[OB] Larkin connected to Dysian?

[Lightspine]

Quote

She awoke to a small cremling scuttling across the rocks near her. It had a strange shape, with large wings and a head that made it look like an axehound. Its carapace shimmered with dozens of colors. Kaza could remember a time when she had collected cremlings, pinning them to boards and claiming she would become a natural historian. What had happened to that girl? She was transformed by necessity. Given a soulcaster which was always kept in the royal family. Given a charge, and a death sentence. She stirred and the cremling scrambled away. She coughed, then began to crawl towards those rock formations. That city. Dark city of stone. She could barely think as she passed it--a large uncut gemheart among the bleached white carapace leftovers of a dead greatshell. Varsmeb had been right.

She collapsed again near the perimeter of the rock formations. They looked like large, ornate buildings crusted with crem.

“Ah,” a voice said from behind her, “I should have guessed the drug would not affect you as quickly. You are barely human anymore.” Kaza rolled over and found someone approaching on quiet bare feet. The cook? Yes, that was her, with the tattooed face.

Reading the quote above more carefully, does it seem to you guys that perhaps the Larkin communicated with the Aimian? It "scrambled away" immediately after Kaza moved, and the Sleepless shows up very quickly after. I understand their is a high possibility that the Sleepless was just combing the area to make sure his/her (do they even have gender?) plan had succeeded and could have found Kaza without help from the Larkin, making the events completely unrelated. I'm overanalyzing things a bit, but is it possible that the Larkin is acting as a friendly messenger to the Sleepless? (I find it unlikely that the Larkin is one of the hordelings. Mostly because I doubt Nin would carry them around if he knew about that.)

[The One Who Connects he/him]

The biggest issue is that while I can explain away almost all of this with simple logic and coincidences, but it almost seems too easy.

The Larkin scrambling away when Kaza starts stirring is basic scavenger/animal behavior, like how birds often fly away if you move towards them.
You make the coincidence point yourself, that he was on his way anyway.
He could have seen her crawling and/or the Larkin scrambling away from where he was and came over.

Point in favor is that Larkins are native to Aimia, which means he could have some sort of bond with it(like a pet and/or what Rysn may have with hers next time we see her)

[+Extesian he/him]

 My biggest issue is that the cook was already on the boat and waa specifically preventing them from reaching Akinah, so the Aimian doesn't need intel to know where Kaza is. But I could believe that Aimians can communicate to some extent with larkins. I'd have to be convinced though, and I think that interlude doesn't do it. 

Good thought though. 

[iamstick]

So with this larkin taken into account, we've seen Darkness's little pet (I wonder if he gives it scritches and whosagoodboys), and Rysn's (she'll probably be nicer to it than to the potted grass), and the dead one in the King's paperweight. Any other larkin sightings I missed?

[Lightspine]

14 hours ago, FiveLate said:

Or... is the larkin one of the cremlings that make up the Aimian?  An important part, a part that without it the Aimian looses his ability to gain Investiture and thus ability to perform his magic?  Thus killing so many of the larkin and lanceryn resulted in the loss of many Aimians and the "Scouring"? 

Just random rambling thoughts.

I considered this, but, if you read the OP, I mentioned that I find this unlikely because Nale carried one around. Nale would only do this if he could somehow guarantee that all of the Aimians other hordelings were dead, but that seems very difficult.

[Shadowmancer he/him]

On 7/10/2017 at 3:09 AM, FiveLate said:

Or... is the larkin one of the cremlings that make up the Aimian?  An important part, a part that without it the Aimian looses his ability to gain Investiture and thus ability to perform his magic?  Thus killing so many of the larkin and lanceryn resulted in the loss of many Aimians and the "Scouring"? 

Just random rambling thoughts.

Sorry to necro this but ... well, look at my name  I think you're on the right track with this. Think of Edgedancer where

Spoiler

Arclo totally pwnd two Radiants. With bugs.

