Unseen Shadowspawn

[Guest LurkingFadeFetcher]

I've been thinking over the last few days that there are probably more shadowspawn than we have seen. like in EotW, Moraine says there is a pack of worms on their trail. I'm curious what these worms are but also what other types of shadowspawn we haven't seen before. And i can't help but think those things will problably be in the last batlle with the trollocs and myrddraal.

[Phiotr AlManera]

LoC,Ch23 - Aginor made the jumara. Sammael notes that they are loose in the Blight and are called Worms.

[Tenshin_Xo]

Also that the worms are just a larval stage for the organism, I can't help but wonder what they hatch into. Do you think the Seanchan beasts are natural in origin?

[BrainFireBob]

RJ confirmed they were imported via Portal Stones from alternate worlds.

[Barnabas]

im pretty sure the worms evolve into the mindless servants that moridin has, the names seemed to go together based off something a forsaken said, apologies for no quotes, ill see if i can hunt them down during the week.

and yes, i think its a weird thing for them to evolve into which is why its stuck in my mind, hopefully correctly:P

[algspkr]

im pretty sure the worms evolve into the mindless servants that moridin has' date=' the names seemed to go together based off something a forsaken said, apologies for no quotes, ill see if i can hunt them down during the week.

and yes, i think its a weird thing for them to evolve into which is why its stuck in my mind, hopefully correctly:P[/quote']

I don't think so. Worms are described as being huge while Moridin's servents are described as being the same height as a person.

[reyler]

im pretty sure the worms evolve into the mindless servants that moridin has' date=' the names seemed to go together based off something a forsaken said, apologies for no quotes, ill see if i can hunt them down during the week.

and yes, i think its a weird thing for them to evolve into which is why its stuck in my mind, hopefully correctly:P[/quote']

 

Moridin's servants are zomara, one of Aginor's "less-inspired" creations, and unrelated to the jumara. They probably relate more to gholam.

 

And on the final stage of the jumara, I would guess some kind of huge, hideous insect. Get that whole Beelzebub, lord of the flies thing going.

[Infestra]

RJ confirmed they were imported via Portal Stones from alternate worlds.

 

Thanks for the tidbit.

 

Gives me some new possible twists to AMoL and the LB.

 

Wonder what kind of interesting Shadowspawn we're going to see the closer we get to TG?

[Myyrth]

Most known shadowspawn where products of Aginor's expiriments. Maybe the only expiriments that survived where the ones we have seen so far. I'm sure their are some monstrous individual beasties out there we haven't seen yet, but of those shadowspawn that are numerous I think they are limited to what we have seen.

[Barnabas]

ah ok, zomara and jumara, thats what i get for not checking before i post something, apologies everyone

[DemandredFO]

It said the Blight has been quiet so my guess is in addition to the Trollocs, Fades, the Gholam, that there are some other nasty beasties waiting in the wings

[Tenshin_Xo]

Lan did mention the worse things in the mountains of the blight, that the worms were afraid of.

[Gaul]

Well like everyone is saying ya there are prolly some bad individual beasties. The Blight(I think so anyway) extends from Randland all the way across the Aryth ocean over to Seanchen. Or atleast Seanchen has their own blight.

[Luckers]

The Seanchan Blight does still exist, but its much diluted. The Seanchan made a mission of destroying Shadowspawn in the first thousand years after the Breaking, and were largely successful.

[Gaul]

Yea I remember something in the BwB saying "The Seanchan think they killed all the shadowspawn in the seanchan blight. or something like that

[Anajon]

I always pictured the jumara worms like the beasties form Dune (sorry is a long time since I read that)- would that come close?

[BrainFireBob]

We don't know- they're probably in trush much like giant hungry worms, hence the needing to hack into pieces to kill.

 

And the Seanchan aren't cocky about their blight. No trollocs or myrddraal, few draghkar, and most of the "vegetative" shadowspawn (like "sticks), are what it contains.

[Sila Darklover]

Bloody murdering Seanchan. :evil:

 

Sammael called Worms "jumara...full grown now, though they'll never transform" (LoC, I think). Where does it say that they're currently the larval stage of something? :?

 

Other types of Shadowspawn mentioned: the centipide-like lake monster in EotW, the swarms of weird creatures--"no two alike"--and bloodthirsty trees that attacked Rand and co. in EotW and the cafar that Sammael mentioned in LoC. Given these tantalizing glimpses, there is undoubtedly a whole treasure trove more out there.

 

There had BETTER be some interesting Shadowspawn in Tarmon Gai'don. If I read the whole flaming series and find that RJ is as stingy with them there as almost everywhere else, I'm gonna...breed some REAL Shadowspawn and sic them on him! :twisted:

[Tenshin_Xo]

The the larval stage is the form an animal takes before transforming. Take a catepillar/butterfly as an example. The catepillar is the larval stage, the cocoon is its pupal stage. Since the jumara can transform thier worm stage would be thier larval stage.

[Sila Darklover]

To repeat my quote, Sammael said that the jumara are "full grown now" and "will never transform". Maybe "worm" referred to something larval way back and is still in use, but it would seem that jumara are in their final growth-stage. Not that I would object to a spectacular new form if it appears...that just doesn't seem likely.

[Tenshin_Xo]

If they haven't transformed, then even though they have fully grown its still a larva. This sometimes happens with newts and the like, they become full grown size wize but don't lose larval organs like gills, its known as neoteny. The tiger salamander is like this, the adult may or may not retain the gills of the larval stage based on thier environment.

 

The full more accurate quote is "Full-grown, though they'll never transform now." which means their organism had at one point the ability to transform, and therefore this stage is a larval stage even if we will not see the mature adult form.

[Sila Darklover]

Interesting. I wonder why they wouldn't transform.

Too bad humans can't choose to keep our gills. :x

[reyler]

I was kind of reading it like there was some sort of environmental requirement before a jumara could pupate, a stimulus which no longer exists, and lacking that stimulus their size in larval stage has gone past the point at which they were capable of metamorphosis. And if that didn't make much sense, it's because I've spent the last several days on the Fiddlesticks board, and my brain is having trouble downshifting.