Lanceryn - Santhidyn

[Meg]

I do not really know how to begin. So I throw in just a few thoughts, please bear with me.

1. It's one santhid and more santhidyn.

2. There were lanceryn on Aimia, a now presumably extinct race of greatshells. (TWoK Chapter 36)

3. Does "-yn" always mean plural? (One lancer, more lanceryn as in 1.?)

4. Santhids have shells too ... do they have gemhearts? (I personally think so; as for the santhid seems to be very old, its gemheart might be enormous.)

5. Might they be 'cousins' to those lanceryn?

6. Santhid are apparently very rare. Are they not hunted because they are that rare? Or do more than only sailors kind of worship them (Yalb said the santhid as a good omen).

Questions over questions.

[.S.A.M.K.M]

I wonder do the island have gem hearts, they might be massice?

[The Rooster]

I think any animal that is supernaturally large has a gem heart. I think it has to do with the spren that are co-simbiotic to make it possible for them to survive at such size. The spren link them to power then the gem heart is probably the magic waste since they don't emit stormlight. Maybe even parshmen and parshendi has little ones and this is why they're so scared of people messing with their corpses. Thus "I've heard that voidbringers hold stormlight perfectly". This may be a new theory as I think it out loud. Brandon is always cagey about questions like this ... I'm convinced I'm onto something.

[SirVarrock]

A few general feelings:

3: In my personal opinion, the -yn suffix feels like something that would be plural, and I think that according to the two examples we have it seems to denote plurality.

4: The same passage that mentioned the lanceryn seems to imply that gemhearts and greatshells go together.

5: I'm not so sure about the cousins idea, it might be, but It's probably more likely to be otherwise.

6: It sounds as if they would be too rare to make it worth their while to try and find one, and if someone did want to hunt a santhid, any sailor they would try to hire would probably refuse.

 

I don't think the parshendi have gemhearts because as far as I know it is implied that only greatshells have them, and the parshendi aren't quite that size.  I do think that it's an interesting idea, and brings some amusing ideas, such as people hanging their parshmen outside by the feet during a highstorm, and bringing them inside once they're all glowey and finished absorbing stormlight.