Recent entries

Wren Weichman

How old is Sigzil [in The Sunlit Man]?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Octavia Escamilla

When does [The Sunlit Man] happen?

Brandon Sanderson

Pretty late in the Cosmere, but not the latest you've seen.

Bethany Taylor

There's this scene where there was a nightmare, and Painter didn't have a paintbrush, and he just reached out to the side and a paintbrush appeared, and there was a flash of light. I need details, 'cause that seems so much like a Shardblade!

Brandon Sanderson

This is also working under the exact same mechanics, so yes, Investiture that he is Connected to is indeed being manifest as something physical.

Jackson Dickert

What Awakened the father machine? Was it the same system that we've seen with Breaths? Or was it something else? If it is Breaths, how did some one who can use that magic system, how did they get here?

Brandon Sanderson

These all work on the same fundamental mechanics. You should not be looking for someone from outside to have done this.

Jackson Dickert

There's a drama, and it has a hion sword in it. Is it just for the drama? Or can hion sword be real, please?

Brandon Sanderson

Uh... we'll make you one.

Jackson Dickert

We learn [Yumi]'s repeated this day for 1700 years, and her memory is patched over by the father machine. If memory and Investiture are so closely tied together, is the father machine also taking her Investiture? How does that work, because she's such a highly Invested individual, it seems like if it could take any Investiture from her, it would take all of it, like the nightmares did.

Brandon Sanderson

When I play with this, with tweaking memory and things like that, my go-to in the cosmere, in the three cases where you've seen it happen, is that those excising memories have to be really, really careful, or the body will reject what you're doing. So, all three times you've seen it happen, it's been one little sliver of memory is getting changed. The father machine might even just be overwriting it each day, basically blanking that Investiture, but not stealing any of it. Vasher does pull a little bit out when he takes the memory, and the same thing happens with Wit when it happened to him. But I think the father machine's doing it in a slightly different way, and it has to be really careful, or it'll be too obvious, and the whole illusion, the facade, will collapse.

Evil Monkey 3210

Are you still planning to write a book with a magic system based on disease and sickness?

Brandon Sanderson

If I'd really been on the ball, it would have been one of the Secret Projects I wrote during Covid. But I haven't found the right story for that magic system yet. So it's still in the back of my brain, and someday perhaps I will write it, but we'll see. Yes, I still am planning it, but we'll see.

Ezra

I know what was in the first four storage caverns; but what was in the fifth storage cavern? I always wonder.

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Rebecca Sito

Do any of the civilizations in the cosmere celebrate a holiday like Halloween?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Ethan Brightenhagen

What's Hoid's favorite regional curse word from the planets he's visited?

Brandon Sanderson

He's gonna like something pretty weird. He's gonna like the outlandish ones. I'll have to think about it for a while. It's probably not one that I've used yet, would be my guess. Something that might sound a little ridiculous to our ears. I think he would really like the Wheel of Time one, "mother's milk in a cup," just because it's one of those things that sounds vulgar, but isn't.

Orrin

I've always wondered how the Threnodites are so well known. Beyond shades, we don't see powers there. How are they so well-traveled?

Brandon Sanderson

There's a couple of things going on here. One is: there are ways on and off Threnody, and any of the planets that you can get on and off without needing FTL do spread through the cosmere pretty well.

The other thing is: the event that created Threnody as it's known in the cosmere (which is the death of Ambition) has wide-reaching ramifications. It's a very famous place in the same way that most people know the Bikini Islands when they might not otherwise know it, if that makes any sense. It's the source of something that has had great implications for the entirety of the cosmere.

Bisa Bink

Why did Brandon name a world Threnody?

Brandon Sanderson

I wanted a planet where I was making use of religious terminology (sometimes pseudo-religious terminology; things that are religion-adjacent also), and things that had to do with poetry and music. Lots of names like Elegy as a name. And Threnody, I believe Isaac suggested it. He'll have to correct me if I'm wrong; he might have named some other things in that system, but I think he recommended Threnody. And it felt appropriate, being a song for the dead, a dirge. Just kind of clicked.

Brinkles Peterson

What would Halloween look like on Threnody? Or would such a holiday hit far too close to home for them?

Brandon Sanderson

They are not celebrating Halloween on Threnody. They would not understand at all. They live lives of constant terror, so why you would want to do that to yourself...

Malachi

Would a compass needle point towards a perpendicularity?

Brandon Sanderson

No, a compass needle wouldn't, good question. You might be able to make some other device that could do that, but a compass needle would not naturally point toward one.

Honorblade

On a scale of one to ten, how much terror would a Scadrian feel upon seeing one of Roshar's moons?

