Philadelphia WoR Signing Reports

[Kurkistan]

Ah, well then thanks random member.

 

If mine is more exact, it's because I was able to go over one 5-minute clip half-a-dozen times while also having my own memories and a vested interest in getting it right, while you had a bit larger of a task ahead of you.

 

EDIT: Excuse me, I'll just pull this quote for future reference.

1:26:20

Q. For Feruchemy, can you only inherit that? Or is there another way to get it?

A. You could obviously get it through a hemalurgic spike.

Q. Yeah, but that’s kind of a different thing.

A. It is hereditary, but it came from somewhere. [...] Which is a RAFO, but it’s not a big RAFO. There’s not something you missed in the books, or anything like that. It originally came from Preservation long ago. And there are other ways to get it, but you have not missed any major plot points regarding that. Good question

Edited March 23, 2014 by Kurkistan

[zebobes]

I helped for a couple of the questions before I went to bed as a way to relax, so your welcome!

 

Also, I think it's helpful to add in his emotions whenever he says RAFO so that we know which questions are on the right track. 

[NutiketAiel]

Oops; I accidentally downvoted Kurkistan's post! Perhaps I should stop using my phone to look at the forums. Either that, or I need to grow smaller thumbs.

Sorry, Kurkistan.

Would one of my fellow Sharders be so kind as to give the post an upvote to offset my misplaced thumb?

[Kurkistan]

No problem, thanks for correcting it.

[ROSHtaFARian2.0]

Whoa so White Sand is no longer intended to be a trilogy of novels, but a graphic novel(s)?  Huh.  I must examine how that makes me feel.  I see both positives and negatives to this.  *ruminates*

[EHyde]

Something interesting that I think is new--it sounded like  Brandon used a longer name for Nazh, it sounded like "Nazreloft". Has this shown up before and do we have a correct spelling for it? It is at about 2:36:40 in the audio.

[Chaos]

Wow, great job asking questions and getting them down. So much awesome info!

"3 races on Yolen. Human Shodel Dragon"

I suppose we now need to ask if a Dragon has picked up a Shard.

Something interesting that I think is new--it sounded like Brandon used a longer name for Nazh, it sounded like "Nazreloft". Has this shown up before and do we have a correct spelling for it? It is at about 2:36:40 in the audio.

It definitely sounds like Nazreloft to me. Interesting.

[NutiketAiel]

Wow, great job asking questions and getting them down. So much awesome info!

I suppose we now need to ask if a Dragon has picked up a Shard.

We'll probably get RAFO'd, as he did when I asked him whether all 16 original shardholders were human, but it's still worth a shot.

[Swimmingly]

Could someone be returned to life by making them a Lifeless without a Commanded need to obey, then Forging their identity and memories back into them?

[EHyde]

All right, the transcript is finished to the best of my ability. Most of the juicy questions were already in NutiketAiel's report, but if people want the exact wording, and there's some other good stuff too, especially some fun less cosmere-related stuff. My favorite might have to be this tidbit from the Legion sequel:

 

 

J.C. has decided that he’s not a hallucination, he’s an interdimensional space ranger who only exists partially in this world, so he starts using made-up future curses

but anyway.

 

I was wondering what your thoughts were on the answer to one of my questions.

 

Q. And, how were the Radiants able to summon their Shardblades at the Recreance if they’d already decided to break their oaths?

A. Their Shardblades are part of what brought them to--part of the Oathpact--but breaking the Oathpact did not affect their ability to bond or unbond Shardblades.

This is the first time I've heard the word Oathpact used in reference to the Radiants instead of the Heralds, and at first I thought he might've thought I'd been asking about the Heralds, but I did say both Raidants and Recreance and then he said Shardblades and not Honorblades so I think we were on the same page... so is Oathpact the proper name for the Radiants' oaths as well as for whatever the Heralds had, or is this something else?

[Argent]

You guys got to ask so many questions, and you had so much time... I am really jealous!

 

On topic though, I am kind of surprised the Radiants were a part of the Oathpact. I was under the impression that it was between Honor and the Heralds - didn't we have another signing where Brandon told us that? Maybe the Heralds brought them in later...

 

The Honorblades being crafter... by Honor? I really really want to throw the word Dawnshard somewhere in here.

 

Also. More life in Greater Roshar, am I reading this right? Just... non-sentient?

 

Theocracy and mage-ocracy on Roshar at one point? The former has to be the, um... that time when the Vorin church went all batstormscrazy. But the latter? When the Radiants were essentially ruling everything from Urithiru?

 

I had a couple other questions about the Recreance that you’re probably not going to answer.

 

No! You never said things like "this is probably RAFO material" or "you are probably not going to answer this." Haven't you learned anything from past signings?

[ccstat]

The other question (very end of the linked post) was

Q How many parties were there to the original Oathpact?

A 11. The Heralds and Honor. They thought that by walking away from their oaths, that it would break the Oathpact. They're going to find out that it's not quite as broken as they had previously thought (meaning the Heralds)

That certainly leaves room for the Radiants being added later, and possibly a reason why the Oathpact isn't as broken as the Heralds assumed. I thought they just didn't know the ins and outs of the contract, but it could be the Radiant Rider tacked on as an addendum that they overlooked.

[Argent]

This makes sense.

[EHyde]

I'm not sure this oathpact was the same capital-O-Oathpact that the Radiants had, it's possible it's something else that works similarly enough to be called by the same word. Which would make sense, I think, since we know that the Radiants are a result of spren trying to emulate what the Almighty did for the Heralds. I wonder if this oathpact is what allowed the Nahel bond to be based on oaths rather than surgebinding ability being given just at the whim of spren like it was before Nohadon's time.

 

As for non-sentient life on other planets in the Rosharan system, I think it's likely that Brandon meant to say non-life-supporting planets and misspoke. It was after midnight at this point and he'd been answering questions for three and a half hours already. Especially with what he said about how we would not expect Roshar's star to have life-supporting planets, I would think that the only planets with life would be shard-based. 

[masaru]

Hmm I wonder if Ryshadium are horses bonded with spren?

PS I've read White Sand and I have no idea who Hoid was, but I'm curious why BS just randomly asked the three-fingered Irishman about it.

Edited March 24, 2014 by masaru

[Kurkistan]

This is just a list of all the Q/A from the transcript, so it's on the site rather than subject to Google's terrible whims.

 

EDIT: Swapped in my own transcription of my questions because the crazy hand-gestures are somewhat important.

 

EDIT 2: Updated Leiyan's second set of questions.

 

Philadelphia WoR signing Q&A

3/21/2014

Audio courtesy of Leiyan. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B62EN3c8XxsSbzRQcDBtQ0tYclE

 

1:10(macros)

Q. Based on what we know currently about the ten heartbeats, why does Szeth require ten heartbeats to bring forth his Honorblade?

A. Perception is a very important part of how these things all work, and remember, the Honorblades work differently from everything else. Everything was based upon them. Why don’t you read and find out what’s going on there, but remember, the characters’ perception is very important.

Q. So then that’s why at one point Shallan requires ten heartbeats and now she doesn’t.

A. Right, just like — it’s the exact same reason why Kaladin’s forehead wounds don’t heal, because he views himself as need— as having those, somewhere deep inside of him, and that can’t heal until that goes away. And it’s the same reason why in Warbreaker, when you bring something to life your intention, rather than really what you say, is what matters. It’s all about perception.

3:08

Q. Did it seem really awkward working with someone else’s characters, with Robert Jordan?

A. You know, I thought that it would, but the fact that I’ve been reading them since I was a kid, they felt really natural to me, like writing my own characters. I’m quite pleased — I was quite surprised. Perrin and Rand and everyone, they’re like my high school buddies. It was refreshingly familiar to me.

 

4:55

Q. In Mistborn, Allomancy tends to get a little addictive, is that something that’s going to happen with Stormlight—holding it just because it feels good?

A. You are noticing a similarity. That is intentional.

 

6:00(a young girl)

Q. How were you inspired by Dragonsbane?

A. I was inspired by just how imaginative it was. I had never read a fantasy book before and I loved the idea of another world that was so similar and yet so different from our own.

 

6:25

Q. How often do your characters take you completely by surprise when you’re doing the actual writing, and take you away from your outline?

A. They don’t surprise me very often, I’m usually aware of it long before it would actually become an issue and I’ve rebuilt the outline by then.

