Question and Answer

[Landis963]

Have we ever asked WHY the Heralds are tortured between Desolations?

 

Because Odium's in charge, and why the heck not?  Besides, the Oathpact is set up so that it is in Odium's interests to make the Heralds break under torture as quickly as possibly, so that his army can get back to murderizing the Rosharan populace.  

[Master Elodin]

How much was Kaladin paid as a bridgeman?

[Oversleep]

How much was Kaladin paid as a bridgeman?

2 diamond marks.

I have a whole list of various prices and wages, but in Polish. I can translate it if somebody is interested.

Edited April 30, 2016 by Oversleep

[Eagle of the Forest Path]

2 diamond marks.

I have a whole list of various prices and wages, but in Polish. I can translate it if somebody is interested.

 

You kind of need to specify a time period, there's rather important difference between two marks per day or per week.

[Landis963]

You kind of need to specify a time period, there's rather important difference between two marks per day or per week.

 

This is bridgeman pay we're talking about, and Sadeas is in charge.  I'm fairly certain the only reason it isn't two marks per year is because Elhokar or someone (probably Dalinar) put his foot down.  

Edited May 2, 2016 by Landis963

[CaptainRyan]

So, I almost started my own thread about questions but I saw this one and decided to post my questions here. I keep a Google doc where, whenever I have a question I would like to ask Brandon pop in to my head, I write them down. I thought I would let the 17th Shard take a crack at answering them first so I that I do not waste Brandon's time and also so I do not waste a precious opportunity to gather more info. Also, I apologize in advance if these questions were asked/answered earlier - 64 pages of Q&A (on this thread alone!) were a bit intimidating to go through.

 

Without further ado - the questions!

 

1. Who would win in an arm wrestling match: pewter flaring thug or someone wearing shardplate?

 

2. Could a Kandra bond a shardblade?

 

3. Each Scadrian is said to contain a piece of Preservation: does this mean that as the population of Scadrial increases the strength of Preservation decreases? (Same question for Nalthians/Endowment via Breaths)

 

4. Is it possible to create a level IV Biochromatic entity that does not twist the meaning of its command?

 

5. Does the Vessel affect the Shard's intent? E.g. did Leras have an affect on what Preservation preserved? Or how the Shard viewed the concept of preservation? With the idea of “preserving” being so subjective how is that Intent interpreted?

 

6. Do aluminum bullets suffer the same ricochet effect when passing through time bubbles?

 

7. Would a shredder bullet (it explodes/shreds on impact and puts a ton of fragments into the body) made of aluminum decrease or defeat the power of Feruchemical (gold) healing?

 

8. Did you mean to make Feruchemical steel so powerful?

 

8. Why didn’t the Inquisitors, or Marsh, use compounded Feruchemical steel against Vin and Elend; especially in light of Ruin’s desire to spike Elend?

 

9. Is it possible to blend Hemalurgic spikes so that multiple powers could be stolen from a single person? I.e. using a single spike made of a variety of metals could more than a single power be stolen from a Mistborn?

 

10. Is it possible to blend multiple charged Hemalurgic spikes into a single spike that provides a variety of powers? i.e. Similar to how the Bands of Mourning were a single object.

 

11. If you spiked yourself with the Bands of Mourning would you gain all of the powers therein?

 

12. Vasher was known as Kalad and he is also known to have gone to Roshar before the Manywar. Is Kaladin’s name based on Kalad’s in some way? I.e. Do the people of Roshar have some sort of cultural remembrance of a historical/mythological figure known as Kalad (or some variation of that name)?

 

13. If someone has a metal mind surgically implanted in them then does that count as a “spike” in terms of Harmony/Ruin being able to influence/control a person or do only hemalurgically placed spikes count? A possible example of this “accidentally” happening was when Marsh pushed Sazed’s metal minds into him during their fight near the Well of Ascension.

 

14. Could a Drab (someone from Nalthis who has given up their breath) use a Southern Scadrian medallion?

 

15. Could a Radiant’s spren form itself into a bow and fire a “shardarrow”? When/if guns are introduced/developed on Roshar could the spren shape itself into a gun and fire a “shardbullet”?

 

Edit - found this from the most recent Jordancon:

Q: A bow, for example?

A: They could create, probably...Well, let’s RAFO that one, I’ll show you what’s going to be happening.

 

16. Could a Shard refuse to fuel a magic user? E.g. Could Preservation have cut off the flow of investiture to an Allomancer while that Allomancer was attempting to burn their metal?

