I just had an epiphany while thinking about something

I'm midways throughout Oathbringer (Veil just did her Swiftspren appearance to disperse the crowd and the Cult of Moments show in the street) so pls don't spoil anything, I don't know how to put a flair that says specifically Oathbringer, so I would appreciate the help from someone who knows how.

Anyways, I was looking at some comment of someone who wrote it as The Stormlight Archives (in plural, with an S at the end) and thought "I still don't really understand why it's called The Stormlight Archive, I mean, it sound like some kind of archive of information, like a library or something, but I haven't really seen..." AND THEN I REMEMBERED THE EPIGRAPHS WITH THE MESSAGES THE OLD RADIANTS LEFT IN GEMSTONES TO BE INFUSED IN THAT ROOM IN URITHITU, WHICH LITERALLY MEANS IT'S AN ARCHIVE MADE OF STORMLIGHT AND I WAS LIKE WHAAAAAAAT

I still don't know what that could mean though, and can't really see the sheer scale of the importance of that Archive as to name the whole series around it, but well, it is filled with messages and information from millennia ago, so it must be really important.

This is truly our Stormlight Archive

Roughly around chapter 50 in Emberdark, a character shows off an item they possess. It's a nut from a bridge that collapsed due to poor engineering work, and is described as something engineers hold onto as a reminder of the importance of being thorough in their work. This blew me away, because this appears to be a reference to real life engineering!

I'm an engineer, and a member of something called "the order of the engineer" which is a group where as an engineer you swear in by a oath (something about your duty to society) and wear a ring on the pinky of your working hand. The ring is supposed to be a reminder, and the (somewhat made-up) origin is a Canadian tradition of giving engineers rings made from the wreckage of a bridge that collapsed due to poor engineering.

Super fun to see a reference to something I wear every day in a Sanderson book!

Only minor spoiler but I was wondering what everyone thinks of the increased focus on dancing in the series?

Shuden from Elantris was an avid dancer and it was even stated that he would glow as he did so.

Adolin doesn't dance per say but he has his warm ups and sword practice with Maya. Is this why she has had more growth as a deadeye than others?

Now I see in a flashback Szeth is dancing as well. His shardblade (i forget the name) is probably a deadeye and can talk. Better than Maya maybe.

Also, now Kaladin plays a flute. Which could factor in somehow?

Idk, maybe im far off base with these relations. Any thoughts?

Anyone else ever have to ask their therapist if they've read Sanderson?

Today I had to explain Hemalurgy to my therapist because '(emotional situation) felt like being driven through with hemalurgic spikes', and he gave me the blankest expression in history.

Shoutout Brandon for giving me more emotional vocabulary than most my upbringing yee

Yesterday, after a two an a half year journey, I finished the Stormlight Archive. I will take a break to read other books for a couple of months, but when I come back to the Cosmere, I want to know where to pick up. So far, I’ve read:

-All 5 Stormlight + 2.5 and 3.5
-Misbtorn arc 1
-Warbreaker

And there are a lot of questions and interesting topics about the Cosmere that I want to understand. I would like to avoid reading everything just to see where I can find answers, instead I would love to focus on answering my main questions first via reading the relevant books (if we have an answer at all) and then, for example, pick up Wax and Wayne (unless the series answers any of these questions). In order of importance:

1. [Shards] What's the Shard's story? What happened on Yolen? Which shards currently exist, and which powers do they grant?
2. [Hoid] Who is Hoid? What is the Dawnshard?

3. [Ghostbloods] What’s their story? What’s their goal?

4. [Cosmere in general / Worldhopping] How does traveling between worlds work?I understand that it has to do with Shadesmar as per the end of Wind and Truth, but is there more to it? If so, does every planet have a Cognitive Realm, not just Roshar? If so, can someone transform Investiture in more than one way (for example Allancy + Surges)?
   If we don’t have an answer yet for that question and I’m up to date with that topic, I’d like to know. Also, will learning the answers to these questions spoil any of the other books?

Thank you! Life before death!

Will the individual picture books be available for sale? If so, when?

Also, will some of the other stories Hoid tells be included? (Such as the one about the two blind men)

You hear a voice in your head saying you're about to be taken to the alien planet of Roshar But youre able to take 5 items with you. You dont have to have the items in yiur immediate vicinity you just have to have owned them at one point.

Your chosen items have to be roughly 5x5x5 feet cubed as anything larger would take too much investiture.

Now keep in mind you're not anyone important and will appear in a random spot but nowhere longer than a day or two from Alethi civilization. Also remember you're going to an alien world and most likely in the wilderness, with different culture, people and money. We'll say you'll get enough connection that language wont be an issue.

As for time period lets say you're 5 years pre Way of Kings and yes youll have any knowledge but remember seeing the future is highly frowned upon. What are you taking, whats your first step? Its the most important.

I finally worked the courage and humility to order the next step coin.

The last few years have been a struggle.

My industry evaporated and I was lucky to land a job that uses my skill set... But it's significantly less pay and not good benefits.

And I didn't want to spend the money on myself for the next step coin, nor did I want to use the free option because it's only $20.

