I’m trying to explain the concept of Hoid playing a small part in essentially every major event in the Cosmere. I’m not sure how to explain it in a way that has him definitely helping and it definitely still being a small cameo. not sure if that fully made sense.

So after reading WaT I had a basic question on a Herald, Fused, or Returned's ability to shapeshift and how far it could go. We know based of Vasher's statements in Warbreaker that Returned take on whatever appearance they think they should have, and it feels like there is a similar situation going on with the Heralds and Fused. We also know that the Heralds and Fused are a essentially a specialized Spren that can either make a physical body or take over a physical body, and that Spren can change their form however they want.

Is it possible for any highly invested individual to shapeshift like Spren of they believe they can? Is this how Dragons can shapeshift so well? Could we see a Herald with extra limbs and eyes and their organs in the wrong places in order to make killing them harder/give their enemies nightmares?

If this question has already been asked here or in a WoB let me know!

Just a fun situational hypothetical. These 4 characters all kill me on a constant basis... honestly with all 4 in the same room it might just implode from sheer sarcasm 🤣

Edit: I think a better question to ask now is "How long would it take before the other 3 annoy Breeze so much that he leaves?"

I’ve only read Mistborn era 1 and Mistborn era 2 up to TLM. I’ve now found out that apparently TLM contains spoilers for Rhythm of War. Will reading TLM first ruin it for me? I haven’t even started Stromlight yet

Im reading the third book of the mistborn Era 2, and at the begging of it, Sanderson presents VenDell, a kandra that has Breze hands. The thing is, while I was reading I notice how often he ask or talks about wanting other peoples body parts, like bones and stuff. And I dont remember how he was named, but there wasnt another guy in Tress of the emerald sea that also used to ask other people about their bones after they died? Is this the same character? Because I remember that in the book they called him a zombie, so im not sure if the were talking about something else. Btw, im not a native english speaker so sorry for any mistakes in this post and thanks for the help.

Please no spoilers as I’m not done with book 5 but I’m having a fun time imagining what that game would look like. Who would you want to play as and what class do you think they’d be?

This post is for anyone who’s tired of BookTube and Reddit being so critical of Wind and Truth. I get that a lot of reviewers bring up valid points, but it just feels over the top at this point.

Yeah, the book has some flaws—some cheesy dialogue, maybe a bit overlong—but I had a great time reading it. And honestly, I’m just looking for others who loved it like I did, because I’m so tired of all the damn negativity! Haha.

Part of why this has been hitting me so hard is that the Cosmere fandom on YouTube and Reddit has been such an important part of my life. It used to feel so positive and exciting! Like the old days of being a Star Wars or Marvel fan before those fandoms got so toxic. Now, I see the Cosmere community going the same way, and it sucks—especially since I started following BookTube to escape all that negativity.

Maybe it’s just me, but the reception to this book has kinda crushed me. I just want to go back to when everyone was excited about these stories.

Please tell me I’m not alone! Did anyone else really enjoy Wind and Truth and then feel crushed seeing all the backlash?

And I guess if the replies are mostly people trashing the book further, I’ll just have to avoid the online Cosmere discourse until things quiet down and hope it gets better after a few more books. Haha.

Before we start , we first need to set some rules

1.  I will be looking at all the planets that have any magical properties , whether they have a shard or not

2. The number of shards does not correlate to how invested a world is , just because a world has 1 or 2 shards does not mean it is more invested than one that has none

3. I will talk about this more in their own sections but for this ranking we will be looking at Scadrial at the end of era 2 and Roshar at the beginning of Wind and Truth

4. I will be ignoring any worldhopper antics and one Shard interfering in the world of another ( for instance Odium is considered part of Roshar , but we will ignore everything Anatomy did one Scadrial ). Dawnshards also don't count as part of a given world

5. The way I rank each planet will be based on a number of factors , the most important ones being: How invested is the average person , how hard is it to get Investiture / get Invested , what can you do if you are Invested/have investiture ( this means both how strong is the magic and how many different forms /ways of using the Investiture are there ) , how does the Investiture effect the plant and animal lifeforms , are there „sentient/sapient“ pieces of Investiture and if there are any perpendicularities ,

6. The books I will be looking at are : Elantris , Mistborn era 1 and 2 , White Sands , Warbreaker , Stormlight archive , Sixth of Dusk , Shadows for Silence in the Forests of death and the Secret Projects ( Tress and the Emerald sea , Yumi and the nightmare painter , Sunlit man.

