Recent entries

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3601 Copy

    Questioner

    Disregarding personal preferences, what Order of the Knights Radiant do you think you would best fit as?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, man. I've been asked this one, and it's really hard. What order of Knight Radiant would I best fit as. It's difficult, right? Because, number one, there are a lot of orders, and you can kind of see yourself going in different ways. And number two, there's kind of like the, what is it realistically?

    Like, when I sort myself into a Harry Potter house (which is much easier, cause there's not as many), I always have to kind of grudgingly put myself in Slytherin. Because, though a lot of my fellow writers are Ravenclaws, I'm not about the study; I'm about the accomplishment, right? Like, I write books in part because I'm like, "I want to accomplish this thing," and it's ambition, but it's also just "I want to do this thing." So for that reason I don't know that I can put myself in any kind of the scholarly focused order of the Knight Radiant, realistically, because I don't think that I would really actually fit there, even though that would be the natural place to start putting writers.

    I often wonder, maybe Lightweaver, but the problem is I don't lie to myself, I don't think, right? But I am really good at fooling myself when I want to. Like, when I don't want to deal with something, I'm very good at, like, "I'm putting this on the shelf and I'll deal with it later," which is a very Lightweaver thing. Maybe Lightweaver, but... So, we'll go with that one today, but I think I've answered that question four different ways.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3602 Copy

    Questioner

    Do you still plan to write Wax and Wayne four?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So I've got time, probably, to work on one more project this year, cause Skyward 2 is almost done. I'm still not 100% sure what it'll be. It's probably gonna be Skyward 3 cause it'll be super nice to just have that locked up and done. If that's the case, then Wax and Wayne 4 will probably be written in between parts of Stormlight 4, as I'm writing it, as I need breaks. If I can manage the way I take my breaks, that might be helpful for us getting the book out. One of the things I've learned to do is to take my breaks as novellas, which is why you see a lot more novellas from me than standalone novels across the last five to ten years. And that's because I realized as I was doing breaks as novels that, number one it took a lot longer, particularly in revision, and number two it ended up promising sequels, because I am incapable of finishing a novel without promising sequels, apparently. But I am capable of finishing shorter works without promising sequels. If I can get that, I really do want to get Wax and Wayne 4 done in a reasonable amount of time, but we'll see.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3604 Copy

    Questioner

    Shallan's Lightweaving. How does she make those physical? Is it light becoming matter?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So I'm not going to answer this one either, so you get another RAFO card. But I'll tell you which way to think. Here, energy and matter are basically the same thing. Investiture, energy, and matter are the same thing in the Cosmere.

    In our world, when we touch, we are touching energy, right? We are not actually touching. The atoms are repelling each other or whatever. I'm not a physicist. I'm sorry, physicists!

    Contact is a weird, weird thing. Keep in mind, investiture is another state of matter and energy in the Cosmere. It's not really that hard to extrapolate along.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3605 Copy

    Questioner

    In the Cosmere, as space becomes more developed...*inaudible* outer space.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's an interesting question that I've had to ponder. Would the space race happen more slowly because there's an alternative, or would it happen more quickly because you know other planets are inhabited. I'm not going to answer what I came up with, because it's a plot point in the books. So I'll give you a RAFO card, but that's the question to ask yourself.

    Questioner

    That wasn't my question! My question was, in the Cognitive Realm, with the gap between planets...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh! Will the gap between planets get larger as more people travel in between it. So, barring things like space stations, there's going to be so few minds in between, that I don't expect space to become larger because of that.

    I don't expect it to be a factor, except--barring--there will be possibilities of certain regions popping up.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3607 Copy

    Questioner

    So I have a weird type of amputation where they reattached my foot back onto my leg sort of like a *inaudible*. Would Stormlight healing be able to heal that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    A lot of it is going to depend on your perspective on it. But I would say yes, in most cases it would be able to.

