Tress : Cosmere Timeline

[Gnmish]

Just finished Tress, and wow, Brandon has managed to pack a lot into a short book.

Do we have any idea on where this story occurs in the timeline?

We get a fair few tidbits that give us clues

The presence of computers and space travel implies that it's very late cosmere

2nd era Scadrian influence (Death and his metal spikes!)

Sazed releasing the Kandra

Apparently the Iri have only been gone a few hundred years, which creates all sorts of timeline implications

Also the fact that Hoid doesn't have Design along for the ride implies it's either before or he lost her. I guess we may find out more in the other Secret Project where they appear.

So has there been an official note about where this occurs in the timeline?
 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Gnmish

[StanLemon]

It's likely between Era 3 and 4 of Mistborn. Likely closer to Era 4 because of literal space ships. My guess is that TotES takes place before SotD and that the story is being told during SotD sequel considering the comment from Hoid to the audience about ships landing

[TruthlessofNalthis]

When I read the line about the Iri, I thought at first this was their homeworld too. Now I'm wondering if this is simply another stop in the long path. The question then becomes it is before or after Stormlight Archives?

 

Quote

The Iriali are not native to Roshar.^[7] They believe that they are part of something they call the "Long Trail," a series of seven Lands which all must be "attained" before they will become One again. Of these, the Fourth Land is Roshar,^[1] which they migrated to from somewhere besides Ashyn, separately from the rest of humanity

And now that I think about it, there were Iriali on Scadrial, so It's entirely possible that this isn't the same group of Iriali we've seen or heard mentioned before. 

quote from the Copppermind for reference. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by TruthlessofNalthis
Addition Iriali sightings

[StormingTexan]

8 hours ago, Gnmish said:

Also the fact that Hoid doesn't have Design along for the ride implies it's either before or he lost her. I guess we may find out more in the other Secret Project where they appear.

Hoping we find out about this in SP 3 which may take place before this one chronologically. Would be a fun tie in if we do. 

8 hours ago, StanLemon said:

My guess is that TotES takes place before SotD and that the story is being told during SotD sequel considering the comment from Hoid to the audience about ships landing

This is my guess too. It would be really fun if Brandon adds a scene in the sequel with Hoid starting to tell this story. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by StormingTexan

[+Child of Hodor]

2 hours ago, TruthlessofNalthis said:

When I read the line about the Iri, I thought at first this was their homeworld too. Now I'm wondering if this is simply another stop in the long path. The question then becomes it is before or after Stormlight Archives?

That was my initial thought, but I think their homeworld that they are supposedly destined to return to will be a more significant planet than this one. I've always thought Yolen, but who knows. 

[AquaRegia]

My gut tells me that Tress takes place later than other major story lines.  Harmony has released the Kandra?  An actual honest-to-shard spaceship?  Hoid finally becoming an Elantrian?  All these things seem "new" to me.

[i’m in the details]

19 hours ago, StanLemon said:

It's likely between Era 3 and 4 of Mistborn. Likely closer to Era 4 because of literal space ships. My guess is that TotES takes place before SotD and that the story is being told during SotD sequel considering the comment from Hoid to the audience about ships landing

I agree. Or a similar world like those in secret project 4.

[lacrossedeamon]

On 1/5/2023 at 2:10 AM, StanLemon said:

It's likely between Era 3 and 4 of Mistborn. Likely closer to Era 4 because of literal space ships. My guess is that TotES takes place before SotD and that the story is being told during SotD sequel considering the comment from Hoid to the audience about ships landing

Yeah it does seem like Hoid's audience is First of the Sunners. Hoid potentially first visited First of the Sun 300 years before SotD but the specific stuff he says does seem to place it later than that. If Kingmaker becomes canon we also know Hoid does visit First of the Sun again in order to learn that story.

[Aismeen]

On 1/5/2023 at 5:13 AM, TruthlessofNalthis said:

When I read the line about the Iri, I thought at first this was their homeworld too. Now I'm wondering if this is simply another stop in the long path. The question then becomes it is before or after Stormlight Archives?

 

I would guess that it happens after TSA. The Iriali were also mentioned as just arriving on Scadrial in TLM, which happens 10-15 years after TSA's first arc but before TSA's second arc (I feel like there's a WOB about it, but I can't find it), so we can conclude that the Iriali probably left Roshar shortly after KoWT and moved to Scadrial, spent a couple centuries there, and then went to Lumar and left again before TotES. This means that TotES happens at least 600-ish years after TSA, maybe more. 

On 1/5/2023 at 5:13 AM, TruthlessofNalthis said:

The Iriali are not native to Roshar.^[7] They believe that they are part of something they call the "Long Trail," a series of seven Lands which all must be "attained" before they will become One again. Of these, the Fourth Land is Roshar,^[1] which they migrated to from somewhere besides Ashyn, separately from the rest of humanity

According to this, if the Fourth Land is Roshar and there are no other lands between Roshar and Scadrial, and Scadrial and Lumar, then Lumar would be the Sixth Land so presumably, during TotES, the Iriali would be at the Seventh Land. What happens after that? What does "becoming One" mean?

