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Questioner

The ten Surges on Roshar, I think you've said are basically a different set of laws of physics.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Questioner

Are those laws of physics consistent throughout the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, to an extent. You would consider, like - it's kind of weird because I based them on the idea of the fundamental forces, but this is kind of like a human construction. You could say that physics is pure and natural, but we're still putting things in boxes. And the scientists on Roshar would, for instance, consider being able to travel between the Cognitive and Physical Realms as a force, the thing that pulls people back and forth between that, as a fundamental force. I don't know if it would fit our definition of a fundamental force.

Stormlightning

Would the Ghostbloods try to recruit [a Sleepless]?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, the Ghostbloods would not trust a Sleepless.

Stormlightning

They wouldn't? So they wouldn't even try to get one?

Brandon Sanderson

They would not. They would expect a Sleepless to take over their organization or try to. And try to stay far away from the Sleepless.

Stormlightning

What about the Seventeenth Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

There are members of the Seventeenth Shard who would be interested in recruiting one of the Sleepless. Generally they represent a wildcard faction that a lot of other people are wary of.

Stormlightning

I guess Khriss and them just know about them?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. The Sleepless are cosmere-aware.

Stormlightning

Are they worldhoppers?

Brandon Sanderson

There are Sleepless on many planets. They have mostly settled on Roshar for various reasons.

Questioner

Will we see Aether of Night eventually?

Brandon Sanderson

I can't promise. You've seen the aethers; Mraize's room of trophies. But I can't absolutely promise I'll work it in... The question is, if I find the time. I just stay consistent on the mainline Cosmere books. If I find the time, I'll get Aether of Night.

Questioner

Will you write a novella on Silverlight?

Brandon Sanderson

Someday I want to, but I can't promise it. It's if it fits in. I've got a really good, nice Silverlight story that I want to tell, but whether I can get to it... There are just so many things competing, and the only things I will commit to are the core Cosmere stories.

Yata

What is the event showed in the books, that are earlier in the Cosmere's Timeline ? (just to understand if WoK's prologue is before or after Elantris's event)

Brandon Sanderson

I believe WoK prologue is before everything else you've seen. Some of the Dalinar flashbacks show scenes pretty early as well.

Dominic James

In the "Dark One" novel you're planning, will that character be the dark one for the entire cosmere or just that world?

Peter Ahlstrom

That world.

Djarskublar

*inaudible* [I asked if it would be possible to recall Breaths from an object that you had not placed there if the Awakener who did place them there had no Identity at the time.]

Brandon Sanderson

So, this is a very detailed, specific question, if you didn't hear it. It's dealing with the idea of Investiture and Identity, and things like this. If you can unkey the magic with Identity, for almost any case, it's going to make it much easier for other people to use. That's gonna be a blanket statement through the cosmere. If you can blank your Identity, it's at least gonna be able to be used by someone else with a blank Identity. Sometimes it's keyed, so the blank will not work with somebody who is themselves keyed. But if you can blank and they can blank, you can almost always guarantee the magic will be able to be used.

Turambar97

Will there ever be a point in your books where different or all types of investiture clash ?? What I mean will there be a fight between people with different kinds of investiture or will there be a team composed of such people ?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, this will happen.

Look for the future of the cosmere to be about the interaction of ideologies, magics, and settings. It's less about an avengers style team up, and more about the clash between cultures.

Questioner

Is the crem--is it natural--are the highstorms magically created and that's why--

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah the crem is there to keep the continent from washing away. So I had to add a magical element that, if it were not in the cosmere with magic, this would not work.

Questioner

Is that why the Weepings don't have crem, is that's a natural storm?

Brandon Sanderson

That is because I didn't want there to be too much crem at that point. These are all story structure things, instead. World-wise, I would say a little more natural, sort of blow off steam, there.

Questioner

So, we know in Mistborn there is this running... you can say, motif about Ruin being associated with the color black and Preservation with the color white, we see a lot of very subtle and a lot of very unsubtle...

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, yes.

Questioner

Is such a motif present in any other books? I think I see it in Stormlight.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, in Stormlight you can see it. So, Ruin is a red-gold... not Ruin, Odium. Odium is a red-gold. Honor is a blue-white and Cultivation is green, obviously. So, those motifs stay, when you... when you see a red or a gold, it's a reddish gold sort of thing, either of those colors, it's going to be Odium.

Questioner

Even when we something we might suspect to be outside influence in other worlds?

