Brandon Sanderson
[Secret Project Three], Yumi [and the Nightmare Painter], is partially written because Emily likes romance books. Cheesy romances. And I don't want to ever be described as cheesy. But I'm like, "Well, I know Emily likes sincere romance stories, and so I'm going to put some more romance stories into the two that I wrote most specifically for you." One and Three have a little bit more romance. Well, not a little bit more; I mean, they are focused around that idea.
Neither of them are romance stories; I wouldn't shelve them in the romance section, even if they weren't sci-fi/fantasy. But they definitely have much more of a romantic subtheme than other things that I've worked on.
Jake 1802
Has writing any of the Secret Projects changed any of the plot points or plans for upcoming Cosmere books?
Brandon Sanderson
Not appreciable, except for: I've been able to expand a few worlds, I've been able to build out some side characters that I'd had in the back of my head. I am sure you will see references to these planets in future books, where you wouldn't have if I hadn't written these, almost assuredly. That's part of it.
And then, Secret Project Four, which you guys don't know much about yet (but you will get to, coming up soon), that does have more Cosmere implications. It's something I've been wanting to do. But once I get a book done, I feel way more confident in... because all the various things that could happen, one of them has solidified into actually happening.
Greyhive 9
In your 2019 State of the Sanderson, you talked about a 35-book plan for the Cosmere, which you acknowledged you need to focus on in order to finish by the age of 74. With your newfound writing capacity, you could: finish sooner, add more Cosmere books (or movies/TV shows), add more projects outside of the Cosmere. Have you pondered this?
Brandon Sanderson
I am unlikely to go faster. But I'm also avoiding adding too many outside-the-Cosmere projects. Let's see if I can balance getting these four [Secret Projects] done and Stormlight Five in a reasonable amount of time, and circle back to me when Stormlight Five is out. But if I'm able to do more of this in the future, I will add some more secret projects, would be what I would do with the extra time.
If I'm able to. I'm gonna be working hard on these for the next foreseeable few years. Most likely, you're not going to be seeing any secret projects from me for quite a while, now.
Brandon Sanderson
This is still in the concepting stage, but for those who've bought into the Year of Sanderson, we've got a reveal for the Cytoverse box, this time. If there are those of you who haven't read that series, there's a race of slugs that we have grown enamored with cute renditions of the slug, because the main character names her pet one Doomslug. Then we ended up having Boomslug, as well, and we've kind of extrapolated form there. So one of the things we're gonna do is, we are going to be doing a set of slug themed Go Fish. We've done playing cards before; we thought it would be fun to have one that would be cool for you to play with your family, instead of just playing cards.
RadiantJPB31
Are there any Easter eggs in any previous Cosmere works that are references to any of these secret projects that we will recognize once we’ve read them? Or were these all brand new ideas added to the Cosmere from where it stood before you started writing them?
Brandon Sanderson
You will find Easter eggs, but they've all been fairly well documented, of aethers appearing. Tress is on a world that involves the aethers tangentially. It's not the main, core aethers. So yes to that.
It's not really Easter eggs... Secret Project Four is something I've been laying groundwork for. But that's different from Easter eggs. When you read Secret Project Four you'll be like, "Oh, this is what he meant by 'he's been laying the groundwork'." It's a story that I've been preparing to tell and that you are prepped to read. That you can read if you haven't read anything else in the Cosmere, but you will enjoy more if you...
In fact, I am actually going to give you a minor spoiler on this. We are going to be putting this probably in the description so it's going to be spoiled for everyone. So even those who don't want spoilers, this is one that we're probably just going to make part of the thing on Thursday. It is Stormlight-adjacent. I warned you that it's one of the books adjacent. We're just going to go ahead and let people know it's Stormlight-adjacent. I think that will factor in to whether people are interested in digging in or not. Because those that haven't read The Stormlight Archive might not read the spoilers on that one, and those who have might read only the spoilers on that one. So it's like, Easter eggs? No. Full-on building toward? Yes.
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is the one that there are no real seeds for. It's just a story that I conceived and decided to write, on a planet that is connected to another one in ways that are interesting, and that don't play into the major Cosmere in large ways.
8giraffe8
You've talked about your experiences in Korea before, so it's neat to see that you're now using Korean and Japanese inspirations for Yumi's and Painter's worlds. Are the names and terms in this story gonna be informed by real-world words or meanings, or are they purely aesthetic?
Brandon Sanderson
They are mostly aesthetic.
Obviously there are going to be some, like I call it a tobok. (the costume that she puts on) "Bok" is Korean for "clothing". When you wear a hanbok it's a Korean traditional clothing. This is a tobok. I'm doing a few things like that. "Nimi" is obviously based, if you know Korean, on "nim" which is the Korean version of "san", the honorific. "Nim" is what you would say in Korean and "nimi" is just straight a ripoff of that. It's me using a word to translate into English a thing that they're doing in-world. You're going to see some more of that.
