Hello Internet, my name is Steve! Welcome to RAFO!
If you saw last week's video you learned that Brandon Sanderson has written over
45 published works in the past 14 years. Now those 45 books each fall into one of
13 different collections or different universes. Six of those are
standalone short stories without any connections to any other of Brandon's works.
Three are universes that have only one or two full-length novels in them. Two - Brandon's Alcatraz books and The Wheel of Time
novels - all occur on the same individual planets.
But are all self-contained. One - the Reckoners series
and the planned Apocalypse Guard novels actually does span multiple realities.
But the main body of Brandon's work, where the most connections are between books and between stories is
The Cosmere. Now the Cosmere is the collection of books, novels, short stories,
and novellas, that all happen in the same universe. As you read you can find connections between these stories and
other events that are happening within other books. Now though all of these stories happen on their own
individual planets, all of these planets are contained in one dwarf galaxy, similar to our own the Milky Way but
significantly smaller with fewer habitable planets and fewer stars. There are seven worlds on which we've gotten stories.
In order for you to be more familiar about the worlds on which these stories happen
Here is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Cosmere, or
How to Die on Seven Different Planets. The first and most safe of all of the planets that Brandon Sanderson has written is
Sel; the planet on which the story Elatris happens. Honestly if you were to worldhop to Sel, chances are you'd be just fine.
There's not a lot of unique ways to die on Sel. The planet, the climate is fairly similar to what we would see on Earth and so you most likely would die from
some weird disease. Or there's a lot of ocean so you might drown. Or if you're
Incredibly unlucky you might become a human sacrifice in the Dakhor monastery. We don't know much about what goes on there,
but we know that there's potential, like, mass murdering of people. So watch out for that.
Almost as safe as Sel is Nalthis; the Warbreaker planet. One of the main countries on
Nalthis is Hallandren - which is basically a massive city in the middle of a jungle. So presumably
it's about as safe as a jungle with monkeys and parrots and a giant city in it would be. In a way
it's a little more safe than Sel would be because there's a possibility that if you die you will
Return as basically a demigod. But there's also a chance that you might get conned out of giving away your life force so be aware.
Don't... don't be dumb. The third safest planet is
Probably Scadrial, where Mistborn occurs. If you ended up on the Scadrial of the Lord Ruler,
there's a solid possibility that you'll starve to death. Ash falls from the sky all the day long,
Mists cover the landscape at night, and so plant life is a pretty difficult thing to find. Also
On Scadrial there's a possibility that you'll get torn apart by a band of marauding Koloss - which are giant blue skinned
muscley things that have a tendency to just freak out and murder people. And
chances are if you just randomly show up on Scadrial
there's a solid possibility that you'll be forced into indentured servitude and
eventually just die that way. Now we come to the middle planet of the seven planets that we know:
Taldain. If you're on darkside of Taldain,
which is the side of the planet that is facing a white dwarf - so it's basically in perpetual twilight -
You'd probably be pretty okay.
We haven't really heard of anything particularly dangerous on darkside. On dayside however, which is the side of the planet
that's facing the blue-white supergiant, you could die pretty easily. The entire continent on dayside is just a massive desert.
So if you don't know where to find water you'd go down pretty quick. Also,
parts of the continent are covered with deep sand. If you go out onto the deep sand you will encounter
giant sand monsters
Sandlings: predators who glide effortlessly through sand, fast and near indestructible,
Living in the deep sand and emerging only to hunt. Big, scary monster jiggers
that look like that, that eat people. If you manage to survive on Taldain,
next you get to go to Roshar. Now Roshar is a pretty brutal and unforgiving
planet ruled by massive storms. Basically the most
powerful hurricane that we've ever had here on Earth, times
300, the size of a continent. The entire continent has been scraped down to bare rock by the force of these massive storms.
Anything that's not actively secured to the ground is blown away, including
Dirt, buildings, people. So if you're out in one of those highstorms,
you're probably hosed. Also on Roshar there are
massive crab or lobster like creatures that pretty much eat people. If you get caught by a greatshell or a chasmfiend, yeah
you're dead. Sooooo...
Also on Roshar, there's a country that basically exists in a constant state of war.
Thanks, Dalinar. Chances are you might get stabbed in the face by either an Alethi soldier, a
different Alethi soldier or a
Parshendi warrior. And because the entire
continent has been scraped down to bare rock, all of the plant life has evolved in order to survive through these massive storms.
Which means good luck trying to find food. If the grass
runs away from you when you try to pick it and eat it
you know you got a problem. The second most dangerous planet: First of the Sun.
We've only gotten one short story there
And that was Sixth of the Dusk. Most of that short story happens on Patji: the Father
Island. All I can say is if you end up on Patji, you're probably gonna die. On these islands it's a tropical, jungle
climate, so there are trees...
That eat people. There are vines that
eat people. There are ants, lizards, mud, that eats people. There are
giant bird-like predators that actively eat people.
And if you're anywhere on the beach or in the oceans, yeah,
There are massive sea monsters that could swallow entire ships, that eat people. The other Pantheon Islands are probably more safe,
but trappers train on these other islands, so we know that there's at least some form of
carnivorous plant life that happens on them as well. If you're on the mainland on First of the Sun,
we haven't heard much about it, but you'd probably be ok. However the fact that
Everything on Patji is trying to kill you,
I think it qualifies as the second most dangerous planet in the Cosmere. And
number one the most dangerous planet; the one where if you show up on this planet
there is a solid probability that you will die within the first hour; unless you're incredibly lucky
you're dead. That planet is
Threnody, where Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell occurs. If there's a planet that has forests called the Forests of Hell,
it's gonna be a bad time. Let me paint a picture for you. You somehow end up on Threnody. You're in these forests.
It's quiet, peaceful. You're a little hungry. Oh look. There's a tiny little rabbit.
I'm gonna get that rabbit to eat some food. You pick up a rock, bean the rabbit in the head,
rabbit drops dead. At which point you notice there are shadows around you that now have glowing red eyes.
You get torn to shreds by shades. Ok ok ok, suppose you ate right before you got to Threnody.
You don't need to kill that rabbit. It goes on its merry way. However
It's a little bit cold. So what do you do? You gather some sticks; you start a fire. You're torn to bits by shades. It
gets dark in these forests,
and there are these shadows wandering around. You learned from your past lives experience to not light a fire;
What do you do when you start getting chased by a malevolent
cognitive shadow? You run!
You get torn to shreds by shades. If you break any of the three simple rules: Don't shed blood, don't kindle flame,
don't run at night,
You're dead. Luckily this most dangerous planet in the Cosmere is
really difficult to get to. Be sure to subscribe so you're notified for next week's video when we'll talk about exactly why that is.
If I missed any potential deaths in the Cosmere let me know in the comments below.
I'll put the Coppermind links about these planets in the description below,
so if you want to learn more you can Read And Find Out.