How do you imagine a jumara?

[Shaidar]

A denizen of the Blight. They are so dangerous that other creatures of the Blight flee from them. They lack any tactile sensation, but they do feel hunger. They must be cut to pieces to be killed. According to Sammael, they are the larval stage of an even more terrifying breed of Shadowspawn, which is never closely described.

 

A jumara is a worm-like Shadowspawn. Created by Aginor during the War of Power, jumaras are one of the least known and perhaps most dangerous Shadowspawn ever made. Their presence is familiar in the Borderlands, where they are called Worms. No jumara has been seen outside of the Blight in recent times.

 

Their rarity is a blessing for the people of the world. A single jumara is said to be able to easily kill a Fade. Worse still, they travel in packs. Yet the most frightening aspect of jumaras is a fact known only to the Forsaken. Sammael says that while the jumaras are full-grown, they will not transform. It is not known what they could transform into, yet considering their already deadly nature, perhaps it is best left a mystery.

 

So my question is - how do you imagine a Jumara?

 

Like a kind of huge, well, worm? Will packs of them rove south in the days of the Last Battle, burrowing under cities and lacerating the Light's armies?

[Rasta Ashaman]

So my question is - how do you imagine a Jumara?

Like a kind of huge, well, worm? Will packs of them rove south in the days of the Last Battle, burrowing under cities and lacerating the Light's armies?

 

Sort of like the ones in the Dune, just a tad smaller? As for transformation, maybe they were to transform into some big fat and ugly evil butterflies? :) or something like that...

 

It's a funny coincidence though, that a month in the calendar has the same name as these thingies.

 

EDIT:

"Won’t the Worms follow us into the mountains?” Egwene asked breathlessly, and Lan gave a sharp laugh.

 

“They won’t. Worms are afraid of what lives in the high passes.”

 

Now that must be something really scary...

 

[Orange Fescue]

Perhaps they turn into Mothra.

[Charlz Guybon]

Like the Graboids from Tremors

 

[dlan4327]

First of all, what are Mothra? Secondly Why won't Jumara's transform anymore? That at least is according to Sammael, before he got incinerated by a low lying cloud. If I run into RJ in the afterlife I know what I'll be asking him first thing...

[The Lost One]

You never saw Godzilla vs. Mothra as a kid?  Mothra was a giant moth like creature that he battled.  That is what I think they transform into.....one of them a long long long time ago accidently traveled to our world via portal stone and faught against Godzilla. 

 

Why do you think old people keep moth balls around so much?  they remember Mothra and moth balls work on Mothra like garlic against vampires.

[bjclinton]

I think the worms are the larva for the wonderful little creatures around Rand's arms.....Dragons.

 

In many old cultural mythologies, "Dragons" are also known as worms. It would makes sense, considering there have been a few times in the series that the "dragons" on Rands arms are referred to as some long forgotten creature. That would lead us to believe that maybe they would exist.

 

Thats my take anyway.

 

Raken and To'Raken exist in Seansean, making the idea of Dragons as having existed once not too unbelievable.

 

Its either that, or they turn into Nynaeve without her Braid....so everytime one gets angry, instead of tugging at their braid, they tug at yours.....

 

....and rip your head off.  ;D

[Orange Fescue]

I think the worms are the larva for the wonderful little creatures around Rand's arms.....Dragons.

 

In many old cultural mythologies, "Dragons" are also known as worms. It would makes sense, considering there have been a few times in the series that the "dragons" on Rands arms are referred to as some long forgotten creature. That would lead us to believe that maybe they would exist.

 

That's an interesting thought but why would the leader of the forces of the Light choose a type of shadowspawn as his sigil?

[Cillian]

ditto^^

 

And wern't the Raken and co. brought to this world via portal stones to fight shadowspawn?

[Majsju]

Behold the worm!

 

[Rasta Ashaman]

No offense Majsju, but this looks more like some Shaidar Cucaracha stuck in doggy poo...not that it's not scary - it is!  ;D ;D ;D

[Jehaine]

Actually, you might mean Wyrms there, though i suspect RJ would have done his usual slight name variations there again.

 

Either way, Worms fear what lives in the high passes. Fear it so much they actually managed to stop evolving.

 

 

BEHOLD!

[Charlz Guybon]

 

That's an interesting thought but why would the leader of the forces of the Light choose a type of shadowspawn as his sigil?

Lew Therin may have chose the mythological creature as his sigil and Aginor could have designed the shadowspawn to look like it in an effort to discredit him.

[42Bonzo88]

    Assuming that most of the readers have read other fantasy with a passion, we have all came across dragons of varied color, temperament, strength, etc. Most are seen as intelligent creatures but can be either good or bad. I am thinking along the same lines as Charlz Guybon. The worms are terrified of what are in the hills. Here's a thought: Could Aginor have purposely kept the worms from evolving because they became dragons. Whether on the side of the Light or the Dark, you have a foe that is extremely dangerous and intelligent to boot. If worms can take out fades, couldn't dragons take out even a forsaken?

[Orange Fescue]

 

That's an interesting thought but why would the leader of the forces of the Light choose a type of shadowspawn as his sigil?

Lew Therin may have chose the mythological creature as his sigil and Aginor could have designed the shadowspawn to look like it in an effort to discredit him.

