Recent entries

Questioner

Can a Mistborn burn any physical form of Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

No. Well-- possible with work, but naturally, no.

Questioner

In Secret History, Nazh briefly mentioned that there's requirements or conditions to become a Cognitive Shadow. Can you tell us one of those?

Brandon Sanderson

Uh, lots of Investiture. Is one way. As a certain person discovered.

Questioner

If that person were to not have entered Preservation's pool, it still would have given the same result?

Brandon Sanderson

If they had not, they would be gone.

Questioner

I wasn't clear. If they had done a different pool, not Preservation's.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, if they had been able to Invest themselves heavily, then they could have stuck around, yes. That wasn't Preservation's pool, that was more a function of--dipping themselves, pulling an Achilles inside of a Shardpool when you are dead, turned out to work. It's not the only way, not everyone on... Threnody, for instance, is heavily Invested.

Questioner

Could a kandra imitating a human have a child with the human?

Brandon Sanderson

So, I kinda go back and forth on this. So-- 'Cause I think about it, then I tweak the magic, and I think "no this isn't possible," and then I go back, and I'm like, "but..." So it kinda comes down to a lot of things, such as, would I want a DNA test to be able to determine if a kandra is real or not. And I haven't canonized that yet, so your answer is, Read And Find Out, once I decide. I go back and forth on that one so much.

Questioner

Roshar... Is that the whole world, just kinda flattened out? Or is there something on the other side?

Brandon Sanderson

There's something on the other side, but mostly just empty ocean.

Questioner

Mostly just empty ocean? Something else? RAFO?

Brandon Sanderson

There's your card!

Questioner

Are you ever gonna write a pregnant woman in your books?

Brandon Sanderson

So, I kinda got my fill of it in Wheel of Time. Because Elayne, which is such-- there's just so much pregnancy. So, like-- I've actually thought about this before, and I think, I just read those books so many times I'm like--

Questioner

You're just full of it.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. But that's not a good reason! But I'm pretty sure that's my reason.

Brightlord Maelstrom

If you were to somehow use a receptacle to gather some part of the Dor, say there was a way of doing that. And you were to do one on both extremes of the planet. Would it be the same thing?

...Say, you have a container than can contain part of this plasma? ...Theoretically? You do that, taking one part of the planet, say Elantris, seal it up. And then you were to take another one, and fill it up in MaiPon and compare them, would it be the same Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it would.

Brightlord Maelstrom

Quesion about Selish magic systems. So, you've described, in the past, the Dor in the Cognitive Realm as being almost like magma. Is that just in consistency, or also does that also include in its temperature?

Brandon Sanderson

No, it's more temperature than consistency. Plasma-ish is maybe even a better way of putting it.

Questioner

Does [the Ishikk interlude in Way of Kings] indicate that White Sand, Mistborn Era 1, and Elantris all take place in about the same period of time? Or are worldhoppers also timehoppers?

Brandon Sanderson

Some of them are also timehoppers. They're not as close as you would think.

Questioner

Is it a coincidence that, when Michael Kramer was reading... Stormlight Archive and Wax&Wayne, Wayne sounds curiously like Lopen.

Brandon Sanderson

It's a cute coincidence. Lopen would have a very different accent from Wayne.

Questioner

The amount of Heralds that we have seen so far. Two? I had thought Wit was one.

Brandon Sanderson

Wit is not one, but you've seen Ash, you've seen Taln, you've seen Jezrien and Kalak in the prelude, you've seen Nale. Yeah, he was chasing Lift, among other things. You've heard of several others, but the others are going to start getting more and more obscure from there. I don't think there's any others.

Questioner

Could the mantle of Herald be passed to another person. Could they--

Brandon Sanderson

Read And Find Out, I'm afraid.

Questioner

 I envision the Bondsmiths as, like, walking catapult. Is that viable, or is it different?

Brandon Sanderson

You'll have to wait and see. We'll RAFO that.

Questioner

We see, in Secret History, all the people going Beyond after they die. Do all the victims go there? Or just people? Just sentients? Would a Ryshadium go the Beyond, if it died.

Brandon Sanderson

Um-- Yes.

Questioner

What about, like, a rockbud, or a chasmfiend?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, that, you're gonna have to ask the philosophers about. Because, if it happens, it happens really fast, so they have trouble spotting it.

Questioner

Is there a significant connection between Stormlight and spren?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

What is the extent of that, I guess? Is that a Read And Find Out?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO.

Questioner

Does everyone meet the Nightwatcher when they die?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

Questioner

As you look at the Double Eye, is there a pattern for Honor and Cultivation's disparate influences on each Surge or Order?

Brandon Sanderson

There are philosophers who think that there are, but-- it is more straightforward than those philosophers think it is.

Questioner

Is it fair to say that Honor is focused on the past, and Cultivation is focused on the future? Or nostalgia.

