#the tones of roshar

[thestormlightnetwork]

STORMLIGHT FANS: STOP AND LISTEN TO THIS!

I just came across this on youtube and it's the most epic interpertation of the tones of roshar that i've ever heard, Stormlight? organized with an epic feel to it. Voidlight? chaotic and alien. Lifelight? yes that's food sound from the development demon.

[unsavory-melon]

You know that ringing noise you get when everything is too silent

Just REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Isn't that just like one of roshars pure tones? They've got all these cool sounding shards with cool sounding tones Honor Cultivation Odium

You know what we get? The shard of Manure

His godmetal is called "ImALittlePieceOfShit-ium" and his intent is "KILL THEM WITH BITCHERY"

[sunroseofthewood]

See, this is misleading

There's nothing to indicate Hoid spends most of his time on Roshar. It just happens that we the audience almost always see him in the Stormlight books. But cumulatively that's only like, three or four years? Hoid's lived for thousands of years. I'd wager that time is spread out fairly evenly across many different planets.

Hoid is such a weird character if only for his apparent affinity for Roshar of all places in the Cosmere. If I were a worldhopper, "weekly hurricane planet stuck in the middle ages" is not necessarily where I'd want to be.

[theidealistcynic]

So WoB the pulse from the Well of Ascension is a pure tone of Scadrial, just like Honor's tone is a pure tone of Roshar. This has implications for the world itself, but guess what? It also means that, long before the advent of recording technology, long before the advent of genre, long before the advent of the electric guitar,

Scadrial had metal music

I'll see myself out

[sailorspren]

I'm not a cosmere theories freak but I do have one theory I'm very passionate about which is that the pure tones of Roshar sound like sine wave synths! Let me explain :) I am taking "pure" to mean "consisting of only one note (and no overtones)", which is basically the definition of a sine wave. A sine wave is the representation of a single frequency with no harmonics and is considered an acoustically pure tone. Sine waves don't occur naturally - real world sounds always have overtones, in varying quantities. We can synthesize sine waves, however, and they sound like this (I played it in different pitches so you can get an idea of the timbre):

Here's a visual representation of a sine wave:

So this is what I imagine it sounds like when Dalinar opens a perpendicularity, or when singers hear pure notes in highstorms. And because the sound of a sine wave is so unnatural, it would really stand out and feel otherworldly on a planet that doesn't have modern technology - and I feel like that fits the description.

We also know that it's possible to use tuning forks to play the three pure tones of roshar and pull the matching types of light out of gemstones. While acoustic instruments can't produce a truly pure note (aka a sine audio wave), tuning forks come pretty close. They initially produce high overtones, but those fade out quickly, and then the forks keep resonating with a pure tone. It makes sense that tuning forks are the closest Rosharan humans can get to synthesizing a sine wave!

There's also the fact that Raboniel can sing the pure notes and get the lights to respond, while Navani can't. Is it just because Raboniel's pitch is more accurate, or do singers have an physiological ability to produce notes with less overtones? This is really interesting to me...

And one more fun thing to consider. You know what other instrument comes pretty close to producing a pure tone? The flute! Hoid gave Kaladin a flute... idk if it actually has any reasoning behind it but I really hope it does 😂 imagine how cool it will be if it will be used for musical magic system stuff

[cosmerelists]

The Most Annoying Things About Living on Roshar

Notice that I said annoying. I’m not talking about real problems like, uh, slavery and war crimes and a broken social system and etc etc. I’m talking about things that I think would just kinda be annoying about living in Stormlight Archive.

1. You can’t tell little white lies about how you’re feeling.

Thanks to those pesky emotion spren always showing how you’re REALLY feeling! As illustrated here: https://www.tumblr.com/taravangians-storming-balls/716486386153291776/me-if-i-lived-on-roshar

2. If you’re Alethi or Alethi-influenced, you have to be religious to get food variety.

Are you a woman? Sweet food only! Are you a man? Spicy/savory food only! Want the food of a gender not your own? Looks like you need to join the church! 

