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Of all the series you wrote, which one's your favorite one that you've written?
I don't have a favorite. They're all my children.
And I betcha there's more to come, right?
Always.
Always.
Can a Hemalurgy chart be made?
Yes. We will make one eventually.
How much of your own personality do you put into your characters?
Good question. I put a piece of me in every character. There's some aspect of me in every one of them and there is something very different from me in every one of them, because that's kind of how I explore the world, I write about characters that have something familiar but something very different for me, and every character I write I try to the bulk of those things into.Â
Why did Rashek leave two beads at the Well?
RAFO
Vin asks OreSeur if the Kandra have a Religion
There is a kandra religion. I'm not going to be able to talk about it until book three, however. The things OreSeur is talking about here aren't really fundamental aspects of it, however. More. . .lore associated with the religion than actual tenets of that religion.
The Rithmatist takes place on an alternative version of Earth. One where the United States are the United Isles, for example.
Also that Earth is (I think) half the size of our own? Or possibly less? Brandon says it has a denser core to make up the difference.
Really? This is the first time I hear this, but it's pretty cool news. You know the man, find out specifics for us :P
Brandon and I discussed it when we put together the map of the United Isles... there was some hand-wavery in terms of total numbers, but the scale on the map legend is more-or-less accurate. As you can see, that puts the Isles themselves at about 1500 miles (give or take a few hundred, I'm eyeballing it) from the cliffs of the western California Archipelago to the eastern shores of New Guernsey.
In comparison, the continental United States is about 3000 miles across from shore to shore. So, loosely speaking, it's a half-sized planet with a core of something denser than iron to make the mass mostly the same. Perhaps gold?
Aside from the map, which I'm not surprised if it was overlooked, we also get some clues in the travel times and distances described during Joel and Fitch's trip.
All of those clues would require me to pay attention and think about things, though - which is something I find difficult to do when my hand is racing to turn the pages :)
On the topic of distances and masses though, I was looking into possible easy solutions, but it actually looks like there is some serious sciencing that needs to happen for the numbers to work out. But eyeballing, if you shrink the radius of the planet in half, this drops the volume (including the core volume) by a factor of 8, which - assuming the same density, which is not a safe assumption because lower mass makes lower density more likely - means that the core has to be about 8 times more massive to maintain the same gravity. Which is a problem, because such element doesn't exist naturally, and is even less likely to fuse in a small planet. So. Heavy sciencing and/or handwavium :)
Maybe a denser metal and a larger core? Our iron core is only about 10% of the planet's diameter, but I have no idea how a larger core would affect the physics of the planet.
Handwavium. Unobtanium. Impossibillium. :)
I was wondering what your thought process was when you were deciding to make the powers less powerful as the Mistborn Eras...
I was looking for ways to tell different stories and not repeat myself. So I like it when there's change in the magic, either our understanding of it, or the way it's working. To force me as a writer to approach it from different directions.
But won't it die out?
It won't die out. Well, it could if...There's a maximum amount of dissolution it can have, based on the progenitors of Era 2. And we're getting close to that. It's once they start intermingling with Southern Scadrial or off-planet that you have to worry about that. But you won't have to worry about that for Era 3. Maybe by Era 4 you might have to worry about it.
This chapter, which Raoden and Galladon crouching atop the rooftop and watching for newcomers, reminds me of the early days of conceiving this novel. The seed for Elantris actually came several years before I got around to writing the book. I knew that I wanted to tell the story of a brutal city filled with people who has some sickness that kept them from dying.
One of the initial scenes that came to my mind was that of the main character crouching atop a low building, watching the gates to the city. The gates open, and a newcomer is thrown in. At the same time, one of the wretches inside the city snaps–finally giving into his pain, and going mad. This man madly rushes toward the gates, trying to escape. The city guards–who don't have the disease–throw massive spears at the man rushing the gates. One of the spears hits him, piercing him all the way through.
However, it's quickly explained that the spear wasn't meant to kill, for the man continues to struggle weakly, despite being impaled. However, the spear is so big and bulky that the poor creature can't move any more–obviously, the weapons are intended to slow and immobilize, not kill. After all, the inhabitants of this city can't be killed. The man gives up struggling, and lays there limply, whimpering with the massive spear stuck through his chest.
At the same time, another sick one approaches the main character. "–Insert name– went mad last night," he whispers to the main character. "You are now the eldest." Meaning, of course, that the main character is now the person who's been in the city the longest without having gone mad.