Brandon Sanderson

No. Nope, not fair to say that. But it is an interesting theory. They would disagree with you, but you could make the argument.

Questioner

Is Hoid somebody I should be rooting for?

Brandon Sanderson

Depends on-- Depends... There's a big, uh, "depends" attached to that.

Questioner

Is that something we're gonna see in Stormlight Archive?

Brandon Sanderson

You will see some of it in Stormlight. It's not the main place you're gonna see it.

Questioner

If you had a Shardblade, what would it look like?

Brandon Sanderson

Hm... it would have lots of glyphs on it.

Questioner

So, we know that things can be Soulcast into aluminum. But can aluminum itself be Soulcast into something else?

Brandon Sanderson

It resists all forms of Investiture trying to change it to things.

Questioner

An Elantrian, can they use an unkeyed nicrosilmind to-- as a substitute for the Dor?

Brandon Sanderson

...This is theoretically possible. Again, the Selish magic systems do not play well with the other magics, but that is theoretically possible to make happen.

Questioner

Could you build Aons or something similar to Aons off of the natural landforms on Roshar, like the Dawncities and the other cities that are sort of symmetrical?

Brandon Sanderson

The Elantrian magic system, the Selish magic systems, are the ones that don't work very well-- don't interact very well with other worlds... Other ones are a lot more easy to interact between worlds.

Questioner

If an Elantrian has a child, is that child an Elantrian?

Brandon Sanderson

Not necessarily.

Questioner

...Like, two Elantrians have a child, it's possible that it's just a normal human?

Brandon Sanderson

...It is indeed.

Questioner

[Question written down, unknown]

Brandon Sanderson

They can communicate with each other. So, there's at least one answer-- with the spren-- Yeah, but it's not-- you don't really communicate with spren in the same way.

Questioner

Can they get, like, Odium- or Cultivation- or Honor-oriented spren to kinda animate them?

Brandon Sanderson

No, that's not quite how it works.

Questioner

The intelligence in the eye of the chasmfiend, I was wondering. Or on the santhid rescuing her.

Brandon Sanderson

It's more, like, does a flower communicate with a bee. That's a similar sort of thing we're looking at here.

Questioner

If people from Scadrial were to colonize, like, Nalthis, and not intermarry with the people there, would their children continue to have the Scadrial Investiture, or would they have the Nalthis Investiture? In the sense that, is it genetic, or is it planetary?

Brandon Sanderson

Scadrial is more genetic.

Questioner

Than Nalthis, where they have the Breaths?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

So, would their children continue to--

Brandon Sanderson

Their children would continue, for a while, to have Scadrian Investiture.

Questioner

For a while. Could you say, like, how many generations?

Brandon Sanderson

I cannot.

Questioner

The respect for lighteyes seems to come from Radiants and their-- Is there a reason that the Makabaki and Iriali don't seem to care as much.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. That will become a little more evident as the books progress.

Questioner

So, November is the National Writer's month. Have you ever participated in the NaNoWriMo challenge?

Brandon Sanderson

I have!

Questioner

Awesome! How did that go?

Brandon Sanderson

It went pretty well. I'm a pretty compulsive writer, so-- I don't do it as much anymore, 'cause I'm almost always on tour during it or something. But during the early days when I was trying to break in, I did it all the time. I actually wrote a big chunk of the first draft of Way of Kings in 2002, in NaNoWriMo.

Questioner

When people ask you who your favorite character is, you say they're all your children. And I always have the same thought: even Amaram?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, let's say, my favorites are all of the viewpoint characters who are not slimeballs... Yeah, he's definitely one of the exceptions to that.

Questioner

What other exceptions?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, I don't know. I'd have to think about it.

Questioner

In Way of Kings, the Death Rattles, it say that the person who said it reported seeing strange dreams during the highstorms for the past two years. What do you have to say about that, I guess?

Brandon Sanderson

Highstorms. You often see strange things during the highstorms.

Bystander

That's not a real answer.

Brandon Sanderson

It totally is a real answer! That person saw some weird stuff. Weird stuff happens. Dalinar sees weird things walking along throwing rocks at people, so. Who knows.

Questioner

Can a Surgebinder use Breath like they can Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible and not really that hard to make work.

Questioner

How would Nightblood react to Hoid?

Brandon Sanderson

Nightblood would probably try to be very friendly to Hoid, and then-- But Nightblood tries to be friendly to everybody. He's a very friendly, uh, demonic terrible sword that sucks your soul.

Questioner

If you were gonna pick a thing to be, like, an Edgedancer, or a Windrunner, what would you be?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably a Bondsmith is what's natural to me. If I could pick any, I'd probably be Windrunner, but I don't think I'd fit Windrunner.

Questioner

Does, like, Steelheart universe included in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

It doesn't. Good question.

