+Child of Hodor Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 (edited) Quote Storms, Ethid wrote. The Blackthorn is actually a Radiant? Years of drought, and now they're popping up like rockbuds. - OB Ch. 53 No one on Roshar should know what a drought is. They don't grow crops except in Shinovar which is very closed off and even they get steady rain from the remnants of the Highstorms which come steadily. The one time of year the Highstorms don't come, the Weeping, it rains constantly. "Drought" does not appear at all in WoK or WoR, this is the only appearance in OB. They probably had droughts on Ashyn pre-"The Floor Is Lava" and the word could have been passed down in ancient text. Ethid is a Veristitalian, so he could have found out about the word that way. He writes this in a threeway spanreed conversation with Jasnah and another Veristitalian and neither of them question it. They are talking about Heralds and Radiants returning, so maybe they just had other things on their mind. Jasnah didn't seem to know about humans coming to Roshar from another planet before her Shadesmar trip, so I don't think other ecosystems would be known to Veristitalians. It's also possible he is a worldhopper. Zahel's and Azure's true nature was strongly hinted at by the colorful metaphors they use. Brandon has said that some words like soil as in soiled/dirty and hound are legacy words. But if someone said "soil" instead of ground or stone that could be a worldhopper and later he confirmed that the Ardent who referred to the ground as soil was a worldhopper. This feels like Ethid is using a term in a way he shouldn't know about. Quote Stormlight Three Update #4 (Oct. 3, 2016) #1 Oct. 3, 2016 Argent In The Way of Kings, Chapter 54: Gibletish, Dalinar has a brief conversation with Brightlord Hatham, one of his ardents, and a few other people. During the conversation the ardent uses the word "soil" in a way most Rosharans wouldn’t. After the conversation he tells Dalinar of "our goodwill toward you" and that "we will speak with you again." The odd use of the word "soil" combined with what could be a vague reference to the ardent’s associated with a group other than the ardentia has led some of us to believe he might be a worldhopper. Plus, we know Nazh is around in the area, or will arrive soon. Is there truth to this idea, or are we overthinking this? Brandon Sanderson Alethi use the word "soil" on occasion in their language to mean "dirtied" or similar. It's a holdover from an earlier time. But they don't associate it with the ground, and if you see it used instead of stone like in this quote, it should indeed raise an eyebrow. Argent Sooo... I mean, my eyebrow was already raised. Let's not bait the RAFO too hard, and drop the worldhopper part - is there more to this particular ardent than meets the eye? Wait, hold up. How can "soil" be a holdover from an earlier time if Roshar was always a rocky place? Or did you mean that it's one of those words that carried over from Yolish, or whatever other language people spoke before they migrated to Roshar (like "hound")? Brandon Sanderson It is similar to hound, which is one of the ones that Hoid pointed out as an oddity. But people did not migrate from Yolen to Roshar. Roshar was inhabited before the shattering of Adonalsium. Argent Hmm. I am rusty on my Roshar history, I'll have to review what we know the topic. I know Roshar existed before the Shattering, and it was presumably populated, but I didn't think there had been humans there. They don't feel native. I've been working under the assumption that the Parshendi were native (maybe), but the humans came from somewhere - the Tranquiline Halls myths also kind of support that. Or have I missed something? Brandon Sanderson Technically, what I said doesn't actually contradict anything you just said. But just to be extra safe: RAFO. I have to keep a FEW secrets safe from you people to come out in the books. Footnote: Resolved in the OB tour. It's a worldhopper but not Nazh.Stormlight Three Update #4 (Oct. 3, 2016) Edited February 21, 2019 by Child of Hodor 1
Quantus he/him Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 Given the context I suspect that "Drought" has become a Rosharan word for Scarcity, rather than the literal Lack of Water. As your WOB points out, there are a lot of hold-over words from pre-roshar, like Wine for any alcoholic drink even though they have no grapes, Soil as in the WOB example, or Chicken being any bird. 1
RShara she/her Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 They actually do grow crops. Tallew grain, lavis grain, etc. They grow them from a type of rockbud. Sebarial is leading farming effors in the Shattered Plains. They have erratic seasons, but Summer and Winter do exist, which may bring periods of drought. Quote Those uncultivated hillsides were perfect for farming. You could spread stumpweight sap on them—mixed with lavis seeds—during seasons of weaker storms following the Weeping. In four months, you’d have polyps larger than a man’s head growing all along the hill, ready to break open for the grain inside.
Karger he/him Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 Even in normal English the word drought can mean lack of things other then water. noun a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops. an extended shortage: a drought of good writing.
Droughtbringer Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 (Well, a thread with my name on it just begs for me to say something ) Droughts don't have to relate directly to growing crops, not having rainfall in a lot of places could affect the way that they are able to store and keep water for drinking. (As pointed out by Karger above)
+Invocation Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 In addition what the others have put out, remember that what we're reading amounts to a rough translation from Rosharan language. It's probably just a word for lacking that would have been used in that context but drought fits best for our language, so that's what Sandman used.
