If Lift touched a "dead" Shardblade would her experience be different than other proto-Radiants/Radiants?
Yes. Slightly different.
Would you please expound on that?
No. *grins*
The oath spren, how are they still alive? If all the other spren died when they broke their oaths? RAFO?
Yes, it's a RAFO. But you do have some pretty good answers in [Oathbringer]. So by the time you finish this you should have a pretty-- you should-- yeah.
It seems like the Diagram Cult derives their entire moral authority for the atrocities they commit from the notion that "this is a very, very smart plan."
Basically, yeah.
And they're filling in the gaps with information gleaned from Death Rattles, despite knowing full well that they're coming from one of Odium's Unmade spren. This seams very, very dumb. Have they ever considered the possibility that they could be being fed disinformation?
Yes, but they figure that the benefits of having access to someone who can see the future outweigh that risk. And even if they are being deliberately given bad information, knowing what subjects they're being misinformed about tells them something useful.
You know the principle where someone who has two powers actually has three powers, because of resonance?
Yeah?
How does this apply to Harmony, who has two entire Shards?
RAFO.
Why can't Rock see Renarin's spren?
That will be answered in [Oathbringer].
I know that, in the last book, we saw the Heralds twice. So are they gonna play a big part in Oathbringer?
They will play a bigger part than they have in previous books, but most Herald stuff is being saved for the second set of five.
*inaudible* find yourself foreshadowing in any of your books.
All the time. Like, the thing I love to do the most.
Anything you found that we haven't found yet?
Oh, yeah. But they can't really find it yet because the foreshadowing is for books way in the future. One thing I've mentioned that you can keep an eye on is the shapes the spren sometimes take, sometimes unconsciously, is related to certain connections that are going on.
Could a Shard like Harmony create new elemental metals, like harmonium, or is that unconscious--
So, unconscious isn't the right word, but a manifestation of his will being the same as manifestation of the laws of physics in the world, if that makes sense. It's not like a choice, it's not, like, not a choice either, to create others, it is theoretically possible, but what has happened is more in line with the laws of his realm.
So we know that spren come about through interactions? Could there be other things that situation could create?
Yes.
'Cause a read about the *inaudible*
Um, same thing, yes.
I was wondering if *inaudible* spren were created by *inaudible*?
This is possible.
Hemalurgically, do you stab? ...Could you steal the Connection that *inaudible* magic systems. Or is it just whatever...
It is possible that you could steal a variety of different things. But, not all things can be spiked.
Is a drab able to, on Roshar *inaudible*
Re-invest? It won't do exactly the same thing, but they could *inaudible*
So, filter that the Shard's power-- Investiture, I guess? Is it that-- So on Roshar, does it count as three Shards stacked on top of each other, next to each other, that's forming different magic systems.
It definitely is influencing it. But, not-- perhaps not as much as you might think. I mean, it is, though.
Tien's interest in rocks. Is that just because he likes rocks, or is there something to it?
Not really. There'll be some metaphorical relationships that I'm underpinning it with, but really the answer is, no, he just really likes rocks.
So, is Adonalsium limited to the cosmere galaxy? I don't think he created the universe?
That is a RAFO. But the cosmere is a dwarf galaxy... They don't know about that.
Will they?
Maybe.
So, I was actually wondering whether Tanavast constructed the confrontation with Rayse in such a way that *inaudible*
That nailed his foot to the floor?
He's stuck on Braize - at least for now.
Ah, yes. That was, in effect, that was an intentional -
It was deliberate? Okay.
It was deliberate. Yup.
*Inaudible, possibly 'Rayse'* started to win?
Um, well...
I'll keep it secret until it shows up on Facebook.
Yeah, it... so, Odium came at him, and he gave - not as good as he got - but he made it cost.
Did he sacrifice himself, or is Odium better at that sort of thing?
I wouldn't say that he sacrificed himself, I'd say he went out swinging.
Is Odium just better at that sort of thing?
I would say, yes.
Can you tell me *inaudible*?
Yeah, I'm gonna RAFO that. We've got multiple books before I'm gonna canonize this.
Can you give us some of the magic systems that you've rejected?
Magic systems I've rejected. Rejects for me are kind of a weird thing in that they stick in the back of my brain, and when I reject something, it's more along the lines of "this isn't ready yet." And I'm constantly thinking, do I want to do this, do I not want to do this. I've wanted to do one with sound waves forever, visualizing sound waves and things, and I have not been able to write it in a way that either felt different enough from other magic systems that approached this, or that just worked on the page. It's very hard to take something auditory and make it-- put it into a book for some reason. Some things work, I mean, Pat [Rothfuss] has made an entire career of having music to his language... so it can work, but I've never been able to get a really solidly sound-wave-focused magic to work, but I think of and discard tons of these things everyday. Sometimes, I discard them, because I'm like, "No, that's too Brandon." It's like, it's too much, a challenge. "Can I make peanuts into a magic system?" That's one I haven't done.