You should be able to see the evolution of this scene in the story that I eventually told. Many of the concepts are the same, though I changed the viewpoint character from a person who had been in the city for a long time to a newcomer who still had his optimism. I also shifted much of the focus of the novel to what was happening outside the city, adding the two other viewpoint characters. However, this scene still remains in my mind–it's actually the only real scene I can remember from the very early days of planning Elantris. As an homage to it, I left in the large, bulky spears carried by the Elantris City Guards. Hrathen mentions them in the previous chapter. Though the guards no longer carry them for the same purpose–indeed, the guard probably wouldn't even know what to do with them in case of an attack–I thought this little inside reference to be an interesting one.
If, "Evil superheroes" was the hook for The Reckoners series, what is the hook for Skyward?
How to Train Your Dragon - but with spaceships.
How does Silence butcher deer? Because she serves venison.
You can do these things if you don’t do it in the wrong way, at the wrong time.
Why are there no spren in the prelude chapters for Way of Kings?
No specific reason. There's nothing happening there. Mostly, what happens is I write the initial write-through without very many spren and then they have Karen go through and say, "this would be a good place." Just kind of like special effects for a movie. It might just be that I've already released those and read those so much she doesn't want to add as many.
If you had to guess right now, what year would you think Dragonsteel will come out?
It will be the book after Stormlight 10 is the way it is planned right now. So, add those up, we’ve got seven more Stormlights, four more Mistborn, two Elantris, and one Warbreaker. After all those, and I generally do one a year, so add all that up. So 7... 11... 12 years and then I will write it, probably, is what it looks like? 11... no 13... 14 years.
Would a Nalthian born off-world who didn't get a Breath have the standard amount or the slightly lower amount, which would make them distinct from other humans?
It's a RAFO right now, but mostly because of my time crunch on other projects--not because this is a bad question to be asking. It's actually an excellent one.
Elend in the Mists after Vin Leaves
I wanted to include a reference to mistwraiths in this book. They're a minor world element, but aspects of their origins are a piece of the puzzle that gets explained further. . .in book three.
The mists are indeed coming earlier in the day, and they are staying later in the mornings. They're getting stronger, you might say. Elend doesn't know this, but some of the very outer parts of the empire already have mists lingering almost to the afternoon. The answers to why are coming. . .in book three.
The mist spirit doesn't want Elend to go to Luthadel. And yes, it was using Allomancy on him. (Influencing his emotions, as it's done several places through this book.) It doesn't work very well. The thing doesn't have much of a mind remaining. The answer to why. . .yes, you guessed it. Book three.
As you can tell, I'm using this last section of the book to set up The Hero of Ages. I didn't want to do this–I wanted all three books to stand well on their own. However, the events in the third book are just too large to deal with in one novel, so they spilled over into the end of this one. I actually began foreshadowing a lot of these things in book one–they were just easier to hide then.
By the way, the scene where Elend stands there, looking into the darkness, hearing leaves rustle and thinking how frightening it is. . .well, that's a scene from my life. Nothing big, but one night I was just walking past a darkened backyard and I heard rustling like that. I stood for a while, looking into that darkness, realizing just how creepy it was to stand in shadowed light and stare into the void without knowing what was back there. I had to put that in a book.
Is Renarin technically Enlightening his visions into precognitive ones?
RAFO.
/u/mistborn is this [the Unfettered III sequence] the secret project?!
It is not, actually. I plan to sit down after Skyward Two is done and do a draft of this, but I haven't gotten to it yet.
Is the "this" in your sentence the secret project or the deleted scene in Unfettered III?
Deleted scene for Unfettered.
I know a lot of people get tattoos with work from Mr. Sanderson's books. How do you feel knowing people have your work etched painfully into their flesh?
It's a little weird, only in the sense that it's so intensely, overwhelmingly flattering that it's difficult to figure out the right response. What do you say to someone who appreciates your work that much, other than a wholly inadequate "thank you"? Though I guess as it goes on, I'm getting used to it.
I'm quite certain Isaac has me way beat in the tattoo-inspiration department, as he does most all of the icons and symbols associated with Brandon's novels. But every Pattern tattoo is another tally for me. :)
So I have a question about the cosmere. I recently read The Stormlight Archive books and I love them, and then I reread Warbreaker and I noticed something. When Siri was teaching the God King how to read, she says one of the letters is called shash and this is the name of one of Kaladin's slave brands. I was wondering why.
It was just a coincidence, that one's been asked of me before, yeah it's just a coincidence.
I asked what would happen if you burned lerasium or atium near ettmetal.
