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SDCC 2015 Signings


Smye

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I was not there but I have found a couple tidbits online.  First this short interview done by Barnes and Noble (nothing really new here):

 

 

And the following question from a tumblr fan:

 

 

I asked him why he didn’t mention how Jews felt about Rithmatics. He said that they had conflicting feelings about it and different ones had different ideas - they also had their own lore about it.

 

(source)

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Question : Is Calamity a Shard?

 

Answer : Anything that exists or takes place on any version of Earth is not cosmere.

 

 

CURSE YOU CHOUTA THE CONNOISSEUR!!

 

 

Commentary : Just kidding.   :P

 

...Oh.

 

 

Question : Did any countries not pass an equivalent of the Capitulation Act?

 

Answer : Some did, some didn't. For example, Canada didn't… and things didn't go very well for them.

 

     Question.2 : Were the areas where they didn't livable?

 

     Answer.2 : Well, livable is a broad definition. For some people, Newcago is livable. 

 

Thanks for asking! This is fascinating, fascinating stuff. :D

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@Chouta I merged your post into the pre-existing SDCC thread, we really prefer to have only a single thread per event so that the forum doesn't get cluttered.

 

Also for clarification did you actually ask the Calamity/Shard question or was that entirely a joke?

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Finally, as promised to Kobold King of the WHiO, I asked a question regarding the Reckonerverse.

 

Question : Is Calamity a Shard?

 

Answer : Anything that exists or takes place on any version of Earth is not cosmere.

 

Well, at least we have an official answer now, because apparently listing Reckoners under "Non-Cosmere Works" on his freaking fansite just isn't enough for some people. <_< 

 

 

 

Commentary : Just kidding.   :P

 

 

What I Actually Asked :

 

 

Question : Did any countries not pass an equivalent of the Capitulation Act?

 

Answer : Some did, some didn't. For example, Canada didn't… and things didn't go very well for them.

 

     Question.2 : Were the areas where they didn't livable?

 

     Answer.2 : Well, livable is a broad definition. For some people, Newcago is livable. 

 

 

That's all. Hopefully, this report was as enlightening to you as it was to me.  :)

 

 

Oh. Okay, then. :P 

 

Awesome question, and fascinating answer. It brings up all sorts of implications and extrapolations that we Oregon RPers will put to good use. 

 

Thank you so much for asking! :D 

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Thanks for the report! The first question on Nightblood is particularly interesting, as it implies Awakening can hack other systems relatively easily.

 

In particular, it would be interesting if you could use non-Breath Investiture to Awaken and create better hacks. Gives Vasher a lot of utility, if he experiments more.

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Question : As I understand it, Nightblood is most comparable to a Shardblade. However, unlike a Shardblade, Nightblood requires constant input of Investiture in order to realize his full destructive potential. Why is this?

 

Answer : Vasher kind of hacked in order to imitate another magic system. Shardblades are organic parts of the world they are on, but Nightblood is a bunch of souls stuffed into something. Nightblood is like a Frankenstein.

Whait what? Is he saying that Ol' Vasher tried to bake a Shardblade using only common household Nalthis ingredients and that's how he came up with Nightblood? :blink:

That implies that Vasher was going between worlds waaaay back when he was multi-name the legendary king/scholar. What era was that in Roshar? Has he been there before the recreance? Did he try to make a dead Shardblade or a proper radiant blade, a man-made pre-bonded spren? *mind asplodes*

 

Thank you for the reporting Connoisseur! :D

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Whait what? Is he saying that Ol' Vasher tried to bake a Shardblade using only common household Nalthis ingredients and that's how he came up with Nightblood? :blink:

That implies that Vasher was going between worlds waaaay back when he was multi-name the legendary king/scholar. What era was that in Roshar? Has he been there before the recreance? Did he try to make a dead Shardblade or a proper radiant blade, a man-made pre-bonded spren? *mind asplodes*

 

Thank you for the reporting Connoisseur! :D

I have a LOT of questions because of that...

Was he "worldhopping" before or after being a Returned? How could he, being from Nalthis, know about other Shardworlds? Is there a group of "Worldsingers" on Nalthis? Was because a visit of our friend Hoid? How can a Returned "worldhop"? Is something like spit breath on the Cognitive Realm and command:"Shadesmar take me to <Name of the Planet>"? He went to Roshar just to learn about the Shardblades? How he learned about them?

I hate Brandon... he gives us 1 answer and triggers 20k questions...