+Child of Hodor Posted February 21, 2019 Author Posted February 21, 2019 *Sees everyone yelling at me* (kidding) Yeah, well, uh ... if it's so common how come it only appears once in the text of 3,000 pages + Edgedancer? It just struck me as odd it as I was re-listening on my walk to work and it has never been brought up on these forums that I could find so I wanted to point it out. 4 minutes ago, Invocation said: In addition what the others have put out, remember that what we're reading amounts to a rough translation from Rosharan language. It's probably just a word for lacking that would have been used in that context but drought fits best for our language, so that's what Sandman used. That's Brandon's a wizard did it. It's fine that he has an explanation for it is passed down from Ashyn or a translation thing or it COULD be a worldhopper thing because as Brandon said in the WoB "Soil" is used to mean dirty on Roshar but the one guy who said soil that Argent was asking was a worldhopper and that was an intentional clue. I'm not saying, I'm just saying! 1 hour ago, Karger said: Even in normal English the word drought can mean lack of things other then water. noun a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops. an extended shortage: a drought of good writing. Yeah, but it originates from old english for dryness and is similar to the Dutch word for dry, there's a million ways to say shortage, scarcity, shortfall, famine, without saying drought on Cosmere Waterworld. It's like saying flood on Arrakis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrakis It's not a mistake, either it's a Ashyn thing or translation or worldhopper. Quote dearth famine inadequacy insufficiency lack paucity shortage exiguity infrequency rareness rarity scantiness sparsity stringency uncommonness want Dictionary result for drought /drout/ noun noun: drought; plural noun: droughts 1. a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water. synonyms: dry spell, dry period, lack of rain, shortage of water; drouth a prolonged absence of a specified thing. "he ended a five-game hitting drought" 2. ARCHAIC•DIALECT thirst. "I asked for something to slake my drought" Origin late Old English drūgath ‘dryness’, of Germanic origin; compare with Dutch droogte ; related to dry. 2 hours ago, RShara said: They actually do grow crops. Tallew grain, lavis grain, etc. They grow them from a type of rockbud. Sebarial is leading farming effors in the Shattered Plains. They have erratic seasons, but Summer and Winter do exist, which may bring periods of drought. Seasons only last a few weeks (~15 days on Roshar) that doesn't seem long enough to be called a drought, but maybe it is.
RShara she/her Posted February 21, 2019 Posted February 21, 2019 Just now, Child of Hodor said: *Sees everyone yelling at me* (kidding) Yeah, well, uh ... if it's so common how come it only appears once in the text of 3,000 pages + Edgedancer? It just struck me as odd it as I was re-listening on my walk to work and it has never been brought up on these forums that I could find so I wanted to point it out. That's Brandon's a wizard did it. It's fine that he has an explanation for it is passed down from Ashyn or a translation thing or it COULD be a worldhopper thing because as Brandon said in the WoB "Soil" is used to mean dirty on Roshar but the one guy who said soil that Argent was asking was a worldhopper and that was an intentional clue. I'm not saying, I'm just saying! Yeah, but it originates from old english for dryness and is similar to the Dutch word for dry, there's a million ways to say shortage, scarcity, shortfall, famine, without saying drought on Cosmere Waterworld. It's like saying flood on Arrakis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrakis It's not a mistake, either it's a Ashyn thing or translation or worldhopper. Seasons only last a few weeks (~15 days on Roshar) that doesn't seem long enough to be called a drought, but maybe it is. Seasons don't have a set period of time. They can be in one season for months or days.
+Child of Hodor Posted February 21, 2019 Author Posted February 21, 2019 1 minute ago, RShara said: Seasons don't have a set period of time. They can be in one season for months or days. Maybe so. The coppermind says they tend to be a few weeks, but they certainly could last longer. Quote Beyond this, the seasons are about as random as the highstorms. They can be roughly predicted by stormwardens, but only tend to last a few weeks and don't follow any obvious pattern. The characteristics of winter, spring, summer and autumn line up fairly well with what we expect from those seasons on Earth.[16][15][14][17]
+Oltux72 he/him Posted February 23, 2019 Posted February 23, 2019 On 2/21/2019 at 2:43 PM, Child of Hodor said: No one on Roshar should know what a drought is. They don't grow crops except in Shinovar which is very closed off and even they get steady rain from the remnants of the Highstorms which come steadily. The one time of year the Highstorms don't come, the Weeping, it rains constantly. There is also this period in the middle of the year without storms, when Shallan's family held fairs. On 2/21/2019 at 2:43 PM, Child of Hodor said: "Drought" does not appear at all in WoK or WoR, this is the only appearance in OB. Roshar outside Shin has no soil. Water is basically not retained. The Windrunner river is identified as an exception for falling dry only infrequently. I would say they have droughts frequently, but they are short. The whole ecology shows signs of adapting to aridity.
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