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If there was Any shard to be offered to Hoid, it would have been this one [Whimsy].
Hoid is far too calculating and deliberate for Whimsy. It might seem his style on the surface, but a deep dive into who he is would show that it's very much not who he is.
Will we ever see the world or magic system for Whimsy?
Some day, hopefully.
If Red investiture = co-opted by another Shard, what about the Thrill?
Kind of.
Still don't see why The Reckoners can't be a part of the Cosmere. Especially with all that why down in the last book. Sooooooo shard like
I'll dig into it eventually, but there are good reasons why the powers don't fit the magic of the cosmere.
It's important to me that I don't go stuffing things into the cosmere willy-nilly. The stories that fit should go there, and contribute to the lore of the cosmere. The ones that don't should be able to have their own lore and mechanics.
I am space nerd with a love of fantasy, so; Why is Scadrial prime example planet to invent space travel. Is its allomancy/ferruchemy/hemalurgy combination more suitable for that kind of technology or do they have other incentives to invent space travel other than regular technology development? Is it related to the intervention of unknown metal/shard/beings we saw?
There are a bunch of reasons.
The most technologically advanced of the planets (Taldain) is extremely isolationist because of its Shard, while Harmony is very interested in the progress of his people.
Scadrial has an advanced understanding of metallurgy, and for many years was quietly open to visitors from across the cosmere. In the modern era, that has enhanced. It's a much safer place to visit than, say, Sel, Threnody, or First of the Sun.
There are other reasons, too, which we'll get into as the world progresses. Having some prominent cosmere-aware people pulling strings behind the scenes is a big help. If you know other worlds are out there, and are populated, then you're more likely to push toward space travel.
Will we ever find out more about Vessel of Ruin?
Yes. I will eventually write Dragonsteel, which is Hoid's backstory; you will find out about all the various Vessels of the Shards of Adonalsium then. It is a little ways off; I'm going to finish all of Stormlight before I do that. It will be the the next thing after Stormlight 10.
If a person used Hemalurgy with an Invested spike on another planet, could Harmony feel/control them?
This is theoretically possible, but it depends on if there’s a Shard in attendance on that planet and what kind of interference there would be. So, yeah, possible.
Is Nightblood more or less susceptible to damage and/or death when he's satiated on Investiture?
Satiated, he's much less dangerous. More susceptible, I would say by technicality, yes. When he's full, it's gonna be harder for him to pull in things, so all sorts of things could happen. So yes. But it's not that he's weaker, it's not like the metal is easier to break or bend, it's more that he's not as likely to suck your soul.
So he behaves more like a regular sword.
Yeah, a little bit more. Still, for human levels of Investiture, still really dangerous to touch him. He's satiated, but if he's at 100%, and the amount of you he could eat represents 0.001%, the moment a little of that wears off, you're gone. So still would not be picking him up in most cases, just out of that, "Oh! He got a little hungry again!" But in terms of larger, grand scale Shard stuff, much safer to handle.
How significant of an event or time period, on a cosmere scale, was the Reod actually? 10 years seems like a blip. Do most worldhoppers even know about it?
It was a big enough event that by now, yes they do. Most worldhoppers, actually no. Because most worldhoppers are going to be common tradespeople, things like this. Running caravans from Roshar to Nalthis or things like that. The majority of them are not paying attention to things that are happening, so I'm gonna say the majority wouldn't. But the arcanists, the people who are watching the various magic systems, who know about the Shards and are paying attention to this, what happened on Sel was a big deal.
So, Sel: Investiture has been pushed into the Cognitive Realm. Threnody: Has it seen something similar?
It has not seen... Okay. Yes, something similar. It would count. Something similar, yes.
If that's the case, what would happen if you were to push Investiture into the Physical Realm?
It generally manifests either as a solid, liquid, or gas
I thought about that. I was like, "We've seen that," but it seemed like a concentrated form. What if you did for like a whole Shard?
That would probably have disastrous effects.
That's why I was thinking for Threnody, but if it hasn't been that, then something else happened.
It hasn't been that. Something else happened.
Are the Shards drawn to each other?
Some are, some are not.
How do you write the <Shardblade> fighting, like the fencing aspect of it? I guess you do all the research for that, the way the Shards actually work?
