Found 14294 entries in 0.331 seconds.
Who shaves Marsh's head? Is he able to see his hair well enough to do so? Does he have a barber?
Is it a matter of Spiritual Identity? Marsh sees himself as Ironeyes, like Kaladin sees himself as branded. Seems like similar things.
I do not think it's like that for Marsh in this case, for various reasons.
Thing about Stormlight, are you kinda writing a series about the nature of abstraction?
Kinda yeah see…*recording paused* journey before destination.
Yeah, that is my favorite, so far. I mean I don’t know all the orders yet. Because that is...I’m looking forward to the rest of it.
It is, the nature of abstraction and that sort of stuff is a very big part of it.
1) Brandon, multi-volume epic fantasy presents unique storytelling challenges and unique demands upon a reader. You said in your essay that with The Stormlight Archive, "I didn't want to intentionally build a story where I relied upon reader expectations." But I assume you meant that in a specific rather than a global way: you do intend that subplots will get wrapped up eventually, that there is a main plot, that characters have arcs, and that the story has an ending...right?
2) If that's a valid assumption, then as a storyteller chunking a story out in ten volumes, how much do you worry about imposing the traditional limits of a novel on each volume? (i.e. Chekhov's Gun: "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it must absolutely go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there.")
For example, I wrote a scene for The Black Prism which was interesting in its own right and introduced a cool monster and a setting that I plan to use later in the trilogy—but it didn't accomplish anything necessary for book 1. It slowed the headlong rush to the end of the book; it looked like gratuitous worldbuilding. It wasn't, but a critic wouldn't know that until they read book 3—which I haven't yet written. So I cut it.
Would you have? Would you have cut an analogous scene in Mistborn 1, but not from TSA 1?
Are you writing these books so that each volume has that rousing, bang-up finish, or are you fine with a cliffhanger, content that the series must be judged as a whole? In a ten-volume epic, do you conceive of them as telling one story or ten stories? Or both? Or more?
The short answer to your first comment is a yes, you are right. The realization I came to while working on The Way of Kings was that I was so accustomed to writing self-aware fantasy in the Mistborn books that I was searching to do the same with Kings. While anyone can enjoy Mistborn (I hope) it works best as a series for those who are familiar with (and expecting) tropes of epic fantasy to come their direction. That allows me to play with conventions and use reader expectations in a delightful way. But it also means that if you don't know those conventions, the story loses a little of its impact.
But this is an interesting discussion as to the larger form of a novel. Is it okay, in an epic fantasy, to hang a gun on the mantle, then not fire it until book ten of the series written fifteen years later? Will people wait that long? Will it even be meaningful? My general instincts as a writer so far have been to make sure those guns are there, but to obscure them—or at least downplay them. People say this is so that I can be more surprising. But it's partially so that those weapons are there when I need them.
It often seems to me that so much in a book is about effective foreshadowing. This deserves more attention than we give it credit. When readers have problems with characters being inconsistent, you could say this is a foreshadowing problem—the changes, or potential for change, within the character has not been presented in the right way. When you have a deus ex machina ending, you could argue that the problem was not in the ending, but the lack of proper framework at the start. Some of the biggest problems in books that are otherwise technically sound come from the lack of proper groundwork.
In the case you mentioned, however, I think I would have cut the creature. Because you said it was slowing things down. There's an old rule of thumb in screenwriting that I've heard expressed in several ways, and think it works well applied to fiction. Don't save your best storytelling for the sequel. If your best storytelling isn't up front, you won't get a sequel. Of course, once you're done, you do need to come up with something as good or better for the sequel, otherwise it might not be worth writing.
For The Way of Kings, I've had to walk a very careful balance. I do have ten books planned, but I had to make sure I was putting my best foot forward for the first book. I had to hang guns for the later novels, but not make this story about them—otherwise readers would be unsatisfied to only get part of a story.
Has Brandon ever wanted an image of something that you had to tell him wasn’t possible to do for whatever reason?
There's a map we've been discussing since Words of Radiance that we want to put in the books at some point, and it almost made it into Book 2 and Book 3, and it's looking unlikely for Book 4. But we just don't have the information yet to make the map work, so that's really the closest experience to what you're mentioning.
