Supanova, Australia, June 2017

[Darkness]

Can anyone make sense of the information for Sydney Supanova? As far as I can tell, Brandon is confirmed in the programme, and this is all I have from the supanova website: "Brandon will participate in a general admission Q&A, and signing sessions on Friday (2:00pm to 5:30pm) in Sydney, and throughout each Saturday (10.30am to 5.30pm) and Sunday (11am to 5pm) in both [Sydney and Perth]."

I have no idea where in the showgrounds he'll be. Guess I'll wander around the Magic booth until I find him haha.

Found his area I think.

Edited June 15, 2017 by Darkness
Found WalDo!

[+Extesian]

Heart - breakingly I won't make it But if anyone can get recordings, you'll be the hero of ages, and if they're not allowed, any good reports will at least make you Herald-level. 

Have fun, whoever's hitting it up

[bunyip99]

Hey Darkness,

This came with Brandon's email letting me know he is coming to town.

Hope it helps.

 

Supanova Sydney 2017

Dates: Friday–Sunday, June 16th–18th
Address:
The Dome, Sydney Showground,
1 Showground Road,
Sydney Olympic Park, NSW

Friday, June 16th

Supanova Book Club
Time: 5:00–6:00 p.m.
Location: Supanova Seminar Room

Saturday, June 17th

An Hour with Brandon Sanderson
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: Supanova Seminar Room

Sunday, June 18th

Stop Using That Trope!
Time: 2:20 PM
Location: Supanova Seminar Room

With: Brandon Sanderson, Cat Sparks and Alan Baxter

[Erai Sedai]

Brandon was awesome as usual today! So glad I got to meet my favourite author! It was a great day

[blackmagic3]

Made it down today, got some books signed with a mate and my father. Brandon was amazing he has this energy and charisma about him in the q and a. Didn't ask any difficult questions because I wasn't sure what was currently was WoB. Met a guy who was a 17th sharder who taking down notes. Didn't catch his name but he was wearing a Superman shirt. A great experience meeting Brandon!

[Darkness]

4 hours ago, blackmagic3 said:

Made it down today, got some books signed with a mate and my father. Brandon was amazing he has this energy and charisma about him in the q and a. Didn't ask any difficult questions because I wasn't sure what was currently was WoB. Met a guy who was a 17th sharder who taking down notes. Didn't catch his name but he was wearing a Superman shirt. A great experience meeting Brandon!

 

that was me! I actually cosplayed as Brandon with a part in my hair, comic shirt, dress coat, and jeans, but it was subtle haha I dont think even he caught it. I have audio of the first half of his seminar, but had technical difficulties in the second half I also have audio of my personal questions for him, but the supanova staff said no recording of the main q&a so I hastily jotted down notes of anything new or interesting to me that I'll put up soon. 

Edit 1: Here is the transcript of me asking Brandon questions:

 

 

Darkness: So, I have a massive list of questions just from my last readthrough of the Way of Kings. I tried to cut the list down and ended up with only 40…

Brandon: Great [nervous laugh] I don’t know if we’ll get to all 40…

Darkness: Haha, yeah… ok, so… Chapter 4 Kaladin noted a legger with a deep purple carapace near Tvlakv’s wagon. (Brandon: yeah… uh huh!) Would that be a suspicious legger?

Brandon: That’s a suspicious legger! (Later definitely confirmed it to be Aimian)

Darkness: Will we learn more about the corrupt lighteyes in Kaladin’s past? Katarotam? (silence) Will we learn more, just yes or no is fine.

Brandon: Ehh... Yes. In general, yeah.

Darkness: Ok. Um… did Taravangian arrange for his granddaughter to be trapped, so he could see Jasnah soulcasting?

Brandon: Um he used an opportunity, that he could’ve gotten to through… in a multitude of ways, in order to… check on some things. (ok) But it is his granddaughter and she really was in danger.

Darkness: Yep, he really did seem concerned.

Brandon: Yes.

Darkness: Further on in that… do different gemstones hold a different flavour, or different ‘frequency’ of Stormlight?

Brandon: Umm…. Nnnnnnnnooooooo… But kind of? Here’s the thing: So with the gemstones on Roshar… scientifically some of these gemstones are just really close to one another. Like chemical formula and whatever. But, their cognitive selves and their spiritual selves are gonna be very different because of human perception, right? (sure) And so, the answer is both a no and a yes because of that. So people’s perception has sort of changed how the magic works, to an extent… but it’s the same amount of investiture, just with slightly different flavourings.

Darkness: Right, so… is it easier for a soulcaster to turn rock into smoke with a smokestone as opposed to a ruby?

Brandon: So … Soulcasting… is gonna really depend on whether you’re using a soulcaster.

Darkness: First is for a soulcaster, second is for a surgebinder.

Brandon: A surgebinder is far less constrained than someone using a device accessing surges, right? (sure) A Knight Radiant is far less constrained than somebody using a mechanical means of accessing magic, and I would include Honorblades as a mechanical means of accessing a surge.

Darkness: Cool! So with the whole Jasnah scene, she inhales Stormlight, for using soulcasting. So how is it the soulcaster appears to glow more fiercely instead of growing dimmer in that scene?

Brandon: Um… heh heh heh… So… this is perception on Shallan’s part, watching and kind of resonating with the soulcasting, and some weird things are happening that she sees, and not necessarily anyone else is seeing.

Darkness: I love that! Alright… Also, did Taravangian recognize that Jasnah was not soulcasting traditionally? Like was it the hand sinking into the rock that gave it away?

Brandon: Taravangian knew and already suspected (ok… sure).

Darkness: How many memories can Shallan store at once?

Brandon: I don’t have a specific limit written down anywhere.

Darkness: But there is kind of a generalized upper ceiling?

Brandon: I would say that there is a generalized upper ceiling, but it’s not something I have defined.

Darkness: How close is Elithan to Adonalsium’s actually name? Does Adonalsium have a proper name? It seems more like a title…

Brandon: Um… Yeea… RAFO.

Darkness: Is logicspren a type of radiantspren?

Brandon: RAFO… but that’s a RAFO because that question isn’t specific enough, but I’m not going to tell you why.

Darkness: haha ok. What’s the story behind Vedeledev’s Golden Keys, or are we going to hear it?

Brandon: Vedeledev’s Golden Keys are more of a mythological thing like the sword that forbad people from entering the Garden of Eden, things like this that, they have existed but they’re more symbolic… (ok) does that make sense?

Darkness: Yep. So the Chapter 8 death rattle (reads it quickly)... we stand atop the mount, blah blah blah. Is that referencing the words of an Aimian?

Brandon: RAFO.

Darkness: Is there any spiritual or cognitive affect on the subject of Shallan’s memory collecting?

Brandon: Well… …

Darkness: Simply from taking the memory, not from the consequences of seeing the pictures or anything.

