Seattle signing report out 10/14/13

[Mailliw73]

So as to not hijack this thread further, I have created this thread to continue the discussion.

[Fifth]

Stonewardens are fighters/warriors. I see Dalinar as the next Nohadon. Nohadon was not a warrior.  Dalinar is not a warrior anymore. He gave away his shards. His role is now to guide. The faster he is getting into his new role, the faster he will "ascend" to KR level.

If he were a stonewarden, he would have found their immortal words when fighting the chasmfiend or when fighting on the Tower. Those were pretty good opportunities (especially the tower - "I will help my soldiers that depend on me" - POW - awesomeness - WHACK!)

Now, I think he'll find the words when confronted with a more ... political ... crisis. (e.g.: "I will guide KRs and reform them, even though everyone thinks KRs are evil and they will wanna kill me" - POW - awesomeness!)

 

Later edit: if he were stonewarden - dependable/resourceful - I'm sure he would have "snapped" when he decided not to leave the soldiers in the tower (dependable) even though he and Adolin could have jumped away).

 

just with regard to stonewards being Fighters/warriors....I have to disagree EVERY order of KR is going to be a god on the battlefield worth 10 shard-bearers even a seemingly useless surge ...say healing would augment those around you to a VERY potent force...think 50 elite troops that need to be decapitated in order to die...and know it!  

[marianmi]

I see windrunners as the "cavalry" (maybe skybreakers too), making a good use of their mobility...

Medics as on-the-field support. Soulcasters also for support, but not in the first lines as the medics. And stonewarders + dustbringers as the heavy infantry/blunt force. 

[The Count]

I always assumed that, whatever order, Dalinar had not attracted a spren yet because of him carrying a shardblade.

 

We know that Kaladin's rejection was a significant factor is Syl's attraction to him. We have also seen her reaction to Dalinar's shardblade.

 

I suspect that when Dalinar feels sick on the battlefield, it is a similar feeling to the revulsion Kaladin felt when he had the chance to take one and from a similar source.

 

I think if he had not carried a shardlade he could have attracted either a Stonward or a Bondsmith spren as he displays attributes of both orders.

 

I Still think the question is slighthly up in the air, but I would also tend towards Bondsmith for our favourite highprince.

 

Pious from his acceptance of the visions and his choice to follow what they say.

Guiding from his promotion of the codes (and Nohadon's book) and his need to set an example to the other Alethi.

[marianmi]

Hmmm... Shallan carries a blade and attracted a spren, though it's true she is not using it actively

[The Count]

Hmmm... Shallan carries a blade and attracted a spren, though it's true she is not using it actively

 

That is an extremely good point... have a +1.

 

Really knocks my theory completely out of the water...

[Scott]

That is an extremely good point... have a +1.

 

Really knocks my theory completely out of the water...

 

It doesn't have to.  Maybe only Honorspren don't like Shardblades?  I'd eat my hat if Dalinar became a radiant and his spren was a cultivationspren.  We don't have enough evidence either way, and I like your theory

 

e: I don't have a hat, so I'd buy a hat and THEN eat it

Edited October 25, 2013 by Scott

[Gloom]

Lets just say that not all spren are as discerning as Honorspren.

[Haxors]

Hey guys, do we know which order Taln is?

[Shardlet]

Hey guys, do we know which order Taln is?

 

He appears to be associated with the Stonewardens (i.e., top left on the endsheet KR table).

[Grimm]

In Dalinar's vision where the two Radiants appear, one of them, the women with amber glowing armor (Stonewarden?), uses a glowing gemstone to repair the wounds of the wife. If she is a Stonewarden though, I wonder how she could heal with that stormlight infused gem? Would be cool if all orders could carry around healing stones charged by Edgedancers or the Illumination/Growth order. Or maybe something else is going on. OR, maybe the orders have similar colours, but I doubt that.

[Shardlet]

It is largely believed that she had a fabrial which stored and enabled the use of regrowth.

