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Brandon Sanderson

Skyward Three Update Two

Hello! Brandon here again with another update on the third Skyward book, tentatively titled NOWHERE. This update might have slight spoilers for the first two books in the series. Find the previous update here.

I've been working away on this book, slowly but surely, with progress every week. As I said in the first update, my outline for this book was quite solid, which let me jump right into the story with very little lost time. Which is good, as Dawnshard took a little more time from me than I'd wanted, so timing is a little tight on Nowhere.

The good news is that the publisher (Delacorte, a Random House imprint) has agreed to publish the book Christmas 2021. This took some work on our part, and me agreeing to some pretty tight deadlines, as covid has caused delays all through the industry and the publisher wasn't excited by the prospect of me forcing a relatively early publication date. (Publishers would generally like an 12-18 moth lead time after book turn in to publication, and this one will have around ten months or so.)

However, I think it's best to push a little to get the book done in time for next year--as Skyward fans have been required to wait while I did a Stormlight book in between. However, I've acknowledged to the publisher that if the book needs more than normal revisions (IE, something pops up in alpha/beta that takes work to fix) and I miss any deadlines, I'll agree to a spring 2022 release instead.

So, how's that looking? Well, book is on target writing-wise. I'm at around 62k words as of last night, with a goal of having 90-100k done by January First. That should finish up the novel, save for the interludes, which I'm planning to do a little later. (For spoiler-ish reasons, I can't say why.)

This series has a bit of a strange organization. I'd originally planned a trilogy, but as I worked on the outline for the second and third books, I felt that three books would be rushing things. I wanted to take this third book as a kind of focused character book, looking at Spensa in a rather new environment.

Slight Spoilers: The reasons for this are twofold. First off, I really thought that by the end of Starsight she would need some time to work on a few things relating to her arc. Second off, I knew that coming off of a Stormlight book, I might need a book that was more of an isolated fun adventure--something very different from Stormlight, to help me have variety in my writing. It's working very well, though my big worry is that people will feel this book isn't as connected to the rest of the series (or the stakes aren't as high) because of it. I am doing what I can to mitigate this, as it really is the story I want to tell right now. Hopefully, you'll all agree that the little diversion in book three was worth the journey. Time will tell.

Regardless, thank you for your patience, Skyward fans. The book IS coming. I hate taking a year off of the series like I did, but I don't think you'll have to suffer another of those. I anticipate the final book coming out Spring/summer 2022. (Theoretically, I'll be writing it second half of next year.)

As always, I'll be turning replies to inbox off for this thread, in order to keep the inbox a little more organized. So I apologize in advance if I don't see to your comment/question!

Happy Holidays. Next update should come in the early part of next year, as I am working on revisions. I'll let you know how it goes for hitting those deadlines! (Also, watch for the State of the Sanderson in little over a week to talk more about the projects I'm working on.)

Brandon

graciemoo

Has the Dawnshard that's different from the rest always been different?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO

Questioner

Will there be a leatherbound of Arcanum Unbounded?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there will be. We're working on that. I think that might be the next one after Bands of Mourning. Maybe. That is our plan. It's not our plan to do any of the individual novellas as their own leatherbounds, so that means that we'll probably need to wait for Dawnshard until we do it into a collection, so you can get a leatherbound of that.

bridge4shash

Were the Plains originally shattered by a Dawnsinger? Are Dawnshard magical musical instruments? Are the Parshendi of Odium? Are the gods that the Parshendi abandoned Odium? Are the people above in Sixth of the Dusk Scadrians?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a whole pile of RAFOs. But I can answer one; the gods that the Parshendi abandoned are of Odium.

Questioner

How much should we be thinking about possible logical groupings of Shards? For instance, as pairs or groups of four.

Brandon Sanderson

Go ahead, knock yourselves out. This is relevant, but only in a sort of Cosmerenaut sort of way, people who like theorizing on these things and what not. It's not going to be hugely relevant to the narrative, but Dawnshard does indicate that these groupings are a place you can go.

Questioner

What’s the difference between a Dawnshard and a Shardblade?

Brandon Sanderson

They’re actually, they… You will find out. (laughter) I can’t really reveal that right now, because that’s a RAFO.

