Found 1880 entries in 0.297 seconds.
The Cosmere—How?:
"I don't know if it's something I can answer, simply because I don't know how." He went on to relate his feelings when reading Asimov's Foundation, and how cool it would have been if Asimov had known from the beginning that he was going to be tying all these things in, and the subtle hints he could have left in the earlier stories.
When do we get to officially get to know what's going on in the Cosmere?
All of my epic fantasy books are connected with continuing characters. That's a way off, and that's because I don't want people to feel like they have to have read all my previous books to enjoy the series. It should be about the characters. Eventually I will write one that's a mashup, but we're not there yet. I'll be very upfront about it when I do it. For now it's just easter eggs.
The whole Cosmere thing, is there an end to it, and do you have a specific year in mind for when that will be?
Yes, there is an end. Here’s what has to be happen before I finish it. We have to do another two Mistborn trilogies, The Stormlight Archive, at least three Dragonsteel novels. That’s the soonest I can do. I’ll probably have to do a few more Elantris and Warbreaker, but that’s the minimum. Because the third Mistborn trilogy is where we bring things to a head.
My question is in regards to the writing system. In Warbreaker, when Siri is teaching Susebron to read, she mentions the letter "shash," which we now know better as a glyph from [The Way of Kings].
so onto the questions:
Are the two writing systems related, or is this a chance coincidence of names?
If they are related, did they stem from the same source? (i.e., do the people of Nalthis and Roshar both descend from a more ancient group of people?)
If I haven't gotten a RAFO yet, did the separation from these other people create the legends of being cast out of the Tranquiline Halls?
There are interesting connections around the cosmere between linguistics and some cultures. Though different groups of humans were created on different planets, the Shards all share a single point of origin. However, the Tranquiline Halls legends are not related to a Nalthis/Roshar connection.
Is there any undiscovered planets in the cosmere?
Yes.
Would magic from one world work on another and if so, how?
Generally, magics in the cosmere work on different planets. But it depends on the magic. Things like the Dor on Sel are locked to the geography, so it gets difficult. The Metallic Arts work pretty much universally though. Making Surgebinding work on another planet would require Stormlight and the spren are bound to Roshar, so getting them off planet is quite hard.
So the magics kind of work differently depending on whether a sentient being is involved, how the magic works and how it's powered. It would be very easy to take some Breaths off of Nalthis, which is a problem for them. It gets very complicated.
Can there be a mixing of magic?
Yes, there can be.
About Miles from Alloy of Law and his regenerative powers. If he was bisected down the middle and the halves were separated immediately before the healing process could begin, would the two halves each regrow into a whole Miles?
I heard this sort of situation arose with Hoid in Dragonsteel. He had his head cut off.
Good question. In all of the Cosmere's Shard-based magics, the greater portion of a bisected body regrows the lesser portion. If it were done EXACTLY halfway, the soul wold jump to one or the other randomly and that would regrow.
Amusingly, this first came up in 1999, six years before I got published. (I see someone else already mentioned the situation where I had to consider it.)
Can all Investitures be classified as end-positive, neutral, or negative?
Yes, though in the overwhelming majority of cases, it's end-positive or at least neutral. Hemalurgy really is an oddity in the cosmere.
So, when you were starting to write your books, did you have the idea for-- Like [???] magics tied together or did you have that from the beginning?
Oh, excellent question. So, he's asking about the Cosmere, where all my epic fantasies are tied together. Where did that come from. I can trace a few paths back in my brain where that came from. What I can say is that it was built in from the beginning of the books you have been reading. But you remember, those weren't my first written books. I wrote thirteen novels before I sold one. Elantris was number six. Way of Kings was number thirteen. And so-- I love this idea of a big, connected universe. The first person I can remember doing it, that blew my mind, was when Asimov connected the Robots and the Foundation books, which I thought was so cool when I was a teenager.
