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So the white hair. Did she have white hair or did Shallan just imagine that she had white hair?
That is another RAFO.
There are a lot of RAFO's about The Girl Who Looked Up.
There are a lot of RAFO's.
So, the girl who looked up, could her hair change like the royal locks?
RAFO.
Was her hair long or short? Or does it not matter?
It is long.
If /u/mistborn doesn't write a short story based on [Peter and Karen Ahlstrom] at some point i'm going to be extremely upset. Glad it worked out well!
Hah, I think it would be a really different genre from Brandon’s usual. Though, the characters named after us in the Stormlight books, Peet and Ka, did get married.
Will Stormlight 2 have more Shallan? I require more Shallan.
Much more Shallan. It's probably going to be her 'flashback' book.
What's your favorite book to get inspiration from?
What's my favorite book to get inspiration from. Probably Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.
I heard you're doing another Mistborn Trilogy? Any estimate when the first book might be?
I might do some more Alloy of Law era things in between, they are not the second trilogy, but I will do them. The second trilogy will come between the break between the first sequence in the Stormlight Archive, and the second sequence of the Stormlight Archive. it's two five book sequences, and during that break I will stop and do the second Mistborn trilogy. So it will depend on how quickly I am able to write those.
What inspired the Shattered Plains?
Little Wild Horse Canyon and others in southern Utah. That's what inspired the chasms.
When someone is "killed" by a Shardblade, their soul is understood to be severed. What do Vorin practitioners believe happens to the soul if it is severed? Does this mean that the soul cannot go to the Tranquiline Halls? If this is the case, why are Shardbearers/Blades so revered rather than feared or hated?
Vorin belief doesn't take being killed by a Shardblade as destroying the soul, likely because of Knight Radiant traditions.
In The Hero of Ages, Demoux gets together with a woman named Aslydin. He's then seen on Roshar in The Way of Kings. Knowing how loyal Demoux is, he wouldn't just leave Aslydin behind like that. Is she connected to his reasons for becoming a member of the Seventeenth Shard?
Aslydin is in the Seventeeth Shard, and had her own work to be about. I've given subtle clues about her before, but the ethnicity of the name should strike you.
What was your favorite world to make?
Probably Roshar, because there was the most space for me to plan, the most complexity to work with.
I can't remember if I asked you this before - is there going to be anything like a 'khriss's notes' proto-ars-arcanum for White Sand?
I think it would be neat to see how her style has changed over time.
I've been thinking about it. We'll see.
Since Khriss is actually from Taldain, does it mean, we are going to get a 100-page encyclopedia? (and please, let the answer be "yes")
Maybe some day.
On the Roshar system diagram, each planet had the sigil of a certain Radiant. I was wondering why you did that
We're using Roshar itself as a frame of reference, and that is how people on Roshar have named the planets. And they can't see them all, I don't believe, but the naming convention sticks.
And thats why you added the sigils?
Mmhmm. I don't think they've discovered them all on-planet, but since other people off-planet know about them... and in the old days, they knew about them all.
The two paintings--The Battle of Twilight Falls, and the one that Kaladin sees in Shadesmar. Are they the same?
I believe that they are, but I could have...When I wrote the original scene, I intended them to be, but I might have changed something later on. They would be by the same artist. You can say yes, unless I changed something. There was something I was thinking of changing. I'd have to go back and look at them side by side.
But they sounded different. One has black in it, that the other one doesn't.
The thing is, that artist, and people seeing it, I intend them to each see something different in the paintings they see. But I don't know that I actually decided to make that the same painting. But the same artist.
So WoR mentions a particularly bright star known as the Tear (a reference to a tear shed by somebody named Reya) is that "star" actually one of the other planets in the greater roshar system, if so is it Ashyn or Braize?
RAFO.
If you had to build a team of various magic users from all the worlds that we know right now, kind of like an Avengers or Justice League, who would you have?
Oh boy, I have no... I don’t want to talk about this because I don’t want to predispose people toward...
Oh no, I’m just talking pure...
Yeah but it’s being recorded.
Oh, cool.
But I would want someone from every magic system...
To be part of the council?
But yeah definitely someone from every... would be important.
Would the name of the team be a spoiler? The whole team.
I haven’t even thought of... Seventeenth Shard...