Q. So you’re not ever in the process of writing and they—

A. They don’t do that. I cast people in my role, like not real people but I try a character out, and if they fit the role I keep going with them and if they don’t then I throw that chapter away and I cast someone else. I rarely have someone go complete crazy off what I was expecting, if they do, it means they were probably the wrong character for that role.

 

9:28

Q. If Taravangian made the Diagram, and telling the future is of the Voidbringers, is that a bad sign?

A. It depends on if you’re speaking culturally or actually magically.

Q. Magically, I guess.

A. Because he would claim to you that he did it all with strength of mind and no magical influence other than enhanced mind. That’s what he would tell you. And so in that case it would not be—culturally they’d look very weirdly at it, but spiritually he would say it’s not of the Voidbringers.

Q. Right. He would say that.

A. Uh-huh.

 

10:21

Q. We were talking that it’s kind of a shame that Dalinar doesn’t have his own “real” spren. I think it’s an upgrade, is there a way I should think of this? Is it a cool thing or a bad thing?

A. It’s a cool thing, it’s also a very dangerous thing.

Q. Well [the Stormfather] controls the highstorms … follow-up question: if he dies, does that affect the spren?

A. Dying, as long as the oaths are not broken, does not affect the spren in a very terrible way. There are effects.

12:38(bookstore employee)

Q. So, Anne McCaffrey … what about Terry Brooks?

A. Terry Brooks also, but Terry Brooks was a little bit later—only six months later, but I discovered him after I was already neck-deep in the genre. I’ve since had dinner with him and stuff and he is delightful. […] Landover is my favorite of his.

14:30

Q. So regarding Hoid, are we ever going to learn his real name at any point in time? I guess in Dragonsteel? I know he says about how he’s borrowing stuff and about how he steals stuff.

A. Yes. You eventually know his real name, but it depends on what you define as real.

Q. So also, regarding the magic systems and stuff, I hear you have another book that’s unpublished and that you can send it to people.

A. Yes, just drop an email, say that you want a copy of White Sands. It’s okay. It’s not great.

15:55

Q. Will the flute come back?

A. A lot of people are curious about the flute. I have been non-committal, so far.

 

17:23(Leiyan)

Q. Can you tell me the order of the three planets in the solar system?

A. No.

Q. Because I know Braize is the third one, I’ve heard that, is that true?

A. I’m staying close-lipped about a lot of this.

Q. Can you tell me which is the most massive moon [of Roshar]? Not the biggest, but the most massive.

A. I think the biggest is the most massive. All three moons are much closer than our moon is.

Q. And so is that Nomon?

A. Yes

Q. How big is Nomon on the night sky, like compared to our moon?

A. Larger than our moon, but not dominating of the sky. […] I do believe Nomon is bigger, but I had to have Peter run those calculations, so he may come back and say no Brandon, that’s not possible, but I do believe it’s bigger than our moon in the sky. You’re supposed to be able to see moderately well by Nomon.

 

19:56(EHyde)

Q. I was wondering, on Roshar, what sort of plants and animals do they use for fabrics, since they don’t have a lot of wooly animals and the plants are different?

A. Most of them are plant-based. I think I’ve mentioned one of the plants.

Q. They have silk though, right?

A. Yes. It’s called sea-silk, they grow it in the water. It comes from the coasts.

Q. So they don’t have anything like our silk, then?

A. If you looked at it, you would call it silk, but it is being produced in a very different way.

Q. Our silk comes from insect cocoons, and they have a lot of that there, but they don’t use it for fiber at all?

A. Insect cocoons on Roshar are either they melt in water from the highstorm cycle, or they have stone in them, so they don’t work really well for textiles. There are certain rockbuds you can shred the inside of the shell to get a textile, there’s sea silk that grows out in the ocean, and there are other plants of a similar nature.

Q. I was also wondering about the Steel Alphabet in the Mistborn books, each letter aesthetically looks like it’s built from a cuff, a spike, and a bead, and was that intentional to reflect the magic systems?

A. Yes. Do remember that that writing system was developed by the Final Empire. They actually took the ancient Terris symbols and made them more to their aesthetic over time.

 

24:38(Rhandric)

Q. Is Vasher trying to find Nightblood?

A. Vasher misses Nightblood and feels responsible for him.

Q. How many worldhoppers have we seen?

A. Oh, I haven’t kept track, you’ve seen quite a few. There’s one from Mistborn, did you catch him? I don’t think people have really picked out the Terriswoman yet, who makes her way into them, but they’re mostly not supposed to be noticeable yet, until you get to know them as characters and you look back and be like “oh that was that person.”

Q. Is it the Terriswoman I think it is?

A. I don’t know which Terriswoman you think it is.

Q. Tindwyl?

A. No.

 

25:58(Kurkistan) [EDIT: Swapped in my own transcription]

Kurkistan: Speaking of [the Terriswoman wordlhopper who the previous Sharder had been asking about], is she the nurse in Warbreaker?

Brandon: <Pauses; gleefully says> RAAAAAAFO!

 

Kurkistan: Are the laws of physics in the cosmere Spiritually based?

Brandon: They.. The laws of physics in the cosmere are _ours_ except where they have been changed by Spiritual influence. So I guess you could say "yes."

 

Kurkistan: What would happen if you shot a Thug with an aluminum bullet or stabbed him with an aluminum knife?

-[Editor's note: Brandon initially misunderstands the question, as you shall see.]

Brandon: Ah, that's a good question. And, um.. the wound would not be able to heal _around_ the aluminum, but once the aluminum came out, and was gone from the system, they would be okay.

Kurkistan: Wait, is that a Bloodmaker, not a Thug?

Brandon: Oh, you're talking about Thu- Oh, okay. Yeah, ummm... It would work similarly, but it really wouldn't really have a huge effect on them.

Kurkistan: Ah, okay. 'Cause Peter was implying that there was some weird aluminum interaction with Thugs.

Brandon: What was he thinking of... There is some weird interaction but-

Kurkistan: <rudely interrrupts> In the wedding scene [in Alloy of Law] Wax thinks that they would have aluminum bullets to deal with Thugs and I was like "oh that's a typo" and Peter was like "oh no it's not..."

Brandon: No no... That would just be- it's like I said: healing it until the bullet is gone. It's just the same as the Bloodmaker.

<Various pleasantries from me apologizing for all the confusion>

 

Kurkistan: If I get a Slider, a Pulser, and a Nicroburst in a rocket with a lot of metal, do I have FTL?

Brandon: Hehehehe. You're getting _closer_ but you haven't figured it out yet.

 

Kurkistan: Are flamespren, are they all doing their own thing, or is there some Ideal of "Fire" sitting in the Spiritual Realm that they're all based on?

Brandon: Each spren is based on the Ideal of Fire.

Kurkistan: And is that sitting in the Spiritual Realm?

Brandon: Yes, we're using sort of a Platonic Ideal, and that concept is in force, so <sounds hesitant> "yes", but [spren] are manifestations of it.

 

Kurkistan: So these Ideals in the Spiritual Realm: Divine Breath, does that heal by accessing some Ideal of Human Health: so a guy who had never had a tongue and doesn't know how to speak all the sudden has a tongue and can speak?

-[Editor's note: Talking of Susebron here]

Brandon: You are... <LONG pause> You are, um, on the right track.

Kurkistan: Okay

Brandon: Because the Breath is... eh. How can I explain this? You are, yeah... So... So each Breath is a shade of diety, right?

Kurkistan: Yeah.

Brandon: And each Breath incorporates into it this sort of idea of being endowed by the diety Endowment, correct?

Kurkistan: Yes.

Brandon: And so each Breath you hold brings you one step closer to becoming like that, and so what you're saying is... is "yes", kind of true, yes.

Kurkistan: But it's like within the Breath, not sitting off by itself-

Brandon: Yes, yes yes exactly.

 

Kurkistan: Last question: If Wayne was inside of a speed bubble and punches somebody who's standing outside it, what's happening with his fist and them: are they like sucked into the bubble, or what?

Brandon: So, I have... So _exiting_ a speed bubble, while it's going, has _weird_ ramifications on lots of things. It would be really hard to punch somebody through a speed bubble-

Kurkistan: So would the surface like distend around his fist-

-<Illustrates with fist "stretching out" invisible film>

Brandon: It's going to steal your momentum, but if you actually managed to do it, then- yes. Anything in the speed bubble that's touching through is counted as being as part of the speed bubble.

