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Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Nine

A very short Sazed chapter. Mostly, this was just here because I had to remind the readers that Sazed was doing things. Getting to the Conventical is going to take enough time that, if I hadn't thrown in a small chapter like this, you would have gone a long time without seeing Sazed.

The things he mulls over here, then, are reinforcement of his character and his conflicts. It's also helping establish Marsh. Not because of what is said, but simply because you see them both again, and are therefore reminded of the things I talked about last time I was with him.

I wrote Mistborn One mostly chronologically, regardless of viewpoint. I did that with this book for the most part too, but I did write a lot of these Sazed chapters together, in bulk, so that I could keep the tone and voice right. I knew how many chapters from his viewpoint I needed, and I knew where they had to go, so I divided up what needed to happen and went from there.

Brandon Sanderson

Metal vials. People may wonder why Allomancers use them. Why ingest only small bits of metal, which could run out on you? There are a couple of reasons for this.

First off, you don't want to eat too much metal because, simply put, it's poisonous. Kelsier talks a little bit about this in book one, and it's given token nods from characters throughout the series. I don't do a whole lot with it–dying from metal poisoning isn't the type of extended disease you tend to deal with in a novel that only covers a few months time, like this one.

The second reason for metal vials is more simple. Allomancers with the right powers can Push or Pull on sources of metal–the larger the metal source, the harder the Allomancer can Push on it. So, little flakes of metal make a terrible Anchor, and so if you're caught wearing your vials, you aren't giving much of an advantage to your enemies.

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Eight

So, Moshe and I BOTH worried about the fact that we've got two shadow mysterious figures showing up at the beginning of this book. Part of the problem is the rewrite, which mashed things together at the beginning of the novel, increasing the speed–but then melding things together as well. Originally, the mist spirit showed up before the Watcher. Now they both are introduced in the same chapter, which happens to be the second chapter.

That makes me worry about overlap and confusion, but we decided there was nothing to be done about it. As the story progresses, hopefully they'll be differentiated enough in the reader's head to keep them straight. (It doesn't help that I have creatures in this world known as mistwraiths, which are different from either the Watcher or the mist spirit. Sigh.)

Brandon Sanderson

Conventical is Moshe's word, by the way. I’d originally called it the Covenant of Seran. However, not only did the Halo games decide to make good use of the word Covenant, but my editor found it somewhat inaccurate. So, he suggested Conventical–which I liked immediately. It's a real word, though I think I spell it differently, which refers to a meeting of high level church officials. The term fits with the Steel Ministry, which doesn't have priests, but instead has Obligators and doesn't have a Priesthood, but instead a Ministry. Everything's pseudo-religious, instead of being directly "on" religious.

Brandon Sanderson

Marsh was a tricky one to write in this book. Everybody loves him, for some reason, and they were really happy I didn't make him a bad guy at the end of book one. The more I put him into book two, the more readers tended to like him there as well.

However, I've got enough characters in this book that I couldn't really focus on Marsh as much as I would have needed to, so I backed off on him. You'll see some of him in the next few chapters, but then he fades into the background. Simple reasoning is that the book was long enough, even in the planning stages, that I knew I couldn't tackle Marsh and what was going on with him. Not yet, at least.

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seven

Here's where we start to get some of our first real hints of the dominating plotline that will overshadow these two books: The Lord Ruler is dead. What in the world have we gotten ourselves into?

As I mentioned in the previous Sazed annotation, I really like his scenes for the conflict represented in them. He is a rebel, but he feels so bad for it. It's always nice when you can make a character feel some very real turmoil for doing the RIGHT thing.

We will go a lot more into Sazed's character, and how he is regarded by the other Terrismen, in future chapters.

Brandon Sanderson

This fight scene is, in my opinion, a lot more fun that the previous one. It's what I want–quick, dramatic, and shows off character by the way that the various people approach the fight.

I probably should have cut this scene, honestly. The book is a little too long. It's 250,000 words, where both Elantris and Mistborn 1 are around 200,000. I worried about this, particularly since the original Well of Ascension was only around 235,000, but we added 15,000 through editing to make the pacing work.

Regardless, when this beast got in, the people at Tor (the typesetters and the like) immediately raised a warning flag. However, some of the things they said surprised us. They said that the hardback for Mistborn 2, by their counts, was going to be over 700 pages long! Well, I knew that the book was a bit longer, but Mistborn 1 was under 500, so they were claiming it was around 40% bigger–and unpublishable.

My editor went to bat, claiming that 1) It was only really about 20% bigger and 2) That didn't matter, because the book was the right length–it worked well, and was paced well, and that he didn't want to cut it. We caused a big mess of various people arguing, and then finally the people down in production called up and said they'd done a re-assessment, and that the book would be around 560 pages or so. Very doable.

