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Questioner

Regarding Stormlight. You said five books, five books. In your mind, how is the best way to read these? With the gaps in between, for waiting? Or straight through?

Brandon Sanderson

Boy, I have no idea. I would say, it’s intended to have little gaps in between. Stormlight Archive books are different, even among my other books. When I sit down to write down a Stormlight Archive book, I actually outline it like I would a trilogy. So the outline for a single book of Stormlight looks a lot like the entire outline for Mistborn or for Mistborn Era 2, or things like that. Or for, like Skyward. All three books of Skyward (there might be four, but--) Let’s do Steelheart. It’s done, I know it’s three books. So all three books of Steelheart are, together, shorter than one Stormlight Archive book. So I outline a Stormlight Archive book as a trilogy with a short story collection embedded in it. That’s the interludes. So the structure of these is really different and really interesting. So I intend reading a Stormlight book to kind of be like a massive undertaking. They are big and thick. In Germany, they are published as two thousand-page volumes. So, it’s like, very-- And I kind of expect people will take breaks in between those, and maybe pick up something that is a little less daunting. But, I might have said the same thing, growing up, reading The Wheel of Time. And when I read The Wheel of Time straight through-- because I read them all a lot, but I hadn’t read everything straight through. When the first book came out, I read it, I was fifteen. When the second book came out, I read book one and book two again. And when the third one came out-- I couldn’t keep doing that, though, because it would take so long. So, eventually, I got to, when the new book comes out, I read the new book, and if I’m lost, I go read an online summary of the previous books But when I got handed the project and asked to finish it, I sat down and I read them all straight through. And I’m like, “Wow, this is so nice! Not having to wait!” As a Wheel of Time fan, I had complaints about, “Oh, this plotline doesn’t seem to go anywhere.” Well, when you read them straight through, it doesn’t feel like that at all... It’s annoying when you’ve got a gap, and then the book, and then a gap. And you don’t know when it’s gonna end. But reading it straight through, it’s like-- Anyway. So, I wonder if Stormlight will be the same way. If reading it through, at least in the five book arcs, will maybe take away some of the annoyances of having to read a character you’re not quite as interested in, because you know you’re gonna get back to your character that you love the most later on. I don’t know. Maybe that’s the case.

Brandon Sanderson

Back with another update. It's been a few months, and I have worked through the third draft of Oathbringer. Original draft didn't have a few of the interludes, so I added those in this revision, as well as incorporating feedback from my team and the team at Tor Books. Earlier today, I wrote the epigraphs and the Wit monologue, then polished off the ketek.

The current length is 514,000 words--so around 100k longer than Words of Radiance. Whew! That's big enough that we're not sure if we can bind it in paperback. (We can manage it in hardcover without too much trouble, though we might have to do some old term paper tricks such as expanding the margins.) The book won't be split in the hardcover US release, or in the ebook, but there's a possibility the US paperback might be split into two volumes released at the same time. (As has been common in the UK for all the books in the series.)

We'll see what happens. Next revision, 4.0, is to incorporate Beta Reader comments and to make some tweaks I've been thinking about. This should be the fastest of the drafts, as I don't need to make any big structural changes or write many new scenes.

5.0 (the final draft) will be a polish and trim. Publication date is still scheduled for this November. The US cover came in just recently, so expect a reveal on that soon. Michael did a fantastic job.

As a warning: I'm not going to be able to monitor this thread very well, as I'm off to Europe. (I'll be in Poland, Germany, and Bulgaria--details on the events section of my website.) So be warned in advance that I probably can't post many replies to your questions here.

I'm still making my way through my recent AMA on /r/fantasy, though, so you can pop over to that and read what I've had to say recently.

As always, thanks for your patience. Beta read responses to the book are strong, so I think you'll be pleased with the result come this fall.

shoeties

Has Vasher ever been to a world other than Nalthis or Roshar, or was this his first time worldhopping?

Brandon Sanderson

Vasher has only been to Roshar and Nalthis, beyond places in Shadesmar.

Questioner

Can you tell me about the mechanics of Nightblood's revulsion vs. compulsion magic?

Brandon Sanderson

What do you want to know?

Questioner

Is it like Rioting? Like in--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, Rioting is a good parallel to that. 

Questioner

Is agency being taken away?

