Two quick questions

[Observer]

Alright, I don't want to clog up everybody's threads with my stupid questions, so I'll put them up here for public mockery instead. While reading WoR, I noticed two things that kind of stuck out and bothered me a little, and I was wondering if anybody knew the answers.

One: Water isn't one of the essences, is it? Because Shallan turns the ship directly into water, instead of like, air or smoke or blood, despite the fact that, IIRC, Jasnah mentioned that blood would be way easier and more natural that water. Anybody else notice/answer this already?

Secondly, do the Parshendi have Soulcasters or not? They're going to for gemhearts, and when they get one they say they can keep eating. The Alethi armies all assume that they have them, because why else would they go for the gemhearts and how would they live for so long when they're cut off? But at one point Navani says that the Parshendi probably aren't nomadic, because they'd have to have Soulcasters to do that, and they don't. Then there's the issue of whether or not they'd even be able to operate one in the first place. So, what's up with that?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: For some reason the line breaks weren't there. Weird.

Edited March 25, 2014 by Observer

[Patrick Star]

1) I figured that she soulcasted (soulcast?) part of the ship into air (or smoke, or blood, or another essence), and the rest fell into water.  Maybe I misread it, but that's what I thought happened.  Don't have my book, so I can't check that.

 

2) I think they did.  One of the characters in WoK mentions that they most likely do. Might have been Dalinar.  As to being able to use soulcasters, Parshendi can bond shardblades, so I see no reason why they can't operate a soulcasting fabrial.

[Turos he/him]

Well, essence #6 says "Blood, all non-oil liquid", so water definitely falls in there, but maybe soulcasting something into something else is easier if there is a lot of the same thing around, like the boat being in water. Just an assumption.

 

The only food references made for the parshendi that I can recall other than the one you mentioned with needing gemhearts for food is that they farmed rockbuds. Perhaps the gemstones help these grow somehow. But ya, no other answers on them soulcasting yet.

[Kurkistan he/him]

2) An Eshonai interlude indicates that they don't, and instead use the gemhearts to accelerate plant growth.

We have WoB that stormlight makes plants grow faster, also.

[Cheeky-eyes she/her]

She definitely changed the ship to water.

 

 

Shadesmar vanished.

She was back in Jasnah's cabin.

The floor, walls and ceiling melted into water.

Pg 120 of the Gollance Australian edition, right at the end of chapter 7.

 

I think the ship choose to change into water over blood because, for a ship, water is a more natural essence than blood is. I'm speculating here but blood might be easier for humans because it's more natural for them, but Shallan had to plead, beg, and convince the ship to change so it probably had a major say about what it would change too. Shallan wasn't in a position to be picky about the form the ship took either.

[thejopen27 he/him]

Water is a liquid non-oil essence which is the essence of Shalash and Lightweavers.  It is theoretically one of the easiest things for Shallan to soulcast to.

 

As for the Parshendi, in one of Eshonai's interludes it mentions that the Parshendi use stormlight to make plants grow faster. What exact process they use I don't know.