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I have a theory I don't think anyone else has brought up. (I know! Shocking!! They're so hard to find these days with so many clever little theorists on this website.) White sand is bone spores. They are only mentioned briefly in Tress of the Emerald Sea, but I think there is enough to link these two together. I have 3 points that I believe confirm this theory. 1. "People can't even make up their minds of what color 'bone spores' are supposed to be. White or black? Or both?" What other material do we know of in the Cosmere that is both black and white? 2. Furthermore, the requirement of water to perform sand mastery is another point in favor of this theory. The Sand Masters are creating a Luhel bond without knowing it in order to manipulate this sand. 3. From this quote: "We always talk about there being twelve seas and twelve moons. But, ... I feel I should confirm things like that. (Tress) There are, after all, thirteen kinds of spores. (Fort) No there ain't. Don't you be spreading that lie (Ann) It's not a lie. Its a legend. Different thing entirely (Fort)" we can infer that Bone Spores are not native Lumarans. Their aether does not live here on one of her moons. So maybe the "legends" of bone spores are from brief encounters with Taldain's White Sand and the aether who creates it. This is probably pretty far fetched, but it feels like the kind of thing that Brandon wouldn't include unless it meant something. Why even bring up that there are 13 spore types but only 12 moons and aether? Why specifically mention that that spore type is white and black? I haven't real all of White Sand (just vol. 1, though please feel free to spoils them if they answer this question) so there may be some internal explanation of White Sand that I missed or didn't get to. Anyway, I hope you liked my theory!

Alright, there might already be a feed for this but I haven't been able to find one. While Tress is visiting Ulaam he makes a reference to a "true monster" that is in one of his drawer that has seven faces and then rattles mysteriously. Ulaam references it again in the future saying he figured out where to put the 8th face which was under the thorax or something like that? Any ideas what this could be? My only guess is a baby mistwraith he has or something like that. What do y'all think?

Hey every one I was wondering on your thoughts on the matter of when Tress of the Emerald sea takes place in the Cosmere timeline and where did the rocket come from? My thought is that, like sixth of dusk, it has to be pretty late because of the space ship. If I understand correctly Scadrial is the first to reach the space age and is the only one we know of to do so. The only other explanation is that one of the organizations of world hoppers could have invented them before scadrail. What do you guys Think?

Hello! So, I'm back again with another hairbraned theory with little to no evidence to back it up. But, it sure would be cool if it were true. At the very end of the Ars Arcanum of RoW, we get an interesting quote about an entity named Foil that lives in an ocean and wants control of the aethers. When RoW came out, the identity of this being was unknown. Then Tress was released and we got introduced to a fun dragon named Xisis. Xisis lives at the bottom of the Crimson sea and studies, you guessed it, the aethers. This implies that they're the same. This is only circumstantial evidence, of course, but it seems to me like a pretty strong connection. A quick search of Coppermind and Arcanum didn't reveal anything, so I'm asking for thoughts. Do you think that Foil and Xisis are the same? Is there any evidence I've overlooked? Please tell me your point of view.

These are cropped versions of a couple Cosmere pieces I just did for myself. I started one with the Stormfather yesterday so I might post that one here sometime in the near future.

So I recently finished tress and was listening to the podcast and I had a thought. If we believe as was discussed that potential the primal aethers are essentially cultivating a bunch of aether strains all over the cosmere, and we have re-shephir on roshar it is as proposed entirely plausible that this is a prime midnight aether from roshar or ashyn. however going from this I think it makes way more sense to be from ashyn. because as Brandon has said ashyn was supposed to have a magic system based around diseases that infect you and give you powers, given what we see in tress this sounds right In line with another very virulent strain of aether as we see in this book. so essentially the magic system on ashyn was an essentially viral strain of aether possibly similar to that seen in tress though potentially far more stable due to potentially a lot more water. Re-shepir is just a corrupted prime aesther from ashyn then. granted it’s also very possible that the ashyn magic system has been scrapped and possible that the idea was actually turned into the aether gestator we see in tress

If you ever revise the reputation level titles again, pretty please could the starting rank be "Doug"?

