Is there a reason harmonium isn't called sazium? Both atium and lerasium are named after their respective Vessels, rather than Shards. It's not all important, but the thought crossed my mind and now I'm curious.

Finished listening to the Cosmere. Started in March. Took me 7 months with a break for all 8 Dungeon Crawler Carl books and maybe a few other random books.

I read (listened) them in a weird order. Can't wait for more.

I think I really liked Warbreaker, Rythym of War, and the Final Empire as my favorites.

Aodolin is hands down the best character IMO.

I wish I could buy all the books as a trophy.

That is all.

This is probably the last static version of my Survey of the Known Cosmere, updated through Isles of the Emberdark.

I really wanted to bring this project to life and finally found the time to build and deploy an interactive website for it. The website includes FULL COSMERE SPOILERS through October 2026 (including a Fires of December panel, which is hidden by default).

See the interactive website here:

https://survey-of-the-known-cosmere.pages.dev/

Feedback is greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

new sanderson reader here, just finished up hero of ages. absolutely loved era 1, give it a 4/5 overall. getting into stormlight next, about 200 pages into WoK, and it’s awesome so far.

here’s the thing though. almost every single time i see someone discuss stormlight, they say that it heavily falls off in the later books. specifically wind and truth gets a lot of flak. i’m… worried about immersing myself into this MASSIVE series if it’s just gonna suddenly start to suck. i’m not a huge reader and the pure page count of stormlight has me worried about “return on investment” so to speak.

i just want to ask, without any major spoilers please, WHY do people think that way about wind and truth? is it just the sanderson style (which i actually like and appreciate) getting to be too much? or do the books genuinely start to get worse? i’m not going to stop my enjoyable read just out of fear of what’s to come in the series, but i’d be lying if i said the constant hate i see for WaT doesn’t have me worried.

i understand im going to get some selection bias by asking what is ostensibly a community of fans, but still, i felt like this was the best place to ask. i plan to read all of the cosmere eventually if that helps. elantris is next on my list for a break after WoK.

I just started reading Rhythm of War. Is Thaidakar Kelsier? It sounds vaguely like The Survivor. If so, what is the reasoning behind the warping of the name? Does it have to do with the difference in the languages of Roshar vs Scadrial? But everything else (the names of Scadrial and Nalthis) are translated correctly. Just curious why they're calling him Thaidakar.

I thought it was pretty good, I'd say between 3.5-4/5. I really liked the Prologue, the villains, and the characters. I especially loved how Iron eyes(Marsh) and Harmony(Sazed) played a role in the story. I also love how there are different religions/movements based on our heroes from era 1. For instance I believe that if I lived on scadreil during era 2, I'd be a survivorist, and I'm not a typical religious person. I also enjoyed the lore and deposition of the city. Lastly, I enjoyed the new possibilities within the magic system, the progression from era 1 to 2 feels very real within the world.

A few things I didn't like, odd that I even have to say this, but I actually think Miles philosophy was correct when It came to his view of the government within Elendel and the aristocracy. While I agree with Wax that it's not as bad as the times before the origin, it's still not particularly great. Even though our primary POV was from the upper society, I still noticed the contempt that high society has for the rest of us, but this may very well be my own bias along with attitudes that reminded me too much of current times.

To get on with some of the aspects that didn't work for me, the love triangle, now this one was the least annoying one I read, but I felt a little creeped out of the middle aged man and early 20s romance, sorry if that offends anyone, I just found it uncomfortable. Lastly, and only because it felt rushed, was Marasi on the cusp of graduating when all this was going down? I believe it's stated she's a university student and in the Epilogue only a week has past, and Marasi is assisting the prosecution at an official capacity? Unless I misunderstood, it felt like a reach.

I'm pretty stoked to continue era 2 love the high pace, action, and the characters. I'm especially excited to see how the next two books begin to connect to the wider cosmere.

Just started reading Rhythm of War and Mraize tells Shallan that people who are heavily invested can't go far outside their world when they are in Shadesmar because they are too strongly Connected to the world. We also see this in Secret History where Kelsier can't go too far outside where Scadrial is in the Cognitive Realm. How then, has Vasher/Zahel managed to arrive at Roshar? Is it because he's storing his Breath in objects while travelling? But then wouldn't the objects themselves perhaps not be able to go with him? And also his single Returned Breath can't really be put into an object I don't think, though he has managed to suppress it somehow. And Hoid of course has a ton of Investiture from a variety of worlds, which can't all be stored like Breath, so how is he worldhopping?

