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What can you tell us about what magic was like in the cosmere before Adonalsium was Shattered?
Magic was...
Was it very different or...
It was-- I mean-- It was similar, different in some fundamental ways but the things that were done you’ll be able to see other-- You'll be able to see the pieces.
In The Stormlight Archive, Damnation is a physical planet, or place, to my understanding. The Tranquiline Halls seems a little less tangible, is it a physical place and will we see it?
So, Damnation and the Tranquiline Halls, are they physical places? In Rosharan mythology they are places, much like heaven and hell are places. Tranquiline Halls is-- and so they believe that they do exist, but they're not sure if they exist on this plane or the next plane, or things like that. And that's all I'm going to say about it.
Are there plans for another thing like Arcanum Unbounded?
Yes. But it's gonna be a ways off.
Where Arcanum came from is the fact that, early in my career, I would have an idea, I would sit down, I would write a novel. That is how I trained myself to be a writer. That's where I came up with thirteen novels before I sold one. That turned into my greatest advantage, and one of my greatest liabilities as I have progressed as a writer. The reason it was an advantage is, having spent all those years learning to write and learning my process, I knew what to do when a book wasn't working. I knew what to do with a book when it worked, but I wanted to make it better. I knew how to build an outline that would really make me excited about a story. But I also was really, really good at telling a new story and opening things up, and I had not practiced closing things off. All thirteen of those novels were basically all standalones with series potential, where I was hinting at something larger. And so early in my career, I was very good at, "Let's write a book. And of course, because I know what came before and what'll come after, I will make those things open for me."
And then I ended up-- The Wheel of Time came along, and kind of slammed into me like a freight train, and left me with all these first books that I had started. The Rithmatist. I had started, at that point, working on Legion. I had been doing Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians. And I found that what I needed to learn how to do was write a self-contained novella to get some of these ideas out of my head, rather than writing a novel that promised sequels. Because I also had promised sequels to Elantris, and sequels to Warbreaker.
And so Arcanum Unbounded is my attempt to kind of do like the interludes in Stormlight in my own career. Little interludes where I take an idea and I dig into it and I explore some part, often of the cosmere, without promising sequels. And part of my goal right now as a writer is to make sure I'm closing off more things than I open, or at least at the same rate. So that's why I finished Legion this year, which is done, and why I'm trying to finish Alcatraz for next year. If you're waiting for Rithmatist--which is the one I get the most requests about--eventually. It's gonna take a little while. It's been a really hard one to figure out how to do the sequels to.
But, closing things off. What you'll see me doing are more novellas like that, as time progresses. Eventually, I will start collecting them, like I did with Arcanum. But it's gonna take me a few years to get enough of them written that then they'll be worth another collection.
So since Adolin has blond and black streaked hair and Shallan has red hair, would their potential children have all three of their parents' hair colors to have blond, red, and black hair?
Yes.
Does Damnation exist in all three Realms?
Yes, all three.
The one thing that impressed me the most [about Skyward] are the awesomely vivid and thrilling dogfight scenes. How did you come up with these dogfighting techniques? Any particular inspiration that you can share with us? Thank you!
So, one of the things I try to do in combat situations is define a few rules that are different from the way our world works, nudging the combat to be more fantastical. This (hopefully) allows even those who are familiar with the situation to better suspend disbelief--since the rules of combat are different, then battles can theoretically play out in (plausible) ways that I decide and present, rather than running into real-world situations.
For Skyward, I started with studying real-world dogfights, then added a couple big changes. One was some anti-gravity, the other was nudging the battles more toward the way they might work in a vacuum by removing some of the air resistance. The final piece was the light-lances, further pushing the combat into a direction where pilot maneuverability was enhanced. (And the battlefield could be different each time, allowing more variety.)
That all together gave me the way I went about these battles. But I will say this--watching what some fighter pilots can do with their jets was enormously impressive. I had no idea, honestly, the things they are capable of doing.
Also, Sazed gives us our first real discussion of belief and religion. I think this is a very important aspect of this novel, since the Lord Ruler is–essentially–God. I'll get more into this later, but I wanted it known that some members of the group are worried about religious concerns.
As far as the Oaths go, for Orders of the Knights Radiant that have Oaths that are, like, set, like Windrunners and Bondsmiths, do they have to be spoken in a specific order, or is it just as the--
They have to be spoken in a specific order. But the Oath can vary depending on the individual's own interpretation and feeling about it.
I also asked Peter about the different meter used in the epigraphs containing bits of the listener songs, and whether that was because they were supposed to be sung to different Rhythms.
He said yes.