You seem to be adept at creating interesting magic systems for your worlds - what is your creative process for creating something of this sort? Any hints as to what the next one might involve?
Next two magic systems you might see:
1) Disease magic. Bacteria have evolved to the point that they try to keep their hosts alive by granting them magical powers while you have the disease. So, you catch a cold, and can fly until you get over it.
2) I've got a very cool 'throwing spheres of light' magic that I'm working on...which, when you break it down, was inspired by seeing how accurate baseball pitchers were and thinking about how that could be weaponized in a fantasy world.
3) That guy with his ice soap has me thinking about "freezing stuff in water" magic. Like, potions that do things only after they thaw...
I do not know if they have IV technology, on Dayside in particular. You could maybe, probably not, but you could maybe argue it on Darkside.
And for when The Lost Metal?
Current schedule:
1) Stormlight Novella next week.
2) Finish drafts 4-5 of Book Four until July.
3) In July, finish the Novella, do a revision of The Apocalypse Guard, which I think I might finally have figured out how to fix.
4) August: Start either Skyward 3 or Wax and Wayne 4. Once that is done, finish the other one.
5) Middle of Next year: Decide next project after those two are finished.
6) Start Stormlight 5 January 2022, for Christmas 2023 release.
Chapter Seven - Part Two
Actions and reactions. Kelsier's little explanation here is probably the most fundamental and important thing to realize about Allomancy–indeed, about a lot of my magic systems. I like to follow physics as best I can. I think it's more interesting that way. Kelsier's mention that you can't just fling things around randomly with the mind is a kind of dig against Star Wars and other magic systems with telepathy. Certainly, you could come up with systems that work they way they do. However, I personally find it more fascinating–and more logical–if a person is only able to apply force directly.
It really is the way the world works. You apply a pressure, and something moves in that direction. For strong forces, people can only push away from themselves or pull toward themselves. It makes perfect logical sense to me that a magic system would work that way.
Of course, I might just be a loon for trying to apply so much physics logic to magic in the first place.
Was the Trust in [Hero of Ages] a perpendicularity?
So... No. Asterisk.
Oh, and I'm sorry to keep the secret of kandra from you. You'll get it eventually. I realize that by being in Kelsier's viewpoint, you should know what he does about Renoux's true nature. Chalk it up to him not really having the time to think about such things now. Either way, most of you have probably figured it out by now.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I've actually been called a "square peg" before. I believe the line was "You're one of those creative types–you're a square peg, trying to fit into a round hole." I was twenty-two, and was getting let go from one of my first jobs.
That's another story, though. Just note–apparently, fantasy writers and "creative types" don’t make good librarians. Go figure.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Beldre is a Normal Person
The point Spook makes about Beldre being normal is an important one in this book. I think that readers might be overly harsh on her for her innocence and the way she ended up getting captured. (Though there is more going on there than the reader knows.) I like how she doesn't notice when someone is walking up to her, which is seen as odd by Spook at first. People in this world, particularly our protagonists, don't get surprised from behind. They are people of extreme senses and training.
Beldre is a regular person. I think a lot of us would have acted like she did in this book. Confronted by someone like Spook, perhaps we would have taken a chance on believing in him. And perhaps we'd have been captured.
Either way, I doubt any of us would notice if an Allomancer walked up behind us.
Vin's Tactics Improve
Cloth-wrapped coins are something I probably should have thought of in the very first book. The problem is that I worked very hard to establish the "we use coins as weapons and to jump around" idea that I wasn't thinking about ways to improve the method. The coins are cheap, abundant, and effective, not to mention aerodynamic. However, they're also noisy. Adding a thin layer of cloth makes a ton of sense when using them to jump around.
Also, Vin finally ditched the mistcloak. Her reasoning is correct, unfortunately. I loved the image and the symbol of the mistcloak, but it was no longer useful, so it was time for her to go about without one. I'm sure there's symbolism in there somewhere—finally becoming her own woman, shrugging off the mantle Kelsier gave her, something meaningful like that. The truth is, I didn't think about that. I just acknowledged that the cloak no longer made sense. It was too noisy to be worth wearing.
