Author Topic: WOK: Horses  (Read 8210 times)

luminos

  • Level 2
  • **
  • Posts: 28
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #15 on: October 06, 2010, 07:57:11 PM »
If you start tumbling down the rabbit hole too far, you'll start asking yourself "do the humans of Roshar have exoskeletons like a crustacean? 

Parshendi

FollowYourMuse

  • Level 2
  • **
  • Posts: 19
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #16 on: October 07, 2010, 04:55:36 AM »

We know that chickens come from Shinovar. That's the only hint we get that there might not be birds on Roshar. We know there are Skyeels, so clearly not everything is crustacean. I think the bottleneck is actually the nesting; the birds themselves could probably find shelter in a highstorm, but where are they going to nest? Even birds that build nests out of mud would be out—where would they find mud? (Crem, maybe?)
Burrowing Owls .

Fireborn

  • Level 9
  • *
  • Posts: 307
  • Fell Points: 0
  • Geniusness Explosion!
    • View Profile
    • Rampant And Rhetoric
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #17 on: October 07, 2010, 04:57:48 AM »
I don't think burrowing into solid rock is gonna work very well.
When to live is to die, and to die is to live, does either really matter?

Stormblessed

  • Level 10
  • *
  • Posts: 380
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #18 on: October 07, 2010, 05:20:58 AM »
I don't think burrowing into solid rock is gonna work very well.

How about soulcasting owls. They have a limited power to soulcast stone in order to burrow, granted to them by a shard. Nothing powerful or useful except in order to dig through stone.
"You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me!
 -- Darkeyed Soldier

Fireborn

  • Level 9
  • *
  • Posts: 307
  • Fell Points: 0
  • Geniusness Explosion!
    • View Profile
    • Rampant And Rhetoric
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #19 on: October 07, 2010, 05:33:34 AM »
I don't think burrowing into solid rock is gonna work very well.

How about soulcasting owls. They have a limited power to soulcast stone in order to burrow, granted to them by a shard. Nothing powerful or useful except in order to dig through stone.
Or maybe they have acidic saliva that makes it easier to dig.  Watch out for those acidspren though.
When to live is to die, and to die is to live, does either really matter?

Harakeke

  • Level 3
  • ***
  • Posts: 50
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #20 on: October 07, 2010, 06:03:13 AM »
I don't think burrowing into solid rock is gonna work very well.

How about soulcasting owls. They have a limited power to soulcast stone in order to burrow, granted to them by a shard. Nothing powerful or useful except in order to dig through stone.
Badgermoles!

That's an interesting point, though -- can non-human animals use Rosharan magic?  Skyeels, for instance seem like they physically shouldn't be able to fly.  Could they be doing Lashings to stay aloft?  This might explain why they are accompanied by unknown spren.

Stormblessed

  • Level 10
  • *
  • Posts: 380
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #21 on: October 07, 2010, 07:43:24 AM »
I don't think burrowing into solid rock is gonna work very well.

How about soulcasting owls. They have a limited power to soulcast stone in order to burrow, granted to them by a shard. Nothing powerful or useful except in order to dig through stone.
Badgermoles!

That's an interesting point, though -- can non-human animals use Rosharan magic?  Skyeels, for instance seem like they physically shouldn't be able to fly.  Could they be doing Lashings to stay aloft?  This might explain why they are accompanied by unknown spren.

That is interesting. I was wondering about whether those spren were important, other than making the eel look stunning.
"You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me!
 -- Darkeyed Soldier

ryos

  • Level 17
  • *
  • Posts: 824
  • Fell Points: 0
  • The Decemberween Thnikkaman
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #22 on: October 07, 2010, 07:47:07 PM »
I don't think burrowing into solid rock is gonna work very well.

How about soulcasting owls. They have a limited power to soulcast stone in order to burrow, granted to them by a shard. Nothing powerful or useful except in order to dig through stone.
Badgermoles!

That's an interesting point, though -- can non-human animals use Rosharan magic?  Skyeels, for instance seem like they physically shouldn't be able to fly.  Could they be doing Lashings to stay aloft?  This might explain why they are accompanied by unknown spren.

I think the Greatshells, at least, do. I've read it theorized that there is a practical limit to how large an exoskeletal creature can be and still support its own weight. Greatshells are way the heck over that limit. I thought it a flaw in the worldbuilding until the gemhearts were revealed. "Aha," I thought, "they're Stormlight enhanced, and that's how they can be so big." 
Eerongal made off with my Fluffy Puff confections.

Harakeke

  • Level 3
  • ***
  • Posts: 50
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #23 on: October 07, 2010, 09:43:25 PM »
And since we know Stormlight gems = trapped spren, that could be related to the mystery spren that emerge from a dead Greatshell.

Fireborn

  • Level 9
  • *
  • Posts: 307
  • Fell Points: 0
  • Geniusness Explosion!
    • View Profile
    • Rampant And Rhetoric
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #24 on: October 07, 2010, 09:52:43 PM »
Wait, I thought it was just the gems used in fabrials.  I doubt that it's ALL gems that you put Stormlight in.
When to live is to die, and to die is to live, does either really matter?

Stormblessed

  • Level 10
  • *
  • Posts: 380
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #25 on: October 08, 2010, 01:32:48 AM »
Wait, I thought it was just the gems used in fabrials.  I doubt that it's ALL gems that you put Stormlight in.

It is the cut of a gem that entraps a spen. This cut gem, imprisoning a spren, and infused with stormlight, is called a fabrial. It is possible that the Greatshell gemhearts are shaped a particular way to attract a particular spren. Therefore it would be a type of fabrial, but a natural type, not a scientific type.
"You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me!
 -- Darkeyed Soldier

Harakeke

  • Level 3
  • ***
  • Posts: 50
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #26 on: October 08, 2010, 04:02:14 AM »
Ah, right.  I had been thinking that random windspren were just accidentally getting stuck in spheres during Highstorms, but I forgot about this part:
"Kaladin felt a deep chill - a rolling prickle of ice - scurry down his spine and through his entire body.  The sphere suddenly burst to life in his hand, flaring with a sapphire glow."

So the stomlight infusion is definitely separate from any potential spren-trapping.  Still, I suspect there is some sort of relationship between gemhearts, stormlight, and spren.  Greatshells are after all the (only?) source of fabrial-quality gems.

Stormblessed

  • Level 10
  • *
  • Posts: 380
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #27 on: October 08, 2010, 04:59:29 AM »
but I forgot about this part:

You were the one to translate it. Those two pages were really interesting, but I would've never been able to translate it in a million years. Your a legend.
"You've killed me. Bastards, you've killed me!
 -- Darkeyed Soldier

Harakeke

  • Level 3
  • ***
  • Posts: 50
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #28 on: October 08, 2010, 06:44:36 AM »
but I forgot about this part:

You were the one to translate it. Those two pages were really interesting, but I would've never been able to translate it in a million years. Your a legend.

Well, yeah -- that's the thing.  I got carried away with just those two, and overlooked the other... thousand or so: like when kaladin's actually in a Highstorm.  =P

Fireborn

  • Level 9
  • *
  • Posts: 307
  • Fell Points: 0
  • Geniusness Explosion!
    • View Profile
    • Rampant And Rhetoric
Re: WOK: Horses
« Reply #29 on: October 08, 2010, 07:14:44 AM »
They've only been gathering gemhearts for a half dozen years now, and they've been working with fabrials for hundreds of years.  The thing that makes gemhearts special is that they're huge.
When to live is to die, and to die is to live, does either really matter?