Odd Roshar genetics

[yulerule]

In Alethi (and Veden) society, women have free hands and safehands. The right hand is the freehand and the lefthand is the safe hand. Shallan, for example holds her drawing pad with her safehand, and draws with her right hand.

What would a left handed person(woman) do? Are left-handed women forced to learn to use ther right hands?

Thinking about the genetics in Roshar, which are different than Earth genetics. If one parent is Lighteyed and the other is darkeyed, then the child willl have one dark, one ligt eye. Same with hair color. If parents have two different hair colors then the child will have a mix of hair strands.

So if there are left handed people, and right handed people, would their kid be ambidextrous?

[WeiryWriter]

Being a left-handed Vorin woman really only affects those of relatively high rank, lower ranked women can get away with just wearing a glove.

If I remember correctly I thought it wasn't a 100% case that the offspring of a darkeye and a lighteye would be heterochromatic?  Also the hair thing only really applies to Alethi black and Iriali gold.

I see no reason why that peculiarity in genetics would extend to handedness.

[Three1415]

37 minutes ago, yulerule said:

What would a left handed person(woman) do? Are left-handed women forced to learn to use ther right hands?

Presumably, yes, although I don't think this specific scenario is mentioned in the books; in any event, Vorinism would almost certainly mandate that the safehand remain the same.

EDIT: It appears I was ninja'ed by WeiryWriter, but I agree with that assessment--the fully enclosed safehands are restricted to at most all lighteyes, and probably just fairly high-dahn ones (5-6 or higher, I imagine).

37 minutes ago, yulerule said:

If one parent is Lighteyed and the other is darkeyed, then the child willl have one dark, one ligt eye. Same with hair color. If parents have two different hair colors then the child will have a mix of hair strands.

This appears to be true with hair; however, the mixture of eye color is rare, the only instance we've seen of it being Redin, Highprince Valam's bastard son. Kaladin implies when pondering the results of his possible match with Laral that some of his children would be fully lighteyed and outrank him, while others would be fully darkeyed and would not, meaning that heterochromia is very unusual on Roshar as it is on Earth.

37 minutes ago, yulerule said:

So if there are left handed people, and right handed people, would their kid be ambidextrous?

Likewise, there's no real reason to expect that handedness would blend in such a predictable manner.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Three1415

[yulerule]

I was only being semi-serious - regarding ambidextrous people

[Farnsworth]

I could easily see a high ranking Rosharian woman being forced to write with their right hand even though they are left handed. It's a fairly conservative society, and people actually do this on earth. They used to think in some places that it was far better to write with your right hand, and would force left handed people to write with their right hand. This actually happened to my grandfather.