Power Rankings - Cosmere

[Riino He/Him]

27 minutes ago, Lord Spirit said:

They’re both 5th Ideal radiants who are heralds. Nale should be stronger, but Kaladin is about as close as he can get for only having lived 20ish years. 

But am I wrong in saying that because Jezrien's power was the strongest, Kaladin has inherited that power?

[Shard of Sharks He/Him]

Here's my two cents. I'm ranking this one based on, because this is the Cosmere, ability to affect the Cosmere, and general fighting ability and capability in handling situations. I'm also excluding Shards, but anything that can fight a shard with reasonable struggle shoots up just because of that. I'll also have tiers. 

Tier 1: Cosmere Altering 

1. Nightblood. It killed a god. It eats Investiture. It rends the connection in all three realms-a sort of anti-perpendicularity. Sheathed, it does better than a normal sword. The evolution of the shardblade into something monstrous. 

2. Ishar. Honor referred to him as knowing more about divinity than himself, a piece of divinity. He forged (twice!) a work of investiture and intent so strong it defied the most deadly shard (by record) and then two shards, intents aligned seeking to reabsorb itself. He stood in the way of a piece of Adolanisium trying to take back its investiture. In terms of persuasive ability, knowledge, and his expanded/unleashed Bondsmith and Herald abilities, no one comes close. 

3. Lord Ruler. We never saw him actually use the extent of his abilities, and Preservation's power had to intervene-not to kill him, just to remove his deathlessness. He was beaten, not killed, by a literal act of God. By surprise. I think the power of compounding anything, plus the ability to allomantically burn any god metal, makes him unbeatable in the realm of mortals and combat. You can't hide from him, and the best way to beat him? You best pray you have some aluminum, although with pewter compounding and gold compounding he could punch his way through anything. He can steal investiture, he can store it, he can literally destroy it. The limits of spiritual feruchemacy haven't been explored yet. Like Ishar, his powers are a wild card, but the conservative theoretic abilities are immense. 

Tier 2: System/Planet Altering. 

4. Taln. This is more of his force of will then anything. Remember, we thought he broke after four and a half millenia, but it turns out someone else came back, fought for a decade, then broke before he did. He killed hundreds of fused with his bare hands. 

5. Marsh Era 2. Same as Rashek, but not quite as powerful due to hemalurgic decline. He is more vulnerable because of the spikes, but again, force of god required to kill him. However, his experience and fighting ability, as well as skill with A-bronze makes him deadly. 

6. The God King of Hallandren (alt. Wartlover the Ugly or any other 10th heightening Awakener with centuries of experience). Another one where the upper limits of Awakening are unknown. Also, the power to awaken minions to fight for you is serious stuff, especially with a Type IV entity. 

7. Riina. Cruel, magical, and powerful. Mastery over essences, awakening, spores, and, most importantly, she can use the Dor on other planets. 

8. Hoid/Sigzil. Hard ranking Hoid this low, but his burden definitely limits him. Don't see anything but a lucky Lord Ruler or Nightblood wielder being able to kill him. Sigzil is similar, where his combat is not great but I don't think he can be killed with the Dawnshard and his unique skill set.

9. Any Dragon with Investiture. The skill, experience, and magical mastery would make them very, very dangerous, especially as we haven't seen them engage yet are begged by Shards to pick sides. 

10. Bands of Mourning. Power of the fullborn. Only reason it's this low is because everyone above is immortal or close. 

11.  5th Ideal Radiant. Should be 7 or 8 for pure power, but the limitations like Oaths and Spren keep it this low. Also, with these others they could theoretically go whichever way they want, but I'd imagine the Roshar limits and Retribution make them weaker/more bound. 

Tier 3: Highly Invested

12. Yoki-Hijo/Elantrian. Highly invested, unknown limits to Yoki-Hijo power. Both are definitely world changing. 

13. Elend/Praxton/Raoden (Masters/Unnaturally powerful). Anyone who is skilled or unnaturally powerful yet still having *human* biology. 

