Questioner
Taldain. Are you ever gonna write any more novels set on there?
Brandon Sanderson
I would say 50-50 chance.
Taldain. Are you ever gonna write any more novels set on there?
I would say 50-50 chance.
I know you can have Shardblades be basically whatever you want. Can they ever be, like, a regular proportioned sword?
Yes.
So people can just use them as normal?
Yep.
I know Dragonsteel is going to have, like, [Hoid] as a main character in the series, or at least a more prominent character. Is there any other book series that are planned that are gonna have him as a more prominent figure?
Yes.
And are those gonna come before or after?
After.
...Is there anything in [Hoid]'s past that he regrets that he did? An action that he made that he, like, regrets.
Yes.
We have a Nicroburst Twinborn, who burns his old stored metal. What happens?
RAFO.
So, if we switch to Scadrial, and I had lined the inside of my hat with aluminum, I'm protecting myself from emotional Allomancy. What if I was able to use emotional Allomancy? Would that block me?
So, it's going to interfere a little bit. But the issue with that is, a lot of Allomancy is coming from center and going to head. So, you're probably still gonna be okay with the helmet... So, I'm gonna say, you don't want a lot of aluminum around you, but you could probably still make it work.
So, I noticed in the books that they like to paint their Shardplate, most of them do, with one notable exception. The Shardplate isn't dismissed, so I imagine, when it's broken, they have to repaint it after they've regrown it?
Yeah.
So, if I painted a Shardblade and then dismissed it, would I have used paint in the shape of a Shard to sell?
Uh-- it would come back without the paint.
So, the paint would go away with it, but not come back?
I've never been asked this before, let me think about it. I think the paint would get left behind.
So I would have used paint in the shape of a Shard?
Yeah, you would, yeah.
So, you could mold a Shard?
You could mold a Shard, yeah, you could totally do that. Yeah... I haven't been asked that before but that's my answer right now, because-- yeah.
If the books contradict then the books contradict.
Yeah but I don't think they will. So yeah, you can-- I mean, it could come up.
Is Honor still alive?
Honor? Honor's dead.
What about Tanavast?
So, um, you can assume that there is no funny business going on there.
What's with Kaladin being special with his oaths that he explodes with power every time he says it?
That is a function of Windrunners being very close to Bondsmiths, which has certain effects.
Would other Windrunners also do that, as well?
Yep.
As far as the Oaths go, for Orders of the Knights Radiant that have Oaths that are, like, set, like Windrunners and Bondsmiths, do they have to be spoken in a specific order, or is it just as the--
They have to be spoken in a specific order. But the Oath can vary depending on the individual's own interpretation and feeling about it.
So, spren can just manifest themselves to different people. Can they choose whether or not to manifest themselves to other spren? Does it depend on the kind of spren?
So, depends on the kind of spren. You'll get some hints of that in the third book. Or you probably have already, if you read the preview chapters.
I read the preview chapters, but, like, the way Syl acted, is that, like, something that she's able to hide from them?
She was not able to hide from that spren.
How soon until we found out why Vasher and the sword got split up?
Oh why they got split up. Not this book [Oathbringer]. But soon-ish.
Is there any undiscovered planets in the cosmere?
Yes.
Are you planning on doing more graphic novels, outside of the White Sand series?
Well, there's a couple of things here. Like, we don't want to do another one 'til White Sand is done. They come to us and said, "We wanna do more!" because White Sand sold so well. We're like "No, you finish what you have, then we'll look at doing it." So, we're exploring other options, but we won't start any until what we've started is finished. I really wanna do the story I had for Mistborn, the video game, as a graphic novel with Ben McSweeney.
Any plans for a Mistborn, or just Cosmere, collectible card game?
Um, yes. Asterisk. It's a hard thing to get going. It would probably be more like a deck building game than a CCG, just 'cause we would sell a box set of something you could draft or something like that, rather than trying to go the whole CCG route.
Signed cover art? Print of the cover art?
...Yes, we should be doing that. That's more a Michael [Whelan] question, for the cover art, and a question for the various artists. But for, what we really want to do with the endpages is do, like, a calendar, that's like a Rosharan/18-month-Earth/10-month-Rosharan calendar. We're gonna try that. But they have prints and things, and signed prints, and stuff like that.
