Recent entries

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3151 Copy

    Swahhillie

    Have you gotten to depict or seen depictions of the summoning of Shardplate? Do you think it looks different per Order of KR or is it universal?

    Isaac Stewart

    This question is way too spoilery. :) I'm going to have to give out my equivalent of a RAFO, which is probably a Now Isaac Can't Say, or a NIX. :)

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3152 Copy

    CentralIncisor

    How do such big dissimilarities in covers compared to things in novels happen? For example in Way of Kings, Dalinar has a red cloak when his colors are blue and Wayne is carrying a shotgun on the cover of the Mistborn book even though a huge part of his character is that he refuses to use guns. I love the artwork btw. Keep up the good work!

    Isaac Stewart

    We try to catch these things, but for The Way of Kings, if the sky is going to be a blue storm, then a blue cloak isn't going to stand out on it, so a red cloak makes way more sense and looks better. Even if the detail is off, it still gets across the epicness of the books. Book covers are supposed to give the feel of the books, not necessarily get every little detail correct. We try. And things like Wayne's gun slips through now and then. But even then, the cover to Alloy is a pretty good representation of what you get in the book.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3153 Copy

    Oudeis16

    Broadsheets of Bands of Mourning: How canon should we take the arcana in the Ghastly Gondola?

    Isaac Stewart

    As far as taking it as canon, it's about as canonical as the Allomancer Jak pieces. They're in-world fiction, so the characters are the narrators and are going to write things in a way that is entertaining but not necessarily how the magic actually works in certain instances.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3155 Copy

    AutonomousJoy

    Will there be a map of all the countries around the Inner Sea in the Warbreaker Leatherbound? It would be cool to see the distribution of the Tears of Edgli on the map!

    Isaac Stewart

    There won't be a map of this in the Warbreaker leatherbound, but if there's ever a sequel, that's the likely place we'll put this.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3156 Copy

    DoritoJH

    I wanted to know, of all the different worlds that Brandon has created, what is your personal favorite to depict (in maps, symbology, or art) and why?

    Isaac Stewart

    There's a soft place in my heart for Threnody, though we haven't seen much of yet. It also has my favorite of the symbols of the Cosmere so far. I love that the rules of the Forests of Hell are imbedded in the symbology of it. Great question!

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3157 Copy

    Joe_does_Calculus

    Is there (or will there ever be) a key or something for the written color language/alphabet in Warbreaker? I have just started the book but it seems like it could lead to some cool fanart stuff with how it's described.

    Isaac Stewart

    We tried a few things to develop the color language/alphabet (Artisan script) for Warbreaker, but partway through, we realized that none of us here are of the correct Heightening to be able to read the script were we even able to develop it. (One has to be able to distinguish between colors in a way that we ordinary humans can't physically do.) However, if you look closely at the upcoming Warbreaker leatherbound you might find hints at how un-Heightened people in T'Telir and Idris might read and write.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3158 Copy

    thaistro

    When you drew the soul stamp symbol, did you draw what looked cool, then adapt a map to it (if one exists), or draw a map first, then make the stamp?

    Isaac Stewart

    It's been long enough ago that I can't remember which came first on that one. There is a map, however, and I have used it in creating soul stamps. (We probably won't see the map until Brandon returns to Sel, however.)

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3159 Copy

    Aurora_Fatalis

    Can you shed some insight on the more esoteric design decisions, such as the map of Roshar being based on a fractal, in particular a slice of the Julia set of some seemingly-random 4-dimensional function? How do things like this come to pass? Are designs like this mandates from Brandon? Do you ask mathematicians for something obscure to hide in the map? Is fractal theory the hobby of someone on the team?

    Isaac Stewart

    This is what Brandon has said concerning Roshar and the Julia Set. He handed the picture to me and said, "Can you turn this into a giant continent?" and I said, "Yes." The process of defining the coastlines, mountains, and islands was quite fun after that.

    Araedox

    How did the Roshar map being a Julia Set affect the process of creating it?

    Isaac Stewart

    It really was no different than other maps I've made. I usually am seeing maps everywhere I go: guacamole remnants on lids, stains on restroom floors (ew!!), and random stains in the road or the way a brick wall crumbles. I like these fractal-like images and save pictures for future maps. So I just took the Julia Set and looked at it and said, "okay, now it's a real continent, where are the rivers, how does the coastline go, where are the islands, etc."

