Learning the Cosmere

[RedLightweaver Skaa]

While we're in a grace period before Book 5, I wanted to take the time to try to understand the Cosmere a bit more. I've read the Mistborn series, Stormlight series, White Sands, Elantris, Warbreaker, Ars Arcanum, mostly as they came out and I haven't revisited anything since. Where is the best place to start my research and learning? I wanted to look more into things like the Shards and potential major players in the Cosmere at large. Hope this makes sense.

[Frustration Herald]

18 minutes ago, RedLightweaver said:

While we're in a grace period before Book 5, I wanted to take the time to try to understand the Cosmere a bit more. I've read the Mistborn series, Stormlight series, White Sands, Elantris, Warbreaker, Ars Arcanum, mostly as they came out and I haven't revisited anything since. Where is the best place to start my research and learning? I wanted to look more into things like the Shards and potential major players in the Cosmere at large. Hope this makes sense.

Nope I've got you

Here is Cosmere Wikipedia: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Coppermind:Welcome

And here is everything Brandon has said so far as we can tell: https://wob.coppermind.net/

[Zoey House Lord]

In terms of the very Cosmere aware books, The Emperor's Soul, Mistborn: Secret History, Hero of Ages, Bands of Mourning, and Stormlight Archive in general (but Oathbringer, Dawnshard, and Rhythm of War in particular) all give a lot of insight into the ways that the Cosmere works and into majour players and mechanics.

But to truly understand all of the Books give insight into the mechanics and background. I just listed the ones that do the most IMO. 

 

 

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Emperor's Soul gives a lot on Realmatics. 

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Secret History and Hero of Ages gives more on the nature of Shards and Realmatics. Also Secret History gives a lot of explanation for occurrences across the First Trilogy. It also tries into Era 2 and eventually 3 in various significant ways. It also has connections to Hoid which you can see reflected in Stormlight Archive.

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Bands of Mourning gives a good insight into Invesituture and Identity, and how it can make Unkeyed or Unsealed Metalminds which would be a significant part of later Cosmere. It also has various big additions to the world of Scadrial geographically speaking with the addition of Southern Scadrial. 

 

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Stormlight Archive gives a lot into Realmatics, such as the Spiritual and Cognitive Realms in a great deal of detail, and into the nature of Investiture and Pure Tones and such. Also connections we don't fully understand to the Cognitive Anomaly shown on the Nalthain System Map. This seems like it would be of extreme importance in later Cosmere due to how much Brandon avoids questions about the Anomaly.

Along with this Brandon says that Dysian Aimians and the Iriali will play a majour role in Space Age Cosmere. 

In particular, Oathbringer, Dawnshard, and Rhythm of War are the most enlightening. 

 

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Dawnshard gives insight into the Dawnshards which are a big part of Cosmere history and Metaphysics. 

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Archanum Unbounded gives a lot into things characters aren't as aware of, such as the size and gravity of planets, and various aspects of their history such as references to Fain (which ties back to Yolen), and explanation of the Dor and its nature. 

 

And as said above, you can look on the Coppermind Wiki for a lot of information on the Cosmere collected from across the books. Though it is not complete in various parts. 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Zoey

[Weltall Voidbringer]

Frustration nailed it, you can find (almost) everything that we know about the Cosmere between those two places. If you just want to browse, set aside an hour or three to check those out, if you want to ask questions just drop them in the appropriate forum.

Oh, and welcome to the Shard!