Angela
If koloss are made using five people, spikes, and recycled blue skin as opposed to the traditional breeding method, how can someone be part koloss?
Brandon Sanderson
In Era Two, koloss breed true, and are the kind of bluish-purplish-skinned people. (They'll call them koloss-blooded at that point.) And they can interbreed with humans. A full-grown koloss undergrows a ritual that adds the spikes and turns them into Era One style koloss. Allomancer Jak's story kind of gets into this a little bit.
Steve Desamos
Would you consider working with a professional linguist to translate a Cosmere novel into that planet's native equivalent?
Brandon Sanderson
Seems like a lot of work for a very few number of people. I can imagine getting, like, a short story. Like one of Hoid's stories, maybe, translated into local. But creating the full conlang is not a thing that most of us do unless there's, like, a strict need for a film. (Dothraki didn't exist as a full conlang until the television show and they started needing to be able to speak it in full sentences.) I imagine that most of my conlangs won't get fully developed until that.
Maybe... I know people love their Klingon Christmas Carol. It is a thing. It's a possibility; it's a thing I could consider. But I think a short story is way more likely.
Honorblade
On a scale of one to ten, how much terror would a Scadrian feel upon seeing one of Roshar's moons?
Brandon Sanderson
It's gonna depend on the individual. I think some will get a sense of immediate dread by having that thing looming over them. That would probably be the consistent feeling. But there's probably people who are just like, "Oh, look at the thing in the sky. That's cool." So, depends on the individual.
Malachi
Would a compass needle point towards a perpendicularity?
Brandon Sanderson
No, a compass needle wouldn't, good question. You might be able to make some other device that could do that, but a compass needle would not naturally point toward one.
Brinkles Peterson
What would Halloween look like on Threnody? Or would such a holiday hit far too close to home for them?
Brandon Sanderson
They are not celebrating Halloween on Threnody. They would not understand at all. They live lives of constant terror, so why you would want to do that to yourself...
Bisa Bink
Why did Brandon name a world Threnody?
Brandon Sanderson
I wanted a planet where I was making use of religious terminology (sometimes pseudo-religious terminology; things that are religion-adjacent also), and things that had to do with poetry and music. Lots of names like Elegy as a name. And Threnody, I believe Isaac suggested it. He'll have to correct me if I'm wrong; he might have named some other things in that system, but I think he recommended Threnody. And it felt appropriate, being a song for the dead, a dirge. Just kind of clicked.
Orrin
I've always wondered how the Threnodites are so well known. Beyond shades, we don't see powers there. How are they so well-traveled?
Brandon Sanderson
There's a couple of things going on here. One is: there are ways on and off Threnody, and any of the planets that you can get on and off without needing FTL do spread through the cosmere pretty well.
The other thing is: the event that created Threnody as it's known in the cosmere (which is the death of Ambition) has wide-reaching ramifications. It's a very famous place in the same way that most people know the Bikini Islands when they might not otherwise know it, if that makes any sense. It's the source of something that has had great implications for the entirety of the cosmere.
Ethan Brightenhagen
What's Hoid's favorite regional curse word from the planets he's visited?
Brandon Sanderson
He's gonna like something pretty weird. He's gonna like the outlandish ones. I'll have to think about it for a while. It's probably not one that I've used yet, would be my guess. Something that might sound a little ridiculous to our ears. I think he would really like the Wheel of Time one, "mother's milk in a cup," just because it's one of those things that sounds vulgar, but isn't.
Rebecca Sito
Do any of the civilizations in the cosmere celebrate a holiday like Halloween?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Ezra
I know what was in the first four storage caverns; but what was in the fifth storage cavern? I always wonder.
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Evil Monkey 3210
Are you still planning to write a book with a magic system based on disease and sickness?
Brandon Sanderson
If I'd really been on the ball, it would have been one of the Secret Projects I wrote during Covid. But I haven't found the right story for that magic system yet. So it's still in the back of my brain, and someday perhaps I will write it, but we'll see. Yes, I still am planning it, but we'll see.
