Will we ever see protagonists ever come back? ...Once they're, like, dead and stuff?
So, there's a couple rules for people coming back in the cosmere. If you could be revived by CPR, you could be saved. If you can't be revived by CPR, only a direct infusion of Investiture immediately to the soul will turn you into a Cognitive Shadow. Those are your two kind of outs. I'll leave it at that for you, and you can see where it goes from there.
So, Kaladin met Hoid a long long time ago, and Hoid gave him a very important flute that he has not learned how to play. Is he ever going to put the time in to get good at that? Or is that just something we're going to have to wait for?
You'll have to wait for. Kaladin has a lot of things on his mind. He sure could use something to keep him from stressing out, but you're just gonna have to wait and see if Kaladin understands the reason he was given a flute, or not.
What was that reading from?
It's called Skyward, it's not out yet. Hopefully, it will be next Christmastime. A girl and her spaceship, which has a very goofy AI, which I am having way too much fun writing.
Have you thought about doing a continuation of Dreamer?
Occasionally. I haven't found the right thing to do with it yet, though. Dreamer is weird, because it starts off feeling like a Brandon Sanderson story, and a lot of people are like "Woah, I can see a whole world based on this!" And then it goes the horror route, you know, with the kids.
I really liked that. I thought it was a nice twist.
The most horrific thing I could think of was giving the kids who play X-Box too much power over peoples' lives.
Is Urithiru a spaceship?
It is not, no, good question. I've never been asked that before. It's very Sim City, though.
It's a new theory, they're thinking, is it one of the floating cities from--
From Ashyn, yeah. Boy, that would be hard, it is so big. But, I suppose, magic, you know. But no, it is not...
[My son] would like to know when you're planning to write Bastille?
...We're close. The fact that I ditched Apocalypse Guard has slow me down a bit. I was planning to write Bastille very soon. But it's gonna depend on how soon I finish [Skyward], when I need to go into Wax & Wayne. I need to go into Wax & Wayne, like, July at the latest. So, it's gonna depend on how long Skyward takes. But I'm gonna try to slip it in there.
Longevity of Radiants. So, I, before [Oathbringer], thought that they were immortal. So, they're not?
No.
Do they have longer lifespans?
Slightly. They're very healthy, but it's not an unusually expanded lifespan.
The new book, Skyward. Is that a Cosmere--
It is not a Cosmere. I need to reference Earth in it for it to work the way I want it to, most likely.
On Sixth of the Dusk, First of the Sun, if humans eat the fruit or the seed of the worms, will they gain Investiture?
No. They tried that. Someone has tried that.
Has Hoid been there?
That's a RAFO.
What kind of time frame will we look for, or will we see another book?
Time frame for another Sixth of the Dusk book? So, I outlined a pretty good novella, which was actually about Sixth, going into Shadesmar. It was pretty cool, but then I didn't have time to write it, so I can't make any promises.
So, there is one coming, maybe?
Maybe. There is an outline for another story, specifically about Sixth, because exploring Shadesmar would be a fun thing for him. But can't promise.
Time-wise, where do the events of Bands of Mourning happen with respect to Words of Radiance?
...So, Bands of Mourning, all the Wax & Wayne books take place after Stormlight 5, but I'm not sure if it happens after or before Stormlight 6, It'll have to wait, because there's a time jump between Stormlight 5 and 6 that I haven't exactly defined in the timeline yet.
So, I was wondering, as a dyslexic, when you were designing Thaylen names, was that intentionally a massive practical joke on your part?
No. Though I will admit, when I was designing Thaylen names, I had a little bit of Welsh going on, and things like that. Now, one of my good friends, actually, the person this book is dedicated to, Alan Layton, is dyslexic. He was one of the people I brainstormed Stormlight with, but he listens to them all on audio. It's more a practical joke on the people who read the audiobooks, because I don't know how they read those names sometimes. But they also have to do Rock's name, right? Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor. I make them do stuff like that.
Is Obrodai going to be the setting of Dark One?
Excellent question. That is also a RAFO. Sorry, sorry! This is partially because Dark One pops in and out of the cosmere a lot, depending on which version I'm doing. It's been the hardest book. For those who don't know anything about, this is a book I talk about in my blog once in a while... It's like the Harry Potter story, except you get told "By the way, you're the Dark One who's gonna destroy the world, so we're gonna assassinate you while you're a teenager, so that never happens." It's a really cool story that I have never been able to get to work.
