When did fandom learn about the shattering?

[SarChasmFiend he/him]

My best friend is dipping his toe into the cosmere. He’s read era one and is crawling through Elantris, though he’s starting to pick up the pace. He’s so in for the long haul that he has drawn up an insanely strict spoiler policy. One of the things we’ve agreed on is that I’ll give him WoB’s in context, as he makes his way through. I’m dying to talk about Adonalsium though, and There’s no way I can wait til he gets to secret history, and I’m sure Brandon said something long before then. Hoping someone can give me a better idea of an actual timeframe when the the first time we heard the shattering story from Brandon. 
 

thanks!

[MasterGhandalf]

IIRC, the very first we ever heard about Adonalsium was in the Hero of Ages epigraphs (which alludes to the shattering but doesn't really spell it out explicitly) and the online Q&A session that followed HoA's release. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by MasterGhandalf

[SarChasmFiend he/him]

7 hours ago, MasterGhandalf said:

IIRC, the very first we ever heard about Adonalsium was in the Hero of Ages epigraphs (which alludes to the shattering but doesn't really spell it out explicitly) and the online Q@A session that followed HoA's release. 

So he’s definitely read the name of Adonalsium, but not the word shattering (in context). I asked what he knew about that name and he got bent out of shape because he “doesn’t want to know what might be important later.” *facepalm. I’ve looked through arcanum to find the earliest mentions of Adonalsium, but they already assume we know about the shattering. I came into the fandom already knowing about it, it’s actually what got me interested, so it seems like such a long wait for him to find out in a book. Hahaha

[Dunkum he/him]

Stormlight Archive, especially the epigraphs, seems to be the most Cosmere aware out of the the main novels.  either that or Mistborn era 2.  I know Wit specifically asks Dalinar about Adonalsium at some point in SA, probably book 1 or 2, but i'm not positive about which one. so those would be solid bets.

[Elegy he/him]

The Shattering is explained in Mistborn: Secret History. There's very straight-forward references to it in the Arcanum Unbounded essays as well. These two things are the most Cosmere aware of everything out yet, so as soon he's read those, he's in on the important stuff.

[Serack he/him]

On 7/29/2022 at 8:37 AM, SarChasmFiend said:

So he’s definitely read the name of Adonalsium, but not the word shattering (in context). I asked what he knew about that name and he got bent out of shape because he “doesn’t want to know what might be important later.” *facepalm. I’ve looked through arcanum to find the earliest mentions of Adonalsium, but they already assume we know about the shattering. I came into the fandom already knowing about it, it’s actually what got me interested, so it seems like such a long wait for him to find out in a book. Hahaha

Gosh, the question itself isn't a spoiler if he's read HoA, but honestly, the books themselves are a terrible resource for understanding it.  If he only wants what he has read in the books to be his source though, you should respect that.  

I recommend you discuss with him the option of the annotated version of Warbreaker.  My e-book has the annotations at the back and Brandon is careful to call out when an annotation has spoilers for the story so you can skip those parts.  They break up the flow of the story a little though so they may not be ideal.  However it is a really good, printed-in-the-book way to demonstrate just how rich the outside-the-story info from Brandon is.