What did Ivory mean by the Skybreakers living in death?
Ivory likes contradictions, they fascinate him. And he is saying that they live in death in that they kill a lot. It's a philosophical sort of thing. He's making an Ivory observation, it's not something you're supposed to take as a pronouncement of nature or reality.
Who's your favorite literary critic?
Oh boy.
Not even favorite, but who do you constantly find yourself turning back to--
I don't know, I read a ton of it. I don't know if I can break down a name for you on a dime like that.
So, what we see at the end, with the Unmade, and it seems like Jezrien, getting trapped in gems. Is that basically possible, because, they have been, particularly in the case of the Heralds, infused with so much Investiture that they're basically being trapped in the gems instead of Stormlight?
They're not human anymore, yeah.
So, Jasnah has the same shape appear around her as when she first appears out of Shadesmar at the end of that-- At the end of the second book, when she appears out of Shadesmar, she has the same shape appear around her as she does in the last battle, but we never see her do anything (this is about Transportation) And we saw people flying away beforehand. Can you-- Does Transportation allow you to push other people. Similar to Lashings, but kinda differently. I'm just wondering if you can use it on other people, basically?
You can, but it's not what you’re thinking.
So, in the last battle, Jasnah has some pretty interesting armor. Does she already have her Shardplate?
RAFO!
Did Adonalsium have more than one Vessel?
RAFO.
Syl's status as the Ancient Daughter. Does that make her Nahel bond with Kaladin different from other Windrunner's Nahel bonds?
No.
How are Shallan's Lightweavings related to the screams that Szeth hears?
In that they are slightly attached to the Spiritual Realm.
So, there are ten orders of the Knights Radiant, ten spren, ten Surges. And there are a lot of parallels with the Fused. Do they-- Are there ten Voidspren, that match up to ten--
RAFO, but there wouldn't be ten.
There'd be nine.
Let's talk about Renarin, and Voidbinding. So, with that page we talked about, Renarin Voidbinds. I asked about visions, you pointed to Voidbinding chart, he Voidbinds. Is that using Stormlight to power abilities different from the Surgebindings we've seen?
Yes.
Is that what voidbinding is?
No, but close. You're on the right track. We are gonna get into that, I'm not gonna tell you what the chart means, and things like that. But yeah, something really weird is happening there.
Did Vasher seek the Nightwatcher?
RAFO.
If you were to choose a magic system between personalized magic, where each person has their own custom ability, versus one which is an overall thing with branches, which one would you think better?
Uh, depends on the story you're trying to tell. They can both be really advantageous. They have their advantages and disadvantages.
But you personally, which one do you like better.
The branching.
In the Frostlands, is there snow or frost on the ground only because it's cold?
Yeah, there's nothing magical or special there.
So, if you could take, whether capture or talk into a Radiant spren from Roshar that was no longer bonded to a Radiant, from Roshar to Nalthis, could you bond that spren to an awakened object? Could you take a spren from Roshar and either force it to or talk it into bonding an awakened object on Nalthis?
Oh boy. That'd be really hard.
So, you've told us that Vasher had knowledge about Shardblades before he created Nightblood...
...Can you tell us if Nightblood was created before the Recreance?
I'd have to go look at the notes... I don't think-- No, he was not. No. Definitely no.
So, Nale has the pale patch on his skin. Might be a scar, might be something else. The question I have is, if it's something else, which I'm assuming it is, do all of the Heralds have something like that?
No. Good question.
How does it feel being one of the primary fantasy authors with jealousy of your peers, even those who have written longer than you, because of your efficiency and your worldbuilding?
It feels really weird. It feels really weird. It feels really great. We just got the sales numbers in for the third book, and they're pretty crazy.
You doing OK?
I'm doing okay. We tripled the second book. *crowd woos* That was already #1 on the New York Times. Now that was #1 in, like, a January or a Febuary or something like that. We don't know if we'll even beat Lee Child or not tomorrow, but it's looking pretty good. It's pretty crazy.
Are foci a cosmere-wide phenomenon, or are they kinda just a construction of people?
Elaborate.
A lot of people think that every magic system has foci? Is that true?
Yes. But, I think people are finding structure in-worlds that-- how should I say this. So, in some ways, some of these questions (this isn't just this one, but in general), you can ask something like "Do alien species fit into phylum and families and things like this." Well, yes, because we come up with the definitions. Right? So, a lot of these questions, like "Do they all have?" Well, yes, because human beings have come up with definitions to define these things and lump them together under definitions... There's a lot of things with the cosmere magic... is yes, because human beings have put that weight on it. It doesn't make it less true, but, at the same time it's not like, 1+1=2 is gonna exist whether or not humankind is there to define it, whether or not something fits into a genus or a species, whether these magic systems are related. Those are human constructions that are noticing real things.