[Edgedancer pg something]

I don't think something like that happens by merely overwhelming your opponent. Literally all they have to do is heal is breath in. The regeneration is passive and acts without any direction.  Since Arclo does 

Spoiler

have many hoardlings that he can cultivate to his desires

[ibid]

I think it unlikely that he would go without a larkin in his entourage. Sucking up a Radiant's Investiture seems to be the only surefire way of killing them if you don't have a Shardblade or something akin to it.

[Calderis he/him]

1 hour ago, Shadowmancer said:

I think it unlikely that he would go without a larkin in his entourage. Sucking up a Radiant's Investiture seems to be the only surefire way of killing them if you don't have a Shardblade or something akin to it.

Or a hordeling could just burrow into the brain through the eye socket and keep digging around til their Stormlight is gone. 

[Shadowmancer he/him]

@Calderis A bit undignified, but not impossible I suppose. We didn't see what really happened to those Radiants in Edgedancer, so it's sort of a moot point to argue, but I do think that the Sleepless have more to them than just bugs. The bugs can specialize to do a lot of weird things [citation needed] and I just think it's possible that they could have a way to suck out Investiture. Unless larkins have a spren bond which allows them to do what they do, in which case I don't know if it's possible for them to be in Sleepless' employ. Or perhaps the bond between a Sleepless and his hoardlings facilitates the absorption of Stormlight, or a myriad of other things.

Point being, there are a lot of ways Sanderson can take it, and I personally doubt it will simply be "The bugs attack you for 60d3 damage." But it might be that simple (well, "simple" maybe is the wrong word,  but you know...).

[+Extesian he/him]

4 hours ago, Calderis said:

Or a hordeling could just burrow into the brain through the eye socket and keep digging around til their Stormlight is gone. 

I was going to say a very similar thing until I saw you get downvoted

But yeah the point is that you have to kill hundreds or thousands of cremlings to kill a Sleepless (Maybe there's another mechanism but they wouldn't have known). Just one cremling can easily kill someone. I think Sleepless are virtually indestructible without some way of targeting whatever central consciousness they have. 

[Calderis he/him]

52 minutes ago, Extesian said:

I was going to say a very similar thing until I saw you get downvoted

LOL, downvoted for saying the immortal hive mind that can make specialized bug parts doesn't need magic to kill because it can make specialized bug parts. 

The bone between the eye socket and the brain is thin enough for light to pass through, I have no doubt that a swarm could overcome whatever defense a Radiant thinks they can put up. 

Even Shardplate has an eyeslit. The Dysians don't need magic. 

Edit: @Extesian I've been looking for a WoB and failing, but essentially it said something that makes me think Dysians don't have a "central consciousness" 

It essentially said that as long as "enough of the swarm survives" they'll live on. 

So I think their mind is spread through the swarm, which could lead to some interesting implications in itself. Do they become less intelligent if enough of the swarm is damaged? Do they have portions of the hive that are dedicated towards more complex thought? 

Edited August 17, 2017 by Calderis

[FiveLate]

18 hours ago, Calderis said:

LOL, downvoted for saying the immortal hive mind that can make specialized bug parts doesn't need magic to kill because it can make specialized bug parts. 

The bone between the eye socket and the brain is thin enough for light to pass through, I have no doubt that a swarm could overcome whatever defense a Radiant thinks they can put up. 

Even Shardplate has an eyeslit. The Dysians don't need magic. 

Edit: @Extesian I've been looking for a WoB and failing, but essentially it said something that makes me think Dysians don't have a "central consciousness" 

It essentially said that as long as "enough of the swarm survives" they'll live on. 

So I think their mind is spread through the swarm, which could lead to some interesting implications in itself. Do they become less intelligent if enough of the swarm is damaged? Do they have portions of the hive that are dedicated towards more complex thought? 

Now I keep envisioning a Brain Bug from Starship Troopers.....