Rosharan Calendar and Character Ages

[Delightful Dragon]

So according to the Coppermind Wiki http://coppermind.net/wiki/Roshar#Calendar (I don't know the original source), a Rosharan year has around 500 days. We know earth years only have 365 days in comparison.

 

That makes Rosharan 19-year-old Kaladin equivalently aged to a  26 year old earthling.

and 35 year-old Jasnah = 48 earth-years old.

and Dalinar who's, what, 50 or so, is actually 68.

 

Which really kinda ruins your image of the characters.

 

I'm wondering if: 

a) Rosharans have a longer life-span and take longer to grow up so its roughly equivalent to earth years.

or

b )We're supposed to take ages as they would be on earth, so we pretend 19 Rosharan years = 19 Earth years.

 

I'm not sure I quite like either option. What do you all think?

Edited January 25, 2014 by Delightful

[Who Sharded? Oldblood]

Hmm...maybe they age more slowly?  I can't see Dalinar fighting at 68, and Jasnah is past child bearing age (for those who care about marriages).

[WeiryWriter Prime]

I believe the days have different lengths as well.  I think we have a WoB about how Rosharan years are only 1.1 Earth years long.

[ccstat Savant]

Weiry is right. The days are only 20 hours long, not 24, so a 500 day Rosharan year is only 1.1 earth years. So the ages given in the books are actually very close to what you would envision.

 

Edit: Is there a reason this info isn't on the wiki page? I assume we have the relevant WoB citations to reference.

Edited January 25, 2014 by ccstat

[Aether Listener]

So according to the Coppermind Wiki http://coppermind.net/wiki/Roshar#Calendar (I don't know the original source), a Rosharan year has around 500 days. We know earth years only have 365 days in comparison.

 

That makes Rosharan 19-year-old Kaladin equivalently aged to a  26 year old earthling.

and 35 year-old Jasnah = 48 earth-years old.

and Dalinar who's, what, 50 or so, is actually 68.

As Weiry and ccstat says, you're exaggerating the length of a Rosharan year by quite a bit. I did the full calculation for Kaladin here. Since we havan't been given the exact length of a Rosharan hour ("one or two minutes shorter than an Earth hour"), we cannot precisely calculate the length of a Rosharan year, but it is somewhere between 1,1 and 1,2 Earth years, but more commonly stated as being 1,1 Earth years (unless there is a WoB somewhere canonizing this at 1,1). By using these numbers, we get (if 1,1 is canonized, then feel free to ignore the second numbers):

• Kaladin is born in 1154 EoS (Era of Solitude) and is 19 by the end (year 1173 EoS) of the Way of Kings, which is around 21 (between 20,9 and 22,8) in Earth years.
• Shallan is one year his junior, and is 18, which is also around 21 years old (between 19,8 and 21,6).
• Jasnah is born in 1139 EoS and is actually 34 by the end of the Way of Kings, which is somewhere between 38 and 41 in Earth years.
• Dalinar is born in 1123 EoS and is somewhere between 55 and 60.
• Navani is born in the same year as Dalinar, so she's around the same age.
• Elhokar is 26, so between 28(,6) and 31(,2) Earth years old.

I might add some more later.

EDIT: We now have WoP that a Rosharan year is in fact 1,1 Earth years.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Aether

[PeterAhlstrom Sliver]

Navani is 3 months older than Dalinar. Shallan is 17 at the end of the first book. Kaladin is actually 20 by the end of the the first book, but he forgot his birthday. A Roshar year is 1.1 Earth years.

[Aether Listener]

Navani is 3 months older than Dalinar. Shallan is 17 at the end of the first book. Kaladin is actually 20 by the end of the the first book, but he forgot his birthday. A Roshar year is 1.1 Earth years.

O_o! Thanks, Peter! That simplifies it!

[Maresia Hazekiller]

if its 1.1 the year relation, and roshar have 500 days, then every day have like 17:52 hs a day, or 18:00. No?

 

edit:  earth hours

 

edit2: 19,27 earth hours, or 19:15

 

edit3: nvm, didnt read the link

Edited January 25, 2014 by Maresia

[cem Arbiter]

Navani is 3 months older than Dalinar. Shallan is 17 at the end of the first book. Kaladin is actually 20 by the end of the the first book, but he forgot his birthday. A Roshar year is 1.1 Earth years.

Can you give us the birthdates of some major characters? From what you're saying, it seems like Kaladin and Shallan were born in 1153 and 1156 respectively, but right now we have them in 1154 and 1155 at the Coppermind. We probably got others wrong as well. It'd be great to have official confirmation.

[Meg Gyorn]

I'm under the impression that the end of TWoK is already in 1174 .

edit: Reconsidering this I don't think so any more.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Meg

[Windrunner Dawnsinger]

I disagree with that. The book ends right after the end of the Battle of the Tower, which is in 1173. Also, no Weeping happened, so it can't be the end of the year.

[Meg Gyorn]

You're right. See my edit.

[WeiryWriter Prime]

Also WoR spoilers:

The epigraphs from WoR are dated Jeseses 1174 which is the first day of the year, and its talking about WoR events as the past.

[Meg Gyorn]

Some 'future' timeline thoughts.

62 days = 12 weeks and 2 days

Navani says: "The last two months."