Brandon Sanderson

I wouldn't say agency is taken away but it depends on how you view Rioting, right? If you are enhancing someone's emotions-- Here is the question for you. If someone is feeling depressed, is their agency being taken away? And this is a question that our society has a really bad answer to, right? So if you are being Rioted, strict-line I would say no, your agency isn't being taken away, but you are certainly under the influence of another force which is taking certain emotions you might have and emphasizing them a great deal.

Questioner

So is it the same kind of push that makes a virtuous person want to vomit?

Brandon Sanderson

Virtuous might be the wrong way to put it. But yes, that sort of thing is related. It's related to Nightblood and it's related to how he was created and all of those sorts of things.

KapinKrunch

Out of the genres you haven't written in, which one do you really want to give a shot?

Brandon Sanderson

Hmmm... Noir. Maybe true urban fantasy, though I have one unpublished manuscript in that genre, which means technically I have given it a shot.

The_Honor_Spren

Should I even care about the flute? If Sadeas had it, would that mean it has become part of Amaram's collection?

Brandon Sanderson

It's not a big deal, but that doesn't stop fans from caring. So I can't say whether you should or not. :)

Darkness (paraphrased)

Is Cusicesh stuck in some kind of loop? Were his actions maybe recorded somewhere long ago?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Mmm RAFO… yeah…

Brandon Sanderson

Projects in Development

Adamant

Some of you have heard readings from, or seen excerpts of, this epic science fiction series that I've been working on. I finished one novella in the world, and am pleased with it, but I have no immediate plans for writing the rest. Perhaps I'll feel different once Stormlight is done and I'm satisfied with it. (It's always possible I'll need a break between projects where I can do something very different.) We shall see. I have no plans to release this in 2016.

Status: On Hiatus

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.

CompetitiveCell

In Stormlight, we are presented with a society which is fundamentally unjust in its workings. Whether we see the darkeyes/ lighteyes divide as an analogy for race or class, it forms a caste system wherein the privileged caste is able to imprison, kill or enslave the oppressed caste without cause or trial (Kaladin and his first squad, Moash’s grandparents).

...

The message is not improved by the subsequent arcs of Moash and Kaladin. By RoW, Kaladin has given up most of his class based outlook and integrated into the privileged caste, as a de jure lighteyes. Meanwhile, Moash’s anger at an unjust system is shown as playing a significant role in his eventual corruption by Odium, eventually reducing him to a child kicking caricature.

Brandon Sanderson

I will say this: in my opinion, one of the important parts of creating a sympathetic protagonist is to make certain the things they're saying, the things they're worried about, or the things they're advocating for have a real foundation to them.

The problems with Moash are not the things he finds unjust in the system. And you should be uncomfortable with the momentum a historically tyrannical system has, and the sway it has over characters we like among the Radiants. I believe Wit had something to say about this in the last book.

Questioner

Taldain, are you going to do something with Darkside?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, we are actually... now that we have more experience with graphic novels, we are gonna do probably a Darkside-- three more graphic novels that are gonna be kind of like more focused on Khriss.

Questioner

Will there be a prose for that?

Brandon Sanderson

There will probably not be a prose for it. I will probably do Taldain novels in the future but I can't promise them. For right now we are just gonna do the graphic novels. They take a lot less time from me. And we are gonna see it how it works out. There are certain things we like and certain things we don't like, and mostly it's our fault, right? Not getting across some of the worldbuilding to the artists and things like that. We are gaining a lot of experience. But I don't plan on a prose Darkside novel anytime soon.

Cheese Ninja

Nightwatcher's curses all appear to be neurological in effect, are the boons limited in any particular manner?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Do we ever get to see a good banter between Wit and Shallan?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, you uh... She is not quite ready yet, to be on his level. And if you watch the series, her use of humor will mature. Um, in fact you should be able to notice a difference between these two even. By later books she will be able to stand a little bit better. Right now he would rip her to shreds.

Questioner

My question is connected to an acquaintance of both of us. Namely, a lovely, lovely Australian named Shad, who is an expert in weapons and medieval warfare. It is very easy to criticize books and everything about *interjection* because we have the real things in the world, but in all of your books, you have created magic systems that are so... real. How is the initial thought when you create a new world, what is the initial process of creating a new magic system?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, so first I'll point you toward my essays called "Sanderson's Laws", which are basically stepping through the rules I follow to make a magic system. There's three of those. I would recommend going and reading those.

