Stormlight World Guide: A Lore Compendium and Art Book for Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive review

When I first picked up Mistborn: The Final Empire in 2015, I would never have guessed that the Cosmere would be something I'd become obsessed with. Now, at the end of 2025, I've read all of it. 18 books, 2 novellas, and a handful of short stories (assuming I remembered everything in my count). And on top of Brandon Sanderson's written canon, we now have the Stormlight World Guide: A Lore Compendium and Art Book for Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive, put together by Brotherwise Games with heavy involvement from Sanderson and Dragonsteel Entertainment. Just like Arcanum Unbounded, the compendium has art and commentary from Khrissala (a.k.a. Khriss). It is chock full of information about Roshar, which is the name of the planet, the solar system it is in, and the main continent on the planet. The World Guide also contains art from Earth artists, with each piece worthy of hanging on your walls. If you couldn't tell already, the Cosmere is huge, the canon is wide and deep, and most of the peoples and places are interconnected in some way. It's easy to get lost or miss a tidbit. For Roshar, at least, we now have an official reference.

First and foremost, it might be helpful to brush up on a definition. According to Merriam-Webster, a compendium is "a brief summary of a larger work or of a field of knowledge". If you want to know everything there is to know about Roshar, read the entirety of The Stormlight Archive. If you want to play a campaign on Roshar, this is a good place to start. And this feels obvious, but as a summary of the series, THIS BOOK CONTAINS SPOILERS. Most of the book shares information from books one, two, and three, but some parts give context from books four and five. There are always call outs for sections of spoilers, but sometimes spoilers are hinted at by referencing something in past tense when it should be present tense as of the end of Oathbringer (book 3) or otherwise implying something will change.

So how does this compendium do at providing a brief summary? Pretty damn good. The team at Brotherwise balanced providing information and context with brevity. The book is only 274 pages long, condensing more than 5,000 pages of prose into a comparatively light reference document. The summary itself is organized well, with chapters for: The World, Nations and Cultures, Cosmology and Religion, History of Roshar, Allies and Organizations, Points of Interest, Shadesmar, and Adversaries and Bestiary.

This World Guide is also an art book. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend this, you could very reasonably cut out each and every picture and hang them up. If you want to do that, it might be better to get the PDF and print them out. The quality and quantity of the art here is stunning. As an audiobook listener of the Cosmere, I often miss out on the pictures that are in the printed copies. This book more than makes up for it. Some very pivotal scenes and pictures are included in this book, so some of the art could be considered spoilers (and yes, this goes up to book 5). The high production quality of the book makes sure that the art shines. With 65 individual artists, I can't name them all in this review, but I can tag them all at the bottom so that you can look them up. Marie Seeberger, in particular, did a phenomenal job as the concept artist and for all of the pieces that the character Khriss "sketched" as part of her studies of the planet. I also really appreciate that each artist is credited for each of their pieces. It's off to the side or embedded lightly in the image itself, so it doesn't detract from the piece.

Some extra thoughts for 

Cosmere die-hards who aren't going to play

You probably don't want this book for the lore. Think about it. Sanderson has written thousands of pages and millions of words about Roshar. Brotherwise Games has added canon with the lore book, but only in the edges of the world and without much depth. And again, it's a compendium; it's not supposed to be 274 pages of non-stop new information. Unsurprisingly with how Rysyn and Lopen have been handled, there are interesting tidbits about how different nations handle disability, and I love how Stormlight and the Singers interact for things like body dysmorphia. But except for a paragraph here or there about happenings in nations outside of the coalition, there aren't (and shouldn't be) many secrets to glean. You'll get distracted by small gripes instead of the actual lore. I'm still bothered by the fact that emeralds are called out as the most valuable gemstone by size and that chasmfiend gemhearts are used for soulcasting food, but the book never mentions that you need emeralds for soulcasting food.

That said, the art is stunning, and you might find that reason enough to buy the PDF or printed book.

GMs who are new to The Stormlight Archives

Have you ever GMed for a Rules Lawyer? Imagine how much worse it is going to be when you GM for a player who knows the lore better than you. Unless you are running a table of players who are also new to this world, you should seriously reconsider reading the series instead of relying on this lore book. That said, reading this is significantly better than going in blind, so that's something.

Players who are new to The Stormlight Archives

You are exactly the type of reader this book is targeted for. Why are you still reading this review? Go get the book and read! Depending on your GM, you might want to avoid parts of the Allies and Points of Interest chapters and skip the entirety of the Adversaries and Bestiary chapter.

GMs who have read some or all of The Stormlight Archives

As long as you are through Oathbringer, you get to avoid major lore spoilers. The Allies and Points of Interest chapters have great side-plot hooks for a few sessions as well as giving specific info on how key characters and organizations can patronize your characters. The Adversaries and Bestiary chapter is going to be a good reference for your campaign. One thing I really liked about the GM guides in this book is that they make it clear that the section of history (present or past) as well as the location of your campaign can influence the kind of story you are going to be telling. Choose wisely.

Players who have read some or all of The Stormlight Archives

You probably don't need to read this book for the lore, but if you do, you don't need to read parts of the Allies and Points of Interest chapters that are for GMs, nor the entirety of the Adversaries and Bestiary chapter.