#arcanum unbounded

[lifblogs]

How to Start a Chapter 101

#arcanum unbounded #mistborn: secret history #mistborn #cosmere #brandon sanderson #books #reading

[offonaherosjourney]

#cosmere #brandon sanderson #mistborn #the stormlight archive #elantris #warbreaker #tress of the emerald sea #yumi and the nightmare painter #the sunlit man #white sand #arcanum unbounded #polls #dragonsteel #nym's posts

[cosmerelists]

The Rules of the Cosmere

And by “rules,” I mean tropes that crop up repeatedly in Sanderson’s books, that one could consider “rules” in a nonserious, please-don’t-take-this-too-seriously type way. 

Spoilers for pretty much all of the Cosmere!

1. Don’t feed the children

As seen in: Elantris, Oathbringer, Warbreaker

If you see a hungry, homeless child in a Sanderson book and you’re tempted to, say, give them food--don’t! Raoden tried that. And the poor child was horribly mangled by the men who wanted that food. Shallan tried it. And it turned out the child was being coerced into accepting the food by gang leaders--who ended up killing the child. Vivenna didn’t exactly feed them willingly, but the urchins did, like, beat her and steal her food while she was living on the street. So that wasn’t great.

Exception that proves the rule: Stump. She fed lots of orphaned children, and she was only almost killed. So the message is: if you want to feed the children, have a Lift around to protect you.

2. Once Marriage is On The Table, Breakups Don’t Really Happen

As seen in: Mistborn Era 1, Mistborn Era 2, Stormlight Achives, Elantris, Warbreaker

Once characters get to the point of marriage, be they engaged or in an arranged marriage or just solidly A Thing, it is rare for them to break up. Sometimes a breakup is floated--like when Adolin told Shallan she could go ahead and leave him for Kaladin or when there was Wax/Steris tension or when Zane tried to break up Vin and Elend--but in the end, the original relationship tends to hold strong. Siri and Susebron were married before they had even met, but they ended up happy together. Even “death” couldn’t stop Sarene and Raoden’s engagement--Sarene did try to marry someone else, to be fair, but that second marriage did not actually happen and the original marriage reigned supreme.

Exception that proves the rule: Elend’s first engagement did not work out. Vin killed the fiancée. So it is slightly riskier to be engaged if you’re not a viewpoint character, if you’re secretly evil...or if you’re in Vin’s way.

Although...did Elend and Shan actually break up, or was their engagement only canceled by Shan’s death? I guess either way, it didn’t work out!

3. Your enemy will save you...if the sexual tension is high enough

As seen in: Elantris, Rhythm of War

Perhaps appearing in two books isn’t quite enough to call this a rule...but if I had a nickel, etc. Hrathen was Sarene’s enemy...but in the end, he kinda fell for her and ended up killing himself to save her. And in a strangely similar manner, Raboniel used her dying moments to save Navani...after Navani was the one to kill her. Then there’s Lewshi and Kaladin--neither sacrificed themselves to save the other, thank goodness, but Lewshi does help save Kaladin and/or his men on several occasions and their romantic tension is off the charts.

Exception that proves the rule: Even sexual tension doesn’t seem to be enough for Moash to not try to drive Kaladin to suicide. 

4. Your fave is (accidentally) queer

As seen in: Stormlight Archive, Mistborn

Sanderson has a tendency to write characters that he innocently believes to be straight...until readers point out how incredibly not-straight they are. Take Shallan, who is as bi as the day is long--which Sanderson admitted, I believe, once it was pointed out to him. Veil is canonically into women, at any rate. And Sanderson has said that both Shallan & Adolin would be open to adding Kaladin as a third, so Adolin is presumably bi as well, to no one’s surprise. Many readers--me included--read Kaladin as some flavor of ace, although again, that seems to be unintentional, canonically speaking. There’s also Lewshi, a woman inhabiting a male body, whose transness is not really talked about as such but is very present. And in Mistborn, there’s Wayne and his gender-fluid SO MeLaan, a queer relationship that I don’t think is ever really identified as such. 

