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*Written:* Is Iyatil wandering around the cosmere (Roshar) with a heating medallion? She's a Southern Scadrian, so she needs one of those so she won't freeze to death in normal temperatures.
RAFO on that, but it's a question you should be asking.Â
*Writes:* RAFO
How long ago was the Recreance?
4500 years.
No, that was Aharietiam?
Oh, the Recreance!
2,000 or more?
Around. I've got the timeline, I'd have to pull it up and look.
The separation of the Rose Empire and the Jindoese, is that connected to Devotion and Dominion's Splintering?
Vaguely.
Is Spensa mechanically savvy enough to repair the starfighter alone?
Nope, she's not. That's going to prove some problems for her...
Please tell me the name of the holder of Cultivation
Hoid calls her Slammer... but that isn't her real name.
When doing your worldbuilding and plotting work prior to writing do you ever work with maps and soldiers? Do you build out your fights with models etc?
I don't build any of my action sequences with models, though that's an excellent question. I have a vivid imagination, and generally don't need to place things on a map to create an action sequence. In fact, I think doing so might be dangerous, as I'd be tempted to describe things happening across the action sequence all over, rather than what is immediately happening to the viewpoint character—which is where my focus needs to be.
Often, the only map-based worldbuilding I'll do is a general sketch of a continent or city so I know broadly how everything is related. But then I write the book, and let what has to happen in the book happen—good storytelling trumps cartography. I can always rebuild the map to be accurate once I write the book.
The exception is large-scale battles, like some of those in The Wheel of Time, where I had to involve real warfare strategy and tactics. In those cases, I need to know enough that it's best to draw it out and have a full battle map.
Introduction
I am not a linguist. I have some understanding of morphemes and the history of language, but only enough to avoid looking like a complete idiot. That’s all right. I am not Tolkien; it was never my intention to create viable languages in Elantris. I was busy enough crafting the story without worrying whether or not someone will be able to someday release an Aonic transition of Hamlet.
That isn’t to say that the languages in my books are not important. In fact, they’re vital. A novel, at its basest level, is constructed of words—and words, at their basest level, are constructed of sounds. The sounds of names and phrases give the first subconscious clue to a character’s motivations and origins. Before you know a man’s thoughts in a book—before you see him act—you often know his name. The sound of that name is your first impression.
Like many fantasists, I use linguistic themes to give characterization to the cultures in my books. Even for the best author, containing an entire world in the meager 200,000 allotted words of a novel is a difficult task. We can’t afford to use names and languages lightly—they must give clues to the nature of the cultures involved, otherwise we might as well call the hero ‘Tom’ as opposed to ‘Raoden.’
Of all the characters you've written which one has the most of you in them?
Of all the characters I've written which has the most of me in them. Boy, y'know every character is a bit of me and every character's got something that's very unlike me. Um, I really have trouble answering that. People have asked it of me before. Some days I think it's Jasnah, some days I think I'm arrogant to assume it's Jasnah. Any character I would mention it would feel like the things I like about them are the things I wish I would have, if that makes sense? I don't know if there's any one that is really just me. My mother reads the Alcatraz books and says that's me. *laughter* She really does. Like she loves those books because she says "No that's you". When I have no inhibitions and I'm not trying to be self important I just do stupid things like in the Alcatraz books so maybe Alcatraz?
Syl always sees Shardblades as dead spren, these terrible things. But she never mentions the same of Shardplate. Is Shardplate made of non-sentient spren?
RAFO
*inaudible*...Count Dooku?
I did. Count Dooku was given to me by *inaudible*, a writer from my... The joke about him is he was not actually potted, he was the plant that you put in a jar and the roots go down, so we joked about a potted plant writing my books and I wanted to put a picture of a plant that wasn't actually potted, but then the publisher wouldn't do it. I wanted to put a picture of Count Dooku but they wouldn't do that.
How is the Cognitive Realm of Nalthis?
Yes, Nalthis. I'm gonna RAFO that. You will see it before too much longer, I hope.
Is Kelsier still alive during Mistborn Era 2?
RAFO.
How would you compare the Investiture in Nightblood to the Investiture in one of the spren turned into a--
Sword? They have less Investiture than Nightblood.
Hoid seems to have an unability to be able to harm people *inaudible*. Why is that?
That is a RAFO. That's a read and find out.
The similarity between the shades and the Fused can be due to the Investiture of Odium instead of that of Ambition?
RAFO.
Do you choose cover arts for your books yourself or you give your artist to choose. As for Oathbringer, why that particular moment with Jasnah was chosen? I like the cover, but I guess I wanted the see Dalinar , who would be more appropriate for this book.