Mycroft_canner

Did the Five Scholars know what Dawnshards were?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO

Brandon Sanderson

PART THREE: UPDATES OF PRIMARY PROJECTS

The Stormlight Archive

I didn’t do much work on Stormlight this year, as my focus was on other series.  But I did want to mention that we plan to get Dawnshard in audio out very soon.  Hopefully within the next few months. Max, with Mainframe, has created the audio for it–via the always excellent Kate Reading and Michael Kramer.

Obviously, the big motion on this series will happen with Stormlight Five starting in January, with a target for a Christmas 2023 release.  (It could end up coming out in the spring of 2024, depending on how difficult a write it is.)  Also, I will very likely do a Rock novella as part of the Words of Radiance leatherbound kickstarter in the summer of 2023.

So check back for updates as I work through the book, which will include Szeth’s flashback sequence!

Skyward/Cytoverse

As I’ve talked about already, Cytonic and two of the novellas are out.  While I’m writing this, I’m around two-thirds of the way through the final novel–which, with the Jorgen novella out this month, will mark the end of this first sequence.

Turns out, Janci and I had a lot of fun working together on the novellas.  Our plan was to do another set of them between books three and four, but the timing was tight on these first ones–and that was a tad stressful.  So we’re now working on doing some follow-ups to the first four-book series.  We’ve brought on Darci Cole, an excellent writer and one of the beta readers on the Skyward series, as a co-writer as well.

Together, we’re deciding where to take the Cytoverse and what the right things will be to bring to you after Defiant is done.  There will be more, but Book Four also involves some major changes and interesting turns.  So I won’t say more now, other than that if you love the series, I can promise you more is coming.

Mistborn

Wax and Wayne Four, The Lost Metal, is done and the beta readers have already finished going through it!  One of my jobs will be to get a 3.0 draft of it done in the coming months, opposite working on Stormlight Five.

As many of you may know, I do two writing sessions a day—the first one from around 1:00 until 5:00, and the second from around 10:00 to 2:00 a.m.  In 2022, I’m going to try doing something new–writing prose on Stormlight in the afternoon session, then doing revisions on Mistborn in the evening session.  I’m curious whether this works for me, and if so, whether it’s better or worse for my pace and my enjoyment of the process.

I’ll bring you some updates as I proceed!

Dan Wells

What's Dan Writing?

I continue to work on the revision of Dark One. It's going well, but still not at the pace I would like, in part because I am splitting my time with three other major projects: a new Cosmere series and two secret things I can't tell you about.

What's Dan Reading?

Right now I'm reading Dawnshard, which is a small book that fits between Stormlight 4 and Stormlight 5. And that news, by itself, is not super exciting, but I'm reading it for a very specific reason which IS exciting but which I can't tell you :) You'll find out in a year and a half.

Octavia Escamilla

When did Hoid give [Sigzil] the Dawnshard?

Brandon Sanderson

This is a RAFO.

Legend of Zelda Fan 03

Is the Dawnshard mural significantly related to how Nightmare painting worked on Komashi?

Brandon Sanderson

Significantly related? I’m glad that you started putting words like that in, expert cosmerenauts, because it gives me less wiggle room. (I guess I’m not happy about that.)

Less than significantly related.

Octavia Escamilla

If Zellion/Sigzil gets rid of the Torment, could Hoid get rid of...?

Brandon Sanderson

Theoretically, it's possible that Hoid could get rid of the distortions to his soul. He held the Dawnshard a lot longer, and his distortions are more... how shall we say... pervasive.

College_advice12

Who is more invested, Susebron or Nomad?

Brandon Sanderson

Nomad- uhhhh. Oh oh, that's a hard one. Nomad was, but is no longer. So Susebron. I was gonna say Nomad, but he doesn't have the Dawnshard anymore. So not anymore, Susebron would be more invested than he would be at this point. But Nomad can feed upon Investiture, so he could overtake that threshold in the right circumstances. But not currently. Currently he can't even get himself Connected to the planet to speak the language, so.

