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Lucca Comics and Games Festival ()
#6901 Copy

Brandon Sanderson

My evil nemesis is John Scalzi, science fiction writer. We are very good friends, but he is also my evil nemesis. One time I was at a book store in an airport. i like to sign my books in airports and leave them for fans to find and i was doing this and someone came to the section in the airport. I was signing and they said "Oh, you're a writer?" and I said "yes!" here's my book, its great, you should read it." They said "I don't like fantasy, I like science fiction instead." I went 'alright' and so i sold them one of john Scalzi's books just because I wanted to match the right book to the right person.

 

I heard "Sanderson!" and I turned around and it was John Scalzi. He said, "I heard you siold one of my books, here's your royalties", and he threw two coins at me, all across the hall.

Footnote: there is a break in the audio between the first and last paragraph
#brandon
General Reddit 2018 ()
#6902 Copy

Brandon Sanderson

All right. So...things do get confusing whenever I'm trying to circumlocute spoilers. I could have smacked myself for forgetting to mention "no spoilers" before the Q&A. I keep forgetting that there are many readers who are not as sensitive to these things as I am. (Though one woman did gasp in the row behind that guy asking the question--as his original one mentioned Sadeas's death, I believe.)

I will say that there are multiple people I'd consider well on the path to being Radiants by the end of Book Three, and several of these would--shall we say--dispute KR traditions from the past, specifically on this subject matter. (What makes someone eligible to become a KR.) So this discussion is relevant for multiple reasons.

I wasn't trying to drop any bombs about Adolin, however, as I remain very solidly in RAFO territory about his future.

Enasor

Thank you for taking the time to clarify this one Mr Sanderson.

This WoB created a massive shock-wave all across the fandom and many readers were taking you had officially confirmed Adolin was "well on his way towards Knighthood" which I was personally convinced was very deeply into the RAFO territory, as it should be.

Perhaps in order to also settle some additional debates, would you say Adolin would challenge what has traditionally made someone eligible to become a KR or is this within RAFO territory too? Readers can never seem to agree on how perfect Adolin actually is. We seem to find rationals for both.

Brandon Sanderson

I hate to use terms like "perfect" or the like. It's even difficult to (when not speaking in world) use some of the terminology the KR have used in the past--as we have to reconcile several things.

How do you decide what is a mental illness and what is simply a person's unique brain chemistry? Usually this comes down to two factors--the person's own feelings on it and the advice of medical professionals. Even language like "Well-adjusted," as I used before, is dangerous territory because it's so subjective. One need look only to the deaf community to find examples of people who challenge an outsider's perspective of what is a disease and what isn't.

So I generally prefer to talk about this through the character's viewpoint, the lens of historical commentary (which is in world, and may not therefore be accurate--but at least offers a perspective,) and the context of the book.

And in that context, I like Adolin being a RAFO. I believe that using the text, there are multiple directions one could go in discussing him.

West Jordan signing ()
#6903 Copy

Questioner

So, apart from writing the short story for the Mistborn RPG, how involved were you in developing it?

Brandon Sanderson

The Mistborn RPG? I sat down in several brainstorming sessions with them and gave them all of my notes from the world and now they have sent me what they have come up with and it's actually half rules, half world book, is the idea. Now I'm going to go through and revise it to make sure there's nothing wrong with it. But, you know, I did a lot of brainstorming with them, but they're the game designers so I let them kind of design the game as they wanted to.

Google+ Hangout ()
#6905 Copy

Alex Stephens

I loved the character reversal that took place with [Vivenna] and Siri [Moderator: and actually I'm enjoying that at the moment]. Did you come up with that idea--was that an early idea in your planning or did it emerge as a result of the story writing itself?"

Brandon Sanderson

That's a good question, for most of those they were early ideas. I had two main themes for myself when writing Warbreaker, one was character reversals. I wanted to play with the idea of reversed roles, you see it from the very beginning when the two sisters are forced to reverse roles and also the role reversal between Vasher and Denth.

The other big thing was I wanted to work on my humor and try and approach new ways of being, of having humor in a book and seeing what different types of character humor I could use. It was really actually me delving into a lot of Shakespeare at the time and seeing the way he pulled reversals and the way he used multiple levels of humor and I wanted to play with that concept in fantasy novels, so a lot of those were planned. Some of them were not, some of them came spontaneously, as you're writing the book, you always come up with great ideas for books while you're working on them so you kind of see the evolution of a few of them.

