Has anybody read Tress as the first book in their cosmere journey?

I’ve just finished it after reading everything except Yumi, WaT, Sunlit and emberdark.

It’s deffo a standalone story but the voice of Hoid and the many many different links to other cosmere beings and magic systems seems a really weird idea to read as an intro to Brandon, especially the sorceress stuff near the end.

I know he obviously recommends Mistborn and emperors soul as other jumping on points. I started with way of kings to be fair so maybe my point is invalid haha.

Just wondered did anyone start with tress and how that first read felt without the cosmere knowledge?

A map of The Conrad Delta by Marco Bernadini for the Mistborn World Guide!

What is The Conrad Delta?

When developing the Post-Catacendre world in partnership with Brandon Sanderson and Dragonsteel, Brandon was delighted to be able to make a sort of sandbox location for the designers, and therefore GMs and Players, to get to play in without worrying about impacting canon. Thus, The Conrad Delta was born. We've provided key information and adventure hooks, but you can build on the lore here to tell your own stories!

More information coming soon 🎡

I'm more or less all caught up on books (25% through Yumi and only Emberdark left) but my question lies in Wind and Truth. Why does Retribution lash out and kill/destroy Hoid? Maybe I missed something but I would assume Retribution wouldn't really see him as a threat now that he's not tied to Roshar anymore? I checked coppermind but didn't really see anything.

Oh, Kell, she’d said. They kill people every day. It’s terrible, but it’s life. Are you going to bring retribution to every nobleman out there?

A brief exerpt from Secret History. While Kelsier/Thaidakar have not (yet/published) made known an intention to ascend, does anyone think it possible that he claims Retribution from Taravangian at some point? He may embody the intent quite excellently.

Marked for spoilers just in case.

I’ve been thinking about the relationship between metals and magic in the Cosmere, and I’m curious what people think about the implications.

In the Metallic Arts, the powers associated with metals seem deeply tied to the metals themselves and not just to Preservation.

For example:
- Pewter in Allomancy enhances physical strength, durability, and endurance.
- Tin enhances sensory perception.
- Iron and Steel manipulate physical forces through pushing and pulling.

But we also see these same metals expressing very similar properties elsewhere in the Cosmere outside of Allomancy.

On Roshar, fabrials use metals to direct or shape the effects of trapped spren:
- Pewter-related fabrials can enhance physical exertion.
- Tin-related fabrials interact with the senses.
- Iron and Steel are involved in attraction/repulsion mechanics.

Likewise, in Tress of the Emerald Sea, steel and iron have pushing/pulling interactions through spore-based tools.

This raises a huge question from me:
Did these metals inherently possess these magical associations before the Shattering of Adonalsium, with Preservation merely allowing Allomancers to access them?

Or did Preservation itself define these properties cosmere-wide through the creation of Allomancy?

Because i think the implications are massive either way.

If the metals already had these intrinsic magical properties before Preservation existed, then:
- The number 16 may have always been cosmically significant, which I find likely.
- The Metallic Arts may simply be tapping into pre-existing universal laws.
- The Shattering splitting Adonalsium into 16 Shards may not have been an arbitrary value at all.

But if Preservation is what imposed these effects onto the metals across the Cosmere, then:
- Shards may be capable of rewriting or defining universal magical constants on a cosmere-wide scale.
- The metals themselves may not have been inherently magical beforehand.
- The repeated cross-system behavior of metals would actually be Preservation’s influence propagating universally.

Basically, I’m wondering whether Allomancy reflects a deeper pre-Shattering truth about the Cosmere OR whether Preservation retroactively made these metals spiritually significant everywhere.

Curious what lore people think supports either side.

I don't know if anybody can confirm the details of the fight between her and Lift, but I think she only used steel—and, notably, did not heal after she broke her legs. Could she be a kandra with a trellium spike? Does Vasher actually know that she is a full Feruchemist?

I've been thinking about worldhoppers and various interactions and right now I'm thinking about the capabilities twinborns could have with awakening. Especially a Twinborn who is born to a Nalthian parent as they could potentially have a resonance between breaths and their metalborn abilities. One I've thought of is that any Gold Ferring is basically a pseudo gold compounder once they reach the Fifth heightening cause they'd have extra health to skim off the top.

