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Is [Hoid] ever actually what he's actually like in any of the books? I thought Way of Kings would be it, but I'm not sure.
Wit is very similar to the real Hoid. He's worked a long time to build a place for himself where he can kinda be himself. I mean, when you see his book from his viewpoint, he'll feel very like Wit from Stormlight.
In Nalthis, when is Breath first bestowed upon a person?
When is Breath first bestowed? Um, so I went-- Oh, so you're getting at this sort of-- I got it. *laughter/pauses* So, are you saying is it at birth or conception?
Pretty much. I'm just wondering *audio obscured by laughter*
…What's that?
I'm wondering if mothers have autonomy over their own bodies when it comes to Breath?
Yes. Uh, I'm going to go ahead and RAFO that one for-- Let's just let it-- Let's let-- Let's let the fanbase discuss that one and come to their own decisions.
I was also wondering: Shardblades, will there ever be any that aren't swords?
That is a RAFO.
Are half-shards made with Radiant spren?
RAFO! Good question!
In Shadows for Silence one of the characters refers to “Justice has died here.” Is that the actual Shard of Justice?
That’s a great theory! (Big grin, raised eyebrows.)
So Sleepless have held Surges. Have they been Radiants before?
RAFO.
Why are [Cognitive] Shadows so much more prevalent on Threnody?
That's a good question. Which is a RAFO. Sorry.
*reading a personalization request* In the concept of an unreliable narrator, there is a...scope of unreliability. One can be limited by perspective, another can be unreliable with intent. Could you...examine the second type in the Cosmere? Who would be a good example?
Hoid can be very intentionally misleading. The thing is, there aren't many first person viewpoints in the Cosmere stories so if its ever from someone's actual viewpoint-- Like Kelsier is a little unreliable in his viewpoint in that he doesn't go into his plan, which is technically unreliable narrator and it technically is by intent, but it's more like, he's like "I can't think about this" and stuff, but is also him lying to the reader a little bit. Does that make sense? Kelsier is probably the best example of unreliable narrator.
Brandon confirmed that "the element" is the bead of lerasium. Which confirms both this theory, and the theory that Hoid wrote the letter.
When I asked the question, I also thought the element and the lerasium were different. I asked it as a "Hoid clearly has a habit for taking important items. He has the bead of lerasium and the element. What other items does he have that we should know about?"
Brandon's response was that the bead and the element are the same. And that he has many items he should not have.
You said earlier... putting back splinters. Was the Oath breaking part of that?
Oath breaking? Oh, the Oathpact. The abandoning of the Oathpact we will talk a lot more about in the future, so I'm gonna RAFO that for now.
So Nightblood. Is it going to go into maybe in the next book how Vasher loses him, because I'm assuming that's what [Szeth] gets at the end of the book?
*Coyly*
Oh you assume that this is uh yeah...
So far as we know that's the only sentient sword...
You will find answers to these questions eventually.
I'll release [Dragonsteel Prime] for the Words of Radiance Kickstarter.
Basically there's not a whole lot that's canon in that anymore. The Sho Del are, the dragons are, and the Tamu Keks are. But all the Hoid stuff is not really canon anymore. He'll get a completely new book backstory. I have really done some work lately on the aethers in ways that I really think is working. So I think I can start canonizing aethers, sneaking [them] into the mainline cosmere books. Whether I can ever write the book about the aethers is another question, but you should see more than just little cameo pieces now that I'm sure about some of the ways they work. I made some major breakthroughs in how I wanted that to all connect.
[In Secret History] there was a key scene with a character named Drifter. And, uh, that was the first time that I felt like there was a sense of malevolence with this character. And I was curious if that's something that I should state with that punch? Or was this just a particular thing?
I would say yes. Drifter is an ancient entity who has very, very many sides and that is accurately one of them. That said, in that particular scene, there are certain personalities that play off of each other poorly, in real life and in books, and you happened to catch one that-- Drifter and this character do not-- Let's just say they rub each other the wrong way. But I would definitely say that is an aspect of his personality.
Are Kaladin and Shallan going to end up together?
Read And Find Out.
So, when the group was in Shadesmar, Adolin's sword seemed to kind of take on a life of its own and attack him. Is it possible for a dead spren to come back?
They would say no, in-world. I will say RAFO.
Does Hoid have any tattoos?
Hoid has had tattoos.
Did the Five Scholars ever speak directly with Endowment in a way that they would remember?
*thinking noises* I'll RAFO that.
We know that Hoid is able to do some kind of travel forward in time. Is this ability something to do with Connection with time?
No, not in so many words.
Is Vaeria still a planet name in the cosmere or was that scratched?
RAFO.
The Second Letter, Frost mentions a gemstone, is that in the Moon Scepter?
No, good question. That is a topaz, which was associated with him for a long time and had some mystical properties.
There's... a foreman named Trell. Is it cosmere significant or is it just someone--
RAFO
I'm imagining that killing a Dawnshard would work similarly to killing a Shard? As in, depending on how they're killed the Dawnshard either "drops" or is splintered?