Grandpa Smedry Rescued
We finally get Grandpa Smedry back. One of the tough things about this series is that I don’t want to use him too much. Even though he’s a loon, he is the one who knows what is going on, and he’s rather powerful. He could easily overshadow Alcatraz, and that’s why I split them up.
But now the team is back together, and they have an objective. These last three chapters are going to be fun.
So, because we have Worldhoppers like Hoid, Khriss, and Nazh, and I think that I've heard that era 4 will be more science fiction.
Yes, era 4 is science fiction.
So, will we ever have a chance to see characters from one world in the cosmere go to another world in the cosmere?
So, there's a couple of things that I need to explain to you guys in this one. First is that Mistborn, I pitched to my editor, way at the beginning, as a series where a fantasy world slowly became a science fiction world. So we would pass through a modern era, where things are like our world, and then we pass on to a science fiction era, because I'd never seen that done before. I'd never seen someone take epic fantasy and then build from the events in the epic fantasy, like religions and philosophies, and then tell another story set in a more modern and contemporary world. And then in the science fiction one, the magic will become the means by which space travel is possible. So we're in the middle of that. Wax and Wayne is an interim, I'm calling it era 2. There's an era 3 which is 1980s, cold war, spy thriller Mistborn. Then there is an era four, which is science fiction, unless I slip in a cyberpunk, near-future science fiction, which I might do. So there might be five, we'll see. I've warned people of that. The last Mistborn series, whichever era it ends up being, is the last thing of the cosmere chronologically. So, it's a long ways off. All the other series have to finish before I can do that.
The other thing that people have to understand is that all of these worlds are connected in something we call the cosmere. It is mostly, right now, just easter eggs. It's important to me that people don't go, "I can't read Mistborn until I've read Elantris," or whatever. No, each series is about that series. There's easter eggs connecting them but you don't need to know it. It's just fun to find out; you can find it all out after the fact.
Are we going to see people traveling between the planets? Yes, you will see space travel between the planets. You have seen it already. One of the stories in the anthology comes from that era, but it's on a planet that doesn't yet have space travel. Sixth of the Dusk takes place chronologically near-end of the cosmere sequence. So yes, you have seen it, and you will see more of it. In Sixth of the Dusk, there are ones they call the Ones Above who have visited and these are people from a planet that you have seen, I won't tell you who, who are visiting.
Chapter Thirty-Two - Part One
Backsliding
As I mentioned a couple annotations ago, this chapter is one of my favorites. That, however, doesn't mean it doesn't have flaws. It has a lot of them, the most important one being the fact that it's just a tad out of place. It's almost a chapter from book one pulled and stuck into book three, where it has no business being and is likely to get clubbed on the head and dragged into a dark alleyway.
Book one was far more lighthearted than this final book is, and while I love having this chapter in the book for the nostalgia it evokes and for the opportunity it gives for banter, I will acknowledge that some people may find it out of place.
There is a strong rationale for it being like it is. Elend hit on this while dancing with Vin. The familiar setting and situations brought out the person he used to be when he attended the balls. I think we all do this. When I came back home after my first year of college, I was shocked at how quickly I fell back into being the person I was before that year, which had forced me to stretch and grow a great deal. I was home, and the high-school me resurfaced.
Well, this chapter has the high-school Elend. He goes too far and makes too many wisecracks. He should have known better. In fact, he did know better, and he almost immediately regretted treating Yomen as he did. One other thing to remember, however, is that this is Elend's first real parlay with an enemy king. His previous two conquests were made by Vin and were negotiated via the use of a lot of Allomancy and a rather large koloss sword.
So Kandra that just bones. Obviously they need that physically but is there a Cognitive and Spiritual purpose to the bones too?
Uh, no the bones are just there for the muscles to pull against.
So they don't need it, some spiritual link for the bones to...
No, good question.
Can you tell me anything about the Elsecallers we don't know yet?
They should be able to get back out of Shadesmar without having to find a perpendicularity, but Jasnah doesn't know how to do it yet. She should be able to do that, she just hasn't figured it out.
