Cosmere Encyclopedia

A

Adonalsium

God, also known by Singers as Origin of Songs. It created the Rosharan system and three primeval spren: Wind, Stone and Night. Adonalsium has been destroyed during the event known as Shattering of Adonalsium and its power divided into sixteen parts, known as Shards of Adonalsium.

Allomancy

One of the three forms of Investiture on Scadrial. Users of Allomancy are Allomancers.

Allomancy comes from Preservation and relies on burning Allomantic metals by Allomancers, which in turn provides them with specific power bound to the kind of burned metal. Side effect of burning Allomantic metals is that it creates Allomantic pulses, which Allomancers who burn Bronze can detect.

There are sixteen basic Allomantic metals. They come in pairs: one is the base metal, while the other one is its alloy. One is “pushing” metal and the other is “pulling” metal. Some metals influence things which are outside of Allomancer’s body (external metals), others influence their internal powers. Other way of dividing Allomantic metals is by the type of power they influence: physical or mental attributes, enhancement of other Allomantic powers and manipulating time (temporal metals).

Allomantic Metals

Physical	Pushing	Pulling	Pushing	Pulling	Mental
External	Steel Pushes from nearby metals; allows detection of other metals	Iron Pulls to nearby metal; allows detection of other metalss	Brass Soothes emotions	Zinc Enflames emotions	External
Internal	Pewter Increases physical abilities	Tin Sharpens senses	Bronze Allows detection of Allomantic pulses	Copper Hides the fact of burning Allomantic metal	Internal
External	Nicrosil Enhances power of currently burned metals by other Allomancer	Chromium Depletes metal reserves of other Allomancer	Bendalloy Speeds up time	Cadmium Slows down time	External
Internal	Duralumin Enhances power of currently burned metals	Aluminum Depletes metal reserves of Allomancer	Electrum Reveals Allomancer's future	Gold Reveals Allomancer's past self	Internal
Enhancement	Pushing	Pulling	Pushing	Pulling	Temporal

Some Allomancers can burn God Metals, which provide other effects than the ordinary Allomantic metals. Some God Metals, like Lerasium, can be burned by anyone.

Ambition

One of Shards of Adonalsium. Its original Vessel was Uli Da, but she was killed by Rayse who held the Shard of Odium at that time.

Shortly after Shattering Uli Da had visited Threnodite System, where she, Odium and Mercy fought against each other, ultimately loosing to Odium.

Aon

Name of the writing system and glyphs used on Sel, primarily used in Arelon, as well as the name of the first glyph of the system. All glyphs together are called Aons and the first glyph is Aon. Aons serve as a base for AonDor magic system.

Aons are tightly connected with geography of Arelon. All Aons base on the shape of the first Aon Aon, which itself bases on the shape of Arelon: its top line represents the Sea of Fjorden, right curve Atad Mountains and the dot in the middle: Lake Alonoe. After Reod shape of Aons have changed, adding the line at the bottom right, representing the chasm created during the earthquake. Without that line, Aons are incomplete and don’t work as intended for their magical purposes.

Each Seon displays a glowing Aon at its core.

Aons aren’t invented, but discovered.

List of Aons

Name	Meaning	Use in AonDor
Aon	First, Language	Base for other Aons
Aan	Truth, Fact
Aeo	Bravery
Aha	Breath, Air
Ake	The Direction West
Ala	Beauty, Handsomeness
Are	Unity, Cohesion
Ashe	Light, Illumination	Creates a light, without a heat.
Ata	Grace, Smoothness
Ati	Hope
Ato	The Direction North
Daa	Power, Energy	Offensive spell; creates a burst of light which strikes the opponent
Dao	Stability, Security
Deo	Gold, Metal
Dii	Wood
Dio	Steadfast, Immovable
Eda	Superior, Lofty
Edo	Protection, Safety	Defensive shield/wall
Ehe	Fire, Warmth
Ela	Focus, Center
Ena	Torena
Ene	Wit, Cleverness
Eno	Water
Eon	Willpower, Endurance
Eshe	Gift, Endowment
Eto	Body, Flesh, Muscle
Iad	Trust, Reilable
Ial	Helpfulness, Aid
Ido	Mercy, Forgiveness
Ien	Wisdom	Base Aon for healing; specialised use requires many modifiers
Ire	Time, Age
Kae	The Direction East
Kai	Calmness, Solemnity
Kii	Justice
Mai	Honor
Mea	Thoughtfulness, Caringness
Nae	Sight, Clarity	Magnifies what's in the middle of the circle in center of Aon Nae
Omi	Love
Opa	Flower
Rao	Spirit, Essence
Reo	Reo	Power Amplifier
Rii	Wealth, Affluence
Sao	Intelligence
Sea	Chasity, Faithfulness
Seo	Loyalty, Service
Shao	Transform, Change	Base for creating illusions which are tied to the clothing
Sheo	Death
Soi	Order, Organized
Tae	Open
Teo	Royal, Majestic
Tia	Trave, Transportation	Quick travel, teleportation
Toa	The Direction South

