Cyprian Wiley

God What is God actually? Or what is a god? I think about that far too much but I enjoy the thoughts of others. And Brandon did put his thoughts into his books. Some things he did put there intentionally and some probably without thinking about it. I read a lot about similar topics in this forum and i assume that my basic idea was already mentioned but most things I found were older. I am thinking this through while writing it. There will be errors and I hope someone finds them. Gods throughout the history of mankind in the real world I've never met someone who actually believed in one of the ancient gods of the Greek, Egyptians, or Vikings in the way they are represented in the strategy game Age of Mythology. And by my Christian standard the gods in the game are not gods at all. They are not all powerful or all knowing. They are not good. They are more than one entity. They did take on physical forms and sometimes even impregnated women. As somewhat of a christian myself I have to think about Jesus when writing that sentence. He had a physical form, his father was God and he did not seem to be all powerful. But this discussion should not be about him. The ancient pantheons knew many Gods and all of them had a different purpose. The main Greek gods for example are known as the Twelve Olympians. And the ancient gods did always fight or party. There are many great stories about all of them. Gods in the Cosmere as seen by the residents To talk about all of them would probably be more difficult than talking about all of the gods in the real world, but I want to bring up my favorite examples. Blushweaver is called a god, but from my viewpoint she is a resurrected, highly invested, human. The Stormfather is a god for many Rosharans. He is basically a Spren for us. The Heralds are also gods for many Rosharans and I do not know what they are for me, but they are similar to Blushweaver and the Returned. For the Un-Kalaki all Spren are gods. And last but not least there are the Shards and Adonalsium himself. This is more difficult. For someone who believes in the divinity of one of the beings mentioned above the shards would probably be gods too. And Adonalsium as a combination of all of them would logically also count as a god. Many gods becoming one In our world it happened that one religion devoured others. Sometimes a polytheistic religion slowly focused on one of the gods at first and then integrating the aspects of the other gods into the main god. Multiple religions and multiple gods became one god as the only god of one general religion. This happened a lot and is related to other phenomena. If you think about the pyramid (hierarchy) of needs it makes sense to pray for food and shelter at the beginning stage of a developing society. But later those basic needs are fulfilled and love, esteem and self-actualization become more important. Those needs are more abstract than food. This leads to the god, responsible for this need, being more abstract. This is a complicated topic and you can spend years looking into it but my main argument is that in our world multiple religions and gods did unite to become one. The Shattering of Adonalsium In the cosmere the whole topic of religion currently begins with the Shattering of Adonalsium. Adonalsium, an (all-)powerful being was shattered into 16 Shards. Those Shards represent different aspects of the same being. And maybe something important happened with the 4 Dawnshards before that, but this is currently RAFOed as far as I know. Here is where part one of my conclusion starts. The Shattering of Adonalsium is the opposite of what happened in our world. In our world many gods become one. If we think of Adonalsium as a god then his shattering is one god becoming many. And not only Adonalsium did become many gods, but his shards did too. In Greek mythology divinity gets passed on to the children of the god. If both parents are gods, the child is a god too. If only one parent is a god, the child is born as a halfgod. If we use this theory on Roshar, then every Spren is a god. We can argue about how much divinity is needed to actually be called a god, but it is hard to draw a line. So let's just use the easy way and say everything that is pure investiture without a physical form is a god. This would be one easy way to define god in the cosmere. It is clearly not perfect but it is a definition. It is not the definition I would use from an out of world perspective but it would be fine as an inworld one for me. Socrates? What has Socrates to do with that? Socrates asked difficult questions. Imagine someone asking about honor. What is honorful? If you ask many people there will be a consensus on a lot of honorful behaviors. But some things will be contrary. And this thought of contrary views on honorful behavior can be represented by spren. Syl believes that Kaladin is honorful. Other Honorspren may agree or disagree, but no other spren agreed enough to make him a radiant. The part of Honor (and Cultivation maybe) that thought of Kaladin as honorful enough to become radiant is called Syl. So Sy is only a small part of the whole Adonalsium, but a part with power and an opinion. If we say that Adonalsium is the god of the Cosmere we can argue that he did split up himself, his will and his power into many little pieces but those pieces are still the will and power of the whole so every Spren is Adonalsium but Adonalsium is all Sprens and all the other Shards as well. A Spren is then a part of God. It is divine. If we accept that Adonalsium never was all powerful or willingly limited himself that every part of Adonalsium is still God in its essence and Identity. Are Humans Gods now? No. But as mentioned in the cosmere and the real world. There is something special about Humans. In the Cosmere we can add a lot of other beings to the list of special ones. But to keep it easy I´ll just talk about humans. Every human has some kind of divinity. We have souls or something. That's a complicated and abstract philosophical and religious idea. And I will not discuss all world religions at once but most agree that humans are special. The one above all The true God of the Cosmere So even if we do not agree on Adonalsium being a God there is something even deeper than that. If we define God almighty and something that knows everything, the past, the present, the future there is still one being that fits this description. Brandon Sanderson! He created the Cosmere. He created it out of nothing in his mind. He completely decides all physical rules. He can change them anytime, but it would make a worse story. He knows the past of the cosmere and also it’s future. He can do whatever he wants with it. He is almighty in the cosmere. He is God. Of course he is not the god of our real world, but no one in the Cosmere can prove that Brandon exists. He creates characters and tries to make them seem conscious. And he does it so well that they seem real or believable to all of us. But sometimes he has to intervene in the broader story. Intervene in what would normally happen. He creates coincidences that bring the important people together. Someone finds the right book at the right time. People meet randomly or due to mysterious reasons like Hoid. Hoid is somewhat the main way of Brandon to influence the story. And by influencing the story he changes the cosmere itself. And Brandon created the Cosmere in a way that Hoid seems to be real and not divinie. At least not much more divine than many other beings. Hoid can be everyone. He can be beggar on the streets, the king's wit, or just some random traveler you meet at a campfire. But Hoid is always Brandon’s influence. Hoid is in a way the inconspicuous hand of god. And have you ever met a Hoid in your life? Someone who did influence your path through life in a positive way without you noticing it at first? Maybe something that seems unimportant, like a stranger wearing a funny T-Shirt with a joke on it. You meet someone special years later and remember that joke. You tell the joke, one thing leads to another and you are happily married. This is a bad example but it is related to something that actually happened. So the true god of the Cosmere is Brandon Sanderson. He created it and tries to change as few things as possible, even though he knows everything and is almighty. But he influences the people in small but well calculated ways with his delegate that we know a Hoid.