RAFO.
When was the last time Hoid got a hug, before Words of Radiance?
Ooh argh *Brandon hacks and splutters* a HUG? I don't know? People don't commonly hug him, no. They commonly slap him, or curse at him, so it had probably been a long time since he'd gotten a hug.
I know that Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, Elantris are set in the same universe, and they've all kind of got certain Shards and I was reading that, like, you might do a book about that?
I will eventually, there's no 'might' about it, but I always try to talk somewhat timidly about it because I don't want the focus to be on that, I want the focus to be on each story that's happening. For instance, The Stormlight Archive will only be about The Stormlight Archive. I will be upfront when I do a crossover, but it is many years in the future. For now, I like it being a behind the scenes thing for fans who really want to get into it. I don't want to scare a reader who'll be like "I can't read Mistborn because I haven't finished all of these other books". You can read Mistborn on its own, and there will be cameos that you will notice as you do more, and the more I write, the more to the forefront some of these things will come, but I will lead you gently into it. But yeah, I will be doing crossovers eventually.
And when did you kind of-- was that something you wanted to do from the very beginning, or were you halfway through--
No, that was something I wanted to do from the beginning. I was inspired by Isaac Asimov combining his Robots books and his Foundation books, and he did it late in his career. It kind of felt a bit hacked together a bit, but it blew my mind when he did it and, as a writer, I always thought, what if somebody did this from the get-go.
The actual origins of the kind of worldhoppers for me was reading books as a teenager and inserting Hoid into them. I really did this.... Do you read books and you like change what is happening in the book, or maybe it's just a me thing? I would have my character interacting with the characters in the books, in my head, as I played the movie of that book in my head, while I was reading it, and there was this character hopping between worlds, with this knowing smirk on his face.
And so, when I was working on Elantris I said, "OK", I knew I had something in that book that was good, that was important, that was relevant, I was very confident in that book. It was my sixth novel, by the way, so I kind of had a handle on these things, and so that's when I decided I'm going to start doing some of this, I'm going to insert Hoid into this and I'm going to start planning this larger epic. It was particularly important to me because I knew I was not going to write a sequel to Elantris immediately, but I wanted to be writing epic stories, and the reason I didn't want to write a sequel to Elantris is because, if an editor rejected Elantris I wanted to be able to send them another book, because when you're getting close to publishing you'll start getting rejections that are like "This is actually a really good book, it doesn't fit our line, you just wrote a great mystical llama book but we just bought one of those, do you have anything else?". I wanted to be able to send them "here's my next thing" rather than "oh, I've got a sequel to the one you just rejected". And so I sat down and wrote the sequel, which was not a sequel, it was called Dragonsteel, which was Hoid's origin story. And then I jumped forward and I wrote White Sand which is another book connected to all these things and it went on, you know, it went crazy from there. And then when I actually sold Elantris it was already going and already in there, and I was able to sit down and write Mistborn, well in hand, knowing what was going to happen. That's why you find Hoid in Elantris and Mistborn and the sneaky, the scary-- well, it's not sneaky and it's not scary-- the moment in the third book when Vin gets creeped out by Hoid is a very important moment, Cosmerologically, but I'm not going to tell you why!
Two quick questions: Will we find out more about the Surges Division, Cohesion or Tension? We know practically nothing about them!
Could an Elsecaller Transport themselves into the Spiritual Realm? Has anyone tried?
RAFO! (Sorry. I'm not likely to answer questions about the book when we've got it coming so quickly.)
I was wondering if you could tell me anything about Longshadow?
I cannot.
No quirks, personality traits, favorite kind of shirt?
RAFO.
Does the Shard of Ambition have anything to do with the Bondsmith?
Shard of Ambition have anything to do with the Bondsmith, no, good question. Oh! I see what you guys are getting at. Who's the third Bondsmith... So, uhh, this is a RAFO. I will eventually start talking about the third Bondsmith. I'm gonna RAFO all questions about it for a while though. So just warning you guys.
Epilogue of Stormlight Five still be written in Wit's viewpoint?
I'm going to RAFO you on that one. You'll have to wait and see. I will be writing it very soon.
What happens if you burn atium at the same time as cadmium or bendalloy?
That would be really cool to see. *laughter* Here you go, you can have a RAFO card.
If Hoid were tempted by a Shard, which one would it be?
Endowment.
Ancient glyphs. If they are drawn with the proper Intent, do they provide some form of Investiture? Is that where the modern idea of glyphwards and burning prayers came from?
Oh, I get where you're going. I'll RAFO that.
Obviously the Shards are the top dogs in terms of power and stuff, but Hoid seems to be his own level of dangerous. Are there any other characters as sort of rivals to his ambition or power?
