Questions for Seattle Signing 10/14

[hoser]

I am making plans to attend the Seattle signing and am hoping to ask some questions.  I am collecting suggestions and gentle feedback on my initial thoughts.  The following are some questions that I thought of:

1. If Szeth put down his sword and someone else picked it up, would he still have his windrunner powers?
2. Is Szeth's grandfather part of a resistance to Stone Shamanism?
3. Do Stone Shamans deny the existence of Voidbringers? 
4. After the Recreance, did the Radiants rejoin Alethi society?
5. Is Urithiru still intact as of the end of tWoK?
6. Did any of the other orders abandon their weapons at the time of the Recreance in addition to the Stonewards and Windrunners?
7. Is Szeth the first Truthless?
8. Are the Vanrial community lighteyed?  Are they descended from Radiants?
9. Is the Tranquilline Halls a planet in the physical realm?  Can Steelhunt codes be found there?

Brilliant souls, what are better questions, and how can these be improved?

 

[Windrunner]

For your first question, I'm pretty sure that Szeth's grandfather is a dead-end question wise. Szeth's father is probably still living and doesn't want to be connected to his Truthless son anymore. I don't think there are any interesting answers to be found there, and on the off chance that there are, you'll probably be RAFO'd and told to wait for Stones Unhallowed.

[Argent]

#3 is a good question, I think, and so are #5 and #7. I'd be surprised if the answer to #1 turns out to be "yes." #9 is probably going to get "Good question, RAFO!"

[Kurkistan]

Do Surgebinders have gemhearts? [in the sense of having them exist within their bodies naturally, rather than asking if they happen to carry around the gemheart from another creature's body.]

How, exactly, does Hemalurgic decay work for Feruchemy? Do Inquisitors have a cap on how much they can store at a time, or do they "waste Health when they store (so they'd be lying around at 80% health but only storing 10%, for instance), or do they draw it out less efficiently than real Feruchemists?

Why does Feruchemical Gold sometimes leave scars and sometimes not?

Edited October 7, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Morsk]

You could ask about the mistakenly-pointed-at Skybreaker symbol.

[Natans]

You could ask about the mistakenly-pointed-at Skybreaker symbol.

 

If you ask this, try ask him if the brighcallers and the wolrdsingers are radiants orders or not. (I think that this question would be aswered).

 

or

 

Ask him if eletromagnetic forces and weak/strong atomic forces are really surges, as him alluded much time ago.

 

=)

Edited October 7, 2013 by Natans

[Argent]

I was under the impression that "surge" is Roshar's rough equivalent to "natural force," only theirs are... less refined. So while we have unified, for example, electricity and magnetism into a single force (cleverly named electro-magnetism), for them those would still be two individual surges. (Do we know all of the surges, by the way?)

 

And as long as you are taking questions, I am curious whether Brandon will answer "How many parties were involved in the Oathpact?"

Edited October 7, 2013 by Argent

[Robot Aztec]

Yo Can you ask who would win in a fight, Rand or Rashek. They are like Evil Twins so it would be a cool mirror match.

Oh and can you ask what is up with that heat feruchemy thing being a emotion metal that makes no sense.

[WeiryWriter]

Yo Can you ask who would win in a fight, Rand or Rashek. They are like Evil Twins so it would be a cool mirror match. Oh and can you ask what is up with that heat feruchemy thing being a emotion metal that makes no sense.

 

I believe Brandon is usually pretty hesitant about answering "How would win in a fight" questions since there are so many contributing factors.

 

Also Feruchemy abilities don't follow the same organization as Allomantic abilities.  Feruchemy is broken up realmatically, so while Allomantic brass is a mental metal, Feruchemical brass is a Cognitive metal.  Kurkistan has a theory explaining this. (Basically Brandon made a mistake, he had swapped brass' and electrum's abilities)

[Robot Aztec]

Heat is all in the Mind??

What Maybe I dont get this books at all but i am confused um sry about asking vs question.

Did Someone already ask about how when saze was fighting irponeyes he heard a voice telling him to use rings? Who was the voice?

[Gaelan]

Was Dalinar's petition to the Nightwatcher related to his sons?

 

Is Elhokar actually seeing Cryptics?

 

By what way can people see/describe unknown things when they are about going to die?

 

I wonder no one has asked any of those questios.

[Cheese Ninja]

Could you get a Roshar date for some event between when Kaladin becomes the Bridge 4 leader and the end of the book? 

 

Or even just the range of months that period covers (3 at most, probably just 1 and a half).   I want to know how they match up with epigraph dates.  If he does answer, and uses a Roshar date, take careful note because a lot of them sound very similar.  Ideally he'd be able to give a month-week-day date.  Way of Kings should be almost entirely in 1173, not counting prologues, preludes, and flashbacks.

