Found 119 entries in 0.221 seconds.
Can you put the Cosmere books into [chronological] order?
Here is the order that I have publicly confirmed. There are obviously other books and stories fitting in there. For those, you’ll just need to RAFO.
I just finished the timeline for Oathbringer, and thought you might like to hear about the process. (Spoiler warning: There may be tidbits of information in this article about the plot of Oathbringer, but I have specifically made up many of the examples I use, so you can't count on any of it as fact.)
I know that some of you think, "Brandon posted that he had finished writing Oathbringer months ago. Why do we have to wait until November before it's on the shelf at the bookstore?" This is a natural question. I asked it myself years ago when I heard similar news about a Harry Potter book. The timeline is one small part of the reason, but it will give you a small glimpse of what is going on at a frantic pace here at Dragonsteel trying to get the book ready to go to press.
You may know that I'm Brandon's continuity editor. I keep records of every character, place, spren, and piece of clothing to name just a few. The next time a person appears, I make sure they have the right eye color and eat the right kind of food. There's so much more to it than that, but it gives you an idea of the level of detail I try to be on top of.
Another thing I track is the timeline of each book. I have a massive spreadsheet called the Master Cosmere Timeline (I can hear some of you salivating right now, and no, I won't let you peek at certain corners of it).
In some of Brandon's books, there are a few main characters who spend most of their time together in the same place. For those books, the timeline is simple. Take The Bands of Mourning for instance. It's about four days long. Nobody goes off on a side quest. The timeline only takes up 32 lines in the spreadsheet because there are that many chapters. On the other hand, the current spreadsheet for the Stormlight books has over 1100 lines.
Here's a sample of the timeline spreadsheet. The white columns are the dates, which I have an entirely separate post about. In column F we have an event that happens in the book. Column E tells how long it has been since the last event. Then I have the quote from the book that I used to justify the timing, the chapter the quote appears in, and whether the event happened on the day of the chapter, or sometime in the past or future.
The timeline for Oathbringer starts on day 4 of the new year, and ends on day 100. (Which, for those of you who keep track of such things, makes the date 1174.2.10.5). My day count could change by a day or two here and there, but I'm pretty happy with how I got the different groups of people to all end up in the same place at the same time.
Why bother? Well, sometimes Brandon writes a flashback and someone is looking at a cute baby. It's important to tell Brandon that this particular kid wasn't born for another four years. A character might think to themselves, "It's been a month and a half since I was there," and though it has been 45 days, a month on Roshar is 50 days long, so it hasn't even been a single month. Brandon often glosses over those conversions in early drafts.
The most important purpose, though, comes when two groups of characters are apart for some length of time. Let's take Kaladin and Dalinar in The Way of Kings. Kaladin was running bridges for battles where Dalinar and Sadeas cooperated. Were there the same number of days in Kaladin's viewpoint between those battles as there were in Dalinar's viewpoint? The answer is no. I was assigned this job after that book was finished, and as much as we squashed and fudged, there is still a day or two unaccounted for. An interesting tidbit from The Way of Kings‘ timeline is that Kaladin's timeline has 50 days in it before Dalinar's starts. Chapter 40, when Kaladin recovers from being strung up in the storm, is the same day as the chasmfiend hunt in Chapter 12.
Going back to Oathbringer, sometimes I'm amazed at the power I have. As I go through the manuscript, I can take a sentence like, "He spent four days recovering," and simply replace the word four with two. Brandon gives me a general idea of how long he wants things to take, and I tell him what it needs to be to fit. It's a big responsibility, and sometimes I worry that I'll mess the whole thing up.
Oathbringer is the first book in the Stormlight series where I worked with a list of the storms from the start. Peter tried on Words of Radiance, but Brandon wrote what the story needed and expected us to fit the storms in around that (A perfectly reasonable process, even if it makes my job trickier). In Oathbringer though, the Everstorm and highstorm are each on a much stricter schedule. We need such exact timing in some scenes that Peter (with help from beta reader Ross Newberry) made me a calculator to track the hour and minute the storms would hit any given city.