Marcus

I'm really curious about how the Allomancy would be represented in a Mistborn adaptation. While you're writing the screenplay, have you already planned something? And is the screenplay still a project? Because your progress bar has been removed, and I got kind of confused.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I took the screenplay off of the progress bar because I'm not actively writing it right now because I have the [Dawnshard] novella to do. I thought I might be getting into it in July, but it doesn't look like I will. All the progress on the screenplay so far that you see is me writing the treatment, not the actual screenplay. And the treatment is, like, a big fancy outline for a screenplay. And in the treatment, what I have right now is that we represent Allomancy with: steelpushing and ironpulling, the thing that the Allomancer is pushing on is going to flash blue on the screen and you'll see a little line from them to the thing. You won't see all of the lines, most likely. There might be a scene where we show it all once or twice, but mostly it's like, "Allomancer, line to the blue thing, and then zip, off they go." This is gonna really depend on things like people who actually know how to do effects on film telling me if it's going to work or not, but it sounds good so far.

Burning pewter, I'm using the same sort of blue feeling. With that, I'm sending a ripple of blue lines, almost more like little lightning or veins, up the person's arms or body, wherever they're increasing their strength, so to speak. (I mean, it does it for all of you, but visually, to draw attention like that.)

The one that's still iffy is emotional Allomancy. Which, in the treatment right now, I say: when someone's been affected by emotional Allomancy, we show their eyes flash blue for just a second. The trick is, this can't be diegetic, it can't be something that's actually happening in-world, because it would be too much of a tell that someone is having emotional Allomancy. So I don't know if it is okay to go with something that's just a symbol for the viewer to know that it's happening, or if that is just too confusing and people will be like, "Why didn't he see that her eyes flashed blue?" or things like that.

My plan is still to write the first draft of the screenplay, but to work with an established screenwriter thereafter to make it actually good. And this'll depend on the established screenwriter that I work with and who ends up being the director on the project, right? Like, there's a lot of people that we're talking to that would be interested. And it also depends on if it ends up live action or animated. Animation is not off the table, even though I really would like to do live action just because I think that our chances of doing Stormlight live action are much lower, and our chances of doing something animated are much higher, just because Stormlight's got so many weird things going on with the spren and the storyline being such that it is.

A lot of things are up in the air with all of this. The only thing I've decided right now is that I'm tired of optioning it and then waiting to see what happens and then maybe getting a screenplay that's okay or maybe not getting a screenplay at all. Basically, from now on, whoever I work with has to be working more closely with me. I think that I have achieved prominence enough in my field that I can just say no to people more easily and not have to roll the dice quite so much. So we'll see if that works out or not.

_imagine_7

I would want to ask him what he added [to Dawnshard during revisions]. Was he generally adding little parts everywhere and surprised that he had increased the word count or maybe writing entirely new chapters? Was this increase of words planned?

Brandon Sanderson

This increase wasn't planned, but I found that (based on some beta reader responses) that I needed to fill out a few character arcs and dig deeper into a few side characters, and their motivations, in order for the story to actually work. This required several new scenes and expansion to several others. It wasn't what I wanted to do, but it was what the story needed. Since I'll be releasing (as part of the kickstarter rewards) all drafts of the story, you'll be able to see for yourself what I mean, if you are interested enough to dig into the earlier drafts.

karyaland

Can we expect these kind of chapter notes [Rhythm of War Annotations] for the rest of the book once it’s released? I absolutely love them.

Brandon Sanderson

I wish I could say yes, but these sorts of things are really tough for me to promise. I used to do way more of them, but the amount of writing I need to do these days can get prohibitive. For example, Dawnshard taking a little longer to revise than anticipated has put me behind on Skyward 3, and I'd really like to make deadline on that.

admodeus9

If Sigzil got a Torment from being a Dawnshard, would someone like Kelsier, who has held a Shard, also manifest a Torment tied to the Intent of Preservation?

Brandon Sanderson

Not necessarily.

admodeus9

What about the Heralds, who are perceived as specific ideas?

Brandon Sanderson

Not necessarily. Good question, but not necessarily.

harsh20483

Not sure if you have answered this but would the events of Dawnshard be chronologically after Rhythm of War or between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War?

Brandon Sanderson

It is between Oathbringer and RoW.

