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CompetitiveCell

In Stormlight, we are presented with a society which is fundamentally unjust in its workings. Whether we see the darkeyes/ lighteyes divide as an analogy for race or class, it forms a caste system wherein the privileged caste is able to imprison, kill or enslave the oppressed caste without cause or trial (Kaladin and his first squad, Moash’s grandparents).

...

The message is not improved by the subsequent arcs of Moash and Kaladin. By RoW, Kaladin has given up most of his class based outlook and integrated into the privileged caste, as a de jure lighteyes. Meanwhile, Moash’s anger at an unjust system is shown as playing a significant role in his eventual corruption by Odium, eventually reducing him to a child kicking caricature.

Brandon Sanderson

I will say this: in my opinion, one of the important parts of creating a sympathetic protagonist is to make certain the things they're saying, the things they're worried about, or the things they're advocating for have a real foundation to them.

The problems with Moash are not the things he finds unjust in the system. And you should be uncomfortable with the momentum a historically tyrannical system has, and the sway it has over characters we like among the Radiants. I believe Wit had something to say about this in the last book.

psychomanexe

I'm pretty sure moash was named after moshe, right? >.>

sheesania

Wow. I'd be pretty offended if the author I got published, after something like ten huge books, named one minor vengeful, traitorous character after me. Or else I would find it really amusing.

Brandon Sanderson

Moash was actually named before Moshe became my editor, as Alethi has some Hebrew roots, making some of the names similar to Hebrew names. He considers it a fun homage that I left it, after he became my editor. (Even considering what Moash does in WoR.)

grampipon

Alethi has Hebrew roots? Man, I'm Israeli and I didn't notice.

Brandon Sanderson

They're buried, but in there. The Kh that you see in a lot of Alethi (like Kholin) are a gutteral, kind of like Chet. That might help you find some. Do note that there are some other influences too, not the least of which being the Vorin idealism of symmetry. (Bonus fun fact, the Double Eye is inspired by the Sephirot, though that one's a little more obvious.)

Questioner

Is Moash intended to read as being interested in men?

Beyond some of the things he says, I relate a lot to his feeling of alienation even within his marginalized group, as a queer poc.

Brandon Sanderson

I wasn't intentionally coding Moash as queer - but that doesn't mean I didn't do it on accident. I see him as straight, personally, but having gone so far down a dark path he basically feels nothing anymore.

Questioner

In terms of redemption arcs. In terms of Moash. Will he be able to redeem himself?

Brandon Sanderson

I won't say no, because I think you have to go really, really far in order to not be redeemed. But at the same time-- Let's just say if Dalinar got redeemed, Moash has gotta go further than Dalinar. At the same time, he is certainly not looking for that.

Questioner

But neither did Dalinar?

Brandon Sanderson

But neither did Dalinar.

namer98

I just finished the audiobook this morning, and in the setting are rules about how to not provoke shades of the dead. The rules are in order of least to most severe:

• Don't run
• Don't kindle a flame
• Don't draw blood

The post script talks about how these rules were based on shabbos as presented in the Torah. It was just interesting to see a non-Jewish author (In this case, Mormon) base something off of Judaism.

Brandon Sanderson

:) Thanks for the thread.

The Double Eye from the Stormlight books (inside front cover illustration of the magic in the hardcover of book one) has some roots in the Tree of Life also, and if you look at Alethi, you'll find some Hebrew poking through now and then.

namer98

I read all of your books as audio books because they are all so well narrated, especially the Wax and Wayne series.

I will have to keep a better ear out for the Alethi.

Brandon Sanderson

It can be easy to miss, as I play with it a little first, fitting it to Alethi. But Moash came from Moshe, for example.

MuslinBagger

Is that a hint of things to come? Is Moash like Moses or something? He is, isn't he?

Brandon Sanderson

Sorry. It doesn't mean anything other than "My editor is named Moshe, and I've always liked how the name sounds."

PM_ME_LEGAL_PAPERS

Speaking of which, there's a Lighteyes named Yonatan (a very Jewish name) that Wit insults in...I think it was Way of Kings. Is that based off of someone you know as well?

Brandon Sanderson

That is indeed. (Look again at what he's wearing.)

That's based off of my editor's nephew, who was included as a wedding gift.

inksplattersandearlyhours (paraphrased)

I told him I was curious about what he was going to do with Moash after Words of Radiance.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He raised his eyebrows and exchanged a look with his publisher (who started laughing- which- in joke? incoming plot twist? who knows).