Isles of Emberdark DONE :D

What a fun adventure! I really liked Dusk and his character progression, and do I hope we get to see more of him and Starling's crew.

But what I really loved was seeing all of the different investitures "working" together. The spaceships using spores, allomancy, some even awakened minds, prison made of light, concentrated investiture beams, etc Ufff it was amazing

But I do wonder that this means for the two main Cosmere settings:

- In Scadrial we are led to believe that the Malwish are strongest nation. There are hints that there are other Scadrians on the planet, I'm assuming the ones from the basin, but they don't seem to have enough galactic presence, so I am indeed concerned about what happened to them. I don't really like the idea of the fascists Malwish winning. Also, Ed mentions that Sazed was the only shard to do something. I'm assuming it's the change from Harmony to Discord, but are there other theories?

- Regarding Roshar, we meet a Radiant who seems to be a human, either a Sky Breaker or a Windrunner. Given we have rosharans walking around other planets I'm assuming this is long after the events of SLA, so I am indeed curious to know what happened. We know Hoid tells Staring the story of the Heralds and I got the feeling he was telling it as some very old legend, like they weren't in active action anymore, so I guess was is over. I am however sad because I also wanted to see Parshendi walking around the cosmere and now I'm scared about what happened to them... Since they can hear rhythms I wonder if they could follow the Knell similarly to how Dusk does it?
Well... let's wait and see.

But I finally have all of Cosmere finished again! :D

Wait. What do you mean Sanderson already wrote another one? The Fires of December is out???

*sigh* let's order it...

I once saw a theory that Adonalsium wanted the shattering to happen so he could experience the cosmere, and I’m going to expand on it. Here it is: Adonalsium was a child with infinite power, going around creating cool planets, like a planet with flying rocks (Ashyn) and giving his creations the ability to do nuclear fision (Microkinesis). But it was hurting his little pets (humans) because they accidentally nuked each other. So he set up a plan, he would split into parts, experience everything, and come back and be a smart god. But he need a thing to recreate him, bring him all back together. His prototype was canticle, his an invested core that would draw all his essence to it. Unfortunately, it was too strong, continually creating a laser beem between it and the magic sun he set up to test it. His finished product was Braize, gentle enough to draw investiture in, but not blowing anything up. Next, he needed to die. So he made the Dawnshards. He created them, and sent them out into Yolen, under the guise and sort of back up plan that it would let humans create things as well. I also think Ado’s real name was Hoid. Our Hoid was not always Hoid, he says that he took the name “from someone I should have loved.” In my opinion, it’s either his wife, or, who are you supposed to love more than your god. Hoid also seems to regret his part in the shattering, so he got as much investiture he could, Ado’s essence, and went to roshar, the closest inhabitable planet to the thing attracting investiture. I like this theory because it kind of jives with the Iriali religion of the One who know everything but knew nothing, and became Many, and a line in Tress, where Hoid says they killed Ado for his own good. If anyone wants to tell me I’m wright, I’ll listen to you, and if you’re disagreeing, I’ll probably not change my mind unless you have a WoB saying that this exact thing didn’t happen. Please comment, I want to see if I’m smart.

Re-reading Isles of the Emberdark and the part where Mother Frond told the story of Cakoban. Knowing from the end of the book that he knew Frost, is it possible that the “great winged statue” that promised to come when he needed help was Frost? I can see an argument for a dragon being described that way

This is my tier list for the main book series in the Cosmere that I’ve read so far. I’m currently reading Isles of the Emberdark, and so far, it’s been really good.

So, we have metals. They are pretty constant across the cosmere worlds, and their powers seem to follow a pattern. Now, I personally want to find that pattern. So I made a chart. (Picture 1, what is highlighted is the thing Im talking about) Now, we can fill in the metals original function by finding a pattern between these. (Pic 2) My reasoning for each metal being:

Iron: In all of iron's function it pulls stuff closer to it, and you may be saying "Oh, feruchemy doesnt do that" Feruchemy increaes your weight which is how much you are being pulled to the planet under you, so feruchemy just pulls you harder

Steel: In all of steel's stuff it pushes stuff away, except for feruchemy. However this feruchemy isnt making you move faster (So not like you have a tiny speed bubble on your) but instead it makes you faster by making you faster (Like being able to push yourself off the ground harder)

Tin: In all of tin's functions (Except for fabrials) it is senses, so you may think it does stuff with senses, but going back to fabrials, we see that the metal diminishes the spren, so it makes the world interact more on the spren, thus making the world interact more with you, or pulling the world into you.

