History Fridge / TheCosmere

* In ''The Stormlight Archive'', you need Stormlight in the Cognitive Realm to turn beads into objects, while in ''Secret History'', no Investiture is needed. Unlike Roshar, Scadrial was created entirely out of Preservation and Ruin's power, so every object is more Invested than usual.

* Hoids explanation to Shallan on how their are three types of people who change the world mirrors exactly what he has been doing in all the books so far.
--->'''Hoid:''' There are two kinds of important men, Shallan. There are those who, when the boulder of time rolls toward them, stand up in front of it and hold out their hands. All their lives, they've been told how great they are. They assume the world itself will bend to their whims as their nurse did when fetching them a fresh cup of milk.
---> These men end up squished.
---> Other men stand to the side when the boulder of time passes, but are quick to say, "See what I did! I made the boulder roll there. Don't make me do it again!"
---> Those men end up getting everyone else squished.
--->'''Shallan:''' Is there not a third type of person?
--->'''Hoid:''' There is, but they are oh so rare. These know they can't stop the boulder so they walk beside it, study it, and bide their time. Then they shove it - ever so slightly - to create a deviation in its path.
---> These are the men...well, these are the men who actually change the world. And they terrify me. For men never see as far as they think they do.

* Each shards respective Investure and Magic system mirrors their intent.

* Fridge for ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' can be found [[Fridge/TheStormlightArchive here]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' can be found [[Fridge/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy here]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/MistbornSecretHistory'' can be found [[Fridge/MistbornSecretHistory here]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'' can be found [[Fridge/WaxAndWayne here]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' can be found [[Fridge/{{Warbreaker}} here]]

* At first, it looks like Allomancy having a hard time Pushing or Pulling any metals partially or completely inside someone's body is a matter of plot convenience. It would be too easy if Mistborn could rip the metals out of someone's stomach or the spikes in a Inquisitor's head. There's an unstated reason for this, though: [[OurSoulsAreDifferent the Spiritweb]] is made of [[{{Mana}} Investiture]], which is also what Allomancy is driven by, and Investiture resists other Investiture. This is also why [[TheBandsOfMourning a sufficiently filled metalmind is undetectable to Ironsight]], and of course why a sufficiently powerful Allomancer can overcome the limit and still push on metals inside of someone. Hemalurgic spikes rip out pieces of said Spiritweb.

** Harmony is the combination of Preservation and Ruin and thus has both magic systems. Whilst the holder of his shard Allomancy has also grown less powerful due to the bloodlines being diluted and Hemalurgy has grown less prelevant. Since Harmony has been in charge both preservations and ruins systems have grown weaker and Frechumancy the balance between them has grown more popular and prelevant.

** Cultavation similarly has yet to reveal her magic system. However her method of giving people curses and boons work so that she never loses any investure. Instead it only grows as she cultivates it.

* In ''Oathbringer'' Hoid tells Shallan a story about the three kinds of people who change the world. When a boulder is rolling down towards them, the first person tries to push it down and gets squished, the second person takes credit for the boulder squishing the first person and threatens the masses into compliance with its power, and the third person carefully observes the boulder before changing its path. If the boulder is the current disaster hitting Scadrial, the three people fit Kelsier, the Lord Ruler, and Sazed.
** The first person seems ineffective because he dies, but Kelsier completely turned the world around with his death. He threw himself at the boulder and rallied everyone else to follow him, and all those bodies piled up did change the boulder's path.
** The Lord Ruler is the second person because of how he justifies his reign: the people need him to keep the world safe. His whole religion has an undercurrent of "I saved the world, be grateful". While he is powerful, he couldn't stop the boulder. He genuinely believes that their compliance is required to defend them from the boulder, but he's still using it to control them.
** Sazed is the third person because he uses his knowledge to move the boulder more or less permanently away. Unlike Kelsier, he could see the consequences of his actions and picks the best route. However, he can't destroy the boulder, and accidentally kills a good chunk of the Southern Scadrian population when terraforming.

* Why Allomancy shatters the crystals in the Pits of Hathsin: [[spoiler:Allomancy is the power of Preservation, and the crystals in the Pits gather the body of Ruin, so the powers are diametrically opposed. Allomancy would naturally disrupt Ruin's power. Preservation probably deliberately set that whole thing up]]. Which brings up the interesting question of what happens if [[spoiler: you burn atium around the crystals]].