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3162 Copy

    WeiryWriter

    Brandon mentions in the postscript for "Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell" in Arcanum Unbounded that we still don't know Nazh's name. Peter has since confirmed that "Nazrilof" is his surname and that Brandon was referring to his given name. Since Nazh is from Threnody my theory is that Nazh has some super embarrassing/convoluted Puritan given name, which is why he goes by a pseudonym derived from his surname. Would you mind revealing his full name, or at the very least tell me if I'm on the right track?

    Isaac Stewart

    Your ideas are sound.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3164 Copy

    Aether-Wind

    Given how much Sanderson tend to world build, and how integral for the WBing art seems to be for the Stormlight Archive series, how much influence do you have on the process?

    Are there any examples of your input changing the WBing in a substantial way?

    Isaac Stewart

    I have quite a bit of influence in the process. I've answered some of this in other questions above, but one way I can think of is in the names found on the Alethkar map. We wanted to fill out the land, so Brandon gave me license to place and name a lot of the cities and features on that map, which I then showed him. He tweaked a few of the names, and then we called it good. In book three, the city Rathalas becomes important to a character's backstory. I placed and named that city (named after one of my children), so it was a lot of fun to then see Brandon later use that city for a pivotal point in a character's story.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3165 Copy

    PaleoCrafter

    I've a got a question about the Steel Alphabet and its use on Scadrial: here on Earth we've got people who are obsessed about beautiful typography, neat fonts and ligatures included.

    Is that something you ever thought about doing for the Steel Alphabet? You've told us before that you've got further designs for new variants like a handwritten form up your sleeve, which of course makes we wonder whether Scadrian typography nerds will get their share, too.

    (btw, any chance we could get a sneak peek of those designs? :P)

    Isaac Stewart

    This is a fun one!

    When we were working on The Alloy of Law, we tried a few different typefaces for the Steel Alphabet. I don't know if we'll use any of these variations in the future, but we might. As for the handwritten form, here's a sneak peek. Neither of these images are canonized, so they're apocryphal at this point and maybe a tiny bit spoilery.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3166 Copy

    ArgentSun

    Hemalurgy table on the website when?

    Isaac Stewart

    The Hemalurgic Table almost didn't make it into the leatherbound of The Hero of Ages. As such, I feel that the version I did add is sort of a prototype to a much cooler, much better, probably a littler-bloodier version of the table that will be done for the art print. When the art for that art print is done, then we'll post a better version of the art. I don't want a high-res image of the prototype version floating around the internet, if that makes sense. It's on my list of things to do, and I suspect I'll get around to it in the next year or so. Thanks for asking!

    ArgentSun

    OOOooo, interesting, I didn't think the changes would be that substantial.

    Isaac Stewart

    I think the changes will be mainly in the art.

    Phantine

    since Peter mentioned it's in-universe, I hope your bloodier version gives more clues about who is operating this gruesome hemalurgy lab

    Isaac Stewart

    Hmm...that's a good question. :)

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3167 Copy

    ArgentSun

    The images of the Warbreaker leatherbound you posted on Instagram include a circular symbol around the 'W' of the title - would this be "the Nalthis symbol" in the same way we see symbols for other worlds in Arcanum Unbounded, or is that just for style?

    Isaac Stewart

    Good question! What you're seeing around the W of the title is a halo that the artist Jian Guo used around the Returned when I asked him to design the dropcaps for this edition. I pulled the halos from his drawings and used them as a design element in the text.

    The symbol for Nalthis is finished, however, and is on the spine of the leatherbound. We'll reveal this bit of art very, very soon.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3168 Copy

    Oudeis16

    How many spoilers do you generally get for unreleased things? Do you have access to the DS Wiki? Do you try to not find out things and only ask questions about things that are required for the art, or do you find out what you can?

    Can you tell us a thing you knew long before it was released, which has since been released, that the fans were going crazy over wondering or were stunned to learn?

    Isaac Stewart

    I normally get as many spoilers as I want for unreleased things. In order to work on the books and do it right, I need to know as much as I can. I still have to rely on Peter and Karen to check the details, because I often forget things, so their work is as vital to the art as it is to the continuity of the text. I do have access to the Wiki, and I use it often in looking up details, especially when sending art briefs to other artists we're working with.

