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Is there gonna be a cyberpunk Mistborn trilogy?
I have toyed with it. It's gonna depend if I'm ahead enough on things. If I am ahead enough on things, I will do an era between the 1980s and the future era. Those are cornerstones that I can't get rid of. I could or could not do a cyberpunk, a near-future science fiction. It's gonna depend on how things are looking once I'm around working on the back five Stormlight books.
Let's say some Mistborn jerk tosses Nightblood into the mists. What happens?
I suspect the mists would pull away from Nightblood, though he'd try to feed on them.
Sazed and Vin Talk to Penrod
Penrod, by the way, is shell shocked. He's not thinking clearly–he's lost it because of the horror of what he's seen and been through. He was at one of the gates when they fell–he didn't just hide in the keep all the time.
The scene where Vin walks away with the koloss in the mists, sword over her shoulder, all of them making silhouettes. . .well, that's one I wish someone would do an artistic rendering of sometime.
Does “Light” in a vacuum become unkeyed until exposed to a vibration upon leaving, and what happens if that vibration isn't actually a pure tone?
It can be overridden and things like that. You can unkey that vibration and then kind of separate it. Whether it's even fully unkeyed, to be perfectly honest, I can't even say. Like, you are dampening it, and then overriding it with something else.
This is kind of outside the world, they wouldn't be able to measure it—but I don't even think it's completely unkeyed, like Navani thinks it is, before she rekeys it. The mental component on her part is pretty important to what's happening.
You mentioned that Sazed is the character you aspire to be. Why is that?
He listens first, and then speaks, which is something that I sometimes have trouble with.
Assuming that the events of the first Mistborn book took place on Nalthis instead, and especially considering the circumstances of Kelsier's passing and the events afterwards, would he have Returned?
That's a very interesting question. Endowment can be somewhat...erratic. I don't know, honestly. I'd have to think about it.
You've said the Sleepless are inspired by the Tines in A Fire Upon the Deep. They were very reliant on being close to each other to survive. Are the Sleepless under the same restriction?
I would say not nearly as strict.
Lift can do Regrowth and Wayne can Heal. If Lift puts Regrowth on Wayne, can he store it?
Can he store it? That's a RAFO. But you are thinking along very appropriate lines of theory.
Is it possible to change your age with Forging?
Changing your age with Forging is very hard.
Can a Mistborn turned into a Lifeless still use Allomancy?
*long-ish pause* Uh, no.
So I would assume that is the same for a Feruchemist?
Yeah if you-- taking some-- Yeah. Â No they can't.
How big is Roshar (the continent)?
That's a question for Isaac; he has the scale somewhere. I ask him when I want travel times or whatnot.
Were the Surges used by humans, the ones that destroyed their previous home, the same as the ones that the Radiants are using.
Yes, same basic principles. Magic system slightly different. Same basic principles.
Can Radiant Soulcasters Soulcast objects into ones of different temperatures? For example turning a piece of the ground into molten metal or turning water into ice?
Kind of, but not the way you want. Most things are going to have to be room temperature--so water, but not ice. That said, there are some funky things you can do with pressure and the like if you get more advanced in the skill.
Have you decided whether it'll be Dalinar, Szeth, or Eshonai as the focus of Stormlight 3?
Nope, I’m writing Calamity right now, and when I’m done, and I’m, the first thing I will do is go to Stormlight 3, and I’ll start writing on the flashback sequences for all three and decide which one matches the best.
A Shardblade, what it does is it cuts off all the healing and control of an arm or whatever.
Yes.
So like if an arm got badly wounded and was bleeding out and had to be amputated. If you went through it with a Shardblade first, would that damage you in other ways?
No, it wouldn’t. What it does is it severs the soul of the arm.
But I know like with Mistborn, if you take bits of soul out of people it messes them up.
It does.
Does it with Shardblades?
It leaves a wound.
How many years was M-bot in the cave?
Around 170 years I think.
Can Returned feed on Stormlight?
This is definitely possible.
When Kaladin and Shallan and the others are in Shadesmar, it talks about broams of Stormlight. How do they measure that? Because you could have partially depleted spheres.
A broam's worth of Stormlight is just a full sphere. Newly infused. Behind the scenes, there are actual units of measurement for Investiture that a broam would correlate with, but you would need to be measuring that using instruments that measure Investiture that they don't quite have on Roshar yet. They could make them, but they don't quite have them yet. They're close.
When Kelsier is teaching Vin about the basic eight Allomantic Metals, he talks about not flaring metals, especially tin and pewter, as it does strange things to people. Does this imply that there were other savants before Spook?
His answer was that there were other savants before Spook.
Worldbringers and Worldsingers have very similar names, is there a reason for this?
Yes.
Are you going to explain how Vasher gets to the Stormlight...
I will.