Could a Windrunner in Shardplate travel to other planets?
Uh, theoretically possible. Take a long time.
Yes, it would. 'Cause he wouldn't need to breathe, if he's got enough Stormlight.
Yeah, well, I mean, they can control pressure, so. You'd need oxygen scrubbers, but they can also, so... you can create a ball of air around yourself with their power anyway, so--
Was the Trust in [Hero of Ages] a perpendicularity?
So... No. Asterisk.
Does Nightblood annihilate Investiture?
Investiture cannot be created or destroyed. It can only change forms. But, anything more than that is a RAFO.
What would happen if you alloyed a metal with atium and lerasium?
So, you've seen some of that. It would be a further extrapolation on that concept.
Similar to how Lightweavers have, kind of really good memories. Do the Skybreakers have any special abilities for telling guilty and innocent people apart?
No. Good question.
Is Slowswift an Allomancer?
No. Slowswift is a cameo for Grandpa Tolkien.
Is Re-Shephir related at all to the Midnight Essence in Aether of Night?
Yes. It's me, like-- Related in that Aether of Night isn't canon, and I really liked how that worked in the cosmere, and I ported it to this instead. So that's like--
So you're not gonna write Aether of Night?
Aether of Night, I might eventually write, but the Mid--
It may be different?
Yeah.
Someone on the forum I'm on wanted me to ask you about citrus fruits during Vin's time.
Citrus fruits during Vin's time because of the lack of flowers, and things like that? Their fruits were not our fruits. Let's say that.
Were they close to, like, Rosharan, like bulb fruit?
Yeah, there were definitely some bulb fruits. But any actual citruses, I don't think that there were.
You know Hoid's Letter, that's in The Way of Kings? It's given to a dragon, right?
He calls him an old reptile.
Is he immortal?
Functionally, meaning he doesn't age, but he could be killed.
And he's a he, not a she?
It is a he.
I was wondering about the Steel Ministry's stance on sexuality.
If you're paying them, they don't really care.
That sounds like a Steel Ministry thing.
Yup.
Could Lift's food ability be taken by Hemalurgic spike?
Theoretically yes.
Are there any parallels between the fish in the Purelake and the Aviar in Sixth of the Dusk?
Yes.
So you're really good at ending books, especially like post-climax resolution that I feel is always my real weak point. I always find that I tend to write things that end up sounding really, really cheesy. I feel like you have, like, perfected the, like, decent resolution that's not horrifically cheesy. I was wondering if you have like any tips on how to end things properly.
It's all about promises, right, and I've talked about this a lot. Like, what-- remember that the ending, if you've earned it-- Cheesiness is based on whether the reader is on board with you or not-- Cheesiness is not like this intrinsic property of a scene. Cheesiness is, are they on board? Do they want this? Have you done a good job with this? So if you get people on board-- yeah.
Would there be a way that is reasonably feasible to use Aon Tia to teleport off-world?
Theoretically yes.
...Would there be a way to create it where instead of teleporting you directly there, it opens a portal?
We'll go ahead and start RAFOing at this point.
After a highstorm does the Stormfather always appear regardless if someone's watching or not?
Yes
Do Shardblades cut as well as like an ideal wedge in a perfect world or better than that?
I would say better than. Because they can cut the spirit, too. The soul.
How could I be a better beta reader? Because I suck at giving feedback.
It's just practice. And try not to fix things, try to just give your responses to them.
Like how I felt about certain things?
Yeah, you don't have to tell them how to fix it, you just have to say, "I was bored here." "I was not empathizing with this character." "This line was really great." That sort of stuff.
So, you know, on Scadrial, once metal is burned, it returns to the ecosystem, because matter is not created or destroyed. Does color do the same thing on Nalthis?
You're gonna make me try to decide-- does color have, um-- I'll have to think about it...
Where can I find the rules to the game of Michim?
So, probably nowhere. I would have to do some more work.
...I tried really hard to extrapolate the rules.
I know, that's what I'm saying. Probably nowhere, because-- the rules-- we'd have to look in my notes, to see if I even have them in there.