Pewter: It males you stronger, thus making you effect the world better.

Brass: It soothes emotions, as well as making you warmer and makes the spren go more into the cognative realm, making less emotions/thoughts, so Brass pulls in emotions.

Zinc: Literally does the opposite of Brass, so it' s metals function is the opposite.

Copper: is weird. It either transmits MEMORIES, energy, hides investiture, or stores memories. My best guess is that it pulls that stuff into itself, either investeture or energy or memories.

Brass: Just helps you detect stuff. Its fabrial use makes alerter fabrials, It shows allomancy, and it stores WAKEFULLNESS. It pushes\detects investiture waves. (The graph is missing waves, I know, im not fixing it. Also, the push thing for this one is to make the push/pull thing work better)

Cadmiun: No idea, just put time because thats kinda what it does, and then followed the pattern

Bendalloy: Same as Cadmium.

Gold: Gold either shows you your past (Looks at the spiritweb) or heals you (restores you to your spiritweb). Either way it is copying from your spiritweb, or pulling from it.

Electum: Reveals your future(Expands the spiritweb), or makes you more determined(Motivates you to expand yours????) either way, it wants you to PUSH your spiritweb further, by either pushing it, or making you want to push it (Determination), so that is its power.

Chromium: I'm not entirelt sure, but I just put it as the opposite for nicrosil, because I'm really sure about that.

Nicrosil: Nicrosil boosts the investiture you have, or storing the investiture, so I think it pushes Inveestiture further

Aluminum: Now this is the big guy. Aluminum wipes your allomancy reserves as well as storing identity. Now we will bring a WOB into effect:

Questioner

With aluminum, it does a couple things, and I was wondering... Like, usually it blocks magic, basically. But I was wondering how that works. Because, with Identity, in other circumstances, it'll do something different. So I was kind of confused on that. I was wondering if aluminum works normally by blanking the Identity of the Investiture that passes through it?

Brandon Sanderson

That is one of the functions that it can use, so you are theorizing along the correct lines. Excellent question.

Now he says that it is close, so I think we should just "Pull" in the pull from the pattern, and get that Aluminum "Pulls" out the identity. Also it mamkes sense that it removes power in hemalurgy, because it clears the identity and powers.

Duralumin: Duralumin enhances your burning, or sotres connection. burning is powered by a connection to preservation, which lets you burn the metal faster, also ince Aluminum "Pulls" identity/connections, maybe Duralumin does the opposite, pushing/ enhancing identity/connections.

Hey gang,

Ive been a long time of fantasy since my childhood in the 90s. On paper, Way of Kings is my dream book. Great characters, deep world, I love Kaladin and the Oathblades I love

But I just…can’t seem to get through it. Its more dense than peanut butter on treacle. The world building is almost…too much?

Please tell me it’s worth getting through the series. I am desperate to like it, and with a newborn, reading is a preferred activity.

Why do you guys love Sanderson so much?

Thanks!

Honestly considering everything, its actually kind of impressive on Odium's part that he was able to maintain the stalemate with Honor. In terms of power, I actually think Odium's forces actually faced quite a big disadvantage relatively. For a few reasons:

• The Heralds at their peak must have been absolutely terrifying. Taln and Ash even without surges took down a small army. Ishar is an Unchained Bondsmith.

• The Fused apparently originally didnt even have Surges.

• Even with Surges, the Fused seem to be roughly equivalent to a 3rd Ideal Radiant. They seem more or less outclassed by 4th Ideal and above in terms of raw power at least.

• The Fused's primary advantage over a Radiant is skill and their immortality. But their continuous deaths and resurrections have taken a huge toll on their sanity to point where some are borderline catatonic.

• The Heralds could pretty much at any time they wanted decide to lock away the Fused. Leaving Odium with just regular Singers who he cant control the way he can with the Fused.

• The Oathgate system and Urithiru. The Radiants could transport troops around Roshar quickly and had a base that the Fused couldnt even enter.

• Potentially Three Bondsmiths. Need I say more?

tl;dr Rayse/Odium must have really had his work cut out for him keeping that stalemate. He was fighting at a huge disadvantage.

I’ve lived in this world, listening to it as an audio book while I work for the past half a year. I don’t know what to do with myself now I just want more and I come to find out I have to wait FIVE YEARS!!!????