Is that gonna be Warbreaker 2?
Warbreaker 2 is where I'm looking to do it.
Okay, cool.
Yep. *pause* I will at least give hints.
*inaudible*
You will know that eventually. It involves things slipping out of another dimension into our dimension, finding a shape... Rithmatist, yeah.
That was never explained. *inaudible*
They weren't drawn. They took that shape on their own.
You have mentioned before that there are several groups on Roshar who have Parshendi blood, like the Horneaters, but are there any that have Aimian blood? And are Aimian's more beings of the cognitive realm than humans and listeners, since their shadows go towards the sun?
What Rosharans call Aimians are two different races, neither of which is particularly human, despite how they may look. More will be revealed eventually.
He was asked how many contracts he's had and has.
He started to talk about the story where he had a contract for Dragonsteel and another book, which became Rithmatist. He said the first book of Dragonsteel didn't turn out well, and that he wasn't ready to write that series, which ties in all of his universes as a prequel. And said he'd be avoiding more series where you have to really have read everything to get it until further down the line. Confirmed that the next several books are going to be Stormlight related, along with the in between Wax and Wayne books, Steelheart books and Rithmatist.
So, at the Forbidden Planet signing you said that when Adonalsium was Shattered, all Investiture in the cosmere was associated to one of the Shards... So, what happened with Adonalsium's spren on Roshar? Were those associated to Honor and Cultivation? What happened with them?
So they were very-- They were already associated to certain parts of Adonalsium and they went with those associations. There's a lot of Cultivation in all of the spren, particularly the natural spren.
How do you pronounce Jasnah?
I say Jasnah. But you may say whatever you want.
And then is it Szeth?
Szeth.
The "s" is more silent than the "z" but it is sort of sub-vocalized. Szeth.
Why doesn't Nighwielder's weakness penetrate his blanket over Newcago when it does pierce the shadow tendrils he attacks David with? Could the reason be that his clouds act as some kind of "security blanket" if for example he got his weakness from being stranded in the dessert clouds like his would have protected him from the sun, which keeps the UV-rays of the sun from triggering his weakness, because they can't recreate the situation it originates from.
I've been dodgy about answering this one, as I thought I might get into it in Book Three, but as I work on it I don't know that I am. The answer is actually pretty simple--it's for the same reason that someone manifesting Regalia's weakness in Babilar doesn't make the waters suddenly retreat. Or that Steelheart's powers didn't leave pockets of open material around anybody who hadn't ever heard of him. (Which is where this exception started in my mind, as without it, the first book would never have worked.)
Basically, I had to make the rule that a large scale, general use of the powers had a kind of immunity to the weakness--one of diffusion. But the general spreading of the powers on the large scale were also far less precise. (For example, Nightwielder could cloud the sky with darkness, but not stop rain from falling.)
Otherwise, you could just find the pockets where the Epic's powers on the grand scale were not working, and easily figure out their weakness. Hence, engaging Nightwielder directly ruins his immediate powers, but on the grand scale the darkness remains in place over the city.
It's the only way I could make the powers work on the grand scale I wanted, in turning Newcago to Steel or sinking NYC.
Can a Radiant join multiple Orders?
This was not done in the past.
Or become a squire of a different Order?
It is actually not impossible for this to happen; it simply was not done.
If Dalinar became a Lighweaver squire or had the Lightweaver Honorblade, could he create the Roshar map himself?
This is going to depend on factors. It is possible, but highly implausible, following another highly implausible set of circumstances that would actually allow him to actually do that. (Though getting the Honorblade would not be as difficult.)
I love that book [The Rithmatist], the world, I'm looking forward to those...
The sequel is going to be very fun, it's called "The Aztlanian", it's taking place in South America.
Where in South America?
Well, I've rebuilt South America so it's kind of weird. The Aztek empire, which is the main name the Northerners have for it, they call it something else. The problem is I shrunk the planet, so I had to smash South America and Central America a little bit into each other so the islands that they are is it South America? Central America? What is it?
So is it Spanish-speaking? Or...
No, the Spaniards got fought off, they actually speak Nahautl.
No Portuguese or Spanish? It's all...
There are a couple Portuguese/Spanish islands but-- They grabbed a few of them but the main empire speaks Nahuatl.
In Way of Kings, there was an interlude, you've got the three guys that are looking for Hoid. They're in that crazy town with the water. Who are the guys? And are we going to see them again?
So, one is Captain Demoux, from Mistborn. One is Baon, from White Sand. And one is Galladon, from Elantris.
Are we gonna see them again?
Yes, you will see them again. And if you watch really closely, you can pick out Galladon by, he speaks in Dula. So if you watch for the quote in Dula. But the other two, you wouldn't be able to pick out.
They are chasing a false lead, which is just very amusing to Hoid that they think he's over there.
