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JordanCon this year?


Ruro272

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I asked if Tensoon had left Scadrial and Brandon reiterated the fact he has mentioned in the past that some Kandra have but gave me a RAFO in regards to Tensoon. (So now I just have to hope :D)

Another RAFO was if awakening existed on Nalthis before Vo returned.

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It isn't. What we said is that Mistborn doesn't give anyone's eye color and only says Vin's eyes are dark. (Shan Elariel's eyes are also dark.) Kelsier's eyes will now be considered canonized as hazel, which is not dark.

I could have sworn you said that Vin refers to Kelsier's eyes as dark, not that HERs were dark, but admittedly it was getting loud in there and your comment was directed at Brandon not us so I fully believe I misheard that. Thank you for the clarification, I did not mean to mislead!

So that means they ARE hazel as previously stated, and specifically a not-dark hazel.

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OK, guys!  I have the audio file uploaded to my Google drive.  Here's the link:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-_s_3rsy9hGZTFGbi1DdHlSemM

 

And the link to a new Google doc for transcription:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J43km7wrrZnOuM2WJe2DpBsk_C0E6yLJ8bDxqfen-P4/edit

 

Sorry, guys, I haven't done a lick of work on it myself yet.  Please leave comments so that I can track who did what. :)

 

Also...there are a couple of things that I asked Brandon outside the RAFOlympics panel.  Alas, I did not get audio of these things, so they are the dreaded paraphrase.  I'm sorry.  I'm doing my best to write down what he said without injecting any feelings or speculation into it.

 

The big one is this (and really, I'm truly sorry for not recording this, but the Magic tournament was a bit chaotic):

 

I asked him about what the board refers to as "reverse" compounding - i.e., using Feruchemy to enhance Allomancy, rather than the other way around.  I wanted to make sure that it was reall a thing that exists, and he said that it was.

 

I followed up by asking, "Is this what the Southern Scadrians have been doing?"

 

His answer:  "It's similar, but not exactly the same."

 

Ruro272 was there when I asked this one, so he can probably confirm that this is repeated accurately.

 

 

I also asked him about Terris food at the signing.  (Yes, this was a burning question inside my soul. Don't judge me.)  He said that he imagines it to be like Mediterranean food.  He also allows that it could totally involve noodles.

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I listened to my recording from the Sunday signing session (I was able to get roughly the first hour of it but had to go to catch my ride home) - there were about 9 cosmere related questions. I am adding them to the TL database - paraphrased for now, and will do verbatim at some point in the near future.

 

http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1121

Edited by Segren
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Okay, I started the transcription! I'm going slowly through the whole thing and transcribing pretty much everything, so it's going to take me a while. If somebody is impatient for the juicy Cosmere bits, they may want to speed through and just write down the gist of the best questions.

 

Also, things are being added to the Theoryland database?! Is it possible that last year's WoB scattered all over 17th Shard, Reddit, and Twitter could also be collected and put into the database? I would be delighted to help with such a project, as I'm getting tired of having to search all over the place for relevant WoBs. :)

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Okay, I started the transcription! I'm going slowly through the whole thing and transcribing pretty much everything, so it's going to take me a while. If somebody is impatient for the juicy Cosmere bits, they may want to speed through and just write down the gist of the best questions.

 

Also, things are being added to the Theoryland database?! Is it possible that last year's WoB scattered all over 17th Shard, Reddit, and Twitter could also be collected and put into the database? I would be delighted to help with such a project, as I'm getting tired of having to search all over the place for relevant WoBs. :)

I added a few reports that were transcribed from the Firefight tour. If you provide links for verbatim reports, I will try to add them to TL. I have been busy getting ready for JordanCon but hopefully will have time now, and hope to add his AMA from last year to TL at some point.

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I listened to my recording from the Sunday signing session (I was able to get roughly the first hour of it but had to go to catch my ride home) - there were about 9 cosmere related questions. I am adding them to the TL database - paraphrased for now, and will do verbatim at some point in the near future.

 

http://theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1121

 

If you get a chance could you post the audio as well? And was there anyone else recording the signing that might have gotten the rest of it?

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I added a few reports that were transcribed from the Firefight tour. If you provide links for verbatim reports, I will try to add them to TL. I have been busy getting ready for JordanCon but hopefully will have time now, and hope to add his AMA from last year to TL at some point.

I can definitely do that. I've already been working on my own list of sources that aren't in TL, so I should hopefully be able to give you a fairly exhaustive list by Saturday-ish.

 

ETA: How would you like me to send you the list? Private message?

Edited by sheesania
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If you get a chance could you post the audio as well? And was there anyone else recording the signing that might have gotten the rest of it?

I am having a difficult time trying to xfer the audio file to my pc without a lot of static being added that frankly makes it unbearable to listen to (though I was able to listen to the source without static) but I will see what I can do. There was at least one other person recording that probably was there a lot longer than me since she was behind me on the waiting line and I think she lurks on 17th but I don't know her username.

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Transcribing the RAFOlympics, I've got this interesting tidbit:

 


Right, Era 3 right now is kind-of focused on… two Terris people, the main character and her brother, and she’s a computer programmer in the early days of computer programming, and, well, like a Fortran programmer or something like that…

 

 As a Computer Science student I say "yaaay!" :lol:

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If you get a chance could you post the audio as well? And was there anyone else recording the signing that might have gotten the rest of it?

 

I think Ruro said he recorded at least some of the signing.  I don't know how quickly he got his recorder in; I don't recall there being any on the table when I got the Terris food question answered.  But I was right near the beginning of the line, so there were fewer than half a dozen people ahead of me.

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Just FYI, Theoryland is blocked in my country (Taiwan). I have to turn on a proxy in order to access the site. I thought the site was down, but since no one else was complaining about it, I tried turning on my proxy. 

 

Oh so that's why. I was so confused. Hi fellow Taiwanese  B)

 

So many juicy tidbits! Kudos to everyone asking questions and transcribing  :lol:

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Wow, everyone!  You ripped right through transcribing that thing like a bunch of rock stars! 

 

Reposting the link for non-transcribers to take a look:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J43km7wrrZnOuM2WJe2DpBsk_C0E6yLJ8bDxqfen-P4/edit

 

 

Now if we could only figure out which question he wriggled out of...

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[1:08:10]

Q: Obviously the world covers different planets, but most people on individual planets don’t know about the other planets. Is there a planet within the Cosmere where worldhopping is common knowledge?

A: Is there a planet in the Cosmere where worldhopping is common knowledge. Um… it’s not a planet.

Someone: It’s a space station? [Audience laughs] That’s no moon!

A: That’s… not as far off as people laughing think that it is. [More laughter] It’s not a space station, it’s not that futuristic, but there is a place in the Cosmere where a lot of worldhoppers have settled, is where Iyatil is from, even though her ethnicity is not from there.

Q: Clarifying question. Is that place in the Physical Realm?

A: [laughs] RAFO!

Q: It’s the Cognitive Restaurant At The End Of The Universe?

[many references to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy follow]

Can we just take a sec to highlight that this place exists presumably still around SA timing o.O

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Would anyone mind copying/pasting the transcript here?

Here you go:

 

Brandon: I forgot the RAFO cards, I left my signing box at home.

Audience: Awww.

Brandon: Yes, I know, I know.

Audience: We still love you.

[1:50]

Q: Do the flakes that Shai blows off the front of the soulstamp have any hidden power?

