Questioner
I loved Firefight... what happens to Houston?
Brandon Sanderson
Oh, what happened to Houston, yeah! *laughter* One of my favorite things is, like, destroying my favorite cities. I do this in my epic fantasy. If you've read The Rithmatist, I turned my hometown in Nebraska into the dark tower that all the evil comes out of. And Chicago, one of my favorite cities, has turned to steel. I just melted Houston. Because it's hot here, it kinda made sense to melt, but yeah. Sorry. *laughter* I apologize for melting you. But, y'know, you-- You probably got out. *laughter* You were smart enough to go "They're all evil. I'm going to go somewhere else." It was all those people from the political party you don't like that melted.
Locke219
How long ago (before Elantris 1) was Elantris built?
Brandon Sanderson
Hundreds of years if not over a thousand years.
Locke219
Can Returned have children? If so, who was the first Returned to do so?
Brandon Sanderson
I'm going to have to RAFO that one because it's a big RAFO question for the world. In-world, it is believed both that they cannot and that they can. Mythology speaks of it happening, yet many Returned by their own experiment have not been able to have children.
Nightfire107
Does the sand storytelling Hoid uses in Warbreaker have anything to do with your future possible trilogy "White Sand" written about in a recent blog?
Brandon Sanderson
No, it does not. This is a storytelling method that Hoid developed on his own. It does have a relationship to The Liar of Partinel.
Joeh42
In Warbreaker, is Clod the Lifeless body of Arsteel? I like this idea because Arsteel would have had some Breaths within him when he died, as this is how Vashir defeated him and Denth, and this could help explain why he seems to be a little more self-aware than most Lifeless. Could you respond to this idea?
Brandon Sanderson
I confirmed in the Warbreaker annotations that Clod is Arsteel.
Clod is more self-aware than most Lifeless. There is something left of Arsteel within Clod. The Breaths that Vasher gave him when he killed him do have an effect on this.
Questioner
Would charcoal do anything?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, charcoal would work but probably not as well as chalk.
Ghero6
In Vahr's case, did collecting Breath from other rebel-minded people strengthen his determination and resolve?
Brandon Sanderson
It would have had an influence on him, but you would need the numbers of Breaths that he had for any effect to manifest. It's basically a non-issue in the current book, but it could be an issue in some of the things that will happen in the next book.
Questioner
What gave you the idea to use chalk in Rithmatist?
Brandon Sanderson
I cant even remember. I was just wanting to play magical Starcraft on the ground and chalk made the most sense.
Questioner
With the chalk *inaudible*
Brandon Sanderson
They do not believe right now, but the study of actual chalk composition is a relatively new science that they have not paid enough attention to.
Ghero6
How unique are individual Breaths? Would collecting 100 Breaths from criminals and scumbags affect your personality in any way? Or collecting 100 Breaths from generous, charitable people?
Brandon Sanderson
I intended them to not be terribly individual. Breaths do bring some things along with them, but for the most part I wanted them to be a step removed from that
Rose Greene
We are all fans of all of Brandon's stuff in our house, but we are particularly taken with Alcatraz. And I'm very alarmed by the publisher description that Shattered Lens is the "fourth and final book." Because the story isn't over yet! End of comas? Altar of encyclopedias? Attica?? Please, PLEASE reassure us that there is indeed another book coming out. Because otherwise we might have to picket Scholastic's offices or something!
Brandon Sanderson
I'd be happy if you would picket—though I say that mostly jokingly. I didn't want them to put that on the book. It's not the last book. But those who know what's happened behind the scenes know that Scholastic and I have not seen eye to eye on how the Alcatraz books have been packaged and distributed.
Questioner
Secret history gave a lot of answers but a lot more questions. Will we get more answers in the next Mistborn book?
Brandon Sanderson
The next Mistborn book will have some answers but not Secret History level answers. It is still mostly focused on Wax and Wayne, Steris and Marasi, and finishing up their stories. By the time we get to third era Mistborn we are gonna start seeing a lot more creep in of some of this stuff. Its really fourth era were gonna see the most. The further we go in the Cosmere the more things will creep in. Mistborn; there be a lot more creeping in than in Way of Kings.
