Skyward Seattle signing

Event details
Name
Name Skyward Seattle signing
Date
Date Nov. 10, 2018
Location
Location Seattle, WA
Tour
Tour Skyward
Bookstore
Bookstore University Book Store
Entries
Entries 110
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#1 Copy

Questioner

What do you feel about people who take your books and are really inspired by them and taking them as their life motto? For the example, the Stormlight Archive mantra "Life before death..."

Brandon Sanderson

I am honored. Absolutely. The things that I am putting in the books are things I'm passionate about, things I'm thinking about, things that I think are relevant. I am completely honored. And I guess it would depend on whose motto you take. But absolutely honored, I think it's awesome.

#2 Copy

Questioner

Is Nightblood going to out Vasher or Vivenna on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

Is Nightblood going to what-- out them?

Questioner

Yeah.

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood, you can never quite tell what Nightblood is going to do. And so I would say there's a high likelyhood that if that opportunity came, that he would do so.

#3 Copy

Questioner

How does the destructor blast for a Poco not destroy its own shield?

Brandon Sanderson

In Skyward, I have the shields work directionally, the same way a lot of science fiction does. Like you could fly out of a hangar bay that has a shield on it, but you can't fly back into it unless they change the frequency and stuff like that. That's how those are working for me. They will let things not come in but will let things go out... It's Sci-Fi technology that's kind of an old stand-by for how shields work and I just kind of rely on that one.

#4 Copy

Questioner

So Skyward, do you consider it science fiction or science fantasy?

Brandon Sanderson

I consider it-- Is Skyward science fiction or science fantasy?

I generally separate the plot archetypes in my head from the genre trappings, and a lot of times people have plot archetypes that are science fiction. I do a lot of science fiction plot archetypes with fantasy settings. That's what Elantris is, right? The plot archetype is about information and researching information and coming to a scientific understanding of something that happened in the past so you can use it to fix the future; science fiction plot archetype fantasy setting for Elantris.

Skyward's backwards, right? It's the fantasy plot archetype. It is the the coming of age struggle against society through use of a fantastical boon to prove yourself, right? Very kind of classic fantasy thing but the trappings are science fiction. So I don't know that I look at these things the same way. Like, Stormlight, the Bridge Four sequence is an underdog sports story with fantasy trappings. That's the plot archetype...

As a writer, where I would shelve it? I would shelve it in science fiction because the trappings are usually-- And because of that. I would shelve Star Wars as science fiction, even though Star Wars is very much mystical, fantastical plot archetypes going on. Shelve it with where the genre trappings are, that's just for our sanity right? So we can know what box to put things in. Just for ease of discussing it and things like that. Nothing ever matches either genre trapping or plot archetype. It's just there for us to be able to have the framework to talk about it. 

#5 Copy

Questioner

I like Mistborn: Secret History. Is there going to be a Mistborn: Secret History 2?

Brandon Sanderson

I hope to be able to write one. But this comes back to the "Let's make sure I'm getting the things that I have promised sequels to moving at a reasonable rate before I do side projects like that." So, I'd like to do one, but I'm not promising one.

#6 Copy

Questioner

What was your inspiration for Wayne?

Brandon Sanderson

Wayne had a lot of inspirations... Obviously, there's some Mat Cauthon going on for me when I do Wayne, particularly the way that Mat would see the world differently from the that way he would act. The original inspiration for Wayne was a character who changed personalities based on which hat he wore. He was actually the lead in a Mistborn story I was writing, and he didn't work well without someone to play off of... Some characters work way better when they are surrounded by more normal people. Not gonna say anything about things like the Minion movie (which my children loved), but it's very hard to tell a story about everyone being crazy instead of having a framework of someone to keep it going in the right direction. So that was a big inspiration for Wayne.

