*inaudible* Are they getting Shardplate anytime soon?
That is a Read And Find Out, unfortunately... There are hints that-- if you look, there are certain people that it's implied already do have it. But I'm not gonna delve into that for another book or two.
You know the sparring guards, for the Shardblade training, the guards they put on the Shardblades. Are they made of aluminum?
So, they are not. Peter will not let me make them made out of aluminum. He's my continuity editor, he keeps me honest. I tried to get them to be aluminum, but there are reasons why they can't be. So we had to make them their own weird little thing, unfortunately. But you could make a sheath out of aluminum for a Shardblade that would work.
He keeps me honest, so it's good, but I did try to fit them in that way.
Are we prone to getting any stories or novellas about Wit himself in the future?
Yes, you will. The one I have planned is pretty far off, but it will happen.
Who is the greatest warrior in the cosmere? I think it's Kaladin?
Well, define "warrior" versus "soldier" versus--
Who could win at an all-out fight? Even with powers taken away, I think he could still take on a lot of the other warriors.
A question. Are they on a battlefield? 'Cause Kelsier just murders him in his sleep.
Battlefield.
The actual soldier, battlefield, is probably Kaladin. Problem is, you could put Dalinar in his prime. And they're both pretty good. But, Kaladin is a true soldier.
VenDell, the kandra from the Wax & Wayne era. So, at the start of the book, coat is brown. End of the book, a light tan. Is he doing something specifically himself to change the color?
Uh, yeah.
Is it what I think it is?
What do you think it is?
It appears to be some sort of, kind of, almost Awakening?
No. More mundane than that.
I actually am having a meeting on Monday with my publisher saying "We need to get more books to India," because that is the number one complaint I get... The number one country that emails me of people saying "We can't get your books" is India. So hopefully we'll do something about that.
The resonance between various powers, specifically about Shallan... The way that she seems to be sort of Soulstamping herself, is that due to a resonance power? Or is that something external—or is it mental?
...It's a combination of the two, but it's not resonance. It's more mental health and her magic kind of interacting.
The knife used by Moash is "something similar to hemalurgy."
Is it a Dawnshard?
Good question but no.
What Command did Vivenna use to Awaken her blade?
RAFO.
If a gemstone infused with Stormlight were left inside a bendalloy or cadmium bubble, would the gemstone appear to go dun faster or slower respectively to the outside observer?
Yes it would. Time is actually changing, the same thing would be observed if it were brought near to a singularity.
If an Awakener were born deaf, could they Command using sign language?
RAFO. He initially said yes, but then couldn't remember if he changed it or not, so changed it to RAFO.
In Oathbringer, Kaladin sees a painting from the Court of Gods which, it is claimed, shows something different to every person who sees it. However, as I understand it, the Returned only see things in the paintings because of their Divine Breath, there isn't anything intrinsically magical about the paintings themselves; what then is going on with this painting?
He was very evasive here, ultimately he only said that not everything that you see is in the painting.
What kind of time frame will we look for, or will we see another book?
Time frame for another Sixth of the Dusk book? So, I outlined a pretty good novella, which was actually about Sixth, going into Shadesmar. It was pretty cool, but then I didn't have time to write it, so I can't make any promises.
So, there is one coming, maybe?
Maybe. There is an outline for another story, specifically about Sixth, because exploring Shadesmar would be a fun thing for him. But can't promise.
On Sixth of the Dusk, First of the Sun, if humans eat the fruit or the seed of the worms, will they gain Investiture?
No. They tried that. Someone has tried that.
Has Hoid been there?
That's a RAFO.
The new book, Skyward. Is that a Cosmere--
It is not a Cosmere. I need to reference Earth in it for it to work the way I want it to, most likely.
Longevity of Radiants. So, I, before [Oathbringer], though that they were immortal. So, they're not?
No.
Do they have longer lifespans?
Slightly. They're very healthy, but it's not an unusually expanded lifespan.
In London I wanted to ask about Nightblood. The way he is Invested, is that a one-off-case kind of thing, or is it possible to do another of that level?
It was really bizarre, and I will explain it eventually and that will let you know why. It's theoretically possible to do almost anything so it's theoretically possible to do what he did but it'd be very hard.
[My son] would like to know when you're planning to write Bastille?
..We're close. The fact that I ditched Apocalypse Guard has slow me down a bit. I was planning to write Bastille very soon. But it's gonna depend on how soon I finish [Skyward], when I need to go into Wax & Wayne. I need to go into Wax & Wayne, like, July at the latest. So, it's gonna depend on how long Skyward takes. But I'm gonna try to slip it in there.
