Recent entries

    Crafty Games Mistborn Dice Livestream with Isaac Stewart ()
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    Paleo

    Was Nazh married? Do you know how to pronounce the full name?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We call him Nazh (næz), and his name is Nazrilof (ˈnæzɹɪlɔf).

    We're not ready to reveal whether he was married yet, or not. Or if he still is married. A lot of questions there. However, this is something that we are actively working on, is Nazh's backstory and Khriss's backstory right now. Actively working on them.

    Crafty Games Mistborn Dice Livestream with Isaac Stewart ()
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    Gamerati

    What's interesting about the difference between the classic era Allomancy symbols and the Alloy of Law era ones is, when you get to Alloy of Law, the rusty nails become railroad spikes almost, right?

    Isaac Stewart

    Yep, they do. We codified that, we decided, "Okay, now they're turning these things into typefaces, they're turning them into fonts." We even have some that hopefully we'll use later in the 1980s era trilogy, Era 3, where we've made them really thick. They're just different font, too, we've been playing with different ideas of, "How would they use the Allomantic symbols as typefaces?"

    Crafty Games Mistborn Dice Livestream with Isaac Stewart ()
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    Isaac Stewart

    Those dots [in Allomancy symbols] can move around. They are an alphabet, so you can use these as an alphabet to write things. And the placement of the dot will tell you where the vowel is that comes after it.

    So, if you do tin and duralumin... tin is the "I." (It looked like an "I," so I assigned "I" to it. Plus, I thought it was cool. My name starts with an "I," and I wanted it). Duralumin is the letter for "S." And the ones that are not vowels, you can move the dot around for different things.

    I think you can throw the dot outside of it, and it will make a different sound, and I can't remember. Like, it might go from "Sah" to "Say." And if you don't change it, then it just acts...

    I think, on the Badali [rings], they're just transliterating it one-to-one.

    Crafty Games Mistborn Dice Livestream with Isaac Stewart ()
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    Herowannabe

    I've always wondered if there was any rhyme or reason to the designs of the original Allomancy symbols. Do the number of spikes signify anything? The direction they're point? In, out, the number of dots, etc.

    Isaac Stewart

    No. For the most part. If I remember right, some of them have the dot inside the circle, some of them have the dot outside of the circle. And that signifies whether they're a Pushing metal or a Pulling metal.

    Crafty Games Mistborn Dice Livestream with Isaac Stewart ()
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    Isaac Stewart

    At one point, we were going to do little sketches in Mistborn, and then we decided on just symbols. But there were going to be little sketches in front of the parts.

    Gamerati

    So how did you move away from sketches into the current symbology that we have?

    Isaac Stewart

    I honestly think that I just wasn't good enough an artist at the time (maybe not even now) to pull off this sort of illustrative thing that we wanted to do, so it kind of morphed into symbols instead.

    Crafty Games Mistborn Dice Livestream with Isaac Stewart ()
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    Gamerati

    How did you meet Brandon?

    Isaac Stewart

    Kind of in a roundabout way. We were both at a magazine at BYU called The Leading Edge. I didn't go as often. He was the editor; I met him once or twice. He didn't remember me, but I met a lot of other people that worked at the magazine who, now, some of them are my coworkers here at Dragonsteel. But I stopped going to the magazine at some point, finished my schooling, went on to start working, and decided that I needed to go back to school for optometry. I just didn't know if there was going to be a future in art for me, so I went back to school for optometry. I already had a lot of the prerequisites because I had tried a stint at dentistry for a few years before going into animation.

    So I went back to school, decided to take the science fiction writing class again at BYU. By this time, Brandon was teaching it. He and I were closer in age than the other students there. This was, like, his second year teaching it. And we just clicked. We became friends. One night at dinner (because we would go out after the class and eat on those nights), I was drawing on the tablecloth at a Macaroni Grill (where they give you the crayons and things), and he said, "Oh, I didn't know you were an artist." 'Cause I was going to school for optometry at the time, I wasn't really advertising that I was an artist. So, doodling on the tablecloth, he said, "Hey, wanna do maps for my next book?" By this time, Elantris wasn't out yet, but it was about to come out. So I said, "Sure, I'll do your maps." He didn't know that I'd been doing fantasy maps on the side just for fun for quite a while, so it was kind of serendipitous.

    General Reddit 2016 ()
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    Ben McSweeney

    i do have a rough design for this, because we had Dalinar's bridges appearing on the endpaper illustration that I helped Michael with. We ended up making them veeeeerrry small in the final, but a design was roughed out for 'em nevertheless.

