Questioner
The Wheel of Time fandom has been talking about the concept of episodes being released weekly, as opposed to a bulk release. Since you're actively trying to adapt things, if you had something adapted into a television show, what would you like to see? And would that depend on which story you're telling? What are your general opinions on that?
Brandon Sanderson
I thought that I would prefer the full dump, until I've started watching several of these Disney+ shows. I think it would depend on the story, it would depend on the format. They can get away with it better on Disney+ because they are properties that people know are worth waiting for. And one of the reasons I released Elantris as a standalone is I'm like, "I want to introduce this to people. I want them to know that I can tell a story," and things like that. So if it were my very first thing, I think I'd be more likely to do a full dump, and just be like, "Here. Trust us. Here is the show; watch the whole thing." People who know more about all of this than me are watching really carefully the ratings and the social engagement and things like that, and I think they will be the ones who ultimately decide, in all of these cases, how to do it.
Questioner
I know that it has been important to you to authentically and sensitively portray characters with disabilities. So I was wondering what research you have done or are planning to do to appropriately portray a character with a visual disability?
Brandon Sanderson
I think I made a good level up on that with Dawnshard through some really good help from some beta readers. I would probably use my same method, though my gut tells me that people with visual disabilities are one of those things that authors think they can write when they can't, does that make sense? So I'm going to guess, not knowing, that there are far more bad portrayals of people with visual disabilities than some other disabilities, because of the assumption people make by, like, "Wearing glasses? I know what it's like to have a visual disability," and things like that. I could write Rysn by doing the legwork up front, writing the book, giving it to people, and them telling me what I'm doing wrong. I might need to get somebody onto the ground floor from before I write the chapters or books, if I were going to do someone with a visual disability. Which I do want to do at some point in the future. My gut just tells me "be extra careful with this one."
Questioner
A few years ago at a panel, you mentioned that with the interest in the Marvel Expanded Universes, that Hollywood suddenly had an interest in expanded universes. Now, with Wheel of Time, clearly they're looking for expanded universes. Can you tell us anything about the interest you've had lately?
Brandon Sanderson
I've had a ton of interest lately. A few years ago, I mentioned that I got a lot of interest because the Cosmere was a naturally shared universe; this was hot in Hollywood for a while. As evidenced by the terrible ones that they made and tried to force to work. So a lot of people were really interested in this. One of the big problems being that epic fantasy is super expensive, and they were really worried about doing epic fantasy. But epic fantasy is now becoming more of a thing that is just "the Lord of the Rings movies were good"; now we've got multiple good fantasy adaptations. So, yeah, the interest is high.
The issue is: I am now at a place in my career where I don't have to say "yes" anymore. For the longest time, I needed that money from Hollywood. But these days, I'm not in that position. I don't have to worry about when someone comes in with a large check and says "here you go, Brandon!" I can say "no." And I've been saying "no" quite a bit, because there are certain guarantees I want that most places in Hollywood don't want to give me. And that's fine; they don't have to. But they also don't have to get my book series. And so I have said "no" to a surprising number of things lately as I have been targeting working with people that I really like. And been taking a lot of meetings with people whose films I really liked and impressed me, and have been working with some people... just doing a lot of things that I think will make the movies the way I want them to make (and potentially television shows).
I can't announce anything, if that's what you're asking. But if you read in between the lines and things I said, and various things, you might be able to pick together some of what I'm trying to put together.
Brandon Sanderson
Wax and Wayne [Four], I will have, probably... the full draft, the goal is to have it done by January, and then it's not coming out until November; we're eleven months ahead. Which is not as ahead as, like, the eighteen months that's normal [for the publishing industry], but for us, it's just gonna be, like, so much breathing room.
And, theoretically, I'll be finishing the fourth Skyward book soon thereafter for a release about a year after that. We're looking at spring of 2023 for that, and then Stormlight Five in 2023 fall. I think that's what we're looking at. And I am warning up front, Stormlight Five is the ones I will let slide a little bit if I need to. Because it's the end of a sequence, and the deadline doesn't need to be as strict because it doesn't bump back things as much. So it's possible that Stormlight Five goes into the spring of 2024. We'll see what happens there.