Warbreaker is posted for free on my website, the complete draft of it and I actually posted the first draft all the way through to the last draft and so you can actually take and compare the published draft to the very first draft and even the chapters as I wrote them, you can see how some things were evolving and coming to be and I was realizing certain things while I was doing it and other things just were very well foreshadowed from the beginning.

Footnote: Many early ideas from Warbreaker, such as Vivenna and Siri and the role-reversal, came from an unfinished novel named Mythwalker.
#warbreaker
Worldbuilders AMA ()
#6906 Copy

Phantine

Dumb personal-obsession question - mistwraiths are people with "a blockage between the Physical and the Cognitive Realms" - does that mean if they set foot on Threnody they turn into actual undead-type-wraiths?

Brandon Sanderson

This is a very cool theory. I don't think I can shoot it down.

Firefight San Francisco signing ()
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Aila

Would food from Hallandren be considered men or women's food in Alethkar?

Brandon Sanderson

Food from Hallandren I think is mostly going to be considered masculine food. Let me see-- I'd have to go and look and see at my notes what they're eating because there's a lot of Pacific islander influence on the area, not the culture, but where they are. So there's going to be a lot of fruit in their diet, but I think I mention that-- yeah I think it's gonna be mostly man-food. Actually no, I'm going to retract that, it's going to be both. They're going to be weirded out by it, because they're not-- you know, like our food, if they came here and ate, they would be weirded out by it. Number one a lot of it would be too bland. So they'd be like ehh, we're not sure.

Children of the Nameless Reddit AMA ()
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Gadmond

Since you knew you were writing for Magic the Gathering, did you ever think about what kind of abilities a hypothetical Davriel planeswalker card (Spoilers: or Tacenda planeswalker card) would have?

Brandon Sanderson

Davriel would, I hope, have the ability to exile a card from a player's hand, then at some point in the future play that card using black mana.

Tacenda would be tougher. Emotional manipulation is hard to capture in MTG, other than as threaten effects. But I'd want something that could mimic this.

The Well of Ascension Annotations ()
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Brandon Sanderson

I think Tindwyl has a lot of good points in her training. Some people rebel against the things she says, but I think that she has a good idea of what makes a leader. Or, at least, one kind of leader.

The problem is, that isn't the only kind of leader that works. Still, in my mind, she knows that she HAS to be like that in order to react against Elend's frivolousness.

TWG Posts ()
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Brandon Sanderson

Okay, so here's the thing. I want to write a sequel to ELANTRIS someday--or, at least, I want to leave myself open to the possibility.

The first book is named after the city of Elantris, where most of the action takes place. The sequel, set ten years after the first book, will take place in the capitol city of the prime antagonists in the series. For cohesion, this book should probably be named after that city.

So, here's the problem. Usually I have months and months to settle on a book title, and I'm usually pretty happy with what I get. However, I don't have an opportunity to write the book this time before I name it. I mention the city that will be the title of the next book several times in ELANTRIS. I have to make certain I really like this city name now, since I'll probably name a book after it sometime in the future.

So, I've been digging for ideas. The country the book will take place in is called 'Fjorden.' As you might guess from that name, the dialectical genre of the culture is a Scandinavian spin-off. (It's kind of a guttural Norse--Scandinavian with some harsh Germanic sounds thrown in.)

Other words in the language:

Hrathen, Dilaf, Arteth, Dakhor, Grondkest, Svorden

I need a name for the new city that would work well as a book title (i.e., it needs to be fairly easy to pronounce, and needs to sound cool) but that still fits with the linguistic style of the region.

Here are some I've come up with so far. What do you think of these? Which is your favorite? Which don't you like?

Zinareth, Widor, Velding, Klynair, Valinrath, Skaln, Vallensha, Vallinor

Brandon Sanderson

The original (in-text) name of the city was 'Widor.' Back then, however, I wasn't thinking of a sequel.

Steelheart Seattle signing ()
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Questioner

Are there going to be other characters other than Hoid that will be crossing over between books?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, in fact there are characters in the way of kings... I told people that there is a Terriswoman in Warbreaker somewhere, I believe that would be somewhat hard to spot. That one, I don't think you will be able to pick out until you see her later on and then go back and say 'wait a minute'.