Can a Shard go to a planet, create an autonomous Splinter, and then leave the system of the planet and then *inaudible*
Yeah, that's possible. In fact, that's happened. You've seen that happen.
Is Urithiru a spaceship?
It is not, no, good question. I've never been asked that before. It's very Sim City, though.
It's a new theory, they're thinking, is it one of the floating cities from--
From Ashyn, yeah. Boy, that would be hard, it is so big. But, I suppose, magic, you know. But no, it is not...
Have you thought about doing a continuation of Dreamer?
Occasionally. I haven't found the right thing to do with it yet, though. Dreamer is weird, because it starts off feeling like a Brandon Sanderson story, and a lot of people are like "Woah, I can see a whole world based on this!" And then it goes the horror route, you know, with the kids.
I really liked that. I thought it was a nice twist.
The most horrific thing I could think of was giving the kids who play X-Box too much power over peoples' lives.
What was that reading from?
It's called Skyward, it's not out yet. Hopefully, it will be next Christmastime. A girl and her spaceship, which has a very goofy AI, which I am having way too much fun writing.
So, Kaladin met Hoid a long long time ago, and Hoid gave him a very important flute that he has not learned how to play. Is he ever going to put the time in to get good at that? Or is that just something we're going to have to wait for?
You'll have to wait for. Kaladin has a lot of things on his mind. He sure could use something to keep him from stressing out, but you're just gonna have to wait and see if Kaladin understands the reason he was given a flute, or not.
Will we ever see protagonists ever come back? ...Once they're, like, dead and stuff?
So, there's a couple rules for people coming back in the cosmere. If you could be revived by CPR, you could be saved. If you can't be revived by CPR, only a direct infusion of Investiture immediately to the soul will turn you into a Cognitive Shadow. Those are your two kind of outs. I'll leave it at that for you, and you can see where it goes from there.
Do Splinters require proximity to their Shards?
Do they require it for what?
Function--
Function. It's very hard for most Splinters to leave the realm where they were Splintered, but this gets into tricky stuff because the Shard mostly occupies the Spiritual Realm, but what do you mean by the Shard? Because the essence of the Shard is in the Physical Realm, it's all across the cosmere, and things like this. Usually once something is Splintered it is difficult for them to leave that area, so yes.
And in the system--
You see it with the-- I would call most Cognitive Shadows a Splinter in some ways. And you see it when Kelsier tries to leave, right. And spren would have the same trouble, and seons would have the same trouble. But at the same time is that a proximity to the Shard? Kind of. Things get very wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey when you start dealing with the nature of the Spiritual Realm in the cosmere.
What does the Everstorm look like in the Cognitive Realm. Is the reason you didn't describe it--
Yeah, I'm saving that for another book. So it's a RAFO.
Will there be more Cosmere stories set on Threnody?
Yeah, Threnody is the setting of Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, which is my longest title ever. Yeah, one of the outlines I've noodled with is a Threnody novel. We'll see. I'm in a stage where I feel like I can start very few novel-length projects, until I've wrapped up Rithmatist, specifically Rithmatist. Once I've wrapped up Rithmatist, I'll feel pretty good-- Rithmatist and Alcatraz. We'll see, but I do have a pretty decent outline that I'm quite pleased with for a Threnody novel.
Do you think that Silence might reappear?
Silence will not reappear. I'm sorry. Maybe a cameo, I don't know. The Threnody novel I'm planning, though, is going back to reclaim the continent from the Evil. And the opening scene is ships arriving. There's not a lot of room for a Silence cameo in that.
I was just wondering, in terms of the White Sand graphic novels, are you gonna keep those as graphic novels throughout? Or are you gonna jump into some more novellas and short stories that coincide with those?
Right now, we're just trying to finish the... graphic novels. Next one's out in February, I think is the date they finally picked...
...So, right now, I'm gonna finish the graphic novels. I'm not gonna do other graphic novels until that one's done. I have a few cool things that I would like to do with graphic novels. I wanna make sure that we get the one done that we're doing, which will be three parts, White Sand. And then, when that's done, then we'll look at doing other stuff. I don't know, I probably will do some novellas set on Taldain eventually. But for right now, it is just the graphic novel.
