CR0N0S.LXIII

So I was wondering when did Sazed became aware of the existence of the southern scadrians. We see at the end of The Hero of Ages that Sazed Ascends to Harmony and "fixes" Scadrial, putting it in the old orbit, changing the genetics of the local humans (which was changed by Rashek so scadrians could breath ashes), changing the whole geography and tectonics on the planet, restoring old flora and fauna... By changing the orbit, Sazed is causing Scadrial to become much more cold than it previous was. That is not a concern for northern scadrians, but the southern scadrians adapted to the hotter conditions of the planet's old orbit thanks to some unknown Rashek intervention. So the Catacendre made the land uninhabitable for the southern scadrians, up to the point that were not for Kelsier intervention, they would have gone extinct. Now, causing an extinction on a whole human population does not sound like "fixing", neither does it sound like Sazed, neither does it sound like "Harmony". So the conclusion would be that Sazed had no knowledge of the southern scadrians and didn't know of the consequences his actions were having on them. We also have to conclude that Sazed didn't learn of the southern scadrians at least until Kelsier got there, cause otherwise Sazed would have "fixed" the anatomy of the southern scadrians before, just like he restored the anatomy of the northern scadrians during the Catacendre. But here is the thing: when Vin became a Sliver at the Well of Ascension, she instantly realises there are two groups of humans in Scadrial, located in both poles of the planet. And she realises that while simply "diving" into the Spiritual Realm (that's basically what a Sliver is I believe). So one would assume that Ascending with the power of tho Shards would give you a level of awareness more than enough to realise of the existence of the southern scadrians. So did Sazed/Harmony become aware of the southern scadrians right after his Ascension? And if so, why didn't he do anything to prevent the extinction of the southern scadrians during the Ice Death?

Either the moment in TWoK when Kaladin comes back to save Dalinar's men, or the moment later when Dalinar trades his Shardblade for Sadeas' bridgemen.

Adonalsium is the God Beyond. When he died he passed to the Beyond, but somehow he is influencing the Cosmere from there. Not much crazy, I know, but still interesting.

So since I'm new to sharing the Cosmere with the internet I'm confused about this. By "White Sand Omnibus" you mean the version that compiles all three volumes into one "book"? Cause that's the White Sand version I read. And I read it like months ago, so outdated information shouldn't be an issue (but lack of information could be). My concern with White Sand is not the content, but the form. Is a comic, and if you enjoy books but not comics (which I think happens to the majority of readers in the Western World), having a comic in the middle of a books saga is... weird. Not necesarily bad, but weird. And if you are a reader of other fantasy sagas or other books, and I try to get you interested in the Cosmere, it doesn't seem like a good idea to make you change to a format that maybe you don't like or haven't tried ever. Plus, I think is good to leave White Sand for the end, when you have commited so much to the Cosmere that you can't leave one piece of it unread (and still I know of people that has read the Cosmere, and even reread it, but never touched White Sand). So basically, I don't think White Sand is horrible, is just different and reading it in between of the rest of the books... feels weird to me. Yes, number and variety of references is too high for a first time reader to understand them. But that's the point, you don't need to understand them to enjoy TotES. And for a particular kind of reader that enjoys extense lore by itself, seeing that there is already a lot of lore on this universe could be a motivation to want to get more deeply onto it. I think this is one of the reasons that make Star Wars so popular and develop such a huge fanmade universe, and I believe it was a conscious strategy why George Lucas. That being said not all readers are gonna enjoy TotES as a Cosmere first book, true. Yeah, that comes from reading all the books in spanish. Both Well and Pit would be translated into the same spanish word "pozo", Shadows of Self was translated as "Sombras de Identidad" cause there is no other word in spanish for "Self"... Sorry about that. As a fun fact on this, Warbreaker is translated into spanish as "El Aliento de los Dioses", which stands for "The Breath of the Gods". No idea why, is the only Cosmere book whose title was completely changed when translated into spanish. Honestly, I believe this is true. Reading order only makes sense if you are starting this journey on your own and don't have a friend or someone to supply one.

Oh I see. I didn't remember that Investiture in Sel was trapped in Shadesmar after the splittering of Devotion and Dominion.

So I find that a lot of people think Kelsier is gonna be the definitive villain of the Cosmere, that he is a narcissistic megalomaniac and, as such, dangerous. I don't get it. I honestly don't get it. Maybe it's because I didn't pay attention when I read Mistborn, but I genuinely don't see any reason whatsoever to think Kelsier is gonna become evil. It's not that I don't share that opinion, is that I don't understand it to begin with. So, why is Kelsier a potential villain?

SPOILERS FOR TRESS OF THE EMERALD SEA:

So, before answering the question "which is the best reading order", let us ask ourselves: "which is the best REreading order". And I think that would be a chronological order. That way you can see the things as they happen in the Cosmere, without temporal jumps, and it becomes more clear the causes and consequences of the Cosmere events. That being said, a pure chronological order should start with... White Sand. Which is definitely problematic if we are looking for a reading order for someone who is new to the Cosmere. So, the pure chronological order should be readapt for someone who starts from zero. The best novel to introduce someone to the Cosmere depends on that someone, what he likes to read, whether he enjoys more seeing magic combats unfold, or is more interested in characters relations and all that. But I think there are, basically, 3 possible first Cosmere books: Elantris, The Final Empire, Tress of the Emerald Sea. Some of you might be asking about Tress. The thing is: the story is quite good, the narration is superb, and in a kinda subtle way it shows you that there are a lot of weird things in this universe (we see a kandra, a dragon, an Ire, a spaceship, and hear about Sazed/Harmony (I don't remember exactly), other planets, shards...). For a reader that is gonna be intrigued about all the mysteries in this fictional universe, Tress would be a great way of getting him interested. So, we need three best reading orders: Starting with Elantris: Starting with The Final Empire: Starting with Tress of the Emerald Sea: White Sand comes last in all three because... well, it's White Sand. So whaddaya think?

Maybe this is already answered, but I would ask this: We know that once in the Beyond, you can't go back to the Cosmere: but is it possible for a Connection between anything contained in the Cosmere and anything contained in the Beyond to exist? (Notice that this is slightly different that asking if it is possible to establish such a Connection, just in the same way you can't accelerate something to a speed faster than the speed of light, according to relativity, but you can imagine a being that exists faster than light and run it through all the equations). If the answer were yes, then I would ask: have we already seen such a Connection?

Hello fellow 17th shaders. So I'm new in this forum. I have already read all of the Cosmere books and very soon I will start a full rereading of them, alongside with a friend of mine (actually the person who introduced me to the Cosmere). And I guessed I could join this forum in order to discuss the theories I come up with during the rereading, and also to ask questions so I could grasp a better understanding of the Cosmere (which is the main reason I want to reread the books, since I feel like after the first reading I confuse concepts, have forgotten critical events or characters and fail to deeply understand the "physics" of the Cosmere). What else to say? Let's see... My favorite book was The Way of Kings, though the one I enjoyed more was Words of Radiance. My favorites characters would be Dalinar, Kelsier (I don't get why it seems to get so much hate or be considered a narcissistic megalomaniac), Nale, Kaladin, Marasi and maybe Vivenna. And, of course, our old friend Hoid. SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL EMPIRE AND THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE: So I guess that is it. I'm looking forward to participate in this community.