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IRL there is a condition called aphantasia where someone doesn't have the ability to use their visual imagination. How would that affect Lightweaving, and possibly other forms of Investiture?
It's actually something I've read up on, and something I find fascinating. Like face blindness, it asks some very interesting questions. It would affect Lightweaving, but not really handicap it. Just make it different.
Is Hoid your cameo character in the cosmere?
Good question. No, he is not. I'm actually not very much like Hoid. The thing I share with him is a love of stories. So the closest he will be to me is when he's talking about storytelling; that's the part of me that is in him. But personality-wise, we are very different. He is a main character in the cosmere; I don't consider him... he's done cameos in other books, but I don't consider him to be an author insert character.
The closest I've come to an author insert is probably when I put my sword into the Wheel of Time, the one that was given to me by Wilson, Robert Jordan's very, very close cousin of his who was taking care of the armory that Robert Jordan had. I wrote my sword into it, like Robert Jordan wrote himself in as a ter'angreal in one of the books. And I could see myself doing a cameo for myself in that sort of manner. I probably wouldn't do a human cameo. Though I do that for a lot of my friends, is I write them into the books as cameos. So who knows.
What is a half beard. A short beard or are nobles in Luthadel walking around with one side of their face smooth.?
Their term for goatee.
Did Elend or Vin ever consider parenthood, or was that never a priority for them?
Not a priority at all, considering their situation. Neither really gave it much thought.
Can you confirm: When Bleeder died, she only had one spike made of that new metal in her?
What does the book say?
It could go either way. Because it could be either one spike of the unknown metal and one regular, or just one of the unknown metal. And we're divided right now.
I have heard this. I didn't intend you to get divided, but I've heard that you are, and part of me doesn't want the… One week later... I want more time for the theories to come out!
There are theories.
I know. Let's give the theories a little more time and then I'll canonize it for you in a little bit. I didn't intend for there to be a division here, but obviously there is, and so I'm going to wait until I'm done with tour. Then you can write to us and we'll tell you exactly what's going on there.
You've written a lot of novels and talked a lot about form. Are you interested or excited about any new formats of writing that you might take in the future?
I would like to try my hand at video games. I play a lot of games. I am really interested in the way that video games tell stories in ways not like books. I generally (though I can enjoy those games) don't like the stories of games that try to do it like a book. So I like things like Dark Souls, that does its worldbuilding and storytelling in a way very different from the way that a book does its storytelling. Or even something like Infamous, where they make you run across to do something, and while you're doing it someone calls you on the phone and gives you an infodump. That's really interesting to me.
So I would like to try my hand at it at some point. My first attempt, which was getting a Mistborn videogame going, did not work out. But I have not given up. I have no news on that, but let's just say I have not given up on finding a way to worm my way into video games. And you see me doing this periodically. The Infinity Blade books were me wanting to work with video game storytellers to try and figure out how this format works better. And you'll see me doing more of this in the future.
In the prologue to Way of Kings, when Szeth kills Gavilar, Gavilar says, "Tell Thaidakar he's too late." What's Thaidakar too late for?
*Evil laugh* RAFO. You'll find out. It's coming, not too far away.
On origins of Dalinar: from story he wrote as teenager - his brother is the king who gets assassinated and he has to decide whether to take over from his nephew or not. Hoid is the court magician
Chapter Thirty-Seven - Part Two
Sazed's doings here are our first real glimpse of Feruchemy in action. It's a fun magic system–you'll see a lot more of it in book two.
About the end of Elantris. When Hoid is speaking with the dark seon? I was wondering, like, what is that relationship there? Is he, like, working with them, or for them?
More alongside each other.
Is that something we're gonna see more of in the future?
Probably.
What Command did Vivenna use to Awaken her blade?
RAFO.
I love this rescue scene, and I got to use the "Vin splits an arrow with its own arrowhead" scene, which was one of the coolest moments in Mistborn Prime. (Long story. Read the Mistborn 1 annotations.) There's a certain arrogant flare to this scene, and it ends up working quite well, I think.
Can you confirm the identity of Azure.
Yes, I can.
Is it Vivenna?
Yeah.
I originally had planned Starsight to be something that had "Fort" in the title, or "Fortress" in the title. "Star Fortress," or something like that. And the publisher came back and said, "That sounds too fantasy-ish. And it's science fiction." And they just didn't like the sound and feel, and so I came back with Starsight, and they liked that, and I liked that, so we just went with it.
Did you draw this? www.imgur.com/AazzKDl
I was out of town for the WoR signing but my dad went and picked up a copy for me and one of the people signing that night drew this in the front pages. It's super cool and I have been trying to figure out who did it.
I did! I draw a lot of really quick sketches at signings. I can't do it for everyone because sometimes we're trying to move quickly (Brandon draws long lines), but I try to do it whenever I can. On the plus side, no two are ever quite alike!