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Eh... maybe i'm alone here, but I don't see his answer as axiomatically proving that Vasher worldhopped. It's possible, and does raise questions, but it might have been simple coincidence. Vasher thought, "Hey, why don't I make a sentient sword?" and didn't realize that his own magic system wasn't actually equipped to do that; he was imitating Roshar without realizing he was imitating Roshar. Being very smart and very good at what they were doing, Shashara and Talaxin were able to invent a hack without even realizing what they were doing was non-native to their own Investiture.

 

Additionally, whichever happened, the fact that Nightblood is a hack raises a number of fascinating points.

 

This throws our current model of "four types of BioChromatic entities" out the window, if Nightblood isn't a Type IV. It's possible that the four types exist, but Nightblood's just not an example.

 

Vasher was somehow able to hack his native Investiture to do something native to Roshar, but hasn't figured out how to hack the other way. Perhaps because his Spiritual Identity is tied to Nalthis, or maybe because as a Returned, even a suppressed one, he's too powerfully of Endowment to use another Shard's Investiture for any but the most basic of things (i.e. feeding off of it)?

 

I've also got some thoughts and ideas kicking around my head about the relationship between Returned and things like Nightblood, but those might all be invalid if Nightblood isn't a Type IV.

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Not that it isn't a possibility that Vasher is a long-time Worldhopper, but I do want to point out another possibility.

 

Notice the "kind of" in the response. It could be that Vasher didn't really do a hack, but that what he did was similar to one. That means he needn't have necessarily seen Shardblades before. Making a magic sword is hardly something they couldn't have come up with on their own. The fact that then is similar to a Shardblade, but not an intended function of his own magic system, could be what Brandon is referring to.

 

Edit: Ninja'd, and by Oudeis, no less.

Edited by IAmTheBeard
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"Vasher kind of hacked in order to imitate another magic system." I see two parts on that. I undesrtand there that he "Kind of hacked" (1st part) but was imitating another magic system. And to imitate you need to know/understand first. You can't imitate something you don't know.

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"Vasher kind of hacked in order to imitate another magic system." I see two parts on that. I undesrtand there that he "Kind of hacked" (1st part) but was imitating another magic system. And to imitate you need to know/understand first. You can't imitate something you don't know.

 

I get that, and I'm not arguing that you're not absolutely right. But that is definitely not the only way to interpret that sentence. I'm just cautious about assuming this is a confirmation of prior Worldhopping. In addition to the wording, how can you "kind of hack" something if you know what you're doing is a hack? 

 

If Vasher was Worldhopping, or if someone with a Shardblade came to Nalthis, then it would have had to be someone who know how Shardblades work, I assume. That implies that this travel would have had to happen a long time ago, before or close to the Recreance, at least. 

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"Vasher kind of hacked in order to imitate another magic system." I see two parts on that. I undesrtand there that he "Kind of hacked" (1st part) but was imitating another magic system. And to imitate you need to know/understand first. You can't imitate something you don't know.

 

 

As is likely evident from the title of my post, I went to San Diego Comic-Con this year. Being the Sharder that I am, I took the opportunity that was provided and asked some questions of Brandon to share with the wonderful members of this fantastic site. The questions and answers are approximations of what was said, but meanings retain their integrity.  :D

 

 

 

The post was not the exact answear that Brandon gave... just an aproximation. Maybe Chouta can clarify the meaning of what was actually said if he can 

 

I seriously doubt that Vasher went to Roshar prior to the events of Warbreaker... We were in his head for a lot of that book and he probably would have thought about it at some point

Edited by Raysen_ht
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I'm not saying that I'm right. I'm just trying to see this WoB with the rest of you and add my sight to the theroycrafting.

As I see it... You can "kind of hack" something if you aren't doing the same but instead doing something similar with your own materials.

In this case Souls instead of Sprens


 
And about the worldhoping... if it happened before the Manywar and we now that Warbreaker is prior to The Way of Kings. So it's easy that any worldhop Nalthis<->Roshar happened before the Recreance. Even before the Last Desolation.

It would be possible (I'm going full crazy here) that the Five Scholar would have been part of a group like the Worldsingers or the Worldbringers and were focused on the study of diferent Investitures and Vasher found a way to "kind of hack" one of them?

Edited by Axies
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The questions and answers are approximations of what was said, but meanings retain their integrity. :D

I would be careful arguing semantics on something that is not verbatim. I'm with Oudeis here that it doesn't meant Vasher necessarily worldhopped to Roshar, saw a radiant with a sentient sword and say "I should do that".