I agree with @Frustration But I do not want to harm people and sometimes rules help with that. Like in the MMA, some rules are necessary so that no one dies. And I think the admins here do a great job with that! Thats pretty much what i expected and hoped for. I am always afraid of to clear lines because I tend to break thos and this sometimes generates issues I do not want. I don´t want to think about every word i write. So this is perfect for me! That is a nice clear line for me as is the multiple accounts one (which would actually be pretty much impossible to control) PS: compliments! OMG! I love this response! because it has multiple layers and proofs the amount of free speech and especially the usage of bad language without actually offending someone. I do not want to share your personal information too much, even if it was mentioned in multiple youtube videos and in posts here, but this comment of yours reminds me of my old old english professors style and this fact combined with the one fact i know about you really made me lough out loud after reading that answer of yours

Thank you very much. Both of you! That is pretty much what i expected to read And I am sure that the stuff does a great job with that so I am happy now About Private stuff. I think it is good if it is related to the topic but thanks for the reminder, that this is open for non members too. I was a long time not a member before joining but immediately forgot about that

I´d be a lavabender. So earthbender with some more power. I could metalbend, but not as well as most metalbenders I think. of course I watched LoK What about you? I tried Mass Effect once but I did not like it that much. Can you actually recommend it?

@Honorless Unite them And I am pretty sure that the spoiler period for the original trilogy ended last century I always watched Star Trek with my father. It is great, but Star Wars is more like fantasy in Space and the Clone Wars TV Series is just awesome.