Another path that I trace this [concept?] also, though-- I don't know how many of you guys did this, but when I'd read a book--I still do this, actually--I would insert behind the scenes a kind of character that was my own, who was doing stuff behind the scenes. Like I would insert my own story into the story, just kind of take ownership of it in a strange sort of way. I remember doing this with the Pern books. I'm like "Oh, no, they think that person is who they think they are, but nooo! This is this other person!" And so I had this kind of proto-Hoid in my head jumping between other people's books.
So when I sat down to write Elantris, I said "Well, I want to do something like this". All the people I've seen doing this before-- and they've done it very well. Michael Moorcock did it, and Stephen King did it, and things like this, I'm not the first one to connect their books together, not by a long shot. I felt like a lot of them, they kinda fell into it, and as a writer, having seen what they did, I could then do it intentionally, if that makes sense. And so I started out with this idea that I was just gonna have this character in-between who is furthering his own goals, and built out a story for him, and then I went-- After I did Elantris, I wrote a book called Dragonsteel, which isn't published, and it was his origin story, for this character. And then I wrote some more books, and so, of course-- and things like this. Eventually Elantris got published and the other ones didn't, and they weren't as good as Elantris was. And so I took them all as kind of "backstory canon", and moved forward as if they had all-- they were all there and they had happened, but nobody else knew but me. Which allowed this cool foundation for you like "wow, that stuff has happened", because I had books and books of material that I could treat as canon in this way, to let me know where thing were going. So it wasn't planned-- It was planned from the beginning, but not the beginning of my writing care. From about book six was where it started.
Other than Vessels, how many beings have lived from before the Shattering until the time of The Way of Kings?
More than you would think. Longevity is not hard to come by in the cosmere. That much longevity would be a little uncommon. But certain species are particularly long lived, and certain magic systems enable longevity.
Do [you] have an ultimate ending in mind for the cosmere?
Yes I do!
I notice that Stormlight seems to be a bit volatile in how well it heals or who it heals. Because it seems like Renarin's eyesight would have been a long term problem, kinda like Rysn's legs maybe and Lopen's arm. But Lopen's arm got healed, Rysn's legs didn't and Kaladin's scars didn't. So I didn't know if there was a reason for those things.
So Stormlight healing, there's a couple things that have to be considered. But in reference to what you're saying, the person's perception of themselves is a huge part of it. The way healing works in the cosmere is, you've got the three versions of yourself. You've got your Physical version, your Cognitive version, and your Spiritual version, And a lot of Stormlight is taking your Physical version and matching it to the Spiritual version which is your ideal self. But it has to be filtered through the lens of your mind, and things like this.
I almost always--probably should say always--am using it to reinforce some sort of character attribute. The fact that Lopen never saw himself, even though he only had one arm, as being disabled, as a big influence, versus whether Kaladin feels deserves his brands or not. Does that makes sense? And those are two very different things that influence how the healing works. And you will see that as a metaphor and theme, if you watch what heals and what doesn't.
Why didn’t Kaladin’s brand heal if Lopen can regrow an arm?
It comes down to how one views oneself. It is the answer that you think it is. So really what that’s saying is Kaladin sees himself as branded.
We've noticed that each world, or most worlds, seem to have something that Invesiture likes to stick to. So on Nalthis it's life, on Roshar it's gems, metal on Scadrial... Do you have a term for those things?
I do not have one yet. But I probably should.
...the giant South American glyphs.
Yeah that is super RAFO.
Can AonDor heal chronic conditions, like poor eyesight? If so, does it require specialized Aon drawing to work, or will enough Aon Iens do the job eventually?
Yes, AonDor could cure a chronic condition like poor eyesight. But you would have to get the specifics of everything, kind of like they're equations, correct. You'd have to know a LOT about AonDor and a LOT about the body to get it right. *pauses in thought* It's kind of like with computer programming.
How far back was the <second> Warbreaker book? Chronologically does it come before or after Stormlight Archive?
Before.
Before. So in between Warbreaker and The Stormlight Archive?