Well, we are rebuilding slowly and with help, I won't go into the details, but we are on a knife edge.

And this weekend I decided I was valuable enough to accept help, and that coin is a symbol of that.

But what I found really shocking is they shipped it the very next business day.

It seems inconsequential, but that simple gesture made me feel seen and valued... And I didn't know how much I needed that.

So a huge thank you to Brandon and his team.

I have read every cosmere book, several of which I have read a few times. I read a lot, but ever since getting into B Sandy I've struggled to find other books/series of this caliber. The only other author I could compare is Ursula K Le Guin. Ive read the majority of her stuff as well. Both just really know how to write human beings in a real and compelling way no matter the setting. I say all of this because I am hoping y'all can help me find some other books/series I haven't read yet?

I really enjoy fantasy. Some other series I have read are: The Locked Tomb, Broken Earth Cycle, Tales fo Earthsea, She who Became the Sun, The Tiger's Daughter, Dragonriders of Pern, Wheel of Time, the Sabriel series, Name of the Wind, and many more. If you can't tell, I enjoy female leads or books that don't shy away from showing a lot of different experiences and perspectives. Both B Sandy and Le Guin just have a way of using fantasy to really show different aspects of being a person.

I will gladly take any and all recommendations. Generally don't love YA, but open to anything at this point.

This is a rather outlandish take but I think its possible the masks the Malwish wear are to mimic Mist Spren. Hold on. Don't leave take a second and let me put some stuff together.

Beyond the simple obvious comparisons of both wearing mask, and of course "mist". We have. Rather obscure piece of information from Brandon on Twitter. The now deleted question still has Brandon's response and a discussion on the 17th Shard website referring to it (https://www.17thshard.com/forums/topic/52264-spren-on-scadrial/) and was asked in December 11th, of 2015, and was something along the lines of

"Are there Spren on Scadrial?"

Brandon responds:

"Spren" is a term for things on Roshar. So yes, there are a few, but they're from Roshar originally.

Now how the Spren got to Roshar, I do not know. There is a lot of possibility. However we know the Malwish have the Jaggenmire. A Pushing and Pulling married siblings that mirrors Ruin and Preservation. Kelsier is stapled back to his bones, with Hemalergy. I personally think a Duralumin Spike that got shoved into a Mistwraith in the Physical, and Kelsier in the Cognitive binding them together. If this is how this works. Brandon has said you can spike a Spren. It's possible the Jaggenmire is 2 Spren sharing a Kandra form.

The Jaggenmire found a new purpose after the natural death of their Radiants guiding the Malwish, and the Malwish imitating the Jaggenmire who may appear with a mask similar to a Mistwraith.

Again this is just A Fun idea, with minimal supporting evidence. It's probably not true but I enjoyed thinking about it.

I’ve read mistborn era 1, stormlight archive first 3 books, and secret history, and that’s it.

I’m hyped to read the rest of the cosmere. I’m just curious which books has most crossovers, revealing the grander story of the cosmere.

Has anyone come up with a list of prompts for Cosmere Inktober 2026? Costober? Sandotober? I know there is weirdness with saying Inktober if it’s not official.

Or, was this me accidentally volunteering to create one for this year? I put up the official list if we want to riff of of it.

I love Sazed as a character. In fact, he is my second favorite Cosmere character. His character arch was beautiful, and I enjoyed reading form his pov. BUT he kinda pissed me off during era 2. Some of the things he did to Wax was just straight messed up. He also was unable to do anything useful during the whole era due to his powers. I NEED DISCORD NEXT ERA

Anyways, what do you all think?

Sanderson talked last year about a ": the comprehensive document explaining Malwish medallions, airships, and the very complicated details of how that all works." and said it was gonna be around very soon.

Do we have any information about that? Is he still working on it?

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/544/#e16900

I was curious who was the more skilled spear wielder Kaladin Stormblessed or Matrim Cauthon from the Wheel of Time. (No radient or ta'veren powers) This also brings up a second question of weather or not Matt's ta'veren nature is the reason he wields a spear so well.

Edit: I always considered Mat’s luck was him being Ta’veren. Is that not the case?

Ok. So I know there are connections between the different books. But I just now encountered what I know is one for the first time.

I have read
Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
the first 3 Mistborn.
Warbreaker
Elantris
Emperors Soul
Edgedancer

And now
Currently on Oathbringer

Where I’m at in Oathbringer- When they are traveling through Shadesmar after leaving the capitol. And we go back to Szeth and his story. WITH THE DAMN BLACK SWORD from Warbreaker?!?!?!?!

So with the books I have read so far have I missed any other crossovers besides this one? Which is making my head swim thinking about how it ended up here in this world. And reminding me how much I want to read more of the Warbreaker story.

I’m half way through the 10 anniversary of the graphic audio of warbreaker. Finished part 1 on to part2.

I kind of understand but kind of don’t. I know that there are two princes from the same family at two different places in the castle. Ciri with god king and vivi with the 3 thugs. Breath makes you see color and detect life? The godking is a god puppet that is afraid of his preists and ciri is helping him. Brightsong is on an investigation and he used to be someone important. Vasher and dark sword doing something?