So, I thought a lot about that. I see myself as a catholic theistic ignostic. I believe there is a God. I believe it is the Judeo-Christian Deity. I think, that you can not state if god exists or not, because you can not define what god is in a general accepted matter. I also think, that you can not decide if you believe in God or not. You can say whatever you want, but your belief is represented in your behavior. So to explain this I´ll use an example from the Cosmere. It is based on Information from Way of Kings, but to be sure I will put it inside a spoiler tag. And in my opinion it is the same in our world. If you treat other people as if they were real and "special" (compared to animals, trees and stone), than you believe that there is something holy about them and where does it come from if not from god? This is bad explained because I do not have the right words for it, but I think you get the spirit of what I am saying. And to answer the question: I believe in God.

Hello everyone. I just read the forum rules and some things are unclear to me. And before making many mistakes, because I tend to walk on the lines that should not be crossed, I want to make sure where those lines are and what best practices I shall use? I am referring to these posts: So, I am from Europe and I do not understand the US concept of swearing. To use a Cosmere example: Galladon finishes his senteces with a specific phrase. He does not want to offend someone, but it seemed offensive to me at first. So in my experience the intent is the important factor. It is hard to talk about swear words without using them. But I can say " You are like an Apple" and I may use it to say that you are sweet, but I could also refer to the fact, that an apple is not sentient and I doubt the other persons kognitive capabilities. This is hard to be judged by others but the first thing mentioned in the best practice is "Assume the Best of People". So I think that kind of phrasing should be fine. I usually would not phrase it directly at a person but at his post/idea. But as far as I know swearing usually refers to some kind of specific words. I do not know which words are okay and which are not. In Europe we have actual free speech. There is only one thing you are not allowed to say, and that is denying the holocaust. The best example is poem by jan Böhmermann about the Turkish president where he just uses swear words and accuses him of extrem things like beastiality and pedophilia. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GBwQ4lPgo0) And this is perfectly fine because it is satire. But it would be forbidden here? I thought about a specific topic when this question came up in my mind. And due to my limited knowledge of the English language I do not know better or non swear words sometimes. The Topic is a RoW spoiler but i´ll still put it in here because it is the best example. Would this kind of swearing actually be blocked/forbidden? And what about swear words in quotes from the books or WOBs? because of this huge cultural difference between Europe and the US I just want to make sure. And I do not care about offending someone, but I try not to do it without a reason and there are a lot of Slur word I do not know about. E.g. "Anaconda" is a snake, and I may want to say that a specific spren looks like this snake but others might think about the Nikki Minaj Song and interpret the word as sexual or slur. And there are clearly a lot of examples that are less obvious. So how is that handled here usually and what factors a relevant? Another thing would be "Deliberate misgendering or misnaming other members." So, one of my basic rules is not to lie. What do you mean by gender? There is this huge discussion which is not politcs but philosophy in my opinion. What is truth. And for me truth is scientific truth. So basically XX is female and XY is male. Thats the truth for me. But if someone wants me to refer to them as the other gender and the definition of gender is not the topic of the discussion I deliberately use the gender they want me to use. But I assume that this is okay because a third party would have to complain? Usually I do not care about that when referring to a person but It is unclear to me. And if somehow this topic comes up, especially when we are discussing the gender of people not involved in the discussion, than again I should be allowed to state (my opinion) the scientific truth. That topic always confuses me and I assume people should accept the opinion of others and do not get offended by it. Has that ever been an issue here? The next thing i wonder is this(code of conduct): Deliberate revealing personal information of another community member (also known as doxxing) without their consent. What is consent? E.g. I revealed that I have ADD in my (new) "Introduce yourself" post. Is this now consent that it can be shared everywhere in this forum? especially as quote or something or a are others allowed to mention it outside of that topic? There is an ADHD specific topic and If I share somethinmg there I don´t feel like this automatically gives consent to everyone for sharing this. I´d prefer that a PN to ask for consent before sharing it would be best practice. But what are the rules (maybe i did not read it when reading the best practice and it is actually explained) And what about the mupltiple acounts rule. I personnaly do not care. But if I want to share something private, I would usually creeate a new acount and make it as anonymous as possible. So I am not allowed to do that? Next thing (from code of conduct): Hateful, hurtful, oppressive, or exclusionary remarks, including offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion. Does this also count if my remarks are against a fictional character especially if it is not my opinion but what I think is anothers character opinion? For example: (Way of Kings Spoiler) And if i quote her, I am actually posting a hateful remark, but it should be okay in my opinion because it is neither me actually stating that as a fact/my thought , nor attacking a real person. Next Thing(from code of conduct): Deliberate intimidation What do you mean by intimidation? E.g. "If you do not stop posting about Chiri-Chiri being dumb, I am forced to spam you with a dozen quotes from the book to prove you wrong" That would be an intimidation, but i assume it is not against the spirit ofthis law And Last but not least Spoilers. There are only rules for Book spoiler written? So What about movies, TV, comics, anime, .. And what about real life? Like the results of elections or sport events? And most impotantly. politics is forbidden, i usually see politics as the small area between law and philosophy. And only in the real world practical application. So I can compare a book character with a real life politician but I should not make the politicans agenda the topic. And philosophies like capitalism, marxism, nihilism, anarchchism, socialism are not politics in my opionon as long as you do not talk about an actual real life situation where this is implemented. And what about discussing the politics of Roshar? I am pretty sure that most of these things can be answered with links to other topics and general statements but if someone actually thinks about these topics specifically I´d like them to tell me if they want to discuss or not. So are you stating facts that chould not be discussed or are you sharing your opinion? Thank you very much for reading this and helping make this forum a place everyone likes to be in. (I hate the term safe space, but this is another topic )