So, in Oathbringer, we see the Surge of Adhesion used in an interesting way, Spiritual Adhesion. Do all the Surges have non-Physical manifestations like that?
All the Surges do, slightly, in fact, but none of them, I would say, are as Spiritual as that.
What about like, Shallan in Words of Radiance with her mercenaries? So, like, a Spiritual Transformation?
I wouldn't say Transformation, she is seeing a little bit, glimpsing a little bit, does that make sense?
From a certain series of books about a prison, by this one author, we learn that authors love to torture their audience. How many nights did you stay up giggling and cackling to yourself with glee over all of the things that happen in Oathbringer?
This is why I'm an insomniac, right? You're all gonna be miserable. A little fun thing here, when the book was going along, I thought "Maybe I should cut it after Part 3." I gave it to Karen, who's my continuity editor, and she said "If you cut it here, I will strangle you. The fans will not get a chance to do it, because I will do it."
Are there Aviar who grant Physical abilities?
Technically, yes.
'Cause we’ve seen Spiritual, we've seen Cognitive...
Yes, there are.
Can you tell us about Transportation? Is it like gates from Wheel of Time?
Oh, Elsecalling? No. But-- but yes.
*laughter* I meant, like, the whole-- Just the Surge?
Does it go to the Cognitive Realm, is that all it does?
It is the power by which they created the Oathgates... So, there is a little more to it than that. But yes, it's basically-- yeah.
Taravangian. When he made the Diagram he said it was "his brightest day". Would you say that he was more towards the Cognitive realm or more towards the Spiritual realm?
Spiritual.
Also, it seems to me like it would be more internally consistent if Awakened objects consumed Breath, to make all of these Breath-consuming powers in the last few chapters fit in better. So for example, if Vasher Awakened a shirt and left it Awakened and doing stuff for a day, then he might be down one-seventh of a breath when he took it back at the end of the day. (Of course, that mechanic requires it to be possible to transfer or Awaken with portions of a Breath, and if you could do that, then using the "putting the Breaths you don't want to transfer into a cloth until after the transfer" thing, you could feed the Returned by taking a tiny fraction of all the Halladren's breaths, instead of taking some people's entire Breaths and turning them into Drabs.)
Hum. I like that suggestion, actually. I think I'll use it. Though, what I'll do is say that if you leave the breath in for too long, one of them vanishes. If you can get them back quickly enough, however, there is no loss. That gives a bit of a better explanation of why there aren't a lot of awakened objects doing things all over the place. True, using the breath to make them would be initially expensive--but if you got a magic object that never winds down, then that might be worth the expense.
When time bubbles overlap, is it multiplicative or additive? *laughter*
...It should be a-- whew.
Should I ask Peter?
Yeah ask Peter. We talked it all over. I'm gonna get the wrong one. I think it's additive, in fact I'm pretty sure it's additive. But let's ask Peter.
In Secret History the Shard shows a relatively well-written foresight. Did Adonalsium have more of a pronounced version of that?
Adonalsium was-- I would say, yes.
Did it have plans for after it's own--
That's a RAFO...
White Sand 2?
It is coming. It's not December, it's February. Amazon jumped the gun. That wasn't us, deciding on a date... It's February.
What's your favorite Oath?
Probably the first one.
Favorite Order?
Bondsmith.
I was wondering if we're gonna be seeing more Axies?
More Axies the Collector? Yes. Just a little bit more.
I was wondering if there was a connection between when we meet Preservation in Secret History, and the way he is, and the Stormfather. Like, is he dead yet, in Secret History?
There is a similarity, but-- Dying for a Shard takes a long time, in a lot of cases. So, it's similar. But the Stormfather is something different, *inaudible* remnants left over after the god died.
So is he dead?
Honor is dead, yes. But, at the same time, the Stormfather is kind of his Cognitive Shadow. So-- what does "dead" mean?
I was actually going to ask where you came up with the idea of Hoid?
Hoid is inspired by my desire to tell a story that spans other stories. I would say the origins of that are probably Asimov, when he made the Robots books and the Foundation books tie together. Something like that. Maybe Michael Moorcock, he had a similar sort of cross-world thing. I was reading both of them a lot right when I started coming up with that. So I would say, that's the origin of it. Stephen King has done it, but I didn't know he'd done it. I hadn't been reading him as much.
