2:40 - Just a note to add with the highstorms and plants. As the storm move further West, it loses its strength. In Shinovar, its been described as near earth-like. Invicta's video "Welcome to Roshar" goes into this a bit further. Book 5 seems to take place in Shinovar for some main characters so we will have to see that it is like.
Thanks for pointing that out! I didn't want to get too far down the rabbit hole with Shinovar, especially since it seems to be populated with very Earth-like creatures (where did they come from?!). But it really is interesting, and I didn't know that about the 5th book. Can't wait!
@@ThoughtPotato Spoilers for oathbringer: I'm pretty sure the stormfather said that the ancient humans took a bunch of animals with them to roshar/shinovar when they left their ruined planet. since shinovar was a lot more stable those animals were able to survive to modern days.
People have been recommending Sanderson to me and I really enjoyed your exposition. From what I saw, Sanderson does give his world a more "scientific" vibe to it, but he also tries to preserve what makes fantasy fantasy, things that can't be fully explained by rationality. Gotta read them one day.
yes. Sandersons worlds "make sense" in a societal/cultural/logical way but at the same time the foundation of his worlds is entirely magical in nature.
He very much does hard magic. Magic exists, but it usually has very specific applications (i.e. the ability to make two objects attract each other) and its existence changes the way the world develops (to see this on full display, read the Alloy of Law novels where they have tons of guns and stuff that are built specifically to work with or against different powers, like ceramic fragmentation ammo to hit people who can repel metal).
I don't really get the enthusiasm. His books are almost twice as long as they need to be, his character banter is quite bad and his world-building is vast but quite shallow. He has a massive book output, and it really shows: he writes only the first layer of his world, and then goes on: "One draft, no iterations, good enough". If you want someone absolutely superior, try China Mieville
@@francescosirotti8178 hard disagree, I think Sanderson's works are absolute bangers. His character dialogue can be admittedly awakward, but that's what makes it so human. Most people aren't as articulate in real life as they think, and that is what Sanderson's dialogue often captures. Too many books have just perfect dialogues, it's like every character has taken a class in how to deliver monologues, it looks to fake. His characters speak like actual humans, not theatre performers. With some of them its clear they are trying too hard to sound eloquent or witty but are actually just sophists, while some speak quite colloquially as they don't have formal educations. The world has its own unique slang in different regions, which is quite I realistic. He is one of the only authors that can brilliantly tie basic dialogue into worldbuilding. Which leads us to worldbuilding. I think no one can compete with Brandon's worldbuilding prowess. Just take the world of stormlight archive as an example, its feels far more realistic than any world I have ever read. Everything has a science and logic behind it. The world isn't populated with large crustaceans just because it is creepy and gnarly. To survive the highstorms, most animals and plants have developed hard exoskeletons and shell like bodies. Either that, or they live deep within the ground where the storm cannot hurt them. Plants and trees fold or retreat into the ground as soon as the storm arrives, they aren't just moving around to look magical and intriguing. The rain in these highstorms is mingled with a thick creme like substance that solidifies as it drops on the ground, and thus all the damage caused by the storm is made up for as new surfaces form from this thick substance. This helps us understand how the surface of this planet hasn't just been completely destroyed after being ravaged by devestating storms for centuries, as it keeps regrowing. It's all so logical, the animals aren't simply magical or mystical for the sake of it, they have evolved to adapt to their surroundings, like the creatures on earth. Similarly, the planet has three moons not just because colourful moons seems like an aesthetically neat idea. The three moons might be why there are so many storms in this world, as the gravitational pull of these three moons might be too much for the planet, thus creating these massive tidal storms. It all makes sense, it's not just, "Oh, colorful moons seems like a neat idea." Every worldbuilding element ties into the world and has a science behind it, meanwhile in most other fantasy books authors just seem to fill their world with whatever seems cool and mystical, which leads to shallow worldbuilding. No worldbuilding element in Sanderson's world feels random and out of place.
