Recent entries

Questioner

Lightweavers, you're saying that they're gonna be able to do lasers and things in space era. Could a Lightweaver conceivably make a kugelblitz? It's when compressing enough light into one space that it makes a black hole.

Brandon Sanderson

I'm gonna say that that's beyond the power level of your average Lightweaver. But who knows? Good question. I've never heard that term before, that's kind of cool. That'd take a lot of Light.

Questioner

Isn't Hoid a Lightweaver now?

Brandon Sanderson

Hoid is a Lightweaver now, yes. But Hoid does like playing with fire. He should not be a Lightweaver. Hoid is too close to various things that happened with Dawnshards, he is playing with fire.

asmodeus

Do those consumed by Yelig-nar (like Aesudan, Amaram) appear briefly in Shadesmar after they die, but before they pass onto the beyond?

Brandon Sanderson

Yelig-nar consumes them entirely, like Nightblood.

Pagerunner

Are there ten metals (and their respective alloys) that can be used in fabrials? The eight allomantic pure metals, silver, and then one more?

Brandon Sanderson

There are more than 10. :)

Double

Rayse (Odium) was very methodical with the order in which he went after other Shards. Hypothetically if he'd visited the Rosharan system all those years ago but managed to avoid being trapped and was able to continue his mission right away, which of the known Shards would've been next up on Rayse's hit list?

Brandon Sanderson

He expected Ruin to implode. So he might have gone for Autonomy, double crossing them.

LewsTherinTelescope

Are the aethers native to multiple worlds?

Brandon Sanderson

Currently, no - but they have spread + they claim to be not from any world.

Lucario-ist

I've been wanting White Sand for a while. But E-books hurt my eyes, so I've been looking for a physical copy. I have no trouble finding either the 2nd or 3rd volume, but I can't find the first.

Brandon Sanderson

As others have said, compilation is incoming soon. Don't buy expensive copies. Wait until the whole thing is out in one.

Questioner: (paraphrased)

Do the singers/listeners/Parshendi/parshmen have a collective noun?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I haven't really thought about it, but for now they would prefer to be called singers.

Questioner: (paraphrased)

Is Elend's symbol on his first new uniform from Tindwyl the Bridge Four symbol?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No, it is not. Tindwyl wasn't very Cosmere aware.

Hut on a Hill

One last question, why do gems crack when Stormlight is drawn out of them quickly?

Brandon Sanderson

When the Stormlight is coming out--you'll notice that there's the slightest physical presence of lots of spren, seons. A lot of this Investiture does have a physical side to it you can feel and that much Stormlight coming through... like when it's leaking out, it is generally going through micro cracks in the structure--where the crystal lattice didn't line up or flaws in the structure--and it coming out quickly like that, it's like hitting it with a hammer from inside along those fault lines. Much less likely to happen based on how good your gemstone is.

Hut on a Hill

Can living Shardblades or [Shard]plate be lashed by their Radiants?

Brandon Sanderson

Can living--by their Radiants? I'm going to say this is possible, yes. Not, not... there's something you'd have to figure out, but it is possible.

Robert

It is established in The Way of Kings that standard Shardplate forms to fit the wearer perfectly. Would this work if you put it on a dog or horse?

Brandon Sanderson

Within reasonable limits, how about that? Depends on the size of the dog or the horse. There are dogs that you could fit Shardplate with, there are probably horses that you could too.

Emily Sanderson

But they would be axehounds, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, yeah. If you brought a dog to Roshar.

Allura Williams

I love the symmetrical Alethi names like Shallan and Navani. How do you come up with such good names.

Brandon Sanderson

It is part instinct, part design. And trying things out and seeing how people respond to them and changing it if they just don't feel right over time. I like having a linguistic quirk, such as symmetry or repeated consonant sounds. Those sort of things are very fun for me. I like real world inspirations. Famously, Silence came from looking at names of actual... Puritans, came from an actual Puritan name that I ran across in sort of a family history context, and I'm like. "Ooh, someone named their child Silence? That I've gotta use." Real world inspirations are fun. Ran across another one of those, you may see pop up if I do some more Threnody things. I ran across a person whose name was Thomas Thomas and I just love the name Thomas Thomas.