RAFO! :)
Are we gonna get leatherbounds of everything?
The theory is yes. Some of them will be combined. Like, I'll probably do the Wax and Wayne Mistborn books as two in one book and two in one book, so there's two volumes. But I think the plan is eventually to do them all.
Just all the Cosmere? Or, like, every single one?
We should do everything. It depends on what interest is, for people. We will definitely do every Cosmere book. That, you don't have to worry about.
Do you have any further plans about Moash? Will he have more screen time in Stormlight 3?
I have big plans for Moash, and he will actually have viewpoints in Stormlight 3. So good question!
Who would win in a game of chance: Mat, a chromium compounder, or Hoid?
In these kinds of questions, more and more I give "points" to the character with the most established narrative, set of powers, and momentum. So Mat wins hands down. In twenty years, maybe not. But right now Mat.
We Book Smugglers are faced with constant threats and criticisms from our significant others concerning the sheer volume of books we purchase and read—hence, we have resorted to 'smuggling books' home to escape scrutinizing eyes. Have you ever had to smuggle books?
I married an English teacher with a book collection as large as my own, so I haven't had to worry about that for a long time. The smuggling of books I had to do was when I was a kid. I would be up late at night reading, and my parents would want me to go to bed for whatever reason. I mean, who needs sleep? But they would come and turn off my lights or do various things to get me to go to bed. I actually lit a Melanie Rawn book on fire once, by accident, because I was reading by candlelight. I've still got the copy.
In high school, I would do the standard super-nerd-reader-boy thing where I would sneak a book into my lap as I was listening to some lecture in a boring math class.
Wisely, when I got to college, I became an English major in my sophomore year. Now people expect me to read. In fact, part of my job is reading and keeping up to date on what everyone's doing. So I don't need to smuggle any books anymore, but I feel for those of you who do, and I would warn you not to read your books too close by candlelight, otherwise dire consequences can occur.
*inaudible*
You know, I read comic books, but I never really considered writing them. I don't feel I know that format well. I've done a couple graphic novels, but those I always give to a script writer for comic books who's practiced it, let them do it. I haven't really considered ever since I broke-in, because I'd feel like the basketball player playing baseball, you know. You might be okay at it, but might as well let the people who are really good at it, since they're really good at doing it.
Can kandra absorb living matter, non-organic matter?
They do absorb living matter, but it’s more what can they eat. So, chasmfiend carapaces, they probably couldn’t digest.
The Sovereign...
Mhm.
...has a <nail> in his eye. Which eye is *inaudible*
I am going to RAFO that one. Just in case.
Has Bloody Tan seen the Sovereign?
*laughs* So... here's the thing-- and this is why I'm RAFO-ing these, it's not because of what you think. I'm RAFO-ing these because these the nature of the Sovereign, and who they call the Sovereign, and these sorts of things is stuff that I want to potentially leave for Secret History 2-- or for [Secret History] 3, if I write more Secret Histories. So the answers are probably simple, right? And they're not ones that are gonna be mind blowing. But I don't want to lock myself down until I've written those, which is why I'm RAFO-ing most of the questions dealing with this, okay?
*a moment later Brandon overhears continued conversation about Secret History*
So, oh, you were asking it that specific way to not give spoilers to someone here? Yeah, I see what you're doing. I see-- I thought you were trying to wiggle out of me something that you weren't trying to wiggle out of me.
Not everyone here has read...
I get it, I get it. I see what's going on.
We're not trying to be that *inaudible*
Okay, okay. I was misinterpreting the intent of those questions a little bit. Yes, being very tricky. Okay.Â
*pauses to sign a book*
So the answer of which spike is it? I can answer that one? *interruption* Or really I can tell you--it's in my notes, and I don't have them, but it's not particularly relevant--it's the opposite side of the one where Death's skull was crushed.Â
Oh, yes. Yes.
They would look like mirror images if you saw them.
What are the Deepest Ones? ...The quote is "God Beyond protect them if the fighting had drawn one of the Deepest Ones" from Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell.
You will find out if I ever write the next book... the next book set on Threnody.
Elend talks to Tindwyl, then returns to his room and puts his uniform on.
Elend's relationship with Tindwyl cracks me up. That is all.
During this conversation between the two Terrismen and Elend, I think Sazed speaks my philosophy on characters and writing. They have to do what is important to them. I don't like to advocate situational ethics, but in some cases, that philosophy is appropriate. If you're a Jew who follows Kosher, then you don't eat pork. (Among a lot of other things.) For that person, I think it is morally wrong to break Kosher–because you've made a promise to yourself and God that you won't. However, is it wrong for someone like me to eat pork? No. I haven't made that same promise.
