In the Rhythm of War Ars Arcanum, Khriss says she sent her best agent among the Stonewards. Was that Nazh?
Yes.
Has he become a Radiant?
RAFO. But yes, she did send her best agent, and her best agent is Nazh. And he is not happy about it.
It seems that deadeyes can wander Shadesmar freely, but when summoned as a Shardblade and subsequently dismissed, they end up at the location in Shadesmar corresponding to the location of the Shardbearer. How does this work for deadeyes who are cared for by a loved one, like Captain Ico?
They would vanish if their Shardblade were summoned.
But it's been a while since that's happened, so it's not as much of a concern?
You can assume that there are more deadeyes wandering Shadesmar whose Shardblades have been lost, than there are ones that the Shardblades are kept. Probably about an equal number, I would say, 50/50. Though I would have to really crunch those numbers. I'd say that across 5000 years-ish... not quite, but you know. That a lot of those weapons, even though they are powerful and things like that, are gonna get lost. Ships are gonna get sunk; things get covered over with crem on Roshar; people go up to cross mountain passes to go attack, and they end up freezing and dying. And I think that over the years, there's been a ton of those that have been lost.
Someone wanted to know if there are dinosaurs in the cosmere.
Are there dinosaurs in the cosmere? There are dinosaur-esque things, so sure.
We know Nale was the only Herald to join his Order. Based on the vision Dalinar had while touching him, it seemingly happened before the Last Desolation. Did Nale spend time on Braize while he had a Nahel bond? What happened to his highspren while he was there?
Good question. So, if you end up in Braize as a Herald with a Nahel bond, your spren most likely would end up there with you. But there are circumstances where the spren could be left in Shadesmar and separated from you. Both are possible.
Does firemoss use have an effect on Shadesmar?
You could tell, if you were really good... This is going to be, as we move forward, a talent in the cosmere, to kind of be able to look and basically read souls from Shadesmar and tell things about them. It would not be-- what was Robert Jordan's phrase-- "intuitively obvious to the casual observer" that this is a person that has suffered the effects of firemoss from the other side. However, like a lot of things in the cosmere, the more skilled you are at your particular version of arcanum, the more likely you are able to do things like this, and you could tell.
If Hoid collects a form of Investiture from every planet, will it grant him special effects?
He hopes so!
Why do Cryptics have such a bad rap among other spren? The contrast between what spren think about Cryptics compared to how they come off to the reader is hilarious. They're these utterly guileless beings who never try to fight anyone or conquer anything in Shadesmar, and who literally can't lie without audibly buzzing. And yet other spren talk about them as if they're Machiavellian geniuses bent on dominating everyone else.
I love that you picked up on this. There's a couple things going on here. One is, the Cryptics are just kind of their own weird little club. I mean, all of the various different spren are, to an extent, but the Cryptics are one of those that are extra. You know, that word, extra. They're extra. I had to cut a scene that was very fun, that would explain some of this, but you get a bit of it. I reused some of the same concepts in Rhythm of War, when Shallan around a lot of them. They can get to be a bit much, and because they will start talking in numbers and in mathematical formulas, they often seem like they're planning something, when in reality they're just not quite getting what's going on in the same way. And it's kind of this, when you meet somebody that you don't quite get, sometimes you assume things about them. That said, there have been some very smart, very dangerous Cryptics in the past, and spren have long memories. So the reputation isn't entirely unearned, but it is perhaps too liberally applied as a stereotype to an entire race-- that never happens-- when a small percentage of them might have earned this reputation individually.
Was Shallan's mom a Herald?
What would make you ask that? The chat, why would they ask that? The Stormfather said that the Heralds-- that that's impossible.
Given Demoux's religious fervor, is there a reason he's not a Ghostblood?
Yes. I might get into it someday. I will not get into it now.
Did the Stormfather feel when Jezrien died?
The Stormfather would have been able to tell, yes.
The Fused only use nine of the Surges (they don't use Adhesion), and Raboniel describes Adhesion as "not a true Surge." Does this mean, in its original form on Ashyn, Surgebinding had no equivalent to Adhesion, and it was created by Honor later?
That is a valid way of theorizing, and I would encourage you to go that direction. Raboniel is biased. So take those two sentences as separate things. Do be aware she is very, very biased, but also your theorizing could bear fruit going that direction.
Will we see any more of the Seventeenth Shard soon, or are they more of a Dragonsteel/Era 4 kind of thing?
You're not gonna see a ton of them in book 5. And you're not gonna see them soon.