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Something to keep in mind is that even if Vasher had worldhopped to Roshar (which I find unlikely) it would have been after the Recreance.  Warbreaker takes place between Hero of Ages and Way of Kings, and WoK takes place before Alloy of Law.  If we are very generous and say Warbreaker is directly after HoA and WoK is directly before AoL (which again I find unlikely) then that puts time interval at about 340 Scadrian years.  The Manywar, when Nightblood was made, took place about 300 Nalthian years before the events of Warbreaker.  Now we don't know exactly how old Vasher was at that point, I don't think very old at all, but I'll be generous and say a century.  That would put his Return at about 750 years-ish.

 

We also don't have an exact date for the Recreance either, but from February's Chicago signing we now that in terms of Aharitiem it is "more recent than late" but that the Hierocracy took place after and that was at least 5 or 6 hundred years ago.  It's implied, in my opinion, that there was a not insignificant amount of time between the Recreance and the Hierocracy but I'll err on the shorter said and say 2 hundred years.  That would put the Receance at about 750-ish Rosharan years ago.

 

Which frustratingly is the exact number I came up with for Vasher's age (though I will point out that Rosharan years are likely slightly longer) but keep in mind that I was overestimating Vasher's age and underestimated the Recreance's.

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I disagree that the word "imitate" axiomatically means deliberately... I've heard of things being an unwitting imitation before, someone doing a thing unaware that someone else, in a different circumstance, did the same thing.

 

All that said, none of this is to say Vasher definitely didn't Worldhop (or that someone from Roshar didn't bring a Shardblade to Nalthis). I just saw it look like people were assuming it could only mean that one thing.

 

And what do you mean, ninja'd, by Oudeis no less? I can ninja with the best of them. =P

Edited by Oudeis
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Perhaps it wasn't so much as Worldhopping but more Worldglimpsing (granted this is just an idea) like seeing through a window or something (perhaps using Endowment's Shardpool? major leap but it could be possible)

 

EDIT: Interesting thought; When the Heralds 'broke' the Oathpact, wasn't it theorised they could be worldhoppers. Granted, they did abandon their blades so it would have been hard for Vasher to imitate/copy one had they Worldhopped to Nalthis. Would Nightblood be closer to an Honourblade than a Sprenblade? 

 

EDIT 2: In relation to my above comment, found this particular WoB (context is a little vague but it is interesting)

 


Interview: Aug 6th, 2014BlackYeti
In Words of Radiance, we have Vasher showing up. One of his aliases on Nalthis is Kalad, which is very similar to the name of one of the Heralds on Roshar. So I was wondering how far back this connection between him and Roshar goes.
Brandon Sanderson
It goes pretty far back, in fact I wrote Way of Kings, the 2002 version; he was a main character and was Kaladin’s sword master. I wrote Warbreaker to jump back and write out his back story, so to me Warbreaker actually came after Way of Kings. But the connection goes back pretty far, further than you would first guess.
It could be taken literally and metaphorically, in that Vasher has a very long association with Roshar prior to WoK or in the way Brandon said above. Interesting
 
EDIT: >.> Found another, though the footnote is more interesting than anything
 
Interview: Jan 6th, 2015Question
When are you going to write the other Warbreaker book? Last time I came to hear you talk, you said you were going to, and now you have 3000 other projects!
Brandon Sanderson

I know, and the Warbreaker fans really get on my case about that. Well, I wrote Words of Radiance, and I got Vasher into it, so that would kindle interest, and make sure that you at least got to see your characters again. But did you hear the story about that? So, I wrote The Way of Kings in 2002, the first version, and in that version Kaladin trained with a swordmaster, and that swordmaster, a guy named Vasher, had a mysterious past. After I finished that book, later on I wrote Warbreaker as a prequel to The Way of Kings, to show Vasher's backstory. But then Warbreaker came out before The Way of Kings, which was a really kind of interesting thing. So in my head, Warbreaker is the prequel, but to everyone else...

Yes, it is a totally different world, different planets, people get around...

Wetlander

So how much of Vasher's backstory do we actually have?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, a huge chunk of it! If you were reading The Way of Kings, you would know nothing, and then you'd read Warbreaker and you'd be like, "Oh, here's a whole past that he had!" That doesn't mean it's all of his past.

Footnote
Note from Wetlander: "He's not giving any hints as to whether Vasher had any connection with Roshar prior to Warbreaker. Or at least not without someone asking a much more direct question."
Edited by ParadoxSpren
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