Roshar

Roshar is the second planet from the sun in the Rosharan System, orbiting between Ashyn and Braize. It is also the name of the supercontinent that contains all of the planet's known inhabitants. Roshar possesses three natural satellites, though it possessed four at the point of creation, however, the fourth moon eventually crashed into Roshar.
The planet was directly created by Adonalsium around twelve to thirteen thousands years before the Night of Sorrows.
People from Roshar are referred to as Rosharans. The planet is particularly noteworthy due to the activity of several Shards of Adonalsium in the area; the various forms of magic used by its residents, including Surgebinding through the use of Stormlight; and the portability of their local form of Investiture.
== Planetary Characteristics ==
 
Roshar was built by Adonalsium following the fundamental mathematics and equations of nature and the universe. This granted it a preternatural orderliness. 
There are no oil deposits from mass extinction events on Roshar.
The rainwater in highstorms is laced with a sort of slurry called crem. When crem dries, it hardens into rock. Since the highstorms always sweep from east to west, crem builds up on the eastern side of anything that stays still and isn't regularly cleaned. Over time, the continent is very slowly shifting across the planet as the highstorms cause erosion of the western portion and a build-up on the eastern portion. This rainwater is full of nutrients, and plants given it fare better than those given water from other sources, such as lake or river water. Various cremlings search out and eat plants as they lap up the stormwater.
=== Physical Characteristics and Parameters ===
Gravitational acceleration on Roshar is notably lower than usual, at 6.86 m/s2, or 70% of the cosmere standard. Though it is still in common ranges. This is due, in part, to the planet's small size; Roshar has a circumference of approximately 22110 miles (35580 km), giving a radius of 3519 miles (5663 km), and comes in just under 90% of the cosmere standard size. These yield a planetary mass of 3.296×1024 kilograms, and an average density of 4.33 g/cm3.
Roshar has 0° of axial tilt. Due to having no axial tilt, the sun runs along the equator. Rosharans can easily geolocate themselves and tell time by the path and location of the sun.
Roshar does not have plate tectonics. Roshar produces enough of a magnetic field through unknown internal processes to protect it from its sun, allowing it to be inhabited by life.
=== Surface ===
Most of Roshar's surface is water. The hydrosphere is separated into several oceans, known as the Endless Ocean, the Ocean of Origins, the Steamwater Ocean, the Northern Depths, and the Southern Depths. The hydrosphere is also divided into seas, such as the Aimian Sea, the Reshi Sea, and the Tarat Sea.
At one point in Roshar's past there were no large landmasses. Like all of the Rosharan system, the Rosharan supercontinent was designed by Adonalsium; it was constructed following the shape of a Julia set, for the continent was shaped by the fundamental mathematics and patterns of nature and the universe. The continent is not formed by tectonic processes, as it lacks plate tectonics in their entirety. The continent is instead formed and shaped by Adonalsium, and then by wind and storm erosion, and crem deposition.
The Rosharan supercontinent is the only continent on the planet, though not necessarily the only landmass, though it is probable that there are no other noteworthy landmasses as Ishar could not find the Uvara islands despite three thousand years of searching. 
The main continent lies primarily in the southern hemisphere, spanning from just a few degrees north of the equator to about 55° south of the equator, and extends approximately 120° longitude. It covers roughly 4×107 square kilometers.
=== Orbit and Rotation ===
The orbital period of Roshar is around 1.1 standard years. Its semi-major axis is not currently known.
The solar day of Roshar is around 20 rosharan hours, and there are around 500 solar days in a year.
=== Soul and Tones ===
Spiritually, Roshar is known to have a Spiritweb, to which the many spren of Roshar Connect. The planet also possesses a soul. 
Roshar is stated to have four natural tones, likely reaching back to the planet's creation by Adonalsium. On top of these four tones of the planet, the planet is also associated with the tones of Honor, Cultivation, and Odium, who Invested themselves within it. This likely changed after the birth of Retribution and the exodus of Cultivation.
The tones, and Roshar itself, appear to possess some form of agency, for they were stated to have "chosen" Ba-Ado-Mishram. Furthermore, it has been stated to "adopt" Shards who reside within the system.
=== Time Dilation ===
Following the combination of Honor and Odium into Retribution, time becomes significantly dilated in the space around Roshar in both the Physical and Cognitive Realms. This effect is strongest on the Night of Sorrows and diminishes in strength over time, until Roshar realigns with the standard flow of time after about a decade, during which approximately seventy to eighty years pass for the rest of the cosmere. This had a immense effect on interplanetary trade and communication, due to risks involved with entering an area of such heavy temporal dilation. Some parties, due to this, consider such trade infeasible.
== Atmosphere ==
The level of oxygen in the atmosphere of Roshar is higher than that of most other planets in the cosmere. This heightened level of oxygen has been present since its creation and is maintained by the production of oxygen from the ocean.
=== Climate ===
With the exception of Shinovar and the occasional well-sheltered lait, all of Roshar is frequently ravaged by powerful highstorms, massive hurricanes travelling from east to west. These storms come frequently and, though they do not appear to follow a simple pattern, stormwardens are able to accurately predict their schedule through complex mathematics. As a result, Shinovar is the only place on Roshar that has soil. A highstorm consists of a high altitude, wide-spread cumulonimbus, scraping the top of Roshar's troposphere; they can be derecho-like storms bringing heavy rain and strong winds. Though with the death of the Stormfather and the Ascension of Retribution the highstorm was consumed by the Everstorm, which now covers the majority of Roshar, excluding Azir and Urithiru.
The one consistent aspect of the Rosharan climate is the Weeping. The Weeping occurs every five hundred days and consists of four weeks of steady crem-free rain. The middle day of those four weeks is known as the Lightday and alternates between being one clear day in the midst of the rain and being a high storm. There are typically fewer highstorms in the weeks leading up to the Weeping. The seasons following the weeping typically have weaker storms, making them good for farming. 
Due to having zero obliquity, Roshar does not experience true seasons, with them instead simply being defined by current temperature, climate, and storms, unrelated to irradiance. These seasons are relatively random, and are often quite short, usually lasting only a few weeks. They can be roughly predicted by stormwardens. Seasons are primarily defined by changes in the storms. Due to not being caused by axial tilt, they can vary greatly even between relatively nearby nations on the same hemisphere.
The equatorial regions of Roshar, particularly the Reshi Isles, are notable for their intense heat and humidity compared with the rest of the planet.
The far south of Roshar gets cold, freezing near the poles. 
==== Night of Sorrows and the True Desolation ====
Following the birth of Retribution on , the Highstorm was completely ceased by the new Shard and the Everstorm was spread to cover all of Roshar and continue abating. This led to constant rainfall and lightning, and Roshar being left in an eternal night-like state. This devastating change in the climate deeply impacted local civilizations, and likely impacted the local ecosystem which had a reliance upon the Highstorm. These environmental changes are classified as the Night of Sorrows. Whilst Roshar was covered by the Everstorm, Azir and Urithiru, as per the agreements made between Dalinar and Odium, were left free of the storm.
It is unclear if the True Desolation is still ongoing as of Roshar's space age, or if it ceased sometime before such developments.
== Spren and Ecology ==
===Spren===
Among many factors that make Roshar unique among other cosmere worlds is the overabundance of spren. Spren are small pieces of Investiture that have acquired sentience - and, in some cases, sapience - through the influence of Roshar's living creatures. They are a mix of different Shardic Investiture, mainly Honor and Cultivation, and exist mostly in the Cognitive Realm. However, they can and will often become partially visible in the Physical Realm, and some transition there entirely.
Three main groups of spren can be recognized. The nature spren correspond to various natural phenomena, such as windspren or flamespren, which appear in the presence of wind and fire respectively. Emotion spren are attracted to emotions, such as fearspren appearing when one is afraid or gloryspren for people who feel intense pride. However, a natural phenomenon or an emotion will not necessarily summon a spren, as they may not be present in the physical place's Cognitive equivalent. All of or a majority of these spren were made by Adonalsium. 
The third group of spren are so-called true spren. Those spren are all sentient, and have an organized society in the Cognitive Realm. They transition to the Physical Realm only when searching for a prospective Knight Radiant to bond, as the shift robs them of most of their higher functions, which they reclaim through forming a Nahel bond. The Radiant spren seem to represent higher concepts, such as honor for the honorspren or truth and lies for Cryptics. All ten varieties of true spren were made by Honor and Cultivation, seven being a mix, one being of Cultivation, and one of Honor. The tenth were made to not be as human and these include the Stormfather, Nightwatcher, and Sibling.
In addition to those, there is a number of unique spren who are far more powerful than others. Among those is the Nightwatcher, who can grant boons and curses; the Stormfather, who controls the highstorms; the Sibling, who controls the tower-city of Urithiru; and Cusicesh, who announces the beginning of the next step of the Long Trail to the Iriali and opens a perpendicularity for them.