Oh yeah, that is kind of like that.
Why do Shards refer to themselves by their Shard name, rather than their original name? Do they still remember their original name?
Yes they do, they do remember their original selves
Who are your favorite characters in the Cosmere?
Dalinar, Nazh, Khriss, Hoid, [Nicki] Savage, Vin, Kaladin, Vasher, and Baon, exactly in that order. :) But honestly, I love them all. Brandon has created such a wonderful universe of characters, and I pinch myself every day that I get to assist in the workings of these worlds.
Even Moash?
Moash has become a great tragic character, in my opinion. Yes, people love to hate him, but that still makes a great character. And it's the tragedy of his choices that pulls the emotions from us.
Do you ever need a reminder of what your own magic systems can do, or is it all laid out pretty perfectly in your mind?
No, I need reminders on the kind of subtle things. Mostly terminology and what decisions I made, because in a book sometimes you'll make decisions on the fly where you're like, "I think this isn't working, I'm gonna change it to this," or things like that. Like, I still forget that I swapped tin for silver. And I still forget exactly what terminology I came up for Szeth using the Lashings, and some stuff like that. And sometimes I need a, "Hey, does this feel like it works for the magic system?" Because the further we get in the Cosmere, the less simple the rules are, and the more complicated and - like real world physics, where you're building things that work like complicated engineering devices, right? Like, building some of the ways that magic is working on Scadrial with the mechanical elements, and the medallions, and stuff like that is getting really complicated, and I had to write it out and I had to go back and reference that. Because yes, I can remember what metal does what and what the rules are here, but the actual how-they-all-interact-and-come-together gets kinda complicated! So yeah, definitely need reminders on my own magic systems.
Siri Saves Them from Bluefingers
Some people, as I've said, have complained about Siri's damsel in distress place in the book during the next couple of chapters. I want to draw their attention to this chapter, however, which is where she shines. She's in control and careful. She's become a leader out of necessity. She's able to make demands of Treledees and get answers. And she's gotten good enough at politics to make the connection that nobody else did, seeing through Bluefingers's ploy.
If she hadn't acted here in this chapter, this book would have ended very differently. She saved Susebron's life here. Because of what she did, Bluefingers wasn't able to implement his plan to sneak the two of them out onto the waiting boat in the Inner Sea. Her delay gave just enough time that Bluefingers had to go with his secondary plan of getting the God King to the dungeons for the next few chapters.
More than that, however, Siri became the person she needed to in these chapters. She was able to grow as much as Vivenna, but she didn't have to be knocked down for it to happen first.
How did Hoid and whoever he's sending the letters to deliver the letters?
RAFO.
So, I was curious about Hoid and how he is sending letters to a dragon, while he is on Roshar and the dragon is elsewhere?
Yes. So, there is a courier service you can hire in the cosmere.
So, it's like a Pony Express and that on the...
Yes. Not everything he's doing is going via that, but it is a thing that exists.
Like, in the Cognitive Realm?
Yeah, they have to go through Shadesmar. So... you can hire a very specialized group to get things where they're supposed to go.
Ben's interpretation posted in this thread is the canon one. I wish I'd gotten a picture into the books. One of my regrets for Book One is not thinking to put a diagram.
One thing I worked with when writing the first book were heavy counterweights that you locked into place on one side of the bridge (at the sides) then pulled off and carted across to lock on the other side of the bridge, to change the center of gravity for maneuvering the bridge. They broke the flow too much, so I think I cut all references, but you can head-canon them if you want. I think you'd realistically need something like that to get across some of the wider chasms.
The math on bridges is a bit tricky, regardless. Even with Roshar's gravity, we had to use a Soulcast wood (one that doesn't exist on earth) for huge sections of the bridges to get a strength/weight ratio that would actually work. (Meaning, it could be carried by the numbers of bridgemen we needed after some were killed, but was still be strong enough to ride across.)
The man who calls himself Taln had his Blade swapped with another. Presumably, the people (or person) doing so thought he had an Honorblade.
Would the people who did the swap have known if Taln did not in fact actually have an Honorblade? Could they have been taking a chance and in fact ended up with a regular Shardblade?
This is possible. Assuming they knew just what they were trying to grab, they'd probably have figured it out very quickly.
