Questioner
Was it moral for Adolin to kill Sadeas?
Brandon Sanderson
Which morality scheme are you looking for?
Questioner
Yours. Your personal morality.
Brandon Sanderson
My personal morality. It depends on the day. That one's on a line. I would say yes. There's a little bit of-- there's enough chaotic good in me. I would generally put myself in neutral good. But there's enough chaotic good in me to say, "Yeah, that guy asked for it. He betrayed you, he was threatening your family." I would side on Adolin's side, I think.
Questioner
Sah-zed, that's how you pronounce it, right?
Brandon Sanderson
Well, it depends on who you are. You can say it however you want. It's said all different ways in the books. Because he is Terris, and everybody's just kind of saying his name, right?
So Kelsier says Say-zed. But in world, he would say something more like Sahz-d, not Say-zed, himself. But I say Say-zed. You can say Sah-zed. Some people would say that.
Questioner
First Mistborn series, second book. One of my favorite relationships was between Vin and TenSoon. And I was wondering if there was ever a version where they meet back up again.
Brandon Sanderson
...I never had an outline where they did.
Questioner
How do you pronounce Szeth's name?
Brandon Sanderson
Zeth.
Questioner
Just the Z?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah. There's a little bit of s...
Questioner
And Sazed?
Brandon Sanderson
So, he says something more close to Saze-d. But Kelsier says Say-zed. And people just kind of go with what Kelsier does. I say Say-zed also.
AllomancerSam
If given the opportunity, which Shard would Kelsier want to punch next?
Brandon Sanderson
He would find it really fun to punch Honor. Really fun.
Questioner
Hypothetically speaking, if some of the main Radiants were to die at the end of book 5, go to Braize and then spend the time in between 5 and 6 there, would they age?
Brandon Sanderson
There are lots of problems with that question. If a Radiant dies, they don't go to Braize. A Herald would, but a Herald is a Cognitive Shadow, so there's inherent problems in there. When you're a Cognitive Shadow, aging is different there, because you're basically a ghost. Even if you've been stapled to a body, it happens weirdly. So there's all kinds of flaws in that question.
AllomancerSam
Does physical proximity of two planets have an effect on how easy it is to worldhop?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
AllomancerSam
Is Vivenna's sword in Oathbringer the same one that Vasher gives her in Warbreaker?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO! But I'll give you a card.
AllomancerSam
...When a Shard vessel dies and they've held the Shard for a thousand years, how much do they remember about what they've done?
Brandon Sanderson
Depends on the shard. Usually, everything or most everything. It is not implausible that there are Shards that don't want to remember certain things. They have a large and vast mental capacity <when it comes to> remembering things.
AllomancerSam
Would Ruin be one that would be more likely to want to forget?
Brandon Sanderson
I think all of them would have things they might want to forget. It depends on whose personality would be more likely to make that actually happen.
Questioner
Would you be willing to admit the name of the Vessel of the Shard on Obrodai.
Brandon Sanderson
*gives RAFO card*
Questioner
Has Hoid tried to get to First of the Sun?
Brandon Sanderson
Hoid has tried before.
Questioner
So is there a connection with K's? Where the characters...
Brandon Sanderson
You mean names with K's?
Questioner
Yes...
Brandon Sanderson
I'm going to say it's more coincidence. It has to do with what I like to name people. Kaladin's original name was Merin and it was just bad. So I eventually settled on something I liked. I just like the sound of it. If you dig down into it, most of the names in the cosmere do not have similar linguistic roots. Some do. I'm just going to chalk it up to coincidence.
Chaos
If you could take a Shard, what would be the one that you would want? If you were forced to take a Shard, you couldn't refuse?
Brandon Sanderson
*Mmmmms for a time*
Chaos
Feel free to name another one if you want to...
Brandon Sanderson
I've only got a few left that you guys don't know about.
Chaos
There's six.
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah okay. So I haven't said-- yhm. *laughter* I would take one that I haven't talked about, probably. But, of the ones I've talked about--
I don't know-- What one would be the most fun? Endowment would be pretty fun. Autonomy? No, probably not that much fun. A lot of them aren't very fun. Let's go with--
Chaos
You mean Autonomy isn't fun? Splitting into different aspects?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, that is fun, I suppose. Yeah. *unenthusiastic* Yeah...
Chaos
Is Uli Da a Sho Del?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah.
Chaos
Can we post that?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah you can go ahead and post that. That's fine.