@Honorless @AonDii Oh sorry Of Course I did not see it either AonDii won! Congratualtions!!! Awesome

@The One Ring I am sorry, but it is not that awesome character. It is indeed that Tai-Na. Relu-na is the name. @Honorless You guessed right! great! I am happy now. Looking forward to your clues

Hello again! My first post here was justified moved to other places because I introduced myself with Cosmere-stuff (Including my spoiler related Ideas and so on). So now I am introducing myself with all the other things. And because i am not sure if spoilers about other topics are allowed (maybe after 6 months/ what about non book spoilers (like the one below and real life spoilers, like the outcome of an election or some kind of important sports event?) I will just put this spoiler here to check. But I am also generally a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I work in IT and I am currently training Jiu Jitsu but i like martial arts in general. I like to drink tea and whisky (mainly Scotch and Japanese). I am 1.9 meters tall (6'3 in non metric units) and I am pretty heavy. I like BBQ and love to make large dry-aged steaks on a grill. I read in English and German but I also listen to the audio-books. I finished RoW in December and I am currently rereading (audio-book) WoK but I will do a whole Cosmere reread until the next stormlight book comes out. I studied (but not finished) Philosophy and I am really interested in the Ethics and Morals in Brandon Sanderson's works. I also read a lot of non-fiction and I am looking forward to Dr. Jordan Peterson's new book especially. (A post connecting his works and Brandons will follow once I know in which forum to put it) I also like cheese. Blue cheese more than most other kinds to be precise. Sometimes I like to write poems, especially when I am in love or there is some kind of challenge. My English word pool is currently not large enough for me to feel good about writing a ketek, but it is one of my goals to do so. I also really like Haikus since I saw the on scene in Avatar the last Airbender but I can´t speak or write Japanese. When I am fitter and healthier again, I´ll do triathlons. I did a few of those before 2020. I have Asthma, ADD and had a Depression (which is not completely gone, but I am much better now) and I can relate especially well to the combination of Kaladin and Syl. ( I hope that Info does not count as a spoiler, but it is older than 9 months so it should not) and I am colorblind ( not completly but more than just red and green blind). I really love how Brandon writes characters that are not "perfect" but believable and especially female protagonists, because I usually do not like those in most other works of modern fiction because they feel unrealistic ( they feel often more like political propaganda nowadays compared to older works). The theme of reponsibility in the cosmere is something I really like. Oh and Chiri-Chiri is my favorit Character especially if you think about non main characters. I like Jasnah too, but I dislike one part of her character so it is Chiri-Chir. I hope that this one will not be moved and I am happy to be a part of this community. Looking forward to read your comments about my whole life and thank you for having me here.

