Scadrian language

[Gasper]

Do we know what Earth language family North Scadrian and Terris is in?

[CrazyRioter]

None. The names have some French elements but the language itself is undefined. Brandon is not really a conglanger.

[Weltall]

Yeah, all Cosmere books have been 'translated' into English for our convenience. We might be told what a given local language is called and get some words in it but nobody in the Cosmere is actually going to be speaking a language understandable to us.

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Jessica

In Shadows of Self a few characters use some variation of "Hell!" as an exclamation when things go awry. I don't recall any reference to "Hell" as a place or philosophy in the religions of the Mistborn series. How does this word fit into their world, does it differ from our own?

Brandon Sanderson

The characters in Mistborn have been using "biblical" curses since book one. This was a specific choice made on my part, as I want the "feel" of Mistborn to be like London in the early 1800s. All of my books are to be read as if there's a phantom translator who took it from the original language and translated it into English. In many cases, there isn't a word that is an exact translation—so the translator does their best.

In The Final Empire, there was indeed a kind of "hell." Though there wasn't a specific idea of a devil—it was just the punishment ascribed to the souls who failed or disobeyed the Lord Ruler. Even the skaa knew of this, though religion was forbidden them. So it was a more vague sense, than specific theology, to them.

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Edited July 23, 2018 by Weltall