The Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon

[CrazyRioter she/her]

Just now, Karger said:

Yes, yes, yes and what questions?

the post you just quoted was literally 7 years old.

[The Young Pyromancer he/him]

1 minute ago, CrazyRioter said:

the post you just quoted was literally 7 years old.

LOL.

[Karger he/him]

12 minutes ago, The Young Pyromancer said:

LOL.

I am new and stupid and did not think to look lol.

PS Could someone explain how community reputation works why it is important and show me a list of all the ranks that would be great.

[The Young Pyromancer he/him]

It's not really important.  It's just a bragging rights thing.

You should create a thread in the introductory part of the forums.  The people there are experts at answering questions.

And I don't think ANYBODY knows all the ranks, except maybe the staff.  There are like 40 of 'em.

[Dunkum he/him]

3 minutes ago, The Young Pyromancer said:

It's not really important.  It's just a bragging rights thing.

You should create a thread in the introductory part of the forums.  The people there are experts at answering questions.

And I don't think ANYBODY knows all the ranks, except maybe the staff.  There are like 40 of 'em.

And since they stopped showing actual reputation number next to posts, I'm not actually sure how many people know which ranks are higher and which are lower anymore.  some are easy enough (darkeyes is pretty low, full feruchemist is probably higher than misting) but others are hard to compare (how does Elantrian compare to full feruchemist?  i have no idea anymore)

[The Young Pyromancer he/him]

You can check in their profile.

[Karger he/him]

46 minutes ago, The Young Pyromancer said:

LOL.

I was stupid and did not think to look at the date.

PS can someone direct me to a list an explanation of how the hole status thing works

Thank you

Edited February 19, 2019 by Karger
update

[The Young Pyromancer he/him]

It's fine.

I'll find a link and post it here.

You really should start a thread in the introductory section.  The people there are very good at explaining things 

[Dunkum he/him]

23 minutes ago, The Young Pyromancer said:

You can check in their profile.

yea, i realize that, but it isn't something i do often.

[The Young Pyromancer he/him]

Here's a thread explaining stuff.  Note: some of it may be out of date.

[Calderis he/him]

I have the thread you guys are looking for. 

Full list inside. Rep numbers (which you can see in your profile) associated. 

[Karger he/him]

I have a few questions of my own mostly about stormlight

1 Worldhopping. How does worldhopping work? Yes you go to the cognitive realm but then what? What does the vacuum of space look like in Shadesmar? (How do you think about nothing?)

2 Shadesmar is weird. Why is the sky backwards in Shadesmar with the sun a hole and the sky providing light? (I don't think of the sun as a hole in the sky) Why is the ground a bunch of things but the ocean solid? Why do shadows point to the sun? What provides oxygen? Why no wind?  Finally how does one kill or defeat a spren in shadesmar.  (Ivory says Honorspren war and we do see several weapons)

3 Spiritual realm. Do you have any plans to set a story in the spiritual realm? Can physical beings go through the spiritual realm?

4 The other two Bondsmiths. Have we met the other two bondsmiths yet?

5 Bondsmith oaths.  So far we have only met one bondsmith Dalinar who is bonded to the Stormfather the spirit of oaths.  His oaths make are understandable in light of that however what about an individual bonded to the Nightwatcher?  She is a spirit of growth and possibly death so promising unity does not realy work in light of that.  Do the different bondsmiths swear different oaths?

6 All 10 orders.  During the final unite them scene in Oathbringer 11 individuals show up.  We see one from each order with the exception of Adolin who is not a radiant at all and Shallash who is the patron of the lightweavers.  No dustbringer is present and Shallan is already representing the lightweavers.  Does this imply that Shallash is going to be a dustbringer?

7 The transportation surge. Does the transportation surge allow teleportation like oathgates or just travel to and from shadesmar?

8 Ialai's soldiers.  What is going to happen to all the soldiers who turned traitor at the Battle of Thaylen Field?

9 Goals. Ialai seems to support her husbands goals and ambitions to thepoint committing treason by his order several times.  When he died what were her goals?  Was she just lashing out or did she have some further plan in mind beyond undermining Dalinar and the coalition?

