Sharder Origin Stories

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

Cuz I'm curious, how did ya'll 
A.) First get into Sanderson
B.) Find the Shard and get involved in it?
C.) (bonus question) Pick your username?

I first got into Sanderson in 2020, because two of my friends wouldn't stop talking about Stormlight 24/7, and I always felt excluded so I eventually asked to borrow TWoK. A few months later I'd finished all the Cosmere, then started binging Shardcast and reading the non-Cosmere stuff. I think I browsed the forums a bit but didn't make an account till later. I joined the discord on August 20, 2021 (funny coincidence, that was the same day that Punny became staff), and I sent ~300 messages there my first day xD Made a forums account a month later, and started editing the Coppermind around the same time. Got very addicted to Copperminding, and got made Keeper the following March.  4 years later I'm still just as addicted to both Sanderson and the Shard, and I'm glad to be here 
* I originally made my username co-president-of-the-taln-fanclub, but I decided that was too wordy and shortened it to #1 Taln Fan 

[Kansas Stormcursed he/him]

I first got into Sanderson a few years ago, maybe 2021-ish?, when my uncle gave me TWoK for my birthday and proceeded to read and reread Stormlight (through book 4 of course) more than 7 times. I’ve recently started reading through the rest of the Cosmere. I found the Shard when Heraldoflove and I were working on homebrewing the Cosmere for D&D (ish) and I made an account literally to ask a question about somebody else’s homebrew version that they posted on here. I originally made my username Drehy because he was the only gay character in Stormlight, then changed it to Kaladin Stormcursed because a) it fits my situation and b) he’s totally bi.

[Honors Spectral Image She/her]

I started reading Sanderson in the summer of 2023 when @Kaladin Stormcursed recommended TWoK to me and over the summer I read 1-4 then took a break until book five came out(I got it on the day the nearest book store got it) I read book five and loved it and since then I’ve been trying to read other cosmere books like,elantris,dawnshard,and warbreaker. @Kaladin Stormcursed had been trying to convince me to join the shard for a very long time and sometime in January I finnally listened and I’m so glad I did. The story of my username is that a year or so before I joined the shard I had gotten my two best friends together bc they had liked each other for a while and so I was proud of myself for that (this next part contains WaT spoilers)

Spoiler

After I rea WaT and Kaladin became a herald I wanted to model my username after that

Also I’ve never been able to find love in more than just a friend and I struggle with my gender identity and sexuality quite a bit so I figured if I can’t find it in real life why not be the herald of it in the shard.

[S. Stormy she/her]

1) My family were fans so I read WoK in fifth grade 

2) I googled questions so I haunted the forums for awhile till I decided to join

3) I had always wanted my name to be Auntie Voidlight but then forgot that when I actually made an account, so Shallan Stormblessed happened, but then I shortened it to S. Stormy.

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

1. I read Skyward in like . . .

. . . eighth grade, I think?

Then I read Steelheart

And then the entire available Cosmere in 9th

2. ummmm idk I was looking up a question on the and I just stumbled across it

3. That's my lil' secret

[echo74 she/her]

a) i started reading steelheart in 6th grade and i thought it was cool but i didn't enjoy it that much and then i remember i was at the byu bookstore one time and i saw stormlight archive and i remembered my friend (i can't remember if it was haly or somebody else--probably both) was talking abt it so i bought WoK and i can't remember if i also bought WoR but i read WoK and liked it enough to talk abt it occasionally (also rithmatist at some point in time idk)

b) anyways and then at some point in september 2022 haly and i were talking abt it and brandon sanderson stuff (atp i'd only read like steelheart, rithmatist, and way of kings) and she was like "hey you need to make an account" and then i joined and i was like semi-active until fairly recently sooo yeah

c) when i was like nine, i'd occasionally call myself "e-chihuahua" it didn't really mean anything it was just really fun to say (my best friend was a-poodle) and then around october 2021 or something like that i wanted to make a codename for myself and i didn't know what to do so i brought up the e-chihuahua thing and haly was like (this was around when i first met her) "oh you could be echo-chihuahua" and now i'm just echo the numbers are just for fun lol

[Cash67]

15 hours ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

Cuz I'm curious, how did ya'll 
A.) First get into Sanderson
B.) Find the Shard and get involved in it?
C.) (bonus question) Pick your username?