The process is really me trying to create something that is both different and unique and something that approaches the theme of the story the right way. Like, I want a magic system that accents my story, not one that contradicts my story. And these things all come together into it: I'm looking for interesting flaws, interesting costs, interesting powers, and interesting connections to the rest of my world.

Havoc_Mayhem

Didn't Hoid take the Moon Sceptre from Sel, which acts as a Rosetta Stone for Investiture conversion? Why then is he unable to convert Stormlight into Breaths?

Brandon Sanderson

The Moon Scepter is a small piece of a much larger puzzle.

i_do_stuff

So Mr. Sanderson, I've been wondering. Since I am a very pop-culture interested person, when you say "1980s," I think leg-warmers, shoulder-pads, bright colors, hair metal, new wave and all that stuff. Lots of mousse. I guess that makes my question to you, will we see any of that "traditionally 80s" stuff make an appearance in the next series? I'm picturing Sazed/Harmony "looking down" (for lack of a better term) on Scadrial, seeing the cosmere equivalent of a Twisted Sister or Wyld Stallyns or the Beastie Boys concert and being very intrigued by it.

Brandon Sanderson

I'm planning it based more on tech level than pop culture, though I do think some of these things go hand in hand. (Like the rise of certain kinds of counter cultures, and musical departures.) So you may not see hair bands, but you will likely see counter cultures that fit the society.

Questioner

Is there a centralized set of rules for all of the magic systems?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but they are things more like the laws of thermodynamics. Not vague, but general, very general. But, yes, there are some rules.

Tesh (paraphrased)

If Ruin and Preservation could become Harmony, could any of the other Shards combine?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, although they would have different names.

Zeamay

Are Lirin and Hesina Kaladin's biological parents?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Daily Dragon

Your new epic fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive, has been in the works forquite some time. In an interview earlier this year with Fantasy-Faction.com, you said that you set the project aside in 2003 because you needed to "get better as a writer." During the interim, as you worked on other projects such as the Mistborn trilogy, Warbreaker, and your middle-grade Alcatraz series, which skills did you improve the most?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say that I learned to juggle multiple characters a lot better. That's one of the places where I needed to grow, and it's one of the aspects where the original Way of Kings that I wrote in 2002 flopped. I wasn't good at juggling all these viewpoints. Working on The Wheel of Time really forced me to learn that, and I think I've gotten much better at it. I've also learned to be more subtle with my writing; Robert Jordan was incredibly subtle in his foreshadowing. Going through his notes and rereading the books and seeing how he set up things for many books later, it impressed me quite a bit that he was able to do that. I think I've been able to learn from that.

Mrrobot112

Eshonai is flashback character [for Stormlight Four], but she is dead in the present. So...who will be main protagonists in the main timeline? Hope for Dalinar, Shallan and Kaladin will be as important as they were in first three books)

Brandon Sanderson

Eshonai will still be the flashback character, and Venli will take a larger role to provide counterpart past/present. But, as always, you will find a focus on all five protagonists from this sequence. (I view them as Dalinar, Kaladin, Shallan, Eshonai/Venli, Szeth.)

Mrrobot112

I heard it would be one year time gap (in world) between books 3 and 4, which make me think about structure of the book. Does it mean, something important could happen during this year, and then it will be explained in some form(maybe another set of flashbacks)? If so, it's hard for me to visualize the book structure: main timeline, Eshonai's flashbacks and another set of flashbacks for past year? Seems like a mess. Or it will be like Mistborn era 1 time gaps between each book? Main narrative just continues without getting stuck with one-year break, and nothing important happens off-screen. It will be nice to get some qualification from you, if possible. Cause now I'm a bit confused.

Brandon Sanderson

Right now, I've got it like Mistborn--we're checking back in a year, as I need to give some things time to progress in world. We'll see when I actually write it, though.

Mrrobot112

Thanks! But please, don't do things like Alien 3-movie, if you know what I mean. It's when they did a time gap between two movies and at the beginning of the new movie they told you that your favorite character died during the time gap, deal with it. This is the worst thing ever and a reason I'm always a bit skeptical about time gaps in fiction. Just hate when things like that happen off-screen. Just don't do it with your books, please. At least can you promise you wouldn't? And what do you think about this trope in general?

Brandon Sanderson

I actually want to write an essay about that very trope (I call it the Newt Principle.) You might see it on my website at some point.

