Calendar in Roshar

[Martinitram]

Hi all. As I am new to this community, this is my first post. Like most of you, I am enamored by BS's stories, especially Stormlight. I have read most of the great epics (Tolkien, GRRM, Jordan) and was introduced to BS via the Mistborn Trilogy. I couldn't get enough of the cosmere, so when I found out he had an epic w/ swords, armor, and the like I bought tWoK. I read it in less than a week, which for me is record time. I realize that, like many of you, this book leaves us w/ a wide variety of questions, so I started reading it again, in detail this time, in attempt to answer so many of my questions (and because this story is wonderful on so many levels), so we'll see how THAT goes.

OK OK... Introductions aside.

I will probably be asking you all a lot of questions in the future, but for my first post I wanted to contribute some logical theory (I searched this topic in the forums and did not notice anything, but if I am rehashing an old thread please forgive me).

THE CALENDAR IN ROSHAR:

In the epigraphs for part one and part four (the proclamations upon death) dates are listed, and I believe that these are in chronological order. At first it seems odd that the first few dates mention a day, week, month, and year; the next few mention a day, and then a month (where'd the week go?); and the last and greater number of dates list only one term followed by the year.

Looking more closely, I have determined that these single word dates are actually a combination of three variables: the month, the week, and then the day. The prefix would be the month, middle the week, and the suffix the day, and these word fragments are all based on the numerical system in the Ars Arcanum. For Example, 'Tanatanev' would be: 9th month, 9th week, 4th day. (Tanat or even simply -tan = 9, and -ev refers to vev, or 4)

That being said, one would assume that (10 days x 10 weeks x 10 months) in this calendar there are a total of 1,000 day to a year.

However, it is also referenced somewhere near the end (not sure where, still re-reading) that 8 weeks = 40 days.

Now, it is possible that there is not a universal calendar shared in Roshar as the epigraphs were collected by scholars in Kharbranth and the 5 days to a week statement was given in either Alethkar, Jah Kaved, or the Shattered Plains. However, for the sake of this post and the fact that Kharbranth and the other kingdoms are all practicing Vorinism, it can be assumed that there is a universal calendar, at least among the Vorinists.

Taking this into consideration, I looked at the dates on the epigraphs to see a connection. Sure enough, there is no date in the epigraphs that that supersedes a 5th day of a particular week. The suffix -lah for Palah is the last mentioned day, there are no dates with a suffix such as -ash, -ab, -ak, -anat (or -an/-at), or -shi; the last #'s 6 through 10.

So, I have concluded that there are 5 days to a week, 10 weeks to a month, and 10 months to a year; giving the Rosharian year a total of 500 days.

Now my question to you all (I know I said i wouldn't ask a question here, but I couldn't help myself) is:

Is this relevant to any of the mysteries in the book, or just a cool way for BS to make a calendar?

Also- there is a proclamation upon death that roughly states, "...The Everstorm comes in 1000 days..." This is not in the epigraphs, so it may be a witnessed proclamation that Kalidin receives on the battlefield, or something to that nature (I just started my re-read so I can't reference this directly). That being said, The epilogue scene where Taln arrives and heralds the Desolation, may actually be a full 2 years after most of the events in the 1st book.

Again, not sure if this relevant but it does pose some interesting questions, no?

Thanks all for listening to my guesstimations, and any feedback (good or bad) would be greatly appreciated.

[Meg]

Also- there is a proclamation upon death that roughly states, "...The Everstorm comes in 1000 days..." This is not in the epigraphs, so it may be a witnessed proclamation that Kalidin receives on the battlefield, or something to that nature (I just started my re-read so I can't reference this directly).

Hi Martinitram,

welcome to the forums.

For helping: this quote you refer to is the epigraph of the prologue.

"The love of men is a frigid thing, a mountain stream only three steps vor the ice. We are his. Oh Stormfather ... we are his. It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes."

Collected on the first day of the week Palah oft the month Shash of the year 1171 ...

[Martinitram]

OK... That makes perfect sense!

So much for my 'detailed' re-read.

Thanks, Meg

[Cheese Ninja]

Roshar days are 20 hours long, and the hours are a minute or two shorter than Earth hours. A Roshar Year is approximately 1.1 Earth years.

http://coppermind.net/wiki/Roshar

FireArcadia made a Google Spreadsheet with each day of the Roshar year on it.

A few months before that, I put number dates on all the epigraphs. They are all in chronological order, except the one describing Kaladin's bridge leap, that epigraph is delivered the day after the epigraph following it. Might or might not be significant.

All the epigraphs after (and including)

“ReShephir, the Midnight Mother, giving birth to abominations with her essence so dark, so terrible, so consuming. She is here! She watches me die!”—Dated Shashabev, 1173, 8 seconds pre-death. Subject: a darkeyed dock-worker in his forties, father of three. (284) [6-7-4]

take place at least a 1000 days after the initial epigraph.

Oh yeah, and the book itself seems to take place sometime in 1173, mostly in a 2-3 month span from Kaladin's arrival on the Shattered Plains to the end of the book. Navani's "Map of the Battle of the Tower" is said to be circa 1173.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Cheese Ninja

[Mailliw73]

Martinitram, I was just thinking about this yesterday!! This is almost exactly what I was thinking

[Martinitram]

Wow! Thats sweet! Thanks Cheese.

Dont know why that didn't pop up when I searched for the topic.