Relevance of 90

[Stark he/him]

I looked through the forums to see if this was brought up anywhere else, and did no see anything.  Apologies if I am re-treading old ground.

 

I am currently re-reading Elantris, and I noticed that it has a very specific timeline.  A number of Cosmere stories have timelines, and Deadlines, there would be far less urgency without them.  WoR had the Count down on the walls.  Kelsier'sand Denth's plans had nebulous timelines to accomplish their goals (about a year each).  

 

But as far as I can tell, only the books that take place on Sel, Elantris and The Emperor's Soul, have very specific timelines.  Deadlines that are set, and Bad Things will happen if they are not met. (Yes, White Sand has a deadline to, but the consequence does not seem as dire as in these two)

 

Hrathren has three months to prepare Arelon before it is destroyed.  He interprets this as having three months to accomplish a full conversion of the nobility, or Wyrn will invade and destroy. (For you number counters out there, the Duladel republic fell six months after he arrived, 2x3 months)

 

Shai was given the three months of the mourning period to craft a new soul for the Emperor, or she would be executed.

 

Both had 90 day absolute deadlines.  It could be coincidence.  Or it could not.  Assuming Brandon very carefully crafts his worlds, and little is left to chance in the Cosmere, what do you think the relevance of 90 is on Sel?

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Unfortunately, I really don't think there is anything here.

Shai's time limit wasn't 90 days , it is a 100 day mourning period not a three month day (though technically she only had 98 because of when they "recruited" her).

Also the note from Wyrn that describes the deadline gives it as "three months" and not 90 days. (Perhaps it is spelled out as such else where in the book, if it is please share but I didn't want to search through the book for every mention of "days" to find it.) There a few issues I see with assuming three months equals 90 days. First, it assumes that Arelish months are about the same length as ours, which isn't a given (Rosharan months, for example are 50 days--granted there could be a discussion in the book about the length of their months, but I don't remember any). Also, three months doesn't even necessarily mean 90 days on Earth either. The only circumstances where it does (that I can think of) are December/January/February and January/February/March (and February/March/April on Leap Years).