    Questioner

    So it would grow the leg back to how it normally was?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would take a little work, but it would. But your perception is going to influence it.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3611 Copy

    Questioner

    What's your favorite book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is also kind of a hard one for writers, right? Or maybe not just for writers, maybe just for... my type of person, I'm sure a lot of you are like this, where it's like, my favorite book changes and varies, and so I kind of have some go-to answers, because they stayed my favorite book for a while. The book that got me into science-fiction/fantasy was Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly and I often mention that. My favorite Wheel of Time book was book four, I often mention that. My favorite Terry Pratchett book is probably Going Postal, my favorite classic is Les Miserable, so that often comes up. What have I read recently that I really liked? It's now been over a year, but I really liked Jane Yolen's work, and she recently released a short story collection that I really liked. I recently finished Roshani Chokshi book, The Star-Touched Queen, which I really liked. Robert Jackson Bennett is good... I like a lot of different things I read.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3612 Copy

    Podman36

    So, in the scene where Kelsier has all the metal around him, and he's Pushing and Pulling on [parts of the metal that are] not center of mass, is that something more along the lines of savantism, or is it just Rule of Cool?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No no, that I was pushing toward... I wouldn't call Kelsier a savant, but I would say that there were certainly steps toward that, and it's something I actually wanted people who were really skilled with the magic to be able to do.

    Podman36

    So it's not Rule of Cool.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would not call that one Rule of Cool, I would say that I want that to actually be part of the magic, that I wanted there to be some level, particularly in Pushing and Pulling, of skill that lets you deviate from the normal. And I've tried to show in other places that people who are really skilled can do some different things like that, particularly with Pushing and Pulling, both on emotions and on metals. So no, not Rule of Cool there, I do occasionally do Rule of Cool stuff, but I wouldn't call that one.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3613 Copy

    Questioner

    Do you think you'll ever be asked to finish Patrick Rothfuss's series?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, um... so no. And I would probably say no. My writing style is too different from his. I don't know if I can do the lyrical style that he does. If I were to try it I'd probably figure it out but it would take multiple years of practice and then it would delay the book even more. I am sure Pat will be able to release his book and we don't have to worry about that. Now, whether certain other authors will release theirs, I don't know, but I'm-- If I were a betting man I would put good money on Pat having his book out in the next decade.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3616 Copy

    Podman36

    You said before that if a human ate an Aviar worm, it would not doing anything, right? Someone's tried that? What would happen if a baby...?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Still wouldn't work. The gut flora is too different. And they're not part of the symbiotic life cycle there. That system has evolved to the symbiosis that it has, and humans are too new to trying to make that work.

    Humans are not new on the planet, but they are not part of that system.

    Podman36

    Could they be trained into it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Training wouldn't work

    Podman36

    Not like training, but through generations.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Through generations, that would be theoretically possible.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3617 Copy

    Questioner

    Where did the idea for Girl Who Stood Up come from?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Girl Who Looked Up grew out of my love of folklore and fairytale. And the various incarnations of Pandora myths all around the world, in different societies, presented differently, would be my guess at the inspiration there.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3619 Copy

    Questioner

    I notice that the two most complicated Investiture systems that we know of, those being Hemalurgy and Forging, are both the Investitures of Shards whose names have a generally negative connotation. Is there any correlation?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would say that is not an intentional correlation.

    Questioner

    That is just a coincidence?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3620 Copy

    Questioner

    Would it be possible for an inanimate object that was invested to the point of sentience Ascend to Shardhood?

    Brandon Sanderson

    To become a Vessel of Adonalsium, or become a Shard through...? This is a tricky question because the power left alone will become sapient. And at that point, the distinction between being a Shard and a Vessel is fine but still extant. And I would say the power could not become a Vessel in the same way because it's defined as something different. But it is possible for the power to be left alone and to gain sapience on its own.

    Questioner

    The example we were thinking of was Sel. It was stated in Arcanum that the landscape itself was invested to the point of.. Could the planet of Sel be the Vessel of Devotion?

    Brandon Sanderson

    At this point, it's playing semantics, and I would say no. But there are people in-Cosmere that would argue that the semantic distinction is irrelevant and that it is the same.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3621 Copy

    Mason Wheeler

    One of the Letters in Oathbringer suggests that the Shards had a pact to all go their separate ways. And some of them held to it and some of them didn't?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Mason Wheeler

    Out of all of them, how is it possible that one of the ones that didn't is the one whose nature is to obsessively keep your word at all costs?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He would argue that he kept his word.