A lot of the names... Going and saying, "What does this name mean?" is not a thing... I learned my lesson in the first draft of Elantris shall we say, where I based people's names off the meaning of the Aons. And then you just flipped to the appendix and be like, "Oh, I guess this person's a traitor. Who names their son traitor?" The alpha readers caught that one. I'm like, "That is a bad way to do this." And then I named people based on what you would actually name people. And yes, they're based around Aons but it doesn't necessarily mean that it matches their personality. In the same way you could probably break down some of the Korean morphemes--Korean more than Japanese, because I know my Korean better than Japenese-- and be like, "Oh, this is obviously..." Yumi is... "Mi" means "beautiful" in Korean, right? So it's a very common morpheme in a lot of women's names. You could do that, but I'm not doing it intentional to be relevant to the plot. I just am familiar enough with how words and names are constructed that I can go to base sounds and build things in the same way that I built Elend not knowing that "Elend" actually means something in German because I was going back to base Germanic.
Don't read too much into it but you can find some things like that that you'll be able to split.
8giraffe8
Did Virtuosity's Splintering directly or indirectly cause the nightmares to come, 17 centuries ago?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
Joe H
Does Hoid do any sort of investigative research to verify important details of the story he tells?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, he does quite a bit. You can assume that he, again... You're just reading them as they come up. I do think that this is relevant and important. You can assume that this is canon. That he has done his leg work and that he is telling a story the best that he can, which is better than any normal storyteller could.
MistbornTaylor
Is Hoid still in a relationship with you-know-who [Jasnah]?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
Adam Horne
What is the name of this system, and the two planets in the system?
Brandon Sanderson
Isaac has that somewhere. I'm not going to canonize it until Isaac... Next stream we can have Isaac do that because I talk to him about it before I pick these things. So yeah, we've got that somewhere. Well, we'll talk about it. I won't promise it next stream. We'll see if we will.
Rshara
Is Hoid telling these stories accurately?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah. As accurately as superhumanly possible.
Questioner
Is Virtuosity the Shard Hoid turned down? Could it have become something different if he were the one who took it?
Brandon Sanderson
It could have become something different slightly. But if he had taken it it would have remained as Virtuosity. The Vessel does have some influence over— That is a very good guess. I'm not going to tell you yes or no, I'm just going to tell you you made a very good guess.
yoontruyi
Is the magic system being used end-neutral? It appears to be using their Identity to fuel it? Or is that just other magic shenanigans going on causing that kind of effect? (making them grow tired, losing themselves, etc.)
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO. The book will answer some of this but not all of it.
World Hoppers Podcast
What synonyms did you go through before choosing Virtuosity as the new shard?
Brandon Sanderson
Artistry was the only big one. I did shoot it to the company, and people shot back some suggestions otherwise, but everybody agreed that those two were the best options and I picked the one that I liked the most.
Jose Flores
Will [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter] give us most of Virtuosity's story or will it come in a future book?
Brandon Sanderson
It will come in a future book.
8giraffe8
When Hoid says the nightmares descended on Painter's planet 17 centuries ago, has he converted that for the general cosmere audience. (like how he just called Painter 19 years old)
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. He has converted it. Yes, in the same way that he says "we'll call him 19," yeah. You can assume that I'm doing that for most stories, or that Hoid is for the stories he's telling, with some exceptions. We don't do it on Roshar for instance.
Chrondeath
Is Design's noodle shop still in business at the time Hoid is telling [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter], under new management or otherwise?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
Nomi Sunrider
Do the people on Painter's planet have weird biological quirks due to living in the dark so long?
Brandon Sanderson
I am sidestepping this by use of the hion. For the most part, they are not going to deal well with sunburns. Not a lot of that going on. But at the same time, this has been going on a short enough time evolutionary wise that the adaptations would be very slight. You don't see a whole ton of that happening in the centuries that they have been living like this.
Flameg
If you were to drop a rock band and 300 of their most devoted followers onto Yumi's planet, and they performed a set that blew their fans' minds, would the spirits show up to watch?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Flameg
Does whether or not they know about the planet's magic system change the answer?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. It changes the potency of what they're doing.
natetcu
Are we going to find...
Adam Horne
Can they deduce who Hoid is telling the story to in [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]?
Brandon Sanderson
I don't really think that you can. There's some contextual clues but there is room for debate and so it's not going to be-- As Robert Jordan put it, he would always say "it will be intuitively obvious to the casual observer." It will not be. Don't spend the whole book distracted by trying to figure that out. I will recommend that you will enjoy the story better if you just enjoy the story. And then when you look back, "I wonder what this means? I wonder what that means?" But it's not a puzzle I'm building for you to figure it out.