Things will happen during the gap, I'm afraid. You might like it, you might not, but I do plan some of the flashbacks in the second half to help cover this time--so you'll see it eventually. If it helps, I'm pretty sure I understand the dangers of the Newt Principle, and how to not fall into that trap.

Ted Herman

Is Jaddeth a Dawnshard?

Brandon Sanderson

*singing* RAFO...

Questioner

Any plans to do another short like Mitosis?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, yes, I will probably do another short like that.

Questioner

What would happen if you released Nightblood in a highstorm?

Brandon Sanderson

I'll RAFO that for now. It's an intriguing question though, I approve of that question.

Brandon Sanderson

Denth Captures Vasher

So, between this chapter and the previous one, Denth's mercenaries—who were being hidden in the tunnels beneath the palace—quietly killed the two soldiers who were standing guard at Siri's door. They are also, along with the Lifeless that Bluefingers broke, securing the Lifeless compound, grabbing Blushweaver, and taking control of the palace.

The priests get wind of this, though, and react by marshaling their own forces. For most of the night, the priests assume that they're struggling with Idrian rebels who have tried to take the palace and rescue Siri.

Brandon Sanderson

Anyway, as I've said before, I wasn't intending this to be a book to parallel the state of the United States and the war in Iraq. It just kind of came out as it has, and I think the main reason is one of pulling a reversal upon myself. You see, Mistborn was a book about a bloody revolution instigated by the protagonists. We don't see a lot of the death it caused, and fortunately much of the bloodshed was averted by a timely speech given by a certain young nobleman, but the fact remains that I wrote about overthrowing a government.

That seems to be a popular topic for novels. And anytime I notice that something is popular in the genre, I start wondering if I could write a book about the opposite. In this case, I began thinking of a book where the protagonists were trying to stop a war instead of start one. Where they wanted to stabilize the government instead of destabilize it. The opposite story of Mistborn, in some ways.

I had the name of the book, Warbreaker, long before I even knew who the Warbreaker would be or what the rest of the book would be about. I'm glad we were able to keep it, though my editor complained just a tad that he thought it didn't indicate the right sense of epic fantasy for the book.

Questioner

One of my favorite characters is Kaladin. This is a bit of a *inaudible* question. I just want to know if he will ever be able to make peace with Szeth, at some point?

Brandon Sanderson

You know, you get one of these. Here's you card, you can come up and get it. This is your RAFO card.

Thought

What question do you wish that readers would ask you but that no one has?

Brandon Sanderson

Surprisingly, I get this exact question every few months or so. (Mostly in interviews.) I can never come up with something.

cinderwild2323

What is the biggest change you've made based on alpha/beta reader feedback? (This goes for any of your books)

Brandon Sanderson

Probably adding Adolin as a main viewpoint character in the first book, which was done because I had trouble striking the balance between Dalinar worrying he was mad, and being a proactive, confident character. Worried better to externalize some of the, "Am I mad" into his son worrying "My dad has gone crazy" while letting Dalinar be more confident that his visions were something important. (I still let him worry a little, of course, but in the original draft, he felt temperamental from vacillation between these two extremes.)

Bringing Adolin to the forefront in the books has had a huge ripple effect through them, as I've been very fond of how his character has been playing out.

Enasor

May I ask why you choose to use Adolin as the viewpoint character to supplement Dalinar as opposed to Renarin? My understanding is Renarin has always been the "most important brother" within SA, which made me wonder why, based on the beta readers comments, you ultimately decided to use Adolin and not your established character to bring forward the dilemma.

I am, obviously, extremely fond of how Adolin has been played out so far and while I have no idea where he is going (but zillions of theories), I am curious to know what his initial purpose in the story was. Did you draft the character's personality just for WoK's needs or did you have an idea of what to do with him when you made the change?

Brandon Sanderson

I was well aware that I needed certain things about Renarin to remain off-screen until later books, and him being a viewpoint character early would undermine these later books.

Adolin is a happy surprise and works exactly because he doesn't need to be at the forefront, even after I boosted his role. With Adolin, what you see is really what you get, which is refreshing in the books--but it also means I don't need huge numbers of pages to characterize him, delve into his backstory, etc. He works as a side character who gives more to the story than he demands pages to fullfill that giving, if that makes sense. Renarin is more like a pandora's box. Open him up, and we're committed to a LOT of pages. (Good pages, but that was the problem with TWOK Prime--everyone was demanding so many pages, from Renarn, to Jasnah, to Kaladin, to Taln, that none of their stories could progress.)