Do you know what color, off the top of your head, the soulcaster is supposed to be? First book said gold and the second book said silver.
It depends on the soulcaster.
Is that a Peter...?
I believe silver is the accurate one. That's a PAFO, though.
Did [Hoid] cause the Shattering?
*hands out RAFO card* ...There is a hint about this in a book that is released tonight that is not that book.
Are we ever going to get a list of Wayne's Twinborn names?
Heh, what do you mean? The--
He claims to have all the Twinborns memorized?
Oh, okay.
Are we going to have a list of that anywhere sometime?
Yeah I think I let the RPG go wild with naming them, and-- I haven't named them all, I'll be honest with you. I name the ones that I need when I need them.
Someone else’s question was about the safehand.
So that essay he told us about, the one that defined masculine arts as being ones with two hands and feminine needing only one? That was in order to let men secure power over Shardblades.
Is the Ghostblood's name related to their heritage?
Kind of.
So it is not because of their blood *inaudible*.
I'll RAFO that.
Assuming that it's possible-- There are alternate Physical Realms, is Shadesmar common between them?
Yes... They don't always call it Shadesmar.
Sure, but there is one Cognitive?
Yes. There's one Physical too if you think about it.
Well... Between the books...
Yeah but there's one Physical-- There's one universe, it's all the Physical Realm, just like there is one Cognitive Realm.
She (and I) would also like to know more details of the Mistborn movie. The last she heard, you'd rejected it being a TV series. So, yeah. Any more details?
Did a big post on this just above. I think that will answer the request for details.
Note that I rejected the tv series not because of the idea of doing a tv series itself, but because I wasn't confident in the production studio who was making the offer. More details will come once contracts are signed.
I've searched this subreddit for someone mentioning Jane Elliot before, but nobody has, so I decided to share this.
I was explaining The Stormlight Archive to a friend yesterday when he told me that BS must have been influenced by Jane Elliot, so I researched her and found the wikipedia article about her.
This woman was a school teacher who decided to teach her class about racism the day after Martin Luther King's death by segregating the class between light eyed and dark eyed children. It's a very interesting exercise and I love how the darkeyed vs. lighteyed issue was actually experienced for real on this earth, not just in the SA books. You can read more about the experiment on the wikipedia page or in this article.
The coolest part of this is that the 3rd time Jane Elliot did that experiment, she filmed it and it was made into a documentary in 1970 with the title : The Eye of the Storm
I think it's a pretty cool coincidence (probably influence rather than coincidence) and I thought I'd share!
The study sounds familiar to me, so I'm sure I've read it before--but I can't remember if it was like this (in reference to the SA, which I'd already started working on) or if I read about it before, and it lodged in my brain as something to try some day.
So, are all birds in the cosmere referred to as chickens?
No. All birds on Roshar are referred to as chickens... What's going on here is a linguistic phenomenon, where they had lots of bird types on the planet they emigrated from. But over time the word for "bird" became genericized, chicken became genericized to mean bird. That's happened to a couple things on Roshar. Wine got genericized. They don't even really have wine; they don't have grapes, but they use it genericized to mean something different.
<I asked if, in the future, he would have Lift use a trident as her main Shard weapon.>
There may very well be a trident in the upcoming book.
Then, at the sixth chapter [of White Sand Volume 2] I was like "ugh... A new artist.." and then I was all like "Oh! A new artist!" I hope new Julius stays on for the rest of the series.
Sadly, new Julius has other commitments, but the current proposed artist looks promising.
Oh yeah? Who's that going to be?
That's not for me to announce.
Are you able to speak to what drove the change to a new artist?
I believe not.
What was your premise behind the main character David [in The Reckoners]? Why did you create him as he is, scared yet fearless at the same time, smart about specific things yet totally ignorant about others, etc.?
I built David around two pillars of personality. One is his interest in the Epics, which balances between hatred and fascination. The other one is his fierce determination, which leads him to be impulsive and bull-headed at times, but also pretty inspiring at others.
I feel that as people, sometimes our greatest strengths are also our greatest liabilities. In this respect, every human being is a conundrum in at least one or two ways. With David, his fixation on the Epics is a huge strength but he's been so narrowly focused in his interests that he neglected many other areas of study. So he's both smart and stupid. At the same time, he's impulsive and determined, which leads to acts of great bravery, but he lives in a society that beats people down so if he stops and thinks too long, he can often psych himself out.
Okay, so I'm contractually obligated to ask about time bubbles one more time.
Yes.
