+Invocation Posted January 25, 2020 Posted January 25, 2020 Did we ever figure out what the deal was with that plague in the Purelake area mentioned at the end of Words of Radiance?
Ciridae Posted January 25, 2020 Posted January 25, 2020 Yeah, the worldhoppers we see in Ishikk’s interlude brought the common cold with them. Since people on Roshar have a higher resistance to diseases because of the crazy amounts of ambient investiture, they hardly ever get sick and didn’t develop natural defenses against the common cold. Quote stormfather (paraphrased) Does the plague on the Purelake has anything to do with the fact that the magic fish form symbiotic bonds with spren? Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) No, worldhoppers brought a disease to Roshar that they didn't have before. It's the common cold. Rosharans' Investiture makes it so they're usually a healthy bunch so something like the cold is kind of frightening. "It's a plague of the sniffles." stormfather [Alternate wording from ZenBossanova's report] (paraphrased) Another person asked about the plague in the Purelake. Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) Turns out, that was a pathogen introduced by worldhoppers. People on Roshar normally have greater health than elsewhere in the cosmere because they are more Invested (Stormlight and all that). This plague was what we call… the common cold. Firefight Phoenix signing (Jan. 21, 2015) 4
+Invocation Posted January 25, 2020 Author Posted January 25, 2020 10 minutes ago, Ciridae said: Yeah, the worldhoppers we see in Ishikk’s interlude brought the common cold with them. Since people on Roshar have a higher resistance to diseases because of the crazy amounts of ambient investiture, they hardly ever get sick and didn’t develop natural defenses against the common cold. I just knew it was going to have something to do with them.
Zachary Holbrook Posted January 25, 2020 Posted January 25, 2020 Wait, so is this plague dangerous? Or did the PureLakers just overreact and call it a plague even though no one died from it?
Karger he/him Posted January 25, 2020 Posted January 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Zachary Holbrook said: Wait, so is this plague dangerous? Or did the PureLakers just overreact and call it a plague even though no one died from it? Rosharans have no natural defenses against the common cold. For them it could be deadly.
+Invocation Posted January 25, 2020 Author Posted January 25, 2020 2 hours ago, Zachary Holbrook said: Wait, so is this plague dangerous? Or did the PureLakers just overreact and call it a plague even though no one died from it? Look at what happened when Columbus came to America. A disease that a population has no resistance to can be horrifically deadly where others would shrug it off. Especially in the Purelake, where medicine that could help would likely have to be obtained via pseudo-magical fish.
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