So, the fight scenes, right? The first drafts are usually pretty bad. I kind of just get down what's happening, who it's happening to, what I want the outcome to be. And then I do a lot of refining, and I try to find people who are actual fencers...
And I usually try to add something to my worlds that doesn't exist in our worlds, like Shardblades and things, just so I can have a little more suspension of disbelief for people like yourself, where you're like "Well, they have different positions."
...But I do try to get some primary sources who can tell me where I'm doing stuff really bad... Matt Easton's YouTube channel is really great for that. Schola Gladitoria, Matt Easton. When I have two people who are fighting with actual weapons, I go-- He usually has done some HEMA things where you see, like, ten bouts with that. And I can watch it, and be like "Alright, this is how it would go down."
if you were to chuck Nightblood into a Shard that had the intent of Evil would Nightblood splinter it?
Splintering is a completely different process from what Nightblood does. :)
Given a situation where they have perfect knowledge of Hemalurgy--everything is known. Is it possible they could use a Shard-scalpel and spike to carefully...
To excise without killing somebody? The real damage is to the soul...
I'm imagining taking out toxic sort of things.
You've seen Vasher do something similar, so it's not off books that that's possible.
You told me - when we were interviewing you on Friday to tell the 17th Shard to tell them you told us how the Cosmere ends and...
And I totally did, right! The answer is it ends well.
They wanted me to tell you that they were like mindblown!
It's very subtle, but at the end of Oathbringer, when Jasnah goes to find Shallan on the battlefield, she goes to grab Shallan, Shallan's over here as Radiant. She has Shards *inaudible*?
That's a Read and Find Out. I'm being very coy on Shardplate, even though you have seen characters with it in the books before. Because I want to wait until I can do some reveals in viewpoint character.
I will tell you this: You have indeed seen people with Shardplate multiple times in the books. Or at least, the soon aftermath of someone.
How strong is Endowment's futuresight in comparison to other Shards?
RAFO.
Would you ever consider releasing the grimdark version of Mistborn as a Prime novel?
I will release it as a Prime novel, I'll do that and Final Empire because they're both cohesive stories. The one I can't release is Mythwalker because it ends part the way through the ideas I have made. The magic system in Mythwalker is just broken beyond all my ability to fix. I plan to eventually get to you Dragonsteel Prime, Aether of Night, Final Empire, and Mistborn Prime in some incarnation. The others get harder because they just get worse and worse after that. But those ones are of interest to Cosmere fans. The first is Aether of Night, there's digital versions but there's no print version. The first showing up of a Shard, and Midnight Essence, and all sort of cool stuffs in there. Dragonsteel takes place on Yolen, which is still canonically part of the Cosmere. And you see Sho Del popping up which are a race that are in Dragonsteel Prime. Final Empire and Mistborn, there's not as much of real cool interest to you because I already took the best ideas and reused them, but I'll get it out there someday.
I'm currently on a reread of WoK and in chapter 57 Hoid says to Kaladin: "I've many [names]. I began life as a thought, a concept, words on a page. That was another thing I stole. Myself."
Do we know if this is Hoid breaking the fourth wall or is it just some kind kind of metaphorical reference to his presence at the birth of the Shards?
The simple answer is that this does not break the fourth wall, but we won't find out why until years from now. So it's understandable that you would interpret it this way.
Can we have a hint as to which book will explain it?
Probably Hoid's origin story, which Brandon is writing after he finishes Stormlight 10.
So besides Sja-anat, Cultivation, and El, does anyone know about the new Odium?
I think that most of the Shards will be quickly finding out, if that makes sense. Like, this is a thing that they would know. Pretty quickly.
If a Shard were to divest itself from a planet, would the perpendicularity there disappear?
Normally the Shardpool would cease to exist, but there are circumstances that could prevent the Shardpool from disappearing.
Is Hoid drawn to novel-worthy plots? Or does he ever just show up in a completely "normal" time/place, with no ramifications on the cosmere, Shards, etc.?
He is drawn to places specifically because of what's happening in those worlds. He is there and he is meddling.
If the highstorms existed prior to the Shards' arrival, what's the relationship between the highstorms and the Stormfather?