Like...what?

3. Nothing is fluffy.

Outside of Shinovar, everything on Roshar is a crab. Crab-dogs, crab-cows, crab-bugs, crab-crabs, you get it. Which is great if you’re an animal who wants to be protected from the constantly dangerous weather, but bad if you’re a human who, like me, wants to pet things that are fluffy. I just feel like petting an axehound isn’t quite the same.

4. If you’re an Alethi woman with naturally hot hands, life sucks.

Now, I wouldn’t understand this myself, since I have icy hands forever, but some women have hands that naturally run hot. And yet those same women must, if they’re Alethi or Alethi-influenced, keep one hand covered at all times. That must be torture for Lady Hot Hands.

5. If you’re an Alethi man, you can’t kick back with a nice book.

At least prior to Dalinar, Alethi men could never just, like, chill out with a lovely book...at least, not without joining the church. And just because many men didn’t realize their loss does not make it any less sad. 

6. “We’ve gotta get you a spren.”

Adolin is like the last main character to not have a spren. And I remember when someone said something like “We gotta get you a spren!” to Adolin in the same “jovial” tones as people keep saying, “You need a girlfriend!” to Kaladin. And that’s a lot of pressure. I think it would be annoying, especially to people who just don’t want to join the Radiants thank you very much.

7. You can’t share funny undertext with your guy friends.

If I were reading a book aloud to one of my guy friends and there was a funny undertext, I would be legitimately bummed that I was forbidden to share it with him due to a seemingly worldwide ladies agreement to hide the existence of the undertext from men. But, like, what if it was really funny?

8. The anxiety of constantly leaking Stormlight.

Gems constantly leak Stormlight, and they can only be renewed during storms. People are fairly casual about this in the books, but man, that would make me SO anxious, especially during the Weeping when apparently it’s just expected that all gems will just sort of run out. Like, in my actual life, if there’s a power outage, I’m there huddled like a little ferret nervously checking my phone battery every few seconds, watching the battery percentage tick slowly down and fretting about how I can’t recharge it until the power comes back on but who KNOWS when that will be.

...Okay, so maybe this one is just me. 

[kaladinsspear]

So I'm relistening to Oathbringer and I love it so much. I just got to the part where the Radients are discussing the war in light of the truth about the heralds. Jasna is, in a perfectly in character display of passion, laying out the trolly problem that they are facing. 'we cannot fight our immortal enemy. We must either trap them in damnation or kill all the parshman on roshar so they have no hoasts.' Both options are clearly horrible, but the enemy is immortal and basicly a force of nature hell bent on killing all humans. Its not a question of 'is it permissible to damn people to a conscious eternety in hell' the answer is no. But are you willing to sacrifice yourself and all of humanity to uphold that moral belief Kaladin? Or are you willing to actively kill every parshman on roshar to protect humanity and uphold that moral ideal? Which morally devistating action do you want to take Kaladin, because refusing to engage in this decision will not absolve you of your roll in the consequences.

Just. Good shit. Like, this is what a good story is for because I dont fucking know. I know because of the genera of book that a secret 3rd option (killing the fused and halting their cycle of rebirth) is going to open up, but Jasna has absolutly no reason to consider killing the fused an option. There is no evidence that this is possible, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. I have no idea what the 'right' answer would be here, but I love the kind of storys that make me think about it. Its so delicious!

And then the serious philosophical tone just CRASHES when Jasna notices Shallan drawing dreamy Kaladin sketches. Just. Yes. I laughed so hard. Kaladin cannot catch a break can he! Hes so fucking magnetic that he cant even wrestle with the crushing weight of war without somebody falling in love with him just a little. I love him so much. I love Shallan so much. These characters are just so vibrant, I love these books so much.

[thaidakar-is-hot]

One thing that I love about Sanderson is his ability to let men ugly cry.