When Surgebinding, the person is Binding a Surge (the elemental force). Are those Bindings (the spiritual link) the focus for Surgebinding on Roshar?
RAFO.
So how many spikes did Paalm have before the end? Asked in Chicago, you said to follow-up after tour.
Paalm was only using one spike at a time, all of them made from the unknown metal.
In Shadesmar you describe the beads, they are like little beads, this big, BB size...
They are bigger than BB size.
Okay, and everything melts into beads. But when people pick them them up, do they form into the thing they are supposed to be, or just one bead represents the stick, and--
One bead represents the item that is seen and views itself as a cohesive thing.
Is there a picture inside it, or...?
We will get more into this as time progresses.
I'm not a MTG fan by any stretch, (I've played a couple of rounds with friends, but it usually takes some heavy coercing) but if I wanted to become one, especially for the lore, where would I start?
Well, this story isn't a bad place, since I wrote it hopefully in a way that will be interesting to those who don't know any of the lore. Otherwise, the soft reboot mentioned below is a good place.
I liked a number of the earlier comic books (though I haven't read the current one) and thought they were well done. I also liked the work Martha Wells did recently--I linked it in my blog post today.
For years, each Magic story was isolated, with each set having its own story. (Save for one long arc near the beginning.) Some ten years ago, they decided to create a group of people who would travel between the worlds, and let the story center on their interaction with the locations--which gave it some stronger continuity. The soft reboot at Origins (which is kind of the second soft reboot for MTG) is the start of the current larger arc.
Maybe it's something that you cannot answer or confirm, but do you consider that the Raven man or the Chain veil are some kind of Entity?
I came up with the Entities on my own, but I was aware of some of the similarities between this story and Liliana's story when writing it. I toyed with using some more direct connections, then decided to back out of them for various reasons.
I have a question about Nightblood. I think I heard that-- Something you said in a Q&A that it is related to a Shardblade, or was a Shardblade?
Yeah… So Nightblood. Vasher visited Roshar, saw Shardblades, came back and tried to make one. With what he knew of his magic. That's the short version of it. Kind of simplifies things, but yes.
I read Perfect State when it came out. Reading your annotations and the deleted scene has jogged my memory. Honestly, I never made the connection that Sophie was Melhi for all intents and purposes. I believed Melhi's facade and thought he was simply a crazed do-no-gooder (I totally forgot that the Wode mentioned Melhi's gender).
Reading the deleted scene makes things alot clearer though. I was chatting with a friend about the deleted scene and we agreed that we're glad it was omitted. It smelled too much of the Matrix and, worse, it cheapened Kai's betrayal. That is, "Sophie" didn't really die. The person that Kai found attractive due to her outlook and personality was in fact not a creation on Melhi's part to simply hurt Kai but was Melhi being her honest self (I imagine it's much easier to just be yourself then construct a person as realistic as Sophie). Melhi being Sophie undoes the reversal of Sophie being a robot. Shadows of Self spoiler: It'd be like if at the end, after the Lessie/Paalm reveal, we find out it's really a different Kandra after all.
Regardless, the deleted scene interests me and leaves me wanting a sequel.
Edit: More thoughts. I appreciate understanding Melhi's motivation for how and why she does what she does. I don't think I picked up on that. Again, I took Melhi at face-value. I would say that Melhi is pretty selfish though. She feels she knows best for everyone else. That it's better for others to feel the same way about being a brain in a jar as she does. This is obviously an opinion though as any revolutionary can be viewed as a traitor.
I think your analysis is spot on, both about what the scene does to the story, and Melhi's character. I would call her selfish, but in an approaching self-aware way.
Either way, I'm glad to have this out there, but--though I go back and forth on it--I'm mostly glad that I left it out of the official release of the story.
Saze. How do you pronounce it?
I sayˈse͡izɛd. And that's the way Kelsier says it. But, in-world, Sazed himself would say something closer to se͡izd.
Does creating unsealed metalmind involve Feruchemical duralumin?
(hesitating)...Yes. I will write it all out for you eventually. I want to get at least one more book done, then you find out exactly why and how.
Because I was pretty confused about the Investiture and Spiritweb...
Here is the reason I'm kind of hesitant of this, [why not you just RAFO this one right now], but it is not a RAFO, because it is like it's a secret. I want to write it out exactly how it happens, because I have it in my notes in bullet points and it's complicated, right? Cause I want some of the things in the magic system as be as complicated as for instance explaining how a computer works right now. You can do it, but you know...I want the magic to start getting that technical if that makes sense. When you say "involve", right, that's a big word. Why just don't you let me, after lost metal...if I haven't released it, you have permission to come to me and say: "Brandon, you said you would release this, you haven't yet [...]" and I will give to you the bullet point flowchart of how you build the unkeyed metalminds.
