On What Year 0 is

[Firesong she/her]

I have been thinking a bit recently about what exactly year 0 is on the Rosharan calendar (at least the Vorin one). I came to several theories but none of them work, which leaves me confused. 

1. It is when the Recreance Happened: No, we know that was around 2000 years ago, so around -830. 
2. It is the Hierocracy: No, that was around 673
3. It is when Honor Died: That was only shortly after the Recreance. I wouldn't call around 1000 years after "shortly". 
4. It is when Sadees unified Alethkar: Obviously not given that they said he was 500 years ago, and he was also around the time of the Hierocracy. 
5.  Something to do with Nohadon: He was Pre-Aharietiam
6. Something to do with the Oldbloods: They are heavily implied to be Pre-Recreance. Given they claimed their authority due to connection to the the Knights Radiant, and didn't like bringing that up after the Recreance due to the reputation of the Knights becoming deeply soured. So it implies they held authority before it. 
7. The Kholin Unification: Obviously not for reasons too obvious to mention.
8. Something with BAM: BAM was sealed away in the False Desolation, which was before the Recreance
9. Fall of the Silver Kingdoms: They were at least very fragile after Aharietiam and the start of the Era of Solitude, and are implied to have been a thing until the Recreance. But I just don't believe they would continue even further to year 0
10. The Expulsion: As shown by everything else mentioned, this is way before year 0. 

Those are the 10 that I could think of (yes, I did 10 on purpose). 

Anything you all can think of that could explain what is used as year 0? Maybe it is some historical event or myth that we don't know yet. I am very curious about this, as it is always very interesting to see what different cultures see as their first year, and what they base that upon. 

[KaladinWorldsinger]

Well it is the Vorin Calender, which means that whatever happened was important to vorinism in particular. The only thing I can think of is the five Vorin nations were established or something. Or the five made a coalition based on their religious commonality and decided on a calender. And since they were very powerful kingdoms, the rest of the world was stuck with it.

Sadly, there is a wob where Brandon admits he doesn't remember, so probably unimportant.

Interestingly, Hoid mentions that he hadn't seen rayse in 'over a thousand years'. The only thing that happened during that time was the creation of the Vorin Calender. Who knows?

 

 

 

[Treamayne]

If you have not yet done so, you might also want to check these blog posts:

Oathbringer Timeline

Roshar's Date System

[Firesong she/her]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

If you have not yet done so, you might also want to check these blog posts:

Oathbringer Timeline

Roshar's Date System

Sadly, those don't help at all. They only show timing of some events that happened during the books. 

[Frustration he/him]

Most early calendars were based around when a monarch took the throne, and when more accurate calendars were introduced they often stayed on the same year system, but just kept counting, so year 0 was probably the year some monarch took the throne in the nation that developed the modern Vorin Calendar.

[alder24]

11 hours ago, Firesong said:

I have been thinking a bit recently about what exactly year 0 is on the Rosharan calendar (at least the Vorin one). I came to several theories but none of them work, which leaves me confused. 

1. It is when the Recreance Happened: No, we know that was around 2000 years ago, so around -830. 
2. It is the Hierocracy: No, that was around 673
3. It is when Honor Died: That was only shortly after the Recreance. I wouldn't call around 1000 years after "shortly". 
4. It is when Sadees unified Alethkar: Obviously not given that they said he was 500 years ago, and he was also around the time of the Hierocracy. 
5.  Something to do with Nohadon: He was Pre-Aharietiam
6. Something to do with the Oldbloods: They are heavily implied to be Pre-Recreance. Given they claimed their authority due to connection to the the Knights Radiant, and didn't like bringing that up after the Recreance due to the reputation of the Knights becoming deeply soured. So it implies they held authority before it. 
7. The Kholin Unification: Obviously not for reasons too obvious to mention.
8. Something with BAM: BAM was sealed away in the False Desolation, which was before the Recreance
9. Fall of the Silver Kingdoms: They were at least very fragile after Aharietiam and the start of the Era of Solitude, and are implied to have been a thing until the Recreance. But I just don't believe they would continue even further to year 0
10. The Expulsion: As shown by everything else mentioned, this is way before year 0. 

Those are the 10 that I could think of (yes, I did 10 on purpose). 

Anything you all can think of that could explain what is used as year 0? Maybe it is some historical event or myth that we don't know yet. I am very curious about this, as it is always very interesting to see what different cultures see as their first year, and what they base that upon. 

Scouring of Aimia or something really boring - somebody made a new, cool calendar and that's year 0. It's very likely that other nations like Azir, Iri or Shinovar have their own calendar and their own year 0, different from Vorin's one. Most likely it was some kind of Schism that created the Thaylen section of Vorinism or something that gave fundations to what's later became Hierocracy.

Quote

At some point, a scouring occurred at Aimia, however, what exactly occurred, and why, is unknown. While the exact time is uncertain, it occurred after the Recreance^[4][12] but longer than four hundred years before the Everstorm's arrival.^[36] Axies the Collector recalls it being fairly recent,^[14] while Nikli recounts it as being many generations ago.^[12]

[ΨιτιsτηεΒέsτ he/him]

True, the year zero could just be when the Vorins actually got around to making a calendar, and they decided to start where they were.

[Firesong she/her]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

Scouring of Aimia or something really boring - somebody made a new, cool calendar and that's year 0. It's very likely that other nations like Azir, Iri or Shinovar have their own calendar and their own year 0, different from Vorin's one. Most likely it was some kind of Schism that created the Thaylen section of Vorinism or something that gave fundations to what's later became Hierocracy.

Hmmm... probably, someone should ask Brandon to try and slip that information in somewhere in SA5 or something so we can canonize it, as I fee the year 0/1 on the calendar is some pretty important information to fill in the timeline.