(Group) AMA w/ Brandon and Others on Dec 3

[Argent]

The magnificent human being that is Patrick Rothfuss (who, as you might know, is running the glorious fundraiser Worldbuilders right now) is organizing AMAs on Reddit with a plethora of authors. You can find them all under the AMA Worldbuilders flair in /r/fantasy, and they are all worth reading, but the (most) important takeaway here is that Brandon will be joining a few other authors (Dana Cameron, Megan O'Keefe, Wes Chu, Peter Orullian, and Joe Ducie) tomorrow, December 3. I am going to try to sneak in a Cosmere questions if I can do so in a graceful way that doesn't insult the other authors - technically, the AMA only recommends that we ask broad questions addressed to all of the authors, it doesn't prohibit us from bugging Brandon about stuff. But I would feel better if we could do the best of both worlds.

 

For your (other) reference, here's the full list of authors and the dates they are answering questions.

[Blaze1616]

The simple method would be to ask author-specific questions of each of the others. Have one question per author in your post. This of course assumes you're familiar with the works of the other authors.

[Moogle]

The AMA does mention it's fine to ask questions of a single author, and from a quick glance through the AMA today it seems plenty of people did. I'll likely ask the following tomorrow, shameless horrible person that I am:

 

For Mr. Sanderson:

Compounding requires practice, according to The Hero of Age's annotations. And yet, it's apparently as easy as burning a metalmind. What was going on that meant the Inquisitors couldn't figure out how to do it (despite Ruin knowing how and undoubtedly wanting them to learn) for over a year? What skill are they practicing doing, exactly?

And what happened while they were practicing burning metalminds without successfully Compounding? Did they get an Allomantic effect?

 

Thanks!

[Yata]

If I am not wrong. They just open the new day thread of AMA

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/

Edited December 3, 2015 by Yata

[Argent]

I am going to go ask about that Aon Ela.

[Moogle]

Brandon has begun answering questions!

 

I'm too lazy to start quoting them, but you can see all the answers here: https://www.reddit.com/user/mistborn

[Argent]

Of immense relevance:

 

Q: If you were writing a character in a novel to be more outlandish than Donald Trump, do you think anyone would find them compelling?

Brandon Sanderson: Ha! Man, if Trump were in a book, I think everyone would assume he HAS to be working secretly for the other side. There's no way anyone would buy that character without there being a gimmick. If he didn't turn out to be an alien, or secret agent sent from the future to sabotage the election, or something like that, everyone would be disappointed.

---

Peter Orullian: Are you suggesting Trump isn't a fictional character?

 

Source

[SmurfAquamarineBodies]

Just asked a question now to resist urge to refresh page every 5 mins to see if he has answered.

[Argent]

Just asked a question now to resist urge to refresh page every 5 mins to see if he has answered.

 

I glanced over all of his replies and it looks like the vast majority of them are to general questions - whether that's because that's the ones he prefers to target, or because the vast majority of all questions are general ones, I don't know. There are definitely more specific questions addressed to Brandon than to the other authors, which makes me a little bit guilty =\

[SmurfAquamarineBodies]

I glanced over all of his replies and it looks like the vast majority of them are to general questions - whether that's because that's the ones he prefers to target, or because the vast majority of all questions are general ones, I don't know. There are definitely more specific questions addressed to Brandon than to the other authors, which makes me a little bit guilty =\

 

He has answered some questions about the Cosmere so I live in hope.

 

Have you read any of the other authors? Are they any good?

[Kurkistan]

I'll note that Brandon's specifically asked that the questions be of the "broad, general-interest" variety, in what was likely a not-so-subtle suggestion to us to back off on the cosmere stuff a bit.

[Argent]

I personally haven't read any of the ones in today's AMA, but I've heard I lot of good things about both Wesley Chu and Peter Orullian (and I haven't even heard the others). From the other days, I've read Jim C Hines, Brian McClellan, Scott Lynch, Mark Lawrence, Robert J Bennett, and Django Wexler, and would recommend any of them, with a disclaimer that Mark Lawrence is grimdark and Scott Lynch has a few torture scenes. Max Gladstone, Elizabeth Bear, and Myke Cole are the ones I haven't read, but have heard praised. 