    Mason Wheeler

    Okay, so loophole.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He wouldn't even call it a loophole.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3625 Copy

    Questioner

    Let's say a Bloodsealer got his hands on a Dakhor monk's bones. Could it still access the Dor. *Inaudible* Could they even be reanimated, and could they still be useful?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's a really good question. So the bones are a conduit, much like Allomantic metal is. Allomantic metals are pretty easy to affect Investitures. I would say getting a-hold of a Dakhor monk's bones, likely, would work. Likely, they're not going to resist too much. But, I'm going to say harder to access the magic than you'd think, but easier than with regular bones.

    So I'm going to give you a yes.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3626 Copy

    Jozomby

    At the time of the Recreance, were there any Bondsmiths?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is a plot point. You are supposed to be asking that question.

    Jozomby

    I was mostly trying to find out if the Sibling was bonded, and if the break in the bond is what caused the Sibling to go into slumber

    Brandon Sanderson

    Let's just say this is a RAFO with the promise that I intend to answer the question relatively quickly.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3632 Copy

    Questioner

    Was the wall around Elantris soulcast?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ah, good question! It was not soulcast. Excellent question.

    Questioner 2

    *Inaudible* find out later, maybe?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Their own magic was involved in the creation of Elantris. The local magic was involved.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3633 Copy

    Sparkle Hearts

    Can you Soulcast hair?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, if you can cut it with a Shardb...You can Soulcast even the body. Hair is much easier. While it's attached, it's going to be harder. Easier than Soulcasting a body, if you have the skill to just soulcast the hair.

    While it's attached, treat it more like a body than you would not a body, but easier than a body.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3635 Copy

    Jozomby

    I’m wondering about the idea that you can block emotional Allomancy with an aluminum lined hat.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yup.

    Jozomby

    Okay.  So I’m wondering how much aluminum is required.  So like, an aluminum colander, versus an aluminum headband, versus…

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right.  Alright.  So, I’ll be honest with you.  The idea of a tinfoil hat was so intriguing to me, basically, that I made sure this was part of the magic system.  I say it has to be tinfoil, at least. Thicker is probably better, the way these things work. I’ll try not to do spoilers.  When Hoid lets somebody use aluminum to block signals, he was going with something that you would be able to bend a little bit by pulling on it, but wouldn’t be able to fold it down.  I’d put a bare minimum, if you want to be extra sure, on that, but lining your hat with tinfoil is viable. Particularly in the later eras of Mistborn, when some of the powers are decreasing.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3636 Copy

    PrinceDusty

    You've talked about some of the correlation between Aviar abilities and Allomantic abilities. Are there any Aviar abilities that are not related to Allomancy, or what are some other abilities that we might see?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'll RAFO that, mostly because I want to be free to pick and choose from my list as I canonize them. A lot of Aviar abilities are Cognitive type stuff, just from the way I built them so I can separate the magics. The whole Seeker/coppercloud thing, a lot of Aviar abilities are going to be riffs on that, or they're going to be riffs on glimpsing the Spiritual a little bit. And you see a lot of that in Allomancy. There are abilities that they have that you won't see in Allomancy.

    The trick is Allomany is so broad. I built the main magic systems to be able to get a little bit of everything. You see the same thing in Stormlight. So seeing Aviar abilities that you haven't seen some version of it in Mistborn or Stormlight, it's going to be... Mistborn and Stormlight touch on all different parts of the magic system on purpose. But I think you will eventually see some that don't. But they're all going to work on the Cosmere magic, so you can say they're all related.