Questioner

Do koloss have hair?

Brandon Sanderson

...It depends on the form. Some do, some don't. But, in general, they do. But it's not-- Here's the thing, it's not quite hair. They're not mammalian.

Questioner

What are they if they're not mammalian?

Brandon Sanderson

They are their own-- uh, yeah.

Questioner

Are there any fain or formerly fain holders of a Shard of Adonalsium?

Brandon Sanderson

What an excellent question! It's a card, it's a RAFO card.

Questioner

Any clues on where we see Hemalurgy elsewhere in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

No, we'll RAFO that for now.

Questioner

How does rewriting the Spiritual aspect work?

Brandon Sanderson

...So, it has ramifications through the other two Realms. It can happen. You've seen it happen.

Questioner

That's what happens with kandra, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, to an extent, yes.

Questioner

With the koloss?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, both of them. Hemalurgy is, like, sticking a piece of someone's spirit to another person's spirit and creating a Frankenstein's monster of spirits.

Questioner

Can you tell me why Jasnah wanted to potentially assassinate her sister-in-law, the queen?

Brandon Sanderson

She felt that the queen was seeking to usurp power, for one thing, and was reckless for another. And so Jasnah was worried about the safety of the throne.

Questioner

So, in Warbreaker, Awakened items have to emulate humans. Why is that?

Brandon Sanderson

It's a matter of perception on the people using the magic. And there are ramifications on the fact that the Shards themselves were all once humanoid.

Questioner

So, Renarin. Is there anything special about him, like regarding him being able to see the future, or, like, Rock not being able to see his spren? So he's different than other Truthwatchers?

Brandon Sanderson

Read [Oathbringer]. Then come back and ask.

Questioner

I had a question regarding the sixteen Shards... If they are, or when they are reformed to Adonalsium, will it have to be one person holding all sixteen Shards?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO. I'm gonna RAFO that partially because there's not even-- who knows if it can all be recombined.

Questioner

Would you care if I took what we have on, like, Aonic, and sort of rolled it into a conlang?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that'd be fine. Aonic is the one that, like, in some ways the least useful.

Questioner

It has the most words that I've found for it.

Brandon Sanderson

If you're interested in conlangs, go talk to Peter, and maybe we'll sic you on something. Maybe we can get you working on something officially. I've tried to get Peter to do something... Go talk to him. Talk nerd stuff with him.

Questioner

What is the most fully-developed you've made any of the languages in the books? Or do you just come up with the sounds and just sort of stop?

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on which ones. Like, the further we go in the books, the more developed they become. Peter is a linguist, was a linguistics major, so I lean on him heavily for some of these things. Korean gets used all the time. Because I speak Korean and did my mission in Korea...

Questioner

What new series are you planning for the cosmere? Do you have any?

Brandon Sanderson

I really wanna do at least a book set on the same world as Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell.

Questioner

What are your plans for the third Mistborn trilogy?

Brandon Sanderson

1980s level technology... little bit of a, "how nerd culture works" in Mistborn world, on Scadrial. Lots of fun stuff. Allomancer taskforces and SWAT teams.

Questioner

So, would Allomancy work if the metals were a suppository?

Brandon Sanderson

That is theoretically possible, but gross... There's nothing special about the stomach. It's kinda getting it into your spirit, and things.

Questioner

What was your opinion of the Blackthorn?

Brandon Sanderson

What about it? What do you mean?

Questioner

Like, in general, people call him a monster, when I ask, ask around. I think he's a badass.

Brandon Sanderson

He totally was a badass. He was also not morally centered.

Questioner

Do you have a cameo, or a character that represents you?

Brandon Sanderson

I do not. They're all a piece of me... Every character is me in one way, and every character is not me in other ways.

Questioner

How do you write a good follower? Like, you have a lot of good leaders. But what are some good attributes of followers?

Brandon Sanderson

I think that a good follower is willing to-- perform... Knowing that we all wear different hats, and not everyone can call the shots every time, and being willing to be the person that trusts someone else to call the shots.

Questioner

Once upon a time I asked you about the magic system as described in Elantris and The Emperor's Soul, how in The Emperor's Soul [Shai] describes it as, she talks about the Spiritual Realm as the, like, the wall wanting to be beautiful. And how in Elantris they describe the Dor as what makes a river want to flow. And I assumed that meant that they were connected. But according to that [Arcanum Unbounded] it says that the Investiture is housed in the Cognitive Realm and how unlike most of the other magic systems its magic comes from the Cognitive. And so now I am confused.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, they are related but there's an overarching theory, er, kind of philosophy of what Investiture is and it imbuing things with desires that in our world may not actually have desires. And that is connected. The fact that the Dor is the Cognitive Realm is not the way it's supposed to be. That is a prob-- well, in some ways it's a feature, but it's also very much a bug.