Eri

I'm now wondering at the composition of the moons. those colors aren't natural, and I can't think of many substances that give those kind of colors.

Maybe they are giant gems?

Roshar is not the only planet in the system, and Braize (Damnation) could be actually close enough to affect moons, though its actual position is uncertain.

Are we sure that Braize = Damnation?

Also, unless they have some way of syncing, planets on different orbits have different speeds, so Braize would be close to Roshar only once per some time (which may be half a year to some years, I think). Hm… Weeping?

Anyway, distance between neighboring planet's orbits is millions km-scale. Moon orbits are thousands of km. Which means that even at it's closest Braize is still really far from the moons.

Wow, huge work you put into that!

Also, thx for the info about zero tilt, I suspected it, but didn't see a WoB on it before.

I’m beginning to think the lunar orbit precesses so that apogee is always towards the sun, and perigee is always away from the sun. This means that if Salas is opposite the sun when rising, Salas is basically at perigee, and is at the full moon state.

I agree that it's a logical conclusion from observation.
But this is a very strange phenomenon, normally impossible.

It might be caused by:
- Planet's gravity… if the speed of light was much lower (relativity magics, I don't quite get it, but my husband said it's possoble and Sun works on Mercury like that IRL, but for a planet to affect its moon in such way c wold need to be lower) – unlikely for Cosmere to have different c, I think.
- Star's gravity, with very high excentricity (like 30?) of moon's orbit it's possible. This would however make it all unstable and you can forget about any Lagrangian points… but hey, we have a future-seeing beings and gravity-affecting magics. Instability? What instability? ^^
- Generally by magic, we've seen it messing with gravity already. Some big gravityspren (hmm… it reminds me of Cusi-whatever's the name) / Jezren / Cultivation / something similarly powerful. And seeing the future or really good at maths, so probably Cultivation. Also, the question here is: why and what for would somebody do it?
 

and the moons orbit has to average out to geosynchronous, i.e. the moons need to go around Roshar exactly once per day.

I think you forget to take Roshar's rotation into account.

1/day orbit, in different orientation (I'm not sure if we can call it geosync) would mean they are visible 1 times per day (one in day and one in night) and it would be impossible for almost all night to have moonlight. Which it doesa, I believe, since the darkest time is a gap between moons, and there is no mention of another darkest hour.

Edit: I have no visual imagination.

What you wrote makes a full lot of sense, I think it must be right. (though still I'm not sure about calling it geosync if it's in different direction, but I agree with general idea)

With an orbit like that they already move very quick by night (in terms of angular speed).

From the southern hemisphere’s perspective, if the moons were visible during the day, they would be low on the horizon.  When the moons orbit takes them to the night side of the southern hemisphere, they would be able to cross higher in the sky.

As far as I could figure this out (by direction of sunlight, but I'm not 100% sure), Roshar continent is on southern hemisphere. I wonder why do they call it "south" then – but this is another matter…

 I don't know how a Rosharian day compares to an earth day, nor do I know Roshar's diameter; but high orbiting velocity seems to fit well with a highly eccentric orbit with Roshar at one focus, as the moon slingshots past Roshar.

Roshar day = 1/500 R year = 1.1 Earth year / 500 = about 0.78 Earth day = a little below 19 Earth hours

Do we know for a fact that the direction of Roshar's rotation is the same direction of orbit for the moons?  I was under the impression that they are in different directions, one clockwise, the other counterclockwise.

Erm... I'm not sure if I understand your question, but we know that moons' and sun's perceived movement is in the same direction (they rise at east and set at west). At least sun and 2 of the moons I'm sure of.

Direction of moons' orbit is a hard one... according to my hypothesis (synced with Roshar orbiting its star) we can't know it, because it depends on Roshar's orbiting, not its rotation. I think.

However I'm not really good at astronomy, most of my "research" about Roshar astronomy = I've asked my husband (who studied physics) and I've read Wikipedia.

yeah, we know the orbital period is one rosharan day (20 hours for us),

This is not true.

Take the planet's rotation into account. I really don't have time to do the gifs, but a period of 1 day = something "hangs" in the same point of the sky (think: Calamity in Steelheart), not it appears always at the same hour.

Any link? Edit: Thank you.

Also, I'm not suggesting geostationery orbit; tis wouldn't actually make sense.

Though if they come closer than geostationary… wow, this must be a really spiky ellipse. If they are "much closer" in general and really are on the sky one time per day, and go from east to west then I must be missing something, because I don't see how it would make sense.

But I suppose they do get much further and the long axis is what I thought the radius will be.

BTW does anyone know how hich eccentricity (of moon's orbit, not planet's) affect Lagrangian points? I couldn't find in on Google.