Then he promised that there would be Moash POV in the next book!

Maxwell Goode

Before he betrayed Bridge Four, had Moash attracted the attention of any Honorspren, like the other members of Bridge Four?

Brandon Sanderson

So this was pretty early, so I would say probably not. But that's a RAFO. I can see opportunities in the future where I would want to retcon that. I don't think he did, I don't think most of them were attracting spren until middle of Oathbringer or early in Oathbringer, when we actually had kind of a mass influx of Honorspren who decided not to follow the rules and kind of, as a group, came looking for Knights Radiant. But it's not outside the realm of possiblity that Moash had attracted a rogue Honorspren like Syl. I don't have it right now as happening.

Questioner

What do you think of Moash?

Brandon Sanderson

...I am very curious what the fan reactions have been. I anticipated it. Moash exists to represent a different direction that a character with some of the same motivations as Kaladin could go.

Question

Do you have any further plans about Moash? Will he have more screen time in Stormlight 3?

Brandon Sanderson

I have big plans for Moash, and he will actually have viewpoints in Stormlight 3. So good question!

Questioner

How do you feel about Moash as a character? In terms of how the fandom receives him?

Brandon Sanderson

I am not surprised by how the fandom receives him. I wish it weren't a Wheel of Time meme that became our meme, but that's how memes go, right? ...I will say, brace yourself.

diffyqgirl

Did you expect the intensity of the community's reaction to Moash's killing Elhokar?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

maukamauka

One quick question- will there ever be any development with bridge 4 in the future? People like Moash (as far as his future), Sigzil, Teft, and most of all Rock. I'm not even going to mention Lopen as I have enough faith in you there.

Brandon Sanderson

I think you'll be pleased with what you find in future books.

CompetitiveCell

Would Moash have the potential to become a Dustbringer?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO, I'm afraid.

Questioner

What was your motivation behind-- for killing Elhokar and simultaneously ripping my heart out?

Brandon Sanderson

So, it was-- I never feel like I'm killing characters, I'm letting characters take risks and I'm letting other characters have agency to do the things they're doing in the books. That whole plot cycle was more-- less me killing someone off and more me letting Moash go down the dark path that he have been demanding that he go down.

Questioner

Okay, but you realize half the fandom-- or the whole fandom practically wants him dead now.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yes. Well, they should! He made a very, very bad decision, and he deserves everything that the fandom is throwing at him.

jmcgit

You don't have to worry about him becoming unproductive, but I do worry a little about Stormlight taking more out of him and needing more and more "hamburger and fries" to recharge. I also am suddenly worried about the series growing beyond 10 books, especially with Peter Ahlstrom suggesting that story could be moved from 4 to 5, but story can't be moved from 5 to 6 without delaying the planned time jump.

GRRM started with ASOIAF planned as a trilogy, and even if he were fully healthy and productive, it's hard to see how he would wrap this up in the currently planned seven. Wheel of Time was pitched as a trilogy, and the publisher knew better, and Jordan was signed to six books, we wound up with 14. Stormlight Archive originated as a 10 book series, and now I'm slightly worried as to whether this is going to grow like many fantasy series do.

I don't think it would be by much, Sanderson appears to have a much more detailed plan than some of these other authors, but even growth from 10 books to 12 books would make a huge difference considering the interesting concepts I'd like to read that are bottlenecked behind the end of Stormlight.

Peter Ahlstrom

I think that if he ends up with too much content, more novellas like Edgedancer are much more likely than expanding the number of books.

Also, Brandon has already moved plot elements forward in the name of awesome. Moash's plot for book 2 was originally planned to be in book 3.

Questioner

Do you plan a Darth Vader style redemption for Moash or maybe not?

Brandon Sanderson

That is a RAFO.

Questioner

Maybe later on?

Brandon Sanderson

There's is a pretty deep RAFO there.

Sofia

Is Odium is still influencing Vyre after all the Taravangian stuff?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO. Odium will have interesting, different relationships with a lot of different, interesting people in the next book.

Ray745

Graves tells Kaladin and Moash that with Elhokar out of the way, Dalinar would become king and be much better for Alethkar. Obviously Graves isn't totally truthful with them, he is working for the Diagram and wants Dalinar to be king in hopes he becomes the Blackthorn, the warlord, and provides no real competition to Taravangian in becoming king of everything. However, in the scene when Kaladin faces down Graves and Moash, Graves makes a comment on how it was too late, and he just had to keep Kaladin away from Dalinar, presumably so Szeth could assassinate him. Then the last we see of Graves, he is talking to Moash and says

I thought for sure my interpretation was correct, that if we removed Elhokar, Dalinar would become our ally is what is to come.