Questioner
Since you have such extensive worldbuilding in your books, and you have that whole connected thing, I was just wondering, do you have a book that you just have all your stuff planned out in, or do you add things as they come up in your stories and build a universe that way?
Brandon Sanderson
Do I have a "world book" to keep everything, or do I add things to my stories and keep track that way? I do a little of both. We have a wiki. I say "we" 'cause I have several assistants now who help me maintain this. It is a personal wiki, you can't go get into it anywhere, and it used to be just a big file, and the file was about a thousand pages long. It used to be a big file, now it's in the wiki. And we spend time-- Every time I-- It doesn't have everything, even the thousand pages don't have everything for the cosmere, it can only barely touch on it, but any time I add something to the books, they add it to the wiki, and periodically I go to the wiki and be Wikipedia Article Guy on the pages, and add what's in my brain onto there.
Dylan Huebner
Would it be effective/efficient to make Awakened machines? That is to say, could one make a crossbow or catapult that fires itself, or a wooden cog that perpetually turns?
Brandon Sanderson
There is a country that does that.
Tyran Amiros
If we ever get it, will we see the dinosaurs (or at least the peteruhdacctil) again?
Brandon Sanderson
Heh heh heh. RAFO.
Tyran Amiros
Also, when is Book 5 coming out?? I want to know how Bastille comes back to life.
Brandon Sanderson
Book 5, I'm going to wait and see what happens with the movie deal. By the way, DreamWorks did not renew their option, so it's back on the market. We'll see what happens. I also want to see what happens with Scholastic. They so far have not asked for a fifth book. If there is no activity by about this time next year, I will look into writing the fifth book and either just releasing an ebook or selling it to Tor or something like that. The fifth book will come.
And by the way, this is from me, Brandon, and not from Alcatraz: The fifth book is the one that includes the altar scene. I'm more trustworthy than Alcatraz is. That scene is in the fifth book.
Questioner
Whats up with Hoid? He's not a Shard. Is he good? Evil? Indifferent? I'm starting to question whats going on with him.
Brandon Sanderson
He has his own unique motivations. There are definitely people who would call him good and definitely people who would call him evil. He was around at the Shattering of Adonalsium but is not a Shardholder or a Vessel for a Shard of Adonalsium.
Tyran Amiros
Why does Bastille say they're speaking Melerandian in book 1 and Nalhallan from book 2 on?
Brandon Sanderson
When I originally wrote Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians, I put that in there partially as a throwaway joke. Melerand is one of the main kingdoms in Dragonsteel, and I thought it would be amusing for them to be speaking that language somehow filtered into this world. By the end of the book I decided that Alcatraz could not be anywhere in the same continuity as Dragonsteel and that I was probably wrong for including that. Though there are other jokes in there relating to my other books—it's much like the scene where Quentin speaks in Spook's dialect. Those were just jokes, inside references to my other books.
Remember that Alcatraz was written as a writing experiment, not as something that I was intending to publish. As the series grew more serious to me, meaning that I developed what I actually wanted to happen—which with me usually happens as I write book two of a series, when I sit down and build an arc for the entire series—I "realified" Alcatraz's world a little bit, if that makes sense, made it its own substantial thing. So at that point it wasn't appropriate for them to be speaking Melerandian anymore.
Questioner
You said earlier... putting back splinters. Was the Oath breaking part of that?
Brandon Sanderson
Oath breaking? Oh, the Oathpact. The abandoning of the Oathpact we will talk a lot more about in the future, so I'm gonna RAFO that for now.
Joeh42
In the Alcatraz series, Alcatraz is very worried about letting down so many people. Is this semi-autobiographical and perhaps speak to your fears of letting down the WoT fans? (maybe it's subconscious!)
Brandon Sanderson
If it is, it's subconscious. Remember, I wrote the first Alcatraz book in 2005, before even Mistborn was published. The only one that I wrote after the Wheel of Time decision was made was book four. The previous ones had been written already. So there probably is a subconscious fear of letting down my readers, but it wouldn't be specifically related to the Wheel of Time in those books.
Questioner
Could Nightblood theoretically be turned into a Hemalurgic spike?
