Background?

[Iapetus the Titan he/him]

Hello All!! I'm not new to Sanderson and the Cosmere, but I am new to how everything connects. Can someone please explain to me the background of the Cosmere? ie. Adonalsium, the shattering, shard planets, etc. 

[RShara she/her]

Here you go. It's the pinned post in Cosmere Discussion

 

[Dunkum he/him]

the Cosmere 101 thread should cover everything in sufficent detail here:

though it may contain some spoiler material.

the very condensed version is that thousands of years ago there was a god-like being called Adonalsium who was killed and his power shattered into 16 parts, called shards.  each shard contained roughly equal amounts of power but was also associated with an attribute, known as an intent.  examples include Ambition, Preservation, Honor, etc.  These intents to soem extent govern and restrict how the power can be used (e.g. the person holding Honor would find it difficult, if nto outright impossible to behave dishnorably)  these shards were picked up by 16 mortals who basically made themselves the gods of various planets.  in some cases there were existing planets and populations like on Roshar (Stormlight Archive), in other cases they created the planet and/or the life on it  like on Scadrial (Mistborn).

last I checked there were 10 known shards: Honor, Odium, Cultivation, Ruin, Preservation, Endowment, Autonomy, Ambition, Devotion, and Dominion; some of which have been killed and their power splintered - broken into such small pieces as to be impractical to re-assemble.