 

17. How do you resolve issues where you, as an author, want to write certain ideas/characters/plots but you think your fans might not enjoy the direction you want to go? (The impetus for this question comes from some of the pushback that sprung up on the 17th Shard site, among other places, over the infamous “Wayne” chapters.)

 

18. If Sazed continues to hold only Preservation and Ruin will he eventually be overwhelmed by the Intents of his shards like Ati was or is he protected due to the opposite Intents? If he is protected, is there any other long-term impact - e.g. he will eventually become unable to act due to the conflicting Intents?

Edited May 4, 2016 by CaptainRyan

[Landis963]

Can't answer all of these, but here's my best guess:  

 

So, I almost started my own thread about questions but I saw this one and decided to post my questions here. I keep a Google doc where, whenever I have a question I would like to ask Brandon pop in to my head, I write them down. I thought I would let the 17th Shard take a crack at answering them first so I that I do not waste Brandon's time and also so I do not waste a precious opportunity to gather more info. Also, I apologize in advance if these questions were asked/answered earlier - 64 pages of Q&A (on this thread alone!) were a bit intimidating to go through.

 

Without further ado - the questions!

 

1. Who would win in an arm wrestling match: pewter flaring thug or someone wearing shardplate? Shardplate-wearer, I'd say.  How big a blowout it is depends on how much of a savant the thug is.  The greater the pewter savant, the lesser the blowout.  

 

2. Could a Kandra bond a shardblade? Given that they have souls and minds, I don't see why not.  

 

3. Each Scadrian is said to contain a piece of Preservation: does this mean that as the population of Scadrial increases the strength of Preservation decreases? (Same question for Nalthians/Endowment via Breaths) No.  Splinters as miniscule as "Allomantic ability" and "single Breath" are negligible when it comes to a Shard's power, and although a million negligible pieces might make up one reasonably-sized piece, it's still not enough to meaningfully impact a Shard's power in any way.  

 

4. Is it possible to create a level IV Biochromatic entity that does not twist the meaning of its command?

 

5. Does the Vessel affect the Shard's intent? E.g. did Leras have an affect on what Preservation preserved? Or how the Shard viewed the concept of preservation? With the idea of “preserving” being so subjective how is that Intent interpreted? Yes - Note that Odium gained a measure of paranoia from bonding to Rayse, with the result being how reticent it is to absorbing other Shards as opposed to Splintering them.  

 

6. Do aluminum bullets suffer the same ricochet effect when passing through time bubbles? 

 

7. Would a shredder bullet (it explodes/shreds on impact and puts a ton of fragments into the body) made of aluminum decrease or defeat the power of Feruchemical (gold) healing?

 

8. Did you mean to make Feruchemical steel so powerful?

 

8. Why didn’t the Inquisitors, or Marsh, use compounded Feruchemical steel against Vin and Elend; especially in light of Ruin’s desire to spike Elend? The only reason I can think of was that Vin needed to think she had a chance against any single Inquisitor.  Steelrunning would have disabused her of that PDQ.  

 

9. Is it possible to blend Hemalurgic spikes so that multiple powers could be stolen from a single person? I.e. using a single spike made of a variety of metals could more than a single power be stolen from a Mistborn? 

 

10. Is it possible to blend multiple charged Hemalurgic spikes into a single spike that provides a variety of powers? i.e. Similar to how the Bands of Mourning were a single object. Yes - this might be one method the Set uses to bestow multiple powers with one spike.  As far as we can tell, though, there's an upper limit to how many powers can be bestowed this way - Suit for example only has 3 Hemalurgically-implanted abilities.  

 

11. If you spiked yourself with the Bands of Mourning would you gain all of the powers therein? Not hemalurgically.  However, once the Bands were implanted, they would be touching your body, technically, and you'd be able to use the powers.  

 

12. Vasher was known as Kalad and he is also known to have gone to Roshar before the Manywar. Is Kaladin’s name based on Kalad’s in some way? I.e. Do the people of Roshar have some sort of cultural remembrance of a historical/mythological figure known as Kalad (or some variation of that name)? Not Kalad, but Kalak - one of the Heralds.  (Vasher is not one of the Heralds)

 

13. If someone has a metal mind surgically implanted in them then does that count as a “spike” in terms of Harmony/Ruin being able to influence/control a person or do only hemalurgically placed spikes count? A possible example of this “accidentally” happening was when Marsh pushed Sazed’s metal minds into him during their fight near the Well of Ascension. If Harmony/Ruin wanted them to act like Hemalurgic spikes, they'd act like Hemalurgic spikes.  (This is how the Lord Ruler went cuckoo)

 

14. Could a Drab (someone from Nalthis who has given up their breath) use a Southern Scadrian medallion?

 

15. Could a Radiant’s spren form itself into a bow and fire a “shardarrow”? When/if guns are introduced/developed on Roshar could the spren shape itself into a gun and fire a “shardbullet”?

