What Invasion and Occupation Plan Would the Unites States Military use to Fully Take Over Roshar?

[TheFlatScadrian]

Hello, everybody.

I recently read the Stormlight Archive for the first time (I know, I'm a tad late) and it's been a ride. I can honestly say it's the best high fantasy series I've ever read.

But an impertinent, irrelevant question has continued to form in my mind the longer I read. Could the U.S. Military take this place over? 

(Yes, I am a huge nerd, why do you ask?)

I've seen threads discussing the logistical or technical aspects of similar ideas, but I wanted to tackle this topic from a new angle: a tactical one.

What invasion and occupation plan would the Unites States use to fully take over Roshar?

(And what would the timeline look like?)

My idea is to plan some sort of operation similar to Operation: Overlord or Operation: Downfall or even Operation: Desert Storm. Of course, there are some caveats:

1. The military has a "Spawn Point" in the ocean somewhere (We can discuss where) that all water and air-craft must enter Roshar from. Think of it as being an open, classical portal to Earth. 
2. The United States knows just enough, through espionage and covert surveillance, about Roshar to anticipate it, attack it, and have a broad-strokes occupation plan in place. Not "First Contact" but not "Perfect Awareness", either.
3. All Rosharan forces are available from any book, and, good or bad, are enemies until made friends. For the sake of simplicity we can assume this takes place in a landscape similar to the end of Oathbringer and during Rhythm of War.

There must be, for the sake of a fun discussion, a few handicaps as well:

1. No nuclear weapons, as that would be far too easy and make for a boring discussion.
2. No Shards, for the same reason.

So. What do we think?

(I've also linked the official 17th Shard Interactive Map of Roshar, for anyone interested: https://roshar.17thshard.com/#/en-US)

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

On 11/26/2025 at 10:28 PM, TheFlatScadrian said:

Hello, everybody.

I recently read the Stormlight Archive for the first time (I know, I'm a tad late) and it's been a ride. I can honestly say it's the best high fantasy series I've ever read.

But an impertinent, irrelevant question has continued to form in my mind the longer I read. Could the U.S. Military take this place over? 

(Yes, I am a huge nerd, why do you ask?)

I've seen threads discussing the logistical or technical aspects of similar ideas, but I wanted to tackle this topic from a new angle: a tactical one.

What invasion and occupation plan would the Unites States use to fully take over Roshar?

(And what would the timeline look like?)

My idea is to plan some sort of operation similar to Operation: Overlord or Operation: Downfall or even Operation: Desert Storm. Of course, there are some caveats:

1. The military has a "Spawn Point" in the ocean somewhere (We can discuss where) that all water and air-craft must enter Roshar from. Think of it as being an open, classical portal to Earth. 
2. The United States knows just enough, through espionage and covert surveillance, about Roshar to anticipate it, attack it, and have a broad-strokes occupation plan in place. Not "First Contact" but not "Perfect Awareness", either.
3. All Rosharan forces are available from any book, and, good or bad, are enemies until made friends. For the sake of simplicity we can assume this takes place in a landscape similar to the end of Oathbringer and during Rhythm of War.

There must be, for the sake of a fun discussion, a few handicaps as well:

1. No nuclear weapons, as that would be far too easy and make for a boring discussion.
2. No Shards, for the same reason.

So. What do we think?

(I've also linked the official 17th Shard Interactive Map of Roshar, for anyone interested: https://roshar.17thshard.com/#/en-US)

I honestly don't know, and I really hope someone answers this, but there are a couple of things:

1. It's really hard to use even simple missiles if people can fly up to them and send them back at you.

2. Bullets are literally just smaller arrows, and Radiants could heal pretty easily.

3. It's also pretty hard to use even simple missiles when your entire fleet is sunken into the ground and on fire.

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

My first thoughts: machine guns. Both to overwhelm Plate and to wipe out Radiants and use up their Stormlight quickly.

Also, explosive missiles of all kinds to put even more pressure on Plate that the Rosharans would use.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

On 11/26/2025 at 10:28 PM, TheFlatScadrian said:

Hello, everybody.

I recently read the Stormlight Archive for the first time (I know, I'm a tad late) and it's been a ride. I can honestly say it's the best high fantasy series I've ever read.

But an impertinent, irrelevant question has continued to form in my mind the longer I read. Could the U.S. Military take this place over? 

(Yes, I am a huge nerd, why do you ask?)

I've seen threads discussing the logistical or technical aspects of similar ideas, but I wanted to tackle this topic from a new angle: a tactical one.

What invasion and occupation plan would the Unites States use to fully take over Roshar?

(And what would the timeline look like?)