Yet another thing we needed to calculate is travel time. How fast can a Windrunner fly? How many days does it take to march an army from here to there? Kaladin might be able to do a forced march for a week, but what about Shallan or Navani? How long could they manage 30 miles a day?
Hopefully now you can see why we've needed months of work to get this far, and will need months more to get it finished in time. At some point, we're just going to have to call it good and turn the book over to the printer, but even though you think you want to get your hands on it now, it will be a much better read after we have the kinks worked out.
So the next Wax and Wayne, is that after the fifth Stormlight?
All the Wax and Wayne ones chronologically take place in the ten year gap between Stormlight 5 and 6.
Chronology question: Coppermind says White Sand probably after Elantris. I thought considerably earlier. Anything canon yet?
Not yet, but I suspect it's after Elantris.
1. Just as highstorms come less frequently around the Weeping, they are more frequent around Midpeace.
2. Following the advent of the Everstorm, the normal highstorm calculations/schedule was found to be thrown off by about four (Rosharan) months.
3. Highstorms move at about 370 miles per hour. The Everstorm moves at about 120 miles per hour. Those are variable of course, and shouldn't be taken as official, definitive numbers.
4. For approximate Everstorm timing calculations we used a cycle of 9.1 (Rosharan) days.
5. Roshar's circumference is about 22110 miles. Again, this shouldn't be taken as an official, definitive number.
Shadows for Silence, cosmere-wise timeline where does that fall with the rest of the books?
Shadows for Silence, cosmere timeline, where does it fall with the rest of the books. It is middle cosmere, a little on the late side but not-- I mean, it is pre-Stormlight Archive, so yeah.
So was The Emperor's Soul before Elantris?
It's after.
So are you going to write a book that explains what happened to the [Rose Empire] then?
You will find out more about it eventually, yes. But it's not my main project right now. We'll see how it happens eventually.
Approximately how many years before the Evil on Threnody was Nazh born?
I do not have that written down. It's more of an Isaac question. Nazh is an Isaac character, and Nazh's backstory will be explored in Isaac's stories, and I would not even canonize it if I had the answer here because we need to let him have the freedom to talk about all of that.
How about the general number of years Warbreaker is from [The Hero of Ages] and [The Alloy of Law/The Way of Kings]?
RAFO - the reason that timeline questions are being RAFOed right now is because the final times are still not 100% solid, and Brandon said that he doesn't want to give us a time and then have it change around again (like what happened to [The Alloy of Law] being moved to the same time as [The Way of Kings] instead of being a bit earlier), so he won't answer any timeline questions until after he has the final timeline correct in his own system.
Silence Divine, are you allowed to talk about when it's going to happen in the timeline?
...It is late Stormlight Archive era. I image it being around book 8 or something like that.
So it was after the Dawnchant was written.
Yes. But since it hasn't been written yet, the timeline is not canon for that yet.
Do people on Threnody get really old or something? I can't work out the timeline of the events leading up to Shadows for Silence. She says her grandparents were among the first to reach the Forests of Hell, but also that the waystop has been safe for over a hundred years. Given Silence's age, her grandparents couldn't really have founded the waystop over a hundred years ago if life expectancy on Threnody is similar to other planets.
I'd have to look at the timeline myself. That might just be me not looking at continuity closely. I wasn't trying to imply people living very long.
I've also heard rumor that there's a chronology? <On the cosmere?>
On my computer, yes.
No, that was going to be in [Arcanum Unbounded] or *inaudible*.
No, not a chronology. Not a timeline. I've been preparing one that eventually I'm going to release. But I don't think I'm *inaudible*. I did consider it, but...
How far back was the <second> Warbreaker book? Chronologically does it come before or after Stormlight Archive?
Before.
Before. So in between Warbreaker and The Stormlight Archive?
Yes. More close to Warbreaker than to Stormlight.
I'm really, really super interested to see how you approach the calendar for Taldain, given its unique properties and solar system.
Is this something you'd be able to talk about, or will it come up later in the story line for White Sand?
Yeah, that one will be fun. I had a blast with a lot of those things during worldbuilding.
