Mac
If one Feruchemist Keeper, a full Feruchemist, spiked another Feruchemist and got one Hemalurgic imbue from that person, would the first one now have enough of the second Keeper's Identity to use all of their metalminds? Or would it just be--
Brandon Sanderson
Ooh, that's a good one. I'm gonna say "yes," but it's a hesitant yes, because it's actually a question I haven't worked out yet. So you can have that as a yes, unless I hit it in the books and am looking at the notes and decide that it wouldn't work. I think that it would.
thegatorgirl00
Hello! I'm Grace from the Coppermind.
Brandon Sanderson
Oh! I was just looking something up on the Coppermind last night.
Questioner
Did <Iadon> die, or did he just get in a different host?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO!
Pagerunner
Wit says an expression, "Speak your fears at a mirror when you get home tonight." I've never heard that. Is that a real-world thing? Or is that, like, a Yolish thing?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, that's not a real-world thing.
Pagerunner
Any clues to what's going on with that?
Brandon Sanderson
No, I won't give any clues. I'll RAFO that.
Pagerunner
Ancient glyphs. If they are drawn with the proper Intent, do they provide some form of Investiture? Is that where the modern idea of glyphwards and burning prayers came from?
Brandon Sanderson
Oh, I get where you're going. I'll RAFO that.
Pagerunner
Do all three of the Drominad worlds share a culture? Like, they don't worldhop on the second planet. Do they call themselves Second of the Sun, do they have another name for themselves?
Brandon Sanderson
They have another name for themselves.
Pagerunner
Would one of those be Obrodai, by any chance?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Pagerunner
The Drominad name. Where does that come from, for the system?
Brandon Sanderson
Where did we come up with that? I came up with that.
Isaac Stewart
I think you just named it.
Brandon Sanderson
I think I just named it. It's a name. I mean it references--
Pagerunner
Because it doesn't fit with the First of the Sun culture.
Brandon Sanderson
I know. That's intentional, because--
Pagerunner
Is it Latin?
Brandon Sanderson
No, it's not named after-- It's not named after-- It is intentionally-- The name comes form somewhere else. It's not meant, Latin, don't read too much into Latin.
Pagerunner
It's not a Yolish name?
Brandon Sanderson
No, it's not a Yolish name. Once in a while, I'll make them very, very Roman if I want you to make that connection.
Pagerunner
The Starfall vision. Ten Deaths, referring to the Midnight Essence. That's what the one Radiant said, they're the Ten Deaths. Is that the Unmade, the Ten Deaths.
Brandon Sanderson
Well, there's nine Unmade, so...
Pagerunner
At the end of Bands of Mourning, they couldn't refill the heat medallions, was that the brass, or the nicrosil they were having trouble with?
Brandon Sanderson
Let's RAFO that.
Questioner
Elantris sequel, about Kiin's children... I really related to Kaise, especially with the Aiden situation, do you consider Kaise being autistic and/or ADHD?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, but not-- more ADHD.
Mac
If [Vin] burns mist-assisted gold, would she have experienced something that felt like one of Dalinar's visions?
Brandon Sanderson
Plausibly, yes.
Kaymyth
We know that compounding, if you do it too much, it has permanent effects on a person.
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah.
Kaymyth
Compounding for extending stretches, can it have some sort of effect similar to pewter drag, depending on the metal?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah. I could say, I would say yes to that.
Questioner
If you had a choice for a game format, would you go single-player story? Or would you go multiplayer?
Brandon Sanderson
For a video game? I would do single-player probably. 'Cause that's what I play most of, myself. If I could do anything, I would probably do a Mistborn video game, single-player, with a strong narrative.
Questioner
Will we ever know the exact place and time Honor's death occurred, and will it be significant?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, and RAFO.
Questioner
In Mistborn there's no flowers or anything. So how do they get dyes for their dresses and things?
Brandon Sanderson
It depends on the dye. Some come from animals like snails. Some are metallic. Or, metallic is the wrong term. From minerals like lapis and things like that. There are a lot of non-floral dyes out there, even in our world. And they had extra resources in that.
Questioner
When Kaladin jumps in to help Adolin, and he's fighting and he says he feels like he can fight with his eyes shut. Is that just Kaladin being cocky? Or is that Investiture related? ...It reminded me of atium.