I'm think you'll get a lot of RAFOs from those listed questions (1,3-5).  It looks like 3 is based on that "His punishment declared that they didn’t." line from the prologue.  That seems a bit too major and vital to Szeth's backstory to be given away.  2 is odd, in that you've interpreted the usage of Szeth's grandfather's name to be endorsement, which isn't something I've seen before, but I can see your reasoning, even if I don't necessarily agree with it.  After being called Szeth-son-Neturo:

“Do not call me by my father’s name,” Szeth said. “He should not be sullied by association with me.”

Does that mean his grandfather's name can be freely sullied, or is it just a matter of needing something to call him by besides simply "Szeth"?

 

6 looks like a question he might answer with a simple yes, and 7 with either a yes/no, or a very brief comment about there having been Truthless in the past, but it being a rare thing, and their situations were different from Szeth's.

 

I had to look up who the Vanrial were, but 8 does seem like a pretty good question.

Edited October 7, 2013 by Cheese Ninja

[WeiryWriter]

Could you ask about the Steelheart novelette that is supposed to be coming out sometime this year?

[Kurkistan]

Heat is all in the Mind?? What Maybe I dont get this books at all but i am confused um sry about asking vs question. Did Someone already ask about how when saze was fighting irponeyes he heard a voice telling him to use rings? Who was the voice?

 

Cognitive is not the same thing as mental. Realmatics and all. It gets complicated... 

 

I'd always assumed it was just him talking to himself, but I can't recall a question on Saze's fight.

 

Was Dalinar's petition to the Nightwatcher related to his sons?

 

Is Elhokar actually seeing Cryptics?

 

By what way can people see/describe unknown things when they are about going to die?

 

I wonder no one has asked any of those questios.

 

As to El: almost certainly.

 

We'll almost certainly get the death rattles RAFO'd (actually, I think it already has been. Can't recall for sure, though).

[Natans]

I was under the impression that "surge" is Roshar's rough equivalent to "natural force," only theirs are... less refined. So while we have unified, for example, electricity and magnetism into a single force (cleverly named electro-magnetism), for them those would still be two individual surges. (Do we know all of the surges, by the way?)

 

And as long as you are taking questions, I am curious whether Brandon will answer "How many parties were involved in the Oathpact?"

 

I agree, but in one interview he said this:

 

 

NADINE
Will The Way of Kings series be based on one of the worlds and magic systems you have already
created or are you inventing a totally new one for this series?

BRANDON SANDERSON
It will be new. There are going to be a lot of different types of magic in the world (I see there's a question below asking about that, so I'll answer more there.) But there will be two main magic systems for the first book. The first will deal with the manipulation of fundamental forces. (Gravity, Strong/weak atomic forces, Electromagnetic force, that sort of thing.) The second will be a transformation based magic system, whereby people can transform objects into one of the world's ten elements.
 

 

 

 

Gravity is already confirmed was a surge, so would be possible that the other two are surges too, and with this data would be more easy especulate what the orders and surges are and do.

 

The eletromagnetism, for example, fit with the skybreakers order.=)

Edited October 7, 2013 by Natans

[Robot Aztec]

 

/>Cognitive is not the same thing as mental. Realmatics and all. It gets complicated... 

 

I'd always assumed it was just him talking to himself, but I can't recall a question on Saze's fight.

I Thought it was Ruiin but why would he tell saze how to win it really doesnt make much sense then I heard kelsier talked to people so I thought maybe it was him but if you know it was saze then that is a bad question too.

Um I am having trouble finnding a good question then um awakeners can control things that have no breath right so can they take someone with no breath and give them a breath and tell them quit smoking or give me all your money? Because We see people giving breath to other people but its always just give the breath with no orders or things and then vash tells that girl to forget and she does so maybe you can just tell people to do things when you give them breath and theyll do it.

[Argent]

The Command to make someone forget is actually something only Vasher (and maaaybe a few other people) know. It's not an easy thing. Also, commanding living things, even of they are Darb, is nearly impossible, if not completely impossible. Breath - or BioChroma - is not the only factor that determines how a person behaves.

[Robot Aztec]

 

/>The Command to make someone forget is actually something only Vasher (and maaaybe a few other people) know. It's not an easy thing. Also, commanding living things, even of they are Darb, is nearly impossible, if not completely impossible. Breath - or BioChroma - is not the only factor that determines how a person behaves.

 

Well not like you make theyre body a lifeless while they are still alive or something make them just like stop smoking not total control but like soothers.

But Man looking at my treehouse I do have maybe a better question because I have these big spikes in a tree and can you do hemalurgy on a tree because that would make sense for an accident like hammer a nail into a tree and accidentally into your hand or something. Trees Are alive right so it makes sense and you would not have to be all messy with it but where would the bindpoints on a tree be.

[+eojsmada]

Could you ask if he still is hoping for that Cosmere-based Novella to be out before the end of the year...."Sixth of the Dusk" ??

[Kurkistan]

Here's his latest update:
 
Source:

Miyabi: How and when are you planning on releasing Sixth of the Dusk, the cosmere short story you wrote for Writing Excuses?