But if you want to read the original novel of mine that I'm adapting with Rik Hoskin to become the graphic novel, we send that out to people. We used to just send it when you asked us, but that got to the point that my assistant was getting a hundred emails a day. So now, you just sign up for the mailing list, and it will all get sent to you. And if you don't want to be in the mailing list, you can just unsubscribe then, right? But that way, you can just get the novel. It's okay. If you're curious about early Sanderson, it was book number... eight... But if you want to read early Sanderson, it's good, but it needed editing. It needs to be, like, 50-75,000 words shorter than it is. Which is what we're doing to make it a graphic novel, we're just kind of slimming it down.
What was Szeth's reasoning for following Dalinar? From what saw he's only met Dalinar once or twice and wasn't aware he is a Bondsmith.
It wasn't about being a Bondsmith. It was partially about how everyone reacted to Dalinar and partially... Let's see if I can explain this.
Was it, like, 'cause in--
Well, part of it was that. Definitely part of it was what he had seen and things like this. Part of it was how everyone, like-- he knew about Dalinar, right? He had fought Kaladin a couple of times. My own justification for it when I was writing this, 'cause I actually did think about this one, like, Dalinar has a magnetism to him. And Dalinar has a reputation. And Dalinar lived up to the reputation, and Szeth was just looking for something-- The reputation was in some ways more important than the man. For instance, there's a chance in that same situation that Szeth would have followed Amaram. Right? Fortunately he made a better choice than that but-- Anyway.
You're thinking about a similar feeling of the honor because obviously Dalinar is really honorable toward the end and then he's got the same, Szeth's got the same--
Yes. Yes, but at the same time that gives a little bit too much credit to Szeth, to be perfectly honest.
Do you have any magic systems outside of your own books that you particularly like, or were inspired by?
Ooh, good question! One of the ones when I was young that really inspired me was Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner. I love her magic system even still, and I would recommend that to you. But I like all kinds of magic systems, I don't like just the scientific ones. I like all different types. I think Guy Gavriel Kay does a great job with magic, even though they're often low-magic systems. David Farland's Runelords--he's a friend of mine, so I'm biased--but his is one of the best magic systems around. Pat Rothfuss does a very good mix of a hard magic system and a soft magic system in the same system. Which really lets him play off of the concepts of, you know, you've got this magic where it's like, "We discover the names of things, we don't even know what that means!" Versus, "Hey, we build mechanical, magepunk artifacts using the rules." And the play off of each other is very fun. N.K. Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms had a brilliant magic system that really walked the line between hard and softball. So, that's just a few of them.
This might be nothing, but the costumes they are wearing in Kholinar, they are a lot like mistcloaks. Is that a coincidence?
More a coincidence. Those aren't mistcloaks. If I can ever get them drawn out you'll see the difference between them.
Is Obrodai going to be the setting of Dark One?
Excellent question. That is also a RAFO. Sorry, sorry! This is partially because Dark One pops in and out of the cosmere a lot, depending on which version I'm doing. It's been the hardest book. For those who don't know anything about, this is a book I talk about in my blog once in a while... It's like the Harry Potter story, except you get told "By the way, you're the Dark One who's gonna destroy the world, so we're gonna assassinate you while you're a teenager, so that never happens." It's a really cool story that I have never been able to get to work.
*inaudible*
Yeah, and Obrodai is one of the Shardworlds, but I keep popping Dark One in and out of the cosmere. Sometimes it feels too self-referential to the fantasy genre to actually be in the cosmere. Because I don't want the cosmere to be self-referential, right? Whenever something gets even a little too silly, I'm like, "Nah, this can't be in the cosmere anymore." So, we'll see what happens.
So, I was wondering, as a dyslexic, when you were designing Thaylen names, was that intentionally a massive practical joke on your part?
No. Though I will admit, when I was designing Thaylen names, I had a little bit of Welsh going on, and things like that. Now, one of my good friends, actually, the person this book is dedicated to, Alan Layton, is dyslexic. He was one of the people I brainstormed Stormlight with, but he listens to them all on audio. It's more a practical joke on the people who read the audiobooks, because I don't know how they read those names sometimes. But they also have to do Rock's name, right? Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor. I make them do stuff like that.
Elhokar, when he's saying the First Ideal-- Which Order would he have been in?
Lightweaver.
Time-wise, where do the events of Bands of Mourning happen with respect to Words of Radiance?
...So, Bands of Mourning, all the Wax & Wayne books take place after Stormlight 5, but I'm not sure if it happens after or before Stormlight 6, It'll have to wait, because there's a time jump between Stormlight 5 and 6 that I haven't exactly defined in the timeline yet.