How would Dalinar become their ally if Graves was purposely keeping Kaladin away from Dalinar so Szeth could kill him? Is Graves lying to Moash there? That part I never fully understood. It seems as though Graves understands Dalinar is going to be assassinated, yet from what he says to Moash at the end he seems to expect Dalinar would not have been killed.

Brandon Sanderson

Graves is supposed to (though people missed this, so perhaps I didn't do it well enough) indicate that the Diagram is not simply one group, following Taravangian. They follow the diagram itself, not him, and some think his interpretations are wrong.

Graves was ordered to remove the Alethi leadership entirely--though Taravangian was sending Szeth after Dalinar (the more dangerous one) and Graves was to remove Elhokar. Graves, however, interpreted the diagram differently. He thinks that Dalinar cannot be killed by Szeth, or anyone, and is hoping to remove Elhokar, have Dalinar step up, and help them. He has passages of the Diagram that indicate, to him, this is the natural outcome of removing Elhokar.

The actual passages, and what it is they're trying to accomplish in specific, has yet to be revealed in full.

CephandriusTW

Would it be correct to speak of Vyre and Moash like only one person? I mean, they actually look like different people.

Brandon Sanderson

They are one person, but his identity is a little wonky at times.

CompetitiveCell

Does that mean Moash has dissociative tendencies similar to Shallan? Vyre mouthing off to the Fused is very different from Moash being dead inside in Oathbringer

Brandon Sanderson

No, this is more about whether he sees himself still as Moash and such. It will be more clear as the book progresses.

Madness Lemon

Whose idea was it for Moash to wear a black Bridge Four uniform? Did Rayse come up with it as a way of taunting the Windrunners? Or was Moash just feeling really dramatic that day?

Brandon Sanderson

That’s Moash drama.

Isaac will have to confirm this, because I might get the story wrong. Concept art, I believe he put a Bridge Four patch that was twisted and upside down and made corrupted on his uniform, and I’m like, “That’s going a little far, even for Moash.” He can order a black uniform, but… So, I think we took that off.

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Eight

Annotation for this chapter: Moash was one of the characters that was most difficult to get right for this book. There's a difficult balance to maintain with him, compounded by how difficult a line I'm walking with Kaladin in these chapters. I had to do several tone rewrites of this chapter after the Alpha read, to make it all work.

Part of the trick was to convey just how exhausted Kaladin is, mentally while in his viewpoint--since he doesn't accept it himself. Then mix that with a Moash who, in part, does still want to be a good friend--but no longer is capable of reasoning in a conventional way. (And who won't acknowledge to himself that being right, proving that he made the right decisions, is actually far more important to him than his friendships ever were.)

You'll get a Moash viewpoint in a future interlude, which should help explain where his mindset is these days. As for Kaladin, well, it's becoming more and more difficult for him to maintain the lie that everything is fine.

Ezio della Torre

Was Teft's death part of your plan from the book's inception or series's inception, or did you decide his fate while writing Rhythm of War?

Brandon Sanderson

Teft's fate was decided pretty early on, but these sorts of things I do leave wiggle room on. When you read Teft's first appearance—it's in Mythwalker, my ninth book that never got finished—his appearance in that book was built around this kind of character arc that eventually happened. This was baked into the original idea for Stormlight once I brought over Bridge Four and once I stuck Teft inBridge Four, from Mythwalker. But I do remain pretty flexible on these things. That is one that turned out working really well, and happening the way I'd intended for it to happen from the beginning.

But... I mean, if you've read Way of Kings Prime, you'll know that there was a point in the outlining process, and even in writing that book, where Dalinar killed Elhokar, rather than him being killed by Moash. So, you can see that these things do change, these things bounce around, but yes, the Moash betrayal and the him killing Teft was an original <incarnation> of Way of Kings. So the original 2010 version of Way of Kings, it was part of that outline.

There are things that have changed though, over the years. A big one's, of course, a lot of Adolin's arc is not in that. I go back to that one because Adolin was involved, but he was a much smaller character than he ended up being. And Adolin changing has caused all kinds of ripples through everything in large measure. For instance, all of the stuff with Maya was not in the original outline. This is stuff that I developed over time because I was not planning Adolin to have as big a role in the series as he ended up having. That's a good example of things I've changed over time. A lot of the Cosmere-aware stuff, I didn't know how much I would push on that, and it turns out I've pushed further than in the outlines I originally thought I would. Because when I was starting this, I still didn't know if people would jump onboard with this as much as they have.

