The Cosmere Start Here
What is part of the Cosmere?
Mistborn and Stormlight share a universe. The Wheel of Time does not. Find the boundary before choosing your first book.
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Enter the Cosmere universe
The Cosmere in Chronological Order
Cross every world. Follow the Cosmere forward.
Explore the Cosmere’s published fiction and mapped RPG stories in story chronology across worlds including Sel, Scadrial, Nalthis and Roshar, with uncertain cross-world placements labelled instead of guessed.
Taldain, Sel, Scadrial, Nalthis, Threnody, Roshar and the space-age worlds form one canon—separate adventures whose people, powers and consequences increasingly collide.
Last editorial check
Universe orientation
Thirty-four mapped stories. One connected creation.
The quick answer
Choose Mistborn: The Final Empire for a focused first series, or The Way of Kings if you want a larger ensemble epic. Read the chosen series in sequence. You do not need to begin with the earliest event in the Cosmere or read every other series before opening Stormlight.
Why we recommend this route ↓Switch to release order or use Starter Mode for a shorter route.Universe explored
The Cosmere universe, story by story
The mapped Cosmere chronology runs from White Sand through the space-age works and includes the supplied canon Roshar RPG adventures. Collections such as Arcanum Unbounded do not create duplicate entries; their individual stories sit where their events belong.
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Story chronology · Full mapped list
This is an in-universe chronology, not Brandon Sanderson’s recommended reading order. Exact sequence is preserved within series; broad cross-world placements use confidence labels, and Secret History is shown as an overlap across Mistborn Era 1.
Showing 34 of 34 released stories.
- Graphic novel / omnibusCanon
White Sand
Direct link to this storyReadBook / comicCanonListenAudiobook / audioCanonPlaced early Cosmere era. Source status: C.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Elantris
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonA prince is cast into a fallen city after a divine transformation goes wrong, while a princess and priest fight over the kingdom beyond its walls.
Goodreads - Short storyCanon
The Hope of Elantris
Direct link to this storyReadShort storyCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonA child inside Elantris tries to protect the people around her while the novel’s final crisis unfolds from another viewpoint.
Goodreads - NovellaCanon
The Emperor’s Soul
Direct link to this storyReadNovellaCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonOn another part of Sel, a magical forger is given one impossible deadline: reconstruct the soul of an emperor.
Goodreads - Short storyCanon
The Eleventh Metal
Direct link to this storyReadShort storyCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonA younger Kelsier trains with Gemmel and learns how an impossible rebellion might begin before the original Mistborn trilogy.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Mistborn: The Final Empire
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonVin joins Kelsier’s crew for a magical heist against an immortal ruler in a world buried beneath ash and mist.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
The Well of Ascension
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonVictory leaves Vin and Elend holding a besieged city while something much older presses against its prison.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
The Hero of Ages
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonThe first Mistborn era reaches its world-changing conclusion as the truth behind Scadrial’s gods and powers finally surfaces.
Goodreads - NovellaCanonC / Multi-Era
Mistborn: Secret History
Direct link to this storyOverlapping storyoverlaps Era 1 and extends beyondReadNovellaCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonSpoiler-sensitive placement — reveal note
A hidden viewpoint reveals what was happening beside Era 1’s main events. It contains major trilogy spoilers and a smaller Bands of Mourning spoiler.
- NovelCanon
Warbreaker
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonTwo princesses, a reluctant god and a dangerously cheerful sword collide in a kingdom where colour fuels magic.
Goodreads - NovellaCanon
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
Direct link to this storyReadNovellaCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonAn innkeeper and bounty hunter survives a haunted forest where every flame, wound and sudden movement can attract the dead.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
The Way of Kings
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonSoldier, scholar, assassin and highprince converge on a storm-battered world as ancient powers and forgotten oaths return.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Words of Radiance
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonThe new Knights Radiant begin to find one another while the Shattered Plains race toward a catastrophic transformation.
Goodreads - NovellaCanon
Edgedancer
Direct link to this storyReadNovellaCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonLift leaves court for Yeddaw and collides with Darkness in the bridge between Words of Radiance and Oathbringer.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Oathbringer
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonDalinar’s buried history becomes inseparable from his attempt to unite Roshar against the new Desolation.
Goodreads - NovellaCanon
Dawnshard
Direct link to this storyReadNovellaCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonRysn leads a dangerous expedition to Akinah and uncovers a secret whose importance reaches far beyond Roshar.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Rhythm of War
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonWar, scholarship and the physics of Roshar’s magic converge as both sides gamble on dangerous new discoveries.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Wind and Truth
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonTen final days drive the first Stormlight arc toward Odium’s contest of champions and consequences felt across the Cosmere.
- RPG adventureCanon unclearC/A
The First Step
Direct link to this storyPlayGameCanon unclearPlaced Stormlight-era introductory adventure. Source status: C/A.
- RPG adventure / quickstartCanon unclearC/A
Bridge Nine
Direct link to this storyPlayGameCanon unclearPlaced Stormlight-era. Source status: C/A.
- Campaign-length RPG adventureCanon
Stonewalkers
Direct link to this storyPlayGameCanonPlaced begins alongside Words of Radiance and culminates toward Wind and Truth. Source status: C.
- Actual-play / published RPG scenarioCanon unclearC/A
Echoes of the Father
Direct link to this storyPlayGameCanon unclearPlaced after Everstorm / True Desolation era. Source status: C/A.
- RPG adventuresCanon unclearC/A / split children
Stormlight Scenarios
Direct link to this storyPlayGameCanon unclearPlaced various Stormlight points. Source status: C/A / split children.