I agree with the Lagrangian points and Nomon being the second body.

About the orbit size: it can be calculated from Roshar's mass and moons' orbiting time.

Yes, I believe the moons always rise and set at the same hour. Also they rise at east and set at west, like the sun. Which means they are synchronised with the sun's position on the sky. This sets their orbiting time to the same as Roshar's orbiting of the sun. (Indeed, and not to one day! I'll post some gifs to explain, but I'm kinda busy.) Which is rather long, but actually unknown (as I've mentioned in another thread, I don't see why time between Weepings would have to be the time it takes the planet to orbit the sun). This implies a big orbit radius.

If the moons are on sky at daytime, just invisible, they could have much shorter period and therefore orbit radius.

PS: Can anyone give source link about the high eccentricity?

Back to the moons, orbits and stuff:

Why do we assume that Roshar year is based on it's orbiting time? The seasons are so irregular and seem to have no correlation with orbital movement. The year is defined by the Weepings, which are indeed likely related to / caused by some astronomical phenomenon but I don't see why it has to be position on orbit. I'd rather bet on something like proximity to another planet (Braize?) or some kind of eclipse / conjunction / things like that.

Peter, could you please tell us if Roshar year = how long it takes to go rund the orbit? I mean, if Weeping always occurs when Roshar is on the same place on the orbit around its sun?

PS: I'll probably post something more on astronomy and climate after I finish another reread. I wonder what direction noon sun shines from, it's really not obvious here. And many other things related to planet tilt…

I think her weakness (for immortality; I don't know for illusions) is getting killed by someone who loves her, or something similar. I thought about it only because it would make one scene in Steelheart much more dramatic in reread.

The weird thing is, Roshar has no birds. Shinovar has chickens and a proverb about doves. Does all of Roshar still associate wings with freedom over this?

It may have some flying crustaceans.

Edit: And skyeels.

Do. Want.

Three diamonds in an overlapping, circular pattern. Nothing more precise. Good thing to ask IMO.

With the exception of Shallan don't the individuals and their Spren who have the Bond seem to be of the opposite sex?

Syl - Kaladin

Lift - Wyndle 

Jasnah - Ivory

I'm not sure if Shallan's pet Julia set Cryptic is male.

This question makes me think of CG Jung and his concept of anima/animus.

Also, shouldn't it be marked as WoR spoilers?

And the definition of Splinter is "a sentient piece of a Shard's power which has no holder".

I disagree.

I'm not sure which meaning did you mean, but:

The Shard can be held and have some splinters at the same time, in WoR Honor is talking about spren doing stuff (bonding with KR) as something he've seen.

Splinters can have holders too; the Returned work like that.

Words of Radiance spoilers:

Of course, the theory is almost certainly correct. We have confirmation that Honorblades grant Surgebinding powers to anyone who has one from the preview chapter with Eshonai.

Also, another WoR quote, from prologue, supporting that theory about Szeth:

Or start with the annotations to Mistborn series: http://brandonsanderson.com/annotation-mistborn-introduction/

I don't think their blood color is mentioed anywhere.

We don't know for sure (there are some clues in the WoR pre-release chapters) what kind of spren to who Jasnah is bonded.

Not clues, it's stated pretty clearly.

I thought that Sel has one system, because both shards there are splintered?

Hmm... He wrote "Odium", not "Rayse". Are we sure that Rayse is actually this shard's first holder? If not, that may explein why Hoid does not like him so much...

I think it's just because it would be too disgusting, both in-world and to the readers. But I have considered that question too.

I don't think fabrials are Cultivation; I think they're just a more technical mirror of the existing magic systems, like the stuff we'll see in Mistborn Second Trilogy.

Also, one of the rear page colour glyphs appears in corners of the Kharbranth illustration, I suppose it has something to do with Taravangian's um... activities. And those seem quite voidiish to me.

I'm quite sure those are letters, not noise.

The question is, is it some old paper texture used by the artist or is it an easter egg. Determining the language would help much --- if it's Latin or other real world non-English language, it's obviously some texture. If it's English, it can be both. Or we can probably just ask the artist.

I wish I had this picture in better resolution, because there is something interesting, and I don't know if that's another easter egg or (more likely ) just a texture used. There is something that looks very much like a second text, slightly visible, like from a back of the page:

Any ideas how to read it?

Or maybe someone knowledgable (Peter A.?) will pop up and say it's just a texture and I'm overreacting. ;-)

Well, as I said, it only took like ten minutes to convert those so not a big deal. If you want them for the wiki, a zip file with the full set of svg's is HERE. If not, no worries.

Wow, thank you!

Any font makers on the forum? It would be great to have a font from those svgs.