Oh good question. I was wondering if someone was going to ask that… So, I'll tr-- Let me see… *sighs*
You know, I'm actually going to RAFO this one. *laughter* And let me tell you why, because I mean, I want to give you some reasons to be interested in the things that Dalinar will be talking about with the Stormfather. So this is a RAFO with an explicit promise that book 3-- These are things that are covered now that we have bonded the Stormfather to a person who can now ask some of these questions. I could totally just tell you now, but where's the fun in that? Read book three.
I have a cosmere question. At the end of Words of Radiance, Szeth receives Nightblood. The wiki told me it was a sword from Warbreaker, but I didn't realize how significant it was till I read the book. This, to me, seems like the first major cosmere crossover. All the other crossovers so far seem to have just been cameos (Hoid tells stories, or there are mysterious people hunting somebody, etc). I will RAFO, but it does seem like Szeth getting the sword means Nightblood will play a not-insignificant role in Stormlight 3. Does this mean the cosmere books are going to converge more going forward? Specifically, would someone need to have read Warbreaker to understand Oathbringer? Till now your different cosmere series have been readable in any order (and I didn't read them in publication order). Similarly, Mistborn: Secret History seems to be a prerequisite for at least the next Mistborn book.
One thing you have to remember is that in my cosmere outline, Warbreaker was a prequel to The Way of Kings, explaining Vasher's backstory. So I consider them more closely connected than some other things. But you could consider this the first major crossover.
Nightblood will be re-introduced, so those who haven't read Warbreaker will be brought up to speed.
Wow. Cool to see this.
One of my "concerns" is that eventually the cosmere stuff will overwhelm the individual series arcs.
Kinda like the Marvel Avengers movies, whilst they are great on their own, they lose some of the individuality that an Iron Man movie might have. If the overall story adds characters then you may end up with a Captain America: Civil War movie which whilst was amazing. Wasn't really a Captain America movie and would lose so much to someone who had only seen Capt America movies.
That being said I totally trust your judgement on this, I say concerns but I don't mean in a bad way.
That being said is any book flagged for an Avengers style "battle for the cosmere"?
I do have some plans for mixing later on, though I'll be very forthright about when those books come out. Meaning, so long as I'm not talking about these things as the main focus of a series, you don't have to worry about it taking them over. Conversely, you can be very excited when it does happen, as those stories will be very clear about what they're attempting to do.
One thing I do try to warn people is that the cosmere isn't an "Avengers" style concept--the goal here isn't to collect a variety of heroes from a variety of worlds and then throw them at a problem. It's more of a, "What if you could watch the world of something like Star Trek develop, by seeing individual engaging stories from various planets, then slowly watching them merge into a larger universe."
While some characters will, obviously, continue on through the series, and the Vessels of the Shards will be very important, the focus of the greater cosmere storyline is the cultures, the magic, and the evolution of the planets, while the individual stories are about the people who live on them during turning-points in their history.
Ruin and Odium, they both talked about their passion, and it was italicized both times. Would any other Shards talk about passion in that same italicized way?
Yes they would.
Would any of them not talk about it that way?
Yes. Excellent, good questions.
So, the Diagram was basically created to help Taravangian figure out if he was having a bad day or a good day, kind of?
That's not one of the reasons they were founded, but that is certainly one of their duties.
And we found out it was because Odium helped Taravangian figure out the Diagram. Now that Todium exists, will he still have to use the Diagram and go forth with the Diagram? And how will that shape what this contest of champions is gonna be?
I won't tell you how it's gonna shape, but he now has access to what Odium could do, which is limited ability to see the future, and a little bit better than a lot of the Shards are at that. He could see what the Diagram was an inferior version of making, in a lot of ways. In other words, the physical print thing, the Diagram, is no longer necessary to him.
Now that it's Todium, will he have problems with having his good days and bad days?
RAFO.
So the number of Shards that have been on Roshar is three, correct?
Correct.
People have been thrown by you saying that Odium is not native to Roshar.
Odium is not native... see that's the thing. Are any of them native? So if you dig the deeper question, are any of them native, ehhh, none of them are native to the planets that you've seen so far. What I probably should've said to be more precise is that Honor and Cultivation were there long before Odium showed up.
Can you drop a hint about which Shard authored the first of the letters to Hoid shown in the part 2 epigraphs [of Oathbringer]?
You have seen their world.
Does the Almighty and the Heralds have anything to do with the bigger cosmere gods and deities?
Yes.
The Heralds, as well?
...Not as much, but a little bit. They do.