Did you do the same thing with Kaladin's depression?
Yes I did but that one is a little closer to home, [several people in Brandon's life have depression].
I have depression as well, it's pretty inspiring to me.
I had never seen a hero who had depression and I was like "I need to do a real, legitimate that it's not about their depression, they just have it" Does that make sense? Like whenever I read a book it is all about them having depression. And I'm like "No, your life is not about you having depression, your life-- that is part of your life but--" So it was very important to me that I get that one right.
I just, yeah I just find your book so inspiring so I just really appreciate you doing all this for us.
My question was about Hemalurgy. There was a disagreement on the last Shardcast. When spiking a Mistborn to charge a Hemalurgic spike, does it matter how the Mistborn is killed or is what power is stolen based only on the metal?
So you want to place the spike in a specific place.
In the donor. In the recipient, not the donor.
In the recipient. And you want to use the specific metal and so basically if you aren't precise about how you spike, you risk taking the wrong thing within the same family. Some of those, that's not as big a deal, but for some it is kind of a big deal. And so you want to be very precise, you'll get something, but if you're not placing the spike in the right place and going into the right place, then you risk it.
You risk stealing the wrong thing.
Yeah. Now if you're going off of somebody who's not a Mistborn, you can be a little more flexible, but you still have the danger that you're not going to end up stealing the power, you're going to steal something else. So, precision is advisable, how about that?
Yeah. Because the question was kind of specifically about, like, we know that atium spikes can kill-- can steal pretty much any power.
Yes. You want to be super precise with your atium spike.
So, part of the question was like, exactly, if you just killed a Mistborn, you stab a Mistborn in the heart with an atium spike, and you're not placing it immediately--
What do you end up with? You are rolling the dice, let's say. Not as big a roll of the dice as you might think, but you still are. You might not get what you want.
And then when you place the spike on the recipient, if you like tore that spike out again and put it in someone else, you're not going to be able to get more than one power out of it?
No. No, and if you place the spike in the wrong place, then you're going to end up with interference and things like this where the spike might just not work the way you want it to. Taking a spike and putting it in the wrong place in someone is not going to make them have a different power, in other words.
Speculated that I thought that at one time the Parshendi had used Odium spren or Unmade, and they must have finally divested themselves of the spren and that’s why they forgot how to get a lot of the spren forms. And they were trying to figure that out and things have taken a turn for the worse.
No comment.
How did you get into map drawing?
You know I mapped out things like The Legend of Zelda when I was eight years old. I was fascinated by my dad's paperbacks of The Lord of the Rings and the maps that were in those. It's just, I was doing maps like that for a while but when he asked me to do a map he didn't know that. It's worked out well so far.
Do the Heralds know about AonDor?
I would say, conceptually, a few of them do, but not in specific detail.
'Cause Ash's name is a combination of Transformation, Beauty, and Light. I didn't know if that was a coincidence, or--
There are some non-coincidences in the linguistics that people have started to pick up on, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the people who have those names know about the origins of their names.
I was actually wondering if you'd do space opera? *audio obscured*
There will be space opera in the cosmere. There'll be quite a bit of it actually. The only space opera I've written currently has not been true space opera. I don't know if you've read my two science fiction stories. They're both free on my website. And they're a little more social science fiction, though they take place far future, kind of space opera-y. They're not cosmere right now-- Err they are not cosmere. But I will eventually write full-blown space operas. They're going to be awesome.
Do Surgebinders have Gemhearts?
*laughs* I was about to ask that.
No, good question.
Why do you decide to do more series like Apocalypse Guard or the Secret Project [Skyward] when you still have so many more unfinished sequels?
That's a good question. No, it is totally legit. *laughter* So, I did finish Legion. I did that. So, those who are looking for that, that will come out next year. Why do I do it this way? Well, most of the time, it's because I try a book, and it doesn't work. Rithmatist fans probably know, I tried to write Rithmatist 2, I built an outline, I started writing it, and the book didn't work. I wasn't-- the outline was wrong on that one. I got, like, three chapters in, and I'm like, "Nope. This book is broken." And it was mostly due to my lack of research into the proper things to do the book the right way. And because Rithmatist and Alcatraz, which you'll get Alcatraz 6 eventually, those are the two that are looming most; those are side projects. Those are things that I do for fun. They have to slot in between my main projects, if that makes any sense. Like, I have to do them when there's time from other projects. So, for instance, I couldn't go to Random House and say, "I'm gonna do Rithmatist 2 sequel," because Rithmatist is not their series. It belongs to Tor. So, if I wanna do more with Random House, I have to do something that works for them. And that's kind of the long and short of it.
