Recent entries

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12652 Copy

    Questioner

    We've got Kaladin's name meaning, do we have Shallan's?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Shallan is-- Her name comes from Shalash, the herald, so it's kind of like naming somebody Christian in a lot of ways. Or naming someone Michael, though Michael has a meaning. Shalash does too but it's so old-- Like-- Yes, it will have a meaning but really what you need to know is "she is named after the Herald Shalash", right? But I'm sure we can dig out what the meaning is because it does have a meaning... I mean Kaladin's has a meaning even though he's named after Kalak.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12653 Copy

    Questioner

    I do have one question that I have no idea if you'll answer. Aronack?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. Wow, you're going way back.

    Questioner

    Well it gets worse, I noticed the name both in Dragonsteel [Prime] and in some chapters from Liar of Partinel--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Questioner

    Was that a cannibalization? Or is that two separate appearances?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So Liar of Partinel was a re-envisioning of... Dragonsteel and so there were certain things I was changing but that's not one of them. That's the same person.

    Questioner

    So was that story arc just-- Okay it's just the same thing?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12654 Copy

    Questioner

    How has the process of portraying women changed from Elantris to the more recent books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Portraying women? A couple of things. I would say the primary one is just getting better at characterization all around. And the other one has been kind of this-- *sighs* struggle to figure out how to make every female character's conflict be about her role-- Not just her relationships, that one's not as big a deal because-- I mean if you look at the male characters, they all have relationship issues too, right? But it's more like fighting against-- Like if every woman is fighting against society's expectations of her that becomes a cliche very quickly and there are plenty of people, of both genders who are fighting against society's expectations but people of both genders are like "This is my society, I'm part of this" it's not fighting against it it's "finding my place". It's very difficult though when you are writing characters in states of conflict. So, I don't know.

    Questioner

    I read Shadows of Self and Elantris back-to-back, and that was really interesting to see the differences between the first published and most recent published.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right, yeah. Those books will have some very big differences.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12655 Copy

    Questioner

    How did people-- So apparently Zahel... who is teaching Kaladin Shardblade stuff... He's Warbreaker?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He is Warbreaker.

    Questioner

    How did people figure that out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The color metaphors. He displays BioChromatic Breath. It's not that great because I didn't put a lot of color metaphors into the book, even though I wish I had, I've gotten better about adding flavor to books. But really he notices when Kaladin is coming to knock on his door before Kaladin gets there. That's one of the big clues that people got.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12657 Copy

    Questioner

    Are you considering doing and more digital versions with the annotations kind of baked in, similar to Warbreaker?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'd have to write more annotations for it to really be relevant and the time do that has just vanished on me. So maybe we'll get the original Mistborn trilogy done that way. But I'm less certain I will ever get any more annotations written.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12658 Copy

    Seonid

    I noticed that you-- Was that a retcon on the way iron Feruchemy works?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What do you mean?

    Seonid

    There's a researcher who talks to Wax, asking him about whether he's changing his mass of whether he's changing whether the planet perceives him-- affecting his gravity.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right. It's more a re-- Defining something I didn't pin down strongly enough. I wouldn't call it a retcon because it's something that nobody really did until Wax, really, in the series. The only one really capable of doing that in the original trilogy would have been the Lord Ruler, maybe some of the Inquisitors, but we don't have viewpoints from them. So I wouldn't call it a retcon I would just say it’s something that didn't come up in the first series that now I have to make sure is clear.

    Seonid

    So is it Higgs field stuff going on?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. Mmhmm.

    Seonid

    My idea was right.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Mmhmm.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12659 Copy

    Seonid

    I've heard about a Shard that just wants to survive, hiding off-- it doesn't have a planet it doesn't--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right.

