Cosmere Explanation

[Merlin]

So, my friend recently finished Stormlight for the 1st time, and she's moving to Mistborn. I need a coherent way to explain the whole cosmere-multiverse-worldhopper-Splinters-Adonalsium thing without sounding like:

"So, uh, there was this guy or force or something living on a planet called, uh... idk. Um... and he was destroyed? I think? Or, like, it's called Splintering, so he splintered into all these parts, or, like, um... emotions? I guess? And they all went to the different planets in the cosmere, which is like another universe, sort've. And one was Odium, and like, Cultivation. And Ruin and stuff. and Odium, like killed other emotion-splinter-things. And on Roshar there's, like Honor, who...

Ok. I'll stop. 

Anyway, I would appreciate it if you guys could help try to come up with a little speech that's makes enough sense that I don't sound like a TOTAL madman. (I'm perfectly sane, it's my hallucinations who aren't.)

[Kramerfarve]

There was once a being known as Adonalsium, who had a nearly God-like status, all powerful, all knowing, infinite and stuff. Who as far as we can tell was splintered into 16 equal shards of power that we, the creative beings that we are, called Shards. The Shards, because they are parts of a whole, can be thought of as parts of a personality or emotions, although we call them Intents. Each Shard has a different Intent, and they vary widely. For examples of Shard/Intents you have Honor, Cultivation,  Odium. The sixteen -if you want to try explaining Hoid go ahead- people who shattered Adonalsium picked up these Shards and became the first vessels. At the shattering, the vessels decided on a couple rules, among which included the rule not to settle on the same planet, which many vessels promptly ignored. One of the Shards, Odium, with vessel Rayse decided that he wanted to be the only shard in existence and devised a plan to do so. He prepared his Shardic hitlist and went to town. We do not know the exact number of shards Odium has splintered, or how he does so. Among those killed were two Shards

Spoiler

Dominion and Devotion

 of Sel, Honor of Roshar, and a Shard

Spoiler

Ambition

 of Threnody. He killed the Shard who died on Threnody

Spoiler

Ambition

 because he saw it as his biggest threat, and attacked the two Shards on Sel

Spoiler

Dominion and Devotion

 based on the idea that they broke the pact made at the shattering of Adonalsium. When he attacked Honor however, Honor managed to bind Odium to the Roshar system somehow, Stormlight Archive ensues. When he splintered the two Shards from earlier,

Spoiler

Dominion and Devotion

, he was still figuring things out and stuffed their investiture (magic energy power matter?) into the cognitive realm (shadesmar) a couple millennia pass and Elantris ensues. While doing all this Odium had the help of a Shard

Spoiler

Called Autonomy, ironically

, and Odium refused to pick up the shards he killed, because he did not want his Intent to be tainted/changed. In another corner of this tiny universe? System? Thing? we call the Cosmere, an intense battle is being waged between two other Shards

Spoiler

Ruin and Preservation

, and Mistborn ensues.

 

Does that help any? Even explained it sounds like a fever dream.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Kramerfarve
Added spoilers for Shard names

[Karger he/him]

2 hours ago, WannabeWorldhopper said:

So, my friend recently finished Stormlight for the 1st time, and she's moving to Mistborn. I need a coherent way to explain the whole cosmere-multiverse-worldhopper-Splinters-Adonalsium thing without sounding like:

Just tell her that both novels exist in the same universe but at different times and on different planets.  Also tell her to watch for Wit aka Hoid who appears everywhere in cameos and that this will all eventually make sense if she sticks with the series long enough.

[RShara she/her]

If you want a really long one, I've been halfheartedly working on an Intro doc..

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDIKqQzJIhjRl7cvERZ0_qRH0r2vhqwGV2j2TGI67TY/edit