Mistborn not on Earth

[arubio315]

 So i know the Mistborn series doesn't take place on Earth but it's refereed as Earth on a few occasions. Here's one 

"“Those quakes are the earth’s final sighs,” Ruin said.From chapter 63 of the third book. I didnt bookmark the other occasions as i read through. 

What gives? why not just state the planets name. Maybe im just being picky

Thanks everyone

[Pagerunner he/him]

That's actually a really interesting observation. It's not the only time that you'll see something a little anachronistic; I think Wax and Wayne have a lot of metaphors that don't quite make sense given the history of their world. I expect it's for the benefit of the readers (especially the casual readers), so not throw off the pacing of the story. Brandon plays with that concept in Stormlight, with Wit intentionally making references to creatures that nobody on Roshar would be familiar with and totally derailing the conversation. But in terms of the text of the book, it can be treated as a 'translation' to English, with phrases like that meaning more like "the planet's final sighs" said in a way that seems natural to the readers. It does use earth with a lower-case-"e," so it's not specifically referring to our home planet.

[Spoolofwhool]

2 hours ago, arubio315 said:

 So i know the Mistborn series doesn't take place on Earth but it's refereed as Earth on a few occasions. Here's one 

"“Those quakes are the earth’s final sighs,” Ruin said.From chapter 63 of the third book. I didnt bookmark the other occasions as i read through. 

What gives? why not just state the planets name. Maybe im just being picky

Thanks everyone

I don't see anything wrong with this phrase. He's just using "earth" instead of "ground" unless it's actually capitalized as the proper name and you didn't quote it accurately? Uppercase does matter contextually. 

A known case of something weird like that which Brandon has talked about is the fact that a character described "mooning" when Scadrial has no moons.

[Argel he/him]

Yeah, "earth" is really a generic name. It could also be a translation to English for the reader. If you think about it, every early civilization out there would likely have a generic name for their planet because at the time they wouldn't be aware that it's even a planet. It only becomes an issue when they learn about other planets.

[Mardragon]

Have any of the characters referred to their planets by name? Aside from the world-hoppers, I mean. The first time I found out that the mistborn planet was called Scadrial and the Elantrian planet was called Sel was reading Brandon Sanderson's commentary on this site, I believe.

[Eki]

8 minutes ago, Mardragon said:

Have any of the characters referred to their planets by name? Aside from the world-hoppers, I mean. The first time I found out that the mistborn planet was called Scadrial and the Elantrian planet was called Sel was reading Brandon Sanderson's commentary on this site, I believe.

I don't think so. It's possible that Roshar was mentioned by name (outside the map, which is supposed to be an in-universe document), but then it was probably in reference to the continent rather than the planet. I don't think we even know yet if these names are created by worldhoppers or locals.

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Yes, the books are meant to be understood as "translated" from their original languages into English (or whatever language you end up reading). So long as it's not capitalized, you can assume that the use of the word "earth" is generic, to just mean "world" or "planet" or occasionally, as a synonym for "dirt" or "ground."

Running a book search, I can see that the word "earth" shows up frequently throughout just about every Cosmere book, from Stormlight, to Mistborn, to Warbreaker to the others. It's definitely not a forbidden term in the cosmere, at all! Note that the word "universe" is also not forbidden, and does show up from time to time, though you do also see some characters using the word "cosmere" to mean the same thing.

Interestingly enough, the word "Scadrial" only shows up once in the Mistborn books, in Bands of Mourning, when Khriss is dancing with Wax. Notably, she, the non-native, non-Scadrian worldhopper, is the one who uses the term. It's very possible that people on Scadrial do not refer to their world that way at all. Scadrians do, however, use the word "cosmere" to refer to the universe, though only in the second trilogy.

Rosharans, on the other hand, frequently refer to their world as "Roshar" in both speech and narration. Rosharans also use the word "cosmere" in casual speech.

The word "Nalthis" has never shown up in a Cosmere book, nor has a Nalthian ever used the word "cosmere."

 

 

[Spoolofwhool]

30 minutes ago, FeatherWriter said:

Rosharans, on the other hand, frequently refer to their world as "Roshar" in both speech and narration. Rosharans also use the word "cosmere" in casual speech.

Roshar is also the name of the continent they live on.

[FeatherWriter she/her]

40 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Roshar is also the name of the continent they live on.

This is true, but seeing as it's the only (known) continent, I don't tend to see too much trouble in using it interchangably. I mean, it's up in the air when a character talks about the Almighty "creating Roshar" whether or not they're referring to the world or the landmass, but in most situations their meaning doesn't really change if they're including the oceans (Roshar the planet) or just talking about land (Roshar the continent).

[Eki]

2 hours ago, FeatherWriter said:

Rosharans also use the word "cosmere" in casual speech.

Has anyone other than Jasnah used the word?

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Kabsal uses it twice while talking with Shallan:

Quote

“Everything has its opposite, Shallan. The Almighty is a force of good. To balance his goodness, the cosmere needed the Voidbringers as his opposite.”

“So the more good that the Almighty did, the more evil he created as a by-product? What’s the point of doing any good at all if it just creates more evil?”

“I see Jasnah has continued your training in philosophy.”

“That’s not philosophy,” Shallan said. “That’s simple logic.”

[Kabsal] sighed. “I don’t think you want to get into the deep theology of this. Suffice it to say that the Almighty’s pure goodness created the Voidbringers, but men may choose good without creating evil because as mortals they have a dual nature. Thus the only way for good to increase in the cosmere is for men to create it—in that way, good may come to outweigh evil.

--WoK Ch. 45 "Shadesmar"

Ym talks about the Cosmere when explaining his philosophy of the One as well in Words of Radiance.

Quote

To live was to be a fragment of the cosmere that was experiencing itself.

(...)

So far, Ym had used this ability only a handful of times, and had always disguised it as medicine. It was unlike anything he had ever heard of. Perhaps that was why he had been given it—so the cosmere could experience it.

--WoR I-2 "Ym"

Hoid also uses it while talking to Dalinar, but I figure that one doesn't really count, since Hoid isn't really Rosharan. Dalinar didn't seem terribly confused by the term, though.

[Eki]

6 minutes ago, FeatherWriter said:

Kabsal uses it twice while talking with Shallan:

Ym talks about the Cosmere when explaining his philosophy of the One as well in Words of Radiance.

Hoid also uses it while talking to Dalinar, but I figure that one doesn't really count, since Hoid isn't really Rosharan. Dalinar didn't seem terribly confused by the term, though.

Thanks!

All of those seem to be fairly well-read though, so I'm not sure if it's necessarily a word used in casual conversation. Probably a known word, but maybe considered a bit complicated or academic. That would be my guess, anyway.

[djammmer]

On ‎8‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 9:20 PM, Spoolofwhool said:

I don't see anything wrong with this phrase. He's just using "earth" instead of "ground" unless it's actually capitalized as the proper name and you didn't quote it accurately? Uppercase does matter contextually. 

Totally agreed.  He's referencing dirt/ground, not a name of a planet.

[A Budgie she/her]

'Cosmere' was also mentioned in one of the Wax and Wayne books as well, I'm pretty sure. By one of the main characters, in a casual conversation I think.