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… ?
⠀⠀
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.
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.
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.
*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!