All 9 Cosmere Stories in Arcanum Unbounded, Ranked

Warning: this article contains spoilers from Born from the mists series after the book Mistborn: The Final Empire.Brandon SandersonKosmere's multiversal epic is a titanic saga made up of many of its different book series and standalone novels. The many worlds (and books) of the Cosmere are connected by the long-ago death of the mysterious being Adonalsium, who was betrayed and killed by a group of conspirators; Adonalsium shattered into sixteen fragments, each a fragment of a greater whole, and yet each with enough power to reshape reality.

While the book series Born from the mists and The Stormlight Archive saga are the main focus of Cosmere, Sanderson also wrote several short stories that flesh out small details of the universe, be they secondary characters, fragmentless worlds, or just fragmentary ideas that have not yet justified a full novel. In 2016, he launched Unlimited Arcana: The Collected Cosmere, an anthology of nine short stories set across various worlds of the Cosmereinterspersed with essays and illustrations exploring the extensive magical system of worlds such as Born from the mists.

9

White Sand

Taldain (white sand)

The desert world of Taldain is home to the powerful Sand Masters, who can manipulate sand in fantastic ways; When a conspiracy results in your massacre, the only survivor is Kenton, the youngest and weakest Sand Masterwho must figure out how to stay alive when he can't trust anyone. His only ally is the mysterious Khriss, a woman from the strange Darkside of Taldain, and she clearly has plans of her own.

“White Sand” is by no means a bad story, it just doesn't have the same immediate sense of urgency and importance as the other stories in the series. Unlimited Arcane. Part of this is simply due to the incomplete nature of the text; “White Sand” is actually an older text than any other in the collection, as Sanderson finished the book's original manuscript in 2001. The series was adapted into a three-volume graphic novel in 2016, which also has a preview in Unlimited Arcaneand this seems much livelier than the original prose.

It was recently announced that White Sand would get one more release; In the author's December 19 blog post detailing his progress on various projects throughout 2024, he discussed where he is in the process of revising the text manuscript of White Sandwith the aim of publishing it in 2026.”Updating 30-year-old narratives is a big project“, he said in the post with his usual understatement, but I hope updated White Sand novel will shine on the page in a way this excerpt from the original could not.

8

Allomancer Jak and the Wells of Eltania

Scadrial (Mistborn)

The house of Born from the mists series, Scadrial is a planet that until recently was very hostile to life, but events at the end of the first novel trilogy have reshaped it for the benefit of the people who live there. Born from the mistsThe Age 2 books show this new Scadrial, now home to a society quite analogous to that of the United States in the 1800seven the “brochures”, the mass-produced newspapers.

“Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eternia” is part of a serial story published in these booklets, detailing the mighty exploits of the eponymous Allomancer Jak as he adventures across Scadrialgetting into trouble. It's a hilarious story, in part because Jak is a wonderful parody of our world's popular fiction action heroes, like Doc Savage. Pieces of Jak's adventures can also be found as Era 2 interstitial pieces Born from the mists books, which further contrast the bloviating hero with the real-life achievements of series protagonists Wax and Wayne.

7

Elantris' hope

Sel (Elantris)

Sel's world was depressing at the beginning of the novel Elantriswhich showed the eponymous city rotting away, its former magical residents now cursed to a pathetic and devastating form of immortality. Thanks to the heroes of this book, however, Elantris and its residents were healedand its phenomenal powers could once again be used to help the world.

“The Hope of Elantris” follows the events of the original novel, but through a flashback that focuses on a secondary character, Matisseand her fight to save the Elantrian children during the novel's climactic invasion of the city by the cruel Fjordell. Written by Sanderson as a tribute to one of his wife's students, “The Hope of Elantris” is a short but moving story and an interesting glimpse into things that happened off-screen during the original book.

Scadrial (Mistborn)

Another story set in Scadrial, “The Eleventh Metal” is a prequel story, set well before the events of the first Born from the mists romance, The Final Empire. While the original novels showed Kelsier's character at his peak, a fully realized Mistborn with a plan to overthrow the cruel Lord Ruler, “The Eleventh Metal” is a glimpse of Kelsier in his youth.

As an apprentice to the gruff Mistborn Gemmel, Kelsier helps his mentor attack a noble's fortress. There they discover that the nobleman is experimenting on Kelsier's fellow skaa in hopes of finding the legendary “eleventh metal”, a supposedly limitless source of power. After killing the noble and freeing the trapped skaa, Kelsier begins to formulate the plan that would eventually lead him to cross blades with the Lord Ruler himself..

“The Eleventh Metal” is a great story, and It's fantastic to see Kelsier at his most inexperienced. In the main Born from the mists trilogy, he is a seemingly untouchable figure, especially as we see him through the eyes of his own apprentice, Vin. Here, though, he's a young man who's just beginning to heal from the horrible trauma that helped him awaken as a Mistborn, and he hasn't yet developed the characteristic flamboyance that made him such a charismatic leader of the Skaa Rebellion.