I went all week trying to get a minute of peace to enjoy your video, and I finally could! Thank you for sharing these worlds with us, please keep at it! ♥
I found it interesting when horses, chickens and plants that did not move were mentioned in contrast to the rest of the life forms. I thought aha, humans came to Roshar and brought some life forms with them.
im reading oathbringer but as the series develops you do get the sense that the humans are the aliens on Roshar. and if you read any other cosmere book before as i have you know this is a posibility.
From what we know as of book 3 and somewhat 4 (warning: some spoilers follow) humans on the other planet (Ashyn, aka the Tranquiline Halls) under the influence of Odium released such powerful magics they destroyed the world. The survivors reached Roshar, and the native parsh people granted them Shinovar, which is virtually untouched by the highstorms. Somehow Shinovar got set up with grass and stuff, so it's a suitable place for normal animals. The deal was they would stay there (this is why the Shin consider it blasphemous to touch stone).
If you ask me, the kraken is hardly the most apt comparison one could make between santhids and folkloric sea monsters. It's far closer to the aspidochelone, a sea turtle so massive that its back could be mistaken for an island.
That’s fair, but there are some Greatshells that are even *more* similar to what you describe. The comparison to colossal squids had more to do with their near-mythical status, but I may not have made that very clear.
Sadly I had to debate the inclusion of the other Greatshells, since they tend further toward the supernatural side of this world, which kind of changes the tone of the video. But it was a tough decision
11:28 ah yes, the *giant enemy crab* . Although it is extremely realistic, you unfortunately cannot attack it’s weak point for massive damage Sorry, I just couldn’t resist
I wish to see more worlds with mechanisms and explanations of workings. Are there any that have something of a hard magic system that goes into biological depth and how its systems affect the life forms? I have something like that if you wish to know. My universe incorporates magic in its workings. Hard magic. Magic is basically a force leaking in from rifts leading to another dimension (not THAT another dimension, Kirb fans). Its unstable and can only exist in our universe if it attaches to some of our matter/energy, often leading to crystalline formations in a rift affected area, making for portable stored magic. So basically, if you are skilled enough to control it, you can consciously direct the magic to apply a force onto things; pushing matter and energy around in different ways. Still follows the rules; can't create things out of nothing. The rifts often have strange affects on their surroundings, often twisting landscapes into unusual shapes, affecting gravity, making pockets of strange environments different in make up to the rest of the planet; wormholes. This suggests that there might be consciousness within the magic space as well, directing the moving around of elements. This of course, has quite an affect on the local ecology. Sometimes a wormhole manages to bring in a life form from far away worlds that is compatible to its new environment. That's an interesting way to get invasive species. Magic rift zones also have mutagenic properties, increasing the rate of mutation in ways that seem not as random; and sometimes producing creatures capable of specific magical, or pseudo magical (resembles magic, but is made by natural biology, such as fire breath or larger scale electric eel or gecko feet like stuff) power.
Try The Malazan Book of the Fallen series. The magic systems are rather thoroughly fleshed out, while still leaving some things vague and unknowable. It's a fantastic series.
Always wanted to try illustrating some of the things from the Stormlight Archive, just never been too good at drawing things that look like bugs. Creeps me out too much. The illustrations you found are horrifying enough, but at least they have the decency of being remarkably well done. *Don't bother expanding this is you're uninterested in reading me list all of the things I'd love to see brought to life from my favourite fantasy series.* I keep hoping one of the channels along this vein will eventually cover The Malazan Book of the Fallen. On top of all of the races, from plain human (Awl, Barghast, Malazan, Letherii, Bolkandan, Kundryl, Wickan, Shake, Napan, Cabalhii, Dal Honese, Falari, Elan etc., and the proto-humans the Eres'al) to Jaghut, T'lan Imass, the Tiste Andii/Liosan/Edur, Forkrul Assail, K'Chain Che'Malle and on and on, there are the endless gods, goddesses, spirits, demons, ascendents, odd critters like the Jhag horses, dhenrabi, bhokaral, orthen, rhinazan, the Shards; Soletaken and D'ivers. Tens of thousands of years of history, countless warrens and other worlds. Floating cities like Moon's Spawn, the machinery of the K'Chain and Nahruk, the Houses of the Azath and the breadth and scope of the histories, religions, cults, cultures, magic systems, myths & legends etc. that we're given throughout the stories. A whole helluva lot to choose from, is what I'm getting at. I'm re-reading the series for the third time straight, so, I just can't help it. It's all fresh in my head, and it would be nice to see at least some of it come to life.