Kurkistan: Okay, so the bubble would end here <Draws invisible surface in the air> and his fist would be out there <Illustrates by "punching" arm through the fake surface, demonstrating the fist extending past the bubble while he arm is within>, but still fast?

Brandon: Yes.

Kurkistan: Oh okay, thank you.

Brandon: That's how I would imagine it so far.

Kurkistan: But the bubble does _end_ at [the same place still, with the fist extending out past its boundary].

Brandon: The bubble does end, yes.

Kurkistan: <Makes pleasantries and goes to leave>

Brandon: And when you're punching through, it's going to- your momentum is gonna'- you're going to lose momentum and get a ricochet, because you're lurching from- <notices Kurkistan (very foolishly) acting like he's about to leave> anyway... I'll let you figure that one out on your own.

 

31:10

Q. Do you have any say in your covers?

A. I have a lot more than I used to. Originally, not much, though Tor, to their credit, even the first cover asked me -- gave me a choice of three illustrators, and said “which of these three would you like the most? And then I picked Stephan Martiniere, and I got the cover from him, that I really liked. Nowadays I can say “give me this artist” and they do.

 

32:00

Q. Have you thought any more about metal allergies with your Allomancy?

A. It definitely wouldn’t be pleasant.

Q. Ok, I have this steel allergy, I got it last year, and I work in a steel plant.

A. It would not be pleasant, but I would have the instinct that fewer people on Scadrial would have that allergy, because of the Investiture during their creation. But, it could totally happen.

Q. I really like the leatherbound - are these [the Stormlight Archive] ever going to come out in a leatherbound edition?

A. I would assume that someday we will make that happen, but it is not in the near future. You’ll probably see a Mistborn leatherbound first. To kind of gauge the market.

 

37:52

Q. You said you’ve played Magic since it came out, what kind do you play the most?

A. I play draft the most right now, particularly cube draft, but any sort of draft I can be a part of I love. [...] And you know, any time I can play I enjoy it, but if there’s a set that I can draft some sort of screwy combo deck like spider spawning or swarm or something, then that’s the sort of set I love. Or some sort of screwy five color deck.

Q. I play a lot of commander.

A. Every time I play commander I get stomped. I haven’t quite figured out how to make a commander deck that doesn’t get stomped. But of course I think that the format’s all about everyone getting stomped so, it makes sense.

 

40:55(8-year-old girl)

Q. When is the next Alcatraz book coming out?

A. I am working on it right now, I hope to have it out by next year. I’m not sure when, but hopefully next year. [...] I did buy [the rights] back and I sold them to Tor, who’s releasing a new edition, so you won’t have to order them in from the UK anymore. [...] We will have a Tor edition starting in 2015, hopefully with the last book.

 

43:48

Q. You said that you had your lectures online, are they on your website?

A. Yes. We link them on my blog, but they’re at brandonsanderson.com/writing-advice. You can also look on youtube, they’re all on there.

 

44:13(Sweetness)

Q. What do the glyphs in the Kholin glyph pair mean?

A. Oh boy, it’s in my notes, I should know that, but I’d need to look it up.

Q. What would the Willshapers think about Adolin killing Sadeas?

A. The Willshapers would probably be ok with that.

Q. Since the evil on Threnody isn’t a Shard, can you tell us anything about its actual nature? Is it an actual being, and is it related to Adonalsium?

A. Everything is related to Adonalsium in the Cosmere, most of the magic you’re seeing is a just a natural outgrowth of Cosmere related magic and cognitive shadows. The Evil is similarly related.

Q. Were the Ryshadium artificially enhanced or created, or were they natural?

A. Oh, RAFO! Good question!

 

45:55

Q. Any new news on the Mistborn game?

A. I have no news, unfortunately. I’m still hoping that it comes out late 2015, but I don’t know. [...] It’s based on a story I wrote for them specifically for the game.

Q. When you read that one book [Dragonsbane], was that where your inspiration started, or were you aways-

A. I was always telling stories, but I didn’t find fantasy, and myself in fantasy, until I read that book.

 

47:51(RIT)

Q. Alright, glowing Shardplate and retractable helmets. Is that a similar origin of the Shardblades-

A. There’s a similarity, but they are also very different.

Q. Yeah, I noticed they do seem like advanced fabrials, because Adolin just keeps going on and on about how they’re all interchangeable and how they all feel comfortable after a while, and it doesn’t have the same kind of thing with the Shardblades.

A. No, it doesn’t. Though a Shardblade, used for a long time, will change shape slightly.

 

(48:26)

Q. Is it the power of the bond between humans and spren, the Nahel bond, or from the swords-the existing Shardblades-that causes the eyes to turn light?

A. Uh … yes.

Q. Does each specific order have their own spren that they would bond?

A. Yes. Each order has a spren that is distinctive. All Windrunners come from wind- from honorspren.

 

49:48(a young boy)

Q. So I was reading the Wheel of Time and in the first one they get the Saidin and Saidar, the pools-they seem very similar to Shardpools.

A. Yes, and that is something that he kind of dropped, the Eye of the World is just like pure Saidin, and I would be surprised if that weren’t an unconscious influence on me, I didn’t think of it when I was coming up with these but that’s definitely way back in my brain when I was creating these.

 

51:20

Q. So Nohadon’s still alive, right?

A. … RAFO! Why would you say that Nohadon’s still alive?

Q. I know he’s still alive.

A. Why would you say he’s still alive?

Q. It’s the perfect trick, that you’re gonna bring back Nohadon. Um. It’s my feeling about things.

A. Um …

Q. When do we get to see a Radiant and a Mistborn go at it?

A. It’s gonna be a while. It is gonna be a while. Unless- yeah.

Q. Is Shai on Roshar?

A. Hehehe, good question!

Q. Has she already popped up?

A. She has not already popped up.

Q. So she’s not a Radiant. Or is she?

A. You have not seen her on screen yet, other than in her story.

Q. When are we gonna see a published copy of [White Sand]?

A. We’re working on a graphic novel of it right now.

Q. Who’s gonna do the art?

A. We have four or five people who have sent us pitches, and we are looking through them to decide who we want to use.

Q. Can you put me in one of your novels? I’m a three-fingered Irishman who speaks four languages.

A. Okay, write me an email that says “I’m a three-fingered Irishman who speaks four languages,” we’ll see what we can do. [...] Who did you think Hoid was, in White Sand?

Q. Hoid is not a real person, he did not start life as [can’t make out]

A. No, who did you think he was in White Sand?

Q. I don’t know yet, I’m not that far.

 

53:20

Q. You talk about music a lot in your books, but you never talk about the notation, or how advanced they’ve come with the chords and scales and stuff, do you have that all planned out or is that just-

A. I have an idea in my head, but it’s not something I spend a lot of time worldbuilding. [...] I play trumpet, not piano, so my music theory is all squished through brass, which leaves me with kind of a weird perspective on it. My wife did music theory, and played piano, and all this stuff, and me it’s like, you know, “it comes out the front of the horn!”

 

55:14

Q. How do you come up with all your detail for your books, all the different sequences.

A. Just lots of practice. Practice a lot, and it starts coming to you.

 

56:35

Q. I was wondering if you had, off the top of your head, any one-armed Herdazian jokes.

A. (laughs) Only the obvious one. How do you get a one-armed Herdazian out of a tree? You wave.

 

57:18

Q. Are you ever going to go further in the Elantris series?

A. Someday I will. It’s a ways off, but I will someday.

 

58:42

Q. I was writing about the stances, and I was wondering if you could match them with (unfolds drawing).

A. I would have you email this to us, because Ben McSweeney made the final call as he drew these, which one was which. While I had notes on each of them, he matched the stances to them, so it would be really easy for me to get them wrong.

 

59:46

Q. Did you ever make a conscious to be as open as you are, in your process, with your fans?

A. It was just really natural to me. I think it was me looking at things that I wished authors were doing, and I’m a product of my generation, with the internet and things like, so, I wouldn’t say conscious.

 

1:00:32

Q. Do you think you’re going to write in the Wheel of Time world at all?

A. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever do any more Wheel of Time books. I don’t think that Robert Jordan would want it to keep going.