Cthaehen

Can you maybe tell us something about how much of the text in this book is devoted to the happenings of the past year (especially with Dawnshard not being an absolute pre-requisite to understand RoW)? How much can we expect to see of Renarin's journey, because that's an important variable in Odium's plan? I guess with the word/page limit though, it would also make sense to portray the characters just dealing with the aftermath of the events.

Brandon Sanderson

From here out, not a TON is devoted to the past year. We get a lot more from Adolin on how he's feeling than from Renarin, but I did find time to slip a little Renarin in later in the book. And what is there does relate to the questions you are asking here.

Questioner

The Dawnshards. Have we seen any evidence of them on Roshar yet?

Brandon Sanderson

Technically, yes.

Questioner

Is there a the relationship between them and say, like, the perfect gems like the King's Drop?

Brandon Sanderson

I'll RAFO that. Good question.

Letters Words

In Tress, Hoid says, “I’ve said those words. The words that proclaim, in bald-faced arrogance, ‘I don’t trust you to make your own decisions.’ I said them with sixteen other people, in fact.” Hoid seems to be implying here that only seventeen total people were directly involved in the Shattering of Adonalsium: himself and the sixteen original Vessels. Is this accurate? If so, does that mean three of the original Vessels held the other Dawnshards that Hoid didn’t have?

Brandon Sanderson

That’s an excellent question that I have to RAFO.

Questioner

In Dawnshard, we see a mural of Adonalsium being Shattered.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

It’s, like a circle that splits into four parts, and those four parts also split into four parts.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

So I’m wondering if there’s a way to group the Shards in terms of being, or…?

Brandon Sanderson

I would encourage people to be trying to figure this out.

Wren Weichman

What I'm unsure about is the timing of when [Sigzil] gets the Dawnshard versus when he became a different Radiant.

Brandon Sanderson

You'll find this out eventually. RAFO.

Brandon Sanderson

In the comments last week and weeks before, we had a lot of questions about the Dawnshard audiobook. Where is that? I can't tell you when, but it should be coming out sometime this summer. We're looking which publishers to put it with, and things like that. We actually already recorded the audio; we had Michael and Kate do that. (I think it's both of them; him doing Lopen and her doing Rysn.) Regardless, we have that audio; we are ready. It's gonna take us a little bit, because we want to find the right distribution place. But it's coming.

CrypticRadiant

Has Nohadon been a Dawnshard in the past? (my guess is maybe he has and now it’s stored inside The Way of Kings, or jumped to Dalinar from there, would explain the Nohadon dream and the warmth he feels and Unite Them)

Bonus second question: is the ardent Pai actually the Herald Paliah? Other than the name similarity, the other ardent remarks on the name being weird, she’s obsessed with showing the world “The Truth” about Aesudan, and the Taravangian interlude in that same block swears by Pali’s mind, which seems a bit suspicious as it’s an uncommon curse.

Brandon

Good question on Nohadon, and a RAFO to boot. :)

Actually, both questions are RAFOs. If you ever meet me in person, be sure to demand a card!

Questioner

I have a question about Hoid. If he was previously a Dawnshard that prevented him from hurting himself or others, how could he use a hemalurgic spike on himself?

Brandon Sanderson

We don't know that he has.

Questioner

But would he be able to?

Brandon Sanderson

I think there is a way he could get around that if he needed to. Basically, he has to convince himself that this isn't actually hurting him, it's helping him.

Questioner

Similar to how he could do damage to Cognitive Shadows, because they're not really...

Brandon Sanderson

Yep, exactly.

Questioner

I know that it has been important to you to authentically and sensitively portray characters with disabilities. So I was wondering what research you have done or are planning to do to appropriately portray a character with a visual disability?

Brandon Sanderson

I think I made a good level up on that with Dawnshard through some really good help from some beta readers. I would probably use my same method, though my gut tells me that people with visual disabilities are one of those things that authors think they can write when they can't, does that make sense? So I'm going to guess, not knowing, that there are far more bad portrayals of people with visual disabilities than some other disabilities, because of the assumption people make by, like, "Wearing glasses? I know what it's like to have a visual disability," and things like that. I could write Rysn by doing the legwork up front, writing the book, giving it to people, and them telling me what I'm doing wrong. I might need to get somebody onto the ground floor from before I write the chapters or books, if I were going to do someone with a visual disability. Which I do want to do at some point in the future. My gut just tells me "be extra careful with this one."

