Chasmfiend
An enormous chitinous greatshell that lives in the Shattered Plains chasms. The Alethi hunt them — sometimes for sport, mostly for the gemheart at the center of each chrysalis. SA:WoK:Ch 12
Known facts
- gemheart-prizeThe Alethi highprinces compete on the Plains to reach pupating chasmfiend chrysalises first and claim the gemheart within. A live, ambulatory adult is something different — and far more dangerous.SA:WoK:Ch 12
- fourteen-legsWalks on fourteen chitinous legs, with four wicked horse-sized foreclaws on broad shoulders; uniform green eyes, a flattened tail, an arrowhead face full of barbed mandibles, and an overlapping multi-voiced trumpet bellow.SA:WoK:Ch 13
- pupates-on-plateausPeriodically climbs the wider western plateaus to make a rocky chrysalis and pupate under a coming highstorm. Vulnerable then. Break the shell with mallets or a Blade and cut out the gemheart — easy work for a fortune. The beasts come several times a week when it isn't too cold.SA:WoK:Ch 15
- must-pupate-on-the-shattered-plainsChasmfiends can grow through smaller pupation cycles anywhere on Roshar, but their final adult transformation must take place on the Shattered Plains — a constraint the beasts themselves cannot fully explain, beyond following a thousand singing fragments of light buried in the stone there.SA:WaT:Ch 58
- thundercloud-leads-chasmfiends-out-of-the-warA small remnant population of chasmfiends — barely more than a hundred individuals, Thude reckons, and dwindling — has decided to stop fighting. Five of them follow Venli's party into the chasms, led by Thundercloud, whose decision to lay the war down brought the others with him.SA:WaT:Ch 72
Events
- SA:WoK:Ch 12 Climbs onto the wrong plateau — the viewing plateau full of unarmed attendants, scribes, and unprepared soldiers
- SA:WoK:Ch 13 Trampling, claws-flying, ultimately killed and harvested
Relations
- foreshadowsThe Voidbringer Illustration — Ancient artist drew something chasmfiend-shaped and called it a Voidbringer SA:WoK:Ch 28
Backreferences
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 51
- summarySA:OB:Ch 38
- summarySA:OB:Ch 50
- summarySA:OB:Ch 55
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 15
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 34
- factStarspren
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 48
- factThude
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 12
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 13
- factSureblood
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 15
- factThe Tower
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 28
- factThe Voidbringer Illustration
- factThe Voidbringer Illustration
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 55
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 55
- factZumble
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 56
- factthe listeners
- factThude
- factThe Song of the Beasts
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 58
- factChasmfiend
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 60
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 63
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 72
- factChasmfiend
- factThundercloud
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 78
- factThundercloud
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 89
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 90
- factOdium's Pool
- factOdium's Pool
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 91
- factEl
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 112
- factVenli
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 118
- factThe Shattered Plains
- factThe Rescue Greatshell
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 5
- factElhokar Kholin
- factChrysalis
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 33
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 41
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 49
- factShallan Davar
- factYu-nerig
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 51
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 75