If you were basing a magic system in part on real-world physics or chemistry, how far down the rabbit hole of science would you go at making it?
Most of mine are based on real-world science and physics, but with a hefty dose of fantasy.
The Rosharan magic systems are based on the fundamental forces, right? That's where they started. That's not where they ended, right? You can really only recognize gravitation from the fundamental forces as actually still being a thing in the Rosharan magic system. But the idea of fundamental forces. I'm like, "Well, what would the weak force look like as a magic system?" And I just kind of went crazy off from that.
So, I tend to use the real-world physics as a very squishy springboard from which I go some direction off on some weird tangent and come up with a magic system. Allomancy was based, in part, off of vector physics. But, I mean, I write fantasy. I do not write hard science fiction.
And so, if I were gonna take one and really try to stay close, then I could see myself going pretty deeply down the rabbit hole. But then, I just kind of ask myself, "What am I breaking? What am I changing? What am I trying to achieve? What's the affect I'm going for in doing this?"
Okay, just for my amusement, here's an analysis of your books so far (the ones I have):
White Sand I 1.0 - 0.49 pptt (pause per ten thousand words)
Star's End 1.0 - 0.34 pptt
Lord Mastrel 1.0 - 0.83 pptt
Knight Life 3.0 - 0.40 pptt
The Sixth Incarnation of Pandora 1.0 - 1.48 pptt
Elantris 6.0 - 3.51 ppttElantris 8.6 - 4.16 pptt
Dragonsteel 7.0 - 5.70 pptt
White Sand II 2.7 - 6.11 pptt
Mythwalker 0.6 - 10.2 pptt
Mistborn Prime 4.0 - 9.63 pptt
Aether of Night 3.0 - 11.99 pptt
Final Empire Prime 1.0 - 9.65 pptt
Way of Kings 2.1 - 8.1 pptt
Mistborn Final Empire 2.0 - 10.97 pptt
Mistborn Final Empire 3.1 - 11.56 pptt
Mistborn Well of Ascension 3.0 - 13.25 pptt
Alcatraz Initiated 4.0 - 8.71 pptt
Mistborn Hero of Ages 3.0 - 9.68 pptt
Warbreaker Parts 1-2 1.2/1.0 - 11.5 pptt
Star's End and Knight Life only have 3 pauses each! Anyway, there's an upward trend, and then it more or less levels off. :) It took reading the book out loud for me to notice it. I have no idea how this compares with other writers. Well, the book I just rewrote has 2.47 pptt.Make of that what you will.
If Rashek had been in a position to claim Preservation and Ruin simultaneously, as Sazed did, would he have been able to to Ascend to Harmony, another combination of the two Shards, or just one?
All three are possible.
Last question: Are you planning to come back to Poland somewhere soon?
Yes but I don't know when, but I have to come to Warsaw Book Fair, my publisher has made it very clear I need to eventually, and you guys do keep bugging me so-- I'm sure it won't stop now that I've actually come. I have been to Spain like four times so--
It's closer to States.
Yeah it's so much closer.
We'll definitely come back with some weird questions
Ok great. We need a direct flight to Warsaw, that's what we need.
From Salt Lake.
From Salt Lake. Yeah, not gonna happen. There is a direct flight to Paris so I'm in Paris and there’s a direct flight to London, so I end up both in London and Paris all the time.
There is loads of flights from London to Warsaw.
Yeah.
To any city in Poland.
Yeah but if there is no direct flight then I have to change planes.
Jesus.
It's hard.
At Heathrow--
Yeah, I know! Actually I changed this time in Amsterdam, that's a good airport, so easy to get around.
How many hours did you spend traveling here?
Nine hours.
Nine hours?
Yeah-- Oh nine hours-- Sorry, nine hours on that flight to Amsterdam, and then two hours to Warsaw.
Not bad.
Yeah, not that bad. Two hour layover, so total of 13 hours.
I wrote a really bad short story that I don't think I will ever release. It's kind of dumb. So that still happens to me.
Yomen's History
Yomen was a fun character to write. Named for Aaron Yeoman, who won a charity auction that I did for character naming rights, I wanted him to present a type of villain different from Zane in book two. Somewhat sympathetic, but a thinker rather than a fighter.