    Seonid

    --out there in space, trying to survive. Does it have the intent of like Fear, or something like that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The intent is related but only tangentially. Mostly it just knows what's going on and is smart enough to get out of there.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12664 Copy

    Questioner

    So the surprise with Lessie at the end of the last book [Shadows of Self], at what point did you know-- Like did you know that in... writing Alloy of Law?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I knew that at the end of Alloy of Law. So what I do is I write a book, and then I go and build a series out of it. So I wrote Alloy of Law. I then built a series out of it, then I went and wrote the prologue to Alloy of Law. And then I released Alloy of Law. I did a revision too to make sure it was all in there. And so, actual writing of Alloy of Law? No. By the time I'd done the revisions on Alloy of Law? Yes. And then I built the three book outline that would be the trilogy you are now in the middle of.

    And Mistborn had some similiar things where I wrote the first book, then outlined second two, and revised the first one, then wrote the second two. It works really well for me doing that with a trilogy, because you get some spontaneity for the first book, and you know how the characters are and you can build a larger framework for them.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12665 Copy

    Questioner

    I'm the guy who asked about the game.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh right, so have you guys released stuff?

    Questioner

    No. I have an app, that's a level builder, that is technically published but it's *audio obscured* the guy who's doing the art *audio obscured*

    Brandon Sanderson

    Like I do wish you the best of luck. My friends at ChAIR, Epic Games, they were just BYU guys who got together to release their own game but I need to do it with people who have done things before.

    Questioner

    Oh yeah. After we get a couple--

    Brandon Sanderson

    After you get a couple games, if you come to me. Because I have some really cool ideas for how a great Rithmatist game would work. Like I think what you would want to have is pieces of chalklings that people could piece together, and then they have to draw their chalkling and they’d piece together their circle and then enter into a duel with someone else on their own iPad and you have to trace your circle. You trace it. And whoever get's done first get's a bonus to their strength or whatever, but whoever's most accurate also gets one. Stuff like that would be a lot of fun to be able to do.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12666 Copy

    Questioner

    My question is about Shai, is she going to meet Hoid in person? Like I read your State of the Sanderson, is it going to be another short story or is it going to be in the Elantris books possibly?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If I-- When I write future Elantris books you're likely to see her in those.

    Questioner

    Or before maybe in shorter stuff like this *audio obscured*

    Brandon Sanderson

    We'll have to see, like shorter stuff I can never say when the shorter stuff is going to happen because it's where-- I funnel the random inspirations I get now into the shorter stuff. And the big books I have planned, I just don't have room for more big books, so when I get an idea I'm like "We'll do a novella on that instead".

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12667 Copy

    Questioner

    *audio obscured*

    Brandon Sanderson

    Honestly? I just, these days, say "It kind of looks something like this" and he [Isaac Stewart] reads the book and finds any references I've made and comes up with something. I can trust him to the point that I don't have to worry too much about it. On some I'll give him a shape. On Roshar I gave him the shape, and said "It's like this" and then I split things up. Because that one shape was very important to me. But like Mistborn I'm like "It looks kind of like this. Go for it."

    Isaac Stewart

    *audio obscured*

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh yeah I sent an MS Paint thing.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12668 Copy

    Questioner

    This is kind of a shot in the dark but is there anything you want to tell me about whoever writes the Ars Arcanum?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The person who writes the Ars Arcanum is a character in-world from a book that is been written but has not been published.

    Questioner

    Is it a book that has been announced?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is a book that's been announced, the title is known.

    Footnote: The Ars Arcanum are written by Khriss, a character originally from White Sand.
    #ars arcanum #khriss
    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12669 Copy

    Questioner

    The three travelers in Way of Kings, we know who they are. Did they know about the cosmere in the books that they appeared in?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Uhhh…

    Questioner

    Cosmere or Seventeenth Shard.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm just checking each of them. No, no, and no.

    Questioner

    So something happened in their lives afterward?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yep… That's an excellent question.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12672 Copy

    Questioner

    Would it require a human-type person to have possession of one of the Shards? Would it interact the same way like if a dog were to somehow take it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, a dog would probably not be able to do it. It's not outsi-- Yeah, a dog wouldn't be able to do it.

