Questioner
The Shards of Adonalsium.
Brandon Sanderson
Uh-huh?
Questioner
Can those be held by a sentient non-human, like the Parshendi or Aimian?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. They do not have to be human.
The Shards of Adonalsium.
Uh-huh?
Can those be held by a sentient non-human, like the Parshendi or Aimian?
Yes. They do not have to be human.
How are the letters between Hoid and Frost getting delivered?
That is read and find out.
Okay, so first I need to know, before all is said and done, is Kelsier likely to get to punch out anymore gods? *Brandon laughs* Because that was pretty awesome.
That's a read and find out.
So what is the, like, actual density of metalborns born in Elendel?
Oh boy, I have this in my notes somewhere. Um...
*inaudible* I guess?
Roughly. All metalborn? One out of every couple thousands. Little more common than you would probably think, based on... I don't know. People usually assume they're a little more rare than they are. But, yeah...
Yeah. It just-- As I was reading I kept finding people saying, "Oh yeah, it's so rare. It's so insanely rare." I was like, "I feel like it's not that rare," like...
Yeah, but still. One every couple thousand. Like, you're going to know somebody, but the chances of you actually being one are pretty rare.
The thing people have been dancing around—they haven't been asking the right questions—is they need to be asking more questions about the Dor, specifically trying to figure out why the Dor works differently. It's only a little thing, it's not like it's going to be mind blowing, but it is important for them understanding how the cosmere magics work.
Does being an Elantrian, when it first happens to you do you get rushed with the feelings that Szeth describes holding Stormlight is like? Or Vin describes holding the Mists?
No, you get different.
No, it feels different.
So it feels completely different?
You definitely get an emotion, but it is not those same emotions.
What leaks out of Elantrians, would it be considered similar to, for example, stormlight leaking, or...?
Yeah, yeah you could totally say that.
The Dor: Is it gaseous Investiture or is it something else completely?
Oh that's a great question. People have not been asking enough about the Dor.
And if it is gaseous—or not gaseous—is it plasma?
*Long pause*
You got it. *said definitively*
It's super sup-- not plasm-- yeah, it's super-dense to the point that's it's liquefied and dense-- does that make sense? So it's plasma, basically. It's its own weird thing, so yeah. What you can write is that it's its own weird thing that's kind of plasma-like.
Who would win a game of Tarachin: Hoid or Lightsong?
Um... Hoid. Even if he has to cheat. Lightsong just wouldn't care enough, you know?
Say you have a Feruchemist who pours Identity into a metalmind. Then subsequently loses that mind, and then is later Awakened? Would that mind retain the personality of--
*Everyone laughs, Scottish man says "it's 11 o'clock at night, give the man a break!"*
Okay, so they store Identity—which I haven't told you what it does--
Yep. We don't know.
And then you Awaken it, and then you want to know if it has the personality of the person?
Yeah, or if it's able to communicate in any way.
Um, if-- how much Awakened is it? Is it Nightblood-level Awakened? Or is it just regular Awakened?
Sure let's say Nightblood-level.
Nightblood-level. So it's-- so the Investiture has been granted sapience. And it's got Investiture from somebody else stuffed in it. I can foresee a scenario where that has an influence, but it's not going to be the personality of the person who stuffed it in. I can see some circumstances where they can-- where the Investiture of the object can make use of that in some way, but...
Oh boy, that was a weird one.
Does Glys hide intentionally or is he just invisible to other spren that are not his kind of spren?
A little of both.
When Kaladin; when he turn's a lighteyes, how come they turn blue instead of tan or something? Is there a reason for that?
His eyes turn to the color of his order.
Why are humans so consistent throughout the cosmere?
One reason is that some of the people who made humans in the cosmere used a model that were other humans. That's one of the reasons.
The Soonie dog, this mentions. You definitely need to make one of those: whatever you want to make us pay for it, we'll buy it. No problem.
So what I've got is that we make a Soonie pup as one of those stuffed animals that you can turn inside out, and when you turn it inside out it's a mistwraith, *people all around who heard flip out * and then you twist it back.
Will we ever see Spook again?
You are unlikely... Okay how about-- Spook's touch is all over the books everywhere. So if you watch in the new ones, things he has done have had lasting ramifications. So you-- you will probably hear from him again, but it might be in the form of journals and things like that.
Have you read any fanfiction based on any of your novels?
You know I've stayed away from it, though I approve of fanfiction. There are some legal ramifications of reading something and then it being too similar to what you're writing, and then the worry that the fan's gonna... anyway. So I just stay away from reading it.
