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Dan Wells
Sixth Epoch, Year 31, Palahachan 5.3.2.
Dustbringers
I have a soft spot for the Dustbringers. I've never met one, or at least I don't think I ever have. But their core principle is one I feel uncomfortably close to my own heart: that we all bear the capacity for unimaginable damage and destruction, and that the only way to protect those around us is to always maintain a firm, unshakeable control over ourselves. I'm no Dustbringer, but I've caused my fair share of destruction. Mental, emotional, and even physical. It's a hard thing to live with. The Dustbringers dedicate their entire lives to making sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen. That no angry outburst or selfish whim ends up harming the people they love. There's a part of me, I think, that would enjoy being a Dustbringer.
A big part of Dustbringers' incredible self control comes from their quest to understand themselves and the world they live in. How does a given thing work? Why does that river flow in just that way? Why does that rock stay on that ledge? And if it falls, how will it fall? Where will it land? Why does this experience cause this emotion, and why does this word or this attitude cause this particular response? When we understand something, we can control it. We can make that rock fall exactly where we want it, or cause or avoid an emotional response in a person we're taking to. Wouldn't that be wonderful? To know yourself and your family, and the world in general, so well that you can always keep everyone happy?
Or maybe I'm revealing a little bit more about myself than I should be. So back to the fun stuff: physical destruction. Dustbringers are the sappers and siege masters of an army. The ones who could bring down an otherwise impenetrable enemy fortification through the one-two punch of having a lot of power and knowing exactly where to apply it. Want to take down a bridge? Who better than someone who takes bridges apart for fun, just to see how they work? And who better than- okay, now I'm thinking about the potential of targeted emotional destruction, and it's pretty terrifying. So let's end on the control thing instead. Who better to defend your own bridges and forts and hearts than someone who knows exactly how they work and who has the self-awareness and the emotional control to keep them completely safe.
Brandon Sanderson
Dustbringer
I will seek self-mastery
Dustbringer oaths were themed toward responsibility. They were led to understand that the powers they used needed to be properly channeled, much as their own desires and wills needed proper form and shape. As a Dustbringer moved through the oaths, they were taught greater powers of destruction—and are one of the only orders where their abilities weren’t all available at the beginning, but instead were delivered slowly, as they made the proper oaths. Each oath led to a greater understanding of power, the nature of holding it, and the associated responsibility.
Dustbringers—though they sometimes objected to the common name for their order, preferring instead to be called Releasers—are living contradictions among the Knights Radiant. They believe great power requires a strong will to control it. They often attract tinkerers who like to dig down into the shape and soul of a thing, break it, and see what makes it work. However, their oaths are themed toward control—that they need to be able to control, contain, and channel the terrible power inside them. They tend to object to those who focus only on their destructive sides, as they argue that in order to create, one must understand the pieces of the thing they are trying to make. They don’t see themselves as being about destruction—though their powers are the most destructive of any order of Knights Radiant. They instead see their nature as being about control, precision, and understanding. In the Knights Radiant, they tend to act as the equivalent of artillery in a modern army. If you want a large swath of land destroyed or burned, you call in the Dustbringers. However, they were also often used as sappers, engineers, and strategists.
They attract anyone who likes to take things apart, who likes to know how things work. They also attract those who are a little foolhardy at times—brave soldiers who see themselves as containing and controlling terrible destruction so it won’t get out of hand and hurt innocents.
Questioner
I was just wondering if there's anything you can tell me about the Dustbringers?
Brandon Sanderson
Let's say that the Dustbringers have the most variety among Knights Radiant. Them and the Willshapers would be the ones that, personality-wise and things like that, you're gonna find the most diversity. Dustbringers are famous for not agreeing with one another about almost anything.
Questioner
Which order of Knights Radiant was hardest for conception?
Brandon Sanderson
It was definitely the Dustbringers, which I'm not even sure yet, because I haven't done a lot with them in the books. But I wanted the Dustbringers to be more than just "generic fire magic." Not that people haven't done great things with generic fire magic that they have individualized, but kind of the whole idea behind the Surges in the Stormlight Archive is that they are using, as the elements of their society and the fundamental forces, things that you wouldn't normally see as magic systems in a fantasy novel. And generic fire magic didn't fit into that schema very well.
CompetitiveCell
Would Moash have the potential to become a Dustbringer?
Brandon Sanderson
That's a RAFO, I'm afraid.
HeWontEatTheHam
I'm rereading Oathbringer right now, and I'm in chapter 36 (a Dalinar flashback). While reading through it, I noticed Dalinar commenting on a particular flamespren that seemed odd to him.
Dalinar narrowed his eyes at the flamespren. That one did have a sword. A miniature Shardblade.