    PrinceDusty

    Where might we see them?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Aviar are known in the Cosmere but are very, very rare. But as you move forward in the future, perhaps you'll see them more often.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3637 Copy

    PrinceDusty

    At the Pixel Project event, you talked about a further extent of Cultivation's magic than just the boon and bane? Are there any people alive at the end of Oathbringer who are influenced by that magic?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, Lift. Well, I guess that's a boon, isn't it? Yes, there are. But nobody on screen that has Cultivation magic, other than boons or curses from the Nightwatcher. Yes, there is such a thing, no, there's no one else on screen. But what Lift does is a hint.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3638 Copy

    Questioner

    What inspired the idea of the lenses from Alcatraz?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Alcatraz books really did come from me wanting stupid things that I do to be superpowers--and I've always worn glasses, and even when my friends got Lasik or contacts or something, I was like, "Bah, I like glasses, I like how they look; I want to wear my glasses!"

    So I wanted glasses to be cool. And so I made a whole bunch of magical pairs of glasses. There is really...If you're questioning anything in Alcatraz, and saying, "Why did you do this," the answer is almost always, "Because I wanted something dumb I do to be cool."

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3639 Copy

    R'Shara

    The Fused were looking for something at the palace at Kholinar at the end. Were they looking for Hoid's Cryptic?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes they were. Good question! Did people think they were looking for the black gemstone? That would be the other big guess. But they were looking for the Cryptic.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3640 Copy

    R'Shara

    How many times did a Herald break and let the Fused return to Roshar?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, so how many Desolations were there, total?

    R'Shara

    Between the Oathpact and Aharietiam?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not as many as people say there are.

    R'Shara

    More than fifty, less than fifty?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would guess offhand more than fifteen, but not much more. That's the sort of thing I just have to look at the timeline on. You're catching me flat-footed on that one. I would have to go look. Not as many as they think, but more than fifteen.

    R'Shara

    More than fifteen? Okay, because I actually asked more than fifty.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh you asked more than fifty. More than fifteen, less than fifty.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3641 Copy

    R'Shara

    Does a region's cultural identity ever have anything to do with their Spiritual DNA?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    R'Shara

    So, like, people expect Alethi to be tall, so they are more likely to be tall?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, what you're saying like that? No. Not that part. You're saying like, how someone...does ex...I don't have it working like that right now. That would take more... I will say no on that. Yes, but no.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3643 Copy

    Steeldancer

    Taln, did he give in to the torture around the events of Way of Kings?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm going to have to look at the...So he should have given in to events in the current version of the book right before...Let's just say around Way of Kings. I'm not going to canonize that, though. In the version of Way of Kings that I wrote in 2002, he'd been around for a few years before he showed up in the narrative. And in the current outline, I don't have that be the case, but I haven't written his book yet. So for canon, but it's a Word of Brandon canon, I'm going to say, he's only been around for a couple of months before he shows up at the city.

    FanX 2018 ()
    #3644 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Harry Potter is a really interesting example because it tends to be, in a given book, pretty hard; and then across the entire continuity it lets itself be soft. And so, what you end up having is a given book is really tight with the use of magic, though again... I don't know if you want to get into this, but when we talk about a hard magic system, there are many things we mean, and I think as a writer it's good to separate out internal logic versus external logic. If you want a hard magic system... Lee likes the external logic to really work, meaning you're asking where is the power coming from, how does it realistically affect the economics, how can I explain to someone outside the system how this magic is actually working, how does it not break the laws of thermodynamics. 

    And internal logic means that it's consistent. And so for instance, you can look at a lot of superheroes as a good example. Some superheroes do not try external logic. They just say "This person has this power, and it works this way." The further they've gotten along, the more external logic they try to add. "Oh it's the X-gene" or it's, you know, "You get the power from the sun" or things like that. That is a very different thing from the internal logic of a story, where you say, "This character has this power, it works like this. And It always works this way. We don't explain how realistic it is, but we are consistent." Two very different things. Both very important to think about for your story, but you can have a story with only internal consistency, and Harry Potter is pretty good at this. She doesn't tell us "Oh, where does the power for magic come from, and what are the laws of things," no, but it can be very consistent, particularly within a given book. Internal logic.