10 Spanreeds. Do spanreeds work in the cognitive realm?

11The Iriali. Are the Iraili Ashynites?

12 Hope. This is a question for you as a person not you as the author but do you think that their is still hope for Moash, and Ialai or do you think that once someone is that far gone they are gone forever?

Edited February 20, 2019 by Karger
update

[Karger he/him]

On 1/4/2019 at 6:34 AM, ScarletSabre said:

Good call, I'll post a completely different question for now ^^

If Jezrien had been killed without Moash interrupting his cycle of rebirth, would he have been reborn as he was when we saw him in the Prelude to Way of Kings, or as he was when he died?

As I understand it when a herald is killed they return to Braize.  Getting reborn does not however change a herald physically or emotionally except in so far as they are hurt by the pain of it.  This would most likely imply that he would be forced onto Braize and would still be a drunken begger when he got there.

[Karger he/him]

On 11/17/2018 at 2:11 PM, Feruchemist said:

Do fungi, plants, and animals exist on all inhabited Cosmere worlds? 

Are there any "plant-people" or "fungus-people" in the Cosmere?

Can herdazians (because they have Singer blood) theoretically change forms?

I do not know about plan-people or the existence or lack of plants and animals on Cosmere wolds but I would guess based on logic that plant people could exist (the sleepless are far odder).

 A desolate world could become inhabited by a space civilization (like from 6th of the dusk). 

I can also guess that herdazians have some spren bonding abilities based on some of the stuff we have seen Rock do which I will explain.

1. Rock is a Horneater therefore he has Singer blood. 

2. Rock is extraordinarily strong we saw him lift an huge log and use a shardbow without any plate (Shardbows are so heavy that that should be impossible for an ordinary human).  Rock can also see spen.

3. Its seems that Rock had some kind experience at the horneater peeks that gave him these abilities (from remarks he made to Kaladin in Words of Radiance).

4. Azure claims that Cultivation's perpendicularity was at the horneater peaks. 

5. Singers change forms by going into a highstorm Honor's perpendicularity

6. From this it seems plausible that Rock entered the perpendicularity and bonded to some kind of spren that enhanced his strength this is further supported by Rock saying in Oathbringer that he has special gifts.  This also implies that not all horneaters have them only some ability to bond spren (perhaps it runs in bloodlines and only a few have enough).

[RShara she/her]

1 hour ago, Karger said:

I have a few questions of my own mostly about stormlight

1 Worldhopping. How does worldhopping work? Yes you go to the cognitive realm but then what? What does the vacuum of space look like in Shadesmar? (How do you think about nothing?)

2 Shadesmar is weird. Why is the sky backwards in Shadesmar with the sun a hole and the sky providing light? (I don't think of the sun as a hole in the sky) Why is the ground a bunch of things but the ocean solid? Why do shadows point to the sun? What provides oxygen? Why no wind?  Finally how does one kill or defeat a spren in shadesmar.  (Ivory says Honorspren war and we do see several weapons)

3 Spiritual realm. Do you have any plans to set a story in the spiritual realm? Can physical beings go through the spiritual realm?

4 The other two Bondsmiths. Have we met the other two bondsmiths yet?

5 Bondsmith oaths.  So far we have only met one bondsmith Dalinar who is bonded to the Stormfather the spirit of oaths.  His oaths make are understandable in light of that however what about an individual bonded to the Nightwatcher?  She is a spirit of growth and possibly death so promising unity does not realy work in light of that.  Do the different bondsmiths swear different oaths?

6 All 10 orders.  During the final unite them scene in Oathbringer 11 individuals show up.  We see one from each order with the exception of Adolin who is not a radiant at all and Shallash who is the patron of the lightweavers.  No dustbringer is present and Shallan is already representing the lightweavers.  Does this imply that Shallash is going to be a dustbringer?

7 The transportation surge. Does the transportation surge allow teleportation like oathgates or just travel to and from shadesmar?

