Dominic James
In the "Dark One" novel you're planning, will that character be the dark one for the entire cosmere or just that world?
Peter Ahlstrom
That world.
In the "Dark One" novel you're planning, will that character be the dark one for the entire cosmere or just that world?
That world.
I wonder if creationspren pop up when people are getting busy...
There's a different spren for that.
Only one chapter left to write in Dalinar's flashbacks. This one will answer many questions you might have had about his past.
Were there any surprises for you as you wrote about his past? I know you like to discovery-write your characters
After writing Dalinar in book one, I had settled most of this. But yes, there were still some surprises.
Since Jasnah has been "out and about," should we be watching for cameos in your other books?
Problem is, no books are currently happening right at the same time as Stormlight. And Jasnah hasn't gone far afield.
Are there any chances we are going to revisit Vin and Reen's story? They are such fascinating characters! '-'
Not much of a chance, I'm afraid. I don't love prequels. But anything is possible.
Finished Firefight the other day! Epic, as always. Have you seen the real-life Spyril? :D https://t.co/T0HZiHIzKu
That is where I got the idea. :)
Is there a connection between Sak's talent and Allomantic electrum? If so, what is it?
Yes. Reading a person's spiritual connections and possibilities. Similar powers, as is atium.
Was much of the Shattered Plains inspired by the beach?
A lot of the life on Roshar is inspired by tide pools.
What is a half beard. A short beard or are nobles in Luthadel walking around with one side of their face smooth.?
Their term for goatee.
Does Kai's name (Perfect State) rhyme with the letter A or I?
I can't remember. It might appear in a video of Brandon's reading from his recent tour.
He says it like "hey" but I realized that might be like an informal "K". Like a Jason might be J.
Nah, it's not a K. So that means that's how you pronounce it. Brandon is usually more likely to say ai as A than I (as I would).
Same with Shai?
Yes.
Would you be able to tell us the location of the Velding (Elantris) for the wiki page?
From the context, it's like a mixture of the Kremlin and the Vatican (or Saint Basil's Cathedral). So, too small for the map.
The Unmade were "made" or are Unmade because they have never been made? It would be 2 different words in Spanish. Thank you.
That is a good question. I assumed they had never been made but it's possible it is the other.
Could a Surgebinder shut down Shardplate by cracking a piece and then consuming the Stormlight from the internal gems?
Yes, though getting the Stormlight out of those gems while they're already powering something is not easy.
We need to see a cosmere world with a more musical magic system!
I've thought of a few, but have trouble finding something that feels distinctive from other song-based magic systems.
But, I get the feeling you forgot about copperclouds making Smokers and mistborn immune to emotional allomancy. Didn't you?
They don't. Only the Smoker himself is made immune.
I am not suggesting otherwise. However, I remember Sanderson saying Zane used emotional Allomancy on Vin, and Vin using duralumin and brass successfully on Yomen's Smoker (and Tineye) at the ball. Among other instances I forget.
Duralumin beats copper. I'm not sure about the other instance.
Are [Jaddeth] & [Domi] the Shards Dominion & Devotion?
Domi is more Devotion and Jaddeth is more Dominion. But there is some mixing. The shard holders were Aona and Skai.
Were the Alethi made by some creator-figure and given the Thrill deliberately?
Roshar was inhabited before Honor and Cultivation arrived. The Thrill did not exist then.
So it's a response to the power of one of or both of them?
I didn't say that... :)
How come the base 8 abilities come in pairs by base metal & alloy, but the higher ability pairs are not related?
Which book are you on? Things change after the first book. They don't understand things as well as they think.
I've read all 4 several times. Ex: electrum is a gold alloy yet it is opposite of atium & malatium opposite gold...>
Alloys of atium can't be thought of as establishing any pattern.
@PeterAhlstrom there are alloyS (plural) of atium?! Any chance that atium or its alloys show up again in any of the upcoming novels?
