossible.  There were two other forms, though the first, dull form, was rarely used. It was not a keen minded form, it was a relic of the past before they’d rediscovered something better. That left only thin form, a general form that was lithe and careful. They used it for nurturing young and for doing the kinds of work that required more nimbleness than brawn. Few could be spared for that form, though it was the best of the four at art. The old songs spoke of hundreds of forms, now they knew only five. Well, six if you counted slave form, the form with no spren, no soul, no song. The form the humans were accustomed too, the one they called parshmen. It wasn’t a form however, but really a lack of a form.  

So, I'm quoting from this https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hLeZQSi8YCDpO96SNbPBRp6gAAL0jqTpt4pTdN-8uuQ/edit

This is pretty much the ending, but by far one of the most interesting things I've read from WoR released chapters/readings.

So, Parshendi have five forms at the moment and one that is not considered a form but a lack of form - parshmen:

-warform

-workform

-mating form

-dull form, which is their first from ever (presumably)

-thin form

-no form - no spren

Okay... so their legends spoke of hundreds of forms, and the Roshar legends speak about voidbringers being of ash and blood.

It's possible that the Voidbringers are just a form of Parshendi, but earlier in the text, they were looking for spren. So they need some specific spren of "art" or something to find another for? Or it is just a way of finding another forms? Maybe bonding with a different spren/sprens allows you to use more forms.

Btw, is it possible for a someone to bond themselves with more than one spren? That would explain everything better..

Sry if this theory came up before =)

Edited December 6, 2013 by Ren