His men are EMOTIONAL. They break down. They cry. They sob. They curl up into balls and rock back and forth. They break. And it isn’t depicted as weak. It isn’t depicted as unmanly. Kaladin, one of the toughest, most masculine men in the cosmere, ugly cries. He’s broken. No one on Roshar is going to say he’s weak or he needs to man up. Kelsier’s done it too. Rocked back and forth, shaking, sobbing, over what happened to him, and whose to say he doesn’t do it when he finally lets himself sleep during the last year of his life?

Dalinar breaks down. Another extremely masculine, hard man. He breaks down and sobs. He holds his son to his chest and CRIES. People did say he was growing weak, but not because of that. We all know these men are extremely strong, passionate, driven, and courageous. Their crying just makes them real. I love it. It sets a tone for reality. Men need to be given the allowance to cry.  So many men are afraid to open up around their girlfriends/wives. So many have done so, and the relationship died because she lost respect for him. Can you imagine?  LET MEN UGLY CRY

[gooseisamenace]

I am very much an amateur musician buuuuut music plays a huge role in my art making process (and coincidentally in the world of Roshar too). Kal’s OG theme was something I mashed together back in 2015 when I first stumbled into Sanderson, but I’ve enjoyed revisiting and reimagining it over the last 9(?!) years.

Anyways, words can’t express how absolutely pumped I’d be to hear a real composer sit down to tackle the Tones and Rhythms of Roshar one day 🫡🫡

[chaoticbuggybitchboy]

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[realclaramorrow]

my (admittedly not very good or coherent) thoughts on wind and truth so far, divided by characters and kind of organized by storyline?

not all of us can read that fast, wind and truth spoilers up to chapter 80 below

- I love adolin and yanagawn's friendship, they are so important to me. he's teaching him towers and theyre genuinely friends and he got noura to begrudgingly approve and gah. I love them dearly. I would like lift to be able to talk to yanagawn again too. adolin trying to learn everyones name is so emotionally intelligent of him. I love that that one guard (hmask?) got to tell adolin that he saved his son, sweetest moment ever. me son you!!!!!! adolin is so much smarter than so many characters (and readers) seem to think he is, his head for battle strategy is almost unmatched and he's an incredible leader. may aladar is an icon and notum coming to help was very satisfying. his growing bond with maya is not only healing her but its healing my heart. I dont know if in the future they can bond like aliveEye spren and person can but that would be neat. adolin would make a fantastic edgedancer.

- sigzil the man the myth the legend himself is crushing it with an awful situation in narak. his plot is the most anxiety inducing to me because they are not getting shit for help and the everstorm is literally parked right there. the engineering being key to his strategy is very cool to me because no one else is doing anything like that. also, his spren (I forgot her name :( I'm so sorry sigzil's spren there are so many names to remember.) being able to calculate the lashing force and distance needed to kill one of the new fused (forgot their names too. the belt guys) is epic and theyre such a duo.

- venli and co. in the chasms is going to play into the battle for narak most definitely. chasmfiends being chill with them is so awesome and cool. chasmfiend pov chapter when. pure tones of roshar save the day? also want rlain reuniting with these listeners so he can a) see his friends and the remnants of his people and b) chew them out for letting him go be a spy with absolutely no protest

- dalinar is getting on my nerves, I understand he's under a lot of pressure but he's being such a dick to the stormfather. in character yes but MAN do I wish both of them were better at communicating. the spiritual realm storyline is very interesting and the way he's going about it is putting me in physical pain.

- loving the navani time but I low key miss the scientific toxic lovers thing she had going on with raboniel. I dont see how she puts up with dalinar, because he's a blundering ape. also, I share adolin's opinions about oathbringer's publication of the razing of rathalas.

- little gav is a revenge hungry angel but an angel nonetheless

- CHANA DAVAR CANON???????