Did you actually invent a game, just to put it in?
Well, enough rules-- I don't know if it would pass playing-rigor.
How can you guess the ones your opponent has hidden if it's a game of skill, not chance? I can't understand!
So, I have to fudge these things, just in case it doesn't actually play, I don't have time to, like, playtest for a year. But we can work on it and see if me can make it work. If you beg at me with an email, we can try that.
Is the [BYU] IT Capstone [project], the Rithmatist game-- where is that in everything?
I went and played it, it was really cool. I don't know what else will happen with it
If you had a bendalloy Hemalurgic spike...
That will be in the Hemalurgic table, which we will be releasing, hopefully, next year.
Does the size-- Let's say you have a really big Aon, and you had it pretty far away from Elantris, does the size of the Aon allow it to be more powerful?
To an extent, yes.
Does the Almighty and the Heralds have anything to do with the bigger cosmere gods and deities?
Yes.
The Heralds, as well?
...Not as much, but a little bit. They do.
Does that mean that the Almighty is able to worldhop as well?
Well, the Almighty is Honor, and he is one of the Shards of Adonalsium, so he didn't originate on Roshar.
I'm wondering how worldhoppers are able to understand languages on different worlds.
So, because I knew I was doing this whole thing, I made it fairly easy to use Connection to start speaking other languages, like you see in the Mistborn books happening. That's a pretty common thing with the various magic systems, one of the easiest things to get going. Some just learn the language. It does happen. But, for instance, Hoid isn't learning the language, which is why you see him making goofs, like when he says "coin" instead of "sphere." Because, like, that doesn't happen really, if you learn the other language. There's not really the word for coin. But the magic is trying to interpret the thing that he says, and it just comes out as a word that's not in their language, really. And you'll see worldhoppers making that mistake. You'll see them using words like "dirt" and stuff like that, and that's just a clue they're using magical means.
So, I had a question about the 16 in Mistborn versus 10 [in Stormlight], there's a big discussion on the 17th Shard about it...
It's more-- It's not random.
... So is there a method to the madness?
There is a method to the madness, but it may not be as important as some people think it is.
So, I'm intrigued by aluminum, especially the fact that it can only be found by Soulcasting on Roshar. So, how was it discovered in the first place?
...Did I say you can only get it through Soulcasting?
In the Shallan flashbacks, she has the pendant.
Don't take what she says at 100% truth.
Is there some relation between Investiture and magnetism? It seems like aluminum is always screwing things up, and that's the first thing that came to mind.
There are slight relationships between them, yes.
Harmonium is ettmetal... Its chemicals properties are sort of analogous to cesium. It explodes in contact with water. People are made out of water. You try to spike someone, you try to swallow it, you try to wear it as jewelry, it will not end well. Why in the world would he pick something so inharmonious?
He didn't pick it. It's unstable because of the two halves of him not meshing well.
So, because the world is flat in Shadesmar, if there's a place where you can't cross, so if a Radiant was on a ship, they'd have trouble getting across, because their spren would be stuck behind that line of discontinuity. Is the Origin of Storms located on that line?
No, good question.
If the Parshendi are listeners, would it be proper to call the Aimians watchers?
There are those who would call them that, but because that is used in the Marvel world so extensively, I would not use it, probably.
Who do you think would win, an atium misting, or Kaladin with Syl?
The atium misting, as long as they have enough atium, is probably got an advantage, but Kaladin can fly. So, I would bet on Kaladin, meaning he flies up high, waits 'til they run out of atium, then gets them.
So, I just had a question about the name Hoid. I've gone through all these [Aons], with the "OID," I know he really cares about how it's spelled. Is there anything you can give me the "O" and the "I" and the "D"? The only ones that have the "O" and the "I" are these two right here. Am I onto anything here, or is that just a coincidence?
No, those are just a coincidence.
*written* What Aviar power does Mraize's green chicken grant?
*written* RAFO!
*spoken* But it is an Aviar, so it does have one.
Could a Parshendi form a bond with an intoxicationspren?
Theoretically possible, yes.
Would it look ugly?
It may not be the best idea they ever had.