Bone Spores

[ThatRedHead717]

I have a theory I don't think anyone else has brought up. (I know! Shocking!! They're so hard to find these days with so many clever little theorists on this website.) White sand is bone spores. They are only mentioned briefly in Tress of the Emerald Sea, but I think there is enough to link these two together. I have 3 points that I believe confirm this theory.

1. "People can't even make up their minds of what color 'bone spores' are supposed to be. White or black? Or both?" What other material do we know of in the Cosmere that is both black and white?

2. Furthermore, the requirement of water to perform sand mastery is another point in favor of this theory. The Sand Masters are creating a Luhel bond without knowing it in order to manipulate this sand.

3. From this quote:

          "We always talk about there being twelve seas and twelve moons. But, ... I feel I should confirm things like that. (Tress)

          There are, after all, thirteen kinds of spores. (Fort)

          No there ain't. Don't you be spreading that lie (Ann)

          It's not a lie. Its a legend. Different thing entirely (Fort)"

we can infer that Bone Spores are not native Lumarans. Their aether does not live here on one of her moons. So maybe the "legends" of bone spores are from brief encounters with Taldain's White Sand and the aether who creates it. 

 

This is probably pretty far fetched, but it feels like the kind of thing that Brandon wouldn't include unless it meant something. Why even bring up that there are 13 spore types but only 12 moons and aether? Why specifically mention that that spore type is white and black? 

I haven't real all of White Sand (just vol. 1, though please feel free to spoils them if they answer this question) so there may be some internal explanation of White Sand that I missed or didn't get to. Anyway, I hope you liked my theory! 

[Duxredux he/him]

@ThatRedHead717, Excellent logical deduction, though as Hoid notes people favor novelty and timeliness. I for one am in favor of when people independently come up with cool ideas, even if other people have thought of it before. In this case, people generally agree with this idea and have done so for at least 8 months.

I personally made a thread that tried to extrapolate further on what this could mean on a larger Cosmere scale as Taldain interacts with Lumar's resources.

At any rate, good reasoning! 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Duxredux
added thought

[Treamayne]

8 hours ago, ThatRedHead717 said:

White sand is bone spores. They are only mentioned briefly in Tress of the Emerald Sea, but I think there is enough to link these two together. I have 3 points that I believe confirm this theory.

Great theory, and not diminished at all for having been previously discussed - since you had not seen or read those discussions. At the risk of quoting myself, I'll repost my reply to one of the threads @Duxredux linked above:

Spoiler

On 7/1/2023 at 7:49 PM, Treamayne said:

I'll caveat this with:

• I think White Sand is what they are referencing when they say "bone spore" (Tress ch 23); but I don't think What Sand is actually a spore. I think the people of Lumar consider it a (legendary) spore only because White Sand is also controlled with a Luhel bond. That said, I also think that a Sandmaster would adapt well to controlling Aethers. 

Basically they heard about this "thing" and it was so similar they condsidered it a different version of what they know, since they had no context for non-Aether's that may forge the same type of bond or be controlled by similar methods.

[Underwater_Worldhopper he/him]

I wonder if this means you could control White Sand the way you can Spores, and essentially become a Sporuter Sand Master