Q. What about your Steelheart, how many-?

A. That is a trilogy. I’ve finished the second book and turned it in, then one more left to do, and then it’ll be done.

Q. Final and kaput? No multiple trilogies?

A. Hmm … you know, I could see … but I have no plans right now to do any more. I have my next YA book that I’ve already got planned what I’m going to do.

Q. The Rithmatist, how many in that series?

A. That’s also three.

 

1:01:31

Q. So what’s your favorite thing from The Way of Kings? Quotes, coming from the actual book in The Way of Kings.

A. The book in-world? I would say it’s the story that Nohadon shares about walking and passing the man with his burden.

 

1:02:00

Q. With the ten books split into five and five, is that going to be chronological?

A. Yes. They will be chronological.

 

1:02:22

Q. So, Joshua’s looked at two of my manuscripts, how many did he look at of yours before-?

A. I think he looked at four. [...] If you’re continuing to get better and better feedbacks, that’s a really good sign with Joshua. Now, you should also be sending other places. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. But as long as you’re getting increasingly good feedback, then he’s paying attention, and he doesn’t read a lot of new authors’ work anymore, he has his assistants do that, so if he is reading it himself (and if he says he is, he is) then you are in a good position.

 

1:03:22

Q. I was curious, I know Jasnah wasn’t in it too much … I was curious-she’s such a believable non-religious character, was it more difficult writing her as a religious person? I just thought she was so well done even though she’s not-

A. You know she’s always been that way in my head, since I conceived of her. I spent a lot of time on atheist forums, learning how to talk the right way to make her real.

 

1:04:12

Q. You talked about how when you’re reading it’s an active process and you’re almost like the narrator of the story, you’re inventing details that aren’t necessarily in the book. How much of that process do you think gets lost in the audiobook process?

A. I think you lose a little bit, but you gain a little bit in return, their interpretation, and things like that. It does happen, you lose a little bit, but you get something else in return.

 

1:05:00

Q. My friends were appalled that I didn’t know my favorite author’s birthday and favorite color.

A. Koloss head-munching day (December 19) and maroon.

 

1:05:52

Q. I wanted to ask about how, you mentioned that in the [third] trilogy for Mistborn, all the things are tied together. All the different worlds. In books that you write after you’ve written that, are you going to attempt to tie them in?

A. I will tie them in. I’ve already seeded hidden things that I can use to tie them in the way I want to. So it should all be there, the things I want to use. When you read, watch for a character named Hoid.

 

1:06:45

Q. You write such amazing magic systems. Have you considered doing some arrangement with like Pathfinder or GURPS?

A. I’ve done one with Crafty Games, who did a Mistborn RPG. So that was my first foray into that.

 

1:07:46

Q. Did you have a fascination with gemstones, and metals, or-?

A. I have a fascination with everything. So, yes, but it takes a while to figure the right theme to fit a book. But I am fascinated by pretty much everything, and so you see that sort of thing manifesting in these books.

 

1:08:38

Q. I do have to know--how many cousins?

A. It depends on what your definition of cousin is. By Lopen’s definition, basically all of the people - there are a lot of cousins. He’s counting like fifth cousins, like, dating his sister or his mom’s sister - that’s a cousin.

Q. How many people that we’ve met know the story of Dalinar’s wife?

A. Know which story?

Q. The story about the pact, why he doesn’t remember anything.

A. Oh. Not very many at all know that he doesn’t remember. He’s had to fake it.

 

1:10:10

Q. Is Lopen still going to have one-arm jokes? That’s my big concern.

A. He’s always going to have one-arm jokes. He’s probably going to have to come up with some two-arm jokes.

 

1:13:15

Q. Have you listened to your books?

A. I have. I do really like Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, so I listen just to see what their interpretation is. I love that Herdazians are Australian.

Q. Are they on for the rest of the series?

A. Yes. Well, they said that they will as long as they’re free.

 

1:15:15

Q. How are you going to finish the Cosmere stuff? Like when you get to book 35, how are you gonna resist like book 36, we’re gonna say “Courage is held by a guy named Steve and according to Hoid he’s pretty cool.” Just extend it another … how are you going to finish?

A. We’ll see. We will see. The thing is there’s a beginning, middle, and end to the shattering of Adonalsium and the involvement there. More stories can be told in the Cosmere, but there’s a beginning, middle, and end to that. When I finish that, that is the sequence that I wanted to tell.

Q. And you have that outlined out?

A. I do.

 

1:16:25

Q. You were talking about the magic of writing, how you had to have your own kind of magic for writing, and I was wondering, did you kind of snap into that?

A. No, it took a while to kind of figure out, all of this took  a while to figure out, none of it came, I had to practice, I had to learn, and this is just kind of my philosophies as I write.

 

1:16:55

Q. Are the Wax and Wayne stories going to always be in stand-alone, or are they ever going to tie in to the main Mistborn?

A. They will tie in, in fact I intended the first one to foreshadow stuff for the next trilogy, so you will find things tying in with what’s going on, but I kind of wanted them to just be more independent, so we’ll see. It’ll be a little of both.

 

1:17:55

Q. Is Lopen going to be one of the [main characters in the second five-book sequence]?

A. He is not, he’s a side character.

 

1:18:26

Q. Who helped you go on when you had to do those eighteen drafts?

A. My wife is a big support to me, but I wasn’t married during the early books, and then it was just my own desire to write, and I did have a writing group that helped me, and they’re good people too.

Q. Any humorous character in the near future? I like the funny ones.

A. Um, if you haven’t read Legion, Legion’s pretty funny.

 

1:19:41

Q. Is there a difference between the Shardplate of the Radiants and the current Shardplate?

A. Yes.

 

1:20:44

Q. Kaladin in the second book seemed to be a different Kaladin than at the end of the first book.

A. What way?

Q. Angrier, and my question is, why did you write him that way?

A. He has always been angry. In the first book, he is focused on saving his men and now that his men are safe, all of those emotions--if you go look at him from the first nine chapters of Way of Kings, he’s that way there, it’s when he becomes focused on saving his men he has something to drive him and it kind of subsumes these things, but once they’re safe all these things he hasn’t dealt with came back out.

Q. Birthright.

A. Ah …

Q. So I’ve been in contact a little bit with [something], I own a RP gamer, and they went radio silence on me.

A. Um, yeah. I had dinner with Matt Scott like two weeks ago, he said it’s still in development, but he’s like buying a game studio that was working on it, or something? He had farmed it out? I think. So I don’t know.

Q. Are you still writing?

A. I wrote the story for them to use. The idea was I write the story, they build the game, and come back to me for dialogue. So I have got an overarching story for them but I don’t write the dialogue till we actually have a game to plug things into. That’s still my plan. He’s still really interested in buying the Mistborn movie option, and he says that he’s working on a mobile game, so he’s really awesome … but I have nothing to tell you right now.

 

1:23:15

Q. How do you do time dilation and character time? Like, how do you keep the stories straight?

A. Just practice, and good beta readers really help with that a lot. In my first drafts I often mess these things up, and my beta readers will help me.

Q. What do you do for Magic?

A. When I play? Usually I draft, and it’s almost always something with blue.

 

1:24:08

Q. The epigraphs for The Way of Kings, that were talking about how the various Shardholders are influenced by their shards over time--how does that impact someone like Harmony, with multiple shards?

A. The main effect it’s having on Harmony right now is his inability to act sometimes, because his two sides are pushing, and so he is having trouble being proactive. It’d take a long time before it really becomes manifest, but he’s had several hundred years, so it’s starting to have an effect.

 

1:24:58

Q. You mentioned at one point [in the Warbreaker annotations] that there were guards hiding under the bed in a secret room when Siri first goes to the God-King. Do you always add details like that in your imagination?

A. Very frequently I do. Just because I want to be a few steps ahead and I want to be making sure that my motives for the characters--particularly for the side characters where we’re not seeing through their eyes--make sense. Motives are really important for me.

 

1:26:20

Q. For Feruchemy, can you only inherit that? Or is there another way to get it?

A. You could obviously get it through a Hemalurgic spike.

Q. Yeah, but that’s kind of a different thing.

A. It is hereditary, but it came from somewhere. [...] Which is a RAFO, but it’s not a big RAFO. There’s not something you missed in the books, or anything like that. It originally came from Preservation long ago. And there are other ways to get it, but you have not missed any major plot points regarding that. Good question.