Exactly what I was thinking. I'm kinda sick of canine-jawed theoretical aliens. We need more creativity and more unique speculative/fictional organisms.
I really dislike "ethereal" or "spiritual" things in SF. I guess it's possible they're not actually magical but just really misunderstood by humans. That makes it a bit better.
@@j2k14 From this video I got the idea that it was sci-fi, because it uses pretty convincing evolutionary models and it's on some other planet. I like magic in fantasy. I don't usually like the combination of the two.
@@ThoughtPotato What was that quote? "Technology that is sufficiently advanced will seem like magic to us"? Something like that. Could apply to speculative biology as well
@@andreisandulescu9042 yeah, it's pretty rare for fantasy worlds to incorporate these kinds of sci-fi elements, but the specbio aspect of the stormlight archive is only a cool background detail to spice up a fantasy story, not the focus of the series lol. even though sanderson treats magic in a fairly "science-like" manner, we shouldn't forget that his series are fantasy first and foremost, so i can see why it would rub you the wrong way if you specifically dislike this kind of genre-ambiguity.
Roshar is the ultimate form of "EVERYTHING EVOLVE TO CRABS"
Even crabs 🦀 👀
But where is Mr. Krabs⁉️
Mmm Carcinisation go click clack
Animals? Crabs.
People? Crabs.
Crabs? Crabs.
Not everything evolves to crabs in real life. Only the arthropods. I dont understand where the meme came from.
Excellent video! The Stormlight Archive is one of my favorite series of all time, the world is just so unique and alien
Thank you! I think it's in my number one spot, personally. Good thing Brandon writes faster than some other authors I won't mention...
@@ThoughtPotato Totally
@@ThoughtPotato cremlings?
I'm (impatiently) waiting for Stormlight 5, having recently wrapped up the 4th book. It's neat to see little deep dives like this.
SAME. Can't wait
Sadly it recently was delayed. Think the projection is early 24 right now IIRC.
2:40 - Just a note to add with the highstorms and plants. As the storm move further West, it loses its strength. In Shinovar, its been described as near earth-like. Invicta's video "Welcome to Roshar" goes into this a bit further. Book 5 seems to take place in Shinovar for some main characters so we will have to see that it is like.
Thanks for pointing that out! I didn't want to get too far down the rabbit hole with Shinovar, especially since it seems to be populated with very Earth-like creatures (where did they come from?!). But it really is interesting, and I didn't know that about the 5th book. Can't wait!
@@ThoughtPotato Spoilers for oathbringer: I'm pretty sure the stormfather said that the ancient humans took a bunch of animals with them to roshar/shinovar when they left their ruined planet. since shinovar was a lot more stable those animals were able to survive to modern days.
@@deathfuzz Yeah, Shinovar was specifically given to the human refugees from "the Tranquiline Halls."
@@deathfuzzashen
People have been recommending Sanderson to me and I really enjoyed your exposition. From what I saw, Sanderson does give his world a more "scientific" vibe to it, but he also tries to preserve what makes fantasy fantasy, things that can't be fully explained by rationality. Gotta read them one day.
yes. Sandersons worlds "make sense" in a societal/cultural/logical way but at the same time the foundation of his worlds is entirely magical in nature.
He very much does hard magic. Magic exists, but it usually has very specific applications (i.e. the ability to make two objects attract each other) and its existence changes the way the world develops (to see this on full display, read the Alloy of Law novels where they have tons of guns and stuff that are built specifically to work with or against different powers, like ceramic fragmentation ammo to hit people who can repel metal).