- shallan has grown so much and I'm so proud of her :) I love getting details about her backstory and I love that formless wasnt a one and done defeat. she has to keep fighting her. just as veil was created to hold difficult memories I think radiant was created to battle shallan's imposter syndrome and self confidence issues. it would be cool if radiant was also integrated by the end of the book, but at this point its clear shallan still needs her. great investigating of the ghostbloods and ba ado mishram. it pleases me. dalinar take notes.

- rlain making a soul projection of him and renarin kissing and renarin being like holy shit we do NOT have time to address this was so funny. I love them too. my weird little autistic queers. they're so othered from their respective peoples that theyre each other's people. shallan is tired of their flirting after literally 1 second. they're meant to be. rlainarin canon I love gay people (and trans people. shout out that one trans blacksmith in azimir and that one person that desperately wanted to talk to the sibling and was immediately like "so what is not being male or female like")

- kaladin's journey of self care here sure seems like the way to swearing the fifth ideal, and syl being on her own journey that way is so so fantastic. spren learning how not to live for their radiants is very poetic to me in a way I can't explain right now because tired. nale gets on my fucking NERVES. I know people that argue like that and I hate hate hate them. whats up with the wind? want more info about the old gods of roshar, made directly from adonalsium. sequence with kaladin dancing with syl and the wind is absolutely gorgeous. kaladin's realization that szeth is like tien instead of like himself was heartbreaking and a great example of dramatic irony. the observant reader (me) sees him treating szeth as a man who chose to fight instead of a boy who was forced to (because reader gets the exact years ago and the ages and such) and goes NO KALADIN NO

- szeth is becoming one of my favorite characters. I love knowing about his backstory as well. the culture of shinovar is so interesting to me. the splashes? stone being sacred? the Farmer, their monasteries (I LOVE monasteries), the ritual of pilgrimage? adding and subtracting? love it all. also szeth being like "thank you kaladin I can finally off myself" and kaladin being like "no?????????" was kind of hilarious. his spren is a piece of shit. I really dislike that highspren. most unhelpful spren ever. also, is the voice odium or an unmade or the stones (like the wind) or a secret fourth thing? I have such feelings about szeth but you need to just know them as I project them from my heart to yours.

- jasnah kholin the love of my life has finally broken up with my competition (Wit) and she's also figured out that the ships dont actually have soldiers in them which is so so smart. back to the scholar roots. best leaders are always academics (like sigzil) or genuinely caring people (like adolin and kaladin) (dalinar watch your back. however, I acknowledge that he cares). jasnah is the smartest person in this damn book and her pointing out her own fallacies and internally discussing the effects of her as a general and knowing how everything about her affects how she is percieved a role model for women all over eastern roshar shows it. I appreciate jasnah freeing slaves and learning from her mistakes and actually trying and stuff but its upsetting that this is definitely brandon's extent of addressing lighteyed privelage and displaying that complex relationship. I have read very very good fanfiction about this, in which it was good to see that other people agreed that "bridgeboy" is a much more offensive nickname than "princeling" (because of the power imbalance and racial connotations of "boy")

- why are we doing hemalurgy on roshar rn. (also aluminum negating investiture everywhere is cool and awesome.) moash is really only one letter away from marsh. also, I'm losing hope for a redemption arc for him. can't tell if its good or bad narrative for a story with overarching morals of second chances to have moash not be redeemed. on one hand, it's not realistic to redeem everyone. on the other, I don't think he's beyond redemption and I think it would tie up that storyline in a nice little bow. but in real life, nothing ends in a nice bow like that. teft's story ended beautifully, and its tragic he died, but he had reached the end. I think its interesting when characters are purposefully killed off before completing their arc or veer in a different direction because it leaves the audience unsatisfied and feels more empty and like a real untimely death. my feelings about moash are complex, but as someone invested in these characters I want him to be redeemed

[rohanrider3]

Cosmere Finale Musings

Look all I'm saying is that if Kelsier ends up using the powers of Breath and Biochroma to let him leave Scadriel AND empower the tatters of his mist cloak to do even MORE awesome shenanigans...that'd be awesome.