With most books these days, I suggest scenes and take a more hands-on approach. Michael Whelan, however, is one of those that I generally step back from and let him do his thing and try not to meddle too much. I DID note to him, though, that we've so far not matched the book to the character. (Kaladin's book got Dalinar and Eshonai on the cover, while Shallan's book got Kaladin.) So it made sense, actually, to have Jasnah here.
Does being filled with Stormlight make your skin glow, or are they just leaking mist which is glowing and not glowing themselves?
The glowing is from the Stormlight, which leaks from the skin. Even any glowing you think is coming from the skin is actually from the Stormlight leaking out.
So if a kandra Radiant were to go transparent, but had little bubbles of skin under their surface, would the bubbles of skin inside them leak Stormlight and light up, or does Stormlight only leak from outside surfaces?
Honestly, while what you say is plausible, I'm not sure I want to start down this path and the directions it might end up leading...
I was wondering if there is a unit of Investiture, like maybe something Khriss uses.
Yes, but I haven't canonized it yet. Good question. I will eventually canonize it, because I think that people will want it, but I probably won't do so 'til [Mistborn] Era 3, because I want the scientific way of talking about the cosmere to mirror how developed the cultures are, but some of the scholars are beyond where everyone else is. It can be measured. There is a unit.
Like, maybe grams of solid Investiture?
It will probably be an in-world unit of measurement. Right now, to talk about it online if you want, the unit is probably gonna be based around Breath, because a Breath is a distinct amount. Whereas in most of the settings, there's not a distinct amount. Like, how much Allomancy, things like that. How much can a gem hold. It really depends on how the gem is cut, and how long the gem has been out. So... the Breath is a really easy one, so it's become the unit. But there will probably be a fantasy term for it. I might just call it Breath. That's why I'm not canonized yet. But if you guys wanna talk about it in Breath terms, that's probably the easiest.
Is Adonalsium taken from the Hebrew words for God, Adonai?
It is.
Since Stormlight and Breath are both investiture, would it be possible to use Nightblood with the former rather than the latter? Would it be possible to store Stormlight in metal using Feruchemy?
Mixing the magics is possible, but some are easier and more natural than other. Feeding Stormlight to Nightblood is easy. Storing stormlight in metal is tough.
How does an object in the Cognitive Realm view itself if there are competing viewpoints of it? Like if two kids view a toy as their toy, how does the toy view itself?
There is going to be often, things are going to be in a position of change. And usually it will have one thing. You will say, "What am I?" "I'm Brandon's toy." Then a little later it might be you say "What are you?" "Well, I'm Brandon and Joel's toy." And then at some point it might just become "Joel's toy." There's-- It's kind of the "When does a pile become a heap?" and that sort of philosophical question. At what point do you transition between one and the other? It happens, but it's fuzzy and it's vague. And it also influences what you can do to it and how to change it and things like that. Like a rock viewing itself as a rock changing into sand, there's some fluidity there.
How was Dalinar able to bond Taln's Shardblade -- Honorblade?
It's not Taln's Honorblade.
Is Tanavast dead?
That is a RAFO.
Brandon is pretty good at including people as cameos (such as much of Bridge Four being his friends). Has he given you a cameo in the cosmere, or one of his other books, or do you know if he has any plans for one (because you totally should have one).
You know, I don't think he has... if he did, nobody's told me and I haven't caught it. Of course, I already get name-checked in every book both in the acknowledgements and in the credits. And in a certain sense, I suppose I'm there every time my work is on the page.
What happened to the Ministries?
The Ministries, being a legacy of the time of the Lord Ruler's rule, there are trappings of them left but they don't use any of the same names or anything like that.
Can't have the old labeling.
Yeah. I mean-- There are cities you can go to where there are more echoes of that sort of thing.
Yeah because New Seran made me think of that.
Yeah. I mean there are cities you can go that have more echoes of that but in Elendel you can barely even find the trappings anymore-- but you can find some of them. But You won't go in there and find, like, the Ministry of this-or-that. Because it was run by Kelsier's crew, most of that did not make the transition. Though there were notable Obligators who made it through and so they have left their mark. You have to search for it though.
Do Mental Commands require words, just not speaken out loud? Or does the wordless thought suffice?
Mental Commands do not always require verbalization, but many think it is, as they've never been able to do it otherwise.
Regarding a certain dragon mentioned in Stormlight Archive, and dragons in general in the cosmere: is functional immortality a natural part of a dragon's lifespan?
The way I have written dragons in the cosmere… ALL dragons are naturally functionally immortal. They can be killed, but they don't age.
If a coppercloud was near an Awakener, would they dampen the effect of the colors being deepened around them?
I haven't thought about that. Yes. That one is a tenuous yes, though, I would have to think about it.
