GenCon 2017

[Stark]

Is anyone lucky enough to have a recording or a transcript of this Q&A?

[C. M. Hayden]

Really sad I missed GenCon this year. I live only three hours from there.

[+Authweight]

At one of the signings at the Dragonsteel booth, Brandon spontaneously wrote something in the copy of The Emperor's Soul I had just purchased. The interaction itself was a little weird, partially due to my own minor freakout (it was my first time meeting him). He had been moving people through the line pretty quickly, so I assumed I wouldn't have a chance to ask a question, but when he got to me he specifically asked if I wanted to ask him anything (maybe this was because I was wearing a Bridge Four shirt?). I was completely unprepared and started fishing for which of the questions in my list I wanted to ask, but while I was stammering he just wrote something in the book and handed it to me. I was really surprised at that point so I just thanked him and walked away.

Anyway, what he wrote in my copy of The Emperor's Soul was "I know your soul..." He specifically made sure to point out that it was a quote from the book. The full passage from the book is this:

Spoiler

Shai walked up to the side of the bed. Ashravan didn't look at her. His eyes didn't move. She rested fingers on his shoulder. He had a handsome face, though he was some fifteen years her senior. That was not much for a Grand; they lived longer than most.

His was a strong face, despite his long time abed. Golden hair, a firm chin, a nose that was prominent. So different in features from Shai's people.

"I know your soul," Shai said softly. "I know it better than you ever did."

No alarm yet. Shai continued to expect one any moment, but she knelt down besde the bed anyway. "I wish that I could know you. Not your soul, but you. I've read about you; I've seen into your heart. I've rebuilt your soul, as best I could. But that isn't the same. It isn't knowing someone, is it? That's knowing about someone."

I'm not sure exactly what Brandon meant by putting this in my book. It seems to me like he might have wanted to call attention to this passage as realmatically significant, but I am still a little flustered by the whole incident.

 

Edited August 23, 2017 by Authweight
Remove unnecessary whitespace

[Pagerunner]

12 hours ago, Authweight said:

At one of the signings at the Dragonsteel booth, Brandon spontaneously wrote something in the copy of The Emperor's Soul I had just purchased. The interaction itself was a little weird, partially due to my own minor freakout (it was my first time meeting him). He had been moving people through the line pretty quickly, so I assumed I wouldn't have a chance to ask a question, but when he got to me he specifically asked if I wanted to ask him anything (maybe this was because I was wearing a Bridge Four shirt?). I was completely unprepared and started fishing for which of the questions in my list I wanted to ask, but while I was stammering he just wrote something in the book and handed it to me. I was really surprised at that point so I just thanked him and walked away.

Anyway, what he wrote in my copy of The Emperor's Soul was "I know your soul..." He specifically made sure to point out that it was a quote from the book. The full passage from the book is this:

  Reveal hidden contents

Shai walked up to the side of the bed. Ashravan didn't look at her. His eyes didn't move. She rested fingers on his shoulder. He had a handsome face, though he was some fifteen years her senior. That was not much for a Grand; they lived longer than most.

His was a strong face, despite his long time abed. Golden hair, a firm chin, a nose that was prominent. So different in features from Shai's people.

"I know your soul," Shai said softly. "I know it better than you ever did."

No alarm yet. Shai continued to expect one any moment, but she knelt down besde the bed anyway. "I wish that I could know you. Not your soul, but you. I've read about you; I've seen into your heart. I've rebuilt your soul, as best I could. But that isn't the same. It isn't knowing someone, is it? That's knowing about someone."

I'm not sure exactly what Brandon meant by putting this in my book. It seems to me like he might have wanted to call attention to this passage as realmatically significant, but I am still a little flustered by the whole incident.

 

That's one of his default personalization, where he writes a significant line from the book. Arcanum Unbounded gets "Are You Listening?" I think Way of Kings gets "Life Before Death."

Better luck next time you catch him! Just remember, he's as big a fan of the cosmere as the rest of us, he just happens to also write it!

[WhiteLeeopard]

I think atium will continue been as important as in era 1 for some people. Kelsier at least will likely be hunting it fervently, as Marsh and (maybe Spook) likely need it to continue alive after centuries.