Questioner
Now that you've gotten all four Wax and Wayne books out, what was your favorite scene to write in that series?
Brandon Sanderson
Probably the Wayne church bar scene, that chapter was just a blast to write. This prologue [for The Lost Metal] was a lot of fun, if you can't tell. But that's probably my favorite chapter, I think. We'll see; I haven't finished this book yet. Maybe there'll be another one that's more favoriter then.
Oudeis
Do seons automatically know what they mean? Like, was Ashe created being like "I am Ashe and I mean 'light,'" or did he have to have someone draw him and see what happened?
Brandon Sanderson
No, he knows intrinsically. Good question.
thegatorgirl00
Assuming they have the same years of practice, who would have a better understanding of objects' souls: a Radiant Soulcaster or a Forger?
Brandon Sanderson
It's gonna depend on the individual, I think that they both could make an argument, and I'm not sure. I think it's gonna go neck-and-neck.
Questioner
We had some unnamed Shard namedrops in Rhythm of War. Has there been any kind of Whimsical machinations onscreen, or have they been mostly absent?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO! Sorry, sorry. I think there's a mention of Whimsy in Wax and Wayne 4, so... Capital "w" Whimsy.
Mark Lindberg
Are we ever going to get more Axies the Collector scenes?
Brandon Sanderson
It is very likely that you will.
Joe
I really miss Rock. Is that going to be part of the Words of Radiance Kickstarter?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. It will be part of the Words of Radiance Kickstarter. There will be a novella about Rock as part of the Words of Radiance Kickstarter. If I don't give myself the deadlines, then it might turn into, like, Rithmatist 2, where it's like "oh I'll do it someday." I've committed to doing that. It will be the thing I write right after Book 5, and it should come out right before Book 5, in the same way that I did with Dawnshard. That's, at least, the plan right now.
Questioner
Can Hoid eat Soulcast bacon?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. He could probably eat lab-grown meat if he knew it was (or magic-grown meat). He probably could. His psychology will be influencing this, right? Which is why I say "probably." But the magic would allow it.
Billy todd
If somebody lied to him about the nature of the meat, could he eat that?
Brandon Sanderson
No. Well, okay, if they lied and said it was Soulcast, yes, then he probably could.
Questioner 2
It's based on his perception.
Brandon Sanderson
It's based on his perception, yeah.
Trae Cooper
In the past we deeply discussed the mechanism with which Breaths are decided to be doled out or endowed on Nalthis. And you said that there is an intellect that is doling them out, but that their intentions or that their goals are difficult to predict or nonstandard. And my question is: are they nonstandard because the base Vessel behind them does not have, at its core, a standard human psychology?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO! Good question. Excellent question. RAFO, I like the way you're theorizing. I have said before, that there are multiple nonhuman Vessels in the Cosmere. So, your theorizing perhaps is going to bear fruit.
Did someone say "chulls"? No, it's not the chulls. There are no chulls that are holding Shards in the Cosmere.
Ted Herman
A certain person went to a certain spren and got a boon and a curse, and later on, very recently, their fortunes have risen very high very fast. Is the boon and curse still in effect?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO, but you will get answers in the fifth book about that. Excellent question, but this is a RAFO with a "yes it's coming", not a nebulous RAFO.
Oudeis
That first chasmfiend hunt, in Way of Kings, did not go as planned. Was that sheer bad luck? Or was someone or something making that happen?
Brandon Sanderson
Excellent question. Sheer bad luck. Sometimes bad luck is just bad luck. There were no mysterious people pulling the strings behind the scenes on that one. It just went as it went.
Good question, though. I'm always glad when I can appropriately dispel one of those so that people don't have to theorize too much.
Questioner
Does ice cream and popcorn exist on Roshar?
Brandon Sanderson
Unfortunately, neither of them do. You can go to Scadrial and get some, right? But Roshar... so, they do get cheese and things on Roshar from sow's milk and things like this, but they are just not as milk-based as some cuisines on Earth. Ice cream is just not a thing. Also, like, ice is not a thing that they're really doing a lot with. And popcorn, y'know, requires maize, which...
