Why do people on Roshar age so well?

[asterion137]

Dalinar is "in his fifties" as of WoK, which makes him in his seventies in Earth years. How is he still fighting as effectively as a forty-year old would on Earth? (Past their prime but still extremely effective)

Moash's grandparents are over a hundred years old in earth years. How are they still running a silversmith shop?

I don't think stormlight is potent enough to make people act as if they were half their age. Are Rosharan days shorter?

[Stormgate]

It could be that Sanderson forgets about things like the length of the year.

[Jondesu]

Don't treat the difference in years as a reason to adjust ages. If he says someone is 50, consider them equivalent to 50 on Earth, because they obviously (based on examples like Kaladin, Tien, Shallan, Adolin, etc) age equivalently. They act like the age we are told they are, not the one you have to do math to reach.

Besides, Dalinar is the Blackthorn. He'll probably be incredible well into his 80s. 

jW

[galendo]

Some people have suggested that the KR would have extended lifespans.  If this is the case, and if a little bit of the magic is genetic (e.g., light eyes vs. dark eyes), then it doesn't seem entirely impossible that a little bit of their extended lifespan also got passed down as well.  It's probably fair to say that after thousands of years pretty much everyone on Roshar has at least some Radiant DNA in their genome, listeners excepted.  Of course, if this is true, one would expect lighteyes to live longer than darkeyes.  Which they probably do, on average, but how much of that is genetic and how much due to good food and easy living is hard to say.

If Radiants don't live longer than normal people, well, then maybe constant exposure to Stormlight helps, in sort of an ambient background effect, like how exposure to different levels of air purity can effect lifespans on Earth.

[StormyQueen]

My guess is either, like the others said, that they just live longer.

However, what I think is more likely is that the years have been converted over into normal, Earth years. Cosmere books are written like they are translated from the original language into English. It is possible that the ages have been converted over as well, meaning that the ages given are their ages in Earth years, rather than Rosharan years.

[maxal]

8 hours ago, Jondesu said:

Don't treat the difference in years as a reason to adjust ages. If he says someone is 50, consider them equivalent to 50 on Earth, because they obviously (based on examples like Kaladin, Tien, Shallan, Adolin, etc) age equivalently. They act like the age we are told they are, not the one you have to do math to reach.

Besides, Dalinar is the Blackthorn. He'll probably be incredible well into his 80s. 

jW

I agree. Once we do the math, the characters ages become implausible with their behavior and described physical attributes. We may know one Roshar year length is longer than one Earth year length, but we do not know how the individuals age within this ecosystem. They aren't, genetically speaking, the same as Earth humans. Besides, I doubt the author intended his fandom to read the book with a calculator not to mention the greater majority of his readers are not even aware of this issue.

I thus think the ages Brandon give us as the ages we should picture those characters: these are the references which we should use. The purpose to give a given character's age, within a story, is to give the reader a reference. You will not react to the same character if his age differs. It is a reference meant for the readers: I thus doubt the reference requires the readers to have read a WoB and to implement a mathematical formula no matter how simple.

I have thus no issues picturing Dalinar as a very fit early fifties man: I see older men being very fit on a nearly daily basis. It is perfectly plausible to me. 

[Yata]

Probably a mix of lower gravity, better food and a general health improvement due the Stormlight and its Healing proprieties.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Yata

[Erklitt]

50 minutes ago, Yata said:

Probably a mix of lower gravity, better food and a general health improvement due the Stormlight and his Healing proprieties.

Forget vegetarian, forget vegan, forget polyunsaturated fatty acid:

Stay healthy with our first rate SoulCast (TM) food products!

[WeiryWriter]

10 hours ago, asterion137 said:

Dalinar is "in his fifties" as of WoK, which makes him in his seventies in Earth years.

Minor correction here, as Rosharan years are only 1.1 the length of Earth years, but for a Rosharan the 50-60 age range would correspond to 55-66, so not quite to the seventies. Also keep in mind that he has kept himself in good shape, he hasn't "let himself go" so to speak, and it isn't that unusual for even Earth people to remain fit into that age range (I Have an uncle who biked across the US on a pennyfarthing bicycle a couple years ago, when he was right around 60 years old).

He also has had Shardplate, which is part of the reason he's still in combat in WoK.  There's even a part at the end where Dalinar comments that Adolin had given him a gauntlet to replace his that had been destroyed and Dalinar thinks:

Quote

If one of them was goign to go without, it should be the younger man. Inside Shardplate, their differences in age didn't matter--but outside of it, Adolin was a young man in his twenties and Dalinar an aging man in his fifties.