==== Ancient Spren ====
Early in Roshar's history there were three major spren, the Stone, the Wind, and the Night. These spren predate the Shattering, and are considered to be echoes of Adonalsium, and to possess its voice. Before the arrival of Odium, the Wind and Stone were worshipped by the Singers. The Night, however, was feared and scorned. Due to this, it eventually abandoned Roshar, but Cultivation made the Nightwatcher with some of its remaining essence. Furthermore, the Sibling was made using the essence of the Stone, and the Stormfather from the essence of the Wind. 
Before the creation of the three Bondsmith spren known during the Era of Solitude, Bondsmiths bonded to these three spren.
Eventually, these primeval spren went silent, with the Night entirely leaving the planet. This silence lasted for thousands of years, until the Wind and Stone began to move and communicate once more in the days leading up to the Contest of champions and the Night of Sorrows.
=== Ecology ===
The shape and form of Rosharan ecology is influenced by four major factors: low gravity, high oxygen content, highstorms, and spren. The high oxygen content and the low gravity permit the existence of megafauna comparable only to the largest sandlings on Taldain, while several species of animals are capable of forming spren bonds, further augmenting their capabilities. However, the most visually notable feature of Rosharan ecology is the way vast majority of them adapted to highstorms. Multiple species of both flora and fauna have developed shells to protect themselves from extreme weather, withdrawing into them whenever any danger approaches.
Several species are noted as having body parts made of stone, such as the bark of dalewillow or hooves of Ryshadiums. As stone doesn't grow naturally, three possibilities must be considered:
* The substance is actually stone, somehow either grown or gathered by the creatures,
* The substance is organic, but highly similar in appearance and texture to stone,
* The substance is hardened crem, deliberately cultivated by those creatures.
==== Flora ====
Rosharan flora had to adapt to several conditions not found on other worlds, such as the severe weather and scarcity of soil. Due to this, they have developed various idiosyncratic traits and properties indicative of Rosharan flora, such as the use of hardened crem for protection, or the ability to move out of the intense winds of highstorm. Flora in eastern Roshar is most prominent in well-protected laits, which provide defence from the strong winds and rains. 
 
The largest family of plants on Roshar are the rockbuds. They are characterized by having a thick outer shell from which they take their name, and tendrils, which retract into the shell upon detecting danger. The Rosharan grass, which acts in this way, is likely another subspecies of rockbud, albeit close enough in appearance to Shin grass to retain the name. Similar mechanism has been developed by vinebuds, which grow from a sturdy, yet elastic stem and, rather than spreading their tendrils along the ground, waft them in the air, akin to anemones. Rocklily leaves are an essential component of the diet of chull larvae.
Further to the east, where the highstorms are the strongest, even such measures are not enough. There, plants grow mostly in sheltered areas, such as the chasms and laits, while remaining sparse in the open air. More fragile flora, such as vines and weeds, grow and flourish in such terrain, though some, like knobweed, seem to prefer flatlands, utilizing highstorms deliberately to spread.
Contrarily, in the west where highstorms are weakened by the mountain ranges, plants are much less sensitive to stimulation and retract their leaves more slowly.
Roshar does have larger flora. Some trees, including the aforementioned dalewillow, have trunks made of stone while others, such as the jella, augment their wooden bark by accumulating crem. Like rockbuds, they withdraw their fronds into the trunks when sensing danger. There are also species such as makam and cobwood, which appear to be sturdy enough to sustain highstorms without added protection.
Rosharan grass is known to move away from disruptions or vibrations, often fully retracting to protect itself. It is type of shallowly burrowed seed pod that has enough room to hold moisture and contain the coiled up leaf. They at most grow to around three feet tall. Seeds emerge from the leaf tip to either be consumed and redeposited as faeces, or carried and redesposited by the wind. Some reeds produce flowers that entice cremlings, who then feast on the flower petals. During their feasting, these cremlings rub themselves with spores, which are released elsewhere and grow into the next generation of reeds.
;Human uses
Some species of native Rosharan flora are edible for humans. This includes a number of fruits as well as a rice-like plant called tallew, and lavis, a type of rockbud that produces grain. Tallew, lavis, and longroot appear to be the major ingredients of Rosharan diet, with massive farmlands devoted to them throughout the continent. In the West, the same niche appears to be filled by clema.
Additionally, there exist a number of plants with known healing properties. This includes antiseptics, such as the sap of knobweed and fourleaf, as well as lister's oil; treatments for specific diseases, such as bitterleaf for epilepsy and bloodivy for the grindings; anesthetics like winterwort and firemoss; and other, more specific medicines, such as denocax, which encourages skin healing.
By contrast, several species of plant are noted to have detrimental effect on humans. Firemoss is known to be highly addictive, and blackbane's leaves, once dried, are extremely poisonous. Eating shells of rockbuds is similarly known to be unhealthy, although the Unkalaki are capable of eating them without problems, likely thanks to their singer ancestry. While not all plants are edible, some, like breachtree and narbin, are grown to make fabrics.
==== Fauna ====
Roshar contains a wide variety of fauna, most of which appears to be shelled. While most creatures are native to the world, some have been introduced into Roshar during human exodus from Ashyn, among them mammals and birds.
Like Rosharan flora, the animals of Roshar have also adapted to their environment, such as the lower-than-standard gravity and higher-than-standard oxygen levels. Following from this, most Rosharan fauna is known to breath oxygen. The harsh environment and weather placed various pressures upon Rosharaun fauna. Several species, including the largest, grow massive shells which can protect them from highstorms. Others hide in dens or, in case of small sarpenthyn, ooze between the cracks in the rock.
;Spren symbiosis
Multiple native species, as well as at least one imported animal, have formed symbiotic relationships with spren. This appears to be faciliated by gemhearts, crystals that grow naturally within the bodies of those creatures. 
* Larger animals on Roshar utilize bonds with mandras, or luckspren, to decrease the pull of gravity on them, allowing creatures such as chasmfiends to exist without collapsing upon themselves. In the case of skyeels, the same bond, coupled with smaller size, permits them to fly.
* The native sentient species, the Singers, bond with a variety of spren to attain a number of forms, which alter their mental state, biological functions and appearance. While bonded, the spren remain within the gemheart.
* Ryshadium bond with what appears to be musicspren, attaining higher intelligence and physical strength. It is, however, unclear so far whether or not they have gemhearts.
* The fish in the Purelake gain various medicinal benefits through spren bonds.
;Non-shelled animals
Mammals dwell mostly in Shinovar, though a few species have been successfully exported east. Those include horses, which are widely used as far east as Alethkar, and hogs, which are the primary source of non-Soulcast meat. While most mammals are domesticated, hogs, as well as minks and rats, can be found in the wild. Several species of birds are known to exist, although they are all known as "chickens" among Eastern Rosharans. This includes actual chickens as well as more colorful birds, such as parrots. In contrast to mammals, they do not seem to do well in the wild, as all examples observed so far are domesticated. Amphibians, such as the lurg can also be found, as well as wide variety of fish, including both fresh- and seawater ones. Cephalopods also exist, albeit with unusual properties - zatalef, for example, is described as bat-like, implying the ability to fly. Another category are sarpenthyn, which appear to be similar to both mollusks and cephalopods, albeit without shells and with smaller number of arms. 
;Shelled animals
The largest known group of animals on Roshar are crustaceans. Those can be of various sizes, from finger-long to four-stories-high. They are all noted as having violet blood and multiple stages of life, with the initial stage being called a larva and the process of switching between stages called pupation. The creation of shells is aided by the presence of crem in the rain, which the creatures can process into minerals.
One of the largest crustacean family are cremlings, a group of tiny, multi-legged scavengers preying mostly on deceased animals, although they will also feed on uncovered plants after highstorms. Cremlings come in variety of colors, with different features, numbers of legs, and behaviours. While most are individuals, some are part of the Sleepless swarms, and as such share a sentient hivemind. The Sleepless cremlings are bred for particular purposes, such as imitating human body parts.
Other than the cremlings, Roshar also features a number of larger crustaceans that are nonetheless smaller than humans. This group includes predatory species, such as the axehound, herbivores like axehind, and near-cremling sized creatures like leggers and larkin, as well as species like crabs. The larkin in particular are unusual for their flight, as well as the ability to pull Stormlight out of other creatures and absorb it.
The largest family of animals on Roshar are known as greatshells, which exist both on land and in the seas. All greatshells possess gemhearts and utilize them to attract mandras to decrease their own weight. The land greatshells include domesticated herbivores known as chulls and two large predatory species, the chasmfiend and the extinct lanceryn. The marine greatshells include the yu-nerig, which comes on land to pupate and is known to feed on humans, and the Tai-na, the largest animals known to inhabit the cosmere. Their legs are said to be sixty feet long, while the body itself stretches hundreds of feet tall. The back of Tai-na, which sticks out above water, is an ecosystem of its own, inhabited by multiple species of plants and animals, as well as humans.