* At first, it looks like Allomancy having a hard time Pushing or Pulling any metals partially or completely inside someone's body is a matter of plot convenience. It would be too easy if Mistborn could rip the metals out of someone's stomach or the spikes in a Inquisitor's head. There's an unstated reason for this, though: [[OurSoulsAreDifferent the Spiritweb]] is made of [[{{Mana}} Investiture]], which is also what Allomancy is driven by, and Investiture resists other Investiture. This is also why [[spoiler: [[TheBandsOfMourning a sufficiently filled metalmind is undetectable to Ironsight]]]], and of course why a sufficiently powerful Allomancer can overcome the limit and still push on metals inside of someone. Hemalurgic spikes rip out pieces of said Spiritweb.

* Allomancy and Hemalurgy are of Preservation and Ruin respectively, but they appear to be closer to the opposite Shard: Hemalurgy is a way to preserve magical abilities that would otherwise vanish upon death, and Allomancy destroys metals. Preservation and Ruin cannot create without the other, so even their magic systems need something from the other.

** Honor: Mediocre at best, it ties into HonorBeforeReason--even if you know your actions are going to have a poor effect, you have to do it anyway, because it's right. Plus a large portion of Honor's focus seems to be specifically on honoring Oaths, something which is entirely based on the past and present.
** Cultivation: Much better, possibly one of the best Cultivation is all about planting and nurturing things that will come to fruition in the future which only works with excellent knowledge of consequences.
** Odium: Better than Honor, as everyone on Roshar insists seeing the future is of Odium, but Cultivation seems to have him beat. True hatred of his enemies involves long-term cruelty and planning, but he claims to be about all Passionate emotions which would imply a recklessness and lack of long term planning, making it hard to say exactly where he would land on the scale.

* ''Secret History'' reveals that someone in the Cognitive Realm can pick up and carry the objects they find there, but the Cognitive object will vanish if their Physical Realm counterpart is moved or destroyed. Some real life OfferingsToTheGods take the form of food or treats are 'sacrificed' by leaving them out overnight, which are eaten the next morning because those deities would have already taken their share, magically restoring them in the process. Since deities tend to hang around the Cognitive Realm, this is a viable way of sacrificing to them.

* In ''Secret History'', Preservation compares Kelsier killing the Lord Ruler and inadvertently freeing Ruin to saving people from a burning boat by sinking it, and then pointing out that they didn't burn to death. That's more or less what Shallan did in ''Words of Radiance''; when assassins were killing everyone on her ship, she turns the boat into water. In both cases, they turned certain death into possible death because they didn't have a better way.

** Sazed is the third person because he uses his knowledge to move the boulder more or less permanently away. Unlike Kelsier, he could see the consequences of his actions and picks the best route. However, he can't destroy the boulder, and accidentally kills a good chunk of the Southern Scadrian population when terraforming.

** The Lord Ruler is the second person because of how he justifies his reign: the people need him to keep the world safe. His whole religion has an undercurrent of "I saved the world, be grateful". He genuinely believes that their compliance is required to defend them from the boulder, but he's still using it to control them.

* ''Secret History'' reveals that someone in the Cognitive Realm can pick up and carry the objects they find there, but the Cognitive object will vanish if their Physical Realm counterpart is moved or destroyed. Some OfferingsToTheGods that take the form of food or treats are 'sacrificed' by leaving them out overnight; since deities tend to hang around the Cognitive Realm, this is a viable way of sacrificing to them.

* In ''Elantris'', Sarene tells the other nobles that a country is more than just land or a business, it’s in the hearts and minds of the citizens. The idea behind a country is a combination of Devotion and Dominion; patriotism and noblesse oblige (from the government to the people) are forms of Devotion, and Dominion is the social contract that government and citizens have over each other. That’s why the Aon magic system draws the country.

* In ''Elantris'', Sarene tells the other nobles that a country is more than just land or a business, it’s in the hearts and minds of the citizens. The idea behind a country is a combination of Devotion and Dominion; patriotism and noblesse oblige (from the government to the people) are forms of Devotion, and Dominion is the social contract that government and citizens have over each other. That’s why Aon Rao uses the country as a base.

*** The end of Oathbringer also reveals that the Singers associated Odium with Humanity. It's unclear if they specifically worshipped him before, but it's obvious that eventually they ended up working with Honor against Odium. Odium doesn't just want to destroy humanity for freedom, he also ''hates'' them.

*** This also explains their difference in methods. Ati wasn't evil, he succumbed to the shard impulses, so Ruin was unable to hide them, and he used his powers to impose himself on others and stripe their mind away, just like it happened to him. Rayse, however, ''wanted'' it, and got control on his shard, and this is reflected in his subtelty.

[[index]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' can be found [[Fridge/TheStormlightArchive here]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' can be found [[Fridge/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy here]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/MistbornSecretHistory'' can be found [[Fridge/MistbornSecretHistory here]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'' can be found [[Fridge/WaxAndWayne here]]
* Fridge for ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' can be found [[Fridge/{{Warbreaker}} here]]
[[/index]]