[Yata]

Unlikely Brandon skip my question
Anyway he answered to quite interesting ones, therefore we had some new Information.

 

EDIT: He aswered WoB about the 10 essences and 10 Shardworld

 

Q: Are the Ten Essence related to the Ten Shardworld's Form-of-Investiture ?

A: They are not as related as philosophers from ancient days, who created those tables, thought that they were.

Edited December 4, 2015 by Yata

[Argent]

Here's my contribution:

 

 

Q: the updated Elantris map (from the anniversary edition) includes a city map, and the interior of Elantris looks awfully like Aon Ela. Was it indeed designed so the streets for Ela, and if so - does this merely augment/support the giant Aon Reo, or does it have a separate effect?

A: This was designed this way! It is separate from the shape of the city itself.

Q: But does it have an actual effect, or is it just aesthetic?

A: It doesn't have an effect at the moment. It might once have.

Q: I figured if nothing else the chasm line would be missing...

 

Source

[The Rooster]

I brought up a question about GreatShell Senescence a while back and if they do achieve senescence and what that does.  Also if them not reaching that state is why hunting them will cause ramifications.  I've never see anyone ask him about this.

[Pechvarry]

I shouldn't get too far into Cosmere stuff in this forum, but I found this really interesting:

 

 

[–]danimalod

23 hours ago

 

Brandon,

I just read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell and loved it. How did the first shade come to be? Are there shades in other worlds? Do shades have bones?

Thanks!

[–]mistborn/r/Fantasy Best of 2014 Winner, AMA Author Brandon Sanderson 5 points

11 hours ago  

Shades are what we call "Cognitive shadows" in the cosmere. They're basically "spren" or "Aons" created from human souls. (Where investiture--or magical power--keeps a consciousness alive after it has lost its Physical connection.) Yes, shades all once had bodies.

Think of them like petrified souls, where instead of stone replacing the tissue of a corpse, magical power replaced the parts of a soul that connect that soul to the three realms.

[–]danimalod 2 points

10 hours ago  

Cool, thanks. I also just finished Shadows of Self and was thinking about what would happen if a kandra tried to eat a shade. If they don't have bones, it probably can't happen I guess. But maybe a shade that was a kandra could be pretty frightening.

[–]mistborn/r/Fantasy Best of 2014 Winner, AMA Author Brandon Sanderson 5 points

7 hours ago  

Yes, a Kandra couldn't eat a Shade. And how scary the shade kandra would be depends entirely on the kandra, I'd figure...

 

2 things I found interesting about this.

a) Aons put in the same category as Spren, as opposed to Seons.

That the kandra's personality could affect the shade.  This feels like a really big hint about how shades work, but I'm too dense to figure it out.

Edited December 4, 2015 by Pechvarry

[Kurkistan]

a) Aons put in the same category as Spren, as opposed to Seons.

 

I would bet money on this being a mistype on Brandon's part.

[Argent]

Oooh, nice! 

 

Regarding the bundling of spren and Aons, Brandon has said in the past that the Aons in the centre of Seons are very similar to spren, they are both splinters. I think it's those Aons he is referring to there.

 

And there is definitely an implication that the person the Shade becomes a cognitive shadow of influences the... character of the Shade. I wonder they all seem so bloodthirsty now.

[Yata]

Argent he also (in a past WoB) called the Radiant Spren as "living surge" probably in the same way that Seon is "living Aon".
During the AMA I ask him if he Mistype "Aons" instead of "Seons" but without any answer

[Comatose]

Interesting he describes them as cognitive shadows, since that is the same language he uses to describe the Mist Spirit.  

[WeiryWriter]

Interesting he describes them as cognitive shadows, since that is the same language he uses to describe the Mist Spirit.

Actually when I asked about that in the last ama he said that the mist spirit is /not/ a cognitive shadow.

[Yata]

Yeah The Mist Spirit was "just" Leras or at least that Tiny piece of sentience that remain to him.

Also because the Mist Spirit "died" when Leras diead while a Cognitive Shadow would survive his own "original one".