    FanX 2018 ()
    #3645 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    For me a great magic system is one that fulfills your goals as a writer in your story. And they fill lots of different holes, and they all don't have to look the same, they don't have to do the same things. This is more, for me, about when I pick up the book, is the magic in the world enhancing the type and style of story it is, the subgenre it is, and that sort of stuff. Though, if we're asking what magic system inspired us, I will say, I still think the best magic system in fantasy is the Runelords by David Farland.

    FanX 2018 ()
    #3646 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there an origin to how you designed [the Mistcloak]?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yea, there is an origin to the Mistcloak. It was actually gonna be in the video game that didn't ever get made.

    *crown groans* I know, I know. But I will eventually use that some day. There's been talk of just doing a graphic novel of this character that I had written a story for. I wrote something like 20,000 words of story for the video game that didn't end up getting used ,so we might turn that into a graphic novel or we might make a video game out of it or something. But that was the origin.

    FanX 2018 ()
    #3647 Copy

    Questioner

    How did Magic: the Gathering come into your life?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So I was, I believe, a senior in high school - it was '94 - and my brother came home with a deck. The local... so this would have been the late spring, early summer of '94, just when Revised hit. My brother came home from the little... back then it was called Cosmic Comics - was where we bought our fantasy novels and comics, and they had started stocking this game. And what they would do was, to get people interested, they would open the starter decks, and they would put the rares out with the starter deck, so you could pick it based on the colors of the rares that you wanted, because nothing was worth anything back then, you could do that. And you could pick the ones without the lands, because lands were dumb. Though when I ended getting it, I ended up getting a sealed one for whatever reason.

    But he'd picked the green one, so he'd gotten the Force of Nature and the Cockatrice, so he was like "ooh, big green." And I went and I bought a starter deck and didn't know what it was, and I looked through the cards (you couldn't tell what was rare back then, right) but the last card in the pack, the one I settled on I thought was rare, was a Royal Assassin, and I'm like, "This is lame. His is an 8/8 and mine is a 1/1." But of course as soon as my Royal Assassin killed his Force of Nature one time, a control player was born and I realized "Oh, this is what we do."

    Back then we played with all the cards we had in a big pile, that's just what you did. And I was the first one in our little group to realize how great a Demonic Tutor was when you have a deck of 400 cards that you're playing from. So I played 19 Demonic Tutors, I traded for everyone else's, so that I could actually find some of my cards now and then. That was my experience starting off Magic.

    I bought one pack of Legends the week it released, I had gotten into Magic a little earlier. So I guess you can find out exactly when I started playing, because I walked into Cosmic Comics and they said "We've got Legends in." I'm like, "What's that?" They're like, "You want some. It'll be gone within an hour." So I took my money I was going to spend on fantasy novels, and I bought one pack of Legends, and... I can't even remember, I might have even got a Chromium in it, but then they were gone within an hour. That was back when a set came out, it was gone that day, and you didn't see any more of them.

    FanX 2018 ()
    #3648 Copy

    Questioner

    To my knowledge, canned foods were the main export of Scadrial?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They were definitely a... yes, they had an important part of their export economy.

    Questioner

    What would the imports be?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'll RAFO that for right now.

    FanX 2018 ()
    #3649 Copy

    Questioner

    Can you tell us when more books are coming... as far as Alcatraz?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, Alcatraz 6 is halfway done. It is moving along really well. I wrote a chunk of it and didn't like it, went to a friend of mine whose a really good writer and said, "I can't get Bastille's voice down, can you help me out?" And so we've been kind of going back and forth and sending things back and forth to each other and it's finally really working. It's snapping right together, and so I would imagine it's less than a year away. I don't know for sure. Not far.

    Legion Release Party ()
    #3650 Copy

    Steeldancer

    On Threnody, the Shades, their eyes turn red when they get really mad. Is that the same thing as with the Voidbringers and all the other ones?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have a subtheme in the Cosmere of the redness and it's supposed to be intentional.

    Steeldancer

    So it is the same thing?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's the same theme. But I do not mean to imply that it's the same Shard.

    Steeldancer

    But it's the same effect?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. I'm doing it intentionally. Red eyes specifically are meant to mean something but I use it a few other ways [the same way?].