I'll at the very least do some short stories set on the world, after the graphic novel(s). So expect information to be forthcoming.
In regards to the time period each series takes place in. What time period is it during Mistborn whilst the other series are going on?(More specifically. Is it Wax during Stormlight? Or still Vin?)
Stormlight is closer to Wax than Vin, but takes place between the two.
You mention the phases of the moon fairly often in [The Way of Kings]--is this significant or something that we should be paying attention to?
After working with the Wheel of Time community and dealing a lot with fans wanting to know when certain events happened in regards to some other event, Brandon added in [details about the moons] in order to give dedicated fans a way of determining the chronology of the events of the Stormlight Archive.
Mmm...that phase of the moon thing really doesn't sound right to me. It's true the moon was used that way in the Wheel of Time, but the way the moons are used in Words of Radiance really has nothing to do with phases.
sorry, "phase" is the wrong word, and I don't think Brandon used the word phase either in his actual answer. I guess he was more meaning which moon was up, etc. Either way, his answer just seemed to indicate that you could use the moons to determine chronology.
How long after Warbreaker does Way of Kings take place? I know you usually don't finalize timeline details until they actually are stated in-book, but are you willing to say how far apart the books are, in the current plans?
I have Warbreaker happening a few generations before, right now. However, I'm very likely to move Elantris up in time, so it's a little in the air at the moment.
Thanks! I assume asking why Elantris being moved affects how far apart Warbreaker and Way of Kings are is a behind-the-scenes thing and/or RAFO?
Yeah, it does. The big linchpin is going to be when I need Sel and Scadrial to align when big crossovers start happening. We'll know in a few years; there are things I intend to write that I could imagine needing to change, after they're finished, that will influence the timeline structure.
When Sazed moved the planet in the third Mistborn, I know it has it’s own solar system but did it affect the cosmere in any way?
Not in huge amounts. Technically yes, because you change gravity, but they are lightyears away, so they wouldn’t even notice. I mean, it changed Shadesmar a little bit too, so there were upheavals, but it was not drastic. If what you are looking for is the cause of the earthquake on Sel, then no. The earthquake was years before.
Who bonded with their spren first, out of the new Radiants?
Chronologically, and of the ones we know, Jasnah.
When does Emperor's Soul take place in relation to the events of Elantris?
After them.
Like how long after?
I haven't answered that yet. A lot of people keep asking. But after them, but not so far after them that the technology level has shifted, which I allow, in my worlds, to happen. And also not so far after that the Emperor's Soul- if you keep your eyes open you will see a Derethi priest in full armor. And so, not so far after that the kingdoms we are familiar with no longer exist. They do exist and the tech level has not shifted dramatically so you can use that to kind of ballpark for yourself, a range. It's certainly not thousands of years later, in other words.
How long before [The Way of Kings] is Alloy of Law? I heard somewhere that it's a hundred years, but I don't think that's right.
I intended them to be happening roughly close to one another, with [The Way of Kings] slightly before.
So Stormlight and Breath are both just different manifestations of Investiture.
That's correct.
So Nightblood and Shardblades are both kind of powered by Investiture?
Yes, in fact you can call Nightblood kind of a mismade, evil Shardblade... more mismade than evil but yes.
But a Shardblade wouldn't shear through Nightblood.
Yes a Shardblade would not shear through Nightblood. In fact I wrote Way of Kings first and then I wrote Warbreaker and Way of Kings came out after Warbreaker but in my mind Warbreaker is a prequel to Way of Kings, where I was telling Vasher's backstory.
Oh really, so the Warbreaker we know takes place after Way of Kings?
No, it takes place before, it's a prequel meaning I wrote Way of Kings and then I went back in time and told Vasher's backstory but Warbreaker ended up coming out first because Way of Kings wasn't ready yet.
I'm 66 in a couple months and I want to make sure I live long enough to read the whole Stormlight--
Alright.
Am I going to?
You'll definitely make it through the first five. The thing about it is I'll break in the middle, but the first five come to a natural climax, and then there's an in-world break of 15 years. Not 15 years away for us but an in-world break. And then I'll do another trilogy. I think you'll make it through them all. I think you'll easily make it, you look very hale and healthy.