Would a Returned look different in Shadesmar than a normal person?
They would.
Considering the philosophy on Roshar, someone's probably come up with the concept of Occam's razor. He [DM of my RPG] wants to know what it's called and who it's named for on Roshar.
I have not come up with that, so it's named for him. What's his name?
I only know his name on the Shard, which is Peace.
Peace? It's Peace's Theorem.
Are the Rhythm of War seon communication devices called Selphones?
Gaah! *general exclamations of mirth mixed with booing from Brandon's team*
I love it, Evgeni, gold star! You're making everyone groan in a beautiful way. Nice work, you have brightened my day.
What is a lait?
Used in Stormlight Archive "was in a lait"?
It's not an Earth loan-word. Like crem, it's transliterated, not translated. It roughly means, "A place where the storms are blocked." Generally, it means some kind of depression or location in the shadow of a larger rock formation.
Do those two weather related phenomenons have something in common. They both seem to have investiture that people can draw on.
Weather is important to most cosmere magic.
When you were talking about the Rithmatist, you said that he wasn’t genetically capable of doing magic and I was wondering if you actually had like a genetic system for how...
Yeah, this one actually isn’t genetic. I said genetic, but it’s not. But I don’t want to give away what it is that makes someone use the magic in that world. I did actually develop a genetic magic system that was very interesting that is in a book that didn’t get published.
Is it going to get published?
Probably not, but I might recycle the magic eventually. The magic is spread around everyone of a certain family lineage. So if there's lots of family members, they each have a little bit of magic. And if there's only one, they're very powerful. But there's only one.
Which one is this?
Mythwalker. You have these weird family dynamics, where it's like, "If I assassinate my family members, I get stronger." But as a whole, it's weaker. It's not like if there's two of you, you each are one and one; if there's one of you, it's two. If there's one of you, it's like 1.5. So you get stronger, but you overall are stronger as a house if you have lots more people. It was really cool magic, but the book was awful. Half of it was Warbreaker. But the genetics one didn't end up in it.
Out of curiosity, which cosmere book are you most looking forward to writing/letting us read?
Hmm... Right now, either Stormlight 9 or Mistborn 10.
Where Mistborn 10 is the last book in Era 2?
The 1980s era. Whatever you want to call that era.
Hoid. Does he show up in Sixth of the Dusk?
Hoid is not in Sixth of the Dusk. I kind of made the little rule to myself that I should not just try to shoehorn him in to everything. On a thing like Sixth of the Dusk, there's no reason for him to be there. In fact, it would be really hard for him to get there. Threnody even harder. So, he's not in Shadows for Silence either.
How was Nale able to keep recruiting Skybreakers even after the Recreance?
The spren simply didn't leave, and kept bonding Radiants.
Does Wayne's ability to impersonate people have anything to do with his Allomantic abilities, or is it just skill?
He is just really good at it. Good question.
Nightblood. He just showed up at the end of The Stormlight Archive--
Yes.
--the last one. So, is there a place that's a connection between all of the universes?
Yes, there is.
And it's been reached in The Stormlight Archive?
Okay, so I'm guessing you don't know about all of this but there are characters from Elantris that are in Mistborn--
Yes. Like Hoid.
--and all of this stuff. I would say one of the things is that Roshar is a little bit easier to get to than some of the others, but it's not that it has been breached there so much as it's a little bit easier to get to.
Yes, I'm assuming it has something to do with the Cognitive Realm but then objects going through the Cognitive Realm is kind of tripping me.
Hehe… *long pause* There are places in the Cognitive Realm that are somewhat nexus-like, like you're talking about. Yes there are places like that. ...So Roshar might actually be the easiest place to get to in the cosmere, like from planet to planet. Sel is probably the hardest, right now. For a long time Taldain was very hard, but not anymore.
When are we first getting a look at the cosmere coming together?
The third Mistborn trilogy is going to involve--it's the first one I planned to do a lot with. I doubt I will do much in the second Mistborn trilogy, more than I probably have done [so far]. It's fun for me, so I'll keep including things in. You'll notice that Hoid is a bigger part of the Stormlight than previous ones, but I still don't want it to come to the forefront quite yet.
Are there any plants that can eat Investiture that can naturally develop?
Yes. Good question!
How do you think about reddit or the 17th shard and the Coppermind-- All the different theories going around? Do you ever find one that hits your plot line or something?
Oh yes. I don't change it. I'm just like "There's a smart person.' But what I learned in Wheel of Time fandom was that you can't-- There is madness that lies in trying to change things once someone figures it out. Like particularly with the way that I do my plots, there's foreshadowing so there's someone who's going to be able to figure it out. If they can't figure it out I haven't put in the foreshadowing properly. So almost everything that I've put into the books, somebody knows. Some of them are really obvious and everybody's got it, and I'm okay with that because the people who don't read the forums, a few of them will be surprised, but mostly it will be like "Yeah of course we know this Brandon. Of course we know yada yada yada" I don't--
Go on, go on.
