WeiryWriter
Are the "magic fish" of the Purelake the result of symbiotic bonds with spren?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes they are. Many creatures on Roshar have such interactions with spren.
#1
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#1
#2
Questioner
When a Parshendi changes forms, are they taking different spren into their gemhearts?
Brandon Sanderson
When a Parshendi changes forms, they are carefully entering into a symbiotic relationship with a new spren.
Questioner
But-- *audience laughter*
Brandon Sanderson
That's the answer you're going to get. That's a RAFO.
#3
Questioner
The Ryshadium mounts. Are they actually-- Is there an actual bond, like the Nahel bond?
Brandon Sanderson
They are slightly Invested through a symbiotic relationship on Roshar that gives them better-than-average animal intelligence.
#4
Questioner
What happens to the spren the Parshendi bond when they switch form? So say if they're in soldier form, and they switch over to mate, what happens to that spren?
Brandon Sanderson
The spren is released.
Questioner
So when they took on void, they didn't kill their previous spren?
Brandon Sanderson
No, they don't kill when they-- No. That's a good question. Nope.
Questioner
Do those spren evolve in any way into something else?
Brandon Sanderson
Those spren that they are bonding with are generally what we call non-sapient spren, and so, no, and also the spren are barely aware that they-- they're bonded--- those spren, the non-voidspren, right? Like when they're bonding, generally what's happening is how... It's a symbiotic relationship, right? And the spren that gets bonded to them, it's just kind of like, "Oh, this is my life now! This is just normal. This is what's happened." The same thing happens with spren involved in greatshells and things like this. This is a natural part of the natural cycle for those spren.
#5
NeedsAdjustment
Would a kandra be able to imitate a chasmfiend, given enough time?
Brandon Sanderson
It's not about time, it's about mass. A little one, sure. A full grown one? They'd crush themselves. They'd need to be able to make use of symbiotic spren bonds from Roshar, which isn't just a matter of digesting a body.
#6
Questioner
Can spren die?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, spren can die.
Questioner
Okay, so Syl, she's been around for at least a few thousand years, right?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Questioner
How does she forget her memories? Is it in connection to humans that makes it so she remembers things?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Questioner
And she's what, a Bonding Spren?
Brandon Sanderson
You will find out. She's an Honorspren, but you will find out.
Zas
Is that bond the Nahel bond?
Brandon Sanderson
There is a certain amount of... It is a symbiotic bond that is gained by Syl. And things gained by the person bonding. And the stronger presence in the physical realm, and the ability to think better in the physical realm is a part of that bond. She is mostly getting [something] of the physical realm. Without the bond, it is very hard for her to think in this world.
Questioner
Because she's windspren?
Brandon Sanderson
That's part of it. That's part of something else.
#7
Questioner #1 (in Mistborn cosplay) (paraphrased)
Do Ryshadium exist because of a spren bond, like greatshells?
Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)
Yea, they evolved symbiotically with spren, unlike other horses. They can still mate with other horses, but they are genetically distinct.
#8
Questioner
What role will the chasmfiends play?
Brandon Sanderson
So there's a bunch of different roles for the chasmfiends that are all minor but-- For instance, I don't think anyone's made this connection, thunderclasts have chasmfiend-- it's part of the in-world inspiration for thunderclasts. And really chasmfiends exist in part to show off the symbiotic relationship between certain spren and certain creatures on Roshar. So when people who read the first book who know a little about physics can be like "Uhh, Mr. Sanderson" and I'm like "Well, look at these things that are flowing around this thing when it dies." It's an introduction of gemhearts and things like this. And the ability of certain creatures on Roshar to hold Investiture permanently, as Szeth says, rather than it seeping away like it does to humans.
#9
Ironeyes
So, uh, we know that the charcoal creatures are afraid of coins.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Ironeyes
So are the white chalk creatures, which I think are called Shadowblazes…
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Ironeyes
Are they also afraid of coins?