Edited December 25, 2013 by Shardlet

[Shardlet]

These are not new WoB.  I just originally posted them in the wrong thread.  It has only taken me 5 months to get around to fixing my mistake.  I originally posted these in the Questions thread.

 

Q: Is Szeth’s sword noticeably smaller than other shardblades?

 

A: Yes

 

Q: Is Hoid in Shadows for Silence?

 

A: He is not.  I intentionally didn’t put him in…I wanted to indicate that he goes where there is an important reason for him to be there rather than just being a cameo in every story.

 

A: (From a question from Wetlander’s during discussion of Karaokeang’s surgebinding chart) I’m pretty sure the Herald faces all match up to their respective orders

 

Me: (speaking of the travel surge which Brandon referred to as transportation when looking at Karaokeang’s chart) It’s properly transportation rather than travel?

 

A: Yyyes, that’s the general thing.  This is the one that involves Shadesmar.

 

Q: Are there going to be other characters other than Hoid that will be crossing over between books?

 

A: Yes, in fact there are characters in the way of kings…(essentially mentions the known Ishikk worldhoppers).  I told people that there is a Terriswoman in Warbreaker somewhere, I believe that would be somewhat hard to spot.  That one, I don’t think you will be able to pick out until you see her later on and then go back and say ‘wait a minute’. 

 

Great magic unleashed here. (Written on someone’s Roshar map with an arrow pointing to the Shattered Plains)

 

Q: The change in how the magic (on Scadrial) interact with each other, was that done by Sazed?

 

A: Yes it was.  You will find a theme.  The snapping in Mistborn is actually a repeated theme through a lot of the different magics.  Um, but what I felt at the end of the day Sazed would do something about it.  So, even though that is part of the magic system, he changed that.  The change to feruchemy is more a matter of other factors such as the large amount of inbreeding [interbreeding?] that happened following…and things like that.  And so a lot of people with feruchemy sDNA mixing with people with people with allomantic sDNA has affected the way the magics blend, so to speak.  That‘s not done by Sazed.  That’s just kind of an effect.

 

Q: So there are two other planets in the Roshar system, are they the Tranquiline Halls and Damnation that you mentioned in TWoK?

 

A: (after consideration) There has been in the past knowledge of other planets in the system and that has indeed influenced the mythology of the world.

 

Q: As far as I can tell, in SA, we have seen three different lights: the stormlight, the amberlight in the flashbacks, and the dark light in the stone.  Do those correspond to the three Shards?

 

A: No, the amberlight is more a function of...it’s no different than the stormlight.

 

Q: So, you see that in a storm?  Like when gems gather that in the storm?

 

A: That amberlight is more related to…so, no…you are not seeing something other than stormlight.  That is like saying that stormlight in a topaz is a different color than stormlight in a sapphire.  It’s not different colors; you’re just seeing it filtered through something. The dark light of the, um, the gemstone that Szeth was given is indeed something different and distinct.

 

Q: Voooiidlight?

 

A: Yes, it is related to a different shard.  How about that?  (clearly not a confirmation of “voidlight”)

 

Q: If you have a series of inquisitors, like a family of inquisitors having children for generations over…

 

A: Would the hemalurgy influence the sDNA of the children?  Is that what you are asking? That is a hypothesis that has merit in the way the magic system works (grin).  It is not a supposition to be discarded out of hand.

 

Q: Do you have in your mind all, like, 150 different metallic effects?

 

A: Yes, but I haven’t named them yet.  I approached that and thought, “This is just mindnumbing”.  So, yes; one of the things I’d like to be doing and you may see more of this…each combination has a slightly different effect than what you’d anticipate.

 

Q: Do you plan on having, like, a final book for the cosmere?  Like, the Shards are gone; Hoid is the king of the universe?

 

A: There will be an ending to the cosmere sequence that will involve a lot of these things going on.

