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Salt Lake ComicCon FanX 2016


Doomquill

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My brother and I expected something to be up about the questions people (including myself) asked at Brandon's panel at FanX this weekend, but I guess I can post them here.

 

 

Q: Could you use Hemalurgy to steal Surgebinding?

 

Brandon: Absolutely, you could steal Surgebinding with Hemalurgy [smiling]. [Note: Not surprising, considering the comment in the Mistborn Ars Arcanum about Hemalurgy being the most interesting to the cosmere]

 

 

Q: Is it only Greatshells that have gemhearts, or do all crustaceans on Roshar have some sort of gem inside? If it is only greatshells then are their unique decayspren related to this fact?

 

Brandon: It's a matter of body chemistry. Not all crustaceans do have gemhearts, but most can, not just greatshells. It's a matter of their particular body chemistry that lets greatshells grow the larger gemhearts, which is what allows them to grow so large themselves. [Note: This is pretty close to exact wording; I transcribe for a living so I have an excellent memory for wording, but I didn't record it so I can't be sure]

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  • 1 month later...
Q: Is it only Greatshells that have gemhearts, or do all crustaceans on Roshar have some sort of gem inside? If it is only greatshells then are their unique decayspren related to this fact?

 

Brandon: It's a matter of body chemistry. Not all crustaceans do have gemhearts, but most can, not just greatshells. It's a matter of their particular body chemistry that lets greatshells grow the larger gemhearts, which is what allows them to grow so large themselves. [Note: This is pretty close to exact wording; I transcribe for a living so I have an excellent memory for wording, but I didn't record it so I can't be sure]

 

So it is theoretically possible that chulls and cremlings and such have gemhearts that are just too small to notice?

At any rate it seems like Sanderson is implying some kind of symbiosis between the gemheart and the chasmfiend to let the creature become so large and powerful. On roshar, gems can store investiture, so it is quite possible that chasmfiends actually feed off investiture as a way to augment their life force. Possibly the gem actually harvests some stormlight from a highstorm.

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At any rate it seems like Sanderson is implying some kind of symbiosis between the gemheart and the chasmfiend to let the creature become so large and powerful. On roshar, gems can store investiture, so it is quite possible that chasmfiends actually feed off investiture as a way to augment their life force. Possibly the gem actually harvests some stormlight from a highstorm.

 

It probably attracts and "feeds" spren that accompany chasmfiends. Take a look at this, from JordanCon (emphasis mine):

 

 

Q: What are the upper limits size-wise of what a kandra form can take? Could they say be a chasmfiend?

A: Well, they would have trouble with the square-cube law, and a chasmfiend does not, because they have a symbiosis with natural spren, which keep them from crushing themselves. So a kandra would crush themselves if they tried to do that.

 

Edited by Rasarr
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was just skimming through here and noticed that the post above says there are three Cosmere questions in the recording, but only two are listed in the thread anywhere. I listened to the recording and found the third (it starts around 11:35 in the video).

The question is related to questions that have been asked in the past about how certain people living on Roshar are managing to live on Roshar. The question specifically asks if it would be possible for such a person to live on Scadrial instead of Roshar.

Brandon: "Scadrial would be a lot harder, because getting the investiture out of things in Scadrial is tough. There are ways you could do it, but it would be much more difficult."

Follow-up: "Does that have to do with the investiture being more directed?"

Brandon: "It's more that the genetic component is a big part of it. The directed component - in Roshar it's just flowing around all over the place. If he could get to a Shardpool, he could feed off of that. But then he's at the Shardpool and that's kind of dangerous. Roshar is really the easiest place in the Cosmere for him to consistently get this kind of stuff. Taldain would not be bad either but it's inaccessible currently in the Cosmere."

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Huh, that is very interesting. This adds a whole new dimension to a comment from Mistborn: Secret History:

Spoiler
Quote

“Help you? I can’t even help myself, Survivor. I’m in exile, and even if I weren’t I wouldn’t have the resources to stop a Shard. I probably should never have come.”

This is Khriss's line from Secret History. Is she an exile because she can't get back to Taldain?

This makes me wonder if this is something Autonomy has done intentionally. Perhaps he wants his system to be autonomous from the rest of the cosmere?

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Oh, this is really interesting! I am equally interested in the news that Investiture on Taldain is somewhat easily accessible (paraphrasing, obviously) and that the Shardworld is currently inaccessible in the Cosmere. Especially considering that Khriss has obviously left it. So either there is no inbound travel to Taldain (which sounds difficult to achieve), or the planet was open before (when Khriss left), but no longer is. So much out of such a short sentence...

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7 hours ago, Argent said:

Oh, this is really interesting! I am equally interested in the news that Investiture on Taldain is somewhat easily accessible (paraphrasing, obviously) and that the Shardworld is currently inaccessible in the Cosmere. Especially considering that Khriss has obviously left it. So either there is no inbound travel to Taldain (which sounds difficult to achieve), or the planet was open before (when Khriss left), but no longer is. So much out of such a short sentence...

Are we sure that the Shardworld is inaccessible, or that it is inaccessible to ONLY Khriss? It could be that Autonomy just doesn't want her there and can keep her away.

Edited by Blightsong
Accidentally posted early
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1 hour ago, Blightsong said:

Are we sure that the Shardworld is inaccessible, or that it is inaccessible to ONLY Khriss? It could be that Autonomy just doesn't want her there and can keep her away.

You can listen to the recording to confirm, but he doesn't specify Khriss in his statement. He says Taldain is currently inaccessible. 

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