    As for the second question: At Nasfic in 2005, which I believe was in SeaTac, Washington, Brandon and I shared a hotel room. I remember discussing Mistborn with him, which I'd recently agreed to do the maps for. I'd already read the first book, I think, and was partway through reading the second book at this point. I don't think he had started writing The Hero of Ages yet, though. He looked up from whatever he was doing and said, "Isaac, I don't think Vin and Elend are going to survive the last the book. What do you think?" At the time, I was floored, and I remember contending for their survival. But now, almost fifteen years later, I'm struck by how right his decision was to end Book 3 that way. It's just a better, more poignant ending. And I love those books, and Vin and Elend, so much more because of the sacrifice they made to save Scadrial. True heroes, both of them.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3169 Copy

    potentialPizza

    Who are your favorite characters in the Cosmere?

    Isaac Stewart

    Dalinar, Nazh, Khriss, Hoid, [Nicki] Savage, Vin, Kaladin, Vasher, and Baon, exactly in that order. :) But honestly, I love them all. Brandon has created such a wonderful universe of characters, and I pinch myself every day that I get to assist in the workings of these worlds.

    Araedox

    Even Moash?

    Isaac Stewart

    Moash has become a great tragic character, in my opinion. Yes, people love to hate him, but that still makes a great character. And it's the tragedy of his choices that pulls the emotions from us.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3170 Copy

    ArchKaen

    Will we eventually be getting accurate maps of Sel, Nalthis, or Threnody? And will we get prints of all of the known maps?

    Isaac Stewart

    We've already got a good portion of Sel mapped out, and I can't wait to show it to everyone when the time is right. I suspect we'll also see Nalthis, or a portion of it, when we do the sequel to Warbreaker. We'll also likely see more of Threnody mapped out when we delve into Nazh's backstory, or when we get the other book(s) Brandon has mentioned about that planet.

    I hope we will get prints of all the known maps! I'll do my best to make it so.

    ArchKaen

    Will the Sel map be around the release of the second Elantris book?

    Isaac Stewart

    I suspect that is around when we would release a Sel map, yes.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3171 Copy

    dgrath23

    Which Radiant Order do you most identify with?

    Isaac Stewart

    I identify with bits and pieces of most of the Orders. My gut reaction is to say Dustbringers because I love their glyph. :) But I identify with their relationship to responsibility, learning to keep the passion and rage at bay because that is the responsible thing to do. On the other side of the coin, I might identify more with the Edgedancers like Lift, who focus on helping and caring for other people, because that's also a huge part of my personality.

    All that said, I took the unofficial test, and it says I'm a Bondsmith.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3173 Copy

    escapadistfiction

    I have a question about how you interpret clothing and costume descriptions.

    The example that comes to mind is Sazed's robe from Mistborn, described as made of "overlapping V designs" or "colorful V shaped patterns". I envisioned the Vs as being very wide and coming all the way across the front of the robe, but my husband thought they would be more like small, overlapping scales. Very different looks!

    Has that ever happened between you and Mr Sanderson, and if so, how do you resolve it? Have you ever interpreted a description in a way that surprised him but he liked better than his initial intent?

    Isaac Stewart

    Good question! My interpretation of Sazed's clothing is probably influenced by cosplay and fan art, so I've always pictured it like this or this. That said, however you want to picture it (or however your husband wants to picture it) is fine. You're the director of the book you're reading. You're the set designer, the cinematography, and the production designer. So I don't really think there's a right or wrong way to envision something like this. Both designs you describe could be visually stunning.

    Quite often I'll show something to Brandon and he'll say something like, "That fits the description, but that's not what I had in mind," and then we'll refine what he's been imagining. Other times he'll say the same thing and add "But I like this better, so let's go with it." The classic case of this happening was when he was writing the Mistborn books. I drew some little Inquisitors and mentioned that I thought it would be cool if the Allomantic symbol for the metal representing the Allomantic power they had as a misting pre-Inquistor was also a red tattoo on their Inquisitor face tattoos. (That was a mouthful.) Anyway, Brandon liked that idea and added it to the descriptions in the books.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3174 Copy

    Wubdor

    Hi Isaac, I asked this on Twitter but can't hurt asking here too! Is there any chance of the Taldain map print coming out for purchase? I'd love to add it to the collection!(Bonus question: and perhaps a Nalthis map too?😇)(Bonus bonus question: and what about Threnody and First of the Sun?👀)

    Isaac Stewart

    1) I'm currently making revisions to the Taldain map since I was never satisfied with how I'd painted it. (It was the first physical map I'd made in quite some time.) When that's done, we'll offer it as a small print on the store again.