Aona

Original Vessel of Devotion. Together with Skai she violated the pact of original Vessels to not settle on the same world, and they both settled on Sel. Later, Rayse arrived at the system and killed Aona and Skai. Their combined Investiture creates the Dor.

AonDor

Magic system (manifestation of Investiture) on Sel. It uses Aons to draw energy from Dor.

Normally only Elantrians who are past Shaod can use AonDor, but a person invited and accepted to one of Elantrian’s groups can use AonDor too (example: Hoid tricked Elantrian Riina into inviting him to become Elantrian). Soul stamping a person to Elantrian may work too (Wan ShaiLu stamped herself).

To channel Investiture, Elantrian draws Aons resembling geography of Arelon. Aons usually are drawn in the air. Precision of drawing is of highest importance and any mistake nullifies the Aon. Intent of drawing is necessary, the same as in other forms of Investiture, but due to the complexity of Aons, it is unlikely to draw them without the proper Intent.

Each Aon has unique effect. Aons can be combined, or modified by drawing additional dots and lines that change their power and range. For example, thanks to the careful drawing, healer can define which limb AonDor should heal. Once drawn, Aon doesn’t deplete and continues to function until destroyed by another Elantrian.

AonDor can be used to cast curses upon a person. Curses have negative effects on their subjects, such as change of appearance, personality, or forbidding them to explain the curse to the others. To break the curse, one must fulfill its conditions. Curses are hard to break by other means, even by their caster.

Shapes of Aons have changed after Reod. Unable to draw the new Aons, Elantrians lost their powers and Shaod couldn’t finish the transformation of new Elantrians because of the missing chasm line in the enormous Aon Rao which Elantris and the four Gate Cities create. Prince Raoden of Arelon drew the missing chasm line on the ground, restoring the powers of Elantrians.

The distance of Elantrian from Arelon weakens AonDor, which makes it very difficult to use outside of Sel. To be successful, one would need a source of Dor and a local map combined with Aon (likely Aon Rao serving as power amplifier) drawn on the ground where Elantrian casts the spells. Ire have devised methods of channeling Dor through Cognitive Realm. It’s also possible to transfer purified Dor between worlds in ordinary containers to use AonDor off-Sel.

Aonic

Aonic people is the ethnic group of people on Sel, living mostly in the region surrounding Elantris and Arelon.

Arelon

Nation in the northwest part of Opelon on Sel with the capital in Elantris. Shortly after Reod Arelon’s capital was moved to Kae, but it was moved back after the invasion of Arelon and reconstruction of Elantris.

Deo is the currency of Arelon, named after Aon Deo.

Arelon remains the last nation on Opelon independent from the Fjordell Empire.

Ascension

Act of becoming a Vessel to a Shard of Adonalsium. When Ascending, a living person’s body vaporizes and their mind expands. To Ascend, Shard must accept the new Vessel, who must align to Shard’s Intent.

Ashyn

Planet in Rosharan system, first planet from the system’s sun. Also known as Alaswha.

Adonalsium had created Ashyn on which humankind settled and created many city-states. After Odium had arrived to Ashyn, he favored a single nation and imbued them with power of unbound control over the Surges. Odium-favored nation conquered many city-states and began building Odium’s empire on Ashyn. Aware of events on Ashyn, Honor appeared before Nale and his uncle Makibak and offered them a power to resist Odium an his empire. This inflamed the ongoing war which concluded with near-total destruction of Ashyn. Led by Jezrien and Ishar, most of Ashyn’s population fled to Roshar.

After the ecological catastrophe today’s Ashyn is barren, with some small patches of fertile land.

Ati

Original Vessel of Shard Ruin.

Together with Leras, a Vessel of Preservation, he created Scadrial and sapient life on it and formed a deal with Preservation that one day he could destroy it. However, Preservation broke the terms of their deal: he trapped Ruin in the Well of Ascension and stole part of his power and stored it as atium in the Pits of Hathsin.