I don't really get the enthusiasm. His books are almost twice as long as they need to be, his character banter is quite bad and his world-building is vast but quite shallow. He has a massive book output, and it really shows: he writes only the first layer of his world, and then goes on: "One draft, no iterations, good enough". If you want someone absolutely superior, try China Mieville
@@francescosirotti8178 hard disagree, I think Sanderson's works are absolute bangers. His character dialogue can be admittedly awakward, but that's what makes it so human. Most people aren't as articulate in real life as they think, and that is what Sanderson's dialogue often captures. Too many books have just perfect dialogues, it's like every character has taken a class in how to deliver monologues, it looks to fake. His characters speak like actual humans, not theatre performers. With some of them its clear they are trying too hard to sound eloquent or witty but are actually just sophists, while some speak quite colloquially as they don't have formal educations. The world has its own unique slang in different regions, which is quite I realistic. He is one of the only authors that can brilliantly tie basic dialogue into worldbuilding. Which leads us to worldbuilding. I think no one can compete with Brandon's worldbuilding prowess. Just take the world of stormlight archive as an example, its feels far more realistic than any world I have ever read. Everything has a science and logic behind it. The world isn't populated with large crustaceans just because it is creepy and gnarly. To survive the highstorms, most animals and plants have developed hard exoskeletons and shell like bodies. Either that, or they live deep within the ground where the storm cannot hurt them. Plants and trees fold or retreat into the ground as soon as the storm arrives, they aren't just moving around to look magical and intriguing. The rain in these highstorms is mingled with a thick creme like substance that solidifies as it drops on the ground, and thus all the damage caused by the storm is made up for as new surfaces form from this thick substance. This helps us understand how the surface of this planet hasn't just been completely destroyed after being ravaged by devestating storms for centuries, as it keeps regrowing. It's all so logical, the animals aren't simply magical or mystical for the sake of it, they have evolved to adapt to their surroundings, like the creatures on earth. Similarly, the planet has three moons not just because colourful moons seems like an aesthetically neat idea. The three moons might be why there are so many storms in this world, as the gravitational pull of these three moons might be too much for the planet, thus creating these massive tidal storms. It all makes sense, it's not just, "Oh, colorful moons seems like a neat idea." Every worldbuilding element ties into the world and has a science behind it, meanwhile in most other fantasy books authors just seem to fill their world with whatever seems cool and mystical, which leads to shallow worldbuilding. No worldbuilding element in Sanderson's world feels random and out of place.
I have no clue what roshar is and have never seen the books but that big bug guy on the thumbnail looks cool so I’m watching it
I love all of these types of world building breakdown type videos that focus on the smaller but still extremely interesting aspects of the books
Good to hear! The Cosmere in general is a super rich resource for that kind of thing
You did what?!! My dude, you're awesome!
YOU'RE awesome
Damn, you're really talking about the Cosmere now? This is truly such an unexpected greatness 😂
ikr
I went all week trying to get a minute of peace to enjoy your video, and I finally could! Thank you for sharing these worlds with us, please keep at it! ♥
That is high praise. Thanks so much :)
I found it interesting when horses, chickens and plants that did not move were mentioned in contrast to the rest of the life forms. I thought aha, humans came to Roshar and brought some life forms with them.
im reading oathbringer but as the series develops you do get the sense that the humans are the aliens on Roshar. and if you read any other cosmere book before as i have you know this is a posibility.
From what we know as of book 3 and somewhat 4 (warning: some spoilers follow) humans on the other planet (Ashyn, aka the Tranquiline Halls) under the influence of Odium released such powerful magics they destroyed the world. The survivors reached Roshar, and the native parsh people granted them Shinovar, which is virtually untouched by the highstorms. Somehow Shinovar got set up with grass and stuff, so it's a suitable place for normal animals. The deal was they would stay there (this is why the Shin consider it blasphemous to touch stone).