Brandon: Right… no, I would say no, but there is a sliiiiight spiritual connection happening. So, so… but it doesn’t really have an affect on the person.  I mean, you could say, you could make the argument that any slight connection like that does have one. But I don’t want you to read that much into it (ok). So the answer is yes, with an asterisk of no.

Darkness: Ok. Ishikk and the purelakers… are they actually fooling Vun Makak, like, at all?

(both laughing)

Brandon: Umm… I’m going to RAFO that.

Darkness: Ok. Ishikk says, in response to the ‘outsiders’ saying ‘this is a fool’s errand’, he says ‘you’ve got the fool part right.’ Is Ishikk more aware than he seems? Is he laughing and making a subtle Hoid joke?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: Dors Szeth’s connection to the Honorblade allow him to maintain a warrior’s fitness as a normal person would need to?

Brandon: Uh…. Noooo… I’m gonna say he… he… no. I’ll just say that.

Darkness: Are the quartz and iron in Szeth’s oathstone specific to Szeth’s in particular, or to oathstones in general?

Brandon: I’ll RAFO that.

Darkness: Ok. The Thrill of Battle and the Thrill of Contest are noted as ‘distinct’. Do the two come from different sources?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: When a darkeyed person obtains a shardblade. Does their new eye colour reflect the specific type of blade they bonded?

Brandon: Yes.

Darkness: Ok. Is Kaladin going to meet up with Jost again?

Brandon: RAFO.

Darkness: Is Cusicesh stuck in some kind of loop? Were his actions maybe recorded somewhere long ago?

Brandon: Mmm RAFO… yeah…

Darkness: Does the location of the ghostblood tattoo correspond to some kind of rank?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: Did any metal break off when Gaz lost his eye?

Brandon: Did any metal break off?

Darkness: Like… in him…

Brandon: Oh in him… you mean… no he doesn’t have a hemalurgic spike. Gaz is mostly what he seems to be.

Darkness: Ok I like that. Was it Syl or was it Kaladin himself that made things stick to his hands in the beginning? Are honorspren able to use a rudimentary form of the adhesion surge?

Brandon: Yes, they are. Windspren are too!

Darkness: Ok! Cool! That was my next question… ok, was Ivory watching when Shallan was in Jasnah’s bathing chamber and that whole swap thing kind of went down… what did he relay to Jasnah…?

Brandon: Umm… he would’ve been there… but I don’t have an answer for that, mostly because I haven’t considered it.

Darkness: Did the person Sigzil tried to kill actually die, and then afterward become not dead?

Brandon: We’ll RAFO that, mostly because I intend to dig into Sigzil’s past more.

Darkness: Ok so you’re probably going to RAFO who it was?

Brandon: Yeah… mhm… but we do get a Sigzil viewpoint in this next book so…

Darkness: Good! I like Sigzil. Previous to the heralds giving up, could the desolations be mathematically predicted, kind of like highstorms?

Brandon: Umm… no. Uh… ok let’s do 2 more.

Darkness: Ok. 2 more. Will Jashnah’s sisters show up in the present day arc? (I meant the 2 biological sisters that are mentioned in one part of tWoK but I guess Brandon wasn’t thinking about them)

Brandon: Jasnah sisters… Oh… OH! The other… veristatilians. (Sure) Um… yes. You will actually meet 2 more veristatilians in the next book!

Darkness: Cool! Alrighty… and… oh there’s a good one! (I had a much better final question, but I got flustered and missed it haha) What does antiseptic look like in the Cognitive and would it frighten away any rotspren or grinders there?

Brandon: Mmm… no it would look like a bead unfortunately. You could manifest it, like how you see Kelsier doing with stuff but really… no. Maybe if you got some antiseptic in (into the Cognitive Realm), the rotspren might recognize it but just the soul of it, no.

Darkness: Ok! That’s it for today. Thank you very much!

Brandon: Thanks!

 

 

Edit 2: Here are my hastily scribbled notes from the signing. I think I got everything that could be considered 'new'. I didn't write a lot of things about writing process, world building, new author advice, and release dates (Oathbringer coming November 14th in Aus and USA, November 16th in Britain)

 

 

Verbatim:

Q: From Secret History, does Hoid have all the magic from the universe you’ve created?

A: He does not have all the magic. He did take the bead of Lerasium, and you have seen him use allomancy. So, he is confirmed to have used allomancy.

Q: Did you change Gawyn’s fate?

A: Yes and no. Gawyn was the most written character by Robert Jordan. I made small tweaks, but he was mostly written. Harriet has said not to specify which characters were killed by whom, but I can say that about 1/3 was Robert Jordan, 1/3 was Harriet, and 1/3 was me.

Q: Regarding a certain dragon mentioned in Stormlight Archive, and dragons in general in the Cosmere: is functional immortality a natural part of a dragon’s lifespan?

A: The way I have written dragons in the Cosmere… ALL dragons are naturally functionally immortal. They can be killed, but they don’t age.

Q: Will we see more of Szeth in book 3?

A: Szeth has 6 chapters in the 3^rd book, mostly in the last part. You’ll be reading along and be like, “Where’s Szeth?” But that’s just where I could fit him in.

Q: When does the next Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell happen?

A: There’s a book in that world about an entire expeditionary team that sails forth to destroy the evil. The book starts with a person holding to the plank of a ship as the entire fleet sails back while it’s being destroyed.

Q: Do you ever go to India?

A: I have never been to India. I would love to go to India, the trick is I have to be invited. So they’d have to have some kind of convention and invite me.

Q: Please don’t kill Dalinar! No questions, just please don’t kill Dalinar.

A: (Very seriously) You will enjoy this next book! (Added after) But… ehhh… it’s gonna be painful.

Q: Are we going to get a Jasnah book?

A: Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln, and Jasnah are the back 5. Jasnah is book 8 right now, maybe book 10.

Q: When will we next see Axies the collector?

A: Axies is mentioned in the next book but you don’t see him, so probably in book 4.

Q: Will we see more of Lift?

A: You will see more of Lift in this book. There are even some Lift viewpoints.

Q: Who is the most dangerous of Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar?

A: Hmm… haw… Depends on which era of their lives… Probably Dalinar is the most dangerous. But that’s a really tough question! After Dalinar probably Shallan.

Q: Who of those three would you kill, main, or sleep with?

A: (Fumbled around a bit... ended up not answering that one)

Paraphrased:

Q: What inspired the Epics? (This came up a few times)

A: I got cut off in traffic and thought, ‘you’re so lucky I don’t have superpowers because I would totally blow up your car!” And then I started to think about how I couldn’t be trusted with superpowers and what the world would be like if no one with superpowers could be trusted.

Q: I just got a job as an editor. What advice can you give me about my job from the perspective of an author?

A: The editor’s job is to figure out what the author is trying to do, and how to help them make a better book than the author has written. Get them to try out options even when they don’t want to listen or change the parts that don’t work.