Are the Dysian Aimians agents of Cultivation? If not, are they in league with another group (excluding the Knights Radiant) that we have seen?
Kind of yes to both – kind of
Any news about that Girl Who Looked Up book you can share?
It's slow going, so I don't know when it will happen--but it should still happen.
Sarene's visit to the chapel is probably the strongest scene in the book dealing with the Korathi religion. I felt this scene was important for the sake of contrast. Hrathen, and therefore Shu-Dereth, gets quite a bit of screen time. Unfortunately, Sarene and Raoden just aren't as religious as Hrathen is. I consider them both to be believers–Sarene the more devout of the two. Religion, however, isn't as much a part of their lives as it is for Hrathen.
I've actually seen this kind of aggressive religion/passive religion dynamic before. (Referring to the dynamic between the peaceful Korathi believers and the aggressive Derethi believers.) In Korea, where I served as a full-time LDS missionary, Buddhism and Christianity are both fairly well represented. Buddhism is having problems, however, because it doesn't preach as aggressively as most Christian sects. It is not my intention to paint either religion in a poor light by adopting the aggressive religion as the antagonist in Elantris. However, even as a Christian, I was often troubled by the way that the peaceful Buddhists were treated by some Protestant missionaries. I was there to teach about Christ's gospel–I believe that Christ is our savior, and that people will gain happiness by following his teachings. However, I think you can teach about your own beliefs without being belligerent or hateful to people of other faiths.
The most memorable example came when I was walking in the subway. Often, Buddhist monks would set up little mats and sit chanting with their bowls out, offering prayers and chants for the people while trying–after the tenet of their religion–to gain offerings for their sustenance. Standing next to one particular monk, however, was a group of picketing Christians holding up signs that read "Buddhism is Hell." You could barely see or hear the monk for all the ruckus.
I guess this has gotten a little bit off from the source material. But, well, this is a book about one religion trying to dominate another. In the end, I don't think Hrathen's desires are evil (it's okay to want to share what you believe–it's even okay to think that you're right and others are wrong.) His methods, however, are a different story.
In other words, I think we should be able to preach Christianity (or whatever you happen to believe) without being complete jerks. (Sorry for that little tangent. I'll try to keep the rants to a minimum in the future.)
The Heralds, back before Honor died, were they directly powered by Honor?
Yes. You’ll find out more about that, but the Shardblades [pretty sure he means Honorblades here] were pieces of Honor’s soul that he gave them and direct access to his essence.
Like Vin and Elend?
Yeah, a little like that. That’s why Honorblades don’t work like Shardblades do, like Radiants do.
The second part of the question is, what would happen if they were directly powered by Honor and they were holding Nightblood?
RAFO
Vivenna and Vasher Talk about What to Do
One of the biggest revisions to the ending was what to do with the D'Denir. When first drafting the book, I wasn't 100% sure on what Awakening could and couldn't do. I figured that Vasher could have Commands that would Awaken statues, and I wrote the ending that way.
Unfortunately, through revising and developing the story, this ended up not being viable. I was also disappointed in how poorly telegraphed the use of the statues ultimately ended up being. So in revisions, I switched it to make them Lifeless created from bones, something special that Vasher came up with during the Manywar. I then added the concept of Kalad's Phantoms as a mystery in the book, so that readers would be expecting that army to show up by the end. I think this mitigates the surprise somewhat. (Though not completely; see below.)
Is there a specific number of the ideals that they have to do before they can get the Shardblade?
It depends on the Order.
So, [Hoid] can't hurt anyone, he physically can't hurt anyone in Dragonsteel. Yet, in Secret History...
He has a quip when he says that. Yeah, if you look at Secret History, there's kind of a "Huh. Since you're already dead, I can do this." And he goes a little crazy. There's a bit of built-up aggravation.
So do you ever put a page length limit on yourself?
I don't, but I know by gut generally after I start writing how long a book feels.
Does the publisher ever put any limits on you?
No, they actually haven't. They do ask me if I'll write them shorter, but it's always an ask, and I usually ignore them. In fact, Words of Radiance is the largest book they can physically print with their printer, but the font is not the smallest font they could do yet. So I could actually get about another 100,000 words longer before it gets unreadable.
So by the time we get to Stormlight 6 or 7, they'll have to go buy a new printer?