Questioner

I was reading Starsight, I noticed that there was this flight called Xiwang Flight. I was wondering if you intended for it to mean "hope" in Mandarin.

Brandon Sanderson

I did intend for it to mean "hope" in Mandarin.

Questioner

Can a bonded spren be Enlightened by Sja-anat?

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible, it would have dire, dire ramifications for the bond. [It's] much better to happen before, but it could happen

Brandon Sanderson

There's some good Design lines coming up as well, if we're talking about Cryptics. Design has her own interesting perspective on the world.

Questioner

What was the level of technology before the Ascension [of the Lord Ruler]? You mentioned gunpowder and canning, but everything else appears to be a blend of feudal Europe and the early Renaissance.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, it depends on the country you were in and the time period specifically we're talking. Right before the Ascension, we're looking at a society that is hitting industrialization. Basically, where you see the Final Empire stop is close to where they were, they got a little bit further. Except there were certain things that were forbidden.

Questioner

Will Dalinar be a focus character again?

Brandon Sanderson

Dalinar will have a larger role in book five than in book four.

Questioner

Were the kandra based on the monster from John Carpenter's The Thing?

Brandon Sanderson

I would be willing to bet that there was an unconscious influence there. I am a fan of John Carpenter films and of The Thing. I didn't consciously say, "Oh, I'm going to design something like The Thing." Mostly, I wanted a shapeshifter that had an interesting limitation and rule to it that had not been--that I hadn't seen in fiction before and the mistwraiths actually kind of grew out of that, but the kandra were just, "What can I do with this idea?" But there are some kandra related plots that are reminiscent of The Thing.

Charlie Anderson

Would Gavilar be proud of Dalinar if he could see him now?

Brandon Sanderson

Proud of some things, not of others. Gavilar would want more ambition from Dalinar than Dalinar has shown. He would think that Dalinar has been too inhibited in certain things he's chosen to do. Yet, at the same time, there are certain things that Gavilar would very much approve of, even things that Dalinar himself is proud of. It would be complicated.

Gatlin A Jordan

The possibility of turning the plot of Mistborn: Birthright into a graphic novel.

Brandon Sanderson

Mistborn: Birthright graphic novel. We have discussed this, we have talked about it. This was, if you're unfamiliar with it, a video game that was in development for many years with a video game person, Matt Scott, that I really like. And it just never quite panned out. I had provided the initial story and outline. There is definitely something there, the thing is--to remember--I designed it for a video game and sometimes those things interpret or change well, adapt well, sometimes they don't. I'd have to think about it. I haven't given up hope on some day doing it, but we shall see.

Gatlin A Jordan

If you were part of the cosmere, would you join up with Hoid's cause?

Brandon Sanderson

Would I join up with Hoid's cause? I do not believe I would.

Jay Mike McCue

In regards to Chiri-Chiri, when she's fully grown, will her size be comparable to Ruth the white dragon, as large as Lessa's Ramoth, or a size in between?

Brandon Sanderson

So, they can get to full--I would say as large or larger than the larger Anne McCaffrey dragons. Whether Chiri-Chiri will grow to that size, it depends. There is variety in adult sizes of the larkin.

Questioner

The violet eye color in The Way of Kings. We got to know that Dunny had violet eyes and Sigzil said the color wasn't native to Alethkar. Navani also has violet eyes, Jasnah too, and Tanalan from The Rift. So, is Navani or her family line not Alethi? And is there more to this specific eye color than we know so far?

Brandon Sanderson

There's a little bit more there that I will talk about eventually. You should not look at Navani and be like, "Oh, they're not native" in that I designed the Alethi as a race of conquerors who also--like I said before, one of the inspirations for the Alethi were the Mongols and particularly how the Mongols ruled after they had their empire. They were perfectly willing to incorporate anybody. The Romans did this too, "If you want to be part of our empire, great. If you're not gonna rebel, great. We will, to an extent, respect your religions and your ways and if you're willing to integrate then we're not gonna treat you terribly."

The Alethi have this history of being one of the, in that way, most multi-ethnic cultures on Roshar. Now, the sad thing is, the reason some of those ethnicities are there is due to brutal conquest and treatment of the world. But regardless, the Alethi have--most of them have no kind of pureblood sort of perspective, they don't care. They don't care what you look like, they care about whether you act like as part of their culture, whether you're integrated.

