Best of The Cosmere

[Straw he/him]

What do you think is the best cosmere character, series, and magic system?

Edited June 16, 2016 by Straw

[Citadel16 he/him]

Stormlight ,I think, is easily his best book. Though I think allomancy is his best magic system out of sheer information, as in we know more about Allomancy than perhaps any of his other magic system.

Kaladin is easily my favorite.

Edited June 13, 2016 by WarriorMark16

[Pagerunner he/him]

Anyone else remember their first time through Mistborn, when the Inquisitor made Vin burn aluminum? And how it broke open the rules of the system, that there were more than ten metals? Utterly mind-blowing, to me, a very well-done passage. Bands of Mourning repeated the experience, and convinced me that we still have a lot to learn about magic on Scadrial. That's why I went with Allomancy.

[WayneSpren he/him]

Fav Character: Spook. But he's not in the poll, so Shallan.

Fav Series: Stormlight

Fav Magic System: Feruchemy, probably.

[Magestar he/him]

Fav Character: Spook. But he's not in the poll, so Shallan.

 

He is now.  At least, I can see him.

 

Personally I like Szeth.  But he is definitely not on the poll.  Yet.

[tobar14 he/him]

What about Wax?

[Erunion he/him]

Should WOT really be there? It's hard to compare the completion of someone else's epic series with his own work...

[Rasarr she/her]

My favourite character is actually Elokhar (yes, really), but in lieu of his absence, I guess Elend. There's just... something about him that I really like. Maybe the fact that he brings forbidden books to read at a formal party.

 

Favourite magic system: definitely allomancy. The most internally consistent, logical and flat-out scientific magic system I've ever seen, and one that somehow manages to still surprise us while remaining within reason.

 

Favourite work: Stormlight Archive. I have to admit, I've read Elantris right after Words of Radiance, and the difference is downright staggering.

 

...and yeah, Wax's absence is rather odd. All protagonists of Brandon's works are there, and yet he isn't, as aren't Wayne and MeLaan, who seem to have a pretty sizeable fandom, as far as I've seen.

[Radiant Returned he/him]

Favorite Magic System: Allomancy, mostly because it's the one we know most about and fully shows off Sanderson's genius. I love Awakening as well, and think that once the Stormlight series is more fleshed out Stormlight might be my favorite, but for now Allomancy takes the gold. 

Favorite Character: Kaladin. Through any fantasy series, if I was making a lists of 10/10 character I could never get enough of, Kaladin, Dalinar, Vin, Kelsier, Vasher would all easily make the list off the top of my head. Of those, Kaladin is my personal favorite, but Dalinar could easily surpass him because he closely resembles a character I created years ago for a fantasy series I had envisioned. Vin is also so amazing it's hard to not vote for her. Hardest question, but Kaladin for now. 

Favorite Series: For now? Mistborn, just because one trilogy was already finished so theres some closure/epicness there mixed with the new novels and how amazing they've been. Stormlight I probably rank higher on an individual basis, but I'm going to wait until the first 5 are done before I make a final judgment on that. 

[KnightGradient]

Favorite Magic System: Allomancy, because it's limitations allow for so much creativity in the user.

Favorite Character: Elend, simply because his backstory and his mannerisms remind me of myself.

Favorite Book Series: Mistborn(Era 1), because it has the most complete feeling of any book series I've read. All characters get an ending, and all problems(that we knew of) were resolved.

[asterion137 he/him]

Magic System:Feruchemy, since I feel it's the one that could contribute most to a society and its possible for anyone to use it through nicrosil gimmicks

Character:Sazed, since I feel he has one of Brandon's most complete character arcs (although I would still vote marsh if i could)

Book: I put warbreaker before I realized there was an other category. Ugh. Well, I would have put other for his novella The Emperor's Soul and the Infinity Blade novellas. I really like how he sticks to the art theme in The Emperor's Soul  and how he 

Spoiler

kills off raidriar really well in Infinity Blade:Redemption

 

[CaptainRyan he/him]

On 6/13/2016 at 8:27 AM, WarriorMark16 said:

Stormlight ,I think, is easily his best book. Though I think allomancy is his best magic system out of sheer information, as in we know more about Allomancy than perhaps any of his other magic system.

Kaladin is easily my favorite.

@WarriorMark16 This is exactly how I feel and how I voted. Well said, Sander-twin!

[Samaldin he/him]

Magic System: Feruchemy, i just  that you have to plan ahead and when you do it´s incredible powerfull but if you dont far less

Character: Adolin (sadly he isn´t up there so i go with closest relativ and take Dalinar)

Series: I think i go with Mistborn mostly because of the magic systems, i just love well explainend magic (warbreaker also has well explainend magic, but i don´t really like BioChroma)

[A Windspren he/him]

Magic System: Surgebinding, because the sheer awesomeness of what you can do with it is mindblowing. If I could have any power, it would be the Surges of Gravitation and Regrowth.

Character: Sylphrena, but since she's not there, Kaladin.

Series: Hmm, tough one... How about... The Stormlight Archive, because I want book 3 NAAAAAOOOOOOWWW!!!

 

(Yes, I'm 160% Stormlight fan)

[Straw he/him]

The poll has been adjusted. 