The skyeel digestion probably has something to do with fermentation to produce the gases needed inside the fins
Excellent thought. Make sense!
I saw the giant crab in the thumbnail and I instantly knew this was about Stormlight lol
I can't be the only one that pictured the many crustacean-like fauna of Roshar doing the crab rave, right?
What if the Battle of Narak if not a particularly gruesome crab rave?
Now you've put the thought in my head
Comparing Roshar to a Tide Pool is such an accurate statement that I never thought about, great job
Because of you i have been reading the stormlight archive series
Great video! Glad to see you give Roshar your usual treatment 👍
Brandon's world building is second to none.
If you ask me, the kraken is hardly the most apt comparison one could make between santhids and folkloric sea monsters. It's far closer to the aspidochelone, a sea turtle so massive that its back could be mistaken for an island.
That’s fair, but there are some Greatshells that are even *more* similar to what you describe. The comparison to colossal squids had more to do with their near-mythical status, but I may not have made that very clear.
With the two bonded to 'luck' spren at the end I fully expected you to end with the giant island crabs...but then the video ended.
Sadly I had to debate the inclusion of the other Greatshells, since they tend further toward the supernatural side of this world, which kind of changes the tone of the video. But it was a tough decision
@@ThoughtPotato I mean the title does say "otherwordly" so it could still be in theme, but I get it!
YESS FINALLY THOUGHT POTATO MEETS STORMLIGHT
This is awesome to help visualize what I am seeing as I read the books, thank you so much awesome work!!!
11:28 ah yes, the *giant enemy crab* . Although it is extremely realistic, you unfortunately cannot attack it’s weak point for massive damage
Sorry, I just couldn’t resist
I recently subbed to thought potato, and have never been happier bout potatoes! 😁
I hate most talkers but their voice is so delicate and humble
Man how I wish such expeditions would be real
Omg I want to read this series
Of course this comes out right when I'm reading the way of kings
Can you talk about the Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy? It's a very interesting book trilogy with great worldbuilding.
I'm definitely adding that to my list.
Moreeee, feed me more specilative evolution
those next fuel source vs at least 100+ BOR7s. (11:29).
[Coughs]
There is a spoiler about Urithiru in the sponsor section, if you havent read the books please do not watch the sponsored segment.
Thanks ☺️
Thank YOU
@@ThoughtPotato could you make a video on the Odyssey I’m a big fan 🏛
Omg it’s crabzilla
Watch out
Where my cremlings at?
🦀
I wish to see more worlds with mechanisms and explanations of workings. Are there any that have something of a hard magic system that goes into biological depth and how its systems affect the life forms? I have something like that if you wish to know.
My universe incorporates magic in its workings. Hard magic.
Magic is basically a force leaking in from rifts leading to another dimension (not THAT another dimension, Kirb fans). Its unstable and can only exist in our universe if it attaches to some of our matter/energy, often leading to crystalline formations in a rift affected area, making for portable stored magic. So basically, if you are skilled enough to control it, you can consciously direct the magic to apply a force onto things; pushing matter and energy around in different ways. Still follows the rules; can't create things out of nothing. The rifts often have strange affects on their surroundings, often twisting landscapes into unusual shapes, affecting gravity, making pockets of strange environments different in make up to the rest of the planet; wormholes. This suggests that there might be consciousness within the magic space as well, directing the moving around of elements. This of course, has quite an affect on the local ecology. Sometimes a wormhole manages to bring in a life form from far away worlds that is compatible to its new environment. That's an interesting way to get invasive species. Magic rift zones also have mutagenic properties, increasing the rate of mutation in ways that seem not as random; and sometimes producing creatures capable of specific magical, or pseudo magical (resembles magic, but is made by natural biology, such as fire breath or larger scale electric eel or gecko feet like stuff) power.
Try The Malazan Book of the Fallen series. The magic systems are rather thoroughly fleshed out, while still leaving some things vague and unknowable. It's a fantastic series.
