Nobody's talking about the chasmfiend in the room

[+robardin he/him]

Or rather, the chasmfiend that apparently has bonded (if that is the right word) with Thude and the other listeners who had escaped Narak.

What is THAT going to be about? I literally have no idea. Thude's words to Venli indicate it's not something related to any Surges... And yet, the listeners had been hunting chasmfield chrysalises just as intently as the Alethi had done, to get the gemhearts needed to grow their Stormlight-fertilized crops.

Is this chasmfiend special? Perhaps there is a sentient spren in its gemheart?

[ItzTheMonkey]

I immediatly considered this to be a similar situation to ryshadium, and the bond they can create? I could be wrong

[Sparks]

21 minutes ago, robardin said:

Or rather, the chasmfiend that apparently has bonded (if that is the right word) with Thude and the other listeners who had escaped Narak.

What is THAT going to be about? I literally have no idea. Thude's words to Venli indicate it's not something related to any Surges... And yet, the listeners had been hunting chasmfield chrysalises just as intently as the Alethi had done, to get the gemhearts needed to grow their Stormlight-fertilized crops.

Is this chasmfiend special? Perhaps there is a sentient spren in its gemheart?

I think it's the last one.  We spend all of Venli's chapters learning about the different ways spren can inhabit a gemheart, and even see a spren take over a cremling.  It's very like Brandon to extrapolate that and take it to the next level.  

[Nef]

I immediately thought: "likely cool scene where listeners save the day, entering the battle with chasmfiends".

[+robardin he/him]

Or, as I just realized in a reply in another thread: maybe this uniquely sapient and sympathetic so-called chasmfiend is the dragon on Roshar that Hoid casually mentioned as having taken on another form while telling Kaladin "The Dog and the Dragon".

The dragon in Hoid's Lightweaving strongly resembles a chasmfiend to Kaladin anyway, who has seen one very up close and personal for comparison. So it wouldn't even be a far stretch for a dragon to pose as one.

[FollowYourMuse she/her]

12 hours ago, Sparks said:

I think it's the last one.  We spend all of Venli's chapters learning about the different ways spren can inhabit a gemheart, and even see a spren take over a cremling.  It's very like Brandon to extrapolate that and take it to the next level.

I agree, and Chiri-Chiri's POV (and the giant skulls) backs that up even more. 
I think that whatever was done to the Singers to deprive them of the bond with Spren, creating "slave form" Parshmen had a much bigger effect across the planet, limiting the bonds, clouding the minds for many more lifeforms. 

[broccoli]

Don't forget we've seen a very special bond develop between Rysn and Chiri-Chiri. I don't think it's that much of a strech to say that chamsfiends can have similar bonds. In fact, Chiri-Chiri becoming more sentient/intelligent maybe have been foreshadowing this moment.

Edited November 21, 2020 by broccoli

[+robardin he/him]

49 minutes ago, broccoli said:

Don't forget we've seen a very special bond develop between Rysn and Chiri-Chiri. I don't think it's that much of a strech to say that chamsfiends can have similar bonds. In fact, Chiri-Chiri becoming more sentient/intelligent maybe have been foreshadowing this moment.

 Have you read Dawnshard? It outlines the nature of Chiri-Chiri in some detail (while of course, raising yet further mysteries). But reasons for her sentience or intelligence don't seem to translate in any signaled way to chasmfiends to me... Would be very interesting if that was what was getting set up.

[Blacksmithki]

1 minute ago, robardin said:

 Have you read Dawnshard? It outlines the nature of Chiri-Chiri in some detail (while of course, raising yet further mysteries). But reasons for her sentience or intelligence don't seem to translate in any signaled way to chasmfiends to me... Would be very interesting if that was what was getting set up.

I know i'm not the person above, but sadly i haven't. It's only out in E-book so far where i am.

[broccoli]

1 hour ago, robardin said:

 Have you read Dawnshard? It outlines the nature of Chiri-Chiri in some detail (while of course, raising yet further mysteries). But reasons for her sentience or intelligence don't seem to translate in any signaled way to chasmfiends to me... Would be very interesting if that was what was getting set up.

I have. Again, I don't know if that's what was being foreshadowed. But considering that both chamsfiends and lanceryns are native creatures that form bonds with spren, they may as well be able to form them with humans.

Dawnshard spoilers:

Spoiler

I did get the impression that Chiri-Chiri thought of the dead chamsfiends from the beach in Akinah as close to her kin. But that may be just me.