 

Q: Will AoL be a trilogy of its own or is it just going to be the one book you read from tonight? [speaking of SoS reading]

 

A:  Well, the 1^st one was AoL, the one I read from tonight is the sequel, so there’s at least two.  I signed a contract with, well, I haven’t signed anything yet.  I offered Tor two more beyond AoL; so, SoS and one more.  So, I have promised Tor three of them.

 

Q: So, there could be more?

 

A: I have not plotted this one.  It does not have the same sort of interconnected arc as the others.  It could go further.  I think I would cautiously most likely do three or four and stop and if I wanted more short books like that, I’d pick different characters in a different location.

 

Q: Was the book Wax reading written by the guy who gave it to him?

 

A: No, it was not.

 

Me: Spook?  Sounds like Spooks voice.

 

A: (smiling) It certainly doesn't sound like Marsh.

 

Q: (Something about what advice Hawkwing gave to someone)

 

A: Everyone expects Hawkwing to, like, take Tuon to task (regarding the Aes Sedai).  But, people forget that he didn’t care much for the Aes Sedai himself, and he also conquered the world and is sort of a tyrant, but a great tyrant, along the lines of some of the great conquerors of our world.  Um, I think he would be fairly proud of Tuon, all things considered, and his advice would be more like, how to seize her country back, and things like this.  People expect him to be like, “Arthur Hawkwing is going tell her to let the Aes Sedai go and stop (muttered) slavery.  I think he would be like, “This is awesome! You’ve got captive Aes Sedai?”

 

Q: I’ve heard that approach challenged by, because when he was so anti-Aes Sedai was because he was being influence by Ishamael.

 

A: He was.  He was.  He was.  There is definitely that.  But, remember, he is part King Arthur, noble, and part Alexander the Great, conqueror and destroyer of those who opposed him.  And so, keep in mind that this guy has both of those sides to him.  And, even not influenced by Ishamael, being offered captive Aes Sedai who will do anything he says, this is not something that I think any ruler in the history of our world would have turned down or at least not considered strongly. 

 

Q: Is Hoid any of the Shards of Adonalsium?

 

A: Good question.  He does not hold a shard.

 

Q: Anything close to…Is he a worldsinger?

 

A: He has a relationship with the worldsingers.

He came so close to asking a great follow-up question: Was Hoid ever a Shard?  But, alas, no, it did not happen.

 

Q: What was the inspiration for the necromancer pizza delivery story?

 

A: Death by Pizza.  I came up with laws of necromancy that I thought would be super cool and I tried to find a book that would fit it.  And, that book was fun, but bad.  The rules were that necromancy is someone that has been killed and returned to life and each time they return they are more powerful.  So a guy who has died five times and got more powerful throughout the course of a novel is a cool archetype that I thought would be a fun thing.  So, it’s like at the end of the novel, “I need more power, so do I die and get it? Or, not” and things like this.  It was a cool concept and even with a mashup with an urban fantasy world, the world was not built enough so that in the end it was like he was running around an empty city not one populated with as much mythology and wonder and storybook as I wanted an so I eventually said it isn’t working and maybe I’ll pick it up again another time.

 

hoser: Are you willing to tell me anything about the history of the Vanrial community at this time?

 

A: What specifically did you want to know?

 

hoser: Well, is their eye color lighter than the typical Alethi peasant?

 

A: (after a long pause) I think I’ll just stay away from this for now.

 

hoser: Can you tell me something about the Larkin and their abilities?

 

A: You will see something about them in the second book.  Their abilities are tied to stormlight.

 

hoser: (speaking of the division surge) Is that a reframing of, at one point in time you were talking about weak/strong forces?