A: No. The blowing off is just related directly to my experience. The soulstamps come from - I lived in Korea for two years as a Mormon missionary, and then I went to Taiwan to visit, since there’s a huge Brandon Sanderson fan base in Taiwan. For those who don’t know, the publisher who got Mistborn published it the same month or so that Hunger Games came out, and everyone who read the Hunger Games and wanted more ended up buying Mistborn. [laughter] Yeah, it’s like Maze Runner or one of these other YA dystopians that took off in the halo of the Hunger Games. Over there, Mistborn was in the halo of the Hunger Games. It actually sold about as well in Taiwan. It was really fun, you can go to my timeline on Facebook and - here, people like to ask questions. A lot of the super fans like to have questions and things like that. There, the super fans like to get pictures. And so there are like 5,000 pictures of me and teenage schoolgirls [...] just all over Facebook. But I visited the palace museum...Anyway, I remember seeing someone in Korea carving these, he would do a little bit, then blow a little off, do a little bit, and blow it off. Kind of the old school carver. Now most days they’re actually made by machines. You load in a design, and it goes and it will carve it out to look like the little computer design. But occasionally you see people doing it the old school way. That’s why I did it like that, because I’d actually seen someone carving one. There is not supposed to be any hidden magical meaning, other than that the stone they’re using is a traditional type of stone, which may or may not have Invested properties.

[4:54]

Q: Would Nightblood appear in the Cognitive Realm?

A: Nightblood would have a manifestation in the Cognitive Realm.

Q: Would it appear as a sword, or because Nightblood appears to perceive itself as something else, would it appear as something else?

A: You will get a RAFO. [applause] There will be some scenes in the Cognitive Realm coming up, and you will be better able to make guesses along these lines after you’ve read those.

[5:42]y

Q: As of Secret History, are the IRE aware of Feruchemical chromium?

A: Not as fully aware - They don’t know everything.

Q: The Spiritual Feruchemical metals - are all four of those Cosmere-wide things?

A: The short answer is yes. The long answer is, there are certain things such as Investiture and whatnot, that when we write the books we translate different words as the same word because they’re the same meaning. So what you’re getting it is when they use the word “fortune”, do they mean exactly the Feruchemical, and the answer is no - but it is a very similar concept.

[6:57]

Q: Is Kelsier still alive during Mistborn Era 2?

A: RAFO.

[7:13]

Q: What color are Marewill flowers?

A: Marewill flowers I’ve always imagined as a kind of bluish white. But I don’t know if I ever describe that, so it possible that Peter pushed me once and I said something else. I’m assuming I’ve never done it since you don’t know...Bluish-white with a green actual plant.

[7:40]

Q: Is the reason Dalinar rejects the Thrill because he has a connection to the Stormfather through his visions?

A: The answer is yes, this is part - this is in play. Though you could say the reason he has a connection to the Stormfather also influences the reason he rejects the Thrill, so it may be more correlation than causation, but there’s at least a little causation as well.

[8:20]

Q: What happens to the spren the Parshendi bond when they switch form? So if they’re in soldier form, and they switch over to mate, what happens to the spren?

A: The spren is released.

Q: So when they took on void, they didn’t kill their previous spren?

A: No, they don’t kill when they - No. That’s a good question.

Q: Do those spren evolve in any way into something else?

A: Those spren that they are bonding with are generally what we call non-sapient spren, and so, no, and also the spren are barely aware that they’re bonded - the spren, the non-voidspren. Like when they’re bonding, generally what’s happening is how...It’s a symbiotic relationship, right? And the spren that get bonded to them, it’s just kind of, Oh, this is my life now! This is just normal. This is what’s happened. The same thing happens with spren involved in greatshells and things like this. This is a natural part of the natural cycle for those spren.

[9:45]

Q: When a Parshendi changes forms, are they taking different spren into their gemhearts?

A: When a Parshendi changes forms, they are....[carefully] entering into a symbiotic relationship with a new spren. [laughter] That’s the answer you’re going to get. That’s a RAFO.

[10:15]

Q: So I noticed in MIstborn Era 1, a guard of the Venture house was named Felt. There’s also a character in Words of Radiance, a scout called Felt. Is that the same person?

A: It is the same person. That’s one of the two things I can remember surprising Peter, when he’s like, “This name is kind of interesting. It’s kind of different. You sure you don’t want to use more of a Vorin name?” I’m like, “Go read back in Mistborn.” He’s like “OH!” [laughter] I’m always happy when I surprise Peter, because the other big one that surprised him was when I put Vasher into Stormlight. He’s like, “Huh...Vasher is in Stormlight?” And I’m like, “Go read Way of Kings Prime.” Which he had read, which is the Way of Kings I had written in 2002, where lo and behold Kaladin’s sword master is Vasher, named Vasher at that point. He hadn’t realized I’d written Warbreaker after as a exploration of this character who’d already been in the Stormlight Archive. Those are the two things I can remember Peter not catching about the Cosmere, he gets most everything.

[11:57]

Q: What was the reasoning between there being many, many years between different stories in the different parts the Cosmere, like the huge gap between Warbreaker and Way of Kings, for example?

A: I want the Cosmere to be more than just a little blip of time. The concept for the Cosmere was never something to me like the Avengers, which a lot of people kind of view it that way because the Marvel movies have been so big. But it’s not like all these concurrent stories with the same characters converging, that’s not how I ever planned it. Now there are some people who are functionally immortal or close to it that will be involved in things across time, but I’m telling an epic story. And I knew we needed thousands of years between some of the events. For instance, Roshar, we start in the Prelude at 4500 years or whatever before the book starts. It’s like, if I didn’t have some big gaps, what are the stories that are happening in between? It feels illogical and false to me to have all the stories happen in a short time period. As certain part of the magic allow more communication and connection, then we will have to, by nature, accelerate some of those things. I feel like if I spent ten thousand years or whatever, and only had all the stories happen in the last 50, it would feel really weird. So that’s why.

[14:06]

Q: Did the Lord Ruler create the lerasium he gave to [...]?

A: Oh, good question. No one’s asked that before, I think. Yeah, no, he found the lerasium.

Q: Was it placed there intentionally by Leras or did it sort of grow [...]?

A: The Lord Ruler...it was not placed for him, he had to...get it.

[14:53]

Q: Spren. The phenomenon that creates spren. Is that Roshar-specific or is that a general effect?

A: Well, yes and no. The general fundamental rules that create spren are Cosmere-wide. Spren are pieces of Investiture, usually pieces of Investiture that come straight from one of the Shards of Adonalsium, split off in some way, that because of human or other sapient creatures thinking about it or interacting with the power, the power starts to take on a life of its own. The power develops personality and comes alive, so to speak. And this can happen on any pla - in any place where there is Investiture. So it could happen on any planet in the Cosmere with significant amounts of free Investiture. The places you’ve seen this happen most commonly are Sel and Scad - Roshar. You haven’t seen it on Scadrial, but you’ve seen little kind of hints of it on Nalthis, but not quite. But it’s possible for it to happen anywhere. [?] spren are basically the same thing with different powers kind of pushing them, pushing growth out of them - I said, the non-sapient spren, the spren that are not quite as...They’re not going to stand up and talk to you. But those all existed…not all, but most of them existed on Roshar before the Shattering of Adonalsium.

[17:02]

Q: Question about Hoid…

A: RAFO. [laughter] No, no, go ahead.

Q: When Hoid said that Ivory [Jasnah’s spren/blade] wasn’t capable of harming him, is that related to Hoid’s difficulty in harming others?

A: RAFO

[17:25]

Q: On Nalthis we know that Endowment makes splinters to create divine breaths to bring Returned, the process with which those Returns are chosen, is that deliberate by Endowment or is that a process that was put into place to select?

A: Yes.

[18:04]

Q: In the Rithmatist you previously confirmed that lines of vigor behave a lot like light waves, if two lines of vigor collide do we have wave interference patterns?