Jeff S
Are hion televisions black and white, full color, only cyan and magenta, or something else?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
VeryNiceName16
Is this Hoid recording a podcast? He kind of seems to be talking to people on several planets at the same time.
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
eric-d-culver
What would happen if you stuck Nightblood into the shroud?
Brandon Sanderson
Nightblood would feed upon the Investiture as he is wont to do.
MistbornTaylor
If your burned tin could you see through the shroud?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
the_inner_void
So they have the spirit-powered flyers which would probably have better control, but does anyone ever unchain their tree and ride it as a hovercar when they're short on spirit flyers? How much weight can the trees support without touching the ground?
Brandon Sanderson
I actually will get into this in the book, so I will RAFO that. Do be aware that I am aware... Hoid may have warned you. If he didn't, it's not just thermals that are making the trees fly. I think that's probably pretty obvious, but just in case, it's not.
Revengeadaseth
Hoid refers to himself as a “renowned interdimensional storyteller”. Does this word “interdimensional” refer to traveling between the Physical and Cognitive Realms, or does it mean something more?
Brandon Sanderson
Nope, that's what it means. Well, and Spiritual on occasions. He is not referencing moving through time, and there is no multiverse in the Cosmere. Good to ask that so I can reinforce it. No time travel to the past. No multiverse. These are two of my big nonos in the Cosmere
Lumi 21
What is your favorite question that you had to RAFO at the time that has since been answered? Which current RAFO are you most excited for readers to find in the future?
Brandon Sanderson
I can tell you that RAFO-ing about Secret Projects and things and then eventually knowing I was gonna reveal these to everyone was a lot of fun. RAFO-ing, I have to be careful; I don't know if they're official RAFOs. 'Cause usually, when I put out teases about these, I didn't even tease these ones; I was teasing other secret projects, Kingmaker or the as-of-yet-not-announced/revealed 200,000 word secret project that I will someday maybe write. But knowing that I would be able to tell you guys eventually about this was really fun.
And, of course, there have been a whole lot of RAFOs around Stormlight Five's ending, and I am in the thick of working on that now, and it's very fun to imagine you all getting some of these things.
SleepoPeepo
Both Painter’s and Yumi’s magics involve transforming spiritual entities into other objects and shapes. Are they using the same basic system as one another, just in different applications? And, is there a connection between between these arts and trapping spren in fabrials?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes and yes.
amurgiceblade44
Can Yumi's magic work on Splinters other then Torio's spirits and is nightmare painting an Invested Art along the lines of Allomancy or sand mastery?
Brandon Sanderson
We've covered the painters one. Let's just RAFO Yumi. You will find out more in the book.
Elsecaller_17-5
Is the "Survival Shard" one of the newly introduced Shards. Namely Virtuosity, Mercy, Invention, Valor, or Whismy?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
Miss Silver
Can we have Design's recipe for ramen noodles down to the exact grains of salt and herbs used?
Brandon Sanderson
Well we'll have to ask the person who's making the cosmere cookbook some day to figure that out because yes she does like to count the grains of salt. It's the sort of thing you do when you're a Cryptic.
Miss Silver
Did Hoid give her the recipe or did she make it up herself? Who taste tested it?
Brandon Sanderson
She made it up herself, and she tried it on poor unfortunate people that were offered free food.
LettersWords
You mentioned that [Tress of the Emerald Sea] won't reveal the person that Hoid is telling the story [to] within the text. Is the same true about [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. Same is true. You can pick up from implications some of what's going on but there is no epilogue where you're chatting with the person or people or whatever that are listening to these things. I contemplated putting one in, and then I decided against it.
Rshara
Was Hoid frozen as a coat rack during the events of [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]? Was he frozen like that because he was in a time dilation bubble? If not, why?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
Rshara
Was Virtuosity the Shard that wanted to survive? Did they Splinter the Shard and live on as a Sliver for that reason?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
alercah
Before he got frozen, did Hoid come to Painter's planet just for the ramen?
Brandon Sanderson
*laughts* Knowing that ramen existed was probably a push in that direction. Hoid is quite the ramen fan for those who don't know. So yeah. He actually came to investigate other things, but ramen is a good bonus for coming to visit Painter's world.
alercah
When Hoid says that Virtuosity Splintered herself, does that mean "left a lot of Investiture lying around" or full-on "the Shard is no more" Splintering?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
HeatHazeDaze524
The nightmares are described as being a black, dripping ink-like substance, evaporating to smoke before disappearing. I can think of a certain talking sword that shares very similar characteristics. Is this merely a coincidence, or something we should be reading into?