I don't know where those extra 140 pages went. If you find them, let me know. . .

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Six

So, here's a little of the jovial friendship that I mentioned in the last annotation. One of the things I like about these books IS the way that the characters can get along and relax. It's a bit tougher to pull off in this book–with Kelsier gone, and with everything falling apart–but it's still there, where I can squeeze it in.

Spook is a character I groomed through the first book to do more than you might originally expected from him. He doesn't really come to his own for some time yet, but you should be able to see changes start to appear in him–subtly, of course. You'll see a lot more from him later on in the series.

Brandon Sanderson

I worry just a tad about the light-hearted feel of the end of the chapter here. Originally, this scene was in the book BEFORE the army showed up to attack. In the original draft I showed Elend and company living (and fighting off assassins) without knowing that an army was bearing down on them. Moving the army so that it began the book on the horizon was the major pacing change I made that sped up the book, and increased the tension.

However, we missed a few of the more light scenes–like the upcoming sparring–and I didn't want to cut them because they were so indicative of character. I decided to leave them in. Kelsier's crew is accustomed to dealing with stress and remaining jovial. The only change I really had to make was in the Elend viewpoints, which you will see in the next chapter. Still, I hope the tone isn't off–that's a real worry when you transplant scenes from a previous draft, as opposed to writing them new when you change as much as I did at the beginning here.

Brandon Sanderson

Elend comparing himself to Kelsier is a kind of theme for him in this book. I wanted Kelsier to leave a long, long shadow over these next two books.

A lot of people couldn't believe that I killed Kelsier, since he was such a ball of charisma, and the driving force for the first book. (A lot of others CAN believe it, but are rather annoyed at me for doing it.) However, I happen to like this book specifically because of Kelsier's absence.

He overshadowed everything when he was alive. Elend could never have developed as a character–and even Sazed and Vin would have had trouble–as long as Kelsier was there dominating everything. He was a character at the end of his arc–while the others are still only just beginning. It's so much more interesting if they have to do things without him.

Just part of Kelsier's arrogance, I guess. Both as a character in the book, and externally to it. He dominated so much that he had to go.

Brandon Sanderson

If you paid any sort of attention during the last book, you were probably expecting a new metal or two to show up in this book. I dropped a lot of hints that there were other metals.

It was a little bit of a stretch to let there be metals that, despite the thousand-year history of Allomancy, weren't known. However, I rely on the fact that the Lord Ruler had informational control over the society. There are A LOT of things that he knew that aren't known to a lot of people.

Duralumin is a real alloy from our world, commonly made from aluminum. Actually, a lot of things we call aluminum–particularly industrial aluminum–is actually duralumin. Aluminum, pre-electrolysis, was really tough to get. It's said that Napoleon had a set of aluminum plates that were more valuable than his gold or platinum ones.

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Five

One of my writing groups had an intense reaction against Vin killing the dog in this scene. I'm not sure, still, WHY they got so upset–but they really didn't like it that she killed a dog "in cold blood" as they put it.

So, her little "I'm sorry about this" in her head is there for them. At least now they know she kind of wishes she didn't have to do it.

That dog had it coming, though.

Brandon Sanderson

My favorite plotting mechanic of the Sazed chapters, particularly these early ones, is the fact that the peasants don't really care about what he wants to teach them. The Keepers were a very important element from the first book–people who had worked so hard to memorize the things of the past and keep them safe for the day when the Lord Ruler died. This is, in part, a nod to Fahrenheit 451.

However, there's also a bit of an arrogance to that organization. They have the truth, they keep the truth for everyone else, and they are the ones who will bring it gloriously back to the people. Supposedly.

I wanted, in this book, that glorious return to be underwhelming for the Keepers. A group of scholars wouldn't, I think, even have considered that nobody would CARE about the things they researched and memorized. Their battle is far from over. I think that convincing the people to learn is much more difficult a task than memorizing the information in the first place.

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Four

Sazed was many people's favorite character in the first book. I knew pretty early on in the writing process of that book that Sazed would become a major force in the novel. In fact, he was one of the very first characters I outlined and built in my head. Who he is, and what he stands for, is quite integral to the plot arc of the entire series.

So, knowing that, you probably aren't surprised to see him become a major viewpoint character in this book. I loved writing his chapters. The way he sees the world–always trying to look from other people's viewpoints, always trying to understand others and give them the benefit of the doubt–makes him very dear to me. He is pleasant to write about, and his inner turmoil (we'll talk more about that later) is so much more painful because of how basically a nice person he is.

Brandon Sanderson

I just really like Elend and Vin's relationship. It's one that really shouldn't work, but for some reason, they just get along so well in my head. I doubt that they could explain it either–but the two fit together in a very strange, "opposites meet" kind of way. They actually have a lot more chemistry, for me, than Sarene and Raoden–though those two are far better matched for each other. Maybe that's because the frustration and confusion Elend feels seems very realistic to me. He never really does know what Vin is feeling, even though her emotions are so blunt and simple when we're in her viewpoint.