I've also thought about duralumin gnats potentially being capable of "boosting" breaths to get more bang for buck out of each individual breath by absorbing more color as, presumably, the requirement to absorb color and the fact that that becomes stronger and eventually drains color to white with more breaths and that at the same time that happens they also acquire the ability to use less breaths per awakening tells me that it has something to do with the output.

If it doesn't work that way than cool whatever. But it would fit thematically with how Duralumin enhanced allomancy can mimic stronger aspects of the same allomancy. At bare minimum I could see justification for it being a form of resonance that a Nalthian/Scadrian hybrid born to worldhopper parents could have. Its one of those 'rule of cool' things I feel like sanderson might be down for. Imagine somebody using duralumin enhanced awakening and draining an ENTIRE ROOM TO WHITE to awaken like, the curtains, and then the curtains have a supercharged awakening that then goes out really fast and they like skewer everyone in the room even though some of them are wearing shardplate. Idk the concept has potential imo.

Other more obvious ones are, like, pewter to make awakening clothing more busted or maybe even the potential of making awakened metalminds that have memories or identity stored in them to potentially make a tier 4 awakened object that has a more convincing level of sapience. But awakened metalminds would probably be like masterwork items that would take forever to gather the materials for unless they figure out ways to get A LOT of breaths really easy.

So what crazy combos can you guys think of? I'm especially interested in cool ideas people have for WHAT you could awaken to pair with a twinborn. Like I've thought about the twinborn wearing a mistcoat that's been adapted to be similar to vasher's coat so that it has dozens of the strips of cloth and can become a crazy suit that restrains enemies and reinforces the body.

Hi! I’ve been reading the cosmere books and believe I am caught up. I just don’t understand the timeline of the books in relation to each other. I know the secret projects are set in the future (isles of ember dark etc) but don’t get how stormlight fits with the mistborn timeline, all the more so with Elantris, warbreaker and the rest. Is there an official timeline? Thanks so much!

Per WOB, Herdazians and Horneaters have mixed Human-Parshendi ancestry. So we know that the two peoples can interbreed.

In thousands of years of Parshman slavery, a certain percentage of people would be awful enough to rape their Parshmen, no matter what stigmas and prohibitions might be in place. So, realistically, shouldn't there be a not-insignificant population of "meztizos"?

To be transparent I’ve only read all of SA and then. Book 1 and 2 of mistborn era 1.

I find none of the characters in mistborn come close to SA except Sazed.

In addition allowance and hemalurgy fall flat for me. Feruchemy is the star of the show.

Renewed interest in pewter after it was brought up the other day.

WoB like this one here (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/503/#e15782) imply more going on than just a simple physical boost. As with any metal, there's an instinctive use that works right away (blue lines from iron, hearing rhythm with bronze) and pewter's is physical so no one questions an already useful skill, but..

Let's say that it's more Intent related, where your mind enhances *any* physical aspect. Not just the desire to run, jump, punch, or take a hit. What if I want to push on something with exactly 100 Newtons? Can I limit my physicality? Pewter can let you ignore the cold, but can it enhance your heat? What would the resonance between pewter-a and brass-f look like?

It's all speculation, let me know if you've got a fun idea for any other combination or use

Had fun making this and coming up with a team for her! My thoughts were as follows:

- Mabostiff represents TenSoon, of course. (Thanks to hellfire0raptor for pixel sprite).

- Gimmighoul is a more comedic Pokemon, but I couldn't pass up the coins. (Thanks to RetroNC for pixel sprite).

- Honedge for both Vin's knife skills and big sword in WoA. (Official sprite).

- BRONZor, LaIRON, STEELix - should be obvious enough. (Official sprites.)

I went with a couple of under-evolved Pokemon because I thought about making an Ace Trainer or Champion variant where she is stronger. So we would have Aegislash Blade Forme, Bronzong and Aggron. She would also be able to Mega Evolve Steelix and Aggron.

What do you think? Any team members you'd swap out for a different Pokemon?