Or Aginor could have designed a shadowspawn to imitate dragons because he thought they were cool. Or he was a Peter, Paul and Mary fan. Either way.

[Vemynal]

forget the worms, I wanna know what they are afraid of O.o

 

 

It seems to me that some shadowspawn must have been designed to be "channeler effective" because as we've seen a channeler can take out a trolloc and myrddraal np. Drakar are only threats when within a certain distance and grey man because they are hard to see.

 

So we have "peon and knight level units" as well as "Scout and assassin" units. The worms have always seemed kinda like "tank" units, few in # and big and powerful as all hell.

 

I would rate Gholam as the most dangerous shadowspawn we've met yet since we've come accross one thing that can hurt them in 3000 years. And they seem to fulfill the "assassin" unit role at its best level. But we still need something that would accompany regular armies that could deal with light faction aes sedai.

 

 

also: no idea where dark hounds fit in this^^

[Majsju]

If worms can take out fades, couldn't dragons take out even a forsaken?

 

Sure, if Aginor was stupid enough to forget making his most dangerous creation forced to obey the forsaken mark...

[Guest tree-brother]

I think it's like a huge worm with a big mouth that has serval rows of sharp teeth

[Guest Dreadlord]

Iv never been able to get a good picture of Loial, if Im honest.

[bjclinton]

Iv never been able to get a good picture of Loial, if Im honest.

 

I think the artist that drew him on the cover of TGH should be hung up by his/her toes and given over to the Tower of Ravens in Seanchan.

 

Disgraciata!!

[trakand_01]

Have you ever played Baldur's Gate? As we're all quite alike personality-wise on these forums, I'll assume you have  ;)

 

Quite close to the beginning, there are these... creatures... that erupt from the ground and kind of... flail about. They're lethal and in the game i seem to remember they spit at you and kill you, or eat you if you get close enough.

 

That's what I imagine them to look like. There's another film with something similar in and i can't remember what it was for the life of me...  Might have been Pitch Black.

 

Loial i agree with. I dont have him as a human with big eyebrows and tufted ears at all. I have him down as a kind of very big man-figure, with almost an Ewokky type head!

 

I dont like most of the covers to be honest. In PoD, Rand looks like a middle-aged, overweight Gary Barlow and in the book it clearly states his hair is cut at the shoulder, not cut short/cropped.

[kilika]

I've never really thought of this before but it does make perfect sense that the jumara would turn into 'dragons' if they were allowed to evolve.

 

Maybe an evolved jumara - a fully grown dragon - lives in the high places of the mountains of the blight and is very territorial, so the jumara stopped evolving, as they would need to come above ground to do so and instantly get killed by the dragon, so as a defense mechanism they just stopped evolving

 

side note: i see their evolving/maturing  very much like a caterpillar/moth thingy

 

NOW do we think that we will see any jumara or indeed any dragons in the last battle??

 

ty

[Sila Darklover]

I sure hope we see jumara in the Last Battle, after all the intriguing hints about them!  Though on second thought, it's fun to keep some things mysterious. 

 

I've thought of them as being dragonish creatures, and interpreted Sammael's comment to mean that they were immature (perhaps larva-like) when the Chosen first got exiled, and have grown up since.  If that's the case, they're awfully long-lived creatures!  Not to mention able to survive the perils of the Blight (including whatever's in the high passes).  Unless they're able to breed, and replaced those killed? 

 

I haven't given the "transforming" bit much thought; always assumed they had some kind of shapeshifting powers which vanished when they matured.  But maybe you're all on the right track instead by suspecting they were supposed to metamorphose permanently. 

 

Hope that ramble made any sense  :P

[dlan4327]

You never saw Godzilla vs. Mothra as a kid?  Mothra was a giant moth like creature that he battled.  That is what I think they transform into.....one of them a long long long time ago accidently traveled to our world via portal stone and faught against Godzilla. 

 

Why do you think old people keep moth balls around so much?  they remember Mothra and moth balls work on Mothra like garlic against vampires.

 

Ahhh thank you. I remember watching Godzilla battle that giant Moth guy but I never knew it's name was Mothra. Clears everything up. Now Godzilla, there's a truly awesome fantasy creature. Does anybody remember Ultra-man? He was another random Japanese super hero who fought Mothra. Great character shot yellow laser beams from his eyes. I think. 

[dyring]

Sooooo, we got a warder, who even though he might be very knowledgeable about the blight, propably don´t know all that much about why a shadowspawn does one thing or another.

 

How would he know they are afraid of what lives in the high passes? Maybe they dislike the air having less oxygen at a higher altitude. or something like that. Easy for warders who don´t understand that sort of things to see that something doesent move up there, oh, we set an emotion we know about to it, it must be afraid of something!

 

Maybe it needs a particular diet, some in the breaking extinct plant to form a coocon from that they can´t get anymore, and therefore they don´t evolve. Lots of possibilities.

Whatever they change into, if the worms themself are s dumb as Lan is thinking(only feling hunger kinda makes me think theyr dumber then most pets tbh), theyr most likely not transforming into something all too clever either.

 

Shame that its pretty certain that they don´t evolve anymore. Would ike if the changed into draghkar´s. Would make sense in a way, cept for my own "if its dumb, then switches apearance, its prolly still dumb after" argument.