I mean, I will get around to things like Warbreaker and Elantris sequels. *cheers* But the thing about those is, those are sequels to the worlds, not necessarily sequels to the characters. I won't promise you that the same characters will appear in them. Some of them will. But it's the idea that those are standalone books that I plan to do more in the world, and the time isn't right in the cosmere to do those. For something like Rithmatist, that's more pressing, because I'm like "that promises a sequel with the same characters". But I have to find out how to write it first. And, for various reasons, a Rithmatist sequel is really tricky to pull off. So, that's kinda the answer to it. Sometimes, I also just need a break to do whatever my mind wants to do. It's not a very satisfying answer, but it is the way my brain works. But you can know that if it's, like, one of the main line things that I've got contracts for, that I won't be doing that to you on. So, Stormlight will be pretty regular, Mistborn will be pretty regular. But some of the side projects, it's just when it's right it's right.
What challenges are there in writing for an already established IP vs something of your own creation?
The biggest challenge is always the push and pull between what the larger story needs vs. the little story I want to tell. For example, MTG has established rules about what the planeswalkers can do--and it's important to stay in canon for the greater good of the story. (Planeswalkers, for example, can't take people with them when they hop between worlds.) That limits me, for example, if I wanted to do Davriel on another plane--he couldn't take any supporting cast with him.
That's a rule you probably wouldn't set up if this were just stories about Davriel, as the supporting cast is what makes him shine as a character. But the structure of it is important for not breaking the larger stories the team is telling.
Is Shadows of Silence a cosmere story?
It is cosmere, but takes place on an unimportant side planet that doesn't have anything interesting going on there. Hoid is not in the story.
Is Lift trans? Some of the specific scenes and wording when Lift stole the food from Rock's son seemed to indicate that?
This was not intentional. I have intended Lift to be assigned female at birth. I wouldn't play so coy with something that would be so relevant to trans readers.
I think /u/Loose_Combination meant the other way around. She's experiencing body dysphoria very much in the way a transmaculine character would.
Oh, I apologize. I didn't read closely enough.
So yes, there is something here. More her body disphoria is related to aging, and secondary sex characteristics are involved.
I noticed in the end of Oathbringer, right before Dalinar goes all Unity on us, that his fabrial gets ripped off his wrist. Is that significant?
Yes. Maybe not for the reason you're thinking, but it is.
Is a Shard's influence of power based on Physical distance, Cognitive distance, something else, or does it vary from Shard to Shard?
It varies, but is definitely more Physical.
Wax's earring is now gone, would you mind sharing what Allomantic charge it had?
Um, eventually.
Movie/Television Updates
Dark One
Dark One, based on an outline and worldbuilding guide from me, is being shopped (in a Step Three kind of way) by FremantleMedia and Random House Studios, with an impressive showrunner attached. There has been movement since that announcement in June, but I can't say anything publicly yet.
Is asking for an Aonic version of my name (Eugene also works) as the leatherbound Elantris personalization too much work?
I wanted to check before I put the order in. If it is, I'll do something more standard.
I can totally do that. EnE is an Aon. (Sarene's Aon, of wit.) You'd probably just be Evene.
Would the Arelish write that like in Hangul? If so, would each Aon represent a single sound, or its full name?
They would write the ENE as a single Aon, and the Ev in their equivalent of hangul, where each letter is a single sound.
But those are not available in the book? I was aiming for 100% in-world version of my name, but this looks hard now...
The Aonic Alphabet is not something I ever designed, I'm afraid. This was before I had Isaac.
Any updates on movie/tv/video game adaptions?
Nothing big. Steelheart has a script. It's the only one so far to hit that stage.
Kandra can eat nonhumans. What happens when they eat a spren?
Kandras have never encountered spren in any relevant way, except for the occasional worldhopper, and they have never had occasion to try to eat a spren. Good question.
Siri Realizes That She Needs to Be Proactive
As I said in the other section, I think that Siri's plot here is just a tad accelerated from what I'd like—but that's necessary. Nothing is worse in a book than a character who never does anything. She needed to get through her fear and her worry and decide to become proactive. It was only then that interesting things could start to happen in her storyline.
So, I pushed through the moments of indecisiveness and inaction as fast as I could, getting to this moment where she decides to change. I feel that her character being what it is (impulsive and determined) justifies her quickly deciding to take responsibility for herself, now that she's been placed into a situation of great stress.
Do humans with singer ancestry have vestigial gemhearts?
RAFO. Good question.
How many parties were there to the original Oathpact?
The Heralds and Honor. They thought that by walking away from their oaths, that it would break the Oathpact. They're going to find out that it's not quite as broken as they had previously thought (meaning the Heralds).
I'm reading into that the timing of The Alloy of Law is roughtly about when we would expect the Pits of Hathsin to start regenerating--
*Disingenuously* Oh imagine that...
Okay yeah, does that mean that atium is still important, or is there a new element for Sazed that you might be able to expect.
RAFO.