The same goes for my LDS belief in not drinking alcohol. I've promised not to–but that doesn't make another person bad or evil for drinking. They haven't made the same promises I have. It's about remaining true to yourself. There's nothing inherently wrong with alcohol (Christ himself drank it, after all.) But there's something wrong with making a promise, then breaking it.
In this case, it was right for Elend to do what he did. Another king could be a good man and make the opposite decision without rebelling against his own personal morals. There are a lot of absolute rights and a lot of absolute wrongs in life, but there are far MORE rights and wrongs that depend on who you are as a person, I think.
Sazed, however, IS setting himself up for some difficulty later on with some of the things he says here. You'll see what I mean at the end of the book.
Why is Dalinar very strict of Adolin but not with Renarin and Elhokar?
It is a little bit - I would say a slight flaw on Dalinar's part, he's too hard on Adolin. But that's because Adolin is in line for the throne, and he's the eldest son, and the heir, and all of that stuff. I would say that Dalinar's a little too lax in some ways, a little too strict in others.
Who is Midius?
You're getting a RAFO card. There's no way for me to answer that even in the slightest without giving away spoilers.
I was rereading W&W books recently and noticed something interesting.
In Shadows of Self, when Sazed/Harmony is talking with Wax, he feels warmth.
Wax felt a warmth, a fire, as if the inside of the carriage were heating to incredible temperatures
The voice vanished. The temperature returned to normal. Wax leaned back, sweating, feeling drained.
That makes me think about our favorite Bondsmith who experiences something familiar. Is it a coincidence? No, I don't mean Sazed specifically, but perhaps this happens when Shard (any Shard) tries to communicate with people? In the case of Dalinar it could be Cultivation or another big splinter of Honor.
This parallelism is intentional, but that's all I will say for now.
It feels like Roshar is-- has an essence, where it’s like a prism, you can see all the rest of them, due to the nature of the Cognitive Realm and the spren’s ideas, Cognitive things coming to light.  Have I spent too much time looking at the Shard?
No, you are on the right path. Â Of all the things you noted, that one is the one that is perhaps the most important.
The prism idea.
The idea that Roshar is special and a key on Shadesmar.
Could you tell me something about Cosmere, that we don't know?
Oooh boy, that is so hard, people ask this all the time and I keep running out of things... Was there anything I haven't added recently... There are Shards whose Shardpools are not on a planet they currently inhabit. At least one.
My friends and I had this debate when we were playing the Mistborn Adventure Game. So when a kandra imitates a human, do they replicate the organs perfectly?
Usually, yes. But there are kandra that do not, by intention, do that.
Does that include the reproductive organs?
Yes.
So theoretically if a kandra were to copulate with a human while pretending to be a human, would it create another human?
It would. And I think I've been consistent on that. So, I have to do things like this because I didn't want a blood test to be able to determine who was a kandra and who wasn't, because that's your go-to way to find a shapeshifter. So I think I had to imitate entirely. But boy, would it imitate the genetic code... *sounds of thought and frustration*
That's the question we have.
You know, I don't know that they would...so they were human...I'm going to go ahead and back pedal and RAFO on that. I haven't decided 100% yet...I know you can't tell with a bloodtest, but if you look at the DNA, would you be able to tell it's a kandra? And I'm kinda thinking you probably would be able to.
So then, following that they wouldn't be able to reproduce.
Yeah, they wouldn't be able to reproduce in that case. I'm gonna go--jury's out. And I have to really make a call on this. I'm going to say, "Yes," right now, that they are doing this down to the cellular level, a copy, but I may have to backpedal on that when I get to future Mistborn books, when I really look at it, what it would take, to do that. It's an unofficial yes, with a RAFO attached to it.
As a physicist I appreciate you being so consistent with your magic systems.
It is something I try very hard to do, though I do recognize that we do bend a lot of rules. When we were doing the time-based one in this [The Alloy of Law], I'm like, "Oh, boy, redshifts. Oh, no, conservation of energy." We had to do some bending to make it so that the radiation from the light passing out of the time bubble wasn't deadly.
What's the word for Lift's name in her language?
I don't know the actual word. I haven't written it down. I am translating the meaning of her name. They're not saying "Lift." It means "to elevate or raise up."
This map,
*Hands Brandon the Part Four Sea of Lost Lights Map*
How much of a hand did you have in this map or did you kind of let Isaac go crazy?