Brandon Sanderson

Not necessarily, because red can also mean corrupted Investiture in the Cosmere. So, I would call Odium's real color gold, because you're going to see red when Odium is corrupting other things, so...

Questioner

It's not necessarily on Roshar.

Brandon Sanderson

It's not necessarily Odium. So, you're asking for the invading force on Mistborn, it doesn't necessarily mean Odium because it's red. So red just kind of means corruption. I've talked about that before, so. Not necessarily, not definitive, yeah.

Ted

What happened in the Cognitive Realm during the Catacendre?

Brandon Sanderson

Um… *sighs* So, um... Have you read Secret History?

Ted

Yes.

Brandon Sanderson

You are in the Cognitive Realm for the Catacendre in Secret History, that's some things that happened. Saying what happened there is like saying "what happened on Earth in 19--"

Ted

Well I was thinking more like what you couldn't see on-screen, if you would comment on that.

Brandon Sanderson

"What you see is what you get for that one." Is what I'm going to say of it.

John Ottinger

Your battle system involving bridges and plateaus is both complex and innovative. In writing these scenes, was a significant amount of research necessary, and did you encounter any difficulties when writing the sequences?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes to both questions. This is not going to be immediately obvious, but the big difficulty was in designing bridges that were mobile but also strong enough to support a cavalry charge. It took a lot of research and talk with my editor, looking at the engineering of it and the physics of the world to actually be able to create these things. I'm sure fans are going to try to diagram them out. That was one aspect of it: how were the bridges going to be set?

I approached this first from a "how would you actually fight on these plains?" direction. But also I wanted to evoke the concept of a terrible siege, with a man running with a ladder toward a wall. And yet that's been done so much. The Shattered Plains came from me wanting to do something new. I liked the idea of battles taking place in a situation that could never exist on our planet, what it would require, what it would take out of the people, and how it would naturally grow. And so I did a lot of reading about siege equipment. I did a lot of reading about weights of various woods, did a lot playing with the length, the span between the chasms, etc. One thing that people should know if they are trying to figure all this out is that Roshar has less gravity than Earth does. This is a natural outgrowth of my requirements both for the bridges and for the size of the creatures that appear in the book—of course they couldn't get that large even with the point-seven gravity that Roshar has, but we also have magical reasons they can grow the size they do. That's one factor to take into account.

Questioner

I'm really inspired by a lot of the worldbuilding you do and especially some of the amazing planets such as Roshar and Teldain and especially how different they are from our own planet. So how do you come up with these sorts of planets and where do you draw inspiration from to make these amazing other worlds?

Brandon Sanderson

When I'm worldbuilding there's a few core principles that I follow. One is this idea that a setting should be like a character, full of quirks and flaws and advantages and all these sorts of things, you should almost have a personality for a setting. But at the same time I'm always looking for something this is going to influence the story in interesting way. What are the great visuals, what are the great conflicts that this inspires. Conflicts are the soul of all storytelling, so looking for great conflicts. But at the end of the day it's also just things I've seen, things I've experienced, like Roshar came from a mix of growing up Nebraska with these really powerful rainstorms. I remember sitting on my front porch once and the rain was blowing the right direction, so it didn't hit me and just watching this rain blow sideways. Like that's an amazing experience with lightning crashing every couple of seconds, and then visiting southern Utah and seeing the great slot canyons, things like the Zion Narrows and things like that and Little Wild Horse and just how beautiful and awe inspiring it was to be in this sort of crack in the earth and looking up and the sky seemed so distant, and those inspired Roshar. So I'm always looking, on of my guiding principles is, I talked about it a little bit earlier, fantasy, I think, should be the most imaginative genre. When I started to sell, when my books came out, I made kind of a, sort of a goal to myself that if I was going to be remembered for one thing I wanted to be remembered as someone who pushed the genre forward into different spaces and in one of places I thought I could do that was in some one the worldbuilding. You know we been kind of lock into the medieval-year-up fantast for a long time, there's a lot of fantastic stories told there. I'm like can we push other directions and can we use a little bit more of the science-fiction world-building that you from a lot of the great science-fiction stories but apply it to fantasy, because we can break the laws of physics in ways that they can't, so that is where it came from.