[gremlin303]

Can someone explain where we are getting this info about Iriali on Scadrial? I must’ve completely missed it

Also, there is no explicit proof that Design was not present in TotES. She could’ve been there the whole time but was never mentioned by Hoid

Edited February 10, 2023 by gremlin303

[Frustration]

16 minutes ago, gremlin303 said:

Can someone explain where we are getting this info about Iriali on Scadrial? I must’ve completely missed it

The newspaper person in TLM mentions people with golden skin

[lacrossedeamon]

I'm with @TruthlessofNalthis that we shouldn't assume that all subsequent Iriali a necessarily related to a specific group of earlier Iriali. If there was an original event that caused a diaspora it could be that different sects didn't agree on which planet was the Second Land. There could be multiple groups on there own separate Long Trails.

[WeakenedWorrier]

The illustrations at the climax of TotES show both Riina and Hoid drawing Aons. But the Aons shown don’t have the new chasm line required to make Aons work at the end of Elantris.

Does that mean that TotES takes place before Elantris?

[+Oltux72]

On 1.5.2023 at 3:49 AM, WeakenedWorrier said:

The illustrations at the climax of TotES show both Riina and Hoid drawing Aons. But the Aons shown don’t have the new chasm line required to make Aons work at the end of Elantris.

It may just have been filled by sediment. Or the Elantrians decided that it was cheaper to fill in the chasm line than change all fixed Aons in Elantris.

[Quantus]

On 4/30/2023 at 9:49 PM, WeakenedWorrier said:

The illustrations at the climax of TotES show both Riina and Hoid drawing Aons. But the Aons shown don’t have the new chasm line required to make Aons work at the end of Elantris.

Does that mean that TotES takes place before Elantris?

No, it can't because Hoid tried and failed to become an elantrian at the end of that one.  

On 5/2/2023 at 9:52 AM, Oltux72 said:

It may just have been filled by sediment. Or the Elantrians decided that it was cheaper to fill in the chasm line than change all fixed Aons in Elantris.

That's an interesting solution to the problem!  Not sure how much power that would actually take, and it begs theparadox question of whether AonDor can alter geography it's symbol's rely on.  

[+Oltux72]

17 hours ago, Quantus said:

That's an interesting solution to the problem!  Not sure how much power that would actually take, and it begs theparadox question of whether AonDor can alter geography it's symbol's rely on.  

Turn the air above the chasm into rock and soil and let it drop.

[kaladin hatblessed]

On the topic of why the glyphs would have been different I was looking around on the Coppermind and found the moon scepter from the emperors soul, and in it it claims that there is a possibility of using AonDor with DakHor glyphs instead, and since Hoid stole the moon scepter in the emperors soul, it is possible that he, and other Elantrians who have traveled to other areas have found a way to use other glyphs too use the AonDor or something. Just a thought, but it might answer why there wasn't a chasm line.

[alder24]

1 hour ago, kaladin hatblessed said:

On the topic of why the glyphs would have been different I was looking around on the Coppermind and found the moon scepter from the emperors soul, and in it it claims that there is a possibility of using AonDor with DakHor glyphs instead, and since Hoid stole the moon scepter in the emperors soul, it is possible that he, and other Elantrians who have traveled to other areas have found a way to use other glyphs too use the AonDor or something. Just a thought, but it might answer why there wasn't a chasm line.

Hey, Welcome to the Shard.

The actual answer is quite simple - the image is not meant to represent actual Aons but rather it was just an artist who used whatever Aonic symbols they had on hand, they aren't accurate. WoB:

Spoiler

Kalobi

Should the fact that the Aons in the Hoid/Riina painting are missing the chasm line be taken as canonical? If so, is this because of whatever method they are using to perform AonDor outside Sel? Or because of post-Elantris changes to Sel?

Brandon Sanderson

We let Howard pick what he wanted to illustrate, and then send illustrations in. And originally, he just did a whole bunch of weird, arcane symbols. And I’m like, “No, you need to actually use Aons in this art.” But we let him just kind of pick the Aons. You should not consider that art to necessarily be… Imagine that art to be somebody on Silverlight painting a picture of a story they heard. That art can be in-universe. (In fact, I believe that I would consider it in-universe.) But somebody painted it, and they just used whatever pictures of Aons they had sitting around, like Howard did. In other words, don’t be looking at those Aons as actual representations of how you would program in AonDor, how about that. And don’t read too much into that.

By the time of Tress, stories from things happening around the cosmere, and stories that Hoid tells, have become of interest to some people, and because of that it’s plausible that there could even end up being some sort of book written where it’s like, “Hey, he told me this story. I’m writing it down for the rest of you guys to read.” I’m not saying that’s what Tress actually is; obviously, we have the audience for Tress. I’m just saying, you can imagine world of people doing Hoid fanart.

Cosmere Considered

Does Hoid have fans?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, by that point in history Hoid does. He has far more detractors, but…

Cheekerdoodles

Is there an in-universe Hoid fan club?

Brandon Sanderson

Depends on what you call people who are fully aware of who he is and what he is. I would say yes. I mean, the royals in our world have fans. There’s fans of the royals, there’s fans of equivalent, just people who are known throughout. And he is a figure in a lot of peoples’ mythology and religion. Would you call the Horneaters Hoid fans? Because they have legends stretching back thousands of years to him as a trickster god, to the point that Rock is fully able to recognize him (not when he’s in his Wit persona, at least not at first).

YouTube Spoiler Stream 6 (Dec. 19, 2023)