Questioner
But you said lavis is the corn?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, it is the corn, but if you pop it it's gonna pop a lot more like barley. It's not gonna be the same, right? That's what lavis is gonna be like. So it is the corn, but more in the idea that it's, uh... It's probably more similar to a barley.
Jofwu
The Seventeenth Shard was looking for a certain individual on Roshar. Have they found him yet? Or, what are they doing?
Brandon Sanderson
They never managed to find him. He is tricksy, as you might imagine, he is a tricksy hobbit. And so they have never managed to find him. They think they got close a couple times, but they actually didn't. And by the point of Rhythm of War, they have given up and left planet, because he kind of went behind their backs and was talking to people and things like that.
We will catch up to those three at some point, I hope, and find out what they've been up to. They kept looking in the wrong countries.
Questioner
On Roshar, it's kind of tradition men eat spicy foods, women more sweeter. Could it be possible that a sort of euphemism for gay men or gay women is, "Does he eat sweet food? Does she eat spicy food?"
Brandon Sanderson
I could see people saying that, yes.
Argent
Investiture in the Cosmere when used goes to the Spiritual Realm, except in one place. What determines which Realm Investiture returns to when it's being used?
Brandon Sanderson
Too many factors for me to actually say right here, Evgeni, so I'm gonna RAFO this one. There are lots of reasons that it could go in different ways and different places.
Billy Todd
How many of those reasons are rule of cool?
Brandon Sanderson
Rule of Cool is definitely a reason. I think he's trying to get at why on Sel things are weird, and I have not explained why things are weird on Sel yet.
Questioner
With regards to certain experiments, would it be fair to say Ishar and a certain Scadrian have similar goals?
Brandon Sanderson
*hesitation noises* I don't know that I would say that 100%. The certain Scadrian you reference has been able to achieve the goals that he wants. Let's see if I can circumlocute this: there's a certain set of bones floating around that already has a Connection to this individual, which was useful in achieving what he wanted to do, which is not a luxury that Ishar has.
Questioner
Is there a significance between Harmony and Discord being musical terms? And would they be considered different Investiture tones?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes and no. So what's going on here is that... it is significant, I chose those two terms very specifically. Not gonna tell you a lot about Discord or things like that, but the idea is that idea of Harmony is in... the sounds are in harmony, they are working together. In Discord they are not. I wouldn't call them Investiture tones, more the way the two tones are responding to each other.
Questioner
(Disclaimers so that you can't say, like, "well if a Shard...") If a regular Awakener, just a mundane Awakener with nothing more than a few hundred Breaths and not any other outside influences, is there some Command they could give a blanket to get the blanket to turn warm? Generate heat; is that a normal thing you can Command?
Brandon Sanderson
Not in just a normal situation. I mean, technically, you could tell the blanket "start rubbing one part against another part" or something like that, or "set yourself on fire," right? But that's not what you're asking. For Awakening to work, you have to work within the intrinsic properties of the matter you're making, except it can move around a bit and with a few little other things it can do.
It's not outside the realm of possibility you could activate those Breaths as Investiture to do something else, but you would need more than just the simple magic system of Awakening.
Questioner
The third Mistborn series will be the 1980s, and the fourth one will be the space opera one.
Brandon Sanderson
Yep, unless I do a cyberpunk in between.
Questioner
Do we ever see... I know in [The Bands of Mourning] is when we see the Allomantic grenades. Is that a setup to use, like, Allomantic engines for space travel at the end?
Brandon Sanderson
Yep. So, that is a setup for various uses of mechanical Allomancy and Feruchemy, is where we are pushing the technology. We're not there yet, but you should be able to extrapolate from some of those things for the future.
Karen Ahlstrom
And so we had a brainstorming meeting and said, okay, "Ais should be a woman rather than a man. We need more gender balance in the story."
And one thing that a couple of us thought about and talked about ahead of time was the very ending, because the conflict between Kenton and Drile was: are we gonna sell our services as mercenaries and betray our independence? Or are we gonna keep going the way we always did?