In the past, you've RAFO'd whether Nohadon had the powers of a Bondsmith or not. Can you answer that now?
Nope. Well I mean, I can. I will not. Something weird is happening. Will I ever answer it? Maybe not.
Did Odium have a lasting effect on Nightblood?
Yes, but basically everything has a lasting effect, right? Yes, Odium had a lasting effect on Nightblood, but not a significant one.
In the Stormlight 5 prologue, wouldn't Gavilar have recognized that Szeth was holding an Honorblade? He was just studying them earlier that day.
Gavilar was pretty busy being killed.
That's a pretty good reason not to notice something.
I think it is possible that he could have noticed that, yes.
You once mentioned something called "Honor's purposes" to Argent/Evgeni. Are these purposes the same or related to the core theme of each of the Knights Radiant Orders? For example, unity, protection, justice.
That gives me a lot of wiggle room. Related to, yes, but that's a wiggly answer.
In the Stormlight Archive, Cryptics are often humming to tunes that denote their emotional state. A Rhythm of Curiosity is cited, and Pattern often hums when he is curious. The same goes for a Rhythm of Confusion. Are Cryptics humming to the Rhythms like the singers? If not, what are they humming?
They are humming to something very akin to the singer Rhythms. I would call them the same, with an asterisk.
What it is that determines how skilled a Shard is at reading the future? For example, why is Ruin so bad at it, and why are Odium and Preservation both so good at it despite being so different?
RAFO.
In Way of Kings, when Jasnah gifts Shallan the Book of Endless Pages, she mentions that someone dear to her once made a very attempt at converting her to Vorinism. Who was he, and how did he manage to appeal to her senses?
Well, wait for the Jasnah flashbacks.
Did I miss something about it being a "he", or did they assume a gender?
They're making some assumptions, I believe.
Could primer cubes be used to store powers besides the Scadrial ones, such as Surgebinding?
This is theoretically possible. So much fun to have in the space age, that I'm not gonna let you have yet. You have one more Mistborn book, one more Stormlight book, three more Mistborn books, and then five more Stormlight books before I'm gonna let you have that fun. Keep theorizing.
How would Kaladin cope with constantly losing to Malenia, the Blade of Miquella?
He would find peace. He would find peace in the struggle, and eventually the journey would be, you know. I think Kaladin would be like, I deserve this, and find a certain peace in it.
If a planet has no sentient life, does it have a Cognitive representation? If not, would the Cognitive area generate in Shadesmar whenever sentience appeared there?
People have started to talk about this, because it is a legit thing. So, if there is no sapient life, or even sentient life, if it's a dead rock out in space and nobody knows it's there, its manifestation in Shadesmar will be basically nothing. I say basically because the Shards are aware of it, so there's probably going to be some bit of something that manifests, but until the attention of sapient beings starts focusing on it, it's not going to manifest very much in Shadesmar. It might be like a patch of ground that is a couple feet wide. It is going to start growing as soon as they do, which distorts space in Shadesmar, and makes routes between planets change and more distance come between them. Which is very very odd, and very very interesting, and it's one of my favorite parts about the whole thing. It should kind of break your brain, and it shouldn't really make sense with our physics.
Stone is hard to Awaken partially cause it's never been alive. On Roshar, there are tons of stone Soulcast corpses. Would these be easier? Has Vasher thought of this?
Yes, I would say that he has. And yes, they would be easier.
Does Nightblood have a favorite flavor or type of Investiture? In addition, does different Investiture taste different?
Yes it would, but the thing is, when Nightblood is eating Investiture, he is generally not in a mental state to really pay attention to that. He's not what you would call a connoisseur, he is a glutton. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but kind of making a distinction there. Because of that, if you asked him, he wouldn't even really be able to remember. Because that time when he's really drinking it in, he is not himself, so to speak. But it would taste different to him, if he were able to pay attention and to eloquently speak about those experiences.
Did Evi have a miscarriage or stillbirth before Adolin? She is visibly pregnant in one of the flashback chapters set almost a year before Adolin was born.
I think that she did... or that's just a continuity error, I don't know whichone it is. That's a question for Karen. If it's a continuity error, then maybe you found a continuity error and a solution to the same continuity error for us. I'll be completely frank with you guys, the timelines of the flashbacks are really tricky, particularly because I'm writing books like Way of Kings and Words of Radiance without a full continuity team. I just kind of have to keep it in my head. And so when we sat down to run the continuity, particularly starting in Oathbringer, there are a lot of things where it makes Karen's brain break. This is not where a lot of my mental effort went to, planning out each month. I generally knew which things happened in what order and what happened where. The timeline is pretty good and tight now, but there are all sorts of things that I worked into it that I said had to happen. For instance, the dates of births and things like that, that's locked in. I say how old people are. It's totally possible that you caught us on a continuity error.