I first got into Sanderson in 2020, because two of my friends wouldn't stop talking about Stormlight 24/7, and I always felt excluded so I eventually asked to borrow TWoK. A few months later I'd finished all the Cosmere, then started binging Shardcast and reading the non-Cosmere stuff. I think I browsed the forums a bit but didn't make an account till later. I joined the discord on August 20, 2021 (funny coincidence, that was the same day that Punny became staff), and I sent ~300 messages there my first day xD Made a forums account a month later, and started editing the Coppermind around the same time. Got very addicted to Copperminding, and got made Keeper the following March.  4 years later I'm still just as addicted to both Sanderson and the Shard, and I'm glad to be here 
* I originally made my username co-president-of-the-taln-fanclub, but I decided that was too wordy and shortened it to #1 Taln Fan 

a) my best book friend recommended sanderson to me at the start of the pandemic. I was 14/15 I think? Started ono WoK, blazed through RoW, and then the rest of the Cosmere was finished in the first couple of months

b) Lurked here as a guest for a while, maybe 1.5 years? Then made an account to celebrate my birthday and now I'm here.

c) Microsoft gave me Homespuncash67 when I got bedrock edition, and I've been shortening that username ever since. 

[Bird Furious she/her/un/important]

1. Ranryu. 

2. Ranryu. 

3. My author name, or what I want it to be if I ever publish anything  

[Mattel]

A.) I first got into Sanderson over Spring Break two years ago (sheesh it's been awhile) when my parents recommended TWoK to me. I knew it was long but I was like "pfft, I can finish that in a week."

*NEWS FLASH* I did not finish it in a week.

B.) I kid you not I think I was looking for a Knights Radiant personality quiz and I stumbled upon the 17th shard 

I wish it had come with an addiction warning label.

C.) I am a slender guy so some of my classmates, being the amazing nick name givers that they aren't, decided they couldn't call me barbie cause that would be too rude, so instead they called me mattel like the brand. And my real name is Matthew so they felt real clever for keeping five letters of my name in the nickname. 

[NameIess]

A.) A cousin recommended the Way of Kings to me, and I read it. Loved it, quickly read all the other ones. I was maybe 14-15? Possibly older, it's hard to say.

B.) I honestly can't remember how I found the shard. Maybe my mom heard about it somewhere? Anyways, I joined in 2019, and got involved into theories and TLT fairly quickly.

C.) My original username was actually an acronym. (llstml, if anyone want to figure out what it stands for, go ahead). I changed it when getting into TLT, and deciding that a Narrator named 'llstml' didn't make a lot of sense. I thought about it for a while and eventually settled on Nameless as a cool name.

[Entr0pic He/him]

1st: someone at B&N recommended mistborn to me, then i read stormlight, then so on and so forth.

2nd: i started looking up answers to some questions i had of the series, which lead me to the coppermind, which led me to the shard.

3rd: it’s a nod the cosmological concept of entropy, and i think it sounded neat.

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

Interesting that so many of us started with WoK, despite it being super long xD 
 

3 hours ago, Mattel said:

I wish it had come with an addiction warning label.

 

I'll look into it
 

[Tinwatcher I don’t mind]

A) @Levlakv heard about Twok from @DAVEY, so he picked it for the our book report thingy 

B).           @DAVEY asked me in class if I wanted to be active on 17th shard

C) Orginal username: TheBestTruthWatcher was picked because I am the best 

current username was picked because I translated “Truthwatcher” into Nepali and thought it looked cool 

Spoiler

Google translate didn’t give the best translation but it’s probably the closest to the literal translation 

 

I just remembered that Alcatraz is Sanderson. I got into Sanderson from Alecatraz

[Through the living jeff he/him(straight)]

21 hours ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

Cuz I'm curious, how did ya'll 
A.) First get into Sanderson
B.) Find the Shard and get involved in it?
C.) (bonus question) Pick your username?