Q: How do you keep all of your information straight? (This one came up a lot too)

A: I have a dedicated database shared between me and my assistants. I use wiki dpad and have 2 amazing assistants to make sure I keep it all straight, but I still mess up a lot!

A: RAFO on bronze/copper twinborns because I want to leave myself room to create things.

Q: Renarin is not comfortable touching people, but he does touch Adolin. Is he healing him?

A: Renarin is not healing Adolin “with his powers”. He’s not really confident in his powers at all. You’ll see him develop that way more in book 3.

A: Hoid has… a lot of things influencing that. I liked the robot’s story in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books, I wanted to have a character that moved behind the scenes of each story like that.

A: Personal favourite scene is when Kaladin finlly says the words of radiance. I waited a long time to write that scene.

Q: What was the driving force for Kaladin?

A: 2 things: 1 being a surgeon and a big brother, another was writing a hero who never thought he was succeeding.

Q: Do you every drop hints for things that never come to pass as you change and tweak the story?

A: Oh ya, all the time. Best example is Arcanum Unbounded originally had a different story that was foreshadowed through Mistborn Era 1 among others, but it just never fit in the story. It just didn’t jive once you start putting the jig saw together. You learn not to get too disappointed when that happens.

Q: Nakomi?!?!

A: Nakomi is one of the things I’m not allowed to answer. Robert Jordan wrote the scene where she meets Rand coming out of the pit. I wrote the other one.

Q: When will we return to the Reckoners? (This was asked a few times)

A: Apocalypse Guard will come out sometime next year.

Q: When you paint a shardplate, how do you change the paint job? Do you have to break the pieces to get it off?

A: You would use a paint thinner and it would come off alright. Actually, you have to reapply the paint pretty often as it would naturally wear off on its own and it would have trouble sticking to the plate.

Q: Where’d you get the inspiration for the Shattered Plains?

A: I can’t say specifically, but probably the cliff’s in Southern Utah had a large bearing on it.

Q: (Someone came with an entire interview prepared, so maybe they’ll post it somewhere… but here are my highlights)

Apocalypse Guard is about this superpowered team that goes around saving entire worlds, but their intern without powers gets trapped on a doomed planet and has to figure out how to save it / herself. SA and Mistborn both have screenplays. SA’s is WAY too long, which is why we’re going to a VR platform as a pitch for movies. SA has a couple drafts of screenplays and I’m very hopeful that it will go into the visuals phase next. (yes, I know that is confusing, but that bit is verbatim)

Teaching has really helped me be more defined as a writer. Writing is done very often by instinct, and I’ve discovered a lot about my writing style and process by putting it into lectures and words. That especially helps when the writing is hard. When it’s easy you just go with it, but when it’s hard I can really pinpoint what’s going on.

Apocalypse Guard is a first person, very quirky, fun person to write. I’ve written 50 pages so far in between SA work, and it was very refreshing and I’m very happy with it.

A: He’ll try to get to Australia every 4 or 5 years or so. They do invite him regularly and he was invited last year and the year before, but his schedule just doesn’t allow it yearly.

A: His signature used to be his initials, but it sort of morphed slowly into a symbol over the years. He also uses his whole arm to sign now instead of his wrist. It doesn’t hurt him to sign so much now!

A: Oathbringer starts with all these characters and all this stuff coming from everywhere and you’ll be like, “Woah!” But it’ll start to gel around chapter 11, so just trust me

Q: What’s one thing you wished hadn’t been cut?

A: There was a scene where Perrin, the Ogier, and everyone cleansed the Ways that had to be cut that I was sad about.

Personalisations:

“I am hope.”

“I know your soul.”

Edit 3: My 20 minute video file of the seminar turned out to be a little over 2 GB, so it isn't letting me upload it to Youtube, Facebook, or the shard, or email, or anything else... but honestly it isn't anything that you can't hear by listening to his posted lectures. There weren't any new WoBs of note from it and people were specifically directed to avoid spoilery things in their questions.

Edited June 17, 2017 by Darkness
Adding text walls

[maxal]

Quote

Q: Please don’t kill Dalinar! No questions, just please don’t kill Dalinar.

A: (Very seriously) You will enjoy this next book! (Added after) But… ehhh… it’s gonna be painful.

 

I take this one as "something bad will happen to Dalinar, but not necessarily death.

Quote

Q: Renarin is not comfortable touching people, but he does touch Adolin. Is he healing him?

A: Renarin is not healing Adolin “with his powers”. He’s not really confident in his powers at all. You’ll see him develop that way more in book 3.

 

Ah thanks for asking this one: so there goes my theory  Though the answers is a bit ambiguous. He does confirm Renarin is not using his powers to "heal" Adolin, but he seems to indicate he is doing "something". This "something" appears completely non-magical though...  Ah it was so cute!

The follow-up question would be, if Renarin is not healing Adolin, then how comes Adolin's injuries are never factored in? Shouldn't they slow him at some point? How come he can still keep fighting despite being tossed around so much (bruises, repeated hit onto the head)? It isn't as if he had a lot of "down time" to recover in between fights. I have always wondered about that, especially the several instances where Brandon writes in how Adolin's head hurts. Is he aware he wrote in the classical symptoms of a head concussion or was it just unintentional? Renarin healing it just made so much more plausible. And cute. Did I say it was cute?

Great list of questions!

[Chaos]

That sucks no audio of the main Q&A. Thanks for your notes, @Darkness. Could you post the audio you have? With the seminar video, maybe strip off the audio and see how big it is, perhaps? 

With your notes from the signing, was that from the main Q&A or during the book signing itself?

[Erai Sedai]

15 hours ago, Darkness said:

that was me! I actually cosplayed as Brandon with a part in my hair, comic shirt, dress coat, and jeans, but it was subtle haha I dont think even he caught it. I have audio of the first half of his seminar, but had technical difficulties in the second half I also have audio of my personal questions for him, but the supanova staff said no recording of the main q&a so I hastily jotted down notes of anything new or interesting to me that I'll put up soon. 

Edit 1: Here is the transcript of me asking Brandon questions:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Darkness: So, I have a massive list of questions just from my last readthrough of the Way of Kings. I tried to cut the list down and ended up with only 40…

Brandon: Great [nervous laugh] I don’t know if we’ll get to all 40…

Darkness: Haha, yeah… ok, so… Chapter 4 Kaladin noted a legger with a deep purple carapace near Tvlakv’s wagon. (Brandon: yeah… uh huh!) Would that be a suspicious legger?

Brandon: That’s a suspicious legger! (Later definitely confirmed it to be Aimian)

Darkness: Will we learn more about the corrupt lighteyes in Kaladin’s past? Katarotam? (silence) Will we learn more, just yes or no is fine.

Brandon: Ehh... Yes. In general, yeah.

Darkness: Ok. Um… did Taravangian arrange for his granddaughter to be trapped, so he could see Jasnah soulcasting?