 

1:30:47

Q. Could you use the Feruchemical ability to store identity to heal damage done to you in the Cognitive Realm?

A. Um … yes, but it’s gonna take a roundabout method to make that happen. But identity can be very useful for all sorts of things like this.

 

1:31:39

Q. Do you know if Graphic Audio is ever going to tackle the Stormlight Archive?

A. I would like them to, but it’s really up to Tor Audio, or actually MacMillian Audio. They are the ones, because we sold the audio rights to them, that would decide when they’re going to do subsidiary licenses. Which they only recently decided on Mistborn. So I’m sure Graphic Audio would like to do it, probably after a few books of this are out they’ll start doing it.

 

1:33:40

Q. Any of the canyons and stuff [in Utah], do you ever take inspiration from them? Bryce and Zion?

A. Yes. Bryce and Zion both are very influential in how I envision the Shattered Plains.

 

1:34:45 (a young girl)

Q. Did you ever base any of your characters off of yourself?

A. All of them have some of me in them. Yes.

Q. Can you tell me if Kaladin learned to worldhop?

A. That is what we call a RAFO, which means “read and find out.” But it’s a good question!

 

1:38:25

Q. How has your relationship with your editor changed over the years?

A. It hasn’t changed a ton. He still thinks of me as this young kid that he discovered, and he talks to me just the same, like my dad. He’s a blast, because of that. Other editors that I’ve gotten since then, at different publishing houses and things, they act very differently, because to them I’m like this super big author, and to Moshe I’m just this dumb kid that he discovered. He’s very proud of me.

Q. Was it strange transitioning between adult and your young adult fiction?

A. Not really, because I’ve been writing it all along, and besides that, epic fantasy really walks the line, you usually have teen characters and adult characters. The big difference was the communities are so different. Childrens’ is full of just like happiness and perkiness, and adult SF/F is full of nerddom and conversations about Star Trek.

 

1:40:38

Q. Any advice for someone who is trying to come up with a schedule for getting things done [re. writing]?

A. You have to have to learn your own process as a writer and find out if you’re better in small chunks, large chunks, or binges, and you have to try all three. [...] Try each of these methods and see which works for you.

Q. With everything that you do, how do you still manage to get sleep? And spend your own time?

A. You know, it’s not as hard as it would seem. With no commute, and working from home, I can get up, I can work for four hours, then spend time with my family, then come back and work for four more hours, and I’ve got, you know, plenty of time.

 

1:41:58

Q. Do you have a really clear vision in your head for what you want [the maps] to be?

A. It depends on the book. In some cases I do, in some cases I’m more vague and I work with my illustrator through several iterations to decide what we want.

 

1:44:00

Q. Before the Recreance, there were three Bondsmiths. Did they all bond superspren, or is Dalinar an exception?

A. They did something similar.

Q. Can the Unmade be bonded?

A. Wow … plausible. Er, possible, I should say.

Q. If you came up with a Radiant-like ideal, for yourself as a writer, what would it be?

A. What a great question! (writes the answer in asker’s book)

 

1:45:20

Q. Would you ever consider, like, Netflix has released entire seasons in a row, would you ever consider releasing an entire series in a row so people can just binge on it?

A. Yes, I would definitely consider that. I would have to have them all ready, I wouldn’t want to have a big gap, but if I could slip in a book here and a book there I could definitely see myself doing that.

 

1:46:15

Q. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

A. I would say the number one thing to keep in mind is to train yourself to be a person who writes books, not be a person who wrote a book. So that means, don’t bank everything on writing one book. Everything is practice, even published books.

 

1:47:20

Q. What Jasnah did, in the first book, with Shallan in the alleyway. And what happened at the end of this book, between Adolin and the other character (he is trying to avoid spoilers). Would you put them on the same level? Or would you say that what Adolin did was maybe a little bit darker?

A. I would say that what Adolin did was less dark, personally. [...]I would say that what Adolin did was something that needed to be done, that no one else was capable of doing.

Q. Will it have any ramifications for him down the line? With how it was handled?

A. Oh, there are definitely ramifications. How it’s handled, there’s lots of ramifications. And there are certain characters who would think that what he did is totally, totally, totally wrong.

 

1:48:50

Q. I study sports psychology, and I’m really interested in how people reach their peak performance--how do you get people to do that. So I know earlier you said some days are hard, some days are easy. Have you looked at what made the difference, mentally, between what’s hard and what’s easy, and what do you do to get yourself out of that?

A. It’s hard, because in a creative field, sometimes it’s just you’re sick, or something, but sometimes it’s something wrong with the story, or sometimes you’re distracted by something else. I would say that most of the time it’s that I’m distracted. [...] A life event, or another story, or like I got a really bad review, or something like this, and those things can totally throw you off your game. That would be the most common. And what I do is I write anyway, and it doesn’t come out well I put it away and try again the next day, but I don’t stop writing. That’s the important thing for me.

 

1:50:10

Q. How does Susebron love sweets if he doesn’t have a tongue?

A. The fact that your tastebuds are all in one place is actually untrue, scientifically. You actually have tastebuds all through your mouth.

Q. Hoid said [in Warbreaker] that he learned stories from a place where gods have died. Is that Roshar?

A. RAFO. I will say this. A god has died on Roshar. Only one, that we know. So, “gods” would not be plural.

Q. Is Shallan’s father actually her father?

A. Heh. People asked if her mother were actually her mother. No one’s asked yet if her father was her father. [...] Yes. It was her father. I will give you that. Her mother and father as presented in the story were actually her mother and father.

 

1:52:30

Q. You were saying that sometimes you’ll have to retool a book because it just doesn’t work. Are there any ideas that just didn’t work that you brought into another one?

A. Yeah, I have. Feruchemy started in a different book. I brought it into Mistborn because it combined well with the whole metal and things, but it started in a different novel.

 

1:54:48

Q. Szeth a lot of the time throughout Words of Radiance is referring to the fact that he’s hearing his victims scream in his head. Is that actually his conscience screaming at him or has he possibly already bonded to a spren in some way, that is displeased with-

A. That is not the spren. Good question. [...] It is not a spren that is of one of the orders.

Q. But it is related to--

A. I didn’t say that. But it is not a--it is not a blade. It is not one of those.

 

1:56:17

Q. If you had to pick one favorite character from the Stormlight Archive, right now, who would it be?

A. It’s hard to say. Dalinar was my first character, so he’ll always have a special place in my heart.

 

1:56:58

Q. What I’ve noticed is that you have these fantastically detailed magic systems that all flow from logical principles. And then you turned around and wrote the Wheel of Time, which, to be charitable, doesn’t. How hard was that to transition back and forth?

A. I’ve always loved the Wheel of Time, and I’ve accepted its magic system for what it is, and you will notice me writing the magic system, I’ve avoided developing new weaves, and instead used the weaves he had created as the logical principles for my storytelling. So I kind of took his magic and did a little of my way with it, because it’s how I like magic systems. So I wouldn’t say it was hard, but it’s one of the things that I left my stamp on the most.

 

1:58:25

Q. Alcatraz. How in the world did you come up with such an idea? Everything else that you’ve written is so completely different.

A. Alcatraz is my improv comedy series. Meaning I brainstorm a bunch of stuff, and then force myself to use the weirdest of the ideas in a book in order to keep myself from falling back on what I usually do.

Q. What came first, Pattern or Chalklings?

A. Pattern was before Chalklings, good question. For some part of its existence, the Rithmatist was in the Cosmere, until I decided I just don’t want Earth in the Cosmere at all, even a bizarre sort of version of Earth.

 

2:02:45

Q. Which of your characters do you think would win in a fight?

A. Uh … at what stage in their career?

Q. Not the Slivers.

A. Okay, so they don’t count, the Shards of Adonalsium don’t count … does Kelsier have atium?

Q. Yes.

A. Then … a Mistborn burning atium is really hard to beat in any other way.

Q. So you think that Kelsier would beat Vin?

A. Oh, Kelsier would beat Vin if he had atium and she didn’t. If they both did? Vin has more raw talent, Kelsier has more experience. So if you can pick Vin after she has more experience she will give him a fair fight, otherwise, not.