So what's up with frame of reference for time bubbles; in that obviously if you make a bubble and it's still it's not really still, like time moves differently but--
We deal with that a little bit in Era 2 Book 2 [Shadows of Self], where we talk about the fact that you know-- obviously the bubble is moving with the planet. So they're not-- the frame of reference is not absolute.
Yeah.
And so we talk about sorta' the idea of mass and momentum and time bubbles and things like that.
Okay.
For instance you can make a time bubble on a train.
Oh and it stays on the train?!
Yes, but when you start catching stuff off of the train, it's gonna' jar each time, and it's probably going to ruin your time bubble, right?
So does it get it's "anchor" from-- it's asking all the things that are within it what they think "still" is?
Yes. That's a good way of looking at it. Frame of reference for the Cognitive things around. Make sense?
Okay, the things around or the things within it, specifically?
The things that it's cutting into, specifically, but yeah.
Lightsong Feeds on the Child
Why a child? It doesn't much matter, truthfully. An adult, or even someone elderly, could provide a Breath that would keep a god alive.
But the Breaths of those who are aged aren't as vigorous as those of those who are young. If Lightsong were given one of those to feed on, he'd survive for another week—but he wouldn't feel as vibrant or alive as he does after feeding on the child's Breath.
The people of Hallandren are faithful. Even if Lightsong himself doesn't believe, they do, and they want to provide the best for him. Hence they use children. Old enough to know what they are doing, yet young enough to give a powerful, vibrant Breath to their god.
What would be your advice in turning a short story that works great into a longer--
I usually attack this from two different directions. One is, more viewpoints. If I add another perspective to this, will it make it work? And then the other thing is, more complications. And that doesn't always work. Sometimes the format is strong without it. But more subthemes. Like, if it's a heist, there's something else they need to do. If it's a romance, an old flame comes in. Adding a subplot that can further-- Make sure it's not just spinning its wheels, though; it adds something to the characters by that experience. But try that. More complications, or more viewpoints.
How did you come to know Joshua Bilmes?
How did I come to know Joshua Bilmes. Joshua is my agent, for those who don't know. So when I took the class at BYU, that I now teach, from David Farland, I was writing Elantris and he was very impressed with the book and he said "Look, you're writing to get published." And I said "Great, what do I do?" And he said "Well how much money do you have?" And I said "None." "Well borrow some 'cause I want you to go to the Nebula Awards because they're in New York and when the Nebula Awards," he said, "are in New York a lot of the agents and editors go and it's one of the best places to just go meet them."
So I managed to scrounge up enough money to fly to New York, I stayed in a friend's basement. It was actually the brother-in-law of Skar the bridgeman, Ethan Skarstedt, my friend he came along with me. We stayed in his brother-in-law's basement and took a train into the city just for the Nebula Awards. We couldn't afford the banquet so we just sat in seats on the side of it. And beforehand Dave said to me "Alright I want you to go, and when you get there I want you to go to the bar, 'cause everyone is there, and I want you to start talking to people." And I'm like "I'm like a Mormon kid, what am I doing in a bar?" "You're ordering a Sprite and you're talking to people, that's what you do in a bar." And so I went and I sat down and ordered a Sprite and started talking to people. Meanwhile Ethan went upstairs to the little lounge area where they also had a bar and ordered a Sprite and started talking to people. I ended up talking to Jim Minz an editor at Tor, who rejected the book I sent him. Now Jim is at Baen Books.
He ended up talking to Joshua Bilmes. He came down afterwards and said "Who'd you meet?" "I met this guy" Introduced him, they chatted, and then I said "Who did you meet?" "I met Simon Green's agent" And I'm like "Cool I like Simon Green's books" And we went up and I chatted with Joshua and he gave me a card. And then I came home and I sent him a book and he rejected it. *laughter* And I sent him another book and he said "Ah let me see more of this one" And then he read that and rejected that one. And I sent him another book and he rejected that. Then I sold Elantris to Tor and called him and "I've got a book deal" and he said "Well I think I'll probably represent this one." So he was very skittish of taking me on at first but he's an excellent agent and I'm very glad I ended up with him. But yeah Mormon kid trolling for editors and agents in a bar in New York, that's how it happened.
What's the chemical definition of a metal in Mistborn? Is it the entire chunk of the periodic table defined as a metal, or...?
A: It is technically that [...], but many of them are Allomantically inert. But things like cesium still count.
I was just wondering--I'm a big Hoid fan--and I was just wondering if he's in this [White Sand Volume 1] and if I will recognize him as Hoid.
He is, yes. So...
And is that how he actually looks, or is that just like...