The other big inspiration for Wayne was something I noticed about human nature, where I wanted to tell a story about a character who had some really deep-- Wayne should bother you. Like the way he treats Steris. And the way he treats Ranette. And the way he treats some of the people in his life should really bother you. And one of my goals with Wayne was to tell a story that mimics what I see in real life, where there are people I know and I love who also have this way about them that you realize they aren't quite-- grown-up's the wrong term... Like, all of us are the heroes in our own group of friends. We're all the hero of our story. We each have different things we're working on. And some of them are classic good storytelling things, like "I'm gonna learn to be more bold." Which is totally me. Totally something I need to work on. But some of them are "I treat people who aren't in my inner circle really poorly, especially if they're trying to get into my inner circle. And then when you're in my inner circle, I have a dysfunctional relationship with you a lot of time." And I thought I could only really do that with a character that you loved while you were really annoyed by them, because otherwise I feel like the character wouldn't work. Maybe I could do it a different way, but I really wanted to dig into that in these new Mistborn books, and Wayne was my vehicle for doing this.

Some kind of nebulous sort of writerly things going on there.

#7 Copy

Brandon Sanderson

Someday... once I'm sure everything that it would spoil has been released, I will release [Way of Kings Prime] so you can read it. You can probably see that, if you read Stormlight, a chunk of the book belonging to Taln moved to Szeth, instead, who was a character in the first book but had a slightly different plot. Eventually, we will get to the whole story, though.

#9 Copy

Questioner

Is a chull able to receive some form of Investiture? ...I'm thinking of Scadrial... Would it have the presence of mind to be able to use the abilities?

Brandon Sanderson

Not as it is right now. But you can see in the way that Ryshadium are working that we have animals that are reaching beyond-animal intelligence. Aviar are the same way. And it is possible to assume that you could get to the point where you could use such powers. But none of them are there yet. But the Aviar kind of use their powers, so I guess some of them are. So, yes, I will say that's possible.

#12 Copy

MarShadow

What new statement can you give us about the cosmere that would give us a bunch to speculate on?

Brandon

I'm not sure if there's something new I can say. Um, I think rampant speculation about the Threnody novel would be cool. So, you have seen a hint in the books about the Threnody novel that no one has asked me if this is the thing.

#14 Copy

Questioner

How do puns work with all-

Brandon Sanderson

How do what work?

Questioner

Puns, because they're speaking different languages?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, yeah, the books are in translation; you have to imagine I am the translator, and what I am doing is, I am searching for something in our language that best replicates what they said in their language. That is the same thing for things like Veristitalian and stuff like that that uses Latin in our world. That's indicating it's using a similar older language in their world to build the thing. So you have to understand Wit doesn't actually say that exact pun, he says something that is a pun that I translate into English into a similar pun.

#17 Copy

Wetlander

Do you have a single name that you use to refer to all the singers, and the listeners, and the Parshmen: that entire species?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I usually use listener, but that's a cultural thing. So, I don't right now.

Wetlander

I keep struggling with what to call them as a species, and eeehhh are they all singers? I mean they aren't really all singers.

Brandon Sanderson

We'll settle on something eventually.

Wetlander

Okay, but we don't have anything right now.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

#18 Copy

Questioner

I have a quick question about the uniforms in Skyward. Is there a specific color for Skyward flight?

Brandon Sanderson

Not for Skyward flight. They are all using the same jumpsuits, and things like this. By the second book, they probably will have... once they kind get ahead of it a little bit, they can start doing things like painting the ships. But in this book, really, you're basically wearing a jumpsuit--

Questioner

It's blue, it's unceremonial.

Brandon Sanderson

Mmhmm.

#19 Copy

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.

#20 Copy

Questioner

So Lift gets her awesomeness from food. Is that a Lift thing or is that an Edgedancer thing?

Brandon Sanderson

That is a Lift thing. She is a very specific thing, and what she is will come out more, as the series progresses. It's not just a little one-off, there is actually something more behind it, but it is not an Edgedancer thing.

Questioner

I was starting to think that maybe there was something that Cultivation's people had their own kind of Heralds, that had their own alternative energy so--

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to probably take until Lift's book to start to dig into it too much, but it isn't that far off, 3 books.

Questioner

*laughs* Only 3 books?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, she is 6th.

#21 Copy

Questioner

What's your Smedry talent?

Brandon Sanderson

...I usually say "being long-winded." But the truth is, when I wrote the books, I kind of did all the stuff that I do as the first powers. So I'm habitually late, bad at dancing, good at breaking things... But if you actually go "What's the core one," probably being long-winded. I can say things that could be said in one word, in seventeen instead.