Depends on how you want to express it. Some of the dragons from Yolen are as old and are very crafty. You could argue that the aethers, the actual core aethers, are as ancient and potentially powerful. I wouldn't put them by raw power at Shard level, but they would claim that they are. Depends on what you would think there. There are some other individuals of a similar, not as dangerous as Hoid, but on a similar level. Been around for thousands of years, investigated a lot of the magics, and these sorts of things.
What abilities, if any, does a double aluminum Twinborn have?
RAFO.
[Was] Vasher the one who brought Nightblood to Roshar? *sensing an incoming RAFO* Come on, please!
*laughs mercilessly* That's a RAFO.
I see Shai as one of the founding members of the Seventeenth Shard trying to hunt down Hoid. Is there any--
I'm gonna RAFO you on this. I'm gonna RAFO you on that. I'm not even going to say whether or not she ever managed to get off planet, even.
You mentioned in a signing that all the heralds are insane. My question is about how they got that way.
Were they insane at the moment they gave up their swords? Was it more from being tortured?
Or, was it a direct consequence of giving up the oathpact?
A third possibility is that being alive for millenia tends to crack you up. Do they even sleep? Not sleeping would really do it.
RAFO, I'm afraid. We have heralds as main viewpoint characters. I'll let the narrative do the explaining on these questions.
Brandon, what is the rough timeline for us to learn more about the Oathpact? Is this something that will come out when the Heralds become flashback characters in the back five books, or will there be more information in the earlier books?
RAFO, I'm afraid.
Is it possible to form a bond with a Threnodite Shade?
Oh like a Nahel bond, a spren bond? RAFO.
Is the Tear that we see from Roshar the sun of a shardworld? Possibly one we have seen?
RAFO
We're aware by now of eight of the sixteen Shards (Devotion, Dominion, Ruin, Preservation, Endowment, Honor, Odium and Cultivation) and seven of the ten core Shardworlds (the Dragonsteel world, Roshar, Scadrial, Nalthis, Sel, the White Sand world and The Silence Divine world). Given that you now how we love to obsessively speculate based on only the tiniest of information, and also given that it seems an endless source of amusement to you that we do, would you perhaps like to tease us with a smidgen of information about one of the remaining eight Shards or the three remaining Shardworlds?
Ha. If I give you this, what will you speculate on in the future? :) I hate to do this, but I'm going to RAFO that one for now. Sorry.
Maya told the honorspren not to take their sacrifice. If the Recreance was a deliberate act between Radiants and spren, would spren like Maya consider new bonds?
That is also a RAFO. I'm sorry.
Are we going to be seeing more Wit in the Stormlight Archive?
Depends on if you mean the character or actual wittiness. I'm never sure if I'm actually witty or not—you'll have to judge. But the character never knows when to leave well enough alone and will be muddling things for quite a long time.
When Odium says "We killed you." Is that RAFO, or?
RAFO... I'm just not confirming it or denying it, what it means.
Probably a RAFO but whose voice Dalinar constantly hears ("unite them"), if it's not the Stormfather (confirmed in the book). I'm confused...It is supposed to be Honor, but Honor is dead.
RAFO.
How old is Hoid? How long did it take to become that old?
Ha. Let's just say that he's far older than a human should be able to get.
Is Austre Endowment by a different name?
RAFO.
In The Way of Kings, when Hoid is talking to Kaladin and he says his name is Hoid, he said that he took the name from someone else.
He did.
So why is he Hoid in everything else?
Hoid is not his original name.
So...
Does he still go by his original name ever?
I don't know if you've ever seen his original name.
I've read your Master's thesis [Dragonsteel Prime].
Oh, he doesn't go by the name that is in there very often but there are people who know him by that name.
What is his original name?
Well he's assuming that the name he is using in there is actually his original name. He's using the name Cephandrius. Which you're assuming is his original.
Closer to the truth than Hoid is.
It is closer to the truth...
Cephandrius is closer to his original name than Hoid, it's an earlier alias.
Well Hoid was one of his very first aliases.
So I stand corrected.
But, Cephandrius is more him.
Does he still go by his nickname he got.
To some people, Topaz.
Cephandrius Maxtori.
At any point did Tanavast relinquish the power of Honor to someone else?
RAFO.
Does Wit have another name apart from Wit?
Wit has many other names. Cephandrius is him.
What's his real name?
He does... have a real name, but he would argue that they're all real names.
What's one that isn't Cephandrius or Midius?
Hoid. *laughter* Topaz.
When he says he's named after a rock that's a reference to Topaz?
Yes that's referencing the topaz. And the other thing that he references with... When he says he's named after words on a page that is not breaking the fourth wall... It's not even winking at it. Nope... It's quite literal. Yes, that is quite literal.
I've had this question burning deep inside me since I finished RoW, is there a truest Surge of Odium? My headcanon for now is Transportation.
Hey! So, I'll deal with this eventually in the books, so it's a RAFO for now! But do keep in mind that the Surges on Roshar, as they're understood now, are mostly Honor/Cultivation.
<Where in White Sand... Hoid?>
Hoid will become obvious as the White Sand books continue.