    2) We contemplated doing a Nalthis map for the 10th anniversary leatherbound of Warbreaker, however we realized that we need more information. This map is likely to happen whenever there's a sequel to that book. That said, I just finished getting approval on the map of the Nalthian star system, so expect to see that soon.

    3) We'll likely create maps for Threnody and First of the Sun at some point, but I don't think it'll be any time soon.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3175 Copy

    jofwu

    Brandon mentioned the possibility of a "Girl Who Looked Up" picture book at Dragoncon. Is that something you guys have talked about? It sounds amazing.

    Isaac Stewart

    We're actively working on "The Girl Who Looked Up." My part in it is fleshing out the descriptions of what the illustrator will draw. I don't know a publication date, but there is a strong possibility of this happening.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3176 Copy

    RShara

    My question is, would you please line up the Elendel Basin with the map of the Final Empire, so that we can get an idea of where it fits on that map?

    Also, could we get or are we going to get a world map for Scadrial? Or even just the entire Northern Continent? I love your maps and I love seeing where everything is!

    Isaac Stewart

    What a great question, and thank you for your kind words. I've never posted this before, but this is what I used [image with green circle] in laying out the Elendel basin after figuring out how big we needed it to be to produce the amount of crops we wanted and also in figuring out the scale of the rest of the known world. The caveat here is that when we created the new map of the Final Empire--the one found in the leatherbound books and the new mass market paperbacks--we revisited the scale of the Final Empire with the help of our continuity editor Karen.

    So while that image is what I used to create the Elendel Basin back in 2010 or 2011, we might have to revise the scale once we start showing more of the world. And yes, I suspect that in future books, we'll be getting more maps of various places on Scadrial, and maybe an entire world map at some point.

    RShara

    Awesome! So this would be pretty accurate? https://i.imgur.com/lfQkD3g.png [superimposed image]

    Isaac Stewart

    I would say that's pretty close, though remember that the land might've changed a great deal at the end of The Hero of Ages

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3177 Copy

    Dustbr1nger

    When creating something for Mr. Sanderson, is it normally a back and forth? As in, if he sees something you draw that doesn’t quite fit what he imagined but might run with it, or is it more so slightly editing stuff until it resembles exactly what was in his mind?

    Isaac Stewart

    Good question! It is normally a back and forth. Oftentimes we work hard to get a specific vision he has in mind. Other times, he'll see something he likes better in the concepts I present to him. He's pretty open to new interpretations, if he likes the direction we're going better than what he originally had in mind, so long as we don't contradict what's already been written in the text. There have been several times where the art has informed the text of an in-process book, and we go back through the book to change the descriptions to match the art. But most often, we make sure that the art--as best as we can--matches the text.

    Kyrroti

    Is there a time when you two felt strongly on a design and disagreed, or are you both very open minded?

    Isaac Stewart

    This occasionally happens, but we're both very open minded about these sorts of things, and in the end, Brandon is the director of his stories. I would let him know if I thought going a certain direction in the art was a bad idea. He would let me know if thought the same thing about a direction I was taking something. It's a very respectful process.

    Isaac Stewart r/Stormlight_Archive AMA ()
    #3178 Copy

    The_Second_Best

    When you're designing the look of something like a chasmfiend how many iterations do you go through?

    Isaac Stewart

    It really depends on the creature and project, honestly. @Inkthinker is the artist on the chasmfiend and the whitespine, for example, and he is absolutely a fantastic artist. I think he submitted three versions of the chasmfiend, we chose one, and then he pretty much got it spot on for Shallan's illustration of the beast in Words of Radiance. He had already come up with a paradigm for these types of critters (a la the axehound) back in Volume 1, so that might've helped this one come together so quickly.

    The whitespine, however, was a tougher nut to crack. He submitted ten or eleven different designs before we found the general shape that looked correct to Brandon, and then there were several smaller revisions after that to get different parts of the whitespine's body correct. But again, we were developing a different creature paradigm here. The chasmfiend was based off crustaceans, and the whitespine was more shark- or ray-like in the way its body was supposed to work. A landshark with spikes.