Questioner

Why do you decide to do more series like Apocalypse Guard or the Secret Project [Skyward] when you still have so many more unfinished sequels?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a good question. No, it is totally legit. *laughter* So, I did finish Legion. I did that. So, those who are looking for that, that will come out next year. Why do I do it this way? Well, most of the time, it's because I try a book, and it doesn't work. Rithmatist fans probably know, I tried to write Rithmatist 2, I built an outline, I started writing it, and the book didn't work. I wasn't-- the outline was wrong on that one. I got, like, three chapters in, and I'm like, "Nope. This book is broken." And it was mostly due to my lack of research into the proper things to do the book the right way. And because Rithmatist and Alcatraz, which you'll get Alcatraz 6 eventually, those are the two that are looming most; those are side projects. Those are things that I do for fun. They have to slot in between my main projects, if that makes any sense. Like, I have to do them when there's time from other projects. So, for instance, I couldn't go to Random House and say, "I'm gonna do Rithmatist 2 sequel," because Rithmatist is not their series. It belongs to Tor. So, if I wanna do more with Random House, I have to do something that works for them. And that's kind of the long and short of it.

I mean, I will get around to things like Warbreaker and Elantris sequels. *cheers* But the thing about those is, those are sequels to the worlds, not necessarily sequels to the characters. I won't promise you that the same characters will appear in them. Some of them will. But it's the idea that those are standalone books that I plan to do more in the world, and the time isn't right in the cosmere to do those. For something like Rithmatist, that's more pressing, because I'm like "that promises a sequel with the same characters". But I have to find out how to write it first. And, for various reasons, a Rithmatist sequel is really tricky to pull off. So, that's kinda the answer to it. Sometimes, I also just need a break to do whatever my mind wants to do. It's not a very satisfying answer, but it is the way my brain works. But you can know that if it's, like, one of the main line things that I've got contracts for, that I won't be doing that to you on. So, Stormlight will be pretty regular, Mistborn will be pretty regular. But some of the side projects, it's just when it's right it's right.

Questioner

So there's a line in Secret History that references, like, a mythical string that shows the way home in the maze of Ishathon. Is that an intentional reference to--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yes, so here's one thing I do in the cosmere, because my senior course was in folklore, I had a really good folklore teacher-- So you should all thank Dr. Thursby for this. One of the things I learned in folklore-- I don't know if you guys have studied this, but it's really interesting-- Societies come up with the same myths. Right? They do! You'll find-- The biggest one is the Cinderella myth. There's a version of Cinderella in almost every culture, and it's shocking how they hit the same beats. And so my folkloristic inclinations lead me to say that certain stories that I know are common, whether it's the string that leads you out, or breadcrumbs-- different people use different things-- But these stories exist. Mythical mazes, you will find stories about. And so that's not meant to be anything more than for the folklorists to say "Ah! I recognize this, Roshar has some of the same myths, and the same versions, that we have."

Questioner

As far as the Lord Ruler goes, how did he use the Twinborn thing? Feruchemy and Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

What he had to figure out how to do is: Allomancy is powered by Spiritual power directly from the Shard of Adonalsium. Whereas Feruchemy is powered by your own Investiture and effort being transferred into the thing. What he needed to do was figure out a way to power Feruchemy with Allomantic power, right? You could have done the same thing by fueling it with the Dor, or with Stormlight, or another external. But he only had access to three magics. So what he had to do was figure out that.

So what he's doing is, he's basically taking metals, (since he's a Feruchemist and an allomancers), and he is burning metals that he has Invested himself, but then using... basically, switching it so he gets a burst of Allomantic power that is charged with a Feruchemical attribute. So it's powering Feruchemy with Allomancy by burning the metal that he himself has Invested.

Questioner

So he was essentially putting stuff into the metal?

Brandon Sanderson

Basically, priming the pump. He puts it in with Feruchemy. Then he burns it with Allomancy. But that fuels Feruchemy with Allomancy, which allows him to draw on the powers of the Shards, rather than himself. So it's not really a perpetual motion machine, because he's drawing the power from someone else. But it's external, which allows him to break the rules of Feruchemy.

The big question I have is: that works in the book, because you can dig into the technicalities of the book. But that's not gonna work in the movie, right? That explanation right there, that's so many levels over the heads of the audience. So I have to figure out a way to not break the cosmere magic, but make it simpler to understand in the movie. Which is the big headache in writing the screenplay. That's probably the biggest challenge in the screenplay is to figure out how to make that all work.

