Questioner
When Kaladin; when he turn's a lighteyes, how come they turn blue instead of tan or something? Is there a reason for that?
Brandon Sanderson
His eyes turn to the color of his order.
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When Kaladin; when he turn's a lighteyes, how come they turn blue instead of tan or something? Is there a reason for that?
His eyes turn to the color of his order.
The Knights each have two Surges, they spill over each. I am wondering, is the crossover [shared] Surge for each Knight [Order] the same? Like gravity for Windrunners and--
Windrunners are always the same thing.
No no no, the way the [Gravitation] Surge is for Skybreakers and--
The way they act? Yes. To an extent, yes. Each of the combinations make a little bit of a tweak to how things act but when you see Skybreakers affect gravity it'll be more or less the same as the Windrunners.
I asked for something about Kaladin.
Kaladin has known multiple Lightweavers.
Did every Order have Shardplate?
Every Order was capable of it.
The pocket companion states that there are three spren that can bond a person to make them into a bondsmith, the Stormfather being one of them. As far as I recall the books implied that the number was low, and implied heavily that it was around that number in an epigraph, but didn't actually have a straight confirmation. So, should I take that as canon?
Yes, you can take that as canon. They came to me for that information.
Sweet. I guess it hasn't been canonized which three spren these are? I seem to recall that the prevailing theory on 17th Shard was that Nightwatcher was one of them, and the third was that weird spren with too many faces that Axies the Collector looked at in the tWoK interlude.
RAFO. :)
As you look at the Double Eye, is there a pattern for Honor and Cultivation's disparate influences on each Surge or Order?
There are philosophers who think that there are, but-- it is more straightforward than those philosophers think it is.
From what little we know about the Willshapers, I'm really interested in them. Is there any really tiny tidbit about that Order you could tell us? Even really small?
One of the first Orders that I developed when I was building the magic systems was the Willshapers... Very excited to do a story about them.
What is the second ideal of the dustbringers, we know next to nothing about them.
You'll have to wait until one is a main character.
As of Words of Radiance, are there two groups of Skybreakers running around claiming to be Skybreakers?
Nale’s group is the only one I think I’ve had on-screen, so yeah I think there’s only one. Why would you ask that?
Was the group that Helaran joined the actual Skybreakers?
Oh, I get what you’re saying. Okay. Yes, there is one unified group that call themselves the Skybreakers, good question.
What would the Willshapers think about Adolin killing Sadeas?
The Willshapers would probably be okay with that.
Are we ever gonna find out about all ten Surgebinders?
Yes. In fact, each book is kind of dedicated to a Surgebinder. Each embossing is one of the orders.
Specifically to?
Yeah, the *inaudible* that are in the...
*inaudble*
Yeah.
We know, especially in Oathbringer, that Surges can work differently for different Orders, but we've also seen the Skybreakers and [Windrunners] with flight, and the Truthwatchers and [Edgedancers], they both can do Regrowth, so is there some way that those actually work differently?
Each of them works a little differently for each Order. There are slight variations, but they are each drawing upon the same source concept.
When Kaladin speaks his oath, there's always a very visual explosion of power, like a glyph.
That doesn't necessarily happen with them all, and you'll find out why.
Near the beginning of Rhythm of War it mentions there being only three Truthwatchers. The first two are Renarin and the Stump, who is the third?
RAFO. I wouldn't lose sleep on this one, I'll just tell you that.
Would you be able to write the... Second Ideal of the Truthwatchers?
...It's a RAFO. There's a lot of stuff about the Truthwatchers in [Oathbringer], that's gonna make it complicated to do that, okay? ...Yeah, it's really complicated, and those are things I'm not gonna probably canonize for another couple of books, for reasons that will be very clear by the end of this book.
There is a person on the forums who noticed that Shallan has this awesome Memory thing going on, Jasnah seems to have a really powerful, kind of, geolocation thing going on, Kaladin is a really good fighter - are those just their traits, or is there something supernatural going on?
There is something supernatural going on. Each Order... Well, how about this. If you look at the scholar interpretations, there are some scholars who think that these things are not supernatural, in the past, and some who said they definitely are. But many, if you look, many Lightweavers had powerful mnemonic abilities.
So it's definitely tied to the Orders?