[Yata]

10 hours ago, WhiteLeeopard said:

I think atium will continue been as important as in era 1 for some people. Kelsier at least will likely be hunting it fervently, as Marsh and (maybe Spook) likely need it to continue alive after centuries.

There are more efficent ways to obtain immortality also within the Metallic Arts alone.

For me, now the Atium is quite worthless (magically speaking) for his own, its Alloys instead could be really interesting (mainly for Feruchemical effects, I suspect)

[AbsentKeeper]

18 minutes ago, Yata said:

There are more efficent ways to obtain immortality also within the Metallic Arts alone.

What other method of achieving immortality is there with the metallic arts?

We know that gold compounding won't do it, because Miles talks about how aging is a shame.

If there was another way within the metallic arts, TLR should have had access to it as well.

Edited August 25, 2017 by Cowmanthethird

[Yata]

22 minutes ago, Cowmanthethird said:

What other method of achieving immortality is there with the metallic arts?

We know that gold compounding won't do it, because Mile's talks about how aging is a shame.

If there was another way within the metallic arts, TLR should have had access to it as well.

You could (with Skill) manipulate your Connection to your birthtime to make your Spiritual Age into an acceptable range (notice this could be performed with Feruchemy alone and there is no an incremental ratio over the centuries)

TLR has no access to all the Metallic Arts' power for his own choice as he hid some of the Metals and stop the advance of technology need to explore better the metallurgy. Therefore he has not all Durallumin.
But mainly as part of his plan he need to be there to burn away a great amount of Atium. TLR's plan was just a 1024 years long plan, he didn't need to keep it forever, just enough for the Well to fill again.

Lastly, but this could be a minor boost, A-Cadmius allow you to live longer thanks to his time-manipulation skill (a Pulser could live for centuries with his power and a resonable amount of Cadmius)

Edited August 25, 2017 by Yata

[AbsentKeeper]

9 minutes ago, Yata said:

You could (with Skill) manipulate your Connection to your birthtime to make your Spiritual Age into an acceptable range.

I stand corrected. Now that you mention it, I do remember Brandon saying that you could do that.

Edit: It has been implied that Marsh is still using Atium though. Maybe he is just helping Harmony burn up his excess Ruin.

As for Cadmium, yeah you could do that, but I consider that more like forward time travel than immortality.

Edited August 25, 2017 by Cowmanthethird

[CrypticVoidbringer]

At the Thursday signing I asked: "When Khriss visits Scadrial, does Harmony know it?"

Brandon wrote in my book: "Some times He does. (more often than not, these days... But it is [emphasis Brandon's] possible to hide.)"

After writing that he told me (not a direct quote) that Khriss doesn't have a lot of reasons to hide (he seemed to imply that some others would want to hide more than Khriss does). She doesn't mind the attention, usually.

I assumed he was referring to Hoid or the other beings that are visiting Scadrial, but he didn't actually say that.

[+Extesian]

6 minutes ago, CrypticVoidbringer said:

At the Thursday signing I asked: "When Khriss visits Scadrial, does Harmony know it?"

Brandon wrote in my book: "Some times He does. (more often than not, these days... But it is [emphasis Brandon's] possible to hide.)"

After writing that he told me (not a direct quote) that Khriss doesn't have a lot of reasons to hide (he seemed to imply that some others would want to hide more than Khriss does). She doesn't mind the attention, usually.

I assumed he was referring to Hoid or the other beings that are visiting Scadrial, but he didn't actually say that.

That's very very interesting to me and confirms that Hoid can escape the detection of even Shards. Not surprising but interesting. Also unsurprising but interesting about Khriss, both in terms of temperament and abilities. Love it. Thanks for coming to the Shard to share it!

[Yata]

32 minutes ago, Extesian said:

That's very very interesting to me and confirms that Hoid can escape the detection of even Shards. Not surprising but interesting. Also unsurprising but interesting about Khriss, both in terms of temperament and abilities. Love it. Thanks for coming to the Shard to share it!