And yes, there are also canonical queer characters in actual queer relationships, but so many more seem to be accidentally queer.

Exception that proves the rule: Sanderson insists that Moash is canonically straight...somehow.

5. Don’t trust the underling priest!

As seen in: Way of Kings, Warbreaker, Elantris

If there are suspicious things going on, look no further than your nearest, seemingly loyal underling priest. In Way of Kings it was Kabsal, who turned out to be an assassin. In Warbreaker, the seemingly helpful and awkward Bluefingers tried to sacrifice Siri on an altar. And in Elantris, while Hrathen never exactly trusted Dilaf, he did believe that he had him handled...which turned out to be a mistake, and Dilaf ended up being one of the big bads. The big bad? It’s been a while since I read Elantris.

Exception that prove the rule: Kadash seems like a good dude. I will be genuinely shocked if he tries to, like, murder Dalinar or something.

6. Hoid is there

As seen in: All of them.

Hoid has a supernatural ability to be present at all important moments in the Cosmere, so he can expect to find him in whatever book you’re reading. If there actually are Cosmere Rules, this would have to be one of them.

Exception that proves the rule: I don’t think he’s in all of the Arcanum Unbounded stories--like Shadow for Silence or Sixth of Dusk. So maybe if your story is short enough, you can escape Hoid?

It could be the only way.

#cosmerelists #cosmere #stormlight archive #warbreaker #elantris #arcanum unbounded

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

Okokok, I just finished Elantris and I loved it so much. The story was so interesting and the characters were so loveable. I just think I'd like to see a little bit more of Galladon, but the story was so good and I really enjoyed it. I've already mentioned this but Raoden is now one of my favourite Cosmere characters, he was just so cute and pure and lovely. Sarene was also a great character, and at the end I even started liking Hrathen. Overall I think it was great, I'm really excited to read The hope of Elantris and The Emperor's soul and I hope I'll love them as much as I loved Elantris.

#elantris #cosmere #brandon sanderson #raoden #sarene #hrathen #arcanum unbounded

[portuguesedisaster]

Oh no

#so...mistborn era 1 got a new whole meaning #Kelsier refusing to die is very in character lol #carol reads #cosmere #brandon sanderson #mistborn #a secret history #arcanum unbounded

[thestormlightnetwork]

Arcanum Unbounded watching the rest of my books getting read: it's been eighty four years

#cosmere #brandon sanderson #arcanum unbounded

[deoxys314]

Cosmere Connections in Secret Project 1 (spoilers)

I had the day off yesterday, so I did in fact read SP1 on the first day. I thought I'd put together a post about the connections to other planets and magical mechanics that I noticed, interspersed with some of my theories.

Spoilers for every published Cosmere work.

Let's start with the things on Lumar:

There are 12 different varieties of aethers, which are apparently not the "true" form of them. Instead, they are described as spores.

We know of: Blue/zephyr, crimson/spikes, verdant/vines, black/midnight essence, pink/roseite, yellow/light(/heat)

Each type of aether pours from a moon, which is very close to the planet and apparently they are arranged roughly in the center of a pentagon, so that the planet, while spherical so far as we know, is decorated like a dodecahedron.

These are created in HUGE numbers, enough to form the planet's ocean and sail upon. When not being liquefied, they can even be walked on, if you're bold.

They "activate" when exposed to water, creating a burst of their essence.

I'd hazard a guess that these are somehow related to the 10 essences known on Roshar. The spikes and midnight seem like the odd ones out, and that leaves 10, of which zephyr, heat/fire, vine and stone match up.

When dealing with Midnight Essence, Hoid describes the Luhel Bond. It consumes something physical, water from the human(/spaient being) side, in contrast to the Nahel bond, which is Spiritual.

These bonds apparently have a naming scheme, [syllable]-hel. I had thought that Nahel was someone's name, maybe someone who researched it, but perhaps these names come from somewhere else. Or, maybe several types of bond are catalogued and a consistent naming scheme was come up with by those scholars.