Spun Lines

We’ve seen Shallan’s drawings appear to make people into “better versions of themselves.” But we also see her draw Yalb surviving the shipwreck, and later find out he did. Is she actually seeing the future in which she just happens to inspire people to be better? If so, this would make Wit’s warning to her in Oathbringer more concerning.

Brandon Sanderson

As will all sort of future sight/foretelling in the cosmere, it is not necessarily telling the future so much as seeing possibilities. And Shallan has… we’ll get into this in Book Five. Shallan’s a little extra good at this, for Spiritual mumbo jumbo. (It’s not necessarily just Spiritual mumbo jumbo, 17th Shard.) In this case, we have a very distinct reason why this is happening with Shallan that you might be able to put together. It’s pretty obvious. But you should be able to see these things with Shallan very early in the books. As early as Words of Radiance, I was sticking in little nods to this. She is able to grab glimpses of the Spiritual Realm in ways that even other Lightweavers can’t do. Lightweaving always has a bit of this, right? And this comes back to what’s going on with the Realmatic Theory and Plato’s Theory of the Forms as kind of a foundational text that helped me develop this in my mind. You’re seeing more perfect versions of who you could be. When she’s doing a sketch, she’s sometimes sketching not who you are, but who you could be.

Questioner

How many Shards have been Splintered, besides the four we know?

Brandon Sanderson

You're gonna make me canonize this? I can't canonize this. There's a couple that I'm just kind of...

Questioner

Odium, Endowment, Devotion...

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, Odium has not been Splintered. Endowment and Devotion have been Splintered... Endowment hasn't been Splintered, sorry. Dominion and Devotion have been Splintered. I've confirmed that one other has been Splintered. And then Honor has been Splintered. Those are your four that I've canonized. The other one is, I don't know if I've mentioned who exactly it is, but it's not one that you've seen on one of the planets...

Yeah, I'm not gonna canonize it, exactly how many there are. Because there are things going on in the cosmere that I wanna settle down and decide on once I get to it, exactly what. And Splintering can be a vague term sometimes, too... So that's a RAFO.

KandraAllomancer

Rosharans seem to love names containing words like "Shard" and "Dawn". Is "Dawnshard" a Roshar-specific word (like Shadesmar), and are Dawnshards named differently in other parts of the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

It's more along the other way, that part of the reason they love the words [Dawn] and [Shard] is relating to these issues—relating to the existence of Dawnshards and Shards of Adonalsium and things like that.

Questioner

Hoid, Yolen, are you working on Dragonsteel?

Brandon Sanderson

Working on, is kind of vague term for me knowing I'm going to write it someday, but it comes after The Stormlight Archive.

Questioner

I have so many questions about Hoid, I'm always googling it, I know people are asking you, but--

Brandon Sanderson

I came up with a really great idea, finally. For years-- so the first story I-- okay not the very first story, because the very first story I wrote is Dragonsteel right? So, the first Hoid story I ever wrote, I was seventeen and I wrote a story about Hoid on a planet, trying to figure out how the magic works, to investigate it, to see he wanted to bring it back and use it in his larger plot. 

There, seventeen years old, the cosmere didn't really exist then. But the idea of a guy who went to different planets and investigated their magic and tried to figure out how it works, was. I wrote a whole chapter of him trying to work out how this magic worked on this planet. I had it in the back of my head and I actually just came up with an idea of how to use that.

LerasiumMistborn

Dalinar has a task to "Unite them". Is it's ultimate purpose applies only to Roshar or it could go beyond Roshar, to the greater cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

This could be interpreted that way.

Questioner

Say a Shard is splintered beyond recognition. Would some rather industrious people with something, perhaps like a Dawnshard, be able to change that Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, this is theoretically possible.

Questioner 2

I wanted to ask about how we were just told you could use a Dawnshard to reshape a shattered Shard, perhaps into something different.

Brandon Sanderson

I didn't actually confirm that. They just said "maybe using a Dawnshard." They were looking "is there a way to do this?" And I'm saying, "There is theoretically a way to do this." Would a Dawnshard have to be involved? That is not something that I'm canonizing.

Questioner

Is this the main reason that the Night Brigade is pursuing Zellion in pursuit of the Dawnshard?

Brandon Sanderson

The main reason that the Night Brigade is chasing Zellion is that the Dawnshards represent one of the most valuable things in the entire cosmere. Why are they that valuable? It's because they are one of the things that... I mean, the Dawnshards Shattered Adonalsium. That's what they did. And the Vessels are all very rightly scared of them. That would be the second main reason. There are other reasons.

