Difference between revisions of "Cosmere"

| Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what became of him.

| Hoid on [[Ruin]]{{epigraph ref|sa1|18}}

}}

Adonalsium split into sixteen pieces, referred to as Shards of Adonalsium, each taking a particular facet, or [[intent]], of the greater power of Adonalsium. Sixteen people took up those Shards, effectively ascending into godhood. Hoid and [[the Recipient]] knew these sixteen people prior to their Ascension, as they were familiar with their original names.{{epigraph ref|sa1|23}}{{epigraph ref|sa2|69}}{{epigraph ref|sa2|70}} Some of these individuals and the Shard they took up are: [[Aona]] ([[Devotion]]), [[Skai]] ([[Dominion]]), [[Ati]] ([[Ruin]]), [[Leras]] ([[Preservation]]), [[Tanavast]] ([[Honor]]), and [[Rayse]] ([[Odium]]). Another individual who took up a Shard was [[Bavadin]], whose Shard's intent has been revealed in interviews with Brandon to be [[Autonomy]] . There are two more known Shards: [[Cultivation]], whose holder is female but otherwise unknown, and [[Endowment]], whose holder is not known.

| The only point in creating something is to watch it die.

| Ruin to Vin{{book ref|mb3|57}}

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They came up with a deal: they would work together to create life, with the condition that Ruin would eventually get to destroy them.{{epigraph ref|mb3|54}} But Preservation wanted to create life that they had seen before--humanity{{book ref|mb3|76}}--and creating sapient life required more energy. Ruin was not willing to put in that extra energy, so Preservation did. This led to Preservation being slightly weaker than Ruin. Because of this, Preservation knew that Ruin would inevitably triumph and destroy what they created.{{epigraph ref|mb3|54}}

| He bears the weight of God's own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it context. He is what we made him to be, old friend. And that is what he, unfortunately, wished to become.

| The Second Letter on Odium{{epigraph ref|sa2|71}}

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Odium traveled to Sel for a short time to attack Devotion and Dominion, and Odium Splintered them.{{epigraph ref|sa1|22}} This left a lot of energy on Sel, and, with no release valve and entity to control the power, [[Shadesmar]] became incredibly hazardous on Sel.{{qa ref|944|7|Does Roshar have a similar problem, with Honor being Splintered?|date=March 2013|asker=Windrunner}} Selish magic itself changed,{{17s ref|topic|2622|The things that they do in those books, couldn't have been done pre-splintering|date=Nov 29th, 2012}} and perhaps the [[Dor]] was created--a force that can drawn upon but with no controlling entity. Odium left Sel after this event, and did not Invest any of his power on the planet.{{qa ref|944|7|Odium did not leave his power behind, one should note|date=March 2013}}

| Alendi must not reach the Well of Ascension, for he must not be allowed to release the thing that is imprisoned there.

| [[Kwaan]]{{epigraph ref|mb2|58}}{{epigraph ref|mb2|59}}

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Kwaan, however, had a fabled memory, and noticed that the Prophecies had changed.{{epigraph ref|mb2|45}}{{epigraph ref|mb2|46}} But Kwaan was not able to persuade Alendi that he was not, in fact, the Hero after they had argued for so long to prove that he was the hero of legend.{{epigraph ref|mb2|52}} So Kwaan, knowing something was awry with the Well, tasked a nephew, [[Rashek]], who hated Alendi, to be Alendi's guide through the mountains.{{epigraph ref|mb2|53}}{{epigraph ref|mb2|54}} Since Rashek was a [[Feruchemy|Feruchemist]], Rashek and his friends were easy picks for Alendi. If Rashek could not lead Alendi astray, he was to kill him.{{epigraph ref|mb2|56}}

| One can see Ruin's craftiness in the meticulousness of his planning. He managed to orchestrate the downfall of the Lord Ruler only a short time before Preservation's power returned to the Well of Ascension. And then, within a few years of that event, he had freed himself. On the time scale of gods and their power, this very tricky timing was as precise as an expert cut performed by the most talented of surgeons.

| [[Harmony]]{{epigraph ref|mb3|50}}

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Ruin saw the Lord Ruler's poor use of the power and saw that the Lord Ruler would be an agent of spectacular destruction.{{book ref|mb3|63}} So, subtly, Ruin manipulated him to destroy. The Lord Ruler did do things to stymie Ruin, such as hiding [[atium]],{{book ref|mb3|71}} but Ruin's subtle manipulations took a toll on the man, and led to him subjugating his own people, among other atrocities. But as destructive as the Lord Ruler was, a thousand years later, the Well of Ascension was about to refill. The Lord Ruler planned to retake the Well's power,{{annotation ref|mb3|part=2|chapter=63}} and Ruin would not have that happen.

| I wrote thirteen novels before I sold one. I spent a lot of time practicing and learning, and I love big epic grand series. However, you know, you can't grow up reading the Wheel of Time without loving big series, but advice I heard early on was, selling a big series is actually pretty hard from a new author and if you, for instance, spend your life and you write like six books in the same series, and you send off the first book to someone and they don't buy it, you can't really send them the second book. ... I wanted to expand my chances, and so I wrote thirteen novels in different worlds, all with their own different magic systems and own characters. But secretly I loved the grand epic, and so I started connecting all these worlds during my unpublished era, and telling a hidden epic behind them all that I was setting up for.

| Brandon{{qa ref|847|3|I've read a bit online about how you have an overall storyline covering all of your novels|date=Apr 14th, 2012}}

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When Brandon was beginning writing and trying to get published, he loved gigantic epic fantasy series. He knew, however, that starting with a big series might not be the best idea. If he wrote four books in a series, and the first one didn't get published, he couldn't submit his sequels.{{qa ref|847|3}} He decided instead to focus on standalones and trilogies. Not only would they be easier to market to publishers, but Brandon also wanted people to trust his writing before digging into something bigger.{{qa ref|622|49|Where did your idea for the Cosmere originate?|date=Aug 31st, 2011}}

| I hope that people will stick with me for all these books, because I'll do a lot of them. But they will fit together in some really cool ways once they are all done. I think you'll be very very impressed, but that's a while off.

| Brandon on the cosmere{{qa ref|675|5}}

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At the start of Brandon's career, he wrote cosmere novels in chronological order, but there are books that are skipped, like Dragonsteel and White Sand,{{qa ref|988|4}} some of his earlier, unpublished novels. (Those unpublished novels would need to be rewritten from scratch, much like Brandon rewrote The Way if Kings.{{qa ref|810|24|Are you planning to revise these books that haven’t been published and to reinvent them, so to speak?|date=May 2012}}) He wanted these cosmere novels to not require knowledge of previous books in the hidden epic of the cosmere. Generally, clues to the cosmere are currently easter eggs, and will not be in the forefront. However, more hints to the greater universe are inevitable, and eventually the worlds will cross over and interact,{{qa ref|979|136|When do you expect to have more crossover between worlds|date=Apr 15th, 2013}} perhaps in the last Mistborn trilogy.