Parshmen are a form of Parshendi, created to be an essential part of the Rosharan ecosystem,[1] common to the whole of Roshar, and used as slaves and servants. They are thick-witted, but make excellent workers. They are docile and practically mute. They do not fight.[2]
Parshmen might cost more than most slaves, but so do chulls ... a good comparison because parshmen are worked like animals.[3]
Parshmen are regarded by their Parshendi brethren as slaveform parshmen with no soul.[4] Eshonai, too, considers slaveform to be the form without spren, without soul, without song.[5] Slaveform is similar to dullform in that it allows dullform spies to act as slaveform parshmen for the Alethi.[6]
The Everstorm has been revealed to transform the parshmen into Voidbringers,[7] or the Fused.[8]
However, enslaved parshmen, deprived of true forms, aren't able to hear the rhythms.[9]
Appearance[]
Parshmen have black or white skin mottled with red tones. They are of a muscular build and appear to be almost completely mute.[10]
Characteristics[]
Parshmen can speak, but they rarely do so. Many seem mute.[11] That said, one has to prod them into it. Still, Teft acknowledges that they seem to be able to talk to each other, without making any sounds.[3]
Personalities[]
Parshmen, although not raising their voices on the matter, become outraged at the treatment of their dead.[12] It is also known that emotions come slowly in dullform,[5] so that is why there has never been a hint of revolt amongst the parshmen. This is shown by Shen's words, to Dalinar.[13] They are slow and lethargic, yet when commanded to do something will not stop unless commanded otherwise. They seem to be aware of their place in society and try to keep it that way. This is shown from Shallan's interactions with parshmen on her way to the Shattered Plains.[citation needed]
Culture[]
They work as slaves and servants throughout Roshar, performing menial labor tasks. Parshmen almost never speak although they are able to.[11] Shen once described dullform, and he said thoughts came slowly like through molasses.[citation needed] They appear to be docile and controlled. It is said they are made to serve, and that if one was to leave a parshman in the woods, he would simply sit there until someone came along to tell him what to do.
They hold a particular horror of the tampering with their dead, much like their Parshendi kin.[12]
Despite not being very vocal, they often hum a tune to themselves as they work and appear to have a possbile form of telepathic ability to communicate with each other, evidenced by two parshmen working separately humming the same tune in time with each other.
They name themselves the singers.[14]
History[]
Jasnah believes that the Voidbringers had a natural, real-world correlate, because something caused the legends about them. In her notes it is written that they were suddenly dangerous, like a calm day that became a tempest.[15] Beings of ash and fire. Flame and char. Skin so terrible. Eyes like pits of blackness. Music when they kill.[16]
Further, she states that the people defeated them on the battlefield, but the legends claim that the people chased the Voidbringers off the face of Roshar or destroyed them. She declares that that's not how humans work; that humans don't throw away something they can use. So, instead, the people enslaved them.[16]
In Yeddaw, parshmen are declared to be imprisoned or exiled because a guardsman there claimed as much, according to a diktat from the prince of Tashikk.[17]
With the advent of the Everstorm looming there, by the prince's orders, the parshmen are gathered and turned out. Left for the storm, which Lift considers to be hugely unfair.[18]
According to Rlain, parshmen are invisible to the Alethi because the Alethi have been brought up to see them that way.[9]
| “ | "About the parshmen. That this was their land, their world, before we arrived? That ... we that we were the Voidbringers?"* | ” |
Notable Parsh[]
Notes[]
Jasnah theorised that the parshmen and their close kin, the Parshendi, are the Voidbringers.[20] It was later confirmed by Graves, at the time, that she was right.[6]
*The Eila Stele confirms this.[19]
References[]
- ↑ Arcanum Unbounded release party, Provo, UT, 11/22/16
- ↑ The Way of Kings, 3. City of Bells
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Way of Kings, 46. Child of Tanavast
- ↑ Sanderson, pre-release book reading
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Words of Radiance, Inter1.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Words of Radiance, 87. The Riddens
- ↑ Words of Radiance, 89. The Four
- ↑ Oathbringer, 38. Broken People
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Oathbringer, 55. Alone Together
- ↑ The Way of Kings, Prologue - To Kill
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Way of Kings, 7. Anything Reasonable
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 The Way of Kings, 67. Words
- ↑ Words of Radiance, 79. Toward The Center
- ↑ Oathbringer, 106. Law Is Light
- ↑ The Way of Kings, 30. Darkness Unseen
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 The Way of Kings, 72. Veristitalian
- ↑ Edgedancer, 14.
- ↑ Edgedancer, 15.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Oathbringer, 121. Ideals
- ↑ The Way of Kings, 52. A Highway to the Sun
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