    I should warn it's even less canon than my sketches for Sadeas bridges. But I'll see what I can dig up.

    -EDIT-

    Threw this together out of some loose stuff I had laying around. In the corner is part of the original sketch I had sent to Michael. Then I added some step-by-step sketches and filled out the remaining space with miscellaneous unseen stuff.

    I must emphasize once again, these are not Brandon-approved concepts. Half of it isn't even that well thought-out, it's just a draft so I could wrap my head around the idea for the purposes of background details. I am also not an engineer.

    http://i.imgur.com/WNRJsS8.jpg

    Anyhow, I had the idea that the hinge is the weak point, but it also doubles the length you can extend, so I added two large posts that would extend to counterweight the bridge during operation and then push the other way to support the surface of the bridge during the crossover of the tower. Not only does the raised bridge shield your troops from fire up to the drop point, you can station archers in the upper portions to rain fire down upon the enemy that defends your landing position.

    The downside to all of this, of course, is that it's sllloooowwww... and of course, these big towers with their support crews and complex engineering are a lot more costly than throwing thirty or forty slaves under a wedge of timber and forcing them to run, drop, lift, run, drop, lift, run, drop, die. Dalinar's crews have a decent chance of actually surviving their runs. Dalinar's bridges can also cross slightly wider chasms than Sadeas's (I don't recall if that's from the books or just me trying to give this design a bit of an advantage).

    There's probably a smarter way to handle the hinge and counterweight issue than those long posts, but I haven't given it much thought.

    General Reddit 2015 ()
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    Ben McSweeney

    I've done most of the illustrations for The Mistborn Adventure Game. It's the licensed tabletop RPG for the series.

    Lots of different cane designs in there, and a few that carried into the sourcebooks for Alloy of Law. I've tried out several designs, just about every variation I could think of... there's no single "correct" design for dueling canes. It depends a lot on the style of the duelist and the fashion of the period. For instance, the jitte design suggests a dueling style that traps the opponent's cane. Reversing the guard might suggest a more aggressive style that protects the fingers when the duelist is open after a swing or a thrust. And then there's canes with even hilts, or no hilts, or hilts that follow different shapes.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    If you will say you're the MCU, to compare you, we're at, I think, the Winter Soldier period?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Maybe, yeah. The comparison to the MCU doesn't quite work. It is the closest thing. The thing that I warn people is that the convergence of the Cosmere books is more about the clash of the different cultures of the Cosmere worlds, and it's less about uniting a group of heroes. The MCU works because your title character, your title character, your title character, and your title character are going to team up, which is really cool. For the Cosmere, don't imagine that that's where I'm going, though some of those characters will show up. The idea is that I am building Star Trek one planet at a time, and I'm then going to deal with the intergalactic politics of it all, and it's the clash of all these different societies and their different magics and their way of seeing the world is what I'm pushing toward, rather than a big team-up event.

    Questioner

    I think everybody would like to know, what is the Infinity War of the Cosmere?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The equivalent would be the last Mistborn trilogy.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    Let's say we are twenty years in the future. You've finished the Cosmere books. What do you think you'll write next? I don't think you'll ever stop writing!

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, I won't. Let's get me there, first. Because, for me to finish the Cosmere, I need Warbreaker 2. I need to do Elantris 2 and 3. I need to do the Threnody novel. I have two other standalones that are not planets you know yet. I need to finish six more Stormlight books. I need to finish the last Wax and Wayne book and two more eras of Mistborn. And I need to do the prequel Hoid story, the Dragonsteel books. I mean, the Cosmere, I don't know the count on there, but the Cosmere is, like, fifteen books so far. And I have more than that left to write, and it's been fifteen years. So we're averaging one book a year, so 20 years, hopefully, I'll be approaching. But let's get me there, first.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    I also read that you went to visit the United Arab Emirates, and you wrote the Alloy of Law while you were on the plane.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I didn't write the whole book.