But with a solution, so that's a double win.
Would it be possible to use an aluminum spike to permanently kill a spren?
No, that's not gonna work. Silver, on the other hand, there's some possibility.
Considering that Mistborn Era 2 is four books, and Secret History is canonically in Era 1, have you considered adding either a novel or a Secret History to each Era to total sixteen books?
I get this on occasion. The other option is doing the cyberpunk series in between Eras 3 and 4, basically turning it into 5 Eras, which also would get us to sixteen books. It seems like a pretty good idea to go to sixteen books, but I don't know if we should count Secret History as one of those or not. But I would like to get to sixteen books, but I have a lot on my plate.
Why does Hoid in his letter to Frost say, "as you are now essentially immortal"? To our understanding, as a dragon Frost would have always been ageless. Is this understanding incorrect, or is there something else going on with him?
There is something else going on with him. That is a good question.
Was the prostitute from the Way of Kings that Adolin protected Beryl?
No, it was not, good question.
So, I like connections between characters. I liked it in Wheel of Time when Bayle Domon shows up again and things like that, but it would have gone too far in another series without the explanation of the Pattern weaving them together. It sometimes strains plausibility. The Wheel of Time has a built-in mechanism, it's ta'veren, they're getting woven back in, and people are showing up time and time again. I feel like that was enough of a selling point in the Wheel of Time, and the Wheel of Time did it really well. When I built the cosmere, I wanted to be careful, because I knew I was gonna be bringing back a lot of worldhoppers and having people show up in other people's stories. And if I went too far on this, and every random person that you run into ends up being someone later on, it just is too much. So whenever I've considered one of these things, I sit down and say, would they really be there? What are the statistical chances? If I make this happen, what does it do to the lore in the fandom, where now they're theorizing about the connections between these characters, and things like this. I try to be very careful on that. I brought Yalb back for a quick scene in Dawnshard, he's in the prologue of Dawnshard. Partially to be like, hey, this guy did survive! But I intentionally didn't bring him and put him on the crew that is the main story of Dawnshard, because that was one step too far for me. And maybe fans would like more of this, but it's something I want to be careful about. We already have things like Gaz showing up and joining this crew, and we have Felt jumping between worlds, and these are all kind of planned things that I wanted to do. I gotta be careful, I want to be careful, and maybe I'm overly careful on this. But in other words, a lot of times I'm gonna tell you the random person who shows up does not have any connection to the greater story that I'm telling, and that's by design.
You've said in previous WoBs that that there have been champions of other Shards, like what Dalinar and Odium are doing in their deal. Would the battle between Elend and Marsh or Vin and Marsh count as a similar type of contest of champions, or would that have to be more formalized to have them be considered champions?
To be considered, I would've said that had to be more formalized. I wouldn't consider what happened there... It's definitely an echo, but I don't think it would fit. There's been legit, actual, contractual sorts of things that have happened.
How much have you thought about the mathematical relationship between Investiture and energy/matter? Is there a cosmere E=mc^2?
I've thought about the concepts a lot. The numbers, I actually tried to get some mathematicians... There are some lovely folks, I'm like, can we come up with a standardization? And it kind of broke their brains, not because they aren't smart people, they're very smart people, but they're like, "Brandon, where do we even start? How much energy is being expended?" and this sort of thing. I would like to get a unit of measurement, how much Investiture equals how much energy, but at the same time, the work being done by the various magic systems, it's going to be too constrictive to put too much math on that, I feel like. I would like to. It is a much bigger project than you might imagine it being. How much energy is stored in a sphere? That's kind of where we started. A sphere stores Investiture, obviously some of that Investiture is being lost as energy, it is transferring energy as the sphere releases light. That is happening automatically, it's decaying and radiation is happening. How much is it therefore losing, how much could it do, how much of that can be transferred to doing work with a Lashing... All of this stuff, I have thought about way too much, and we have no answers for you yet because it is a really big project. Maybe we will someday, or maybe we'll just say, this is too big a project to even be able to mathematically quantify. I'm sure if you have suggestions, you can post thoughts on the subreddits, and perhaps that will get to the various arcanists who are helping me with this.