It's tied to the Orders. Now, I am not going to say that you've got them all 100% correct, but each Order, there are things that come with Order, things that do not add up from simple the "you get this power plus this power," there is something else going on. And I would say that for Windrunners, watch the number of squires and the power of the squires... is abnormal for the Windrunners.
And each Order's squires are somehow different from the other Orders'?
Yeeeaaaah... some Orders don't have them, [that] is the difference.
But some have more?
Yeah.
The next tattoo I'm going to get will be the Oaths from the Windrunners, because they are a huge part of my life. And I was just wondering if you'd be able to give me one of them? There's two more, right?
There are more Oaths.
Or if you could tell me which books they're going to come out in, so I can plan on--
So that's a huge spoiler, and they're recording me right now. So I can, maybe, if you promise you're not going to share this on the internet... So I can give you Oath #3. That'll be it for a while
Okay, that's fine. I appreciate it...
That's the wording as I have it in my head right now. I might not use the exact words, but that's okay because the Oaths are concepts and each person who speaks them will speak them slightly differently. Like you will see in future books people speaking Oaths you have seen before, they'll be slightly reworded to match their personality. But that's the concept. You might be able to see that it's a very important thing.
In The Stormlight Archive, will there ever be a point where we'll get to know what all of the different Orders are and all their abilities?
Yes.
Is that gonna be the fifth book? Or is that gonna be at the very end?
It'll be at the very end. Basically, to preserve some of the excitement and discovery, you'll notice me just kind of cutting away before some of those powers get used, and things. Just so when the books about those people happen, I am more able to explore it on the page and have more fun with it.
Is it gonna be like, after the fifth book, is gonna end those main characters and you're gonna show the next generation?
It's not next generation. It's the same characters throughout them all, but the back five will have different flashback sequences. So, the back five will have flashbacks from Lift, Renarin, Jasnah, Taln, and Ash. Characters from the first five are still gonna be the main characters. But, like you didn't get, in this one, any Jasnah flashbacks; Jasnah's flashbacks are in the back five, and they'll be kind of - yeah. So... does that make sense?
Wayne... Which order would he be in?
It would take-- He would probably fit best as an Edgedancer, would be my guess. Most of the Orders would look very strangely upon Wayne, let's say that.
When it comes to the epic-level spren on Roshar, like the Nightwatcher and the Stormfather-- Is the number of epic-level spren equal to the number of Bondsmiths that you can have on Roshar?
Hmm, is the number of epic-level spren related to the number of Bondsmiths you have? Well, I've said there's a maximum of three. And there are three Shards involved in Roshar. I'm not gonna tell you if that's a coincidence or not. Sorry.
What would happen to Syl, say, if Kaladin dies? Can she transfer the bond to someone else?
So long as Kaladin did not forsake his oaths, Syl would be traumatized (as one might imagine) but be capable of forming another bond.
Good to know she can form another bond. I'm guessing she'll be a little more mindless in the interim, though?Â
Yes, without a strong tie to the Physical realm, she would have trouble thinking here if she pulled through to exist here.
So would any of the orders be okay with <one> being an assassin?
"Would any of the orders be okay with one being an assassin?" Yes.
Does each specific order have their own spren that they would bond?
Yes. Each order has a spren that is distinctive. All Windrunners come from honorspren.
I also have the theory that Huio will swear Dustbringer oaths (taking spanreeds apart to see how they work and a badass Shardhammer). And I want to get my first RAFO so:
Can a KR swear 2 order oaths after obtaining a Shardblade?
RAFO!
What's your favorite order of Surgebinders?
Probably the Bondsmiths.
I had a question about what it means to swear the Ideal of Law. Several fans have told me it means to define the law, in the Nixon, "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal," sort of way. I interpret it as becoming the embodiment of the law such that they can't willingly violate any law without breaking their oaths.
Do either of these interpretations hit the mark? Nale seems to follow the law more so than most and that doesn't just seem like a personal preference.
I would say that both of these interpretations could work for a given Skybreaker, which is why there is disagreement among the order itself. Perception is a big part of the oaths.
I wouldn't want to squish this discussion by offering too much on one side or the other, as this is exactly where I want the conversation to be going right now.
The Fused only use nine of the Surges (they don't use Adhesion), and Raboniel describes Adhesion as "not a true Surge." Does this mean, in its original form on Ashyn, Surgebinding had no equivalent to Adhesion, and it was created by Honor later?