And over the course of the book, Kenton says, "Okay, we're going to sell you ourr services and we're going to sell you our services, and we're going to sell you our services." And so by the end, when he realizes that Drile is not the bad guy, having him die in that battle just seemed wrong. So that's why we had him survive and had Kenton say, "Okay, you had a good idea, and I didn't like the way you went about it, but having your input in that can be a very valuable thing."
That was that was one of the big changes that got made. And when we talked to Brandon about it in that meeting, he was like, "Oh yeah, you guys are totally right. Over time, you guys got better story instincts than I had when I wrote it in the first place."
Some of those big changes were kind of a group brainstorming thing. And that was a fun process to do.
Pagerunner
(paraphrased)
I asked Isaac to personalize my cosmere system chart set with snarky comments from Nazh complaining about every planet.
Isaac Stewart
(paraphrased)
He said that they were not canon, but he would write them. For several, he made interesting comments about them.
Threnody: "Would love to get back here, if you'd just loan me that thing." This is the one that's the least canon of all of them. Isaac has some ideas about what the "thing" might be that Nazh wants, but he hasn't run any of them past Brandon yet.
Taldain: "Darkside parties are the best!" After he wrote it, Isaac noticed that it wasn't a complaint, but he said that it was true and that we'd see why.
Sel: "I cannot tell you how much I hate Sel. Yet you keep sending me back, you sadist." Before he wrote it, isaac said that Nazh had been stuck on Sel before, so he had a special dislike for this planet.
Nalthis: "Too colorful. It makes me sick... Shadows!"
Drominad: "Do not skinny dip on First... just warning you!"
Scadrial: "This place just hasn't been the same since the change in management."
Roshar: "Aggh... This place again? It smells like fish."
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
South Scadrians have low natural body temperature. This is related to their cold intolerance.
Billy Todd
(paraphrased)
You previously said that there's a Shard that has decided to go into hiding, looking to survive.
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Yes.
Billy Todd
(paraphrased)
It's sort of practicing the art of not being seen.
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Yes.
Billy Todd
(paraphrased)
Is that Shard the same Shard as Autonomy, or is it a different Shard?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
I like the way you worded that; no, it's not the same Shard as Autonomy.
Billy Todd
(paraphrased)
The other Shard, have we seen it on screen?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
RAFO.
Billy Todd
(paraphrased)
Have we seen it "practicing the art of not being seen" on screen?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
RAFO.
Kingsdaughter613
(paraphrased)
I got this from Isaac regarding the Steel Alphabet:
I has a dot on top of tin; E is under
There is no C, just a K
Q is written KW
An alternate version of the Allomantic alphabet was created, but not used. Isaac may now repurpose it for a typewriter font.
He also mentioned that he may release a handwritten version of the alphabet soon.
Kingsdaughter613
(paraphrased)
Is the Ghostblood symbol a stylized marewill flower?
Isaac Stewart
(paraphrased)
RAFO! No, actually that’s WAFO - wait and find out.
Ben McSweeney
Chull toes is good, but you're missing the hollow spaces in the boulder portion of the shell, that the chull tucks its legs into when at rest.
Pixels are murder on long lines, but I'm missing those antennae. They grow in pace with the shell, so that the chull can sense out spaces to determine if they're large enough to pass through (much like a cat's whiskers).
EtheraelEspeon
That’s super cool! I feel like chulls could do with some more in-book world building lol, though i cant see it fitting in anywhere. That one page describing chull breeding is probably my favorite piece of art in the SA xD
I do draw quite a lot of things with antennae. I still haven’t found a way to draw them well, i wanna work on it though.
LazyTurtleDelta
Really thought the legs were more like spikes like a crab or spider has. Guess I better go look back at the depictions of them in the book.
Ben McSweeney
Nope, big flat trunk feet like an elephant. You can see in some of the early development sketches that we started out with spiky crab feet, and Brandon vetoed those specifically in favor of something heavier.
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Kelsier would say he is good. Sazed would say he is conflicted. Kelsier will be walking that line [between good and evil] for a while yet.
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
Naming a child for Kelsier is not safe, but is also not a bad idea. If you're okay with Kell’s actions in TFE, you will probably be okay with them going forward.
Kingsdaughter613
He [my husband] wanted to know what's going on with Bastille.
