The Wheel of Time and the Science of Everchanging Seasons

2025-04-23

“The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.” But could it also wobble?

If you’ve read The Wheel of Time or watched the TV adaptation, you’ve probably noticed something peculiar: seasons don’t behave the way we’re used to on Earth. Winter drags on for far too long, or summer comes late. The entire world seems to be experiencing the same season, together — and the duration of each season seems random, almost like dice are being rolled by the Pattern itself.

But what could explain this in astronomical terms?

Let’s start with a quick Earth science refresher:

How Earth Gets Its Seasons

On Earth, seasons are caused by axial tilt. Our planet is tilted about 23.5° relative to its orbit around the Sun. As Earth moves around its (mostly circular) orbit: - One hemisphere leans toward the Sun (summer). - The other leans away (winter).

Crucially: - Seasons are opposite in each hemisphere. - They’re regular, like clockwork, because Earth’s orbit is stable.

But this regularity doesn’t apply in The Wheel of Time world.

The World of the Wheel: Unstable Seasons

In Randland (and across the known lands), everyone seems to experience the same season at the same time. When winter is long, it’s long everywhere. When summer comes late, crops fail across the entire continent.

So… what kind of astronomical system could cause this?

In short, probably none but I thought it might be fun ¹ to explore a few semi-scientific theories — all inspired by real-world astrophysics but exaggerated to fit a fantasy setting. We’ll even visualize these in R (code below!) for the curious worldbuilders and science geeks.

Fantasy Orbit Models That Could Explain Wheel of Time-Style Seasons

1. A Highly Eccentric Orbit + Precessing Axis

The planet’s orbit around its sun is a long ellipse, not a circle.
Sometimes it’s much closer to the sun, sometimes far.
The axis also precesses (wobbles), shifting the timing of the seasons.

This could cause a planet-wide long winter if the coldest part of orbit coincides with a tilted-away axis.

2. Chaotic Binary Star System

Imagine two suns pulling on the planet.
The orbit gets subtly, unpredictably warped over time.
Distance to the primary sun changes, making summers hotter or colder.

This could create “The Long Heat” or “The Fading” — seasons with no fixed schedule.

3. Variable Axial Tilt

The planet’s tilt changes over decades due to interactions with a massive moon or nearby planets.
When the tilt is strong: extreme seasons.
When it’s mild: barely any seasons.

If tilt gets stuck near zero, the planet could have long, uniform seasons that shift slowly over years.

4. Passing Rogue Planet or Dark Star

Every few centuries, a rogue planet or companion star swings by.
It nudges the planet’s orbit just slightly — but the result is chaotic, long-term changes in season lengths.

Perhaps the Dark One’s prison isn’t just metaphorical — maybe it’s an euphamism for a dark star that actually perturbs the planet’s orbit.

5. Magical Cosmic Influence

Let’s not rule out magic — but give it structure.
Maybe there’s an invisible celestial body in higher dimensions that exerts a gravitational “pulse.”
This pulse could rhythmically stretch or compress seasons… or tie them to the Turning of the Wheel.

Visualizing These Orbits in R

If you’re a coder or science teacher, you might find it fun to explore these ideas yourself with the code below that lets you toggle different orbits and visualize how unstable systems might affect climate patterns. I’m still learning R myself and this was a great exercise.

Show the code

# Load libraries
library(ggplot2)
library(plotly)
library(dplyr)

# Orbit generator
generate_orbit <- function(a = 1, e = 0, theta_shift = 0, n = 360, label = "Orbit") {
  theta <- seq(0, 2*pi, length.out = n)
  r <- (a * (1 - e^2)) / (1 + e * cos(theta - theta_shift))
  data.frame(
    x = r * cos(theta),
    y = r * sin(theta),
    orbit = label
  )
}

# Create orbits
orbit1 <- generate_orbit(a = 1, e = 0, label = "1. Regular Orbit")
orbit2 <- generate_orbit(a = 1, e = 0.6, theta_shift = pi/5, label = "2. Eccentric + Precession")
orbit3 <- generate_orbit(a = 1, e = 0.4, theta_shift = pi/3, label = "3. Binary Chaos")
orbit3$x <- orbit3$x + 0.2 * sin(5 * seq(0, 2*pi, length.out = 360))
orbit4 <- rbind(
  generate_orbit(a = 1.05, e = 0.1, label = "4. Tilt Wobble"),
  generate_orbit(a = 0.95, e = 0.1, label = "4. Tilt Wobble")
)
orbit5 <- generate_orbit(a = 1, e = 0.3, theta_shift = pi/6, label = "5. Rogue Body")
orbit5$x <- orbit5$x + 0.2
theta <- seq(0, 4*pi, length.out = 360)
r <- 0.5 + 0.05 * theta
orbit6 <- data.frame(
  x = r * cos(theta),
  y = r * sin(theta),
  orbit = "6. Magic Orbit"
)

# Combine all orbits
all_orbits <- bind_rows(orbit1, orbit2, orbit3, orbit4, orbit5, orbit6)

# Central point (star)
star <- data.frame(x = 0, y = 0)

# Plot with ggplot2
p <- ggplot(all_orbits, aes(x, y, color = orbit, group = orbit)) +
  geom_path(size = 1) +
  geom_point(data = star, aes(x, y), color = "gold", size = 4, shape = 8, inherit.aes = FALSE) +
  coord_equal() +
  theme_minimal(base_size = 14) +
  labs(title = "Possible orbits for Wheel of time...",
       x = "X position (AU-ish)",
       y = "Y position (AU-ish)",
       color = "Orbit Type")

# Convert to interactive plot
ggplotly(p) %>%
  layout(legend = list(title = list(text = "<b>Toggle Orbits</b>")))

You can see:

Elliptical orbits
Warped paths from binary stars
Spiral-like “magical” tracks
A central sun point anchoring everything

Threads in the Pattern

Ultimately, The Wheel of Time isn’t science fiction — it’s myth woven with magic. But like all great fantasy worlds, it feels more real when it’s internally consistent.

Thinking of the world as a planet locked in a chaotic celestial dance, where unpredictable seasons are just part of the weave, for me, makes it even richer.

Because if the seasons themselves are unstable… maybe the Pattern really does have a will of its own…

Footnotes

and I like to code/learn/frig about on the internet whilst watching trash↩︎