Brandon Sanderson

It's gonna depend on the individual. I think some will get a sense of immediate dread by having that thing looming over them. That would probably be the consistent feeling. But there's probably people who are just like, "Oh, look at the thing in the sky. That's cool." So, depends on the individual.

Steve Desamos

Would you consider working with a professional linguist to translate a Cosmere novel into that planet's native equivalent?

Brandon Sanderson

Seems like a lot of work for a very few number of people. I can imagine getting, like, a short story. Like one of Hoid's stories, maybe, translated into local. But creating the full conlang is not a thing that most of us do unless there's, like, a strict need for a film. (Dothraki didn't exist as a full conlang until the television show and they started needing to be able to speak it in full sentences.) I imagine that most of my conlangs won't get fully developed until that.

Maybe... I know people love their Klingon Christmas Carol. It is a thing. It's a possibility; it's a thing I could consider. But I think a short story is way more likely.

Angela

If koloss are made using five people, spikes, and recycled blue skin as opposed to the traditional breeding method, how can someone be part koloss?

Brandon Sanderson

In Era Two, koloss breed true, and are the kind of bluish-purplish-skinned people. (They'll call them koloss-blooded at that point.) And they can interbreed with humans. A full-grown koloss undergrows a ritual that adds the spikes and turns them into Era One style koloss. Allomancer Jak's story kind of gets into this a little bit.

Illuminarrator (paraphrased)

Is there an Awakening Command that could stick a Cognitive Shadow to a corpse? 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, but that would be a bad way to do it. You'd need something more. 

Illuminarrator (paraphrased)

More Investiture? 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Not necessarily. The body at that point died because something happened to it, plus it started decomposing. You'd need to do something to it to really get the Cognitive Shadow to stick.

Illuminarrator (paraphrased)

like a Hemalurgic spike?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

That's one way to do it. 

Illuminarrator (paraphrased)

Oh! To follow up... because Regrowth is Spiritual... if a Cognitive Shadow was Awakened into a corpse, then healed with Regrowth, would the body be healed to appear like the Cognitive Shadow's body?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No, it would heal... wait, yes, Regrowth would heal based on the Identity of the Cognitive Shadow attached to it. 

Tubbs

Auxuiliary and Nomad, the Knight Radiant Bond is kind of flipped around a bit. Is it possible for Adolin and Maya to something similar happen to them?

Brandon Sanderson

There’s something that could happen there. Don’t hold your breath, but possible. I won’t RAFO that; it's possible. 

Questioner

Are there any other dragons on Roshar other than Cultivation?

Brandon Sanderson

There have been. There might be some. How about this: you shouldn't be looking for dragons among the characters of the Stormlight Archive.

Lunamor

Can a kandra eat a dragon? Either in human or just regular dragon form?

Brandon Sanderson

They can eat one in human form. Getting the whole thing in dragon form would be a little like that scene in Elden Ring.

Questioner

If Mraize took an atium spike and put it through Hoid's chest and then into himself, would he gain different abilities because of Hoid's altered spiritweb?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, he probably would. That's really terrifying to think about.

Questioner

I have a question about Hoid. If he was previously a Dawnshard that prevented him from hurting himself or others, how could he use a hemalurgic spike on himself?

Brandon Sanderson

We don't know that he has.

Questioner

But would he be able to?

Brandon Sanderson

I think there is a way he could get around that if he needed to. Basically, he has to convince himself that this isn't actually hurting him, it's helping him.

Questioner

Similar to how he could do damage to Cognitive Shadows, because they're not really...

Brandon Sanderson

Yep, exactly.

Questioner

At any given point in the cosmere, would Yolen be more technologically advanced than any other planet or society in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

I think Yolen falls behind because of certain things that they have access to. The point where it is the furthest along is during the early days, when it's, like, Bronze Age and everyone else is, like, Stone Age. So, right at the beginning. I think other planets have passed it by since then consistently. Once the Shards started meddling in things, planets started going faster, and the Shards weren't meddling on Yolen. So Yolen has had a more natural, maybe even slowed technological progression. Where some of the other planets have been super fast.

Questioner

If I were to visit Canticle in the subastral, what would that look like?

Brandon Sanderson

I think it'd be pretty violent, and a source of constant shaking and tremors.

Questioner

Would it be dangerous?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I think it'd be dangerous.

Questioner

A few years ago, you told us a story about the future Skybreakers facing off against Scadrians for aviar. Were they doing that on behalf of their Shards? Or were they doing it for their own reasons?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. Excellent question.