 

A: Um, weak/strong forces, yes, that’s the one that sent me there partially.  Like, I’m not actually… the idea of the fundamental forces is a cool thing to me so it’s not like I’m actually trying to use the weak and strong forces, the idea of there being fundamental forces.  I wanted to go off on it in a fancy way.  Like this one right here I told them was surface tension.  But it’s not really surface tension.  It’s more like um, the people with this could take a piece of cloth and snap it out and it would become hard as if the cloth became steel.  I’m trying to explain this scientifically, but it doesn’t work scientifically.  Imagine as if they could restructure the atoms so that they became a latticework like a crystal rather than being soft like…cloth.  I’m calling it surface tension, but it’s not really surface tension.

 

hoser: Tensile strength?

 

A: (hedging) It’s kind of like tensile strength.  I have to go through Peter and say “Alright Peter, come up with what we should really call this.” He does the hard science a lot better than I do.  I do the armchair theories and then he goes, “Ok, now this is the math if someone were to actually fall off of this and 0.7 gravity and the weight of the bridge…”.  (looking back at the chart) So what can I give you that I didn’t give her? Um, one of the orders is called Bondsmiths.

 

Wetlander: Did the splintering happen before the Recreance?

 

A: I will reveal this as we go.  However, be aware that in the past, when a Shard was killed, the person holding it, it is a slow burn to actually kill someone; because power cannot be destroyed.  So, what it means to be killed means something a little different in these cases.

 

Hoser: did Tanavast survive Honor’s splintering?

 

A: Tanavast is dead.  Good question.  However, that is as of the start of the WoK (i.e., not including the prelude at least).

 

Hoser: So he could have survived the splintering…

 

A: He could have survived the splintering.

 

Hoser: …as a mortal…

 

A: Well, he could have survived for a time, but then he could not have then…right.

 

Hoser: …passed away in his sleep…

 

A: Right. (Indicating that Tanavast would not have passed away from old age)

 

Wetlander: Was Odium able to splinter Honor because the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact?

 

A: Good question. Um, their abandonment of the Oathpact is related…but mostly tangentially.  If I was pinned down on that, I would say no. 

 

Wetlander: Is there any of the Oathpact still functioning because e of Taln continued participation.

 

A: Yes, indeed.

 

Wetlander: Is the Palanaeum named for Palah?

 

A: Yes.  In fact, it was named based on…it was Greek in our world…the Athenaeum?  It was based off of that.

 

Wetlander: Did we see Palah?

 

A: I believe every one of the Heralds is mentioned or shown somewhere in the first book.

 

Wetlander: Someone was wondering whether the old woman who was wandering around the Palanaeum was her.

 

A: That is a very good guess.  I won’t say specifically, because some of them are intended to be more obvious and some of them are intended to be red herrings.  So, that was a very good guess.

 

Wetlander: Please explain what you will about shards and splintering and slivers.

 

A: An event happened long ago which destroyed something called Adonalsium into 16 pieces.  And 16 people took up that power.

 

Q: People?

 

A: I call all intelligent species people.   If someone takes up the power and lets go of it, it has the effect much like a balloon that’s been stretched and then the air is let out.  I call that a sliver; based off of TLR calling himself the Sliver of Infinity.  TLR is someone who held the power and then released it.  And so, current slivers are TLR, Kelsier, and there may be others around who at one point held the power and let go of it.  A splinter is a term used by certain people in the cosmere for power of Adonalsium which has no person caring for it, no…no person holding it, which has attained self-awareness.

 

Wetlander: So is that like the mists and the Well?  Are they…

 

A: They are not, because they have not attained self-awareness.  But, the Seons are self-aware.  So, any piece, for instance there were some spren on Roshar before Honor and Cultivation got there.  Those were already splinters of Adonalsium where he had left power which attained sentience on its own.  So, it can be intentional is what I am saying, does that make sense?  You have seen other splinters.

 

Wetlander: Are the highstorms related to the splintering of Honor? (Brandon spoke over the word Honor in starting his response)

 

A: The highstorms are more related to the mist from Mistborn which terminology we have not discussed yet. (also affirmed the well as being similar).  You have seen splinters quite a bit on various planets.

 

Edited February 19, 2014 by Shardlet