Brandon Sanderson
That is not a coincidence, but I'm not sure how far you can read into it. That is not a coincidence.
Rshara
Is Painter's planet tidally locked so his side is always dark, or is the darkness due to the shroud?
Brandon Sanderson
His darkness is due to the shroud, but there there's also some RAFO material in there at the same time. The shroud is a legitimate thing preventing light from reaching him.
eric-d-culver
How would a nightmare react to silver?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO
asmodeus
By the time of [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter], it has been more than 10,000 years since the Shattering. In this story, there is an implication that Virtuosity Splintered herself 1700 years ago. Can you tell us something about what she was doing in between?
Brandon Sanderson
In between?
Adam Horne
The 10,000 years since the Shattering and her...
Brandon Sanderson
Until then? Virtuosity was exploring the artistic expressions of the cosmere. And choosing not to settle in one location--something that Virtuosity was not keen on doing. Not for too long at least.
asmodeus
The nightmares seem a lot like Midnight Essence, and there's a lot of focus on art and transformation in both those magics. Is it relevant that the colors of the hion are reminiscent of the colors of Lightweavers and Elsecallers (the orders with Transformation)?
Brandon Sanderson
That was not done intentionally. The fact that they act like Midnight Essence was done intentionally. You will see me playing with similar things just like Lightweaving works on different planets with things like this. For instance, Midnight Essence... you're going to see pop up now and then. But I did not specifically choose the colors of the hion because they are similar to the Lightweaving orders of Knights Radiant.
Talendas
Could you nahel bond a nightmare?
Brandon Sanderson
Theoretically possible.
NeonBorealis
Could a Lightweaver with a Shard-Paintbrush trap a nightmare? And how proficient would Lightweavers be with these art oriented magic systems?
Brandon Sanderson
Lightweavers would be pretty darn good at this.
Let's RAFO whether you can make a Shard-Paintbrush.
learhpa
Could the painting mechanism Painter uses to trap nightmares be used to trap other things in the cosmere? A spren, perhaps, or a seon? How about a fused?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, but he does not have any extra power to do this. So for instance, someone from another planet doing what he does would have the same effect on one of those mentioned. Someone from another planet who traveled to his planet who was as talented as him and learned the methodology of him would have the same abilities over the nightmares that he has.
MadnessLemon
Were Hoid's eyes open when he was spray painted copper?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
ArgentSun
The way Painter transforms nightmares into other things is reminiscent of the way spren are affected by perception - only much more extreme. Is perception (and the way the world is set up) the only important factor here, or is Painter using Investiture too somehow?
Brandon Sanderson
What's going on here is not Painter using Investiture really. It's the fact that the nightmares have less control over them from another source. Spren have an oversight from Honor, Cultivation, and Odium, and this is kind of leaving them less at the whims of other people's perception. The nightmares do not have that. I'm not going to say they don't have it at all, but Painter is not using Investiture, but the nightmares are specifically more susceptible to what's going on. So for instance, a good way to answer this is if he went and did this for a spren he would not have the same level of power.
PokemonTom09
Hoid offhandedly mentions "fay" as an example of self-aware Investiture similar to hijo and seons. Are these related to the fainlife from Dragonsteel? Also, how similar are they to traditional fae from fairy tales?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO. I put that one knowing that you guys would cock your head. I didn't know that that would inspire multiple questions in the livestream
SleepoPeepo
How is Hoid able to talk about events that he wasn’t present for in such great detail, including a person’s internal thoughts and emotions?
Brandon Sanderson
A combination of things. One, he was there for some of it. Two, in some cases he was there kind of. And in other cases, artistic liberty.
He is, particularly in [Tress of the Emerald Sea], taking some artistic liberties. Now you can assume he has tried very hard to get his stories right when he is taking artistic liberties to the point that you can take most of it as canon, even in Tress. Did I get to the point in Tress about the Dougs? I don't think I did. There's a point, for instance, in Tress where Hoid's like, "I can't remember all these people's names. I'm going to all them all Doug." He does things like that--him acknowledging that he's telling the story after the fact. But he has a supernatural ability to retain stories and get close to the actual soul of the story. You may view all of these things as canon except for some of the places where he obviously fudges a little.
Daniel Greene
And is this [Secret Project Two] targeted towards a more YA audience? General? Or does it not really have an audience?
Brandon Sanderson
General audience. This is general audience. I kind of pitched it to my fans; it's kind of, I'm doing the "when he first arrives in the past and he doesn't remember how he got there," I'm kind of playing with the Jason Bourne style plot. But it's like Jason Bourne mixed with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mixed with Timeline by Michael Crichton and just a little bit of Harry Dresden.