I first got into Sanderson in 2020, because two of my friends wouldn't stop talking about Stormlight 24/7, and I always felt excluded so I eventually asked to borrow TWoK. A few months later I'd finished all the Cosmere, then started binging Shardcast and reading the non-Cosmere stuff. I think I browsed the forums a bit but didn't make an account till later. I joined the discord on August 20, 2021 (funny coincidence, that was the same day that Punny became staff), and I sent ~300 messages there my first day xD Made a forums account a month later, and started editing the Coppermind around the same time. Got very addicted to Copperminding, and got made Keeper the following March.  4 years later I'm still just as addicted to both Sanderson and the Shard, and I'm glad to be here 
* I originally made my username co-president-of-the-taln-fanclub, but I decided that was too wordy and shortened it to #1 Taln Fan 

A. My mom likes it

B. Google

C. Sounded like a cool username (for my initial user) don’t even ask about Davey.

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

43 minutes ago, DAVEY said:

A. My mom likes it

B. Google

C. Sounded like a cool username (for my initial user) don’t even ask about Davey.

Why Davey?

[LessName]

A.) So you see, this super cute guy (*cough cough* @NameIess) came over with the rest of his family to my family’s house for a play date, if you will, hardly spoke to me, but recommended Brandon Sanderson books, and that Tress was a good one to start with. I decided to start with WoK, because the cover looked cool.

B.) So you see, this super cute guy, (we’re still talking about the same one, and by this point we’re dating) said I should join the Shard to do shenanigans on TLT.

C.) So you see, this super cute guy, the one who invited me to the Shard, I just did his username backwards.

 

Edit: I feel obligated to add that NameIess and I got engaged January 26th, 2025, and will be getting married later this year.

Edited February 24, 2025 by LessName

[Tinwatcher I don’t mind]

1 hour ago, Through The Living Glass said:

Why Davey?

Cuz he’s Davey

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

3 minutes ago, सत्य हेर्ने said:

Cuz he’s Davey

shhhhhhhhhhh i'm not asking you shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Tinwatcher I don’t mind]

9 minutes ago, Through The Living Glass said:

shhhhhhhhhhh i'm not asking you shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I think @Limited_empathygave me a good explanation of why davey is called davey

Spoiler

I’m very forgetful 

 

[Tinwatcher I don’t mind]

36 minutes ago, Through The Living Glass said:

shhhhhhhhhhh i'm not asking you shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I just relapsed you were sushing me and now I feel stupid 

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

Just now, सत्य हेर्ने said:

I just relapsed you were sushing me and now I feel stupid 

Please try not to double post, thanks

but yeah 

hehe

[Treamayne]

23 hours ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

1. ) First get into Sanderson
2. ) Find the Shard and get involved in it?
3. ) (bonus question) Pick your username?

<Minor Spoilers for Mistborn> (in case anybody has not read that yet)

 

 

 