Ok, this is kind of a crazy theory of mine, without much evidence currently, but here we go. We all know that both aluminum and silver have strange effects. Aluminum is able to negate any form of investiture, and silver is able to do something similar. I believe that silvers actual abilities tie more to the crossing between the three realms. (On threnody where the cognitive shades are held back by silver, in tress where the spores are unable to draw power from the spiritual realm when near silver, etc.) So while aluminum blocks investature, silver functions as a barrier between realms. Aluminum has one other ability though, It can be burned by mistborns/mistings. And now we get the the point. Every shard has a god metal, so I wonder if adonalsium THEMSELVES had a god metal. We know that the metals can still be around after a vessels death, we see this in TLM when both ruin and preservations metals are once again created. So, I believe that silver is adonalsium's god metal. This is a lot of guesses and extrapolation, but think about it. If adonalsium truly is, like, GOD, then it makes sense that they would have created the three realms, and as the sole deity, they would have been spread over the entire cosmere, maybe spreading and diluting their god metal. Its abilities are not tied to all the other metals, including aluminum, as it cannot be burned and has no attachment to any other from of investature, only the fabric of the realms themselves. Now back to Aluminum. It is suggested throughout many books that Hoid was with the 16 when Adonalsium was killed, to the point where this is just a fact. If Hoid helped to kill Adonalsium, then gave up his share of the power, like I believe, then there is another god metal. I think hoid dispersed the actual "17th shard" over the cosmere, and the 17th god metal was similairly dispersed, which is ALUMINUM. sorry if i was rambling, I am excited to see your guys' ideas

I just finished Tress, and I (like others) have been trying to place it in the timeline. I came to the same conclusion that it happens in the "mistborn space age," likely before the events of Mistborn Era 4. I've always assumed that Mistborn Era 3 would be followed pretty quickly by era 4 (100 years seemed like a reasonable amount of time to go from 1980's tech to ftl). Tress, though, indicates that this gap is likely much larger. First off, a few assumptions (if any of these are wrong, then we can throw out everything else I have to say: There is only 1 group of Iriali Computers did not exist anywhere in the Cosmere 2000 years prior to the events of the Stormlight Archive Tress takes place before Mistborn Era 4 (if Era 4 is the "end" it would be strange to be getting stories after it at this point. Also if Tress is after Era 4, that would likely place the Sixth of the Dusk sequel after Era 4 as well, which would be really weird) Scadrial tech proceeds at a similar speed to Earth tech (with a higher cap since ftl is possible in the cosmere) So we're pretty sure that Tress happens after Mistborn Era 2. We know the Iriali were on Roshar for thousands of years, and went to Scadrial afterward. But going to Scadrial doesn't really matter here. It doesn't even matter if there's some sort of Iriali diaspora and some go to Scadrial and some go to Lumar. What matters is that after Rhythm of War at some point, the Iriali go to Lumar, stay for a bit, then leave, then 300 years pass, then Tress happens. As others have identified, this means that Tress happens at a minimum of 300 years after Rhythm of War. Add time for them living on Lumar, and perhaps additional time on Scadrial, and we're likely up around 500 years, conservatively. (In order for Iriali to be an important enough language for some random Duke's son to learn, they were probably a fairly big presence on Lumar, and not just a quick stop-and-go.) I've always assumed that Mistborn Era 3 will follow pretty soon after Era 2. 1980's tech doesn't seem that far off. It seems safe to say that there's no more than 100 years between the eras. So, if we say that Tress happens right before Era 4, that puts somewhere around 400 years (200 at an absolute minimum) between Mistborn Era 3 and 4. That's a lot more than I had previously thought, and it's making me rethink my expectations of Era 4. I have a hard time seeing it take 400 years for Scadrial to get from 1980's tech to ftl. So here's some speculation on what this may mean: Something goes terribly wrong in Mistborn Era 3, and sets Scadrial back far enough that it takes them 400 years to catch back up again and then figure out ftl. Or, perhaps Mistborn Era 4 is not set at the beginning of the space age, but far into it. Perhaps, instead of being a "first contact" or "new powers warring" story, Era 4 is set in a space age where Scadrial and others have been in space for hundreds of years. I don't know about you all, but this is a new idea for me. I kind of like it though. I feel like this is the more likely explanation, and it seems to line up with how we've seen Scadrial's influence on various planets across the cosmere in the later stories. Anyways, let me know what you think, or if this is old news to all of you. The idea of there having been hundreds of years between Era 3 and 4 has got me excited - there's a lot of interesting possibilities and stories that could come out of that. I'm looking forward to empires spanning lots of planets, large scale imperial politics, etc.