Brandon: Um he used an opportunity, that he could’ve gotten to through… in a multitude of ways, in order to… check on some things. (ok) But it is his granddaughter and she really was in danger.

Darkness: Yep, he really did seem concerned.

Brandon: Yes.

Darkness: Further on in that… do different gemstones hold a different flavour, or different ‘frequency’ of Stormlight?

Brandon: Umm…. Nnnnnnnnooooooo… But kind of? Here’s the thing: So with the gemstones on Roshar… scientifically some of these gemstones are just really close to one another. Like chemical formula and whatever. But, their cognitive selves and their spiritual selves are gonna be very different because of human perception, right? (sure) And so, the answer is both a no and a yes because of that. So people’s perception has sort of changed how the magic works, to an extent… but it’s the same amount of investiture, just with slightly different flavourings.

Darkness: Right, so… is it easier for a soulcaster to turn rock into smoke with a smokestone as opposed to a ruby?

Brandon: So … Soulcasting… is gonna really depend on whether you’re using a soulcaster.

Darkness: First is for a soulcaster, second is for a surgebinder.

Brandon: A surgebinder is far less constrained than someone using a device accessing surges, right? (sure) A Knight Radiant is far less constrained than somebody using a mechanical means of accessing magic, and I would include Honorblades as a mechanical means of accessing a surge.

Darkness: Cool! So with the whole Jasnah scene, she inhales Stormlight, for using soulcasting. So how is it the soulcaster appears to glow more fiercely instead of growing dimmer in that scene?

Brandon: Um… heh heh heh… So… this is perception on Shallan’s part, watching and kind of resonating with the soulcasting, and some weird things are happening that she sees, and not necessarily anyone else is seeing.

Darkness: I love that! Alright… Also, did Taravangian recognize that Jasnah was not soulcasting traditionally? Like was it the hand sinking into the rock that gave it away?

Brandon: Taravangian knew and already suspected (ok… sure).

Darkness: How many memories can Shallan store at once?

Brandon: I don’t have a specific limit written down anywhere.

Darkness: But there is kind of a generalized upper ceiling?

Brandon: I would say that there is a generalized upper ceiling, but it’s not something I have defined.

Darkness: How close is Elithan to Adonalsium’s actually name? Does Adonalsium have a proper name? It seems more like a title…

Brandon: Um… Yeea… RAFO.

Darkness: Is logicspren a type of radiantspren?

Brandon: RAFO… but that’s a RAFO because that question isn’t specific enough, but I’m not going to tell you why.

Darkness: haha ok. What’s the story behind Vedeledev’s Golden Keys, or are we going to hear it?

Brandon: Vedeledev’s Golden Keys are more of a mythological thing like the sword that forbad people from entering the Garden of Eden, things like this that, they have existed but they’re more symbolic… (ok) does that make sense?

Darkness: Yep. So the Chapter 8 death rattle (reads it quickly)... we stand atop the mount, blah blah blah. Is that referencing the words of an Aimian?

Brandon: RAFO.

Darkness: Is there any spiritual or cognitive affect on the subject of Shallan’s memory collecting?

Brandon: Well… …

Darkness: Simply from taking the memory, not from the consequences of seeing the pictures or anything.

Brandon: Right… no, I would say no, but there is a sliiiiight spiritual connection happening. So, so… but it doesn’t really have an affect on the person.  I mean, you could say, you could make the argument that any slight connection like that does have one. But I don’t want you to read that much into it (ok). So the answer is yes, with an asterisk of no.

Darkness: Ok. Ishikk and the purelakers… are they actually fooling Vun Makak, like, at all?

(both laughing)

Brandon: Umm… I’m going to RAFO that.

Darkness: Ok. Ishikk says, in response to the ‘outsiders’ saying ‘this is a fool’s errand’, he says ‘you’ve got the fool part right.’ Is Ishikk more aware than he seems? Is he laughing and making a subtle Hoid joke?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: Dors Szeth’s connection to the Honorblade allow him to maintain a warrior’s fitness as a normal person would need to?

Brandon: Uh…. Noooo… I’m gonna say he… he… no. I’ll just say that.

Darkness: Are the quartz and iron in Szeth’s oathstone specific to Szeth’s in particular, or to oathstones in general?

Brandon: I’ll RAFO that.

Darkness: Ok. The Thrill of Battle and the Thrill of Contest are noted as ‘distinct’. Do the two come from different sources?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: When a darkeyed person obtains a shardblade. Does their new eye colour reflect the specific type of blade they bonded?

Brandon: Yes.

Darkness: Ok. Is Kaladin going to meet up with Jost again?

Brandon: RAFO.

Darkness: Is Cusicesh stuck in some kind of loop? Were his actions maybe recorded somewhere long ago?

Brandon: Mmm RAFO… yeah…

Darkness: Does the location of the ghostblood tattoo correspond to some kind of rank?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: Did any metal break off when Gaz lost his eye?

Brandon: Did any metal break off?

Darkness: Like… in him…

Brandon: Oh in him… you mean… no he doesn’t have a hemalurgic spike. Gaz is mostly what he seems to be.

Darkness: Ok I like that. Was it Syl or was it Kaladin himself that made things stick to his hands in the beginning? Are honorspren able to use a rudimentary form of the adhesion surge?

Brandon: Yes, they are. Windspren are too!

Darkness: Ok! Cool! That was my next question… ok, was Ivory watching when Shallan was in Jasnah’s bathing chamber and that whole swap thing kind of went down… what did he relay to Jasnah…?

Brandon: Umm… he would’ve been there… but I don’t have an answer for that, mostly because I haven’t considered it.

Darkness: Did the person Sigzil tried to kill actually die, and then afterward become not dead?

Brandon: We’ll RAFO that, mostly because I intend to dig into Sigzil’s past more.

Darkness: Ok so you’re probably going to RAFO who it was?

Brandon: Yeah… mhm… but we do get a Sigzil viewpoint in this next book so…

Darkness: Good! I like Sigzil. Previous to the heralds giving up, could the desolations be mathematically predicted, kind of like highstorms?

Brandon: Umm… no. Uh… ok let’s do 2 more.

Darkness: Ok. 2 more. Will Jashnah’s sisters show up in the present day arc? (I meant the 2 biological sisters that are mentioned in one part of tWoK but I guess Brandon wasn’t thinking about them)

Brandon: Jasnah sisters… Oh… OH! The other… veristatilians. (Sure) Um… yes. You will actually meet 2 more veristatilians in the next book!

Darkness: Cool! Alrighty… and… oh there’s a good one! (I had a much better final question, but I got flustered and missed it haha) What does antiseptic look like in the Cognitive and would it frighten away any rotspren or grinders there?

Brandon: Mmm… no it would look like a bead unfortunately. You could manifest it, like how you see Kelsier doing with stuff but really… no. Maybe if you got some antiseptic in (into the Cognitive Realm), the rotspren might recognize it but just the soul of it, no.

Darkness: Ok! That’s it for today. Thank you very much!