Alloy of Law York signing ()
#6912 Copy

callumke (paraphrased)

You have said previously that The Stormlight Archive will include Lightweaving. Is that still the plan?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. 

callumke (paraphrased)

Have we seen a Roshar native in The Way of Kings who can use Lightweaving?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, we have seen someone who has potential.

Chris King interview ()
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Chris King

A lot of people wanted clarification on weight in regards to Pushing and Pulling, whether or not it has a direct correlation to the power or if it's just something people say because generally someone heavier is going to Push--

Brandon Sanderson

Right, right. It's more-- I mean, the whole-- If you really dig down into it, and I've talked about this before, the whole mass, weight, Push, and Pull thing gets a little tricky when--particularly when you throw Feruchemy into the mix-- Are we changing mass? Or are we changing what the power of the earth pulling upon you is, and things like this. Generally understand that most people who are talking about this are not speaking in scientific terms and they are speaking in colloquialisms.

Barnes and Noble Book Club Q&A ()
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morph147

Next, I've been hearing about The Way of Kings series you are starting. Are you planning to have that as a single book or going to try and make it a trilogy like Mistborn or a large ten or more book series?

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to be a big series. No promises on length right now, but I feel that it is going to be long. I have 10 books plotted right now, though some of those might get combined—essentially, there are 10 plot arcs I want to cover. But expect it to be big. The first book is done, and came in at 380,000 words before editing.

/r/fantasy AMA WorldCon 2013 ()
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Ansalem

A lot of your works that are stand alone novels or seemingly completed stories, you have announced or started working on sequels for. Are there any stories that you feel complete and don't need to work on the same world or characters again? Or do feel there is always some new tale to tell about every world you make?

Brandon Sanderson

It's hard, because the way I plot I always have to know what happened before the book and what will happen after the book. Knowing that doesn't mean that I have to continue. It's also hard, though, to say no to fans who are so passionate about a specific project.

The Vin/Elend story is most certainly done. As is the Raoden/Sarene story, as is Siri's story from Warbreaker. So there are completed threads. There might be other stories to tell in those worlds, though, so I'll avoid closing the door on them for now. (That said, it did feel very good to finish The Wheel of Time for good, and look forward to putting some of my own works to rest in a similar way.)

Alloy of Law release party ()
#6918 Copy

Questioner

How many Feruchemical powers have you revealed in the Alloy of Law?

Brandon Sanderson

In the Ars Arcanum in the back, I have revealed them all. I have not explained them all. But I have revealed them all, they are in the back, so you are free to theorize what they mean.

The Hero of Ages Annotations ()
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Brandon Sanderson

The First Generation Arrive

The First Generation are different from the other generations. Other kandra were born from mistwraiths that had bred true, becoming their own species. The Firsts, however, were humans who were changed directly into kandra. They aren't as good at holding their bodies together as creatures who were born first as mistwraiths. Someone like TenSoon carries with him a heritage of intuition and instinct gained by his previous life as a mistwraith.

The Firsts don't have that. They haven't practiced taking new bodies—in fact, only a couple of them have ever even done such a thing. They've spent their lives in the Homeland and don't know how to use their powers. The skin droops from their bones, and they look—and feel—old, something that doesn't happen to other kandra.

Here, oddly, is the first climax of the TenSoon chapters. He's not there to see it, but his words are what finally convinced the Firsts to come down from their alcoves and face the truth that the end has come.

Also, Moshe, I still think those should be podiums rather than lecterns.

YouTube Livestream 7 ()
#6923 Copy

Christopher Gearheart

I was wondering what your approach was for building magic systems? Do you start with broad strokes and themes and develop powers from there? Or do you start with the powers themselves? Also, how much do you change the system through your revisions process?

Brandon Sanderson

Generally, magic system is one of those things that I lock in pretty solidly and then stick to, except for that one big revision point. (Which, for a series, is generally after the first book.) Why that works so well for me is, a lot of times a magic system, I'm not gonna know how much flexibility it has for storytelling, how visually it works, and all of these sorts of things until I've written with it.