I recently finished Tress and I was explaining to a friend the bit where Huck forgets he is a rat, and I realized it's actually excellent foreshadowing. Here's the quotes for reference and On a first read through they are funny moments, but looking back it's seems obvious that he forgets he is a rat and can do rat things because he wasn't always a rat and hasn't been a rat for that long. I found a few other moments and I'm currently rereading every scene in awe of Brandon's writing. It feels like whenever I get accustomed to something like the absurd worldbuilding I find something like this and remember why I read these books.

Does anyone know what the lizard dude at the end was? Maybe a Sho Del?

If I were a movie producer wanting to dip my toe in some surefire Sanderson that would 1) have broad appeal, 2) cover a short lifespan, 3) and whet the world's appetite for all things cosmere, this story is the perfect place to start! As a movie or a 4-6 hour mini-series, the budget would need to be large, yes, but with a Princess-Bride-like appeal to all ages and the Sanderson name, very little would be as guaranteed as this deal. When done well, can you just imagine how perfectly this series could promote future cosmere stories? I picture Hoid narrating the tale on a different planet to perhaps a well-known character or species, and his facial expressions as he relays the bits about his cabinboy days - oh, please make this happen!

I’m a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson and the cosmere. I am so enjoying Tress of the emerald sea. It is both a unique novel for Sanderson, and in keeping with his amazing imagination. I want more Hoid narrated stories he’s just awesome.

There are a number of issues with Lumar's cosmology. With the size of the moon that they are in the Lumar sky, they should reasonably be smashing into the planet, not in stable orbits. And even if we ignore that, with that many moons in that close of an orbit, they should all be smashing into each other. But this doesn't happen, because apparently the moons don't move. The seas stay in the same place! Don't move, huh? So we have twelve moons around the planet, none of which are orbiting it? And far too close to be in stable orbits anyway? It's okay though, I can dismiss a lot. Perhaps theirs some distortion effect that makes the moons appear bigger without actually being really bigger. But then we learn that the moons send produce spores that fall to the earth. So... the moons must really be that close then, huh? And it must not have it's own gravity, because otherwise the spores would stick to it. It is here that I propose my grand theory. The moons are blimps. Oh now, I hear what your saying 'what, what?' However, if the moons are blimps, then they can be much closer to the actual earth, without causing gravity issues or crashing into it. It would make sense that the spores would follow Lumar gravity, because a blimp wouldn't have much gravity of its own. It can just be floating up there, not moving, sending spores down to the earth. The moons are secretly just giant blimps in the sky. I rest my case.

Tress herself mentions death being a specter with nails in his eyes. Obviously, that's Marsh. How/why would he not only be on Lumar at some point, but have forged a similar reputation as being death to what he has on Scadrial? Given Ulaam's presence, it's possible there are Scadrians on Lumar that have transplanted their culture there, so Marsh himself was never present, but I feel like that's unlikely. Any thoughts?

Note: I’m super new to this forum so if I’m doing something incorrect posting this myself please let me know. I scanned through the topics and didn’t see this one posted anywhere. What does everyone think the reptilian creature posing as Charlie was? My first thought was a Sho Del, but the lack of mention of extra limbs points to that not being the case. Also, with Hoid being the narrator and just casually mentioning other cosmere crossovers by name, it feels inconsistent for him to ignore that. Maybe some kind of hemalurgic chimera? Maybe a kandra, as they seem to be taking on more non-human traits at this point in the timeline? Or maybe something entirely new we just don’t know about yet? What does everyone think?

Can someone help me understand what is going on with silver on Lumar and Threnody? Why is silver allomantically inert on Scadrial when it appears to extinguish investiture on other planets of the cosmere? Aluminum acts that way in Allomancy but on worlds where silver has an effect, aluminum is an insulator and a concealer. On these worlds, aluminum is inert with regard to investiture, but it doesn’t eradicate it (in the way that silver does). Another interesting fact I noted was that both Lumar and Threnody are not actively invested by a shard. Not sure that is relevant, but it could be. So, what is up with silver?

I've seen a few people ask the question in other threads but I haven't really seen anyone give a theory about it. This story is clearly meant to be taking place in the later stages of the Cosmere, well after SA, so why is Ulaam the one who shows up to record Hoid's embarrassing poems instead of Design? Because if anyone was going to be there just making fun of Hoid I would've expected it to be her. Is she just hanging out somewhere else on the planet or maybe in the cognitive realm? Are they still bonded? Did he just get so sick of her interrupting/spoiling his stories that he decided to find a way to undo the Nahel bond? He didn't seem to use any of his Radiant powers at all, and I didn't notice any Cryptic-like designs on his clothes or anything either. Thoughts? Did anyone see a clue that I missed?