Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga created something never before achieved in cinema: a cinematic universe in which multiple franchises build on one another to create a larger story.
Well, what Marvel Studios did for cinema, one man is doing for epic fantasy.
That man is Brandon Sanderson.
Enter, the Cosmere.
The Cosmere is a universe of epic fantasy worlds, with each world having novels, short stories, and/or graphic novels based there, and with characters that travel between these worlds. Similarly to Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga, each of the separate franchises can be enjoyed and understood on their own, but reading these books within the larger context of the whole adds a lot to them. Each planet in the Cosmere has its own unique magic system (Sanderson is a master at creating hard magic systems, systems with clearly defined rules and limits). Here are a few of these worlds we have visited so far:
Scadrial is the planet where the Mistborn series is located. The primary magic system on Scadrial is called Allomancy, and involves ingesting different kinds of metals and “burning” them to gain specific abilities. Only certain individuals can use this magic, however. Someone who can burn one metal is called a Misting. Someone who can burn all of the Allomantic metals is called a Mistborn.
The Mistborn series is divided into eras. Era One takes place in a world that had a bit of an eighteenth century feel, but with a technology level closer to the Middle Ages. Era Two takes place a couple of centuries later, and has a Wild West feel. (Currently, the Mistborn series is in Era Two, with three of the four planned novels of this Era released so far.) Era Three is going to be set in the dawn of the computer age on Scadrial with a 1980s feel, and Era Four will be a space opera with spaceships powered by Allomancy.
Sel:
Sel is the setting for Elantris, Sanderson’s first published novel, as well as the short story The Hope of Elantris and the novella The Emperor’s Soul. The primary magic system on Sel is AonDor, a runic magic system that involves tracing symbols in the air or drawing, engraving, or building the symbols to make them more permanent. Like with Allomancy on Scadrial, not everyone can use this magic. It is tied to the city and people of Elantris.
Nalthis is the planet where Warbreaker takes place. On Nalthis, the basis of magic is BioChromatic Breath. Unlike the magic on Scadrial and Sel, this magic can potentially be used by anyone, provided they manage to obtain the Breath. See, each person on Nalthis is born with one Breath. But Breath can be given away. And it takes a lot of breath to do magic with it.
Roshar is the location of the Stormlight Archive series. The primary magic system here is based around using Stormlight, an kind of energy that can be gathered from the highstorms that regularly ravage the planet and stored in crystals. Presumably, anyone has the potential of using stormlight, but a certain thing has to happen first that I won’t reveal, because spoilers.
A particularly interesting thing about Roshar is, because it has regular devastating storms, it has very unique flora and fauna. Most of the animals on Roshar are land crustaceans, since having a shell is a distinct advantage for weathering the storms. The plants are modeled after the plants of a coral reef that can pull their soft bits back inside themselves as protection.
Taldain, Threnody, First of the Sun:
None of these planets have novels set on them (yet) but Taldain is the setting for the White Sands graphic novel series, Threnody is the setting for the Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell novella, and First of the Sun is the setting for the Sixth of the Dusk novella.
Ashyn, Braize, Obrodai, Vax, Yolen:
None of these planets are the locations of any published works (yet), but they have either been mentioned in published works or Sanderson has talked about them as the settings for unpublished or future works.
Now, I get that this is a lot to process. Jumping into the Cosmere is a very daunting undertaking. But, like I said, you don’t need to read it all to enjoy any given part. The nice part is, you can start reading anywhere that catches your fancy (provided you start at the beginning of any given series), so you can go in for what interests you the most.
You can click on the name of each planet for a review of the work(s) located there, or you can click here to worldhop through The Cosmere with me, starting at the planet Scadrial.