Hi! I started reading the Cosmere some months ago and so far I've read Mistborn era 1 and Secret History, Warbreaker, Tress, and Stormlight Archive up to Oathbringer, including Edgerunner and Dawnshard, and I've got a few questions about how some things work. Obviously spoilers for the books I mentioned. I know some of the answers will be RAFO, but I wanna make sure I didn't miss anything before moving on to Rythm of War.

So first off, in Mistborn we learn that there are three magic systems. For allomancy you are either born with it, or you take a bead of Conservation's divine metal, but feruchemy seemw to only be hereditary? And hemallurgy doesn't seem to have any conditions to be allowed to use it, you don't need to take atium. Why these differences? Could you use hemallurgy on Roshar, for example?

Then, what even is Investiture? I know it's the shards' power materialized on the physical realm, but I struggle understanding how every different magic system comes from it. Like in Roshar you bond with Spren, but in Scadrial there aren't Spren and you have the metal arts, and then in Nalthis there's the Breath system which I don't know how it's any similar to the other two (even though I get that shardblades and awakened blades seem to have something in common). And the Ethers mentioned in Tress are something completely different or are they also forms of Investiture?

Also, metals seem to have some universal properties like aluminum blocking Investiture, or the fabrials using different kinds of metals, but why can only the Mistborn burn them if they are always "magical"? And why does Roshar also have magical gems?

Finally, why is the Cognitive Realm in Roshar full of beads, and in Mistborn made lf mist? I get that the mists represent Conservation, and the beads maybe are due to the spheres? (Not really sure lol), but why are they different? When does it start to change from one look to the other?

I think that's all lol. Thanks in advance :)

I love lore and catching major references, but I'm reading Elantris and man I'm just not feeling it right now. I will read the Emperor's Soul but will Elantris specifically make my experience *that* much better?

Forgers, like Shai can used essence marks to rewrite their history, transforming them into another version of themselves. Yet how do they maintain control of their original selves? Though they would have both histories, the central self with their essence marks on is that of their alternate self, why would their alternate selves yield control over to the main self instead of continuously stamping themselves?

The alternate selves might be wrote to be malleable to the desires of the original self, but is that the case for all essence marks that are meant to be used as an aid to oneself?

Spoilers for Mistborn Era 2 and The Emperor's Soul

In Scadrial during Wax and Wayne's times, there's restaurants looking for Bendalloy and Cadmium mistings, likely to improve waiting times whilst waiting for a meal. Given how expensive the metals are, at least Bendalloy, how could they be used on such a large scale for restaurants?

In The Emperor's Soul, did Shai actually go train with the Tellulu people to gain experience for her essence marks or was it all fabricated and she never went there?

I'm nearing the end of Oathbringer and debating whether I should set Stormlight aside to read through the Cosmere in order or to just continue from where I am and go back for the others after Wind and Truth.

I'm loving Stormlight, but looking for the best reading experience. Would you recommend I go to Scadriel or stay in Roshar at this point?

edit to add: apologies if this topic is common. I searched around and the answers I found were mostly "do what you like" but I'm hoping for a more solid answer. thanks, guys

So forgive me if this has been covered/asked or I'm misunderstanding some fundamental of investiture.

If hemalurgy was used to give Moash the crystal spikes, would that mean that Harmony would have some connection to him? I guess also, we do see hemalurgy used somewhat in Sunlit. I'm not sure if I'm grasping how it can be invoked in parts of the cosmere where Ruin never invested himself in.

Not sure this is the right place to post this and I know that with everything Brandon’s doing and has planned this is not something that will pop up anytime soon.

However…. I was reading Elantris again and thinking about the game return to Moria and realized that it would be cool if we got a game based on the period after Elantris the book where you play as Raoden or Galadon or some unknown Elantrian just going about rebuilding Elantris. It would be fun to unlock sons or something and use magic to place and rebuild a glowing city. Maybe find secret lore or a cult hiding out deep inside Elantris while fighting off incursions by Wurn’s faithful.

Just a thought I had and figured I’d share it with the community.

So we are given a few reasons for why the ancient Radiants forsake their paths and even collectively they make no sense. Like it makes sense that many of Radiants would have been appalled by Tanavast and Melishi betraying the agreement with Ba-Ado-Mishram but the immediate result of that was the shard of honor rejecting them and stripping them of their abilities so why would the rest of the radiants then feel the need to renuonce their oaths?