2 months = 20 weeks = 100 days

(which is more than 62)

I think the 62 days are part of the 2 months which were the ninth and tenth month in 1173. This could mean that the Weeping 1173/1174 happens 28 or less days posterior to the deadline of the 62 days.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Battle of the Tower occurred within those two months, too.

[Cheese Ninja Arbiter]

There was actually an earlier statement by Peter in response to a question of mine about the length of the year that I originally linked to, but it's in the TimeWasterGuide's archives, and thus currently down.

 

Here's what I'm going with until we get further evidence. (That will most likely disprove some or all of it.)

WoR excerpt spoilers included.

1. Kaladin arrives on the Shattered Plains near the end of month 4/beginning of month 5, 1173. He has a few weeks of despondency, then an extremely busy two months as Bride Leader.
2. Hoid leaves Shattered Plains the first time and Taln arrives [1173-6-5-1]. (Exactly a thousand days after the first epigraph, "It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes.")
3. 3-4 weeks later, Hoid comes back to talk to Kaladin.
4. WoK ends on [1173-7-2-2]. (Date given for the Kaladin chasm leap epigraph.)
5. In the next couple weeks. Dalinar gets his message scratched on the walls for "62 days" closer to the middle of 7th month.
6. After the the "62 days" period has counted down to zero, Navani's "these last two months" period begins. Slightly before [1173-9-1-1].
7. The Weeping, the end of the year and beginning of the new one, with Jeseses and Navani's Journal Entry[1174-1-1-1] in the middle.

 

[Delightful Dragon]

As Weiry and ccstat says, you're exaggerating the length of a Rosharan year by quite a bit. I did the full calculation for Kaladin here. Since we havan't been given the exact length of a Rosharan hour ("one or two minutes shorter than an Earth hour"), we cannot precisely calculate the length of a Rosharan year, but it is somewhere between 1,1 and 1,2 Earth years, but more commonly stated as being 1,1 Earth years (unless there is a WoB somewhere canonizing this at 1,1). By using these numbers, we get (if 1,1 is canonized, then feel free to ignore the second numbers):

• Kaladin is born in 1154 EoS (Era of Solitude) and is 19 by the end (year 1173 EoS) of the Way of Kings, which is around 21 (between 20,9 and 22,8) in Earth years.
• Shallan is one year his junior, and is 18, which is also around 21 years old (between 19,8 and 21,6).
• Jasnah is born in 1139 EoS and is actually 34 by the end of the Way of Kings, which is somewhere between 38 and 41 in Earth years.
• Dalinar is born in 1123 EoS and is somewhere between 55 and 60.
• Navani is born in the same year as Dalinar, so she's around the same age.
• Elhokar is 26, so between 28(,6) and 31(,2) Earth years old.

I might add some more later.

EDIT: We now have WoP that a Rosharan year is in fact 1,1 Earth years.

I was getting much bigger numbers because I was going by amount of days in the year, I didn't know about the days being shorter. I'm glad Jasnah isn't actually 50 or Dalinar 70....that would just be way to weird.

How do we know the epigraphs relate to the events of WoK? They seem pretty vague to me.

EDIT: Kaladin forgot his birthday? :'( 

Edited January 26, 2014 by Delightful

[Cheese Ninja Arbiter]

We don't know that any of the dates in the epigraphs relate to the events of the story, it's a pretty big leap I'm making there.  Some of the things described in them relate to the story fairly easily, like the ones about Taln (burdens of nine become mine) and Shalash (the vandal scratches out her eyes).

 

I'm not trying to relate them all datewise, only the two of greatest relevance to us.  There aren't many good guesses for the "but a thousand days" thing to end on, so I went with Taln's arrival.  Obviously, life is still going on for most people as normal after this point, for one thing, there's plenty of death rattles recorded afterwards.  The epigraph describing Kaladin's chasm leap is the clearest of any of the epigraphs, but there's no great reason for it to be spoken on the day that it happened, it just happens to work with the other stuff I mentioned.  It's also odd because it's the only epigraph out of chronological order from the rest. (It's spoken the day after the epigraph from the following chapter.)

 

On the main topic, I actually had thought Jasnah was younger than that, and am a bit surprised to learn that she's actually 37-38 Earth years.  Szeth is 35 Roshar years, so 38-39 Earth years.  They are pretty much the same age.

[Swimmingly Knight Radiant]

We don't know that any of the dates in the epigraphs relate to the events of the story, it's a pretty big leap I'm making there.  Some of the things described in them relate to the story fairly easily, like the ones about Taln (burdens of nine become mine) and Shalash (the vandal scratches out her eyes).

 

I'm not trying to relate them all datewise, only the two of greatest relevance to us.  There aren't many good guesses for the "but a thousand days" thing to end on, so I went with Taln's arrival.  Obviously, life is still going on for most people as normal after this point, for one thing, there's plenty of death rattles recorded afterwards.  The epigraph describing Kaladin's chasm leap is the clearest of any of the epigraphs, but there's no great reason for it to be spoken on the day that it happened, it just happens to work with the other stuff I mentioned.  It's also odd because it's the only epigraph out of chronological order from the rest. (It's spoken the day after the epigraph from the following chapter.)

 

On the main topic, I actually had thought Jasnah was younger than that, and am a bit surprised to learn that she's actually 37-38 Earth years.  Szeth is 35 Roshar years, so 38-39 Earth years.  They are pretty much the same age.

I had an image of Jasnah as around 40-45