 

2:04:26

Q. The letter in the epigraphs in Way of Kings, the recipient--is he or she--are they in Words of Radiance?

A. They are not in Words of Radiance in person.

Q. Will they be in the next book?

A. That’s a RAFO. But they have not appeared in person in the series yet.

 

2:05:40 (a young boy)

Q. How did you come up with your signature? It doesn’t look anything like your name.

A. I will show you (demonstrates). But actually I’m initialling them. And when I do this it actually looks cooler than when I actually wrote my signature.

 

2:09:30

Q. If someone--Vasher says that Nightblood would kill him, is that just because he has this big deific Breath? Would it kill an ordinary person, like a drab?

A. It would suck the Breath from anybody, and if they were unable to feed it he would feed on their soul.

Q. So they would die.

A. Yes. Anybody wielding Nightblood, he will suck their soul. For too long. He will eventually, if you draw him, he will suck your soul.

Q. When does a person become a Surgebinder? Because Kaladin talks about when he was a child, about it being a familiar feeling, and Shallan obviously was younger. Or is it when they speak the Words?

A. The bond starts forming before the words are spoken, but if the words are never spoken that bond will eventually evaporate and get broken. But the bond will start forming before. Just like an emotion acts a spren, acting in the way that the spren you would eventually bond will start drawing them toward you and that will start to create that bond.

Q. I know that there’s three sorts of forms that magic presents itself in, the liquid and the solid and air. What would Breath be?

A. Breath is definitely like Mist, it is in the form of the air.

Q. And is Stormlight the same?

A. Stormlight is the same. Good questions!

Q. Would Vasher be able to use Stormlight in the same way that he can get Breath?

A. That would not be immediately easy, but Stormlight could feed Nightblood.

Q. Which is why Szeth can wield Nightblood?

A. Eh, you’ll have to see if … but yes. That could theoretically happen. You can use most of the magics on most of the planets to fuel the other magics, if you know how to do it, it is not easy.

 

2:12:35

Q. What’s your opinion as a professor and as a reader of Gene Wolfe? I don’t hear him talked about a lot.

A. Gene Wolfe has amazing prose. He is dense enough that I really have to know somebody before I can recommend him. But I think he is a master of the form.

 

2:13:18

Q. My favorite book from you is Warbeaker, and I was wondering if we’re gonna see any more.

A. You will someday see a sequel to Warbreaker. It was planned as two books. I haven’t found a place to squeeze it in yet, but I will eventually.

Q. What color deck do you have in Magic?

A. You know, I love to draft. So I will draft often a blue deck, but really what I’m looking for are screwy combos.

Q. Do you play online?

A. I don’t. I did for a little while but I found that I missed the human interaction, so I started setting up more drafts at my house and such. My absolute favorite thing to do is cube draft. [...] Cube draft is not good value online.

 

2:15:40

Q. Is there anything you listen to when writing? Or do you find it distracting?

A. No, I really need music while writing. It depends on the mood I’m in, I’ve been listening to a lot of Pomplemoose (sp?) recently, which is an indie band off the west coast, I have several Pandora stations that I use, I’ve got a Daft Punk one, I’ve got a Tangerine Dream one, and I’ve got George Winston one, and you know, just to set a mood. I love cool mashups, like, my favorite musical form--I posted when I found it--my favorite mashup lately is someone mashed up Korn with Taylor Swift and it’s so cool! That song is so awesome! Because Taylor Swift is too poppy for me, but Korn has always been too atonal for me, even though I admire them, and putting the two of them together makes these great lyrics, with this sort of upbeat background. Yeah.

 

2:20:00

Q. I just ordered the short anthology that you did with Shawn Speakman--are you doing any more with him?

A. Eventually I hope to.

 

2:21:20

Q. Are we going to get a book with Lift?

A. You are going to get a book with Lift as a main character. It is going to happen I promise. And I’ll probably do some more shorts with Lift because she is so much fun.

 

2:24:14

Q. You mentioned how the Wheel of Time helped you coordinate things and stuff--how’d it mess you up?

A. Um … I would say that the thing about it is never before have I had to end a series where I wanted to write more but couldn’t. And I won’t let myself. It’s, I decided that I couldn’t write more, but I wish I could. [...] In every other book I’ve written, by the end I know what’s happening to everybody into the future, and I don’t know for these.

 

2:25:30

Q. Are all of you fantasy authors friends in real life?

A. A lot of us meet at conventions and things. [...] Pat and I in particular broke in at the same time, and we’re sharing advice on things at the same time, and we were hanging out in the same forums and met each other there, and things like that and so Pat and I go back pretty far. But he’s somebody I see like three times a year.

 

2:29:20

Q. Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, did you find them first?

A. I requested them. I have listened to the Wheel of Time audiobooks and so I requested them, because I like them.

 

2:33:40

Q. The Seventeenth Shard--is their purpose limited solely to tracking down Hoid? Or is it something grander than that?

A. No, they have other stuff. It is something grander than that.

Q. He’s just one of many priorities?

A. Yes. They are very worried about what he’s going to be doing.

Q. But there’s others they’re worried about as well?

A. Yes. [...] So they have a task, they have goals, and they are worried that he is going to be at cross purposes to them, so they are trying to hunt him down.

 

2:36:48

Q. What’s his name, the one who sends the letter with pictures … Nazir?

A. Oh, Nazh? Nazh… (he gives a longer name. Sounds like Nazreloft, obviously spelling uncertain)

Q. He’s not in the list of …

A. He appears in one place in that book.

Q. Rock sounds Hawaiian, like Hawaiian royalty. Is that a pun on Dwayne Johnson?

A. (laughs) No, it’s not. That’s a coincidence.

Q. When’s the next Warbreaker?

A. It’s a ways off, I’m sorry. It’ll take a little bit of time.

 

2:48:19

Q. They mentioned a Mistborn video game at one point--is it just an adaptation or--?

A. I wrote a story for them to use that is in the second century of the Lord Ruler’s reign. The idea was for them to use that story and then come back to me with the finished game and then I would write the dialogue. That is what we want to do, it is taking them forever to write this game. [...] Our goal was to do a kind of Infamous-style open world RPG sort of thing.

 

2:49:50

Q. Do you ever find yourself, when you’re in the middle of writing a book, swearing like the characters do?

A. I do occasionally, yes. That does happen. Which cracks my family up. [...] I’m writing the sequel to Legion right now, and J.C. has decided that he’s not a hallucination, he’s an interdimensional space ranger who only exists partially in this world, so he starts using made-up future curses and so he’s saying all these weird curses … anyway. It’s a lot of fun.

Q. Is it going to be longer, shorter, same length?

A. It’s about twice as long.

 

2:51:29

Q. In other worlds, are we seeing any magics already? Like, Allomancy might be in Roshar?

A. You’ve seen people using Allomancy in Roshar before.

Q. You said that on Roshar the only reason they have aluminum is that they can Soulcast it, right? I think you said something like that … maybe?

A. (no answer)

Q. I was wondering how that would work, if an Allomancer were to--

A. Aluminum has some weird properties on all of the magic systems, not just allomancy. It does not have the same effect, but aluminum has some bizarre effects.

 

2:53:16

Q. What’s your favorite book you’ve written so far?

A. That’s like trying to pick my favorite child.

Q. Favorite character? Same thing?

A. Same thing, except I can say that since Dalinar was the first character that I designed, there’s a special place in my heart for him.

 

2:53:54

Q. The Mistborn video game--are you doing anything with that?

A. It’s still in the works. I don’t know when it’s going to, if it’s going to, anything like that.

 

2:57:56

Q. Several of my friends play the Mistborn tabletop game, and we have a question, so, if you want to burn a metal Allomantically do you actually have to ingest it, or can it just be in your bloodstream, or-?

A. If it gets in there somehow, you can use it.

Q. So you can inhale something, or inject something … what about spikes? Could you like burn a spike that was-?

A. Yes, you could, but not if it’s Hemalurgically placed or Hemalurgically charged. But otherwise yes. If it gets in you--I almost wrote a scene where someone got stabbed through the chest and they burned it. The problem is your metal also has to be of the right allomantic alloy.

 

2:59:37

Q. Is the surge “cohesion,” that we haven’t really seen much, strong axial, is that related to the fabrials for the half-shards?

A. Aha! Um, I’m gonna RAFO. It’s not me not knowing the answer, it’s me not knowing if I should say or not. I will RAFO that, because I don’t want to get into that too much right now.

