#cosmere future

[onlycosmere]

The Kickstarter goes live tomorrow!

When Brandon Sanderson began working with Brotherwise Games on the first adventure for The Stormlight Roleplaying Game, he considered how it could help him fix holes in the narrative of his bestselling fantasy series. He settled on a mystery from the first Stormlight Archive book, The Way of Kings, that will have big implications for the fifth book in the series, Wind and Truth, which will be released in December.

The Stormlight Archive is set on the planet Roshar, where 10 heroes known as Heralds spent millenia protecting humanity with the help of highly magical swords dubbed Honorblades. All of them abandoned their duties except Taln, the Herald of the Common Man. Despite Taln’s best efforts, the forces of the vengeful god Odium have returned. Taln was left maddened by his ordeal and soon after he first appears in the books, his Honorblade goes missing. Its whereabouts remain unknown.

“The adventure is answering that question,” Sanderson told Polygon. “What happened? Where did it go? What’s going on? And you get to be part of the story. We were looking for an adventure you could do that would intersect with the canon of the books in an interesting way, and allow you to fill in a hole yourself.”

The Kickstarter for the d20-based game goes live on Aug. 6 along with a beta preview of the rules and a first level adventure meant to walk players and game masters through the setting and core mechanics. The hardcover Stonewalkers Adventure, where players encounter Taln and learn what happened to his honorblade, will be released in 2025 along with the Stormlight Roleplaying Game Handbook and World Guide.

...

Players will hunt for Taln’s honorblade across Roshar, from the Shattered Plains where much of The Way of Kings is set, to the magical forest of the goddess Cultivation, where bold souls can receive both a boon and a curse. There are a mix of dungeon crawls, puzzles, chase scenes and prison breaks. As they choose how to approach the problems they face, player characters will be able to attract the attention of spren, spirit-like beings who can bond with like-minded people to bestow them with incredible abilities. Completing the mission can allow them to join the newly re-founded ancient order known as the Knights Radiant.

...

The PCs can meet major antagonists from the books, including the twisted Herald of Justice Nale and the traitorous General Meridas Amaram, and learn how the talking sword Nightblood first featured in Sanderson’s 2009 book Warbreaker wound up on Roshar. As they move through key moments from the series, like the emergence of a raging storm that brings Odium’s most powerful lieutenants back to the world, Sanderson welcomes players to reshape his narrative.

...

“There’s a lot of cultural details being filled in, but at the same time, we dig a little bit further into what each order of Radiants’ oaths, spren, and motivations are,” Sanderson said. “There’s some new stuff there that I think fans will really enjoy.”

[zibus]

My SA5 theory after reading Secret Project 4

So I don't think everything we learn that happened to Sigzil before The Sunlit Man can realistically happen in just KowT. Like, I know its going to be a big book, but there are so many pov characters in Stormlight and so much that has to happen, I can't see Brandon taking a tertiary character and giving him enough page time to turn the Sigzil of Stormlight into Nomad. So what will happen in SA5?

Sigzil's current Honorspren gets anti-lighted. This will allow Sigzil to eventually switch Radiant orders without breaking his oath. I don't think a Highspren would bond someone who has already broken a set of oaths. (I don't think he'll bond two spren at the same time. Yes, I know Shallan is double bonded, but Shallan has always broken rules and her spren are both Cryptics. I don't think an Honor and a Highspren would agree to let their knight bond someone else.)

This prompts Sigzil to reconnect with Hoid, or perhaps Hoid approaches Sigzil at his lowest point.

Sigzil will receive the Dawnshard, I'm guessing from Rysn? It would be insane if a 2nd Dawnshard gets involved in the series already, but not impossible. However it goes, Hoid convinces Sigzil to take up the Dawnshard for the greater good.

We will meet Auxiliary and he and Sigzil will bond. Perhaps he's a Highspren who doesn't like Nale? Perhaps Szeth is able to introduce Sigzil to a Highspren? Whatever the case, I think that will get set up. Whether its before or after Sigzil takes the Dawnshard is hard to know. The Sleepless were pretty adamant about Rysn not bonding a spren, so however it happens will be a bit odd, I feel.

I think everything else we learn will probably happen in SA6-10. I don't think there's anyway for Sigzil to realistically reach his 4th oath by the end of SA5, which we know he does cause he has access to living plate. That would be way too fast.

My guess is that all of Sigzil's greatest trauma's come at one moment - the vague illusion to him leading a group and them getting wiped out then causing him to consume Auxiliary in a moment of panic. The defeat of his men could happen at the same time as losing his og spren, but Auxiliary seems to remember that event as well, so I think it happens after they've bonded. So sometime in Stormlight backhalf, Sigzil is commanding a group that includes some members of Bridge 4, gets in massive trouble and nearly kills Aux using the power of the Dawnshard. Soon after this he surrenders the Dawnshard and becomes Nomad.

[zibus]

Yes, but I have always believed this was just cause of Radiants before they were bound by Honor's oaths. I dont think they need something seperate.