Yeah, I've warned them. I will write it at the length that feels right.
When did you write your first book?
I started my first book when I was fifteen, and I never finished it. The first book I actually finished I started when I was nineteen. I was on a mission, and I wrote on P-days. And I finished it when I got back, because there's not a lot of time on P-days, so it took me about three years. I wrote my whole mission on P-days, and about eight months after I got home I finished it.
Where in the publication sequence did you realize everything was going to be part of the cosmere?
Well, when I wrote Elantris I’d already written a draft of White Sand, so I set them in the same universe. And then when I wrote Dragonsteel I told the pre--so these were all unpublished. So by the time I was publishing it was all very well set.
How do you choose worldhoppers to depict in your books?
There's couple of ways I choose worldhoppers. The background story plays a big part, but some worldhoppers just want to be immigrants. Some people you meet, you'll notice they're from a different planet but aren't involved in any schemes. They just wanted to get to another planet.
There's groups like the Ghostbloods, but there's also just trade between places like Roshar and Nalthis. I have to be careful to not make everyone an easter egg from other worlds. That would strain plausibility very easily.
Regarding Ashraven... Would it be correct to say that memories are part of the mind/CR aspect? Assuming so, was Shai forging a new CR aspect to in-effect reconnect Ashraven's Soul (SR) with his body (PR)? I was thinking this could explain how she got his mannerisms correct -- i.e. that those are timeless SR aspects, so she didn't really get those right but instead, the SR connection was re-established?
Regarding Ashrovan: The problem here is that I don't want to get too deep into these sorts of things, for reasons that I want aspects of the magic to remain subject to discussion for a while yet. Suffice it to say that when we talk about Returned and lifeless in Warbreaker sequels, you'll have more ammunition for understanding what happened in Emperor's Soul.
Ashraven, Ashrovan...it's Ashravan damnit. He didn't step up to become emperor just so you could get his name wrong. Gaotona is ashamed of you all DX
In the original language, the a/o is very similar. I always get them mixed up in the English, like when I try to write aã…‚sound from Korean in English.
Either that, or I just couldn't decide which one I wanted when writing the book, giving Peter a headache as he had to go back and standardize them all. :)
What's the effects of being an atium savant?
Hehehe. No one has found out.
Are there any scenes (or just things in general) you wish you could have included art for that for whatever reason could not make it into the publications?
This is often the case. Like a kid filling their plate way too full at a buffet dinner, I often have too many pieces of art I'd like to do compared to how much space or time we have to realize those pieces of art. Sometimes the hard part comes when an artist sends you too many amazing pieces and you have to just pick which ones work best for the context. For example, Dan dos Santos gave us several options for the Warbreaker leatherbound endpapers. And every one of them was beautiful! It was an extremely difficult decision to make since we could only have two endpapers, front and back. We wound up picking the art that worked best as endpapers, even though some of the options he presented us with would've made even better works of art to hang on the wall. Dan always makes the decisions difficult because he's one of the best artists working today and is just so storming good.
Well, that just begs the question:
When are we going to get an "Art of the Cosmere" book that has all these left out pieces in it? Hahah
We want to do an artbook! It'll probably happen at some point after Stormlight 5.
Did the old Knights Radiant know the Shin were in possession of the Honorblades?
So... the Knights Radiant are aware of where... most of them are aware of where the Honorblades are.
In the old times?
Oh, I thought you meant the Heralds. Did the old Knights Radiant know where the Honorblades were? I will RAFO that one, sorry. I was thinking, yes, the Heralds knew where their Blades ended up, but I will RAFO the Knights Radiant.
So, this section marked one of the biggest changes to the text during the revision process. In the Mad Prince version of the novel, the soldiers who ride up to Kiin's house were members of the Mad Prince's army. They arrested Raoden–he went willingly–and tried him for the death of their leader. This took the better part of two chapters, and ended with Raoden almost getting beheaded.
Overall, I kind of happy to lose the scene. The trial was a big distraction, and I'm not sure that I ever pulled it off narratively. There were a few interestingly tense moments, and it did let Raoden show his honor in his defense (he accepted the judgments of the army assuming they promised to make Sarene queen.) However, I sense that the scene in general was just over-written.
If two Elantrians had a baby, would he be an Elantrian too?