A: Yes, I am planning some wave interference patterns and things like that, definitely.

Q: Does it matter if they come from the same rithmatist?

A: Eh...It should not, no.

[18:32]

Q: In awakening an object if you give it the sort of command like, go get the keys. How does that object perceive the world around it? Since it doesn’t have standard human senses, how does it see? how does it touch?

A: The closest correlation you have to this is how inquisitors see.

Q: So say a bronze misting managed to somehow get access to breath and awaken an object, would he be able to tell that object “hey I sense this allomancer over there, can you find it”.

A: That is not outside the realm of possibility.

[19:40]

Q: You have thousands of years of history, mostly talking about Stormlight Archives, like Radiants have done this, Heralds have done this, you have in some ways figured out what happened and what’s going to happen with that stuff. And you have a friend/author Patrick Rothfuss that also does this, stuff that happened many many years ago, have you guys ever talked to make sure you’re not going to do the same cool thing?

A: Good question. No I haven’t ever asked him about that. The only thing I ever remember talking to him about world-building wise was magic and his magic and things like that. I was really interested in sympathetic magic also warbreaker has an element to it, I really liked his sympathetic magic in Kingkiller. But when I get together with Pat I try not to ask the questions that I know the fans are asking him a lot, I try to be somebody who’s a colleague that we can talk about other sorts of things to give him a break from that. I never ask him when the next book will be out, that’s your job not mine. I ask him how his kid is, how has it been working with DAW lately, are there any frustrations for you in the business. The stuff he can’t talk with other people about. He can talk about his kids but he can’t really talk about publisher stuff with a lot of other people.

[21:33]

Q: In the letters, in the Way of Kings in all the epigraphs. it was mentioned that the author of the letter was accused of perpetuating grudges regarding Rayse and Bavadin. Are there any vessels or shards i.e. Bavadin that are sympathetic towards Rayse’s cause?

A: There are some who are - um, more li - more willing to go along with it than others, yes.

[22:01]

Q: You recently said that dragons in the Cosmere can take the form of humans. A Kandra from Mistborn can do something very similar. Is there a meaningful connection between what the dragons and Kandra can do?

A: No, except for on fundamental Cosmere rules stuff, but that’s… I would say no, in the same way that, “is there any similarity in the way that bats and birds can fly?” Well, there is some similarity, but there is divergent evolution and stuff like that.

[22:42]

Q: If a Kandra were to somehow take the form of a dragon, would they notice any difference in anatomy, or is it spot-on in person?

A: I’m going to RAFO that, to leave Dragonsteel for Dragonsteel when we get there.

[23:00]

Q: So in Words of Radiance, when Hoid switches places with the carriage driver, who was mentioned as having a hat and a strange accent - is that carriage driver important?

A: That’s a - I’ll leave this one to you. It’s a RAFO, but not a big RAFO.

[23:25]

Q: Are any of the magic systems stronger, do they have an advantage?

A: Yes, definitely some are stronger than others. Definitely. There is no attempt made on my part to power balance between magics. Power balancing is for RPGs where it’s very important, it’s not for storytelling. A lot of people like to ask the “Who would win, X or Y?” sort of thing, and I don’t get into a lot of that, I usually say, “Well, what’s the situation?” I’m not big on the - if people clash, if powers clash, I will write the situation, but it’s so conditional. So I have a hard time with these cage match things that people really like to do, because they’re fun, but as an author, I can come up with a dozen situations where either one of them would win. That’s what you do, in writing - you say, what is the context? But that’s a tangent from your question. The powers are not equal. The Shards were generally equal. Some have given up more power than others.

[24:50]

Q: If a kandra got a hold of the bones of a Dakhor monk, would they gain his abilities?

A: It would take more than just the bones, but that would be a big part of it.

[25:19]

Q: In the original Mistborn series, where Leras plans the 1/16 Snapping, was he not aware of chromium and nicrosil?

A: He was aware that they were not aware of it. He was using the kind of vague ability in some of the Cosmere magics to read possibilities on the future. He was also already not completely there when he was building this.

[25:55]

Q: A dullform Listener is indoors when the Everstorm passes over, will they be transformed into a Voidform?

A: No. It depends on the strength of the boundary between them, but it is possible for them to...Being transformed, taking new forms, there is a measure of will behind it, meaning for instance, even when Eshonai took the new form, she had herself open to taking a new form. By the time she didn’t want to, it was too late. But she had made the decision, even though she’d been kind of misled in some ways. If a parshmen were even in the Everstorm, and aggressively didn't want this to happen, I'm not saying they won't, but there is room for discussion whether or not they would change there. But also one who DOES want to, and there's only a pane of glass and things like that, then yeah.

[27:05]

Q: Will Dark One take place on Vax?

A: [Laughing] RAFO! Good question!

[27:31]

Q: What's the other god in Scadrial...Trell… or whatnot... [...] mentioning him, are there other really powerful beings out there that aren't related to the Shards?

A: There are possibly really powerful beings, but… how should we say. [long pause] I mean...There are those who would call Hoid a really powerful being, who exist outside Shards, but if you're talking deific level things in the Cosmere, they're all related to the Shards. Or demigod level.

[29:00]

Q: In Nalthis, when is Breath first bestowed upon a person?

A: When is Breath first bestowed? Uh, so I will, oh, so you’re getting at this sort of… I got it. [laughter, pause] So, what you’re saying is, birth or conception?

Q: Pretty much. I’m just wondering [audience laughs, impossible to hear]

A: What’s that?

Q: I’m wondering if mothers have [another Breath in their bodies during pregnancy? source of Breath in their bodies? Much [control?] over their own bodies when it comes to Breath? - uncertain] Is that where it comes from?

A: Yes. Uh, I’m going to go ahead and RAFO that one for… let’s just let it… let’s let… let’s let the fanbase discuss that one and come to their own decisions.

[29:55]

Q: I get it that sometimes writers have organic process when they’re writing sometime, they start writing one thing and then something else. Is there one particular character, situation in the story where as you were writing it, it kind of evolved on its own, kind of surprised you, if you don’t mind, could you tell us about it?

A: So… there are always things when you’re writing that evolve beyond what you expect of them to be, and it happens even to the most strict of outliners. And I do, even as I usually call myself an outliner, say that you shouldn’t be too strict about the outline. Just because the more-

  What happens with the writers, the more you steep yourself in your story, the more your subconscious will start to make connections and the more your skill as a writer will start to, uhm, start to take over? It’s hard to explain a lot of why it is, but a similar in… honestly, like hitting a baseball, right? When you, when you’re practicing, you can be very conscious about it. “Alright, here’s how my stance should be, here’s what I’m doing wrong, let’s work on that”, consciously. But in the moment when you’re, like, swinging at the ball in the game, most of that’s out of your head and you’re just letting instinct go. The planning is all of that sort of stuff beforehand that you do, like a baseball player, and then the writing often involves a lot more of the “just swinging”, and then the revision goes back to more, a lot more conscious, if that... makes sense as an explanation. And so as you’re going, a lot of time it’s the instincts that start going somewhere, you’ll get this chapter and say “huh, something’s wrong with this”, or “oh, this is a better path, let’s go look at my outline and see what needs to be rebuilt.”

  Uhm, some examples of this, if I can give them… uh, well, I mean, I write the Alcatraz books completely just as free-written books, but in books you’ve read, for instance, Spook’s story in Hero of Ages was not in the original outline. Uhm, you know, what happened to him and things like that in Well of Ascension was, and then I was like, um, I want to take this character further and feel like I need more to this story, I’m missing something and Spook’s story is where I started taking that. So that was a more natural, uh, sort of outgrowth of the storytelling. But that happens in every book, there are certain things that’ll… that go off target a little bit and turn out to be better. Yeah, there’s a target that you’re at that your subconsciousness is leading for[?] that your consciousness doesn’t know about yet… uhm, yeah, it happens every book.