    Questioner

    What did you write on the way here?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wrote Stormlight Four on the way here. Let's see if I can give you a non-spoiler version of the scene, so you can know when you get there. In the scene, the person who's a Bondsmith is being flown about by Windrunners who are not the Windrunner who is the main character. So when you get to a scene that this character's being flown about by Windrunners and moving to a different part of the world, you will know that scene was written on the flight here.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    What was the moment that you finally understood that you were an international success?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The first moment that happened was actually before the Wheel of Time. Things were really starting to take off. Hero of Ages was where it started to really just hit. And I can still remember... my agent, one of their jobs is to go around the world and sell all my books in all the different languages. And they're very, very good at this. Most of the languages you sell the books in, the population of fantasy readers is such that they aren't big checks. We don't do it for the big checks for a lot of these countries. It's just more about how science fiction/fantasy fandom is a big community, and we like having the books. And a lot of the smaller countries, the agent doesn't really earn their money back, but it's still cool to do, so we do it. And I'm used to getting these checks for 50 bucks, or things like this. "Here's your Bulgarian rights at 50 bucks," and you're like "Yes!"

    And I opened a check from Taiwan, and I was expecting 50 bucks. And it was 50 grand. So I called the agent, and I'm like, "Hey, you moved the decimal." I legitimately just thought it was a bank error. When you're expecting 50, and it's 50 grand, that's... you know. And my agent said, "Guess what... Turns out Mistborn is a massive bestseller in Taiwan."

    Questioner

    So you're almost big in Japan?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Most fantasy authors aren't big in Japan, by the way. Japan's one of the places that's very hard to sell fantasy. The local writing traditions are so strong that they have their own... the anime and manga and light novels and litrpg that traditional Western fantasy just doesn't do very well in Japan. (Which is totally fine. They have lots of cool stuff; I read their stuff.)

    But when I got that, and then the other countries started coming in. And instead of being 50 dollars, they'd be 5 grand, or things like this. And you're like, "Oh, something is happening." And my agent's like, "Yeah, something's happening." That's when we first got the inkling.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, we're going to read Rhythm of War. Rhythm of War is the working title, most likely the final title, of Stormlight Four. There are not that many things I can actually read for you that won't spoil the first book. There are a few. For those who haven't read the Stormlight books, all of the prologues take place on the same day, and the books before, they always flash back to a different prologue from a different character viewpoint on the same day that the king was assassinated. (And that's not a spoiler because the first line of the book, of the prologue, is a character thinking about how they're there to assassinate the king.)

    So, the thing I'm gonna warn you about here is that my continuity editor has not been through this yet. And these prologues get really tricky to intertwine because of where everybody is at certain times. So whenever I turn in one of these prologues, it's a lot of work to make sure that each of the characters can be where they need to be, so that the prologues don't go out of continuity with each other. So, do be warned, this is first draft. But this is Navani's prologue.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    Where are all the [movie] rights?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Mostly, at this point, I'm keeping a lot of these rights close to my heart and not selling them off as easily as I did earlier in my career. I just don't need the money anymore. So I'm being a little more discerning, being a little slower to sign deals.

    So, we have the Reckoners at Fox, with Sean Levy. I did sell Legion for a television show. That's under option right now. And we likely will sell Alcatraz here very soon for an animated show.

    A lot of people ask if I will make animated Mistborn or Stormlight. That's on the table. It will depend on where some of these animation projects like the Castlevania adaptation and things like that, if this continues to be a good, viable method of storytelling. So, it's certainly not off the table, but neither are live action television shows. I really wanna see how The Witcher does. I wanna see how Wheel of Time does. I'm a producer on that. We'll see how the new Lord of the Rings at Amazon does. I wanna see how they're doing with fantasy in this sort of post-Game of Thrones world. So, we'll see. Hopefully, we'll get a really good Rothfuss adaptation out of Showtime. There's a lot of cool things happening.

    So, we will see. Right now, most of the Cosmere is not under contract to anyone anymore, and I'm just kind of holding onto it. There's a company, DMG, that I've been working with on some of them. They still are involved, I still like them, but we are moving slowly, right now. We're just kind of keeping our eyes open.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    Are there any cool powers or mechanics that you really liked but had to cut out of your work?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I went through a lot of cool powers for Allomancy that I thought were nifty that I didn't end up using. So, yes, there's some there. You would ask me to list a few, and I would just have to get out the notes to remind myself, because it's been fifteen years. So, I'm not sure what they are. But I know I went through a whole list of abilities before I settled on the ones I was gonna use.

    I cut a really fun character from Elantris; you can read deleted scenes on my website. There's a really fun antagonist who showed up in the story at the wrong place. It was a big distraction. I cut that out.

    Every book has some things that get trimmed or cut out. Usually, they're not really big elements. Book Three of Stormlight was supposed to have a Syl viewpoint. It didn't get in there, but we'll get it in in another book, don't worry. It just didn't fit. We had even a little symbol drawn up for her, so hopefully we'll be able to use it in the next book.

