*Inaudible question*
*Repeating* Why do the Shin look different to the Rosharan significant <face>?
Because the Shin have spent a long time being very xenophobic. They haven't intermixed very much. When the original event happened, that I'm not going to say because of spoilers, different people settled in different places, and the Shin in particular just have been very xenophobic.
I was just wondering if the metal used to make a fabrial matters like if it's *inaudible* or something?
*Repeating* Does the metal used to make a fabrial matter?
A little bit. Not as much as things like this do on Scadrial, but there is some influence there. We'll get into those rules eventually.
Adolin and his sword that wants to kind of wake up a little bit. Most of the Knights Radiant have some sort of break in their mind, mental <a little> problem. Where Adolin appears to be the person in Stormlight that's most comfortable with himself. Is that going to cause a problem, or is maybe the fact that he, at least in his mind, murdered Sadeas, going to help bring that to fruition or give us a way towards something like that?
Let's, first off, say I'm not going to repeat this one because it's super spoilery. So let's try to talk around the spoilers.
In the Stormlight Archive, there is a tradition among the Knights Radiant that certain traumas and/or psychological handicaps are effective in drawing the attention of a spren. I haven't actually said if that is true or if that's [just] a tradition of theirs. But there is a tradition among the Knights Radiant. that they have noticed something consistent.
Does it mean that you have to in order to be a Knight Radiant? Well, there is somebody that I would call extremely psychologically well-adjusted, that by the end of the third book is well on the way to Knighthood.
There is something going on there, they are noticing something true. But it might not be as exclusionary as they think it is.
Sja-anat tries to convince Shallan she is not her enemy and tells her, "Ask my son." Is the son that she's referring to, is that Pattern?
No. Sja-anat is referring to--I'll try not to give too many spoilers on this--if you look through the books for a spren that does not seem to belong to Honor or Cultivation, but is bonding a Radiant, that is where you want to look for Sja-anat's influence.
Is it Glys?
RAFO!
In Hero of Ages, I have a room that is both looking at the sunset, and looking north, in different scenes. In one scene, someone walks in, they can see the sunset, and in another scene, they see the army, that's to the north, through the window? And they were like, "Ahhhh!"
So I said, "Oh! Let's make it a corner room, and put two windows." So there's a solution, but it was not...
But it wasn't intended that way.
Yeah.
Is it possible for people to be Mistborn in another world other than the one that...
It is not possible for them to be born Mistborn, but a Mistborn can travel to one of those worlds. And you could theoretically create one out of Hemalurgy on another world. You would need to bring people, right? But you could actually do it. Nothing would prevent you, other than the horrific, gruesome nature of it.
How many of the Stormlight Archive, how many are you planning?
There are two sets of five. The first five will come to a climax, and the second five are going to take place ten years later. Some of the cast will be the same. It's the same series but some of the cast will change. For instance, Lift is being seeded as a main character for that series. She'll be grown up, so she won't be quite-- She'll still be Lift, but she may not be quite as teenagery. She's a very special individual.
Renarin will be one of the main character in that series. Jasnah will be. And Taln and Ash, who are both Heralds that we barely see on screen in the current ones, they'll be main characters.
I've read the Mistborn. What's the best way to get the full effect? My brother, I'm introduced him to the Cosmere. We both got into it through, when you finished Robert Jordan's series.
Full effect of the Cosmere. Do you guys have a non-spoilerific, "Things to watch for"?
There probably is.
Maybe go on the 17thShard, which is the forum, and say, do you guys have a non-spoiler "Things to watch for" to see the Cosmere connections in action.
Watch for Hoid, obviously. Watch for... people use the wrong words. Like if you ever see anyone in a Stormlight book who accidentally uses soil or coin or things that are just not Stormlight stuff. That is usually a translation error because they're using magical means to translate into the language and they are saying a word and the magic is translating it.
Like, if you just learned the language, you wouldn't make that mistake. That's a pretty big hint that the person is non-native. Watch for the myths and legends that people tell about various places and peoples. It's all just behind the scenes stuff right now. There's nothing that you're going to miss, you're going to be like "Oh no, I don't understand!" The things that are overt connections are meant to be woven into the stories well enough that you wouldn't have to have the intros, ahd the ones that are not are just Easter eggs for now.
Except for things like Arcanum Unbounded, which is presuming you are Cosmere aware.
Ruin and Odium, they both talked about their passion, and it was italicized both times. Would any other Shards talk about passion in that same italicized way?
Yes they would.
Would any of them not talk about it that way?
Yes. Excellent, good questions.
If I remember correctly, [Calamity] was sent to destroy the world?
Kind of, yes. He was sent to make it destroy itself. Apocalypse Guard ties into that, with further explanations, if I can ever get the thing to work.
So it's part of the same...?
Continuity, yes. She is from the same dimension Megan sees into, the main character is.
Using Hemalurgy, could you steal the boon from the Old Magic?
Oh, from the Nightwatcher? This is theoretically possible.
Would that take the [curse] with it as well?
*Hesitantly* Yes. Though it's also theoretically possible to split them apart, that would be a lot harder. Getting the boon, if you knew what you were doing, would not be that difficult.
Now, what Cultivation would do to you when she found out that had happened is another thing entirely. Because those are willful grants of Investiture.
Similar to Endowment's with the Returned?
Yeah, things like that. When you get a Shard involved and the Shard has.. power to... Same thing like...it's on a much grander scale what's happening with the spren bond, right?
When Hemalurgy does spread, most Shards will not be happy about this, right?
Yes, that is correct.
With the gemstones, we know that the hue seems to matter more than the rarity. Is that somehow tying in to the colors for Warbreaker, and how that stuff works?
Yes, that is tying in. Color will be a recurring theme, much as metal will be a recurring theme, as you see different magic systems work. In this case, the color has an affect on the spren and getting a spren trapped in it.
So just the color itself?
Yeah the color is the important part. When I was researching Stormlight, I determined that color had to be the point. Because a lot of the gemstones I'm using are molecularly identical.
So that was the best way to differentiate?
So this was the best way to differentiate. But I had already had this as part of the cosmere, that color and the way people perceive color and things like, that were part of it. But getting ten different gemstones that were molecularly different proved to be very difficult and not worth it. If you look, so many of them are just basically the same gemstone with a few impurities. Their crystalline structure is the same.
If Dalinar actually brought Honor back together to summon the perpendicularity, and Odium said he Ascended. Dalinar did he actually hold the Shard Honor and is he now considered a Sliver?
RAFO! They are really waiting on this one. Let's just say, he is not Honor currently. But of course, you knew that.
Are half-shards made with Radiant spren?
RAFO! Good question!
Out of the named Shards, which of them, like of the [Vessels?], if one of them were hunting you down, which one would scare you the most? You [don't] have to say the name of the character, just the name of the Shard.
So we're talking about considering the Vessels as well?
Yes.
I.. *hesitantly* would probably go with Odium, looking at his track record. He has the track record to back it up.
My question is not really a question, it's more of a theory. How Odium keeps the Fused around is more if he has them tied to his essence, so it's like he's essentially fishing them out of the Spiritual Realm and since their minds are left behind in the Cognitive Realm and their minds are *inaudible* damaged, because their spirits are separated and it just pulls them back.
I'm 100% convinced Nightblood did kill the thunderclast, because Nightblood consumes all investiture, that's something I asked you back at Barnes and Noble a couple years ago, during Christmas and you said your soul is investiture. So my thought is, that thunderclast isn't coming back any time soon.
You are correct on that one.
When I saw that, my thought was, "Yep, It's dead." Other people were like, "I don't know, will it come back?" Nope.
I'll tell you this. They have not run into something like this before, and there will be ramifications of what happened there.
That is fun to know.
If you are used to death having no consequence, and suddenly your friend vanishes forever...
Yeah I, know I already thought of that. They're going to fight over Nightblood.
Mmm.
So, you talked about a weapon made by the enemies of Adonalsium, and you said it doesn't exist in it's original form. Do any remnants of it still exist in the Physical Realm?
Yes.
Have we seen any of those remnants on-screen?
*pause* RAFO.
In current continuity (and people would know this), Hoid's immortality comes from this. People who have read Dragonsteel know that.
Would a Mistborn be able to push and pull on a Shardblade?
That's an excellent question. The answer is, it would be very hard. In Mistborn, anything that's pushing on certain metals, particularly infused metals, gets progressively harder the more Investiture they've got in them. And Shardblades tend to be very highly Invested; they'd be very difficult to push on. If you got the right Allomancer, they could push on it. But I would say, in most cases, no.
If there are fabrials that can attract substances, are there ones that repel?
Yeah, there are.
So in the Way of Kings Ars Arcanum we get a really good explanation of the different kinds of fabrials. Then in Words of Radiance we get a new kind of fabrial, one that attracts certain substances, but they weren't discussed in the Words of Radiance Ars Arcanum. And they are not in Oathbringer's either.
Yeah, so this is actually something Isaac has been bugging me about. There is no reason they were not included other than me being lazy.
So in Mistborn: Secret History, the leader of the Ire is named Alonoe. This is also the name of the lake in Arelon. Is she named after the lake? Is the lake named after her? Or--
*smiling* RAFO!
Would it be possibly to have a bunch of iron Ferrings store a bunch of weight into some iron, turn that iron into steel, and then use that steel to make guns as a cheaper alternative to aluminum?
Yeah but the guns wouldn't be immune--
But they would be resistant, that little bit of extra time could be enough to make a difference.
Yeah.
And the guns would be harder to see with iron/steelsight, correct?
Yes, they would be. Do keep in mind however that we get a very skewed perception of the world and how important stuff like this is because the main characters of the books are Allomancers. This just isn't something that is important to the average person on the street. But this does relate to some things later on in the series.
*inaudible*
You know, I read comic books, but I never really considered writing them. I don't feel I know that format well. I've done a couple graphic novels, but those I always give to a script writer for comic books who's practiced it, let them do it. I haven't really considered ever since I broke-in, because I'd feel like the basketball player playing baseball, you know. You might be okay at it, but might as well let the people who are really good at it, since they're really good at doing it.
Can't wait to get my hands on that new Roshar map! Any chance there's going to be more, not yet released world maps? (i.e. Elendel, Threnody, Nalthis, First of the Sun) I wanna frame them all! Also, having Cognitive Realm versions of them would be sick!
Glad you like the maps! We've talked about creating a poster of Elendel, so I suspect you'll see that at some point. As for the others, we'll continue to map them as Brandon explores them, so I think there's a good chance of eventually seeing a lot of the places you mentioned.
Oh, by the way, are we talking about a new series or a standalone [for Skyward]? :)
A trilogy like The Reckoners was.
Which universe is [Skyward]?
It IS connected to something else Brandon has written. You'll figure it out when you read it.
Quick question about an obscure (mentioned once) name in my copy of Way of Kings: Nelda is one of the people that died on Kaladin (wok 67), is this maybe the same person as Nalma?
Yep, it's supposed to be fixed
Awakeners are useless in space. Awakened objects can't propel themselves where there is no air and can't produce air or food from nothing. Elantrians have another problem. Their power is very flexible, but tied to a location; they can't take it with themselves when they travel. Or, at least, they can't do it in a way explained well enough to extrapolate.
Actually I wonder about this. There is one scene where Vivenna Awakens Tonk Fah's cloak to attack Denth, and it drags Tonk Fah across the room. How? I mean, in theory, sure, we can speculate that it might have moved in a series of sweeps and jerks like swimming to force his momentum, perhaps it grabbed his legs, maybe it pushed off against the wall, maybe it even made a big scoop and sailed there on wind resistance... but the paragraph makes it seem possible that the cloak was somehow able to simply will itself along, strongly enough to drag Tonk Fah behind.
It does seem out of keeping with what Awakening is and can do, so I tend to think that at most it's just a typo (should I page u/PeterAhlstrom? I think they're working on a re-release and looking for continuity errors) but, if this is how it works, then once you're in space, Commanding a handkerchief to "go to Scadrial" might be enough to generate propulsion.
There's no error in that scene, and it also doesn't directly contradict Steenan's statement.
Hey u/Mistborn could you put more SA posters [in the brandonsanderson.com store]?
I keep meaning to do so--but it's hard to find the time for my art team, who spends a LOT of effort on the leatherbounds. There's one I've been wanting to do for a while. Hopefully, we'll get to it before too long.
Would it be too much to ask for another Mistborn novel?
The last Wax and Wayne book should be one of my projects this year. We'll see how Skyward finishes up.
We know that if someone marries a Smedry, they get their spouse's Talent. But what if two Smedries marry? Do they get each own's Talents in addition to the ones they were born with?
And what about polygamy? For example, if there would be two Smedries and a non-Smedry in the marriage, would the non-Smedry get both? One of them? Some combination of them?
As for the Smedries, I've thought WAY too much about this. I went into it knowing I wanted a magic completely different from cosmere magics, and so I've tried to take it that direction--which includes keeping it simple. In a lot of corner cases like you mention, the answer is "nobody knows, because it hasn't been tried yet. But it probably wouldn't work." I'd say that two Smedries who married might BOTH lose their talent, because the entire clan would consider that incest, and kick them out. That would be the answer with most corner-cases.
So something I've noticed in the fantasy genre that I love is that my 2 favorite authors (Sanderson and Rothfuss) don't use the traditional fantasy medieval setting (that I love) of castles, knights, feudalism etc. Now there are plenty of great authors that do (GRRMartin comes to mind as one that does it right), BUT the truth is, a good story eclipses all minor details like setting. An example I always give is that Patrick Rothfuss could write about brushing your teeth and it would make a fascinating read, and Sanderson would make an intriguing plot with amazing characterization throughout the dental hygiene experience. But I digress.
My question (If Brandon would be so kind as to show up, and if not, if anyone has any insight) is why; why doesn't the cosmere have any traditional medieval fantasy settings? Mistborn has keeps, but the society is not the traditional technology and setting of the medieval time period, nor do any of the other worlds given us.
There are both in-world reasons and writing reasons.
The writing reasons are obvious. I grew up on a steady diet of fantasy in a faux-medieval setting. I felt that some of these stories were really good, and enjoyed them--but at the same time, I felt the genre had been there and done that. In some ways, GRRM doing fantasy with the eye of a true medievalist provided a capstone to this era of fantasy.
When I sat down to write, didn't want to write what I was tired of reading. Dragonsteel (which never got published) was bronze age, White Sand was industrial, and Elantris was (kind of) Renaissance. (As you noticed, Mistborn is somewhere around 1820's. I modeled a lot of the society around the fascinating culture/industry of canals as shipping lanes that happened in England right before railroads took over.)
The other big reason, writing wise, is that I feel some of the magics that I enjoy dealing with in my settings need a certain near-industrial mindset to be interesting. The stories I want to tell are about people applying scientific principles to magic--and about the commodification and the economics of magic. Those are early-modern era stories.
The in-world reasoning I have is that on some of these planets, those eras existed--but the books are taking place when the stories of the worlds start smashing into one another. In addition, however, the Shards have an influence on this, because of things they saw happen on their own home planet.
Bluefingers is left-handed
Saw the "what inconveniences do left handed people have?"
It seems left-handers get ink all over their hands when writing....or he could be a righty and they write right to left
Not much of a revelation, but wanted to share it.
I feel the pain of lefties, though I am not one myself. Every time I see them writing, I think of how inconvenient that must be.
I'd be happy to canonize this, but I'd be taking too much credit if I said this is what I'd thought of when writing. I had simply imagined that he wrote a lot, and was not always as careful about cleaning off his hands as he should have been.
Would you be willing to confirm if Skar is a proto-Radiant (on the same level as The Lopen?)
It is implied by his statement of "We protect those who cannot protect themselves", which is obviously an affirmation of the oath, if not an outright swearing of it. I could see it being either/or. He's a good man that did what he thought the order, and he himself, wanted or he just became a Radiant on the same level as Kaladin during the Battle of the Tower.
Thanks for your time. I understand if you can't/won't answer that at this time. It's simply a curiosity, so I get it if you're a bit too busy to answer. :p
By the end of Book Three, I'd put Skar very close to (though not quite at the level of) Lopen along the way toward full Radiant-hood.
If a Feruchemist Taps warmth, does it actually warm them up physically, or do they just feel warmer?
It actually warms them. It’s not just a feeling.
So, is Kings in any way like your other books? Shall we expect an unexpected twist?
KINGS is like my books in some ways. But in order to be grand as a series, it had to start--oddly--more humbly. Yes, there are twists. I wrote it so that the epilogue redefines the entire book and series. Each of the 4 viewpoints has an epilogue. Much as RJ had huge prologues, this series will have huge epilogues. Those epilogues, like the Elantris first lines, are intended to be ‘BANG’ moments.
Is it possible to use a Soulstamp to give Shardplate life or at least achieve a robotic status?
Wow, it is really, really hard to Invest things that have already been Invested. Regular-- Let's just say that, it is really hard to do that. Part of the reason why it is difficult for instance to Push or Pull on something that is inside of somebody because the Investiture is interfering and you would have that similar problem doing anything to Shardplate with any of the magics.
Do bigger gems store more Stormlight for longer than smaller gems? So a broam would hold it for twenty hours where a chip might hold it for six hours or something.
The cut of the gem and how flawless the gem is has more to do with how long the Stormlight stays than size.
Is Shalash the daughter of Jezrien?
Umm... Oh, yes, she is indeed his daughter.
Would Rock be able to see the Cryptics?
Would Rock be able to see a Cryptic? That is a good question, you will have to see.
Is that kind of similar to the reason why there are no spren in Shinovar is because the people there so disbelieve them that it creates a negative pressure that keeps them from physical manifestation?
Good question.
Why can Rock see Syl?
Ooh, good question, why do you think Rock can see Syl?
My personal theory here is because his people have such a strong belief and reverence in them it allows him to see them for that reason because his strong belief creates some sort of cognitive or spiritual pressure which allows them...
He would agree with that philosophy. I would say, usually when something like that happens there is also something physiological going on.
When do you plan on releasing the Way of Kings annotations?
I've only written about a quarter of them. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will take me a few years just because it's taken me three and a half years to get the second book out. So I feel a burden to get the books going before I do side things like this. My life got a whole lot more busy with The Wheel of Time than it used to be. Which has cut out some of my side-projects like this but I would like to do them eventually.
What are some characteristics of and how many other wordhoppers are there that we have seen excluding Hoid, Demoux, and Galladon.
You gave me really good wiggle room on that one. Obviously the other person with Galladon and Demoux.
Right, the one from a future book.
His characteristics are-- What is he like? Some people have read his book so they know what he's like--
Which book is he from?
He's from White Sand.
Okay, that's one I have but have not gotten to.
It's only mediocre so don't worry about it. Let's see what other worldhoppers I want to give you clues about-- *long pause* There's a Terriswoman running around, if you keep your eyes open.
I have to re-read it, everything.
Who else do I want to talk about-- Words of Radiance has a couple good ones, that will be pretty obvious.
Can you store Breath in metal without the [Ninth] Heightening? Just put it there without Awakening, just to hide the Breath.
Can you hide Breath in-- Yes you can hide Breath in things.
Metal in particular, without the [Ninth] Heightening could you put it into metal. Without the purpose of Awakening it, just storing it there.
Oh without the [Ninth] Heightening-- I would say yes you could.
Does Shu-Keseg predate the splintering of Devotion and Dominion?
No, I don't believe it does.
Is the word Hoed based off an Aon and if so which one?
Yes, it is. It would be Hoe... no Oed, O-E-D.
What year did the Reod occur in the Elantrian calender?
Let's go ahead and-- Oh boy, Elantrian calendar?
...I don't have my wiki on me, I'm not going to-- I mean--
Did seons exist when the Aonic peoples discovered Elantris?
When the Aonic peoples discovered Elantris, did seons exist-- Okay let me go back to my timeline... It kind of means you have to define what you mean by Aonic. The problem is if you dig back too far in history it's kind of like asking "What's a German?" You know what I mean?
Because the Aons are based upon Elantris itself and so they don't become Aonic until they are writing the Aons.
And Aonic is also-- You are talking about the people and so it's like are the Normans Brits? Or are they Vikings? Or are they Frenchman?
Why don't we phrase it as the people of Sel when they discovered Elantris.
No, no, that's getting, okay-- Let's go ahead and RAFO that one, just because the history of Elantris is very interesting to the cosmere. When people are starting to get an inkling of that.
Odium was there once upon a time.
Yah... And the question of who built Elantris and how they built Elantris. What's going on with the Elantrians back then and things like this. So let's just RAFO that.
I think it's pretty clear in the book that Mraize is from Thaylenah.
And I wasn't being sarcastic or joking when I said I thought it was obvious from the text that Mraize was a Thaylen from Thaylenah.
