The Cosmere is the shared universe connecting nearly every adult novel Brandon Sanderson has published since 2005: sixteen known worlds, one shattered god split into pieces, and a single immortal wanderer who turns up on almost all of them. This is the full map. Every world, every magic system, every book, and exactly where to start.
What Is the Cosmere?
The Cosmere is the fictional universe Brandon Sanderson built to connect the Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn Saga, and his standalone novels into a single continuity. Every one of these books takes place on a different planet, with its own magic system and its own cast, but all of them draw power from the same source: the shattered remains of a god called Adonalsium.
Sanderson has been building toward this on purpose since his first published novel. Small references, shared characters, and matching magic rules connect books that look unrelated on the shelf. You do not need to read the Cosmere in order to enjoy any single series. You do need to know it exists to catch what is actually happening underneath Wind and Truth or The Lost Metal.
As of Wind and Truth (2024), the Cosmere spans 7 published Shardworlds, 19 novels, and has sold over 50 million copies worldwide, according to Sanderson’s publisher Tor Books.
The Shards of Adonalsium, in One Paragraph
Before Adonalsium existed as a god, it existed as raw power. It was murdered on the planet Yolen, and its power broke into sixteen pieces called Shards, each one polarized toward a single idea: Honor, Ruin, Preservation, Odium, Cultivation, Devotion, Dominion, Endowment and the rest. Whoever holds a Shard becomes its Vessel, effectively a god for that piece of the puzzle, and the world that Shard settles on gets shaped by its Intent. Roshar carries Honor, Odium and Cultivation. Scadrial carries Ruin and Preservation, later fused into Harmony. That is why every planet in the Cosmere has a completely different magic system: the Shard sitting on it is different.
For the full breakdown of who holds what after Wind and Truth, see Cosmere Shard Theories: Every Shard of Adonalsium Explained.
Every World in the Cosmere and Where to Start Reading
Roshar: The Stormlight Archive
Roshar is a world shaped by highstorms so violent that plants retract into the ground and animals hide in shells. Its magic, Surgebinding, is granted through a Nahel bond between a human and a spren, one of the ten sentient spirits tied to each Knight Radiant order. Roshar is the biggest series in the Cosmere and the one dalinar.com is built around: five books published, two more planned to close the first arc.
Full reading order and the rest of the series in Stormlight Archive Reading Order and Roshar: Complete World Guide.
Scadrial: The Mistborn Saga
Scadrial runs on Allomancy and Feruchemy, two magic systems built around swallowing and burning specific metals. Era One, the original trilogy, is a heist story about overthrowing an immortal tyrant. Era Two jumps three hundred years forward into a Wild West era of railroads and revolvers, following lawman Waxillium Ladrian. Both eras are complete, which makes Mistborn the one fully-finished entry point into the Cosmere.
Era Two starts with The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, The Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal. Full breakdown and magic system explained in Mistborn Reading Order and Mistborn Magic Systems Explained.
Sel: Elantris
Sel holds the Dominion and Devotion Shards and runs on AonDor, a magic system based on drawing symbols in the air. Elantris was Sanderson’s 2005 debut, and it is where the Cosmere technically begins: the city of Elantris was once home to god-like beings whose magic failed overnight, ten years before the novel opens.
Nalthis: Warbreaker
Nalthis holds the Endowment Shard. Its magic, Awakening, works by trading away Breath, a quantifiable unit of life force everyone is born with one of, to bring color and objects to life. Warbreaker is a standalone novel about two princess sisters and a god-king’s court, and it directly seeds characters who later matter in the Stormlight Archive.
Lumar: Tress of the Emerald Sea
Tress of the Emerald Sea was the first of Sanderson’s four “Secret Projects,” funded by the largest Kickstarter campaign in the platform’s history. It is a standalone fairy-tale adventure narrated by Hoid, the one character who moves freely between every world in the Cosmere, and it works as a genuine starting point for a reader who has never touched Sanderson before.
