Relating Roshar Races to Earth

[Kaazi he/him]

I'm probably not the first person to post this, and definitely not the first to wonder about it. But when reading the Stormlight Archive i constantly envision human characters as certain races and i just wanter to get a few other perspectives. I dont mean to be racist. This is just how i envision them

Roshar Race        Earth Nationality Equivalent

Alethi -------------- Egyptian

Unkalaki ----------- Irish

Herdazian --------- Mexican

Makabaki ---------- South African

Iriali -----------------  German

Thaylen ------------- Chinese

Shin ----------------- European

I know some of these may be odd. Please contribute your ideas. I would like to know how other people see roshar.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Kaazi

[Stormgate he/him]

I thought that Shin had large eyes, making them resemble children. Or am I thinking of something else?

Also, due to the fact that Horneaters and the Herdazians have Listener blood (not a whole lot, but enough to give Horneaters extra molars and aggressive digestive systems and Herdazians carapace fingernails) I don't think they are as relatable to Earth cultures. Although Herdazians are based on Mexicans.

[DreamEternal]

I thought that Shin had large eyes, making them resemble children. Or am I thinking of something else?

They are the only ones in Roshar without epicanthic(sp?) folds, making their eyes look bigger by comparison. Plus, none of the Rosharan peoples have an exact paralel on earth so this exercise is pointless in my opinion. Edited January 7, 2016 by DreamEternal

[Yata he/him]

The Shin are the most European people of Roshar.

[Shaukan-son-Hasweth he/him]

Well no.

You can't really find equivalents on earth. Horneaters do have an epiphanic fold (and dark skin?).

And herdazians have violet eyes and crystal fingernails.

PS: you listet nationalities. A black person can be german and a white one japanese.

But im shure you didn't want to imply something I just wanted to point it out.

[Kaazi he/him]

I'm just listing roshar races that have attributes similar to earth nationalities. I may be completely wrong. I appreciate the constructive critisism and i have changed it some.

[Michael Portz he/him]

I would just recommend the OP, to NOT do this; Shaukan-son-Hasweth is right, you are confusing nationalities with genetic inheritance. Being german myself I am not even close to understanding what you mean by "Iriali -----------------  German" and what the difference between a "European" and a "German" might be ...

 

Well no.
You can't really find equivalents on earth. Horneaters do have an epiphanic fold (and dark skin?).
And herdazians have violet eyes and crystal fingernails.


PS: you listet nationalities. A black person can be german and a white one japanese.
But im shure you didn't want to imply something I just wanted to point it out.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Atastor

[Kaazi he/him]

I'm doing this based on appearance that is shown in the books. iriali are described as pale skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair. I dont mean to be racist. But i was a little confused when i started this thread.

[DreamEternal]

I'm doing this based on appearance that is shown in the books. iriali are described as pale skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair. I dont mean to be racist. But i was a little confused when i started this thread.

Uh, that description is off. I am quite sure their hair is described as actualy being the actual color of metalic gold, not simply blond, and no character comments on they being universaly lighteyed when talking about other ruling systems in the West.

Plus, I don't remember anyone saying they had pale skin. The only explicitely pale peoples in Roshar I can remember are the Shin, Veden and Thaylen, not counting blue skinned folks and those I don't remember mentioned. And Iri is the northernmost nation in Roshar, which is in the South hemisphere.

Edited January 7, 2016 by DreamEternal

[natc]

Yeah, that's the one thing I definitely remember about Iriali. Their hair is literally metallic gold. Presumably shininess and all.

[Yata he/him]

Yeah, that's the one thing I definitely remember about Iriali. Their hair is literally metallic gold. Presumably shininess and all.

If I remember right, the Iriali as also the same Alethi's feature. Their hair show how much their blood is pure. Through different color.

[DreamEternal]

If I remember right, the Iriali as also the same Alethi's feature. Their hair show how much their blood is pure. Through different color.

I don't know about that. Red hair is show as the primary sign of Horneater and/or Veden descent and both of those peoples are generaly built very differently from the stereotypical alethi.

[Master_Moridin he/him]

On Roshar everyone except Shin have epicanthic folds, and even then Brandon's said they wouldn't really look "white".

 

Iriali are described as having gold hair and skin  (Though I don't think the skin is described as being the same kinda metallic gold the hair is.  Probably something like how we'd describe skin as "gold")

 

And Brandon has also said Alethi would to us look most like someone who's Hawaiian-Asian.

 

The Makabaki, Azish, and (by WoB) Alethi all have darker skin tones, with Azish being said to have a deep brown.

 

No one on Roshar really looks like anyone that's "European".  

Edited January 7, 2016 by Master_Moridin

[tobar14 he/him]

I always thought of the Unkalaki as Pacific Island type people, mostly because of the fact that the main Unkalai we know is named Rock (who is big and muscular), which reminds me of "The Rock", and he is descendant from Pacific Islanders I believe.

Edited January 7, 2016 by tobar14

[Stormgate he/him]

The cultures in Roshar and probably a lot of the Cosmere are based on Earth cultures, but Sanderson modified it. Horneaters are probably based on Hawaiian, especially with their names. Rock's name kinda looked like Hawaiian.

I just realized that Kaladin must have had a bit of trouble with Rock, remembering how Tien loved them. Complete ADD moment. There should be a tag for that...