So obviously there has been some diminished in his ability while outside of Shardplate, he isn't as capable as he was when he was in his forties.

Then as Yata pointed out Rosharans are generally healthier because of the Investiture going around.

[+hwiles]

1 hour ago, WeiryWriter said:

Minor correction here, as Rosharan years are only 1.1 the length of Earth years, but for a Rosharan the 50-60 age range would correspond to 55-66, so not quite to the seventies. Also keep in mind that he has kept himself in good shape, he hasn't "let himself go" so to speak, and it isn't that unusual for even Earth people to remain fit into that age range (I Have an uncle who biked across the US on a pennyfarthing bicycle a couple years ago, when he was right around 60 years old).

He also has had Shardplate, which is part of the reason he's still in combat in WoK.  There's even a part at the end where Dalinar comments that Adolin had given him a gauntlet to replace his that had been destroyed and Dalinar thinks:

So obviously there has been some diminished in his ability while outside of Shardplate, he isn't as capable as he was when he was in his forties.

Then as Yata pointed out Rosharans are generally healthier because of the Investiture going around.

1.1 times the length of Earth Years?  Does that mean that it's been confirmed that Rosharn days are only 20 hours long?  I know Taravangian says when he was making the Diagram he described the experience as something like 20 hours of lucid insanity.  I've been assuming to myself that their days were shorter than ours since the way they describe the passing of their moon seems to imply that the sun is only down for something like 6 hours.

20/24 * 500/365 = 1.1 (ish)

[WeiryWriter]

1 hour ago, hwiles said:

1.1 times the length of Earth Years?  Does that mean that it's been confirmed that Rosharn days are only 20 hours long?  I know Taravangian says when he was making the Diagram he described the experience as something like 20 hours of lucid insanity.  I've been assuming to myself that their days were shorter than ours since the way they describe the passing of their moon seems to imply that the sun is only down for something like 6 hours.

20/24 * 500/365 = 1.1 (ish)

Correct, Rosharan days are 20 hours long. And their days and nights should be abouts the same as the planet lacks an axial tilt. There are also 3 moons.

[+hwiles]

2 hours ago, WeiryWriter said:

Correct, Rosharan days are 20 hours long. And their days and nights should be abouts the same as the planet lacks an axial tilt. There are also 3 moons.

Er...that was a typo, I meant to say "moons."

I don't mean to derail this thread...but may I ask if that bit about Roshar's axial tilt is from a WoB, or was it established from in-book references in another thread?  (I ask because I've tried searching this forum for that type of information before and want to know if I just gave up too quickly.)

[WeiryWriter]

There is WoB from Writing Excuses Season 9 Episode 23
 

Quote

One of the things that the person brought up is that in the Stormlight Archives, we have a planet without axial tilt and seasons don't happen the way that we imagine them on our planet. To them, when the... A season happens is oh, it got cold for a little while. It's winter now for a few weeks. Then when it's not cold anymore, it is not winter and now we're calling it spring. This is a translation effect that I put... That I said, "How am I going to get this across?" Well, to a person speaking English, they would call winter the cold time. So I'm going to translate what they say as the cold patch as winter. I did this to make it jarring, to... Then I made it incidental. These are the two things. It's mentioned incidentally, I did not make it a plot point. I made it just something that they talk about so when they say, "Oh, it looks like winter is going to be here for a few weeks. I hope that spring comes again in a couple of weeks." When it does, they're like, "Oh, good." When it lapses back in the winter, people who are paying attention are like, "This is bizarre. I don't understand this. But this is how it works." That worked really well in the Stormlight Archives because those people who really know about seasons and weather and things like this say, "oh, I know the astronomy of what's happening with this world. That is cool." For everyone else, is just a bizarre aspect of the world. It doesn't influence the plot in a major way, and you just accept it for what it is.

 
(link to transcript)

[Nymeros]

On 8/3/2016 at 11:22 PM, asterion137 said:

Dalinar is "in his fifties" as of WoK, which makes him in his seventies in Earth years. How is he still fighting as effectively as a forty-year old would on Earth? (Past their prime but still extremely effective)

Moash's grandparents are over a hundred years old in earth years. How are they still running a silversmith shop?

I don't think stormlight is potent enough to make people act as if they were half their age. Are Rosharan days shorter?