    There's just things that happen that just don't end up working, and they end up on the cutting room floor. You're like, "Don't cut any of it, Brandon! Just leave it!" Trust me; it's better. The first draft of Oathbringer was 540,000 words long, and the final cut was 460,000 words. So, we cut 80,000 words, which is an entire novel, out of that book. But the book is way stronger for having done that. And you wouldn't enjoy it as much.

    It's like, I try to get it down so the soda tastes right. And if it's watered down too much, you're like, "I get two cups of Coke instead of one!" But both of them taste half as good. I would rather give you one really good cup of Coke.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    In The Reckoners, you mostly focused on the USA. I'm assuming that it happened across the world. So my question is: what happened to Israel?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, man. I'm barely figuring out what happened in Europe. You're gonna make me stretch. I'll RAFO that for now. It'll be a bug in my ear until I figure it out, how about that.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    Your magic systems are very structured, and specific rules that dominate them. But are there any universal laws that apply to all of the magic systems in the cosmere together?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, there's several of them. Basically, the most important one and relevant to people who enjoy real physics is that I consider something called Investiture to be a third state of matter and energy. So, instead of e=mc^2, we have a third thing, Investiture, in there. And you can change Investiture to matter or to energy. And so, because of that, that law that you can do this, is where we see a lot of the cosmere magics living.

    We also have a kind of rule that beings all exist, everything exists on three different levels. The Physical, the Spiritual, and the Cognitive. And, like we have DNA for our Physical self, we also have Mental DNA and Spiritual DNA, and all three influence one another. For instance, you couldn't test an Allomancer's blood and find the Allomancy gene, because it is in a different set of their DNA. You just have three sets. You could compose a test that could test it on the Spiritual Realm, but you're gonna have to use a different branch of physics to do that and determine who was an Allomancer. And so they all work on this kind of fundamental rules of: your Identity, your Connection, and being part of your soul, and the magics working through those things.

    So there's some fundamental rules about this, about changing forms from energy to matter, and you having this Identity, Investiture, and Connection stored in your Spiritual DNA that are really relevant to everything.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Questioner

    What would you say are one or two aspects in the fantasy genre that are not well-appreciated by the masses?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I've already mentioned it, but I think that truly great humorous fantasy is not appreciated for the difficulty that writing good humorous fantasy that also has good plot and worldbuilding... I'm speaking of Sir Terry again. Writing really good comedic fantasy is as hard as writing regular fantasy, plus more difficult for that extra layer. So I don't think that's appreciated.

    But in a general term, anything we do that's not about our prose is generally not appreciated. Because we have a tradition that has grown up, and it's actually fairly recent (because novels are fairly recent) in the last hundred years or so, that elevates one type of storytelling above all others. That type of storytelling is still pretty cool, right? I can read something that got a Nobel Prize and be like, "Wow, this is pretty awesome. I love what they're doing with this." But it's basically like awards only ever being given to one flavor of ice cream. So, if you have the Best Ice Cream of the Year Award, but Rocky Road and its various incarnations always win, and a fruit sorbet never wins. And that's kind of how it feels, that a lot of the book awards go, where it's only one type of art that's seen as valid. Whereas when I look at something that's really intricately plotted that I'm amazed by, and no one cares in the awards committee, that kind of bothers me. 'Cause I'm like, "Don't you see that there's lots of different types of art that create great stories?" And I would love to see more awards given to someone who is able to create a really cool world and integrate it really well, because I think that's as hard as writing pretty prose.

    Granted, you get some people who can do it all, and they make me angry. Pat Rothfuss. But, you know.

    Brandon's Blog 2019 ()
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    J. Hirz

    I’m absolutely in love with the world I’ve created and have spent years in its building—magic systems, political systems, cultures, races, etc.—but I feel it is not original enough to warrant publication. I have, to a certain extent, trapped myself in the tropes of fantasy—mid to late 13th-century setting, races based off the classics of orcs, dwarves, and elves, and unwittingly I created a nation of people who I fear will be compared to the Seanchan in their intent, if not their culture.

    The storyline itself is very original (with the exception of the Seanchan-esque nation), and the few people I’ve spoken to about it have said it sounds exciting.

    So I guess my concern is this: do you think I have a legitimate concern in that my work may be perceived as unoriginal and therefore not worth publication? Or can writing style and an original storyline make up for that fact?

