New Here — Cosmere Speedrunner Turned Theory Goblin

[WitAdjacent]

Hey all! I go by WitAdjacent.

I’m relatively new to the Cosmere, but I made the questionable life choice of reading almost the entire thing in about a year… which means my brain is currently a dense knot of Shards, Investiture, and “wait, that felt important.”

As a result, I’ve gone full theory goblin.

I’m especially interested in:

Subtle Shardic influence and constrained gods

Identity, Fortune, and Investiture mechanics

Characters who look like comic relief but quietly nudge planets

That last point is what finally pushed me out of lurking: I posted a theory about Wayne, Harmony’s limitations, and how small, seemingly throwaway actions might be doing far more work than they appear.

If that sounds interesting (or heretical), I’d love thoughts, counterarguments, and WoBs I probably missed:

Wayne, Subtle Shards, and The Butterfly Effect - A Unified Theory

Looking forward to learning, being corrected, and overthinking the Cosmere with you all.

— WitAdjacent

[Returned he/him]

Welcome! You've come to the right place to indulge those interests. Who are your top characters that are comic relief/planet nudgers?

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

20 hours ago, WitAdjacent said:

Hey all! I go by WitAdjacent.

I’m relatively new to the Cosmere, but I made the questionable life choice of reading almost the entire thing in about a year… which means my brain is currently a dense knot of Shards, Investiture, and “wait, that felt important.”

As a result, I’ve gone full theory goblin.

I’m especially interested in:

Subtle Shardic influence and constrained gods

Identity, Fortune, and Investiture mechanics

Characters who look like comic relief but quietly nudge planets

That last point is what finally pushed me out of lurking: I posted a theory about Wayne, Harmony’s limitations, and how small, seemingly throwaway actions might be doing far more work than they appear.

If that sounds interesting (or heretical), I’d love thoughts, counterarguments, and WoBs I probably missed:

Wayne, Subtle Shards, and The Butterfly Effect - A Unified Theory

Looking forward to learning, being corrected, and overthinking the Cosmere with you all.

— WitAdjacent

What are your feelings on wayne? On dragons (cosmere and not)?

What is your favorite compounding and noncompounding twinborn combo? What Radiant Order's ideals resonate the most with you? What Radiant Order's surges do you like the most?

6 minutes ago, Adonalsium Will Return said:

Hello! Have you heard about dihydrogen monoxide? Sometimes referred to as hydric acid, it is colorless and odorless. DHMO is known to be a part of many environmental hazards, toxic substances, diseases, and disease-causing agents. Each year DHMO is listed as a contributing factor in thousands of deaths, and it contributes to millions of dollars of damage to personal property and the environment. However, DHMO continues to be used widely by industry, government, and consumers worldwide.

It has a PH value of 7 which is higher than any other known acid. You can learn more at DHMO.org

[WitAdjacent]

16 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

What are your feelings on wayne? On dragons (cosmere and not)?

What is your favorite compounding and noncompounding twinborn combo? What Radiant Order's ideals resonate the most with you? What Radiant Order's surges do you like the most?

It has a PH value of 7 which is higher than any other known acid. You can learn more at DHMO.org

I love Wayne, and I think he's way smarter than he let's on. He seemes fragmented, so easily accessed by beings like Harmony, but if he is being directed by Harmony, I dont know of he's aware of it.

Dragons-very cool. I wish there were more of them in the books, though I think the lack of them makes them even cooler when they show up in-cosmere, as they feel overdone in every other fantasy series, except for LotR, I think Tolkein got em just right. 

I think the compounding that I like the most is gold, simply because it gives you essentially invincibility, although I dont know all of the different types of compounding, so maybe I should look into that more! I know the idea of compounding bendalloy is tantalizing, but I dont know the specifics of what that looks like. As for noncompounding, I really like Wax's combo of changing weight and being a coinshot, what a fantastic combination to fly and be as heavy or light as you need to be for pushing!

I resonate strongly with the Windrunners, and have nearly cried ever time Kaladin has come to the words of his next ideal, I feel a strong kinship with him in his feelings of remorse, guilt, and putting pressure on himself to be enough and to save everyone.

As for surges, I think the edgedancer surges are the coolest, being able to glide on any surface and heal others seems like the best combo.

On 1/8/2026 at 12:24 AM, Returned said:

Welcome! You've come to the right place to indulge those interests. Who are your top characters that are comic relief/planet nudgers?

I mean Hoid is fantastic, in every scenario I like him more and more.

Sigil was a surprising like for me, as I didn't like him at all at first, and was not expecting him to fall into the role he's fallen into.

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

2 minutes ago, WitAdjacent said:

I love Wayne, and I think he's way smarter than he let's on. He seemes fragmented, so easily accessed by beings like Harmony, but if he is being directed by Harmony, I dont know of he's aware of it.

Dragons-very cool. I wish there were more of them in the books, though I think the lack of them makes them even cooler when they show up in-cosmere, as they feel overdone in every other fantasy series, except for LotR, I think Tolkein got em just right. 

I think the compounding that I like the most is gold, simply because it gives you essentially invincibility, although I dont know all of the different types of compounding, so maybe I should look into that more! I know the idea of compounding bendalloy is tantalizing, but I dont know the specifics of what that looks like. As for noncompounding, I really like Wax's combo of changing weight and being a coinshot, what a fantastic combination to fly and be as heavy or light as you need to be for pushing!

I resonate strongly with the Windrunners, and have nearly cried ever time Kaladin has come to the words of his next ideal, I feel a strong kinship with him in his feelings of remorse, guilt, and putting pressure on himself to be enough and to save everyone.

As for surges, I think the edgedancer surges are the coolest, being able to glide on any surface and heal others seems like the best combo.

Compounding specifically works by multiplying the feruchemical stores by some unknown number (presumed to be 10x, but can change depending on the allomantic strength of the compounder). So to learn more, just look at the coppermind or the backs of the Era 2 books to learn more about feruchemical stores.