Liam
Would a duralumin cage around a fabrial increase the fabrial's power?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
Liam
If half of a conjoined ruby were encaged in bendalloy, would moving it cause the other half of the ruby to move much faster than the encaged half or vice versa?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Liam
What's the Allomantic effect of any one god metal besides atium and lerasium?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Blue Spirit Gem
When you write the Warbreaker sequel, will it be more focused on Vivenna, Vasher, and Nightblood, and will we learn why they got separated and how Nale found Nightblood?
Brandon Sanderson
That's the plan. It will definitely be Vivenna and Vasher. There will probably be mentions of Siri and Susebron but brief. They won't have--most likely--viewpoints. If they do it'll be like one little something, but I don't even plan that. And then yes, it will at least leave the implication of why what happened happened, if that makes sense. I may not get to the actual events but you will see, you know yeah.
Blue Spirit Gem
Will Steris have her own point of view chapters in The Lost Metal?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes she will. I don't have to RAFO that, because I have already written a couple of them. I'm pretty sure she got a couple in Bands of Mourning, she will have more in Lost Metal.
Questioner
Is it possible for Heralds to have children?
Brandon Sanderson
So yes, asterisk.
Matt
You'd talked in your last spoiler chat about this, which was that you had kind of gone back and forth with this idea to have [Taravangian] become Odium and basically this idea of Odium was no longer the threat that he should be or was at the time. Is this something that once you made that decision did you have to go redraw the future plotlines and such?
Brandon Sanderson
No, because the future was drawn both ways in my head and it was which path am I going down, if that makes sense. And yeah that'll have implications when I do the detailed outlines for future books, like the detailed outline for book 5. But this has already been in the works right, and so every outline is in bad shape by the time I get to it, every outline from the beginning, right? Because things just need to change, every book big things need to change. And every book you have dividing points, where you're like, am I going to do this, am I going to do this? I talked about in the last stream also, am I going to bring Kelsier back or not? That's a branching point that changes a lot about the future of the narrative. Which of the two paths am I going to walk? So this is something that I'm just very used to in storytelling.
There were some of those in The Wheel of Time. They weren't necessarily the same way. I won't give specifics because we're not spoiling, but there were things where I'm like, I think we'll do this, and then I got to the third one and I'm like, no we can't do that, we gotta rebuild this part from scratch because it just no longer works.
Matt
Were you tempted to have Kaladin be taken by Odium?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, I was tempted.
Matt
What is it the held you back from doing that?
Brandon Sanderson
Kaladin, if I were going to do it, I would have done it with Dalinar. The reason being that Kaladin as a theme represents his triumph over the darker parts of his mind. And Dalinar represents that too, but he also represents in some ways, succumbing to those. Like those are both themes for Dalinar, and for Kaladin it just would not ever have worked--I don't think--reasonably well. And beyond that, Kaladin is not scary as a villain, because Kaladin's strength comes from the people he's trying to protect. Kaladin's really scary to face when he thinks you're going after somebody he's trying to keep safe, that is when Kaladin is dangerous. Or as you saw in Rhythm of War, when you've gone too far, right? But Kaladin as an overarching villain, I don't think would be scary. Dalinar would be; Dalinar would be terrifying in that situation, but I don't think it would just add very much. If I were going to have had one of them, it would have been Dalinar.
Jofwu
Are the weird strata patterns in the stone of Urithiru a hallmark of Stoneshaping?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO. Stonewarding, but RAFO.
Argent
Rlain has a red and black beard whose colors match his marbled skin. Does this mean that the singer hair reflects their skin colors? Does Venli's white and red skin mean her hair strands are also white and red?
Brandon Sanderson
That is... That's what I have right now. That actually happens very commonly in the animal kingdom, right, that the pattern is on the skin. So yes, the answer is yes. But that's not come up in the books and I don't know if it will.
Argent
With how important or at least unique Autonomy seems in the Cosmere, are we going to see how Taldain is doing in more recent times?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeeees, you will. When? I'm not a hundred percent sure. Shouldn't be tooooo long, but it just depends on multiple things, right. Can I get the Silverlight story written? How do things go with Isaac? And he's kind of playing around with Taldain and doing things there and we're just not sure.