Brandon Sanderson
The problem with that is that Nightblood is already invested, so it depends on your version of ' Hemalurgic spikes'. Piercing someone's body with Invested metal can have weird effects all through the Cosmere, but ripping off a piece of a person's soul using an un-Invested spike to Invest it and create one is different... we're talking about two different things, right. So there's the.... so what is a Hemalurgic spike? For instance if you've got a spike that's Invested and you stick it into a Kandra on Scadrial it will still work as an Invested Hemalurgic spike. Making a new Invested spike by ripping off a person's soul, that's a different process and a little more difficult to accomplish and requires some specialized knowledge.
Questioner
Is there a limit to the size of a Hemalurgic spike?
Brandon Sanderson
Technically no. To be functional yes, but technically no.
Maru Nui
What happens when you break a Hemalurgic spike or metalmind? What happens to that power?
Brandon Sanderson
Hemalurgic power can be split among multiple spikes and reforged, but remember that the longer a spike is outside of a person, the more the power is going to decay. Things like splitting it will decay it even further. Metalminds can also be broken and still be accessed
Maru Nui
Can you both Feruchemically charge and Hemalurgically invest in the same piece of metal?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Maru Nui
What would happen if you burned the Feruchemically charged and Hemalurgically invested metal?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
Maru Nui
What happens when you burn a Hemalurgic spike?
Brandon Sanderson
Burning a Hemalurgic spike would have the effect of splicing your spiritual DNA to that of the person's that is in the spike, which would have some very strange consequences.
Maru Nui
What would an atium-electrum alloy do in Allomancy?
Brandon Sanderson
The alloys of atium have various temporal effects.
Maru Nui
What does aluminum do in Feruchemy? What does malatium do in Hemalurgy?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO. We'll be releasing a chart eventually that includes all of the powers. I don't want to speak until I have everything nailed down exactly the way I want.
Mike Potts
Are any secondary The Way of Kings characters likely to become more major in the next book?
Brandon Sanderson
Jasnah, Navani, and Taln all have expanded parts in the series to come. I won't say specifically in which books, but all three of those characters will have larger roles. Several of the members of Bridge Four have larger roles; they will basically remain secondary characters, but may have expanded viewpoints
Questioner
I heard that in one of your books two people from the actual 17th Shard got married as members of the 17th Shard in your book.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, shes right there. That's Mi'chelle, she's a beta reader. She and her husband met at a signing at a Barnes & Noble of mine. So they met at one of my signings, and they eventually got engaged at my class in BYU so I put their wedding in a book.
Mike Potts
What's the general time line on Stormlight Archive releases? Do you plan any major gaps in the series, or will books 2-10 likely be your main projects for the next few years?
Brandon Sanderson
I wrote a blog post on this back in October.
After I finish A Memory of Light, my major novel publishing schedule will be Stormlight Archive books two years in a row, followed by something else the next year. This pattern should continue until the series is finished. That doesn't count shorter exploratory side projects like Alcatraz or The Rithmatist (formerly called Scribbler), which comes out in 2012. I'll do one or two of those every year when I take a break after finishing a major novel, and not all of them will get polished to publication standards. Those deviations are largely to keep me from burning out.
Questioner
Is the Nightwatcher Cultivation.
Brandon Sanderson
I have not answered that. Have I answered that? I mean, I know I've talked to fans about this before.
Questioner
Its generally kind of inferred.
Questioner
Nightwatcher! Does he or she specifically have any favorites or people that she just likes.
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, Nightwatcher has a personality and is more fond or interested in some people than others.
Oscar816
I saw an interview of you talking about Way of Kings before it came out/before I read it. In the interview you mentioned the ten knights and each book will focus/be about one of the knights. After reading book one I can honestly say, I have no idea which Knight was supposed to be in book one. Is this by design? Or did I miss the point?
Brandon Sanderson
I'm not sure what the question means. Do you mean the Heralds? Or the ten orders of the Knights Radiant? The symbol stamped into the front of the first hardcover represents the Windrunners because of Kaladin's awakening as a Windrunner. Also because of Szeth, but mostly because of Kaladin.
Questioner
Can Kandra blessings be any spikes or just the four.
Brandon Sanderson
They were created specifically to do what they do.
Questioner
So you couldn't have a Kandra with, for instance, Allomantic powers?
Brandon Sanderson
I wouldn't go that far, I will say the Kandra spikes are specifically created to do what they do and the Kandra don't know how to make ones that do other things.
