Spoiler free Cosmere guide?

[Spammy]

I have embarked on the Cosmere and have chosen to read the books in publication order. Unless I've made a mistake that means I have read Elantris, The Mistborn Trilogy and am currently slogging my way through The War of Kings (I'm struggling a little but that's another post).

I feel that I've read enough to begin thinking about the Cosmere overall. Is that right?

If so, is there a guide to the Cosmere that "develops" in publication order? I tried looking at wikis and FAQs but for example in discussing Elantris alone they assume a much broader knowledge, bordering on spoiler territory for me.

I might be asking the impossible, but I guess I'm looking for the "snapshots" of discussion/guides that was had as each book was released, so that my understanding of the Cosmere happens as organically as possible.

If such a thing doesn't exist at which stage/book would you advise revisiting the various Cosmere guides safely? I suppose the safest answer is "when you've caught up" but I probably would have forgotten a whole bunch of stuff by then.

[The Awakened Salad]

I’m probably not the best person to answer this question, but I can recommend this post if you haven’t already read it:

It has information on the cosmere in general and is a great place to start if you want to learn what’s happening behind the scenes. As far as I could tell, it’s spoiler free.

As for the “snapshots”, I can’t think of any guides like you’ve described. If you have any specific questions or want to know how a specific book/series ties into the overall cosmere you could post a thread in the respective subforum. (Although I would recommend staying away from the Mistborn subforum until after you’ve read Era 2)

I personally think that you should wait until you’ve caught up to read an in-depth guide (but that’s partially from my own experience. I accidentally spoiled myself on a few key plot points when trying to learn more about the cosmere, having only read the first Mistborn trilogy and the first two Stormlight books). There are plot summaries available online if you can’t remember everything that happened in a particular book.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the books!

[GoWibble]

Some guides could be the annotation chapters from Brandon at https://www.brandonsanderson.com/brandon-sanderson-online-library/#annotations.

[Pagerunner]

You can look at the wob.coppermind.net, which collects all the interviews, signing lines, and social media where people have asked Brandon questions. Using the event list, you can start at the oldest events and read up until you've reached the publication date of the next book. That will give you all the info that people had at any given time. And you'll get a sense of the most popular discussions and theories, since those are what Brandon would often get asked about.

[Spammy]

Thanks for the (amazingly quick) replies folks. Jofwu's 101 post (or at least the start of it) was helpful, in making me realise that I'm probably not far enough to worry or understand about the Cosmere yet. For example, it goes straight into talking about "Adonalsium" - is this something that is mentioned in a later book? Or have I misunderstood and does most of the overarching Cosmere actually live outside the books?

I might give it a few more books first and as Salad says use plot summaries alongside the comprehensive guides. In the meantime I'll check out wob too.

[Honorless]

Let's start with magic then

Magic in the Cosmere functions as conversion between matter, energy and Investiture. Our world (supposedly?!) only has matter and energy but the Cosmere also has Investiture, which facilitates conversions between the three. You can see Investiture as fuel or potential energy. Investiture also connects the three realms:

There are three planes of existence in the Cosmere: the Physical Realm, the Cognitive Realm (the realm of the mind, perception, where beings like the spren & "ghosts", or Cognitive Shadows dwell) and the Spiritual Realm (the realm of the soul, where space-time is one, everything is connected, this is where souls aka Spiritweb or sDNA exists and where the Shards dwell.

The Shards are, simply put, gods. They are pure Investiture, with an Intent. That means that they want to use Investiture oriented towards a certain theme. All Investiture is divided up amongst the Shards. But it wasn't always so. There was once a being called Adonalsium, who created the Cosmere. 

Shards typically require Vessels: people who hold the Shard's power and direct it. The original Vessels took up the power of Adonalsium after an event known as the Shattering. There are 16 Shards: Preservation & Ruin, gods of Scadrial (Mistborn)

Honor, Cultivation and Odium, gods of Roshar (the Stormlight Archives)

Devotion and Dominion, gods of Sel (Elantris and the Emperor's Soul)

Ambition, god of Threnody (Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell)

Endowment, god of Nalthis (Warbreaker)

and others of whom we know very little as of now.

Hoid knew all of these original Vessels and was present at the Shattering. 

[Karger]

It might be simpler to ask questions as you go. 

[Negative_Null]

Sorry, this fandom has the highest learning curve I've ever seen, so you'll either see some spoilers or be very confused if you stay on here for long