    ICon 2019 ()
    #3179 Copy

    Nimrod Rappaport (paraphrased)

    Have you read 1984?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Yes, I have.

    Nimrod Rappaport (paraphrased)

    In your lecture you talked about the three P's: premise, progress and payoff. I wanted to ask you about 1984 because I read the book and was engaged by it and I don't see how the three P's appear in the book, why is it so interesting?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    The thing is that George Orwell is very good with setting, he can make very interesting worlds. The progress in 1984 is that of a person losing its mind, the payoff is in how broken he is the end and how his conscience has been shattered.

    Footnote: The question was asked after the "tips for writing" lecture.
    Direct submission by Nimi142
    ICon 2019 ()
    #3180 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there a certain book that you've read and you said "my God I wanted to write this book!"

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, I usually answer Jurassic Park to this one. I really love how Jurassic Park came together and how its use of science and things work kind of as a quote end quote magic system. That's one of my favorites that I kind of wish I had come up with that. Otherwise, the thing that I envy most usually aren't other books. Though I love other books, most of the time the books I love are so distinctively of that author that I don't wish I'd written it because then it would be... it would have to change, right. Like it wouldn't be mine. Like I love Name of the Wind and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms because those are distinct products of those author's visions for what fantasy should be and I can't write their vision. Though one thing I do envy a little bit is—and I answered this in the QA last night—I really envy sometimes the way that video game writers can tell stories. The one I often mention is Undertale. <applause>. A few people are Undertale fans. If you haven't played Undertale, it's great.

    Questioner

    Great graphics by the way.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's able to do narrative in a way that my form can't do. Which is really cool! And I play a game like Undertale and I'm like "wow you tell stories!" I played Dark Souls. I love those games and the way they can do story is not the way I do story. The way they approach lore and story is so cool and so different from my form that I kind of envy their ability to tell stories in different ways.

    ICon 2019 ()
    #3181 Copy

    Questioner

    If you could change one thing in a book that already happened, what it would be?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, I would probably... So one of the... There's a couple things I feel like I've done wrong. One thing is, in Mistborn, I wanted to tell a story about a really strong female character. But I was so focused -- and this happens to a lot of writers -- on making Vin really great, that there's no other women in the whole book. This happens a ton. You notice that you overcompensate in one area, so I wish more of the crew had been women.

    In Words of Radiance, I didn't get the ending right, it's still not quite right. I tried to change it for the paperback, and then that just didn't work out. So, I didn't do any more changes, but the Kaladin-Szeth conflict is just something a little bit off about it, even still, that I'd like to take sort of another pass on that and get it right. I'm not sure what it would be.

    ICon 2019 ()
    #3182 Copy

    Questioner

    Yesterday, you talked about other writers that came before you, and talked fantasy today. And although you're writing and selling quite novel, and this is part of the magic, I wanted to ask if you had to choose one author who is an inspiration for you, who would it be?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There's a bunch. So, I love how Guy Gavriel Kay is able to tell epic fantasy stories in one volume that are really compelling, that's one of his things. I like how Nora Jemisin is able to use literary trappings to tell really powerful stories. Like, if you guys haven't read The Fifth [Season], it's in second person, it's just crazy, but it works.

    I actually envy a lot of the videogame writers, because they can do things that I can't do and it's a lot of fun. Like, the guy who wrote Undertale, Toby Fox, right? Like, that story is the type of story that I can't tell because it only works in that medium. I think it's really cool and so I envy their ability to tell stories the way that they tell them. So, that's just a couple [of inspirations].

    ICon 2019 ()
    #3183 Copy

    Questioner

    If there would be, like, a movie about the... I hope for a movie, I really hope for a movie. *inaudible*

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, I always promise people [that we'll] try to have open casting calls, but I do not have power over that. So, I tried like... Wheel of Time... I said, "Can you tell me when the castings start happening?" and they already did it. So, they don't necessarily involve the author all that much.

    Questioner

    No, I wanted to be, like... a concept artist.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, concept artists? Well, the best way to do that would to be working for the people who are doing things like... basically, the concept artists would be hired by the team. For instance, we... if Netflix were to buy one of my books to make an animated thing, it would be the team that they work with in-house. I don't know how a concept artist gets a job for there, but being a concept artist who's worked with Dreamworks or with Netflix, or with some of these people who've done a lot of this sort of thing, improves your chances.

