Cosmere - Blog Posts

“I will protect those who cannot protect themselves”

Stormlight Archive is my life now.

my art programs are dying so i couldn’t color this one how i wanted, whops. EDIT: COLOUR UPDATE. while the lovely @southrobin was visiting form Singapore, she got Photoshop back for me, so now i can colour things not jsut in Manga Studio. So that’s nice!

So, I thought my first Cosmere fanart was this sketch of Hrathen from 2015:

But then I remembered, it was this Kelsier I drew for a friend in 2011:

I can’t believe it’s been seven years… I also can’t believe that this is what I pictured Kelsier to look like. Dear past me, this is not what an almost 40 years old with a hardness in his eyes is supposed to look like.

I ALSO REALIZED JUST NOW THAT FORGOT THE SCARS ON HIS ARMS WHICH ARE IN FACT THE MOST IMPORTANT OF HIS FEATURES askjhddsjkfs

Show Your First Cosmere Fan Art

Hey folks, how about this? Reblog this post (or just use [first cosmere art] tag), paste your first Cosmere fan art (or any early piece perhaps no one has ever seen) and share your feelings. It can be any kind of art, or even shitty sketches found in your textbook, as long as it was drawn/made by you =)

So let’s begin! I am not sure if any of you would like to play this, but thanks anyway!

Every morning I play my LinkedIn games, feeling like Taravangian trying to see if I'm smart or stupid today

reading elantris after mistborn is painful because vin and elend could have solved that plot before the prologue was finished

Steris in Alloy of Law was just a terrible and uptight parody of a person. Then, Shadows of Self came along and she was rewritten as a beautiful autistic icon. Watching Brandon grow as a person and a writer is one of the coolest things about the Cosmere.

(Update: I have been informed that I probably misunderstood the writing in the first book. Fair enough.)

Brandon Sanderson coming to the correct conclusion that Mistborn had too many male characters in it, and fixing his error by giving us Shallan, Siri, Vivenna, Steris, Marasi, Jasnah, Venli, Navani, Tress, Yumi, Akane, Eshonai, Sylphrena, Lift, Cord, Rysn, accidentally writing Navaniel, and correctly having MeLaan dump Wayne and Jasnah dump Hoid.

Now put more husbands in the fridge besides Gavilar and all will be right in the Cosmere.

This lady is Alethi and you can’t tell me otherwise

By Jan Lehner for Russh Magazine

Shallan’s Murders: Ranked by Level of Disturbing

Shallan-murders-feature requested by @nerd-in-distress

[Major spoilers for Stormlight Archives!]

I’ve already ranked Kaladin’s dramatic entrances & the awesomeness of Vin’s kills. Next up we’re looking at the many deaths that Shallan has enacted, directly or indirectly. Since Shallan’s murders tend to be Trauma Personified, I’m going to rank them by how disturbing I found them.

#10: Bluth

We’ll start with the one that I find the least disturbing–in part because I think it’s the least attributable to Shallan herself. Technically, Bluth is inspired by the “Ideal Self” that Shallan draws of him, a drawing which motivates Bluth to join the fight against the bandits and die. So it is true that if not for Shallan, Bluth would not have been in that situation and likely would not have risked himself. But it is framed as a redemption, and I don’t find it particularly disturbing. 

#9: Her own alters

In particular, I am thinking about the Battle of Thaylen City, during which Shallan keeps an entire Thrill-infected army busy by constantly creating illusions for them to kill. Every time one of these illusions die, Shallan feels it, as though she is sending out parts of herself to be murdered, over and over again. I’m not going to lie–this scene has made me cry, and I do personally feel a sense of creeping horror imagining Shallan simply sending herself out to be murdered hundreds and hundreds of times. But I suppose these deaths aren’t exactly real, so I can’t rank this too highly on the disturbing scale. 

