Where is it coming from?

[Zinfandale he/him]

Hi all,

 

I'm just curious. Where is everyone getting all of this outside information regarding the Cosmere and its workings? You guys have some pretty advanced theories and inside content that doesn't seem to be available simply by analyzing Sanderson's books. Is the majority of this coming from signings, FAQ sessions, podcasts, what?

 

Even though most of it is speculation (but awesome speculation ), I still am confuzzled as to how you guys develop all of these thoughts. I would love to learn more about the backstory surrounding Sanderson's fantasy novels and it seems that the books aren't ample sources for this kind of info. (yet...) 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

P.S. Your wiki is amazing and I will be helping to update all of the Chapter Summaries that are missing for TWoK, The Mistborn Trilogy, and Steelheart (I've only done the intro. so far so this one will take some work ).

[Argent he/him]

Now that I think about it, it does look pretty daunting when you walk into it years after it all started, eh? I am probably not the best person to help you with this, but I've got a few sources (though not necessarily in the proper order) you can look at:

• Cosmere 101 - Zas put together a very 101-ish guide to the cosmere. It won't give you enough, but it will establish some foundations.
• Question & Answer - This one could be either very helpful or very useless. There will be basic questions, which will build on top of your foundation, but there will also be advanced ones that probably won't make much sense for a while.
• The Coppermind you are obviously aware of.
• Theoryland's Interview Search & Database - this is rich. I don't know how up-to-date it is or even who is supposed to maintain it, but it has a lot of content from Brandon's public events. A lot of what we know can be traced back to one of the entries in the database.

This being said, there are some things we now accept as almost canonical based solely on fan theories that just make sense. If you've read Lift's and Ym's interludes, it is widely (though not fully) accepted that the constable known as Darkness there is actually the Herald Nalan. Another well-received almost canonical theory is the Chaos' Principle of Intent - which, in a nutshell, claims that in order for a cosmerian to use the magic of a given Shard, this person's actions need to be in line with the Shard's Intent (e.g. you can't do Hemalurgy if you are hell-bent on preserving things, because Hemalurgy comes from the Shard Ruin, whose Intent is diametrically opposite of Preservation's). 

 

It's going to take time. I followed everything closely pretty much since the rise of Brandon, went on a two-year hiatus from the forums (and most other source of deeper cosmere information), and a month after my return I am still catching up.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

I totally thought the topic question was meant along the lines of "Where does Brandon Sanderson get it all from", as in, how the heck does he write all of this stuff. I mean, I guess we're pretty clever for figuring a lot of it out, but dang, dude writes a lot of heavy stuff.

[Shardlet he/him]

Most of the extra info comes from Q&As at events with Brandon.  Argent pointed you to theoryland.  There is also some on Reddit (Brandon's handle is 'mistborn').  There is quite a bit of info in the Events, Signings, and Stalking forum here on 17S as well.

[Kurkistan he/him]

Another good source of "fanon" information is the signatures of most of the older members: Any theory you see in multiple "Espoused Theories" sections is likely to have a fairly strong following.

 

P.S. Do not include mine in this metric, as I am a madman.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Kurkistan