If Kaladin ALSO ends up using the powers of Breath and Biochroma to augment his Stormlight powers via the COLORS of the GEMS that hold the Stormlight....oh, AND somehow use the Iridescent Tones AND the Rhythms of Roshar to unlock powers we haven't even seen yet...that would be even MORE awesome.

And if in the end Kelsier and Kaladin wind up on opposing sides of a final conflict (ideologies aside, "lowborn" Skaa Kelsier was killed with a spear vs. "lowborn Darkeyes" but now (extremely reluctant titled Lighteyes) Kaladin, who's a master of the spear wielding arts,--symbolic coincidence I think ?not?)...it'd be terrible, but BADASS to watch them match wits and skills.

But. If there's a bigger bad (?Odium? Sorceress? currently unknown?) and both the Survivor AND Stormblessed have to combine forces to fight it, and they both get WRECKED....

...what are the odds that Kelsier decides to give Kaladin one last gift.

A last gasp.

(TLDR: If the Survivor tells Stormblessed "My life to yours, my breath to yours." AND GIVES UP HIS MAIN DRIVING FORCE IE "SURVIVE" to help save the entire Cosmere I am going to straight up lose my mind. And enjoy every rusting, storming, color-soaked MINUTE of it.)

[cosmik-homo]

I may not be able to play the True Tones Of Roshar but can Kaladin Bridgeboy Stormblessed play Jolene??? Thought so.

[renarin-kholin]

“Dalinar is going to send you to Shinovar,” Wit said, “because he hopes Ishar can help with the contest of champions. Ishar can’t help, not like that, but you still need to go.��

“Why?” Kaladin asked. “Why go if I can’t do what I’m sent to do?”

“Because this is the journey, Kaladin,” Wit said softly. “The last part of it. Listen to me: I want you to practice with that flute until you make the sound return to you. Because that will mean Roshar is listening.”

insert my ishar syl human theory and kaladin playing the pure tone of honor theory

[eternally-tired-cryptid]

I love love love that humans are slowly learning the rhythms and tones of roshar. Navani is learning them scientifically, picking up on notes on Raboniel and her own study. But like, in Teft's POV he clearly has some understanding, as he comments on Rlain and can pick up on his emotions thru how he speaks with or without Rlains learned exaggerated movements. I feel like if we saw more of bridge four and co interacting w rlain we'd see they've unintentionally begun to learn some of the rhythms bc of it

[kingjasnah]

I think there’s a compelling argument to be made that the listeners to Hoid’s story in Ssp1 and Ssp3 are two different people. If I remember correctly, he mentions rich sailing culture and I think aliens? As something the Ssp1 guy should be familiar with, which makes me think of Sixth of the Dusk, obviously. Roshar doesn’t have a sailing culture, only Thaylenah does. And I can’t think of any important Thaylen characters Hoid would be talking to. (Plus the aliens thing but that might just be me misremembering something else).

As for Ssp3, the mere mention of Vedens as something the listener should be familiar with pidgeonholes it to Roshar kinda hard I think. Would make sense for it to be Sigzil then, though I’d understand if it was Khriss or Shallan or something, as a previous ask said.

I haven’t actually started Ssp3 but I finished Ssp1 so tbh you’d probably know better than me tho, whadda ya think?

well i agree with you in that it's probable that there are two different listeners just cause the tone of address in ssp1 and ssp3 is a little different (though that might be chalked up to the varying degrees of how much hoid is embarrassing himself in either) but well.....i was pretty convinced whoever he was talking to was a worldhopper. both books are set in the future from where we are in stormlight so shallan and sigzil are still contenders because theyve both studied customs of different countries on roshar. i dont think your mention of thaylenah excludes them BUT im realizing i never considered rysn???? and she's like. likely. considering what's been going on with her recently she and hoid now share something very very plot significant.

scadrial had a quick shoutout in passing where im at in ssp3, but the references are still very roshar heavy