In fact the original draft that I submitted to my writing group didn't yet have that scene where he go-goes. I was like "I'll get around to it eventually." They almost revolted. They're like, "WHAT? He's still alive?" I was like "No no. He will go-go. I just have to find the right way to write the scene." So they didn't actually get to read that scene with El and [Lezian].
Definitely one of those Brandon ending scenes that are just like "Wow there's some weird stuff going on here."
So many new questions.
All these weird Fused who've been around way too long. The guy [El] that they gave his name [Vyre] to Moash.
Could an iron Twinborn "fly" by drastically increasing his weight, pulling hard on a counterweight so it flew above him, then decreasing his weight drastically and pulling himself up by the counterweight, and repeating?
It's plausible. It's kind of a 'Thor-like' way to fly, isn't it? (For those unaware, he throws his hammer and it carries him with it, and STOP THINKING.) I played with this idea, but the trick is not getting hit by the counterweight as you pull it to yourself. If you could stop that, you might be able to manage it, but it felt pretty hard to pull off to me.
Prelude
In classic Sanderson fashion, the beginning of this book was the part to see the biggest edits. I usually start a novel, write from beginning to end, then go back and play heavily with my beginning to better match the tone of the book.
Here, one of my big decisions was to choose between two prologues I had written out. One was with the Heralds, and set the stage for a much larger story—I liked the epic feel it gave, and the melancholy tone it set. The other was Szeth's attack on Kholinar. This was a great action sequence that set up some of the plots for the novel in a very good way, but had a steep learning curve.
I was very tempted to use both, which was what I eventually did. This wasn't an easy decision, however, as this book was already going to start with a very steep learning curve. Prelude→prologue→Cenn→Kaladin→Shallan would mean five thick chapters at the start of the book without any repeating settings or viewpoint characters.
This can sink a novel quickly. As it stands, this is the most difficult thing about The Way of Kingsas a novel. Many readers will feel at sea for a great deal of Part One because of the challenging worldbuilding, the narrative structure, and the fact that Kaladin's life just plain sucks.
It seems that my instincts were right. People who don't like the book often are losing interest in the middle of Part One. When I decided to use the prelude and the prologue together, I figured I was all in on the plan of a thick epic fantasy with a challenging learning curve. That decision doesn't seem to have destroyed my writing career yet.
Chapter Eleven
Siri Visits the God King's Chamber Again
To be honest, in a perfect world, I'd probably slow this down just a tad. I'd insert another chapter from Siri's viewpoint with her going to the chambers, the God King watching her, and her being subservient. I wouldn't do this chapter, where she explodes at him, until their third scene together.
But that would only happen in a book where I don't have quite so much going on with other viewpoints. My books are already a tad on the long side, as far as the booksellers are concerned. They'd like it if epic fantasy novels shrank down to about 120,000 words (instead of my average of 240,000).
If I'd really thought it mattered, I'd have put the extra scene in. The real problem is that since Siri is only one of four major viewpoints, I needed to be careful. If this book were only about her, I could have filled her chapters with more political intrigue and added a lot of subplots. That would have made a slower pacing with the God King work. However, I decided not to go that direction with the book, so I needed instead to make sure the pacing was quicker on the main plot she's involved in.
Is "dragon's nest" a Nalthis to English translation or are dragons part of their culture? Is Edgli a dragon?
I don't know the answer to that.
Dragons are mythological on Nalthis, but there is a reason that the stories exist. It's not a translation quirk.
How do you keep so many different worlds you created separate so they don't "float" into each other?
Lots of notes, a good internal wiki, and an even better continuity editor. (In the form of Peter Ahlstrom.)
The thing people have been dancing around—they haven't been asking the right questions—is they need to be asking more questions about the Dor, specifically trying to figure out why the Dor works differently. It's only a little thing, it's not like it's going to be mind blowing, but it is important for them understanding how the cosmere magics work.
So I was looking at the letter sent by Hoid to Frost and vice versa and I was wondering how he sent them? Like is there some sort of Cosmere Postal Service in the Cognitive Realm?
He's not using it, but there is active trade between several of the planets (and a version of a postal service.)
What lie could draw a Cryptic to Elhokar?
The lie that he lived with for many years: that he was a good king... He started to finally confront it.
So for Kaladin's depression and Stormlight's healing abilities, does Kaladin remain depressed because of his view of himself, or is it a limitation of Stormlight's abilities to heal, or something else?
Disorders like depression are a part of a person's personality, and thus aren't diseases and cannot be cured. He talked a lot about this, and he talked about how a hyper kid annoys people but that doesn't mean there's something wrong.
If someone used Hemalurgy to give Lift from Words of Radiance the ability to use Bendalloy Feruchemy, could she convert the nutrition she gets out of Feruchemy into stormlight?
Theoretically possible, I suppose.
