Chiparoo

So I think the forums absolutely has fantastic tools for this, and the community here has the will and passion for it - however, I would push back on this idea due to just one aspect. The 17th Shard is just a fraction of the Cosmere fan base. I know this feels like all of us sometimes, but really, most people find spaces to talk about the things they love on the platforms where they already spend their time. And those fans who aren't so in-the-know, and don't have an account on a dedicated fan forum, still deserve to have their questions answered. With those things in mind, it's best for Dragonsteel to meet their audience where they already *are,* instead of asking the audience to come to them (or to us, in this context.) I think it falls to something that Sanderson himself seems to value: Sanderson strives to reach a wider audience, and be as accessible and inclusive as he can. I think just having questions here doesn't meet with those values as much as we'd like it to be. That being said, a happy medium might work, as I think someone else already suggested - having questions posted on other sites and compiled here, or having posts on larger platforms point in this direction - but I think having them exclusively here wouldn't be as accessible to the greater fan base as we would hope.

Dilaf. He gave me the creeps BEFORE he revealed himself to be a genocidal psychopath!

Thank you! I absolutely had something important to do, so of course I spent my time writing this introduction post instead. My gut reaction to the question of my favorite shard would be Cultivation. She's just neat, and I want to know what's going on in her BRAIN with everything going on in Roshar. Also, the whole being a dragon thing - that gets points. I've been thinking a lot about Aona and Skai lately, though. Like, I keep wondering which invested arts on Sel are Devotion's rather than Dominion? Like was Forgery created by Devotion, and Dakhor created by Dominion, or were they all created jointly? Is there a WoB on this? O_o

... Or your old friend, or at least the one person you vaguely remember seeing occasionally on the Discord but who has never actually posted on the forums. It's OK guys, I'm here now. Not-so-Quick Cosmere reading history for me: I first discovered Sanderson when someone mentioned Mistborn on Reddit years ago - before Sanderson was asked to complete the WoT. I read the first two books of Mistborn Era 1, but not The Hero of Ages (which I mention because this becomes relevant later.) Much more recently, I was aching for some epic fantasy and found Stormlight. "Oh, it's that one Mistborn guy," I thought. So I proceeded to read through Stormlight and adored it, obviously. After I finished reading Oathbringer I realized, "Oh wow the forth book comes out in a month! I better read it again to prepare." Stormlight remains the only series I have immediately re-read as soon as I reached the end of the books. I re-read it, this time also actually reading through Edgedancer and Dawnshard instead of being completely unaware of them, and then read through Rhythm of War. So, that was a solid 2 months of pretty much only thinking about Stormlight. (Quick aside: When I first read the Dog and the Dragon, I was gobsmacked. It left me in tears. I immediately re-read it, then highlighted it in its entirety, read it again out loud, and then read it once more for good measure before I could continue. I pretty much did not stop crying for the remainder of that book, ya'll. YA'LL.) It was around then I decided to look around the Sanderson subreddits, and discovered that the Cosmere is something that existed. And so, I decided to read through the books, starting with Mistborn, which I have previously mentioned that I did not finish before. Which was pretty awesome, actually, because I got this singular experience of being hit with the realization: "Holy shirtballs, Ruin and Preservation are SHARDS!! And they've been shards all friggin along, holy crap." So that was actually a pretty cool moment. (I mean, not so cool that I would recommend that reading order for anyone else. I'm not a monster.) I couldn't stop talking about Cosmere to everyone. I bought copies of Stormlight for my friends as christmas gifts, and they were the most self-serving gifts I have ever given. I finally convinced my little brother to start reading, and as he read through Stormlight he graciously shared his thoughts about it, and it was so exciting to get his reactions. Like getting to experience reading it again. He then read through all the rest of the Cosmere, us getting together and talking regularly the whole time. After he finished all of those we said to each other, "You know, I've been thinking of reading Wheel of Time for a while. You wanna... read it with me? And talk about it?" And that, my friends, is how I started a book group consisting of just me and my little brother. I highly recommend small book groups, it's been such a fun three years, and still going strong. We're currently reading through Malazan. -- So that went a little bit off the rails. Nowadays, I am a Cosmere fan who keeps herself caught up with the goings-on on all the subreddits, watches all the 17th Shard podcast episodes on YouTube (I suck at "Who's that Cosmere Character" SO BAD), and can't help but click on BookTuber videos that mention sanderson in the title. I am a full backer of the Year of Sanderson, and I share like half of the little trickets I get in the monthly boxes with my brother. I like to draw things! I dont have any Cosmere fan-art to show, though, because I'm weirdly bad at fan art, despite being kinda OK overall.