MoriWillow

The terms kinetic and static Investiture were introduced in Rhythm of War, but not defined or explained.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

MoriWillow

What are kinetic and static Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

Good question. So I've been talking about this for a while, so some of the arcanists out there know. Kinetic is a thing I'm defining that the Investiture is being actively expressed and used, and so it has certain effects. For instance, you're gonna see sand get charged by kinetic Investiture but not necessarily by static Investiture. Static Investiture being Investiture that is stuck in a sphere. If you just walk by with that sphere, particularly if it's in a bag or something, the white sand's not going to see anything. But if you are actively using it to do something, if you have created or are maintaining something, if you are flying or you are using one of the Surges, then we call that kinetic. And kinetic Investiture is going to show up much more easily to someone who can replicate the abilities of a Seeker, who can hear pulses. These are the things the spren notice when someone is using their powers. This is white sand. There are just many things in the cosmere that respond to Investiture being used in some way, and when it is not being used it is harder to hear, locate, or reference.

Swanson188

Would you say that the genetic investitures are the result of a specific gene only available in their system of origin, or are they a trait that CAN exist in other systems (but lack the shard's key to access it)?

The best example I can think of is could a feruchemist be born on Roshar, but not know it because preservation is not present there in the physical realm?

Brandon Sanderson

So, the way I have it right now, that couldn't happen. Your spiritual DNA, so to speak, has to do with your connection to certain Shards--and for a genetic component to occur, certain location-dependent things need to happen. It's a good question, though, and not impossible in the future of the cosmere as certain events proceed.

Coinshooter (paraphrased)

Aside from Demoux and Aslydin, are there any couples traveling throughout the cosmere? And if so, do they have any children that also worldhop?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes.

FirstSelector

So, do you have a name, like an in-world name for a large magical construction, like the things that picks Elantrians?

Brandon Sanderson

That was why I invented the term "fabrial." It will become widespread eventually, as the term for meaning, kind of, magic-type devices in the cosmere. That's not what you call it right now, but you can start calling them all fabrials.

FirstSelector

But what about something that isn't, like-- I always imagined that Aona left, like, a device, a magical device running--

Brandon Sanderson

I will have to RAFO that.

Ansalem1

Hypothetically, if all of the Listeners were to go extinct would the Rhythms still exist?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

WeiryWriter

Are there any other species in the cosmere that also interact with the Rhythms like the listeners do? (Though not necessarily in the same way?)

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Argent

Back in ['14] you referred to Honor's Purposes to me at one point. Is that still a thing in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Honor's purpose?

Argent

Honor's purposes. You referred to ten of them. Using the concept of Shardic numbers. But I don't have that on record, I don't know anything about it, it's been a confusing topic ever since.

Brandon Sanderson

So that's still a deal. It just plays into the ten names of the Almighty and the ten attributes of the Fools and the ten attributes of the Almighty.

Argent

Are Purposes something every shard has?

Brandon Sanderson

I wouldn't say-- No. It's playing more into the nature of Honor itself.

Questioner

Is "Trell" Odium?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO. I'm sorry. The cheeky thing for me to respond would be, "Which Trell," but the answer is just it's a RAFO.

Questioner

Which Trell, huh?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. The name Trell has shown up multiple times in the Cosmere.  But the Trell specifically you're asking about is the one who is invading Scadrial during the second Era.

Questioner

Is that the same one in Era 1?

Brandon Sanderson

So that's a RAFO also but there's also a Trell mentioned on Taldain so the name has shown up multiple times.

Zarin

What is your favorite part about worldbuilding?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably the magic system. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

That, or finding connections between different stories I'm working on. I really enjoy when I can make the worldbuilding for one book be foreshadowing for the worldbuilding of another book, and things like that. And where I can sneak in combinations between things in the cosmere, and stuff like that. That's really satisfying for me. I don't know why, but it's one thing that really excites me.

phoenix1362

So for years GRRM has had a yearly Song of Ice and Fire calendar.

I’d like to think the Cosmere is big enough / popular enough to get similar treatment?

I think there is some great artwork and I love seeing the collections in the leather-bound editions and things.

Brandon Sanderson

This is on our radar. Actually, because of the way the year on Roshar works, we could theoretically come up with an 18-month calendar that has our dates, Roshar dates, and list all the highstorms and Everstorms. That might be more niche than just doing a normal calendar, though.