Adolin has basically always had the same personality, from TWOK Prime, through the original draft of the published TWOK, to the revision. The changes to making him more strong a viewpoint character were very natural, and he has remained basically the same person all along--just with an increased role in the story, and more development because of it.

I do discovery write character, usually, as a method of keeping the books from becoming slaves to their outlines. This means that Adolin has gone some new directions, but it's been a growth from the person he was in TWOK Prime. (Which you'll be able to see when I release it, sometime in the hopefully not distant future.)

Questioner

Where are all the [movie] rights?

Brandon Sanderson

Mostly, at this point, I'm keeping a lot of these rights close to my heart and not selling them off as easily as I did earlier in my career. I just don't need the money anymore. So I'm being a little more discerning, being a little slower to sign deals.

So, we have the Reckoners at Fox, with Sean Levy. I did sell Legion for a television show. That's under option right now. And we likely will sell Alcatraz here very soon for an animated show.

A lot of people ask if I will make animated Mistborn or Stormlight. That's on the table. It will depend on where some of these animation projects like the Castlevania adaptation and things like that, if this continues to be a good, viable method of storytelling. So, it's certainly not off the table, but neither are live action television shows. I really wanna see how The Witcher does. I wanna see how Wheel of Time does. I'm a producer on that. We'll see how the new Lord of the Rings at Amazon does. I wanna see how they're doing with fantasy in this sort of post-Game of Thrones world. So, we'll see. Hopefully, we'll get a really good Rothfuss adaptation out of Showtime. There's a lot of cool things happening.

So, we will see. Right now, most of the Cosmere is not under contract to anyone anymore, and I'm just kind of holding onto it. There's a company, DMG, that I've been working with on some of them. They still are involved, I still like them, but we are moving slowly, right now. We're just kind of keeping our eyes open.

JoyBlu

At the end of Oathbringer, Hoid is there, and he uses the Breath to talk to the doll, and he gives the doll to K-whoever - he gives it to someone named Cob and Kheni. So, is Kheni a Parshman?

Brandon Sanderson

I'll RAFO that.

Arthrine

I remember reading some time ago that a fan told you about a dream of hers to be a minor character in one of your books, and that you fulfilled this dream for her.

Any chance of you doing a raffle on /r/fantasy, and letting the winner get the same opportunity?

Brandon Sanderson

I should totally do this. In the past, I've done it for charity, so maybe during a drive for Worldbuilders?

The character, by the way, is Lyn the scout from Words of Radiance.

Snote85

I did have a question about the story if you're willing/allowed to answer it for me. In the TWoK and WoR when the Highstorm and Everstorm meet, we're told that they will feed each other and that their strength is increased. What I wonder is that if that increased power is sustained after they pass, so that they get bigger each time they meet. Because if that's the case, it will basically turn into a Fibonacci Spiral of planetary destruction. (at least if my terrible understanding of both that sequence and math itself is right.)

So, if you could just say if I was supposed to understand that "They will feed each other" means only during their interaction or gives a more permanent upgrade.

Peter Ahlstrom

That's a good question. The answer is that they feed each other only while they're interacting. Once they pass they return to normal.

Shuaroo

Have I gone crazy or did he misspell Kal's mom's name twice [in the Stormlight Four preview chapter]? It's Hesina, is it not? But its listed as Hessica twice.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I always write her name the way it was in 1.0 of the first book, not the place one I changed it (to be more in line with Alethi naming conventions.) So Karen or Peter always have to go through and change it several times for me.

At least I've stopped writing tin as silver these days. Whatever I do in the first draft tends to get embedded into my muscle memory as far as names.

Sharuu

Ha! I figured it was something like that, but started getting paranoid that I completely misremembered anyway. Besides, I imagine that, especially writing at the speed you do, it's easy to overlook the smaller details.

Brandon Sanderson

It's also something about the way my brain works. I still have trouble writing Galladon instead of Galarion, which was his original name. Often, near the end of a book, I'm making tweaks to get the languages and naming more consistent--and some names just don't fit any longer. But my brain rarely wants to accept the changes. (Notably, though, I took easily to Kaladin--who was originally named something else, but a name I never really liked.)