Does that mean that the Almighty is able to worldhop as well?
Well, the Almighty is Honor, and he is one of the Shards of Adonalsium, so he didn't originate on Roshar.
Is there a region-based magic like Elantris on any of the other worlds?
The Aon magic is unique to that planet because it is intrinsic to the Shard that created it, but you could theoretically hack the magic system so that AonDor would work on another planet.
Dragonsteel, where in the universe is that going to take place?
It's actually first.
Oh really? So it's like a prequel to everything.
Yes, to the cosmere.
So is it going to do the breaking of the Shards?
Yep.
When I think of Brandon and MtG, I wonder, if the 5 kinds of mana, were suddenly replaced by investiture from the 16 shards, how would that affect the game? Upsides? Downsides?
I don't know if this would even be mechanically possible--MTG is balanced around those five poles. It would probably make things a whole lot more complicated, and might be better matched to a game with a lot of flexible factions.
Is Dalinar Unity because he's the combination of all three Shards, through the Thrill, the boon and curse, and the Stormfather?
So, I'm leaving that as a RAFO, Read and Find Out, but that's a very good theory.
If a planet has no sentient life, does it have a Cognitive representation? If not, would the Cognitive area generate in Shadesmar whenever sentience appeared there?
People have started to talk about this, because it is a legit thing. So, if there is no sapient life, or even sentient life, if it's a dead rock out in space and nobody knows it's there, its manifestation in Shadesmar will be basically nothing. I say basically because the Shards are aware of it, so there's probably going to be some bit of something that manifests, but until the attention of sapient beings starts focusing on it, it's not going to manifest very much in Shadesmar. It might be like a patch of ground that is a couple feet wide. It is going to start growing as soon as they do, which distorts space in Shadesmar, and makes routes between planets change and more distance come between them. Which is very very odd, and very very interesting, and it's one of my favorite parts about the whole thing. It should kind of break your brain, and it shouldn't really make sense with our physics.
In Words of Radiance, can you give me a worldhopper that you haven't told us about?
Afraid not. The problem, I just get asked that, like, twenty times per signing, and I wouldn't have anything left.... I'm sorry... The one I get asked a lot is, "Can you name a Shard you haven't named before?"
There's, like, three left!
Yeah, I mean... And people already pulled out from me all the worldhoppers that I am comfortable talking about.
Would we get Adonalsiumlight if we combined Light from all different Shards?
RAFO.
If a Radiant summons their Shardplate on Braize will it work?
Well it depends, in the Physical realm or Cognitive?
Physical.
And you are asking about Shards?
Plate specifically.
Ah, okay. So if they have already been able to summon the Plate before it will work, but it will fail if it’s their first time.
Given equal footing with weapons, who would win in a fight: Batman or Kaladin?
...Batman or Kaladin?
Given that they have equal weapons.
Does Kaladin have Stormlight?
Only if Batman gets Stormlight too.
Batman can't use Stormlight.
Then Kal-- Equal footing. So if Kaladin gets to use Stormlight, so does Batman.
But he can't use it. See this fight doesn't make sense, because it's like-- You know-- Well, I mean, if you give Batman Stormlight does it make any sense? If you give a bunch of Batarangs to Kaladin, he's like "What do I do with these?" I don't know. Does Batman have time to prepare? Because if Batman has time to prepare... If Batman has time to prepare then he's in good shape.
Maybe Batman just gets Shard-Batarangs and nothing else.
If he meets Kaladin on the field of battle, Kaladin's a soldier and Batman's not. Batman's not going to do well in a war.
Yeah-- But if Kaladin doesn't have any powers, Batman has extensive hand-to-hand training.
Yes, yes he does.
My question is in regards to the writing system. In Warbreaker, when Siri is teaching Susebron to read, she mentions the letter "shash," which we now know better as a glyph from [The Way of Kings].
so onto the questions:
Are the two writing systems related, or is this a chance coincidence of names?
If they are related, did they stem from the same source? (i.e., do the people of Nalthis and Roshar both descend from a more ancient group of people?)
If I haven't gotten a RAFO yet, did the separation from these other people create the legends of being cast out of the Tranquiline Halls?
There are interesting connections around the cosmere between linguistics and some cultures. Though different groups of humans were created on different planets, the Shards all share a single point of origin. However, the Tranquiline Halls legends are not related to a Nalthis/Roshar connection.