 

Edit - found this from the most recent Jordancon:

Q: A bow, for example?

A: They could create, probably...Well, let’s RAFO that one, I’ll show you what’s going to be happening.

 

16. Could a Shard refuse to fuel a magic user? E.g. Could Preservation have cut off the flow of investiture to an Allomancer while that Allomancer was attempting to burn their metal?

 

17. How do you resolve issues where you, as an author, want to write certain ideas/characters/plots but you think your fans might not enjoy the direction you want to go? (The impetus for this question comes from some of the pushback that sprung up on the 17th Shard site, among other places, over the infamous “Wayne” chapters.)

 

18. If Sazed continues to hold only Preservation and Ruin will he eventually be overwhelmed by the Intents of his shards like Ati was or is he protected due to the opposite Intents? If he is protected, is there any other long-term impact - e.g. he will eventually become unable to act due to the conflicting Intents? Conflicts of Intent will happen to Sazed eventually, as will the override displayed by Preservation and Ruin in SH, but not for another thousand years at least.  

 

Hope that helps!

[Yata]

 

 

 

10. Is it possible to blend multiple charged Hemalurgic spikes into a single spike that provides a variety of powers? i.e. Similar to how the Bands of Mourning were a single object. Yes - this might be one method the Set uses to bestow multiple powers with one spike.  As far as we can tell, though, there's an upper limit to how many powers can be bestowed this way - Suit for example only has 3 Hemalurgically-implanted abilities.  

As far as we know... The Set uses standard Hemalurgy... Suit had 3 Spikes, not a Spike with three powers...Or, to be more clear, we have no evidence of them using a multi-powered Spike.

The Set limited themself with 3 Spikes because a fourth Spike will put them under Harmony's control (four Spikes are needed to control an Human being with Hemalurgy)

 

Anyway blending multiple Spikes would change the Spike Composition and they will lose its charge (the same thing happens with Metalmind)

Edited May 5, 2016 by Yata

[IndigoAjah]

4 and 16:

 

4) I don't think Nightblood is twisting his Command. He just can't understand it. If you gave a clearer Command, another Type IV would probably not have some of Nightblood's issues.

 

16) given that Vin, as Preservation, gifts Elend fuel for Allomancy, logically a Shard could deny it too

[The Sovereign]

8. Why didn’t the Inquisitors, or Marsh, use compounded Feruchemical steel against Vin and Elend; especially in light of Ruin’s desire to spike Elend?

 

A couple of things here, not all Inquisitors had all of the spikes, also it is highly unlikely they knew about Compounding at the time.

 

Interview: Mar 16th, 2012

A "Late-Breaking" Report (Paraphrased)

  BRANDON SANDERSON (paraphrased)

Inquisitors knowing how to Compound: some may have figured it out at some point. I got the impression it was not a technique the Lord Ruler taught them.

Tags

mistborn, inquisitors, lord ruler, compounding,

 

 

Prior to Ruin's release the only Feruchemical Power the standard Inquisitor had was gold. Unless they were a Mistborn or Auger before becoming an Inquisitor then they likely didn't even have the capacity to Compound before then. Once they started to have the necessary spikes it would probably take some time for them to figure out compounding. It is implied that Marsh learned to compound after the Catacendre for example.

[Stormgate]

Say a kandra were to have some Ferring ability, and they filled a metalmind using that power. Would a Ferring of the same metal be able to access the metalmind? I.e. Do kandra have Spiritual Identity?

[The Sovereign]

Do kandra have Spiritual Identity?

 

Yes, they do, Harmony spoke of Paalm going beyond. This would imply a spiritual identity.

[CaptainRyan]

Thanks to everyone, so far, who has responded to my previous list of questions. It is so wonderful to have access to such knowledgeable Cosmere folk. Khriss could probably learn a lot from all of you!

 

I would like to reply to a few of the responses with a follow up question/thought:

 

[snip]

 

4) I don't think Nightblood is twisting his Command. He just can't understand it. If you gave a clearer Command, another Type IV would probably not have some of Nightblood's issues.