Brandon: Thanks!

 

 

Edit 2: Here are my hastily scribbled notes from the signing. I think I got everything that could be considered 'new'. I didn't write a lot of things about writing process, world building, new author advice, and release dates (Oathbringer coming November 14th in Aus and USA, November 16th in Britain)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Verbatim:

Q: From Secret History, does Hoid have all the magic from the universe you’ve created?

A: He does not have all the magic. He did take the bead of Lerasium, and you have seen him use allomancy. So, he is confirmed to have used allomancy.

Q: Did you change Gawyn’s fate?

A: Yes and no. Gawyn was the most written character by Robert Jordan. I made small tweaks, but he was mostly written. Harriet has said not to specify which characters were killed by whom, but I can say that about 1/3 was Robert Jordan, 1/3 was Harriet, and 1/3 was me.

Q: Regarding a certain dragon mentioned in Stormlight Archive, and dragons in general in the Cosmere: is functional immortality a natural part of a dragon’s lifespan?

A: The way I have written dragons in the Cosmere… ALL dragons are naturally functionally immortal. They can be killed, but they don’t age.

Q: Will we see more of Szeth in book 3?

A: Szeth has 6 chapters in the 3^rd book, mostly in the last part. You’ll be reading along and be like, “Where’s Szeth?” But that’s just where I could fit him in.

Q: When does the next Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell happen?

A: There’s a book in that world about an entire expeditionary team that sails forth to destroy the evil. The book starts with a person holding to the plank of a ship as the entire fleet sails back while it’s being destroyed.

Q: Do you ever go to India?

A: I have never been to India. I would love to go to India, the trick is I have to be invited. So they’d have to have some kind of convention and invite me.

Q: Please don’t kill Dalinar! No questions, just please don’t kill Dalinar.

A: (Very seriously) You will enjoy this next book! (Added after) But… ehhh… it’s gonna be painful.

Q: Are we going to get a Jasnah book?

A: Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln, and Jasnah are the back 5. Jasnah is book 8 right now, maybe book 10.

Q: When will we next see Axies the collector?

A: Axies is mentioned in the next book but you don’t see him, so probably in book 4.

Q: Will we see more of Lift?

A: You will see more of Lift in this book. There are even some Lift viewpoints.

Q: Who is the most dangerous of Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar?

A: Hmm… haw… Depends on which era of their lives… Probably Dalinar is the most dangerous. But that’s a really tough question! After Dalinar probably Shallan.

Q: Who of those three would you kill, main, or sleep with?

A: (Fumbled around a bit... ended up not answering that one)

Paraphrased:

Q: What inspired the Epics? (This came up a few times)

A: I got cut off in traffic and thought, ‘you’re so lucky I don’t have superpowers because I would totally blow up your car!” And then I started to think about how I couldn’t be trusted with superpowers and what the world would be like if no one with superpowers could be trusted.

Q: I just got a job as an editor. What advice can you give me about my job from the perspective of an author?

A: The editor’s job is to figure out what the author is trying to do, and how to help them make a better book than the author has written. Get them to try out options even when they don’t want to listen or change the parts that don’t work.

Q: How do you keep all of your information straight? (This one came up a lot too)

A: I have a dedicated database shared between me and my assistants. I use wiki dpad and have 2 amazing assistants to make sure I keep it all straight, but I still mess up a lot!

A: RAFO on bronze/copper twinborns because I want to leave myself room to create things.

Q: Renarin is not comfortable touching people, but he does touch Adolin. Is he healing him?

A: Renarin is not healing Adolin “with his powers”. He’s not really confident in his powers at all. You’ll see him develop that way more in book 3.

A: Hoid has… a lot of things influencing that. I liked the robot’s story in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books, I wanted to have a character that moved behind the scenes of each story like that.

A: Personal favourite scene is when Kaladin finlly says the words of radiance. I waited a long time to write that scene.

Q: What was the driving force for Kaladin?

A: 2 things: 1 being a surgeon and a big brother, another was writing a hero who never thought he was succeeding.

Q: Do you every drop hints for things that never come to pass as you change and tweak the story?

A: Oh ya, all the time. Best example is Arcanum Unbounded originally had a different story that was foreshadowed through Mistborn Era 1 among others, but it just never fit in the story. It just didn’t jive once you start putting the jig saw together. You learn not to get too disappointed when that happens.

Q: Nakomi?!?!

A: Nakomi is one of the things I’m not allowed to answer. Robert Jordan wrote the scene where she meets Rand coming out of the pit. I wrote the other one.

Q: When will we return to the Reckoners? (This was asked a few times)

A: Apocalypse Guard will come out sometime next year.

Q: When you paint a shardplate, how do you change the paint job? Do you have to break the pieces to get it off?

A: You would use a paint thinner and it would come off alright. Actually, you have to reapply the paint pretty often as it would naturally wear off on its own and it would have trouble sticking to the plate.

Q: Where’d you get the inspiration for the Shattered Plains?

A: I can’t say specifically, but probably the cliff’s in Southern Utah had a large bearing on it.

Q: (Someone came with an entire interview prepared, so maybe they’ll post it somewhere… but here are my highlights)

Apocalypse Guard is about this superpowered team that goes around saving entire worlds, but their intern without powers gets trapped on a doomed planet and has to figure out how to save it / herself. SA and Mistborn both have screenplays. SA’s is WAY too long, which is why we’re going to a VR platform as a pitch for movies. SA has a couple drafts of screenplays and I’m very hopeful that it will go into the visuals phase next. (yes, I know that is confusing, but that bit is verbatim)

Teaching has really helped me be more defined as a writer. Writing is done very often by instinct, and I’ve discovered a lot about my writing style and process by putting it into lectures and words. That especially helps when the writing is hard. When it’s easy you just go with it, but when it’s hard I can really pinpoint what’s going on.

Apocalypse Guard is a first person, very quirky, fun person to write. I’ve written 50 pages so far in between SA work, and it was very refreshing and I’m very happy with it.

A: He’ll try to get to Australia every 4 or 5 years or so. They do invite him regularly and he was invited last year and the year before, but his schedule just doesn’t allow it yearly.

A: His signature used to be his initials, but it sort of morphed slowly into a symbol over the years. He also uses his whole arm to sign now instead of his wrist. It doesn’t hurt him to sign so much now!

A: Oathbringer starts with all these characters and all this stuff coming from everywhere and you’ll be like, “Woah!” But it’ll start to gel around chapter 11, so just trust me

Q: What’s one thing you wished hadn’t been cut?

A: There was a scene where Perrin, the Ogier, and everyone cleansed the Ways that had to be cut that I was sad about.

Personalisations:

“I am hope.”

“I know your soul.”

Edit 3: My 20 minute video file of the seminar turned out to be a little over 2 GB, so it isn't letting me upload it to Youtube, Facebook, or the shard, or email, or anything else... but honestly it isn't anything that you can't hear by listening to his posted lectures. There weren't any new WoBs of note from it and people were specifically directed to avoid spoilery things in their questions.