7. I / we still don´t know all the rules of Investiture nor do we fully understand Realmatic theory , and Investiture is „magic“ that can be matter , energy , everything in between , a metal , dead , alive , sapient , dumb as a rock , sometimes follows our understanding of the laws of physics , sometimes does it´s own thing …

8 I will mostly focus on things that are show in the books/ graphic novel . Some twinborn combination might be able to break Investiture as we know it or there might be some other crazy stuff you can do with the right combination of powers. While I will try to mention every type of investiture a planet has my main focus will be on things we actually see in action. My point is sometimes it´s hard to say if something is or isn't investiture ( foreshadowing for Trees)

9. Over the last 5 years i have read all the Cosmere books once ( except for stormlight which I re-read for WaT) , I will do my best to check everything , but there are some things were I will misremember or I´m just plain wrong.

If you do find anything that is amiss or think that my opinion and rankings are wrong feel free to correct me  

With the boring rules out of the way let´s get started

12.Ashyn- at one point it might have been the most invested planet in the Cosmere , but now it´s dead with no life 

11.Braize- the only notable thing is its core which seems to have some weird interactions with Investiture . It's currently home to the Fused and that´s about it. No life , no systems. 

10.First of the sun – as far as confirmed investiture systems go the only one we have are the Aviars and the only one we have been shown is Dusk´s which seems to have a small connection to fortune . Patji ( the island ) does have a lot of deadly animals , and the sea is also quite dangerous , which could be due to investiture. Patji ( the god ) is probably an avatar of Anatomy , and might have been a god pre Shattering? And there is a perpendicularity. All in all not much in power or versatility 

9.Taldain- Sand mastery and the tattoos are the only investiture we see , and we don´t really know a lot about them nor do they seem all that strong . The sandlings are also probably invested , but we again don´t really know all that much. The sand is very usefully for detecting investiture but little else. I was going to put Taldain even lower , but according to Coppermind the whole planet is just super invested and Returned can just normally live there. ( now it´s been a long time since I read white sands , and it´s my least favorite Cosmere work , but I honestly don't remember anything like this being mentioned ?) There also may or may not be a few avatars of Autonomy as well as a (few ) perpendicularity. Also the „golden men „ we see in Lost metal , but we don´t know much about them , are they technology , awakening , some form of Taldain investiture ? who knows. 

8.Lumar- Ok so … what do we consider Investiture and are the moons parts of Lumar? I would say that the spores/ aether is magical and as such the whole planet is just a giant stick of dynamite. There's a lot of verity with the spores and they do seem to be strong and able to form Connections , but there is not true system and the people are not invested in any way. Per rule 4 we will ignore all the sorcerers / Hood stuff.

7.Scadrial- this is talking about Era 2 Scadrial. We have a lot of verity we allomancy , feruchemy and hemalurgy , there are still a lot of Kandra around , there are sometimes Mists and there is a perpendicularity. There is a lot you can do with the magic systems , especially hemalurgy and feruchemy , but because the investiture is linked to genetics , unless you are ready to kill and know how to use hemalurgy , most people don´t really interact with the system any way ( the metalmind medallions might change this in the future , but for know only south Scadrians use them and we have seen very little of their true potential). The Bands of mourning are one of the strongest items in the Cosmere , but according to a WOB they are less invested than a shardblade. If this was Era 1 with full mistborn and full feruchemists , inquisitors , mistwraiths , the Mists and the well of Ascension I would put it higher ( maybe 3 or 4 ) , but era 2 has lot of versatility and potential but not a lot of raw power. Also as I said I will ignore the Ghostbloods and the whole Trell/ Autonomy thing.  

6.Threnody- on the one hand everyone on Threnody is so super invested that they all become murder ghost/cognitive shadows when they die. On the other hand that is kind of it? There is no system ( the shads and the forest have the rules but that is about it ) , the perpendicularity is unstable and we don´t really know anything about the „Evil“ but from the sound of things it´s also a super invested area. 

5.Canticle- from one Threnodian hellhole to another . I´m not sure how to count the easy bake oven so let´s say that it´s like the highstorm. Let's also compare the Sunheart system to fabrials and what we end up with is diet Roshar. Sure the sunlight is Invested, and the planet's core is also densely Invested , and the sunheaters are an infinite investiture glitch , but again it´s all just Roshar with extra steps. The only unique system is the heat transfer and the chared , but compared to surgebinding and shards weapons they are lacking. 

4.Komashi- there is investiture everywhere , the whole planet is covered in the Shroud which is just investiture , hion lines are investiture , the nightmares are cognitive shadows , the yoki-hijo are super invested , the hijo are Splinters of Virtuosity , the whole planted might as well be investiture. Where Komashi falls short is in not having a system and the average person not being invested. The hijo seem to maybe have been part of a system and they somehow had awakening in the past but in modern times there is not system. 

3.Nalthis- from a system where everything but the people are invested to a system where only the people are invested. The neat thing about Nalthis is that everyone is born with a breath and everyone can learn to use it. There are also the Returned who are cognitive shadows and extra invested. Awakening is very versatile and strong , and was used to create Nightblood , possibly the strongest weapon in the Comere. There is a perpendicularity and … that is mostly it ? There are also the royal locks and the Tears of Edgli but they are mostly sidenotes. Most of Nalthis investiture is in its system which is very strong , but there is also nothing else of note. 