8 Ialai's soldiers.  What is going to happen to all the soldiers who turned traitor at the Battle of Thaylen Field?

9 Goals. Ialai seems to support her husbands goals and ambitions to thepoint committing treason by his order several times.  When he died what were her goals?  Was she just lashing out or did she have some further plan in mind beyond undermining Dalinar and the coalition?

10 Hope. This is a question for you as a person not you as the author but do you think that their is still hope for Moash, and Ialai or do you think that once someone is that far gone they are gone forever?

A lot of these have been answered, so you might try posting in the Stormlight forum (or the appropriate series forum, anyway, then anything that isn't already known can be put here. But basically:

1. The Cognitive Realm for the entire cosmere is flat and links up to each world. You can walk from planet to planet. Places that people don't think about, or live on, like space, is compressed. So you can cross light years in a step. That allows worldhoppers to walk or travel between worlds in a relatively short period of time.

2. The theory I have is that on land, there are people who link about all the things around them. Rocks, pebbles, houses, boxes, forks. Since each object has a bead, that fills the land part with beads. People tend to thing of a lake or a river or an ocean as a single cohesive thing, so it tends to be solid. Other than that, we haven't been given a lot of explanation yet.

3. The Spiritual Realm is really weird, and I don't think that a we're going to get a whole lot of it. But Brandon currently wants to have the method that humans came from Ashyn to Roshar be through the Spiritual Realm, if he can get it to work. There are also glimpses of it that we get in Mistborn.

4. Not yet.

5. Unknown yet. Probably going to be RAFO'd and answered in future books.

6. That's the popular theory.

7. It should allow travel like the Oathgates, but we're not sure yet if or how.

8. I'm sure we'll find out in Book 4.

9. See answer 8

10. That's a good one to ask Brandon for sure

Here is where all of Brandon's answers, aka Words of Brandon have been compiled: https://wob.coppermind.net/ if you want to look at things Brandon has already answered.

Edited February 19, 2019 by RShara

[Karger he/him]

10 hours ago, RShara said:

A lot of these have been answered, so you might try posting in the Stormlight forum (or the appropriate series forum, anyway, then anything that isn't already known can be put here. But basically:

1. The Cognitive Realm for the entire cosmere is flat and links up to each world. You can walk from planet to planet. Places that people don't think about, or live on, like space, is compressed. So you can cross light years in a step. That allows worldhoppers to walk or travel between worlds in a relatively short period of time.

2. The theory I have is that on land, there are people who link about all the things around them. Rocks, pebbles, houses, boxes, forks. Since each object has a bead, that fills the land part with beads. People tend to thing of a lake or a river or an ocean as a single cohesive thing, so it tends to be solid. Other than that, we haven't been given a lot of explanation yet.

3. The Spiritual Realm is really weird, and I don't think that a we're going to get a whole lot of it. But Brandon currently wants to have the method that humans came from Ashyn to Roshar be through the Spiritual Realm, if he can get it to work. There are also glimpses of it that we get in Mistborn.

4. Not yet.

5. Unknown yet. Probably going to be RAFO'd and answered in future books.

6. That's the popular theory.

7. It should allow travel like the Oathgates, but we're not sure yet if or how.

1. Then what happens if you Elsecall in the middle of space?

2. I though the same but in Oathbringer Jasnah says that the ground thinks of itself as one piece witch is why it is harder to soulcast then rubble

3. That is not cannon yet and he might just revert to standard worldhopping.  We do get glimpses of it all the time in cosmere but no physical normal human has spent much time there.

4. I meant have we met the characters that are going to bond the Nightwatcher and the Sibling

5. True

7. Cognitive or spiritual realm maybe?

[Karger he/him]

On 1/19/2019 at 5:41 PM, Silverblade5 said:

Can a larkin eat voidlight?

Yes, Chiri-Chiri does it in Oathbringer.

[RShara she/her]

So at this point, as I said, I think it'd be a better idea for you to make a post in The Stormlight or Cosmere forums to ask and discuss these, so that we don't clutter and derail this thread.