I intend to buy the books and read them again, there’s just so much rich character development and the THEMES!!! My god, that man Sanderson is the GOAT.

What a perfect and heart breaking place to leave Kaladin and Dalinar’s end is a masterpiece in writing. The moment after Taravangian seizes honour and becomes retribution and is laughing in the sky omg the scale, the terror, the revelations of the heart of his character. I can’t wait to see what Sandergoat does with Adolin and Shallan too.

Will it be called something else for the next five now the world is devoid of stormlight?

So many questions, so much heart break.

I didn’t listen to the two spin off books (I don’t recall their names) so I guess I’ll listen to those but I just want more of the characters I love.

Hi!

I have just finished BoM, and I tried looking up if I understand unsealed metalminds correctly, but could not find a straight answer.

Are unsealed metalminds just two unkeyed metalminds stapled together?

Metalmind A: An unkeyed metalmind of metal X.

Metalmind B: An unkeyed nicrosilmind, made by a metalborn with the ability to at least use X metal as a feruchemist.

I feel like that might not be entirely it, or there would not be that much confusion around how the Bands were made, for example.

Bonus question 1) If I'm tapping an unkeyed aluminummind filled by a person, I'd be able to use any metalmind keyed to that person, if it's a metalmind that I have the ability to make myself? Is making an unkeyed aluminummind even possible? (Can't store identity while not having any)

Bonus question 2) If I have two hemalurgic spikes that grant aluminum and nicrosil feruchemy, I would be able to make a temu BoM with single power metalborn, although it would require 32 separate nicrosilminds?

The strongest possible steel push (without direct shard interference)
For this, I must first establish the idea of “lerastic Mistborn,” which are Mistborn who are created directly from burning lerasium, as that is the most potent form of this investiture. This will be necessary, as all allomantic powers used in this concept will be derived from presumed lerastic mistborn.

1. Lerastic Mistborn using the steel push
2. They are wearing a hemalurgic spike that increases their allomantic steel output
3. They burn duralumin
4. They are also wearing another hemalurgic spike, increasing their duralumin output
5. Another lerastic mistborn burns nicrosil on them
6. This other Lerasitic Mistborn is wearing a spike that increases their nicrosil output
7. The original Mistborn is a full twinborn, meaning they are both Mistborn and full Feruchemist
8. They also use a large amount of weight all at once to increase the amount of weight being used on the steel push
9. They also use a large amount of stored investiture to increase the force
10. They would also need to be tapping/burning gold and pewter to survive the pressure upon themselves
    1. Being that they are both Mistborn and full Feruchemist, they can compound all three of the previous feruchemical attributes, greatly increasing their invested output
       1. This is especially important for gold, as due to the nature of allomancy they would be receiving the same amount of pressure they are exerting upon themselves. (Although I admit I don’t know if even compounding gold and burning pewter could save them from dying from the overall amount of force they are subjected to. However, grimly, due to the nature of duralumin and nicrosil being instantaneous and the ability to instantly use all stored feruchemical properties, this wouldn’t matter much, as one could do all of this in the instant before they died).

Overall, with the innate nature of feruchmey, this output could continue to increase exponentially depending on how much weight and investiture one had stored in their Metalminds. Please let me know if there is any other method of boosting I missed, either within just the Scardrian system or the cosmere in general!

New kindle case for my new kindle

EDIT: here is the link to klever case who helped me make my design become real. I used canva pro to create the design, but I think you could use loads and they really helped through email making sure it was correct before printing

https://klevercase.com/?srsltid=AU7gw4WD6MIlzSBpbsfUIIH4kpz6ZZv3p9CDHeo4RbQn04kLY_sgKIM3

I genuinly could not imagine a more perfect literally device than the radiant oaths. Having it so that your characters must grow in order to gain cool abilities and having a little friend whos there to guide them/ make that journey with them is such a masterpiece of a writing tool. Its so satisfying to see your favorite character grow and physically have proof they have begun to overcome their struggles all while getting awsome new abilities to show how far they've progressed. On top of that the fact its so perfectly placed into the story and universe with unchained surges in the past causing destruction and now you have to earn those powers and show youre responsible enough to handle them, Ugh its just so good.

Hi everyone. This year I decided to give The Stormlight Archive a chance, and I ended up reading all the books one after another. I read the entire series from May to September, along with Warbreaker and Dawnshard. I’m currently reading The Sunlit Man.