Brandon: Once the entire Writing Excuses team have finished their stories-- If you’re not familiar we did this thing were each brainstormed a story on air and then we went and wrote them and now we are doing revisions on them. Well, Mary went and I wrote ours, Dan and Howard didn’t write theirs, but they’re catching up. Once they are all done, we will release them together in an anthology. We will do, the workshopping episodes that we did, we workshopped each others stories, and you’ll be able to on Writing Excuses read the rough draft, because that will be included in the anthology, listen to the episode where we workshop it and then read the final draft, which will be in the anthology and get the whole-- see what we changed and things like that.

Edited October 7, 2013 by Kurkistan

[hoser]

I just got the tickets for the Seattle signing.

Here's what I've got for questions and feedback.  Feedback follows the questions, with my thoughts in parentheses.  My bias will be to ask questions that will advance our knowledge of Roshar primarily and the Cosmere secondarily.  If we can word questions in a way to get a useful partial answer, that seems preferable to a straight RAFO.  I am still collecting feedback and suggestions. 

1. If Szeth put down his sword and someone else picked it up, would Szeth still have his windrunner powers? RAFO-bait
2. Is Szeth's grandfather part of a resistance to Stone Shamanism? RAFO-bait or useless
3. Do Stone Shamans deny the existence of Voidbringers? Good question, RAFO-bait
4. After the Recreance, did the Radiants rejoin Alethi society? RAFO-bait
5. Is Urithiru still intact as of the end of tWoK? Good question, RAFO-bait
6. Did any of the other orders abandon their weapons at the time of the Recreance in addition to the Stonewards and Windrunners? Closed question
7. Is Szeth the first Truthless? Good question, Closed question
8. Are the Vanrial community lighteyed?  Are they descended from Radiants? Good question
9. Is the Tranquilline Halls a planet in the physical realm?  Can Steelhunt codes be found there? RAFO-bait
10. Do Surgebinders have gemhearts within their bodies naturally?
11. How, exactly, does Hemalurgic decay work for Feruchemy?
12. Do Inquisitors either have a cap on how much they can store at a time, store inefficiently or retrieve less efficiently than real Feruchemists?
13. Why does Feruchemical Gold sometimes leave scars and sometimes not?  (Wouldn't this just be based on how the object sees or wants to see itself?)
14. Which order is called the Skybreakers?
15. Are the Brightcallers a Radiant order?
16. Are the Worldsingers a Radiant order?
17. Is eletromagnetic, strong or weak forces surges?
18. How many parties were involved in the Oathpact?
19. Who would win in a fight, Rand or Rashek? Not likely to get interesting answer.
20. What is up with that heat feruchemy thing being a emotion metal? (Isn't this just a canonical weirdness?  What do we learn by asking this?)
21. Who was the voice that Sazed heard telling him to use rings when he was fighting ironeyes? (Kelsier's spirit from the cognitive realm, right?)

22. Was Dalinar's petition to the Nightwatcher related to his sons?

23. Is Elhokar actually seeing Cryptics? Yes

24. How can people see/describe unknown things when they are about going to die? RAFO-bait

25. What is a Roshar date for some event between when Kaladin becomes the Bridge 4 leader and the end of the book? How long does that period cover? (PAFO?)

26. When is the Steelheart novelette coming out? (Firefight is listed as 20% done on the website, wouldn't that mean that he has about a week to go?)

27. Can awakeners effectively command drabs in conjunction with providing a breath? Only expert awakeners. 

28. Can you do hemalurgy on a tree? Where would the bindpoints on a tree be?

29. Will "Sixth of the Dusk" be out before the end of the year?

[Argent]

I still don't understand the rationale behind asking whether Surgebinders have gemhearts. Surgebinders are human, somebody would've noticed if people here and there throughout the ages end up having a giant gemstone for heart...

 

Sixth of Dusk will be out when it's out is probably what you'll get. I haven't listened to Writing Excuses in a while (I am a couple of seasons behind...), but I understand it's up to Howard and... Dan? Mary? 

[WeiryWriter]

20 - I posted about this earlier in the thread, its a quirk of feruchemy being realmatically based.  We won't get anything from asking it.

 

29 - The current status of Sixth of the Dusk is discussed in the Miyabi interview.  Basically Dan and Howard are taking longer than expected to finish their stories.

[Isomere]

A few more possible questions:

Did Tanavast survive after Honor was splintered? (Likely RAFO)

Do all the spren we see in WOK have investiture? Are there spren without investiture? Do all spren linked to KR Orders have investiture from both Cultivation and Honor? (he has been more generous with spren questions recently, may get something)

Do splinters on Sel take the shape of Aons because local people associate the Aons with fundamental forces? /i.e. are cognitive forms involved in what a splinter looks like? Was the investiture that formed a Seon associated with the same Aon before the splintering?

Was odium one of the three who ruled before the broken one started his reign? (RAFO-bait)

[Unknowingly]

if you want anymore questions that people on here have not mentioned or if you want more questions, go to the Ultimate List of Questions page