#22 Copy

Questioner

What is the inspiration for the Parshendi?

Brandon Sanderson

There are a lot of different inspirations. One is wanting to build out of the setting a species that interacted with the setting and had a symbiotic relationship with the setting. The other was the idea of a people whose caste system, you could change castes and physically change into other castes of the system. So something like the hives you see, where you can switch from worker to various different tasks. I liked the cultural aspects of what that did.

#28 Copy

Questioner 1

Can people not from Roshar bond with spren and get the Shardplate and whatnot?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. Well, okay. You don't need me to RAFO on that. You have seen someone not from Roshar bond a spren. You have seen that much happen.

Questioner 2

We know for sure that Hoid is a Lightweaver.

Questioner 1

Do we know that?

Brandon Sanderson

Hoid has bonded a spren.

#32 Copy

Questioner

Is Lhan from the [Way of Kings Prime] reading the same one from Book 2?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that is the same Brother Lhan. I knew he wasn't going to get to have a big part in the books once I moved Taln so far off. So I gave him a nice cameo with his own interlude so that at least he would be in the books. Because in that version, he basically wandered around, following Taln, complaining for the entire book.

#35 Copy

Questioner

The lighteyes-- Do their eyes actually glow or is it just blue or green?

Brandon Sanderson

No. It's a very pale blue or green though. You can tell pretty easily looking at them who's lighteyed and who's dark. They don't glow. So--

Questioner

It's otherworldly?

Brandon Sanderson

Some of them would look-- You would say otherworldly, but not impossibly. You can find people on Earth who have eyes the shade that they are. Not all of them, right? Because some of them are yellows and things like that that we don't have. But if you looked at them and they were here, you might wonder if they were wearing contacts but it wouldn't be unusual to find out they weren't.

#36 Copy

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

If a Dysian Aimian had the Elsecaller honorblade, could just a single hordeling transition to the Cognitive Realm? 'Cause I think I've heard that a person couldn't just transition a single part of their body.

Brandon Sanderson

They could transition a single hordeling, but as it works right now, they would probably lose contact with the host and would become broken-off and no longer part of the hive. It's not truly a hive. But it would be like of your finger got cut off and sent to-- something like that. It would start acting independently.

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

So would you have to have the preponderance of the Dysian Aimian transition to the Cognitive Realm? And the ones that stayed in the Physical Realm would be cut off?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. It would be bad for half-and-half to go. Let's say that, one thing that they would love to be able to do is to have a little more versatility there. Let's just say that.

#37 Copy

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

*written* Is Felt and agent of Harmony? If not, is he a member of a secret society that we have seen?

Brandon Sanderson

*written* Felt is different in his allegiance depending on the part of his life.

*spoken* Felt's allegiance has changed at various times during-- yeah, we'll just say that. His allegiance has changed over the years. There are times he's been a rogue agent.

#38 Copy

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Can modern-day Felt get his hands on atium?

Brandon Sanderson

He would know how to try going about it, he would not be able to get ahold of it right now. It would be outside-- It's not something he can just pop off. He would have some ideas on how to try to go about it. I doubt he could pull it off.

#39 Copy

AmbitionsAvatar

Why didn't we get to see Dalinar meet Gallant in Oathbringer in the flashbacks? I was so disappointed...

Brandon Sanderson

I planned that for a different flashback... I intentionally didn't put that one in, because it didn't fit the rest of the narrative that I was telling. But I will do that eventually.

AmbitionsAvatar

Is it after he arrives at the Shattered Plains?

Brandon Sanderson

I will RAFO that for now, because I'd have to go look exactly at the timeline where I'm slipping it in.

AmbitionsAvatar

But it's around that time?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, it's more recent than most of the things that you're reading about... Let's say, the person that Dalinar has been through most of his life would not end up with him... I will get into it. I realize that that was a hole that is not in the story, and it's an intentional one. But I eventually worked in the flashbacks with Kaladin in the last book, I found a little extra place for them. I'll try to find some of those for Dalinar.

#43 Copy

Questioner

Did you actually go through a horseback riding orientation for that scene in Words of Radiance, because that is literally how it works.