Foxblade

What are your current thoughts on Silence Divine? The setting and magic are some of my favorite to visualize so I'm always crossing my fingers you'll want to do something with it. It just hits all the right checkboxes for "cool" and with Dawnshard's release, well I was hoping it might be on the radar...

Brandon Sanderson

It's on my radar, yes, as are the two other Cosmere novellas I want to write. (A sequel to Emperor's Soul and one to Sixth of the Dusk that I've actually started.)

Problem is, it's hard to find slots for these things. We'll see. Not forgotten, certainly.

Foxblade

I don't know why, (an old WOB?) but I thought we would only be dealing with Sixth in the background from now on, so a sequel is awesome to hear.

Brandon Sanderson

The Sixth sequel is him exploring Shadesmar. I have a scene done, but it involves some pretty big spoilers for space age cosmere, as within a few years of the story that happened, there is a lot more going on in relation to other worlds. So I'm not sure if it's wise to continue it at this point.

n122333

I know I'm a minority in this, but I love normal humans in a magic world. While Sixth has no investiture, the world is still fantastic and has the air of mystery.

Will we see other cosmere settings where the people don't have magic, but the world does, like in Sixth, and shadows?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you will see more like this. (Many of the settings that involve Aethers can be like this, for example.)

LMJJ

Are Hoid and Sigzil Connected now because they both held the same Dawnshard? Is this why Sigzil is worried about them tracing Hoid if Sigzil is caught?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

LMJJ

Is it possible to trace someone's Connection?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

SilverG347

Could one assume by what Nomad said that Radiant oaths can circumvent the consequences of holding a Dawnshard? Also, if so, since Hoid has Design as his spren, what does it mean for him?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, potentially, and RAFO. Reference earlier discussions in this stream, however.

Miles Stone

Will these [Secret Project] novels be published traditionally for people who can't afford the subscription service?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, we will eventually. The ebook and audio will be published very quickly next year, right around when the books come out. There will be traditional published editions for you eventually. We'll see how quickly we can get those to happen; again, the traditional published version of Dawnshard took about a year and change, about a year and three months. So going through traditional publishing is a lot slower. But that's just because they have to distribute these things to all the different bookstores, and whatnot. We will make that happen. But if you can't afford the Kickstarter, there will be ebooks and audiobooks of these, each, that you can kind of a la carte choose which ones you would want.

Lasernatoo

You said before that you want to cameo in any adaptations of your books as someone who dies in each one. Assuming you do this, would it just function as an out-of-universe nod? Or would you canonically be playing a very unlucky set of identical worldhopping siblings?

Brandon Sanderson

It wouldn't be siblings; it'd probably be, like, somebody who keeps getting reborn. Somebody who's immortal in some way, and something terrible happens to him every time he goes. A little like the unluckiest planeswalker from Magic, if you guys are familiar with that.

I would be the same person, I think, because we'd want to keep canon, and things like that. Some dude who maybe had a certain Dawnshard that makes him indestructible, for a short period of time (not Hoid), but tries to keep going places to get out of danger and just ends up getting squashed every time.

Kind of like I'd be the cosmere's Kenny.

Pawell2812

Cultivation, Ruin, and Preservation seem like aspects of Adonalsium's cosmic nature rather than personality traits like other Shards. Is there a fourth Shard that is cosmic in nature?

Brandon Sanderson

I think they all are cosmic in nature. Even Honor, like you could say that's a personality trait, I don't think it is, I think it's a cosmic sense of justice and order, if that makes sense. We're phrasing it as a personality trait but that's not really what it is. There are those who would argue that the Shard of Honor is what makes things fall to the ground when you drop them and obey natural laws.

Ben Epic

Assuming the Dawnshards each represent four Shards, and considering their Intents seem to be similar, are Endowment, Cultivation, and Ruin all from the same category? Are they all Change Shards?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, I get what you're saying. I'm going to RAFO that for now.