[32:05]

Q: I know the whole, like, “all those characters are your children” type of thing, but is there a favourite one of yours, from your writing and, or how the character is played out.

A: Uhm, I… you know… Robert Jordan always said, “It’s whoever I’m writing at the moment”, which I’ve stolen wholesale and said that a lot of times. If I’m pressed, I’ll usually pick Dalinar, just cause he was one of the first, but that doesn’t do it justice, because you really do need to... whoever you’re writing needs to be your favourite at the time.

[33:22]

Q: Are there any detrimental side effects to worldhopping, and if so, have we seen-slash-read it in any of your books?

A: Uh, it depends on what method you’re using to worldhop.

Q: And the second half of that question…?

A: And the second part of that is RAFO.

[33:44]

Q: Alright, was Awakening used on Nalthis before the Returned?

A: Ummmm… RAFO!

[33:56]

Q: As your characters have evolved and grown, we’ve been seeing them in different books, we’ve also seen, like with your character Wayne, kind of the sense of humour of the character’s changed, we’ve been kind of seeing this… I guess, uh, more seedy and base sense of humour with him, which in some ways made him more lovable, but like with kids, I’m a little bit worried sometimes, with the age level [laughs], and I’m wondering if we’ll see more characters like that grow in as we’re looking at Mistborn era 2 and 3 coming out, and if so, do I need to be more concerned, or is it really gonna be, or is it… what methods, do we need some rating system [???]

A: Yeah, I would say that this is more... “I write the character that fits the situation” rather than any sort of an evolution on my part of this, so… I don’t know. I will… really, I would leave that to other people. [pauses] This is kind of one of those weird things where, like, I will both get on the same day, sometimes, e-mails from someone who’s like “how can you be so crude in your books, I thought your books were supposed to be family-friendly” followed by “why won’t you address adult topics in your books [pause as audience laughs], why do they all feel so children-esque, child-esque”, and I would assume that those are the types of e-mails that everyone gets, even George RR Martin. [huge laugh from everyone] “When are you gonna get to some real adult themes, George?” I’m sure there’s someone who’s sent that e-mail to him. Uhm, yeah, I write the books, you know, I have… I’m certainly not as interested as some authors in digging into the more... quote-unquote “explicit content”, but at some points there are characters like Wayne where I’m like, “you know, I need to write this character, who they would be”, and I can have them dance around the words to obstinate… [laughs]that was not the intention! Dance around the words to obfuscate things and something like that, but if I don’t let Wayne say some of the things he wants to say, then I’m not being true to that character in the same way I wouldn’t be… being true to Dalinar if I didn’t let him, you know, be… the strictly “I follow the rules” type of person that he’s become, because both of those types of people exist in the world.

  Uhm, your specific question on era 3 of Mistborn, um, is… I don’t anticipate a Wayne-like character, but who knows? Right, era 3 right now is kind-of focused on… two Terris people, the main character and her brother, and she’s a computer programmer in the early days of computer programming, and, well, like a Fortran programmer or something like that… And… You know, it’s going to be… her story’s going to be a little bit more geek-culturish and things like that… It’ll very fun with the artwork in those, she’s saying that.

 I can’t promise you one way or the other what I’m going to do, so I think what you’re, what you should be doing is reading them yourself and then deciding for yourself with whom you will share the books.

[37:03]

Q: You’d originally said that Nightblood is way more powerful than a regular Shardblade, but at the time we didn’t know about live Shardblades, we only had dead Shardblades. So is that still true, now that we have at least two…?

A: He is more powerful than a regular Shardblade. [Groaning and laughter]

Q: How does Nightblood compare to a more living Shardblade?

A: More living Blade? Well, let’s just RAFO that one.

[38:04]

Q: Is there a relationship between the Parshendi and the airships?

A: The relationship is that I assumed when people saw the picture they would think Parshendi, and that was an intentional red herring. Or red and black herring. We spent a lot of time on that picture, I was like it has to look like that people, but it can’t be straight up like “Oh! This is what we’ve seen before here!” So we went back and forth on it a lot.

[39:04]

Q: Are there people on Roshar who are pretending to be Heralds who are not?

A: There are definitely lots of people who have claimed to be Heralds who were not.

Q: You said “have.” The question was, are there?

A: I’m sure there are people around...[Laughter] I’m sure you can go to any city in the United States and find someone who claims to be Jesus, right? So yes! Absolutely!

[39:35]

Q: So, it got established when Syl transformed for Kaladin, a living Blade can become any weapon…

A: Yes, based on the perception of the wielder.

Q: So, why is it that there are only dead swords?

A: That’s a good question that will be answered in the future.

Q: Could they make a lightsaber?

A: They could make...metal weapons of a similar style to that, so no, we’re not talking lightsabers. Creating plasma is not something that we’re looking at.

Q: A bow, for example?

A: They could create, probably...Well, let’s RAFO that one, I’ll show you what’s going to be happening.

[40:38]

Q: You mentioned the ecology on Roshar, and you mentioned that mostly the non-sentient spren predate the [shattering of Adonalsium?]. So my question is about the evolution of life on Roshar, and how essential the highstorms are to life on Roshar, how the plants evolved...so can we assume that life that is dependent on the highstorms predates the Shattering of Adonalsium?

A: Um…

Q: Can we correctly assume?

[Laughter]

A: I’ll tell you this. The highstorms predate, and there was a lot of natural evolution on Roshar resulting in a lot of what we have there.

[41:40]

Q: So you mentioned earlier that a lot of the characters who are in multiple books are functionally immortal. But some of them when we saw them in actual just books, before they started jumping between worlds, they were not functionally immortal at that time. So can we then take that to mean that they somehow became functionally immortal?

A: You can take to mean that…

Q: Correctly?

A: You can correctly. Now here’s the distinction. Some of them are not. Some of them are using tricks of...um….uh...no....relativistic time travel to move forward in the future. Some of them are not aging and others are just aging really slowly. And those are three separate things among characters you have actually seen. I will give you hints as you read the books.

[42:44]

Q: I get the impression after reading Stormlight 1 and 2 that a lot of what you would consider to be flora is actually something like coral in the ocean which is actually an animal. So is there actually any flora on Roshar outside out of Shinovar…

A: Almost all the things you see as flora are actual flora. Like, rockbuds are flora, trees are flora, shalebark is not, and some of the things like that - haspers are not, and some of these things are more - are animal life, are fauna. But grass is actually a flora, and trees. One of the big adaptations they’ve had to make is that they have to use crem, so a lot of the tree that you’ll find on Roshar, they will be using crem that falls - they use this to create shells, they use this to create bark, they use this in a LOT of different ways, the minerals there are very important because they’re not getting from the soil what plants on our soil get from soil, a lot of them do. All of your minerals and things have to come from the crem. Which the farmers already knew.

[44:24]

Q: Did the Dawnchant originate on Roshar?

A: The Dawnchant...um...yes. Yes. The Dawnchant...what I won’t tell you or not is whether the Dawnchant is an evolution from a different language, but the Dawnchant itself is from Roshar.

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[44:53]

Q: So for the Old Magic, in this classification system of end-positive, end-neutral, and end-negative, where would that fall under?

