ZeldaDad he/him Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 (edited) So this topic is for anything and everything surrounding the phenomena of highstorms. Obviously, if you haven't read the Way of Kings, you probably shouldn't read this thread; spoilers will follow. As The Coppermind states: A highstorm is a particularly fierce weather system on the planet of Roshar. They happen every few days and move from east to west,starting at the Origin and continuing across the entire continent, though they weaken gradually as they cross,and are mostly broken by the mountains east of Shinovar. A highstorm has three general stages, the leading edge is called the stormwall and is the most dangerous part of the storm, being a wall of water, dust and other debris picked up by the storm, and extremely high winds, the main section of the storm has less debris although the powerful gusts of winds can still pick up large rocks on occasion, as the storm passes by it gradually calms until the trailing edge, called the riddens is simply light rain mixed with occasional relatively mild gusts of wind. At some point during the main part of the storm spheres left outside, usually in baskets secured to the undersides of roofs, are infused with Stormlight. So that's a highstorm. Clearly not completely "natural" but the inhabitants of Roshar have found ways to deal with them. What I would like to know is what you think caused the storms? Why did they start, what is their purpose, will they ever stop, etc.? A key aspect is the infusion of Stormlight that occurs durring the course of the storms. Why is this? Is this possibly an effect of Honor's shard similar to the mists in Mistborn? Or is it something else entirely unrelated to Honor? I personally think it is much like the mists in Mistborn. They provided the power of a god to Vin. Stormlight is much the same, if less selectively used. Ready, set, discuss! Edited March 27, 2011 by Endra kin'Fox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeatherWriter she/her Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 I also have a strong feeling that the Highstorms (or whatever causes them) are related to the impermanent seasons as well. In order for their seasons to work like ours - planet tilt and all that - Roshar would have to be really off balance in a very unstable way. I have a feeling The Weeping, the period at the end of the year with light constant rain with one highstorm at the middle - is more important than we've given it credit for being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordofsoup Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 It seems to obvious, but I always thought that they were a little similar to the mists, until Ruin got a hold of them, made them really powerful and people started dying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeldaDad he/him Posted March 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 I mean, the mists killed people too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyman he/him Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 I also have a strong feeling that the Highstorms (or whatever causes them) are related to the impermanent seasons as well. In order for their seasons to work like ours - planet tilt and all that - Roshar would have to be really off balance in a very unstable way. I have a feeling The Weeping, the period at the end of the year with light constant rain with one highstorm at the middle - is more important than we've given it credit for being. Agreed. The really weird weather is quite the anomaly. It's nothing like the real world, or any world we know. Given the high-storms, this isn't surprising, but it is food for thought. Especially given that the seasons change with the Highstorms, IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kykeon Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 Agreed. The really weird weather is quite the anomaly. It's nothing like the real world, or any world we know. Given the high-storms, this isn't surprising, but it is food for thought. Especially given that the seasons change with the Highstorms, IIRC. No, that's --at least according to current knowledge-- incorrect. The seasons (namely the weeping) influence the Highstorms, not the other way around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeatherWriter she/her Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 The seasons (namely the weeping) influence the Highstorms, not the other way around. Do we know this for sure or is this a "Are windspren attracted to the wind or do the cause it?" sort of question? We can tell they're related, but can we be sure which affects which? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zas678 he/him Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 No, Featerwriter, I believe you're right. The seasons are temporary. Hardback, page 323 "Dalinar's stormwardens projected another few weeks of spring, followed by a return to summer. Hopefully it wouldn't turn to winter instead." It's like this in the past too. In Dalinar's vision of when the Radiants give up their Shardplates and Shardblades, there's odd weather too. Page 728 "Storming weather," the man muttered. "How long's it going to last? Been eight weeks already." Eight weeks? Forty days of winter at once? That was rare." The other really really interesting thing about the Highstorm? They have some connection to the spren. When Rysn is in Shin (during one of the interludes), she notices the green grass, the soft soil, and the utter lack of spren. This seems to be because there is no Highstorms in Shin (because of the mountians). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morderkaine he/him Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 Dalinar's visions only come during a Highstorm. There are no Highstorms in Shinovar. Therefor: if Dalinar went to Shinovar he would no longer get visions? Ooh, ooh, ooh. If the Highstorms and spren are connected, and Dalinar's visions are linked to the Highstorms. Then, Dalinar's Vision's are caused by spren? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zas678 he/him Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 That's... interesting. I wonder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kykeon Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 Do we know this for sure or is this a "Are windspren attracted to the wind or do the cause it?" sort of question? We can tell they're related, but can we be sure which affects which? So you mean that Highstorms not happening for a long time is what triggers the Weeping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kykeon Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 Dalinar's visions only come during a Highstorm. There are no Highstorms in Shinovar. Therefor: if Dalinar went to Shinovar he would no longer get visions? Yes, that's more than likely. If the Highstorms and spren are connected, My theory is that Spren "exist" everywhere on the planet, but that they need a certain base level of ambient energy to appear/manifest which the stormlight provides. Shinovar is simply an energetic "wasteland" due to the hightstorms being dispelled by the mountains, so no stormlight = no spren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeldaDad he/him Posted March 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 My theory is that Spren "exist" everywhere on the planet, but that they need a certain base level of ambient energy to appear/manifest which the stormlight provides. Shinovar is simply an energetic "wasteland" due to the hightstorms being dispelled by the mountains, so no stormlight = no spren. I like and agree with this theory. This is what I have thought from the beginning, in terms of spren. Many think the spren are parts of Honor's body as well(if I remember correctly). I think the storms are part of Honor's body. Maybe then connection is there. Maybe it's totally different. Continue discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leinton Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 I have been wondering something about the Highstorms for a while... are the storms circular? Like, does the stormwall envelop the storm completely? Or is it just at the front of the storm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puck he/him Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 Just the front. In like a lion, out like a lamb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeatherWriter she/her Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 Hmm. Now I wonder. The weeping comes at the same time every year and is how the Rosharians keep track of years, but does it actually line up with the revolution of the planet? And if so, what about the planet's positioning causes the weeping to occur? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leinton Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 Then Highstorms aren't natural in any way. Natural storms, such as hurricanes, have a circular shape. They can't sustain themselves without that shape. Especially a storm as small as a Highstorm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyRioter she/her Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 they're *not* small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leinton Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 In terms of size of a storm, I figure they're about twice the size of a large hurricane from what I've read. Compared to the storms we get in the midlatitudes, that's pretty small. Means they're more intense, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeatherWriter she/her Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 Wait, how is "twice the size of a large hurricane" small? And Roshar seems fairly large; they cover the whole continent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leinton Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 Hurricanes are condensed, I was comparing them to country wide storms we get in the midlatitudes in the winter. Sorry, size doesn't mean much in my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonko the Sane he/him Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 What's truly interesting is that, apart from a small hint by Hoid, the evidence is fairly strong that the storms travel only East to West. If that is true, where do they go after they hit the western point of the globe? I have two potential explanations. The more reasonable one is that they travel still further, so that in reality there is a small number of storms that circle the globe, hitting Roshar over and over again. Alternatively, and somewhat more far-fetched, they could be absorbed by Honor's body. We have evidence that Honor is in the West, and windspren, potentially pieces of the Shard, follow the storms in that direction. Syl, too, felt an urge to follow them, so it's not just one kind of spren. Could Honor be somehow reforming? On another note, the ketek in the endnote has a lot of, albeit cryptic, information on the storms. Most intriguingly, it describes them as dying. This meshes with my first theory, as storms that exist for that long must eventually falter. Lastly, while on the topic of planets, can someone find me a quote as to which directions the sun rises and sets in? I have a hunch that the axis of rotation will make a lot of difference in the way we look at things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOM1else he/him Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 I had an idea, maybe really it is the continent that is moving. Somewhere on the planet there is a gingantic storm(s) that Roshar (the continent) passes through, when it gets to the eye of the storm it ends until it enters again. this could explain why they can be calculated mathmatically and why the seasons are so short. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zas678 he/him Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 But then it would be perfectly mathematical. If Roshar runs into storm in an ABFDFD pattern (for time), even if that pattern is over several years, it would be noticed and predicted, perfectly. Of course, if the storms do move slightly, and do grow and swell and shrink (as storms tend to do), then that could explain the general predictions. But what about seasons then? Perhaps Roshar has no tilt, so really, there are no seasons, just temperature and wind changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOM1else he/him Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 I was thinking that they would have a tilt but that the continent would be moving along so that every 8weeks (or however long their seasons are) it would be in an other hemisphere where they would be experiencing a different season then the one they started in. I really don't have much to back up this idea but I just kind of thought about it when I noticed Roshar is shaped like a hurricane cloud. I still need to iron out some kinks to see if it could work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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