Brandon Sanderson

The second half of this chapter, where Vin and Elend are chatting, is where the book finally starts to feel "good" to me. I'm mostly past the exposition reminding you of what happened in Book One, and I can get into more "showing" of character rather than reminding of past events.

I could have, perhaps, done something different with these reminders. I could have told you less, and let you remember on your own. Or, I could have worked the reminders in more delicately. However, the former would have left some people confused, and the later would have taken many more pages. I eventually took the easier, and time-tested, route of reminder exposition. We'll see if people like this or not, but it really did seem like the best way in this novel. (Interestingly, there's a thread about this on my forums right now.)

Brandon Sanderson

There were a couple of interesting edits that I made to this chapter. First off, Elend's proposal to the Assembly. It was a major point of revision in the book.

One of the biggest problems the novel had in the first draft was that readers weren't getting the right idea for the theme and plot of the novel. In early drafts, Vin's worries about the Deepness and the Lord Ruler's final words came before Straff's army arrived. So, readers were surprised when the middle of the novel spent so much time on politics and war. They wanted to learn more about the Well of Ascension. (Which IS important, but not as present–particularly at the beginning–as the rest of the plot.)

So, the revisions. I wanted to make the army a much more PRESENT in the narrative. Originally, Elend's proposal to the Assembly was about something unrelated. (Disaster relief for farmers.) I wanted to show him caring for his people. However, in revision, I realized I needed to focus more. So, now that proposal deals with the army, and is a thread that continues through the next few chapters.

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Three

Well, there you go. That chapter (with a big chunk of two) was originally the first chapter of the book. Oddly, moving it back made the book move more quickly, for me at least. It's strange how you can sometimes speed up a novel by ADDING material.

Speed in books, however, has little to do with how long the book actually is, and everything to do with how captivated the reader is.

Brandon Sanderson

Also, thanks to my writing group for the Soundsticks suggestion. They probably don't remember it–it's been years since one of them suggested it (I think Nate H. was the one who actually said it) and I thought it was a great idea. This is a perfect way to deal with a Mistborn–they're going to have enhanced senses, so you play off of that and make them pay. I love this, since I talk so much about balance and use of force in Allomancy. Actions and reactions. I wanted this magic to feel very Newtonian.

Brandon Sanderson

Moshe wanted me to cut this chapter further, but admitted that there wasn't really any way to do it. I hope it's fun to see old characters–such as OreSeur–coming back to us in different forms, having changed a bit during the time between books.

Brandon Sanderson

So, this is what I wanted to have in chapter one (see the last annotation.) Reading it again, I can see–yet again–why that was a bad instinct. It's much better here, in chapter two. I still feel that it's a tad long. I cut it down significantly (if you can believe that.) I worry that pacing wise, we spend too long in a fight for this early in the book. However, some of the things I get across in this battle are invaluable for the rest of the story. I introduce the Watcher, and I get rid of Vin's atium–thereby compounding the large danger of the kingdom being at war with the more personal danger of Vin being stalked while she's exposed without any atium.

We'll get to a third level of danger–that of something threatening the entire world–later on.

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Two

Allomantic fights are fun.

I'll admit it. I LIKE to write things that are fun. I'm an entertainer–and that is what my stories try to do. I think there's great value in that.

That said, I think this might be my least favorite fight in the book. You may remember that I said the same thing about the first battle in book one (that's the fight where Kelsier takes on the Hazekillers in Keep Venture.) Getting the mechanics of Allomancy down, showing things step by step, takes longer, and lacks a bit of finesse. I hope this fight was still enjoyable, but it was far too step-by-step to be really great, in my opinion.

The fights I really like are the ones where there is a beauty–a sense of grace and poetry–to the fight itself. The one at Keep Hasting later in this book is a much better example off that.

Lauren (PallonianFire's fiancée) (paraphrased)

Are odiumspren the only spren who live on Braize?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Only odiumspren are welcome on Braize, but they're different from anything we've seen so far.

Lauren (PallonianFire's fiancée) (paraphrased)

Does Damnation exist in all three Realms?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, all three.

Lauren (PallonianFire's fiancée) (paraphrased)

What kind of spren is Ivory?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Inkspren.

Nashan'Elin (paraphrased)

Szeth refers to Nightblood as sword-nimi. What is the -nimi ending? 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It is an honorific.

Nashan'Elin (paraphrased)

And why does he call it "sword", and not by its name?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It has not told him its name.

Nashan'Elin (paraphrased)

Does Lift see Wyndle a different way than another Edgedancer would see their spren?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, but only slightly. She sees a longer vine, and slightly more, but it's not a big difference.