Emily Sanderson

As long as you have light colored eyes.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, well, they'll still accept you as Alethi.

Emily Sanderson

That's true. You just don't get to be the ruling class.

Brandon Sanderson

You just don't get to be highborn. So, this is just a hint much like you will see the Alethi have a very varied skin tone, they have lots of varied hair colors. You know, you're going to see mostly the kind of traditional Alethi black, but you know, there are multiple main characters in the series [where] that is not their hair color despite being considered one hundred percent Alethi. They would not look at Adolin and say he's half-not-Alethi, he's all Alethi even though one of his parents was raised in a different culture, he's one hundred percent an Alethi. And that's just how they look at things. So that's how you'd read into that, though there is a little bit to the eye color that maybe I'll get into some day.

Jonathan McGuire

If Wayne and The Lopen were to meet, would they hit it off?

Brandon Sanderson

They would get along fantastically, absolutely fantastically. Lopen would find Wayne imitating his accent to be the funniest thing that he has ever heard... and Wayne would introduce him to all kinds of interesting modern conveniences like flushing toilets and whatnot and Lopen would find that all just delightful. So, yes they would certainly hit it off.

Winter Wolf

In Warbreaker, how did Denth feel about Vivenna?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. I'll RAFO that. We'll get to that... I don't want to... it's more I'm worried that I would spoil things if I answered that question the right way. Complicated. How about that? He had complex feelings toward Vivenna... not easily encapsulated in a simple answer.

Naomi's Book Nook

Is Soulcast meat vegetarian or vegan?

Brandon Sanderson

So this is a good question, you would have to decide this, right? I can't decide this for you. We were talking the other day, this is actually a bigger question. If a plant is sapient, like from a fantasy world, and you're eating that, is that meal vegetarian? If you cut down an ent and eat an ent, is that a vegetarian meal? I'm sure we're not the first ones have to asked this, but at Magic [The Gathering] when we were playing last week, we were like, "Wait!"

Adam Horne

My vote is yes you're vegetarian, but you're also a monster.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes! Yes, you're also a monster, right? There needs to be some new phrase... vegan could probably be adapted to it, but there's got to be something that's like, "This did not come from any sapient being." I would... if I were vegetarian, I would have no problem eating sSoulcast meat if I would have no philosophical problem with eating lab grown meat. So it is cruelty free, but it is based on an animal product.

Brandon Sanderson

I really like that one [the mystery of Roanoke]. I actually, for a while... You guys are gonna hate me for this, but I, for a while, was gonna have the second Rithmatist novel deal with that. And then I threw that out the window; one of the reasons why the second Rithmatist novel's taken forever is I threw that whole concept. But it was gonna be Lost Colony-focused, for a little while.

orangesrhyme

Wonder if this [the UK Dawnshard cover] is a confirmation on what the Dawnshard mural looks like

Peter Ahlstrom

It is not a confirmation of that. Though that's clearly what the artist is intending to represent.

Xais56

Brandon has said that everyone ought to be able to burn Atium, like they can all burn Lerasium, and the fact that they can't was an oversight on his part that he would've done different in hindsight.

Maybe now he's had an in-universe reason to re-write the laws of allomancy it's back to his intended concept; Mistborn burn all 16 base metals, mistings burn one base metal, non-allomancers can only burn godmetal.

Peter Ahlstrom

My explanation for this is that Preservation somehow caused all naturally occurring atium to form as an alloy of atium and electrum. The atium Mistings were actually electrum Mistings.

Xais56

It's a very tidy solution, but it creates the maddening question of what does pure atium do?

Peter Ahlstrom

That answer has already been revealed canonically. RAFO.

Questioner

 What are you most excited about for the Wheel of Time TV series?

Brandon Sanderson

Episode 6 is my favorite, Episode 7 is really good. Episodes 1 and 2 are both really good too. There are no bad episodes in Season 1. I haven't read Season 2, all of them, so I can't say. I've read the first two. But Season 1, I'll go beyond that. All of Season 1, every episode is above average in good television that I have seen. So no whammies, and the writing is really solid. Among the fanbase there are going to be discussions about the changes made. Like I said, there are on a level around the Tolkien movies. 

