Hidden Things in Map of Roshar?

[CursoryShard]

Ok so a two similar ideas that are not answers and just take what people have already brought up. (1) Could he be hinting at the Cosmere following the debunk theory of Fractal Cosmology, a structured scale that is similar across different scales. So Roshar could actually take on the appearance of the Cosmere, just at different scales? So Shadesmar could be at another scale, smaller?, so travel time would be magnitudes less time consuming and the shape would be similar.

(2) This one is a little far out but fractals are common in turbulence which could be predicted through Chaos Theory using Strange Attractors. If you just google Strange Attractors you can find (probably because they have fractal structure) ones that look very similar to Roshar. Not sure where this one would make any sense.

[potato]

I posted this elsewhere because I didn't know this thread was around.

...

Crazy question/theory. Why is Roshar the shape of a storm? In WoR we saw floating islands. It looks like those islands appear to be part of the map of Roshar and of Shadesmar. So they look permanent. Does all of Roshar float? And in turn take the shape of the storm? Will it change now there are two storms

This would explain Purelake draining. Perhaps Honor was a Greatshell of immense proportions, originated at the Origin, and has moved/eroded since due to death and winds/rotation of the planet.

I know it's dumb and crazy, but I'm just throwing stuff at the wall here.

[Lomeon]

Could it be that highstorms used to travel west to east? This would explain the asymmetry of erosion causing more land in the east and less in the west, and also the peculiar construction of Urithiru's tower with the sheer, windowed facade on the stormward side, and the sloped, more aerodynamic side leeward.

 

My apologies if this has already been shot down.

[Scattered]

I think maybe it's just during Desolations that they travel from west to east, and being the place of the Heralds, who only pop up during Desolations, Urithiru was constructed to withstand those. That could still explain the asymmetry though, and possibly the hurricane shape of the entire continent.

[WeiryWriter]

I'm pretty sure I saw someone suggest that Roshar rotates in the opposite direction from Earth? (So the sun would rise in the West and set in the East).  It's not true:
 
 

Shallan found herself sweating in the cold air as the sun finally vanished beneath the western horizon.

It's really hard to interpret that any way except as the sun setting in the West, like on Earth.

[RShara]

It's also upside-down, so that the sun still rises in the "east" and sets in the "west"

[Crazy Mraize]

I'm still trying to think what mathematical concepts would be at play here. If its a spiral galaxy, I believe the oldest stars are close to the center, versus the newer stars. Perhaps it just suggest that the area around the Purelake was the initial landmass and that over time the storms have created the remaining landmass.

 

I've seen it two different ways, but aren't the storms more powerful in the east,and the crem distribution more abundant as well? Since it floats and has no tectonics, the initial storms perhaps blew into the central mass (Purelake area), and constantly rotated the landmass while adding crem, until it became as large as it is, so that overtime the rotation decreased to negligible levels and the storms just push the continent now? I'd assume its far too large now to actually rotate.

Edited April 9, 2014 by Crazy Mraize

[darkanimereal1]

It's also upside-down, so that the sun still rises in the "east" and sets in the "west"

 

If Roshar is upside-down, then it would be rotating clockwise (with regard to the sun--it'd still be rotating counter-clockwise with regard to its poles). But then the sun would still rise in the west, which it's not doing. (Unless they call "down" north? I don't know, that seems a little too far fetched.) Right? I could be visualizing this wrong. I was using a pen to try to imitate the rotation of Roshar and then figure out its orientation with regards to the sun, so I could have messed up somewhere.

 

I know a lot of people have mentioned this, but the rotation of the landmass is weird. If you look at a picture of a hurricane in the northern hemisphere (like Katrina), it rotates counter-clockwise. Roshar (the continent), however, also rotates counter-clockwise, despite being in the southern hemisphere. So there's something really weird going on there.

 

Also, I find it really strange that the highstorms are one gigantic wall (gigantic enough to cover at least half of the globe--the southern hemisphere--in one sweep) rather than being a swirling shape like a storm on Earth. I wonder what a highstorm would look like from a satellite image...

[LordAposno]

This map resembles two spiral galaxies merging. At least that is what I see when I see the map of Roshar. Sorry if this has been posted before, I did not see it on my quick search through the posts.

 

[masaru]

Could it be that highstorms used to travel west to east? This would explain the asymmetry of erosion causing more land in the east and less in the west, and also the peculiar construction of Urithiru's tower with the sheer, windowed facade on the stormward side, and the sloped, more aerodynamic side leeward.

 

My apologies if this has already been shot down.

 

I've been thinking that the orientation of Urithiru was on purpose and has to do with those outer gardens being a place to leave stuff for investing by the highstorm.

[RShara]

It also looks like our galactic core

Edited April 10, 2014 by RShara

[LordAposno]

Interesting thing about the Galaxy merger and the Galactic core, is that both have an immense gravity pull at the center. hmm.

[darkanimereal1]

Huh, this is probably completely unrelated, but I find it interesting that the idea of "immense gravitational pull" could apply to Roshar, which actually has a lower gravitational force than Earth.

