Around the Cosmere: Tumblr and #CFSBF

Hello everyone, it's Feather, and this time not with a Splintercast episode. Shocking, I know.

Anyway, I'm here to bring you another update on Around the Cosmere, and this time I'd like to highlight a place that's very near and dear to my heart. As many of you have probably guessed, 17th Shard is not the only major gathering place of Cosmere fans, and I'd like to introduce you guys to a community of fans with whom I'm very involved: the Tumblr Cosmere fandom!

For those who are unaware of what Tumblr is, it's a microblogging platform that lets users share pictures, text, video, and all kinds of different posts. In practice, I usually like to describe it as somewhat akin to Pinterest, but for fiction. Tumblr thrives on fandoms of all kinds: books, tv shows, movies, video games, webcomics, and more! And the Cosmere fandom is no exception! It's kind of a crazy jumble of creative energy, fanworks, jokes, memes, shipping, theories, roleplay, and just about everything you could consider.

So, you want to find the fandom on Tumblr. The first thing you might notice is that there are a lot of Cosmere posts tagged #CFSBF. This lovely little acronym is short for "Cosmere Fandom is Still the Best Fandom." Because, heck yeah. Basically, it was something that I used to use on my personal blog that then spread out to the fandom as a whole, and has kind of become a catchphrase. But don't take my word for it. Hear it from an expert here!

Now, let's talk about some fun blogs. We've got a few aggregators around the fandom, which are blogs dedicated to reblogging works by other people so that they're all in one place. I'm the moderator of a fairly large one called Adonalsium, that collects fanworks of all kinds, from all of Brandon's books, both Cosmere and Non-Cosmere. The wonderful Botanica Xu (who is also an incredible fanartist) also runs the "imaginary" blogs, Imaginary Scadrial, Imaginary Sel andImaginary Roshar, collect works for Mistborn, Elantris/Emperor's Soul, and Stormlight Archive, respectively.

There are some other great projects going on too, such as Incorrect Mistborn Quotes, which is a terribly fun blog, taking quotations from other works and attributing them to Mistborn characters.Incorrect Stormlight Quotes does the same thing with the Stormlight characters! And then the lovely I Am A Stick blog has a single purpose: to make sure that everyone remembers that the stick is, in fact, a stick.

Maybe you're looking for something a little bit more involved, though. You want to stretch your creative muscles, show off your stuff, make some friends and be a part of something cool. Or maybe you just want to see some awesome content made by other people. Well, you've got a few cool options, depending on what kind of content you're looking for:

First and foremost is the Cosmere Challenge. The CC is a prompt blog that does rotating ideas and challenges, usually about one a month. Sometimes these are pairings, sometimes they're situations, sometimes they're AUs or crossovers. They're good for a quick burst of inspiration, or if you want to contribute something to an event. By far, the challenge that gets the most submissions is the now annual event: Cosmere Fandom is Still the Worst Fandom, in which everyone tries to write/draw/create the most tragic, heart-wrenching, horrifying stories and ideas to inflict them on everyone else. Because the only thing better than suffering is making other people suffer, right? Now is the time to start thinking of ideas, as the CFSWF challenge usually happens in the summer!

If you want something more for the long-haul, you could consider checking out the Cosmere RP, a college-AU taking place in Kharbranth University. Characters from all over the cosmere are welcome and they're all at the same university and all have blogs on tumblr. It's a wild ride. Marsh moved in with Edgli? Kelsier got into a fight with Adolin? And who exactly is dating who between Kaladin, Adolin, Shallan, and Renarin? Stay tuned for more. If you want to get in on the action, there's a list of characters the RP is still looking for!

So, that's your crash course to what's going on with the tumblr side of the fandom. If there's any questions about the blogs here or how tumblr works or anything, feel free to ask me things. I'm more than happy to help answer queries. Have fun, Sharders!