Can you drop a hint about which Shard authored the first of the letters to Hoid shown in the part 2 epigraphs [of Oathbringer]?
You have seen their world.
So is Lopen able to regrow his arm because he didn't identify as being a one-armed Herdazian, even though he made all those jokes?
Yeah.
If I get the Oaths tattooed on my body am I gonna regret it 'cause you're gonna put in a plot twist makes them actually evil?
Well, I will say that the evilness of the Knights Radiant are gonna depend on your perspective, but I don't think you would ever feel really sad because they're ideals. I mean good ideals.
Is Hoid an avatar from Autonomy?
No. Good question. He is independent.
He's human, but he's more than human? He's changed from all the places he's been?
Even before that he's not exactly one hundred percent human anymore. But he's his own agent. He's not an avatar of somebody.
Someone told me that after the signing last night you said that Soulcast blood has DNA... The question is who?
That's a good question. That's a RAFO. So, here's... the premises I'm working on. Soulcast blood can be used for transfusion, alright? I'm not saying much more than that. At least I'm not canonizing much more than that right now. And as my understanding, it has blood type, it has-- things. When someone asked me tonight "does that mean it's human blood?" Well, that depends on the definition.
About how many Breaths do you need to become Invested enough to be influenced by Endowment's intent?
On the small scale, not very many... One could argue that even someone with one is influenced a little bit.
Significantly influenced?
No. But the more you get the more likely that is.
Did Odium intentionally cause direct harm to the inhabitants of Sel or was his sole focus taking down Devotion and Dominion? (Context: I'd like to know if Odium cares/has any interest in mortals or if he only has designs/plans for Shards)
It was all side effect. He is focused on Shards... But he does have secondary interest in mortals.
There's a lot of situations where people hear voices or see visions, stuff like that. What would be the effect, if somebody had something like mental condition like schizophrenia or multiple personality? Because you talk about-- Because a lot of the magic is about their will, you know?
Schizophrenia in the cosmere is going to-- So, anytime you're seeing the future, and things like that, you're kinda glimpsing into the Spiritual Realm. That's why it happens so often, because the magic systems are the way they work, are coming down from the Spiritual Realm. Schizophrenia will make you more open to that, so you are more likely to actually see the future. But you won't be able to tell it from the things your mind is making up, which is gonna be really dangerous.
So, what if you had, like, one personality wanna do one thing, and another one trying to do something else, would it cancel each other out?
Not necessarily. I mean, we're going a little that direction with Shallan, anyway. You'll see.
Nale mentions that he's the only Herald that ends up joining his Order of Radiants, eventually. Are there any Radiants that joined other Orders?
No, good question.
In Edgedancer, when Wyndle is talking to Lift, and he says the Ring chose him? Is that a council in Shadesmar? Or is that, like, one entity?
*hands over a RAFO card*
Would a Soother be able to affect a Listener attuning a Rhythm?
Yes, I think they would be able to.
...Would it dampen Odium's effect on them?
Potentially, yes.
If you had aluminum or silver, could someone using Gravitation or Adhesion, could they throw that? Or would they be unable to infuse it with Stormlight?
Yes, they would be unable to.
If a nicrosil Ferring and Misting Twinborn burned a mountain of nicrosil, would he become Harmony?
A mountain?
Yeah, like, he burned literally tons--
No, he would not. It wouldn't work that way.
If Elhokar had finished saying those words, what Order would he have been?
Lightweaver.
The Stormfather, has he bonded with anyone else besides Dalinar?
In the past? Yes.
The advanced civilization mentioned in Sixth of the Dusk. When will we see them again? And will they be interacting with Scadrial and the Stormlight Archive series?
It's gonna be a while before you see them make-- before you find out who they are and have them interact, because that's way in the future of the other books. But you will find out.
How was Shallan able to bond with Pattern before she was broken?
She was open to him even before she went through a lot of that turmoil
I thought everybody had to be broken in order to--
Well, that's their philosophy in-world. But I'm not going to say whether it's correct or wrong. I will imply that there are other means as well.
What's the most important thing about writing a villain.
In my opinion, relatability. You have to see the evil in them being the evil in you, and the things that are-- See that they have something that makes them human, makes them redeemable...
If you were to draw a Line of Forbiddance on a portable chalkboard, could you actually knock somebody overside the head?
It wouldn't knock them over the head, because it kinda has the magnetic repulsion sort of thing, but we will get into moving things as we go further in the series.