Why would you think that Rosharans age at the same rate as Earthlings? They don't....they're basically aliens. If a character is 19, he's 19

[Toaster Retribution]

I thought the Rosharan years was not that much longer compared to earth. Wouldn't Dalinar be around 55 or so in our year count? 

[Savanorn]

It's also worth noting that it's heavily implied that Dalinar, as a proto Radiant, has unconsciously tapped Stormlight on multiple occasions. We've also seen from Kal especially the effects on vigour, speed and all-around performance even relatively minor intakes of Stormlight can grant.

Plus, Dalinar could just age well. To throw an anecdote out; I met a guy last year who was in his late fifties and powerlifted as a hobby. This guy was still built like a brickwall, even though in his youth he probably would have had a leaner, sharper physique, he was still functionally strong. 

[Argent]

5 hours ago, Chull #445 said:

I thought the Rosharan years was not that much longer compared to earth. Wouldn't Dalinar be around 55 or so in our year count? 

A Rosharan year is about 1.1 Earth years. 

[Madninja324]

Humans on Roshar are clearly not genetically identical to Humans on Earth: they inherit traits from their parents fractionally rather than by dominant/recessive genes, for one, and it's entirely possible that they just live longer than we do naturally

[Massik]

Even here in the real world, some ethnicities actually age slower.  

We can't assume we have the same genetics as those on Roshar.  We just can't.

Aside from that, differences in diet, living and environmental conditions could also play a huge factor.  

Edited November 6, 2016 by Massik

[Kingsdaughter613]

Also worth considering is how often we get a cold. Every time that happens it put some wear on your body. The lack of those illnesses on Roshar - until Demoux introduced it - would likely lead to a longer life span.

And there is more to maturity than mere age; your average 12 year old today couldn't hand pregnancy and birth, but go back a few centuries and they did. In cultures where certain life stages are expected to occur earlier the mental ability to do so also does. At least one theory of psychology holds that mental age has more to do with social factors than physical ones. At the very least it is a combination of many aspects.

[Erunion]

A Rosharan year is 1.1 earth years, meaning Dalinar is somewhere between 55-66 earth years. 
Being an effective athlete/fighter is far from impossible at that age. My own father is 61 years old, works out 2-3 times a week, still plays ice hockey quite well, and is in excellent physical shape (we went for a run together a couple months ago. He definitely kept pace with me very well). 
It, however, takes him a lot longer to recover (from injuries or exercise) than it would take me. 

[Madninja324]

it has been made abundantly clear that for all that they are called Human, look and act the part Humans on Roshar are genetically different from Earth Humans, or even Humans in other parts of the Cosmere. The most glaringly obvious example of this is the fact that they inherit traits fractionally from their parents, rather than through dominant/recessive genes like everyone who doesn't live on Roshar, there's no reason not to believe that they simply have longer natural lifespans than non Rosharans though granted, there's no real reason to assume that they do either, it's just a good possibility that is so far backed up by the evidence we currently have

[Markus]

On 11/6/2016 at 3:46 AM, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Also worth considering is how often we get a cold. Every time that happens it put some wear on your body. The lack of those illnesses on Roshar - until Demoux introduced it - would likely lead to a longer life span.

And there is more to maturity than mere age; your average 12 year old today couldn't hand pregnancy and birth, but go back a few centuries and they did. In cultures where certain life stages are expected to occur earlier the mental ability to do so also does. At least one theory of psychology holds that mental age has more to do with social factors than physical ones. At the very least it is a combination of many aspects.

Wait Demoux introduced colds?  Is that a WoB?

[The One Who Connects]

Just now, Markus said:

Wait Demoux introduced colds?  Is that a WoB?

It is a WoB. That's the "plague" in the Purelake that Dalinar mentions in his internal "state of the world" monologue around the end of WoR. Rosharans hardly get sick, so their perspective on what constitutes a plague is... skewed.

Quote

Weiry asked: whether the plague on the purelake has anything to do with the fact that the magic fish form symbiotic bonds with spren?

• No
• Worldhoppers brought a disease to Roshar that they didn't have before
• Its the common cold. 
• Rosharans investiture makes it so they’re usually a healthy bunch so something like the cold is kind of frightening
• "Its a plague of the sniffles”

 

[maxal]

The question now is: will the cold come into play within the main narrative? In other words, are we going to see one of our more major character get sick with the cold and/or are we going to see Dalinar's armies be depopulated by the sickness? Will this be Renarin's great break-through? Managing to heal people from the cold?