 

3:00:06

Q. For the Honorblades, if somebody that was already a Radiant used an Honorblade, would they get that Surge also?

A. It is possible to get multiples, yes. Good question.

 

3:01:40

Q. I know Jordan was intending on extending the series, and I know you were doing a short story, are you doing any of the other?

A. The short story is a scene I cut from A Memory of Light, so it’s not something written after. He did leave two sentences about what he was going to do, that I will not do, out of respect--I don’t think he would want me to. The two sentences are, he said there was a scene where Mat was lying in a gutter wearing a cloth knit hat groaning that he’d gambled it all away, and there was a scene with Perrin traveling in the belly of a ship going somewhere, thinking about how he has to kill a friend.

 

3:03:22

Q. Were you ever going to do a sequel to Alcatraz?

A. Yes. I’m gonna finish Alcatraz, I will write the fifth one, I promise.

Q. Does Szeth have a puppy, and what would it be like if he did? Because I feel like he could really use one.

A. Szeth could totally use a puppy. He totally could. He does not have an axehound pup, but he totally should get one. But he does now have something very puppy-like.

 

3:04:40

Q. The Long Trail of the Iriali, was one of the first three lands Braize?

A. Hehehe. No. Excellent question.

Q. The Aimians seem disliked throughout the world. Is that based on something that has happened in the past?

A. Um, yes, but they’re also really creepy.

Q. Are they open to manipulation like other sentient non-human humanoids of Roshar? The Parshendi? Or, similar?

A. Um, RAFO.

 

3:05:35

Q. Are we going to see Shai again in the next ten years?

A. Yes. [...] But the chances of me doing another short about her are not great. Because Emperor’s Soul turned out so well that doing a follow-up I feel like is just the wrong move. So more likely you’d see her show up in something else.

 

3:06:26

Q. What’s your working title for the third book?

A. It has two. The original working title was Stones Unhallowed. However, Rothfuss is using Doors of Stone, and I kind of feel like I might want to do something different, so my interim title is Skybreaker, but it has to be an in-world book. The in-world book for book 3 is kind of a different one, so I can do a lot with it, but Stones Unhallowed is easier.

Q. If somebody with some kind of magical ability, for example Allomancy, etc., were to travel off-world, would they still have that ability?

A. It depends on the ability. Some are easier to use off-world than others. You have seen Allomancy used off-world already.

 

3:07:52

Q. Are we going to get ten different perspectives for Gavilar’s death?

A. You will get five.

 

3:08:47

Q. Did the shattering of Honor happen in the Cognitive Realm, and Ruin in the Physical? The reason I’m wondering is, are spren the expression of the shattering in the Cognitive Realm while Ruin’s physical being is an expression of the shattering in the Physical?

A. This is an interesting theory that I don’t want to completely shoot down, but it is not heading in absolutely correct directions. The shattering of a shard is an event that transcends all three realms.

 

3:09:49

Q. How do you push out such a body of work in such a short time?

A. I write pretty compulsively, and I just do my job every day. The thing that I have going for me most is I have a very amiable and normal temperament. I don’t get mood swings, I just am who I am. And a lot of writers pair creativity with a very mercurial temperament, and I don’t have that. I have a pioneer work ethic. I’m even-keeled, and I do my work every day. I don’t write faster than most writers, I’m only a moderately fast writer, I just write every day.

 

3:15:25 (EHyde)

Q. I was curious about the dye in Hallandren, the Tears of Edgli. So, that can be used to make a whole bunch of different colors, right? Does the flower come in different colors? Or is that something in the dye process, or-?

A. The flower comes in different colors.

Q. And it dyes all fiber types the same?

A. It does not dye all fiber types the same.

Q. In theory, if they had synthetic fibers would it work on them?

A. I would say yes.

Q. Is it more fuel-efficient for Awakening?

A. Is what more-?

Q. Like, color used in Awakening-?

A. Yes. Those dyes are very effective for Awakening.

Q. I was also wondering if there’s any chance of seeing a Nightblood point of view.

A. There is a chance of seeing a Nightblood point of you. It is something I have sincerely contemplated … and maybe even posted about online.

Q. Were there Desolations before there were humans on Roshar?

A. No.

Q. And, how were the Radiants able to summon their Shardblades at the Recreance if they’d already decided to break their oaths?

A. Their Shardblades are part of what brought them to--part of the Oathpact--but breaking the Oathpact did not affect their ability to bond or unbond Shardblades.

Q. What information do Stormwardens use to predict Highstorms?

A. Um, many things, some of which is necessary to the process and some of which is not. But previous highstorm arrival is a very big part of it, and highstorms from previous years, most recent highstorms, and if they can get when the highstorm left the other side, that’s a calculation that will help them, and things like this.

Q. Was Nohadon a bondsmith?

A. RAFO! Good question.

 

3:19:13 (Rhandric)

Q. Have the Bondsmiths ever had a Shardblade? Have any other Bondsmiths had Shardblades.

A. RAFO! Good question. Good question.

 

3:20:05 (Leiyan)

Q. So I had some things I figured out, I just wanted to know if they’re true or not. So I have that the orbits of the moons would precess so that the farthest point is always pointing towards the sun.

A. So, one more time.

Q. [uses diagram to explain the question]

A. So, we have figured all this out. It’s in the wiki--so me just saying--it’s not in the wiki that you can find. I would need to go compare this. All the calculations on things like this--this is stuff where I sat down with Peter, who knows much more astronomy than me and said “here’s what I want” and he’s like “well it has to be this” and I put that in.

Q. Do you know, do the moons orbit the opposite direction to Roshar’s rotation?

A. I believe they do.

Q. There’s no eclipses as far as I can tell, so the plane of the orbit must be strongly inclined, ‘cause there’d be an eclipse every day if there were eclipses--

A. We had to fudge that because as you said, if there were any it’d be all the time.

 

3:21:39

Q. I’m guessing it’s a RAFO, but why do Honorblades work the way they do?

A. Honorblades were crafted before Shardblades existed--

Q. So they were crafted.

A. They were crafted before Shardblades existed, and all Shardblades that exist came about as certain individuals trying to copy Honorblades.

Q. So would it be fair to say that Honorblades are analagous to fabrials in some sense? Trap spren in a crystal yada yada stormlight power?

A. There is an analogy there, that I think would pass the SAT’s rigor for analogies.

Q. Is Nightwatcher Cultivation, or an analogue of the Stormfather to …?

A. These are excellent questions you should be asking.

 

3:23:34 (NutiketAiel)

Q. Were the original sixteen Shardholders after the shattering all human?

A. Uh … RAFO. There are three races on Yolen. Three sentient races.

 

3:23:55 (Leiyan)

Q. I’m curious about the sun, it’s described as white, and our sun is typically described as yellow. Is it a different type of star?

A. The yellowing of our sun is not actually caused … so our sun being yellow is not based on the star’s actual color. 

Q. So is it bigger than our sun? Smaller? If there’s anything you want to throw out there I’ll take it.

A. Okay … I’m having to reach into my memory. This is not canon. Younger and larger, I believe it is both. Younger and larger.

Q. Do the moons relate to the highstorms at all?

A. The moons <pause while considering>… at all? Sure! [...] You’ll love this. The star’s age, at Roshar--Earth astronomers would say that is a star which could not have planets with life on them orbiting it.

Q. There are three planets in the system, are they all in the habitable zone? At least two of them must be …

Q2(I think this was NutiketAiel?). When you say three, is it actually three in the solar system, or is it three-? 

A. There are three planets with sentient life on them.

Q. There are more than three planets in the solar system?

A. There are. With non-sentient beings. There are three planets of importance.

A(Brandon Sanderson). So I didn’t give you very much, you already knew … here’s something. You may have heard a reading from one of those planets today. 

Q. Ashyn. I knew that too!

A(Brandon Sanderson). I have not revealed that though!

Q2(I think this was NutiketAiel?). Doesn’t Shadows of Silence … happen in there too?

A. Threnody? No. Threnody is not one of the three.

Q. On the back of the Szeth card, it’s a gamepiece?

A. Yeah, they just printed all of those random words there! Random collections of letters. It’s really surprising that they would print all this on the back of the card and have it happen to spell out things like “investiture,” I can’t believe that! I have no idea why that might’ve happened.