PallonianFire (paraphrased)

What was the name of Ambition's Vessel?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO.

PallonianFire

Was Bavadin nonhuman?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. There is at least one Shard who wasn't human, but I'm not ready to reveal who was or wasn't just yet.

PallonianFire

If a Shard were to divest itself from a planet, would the perpendicularity there disappear?

Brandon Sanderson

Normally the Shardpool would cease to exist, but there are circumstances that could prevent the Shardpool from disappearing.

PallonianFire

What does the Red Rip look like in the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

So this is a RAFO, in part because I haven't revealed if there are any planets out there.

PallonianFire

Were the planets in the Threnodite System named like that in response to Ambition's demise? 

Brandon Sanderson

It is not a coincidence that so many of the planets have to do with songs of mourning or passing, in that system. So, you are on to something.

Xyrd (paraphrased)

You've mentioned before that Hoid ends up where he needs to be.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, and usually without knowing why.

Xyrd (paraphrased)

Is chromium involved in that?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. Well, he's not necessarily using chromium, but the underlying mechanic, yes.

Xyrd (paraphrased)

Was Leras bonded to a being in the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You mean like a Nahel bond?

Xyrd (paraphrased)

Yes, or a similar mechanism.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Well, you have to remember that Shards interact with the realms in a different way, so...

Xyrd (paraphrased)

Well, I more mean before Leras became a Vessel.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Anything before then is RAFO.

Xyrd (paraphrased)

During the events of Stormlight Archive, is Yolen still populated?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes... yes, I would say so since a letter is written to somebody on Yolen.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Can Investiture be used to go faster than the speed of light?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, in many different ways, some much easier than others.

PallonianFire (paraphrased)

Could only Lift see Szeth's afterimages?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Anyone sufficiently Invested can see them. Connection to the Cognitive Realm helps, too  

PallonianFire (paraphrased)

Is Nalan using his original Honorblade, or did he bond a spren?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He's using his original Honorblade. But there's an asterisk here that will come up in Oathbringer. 

Dirigible (paraphrased)

Did Demoux achieve immortality by manipulating his Connection age?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Demoux uses the same method as most of the Seventeenth Shard. That method slows aging by a lot, but doesn't stop it completely.

Dirigible (paraphrased)

If you were on Roshar, and tapped Connection, would you be unable to use Scadrial magic?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No, but that's a good question. You would not be able to use Selish magic though, because that is dependent on location.

Dirigible (paraphrased)

If Shai had a gold shadow, and she used one of her Essence Stamps, would her gold shadow change to reflect her new self?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, because she is changing her soul so the gold shadow changes.

Dirigible (paraphrased)

If you tapped blank Identity in an area, would you develop the area's accent?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's part of what you need. You need to both blank your Identity and tap Connection to get the accent.

Dirigible (paraphrased)

Are the Svrakiss cognitive shadows?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO. But you expected that.

Dirigible (paraphrased)

Is ReLuur's spike made of Atium?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO. You get a card though. It's not that big of a spoiler, but the answer would bring up questions that are.

Lauren (PallonianFire's fiancée) (paraphrased)

Does Silverlight exist solely in the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

If Kelsier created a metal while holding Preservation that it would have acted the same as lerasium, though over time the properties of it might shift.

CCQ

You said that Ryshadium experience sentience through a spren. But I just didn't understand how that's possible. Most of them are through tension, gravitation, *inaudible*... nothing Cognitive.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, yes, yes. So all-- so non-sapient creatures that get Invested in don't gain powers until they gain *inaudible*.

CCQ

How does that fit into the larger picture?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, how does that fit? It's mostly-- you can start seeing that-- things that forces are adapting to the Roshar ecology. Does that make sense? Because a lot of Rosharan-- other creatures-- have bonds with spren. Very common. And so--

CCQ

I know. I noticed the chasmfiend *inaudible*, whatever you want to call it.  I don't know how that works.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll see the next book kind of explores it a little bit. But yes... but yeah. I'm just going to leave it at that.

Mason Wheeler (paraphrased)

What do you call it when a Faceless Immortal says two things that can't both be true?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Uhh... I dunno. What?

Mason Wheeler (paraphrased)

A kandra-diction.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

*grinning* Oh yeah? Well, how do you know, when a Radiant shows up at your holiday party, that he'll be well-dressed?

Mason Wheeler (paraphrased)

Umm... no idea.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Because he's in-vest-ed.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The back five Stormlight Archive books are still planned to be the same five characters, but when he gets to those books he reserves the right to change them.

Pagerunner (paraphrased)

Ambition, the Shard *inaudible*. Is that the one you previously referred to as not on a planet?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Ambition would fulfill that requirement, but that's not the one I was referring to.