Search the Community

I know this will sound dumb. But does it say anywhere that that Hoid is allays The Hoid. for example, is the Hoid in Mistborn the same one as the one from Stormlight archive or the one in warbreaker. Is Hoid just a name for a group of identical meddling worldhoppers that aren't actually the same.

Hey, I have read most, if not all of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books. The first time through i didn't read them in any specific order, but i started with Mistborn, then Stormlight archive, then Warbreaker, etc. But i never noticed how they are related in the Cosmere. Recently i have reread a lot of them and noticed many connections. I would like to know more about these connections and such. For example at the end of Words of Radiance, Szeth gets a dark blade that speaks to him saying, "Would you like to destroy some evil today" (or something along those lines). This reminds me a lot of Vasher's sword from Warbreaker. Another thing i wanted to talk about is Hoid (i have done some research but am still confused). I actually didn't even notice that he was in a lot of the Cosmere books until i decided to research Wit from Stormlight archive because he looked like crazy character. How does he have a role to play in many of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books, what books is he in/ when? I would like to know more because he is very intriguing to me. I actually didn't even notice that he was in a lot of the Cosmere books until i decided to research Wit from Stormlight archive.

People. Stop talking about Hoid writing The Letter as if it is canon. It's not. It's speculation. I will indiscriminately down vote and rail against people who do this from now on. Stop treating your espoused theories as Canon. Shallan was pissed when scholars did that. Shallan was written by Brandon, so we can assume that he is too. Stop.

You can get the ebook of Shadows Beneath right now: http://www.17thshard.com/news/brandon-news/shadows-beneath-and-sixth-of-the-dusk-available-r193 So I thought, hey, we probably need a spoiler thread for Sixth of the Dusk. What did you think?

I have been reading through the cosmere books and in each one there is at least one world hopper, SPOILER AHEAD, HIGHLIGHT TO READ [There are around five in words of Radiance] Through research and help from friends I have learned that almost all world hoppers are from other cosmere books. There is at least one person from each world that can world hop so that leads me to believe that it is possible with each magic system. I think it has something to do with traveling through Shadesmar. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Hello, While I know that there is not a WoB on specific shards other then those that we have met and that questions about them tend to be RAFO I was wondering if anyone had theories on the 7 shards we don't know. I ask because of a thought I had while reading the letter Where is love? We know that the shards are parts of Adonalsium and that this was a godlike being responsible for creating worlds. We also know that shards can exist in opposition to each other such is Ruin and Preservation and that there names are based of action or intent. While reading the MAG and AoL RPG books I was struck by how well each power complimented its opposite and some of the descriptions of shards and there nature. We also know thanks to Wax in AoL that the "Rule of 16" Holds true as a sort of natural law of the Cosmere The world exists in 3 plane. The Physical, Spiritual and Cognitive. We also know that the shards shape or affect these aspects. As such the pushing/pulling Internal/external tables and groupings should be usable to infer certain shards natures if not their abilities. Physical: Preservation Ruin Cultivation Unknown Spiritual: Devotion Honor Cognitive: Dominion Hybrid? Endowment Dominion 6 Unknowns This lead me to believe that there should be an opposition to odium. A "Push" to His pull that would exist some where in the Cosmere and that these as internal would have external members of there grouping. Has anyone else Though about this or have a WoB on the subject? With 9 filled out if these rules hold there should be a way to infer traits about the other shards......

It seems that all worlds share similarities of end positive, neutral, and negative or some other versions of them such as creating, transferring, and destroying. The most prominent example that comes to mind is Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. However on Roshar and Sel there are examples of this too. On Sel the end negative is the Drakhor i.e. to transport themselves they kill one of their own, an example of end neutral is when at the very end one character uses motion in shapes to do things (I can't properly quote now), and end positive would be the Aons where very little is needed on the users part. On Roshar it can be broken down also with Honor being the positive/creating and Odium as negative/destroying. Personally, I think that the Nightwatcher is the end neutral with her boon and curse which supports her being a form of Cultivation. The difficulty is in Warbreaker but it still seems that end neutral is where you can put Breath into an object and retrieve it, end negative if you create a Lifeless because you can't retrieve the Breath back. I can't think of anything end positive for it. It may be that end positive is actually when you create a Lifeless since that's only 1 Breath and end negative if it's inanimate as that would be 1000. Also, I looked on the forums and it didn't seem like anyone made the comparison so if you see something please refer me to it.