Brandon Sanderson
There's a little more going on there, but it's not as far as you think.
Questioner
Would you consider or have you considered romantic relationships between spren and humans?
Brandon Sanderson
That's a RAFO.
yulerule
Are Inquisitor spikes, kandra Blessings and koloss spikes interchangeable? Like if you it spiked in a different way--
Brandon Sanderson
*Hesitant* You could make that work and it wouldn't be that hard. But just as they are, no.
yulerule
Would nothing happen or would weird stuff happen?
Brandon Sanderson
Weird stuff would happen
*pause*
But that one's not very hard to make work.
yulerule
Can you reuse a spike?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. Uh, yes, technically, but not as easily as that question makes it sound.
yulerule
Can you re-use it if it's for the same exact thing or for a different thing? Will that change?
Brandon Sanderson
Spikes are going to get keyed by Identity--
yulerule
So you can't already spike that person. But if you spike and don't kill them can you spike the same person again?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah and if you can somehow strip the identity of the person or the spike-- So yes you can use them again but it comes into a sort of-- Like, you can't just take that spike and spike somebody else.
Argent
Was the reason the Listeners or the parsh people turned into parshmen, was that because Ba-Ado-Mishram was imprisoned by the Radiants? That she was Connected to all of them?
Brandon Sanderson
Oh, yeah, yeah. That plays into what happened there.
Argent
Back in ['14] you referred to Honor's Purposes to me at one point. Is that still a thing in the cosmere?
Brandon Sanderson
Honor's purpose?
Argent
Honor's purposes. You referred to ten of them. Using the concept of Shardic numbers. But I don't have that on record, I don't know anything about it, it's been a confusing topic ever since.
Brandon Sanderson
So that's still a deal. It just plays into the ten names of the Almighty and the ten attributes of the Fools and the ten attributes of the Almighty.
Argent
Are Purposes something every shard has?
Brandon Sanderson
I wouldn't say-- No. It's playing more into the nature of Honor itself.
Questioner
Rosharans are good with math, because you did the whole... They're aware of the normal distribution and all that. So, do like, complex numbers, imaginary numbers, do they live in the Cognitive Realm? And would prime [numbers] be the brighteyes of the Cognitive Realm?
Brandon Sanderson
We will get into this. I would say--I've actually thought about this--that right now, there are spren that kind of represent abstract mathematics but not individual concepts within abstract mathematics. Like when you draw a spren that represents creativity, it's not necessarily divided into, "Painting," even though some of them may edge in that direction. So you could perhaps find a spren where you go, "Oh!"
Questioner
I just want to see pi and phi arguing.
Ravi
Does [Nazh] ever have any arguments with Khriss?
Isaac Stewart
All the time.
Ravi
But, they're basically best friends anyway right?
Isaac Stewart
I don't know about that, I'd have to ask Brandon. But I imagine that they get along pretty well and he feels okay being grumpy around her.
Ravi
So it's not like Mythbusters where they're only friends on TV but not actually friends in real life?
Isaac Stewart
I would imagine it's not like that.
Mrs. Jofwu
At the end of Calamity, I was wondering if the Prof and [David] together repair their relationship. They were kind of built up as a father/son kind of--
Brandon Sanderson
If I do any more books in direct sequence, what's going on with Prof would be be a factor in them. So I'm going to RAFO this just because I am planning...
Apocalypse Guard will not be a straight up follow up, but a sidestep, but I might do one someday.
Mrs. Jofwu
...Does he ever get the chance to build a relationship with Tavi in another reality, similar to how David does with his father?
Brandon Sanderson
I'll give you a RAFO card on all of that.
Argent
...The reason Odium dealt with the Selish Shards in the way that he did, whether that was primarily because he was inexperienced in Splintering and so he knew that he wanted nobody to take the Shards--
Brandon Sanderson
There were better ways he could have done what he did.
Argent
And he then learned at least a little bit better?
Brandon Sanderson
He learned at least a little bit better.
Argent
How do visions in the cosmere work? And I'm thinking Realmatically.
Brandon Sanderson
So almost always [it's] glimpsing into the Spiritual Realm. But you are often seeing it through the Cognitive, and so like a vision that...