[...]

Reading Way of Kings Prime is a great way to see how things have changed since. The big changes you will see there between 2002 and 2010... I guess I wrote the book in 2009, so... in those seven years, you can see a lot of the transformations that the book and the world and the series went through. It's kind of nice. Those of you who've read it recently can probably remember more about what's changed than I do. I come back to the big ones, like that book had Unmade spiked with crystalline spikes, in the basement of the version of Urithiru before I changed it to what it is now, and that is just no longer in the books, right. Unmade getting spiked and being freed by spikes to the wall is not a thing. I'm sticking them in gemstones now, right, instead of spiking them to walls. I felt like the whole Hemalurgy thing we've covered well enough. But that was in the 2002 version.

*Adam goes on a diatribe about how he'd like to see fanart of this*

It was ten spikes too.

Mrrobot112

Is it possible to know which characters will be getting viewpoints after Part 1?

Brandon Sanderson

All the main characters get viewpoints, though there aren't a lot of them for Szeth or Jasnah. (Technically, she isn't a main character of this sequence--but she has a couple viewpoints here and there regardless.) The structure is a little more like Book One, with one "A" plot that runs the entire book (in book one, it was Kaladin in Bridge Four) and two "B" plots that each are in half of the book.

In this book, parts 2 and 4 are one of those B plots and parts 3 and 5 are the other one. (In book one, the first B plot was Shallan and the second was Dalinar/Adolin.) Like the previous books there are two "C" plots. One being a flashback sequence for one of the characters (in this case two) and one being a sequence of interludes.

Venli's flashbacks are weighted toward the back half of the book, as it felt better to have them in quicker succession, since she's sharing them with Eshonai.

The A/B/C breakdown doesn't start happening until after Part One in this book, though. So I'd say wait until you get the book. Anyone you don't see in Part Two will be in Part Three (and a group of people in Part Two won't be in Part Three.)

I do this deliberately to keep the number of viewpoints down per section, as it helps with the complexity a little. Epic fantasy tends to have a problem of viewpoint sprawl, which has made problems with the pacing. This kind of structure is how I combat that in the Stormlight Archive.

That doesn't mean characters don't have a part in the story, even if they aren't getting viewpoints. For example, Dalinar is in multiple chapters in Part One, though he doesn't get viewpoints in this part.

Glamdring804

Since this is a front half book, can I assume that this doesn't include Ash and Taln?

Brandon Sanderson

That is correct. No Ash/Taln viewpoints in this book, though they do appear in the text briefly.

ascraz

Do we have any view points from moash as well? I really enjoy the character.

Brandon Sanderson

There is at least one Moash Viewpoint in the book.

_imagine_7

One of those, however, is this: Venli doesn't see herself as a hero, nor is she interested in being one. Emotionally, she's not really about saying ideals. She feels she's the wrong person for whatever it is that has started to happen to her.

It is good for the characters to be different so I don't have any problem with this. However, it seems as if she will speak the ideals over a long period of time because of this. We had a theory floating around that Venli can go to the cognitive realm for the escape. I guess she will either need to speak the third ideal (it looks like this will take time) or she will need help from someone else. Maybe BRDIGE 4?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

CephandriusTW

Would Moash (not Vyre) be on her side if given the opportunity? I mean, would he empathize with her and understand her point?

Brandon Sanderson

Moash and Vyre are not distinct personalities, so that part of the question isn't as relevant. However, I'd say that he wouldn't really care one way or the other about Venli's problems.

potentialPizza

Who are your favorite characters in the Cosmere?

Isaac Stewart

Dalinar, Nazh, Khriss, Hoid, [Nicki] Savage, Vin, Kaladin, Vasher, and Baon, exactly in that order. :) But honestly, I love them all. Brandon has created such a wonderful universe of characters, and I pinch myself every day that I get to assist in the workings of these worlds.

Araedox

Even Moash?

Isaac Stewart

Moash has become a great tragic character, in my opinion. Yes, people love to hate him, but that still makes a great character. And it's the tragedy of his choices that pulls the emotions from us.

Trev

My friends and I were arguing over on Discord over who’s who on the Bridge 4 Movie Poster made for the Kickstarter. We were wondering if you could help clear things up.