He felt from a very young age that he was destined to be an obligator. The son of a minor nobleman back in Luthadel, he entered the priesthood early and distinguished himself through scholarship and theology. This isn't an aspect of the Steel Ministry that we often get to see in the books, as our focus lies elsewhere. However, there are a lot of philosophers and thinkers in the Ministry—and most of them ended up in the Canton of Resource, the best place for men with an analytical mind.
When a position opened in Fadrex, Yomen jumped at it, as he knew it was a place where most obligators didn't like to serve. It was too out of the way, too removed from important events. Of all the obligators in Luthadel, he was the only one of any distinguished record who wanted to go. (He did beat out more qualified obligators from other cities, as he had connections with the Ministry elite in Luthadel.)
Within five years at Fadrex, he'd risen to being the prelan (i.e. the high priest) of the local Ministry building, despite his youth. Many were saying they saw him heading back to Luthadel to enter the ministry's upper ranks, though it's debatable if this would have happened or not. By going to Fadrex, he put himself in a position to rise quickly as there was little local competition among the obligators. (Many of whom had been stationed there because they lacked the influence to get put elsewhere.) However, it also removed him from the political scene back in Luthadel—and from the minds of many of the more important people there.
It's possible he would have been able to maintain connections and pull enough strings to get himself back into an influential position in the capital. However, it's also possible that by seizing the opportunity in Fadrex, he gave himself a quick path to prelan—but locked himself out of any higher ranks.
What metal is Nightblood's sheath made out of?
Nightblood's sheath is aluminum.
I’m absolutely in love with the world I’ve created and have spent years in its building—magic systems, political systems, cultures, races, etc.—but I feel it is not original enough to warrant publication. I have, to a certain extent, trapped myself in the tropes of fantasy—mid to late 13th-century setting, races based off the classics of orcs, dwarves, and elves, and unwittingly I created a nation of people who I fear will be compared to the Seanchan in their intent, if not their culture.
The storyline itself is very original (with the exception of the Seanchan-esque nation), and the few people I’ve spoken to about it have said it sounds exciting.
So I guess my concern is this: do you think I have a legitimate concern in that my work may be perceived as unoriginal and therefore not worth publication? Or can writing style and an original storyline make up for that fact?
My experience has been that writers worry about this more than they should. Now, that’s not to say we shouldn’t worry about it at all—but generally, readers are a little more forgiving of us showing our influences than we think they will be. The Wheel of Time has some very Tolkien- and Herbert-inspired sections, and is generally considered to be a highly original setting, even if it’s true that the Aiel are inspired by the Fremen.
Harry Potter wasn’t actually that original an idea; wizard schools have been a staple of middle-grade fantasy for years. But her combination of everything together was amazing. So I think you can absolutely take tried-and-tested, well-worn tropes and combine them into something that is greater than the sum of the parts.
My suggestion to you is to write the book. I think that, because you’re aware of this possible problem, you’ll naturally take it in different directions. Then give the book to some readers and try very hard not to predispose them toward what your fears are. After they read the book, let them give you feedback. If a lot of them are saying it feels derivative, maybe see if you can make some things more your own. However, most likely they’ll say something like, “This feels like the Seanchan, but in a good way.”
We are all inspired by the things we read, watch, and love. Learning to take this inspiration and make it into something newly yours is part of the process of becoming a writer. Give yourself that chance, and I think you’ll find a balance you like.
I know you’ve thought out a lot, especially like the Cosmere and how the magic works and everything, but I know the Sharders and everybody have been doing really ridiculous tiny details. Have they thought of something that made you revise anything or...
IÂ generally try to avoid revising to what the fans come up with.
Not what they come up with because of ideas that you haven’t thought of or…
Oh yeah, on occasion they say something where I’m like, “Yes, that is the right thing,” and then I just canonize it. So yes they do influence it that way.
Kandra Culture
We get to dig a little bit deeper into the kandra culture here. True Bodies were one of the more interesting things I wanted to discuss in this series, and I'm glad I finally found a chance to show them off.
