Brandon Sanderson has to pull off a game-changing time jump soon with Wind and Truth, will be released. The series, which began with The Way of Kings in 2010, is commonly considered to be the author's magnum opus despite not being his most widely-read work. That claim to fame goes to the Mistborn series, which has already progressed through two full sagas across seven books.

Wind and Truth is the fifth volume of The Stormlight Archive, a series that is set to be explored in two five-book sagas. 2020's Rhythm of War laid the groundwork for the final volume, with a climactic contest of champions set to ensue between Dalinar and Odium, representing the opposing forces of good and evil. Following the fifth book's climactic ending, readers should expect a time jump that will change the landscape of the events on Roshar, establishing the world for the remaining five novels.

Mistborn Made Massive World-Building Changes After A 300-Year Time Jump

Mistborn Pulled Off One Of Fantasy's Most Impressive Time Jumps

Mistborn Era 2 is the perfect combination of new and familiar material

Brandon Sanderson accomplished something unusual for popular fantasy genre novels with Mistborn. The "Acknowledgments" section of book 4, The Alloy of Law, explains that Sanderson "wanted to move away from the idea of fantasy worlds as static places, where millennia would and technology would never change." Three hundred years is an enormous jump for a story to take, leaving readers with minimal characters and narrative elements of the world they recognize and love. While Mistborn Era 2 arguably isn't as strong as the original trilogy, the time jump works to its advantage.

First, it's essential to explain why this transition works so well. With the Cosmere book universe spanning such a vast area of time and space, the stories must be continuously dynamic. Sanderson's goal is to construct a fantasy epic that far sures the likes of The Wheel of Time in scale, covering a variety of genres and narrative aesthetics while maintaining one overarching story. While Sanderson had previously kept the Cosmere engaging across different worlds, the time jump between Mistborn Era 1 and 2 is the first instance he proved he could keep things engaging through time.

Mistborn Era 2 is the perfect combination of new and familiar material, allowing space for nostalgia while keeping forward momentum in the overarching narrative. The characters may not be as compelling, but Era 2 shows that Sanderson's mastery of world-building and magic systems can flow naturally through time. Now, he'll be tasked with a similar challenge going forward with The Stormlight Archive.

How Long The Stormlight Archive's Time Jump Will Be

The Stormlight Archive Has A Much Shorter Time Jump

While nothing is set in stone, Brandon Sanderson has previously stated that the time jump between books 5 and 6 of The Stormlight Archive will be ten years. Of course, this isn't nearly as massive as Mistborn's jump, which saw its world totally refreshed between novels. Ten years can still be significant, depending on Wind and Truth's outcome. With five books still to go and such a pivotal climax coming up, theories surrounding the novel have suggested the book ending in a loss for Dalinar and humankind on Roshar.

A defeat at the hands of Odium could result in an immediate, stark contrast in the world shown in book 6. However, the main goal shouldn't be to make as many changes as possible; it should be to display meaningful change. For example, in Mistborn Era 2, the changes in the world's government and urban landscape are meant to demonstrate a new manner of oppression centuries after the Lord Ruler's forceful oppression of the Ska had ended. By Era 2, corruption and oppression are hidden under a veil of public image and propaganda, creating valuable thematic depth.

Rhythm Of War Already Started Showing Changes To Roshar

The Stormlight Archive Book 6 Needs To Show Literal And Thematic Change

Brandon Sanderson has already laid the foundations for The Stormlight Archive's time jump changes throughout the series. The world of Roshar changed drastically with the return of the Knight's Radiant, and by Rhythm of War, engineers have combined magic and technology to develop an airship. There's plenty of room with Fabrial devices for Sanderson to continue making drastic technological jumps after book 5, and this is one area in which readers should expect tangible changes.

In of a tonal shift, The Stormlight Archive book 6 will likely see some drastic changes in one way or another. It's hard to predict what these will be without having read Wind and Truth, but the series wouldn't be divided into two arcs if there wasn't going to be a recognizable shift. Similar to how Mistborn's time jump allows for new thematic exploration, The Stormlight Archive will have to keep its material fresh and dynamic with new outlooks on the series' main underlying messages, possibly reexamining Dalinar and Taravangian's ideologies in the aftermath of what happens.