Brandon Sanderson
Bastille is written, art is being done. I'm hoping next year, Tor's been a little dodgy on when those come out. We wanted them this year, and they promised they'd have it out by next year, so we'll see if they keep that promise.
Kingsdaughter613
Considering the philosophy on Roshar, someone's probably come up with the concept of Occam's razor. He [DM of my RPG] wants to know what it's called and who it's named for on Roshar.
Brandon Sanderson
I have not come up with that, so it's named for him. What's his name?
Kingsdaughter613
I only know his name on the Shard, which is Peace.
Brandon Sanderson
Peace? It's Peace's Theorem.
Questioner
Who would you think would make a better Amyrlin, Jasnah or Navani?
Brandon Sanderson
Navani. It depends on the era though. Near the end, probably Jasnah.
Questioner
I was wondering about the spirit behind "strength before weakness." It's one that, the more I think about it practically, the more I think I'm missing it.
Brandon Sanderson
So there are several sort of ways that I interpret it, and like all of them, I want to interpret them differently through the books. Rhythm of War digs into the "strength before weakness" a little bit more. Like the other two, there is a natural sort of sense of it. We are strong and everyone will be weak. And the idea is that you are strong for the weak when the weak cannot be strong, because someone will need to be there for you to be strong when you are weak. Is like the core concept of it. Everybody is weak sometimes; everybody is strong sometimes, and we need each other. And that's kind of the philosophy behind "strength before weakness."
thegatorgirl00
If a tree falls in the Forests of Hell and no one is around to hear it, do the shades still get angry?
Brandon Sanderson
Hah hah, the tree in the cosmere is self-aware to a very small extent, so it's impossible for a tree to fall with nobody being there.
Questioner
The Lord Ruler used a lot of metal for shielding and stuff. But if he had had an aluminum helmet himself, would it have protected him from Ruin's influence at all, or would the spikes overcome that?
Brandon Sanderson
Aluminum helmet would help in that situation. Aluminum could very well have been something useful for resisting, yeah.
AndyGranny
If you used a Lifeless body, would a Lifeless be able to access an untapped metalmind...
Brandon Sanderson
An unkeyed type of metalmind?
AndyGranny
Thank you, I could not think of that word. Would they be able to access an unkeyed metalmind if the intent when the Lifeless was created, if the intent was that they could...
Brandon Sanderson
Right, I see what you're getting at. Yes, they could. As they could access and use any tool that is appropriate for what they're Commanded to do, they could indeed access a metalmind in the same way.
In fact, doing so may, depending on the metalmind, be dangerous for keeping your Lifeless a Lifeless.
Chaos
Another friend, the one who needed to eat a shoe because Eshonai died, is obsessed with direforms, the Regal forms, and would love to know their ability set.
Brandon Sanderson
You can tell her, or him, or them, that the ability set will be decided upon as they are relevant to the nature of the story.
Questioner
I was wondering if there is a written Shallan and Adolin wedding scene?
Brandon Sanderson
There is not a written one. Sorry, sorry. If it was written, I would release it for you, but there isn't one. Maybe I'll need to write one. I do get this request decently often. I thought people would be tired of wedding scenes, we already had a wedding scene. I'm like, "Ah, we could skip this one. "
Questioner
That was like different. That was like a "you just need to get married," there wasn't like a love, a whole experience with the scene.
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, yes. Maybe I need to write that at some point
Kellyn
You can just blame it on me, everybody else does.
Brandon Sanderson
Why is that?
Kellyn
Because it's the beta readers' fault you didn't write that scene.
Brandon Sanderson
Is that what they think?
Kellyn
We apparently told you to take it out of the book.
Brandon Sanderson
Ohhhh, ok. So there's mythology associated with it. Now I can write it and put Kellyn in, and they can be, like, making fun of you, and then they'll think that I cut it because it was unflattering to you
Argent
In the Syl interlude in Rhythm of War, she is speaking with Dalinar about his powers and the things those powers have done in the past. And what she says is "a Bondsmith bound other Surges". First of all, what other Surges?
Brandon Sanderson
One potential interpretation for you on this, remember they use Surge and spren sometimes interchangeably in-world. Just making you aware of that.