It makes perfect sense to me that kandra would turn their skeletons into works of art. Some have asked me why they don't do more—take their bodies more to the extreme. But TenSoon addresses that right here, in a way. The kandra are too used to having human shapes; that is what makes sense to them. It's odd how something inherited from a society's oppressors can become an important part of that society's culture.
I worked for a long time to make the kandra culture feel real and interesting. The idea of shape-shifters is not new, particularly changelings who take the place of humans they meet. And so my means of making the kandra distinctive can't come from what they are but who they are. Their culture, their thought processes.
Are you going to make a sort of [Mistborn: Secret History] for Vasher?
Yeah, you’ll get some more Vasher stuff. I will write a sequel to Warbreaker that shows Vasher kind of bridging--but you’ll also see some more of the stuff behind the scenes that he did.
Can we expect to see in world drawings or depictions of the various Parshendi forms at some point?
This is a great idea! I'll make a note of it. No plans currently, but now you never know!
Is the reason aluminum is so distinct in the cosmere have to do with what you talked about earlier? [falling from the sky, Napoleon's plates]
Yes, it's because I love how it had this sort of mythological attachment in our own world. And I liked that mythology.
But the other cool things that aluminum does is, it is a really powerful, strong, wonderful metal that, in our society now, is so common you can make cans out of it and sell it super cheap... but only two hundred years ago, was more valuable than gold. And that changeover let me build into the Mistborn system something that would then add a counter to the powers I was developing, which were going to become more and more common as we reached the modern era. That there would be a counter to them which would also become more and more common. It's a really nice parallel that I could build into the system.
Chapter Three
Who To Blame
There are two people you can blame for this book. (No, I’m not one of them. We authors never take responsibility for things like that.) They are Stacy Whitman and Heather Kirby, the women who worked on me for a period of several months to get me to start reading kids’ books. I’d always said that I wanted to get back into YA and middle grade (even if I wasn’t sure on the distinction then. Not sure if I am now, actually…). However, I’d just never gotten around to it.
Well, these two–along with Ms. Fish–just kept recommending books to me. Eventually, I broke down and started reading them. (Though, if I trace it back to the real beginning, it was when my friends Faith and Nathan started reading the Lemony Snicket books to each other while they were engaged. I was the roommate who had to deal with them snuggling on the couch all the time…)
Anyway, back around 2004 I started reading a lot of YA books. I found I liked them, and remembered a lot of the ones I’d enjoyed as a kid. The more I read, the more I realized that a lot of the really exciting fantasy worldbuilding was going on in the kids’ book world. I also realized that you can get away with my kind of humor in kids’ books much more easily than you can in adult books. (I’ve written one other comedy, but something just didn’t work about it. I now think that if I’d shot for a younger audience, it would have been far more successful.)
All of that led to me writing Alcatraz during a short break between Mistborn books two and three. It was a quick write–took me sixteen work days–and was essentially an extended free write, intended to get something out of my system so I could get back to Mistborn. (Though at the same time, Alcatraz made for an excellent break from the Mistborn world, which is rather dark.)
I didn’t expect much from the book. It was fun, but had been done more as a writing exercise than anything else. A way to clear my system of all the kids’ book ideas that came to me during my readings in the genre.
Then Joshua and Steve–my agents–got hold of the book. They sold the heck out of it, and we discovered just how many people loved the concepts in it. We ended up getting a four-book deal from Scholastic, which tickled me pink. Not just because I got paid for a book I didn’t expect to earn a whole lot from–but because it let me write more books in the series! (These are a blast to work on.)
The shards and their vessels we don`t know yet... Will they be featured in the existing works or will they have their own story in a novel or a novella?
A split between the two.
(Paraphrased) Can you tell us something about the Lord Ruler that we do not already know?
*Written* The Lord Ruler once gave up + tried to end the F.E.
And lastly, a cosmere point of contention. You've said before the Moon Scepter works as a Rosetta stone? Is this literal, as in translating one Aon to it's MaiPon counterpart, or more metaphorical, IE allowing use of a Selish magic outside of its country?