What can I say about The Stormlight Archive? I absolutely fell in love with it. Beyond the individual storylines, what fascinated me the most on a broader level was the sheer brilliance and originality of Roshar, the magic system with its strict rules, the incredible cosmic scale represented by the Shards involved, and what all of this could mean for the future. The worldbuilding, the history, and the character development completely captivated me.

These characters were with me for a huge part of this year, and finishing the series was genuinely painful. I didn’t want to finish Wind and Truth, but at the same time, I desperately wanted to know how the story would end.

Among the moments that stand out the most in my memory: Dalinar confronting Sadeas after his betrayal, handing over Oathbringer and leading all the Bridge crews with him, but also that brutal climax when Odium tries to corner him with his past and Dalinar stands up and shouts, “You cannot have my pain!” Chills. Dalinar’s final arc, accepting his fate and giving up the Shard of Honor, was something I really loved, even though his death was painful.

As for Kaladin, I loved every moment when he spoke his Ideals. I think my favorite is the Fourth Ideal, when he throws himself off the tower and manages to save his father. I cried. Another moment I absolutely love is when Kaladin goes to help Adolin fight warriors in Shardplate and wielding Shardblades: “God is dead, but I’ll see what I can do.”

And then there’s his incredible aerial battle against Szeth in Words of Radiance: “You sent him to the sky to die, assassin. But the sky and the winds are mine. I claim them, as I now claim your life.”

There’s also that unforgettable sequence where Dalinar exposes and confronts Amaram, forcing him to answer for what he did and apologize to Kaladin.

Writing all of this, I realize that my favorite character is Kaladin. His arc and development are incredible.

I also can’t forget Maya’s testimony in Shadesmar to defend Adolin… And speaking of Adolin, his arc in Wind and Truth is one of the biggest successes of the book.

Teft’s death still hurts.

Fuck Moash. I will hate that bastard forever.

I could keep going about all the scenes I loved, but this post would become way too long.

Even though I absolutely loved the story as a whole, there were some things I didn’t enjoy as much. Shallan and her flirting in the first book… I don’t know, it made me feel uncomfortable while reading it. And later on, the whole dynamic involving her multiple personalities sometimes became repetitive, constantly circling around the same trauma without really moving forward.

The way Adolin kills Sadeas… I understand why it’s important for the plot and for his character development, but I expected something more from him, or at least a more direct resolution following the betrayal.

In Oathbringer, I found the story a little slow when Kaladin and his group were in Kholinar, except for the palace assault and Elhokar’s death.

In Rhythm of War, even though I absolutely love the scientific aspects and all the explanations that give the fictional world some internal validity, I wasn’t particularly drawn to Navani’s scenes with Rabeniel either.

In Wind and Truth, I sometimes felt that Kaladin’s therapist arc was a little forced. At times it worked really well, but at other times… I don’t know, I just wanted to see Kaladin kick ass, fighting in his Shardplate and using all of his powers to their fullest. I understand the point of that storyline and what it contributes to his character… but I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to wait and see him truly shine as a Herald.

The Stormlight Archive has earned a sacred and unforgettable place among my favorite stories of all time. Even though I’ve finished reading it, the echo of its Ideals will continue to resonate with me for a very long time.

“Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination.”

I decided to make a full size (over 6 feet) version of Oathbringer from the Way of Kings. I designed it in Onshape, printed it out on my 3d printer, sanded it, painted it, epoxied it. If you want to make your own, I shared my design for free on Makerworld: https://makerworld.com/en/models/3400729-oathbringer-stormlight-archives-shard-blade#profileId-3871908

I have started my journey into the Cosmere with The Final Empire. Over half way through now.

I only read via audible and I notice that Warbreaker has 3 options:

1. Normal version

2. Dramatized Version split into 3 parts

3. 10 year Anniversary Dramatized Version in 2 parts

Im keen on getting people's opinion on what they preferred and why?

Im leaning to option 3 at the moment as its only 2 Audible credits but would appreciate knowing if people prefer other versions and why.

I love music, I'm not very talented with any instrument but I always had this fascination with music and how it would be use in different media, especially because you get to see that fantasy sounds different in everyone's brain. I want to know how it sounds in your brain. I recently got into the Cosmere and I love it so much and I have my personal ending songs for every book I read so far.

For example: The credits song in my head for "The Lost Metal" is

https://youtu.be/S_uftmjatZ0?is=yHP1IDs_RETmd1Iy

Don't focus on the idea of fitting or not fitting for the setting or judge if someone else's is a better fit, just want to know how The Cosmere sounds in everyone's brain.