Day 1 Recap - Dragonsteel Nexus 2025
What a whirlwind. Day 1 was fantastic.
Reveals
Not a Nexus goes by without a major reveal of some new project. There were quite a few announcements - updates on the Wheel of Time leatherbound and the Hoid's Storybook Collection. A few new projects focused on mental health - for those I'd recommend watching the full video from the live stream of the release party, I won't be able to do it justice.
Most exciting was the announcement of a new Cosmere Secret Project book: The Fires of December. He did a 45 minute reading of the book, which will be available on his site soon, but I'll briefly recap here.
Minor spoilers ahead.
The book is told from the perspective of Hoid. He is on a currently unknown planet telling the story of a woman named December. I won't ruin the twist of the book, since it's very cool, but I will mention that the town in which December lives has a river made up of demon blood, and this is OK and very normal.
The book will be out next year!
The Nexus 2025 Convention Game
Just like last year, attendees to the convention participate in a convention-wide game. This year its a series of puzzles that need to be solved, earning stamps and pieces of a story. I assume at least, to be honest, the puzzles are pretty difficult and are best solved with a group of people. I was a little too busy today to fully dive in, but I am hoping I can catch up tomorrow.
Here are some of the puzzles, maybe you can help me.
With your ticket, you got to pick a specific planet - I picked Roshar. The puzzles are themed around those books. For example, one challenge had me translating Vorin Women’s Script to find clues leading a key phrase that I will share at a special booth in the exhibitor hall to earn a page.
Chatting with a few people, the reward seems to be that you get parts of a story that, when complete, form a new canon Cosmere short story, very similar to what Story Deck was last year. I have not confirmed this, nor have I have gotten any of the pages. Hopefully tomorrow I can find some friends to give me a hand.
Stormlight Era 2 theories panel
I attended the Stormlight Era 2 theories panel hosted by Cosmere Conversations, Fantasy Fanfellas, and Next Chapter. I am doing a full write up later on the theories that were shared and my thoughts on them - they are full on Cosmere spoiler ridden, so I don’t want to exposure you to that without saying up front.
These panels are what makes Nexus so much fun - the various panelist brought their own Stormlight Era 2 theories to the group and discussed the merits and implications of each. If you’re really in to the Cosmere, which I assume you are, these panels give you so much think about / get excited for in future books.
Interviews with Brotherwise
I got to interview Andrew Fischer and Johnny O’Neal from Brotherwise Games today! I won’t spoil the interviews, I need to do some quick editing and will have them live after I return from Nexus. I’ll have them available in both video and transcript form, so check them out on my YouTube channel or read them on the site.
Tons of awesome Cosplay
The cosplay this year is amazing as always - there are so many talented people out there doing everything from the very lore-accurate and serious to massively silly. I've been snapping photos as I run in to people, here are some of my favorites!
Ran in to more cool people
One thing I love about Nexus is the real sense of community that builds up around the con. Even as someone who travels to these events alone, I always end up meeting folks at the show. 90% of the time it comes from striking up a conversation while sitting next to each during a panel, or collaborating over the convention game (which is the brilliance of the design by the way).
It's such a welcoming community, and it feels awesome to be apart of it.
On to day 2!
Tomorrow I have the Stormlight Epic (a 400 person RPG session), more panels, and the spoiler Q&A!
Stick around for that recap, and check out my YouTube channel for shorts on the show floor!