Are we ever going to see Vivenna again? *inaudible* great to see her again.
You will probably see Vivenna again.
Does Odium hate puppies?
Hate puppies? Yes. Yes, Odium totally hates puppies.
When you were writing Steris were kind of imagining somewhere on the autistic spectrum, because that's how she reads?
Yes. Yes. I know a number of people with autism, and so I was looking at... maybe all the way to Asperger's, but I'm not sure.
You hinted I think-- it was talking about it that Kelsier had kind of Ascended?
Yes. [...] Yes he did Ascend briefly. It was... It didn't work real well for him because Kelsier plus the power of Preservation is not a good match, but yes.
[In Shadows of Self] there’s the new metal, I guess. I was wondering-- So if someone were to bring a metal from a different planet, say steel from Roshar, would it still be recognizable as steel on that world?
It would still be, yup. It would be.
Because there was mention of it being "of Harmony" right, and that was the difference?
The thing you gotta remember is that the metals on Mistborn are keys and not the actual source of the power. If they were the source of the power, it wouldn’t work.
The thing about women eating sweeter foods, and how sharp the gender divide was and-- I just found that worldbuilding really interesting, so how do you get inspired by that?
So I noticed that a lot of cultures have these really stark gender disparities. And I think in America we don't—like even around the world we still have a lot of them—in America we kind of-- I'm glad we don't because I think it is actual progress to not [have these disparities]. But at the same time that's a really big part of so many different cultures that I wanted to play with that idea.
And I loved in The Wheel of Time how Robert Jordan had the magic word differently [...] and so I was looking for a long time for something I can do that plays with the idea of gender roles, and that's kind of what rose out of it. It actually came from when I was working on the history and the moment when the men kind of seized control of the Shardblades. You know about this?
Yeah, I read about it online.
So that moment I'm like "alright, there's a divergence there. How do they strictly define the gender roles to maintain the power of these weapons?" And I think that's-- and I just kind of built from there.
It's really interesting though that women in a way are actually the creative minds-- they're actually not suppressed, but they're repressed in a different area.
It is, right. It's this weird repression where you can't do what you want, but they're actually in many ways the most powerful ones in society, but they're constrained by it.
Yeah, they're the ones that are creative because men don't even read because they're not supposed to. I guess that's what's really interesting to me.
It was sooo much fun to figure some of these things out because it plays with expectations a little bit but also plays into them in really interesting ways.
Fabrials and AonDor. In Elantris you mention there’s Tia plates that let people teleport around the city. Could an Elantrian essentially make portable fabrials using a similar method as the Aon Tia plates?
*hesitantly* Yes, that is within the possibility of what it can do. The problem is the further you get from Elantris, the weaker the magic, so they’re going to be really limited in distance. But yes, totally could. And you could probably get them working through most of that region.
Can you tell me anything about the destruction of Oregon in Reckoners? Anything at all?
Anything at all? I think I put Night's Sorrow there, and she was the cause of the destruction? I'm pretty sure? I don't have my notes handy, but that's what I think.
Who is your favorite Epic?
Who's my favorite Epic? I can't answer that, you can ask me that when you come in line, because the answer, for anyone that hasn't read the books, it'll be a spoiler.
Syl seems to switch forms a lot more than any of the other bonded spren. Is her default human, like the little human woman?
Is Syl's default the little human woman or does she not really have one? You will find out more about that eventually.
In Stormlight, how the hell does society work with one object standing for both the currency, the magic system, and light and power--
How does it work in Roshar with one thing spanning-- for the economy, the magic system, and... lighting up everything. They would ask, "How you could possibly have three different things?" because it makes no sense to them. It totally functions, I think. The big distinction is you can't use Stormlight for lighting if-- Like that's something for rich people. You'll see poor people using candles and whatnot, because hanging out your spheres is not a smart idea in some other places. There are spheres that are a low light level that are worth about a candle or so, so if you put a candle out someone could just swipe that, it's worth the same amount. There's really no difference between putting out a candle and that. If you're going to put out a lantern you can put spheres in it and lock it up.
So you have a Mistborn RPG tabletop, are there any plans to make RPG tabletops for any of your other books?
Eventually we will do them, but it's not gonna be anytime soon. I think that Crafty has to support one thing at a time.