So like the vision that Dalinar sees. What's going on is-- being pulled, and kind of stretched a little bit through the Realms, into the Spiritual Realm. Where a Cognitive construct is adding a framework to seeds that are set in place.
Argent
So that you can kind of comprehend the Spiritual?
Brandon Sanderson
You can comprehend-- and also there's a little bit of a life to it. Meaning it can respond to you and things like this, to an extent. So imagine, it kind of works like an AI. Imagine there's some-- You've got that power in the Spiritual Realm and you're adding a framework to it, that it is shining through, and that is giving you the vision. Complicated, I know. Spiritual Realm is supposed to be weird, and we aren't supposed to quite comprehend it, but that's why we've got the Cognitive framework there.
Argent
Why were seons unaffected by the Reod?
Brandon Sanderson
They were.
Argent
They were? How?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Argent
Regular Aons can be specialized and enhanced using modifiers. Can Elantris be further augmented with such modifiers?
Brandon Sanderson
Theoretically plausible.
Argent
The many faces of Cusicesh, are they of real people?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Argent
Do any of the characters in The Stormlight Archive share a familial relationship that we don't know about? Considering that we know about Jezrien and Ash. Not necessarily Heralds but--
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, Yes. No more on that.
Argent
When the Fused die, do they return directly to the Everstorm, or back to Braize, and then they need to make their way back?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Isaac Stewart
(paraphrased)
Nazh is an embodiment of his adventurous spirit, that he expresses through the books. Nazh is also much grumpier than he is and gets visibly angry when Isaac himself wouldn't.
Nazh is basically a young Peter Capaldi and is very prone to swearing when he is off screen.
Argent
Are mandras gravityspren?
Brandon Sanderson
*Very hesitantly* Nooooo? Kind of-- So the actual gravityspren, you're talking about the things Kaladin saw stuck to a wall? Those are not mandras.
Argent
Oh no, I was thinking about the ones that appear around dead chasmfiends.
Brandon Sanderson
Oh, dead chasmfiends, yes. The arrowheads, yeah.
Argent
But you're saying those are not gravityspren? They're mandras?
Brandon Sanderson
So the things Kaladin saw stuck to the wall are not gravityspren, right. So I want to make sure.-- So arrowhead spren, that Shallan is philosophizing, theorizing about, are mandras.
Argent
Do Feruchemical metalminds experience physical change such as wear and tear, due to just being used as Feruchemical metalminds
Brandon Sanderson
Never thought of it.
Argent
Do you want to make up canon?
Brandon Sanderson
Sure...
Argent
Half-canon?
Brandon Sanderson
Let's say half-canon. Wear and tear being used as metalminds, not counting clasping them on and things like that. Simply tapping or taking out? I would say no, but I would really have to think about that. Are we losing any particles to the transfer, the change? I don't think you are, but I don't know. I'd have to really dig into the physics of that. I had not even considered of that. There are ramifications of things-- So I'm going to say no, half-canon.
Argent
Does Awakening drain colors outside the visible spectrum?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes it does. You're talking about ultraviolet and infrared? Yeah.
Argent
How many waves of human populations have migrated to Roshar? So I'm thinking the Ashynites coming from Ashyn, right? Was that just the only humans that ever came as a population?
Brandon Sanderson
It depends on if you count the Iriali?
Argent
That's specifically the one I'm thinking of.
Brandon Sanderson
They came in a separate migration.
Argent
Not from Ashyn?
Brandon Sanderson
Not from Ashyn.
Argent
From whatever the Third Land was.
Argent
Lightsong's personality is very different than Stennimar's. If the Returned are their previous lives--Cognitive Shadows as you've said before, just stapled with Divine Breath--where do their new personalities come from?
Brandon Sanderson
My argument there is when I was writing him, getting into a kind of writer-thing, this is the person he would have become... My philosophy there was, the way that the Returned happen, and you losing your memories, it comes down to this nature versus nurture thing for me. The personality-- He is the same person, but with certain life experiences removed. Different circumstances. And in his case, that resulted in, let's say, a secondary mode of personality that had never been encouraged before.
Just like how, you put me in the right situation I'm an extrovert, but in a lot of situations I'm an introvert. So you remove a lot of the cultural conditioning and that is who he becomes.
