#elantris

[onlycosmere]

[probablycatastrophic]

every normal fantasy author goes to Q&As and they get questions like "hii i love your writing! where do you get inspiration for all your amazing worlds and characters?" and then the author will respond like "I go on frequent woods walks and I like to watch history documentaries :) it gets me really inspired" and then brandon sanderson will go to Q&As and get a question like "if you had a nicrosil compounder, could they burn the stored investiture and then store it again to generate infinite investiture? and if so, could you use that to generate infinite stormlight, provided the nicrosil compounder was also a knight radiant? and using the infinite stormlight, could you establish a perpendicularity using bondsmith powers, travel through the cognitive realm at high speed with the infinite stormlight, go to sel, and use nightblood to eat the entire Dor, permanently disabling the magic of Elantris?" and then brandon responds with "RAFO. You'll find out in Stormlight 5"

[dangermousie]

"Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity." -Brandon Sanderson, Elantris

This is still my favorite opening line of all time. And that's how my love for Sanderson's books started - I read that line on some list of best opening lines and knew I needed to find the book it was from. I did, fell in love, and that was it.

[piano-hoarder]

Cosmere books as bad news headlines

• "Young woman of questionable parentage kills god after eating copious amounts of metal"

• "Apple voice assistant marries mute rainbow god after sister defeats army of undead alongside hobo and talking sword"

• "City of zombies saved by angry man in armor and friendly chef's niece"

• "Depressed people snort lightning, use it to fight lobsters the size of battleships." (idea credit to @Elisabeth_Wheatley on YouTube)

• "Cowboy makes deal with the new god"

• "Girl and mouse boyfriend undo curse on cabin boy"

• "Man cheats death by stabbing his own eye, forms intergalactic gang"

• "Young woman stacks rocks to destroy computer"

• "Dehydrated young man unites senators against himself"

• "Man with PTSD breaks All the Rules, upsets mentor while running from sunrise"

• "Man(??) avoids eternal punishment from several sources while roasting everyone in existence"

[murderousjelliebean]

Sanderson characters are such drama queens. (I'm using "drama queen" to mean any person of any gender as long as they're super dramatic.) Hoid is the obvious one, he's so dramatic that Siri noticed it in Warbreaker. But we also have people like Kelsier, who have this entire monologue to the Lord Ruler in front of hundreds, if not thousands, of people, starting his own religion as a result. We have Hrathen, who makes himself into a spectacle to advertise his religion. And then... Kaladin. He's the king of drama queens. "Honor is dead. But I'll see what I can do." And then he jumps into an arena with FOUR SHARDBEARERS. AND WINS.

Hoid knows he's a drama queen. He's a Lightweaver, they're all pretty dramatic. Kelsier probably knows how dramatic he is. That's probably half the reason he did that monologue. Hrathen's entire reason for the poison was drama. But Kaladin doesn't even try. He just gets these dramatic moments going about his daily life. He doesn't care about causing drama, he cares about helping people. If that means drama, then so be it.

[brothermouse-skeleton]

Still reading Cosmere books and I recently finished Elantris.

BrandoSando tricked me into thinking I was safe making my favorite character the guy who dies on page one. What more could happen to him? He gets a stubbed toe?

That's on me, though. I should have known better.

[wafflelovingbatgirl]

Introducing the Cursed Cosmere Reading Order, the only wrong way to read the books:

Strict reverse publication order. If he puts out a new book, stop where you are and begin again.

I suspect it will become much more popular during the haitus between Stormlight 5 and Mistborn era 3 because there will be fewer forced resets

[king-of-the-oreo]

[zephyscosmere]

Elantris is criminally underrated in the cosmere fandom. Hrathen is such a badass and Raoden's character arc is beautiful.

And AonDor is such an epic magic system. Literally cutting into the spiritual realm to access the dead bodies of gods??