Are there any genetic restrictions, Spiritual or otherwise, to using an unsealed metalmind? For example, if Vivenna got her hands on one of Allik's translation medallions, could she use it? Could Iyatil?
No, there are not. People from off planet could use one of these metalminds. Good question. I think that's what you're asking. Barring Elantris, most of these things don't have this kind of region lock on the magics, and the unkeyed Investiture is not going to have a problem with that. That's kind of the whole point. It extends to people from off planet.
If Kelsier managed to get his hands on a spren to bond with, which Order would he naturally gravitate toward in terms of personality and morals?
This is a really good question. I have trouble answering these cause I feel like I need to take the quiz as Kelsier and check all the boxes. Where is Kelsier gonna be? Maybe I need to start eliminating Orders. So Skybreaker, probably not. Windrunner, close but no. Edgedancer, maybe. The whole "I will listen," and the whole recover the past, it's really more a Mare thing that Kelsier kind of picked up on, but it's where he found his center, so I would give him a partial hit on Edgedancer. Dustbringer is a good hit also, this whole idea of self mastery and pushing himself and things like this, is gonna be a good Kelsier fit. Bondsmith is gonna be an okay Kelsier fit, with the kind of bringing together the crew and pulling off some big thing. Lightweaver, not as much as you would think. I don't think Kelsier is there on the Lightweaver thing. What have I missed? Stoneward, no. Willshaper, he'd be a good Willshaper. Willshaper's high on the list, but I think Edgedancer might win, maybe. But he's kind of borrowing that. It's a tie between Edgedancer and Dustbringer, probably. Willshaper's up there too, three way tie. I'd have to answer the questions from the thing and see where we go.
If Lift ate Nightblood, would Nightblood eat Lift?
Yes. She would have a whole lot of trouble. He would not.
As a Truthwatcher I am curious, are we going to learn the standard ideals that Stump would give, or will we just learn the ones that Renarin and Rlain speak, since they are bonded to Enlightened spren? Need to know what my ideals are.
You will learn those both. You will learn the differences between them. I'm kind of being dodgy until I get to Renarin's book for some of this stuff, but my goal will be to give you both sets of ideals.
Can other Bondsmith spren become Blades for their Bondsmith? And how would it affect the Tower if the Sibling became a Blade?
I'm gonna say it's outside the realm of plausibility for the Sibling right now. Is it possible for the other two, yes. It's possible but implausible. Highly implausible for the Sibling.
Is there a difference between the way that Shallan 'broke' her bond with Testament and the way that the rest of the Radiants broke their bonds in the Recreance that allowed Shallan to use Surgebinding between her bonds with Testament and Pattern?
Kind of and kind of not. I mean the thing about it is, some of the things that are happening with Shallan could've happened in the past and probably did, but it's been so long ago that it's not really relevant. So it's less like she's done something super unique and more like things that are happening with Shallan also probably happened—not with everybody but with some—but there's just not record of it and it's not as relevant to the conversation. So, less that she's special and more that this is a possibility. Not giving any confirmations to any specific items, just saying what is happening with Shallan could theoretically have happened in the past and probably did.
Has the Stormfather ever become a Blade in the past for previous Bondsmiths?
RAFO.
Is the secret way that the God King in Warbreaker can have children the same way that the Heralds can?
*long series of uncertain sounds* No...? But there could be... I'm just gonna say no. But interesting theorizing, and it's possible that I could change my mind.
You've said fainlife has spread beyond Yolen in significant ways. Have we seen this in the books, excluding Mraize's fain branch?
No, you have not. Watch out for Sho Del, they'll be showing up, dragons will be showing up, but actual fainlife, when I'm talking about that I'm kind of talking about the entire ecosystem. You'll know when you see it.
Stormlight 5 prologue: Are we supposed to be getting really weird vibes from the Stormfather, or is this just for lack of editing?
*extremely facetiously* Uh, I don't know what you mean weird, that totally seems like the way the Stormfather always acts and has always!
In Rhythm of War, Lift came up to the body of Gereh, who had been killed with a messy wound to the chest. Did Mraize kill him with a spike?
RAFO!
And a followup to that, Gereh's rings were gone. Would it be possible to spike someone to take their Feruchemical power and then use a metalmind keyed to their Identity?
This is theoretically possible.
What do Kelsier and Iyatil think of Mraize kidnapping Lift?
Iyatil? On board with it. Kelsier? Eh, does he even know? He's on another planet.
When Taravangian first got control of Szeth, he sent a man with a dark face and an accent Szeth didn't recognize, who was also wearing a mask. Is this masked man a worldhopper from southern Scadrial?