So this one is half and half, I went to Isaac and said put this and this and this and then he added some craziness. One of Isaac's voices in the cosmere is Nazh and almost everything that is written by Nazh is Isaac and he named a bunch of this stuff, he ran it all by me. I actually vetoed a few. He came up with some, I'm like "Ehh" and then I renamed them to things that actually fit.
Okay, why is spren fishing banned here, is that you or Isaac?
That was Isaac...
Has Hoid ever used Allomancy on Roshar or in The Stormlight Archive.
Yes. On screen he has. I've mentioned times when he's pulled on emotions, or pushed on emotions? I think he... I'd have to look at the scene and see which one he's doing. But he is playing with people's emotions using Allomancy in a very obvious way. There are other places. He doesn't do it a ton. Wit, as you can see in Rhythm of War, considers too extravagant use of the various arts to be cheating to an extent, because it makes things too easy. There are other reasons to not do it, though. He would become visible very quickly to entities to whom he wishes to remain non-visible if he were aggressively using Allomancy. Allomancy is not a very quiet skill.
Were the Heralds born on Roshar?
RAFO.
Do you know when the next Alcatraz book will come out?
Working on it slowly, but it's happening. This one, Oathbringer, took longer than I expected, so it slowed me down a little bit. But it shouldn't be too much longer.
Rithmatist?
Rithmatist, that's the other one. No promises of when; working on it slowly.
Do you see yourself as a certain character in the book?
They are all one part me, one part not me.
I was wondering if you see yourself as Hoid.
Definitely not Hoid. Hoid is very different from me. If I'm like anyone, I'm either like Sazed, maybe older Dalinar.
I was wondering if an aluminum Feruchemist, if he stores up Spiritual Identity, could he survive a hit from a Shardblade?
I'll RAFO that. Identity is not the right place to go for that. Exact mechanics are RAFO, but that's kinda along the wrong path.
When the Mists come back, will they continue Snapping people?
No. The mists will revert back to their more neutral state.
I asked Brandon if it was any coincidence that Sadeas's name sounds suspiciously similar to the word sadist.
In essence his answer was no, it's not a coincidence, but he didn't consciously choose the name for that specific reason. More like his brain decided it sounded good for that character because his subconscious heard the similarity.
So if a steel compounder became an Edgedancer...
Oh, here we go. [Audience laughs]
If a steel compounder became an Edgedancer, how fast could they go?
[Dramatic sigh] They could go quite fast. They are not going to ever reach superhero levels of bending reality for speed. So, I will say quick, but not that quick. We aren't outracing an atom bomb, as the Flash periodically does.
Can an Allomancer burn any god metal? Or is it specifically Preservation and Ruin?
That is actually a RAFO. There's some funkyness going on there.
Where is Hoids flute and does he want it back
Sadeas had it.
Yes.
Oh, and the line "he was the type of person who could defy reality" in reference to Kelsier is one I stole from my friend Annie. She said it about me, actually. It was in reference to how I belligerently believed that I could do something like become an author–a job that very few people can have, and even fewer people can make a living at. She said it long before I got published.
Always stuck with me.
Updates on Secondary Projects
Legion
The third Stephen Leeds/Legion story (which is roughly the same length as the second one) is finished! Titled Lies of the Beholder, this is the story that delves into Stephen's backstory, his interactions with Sandra, and the nature of his aspects. Good stuff! It's done, and it's weird. But good weird.
Right now, the goal is to collect all three Legion stories and release them in hardcover sometime around September 2018. That means there probably won't be a standalone release of Lies of the Beholder until a year or so later, like we plan with Edgedancer. However, for those who like cohesion on their bookshelves, I've mandated that Subterranean Press be allowed to do a leatherbound like they did with the first two. So you can have books that match. This should happen right around the release of the collection.
In the UK, there should be a small-format version of the story on its own rather than a collection. (Again, for matching purposes. In the US, the small-format hardcovers have been published by my own company, Dragonsteel, as we waited for enough stories to do a collection.) We should eventually do a small-format Dragonsteel edition for people who really want one of those to match, but I'd suggest that the best way to support the stories is to buy the collection. And if you haven't ever tried them out, you'll be able to get them all at once!
This marks the end of the Stephen Leeds stories, though we're in talks for another television deal—so maybe that will happen.
Status: Series finished! Publication in late 2018.
I’'m trying to understand why you made Kaladin such a coward....and I'm coming up short. Why?
I wouldn't call him a coward. I'd call him a guy with severe PTSD who is having a rough time working through it.