Whether I start with the powers or the themes, it's basically been even, 50/50. Mistborn, I started with the powers, and then built the themes out of it. Basically, I started with some cool visuals on manipulating the metals. I then built the heist story. (Those who know the history of Mistborn know that I wrote an entire book that was not a heist story before I wrote Mistborn that used the magic. We'll release that someday. I call it Mistborn Prime. So I had those powers in hand.) Then I built the rest of them kind of out of what would I want for a thieving crew.

And with Stormlight, I started with themes. The theme being: I want something that evokes the idea of the fundamental forces. (Though, of course, changed to Rosharan.) I kind of built the religion and the world, and then developed powers naturally out of that to see what would work.

So I've gone both directions for the two of my major fantasy series. And I found both very effective.

Idaho Falls signing ()
#6926 Copy

Questioner

I would like to know more about Wit. What is he?

Brandon Sanderson

Wit was born on the planet where all of this started. Long ago, in the early history of the Cosmere. Certain things that happened there made him immortal. A bunch of the people who were involved in this became what we call Shards of Adonalsium. They took up deific power. He did not, but he is one of the only other people who was around during that time who's still around.

Questioner

So does he get a flashback book?

Brandon Sanderson

He gets an entire series which is where all of this happens, in the beginning. That should be a trilogy right now. We'll see. I'm going to write it after Stormlight is done.

17th Shard Interview ()
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17th Shard

What's it feel like to finally have your baby released to the public? It's probably a very different feeling from any of your other book launches.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

17th Shard

Are you more nervous than usual or have the positive ARC compliments made you feel fairly confident?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm more nervous than normal. It has been my baby for a long time, and I got Tor to invest so much into it, what with the cover, the interior art, the end pages, the really nice printing, and the sheer length of it. Tor would really rather not publish books of this length. The rest of the series will be shorter; I promised that to them. I do want to warn readers that the 400,000 word length is not going to be the standard for the series. They're probably going to be more like 300,000 words, which is what this one should have been, but I just couldn't get it down. It was right for the book for it to be this length.

I'm worried about it for a couple of reasons. Number one, it is a departure for me in a couple of ways. I've been planning a big massive epic for a long time but I only wanted to have one or two big massive epics. My Adonalsium mythos couldn't support multiples of something this long and so a lot of my other books are much more fast-paced and I do wonder what readers are going to think of a much larger more epic story, because it is going to have a different feel.

It's happened every time I've released a book though; Warbreaker felt very different from Mistborn, which felt very different from Elantris. Way of Kings feels very different from all of those as well so I'm worried that there are a lot of readers who are not going to like it as much. I hope that there are a lot of readers who are going to like it more, but we'll have to just see what people think of it.

Kraków signing ()
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Questioner

Do you listen to music while writing and what kind of music is it? Is there perhaps any song that is particularly connected to Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

I made a Spotify playlist. You can go on Spotify - I assume you can get it in Poland - and you look for Stormlight 3 soundtrack. That was the soundtrack I listened to while I was writing the third Stormlight novel. You'll know it is me when you look for it cause my Spotify name is "mistborn1".

And - because people are going to ask, so we'll answer it now - Stormlight 3 comes out in November in English.

Translator

*in Polish*

And it will come out in Polish when I translate it.

*applause*

Brandon Sanderson

So it's all up to Anna.

And I did write one more scene for it this morning that I needed to add, in Kraków, so when you read Stormlight 3 you can know there was one scene that was written in my hotel here.

It involves one of the Ryshadium horses, so you'll know.

Footnote: the scene in question is from Chapter 10 of Oathbringer
A StompingMad YetiHatter Collaboration Interview ()
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Mad Hatter

Besides "Firstborn" have you tried your hand at Sci-Fi any other time? By the same token will you ever dive back into short fiction?

Brandon Sanderson

I did write two science fiction novels during the era that I was unpublished. Neither are particularly good, but they were experiments, with me trying to figure out where my talents and interests lie. I was just experimenting a lot during those days, so I did write two science fiction novels—I believe they were my second and fifth novels. I will go back to short fiction. I’ve said before that I don’t feel I’m as good at it as I am at the longer form, but I like doing new things and trying new things. You will see more short fiction from me, but we’ll have to see when it happens. I’m thinking of writing a short story to post on my website, during my break between Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light. And there’s also “Defending Elysium,” another science fiction story, which appeared in Asimov’s and is already on my website.