1. I started with Mistborn TFE in 2011/2012 (that winter, can't recall if it was before or after the Holiday), read that trilogy, moved on to Alloy of Law. . .
   and almost stopped reading there (two coworkers did stop after AoL - turned out that not knowing the premise for Mistborn was that each era will be a different tech era really hurt the ability to enjoy that book when all you can think is "why is this so different"). Before writing Sanderson off, I decided to try Elantris and Emperor's Soul; and I was hooked. Contined through all published materials though SfSitFoH (which I found by accident since I bought the Dangerous Women anthology for the Molly PoV Dresden Files Story and just noticed Sanderson in the ToC). During this period, I found WoBs and learned that the tech era change was deliberate and meant as a pattern for future eras too. Been reading every thing else on release week ever since WoR in 2014 (and Shadows Beneath - the best version of Sixth of the Dusk)
2. I found the 17th Shard when looking up Glyph information, joined the forum to chime in on this thread - here. Was sporadically active for a few years due to little free time and sporadic internet access. Became more regular on the forums around 2018ish.
3. My first TTRPG was Palladium's TMNT and Other Strangeness in 82 (for those old enough, or insane enough to do the math. . . Yes, this was years before the cartoon aged-down the Content - and the original, pre-recall 1ed). I had heard the name "Tremaine," but had never seen it in print. I thought it sounded great, but didn't know the spelling, so I named my first character (Lab experiment Mutant Tiger) Treamayne. In every TTRPG since them, I've had at least one character with that name.
   I've used it for everything online since the mid 90s, because that spelling is always available without extraneous numbers attached.

[Duxredux he/him]

1. I picked up Elantris from my library - because there weren't any other books out. I had friends who were reading Wheel of Time and also got into Elantris and Mistborn so it was something to chat about during lunches. I enjoyed Raoden's optimism and as I read Brandon's books with characters with people for the most part trying to do and be good people (and often failing along the way), I decided to stick with his books during a time I was trying to model my life after people or behaviors that I thought were good to emulate. This was long before he became the phenomenon he is today, back when it was just pockets of people who found his early works, liked them, and shared them with friends and family. Even with my teenage years long behind me, I still find myself trying to model good people and those trying to better themselves in a variety of circumstances, which is a consistent reason that I pick up the Cosmere.
2. I only have vague memories of when I joined 17th Shard, because there was a significant gap between when I made my account and when I became consistently active. It might have been looking up a question or stumbling across the Coppermind, it might have been listening to Shardcast during my time as an early morning janitor looking for a huge volume of audio books, podcasts, and music when I had 30-40 hours a week of solo manual labor. It was after a friend brought me with him to a local Oathbringer signing with the Q&A and I learned that WoBs were a thing. I think there was a scene with the Allomantic grenades in BoM that seemed to not mesh with what I expected to happen, and I wanted to see if anyone had an explanation for it, along with some other theories that have been forming in my mind. I became fully active during the pandemic when everything shut down and my whole region went into full isolation and 17th Shard became one of my primary forms of socialization which coincided nicely with listening to the whole Cosmere on audiobook while cleaning and disinfecting.
3. Duxredux has been my username ever since I think way back when I used to play Maple Story with my older brothers. They came up with distinct and somewhat goofy names in a <word><word> format for the multiple characters allowed per profile which I won't mention here because they still use them. While reading the dictionary, as one does, my copy defined "redux" as to be repeated or something similar, so I basically chose "duck, again, duck" or Duxredux. The phonetic symmetry appealed to me and it seemed the right level of dorky to me. A few years later a friend looked at that name and had assumed that it shortened latin, duxe, redux, or "deduction and reduction" as a nod to my logical analysis. That still seemed to fit me, so I kept it. Most recently I was trying to find the specific roots for that and felt lazy and asked ChatGPT what duxredux might mean. Apparently "dux" was a term for a Roman general and redux also means a revival or something reborn, so apparently my name also could have been interpreted as "general/commander/leader reborn". My username has had three different meanings without my having changed it at all.

Edited February 24, 2025 by Duxredux

[Through the Living Hope]

1. @Exotic Almond started ranting about Mistborn to me on a marching band trip, and I ended up reading it.

2. Peer pressure from above mentioned Sharder.

3. I want to be a spark of hope for people out there, to let them no that everything will be okay and there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

[Exotic Almond he/him]

1. @The Bookwyrm told me to read Brandon books and I did and fell in love with the worlds.

2. Above sharder told me about the shard.

3. I saw a funny joke about COVID conspiracy theorists but it was slightly inappropriate so I changed it a bit. It's also just my username everywhere.