Fain
| Fain | |
|---|---|
| World of Origin | Yolen |
| Universe | Cosmere |
The fain or fainlife is a class of lifeforms on Yolen.[1] Although fainlife looks like ordinary flora, the plants and land overtaken by it are bone-white, and spill red liquid when crushed or snapped.[2] Singer gemhearts are a milky white and are similar to a type of fainlife known as Tamu Keks in some way.[3] The Sho Del fill the same niche in the fain ecosystem that humans fill in the normal one.[4]
The existence of fainlife remains known to cosmere-aware people after the Shattering of Adonalsium; when discussing how Ruin and Preservation used the Yolish ecosystem as a model for Scadrial, Khriss was able to mention without further explanation that "of course" this means the non-fain parts.[1]
Dragonsteel Prime
In one version of Dragonsteel Prime, the fainlife had rapidly grown to cover much of the planet, though humans eventually learned to keep it in check with something known as a trune ring;[5][6] trune was the name given to the regular, non-fain ecosystem.[7] A type of fainlife known as skullmoss heralded the advance of further fainlife. Its leaves would sometimes drift across a trune ring and some cities would gather them up and burn them, though this was not strictly neccessary. Merely interacting with the fainlife was safe and some cities even used fain wood for construction, but eating any amount of fainlife was deadly to humans.[6]
In a different version of Dragonsteel Prime, the Yolish version of the Shattered Plains was the only connection between the fain and non-fain parts of the world. At the Shattered Plains, Sho Del fought humans for a material known as dragonsteel. According to Jerick, at least some Sho Del had also made it past the Shattered Plains and killed civilians, and had attempted to kill his king.[8]
Trivia
- Brandon originally RAFO'd whether any of the original Vessels were fain,[9] but later said that Uli Da is a Sho Del.[10]
Notes
- ↑ a b Arcanum Unbounded - The Scadrian System#
- ↑ JordanCon 2018
— Arcanum - 2018-04-22# - ↑ BookCon 2018
— Arcanum - 2018-06-01# - ↑ Dawnshard Annotations Reddit Q&A
— Arcanum - 2020-11-06# - ↑ TWG Posts
— Arcanum - 2007-02-12# - ↑ a b TWG Posts
— Arcanum - 2007-03-10# - ↑ RoW Release Party
— Arcanum - 2020-11-17# - ↑ Dragonsteel Prime Chapter 31
— Brandon's website - 2017-10-11# - ↑ Oathbringer release party
— Arcanum - 2017-11-13# - ↑ Salt Lake City signing
— Arcanum - 2017-12-16#