My idea is to plan some sort of operation similar to Operation: Overlord or Operation: Downfall or even Operation: Desert Storm. Of course, there are some caveats:

1. The military has a "Spawn Point" in the ocean somewhere (We can discuss where) that all water and air-craft must enter Roshar from. Think of it as being an open, classical portal to Earth. 
2. The United States knows just enough, through espionage and covert surveillance, about Roshar to anticipate it, attack it, and have a broad-strokes occupation plan in place. Not "First Contact" but not "Perfect Awareness", either.
3. All Rosharan forces are available from any book, and, good or bad, are enemies until made friends. For the sake of simplicity we can assume this takes place in a landscape similar to the end of Oathbringer and during Rhythm of War.

There must be, for the sake of a fun discussion, a few handicaps as well:

1. No nuclear weapons, as that would be far too easy and make for a boring discussion.
2. No Shards, for the same reason.

So. What do we think?

(I've also linked the official 17th Shard Interactive Map of Roshar, for anyone interested: https://roshar.17thshard.com/#/en-US)

2 minutes ago, Ookla the Kansan said:

My first thoughts: machine guns. Both to overwhelm Plate and to wipe out Radiants and use up their Stormlight quickly.

Also, explosive missiles of all kinds to put even more pressure on Plate that the Rosharans would use.

The question is, are they stupid enough to attack next to Dalinar or in a High storm?

 

Edit: but again, machine guns don't work if they're on fire or surrounded by plants.

Also, chasmfiends.

Edited November 29, 2025 by Ookla the Hoppy

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

4 minutes ago, Ookla the Hoppy said:

The question is, are they stupid enough to attack next to Dalinar or in a High storm?

 

Edit: but again, machine guns don't work if they're on fire or surrounded by plants.

Also, chasmfiends.

Chasmfiends have tough skin, but we have yet to see how they fare against advanced weaponry.

This is true. It depends largely, I suppose, on who reacts first. Also, ground mines

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Kansan said:

Also, ground mines

Windrunners.

Stonewards.

Edited November 29, 2025 by Ookla the Hoppy

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

I kinda feel like magic > no magic

like, rosharans can do some funky stuff

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Hoppy said:

Windrunners.

Stonewards.

Ground mines would specifically block against Stonewards and Dustbringers, who I would be most worried about in this instance for the ability to hide and move under the ground.

I would also consider the transportation abilities of Lightweavers and Elsecallers, but I think that's just dealing with them when they appear

Windrunners are super visible. Hail of fire could take care of them.

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

I’m still with Roshar I mean like missles but like just lash the missles back towards the us

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

Just now, Ookla The Vessel Of Honor said:

I’m still with Roshar I mean like missles but like just lash the missles back towards the us

How do you propose to do that without getting blown up

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

Just now, Ookla the Kansan said:

How do you propose to do that without getting blown up

Um like fly up and touch them and lash them

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

Just now, Ookla The Vessel Of Honor said:

Um like fly up and touch them and lash them

Manual detonation or hypersensitivity

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

Just now, Ookla the Kansan said:

Manual detonation or hypersensitivity

Don’t know what that means, you’ve seen Ironman right? Just have them do that

[Akimikoisthecutest]

I would use lashings to sink their ships. Just lash them down.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

FIRE!!!!

1 hour ago, Ookla the Kansan said:

Ground mines would specifically block against Stonewards and Dustbringers, who I would be most worried about in this instance for the ability to hide and move under the ground.

I would also consider the transportation abilities of Lightweavers and Elsecallers, but I think that's just dealing with them when they appear

Windrunners are super visible. Hail of fire could take care of them.

Stonewards could make the mines sink.

It's pretty hard to hit something that's coming straight down at you.

[Argenti he/him]

Honestly, it would be really easy for the modern US military to take over Roshar. Other than Radiants, fused, and Shardblades, Rosharans have no way to attack a plane, or tank. 

Presumbly, they'd bomb major cities first. That's common practice, which would seriously mess up the flow of goods for roshar.

The Us military has two massive benefit over the rosharan one- logistics and aluminum. 

"oh, but rosharans can teleport" one mights say. Through ten, easily findable and one central, bombable place. We saw how the fused were able to overtake oathgates- whose to say the us can't just carpet bomb it into nothing? Windrunners would struggle to be at every place at once, and our ships and land vehicles can go so much faster than rosharan ones.  Once you cripple Urithiru or the oathgates, they're dead in the water. No more movement of people, except by small parties or giant slow moving aircraft. 

The second, funnier problem is the fact that a lot of modern everything is made from aluminum. The investiture immune metal. Now whether the exact alloy the US military uses has all of aluminum powers is unknown, but for the sake of argument, that's by far the funniest. 

I'd guess that bombs and gas weapons burn through stormlight pretty well.


There are not that many radiant, frankly. There are 50 Windrunners (300 including Squires) and they're the most populous order by far (Perhaps excluding the skybreakers). Knowing that windruners get double the amount of squires as other orders, there is at most 122.5 (250/2* 49) on average per order. Probably less. There's something to the magintude of 1282 radiants in the world. 

There are more fused than this in the world. I'd warrant a 3:1 ratio sounds good? So that's ~5000 invested healers in the world. 

5000 people will not be able to protect a world. 