Chaos

In Dawnshard we learned that Intent and Command are two different things, whereas in Warbreaker Vasher is clearly conflating these two into just saying it's the Command. What's the difference between Intent and Command?

Brandon Sanderson

Intent encompasses more understanding. Command is specifically narrow. A lot of times, these things are gonna be conflated, because they basically can be. Like, if Vasher creates an awakened thing and says "go get me those keys." The Intent is: "I need the keys to get outta here. I want to be free." The Command is: "Go fetch keys." Those are two different things, but they are working toward the same goal. It is important in cosmere terms that the Intent is understood, even if sometimes the words that can speak 'em are clunky and smaller in scale by nature than the Intent.

Let's say the Intent of a Shard encompasses more than the word that the Shard is described by. It's a similar thing that the Intent of a Command is often vaster than the actual words spoken. And the magic can grasp the Intent, not just the Command, depending on the magic system and how good you are at it, and things like that. The words are there to focus Intent. How about that?

Chaos

Bringing the old word "focus" back into it. Let's talk about body focuses; what's going on there? (That's a joke.)

Brandon Sanderson

I'll throw you a kernel on that one in the fifth book if you watch for it. That old Rosharan philosophy will actually be relevant for a small thing happening in the fifth book.

SMG9000

I really enjoyed Arcanum Unbounded. Do you see yourself releasing a collection of short stories like that again? And have other authors approached you about writing a short story in the Cosmere? What other author would you enjoy seeing tackle a story in the Cosmere, and why?

Brandon Sanderson

I think an Arcanum Unbounded 2 is someday inevitable, but it depends on how many novellas I get around to writing, or short pieces. I think it is inevitable; we already have one in Dawnshard that would go in it, and we will have Horneater in a year or two, and maybe someday we will have the Lopen short story that could then fit in there. But for me to really want to do Arcanum Unbounded, I have to write some stories on other plants, like finish up the Sixth of the Dusk sequel, and stuff like that.

On the second question, there are people who are interested. Right now, the only person that is authorized to write in the Cosmere except me is Isaac. And he is working away on his first stab at a Cosmere story. I don't know what the length; we had talked about a novella. It seems like it's longer? It is. So he is working away at that. I haven't read any of it yet, I've just helped him outline, and things like that. So if that works, potentially there is a chance for more. The Skyward novellas have been very well received, and that makes me excited for the potential. I could see a short fiction collection that is just lots of different Cosmere things that different friends of mine have written.

But we'll see. I have no immediate plans; the only immediate plan for this is Isaac working on his story and me working on Horneater.

Questioner

Lightweavers, you're saying that they're gonna be able to do lasers and things in space era. Could a Lightweaver conceivably make a kugelblitz? It's when compressing enough light into one space that it makes a black hole.

Brandon Sanderson

I'm gonna say that that's beyond the power level of your average Lightweaver. But who knows? Good question. I've never heard that term before, that's kind of cool. That'd take a lot of Light.

Questioner

Isn't Hoid a Lightweaver now?

Brandon Sanderson

Hoid is a Lightweaver now, yes. But Hoid does like playing with fire. He should not be a Lightweaver. Hoid is too close to various things that happened with Dawnshards, he is playing with fire.

Joe

I really miss Rock. Is that going to be part of the Words of Radiance Kickstarter?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. It will be part of the Words of Radiance Kickstarter. There will be a novella about Rock as part of the Words of Radiance Kickstarter. If I don't give myself the deadlines, then it might turn into, like,  Rithmatist 2, where it's like "oh I'll do it someday." I've committed to doing that. It will be the thing I write right after Book 5, and it should come out right before Book 5, in the same way that I did with Dawnshard. That's, at least, the plan right now.

Kalinque

Wait, Hoid can't eat meat, despite the fact that he loves bacon? That poor, poor man.

Makes me wonder if this extends to Soulcast meat, though.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's usually part of the joke when I mention his love for it.

There's a cognitive aspect to it, though--but whenever he's around food, you'll often note him acting a little oddly.

kaggzz

So does that mean he was extra mean to the Alethi because he had to show up to all their feasts as Wit?