Nah, that-- it-- he disguises himself a little bit, but in this book he doesn't have to go to magical extremes. So if you is wearing a wig or something it's still kind of how he looks. I don't think we even disguised him at all. We did change it from how he was originally, because he had such a small part. I'm like, people like him more. So we beefed up his part.
Stormlight production by Bondsmiths. Is this a Dalinar-only thing, or a Bondsmith thing? Has it been used historically? Or am I getting RAFOd?
You're getting RAFOd... I'm gonna RAFO it. You should know the answer to that eventually. But not yet.
Also, I noticed that Dalinar fits well enough with the Hero of Ages prophecy. Lines like "The Hero of Ages was the person who united others, who brought them together" and so on. So I wanted to ask if there is a coincidence or not? Or that's a RAFO?
RAFO.
Is Nightblood going to out Vasher or Vivenna on Roshar?
Is Nightblood going to what-- out them?
Yeah.
Nightblood, you can never quite tell what Nightblood is going to do. And so I would say there's a high likelyhood that if that opportunity came, that he would do so.
You've said that Investiture tends to develop sapience on its own. Is this a function of the amount of Investiture alone (i.e. any pile of Investiture large enough will develop sapience eventually), or does the process require extra effort (e.g. a Command from an Awakener, an action by a Shard, etc.)?
Under the right circumstances, a pile of investiture will eventually become self-aware. But there is no specific timing. The more investiture clumped together, the more likely--and the closer to human-level intelligence it is likely to obtain.
Of course, if you leave matter alone long enough (on a galactic scale) it will eventually end up becoming sapient too. So this isn't that different. (Well, okay, it is.)
Are humans already sapient and intelligent because their Spiritual DNA tell their innate investiture what connections to make or what weird soul pattern to go into.
Let's RAFO that for now.
Can you Soulcast an Invested object?
Yes, but it's much harder. But humans are Invested, and you can soulcast humans.
So, suppose you had a goldmind that was filled. And you tried to Soulcast into iron. What would happen to the Investiture inside it?
So, the Investiture would remain in there, but it's keyed to the wrong thing, so you wouldn't be able to get it. It'd be much harder to Soulcast that, by the way. The more Invested, the harder it is. But Soulcasters are used to it, because everything has Investiture, and most of what they're Soulcasting. They deal with this, so it's something they're kind of expert at. So, this is not outside reason, that it could happen. You could give it to your average Soulcaster on Roshar, and they could make it happen. You just wouldn't be able to get the Investiture out of it anymore.
Marsh says Wax is "doing his brother's work," is this a reference to what Kelsier did in the past or present?"
In the past, as in Kelsier was trying to help the little people and people who could not help themselves.
Are twins more likely to be Allomancers?
They are more likely to share--
--to share Allomantic attributes.
--to share Allomantic attributes.
Does it make a difference if they’re identical or fraternal?
It does… Yeah, it does. Fraternals are still more likely. But identical are even more likely.
Okay so fraternal are more likely than siblings--
Than siblings, yes.
And identical are more likely than--
Mmhmm.
What was that plot point you were talking about where you had to change it?
Kaladin kept the blade and plate in the original version of The Way of Kings.
Does Odium actually present a real threat to Harmony, because he-- *interrupted*
So Harmony is vastly more powerful than Odium.
Yeah.
Elend was vastly more powerful than Vin. Who would win in a fight?
Vin.
Okay, there's your answer.
How can you make someone fall in love with a character? <Make them interesting?>
Those are both very different things. A couple quick tips. Relatable problem, even if it's not the main problem of the book. Making a character want something and not be able to have it is always instantly relatable to us. Making someone really capable and competent is another way. One of the reasons Indiana Jones works is we see how good he is at what he does, we are instantly intrigued by that as people. A good question, a good book question, can also work. Like, "Why would the character be doing this thing? It seems so odd." But likeable and interesting are very different things.
I love Writing Excuses and I'm actually going on the Retreat this year. I think the cruise is a good idea.
See Mary did the Steampunk cruise, and she just kind of asked "Wait a minute, what are people paying for this?" and it was less than we had to charge them for the retreat at her house, because of all the food and stuff we had to do. We were like "Wait a minute, you can do this for the same price or less? Why are we doing this at her house?"
Cruises are a blast.
I've been on several and I've enjoyed everyone of them.
The Alaska cruise has been one of the best experiences of my life. So it's going to be good for writing and inspiration.
My cruise story is the Taravangian interlude [in Words of Radiance] was written on a cruise with my family. I sat on the little balcony to our room typing while everyone else went off and did stuff where there were people. And I was by myself and it was great.
So you said that, specifically on Roshar, shardblades haven't been revived? And, have they been on other worlds?
