old aggie (paraphrased)
Is Roshar a spherical planet?
Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)
Yes.
Is Roshar a spherical planet?
Yes.
What happens when non-Nalthians come to Nalthis.
They cannot use their own soul to Awaken but could do so with obtained Breath.
So anyone could start Awakening once they received Breaths?
You would probably have to jump through some hoops to Awaken (talks about systems needing rigged up to work on different planets), but anyone can benefit from a Breath. Essentially said "it's not that easy!"
Could you make a spike from a Lifeless?
"Oooo interesting!" He said their soul is so drained there wouldn't be much left, so you could only get the barest hint.
But you COULD technically get a charge?
Yes, but it would be very weak.
The Stormlight Archive already has that feeling of an "epic" tale, not just in the size of the novels and the rich world building but the story too. Do you have any idea how long the book series might go on for?
Yes. I conceived The Stormlight Archive as a series dealing with ten characters, where each book took one of the characters and delved deeply into their past and their psychology. Granted, the other characters will appear, as Kaladin is a big part of Words of Radiance even though this volume could be described as Shallan's book. Since I have those ten characters, and there are ten orders of Knights Radiant, I built a ten-book series with two five-book arcs: five books and then a break, followed by another five books.
The use of spren are a brilliant idea, what was the inspiration for these creatures?
In part, they stem from the underlying cosmology and overarching rules, the dictates of the magic systems of my shared universe. I was looking for a manifestation of that in Roshar. I also was searching for something that would give Roshar a different feel from things that I'd done before. I wanted this book and this series – and everything about it – to feel different from fantasy worlds in the past. I wanted it to be fantastical, but I wanted it to be unique. I wanted something that could consistently remind the reader, "Oh, I'm in a different place. Wow. Their emotions manifest visibly when they feel them strongly. This place is bizarre." That was one of the main inspirations. Looking in our world, one inspiration is certainly the Eastern concept in Shinto mythology of everything having a soul, every rock and river and tree having something living inside of it that is a manifestation of it. Since I was working with the idea of Platonic realms and the like, I spun that off into the spren.
Where did you get the idea of a world ravaged by fierce storms?
The original seed of an idea was the storm of Jupiter, this massive persistent storm. Of course, that's a gas giant. The physics are very different. But I remember one day staring at a picture of Jupiter and thinking about a storm that circled the world that was massively powerful. That was one of those seeds that stuck in my brain. This sort of thing happened over months and years until that seed grew and developed and mixed with other things I was thinking of, and the result was Roshar.
For the first 5 SA books he's heavily outlined them. For the last 5 SA books he has outlines for the main climax scenes. For the flashback characters for the last 5 books he's not settled on which ones or order but current plan is for Taln, Ash (aka Shalash), Lift, Jasnah and Renarin.
He also specifically stated that for one of the flashback characters that they would be already dead (sounded like definitely dead not maybe dead).
They're not written but we should eventually get annotations for Stormlight Archive. (normally does them during copy-edit but wasn't done that way for current books)
Hoid doesn't really have friends, more like people who find him less annoying (or he finds less annoying?). Talked about someone he might be more of a friend with - sounded like "Frost".
He described Khriss as a research scientist.
On origins of Dalinar: from story he wrote as teenager - his brother is the king who gets assassinated and he has to decide whether to take over from his nephew or not. Hoid is the court magician
On Shallan's origins as a character: mostly derived from a character in Dragonsteel and Mat Cauthon. Specifically mentioned that she has issues with authority figures.
On being asked if an Elantrian could wield Nightblood, he said yes it's possible but would be very dangerous - you'd have to figure out a way to connect Nightblood with a local source of Investiture.
Brandon threw us a bone on what the big world-hopping hint in Elantris could be: Raoden has misinterpreted one of the Aons.
What would happen if you made a cup of tea from the Tears of Edgli?
You would have a very interesting cup of tea.
Can you Hemalurgically spike a dead thing, similar to how Breath goes into dead things? Could you spike a Lifeless?
Yes, if there was enough of the soul left for the spike to take.
Could an awakened sentient object (e.g Nightblood) bond a spren?
Technically but the specific circumstances you would need are so bizarre, in practice no.
Where is Nazh from?
Threnody!
Is there time travel in the cosmere?
We haven't seen time travel into the past, but we have seen it into the future in Alloy of Law.
Will Kaladin ever get Wit's flute back to woo a certain red haired young lady?
Wit is very mad about Kaladin losing the flute. If he recovers it, he wouldn't let Kaladin have it again.
Where did you get your ideas for knights?
A knight has a sword, armor and a horse.
How do you pick names?
Each group is based on real world naming conventions, Alethi = near-palindromes + Semitic, Central Dominance = French, Emperor's Soul = Ancient Zoroastrian
Were Shardblades influenced by lightsabers?