Questioner
I was wondering if the Tranquiline halls, if that's in the spiritual, the physical, or the Cognitive?
Brandon Sanderson
So... that's a big fat RAFO, because that's actually a false dilemma, there are other options than those three. One of which just being that it is a mythological piece from their theology and not an actual location.
Questioner
So it's not an actual place?
Brandon Sanderson
That's a fourth option for the three, does that makes sense? So its a bigger RAFO even than that, it's a RAFO in that I'm not going to confirm that its one of those three. Good question.
Questioner
If you were to make an alloy of atium and lerasium, what would happen.
Brandon Sanderson
You have... and a lot of people have theorized it, I haven't confirmed one hundred per cent yet. You have probably seen one already. You have probably seen it. People think you have seen it already.
Questioner
I want to know if Taravangian, the Ghostbloods, Amaram, is there any kind of like connecting... are they working together or anything like that?
Brandon Sanderson
Taravangian, so the Diagram, the Ghostbloods, is that the two you mentioned? Amaram is Sons of Honor; Amaram and Gavilar are Sons of Honor. These are three different groups who are aware of what is happening and have different philosophies on how to deal with what is coming. They have opposed views, for example, the Sons of Honor are trying to bring back Voidbringers because they believe it will return the heralds as well. Where as the diagram has his plan... y'know, I wont give them away. Some of the are hinted at, you can read. He talks about it, but you can see what he's doing. The Ghostbloods, they have not talked about their motives very much. They have different motives. The Sons of Honor are the easiest to figure out and they are also the most wrong, right. If you read what Taravangian says you can probably see what the Diagram is trying to do.
Questioner
Any chance of any new Wheel of Time materials?
Brandon Sanderson
Not likely... not definitive, it's up to Harriet. I'm worried that he wouldn't want us to do anymore.
Questioner
<Yeah, that's the thing>
Brandon Sanderson
And so, I have told her that I don't think I would want to do anymore, but if Harriet came out and said "I really feel we should do the prequels", then they could happen, I think it's very unlikely, but...
Questioner
The prequels were <written> by Jordan?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, he did, he has a little bit about them, not very much but a little bit. He did want them to come out sometime, so it’s possible.
Dr. T
In plotting an epic like The Way of Kings, to what extent do you outline the whole story? How does that compare with the outline and notes provided by Robert Jordan for the remaining volumes of WoT?
Brandon Sanderson
Robert Jordan and I plot differently. In the notes he tends to talk about scenes that he's working on at the time, whereas I tend to plot out everything, kind of in reverse order. His outlines do end up looking like my outlines in some ways, in that he talks about important moments and I tend to plot backwards, starting from those important moments and moving backward from them. He seemed to be much more of a "I work on this scene because I'm passionate about it" writer, where I am a "I build a framework for the entire book and then start writing" writer.
Questioner
I have a question about Nightblood. What are all the powers the sword has and how much is he going to be involved in the next few books.
Brandon Sanderson
Those are total RAFOs. I mean, I could tell you the powers you have seen him have on screen so far, I'm not going to tell you he has others. What you have seen on-screen that he can do is he absorbs Investiture completely and he will rip it out of any object he touches, and everything has Investiture, leaving behind basically... how you see it is he turns everything he touches into black mist, it just disintegrates everything. He also has the power that people who see him, he has an emotional effect on them, one of several emotional effects depending on how they would want to use him. If you watch for when he is seeing people you will see how it is.
Questioner
All fighting over him.
Brandon Sanderson
That's not the only effect he has though, he has other effects.
Questioner
Does he bestow any effects on his wielder? Like Szeth's original Shardblade gave him the same powers as Kaladin.
Brandon Sanderson
Nightblood... that's a RAFO but Nightblood was created on a different planet, so.
Jemaclus
In The Way of Kings, the [epigraphs] indicate that the year is 1174 (or thereabouts). In the Prelude, the date is indicated as 3000 years ago. What mechanism is used to delineate the epochs? Obviously in the Prelude they wouldn't refer to their date as -2174. In other words, what are the B.C./A.D./BCE equivalents for that series?
Brandon Sanderson
I'm going to have to RAFO that
Andrew B
Was the symbol of the Ghostbloods the same symbol that you used to move between different scenes in The Way of Kings' chapters (the three diamonds in a triangle pattern)?