Ever wondered how Odium does his thing? Well, now thanks to a recent epiphany, you too can try my untested, non-canon method Shatter your Invested, immortal enemies! Become a Shardholder. This is probably the most difficult step, seeing as some Shards have already been shattered and someone had the nerve to take up two Shards at once! Identify the Shard you would like to Shatter and begin Investing yourself on his Shardworld. There's only a finite number of them! Bavadin! Endowment! Maybe those annoying Shards on Yolen that no one knows about (if there are any)! Add your Investiture to the sentient races on the Shardworld, allowing them to use your magic system. (Insert Realmatic quip and explanation here) Somehow convince the natives to fuel your magic system using your opponent's Investiture. Maybe through a religious cult, or a tight economic system like the Lord Ruler's! As your followers use the magic, your opponent's Investiture will decrease, slowly regenerating. This is precedented on Scadrial, where burning Ruin's investiture (atium) Allomantically caused it to regenerate slowly, over 300 years or so. While your opponent is weak, attack him and SHATTER! Comments? Questions? Just type in the space below and some crazy 17th Sharder our highly-qualified staff will be happy to debate with you assist you!

Due to an inexplicable cosmic sneeze, the Cosmere and Disney Universes have collided, resulting in new Stories. Here are a few. Kaladdin: the story of a poor boy who gains magic powers thanks to a floating blue magical friend and embarks on a wild adventure. (this one practically wrote itself) The Inquisitor of Kredik Shaw: A monster lives in the spires of Kredik Shaw. Hideously deformed hes live a life of solitude and servitude to his cruel master, Don Rashek, who manipulates him mercilessly, even with emotional allomancy. But the sight of a beautiful skaa woman stirs something within the creatures cold, steely heart. The Jungle Book of Endless Pages: A boy on Roshar get's lost from him village and is raised by a pack of wild axehounds. Chosen: Elsa Davar is hiding from a terrible secret. Her parents are dead, she has strange powers she doesn't understand, and the fate of her family and the entire kingdom rests on her shoulders. As she struggles to conceal her memories and her past and her feelings of fear and guilt, she distances her brother who doesn't understand why his parents are gone or why his sister shuns the company of everyone she's known and loved. Will Elsa embrace her past and her strange powers or is she and the entire kingdom doomed? Chullbo: The story of a chull with a pair of unsightly legs growing from it's back and an unbelievably light carapace. Separated from his mother by a cruel herdsman, he and his little songling friend emabark on an adventure to find his mom and prove that being different doesn't make you worthless.(Warning! contains a scene where chullbo accidentally consumes alcohol and hallucinates about strange, psychedelic, rainbow chull. may not be suitable for younger audiences) Alternative option: Chullbi: Story of a baby chull who's mother is killed by hunters. the end. Come up with your own. I know there's more to be made.

Okay, so I was reading Warbreaker, and I come to chapter 32. Hoid shows up and starts telling stories about the history of Hallandren: http://brandonsanderson.com/warbreaker-chapter-thirty-two/ He brings up a guy from a really long time ago named Kalad: Is there a possible connection here? On the back of The Way of Kings paperback cover it says regarding the "four whom we watch" that "One of them will destroy us" implying that one of them could turn evil or something. We know that it's possible for people to planet hop (Hoid, of course, but also Galladon from Elantris is in the Way of Kings interlude about Ishikk), and it's possible that Warbreaker takes place in a much later time than the Way of Kings. Also, this Kalad is a "Returned" which bears some resemblance to the fact that What do you all think? Is this just coincidence?

This might be a cosmere newb question, but have the shards on the wiki been confirmed to be original shards from Adonalsium? I ask for this question: is it possible one of the 16 shards is actually Harmony, and then it later split further into Ruin and Preservation? And in kind, could/would it be possible to splinter further? Someone stop me if I'm following flawed logic or canon please, but this realization dawned on me while driving to work this morning, and I can't stop wondering if I have been thinking about the shards all wrong.