Thanks so much for taking down everyone's questions!

Quote

A: RAFO on bronze/copper twinborns because I want to leave myself room to create things

That was the answer I got when asking if copper information once stored can be drawn upon all at once

[+Extesian]

@Darkness, you're my stormin' hero. And your collection of questions were crackers, with Brandon giving some beautiful tidbits of extra information he didn't necessarily need to. I love it!

My thoughts

Quote

Darkness: Further on in that… do different gemstones hold a different flavour, or different ‘frequency’ of Stormlight?

Brandon: Umm…. Nnnnnnnnooooooo… But kind of? Here’s the thing: So with the gemstones on Roshar… scientifically some of these gemstones are just really close to one another. Like chemical formula and whatever. But, their cognitive selves and their spiritual selves are gonna be very different because of human perception, right? (sure) And so, the answer is both a no and a yes because of that. So people’s perception has sort of changed how the magic works, to an extent… but it’s the same amount of investiture, just with slightly different flavourings.

I've become a little obsessed with gemstones and the role of 'color' on Roshar. We had a previous WoB covering the first part of this answer, but confirmation that the differences are a sort of feedback loop with Rosharan perception is excellent, and the way it has actually changed the mechanics of the magic system. And I think it gives insight into why soulcasting as a subset has this requirement for a specific gem for each essence.

Quote

Brandon: A surgebinder is far less constrained than someone using a device accessing surges, right? (sure) A Knight Radiant is far less constrained than somebody using a mechanical means of accessing magic, and I would include Honorblades as a mechanical means of accessing a surge.

Now THIS is one of the confirmations I've been waiting for in trying to figure out the three magic systems on Roshar. We had confirmation that the third system wasn't just fabrials generally, but fabrials were a part of it. This beautiful little bit of info isn't one I'd seen before and makes me increasingly think that Honorblades are part of that same system. I'll have to think more on that.

Quote

Darkness: Cool! So with the whole Jasnah scene, she inhales Stormlight, for using soulcasting. So how is it the soulcaster appears to glow more fiercely instead of growing dimmer in that scene?

Brandon: Um… heh heh heh… So… this is perception on Shallan’s part, watching and kind of resonating with the soulcasting, and some weird things are happening that she sees, and not necessarily anyone else is seeing.

Seems like nice little confirmation that (SA spoiler) 

Spoiler

Shallan, as a proto/lapsed transformation surgebinder, could already see investiture (just kinetic investiture?). Makes me think (though maybe this is already well known) that is how she could see Pattern initially to be able to pull him partially into the physical realm by drawing him.

Quote

Darkness: Simply from taking the memory, not from the consequences of seeing the pictures or anything.

Brandon: Right… no, I would say no, but there is a sliiiiight spiritual connection happening. So, so… but it doesn’t really have an affect on the person.  I mean, you could say, you could make the argument that any slight connection like that does have one. But I don’t want you to read that much into it (ok). So the answer is yes, with an asterisk of no.

And again nice confirmation (again, maybe we already knew) that taking a memory is forming a spiritual connection to the object, but that the thing that affects the object in the other realms is drawing it, not just taking a snapshot.

Quote

Darkness: When a darkeyed person obtains a shardblade. Does their new eye colour reflect the specific type of blade they bonded?

Brandon: Yes.

Nice! I think this was pretty certain already, but it's the first outright confirmation I've seen (and makes slightly redundant the comprehensive list of confirmed characters' eye colours in the books).

Quote

Brandon: Oh in him… you mean… no he doesn’t have a hemalurgic spike. Gaz is mostly what he seems to be.

Mostly what he seems to be is useful (if unsurprising) with respect to some of the ideas people have had for Gaz's past. He's...just a dude.

Quote

Brandon: Yeah… mhm… but we do get a Sigzil viewpoint in this next book so…

This makes me very happy!! Hopefully will give some insights into Hoid, what Sigzil is capable of or at least what he knows.

Quote

Q: From Secret History, does Hoid have all the magic from the universe you’ve created?

A: He does not have all the magic. He did take the bead of Lerasium, and you have seen him use allomancy. So, he is confirmed to have used allomancy.

Ha! We'll just never get out of him the words "Hoid used the bead of Lerasium to become an allomancer". Oh Brandon...

Quote

Q: Regarding a certain dragon mentioned in Stormlight Archive, and dragons in general in the Cosmere: is functional immortality a natural part of a dragon’s lifespan?

A: The way I have written dragons in the Cosmere… ALL dragons are naturally functionally immortal. They can be killed, but they don’t age.

I feel like this is more solid confirmation than we previously had? Maybe not. But still confuses me when read next to the line in The Letter "Though, as you are now essentially immortal". Why only 'now'? Unless it refers to an inability for Frost to even be killed now, but as we know he's not a Shardholder, I remain confused.

Quote

A: Szeth has 6 chapters in the 3^rd book, mostly in the last part. You’ll be reading along and be like, “Where’s Szeth?” But that’s just where I could fit him in.

Argh. Szeth, with the thing he got at the end of WoR, and I'm going to have to wait for 700 pages to find out about him. That will be some wait

I'm disappointed we don't get Axies, happy we get Lift viewpoints and intrigued but not surprised about Dalinar probably being more dangerous than Shallan and Kaladin (I really want to find out what Bondsmiths can actually do) and that Shallan is second (again, unsurprising but makes me dwell more on the strength of both transformation and lightweaving.

Quote

A: Renarin is not healing Adolin “with his powers”. He’s not really confident in his powers at all. You’ll see him develop that way more in book 3.

I echo Maxal's surprise at this in terms of Adolin's injuries. But the wording is interesting. As someone who Sees, perhaps Renarin doesn't like touching people because he actually glimpses into their soul when he does so, but with Adolin he wants to, even though it's traumatic, because the knowledge of his brother let's him help 'heal' Adolin in other conventional ways (psychologically and such).

Quote

A: Personal favourite scene is when Kaladin finlly says the words of radiance. I waited a long time to write that scene.

Agreed!!!

Quote

  Quote

A: RAFO on bronze/copper twinborns because I want to leave myself room to create things

That was the answer I got when asking if copper information once stored can be drawn upon all at once

@Erai Sedai I don't quite understand this, can you explain further?

 

So...yeah, that was longer than I should have posted  But some fantastic things so far, I'm really looking forward to any extra things (and I'm not sure if you were at all the Brandon sessions Darkness) but they're some nice things to go on. And some nice things to feed into questions for the people who go in Perth!

[maxal]

18 minutes ago, Extesian said:

I echo Maxal's surprise at this in terms of Adolin's injuries. But the wording is interesting. As someone who Sees, perhaps Renarin doesn't like touching people because he actually glimpses into their soul when he does so, but with Adolin he wants to, even though it's traumatic, because the knowledge of his brother let's him help 'heal' Adolin in other conventional ways (psychologically and such).