How much time elapses between the beginning of the main part of the story [where they start out at the Shattered Plains] and the end of the series?
And the end of the series? Because the end of the series, um, we have a 15-year gap between [books number] 5 and 6. So, the first five will probably be Wheel of Time-ish, sort of, each one picks up where the last one left off; we have a little more time, maybe, than Wheel of Time, but not terribly much, so it will probably be just a couple of years for the first ones, but then we will jump.
Can you tell me how long it was from the Shattering of Adonalsium to the prelude of The Way of Kings when the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact?
Current timeline, which I have NOT canonized, is around 6,000 years... I have not finished with my outline document yet.
'Cause I've looked at the current chronology and it's very, very spotty...
Yes it is... the real trick is... making sure that I fit in, for instance, White Sand and things with the proper amount... because I haven't released that book series yet, I have to make sure while we're doing the graphic novel, that it fits the chronology, which is why I can't quite canonize things yet.
That one takes place before Way of Kings doesn't it?
Yes
'Cause I know one of the worldhoppers from there shows up in Way of Kings...
Yeah, White Sand is one of the very earliest.
When is The Emperor's Soul set relative to Elantris specifically and the other cosmere books?
The Emperor's Soul is set after Elantris but not so far that the characters from Elantris would not still be around.
Spook's Timeline
One of the problems with Spook's sequences is that I had to break the chapters timewise longer than I'd wanted to. Originally, these latest three or four Spook chapters happened in the course of a week's time. However, when I added them into the rest of the book, I realized I had to space them out a lot farther because of the things happening in Vin and Elend's timeline.
So it's a little bit awkward. Three chapters ago, Spook heard men mention the rumors Durn was spreading about him. Then we had two chapters dealing with Sazed and Breeze's arrival. Only now can Spook finally track down Durn and demand to know about the rumors he was spreading.
It would have made much more sense to have had Spook find a way to do this earlier, but I just couldn't work it in until now. The “count the skulls” thing is coming up too; I haven't forgotten it. Unfortunately, it suffered from this same issue.
Question for you about Skyward. How many years in the universe has passed between the short story and the novel?
Centuries.
Is Dragonsteel still planned to be the bookends for the cosmere (2 eras)?
Yes, but not exactly how you think. It will make sense when I do it, but the final Mistborn series will be the actual end--Dragonsteel will link to it, though.
How long either before modern day or before the Hierocracy was the Recreance?
Um...
Like 200 years-ish? 100 years-ish?
Okay, Recreance to Hierocracy is what you're asking?
Yes. Or to modern day, I don't care.
Uh, so Recreance to Hierocracy... Hierocracy is in recent memory. Recreance is not.
Okay. So that's probably like a 500-year difference. Something like that.
Uh, yeah, or more. Hierocracy, though, is recent-ish memory.
my question was Aona/Skai Shards shattering the event we saw the aftermath of in Elantris? Or a further final apocalypse?
The events in Elantris happened many years before The Way of Kings. That’s all I’ve said for now.
But I thought the monks of Dakhor and the ChayShin(?) were all AonDor related? The energy familiars are related to Skai?
What the Dakhor did accessed the Dor, but it was not AonDor—they weren’t using Aons, but different symbols.
In The Way of Kings, the [epigraphs] indicate that the year is 1174 (or thereabouts). In the Prelude, the date is indicated as 3000 years ago. What mechanism is used to delineate the epochs? Obviously in the Prelude they wouldn't refer to their date as -2174. In other words, what are the B.C./A.D./BCE equivalents for that series?
I'm going to have to RAFO that
Does Alloy of Law take place after the whole Stormlight sequence?
I have not nailed down the exact timing, but it’s at least after book 5 of Stormlight. Because I haven’t nailed down exactly how long
Can you place this one in time for us relative to Era 3 of Mistborn and Sixth of the Dusk?