- NovelCanon
The Alloy of Law
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonCenturies after Era 1, frontier lawman Waxillium Ladrian returns to an industrialising Elendel where guns and Allomancy share the streets.
Goodreads - In-universe novella/serialCanonC / artifact
Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania
Direct link to this storyReadShort storyCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonA flamboyant newspaper adventurer recounts his latest exploits—with footnotes quietly challenging how much of his story deserves belief.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Shadows of Self
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonWax’s hunt for a shapeshifting killer forces him to confront Scadrial’s divine history and one of his own deepest wounds.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
The Bands of Mourning
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonA hunt for the Lord Ruler’s legendary metalminds reveals that Scadrial’s history—and its place in the wider Cosmere—is less settled than it appears.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
The Lost Metal
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonWax and Wayne’s era closes as a local conspiracy becomes an openly interplanetary Cosmere conflict.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Tress of the Emerald Sea
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonTress leaves her island home and crosses lethal spore seas to rescue the person she loves, with a familiar worldhopper narrating the trouble.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonTwo people from radically different societies become mysteriously linked while nightmares gather behind the rules governing both their lives.
Goodreads - NovelCanonReleased digitally to eligible BackerKit backers · retail 8 Dec 2026
The Fires of December
Direct link to this storyReadBook / comicCanonListenAudiobook / audioCanonBrandon Sanderson's third Hoid's Travails novel. Digital rewards have been delivered to eligible BackerKit backers; the wider retail edition is scheduled for 8 December 2026. Official release materials do not establish a precise macro-chronology position or name the story's world, so this placement is intentionally approximate.
- NovelCanon
The Sunlit Man
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonA fugitive worldhopper lands on Canticle, where stopping in the sunlight means death and every escape exposes more of his past.
Goodreads - NovellaCanonC / version relationship
Sixth of the Dusk
Direct link to this storyReadNovellaCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonA traditional trapper on the lethal island of Patji faces visitors from the stars and the slow colonisation hidden beneath their help.
Goodreads - NovelCanon
Isles of the Emberdark
Direct link to this storyReadNovelCanonListenAudiobook editionCanonSixth of the Dusk’s world expands into a spacefaring Cosmere story where modernisation, conquest and interplanetary powers can no longer stay distant.
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From the Library
Explore The Cosmere
Make sense of the timeline, then find your next story.
The Cosmere Start Here
Where Should You Start Reading the Cosmere?
Choose a Cosmere entry point that fits your appetite for a trilogy, a standalone story or a large epic, with guidance from Brandon Sanderson.
Read · Listen
The Cosmere Start Here
Mistborn or Stormlight First? A Spoiler-Free Starting Guide
Compare the commitment, scope and starting experience of Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive without ranking them or spoiling their stories.
Read · Listen
More The Cosmere answers (1)
Editorial guidance
How to use this The Cosmere map
Local series order comes before global chronology
Sanderson explicitly offers several Cosmere starting points. A shared setting does not turn every book into the next numbered volume of one series. Follow the sequence of the series you choose before using the wider timeline to compare eras. That gives you a manageable reading commitment without discarding the cross-world map.
Earlier events can still be later reading
A companion story can revisit events while revealing information a first reader has not reached. Secret History is a particularly important case: its official description warns about original-trilogy spoilers. Chronological proximity is not a spoiler rating. Keep side stories for the relevant reading stage rather than inserting them solely because their events overlap.
What the map includes does not make it compulsory
The guide separates series, worlds and labelled adjacent material. An RPG adventure or optional short story does not become required before a main novel just because it has a timeline position. For a first visit, choose one series; for a reread, use the full map to investigate connections. Placement confidence remains important where an exact inter-series date is unsettled.
Sources and this review
Separated entry-point advice from inter-series chronology and clarified spoiler-sensitive companion reading. This date covers these reading and viewing notes, not a fresh audit of every chronology record. The guide’s coverage date remains above.
Starting points and optional-route judgments are Story Order recommendations. They are distinct from official chronology and canon statements.
- Brandon Sanderson: Where do I start? — Multiple starting points and sequential reading within a series.
- Brandon Sanderson: Original Mistborn trilogy — The original trilogy and Secret History spoiler warning.
Quick answers
Common The Cosmere order questions
Direct answers based on the same chronology, continuity labels and coverage notes used in the guide.
What Order Should You Read the Cosmere?
Choose Mistborn: The Final Empire for a focused first series, or The Way of Kings if you want a larger ensemble epic. Read the chosen series in sequence. You do not need to begin with the earliest event in the Cosmere or read every other series before opening Stormlight.
Should you use chronological or release order for The Cosmere?
Use chronological order to follow events as they happen. Use release order when you want to preserve the sequence of the original reveals. Both views use the same researched stories.
What does this The Cosmere order guide include?
All-media guide: 34 ordered canon or canon-adjacent records, including published fiction and five Roshar RPG adventures. Audio and collection editions stay attached to their component stories, and uncertain macro placements remain labelled approximate. Coverage is current through released and confirmed story material available by 22 September 2026.
Suggested routes
Choose a way in.
Use the full chronology or follow a shorter route.
In-universe chronology
Published fiction and mapped RPG stories follow their best-supported positions across the wider Cosmere.
Publication order
Re-sort the same 34 records by their first published release.
No invented precision
Secret History and same-period stories keep relationship labels instead of misleading numbers.
Story versions
Choose how to experience it.
Researched editions and adaptations stay together under one story.
See how stories are organisedSources
What anchors this order.
Official franchise, creator and publisher sources anchor the chronology. Conflicts and uncertain placements are labelled.
Missing something?
Help expand The Cosmere.
Request a title or correction.
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