Uh, no, there are very few things you could call shardblades on other worlds.
Well, I meant the spren that were...
Ah ok, yeah yeah yeah. No let's just just...it hasn't ever happened before, and they, in-world, think it's impossible.
What is your favourite drawing so far? What is your next project?
I think Shardplate is my favorite page. My favorite drawing... I think I'll have to think on that.
My next Brandon project is, unless something breaks, Stormlight III. Of course, Shadows of Self just came out, and Bands of Mourning will hit the shelves early next year, so those are the next things to see print.
Nice! Are there any other artists that inspire you in particular?
Oh gosh, lots and far too many to list!
If I was hoping to emulate anyone in my Stormlight work, it'd be artists like Alan Lee and John Howe for Peter Jackson, or Ralph McQuarrie and Johnston for George Lucas, or Ron Cobb and Chris Foss or Syd Meade for Ridley Scott.
I think Brandon's got the legs. But we've got a long way to go. :)
This is a follow-up on something I asked you in person last year. What is the bronzepulse of atium? They thought that it shares pattern with gold so I guess there would be some resemblance between those patterns? Also, did it Push or Pull, or something else even (like those uniform pulses Ruin's avatar set off)? Cause I can't help but wonder why did they not notice something very odd about it. And, well, what pulse would even atium alloys have?
RAFO
Do you find it harder to write from a male or female's point of view?
It is harder to write-- The more different someone is from me, the more difficult they are to write. Gender is only one part of that, however, and so some characters who are very like me, but maybe-- maybe a woman, would be easier to write than someone who is very different from me but is a guy. But that's all kind of part of it.
Early in my career, before I got published, I was actually really bad at this; but the main thing I learned from that era of my writing was that I was writing people to a role in the story. It wasn't that I was bad at writing women, it was that I was writing all women as the love interest. Which resulted in bad storytelling and flat characters. And if you start to be able to learn: treat each character they are the protagonist of their own story, treat each character like they see themselves, not as a bit part, but as the story themselves; and start to explore who they are rather than putting them in a role in the story, your characters will get better all around.
If i was holding Szeth's Oathstone would he understand my commands?
Good question, I don't believe anyone has asked it before. No, an Oathstone doesn't have any magical properties whatsoever.
The Alethi names sound very Persian. Was that intentional or my imagination?
That is intentional.
How did I come up with the magic system for Emperor's Soul? A couple of things. One was the procedural magics in Elantris based on coding, and things. But also, when I was at the Royal Museum there in Taiwan, one of my guides was showing me this piece of beautiful jade. And it had a stamp in it. You know, the stamps, are you familiar with these? They call them chops, we call them dojangs in Korea, you use them as a stamp for your name. They're round, sometimes they're square. I saw this, I'm like, "Why is there a stamp on this piece of jade artwork? That's been carved and sculpted?" They're like, "Well, there was this emperor, who was hot stuff, and thought he was very important. And so he ordered his stamp carved into the piece of artwork, because he thought it was a good piece of art."
And lo and behold, I go through and I start seeing these. There's this great poem, and it's covered with, like, forty stamps. And I asked, they're like, "These are all the scholars who are like, 'Yeah, I like this.' *stamp*" It's like carving your signature into Michelangelo's David, like the forehead. It's like, "Yeah, I think this is pretty good. 'Brandon approves.'" And that's what these people were all doing. And those stamps, the ubiquity of the stamps... I don't know how I got from that to "rewrite something's history by stamping it." But that was the inception of it.
I have several of these stamps that I brought home with me from Korea. Mine actually says Sainja, which-- "Sa" in Korean is "Sand," and "In" is "Person," and "Ja" is "Son." So, it's the Son of the Sand Person. It's really, it's a pun. They see that, and they're like, "That doesn't make any... Oh. That's really dumb." It's exactly what I was shooting for. Either that or they look at it and "Salinja" with an "l" is "Murderer," and read it and they're like, "Oh, wait."
Anyway, it came from that trip.
Does the deterioration of Urithiru have anything to do with the fact that the Sibling is asleep?
Yes.
Would you mind giving a width for the Final Empire as well? Thanks! :)
Still work to do on that... Maybe before the end of the year.
Ah, for the book with all the starcharts [Arcanum Unbounded]? Looking forward to seeing it then :).
Not necessarily for that book. :)
Is there any particular reason Hoid's hair is white?
Yes, and it will be revealed in the future.
Was Rashek-- Was he pained by burning gold all the time? Like was he always able to see what could have been, since he's burning gold to stay alive?
He grew more philosophical than pained about that.
Is her [Shallan's] father affected by Odium?
Yes.
