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Hello, and welcome to the new edition of Around the Cosmere! This used to be an old newspost that we had weekly, where we would talk about important things that were happening around the site, but do to the changes that have occurred in 17th Shard, we're reformatting it to fit the needs of the site. Over the past few years, 17th Shard has grown increasingly large. We recently passed having our 12,000th member. We have over 330,000 posts, and that means that our site is really big. If each post had about a hundred words (about as many are in these two paragraphs), it would be enough for 100 copies of The Way of Kings. That’s pretty impressive. On the other hand, being so large means that there are nooks and crannies a plenty that there just isn’t time enough to read and explore. So we’ve decided that every week, we’re going to have someone from the site explain what the section of the site they belong to does and is about. They’re going to introduce it to you and probably try and convince you to join them! Then every month or so they’ll come back and tell you what’s been going on the past month. We decided that because of the recent Calamity release, we would start with the Reckoners RP. So, with no further ado, Voidus! Hello everyone! I’m Voidus, and I frequent the social guilds and the Reckoners RP. I’ll go ahead and start with the social guilds. Social Guilds The 17th Shard has a thriving collection of social guilds for those of any and all tastes. Suitable for new and experienced Sharders alike, these guilds can provide fun and interesting discussions, plenty of humor and drama and some exciting opportunities for less formal roleplaying. There’s the Dark Alley, bakers of cookies and spikers of people, there’s the Light who seek to warn others of the dangers of eating unknown cookies. Then there’s the Newcago court, ruled over by Queen Elsa Steelheart and her subjects. Or if you’re feeling a bit too awkward to join a social club you may find yourself right at home with the Knights Awkward, where you can bond an Awkwardspren and speak again the oaths of the Knights Awkward (As long as you’re not overcome with stage fright). The Knightbloods are around if you’d like to slay some evil today or if you’d rather trade evil for its hat you might like to join the Church of Wayne. There are even some rumors that all of the guilds are banding together for some unknown conflict in the kingdom of Guildonia! Many, many more guilds can be found in the social guilds section, and if you can’t find one to suit your taste, why not make your own and send out recruiters to the other guilds? We have inter-guild roleplays and parties, a few rivalries that occasionally spill into other sections of the forums (Sorry Admins!) Lots of inside jokes and narrative going on and if nothing else it can just be a fun place to talk to people who may share similar interests. Reckoners RP The Reckoners RP started in mid 2014 and has since become large enough that it needed its own subforum. It all started with a single Question, whether anyone wanted to do a per-post roleplay set in the world of Steelheart. This question led to the first Roleplay thread titled at the time: “What Happened in Oregon”. The goal of the RP was to explore the events that led to Oregon’s eventual destruction as described by Megan in Steelheart. The Roleplay is full of in-jokes, horror stories, insanity and a suspiciously large number of ponies. We’re all friendly if a little bit crazy and far too inclined to make references to pugs, ponies or parody songs about Shia Laboeuf being an actual cannibal. So even if you don’t necessarily want to join the roleplay with your own character, pop by and say hi in the latest Questions thread, let us know if you’ve liked any of the roleplay if you’ve read it or just ask us who the heck Nighthound is and why everyone wishes he was dead. And if you do want to join us then it’s as simple as showing up in the latest ‘Questions’ thread, saying hi and introducing everyone to your character so we can fit them into the location that best suits. “What Happened in Portland” explores the largest city of Oregon as it undergoes a large-scale turf war, three rival factions vie for dominance of the city. They include the Dominion, a militaristic faction, the Empire of Light with their army of zombie dinosaurs, and Thoughttown, where the intellectual elite dwell. Portland is currently not accepting new Epic characters but if you have an idea for a regular human character trying to survive in the ensuing turf wars you might find yourself at home here. “What Happened in The Dalles” was the second thread to open up, it started out as a side mission for some Portland characters and since has undergone an invasion by flying pandas, a thrilling aerial battle and most recently a large slew of missiles. The city is ruled by regular humans with some Epics of varying degrees of morality and integrity assisting the city guards in fighting off any Epics who try to invade. Like Portland it is currently closed to new Epics but it would benefit greatly from having more human characters, so if you want to join the city guard, file paperwork while trying to avoid getting blown up or simply explore what life in one of the only cities not ruled by Epics might be like then try out the Dalles! “What Happened in Astoria” is a thread opened to answer the question: what if we threw all pretense of canon to the wind and made a city filled almost exclusively with High Epics with insanely strong powers? The city’s ruler is currently absent and a flux of Epics have arrived, some to join the city, others to overthrow it, and others to join the church of the singularity, which worships the savior zero and despises seven for eating nine. So if you have an idea for an Epic but think they might be a little bit too strong for any more canonical setting then why not bring them here so we can see how long Astoria can stand up against a horde of Epics capable of levelling cities. “What Happened in Corvallis” is a more politically oriented location, in a city ruled by Epic Queens where all material goods can be found growing on plants, a giant force field protects from foreign attack and the weather itself obeys the city’s ruler. Without Euphoria around to keep the civilians in a state of perpetual happiness unrest is growing in the city and a recent series of attacks by monstrous beings gifted by an unknown Epic is only sowing further chaos. So if you like intrigue, politics and mystery then Corvallis might be the thread for you! The final thread “What Happened in Salem” is a thread built around an arena where Epics fight each other in one on one matches held on the Astral plane. The city is ruled over by a bored Astral projector who has little interest in actually running the city, leaving it to his subordinates. That may change, however, as some grow tired of serving someone who doesn’t even want to rule. Would you like to attempt a coup? Or perhaps you’d just like to roleplay some gladiatorial battles set in a variety of interesting locations, either way you should see whether or not your character can fit into Salem! Or perhaps you’d like to make Voidus very happy and help revitalize the Wastelands thread, a parallel RP set in Australia that covers the entire country. It is set slightly before the Oregon RP and is a bit faster paced, but it’s a great thread with lots of worldbuilding and a huge number of opportunities for new characters of all different types. So if you want to explore what might have happened in a land far away from the events of the Reckoners trilogy why not come explore the Wastelands? So in summary, here’s the list for Reckoners: Portland- 3 way faction fight, Closed for new Epics, open for humans The Dalles- Ruled by humans and Epics, Closed for new Epics, open for humans Astoria- Mad fight for power, Open for strong Epics and humans Corvallis- Political Intrigue and power, Open for Epics and humans Salem- Gladiatorial power, Open for gladiatorial Epic Battles Wasteland- Australia worldbuilding, Open for Epics and humans Now I know that that is a lot to take in, but really, if you want to come join us, but you want help making an Epic or a human to join one of our cities, write in one of our Question threads. We’d love to help you make your character and to find the right place for you. Hope to see you all there! See you next week here at Around the Cosmere!

With the release of Calamity a few weeks ago we Sanderson fans bid farewell to what has become a very successful series (which is currently sitting at number 1 on the New York Times Children's Series Bestseller List!). And while I, personally, do love that Brandon jumps from project (though it does lead to troubling arguments with myself about which book I want the most...) I'm not going to lie, it is really nice to have a resolution like this. Of course Brandon being Brandon has decided to expand this world multiverse before moving on to something else in his new series Apocalypse Guard. Here's the blurb from Delacorte's press release: (source) Now for those of you who read our coverage of last year's State of the Sanderson this should come as no surprise, but it's nice to have the official announcement. I, for one, could not be more excited about this. Calamity wrapped up the story of The Reckoners excellently but it also gave hints towards some deeper mysteries that I hope this new series will address. It's just a shame that we'll have to wait so long to read it! Check out our forum thread here to discuss Apocalypse Guard!