[a-total-and-complete-nerd]

Brandon Sanderson: Fantasy vs. Sci-Fi

Almost all of BrandoSando's books straddle the line between the two genres, and after seeing @approximateknowledge's post here, I wondered how they would lay out on that chart. I was also inspired by this fascinating WOB about Skyward's genre. These are just my opinions, so let me know if you agree or what you think you'd change!

[lamaery]

7 - seethe I didn’t feel like drawing spores, so instead I wondered which cosmere character was the most seething. And decided to go with Dilaf. Sceptical Hrathren on the side.

[onlycosmere]

by JasnahKohen

[cosmereplay]

I'm rereading Elantris and thinking about similarities between Sarene and Adolin:

Considered embarrassingly old to still be unmarried (mid-twenties); Adolin was forced to import a potential bride and Sarene was forced to export herself as a bride, both times to someone they hadn't laid eyes on yet.

OH ALSO both of their failures in courtship sound ludicrous. No man in Teod wants to marry the princess because she's tall and outspoken? Seriously? No woman in Alethkar can stand Adolin, cousin to the king? Really? As the Americans say, come on.

Forced to spend time in a bloodthirsty court that they hate, with people who hate them

Love swords and duelling

Trained diplomats

Blond(e)

[azure-sorceress]

I read Elantris for the first time this year and because of all the discourse online I was preparing myself for the Worst Cosmere Book. So imagine my surprise when I absolutely loved it.

Yes, I loved Hrathen, one of Sanderson's best characters for sure. But what about Sarene??? She does suffer from a little of the 'not like other girls' syndrome, but otherwise she's such a great character! She is cunning, smart, strong and compationate. I loved the scene in the library where she's studying politics from the old books in Elantris. You can definitly see that she will become a great queen.

And Raoden. Wonderful, optimistic Raoden. I remember telling someone that I loved reading his chapters and they told me that Raoden was a Gary Sue. Which... sure, I can see that, and he definitely got away with some pretty horrible things (i.e. getting Shaor killed, lying to Sarene about his identity). But reading his parts made me feel so much hope! After the emotional turmoil that was reading Stormlight last year, reading about someone who's life was ruined trying to make the best out of his situation and while also helping other people in his position felt so good!

I agree that Elantris has its faults. But overall it was such a pleasant read. And I needed to read a book like this at the time. People need to be nicer to Elantris.

[libralita]

Brandon gave a roadmap of his cosmere plans going forward:

SA 5 finished by June/July

6 months of outlining Era 3

Slotting in side projects (only mentioned white sand prose verison)

Era 3 and Elantris 2/3 written straight through and will only be release when gotten Era 3 1-3 done.

SA Arc 2

This makes me think that that the Elantris sequels and Era 3 will be really entwined narratively. I have a theory that Kaise's role in Era 3 will be fairly important and this is just reinforcing it.

[tygertyger137]

Makes me sad that all the deaths and the large time frame that the Cosmere takes place on prevents a proper crossover.

If Dalinar had known Tindwyl all of Oathbringer would be 2 chapters bc the coalition of monarchs would have no choice but to listen to her

Imagine Mistborn and Windrunners flying around, showing the other the intricacies of how their flight works

Adolin, Elend, and Raoden would be the triumvirate of Good Boys while their slightly insane wives could get together and have tea or smthn

Lightsong and Wayne will never get to compete for title of Most Insufferable

Imagine Hrathen learning of the shards and varying religions of the Cosmere and having another crisis of faith

Imagine introducing Scadrians and Rosharans to Nalthis, a place that has Good Plants and Nature

Steris and Renarin bond over being autistic in a world that is hard to navigate even when you’re neurotypical

Combining fabrials and allomancy to give Mistborn a new type of flight

Syl being drawn to Vin for how similar she is to Kal (read: grumbly with a severe case of rbf)

Vin showing off her koloss sword to shardbearers

Rosharans seeing aviar and losing their minds over the variety of chickens

Rosharans seeing any animal that isn’t a crab or slug and losing their minds