Greatshells and other critters.

[Djarskublar he/him]

I just reread WoR, and it gave me a few ideas. This one may have been discussed before, but not necessarily in the direction I am looking. I posit that certain fauna of Roshar are Surgebinders... kinda. More that they are fabrials.

During the Chasm scene, Shallan mentions that the spren around the Chasmfiend are the same as the ones that flock around skyeels (and maybe Santhid?). Skyeels have always interested me. How do they fly? They don't have wings. They just kinda 'swim through air.' This suggests to me that they are magic. These spren are around them, and there is nothing that will convince me that Greatshells could survive even a low gravity planet like Roshar without their circulatory system failing- without magic. This suggests to me that skyeels and Greatshells like Chasmfiends are doing something with the surge of gravitation. Say something about their biology makes the skyeels zero to low gravity. This would allow them to swim through air like a snake slithering on the ground, or maybe more like a stingray. Greatshells could have their personal gravity reduced even more so that they can get proper blood flow through their freaking huge bodies. This would allow them to pull some pretty cool stunts.

When Kaladin is binding things together with Adhesion, there are little spren there. The characters guess they are gravitationspren. I would guess they are adhesionspren, or maybe the Ars author is correct and they are (air)pressurespren. This leaves the spot of gravitationspren open... for the spren following Greatshells and skyeels.

I agree with the theory that the Listeners and other life forms on Roshar are living fabrials that use the storms' Investiture to change form. Why not other things too? I feel like there was some other evidence that I wanted to discuss, but I can't remember it right now.

[Spoolofwhool]

Don't forget that Roshar has a lower gravity and higher oxygen concentration than Earth, so megafauna occur more easily. As such, it's not impossible for grestshells to somewhat occur naturally. However, as you say, it has been confirmed by WoB that symbiotic spren are a part of their growth. 

The thought about it being gravity spren being bonded to sky eels and greatshells is interesting. However, I believe they have been confirmed to be different in appearance, which more than likely means that they are indeed different spren. On that note, while it is probable that they are bonded to more spren with a lesser amount of Honor, and probably more Cultivation, or else, from before either, I don't think that they are necessarily bonded to spren of a natural force.

Overall, good theory. I agree with the idea that a number of lifeforms are living fabrials, I point I think I brought it in previous threads.  

Edited September 12, 2016 by Spoolofwhool

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1 hour ago, Djarskublar said:

Skyeels have always interested me. How do they fly? They don't have wings. They just kinda 'swim through air.' This suggests to me that they are magic.

I did a decent amount of looking into this after seeing this, and I see rather little magic needed to explain how they fly. (They still have the Spren, so there is some magic to them)

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As with the chull a lot of what I worked into the design was dependent on a sort of fictional biology that developed alongside the concept. I imagine that much as the chull excretes something like crem through its back to form a shell boulder, the skyeel separates lighter-than-air gases from its food though some internal process, stores them in sacs beneath it's fins, and uses that (along with a ridiculously light skeleton, I'm sure) to float about on the coastal breezes, with some help (somehow) from the spren (LONG subject, spren.) Ok, the spren are involved somehow.   -Inkthinker's Skyeel Image

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The skyeel will find prey from above--either a fish in the ocean or a rodent or small crab on the ground. It will pounce downward in a sharp dive, releasing the gas from its pockets and grabbing the crab or rodent in a kind of rolling pounce across the ground. It will curl up and eat its prey, then will wiggle off to a hole or hollow somewhere to rebuild its gas pockets (which can take an hour or two to fill back up.)   -Same Source, specifically part of Brandon's instructions

It uses some of the gases from digestion to float/glide. As far as I am aware, this is unique to anything in our world. However, a look into the real world (where I searched first for some reason) reveals an interesting creature. Chrysopelea paradisi, also known as the Paradise tree snake or Paradise flying snake.

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Most maneuverable glider. Many gliding animals have some ability to turn, but which is the most maneuverable is difficult to assess. Even Paradise tree snakes, Chinese gliding frogs, and gliding ants have been observed as having considerable capacity to turn in the air.   -Wiki page on flying/gliding animals

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It can, like all species of its genus Chrysopelea, glide by stretching the body into a flattened strip using its ribs. It is mostly found in moist forests and can cover a horizontal distance of about 100 metres in a glide from the top of a tree. Slow motion photography shows an undulation of the snake's body in flight while the head remains relatively stable, suggesting controlled flight.   -Wikipedia's wording, but with a source they got the info from

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Reptile Database page on the species as well, purely on the assumption that you might dislike wikipedia as a source

 

Lastly, Brandon on the Chasmfiend Spren. Never mind, Spool already linked that WoB

[Djarskublar he/him]

3 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

I did a decent amount of looking into this after seeing this, and I see rather little magic needed to explain how they fly. (They still have the Spren, so there is some magic to them)

It uses some of the gases from digestion to float/glide. As far as I am aware, this is unique to anything in our world. However, a look into the real world (where I searched first for some reason) reveals an interesting creature. Chrysopelea paradisi, also known as the Paradise tree snake or Paradise flying snake.

Lastly, Brandon on the Chasmfiend Spren. Never mind, Spool already linked that WoB

Even if skyeels don't need much magic to fly, I still think they are using magic at least a little bit, like a partial upward Lashing or something. It would make them closer to neutrally buoyant in air, and allow extended flight that is fairly easy. The gas bags are like sandbags for a hot air balloon. Not the main means of flight, but something to help control it for particular circumstances. Even if they don't technically need the magic to fly, it is still a bonus. I imagine it is basically the difference between hang gliding and a plane. Besides, don't skyeels follow ships for extended distances? That makes more sense if they aren't gliding and using thermals.

I don't think a Chasmfiend has gas bubbles helping to support it, and that wouldn't help the circulatory system anyway.

A change in gravity, incidentally, wouldn't affect a Santhid that much. Buoyancy is a function of density and displacement, which is related to mass, not weight. I still think there is something going on with all of these things, and gravity manipulation is the best bet.

Something to note: these spren don't show up with chulls. Chulls have the form change/pupation in storms mechanic of Greatshells, but not these arrowhead shaped spren. They are large, but not unreasonably so. They could easily be a thing on a low grav/high oxygen planet like Roshar. This suggests to me that they have the standard pupation bond (or whatever it is), but that only larger things and skyeels that need a boost have this interaction.

I guess this is a question for Brandon.

[BrightVoid he/him]

One theory I have seen floating around is that the gemstones on the inside gather and use stormlight somehow.