SpoCon 2013 ()
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Questioner

Were the Shattered Plains broken before Natanatan fell?

Brandon Sanderson

Let me RAFO that one just because there's enough there that I want to... how it was Shattered and what happened is...

Mistborn: The Final Empire Annotations ()
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Brandon Sanderson

Another big change was renaming the Lord Ruler's priests. Originally, they were called just that–priests. And, the Steel Ministry was the Steel Priesthood. I made the change to Steel Ministry and obligators because I didn't want the religion and government in the Final Empire to feel so stereotypical. This was a world where the priests were more spies and bureaucrats than they were true priests–and I wanted the names to reflect that. So, I took out "Priesthood" and "priests." I really like the change–it gives things a more appropriate feel, making the reader uncertain where the line between priests and government ministers is.

By the way, my friend Nate Hatfield is the one who actually came up with the word "obligator." Thanks, Nate!

Anyway, I when I changed the priests to obligators, I realized I wanted them to have a more controlling function in the Final Empire. So, I gave them the power of witnessing, and added in the aspect of the world where only they can make things legal or factual. This idea expanded in the culture until it became part of society that a statement wasn't considered absolutely true until an obligator was called in to witness it. That's why, in this chapter, we see someone paying an obligator to witness something rather trivial.

This was one of the main chapters where obligators were added in, to show them witnessing–and keeping an eye on the nobility. Moshe wanted me to emphasize this, and I think he made a good call. It also gave me the opportunity to point out Vin's father, something I didn't manage to do until chapter forty or so in the original draft.

Oathbringer release party ()
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AllomancerSam

You actually mentioned at a signing I went to last year that the Rithmatist magic was going to be, like a cosmere thing, but you pulled it out. What about it wasn't working?

Brandon Sanderson

It wasn't the magic, it was the setting. I decided I didn't want Earth in the cosmere, even a alternate version of it. The magic still kind of works very cosmere-y.

Elantris Annotations ()
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Brandon Sanderson

Some notes about the party. First off, I had a lot of fun sticking the sickening young couples into this book. I'm not sure why I like to make fun of them like I do, but I certainly have a bit of fun in the Sarene chapters. Ah, poor Shuden. He didn't hold on as well as he thought he might. Anyway, the contrast here is very nice for Sarene, and I like how she and Roial move through the party, mingling. There's just a. . .natural feel about some of the scenes in this book that I haven't quite been able to capture in my other works.

General Reddit 2020 ()
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lupicorn.png

lupicorn

Hi Brandon,

I was wondering about how color-based magic like Soulcasters would work before the terms that define the colors existed. I know the Spiritual Realm is supposed to be associated with color and sound (maybe due to the mathematical basis of wavelengths?), but it doesn't seem like the exact wavelengths of the gemstones used in Soulcasters matter as much as whether they're understood as being specific colors. Does the existence of a color category precede the existence of a distinct magical effect or would the effect exist regardless? Like, before the language of the first inhabitants of the Rosharan system had words to differentiate between green and yellow would heliodors and emeralds have produced the same effect? Or smokestone and amethyst before the existence of the blue category?

I have a feeling the answer is going to be similar to why the Bands of Mourning couldn't be used before they were known to be the Bands of Mourning but I thought I'd ask.

Brandon Sanderson

So, the color theory things in a lot of the cosmere are deeply integrated with the ideas of perception. I've mentioned before that some gemstones, for example, are nearly identical chemically, but are different colors--and so work differently in the magic. This is about perceptions.

Linguistics certainly has a hand in shaping our perceptions of things. And so yes, the direction you're theorizing here has merit, but I'm going to have to RAFO details for now.

/r/Fantasy_Bookclub Alloy of Law Q&A ()
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zas678

TenSoon wonders, and I wonder too- How can kandra think and be sentient without brains? Doesn't the body need a physical coordinator to relay between the Physical and Cognitive realm? Or do the spikes do a good enough job with that?

Brandon Sanderson

I imagine kandra having a non-centralized nervous system, with brain power spread through their bodies. Well, non-centralized is probably the wrong way to say it. They have lobes of thought and memory attached to muscles here and there, and don't have a single 'brain.' They certainly have brain-like material, though.