Argent
Spren grant control over surges because surges are perceived as fundamental powers on Roshar. Would other Cognitive beings grant different powers based on what they perceive to be fundamental? Such as electromagnetism is on Earth?
Brandon Sanderson
It is plausible, although this was set up in a specific way.
Argent
By Honor or Adonalsium?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO on that. Set up might be the wrong word. There were seeds that caused this to happen the way it did.
Argent
The Surgebinding thing?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, specifically... Those influenced what people perceived as fundamental forces.
Argent
Are the Heralds champions of Honor in the same way that Tanavast was encouraging Dalinar to force Odium to choose a champion?
Brandon Sanderson
Similar.
Argent
When Kaladin dreams about riding the highstorm, is that something only he can do, only Windrunners, all Radiants?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Argent
Would Aons work even better if they were drawn with a cartographer's or calligrapher's attention to detail? ...If you draw a map of Arelon?
Brandon Sanderson
*long pause* Yes and no. The answer really is, it depends. I'm going to say, on average, yes.
Questioner
It is said by a spren, Syl, that everything has a spren. Does aluminum have a spren?
Brandon Sanderson
Does aluminum have a spren? This is a good question for philosophers in world. I would say the majority of them would say yes, its just a very isolated and unresponsive spren. There are some who would say no, it is the dead material, that has no spren, but others would argue that a dead material with no spren would just disintegrate to death, so aluminum is kind of a strange duck.
Argent
If two Surgebinders are next to each other in the Physical Realm and their spren are with them, chatting or whatever. Would this proximity be reflected in Shadesmar somehow? For example if there's a third Surgebinder in the same physical location, but in Shadesmar. Would they be able to deduce that this is what the physical-
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, theoretically possible.
Argent
Maybe difficult?
Brandon Sanderson
I'll dig into the mechanics. Not necessarily though.
Questioner
Are there any seons in the Cognitive Realm?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Argent
Are gloryspren composed entirely of Honor's investiture?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Argent
Voidbinding, and what Renarin does, we are still very confused about how much--
Brandon Sanderson
I am happy that you are very confused about that, because I haven't explained it very much.
Argent
Ok.
Brandon Sanderson
And Renarin didn't figure it out very much.
Argent
And he hasn't figured out it much, yeah. And we're not even sure whether he's a Voidbinder.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Argent
He's probably a Voidbinder, right. Then I'm not going to ask you that, because you're going to say RAFO.
Brandon Sanderson
Yup.
Argent
Khriss believes that the reason Preservation is experiencing a slow death is because Ruin is not strong enough to Splinter Preservation.
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, that is a theory.
Argent
Yeah, that's what she thinks. Does she think that this is because of Ruin's trapped power, or because of an inherent difference in the strength levels of Shards?
Brandon Sanderson
She thinks it is more along the lines of a matter of leveraging power as the power is-- The things that happen made it harder for him to leverage his power.
Trapped is a good enough term.
Pagerunner
The mistspren, who crewed the Honorspren ship. Are they Radiant spren?
Brandon Sanderson
No they are not.
yulerule
Have all the spikes been collected? You have a bunch of dead Inquisitors, you've got the koloss at the end of Mistborn.
Brandon Sanderson
Have they all been collected?
yulerule
Or are they just lying around, or did they--
Brandon Sanderson
There are some that have been lost.
Brandon Sanderson
Let me set up this piece for you. Let me see if I can--I'm gonna look at the file and see when I first started writing this piece-- The master computer, that if you ran away with you would get all of my secrets. *crowd laughs* Nope, it says created when I created this new computer, so that doesn't help me.
But this is old. This is like 8 years old. Maybe 9 years old? And this is a story that I started writing-- You can date it by-- because you guys have been waiting for it. You can date it by when I told people I had written this thing in interviews. So it may be 2010, I dunno. You'll be able to find out I think by looking through the interview archive.
I wrote this thing that is very cosmere-aware. It's very kind of inside-- sort of a little bit self indulgent. And I wrote it, I'm like, "I'm gonna post this on my website." And then I thought, "No, this gives away too much. I can't post this on my website, and so I'm not going to finish it. We're going to wait." But now most of the stuff that it gave away then has come out in things like Secret History and stuff like that, so now I can actually read it. So I called this "The Traveler."
