Is the time that women are pregnant in Roshar, is it different? Is it nine months, because nine is a bad number?
It is a bad number and also, the months and years on Roshar are a little different, so it wouldn't be... it wouldn't map exactly one-to-one to our world. So, usually, it's about 10% different, a year on Roshar is about 10% longer than one of our years, but the months are about 50 days, so I'd have to run the math, but it's not going to come out exactly.
When will we see a continuation for the Kelsier story?
You'll see a little glimpse of it in Wax and Wayne 4. Otherwise, you're gonna have to wait for either [Mistborn] Era 3, or if I manage to do a Secret History 2. Which I can't promise that I'll be able to do.
Secret History was I think my best part of the Mistborn series.
Oh. Thank you. I do want to do one, but we're gonna have to see where the time... where deadlines fall and stuff like that.
How do you see the metal, burning metals in corresponding to film?
So I've always thought that they would make the metal glow blue once you start burning it rather than the lines. The lines I don't think will look as good on film as they work in the books so that is what I've always kind of thought it would do. You start burning it, all sources of metal start turning blue and then you can you know shove on them and things.
I have a question about Mistborn. Is it possible for a spike to steal powers from other worlds?
It is possible, yes.
And, by extension, Feruchemical storage... in the metalmind...
Oh, in the metalmind, if they had the other power, could they store the power...
If there is the Feruchemist, like the...
So that is theoretically possible, but it would take a lot of finagling. Yeah, theoretically possible.
Can cytonic people potentially use all the abilities from Defending Elysium?
Potentially, yes. So mindblades and things like that. Mostly, I'm kind of pushing people into specialties a little bit more, like I've done with something like Mistborn where you're generally better at one thing than another. So you may see some divisions of powers, but they're all capable of it.
So Shardblades. When they cut off the victims, the eyes burn up. And deadeyes have their eyes scratched out in Shadesmar. Is there any relation between them?
There is indeed a connection there.
Is it RAFO?
It's a RAFO, but there is a connection. You got something out of me there.
Are the people from Mistborn the people that came to The Stormlight Archive?
Are they the people that what?
In The Stormlight Archive, they discover that the people are not... that humans are not the people that [came to land?]. Are they the people from Mistborn?
No, they're not. They're from a different planet. The people from Mistborn, though, were based on them, in part. See, there's some people that predate what we call the Shattering of Adonalsium, where God was split to all these pieces, and humans predate that. The humans that were on Scadrial were created as an imitation of those.
Is there going to be another Wax and Wayne book?
Yes, there will be one more.
Yes? And when's it coming out?
I have it scheduled to be one of the things right after Stormlight 4 but before Stormlight 5. So i have to get Stormlight 4 done, that will take another couple months writing and about six months of editing. So you watch sometime around July on my website we should start seeing the Wax and Wayne progress bar pop up or the Skyward 3 progress bar. Those are the two things I need to write.
And your name is Topaz, huh?
Yes, it is.
Topaz is a great name in the cosmere, because.. I if you know Wit/Hoid? Topaz is one of his aliases. It was the first name I came up for with him, when I was a teenager. I named him Topaz.
It seems like [Nightblood] takes Breaths at kind of an exponential rate. So, if you were trying to draw Nightblood in a perpendicularity, would it collapse at some point?
That is RAFO... that is a RAFO, but yes, it's a good question to be asking.
In the Lighthouse, it seems that it's almost like a fabrial, but not quite, because obviously, it's not a spren, obviously. So, is it like the Cognitive equivalent of what that would be?
So, what specifically are you talking about? Not the light itself, but the thing that Kaladin sees and stuff like that?
Yeah.
No, I wouldn't say that it is. So, I would go a different direction on that.
Why is there only one... I mean is there either one Allomantic power or all of them?
What do you mean? Oh, why is that? That was mostly for narrative reasons and for making it easy for the reader to track. And, so, why in world? Just ended up being the way the Investiture split but mostly it was for narrative reasons, it was for author reasons.
I was thinking if it was related to Identity?
Yeah, no. It's mostly for my convenience as a writer.
I was wondering if Rayse and Ryshadium, is there a connection like for Aon and Aona, Ati and atium?
For what? For Rayse and Ryshadium? No.
They're called "Wax and Wayne." Is that something to do with the moon or is that just...
It's a pun, it's just a pun on my part.
So you did it on purpose but it's nothing in the book?
I did. Yeah, Scadrial doesn't have a moon so they wouldn't really... The words "wax" and "wane" still mean what they mean, but it's not part of common vernacular the way it is over here. So it's me being goofy and loving the pun way too much.