The santhid, a massive marine species with large shell and a number of tendrils, might be considered a greatshell, and houses its own ecosystem, much like the Tai-na; however, as they were considered half-mythical until very recently, it's impossible to state so with any certainty.
;Domestication
A large number of domesticated creatures on Roshar are the imports from Ashyn. Many forms of birds are domesticated; some for food, while others as pets. Hogs are kept for meat, minks, like birds, are pets, while horses are common riding mounts. Of the local wildlife, axehounds are often kept and bred, similar to dogs, while chulls are the primary mount for hauling cargo or for riders who cannot afford to keep a horse. Another greatshell species called a gumfrem is kept for its gemhearts, which can be used to Soulcast meat.
;Sapience
Due to the presence of the Shard Cultivation, the creatures on Roshar have higher chance of developing sapience. So far, behaviour indicating sapience has been observed with three species, Ryshadium horses, Tai-na and santhidyn, all of which appear to have above average understanding of humans.
Separately from this, Roshar is known to have developed two independent sapient species: Siah Aimians and Singers. Both of them are humanoid, and capable of breeding with humans. Roshar's other sentient species are humans, who immigrated there from Ashyn, the Iriali, who have since fully integrated with the population of the planet, and the Sleepless (known also as Dysian Aimians), who are not native to the planet.
== History ==
=== Pre-Desolation Roshar ===
==== Creation and Early Inhabitants ====
The planet of Roshar predates the Shattering, and was created by Adonalsium. It had likely existed for about twelve to thirteen thousand years by the time of the True Desolation. It is unknown if Roshar, and the rest of the system, was directly created by the axon, or if it was formed from preexistent primordial material. However, it is known that, from the moment of its creation, it had more oxygen then most other inhabited planets in the cosmere.
For some period of time, Roshar had no major landmasses, with the Rosharan supercontinent that defines the surface not yet existing, at least not in its modern form. This supercontinent was then grown by Adonalsium, using fundamental mathematical laws and patterns that govern the cosmere, at an unknown point in time. Along with the planet, Adonalsium would create three primeval spren, the Wind, the Stone, and the Night. These spren would watch over and protect Roshar for many millennia.
At the point of creation, Roshar possessed four moons. These moons were placed in intentional, albeit unstable orbits around Roshar. Eventually, the fourth moon crashed into the surface of the planet at an unknown point in time before the Shattering and the arrival of Honor. The fragments buried themselves into the area that would come to be known as the Shattered Plains.
Much of the ecology of the planet existed from this time, including the highstorms and the spren. Singers lived on Roshar prior to the Shattering. The singers were the primary inhabitants of Roshar at this time and are likely the Dawnsingers spoken of in modern times, though they did not yet have access to the Surges as Honor gave those to them after he arrived to Roshar. They worshipped Adonalsium and the Stone and Wind.
==== Arrival of the Shards ====
Over ten-thousand years before the True Desolation, shortly after the Shattering, Honor and Cultivation discovered Roshar and settled there. Honor felt an immediate attachment to the Wind, feeling it call to and invigorate him. Honor granted the Singers the power of Stoneshaping, which allowed the Singers to shape and Connect to the stone of Roshar. He would, however, place various limitations upon it, to prevent the events that happened on Yolen from uncontrolled Microkinesis. Around two thousand years after their arrival, Honor and Cultivation would make the true spren. 
These Shards, and the ones to come, would come to be an immense motive force on the course of history for both singers and humans. Their arrival, and subsequent influence and relations with sapient and non-sapient entities of the world, would come to shape the societal, cultural, and political arrangements in society was based. This was only intensified with their active role in the existence of the people of Roshar over the millennia. 
The Singers would come to worship the Shards that inhabited the planet, though the process was slow and gradual. With some singers continuing to worship Adonalsium even several millennia after the arrival of Honor and Cultivation. 
Due to a lack of love or worship by the people of Roshar, the Night eventually left the planet. This occurred some time after Honor and Cultivation's arrival on Roshar.
==== The Expulsion and Early Interactions ====
:Main article: Expulsion
Humans fled to Roshar from Ashyn, another planet in the Rosharan system and then known as Alaswha, seven-thousand one hundred years before the True Desolation. They had destroyed the planet using the Surges, though Honor would later imply it was the Dawnshards, after Odium, who had been contacted by the humans after Hoid told them of the Shards, tricked Ishar into experimenting with Surges and had convinced one city state to form an empire. Honor would back a different state and the warring would led to the destruction of the planet. As the planet burned Jezrien, the new leader of the empire, would make peace with Makibak, the leader of Honor’s faction. Honor had spent around nine hundred years helping humanity on Ashyn, and over these centuries, many Singers would come to believe that Honor had abandoned them. These feelings of abandonment by their god left them predisposed to side with Odium when he appeared to them. Odium's arrival in the Rosharan system, and the subsequent movement of him and humanity to Roshar, is the essential cause of much of Rosharan history, and would lay the foundation of its course for the following millennia. 
Along with humanity, a large variety of animals from Ashyn would come to Roshar. These include pigs, minks, rats, a variety of parrots, and domestic dogs. The minks would become wild and feral, and rats would prosper despite the small amount that made it through to Roshar. Dogs, however, would go extinct within three-hundred years, due to too small of a breeding population making it through the portal. Axehounds were eventually bred and domesticated as a substitute for dogs.
Following the arrival of humanity on Roshar, Honor and Cultivation commanded the singers to take the humans in despite the forbidden powers they had relating to spren and Surges, and they were given Shinovar to live in since Shinovar could support the plants and animals they brought and this was where their portal opened by Ishar was. With the humans came Odium and Hoid who was in shock at what happened and wondered if he could have changed it. 
Much like in singer societies, human societies were deeply influenced by the resident Shards of the system. The Shards acted as a fundamental driving influence on various aspects of their societal structure, shaping religion, culture, morality, institutions, rituals, and so forth. All known religions on Roshar, apart from that of the Iriali, in some way descends from the influence, direct or indirect, of the Shards. 
Over time, the Singers began to side with Odium, fueled by dissatisfaction with a god they believed had abandoned them. This switching of sides would increase tensions between the two species, and, along with the natural desire for hegemonic expansion, would lay the foundation for future conflict between them.
Within fifty years, the humans especially those under Makibak grew dissatisfied with what they were given and with how they were treated by the singers if they went east. The conflict between the invading humans and the singers living on Roshar became the First Desolation. At some point during the First Desolation, Talenel attempted to kill Cultivation, but failed in his attempted. Due to this attempt, he would be cursed.
The creation of the Fused by Odium led to Honor and Ishar to begin to plan the creation of the Heralds. Ishar would make the Connections between the Heralds and Honor. Each Herald swore an oath to Honor in the order that they would to be known by (Jezrien, Nale, Chanarach, etc). Hoid was offered a place, but Talenel would take it up.
Fifty years before the creation of the Heralds, Honor, Cultivation, and Odium entered a contract designed by Cultivation and bond by Honor. This deal stipulated how the Shards could interact, restricted the power of Surgebinding, and trapped all three Shards to the Roshar system. This caused Roshar to adopt Odium like it had Cultivation and Honor.
=== The Heraldic Epochs ===
==== The Desolations ====
:Main article: Desolations
The Desolations were conflicts between mankind and Voidbringers. The first Desolation occurred when humans invaded Roshar from the land they were given. Some of the singers were infused with Odium's Investiture and became the Fused, according to the Heralds, only around four thousand Fused exist in total. The Fused did not pass into the Beyond and were instead reborn into the bodies of singers. 
To combat this, the Heralds made a deal with Honor called the Oathpact. This deal sealed away the Fused on Braize. However, there was a loophole. The Heralds could choose to allow the Fused to return to Roshar, so they were caught on Braize and tortured. The return of Heralds and Fused and the conflict that occurred became known as the Desolations. The spren started to mimic the herald's Honorblades and the Knights Radiant were formed. They helped to fight and rebuild society after a Desolation. 
Each Desolation returned humanity to the Stone Age. The process of sealing away the Fused is known as the Isolation. Each interregnum was a period of progress leading up to the next Desolation. Thus, human history on Roshar would be defined by a cycle of interregnum and Desolation, where humanity progresses, and where it regresses.
Time during this period was separated into several-century long Epochs, which are further separated into years. The exact method for defining when an Epoch starts or ends is currently unknown. One Desolation began to show signs of occurring in the Eighth Epoch, year 337, when a small village in Natanatan was attacked by the Midnight Essence.
Around six-thousand years before the Night of Sorrows, Honor and Cultivation created the Sibling out of the essence of the Stone, mixed with their own Investiture. The Sibling would come to play a vital role in the Desolations, acting as the mind of Urithiru and one of the three Bondsmith Spren.