    Brandon Sanderson

    My experience has been that writers worry about this more than they should. Now, that’s not to say we shouldn’t worry about it at all—but generally, readers are a little more forgiving of us showing our influences than we think they will be. The Wheel of Time has some very Tolkien- and Herbert-inspired sections, and is generally considered to be a highly original setting, even if it’s true that the Aiel are inspired by the Fremen.

    Harry Potter wasn’t actually that original an idea; wizard schools have been a staple of middle-grade fantasy for years. But her combination of everything together was amazing. So I think you can absolutely take tried-and-tested, well-worn tropes and combine them into something that is greater than the sum of the parts.

    My suggestion to you is to write the book. I think that, because you’re aware of this possible problem, you’ll naturally take it in different directions. Then give the book to some readers and try very hard not to predispose them toward what your fears are. After they read the book, let them give you feedback. If a lot of them are saying it feels derivative, maybe see if you can make some things more your own. However, most likely they’ll say something like, “This feels like the Seanchan, but in a good way.”

    We are all inspired by the things we read, watch, and love. Learning to take this inspiration and make it into something newly yours is part of the process of becoming a writer. Give yourself that chance, and I think you’ll find a balance you like.

    General Twitter 2019 ()
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    Kaldonis

    Will we ever be seeing an ancient Scadrian symbol for harmonium/ettmetal. I know it didn't exist back then (as far as we know!) but many fans use those style of symbols to represent Hemalurgy.

    Isaac Stewart

    I don't think we'll see an official version of the ancient symbol for harmonium anytime soon. I believe, in-world, that the Hemalurgists use the Allomantic symbols for the metals.

    General Twitter 2019 ()
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    Brycen Moore

    Is there, or will there at some point be, a glyph to represent ‘the answer’ to the most important step a man can take?

    Isaac Stewart

    I suspect a two-word glyph pair for the answer could work, though I don't think we have glyphs for those two words yet.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
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    dce42

    This got me thinking about the older spren with four genders. Do they look more like the parshmen (dull form), or one of the listener forms?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Almost everything about this needs to be a RAFO, I'm afraid. I'll get into it eventually.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm going to release [Dragonsteel Prime] digitally (likely for free) eventually. The thing is, I don't think the book is very good--so I kind of don't want people reading it. And beyond that, there are a few things in it that are cosmere spoilers--AND more than a few things that are no longer relevant to the cosmere.

    I realize it's a curiosity, however, to cosmere fans. I just don't feel it's equal in writing skill to my two other unpublished books from that era (White Sand and Aether of Night) despite them also having their problems.

    I haven't been able to bring myself to say, "All right, here you all go. Read it" because in some ways, it's way more personal for me than the other weak stories from my unpublished days, because it represents me trying very hard (and failing) to boot up the cosmere, so it's extra cringeworthy for me in that regard.

    lexarbraums

    This just made my night, so thank you! That being said, I feel like you have the kind of fan devotion that would allow for a type of “podcast paywall” or “YouTube patreon” situation where those that would want to learn more could be offered some additional information (like Dragonsteel) without having to make the trip to BYU.

    I know I would! And I know I would understand that I’m paying for the right to see a rough draft.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I understand this. I think I'm going to experiment with offering Way of Kings prime first, as that one's not quite as bad. I will say this: eventually, I'll release Dragonsteel. I think it's inevitable that I'll bend and give it to the fans, so you don't need to make the trip, so long as you're okay waiting a few years.

    Phantine

    Maybe also drop Mistborn Prime/Final Empire Prime the next couple times there's a gap in your publication schedule?

    They're technically accessible through email, but having them on the website would make things easier to discuss, and it seems like an easy way to throw a little red meat at the fanbase without putting in too much effort (and you could stretch it out by just putting up 1 or 2 chapters a day).

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, there is enough serious fan and academic interest in my roots as a writer, that I should probably do this, as you suggest. Let me find the right way to do it.

    VioletSoda

    Maybe you could release a digital anthology of all the Prime/Unpublished works?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'll consider the right way to do this--but either way, I will start trying to get them out to people.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    I wasn't particularly interested in writing a [Magic: The Gathering] novel that Wizards [of the Coast] wanted me to write, but I was in a position to write something I found really exciting--supported by their creative team, who helped make sure I was getting the continuity right.

    I would be interested in doing something else like this, but it would have to be years in the future. I put off some of my own projects (Wax and Wayne 4, mostly) in order to do this, so I owe my readers some time staying on task and doing what I've promised them I'd do.