14. Mistborn, Full Feruchemist, Compounder, 1st-4th Ideal Radiants, Talented Twinborn, Fused

15. Shai, Twinborn

Tier 4: Non Invested

16. Blackthorn

17. Kiin 

 

I've waxed poetic enough. There are many others that could go, and the rankings could probably be changed, but accounting for individual ability, fighting prowess, magical power, and mental strength, I feel it works pretty well. 

[Skylano]

10 hours ago, Riino said:

They weren't too far apart when they were battling in the temple, and now Kaladin has Risen up to Herald, I believe he would become so much stronger.

From what I can tell, I think Nale's ability were from being on Ashyn with Honor's powers given to him, so I don't know if Kaladin would have gotten the same. If he did, and it gets confirmed he did, then yeah I'd definitely put him above Nale at least.

7 hours ago, Shard of Sharks said:

Here's my two cents. I'm ranking this one based on, because this is the Cosmere, ability to affect the Cosmere, and general fighting ability and capability in handling situations. I'm also excluding Shards, but anything that can fight a shard with reasonable struggle shoots up just because of that. I'll also have tiers.

Not gonna lie, that is much better categorized than my own and I definitely agree with most of the rankings. Still stand by Taln being #1 because he's the GOAT and he got WoB canonized as the strongest a while ago (albeit only if he's in his prime)

[Riino He/Him]

11 hours ago, Skylano said:

If he did, and it gets confirmed he did, then yeah I'd definitely put him above Nale at least.

While Jezrien died, his soul was captured in the gemstone, and then later

Spoiler

El injected Anti Light into the gemstone

His Connection with Honour and the other Heralds was also destroyed, but it doesn't say anything about his powers from Ashyn. 

So the possibility still exists

[Shard of Sharks He/Him]

16 hours ago, Skylano said:

Not gonna lie, that is much better categorized than my own and I definitely agree with most of the rankings. Still stand by Taln being #1 because he's the GOAT and he got WoB canonized as the strongest a while ago (albeit only if he's in his prime)

I would agree if not for the fact that Nightblood seperated a vessel from a shard, and Ishar could do incredible things. Maybe Taln above Rashek though. What's WoB? 

[Skylano]

7 hours ago, Shard of Sharks said:

What's WoB? 

Word of Brandon, aka anything that he'd confirmed "canon" during signings, events, livestreams, or anytime is isn't written down. I'm referring specifically to this one: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/522/#e16233

Edited May 7, 2025 by Skylano

[Nitpicking]

On 5/5/2025 at 9:51 PM, Riino said:

But am I wrong in saying that because Jezrien's power was the strongest, Kaladin has inherited that power?

Who says Jezrien's power was greater than other Heralds?

[Riino He/Him]

3 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

Who says Jezrien's power was greater than other Heralds?

He was the oldest when the Oathpact was made and he was King of the Heralds, so its more of an assumption, but nonetheless still likely true.

[Skylano]

I'm pretty sure that by SA5 we know that Ishar was the strongest Herald in terms of Investiture and everything surrounding that, while Taln is most likely the strongest Herald when it comes to fighting. Jezrien is the Herald of Kings but I don't think he ever fights or is known for fighting during the Desolations or on screen, he just is the best at leading.

[Qianweilian He/him]

5 hours ago, Skylano said:

Jezrien is the Herald of Kings but I don't think he ever fights

I mean...it probably doesn't help that he's dead. Unless we get a Taln flashback or some sort of prelude book set during the Desolations, I don't think we'll ever find out how proficient he is.

[Nitpicking]

1 hour ago, Qianweilian said:

I mean...it probably doesn't help that he's dead. Unless we get a Taln flashback or some sort of prelude book set during the Desolations, I don't think we'll ever find out how proficient he is.

This is Brandon Sanderson we're talking about. Jezrien is alive, despite all the Heralds feeling him die. The anti-Stormlight destroyed his bond to the other Heralds, not his soul. He's in the Cognitive Realm now, where he'll run into Shallan next book.

