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What are your thoughts on Secret History?


ElendVenture

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He'll see her again once he leaves the cosmere for good, which will presumably take him another few hundred years. When people die in the cosmere, they leave it for the Beyond, Kelsier however has stayed in the Cognitive Realm (and also seems to have found a way to get a new body by now), so he's never been where the actual dead people go. That will take a while, and he'll pass that time with a lot of mischief, I'm sure ..

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8 minutes ago, Elegy said:

He'll see her again once he leaves the cosmere for good, which will presumably take him another few hundred years. When people die in the cosmere, they leave it for the Beyond, Kelsier however has stayed in the Cognitive Realm (and also seems to have found a way to get a new body by now), so he's never been where the actual dead people go. That will take a while, and he'll pass that time with a lot of mischief, I'm sure ..

That is, of course, assuming that the Beyond does actually exist and there is a real afterlife in the cosmere.

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20 minutes ago, not an Evil Librarian said:

That is, of course, assuming that the Beyond does actually exist and there is a real afterlife in the cosmere.

That is true,. Well, the Beyond exists, but it might as well be nothingness. Brandon will never actually canonize what lies there, which is the perfect way of dealing with it in my opinion ... That said, in his own mind, the Beyond as an afterlife seems to be a thing, as apparent in this WOB:

Quote

Melhay

Also, We just took for granted that Sazed is with Tindwyl now. Is that so?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, here's the thing. What Sazed is right now is something of a god in the classic Greek sense—a superpowered human being, elevated to a new stage of existence. Not GOD of all time and space. In a like manner, there are things that Sazed does not have power over. For instance, he couldn't bring Vin and Elend back.

Where Tindwyl exists is beyond space and time, in a place Sazed hasn't learned to touch yet. He might yet. If you want to add in your heads him working through that, feel free. But as it stands at the end of the book, he isn't yet with Tindwyl. (He is, however, with Kelsier—who refused to "Go toward the light" so to speak, and has been hanging around making trouble ever since he died. You can find hints of him in Mistborn 3 at the right moments.

Barnes and Noble Book Club Q&A (July 8, 2009)

 

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7 hours ago, ElendVenture said:

Do you think Kelsier sees Mare again?

i.e all other dead people from the other books that I shall not mention...

Once you go beyond you are gone.

The quote below sounds like the spiritual realm to me although what Tindwyl is doing there I can't say.

1 hour ago, Elegy said:

Where Tindwyl exists is beyond space and time, in a place Sazed hasn't learned to touch yet. He might yet.

Edited by Karger
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54 minutes ago, Karger said:

Once you go beyond you are gone.

The quote below sounds like the spiritual realm to me although what Tindwyl is doing there I can't say.

Well that WoB is from 2009, before Brandon finalized a lot of things about the Cosmere. At that point, I'm not sure that he'd decided there would be a Beyond yet, rather than just the SR.

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17 minutes ago, RShara said:

Well that WoB is from 2009, before Brandon finalized a lot of things about the Cosmere. At that point, I'm not sure that he'd decided there would be a Beyond yet, rather than just the SR.

But Sazed still said that he did not think that he could ever bring back Vin and Eland.

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2 minutes ago, Karger said:

But Sazed still said that he did not think that he could ever bring back Vin and Eland.

Not sure what that has to do with my point? Brandon hadn't decided on the Beyond yet. So where Vin, Elend, Tindwyl, etc, ended up could have been the SR, or something else that Shards could touch. He's since decided that the Beyond is not part of the Realms and may/may not be an actual place, but he'll never address it.

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It's a great short story that lifted spirits after learning of Kelsier's fate in Final Empire. It truly cemented the idea that there are larger forces at play and our main man will not go easily. It's a beautifully crafted novella that does add more plot points to the overarching Cosmere. I consider it an essential read for those really interested in learning the workings of the Cosmere.

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Regarding the story itself, rather than the question in the original post, I agree that it's a great novella. Kelsier is one of my favorite characters ever and it was a gift to have this. I cherished every second of it. It doesn't stand on its own well though, as it introduces and tackles diverse conflicts in a rather messy manner, making it never quite find its own identity. After all, it has to work off one key event of the trilogy after the other, making it feel like a compilation at places. I'm not saying that's a weakness - it just breaks with the precedent of the trilogy's main novels, all standing on their own rather well, every book disclosening and completing conflicts over its respective course. Secret History is more of an addition, not a self-contained whole, so rather than telling its own story, it feels more like an overview and thereby first and foremost makes the reader re-live certain moments of the story. And it's fantastic in doing that. The ending in particular had me with tears in my eyes and finally made me realize just how obviously Vin has always been one of my favorite protagonists ever.

As an aside, I'm really fond of the Ire sequence. It has a great, eerie atmosphere and Kelsier messing with some dubious worldhopper organization is something I'd always wanted to see. It's also the most spicy, new thing introduced and works well as a conclusive arc (which most of the other things going on in the novella don't).

Also yeah, Fuzz is a darling.

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I think that eventually, he will see mare again because the power holding him to the cognitive realm will eventually expire. He will pass on like any other in time... hopefully

Thank you, also this was my first post and it blew up in a day.

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2 hours ago, ElendVenture said:

I think that eventually, he will see mare again because the power holding him to the cognitive realm will eventually expire. He will pass on like any other in time... hopefully

Well, he has a body by the time of the Era 2. You're certainly right about cognitive shadows slowly fading into the Beyond without a physical body (some more and some less slowly, depending on the amount of Investiture they carry around), but he has one now, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Edited by Elegy
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9 hours ago, ElendVenture said:

I think that eventually, he will see mare again because the power holding him to the cognitive realm will eventually expire. He will pass on like any other in time... hopefully

Thank you, also this was my first post and it blew up in a day.

With enough investiture, a Cognitive Shadow can persist indefinitely. One that has held a Shard isn't ever going to go Beyond  unless they want to.

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1 hour ago, Sakshi said:

I love the Ire part. I think they were from elantris world. Am I right ?

Yes they were, that was also my favorite part. When Kelsier haunts those Elantrians and gets them to give up their device is probably one of the funniest scenes Brandon has written in my opinion.

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End of Era 3?  I have a feeling that Kel and Hoid will be together on the cast in Era 4.  Hell, maybe even Marsh.  

We're going for the allstar crew in Era 4.  We need 2 of the 3 gods of Scadrial on the spaceship... And then a worldhopping demigod.  


Also, I love Kelsier, because his first instinct is to punch both gods in the face.  That just...sums him up so neatly, I think. 

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I noticed something interesting about SH: Kelsier runs into Hoid, Khriss and Elantrians, in that sequence. The stories before Mistborn chronologically are Dragonsteel (which features Hoid), White Sand  (which features Khriss) and Elantris (which features Elantrians, not yet the Ire or Alonoe, but I'd be surprised if that doesn't happen in 2 or 3). So basically, Kelsier meets a part of each Cosmere story before Mistborn. Really makes Secret History feel like a culmination of the Cosmere sequence up to that point.

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On 7/22/2019 at 8:27 PM, ElendVenture said:

Will there be an era four, First Witness?

Yes - see the series' Coppermind page: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Mistborn_(series).  We don't know a ton about it except that it'll be a Sci-Fi series and is the finale of the Cosmere saga.  

The Era 4 WoBs: https://wob.coppermind.net/adv_search/?tags=mistborn+era+4

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