[Argent]

For completion's sake, I am putting together a list of all of Brandon's answers that are relevant (and new) to his worlds. I'll come back a little later and replace the links with actual quotes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxmsas1?context=10000

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Q: Are the Ten Essence related to the Ten Shardworld's Form-of-Investiture?
A: They are not as related as philosophers from ancient days, who created those tables, thought that they were.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxmsfba?context=10000

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Q: Quick question on genetics and investiture on Scadrial. Is it weird that Wax would have a different allomantical power than his predecessors, or does it only matter that you have the ability in the first place, and then it takes different forms generation to generation?
A: Great question! I don't think anyone has asked it.
It is the second of your two theories. The power manifests differently in different people; specific powers are not hereditary.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxnga0u?context=10000

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Q: In Chapter 19 of The Way of Kings, when Dalinar has a vision of fighting Voidbringers (maybe something else?) as a farmer, he says that he felt the Thrill in the vision. Does this mean that Nergaoul was active there, at the time that vision was "recorded" or was it Dalinar's viewing of the vision that was affected by the Thrill? Would the actual person whose perspective he was seeing have felt the Thrill if he had fought?
A: This is a great question, and one I've never been asked before. The answer is going to be a little vague.
First, Dalinar could have felt the Thrill from Nergaoul, and imported it into the vision.
Second, Nergaoul could have been active then, and the farmer could have felt it when he fought.
So both theories are valid. Which is it? I am going to hang back from answering this for now, as I am digging more into the Unmade in a future book.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxngrwp?context=10000

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Q: In a way I felt that The Emp's Soul was a bit post-singularity - in the sense that humans were capable of downloading new identities and histories. I know you've planned on doing FTL cosmere work, but have you any interest in doing post-singularity cosmere work? I'd be fascinated to see 'multiple-consciousness beings' using breath or soul stamps. Seeing human development push the boundaries of the shards would be quite intense, and I'm tickled pink at the notion of humans bamboozling the rules of shardistic investiture - how far can spiritual or cognitive identity stretch?
tl;dr - do you have any plans to bring post-singularity stories to the cosmere?
A: I have plans for some of this, but the main-line cosmere stories I'm planning seem to adapt better to grand space opera than true post-singularity stories. That said, I've certainly got some short story ideas that will play with this. (And you'll see more hints like this even in the mainline books that I think you'll like.)
Q: Have we seen any soul-stamped objects in any of the non-Sel books?
A: For you to have seen this, someone would have to have cracked the issue with Sel magics losing power greatly when taken from the planet.
Q: Is this a feasible task for someone like Shai or Hoid? We know the Moon Sceptre is a rosetta stone, so the task seems less daunting, right?
A: The task is less daunting for certain. I don't want to say more, however, as I think the clues are there about Sel's magic, and I want to avoid saying too much.
A: So, here's the thing. The problem with magic on Sel is not one people are looking at the right way. And I'm really loathe to dig into it more, because I won't be able to write the books set on the world for a few more years yet.
Already, great moments in upcoming books aren't going to be as powerful to the hardcore fans, as they'll know the answers already.
But your theory, while very cool, wouldn't work--and stems from you attacking the problem in the wrong way.

https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/3vckjv/cosmere_spoilers_scadrial_shardblades/cxnjgcv?context=10000

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Q: I was thinking about how Shardblades are essentially invested swords. Now, the investiture' source does not necessarily have to come from Roshar, as we have seen with Nighblood, which is a sword invested with Endowment's investiture.
So I was wondering if, say, a feruchemist decided store a LOT of investiture into a large block of nicrosil and fashioned a sword out of it, or at least made part of the blade out of it, would this essentially act as a Shardblade?
A: RAFO! (Did you expect anything different on this one?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxnjssn?context=10000

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Q: I just read Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell and loved it. How did the first shade come to be? Are there shades in other worlds? Do shades have bones?
A: Shades are what we call "Cognitive shadows" in the cosmere. They're basically "spren" or ["Seons"] created from human souls. (Where investiture--or magical power--keeps a consciousness alive after it has lost its Physical connection.) Yes, shades all once had bodies.
Think of them like petrified souls, where instead of stone replacing the tissue of a corpse, magical power replaced the parts of a soul that connect that soul to the three realms.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxnunmd?context=10000