I thought i had seen all of the videos on this channel.
Always wanted to try illustrating some of the things from the Stormlight Archive, just never been too good at drawing things that look like bugs. Creeps me out too much. The illustrations you found are horrifying enough, but at least they have the decency of being remarkably well done. *Don't bother expanding this is you're uninterested in reading me list all of the things I'd love to see brought to life from my favourite fantasy series.*
I keep hoping one of the channels along this vein will eventually cover The Malazan Book of the Fallen. On top of all of the races, from plain human (Awl, Barghast, Malazan, Letherii, Bolkandan, Kundryl, Wickan, Shake, Napan, Cabalhii, Dal Honese, Falari, Elan etc., and the proto-humans the Eres'al) to Jaghut, T'lan Imass, the Tiste Andii/Liosan/Edur, Forkrul Assail, K'Chain Che'Malle and on and on, there are the endless gods, goddesses, spirits, demons, ascendents, odd critters like the Jhag horses, dhenrabi, bhokaral, orthen, rhinazan, the Shards; Soletaken and D'ivers. Tens of thousands of years of history, countless warrens and other worlds. Floating cities like Moon's Spawn, the machinery of the K'Chain and Nahruk, the Houses of the Azath and the breadth and scope of the histories, religions, cults, cultures, magic systems, myths & legends etc. that we're given throughout the stories.
A whole helluva lot to choose from, is what I'm getting at. I'm re-reading the series for the third time straight, so, I just can't help it. It's all fresh in my head, and it would be nice to see at least some of it come to life.
that list of creatures just made me really want to read Malazan
@@Tornnnado first book is Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson.
so smart
Journey Before Destination
From 6:46 to 7:02 there are HEAVY spoilers
Is it rosharian or rosharan
Roashar does have seasons which change very quickly and fairly inconsistently, not no seasons
I think you forgot about the reshi isles
Hit the weak spot for massive damage!
At what point do these canine-jawed creatures stop being considered crustaceans? Because I feel like it's REALLY pushing it lol
Exactly what I was thinking. I'm kinda sick of canine-jawed theoretical aliens. We need more creativity and more unique speculative/fictional organisms.
Godzilla is a crab
Smokespren????? They're luckspren(mandras) not smokespren!
>Chasmfiends are the largest animals in Roshar
Dude didn't read the interludes :kekw:
Yay first
Man why is it cool videos like this sell us illiterate veden men on the idea of joining the ardentia to learn about all of these things?
I really dislike "ethereal" or "spiritual" things in SF. I guess it's possible they're not actually magical but just really misunderstood by humans. That makes it a bit better.
Totally understand. We're still learning a lot about Spren, but it does seem that you could fit them into the realm of science. Time will tell...
??? stormlight is fantasy, not sci-fi. and in fantasy, magic is, uhh, pretty common. no idea what point you think you've made tbh
@@j2k14 From this video I got the idea that it was sci-fi, because it uses pretty convincing evolutionary models and it's on some other planet. I like magic in fantasy. I don't usually like the combination of the two.
@@ThoughtPotato What was that quote? "Technology that is sufficiently advanced will seem like magic to us"? Something like that. Could apply to speculative biology as well
@@andreisandulescu9042 yeah, it's pretty rare for fantasy worlds to incorporate these kinds of sci-fi elements, but the specbio aspect of the stormlight archive is only a cool background detail to spice up a fantasy story, not the focus of the series lol. even though sanderson treats magic in a fairly "science-like" manner, we shouldn't forget that his series are fantasy first and foremost, so i can see why it would rub you the wrong way if you specifically dislike this kind of genre-ambiguity.
Roshar is just a Morrowind rip off.
I tried reading the series but I find Brandon Sanderson pacing to be very bad.
what, you dont like 3 prologues.
@@deathfuzz Not in particular, no. I could've read half a novel by the time Sanderson introduces his protagonist.
Seems a little too much like Curious Archive’s content to be original. Down to the monotone voice.