Could an Elantrian just write an Aon above Nightblood and then use it forever?
Use it forever? No.
Forever is pushing it.
No, no, I mean, Nightblood would destroy an Aon pretty quickly. It would pull power through it--
It would be like trying to put too much power through a small--
Yeah, it would just rip it up to shreds. You'd get a little use out of it. He would eat the very structure of it, if that makes any sense.
Why did they get a better copy of all the artwork?
We're going to talk about this with my publisher on Monday... The endpages... Let's just point out that the American print run is 300,000 copies--
The UK print run is originally 16,000 copies.
Yes. And so print run drives price down. The US we sold, across all formats, we sold about 250,000 copies opening week. And in the UK, across all formats, I think they sold nine... thousand. And so it's just a difference in population and economy of scale. I'm going to try to convince the publisher to do some special editions of Stormlight that have the endpages. But I can't blame them if it's just not cost-effective...
The UK covers all matching is really a nice thing...
In Words of Radiance I think it was Nazh who was collecting the artwork for Khriss, is that the same person who... did the writeup of the glyphs and--
Who annotates. So, Nazh annotates almost all the stuff. That's almost always Nazh. Khriss almost always writes the Ars Arcanums.
So there's not a new person also?
If you think it's Nazh, it's Nazh.
So, specifically the one that talks about the glyphs and [how] he infiltrated--
Yes, that is Nazh.
Do people still live in Aimia?
Define people.
Do Aimians still live in Aimia?
The group as a whole? No. Do any? Yes.
Do all Soulcasters risk turning into the element or is it only those using the device?
All Soulcasters have an affinity but the ones using the device are locked down much more than the Soulcasters who are Knights Radiant.
So they are protected from being turned into--
Oh no they-- I wouldn't say protected... *clarificaiton* Protected is the wrong term but that event, the savanthood and how it affects them and things like that is much less pronounced if you are a [Knight].
Or is that counteracted by the healing as well?
Healing doesn't have to do with it because-- in cosmere terms there's nothing wrong with your body, your spirit is actually drifting, and so it's not hurting you physically by what's happening with the magics. So it's not the healing but if you have an active bond with a spren it takes a little different path. Let's just say, in simple terms--
You are not losing body parts to smoke.
Yes, you are not using body parts to smoke.
What timeframe does it happen for the normal Soulcasters then?
For normal Soulcasters? It takes-- I mean, you've seen it happening in the books. We are talking [about] a process of years even decades, depending on the person. It happens to some--
Depending on how often they Soulcast?
It depends on how often they Soulcast, and it depends on the person.
So at the end of [Oathbringer], how aware is Odium of what Nightblood is and can do?
Modestly.
Taking the sheath, that kind of thing?
He knows. I would say more than modestly, he is well aware.
What's the character on [the UK Oathbringer cover]?
That is Jasnah. I think. I am almost 100% sure.
I wasn't sure. There's a bunch, there's a few different characters that could all fit, so I wasn't certain.
I sent the same description of the scene near the end with the wall to both artists and that's basically what they came up with.
Do you have any plans to do a Cosmere crossover book?
Yes, but it's a little ways off.
Atium spikes, they can hold a lot. Can they hold multiple different abilities, can they hold Surgebinding and--
Usually you've gotta use a spike for one thing at a time.
If a Shardblade was put through Wayne's eye, would he able to use his ability to [heal the wound]?
Yes, he should be able to heal that.
What's the concept of the safehand?
Yes. There's a writerly answer and an in-world answer. Which do you want to know?
Let's do the writer answer.
Writer answer, so. I am fascinated by taboo. I am fascinated by the fact that in Asia you don't show your, the bottom of your foot to people. It's terribly offensive. I am fascinated that in some cultures some parts of the body are shown and others aren't. Things that we would consider vulgar, to other people are not, and vice versa. It just fascinates me as a writer and when I approached the books I was looking for a ways that I could give a feel for a human culture but not one that we have seen before and the safehand grew out of that.
How many spren-- can you only bond one spren?
That's a Read-And-Find-Out. You'll have to read and see.
If Red investiture = co-opted by another Shard, what about the Thrill?
Kind of.
The voidspren for stormform were red, were they originally of Honor?
Nope.
Is Shallash/Ash going to be a Dustbringer? (So Dalinar's count can be all 10 orders)
RAFO
