Chasmfiend Pupation

[Ciridae]

I have a small question about the process that chasmfiends undergo when transforming. We know the exact stages in the life-cycle of chulls, I assume other creatures on Roshar undergo a similar cycle. So when we see the chasmfiend chrysalises, is that a chasmfiend like we see hunting Shallan and Kaladin inside, transforming into something even bigger and scarier, or is it a larva turning into a full grown chasmfiend? I assume it is a larva pupating into what we know as chasmfiends, but how come nobody has ever seen a chasmfiend larva in that case? Is it just because nobody ever goes far enough into the chasms?

And a small follow-up, on the page describing the chull life-cycle, the final stage is senescence. I was not familiar with the term, but most of what I looked up related to the aging of cells. Does anybody know what happens in the final phase of a chull's life? The final image is of a closed chrysalis. I could imagine that the adult chull dies to provide a food source for the following generation, that is also protected in the chull's chrysalis. Also small crustaceans on earth lay hundreds if not thousands of eggs at a time, but I find it hard to immagine that larger species like greatshells on Roshar would have that many offspring. If anybody actually knows what happens to the chull and chasmfienda, I would love to hear it

I really love all of the ecology on Roshar and understanding a little better how some of these creatures live, makes the story that much more enjoyable.

[Weltall]

2 hours ago, Ciridae said:

And a small follow-up, on the page describing the chull life-cycle, the final stage is senescence. I was not familiar with the term, but most of what I looked up related to the aging of cells. Does anybody know what happens in the final phase of a chull's life? The final image is of a closed chrysalis.

From the illustration it looks like the sufficiently old chulls essentially become immoble and live out their last days (months? years?) like that. This kind of life cycle can be observed in species on Earth (typically in coastal environments) though not with anything as complex as the crablike chulls. Sponges for example have a larval stage that can swim freely, then they attach themselves and become sessile. Presumably there's some benefit to this for the chulls but I'm not sure we can guess what it is yet. It's also mentioned that whitespines have a hibernation state where they cocoon themselves and there was that much smaller critter Tien found in Way of Kings so there might be a relation there too.

As someone who loves marine biology I too am looking forward to every new bit of info we get on Roshar's ecology.

[dyring]

We don´t really know for certain.

The chrysalises are likely a grown chasmfiend to is turning into something else. What.. is more uncertain. Its likely it is simular as the Chull however.

I have interpreted the last step as some sort of new larvae eat the parent the way some scorpions do... but thats just a guess.

We have also been warned that the harvesting of Chrysalises will have a large effect. Wether this effect is simply the eradication of chasmfiends or something else, we do not know yet. But removing the apex predator would have an effect.

 

Edited March 22, 2017 by dyring

[Ciridae]

53 minutes ago, dyring said:

The chrysalises are likely a grown chasmfiend to is turning into something else. What.. is more uncertain. Its likely it is simular as the Chull however.

That's really interesting. I thought that this is the less likely of the two options, what could be bigger and scarier than a chasmfiend after all? But it looks like you're right, I just checked the Coppermind and it said that what they turn into is unknown. Maybe the adult chasmfiends turn out to be semi aquatic and end up in, or close to, the ocean. I think I remember Shallan talking about how they had aquatic ancestors, or something allong thise lines. But then again most things on Roshar seem to have an aquatic history and do just fine on land. 

[Tsidqiyah he/him]

Both WoK and WoR speak of the Giant Chasmfiends as coming up to the plateaus to pupate, and that the Crysalis needs to be exposed to a Highstorm so my guess is they are like the Listeners and need to bond with a new spren and will end up changing forms... I don't want to imagine what the Everstorm would do to them, but maybe the large effect will be good for humans with the Everstorm present

[The One Who Connects he/him]

Sorry to rain on Chasmfiend life cycle assumptions, but "We have seen the last stage of their cycle."

What we should really be asking is what they start out as, since we've mostly seen stages 2 and 3.

[Hemalurgic Headshot he/him]

Quote

What we should really be asking is what they start out as, since we've stages 2 and 3.

Larkins.

That, or cremlings, a certain kind of cremling.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Hemalurgic_Headshot
Quoting The One Who Connects

[Samaldin he/him]

Hordlings and if to many manage to pupate we get a Dysian Aimian who ist kind of big