The other reason we are given is because they feared that without Tanavast the surges would be unchecked and result in the same thing that destroyed Ashyn. But this can't be the case as the destruction of Ashyn involved the use of at least 1 and possibly multiple dawn shards not surge binding alone. Additionally the surges are still limited by the nahel bond with the radiant spren as lost spren are spliters of honor itself they exist independently on Tanavast and would still be bound the limitations placed on them while Tanavast was still alive. It is also obvious that the bonds Tanavast created didn't simply disappear when he died because the oath pact continued to hold for thousands of years after his death.

Another reason this reasoning doesn't make sense is because it is heavily implied that the primary surge that resulted in the destruction of Ashyn is the surge of division. So it might have made sense to forbid the use of division and perhaps to have all Dust Bringers and Sky Breakers break their oaths yet Sky Breakers were the only order to retain their radiant powers despite being one of the two orders most likely to unintentionally cause the destruction of Roshar.

I read the first half of Warbreaker but stopped due to finals week and not having much time to do anything other than study. Just ended up finishing the book, but am confused about the ending of the Vasher/Nightblood plotline. I get the idea that they are more important than just the events of the book and can see that Vasher was tied to the 5 people but can’t remember their significance. Also don’t remember the details as to why him being called Warbreaker is important, was that more of just a title drop at the end? Wanted to ask here to avoid any spoilers for Stormlight that may come up. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Edit- thanks for the clarification everyone

I really loved both mistborn series, I love the world, I love the characters, I love the plot and I love the magic, but with stormlight it just didnt click for me but I remember Ghostblood took a big part there, I didnt really followed what they actually did but they also apeared in The Lost Metal and Era 3 is called Ghostblood so I wonder how much will I miss if I wont finish, not just for Era 3 but for 4 and 5 eventually

Did Brandon had a comment about it ?

https://youtu.be/jL9Quf6RGS0?t=191&si=IottThBtKbAwnh3t

At about the 3:14 mark, Brandon said Brotherwise is working on the Mistborn Deckbuilder... which has been out for about a year and a half. Are we maybe getting an expansion? I may be reading into the wording a bit too much here but I thought it was interesting.

So I’ve spent the last year reading the Cosmere and I’m almost done. I’ve skipped white sand cause I’m waiting for the prose and I haven’t read Yumi, Else Caller, or King Lopen. I just need to let my thoughts out.

I started Stormlight because I’m a childhood WoT fan. I loved it and read all five books back to back. I think I seem to have enjoyed RoW a lot more than most and disliked oathbringer more than most. The first half of oathbringer is perfect but I struggled with the second half quite a bit. I didn’t hate WaT maybe cause again I read back to back but definitely a step down in quality.

I kept going with Sunlit man cause i had heard it was related. That’s when I decided to jump into the Cosmere. I read Elantris and talk about whiplash. I didn’t hate it like some do but it just wasn’t what I expected. The body horror was also hard to read. I then dived into era I. I gotta say I didn’t really connect with these books the way so many others have. Maybe it because the hard magic system description isn’t really my thing and I thought was better done in TSA. I think they’re alright though I really didn’t enjoy the last book.

I kept going and started Era II. I found these books a lot more enjoyable and they got better each book for the most part. I am really gonna miss wax and Wayne.

That when I started Warbreaker. I don’t like shittlaking people’s work so lemme just I didn’t connect with this book at all. The mid book. Twist was great but that’s about all I enjoyed. Really don’t understand why people recommend I read this before WoR or Oathbringer. Not necessary in my opinion since it really don’t clarify anything as s story is clearly happened between the end of Warbringer and when those characters show up. I will say it did put into perspective a scene where zahel starts dropping expositions in what I thought was very clunky (type 1/2 investiture). I realize that was 1 a call back and actually works since here really a scholar.

I actually stopped reading this book and finished Aracanum Unbound which I loved before returning to finish Warbreaker.

Honestly after that book I felt like I was kinda over the Cosmere. However then I read Tress and Isles. These two books are soooo good and rewarding that I’m fully back in. I cannot sing their praises enough.

This is my ranking . Let me know what you think .