Roshar
Roshar | |
---|---|
Shards | Honor, Cultivation |
Investitures | Surgebinding, Old Magic, Voidbinding |
System | Greater Roshar |
Universe | Cosmere |
Roshar is the native name for the planet on which The Stormlight Archive is set. It is also the name of the supercontinent that the main events of the series take place on[1].
Nations
Roshar's population categorizes their history into a number of epochs. Most notable is the Silver Kingdoms Epoch, or the Heraldic Epoch, when the Knights Radiant kept the peace. They protected Roshar from their home, the great city of Urithiru. The Silver Kingdoms are:
In the the modern era, the Era of Solitude, the current division of countries and regions in Roshar are:
Calendar
The Rosharan calendar is divided up into ten months, with ten weeks each. Both the months and the weeks are named after the numbers on the Ars Arcanum, and are sometimes combined into abbreviations. Such abbreviations have the full name of the month and two suffixes, for week and day. Each week is five days, so the year in Roshar is 500 days, ultimately defined by the time between two Weepings.[2] Although the Rosharan year is 500 days long, these days are shorter than on Earth and a Rosharan year is equivalent to 1.1 Earth years.[3][4]
Abbreviation | Month | Week | Day |
---|---|---|---|
Chachanan | Chach | Nan | Nan |
Jesachev | Jes | Chach | Vev |
Kaktach | Kak | Tanat | Chach |
Environment
Roshar is smaller than Earth and, as a result, its surface gravity is, at 0.7g, significantly weaker than that of Earth. This (in part) is responsible for the native creatures growing so large.[5]
- crem deposits - build up/wearing down of continent by crem and high storms
Climate
With the exception of Shinovar and the occasional well sheltered lait, all of Roshar is frequently ravished by powerful highstorms. These storms come frequently and, though they do not appear to follow a simple pattern, stormwardens are able to accurately predict their schedule through complex mathematics.[6] As a result, Shinovar is the only place on Roshar that has soil.[7]
The one consistent aspect of the Rosharan climate is the Weeping. The Weeping occurs every 500 days and consists of four weeks of steady crem-free rain. The middle day of those four weeks is known as the Lightday and alternates between being one clear day in the midst of the rain and being a high storm.[2] There are typically fewer highstorms in the weeks leading up to the weeping. [8] The seasons following the weeping typically have weaker storms, making them good for farming.[9] Beyond this, the seasons are about as random as the highstorms. They can be roughly predicted by stormwardens, but only tend to last a few weeks and don't follow any obvious pattern. The characteristics of winter, spring, summer and autumn line up fairly well with what we expect from those seasons on Earth.[10][9][8][11]
Flora
whee! retractable grass
Roshar has a unique spectrum of native life. There's a number of human subspecies, and various other kinds of mammal. Lots of stranger molluscus and arthropodic types of creature such as Greatshells and things.
Fauna
Celestial Bodies
Roshar has several notable heavenly bodies, such as the moons. The first moon is Salas. It is violet, and is the smallest moon. The middle moon is Nomon, which is a bright, pale blue. And the final moon is Mishim, which is small and green. The Shin call the moons the Three Sisters, and call each moon by its order. So Salas is the First Sister, Nomon the Second Sister and Mishim, the Third Sister.
There is also Taln's Scar, which is a great swath of red stars that stand out against the white ones. Some people believe they can determine the personality of some one based on the position of Taln's Scar on their seventh birthday.
There are two other inhabitable planets in Roshar's system, which is known as Greater Roshar: Braize and Ashyn.[12]
Notes
- ↑ It is a supercontinent
— 17th Shard forums - 26 September 2012# - ↑ a b Words of Radiance chapter 46#
- ↑ Roshar year is 1.1 Earth years
— 17th Shard forums - 25 January 2014# - ↑ Length of Roshar days and years
— 17th Shard forums - 12 February 2013# - ↑ Did you have to do lots of research?
— Theoryland - Sep 16th, 2010# - ↑ Words of Radiance chapter 31#
- ↑ The Way of Kings interlude I-4#
- ↑ a b The Way of Kings chapter 25#
- ↑ a b The Way of Kings chapter 4#
- ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 18#
- ↑ The Way of Kings chapter 54#
- ↑ Correct spellings (by Eric)
— 17th Shard forums - 09 August 2013#