Brandon Sanderson

No, taking on the Wit persona was his choice.

neonmarkov

Is that inability to eat meat and harm people related to the Intent of the Dawnshard he took up? Is he like a Sliver in a way?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO, I'm afraid. But these are the right questions to be asking.

Questioner

What are the four Dawnshards?

Brandon Sanderson

They are the weapon used to Shatter Adonalsium. What they actually are, I won't tell you yet. Like, what their different... But that's what they are, in case you didn't know that much.

DracostarA

When the Sleepless refer to 'Surgebinding' with the Dawnshards do they mean it specifically in the Rosharan sense, or just because that is the word Roshar has for magic.

I.e. if this occurred on Scadrial would they still call it 'Surgebinding' or something else?

Brandon Sanderson

Surgebinding is kind of a catch-all for cosmere magic here, as you're assuming. Literally binding (using) surges (a word for what we would call types of magic.)

FirebreatherRay

So, Rosharans would look at an Allomancer or Feruchemist and say, "Yep, that there is a Surgebinder," correct?

Brandon Sanderson

Many Rosharans. Many would also just think of them as some kind of voidbringer or other mythological figure, from local lore.

HORSEthe

Wait, have mistborn been to roshar or am I reading this wrong?

Brandon Sanderson

What I mean is that someone like from, say, Bavland might have different stories they tell about creatures in the night than someone from Rira. So while they might call someone who uses strange abilities a surgebinder, they are probably more likely to talk about the local equivalent of something like a fae creature from local British lore.

edgwardoe

How much have you thought about the evolution of the biology on Roshar? It seems like the creatures we saw in Dawnshard attacking the crew (Sleepless aside, they're a whole other can of cremlings) are basically amphibious chasmfiends? Or some descendent of larkin? Or even an offshoot of hordelings?

Brandon Sanderson

I imagine there's a lot of aquatic Rosharan megafauna, as many prey species on the planet have literal sources of energy inside of them that (with the right biological adaptations) can be turned into calories. Mix the low gravity, high oxygen, environment--and the possibility for bonding spren for other adaptations--and there's some real fun to be had.

Rosharan Sleepless, as a species who can self-evolve over internal generations, have managed to interbreed with some species of cremlings to come up with specialized hordelings to do some remarkable things.

Brandon Sanderson

PART ELEVEN: PROJECTED SCHEDULE

Last year, I suggested this schedule for the next few years:

Fall 2021: Skyward 3Spring 2022: Alcatraz 6Fall 2022: Wax and Wayne 4Spring/Summer 2023: Skyward 4Fall 2023: Stormlight 5

Well, I got Skyward 3 out, and have finished Wax and Wayne 4 and am close to finishing Skyward 4. The only change there that seems likely is that Alcatraz 6 is come out at the very end of summer, and the first five Alcatraz books are getting a rerelease first. Adding in a few other things, my release schedule looks like this:

December 28th:  Evershore (the third Skyward novella) ebook and audio

January: The Original ebook

February: Dawnshard audiobook [THIS IS NOT FIRM]

April: Skyward Flight hardcover collection

May: Alcatraz 1 paperback rerelease

June: Legion: Death and Faxes, Alcatraz 2 paperback

July: Lux (Reckoners) ebook, Alcatraz 3 paperback

August: Alcatraz 4 paperback

September: Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians (Alcatraz 6), in hardcover, ebook, and audio; Alcatraz 5 paperback

October: Dark One: Forgotten audio

November: The Lost Metal (Wax and Wayne 4), in hardcover, ebook, and audio

I’ll be spending the entire year writing Stormlight 5!  So you can follow along, as always, with the percentage bars on my website.

Stormlightning

Is there a set number of them[Dawnshards]?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Stormlightning

Are you willing to say?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

Stormlightning

Are you willing to say if they originated in the Rosharan system?

Brandon Sanderson

I am not willing to say.

Dawnshard (paraphrased)

So I asked Brandon at the LA signing if he could tell us about a shard that we don't know anything about (including the survival shard) and he said that there was a shard that isn't on a planet. Now I think this means that the shard is either on an asteroid, or a star. It could also be floating in space or on a moon and influencing from a distance. I will repeat it is not any shard we already know about.