Isaac Stewart

The text at the bottom is the key to those at the top. Starting with Kaladin, it reads clockwise. So, Kaladin, Teft, Hobber, Lopen, Rock, Renarin, Leyten, Sigzil, Moash, and Skar. On the plateau L->R: Lopen, Leyten, Skar, Kal, Moash, Teft, Sigzil, Rock, Hobber (missing Renarin).

WhoisJohnFaust

I got a real emotional allomancy vibe from Moash here. It felt like he was rioting Kal's depression and exhaustion. Is there something more going on than must Moash having a past and being able to cut Kal to the soul?

Brandon Sanderson

I can see how it would be read that way, but you have it a little reversed. This depression and exhaustion is how Kal has been feeling lately, and he's been painting over it with other emotions. He's been forcing himself to keep moving, and at this moment, he was just too tired to keep lying to himself.

MadnessLemon

What does Leshwi think of Moash in Rhythm of War? She seemed to encourage his actions and essentially brought him into Odium's forces in Oathbringer, and according to Venli she respects him, but it's hard to imagine she'd be cool with a lot of his behavior throughout Rhythm of War. Particularly his tormenting of Kaladin.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but she doesn't know about any of that.

MadnessLemon

Have her thoughts on him changed as he's become closer to Odium and embraced the identity of Vyre, or does she regret picking him out altogether?

Brandon Sanderson

Not—no. Leshwi occupies an interesting space. Being closer to Odium is not a bad thing in her mind, right? She is reluctantly placed between things... she reluctantly has been put in a position she did not want to be in. She would not necessarily have approved of some of Moash's actions, but fighting as well as he did is something she legitimately respects. And the way he's been acting among the singers, nothing about that is a big warning flag to her.

Comatose

Originally, Kaladin and Moash were essentially the major darkeyes who were in a position to criticize the nobility and lighteyed culture. Now that Kaladin has kind of (if not emotionally) bought into the system to some extent, by outranking most lighteyes, and Moash has gone full villain, are we going to get another character playing that role of a darkeyed or lower class individual who is critiquing the system?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I've been looking at that. One of the questions is whether Lift can justifiably fulfill that role, as someone who considers herself a bit of an outsider even among the Radiants. But let's hang a little bit of a RAFO on that, ask me after you've read book five.

Questioner

Who is Rock, of your friends?

Brandon Sanderson

Rock is one of the ones that isn't. The core of Bridge Four isn't, yeah, Rock, and Teft, and Moash, and Lopen. Those aren't-- It's all the ones that aren't the main characters, except for Skar, I just named after my friends.

Zea mays

This is not a 'typo' per se, maybe it's a "translation" thing that I notice when reading the book (probably me being far too pedantic):

In Kaladin's POV's, Moash is consistently described as a 'hawk-faced man'. What's a hawk, precious? Is it some kind of chicken?

Them again, I can't think of an economic way of describing such a physiognomy that does not reference birds of prey.

Peter Ahlstrom

Brandon says it's an idiom leftover from centuries earlier.

TopicCharming2157

Living Shardblades are the physical manifestation of spren. If Moash had used Raboniel's anti-Stormlight charged dagger to stab a spren while in Shardblade form, would it kill the spren? (Like Kaladin forming a Syl shield to guard a stab)

Brandon Sanderson

Physical form of a spren is going to be more resilient to this.

Questioner

Is Taln still part of the Oathpact?

Brandon Sanderson

The Oathpact has been broken. There's a ghost of it in existence, fragments, but the death of Jezrien has broken the Oathpact. More than death, super death.

Questioner

Is that in the books? Should I know that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, he's at the end of Oathbringer, his soul gets sucked by the knife they give to Moash.

Questioner

I didn't know it ended the Oathpact though.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that did break the Oathpact. If one of the Fused were to die, they would be reborn immediately. The Oathpact is a goner. They would have to form a new Oathpact, or something like that.

Questioner

Before it was broken, was Taln still involved with it?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Would you come to regret naming your child Kaladin? It was requested I ask.

Brandon Sanderson

I might stay away from Moash but-- Considering what he did in [Words of Radiance].

Phantine

Stormlight has a lot of parallelism with Mistborn, but with protagonists who are now on the other side of the slave revolt. In particular, there's a very strong through line going from Kelsier to Miles to Moash, with characters attempting to overthrown a corrupt system being treated differently by the narrative in each case.