Brandon Sanderson
The Ghostbloods' symbol has interconnected diamonds. I didn't ask Tor for a specific scene break character; that was a design decision on their part.
Questioner
Why, in your books, are your characters so often, per se -- before they get the powers they become broken first.
Brandon Sanderson
There is a narrative reason and there's an in-world reason. The narrative reason is characters in pain are more interesting to write about. This is just a rule of thumb for writing. Find the person who's in the most trouble, things are going the worst for and that's gonna be generally your easiest character. In the stories, the actual cosmere, the mechanics of the magic finds, this is one way to describe it -- it's not the only way -- may not even be one hundred percent accurate but it's an easy metaphor -- cracks in the soul allow the magic to seep in and that's how you end up with a lot of the different magic systems.
Duiker8
Is the fact that The Way of Kings and rest of the books in the series are going to focus each one on a different character connected in any way to the fact that both The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight focused each one on a pair of characters?
Brandon Sanderson
No, not really. Most of my plans for The Stormlight Archive go back years and years to before I was working on The Wheel of Time. I would say that the The Gathering Storm/Towers of Midnight character split happened because of the book split, less than any real planning on my part. I had the character arcs and decided which ones would fit well together if I was only going to be releasing one batch of them at a time.
So the answer is no, but with the caveat that with the way my mind works, it may have been working in the same way in both cases.
Questioner
So you said that different Investitures from different worlds can fuel different Investitures, right? Would that mean that you could potentially use Stormlight for Allomancy and/or Feruchemy?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, a little harder with the Metallic Arts than, for instance, Nightblood is the easiest example. He can just feed on whatever Investiture is around.
Questioner
Could he feed on the Dor from...
Brandon Sanderson
He could totally feed on the Dor.
Questioner
Would you need to have a special sheath to do that or?
Brandon Sanderson
No, what you would have to do for him on Elantris is you would have to open some conduit to the Dor that's persistent, like a light or something, and he will suck through that, he would probably end up sucking the whole aon.
Questioner
City of Elantris itself?
Brandon Sanderson
City of Elantris itself would work, yeah, but you're gonna be in trouble if he sucks up the whole thing and destroys it, which is totally possible.
Questioner
So is there an opposing force to Adonalsium.
Brandon Sanderson
Good question, which has been asked before and i haven't answered it so I'm going to RAFO you as well.
I think that I have occasionally said 'yes' with the caveat that, obviously somebody opposed him because he was Shattered. I haven't confirmed if there is like a 'Devil' or something like that if that's what you're looking for.
Questioner
*inaudible* with the spren, like, with the *inaudible* would it have infinite ink?
Brandon Sanderson
The way it works in my head canon right now, which I haven't written it so if it changes, no. The other thing is getting complex systems is going to be harder for a lot of Spren. There are legends that reference that they were able to do bows in the past, which includes a string. Everyone is like "but they're not metal, how does that work." Complex structures, even the mechanics of a pen is not something that we have proof that they could even do. If they did do it, they wouldn't have infinite ink, you would fill them up with ink.
Questioner
Could a splintered Shard ever be reunited?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO, good question.
Questioner
Is there any specific relation between Kelsier and Kaladin, and the fact that Kelsier was killed with a spear and Kaladin used a spear. They seem like almost exact opposites.
Brandon Sanderson
Not really an intentional one, though I do intend their personalities to be opposed. I like how they are opposing philosophies as protagonists, but the spear thing is completely coincidental. They are very opposite styles of hero, the big pitch for myself was "Kelsier would the villain if he were in the wrong story." This is a guy where you could easily imagine that this guy could be the antagonist. He gets channeled towards good things and becomes the protagonist. There is no way Kaladin would ever be the antagonist, or if he did it would rip him apart, right. It's not in his nature.
Questioner
If you held out Nightblood in the mists on Scadrial what would happen?
Brandon Sanderson
Nightblood would probably start feeding on the mists on Scadrial.
Questioner
Would it pick up the Shard?
Brandon Sanderson
No, that's not how that works.
Questioner
How many Allomantic metals are there? Does each god have their own set of sixteen and does harmony have his own set of sixteen?
Brandon Sanderson
That is a big ol' RAFO.