By the way, I wanted to do a story about a leekromancer, who had power over legumes. Yeah? Uh-huh. See. That's just too Brandon. You can read that, and say, "He wrote this entire story just to make the leekromancer pun!"
Fabrials. With the spren, when they're trapped in the gemstones, can each individual spren type only do one Surge, or is the way that they're bound in the gemstone, like, gem type and color, does that have an effect on how it works?
Mmhmm. It does.
Biochromatic Breath. The reason that it avoids Snapping, is that because it's so heavily in the Physical Realm, or is there something more to that?
Something more.
Is the entity now calling itself Trell, was-- is Trell the real Trell that was worshiped by the Trelagists?
RAFO.
Is the metal that Bleeder was associated with and had, is the Shard associated with that metal the same entity that's calling itself Trell?
Yes.
How do states of matter affect how things look in the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms?
So, generally, how people perceive something is very important to the reflection in the Cognitive Realm, and so the physical state of matter is going to be involved in that, but generally, it flows the other direction from the Spiritual Realm.
Do the forms of Investiture that we've seen, Stormlight, metals, Shardpools, do the fact that those happen in general the same types of states of matter, all physical, solid, is kinda going to be like metal for Investiture?
Yeah, that is generally the way it will be.
Can Lopen's children inherit Alethkar, because he was king for just a brief minute?
They'd have a claim. I don't think the Alethi would pay attention to it... But he was legitimately king for a brief moment.
Do lemons exist on Scadrial?
Probably, yeah.
How did you design the mistcloak cloaks?
Because it looks cool, obviously!
It is highly impractical!
Not if you're Mistborn! The only trouble we really had is stepping on the tassels.
And getting tangled up in them.
Well, a lot of the tassels, a lot of the ones for mistcloaks we've made, use thicker material in them, and they lie straighter, and they don't tangle nearly as much. As long as you don't make them too long, 'cause if you do, you step on them, particularly on stairs... We've got some costume persons that work-- you'll find, if you use a thicker, stronger material-- yeah.
Are we gonna see more of Alcatraz?
Probably not until after Stormlight Five.
I want to ask you a question about Pattern. Could you speak to anything about where your idea for...
I wanted different spren to look drastically different. And, as I was building-- Like, I wanted a lot of the spren of a lot of the Orders of Knights Radiant to kind of have an internal, natural conflict. Like, that's one of the division lines between a spren that's not sapient, and spren that is. For instance, Windrunner, honorspren, right? Honor is about rigidity in a lot of ways, and Syl is the embodiment of a lot of the opposite of that. And Pattern, who is so interested in lies, is a mathematical fractal-- a mathematical equation. This sort of thing, like naming the inkspren Ivory is just-- I want that internal, natural contrast to be part of them. And Pattern, I really wanted a spren that wasn't just another ball of light. 'Cause Syl is basically a ball of light. And a lot of the others are basically balls of light. And I'm like, I need something that's different, I want something that looks different, that feels different. That's where I went.
I just have been noticing this, and it's not exclusive to any author, it's just this kind of theme that simply tires me. Main characters, they die, and then they come back to life. or they just don't die. And it makes it so much less exciting for me. So, I wanted to ask you what you think about that?
So, here's the thing. Because fiction isn't real, death is meaningless in fiction. The only real things in fiction are the emotions we make you feel, and different stories try to do that in different ways with different themes. For instance, I don't think Lord of the Rings is ruined by the fact that Gandalf has a resurrection, because of the emotions you feel, and then the other emotions you feel, and things like this-- and there's something universal about it. And so, I don't think I'm as big on it as that, because deaths-- maybe it's because I'm a writer, everything feels arbitrary in books, except the emotion that I put upon it, if that makes sense? And I always find that what the characters are going through is the more interesting than an abrupt end, but I guess that's just kinda me.
If you say that, then books can't have resurrection as a theme, or rebirth, which is, like, one of the most interesting themes in existence. But everyone has different tastes, there's no wrong. Not liking it is not wrong. I mean, plot armor also has this thing where we tend to not kill characters arbitrarily, we tend to do it at dramatic moments, and things like this, because the story is better that way, right? And there are some people, like George Martin, who just try to throw this out the window, to tell a different story by doing that. But, of course, resurrection is a huge theme in those books.
Why pancakes?
My kids love pancakes, I thought Lift would really like pancakes. And pancakes are pretty universal, like, most cultures come up with a pancake-type thing. Now they aren't always the sweet pancakes, fluffy ones that we imagine. But, like, almost every culture, pancakes are a thing. Some weird batter with stuff in it you pour onto a hot skillet.
