Poll on the protagonist of SP#4

[+Oltux72]

Let's go on record. The proposals are roughly in order of publication and are as extensive as I could make them.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood]

I want it to be Nazh as the main character, that would be nice. though anyone else would be fun.

[mathiau]

If I'm not mistaken, we have confirmation it's from the point of view of someone we already know of but hasn't have a story centred on them yet and basically have confirmation it's a man from the cover, don't we?

We also know it will require more Cosmere knowledge to understand than the other ones and that it's something Brandon have wanted to write for years.

I'm betting on Nazh

[Dreamwa1ker]

I voted Herald: Ishar's past on Ashyn, told in journal/epistolary form.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Dreamwa1ker

[Adonalsium's Eigenbasis]

We also know that it's a story none of us have heard about before, and it dates back to very early in Brandon's writing career / was one of the earliest Cosmere stories (

 

So I'm inclined to think it's about a very fundamental Cosmere character we know little about, and unlikely to be about a more recently developed character.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Adonalsium's Eigenbasis

[teknopathetic]

Now that we have had 2 Hoid books, I’m fairly sure this last one is going to be Hoid’s Origin story. 

Edit: I am aware Brandon has said this would come latr, but at the same time Brandon keeps saying these were practice attempts at getting Hoid's narrative style down. We know SP4 was a last minute addition, so I wonder if he just suddently felt the Iron was hot.

Plus, the Hoid Art that is shown as the banner of the project makes me even more suspicious. 

Edited March 19, 2022 by teknopathetic

[BitBitio]

Just now, teknopathetic said:

Now that we have had 2 Hoid books, I’m fairly sure this last one is going to be Hoid’s Origin story. 

I’d say that this is unlikely given the fact that Dragonsteel is already confirmed to be Hoid’s origin story, and that it wouldn’t be written until after Stormlight is completed. 

[paperstones]

My pipe dream is Marsh. Him as Harmony’s agent on another world. 

[Pagerunner]

All those options, but no Hoid.

When trying to comb through WoBs to find retroactive clues to Secret Projects, I was reminded of Brandon's Count of Monte Cristo story. He's talked about the idea a few times, and while I suppose that someone could twist each of the other three Secret Projects' premises to sound like a Monte Cristo inspiration, the fact that Brandon hasn't mentioned it in any of his previews makes me think he's got something more explicit in mind.

So, if the SP4 preview reveals a name we don't recognize, keep that in mind. The nature of the story might involve some deception, even toward us readers, of the character's true identity.

Quote

Mario Zekal

We know heist movies like Sneakers were inspiration for Mistborn. Are there other genres or specific movies/TV shows that inspire you, and that you would want to give a fantasy/sci-fi twist?

Brandon Sanderson

I've done most of the ones that I've thought of. I'm still waiting for the right place to do Count of Monte Cristo. I think that is a plot archetype that is not done quite as often, and can lend to some really interesting storytelling. So, you can be on the watch out for when I find a place to use that. I actually know exactly where it's going to go, but I'm not going to tell you. So, there's that one.

I've used the underdog sports team. I've used the "get the team together" Avengers style thing. There's just so many plot archetypes out there that I'm watching for. So, yeah, I'll just tell you that: watch for the Count of Monte Cristo style of story, because I have a really interesting take on it. And if you're looking for another example of this, obviously Skyward is based on the "boy gets dragon egg" story, but turned on its head to a different style.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/409/#e13836

 

 

Quote

Ramba Ral

What is your favorite character archetype or personality type that you haven't used in one of your books?

Brandon Sanderson

I haven't done a real cool traditional revenge narrative, in the kind of Count of Monte Cristo way. Basically, this is the mistaken identity story (if you guys have read the Miles Vorkosigan books), except done more intentionally. Like, in the Vorkosigan early books and what not, it's a person who gets in over their head and has to lie about who they are and what their experience is in order to stay ahead of the lies that they've already told, so that people won't discover that they aren't indeed the person that they say. A Bug's Life is a great example of this. And that one is usually played for comedy, though in Vorkosian books, it's not; done very well. There's a different archetype of this, which is kind of the... Knight's Tale is this thing, and so is Count of Monte Cristo, where an intentional deception of those around you in order to achieve a near-impossible goal. I would say that my favorite story of that archetype is Gattaca, which I just love. I think it's a fantastic movie. And I've never done that, that specific style of story. And I fully intend to someday. I mean, Gattaca being one of my favorite movies would be a clue; I tend to take the things that I love. But I haven't found the exact right place for it yet, let's say.