*inaudible* one of the starts of one of the chapters...
Yeah, and Obrodai is one of the Shardworlds, but I keep hopping Dark One in and out of the cosmere. Sometimes it feels too self-referential to the fantasy genre to actually be in the cosmere. Because I don't want the cosmere to be self-referential, right? Whenever something gets even a little too silly, I'm like, "Nah, this can't be in the cosmere anymore." So, we'll see what happens.
Do you have any magic systems outside of your own books that you particularly like, or were inspired by?
Ooh, good question! One of the ones when I was young that really inspired me was Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner. I love her magic system even still, and I would recommend that to you. But I like all kinds of magic systems, I don't like just the scientific ones. I like all different types. I think Guy Gavriel Kay does a great job with magic, even though they're often low-magic systems. David Farland's Runelords--he's a friend of mine, so I'm biased--but his is one of the best magic systems around. Pat Rothfuss does a very good mix of a hard magic system and a soft magic system in the same system. Which really lets him play off of the concepts of, you know, you've got this magic where it's like, "We discover the names of things, we don't even know what that means!" Versus, "Hey, we build mechanical, magepunk artifacts using the rules." And the play off of each other is very fun. N.K. Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms had a brilliant magic system that really walked the line between hard and softball. So, that's just a few of them.
I was just wondering, in terms of the White Sand graphic novels, are you gonna keep those as graphic novels throughout? Or are you gonna jump into some more novellas and short stories that coincide with those?
Right now, we're just trying to finish the... graphic novels. Next one's out in February, I think is the date they finally picked...
...So, right now, I'm gonna finish the graphic novels. I'm not gonna do other graphic novels until that one's done. I have a few cool things that I would like to do with graphic novels. I wanna make sure that we get the one done that we're doing, which will be three parts, White Sand. And then, when that's done, then we'll look at doing other stuff. I don't know, I probably will do some novellas set on Taldain eventually. But for right now, it is just the graphic novel.
But if you want to read the original novel of mine that I'm adapting with Rik Hoskin to become the graphic novel, we send that out to people. We used to just send it when you asked us, but that got to the point that my assistant was getting a hundred emails a day. So now, you just sign up for the mailing list, and it will all get sent to you. And if you don't want to be in the mailing list, you can just unsubscribe then, right? But that way, you can just get the novel. It's okay. If you're curious about early Sanderson, it was book number... eight... But if you want to read early Sanderson, it's good, but it needed editing. It needs to be, like, 50-75,000 words shorter than it is. Which is what we're doing to make it a graphic novel, we're just kind of slimming it down.
Will there be more Cosmere stories set on Threnody?
Yeah, Threnody is the setting of Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, which is my longest title ever. Yeah, one of the outlines I've noodled with is a Threnody novel. We'll see. I'm in a stage where I feel like I can start very few novel-length projects, until I've wrapped up Rithmatist, specifically Rithmatist. Once I've wrapped up Rithmatist, I'll feel pretty good-- Rithmatist and Alcatraz. We'll see, but I do have a pretty decent outline that I'm quite pleased with for a Threnody novel.
Do you think that Silence might reappear?
Silence will not reappear. I'm sorry. Maybe a cameo, I don't know. The Threnody novel I'm planning, though, is going back to reclaim the continent from the Evil. And the opening scene is ships arriving. There's not a lot of room for a Silence cameo in that.
In Oathbringer, Kaladin sees a painting from the Court of Gods which, it is claimed, shows something different to every person who sees it. However, as I understand it, the Returned only see things in the paintings because of their Divine Breath, there isn't anything intrinsically magical about the paintings themselves; what then is going on with this painting?
He was very evasive here, ultimately he only said that not everything that you see is in the painting.
If an Awakener were born deaf, could they Command using sign language?
RAFO. He initially said yes, but then couldn't remember if he changed it or not, so changed it to RAFO.
If a gemstone infused with Stormlight were left inside a bendalloy or cadmium bubble, would the gemstone appear to go dun faster or slower respectively to the outside observer?
Yes it would. Time is actually changing, the same thing would be observed if it were brought near to a singularity.
Do Geranid and Ashir have anything to do with the creation of new Shardplate?
RAFO.
