What is the Cosmere? A Beginner’s Guide to Brandon Sanderson’s Book-Spanning Universe

When best-selling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson was still an unpublished nobody, he pitched a book that was to be one of many that took place in a vast, shared universe — and was promptly shot down, as he was still an unpublished nobody. So, he quietly pitched a standalone book that just so happened to end up being an integral piece of his planned shared universe, which we now know as the Cosmere.

While you can enjoy books in the Cosmere without being Cosmere-aware, it’s a lot more fun when you see all the little connections between books. At the same time, it can be a lot to take in! In this article, we’ll try and keep things simple, while still including all of the essential information you’ll need to grasp what’s happening in Brandon Sanderson’s little universe.

The Basics

To put it in practical terms, the Cosmere is a shared narrative universe in which multiple fantasy books and series take place across a number of different planets.

Defining the Cosmere in-universe, it is literally a small cluster of 50 to 100 stars. Given that one can see lots of stars in the night sky on some Cosmere worlds, it’s very likely that the Cosmere cluster is part of a larger galaxy — though it sounds like the Cosmere novels will, unsurprisingly, only concern themselves with the Cosmere.

But the connections between Cosmere books go far beyond a cameo or two. The Cosmere’s various magic systems, which at first blush appear different, all share some fundamental rules (more on this below). There is also broader narrative taking shape: already, we can see the schemes of characters from one series having major impacts on the narrative of other books.

Magic in the Cosmere

Each Cosmere series or standalone novel tends to have a unique magic system, as each planet or system tends to have its own magic system. However, they all follow some basic rules, and all stem from the same key event (the Shattering).

Investiture

Magic in the Cosmere is powered by Investiture, a kind of spiritual energy that permeates everything in the Cosmere. Investiture can manifest in the physical world as a liquid, gas, or solid (interestingly, while solid it is always a metal). While not every humanoid in the Cosmere has access to magical abilities, those that do generally perform feats of magic by consuming and then channeling Investiture.

Adonalsium, Shards and the Shattering

At some point in the past, there was a singular god in the Cosmere named Adonalsium. This god contained within itself all the aspects of the universe. A group of 16 individuals killed this god, and in doing so, broke it into 16 pieces called Shards.

These Shards contained immense power, and also an Intent — an ideal and/or purpose. Some of the Shards include Honor (oaths, loyalty), Ruin (death and destruction), Cultivation (life, growth), and Autonomy (freedom and individuality). The beings that killed Adonalsium took up these shards, becoming Vessels and gaining godlike powers.

It’s not known what magic in the Cosmere was like before the Shattering, but post-shattering, Shards went out into the Cosmere and established themselves on various planets. In doing so, they imbued the planets they inhabited with magic related to the Shard’s Intent.

Worldhoppers

There are beings in the Cosmere that use various methods to travel between different planets. This is primarily done via Perpendicularities — places where one can travel between the Physical Realm and the Cognitive Realm (see below). The Cognitive Realm does not have a vacuum of space, and therefore travel between planets becomes possible.

While so far it has been restricted to a small number of individuals, the interactions between the peoples and cultures of different planets will play a large role in the overall narrative of the Cosmere.

The Three Realms

Reality in the Cosmere is comprised of three layers, or realms: the Physical Realm, Cognitive Realm, and Spiritual Realm.

The Physical Realm is what you’d imagine — it’s where matter and energy interact to create the universe we can sense and interact with. Besides having magic in it, the Physical Realm of the Cosmere is much like the universe you and I know so well.

The Cognitive Realm is the realm of thoughts, ideas, and concepts, but it is also a real place that beings from the Physical Realm can travel to and through — the Cognitive Realm is also the primary way by which beings move between planets. Also known as Shadesmar, the Cognitive Realm has a black sky, shadows that point towards its small sun, and geography that is the inverse of the Physical Realm (with water where Physical land is). Native Cognitive Realm creatures exist, beings formed from beliefs and ideas of beings in the Physical Realm.

The Spiritual Realm is the realm of the soul, and of pure Investiture. In the Spiritual Realm, all things are everywhere all at once, and a being’s Connections across space and time are all present in the Spiritual Realm, as part of their spiritweb — their soul.

We hope this article helped you get a handle on what the heck is going on in the Cosmere! If you have any specific questions or things you’d like this article to address, let us know in the comments.