That is a valid way of theorizing, and I would encourage you to go that direction. Raboniel is biased. So take those two sentences as separate things. Do be aware she is very, very biased, but also your theorizing could bear fruit going that direction.
How do Bondsmiths use the Dawnshards?
RAFO.
One Wayne and Wax question left in me that I can't get out of my head. What exactly made you decide upon their combination of abilities? Did you focus on the abilities and what they can do, or did you want to give those two characters specific sets of weaknesses and then went from there?
I built them like I built the original Mistborn thieving crew, actually. I decided their roles, then picked powers to compliment them. This is opposite of the Stormlight archive, where I have the orders, and I fit people to them.
Is the third Bondsmith in any way related to the Sleepless?
I am RAFOing third Bondsmith. You will find out a lot more about these in coming books. That one's seeded for the story to answer, and it's not next book, right? This is stuff for… yeah.
Are we going to hear much about Dustbringers in the near future?
So--
'Cause I don't know why but I'm really curious about them.
Yes, but it's going to be very slight for a little while. I'm intentionally digging into these magics somewhat slowly, all the different orders, just so we have time to get used to them. They're one of the later ones. Let's talk more about Bondsmiths and Skybreakers before we do that.
Are there any other Davars that are Invested?
*laughs* That is TOTALLY a RAFO.
I mean, I knew it, when I asked.
"Are there any?" is an odd question. Depends on what time you're talking about. But let's just say there are few people in all of Roshar who've gotten as far as Shallan.
Is healing a universal Stormlight power than?
Yes, within reason. Some are better at it. But it is a universal power.
How do the Knights establish leadership in their ranks? Was it a democracy?
It is different for every Order. Some are more democratic than others.
Thirteenth - Do the Windrunners have any Surges that Szeth doesn't have?
RAFO because it's explained in WoR.
Could new Orders eventually be formed?
This is plausibly possible but highly, highly unlikely. A lot of things are possible in the Stormlight Archive that are highly unlikely. So I rarely say "no," because I built the magic systems of the cosmere to be able to do a lot of things, 'cause I knew I was going to be writing in a lot of different worlds. Which means that very few things are completely off-limits. But there's a lot of things that are unlikely to happen.
Could you give us a snippet about the Dustbringers? Or Willshapers?
Dustbringers never liked their name, and tried hard to get people to use another title for them.
Was there a mechanical reason they weren't able to effect the name change, or was it just because the new name didn't catch on?
The latter.
What is the First Ideal of the Elsecallers?
The First Ideal of all the... all of the Orders is the same. She's actually asking what the Second Ideal is and the answer is actually a RAFO, which means "Read and find out". I will reveal that... when... eventually.
I envision the Bondsmiths as, like, walking catapult. Is that viable, or is it different?
You'll have to wait and see. We'll RAFO that.
What did Ivory mean by the Skybreakers living in death?
Ivory likes contradictions, they fascinate him. And he is saying that they live in death in that they kill a lot. It's a philosophical sort of thing. He's making an Ivory observation, it's not something you're supposed to take as a pronouncement of nature or reality.
Can you give us an Oath that hasn't been revealed in the story yet?
No. You'll have to wait for the stories to get those.
Similar to how Lightweavers have, kind of really good memories. Do the Skybreakers have any special abilities for telling guilty and innocent people apart?
No. Good question.
Soul Forging. Emperor's Soul. If one created the stamp properly, could you, using it, say, Windrunner you stamp, rewrote past to be Lightweaver. Possible?
That is possible and a little easier than a lot of other things. It's gonna run into problems... in that the Oaths are gonna be hard to align.
Probably require some very fine crafting on the stamp.
Very fine crafting on the stamp. And there are certain people that they're just gonna have a hard time fitting into certain Orders. This is a lot easier though than just taking a random person and making them into one, because you're gonna already have Investiture that they've got.
And have the basis of the First Oath.
Yeah. So this is not as hard as it might at first sound. It's the sort of thing that people in the cosmere are looking at. Like, being able to transfer magics between-- and things like that is one of very much interest in the cosmere.
Kaladin kind of went back on his Oaths in the second book, right?
Yes. He started down that path.
How could Shallan or Lightweavers go back on the truths they make? And did Shallan do any of that in Oathbringer?