Questioner

Is Re-Shephir related at all to the Midnight Essence in Aether of Night?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. It's me, like-- Related in that Aether of Night isn't canon, and I really liked how that worked in the cosmere, and I ported it to this instead. So that's like--

Questioner

So you're not gonna write Aether of Night?

Brandon Sanderson

Aether of Night, I might eventually write, but the Mid--

Questioner

It may be different?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Argent

When Sazed picked up the Shards of Preservation and Ruin, did he actively choose to be known as Harmony (instead of, for example, Balance, or Equilibrium, or Stability), or is there some Cosmeric law that says Preservation + Ruin = Harmony?

Brandon Sanderson

He chose the name, but in part because it FELT right to him.

Argent

Is this similar to how a Shard's "personality" overwrites the Shardholder's over time?

Brandon Sanderson

Similar, yes.

Elegy

You implied that there’s a dragon in the cosmere that we haven’t spotted yet. Is it Slowswift? Seems appropriate for the Tolkien homage to secretly be a dragon.

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. That’s a very good guess.

Questioner

I know FOX bought the rights to Steelheart. Do you know if there is anything coming out of that? An update?

Brandon Sanderson

Alright. Big update on media properties based on Sanderson things. We'll start with Reckoners since you started there.

FOX owns the rights to the Reckoners, they have been bought by Disney. We don't know what that's going to do to it, but FOX has always been very excited about Steelheart so we will see what happens. We do have the Reckoners board game that came out and is shipping to backers. It's not for sale yet to people who haven't been backing it but it will be eventually. Let's see-- let's go down some of the smaller projects.

Legion is owned by a company out of Canada called Cineflix, and they are working very hard to make a television show out of that. They just bought the rights last summer, but last I heard they had a showrunner interested, so maybe some announcements about that.

The closest to being published-- the closest to being a movie is probably Snapshot. You probably don't know what that is. It's one of my novellas, it's like a mix between The Matrix and the movie SE7EN, so it's very different from a lot of my stuff. It's very close, they have a script and the screenplay's really good, they have someone attached to direct but they haven't announced it yet so I can't announce it. That one is probably the most close, which is going to be weird when my first movie is a serial killer thriller, but y'know, whatever.

The Cosmere books are owned by DMG Entertainment. They are a Chinese company that funded some of the Marvel films. They've moved into making their own films. They have been a wonderful partner. They are trying very hard to make Stormlight a television show and Mistborn as a movie. It's very hard to get epic fantasy things off the ground but they're making good progress, but there's nothing to announce yet. I think that is everything.

Oudeis

I loved Nazh's "cameo" in the [Nicki] Savage story of Bands of Mourning. I especially like the touch of the map with the ripped edge in the book. Did the events really happen in the book as she describes in her broadsheet piece, or was the actual meeting punched up a bit for drama?

Isaac Stewart

Thanks for your kind words on the [Nicki] Savage story. I hope we get to see her again. Since she's learning the art of storytelling from Allomancer Jak, I suspect her version of events was slightly embellished. :)

Oudeis

Well she has been in two of the stories so far, so fingers crossed!

Isaac Stewart

I'm blanking on this just a little bit. Which was the second story she was in?

Oudeis

In Shadows of Self, there was a broadsheet article about a woman in the southern mountains who ran into a strange red and black person by a placid pool. Her name was [Nicelle] Sauvage, and I admittedly made a bit of an assumption that she and [Nicki] Savage are the same woman.

Isaac Stewart

You are exactly right! She did appear in the Shadows of Self broadsheet. Thank you for reminding me of that.

Oudeis

The name adaptation threw me off, I only picked it up this last time I read through it in my epic-cosmere-re-read leading up to Oathbringer.

I do have to admit, while pretty cool, the dashing stranger who tried to kill a nice woman and destroyed public property in the sky above a metropolis using unknown arcana seemed... a little out-of-character for Nazh as we've otherwise seen him.

Isaac Stewart

[Nicki] added some extra drama to her version of events to make it more interesting. I don't think Nazh would've tried to kill her, though he might want her to think that he was. He's easily annoyed by those who get in the way of his missions, even if they're just nosy adventurers. :)

Trae

Previously, you've revealed that the mechanism that determines the Returned on Nalthis is a decision of a sapient entity... Is the determination by which the entity that selects the recipient of a Divine Breath to come back as a Returned predicated on that recipient fulfilling some purpose in the Physical Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

...Basically they are asking... "Why does the entity that picks who Returns, why did they pick who they did?" And, your question kind of implies there's, like, specific tasks to fulfill. I'm gonna say, there aren't specifics, but there are certain things this entity is looking for--

Trae

In the Physical Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. There are certain things that they are looking for. Now, sometimes-- let's just say this entity is not necessarily the most consistent of entities in the cosmere when it comes to making decisions like this. But there are certain things they are looking for.