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/461/#e14635

 

 

 

[+Oltux72]

25 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

All those options, but no Hoid.

My apologies. In hindsight of hindsight, I should not have cut him. V1 of this list exceeded the limit of 30 options by a considerable number. I had, for examle, Skathan, Praxton, Kenton, Kwaan, Rashek and Aslydin on the list. And I collapsed a lot characters into "A Kandra". The list of characters in older books which could concievably be worldhoppers is huge. Just about every Kandra, the Five Scholars, did Baon leave alone ...

[Pagerunner]

Brandon gave some more clarification on the SP4 protagonist, for some last-minute theorizing:

Quote

So, Secret Project Four features a character from one of my books who has never had their own book, who is not Hoid, that readers will recognize. This has been a character who has had viewpoints, but no book.

It's not a main character, but it is somebody who's had some viewpoints and is very related to a main character. So, that's Secret Project Four. And Secret Project One has at least one more character who has been mentioned in a book before, but who has never appeared on screen, right? Stuff like that.

https://comicbook.com/irl/news/brandon-sanderson-kickstarter-interview-part-2/

Hoid's officially off the list. Somebody who has had viewpoints, though; that's new, right?

[Vin Solunu]

11 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

Brandon gave some more clarification on the SP4 protagonist, for some last-minute theorizing:

Hoid's officially off the list. Somebody who has had viewpoints, though; that's new, right?

It's probably Galladon or Vasher

Edited March 22, 2022 by ShyGuy1729

[Ixthos]

10 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

Brandon gave some more clarification on the SP4 protagonist, for some last-minute theorizing:

Hoid's officially off the list. Somebody who has had viewpoints, though; that's new, right?

Mennis!

Okay, jokes aside, here is a possible list of those characters: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Category:Viewpoint_characters

Probably not Alcatraz though.

[paperstones]

33 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

Brandon gave some more clarification on the SP4 protagonist, for some last-minute theorizing:

Hoid's officially off the list. Somebody who has had viewpoints, though; that's new, right?

Shards, I want this to be Marsh. Plus he will be in The Lost Metal and this will more than likely occur after that. 

[StormingTexan]

21 minutes ago, ShyGuy1729 said:

It's probably Galladon or Vasher

I'd consider Vasher a major character but Galladon is a very good guess. 

[Kallor]

A nazh book would be cool, I liked what I saw from secret history. 

[Pagerunner]

3 hours ago, Ixthos said:

Mennis!

Okay, jokes aside, here is a possible list of those characters: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Category:Viewpoint_characters

Probably not Alcatraz though.

I'm not a huge fan of that category, because it includes main characters, it includes non-Cosmere characters, and it includes characters who only had one viewpoint. I'm looking, instead, at the statistical analysis pages: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Category:Statistics

• There aren't any stats for the standalone novellas, but those are mostly single-character or dual-character affairs, so I don't think those will be worth looking too much into.
• There's also no White Sand, but the graphic novels are by nature kind of screwy in terms of "viewpoint." I don't think there was anything in the prose from Baon's viewpoint, though; we had Kenton/Khriss/Ais as the main viewpoints, with a little bit of Aarik.
• In Elantris, Lukel (8) and Galladon (5) look like the only two candidates.
• In Warbreaker, Vasher (12) has fewer viewpoints than the other three main characters, but I would still call him a main character. The book's named after him, after all.
• In the Mistborn Era 1, I see Spook (14), TenSoon (13), Breeze (9), and Marsh (8) as the candidates. I don't see anybody in Era 2, unless Brandon's counting stuff from Lost Metal that we can't see yet.
• Stormlight, as you would expect, has a lot of potentials, but it also begs the question of what makes a main character. I'm going to exclude our back-five flashback characters and Bridge Four; I would expect any of those would count as a Stormlight side novel, not a standalone novel like this has been marketed as. Which leaves us with Moash (12) and Taravangian (11), which both would fall under the same objection as the previous group.