A little after in my current timeline of those. Karen hasn't seen all these timelines. She only canonizes timelines when books are written, and she hasn't done that for Sunlit Man yet. So she will slot it in. How should we say- you say Era 3 and Sixth of the Dusk. After Era 3, similar timeline to Sixth of the Dusk. Because Era 3 is before Sixth of the Dusk era. Those are not two of the same. Around Sixth of the Dusk era, probably just a tad after, is what I would say.
When is Emperor's Soul set chronologically in relation to Elantris? Because if its around the same time Teod and Arelon might not have to stand alone against the Fjordell Empire.
My other question is also a timeline one. (There are a lot of those tonight haha) I heard you had to move The Way of Kings a little bit due to some plot constraints. So does Warbreaker still fall around the same time as The Alloy of Law or has that shifted as well?
Thanks for the kind words! Emperor's Soul is after Elantris, but not too long after. It is before Mistborn.
Second question is that I've moved things so that The Way of Kings is around the same time as The Alloy of Law, forced by some behind-the-scenes events. Warbreaker now happens before The Alloy of Law.
And are there parts-- Are the cosmere novels chronological so far? So when you eventually go back to Warbreaker the effects of Vasher being on Roshar...
Oh, no, they are not all going to be chronological. Most of them have been chronological so far, but we are getting to the point where they're stopping to be because like Way of Kings was before Alloy but now we've gone back and done Words of Radiance which is a jump backward and then we are going to be jumping to the next Alloy which is a jump forward. I'm pretty sure that's how it goes.
An epoch, is that a standardized set of time or relative?
It is not a standardized set of time.
So it could be variable like, when dad gets home from work til when leaves from work.
Well, that's not going to be one, but yeah... The epochs were way better defined in the original Way of Kings. I let them be more squishy.
In the original Way of Kings, like a first edition?
No, in the Prime, that I read from.
Before Ruin and Preservation showed up on Scadrial, was aluminum already antimagical? Also, is [The Alloy of Law] between Stormlight 5&6?
Yes, [The Alloy of Law] is after Stormlight 5. Specific timing will depend on how long I make the 5/6 gap once I get there.
Are we ever going to get an official Cosmere timeline?
Yes, we will eventually. We're really close to being able to release it, I'm not sure when we will. Um, the real trick is-- Like now that we're locking down White Sand, that's kind of like the last wild card because the novel version wasn't canon. So it's like where do we make sure this is, and stuff like that. So yeah we should be, once White Sand is out I think, everything we can lock down. The trick is, like if I release it there are certain-- like where is Sixth of the Dusk exactly? It's not something I want because that's got spoilers.
..It is actually canon that Era Two [of Mistborn]takes place between the first half and the second half of [The Stormlight Archive]?
Well I haven't written the second half of Stormlight so that--
But does it take place after the first half?
Yes it takes place sometime after the first half, but it depends on how long I break and things like that, whether they overlap, maybe it takes place after 7, maybe it takes place after 5, maybe it takes place after-- Like we'll see when I get there how many years, because the timing on those is a little more tight.
So they're more interweaved with those, those are closer to the same time period.
They are much closer to the same time period than other things, which is why I have to be dodgy on those ones, mostly just because they are on a similar timeline.
How long after Warbreaker do these events take place?
We have numbers in the wiki. We haven't canonized a lot of them in the books yet. Because my original plan for the cosmere involved more space between the series than I'm probably going to eventually do. What I've said is, that basically the books that have been released have all been chronological except for White Sand, which takes place before the other books chronologically. Wax and Wayne takes place after Stormlight Five, but before Stormlight Six. And that's all I'm saying about how far apart things are right now.
One thing you have to remember is, also, time dilation is a thing in the cosmere that comes up a lot more often than it does in our world, for various reasons, because of the way I am treating Investiture. So treat that how you will.
When was Silverlight founded, relative to the stories of the currently published books?
Silverlight is much earlier than the current books, at least in its very first form.
Time-wise, where do the events of Bands of Mourning happen with respect to Words of Radiance?