    But, I guess the answer is, "It could happen." Novellas like this, or even something more. Like, I could see (crazy though it would be) moving to Seattle for a year or so and being part of an early lore meeting on a new world, then working with creative closely for the development of that set and writing a novel tied in. (Assuming they'd have me.) I really like Magic's creative team, and being deeply involved in the lore of a world like that would be a lot of fun.

    This would be an AWFUL business decision, of course. So it's not anything I could do in the near future.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
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    Brick_Ninja

    The big question is LEGO building considered a Masculine Art or a Feminine Art? Seems like it would be feminine, but it would be extremely hard to do with one hand covered.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would be feminine, but that WOULD be a problem! So they might have some healthy discussion on it. I suspect that the traditionalists would land on it being a feminine art, but covertly acknowledge that most would be built with two hands, then displayed.

    The whole "one handed" thing breaks down quickly when poked with too many actual logical points. Like a lot of real-world sexism.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
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    big12griff

    I want a book published of Shallan's illustrations,that would be so awesome.

    Ben McSweeney

    A collected art book is most likely to happen in the 5-6 gap. Ideally it would showcase every artist and each illustration, plus our many alternate covers, which by then should be well over 100 pieces.

    If there isn’t space in that book for the digital ton of ancillary sketches and anecdotes about the work that I’ve been collecting over the past decade, maybe there’ll be a Shallan-focused art book down the line (well, really it would just be a me-focused book, but that amounts to largely the same thing plus extras).

    TL,DR: 4-5 years.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Avivsm

    Stormlight is very similar to Atium. Are they belong to the same category, like Investiture manifested near a Shardpool?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, they belong to the same category for sure.

    ICon 2019 ()
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    Avivsm

    The Lord Ruler write in metal important stuff. Should we need similar protections on "The Diagram" the book? Against Shardic alterations.

    Brandon Sanderson

    No for a very distinct reason and I will get into it eventually

    General Reddit 2018 ()
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    Aurora_Fatalis

    You were the illustrator for Shallan's sketches of Shardblades, right? If so, huge props for Sunraiser - it's so interesting that you chose such an iconic and historically accurate design, yet still managed to ornament it in a believable Shardblade style. I'd definitely buy one for HEMA if replicas existed, which is something I wouldn't say for most fantasy swords.

    For those of us who know what that style was used for, it has some odd implications - like the fact that someone at some point was halfswording with a Shardblade, and seeing fantasy authors acknowledge halfswording always makes me geek out! Was this design a specific order from Brandon or were you just tasked with making a more knightly sword for the king and did your own research?

    Ben McSweeney

    So, there's a few different things going on here.

    One is that, way early into the project, I did a bunch of silhouette studies for Brandon so that we could zero in on just how nutty he wanted Blades to be. From those studies he's picked out a few that we referred to when drawing the Blades in Oathbringer, and one of those in particular became Sunraiser.

    He did specify that he wanted Sunraiser to be simple and traditional and purposefully in contrast with other Blades. The long ricasso wasn't a call for half-swording in particular, but that doesn't preclude the use of that technique, and it's likely that the original spren that became Sunraiser was probably used by a Radiant with some experience in wielding oversized two-handed blades.

    From a Watsonian perspective, it's worth remembering that Shardblades are impractical interpretations of practical tools. Spren made themselves into what they thought swords were, but because of their nature the result became more about the spirit or the concept of a sword than about the requirements of forgery or physics or the practical needs of sticking pointy bits into other people.

    General Reddit 2018 ()
    #3087 Copy

    Ben McSweeney

    Every level [of Urithiru] is about 18 floors, internally. I think we decided each level was about 15' tall, for about 270' in height per tier, but those are loose numbers and may not precisely reflect the final dimensions.

    TheMightyBillend

    So overall it'd be roughly the same size as the Burj Khalifa right?

    Ben McSweeney

    Taller, but only by a bit (I say this because I've got a comparison shot somewhere in my internal docs and I remember it being juuuust a bit taller). And significantly wider, of course, the topmost tier is still wider than the Khalifa at its base. Even with the .7G allowance it's a wonder the whole thing doesn't collapse into itself.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
    #3088 Copy

    DreadPirateKaldona

    I hold out misguided hope we may eventually get a sequel with [Obliteration]. u/mistborn are you listening :-) ?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Listening. I'm trying to find a way to do some more Reckoners, now that the Apocalypse Guard fell apart.

    mraize7

    Does that mean that Apocalypse Guard will not be done? The last news was that you would do it with Dan Wells!!

