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Qs and As from the London signing


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Wow... that's a couple of bombshells. Time to start my pre-book release Read Everything Cosmere Again TM . Big thanks to everyone who were there!  :D

 

Hmm... a crushing blow to the head, eh? It reminds me of the linchpin spikes on Steel Inquisitors. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. Also, what Aon did Raoden and we interpret wrong? Now that we know where to look I guarantee within a month we'll have figured it out :P

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I hate spoiler policy in this forum...

 

Elantris

How is that an in-your-face hint!? Were we supposed to catch Raoden misinterpreting the Aon? Because I am so starting a reread with a notepad at my side ASAP if there is a mystery to be unravelled. Tia ("travel") was pretty straight-forward, I think, and Rao was the other big Aon covered in the book.

 

Unless Raoden misinterpreted Tia in a more... weird way, deluding himself into thinking that he needs to specify distance to his destination, when it is, in fact, possible to just provide destination. That would so prove one of my theories spot-on. You guys won't hear the end of it.

 

If we're going to boast about things, I was certain it was Aon related...and that's about how close I got! xD

 

Anyways, each time Raoden drew Tia, though, he added Aons to specify distance and who it should effect (himself), what happens when you don't specify distance, the Aon still means travel, so where do you travel? If you have no distance, you might travel to the same spot...what if you can modify Aon Tia with Aons that would cause...errr...a different kind of travel? Furthermore, wouldn't they need a junction to enter the Cognitive Realm (like the one Jasnah uses) too, maybe?

 

Also, Raoden only really gives a thorough interpretation of this Aon [in chapter 25, no less]. It's also the most important Aon to the plot (besides Aon Rao) that it seems quite likely that if Raoden was going to misinterpret something, it would be this one.

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I'd say that it's almost certainly Aon Rao that's been misinterpreted, one because it targets Elantrians and Aons despite having no modifiers, second and more tellingly I think it's appearance is quite different from other Aons, almost all other Aons have the other lines within the borders of one Aon Aon or other, in other words within the borders of Arelon, Aon Rao has four circles which go way outside the borders, not entirely sure what that could mean but my bet would be on that. Although actually having just checked the Aons page, I see that Aon Tia also has circles outside of the boundaries as does Aon Shao (Transformation) which is the third obvious choice... darn, well I still think I'm right because... Oh look a cookie!

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Edited by Voidus
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Let's see if I can remember the stuff that came out in the pub chat... (this is my rough recollection, not word for word).

 

Start with the big one - Brandon threw us a bone on what the big world-hopping hint in Elantis could be (since nobody's gotten it yet): Raoden has misinterpreted one of the Aons.

 

Intended to be a small (ie indirect hint). Make of that what you will.

 

On being asked if an Elantrian could wield Nightblood, he said yes it's possible but would be very dangerous - you'd have to figure out a way to connect Nightblood with a local source of Investiture.

 

On Shallan's origins as a character: mostly derived from a character in Dragonsteel (I'm guessing the woman who turns up at the end of the "Liar of Partinel" book fragment that's been posted on his website) and Mat Cauthon. Specifically mentioned that she has issues with authority figures.

 

On origins of Dalinar: from story he wrote as teenager - his brother is the king who gets assassinated and he has to decide whether to take over from his nephew or not. Hoid is the court magician :D

 

There was lots of other questions but many were repeats. Hmm, wonder if I forgot something significant... hope not

 

Okay I remembered some other stuff from the pub (again, NOT verbatim at all)

 

Described Khriss as research scientist. Sounded to me like she was not personally powerful, just really knowledgeable. The Cosmere's resident uber-geek?

 

Hoid doesn't really have friends, more like people who find him less annoying (or he finds less annoying?). Talked about someone he might be more of a friend with - sounded like "Frost".

 

They're not written but we should eventually get annotations for Stormlight Achieve. (normally does them during copy-edit but wasn't done that way for current books)

 

For the first 5 SA books he's heavily outlined them. For the last 5 SA books he has outlines for the main climax scenes. For the flashback characters for the last 5 books he's not settled on which ones or order but current plan is for Taln, Ash (aka Shalash), Lift, Jasnah and Renarin. I suggested Taln for book 10 and he said "probably". I also suggested Lift for book 6 but seems that one is really up for grabs currently. He also specifically stated that for one of the flashback characters that they would be already dead (sounded like definitely dead not maybe dead).

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He also specifically stated that for one of the flashback characters that they would be already dead (sounded like definitely dead not maybe dead).

