Overview/Setting
The story of the stormlight archive takes place on the planet of Roshar. This planet is primarily influenced by three shards Honor, Cultivation and Odium. Odium is the main antagonist of this story and has broken the Shard of honor. Cultivation is a neutral party that is working to ensure her own survival. Because of the death of Honor there is a lot of power seeping over into the physical world that create semi-sentient beings known as Spren. The biggest feature of Roshar is to the High storms. This is a devastating storm that regularly strikes. It brings destruction and energy. The destruction is so severe that every time of animal and plant has adapted to withstand these storms. The energy it produces comes in the form of Stormlight that can be stored in Gems. There are three main Magic systems in the Stormlight Archive: The Radiants and Fabrials and magical weapons and armor called shard blades and shard plate.
The Radiants
The Radiants are organization in the past that consisted of ten orders of Knights. They gain their magical power by saying oaths. These oaths allow the knight to create a bond with the Spren and allows them to consume stormlight to fuel special powers. Each order of Knight Radiant has different oaths that it swears in order to bond the Spren. Just like there are ten orders there are also ten magical powers that are called Surges. Each order also has access to two of the Surges.
Fabrials
The Fabrials are the science and technology of Roshar. They are used to create machines and tools by capturing the Spren in a gemstone and forcing it to create a certain effect. Many different types of machines are created using this method. The most used is the span reed, which allows near instant communication to anywhere in the world of Roshar.
Shards
Shard blades and plate are instruments of war. In the world of Roshar they determine the power or influence of each country. Shard blades are devastating weapons that can cut through anything except other shard blades or shard plate. Shard plate is a suit of armor that is virtually unbreakable by normal means. It also increases the users speed and strength and is powered by Stormlight infused gems. The only way to break it is to drain the gems by hitting it a lot or to hit it with a shard blade.
There is not a lost of instances of Roshar people in other worlds. However, Roshar is a melting pot for travelers from other worlds. Secret organizations like the Ghost bloods and the 17th Shard have been operating on Roshar for a long time. The stormlight archive is also where we get the most appearances of the world hopper know has Hoid. Who has appeared in every book Sanderson has written.