Well we know this for sure if I don't remember wrong. it was mainly in the regard of Odium. But Hoid managed to slip under Ruin's nose for a whole book and in an instance he was directly in Ruin's mouth.

Anyway I am curious if the was to hide from a Shard is related to be stealthy or the opposite (be so bright to be not identificable)

Edited August 25, 2017 by Yata

[ParadoxicalZen]

On 25/08/2017 at 5:32 PM, Yata said:

Well we know this for sure if I don't remember wrong. it was mainly in the regard of Odium. But Hoid managed to slip under Ruin's nose for a whole book and in an instance he was directly in Ruin's mouth.

I would venture Ruin was too focussed on his plan for destroying Scadrial to even consider looking for Good, unless he started causing mayhem, but I don't doubt he can cloak himself somehow, I mean he's hiding from someone on Roster (presumably Cultivation)

[Landis963]

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 7:52 AM, Pagerunner said:

That's one of his default personalization, where he writes a significant line from the book. Arcanum Unbounded gets "Are You Listening?" I think Way of Kings gets "Life Before Death."

Better luck next time you catch him! Just remember, he's as big a fan of the cosmere as the rest of us, he just happens to also write it!

He wrote "Can I eat your lunch?" in my copy of Arcanum Unbounded.  Which is annoying, because that's the copy I was going to give to my mother, who has only read Mistborn.  So there's going to be some awkward explanation happening, and some spoilers because she'll need to read Edgedancer to make sense of that and she hasn't read one word of Stormlight and it's not the sort of thing she's into and arglefrargle grah. 

EDIT: Just remembered though, I did get a couple of WoBs during the signings that might be of interest to someone other than myself.  These are highly paraphrased, as it's been a while. 

Q: Is the programming-esque nature of the Dor a product of the power being in the Cognitive Realm or is it for some other reason?

A: A mixture of the Vessels' personalities, the fact that the power's in the Cognitive Realm, and the nature of Sel's focus. 

Q: Imagine a hypothetical Shard of Tenacity.  What happens when the Vessel of that Shard dies? 

A: The magic will change drastically. Among other things, it would be very easy for practitioners of that magic to become Cognitive Shadows.  [Note: This is not what I asked - I was hoping something along the lines of how the power itself would react to its Vessel dying - but this will be useful for my purposes nonetheless]

Edited August 26, 2017 by Landis963

[jamskinner]

14 hours ago, Landis963 said:

He wrote "Can I eat your lunch?" in my copy of Arcanum Unbounded.  Which is annoying, because that's the copy I was going to give to my mother, who has only read Mistborn.  So there's going to be some awkward explanation happening, and some spoilers because she'll need to read Edgedancer to make sense of that and she hasn't read one word of Stormlight and it's not the sort of thing she's into and arglefrargle grah. 

EDIT: Just remembered though, I did get a couple of WoBs during the signings that might be of interest to someone other than myself.  These are highly paraphrased, as it's been a while. 

Q: Is the programming-esque nature of the Dor a product of the power being in the Cognitive Realm or is it for some other reason?

A: A mixture of the Vessels' personalities, the fact that the power's in the Cognitive Realm, and the nature of Sel's focus. 

Q: Imagine a hypothetical Shard of Tenacity.  What happens when the Vessel of that Shard dies? 

A: The magic will change drastically. Among other things, it would be very easy for practitioners of that magic to become Cognitive Shadows.  [Note: This is not what I asked - I was hoping something along the lines of how the power itself would react to its Vessel dying - but this will be useful for my purposes nonetheless]

Is this a hint about what happened on threnody? The magic users become cognitive shadows because the vessel is dead. 

Edited August 27, 2017 by jamskinner

[Landis963]

On ‎8‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 1:24 AM, jamskinner said:

Is this a hint about what happened on threnody? The magic users become cognitive shadows because the vessel is dead. 

I specifically asked about a hypothetical Shard of Tenacity, which logically would lend its magic to any random soul that didn't want to pass to the Beyond.  Also, Ambition didn't die in the Threnodite System, according to Khriss.  He was mortally wounded,  but limped to another (as yet unknown) location before expiring.