+Oltux72 Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 How does the water cycle work? Are there normal oceans apart from the dry oceans? What are they burning for their machines? Spores? Sprouted Verdant? As they know wood, rain must be falling. That means activated spores where rain is falling and rivers empty into the dry ocean? What happens to the vines and other stuff? What happens to the spores? Why is the planet not buried under spores? Are the moons old? What happens when different kinds of spores meet? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceblade44 Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 Also something to question, does the eruption of vines happens to all spores or just Verdant. If so, what happens when the other spores get wet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreamwa1ker Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 I had the same question about the water cycle. Can you imagine how terrifying a thunderstorm would be? It mentioned getting water from a well on the island, so there is water underground. Maybe there is an entirely underground water cycle instead of an atmospheric one. The one tree was in the duke's grounds and the other methods of agriculture sounds very much like transplants not native to this place, so could all be irrigation from underground. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironeyes Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 On the subject of weird water cycles, where does the salt come from? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frustration Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 1 minute ago, Ironeyes said: On the subject of weird water cycles, where does the salt come from? They mine it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironeyes Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Frustration said: They mine it. I mean geologically. How did salt deposits get there without large bodies of water? Salt mines on Earth usually mine halite, which is formed by sedimentary deposits of ancient oceans. Edited March 3, 2022 by Ironeyes 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilphon Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 I suspect that this planet had normal seas at one point. And maybe still does somewhere. But I think there is rain- Tress treats even dead spores with caution; people think of them as an ever-present danger, and although there's talk about importing food, they don't seem to have any shortage of water. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zibus Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 4 hours ago, Oltux72 said: What happens to the spores? Why is the planet not buried under spores? Are the moons old? That's my biggest question. If they're not that old, or at least the spore fall isn't that old (cosmologically speaking) that could explain why there are so many animal metaphors and things. Perhaps most of these animals are extinct and remembered through stories mostly. If the spores are incredibly old, then what is disposing of the spores? Even the inert ones would eventually become a huge problem - filling up the world with dust. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bzhydack Posted March 4, 2022 Report Share Posted March 4, 2022 13 hours ago, Zibus said: If the spores are incredibly old, then what is disposing of the spores? Even the inert ones would eventually become a huge problem - filling up the world with dust. Maybe they recycled like Atium does? Spores crumble into dust, and dust evaporates as pure Investiture, and returns to the respective Aether. Something similar to Stormlight Cycle on Roshar, just more hostile. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NameIess Posted March 4, 2022 Report Share Posted March 4, 2022 22 minutes ago, Bzhydack said: Maybe they recycled like Atium does? Spores crumble into dust, and dust evaporates as pure Investiture, and returns to the respective Aether. Something similar to Stormlight Cycle on Roshar, just more hostile. Or maybe there's giant Larkins living in the oceans eating all the excess. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreamwa1ker Posted March 4, 2022 Report Share Posted March 4, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, Nameless said: Or maybe there's giant Larkins living in the oceans eating all the excess. Ooh I can just imagine that. It could fit the tone too if there's pirates and an old-timey map showing sea monsters and stuff - "here there be monsters" Edited March 4, 2022 by Dreamwa1ker Typo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaidakar the Ghostblood Posted March 4, 2022 Report Share Posted March 4, 2022 3 hours ago, Nameless said: Or maybe there's giant Larkins living in the oceans eating all the excess. I love that Nameless! that would be amazing and then at the end of the book Tress and Charles are riding one of them into the sunset. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbulick Posted March 4, 2022 Report Share Posted March 4, 2022 2 hours ago, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said: I love that Nameless! that would be amazing and then at the end of the book Tress and Charles are riding one of them into the sunset. While wearing a Duneesque sand walking suit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaidakar the Ghostblood Posted March 4, 2022 Report Share Posted March 4, 2022 Just now, dbulick said: While wearing a Duneesque sand walking suit. YES! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Silverlight Posted May 7, 2022 Report Share Posted May 7, 2022 On 3/3/2022 at 1:36 PM, Gilphon said: But I think there is rain- Tress treats even dead spores with caution; people think of them as an ever-present danger, and although there's talk about importing food, they don't seem to have any shortage of water. There is a brief reference to thunder, so there must be rain on this planet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ShardlessVessel Posted May 8, 2022 Report Share Posted May 8, 2022 21 hours ago, Johnny Silverlight said: There is a brief reference to thunder, so there must be rain on this planet. Also, someone asked Brandon on a livestream about rain, and he said that it's in the book. There is rain, and we will know what happens when it rains. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted May 19, 2022 Report Share Posted May 19, 2022 I'm going to guess that most questions about how this planet functions are ultimately going to be answered with some flavor of 'Adonalsium Diddit', where the system is either dependent on Shard-tier manipulation to keep it running, or it's not intended to be stable beyond the kind of timespan Brandon is working within. On 3/3/2022 at 11:20 AM, Oltux72 said: What happens to the spores? Why is the planet not buried under spores? Are the moons old? What happens when different kinds of spores meet? For the first, I'm going to speculate that the planet has something akin to the ash-eating microbes that kept Scadrial from being completely smothered in ash which helps break down the spores once they're dead. For the second, that's a good question. The fact that we can talk about various distinct seas suggests that the types don't mix. Possibly it's some kind of Investiture reaction with the result that each kind repels the others? Another possibility is that they do mix, but new spores fall from the moons rapidly enough that each sea is able to retain its distinct character and it's only towards the edges (farthest from the lunagrees) that you would see a mingling of types. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cometaryorbit Posted May 19, 2022 Report Share Posted May 19, 2022 They might also not mix because they're distinct basins with land between. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weltall Posted May 19, 2022 Report Share Posted May 19, 2022 (edited) Good point, that's also a possibility. My assumption would be that since they're referred to by Hoid as oceans and he's aware of how they work on other worlds, that they're at least somewhat like ours on Earth where you have a whole bunch of different ones that are contiguous (and so in one sense all a single big ocean) with regional characteristics that distinguish them, but I don't think we have enough detail to confirm that. Either way, this planet must look pretty spectacular from orbit, with so many differently-colored spore seas. Or pan back a bit and you get that plus twelve moons to look at. Though I'm pretty sure any would-be astronomers in the Cosmere would take one look at the system and say they have no idea how it manages to stay that way. Especially since the planet somehow manages to have a dozen moons all in geostationary orbits; Brandon uses geosynchronous but if they don't appear to move the former term's more precise. We can probably chalk that up to Hoid not caring about the distinction since he's narrating all of this. Edited May 19, 2022 by Weltall 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cometaryorbit Posted May 20, 2022 Report Share Posted May 20, 2022 That's possible, but it seems like the "formal" names use Sea rather than Ocean (Verdant Sea, Crimson Sea, Midnight Sea) which can often imply a more bounded body of water, either inland like the Caspian Sea or connected by a narrow passage like the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Not that the naming of these things is at all consistent in RL nomenclature... why does the Salton Sea in California get to be a Sea while the Great Salt Lake in Utah doesn't? I am pretty sure that a non-equatorial geostationary orbit is impossible in RL without some major constant external force. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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