RAFO :)
And were I minded to, could I kill Kaladin with a Hemalurgic spike and steal his Windrunning? (I don't want to kill Kaladin)
You can steal most things with Hemalugy, but Surgebindings are tricky because of the spren. Requires some non-standard workings.
Finally, Brandon RAFO'd me on my question about "the wicked thing of eminence" that Alice theorized about. I asked "Was the wicked thing of eminence an action of spren, of men, or both?" I didn't go into this with him in a line, but my theory is about the spren.
Could Honor and Autonomy be considered opposites, like, Autonomy freeing from Honor's oaths?
Yes, you could definitely think of it that way. Those two are more likely to be opposed than some others.
Is Threnody named in memorial of someone/something?
*big smile* Yes it is.
The reading:
- He read this reading again (I was hoping for something new but only like??? 5 people in the audience had read Words of Radiance and the other excerpt he had prepared had WoR spoilers in it). It's young Dalinar at the feast.
- The only thing of note is in our reading he originally called Sadeas's wife "Ialai Sadeas", then he stopped, cleared his throat and corrected to "Ialai Torol" which would be an interesting naming convention, or his name really is Sadeas Torol and we've all be wrong this whole time.
What did you do while writing Wheel of Time?
Alternated between writing Wheel of Time books and Cosmere books.
What's the status of the video game (Birthright)?
- It. Didn't work out.
- There was another author at the time trying to get something done with (if I recall correctly) the same company, and he didn't want to compete with them.
- They still have the game rights.
It's been delayed mostly until there's some sort of movie out because basically there's two ways they can do a video game. They can do a big AAA game that will be very very expensive and it could flop, or they could do a smaller indie game. Because there's not a huge established audience from a movie, they want to wait until then before producing a game.
- He wants the gameplay to be a bit like Infamous in design (if I recall correctly).
- Basically what's stopping them right now is it's just really really expensive.
What about The Apocalypse Guard?
- It's set in the Reckoners era
- Basically the coffee girl intern of the Apocalypse Guard gets sucked into a different dimension or something and they have to go retrieve her.
- You can read more here:Â http://brandonsanderson.com/the-apocalypse-guard/
What will be in Arcanum Unbound?
- All of the things.
- All of the short stories and novellas that are part of the Cosmere by the release date will be included in it, as well as the Lift novella.
Can you tell us more about Khriss?
- She has a cameo in Bands of Mourning
- She's the main character of White Sand, basically said just read White Sand to get more information since it comes out soon.
- Nahz is basically her grumpy secret agent she sends out to go retrieve artifacts for her.
The Movie Question
- A film adaptation is different than a graphic novel adaptation. A film brings in new fans who may not be avid readers, a completely different audience. A graphic novel will likely have a similar audience to his books.
- With book to film adaptations he says that there's only a one-in-three chance it will be a good adaptation of one of his books, and it's a risk he's willing to take.
- He quoted someone he couldn't remember saying basically that you can make a bad film, but that doesn't change the fact that the book is good. Someone once asked an author about a film ruining their book and they said "It's still there on the shelf, nothing's happened to the book."
- He sold the rights to people he feels he can trust to make good movies.
- Of all of them, Reckoners has the best chance at getting a movie but he made it clear that's just his hunch/estimate and we shouldn't run to Twitter getting excited about a movie that might not even happen.
White Sand Information
- His goal for it was a fantasy desert ecology that wasn't Dune.
- [White Sand] was his best unpublished book he wrote between Elantris and Mistborn.
- He didn't want a graphic novel to be a 1:1 adaptation of one of his existing books because it gives nothing to the old readers. He wanted to make sure it's something that new readers will like as well as his existing fans.
- [White Sand] needed a heavy edit and he worked with a script writer and talked a little bit about the process of that.
How much say did you have in the narrators for your audiobooks?