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

27 minutes ago, Ookla The Silver said:

Presumbly, they'd bomb major cities first. That's common practice, which would seriously mess up the flow of goods for roshar.

The Us military has two massive benefit over the rosharan one- logistics and aluminum. 

"oh, but rosharans can teleport" one mights say. Through ten, easily findable and one central, bombable place. We saw how the fused were able to overtake oathgates- whose to say the us can't just carpet bomb it into nothing? Windrunners would struggle to be at every place at once, and our ships and land vehicles can go so much faster than rosharan ones.  Once you cripple Urithiru or the oathgates, they're dead in the water. No more movement of people, except by small parties or giant slow moving aircraft. 

The second, funnier problem is the fact that a lot of modern everything is made from aluminum. The investiture immune metal. Now whether the exact alloy the US military uses has all of aluminum powers is unknown, but for the sake of argument, that's by far the funniest. 

I'd guess that bombs and gas weapons burn through stormlight pretty well.


There are not that many radiant, frankly. There are 50 Windrunners (300 including Squires) and they're the most populous order by far (Perhaps excluding the skybreakers). Knowing that windruners get double the amount of squires as other orders, there is at most 122.5 (250/2* 49) on average per order. Probably less. There's something to the magintude of 1282 radiants in the world. 

There are more fused than this in the world. I'd warrant a 3:1 ratio sounds good? So that's ~5000 invested healers in the world. 

5000 people will not be able to protect a world. 

Yes. The U.S. could maybe take Roshar.

 

 

But.

That's not what the question was asking.

Quote

The military has a "Spawn Point" in the ocean somewhere (We can discuss where) that all water and air-craft must enter Roshar from. Think of it as being an open, classical portal to Earth. 

The U.S. isn't invading Roshar.

The U.S. is invading Roshar from an island in the ocean.

 

And it's a lot easier to burn an island than to burn a country.

Edited November 29, 2025 by Ookla the Hoppy

[Argenti he/him]

28 minutes ago, Ookla the Hoppy said:

Yes. The U.S. could maybe take Roshar.

 

 

But.

That's not what the question was asking.

The U.S. isn't invading Roshar.

The U.S. is invading Roshar from an island in the ocean.

 

And it's a lot easier to burn an island than to burn a country.

There is no island. There is a portal- presumably on the open water. 

Damn hard to burn water.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

1 minute ago, Ookla The Silver said:

There is no island. There is a portal- presumably on the open water. 

Damn hard to burn water.

It's pretty hard to use tanks or shoot guns from water.

You don't have to burn the water, you just have to burn the stuff coming onto the water. 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

15 minutes ago, Ookla The Silver said:

There is no island. There is a portal- presumably on the open water. 

Damn hard to burn water.

GREEK FIRE

sorry i had to say it

i frigging love greek fire

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

2 minutes ago, Ookla the Dokja said:

GREEK FIRE

sorry i had to say it

i frigging love greek fire

What if

What if 

What if

You soulcasted the ocean into fire?

Dalinar's perpendicularity might let the realms be close enough for some determined Soulcasters to change a small sea into fire.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

Just now, Ookla the Hoppy said:

What if

What if 

What if

You soulcasted the ocean into fire?

Dalinar's perpendicularity might let the realms be close enough for some determined Soulcasters to change a small sea into fire.

But the fires would be extinguished when the rest of the ocean tumbled in

[Argenti he/him]

15 minutes ago, Ookla the Hoppy said:

It's pretty hard to use tanks or shoot guns from water.

You don't have to burn the water, you just have to burn the stuff coming onto the water. 

You are not invading the water, though. Aircraft carriers are a hell of a drug.

How exactly do the radiants burn stuff coming through the portal? Windrunners can't just sit there. I suppose you could put bridge 4 or whatever there, but that's again, so easy to destroy. Maybe a Fused with a soulcaster? 

Just now, Ookla the Hoppy said:

What if

What if 

What if

You soulcasted the ocean into fire?

Dalinar's perpendicularity might let the realms be close enough for some determined Soulcasters to change a small sea into fire.

That would be great for all of 5 seconds before the fire goes out.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

3 minutes ago, Ookla The Silver said:

You are not invading the water, though. Aircraft carriers are a hell of a drug.

How exactly do the radiants burn stuff coming through the portal? Windrunners can't just sit there. I suppose you could put bridge 4 or whatever there, but that's again, so easy to destroy. Maybe a Fused with a soulcaster? 

That would be great for all of 5 seconds before the fire goes out.

Exactly.

Those 5 seconds would be great.

Why couldn't the Skybreakers just sit there?

6 minutes ago, Ookla the Tachyon said:

But the fires would be extinguished when the rest of the ocean tumbled in

Let me have my fun

[Argenti he/him]

6 minutes ago, Ookla the Hoppy said:

Exactly.

Those 5 seconds would be great.

Why couldn't the Skybreakers just sit there?

Investiture. 
The perp can not stay open forever.