At the conclusion of a Desolation fifty years before the Last Desolation, Honor and Odium clashed above Stormseat or Natanatan in general. Within the ground in this region lay the remains of a fourth moon made of a metal unknown to Honor. These remains would react with the shockwave caused by Honor and Odium, liquifying the ground in a pattern causing the creation of the Shattered Plains. It was after this event that Honor made a pact with the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram to defeat Odium.
The time between each Desolation grew shorter with each subsequent Desolation. At first there were centuries between Desolations, which eventually shortened into decades, which finally became a single year between the Last Desolation and the one directly before it.
==== The Last Desolation ====
:Main article: Last Desolation 
At the end of the Last Desolation, around four-thousand-five-hundred years before the True Desolation, nine of the ten Heralds had survived the fighting. As usual, they were supposed to return to Braize to hold back the Fused. However, knowing they could not face more torture, they came up with an alternative plan with the help of Honor, who realized what effects immortality had on the Heralds. Talenel, the only Herald never to have broken during the millennia of Desolations and the only Herald who had died that time, would remain on Braize by himself. They had been warned that lingering on Roshar could lead to the start of another Desolation, but Ishar claimed that Talenel by himself would be enough to hold back the Desolations and maintain the Oathpact. Rather than tell mankind the truth, the Heralds proclaimed that they had finally won the war against the Voidbringers. 
This deception lasted for around four-thousand-five-hundred years, until Talenel finally returned from Braize to Roshar in due to the breaking of Chanarach, who had been killed and sent back to Braize in .
After the Desolation, Honor would reside in Shinovar for two-thousand-five-hundred years thinking about how he was falling apart and failing at his role.
=== The Era of Solitude ===
==== The False Desolation ====
:Main article: False Desolation
The False Desolation began around two-thousand-five-hundred years after the Last Desolation, around two-thousand years prior to the Night of Sorrows, when Ba-Ado-Mishram absorbed the power of the Well of Control and learned how to Connect with the majority of the singers, giving them forms of power and access to Voidlight. In response to her accessing of the Well of Control, the Tones of Roshar chose her, and the planet aligned with her.
The Radiants, unaware of how she did this, sought a way to end the fighting for good, as the Heralds had promised them. The fighting became particularly intense at this time, as the singers made a push towards Feverstone Keep, possibly as part of a plan to capture Rall Elorim.
Working together, the scholars among the Radiants theorized that an Unmade could be imprisoned like a regular spren. In reality, this method was taught to Melishi by Honor in order to fulfill a promise to Odium. Thus was devised a plan to trap Ba-Ado-Mishram and prevent her from Connecting with the singers and providing them with Voidlight. This plan would require Melishi, the only Bondsmith of his generation, and a special prison, a perfect heliodor. Although Melishi was confident the plan would succeed in destroying the Voidbringers, Naze-daughter-Kuzodo warned of unintended side effects. Although the plan succeeded, sealing Ba-Ado-Mishram into the Spiritual Realm, Naze-daughter-Kuzodo's warning was correct. Because she had been Connected to all the singers and an extent all of Roshar, their Connection and Identity was torn out of them, creating slaveform or parshmen. The situation was further worsened by how the tones of Roshar and the planet itself had chosen and aligned with Ba-Ado-Mishram. In the moment when she was sealed away, the planet went still as its rhythms and tones froze. This cessation continued for three seconds.
This additionally allowed for the creation of the deadeyes, as when Mishram was released the deadeyes began to heal. After Mishram was imprisoned, Tanavast began to lose control of Honor and when Garith reached towards the Shard, all the Radiants were shown a vision of what they would do. This was likely the cause of the Recreance as the Radiants saw what they could do.
As Tanavast had made an alliance with Mishram millennia earlier, his betrayal of Mishram caused him to lose control of Honor leading to his demise as it was a broken oath. A part of the mind of Tanavast would live on in the Stormfather and the Shard would not be taken up by another Vessel until , when it was briefly taken up by Dalinar Kholin.
At the end of the False Desolation, a group of singers known as the Last Legion were allowed to leave the fight by Ba-Ado-Mishram. They would eventually arrive at the ruins of Natanatan on the Shattered Plains. Seeking freedom, they fled during a highstorm and took on dullform to escape the Fused's control. In order to avoid forgetting their knowledge, they composed songs, including Song of Listing, Song of Secrets and Song of Histories. They didn't, however, know how to transform into any forms except dullform and mateform by themselves. They planned to remain living as tribes and refugees, unnoticed and forgotten, as they studied and rediscovered the forms.
==== The Recreance ====
:Main article: Day of Recreance 
During the lead up to the Day of Recreance, many events occurred which demoralized the Knights Radiant. The Sibling withdrew from Urithiru which forced the Knights to abandon their ancestral home. This was mostly due to Melishi’s experimentation with imprisoning spren, which caused him to withdraw from the Sibling, and the upcoming Recreance. Many Radiants however blamed this on a perceived unworthiness, including increased conflicts between the Windrunners and Skybreakers, but scholars of the time disagreed. This concern extended to potential infiltration by Unmade. While this was occurring, the False Desolation was coming to a close. The presumed success in imprisoning Ba-Ado-Mishram leading to the singers having their Connection and Identity ripped out of them likely influenced the Radiants. In the midst of this turmoil, the Radiants discovered the truth about the origins of humans on Roshar. The singers had been the original inhabitants of Roshar. The humans came as refugees from their homeworld, which they had destroyed with surges. After being taken in by the singers and given Shinovar, they invaded Roshar and started the Desolations. While Honor had comforted previous generations who learned this, this time he was dying. He raved about the Dawnshards and promised the Radiants they would destroy Roshar like they had their homeworld.
As a result of these revelations, nine of the ten orders decided to abandon their oaths, and in agreement with their spren, kill them. They believed that this would prevent the destruction of Roshar Honor warned them about. At the locations they left their Plate and Blades, men quickly began fighting over the weapons, leading to much death and destruction. The Radiants, other than the Skybreakers, were quickly turned on and killed because of the sense of betrayal felt. Society for both spren and humans drastically changed in the aftermath. Those with Shardblades quickly consolidated their power, including using Arts and Majesty to justify women not wielding them. It is likely that this is when lighteyes truly came to power. The genocide decimated the populations of spren societies. Most of the survivors were children forced to spend centuries without nurture or guidance. Some societies took two thousand years to fully recover.
==== The Scouring of Aimia ====
:Main article: Scouring of Aimia 
What exactly occurred during the Scouring of Aimia is unknown but it appears that the vast majority of Aimia’s ecosystem collapsed, leading to the extinction of the lanceryn and the near extinction of the larkin. Most creatures there are quite rare since the scouring. The island of Akinah, however, was not destroyed and is still protected from outsiders by the Sleepless. Hessi indicates in Mythica that Dai-Gonarthis may have been responsible for the scouring.
At some point prior to this event, the Dawnshard of Change was brought to Aimia, and the Sleepless became its guardians due to the decline in the lanceryn and larkin.
==== Corruption of Shinovar ====
Around a thousand years before the Night of Sorrows, circa of the Vorin calendar, Ishar let himself be corrupted by the Well of Control. Following this, he would begin to corrupt and manipulate the leadership of Shinovar. He would, in part, use them for the purposes of finding proper replacement Heralds in order to reforge the Oathpact.
==== The Hierocracy and the War of Loss ====
:Main articles: Hierocracy and War of Loss
The Hierocracy began when the Vorin Church decided to conquer the world and run the government rather than just provide spiritual guidance. They claimed their conquering was for the good of the people. Some of the most powerful ardents claimed to have visions from the Almighty, which they used to solidify their rule and obfuscate their religion. One of their main goals was to destroy knowledge of the failures of Vorinism, including Shadesmar, the Knights Radiant, and the Recreance. 
They were primarily successful, as even the major libraries on Roshar are missing this information. Around five-hundred years before the Night of Sorrows, before the Hierocracy could spread to the west, Sadees, who would come to be known as the Sunmaker, united the princedoms of Alethkar to drive out the Hierocracy. They fought in various large battles in what came to be known as the War of Loss. The Sunmaker successfully cast down the Hierocracy and stated the visions were a fraud. 
Sadees's victory in the War of Loss affected much of eastern Roshar. Sadees declared himself king of Alethkar and began a conquest of Roshar. Although the extent of his empire is not exactly known, Herdaz and Azir were both included. He committed genocide in Azir and killed approximately ten percent of the population. His empire quickly collapsed after his death, however, as he did not choose an heir, and his ten sons divided the kingdom into princedoms and became highprinces. The effects of the Hierocracy on Vorinism can still be felt centuries later. The central leadership of the church was destroyed and split into mostly independent Devotaries. The ardents became slaves who could not own land or property. Their revisions to historical texts also perpetuate, and it is difficult to find information about pre-Hierocracy history or the Knights Radiant.
==== Reunification of Alethkar ====
In the year , House Kholin, led by Gavilar Kholin, led a war in order to reunify Alethkar like Sadees did before him. This conquest was successful, subjugating all ten Alethi princedoms under a singular crown for the first time since the times of the Sunmaker. It was during this war that Dalinar Kholin earned his Shards, including his Blade, Oathbringer. The war ended in 1145 with all ten Alethi Highprinces being unified into a single nation under Gavilar.
