Stuttgart signing

Event details
Name
Name Stuttgart signing
Date
Date May 17, 2019
Location
Location Stuttgart, Germany
Bookstore
Bookstore Wittwer-Thalia
Entries
Entries 78
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#5 Copy

Paleo (paraphrased)

Are the Ashynite magic system, in which micro organisms cause diseases and bestow powers, and the Old Magic related? You could sort of see the powers and the disease as a boon and a curse. If so, does the "Old" part come from that?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, they are related, but the name comes from the magic actually predating spren bonds.

#7 Copy

Paleo (paraphrased)

There's symbols in the temple at the end of The Bands of Mourning which none of the characters recognize. Are they from any writing system known to us or did Kelsier make them up?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO.

Footnote: Paleo also mentioned in passing that the symbols didn't resemble any Aons or other symbols he knew. Brandon didn't react much to that.
#8 Copy

Paleo (paraphrased)

Is Wisdom a Shard? If so, how bad does it want to survive?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There is a Shard with a similar intent. The Shard has realized that survival might not be the most desirable/important.

#9 Copy

Paleo (paraphrased)

Have Rosharan mathematics advanced far enough to know Julia sets?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, they know Julia sets. Some of the mathematics are farther along at this time than ours, some are behind. Kinda like abstractionalism is a centuries-old art style on Roshar, calculus was discovered way earlier.

#40 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

Who did the Crownlands historically belong to before there was a king and what purpose do they serve now?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

At the moment the Crownlands are the property of the king and work for him, to earn money or to give them away to a lord. Before Gavilar, they belonged to some princedom.

#42 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

The map of Kholinar looks like a lion's head. Is that an allusion to Caemlyn?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It was not a conscious decision to make it look like Caemlyn. The city shapes are based on cymatic patterns that have deep-rooted origins in the history of Roshar. I may make a lot of unconscious allusions, but something like the Misted Mountains are a conscious reference.

#43 Copy

Rhapsody (paraphrased)

Will the Threnody book take place in the Homeland?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The book is tentatively called The Dusk Brigade. A group wants to free the homeland of the Evil. It doesn't go well for them. Opening scene is all ships sinking and people washing up on shore.

#44 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

Shadesmar is an inversion of Roshar. In the Physical Realm, planets are disconnected, but in Shadesmar you can reach one from the other. Is there a point in Shadesmar where I can instantly cross between diametrically opposed points on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, technically there is, but oceans, etc. are problematic since there's not enough minds there. There are points, but the transition is more steady than instantaneous. It will be hard, since you're basically leaving the planet when you go far enough. If you just went south, you'd end up on another planet. Kind of yes. Shadesmar gets funky because you end up in no man's land. We'd need to do the exact maths on that one.

#45 Copy

Krios (paraphrased)

If you have a form of manipulating your Identity and a form of healing, are you able to shapeshift or even evolve your body like growing wings?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You'd have to do some real work on your Spiritweb to make that work. It'd take more work than you're implying, but the [singers] for instance are doing this. It'll take a little more work, it's not just blanking your Identity. Hemalurgy would make it very easy, but also very evil. But what you want to achieve is possible.

#47 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

How do you choose worldhoppers to depict in your books?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There's couple of ways I choose worldhoppers. The background story plays a big part, but some worldhoppers just want to be immigrants. Some people you meet, you'll notice they're from a different planet but aren't involved in any schemes. They just wanted to get to another planet.

There's groups like the Ghostbloods, but there's also just trade between places like Roshar and Nalthis. I have to be careful to not make everyone an easter egg from other worlds. That would strain plausibility very easily.

#48 Copy

Paleo (paraphrased)

How is Dark One coming along?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's coming along very well. It's like Harry Potter from the perspective of Voldemort, where the good guys want to get the bad guy. It's like Narnia was trying to assassinate those who come over to their world to destroy it.

The outline is really great, we pitched it across Hollywood. We had a really great response, but no contracts are done. We're planning to release it as an audiobook original. We haven't closed the contract on that yet, but we have an offer.

#51 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

What idea sparked Stormlight for you?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The very first seed for everything was a man who's brother to a king. The king gets assassinated and the nephew becomes a bad king. How he copes with that is what I started thinking about. We all have somebody in our family. That became Dalinar and Elhokar in The Stormlight Archive.

