Plant-based cultures in Roshar

[Cosmoriente]

Hi everyone!

I'm unable to recall off the top of my head if there exists a culture in Roshar that eats only or mainly plants. Anyone know or suspect of any?

Please excuse me if this has already been discussed! I was unable to find anything relating to it. 

 

[king of nowhere]

not that i remember.

keep in mind, though, that most people subsist on plants and little else because meat is more expensive. but i doubt that's what you were asking about.

[PiedPiper she/her]

12 minutes ago, king of nowhere said:

not that i remember.

keep in mind, though, that most people subsist on plants and little else because meat is more expensive. but i doubt that's what you were asking about.

Not entirely true. Chull meat is rather common, and I'd bet soulcast meat is pretty cheap, considering it's used in chouta.

[KandraAllomancer he/him]

I doubt it. The soulcasting that @PiedPeterPiper mentioned is the key here. It's hard to justify veganism/vegetarianism on moral (nothing is killed) or religious grounds (soulcasting comes from the Almighty after all) on Roshar, so I would assume it's rather rare

[Cosmoriente]

You guys have triggered a rush of information come flooding back to me!

(I still can't tag people, meh)

I will refocus the question...

Soulcasting isn't accesible to all of Roshar. Flangria is mainly accesible through warcamps. Some cultures, like the Reshi and the Purelakers, must still depend on fishing and farming...I'm assuming.

Which of these cultures -that don't have access to Flangria- are more probable to have a plant based lifestyle?

[Honorless he/him]

Are you looking for a vegetarian culture? I don't think there are any on Roshar. The Vorin nations to the west use Soulcast meat, the Reshi & Purelakers are pescetarian. Iriali & Makabaki eat meat too, as do the Horneaters.

[Cosmoriente]

Vegan or vegetarian, but no one seems to be 100% certain.

I'll have to look out for it when I do the re-reads!

[first void]

Perhaps some of the shin? they farm and mostly use soulcasters for stone.

[thejopen27 he/him]

Soulcast Meat is Vegan right? Does plant based food made from a soulcaster using a Emerald taken from a hunted Chasmfiend count as vegetarian? 

Edited June 24, 2020 by thejopen27

[Karger he/him]

2 minutes ago, thejopen27 said:

Soulcast Meat is Vegan right? Does plant based food made from a soulcaster using a Emerald taken from a hunted Chasmfiend count as vegetarian?

I would personally say no, it does not.  Once you get synthetic gemstones though I would be inclined to say yes.

[Cosmoriente]

1 minute ago, thejopen27 said:

Soulcast Meat is Vegan right? Does plant based food made from a soulcaster using a Emerald taken from a hunted Chasmfiend count as vegetarian? 

I've been pondering on this a lot. Is it actually meat if it's Soulcasted? It seems counterintuitive to say that Soulcasted food is meat since meat is decaying flesh. Where does the flesh come from when it's Soulcasted!? Shadesmar??? 

[cfphelps he/him]

On 6/23/2020 at 10:39 AM, first void said:

Perhaps some of the shin? they farm and mostly use soulcasters for stone.

They don't have soul casters but trade for metal that was never in stone. 

[Steel Inquisitive he/him]

1 minute ago, cfphelps said:

They don't have soul casters but trade for metal that was never in stone. 

They also have the honorblades so they do have access to soulcasting. Not very much and they would need to trade for more, but they do have a limited capacity to make their own.

[cfphelps he/him]

1 hour ago, Steel Inquisitive said:

They also have the honorblades so they do have access to soulcasting. Not very much and they would need to trade for more, but they do have a limited capacity to make their own.

That's a fair point, there's still just so much we don't know about the Shin. Szeth trained in all the surges, so obviously some people in the society are able to use Stormlight and the blades, but the interaction in the Rysn interlude makes it sound like soul casting things is so rare it doesn't really enter into their economy. At the same time it's a little difficult to draw any firm conclusions since both sides of the trade try to be overly humble about their offering. The Shin farmer may have been putting on a show about how rare soul cast metal is to make his offering seem relatively worse.