==== Rediscovery of the Listeners ====
In 1166, Dalinar and Gavilar Kholin went on a hunting trip a little south of the Shattered Plains. While Dalinar was scouting an unmapped forest in this region, he stumbled upon Eshonai, a young listener with an interest in exploring. She then led Dalinar to her family’s camp. At first the ruling council decided to let only a select few meet with the humans. The humans would take an interest to the ancient steel weapons of the listeners. Due to a translating mistake, the Alethi would come to believe that the chasmfiends were the listener’s gods. When the Alethi left, they gifted Eshonai’s family modern weapons and told them to claim one of the ten cities on the eastern edge of the Plains. When the humans visited again, Eshonai’s family had claimed a city. It was during this trip that Eshonai’s sister, Venli, was given a gemstone containing the Voidspren Ulim. Some time later Venli, with the help of Ulim, facilitated the rediscovery of warform, just in time for an attack by another listener family. After that confrontation, the listeners began to unite into one nation.
===== Assassination of Gavilar Kholin =====
In , during the signing celebration of the Alethi-Listener treaty, Gavilar revealed his plans to return the Fused to Roshar to Eshonai. This led her to warning the Five. Together, the Five decided that he had to be killed before he could go through with his plans. Coming to this decision, they sent Szeth as an assassin, and successfully killed the king. 
This assassination was traced back to the Listeners, as three Listeners remained to take credit for ordering the assassination, leading to Elhokar Kholin and the Ten Highprinces to declare war upon them in the Vengeance Pact, beginning the War of Reckoning.
At the same time as Gavilar's assassination, Shallan Davar killed her mother, the Herald Chanarach. Chanarach was sent to Braize, and was thus once more subjected to torture by the Fused.
==== The Eighties War ====
Meanwhile, in the Makabakam region, Emul and Tukar began to engage in a protracted war over ownership of the Dawncity of Sesemalex Dar. The Emuli had the city situated as their capital, and claimed it was their ancestral homeland, granted to them by the Heralds themselves. On the other side, the Tukari, led by the Herald Ishar, also claimed rightful ownership of the city for unknown reasons.
This conflict was not something new, with various wars over Sesemalex Dar occurring over the history of the two nations, with the Eighty's War only being the most recent iteration of these conflicts.
==== The War of Reckoning ====
Opening in 1167, the war between the Alethi and the Listeners started with the Assassination of Gavilar by Szeth, who would come to be known as the Assassin in White, on the orders of the listeners who had learned that Gavilar had been trying to bring about the return of the old listener gods. The Alethi Highprinces would then head to the Shattered Plains where they fought a war of attrition against the listeners. The majority of the Alethi armies were on the Plains, including most of their Shardbearers. 
As the years went on the fighting devolved into contest between the Highprinces and the listeners over the gemhearts of chasmfiends which could be used to grow food for the armies. Throughout the war, Venli had been manipulated by Ulim towards finding forms of power in order to bring about the Everstorm, though this was under the guise of helping the listeners. After 7 years of war, Dalinar Kholin would lead his army in addition to those of Aladar, Roion, and Sebarial to the center of the Plains, Narak during the Weeping. 
During the Battle of Narak, the listeners summon the Everstorm and the Stormfather sent an unexpected highstorm to the Plains. Lucky, Shallan Davar was able to open the StormseatOathgate allowing the armies to escape to Urithiru. The True Desolation would start almost immediately after this battle.
This Desolation was started by the breaking of Chanarach, who was killed by Shallan in , and thus the release of the Fused back to Roshar for the first time in four-thousand-five-hundred years.
=== Lead Up to the True Desolation ===
On , during the Battle of Narak, the Everstorm was summoned by Odium and a collection of Listeners. This brought an end to the Era of Solitude, and brought forth the True Desolation. Following the True Desolation, the Alethi side of the Battle of Narak came across an oathgate leading to Urithiru, which they promptly occupied as their base of operations.
==== Battle of Thaylen Field ====
The first true battle of the True Desolation. It began with the singer fleet sailing from Marat to Thaylenah which was a weaker military power and had been hit hard by the Everstorm. The fleet would arrive at Thaylen City, but the fighting would not start with the singers, as the Unmade Nergaoul would arrive and turn the forces of Amaram to Odium’s side. 
During the battle Dalinar Kholin and Odium would meet and Odium would try to claim Dalinar by using his memories and Nergaoul against him. Dalinar would rebuke Odium and would swear the Third Ideal, opening Honor's Perpendicularity allowing Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin to join the battle. The limited Radiant forces would be instrumental in defeating the singer army who would have to retreat.
At the end of the battle, the Unmade Nergaoul was sealed away in the King's Drop. The Unmade was studied for a period following his being sealed away, but he was eventually locked in an aluminum box and hidden away at the bottom of the ocean to keep him out of enemy hands.
==== Expedition to Aimia ====
After the rediscovery of the First Dreams, by a Thaylen war ship. At around the say time Rsyn’s pet larkin, Chiri-Chiri, was reaching the stage in her growth where she needed to return to the island of Akinah. This prompted Rsyn to lead an expedition to Aimia on her ship the Wandersail. The Coalition hoped to discover if the Oathgate on the island was operation or not. The Sleepless Nikli caused various types of sabotage in an effort to stop the expedition.
The crew eventually made it to the island, where Lopen, Huio, Rushu, and a number of sailors land on the island to search for loot and to check on the Oathgate, but discover a fake Oathgate. At the same time, Rsyn and Cord followed Chiri-Chiri into a cavern under the island where Cord discovers a suit of Shardplate and eight Soulcasters. This is where Rsyn becomes the Dawnshard of Change and negotiates her and her crew’s freedom from the Sleepless. The Oathgate would turn out to be functional, but would not be unlocked.
==== Singer Occupation of Urithiru ====
In 1175, an invasion of Urithiru was proposed by the newly awakened Raboniel To facilitate the plan they set up the Emuli offensive and the Veden betrayal as a distraction. Raboniel and her forces were dropped off by Heavenly Ones several weeks away from the tower and then hiked up to the tower through the caverns that led to the basement. The singer force would dispatch of the human guards and would enter the pillar room, where Raboniel would start to corrupt the Sibling causing all the remaining Radiant to fall unconscious, except for Kaladin and Lift who only lost their powers. Raboniel would have Moash use his Honorblade to open the Kholinar Oathgate to bring further forces.
The Sibling would inform Navani about the corruption via spanreed. Navani would then have Battalionlord Teofil lead an attack into the pillar room hoping that they could disable whatever Raboniel had done. This attack would be destroyed when The Pursuer joined the fight. Teofil’s men bought Navani the time needed to activate a shield, by using one of the four nodes, around the pillar which would keep Raboniel from further corrupting the Sibling though this did cost them one node which did weaken the shield. Navani would soon after be captured by the singers.
Kaladin would evade capture while transporting an unconscious Teft by hiding in a room that he was led to by the Sibling. The next day, the Sibling would inform Navani that another node had been found. Kaladin would then be informed and he would go face Lezian and Raboniel with only a spear and half of his power. The node would end up corrupted and destroyed, which further weakened Kaladin’s powers. Due to these events, Navani would have the glove made by Tomor left for Kaladin. 
A few days later, the Sibling told Navani about a node in a well in the Breakaway market, which Raboniel overheard and would head towards it. Frantic, the Sibling told Kaladin that another node had been found in the Breakaway market. Kaladin would go down there and used the glove to simulate his Lashings. After fighting both Lezian and Leshwi, Kaladin dove into the well and destroyed the node before Raboniel could corrupt it. This was a trap as Lezian placed a lid on the well. Kaladin then had to descend down the well and out of the tower into a highstorm. Dalinar would then saved Kaladin who informed him of the true situation in the tower. 
After Kaladin’s fight, the human population would begin to rise up. Kaladin was heavily injured and was not healing, so Venli, Rlain, and Dabbid would save Lift who could heal Kaladin. Lift also reawakened Teft. In an attempt to free the tower, Kaladin, Teft, Lift, and Dabbid would try to reawaken the captured Radiants. Lift and Teft would go to the infirmary where the Radiants were held, while Kaladin faced Lezian. In the infirmary, Lift and Teft faced Moash who would cut through Lift’s legs and would injure Teft before using a raysium dagger to kill Teft’s spren, Phendorana; the shock of which allowed Moash to kill Teft and destroy the final node. Kaladin forced the Pursuer to flee during their fight, titling him as the Defeated One. After becoming insensate from seeing a dead Teft, and the Pursuer coming to kill him, Kaladin stuck the Pursuer in his last body to a wall and used a Reverse Lashing to rip his head off. Kaladin then chases after the Fused holding his father. This chase would lead to them falling towards the base of the mountain. As this was during a highstorm, Dalinar gave him more time, during which Kaladin swore the Fourth Ideal and saved his father.