This masked man is a worldhopper.
How many Invested Arts/arcana does Khriss personally have access to, including through mechanical means like medallions?
RAFO!
We now know all nine types of true spren that make up Radiants, but Wyndle has mentioned making a garden for keenspren. Are these an intelligent spren that does not form Radiant bonds, and are there others?
Keenspren is a nickname.
I was wondering if that was a slang term.
Yeah, it's a slang term.
Did Yolen ever have a moon? Is a past version of Hoid in any of Dalinar's visions?
Two questions, I'll RAFO them both.
Why hasn't Hoid bonded a spren in past Desolations, like in the time of the original Knights Radiant?
He tried.
Would we get Adonalsiumlight if we combined Light from all different Shards?
RAFO.
Why do Radiants have two Surges compared to the Fused's one? Is this because they have two Shards instead of just one? If this is true, would a Radiant spren corrupted have three?
Good questions, RAFO! But that's a "smart questions" RAFO.
Can kandra benefit from Aviar bones like they do from dog bones?
Potentially, yes.
Is what happened to the singers on Roshar when Ba-Ado-Mishram was imprisoned mechanically [comparable] to what happened to the Terrismen on Scadrial when they were turned into mistwraiths?
It's more like what happened on Sel with the Elantrians than it is like what happened with the Terrismen. I can see where you're going, but that's not the [analogy] I would've gone to.
If a Shardblade were to cut a Feruchemist's limb and turn it grey, could the Feruchemist still tap a metalmind below the cut?
What a great question, I've never thought that. I'm going to say they could not. That's a really good question. We'll see if I go back on that, if it ever happens in the series.
Kaladin and Vin both have used magic subconsciously. Kaladin while training with the bridge plank and drawing in Stormlight, and Vin burning pewter while being beaten. Does that mean that Intent is not always required, or is a simple Intent like "I will be strong" enough to activate the magic system?
I'm going to go with the simple Intent answer that you're giving there. So, at the basic level... the more specific and the more powerful you want to be, the more you need to understand your Intent, is where this is. The body has an Intent. Kaladin uses the magic while he's unconscious, right? The Intent is survive, basically the body knowing it needs to survive. And this is possible to an extent with a lot of the magic systems, just kind of in the base, physical sense, your body knowing how to use what it's been given, is going to happen. You're going to see this with other instances in the magic as well. And even kind of not knowing or not wanting to face it, you can get some base level of power in most of the magics. Yes, it's the second one in that you can make the argument that your body just wants to survive, and things like this, but Intent really starts to play into it when you're doing distinct and increasingly powerful things with the magics. Intent is like your ability to focus, right? You can fire a sniper rifle on accident, but hitting the thing that you want to hit with it requires a lot of practice and focus. That practice and focus in the magic systems is often Intent-related.
Hey Brandon, did TenSoon become more loyal to Vin because he was in a dog's body and started to adopt the loyalty of a dog?
Nope, I did not work that into it. There are certain things that the body, like getting scratches and things like that, he did start to adopt some of that sort of thing. I kind of explain this to myself as, the way everyone's treating you does affect your self image, but also getting into another body and realizing, "Hey, it kind of feels okay to get scratched on the head." That's not something that's as socially acceptable among humans. In some situations it is, but when you're in the dog's body, it's like "I can just enjoy this," and enjoy the perks. He ended up really liking a lot of things about being in a dog's body, and they were just a good fit for him. But I wouldn't say there's any sort of Spiritual, "dogs are loyal, therefore TenSoon is loyal" thing.
Would it be an advantage to have dandruff as an Awakener?
Yes.
Is that a regretful yes?
Yeah, I mean, it's not a very big advantage, but I suppose. Being able to easily, yeah, sure? I don't think it's an appreciable advantage.
You've said before that a lot of the magics we see across the cosmere come from an interaction of Shards and their Investiture with the planets they Invest in. What does this mean practically? If Scadrial explodes tomorrow, will Hemalurgy stop working across the cosmere?
Hemalurgy wouldn't stop working, most likely, but it could. There are ways that you could make it stop working. I kind of mean that the Shards are an innate part of physics in the cosmere, and the magics that arise are an innate part of physics because of that. Like atium seeped out into the Pits of Hathsin, in the same way, these magics are just gonna leak out, and different places are going to affect them. You'll see Lightweaving happening in different places, and the way the Shard is interacting with the local... The way the Shard is is going to affect how Lightweaving is administrated in the various magics, but it's still gonna be there. Hemalurgy is kind of a similar thing to that. You will see Midnight Essence, you will see some of these recurring ideas popping up, and these are like natural parts of the physics, but they're influenced by the Shards on the local planets.