    Brandon Sanderson

    Dan did a pretty good revision, but at the end, he felt it was still missing something. We agreed that it might not be right to do now. Maybe someday I'll release it to fans, and see what they think the problem is.

    General Reddit 2018 ()
    #3089 Copy

    Thedingerdonger

    Elhokar's Shardblade has all ten orders.

    Ben McSweeney

    Just to stir the pot for giggles, I can confirm that Brandon specifically called for that particular detail. Hence the extra bit of the glyphs next to the Blade.

    Could not tell you why though... he never told me! :)

    Every Blade depicted in the Shallan art so far (except perhaps that cleaver-looking beast in the dueling drawing) went through multiple design passes. He definitely cares how they're depicted.

    derioderio

    Are the two Shardbearers sparring at the bottom of the page holding Mayalaran and Oathbringer?

    Ben McSweeney

    Not Oathbringer for sure, because we have a particular Oathbringer design. That chopper is of no particular provenance at this time, at least that I know of.

    Though it's not unheard of for Brandon to pick a design that I had thought of as being "throwaway" and elevate it to something significant. :)

    General Reddit 2017 ()
    #3090 Copy

    porcipotimus

    *fan art of a whitespine*

    Ben McSweeney

    Well done. I had a difficult time with the whitespine's anatomy, to the point of largely redesigning the body again just before the deadline (we wrote an article about it on Brandon's blog, I think? -EDIT- We did! ), but you've interpreted it nicely considering the limited reference.

    Missed the vestigial claws behind the primary legs though (sorry, your quality kicked my AD brain into gear :), and the skin could be bit smoother/slicker on the flanks (they get more shellie as they dry out, so maybe he's very dry).

    porcipotimus

    Oh snaps, you're right! I missed that detail :*( He did come out a bit chunkier than I think I would have liked (I imagined them looking a bit more agile and bug-like and less "tanky"/dragon-y than this) but alas I just went with it since I was having fun.

    Ben McSweeney

    The interview talks about a bunch of the design motif stuff we went through. There was an active need to step away from the chunkier arthropod/crustacean thing we had done with chasmfiends and axehounds and cremlings, and start to widen the field a little more. I think you were right to push away from being tanky-dragony. What you have here is remarkably close to some of our earlier designs.

    At the end I was thinking of the flanks being clad in a sort of sharkskin, merging with the bonier protrusions along the spine flowing just under the skin... as the creature dries out, the skin contracts and even cracks with mineral buildup, and it becomes more rocky/tanky. It needs the storms to stay active, otherwise it's inclined to go into a sort of hibernation to conserve energy unless prey comes near. I imagine as things dry out, they crawl into cracks and hollow between the stones and blend in, waiting for the next storm. Still ready to snatch up prey or even emerge to hunt when prey draws near.

    When the weather is wet, they're out and hunting all the other critters that come out to feed in the aftermath of fresh rainfall and the newly stripped, tossed landscape. Then they fill out a little and become more like sleek sharks stalking the mountains and chasms. They get shinier and smoother and more able to move quickly. That's when they become the real terror of the hills, stalking like wolves or tigers but climbing like goats.

    It's still a mishmash design, it's not really as cohesive as I would have liked. There's room for evolutionary improvement... after all there's probably always another breed. Southern Whitespines, if you will. The Great Northern Rockback Whitespine. The tiny but deadly Deep Chasm Whitespine. The sleek and slender Eastern Spinybacked Whitespine (much more needly). I'm making all of this up as I go, but that's half the secret to doing this at all :)

    Prague Signing ()
    #3091 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    But no I'm really excited for the Darkside stories. We've got some great ideas for those. Now I think we're going to make sure that they have a consistent artist, that's our goal. That's our big goal, consistent artist.

    Paleo

    Will you do it with Dynamite again?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We will see. Dynamite we liked as a company. The biggest thing we didn't like was the switching artists too much and so we'll go to them and say can you guarantee us a single artist and the book sold really well so I think they can afford to pay better and get somebody. Like, you know the artists were all great but it was obvious they didn't want to stay on it because it was too much work for the pay I think.

    Prague Signing ()
    #3092 Copy

    Questioner

    What's the Dark One right now... like the film?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh yeah Dark One is looking great. So we have the television show that they announced so I can talk about it. I didn't leak this--with Joe Michael Straczynski, right. Yeah, they already leaked that. And Joe will write the pilot of that some time this fall or this winter. But we have the graphic novel, it's going full steam ahead and then we'll be doing some audiobook versions so they'll be like the graphic novel or an audiobook and you can just kind of choose. There won't be like a traditional novel for it probably, it will be audio or.

