Recent entries

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6601 Copy

    Questioner

    Are the Ghostbloods affiliated with Autonomy?

    Brandon Sanderson

    "Affiliated with" is very wiggle-room-ish. And so I'll go ahead and give you a RAFO on that one, even though I can totally wiggle on this one. I'm just gonna say "RAFO"; I'm gonna do the ultimate wiggle. There have been dealings.

    Billy Todd

    Interactions?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, there's been interactions.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6602 Copy

    Trae

    Previously, you've revealed that the mechanism that determines the Returned on Nalthis is a decision of a sapient entity... Is the determination by which the entity that selects the recipient of a Divine Breath to come back as a Returned predicated on that recipient fulfilling some purpose in the Physical Realm?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...Basically they are asking... "Why does the entity that picks who Returns, why did they pick who they did?" And, your question kind of implies there's, like, specific tasks to fulfill. I'm gonna say, there aren't specifics, but there are certain things this entity is looking for--

    Trae

    In the Physical Realm?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. There are certain things that they are looking for. Now, sometimes-- let's just say this entity is not necessarily the most consistent of entities in the cosmere when it comes to making decisions like this. But there are certain things they are looking for.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6603 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6606 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6608 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6609 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6615 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6617 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6618 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6620 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6621 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6623 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6624 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6625 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6626 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6627 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6628 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6632 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6635 Copy

    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 the wall? Those are not mandras.

    Argent

    Oh no, I was thinking about the ones that appear around dead chasmfiends.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, dead chasmfiends, okay. Yyyes. The arrowheads, yeah.

    Argent

    But you're saying those are not gravityspren, they're--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well--

    Argent

    --they're mandras?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I am not-- Yeah. I am-- So the things Kaladin saw stuck to the wall are not gravityspren, right? But I want to make sure-- So arrowhead spren, that Shallan is philosophizing, theorizing about, are mandras.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6636 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6638 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6639 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6640 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6643 Copy

    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. 

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6644 Copy

    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. 

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6645 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6648 Copy

    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.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #6649 Copy

    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.