*drawing in book* <-- picture of a Shard you haven't met.
In Oathbringer, Taravangian tells Dalinar that there is metal falling from the sky, anything more on that?
The rainfall on Roshar is full of elements; and metal is not maybe not 100% accurate. But crem, that solidifies, comes down with the rain water.
He says that's what they were using to make half-shards.
Oh, you're talking about that! I'll RAFO that for now.
In your opinion. Arcanum and the 17th Shard. *inaudible*
I have never felt creeped out by anything that they do there. But once in a while, I'm really overwhelmed by it.
In The Way of Kings, in Kaladin’s post-Shardbearer-kill scene, he’s in Amaram’s tent. And he muses on the fact that he had killed a Shardbearer. He says, “I joined the likes of Evod Markmaker and Lanacin the Surefooted.” I imagine, like, a Zombieland style Shardbearer-killed weak [kill of the week] thing where they’re dropping pianos on him, and stuff. Would you happen to know how either of them killed their Shardbearers?
Both of those are held up as examples because they happened on the battlefield.
Now, at least one of those didn’t happen the way it’s actually recorded to have happened. They are held up kind of more in mythology because it’s very useful for the Shardbearers for non-Shardbearers to imagine the best way to kill a Shardbearer and get their Shards is to attack them on the battlefield. At least one of those was a poisoning. But that’s not how it’s mythologized.
What Magic The Gathering colors would the Shards introduced in Rhythm of War or after be?
I have to RAFO that for now, because it kind of depends.
But Whimsy is pure red.
I always like to read something that is unpublished. So that is something new that you get only by coming to my signings or going to the internet where people will have inevitably posted it online already. *laughter* It's really exclusive for like the first signing that I do and then after that everybody on the 17th Shard, which is the fan website, are like *hilarious "oooh" sound*
So you should read something else?
No... I have to be very careful about what I read because the publisher has certain deals about exclusivity on new releases. Like for instance I can't read any more from the new Mistborn books because Apple has an exclusive release of new material on that and things like that. It's just part of the deals that we do and so-- I also have to make sure that it's not making big spoilers for other books. I have to make sure that it's not containing errors that are glaring continuity errors and things like that. So we are going to read from a novella called Perfect State. This is a novella that I wrote oh about two years ago now and I didn't really L-- get it done. Like I wrote it and then there was something wrong with it and I wasn't sure what it was. I actually finished it a couple months ago. I finally figured out what it was that was wrong.
In the ancient religion with Trell, the god, he had a brother Nalt. Is Nalt in any relation to Nalthis, the planet?
Hehe, that’s a good question. Hmmm. I’m going to RAFO that for now.
For the Dangerous Women story, are you going to write anything again in that world?
That world will show up again. Silence probably won't, but the world itself, yes. It's called Threnody, it is one of the Cosmere worlds. There's not a Shard there but there are interesting things happening. There's actually been a character in other books who's from Threnody. It will eventually be clear who that is, but they have shown up in many previous Sanderson novels.
Would that be Hoid?
Hoid is not from Threnody. Good question though. Hoid is from Yolen.
Will we see any Shardholders beyond the three already at work? Specifically, will we see Bavadin?
You will see other Shards. Bavadin is on the planet Taldain, where White Sand takes place.
On Threnody, the Shades, their eyes turn red when they get really mad. Is that the same thing as with the Voidbringers and all the other ones?
I have a subtheme in the Cosmere of the redness and it's supposed to be intentional.
So it is the same thing?
It's the same theme. But I do not mean to imply that it's the same Shard.
But it's the same effect?
Yes. I'm doing it intentionally. Red eyes specifically are meant to mean something but I use it a few other ways [the same way?].
Back in, I think, Words of Radiance I asked you-- Somebody asked the question that had to do with the number 10 on Roshar and I didn't get the question on the recording--which was horrible--but your answer talked about Honor's purposes. Is what you said, and you mentioned 10 of them and that is why the number 10 is so sacred. Could you say something so I have something on the record? So we know what you said about that?
Honor's purposes...
Or Shard's purposes... Like what is that all about?
That will become-- I said it vaguely on purpose.
Did people on Roshar have half-Shards before-- like many years ago say before the Recreance?
That is a new invention.
New in years, or new in hundreds of years?
Those have not existed before.