During the Occupation, Navani and Raboniel worked together to discover Anti-Voidlight, through which they were able to bring permanent death to the Fused. Following this discover, Raboniel was able to discover Anti-Stormlight, to be used as a weapon against Spren and the Knights Radiant.
While the fight near the infirmary was happening, Navani attacks Raboniel using a raysium dagger with some Anti-Voidlight and some fabrials she had built during her captivity. As Raboniel is disabled by the fabrials, Navani stabbed Raboniel with the dagger, though it does not kill her. Suddenly Moash appears and Navani runs towards the pillar while the dying Raboniel tries to slow Moash. When she reaches the pillar, she sings the Rhythm of the Tower with the Sibling and bonds the spren, effectively ending the invasion as Kaladin forces the singer forces to leave.
==== Expedition to Emul and Ascension of Taravangian ====
After his recovery from Hearthstone, the famed Herdazian general The Mink, suggested an assault into Emul as that is where the singers were the weakest and had been using Skybreakers to distract from that. Taravangian would send twenty thousand Veden soldiers for the assault in preparation for his betrayal of the Coalition of monarchs, though Dalinar had been prepared for it.
Early into the expedition Odium visited Taravangian and gave him the order to betray the Coalition armies as a distraction from the invasion of Urithiru. This betrayal was quickly ended with Taravangian arrested and the Veden army practically destroyed, even though it was reenforced with a small force of singers and Skybreakers. After a strategy meeting, the Highprince Ruthar began disparaging Jasnah leading to a duel wherein he ‘died’ but was quickly healed by Renarin. This event was used to outlaw honor duels in Alethkar. Later in the expedition Jasnah would use her Shardplate in order to engage in a battle. It is around this time that Taravangian would begin to manipulate Szeth for his plan to eliminate Odium. Sja-anat would have Renarin deliver two gemstones containing corrupted spren to Taravangian, who planned to use them as bait for Odium. 
During the expedition, Dalinar meets the Herald Ishar, and Jasnah and Wit begin drafting the contract for the Contest of champions, which Odium and Dalinar enter after the meeting with Ishar.
Taravangian was assassinated by Szeth, who had been enraged after learning that his father was likely dead, while being met by Odium. On his transition to the Cognitive Realm, he managed to kill Odium's Vessel with the Cognitive Aspect of Nightblood, and took the Shard for himself. Thus, he ascended as the new Vessel of Odium, while leaving the destroyed body of Rayse behind to be mistaken for himself.
==== Contest of Champions ====
The Contest of Champions between Odium and Dalinar, wherein the fate of Roshar and the Oathpact was to be decided, was planned to occur on . The deal was struck initially towards the beginning of the war, and the final terms were set around the end of the Occupation of Urithiru using a contract drafted by Hoid and Jasnah. Due to a loophole in the contract, Odium sent forces to Azir, Thaylenah, and the Shattered Plains in an attempt to capture and claim them before the Contest. 
On the day of the contest, just after his return from the Spiritual Realm, Dalinar met Odium at the top of Urithiru as agreed. It was then that Odium revealed his champion, Gavinor Kholin who Odium had swapped as Navani left the Spiritual Realm, and then prepared for what appeared to him to be twenty years. Unable to kill Gavinor, Dalinar would briefly Ascend to Honor, before breaking all oaths made by Honor, which included the one holding Odium to Roshar. This also made him lose the Shard. 
Following this, Odium claimed Honor, becoming Retribution and killed Dalinar, who still arguably won because by freeing Odium, he made the other Shards pay attention to him, as he once again became a threat. Furthermore, Dalinar's actions had removed Odium’s time to prepare for his conquest of the cosmere.
==== Second Battle of Narak ====
; Lead Up
The Second Battle of Narak began when almost a thousand Fused (accounting for nearly half of the battle capable Fused), a force of Skybreakers, and at least one thunderclast marched on the Shattered Plains. At the same time, other forces were heading towards Azimir and Thaylen City. This was in an attempt to capture the capital of the Shattered Plains, Narak, so that after the Contest of champions Odium would hold the land as there was a loophole in the contract that he could exploit. The Coalition would decide to send a force of three hundred Radiants led by Sigzil to the Shattered Plains to counter the Fused. Odium would assign El to lead his army and had him use the Unmade Dai-Gonarthis to bring additional forces to the battle. 
; The Battle
Sigzil would arrive at the Plains on the fourth of the ten days. The battle was divided across four plateaus: Narak One, which held the city of Narak; Narak Two, which held the Oathgate; and Naraks Three and Four, which were two adjacent plateaus. Sigzil would suggest that they defend all four plateaus so that the enemy would waste time breaking through the defenses on Naraks Three and Four before they could get to the important Naraks One and Two. This allowed them to predict how the battle would go. 
The next day, the battle began with Windrunners intercepting squads of Heavenly Ones with boulders meant to crush the defenders. The fighting would continue to rage on for a few days, with Narak Four being abandoned on the second day after Sigzil’s arrival and Narak Three being lost two days later. On the day before the Contest, Sigzil would meet with Venli of the listeners who was in a similar no win scenario. They decided to have Jasnah make a treaty with the listeners where in the listeners would have control of the Plains. This is also the day where the humans would retreat to Urithiru, ending the battle. Also, Sigzil would break his bond with his spren Vienta to save her from death at the hands of Moash. The Fused would retreat when they learned of the treaty during the Contest and Retribution would admit that he would have to honor their sovereignty.
==== Battle of Azimir ====
; Background
When Dalinar Kholin made the contract for the Contest of champions with Odium, it was agreed that afterwards the borders would be settled as they were at the time and Rayse, the Vessel of the Odium said he would not exploit any loopholes. But when Taravangian took up the Shard, he was able to exploit loopholes in the contract. There was only one major one: that if he were able to take the capitals of a nation, it would belong to him. Thus in an attempt to claim the Azir by taking the capital, Azimir by using its Oathgate to transfer the army from the Shadesmar
The Coalition learned of the threat to Azimir when Adolin Kholin and Shallan Davar returned to Urithiru after the trial in Lasting Integrity and they would stumble upon the singer army heading towards Azimir. This was on the first of the ten days before the Contest of champions. The Coalition would send two thousand soldiers from Urithiru under Adolin to support the Azish as an army was heading towards Azimir after fighting in Emul.
; The Battle
The fighting began on the on the third day. It started with the singers pushing out of the Oathgate’s control room with the defenders pushing them back. The fighting would follow a similar pattern until the fifth day, when the singers would try to kill the Azish Shardbearer Neziham, but Adolin would stop that from happening. On the sixth day it was learned that the reinforcements were not coming as Emul and Tashikk had betrayed them for Odium. On the seventh day the tides would change, with the singers bringing in a thunderclast, who was killed, but not before killing Neziham and severely injuring Adolin. The signers would also take control of the dome around the Oathgate and the defenders would start to fight the singers at the various openings in the dome. The fighting would continue through the ninth day with all available people being drawn in to hold the gaps. The day would end with the singers defeating the last of the defenders and seemingly taking the city. A few survivors including Adolin and the emperor Yanagawn would make it to a saferoom.
Due to the legal definition of holding the city: was holding the imperial throne, it was decided that a group of the remaining defenders would enter the palace and hold the throne room. The group would encounter little resistance as it was meant to be a trap so that Adolin and the Fused Abidi could fight. Adolin would win the fight and would call upon a group of deadeyes to help his group hold off against the singers for the half hour until the Contest, thus forming the Unoathed. They would be successful, with Azir being one of the few nations to avoid Odium and then Retribution’s grasp.
===== The Defection of Greater Makabakam and Thaylenah =====
Due to the apparent unlikelihood of the Coalition of monarchs winning the Contest, many nations decided to join Odium in exchange for favorable terms. The initial betrayal of Emul and Tashikk caused issues for the defense of Azimir as those two countries heavily delayed the army that the defenders had been holding out for. These included Emul, Tashikk, Steen, Tukar and the rest of the Azish states, all of whom seceded from the Azish Empire; New Natanan and Dawn's Shadow, on the East coast; and Thaylenah. These deals were made over the course of the nine full days before the Contest. These combined with the countries that had either joined Odium (Jah Keved and Iri) earlier in the war, had been conquered (Alethkar, Marabethia, Babatharnam, Yulay, the Shattered Plains, Herdaz, and Rira), or had been taken over through agents in the country like Shinovar; meant that the newly Ascended Retribution controlled almost the entire world except for Azir, Urithiru, and in essence the Shattered Plains who he had to give their autonomy.
Thaylenah would switch to Odium’s side after a lengthy discussion between Jasnah and Odium wherein both sides tried to convince Fen to side with them. Odium would end up pointing out Jasnah’s hypocrisy, which would be the thing that convinced Fen. Either way Odium was going to win as he had agents in the merchant council, a body with as much power as Fen, making the queen’s decision irrelevant.