I wanna know about Alloy of Law, if there was an actor who was going to play Wayne, who would you--
Oh who would I cast to play Wayne in Alloy of Law? I have no idea. I don't cast characters. I pay a lot of attention to directors but I feel like the best actors are the ones that always surprise you. Like if you were to tell me Matthew McConaughey was doing what he did these last couple of years, if you would have said that ten years ago, I would have laughed at you right, because the best actors can do so many different things. So I don't know, I have no idea who I'd cast. The only actors I've ever really cast in my books, if you guys have read... Legion, about a guy who's schizophrenic but not really, he sees hallucinations but they help him solve crimes; I cast all the hallucinations as actors, so if you pay close attention you can tell who each of these hallucinations are because a lot of them are famous actors. Except for Kalyani who's a friend of mine.
I was wondering if you had an inspiration for Cody.
For Cody, yes I did actually. I was at a convention in the South and I had someone, a guy, use y’all for "me", and I'm like, "Y'all for one person?" and he's like "Yeah, that's how you use it" for one person. *laughter* Really? And he just tried to convince me that this is true. So I went to wikipedia and they said there are some delusional people who use it that way. So I'm like, I'm totally building a character around this person who, you know, I couldn't tell the whole time if he was pulling my leg because I was not from the South, or if indeed that was his little regional dialect, that y'all is one person and all y'all was two, which is what he tried to convince me-- it is true? You say it's true?
It's from Kentucky.
See I have gotten-- I have gotten more emails about from Southerners who say "You've committed the great sin for a non-Southerner by using it that way, and it's an abomination, and it's not true". And I'm like, wow I must have done something right. 'Cause they hate that. I'm getting it from the people from Atlanta, they're like "this is not-- this is not correct". You know, Charleston, where they're all like the hoity-toity Southerners. So anyway, yeah that's where Cody came from. That idea.
If your character Hoid were a Planeswalker what color would he be?
If Hoid was a Planeswalker what color would he be? *laughter/applause* Oh, boy-- what color would he be... You know I might do him like the Reaper King. Like two slash on all five. That's what I would do him as.
What are you reading right now?
What am I reading right now? So I most recently finished The Martian by Andy Weir, which is big thumbs up, it is fantastic. By the way, he has a potty mouth so kids, be aware, but fantastic book. After that I read Naomi Novik’s new book, which comes out in June--I get them early! It's called Uprooted and I liked that a lot too. Those are both very solid. Otherwise I am reading-- let's see, I've got a couple. Oh, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, read that, really liked that. So those are my three, I read them all in December.
Right now I'm reading Raising Steam, Terry Pratchett, one of my favorite writers, and I'm also reading Peter Orullian's second book. He's a fantasy novelist who would really like me to give him a cover quote, so I'm reading his book to see if I can give it a cover quote or not. He's a Tor author that writes epic fantasy.
Last month you posted a picture of your Dropbox right and there is that one folder that we read about. Is there anything you can tell us about that yet?
So I posted a picture of my Dropbox and I just happened to have crossed out one of the folders. What can I say about that-- you'll know eventually. There's not a whole lot i can say about it because its mere existence is a spoiler to people who haven't read certain other books. And so that's the reason why I crossed it out.
We can assume it's cosmere?
I can't say either way. It's mere existence is a spoiler. You will find out eventually, but it is definitely a little side project that I may or may not actually ever finish.
So this may be RAFO bait, but in Dalinar's Feverstone Keep vision, when the Radiants discard their Shards are they doing that to any entity in particular in specific?
Definitely a RAFO.
Are you going to explain how Vasher gets to the Stormlight...
I will.
Is that gonna be Warbreaker 2?
Warbreaker 2 is where I'm looking to do it.
Okay, cool.
Yep. *pause* I will at least give hints.
So I heard that, like, in *inaudible* you have people with mental health issues. Like Kaladin had depression. And I was just curious if you're going to do something like with Renarin.
Renarin has anxiety. Amongst other things. He kind of got the grab bag of mental disorders. Poor hand. But yeah. I might dig into anxiety a little bit more. Do you know someone with anxiety?
*inaudible*
Yeah, if you watch Renarin he's got his little fidget box and things like that.
"Arteth" from Sel and "ardent" from Roshar. Is that just a coincidence their similar?
Coincidence, yeah.
No linguistics shared *uninteligible*?
Nah, false cognate.
So Lessie's kandra, but in the original Mistborn series kandra can't bleed. So how was it that *inaudible* <bleed>?
I think they can bleed. In fact I think Vin has a conversation about it, because otherwise you could just prick the fingers of everybody in order to find a kandra who was imitating somebody.
Because when Ten-- well, it's TenSoon but she thinks it's OreSeur-- gets shot and hurt, it talks about how there's no blood.