I've been seeing a lot of fun predictions for stormlight 5 but I haven't seen a lot of people mentioning the smoking gun that's just been waiting around since book 1:

(1) every major Rosharan city lies within an oddly symmetrical crater (2) there used to be a city where the shattered plains are (3) the cracks in the shattered plains look an awful lot like frequency patterns (like from a tuning fork) (4) frequency and rhythm are really big things on Roshar

I think it's not unlikely that there's a superweapon on Roshar that was capable of just... breaking cities. Possibly one known by the Dawnsingers, possibly one introduced with human arrivals from Ashyn, but definitely something big. And, notably, there is a very important city to the protagonists right now, and we're coming up to the middle point of the overarching plot. It would not be surprising if someone very old (read: a Fused, or possibly the Bondsmith Herald) remembered that there was a superweapon around and decided to use it on Urithiru.

[onlycosmere]

and the Wind and Truth prologue continues this descent

One thing I absolutely love about the way Sanderson wrote Gavilar is how the reader's perception of him slowly changes as the books go along.

In The Way of Kings we are under the impression Gavilar was not only a great king, but a great person as well. The highprinces respected him where they don't respect Elhokar. Dalinar talks about him as a perfect brother, Elhokar talks about him as a perfect father and even Jasnah misses him. Only Navani seems to be a little glad he's gone, but we can easily disregard that knowing she's in love with Dalinar.

This perception of him stays mostly unchanged in Words of Radiance, but by Oathbringer this picture of the perfect king and good person starts to crumble. We have confirmation in the prologue that he wanted to bring back the Desolations and that was the only reason he had made the deal with the Listeners in the first place.

In Dalinar's falshbacks we see how he used Dalinar as his war machine, how his conquest turned Dalinar into a man that could not live without a war, and didn't give him a purpose beyond that once the fighting was over. We see how Dalinar gave up everything for his brother but got very little in return. Gavilar wouldn't even let Dalinar finally relax and spend time with his first son, he had to imidiately give him a war to fight lest him find that he could live without being the Blackthorn. We see how he didn't try to help his brother when he was a drunk and let him destroy himself.

At this point it's clear that Gavilar was not really a good person, even if Dalinar doesn't see it that way. But he's not tha bad, right? Dalinar did most of these things because he wanted to, Gavilar only pointed him in the direction he wanted to.

And then we get to Rhythm of War, where we find out that Navani's imposter symdrome, that has been so prevelant in the books since the beginning is all Gavilar's fault. He made her feel she wasn't really an artifabrian, that she wasn't intellegent, made her feel like she was a cheater despite the fact that she always remained loyal to him. He made it clear he didn't care about Jasnah's feelings when it came to marrying Amaram and how he didn't see Elhokar as a fit heir. Gavilar's family all cared about him so much, and yet, here we see how little he cared about them.

By this time we're all cheering Szeth when he kills this man because he didn't deserve a single good thing that was said about him throughout the entire series. Gavilar dying was the best thing that happened to all these characters and that realization is amazing.

[onlycosmere]

Questioner: When are we getting more Renarin? Brandon Sanderson: You will get the most Renarin you've ever gotten so far in Stormlight Five.

Now, let me warn you, he's not a main main character yet. He won't get as much as you want until, like, book six through ten.

But for now, you're gonna get more than you've ever gotten.

[zibus]

Ssp5 spoilers

Also spoilers based on WoBs.

So Yolen still has (or had in the last 80 years) a fully functional society of some kind, seemingly focused on/lead by dragons. "Humans" were mentioned but so was the term "mortals." Probably then human means human species, but there are other races such as the Sho Del. Since the prologue is in doors, we dont get any idea of the current spread of fainlife. In my head I'd imagined if Yolen was still habitable (killing a god seems like something that might have massive sideffects), it was completely overcome by fain and so not many humans left. Given how many humans are mentioned, that seems to not be the case - unless Frost is specially protecting them or something.

Feel like there's a lot to chew on even in these very short readings.

[zibus]

Don't forget Pattern and Maya!

Potential spoilers below?

I know some ppl are thinking that Adolin might die during the series as Shallan is probably going to become a world hopper - travelling the cosmere alone.

But like. What if he didn’t and instead went with Shallan.

He would love seeing all of the different fashions (like the mistborn cloak - come on that man would be all over it - with gold embroidery). His wardrobe would be spectacular and he would somehow look more stylish and put together than the inhabitants of the world ever could.

Wit might know all of the best food places across the cosmere, but Adolin knows the best seamstresses and designers.

He would also be able to learn all sorts of new forms of fighting to add to his dueling arsenal.

All in all - I think he would love meeting so many new people and getting to be with Shallan in her scholarly element would make him so happy too.

And idk somehow Gallant would come - just a man, a women and a horse travelling the known worlds.