Questioner

And there are some significant changes in Lord of the Rings.

Brandon Sanderson

I would call them about equivalent to that. More changes than Game of Thrones, more like the Lord of the Rings films, less than something like I, Robot or one of those completely off the rails ones. I've been viewing it as a different turning of the Wheel. [...] Because none of the changes are such that I wouldn't see them fitting in another turning, so to speak.

Questioner

I'm so excited. You haven't actually seen it, right?

Brandon Sanderson

No, the only parts I've seen were the ones that were being filmed while I was in Prague. Moiraine is sooo good. Rosamund is really good as Moiraine. That's a casting choice on the level of Ian McKellen as Gandalf. She's so good in the role. I really only got to see her and Lan, and Lan was good. I got to see just a liiitle bit of the other ones, I didn't get enough to judge.

Questioner

After the first Everstorm, what form did the parshmen gain?

Brandon Sanderson

You want me to name that form? I'm not gonna name that on stream; I've got it written down somewhere, but let's not canonize that yet, so that's a RAFO. It's a good question. It goes on that list of things that I should canonize, like what Dalinar's name means, and some of these other things that are on the list of "would be really nice if the wikis could actually have a word for this." We'll put that on Karen's list to make sure she grabs out of my notes and canonize.

LewsTherinTelescope

I was wondering if you could answer a couple questions about the White Sand omnibus, as I've gotten the impression you're mostly the one running that?

1. Khriss prologue: Is this Khriss's introduction from the prose, or is it a different scene?
2. Slatrification: Brandon's mentioned wanting to retcon out slatrification, and Volume 3 does not contain the main (I think only?) time it was actually used in the prose. However, in Volume 1, it is mentioned a few times by a couple characters. Are you changing this in the omnibus, or is this being left as-is?
3. Khriss's notes: Are these just things from the prose that didn't really make it through into the graphic novel prior, or will we be getting some new nuggets of information as well?

Isaac Stewart

1. Khriss's introduction is adapted from the prose but has been changed to better fit her character and the needs of the rest of the store.
2. Slatrification was never meant to even be in Volume 1, but somehow it slipped in. Slatrification has been entirely edited out of the omnibus.
3. Khriss's notes are meant to help flesh out the world in ways a graphic novel normally can't. Some of it is world building that has been taken and adapted from the prose. There's new stuff there, though. I hope readers will enjoy it!

Janci Patterson

I found it! This is what was in my notes for the colors of the miasma: iodine, bromine, acytylene, ammonium hydrosulphide

Lotus

The one thing I’m a little confused about is how the [UrDail] managed to evolve either separately on different trees or get from tree to tree with the miasma.

Rasarr

The assumption I can come up with is that the trees float and would occasionally bump into each other, letting flora and fauna spread.

Janci Patterson

Yes, this.

asmodeus

I'm curious to hear more about the ending

it's a very busy, and a very impactful ending, and it is going to have a different emotional response from the characters than from the readers

we don't feel any parental love towards Jeshua Weight, and she is mostly presented as being not very likeable

but Jorgen, and even the rest of the humans on Detritus, are going to be taking this very differently 

Janci Patterson

On the ending, it went like this:

Brandon: you know what we should do? Trap the politicians in a ship and blow it up.

Me: ...my politician characters are Jorgen's parents. ...are we blowing up Jorgen's parents?

Brandon: yeah! Do that! Blow up his parents!

Me: ... ... ... okay.

In my head: right before I jump in his POV. That'll be something.

Janci Patterson

On the elves--I wanted to give them a setting inspired by Valenwood, which has cities built on trees that move around. Brandon suggested I plant them in acclivity stone and set them in the atmosphere.

Rasarr

Oh, Janci, if I can bother you with a question. Is a "season" on ReDawn the planetary year?

Janci Patterson

I'd need the context. I'd assume a season is a season, but I don't remember how it was used.

jemand2001

Alanik mentions seasons as a measure of age.

Rasarr

Alanik says Quilan is a few seasons older than her, I wonder if it means a few years or less than one.

Janci Patterson

Oh, yeah! Probably a planetary year then.