==== The Cleansing of Shinovar ====
Szeth and Kaladin were sent by Dalinar to Shinovar to heal the Herald Ishar and to cleanse the land of the Unmade that had been infecting the land for decades. When they arrived, they found the Honorbearers, the Stone Shamans that held the Honorblades, corrupted by the Unmade. They went to each of the ten Monasteries that were dedicated to the Honorblades, except for the Windrunner Monastery, and claimed the Honorblade after defeating the Honorbearer (though some were not fought in their monastery which was then visited as a formality). Along the way they encountered Nale, who was the challenge at the Skybreaker Monastery. After defeating the Honorbearer of the Dustbringer Monastery, Nale told Szeth that Ishar wanted to turn him into a Herald. At the Skybreaker Monastery, Nale told Szeth and Kaladin that Ishar was the corrupting influence as he had claimed the Well of Control. They group would go to the Bondsmith Monastery, where they encountered Ishar. Here Szeth had to fight all the Honorbearers, he had killed including his father Neturo, who had been turned into human Fused. Kaladin and Szeth swore their Fifth Ideals during the fight. At the request of the Wind in order to save the spren from Retribution, Ishar refounded the Oathpact; and to fill Jezrien’s place, Kaladin became a Herald. This time though, the Heralds’ minds would go to a place like Dalinar’s visions.
=== True Desolation ===
With the Ascension of Retribution the True Desolation began with the Night of Sorrows when the Everstorm covered almost the entire planet. As the Everstorm consumed the highstorm, it caused severe time dilation around Roshar. The only areas that were not blanketed in the Everstorm were Urithiru and Azir, the two nations that did not either join Odium or fall to his armies. Though it would take a month for the sky above Azir to clear. The time dilation would last around a decade for those on Roshar and about seventy to eighty years to those on other worlds according to Thaidakar.
Even several years after the Contest of Champions, in in the Scadrian reckoning, travel to and from Roshar in Shadesmar was still considered extremely dangerous. This made interplanetary trade infeasible.
=== Space Age ===
Long after the True Desolation, Roshar became involved in interplanetary conflicts. Some years prior to his defeat, the Cinder King killed a Thaylen worldhopper and learned of Roshar from the man’s books. What he learned inspired the Cinder King to conquer all of Canticle forming Union. These books also described Rosharans as dangerous and war-like. They are considered uncivilized by the Scadrian TimeTellers.
== Culture and Society ==
Roshar is inhabited by two major sapient species who have developed complex societies, the humans and the singers, and the collective history was shaped by the conflict and relations between one another.
The total human population of Roshar, as of the True Desolation, is numbered at many millions of individuals. Roshar is more populated than Scadrial and Nalthis, but less populated than Sel.
=== Nations ===
Roshar's population categorizes their history into a number of epochs. Most notable is the Silver Kingdoms Epoch, or the Heraldic Epoch, when the Knights Radiant kept the peace. They protected Roshar from their home, the great city of Urithiru. The ten Silver Kingdoms are:
Various nations rose and fall over Rosharan history, outside of the Silver Kingdoms, and thus no longer stand in the modern day:
In the modern era, the Era of Solitude, the current division of thirty-one known countries and regions in Roshar are: 
=== Calendar ===
The Vorin calendar is divided up into ten months, with ten weeks each. Both the months and the weeks are named after the Vorin numerals (which, in turn, are derived from the names of the Heralds), and are sometimes combined into abbreviations. Such abbreviations have the full name of the month and two suffixes, for week and day. As an example Chachel means it's the third day of the week. Interestingly, Kaladin, who gets paid once a week, refers to payday as "third pass". Presumably, this means that another way to talk about days of the week is by saying first, second, third, fourth or fifth pass.
Each week is made up of five days, with a month being made of ten weeks or fifty days, and a year on Roshar is 500 days long, ultimately defined by the time between two Weepings.
Although the Rosharan year is 500 days long, these days are shorter than usual, coming in at 20 Rosharan hours, which are themselves cut down into 50 Rosharan minutes. Consequently, a Rosharan year is only 10% longer than the cosmere standard.
Other cultures across Roshar have different calendars, which consequently leads to differences in recorded year between nations and cultures. One culture known to make use of a different calendar are the Unkalaki. The Tukari and Emuli, and potentially the Azish in general, in which whose reckoning deems the period from Vorin year and to be in the eighties of an unclear century and millennium. 
Abbreviation Examples
Abbreviation	Month	Week 	Day
Chachanan 	Chach	Nan 	Nan
Jesachev 	Jes 	Chach	Vev
Kaktach 	Kak 	Tanat	Chach
=== Currency ===
:Main Article: Spheres
The primary form of currency found on Roshar are spheres, pieces of gemstone encased in a sphere of glass with one side flattened to prevent rolling. The gemstones can be any of the ten Polestones and there are three denominations: chip, mark, and broam. The ten gemstones are organized into five value levels with some gem types having equivalent values. These value levels are determined by Soulcasting properties, so diamonds, which can create quartz, crystal, and glass, have the lowest value, and emeralds, which can create grain, have the highest. Spheres, like all gems on Roshar, have the ability to hold and leak Stormlight. Spheres with light are referred to as infused and those without are referred to as dun. Although dun spheres can be used as currency, people are suspicious of them because light is the easiest way to determine a sphere is real.
Because of their ability to hold Stormlight, spheres are commonly used on Roshar as a source of light. The light from spheres is considered to be steadier and more consistent than traditional light sources such as candles. It can be expensive, however, as spheres are also used for currency, so the use of spheres as a source of light is often a sign of wealth. Diamonds are considered the best light source because it is both the cheapest and the closest to natural light.
The denomination of spheres in eastern Roshar is weaker than in the west, with some people drilling holes in spheres to carry them on strings or using chunks of gemstone instead.
The Shin use coins made of greatshell carapace instead of gemstones.
Glass beads without gemstones inside are called 'Ends', and are mainly used as gambling tokens.
===Food and Drink===
A wide variety of alcoholic drinks can be found on Roshar.
====Wines====
On Roshar the term Wine refers to a number of alcoholic drinks, only a small subset of which are made of fermented fruit. The use of the term "wine" is the result of linguistic shift, much in the same way that all birds became chickens and all small crustaceans became cremlings. The alcohols that fall under the term "wine" are categorized by strength and color, with different colors denoting different alcohol content. Additionally, the stronger "wines" are actually distilled spirits.
In order from weakest to strongest, those are:
* Pink, which typically has a distinct floral taste. It's said to assist alertness. This wine is actually a juice and has no alcoholic content.
* Orange, fruity and with notes of ginger, although apparently it's not made of fruit.
* Yellow, which has a deep, "bold" taste while being weak enough to drink casually.
* Auburn, spicy and with a tasty aroma - this could be closest to red wine, as it's made of fermented fruit.
* Red, said to be "flavourful with a pleasant burn".
* Sapphire, with a taste of nuts and honey, made of lavis grain. It's usually infused, and the closest equivalent to whiskey.
* Blue, tasting of berry and lemon.
* Violet, the strongest, typically with an aroma of sandalwood.
Within those colors, a number of different wines exist - for example, among the sapphire varieties are kimik, vari and Veden saph. While generally the wine colors are standardized, they gain their color by intentional colored infusions, and are occasionally made without them.
====Other Beverages====
Apart from wines, Roshar has a number of other alcoholic drinks. Among those is beer, of which the most popular variety appears to be mudbeer, often drunk to warm up. Another drink is a liquor called honu, which comes in several varieties that differ in strength. Both beer and honu are made from lavis grain.
The Unkalaki people have a number of their own alcoholic beverages. This includes a brownish drink called shiki, which has to be chilled overnight, and the infamous Horneater lager, which is far stronger than regular beers, with one bartender claiming it melts their cups. Strongest among the Horneater beverages is the Horneater white. A clear, distilled moonshine, it is the strongest known alcohol on Roshar (with the possible exception of some violet wines). It is known to strip paint, and can apparently be deadly to non-Unkalaki. It is comparable to Everclear.
Other, unspecified alcohols drank across Roshar include a variety of ciders, juices and lagers.
====Drinking Culture====
Vorin parties typically involve wine of the weakest colors, watered down to prevent the participants from getting drunk too quickly. Sapphire appears to be the strongest color imbibed casually, and the phrase "to be in (someone)'s violets" refers to a person being heavily, perhaps dangerously drunk.
Beer and mudbeer are typical casual drinks, commonly served in taverns. Among Unkalaki, mudbeer is also used for duels - the winner is decided by who can drink the most without passing out. 
Like most processes on Roshar, the act of drinking has its own dedicated spren. Winespren, or alespren, appear near people who are heavily intoxicated, taking form of small bubbles clinging to nearby objects. They are considered quite rare or even nonexistent, as they require a person to be deeply drunk before they appear, which can also lead to the assumption that an alespren sighting was simply a drunken hallucination; however, both Axies and Nazh attest to their existence.