What a good question. The answer is no, actually. There's actually a character in the books who's an Elantrian who did become an Elantrian whose parents were connected to Elantris, but that was seen as something that didn't always happen.
Vin's Identity Acceptance
This is a very important chapter for Vin, as it finally ties up a conflict that had been tormenting her since book one. All through the first and second novels, she struggled to find a balance between her different identities. Was she a noblewoman, the wife of an emperor? Or was she a thief, trained on the streets? It might seem at first glance like this would be a simple balance to work out, but as I dealt with it in her personality through the books, it seemed a very weighty process to me.
She's come far enough that she can finally recognize why it is that she turned away from noble culture and activities. And she can also see why doing so was wrong.
Vin is half noblewoman. Her father, if you recall, was an obligator—a member of a very important noble line. (House Tekiel, if you're wondering, though upon joining the obligators he forfeited his surname.) And, while I don't think parties and ball-going are genetic attributes, she does have a heritage. Elend fell in love with her while she was attending those balls and being Valette. It's good that she finally realized that she wasn't being false; she was just showing another aspect of herself when she attended those parties.
What would happen to a Kandra if you bisected down the middle with half of its blessing ending up on either half?
That would, like ripping off any other piece of it, it would be very disturbing for the Kandra but they could reabsorb and come back together. They would not be able to function half and half. That would eventually kill them. Basically, they cant like send pieces and do things. They can be ripped apart and heal, but if you ripped them in half that would be killing them.
Ire and their fortress on Scadrial.
Yes.
Is it still there?
Yes, it should be, yes.
Sazed is aware of it?
Yes.
Okay, do they have on other planets?
They have outposts but you will rarely find something as highly well constructed as that.
The Epilogue of Words of Radiance.
Yes.
Hoid makes particular note of a cremling.
Yes.
Dysian?
Hehehehe. You're starting to learn! You're starting to learn.
That epilogue just got so much--
Yes, he was speaking to one of the Sleepless there. He has spotted them and they--
So, he knows.
Oh, he knows!
Because he makes a comment about having “no intelligent audience.”
Yes, yes, yes. *laughter* Of course he doesn’t have an intelligent audience!
Are we going to get Soonie pups?
Someone offered to make them, they wrote to us, but it just seems like it is so much work that we're not planning it right now, and we would only do it if you can have a stuffed dog that you could turn inside out into a blob monster. That was my requirement and I don’t know if it’s actually going to happen.
How hard was it for you to write Kaladin *inaudible* end of the second book?
It was pretty hard. Knowing people whom I love, who have depression, when they are in a depressive funk. And knowing I had to get that across accurately, but try not to make people hate him too much? It was a challenge.
You said, there will be a timeskip between two parts of Stormlight. But will we have more timeskips between five books of each part? For example, between book 3 and book 4, or 4 and 5. Or between 6 and 7? I ask this, because in first Mistborn trilogy we had year long timeskips between each book. Wonder, will we have it in SA?
Plan is for book four to take place a year after book three, so there will be some smaller timeskips too--but the biggest is between five and six.
Does Hoid have a safety-deposit box somewhere, or does he carry all his souvenirs with him?
He has a home base.
Side note on Elantris, it is a surprisingly emotional experience for someone who suffers from a chronic pain disorder. I don't know if you intended this.
The chronic pain connection was an intentional one, and I'm both glad and sad to hear that it connected with you.
Is Wit, or Hoid-- Is he an Allomancer
He did steal a bead of lerasium off of Scadrial. If he were to make use of that bead, certain powers could have been gained.
Okay. "If he were to have used it."
If he were to have used it.
You’ve said that you would call Surgebinding, Voidbinding, and fabrials the three magics on Roshar. Would it be more accurate to say that Surgebinding followed and emulated fabrials and/orthe possibility of fabrials or vice versa?
Vice versa. Fabrials are... generally, Surgebinders first, fabrials second.
So you couldn’t have done fabrials when it was just Adonalsium.
Oh, before the [Shattering]? *deep in thought mmming*
Would the spren have still been able to do Surges then?
I would say... no. No, Adonalsium probably would not have let that happen. You could theoretically do it, if Adonalsium allowed it.
He had boundaries against it.
Yes. So, I would say no.