I'm sorry for the title, I really am, but it had to be done! After I read this today, I said, hey, lookit the PUN I can make! What better way to talk about questions that sprung up from a cognitive heavy reading than to make reference to something to do with conjunctions... (I'm linking the reading here in case anyone's missed it: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/08/stormlight-archive-scene-after-words-of-radiance ) --- While I realize that this is not yet quite cannon, I think we can still garner some things from it. According to the above reading, a junction was created when Jasnah did not fully enter the cognitive realm, letting her effectively soulcast but without leaving her stuck. While here she is stuck because her spren (and perhaps him letting her use a ton of Stormlight?) dragged/thrusted her into the Cognitive Realm completely... So, I wanted to ask a few questions (or list my thoughts) related to this, though they're not all related to the Stormlight Archive. 1. Spren are Cognitive Entities [CE] (for this it doesn't really matter what type of CE they are, only that they are a CE). So, would it be possible for other cognitive entities with similar bonds to allow/drag/thrust their bondmates to enter into the Cognitive realm? If this is so, then perhaps spren like beings such as Nightblood, Seons, Skaz, etc (freaky birds go here) could offer a similar function and...help create a junction or help bring someone to the realm. It's a different method than "pool hopping", though, I think that something like Honor's permanent junction might still be necessary to get back in (which is probably his pool)...(though, if the Storms show up in some way in the Realm...but are highly dangerous to use due to their massive level of Investiture) (If the above is true about Nightblood, it could possibly explain how Vasher hopped. Also, a large amount of Breath (like enough to reach the Fifth Heightening, I believe) might too, since that is the same amount of Investiture as in one Divine Breath...this is neither here nor there, though.) 2. In a realm without giant sized splinters (Scandrial), do you think that perhaps Cognitive Shadows (oh yes, I did) which are also CE (just non-transformative entities) could somehow help in the process? Or, if not, perhaps the process there is created by a junction created by the Mists? 3. Should, perhaps, we consider it "junction" hopping (instead of pool) hopping? And do you think that perhaps there's an interesting way to "junction" hop in Elantris? (Like make a junction, go through it, then it closes behind you. Unfortunately, you're now stuck in a really dangerous place filled with cognitive entity monsters and cognitive disasters galore! Errr...never mind, maybe you should just ignore this point!) 4. Profit! 5. Who hopes that junction is not the right term? (Or who thinks I made a really bad pun in my title? I feel clever, though!) Anyway, I just wanted to talk about it. This is a discussion topic, and while things are not concrete, I think that the reading still gives us some really cool hints about how the realms work!

Well hello fellow Roshar...ians? Rosharites?, My name is Hearthebeard and I have just finished Way of Kings and Words of Radiance at a blistering pace, though that is all of Sanderson's work that I have read. I love the mythos of this world, though just from perusing this site, it is evident that much more information about this universe is available in his other books. Which should I read? And in what order? Life before Death, Radiants.

Hi everyone. It’s been a long time since I became aware of the “Cosmere”, and I’ve spent most of the time in these forums (though I do not post much, I like to read you all ). There is one thing that always struck me as weird: The Shattering of Adonalsium, it’s said to have been done by an “opposing force”. As far as I know (and I could be terribly wrong) we know nothing about this force, yet everyone seems to think that’s some kind of “anti-adonalsium”. Another entity as mighty and powerful as him that somehow shattered him. But when I first learned about the shards that sixteen people took up the fragments of Adonalsium the first thing that crossed my mind was: “Hey, those 16 broke a god in Shards and are now having fun being godlike”. Couldn’t it be that the “opposing force that shattered Adonalsium” wasn’t an anti-Adonalsium godlike being but the actual 16 shardholders? We don’t know HOW was Adonalsium shattered, so I have no evidence for and against it… But we do know that they mostly chose their shards. It’s implied on a letter (I think in WoR) that they let Rayse take Odiums shard, fully knowing what it was. Also, neither of the 16 is actually in a hurry to restore Adonalsium. If they were ALL THERE, with all the shards in a single place, and before their intents started to influence them… Why didn’t they try to “fix” Adonalsium? Instead they took their shards and started toying with them in the world, creating their own planets, peoples, magics… I think that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they shattered Adonalsium on purpose, to take its powers or just because some other reason and the shards were a nice spoil of war. The only thing that I think it’s “against” this theory, is the same letter that we assume is from Cultivation, in wich she says something like they should be careful on Roshar, because they tread lands made by Adonalsium, and she seems to respect him/it. (Sorry I don’t have the exact quote). My answer to this is that you can still respect an enemy, and more so if it’s done in hindsight, when you are in the same position that enemy was. What do you think? Is there anything out there that directly denies this theory?