Oh, they can stop the bleeding if they want.
Okay.
I mean they have absolute control of their muscles and things. But if you look in Well of Ascension they talk about, "Well, we could just prick everyone's finger and find the kandra," but that doesn't work. They can bleed if they want to. They can cut it off.
Okay, so when I went through and re-did my reading of the series before Shadows of Self came out I just probably missed that.
I'm-- I'm pretty sure I put that in. If I didn't it's in the annotations, because otherwise there's a really easy way to find a hiding kandra.
If Calamity were a Shard in the Cosmere, what intent would he be?
Oh boy... Oh boy. Have you read this book?
I have not read Calamity yet?
I don't want to spoil it. Um... *pause* Yeah, I don't really want to spoil it. But it's kind of-- it's like "Vindictiveness" would probably be a good match. This-- Or "Judgement". Maybe Judgement. Calamity's got this impression that people will destroy themselves if he lets them. Does that make sense?
Yeah.
So it's not either one of those, but it's something close to that.
I wanted to know if Forged metals had Allomantic properties.
If Forged metals had Allomantic properties. So what I’ve kind of been ruling on this is if you Forge a metal from one metal to another you can probably start burning it Allomantically but it-- Once you did it would disrupt the Spiritual nature of the metal and it would change back immediately.
So Odium is trapped on a planet near Roshar. Now that Talenelat is no longer being bound wherever he's at, does that mean that Odium's imminence is--
Taln still is keeping to the Oathpact. So there is that. But [Odium's] being bound is greater than the Oathpact.
How do you decide what concepts become Shards?
It took a little bit of work. I basically brainstormed a bunch of attributes of deity that most people had in their religions and see which ones will adapt well to being these concepts.
Can a Smoker block an Awakener's lifesense?
That will work, yes.
Can being an Allomantic Savant be transferred through Hemalurgy?
A Savant cannot be, good question. No one's asked me that before.
Where does the concept for the broadsheets come from?
So I get together with my team: which is Ben McSweeney who does a lot of the artwork, Isaac who does all the symbols and maps, my editorial assistant, and myself. And then we brainstorm as many cool things as we can, and then Isaac lays it out, Ben does all the art, and then together we all just write different *inaudible* for the articles so it feels like a newspaper that a lot of different people are writing.
That's awesome. Thank you very much this is very cool.
That's how we do it.
Isaac wrote the Allomancer Jak pieces in the next one so you should read that one. It's really fun, it's his debut of fiction.
So. Mistborn in Space. Sixth of Dusk...
Lot of people are wondering about that and I'm not answering that.
The Priests Give an Account of the Murder
This should set off red flags, since you saw what happened that night. Vasher didn't kill the man who was tied up, nor did he flee out the way he had come. He went into the tunnels.
Someone else was there that night. I hope that readers can put that together from the discussion; if not, however, the next Lightsong chapter lends some explanations to the occurrence.
A lot of alpha readers, upon reaching this chapter, said things like, "I was really waiting for something like this to happen," or "This is just what Lightsong needed." They're referring to him beginning to investigate the death. (A lot of these comments come from the next Lightsong scene too, after we're certain this little plot structure isn't going away.)
They're noticing something that I noticed too—that Lightsong needed something to drive him, something to keep him proactive. Something that wasn't just a political game. I like this sequence a lot, and it's an example of something that developed during the writing process rather than being planned out ahead of time. I just felt I needed something else, a way to have Lightsong be involved, but which would also give me a chance to start delving into his past.
Blushweaver and Lightsong Visit Mercystar
Just like the last scene showed off what a lot of the standard gods are like, Mercystar is supposed to hint at what a lot of the goddesses are like. I think that there would be a good number of them who would turn out just like this—given anything they want, told how important they are, and blessed with a beautiful and perfect body no matter what they eat or how they act. Imagine what that must do to a person.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lightsong Visits Blushweaver While She's Enjoying a Gardener's Art
One of the things I wanted to do with this book was come up with different kinds of art that the gods could enjoy—things that we wouldn't normally look at as traditional "art" but which in this world have been developed to the point that they're just that.
I liked the concept of a gardener whose art came from the movement and arrangement of pots of flowers and plants into patterns on the fly, like—as Lightsong says—the leader of a musician leading an orchestra. He directs, gesturing and pointing, and dozens of servants rush about, holding different pots. Then they set them down and retreat, leaving them for a few moments. Then it repeats, different servants rushing in with other pots and laying them in other patterns. A little like synchronized swimming, but with plants.