Yes. More close to Warbreaker than to Stormlight.
The logo for Dragonsteel [2022] shows a dragon holding a sword. What is the name of the sword?
The sword doesn't yet have a name. Neither does the dragon.
You like dragons very much, right?
I do like dragons very much.
Well then you don't have dragons in any of your books.
One of my books has dragons. It's the one I wrote but didn't get published and will eventually re-publish, called Dragonsteel. So one of the very first I wrote had dragons, but I don't want to do dragons in every book. So I'm waiting for the book that it is right for.
Hmm.
Good question.
Is the relative positioning of the constellations' images significant in any way? For example, the Shardbearer is pointing his blade at the dragon/serpent/monster of the Scar, while Nalthian lady looks like she is blowing Sel's fire out. Do we need to be paying attention to those?
This is more compositional than anything else. Though I wouldn't discount their positions entirely.
Stormlight, I know it heals wounds and stuff like that but can it heal illnesses like colds?
Yes it can.
So if Kaladin suddenly contracted brain cancer...
It's plausible-- it depends, see what it does is it takes your body and makes it align with your spirit, and partially through the filter of how you view yourself. So if you view yourself as sickly, then you won't.
If you spiked out Miles' Feruchemical gold, would he be able to burn his Allomantic reserves [read: Feruchemical reserves using Allomancy] and heal it back?
If you spiked out his ability to heal gold and somehow left him alive?
Yeah, but still having Allomancy.
Still has Allomancy...
And he’s like in the middle of burning a goldmind.
Yes, that would still work. It'd still have a Spiritual Connection to him.
So if you're a Coinshot and you get [spiked] to have Feruchemical steel, and then you lose the spike after making a store, you can still Compound that for speed?
Yes... Yeah, that should still work.
Was Paalm doing that?
That's a RAFO.
Is there any difference between the healing that Feruchemical gold and held Stormlight can accomplish?
There are minor differences, but they work on the same principle, so...
Can Radiants have kids?
Yes.
Can they heal their kids?
Can they heal their kids?
Like, during the process.
During... like, in-utero?
Yes.
Yes.
Is Resealing a subset of Forging, or a separate system like Bloodsealing is?
Um...
*Looooong silence*
I'm trying to remember what I decided—I was building all of this on a fourteen hour plane flight, keep in mind—I believe it is—Let's go ahead and PAFO that one. I need to go to my notes. I can give you a tentative "I believe it is the same system and not a cousin system" but at the end of the day I kind of had to go to my notes and work things out. There was lots of wiggle room built into the Elantris magic systems but I have to know what I decided.
When you a get a Hemalurgic spike, if you just immediately... tap gold, do you lose the spike, or is the spike already in there and can't get out?
Okay: so hemalurgic spike, tap gold? RAFO.
I asked him why he didn’t mention how Jews felt about Rithmatics.
He said that they had conflicting feelings about it and different ones had different ideas - they also had their own lore about it.
Anything you can tell us about Frost?
What do you want to know about Frost?
Everything.
Then no. I'm not going to tell you everything about Frost. He's still alive.
He's immortal?
Yeah. He can be killed, he's just functionally immortal, he doesn't age.
Has he always been able to take the form of that-- *audio obscured*
Yes. He was born as one.
Born as one.
It is a race.
Also, is there a common reality/universe throughout all of you works (WoT excluded)? The gods and magic system of your books you have mentioned as pieces of a larger source. I know I am mistaking the language a bit; it was a while ago that I read this. But Preservation and Ruin were linked and you referenced possible deities in Elantris, not to mention Austre. I know your magic systems are all well thought out and the rules have practical founding. With this in mind, I assume your deities and beings of power would have universally applied links and rules as well. I figure they all exist in the same multi-verse.
I am remaining mostly closed-lipped on this topic, as I don't want to spoil the story and discovery. There is a lot of discussion about it on my website. I can confirm what I've said earlier, that there is a common character appearing in the books, and that there is a single cosmology to all of the Shardworlds and their books (Elantris, Mistborn, Warbreaker, White Sand, Dragonsteel, The Silence Divine, etc. Those last three are unpublished, by the way.) There is also a connection between how the magic works in each book, as well as the fundamental metaphysics of the worlds.
In this one [Sixth of the Dusk] is the guy he [Dusk] finds dead, is that Hoid?
They guy he finds dead is not Hoid. Good question.
Is it anyone we already know?
Does Hoid make an appearance in that one?
Hoid does not make an appearance in that one.
What about Shadows for Silence?
In Shadows for Silence he does not make an appearance. I established with those two, my goal was, he-- I found that if I just shoehorned him in it didn't actually fit the narrative. Like I want this to not just be a cameo, he's actively doing things. Does that make sense? He's not just there for cameos... he's actively up to something.
Now he has been to Threnody. Threnody is very interesting to him for certain reasons. He hasn't been to First of the Sun, he's never visited Sixth of the Dusk's planet, yet.
Do you have other minor Shardworlds?
Yeah I have a bunch of them, and which ones are worth telling a story in will depend on when I get around to it whether they're worth it.
[Hoid] was beheaded in Dragonsteel Prime and the Dawnshard is what regrew his head. He makes a crack about always thinking his head would have grown a new body, not vice versa, as he stares at his own severed head.
Slightly related: If the Dawnshard let Hoid regrow his entire head, will it eventually give Rysn back the use of her legs?
The different dawnshards have different powers.
Information subject to change when it appears in canon.
In Mistborn, you say its planet is called Scadrial. In-universe, where (or when) did the name Scadrial come to be used to be describe the Mistborn planet? Did the Lord Ruler and his obligators use that as the name of the planet, or did it come later, post-Mistborn 3? Or is "Scadrial" just what you as an author use to refer to it?
It is "In Universe" so to speak, though the name itself isn't known to the people on-planet. The Lord Ruler was the only one who understood the exact nature of a planet, really, though some of the obligators and noble scholars had a general idea. Astronomy was one of the scientific areas where the Lord Ruler didn't mind people doing research, so long as it kept their interest away from chemistry or a science that could lead to advances in weaponry.
Scadrial would then have been the name that Ruin and Preservation understood for the planet, as well as certain other groups and individuals of a less directly divine nature.
What differentiates a minor Shardworld like First of the Sun?
The amount of Investiture, and whether there is actually a Shard in presence.
I'm assuming there is not one there?
There is not one there.
So it's like a Splintered one from something else?
No what you'll find is that the worlds were all created with a level of-- a little bit of sort of ambient magic. What you'll find in worlds like that is things like, Shadows for Silence and things like this, the magic, it's not necessarily "people with magic" it's you can interact with nature...
So there is inherent Investiture...
There is inherent investiture in every world created but you are going to see-- You aren't going to find Mistborn on a world like that but what you might find is a way there are magic aspects to the setting. Spren could exist on a world like that but they would be like the minor spren, you wouldn't find Syl, but you would find something like lifespren.
Can you go into healing a bit more?
Regrowth in the books - Healing is an aspect, Regrowth is ??,
If a planet was orbiting a black hole, would time be distorted in the Cognitive Realm in that area the same way?
Yes. Good question. And in fact, if you could get enough Investiture, it will do the same thing.
You've once said that there were three sentient species on Yolen: Human, Dragon and [Sho Del]. We've seen a lot of 'people' on the different planets that were either descended from or intentionally based on humans. Frost is known to be a dragon.
Are any of the non-human species we've seen descended from or based on either Dragons or [Sho Del]?
RAFO! :)
What colour is Frost's blood? What color is a [Sho Del]'s blood?
RAFO, more because I'm not ready to canonize Dragonsteel facts yet, as opposed because it will be a huge revelation.
1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how similar are the processes of Command-Breaking a Lifeless and Unmaking?