You can find that reading online, a possible sequel to the Sixth of the Dusk that I had worked on for a little while.

Questioner

If a shade attacks a non-Threnodite, do they turn into a shade?

Brandon Sanderson

Nope.

Questioner

Can regular Threnodites from Threnody exchange heat like they do on Canticle?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

What color are the flightsuits?

Brandon Sanderson

Have I never described the color of the flightsuits? I've always imagined light blue. Light blue to dark blue. That's one of my favorite colors, it shows up all the time. Maybe the team would convince me to do a different color. I always end up with blues and reds; I don't do enough greens, and I see you've got green on. In your version, you can canonize it as green. But I've always imagined blue.

Questioner

Originally, you RAFO'd information about whether or not Vivenna and Vasher got together as a couple. But with the fact that the Nightblood story has kind of been put on hiatus, is there any way you're going to unRAFO that information?

Brandon Sanderson

Nope.

Questioner

Throughout the Stormlight Archive, there's multiple times where we see characters... most often it's the Lopen, where he'll do, in response, a rude or obscene gesture. Will you please demonstrate it for us?

Brandon Sanderson

Lopen's going to be mimicking something you would do with two hands, because one hand represents men, and one hand represents women. I'll just leave it at that. It's gonna be something like that.

You people...

Questioner

Does Shallan unwillingly shapeshift when she is holding Stormlight and an alter takes control? If not, why do her alters' Identities not affect her in the same that other people's Identity does?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, she does shift. Sometimes it's conscious, sometimes it's unconscious, but yes, it does happen.

Questioner

Assuming you have a way to siphon out a Vessel from a Shard, how much hemalurgic metal would be required to contain that Vessel?

Brandon Sanderson

An astronomically large amount. Oh, the Vessel? Or contain a Shard? The Vessel, just a little dude... not that much. Basically, like a decent-sized gemstone would hold an Unmade, and that's more Investiture than we're talking about.

Questioner

Can hemalurgic metal hold around the same amount of an Invested creature as a pure gemstone?

Brandon Sanderson

No, gemstones can do more.

Questioner

I have a question about the end of the The Lost Metal, where one character lives and one character dies. That character kind of explicitly talked to Harmony asked if there was a way to not die. Was Harmony lying? And if Harmony was not, *inaudible*?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say that Harmony was not necessarily, but... Harmony's not lying by Harmony's perspective of things. In other words, is there a way to make this not, like... Maybe there is, like... bringing together powers. Is there a theoretical path? Maybe. But not realistically, if that makes sense. I would say Harmony wasn't lying by the way Harmony was seeing things.

Questioner

It seems a little bit like we've seen gold compounding recover from pretty significant things, if he blasts out of the bubble with a duralumin push, and he uses pure Dor to heal, even considering all that?

Brandon Sanderson

Harmony's seeing all that and being like, "None of this is gonna work in this situation."

Questioner

What is the biggest editorial change you have ever made to one of your stories from your arcanists who said, "Oh you can't do this because of *inaudible* or for canon content?"

Brandon Sanderson

I'm not sure if I can come up with the biggest. I can list a couple of them that I did change.

They have a lot of influence over Sunlit Man and my weird little tiny planet, my Little Prince planet, that you're traveling around. Getting me to do that accurately... to the point that, at some points, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm gonna give a magical solution to that." And they're like, "That's fine. Know that physicists will complain." And then they did. But then they got mad... not mad, but they're like, "But there is a magical reason."

I only have a full arcanist team on a couple of books so far. They've been involved in all the Secret Projects. They're working with me on Stormlight Five. This is just me finding the people who ask the questions that make me go, "Huh, I hadn't considered that," and then putting them to work to be doing that on my behalf. Really, most of what they do is not say "no," they say "we would like an explanation; you should make sure that this is included." And once in a while, it makes me pull back on an idea. But they're usually really small things that are gonna cause issues for the future, and things like that. I just met with them on Stormlight Five, for instance, and they gave me a few pointers on things. They'd say, "You probably should explain this. You probably should not use this line, because people are gonna explore that and extrapolate that direction." And I'm like, "you are right."

Most of the cases, they're like, "What is this?" And then I explain it, and they're like, "Great. You have an answer. We can move on." You'd have to ask them, but I'd say that one out of ten times, I don't have an answer. But those one out of ten times are really handy for them to be asking those questions that I don't have answers to. Because I have to go do this for all of you, and I'd better have the answers by then.

Questioner

Is Vasher a dragon?

Brandon Sanderson

Vasher is not. Keep searchin'!

Questioner

Can dragons only be born through biological means? Or can someone become dragons through another means?