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Q: What was Hoid up to during The Lord Ruler's ascension?
A: I might tell you some day.
Q: I've seen people saying that Alloy of Law takes place during the gap between the first five Stormlight books and the last five. Is there any chance for some crossover?
A: Yes.
Q: If a Windrunner lashed Wax upwards, could he dump all of his weight into his metalminds and be unaffected or would the lashing affect his clothes and whatever else he had on him too?
A: Wax could mitigate the effect (unless he was in a vacuum) but not eliminate it completely.
Q: Vacuum or freefall?
A: I was talking about a Vacuum, but it's good to clarify. What I'm saying is that without wind resistance, his mass doesn't matter--and the books have established that what Wax does is a freakish transformation of his mass, not just his weight.
Kaladin changes how much gravity pulls on someone, and in what direction. Wax (basically, it's more complex than this) changes how much mass he has. The two, then, have some very distinctive effects.
Q: If someone used Hemalurgy to take someones feruchemical abilities would they be able to use that persons personal metalminds ? most relevantly perhaps to take that persons knowledge from their copperminds ?
A: Yes.
Q: if someone stored their identity in an aluminium metalmind, then had there powers and metalminds stolen via hemalurgy, then the person who took the powers used the aluminium metalmind to draw out the first persons identity would it permanently overwrite their personality with the original persons ? ( would kind of be a long winded way of stealing someone elses body and becoming immortal )
A: All Identity questions are a RAFO until I deal with it more in the books. (Sorry.)

If the spike granting Feruchemy were to be reforged/split into two distinct spikes which are then implanted into two different people, could those two people "share" a metalmind (as in actually be able to tap something the other stored and vice versa?).
Q: It's complicated, but no.
There would be too much of the other person mixed in. Both could use the metalminds of the person the Feruchemy was stolen from, but when they made their own, their own Identity would "muddy" the creation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxnweal?context=10000

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Q: Dumb personal-obsession question - mistwraiths are people with 'a blockage between the physical and the cognitive realms' - does that mean if they set foot on threnody they turn into actual undead-type-wraiths?
A: This is a very cool theory. I don't think I can shoot it down.
Q: Also (if this isn't too long), a friend of mine was thinking Harmony's two-power combination 'perk' was the ability to use them together to create instead of just to destroy or preserve.
Was that 'chemical reaction' rule in the plan from the beginning, or was having harmony more a precedent to develop a rule from it?
A: It was pretty early. (The idea that the two together can create was mentioned very early in the series, long before Harmony came to be.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxohl8e?context=10000

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Q: Follow up if you ever see this: is the chronology through the whole Cosmere fairly linear, or are there some Interstellar-relativity timey-wimey stuff at play?
A: Relativity is in play for sure, but I am not allowing time travel into the past in the cosmere. So while you might find places that move at slower/faster speeds, and while foreseeing future timelines is in play for sure, nobody will not be pulling serious time travel shenanigans.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxmrcfj?context=3

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Q: I also just finished Shadows of Self and was thinking about what would happen if a kandra tried to eat a shade. If they don't have bones, it probably can't happen I guess. But maybe a shade that was a kandra could be pretty frightening.
A: Yes, a Kandra couldn't eat a Shade. And how scary the shade kandra would be depends entirely on the kandra, I'd figure...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxmrbra?context=3

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Q: Would you yourself be able to wield Nightblood?
A: Anybody can wield Nightblood for a short, short time.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxmn8l8?context=3

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Q: Brandon, the updated Elantris map (from the anniversary edition) includes a city map, and the interior of Elantris looks awfully like Aon Ela. Was it indeed designed so the streets for Ela, and if so - does this merely augment/support the giant Aon Reo, or does it have a separate effect?
A: This was designed this way! It is separate from the shape of the city itself.
Q: But does it have an actual effect, or is it just aesthetic?
A: It doesn't have an effect at the moment. It might once have.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/3vaiib/no_spoilers_brandon_is_doing_an_rfantasy_ama_in/cxmn1r5?context=3

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https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxmmosx?context=3

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Q: If Miles stored a very tiny bit of health into a gold bead and then burned it, what would happen? Would he see gold shadows for a time and then obtain compounded health when reaching the charged part of the bead? Would the bead be evenly charged and deliver only health, no gold shadows, but at a very low rate since only little health was loaded in it? Would the bead be eveny charged and deliver only health, but at a standard rate the user would always get when compounding?
A: He'd hack the system to deliver health for a short time instead of doing what it was supposed to do, but only until the small portion of gold invested with his investiture ran out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxmmc6u?context=3