But how is he healing Adolin just by glimpsing his soul? I mean, if he were engaging into heartfelt discussions afterwards, I would say yeah perhaps, but it doesn't seem to be the case. As for Adolin's injuries, this one remains unexplained. I have never managed to get a satisfying explanation. This being said, if you are right, then well, it won't be long before someone finds out about Adolin murdering Sadeas 

Edited June 18, 2017 by maxal

[+Extesian]

2 minutes ago, maxal said:

But how is he healing Adolin just by glimpsing his soul? I mean, if he were engaging into heartfelt discussions afterwards, I would say yeah perhaps, but it doesn't seem to be the case. As for Adolin's injuries, this one remains unexplained. I have never managed to get a satisfying explanation. This being said, if you are right, then well, it won't be long before someone finds out about Adolin murdering Sadeas 

 My wording was a little clumsy, I mean that Renarin wants to help Adolin and feels he can do that by understanding him, but I agree there's no confirmation her actually does. Maybe they have conversations off-screen or maybe Renarin just isn't emotionally strong enough to act to help Adolin. Just that it could be the reason for touching him. Ha and yes it could certainly have an impact on the Sadeas incident!

[Calderis]

44 minutes ago, Extesian said:

I'm disappointed we don't get Axies, happy we get Lift viewpoints and intrigued but not surprised about Dalinar probably being more dangerous than Shallan and Kaladin (I really want to find out what Bondsmiths can actually do) and that Shallan is second (again, unsurprising but makes me dwell more on the strength of both transformation and lightweaving.

Only the part about Shallan really surprised me. He prefaced that answer with a qualifier about points in their lives. Considering everything Dalinar has done as the Blackthorn, his rank as most dangerous makes sense. 

I fully agree with wanting to know more about Transformation and Lightweaving though. I wonder if the capabilities of Lightweaving mixed with Lightweavers permissive Oath structure just lends itself well to assassination though, and that's the answer. No need to be a competent fighter when you can get in close disguised as a friend and kill, then slip away with a different disguise. 

[+Extesian]

11 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Only the part about Shallan really surprised me. He prefaced that answer with a qualifier about points in their lives. Considering everything Dalinar has done as the Blackthorn, his rank as most dangerous makes sense. 

I fully agree with wanting to know more about Transformation and Lightweaving though. I wonder if the capabilities of Lightweaving mixed with Lightweavers permissive Oath structure just lends itself well to assassination though, and that's the answer. No need to be a competent fighter when you can get in close disguised as a friend and kill, then slip away with a different disguise. 

Yeah noting that it depends on different parts of their lives is sensible, Shallan was super dangerous as a child, then not at all, now quite, and soon very. Dalinar was really dangerous, now is kind of more so but also restrained, soon, very I imagine. But I read the wording as indicating that his answer is talking about 'now', just because he says 'Dalinar is'.

Quote

Q: Who is the most dangerous of Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar?

A: Hmm… haw… Depends on which era of their lives… Probably Dalinar is the most dangerous. But that’s a really tough question! After Dalinar probably Shallan.

I think Shallan will be incredibly dangerous because I think Lightweaving could be outright powerful, not just subtle (WoBs talking about Lightweavers being able to manipulate the entire electro-magnetic spectrum and such). And transformation has obvious awesomeness. And agreed, because of her history, personality and lack of behavioral Oath restrictions. 

I'm just finding it hard to imagine what Bondsmiths can do to make them as powerful as they must be. The true forging of Spiritual bonds strikes me as the direction they'll go. 

[Erai Sedai]

2 hours ago, Extesian said:

@Darkness, you're my stormin' hero. And your collection of questions were crackers, with Brandon giving some beautiful tidbits of extra information he didn't necessarily need to. I love it!

My thoughts

I've become a little obsessed with gemstones and the role of 'color' on Roshar. We had a previous WoB covering the first part of this answer, but confirmation that the differences are a sort of feedback loop with Rosharan perception is excellent, and the way it has actually changed the mechanics of the magic system. And I think it gives insight into why soulcasting as a subset has this requirement for a specific gem for each essence.

Now THIS is one of the confirmations I've been waiting for in trying to figure out the three magic systems on Roshar. We had confirmation that the third system wasn't just fabrials generally, but fabrials were a part of it. This beautiful little bit of info isn't one I'd seen before and makes me increasingly think that Honorblades are part of that same system. I'll have to think more on that.

Seems like nice little confirmation that (SA spoiler) 

  Reveal hidden contents

Shallan, as a proto/lapsed transformation surgebinder, could already see investiture (just kinetic investiture?). Makes me think (though maybe this is already well known) that is how she could see Pattern initially to be able to pull him partially into the physical realm by drawing him.

And again nice confirmation (again, maybe we already knew) that taking a memory is forming a spiritual connection to the object, but that the thing that affects the object in the other realms is drawing it, not just taking a snapshot.

Nice! I think this was pretty certain already, but it's the first outright confirmation I've seen (and makes slightly redundant the comprehensive list of confirmed characters' eye colours in the books).

Mostly what he seems to be is useful (if unsurprising) with respect to some of the ideas people have had for Gaz's past. He's...just a dude.

This makes me very happy!! Hopefully will give some insights into Hoid, what Sigzil is capable of or at least what he knows.

Ha! We'll just never get out of him the words "Hoid used the bead of Lerasium to become an allomancer". Oh Brandon...

I feel like this is more solid confirmation than we previously had? Maybe not. But still confuses me when read next to the line in The Letter "Though, as you are now essentially immortal". Why only 'now'? Unless it refers to an inability for Frost to even be killed now, but as we know he's not a Shardholder, I remain confused.

Argh. Szeth, with the thing he got at the end of WoR, and I'm going to have to wait for 700 pages to find out about him. That will be some wait

I'm disappointed we don't get Axies, happy we get Lift viewpoints and intrigued but not surprised about Dalinar probably being more dangerous than Shallan and Kaladin (I really want to find out what Bondsmiths can actually do) and that Shallan is second (again, unsurprising but makes me dwell more on the strength of both transformation and lightweaving.

I echo Maxal's surprise at this in terms of Adolin's injuries. But the wording is interesting. As someone who Sees, perhaps Renarin doesn't like touching people because he actually glimpses into their soul when he does so, but with Adolin he wants to, even though it's traumatic, because the knowledge of his brother let's him help 'heal' Adolin in other conventional ways (psychologically and such).

Agreed!!!

@Erai Sedai I don't quite understand this, can you explain further?

 

So...yeah, that was longer than I should have posted  But some fantastic things so far, I'm really looking forward to any extra things (and I'm not sure if you were at all the Brandon sessions Darkness) but they're some nice things to go on. And some nice things to feed into questions for the people who go in Perth!

So I basically asked him if a copper ferring or twin born could access all of their stored memories at once. All in one go. And that was a RAFO. Sorry if I'm still making it confusing, I'm terrible at explanations!