I don't know if that answer, that's gonna be a really fun one for them to transcribe into the Q&A thing, because I go around in circles on that question a ton. Put this part in when you do it.
Is a Radiant spren more attracted to someone who is less emotionally mature but with the potential to reach all five Ideals, or someone who's emotionally ready to swear all five on the spot?
Depends on the spren.
The Diagram didn't anticipate Nightblood, so Taravangian had to send "agents" to interview one of its former bearers. Did the agents talk to either Vasher or Vivenna?
No.
Did Nightblood's Awakening transform it into a God Metal?
*hesitant* Yes, you could say that.
Was that a permanent change, or was that just while...
You can argue that Nightblood is a God Metal. Is he? You could argue otherwise as well. How about that?
We know that Returned generally can't be inebriated, but Vasher has learned to suppress some of his outwardly Returned-ish aspects. When we see Zahel with a bottle of wine in Stormlight, is it actually having an effect on him, or is he just doing it for the vibes?
He can get a little drunk. Maybe not as much as he would want to.
Did Mercy originally settle on Threnody?
RAFO!
Can you give us a hint what Spook has been up to recently, or promise one in The Lost Metal?
No comment, I am not confirming that Spook is around. You're making assumptions.
Each Order of Radiant has some resonance between their Surges, correct? Can you give us some examples of what would happen in a Surgebinder somehow achieved an impossible pairing, such as Division and Illumination or Transformation and Gravitation?
I haven't really thought about it. You go ahead and theorize on that, I'm sure you can come up with interesting ones. Totally possible in the cosmere. The structure that is on Roshar prevents it from currently happening, but totally possible. I mean, very plausible. I haven't theorized on those yet, so I'm not going to right now.
Prior to the arrival of the Everstorm, what happened to the Heralds who died? Were they immediately sent back to Braize to wait until the rest arrived and started the Isolation, or could they return to Roshar, similarly to how the Fused can return multiple times?
So, the mechanics of this I've been dodgy on on purpose because I know I'm gonna want some wiggle room in the books when I write them. Right now they can't return. They go, they're done. I have to make sure that works with the magic and with the narrative as I write them, so you can take this as one of those Words of Brandon that the books might contradict, but the original outline has, you die, you're there, you can't go back. But there are various incarnations of this where they were holding the Fused back by doing that, from being reborn, if that makes sense. And that's one of the parts that I'm not 100% sure where I'm going to go with, because when I came up with all this stuff, I wasn't working with the realities of the books, where I was writing the Fused, and things like this. And now that I have, this is very natural to be like, alright, let me do a reset, and make sure that the lore and worldbuilding all is consistent now that I've done five books-- I haven't done the fifth one yet, but you know what I mean. It's one of the reasons I have the break in between, is to give myself a chance to go to my outlines and make sure. Originally they were holding back... you could kill Fused and they wouldn't return, because Heralds were holding them back, the Oathpact was. But that meant when the Heralds died, they couldn't return either, and so the war could actually happen. But the Everstorm and things like that have changed that. Anyway, that's the answer until I write it in the books and get you some canon in the flashbacks of the Heralds we will be writing eventually.
Is someone limited to how many Nahel bonds they can form, or could someone go play Pokéspren and catch them all, getting access to all Surges?
There are limits to what a soul can handle. These limits are soft caps, not hard caps. Pokéspren is theoretically possible, but there would be hoops, not just the normal "I want to bond two spren" hoop, which is already a pretty big one.
The makeup of Bridge Four is nearly perfect: a cook, a surgeon, a sergeant, a scholar, two Hoid-touched individuals, etc. How much effect on the composition of Bridge Four did Cultivation have?
Not a ton. They got lucky. Granted, understand a few things that are gonna explain some of this. The Hoid-touched is, there's certainly something going on there with Sigzil. But having a cook and a sergeant, if you actually run the numbers, a lot of military people are going to be trained in a variety of jobs. The chances that you end up with someone experienced as an armorer, some experience with cooking-- granted, Rock wasn't in the military before, but you know. That you have a person that has done leadership on an NCO level, and things like this. These are things that would have existed on other bridge crews as well. The coincidence is not as big a one, Sigzil's the big coincidence.
People were asking who's the other after Sig, is that something you want to...?