    Questioner

    Will the story be the same?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It will be from the same outline but there might be small deviations based on how the graphic novel but we're trying to keep it close together. The television show? No idea. Alright, because we have a really great show runner involved and they know television, they might do. But the audiobook and the graphic novel, the audiobook should be prose narrative so not just the quotes, so... and this should be graphic novel, both from the same outline we'll see how it goes.

    Prague Signing ()
    #3093 Copy

    Oversleep

    Does Nazh want his knife back, the one he gave to Kelsier?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, he would want it back but it's not like the flute. It's not something that was super super important to the person who gave it away. So he would like his knife back eventually,  but you know, nothing important.

    Prague Signing ()
    #3095 Copy

    Isaac Stewart

    And I've got, we'll do two more of the fashion pieces.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yep, we got two fashion plates in the work also. Cause I love how those looks.

    Paleo

    The Thaylen one with *inaudible* is good.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, the Thaylen one looks great.

    Isaac Stewart

    We're still deciding on what we're doing.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yep.

    Prague Signing ()
    #3096 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    The next were going to have all the Spren from Shadesmar like-

    Paleo

    All the Radiant spren.

    Brandon Sanderson

    All the Radiant spren, you know well nine of the Orders we're going to get all nine in. 

    Isaac Stewart

    We're going to do yeah, we talked about the tenth. 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, we're probably not going to do the tenth.

    Isaac Stewart

    We're going to have to wait until after the book is done to decide.

    Brandon Sanderson

    But they'll be nine of them at least. They're looking very cool, I'm very pleased with how those are. They're very like these natural history illustrations and so.

    Isaac Stewart

    They do look nice.

    Prague Signing ()
    #3097 Copy

    Questioner

    The second one is Starsight and the third one will be?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Probably Nowhere is what it's called. My US publisher doesn't like that title but I do because they go to Nowhere so we'll see if they persuade me not to use the title. That's the working title right now.

    Questioner

    When will it be in the English?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Published? It's probably not for a little while because next year is Stormlight 4 and everything I have is dedicated to writing that and so I won't start Skyward 3 until January at the earliest and probably turn it in. So I would guess two years from now would be when we would see Skyward 3. It depends on whether I write that or the last Wax and Wayne book next.

    Prague Signing ()
    #3098 Copy

    Paleo

    The Dark One graphic novel is coming out I think next year sometime? Did you also... Were you also involved there or was it more...

    Isaac Stewart

    So, Dark One, we are less involved with the actual...

    Brandon Sanderson

    We're giving them a lot more freedom because it's not Cosmere which means that their interpretation of Dark One we can let a lot more things slide because there's not a continuity happening to get in that way.

    Isaac Stewart

    So... Dark One is looking fantastic. They are so far doing a really amazing job. I think people are really going to like it.

    Paleo

    Yeah, the cover already looks fantastic.

    Brandon Sanderson

    What we're trying to do is to do a graphic novel where we give people a little more freedom and so my outline is pretty solid but for art direction things go with more what you feel. They send us their impressions and we give them responses but were not being nearly as, with the Cosmere we have to try do the detailing.

    Isaac Stewart

    And if they were to send us something we didn't like we would let them know but so far they just, the art is, I love the art in it.

    Paleo

    And like I said the cover already looks pretty amazing.

    Brandon Sanderson

    The art is amazing. The interior art like, and it's really fun because I can see exactly how my outline is turning into their scenes and things in a really fun way. I'm really hopeful. I don't know whats going to happen with the television show. That's honestly more up to Joe [Joseph Michael Straczynski] then it is to me. I mean I should be there for the writing room meetings and things like that but really we're letting Joe go and...

    Paleo

    How far has it progressed since it was announced that Joe would run the show?

    Brandon Sanderson

    How's the progress? He's finishing up a pilot for something else and then he's working on this. I don't know how far... if he's gotten to our pilot yet or not. I haven't received it yet so it's not done. Yeah, that's what I heard back in September he was finishing up another pilot so sometime soon he should be working on a pilot for this.

    Prague Signing ()
    #3099 Copy

    Isaac Stewart

    We're going through and trying to fix all of those things for a later version that Dynamite will put out, just small inconsistencies. We will get rid of the boombox, we will get rid of the second IV because we got it in the first one. I don't how we missed it in the closeups. For all I know we told them to erase it, and that one they just didn't get to, so that's funny.