[Dunkum he/him]

I'm surprised at how many people put allomancy at #1.  it's fun and all, but the other systems are so much more interesting.  for me it was tough to choose between Hemalurgy and Ferruchemy (forgery and awakening were numbers 3 and 4, and allomancy was down at the bottom).  in terms of magic I would want to have Ferruchemy jumps to the top of the list, but I think Hemalurgy is ultimately more interesting.

 

for series, I agree with the majority on Stormlight, but then I got into Sanderson through Wheel of time, so I'm somewhat biased towards epic fantasy series.

 

 

character was a tough choice between Wayne, Lift, and Sazed, but ultimately Lift's chapter in WoR was just so much fun that she wins out.  (wayne probaly gets #2 and Sazed gets 3)

[Halinn]

2 hours ago, Dunkum said:

I'm surprised at how many people put allomancy at #1.  it's fun and all, but the other systems are so much more interesting.  for me it was tough to choose between Hemalurgy and Ferruchemy (forgery and awakening were numbers 3 and 4, and allomancy was down at the bottom).  in terms of magic I would want to have Ferruchemy jumps to the top of the list, but I think Hemalurgy is ultimately more interesting.

For me, it's because Hemalurgy is not well defined, and Feruchemy is not really that interesting by itself. There are tons of interesting stuff to do with combinations of Feruchemy + X, but I feel like the limits it has when being solely by itself make it not the best. I had Allomancy at my top because it has a number of versatile uses, covering a lot of bases. Forgery would be my number 2, though. Changing things as fundamentally as can be done with that is a really cool thing.

[Dunkum he/him]

28 minutes ago, Halinn said:

For me, it's because Hemalurgy is not well defined, and Feruchemy is not really that interesting by itself. There are tons of interesting stuff to do with combinations of Feruchemy + X, but I feel like the limits it has when being solely by itself make it not the best. I had Allomancy at my top because it has a number of versatile uses, covering a lot of bases. Forgery would be my number 2, though. Changing things as fundamentally as can be done with that is a really cool thing.

I have the opposite reaction.  allomacy plus something else is pretty interesting (though ferruchemy + x still wins) but allomancy itself is kind of boring.  plus some of the more esoteric ferruchemy abilities like investiture, identity, connection are pretty interesting in and of themselves.  and hemalurgy is a lot more versatile in its own way than either ferruchemy or alllomancy

[asterion137 he/him]

1 hour ago, Dunkum said:

I have the opposite reaction.  allomacy plus something else is pretty interesting (though ferruchemy + x still wins) but allomancy itself is kind of boring.  plus some of the more esoteric ferruchemy abilities like investiture, identity, connection are pretty interesting in and of themselves.  and hemalurgy is a lot more versatile in its own way than either ferruchemy or alllomancy

nah feruchemy can do pretty much everything hemallurgy does

[Halinn]

3 hours ago, Dunkum said:

allomancy itself is kind of boring.

You've steelpushing/ironpulling for some very interesting movement/combat abilities, emotional Allomancy which is super cool (and one of the powers I feel is relatively underrated on these forums), time shenanigans and you can get to see your past/future. Now, for Feruchemy, I just don't think it offers that much besides nicrosil hacks.

[Ecthelion III he/him]

But nicrosil hacks are the best part!

[Dunkum he/him]

6 hours ago, asterion137 said:

nah feruchemy can do pretty much everything hemallurgy does

Ferruchemy couldn't create the Kandra or the Koloss or the Inquisitors.  that alone makes Hemalurgy a lot more interesting

4 hours ago, Halinn said:

You've steelpushing/ironpulling for some very interesting movement/combat abilities, emotional Allomancy which is super cool (and one of the powers I feel is relatively underrated on these forums), time shenanigans and you can get to see your past/future. Now, for Feruchemy, I just don't think it offers that much besides nicrosil hacks.

steelpushing/ironpulling would be fun abilities, and would definitely look cool, but from a mechanics perspective, they aren't very interesting.  they just exert a force.  I'll admit I had forgotten about the time-based allomancy when I made my post, they are actually pretty interesting, to an extent, but they are also fairly limited (especially if you take out Atium).  emotional allomancy I could take or leave.  it never did much for me, but I could see how someone else would be interested in it.

 

Ferruchemy, on the other hand has things like breath, warmth, health, mental speed, nutrition, and memories even aside from the ones I mentioned before.  I think the ability to store and tap those attributes is just a lot more conceptually interesting that allomancy is.  Ferruchemy also wins for me in terms of most potentially useful in day-to-day life.

 

still, I suppose we will just have to agree to disagree on this one

[asterion137 he/him]

Feruchemy makes it possible for literally everyone to be a fullborn as long as you have one fullborn to start with (if i interpreted the BoM text correctly). If there was just one full feruchemist left they could give (or more likely, sell) metalminds that could make anyone a full feruchemist to everyone

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

Kelsier is my all-time favorite character, so he got my vote. 

The Metallic Magics are my favorite, and I went with allomancy.

I love epics, so I voted Stormlight for best book.

[thegatorgirl00 she/her]

My favorite character didn't make it onto the list. 

A certain talking sword and I will be over here destroying evil together…