 

3:27:43

Q. Are we going to see any more of Lift?

A. Lift has a book.

 

3:27:53 (NutiketAiel)

Q. Were all the original sixteen shardholders from Yolen?

A. Yes.

 

3:28:07

Q. You have a tendency to create books with theocracies that are legitimately ruled by the gods, and this seems to be missing. Is that a direction that the Knights Radiant might be heading, or is something else going to happen?

A. I’m gonna RAFO that one. There was a theocracy on Roshar at one point. There was also a mage-ocracy. A lot of things have existed on Roshar.

 

3:28:44 (Rhandric)

Q. How many magic systems are there on Roshar?

A. It depends on your definition. Is Windrunning its own magic system, or is it a division of a larger magic system? Are the ten different Surges each their own magic system, or are they all the same one?

Q. If you assume the surges are all one.

A. Well then you would have Surgebinding, and the Old Magic, those are two at least, and there are things that are not explained in those at all, and how do you count creating fabrials? Is that a science and not a magic? Is that its own magic system?

Q2. It’s a science, because anyone can do it.

A. So Awakening is not a magic, then? Awakening’s a science? Because anyone can Awaken if they get the breath.

Q. That’s something that stood out to me, because in all your other magic systems that we’ve seen so far there has to be some sort of snapping to occur, and that’s unique, because- [...] Is there an active magic system on Threnody?

A. Threnody has a non Shard-based … it depends on what you call a magic system. Do spirits coming back from the dead count as magic? It’s science to them, but, it’s goofy science.

 

3:30:35 (EHyde)

Q. I was wondering about the in-world text, the Way of Kings. It’s older than those 4500 years, right?

A. It was written by Nohadon (sneaky look)

Q. Especially since Jasnah mentioned how all the texts have been corrupted or changed since then, especially the ones dealing with the Radiants, I was wondering if we would find out how the Way of Kings survived intact for so long, or if it actually did, or if it’s--

A. They do say that--well let’s just say that some books exist in translation over the centuries with the primary text having been lost, or things like this.

Q. But you’re not going to say if the translation is guaranteed to be accurate.

A. I am not going to say that.

 

3:31:34

Q. Lift’s spren refers to the Nightwatcher as Mother, right?

A. They definitely call someone Mother. The implication in the text is that it’s the Nightwatcher.

Q. So I’m just gonna run with that right now. Is Surgebinding in general a melding of Honor and Odium ala Feruchemy being in some senses being not directly of Ruin or Preservation?

A. Honor and Cultivation is what you mean? Um, there are spren of all three shards. And those spren can work within the bounds of the magic that has already been set up on Roshar.

Q. What shard are Cryptics associated with?

A. RAFO.

 

3:33:20 (NutiketAiel)

Q. If you could write something we don’t already know about the Moon Sceptre?

A. I run into problems with some of these things, because there’s not much to say, but what there is to say can be very spoilery. (writes “RAFO! But it is not Mraize’s stick”)

 

3:34:15

Q. When a Radiant is in the Cognitive Realm, does their mind exist individually, like separately from their body?

A. No.

Q2. So you physically travel to the Cognitive Realm?

A. You can kind of step in between both but you do not separate from your body.

Q2. So when Shallan is in the Cognitive Realm, she’s in both?

A. Yeah. She’s transitioning. It’s not astral projection. But no that’s a legit question.

Q3. So Shallan, and Lightweavers, are capable of physically stepping into Shadesmar?

A. RAFO. But the implication is yes.

 

3:35:21 (EHyde)

Q. I had a couple other questions about the Recreance that you’re probably not going to answer. I was wondering if the Radiants were deliberately trying to put Shardblades in the hands of non-Radiants. Since they left them all outside a military base.

A. Um… RAFO. Since I’ve answered so many questions, the RAFOs are going to start flowing freely. I’m like, “what is there left to write books about?” [...] I have to remember, Philadelphia: everyone asks questions.

Edited March 24, 2014 by Kurkistan

[Leiyan]

I edited a little bit of the text transcribed on the Google Doc from my second time through the line, at 3:25:55.  Some of the lines weren't attributed properly (some lines that Brandon Sanderson said were previously marked as Q, while some of my lines were marked as A...when it should have been the other way around).

Edited March 24, 2014 by Leiyan

[EHyde]

I edited a little bit of the text transcribed on the Google Doc from my second time through the line, at 3:25:55.  Some of the lines weren't attributed properly (some lines that Brandon Sanderson said were previously marked as Q, while some of my lines were marked as A...when it should have been the other way around).

Sorry! Maybe I should have stopped for the night a bit earlier :-/ Thanks for correcting it.

[Leiyan]

Sorry! Maybe I should have stopped for the night a bit earlier :-/ Thanks for correcting it.

 

No problem =D  I only made a point to mention it for Kurkistan's benefit, since he's copied the text from the google doc into his post just above.

[Kurkistan]

Thank you, updated the copy. I might hold off for a while if more corrections start trickling in: it wouldn't do for my inaccurate rendition to be floating around at the same time as the better one is being polished up.

[Kurkistan]

First one was (paraphrased)

Q: The majority of your magics use symbology and glyphs is this intentional?

A: yes, there are fundamentals of the Cosmere that are adhered to so that when the different cultures meet its not a "Fantasy Kitchen Sink" and things will match up and be similar.

 

I can clear this up a bit.

 

*Pulls out recording of Q&A*

 

Q: In all of your books—except for Warbreaker—there's always a very big symbology to the types of magic systems: like with AonDor with the Aons or Allomancy. Is that intentional, is it something you had in your head before you get started, or afterwards?

 

Brandon's understanding of the Q: Is the symbolism, the symbology, the actual symbols in the books, important? The magic systems, a lot of these have these- Is this something that I did intentionally?

 

A: Yes it is. When I built the cosmere, I built the underlying rules of magic that I would use in all the books to sort of give a cohesion and- not every one of these books it's going to be very obvious—there will be different takes on them—but for a lot of them they're sharing these attributes, and you can notice similarities between them. Because when I eventually do cosmere-centric books, I want, you know, Allomancy and AonDor to share things in common so it doesn't feel like everything in the kitchen sink is thrown into a book: that there are underlying reasons and rules and things like that.

 

-----

 

So it looks like symbols may be magically important.

 

*Cough forms cough*

[Samuel]

Q. If you could write something we don’t already know about the Moon Sceptre?

A. I run into problems with some of these things, because there’s not much to say, but what there is to say can be very spoilery. (writes “RAFO! But it is not Mraize’s stick”)

 

 

Good lord, why would he say something horrible like this? Don't we believe that Hoid has the Moon Scepter?

[Meg]

The other question (very end of the linked post) was

Q: 13. How many parties were there to the original Oathpact?

A: 11. The Heralds and Honor. They thought that by walking away from their oaths, that it would break the Oathpact. They're going to find out that it's not quite as broken as they had previously thought (meaning the Heralds).

That certainly leaves room for the Radiants being added later, and possibly a reason why the Oathpact isn't as broken as the Heralds assumed. I thought they just didn't know the ins and outs of the contract, but it could be the Radiant Rider tacked on as an addendum that they overlooked.

 

This has been a good question and I'm kind of surprised, Brandon answered it . Now we know who made up the Oathpact: Honor and the Heralds. No Odium, no Cultivation, as was theorized a lot.

A question: Why do you speak of the oathpact and the Oathpact? In my understanding there has only been one: The Oathpact. The thing of the Knights Radiant wasn't an oathpact nor related to "the Oathpact."

Yes, the Knights Radiant had to make oaths to proceed, and those oaths might derive from the Heralds' tasks. But mixing the Ideals of the Knights Radiant with the Oathpact seems a bit wrong to me.

[EHyde]

A question: Why do you speak of the oathpact and the Oathpact? In my understanding there has only been one: The Oathpact. The thing of the Knights Radiant wasn't an oathpact nor related to "the Oathpact."

Yes, the Knights Radiant had to make oaths to proceed, and those oaths might derive from the Heralds' tasks. But mixing the Ideals of the Knights Radiant with the Oathpact seems a bit wrong to me.

 

I didn't think they were related either, but it was Brandon who used the word. It was very surprising to me.

[Meg]

I didn't think they were related either, but it was Brandon who used the word. It was very surprising to me.

Yes, sorry, I've missed this part and now see, where it comes from. Being stubborn I'll stay with my interpretation despite that quote . Thanks for hinting me at it.