During the lecture the other day, you talked about the books that you never published, the thirteen books. You mentioned something you called the unspeakable, terrible book number nine. What is that about?
Parts of it ended up as Warbreaker. It was called Mythwalker and I never finished it - it's the only one out of all those I gave up on. It had a magic system that didn't end up working. So, that's pretty bad for one of my books. I had an intriguing concept, but it never worked.
And do you have another one from the thirteen that you still intend on adapting, changing and then maybe publishing?
Aether of Night will probably end up in some form or another, and Dragonsteel will probably end up in some form or another.
Can a Nahel Bond be stagnant because of a spren's inability to progress? If the spren has a character deficiency they cannot break through or something?
Can a spren cause the Nahel Bond to not progress? This is possible. Not very common but it is possible.
Did the old Knights Radiant know the Shin were in possession of the Honorblades?
So... the Knights Radiant are aware of where... most of them are aware of where the Honorblades are.
In the old times?
Oh, I thought you meant the Heralds. Did the old Knights Radiant know where the Honorblades were? I will RAFO that one, sorry. I was thinking, yes, the Heralds knew where their Blades ended up, but I will RAFO the Knights Radiant.
Second thing, can I get a Releaser Ideal maybe?
A what?
A Dustbringer?
No, I don't give the Ideals out until they come up in the books. They're all major plot points.
Are the Sleepless Invested? And if so, is that in every hordeling or is it like the hive mind is an Investiture?
I will RAFO that. All things are Invested. So-
Un-Innate Investiture, like extra...
Extra? I will RAFO that.
Two days ago, you read the first chapter of Stormlight 4 and Navani has a homesteward there and he has those rings, lots and lot of rings. Is it maybe... he has...
You're gonna ask if he is a Terrisman, right?
Maybe...
Maybe... RAFO.
When Zahel worldhopped to Roshar, did he ever do that before Warbreaker?
Yes, in fact Roshar was where the idea for Nightblood kind of came from.
Will you ever write about that?
I will probably reference it in future books and maybe I'll do some flashbacks, but I haven't decided. I'm unlikely to write a book that covers that time period on its own.
So my question is this: So, Investiture is a different [type?] of existence separate from matter and energy, right?
Yes.
So, does entropy apply to Investiture?
Yes... It does, with some caveats, but yes. It works a little differently, but it does apply. You should be able to apply all three laws of thermodynamics with... accounting for a third state of matter, energy.
What's the technological level of Nalthis by the time of Stormlight?
I'm going to RAFO that also.
If Nightblood were out of its scabbard and then you hit someone who is wearing a Shardplate, what would happen?
You will find that out in the books eventually, so that's a RAFO.
Where did you get the inspiration for the <pilot unit> in Skyward, because you get the culture of the piloting program in Israel very well!
I actually went to a lot of pilots and asked them to be my beta readers and talked to them and they gave me a bunch of feedback.
If you took Nightblood into the Cognitive Realm, what would he look like?
RAFO, and yes, he has been taken into the Cognitive Realm before.
More specifically, would he stay a sword or would he give himself a sort of...
That's a RAFO... that's the RAFO. Just make sure when you go through that perpendicularity, he's in a sheath. Otherwise, bad things happen.
There would be a difference, you say?
Yeah, bad things would happen if you took Nightblood through.
So you said, so the only two ways to really worldhop are Cognitive Realm or FTL.
I did not say that, I said...
So there could be another way?
Yes. I said, if you couldn't use Shadesmar, is there another way. I did not say there are only two ways.
Okay, so there could be more than two ways?
Yes.
Okay, thank you. That's the answer I was looking forward to.
What kind of spren is Maya?
Maya is a cultivationspren.
The Reachers in the ship that leads Kaladin and the group... What kind of Order do they create?
That will be answered in the next book. You'll have pictures of all of the Radiant spren and their bonds, except the Bondsmiths, obviously.
One. Can there be Nahel Bonds with more then ten types of spren because we have ten Orders.
Meaning, are there other possible spren that could form other Orders of Knights Radiant that are not the ten? This is theoretically possible, but that is basically what you could argue is happening to Renarin. So now if you want to say... if you want to throw out the exception of spren who were one of the ten who got changed, then this is theoretically possible but right now currently wouldn't work.
So, Shadows for Silence... Threnody, or Hell at least, is based off of Judaism, right? And Shade sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for demon, Shedim. Is there a relation?