TheKingOfCarrotFlowers (paraphrased)

I asked Brandon whether the Heralds were once mortal

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He RAFO'd me, which I expected, but he explained that the reason he had to RAFO it was because he doesn't want to build anticipation or expectations about the heralds yet, since they won't really be heavily featured until the 2nd set of 5 books.

halo6819 (paraphrased)

Is the too still pool of water on Roshar the Origin?

halo6819 (paraphrased)

He said it was a good question and to pay attention to the bar scene in WoR.

BryanL

Does FM have any death metal in her playlist? Would Spensa like it?

Janci Patterson

I made FM's playlist. It's on my website. I did it in Spotify. Obviously, you can imagine her music as whatever it is, and whatever you're imagining is correct, but those are the songs that I listened to when I wrote those descriptions.

Elijah Stormblessed

What news do you have on that one [Bastille]? Does it have a release date or timeframe?

Janci Patterson

It doesn't have a release date. It's Fall next year. I am doing a pass on it right now, this week. I actually just reread The Dark Talent yesterday. I wrote this book two years [ago], but I of course read all the books was very up on the continuity back then. And then I go to this revision, and people are like, "Where is Shasta?" And I'm like, "I don't know; where is Shasta? Better go back and read it."

Janci Patterson

If there were ever future Skyward novellas, could I name a taynix "Hoid"? They made the very good point that, technically, since we have old Earth, those would be in their literature. So, technically, one could...

Brandon Sanderson

That is reasonable. What I don't like to do is to confuse people on whether the cytoverse is in the cosmere, which it's not. But this would totally... I mean, in the Alcatraz books, someone at some point says that Alcatraz's mom killed Asmodean, which is a Wheel of Time joke, there's a mystery of who killed Asmodean. There's stuff like that. So yes, you may name a slug "Hoid."

Janci Patterson

I've seen the Boomslug sticker. Fun fact: we actually change the color of the Boomslug because it looked better on the sticker. They were black-and-red, and now they're red-and-black. Because Isaac actually sent me, "Here it is black-and-red; here it is red-and-black." And I was like, "It's cool. We can change it in the books." He was right; it looked better.

Mateo Fileti

Do you have any plans of writing coauthored stories for the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Basically, my coauthorship slate is full, right now. I've found about where I can handle it, and it's about three people. Right now, it's Steven Bohls, Janci, and the Dan Wells projects we're working on. That's about all I can handle, where I can get back to people at a reasonable time, and things like that.

That said, I have left one asterisk on there. Well, I guess I'm gonna put two asterisks. Two different, separate asterisks. Number one is that if this is successful and people like it, then probably. There's a reason I'm trying this out, that the first one I did was not connected to any of my worlds, at all. (That was The Original, with Mary Robinette.) And then eased into picking up a series that I was planning just not to be able to get back to. The finally easing into one I'm actively working on. And I kind of eased into that, just to see what people are enjoying. And they seem to be enjoying the active, working-on one the most, of all of those. Which is a plus for doing Cosmere-related things. But, again, it's kinda gonna be: do people like this?

The other askerisk is: I have told Isaac Stewart he is welcome to write, in the Cosmere, anything he would like to, and I will coauthor it with him. I will work on it to make sure. Because Isaac was there from almost the beginning. Peter was the person who was working with me before the Cosmere was released, but I met Isaac in 2004, and Isaac started working with me on Mistborn art right then in 2004. I've told Isaac he can do whatever he wants; he's got a blank slate to be involved in the Cosmere in any way he would like.

Janci Patterson

There's one he's had kicking around for a long time that I really hope he writes sometime.

Brandon Sanderson

We're trying to find time for him to be able to do that.

I would say that there's a good chance you get some Cosmere stuff in the future, but it's not near-future. Near-future, I want to make sure that I'm supporting the things that I'm doing. It would be very easy, I think, to go all James Patterson, where suddenly I'm not writing anymore, I'm only doing this. And I don't think I would enjoy that. Not a dig against Patterson, but I don't want to go that direction.