5

The Emperor's Soul

Sel (Elantris)

Although located on the same planet as Elantris and “The Hope of Elantris”, “The Emperor's Soul” explores a very different part of that world – the complex and bureaucratic Pink Empire. A forger named Shai is in imperial prison for trying to steal an artifact known as the Moon Scepter, but instead of being executed for her crimes, the Empire offers her an opportunity: Forge the Emperor's own soul, which is languishing in a vegetative state due to an assassin's head wound, and she will be free.

“The Emperor's Soul” is fantastic, and since much of it revolves specifically around forgery magic, it's a Wonderful glimpse into how deeply developed Sanderson's Cosmere magical systems are. It's also packed with Easter eggs and other references to parts of the Cosmere; Shai herself, under a different name, eventually appears in Era 2 Born from the mists novels, where she continues to be an excellent and compelling character.

4

Shadows of silence in the forests of hell

Trenody

Threnody is one of the most dangerous worlds in the Cosmere, and “Shadows of Silence in the Forests of Hell” is the only story set there so far. The Forests of Hell are a dark and twisted place where shadows lurk, waiting to suck the life out of those foolish enough to go out at night. In the story, innkeeper Silence Montane, secretly a bounty hunter, must enter that same forest at night in hopes of seizing a reward that would allow her to finally pay off her debts, but a betrayal forces Silence to fight the bloodthirsty shadows.

“Shadows of Silence” is fascinating, as Threnody has not appeared in any other Cosmere work, as the planet does not have a direct connection with any of the other worlds. This means that the story is full of tantalizing implications of Threnody's horrific story and its people, whose society is clearly on the brink of collapse. Silence is a great protagonist – a gifted bounty hunter and fighter, but these skills only matter to her as a way to keep her inn and her daughter safe.

3

Twilight Sixth

First of the Sun

Little is known from the rest of the Cosmere about the world called the First of the Sun by its inhabitants, other than how its jungles hide many dangers. Sixth of the Dusk, an Eelakin hunter, visits the island of Patji, where he breeds birds with magical powers called Aviar. Upon arriving in Patji, he discovers the massacred members of a merchant company and the only survivor, a young woman named Vathi, who tells him that the merchants came to do research with the help of the Above. mysterious travelers from another world.

As with any Cosmere story that shows an otherwise unexplored world, “Sixth of the Dusk” is an exciting storyand even more exciting considering that the protagonist, Sixth of the Dusk, doesn't possess the magical powers that so many other Cosmere protagonists take for granted. His Aviar companions give him limited foresight abilities, but otherwise his abilities are entirely his own and he is a compelling point of view character.

2

Edgedancer

Roshar (Stormlight Archive)

The world of Roshar is as much shaped by war as it is by the enormous storms that hit it, and the people who live there are shaped by them in turn. Roshar is home to The Stormlight Archivenarrative, and unlike other stories in Unlimited Arcanethat focus on events distant from the plot's movers and shakers, Edgedancer is a central piece of the narrativetaking place between book two, Bright wordsand book three, Oath.

EdgedancerThe central character of is the young Lift, who was introduced as a secondary character in Bright words as she learned how to use her abilities as a Radiant Knight. Edgedancer sends Lift to the city of Yeddaw, where she tries to save other potential Knights Radiant of the man she knows as Darkness, who seeks to slaughter them before they can realize their powers. Along the way, she has another mission of equal importance to her – eating all ten types of pancakes made in the city during the period known as the Weeping.

Lift is a phenomenal character, who seemed quite unassuming in her first appearance in Bright words. However, it is clear from Edgedancer and in the following novels she is in fact one of Brandon Sanderson's favorite characters; this Knight Radiant, still a teenager, has a unique perspective about the world and people, and it's this perspective that allows her to easily shift from hilarious to heartbreaking in the same conversation.

1

Mistborn: Secret History

Scadrial (Mistborn)

Mistborn: Secret History was originally released as a standalone e-book in early 2016, but was included in print for the first time in Unlimited Arcane. This novel contains major spoilers for Born from the mists It was 1, as it reveals that although Kelsier died in battle against the Sovereign Lord in Mistborn: The Final Empiredeath was just the beginning. Kelsier's soul was trapped in the Well of Ascension, at least until Vin released the power there; Then, traveling south, he worked to help Vin and Elend in their fight against the Cognitive Realm Ruin where his spirit was trapped.

While the events of Secret History took fans by surprise, Brandão Sanderson had been planning this story all along, as evidenced by Kelsier's return to mortal form in The Mourning Bands. While some The Stormlight Archive detailed parts of the Cognitive Realm, Secret History showed even more of this mysterious reflection of reality and also confirmed fan theories that Kelsier was too stubborn to actually die.