In that one long rejection of Odium, how many Oaths did Dalinar swear before merging the Realms? And is "I am Unity" the fifth.
No, that is not an Oath. He swore one ideal in that experience.
Okay. How many Oaths is he on?
The number you think. So, he should have just finished three, right? Or maybe four. I'll have to go look. It's the number that you think it is. I'm not being sneaky on you. There's nothing sneaky there. He doesn't get armor, so I can't remember where he is... He should be at three. "Life before death." "I will unite instead of divide." "I will stand up each time I fall." Yeah, so he's done three.
Can a bracelet created by Navani be used to detect emotional Allomancy?
This is possible.
I had a question about what it means to swear the Ideal of Law. Several fans have told me it means to define the law, in the Nixon, "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal," sort of way. I interpret it as becoming the embodiment of the law such that they can't willingly violate any law without breaking their oaths.
Do either of these interpretations hit the mark? Nale seems to follow the law more so than most and that doesn't just seem like a personal preference.
I would say that both of these interpretations could work for a given Skybreaker, which is why there is disagreement among the order itself. Perception is a big part of the oaths.
I wouldn't want to squish this discussion by offering too much on one side or the other, as this is exactly where I want the conversation to be going right now.
Will Dalinar become the next holder of Honor.
Hahahaha, yeah-- RAFO.
How long of an in-book time break between the two 5 book arcs in The Stormlight Archive?
10-15 years
Vivenna Goes to Two Restaurants to Meet with Crime Lords
Can you tell that I hate seafood? How does anyone eat that stuff? I mean, honestly. I've been forced to choke down raw clams before, and it was just about one of the most traumatic events in my life.
For the space Mistborn are we going to have more elements?
The base 16 are basically it. But the interactions between them and things. And there is one more metal, there is harmonium, so you will hear about that later on.
Hoid, Yolen, are you working on Dragonsteel?
Working on, is kind of vague term for me knowing I'm going to write it someday, but it comes after The Stormlight Archive.
I have so many questions about Hoid, I'm always googling it, I know people are asking you, but--
I came up with a really great idea, finally. For years-- so the first story I-- okay not the very first story, because the very first story I wrote is Dragonsteel right? So, the first Hoid story I ever wrote, I was seventeen and I wrote a story about Hoid on a planet, trying to figure out how the magic works, to investigate it, to see he wanted to bring it back and use it in his larger plot.
There, seventeen years old, the cosmere didn't really exist then. But the idea of a guy who went to different planets and investigated their magic and tried to figure out how it works, was. I wrote a whole chapter of him trying to work out how this magic worked on this planet. I had it in the back of my head and I actually just came up with an idea of how to use that.
At the end of Sixth of the Dusk, were those Mistborn space-opera-people that showed up at the end?
Not gonna say. [...] A lot of people have theorized that, but I have remained closed-lipped.
If Gold is used to make Malatium, couldn't malatium also be gold's compliment?
The Allomantic table poster will have more info on this
What about The Apocalypse Guard?
- It's set in the Reckoners era
- Basically the coffee girl intern of the Apocalypse Guard gets sucked into a different dimension or something and they have to go retrieve her.
- You can read more here: http://brandonsanderson.com/the-apocalypse-guard/
So your Mistborn leatherbounds went out tonight.
Yes. Mistborn leatherbound is coming out.
Are there any other plans? When would the next edition be coming out?
Yes, let me talk about these a bit. So, I love the leatherbounds that were released for The Wheel of Time, but they were very limited print-run, and they were very expensive. They were 250 bucks. And so I don't have many of those. I have the ones that I had published, but when I was a kid getting them I would just... drool over these things. When I was a college student. So I went to Tor and said "Would you do leatherbounds of my books?" and they're like "They're just so hard to distributed. Not a lot of bookstores want to carry them?" and I said "Well do you mind if I do one?" for Elantris last year. And we did a leatherbound for $100, which had-- We tried to pull out everything we could do to make something awesome. So these have 24 full-color pages, with all of the different covers from the different foreign editions around the world, some fan art we really like, new color versions of some of the maps, and stuff like that. And so we print those and we did Elantris last year and people really liked it, so we did Mistborn. The fun thing is, some bookstores told me "Yes, we want to have those. No, it's not a pain to carry them..."
But the question is, what are we doing next. So we will do these one a year. They're a lot of effort to put together. We have to contact some twenty different illustrators and buy rights to the covers to include in it. Peter goes through and does a really detailed copy-edit, fixing typos and trying to do stuff like that, making sure that-- Like in Elantris I had said something that-- people traveled a distance that was impossible to travel in the time given, so we tweak things like that. And so it takes a while. We'll do Mistborn 2 next year, then Mistborn 3, and then we'll see where we are. And they should match very nicely on the shelf...
Any hints on the chapter 84 code thing?
Yes, the key is somewhere in the book.