 

[snip]

 

Hahaha, I think my question was unclear! I should definitely not attempt to give commands to awakened objects! But, IndigoAJah, you get to the heart of what I want to know - is it possible, given how short/simple commands need to be, to truly create a level IV biochromatic entity that follows the command exactly as you would want it to? If Vasher had had a clearer mental/emotional/spiritual understanding of "Destroy evil" when he gave the command or if he had used slightly different words would that have "fixed" Nightblood or is the act of creation simply too complex for mortals to accomplish (more or less) "perfectly"?

 

 

 
A couple of things here, not all Inquisitors had all of the spikes, also it is highly unlikely they knew about Compounding at the time.
 

Prior to Ruin's release the only Feruchemical Power the standard Inquisitor had was gold. Unless they were a Mistborn or Auger before becoming an Inquisitor then they likely didn't even have the capacity to Compound before then. Once they started to have the necessary spikes it would probably take some time for them to figure out compounding. It is implied that Marsh learned to compound after the Catacendre for example.

 

We know the Inquisitors hunted down most/all of the Feruchemists in Terris (and possibly the Final Empire). We know the Inquisitors were hunting metal born as well. I imagine Ruin was guiding their efforts and that it was relatively easy for Ruin to locate metal born for the Inquisitors. This implies that the Inquisitors in HoA had spiked themselves with lots of powers. On top of that we know that at least one Inquisitor, the one from the beginning of HoA, has both Allomantic steel and Feruchemical steel. On top (topper? more top?) of that, I think it is safe to say that Ruin could have taught the Inquisitors compounding.

 

Knowing all (or guessing some) of that it begs the question of why the Inquisitors did not use compounded Feruchemical steel to spike Elend. 

[IndigoAjah]

CaptainRyan, on 05 May 2016 - 7:35 PM, said:

Thanks to everyone, so far, who has responded to my previous list of questions. It is so wonderful to have access to such knowledgeable Cosmere folk. Khriss could probably learn a lot from all of you!

I would like to reply to a few of the responses with a follow up question/thought:

Hahaha, I think my question was unclear! I should definitely not attempt to give commands to awakened objects! But, IndigoAJah, you get to the heart of what I want to know - is it possible, given how short/simple commands need to be, to truly create a level IV biochromatic entity that follows the command exactly as you would want it to? If Vasher had had a clearer mental/emotional/spiritual understanding of "Destroy evil" when he gave the command or if he had used slightly different words would that have "fixed" Nightblood or is the act of creation simply too complex for mortals to accomplish (more or less) "perfectly"?

We know the Inquisitors hunted down most/all of the Feruchemists in Terris (and possibly the Final Empire). We know the Inquisitors were hunting metal born as well. I imagine Ruin was guiding their efforts and that it was relatively easy for Ruin to locate metal born for the Inquisitors. This implies that the Inquisitors in HoA had spiked themselves with lots of powers. On top of that we know that at least one Inquisitor, the one from the beginning of HoA, has both Allomantic steel and Feruchemical steel. On top (topper? more top?) of that, I think it is safe to say that Ruin could have taught the Inquisitors compounding.

Knowing all (or guessing some) of that it begs the question of why the Inquisitors did not use compounded Feruchemical steel to spike Elend.

The implication is that it takes a while to master Compounding even when you know how to - I think there was an earlier discussion on this and that there may be a WOB on it, but TLR took a while, longer than the 2 years or so Ruin had with the Inquisitors, to get it and it has nothing to do with knowledge, rather the mechanics. It may well have been that Ruin couldn't get them to do it in time and couldn't waste time practising when he needed them doing other tasks.

ANd on Nightblood, my impression is: Yes. But only if you have a real understanding of the concepts you envisage (which might be tricky for any human) and I would avoid using any concepts as subjective as Evil!

EDIT: I'm also not convinced that Ruin cared THAT much about Spiking Elend. He didn't think that they knew where the Atium was yet, could already follow Vin with her earring and might well have done better leaving Elend alone to not reveal that he could influence a spiked person

Edited May 5, 2016 by IndigoAjah

[CaptainRyan]

The implication is that it takes a while to master Compounding even when you know how to - I think there was an earlier discussion on this and that there may be a WOB on it, but TLR took a while, longer than the 2 years or so Ruin had with the Inquisitors, to get it and it has nothing to do with knowledge, rather the mechanics. It may well have been that Ruin couldn't get them to do it in time and couldn't waste time practising when he needed them doing other tasks.

 

[snip]

 

Hmm, if that is the explanation Brandon gives then I guess that is the explanation but... it seriously leaves me unfulfilled haha. A god that could control the actions of 15+ Inquisitors was incapable of teaching even a single Inquisitor (which, mind you, are experienced in both Allomantic and Feruchemical use) how to compound over the course of two years? That just does not sit right with me.