#8: The Coachman and his Parshmen

Shallan has a bit of a rocky start when it comes to being Veil and infiltrating the Ghostbloods. During one such incursion, she hires a coachman to bring her to a meeting and then makes him drive away without her to trick the Ghostbloods. Later, she finds him and the Parshmen murdered and his coach burned. Here again, it’s not like Shallan murdered them with her own hand…but she does cause their deaths, insofar as they wouldn’t have been in danger if not for her. But this is really the fault of the Ghostbloods, so I rank it as less disturbing in terms of what Shallan herself does. 

#7: Her Mom’s “Friend”

I have honestly always been unclear about whether Shallan or Shallan’s father actually kills this guy, but the wiki says it was Shallan, so I’ll go with that. This is our first real person who is killed directly by Shallan’s hand–and honestly, I find it to be the least disturbing of actual-people-murdered-by-Shallan. I mean, the guy was a Skybreaker trying to suppress the return of the Radiants by murdering a kid, so I really feel like Shallan was acting in self-defense here. I mean, it is disturbing for Shallan, though, so that counts for something.

#6: Tyn

Speaking of murders in self-defense…Shallan does directly murder Tyn, but this one is once again purely self-defense. Tyn was trying to kill Shallan at the time, and Shallan summons her Shardblade in a desperate act of self-defense. There is still a level of horror, though. Tyn was sort of Shallan’s friend, and Shallan’s Shardblade is Trauma Personified at this point in the story–I believe this is the first time we ever actually see it. I don’t remember if it’s confirmed whether the Blade is Testament or Pattern, but there’s an extra layer of horror if it’s Testament, aka the spren that Shallan killed and is now using to kill someone else.

#5: Ialai

Now, here’s a murder not in self-defense at all. Radiant just straight up murders Ialai and hides this fact from Shallan. This is after Shallan, Radiant, and Veil vote on it and decide not to murder her…but then Radiant does it anyway in order to protect Shallan from having to do it–and from having to know about it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t so much protect Shallan as it does cause her intense mental and emotional distress, as now Shallan thinks there is a spy among her friends. This is partly why Formless becomes such a big threat in this book. So while I didn’t feel particularly upset that Ialai died, this murder did end up being disturbing in its implications–especially the idea that one of Shallan’s alters could do such a thing without Shallan (being willing to?) know.

#4: Her mom

Shallan’s mom was trying to kill her at the time, and baby Shallan summoned a Shardblade and killed her. Shallan then became convinced that the sword was her mother’s soul, which was locked in a safe behind a picture in that very room. For a very long time afterwards, Shallan would believe that safe was glowing with her dead mother’s soul. That’s all pretty disturbing–from attempted daughter-murder to actual mother-murder to just heaps of trauma. It was still self-defense, but that doesn’t help much with how disturbing it all was.  

#3: Testament

The Stormlight Archive books are FILLED with mentions of the Recreance, that day when the Radiants betrayed their oaths and killed their spren. Of course, we eventually find out that the decision to break the oaths was mutual, and that the Radiants and their spren agreed to take this action (for reasons that are still not clear…). But there is one spren-killing that occurred long after the Recreance and that was not, so far as we know, a mutual decision: Shallan’s murder of her first spren, Testament. This is the spren whose blade killed Shallan’s mother, an act that so traumatized Shallan that she broke her oath, turned her spren into a deadeye, and then repressed all off the memories. Later Shallan meets Testament in Shadesmar for just an extra layer of trauma–her murder victim is still walking around. Maybe this will get less disturbing if a way of saving deadeyes is discovered, but for now, I find this one very disturbing.

#2: Grund 

Grund is the street kid from Kholinar that Shallan tries to help by giving him food, only to later discover that Grund is being forced to do this by the gangs, who then murder Grund in front of her while he uses his dying words to declare how much he hates her. Even though this is not a death caused directly by Shallan’s hands, I find it to be one of the more disturbing deaths attributable to Shallan–because it’s a kid, because he dies of head trauma which I find disturbing, and because he uses his dying words to blame her, which is a pretty big helping of trauma to add to Shallan’s already large pile.