    I'm certainly not opposed to it, we've looked into it, and the right team has to come together. I really wanna see how the new generation of animated stuff on Netflix happened, how it works and things like that, before we jump into it. But it is something I'm investigating.

    ICon 2019 ()
    #3184 Copy

    Questioner

    What's one of the major pitfalls that you, like, know yourself. Like, "People, don't do that", but still you see so many times that first time writers really should be careful about?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ooooh, the one you really need to be careful about is making your opening too full of info dumps. You want your opening of your story, in particular, to evoke a character's voice and to have things happen in it. It doesn't even have to be a fight, doesn't mean you have to start with action, but it does mean there's gotta be motion, a character wanting something and a clear sense of story - not a big info dump about the world. And that's the number one pitfall, stay away from that.

    ICon 2019 ()
    #3185 Copy

    Questioner

    I am an editor.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Good for you. It's a terrible, terrible job. *audience laughs*

    Questioner

    What was your process for finding an editor that you liked and now work with?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So... I work with a couple of editors. My main editor is Moshe [Feder], at Tor, and I found Moshe by going to conventions and I would ask editors which new authors' books they were working on. Then I would go read those books when they came out and I was looking for the editors that were buying books that I liked.

    And that's good advice for any of you who are writers: Find out what the editors are publishing, read their books and then if you go, you'll find out what the editor's taste is. If you go to the editor and say "What are you looking for?", the editor's response almost always is "Something good." They're gonna tell you, because they don't want you to limit yourself, but if you read what they're putting out, you can find out. Plus, you'll have to something to talk about with the editor. You go to the editor and say "I love this book." and they're like "You know that I edited it?", because editors are kind of unsung heroes who don't get enough attention. Then you'll have something to talk with an editor about and can make a connection.

    This is what I did, I was looking for people who were writing books that I liked... editing books that I liked. The other thing is, I was looking for people who gave me good feedback. When I got rejections, did the rejections make good suggestions? Theses sorts of things... Once I got successful, I was looking more at the first, people whose books I admired, editors who worked on books... So, my team book editor I found because she was just putting out a bunch of books that I thought were really good. She had a good eye, so I went to her and said "Would you like to publish Steelheart?" and by then I was not Brandon Sanderson, I was Brandon Sanderson, and so she said "Yes, please!" So... it's a pretty different process.

    ICon 2019 ()
    #3186 Copy

    Questioner

    What are the chances - I actually really like the Mistborn Adventure Game. What are the chances of more roleplaying games set in the Cosmere?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I've asked them if they'll do a Stormlight one and they're interested in doing it.

    Questioner

    Aha, I'm interested in doing it and I'm a really good designer. *clamor from audience* <How would I go about doing that?>

    Brandon Sanderson

    If you want to get one of my licenses, the best advice we can give you... the way that Crafty was, is, they made a really good game that wasn't themed. They came to me and said "I've done this, I know how to...". Like our base fear in choosing your people is that they won't be able to finish the product for people waiting for it and know how to distribute it. So, if you have done other games, if you have done that, then your chances go up. If you haven't, my recommendation is go and make your own, prove that you can distribute a game and manufacture a game and things like that - and then come to us. Because, we don't care how big or small you are, as long as you're able to fulfil on your promises and as long as you make quality stuff that people enjoy, right? That's... that's our thing. So, that's your path to getting one of the licenses, okay?

    ICon 2019 ()
    #3187 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    One time, at GenCon, they were doing the Mistborn RPG and they had me play. So I <drew up> my character as a very mysterious individual and so... I played as Hoid in the RPG.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3188 Copy

    Questioner

    Who gave the Lord Ruler the name "Sliver of Infinity?" Because he's kind of secretive about his past, and that seems like a very descriptive nickname.

    Brandon Sanderson

    "Sliver" is a cosmere term used by Arcanists, and it would've come from there. They knew what he was, even if a lot of people on the world did not.