Brandon Sanderson
Are they also afraid of coins? To a much lesser extent. Um, I can give you guys some backstory on this. What’s going on here is that the place these things come from, um, linear structure and things like this are frightening to them, like they come from a non-linear location. Time does not move linearly where they come from. When they come into this world, structure and linear time progression, is bizarre to them. And there are some who have embraced it, and been like, “This is cool and different!” and there are others that are still terrified of it, as a representation of what is so alien from the world they came from. So that’s why we’ve got this whole clocks, and even structure, as a metaphor for, um, something that is terrifying to them.
Uh, Rithmatist started in the Cosmere. The magic shares a lot of its roots, then, in Cosmere magic worldbuilding. I split if off because I wrote the whole first book with it being in the Cosmere. I split it off, saying “No, I don’t want Earth to be in the Cosmere.” Even an alternate version of Earth. It just raises too many questions about the nature of Earth being involved in this. I want the Cosmere to be its own dwarf galaxy of which not even a dimension of Earth is involved. And when I made that decision, I broke Rithmatist off. That’s the only one I had written that didn’t belong, but it still has, so, it means that the magic is going to feel very familiar to you, uh, it’s going to feel like the magic of a, um, of the Cosmere. And Cosmere magic is based around, usually, human beings making a symbiotic bond with an entity made out of the magic. This is, kind of, one of the origins of Cosmere magic, and Rithmatist has, therefore, its roots in that. I’ve done some things since I’ve split it off in the outlines to distinguish it, but it’s going to have the same roots. So you’ll notice some things like that, that are similar.
Questioner
Uh, before you split The Rithmatist from the Cosmere, did the Shadowblazes come from the Cognitive realm?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah. Yeah, the Shadowblazes were in the Cognitive realm, they’re--you know, well, they’re more Spiritual realm. They were Spiritual realm, sorry. They were Spiritual realm entities that got pulled in, uh, to the Physical realm. And the Spiritual realm has no time, um, it exists independent of time and location, all times and all places are one, and so, uh, when something that’s from the Spiritual realm got pulled into the Physical realm, it was like, “This is so weird!” Um, and there are very few things in the Cosmere that exist only on the Spiritual realm, which was a really fun thing I could do with this book, was show that. Cause most things exist on all three realms. Um, so, yeah. So, yeah, I mean if you’ve got, if you’re a Cosmere, uh, theologian--not theologian, magic, uh, what do you call it? Uh, they call that, uh, I have a word for it in-world. But anyway, if you’re a realmatic theorist, you can kind of pick out how the Spiritual realm beings were related, originally, to the realmatic theory.
#10
Blightsong
Have larger landgoing greatshells existed above a chasmfiend?
Brandon Sanderson
Larger than a chasmfiend... the ones that wander around out in the islands of Reshi could go on land. So yea, it is possible that there are larger ones. They do better in the water, because of how big they are, but the high oxygen, low gravity, and symbiotic bonds with the spren allow some mega fauna that is just really large and just could exist on earth, so yea.
#11
Observer
What are the smoke-y spren that appear around a dead chasmfiend?
Brandon Sanderson
They are in a symbiotic relationship with the chasmfiend, and are part of what allow the creatures to grow to the size they do with an exoskeleton. (Along with a high-oxygen, lower-gravity world.)
#12
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.
#13
Yados
What's up with those fish in the Purelake?
Brandon Sanderson
Haven't you always wanted magic fish?
#14
Questioner
In Way of Kings, one of the interludes we see the Purelake--
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Questioner
--and I've thought a lot about the fish.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Questioner
He mentions that one of them has healing effects and potentially that's--
Brandon Sanderson
The lore of the area states that fish have healing-- some of them--
Questioner
I was wondering of your thoughts. Is that Investiture in the fish or just local superstition?
Brandon Sanderson
Well that is the question of the scene, so that's also a RAFO. I will say that there is still superstition, Roshar in particular. And it doesn't necessarily mean that everything they say is magic is. But there is a good chance.