Brandon Sanderson

I have done it before in my life, and I was drawing on that. I did have to go get some horse experts, because I got some things wrong. That's kind of a little bit how my first experience riding horses went. I have a cousin who... rode show horses when she was younger.

#45 Copy

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.

#47 Copy

Questioner

The way Sazed describes the people group [of Trell] in the first time he explains it and later on in Hero of Ages seems fairly different. Is that because of different perspective on religion, or how the religion is?

Brandon Sanderson

Let's just say that is intentional.

#48 Copy

Khyrindor

Was Felt cosmere-aware during Era 1?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Khyrindor

Was he directly involved in the interplanetary trade through the Pits?

Brandon Sanderson

He was involved. Whether directly is the right term or not I will not say.

Khyrindor

And is he part of the Seventeenth Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

He has been a member of various different groups and had various different motivations over the years. I would not put him, right now, as a member of the Seventeenth Shard.

Khyrindor

As in, like, Stormlight Archive--

Brandon Sanderson

As of Stormlight Archive Era: Not a member of the Seventeenth Shard. Obviously--well, I won't go any further on that.

#49 Copy

Khyrindor

Odium seems to have a bad track record when it comes to killing Shards. He was wounded versus Ambition, and he's trapped on Roshar. Yet, he's credited in killing Devotion and Dominion. My question is: was Autonomy significantly involved and would Odium have been able to do it on his own and still be okay to--

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. It is dangerous to attack a Shard with one Shard. Let's say that. And a wise Shard would try to avoid that confrontation unless there are specific reasons they think they would have an advantage.

#52 Copy

RandyD

We've seen, let's say, Ruin and Preservation talking to people--they have limitations on that. Do other Shards share these limitations?

Brandon Sanderson

There are limitations-- All Shards have some interesting limitations that we will get into as we go.

#53 Copy

RandyD

Can a Shard just--like, say someone is using their magic system--can they stop the power from them being able to use it?

Brandon Sanderson

No, that's a bit like stopping the laws of physics. So, while they can circumvent laws of physics and things like that, but if you wanted to stop someone from using magic, smiting them would be the efficient way of making that happen, if you are capable of it in the system.

#56 Copy

Questioner

Metal in the Mistborn world, is it renewable somehow? Because when you burn it, it just goes away and then it's converted somehow into energy. Can they run out?

Brandon Sanderson

The way that atium gets back into the system is a bit of a hint... Atium grows out of crystals, and that is being distilled. Let's just say... Investiture is changing into matter as atium is being made.

#58 Copy

Questioner

If you had a huge block of metal, a single block of metal that's big enough to build a city on, would that just show up as a single bead?

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on how people think of it. The perception of the people in the Physical Realm has a big effect on how things appear. And also the effect of how people see it on that side shapes it over time as well. And often times-- We'll leave it at that. It gets a little complicated.

#60 Copy

Questioner

Silence Divine, are you allowed to talk about when it's going to happen in the timeline?

Brandon Sanderson

...It is late Stormlight Archive era. I image it being around book 8 or something like that.

Questioner

So it was after the Dawnchant was written.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. But since it hasn't been written yet, the timeline is not canon for that yet.

#62 Copy

Questioner

Yesteel from Warbreaker. At the time of Oathbringer, is he still at large?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO, I'm afraid... I will let you know the fates of all Five Scholars, probably, in Nightblood, the book, when I write it. The ones you don't know already. It's a RAFO-- Well, if I write Nightblood... Of the cosmere books, it's probably the... most in jeopardy, other than maybe the Threnody novel.

#63 Copy

Questioner

The people on Scadrial have innate Investiture from Preservation. If someone from another planet, say Roshar, were to get Allomancy, from Hemalurgy or Feruchemy, would that person have to have Stormlight as well as the metal in order to do their--

Brandon Sanderson

No, good question. They would just need the metal if you were Hemalurgically getting the ability. Remember, Hemalurgy is basically ripping off a piece of someone else's soul and stapling it to yours. Short circuiting the soul, so to speak... All the pieces of the soul you would need, it is giving you. It has dangerous ramifications, but you wouldn't need Stormlight also.