I don't... *mutters* I think you've figured it out-- But there are things like that. But there are other little things that there are a dozen theories on, and one of them's right.
You are probably going to get that when there's large populations...
There's large populations and there's proper foreshadowing, somebody is going to get it, and I think that's appropriate.
Now this one will probably be RAFO'd: I know you already said that there are four Shards outside of Ati and Leras in your other books. Could you tell us the numbers per book? Is just a standard two per book? Or do some have more than others?
Some worlds have more than others. You have seen the effects, influences, and work of four other Shards. One Shard, however, was no longer on the world by the time the story was told there.
I know that we've "interacted with two directly" (the pool in Elantris, and The Voice that called Lightsong back to life) that we've "seen it's power" (Dahkhor??) and another that we've seen their infulence (I have no idea on this one, though I think it might be whatever pointed out Aon Rao in Elantris to Raoden)
Nice guesses on most of those. You've got some things right. You've got some things wrong. The only thing I'll confirm (and I don't think I've said this before) is that The Voice is, indeed, one of the Shards of Adonalsium. (Endowment is that Shard's true name, by the way.)
So, do you have a final scene in mind like RJ did that you’re working toward?
I do indeed!
I dont really understand what you mean by sympathetic magic. All that comes to mind is Kvothe, which certainly isn't part of your work. :p
Sympathetic magic is the classical science idea that "Like influences Like." Voodoo dolls are a more contemporary example, though even spontaneous generation and the humors connect to the idea slightly. It was the basis for Awakening, and (I believe) Rothfuss's sympathetic magic. It's a common theme in fantasy magics, though, much like alchemy and astrology.
Is Lopen a squire?
Lopen is a squire. Good question! That'll probably settle some debating on the website.
Once we do get to Dalinar's flashbacks
Will we get to learn his wife's name?
Is his wife's name one that astute readers would recognize?
Will we learn why he want to the Nightwatcher - and the boon and curse he received?
You had to know I'd RAFO this. :)
Is there more to metallurgy in mistborn than just trying to aim for the 'perfect' ratio for alloys? Like, can you make pewter that gives more strength but less endurance, or brass that soothes anger better, but doesn't work as well for other emotions?
No, unfortunately that isn't the way Allomancy works.
Was Elantris built before or after the prologue of Way of Kings?
*Pauses* Go to my notes and find out. I would have to actually specifically look that one up. My instinct says.....oh boy.
Yeah, because they're both really old.
They're really old. They're both really old. I want to say that the prologue is older, but I don't know for sure, because I know things on Roshar are older. But, the prologue happens late in things on Roshar, so it's still old. So I'm gonna go with, I think this but I'd have to actually get the outline and look at the timeline.
So I’ve heard you talk about a book and as a nurse is really interesting to me, or the idea of the book. It’s the one where viruses not only make you sick but they also give you a super power. So I was kind of wondering on the list of when projects are being...
I originally called this book Silence Divine and the idea behind this book is—I’m always looking for interesting interesting Magic systems and I came up with an idea of “what if viruses and bacteria evolved in line with the magic on the world so that when you caught the disease you got a power” Like if you catch the common cold you could fly, as long as you have it. But when you get over the cold, you can no longer fly. So they keep you alive to help spread themselves and things like that. So when your immune system beats them you lose the power. The book will be about someone who’s basically like half-counter-terrorism, half-police force, where they keep track of these things because what happens when it moves through the city. Like half-CDC, half-counter-terrorism, half-police force. Where suddenly everyone in the city can walk through walls. What do you do, as the police force, when that happens? And things like that. And they keep special people incubating diseases that have come through before and they keep their immune systems low so in an emergency they can go in and catch a bunch of diseases and stuff like that. It’s going to be really awesome.
And the answer is, I have no idea when I can write this book. It is in the Cosmere, so it’s part of all that, but I have no idea because I really feel, coming off the Wheel of Time, the people who are fans of my work, everyone understands, at least I hope they understand, that the Wheel of Time was something I needed to do. But it did delay people getting things like Stormlight Archive and stuff like that. And I feel like right now I really need to dedicate myself to getting a few books out in the Stormlight Archive before I get too distracted by anything else, such as this, and I write books that are really cool but no one’s asking for, really, at this point. (Except for you so thank you.) So I will eventually write that book. I have toyed several times doing a novella in the world just to get that out of my system. So maybe eventually we’ll do that.