I'm keying in on one of the Mistborn characters. I know Brandon's backup plan for Thaidakar, if he couldn't work out Kelsier's survival, was going to be TenSoon wearing Kelsier's bones. So the Big Outline has, at least at one point, had TenSoon as a worldhopper, even if we haven't seen evidence of it yet in any of the canon books. If SP4 is the Count of Monte Cristo story, like I suggested above, a kandra would be pretty well suited for running a con like that.

I'd also be interested in seeing what Marsh or Spook was up to. (Spook just resigned; he didn't have a recorded death, did he?) All the Mistborn characters would tie in pretty well with Kelsier and his mission, which took a larger role in RoW and looks poised to be big in TLM. So it would be pretty timely for a Mistborn side character to have a novel. But that gets back to: is it a standalone, or is it a Mistborn side novel? And that ultimately leads me back to TenSoon; as a shapeshifter, I think he can carry a book for newcomers in a way that Marsh or Spook couldn't.

[StormingTexan]

I'm leaning towards Galladon (although I am never right when it comes to Brandon) 

1) Side character with a viewpoint but no book of his own

2) World hopper 

3) He is "very related to a main character"

4) He is bald

5) He may be holding one of the Ire orb deals on the cover

 No idea what he is doing or where he will be. 

[cometaryorbit]

I think it would have to be someone without tons of powers from an already established series, since this is more standalone - Marsh would be tricky to explain in a non-Mistborn book, he doesn't even see the world like normal humans anymore.

Kandra are weird, but simpler to explain than Marsh, so TenSoon is likely possible.

Galladon, maybe, especially as AonDor doesn't work off Sel so he might be basically a regular person?

Did any non-main characters get viewpoints in Shadows for Silence or Sixth of the Dusk?

Edited March 22, 2022 by cometaryorbit
TenSoon

[Dreamwa1ker]

Ok, I'm joking but... we did have a Chiri-chiri viewpoint. Just sayin' 

Also, with all the kandra guesses I would kind of also love if it was a Sleepless... but with this new info the only one that has had POV is Nikli I think, and he was maybe too much of a main character in Dawnshard to qualify.

Edited March 22, 2022 by Dreamwa1ker

[LopenCousin91]

Well, Brandon just put in a spoiler in the livestream for this. 

Spoiler

The book is Stormlight-adjacent. My guess is this is going to be a book following Gavilar. A kind of "Other Secret History" if you will...

 

[Adonalsium's Eigenbasis]

I could totally see this, except we've never gotten a viewpoint from him. So instead I propose 

Spoiler

Kalak

16 minutes ago, LopenCousin91 said:

Well, Brandon just put in a spoiler in the livestream for this. 

  Hide contents

The book is Stormlight-adjacent. My guess is this is going to be a book following Gavilar. A kind of "Other Secret History" if you will...

 

 

[RPGFanboy]

25 minutes ago, LopenCousin91 said:

Well, Brandon just put in a spoiler in the livestream for this. 

  Hide contents

The book is Stormlight-adjacent. My guess is this is going to be a book following Gavilar. A kind of "Other Secret History" if you will...

 

Spoiler

I like the idea but what would the cities/ships on the cover be?

 

[melaan enjoyer]

On 19/03/2022 at 8:06 AM, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

I want it to be Nazh as the main character, that would be nice. though anyone else would be fun.

definitely hoping for a diary-style nazh perspective while he tries to figure out where khriss has abandoned him this time

[+Oltux72]

9 hours ago, LopenCousin91 said:

Well, Brandon just put in a spoiler in the livestream for this. 

  Hide contents

The book is Stormlight-adjacent. My guess is this is going to be a book following Gavilar. A kind of "Other Secret History" if you will...

 

Spoiler

That leaves some options as frontrunners

• The Silence Divine - on a planet in the same system after all - Brandon really pulled a trick putting two planets in SP#3
• Could it be literally Secret History#2, that is the story of how the Ghostbloods formed?
• Azure?
• Jasnah in shadesmar?