 

Well, I cant say that this is super surprising, Lots of folks were guessing that this was likely, seems like something Brandon would do :P , The Question now becomes Kari, when he said this was he referring to the definitely dead flashback character being in the back 5, or just one of the 10 ?

 

Because using that, we can narrow down who might die by a significant amount maybe

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Okay I remembered some other stuff from the pub (again, NOT verbatim at all)

 

Described Khriss as research scientist. Sounded to me like she was not personally powerful, just really knowledgeable. The Cosmere's resident uber-geek?

 

Hoid doesn't really have friends, more like people who find him less annoying (or he finds less annoying?). Talked about someone he might be more of a friend with - sounded like "Frost".

 

Research scientist, ars arcanum author... same thing. :)

 

I feel like we've heard the thing about "Frost" before, and what he is, and what he has written. Like, say, a certain Letter to Hoid.

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For the first 5 SA books he's heavily outlined them. For the last 5 SA books he has outlines for the main climax scenes. For the flashback characters for the last 5 books he's not settled on which ones or order but current plan is for Taln, Ash (aka Shalash), Lift, Jasnah and Renarin. I suggested Taln for book 10 and he said "probably". I also suggested Lift for book 6 but seems that one is really up for grabs currently. He also specifically stated that for one of the flashback characters that they would be already dead (sounded like definitely dead not maybe dead).

 

When he says he is not settled, did he mean he may change his mind about who gets a flashback? So far, it sounds so much less interesting then the first five  :ph34r:  I guess it must be because I feel nothing for most of these characters. Taln and Shalash trigger no emotion in me and hearing about their flashbacks would probably good for the Cosmere and stuff I supposed, but for my current perspective it sounds so boring :ph34r: Sorry :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

 

Lift and Jasnah are the only two I am happy to hear about, but we already knew them. Renarin, I guess this is fine, but I hate the gut feeling I have he will be the only surviving Kohlin :( and will thus end up in a position of power. The geeky physically weak younger brother (as opposed to the older stronger, more handsome but dumb brother who gets stupidly killed) who discovers some great powers and end up being better than everyone else feels like such a common trope.... :(

 

As for the dead character, I am betting on Taln, Shalash or Jasnah.

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Well, I cant say that this is super surprising, Lots of folks were guessing that this was likely, seems like something Brandon would do :P , The Question now becomes Kari, when he said this was he referring to the definitely dead flashback character being in the back 5, or just one of the 10 ?

 

Because using that, we can narrow down who might die by a significant amount maybe

 

I remember it being in general, ie any of the remaining 8.

 

 

Research scientist, ars arcanum author... same thing. :)

 

I feel like we've heard the thing about "Frost" before, and what he is, and what he has written. Like, say, a certain Letter to Hoid.

 

They do read like a sort of "work in progress summary analysis" from a highly Cosmere aware researcher :)

 

When he says he is not settled, did he mean he may change his mind about who gets a flashback? So far, it sounds so much less interesting then the first five  :ph34r:  I guess it must be because I feel nothing for most of these characters. Taln and Shalash trigger no emotion in me and hearing about their flashbacks would probably good for the Cosmere and stuff I supposed, but for my current perspective it sounds so boring :ph34r: Sorry :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

 

Pretty sure both order of flashbacks and who will get flashbacks for the last 5 are not settled. I'd guess this won't get nailed down until he writes book 6.

 

Surprised you're down on Herald flashbacks. I'd love to see their origins, what life was like on Roshar before the Desolations started, details on Desolations and Voidbringers, how they became Heralds, the Oathpact, what sort of things they did in and out of battle, what the first spren based Surgebinders were like and also the Recreance and other major events. They've pretty much experienced the entire history of Roshar.

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Surprised you're down on Herald flashbacks. I'd love to see their origins, what life was like on Roshar before the Desolations started, details on Desolations and Voidbringers, how they became Heralds, the Oathpact, what sort of things they did in and out of battle, what the first spren based Surgebinders were like and also the Recreance and other major events. They've pretty much experienced the entire history of Roshar.

 

I guess I feel there are other ways to convey the story of the Desolation and the Oathpact then by using previous flashbacks. We could find out about these things through Jasnah's research or through present-time POV between Jasnah and the remaining Heralds. It also happens (well based on the first two books that is) that flashback characters take about 60% of the POV of a given book. Having Taln and Ash means having two books filled-up with mostly their POV when I would prefer if other characters were featured.

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