#52 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

Was Shallan's ability to draw intentional, just so you could have her draw all the maps?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, basically that was the seed for her. I was inspired by people from history like Darwin who was a scientist and did drawings. That was part of the concept that made me put Shallan into the books. All those drawings are intended to give you a sense of immersion.

#53 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

Would magic from one world work on another and if so, how?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Generally, magics in the cosmere work on different planets. But it depends on the magic. Things like the Dor on Sel are locked to the geography, so it gets difficult. The Metallic Arts work pretty much universally though. Making Surgebinding work on another planet would require Stormlight and the spren are bound to Roshar, so getting them off planet is quite hard.

So the magics kind of work differently depending on whether a sentient being is involved, how the magic works and how it's powered. It would be very easy to take some Breaths off of Nalthis, which is a problem for them. It gets very complicated.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Can there be a mixing of magic?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, there can be.

#61 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

How do you name your characters?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It depends on how much work I've done on the linguistics. Some planets I haven't done a lot of work on that. On Roshar I've built out the linguistics a lot, so I build names out of that.

On Scadrial, however, I went more with real world inspirations or stuff I liked, like "Wax and Wayne", which is a pun they can't really understand. Names like Elend or Straff are Germanic in origin, Vin, Demoux or Kelsier are French.

Paleo (paraphrased)

Is Wax's name pronounced French in Scadrian?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, it is. I can't even pronounce it. [Various people pronounce "Waxillium" with a French accent]

#66 Copy

Sorana (paraphrased)

Do you have any tips regarding drawing the symbols/glyphs?

Isaac (paraphrased)

I always have to copy them myself. I did design a handscript of the Allomantic symbols. You might get to see them later.

Paleo (paraphrased)

Will the Steel Alphabet change further with the later eras of Mistborn?

Isaac (paraphrased)

Yes, it will. I've already got some designs that look very sci-fi-y.

#68 Copy

The Forumlurker (paraphrased)

Can a Windrunner use a Basic Lashing on a specific body part?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, but it works the same way a Steelpusher could push on a specific part of metal. Usually, you'd just affect the whole body, because of its Identity and cosmere magic not working as well on parts of something that considers itself a unit. When you're very skilled, you can isolate a hand, like Kelsier could push on specific sections of metal.

#70 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

We see Nightblood consuming both Breaths and Stormlight. Earlier you've mentioned conversion between types of Investiture. Is Nightblood doing that?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Nightblood can feed off of any source of Investiture. If you're a Mistborn, burning a metal while wielding Nightblood would directly feed him. So you stay alive for as long as you have metal left.

#71 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

Why do Vorin women have to hide their left hand?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Originally, a woman wrote a book about female and male arts, which claimed women could do things like art with one hand while men needed two for their arts, like fighting. Eventually, it evolved and just stuck as a taboo, but it's a cultural thing.

It's similar to how some things are perfectly fine in our Western culture but would be frowned upon in, say, Korea. I wanted to add some weirdness to their culture, something that is pretty normal to them, but strange to us. Taboos usually are strange.

#73 Copy

Krios (paraphrased)

At the end of Oathbringer, Kaladin says that the Oaths are about perception. So, what would happen when a crazy person bonds a crazy spren? Is there a hard limit to what the Oaths allow or could they just go on a John Wick style rampage?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Perception will get you a very long way, like Nightblood proves. So you can go beyond the Oaths, but there will be a hard limit. Although it will be hard to find a such fitting pair of human and spren.

#78 Copy

Rhapsody (paraphrased)

How much freedom do you get from Brandon for the maps and symbols and so on?

Isaac (paraphrased)

I get a lot of freedom with the maps. There were actually times we've changed parts of the books to fit the maps.

Rhapsody (paraphrased)

May I have an example?

Isaac (paraphrased)

We changed around directions in the Kholinar chapters a lot.

Rhapsody (paraphrased)

And the glyphs and other symbols?

Isaac (paraphrased)

For the glyphs I have a symmetry tool which I play around a lot with. We developed the glyphs later in full from those images we liked.

For the Allomantic symbols I had a couple different ideas which didn't seem to work well. Then I had an idea about a bunch of nails lying around haphazardly and from that image the Allomantic symbols evolved.

Event details
Name
Name Stuttgart signing
Date
Date May 17, 2019
Location
Location Stuttgart, Germany
Bookstore
Bookstore Wittwer-Thalia
Entries
Entries 78
Upload sources