Chronology

[Elwynn]

Nitpicking here, rotation would be the length of the day. A Roshar day is 4/5 of an Earth day.  The time it takes for a planet to make a full revolution around its star is the length of its year. (For us at least, Roshar 500 day year length might be caused artificial means, Weepings are too consistent to be entirely natural.) (Roshar year ≈ 1.1 Earth years)

 

No worries, you just reiterated exactly what I said.    I was actually talking about their days being like 20 hours and their hours a couple minutes short of ours, Then went ahead and confused it all by refering to it being different from our year.

 

But you're definitely right, I used to think something was wrong with Roshar's calendar, but you can't deny the weepings are like clockwork. Would give them a solid starting point.

[Meg]

That question about how much time went by from Kaladin's arrival at the Shattered Plains to Chapter 75 doesn't let go off me (without counting the flashback sequences, the prologue, Chapter 1 and the Epilogue, and also excluding the Interludes but not Szeth'). 

 

I've thought about this question and I (though I hate doing such things) tried to make an overview (but the result* maybe a bit confusing for everybody but myself ). 

 

And I was hinted at the following quote from TWoK: 

 

 

(Adolin) “In the last few months, my father’s saved not only Sadeas’s life, but that of the king himself.

 

 

This comes from Chapter 58. Dalinar saved Sadeas in Chapter 56 (not far ago), but: Dalinar saved Elhokar's life in Chapter 13 (which is the same day as Chapter 12 and 15). So that chasmfiend-hunt had been "a few months" prior to Chapter 58. 

 

I'm persuaded that the time for all characters runs parallel. I'm also persuaded -- without any evidence again  -- that the highstorm that occurs in Chapter 11 is the same highstorm that is mentioned in Chapter 12, so it's the point in time shared by all characters in TWoK. 

 

In my previous post I tried to show that Kaladin spent at least two month on the Shattered Plains. Given the additional information from Adolin in Chapter 58 that is not enough time. IMHO the time span I'm thinking about is 2,5 months to 3, perhaps 3,5 months, but not more. And I believe that we accompanied all characters in this time. 

 

Is this understandable? 

 

And: That there is sort of a chronology in the chapters is seen with the assassination of the Veden king. It happens in I-9 and Navani tells Dalinar in Chapter 61 that she just heard it that day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

there are 3 lines for each chapter:

1. line means i.e. "5 years ago"

2. line means i.e. for Chapter 1 "47/51" -> Ch 1 == Ch 47 == Ch 51 (same day)

3. line means i.e. 5 + 5 days (5 days after Chapter 5)

And I've done some random notes around

[Isomere]

Has Brandon ever confirmed that a "year" on Roshar is 1 rotation around their sun? They just seem to refer to the Weeping to measure years, and I am not at all convinced that is based on the revolutions of the planet.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Has Brandon ever confirmed that a "year" on Roshar is 1 rotation around their sun? They just seem to refer to the Weeping to measure years, and I am not at all convinced that is based on the revolutions of the planet.

I think it would be kinda pointless to redefine what a year is unless there's a darn good reason for it.

[WeiryWriter]

Has Brandon ever confirmed that a "year" on Roshar is 1 rotation around their sun? They just seem to refer to the Weeping to measure years, and I am not at all convinced that is based on the revolutions of the planet.

 

Not to be nit-picky but rotation is the wrong word, revolution is (which you also used).  Rotation is the time it takes a body to complete one turn on its axil, a revolution is the time it takes a body to complete an orbit.

 

Anyways, a year is one revolution, no matter where one is.  I just don't see Brandon changing that, it would feel wrong.

[Cheese Ninja]

But it's also true that we haven't been explicitedly told that one Roshar year = one revolution of Roshar around their sun.

 

The most straightforward evidence we see of Earth's revolution around the Sun is the seasons (also evidence of axial tilt), but on Roshar that doesn't seem applicable.  Roshar seasons are really wierd lasting only weeks at a time and switching back and forth, it's possible that Shinovar has normal seasons, but Peter has already wrote "You're assuming Shinovar has seasons." earlier in this thread, so I wouldn't think that it does.

 

Roshar years are 500 days, and the beginning is marked with the Weeping, if there's no axial tilt, there will never be major climatic differences throughout the planet's revolution, so the planetary revolution could be of any length, and completely independent of the 500 day year.

 

Back to the main point, Meg pointed out a line of Adolin's from chapter 58 "In the last few months, my father’s saved not only Sadeas’s life, but that of the king himself." But that line doesn't necessarily mean that he saved Elhokar a few months ago, it's just a range of time.  It would also be correct to say "In the last year" or "In the last few years".  He's in a fairly relaxed social setting, and trying to make that point that his father is both competent and honorable.

 

I'm not willing to go past 3 months of time, and would rather keep it at or under 2 months.  Also in chapter 58, on the same day, Dalinar refers to chapter 18 as "several weeks ago" and in chapter 18 the Chasmfiend hunt is referred to as "last week".

[Meg]

At first I want to point out that I don't know about physics and rotations and revolutions and these things. My personal question isn't the comparison between Rosharian minutes/hours/days/years and our own. I take the measurements given in the book as *is* and don't think about similarities or differences to our real life measurements. 

 

Aside from this: I don't have any more evidences about my "timeline" than you have, CheeseNinja.

 

I've tried to work through TWoK -- as I said in a former posting -- from another perspective than you. And, until probably someday there is WoB about the timeline (we can still hope ), I'd say we stay with our conclusions.  

If somebody other than the both of us has more ideas, hopefully (s)he tells us. 

Until that I'll stay with my conclusion that from Chapter 2 to 75 it's more than 2,5 Rosharian months (more likely around 3,5 Rosharian months). (No harm meant )

 

 

 

 

[happyman]

I actually think that a good argument could be made for the year being the time between weepings, rather than the planetary location with respect to the sun.  The main reason most people care about the seasons on Earth is the weather---most places change weather at least a little bit with the seasons, and very practical needs (like planting and harvesting) follow.  The weepings would be far more obvious to people on Roshar than little details about where the sun rises, and in many ways would make a more natural calendar.

 

Put another way:  If the Weepings and the location of Roshar on its orbit around its sun are not correlated, I would expect the Weepings to win in terms of measuring time.  If they are correlated, then the whole argument is moot, and the two definitions of "year" are the same.