Protaokper

Huh! Sorry if you’ve answered this before, but what was Kaladin’s original name?

Brandon Sanderson

Merin. I know. In my defense, it fit the linguistics at the time.

Questioner (paraphrased)

[Is it completely impossible for Allomantic Steel/Iron users to Push/Pull on Aluminum or just very difficult, and a more powerful Allomancer (like TLR or using the Bands of Mourning) could do it?]

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Excellent question. I’m glad you’re arguing about that.

Questioner

What are some of your favorite books to read to your kids?

Brandon Sanderson

Favorite books to read to the kids, hands down my favorite book to read to the kids is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus *laughter* Just, that story is just so much fun-- When they get it, right? I read it to the two- or three-year-old and they don't quite get it, but by four they're like "I get to say no to the pigeon?" and they love it. They absolutely love it. Lately we've been reading one they love called Supertato? We bought it when we were in the UK so they use all of these trolleys instead of-- And it's just about a potato that saves people-- that saves vegetables in the supermarket. And it came with stickers to stick on your own potatoes to turn them into supertatoes. And so-- I have three little boys and so they love, absolutely love Supertato. If you want to see a picture of my little boys, I did a blog thing--which was really just a big advertisement for my books, but don't tell anyone--talking about the superhero genre and my children who dress up as superheroes, and it's so funny. They are endless sources of inspiration. They go into the room and come out with things and they're like "I'm Batman" I'm like "You've got a bucket, and you've got an iPad that you've affixed to your arm somehow, and you've got an oven mitt and you're Batman?" "I'm Batman" "You look just like him."

Questioner (paraphrased)

How much pre-writing do you do for each book?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He wrote 50k words backstory for Mistborn, and 200k words backstory for The Way of Kings. It takes about 8 months to write a novel. Though it only took a month to write Alcatraz, which was a parody of conspiracies, and included bad super-powers, an anti-epic fantasy (and that a possible movie from Dreamworks was in the works at the time).

Brandon Sanderson

The Liar of Partinel, one of the books I’m working on for Tor, is partially about the concept of a the value of storytelling in society. I can’t help but include these things, since they’re so important to me.

Swamp-Spirit

When you're writing YA do you ever feel-- Because I was feeling this while reading the Alcatraz novels-- Do you ever feel like you're limited in what you can explore by not wanting to go too dark or too complex for a certain audience? Or when you are writing that sort of story does that not really...

Brandon Sanderson

Complexity does not enter into it, for me, except for the fact that I generally focus on one character. And so there is a complexity issue there, in that, you know, it's like I'm doing one, maybe two, viewpoints. And I think it's basically coming because when I'm choosing a story I'm matching a story to an age, I'm not matching an age to a story, does that make sense? So when I say "this is a YA story" that's because it exhibits the sorts of things I want to tell-- exhibits the sort of things that work for that market. I don't tend to write down but I do tend to keep the number of viewpoints more limited, just to keep the books a little less thick. So yeah, yes but not really.

Questioner

Was Roshar mythos inspired by Shinto or Japanese mythology?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it was. There is definitely a large part of Asian mythology, specifically Korean. So less Shinto and more Korean but there's a deep relationship there, and I lived in Korea for two years as an LDS missionary.

IronCaf

What other magic systems - because it seems unique from what we have seen - what other magic systems have that same, kind of, "If you use it a lot it gets better?"

Brandon Sanderson

So, imagine this way-- You're making a metaphor-- It is a little bit more like wedging open cracks in the soul by letting the flow come through, and the investiture comes in. 

IronCaf

So it seems that in Allomancy, it seems to maybe enhance those cracks--

Brandon Sanderson

It can open the cracks more.

IronCaf

Are there other magic systems like that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. 

IronCaf

Will we see those anytime soon?

Brandon Sanderson

Maybe. Anytime soon? Let me RAFO that for you.

Questioner (paraphrased)

How is Ashyn Earth-like given its orbit? It should be even less habitable than Roshar.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The Rosharan system was manufactured for a specific purpose. The position of the moons isn’t stable and even the continent itself might eventually vanish.

Wifrin

How did you find the experience of writing in an established universe that wasn't your own? Did the setting having a much softer magic system than you usually write present a challenge you, and what do you feel it taught that you can take back to your other writing?

Did you get any access or information about Magic lore that wouldn't have been available to fans yet?

