Worldhopper Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 Taln's Scar - a swath of deep red stars that stood out vibrantly from the twinkling white ones - was high in the sky this season. I know that this verse is meant to be a foreshadowing for events to come in the epilogue, but I'm wondering if there’s something more to it. Could Taln's Scar actually be something more than just a swath of red stars named after the abandoned Herald. Could it be a manifestation of Taln's torture and pain splashed across the heavens. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortaan Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 Seems unlikely. If it was, shouldn't it disappear now that he's not being tortured any longer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worldhopper Posted March 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 Seems unlikely. If it was, shouldn't it disappear now that he's not being tortured any longer? Maybe it will. Or maybe it will just stay there as a scar on the heavens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nepene Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 Taln's Scar - a swath of deep red stars that stood out vibrantly from the twinkling white ones - was high in the sky this season. I know that this verse is meant to be a foreshadowing for events to come in the epilogue, but I'm wondering if there’s something more to it. Could Taln's Scar actually be something more than just a swath of red stars named after the abandoned Herald. Could it be a manifestation of Taln's torture and pain splashed across the heavens. I suppose it's possible that Odium had an out of planet asteroid base for torturing heralds. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windrunner Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 People name constellations after things in their stories and mythologies. If Taln was given a scar in one story or another, I can see them creating a constellation for it. Personally, I think it's just a cool tie to the mythology of Roshar, like how Arelish constellations are in the shape of Aons. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worldhopper Posted March 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 People name constellations after things in their stories and mythologies. If Taln was given a scar in one story or another, I can see them creating a constellation for it. Personally, I think it's just a cool tie to the mythology of Roshar, like how Arelish constellations are in the shape of Aons. True. Its probably just that. I guess I've just begun to question everything in this book now. Would be cool though if it did somehow have some conection to the Heralds imprisonment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senor Feesh Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 People name constellations after things in their stories and mythologies. If Taln was given a scar in one story or another, I can see them creating a constellation for it. Personally, I think it's just a cool tie to the mythology of Roshar, like how Arelish constellations are in the shape of Aons. I'd actually forgotten that. And while it's certainly possible that the mundane explanation is the correct one, wouldn't it be awesome if these were in fact manifestations of Shardic influence of some kind? Like perhaps Aona deliberately made the Aons to represent the constellations that could be seen from Sel - or maybe even pushed a few stars around to make the constellations fit the necessary patterns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windrunner Posted March 30, 2013 Report Share Posted March 30, 2013 See, this disagreement comes from us appreciating different aspects of Brandon's worldbuilding. I love the magical aspects, things like that are wonderful. But I also love cultural things like Aon constellations. They make so much sense and are wonderfully clever, not mundane at all in my opinion. Just another aspect of Brandon's creativity. I think if everything had a magical explanation, that in and of itself would make it all feel mundane. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elwynn Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Well I just spent forever looking for this because I thought I remembered it relating to Taln's Scar more directly. But now I see why no one has mentioned it/remembers it, but it still seems like Taln's Scar could fit. Interview: Oct 15th, 2010 17th Shard Interview (Verbatim) 17th ShardJust in general, how is Stormlight Archive related to the rest of the cosmere? Or can you say? Brandon Sanderson I will tell you that one of the novels I skipped is actually set in the same solar system. 17TH SHARDOh...so this is the series that that book shares. BRANDON SANDERSONYes, this is the series that the book shares that I skipped. I was planning to do it first, but now was the time to do the Stormlight Archive. So you will eventually see a book set on a planet in the same solar system. You could just pick out in the sky of Roshar if you were watching when ..., and it may even get mentioned because it's a fairly close planet. 17TH SHARDIs that on Divine Silence? BRANDON SANDERSONSilence Divine happens there. Definitely not as direct as I remembered, but still could fit. Then again so could a nearby moon or something. Just thought I would throw it out there, help add something because I agree, I think Taln's Scar will be something more than just an aesthetic description in the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leuthie Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 Isn't this like reading a story set on Earth and speculating on the importance of the constellation of Orion to the story? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windrunner Posted April 1, 2013 Report Share Posted April 1, 2013 That's basically how I see it as well Leuthie. Elwyn, The way I read that quote is as, "If you were on Roshar you could pick it out of the sky if you were..." As far as we know, it did not end up getting that mention. Brandon said elsewhere that he considered possibly including the name of the planet in TWoK, but no one's been able to find it thus far. I don't think the Silence Divine world would be a part of a constellation though. Planets move all over the place in the night sky, they don't get put into constellations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nepene Posted April 2, 2013 Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 Isn't this like reading a story set on Earth and speculating on the importance of the constellation of Orion to the story? It's like doing that in a story where Orion, the real Orion, is a magical man who we meet several times. I don't see any harm in this being worldbuilding or magic. I'm not gonna find the magic in his books dull if these stars turn out to be magical, I'm not going to hate him if it's just another pretty passage describing the world. It is a longshot that this is anything weird. They probably are just stars. But I see no harm in them being stars or not. On it being a planet, it was described as a swathe of things, not as a singular Mars like red planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leuthie Posted April 2, 2013 Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 It's like doing that in a story where Orion, the real Orion, is a magical man who we meet several times. True. However, if Orion himself walked into my house right now, I'd still see the constellation Orion as a collection of stars with no.connection to Orion except for someone deciding to name it after him. Pretty sue Taln's Scar is in the book only to show one of the many ways the Heralds are remembered and permeate the culture. Nothing more. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worldhopper Posted April 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 True. However, if Orion himself walked into my house right now, I'd still see the constellation Orion as a collection of stars with no.connection to Orion except for someone deciding to name it after him. Pretty sue Taln's Scar is in the book only to show one of the many ways the Heralds are remembered and permeate the culture. Nothing more. But can you say that your 100% certain of that? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nepene Posted April 2, 2013 Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 True. However, if Orion himself walked into my house right now, I'd still see the constellation Orion as a collection of stars with no.connection to Orion except for someone deciding to name it after him. Pretty sue Taln's Scar is in the book only to show one of the many ways the Heralds are remembered and permeate the culture. Nothing more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=J8Jv4LZBqtI#t=76s You might be surprised then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leuthie Posted April 2, 2013 Report Share Posted April 2, 2013 I'm speculating too. Speculating that the constellation is a group of stars and gas that the people of.Roshar have name after one of their gods. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isomere Posted April 21, 2013 Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 I've always assumed it correlates to our Milky Way and can tell us something about the way their Galaxy works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyman Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 I've always assumed it correlates to our Milky Way and can tell us something about the way their Galaxy works. It's an interesting idea, but I'm pretty sure the Cosmere is a truly alternate world with no connection to Earth whatsoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senor Feesh Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 True, but that doesn't discount the possibility that the observed constellation Taln's scar is visually similar (and therefore possibly exists as a similar phenomenon) as the Milky Way as observed from areas of low light-pollution on Earth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyman Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 True, but that doesn't discount the possibility that the observed constellation Taln's scar is visually similar (and therefore possibly exists as a similar phenomenon) as the Milky Way as observed from areas of low light-pollution on Earth. So Taln's scar is another section of the galaxy they are in which is far enough way that individual stars can't be easily told apart, but close enough it's not another galaxy? Those tend to exist primarily in spiral galaxies. Not sure what that means for the Cosmere. Possible, I suppose. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KChan Posted April 27, 2013 Report Share Posted April 27, 2013 I'm with Windy and Leuthie on this. One of the best things about Brandon's worldbuilding is all of the little touches he adds in that really make the worlds he writes come alive. It would be boring if everything he includes were a direct result of some sort of magic. Taln's Scar is probably just a cool constellation visible from Roshar that they named after one of the Heralds. If it has any connection to the planet from Silence Divine, I'm guessing that we'll see a character from that book observing the same constellation, but calling it something different. Just like how if I read any other Cosmere book and saw mention of a starbelt, I would assume that the story takes place in a nearby part of the galaxy to Scadrial. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windrunner Posted April 27, 2013 Report Share Posted April 27, 2013 Oooooh. Now I love the idea of someone from Silence Divine seeing Taln's Scar. That's amazing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shivertongue Posted May 1, 2013 Report Share Posted May 1, 2013 It's a bunch of stars that happen to form a shape. Go outside yourself, tonight; if you're lucky enough to be able to see stars, you can probably find some shapes among them. I do it every summer when I got to northern Wisconsin, where the sky is so clear the night is absolutely filled with stars. As I'm fond of saying, not everything has to have magic attached to it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comatose Posted May 1, 2013 Report Share Posted May 1, 2013 I'm more interested in what the implications are that such a cluster of red stars exists, rather than their mythological implications. Red stars are usually red giants, stars whose Hydrogen cores have been used up, and are now rapidly expanding (sorry if that's a horrible way of explaining it, I've only taken a first year university Astronomy class; Astronomy buffs, feel free to correct me). This means that, somewhere in the Cosmere, there are a lot of stars clustered together, perhaps some with solar systems, that are in the process of dying, and are likely going to take any potential solar systems they might have with them. I'm not sure Taln's Scar has anything to do with Taln himself other than his name, but a bunch of stars dying within the same neighborhood of one another might be an indication of some sort of shardic interference. This is all speculation of course, but it is something I thought I'd point out. On the general theme of the topic, I've always appreciated Brandon's ability to combine a worlds 'science' and culture so that they have interactions, both literal and perceived, and that the perceptions Brandon's different cultures have of their world's sciences or magics can be both accurate and horribly wrong at the same time. The trick, I think, is finding the truth that is hidden there by looking at what cultural or pseudo-scientific camouflage is being used to hide it. Take Mistborn for example. Culturally, mistborn are viewed as killing machine assassins, especially when using atium. However, we discover later that, despite the Kandra theology that men are of ruin and kandra are of preservation, that one of the magics of man, allomancy, is linked to Preservation. The cultural perception of mistborn then becomes representative of the work Ruin has been doing in twisting his and Preservation's creations down the path towards distruction. Furthermore, while the Kandra are created through Hemalurgy, and thus scientifically more of Ruin than Preservation, culturally they are still able to be of Preservation because of their actions. Interesting to take note of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khmauv Posted May 21, 2013 Report Share Posted May 21, 2013 I agree with many of you that the existence of the constellation is less magical and more cultural. However, I wouldn't put it past Brandon to have placed this not to bring attention to the stars but the scar. What if it is the scar that is of importance. Why would a scar on a Herald be so important that it constitutes naming a constellation after it. Was it just a prominent mark that we can use to identify Taln in future books? Or was something out of the ordinary done to Taln to give him the scar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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