Hoid is there. In fact, he's telling us this story. He sort of cross-cuts so I'll talk about him in other planets. Here, I'll note that despite being cursed, he appears to know a good deal about the aethers. Experience from another planet, or something he picked up bumming locally?

Now references to other planets, in no particular order.

Scadrial:

The roseite essence, at least, responds to iron and steel: they pull and push it. gasp consistency! I would be fascinated to know a: what the other metals to to roseite and b: what reactions the other essences have.

There's a kandra around, just vibing. He's learned how to graft parts of humans onto himself. Presumably any kandra who wanted to learn a high degree of bodily control could do so.

The kandra have apparently been released to . . . wander the cosmere? We hear Sazed released them, so I wonder if Harmony, in line with previous actions realized he couldn't force them to serve him and let them all through the perpendicularity if they wanted, or perhaps Discord just doesn't care about them right now.

Roshar

Hoid is here but we don't see Design so far as I can tell. This could be because Hoid is not on screen terribly much, or the bond could be broken, or maybe, as a lightweaver, Hoid just disguised it.

Big one: the black spores produce Midnight Essence. This is the same name, and apparently the same substance as what is produced by Re-Shephir, the Midnight Mother.

The MM creates ME, as does the spores produced by the black moon. How these two places/entities are related is not known.

The ME on Roshar do not seem to require water. One wonders what sort of bond they have and what they feed on (emotions, so maybe some more Spiritual or Cognitive stuff?)

Threnody

As on Threnody, silver blunts or disables the magic system here, in the form of killing the spores. notably, this works in a ranged manner, and does not tarnish or use up the silver in any way that we see.

Aluminum also blocks the effects of silver.

First of the Sun

Hoid mentions in passing the tale of Linji, who tried to sail around the world with no Aviar. (ch 24)

There are also a few other things which make me think he is telling this story to a First-of-the-Sunnian. (Is there a better demonym for that?) References to ships coming from "your sky" and so on.

Taldain

At some point, someone references a 13th type of spore. Apparently, no one can agree if it's white or black. I read this as being White Sand from the Dayside of Taldain. (ch 23)

Nalthis

The iron soldiers of the Sorceress are Awakened, with some reasonably complex commands. This is already in line with what we've seen from Warbreaker.

The tablets that Fort uses are apparently at least part Awakened, and use Connection and Intent to be supremely useful devices. They are described by Hoid in technological terms ("tablet", "hacked", etc) and I suspect that they bear some relation to our conception of a tablet or high-tech artifact. So far as we know, physics in the cosmere is the same as the real world plus the magic, so there's no theoretical reason anyone couldn't make a semiconductor-based computing device with "mundane" principles. (Though as I said up top, this device is described as at least partly powered by Awakening.) It even recharges with solar power.

Sel

The Sorceress is Riina. We last saw her as one of the members of the IRE trying to fake connection to and take up the shard of Preservation. (Kelsier scared them off the Scadrain sub-astral, good fun.)

She is an Elantrian, and apparently has no issues accessing that power very far from Sel. There was a clunky device doing that in the Cognitive realm when we saw her in Secret History. We don't see any realm but the Physical in this book, so unknown if that is still the method or something more elegant has been devised.

Hey speaking of SH, she's really old! Elantrians don't age much, if at all.

Hoid went to see her to get enough Connection to join/hack into/trick into being an Elantrian himself. Hoid is obviously not from Sel, so there must be some process that is known for inviting someone or making someone into one of them.

She is adept at curses, which can have apparently wide-ranging effects (e.g., transfiguring someone into a rat.) These also take the form of a geas, a compulsion placed upon the subject. In general, they can't talk about the curse or how to reverse it. (It's unknown if that is a general feature of the curses or if Riina must "set" it each time she casts one.)

These curses are probably Selish? They seem to be strongly related to language. Hoid cannot just break the curse, but he can sort of twiddle the requirements to make it easier for the subject to break. Also, the new requirements sort of rhyme with the old.