Komashi and Torio: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
The third Secret Project splits its story across two worlds at once. Yumi lives on Komashi, summoning spirits through strict ritual; Painter lives on Torio, fighting nightmares in the dark. Hoid narrates again, and the book is one of the most romance-forward entries in the whole Cosmere, closer to a Studio Ghibli film than a war epic.
Canticle: The Sunlit Man
The fourth Secret Project is the fastest-paced entry in the Cosmere: a fugitive named Nomad, on the run from an enemy called the Night Brigade, crash-lands on a planet where standing in daylight for too long means being melted alive. It is the entry with the most direct Stormlight Archive connections outside Roshar itself, and Sanderson has said it rewards readers who come to it after Wind and Truth.
Cross-Cosmere: Arcanum Unbounded and Hoid
Some Cosmere stories do not belong to a single world. Arcanum Unbounded collects nine of them, including the novella Edgedancer (Stormlight Archive), Mistborn: Secret History, and a first look at two Shardworlds with no full novel yet, Taldain and Threnody. It is also where Khriss, an in-universe scholar, writes essays that name most of the sixteen Shards directly, which makes this the single most useful book for anyone chasing the bigger picture.
Every one of these books is narrated in part by, or crosses paths with, Hoid: a joke-cracking, world-hopping storyteller who has appeared in every Cosmere novel published so far, usually in a small role that only matters once you notice the pattern.
Complete Cosmere Reading Order at a Glance
| World | Series | Books | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roshar | Stormlight Archive | 5 (of 10 planned) | Epic fantasy, slow burn, huge cast |
| Scadrial | Mistborn (Era 1 + 2) | 7, complete | Heist plots, faster pacing, a finished story |
| Sel | Elantris | 1, standalone | Political intrigue, single-book commitment |
| Nalthis | Warbreaker | 1, standalone | Court drama, readers who want Stormlight lore early |
| Lumar | Tress of the Emerald Sea | 1, standalone | First-time Sanderson readers, fairy-tale tone |
| Komashi/Torio | Yumi and the Nightmare Painter | 1, standalone | Romance-leaning readers |
| Canticle | The Sunlit Man | 1, standalone | Readers already caught up on Stormlight |
For the full chronological-versus-publication debate, see Cosmere Reading Order: Complete Guide.
Play in the Cosmere
The Cosmere also exists outside prose. Brotherwise Games’ Cosmere RPG lets a group run their own Radiants on Roshar using the actual Stormlight Archive magic rules, and it funded as the most-backed tabletop game in Kickstarter history.
Want something faster than a novel or a tabletop campaign? Try Which Cosmere World Do You Belong In? or Which Knight Radiant Order Are You?.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in the Cosmere?
19 novels across 7 published Shardworlds as of Wind and Truth (2024), plus novellas and short stories collected in Arcanum Unbounded. Sanderson has outlined roughly 36 total works before the Cosmere’s planned ending.
Do I have to read the Cosmere books in order?
No. Every series stands on its own, and most readers start with either The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive) or Mistborn: The Final Empire. Reading in publication order lets you catch cross-series references as Sanderson intended them.
What is a Shard of Adonalsium?
A Shard is one of sixteen pieces of the shattered god Adonalsium, each carrying a single Intent such as Honor, Ruin or Endowment. Whoever holds a Shard becomes its Vessel, and the world that Shard settles on is shaped by its magic and its philosophy.
Who is Hoid?
Hoid is a joke-cracking, world-hopping storyteller who appears in some form in every published Cosmere novel. He narrates Tress of the Emerald Sea, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter and The Sunlit Man directly, and shows up in a smaller role everywhere else, including the Stormlight Archive as Wit.
Which Cosmere book should I read first?
The Way of Kings for epic fantasy readers who want the deepest series, Mistborn: The Final Empire for a faster, complete story, or Tress of the Emerald Sea for the lowest-commitment starting point.
The Way of Kings is the perfect entry point. Available in print, Kindle, and audiobook.
The Stormlight Archive audiobooks - narrated by Michael Kramer & Kate Reading - are 40–57 hours each. The best use of a commute in fantasy history.