How exactly do you make kandra blessings using Hemalurgy?
I'll RAFO that for now. Even they don't quite know, right? They were provided by the Lord Ruler for them, and they didn't create them themselves. So, we'll RAFO that.
Yes or no: will the Stick ever come back?
The Stick? The Stick is omnipresent in all books, but I think the Stick has had so much screentime already that it would be distracting from other characters.
Could a Threnody Shade survive on another world?
Theoretically, yes. But they are highly Invested, and leaving a world where you're highly Invested behind when you have that Investiture is difficult, as Kelsier discovered, and as most spren discover.
Hoid seems to know things that are not explained. He'll show up places, when the Herald showed up, or when Jasnah comes back. Is that something that's just not been explained yet? Or is that something that's a part of some magic system that we've heard about? Or is that something different?
Yeah, so, he has access to things that other people do not. It is explainable, but it has not been explained yet. He can be places he needs to be, but if you watch, he doesn't always know why he needs to be there. He's really good at covering that part up. But he does-- he knows he needs to be somewhere, and so he gets there.
I was wondering if you were planning on doing another collaboration with your fellow podcasters, like you did with--
Shadows Beneath? Yes, there will be something more like that eventually.
In Herdazian, is there no personal pronoun, and that's why Lopen always refers to himself as "The Lopen"?
No, that is his personal thing. In Rock's language, most nouns are gendered, masculine, which is why you always see him flipping-- screwing that up. But Lopen, just his thing. Just his thing.
Glyphpairs, or glyphs, for the specific Surges. Are they supposed to be slightly different? Or are they perfectly symmetrical?
It depends on who paints them and how. Most of them are supposed to be symmetrical.
Because I got the Progression tattoo, and my tattoo artist noticed that it was slightly different on both sides, where there was a curve instead of having a square. And he said, is it not supposed to be perfectly squared off? Because then it would be--
Some people draw them that way, depends on what they're writing, and things like that. So, I would ask Isaac. Write an email to [email protected] and ask him about it, because he designs all those. I just give him general directions, he's the one that can actually write them.
Cultivation *inaudible* Nightwatcher?
No, but good question, they are separate and you'll find out in [Oathbringer], kind of, in what ways.
If Nightblood was to be used by a Scadrian, would that person have to be an Investiture ferring?
No, you could be burning any metal, and Nightblood would co-opt it and feed off that.
Title of the next Stormlight book? I have decided I'm not gonna answer that yet. Still working on it.
Is the Warbreaker sequel gonna have Susebron and Siri?
It's Vivenna and Vasher. And new characters. You'll get an update in it, if I ever do it, what's going on, but it won't be focused on them.
What is your favorite magic system that you made?
Allomancy.
How big are the beads from Shadesmar?
...Bean-size, not as big as spheres.
Spheres are the size of your thumbnail, right?
Spheres are a little bigger than that. They're like a big marble. Not quite as big as a shooter.
Would all the different powers, or magic. Would they all work on the other--
Almost all of them will. AonDor, and the ones from Sel, are very hard to get to work elsewhere, because of certain things, but others are much easier. For instance, if you can get Breaths to another world, you can just use them, you don't need to do anything special.
The drawers with the infused gemstones. Is that the Stormlight Archive?
No. That is not the Stormlight Archive.
Is there a Stormlight Archive?
Yes. But... it means the books. The archive of books that are all named after in-world books. The Archive is a pun on archived collection of books.
Syl asks Kaladin if he had <problems> *inaudible*. Is that just a phrase she picked up? Or is it something connected *inaudible*?
Um... there is nothing special you're supposed to read into that other than Syl personality and interactions and stuff.
Which creature is your favorite from any of your series?
Which creature? Chasmfiend.
For Jasnah, it seems like maybe a couple times it's been hinted that maybe she prefers women *inaudible*
Let's just have you Read on And Find Out on that one. There is-- Her book isn't 'til, like-- at the earliest, Book Eight. So, we've got a long ways to go before we're digging into Jasnah some more.
Why are [Cognitive] Shadows so much more prevalent on Threnody?
That's a good question. Which is a RAFO. Sorry.
I know that Dalinar's story is definitely one you were looking forward to, but of the remaining Stormlight Archive books, whose story are you looking the most forward to?
Umm... Taln's.
Are there historical figures that were inspirations for Elhokar?
Dalinar is based very slightly on Subutai, the great Mongol general. Elhokar, no one specific. I thought of him when I was a kid, when I was, like, fourteen, I wanted to do a story about a weak king and his uncle who's a really strong figure, and that interplay, and that's where he came from.