[Oversleep]

Did Ruin even know that Compounding is possible or (if he did) how to do it?

[CaptainRyan]

Did Ruin even know that Compounding is possible or (if he did) how to do it?

 

While I have never considered that possibility I would have to ask "Why would he NOT know how to do it"? He is both one of the two shards responsible for interacting with Scadrial and creating the Metallic Arts and he spent a thousand years observing Rashek compound. On top of that he is a Shard of Adonalsium and that bestows incredible powers of cognition, understanding and near-omniscience (for the local area). I think I would find the answer being "Ruin did not know how to compound." even more unsatisfying than "Compounding was too hard for Ruin to teach the Inquisitors."

[IndigoAjah]

I mean the real reason is: with 13+ Steel Compounders, unless Vin took off her earring significantly sooner, Ruin simply cannot lose. Not at all.

 

So one way or another Brandon couldn't let him have them, I suppose we pick whichever rationalisation we find least unsatisfying

[CaptainRyan]

I mean the real reason is: with 13+ Steel Compounders, unless Vin took off her earring significantly sooner, Ruin simply cannot lose. Not at all.

 

So one way or another Brandon couldn't let him have them, I suppose we pick whichever rationalisation we find least unsatisfying

 

Yeah, that hits right close to the core of my suspicion: Brandon did not take Compounding in to account while writing HoA. Honestly, I can accept that. For all of his awesomeness, and he is significantly more awesome than most everyone haha, he is going to slip up here and there. I wanted to ask him just to make sure I had not forgotten or missed an important point but I am 100% ok with it being something that was overlooked. 

[Dunkum]

to be fair, we know that the inquisitors were hunting metalborn, but it isn't clear that there were that many ferruchemists in the world to begin with.  bear in mind that the number of allomancers was small enough prior to TLR's age that no one seemed to even know about them (allomancy is not mentioned in the excerpts we see) and it wouldn't be all that unreasonable to have a similar number of ferruchemists.  the allomancers number was augmented by the Lerasium that TLR handed out, but at the same time the number of Ferruchemists was dramatically decreased when he converts them to Kandra.  bearing that in mind if gold is a higher priority ability, then they simply might not have had all that many chances to get steel.

[IndigoAjah]

At least 2 did though, and Inquisitors by definition have A Steel, so any with F Steel should be able to Compound

[CaptainRyan]

to be fair, we know that the inquisitors were hunting metalborn, but it isn't clear that there were that many ferruchemists in the world to begin with.  bear in mind that the number of allomancers was small enough prior to TLR's age that no one seemed to even know about them (allomancy is not mentioned in the excerpts we see) and it wouldn't be all that unreasonable to have a similar number of ferruchemists.  the allomancers number was augmented by the Lerasium that TLR handed out, but at the same time the number of Ferruchemists was dramatically decreased when he converts them to Kandra.  bearing that in mind if gold is a higher priority ability, then they simply might not have had all that many chances to get steel.

 

Even if we assume that there were literally not enough Feruchemists to provide the Inquisitors with Feruchemical gold and Feruchemical steel (ignoring that many, if not all, Inquisitors had Feruchemical gold before Ruin was released) there was still at least a single Inquisitor (the one we saw fighting Elend and Vin at the beginning of HoA) that did have both Allomantic steel and Feruchemical steel. We saw the Inquisitor use both. If I was Ruin and I only had a single Inquisitor with both Allomantic steel and Feruchemical steel I definitely would not just throw it away in a pointless battle against two Mistborn.

 

edit: ninja'd by IndigoAjah; were you compounding Feruchemical steel by any chance? 

 

double edit: Indigo, when you say at least two, you mean Marsh as the second right?

Edited May 5, 2016 by CaptainRyan

[IndigoAjah]

Yeah, Marsh as the second, I think. I just remember it was definitely used later in HoA after the one at the start was Ventured

Edited May 5, 2016 by IndigoAjah

[Eagle of the Forest Path]

A possible justification for Inquisitors not compounding is that their principal metalminds were their spikes. Can't compound from those. (Well, technically you can, but that's basically suicidal)

[natc]

. . . compounders don't really burn their proper metalminds though. Or even have to. You just need to store in whatever steel you swallowed (they're Inquisitors. They always have steel swallowed) and burn it off, then store the overkill amount of speed you get from that away for later use. Whether their primary metalminds are safe to burn is completely irrelevant.