Kaladin. If you want to count Kaladin, as someone who has drawn Hoid's attention and he is watching. The real first interaction is the Wandersail one, but Hoid had his eye on Kaladin. You pay attention when people start to form Nahel bonds around you and you're trying to figure out how they work.
What kind of spren was the Shardblade Oathbringer?
RAFO, partially because Isaac has this somewhere written down, and I can't remember. I should be able to remember that one, but I can't.
Would you consider breaking the palindrome format of Stormlight titles to give Stormlight 5 a better title, or are you pretty committed to the KoWT acronym, since there's already precedent?
If I can find a KoWT acronym that feels right, I will use it. I would say that it's 75% likely that I'm going to, but if I can't come up with one that we all like, I will break the format. The title's more important than keeping, I wasn't even planning the ketek format until I changed book 3's title and got us, you know. And then I'm like, oh, this could actually happen. But I changed book 2's title as well. This is a happy accident that we can make it happen, but I'm not going to then become slavish to it. And I also might let the T slide, right? In actual keteks, both the "of" and the "the" can be rearranged, depending on how strictly you're following the format, so it's possible that we change the O's and T's.
In the Coppermind article for fabrials, under the trivia section it reads:
The term "fabrial" will eventually come to be used for all magic-based, mechanical devices in the cosmere, such as the mechanism that picks Elantrians.
Was there a mechanical device that controlled the Shaod?
Something's going on there, I'm not gonna dig too deeply into that. I'm gonna RAFO that. Continue your theorizing however you'd like. That is not where I expected that question to go.
Do you wanna say where you were expecting it to go?
No, I mean... The medallions in Mistborn would be considered fabrials by most arcanists, once the era that they are aware of these things is all happening. That's an awkward way to say it. In future era cosmere, the scholars would point and say, "oh yeah, there were some early fabrials happening on Scadrial at that time." That's the terminology they would use.
Does Shardplate provide protection against emotional Allomancy?
Yes. Don't dismiss your helmet when you're around an Allomancer.
We have seen that two Shards can merge into one. Is the opposite possible?
The opposite is theoretically possible.
If yes, have we heard of Shards created this way?
It has not happened yet. Unless you count Splintering into a bunch of pieces, but that's not what they're asking.
Do we know anyone who is currently a Dawnshard other than Rysn?
Yes, you have met people who are curre– at least one who is currently a Dawnshard other than Rysn.
Will mistclothing (like mistcloak and mistcoat) still exist in Mistborn Eras 3 and 4?
Plan is yes. What they'll look like is going to be, there'll be an evolution.
Did Vasher or any of the Five Scholars visit the Nightwatcher prior to the Manywar, or have any of them visited since?
RAFO.
Is the difficulty of moving Investiture offworld specific to Cognitive Realm travel, or does it affect travel in the Physical Realm (for example space travel)? For example, if Kaladin summons Syl as a Shardblade, could he take her on a spaceship and travel to another system?
They would have the same difficulty.
Would the Stormfather have called Kaladin "Child of Tanavast" before he bonded Syl?
RAFO.
How significant of an event or time period, on a cosmere scale, was the Reod actually? 10 years seems like a blip. Do most worldhoppers even know about it?
It was a big enough event that by now, yes they do. Most worldhoppers, actually no. Because most worldhoppers are going to be common tradespeople, things like this. Running caravans from Roshar to Nalthis or things like that. The majority of them are not paying attention to things that are happening, so I'm gonna say the majority wouldn't. But the arcanists, the people who are watching the various magic systems, who know about the Shards and are paying attention to this, what happened on Sel was a big deal.
How precise can iron and steel Allomancy be? For example, could a Mistborn unscrew a light bulb just by Pushing and Pulling on the edges?
Yes. You see Kelsier do something like this when he spins metal poles and things like that. What you're asking for is an order of magnitude more difficult, but it is within the realm of possibility. I want to be careful not to get to Magneto-ish with it, but the more you... yeah. It is possible to do things like they just said.
We know aluminium blocks Investiture. Does silver block anti-Investiture?
So, silver has its own weird mechanics that I'm slowly exploring in the cosmere. That's not an answer to your question, I'm sorry.
You've mentioned in the past that Jasnah has some interesting brain psychology going on. I suspect if I ask you to elaborate too much, I'll get RAFO'd, but can you share if it is more due to nature or nurture?
Little of both. I would go nurture on this one, but let's wait till I write her book to really dig into it.
Does "Thaidakar" translate to "Survivor"? If so, in what language?