A: So, almost every magic in the Cosmere is end-positive, almost every magic is relying upon an external source of Investiture to power it. So that is mostly more relevant to Scadrial than anywhere else, because that concept is how I’m dealing with things like the laws of thermodynamics, and even what they call end-neutral is relying a little bit on the power of Investiture to facilitate. So even an end-neutral magic system as they define it on Scadrial is not actually end-neutral. What you put in you get out, but the power is facilitating that transfer. So that phrasing is kind of a....uh...Take that as a science on Scadrial that does not extrapolate well, and may not even be 100% accurate. [...] I look at it as, is there an Investiture externally powering the magic, and if you look at Allomancy, yes it is. You are drawing that power out. Feruchemy, you are putting Investiture in from your own body, it’s your energy transferring to Investiture, which is then stored, which you are then drawing out, and things like that. But that changing forms is facilitated by the magic. Whereas when you’re stealing stuff with - You could look for instance at the magic on Nalthis, you could look at that one as being, as kind of working as end-negative, meaning “I am taking it away from someone else”, or end-positive depending on if you’re the one receiving it or not. So again, it’s a phrasing that could be useful as a tool but doesn’t scale well to the other magics.

 

[47:17]

Q: Is there such a thing as voluntary Hemalurgy?

A: Voluntary Hemalurgy? Yes.

Q: ...where you can give a power to someone through [...]

A: Through any means, or through Hemalurgic means?

Q: Er, explain what you mean by that question.

A: In Nalthis, you are giving up your power voluntarily to someone else.

Q: Specifically in the context of Scadrial here.

A: I mean, can you not imagine a person who’s crazy and who’s like, I will give up my power to this, you know?

Q: But don’t the end results negate?

A: You can’t imagine somebody who would do that? I am absolutely sure that at some point even at creating Inquisitors there’s somebody who would be like, yes, I will give my life to the Lord Ruler, so, yes.


[48:25]

Q: If the highstorms existed prior to the Shards’ arrival, what’s the relationship between the highstorms and the Stormfather?

A: Oh good question. I was wondering if someone was going to ask that. So, I’ll try...let me see…[sighs] You know, I’m actually going to RAFO this one. And let me tell you why, because I mean, I want to give you some reasons to be interested in the things that Dalinar will be talking about with the Stormfather. So this is a RAFO with an explicit promise for book 3. These are things that will be covered now that we have bonded the Stormfather to a person who can now ask some of these questions. I could totally just tell you now, but where the fun of that? Read book three.


[49:40]

Q: Talking about the Stormfather, are the Nightwatcher and the giant water spren, Cusicesh, are they on the same level?

A: The Nightwatcher, yes. Um...uh...there are...I would say, a level below the Stormfather and the Nightwatcher who are also a much bigger deal than something like one of the sapient spren, and that’s what Cusicesh is.

Q: So the Nightwatcher is a spren?

A: They call the Nightwatcher a spren. Everyone in the books thinks the Nightwatcher is a spren. That’s what they would call...that’s what they would call, if they knew what Honor was, they would call Honor a spren. A spren is Investiture that is alive. So they would call Nightblood a spren. That’s the word for what all of these things are. They would probably call Adonalsium a spren. [Laughter] If...Right...So.

Q: What would Hoid call one of those? What would Hoid call the Nightwatcher?

A: Um…[long pause]

Q: If Hoid were to use a non-proper noun?

A: Unpleasant names. [general laughter]


[51:33]

Q: This whole talk of both Roshar and the highstorms, I’m glad that you said they predate the Shattering. There are some people on 17th Shard that believe the entire continent is crem that’s accumulated, one highstorm at a time.

A: Good. Let me actually squish that one a little bit because there are mineral deposits that have been mentioned that you have to mine, and crem...there is actual ferrous iron that you can smelt on Roshar, you have to know how to get to it and things like that, and there are actual gemstone mines and things like that, but they’re much harder to get to and Soulcasting is a stopgap that’s helped with this a lot, but there are actual deposits and things like that.


[52:50]

Q: This is a yes-no-RAFO question. Did Shinovar originate on Roshar?

A: Yeah. Mhm.


[52:47]

Q: I was just wondering if you had any plans for a longer Legion type work.

A: The goal was for a long time if I could get a television show off the ground, and I would write a novel to accompany it to kind of publicize the show. We sold the rights a couple times, but it never got off the ground. I still think it’s possible someday, but I probably don’t envision doing a longer one - in fact, I’ll say, I don’t envision doing a longer one right now unless that happens. Though I do envision doing a third story at some point.

Q: So you would say that Legion is best consumed in forty-four minute blocks?
A: Yeah, I mean, when I came up with the idea, I thought, this would make a great television show, let me write a few episodes.

[53:47]

Q: One, thank you for the cultural richness you show in everything, from Legion to [...] to [...]. One a completely different note, this became a question, I thought this had been answered, but kandra can’t produce kandra children.

A: Well, yes they can. You get them some spikes.

Q: Can the kandra produce human children with consumed parts?

A: You know, I saw a big thread on Reddit about it and chose not to participate, despite being asked to.

Q: I thought she said that you did, so…

A: I gave vague and unuseful answers, and so I’m going to give the same to you. RAFO.


[54:35]

Q: On Roshar, because of no tectonic activity, it seems possible that the magnetic dynamo inside doesn’t create enough of a magnetic sphere to protect life from solar radiation, so my question is, do the highstorms function as a form of protection against solar radiation?

A: That’s an excellent question. That’s a RAFO. That’s a really cool question.


[55:18]

Q: In Secret History, is Khriss working with the 17th Shard at that time?

A: Khriss works with anybody who is interested in the information that she has. She is a...no, not a freelancer, really, she is a...She’d get along with Edward Snowden, right? She is for the good of the Cosmere in her opinion, she is providing this information. She thinks it’ll be useful for everyone. So if the 17th Shard comes to her and says “We want to know this” and she knows it, she will tell them. If Hoid comes to her and says “I want to know this”, she would tell him. So Khriss will work with anyone who she thinks their motives are...are for the good of the Cosmere in general.

Q: Not strictly a mercenary…?

A: No, not a mercenary, she’s kind of a freedom of information type person.


[56:27]

Q: If you have a Slider who uses their power a lot, and I know bendalloy is very expensive, but do they need to live a fewer number of real-time years?

A: Yeah, that will affect them.


[56:48]

Q: In the last panel we talked a lot about people from different planets using magic systems on other planets, one of the things I’ve been thinking about, we’ve been thinking about, talking about Breath, and people being born with Breath, is that something specific to Nalthis or do people on other planets have Breaths as well?

A: Good question and that is a Nalthian thing. Now, everyone in the Cosmere to an extent has Investiture, the Nalthian breath is part of what everyone has and then a little extra, plus the ability to share it around. So a person who gives up their Breath on Nalthis is actually going below what a normal person has. But a normal person on Nalthis has more than somebody - so if you were for instance to pick a world like Sixth of the Dusk, where there’s not a Shard in residence, and you compared them to a Nalthian, Nalthian has an Investiture advantage over them. When they’ve given up their Breath, they have an Investiture disadvantage.

Q: So we’re not Drabs?
A: So we’re not Drabs. That’s exactly it. We’re not Drabs.


[58:04]

Q: What are the upper limits size-wise of what a kandra form can take? Could they say be a chasmfiend?

A: Well, they would have trouble with the square-cube law, and a chasmfiend does not, because they have a symbiosis with natural spren, which keep them from crushing themselves. So a kandra would crush themselves if they tried to do that.

Q: Wow. Okay.


[58:40]

Q: If a Shard were to heal the cracks in someone’s Spiritweb, like Saze did with Spook, and that person who was getting healed has a Nahel bond, would that break the bond?

A: No, because the Nahel bond is already filling in those cracks, so you would have to rip it off to put something else in there.