#66 Copy

Questioner

I heard you talk about the Vorin languages have a vowel shift. I'm a linguist so...

Brandon Sanderson

I'm kind of bad at vowel shifts, but it does have a vowel shift. You'll see Kalak being called Kelek, and some of these things like this. And I try to stay consistent with it, but I've also not been as rigorous with it as I maybe should be. Peter always points out little errors I've made. So it's a vowel shift that has some inconsistencies, how about that. But of course, real-world vowels shifts have it.

Questioner

You need to publish something only about the conlang.

Brandon Sanderson

Only about the linguistics? Yeah, having an assistant who has a degree in linguistics is really handy. Peter's been of very big use, particularly on Stormlight, because I didn't have him before those books. I just kind of had to muddle through it. And now I've got him. I'll call him up and say, "Pronounce this; pronounce this." There are lots of names in Stormlight that I can't pronounce that he can... The Arabic /q/ ...he can do, and I can't. Which we use a lot in some of the names over in Azir, and stuff like that.

#67 Copy

LizBusby

They were talking about, on the cosmere podcast, if cosmere dragons can breathe fire?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. They can fly. So they--

LizBusby

Okay. That's good to know. I was just thinking, Frost like, doesn't sound very fiery to me. It sounds icy to me.

Brandon Sanderson

Mmhmm. *significant look* RAFO on that. You won't even find that in Dragonsteel, the old one, if you read it. It doesn't say.

#68 Copy

Questioner

In the past, you've said that kandra have size limitations. They can't just lop off a chunk and make a squirrel or anything like that. If a kandra was in full human form, somehow consumed and absorbed an aviar, kept it fully attached to their shoulder, it wouldn't be able to fly off but it was still attached to them, they're one contiguous body, could they get the abilities of that aviar?

Brandon Sanderson

No, good question. They would have to-- They're just replicating the body, they're not replicating the soul.

#70 Copy

Questioner

So the scene at the end of Oathbringer, when Odium is confronting Taravangian and he uses futuresight to expand upon the Diagram, we have this blacked out section with Renarin's name linked to it.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Is that because Renarin's abilities interfere with Odium's futuresight similar to how electrum interferes with atium?

Brandon Sanderson

Any time that someone else is seeing the future in the cosmere, it's going to have ripples against your ability. Like they are-- you can't-- It's the same sort of thing that if-- someone who has access to atium is going to mess up anyone else's futuresight in any way, because once you use that it's going to cause you to act differently, which then-- And remember futuresight is not very good in the cosmere anyway. But yeah, it's just gonna mess things up.

#74 Copy

Questioner

What happens if there was a Feruchemist who was an Elantrian? Could they store Elantrian abilities into a nicrosil metalmind?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm RAFOing most of the stuff, but that one's a RAFO just because I am leaving nicrosil Feruchemy far away until I get there... I'm basically RAFOing everything about Investiture and Connection metalminds and things like that...

#75 Copy

Questioner

You've made it clear that on Sel, all magic requires both location and shape to be dependent. But we also know Elantrians are consistently being renewed by the [Dor]. Is that because Elantrians' bodies have been changed a certain way or is that due to the large Aon Rao in Elantris?

Brandon Sanderson

It is a little bit of -- it is more about the way they have been changed than about the Aon.

Questioner

Is that Spiritweb-based or is that body change kinda similar to the Dakhor monks?

Brandon Sanderson

It is a mix of both.

#76 Copy

Questioner

I noticed during Oathbringer, is there a symbolism between the color red? Because I noticed that red is mentioned many times. Is it tied directly to the Thrill?

Brandon Sanderson

When I am using red specifically for spren and eye color, I'm doing it intentionally. It means something. I'm not gonna tell you what it means yet.

Questioner

Azure's cloth was red, and Adolin picked up a red glass sphere.

Brandon Sanderson

Some of that is going to be coincidence. But the color of the thing that is going to Scadrial is not coincidence.

#77 Copy

Questioner

Would it be possible to Awaken a microbe, like a bacterium?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably not. I could imagine that happening. Awaken is the wrong term for it. I would say "No, because Awaken is the wrong term for it." But Investiture could potentially create something weird out of that.

