Difference between revisions of "Chasmfiend"
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|books=[[The Stormlight Archive]]
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{{update|sa4}}
{{quote
|I heard that once an entire bridge crew got eaten by a chasmfiend, one at a time, after it backed them into a dead end. It just sat there, picking them off as they tried to run past.
|[[Teft]]{{book ref|sa1|27}}
}}
'''Chasmfiends''' (Listener: ''Ulo mas vara'', lit. ''Beast of the Chasms''){{book ref|sa1|45}} are enormous [[greatshell]]s native to the chasms of the [[Shattered Plains]] on [[Roshar]].{{book ref|sa1|12}}
== Appearance and Biology ==
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Chasmfiends are the largest known land animals on [[Roshar]]: at least twenty feet wide, six times the height of an adult man at their peak, and over twice as long.{{book ref|sa2|72}}{{file ref|
Below the armor, a chasmfiend has eighteen legs. Four foreclaws are set into broad shoulders, with two clawed toes on each of them. They serve as the primary means of attack, both smashing and slicing the chasmfiend's prey.{{book ref|sa1|13}} Behind them, fourteen smaller limbs provide locomotion. A chasmfiend can move extremely fast when it so desires, and has the agility to turn around in the narrow corridors of the chasms.{{book ref|sa2|71}}
The chasmfiend's head is triangular, narrowing down to a point like an arrowhead.{{book ref|sa2|70}} Inside the long jaw, it has a circular mouth, surrounded by several rings of teeth. There are several types of teeth present, from sharp fangs and flat molars to small mandibles that shove the food further down the throat.{{book ref|sa1|15}} Flanking the mouth is a pair of smaller foreclaws, which the chasmfiend can use to manipulate objects and pick up food.{{file ref|
The eyes, set above the jaw, are glassy and green.{{book ref|sa2|70}} They also have apparently thick eyelids that close sideways, possibly a [[wikipedia:Nictitating_membrane|nictitating membrane]].{{file ref|Chasmfiend.jpeg|Shallan's Sketchbook - Chasmfiend}} The nostrils are located at the very end of the maw, while the ears are bare holes slightly behind the eyes.{{file ref|Chasmfiend.jpeg|Shallan's Sketchbook - Chasmfiend}}
=== Gemheart and spren bonds ===
Like every [[greatshell]], chasmfiends have a [[gemheart]] growing inside of them. The chasmfiend gemhearts seem to always be emeralds, and are noted as particularly enormous.{{book ref|sa3|35}}{{book ref|sa1|40}} Those gemhearts are likely what allows chasmfiends to bond with [[mandra]]s, a type of [[spren]] connected to gravity.{{book ref|sa3|99}} The bond is a crucial factor in allowing the chasmfiend to grow to its enormous size.{{wob ref|1227}} It reduces the chasmfiend's weight, keeping it from crushing itself; as such, from a mathematical standpoint, chasmfiends fly, or at least float.{{book ref|sa3|99}} Any creature attempting to mimic a chasmfiend, such as a [[kandra]], would require a way to create or substitute that bond to survive.{{wob ref|3794}}
The mandras leave the chamsfiend's body in the hours immediately after its death. They look somewhat unlike themselves as they return to [[Shadesmar]], being often mistaken for tongues of smoke.{{book ref|sa1|
== Ecology ==
=== Life cycle ===
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Very little is known about the chasmfiends' youth, and we have not yet seen them, primarily seeing the second and third phases of life{{wob ref|124}}. It's highly likely that they don't live on the [[Shattered Plains]] for most of their life, but rather migrate there when the time comes for them to breed.{{book ref|sa2|49}}
Once there, they set up a nest, and continue hunting and scavenging across the chasms.{{book ref|sa1|12}} Eventually, prompted by some unknown instinct, they climb up to one of the plateaus and pupate, forming an immobile, rock-colored '''chrysalis''' around themselves. This pupation typically happens during the night, with the chrysalis already formed come daytime. From then, the chrysalis awaits a [[highstorm]]; what happens anatomically once that occurs in unclear, as it is at this point that people typically harvest them.{{book ref|sa2|49}} They are however known to take in a lot of Investiture when hit by the Highstorm, this is likely the reason for their location in which they pupate.{{wob ref|3304}}
The life-cycle of a Chasmfiend is split into at least three stages, including the pupation stage.{{wob ref|124}}
They reproduce similarly to Chulls,{{wob ref|762}} what exactly this means is unknown, but they likely lay eggs.{{book ref|sa3|68}} It involves a Spren in some way.{{wob ref|762}}
=== Feeding habits ===