[Karger he/him]

On 11/25/2018 at 6:22 PM, Zelly said:

1) Is the Sibling something we're familiar with (like an object/place we've seen) or is it something we're completely unfamiliar with?

3) Has Hoid had a direct run in with any of the Unmade? If so, has it been in the last few years (opposed to thousands of years ago).

4) At Galvinar's funeral in Oathbringer, Dalinar overhears Jasnah reading from the opening to Nohadon's Way of Kings.  In that passage, Nohadon is speaking to someone who claimed to see the future.  Is this person a Herald, a Shard, something else?

5) Were the windblades of Kholinar and similar unusual city structures made in the same way that Urithiru was made?

1) Most people I have met believe that the Sibling resides in the gemstone at Urithiru but is currently asleep.

3) He seemed familiar with Ashertmarn (Heart of the Revel) but when he last encountered it is anyone's guess.

4) The text implies that that it is not someone who has actually seen the future but that "the past is the future" in other wolds this discussion is with an old wise man(or woman) not something magical.

5) The windblades seem to have been formed with cymatics as Kolinar is one of those cities which has a pattern that can be produced that way.  I no one has discovered how to do this with Urithiru and I personally think that it was made by stonewards using the tension surge.

[The Young Pyromancer he/him]

@Karger General rule of thumb: a lot of the questions in this thread have theories or implications that point toward answers.  But the answer is not confirmed.  Hence they are in here.

[Chinkoln he/him]

Will Sazed (Harmony) every learn to raise people from the dead, as he hinted he would soon be able to do.

[RShara she/her]

10 minutes ago, Chinkoln said:

Will Sazed (Harmony) every learn to raise people from the dead, as he hinted he would soon be able to do.

Once they've gone Beyond, he can't bring them back. If he's able to heal their body before their mind/soul departs, then yes, he could.

[Karger he/him]

Are shards unlimited?  Is their a limit to how many people Endowment can invest or will she eventually run out of investiture?

[RShara she/her]

3 minutes ago, Karger said:

Are shards unlimited?  Is their a limit to how many people Endowment can invest or will she eventually run out of investiture?

Quote

emailanimal

From a very recent signing, we have this new Word of Brandon...

chasmfriend's son: Is there a finite amount of Investiture?

Brandon: Yes.

chasmfriend's son: So is Nightblood consuming it?

Brandon: Yes. Very, very slowly.

This worries me somewhat because of the following observation.

Nightblood consumes Breath (and other Investiture, but let's limit ourselves to Breath for a second).

Every person on Nalthis is born with one Breath.

Populations tend to grow. Which means that under normal rules of demographics, population of Nalthis should keep increasing.

This in turn means that under normal circumstances the number of people with Breath on Nalthis should be growing.

I can see the following possible explanations to this:

1. Endowment can give Breath to many more people than are currently living on Nalthis. So, the exponential population growth has not yet reached the level at which Endowment's ability to award a Breath to each Nalthis-born human is seriously challenged. When it happens though, things will not go well.

2. There is some built-in mechanism controlling population growth on Nalthis, making certain that the population stays within the limits. Nightblood's consumption of Breath makes these limits smaller, and overall may lead to Endowment's inability to grant Breath to Nalthis-born, but not for a while (essentially, Endowment controls population trends at she sees fit).

Thoughts?

Brandon Sanderson

Just as a point you should understand, the amount of MATTER in the cosmere is finite too. As is the amount of energy.

Worrying that Endowment will run out of Breaths to give is a little like worrying that the amount of carbon on Earth will run out because people keep being born.

uchoo786

So just for clarification, once Nightblood consumes investiture, that investiture gets recycled? That's what I've always assumed. That it enters the cognitive/spiritual realm?

Brandon Sanderson

The investiture he consumes is not gone forever--it's not leaving the system, so to speak.

General Reddit 2015 (Dec. 14, 2015)

 

[Karger he/him]

Can you give us a ballpark estimate of how much mass/energy/investiture the 16 shards started with?  Are we talking suns? Galaxies? 

Does Hoid have an actual endgame at this point or is he just trying to get somewhere and hoping that he can figure it out from there?