Yes... yes. But it's not an in-world reason, it's just in my brain, right?
Okay, so I was going to ask like... do they have chicken legs, which is how [Jewish demons are depicted]
No, they don't. But, you know, things like She’ol [Hebrew word, the Jewish interpetation of the afterlife in certain texts] and things like that, they're in the back of my head - mostly because of Stormlight. I would say, I hadn't thought about it before, but that's definitely an unconscious influence on me. But they do not have chicken legs.
I have a follow-up question about Nalthis and synesthesia. How would having a lot of Breaths affect the Heightenings of someone with chromesthesia, which is a form of synesthesia where you... light and color. I mean, sorry, sound and color.
Okay, so you hear sounds and you see colors?
Or vice-versa, you hear color and see sounds.
Okay, you hear colors and you see sounds... So, what did I say before?
You said that it would affect it in different ways, but you didn't say how.
Alright, so... See sound and hear color... *struggling* I'd have to think about it, honestly. I don't think I can off the cuff that one.
Will we be seeing Szeth training the Radiants in the future?
So... Szeth will be sharing some tips, but I don't know that you'll see him training. He starts the next book in jail, so... yeah...
If an Elantrian were to tattoo someone with an Aon with the intent of it working...
Could that work? Yes... you could make that work. There is some trouble with moving some Aons around, so it's gonna depend on how you're building and things, but you can make that work.
So, about Feruchemy. If someone takes, for example, a copper metalmind, fills it with memories, and then a tin metalmind, fills it with senses, then melts them together into a bronze metalmind, would you be able to tap anything from it, and what?
If you made an alloy of them, you would not get anything out of them. You would know there's Investiture in there, but you wouldn't be able to pull it out.
Even if it's your own?
Even if it's your own, yup. They would interfere with each other to the point that you wouldn't be able to get anything out. Sorry.
First of all, did Mormonism play a role in building the Cosmere at all?
It certainly did... Not really a conscious one, but my faith really influences who I am. Like, one of the big tenets of my religion is this idea that we're all gods in embryo that are then growing up to be like our Father. And so you can see in the Cosmere, it's really about the power of God given to men and what they do with it and how it kinda messes things up if it's not done right. I think that's probably deeply influenced by my religion.
What is your favorite relationship between two characters?
Favorite relationship? Oh boy... Adolin and Kaladin. That was a lot of fun to write, because they're such different people, but they're really good for one another.
So, who is the character you're most proud of?
I would say, I am most proud of Dalinar. I spent a lot of time getting Dalinar to work. Either him or Sazed, both of them were very difficult at times to make work.
We wanted to ask if you know... if you can tell us the age gap between Kelsier and Marsh?
Kelsier and Marsh? Like... four years, yeah.
Did Taravangian meet the Nightwatcher? Or Cultivation?
Cultivation. Good question.
I asked what's up with Warbreaker's sequel and if we'll get to see Endowment get a bigger role.
Someday.
Can Susebron break Nightblood's commands?
Nope.
Susebron just isn't strong enough.
Could Shashara have retrieved her Breath from Nightblood?
Not by means she knew.
Brandon said this is the first confirmation of a second Shardpool on Sel when he signed my book.
There is a second Shardpool.
How will time bending metals (of Allomancers) affect electronic devices?
RAFO, but they will probably be OK.
Can a Shardblade cut a drab or just a soul? As they are only half alive..
A Shardblade would cut the soul, killing the drab.
If an individual has a mental sickness, such as multiple personalities, can that affect a Shard's intent if picked up by him or her?
Yes, that is possible.
Is it possible that Autonomy is one such, and has multiple personalities?
RAFO.
I noticed most of the Unmade have a Middle Eastern mythology inspiration, and could pair them with deities, but I couldn't find a fit for two: Yelig-nar and Ba-Ado-Mishram. Could you tell us their names' origin?
Those two are actully not Middle Eastern but actually inspired by Lovecraft.
Since the gemstones on Shardblades seems to be infused with Stormlight, could a Surgebinder draw that Stormlight and use it?
No he couldn't. You see, that Stormlight is the Shardbearer's life energy, you wouldn't be able to draw it just like I can't draw your life energy from you. If you were to extract that gemstone from the Shardblade it is possible.
But then the gemstone would go dark.
Exactly.
What would happen if an Elantrian burned or flared aluminium? Would they become Reod or a normal person? Or something else?
Like if they got Allomantic powers?
Yeah, like a lerasium [bead] or something.
Okay, yeah, I'm gonna say RAFO, I knew this one was coming.