[FeatherWriter she/her]

The Iriali also have a metalic gold glint to their skin, but it's harder to see than the hair. We also know that Iriali often paint their skin different colors.

 

A fair number of the golden-haired Iriali men went about wearing only waist wraps, their skin painted various colors and patterns. Even Axies’s tattoos weren’t that noteworthy here.

--Way of Kings, Interlude 5

 He was Iriali, though the grime darkened his skin and hair, both of which were golden. The skin less so—you needed the light to see it right—but the hair certainly.
--Words of Radiance, Interlude 2

[Botanica she/her]

So, there're basically thirteen races (or at least thirteen races so far, if you divide those cultures into more parts) on Roshar: the Alethi, the Vedens, the Unkalaki (aka the Horneaters), the Herdazians, the Thaylens, the Natan, the Makabaki, the Selay, the Iriali, the Shin, the Reshi, the Listeners and the Aimians.

 

A list of human races:

 

1. The Alethi (People of Alethkar)

1) Common features: tall stature, tan skin, black hair, lighteyes and darkeyes

2) Inspiration from Earth: Asian-Hawaiian people (You can imagine them as east-Indian people.) ^[source]

 

2. The Vedens (People of Jah Keved)

1) Common features: fair skin, red hair

2) Inspiration from Earth: Asian-Caucasian people (supposedly more Asian-like) ^[source]

 

3. The Unkalaki (People of the Horneater Peaks)

1) Common features: light tan skin (or just fair skin like the Vedens) (supposedly lighter than the Alethi), red hair, strong back molars to break shells and claws (result of Parshendi hybrids) ^[source]

2) Inspiration from Earth: Mongolian people, Polynesian people, Russian people ^[source]

 

Rock and his culture started Mongolian long, long ago. (98-99 era, when I first wrote him.) As Roshar in general (and the Alethi in specific) became more Asian in look and less Semitic (though they are still a mash-up) I decided to push Rock's people in the direction of a human/parsh hybrid strain. This also was part of moving Rock himself from Yolen to Roshar, following after Dalinar and some other characters, who came earlier during the original Dragonsteel/Stormlight split in the early 2000s.

 

These changes drove the Horneaters away from Mongolian influences, though I can't say specifically where the Polynesian/Russian mashup came from. I liked how it read, and felt the linguistics supported the accent. These changes, of course, had a domino effect that resulted in the Veden people gaining their occasional red hair and fair skin from Horneater relation, which means Shallan is part parshman--though the relation is distant at this point. / [Emphasis is mine.]

 

4. The Herdazians (People of Herdaz)

1) Common features: deep tan skin (supposedly darker than the Alethi), dark crystalline fingernails (result of Parshendi hybrids)

2) Inspiration from Earth: Hispanic people ^[source]

 

5. The Thaylens (People of Thaylenah)

1) Common features: long white eyebrows

2) Inspiration from Earth: unknown

 

6. The Natan (People of the former Natanatan)

1) Common features: pale bluish skin, wide nose, wool-like white hair ^{[WoK Ch.36]}

2) Inspiration from Earth: unknown

 

7. The Makabaki (People of the former Makabakam)

1) Common features: dark brown skin (or just dark skin), black hair ^{[WoK Ch.14]}

2) Inspiration from Earth: unknown

Notable races: The Azish, the Emuli and the Tukari (People of Azir, Emul and Tukar)

 

8. The Selay (People of the former Sela Tales)

1) Common features: skin ripples ^{[WoK Ch.52]}

2) Inspiration from Earth: unknown

Notable race: The Purelaker (People of the Purelake)

1) Common features: leathery skin, dark hair, long limbs ^{[WoR I-3]}

2) Inspiration from Earth: unknown

 

9. The Iriali (People of Iri and perhaps Rira)

1) Common features: yellow eyes, golden skin often painted various colors and patterns, golden hair with metallic sheen ^{[WoK Ch.18, WoR I-2]}

2) Inspiration from Earth: unknown

 

10. The Shin (People of Shinovar)

1) Common features: short stature, pale skin, large round eyes, men tending to be bald, no epicanthic folds

2) Inspiration from Earth: unknown

 

11. The Reshi (People of the Reshi Isles)

1) Common features: tan skin, straight black hair, rounded features ^{[WoR I-9]}

2) Inspiration from Earth: Hispanic people (or at least for Lift) ^[source]

 

Lift was partially developed out of me wanting to build a character who was awesome but was so different from what everyone would think of. 'Cause you say knight and they think of white dude in armor and I wanted something very different from that. And that's where she came from. It also came partially from my wife reading a lot of fantasy and complaining and she's like "You know the asians show up in fantasy, asian culture inspires a lot. European culture of course does. You see a lot of these things but where are the hispanics?" Yeah there's one. So she challenged me to put a hispanic culture in my books because I had never done it before and so Lift is an outgrowth of that, so are the Herdazians. They are meant to be sort of in the same way that the Alethi are inspired by Korean culture, mashed up with this sort of concept of medieval knights. Shallan is based a little off of Western American/Europe culture. The Herdazians are launching off some of the original hispanic concepts. So the thing is, you want every culture to be new and original but you are working from somewhere. And the problem is we all work from the same stories for so long that is part of the reason why fantasy is starting to feel so stale. / [Emphasis is mine.]

 

Edited January 8, 2016 by Botanica