#79 Copy

Questioner

In Elantris, there's the three ways that AonDor's manifested. Through the Aons, through the Dakhor, through the ChayShan. With Emperor's Soul, there's two major ones that we see with the Forging and Bloodsealing. And also that parallels with, there's one -- kind of like, in Mistborn where there's one that's positive, one that's neutral, one that's negative. Where does the third one fit in on the Emperor's Soul side?

Brandon Sanderson

Emperor's Soul, there are way more. It's not a split of the three.

#80 Copy

Questioner

Steris and Marasi. Did you plan the love interest to be [Steris] from the very beginning?

Brandon Sanderson

I did... Very beginning is a weird thing as an author to explain. Because the very beginning of that story, Wax didn't exist, it was only Wayne. Then I built Wax in, then I started building Wax's back history. Then I started building Marasi. Then I started building -- right? By the time that the outline for the four books was done, but even before that, when I was only writing the first one, I knew what I was doing, there.

#82 Copy

Questioner

If someone from, say, Roshar, traveled to the world of Warbreaker, do they have Breath?

Brandon Sanderson

No, they do not. And if someone from the Warbreaker world leaves, they will still have their Breath... They would not register as being a Drab to people who are looking. They would register as Option C. Particularly someone from Roshar, who is from a primary Shardworld, is slightly Invested.

#83 Copy

Questioner

Does bronze detect Investiture or only Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

Investiture. It can be used for other things. But like most detection methods, it doesn't look for wells of power, it looks for power that's being used, generally. You get enough power together, and bronze will be able to find it no matter what.

#85 Copy

The Young Pyromancer

Theoretically, if the Dor-- ifSel became a Shard, would-- The biggest limiter on Shards is the Vessel's mind, would that be more limiting or less limiting?

Brandon Sanderson

...If the Dor were itself to become a Shard combining Devotion and Dominion, and were to pick up a Vessel? Because they're still Shards, they just don't have a Vessel.

The Young Pyromancer

So the land couldn't be Vessel?

Brandon Sanderson

The land itself? Of Arelon or of--

The Young Pyromancer

Of Sel.

Brandon Sanderson

The land of Sel would not count as a Vessel. You would say in terminology right now that Dominion and Devotion do not have Vessels in the same way that other Shards do.

#86 Copy

The Young Pyromancer

Is Hoid's inability to hurt others due to an enhanced version of the effect that makes Szeth and Wayne hear voices?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

The Young Pyromancer

Is that likely or unlikely?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm just going to RAFO that entirely because it plays into things from Dragonsteel.

#89 Copy

The Young Pyromancer

If you built a computer and you programmed it to view the world in a certain way, would that affect the world, like, Cognitive aspect?

Brandon Sanderson

Not unless the computer starts to become self-aware.

Questioner

What if it was an Awakened computer?

Brandon Sanderson

If the computer were becoming self-aware, then it would act like any other sapient entity.

#91 Copy

coltonx9

If you were to [Forge] a car to say, that car had parked in a different space in parking lot what would happen, would it just disappear, if there were no other spots?

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, so you [Forge] the whole parking lot--

coltonx9

No, just SoulForge a car, in the parking lot to say it parked somewhere else.

Brandon Sanderson

That sort of temporal thing is probably not going to be something you can make work very easily with [Forgery]. You could rewrite this car so it had parked in that spot yesterday, but it's not going to change where it is, most cases. I think you might be able to contrive something that would work out, but that's normally not going to work... You can cause paradoxes with this sort of magic, that I have worked my best to make just not work.

#93 Copy

coltonx9

What would Elhokar's fifth truth be?

Brandon Sanderson

...Oh, Elhokar's last truth? He would have had to have been on a long journey before he could even get to that. It would probably be-- I'm going to RAFO that now, because I think it would tell you too much about the way I'm thinking for the way the truths work. I could probably tell you that now, but I will choose not to. Let's just say it would involve kind of a journey that starts kind of-- negative is the wrong term. Being more aware of himself and then coming to a deeper awareness of himself that is perhaps not-- that leaves him in a good place.

coltonx9

Could you tell me what his first truth would have been?