[gnecroticart]

My Cosmere mini bang piece for @hazekiller16 's fic "Next Time, My Songling"! It's a very well-written fic and I had a great time illustrating a scene from it, I highly recommend checking it out! Here's baby Eshonai making flower crowns with her dad 😊

Image description: a young eshonai and her father sitting outside. Eshonai is wearing a flower crown and is looking up at her father with a broad smile, and her face is clearly illuminated. Her father's face is turned away from the viewer and is partially in shadow, and he is holding out a piece of green fabric to his daughter, and his other hand is partially behind her shoulder. He has gemstones in his beard. The lighting indicates that this scene takes place in late afternoon, and most of the light is centered on Eshonai.

[thestormlightnetwork]

i'll be honest i still don't understand what jasnah's prologue was about

Brandon Sanderson starting KoW with another POV of Gavilar's assassination:

[thedragion]

I NEED to know what future Cosmere Urithiru looks like and how it functions

Give me my 2700 ft tall 180 story cyberpunk tower city

[scienter]

There's a fifth Secret Project. Brandon wrote another book.

[hydrogenandhelium]

Shallan isn’t going to third wheel, she’s going to wingman

Shallan third-wheeling the Truthwatcher boyfriends let's GOOOOO

[natavinsmoke06]

This is just a what if, so if we asume if the direction of the Cosmere as a whole is an arms race, if Roshar eventually catches up and the radiant knights are now upgraded to fleets there's a great chance that the first Wind runner spaceship it's called Bridge 4

[onlycosmere]

Stormlight 5

Brandon Sanderson: Stormlight Five is the end of the first arc of the Stormlight Archive, right?

I've been saying that since the beginning, since Book One, but then I went and I ended Mistborn, and people are expecting it to end like that. That's not what I mean by the end of the first arc. This is more like an anime arc than it is like the end of Mistborn One.

And I need to start preparing that for people, because one of the things I'm getting from beta readers is: number one, it's going really well, people are really liking the book. Number two, they're like, "Oh, I thought this would be an ending like end of Mistborn Three."

No, it's more like the end, as I said, of an anime arc.

The end of the Stormlight is Book Ten. You are going to get some decent resolutions on things I've been promising for a while, but you're not gonna get resolutions on everything, because it's not the end, yet.

[zibus]

Ssp5 First Read Reaction. Here there be spoilers!

Oh shit, we're on Yolen!

This... this is a dragon! We're getting a full Cosmere dragon pov!

If her uncle is Frost... he sounds like Frost.

It rustng is. Oh storms. WHEN IS THIS BOOK SET?? Is this opening pre-Shattering?

"You can never be ruined" feels like its an important line for some reason.

Huh. What does the light have to do with it? Is the sun invested in some way? Like on Canticle? Was the Yolish sun important to Adonalsium?

Ooo... one of the shorts is in here as a flashback? Is it 6th or is it Silence? Those would be my guesses.

Its the 6th sequel! Freaking finally! Or at least half of it is.

Okay. Okay. So from the first draft we got a while ago - Dusk is planning to go into the Patji's perpendicularity and try and discover some way out of their predicament - caught between Scadrial and Roshar. I imagine the aviars and his time sailing are going to help him navigate the Cognative realm. So how is the prologue relevent? Will he meet Starling there or perhaps a modern day dragon pre-transformation? Gosh, imagine if you were a young dragon lost/trapped in the Cognative realm. My guess is the strange black sun there wouldnt have the same effect. Your body is ready to be reborn into something new but you're missing an important piece. That would be awful.

Well, lets see if this new version has any new clues.

A direct hint from the Radiant about the perpendicularity. Why did he mention it, I wonder? The implication has always been the aviar were the prime interest in First of the Sun.

Also, feeling more likely this fellow might be a servant of Odium. The bit about rising through the ranks through war feels kinda like how the Fused talk. Could concievably be Alethi, though.

Okay. Starling is the other main pov character. And she is trapped/exciled as a human. Due to Frost? Someone else?

I feel like my guess from above is going ro be surprisingly accurate, though not for the reasons I suspected. Also, does not seem that Starling is old enough for the prologue to be pre-Shattering.

Nazh jump scare.

...and he's dead. Rip, i guess.

Khriss is gonna be the engineer, isnt she?

Oh, its not. An Aetherbound. I figured with Nahz here she'd probably be around.

Awakened Metalminds as computers. I wanna see one.....

Xisis name drop.

Yeah, i was right. "You can never be ruined."

Is this also going to be our Silverlight story? I hope we at least get a glimpse.

Is Starling our 3rd Hoid apprentice? Thatd be intereating, eapecially if he "stole" her from Frost.

Ooo. Bird-human. New races, heck yeah.

Ooo. Hordeling doctor. All the alien crew is awesome. A shade, a dragon, a kenku, a bug hive-mind. Sounds like a little Star Trek story in the Cosmere.

Im definitely super excited. Ive been hankering for this story for a while. Dusk is definitely going to be meeting the crew of the Dynamic and learning just how big the Cosmere really is.

[kiridune]

Also, isn't there something about how before the Recreance breaking bonds didn't kill the spren?

Maybe Honor's response to the Recreance sparked that change.

"Dalinar will reforge Honor" "Kaladin will take up the shard" nah bro, if anyone is going to piece together Honor's shard and take it on then I think it'll be Mr. Taravangian himself