WoB Count: 759
Reddit: 100%
Twitter: 9%, 9/97 months
Blog: 53%,  77/145 pages
Interviews: 0%, 0/484

Welcome back, everyone. Things are still moving along - as you can see, I am 100% up to date on Reddit! (Well, as much as I can be. There will probably be some other snippets I'll pull in that are listed on their own in Theoryland or in their own topics on the Shard.) Right now, I'm still working my way through the blog and through Twitter chronologically. I'm actually pretty much at the same spot for both of them - through Dec 2009 for twitter, and Sep 09 for the blog. It really is interesting to look back with all the knowledge we have now, to be able to read between the lines of his WoT updates to see how early they actually were working on the split.

Even though I'm enjoying the Wheel of Time stuff, I'm not getting all that much for the cosmere database. That's why you see, even with the latest AMA, I haven't even added 100 WoBs this month. This will jump when I get around to adding new interviews - there has been quite a bit of stuff this year that Theoryland doesn't have, and there's another con coming up this weekend. For now, I'm doing a lot of skimming, searching for the harder-to-find stuff, to get everything that Theoryland doesn't have in there first. (Also, I'm having some computer problems, while it's easy to go through the blog on my phone. I'll probably need to call Microsoft to resolve some battery issues with my Surface 3; I like the machine, but it won't charge, and it's really hard to use when its battery is dead.)

My plan has always been to pull together the data that nobody has, and even if I don't get a functioning system, I have stuff other people can use after they've pulled everything Theoryland has. And, if you keep your ears to the ground, you can actually hear a lot of movement around the internet on something new to store and share WoBs. Here on the forums, over on Discord, in back alleys, up in blimps; people are talking, working on getting a new system in place. I think there will be at least one new player in the WoB game by the time Oathbringer comes out. So keep your ears open, boys and girls. But, all that to say, I might avoid Theoryland entirely, and try to comb through the Time Waster's Guide archive once I've completed the Twitter and Blog passes. I know some of the big stuff from TWG is already in Theoryland, but Peter just passed along something interesting from a long time ago, that Hemalurgy was the original name of Sazed's magic. These are the kinds of things I'd really like to find, the stuff that has been lost to the ages. So, if someone else is going to work on taking Theoryland's data and putting it into a new system, I might just keep digging.

Lastly, here's a WoB to leave you all with, from the latest AMA. It's not as earth-shattering as some of the other ones I've shard, but I think it has some neat implications. I'll discuss it more below the jump.

Quote

Q: Hi! I just finished Warbreaker, and I caught my mind that they have animals that exists on Earth (at least by the name, like monkeys, panther, and so). Is this a common thing in the all the planets of the cosmere?

 

A: It is common on many of the planets, though it is more likely to happen on a planet (or an ecosystem on a planet) created by Shards, as they're often basing the animal life on creatures they've seen before. That said, some planets with life predating the splintering had Earth-like ecosystems too.

The writing answer is that this was a way for me to control learning curve in my series, so that I could have some (like Roshar) that take a lot of effort to get into, and others that are a little more easy to get into. This lets me save the really crazy worldbuilding for a few specific series.

Source

The Arcanum Unbounded essay for the Scadrian system said that there were two worlds where humans were created by Shards. Scadrial is one of them; I've suspected that Nalthis is the other one, since Breath is built into their spiritwebs. This lends credence to that idea, and maybe that the entire ecosystem was made by Endowment (although the planet itself was probably already there, but uninhabitable). But the particular phrasing of his answer shows that there are five kinds of worlds in the cosmere:

1. Created by Shards, earth-like ecosystem, humans created. (Scadrial, Nalthis [probable])
2. Created by Shards, earth-like ecosystem, humans imported or no human presence.
3. Created by Shards, divergent ecosystem.
4. Created by Adonalsium, earth-like ecosystem.
5. Created by Adonalsium, divergent ecosystem. (Roshar)

Brandon saying it's common implies that there are more worlds created after the Shattering with earth-like life besides Nalthis and Scadrial that were created after the Shattering, since there are 'a bunch' of minor Shardworlds. But, again, we also know that only two worlds had their humans created by the Shards. Does this mean that on other worlds, the ecosystems were created by Shards, but the people came from elsewhere? Or maybe it's referring to some of the uninhabited worlds in the systems we've seen, like the other worlds in the Threnodite system? (Basically, Threnody and the Drominad worlds are either Type 2 or Type 4, and Sel might be one too if it doesn't turn out to have dragons.)

We also learn that there are worlds created by Shards, that are not like Earth. (Assuming Brandon didn't mean that 100% of Shard-created worlds have earth-like life, which would technically still mean "it is more likely to happen on a planet ... created by Shards.")  Roshar is out; we know that was created by Adonalsium, and it's a Type 5. Of the ones we've seen, that leaves Taldain to be a Type 3, with an ecosystem created by Autonomy. But if that's the case, where did the human population come from? (This question remains for all Type 3 worlds, even if we later discover Taldain is a Type 5.)

Also, let's just throw in Type 6 and Type 7, predating Adonalsium and being earth-like and divergent, respectively. I don't know if these exist, but I'll cover my butt just in case. Yolen might be Type 4 or Type 6, and who knows if any Type 7s exist.

I should probably spin this off into its own topic somewhere. And combine that with my Major/Minor and Core/Auxiliary terminology to have a precise way to discuss many aspects of Shardworlds. (Even more of a side note, I've been planning on adding Augmented and Diminished to go with Major/Minor, to address whether a Shard is currently there or not.)

Like I said, this WoB might not seem like much, but I think it's an important piece to understanding the cosmere as a whole. I can really get my wheels spinning on it.