LordWetbeard

When I first started reading Stormlight, I couldn't help but notice how similar Kaladin's name is to the Latinised forms of some Middle Eastern names, such 'Saladin', 'Saphadin', 'Nurudin', 'Meledin', etc. Initially, I just scratched it off as an interesting observation until I reached the point in WoR where we learn that Rock calls Kal, 'KalaDEEN', rather than 'KalaDIN'.

​Today, many people outside the Middle East pronounce to 'Saladin' as 'SalaDIN'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT1NInO-ClQ

​But in the Middle East, people would pronounce it with a 'DEEN' just like Rock would. Did Brandon intend for us to think of this? Maybe not, but...

​The Latinised forms of these names are more condensed compared to the Arabic forms of the names:

Saladin --> Salaah ud-Deen (Righteousness of Faith)

Saphadin --> Safaa' ud-Deen (Purity of Faith)

Nurudin --> Nuur ud-Deen (Light of Faith)

​Kaladin's name can also be extended almost similarly and can be translated into Arabic.

Kaladin --> Khalaa' ud-Deen (Void of Faith)

​'Void of Faith' befits Kaladin, especially in the first book as a slave and a bridgeman early on where he seems to have given up on life. I can remember some excerpt where he almost mentions something along the lines of losing faith in the Almighty or the Ardentia, but I cannot remember the exact words.

​Now, to be fair, 'Khalaa'' could be also be translated as 'Lack', 'Absence', and 'Empty', but I think all those words could be considered synonyms of 'Void', which better fits the Stormlight Archive, seeing as we have Voidbringers and Voidspren.

Brandon Sanderson

This isn't a coincidence. Many Alethi names come from Arabic, Hebrew, or sometimes Sanskrit origins. I devised Kaladin specifically by mashing up names like Khalid and Saladin--among others. The ones you can pick out are, generally, intended to be names with Dawnchant origins. Not to imply actual Earth connections; the point here is the same one I make when using ancient Latin or Greek roots to create magic term words.

The idea is that in world, these names might actually be slightly different--but in translation, we use words that evoke the same feelings as they'd have in world. (Indicating, in this case, some names have roots that trace all the way back to original Dawnchant names and terms.)

Questioner

The screams on Roshar. Is that a cosmere-wide phenomenon?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Travis Gafford

You somewhat implied that you have this idea on a video game that you'd like to explore at some point in time. I think a lot of people, when they hear "maybe a Brandon Sanderson video game," they're like, "Oh, man: Mistborn or Stormlight," or something like that. It sounds like, maybe, this would be something completely out of there?

Brandon Sanderson

Having been a gamer, I would want to design a video game that the narrative plays into the strength of the video game. I wouldn't want to simply adapt one of my books. Now, that doesn't mean I wouldn't put it in the Cosmere; I might. But I wouldn't limit myself to that. I would want to do a game that I designed to fit the medium, the storytelling to work with the type of story it is. I've got several cool ideas that I think would make fantastic narrative video games, but we'll see if I can ever do it. If someone out there wants to give me $100 million, if FromSoftware wants to come, I would totally be onboard.

I think Mistborn will make a fantastic video game, don't get me wrong. I think we are going to have one, eventually. But the thing about that is: I can basically hand that off to someone, because I've already built the mechanics. I would have to help supervise, but I don't have to make that game myself. The games I want to make, I would have to pitch and explain to people why these mechanics work, why the narrative works. There's not a lot of pitching I have to do for a Mistborn game. It makes sense to people because they've read the books.

Questioner

The people who are from the future...*inaudible* I was thinking maybe they were from Scadrial?

Brandon Sanderson

I will not confirm or deny it. It is someone from the Cosmere from a world you've seen before.

Questioner

Will Hoid be appearing as a major character in other books besides Stormlight and Dragonsteel?

Brandon Sanderson

Will Hoid be appearing as a major character in books other than Stormlight or Dragonsteel. Yes, he will have a major role to play in the end sequence of the Cosmere, where he will be a major viewpoint character.

