Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Calamity-Chicago

Will we get a more comprehensive Ars Arcanum in the Arcanum Unbounded?

It depends… there will be cool things in there, but I don’t think they’ll count as “Ars Arcanum” exactly. It’ll be more focused on maps and things like that. There’ll be a star chart for each world.

Arcanum Unbounded,

Brandon Sanderson RAFOlympics at JordanCon 8 (Verbatim)

Will we ever see the entire map of how the different planets are spaced out in…

Oh, yeah, the Cosmere collection will have a star chart of the Cosmere.

Question

A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Cosmere, if you will…

Brandon Sanderson

Now, you’ve got to remember that at the point that this comes out… the collection’s been interesting for a couple of reasons. For one reason, the collection’s coming out before Sixth of the Dusk happens in the Cosmere, right. And so Khriss gives an introduction to each world, so you’ll find her introduction to First of the Sun to be a very interesting introduction that doesn’t know things that you know because of that. In addition, the star chart is a star chart created by people who are not spacefaring. And so it is a star chart more along the lines of… it may not be one hundred percent the scale and things like that, like they’ve been able to figure out a lot of things by using the Cognitive Realm, so they’d be like “alright, here’s the relationship”, but it will be a while before you get what feels like a Star Trek star chart. Your star chart you’re gonna get in this is a fantasy star chart, which will give you the relative positions and things like that, but it’s not gonna be like you can measure exactly, which we do have! But I’m not gonna be giving you that. [audience laughs]

Question

Are you referring to Arcanum Unbounded, is that…

Brandon Sanderson

Arcanum Unbounded, yeah.

cosmere starchart, khriss, sixth of the dusk, arcanum unbounded,

BYU Bookstore (Paraphrased)

In the signing line, I asked him what would have been included in a hypothetical Nalthian essay had there been one.

He said it would have talked about how close the scholars there were to being Cosmere aware, and how they knew more than anyone who wasn't a worldhopper. He also said he would have given clues to where the pool was. Also, he wrote "Are you listening?" In my book, although I have no idea what was meant by that.

arcanum unbounded, nalthis,

BYU Bookstore (Paraphrased)

Probably time for more later – but just quick – my friend asked (and I was there with him asking my own question) Brandon and Isaac at the Provo release where the perspective on the end papers is from –

Brandon confirmed that it was from Silverlight, after checking with Isaac. There was some wonkiness in the response though – Isaac said something like as it was “imagined” from Silverlight, and I tried to get clarification for what that meant (is that because Silverlight is mobile?), but stayed pretty vague (got the impression he was maybe saying there was some sort of artistic license taken?). I consider it confirmed that it is from the perspective of Silverlight, but that that there is more going on there.

cosmere starchart, arcanum unbounded,

Librería Gigamesh

You told us Odium broke 4 shards. Can you talk about the 4th one?

I can say that you've seen, maybe not in Spain, but American fans have seen, the effects of that. You'll see something about it on Arcanum Unbounded"

odium, shards, arcanum unbounded,

Harold Washington Library Center-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

The essays in Arcanum, how trustworthy are they?

They’re pretty trustworthy, as much as you would trust a scholar nowadays who’s an expert in their field. Do know that they take place before Sixth of the Dusk occurs. These are contemporary with most of the books right now, not contemporary with all the stories in there [Arcanum Unbounded].

Arcanum Unbounded, Khriss,

Harold Washington Library Center-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

On the map here, are the other Cosmere worlds on the map and just unlabeled, or is there a bigger map?

There are stars on there that are unlabeled that have inhabited planets.

starmap, Arcanum Unbounded,