Search the Community

Not sure how well thought out this theory is, but I think it's fun. Also, I'm new! Hello! I think the sun in SP4 may be one of the following 1) the grave of a highly invested person 2) the site of a shard splintering itself 3) both? We've seen significant light given off by highly invested entities before, and we know the light is a sort of investiture because it seems to be powering the jet turbines that are keeping everyone alive.

I am re-listening to WoK again, because, why not. I was wondering if the sun in shadesmar is actually the solar system's sun, or if it is something different. Everything else in shadesmar has a very different aspect than in the real world. So what is the light source really? And why do clouds streak towards it? Any thoughts?

Question about the physics of the Taldain system. It was complicated enough with one sun, one tidally locked planet, and one moon that always rotates around the light/dark terminus. How does a binary system work with this? From what I understand, the L1 point (aka the barycenter) between the two stars is extremely unstable. Any kind of jiggle to the rotations or gravity of the system and the planet spins off into space or crashes into one of the stars. Judging from the sketch of the system, we have the two suns in a near-circular orbit (very difficult). And Taldain in the gravitational center of the binary system, with a rotational period that exactly matches the orbits of the stars? And that still doesn't explain the orbit of the moon, which should stay the same no matter which direction the planet itself is facing. It seems to be an extreme balancing act. I suppose Investiture could account for it, but I kinda hate to see this hand-waved away as "magic," since from what I understand of Brandon, he tries to keep as close to actual physics as possible (red/blue shifts not withstanding ). Does anyone smarter than me have a good explanation?

So, I am listening to the audiobook for WoK, and was listening to the part near the beginning when Kaladin is in the slave wagons and hopes that spring will come again, with the narrational aside that the seasons were unpredictable. This got me to thinking: how could seasons be unpredictable? On earth, the distance from the sun and the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis combine to give us seasons. What could be going on for Roshar to be having a random (to Kaladin) distribution of distances from the sun? My first thought is that perhaps Roshar orbits some sort of binary star system. (Perhaps locked in such a way as to only show one of the two suns at a time, but the differing distances causing irregular (but maybe predictable through math by stormwardens) seasons. This may also explain Braize, as it could be getting both suns, making it a place of fire and heat and eternal day. Thoughts?