He talked about the process behind picking narrators in the sense of he's allowed to request people, but if they can't get them, the publisher will present him with other options he can pick from. Same went for book cover artists (he chose Michael Whelan). He requested Michael Kramer and Kate Reading for his books because he was impressed with how he did the Wheel of Time books. The only one he didn't have say in is the original Warbreaker narrator (surfer dude Lightsong, anyone?).
What's your favorite magic system you've written?
Compared picking a fave system to picking a fave child, it's easier to pick who is most obedient. He likes writing Allomancy/the metallic arts the most
He also commented about how he wanted people to like Steris, and says people probably don't like her in [The Alloy of Law] because they don't see enough of her and don't get to know her.
Does The Lost Metal takes place in Southern Scadrial?
No, it's in the Basin. However it will have stuff about South Scadrial in it. His exact words were he doesn't want to write anything set in south Scadrial "yet".
How do chasmfiends reproduce?
Pretty similarly to chulls. He says there's a hint on the chull reproduction page in [Words of Radiance]. The last step of the reproduction cycle, for chasmfiends, involves a spren.
Are there service animals on Roshar/Alethkar and if so what are they, out of the fauna we know?
Axehounds are very easily trained and domesticated and would make for great service animals. Minks, probably next but not nearly as good as axehounds. He also mentioned that we'll know more about them, and their name, later.
Has Renarin been a Radiant since before we first met him in The Way of Kings?
RAFO, saving it for the Renarin pov parts to explore.
Who bonded with their spren first, out of the new Radiants?
Chronologically, and of the ones we know, Jasnah.
Does Marsh like cats?
He's more of a dog person (but fairly neutral towards cats). Kelsier is a cat person. Brandon himself is a cat person (he has a cat).
You're in Houston, questions of Oil & Gas and energy sources will be naturally be bandied about.
Naturally.
Is the gasoline on Scadrial a fossil fuel or biodiesel?
Oh. Hmm. Well It's fossil fue... No. What they're using now is mostly biodiesel, I think. It's not something we really talked out.
Ok, we had a whole thread on 17th Shard and even discussed how scientifically fossil fuels could have been put into place during the Catacendre.
Well, fossil fuels are possible, and I don't want to seem like I'm clearly giving credence to those that believe in a Young Earth, but Scadrial is a relatively young planet. Relatively.
Young Earth doesn't bother me, though I know I'm not the majority.
Where on Scadrial is it being produced? No mention of refineries in Elendel or the Roughs.
Where on Scadrial... Well it's... I'm going to have to RAFO that for now. It starts to touch on questions of the future as they will need more fuels for travel and they'll need to look for different sources.
Is it only greatshells that have gemhearts, or do all crustaceans on Roshar have some sort of gem inside? And if it is only greatshells then are their unique decayspren related to this fact?
They're not only greatshells, but not every crustacean has a gemheart, at least not of the style that would be of any relevance to you. Some have the same sort of chemistry going on in their body, they're just too small to have it coalesce into a gemheart. And the gemheart is related to how-- particularly the greatshells, can grow to get so big.
Could you use Hemalurgy to steal Surgebinding?
Absolutely, you could steal Surgebinding with Hemalurgy. *crowd laughs* Booooo, you should be scared of that.
Does a Connection medallion account for heavy sarcasm?
It would. Maybe not the heaviest, most deadpan sarcasm.
Would a Connection medallion work for sign language?
Yes.
Would it make the person's fingers move or would spoken word be interpreted mentally as the appropriate sign? Would it overcome deafness?
Ehhh... It would translate the communication. I can say that.
Do you invent ridiculous accents for Wayne just to see if Michael Kramer can do different voices?
No, it's not just to torture Michael, though Brandon really enjoys hearing how Michael reads the different voices and he's amazed at the various accents, and he listens to all of the audiobooks at least once...
I've never actually read any of your books
That's okay
How would you rate your books versus others?
I don't pump them up too much or you're sure to be disappointed no matter what. I'd say compared to other books, they're a little bit awesome.