Recent entries

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13602 Copy

    zas678

    It seems to me that members of the [LDS] church generally like Elantris a lot more than people who aren't in the church and why do you think that is?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I haven't noticed that but if that were the case… boy. I don't know that whole Raoden just pushed through it has some sort of tying your spirit to it and that's definitely-- I could see that being relevant.

    zas678

    I've been told it's Hrathen's struggle with faith.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think they like the whole-- the whole evil missionary thing would be something thing that members of the church would be like "Ahh evil missionary?! That's cool!" *laughter* So I think that's totally possible but I hadn't noticed that specifically. I think that it is also a book that is less focused on the action and fighting. Like Mistborn is more focused on that, and so I would expect that there's that relevant issue, perhaps, as well.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13603 Copy

    Questioner

    Why don't Northern Lights ever appear in the Era One Mistborn trilogy? If Luthadel is situated at the Magnetic North Pole?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It has-- ‘Cause as I understand--has to do with-- what is it coming off the sun--

    littlewilson

    Solar flares?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That cause the aurora borealis. It's not just the magnetic-- There's physics involved which are not relevant in the Mistborn world.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13604 Copy

    zas678

    Are twins more likely to be Allomancers?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They are more likely to share--

    zas678

    --to share Allomantic attributes.

    Brandon Sanderson

    --to share Allomantic attributes.

    zas678

    Does it make a difference if they’re identical or fraternal?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It does… Yeah, it does. Fraternals are still more likely. But identical are even more likely.

    zas678

    Okay so fraternal are more likely than siblings--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Than siblings, yes.

    zas678

    And identical are more likely than--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Mmhmm.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13607 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    *referring to a personalization request* That is a R A F O, but you do earn a card for your RAFO... Now let me just say--

    Questioner

    I'm not asking about Nightblood, I'm asking about the Shardblades.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah-- Oh, OH. You're asking-- okay. You're not asking what other Shardblades made, but if somebody brought a Shardblade to another pl--

    Questioner

    Like if Kaladin went to Nalthis.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Okay, his Shardblade would manifest exactly-- it would do exactly the same thing.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13608 Copy

    Questioner

    The size of the metal, does it matter to transfer Allomancy or can it be really really tiny or really really big?

    Brandon Sanderson

    For Allomancy? Or what, a bead of lerasium? Is that what you're talking about?

    Questioner

    Yeah, when you're transferring the powers, like to make someone a Mistborn...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah it has to be-- The size of it is going to influence how strong a Mistborn you are.

    Questioner

    It couldn't be a sliver.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah-- Well it could, you'd just be really weak as a Mistborn.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13609 Copy

    Questioner

    Is it possible to Compound your Spiritual Connection to a location on a planet while storing your Spiritual Connection to all other locations on the planet to kind of pull yourself through the Spiritual Realm to that location?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's not how that would work. Parts of what you say are possible, but the teleportation aspect wouldn't actually do anything.

    Questioner

    Was Hoid trying to Compound his Spiritual location in the scene you added in the 10th Anniversary [Elantris]? Was he trying to Compound Connection to that location to try to become Elantrian?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...So at that point chronologically he was not an Allomancer.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13610 Copy

    Questioner

    *referring to his personalization request* Just that one. Wayne is a wise man, wrapped up inside of a sad man, wrapped up inside of a silly man.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He likes a hat to be nice and stiff. To mean something. And a fedora is going to be too weak for him. Too... too floppy. It's not a hat you have to commit to, in Wayne's opinion.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13612 Copy

    Questioner

    Given equal footing with weapons, who would win in a fight: Batman or Kaladin?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...Batman or Kaladin?

    Questioner

    Given that they have equal weapons.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Does Kaladin have Stormlight?

    Questioner

    Only if Batman gets Stormlight too.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Batman can't use Stormlight.

    Questioner

    Then Kal-- Equal footing. So if Kaladin gets to use Stormlight, so does Batman.

    Brandon Sanderson

    But he can't use it. See this fight doesn't make sense, because it's like-- You know-- Well, I mean, if you give Batman Stormlight does it make any sense? If you give a bunch of Batarangs to Kaladin, he's like "What do I do with these?" I don't know. Does Batman have time to prepare? Because if Batman has time to prepare... If Batman has time to prepare then he's in good shape.

    Questioner

    Maybe Batman just gets Shard-Batarangs and nothing else.

    Brandon Sanderson

    If he meets Kaladin on the field of battle, Kaladin's a soldier and Batman's not. Batman's not going to do well in a war.

    Questioner

    Yeah-- But if Kaladin doesn't have any powers, Batman has extensive hand-to-hand training.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, yes he does.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #13616 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 ()
    #13617 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 ()
    #13618 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 ()
    #13619 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 ()
    #13621 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 ()
    #13622 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 ()
    #13623 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 ()
    #13628 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 ()
    #13629 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 ()
    #13630 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 ()
    #13631 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 ()
    #13632 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 ()
    #13633 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 ()
    #13636 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 ()
    #13639 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 ()
    #13640 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 ()
    #13641 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 ()
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    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 ()
    #13646 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.