In the natural ecosystem of the Plains, chasmfiends are the apex predators.{{book ref|sa2|49}} Their segmented, narrow body makes it easy for them to move through the chasms; still, they fill all
Chasmfiends are carnivorous; within their original habitat, they likely hunt wild [[chull]]s, using their massive foreclaws to crush their prey's shells and feed on the meat within.{{book ref|sa2|70}}{{book ref|sa1|13}} As they travel to the [[Shattered Plains]], however, they turn to carrion-eating, devouring corpses of creatures that fall or are washed down into the chasms from the pleateaus above.{{book ref|sa1|43}}
== Exploitation ==
Both [[listener]]s and humans hunt chasmfiends down for their [[gemheart]]s, although meat and carapace are also harvested.{{book ref|sa1|13}} Most of the time, only the chrysalis is "hunted", as it is then that the chasmfiend is at both its most vulnerable and least aggressive.{{book ref|sa1|12}} Once the chrysalis is located, the hunters break it open with mallets and [[Shardblade]]s and extract the gemheart within, killing the chasmfiend in the process. On such "hunts", the biggest danger are the other armies after the same chrysalis.{{book ref|sa1|15}}
=== Chasmfiend hunts ===
Though rarely, adult chasmfiends are also hunted, mostly when one wanders into a territory claimed by one of the [[highprince]]s. First, the chasmfiend is lured to climb up onto the plateau by stringing out hog carcasses and pouring hog blood into the chasms, to let the beast smell it. Once the chasmfiend emerges, which can take up to several hours, a flock of wild hogs is let loose for it to pursue. Archers equipped with [[grandbow]]s -- the only bow type capable of harming the chasmfiend -- then pepper the creature with arrows to weaken it. Eventually, [[Shardbearer]]s approach the beast and cut off its legs with their Blades.{{book ref|sa1|12}} Once toppled, the chasmfiend is set up for a killing stroke, delivered with a Blade
=== Overhunting ===
== Culture ==
Chasmfiends are deservedly said to be the deadliest predators on [[Roshar]] by the [[Alethi]]. Prior to the [[War of Reckoning]], they were considered legendary, with people rarely venturing out into the Plains to hunt them.{{book ref|sa1|28}} Back then, to kill a chasmfiend was extremely rare; king [[Gavilar]] had never slain one, and not for lack of trying. As the
=== Sayings and idioms ===
=== Religion ===
Prior to and during the [[War of Reckoning]], it was a common belief among the [[Alethi]] that the [[listener]]s considered the chasmfiends their gods.{{book ref|sa1|13}} This was
Chasmfiends have also had their place in the [[Vorin]] religion. Ancient depictions of [[Voidbringers]] were often based on chasmfiends, leading some to believe that chasmfiends
With the arrival of the [[True Desolation]], it became apparent that
▲Chasmfiends have also had their place in the [[Vorin]] religion. Ancient depictions of [[Voidbringers]] were often based on chasmfiends, leading some to believe that chasmfiends may've been either Voidbringers or part of Voidbringer forces. However, [[Jasnah Kholin]]'s research suggested that it was far more likely that the artists who originally depicted Voidbringers, who lived generations after the last [[Desolation]], did not know what said Voidbringers looked like, and so used the most terrifying creature they knew of -- the chasmfiend -- to approximate.{{book ref|sa1|28}}
=== Relation with Listener Dissidents ===
▲With the arrival of the [[True Desolation]], it became apparent that the chasmfiends being depicted as Voidbringers came from the historians conflating them with [[thunderclast]]s -- another type of massive creatures, which actually serve [[Odium]]. Thunderclasts and chasmfiends share very few physical characteristics; most notably, their enormous size and the shape of the head. However, they are killed in very similar way, by slicing at their legs with [[Shardblade]]s.{{book ref|sa3|120}}
In the night the Everstorm is summoned, at least one chasmfiend helped the listeners who refused to take stormform escape the chasms. The chasmfiend continues to work with the listener dissidents afterwards.{{book ref|sa4|115}}
== Trivia ==
* The inspiration for chasmfiends was a [https://wob.coppermind.net/media/sources/255/Ben%20McSweeney's%20landscape%20concept%20art%20for%20The%20Way%20of%20Kings%2C%20November%202008.jpg concept sketch] that [[Ben McSweeney]] created when Brandon was
* The chasmfiend is Brandon's
* A chasmfiend could be Awakened as a [[Lifeless]]. However, this would require multiple Breaths, and would result in the Lifeless collapsing under its own weight.{{wob ref|16238}}
== Notes ==
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