Q: So the Shard wouldn’t be able to heal…?

A: Well, the Shard...Like, here’s the thing we have to get at with this, what we’re getting at, which is the question of, for instance, is Kaladin’s depression a flaw in him that needs to be healed? And that is a question for philosophers. There are certainly people in the Cosmere and outside the Cosmere that say yes, this needs to be healed, but what about somebody who’s...say, someone who is autistic, and their mind just works in a different way, and this way allows a certain bond to happen that couldn’t otherwise happen? Is that a flaw, or - is it a bug or a feature, to speak in coding terms? Is what’s up with Kaladin a bug or a feature? I know that my wife would probably get rid of her depression if she could, but it’s also fundamental in how she sees the world and who she is, would that change her into a different person? And things like this. So, I want you when you discuss this, to be very careful about treating mental illness as a flaw as opposed to an aspect of a human personality that allows certain different things to happen. Does that make sense?

[Applause]

Q: The way I was sort of thinking, was, could Odium say, “Oh, I’m just going to fix this” and then [...]?

A: Right, right, yeah. If he - if there was - that is possible, but it would be hard to do without the consent of the person, but that is possible. You can fix somebody in a way that they didn’t want to be fixed, and it would ruin things.


[1:01:08]

Q: The Aons on Sel, they’re all based on - I assume the Investiture in Elantris itself, all the sigils are based on the general shape of the landscape around Elantris. Could that magic work in other places based on geography on the other places with their Investiture, or is that exclusive to Sel?
A: That is an aspect of the Selan magic system… did I say Selian or Selan? Can’t remember which one we settled on, Peter knows…
Crowd: Selish.
A: Oh, Selish, that’s what we settled on, isn’t it, yeah, Selish magic system. This is why we have copy editors [laughter] That’s a feature of the Sel’s magic system that… as far as I know, no-one has pulled out in any decent reason for. But there’s a distinct reason that could be figured out, but it’s… one of these things that will make sense when I explain it, but I’m not sure if it’s quote-unquote “intuitively obvious” to the average reader. I don’t really think that it necessarily is that, but it will make perfect sense once it’s explained.


[reminder that one hour has passed already; Brandon suggests that those who don’t want to stay longer can leave, but he can go on]


[1:03:46]

Q: On that note, in Secret History, Kelsier’s reading symbols, is he able understand them, like…?
A: Right, right. So, if you go look really closely at what happens with Kelsier before he’s able to start reading the symbols and understand the language, you can relate it to things in the Cosmere that I’ve talked about before for how he’s able to do that.


[1:04:11]

Q: I believe you’ve said that you’ve toyed with writing books more like Secret History for other characters. Would you consider doing one for Marsh, like, during the events or after the Catacendre to the Alloy of Law.

A: Yeah, that’s a possibility, people have asked me for a Marsh viewpoint before. I would like to do more Marsh, so… we would have to see, like, when I do… if I find time for it, Secret History 2, Mistborn: Secret History 2, that would cover time before the start of Era 2 and it’s possible I can slip in some Marsh. I mean, in Secret History we got some Spook, so…


[1:05:13]

Q: When you’re not writing or doing everything else, what series or authors do you enjoy.

A: Who do I read? I’ve read… last book I’ve read was Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller, because everyone I know - I’m like, why have I never read this before? And everyone’s basing every movie off it now, so I finally read Dark Knight Returns. Before that, I read the first book of the Expanse, because it’s another one that I’ve just never gotten to. I like that, those were both good. Dark Knight Returns was good, I was expecting something like Alan Moore level, and it was more… it was good, but it wasn’t as mind-blowing, and I think that’s partially because everybody has based every movie in existence on Batman since, you know, Tim Burton, on Dark Knight Returns, and so it doesn’t feel as fresh as perhaps it would’ve if I’ve been reading in ‘86 or whenever it was released. Um, my go-to is Terry Pratchett, or Guy Gavriel Kay, but if you didn’t read Uprooted by Naomi Novik last year, it was extremely good. If you like stuff a little more literary, NK Jemison’s The Fifth Season is really good, but that’s kind of… that’s kind of almost for English Majors, that’s got viewpoints in second person future tense, and they work, and they’re really good. Nora is a very good writer, if you guys haven’t tried A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which is a little bit more accessible, then Fifth Season, she’s just a really spectacular writer. Um, what else did I read last year that I liked… I mean, yeah, that’s a couple. Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage, if you like my stuff, you’ll like Brian’s stuff most likely, he’s an ex-student of mine that I can’t take much credit for because he was, he was very good when he took the class. But, he’s writing flintlock fantasy that is just really good.

Someone: Listen to Writing Excuses…

A: Yeah, Writing Excuses! We recommend a book on every episode of Writing Excuses, um, so.

Q: Have you read Pat’s books?

A: Have I read Rothfuss? Yeah, I’ve read Rothfuss’ books. I’ve got… I get them early! Uhm, so, um… I’ve got the Wise Man’s Fear and The Slow Regard of Silent Things, and both came with a number in the corner like “if this ends up on eBay, we know who we gave it to” sort of thing, it was watermarked, “this is Brandon’s copy, don’t sell it”.


[1:07:32]

Q: When it comes to the… epic-level spren on Roshar, like the Nightwatcher and Stormfather - is the number of epic-level spren equal to the number of Bondsmiths that you have on Roshar?

A: Hm, is the number of epic-level spren related to the number of Bondsmiths you have? Well, I’ve said there’s a maximum of three. And there are three Shards involved in Roshar. I’m not gonna tell you if that’s a coincidence or not. Sorry. [laughter]


[1:08:10]

Q: Obviously the world covers different planets, but most people on individual planets don’t know about the other planets. Is there a planet within the Cosmere where worldhopping is common knowledge?

A: Is there a planet in the Cosmere where worldhopping is common knowledge. Um… it’s not a planet.

Someone: It’s a space station? [Audience laughs] That’s no moon!
A: That’s… not as far off as people laughing think that it is. [More laughter] It’s not a space station, it’s not that futuristic, but there is a place in the Cosmere where a lot of worldhoppers have settled, is where Iyatil is from, even though her ethnicity is not from there.

Q: Clarifying question. Is that place in the Physical Realm?

A: [laughs] RAFO!

Q: It’s the Cognitive Restaurant At The End Of The Universe?

[many references to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy follow]


[1:09:23]

Q: With Awakening, given that you know the correct command word, could you potentially give anything to the other person, using Awakening?

A: Using Awakening, it has to be related to the fundamental aspects of Investiture.

Somebody: Which are…? How would we find what those are?

A: How would you find what those are? Spend a lot of time researching the Cosmere, have some conversations with Khriss, and come up with some theories! There’s a bunch of them written in the books and indicated, so yes.


[1:10:14]

Q: We’ve kind of circled around the issue, but professor Leyten[?] have talked about [???] in general. Are we going to see [someone or somebody having something]

A: So, there… is discussion of that in my notes, we’ll see if I can get to it. It’s more of the cultural stuff for book two is more important to me right now, I’m not sure how far I will advance Rithmatics in the next book or not, but we will do some kind of origin stuff and fundamentals in the next one.