    Questioner

    So they sort of spread the...?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, it just entered the... people talking about it and it eventually spread, and things like that.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3189 Copy

    Questioner

    Two questions. First of all the twist where Wax shifts from-

    Brandon Sanderson

    One person to-

    Questioner

    Exactly. Was that preplanned? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    It was preplanned. That is based off of I have a good friend that when I first met them they were very very off putting because they are on the spectrum and I didn't understand people on the spectrum, and as I got to know them I understood how great they were, and I wanted to have the reader experience that same reversal in the books.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3190 Copy

    Questioner

    What was your inspiration for Syl?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Syl started as an incarnation of the wind. And I'd always wanted to tell a story about a warrior and the wind. That goes back into mythology the wind being a character. It's in Chinese mythology, it's in Greek mythology and that sort of thing. And that was years ago, before it eventually morphed into Kaladin and Syl. So it was really the idea of the wind being a person. She eventually ended up not being a windspren, but that's how things happen, you have original ideas and then you spend a lot of time refining them until they end up working.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3192 Copy

    Questioner

    How come on Sel and Scadrial the people get their powers like in a rush either overnight or by snapping, while on Roshar it's very slow and subtle.

    Brandon Sanderson

    On Roshar there is another participant involved, since you're making a bond with a spren, and that has a big effect on it. You also have some very odd things happening on Sel that are causing a lot of oddity in the way that the magic works. I would call it mostly just a flavor of the different styles of magic and what's going on, but the way that flavor works involves the spren and involves how the Dor is on Sel.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3194 Copy

    Nameless36

    All the Shards basically agreed not to settle on the same planet. Six of them - that we know of - immediately, basically broke that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    So... they did not make an oath to it. There was a suggestion made... and perhaps the people who made the suggestion did not understand that, if you want the Shards to do something, you need an actual Oath. And they did not get one.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3196 Copy

    Questioner

    The moons of Roshar. Inspired by the Dragonriders of Pern?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If it was, it was unconscious. But, more, it was the fact that I had three gods on the planet, and I was working with that. But, of course, the moons existed before the gods came.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3197 Copy

    Questioner

    I love the concept of the hair changing colors, how did you think of that? How did you get the idea?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So with Warbreaker I knew I wanted color to be a big theme, and so I wanted a way it manifests in some of the characters, if that makes sense. So that's where it began. I eventually settled on the color, because I knew that I was going [to be having some of the characters change shapes,] because the Returned change and transform, and so I used that kind of hair as a metaphor for that.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3198 Copy

    Questioner

    I wanted to know why in The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn, all the gods were named after human traits?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So this is... all the books are connected. So a long time ago, the premise is, a being... god named Adonalsium was split into 16 pieces, and so the various "aspects" of god, and those aspects are now the gods of all of these things. So there were two in the Elantris world, there's one in the Warbreaker world. Mostly Mistborn and Stormlight is where you'll find out about them.

    Questioner

    Preservation, and... I remember Hatred [Odium] in Stormlight.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yep, Preservation and Ruin. And on Sel, it was Dominion and Devotion, or Love and Conquest were the two.

    Questioner

    So all of them are connected?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yep.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3199 Copy

    Questioner

    I admire your imagination and I wanted to know when you first thought about your first book. I meant what is the earliest book you thought of and what age?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I was fifteen or sixteen, and it was Dalinar, the character. So he eventually became Stormlight Archive, although back then it was a book called Dragonsteel.

    Questioner

    Was it similar?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, just vaguely similar. It was about a man who was the brother of the king who had to take over when the king was assassinated, so that part is the same. But the personality changed a lot over the twenty years before thinking that and writing it.

    Tel Aviv Signing ()
    #3200 Copy

    Questioner

    So, at the end The Bands of Mourning, I kind of noticed what seemed to me like a massive implied spoiler for Stormlight 5.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Okay, what is that?

    Questioner

    Red mist, not in the Roshar system.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right.

    Questioner

    So, I wanted to ask you, how do you handle interlacing stories without, like, giving spoilers on the one hand and being faithful to the logic of the world on the other?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, it's actually been a bit of a challenge and I just had to be aware that people might read your books in any order and things like this. So, when I'm doing stuff like that, I'm usually being a bit more coy than I look I'm being. That seems like a very, very big spoiler, but...

    Questioner

    But I assumed that it could be like Autonomy or Ambition...

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, there's more going on there, but yeah, I do take care. The real trouble has been wanting to do short stories in the future, like Sixth of the Dusk, and I had to be really careful with Sixth of the Dusk, not giving away too many things about the main stories.

    Questioner

    Yeah, like, who are these people...

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, I'm more coy than I look like I'm being, how about that?