[Lord Spirit he/him]

8 hours ago, Skylano said:

I'm pretty sure that by SA5 we know that Ishar was the strongest Herald in terms of Investiture and everything surrounding that, while Taln is most likely the strongest Herald when it comes to fighting. Jezrien is the Herald of Kings but I don't think he ever fights or is known for fighting during the Desolations or on screen, he just is the best at leading.

Jezrien isn't known for fighting, but the weakest Herald could beat anyone else in the Cosmere (in a one on one fight). Taln was the Herald of War, but they all fought the voidbringers for thousands of years. The Stormfather explained when Ishar casually beat 4 windrunners in RoW.

[Nitpicking]

When you're talking the Lord Ruler at his peak (Rashek), consider this: steel feruchemy lets the steelrunner move like The Flash, fast you can barely see them, able to take all of Wayne's metalminds off him before he can react.

Now consider that Rashek had both steel feruchemy and steel allomancy. Allowing him to compound steelrunning.

Taln wouldn't stand a chance, especially if Rashek was (as he would be) also compounding gold, like Miles. For that matter, against Taln he'd compound pewter for strength. I know Brandon said otherwise: he's wrong. (OK, he's the writer and can't be wrong. He's logically wrong.)

[therunner he/him]

2 hours ago, Nitpicking said:

When you're talking the Lord Ruler at his peak (Rashek), consider this: steel feruchemy lets the steelrunner move like The Flash, fast you can barely see them, able to take all of Wayne's metalminds off him before he can react.

Now consider that Rashek had both steel feruchemy and steel allomancy. Allowing him to compound steelrunning.

Taln wouldn't stand a chance, especially if Rashek was (as he would be) also compounding gold, like Miles. For that matter, against Taln he'd compound pewter for strength. I know Brandon said otherwise: he's wrong. (OK, he's the writer and can't be wrong. He's logically wrong.)

Coincidentally, we see Heralds also have improved physical attributes, i.e. Taln moves fast enough to cause window shattering sonic boom. That is faster than Marasi moving in BoM, and far faster than anything TLR ever showed on-screen.

They also have atium-like use of Fortune, see Nale vs Kaladin, or Ishar vs Windrunners, or Kaladin during the duel in WoR.

So, yeah no, Taln certainly has necessary qualities to beat even TLR. So Brandon isn't logically wrong, he just knows his universe better than we do (and even what we know is enough to determine that).

Edited May 9, 2025 by therunner

[Lord Spirit he/him]

5 hours ago, therunner said:

Coincidentally, we see Heralds also have improved physical attributes, i.e. Taln moves fast enough to cause window shattering sonic boom. That is faster than Marasi moving in BoM, and far faster than anything TLR ever showed on-screen.

They also have atium-like use of Fortune, see Nale vs Kaladin, or Ishar vs Windrunners, or Kaladin during the duel in WoR.

So, yeah no, Taln certainly has necessary qualities to beat even TLR. So Brandon isn't logically wrong, he just knows his universe better than we do (and even what we know is enough to determine that).

Sure, we don't see the TLR do much on screen, but that's only because he never felt threatened enough to use his full strength (until Vin ripped out his atium braces).

A steelrunners speed is pretty much capped by the speed of light and their reaction time, which TLR could handle with Zinc and Atium.

 

Taln has the advantage of a shardblade and plate, Cohesion and Tension (which do not effect metal minds) and vastly superior skill.

 

I think we have a pretty good understanding of Rasheks power, but we still aren't entirely sure how power the Heralds are. If Brandon says Taln is the most powerful, then I'll take his word.

[therunner he/him]

32 minutes ago, Lord Spirit said:

Sure, we don't see the TLR do much on screen, but that's only because he never felt threatened enough to use his full strength (until Vin ripped out his atium braces).

A steelrunners speed is pretty much capped by the speed of light and their reaction time, which TLR could handle with Zinc and Atium.

Taln has the advantage of a shardblade and plate, Cohesion and Tension (which do not effect metal minds) and vastly superior skill.

No, they are capped far lower than speed of light.