=== Languages ===
The languages on Roshar can be grouped into five main language families. The Vorin language family primarily contains languages spoken in the east. Alethi, Veden, and Herdazian are the most closely related, with Thaylen a bit more distant. Natan, another Vorin language, is nearly dead. This family does include some minor languages like Bav. Kharbranthian is not considered its own language and is instead a dialect.
 
The next language family, Makabaki, contains around thirty languages, most of which are split off from Azish.
The Iri language family contains Iriali, Riran, Reshi, Selay and various Purelake dialects, and other surrounding languages.
The Dawnate language family are languages with roots in the Dawnchant. These include Shin, Listener, and Unkalaki. They share similar grammar, but the vocabulary is quite different.
 
The Aimian language family has two very different languages that get lumped together. Presumably the two languages are related to the Siah and Dysian Aimians.
Spren in Shadesmar speak their own languages, of which we have little information on.
Rosharan phrases and curses often have distinct connotations specific to Roshar, such as mentioning Stormfather or storms in some way. Alethi and other Vorin cultures are also likely to use Almighty or Heralds in their phrases, while Singer / Listener phrases would often use rhythms or tones.
==== Writing ====
There are at least five Rosharan writing systems, the Alethi Women's script, Thaylen script, the Glyphs, the Azish script and the Shin warrior script.
Vorinism teaches that it is unnatural and not masculine for men to read and write in the Alethi script.
Although men being able to read Glyphs is permitted, people have a heavy prejudice towards Stormwardens, who have adapted glyphs into a full writing system, although this prejudice is largely due to the Vorin teachings about those who claim to see the future.
Glyphs are largely logographic, meaning writing symbols or pictures to convey ideas, rather than an alphabet like The Women's script.
Thaylen is an abjad, meaning it has little to no written vowels, instead, vowels are inferred. An example of this is the name of the slaver Tvlakv.
Thaylen is typically written vertically, but is sometimes written left to right
Dalinar describes the Azish writing system as looking like the tracks cremlings make.
===Singer Society===
Though once the planet's dominant species, in the Era of Solitude, the singers have been subdued by humans. The majority of their species are parshmen, singers whose Identity and Connection have been stripped from them by the capture of Ba-Ado-Mishram, rendering them mostly docile and wordlessly obedient. The singer culture of old has only been preserved by the Last Legion, or listeners, on the Shattered Plains - the last enclave of non-parshmen singers on Roshar - and the Fused, spirits of long-dead singers, on Braize.
Among the listeners, the Fused are considered gods - however, they are highly dangerous to interact with, and the listeners fled to what became the Shattered Plains to escape their influence. In the present day, but prior to the Everstorm, they were ruled by the Five, a council composed of representatives of each form the listeners could assume. History and knowledge are passed down among them mostly in form of songs, set to the Rhythms that all singers can attune to.
Following the Everstorm, the previously lost Identity and Connection were restored to the parshmen, returning them to full sentience. The listeners, on the other hand, were all but decimated, first by the storm and then by becoming possessed by the Fused, with only a small group escaping west. The current singer culture, such as it is, is mostly based around following the word of the Fused like gospel; however, the former parshmen retain some of the culture of their states of origin - for example, in Azir they attempted to sue the government for backpay, while in Thaylenah, they took to the sea.
===Spren Society===
Within Shadesmar, the sentient spren have their own countries. Among those is a honorspren state, with its capital in the city of Lasting Integrity and a number of strongholds, as well as a Highspren country, and a city-state of the Cryptics. There are also free cities, such as Celebrant, where various spren intermingle. This includes cultivationspren, which, though ruled by a council called the Ring, do not have holdings of their own. However, even the "ethnic" spren states do not appear to be strictly isolationist - for example, honorspren military ships are partially crewed by mistspren.
As the inversion of the Physical Realm and its supercontinent, Shadesmar is mostly composed of the sea of beads, with a number of narrow peninsulas and islands corresponding to Physical rivers and lakes. As such, travel is done mostly by boat. Merchant and military ships, pulled by teams of harnessed mandras, traverse the vast spaces between the cities, ferrying goods, news and travellers. Trade with lands outside of Roshar isn't unusual - in Celebrant, one may buy canned food (presumably from Scadrial or some worldhopper settlement) and Nalthian artwork. The price of various items is largely based on their permanence in the Cognitive Realm, with the most persistent objects selling for thousands of broams.
The relationship between various spren kinds appears to have its own share of political turmoil. Several years prior to the Everstorm, the honorspren tried and failed to conquer the rest of Shadesmar, making the other spren unfriendly towards them. By contrast, Cryptics are generally understood to be unwilling to expand beyond their city; however, they are also widely considered to be uncomfortable company.
After the events of the Recreance, spren have mixed opinions of humans. Reachers, inkspren, and older honorspren are generally opposed to any attempt to restore contact, while cultivationspren, Cryptics, and younger honorspren are supportive of new Nahel bonds, albeit cautiously so.
===Secret Organizations===
There are many secret organizations on Roshar, potentially nine. These include worldhopping organizations with a strong presence on Roshar, such as the Ghostbloods, the Ire, the Seventeenth Shard, and the Sleepless; as well as strictly Rosharan organizations such as the Skybreakers, the Sons of Honor, the Diagram, and the Envisagers.
The Ire are a Selish group with unknown motivations, although they sell things on Roshar. The Ghostbloods are a group led by Thaidakar who are trying to establish an Investiture monopoly by using the Oathgates and Stormlight. The Seventeeth Shard is an anti-interventionist worldhopping organization. Meanwhile, the Sleepless on Roshar were focused on protecting the Dawnshard underneath Akinah, until it was taken up by Rysn who they now protect.
As for the Rosharan organizations, most of them have goals that in some way relate to Surgebinders and/or the True Desolation. For example, the Sons of Honor want to start the True Desolation to bring back the Heralds, while their splinter group the Envisagers want to bring back Surgebinders. Counter to that, the Skybreakers want to kill the Radiants in order to stop the True Desolation. The Diagram focuses on saving people from what they see as the inevitable True Desolation.
===Prejudices===
Rosharans would be distrustful of albinos, partially due to their reddish eyes.
== Planetary System ==
Roshar is the second planet from its sun.
=== Moons ===
For most of its existence, Roshar possesses three natural satellites. The first and smallest moon is violet Salas. The middle moon is Nomon, which is a bright, pale blue. The final moon is Mishim, which is smaller than Nomon and green. The Shin refer to the moons as the Three Sisters, and call each moon by its order, with Salas being the First Sister, Nomon the Second Sister and Mishim the Third Sister, while in Natanatan, Nomon is considered to be male. The singers call Nomon Honor's Moon.
All three moons rise and fall in the same order every night and have highly unstable orbits on an astronomical timescale. They complete two orbits per day. These moons are relatively small. They orbit relatively close to the surface, and during the night they come closer than their geosynchronous orbit altitude.
Prior to Honor's arrival in the system, the planet also had a fourth moon, which died and fell. Fragments of this moon are buried underneath the land that would become the Shattered Plains. These fragments hide their surroundings from even the sight of a Shard, and are made of something greater than aluminum. When Honor and Odium clashed over Natanatan, the fragments reacted to their discordant tones and liquefied the surrounding land in a symmetrical pattern, forming the Shattered Plains. The Sleepless are aware of the fourth moon and its fragments, and appear to have used their ability to conceal their surroundings to hide from the Shards of Roshar. Even the Shards do not fully understand the nature of the fourth moon.
=== Stars and Constellations ===
Other notable features of Rosharan sky are Taln's Scar and Reya's Tear. The Scar is a great swath of red stars that stand out against the white ones. It is important in Rosharan astrology, particularly its position on one's seventh birthday. The Tear is a particularly bright star, named after a single tear shed by a woman named Reya from Rosharan mythology.
=== Other Planets ===
There are two other telluric planets in the Rosharan system: Braize and Ashyn. Both of them are currently inhabited. The remaining celestial bodies in the system are ten gas giants, named after Vorin numerals, which are separated from the telluric planets by an asteroid belt.
== Trivia ==
* Although the word "dozen" is often used in the The Stormlight Archive, Rosharans actually would say tens instead and Brandon just translated "tens" into "dozens" to make the book easier to read.
* At some point, the Rosharan supercontinent was originally planned to be shaped like a cymatic pattern, but this idea was scrapped in favor of a Julia Set. In The Way of Kings Prime, it was laid out in a three-pronged shape.
* There is no chocolate on Roshar.
* Roshar is of interest to several powers in the cosmere, as it is a world where pure Investiture is incredibly easy to come by.
* Due to the influence of Kabbalah on Vorin Theology and the Surgebinding chart, it is likely the importance of ten on Roshar is based on the ten Sefirot of the Tree of life.
== Notes ==
;Footnotes
;References
 
category: list articles