#1: Lin Davar

Listen, Lin Davar is the worst, and I am a fan of him being dead. Nevertheless, I find this to be far and away the most disturbing of Shallan’s murders because of how it happens. First, Shallan uses the blackbane her brother gave her to poison her father. But it doesn’t work. Her father wakes up, and Shallan has to murder him a second time, this time by literally strangling him to death with the necklace he gave her while singing the lullaby he sang to her after she murdered her mother. And strangling is not fast–she has to persist and sing until he is finally, finally dead.

So congratulations (?) to Lin Davar for being Shallan’s most disturbing murder victim! 

Adolin dies in book 5. Send tweet.

In August this year Dragonsteel asked me if I could add some concept art and designs as inspiration for the Worldhopper ball mainly to visualize the room and the wedding attire of both Adolin and Shallan. 

As usual I loved to get into the tiny details - from embroidery patterns to alethi wedding traditions. Some of them made it into the final event some of them did not and this is why I am so happy I can finally share them with you! 

So to say that I made some high pitched noises when i stepped into the venue at the ball last December is probably an understatement. Paladin Creative, Dragonsteel and their many helpers did such an impressive job making this immersive ball reality and fun – especially considering with so little time beforehand. 

Thanks to @paladincreative, @valentine.bridal and @kayleemakescrafts for making these designs physical! 💙

Thank you to @officialsavannahcarrasco and @jacksupertoast for bringing these two to life those nights! ❤️

And of course major thanks to @brandsanderson and @izykstewart for letting me help dress Adolin and Shallan for their wedding! (I felt weirdly like a proud mum 😆)🧡

Puppies on Roshar

Malata the Pharaoh Hound

Adolin the Golden Retriever & Renarin the Labrador Retriever

Veil the Greyhound & Shallan the Shiba Inu

Szeth the Chihuahua

Kaladin the Tervuren & Tien the Corgi

Navani the Poodle & Dalinar the Sarplaninac

Mayalaran the Chinese Crested Dog

Syphrena the Cavalier Spaniel

Pattern the ...?

It's alright Dalinar, babe, he got this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- image description: A loosely scribbled and coloured comic page with several panels in four rows of the scene in Words of Radiance in which Kaladin joins the duel in the arena. The background in the panels is painetd very patchily implying the seats of the arena with half roofs offering shadow from the sun above. The first row has two panels, on the left we see an agitaed Dalinar, in his blue uniform with gold and white trimmings, as he leans forward, hands on the wall of the dueling pit in front of him, calling out "What happened to us?", "Where is our honor?". A smaller speechbubble to the side contains the words "Honor is dead". The panel to the right depicts Dalinar looking to the side to see who gave that cynical commentary. Kaladin stands there not far behind him, also in captain's uniform holding his spear and looking very grim. The next row has two smaller and on medium sized panel, they all show Kaladin from the side in profile – as Dalinar would see him. He inhales like he is fortifying himself for what comes next. On the exhale he looks down into the arena with mix of resignation and determination and utters the words "But I'll see what I can do." The speechbubble for it is already in the next panel, in which Kaladin is gazing towards us with a mournful expression as he says "If this goes poorly, take care of my men."

The third and fourth row are both each one long horizontal panel. The third row shows Kaladin as he vaults himself over the wall in the foreground. Dalinar stares at him seeming very shocked. The panel in the last row is a top down view into the arena. Kaladin stands in front of six people, four of them Shardbearers in full plate all now turning towards him. On the far left is Relis in his black plate holding a big shardblade. Adolin kneels next to him in the sand of the arena holding his broken shoulder. To his right stand Elis with a shardhammer in a grey plate, then Adrobar in a orange one with a blade. Further to the right is Jakamav in his green plate and the king's blade, Renarin standing blade- and plateless next to him.