    Questioner

    So there probably wouldn't be some huge dog tearing up the furniture?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Probably not. No, good question, but nah.

    Questioner

    So what about other creatures that are intelligent but not human?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's possible.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12675 Copy

    Questioner

    What happens when a... spren picks up a Shard?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What do you mean picks up a Shard? Shardblade or Shard of Adonalsium?

    Questioner

    Picks up a Shard of Adonalsium.

    Brandon Sanderson

    A spren is a Shard of Adonalsium so it just--

    Questioner

    Picks up one of the big ones like could a spren do the same thing that Kelsier's spirit did after he--

    Brandon Sanderson

    *hesitantly* It's like you're asking if electricity can gain a charge of electricity and get electrified. Does that make sense? I mean-- It's a question that doesn't make a lot of sense.

    If a Shard were to somehow-- They would just combine into a bigger Shard and get larger-- if that makes sense?

    Questioner

    The foundation of that question was I thought that maybe the Stormfather spren was basically doing what Kelsier's spirit did.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, um *sighs* Not really... It's really a not really There's some similarities but it's a not really. It's not quite a RAFO though. more of a--

    Questioner

    More of a "doesn't quite work that way".

    Brandon Sanderson

    --doesn't quite work that way but you're thinking along the right lines?

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12676 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    *after reading a personalization request* What do you mean by specifically what Paalm was doing, which thing?

    Questioner

    Her ultimate goal, we think, was to Shatter Harmony.

    Brandon Sanderson

    You think her ultimate goal was to Shatter Harmony?

    Questioner

    *audio obscured*

    Brandon Sanderson

    Her ultimate goal was to free people from Harmony, so I wouldn't say her ultimate goal was to Shatter Harmony. So what you're asking me is "Is Taravangian trying to combine Harmony?

    Questioner

    We thought that Paalm was trying to divide people from Harmony in order to Shatter Him. *audio obscured* Taravangian was doing the opposite, trying to gather his people so that he could pick up-- so Honor could come back.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not really. Good question, once I figured it out.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12677 Copy

    Questioner

    In the beginning of Way of Kings, the first one, you start and Gavilar has a sphere that he passes off to Szeth and says "Give this to my brother, keep this safe away from them". It says it's dark but has its own inner light, but it hasn't been brought up again.

    Brandon Sanderson

    No.

    Questioner

    Is it going to be brought up again?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It will be brought up again.

    Questioner

    How-- Is it important? Or is it more mi--

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's important… ish.

    Questioner

    Ish? Does it have anything to do with Odium?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12679 Copy

    Questioner

    Megan's weakness was fire, she overcame it. David's weakens was water, I feel he overcame it when shooting at the window. So my conspiracy theory is that he didn't have to take power from Calamity because he overcame his weakness or he was never experiencing the negative aspects of being an Epic *audio obscured*

    Brandon Sanderson

    You are getting warmer... You're theorizing is wise and you'll just have to see where it goes. But yeah you are definitely getting warmer.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12682 Copy

    Questioner

    In Alloy of Law, Marasi goes to see Wax in his house and he was doing experiments, she describes him as being oddly-- looking oddly younger than he had before. Is that relevant or is that just because he’s excited about--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah it's more that, and more she had this picture in her head of him and things like that. There's no actual magical thing going on there. It's an excellent question.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12688 Copy

    Questioner

    Has a Hemalurgic Feruchemist ever used a Hemalurgic spike to tap power into it? Have they ever done that yet?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So a Hemalurgic spike is already Invested, so it's going to resist sticking anything else in it, particularly a magic like that.