Auri
Does a Shardbearer [Vessel] who Ascended from the same world influenced by that Shard have less control over that Shard than a bearer from another world?
Brandon Sanderson
I do not... I'm gonna say no *pause* for now.
Kahlani
Did Adonalsium have a gemheart?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO, good question.
Rodrigo
What would be the difference between an aluminum and a chromium grenade, and between nicrosil and duralumin grenades?
Brandon Sanderson
We're talking specifically about the Bands of Mourning ones?
*Matt affirms*
So, what would be the difference? Aluminum would create a sort of "You can't use Allomancy in this... nearby this" most likely, yeah. Duralumin would do the opposite. You would be able to use it and then enhance someone. I haven't played with the ranges on these things yet, and so that's where we get into kind of the question mark territory. Like, right now, I haven't really given them an area of effect unless the power itself has an area of effect. Does that make sense?
But, my intent is to get to the point where it's doing things like this, right. Where you could theoretically be an Aluminum Gnat, you could charge this thing up and throw. And hey, you know, you have... the Metalborn nearby are unable to use their talents. That's convenient, right? Like, I want more of the powers to be relevant and these grenades are a way to do that.
You know, Marasi's power is not the most useful on the planet to have herself. For those who don't know, she can slow down time... well, speed up time? Awkward how... the phrasing of how you do that. But basically she can make a bubble around herself where everyone outside of it moves super fast. That's not terribly useful, right? Unless you want to age, you know, really slowly.
[...]
Not really useful in combat, to be able to be like "Yeah, I'm gonna make all my enemies move really, really fast and I can't respond to them". But, she can charge up one of those grenades and toss it, it becomes real handy. For her, the grenades are more useful than the inverse, right, because speeding up someone is useful, but slowing someone down takes someone out of the battle essentially. Or a whole globe of them... globe is the wrong term, but yeah.
Jeremy
If vast amounts of Investiture can distort time in a similar manner as a black hole, [...] does that include Shards? Would time dilation be greater on Roshar than on Nalthis?
Brandon Sanderson
No, because the Shard is contained almost entirely in the Spiritual Realm. In the Spiritual Realm, time and distance have no meaning. So, what this means is: Large piles of Investiture that somehow make it into the Cognitive Realm or the Physical Realm are going to cause time dilation, but the Spiritual Realm—where it belongs—it's not going to do that.
That's gonna make some exclamation points raise above the heads of some people.
Questioner
How much should we be thinking about possible logical groupings of Shards? For instance, as pairs or groups of four.
Brandon Sanderson
Go ahead, knock yourselves out. This is relevant, but only in a sort of Cosmerenaut sort of way, people who like theorizing on these things and what not. It's not going to be hugely relevant to the narrative, but Dawnshard does indicate that these groupings are a place you can go.
Ryan
Do we know why Nightblood didn't take up a Shard?
Brandon Sanderson
Nightblood didn't take up a Shard, Nightblood was not there... Oh, [they're] probably just asking why Nightblood did not absorb the entire Shard of Odium.
Nightblood cannot hold that much Investiture. At least not at that rate, right? Like, if you drop Nightblood without his sheath... I have to do it this way, because otherwise you drop him on the planet and he would absorb the entire planet, right. This is not a power I want Nightblood to have. I do not want Nightblood... Nightblood is a very dangerous tool without also being the death star.
I did not want... I actually was happy that I had the chance to put that scene in so I kind of put the kabosh on Nightblood being able to absorb the entire Investiture of an entire Shard. Not where I wanted... I didn't want that to be a promise people thought was coming. Now, he can absorb a lot and it's also rate of absorption is a pretty important deal.
...
People are gonna quote me on this in ten years and things like that and say "but, but, but". Just, you know, understand that there are specific ways that I'm trying to phrase some of these things.
Cephandrius
Is there a reason that the last few unknown Shards were kept for the last? Or have they just not come up until now?
Brandon Sanderson
More that they haven't come up. If I had started a book on those planets, then I would have canonized them earlier.