2.Sel – home to the Elantrians , arguably the Cosmere strongest invested humans ( excluding shards ). They have access to infinite investiture and can use it to do almost anything. Add to that that every country has its own system , with some like forgary/ soul stamping being just broken , and let´ss also add Seons which are sapient investiture and there is also a perpendicularity. 

1.Roshar- (since we don´t really now all that much about Roshar under Retribution I will use the Roshar at the beginning of Wind and Truth ).

I could spend another page or so just listing all the know forms of investiture on Roshar , but really all I need to say is that even one medical arms race Odium and Honor agreed to put limits on surgebinding so that humans don´t blow up the planet , AGAIN! 

??? Yolen – not much is know but from what we have seen and heard it is super invested

Well this list is bound to piss of someone. The most controversial pick is probably putting Scadrial so low. For now I stand by my opinion , though I do expect Era 3 to change things.

like Sanderson's recommended order?

After reading Wind and Truth, I've read everything in the cosmere, so I did some exploring of reviews, and a lot of people are freaking out that Wind and Truth confirmed Taln never broke. Can someone point me to the chapter or the quote that confirms this? How do we know this is true? The Coppermind website says Channa died and lasted on Braize ~7 years, then she broke and started the return. I must be a bad reader because I missed all that.

So we know that when an oathgate transfer occurs the platforms at the respective locations swap places. Does this include the people? So could someone be waiting at the Oathgate platform at the Shattered plains, then if some transfers from Urithiru to the shattered plains, would they then be transferred to Urithiru with the platform?

Also, since the tower is active with Towerlight can the oathgates now run without the need for Stormlight? If so, then Urithiru could keep trade up with the shattered plains by only activating the gate on Urithiru’s side.

Near the end of Wat while they were reforming the oathpact, syl grab kaladins hand so are we to assume that syl is now fully physical? This would have so many implications not only for the syladin shippers but imagine if syl gets some training from taln while in the spiritual realm? Syl holding the honor spear or nightblood while he feast on Kal like battery. Even crazier is if Kal is a bondsmith now he can make his perpendicularity to feed nightblood. Kal and syl could be very overwhelming in part 2.

I read on Coppermind that >!Gereh was the one that apparently convinced Gavilar to turn against Axindweth.!<How is that known?

I know >!the note that Venli found said that this happened to Axindweth but it didn't say who the other terris person is.!<

Didn't read WaT yet so please no spoilers there.

Someone may have already asked this, but with sigzil being kind of like a scholar I guess and using 12124 so well in sunlit man, why didn’t he just summon Vienta as a blade or something else when Moash was going to kill her on the shattered planes? Like he could have just summoned her as a knife and thrown her away, maybe I don’t understand something but can someone explain?? Because losing your oaths is such a worse option.

I will keep you posted 🫡 I read Mistborn Era 1, some novellas, and Warbreaker in preparation for this series, and I hope it lives up to the insane amount of hype I’ve now built up

Edited for spoiler markup 

Now Kaladin is a Herald, how do you think he would fare against a Fullborn? Imo the Fullborn would win because of OP compounding, like gold and steel. But we don’t know the full potential of Heralds, other than they have an other-worldy instinct in battle (Nale vs Kaladin) What do ya’ll think?

As of the end of Wind and Truth, the Azish Empire is fractured with Azir being the sole land unclouded by Retribution. Now, there are a few details missing about the Azish Empire as a whole that I find could lend that the borders of Azir are not what are under Retributions control, but may include the nations that weren't mentioned breaking away.

The only two member states that explicitly changed sides were Tashikk and Emul, arguably the two most important member states which prevented reinforcements from reaching Azimir in time.

Marat was fully under Odium's control at the start of the war, being the heart of the Singers in Makabak for its duration.

Tukar had effectively seceded while under Ishar's control, which I would see as ruling them out.

The following member states are not mentioned, and I could see the argument in Azish law that two members leaving the Empire does not constitute the death of it:

Alm
Desh
Liafor
Steen (This is a strange case, as they were invited with the other Makabak representitives, but Noura claims they shouldn't have been in Oathbringer. Very likely that they wouldn't legally be considered party of Azir here.)
Yezier

Would these nations have been part of the new Azir? Why not, in what way would Odium be able to state that these nations were under his control by the end of the 10 days?

Personally, I can't wait until Stormlight 6 to see the new map with Azir being effectively an island nation.

Just curious who all have done re-reads of the entire Cosmere. How many? How often, if multiple times?

Is there a stand alone or series you like to re-read in particular?

So far I’ve read the entire cosmere except WaT and Sunlit Man. I’m excited to finish but equally sad because what a beautiful journey.