Yes *long aside about how everyone in the last 40 years was so influenced*, but not sure how direct of an influence
Who are your biggest literary influences?
Robert Jordan *laughter* and Victor Hugo.
Is chouta based on food from Korea?
*long explanation about industrializing societies developing portable food* and no, it is Mexican/Italian, think deep fried meatballs in a sopaipilla.
Does Hoid have all the abilities of the planets he's visited?
Not yet.
What is the effect of the Nahel bond on human lifespan
RAFO.
Was Szeth's resurrection done with Rosharan Investiture or that from Nalthis?
RAFO.
Is the Moon Scepter an object of Investiture?
The Moon Scepter is an item that is important to Hoid, but I won't say why yet.
Is the woman around Wit's age named Reya?
RAFO
Brandon also clarified that the oaths, with the exception of the first ideal, are not restricted to specific words. Rather, a specific idea must be conveyed for the oath to be accepted.
He said that Dalinar has had a bond with the Stormfather "for a while." He also only said one oath at the top of the Urithiru tower, not two. Dalinar conveyed a single idea in that particular oath.
He said that at one point Shallan may have said all the oaths for her order (or may have been capable of saying all of the oaths by the end of the book) but has since regressed due to "memory loss/repression."
How many oaths can a Radiant swear?
There is an upper-limit/threshold to the number of oaths a Radiant may make. By the end of WoR, Shallan was a step higher than Kaladin.
Did the mistress from the interlude in book 1 destroy the Shalash statue on the night of Gavilar's death?
Yes, and also all the other ones that we've seen, including the one in Shallan's vision in Words of Radiance.
Is the mistress Shalash?
RAFO.
(Brandon mentioned changing Kaladin's plot so that he chose the "hard" path) What was the hard path?
Kaladin initially accepted the Shardblade and Plate in the first book, and the rest of the book was about him fighting with them. Really boring.
So, is shardplate created as a result of a spren bond?
RAFO.
Is it true that humans can bond to multiple spren?
They can theoretically bond to multiple spren.
Has the Thrill existed longer than the Death Rattles or have they both been occurring for about the same period of time?
The Thrill and the Death Rattles started around the same time, but the locations for the two fluctuate and have been since they appeared.
Do highstorms get weaker as they move west because of normal meteorological reasons the same way a hurricane gets weaker over land or is it because they slowly drain investiture as they infuse spheres over the whole continent?
Both. He said that anything like that will be affected by both normal science as well as the magic, but then he added that the highstorms are a natural occurring phenomenon that were on the planet before stuff started going down.
Do darkeyes feel the Thrill?
Yes, they do
Dalinar, in one of his visions, sees the stars wink out one by one. Are these the stars of other shardworlds and does this imply that the final Desolation is going to affect more than just Roshar?
You earned yourself a RAFO card!
Is there a pattern to Taravangian's stupid/smart cycle, or is it actually random?
His aides are convinced that it is random, but if you plotted it out, it's really a distribution curve that is only made to look random.
You mention the phases of the moon fairly often in [The Way of Kings]--is this significant or something that we should be paying attention to?
After working with the Wheel of Time community and dealing a lot with fans wanting to know when certain events happened in regards to some other event, Brandon added in [details about the moons] in order to give dedicated fans a way of determining the chronology of the events of the Stormlight Archive.
Mmm...that phase of the moon thing really doesn't sound right to me. It's true the moon was used that way in the Wheel of Time, but the way the moons are used in Words of Radiance really has nothing to do with phases.
sorry, "phase" is the wrong word, and I don't think Brandon used the word phase either in his actual answer. I guess he was more meaning which moon was up, etc. Either way, his answer just seemed to indicate that you could use the moons to determine chronology.
Would a Full Lashing work in a vacuum? If not, is that because it works by creating a vacuum between the lashed objects?
First, good question. The way Lashings work, it does have to do with pressure. But I can't go into it. I'm going to have to RAFO that one. Again, good question.
Can AonDor heal chronic conditions, like poor eyesight? If so, does it require specialized Aon drawing to work, or will enough Aon Iens do the job eventually?
Yes, AonDor could cure a chronic condition like poor eyesight. But you would have to get the specifics of everything, kind of like they're equations, correct. You'd have to know a LOT about AonDor and a LOT about the body to get it right. *pauses in thought* It's kind of like with computer programming.
What are the plans for a Legion television series?
The studios option on it explores here in December. If they renew it, they have another year to begin production. Nothing firm yet.
Alcatraz follow-up?
I've had enough asking about it that I really should do the last one. It's back burner for now, but I want to.
If using their abilities slowly drives them mad, how can good Epics rise up to help?
That is kind of the point of the novel isn't it?
I asked if we had met any other Rithmatists who gained any their abilities from some other method than the Inception ceremony besides Nalazar.
That was a flat out no. "Unless you include what Harding was doing."