    Questioner

    So if there's a pewter spike then a Feruchemist couldn't store strength in it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. It would be difficult.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12690 Copy

    Questioner

    What would happen if somebody used the color from a Stormlight-infused gem to create a BioChromatic entity?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So I just had this question actually and what we came up with was that would leave behind something that is like a cloudy quartz and is going to make it work not as well for holding Stormlight. That's our answer right now, I'm going to talk to my scientists and see what they think because draining the color from something doesn't just leave it white, or clear, it kind of ruins it, it's gray-ish, it's dun. It clouds. So I think it would ruin things for Stormlight.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12691 Copy

    Questioner

    So I was actually wondering, I keep finding myself thinking of new and exciting ways to break science with magic. How do you keep yourself from doing that constantly as you're writing?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You write the book the best way the book can be. You give it to a scientist. You say "What does this break?" and then you either take it into account, if you think it is going to work for the book. If not you come up with an explanation in-world and you move forward. We're writing fantasy, we don't want the science to ruin our book, we want the science to be something we considered. Does that make sense? Like when I made speed bubbles and Peter's like "Red shift! You're going to irradiate people." I'm like "Alright we're just going to have to say 'Speed bubbles are not irradiating people' ". And just be aware of it and write the best book you can.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12692 Copy

    Questioner

    Shardblades are essentially spren that have died--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not all of them have died but yeah.

    Questioner

    Oh, my question was if they could be revived?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um this… According to the understanding of those in-world it would require the same person who broke their oath. So it would be possible if any of them were still alive. I'm not ruling out other ways, but that's how it's understood by--

    Questioner

    It would be the traditional way.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, mmhmm.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12693 Copy

    Questioner

    If an Awakener were to go to Roshar and were to bleed the color from a gem would that gem still be able to store Stormlight?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Bleed the color from a gem… Um ye-ye-ye-yeah. This would interfere with its function on Roshar. It would probably still be able to hold Stormlight…

    Questioner

    Might not be able to be used for Soulcasting?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yea-- It's going to… You know what no it would just change it. It would just bleed the color from it and turn it into a dusty quartz or something like that. That's probably what it would end up with, a dusty quartz. Because the molecular structure doesn't matter as much as the color for Roshar. So yeah you would probably still be able to hold Stormlight because a diamond can but I don't know, quartz might cut it. You'd probably end up with something that's not going to work so well.

    Questioner

    What about a fabrial that needs a specific--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah a specific-- A ruby wouldn't work any more, and it would let go whatever is captured inside.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12694 Copy

    Questioner

    I just had a question about the broadsheets, do you write all the content for those?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wrote all the first one. And the second and third one's I'm like "I don't want this all to be in my voice I want it to feel like a newspaper" so I wrote a couple. Isaac wrote a bunch, Ben wrote some of them--

    Isaac Stewart

    Ben didn't write any.

    Brandon Sanderson

    So it was you who wrote the rest of them?

    Questioner

    Did you do the layouts?

    Isaac Stewart

    Yeah I do the layouts and then I give them to Ben to do some of the illustrations.

    Brandon Sanderson

    The really fun thing is Isaac wrote the Nicki Savage one in this one [The Bands of Mourning].

    Isaac Stewart

    It was really fun, I'm glad Brandon let me.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12695 Copy

    Questioner

    Any hints about what the Stormlight novella will be about?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm probably going to make Lift the main character if the scene-- if it works it will be Lift. If it doesn't I could pick a different character, but I have a nice little outline for what Lift has been doing in between and I think she'll make a very good novella on her own. I do want to write the short story King Lopen the First of Alethkar, but that one's only like 5,000 words so if I get that one done I'll stick it in too. If you watch at the end of Words of Radiance Lopen's going around claiming to be king and there's a reason for that.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #12696 Copy

    Questioner

    I'm going through Hero of Ages...again and I noticed...when Vin takes the power of Preservation into herself the descriptions remind me a lot of someone who has been Invested with Stormlight--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Questioner

    --are those powers very similar--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Questioner

    --in how they operate?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ye-- Definitely some similarities. You will see a lot of mist in Stormlight if you are looking. So yeah.

    Questioner

    It like puffs out like mist.