1. There is friction, at some point they won't be able to overcome that or will burn up. Getting access to Abrasion would apparently help them (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/360/#e10858)
2. On short race A-Pewter + F-Steel beats Compounded steel, per WoB (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/175/#e8380) (TLR has access to both of course, but it shows that compounded Steel is not necessarily unbeatable)
3. There are large losses when tapping massive amounts of attribute, which means that to get to high speeds you require not multiplicatively larger, but exponentially larger stores.
4. You need to have metalmind on your person, and they have maximum storage capacity. Marasi nearly depleted F-Steel stores of BoM in seconds, and that was one of the largest metalminds we have seen, and she was moving nowhere near light speed (few Machs at most).

We still don't know precisely how these limitations behave, but they will be very important for any Compounder.

Heralds, demonstrated atium-like reflexes and massive strength and speed, while Oathpact is damaged and Honor is 'dead'.

32 minutes ago, Lord Spirit said:

I think we have a pretty good understanding of Rasheks power, but we still aren't entirely sure how power the Heralds are.

I would say that we think we have good understanding of Rashek's powers, but we actually don't. The general surprise on the 'Peak Taln beats anyone in Cosmere'-WoB clearly shows that.

We still don't know if/how he was able to reverse compound, nor do we know what were the actual storage capacities of metalminds he wore, or how the losses when tapping compressed attributes behave. All of these are very important to determining actual power of Compounders.

Don't get me wrong, Compounders are still insanely powerful, but they are not out of reach of more extreme ends of Surgebinding, which Heralds certainly are, especially with unlimited Investiture directly from Honor.

Edited May 9, 2025 by therunner

[Qianweilian He/him]

On 5/9/2025 at 7:59 AM, therunner said:

I would say that we think we have good understanding of Rashek's powers, but we actually don't.

I think some novella with Khriss going over to various planets and analyzing the powers of the characters there would be awesome

[Skylano]

On 5/5/2025 at 5:29 PM, Lord Spirit said:

Unpopular opinion, Kelsier isn’t that powerful. He only trained for about a year with his powers. He defeats a single inquisitor, but it’s close. He wasn’t that strong by allomantic standards compared to Rashek or Elend. 

Not going to lie, looking back, I think that you're right. Kelsier is significantly stronger than Vin, but that was only in Final Empire. Taking into account Duralumin and how she and Elend refined the powers into Well and Hero of Ages, I think you're probably right. I still think he's very good though, there wasn't (or at least hasn't) been someone who could created the maelstrom that he did, though whether it could kill a Radiant would be an interesting question

Added: Marsh, Vivenna, the average person in the cosmere, Nightmare Painters

Changed: Kelsier

I think that Vivenna and her sword are incredibly strong since she can access Breaths without having to Unkey them first, but she was unable to kill a single Shalay-nim (forgetting if I spelled it right) during her defense of Kholinar until Kaladin came. The fact that a 3rd Ideal Windrunner could beat something that she couldn't means that she probably isn't strong enough to beat Zahel even if he doesn't have an Invested weapon. Marsh I think is just a slightly less powerful full Mistborn and Feruchemist, but he can also see Investiture and metal which can often be helpful.

 

1. Taln

2. Nightblood

3. Ishar

4. Rashek

5. Susebron

6. Nale

7. Herald Kaladin

8. Hoid

9. Xisis

10. Vin

!11. Marsh

12. Elantrians

13. Waxillium Ladrian

14. Elend Venture

!15. Final Empire Kelsier

16. Zahel

!17. Vivenna

18. Radiant Dalinar

19. Miles Hundredlives

20. Szeth

21. The Blackthorn (from Spiritual Realm)

!22. Nightmare Painter

23. Yumi

!24. Average Cosmerian

25. Stick

[Through The Living Ash he/him]

5 hours ago, Skylano said:

Not going to lie, looking back, I think that you're right. Kelsier is significantly stronger than Vin, but that was only in Final Empire. Taking into account Duralumin and how she and Elend refined the powers into Well and Hero of Ages, I think you're probably right. I still think he's very good though, there wasn't (or at least hasn't) been someone who could created the maelstrom that he did, though whether it could kill a Radiant would be an interesting question

