Is the Stormlight Archive 4 release looking good, is it going to release next year?
It's looking pretty good. It depends, I wrote a little bit, worked on it here in Prague. I have to get a couple extra days snuck in, we'll see. You're going to have to watch, it will come down right to the last few days I think so we'll see. It's still possible, it's looking good but I can't promise.
My friends would like to know if you can Awaken liquids?
This is almost impossible.
Almost impossible?
Almost impossible, but not fully impossible, but basically impossible. Particularly if you're talking about just a liquid, not in a container, anything like that. Technically, you can kind of Awaken a dead animal, which will have some liquid in it and stuff. But if you just want to Awaken like--
A bowl of water?
A bowl of water, almost impossible.
I am wondering if Dysian Aimians are more resistant to Soulcasting?
Yeah, I would say, yes. I would say, in general for various reasons, but yes.
So if you spiked a Soulbearer...
A what?
The nicrosil Ferring.
Okay.
And he stored the ability he got from the spike what happens to the charge in it.
In the spike if he stores the ability?
Yeah, in the spike.
RAFO.
Ire and their fortress on Scadrial.
Yes.
Is it still there?
Yes, it should be, yes.
Sazed is aware of it?
Yes.
Okay, do they have on other planets?
They have outposts but you will rarely find something as highly well constructed as that.
So you have said previously that you could categorize metals in Feruchemy like 8 Physical, 4 Cognitive, and 4 Spiritual. But the Hemalurgy chart says they are Hybrid <Feruchemy> metals so...
So they are what?
The Hybrid metals.
Yeah, remember that all of these categorizations are by in-world philosophers doing their best to come up so you can decide how you want to categorize them, alright.
Will Kelsier be in Stormlight Archive ever?
That is a read and find out, you know a RAFO? Give her a card.
Can you tell me anything about the Elsecallers we don't know yet?
They should be able to get back out of Shadesmar without having to find a perpendicularity, but Jasnah doesn't know how to do it yet. She should be able to do that, she just hasn't figured it out.
Do we have definitive art for the Shardblades
Nothing that's released other than what you find in the books. But we will have definitive art for some of the Blades soon. :)
I wanted to ask about the process of creating in world symbology, specifically the Allomantic/Feruchemical/Hemalurgical symbols in Mistborn and the Radiant Orders in Stormlight.
Edit 1: I see you've answered some of these already. I know you just recently showed us the Hemalurgy. Symbols, so insight into that would be oh so cool.
Hemalurgy stole their symbols from Allomancy. But in the early books, we go back in time with the symbols. First showing Allomantic symbols, then showing in Well of Ascension the symbols as they were used maybe in Terris at some point, and then we see the proto-symbols from before the Lord Ruler, and at that point, they look a lot more organic. Over time they morphed to what we see now. From the symbols in Well of Ascension, the Feruchemical symbols developed separately, but still look related to Allomantic symbols due to their similar roots. The more angular style is due to the influence of the Terris people on their development. In my mind, their visual aesthetic is punctuated with hard angles and triangles.
When Nazh tells Kelsier that becoming a Cognitive Shadow is an "important rite" with "requirements and traditions", is he speaking as a Threnodite (in the context of Shades), or as a worldhopper who has seen more of the Cosmere?
I suspect I know the answer here but would need to get confirmation.
Nazh gave Kelsier his knife in Secret History, but Kelsier lost it. Does Nazh know about this, and if so - is he upset?
I don't know.
How much do you know about Nazh, and how much control do you have over what he does in the Cosmere?
I run everything by Brandon and we discuss it, even with Nazh.
How big do you envision the eye spikes on Inquisitors? I always imagine them as massive, sticking a good five centimetres out each side and not having a nail-esque overhang at the front.
You can imagine them however you'd like, but I do imagine them sticking out the back of the head and the front. I suspect some Inquisitors have nail overhangs like railroad spikes, but others may not.
What's your favourite Cosmere character, and why?
Nazh, because he's basically a grumpy Scotsman with a penchant for finding very-hard-to-find things.
Well, now I'm looking forward to seeing more of him.
Do you know when (if ever) he'll end up having more of a screen (page?) presence?
Thanks! We will see more of Nazh, if everything goes as planned. I hope you will enjoy!
The image for the Ghostbloods from Shallan's sketchbook in Oathbringer is different from the decal sold by Brandon Sanderson on his official site.
Which is correct?
They're both correct. The one from Shallan's sketchbook is just sketchier.
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?
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. :)
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!
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.
Broadsheets of Bands of Mourning: How canon should we take the arcana in the Ghastly Gondola?
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.
How do the Tears of Edgli look like?
You won't have to wait too long to see what the Tears of Edgli look like. We'll be revealing it before the end of the year. Watch my Instagram feed.
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!
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.
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?
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!
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.
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.
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?
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.)
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?
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.
How did the Roshar map being a Julia Set affect the process of creating it?
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."
What does this symbol mean? We tried to figure it out years ago and never quite got anywhere with it...
Can I just cryptically smile? Is that enough of an answer?
Mmm... What if you smiled cryptically, but also said something cryptic (but relevant!) too? ;)
It means something, yes. Is it earth-shattering? Probably not.
Do you already have designs for the spren we didn't see in the Cognitive Realm (such as angerspren or musicspren) or will those be fleshed out if you need reference in a future book?
They'll be fleshed out as we need them for future books.
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?
Your ideas are sound.
We want an art book!!!
We do too! It probably won't happen, however, until after the fifth book of the Stormlight Archive.
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?
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.
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)
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.
Hemalurgy table on the website when?
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!
OOOooo, interesting, I didn't think the changes would be that substantial.
I think the changes will be mainly in the art.
since Peter mentioned it's in-universe, I hope your bloodier version gives more clues about who is operating this gruesome hemalurgy lab
Hmm...that's a good question. :)
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?
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.
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?
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.
Who are your favorite characters in the Cosmere?
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.
Even Moash?
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.
Will we eventually be getting accurate maps of Sel, Nalthis, or Threnody? And will we get prints of all of the known maps?
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.
Will the Sel map be around the release of the second Elantris book?
I suspect that is around when we would release a Sel map, yes.
Which Radiant Order do you most identify with?
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.
What's your favorite piece of art that you've done for the Cosmere?
My favorite piece of art I've done for the Cosmere would have to be the oil painting of the Roshar map, with the Shadesmar map and Surgebinding charts probably close seconds. Thanks for asking!
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?
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.
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?👀)
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Awesome! So this would be pretty accurate? https://i.imgur.com/lfQkD3g.png [superimposed image]
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
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?
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.
Is there a time when you two felt strongly on a design and disagreed, or are you both very open minded?
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.
When you're designing the look of something like a chasmfiend how many iterations do you go through?
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.
Have you read 1984?
Yes, I have.
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?
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.
Is there a certain book that you've read and you said "my God I wanted to write this book!"
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.
Great graphics by the way.
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.
If you could change one thing in a book that already happened, what it would be?
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.
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?
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].
If there would be, like, a movie about the... I hope for a movie, I really hope for a movie. *inaudible*
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.
No, I wanted to be, like... a concept artist.
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.
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?
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.