Questioner

What is axial interconnection?

Brandon Sanderson

You'll find out <a little bit> eventually. So here's a RAFO. Axi is the Cosmere term for *inaudible* <atoms>. They didn't have a guy named <atom>. They have a different word for it. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're referencing a real-world science when they talk about them.

Potato

What kind of attractions would be in an in-universe cosmere amusement park?

Brandon Sanderson

I don't know. If I were going to come up with an in-universe one, I would try to build it in a modern or future era where you could use the powers in interesting ways. Like a roller coaster that goes in and out of speed bubbles could be interesting in that it is a dimension of experience that we can't have in our world, and so I would write those kind of things in so that reading about it would be more interesting. That's how I approach these things; the magic system and the worldbuilding would be relevant to how the theme park runs.

Questioner 1

My friend and I always argue. He's like, "Amaram and Jasnah are the same age." Are they really?

Brandon Sanderson

Amaram is a little older, I believe, but they are around the same age.

Questioner 2

Like 24ish?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, no. Jasnah's like in her mid to late thirties. Mid thirties. I get it mixed up which one's Earth age and which one's Rosharan age. Whatever I say in there, it's about 10 percent more for our age. But yeah, Jasnah's not...

Questioner 2

She's not a spring chicken.

Brandon Sanderson

She's not a spring chicken. 

Questioner 2

But Amaram's older?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. I think Amaram's like a year or two older, but they're around the same age.

DrogaKrolow

Question about some encyclopedia of about cosmere, so like Silmarillion, something like that.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yeah. Someday maybe. I don't promise it. We will see.

rektosaurusd

Also, is there anyone in the Cosmere I could make for X?!

Brandon Sanderson

Hmm. Xisis. He'll show up eventually.

CephandriusTW

I have just seen this and I'm curious. Is there any information about Xisis that you could give us before entering RAFO territory?

Brandon Sanderson

Not human, from Yolen, currently hanging out on a planet quite near to where you can find a lot of the aethers.

Leiyan

I'm curious about the sun because it's described as white, and our sun is typically yellow. I assume it's a different type of star?

Brandon Sanderson

The yellowing of our sun is not actually caused...so our sun being yellow is not based on the star's actual color.

Leiyan

So is it bigger than our sun? Smaller? If there's anything you want to throw out there I'll take it.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay...I'm having to reach into my memory. This is not canon. Younger and larger, I believe it is both. Younger and larger.

Brandon Sanderson

The star's age, at Roshar...Earth astronomers would say that is a star which could not have planets with life on them.

Questioner

Yes, or no. With all of the cosmere books that have been put out, do we have enough information to deduce the Ghostbloods' motives?

Brandon Sanderson

Ummm... *laugher* I would say yes, but it's not like you are a fool if you haven't gotten it.

Robert Jordan once answered a question like this saying, "Well, the answer should be intuitively obvious to the casual observer." Which I never thought was fair. Like, no, it was not. Szeth, some people guessed it. And some people will guess this. A lot of the foreshadowing in my books, it's this weird thing where, when you do proper foreshadowing, and then people have three years between books, they're gonna figure some things out. Which presents a really interesting challenge to me as a writer, because, like, there are big things that get revealed in Oathbringer, that people who have been steeped in the world for the last seven years... they kinda knew this would happen. We get the beta readers, and they're like, "So? Doesn't everyone know that?" But at the same time, the casual reader, beta readers were like "Holy cow! This is a huge revelation!" And books need to work both for the person who has been really steeped in it, and the person who's reading along that maybe doesn't want to go get all the spoilers from all the fan guessing. So it is this weird balancing act that, as a writer, you have to perform, particularly with the longer books in the longer series, where you want to make sure they're engaging to the hardcore fan, but not overwhelming to the person who maybe hasn't reread the books since the last one came out. And I don't know that I have that balance figured out, but it is something I think about a lot...

Karl_the_Karling

In the third Mistborn novel, Marsh's view was shown briefly but what I want to see is a story were one is a main character. This could show many cool stories like, Marsh's training to become an inquisitor (bit like scary hogwarts) or others.

havoc_mayhem

[Brandon], any chance you could squeeze this into the upcoming cosmere short story collection?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm sure I'll do some more Marsh viewpoints eventually, but I have my hands full getting things ready for the collection. (Plus, it has multiple stories from Scadrial already. It's Roshar we're missing.)