Chaos
I figured that from the...
Brandon Sanderson
Right, the naming convention makes it really obvious.
Chaos
But that's not posted on the Dragonsteel sample so...
Brandon Sanderson
Right. But that's canon. It's pretty obvious to me... And so it's fine with me canonizing it. I mean, I've been coy with it for years. But when I say there are Shards that aren't human. There are three races on Yolen... Adding the math together is going to get you a pretty obvious answer.
Questioner
I was wondering if Sleepless-- the Dysian Aimians-- if they could hold a Shard?
Brandon Sanderson
Could the Sleepless hold a Shard? Could they be a Vessel? Is what you're asking?
*hems and haws* There is nothing innate about the Shards that prevents any one with a-- I have to phrase this very carefully...
Non-humans can be Vessels. Non-humans have been vessels. Certain sapient creatures in the cosmere, could not be. But that's an asterisk, not the rule.
Questioner
When Marsh and Sazed go to the Conventical of Seran, Marsh kind of tells Sazed, "You go do whatever you want, I gotta go do something, I'll be back." What was Marsh's purpose there? Why was he there?
Brandon Sanderson
I intend to do some Marsh stuff, from his viewpoint, eventually. I don't know if I'll ever get to it. There is actually something there. There is something that I intended to leave a place for me to play later on with. So the answer is a RAFO, but a legitimate RAFO. Not a "I'm trying to lead you on," or a "I don't feel like answering this right now."
Chaos
Is atium Invested?
Brandon Sanderson
Is atium Invested? Atium is Investiture distilled into the Physical Realm, right? So is electricity electric? Or is it--
Chaos
Well I think the question Sharders had was if it's Invested, how can people Push and Pull on it. That was the struggle.
Brandon Sanderson
Atium breaks a lot of rules, in the same way that you will see other things break rules. Atium plays weirdly. When you get distilled Investiture, you're starting like-- My kind of rule for myself is it's kind of like when you start going on the quantum level, the rules just start playing weirdly. Because it's like, what Realm does atium exist in-- is another thing. Because-- Pure Investiture like that is like a mini black hole, right? It's like existing in three Realms at once. Kind of, and things like that... There's lots of weirdness.
The writerly answer is there is lots of weirdness because when I built atium, I didn't have the rest of the cosmere built, right? And so it breaks a lot of rules that I later set up that everything else has to follow, right? So the writerly answer is we just have to accept that atium and lerasium and some of these other distilled Investiture things are going to play very weirdly with the magic systems. But that's okay. Nightblood will too, and some of these things that were built even after the cosmere was coming together.
Questioner
Speaking of Rosharan calendar-- So seventeen year old Kaladin, is he the equivalent of a seventeen year old Earthling?
Brandon Sanderson
It's 1.1, I think is what is it. Right, they're 10% older than their accounting system. So no.
Questioner
So Adolin is 27, true?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah.
Questioner
So then a year is obviously a lot more than 1.1 but--
Brandon Sanderson
Well no. The years are 500 days, but they're 20 hour days. Keep that in mind. So when you run the calculations kinda together, you end up with around 1.1.
Brandon Sanderson
Karen's the one who runs into all the trouble now. Because she has to make the timeline work with the highstorms. She wrote that whole blog post. You guys read that. She had lots of fun with that.
Questioner
Do you have, like on-- Like the actual gem inside a Stormlight sphere, do you have an idea of how large it actually is and--
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, we do have an idea of that, and how much it can hold, and things like this. And that's all known so that's going to start with the basis. But it's going to take math, it's going to take real math.
Chaos
Math is hard!
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, math is hard! And we're going to have to look at things like-- Yeah just make stuff up then make Peter shake his head.
Questioner
Do you have-- Or have you determined an equivalency between how much Breath it takes to make a certain gem's worth of Stormlight?
Brandon Sanderson
I have recently assigned Peter to this task, and he is feeling overwhelmed by it. It was actually during the writing of Oathbringer where I finally said, "Yeah we need to standardize this, so start working on it." So it was like, "Oh great". Which means he has to read through all the books for references and start figuring it all out. And we're going to need like an equivalent of a jewel or something like this, right? *gestures to a sphere that a fan made* And we've been putting it off because it sounds like an awful lot of work.
