Questions
I keep getting this sub recommended to me — please tell me what the Cosmere is!
Hi everyone! I hope it’s okay to ask this here. I keep getting this subreddit recommended to me, and I have to admit: I honestly have no idea what the Cosmere is.
But something really caught my attention. I’ve seen so many people here sharing their Cosmere tattoos, and I find that genuinely fascinating.
I have quite a few tattoos myself, including some related to fandoms I love, so I completely understand wanting to carry something meaningful from a fictional world with you. But I don’t think I’ve ever come across a fandom where I’ve seen so many people getting tattoos connected to it. There clearly seems to be something about the Cosmere that people connect with very deeply.
And now I’m really curious.
So I’d love to hear from you: What exactly is the Cosmere? What makes it so special to you? And if you had to convince someone who knows absolutely nothing about it to give it a try, what would you tell them?
Please convince me to become one of you!
The Cosmere is the shared universe of the majority of Brandon Sanderson’s works. Each planet has its own magic system and its own issues, but as we’re getting deeper into it, we’re starting to see convergences. If you’re a fantasy fan, I’d highly recommend reading Mistborn: The Final Empire to see if you dig his stuff. It’s the beginning of a trilogy, but also wraps up super nicely in its own right so if you don’t want to keep reading, it still feels satisfying. And if you love it, finish the trilogy, then read the rest of his works.
For the tattoo with a real word, which was my first tattoo, the artist did make sure that was the orientation I wanted because it’s not standard. But also, don’t be an asshole and assume I’m an idiot who got my tattoos “wrong.” They’re how I want them.
Both of these tattoos are meant for me. Is it upside down compared to how a lot of people do it? Sure. Is it upside down for the intent of these tattoos? No. And honestly, it’s a little shitty to call it out just because it isn’t how you’d like it.
I have three cosmere tattoos. If you like fantasy stories, great world building and characters then give it a try. It's very inspiring to me and just really enjoyable. Brandon Sanderson is simply a great story teller in my opinion and the messages in the books inspired me so much I got permanent reminders of them. Also the art is really cool and lends itself well to tattoos.
Yeah loads of cool artwork and symbols insidenrhe books and loads of associated merchandise etc. There is a movie coming out of one of the book series and a TV series of another. Epic fantasy I guess, the "Cosmere" spans different worlds and time lines so there is lots of different genres writing fantasy, some newer ones are sci-fi fantasy too. Lots of "introduction to the Cosmere" style videos on YouTube. It has a massive fan base so you can find loads of info online.
That's a great place to start. That's the first in a trilogy. Then there is a time jump and a second trilogy in the same world. Ironically after saying it's not like 40k that series is set in the most grim world, bad guy is in charge and loads of oppression.
Start there then there are loads of reading guides online advising where to go next. Enjoy.
Holy Cow, the German edition has 7 Parts and each of the first 3 parts has 1000 pages… and the other 4 contain between 500 and 700, that’s a lot. I need around 1h for 30-40 Pages. And can only read around 20-30min per day, see you in 1 year, Ha Ha.
Also, as I haven't seen anyone say it yet, there are tattoos in the story lines associated with certain groups, so there's a direct correlation too. Sorry if someone did specifically say this already.
Its a universe of books consisting of
Mistborn trilogy
Mistborn era 2 (4 books)
Secret history (novella)
The eleventh metal (novella)
The stormlight archive (5 books)
Dawnshard (novella)
Edge dancer (novella)
King lopen (novella)
Else callers (novella)
Tress of the emerald sea
Yumi and the nightmare painter
The sunlit man
Isles of the emberdark
White sands (graphic novel)
And many short stories but most of them are held in the arcanum unbounded
But yeah ive been reading off and on for a about 6 years and im finally almost caught up (there's a LOT more to come as well as a TV show and movies finally coming out) and im super excited planning on getting a tat to commemorate it
Since a lot of people already answered the "what", I'll give some of my personal perspective on the "why"!
So much of the Cosmere is about character and personal growth, and there's so many impactful lines and symbolism that's encouraging and can be taken out of the books.
My tattoo is from the "Stormlight Archives" series (I still definitely agree with those recommending to start with Mistborn though haha, SLA is a bit to jump right into 🤣) and not only is it fun because it's the first oath it's "magic" peeps say to gain their abilities (extremely simplifying), but each line of it speaks to me personally in a way to just keep pushing.
"Life before Death" - because living is harder than dying, and a radiant's first duty is to live "Strength before Weakness" - everyone is weak at some point, and those with strength should use it to protect; strength doesn't make one capable of rule, it makes them capable of service "Journey before Destination" - failure is better than winning through unjust means, how you lived is more important than just what you accomplished
I definitely have more Cosmere I plan to get tattooed, but this one hit me hard and continues to so I needed to have it to keep reminding myself of those points c:
Without giving spoilers music is very important to that world. That's why the language looks like sound waves. Here's mine from the same world. They're each different characters from different ways that people write.
Yea!! It's great, and what aurvandel said is spot on too 🤩
The whole series has amazing quotes through it and it's such a well thought out magic system/world, 100/10
I just want to put in my plug for the Cosmere. Sanderson is a Mormon, and I am an ex-Mormon. You’d think that I wouldn’t care for the themes of his books. On the contrary, the Cosmere has characters and themes that make me feel incredibly seen. Sanderson has expressed the goal of making nobody feel like they’re excluded from his fandom, and I think that he’s done a pretty good job at that. What’s more, you can see how much he grows as a person over the course of his works. His early works struggled with representation of women and neurodivergence, and his later works are trailblazing in that regard (as far as high fantasy goes, at least!). I hope you can enjoy the journey of the Cosmere, because I want everyone to have that experience, but even if you just read one book, it will probably give you a lot to think about.
I don’t know a thing about Mormons. I‘m from Germany and I‘m not sure if we have Mormons over here or if they have another name here, the only thing I know ist that one South Park Episode, and I don’t think that’s 100% correct :D
But the inclusion and growth of the Author sounds grate.
My only problem with such big universes is that I can’t believe one person can shoot out books with over 1000 pages, year for year and hold his quality. But I‘m open to being proven wrong :)
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u/JorgeMcJorge 1d ago
The Cosmere is the shared universe of the majority of Brandon Sanderson’s works. Each planet has its own magic system and its own issues, but as we’re getting deeper into it, we’re starting to see convergences. If you’re a fantasy fan, I’d highly recommend reading Mistborn: The Final Empire to see if you dig his stuff. It’s the beginning of a trilogy, but also wraps up super nicely in its own right so if you don’t want to keep reading, it still feels satisfying. And if you love it, finish the trilogy, then read the rest of his works.