Questions I Asked Brandon Today

[Alsenoth he/him]

While getting my books signed by Brandon today at Phoenix Comicon, he asked me if I had any questions for him. I, of course, had a notepad of carefully worded questions for him to answer but they were buried deep in my bag. Rather than fumble around like a fool, I blurted the two questions that I could remember off the top of my head.

 

Me: Did Seons exist before Odium visited Sel?

 

Sanderson: (Mind you, he actually stopped signing my book mid-autograph when I asked him this) Wow! That's an awesome question! No! No they did not!

 

Me: So, as a follow up question, are Splinters, then, fragments of killed Shards (I was trying to ask an underlying question here on whether or not Odium had visited Nalthis)?

 

Sanderson: Yes and no. Most of them, but not all of them. Not necessarily.

 

 

I SWEAR I had more questions to ask based around some theories I have. I had a list. Hidden. Deep in my bag. I looked at it and came across two in particular that I have been DYING to ask him. Based on other information, I believe we may have seen or been near Endowment's Shardpool on Nalthis and was going to ask him about that. My other question revolved around whether Vin got spooked by Hoid was due to the fact that Hoid was one of the guards earlier in the chapter complaining about the cold and--since her senses are heightened from tin--if she picked up on that guard's voice and recognized it when Hoid was humming. On a subconscious level. Who knows though? Anyway, I think the first question really helps out some!

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Cool beans!

My guess on the Hoid spooking thing is Ruin freaking out 'oh no Vin don't talk to Hoid he's weird and he still owes me five bucks'

[Kurkistan he/him]

We'd essentially nailed down that first one by now (we knew that the Aons in Seons were Splinters, we knew that Seons didn't exist when Odium visited, we knew that Odium Splintered Aona and Skai), but it's nice to get a 100% confirmation, none the less.

[Alsenoth he/him]

It could be paranoia, but I remember Sanderson stating something along the lines of "Vin is too observant for her own good," and that "Hoid is somewhere else in that chapter".

 

EDIT:

I was also going to ask him if Splinters are to Shards as Shards are to Adonalsium, but didn't get the chance.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Windrunner
Please don't double post, just edit your original post. Thanks! :)

[Windrunner he/him]

Cool, thanks for posting these questions, man! Too bad about your notebook, but maybe you'll get another chance to ask your questions, since Brandon's gonna be at ComicCon for a few days?
 
Anyway, I think this is what you were referring to.

AHOYMATEY (15 OCTOBER 2008)
Brandon, I just wanted to confirm that you did have a couple of cameos as Slowswift? Or was that mean to be someone else?

CHAOS
I'm pretty sure Slowswift is Hoid. The Ars Arcanum says he "bears a striking resemblance to a storyteller", which I take to mean Hoid.

BRANDON SANDERSON (16 OCTOBER 2008)
Slowswift is an homage to Grandpa Tolkien. A study of his personality will reveal why that name was chosen for him.

BRANDON SANDERSON
Hoid appears in that same chapter, but Vin doesn't meet him. Something he does spooks her. She's just too darn observant for her own good.
Source

I think you've misremembered it slightly though. Brandon's saying here that Hoid is somewhere in the chapter, but not as Slowswift. I kind of doubt, personally, that Hoid was one of the guards in the chapter.

[Isomere]

I think Vin was using Bronze to pick on on some type of Lightweaving Hoid was doing and it spooked her.

[Senor Feesh]

I think Vin was using Bronze to pick on on some type of Lightweaving Hoid was doing and it spooked her.

 

Surely that would have been more noticeable than just a 'weird feeling'? I'm also thinking a nudge from Ruin is more likely.

[Alsenoth he/him]

I don't think it has to do with ruin. The ONLY reason I have is that Brandon specifically said that VIN is too observant for her own good, not Ruin through Vin. I suppose she could be picking up on Lightweaving but (correct me if I'm wrong PLEASE, because this will help my motor for some other theories) would she even be able to pick up on that with Allomancy?

[Windrunner he/him]

We don't really know if Seekers can sense other investitures, but it's been confirmed that one properly trained could Seek Feruchemists. It's tough to know whether or not Vin could have managed to Seek Lightweaving. On on hand, she hasn't had any special training. On the other, she's fairly advanced and powerful with bronze, and she wasn't actually sensitive enough to know it was a magic, she could just feel, "something".

[Chromium Compounder]

My guess on the Hoid spooking thing is Ruin freaking out 'oh no Vin don't talk to Hoid he's weird and he still owes me five bucks'

Awesome.  That's worth an up vote.

 

I've always found it interesting that that happened right after she met Tolkien (Slowswift).  It seemed to me like she learned everything she needed to know, and that Hoid would have told her, from Slowswift.

 

Until I read that Slowswift was Tolkien I was putting together a theory that Slowswift was Hoid, and the reason she was spooked by Hoid was because subconsciously she saw through his disguise to see it was the same person.

[Alsenoth he/him]

I don't know why, but I thought that it was somehow inferred that Hoid was the informant she heard humming. Dunno why I automatically assumed that.

[Nepene he/him]

It is pretty scary speaking to a celebrity. Well done though.

 

With the dead splinter shard thing, it's likely that on Sel and Roshar the splinters are mostly from dead shards while in Nalthis with the divine breaths the splinters there are from a living shard.