The Moon Scepter does not "unlock" regional use of Selish magic, but those who wanted it believed it was a vital step in figuring this out. It's more the first, but has implications for the second.
The scene with Vin and the Inquisitor is the place where, finally, I got to bring some closure to the Reen plotline. What the Inquisitor says is true. When it came down to the end, Reen didn't betray Vin. He died before he let that happen.
Reen was not a good person. He beat Vin, he was selfish, and he was conniving. However, he did love his sister. Most of his beatings happened because he was worried that she would expose them somehow and get herself killed. He knew that the Inquisitors were chasing her because of her half-breed nature, and so he uprooted them constantly, moving from city to city. He kept her alive, teaching her to be harsh, but teaching her to survive.
And, in the end–after the Inquisitors got him–he didn't betray her. That says a lot about him.
Now that the three gangs have been dealt with, Raoden's storyline has had some major resolutions. The increasing pain of his wounds, however, is something I introduced into the book for fear that he wouldn't have enough pressing conflicts. As stated in previous annotations, his personality is uniquely strong and stable amongst characters I've created, and I figured that giving him a small problem in the area of self-confidence wouldn't be remiss. He feels that he's worse at dealing with the pain than everyone else, and that makes him worry that he isn't the leader he should. We'll have more on this later.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
TenSoon Visits Urteau
The fact that TenSoon is out of the homeland without a Contract is an important point, one I myself didn't consider up until now. Always before, anyone who wanted to hire a kandra left a message in a designated place in Luthadel. The kandra found you—a creature who was under direct Contract by the Lord Ruler to act as an intermediary.
The kandra Contract was completely confidential, even from the Lord Ruler—though he probably could have demanded to know the details of who the kandra were working for at a given time. He didn't bother, as he never thought that one would be used in a plot against him.
The kandra who arranged Contracts—a member of the Fifth Generation—would travel to the Homeland with the signed papers and the atium, and would send a new kandra out to serve the new master. Nobody left the homeland without a Contract, and if their Contract ended or their master died, then they returned immediately to the Homeland.
Aonic: Pronounce Aonic names by finding the Aon (most of them are listed in the back of the book. Otherwise, find the two nearest vowels.) Then, pronounce the Aon’s vowels in ‘long’ form (I know—my linguist friend told me that’s not exactly correct. See below for examples, however) and any other vowels in short form. The first syllable with the Aon in it always gets the stress.
Examples: Aon = AY-Ohn Raoden = RAY-Oh-den
List of Aon vowels: A = a as in ‘bake’ E = e as in ‘eat’ or a as in ‘bake.’ (See below.) I = i as in ‘bike’ (A double i Aon pronounces both long i sounds. See below.) O = o as in ‘boat’ U = There are no ‘u’ sounds in Aons.
Every other vowel should be pronounced in short form without a stress.
A note on ‘E’ sounds in Aonic. The only exception to the rule includes words written with ‘e’ in the Aon. In English, ‘e’ can often produce a long ‘a’ sound. So, I wrote many long ‘a’ sounds with ‘e’s. This was a device I used to try and make the names look better and have a chance of being pronounced more accurately. Note the examples in names below.
Common Aonic Names Raoden = RAY-Oh-den Sarene = sa-RAY-Nay (or sa-REE-Nee, if you want to get technical.) Elantris = EE-Layn-tris (Though most people say el-lan-tris, which is fine.) Kiin = KYE-Eye-n Teod = TAY-Ohd Arelon = ah-RAY-Lone Daorn =DAY-Ohrn Kaise =KAY-Ice Ahan = AY-Hayn Roial = ROH-Eye-al
Other Names: Hrathen = Ray-then (with a very subtle ‘h’ sound at the beginning.) Fjorden = Fee-ohr-den Galladon = Gall-ah-dawn Dilaf = Dee-lawf
Chapter Sixty - Part Three
Dakhor Magic
I actually didn't plan to use the "teleportation" aspect of the Dakhor magic. However, I wrote myself into this chapter, then suddenly realized that I needed to get the group Teod in a real hurry. I couldn't let days pass while Sarene, Hrathen, and Dilaf sailed to the peninsula as I'd originally intended. (I have no idea what I was thinking.) So, I added in teleportation. It ended up working out very well in the book, as it let me add another dimension to the Dakhor magic–that of having it cost a life to create some of its effects.