Starting page 174 (Or about 177 in the digital version) with Ym the the shoe cobbler, he mentions One that was once knew everything and experienced nothing, That he became many, people to experience things. That sounds to me both like general creation and the shattering given how humanity blossomed across the cosmere after Adonalsium was Shattered. I wonder if Hoid had a role in the founding of the One. The seventh land being attained sounds a lot like finding a shard or forging a new one through people's individually bits of investment into something new. Could that be the 17th shards objective? Instead of putting Andonalsium back together they helped foster spreading humanity across the cosmos to generate enough investiture of some sort to create something new on par with the original Adonalsium? From human experience? We know that there is an afterlife of sorts and considering how many worlds have been founded with human life, that's a lot of life experiences being sent to one place. Some of whom have touched and worked with slivers and shards. We know Cosmere humans have something equivalent to a soul and its one of the few things that essentially created from absolutely nothing of importance where the laws of physics are concerned.so it doesn't violate conservation of energy/matter. Seems like if you could tap into that and harvest it you could forge a new Adonalsium that would have all those nasty welded lines between the individual shards. Meaning you wouldn't have to find the shards and collect them, instead you grow new ones in a single location instead in cosmere heaven when all those different people can eventually come to reflect the different intents. And and it fits with the whole motiff of humans becoming gods that we've seen throughout Brandon's work Gestalt god. Thoughts?

As I was reading around the forums, it struck me that we could probably, through analysis of the letters from the epigraphs of Part 2 of tWoK and Part 4 of WoR that we could probably deduce several things. Although the vast majority of you have probably already read them, the full text can be found here, on the Coppermind. It is already fairly widely speculated that the recipient of the first letter is a Shardholder and a dragon. I have also heard it said that Brandon confirmed that the recipient is originally from Yolen (haven't found the original source on this one though). That is a little bit basic, however, and we could learn more. For example: The unnamed Shard's IntentHoid knows this person and their Shard's Intent. He therefore must have crafted his letter to specifically reason with this Intent to get the recipient to help him on Roshar. Likewise, his old friend would have argued and convinced himself of his own position with his own Shard's Intent. The origins of the 17th ShardObviously, we can't figure everything out, but Hoid does mention that the recipient is associated with the 17th Shard. Maybe the 17th Shard was formed after the Shattering by a certain Shard, or it was originally part of the group/force that Shattered Adonalsium and then shifted goals and names after the Shattering and its leader Ascended. The purpose of HoidHoid, several times, refers to the urgency of his mission and, obliquely, its nature. Again, every mystery won't be unraveled, but we do get some hints. Of course, you, being the enterprising and brilliant fellows of the 17th Shard, can probably deduce much more if you put your minds to it. I've come to a shaky conclusion that the Shard's Intent is probably close to Protection or something like that. However, it just seems to be too similar to Preservation, just a little more personal. Discuss all of the above (and more, if I know you guys ).