@Chaos Thank you very much. I honestly feel honored to get a direct response from you and you always seem to be such a nice guy in the videos I am sorry for the circumstances and I already mentioned my reasoning. And the "Introduce yourself forum is the best way to have a topic just about myself. I will make a new post there. Oh, and someone actually changed the description of the forum so that the mistake should not happen again which is great! And it is awesome that you actually care for the rules and then change it instead of just verbally attacking the new members I already feel welcome here now. Thanks again and I am looking forward to next Shardcast!

I assume we can handle multiple GTCCs at once? We could just create a new topic with, well, the same topic. @animalia no it is not Gallant, but I like the guess. 1. This Character is bigger than a human 2. This character is bonded to a spren. 3. This character enjoys eating fruits.

The Wiki Page https://coppermind.net/wiki/Nahel_bond starts with: But I remebered this: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/452/#e14509 I came to this Topic when i wanted to mention, "This Character has a Nahel Bond" in a WTCC Question but checked the Wiki to not confuse everyone. Can we change this in the Wiki? I know that WOBs are only secondary canon but the quote is from December 2020, so it is pretty recent and past RoW. And he literally said, that it is the definition. It does not just change "human or singer" to "being from the Physical Realm", but also "sentient spren" to "spren".

aah thats fine. It is not the ones fault who posted the questions that no one answered in the last ten days

It was like 10 days ago and I have no Idea. who nameless wanted us to guess. But if i guess wrong we will get a 5. clue. How long are we supposed to wait? 20 Rosharan hours? But I´ll guess Robert Jordan, because he made the Wheel of Time @Nameless Are there rules where the info must be found? So if there is a detail in a picture of the leatherbound edition and I use that as a clue it would not be fair. Should everything be available in the coppermind? That would help with factchecking but also with guessing

No, it is not Human the Koloss 1. This Character is bigger than a human 2. This character is bonded to a spren.

Hi, can I just make a new one or do I have to wait for the last one to be guessed right? I´ll just start. (it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission) 1. This Character is bigger than a human

Ah perfect. I´ll join immediately Thank you very much!

Hey thank you everyone for this nice greetings. I am astonished, that you are actually reading those. In most forums I´ve been to people just say "Hi". Such a nice community. But I could have guessed, that Cosmere Fans like reading . And sorry for the Spoiler. I just read the part above the actual posts an there was nothing about spoilers written. (This part: "New to our community? Post a topic here letting us know that you exist!") And because I love those 2 things, I introduced myself with theories and WTCC. And just to be sure i tagge dit with "full cosmere spoiler" But it won´t happen again and I´ll read the pinned posts first now WTCC @Chinkoln Your guess is right @Honorless I am sorry, but your guess is wrong. Maybe I should rephrase the 5. tip

Hi all, I am from Austria and my favorite non protagonist character is Chiri-Chiri. Dawnshard spoilers Oh and I think that Dalinar will become Honor and Lift will become Cultivation. Adolin and Shallan will become Worldhoppers too. Oh and I really really hope that Hoid can bring his Spren to Scadrial in the Second Era. But I could not find anything in Era Two that supports. Probably no one even reads those Introductions but if I am right with something I can prove it. Thanks to the team of the 17. Shard and Brandon Sanderson. Oh and I have a Who´s that Cosemere Character here for you now if anyone reads this. (I also sen´t another one per Mail) You can answer directly here. This Character is from Roshar. This Character met Szeth and survived. This Character is older the most of it´s kind that we see. This Character is wealthy. This Character was mentioned when Brandon was asked to choose a mentor in the Cosmere and he mentioned, that he would choose this Character as his Babsk. I know this is easy but It also identifies the Character 100% so I do not have to write the name down. mentioned wob: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/435/#e14129 (edited to make the 5. clue more readable)