[1:11:02]

Q: So because you’ve mentioned Terry Pratchett, I feel like I can ask this, do you plan for after you’ve completed the Cosmere and [general laughter]

Moderator: I’m rejecting the premise of that question! [more laughter]


[1:11:25]

Q: Is there going to be a map of recommended reading order or is it…

A: Oh, yeah, that’s a great question, is there gonna be a recommended reading order. So I’ve started building a guide similar to the one that they put in the back of Terry Pratchett’s books in the US. I don’t find that guide incredibly helpful, so I’d want to create one that is helpful, that is basically like what we put on the front page where we list all the books saying “if this intimidates you, turn the next page”, and then I’ll have kind of a discussion of what the varied series are, what the entry points are and what… just kind of like a “what is the style of this book”. Like if I can say, you know, if you’re really interested, if you’re, uhm, you know, Warbreaker, if you want a standalone, a little bit more of romance, a little bit more kind of… humour and things like that - Warbreaker. If you’re like “I would love something super-action-oriented that has lots of explosions”, then Steelheart, right? And if you’re like “I like swimming in the deep end, I want to jump in feet first and see how deep it goes”, then we send you to Stormlight, right? And I want to have these introductions at the end and kind of give a sort of fundamentals. “A lot of these are connected, you don’t need to read everything”, stuff like that. And we’re gonna try and get that starting in books… in the near future.


[1:12:49]

Q: Will we ever see the entire map of how the different planets are spaced out in…

A: Oh, yeah, the Cosmere collection will have a star chart of the Cosmere.

Somebody: A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Cosmere, if you will…

A: Now, you’ve got to remember that at the point that this comes out… the collection’s been interesting for a couple of reasons. For one reason, the collection’s coming out before Sixth of the Dusk happens in the Cosmere, right. And so Khriss gives an introduction to each world, so you’ll find her introduction to First of the Sun to be a very interesting introduction that doesn’t know things that you know because of that. In addition, the star chart is a star chart created by people who are not spacefaring. And so it is a star chart more along the lines of… it may not be one hundred percent the scale and things like that, like they’ve been able to figure out a lot of things by using the Cognitive Realm, so they’d be like “alright, here’s the relationship”, but it will be a while before you get what feels like a Star Trek star chart. Your star chart you’re gonna get in this is a fantasy star chart, which will give you the relative positions and things like that, but it’s not gonna be like you can measure exactly, which we do have! But I’m not gonna be giving you that. [audience laughs]

Q: Are you referring to Arcanum Unbounded, is that…

A: Arcanum Unbounded, yeah.


[1:14:16]

Q: So we’ve seen three cultures of people on Scadrial. Is Harmony involved… well, we can probably assume there’s probably more cultures, but there are…

A: There are more, yes.

Q: Is Harmony involved in more of them, or is he… does he keep his attention on the main one.

A: Harmony considers himself to be the god of all of them.


[1:14:45]

Q: In the Emperor’s Soul, you indicate sort of the [opposite?] to the kandra in regards to… Soulstamps should be made with bone and are considered the lesser… With crystal is the highest. With kandras, their true bodies are crystal, they are considered weak. Bones are considered strong.

A: Iiii… I’m gonna stop you right there, just because that’s gonna depend on the kandra, and their age, and how they feel about it. There are plenty of kandra, I think MeLaan would argue against that and be like “no! Non-bone true bodies are way better! Look, I can take my hands off and stab people with swords underneath. This is super better!” Whereas TenSoon would be like… That’s not… It’s a little bit like when I was in Korea, and people are like “things made out of concrete just feel worse! It’s bad for the kibun to always be surrounded by concrete. Wood is better for you.” I… think there are people who would disagree with that, I think there are people who would totally agree with that.


[1:15:05]

Q: If you were to combine a Soulstamp of a crystal, with a kandra true body of a crystal, would they have additional powers to compete[?compound] with regards to Mistborn. [???].

A: Alright, so if you took a crystal that they’re making Soulstamps out of and you gave it to a kandra, and they used it for bones, generally the kandra are not drawing any sort of extra Investiture or power from the bones, they’re making, they’re using. That’s - though TenSoon would argue that I’m wrong. [general laughter]


[1:16:00]

Q: What would happen if a Forger got their hands on Nightblood and they Soulstamped it?

A: Nightblood is so heavily Invested that it would be like trying to freeze the ocean with an ice cube. Maybe not that scale, that’s your metaphor.


[1:16:20]

Q: In Bands of Mourning you got more into the Connection and you’ve given us some hints there. During previous seminar a question came up on how that relates to your Physical, Cognitive and Spiritual Realm. I guess, we’ve talked about… if people were to go different places… it seems from the hints you’ve given in your books that there’s a Physical aspect to Connection as far as where people are when they use the Connection as well as there’s some ideal with… in the Secret History that we’ve got, when Kelsier was, when he wasn’t Connected enough with Preservation. So can you give us anything more...

A: I just gave you a ton in Secret History! So much! I gave you a lot in Secret History to philosophize upon, this is very relevant to a lot of things that happen in the Cosmere.

Q: I guess, specifically, does someone have to have both… with Connection, are there more than one elements that people would have to have to have Connection to… provide avenue to power from a different area.

A: Oh, um… there are multiple things that could help with it, yes. There are certain things that you can Connect through to make one strong Connection would be enough for variety of magics, yeah.


[1:17:56]

Q: Someone who has Breath Investiture, can they give the Breath to someone who doesn’t, so like somebody from Scadrial, or…

A: Yes.

Q: Would the Scadrian be able to use it.

A: Yes. You have seen people from off-planet who have Breath before.

Moderator: Or… perfect pitch?

A: Yes. [laughter] And are making use of it in variety of ways.


[1:19:41]

Q: My question’s about Secret History, specifically it’s a two-parter. The first part’s easy to answer. Is it relevant that the glowing substance that Hoid puts on his oar is very similarly described to the stuff that the Ire drinks, the glowing…?

A: Yeah, that is relevant.

Q: And does it have to do with Connection.

A: Ah… [sigh] Yes, but not the way you’re thinking. I’m wiggling out of... Yes, it has to do with Connection, but so does a dog. Cause a dog is Connected to things. [laughs in the audience] You said “does it have to do with”! The answer is yes. [more laughs]


[1:20:27]

Q: Will iron… mined, created, mined on Roshar work to power allomancers on Scadrial? This is a qualification from earlier session...

A: Um, okay, so what do you want to have happen, talk to me.

Q: An iron is iron, does it have the same effect if it will be iron that was created on…

A: Oh, I see what you’re saying… the metals are themselves… I’ve said this before, I think, but… the metals themselves, where you get it is not relevant.

Q: So if say Wit is drinking flakes on Roshar, then those flakes could be Roshar-bought.

A: Yes.


[1:21:14]

Q: So I’ve got to say, I love Altered Perceptions and I was wondering if you were doing any projects like that.

A: Um, Altered Perceptions, are we doing any more projects like that. Getting all of us together to do something is tough. We have talked about doing one where we each write a story in someone else’s world and I think that would be the most likely that you would see, like I write a John Cleaver story, and Dan writes a Stormlight story, and Mary writes a Schlock Mercenary story, something like that, but we don’t have any immediate plans to do another Altered Perceptions where we brainstorm something on air like we did.

Q: Would that story be… canon?
A: No, the story would not be canon. Most likely not. I mean, it’s possible.


[reminder that time is running short]


[1:22:13]

Q: You called Nightblood a…misformed Shardblade.

A: Uh, a Shardblade created with a different magic system.

Q: Is that an intentional creation or mimicry?

A: Yes, that is intentional.

Q: I mean, intentional on the part of the person who made that…

A: Yes.


[1:22:36]

Q: Has Hoid had a direct interaction with the Nightwatcher at this point, you said he’d be calling her very nasty names?

A: [laughs] Hoid is… let’s go ahead and RAFO that one.


[1:22:43]

Q: So is Vasher - [lady?] who was part of the process creating Nightblood a worldhopper, then?

A: Vasher had been to Roshar before he created Nightblood, yeah.