Brandon Sanderson

The way dragons exist in the cosmere is that they are a race. Dragons have this thing where they actually... in the cosmere, dragons breed in their human form (they have both forms) and give birth in their human form. And the dragon form is separate. They raise families and have children as humans, and they consider both an equal form, to them.

Questioner

What are the four Dawnshards?

Brandon Sanderson

They are the weapon used to Shatter Adonalsium. What they actually are, I won't tell you yet. Like, what their different... But that's what they are, in case you didn't know that much.

Questioner

In Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, when Yumi is flying out into the Shroud, Hoid makes a comment. He said, "She didn't even have to burn tin." Does that mean that the mists on Scadrial is made of something similar or even the same thing as the dispersed souls on Yumi's planet?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, something similar. The idea is that being able to see through the Investiture happens when you are kind of aligning to it in certain ways, it stops disrupting as much, and you gain some sort of extrasensory perception, that it doesn't interfere with you as it might with someone else. And it's really nothing more than that; she's aligning with this, and in Mistborn, it's aligning to theirs. It doesn't mean she'd be able to see through the mists.

Questioner

That's kind of the answer to my second question, which was: does that mean that any highly Invested individual could see through Scadrian mist, whether they be using Breath or Stormlight...?

Brandon Sanderson

Not necessarily. There are ways you could do it, but not necessarily.

Questioner

Given that kandra can replicate human organs, is it possible for a human and a kandra to have a child? And if so, would that child be purely human, or some kind of combination?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a yes, and it would be some kind of combination.

Questioner

Say a Shard is splintered beyond recognition. Would some rather industrious people with something, perhaps like a Dawnshard, be able to change that Shard?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, this is theoretically possible.

Questioner 2

I wanted to ask about how we were just told you could use a Dawnshard to reshape a shattered Shard, perhaps into something different.

Brandon Sanderson

I didn't actually confirm that. They just said "maybe using a Dawnshard." They were looking "is there a way to do this?" And I'm saying, "There is theoretically a way to do this." Would a Dawnshard have to be involved? That is not something that I'm canonizing.

Questioner

Is this the main reason that the Night Brigade is pursuing Zellion in pursuit of the Dawnshard?

Brandon Sanderson

The main reason that the Night Brigade is chasing Zellion is that the Dawnshards represent one of the most valuable things in the entire cosmere. Why are they that valuable? It's because they are one of the things that... I mean, the Dawnshards Shattered Adonalsium. That's what they did. And the Vessels are all very rightly scared of them. That would be the second main reason. There are other reasons.

Questioner

You've spoken before about if the Shattering took place at a different time or in different circumstances, the Shards would have been different.

Brandon Sanderson

Could have been. Could have been different, yes.

Questioner

Does that mean, someone 100%s the cosmere and gets all sixteen, does that make them (or does that produce) Adonalsium? Or would that be different?

Brandon Sanderson

That is a RAFO.

Questioner

Why or how are the Heralds the only ones we've seen so far that are affected by magical maladies due to either their high Investiture or long lives?

Brandon Sanderson

I would argue the Fused are having the same situation, so they're not the only ones. The why and how... there's a whole host of things going on here. Like a lot of physical and mental illness, it's not one thing or the other. But it is a compound of other things.

One is going so long without certain protections that you kind of need to take. The human being's soul might be immortal, depending on your argument in the cosmere. (That's really up to you.) But they certainly aren't meant for thousands of years of existence, the same way that our bodies aren't. There's some of that.

There's some of the things they've been through. Like, legit trauma; this is not all simply a magical ailment. You've got people with PTSD, layers of PTSD on top of layers of PTSD, for thousands of years, bearing things that no human being without their level of Investiture would even be able to bear. You've got that manifestation, you've got their own sense of guilt.

And these things are all just kind of overlapping together with the fact they've been alive for so, so very long. And a lot of the people that you've seen otherwise have not been alive nearly... orders of magnitude more for the Heralds. The only people you've seen that are that old are: some of the dragons, Hoid, and Vessels of various Shards. And you're basically at that group. And this is a group who knows what they're doing. Either they were built like the dragons, this is part of their innate nature, that they are functionally immortal. Or you are getting the Shards. Or you're getting people that are 300 years old, which is a very different thing, cosmere-wise, than having lived for thousands and thousands of years, part of it being torture.

Questioner

If a Leecher who also could burn duralumin touched a normal person and then burned both metals at the same time, how bad is that gonna be for you?

Brandon Sanderson

Let me ask you this. What do you think's gonna happen?