Inquisitors are stated to have powers beyond that of any allomancer. They have remarkable strength and speed, they age much more slowly than normal men, and they can recover from almost any wound. These powers are explained by them, like the Lord Ruler, being able to combine Allomancy and Feruchemy. Not only this, but they can pierce copper clouds and push and pull harder than any normal Allomancer. Piercing copper clouds is possible for them because they were all either seekers or full mistborn before having additional allomantic strength added via Hemalurgy. Why, however, are their iron/steel pulls/pushes stronger? It makes sense that those of them made from mistborn would have stronger pushes and pulls in all metals, but shouldn't the pushes and pulls of those made from seekers actually be weaker than that of a normal Allomancer, due to the destructive nature of Hemalurgy?

It's been a while since I read the books; I'm wondering if there was an explanation I forgot about. My theory is that their iron/steel pulls/pushes are stronger not because they have stronger Allomancy (unless they were made from Mistborn, they should have weaker Allomancy), but because they can use Feruchemy to make themselves much heavier while pushing, and the strength of a steel push/iron pull is partly determined by the relative weights of the objects being pushed. Was this ever confirmed? Is there another explanation? No spoilers for anything outside of the first Mistborn trilogy please. If there is an explanation in another book, say so, but not which book, I plan to read them all eventually. Thanks.

Can anyone explain the cover pics on all the UK Edition SA books? Just curious

Because I can't help to put faces to the characters as I'm reading, not on purpose just my brain automatically paints a picture in my head, and this just happens every time 😂, all I see is Michael Peña missing one arm telling a story about his cousins..I love Lopen 😊.

1. How do Raoden’s discoveries about the true nature of Elantris and AonDor impact his approach to leadership and his goals?

2. What are the key differences in the motivations and goals of Raoden, Sarene, and Hrathen, and how do these differences drive the plot forward?

3. How do Sarene's intelligence and political acumen help her navigate the complex social and political landscape of Arelon?

4. How does Hrathen’s past and inner conflict influence his actions and decisions as he tries to convert the people of Arelon?

5. What alliances and conflicts arise among Raoden, Sarene, and Hrathen, and how do these interactions shape the story up to this point?

Hope everyone has fun and we will see how first week goes.

Ideas for next week welcome.

Yeah, I expect to get downvoted for this.

I've been reading Stormlight Archive, and then I find out no, there's not just three more books to read to catch up, there's actually twenty, and I'm told I can't fully appreciate the series without reading them all, especially now that they're becoming more intertwined. Maybe I won't even be able to read future books without reading the rest of the Cosmere.

It's extremely daunting and feels like I'm too far behind to even really start. Also, "nerd homework"

EDIT: Clarification on the "nerd homework" thing. It's the expectation that if you want to talk lore you need to know every little thing or you can't engage in conversations and theorycrafting.

I had totally forgotten this happened due to later books event, but I was going through my notes once again and I stumbled across this line that I had highlighted. I also didn't find any post talking about it so...

Shallan screamed, struggling as the Lashing carried her away from him.

No. No. No!
Shallan … Shallan had been Lashed by Drehy.
Be. Drehy.
She sucked up the Stormlight Lashing her in place. Then, with nothing holding her up, she dropped
to the beads after Adolin.
- (WaT Chapter 8)

She removed a lashing. Correct me if I am wrong but the only person who can remove a lashing is the one who applied it in the first place. So, as with all Investiture in such cases I am guessing this is due to Identity like a signature thingy.

Shallan thinks to "be Drehy". But Lightweaving does not copy Spiritual Identity. For her to be successful, in removing the Lashing she would have needed to have Drehy's Identity which is a Spiritual property and not something that you fool by looks. None of her surges would have helped with that. Is it something due to Resonance of two bonds? like how she can access Fortune, she can also manipulate Identity?

It was also never brought up by Shallan again for the entire book. Like she did not even think about it... I mean I should not be surprised as she is extremely skilled at hiding from her own mind and is basically what she has been doing the entire series. I wonder that with her multiple personas of Veil and Radiant actually had their own Identity and their merging with one basically signifies that the Identity signature now is not separate anymore on a Spiritual level. Also can she manipulate only her own Identity or other's also? That would actually be too overpowered I think. She is overpowered anyways. Specially with making the things she imagines now real anyways. That is just Lightweaving combined with Soulcasting right?

So.... How much of Shallan's gifts are unique and do we know what's caused by the double bond and what's caused by being the spawn of a herald?

Taking a memory isn't a lightweaver thing, it's just her. Same with being able to duplicate things immediately without practice. Also we haven't seen any other lightweavers create copies of others, let alone armies or full scale theater productions.

So how much of this is unique to her powers vs that we just haven't seen others do it vs that she's a main character? Are there any other Cosmere characters that don't fit with their supposed order to that level?