"It reminded her of the caparace of the dead ones she had seen in the homeland. Their hollow skull chitin, their gaping emptiness, so still and noiseless".

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by broccoli

[TiaOmi]

Both the island gods of the Reshi and the senthid...santid... the big swimming bugs are intelligent, it's not that far fetched to assume the chasemfiends are too.

[Jescape]

Hmm we know Ryshadium can bond both spren and riders and we've seen that the Reshi greatshells are intelligent and can communicate with the islanders. It's even implied that they have some sort of council or at least make decisions as a group such as when they

Spoiler

agreed to protect the lanceryn.

Given that the greatshells and the chasmfiends seem to be related I would not be at all surprised if they could do the same.

[+robardin he/him]

4 hours ago, TiaOmi said:

Both the island gods of the Reshi and the senthid...santid... the big swimming bugs are intelligent, it's not that far fetched to assume the chasemfiends are too.

Right, but then why hook up with a group of people who have been harvesting chasmfiend chrysalises for ages? You have to think that would be kind of upsetting to them, if intelligent creatures?

Edited November 22, 2020 by robardin

[Dawnshard]

I think its interesting that the Lanceryn seem to be greatshells of the Air, there are greatshells of the water (either the reshi islands or maybe something like the santhid.) The Chasmfiends seem like Intelligent greatshells of the Land. We also have Honor - Highstorm, Cultivation - Mother of Roshar, And we have seen Curiosh the Protector coming out of the Sea. Probably not all connected but interesting. 

[Dreamwa1ker she/her]

All I know is I want a scene next book of listeners riding Chasmfiend mounts. Like Dune but with a bunch of legs.

Edited December 8, 2020 by Dreamwa1ker
Typo

[Zondophan]

I have a slightly ridiculous theory. In the flashback of Eshonai after she falls into the chasm, there is something I thought was interesting, though it would be easy to overlook or think nothing of it. When she is being swept by the current of water, at one point she grabs onto a boulder. But it also mentions that “in a rumbling flash, her boulder shifted”. Earlier it is mentioned that it is an enormous boulder lodged into the centre of the chasm.

When Venli finds Thude and the other listeners, there is a chasm fiend that seems to have helped them escape the chasms “that night, during the storm”.

Now this may be a stretch, but maybe the boulder that Eshonai held onto that shifted was a chasm fiend bracing itself/wedging itself during the storm. It seems that Eshonai does die, but the way it’s described is somewhat vague. Perhaps she either survived and bonded the chasm fiend somehow, saving the others afterward, or she did die bodily, but now lives in the chasmfiend , and saved them with her new form.

Crazy maybe, but who knows?

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

2 hours ago, Zondophan said:

but now lives in the chasmfiend , and saved them with her new form.

Don't do that. Don't give me hope.

[yulyulk]

Quote

Overlord Jebus

Has Eshonai left for the Beyond?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. I'll canonize this. I'm sorry. 

So spake Brandon.

[eltari]

One thing that hasn't been brought up, is the painting of a void bringer from Way of Kings, which looks like a chasmfiend.

We know thunderclasts are inhibited by (I'm a bit confused whether it's a spren or a fused) something. I know Jasnah brushed it off as later scholars finding the scariest creature they could find as their intrepretion of a voidbringer, but maybe it was onto something with a tie to the Singers.

This may be something very old. Maybe how the Listeners broke away in the first place. 

[Mardy]

Okok, wild theory:

I think in general a lot of the larger creatures on Roshar are more sentient than our human minds presume. And it is veeery interesting to think if their gemhearts could be inhabited by spren!! Would that be true of all creatures with gemhearts then? Maybe the lack of spren inhabiting gemhearts is because of BAM imprisonment? Completely unfounded theory, but what if all creatures with gemhearts used to be bonded to spren and/or sentient to a much higher degree, but when BAM was imprisoned, they all got slightly "severed" from their bonds to the world/spren and lost most of their sentience like the parshmen? 

I literally only thought of this theory right now after reading this topic... but how awesome would it be if Roshar was home to sooo many more sentient creatures??

[Spaceater he/him]

now i want it too

 

On 12/8/2020 at 4:58 PM, Dreamwa1ker said:

All I know is I want a scene next book of listeners riding Chasmfiend mounts. Like Dune but with a bunch of legs.

now i want it too