Brandon Sanderson

It would have been to admit the thing that he knows, which is that he's a bad king.

#94 Copy

Questioner

Is Shallan's truth, "I am hap-- It's okay that I can be happy?"

Brandon Sanderson

I'm going to dig into that, but this is a big part of it. Let me RAFO that because I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to express it as it goes along, but that sentiment is a huge part of what's going on with Shallan.

Questioner

I was expecting her to manifest Shardplate in the middle of her wedding because she had spoken such a core truth of her identity.

Brandon Sanderson

Let's just say that I'm being very careful about how I show off the first manifestations of Shardplate for narrative reasons.

#96 Copy

Shallan's Ward

Could Soulcasting be used for cosmetic surgery?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes... *sigh* Boy... *hesitantly* Yes, but give it a very shaky yes. Indicate that Brandon is wincing a little bit about that one.

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Could you give a brass nose like Tycho Brahe?

Brandon Sanderson

That, definitely, you could do.

#98 Copy

Khyrindor

So, I was hoping to get a confirmation on Mraize's age?

Brandon Sanderson

I'd probably-- Well, what did I say before?

Khyrindor

Not sure, I was just asking the question.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay good, I didn't think that I had confirmed this. I'm going to RAFO it.

Khyrindor

Like, is he older than a normal person?

Brandon Sanderson

I will RAFO it, yeah. Let's say though, that, though he has been off-world, he himself is a Rosharan.

Khyrindor

A Roshar native?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

#99 Copy

Khyrindor

If the Ire had managed to get Preservation, what would Ruin's reaction have been to that?

Brandon Sanderson

*chuckles* What would Ruin have thought about that? I don't think Ruin would have been a fan.

Khyrindor

Would he have been able to deal with it?

Brandon Sanderson

Deal with it? I can see potentials where he both could and couldn't deal with it. I do not-- I don't think the Ire were one hundred percent prepared for what they were trying to do. How about that?

#100 Copy

Khyrindor

The lighthouse guy was Ire? In Oathbringer?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Khyrindor

And he was the same Elantrian that they put in the Shardpool at the end of--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, he is the same person.

Khyrindor

And was he Ire before--

Brandon Sanderson

He was not before then.

#101 Copy

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

So were the Dawncities, the ones based on cymatic patterns, created using a supercharged combinations of the Surges of Cohesion and Illumination? Using Cohesion to make the ground liquid and using Illumination to create the frequency.

Brandon Sanderson

You are theorizing in the right direction.

#105 Copy

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.

#106 Copy

Questioner

It kind of felt like you let Adolin off the hook for murder.

Brandon Sanderson

I would say no, I didn't. There will be more implications there, but what you've gotta understand is, Adolin does not view what he did as murder. His dad is uncertain if it is. And his dad is the ultimate judge of legality. There will be far-reaching implications of this, but kind of the way a society like that works, if you didn't get caught and you are the son of the king, then you get a little-- you know what I mean?

Questioner

Is it yet to be resolved?

Brandon Sanderson

Yet to have the full extent of its implications, how about that? I would say that you are perfectly right if you were to say he did something morally wrong. There are many who would agree with you; there are many who would disagree with you. And that disagreement is part of what the story is about.

#107 Copy

Questioner

How do you approach creating scenes? Do you create how you want the scene to play out, and then make the magic system? Or do you make the magic system work first?

Brandon Sanderson

Usually, I do magic system first. The way scenes, I construct, is usually I have big goals in my story. For instance, in Mistborn, Vin is going to learn to train all the powers of a Mistborn. By the end, I want her to be fairly competent. So then I have that goal, and I write down, "What are scenes that can move me toward that goal?" In that outline, it would be: she trains with Ham in one scene, she trains with Marsh in another scene, she trains with Breeze in another scene. What else can I make those scenes do to move character and stuff, to try to pack more into those scenes. But I'll construct those scenes as goals towards the ending.

Event details
Name
Name Skyward Seattle signing
Date
Date Nov. 10, 2018
Location
Location Seattle, WA
Tour
Tour Skyward
Bookstore
Bookstore University Book Store
Entries
Entries 110
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