[Agent34]

3 hours ago, Extesian said:

Yeah noting that it depends on different parts of their lives is sensible, Shallan was super dangerous as a child, then not at all, now quite, and soon very. Dalinar was really dangerous, now is kind of more so but also restrained, soon, very I imagine. But I read the wording as indicating that his answer is talking about 'now', just because he says 'Dalinar is'.

I think Shallan will be incredibly dangerous because I think Lightweaving could be outright powerful, not just subtle (WoBs talking about Lightweavers being able to manipulate the entire electro-magnetic spectrum and such). And transformation has obvious awesomeness. And agreed, because of her history, personality and lack of behavioral Oath restrictions. 

I'm just finding it hard to imagine what Bondsmiths can do to make them as powerful as they must be. The true forging of Spiritual bonds strikes me as the direction they'll go. 

Without being a Bondsmith Dalinar is dangerous due to his capacity as a warrior and Shallan has it in her to kill someone she loves. Their danger doesn't have to lie in their Radiant abilities. 

[maxal]

3 hours ago, Agent34 said:

Without being a Bondsmith Dalinar is dangerous due to his capacity as a warrior and Shallan has it in her to kill someone she loves. Their danger doesn't have to lie in their Radiant abilities. 

I was about to post something similar. My take is Brandon wasn't referring to Radiants powers, but to individual personalities. Dalinar is very dangerous, with or without magic powers, mostly because he is a dictatorial man who takes what he wants, when he wants it, independently of whom he might need to kill to get there. Shallan has shown she would not let anyone step in between herself and her goals: she will kill, sneak, lie if she feels she ought to. Kaladin would do none of that hence, while he might be the most capable fighter, he isn't a dangerous man, not unless you directly try to harm people he sworn to protect and even then, you are likely to walk away with your life.

[+Extesian]

Thanks @Erai Sedai.

@maxal, @agent 34, I definitely agree the personalities are part of 'dangerous ' I did mention a couple of those aspects. But I hadn't thought of it being just that, I was including surgebinding. You may well be right in which case that order definitely wouldn't surprise me

[Oversleep]

As for combat:

If it wasn't for Surgebinding, Dalinar could have outfought Szeth, Kaladin, Shallan etc.

Now that he is a Radiant as well, he is back in the extremely dangerous category.

Personality-wise, Dalinar is also extremely dangerous but previous posters have made the point clear already so I won't reiterate.

[R.E.]

Just got back from Supanova Sydney and got to ask a few questions of Brandon:
SPOILERS!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
Q: Does Vasher have a different way of getting access to stormlight than everyone else? Given that he has no spren, no honorblade and he isn't a squire?
A: Yes. He can use stormlight to stay alive, but it doesn't let him Surgebind.
Q: Could Szeth get access to this method?
A: Yes
Q: And use it to fuel Nightblood?
A: Yes he could
Q: Can you tell me what that method is?
A: <Smile>

[Steeldancer]

1 hour ago, R.E. said:

Just got back from Supanova Sydney and got to ask a few questions of Brandon:
SPOILERS!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
Q: Does Vasher have a different way of getting access to stormlight than everyone else? Given that he has no spren, no honorblade and he isn't a squire?
A: Yes. He can use stormlight to stay alive, but it doesn't let him Surgebind.
Q: Could Szeth get access to this method?
A: Yes
Q: And use it to fuel Nightblood?
A: Yes he could
Q: Can you tell me what that method is?
A: <Smile>

Welcome to the shard! And interesting... very interesting....

Ha! This is my 666th post! Lol!

Edited June 18, 2017 by The Flash

[maxal]

13 hours ago, Extesian said:

 My wording was a little clumsy, I mean that Renarin wants to help Adolin and feels he can do that by understanding him, but I agree there's no confirmation her actually does. Maybe they have conversations off-screen or maybe Renarin just isn't emotionally strong enough to act to help Adolin. Just that it could be the reason for touching him. Ha and yes it could certainly have an impact on the Sadeas incident!

I did get the feeling, while reading the books, Renarin indeed wants to help Adolin, but I have never been sure what he wanted to help him with. At times, it seems all Renarin is attempting to do is to keep Adolin calm and prevent him from acting rashly. I had wonder why all the physical proximity as it should be something Renarin struggles with, though it admittedly is something Adolin likes, yearns for even. Adolin says at some point Renarin was the only one who truly knew him, but then again even to him he is withholding much. I wish we were privy to more of those conversations.

Needless to say I really wish for their brother to brother relationship to be more fleshed out. When I managed to ask Brandon about them, what he told me was how Adolin used to be jealous of Renarin for all of the attention he got. It was very interesting, but still not enough to truly flesh out their relationship.

[Darkness]

23 hours ago, Chaos said:

That sucks no audio of the main Q&A. Thanks for your notes, @Darkness. Could you post the audio you have? With the seminar video, maybe strip off the audio and see how big it is, perhaps? 

With your notes from the signing, was that from the main Q&A or during the book signing itself?

I dont know how to separate the audio out of the video, and it's stuck on my crappy iPad mini so I'm not sure I can do that. But if you pm me I'd love to learn! It'll have to be after my exams are done though. I already took too much time away. I do have the audio for my personal questions though, so I'll try uploading that in this thread later on. My notes, and interview, were taken during the book signing. I think the main Q&A was yesterday (Australian Sunday), but I couldn't go to Supanova yesterday. Maybe someone else covered for me haha

[Darkness]

20 hours ago, Extesian said:

 My wording was a little clumsy, I mean that Renarin wants to help Adolin and feels he can do that by understanding him, but I agree there's no confirmation her actually does. Maybe they have conversations off-screen or maybe Renarin just isn't emotionally strong enough to act to help Adolin. Just that it could be the reason for touching him. Ha and yes it could certainly have an impact on the Sadeas incident!

Brandon actually gave quite a long answer about this one (and maybe the original asked could clarify more), but the sense that I got was Renarin being uncomfortable touching people had to do more with a part of his specific autism-spectrum, and less due to anything magical going on. He was simply more comfortable with his brother than with strangers.

Also, can I just say that I find it highly appropriate that my reputation level right now is "silent gatherer"?

Edited June 18, 2017 by Darkness
Sorry for double posting

[+Extesian]

8 minutes ago, Darkness said:

Brandon actually gave quite a long answer about this one (and maybe the original asked could clarify more), but the sense that I got was Renarin being uncomfortable touching people had to do more with a part of his specific autism-spectrum, and less due to anything magical going on. He was simply more comfortable with his brother than with strangers.

Thanks Darkness. That's the more logical option and I expect it's the case. It just occurred to me it could be a nice way to foreshadow and distract from a true magical component, that of Seeing a person's soul by touching them. But most likely it's future sight rather than spiritual sight. I'm still going to try to pay attention to who Renarin touches and when, just in case