Questioner

There is a very short-term, like, "where is my soul" effect? It may or may not be permanent?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm gonna RAFO this one for now, because I'm planning to do some of this in the future. But I'll RAFO it for now. I think you're theorizing in the right direction. Duralumin lets some weird things happen, as you will see in the books.

Questioner

My question is about Vin's earring. We see later on in the books that hemalurgic spikes lose their charge very rapidly. But Vin leaves her earring in a box. So how does it contain enough charge to still have enough of an effect for her to...?

Brandon Sanderson

I have this on a logarithmic scale. At the beginning, you lose some power pretty quick. And then it evens out. And my answer there is just there was enough left, and it could have, at that point, gone decades without getting to the point that it's a hemalurgic spike in name only. The reason they want to keep... they want to maintain as much power in those as they can. Which is why they talk about this thing. The first day you leave that spike without a host, or without taking certain precautions, you lose the most power that you're ever gonna lose. So those who were aware of this tried very hard not to let that happen. But once it does happen, you end up with something like Vin's earring, which still has a hemalurgic charge, a significant one, enough of one to have a change on the person wearing it. If we didn't do this then, like, koloss spikes, would be meaningless very quickly. I built it into this. It's one of those, like, steep drop off, and then not bad.

Questioner

When the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact, why did they believe they needed to leave their Honorblades behind as they disbanded? Did they know what would happen to their blades after they left them?

Brandon Sanderson

There's a couple things going on here. If you've read Way of Kings Prime, there is built, originally into the Honorblades, the ability to find other Honorblades by using them. This has not been canonized into the cosmere as it exists yet, but it is still a power that's in the back of my mind, it is most likely something you can access with the Honorblades: let you find the others. This is calling back to the old Fred Saberhagen Swords books, which were part of the inspiration for these. So one reason they would leave them behind, the lesser reason, is: they're supposed to go split up, and they don't want to see each other. They want to leave them behind, because it's like: "The others might be able to find me. We're going our separate ways. We are done."

But the greater reason, the canon reason, that you can cite is that idea of: "I am walking away from being a Herald. This was the gift I was given, and a representation of that gift I was given, that represents me standing up for humankind. And I am no longer willing to do that, so I have to give this thing up." And they all knew it. They didn't have to be told it, because they knew what they were doing meant they didn't deserve those anymore. Not in a magical sense, but in a sort of philosophical and moral sense.

Questioner

Is there a relationship between cinderhearts and what happened to Amaram? And if so, what is it?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there is a relationship. It just kind of built on some basic, fundamental cosmere principles. This power feeding a little bit on even your own sense of Identity and Connection and things like this, as the power consumes it, and kind of starts to turn you into a spren a little bit, is what's happening there. Drawing it in. They're very similar mechanisms; it's not that they're related magically, like a lineage of magic sort of way. But on the same fundamental principle. And this is what lets the Unmade kind of just take over a person, quickly consume them, and then move on.

Questioner

In a battle versus a Feruchemist and a Windrunner, if the Feruchemist were lashed directly upward, would increasing his weight cancel that lashing out?

Brandon Sanderson

The way that lashings work are by rewriting your body's interaction with gravity. That's very weird. It's very, very weird. The way that Feruchemy works, it is kind of the same way. I play loose and free with this one (this is the one that drives everybody else mad). It is actually changing, so would it... what would it do?

So, part of me wants to say you would fall upward faster. But that's not how gravity works, so that wouldn't happen. But would it counteract the lashing? I think that the lashing would incorporate it, and nothing would change. That is my best guess, but your lashing, then, probably runs out faster. That's my off-the-cuff answer; I'd have to really look at the mechanics of that. But you can take that for now. I'll have to consult with the arcanists to make sure I'm not going crazy on that.

Questioner

My question is about Reckoners. Are there any heroes, villains, or other characters that you came up with that did not make it to the final draft of the books?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, there were a bunch of powers and things like that, names and things, but it's now been long enough that I'd have to go consult my notes. Most of them that I came up with, I abandoned for one of a couple reasons.

Number one, I went and did my research, and there's a Marvel or DC character that does that exact thing that exact way. That didn't stop me completely, because they've done everything. But with some of the side characters, because I like to try to throw out something that seemed a little odd.

Number two, there just wasn't a place for it. I'm writing the book, and I didn't need another one to use here.

Those are the main two. You do this a lot in books, so I'd have to go look at my notes, I don't have one off the top of my head.

Questioner

Does Spensa's mom have a name?

Brandon Sanderson

All right, I'll canonize that for you. It's in my notes. I'll make sure that I canonize that for you. We'll send out a tweet. I'll ask Karen before I do it, though.