Undersea

[ConfusedCow]

      Where does the water that falls on the shattered plains go? That's a lot of water and it drains away, not pools and evaporates.  No big rivers or lakes nearby on the map or mentioned.  The only possibility is some vast aquifer leading under the frost lands to the ocean.  

       Shallan mentions the chasm fiend chrysalis resembles an aquatic great shell chrysalis.  Creatures like chasm fiends need a ample food supply.  Shallan speculates they migrate to some other unknown plain full of chulls but where? Why has no one seen them (and hunted) them there?  

     You can see where I'm going with this, Jules Verne meets the Meg.  There would need to be some energy source to power the cave ecosystem.  

[alder24]

23 minutes ago, ConfusedCow said:

      Where does the water that falls on the shattered plains go? That's a lot of water and it drains away, not pools and evaporates.  No big rivers or lakes nearby on the map or mentioned.  The only possibility is some vast aquifer leading under the frost lands to the ocean.  

There are rivers starting west from the Shattered Plains and the ocean on the east isn't that far away from Plains - that's where the water is heading. If not with rivers marked on maps, in an environment like this (rocky ground, no soil for the water to soak into) I expect seasonal rivers would appear after Highstorm - just water flowing in whatever depression it can find towards some major river, lake or ocean.

Spoiler

 

34 minutes ago, ConfusedCow said:

       Shallan mentions the chasm fiend chrysalis resembles an aquatic great shell chrysalis.  Creatures like chasm fiends need a ample food supply.  Shallan speculates they migrate to some other unknown plain full of chulls but where? Why has no one seen them (and hunted) them there?  

The Frostlands is the region almost completely devoid of people, empty and with barely any settlements - a lot of space for some wild Chulls to live there or for Chamsfiends to cross towards Shattered Plains. But there is an even bigger, emptier region right next to the Plains - north and east of the Plains there are Unclaimed Hills, a huge part of Roshar almost fully devoid of humans, left alone for wildlife to thrive. That's the region I expect Chasmfieds to cross when migrating towards the Shattered Plains, that’s most likely their feeding ground. Nobody goes there, the first expedition that went in that area was Gavilar and Dalinar who discovered Parshendi that day. Then he died, the war came and nobody really cared since then what’s out there anymore. That’s why nobody saw anything you've mentioned. 

Someone in books even said that Chasmfiends are far more numerous on the eastern side of the Plains - towards Unclaimed Hills.

43 minutes ago, ConfusedCow said:

     You can see where I'm going with this, Jules Verne meets the Meg.  There would need to be some energy source to power the cave ecosystem.  

Nah. No sharks on Roshar I think. There are already bigger things living on the land than megs. Blue Whales are bigger than megs, they are the biggest animals that ever lived on earth. There already are Tai-na on Roshar - gigantic, living tortoise-isles aren't big and scary enough for you?  

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, ConfusedCow said:

Shallan mentions the chasm fiend chrysalis resembles an aquatic great shell chrysalis.  Creatures like chasm fiends need a ample food supply.  Shallan speculates they migrate to some other unknown plain full of chulls but where?

Also note, that teh Chasmfiends we have seen are primarily second and third stage of life, with corrolaries to the Chull lifecycle art

Spoiler

Art: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Words_of_Radiance/Interior_art#/media/File:Chull_Life_Cycle.jpeg

WoB:

Quote

Questioner

Are the chasmfiends that we have seen the last stage of their life-cycle?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you have seen the last stage of their lifecycle.

Questioner

But that's--

Brandon Sanderson

You've seen the second and third stages mostly.

Questioner

Are you counting the cocoons?

Brandon Sanderson

Cocoons are a stage, yes.

Firefight Chicago signing (Feb. 20, 2015)

Quote

Badger (paraphrased)

How do chasmfiends reproduce?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Pretty similarly to chulls. He says there's a hint on the chull reproduction page in [Words of Radiance]. The last step of the reproduction cycle, for chasmfiends, involves a spren.

Phoenix Comic-Con 2016 (June 2, 2016)

 

I would guess that before the War of Reckoning, Chasmfiends pupated on the plains and moved on. However, once the fighting was going on, they found so many corpses in the chasms, they started staying in the chasms longer and longer (why travel for food, when it's right here). Then, of course, extinction-level hunting began in earnest too. . . 

[BinarySecond]

On 4/30/2024 at 1:59 AM, Treamayne said:

Chull lifecycle art

 

Do we know why a Second Pupation is undesirable for tame chull?

[Treamayne]

13 hours ago, BinarySecond said:

Do we know why a Second Pupation is undesirable for tame chull?

Not definitively, or no WoBs I can find. But notice that in the graphic, it labels the last stage as "Senescense." I think it's important, that two of the various definitions are:

Spoiler

(biology) The state or process of ageing, especially in humans; old age. 

(cell biology) Ceasing to divide by mitosis because of shortening of telomeres or excessive DNA damage. 

(gerontology) Old age; accumulated damage to macromolecules, cells, tissues and organs with the passage of time.

(botany) Fruit senescence, leading to ripening of fruit.

(cytology, of a cell) Condition when the cell ceases to divide.

If Chulls have a non-sexual reproductive system (and it is hard to tell from that artwork), then it could be the fifth "old age/ripening" stage is the final pupation giving "birth" to multiple new chulls. So, for a "working" chull you would not want it to pupaate a second time into Senescense until and unless you were ready to "breed" your chull. Sure you would have more chulls, but you have effectively lost that "worker" until the new chulls grow enough to expereince their first pupation. At least, that's my guess pending more information.

Edited May 2 by Treamayne
SPAG