Specifics of the Cosmere

[ShardBreaker he/him]

Ok, so I've read a lot of Sanderson's books, and realize that the cosmere is basically the universe in which all of his stories take place. What I'm wondering is the specifics of it. How do all of the worlds exist together and specifics like that. If anyone can answer this please do.  

[Dunkum he/him]

for a question that big the easiest thing to do is point you to the Coppermind.  there is a lot of information available there, especially about the basics, though beware of spoilers.  but for a few short items:

 - all the worlds in the cosmere are in the same dwarf galaxy, but generally in different star systems.
 - the various magics are powered by something called investiture, which has some laws it follows (liek a conservation principle simliar to conservation of energy, for instance) and which can obviously manifest in a great variety of ways.
 - there are also 3 realms - the physical realm, which is the normal physical world, the Cognitive realm, which is a realm of the mind, and the spritual realm.  distances in these realms do not necessarily correlate to each other (in fact I think it has been said that there is no distance in the spirtual at all), so it is possible to move between worlds in a reasonable time by traveling in the cognitive realm then jumping back to the physical at your destination, for instance.

[Yata he/him]

Like Dunkum already pointed.

The Cosmere's stories took places in different planet of the same galaxy, no different dimension or something like that.

(Example: Story A took place on Earth while Story B took place on Mars and Story C took place on an Andromeda's planet)

BUT there are also three Realms. Physicial, Cognitive and Spiritual...The Interactions of those realms and the Investiture gave birth to the Realmatic Theory witch the whole Cosmere operates.

In 90% of the time in the books, you will be in the Physical Realm but there are also scenes/mentions or influence from other Realms.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Yata

[Mistspren she/her]

@Yata at the risk of sounding like a huge nerd, Andromeda isn’t the analogy you’re looking for, as it is another galaxy entirely, not another star, and thus also has no singular planet. No intention to cause offense, just trying to point that out.

@NickPlum the cosmere itself is much as described above, but know that the cognitive realm allows worldhopping, by which characters can travel to other worlds. At this point in the story most of these interplanetary interactions are easter eggs, and not necessary to understand the plot, but be on the lookout for clues if you want to delve into the deeper cosmere. The coppermind is a great resource, but be forewarned not to go looking around on it unless you are willing to find spoilers or are extra careful.

 

[Yata he/him]

@Mistspren yeah I know Andromeda is another Galaxy. I was Just make It clear how the Cosmere's stories took Place in the same universe without alternate dimensions or stuffs like that.

I used Andromeda because It's a well known Place and the First extra-solar stuff that come to my mind. I assumed that in the whole Andromeda there would be some planet.

[Mistspren she/her]

@Yata sorry to seem uptight about that, I understand what you meant.