Arcanum Unbounded Hoboken signing ()
#6944 Copy

Pagerunner (paraphrased)

*holding out list of Allomantic metal symbols* Is ettmetal's symbol one of these four? *Points at the unused ones*

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Uh, no, it is not. Ettmetal has it's own symbol.

Pagerunner (paraphrased)

Have we seen it?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I don't believe you have. Isaac... *inaudible*

Pagerunner (paraphrased)

*making connections internally* Oh, that's interesting, since we have seen harmonium's symbol.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You've seen his symbol? You've seen the symbol?

Pagerunner (paraphrased)

Yeah, we have. *momentary staredown* 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

*inaudible* it might have been the...

Pagerunner (paraphrased)

It looks lerasium but both sides. *waves hands around in the air like an idiot to pantomime the axis of reflection*

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

*looks crestfallen* Oh... Okay... okay, yep, he put it in. *inaudible* Okay, ettmetal's... Fine, fine, fine. 

Pagerunner (paraphrased)

Am I allowed to tell people? I can keep it a secret if you want.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No, you can tell people. I mean, it's obvious *inaudible* The fact that ettmetal's so volatile. It's intended to be a *inaudible*.

Elantris Annotations ()
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Brandon Sanderson

I think this final scene with Sarene in bed is much more powerful since I didn't show the actual conversation with Eventeo. Having it begin with a depressed Sarene, the seon link disappearing, leaves an air of melancholy on the scene that is more telling than the sense of sorrowful confrontation that would have come from having Eventeo explain himself to Sarene.

Obviously, poor Eventeo isn't in a very easy position. I didn't want him to have an easy answer; I think this is a very difficult decision for him to make, and I don't really think there is an obviously right answer–even though Sarene thinks that there is. We'll see later that Sarene doesn't look at things the same way a person who actually has to be a leader does.

I wish I could have made Eventeo a viewpoint character–he goes through a lot of conflict and trouble in the book. Unfortunately, there's never enough room to do all the things that you want to, and I like how tight the book feels with only having the rotating viewpoints.

The Hero of Ages Annotations ()
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Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Eighty - Part Two

Sazed Sees Mistwraiths

I worry that I didn't get to show mistwraiths very much in this book. It's not that big of an issue—they're only a minor world feature, and are only tangentially important. Still, they're a part of the kandra past and culture, and I want readers to understand what they are and what they have to do with the kandra life cycle.

Remember, all of the kandra save for the First Generation were born first as mistwraiths. That race of creatures breeds true, and has only a fifty-year lifespan. They die off, but birth new members. Taking one of those new members and adding spikes to them, however, awakens them and brings them sentience. They're part human, just like the koloss who remember having once been human.

Mistborn: The Final Empire Annotations ()
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Brandon Sanderson

Dockson, by the way, got his nickname before his real name. I wanted to call a character Dox, for some odd reason. The name just came into my head and stuck. And, I figured that this book would be one where everyone would have nicknames, so I started playing around with Dox until I got Dockson to be the main name.

Of course, because of that, I established that "son" could end names. Therefore, we get other names in this linguistic paradigm–such Ferson in the second book, or Franson in book three. (Both of those names came from friends of mine.)

General Reddit 2020 ()
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Andrassy

If atium is a metal that is relevant throughout the Cosmere, which seems to be the case from your comment, then it could have special properties that go beyond its use in allomancy, so that this metal that is relevant to everything doesn't only feel useful in Mistborn.

I'd be interested to know, for instance, if it's at all useful in the forging of weapons or whatever. Anyway I dunno I'm just a very early reader and I'm already trying to give the author ideas, but from my perspective I don't see why atium not being used by all allomancers is a big problem. The usefulness of atium could go way beyond allomancy perhaps.

Brandon Sanderson

It does! And yes, atium weapons would be very useful (even atium alloy) for doing things like resisting Shardblades. So there is quite a bit of application.

Words of Radiance Philadelphia signing ()
#6950 Copy

Questioner

I was actually wondering, the epigraphs for The Way of Kings, that were talking about how the various Shardholders [Vessels] are influenced by their Shards over time—how does that impact someone like Harmony, with multiple shards?

Brandon Sanderson

The main effect it's having on Harmony right now is the inability to act sometimes, because his two sides are pushing, and so he is having trouble being proactive. It'd take a long time before it really becomes manifest, but he's had several hundred years, so it's starting to have an effect.