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Q: Thanks to all of you who do these AMAs, I love getting to know the authors of my favorite books better! For Brandon: 1)Is there any substance that reflects allomantic power? (For example, such that a coinshot could appear to be a lurcher if this substance were behind the piece of metal being pushed, or perhaps said coinshot could push things around a corner if this substance were angled properly?) 2)There seem to be several black trinkets in your books (Vin's obsidian chunk, the polished-to-a-metallic-look pendant Roadan receives as a wedding present, & the sphere Gavilar gives to Szeth) My question is...are these things related?
A: 1. Nothing like this is known right now.
2. No. Unfortunately, you've seen a coincidental connection. Several of these things are important, but for different reasons.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxm6c24?context=3

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Q: You've said before that Kelsier hung around in the Cognitive Realm after dying and continued to interfere with events going on in Scadrial - talking to Spook, using Preservation's power, etc. You've even implied that Kelsier is STILL hanging around and meddling in the Wax & Wayne era. So my question is - did he CHOOSE to stay in the Cognitive Realm instead of passing on? Or is something forcing him to stay there?
A: This will be revealed before too much longer. I've been keeping it under my hat for a long time.
Q: 2. Are we ever going to find out more about Tarah, the woman Kaladin was involved with somehow during his time in Amaram's army? I'm curious about what sort of woman could manage to pull Kaladin out of his depression and obsessive training in the spear after Tien's death...
A: Yes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxm5rpw?context=3

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Q: Compounding requires practice, according to The Hero of Age's annotations. And yet, it's apparently as easy as burning a metalmind. What was going on that meant the Inquisitors couldn't figure out how to do it (despite Ruin likely knowing how and undoubtedly wanting them to learn) for over a year? What skill did they need to practice doing, exactly?
And what happened while they were practicing burning metalminds without successfully Compounding? Did they get an Allomantic effect?
A: What I think I was getting at in the annotations was a cosmere magic rule that, perhaps, I hadn't completely refined yet. This is the idea that INTENTION is vitally important to the workings of most Cosmere magics.
You can learn to burn metals instinctively over time, but it does take time--time for your body to figure out what it's doing. If you have instruction and guidance, you can pick it up in an evening, like Vin did. Same goes for most of the magics. This ties into Awakening, with the idea that you have to form a command.
During Warbreaker was where I really refined this aspect of the magic. Logically, since the beginning of the cosmere, I've wanted all three Realms to be important to the way the magics worked. The "Practice" therefore for compounding is mental practice--a barrier to overcome in understanding what is happening, and what it will do to you.
If you already know all of these things by having it explained to you, that barrier is far less high. I think that was what I was talking about in the Annotations, without really having the idea specified yet--though I'd have to look back at the annotation and re-read it to say for certain.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3va8fw/day_4_group_ama_in_support_of_worldbuilders/cxm5uuy?context=3

Q: An offshoot question to this: since burning Feruchemically charged metal seems to require a choice between getting the Allomantic or Feruchemical property (e.g., Miles only sees gold ghosts when he wants to, not as a side effect of compounded healing), is there any special advantage to compounding pewter and tin, where the Allomantic and Feruchemical use is the same? Is their compounding even stronger than normal compounding because you can tap both power sources simultaneously, or maybe because Preservation is particularly attuned to providing those powers through those metals?

A: Remember that compounding is a "hack" of the magic. You're looking to fool the magics, and use one to power the other. The value in it is that you can use Allomantic power to fuel Feruchemy. It's like hooking a power cord up to a device that, up to that point, you'd powered by using a hand crank.

Edited December 9, 2015 by Argent

[Citadel16]

Ask how each of the authors would feel if they were the protagonists of each others books!

[Young Bard]

Highlights:

(taken from Argent's links)

 

Nergaoul is an Unmade (even though we've guessed, it hasn't been explicitly confirmed.)

The Moon Sceptre acts as a 'Rosetta Stone', which makes it 'much easier' to allow Selish Investiture to work elsewhere (it overcomes the location barrier somehow). Presumably, this is why Hoid wanted it.