(no subject)

[naath]

Two things about aSoIaF:

*the random long seasons are apparently "magic"; but the people in the books clearly have "years" that are regular, predictable, and much shorter than the interval between Winters. For instance people give their ages in years, they know how many years since various historical events happened, some officials serve for a year and so forth. Presumably that means that things like solstices are not affected by the magic weather patterns; I wonder if there are annual seasonal weather variations that just aren't mentioned because the magical seasons are much more important.

*OMG all the people are SO YOUNG. I was just reading a passage where Dany is thinking about how Missandei is *11*; Dany herself is 16. *eleven* and she's working as (effectively) PA to a minor monarch. Bran is 10 and he's off on his very own magical quest. The next generation up (people like Ned Stark and Cersei Lannister) are in their 30s.

I was looking these numbers up because I wanted to maybe make a costume, and I guess I want someone *more my age*... but none of the interesting people are in their late twenties.

I find the competence demonstrated by the younger people very unrealistic... I guess maybe living in a harsh world forces you to grow up faster. I wonder if there's a way to make people grow up faster without being vile to them.

Comments

[angoel.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that the random long seasons were due to the planet having an erratic orbit. But I could be wrong.

[naath.livejournal.com]

If it were an erratic orbit about a single star then they would have great difficulty in charting the year they use to, eg, count how old people are surely?

It could be a binary system like in Heliconia - but that was regular, much much longer, and the second "sun" was visible.

[requiem-17-23.livejournal.com]

A planet with an axial tilt that was itself in a precessing elliptical orbit would have seasons a little like this, I think. The main effect would likely be the effect of the orbit - perihelion would be Summer in both hemispheres, aphelion would be Winter - but if your hemisphere happened to be pointing at the star in Summer then your Summer would be hotter and the next Winter would be colder... hmmm...

A planet with a rapidly precessing axial tilt that was in an elliptical orbit would have a beat set up between the axial precession and the orbital motion. In order for it to work as written, the planet's axis would have to precess almost but not entirely around in a circle in one year - imagining a forty-year long cycle, it'd be precessing ~351 degrees around in a year. So then if your hemisphere is pointing at the star in Summer then your hemisphere will be pointing at the star again in Winter (the axis has turned halfway around, and the star is now on the other side of you).

Oh, and the approach of winter could be tracked by measuring the shadow of a pole at noon, and the height of the sun in the sky would have nothing to do with the time of year.

The planet's axial tilt would also have to be much smaller than Earth's, or people would have surely mentioned the extremes of weather in April and October that heralded the approach of true Winter.

[naath.livejournal.com]

The characters don't track the Seasons with astronomical measurements, just with increasing-cold. Although maybe that's just because they are all thick.

Also I don't think your system gives the *unpredictability* of the Seasons.

However I think we have Word Of God that it's magic.

[requiem-17-23.livejournal.com]

Give the axis a bit of a wobble to it, and nobody will ever live long enough to predict the Seasons, I guess...

I now want to find somewhere to put my idea for a planet in a Lagrange horseshoe orbit about a binary pair where the lighter partner is basically made of Magic: you get two sets of seasons a year on top of a two-year hot/cold cycle, and magic works best at one specific time of year which differs depending where in the world you are, the one constant being that the morning star is at its brightest. I had this idea while trying to puzzle out the above, but I can't make its cycle slow enough.