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Questioner

Nananav, from Oathbringer. Worldhopper?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

Considering Brandon likes MTG, this is probably something he has thought out haha.

Kaladin strikes me as someone with a very White personality and Blue powers.

Shallan's Blue.

Dalinar's White, but I feel like he was Red before.

Adolin has some Red, some White, and recently some Black I guess.

Lift is Red in personality and I guess Green at powers.

What else can you guys come up with?

Brandon Sanderson

Hmm... These are not bad, and it's always hard to figure out how to define by this system--honestly, I wouldn't trust my definitions, I'd have to go to MaRo or something.

I'd suspect that Shallan is red/blue instead of mono blue.

Lift is very green, not just in powers, but in personality. She's all about instinct, and doing what occurs to her in the moment.

As OP said, Kaladin is very white/blue. And Dalinar is red who became white. Navani is mono-blue. Szeth is black/white, and Taravangian probably mono-black. Eshonai is probably green.

Questioner

Is the kandra that is on Roshar, Navani?

Brandon Sanderson

No. 

Questioner

Is Navani an Envisager?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Wetlander

In that same chapter, with the wedding, the Stormfather says, YOU HAVE BROKEN OATHS BEFORE to Navani. Will we ever learn more about that?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably.

Bob Solburger

If you were to write an eleventh Stormlight Archive book whose backstory would you explore?

Brandon Sanderson

Wow, what a great question!

Maybe Navani, there might be enough there. It would either be her or be one of the other Heralds.

alercah

Did Navani swear more than one oath in the climax of RoW? Her words to the Sibling seem to follow the pattern of Dalinar's oaths very closely, and the Sibling implied they wouldn't bond someone who wasn't ready for at least the second.

Is this the fastest ever three-oath speedrun?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO for now.

Questioner

I think Navani is a bad person.

Brandon Sanderson

Why do you think that?

Questioner

Because Wit didn't like her at the beginning, and her daughter warned against her. And any romance with the main character can really <rush out>. I wanna know, is she a bad guy?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, that's definitely RAFO territory.

geoffw35

You have Jasnah give such a good argument for the atheist point of view that I thought, well Brandon is probably an atheist (as I am). Then I started watching your writing class videos. Oops! In one of them you say that you feel you can successfully draw an atheist character. I certainly agree. ;-) Jasnah does seem to lack compassion to some degree, but I insist that religion is not necessary for one to be compassionate. You draw characters wonderfully!

Brandon Sanderson

Kaladin is agnostic, which most people miss in these discussions, and is the series argument for a compassionate non-believer. Dalinar is a liberal theist, and Navani an orthodox theist.

Ethan

Can Navani leave the Tower and still do Surgebinging? Could someone who bonded the Stormfather before he merged with Honor's Cognitive Shadow do Surgebinging when a highstorm wasn't around?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO! That's a great big ol' RAFO.

Jarescot

Jasnah is married? I may have misread it, but I'm pretty sure she refers to her husband in the negotiations

Brandon Sanderson

I think you might be mistaking Jasnah and Navani, as Navani refers to her husband (Dalinar) during negotiations. Jasnah doesn't appear on screen, though she does have a few lines via spanreed.

It's a little confusing because by this point, Dalinar and Navani have started using king/queen for themselves in reference to Urithiru as a separate kingdom. Jasnah is queen of Alethkar, but Navani is also Alethi and a queen--but not of Alethkar...so once in a while, I found alpha/beta readers getting tripped up by the terminology.

Phantine

So Dalinar dropped his 'I must never be king' resolution? Kinda weird, that felt like an Oath to me.

Brandon Sanderson

You're referring to young Dalinar realizing that he couldn't want the throne, lest it lead him to turn against his brother? I didn't intend that to be a capital O oath.

For what it's worth, in the months after Oathbringer, he realized that as long as he wasn't putting himself on the same level as the others, they would worry he wanted more. So being named king was a way for him to calm the coalition.

Questioner

In Words of Radiance you have a great line which said "careful planning is the water which nourishes creativity". I was wondering if, when you wrote that line, were you specifically thinking about novel outlines?

Brandon Sanderson

So there's a line in Words of Radiance that's says "careful planning is the water which nourishes creativity". Was I specifically thinking of outlines? So when I speak most lines like this, I'm trying to speak through someone's eyes. That's Navani, I believe, who says that am I right? The idea being that that's the way they'd perceive it. There are other people who would disagree. Now I am a planner, so I understand that mindset a lot. I use a lot of outlines. There are other people who don't plan at all and their books still turn out awesome. So I think there are a lot of different ways to be creative. But I don't think that Navani thinks that there are a lot of different ways. If that makes any sense. She has a different perspective on it perhaps.

Questioner

Will the flying ships in Navani's sketchbook be showing up soon?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

Can a bracelet created by Navani be used to detect emotional Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible.

Mike Potts

Are any secondary The Way of Kings characters likely to become more major in the next book?

Brandon Sanderson

Jasnah, Navani, and Taln all have expanded parts in the series to come. I won't say specifically in which books, but all three of those characters will have larger roles. Several of the members of Bridge Four have larger roles; they will basically remain secondary characters, but may have expanded viewpoints

Questioner

Can I have more Navani, please? She's my favorite?

Brandon Sanderson

There will be some more Navani. There's some Navani viewpoints in the third book. Not a ton, but there are a few. So will you will get some more Navani, and there is some more in the series. I think you'll be happy.

komekoro

Is what Navani said about Dalinar's wife accurate?

Brandon Sanderson

What specifically?

Kogiopsis

She says that she thought they could have been friends.

swamp-spirit

And that she's kind of the unassuming personality, the sweetness…

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yes. That is correct.

lunarubato

Correct objectively or correct in her opinion?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, definitely correct in her opinion. But yes. And Navani is something of a slightly untrustworthy narrator, but I would go with, in that case, the fact that she's saying it and not being angry and– Her natural instinct would be to hate this woman; that's how Navani is, and the fact that she doesn't probably means that in this case she's being pretty truthful.

Peter Ahlstrom

Dalinar is 53 in Way of Kings. Navani is a few months older than him. Sadeas is 3 years younger than him.

Note that these are Rosharan ages. A Rosharan year is 1.1 Earth years.

agdeeds

Did anything help inspire Navani’s character in tWoK?

Brandon Sanderson

Numerous things. Partially, the fact that there’s a distinct lack of mothers in fantasy fiction. Everybody seems to be an orphan.

Partially, the need for a strong, well-rounded woman of an older, wiser nature to balance out Shallan’s impulsive nature.

And, in part, she was designed because I wanted a Fabrial engineer among the cast, and extrapolated personality from there.