Knowing that it's almost never a coincidence when we encounter a strange spren, it got me wondering; we don't know what a Dustbringer spren looks like, but it feels like it would make perfect sense if Ashspren looked like flamespren. This led me down a really interesting line of thought:
Would the Blackthorn have been a Dustbringer?
Now that we know that Dustbringers are all about self-mastery and channeling their incredible power, wouldn't that be a really interesting path for one of the most dangerous (even before he could surgebind) men on Roshar? That idea is just terrifying.
Maybe his visit to the Nightwatcher disrupted his progress towards becoming a Dustbringer and led him down a different path?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO. :)
Cemci
Have we-- I think you mentioned in a previous signing that we'd already met one member of every Order of the Knights Radiant.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, I think you have.
Cemci
My question is, have we met two Edgedancers? And is one of the Dustbringers a viewpoint character?
Brandon Sanderson
One of the Dustbringers is eventually a point-of-view character.
Cemci
Haven't been yet?
Brandon Sanderson
No, not yet, I don't think. But it depends if you count the Heralds as members of their order.
Cemci
I don't.
Brandon Sanderson
Oh, see I would, because they're kind of heads of their Order. If you don't count them you have not met some from every Order.
Cemci
Have we met someone from the Dustbringers?
Brandon Sanderson
Well-- Dustbringers are really complicated. Really complicated. So that's the weird one. Okay? So let's shelve that one. You'll see why it's really weird later on.
Rah179
Could you give us a snippet about the Dustbringers? Or Willshapers?
Brandon Sanderson
Dustbringers never liked their name, and tried hard to get people to use another title for them.
awakenedtassel
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?
Brandon Sanderson
The latter.
Questioner
Do the Dustbringers have a propensity toward evilness?
Brandon Sanderson
I would not call them evil, but certain members of the Knights Radiant would say they're on the edge, and did not get along with them. Let's just say Skybreakers have not gotten along with Dustbringers, even though they are very near each other in a lot of ways.
Kisaoda
If Kelsier managed to get his hands on a spren to bond with, which Order would he naturally gravitate toward in terms of personality and morals?
Brandon Sanderson
This is a really good question. I have trouble answering these cause I feel like I need to take the quiz as Kelsier and check all the boxes. Where is Kelsier gonna be? Maybe I need to start eliminating Orders. So Skybreaker, probably not. Windrunner, close but no. Edgedancer, maybe. The whole "I will listen," and the whole recover the past, it's really more a Mare thing that Kelsier kind of picked up on, but it's where he found his center, so I would give him a partial hit on Edgedancer. Dustbringer is a good hit also, this whole idea of self mastery and pushing himself and things like this, is gonna be a good Kelsier fit. Bondsmith is gonna be an okay Kelsier fit, with the kind of bringing together the crew and pulling off some big thing. Lightweaver, not as much as you would think. I don't think Kelsier is there on the Lightweaver thing. What have I missed? Stoneward, no. Willshaper, he'd be a good Willshaper. Willshaper's high on the list, but I think Edgedancer might win, maybe. But he's kind of borrowing that. It's a tie between Edgedancer and Dustbringer, probably. Willshaper's up there too, three way tie. I'd have to answer the questions from the thing and see where we go.
Clayton
I think you said you started with the Surges and worked from the bottom up. So what was the hardest Radiant Order to conceptualize in terms of virtual or ideal and powers?
Brandon Sanderson
Cracking how I wanted the Dustbringers to work was probably the trickiest of them all, because I knew that we were going to have (not to give spoilers) some things happening with the Dustbringers that would predispose readers toward them in a certain way that I did not want the Radiant Order to exemplify. And I wanted to be sure what I thought the distinction was and why it was possible that they could go in a different direction. (Trying to circumlocute all of these things to not spoil you.) They were the hardest, probably.
Building up how to make the Surges work, I would say that building up how I wanted the strong force and the weak force, and turning them into fantasticalized versions that basically have very little to do. Like, I even went kind of the surface tension, and things like that. Those were the trickiest. Like, gravity was pretty obvious and ended up working pretty well. I didn't one-to-one move the fundamental forces, by the way. I just took the idea of fundamental forces. But I wanted there to be nods to most of the fundamental forces in the Surges, just because that's where the inspiration was, and because I was gonna be using gravity, quite obviously, because that's the one that made me most excited, and as you can see the Windrunners and the Skybreakers were two of the first ones that we dealt a lot with.
Questioner
Who is the Willshaper?
Brandon Sanderson
Ok, of the group of the ten...
Questioner
Have we met the Willshaper?
Brandon Sanderson
You have met the Willshaper.
Questioner
Is it Moash?
Brandon Sanderson
That's a RAFO.
Questioner
Ok. But it was a good guess?
Brandon Sanderson
Do you want me to write RAFO in this? You got RAFO'd.