Argent
Yeah I'm aware of that. Bound other Surges....
Brandon Sanderson
That might be what she's talking about. I'm not guaranteeing it.
Argent
Then the term Bondsmith. To me it seems like she's talking about Ishar and the Ashyn stuff. So would they use Bondsmith to describe him in that place?
Brandon Sanderson
So one other thing to keep aware of in the cosmere - for instance they call "Lightweaving" any illusion-based magic working on the same fundamentals. And so you could argue - and people will use it that way in-world - that Bondsmithing is both an order [of Knights Radiant] and a power that exists outside the order.
Argent
And that would be maybe the power of Connection, the way Lightweaving is the power of illusion?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. And for instance, there were not Elsecallers to get people between Ashyn and Roshar, but on Roshar they would explain what happened there as Elsecalling. Does that make sense?
Argent
I mean, as much as these things make sense, yes.
Questioner
Could a retired Radiant actually have just like, passed their bond to their kid or to a squire or something?
Brandon Sanderson
So this is tricky because the spren's involved, and the person's own disposition and things like... you can't just pass it on, they would have to be saying the oaths, they would have to be right for the Order, the spren would have to be on-board. I would say there is a better chance that a family member would than a random person, but it's not guaranteed.
Questioner
Can Radiants have kids?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Questioner
Can they heal their kids?
Brandon Sanderson
Can they heal their kids?
Questioner
Like, during the process.
Brandon Sanderson
During... like, in-utero?
Questioner
Yes.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Argent
I've been trying to figure out how the Fused and the Regals get their Voidlight. Heavenly Ones seem to be able to levitate indefinitely unless they heal, which presumably expends their Light. But then the Pursuer needs to go get spheres. And then there's the Song of Prayer, which I don't understand at all.
Brandon Sanderson
All of the Fused have an active and an inactive way to use their Voidlight. For some of them, one is way more dramatic than the other. So you should be watching for the different brands of Fused to each have that. If they don't use it actively, they get a passive effect. And if they do use it actively, it runs out. So watch for that with them.
They each only have one power, as opposed to Knights Radiant, but they have the staying power of consistency depending on what they are.
The Song of Prayer. Let's just say that Odium likes his Fused being reliant upon him. Does that make sense?
Argent
I think it does. My assumption has been that anyone can just sing the song and ask for Investiture.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, this is true, because most of the time he's not going to be paying direct attention, and it's just going to... yeah.
Kingsdaughter613
Hero of Ages, Harmony in the epigraphs says that brass and copper Allomancers can become savants and never even notice. I know that generally savantism is supposed to have really extreme effects, so how does that work that they do not notice?
Brandon Sanderson
So, most savanthoods have extreme effects, some of them it's just not as noticeable. It can warp your soul without you really even paying that much attention to it. I kind of have a push and pull on how debilitating it is in some ways versus others. In this case, those are two that you can become that it would not be very debilitating in your life.
Kingsdaughter613
What effects would that have for that?
Brandon Sanderson
I'll RAFO that.
Questioner
Are they [Wax and Steris] gonna have kids?
Brandon Sanderson
Spoiler, but yes.
Questioner
It seems to me like the Shards each have a color associated with them. Honor I think is blue, Odium is gold... My first question would be, what colors would be associated with Preservation and Ruin?
Brandon Sanderson
So, I have always associated white and black with Preservation and Ruin.
Questioner
Would that have changed for Harmony?
Brandon Sanderson
It will have changed for Harmony. But I won't say what it is.
Questioner
Any chance for a sequel [to Elantris]?
Brandon Sanderson
The chance for a sequel to this is pretty decent. I hope to get to it. My goal is to write them after Stormlight 5, but we will see.
Questioner
Rysn, why can't she bond a spren? Is it just to help her travel quicker, since it's difficult to travel with a spren? Or is there another reason?
Brandon Sanderson
There is another reason why she is forbidden from bonding a spren.
Questioner 2
Forbidden or impossible?
Brandon Sanderson
Forbidden. It's not impossible. It is forbidden of her.
Questioner
Has there ever been a Radiant besides a Bondsmith that has used Lifelight before Lift?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