Anyway, I'll read this book again sometime. Probably later this year as I do my Cosmere re-read. I think this is the farthest along we've ever gotten temporally, so it will probably be last.

What did I miss? Did I get anything wrong? I'd love to discuss.

#spoilers #cosmere spoilers #cosmere #brandon sanderson #secret project spoilers #secret project 1 #secret project one #stormlight archive spoilers #stormlight archive #mist #mistborn spoilers #elantris #elantris spoilers #arcanum unbounded #arcanum unbounded spoilers #warbreaker #warbreaker spoilers

[slowkingbreaker]

I just need to finish Elantris, some short stories from the Arcanum and White Sand and I'll be done with the Cosmere till Stormlight 5. Or that's what I would say if I hadn't devised a really specific reading order for my reread (which I'll start around late April or early May), which will be accompanied by a notebook. Yes, I'll be taking notes and making annotations as if this reread were academic research.

I still don't know if I'll be reading the books in English (as it's their original language) or Spanish (my mother tongue). I accept suggestions about this and anyone who wants to join me would be more than welcome (as we can cross-reference our research and cover more things).

#cosmere #elantris #mistborn #stormlight archive #arcanum unbounded #white sand #secret projects

[onlycosmere]

LewsTherinTelescope: You have mentioned before that people should read one of the non-Mistborn stories in Arcanum Unbounded prior to The Lost Metal. Can you tell us which?

Brandon Sanderson: If I tell you, it will spoil a character who doesn't reveal themselves immediately in the Lost Metal. So I've been careful not to say.

#mistborn #the lost metal #cosmere #arcanum unbounded #cfsbf #root #cosmere future #brandon sanderson #wob

[allomancer-jack]

What would your name be on threnody? Mine would be Patience, I think.

#waiting for SP2 to arrive is testing me #cosmere #shadows of silence #in the forests of hell #brandon sanderson #arcanum unbounded

[cosmere-cosmeme]

Hoid, Marsh, Kelsier and Harmony playing with a Ouija board: Are there any dead people among us?

Ouija Board: Yes.

Hoid: Knock it off, bitch.

Kelsier: Okay but-

#is this the most bonkers hypothetical? yes. but hear me out- #cosmere #cosmeme #brandon sanderson #cosmere shitpost #mistborn shitpost #incorrect cosmere quoes #incorrect mistborn quotes #mistborn #the final empire spoilers #secret history spoilers #the final empire #well of acenscion #hero of ages #secret history #arcanum unbounded #incorrect arcanum unbounded quotes #kelsier #survivor of hathsin #sazed #harmony #hero of ages spoilers #hoid #wit #cephandrius maxtori #cremposting #cfsbf

[lifblogs]

Megamind energy, tbh.

#arcanum unbounded #mistborn: secret history #mistborn #cosmere #brandon sanderson #books #reading #megamind

[probablycatastrophic]

I have read Arcanum Unbounded. I am unchained

#I have not read Warbreaker or White Sand #I am mostly unchained #cosmere #arcanum unbounded #brandon sanderson

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

SECRET PROYECT 5 US GOING TO BE A SIXTH OF THE DUSK SEQUEL!!!! I'm so happy, I loved that short story so much. It's going to be awesome.

#ssp5 #secret project 5 #sixth of the dusk #arcanum unbounded #cosmere #brandon sanderson #isles of the emberdark

[portuguesedisaster]

So...wtf do all these people have against Shai?

#the emperor's soul #arcanum unbounded #brandon sanderson #cosmere #like...i understand that they can't let someone who can forge something to become something else to just go #but is there where you draw the line? not on the creepy dementor thing who uses blood to do runes? really #carol reads

[henrywong327-2]

So I made a bunch of Cosmere memes a few months ago for the r/cremposting competition, and I didn't think to post them here until now so here's a Cosmere meme dump.

(part 1: Sixth of the Dusk)

#cosmere #brandon sanderson #sixth of the dusk #arcanum unbounded #cremposting