...So, Bands of Mourning, all the Wax & Wayne books take place after Stormlight 5, but I'm not sure if it happens after or before Stormlight 6, It'll have to wait, because there's a time jump between Stormlight 5 and 6 that I haven't exactly defined in the timeline yet.
What was the reasoning behind there being many, many years between different stories in the different parts the cosmere, like the huge gap between… Warbreaker and Way of Kings. Like why is--
Yeah, why are there some huge gaps in the length of the cosmere. There's-- I want the cosmere to be more than just a little blip of time. The concept for the cosmere was never something, to me, like the Avengers for instance. Which a lot of people kind of view it that way, particularly because the Marvel movies have been so big, and that's good. But it's not like all these concurrent stories with the same characters converging. That's not how I have ever planned it. Now there are certain people who are functionally immortal or close to it that will be involved in things across time, but this is-- I'm telling an epic story, right? And I knew we needed thousands of years between some of the events. For instance, Roshar, we start in the Prelude at 4500 years or whatever before the book starts. It's like, if I didn't have some big gaps, then what are all the stories that are happening in between? It feels illogical and false to me to have all the stories happen in a short time period. Now as certain part of the magic allow more communication and connection, then we will have to, by nature, kind of accelerate some of those things. But I feel like if I spent, you know, ten thousand years or whatever, and only had all the stories happen in the last 50, it would feel really weird. So that’s why.
How close is the enslavement of the parshmen to the Recreance, timeline-wise?
Um, fairly close, as timeline issues go, but still many decades.
Did it play any kind of factor in the decision?
Absolutely. But we're not talking about it happening next year. But it was a factor, how about that?
Stormlight Archive is before The Alloy of Law.
The Sharders have asked if I can find out if the Ars Arcanum for Elantris written at any specific time. Like, was it during the events of Elantris?
The Ars Arcanum is around the context of then, yes. It should be around the events of the first book. I would have to look at it and double check that. But you can take that as canon unless I look at it and find--
If I may ask another thing, did you decide what come earlier in the Cosmere's Timeline between Elantris and White Sand ?
White Sand is earlier. I was pretty sure on this, but I wanted to be able to glance at the timeline and make sure I hadn't made any changes. (And I haven't.) It's pretty solidly locked into that place because of certain events around the cosmere, so you can assume it won't change.
From all of your Cosmere books, do you have anywhere written what the timeframe between the series are?
I haven’t done that officially. We have it ourselves. What I’ve told people is that they are basically in order of being released. I haven’t jumped back. At least if you count the first of each individual series. So they’re roughly in order chronologically. White Sand is out of order because that’s chronologically one of the earliest. And now Stormlight and Wax & Wayne… Wax & Wayne are post-Stormlight, but I’m releasing… You know, it’s a little mixed up now.
Okay, I was almost expecting that in the Arcanum.
Yeah, we will do that eventually. There are just some secrets in there that I’m not sure I want to release, and there are other things I’m not sure I want to canonize because I’m still tweaking the dates a little bit.
1. In your "Oathbringer's Timeline" blog post you said that Oathbringer ends on the 100th day of the year. What event does that refer to? The battle, the wedding, the epilogue?
2. Looking at my own Oathbringer Timeline, it seems like Venli spent only a few days in Marat. Is that true?
3. What day did Shallan and Jasnah leave for the Shattered Plains?
First, note that the timeline is a flexible thing that can be changed to make other events work if needed.
1. The 100th day of the year marking the end of Oathbringer refers to the last event in the final chapter.
2. Venli spent just 5 days in Marat before they left for Thaylen City.
3. Shallan and Jasnah left for the Shattered Plains on "Day 6927". (referring to the day number used in my calendar as explained in the "Roshar's Date System" blog post)
Was Elantris built before or after the prologue of Way of Kings?
*Pauses* Go to my notes and find out. I would have to actually specifically look that one up. My instinct says.....oh boy.
Yeah, because they're both really old.
They're really old. They're both really old. I want to say that the prologue is older, but I don't know for sure, because I know things on Roshar are older. But, the prologue happens late in things on Roshar, so it's still old. So I'm gonna go with, I think this but I'd have to actually get the outline and look at the timeline.