No, the Cryptics-- remember, how the spren is viewing this is very important. The Cryptics have an interesting relationship with truth. Harder to break your Oaths in that direction with a Cryptic. Harder to move forward, also, if you're not facing some of these things and interacting with them in the right way. But, while I can conceive a world that it could happen, it'd be really hard to for a Lightweaver to do some of the stuff. Particularly the ones close to Honor, you're gonna end up with more trouble along those lines, let's say.
So then, what happened with the Lightweavers during the Recreance? Did they break their Oaths?
They did break their Oaths. I mean, breaking your Oaths as in "walking away from the first Oath" will still do it, regardless of what Order you are. You can actively say, "I am breaking my Oaths and walking away." Anyone has that option. But you also are holding the life of a spren in your hand.
In Words of Radiance we find that Pattern is very literal-minded (at least until Shallan corrupted him), and mathematically-inclined. Even his real name is just a mathematical construct. And his head is a fractal. When I think of Pattern, I think "logic" and "truth", not "art" and "lies".
If all Cryptics are like this, then I wonder why they (and not artistic spren like Wyndle) are the ones attracted to the artistic Lightweavers. Is this just a matter of "opposites attract"? Are spren naturally drawn to people with personal qualities they themselves do not have? I am reminded of the Divine Attributes, and it seems like Shallan has the "Creative" side while Pattern has the "Honest" side. Is that a coincidence?
These things are not coincidences.
I have some very interesting rationals why certain spren are involved with certain orders. I never wanted it to be so straightforward as, "Oh, you control pressure? Here's a spren dedicated to that power." I feel there is more intricacy, and honesty, to a system that isn't so "on the nose" as we say in writing.
I actually wanted to get a tattoo of the Truthwatcher symbol. Are there any-- are there narrative reasons you would go against that?
Uhh, no.
Are they-- would they be an order that's about using knowledge to help people?
Yes.
Could I get an Ideal if possible?
Of them? I can't do 'em because I don't want to canonize them yet, I have to do that when I actually write the books.
But it is broadly speaking knowledge and help?
Yes.
The Skybreakers, are they from the old Radi-- the old Shard?
Yes, they've still been around. Not all of them. They aren't still alive-- The ones back then are not still alive, but they have an unbroken chain. The only Order that has that. They're the only one that didn't abandon their Oaths.
So, the establishing of the Knights Radiant followed up the Surgebinders. So I had a question about Renarin - Is he closer to the modern day Radiants power-wise, or the pre-Knights Radiant Surgebinders?
Renarin?
Because he's weird right?
Yeah, he is weird. Is he closer to pre-Knights Radiant Surgebinders or to modern Knights Radiant? I'd say closer to modern Knights Radiant, is what I would say... but it's a tough call.
Is it possible - not will there be, but is it possible - for a Parshendi to become a Knight Radiant?
In the past, they would've said— How about this, in-world everybody would tell you no. It's never happened.
The Sleepless presumably do not want her to swear a Radiant oath because she would be able to use the Dawnshard in conjunction with Surgebinding, and we know that that combination already destroyed one planet in the system so it's pretty understandable.
But there were a bunch of Soulcasters lying around and they didn't seem bothered. So is this one of the differences between Radiant Soulcasting and Soulcasting via the fabrial? That the Dawnshard cannot be used alongside the fabrial?
So, the Sleepless ARE capable of Radiant bonds. (I believe the back jacket of the first book implies as much, if I remember correctly.) However, things they at first thought were great are making them increasingly worried, for reasons that will come up (not related to them specifically) in this book and the next.
Soulcasting via a fabrial is way, way less dangerous than Radiant Soulcasting--which is in turn far less dangerous than unbound Soulcasting (meaning without oaths.)
We've seen that the interpretation of the oaths is largely up to each individual spren (to the point that we've seen an entire Order of Radiants change their allegiance). Would it be possible for there to be a "sociopathic spren" that has interpreted the oaths so radically differently from the rest of their kind that it appears, to an outsider, that they are unbound in the same way the wielder of an honorblade is unbound? Or is there something essential about the nature of spren that prevents this?
I think that spren could go further than we've seen so far, and indeed, many of the older Skybreakers might be horrified by how far their order has gone. However, there are SOME fundamentals that even a spren with a very different interpretation wouldn't be able to abandon.