Added: Marsh, Vivenna, the average person in the cosmere, Nightmare Painters

Changed: Kelsier

I think that Vivenna and her sword are incredibly strong since she can access Breaths without having to Unkey them first, but she was unable to kill a single Shalay-nim (forgetting if I spelled it right) during her defense of Kholinar until Kaladin came. The fact that a 3rd Ideal Windrunner could beat something that she couldn't means that she probably isn't strong enough to beat Zahel even if he doesn't have an Invested weapon. Marsh I think is just a slightly less powerful full Mistborn and Feruchemist, but he can also see Investiture and metal which can often be helpful.

 

1. Taln

2. Nightblood

3. Ishar

4. Rashek

5. Susebron

6. Nale

7. Herald Kaladin

8. Hoid

9. Xisis

10. Vin

!11. Marsh

12. Elantrians

13. Waxillium Ladrian

14. Elend Venture

!15. Final Empire Kelsier

16. Zahel

!17. Vivenna

18. Radiant Dalinar

19. Miles Hundredlives

20. Szeth

21. The Blackthorn (from Spiritual Realm)

!22. Nightmare Painter

23. Yumi

!24. Average Cosmerian

25. Stick

I agree with everything that's on there currently. Might be nice to see Fused, Thunderclast, or Unmade added. 

p.s. its spelled Shanay-im  

[Earless Jaks he/him]

Just to clarify, are we adding things to the list at their most powerful, including when they're a cognitive shadow?

6 hours ago, Skylano said:

Not going to lie, looking back, I think that you're right. Kelsier is significantly stronger than Vin, but that was only in Final Empire.

Kelsier may not have been super powerful while he was physical alive, but he's had a while to gain power as a cognitive shadow, so I imagine he's become more powerful than he was when he was just a mistborn in the physical realm.

[Skylano]

13 hours ago, Earless Jaks said:

Kelsier may not have been super powerful while he was physical alive, but he's had a while to gain power as a cognitive shadow, so I imagine he's become more powerful than he was when he was just a mistborn in the physical realm.

It's been confirmed that Kelsier does not have his Mistborn powers as a shadow, except maybe whatever hemalurgic spike he has through his eye has granted. He's kept the illusion of powers to help control the Ghostbloods, but Kelsier Thaidakar isn't an allomancer

[Skylano]

On 4/29/2025 at 10:27 AM, Riino said:

The issue with Miles is that you don't have to kill him in combat, just restrict him, then guillotine him because the blade is too wide to heal around. So in combat, yes, just as Wax found, he is too difficult to kill, but restricting him is another method, or trapping him until he runs out of gold.

I've been reading through some old questions in my free time, and this is something that stood out to me (I don't know if you've seen it already):

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/100/#e3535

So that plan would be more difficult if you couldn't find a way to remove the source of healing, even guillotining might not be enough.

[Skylano]

Looking even more, this one makes me want to move the Elantrians back up again. I personally believe that you could totally code a nuke if you knew enough about matter but I don't think that they do yet (also they're stuck in Elantris because of Sel's Investiture mechanics)

[Riino He/Him]

11 hours ago, Skylano said:

I've been reading through some old questions in my free time, and this is something that stood out to me (I don't know if you've seen it already):

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/100/#e3535

So that plan would be more difficult if you couldn't find a way to remove the source of healing, even guillotining might not be enough.

Yeah very true, but its also mainly about how the soul perceives the body, so if you take the head off the body and then take the head away, then that would definitely weaken if not destroy the soul's perception of its own wholeness.

[Through The Living Ash he/him]

21 hours ago, Skylano said:

Looking even more, this one makes me want to move the Elantrians back up again. I personally believe that you could totally code a nuke if you knew enough about matter but I don't think that they do yet (also they're stuck in Elantris because of Sel's Investiture mechanics)

We have multiple examples of Elantrians outside of Elantris.

General Cosmere spoilers: 

Spoiler

Look at the Ire, Galladon, or Riino, who have ways to continue using their abilities, even from a distance.