No, it does not.
How did Autonomy isolate Taldain from the rest of the cosmere?
All of the Shards... "How"? "How" may be the wrong term.
There's a followup question, maybe it's related. "Did Bavadin remove the perpendicularity on Taldain?"
RAFO on the second one. First one, natural processes.
In Oathbringer, before the Battle of Thaylen City, Venli is able to see some of the Cognitive Shadows of the Fused waiting in the Cognitive Realm and mentions some are as large as buildings. Are thunderclasts actually a type of the Fused?
She doesn't know. Thunderclasts are something different, and that is what she is seeing. She is not correctly identifying them. Good question.
Who is Hoid's best friend?
Well, back in the day it was Bat'Chor. It's been various people at various different times. Who is it right now? It depends on which "right now" you're talking about. He's in a bunch of different books in a bunch of different time periods. Bat'Chor probably was the closest to a best friend for a while in the books that were relevant.
If Dalinar were to deadeye the Stormfather, would highstorms stop or change? Related, were there highstorms on Roshar before the Splintering of Honor?
RAFO, I'll have to think about that.
If a kandra with a crystal True Body made their way to Roshar, could they use their crystal bones like a gemheart?
Yes, they could. That is an excellent question.
It's stated that the Fused can hold Voidlight nearly indefinitely. Does this mean their gemhearts are perfect gems?
So, kind of. It does not necessarily mean that, how about that. But a similar mechanic is happening.
Is this why they are so strict with how they handle their dead?
It is part of why. You are picking up on the right foreshadowing that I have seeded into the books.
Frost seems particularly worried about Hoid getting the lerasium. Is this because he knows something about Allomancy that it would be dangerous for Hoid specifically to have, or because he's worried about lerasium Allomancy in general, or something else?
He's worried about– it's a combination of both. He's worried about what his old friend is capable of doing, because his old friend... kill God once, and y'know, people start to get worried. (Or be involved in the assassination of God.) One time, and that reputation sticks with you for a while. But also, he is worried about a bunch of different things, I'll just say that. You mentioned two of them that are pretty good worries. He has others as well.
Why didn't Odium take the Investiture away from the Fused that rebelled against him at the end of Rhythm of War? At the end of Oathbringer, Odium tells one Fused that questioned him that he could take "that which gave [the Fused] life." So why didn't he do that to Leshwi and the others?
This is actually an excellent question. Odium, in his previous incarnation-- we'll see how he acts now-- part of the driving force of Odium is this kind of belief, mistaken or otherwise, that Odium represents all emotion, and strength of emotion, and basically the Passions in lore. Rebelling against him in the way that they did is actually in line with Odium's personal directives. The Vessel may not like it, in fact the power may not like it, but at the same time, there's a part of both of them that acknowledges, this is what they set in motion, and this is an appropriate use of the agency of the agents they chose. And so, unilaterally destroying those who turn against him is actually not an Odium thing. It's more an Honor thing than it would be an Odium thing. It's just not in line with how Odium acts or thinks, even though it's possible and there's threats and... That's not saying Odium wouldn't do it. But acting like Honor is not something Odium would necessarily want to do.
If the Muppets came to me and said "we actually want to make one of your things", I would not do Mistborn. What would I do? I would do a new story. I never got around to making Mulholland Homebrew's Sinister Shop of Secret Pets, which is a middle grade book about a young woman who apprentices to... In this world, everyone has to apprentice and learn a magic. And she goes to the job fair, for your apprenticeship when you're fourteen and you gotta pick a magic, and you basically have release time from school and go study your magic talent. There's like hundreds of them, and she finds one called Leekromancy that she thinks sounds cool, and she wants to rebel against the normal magic her parents want her to pick. And she picks it, but then she learns it's power over legumes. She is apprenticed to somebody whose job is taking care of magical pets and having a pet shop. And finding their favorite foods and basically being a fantasy exterminator, but a humane one, where you have some weird magical pest in your house. It's like what I thought Fantastic Beasts was going to be. You have weird magical pests, what do we do to get rid of the brownies? We can just exterminate them, or we can call this guy, it's like the beekeeper who removes the bees from your wall humanely and then sets them up. He'll take the brownies, and maybe the brownies don't make good pets, so he'll send them to a Tiffany Aching book or something like that, and has this nice little pet store. Anyway, that's a story I never got to write, and I would pick something like that of the big list of books that I will never be able to write, and come up with an outline and say, "Let's do this together, Muppets! I don't think Mistborn is a good match for you."