So the answer is no, we don't have it yet. It's something I've known for years we're going to need. And on this book, I just started saying, "All right. I'm going to have them do all the stuff they need to do. And then you're going to tell me how many spheres they need to start with." Right? Like, I write the book, and then we retrofit how many spheres they needed to have how much Stormlight, so that we could be consistent with that.
But we haven't done across magic systems calculations, yet.
Chaos
Did Unmade exist in the First Desolation?
Brandon Sanderson
Which definition of First Desolation are we using?
Chaos
...Prior to the Heralds being made?
Brandon Sanderson
We'll go RAFO.
Chaos
So Sleepless have held Surges. Have they been Radiants before?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Chaos
When Nightblood killed the Fused, are those Fused souls retrievable?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Questioner
So I've always wondered, the Bands of Mourning, the actual spearhead that Wax uses. Was that made by the Lord Ruler or the Sovereign, or--
Brandon Sanderson
No. It was not made by the Lord Ruler. The Sovereign was involved.
Questioner
In our universe, mass and energy curve space. I was wondering if Investiture does the same or something similar
Brandon Sanderson
It does something similar. It draws the three Realms together. So it's got like-- Imagine a gravitational pull piercing Realms. Right? Of kind of--
Questioner
And that's how a perpendicularity works?
Brandon Sanderson
That's not the only way a perpendicularity works, but one surefire way to create a perpendicularity is a massive collection of Investiture in the Cognitive or mostly Physical realm. But Cognitive's weird, doesn't always work the right way. But there are ways to do it that way too.
Questioner
Is Spook still around as of Alloy of Law?
Brandon
As of Alloy of Law-- Yeah I'm gonna have to RAFO you on that.
Questioner
So Roshar is pretty small on the map. Are there other species on the planet that we don't know about?
Brandon Sanderson
Roshar is primarily the one continent. There are no other continents.
Questioner
No other continents?
Brandon Sanderson
No other continents... There are no other major landmasses on the planet.
Questioner
For the Thrill, did you get the idea for that from Ether in the Book of Mormon?
Brandon
No, not specifically. But I mean, I've read Ether so many times, it's got-- Yeah, that seems like a very natural connection.
Questioner
I was wondering, with resonance. Is that a sort of constructive interference?
Brandon Sanderson
Constructed? No. Resonance is more about the way-- It's more of a natural interference.
Questioner
So what I mean like, you have two waves, right? And if their troughs, you know--
Brandon Sanderson
Okay, is that the formal term? For the constructed.-- Oh constructive? I thought you had said-- yeah. So yes, I would say that that is an accurate phrase. I mean obviously it's not exactly the same thing. But yeah, that's what I was looking at when I was building it, was kinda things like this with waveform patterns and whatnot. So yes. At least, it was inspired by this kind of idea.
Questioner
Is Adolin unkilling Maya? RAFO?
Brandon Sanderson
I'll give you a [RAFO] card.
Brandon Sanderson
I once--don't do this--I once lit a book on fire. Because I was reading at night, and my mom kept turning my light off so I got out a candle and I was reading by candlelight. And the book started on fire. Yeah, so don't do that.
Questioner
Who will be the monarch of Idris during Nightblood?
Brandon Sanderson
...I will RAFO that. Just not-- not for any real secretive reason. But more because, when I write that book, it's possible, you know, that I will change things and whatnot, so--
It's likely to not change.
Questioner
Is Wayne sick?
Brandon Sanderson
Is Wayne sick? In what way?
Questioner
Like, terminally ill kind of thing?
Brandon Sanderson
No. Good question.
Questioner
What was your inspiration for Jasnah?
Brandon Sanderson
I had done several times, when I was designing characters in the cosmere, someone who kind of thought they were an awesome scholar but really wasn't. That's the kind of thing with Sarene and a little bit of the thing with Shallan. They're young people who haven't quite made it there yet, whose opinion of themselves is kind of beyond their actual skill level. Who would be, like, the scholar? Like, the ideal Rosharan societal scholar? And I built Jasnah out of that, and then took her in a way that would allow her to also be in conflict with that at the same time. Always a good source of writing a character.
Questioner
So do each Shard's perpendicularity-- is that, like are they their own individual color or is that sort of--
Brandon Sanderson
There is a small thematic connection. This is not to be taken as one of the bigger deals in the cosmere, but there is a small thematic connection.
Questioner
So Hoid, was he considered a Lightweaver pre-Shattering?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, that would be an appropriate term. There are lots of different terms that would also be appropriate.