Questioner
Thanks.
Brandon Sanderson
People are really interested in the Willshapers. Has this been a topic of conversation?
Other person
*inaudible*...17th Shard. *inaudible*
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, right. The Dustbringer is harder to figure out, I feel like the Willshaper will be a little more obvious once it happens. The Dustbringer is going to be hard.
Priddling
I was sorted into Dustbringer/Windrunner. Before I choose I'd love to know, are the Dustbringers going to be as bad ass as they sound?
I'm a martial artist and the thought of controlling your power speaks to me. But perfecting your weapon is also windrunner.
Brandon Sanderson
They will be--but it will take a few books into the back half before we really get into them and their ways.
Jerich
After what Adolin does at the end [of Words of Radiance] are there still Radiant orders that would take him?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, there would be. In fact, yes. Definitely that's possible. I'm not going to say that he becomes one, but yeah.
Jerich
So like the Skybreakers or Dustbringers or...?
Brandon Sanderson
The Skybreakers might have trouble because it wasn't legal. But there are others who would be like "oh that was totally the right thing to do."
William Anderson
Why are do the Windrunners, Elsecallers, Stonewards, and Dustbringers have an extra connection on the Surgebinding diagram? Why do the Edgedancer, Skybreaker, Lightweaver, Willshaper's have a broken connection on the diagram? What are the dragon type things in the back of the diagram?
Brandon Sanderson
The dragon type things are a certain animal you've seen several places in the story so far.
These connections will be explained eventually, but remember it's not the orders being connected, but instead their elemental representations. This diagram is very metaphysical, and some of the elements of it are cultural.
Boogalyhu34
What is the second ideal of the dustbringers, we know next to nothing about them.
Brandon Sanderson
You'll have to wait until one is a main character.
Questioner
My question is about squires. You've confirmed that Bondsmiths, Windrunners, Skybreakers, Dustbringers, and Lightweavers all have squires. You've also said that not every Order will have them. Could you confirm whether or not another Order has them?
Brandon Sanderson
Does another Order have squires? Is there an Order we have seen that we don't know-- Yes, there is another Order that has squires.
Questioner
You can't get more specific?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, the Stonewards do have squires, usually.
Phantine
Okay, let's start with standard Roshar horoscopes:
If Spensa were to join the Knights Radiant, what order would fit her best?
Brandon Sanderson
Most likely, she'd be a Dustbringer. With small arguments for Stoneward, Skybreaker, or Edgedancer.
Questioner
Any new Dustbringers in Stormlight Four?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, there will be.
Questioner
Is there a combination of two Surges that you wouldn't normally see, that'd be fun to write about.
Brandon Sanderson
Oh yeah. It was actually a tough decision to let myself-- make myself put them in the groupings that I did. Because my brain naturally wants to say, "What about this, what about this?"
What would be really interesting, you could do really cool things as a Stoneward with manipulating matter and changing it and stuff, and then burning things into it with-- whichever power that is-- [Division]... I should know. Well, I should know. But I always go look at the list. The Dustbringer power. But I think you could do really interesting sculpture type stuff with that. With the burning, you could add color to the things, to an extent. Like grayscale? But it's not really something that's built into the magic.
Algafi
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?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO!
Questioner
Are we going to hear much about Dustbringers in the near future?
Brandon Sanderson
So--
Questioner
'Cause I don't know why but I'm really curious about them.
Brandon Sanderson
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.
Questioner
Second thing, can I get a Releaser Ideal maybe?
Brandon Sanderson
A what?
Questioner
A Dustbringer?
Brandon Sanderson
No, I don't give the Ideals out until they come up in the books. They're all major plot points.
yahasgaruna
The plan to have each book focused on one order is still on, right? Does that mean Book 3 will focus on the Bondsmiths or the Skybreakers depending on whether Dalinar or Szeth are the flashback focus? And what about the book focused on Ash, since she was the Herald of Shallan's order? Am I right in assuming that book will focus on the Dustbringers?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO. :)
dgrath23
Which Radiant Order do you most identify with?
Isaac Stewart
I identify with bits and pieces of most of the Orders. My gut reaction is to say Dustbringers because I love their glyph. :) But I identify with their relationship to responsibility, learning to keep the passion and rage at bay because that is the responsible thing to do. On the other side of the coin, I might identify more with the Edgedancers like Lift, who focus on helping and caring for other people, because that's also a huge part of my personality.
All that said, I took the unofficial test, and it says I'm a Bondsmith.
Questioner
(paraphrased)
What kind of spren do Dustbringers have?
Brandon Sanderson
(paraphrased)
RAFO. But you asked a very wise question.
rjl
Is Shallash/Ash going to be a Dustbringer? (So Dalinar's count can be all 10 orders)
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