[1:22:55]

Q: If Lift ate something that had like, gold leaf on it, could she change that gold leaf into Investiture or something?

A: So the gold leaf would probably pass through her system.

Q: So she wouldn’t be…?

A: Mhm, yes, that things that she eats that she can metabolize, she can turn into Stormlight.

Q: So what would happen if she ate Nightblood?

[laughter]

A: Yeah, eating Nightblood would not be a smart idea for anyone. [more laughter] Nightblood would eat you. In Soviet Russia, sword eats you? I don’t know…


[1:23:58]

Q: This is from our earlier discussion. So Taravangian…(diagram king guy)  He asks the Nightwatcher for two things.  The capacity to stop what is coming and the capacity to save humankind. And he gets this weird thing to happen.  Is the intelligence and empathy thing because both of those things can’t come true at the same time?

A:  That’s an excellent question. RAFO!!!

T: Let me ask a parallel to that. Does the NW perceive those as the same boon or two parallel boons?

A: RAFO!!! (big grin in his voice)

AU: laughter                                                         

 

Q: Does hemalurgy require intent to steal the stuff? Or could somebody in theory just stab through in the exact [...] ...happen by accident?

A:  Here’s the thing, you have seen it happen without the intent of the person holding the spike.

Q: But I think it’s commonly accepted that Ruin was sort of manipulating some…Totally taking the Spook example off the table, I’m just saying, someone by accident stab - whoops! stab - whoops! and have a power?

A: Again, Ruin was involved in that.   Every spike that you saw had Ruin’s intent behind it.  I’m not going to answer your question, RAFO. You tried, you got me to admit that I was trying to wiggle around it, and I’ll tell you, today I wiggled around one question that none of you saw me wiggle around, really well, today. Today. I’m not going to tell you which one it is but there is one here that you all thought, you’re all like “woo!” but you didn’t realize you’d given me so much wiggle room.

T: So about that space station.

A: It’s not that one.

 

T: one last one

Q: As the Cosmere gets a lot bigger, what is your biggest worry going forward writing the books?

A: Going forward, my biggest worry is making sure that I do things like get the SA done as  a solid, complete whole, rather than letting it become...like, too distracted about the Cosmere.  Like, I’m not worried about that for Mistborn, but I’m worried about that for Stormlight. Stormlight needs to be a self contained whole, it needs to be a self contained epic, and I have to be really careful not to - in the later books in particular - let it turn into the Avengers, something like that. So that’s my biggest worry right now, that I will let too much of that seep in. I’m being very careful.


[Finis]

Edited by Eerongal
added spoiler tags for spoiler related material.
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Wow, we really did go through the transcript quickly (when was it posted, yesterday?). So for an extract of Cosmere info (so many goodies!  :D ):

  • Mistborn stuff:


    - Lord Ruler did not create Lerasium, he had to get it
    - Era 3 will likely be focused on two Terris people, one of whom is a computer programmer. They'll be siblings.
    - A Slider who uses their power often will be affected in terms of aging.

  • Roshar stuff:


    - Dalinar's loss of Thrill is not very tightly connected to his visions
    - Parshendi release their previous spren when they change forms; the same happens when stormform is taken on (nothing dies). Bond between spren and listeners is symbiotic and the non-sentient spren doesn't find it unusual.
    - It's possible for spren-like creatures (sentient splinters) to be created everywhere (Returned on Nalthis, seons). However, many Roshar spren existed prior to Shattering.
    -  A dullform listener will be transformed if they're inside when Everstorm passes, unless they are really separated from the outside or really don't want to get transformed
    - Highstorms on Roshar predate the Shattering. More info in SA 3.
    - Dawnchant itself comes from Roshar, but RAFO on whether it was based on an offworld language.
    - Cuciseh is a level below Stormfather and Nightwatcher.
    - Nightwatcher is the spren in similar way to how Adonalsium would be called a spren, was it known to Rosharans. Hoid would call her unpleasant names, was he to talk about her.
    - Shinovar did originate on Roshar.
    - RAFO on whether highstorms replace the usual "magnetic dynamo" that protects from solar radiation (but "excellent question")
    - There may or may not be a correlation between number of Shards and number of Bondsmiths on Roshar; max number of Bonsmiths is 3.

Nalthis Breath stuff:


- Awakened objects perceive the world similarly to Inquisitors; if a Seeker was to Awaken something, it could use Seeker's allomantic sense.
- Nalthian Breath is simply more of what every person in the Cosmere has, and the ability to pass it on. Drabs have less Investiture than non-Nalthian Cosmeran.

Shards and Realmatics stuff:


- Fortune is a Cosmere-wide concept, Feruchemical Fortune is one aspect of it
- There are some (plural) Vessels willing to "go along with" Rayse.
- There are no non-Shard-related things on Shard power level in the Cosmere. There are some less powerful things that are unrelated, though. 
- Shards can "force" healing on somebody, to the extent of deleting psychological issues such as depression
- To get a Connection with something, you need either many smaller connections or one big.
- Nightblood does have a manifestation in CogRealm, but its exact nature is a RAFO. Look for it in SA 3.
- There's a deliberate similarity between what Hoid puts on his corpse-boat's oar and what Ire drinks, and it's not very related to Connection.

Worldhopping stuff:


- Felt of Mistborn and Felt of SA are the same person
- There can be some detrimental effects to worldhopping, depending on the method used.
- Worldhoppers' immortality is not uniform. Some are immortal, some are long-lived, others bend time.
- Khriss is more of information broker and would give information to everyone, was it Hoid or the 17th Shard. She believes in freedom of information.
- There is a place in the Cosmere where many worldhoppers have settled and live. Iyatil comes from this place, though her ethnicity does not. 
- We've seen a non-Nalthian use Breath in variety of ways.

Kandra stuff: 


- Dragon shapeshifting and kandra shapeshifting are different.
- Kandra would need more than Dakhor monk's bones to get his powers.
- How soulstamps work on kandra true bodies depends on kandra in question
- Kandra don't get any powers from bones (though TenSoon would disagree)

And publishing stuff:

  • It's possible one of the next SH novellas will have Marsh in some capacity; comparison with Spook in first SH was used. At any rate, SH 2 will concern time between HoA and AoL.
  • Next Rithmatist book will likely concern "fundamentals" of Rithmatics.
  • There will be a reading guide in new Cosmere books
  • The star chart in Arcanum Unbounded was made by people who travel via Cognitive Realm; while it'll show relative position of worlds, it won't show distances. It's more fantasy-style than Star Trek-style. 
  • Every planet in Arcanum Unbounded will be introduced by Khriss.
  • Possible next Writing Excuses anthology would be WE people writing stories in each other's worlds, ex. Dan in Stormlight or Mary in Schlock Mercenary. Those stories are unlikely to be canon.
Edited by Rasarr
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No no, the Star Chart isn't a real Star Chart like in Star Trek because it's made by people who are not spacefaring and based upon the Cognitive Realm. It would be inferior to a Star Trek-tier Star Chart (I don't know why I'm capitalizing Star Chart) but we'll get a real relative accurate Star Chart like from Star Trek sometime in the (likely far) future.

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No no, the Star Chart isn't a real Star Chart like in Star Trek because it's made by people who are not spacefaring and based upon the Cognitive Realm. It would be inferior to a Star Trek-tier Star Chart (I don't know why I'm capitalizing Star Chart) but we'll get a real relative accurate Star Chart like from Star Trek sometime in the (likely far) future.

 

That's what I meant by that line, though I see why that looked unclear. Fixed it.

 

 

The interesting publishing information to me is that there will be an introduction to each planet from Khriss in Arcanum Unbounded.

 

Added!

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