First and foremost, let me preface by saying that my general impression of this site is that while we may kid sometimes, our humor does not tend towards the crude, so I feel comfortable broaching this topic assuming it will stay as a scholarly discussion and not devolve into something lewd. If I'm proven wrong, I will be the first to petition the Admins to delete the entire thread. We know a few facts. (I will look up citations when I get a chance, unless someone beats me to it). 1. At least one aspect of your spiritual DNA is determined by where you are born; i.e. if two Rosharans moved to Nalthis and started a family, their children's spiritwebs would be affected by the environment of Nalthis, though we don't know for certain what that would entail. 2. The moment of conception determines certain things about a person's origins. There is also, in my opinion, strong evidence that Elsecallers can physically enter Shadesmar, though there are MANY major spoilers for WoR to back up my point. It's also, I believe, widely assumed though I'm not sure I've seen the WoB, that Hoid worldhops by physically entering the cognitive realm. As such, it's not a preposterous assumption that others might be able to physically enter the Cognitive Realm, too. Here, then, is my question. What would happen to the spiritweb of someone who was conceived while his parents were in the Cognitive Realm?

Spoiler - Zahel is Vasher from Warbreaker. We have Word of Brandon that splinters, such as spren, aeon, skaze, and nightblood can form bonds that act similar to Nahel bonds on Roshar, and are fundamentally the same. It struck me that there is one other splinter unaddressed - the Returned. The splinter is not the Returned, however. The divine breath is. I propose that returned have all formed a bond when dying with the splinter of Divine Breath provided by Endowment. That is why the returned perish when their Divine Breath is consumed, but not when it as merely stored (as demonstrated by Vasher in Warbreaker). Thus, the reason Vasher can survive via Stormlight on Roshar, is because his Divine Breath acts as a Nahel Bond. The Nahel Bond is the requirement for being able to absorb Stormlight - thus solving how Vasher can absorb Stormlight in the first place. He can then consume the investiture of Stormlight to survive instead of Breath. Will provide quotes and details upon request later tonight when I'm at my desktop.

Is there any chance that the Nightwatcher is a Shardholder? It would make sense in that she can give powers, but also gives curses for some perverse reason. It is never stated anywhere, but it is a possible explanation.

I have just a basic understanding of the Cosmere (though I guess that's true of most of us until BS writes more books), but I'm confused about the whole shard/splinter/spren thing. (I'm talking about the shards of Adonalsium here - not shard blades or plate). If I'm not mistaken, I read/heard somewhere that the spren are splinters of Honor, who has died. It was his death that caused him to splinter. I realize it was just Honor's holder that died, but didn't the shard itself splinter into smaller pieces? But what about the Stormfather? He is also called a splinter of Honor and the Windspren are his children. So, are the Windspren splinters of a splinter? Next, the Nightwatcher is of Cultivation. So, has cultivation died/splintered too and Nightwatcher is one of her splinters? Or is Nightwatcher actually Cultivation as a whole? Wyndle (Lift's spren) talks about his Mother, so is he actually of Cultivation/Nightwatcher? If so, are some of the Knights Radiant of Cultivation instead of Honor? Also, how can Cultivation have Splinters (Spren) if she hasn't died/splintered? Finally, aren't the evil spren of Odium? How can he have splinters if he hasn't died/splintered? Also, does he have a "super spren" like Honor's Stormfather and Cultivation's Nightwatcher?