Questioner
But was it basically the same thing?
Brandon Sanderson
Well, no Stormlight. No spren. So, not a Knight Radiant. But, similar magic. But you've also seen Elantris magic do this. So there are-- there are certain things that-- I'll just stop there.
Questioner
My question is, if you had two nicrosil Mistings, who, feeling like breaking the universe, and they got together and they touched each other and advanced each other's magic power at the same time by flaring nicrosil, what would happen? Would it cause a feedback loop?
Brandon Sanderson
*hands RAFO card* Well I'll go ahead and give you one right there! You got one!
Orange Jedi
You said it's been revealed for Patji's intent. Where has that been revealed?
Brandon Sanderson
I've talked about it.
Orange Jedi
You've talked about it? Okay. So you have to go hunting.
Brandon Sanderson
You may have to make a few connections.
JoyBlu
The Patji lake, theoretically, could an Aviar fly into the lake on its own and enter the Cognitive Realm? Like, have a bird catcher on the other side waiting for the bird to fly in and catch it?
Brandon Sanderson
Theoretically... I'm going to RAFO that, but it's not a big RAFO. It's more along the lines of, I'm going to get into the mechanics of how things go through Shardpools in future books. Um, what you just described is not outside of reason.
JoyBlue
And could also, one of the grubs or one of the parasites or the rotten fruit, whatever, could that have fallen through the lake?
Brandon Sanderson
That is plausible. The question is, once it gets to be a non-sentient thing, how does going through the--- to the Realms work, and that's where it starts to get-- that's where you get your asterisk. Like, just a piece of fruit falling. I'm going to asterisk that one.
JoyBlu
So the color of the green chicken. In Sixth of the Dusk, there's a green and white Aviar and there's a green and red *inaudible* Is green important?
Brandon Sanderson
I'll RAFO that.
Questioner
So voidbinding is-- one part of voidbinding is seeing the future. And atium is also seeing the future. And I notice annotations for Elantris, you said something about seeing the future could go weird-- sends assassins. Is that a running--
Brandon Sanderson
It is a running theme in the cosmere. And it's-- Whatever path you take to do it is dangerous in the cosmere. It's kind of a sign of-- You are in dangerous territory, and drawing upon a Shard that is--
Questioner
Potentially...
Brandon Sanderson
Potentially-- Yes. I mean to say-- Dangerous territory.
Chaos
So, at the Forbidden Planet signing you said that when Adonalsium was Shattered, all Investiture in the cosmere was associated to one of the Shards... So, what happened with Adonalsium's spren on Roshar? Were those associated to Honor and Cultivation? What happened with them?
Brandon Sanderson
So they were very-- They were already associated to certain parts of Adonalsium and they went with those associations. There's a lot of Cultivation in all of the spren, particularly the natural spren.
Questioner
Is Patji related at all to Autonomy?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
JoyBlu
Evi, in Oathbringer, she uses strange idioms and you mentioned you wanna be on the lookout for people who use strange idioms... Is Evi native to Roshar?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes... Her people are related to the Iri, who are not native to Roshar. But she is not Iriali herself. And all the Iriali, they are native to Roshar, people who are born now, even if their people aren't. So Evi-- You can say, right, like, no humans are native to Roshar. But, yes, she was born on Roshar.
JoyBlu
...Would she might have some of the same blood in her that Vivenna and Siri would have?
Brandon Sanderson
Viviena and Siri... Oh, from... Ah, I'll RAFO that.
JoyBlu
Is Mraize's Aviar from First of the Sun or is it from another planet?
Brandon Sanderson
If it's called an Aviar, its origin is First of the Sun.
Orange Jedi
In Bands of Mourning, Hoid says he technically owns the place of the mansion. Is he referring to the mansion or Scadrial? Or something else?
Brandon Sanderson
He's referring to the mansion itself.
Questioner
So this flashlight is made of aluminum. So obviously, I could not affect the flashlight itself with iron or steel. Could I affect the battery inside it?
Brandon Sanderson
No.
Questioner
Could I like, pop the trigger?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Questioner
And then is there a connection between Aviars, copperclouds, aluminum, and the yellow spren, life sense, seeking?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, yeah all that, there are some relationships there.
Questioner
So they all pretty much would affect each other?
Brandon Sanderson
Ummm, yes, yes.
neithan
Does the painting from Nalthis seen by Kaladin appear elsewhere? Will it?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO!
