So, finished RoW, I did not read the halfs (yet?) Edgedencer & Dawnshard - instead I cheated a bit and looked up the summary for these (Dawnshard mainly) as I was too hungry for more “spice” of the SA story so I wanted to continue with next SA book straight away. I did read all of the current Mistborn series we have before SA though about a year or something ago
So I do have some notion about the...
shards, investiture and stuff but… I am still confused how the Cosmere magic works in general - I know that magic (Investiture) is different for each planet/system of the Cosmere and guessing it has something to do with the specific shards of that system… ?
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Well, if anyone wants to chime in with pointers I would be very thankful!
Meanwhile I will be scouring the wiki and WoBs to get a better picture.
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I do recommend the stormlight short stories, they are both quite good.
What info are you specifically looking for?
Mistborn and Stormlight all
There are shards that represent certain concepts, ruin, preservation, honour, cultivation etc. people hold these shards, but are, influenced by it’s intent the longer they hold it.
Generally, each shard has picked a planet/solar system to settle and create/enhance their population.
Each systems magic tends to end up mirroring in some way the intent of the shard that created it. Honours require oaths, Ruin’s requires stealing power off others etc.
Some magic systems work for their users off planet (you have seen this!), others are more difficult.
The more of the Cosmere you read, the more things will connect and the clearer the picture will be. Every time I re-read SA, I see new connections I’d missed before. Some of that is familiarity with the magics of other planets, because that changes your read from “character did a weird thing” to “hey! that’s magic from this other planet; why/how has it turned up here?”
In the earlier books, the crossovers between worlds/magics and the underlying “how things work” are more subtle and you’ll miss things on first read. In more recent books, it’s more overt.
Some of that is because of how much the protagonists themselves understand. For example, in the first Mistborn trilogy the characters really don’t understand what’s going on on their own planet, so of course you don’t get a good explanation. In Secret History, the POV character does run into people who know quite a lot about what is going on, so when Secret History revisits the events of the main trilogy you’re able to understand the forces driving those catastrophic events.
The characters in SA started off thinking magic wasn’t real and knowing nothing about realms and worlds beyond their own. They are learning a lot through their spren and Hoid, but there is still a lot that they don’t know. And you as the reader are learning along with them.
There are some fundamental concepts that span all of the systems. Investiture is the “mana” here but can show up as matter too, like the mists or shardblades. Investiture always wants to be used, and in a way that rewards people for satisfying the Intent of the shard it came from, like how radiants progress by personal growth and deepening the bond. When it’s being used, it makes vibrations that can be picked up by Seekers and the like.
Magic systems in a particular area are affected by what’s going on (or happened in the past) with the shards there. Like how the Dor works because 2 dead shards are corked up and trying to get out. The shards can also consciously affect the rules to an extent, like putting limiters on how much power the radiants get. There are a bunch of side stories set on worlds with no shards, there’s still magic but it gets wacky because shards fought there once or something. There’s also magic that Ado himself set up, that tends to be either subtle like Hoid’s stories or stone singing, or bonkers megastructures, with no in between.
Most magic has a Connection to the world it came from, but people figure out how to bypass that and you get the Cosmere Space Age.
Connection is something you have already seen a lot of, in the form of Bondsmith shenanigans and to a lesser extent the wind runner lashings.
The Intent of the user also affects how the magic works, it’s why you can use magic without realizing, or do really complex stuff without doing all the math yourself. It’s usually bundled up with a Command, where you give a verbal order and your Intent kind of gives it flavor.
The fact that different metals do different things shows up a lot, but it’s not 100% consistent what each metal does.
And then there’s the 3 realms. You’ve seen how the first 2 work, and that whole scene at the end of RoW is them looking into the third. The third is also where souls are (including the bits that govern memories and what magic you can use), Investiture returns there after it’s been used, and all of time and space are one there. There’s no alternate timeliness or time travel, but you can see the branching possibilities for the future, or play “what if” games like burning electrum. When something is looking at all of that for you and handing you the TLDR, it’s called Fortune.*grunts* I should not have read SA so fast (according to the receipt, it’s exactly month and two days).
Thank you both @SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world and @Nighed@sffa.community for the explanations.
I feel like one of the ten fools!I will have to read it all again. Seems I’ve missed some key details in both MB and SA as I have hard times connecting some of the stuff you have mentioned to what I am pretty sure I should already know.
Also should have read SA in my native language.
And and should have read Mistborn: Secret History …On the bright side, now I don’t have to worry what to read (the whole) next year, will probably wait for WaT to release in December and start with everything again. Thanks again though!