TL;DR - Spiritwebs mystify me. This is going to be pretty long, and I'll probably add more that I forget or leave out later. I'll just be throwing some of my wild ideas, speculations, and ramblings down here to see if anyone has any input. First off, if this has been done and discussed before, I apologize. I just needed to put all my scattered thoughts in one place. Also, if any of this has been confirmed or denied, please let me know. I need to put my wearied mind to rest. I can't recall any times when we see someone survive being used to charge a Hemalurgic spike. I'm unsure if this is because they die from the physical aspect (such as bleeding to death from having a chunk of metal stabbed into a bindpoint and such), or through the spiritual aspect. Tied to this is the question of whether someone who is used to charge a Hemalurgic spike loses all of their Power (read: access to their magic system). I assume they do, but if we took a Twinborn, would it be possible to steal only their Allomantic power, but leave their Feruchemical Power? Unless, of course, being the "chargee" for the spike is inherently fatal. I seem to recall there being mentions of preferring to use Mistborn in the creation of Inquisitors. These Mistborn clearly don't survive, but is it because they die from the physical side or the spiritual? I know that snapping is a near-literal term, in that your spiritweb receives "cracks" that investiture can now fill. I see most (if not all) of the Investiture in the Cosmere as falling into one of two main categories. 1) Your Spiritweb receives "cracks" so that Investiture can fill them, granting access to the relative magic system or 2) You are born already Invested Under number one, we have Allomancy, Surgebinding, the Returned, and Elantrians. You have the obvious Snapping, the need to be "broken" to form a Nahel Bond, dying and receiving the Divine Breath, and the Shaod (more on this in a moment). Under number two, you have Breaths, Feruchemy, and Soul Stamping. As far as I know, you are born with the ability to use these without the need for a damaged Spiritweb. I suppose you could add a third category for things such as Hemalurgy and potentially the Dakhor Monks, where you intentionally alter your spiritweb at the cost of another's. (Interestingly enough, the categories appear to line up with the net-positive/ neutral/ negative system. I'm not sure whether that applies to all magic in the Cosmere, or specifically the magic on Scadrial.) Back to the subject of the Shaod. I briefly mentioned my thoughts on it in a reply to a post, but I'll put them here as well. I have two highly speculative theories. The first is that the Shaod is/ is guided by some (more or less) sentient being/ force, perhaps like the mist in the Mistborn Trilogy, the Highstorms in the Stormlight Archive, and Returning in Warbreaker. The second is that the Dor, being described multiple times as a force trying to push it's way through the Aons, is... "corrosive" to the local's spiritwebs. That, or simply being surrounded(?) by the Dor alters spiritwebs over time. Plenty of holes in both, they're just food for thought. Sorry for the wall of text. If you read that entire thing, I'd love any thoughts, ideas, counter-theories, or suggestions. (I'll add in supporting quotes from the texts, WOB, and other theories when my brain isn't melting out of my head.)

Hello fellow 17th Shardianers and Theorists! It can be very difficult to find theories scattered around this site, as the forum search is selective at best and at times downright dodgy. I've been thinking about various ways to gather and formalize theories in the past, but the biggest issue may simply be finding them. Thus, I've set out to make an unofficial index of theories. You can find it on the Coppermind, here. What does it do? The Unofficial Theory Index gathers a list of theories into a sortable table on the wiki. You'll be able to look at theories by name, author, date written, location in the cosmere by planet, and category. Want to find every theory about Roshar? You can do that. Every theory written after Words of Radiance was published? You'll be able to do that. Every theory on magic on Scadrial? Yep, you can do that. I've gone ahead and started today by adding 56 theories from eight theorists including myself. There are of course a few hundred theories, and I've barely scratched the surface, but it's a good start! What can I do to help? The Theory Index is on a wiki page, so feel free to add your own theories, or the theories of others as you feel comfortable. I'd appreciate it if you'd note what theories you'd covered, like "All the theories of person X", or "All theories on the Mistborn board prior to June 2012" or whatnot. That way we have a good grasp on what still needs to be covered. I'd also like to ask some questions here about how the theories should be handled. For theories proven false, should they be removed from the list (making it shorter), marked on the list with a special marking (making them obvious), or left as is? Should exceptional theories or particularly interesting theories be marked to draw attention to them? Should there be a third tag column, in order to organize theories by common topics as well, such as FTL, Hemalurgy, Compounding, Surges, etc...? Should the date columns be colour coded by publication date of cosmere books, to allow for a more clear visualization of what information was available when they were written? Keep in mind 17th Shard was founded 2010. I will be adding to this list semi-regularly, but please feel free to contribute, and give me your thoughts on some of the above questions!

My question is: could Scadrial have moved Scadrial out of the solar system or are there limitations?

So are all the Shardholders aware of the cosmere, or do some just consider themselves the god of that world. Vin certainly didn't seem to be aware of the cosmere and everything that was going on. And it never mentions if Sazed (I guess we call him Harmony now) is aware of it. However I feel like they would have to at some point. Do you think maybe once a shard changes hands that the Seventeenth Shard swoops in an informs them? It would certainly explain their purpose. Instead of a bunch of random events happening all over the cosmere the Seventeenth Shard links them all together and makes sure everything that happens links together.