2. Is there more going on behind the scenes when an Allomancer burns pewter? I suspect that the process triggers a "mind over matter" state, where the user's desires are made manifest, albeit in a limited way. If so, can a pewter burner alter their Physical appearance, similar to a Returned (provided they knew they could and had access to enough pewter)?
1. 7 they are similar
2a. That is a valid theory. On the right track.
2b. Possible in theory
Do you perhaps have a name for Reckonersverse or the multiverse of Apocalypse Guard?
I know Reckonersverse is one of the Core Realities but do you have a name for that specific one?
No name right now. I've been thinking about it.
In The Rithmatist, in that world, do they ever use Rithmatics for practical purposes? I can easily see using Lines of Forbiddance for children to just draw a line on the wall, and like--
They should do it more than they do. But there are people using it, chalklings included.
Is there significance in the star chart there where Nalthis and Scadrial are connected? They're the only ones that are.
I'm gonna say, not huge significance. We didn't put that in as an Easter egg, it was more like, "This looked right."
Are flamespren, are they all doing their own thing, or is there some Ideal of "Fire" sitting in the Spiritual Realm that they're all based on?
Each spren is based on the Ideal of Fire.
And is that sitting in the Spiritual Realm?
Yes, we're using sort of a Platonic Ideal, and that concept is in force, so *sounds hesitant* "yes", but [spren] are manifestations of it.
So these Ideals in the Spiritual Realm: Divine Breath, does that heal by accessing some Ideal of Human Health: so a guy who had never had a tongue and doesn't know how to speak all the sudden has a tongue and can speak?
You are... *LONG pause* You are, um, on the right track.
Okay.
Because the Breath is... eh. How can I explain this? You are, yeah... So... So each Breath is a shade of deity, right?
Yeah.
And each Breath incorporates into it this sort of idea of being endowed by the deity Endowment, correct?
Yes.
And so each Breath you hold brings you one step closer to becoming like that, and so what you're saying is... is "yes", kind of true, yes.
But it's like within the Breath, not sitting off by itself-
Yes, yes yes exactly.
And as a transgender woman, thank you so much. To see that little detail of the Reshi king transitioning using Stormlight made me so happy.
I wanted to make sure I got the Reshi king another cameo at some point because it feels to me there would be a disproportionately large number of trans people among the Knights Radiant, considering the journey of self-discovery they go on in their lives.
Why did Kaladin's forehead scars never heal?
Stormlight healing has a lot to do with how one sees oneself.
I really enjoy the systems of religion and the religious questions that you bring up and so I was wondering-- Well first whether in your worlds there is a relationship between the efficacy of religion and the efficacy of magic?
There is but the relationship is not a direct one-to-one parallel. In other words the beings that are worshiped have an influence over the magic. Whether they are actually God is disputed by various people. And there are people who worship things that are not the various beings the magic is-- Does that make sense?
Do we have yet to see a dragon from you? I was wondering if those were coming later.
I did put, one of my world has Dragons.
Is that Dragonsteel?
Yes it is!
Do dragons always go through their early life in human form? Or would being a Sho Del also be possible for a young dragon?
The way I have it right now (which, we’ll give this as a Word of Brandon that could change, because I haven’t written Dragonsteel yet), it’s a human form. I imagined dragons like amphibians, that they have part of their lifecycle… the Yolish dragons, they mate in human form, they bear children in human form, raise children mostly in human form, but their dragon form is equally part of their identity.
In The Stormlight Archive, are there any on-screen appearances of dragons in any form?
RAFO. Sorry.
Dragons can be shapeshifters, correct?
They can, yes.
Do they only have a humanoid form they can appear as, or can they appear as many humans?
Depends.
Could an AI bond a spren?
RAFO
Are there any Cognitive Shades of Mistborn Llamas?
Hehe-- In the Alcatraz universe, there sure are. 'Cause, I mean, in the Alcatraz universe it is canon, for instance, that Asmodean existed, and it's canon that Spook existed and High Imperial exists. So in the Alcatraz universe all bets are off.