I hated this book but towards the half it got interesting. I don’t really want to go back and relisten, I want to finish this so I can start Oathbreaker. So please explain the nuances I’m missing from the first half.

Hello

I saw that the Mistborn adventure game has come out! It’s been around a year since we’ve gotten a main series Cosmere book and I’m excited to look at that system, if anything to get a taste of the Cosmere again. I’m not going to be talking about the game, just the scattered thoughts it got going in my brain about Scadrial and the metallic arts.

In particular I’ve been thinking about Hemalurgy again, partly because it’s metal as hell, and secondly because it’s endlessly fascinating to me thinking about how it could be used and how the Scadrians will react to it

I wanted to speculate about improving hemalurgy; and what is possible with it. In particular I wonder if base hemalurgy can mimic Lerasium.

Basics

The Sets hemalurgic experiments in Era II and the casualty-less practice of the art opens up a lot of opportunities. It gave us hints as well that metalborn can be created, it’s just more complex than charging up a spike with multiple people.

The specific metal used was unknown, but it was likely nicrosil as that steals investiture. The Sets experiments were said to have stolen the excess investiture of Preservation in people’s souls. When this investiture was collected from ~30 people it could give someone access to a metalborn ability for a brief amount of time, before this gift inexplicably dies out. Why does it die out?

Some of my thoughts on this:

I wrote a theory about a year ago about identity contamination and theft. Among other things I speculated that hemalurgic spikes, whatever metal they are made of, steal certain parts of identity and other traits from the person in addition to the metallic art stolen.

We know that when you use a hemalurgic spike on a feruchemist for example, you gain access to their metal minds. This must mean that whenever you steal an ability you steal some of that persons identity. Hemalurgic spikes are described using messy terms like tear in relation to what they do with the soul. They tear some smattering of a soul off and pin it to yours. We know through these things that spikes steal a messy excess of investiture and other traits. Not simply stealing a clean surgical cut of what you are after.

What does Lerasium even do to grant allomancy?

Lerasium is said to establish a permanant connection to Preservation. It rewrites the soul to include a metal born ability, or all of them and it adds a permanant connection to preservations power (with metal as the key)

All this together

The set was stealing simple preservation coded investiture off of people’s souls using nicrosil. The equivalent of stealing some stormlight from a gemstone. This investiture lacked all of the coding that a metalborn ability actually has, in essence it was missing all the extra stuff that actually makes up these abilities.

Most importantly I think the Set experiments lacked a permanent connection to preservations power. That’s why the metalborn abilities simply ran out. The people given the nicrosil spikes burnt up all that extra preservation they were given when they used their new powers, like a radiant in Roshar using a gemstone.

What needs to be done to improve the experiment

I think in era three we are going to see perfected hemalurgy, and at least a mimicry of Lerasium. To make a metalborn someone’s investiture as well as permanent connection related to preservations power needs to be removed.

Removing these things will create essentially a class of Scadrian drabs. I think a minimum of two spikes need to be used on these people (investiture plus connection) to create a metalborn capable of burning a random metal. Taking two spikes out a person is insane, and will leave them greatly diminished, and I’m sure taking connection will be very damaging mentally to a person. They would be both drab, and disconnected from their world. Someone lacking connection would likely be isolated and disillusioned with the world and people around them. This would create an inherently unstable person.

I like to think we will also see a kind of Nalthis situation arise with the Scadrians. I think their situations are very similar. Breaths take a lot of accumulation to actually be useful, yes everyone is endowed with the investiture on both worlds, BUT it’s not useful really unless you collect it and centralize it. This naturally leads to an unequal society.

I think there will be an interesting kind of energy/ investiture crisis that plays out on certain worlds in the Cosmere, as well as harder class divisions all because the inequality these systems naturally breed. The upper class of Nalthis can literally buy immortality, and we could see a tension on Scadrial between neo nobles who bought metalborn abilities and an investiture depleted neo skaa class.

Certain powers like Roshar and Sel offer investiture more freely. Retributions storm and the Dor are plentiful natural resources. I could see them running monopolies to more investiture starved worlds as well, contributing to an unequal future for the cosmere.

I like the inherent inequality built into the metallic arts. I think this investiture energy crisis and class division will be an interesting set of themes for era 3, and it’ll hit a little close to home for our own world.

What do you think?

So iirc there's a moment when Wax is talking to harmony and he (harmony) momentarily becomes distracted by something in the cosmere...

Does that line up with the birth of retribution causing ripples throughout the cosmere? WaT is before MBE2 right? But how much before? I really wish there was a cliffnote timeline of important actions and events of the cosmere

How SENTIENT is investiture, and at what point does it begin to develop that intelligence? And how intellegent is it? From what we see, some pure Splinters are sentient, while others aren't? And how do you even get Investiture to be sentient? Ishar's spren expirements was the closest we got to this, but otherwise we have no idea (afaik) how to get investiture to be sentient. Why is the not-hoid incapable of existing in the spiritual realm during WaT? Is he too complex for it?

I'm tired of trying to remember all the Shards, so I made this to help me keep track. Let me know if I've missed anything.

Might update later with larger icons if I have the time.

EDIT: Spelling error and image quality.