So...What Are the Mistborn "Eras"?

[Joss she/her]

I literally just joined the fandom and I'm only in chapter 5 of Mistborn, so I'm a newbie. I have already seen the term "eras" in regards to the Mistborn series and I was just wondering what exactly they are. Is is just a term used to differentiate between the books, or is it a canon thing specified in the books or something? Thank you! 

[AdonalsiumIsMyDad]

Brandon has planned four sub series to take place on the world of Mistborn. Each era has 3 or 4 books in it. 

Era 1 takes place in medieval times revolving around Vin’s story.

Era 2 is a Wild West/Steam Punk era involving Wax and Wayne. (Trains, guns, etc) The last book to this series was just released last year.

Era 3 will bet set in a 1980’s style spy thriller with some Cold War themes. It’s planned to be written after Stormlight 5 is finished.

Era 4 will be a futuristic sci-fi as character explore and interact with the planets in the other Cosmere books. It will involve a major war between worlds.

All the books will take place on the same planet and involve the same magic system and its co-evolution with technology. Obviously the last era won’t be written for a few years but it’s exciting stuff we have coming! Hope your first few chapters have been good

[Cash67 Where’s/Perry]

2 hours ago, Joss said:

I literally just joined the fandom and I'm only in chapter 5 of Mistborn, so I'm a newbie. I have already seen the term "eras" in regards to the Mistborn series and I was just wondering what exactly they are. Is is just a term used to differentiate between the books, or is it a canon thing specified in the books or something? Thank you! 

It is literally a term used to differentiate between the trilogies. That's all. 

[Treamayne]

Welcome to the Cosmere and the Forums. If you are just starting your journey, you may want to check out one of the many Reading Order Threads. Also, here are some forum tips and tricks you may not yet know:

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9 hours ago, Joss said:

I literally just joined the fandom and I'm only in chapter 5 of Mistborn, so I'm a newbie. I have already seen the term "eras" in regards to the Mistborn series and I was just wondering what exactly they are. Is is just a term used to differentiate between the books, or is it a canon thing specified in the books or something? Thank you! 

7 hours ago, AdonalsiumIsMyDad said:

Brandon has planned four sub series to take place on the world of Mistborn. Each era has 3 or 4 books in it. 

Era 1 takes place in medieval times revolving around Vin’s story.

Era 2 is a Wild West/Steam Punk era involving Wax and Wayne. (Trains, guns, etc) The last book to this series was just released last year.

Era 3 will bet set in a 1980’s style spy thriller with some Cold War themes. It’s planned to be written after Stormlight 5 is finished.

Era 4 will be a futuristic sci-fi as character explore and interact with the planets in the other Cosmere books. It will involve a major war between worlds.

All the books will take place on the same planet and involve the same magic system and its co-evolution with technology. Obviously the last era won’t be written for a few years but it’s exciting stuff we have coming! Hope your first few chapters have been good

Here are WoBs were Brandon explains it:

Spoiler

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

So, there's a couple of things that I need to explain to you guys in this one. First is that Mistborn, I pitched to my editor, way at the beginning, as a series where a fantasy world slowly became a science fiction world. So we would pass through a modern era, where things are like our world, and then we pass on to a science fiction era, because I'd never seen that done before. I'd never seen someone take epic fantasy and then build from the events in the epic fantasy, like religions and philosophies, and then tell another story set in a more modern and contemporary world. And then in the science fiction one, the magic will become the means by which space travel is possible. So we're in the middle of that. Wax and Wayne is an interim, I'm calling it era 2. There's an era 3 which is 1980s, cold war, spy thriller Mistborn. Then there is an era four, which is science fiction, unless I slip in a cyberpunk, near-future science fiction, which I might do. So there might be five, we'll see. I've warned people of that. The last Mistborn series, whichever era it ends up being, is the last thing of the cosmere chronologically. So, it's a long ways off. All the other series have to finish before I can do that.

Quote

Questioner

So, when you were plotting out Mistborn, did you do the whole trilogy, kind of thing?

Brandon Sanderson

I did nine books when I did the plot for Mistborn. Normally how I approach plotting is: first book, I do with minimal outlining for the rest of the series. So there's-- I'll do a pretty good outline for the first book. And then I will write that first book (and of course everything changes from the outline as you're writing it) and then I sit down and I outline the series, whatever the series is going to be, with about a page on each book. And then when it's time to write that one, I sit down and I kind of attack that outline. Usually, I'm looking for about-- roughly, outline is 10,000 words for every 100,000 words of book. So, a lot of my YA outlines are 10,000 to 20,000. 15,000 words, something like that. For something big like Stormlight, we're looking at a lot more.

With Mistborn, I finished the first book, and I went to my outline and I created the spine of the three eras. (Which became four! Because I'm an epic fantasy writer.) And then I called my editor, I'm like, "Hey, this is what I want to do." And he's like, "Wow, you're ambitious."

Questioner

Are you going to complete 'em eventually?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I will. We're getting really close to doing the next era. So, Mistborn, if you haven't read them, there's an era of epic fantasy, there's an era of urban fantasy. (It's more like steampunk, there's a steampunk era). Then we're gonna go to a true urban fantasy, kind of 1980s level of technology. Which is gonna be really fun.

MisCon 2018 (May 26, 2018)

 

Hope that helps.

[Joss she/her]

11 hours ago, AdonalsiumIsMyDad said:

Brandon has planned four sub series to take place on the world of Mistborn. Each era has 3 or 4 books in it. 

Era 1 takes place in medieval times revolving around Vin’s story.

Era 2 is a Wild West/Steam Punk era involving Wax and Wayne. (Trains, guns, etc) The last book to this series was just released last year.

Era 3 will bet set in a 1980’s style spy thriller with some Cold War themes. It’s planned to be written after Stormlight 5 is finished.

Era 4 will be a futuristic sci-fi as character explore and interact with the planets in the other Cosmere books. It will involve a major war between worlds.

All the books will take place on the same planet and involve the same magic system and its co-evolution with technology. Obviously the last era won’t be written for a few years but it’s exciting stuff we have coming! Hope your first few chapters have been good

ohhh ok that makes sense! Thank you for explaining!