Brandon Sanderson

One of the things we're doing with these novellas is: I don't have time in the mainline books to devote to developing these characters. The mainline books are about Spensa (and, to a lesser extent, some few of the characters, like Jorgen). But I don't really have time to dig in; they're hundred-thousand-word YA action-adventure books. One of the goals with this [Evershore] is to be like: basically, Janci, FM is yours now. Let's make her a real character, rather than just the little bits that I can give in the novel. And it was really fulfilling for me to just basically turn over one of my children and be like, "Raise this child, FM." And then have you come back and be like, "What about this? What about this? What about this?" She'll still be in the books I'm working on and things, but I consider her now Janci's character that is playing a role in the stuff I'm writing, because she's now so vivid and alive. And that has been really satisfying for me as an author.

Janci Patterson

I thought it was really fun, too. Jorgen wasn't on my original list of characters, because I was given this list of, basically, people I could do anything with. And he's not one of those. But I thought it was really fun.

Brandon Sanderson

We were much more kind of collaborating on Jorgen.

graciemoo

What's Khriss's favorite magic system?

Brandon Sanderson

She does not think any of them are magic, so it would be in some sort of fiction book she's read in-world. They're all just science.

Brandon Sanderson

The initial premise of Dragonsteel, which you guys will eventually be able to read, is: the King has a bet on whether people from a rural village can be trained to be as smart as people from the noble court. And this is part of the bet. And that’s kind of the initial place that this starts and goes.

Hoid shows up pretty overtly; he’s got viewpoints in this book. He is not hidden at all; you will see him when he comes on screen, and you will know him. I think he goes by “Cephandrius” in this one.

You will be able to read that, eventually. Like I said, it’s not bad. It’ll be easier for you to compare when you get to the Bridge Four sequence, which was originally in Dragonsteel, and compare it to the new Bridge Four sequence from Way of Kings and see how the new Bridge Four sequence is so much more strong.

It is no longer Cosmere canon. Nothing in it really spoils too much. It spoils some of the magic system that’ll eventually be part of Dragonsteel, and some of those things. But when I go back to this planet, it’ll be Hoid’s viewpoint. Jerick has basically been written out of the Cosmere; I don’t know that I will ever do a book about him. It’s possible, but there’s so much overlap between his story and Kaladin’s story, now, that I don’t know if I could do it and make it interesting and distinctive. One young and somewhat brooding man raised to be a scholar from a no-name village is probably enough for the Cosmere. Even though there are distinctive different parts, since Kaladin’s father was educated.

Ninety

Would you mind giving us one tidbit that we don't know about the Purelake?

Brandon Sanderson

It was originally called the Everlake. And then I just didn't like that, for some reason; I decided to pull back. I'm like, "Eh, it's not that big. It's really shallow, that's the cool thing about it."

Very Nice Name 16

Do you ever plan to update the Knights Radiant quiz, when we've seen all the Orders in the books?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I could imagine us doing that once you've seen all the Orders. But we used a lot of information from me and my wiki and my knowledge of those Orders to make those, but the Orders could tweak as I write them, so it's totally possible that we will change things.

That would take quite a while, because it's basically saying, by Book Ten we maybe will have changed some of these.

Use the Falchion

Wondering about a Mainframe release schedule.

Brandon Sanderson

Right now, we are focused on the Skyward novellas, which are going to come out with the ebooks. We're doing ebook and audiobook together on this one, just because it's an ongoing series, and I felt locking those behind audiobook is not as appropriate as it was with something like Lux, where it was being created specifically (like, I wasn't planning to write the book) for the audio.

The things that we're mainly working on how is: Dark One, the novelization with Dan Wells. Once we get the Skyward ones done, then our attention turns to that. Dan actually just sent in a first draft of something he's been working on related to that that I told him I would read before October, once Wax and Wayne revision is done. I'm excited by that.

But first, I want to keep eyes on these Skyward releases, because they're really gonna determine what we're able to do in the future in this realm, because the publisher is putting a lot into them, and is worried (like I said earlier) about the release schedule that I have asked them to use.

Those are the main things, and I think that and then Legion: Death and Faxes is the last of our first group of Mainframe projects. And that one, we have a draft of, also.

Ninety

Did Adonalisum leave a Cognitive Shadow? And if so, has Hoid spoken to it?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO; good question. There's an enormous RAFO.