Lastly, I feel like this story had less of your trademark "Sanderlanche" in it. Do you agree? Do you think that is a function of it being a short story, or other elements? Was it intentional, or did a more gradual set of revelations just work better for this story?

Brandon Sanderson

1. I found the experience to be a lot of fun. The system was soft, but I created my own very hard corner of it to play in, so that worked just fine for me. Most of what this taught me was how to better collaborate--I am glad for the experience in that regard, and hope it will help me better at similar writing tasks in the future.

2. I did!

3. Most of my short fiction has a smaller Sanderlanche. Basically, I need lots of threads intermixing so that I can start pulling them together rapid-fire for a good Sanderlanche, and short fiction will need smaller ones in turn. Most of the stories in Arcanum Unbounded had climaxes similar to this one.

girsoe

Would Kelsier approve Miles Hundredlives objectives?

Brandon Sanderson

Objectives? Perhaps. Depends on where Kelsier is in his career.

Questioner

I think there's a flaw in my understanding of Cognitive Shadows. I assume that... they would have more visibility into the Cognitive Realm, like a Herald would be able to see spren more easily, that kind of thing. Is that incorrect?

Brandon Sanderson

That is incorrect. A Cognitive Shadow simply means a copy of the Cognitive side made by a deep amount of Investiture. And everybody has a Cognitive side. Basically it's a fake soul. Or, fake is the wrong term. Fake is the wrong term. Even in-world they don't know if it's really them or not. It is Investiture has replaced the Investiture that is fleeing from them as they die, or enhancing it in some way to keep it around. So some Cognitive Shadows trapped on the Cognitive Realm are going to be-- have a lot of Cognitive-- I mean, they're there, right? But some Cognitive Shadows inhabiting a body in the same way that your mind inhabits your body, the way the cosmere works... So a Herald is going to feel like they are alive just like-- but their soul has been somehow transformed. It's not really transformed, it's been reproduced or copied by an injection of Investiture...

And I'll say for the purpose of the recordings, I haven't canonized any of that terminology that I just used about Cognitive Shadows. I'm just talking about it, I'm not necessarily saying that this is how you are supposed to refer to it. You can refer to it however you want. I've often used the metaphor of how fossils get made. When a fossil is made there is a pattern and it is slowly replaced with another substance that is stronger and more endurant, and has the shape of it, but is it still the bone? When you have a fossil bone is it the dinosaur bone? In most cases no, but yes. It's the ship of Theseus sort of thing again. Is this the bone or is it not? Is this the soul? Is this the person or is it not? That's the same sort of thing is happening with Cognitive Shadows. And it's happening on all three Realms to an extent, though of course the body is not. The body stays. It's happening on two Realms. It's happening Spiritually, mostly Cognitively.

TheFoxQR (paraphrased)

Is there temporal symmetry in between the Surge-binding and void-binding charts, from the front and back covers of The Way of Kings? As in, Surgebinding is a re-emerging system of the past, vs Voidbinding being a newly emerging system that will fully exist in the future?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You can assume that Voidbinding has not been fully explored, but that parts of it have been looked into in the past. So I wouldn't say that temporal symmetry fully holds.

Questioner

We wanted to ask if you know... if you can tell us the age gap between Kelsier and Marsh?

Brandon Sanderson

Kelsier and Marsh? Like... four years, yeah.

Brandon Sanderson

With the-- You're talking about the breaking of Elantris? Who says it was after?

Questioner

Well I assumed it was before...

Brandon Sanderson

...Who says it was before or after? The real answer to that is some are from before, some are from after. That's the actual answer. I was being cheeky but you caught me because I misread the question. They are not all the same age.

Brandon Sanderson

Lightsong Notices the Pahn Kahl are Imitating Priests

If you're still confused about this, most of the priests you've seen in the Lightsong sections are Pahn Kahl scribes imitating priests to increase confusion. The skin tone is the clue, and Lightsong noticed it a chapter or two back, but couldn't figure out what exactly was bothering him.

The previous chapters of the book—everything before the evening of Lightsong's infiltration of the tunnels—never included Pahn Kahl imitating priests. We've only seen them a couple of places, mostly in the Lightsong sections here.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Will the next book explain how that sword [Nightblood] got there, and why that guy [Zahel/Vasher] isn't with that sword?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The next book will give you some hints.