#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.

[felagund-fiollaigean]

okay but if they ever adapted stormlight to screen, the only casting reveal i will care about is who they're gonna get to do the score

[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.

[cosmererambles]

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 🫡🫡

[naomi-the-red]

Odium is Red, Cultivation is Green, Honor is Blue, and that's why Renarin is Trans

I am going to toss this out here now because the sooner I say this, either the more impressive it'll be or the easier it'll be forgotten if I'm totally wrong.

Warning: Spoilers and a bit of rambling ahead

When you have a bright saturation of both Blue and Red, it creates a tension that hurts the eyes. When Honor and Odium clash, you get war. To make the two work together, you need an emulsifier.

Red and Blue can emulsify with Green. Green and Blue make Cyan, Red and Green make Yellow, and Red and Blue, make Magenta.

Connection is Cyan, Identity is Yellow, and Intention is Magenta.

Honor and Cultivation make Connection. Cultivation and Odium make Identity. Odium and Honor make Intention.

Magenta is not a real color; it is the absence of green. Intention cannot be known; it has no form to be trusted. Navani and Raboniel resonated on the Rhythm of War because they could not trust each other. However, if they had trusted each other, their resonance would have aligned with Intention (and been such a gay pink)

When Connection is severed, your body dies. When Identity is severed, your mind dies. When Intention is severed, your soul dies.

When Ba-Ado-Mishram was imprisoned, she severed the connections between the shards. Deadeyes have no control over their bodies. Singers have no control over their minds, and Roshar lost it's song.

I bet that the Highstorms became nightmarish when BAM was imprisoned, which is why Roshar is so desolate. The Stormfather went on autopilot, the Nightwatcher became weird, and the Sibling went offline.

The Stormfather is the Spear and represents Intention and the Divine Masculine

The Nightwatcher is the Crown and represents Connection and the Divine Feminine

The Sibling is the Tower and represents Identity and the Divine Other

The Unmade were originally the ones in this role, but their rhythms were inverted, and split apart. BAM was probably the first unmade and began the Desolations. This may have been an accident as a result of Honor and Cultivation switching sides with Odium, or her being inverted caused the switch. Not sure the cart to the chull here.

Renarin, with the help of BAM, will remake the unmade and be the one to pick up the Crown, the Tower, and the Spear. He is going to unite all three shards on Roshar, creating Melody, and will restore the tones of Roshar into full songs.

Renarin is going to be our trans main character, being all of these aspects united.

The four dawn shards are based around the four noble truths of Buddhism; there is suffering (Torment), there is a cause to it (Severance?), there is an end to suffering (Unity?), and there is a path to end it (Change).

The war with Scadrial will end with Harmony uniting with Melody to create one-half of a new Adonalsium.

The other shards will continue to sever, creating the other half of neo-Adonalsium.

The end result of the Cosmere will be a rebirth of the universe that creates ours.

.

.

.

Moash is going to bond the Nightwatcher.

[onlycosmere]

Jeez okay, that’s a bit of a horrific tone shift. It reminds me of Roshar’s Death Rattles.

[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.)

[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

[squirrelwrangler]

Got around to reading Tress of the Emerald Sea

and without knowing it was directly inspired by The Princess Bride I immediate caught those vibes. Very cute, some good lines, Sanderson's strengths instead of weaknesses when it comes to prose (He can make it PAINFUL to read his stories sometimes because he's so bland that it actively hinders his plot) but the fourth-wall breaking Hoid narrator fixed that. Plus even though it was heavy on the planet-crossing Cosmere elements, because it was more central to the story instead of the obnoxious blatant cameos that it is in later Mistborn and Roshar (Cosmere is self-indulgent in a way that detracts from those series for my tastes, being too much for a fun easter egg and thus tripping up world-building and plot but not enough to fully justify its outsized presence). It's also something similar to what I'll dislike in Dianna Wynne Jones novels. This time because it was the main villain and curse-break solution, thus a category above the rest of the plot magic and by virtue of story structures allowed to be something outside normal context, having them be literal aliens plus the more flippant tone worked for Tress where it wouldn't in another novel. And for once the avalanche of plot at the climax wasn't as terribly paced into that meme'd avalanche as it often is for him. Yet again BS wrote a funky planet with a multi-element but neatly categorized science-y flavored hard magic system (with a rumored extra element) and okay that's fun but I'm done with them. It's too predictable in that there's a very recognizable Sanderson Magic System that he adds every time and the charm and novelty has worn off. Ironically this might be one of my favorite books from him. Ugh, though, more confirmation that while he's a fantasy author I'll eagerly read from, there's a reason why he's not in my top favorites, especially for inspiration.