How much of this inversion is intentional? I know Warbreaker had a lot of deliberate parallels to Mistborn.

Brandon Sanderson

This is pretty intentional. I like to approach things from different sides, and I knew Stormlight was about the establishment, while Mistborn about the revolutionary. I like to try to show both sides of things like this, when I can.

Brandon Sanderson

In fact the original draft that I submitted to my writing group didn't yet have that scene where he go-goes. I was like "I'll get around to it eventually." They almost revolted. They're like, "WHAT? He's still alive?" I was like "No no. He will go-go. I just have to find the right way to write the scene." So they didn't actually get to read that scene with El and [Lezian].

Chaos

Definitely one of those Brandon ending scenes that are just like "Wow there's some weird stuff going on here."

FeatherWriter

So many new questions.

Brandon Sanderson

All these weird Fused who've been around way too long. The guy [El] that they gave his name [Vyre] to Moash.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Will Moash worldhop?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO 

Questioner

Moash killed a god? One of the Heralds?

Brandon Sanderson

He did. One of the Heralds. And trapped his soul so he couldn't be reborn.

Questioner

That's what it is. Trapped his soul, didn't actually kill him?

Brandon Sanderson

It's killed him-- It was like, extra killed. The Heralds are bound to a cycle of rebirth that happens-- that they wanted to make sure didn't happen that time.

AbrahamSTINKIN

Has he hinted at how long of a time gap it's going to be [between the two Stormlight arcs]? Are there going to be the same characters in each sequence?

Brandon Sanderson

Time gap is around ten years, and the back five will largely include the same characters, but the focus will be more on the Heralds.

CenturionRower

Is this a minor spoiler? I was under the impression Moash was going to attempt and kill them all. Or if only the king of the Heralds needed to die. Its possible I misunderstood that part.

Brandon Sanderson

Dead people can still be main focuses of books in Stormlight because of the way I do the flashbacks.

This isn't a promise that they do die, or that they live. Only a note that me announcing someone gets a flashback book isn't an indication they live to that book. Only that they have some interesting events in their past that I intend to delve into.

NRchist

[Kaladin] better outlive Moash tho.

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

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.

Adam Horne

They want to know who your favorite character of Brandon's is.

Emily Sanderson

Oh, favorite character of Brandon's.

Brandon Sanderson

Stick. *laughter*

Emily Sanderson

No, I really like Lift. I'm enjoying Jasnah quite a bit.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, you don't get a lot of Jasnah in these early books though, unfortunately. There's a couple Jasnah viewpoints in the new book [Stormlight 4], so that's good. You'll get a little Jasnah, but you really aren't going to get a lot of Jasnah for a while.

Emily Sanderson

I kind of think... It's hard because it's like whichever one I happen to be reading at the time is my favorite. 

Brandon Sanderson

That's what Robert Jordan said, when someone asked him who his favorite character was, is, "Whoever I'm writing right now."

Emily Sanderson

It's kind of true though. Whoever I'm reading right now, I'm like, "Oh, I love this character." I read a Kaladin chapter and I'm like, "I love Kaladin." Then I read a Dalinar chapter.

Adam Horne

Did you say who your least favorite character was?

Emily Sanderson

My least favorite character? Can I choose Padan Fain?

Brandon Sanderson

Padan Fain, Padan Fain.

Emily Sanderson

He's not technically one of your characters.

Brandon Sanderson

He's very hateable. He's pretty despicable.

Emily Sanderson

Moash is pretty despicable, but I don't know that he's my least favorite.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The knife used by Moash is "something similar to hemalurgy."

I7Ax (paraphrased)

Is it a Dawnshard?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Good question but no.

[deleted]

Are we to take Moash literally here [in Rhythm of War Chapter Eight] or metaphorically? Like is he literally telling Kaladin to kill himself or is he talking about some meta physical death/rebirth?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm going to have to RAFO this for now. I don't want to interfere with the text doing its job. Suffice it to say I knew this would be a subject of discussion, and the unfolding of the story should fuel the debate.

Eric

One of Kaladin's early chasm duties, he examines a very distinctive knife with a figure at the center of the hilt, nicely carved with a man of fine armor... How similar is this knife to the one Moash used?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

WeiryWriter

You've stated that the sapphire in the knife that Moash used to kill Jezrien was specifically for Jezrien. Was it that for actual mechanical reasons, or more of a symbolic gesture?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO

Tesh (paraphrased)

Was Jezrien sent to Braize when Moash killed him? Or is he gone?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO.