Questioner
How strong is Endowment's futuresight in comparison to other Shards?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO.
How strong is Endowment's futuresight in comparison to other Shards?
RAFO.
Does Khriss know the intents of the sixteen Shards at the time of the essays?
At the time of the essays, Khriss would-- Yes, Khriss would know all sixteen intents.
Can a Shard just--like, say someone is using their magic system--can they stop the power from them being able to use it?
No, that's a bit like stopping the laws of physics. So, while they can circumvent laws of physics and things like that, but if you wanted to stop someone from using magic, smiting them would be the efficient way of making that happen, if you are capable of it in the system.
We've seen, let's say, Ruin and Preservation talking to people--they have limitations on that. Do other Shards share these limitations?
There are limitations-- All Shards have some interesting limitations that we will get into as we go.
Can a Shard just smite someone? Like, "Boom, you're dead," and they die?
So, Shards can do this, depending on where they are. For instance, Odium can't, but Endowment could.
Did the Five Scholars ever speak directly with Endowment in a way that they would remember?
*thinking noises* I'll RAFO that.
Odium seems to have a bad track record when it comes to killing Shards. He was wounded versus Ambition, and he's trapped on Roshar. Yet, he's credited in killing Devotion and Dominion. My question is: was Autonomy significantly involved and would Odium have been able to do it on his own and still be okay to--
RAFO. It is dangerous to attack a Shard with one Shard. Let's say that. And a wise Shard would try to avoid that confrontation unless there are specific reasons they think they would have an advantage.
Was Felt cosmere-aware during Era 1?
Yes.
Was he directly involved in the interplanetary trade through the Pits?
He was involved. Whether directly is the right term or not I will not say.
And is he part of the Seventeenth Shard?
He has been a member of various different groups and had various different motivations over the years. I would not put him, right now, as a member of the Seventeenth Shard.
As in, like, Stormlight Archive--
As of Stormlight Archive Era: Not a member of the Seventeenth Shard. Obviously--well, I won't go any further on that.
Did the game developers for the Witcher franchise get back to you?
They never did. I didn't expect them to, though. I was not calling them out. I was specifically just saying that if somebody asked me, I would. It's not like I was...I was trying to bury that. It went way bigger than I wanted to. But I think they already knew. I have made it clear to them I'd enjoy working with them.
Does Stormlight drain faster in a vacuum?
No. Good question, I haven't been asked that before.
In the prologue to Way of Kings, when Szeth kills Gavilar, Gavilar says, "Tell Thaidakar he's too late." What's Thaidakar too late for?
*Evil laugh* RAFO. You'll find out. It's coming, not too far away.
Is the gold blade that Odium has, his equivalent of an Honorblade?
Not quite.
In Mistborn Era 1, they don't...aluminum in real life can only really be refined through the use of electricity.
You can actually get it before that. For instance, Napoleon had a set of aluminum dinnerware that he gave to the really fancy guests. If you weren't fancy enough, you got the gold. So they could get it in elemental form without electrolysis or whatever the process is. You could get it, but you couldn't make it. It was extremely rare till the modern era.
They have started to figure out that process in Mistborn, and it soon is going to become really common.
Once aluminum is dirt cheap like it is--
That changes the world a whole bunch!
Do you play those [Blizzard games]?
Yeah. They tried to get me to write for them. Back before Overwatch became Overwatch, when it was their next MMO game, Titan, they brought me in and were trying to convince me. And they were good books, but I just could not spare the time.
How did Nightblood get from Warbreaker to Oathbringer.
He was carried.
How?
RAFO! He was carried by someone.
What book will you have to read to find out?
You will find out eventually. Nightblood, the sequel to Warbreaker will include some, Stormlight books will also include some.
Me making a book about someone is not a promise they'll live until that book. So the fact that Jasnah gets book ten does not mean necessarily mean Jasnah survives until book ten.
Did Spook ever leave Scadrial?
RAFO.
Khriss and Jasnah... are they ever gonna meet, because I feel like they'd be the ultimate power couple.
They would get along smashingly, is what I feel. I won't say if they're ever going to meet or not, but I do feel that they would get along.
Can people not from Roshar bond with spren and get the Shardplate and whatnot?
RAFO. Well, okay. You don't need me to RAFO on that. You have seen someone not from Roshar bond a spren. You have seen that much happen.
We know for sure that Hoid is a Lightweaver.
Do we know that?
Hoid has bonded a spren.
Is the Sibling a Singer?
The Sibling is not, good question.
Does aluminum negate magic systems in all the--
Not exactly, but it has very weird-- it has interesting effects, how about that, in all places.
Is Bavadin a dragon? Was she originally a dragon?
RAFO.
So Lift gets her awesomeness from food. Is that a Lift thing or is that an Edgedancer thing?
That is a Lift thing. She is a very specific thing, and what she is will come out more, as the series progresses. It's not just a little one-off, there is actually something more behind it, but it is not an Edgedancer thing.
I was starting to think that maybe there was something that Cultivation's people had their own kind of Heralds, that had their own alternative energy so--
It's going to probably take until Lift's book to start to dig into it too much, but it isn't that far off, 3 books.
*laughs* Only 3 books?
Yeah, she is 6th.
Are there currently any Shards, besides Harmony, that are not held by their original Vessel?
Yes.
If you shine a red light on a white wall, could you use the color from that to Awaken?
Ooh, good question! I would say you would end up leeching the color out of the lightbulb that you were shining through.
Is a chull able to receive some form of Investiture? ...I'm thinking of Scadrial... Would it have the presence of mind to be able to use the abilities?
Not as it is right now. But you can see in the way that Ryshadium are working that we have animals that are reaching beyond-animal intelligence. Aviar are the same way. And it is possible to assume that you could get to the point where you could use such powers. But none of them are there yet. But the Aviar kind of use their powers, so I guess some of them are. So, yes, I will say that's possible.
Were humans the first sentient race in the cosmere?
Tied. So technically, it depends on what you count, if you count tied for first as first.
What happens if you become an atium savant?
I've RAFO'd that in the past, so I'll RAFO it now
Do any of your characters have afros?
Yes, there are characters with afros.
Did you have trouble killing Vin?
No, because by then, I was well prepared for it. I was worried about what the response would be, but it wasn't hard for me to do, because that was the story. Sometimes, when I'm doing this, I've outlined for a long time, I've planned it for a long time, it's almost more like I'm writing history, if that makes any sense.
When am I gonna get my Warbreaker to Stormlight Archive crossover book?
Nightblood will bring you a lot closer, but I can't promise when I'm gonna write that.
How do you pronounce the name of Elhokar's wife?
Aesudan (ˈe͡isudan).
So Skyward, do you consider it science fiction or science fantasy?
I consider it-- Is Skyward science fiction or science fantasy?
I generally separate the plot archetypes in my head from the genre trappings, and a lot of times people have plot archetypes that are science fiction. I do a lot of science fiction plot archetypes with fantasy settings. That's what Elantris is, right? The plot archetype is about information and researching information and coming to a scientific understanding of something that happened in the past so you can use it to fix the future; science fiction plot archetype fantasy setting for Elantris.
Skyward's backwards, right? It's the fantasy plot archetype. It is the the coming of age struggle against society through use of a fantastical boon to prove yourself, right? Very kind of classic fantasy thing but the trappings are science fiction. So I don't know that I look at these things the same way. Like, Stormlight, the Bridge Four sequence is an underdog sports story with fantasy trappings. That's the plot archetype...
As a writer, where I would shelve it? I would shelve it in science fiction because the trappings are usually-- And because of that. I would shelve Star Wars as science fiction, even though Star Wars is very much mystical, fantastical plot archetypes going on. Shelve it with where the genre trappings are, that's just for our sanity right? So we can know what box to put things in. Just for ease of discussing it and things like that. Nothing ever matches either genre trapping or plot archetype. It's just there for us to be able to have the framework to talk about it.
How does the destructor blast for a Poco not destroy its own shield?
In Skyward, I have the shields work directionally, the same way a lot of science fiction does. Like you could fly out of a hangar bay that has a shield on it, but you can't fly back into it unless they change the frequency and stuff like that. That's how those are working for me. They will let things not come in but will let things go out... It's Sci-Fi technology that's kind of an old stand-by for how shields work and I just kind of rely on that one.
Will casinos ever get big on Scadrial, because of chromium Feruchemy?
Let's just say that Era 3 is going to have lots of fun with a world that has magic like that accessible to people.
So there's a certain very long chapter in A Memory of Light. There's also a certain very long chapter in Oathbringer. I'm assuming you used similar techniques; both are very effective. Did you come up with that when writing Memory of Light or were you inspired by someone else for doing that?
Nope, that was something I had wanted to do.
So the question is, there's a very long chapter in A Memory of Light that was done very deliberately. I've used this before and in other books. Oathbringer does one, not nearly to the extent, but there's a certain point in A Memory of Light—and this was me, this was just kind of my love of trying to make the form of a novel match what I'm trying to get across with the novel.
In A Memory of Light, there was a point where the characters could not set down their swords and take a break, and I wanted to make sure that part was not divided up, to encourage as many readers as possible to have to push through it, even if it was kind of late at night *crowd laughs*, to get to the chapter break, so that they would feel some of the same feeling that the characters were feeling. And that's just my writerly way to get that across. In Oathbringer, it was more like, "This is where the breaks fit most naturally." I wasn't trying to do the same thing, but it's a similar sort of thing, where I want the momentum to not have a break until a certain point in the story. I don't anticipate ever doing-- The one in A Memory of Light was like 90,000 words, which, if you're unaware, an average novel is 80,000 words. So there is a novel-length chapter in A Memory of Light. And so, yeah-- *playfully* eh.
As Professor Sanderson, do you get situations where past students have success but you don't really care for it and how do you handle it?
That has not happened to me. The students who have gotten published, particularly lately-- To get into my class at BYU, you have to submit an application and chapters and there's a three-day window and we get a hundred applications and we take fifteen. These days, about a third of those students that get in tend to be what we call, "continuing education," meaning they are people who have gone to BYU and take only that class. Oftentimes, they move to Provo to take that class. So there's some pretty stiff competition and the writers who are in the class these days are really good.
But even in the older days, the people who got published, you can usually tell, and even if you can't, I mean, there's not a lot of writing out there that I can't read and say, "Wow! I understand how someone appreciates this," right? Part of, I think, being a writer and an artist is learning to appreciate things, even if you don't necessarily care for them, to be able to recognize, "This is good and someone is going to love this. This has craft, even it's not something that I particularly enjoy." But none of my students have even been there. All the ones that have gotten published, I'm like, "Wow, this is a great book." So, maybe someday I'll have to deal with that, but I haven't really had to deal with it so far.
Will the flying ships in Navani's sketchbook be showing up soon?
RAFO.
Did Dalinar reincarnate Honor at the end of Oathbringer?
RAFO
What's Hoid's real name?
That's a good one; RAFO.
Are there any Sleepless spies on other planets?
Sleepless are not confined to Roshar.
In Secret History, you talked about Kelsier being attuned to Ruin, more to Ruin than to [Preservation]. How come Vin isn't that way.
I have to say this very carefully. She is, for reasons I'm not going to explain at the moment, and she isn't, at the same time.
Does every Shard, of divinity so to speak, have a metal associated to it?
They all have at least one.
What do kandra look like in the Cognitive Realm?
RAFO. But it will be answered eventually.
How does Nightblood determine who is evil and who is not?
He is not very good at that, which is the joke. He needs someone else.
In Oathbringer, Taravangian tells Dalinar that there is metal falling from the sky, anything more on that?
The rainfall on Roshar is full of elements; and metal is not maybe not 100% accurate. But crem, that solidifies, comes down with the rain water.
He says that's what they were using to make half-shards.
Oh, you're talking about that! I'll RAFO that for now.
The magic system from Elantris has a lot of drawing things, and the system from Warbreaker has a lot of colors. Would you be able to combine that, if you did a rune with colors?
This is possible, yes. It's an interesting combination, it would work in interesting ways.
When a Feruchemist stores their charge in a metal, where is that going? Is that going into molecules, is that going into the Spiritual essence of the metal, is that sort of a Cognitive - what is that?
It is charging it in...in cosmere terms, more on the Spiritual level, but there are connections to the Physical as well. It's not 100% on the Spiritual.
It's not changing the molecular structure?
It is not going to change the molecular structure. If you brought that metal to Earth, somehow, and tested it, you wouldn't be able to tell any difference. Because we just don't have that element.
You can't test for Investiture on Earth
Yeah. In the cosmere, you can.
When Sazed gives Vin a little bit of pewter that doesn't really have a charge in it, and she isn't able to use that power. What would happen if he gave her a full metalmind and she tried to burn it for Allomantic power.
I think I cover that in the book somewhere, don't I?
I looked around for it and couldn't find it.
I know for sure I've answered it to fan questions before. So go ask. If I haven't, you can come back and ask me, but I'm pretty sure we have answers on that.
After Stormlight, Wit was far and away my favorite characters. One of my friends came to me and heard I really liked Wit, and he's like, "Oh yeah. His name is Hoid, he's a worldhopper, he's in a ton of cosmere books. So I went and read a bunch of the other cosmere related books. Why's he so different? Like, in Mistborn, he shows up as a beggar/informant for half a page?
So there's a couple reasons for this. One is, there are certain books where he is a character and other books where I'm just writing him as a cameo. Most of the books I'm just doing a cameo for him. Stormlight's where you see the most of him until he gets his own book.
The other reason was, at the beginning, I wasn't sure how much people would be interested in behind-the-scenes stuff, and so I was very sparing with it in the early books. You won't see a lot of him until Warbreaker, and even then he's only in a chapter. Even in Wax and Wayne books, you only see glimpses of him. There will be other books he'll be a bigger part in, but if you like Wit, Stormlight's your jam.