Ati could still influence the world in some minuscule ways. He tricked Vin to release the power of the Well which freed him. Without his full power, he couldn’t destroy Scadrial immediately so he began to seek the hidden deposits of atium. He was unsuccessful. Vin, who ascended to the Shard of Preservation, killed both Ati and herself, and the power of Ruin and Preservation were taken by Sazed, who ascended to Harmony.

Atium

God Metal associated with Shard Ruin. Its name comes from Ati, the original Vessel of Ruin. It was created by Preservation who imprisoned Ruin, took part of its power and hid it in the Pits of Hathsin. Hidden power of Ruin, his “body”, manifested as a metal atium.

Because atium is the physical manifestation of condensed power of Ruin, Allomancers who burn atium, draw their power from Ruin, not Preservation.

When burned by Allomancer, atium allows to see few seconds into the future, producing “shadows” of things which may happen. When two users of atium look at each other, they see many different shadows, because future is uncertain for them. The same nullifying effect occurs when atium user encounters user of electrum.

Feruchemists can use atium to store their youth.

When used as a Hemalurgical spike, atium can steal any power.

Autonomy

Shard of Adonalsium, currently held by Bavadin. Currently Autonomy is located on Taldain. On Scadrial she was referred to as Trell.

Autonomy’s Intent is about individualism. It wants to remain alone and not corrupted by other Shards. To achieve this, Autonomy strives to gain the most influence in cosmere by creating many avatars of herself in different parts of cosmere. Among them are Sand Lord on Taldain, Patji on the First of the Sun, Telsin Ladrian on Scadrial and an avatar on Obrodai (name unknown).

Autonomy created The Set, a secret organization on Scadrial, with intention of ruling the Scadrial. In case of not achieving goals of The Set, Autonomy intended to invade Scadrial with her army of men of gold and red through the Scadrial’s Cognitive Realm, by using the artificial perpendicularity in Bilming which she created. It was destroyed by a group of Allomancers led by Marasi Colms, preventing the invasion, and The Set’s plans were held back by Wax and Wayne. Since then, Autonomy withdrew from Scadrial.

Autonomy is associated with Sand Mastery and Starmarks magic systems.

Aviar

TBD

Awakening

TBD

B

Bavadin

TBD

Beyond

TBD

Bilming

TBD

BioChromatic Breath

TBD

BioChromatic Entity

TBD

Braize

TBD

Breath Equivalent Unit (BEU)

Unit of measurement of Investiture, based on the quantity of Investiture in one BioChromatic Breath.

C

Catacendre

A major event on Scadrial after Ascension of Sazed to the Shard of Harmony, during which he used the newly obtained power and his Keeper’s knowledge stored in copperminds to return Scadrial to the state similar to the one before the Lord Ruler’s Ascension. Sazed moved the planet back to its original orbit, removing the necessity for the ashmounts, and moved the landmasses to their original places, reshaping the continents. Elendel Basin was creayed as a fertile land where humanity could thrive and rebuild.

Nearly all of humanity on Scadrial died during Catacendre.

Chan Ko Sar

TBD

Cosmere

TBD

Cultivation

TBD

D

Dawnshard

TBD

Devotion

TBD

Dominion

TBD

Dor

TBD

E

Edgli

TBD

Elantris

TBD

Endowment

TBD

Euridrius

TBD

Eye of Ridos

TBD

F

Feruchemy

TBD

First of the Sun

TBD

Fjordell Empire

TBD

G

Gate Cities

TBD

God Metal

Solid mianifestation of Shard of Adonalsium’s Investiture. Known God Metals are: atium, malatium, harmonium, lerasium, trellium and raysium

H

Harmonium

TBD

Harmony

TBD

Hemalurgy

TBD

Hoid

TBD

Honor

TBD

I

Intent

TBD

Invention

TBD

Investiture

Base of all cosmere magic systems. Investiture is measured in Breath Equivalent Units.

It naturally belongs to the Spiritual Realm. In large quantities, it causes time dilation in Cognitive and Physical Realms, where time and space do matter.

Energy, relativistic mass and Investiture are different forms of the same thing, deriving from the famous Einstein’s formula E = mc², which is a special case of energy-momentum relation with momentum equal to 0.

Investiture manifests itself differently on different worlds, for example as Awakening on Nalthis, as Stormlight on Roshar or as Allomancy on Scadrial.

Ire

TBD

Ishar

TBD

J

Jezrien

TBD

K

Kae

TBD

Keeper

TBD

Koravellium Avast

TBD

L

Leras

TBD

Lerasium

TBD

Lord Ruler

See: Rashek.