[Baine]

It does kind of look like two galaxies merging.

 

Has anyone asked Brandon if Roshar has always been a single continent?

[Mikanium]

Finally something in this thread is getting a bit closer...

It was the puppies Peter, wasn't it.

[Grayv]

What if the highstorm didn't always go east to west?

[Sabrina Stormshard]

PETER is it one of:

 

fractals

tesselations

dragon curve

 

?

[Arin]

I am going to say this theory again, with hope Peter will chime in again.

We know from an interlude in WoR that some of the Reshi islands are greatshells.

We can see in a modern day map of Roshar that there are more islands compared to the Silver Kingdom map and the Shadesmar map.

Those new islands are part of the "spiral" part of Roshar.

My theory is that all of the Roshar land is a greatshell or a group of great shells.

And that land floats and forms into a storm pattern.

[batabab]

Like the Iroquois creation story.

http://www.crystalinks.com/iroquoiscreation.html

Edited April 11, 2014 by batabab

[Wherethewindgoes]

So we know five things for certain about this hidden thing:

 

-It can't be discovered solely by looking at the map.

-It requires math-related knowledge to figure out.

-It is related in some way to a spiral galaxy.

-It's not particularly important.

-It doesn't say anything about Roshar's future, but reveals something about its past.

 

With that in mind, I'm going to go through all the ideas proposed on the page Peter said people were getting closer and see if they fit what we know:

 

 

1. Roshar is slowly going down the drain.

 

This doesn't seem to have any mathematical aspect to it, and doesn't have to do with spiral galaxies. This could also be important to Roshar's future, so I would consider this one unlikely.

 

2. The mountains could be giant walls.

 

This isn't really math-related either, and doesn't have to do with galaxies. 

 

3. Roshar is somewhat symmetrical.

 

This evidently isn't the actual Easter Egg but it could be related (if the thing had to do with fractals or tessellations, for instance).

 

4. Roshar could be slowly moving west.

 

This doesn't seem related to math in any way, and doesn't have much to do with galaxies.

 

5. Roshar looks similar to certain fractals.

 

This is definitely math related, but I'm not sure what this would mean about the formation or history of the continent. Does anyone who knows more about fractals have any idea what it could mean>

 

6. Roshar looks like a hurricane, or two hurricanes colliding.

 

This doesn't really relate to math, but perhaps it has to do with the shape of the Highstorms and crem buildup?

 

7. Roshar could have started out as a small central landmass and spread out more and more.

 

This isn't really math-related either, although it has some relation to spiral galaxies in that they are formed similarly.

 

8. Roshar could be floating.

 

I'm not sure how this would relate to math or spiral galaxies.

 

9. Roshar could be a tessellation.

 

This is related to math, but I can't see how it could relate to the shape of a spiral galaxy.

 

 

 

So...hmmm. The only ideas that really seem plausible are that it relates in some way to fractals or tessellations. What this reveals about Roshar's past I have no idea.

 

I think we can say with certainty that this Easter Egg, whatever it is, has to be about the curved shape of the continent--that's what the person asked about when Brandon said they were on to something. Somehow, the shape is related to math and spiral galaxies.

 

Any thoughts?

Edited April 11, 2014 by Wherethewindgoes

[Shaggai]

So we know five things for certain about this hidden thing:

 

-It can't be discovered solely by looking at the map.

-It requires math-related knowledge to figure out.

-It is related in some way to a spiral galaxy.

-It's not particularly important.

-It doesn't say anything about Roshar's future, but reveals something about its past.

 

With that in mind, I'm going to go through all the ideas proposed on the page Peter said people were getting closer and see if they fit what we know:

 

 

1. Roshar is slowly going down the drain.

 

This doesn't seem to have any mathematical aspect to it, and doesn't have to do with spiral galaxies. This could also be important to Roshar's future, so I would consider this one unlikely.

Spiral galaxies are basically giant drains, though. Drains that lead into black holes.

[cris34b]

Hmm, so if its going down the drain... Perhaps it was once much bigger, maybe taking up the majority of the planet? After all, if you were a Shard and your planet was regularly hit by super hurricanes, would you make a large ocean, the majority of which could not be sailed on safely due to the storms? I wouldn't. But now at least one of the Shards is dead, and perhaps it is going down the drain just like the water in the Purelake. 

 

Perhaps Roshar, then, is just like the grass growing on it? Too much movement near it or on it and eventually it'll "WHOOMP" get sucked down into its little planet-sized Roshar hole.

[Aether]

Someone claimed on another Thread that the Rosharan continent is slowly turning into a gargantuan Aon. While this might have been a joke, could there in fact be something to it? Has we considered that the shape of Roshar, either its original one or the one it is slowly turning into, is intentional?

[Maffu17]

I think Peter meant we were getting closer with the picture of my dogs back.

 

Incidentally it's good to see Shinovar is shielded from the West.

[Arachiel]

Does anyone else think that Aimia seems more 'out-of-symmetry' than everything else on the map? Maybe connected to the superstition surrounding the Aimians?