This, more than anything, should instill in the reader a sense of disgust regarding the Dakhor. I particularly like Hrathen's story about Dilaf making someone die so he could travel to a place fifteen minutes away. It characterizes Dilaf perfectly while at the same time giving a clue to how strict and obedient his order is. This isn't a group of people you want to mess with. It's the ultimate exaggeration of Derethi beliefs on loyalty and structure.
Would you like to see your stories adapted into video games?
Yes. I've tried a couple of times. So far they haven’t worked out. We had someone working on Mistborn for a long time. Video game industry is hard. But-- I mean, there've been some really great games made from books so I hope to have one someday.
Chapter Forty-One
Sazed and Breeze Discuss the New Survivor
I'm not sure whether this is an appropriate use of the term ostention or not. I guess Dr. Thursby, my folklore professor at college, will have to read the book and let me know. Seemed like it worked for me.
For a lot of my readers, this opening paragraph—with Sazed acting like his old self—was a very triumphant one. They said "Finally, Sazed is back!" in compliment. However, I took that as a sign that something was wrong in the earlier chapters. True, it's a good archetype to have one of your characters do something wrong for a time before finding redemption. However, the problem with Sazed is that the thing he'd done wrong as a character was boring. You never want that as an author. In the rewrite, I hope that the difference between Sazed in this chapter and previous chapters is still there—just not as stark.
Are Dalinar's visions time-travel?
No, they're not. He's not actually going back in time.
Is trellium, the metal that Paalm uses, an alloy of atium or any other god metal.
Is the metal that is being used a god metal? It is at least a god metal hybrid. There is a god metal component to it.
If an Awakener were to use a gemstone as a color source, will that affect its Soulcasting properties?
Yes.
I'm really rather curious about your ideas on [Cosmere reading order]. I know you are a proponent of not needing a "reading order" but I mean specifically about the different reading order changing your perspective. Being more Cosmere-aware at some parts vs not having that awareness.
Don't have a lot of time to dig into this thread right now, I'm afraid. But in general, I like when people slowly discover the cosmere, as I think it adds more for people on subsequent reads. I like the idea that there are things you won't get the first time through, as sometimes (like when a new book in a series comes out) you may want to re-read to get up to speed. (I often did this with the WoT.) I like that if you've been reading further in the cosmere, it makes this re-read into a different experience.
Elves and goblins and orcs have all gone out of style. But why is it that dragons haven't? Why do you think?
I think that orcs and elves and things were so directly associated with Tolkien (even though Tolkien had dragons, too), while dragons were a much broader association. So, I think because elves and halflings were associated with Tolkien, got really associated with roleplaying, then got associated with a certain sub-brand of sci-fi/fantasy... Dragons somehow escaped that because they were larger than Tolkien. Elves technically were, too, but the ones we use in fantasy are very directly related to Tolkien elves. And these things are cyclical with those. But dragons haven't; that's just because, like I said, they were part of the collective unconsciousness. There were dragon books before Tolkien. But there weren't hobbit books before Tolkien.
Would [Walter and Osmin's Detention Enterprises] be referred to as WODE?
You could totally do that if you wanted to.
Does Marsh know about Kelsier's existence?
Yes.
Ok. And are Marsh and him having like happy fun times together?
Kelsier and Marsh did not often have happy fun times. You can imagine if you want but, yeah.
If Vin had not killed the Lord Ruler. I would think that the Lord Ruler would take up the Well of Ascension a year later. Would he have just fixed the world to be what it was pre-...?
I think there are various theories of where this could have gone. Some, it would have been okay. I think that assuming things would turn out the way the Lord Ruler thought he was capable of doing would be assuming a lot, for what his state was at the time that he was *inaudible*. It is possible that things would have gotten much much worse. I'll just say that. I'm not gonna canonize either way, but I think there's a good argument in both directions.
Did Honor and Cultivation interact with Odium when he first came in a neutral way or was it immediately an all out conflict?
RAFO.