M

Makibak

TBD

Malatium

TBD

Marasi Colms

TBD

Medelantorius

TBD

Mercy

TBD

Mistborn

A person who can use all Allomantic metals. One can become a Mistborn by burning Lerasium, but next generations may genetically inherit the ability to become a Mistborn. After Catacendre no new Mistborns are possible due to dilution of Allomantic genes.

N

Nale

TBD

Nalthis

TBD

Nightblood

TBD

Night of Sorrows

TBD

O

Odium

TBD

Opelon

TBD

P

Perpendicularity

TBD

Pits of Hathsin

TBD

Preservation

TBD

Q

R

Rashek

TBD

Raoden

TBD

Rayse

Original Vessel of Odium. Killed by Taravangian with Nightblood.

Raysium

TBD

Realm

Place of existence. In cosmere everything exists in one of three Realms: Physical Realm, Cognitive Realm and the Spiritual Realm. On Roshar the theory of three Realms has been first proposed by the scholar Gavarah.

Physical Realm is a Realm which we perceive with our senses.

Cognitive Realm is the world of thought and perception. On Roshar Shadesmar is on the Cognitive Realm.

Spiritual Realm is made entirely of Investiture and lies beyond space and time. Shards are almost entirely contained in the Spiritual Realm.

Reason

TBD

Reod

TBD

Retribution

TBD

Riina

TBD

Roshar

TBD

Rosharan System

Planetary system also known as Greater Roshar.

There are 13 planets in the system: 3 rocky planets: Ashyn, Roshar and Braize, and 10 gas giants: Jes, Nan, Chach, Vev, Palah, Shash, Betab, Kak, Tanat and Ishi, separated by the asteroid belt from the rocky planets.

Life exists on the first 3 planets, most of it on Roshar The first 3 rocky planets are inhabited, but most of the system’s life exists on Roshar.

The section of Cognitive Realm in the system is called Shadesmar.

Ruin

TBD

S

Sand Mastery

TBD

Sazed

TBD

Scadrial

TBD

Scadrian System

TBD

Sel

TBD

Set

TBD

Selish System

TBD

Seon

TBD

Shadesmar

Section of Cognitive Realm in the Rosharan system. It is the kingdom of spren. Also known as Makari Sin by the Shin.

Shaod

TBD

Shard of Adonalsium

Piece of Adonalsium’s power created during the Shattering. Each Shard is named after its purpose or its Intent, which defines how they act and what they’re capable of. To be used, Shard needs a Vessel: a person who holds its power.

When two or more Shards are being held by one person, they mix and create a new Intent. Although the Intents of individual Shards still exist, the mix constitutes as a new Shard. In total, 65535 Shards can be created this way, including the one made of all sixteen primary Shards.

Primary Shards are: Ambition, Autonomy, Cultivation, Devotion, Dominion, Endowment, Honor, Invention, Mercy, Odium, Preservation, Reason, Ruin, Valor, Virtuosity and Whimsy.

Shards can create avatars: semi-autonomous entities that wield a portion of Shard’s power.

Shattering of Adonalsium

Event after which Adonalsium was destroyed and its power divided into sixteen parts, known as Shards of Adonalsium. It took place over 10000 years before the True Desolation.

Adonalsium was killed by Aona, Ati, Bavadin, Chan Ko Sar, Edgli, Euridrius Hoid, Koravellium Avast, Leras, Medelantorius, Rayse, Skai, Tanavast and Uli Da, using the dawnshards.

Shin

TBD

Skai

TBD

Soulstamp

TBD

Spren

TBD

Starmarks

TBD

Surgebinding

TBD

Sycla

Name of continent on Sel. Opelon. Name of Sycla is used by the nations that live in the eastern part of the continent.

T

Taldain

TBD

Tanavast

TBD

Taravangian

TBD

Telsin Ladrian

TBD

Teod

TBD

Threnodite System

TBD

Trellium

TBD

True Desolation

TBD

U

Uli Da

TBD

V

Valor

TBD

Vasher

TBD

Vessel

A person who took one or more of Shards of Adonalsium.

Vin Venture

TBD

Virtuosity

TBD

W

Wan ShaiLu

TBD

Warbreaker

Warbreaker or *Warbreaker the Peaceful is the title of Vasher which he held on Nalthis.

Waxillium Ladrian

TBD

Wayne

TBD

Well of Ascension

TBD

Whimsy

TBD

X

Y

Z

Zahel

See: Vasher.