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Something that I’ve been curious about since the start of the series is the physiology of the listeners. They’re described as having carapace, and when Kaladin removes the carapace from one of them in the chasms, he notes how unlike their anatomy is to that of humans. But he doesn’t really go into detail as to why it’s different. We know that they have breasts in mate form, which leads me to believe they could be mammals, but it’s also noted that all of the very few mammals that live on Roshar came over with the original humans from Ashyn. However, the fact that humans and listeners could breed (the horneaters and herdazians both have listener ancestry), seems to indicate that they could be mammals. Is their skin more lizard like, or soft and hairy? The males are mentioned to have beards, but the listeners describe their hair as “hair strands”, so is it the same physiologically as human hair? Ar e there any WOB or in-book quotes that would clarify this?

A bit more scientific than previous questions: I love how Venli, when overcome with emotion such as anxiety or elation, mentions Timbre pulsing in her gemheart, similar to a human heart beating faster. This made me think: singers don’t have a muscular heart that can contract to pump blood. So, how does singer blood work? Either there is a separate heart pumping system that singers just don’t call a heart, or the blood acts like the lymphatic system, which relies on gradient flow rather than a pumping mechanism.

How the hell are the singers maintaining their population ? Given that none of there soldiers, scholars, Artists, or even works can reproduce? Dose anyone have any ideas, so there a word of Brandon on this, is this a world building hole?

So I keep feeling very curious about the nonhuman people of Roshar. Dysian Aimians and their violet blood make some sense, as we know Rosharan creatures from greatshells to cremlings bleed violet blood. Humans make sense in that their human, and obviously share red blood with other Yolish (non-Fain) life, like pigs, horses, chickens, etc. But does anything else on Roshar, besides the Parshendi, have orange blood? I just don't know what to make of it! I'm trying to read up on info, but while biology is a strong subject for me, chemistry is not. I'd love to see if anyone else has thoughts or insights about this. In any case, here's a link to an article about the many variations of blood in real life critters here on Earth.

I read Khriss's essays on Scadrial, Roshar, and Sel and something struck me, how would humans from Sel and Scadrial react physically to Roshar's lower gravity and higher Oxygen levels? We know that out of the three, the Selish will have the highest bone density and the strongest muscles because they live on a higher gravity world. The Scadrians will be in the middle because they are on what is basically Earth, which still has lower oxygen levels and higher gravity than Roshar. This would basically lead to a John Carter of Mars effect for the Scadrians and Selish. Both groups, without enhancements like Pewter, Dakhor, or Feruchemy, could run faster, jump higher, lift more, and have higher endurance than a similar Rosharian. It would be like a runner training in a weighted suit at 15000 ft for his entire life and then going to Miami and running a triathlon.

This was sort of an independent project up until recently, but there are so many great theorizers and thing-connectors here that I was wondering if some others might want to help create something richer and/or join in the fun. In a way this kind of started when I was a wee lad. I always thought the simulation theory was fun to play with and have half-jokingly referred to our creator as 'Player One', a fourth-dimensional geek girl with a great new life simulation game. This resulted in me adding 'layers' to things that can live together comfortably but look completely differently from different perspectives...things like ghosts actually being Rogue AIs and such. A few years back I was complaining about the Midi-chlorians (because...who doesn't, right?) and a friend challenged me to come up with a way to make them not suck...a challenge I started off grudgingly accepting but eventually really dove into with some zeal. Having recently become semi-obsessed with microbiology in general and RNA World in particular (Because wow...the tiny little machines that live inside cells that encode what are basically the first AIs (NIs?) are kind of mind-blowing) it wasn't that hard to make Midi-chlorians kind of cool...mix in a little Cordyceps for mind control, weave in a mechanic to give them the 'force' abilities (Dark Energy is the clock and Dark Matter is the code that runs the universe, and they just are more naturally able to interface with it than we are) and suddenly The Force isn't something mystical OR bugs, it's a plague that manipulates their hosts into fighting and turns 'A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away' into a warning. Fast forwarding a little, I articled that whole thing up and it became a little hit (Secrets of Star Wars and the End of Everything), and then I started doing it every time somebody's movie or other form of entertainment did something to disappoint me. It allowed me to keep my neurons going and add a layer of enjoyment to an experience that would normally cause me to put my hands over my metaphorical ears and go 'LALALALALA'. It saved Interstellar for me (it works beautifully as the other half of 'The Others') and even got me past the part of Arrival that bothered the heck out of me (Maybe it's not a magical time-travel language at all!) This has me wondering...can we have fun connecting ALL OF THE THINGS? Can Battlestar Galactica be in the Star Wars galaxy, and the result of the inevitable droid revolution? (because seriously, they treat their droids like crap!) Was Westworld the training program for Cylons? Are the Dilithium Crystals in Star Trek powered by the trapped souls of the murdered originals when a copy is made for transportation? Is the original Star Trek really in the future? Or is that just William Shatner with dementia? Are the Highlanders just Force Ghosts that escaped here? What are our Midi-chlorian equivalents? (I call them Linden Folk in Innermore, but that was just an arbitrary choice) Are they the source of magic? Does Game of Thrones take place on the ruins of the Forest Moon of Endor? (that would explain a strange amount of things) And so on. I think there's a big fun opportunity to try to weave something coherent together and then start writing the stories that connect them all. It's a project I'll be doing either way, but I thought it might be really fun to make it a team effort! -Will

So... I am writing a fantasy novel and have run into a bit of a snag. I have this thing (definitely an outgrowth of reading too much Sanderson) to have as much of my worldbuilding as possible have a concrete backing in scientific fact. The problem is that I know nothing about astrophysics, biology, or anything that could really help me work out the permutations of certain changes to the world. Here's my current situation: The world I'm building is plagued by abnormally high temperatures throughout half the year (comparable to a constant heat wave) and similarly cold temperatures for the other half. They are mitigated by a short, two-week period of regular weather in between. During the Heatsurge there is week or so long period where the sun does not set, mirrored by a similar period during the Coldsurge when it does not rise. These events repeat in a constant, yearly cycle. The flora and fauna have all had to grow around these extreme conditions, with adaptability becoming even more important to survival. My questions are twofold: First, is there a way to make this astronomically grounded. Would something like the axial tilt have to change to keep the continuing cycle of Hot and Cold surges, or does that have nothing to do with it? Multiple astral bodies? I don't know, just throwing things out there... Second, how would the flora and fauna adapt to such extreme changes in temperature? I've been reading up on some animals' ability to survive temperatures below freezing using something called supercooling, but I feel I would need more of an adaptability factor here. This world's plants and animals have to be able to change throughout the year, as protection against one half of the year would likely be harmful during the other. Any biologically-adept people that can help me out here? The original idea for this came out of a desire of mine to create something fundamentally connected to the world that affected all the life within it, from biology to culture to business (similar to the highstorms of Roshar). Let's see if this can work! Hope you all can help me out! Thanks for your time!