The Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon

[Chiberty]

6 hours ago, Karger said:

I challenge you to create everything on Roshar by combining the 10 essences.

Sorry, not trying to continue a discussion, but I'm a little bit confused about your objection to the question. Isn't the fact that we don't know how this works a reason to ask it? Would a more general form of the question be better? Something like:

How does soulcasting work for things that do not fall under the category of the Ten Essences, such as Fungi?

[RShara she/her]

23 minutes ago, ChickenLiberty said:

Sorry, not trying to continue a discussion, but I'm a little bit confused about your objection to the question. Isn't the fact that we don't know how this works a reason to ask it? Would a more general form of the question be better? Something like:

How does soulcasting work for things that do not fall under the category of the Ten Essences, such as Fungi?

I think it'd be best to create a new topic in the relevant forum for this discussion, rather than clutter up this already insanely long thread

[Karger he/him]

Has the Rosharan Kandra spy locked into one persona or are they changing between several?

[+TheFoxQR]

Cryptics seem to be all about truth, and creative interpretation of truth. If Pattern was to somehow get to Arelon, would his "pattern" be cycling through the Aons?

Do the Honorblades have names?

Honor describes the future as a glass window, that shatters into smaller and smaller pieces the further you go. There are similar visual descriptors for how Renarin sees the future. And the Voidbinding Chart is supposed to be colored glass. Is there a correlation there?

Were the Ire impressed by Raoden and what he was able to achieve?

When a gem is attached to shardblade, the gem disappears and re-appears with the Shardblade. Living spren can take any shape, and are not restricted to any one shape. It is said a shardblade is made of Godmetal. Fabriels require forming physical structures around gems, and then trapping spren in those gems to channel the power. So, could a Radiant attach a gem to their living shardblade, and then summon it in the shape of a Fabriel? Can you have pre-trapped spren in separate gems, and then summon your spren around different ones in different shapes to quickly switch between several fabriels?

Is Aluminium Spiritually neutral, and is Silver Cognitive neutral?

Potential spoilers for future books:

Spoiler

Is there a parallel between the Gold-Atium section in Allomancy, and what happens with Renarin on Roshar? Could we divide Illumination into four parts with Lightweaving (pure), Nightweaving (mixed), Insight (pure) and Futuresight (mixed)?

Does Lirin know of the Skybreakers? Did he and Hesina run from them at some point in time, because one of them - or possibly both - had bonded a spren? Is that what Lirin sees in Kaladin?

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by TheFoxQR

[Jonathon]

If the cognitive realm represents how people perceive the world and objects and whatnot, why is water the only place for solid land (secret history) and just landmasses in general being completely different (the sea of beads in SA)? Especially if people are familiar with maps of the land

[Jamahu]

A question I would like to ask (but I’ll probably never make it to an event...)

Is there any in-world significance to the capitalization of Paalm’s name?  There’s a WOB that says it has been spelled both ways, but I’m wondering if that means that it used to be spelled PaAlm until she defected and/or removed one of her spikes.  Like maybe it’s an indication that she is no longer considered fully Kandra or something.

[Karger he/him]

Earlier you mentioned that it is possible to "distill" harmamonium into lerasium and atium.  If I did so would get equal amounts of both(either in mass or in moles)?

[Ethan_sedai he/him]

In Oathbringer, Beard mentions that the Blackthorn gave Beard his knife, supposedly for valor. In one of Dalinar's flashback chapters, he has lost his knife, and has no idea where he left it. Are these two things related, or is this just pure coincidence?

[RShara she/her]

1 minute ago, Ethan_Sedai said:

In Oathbringer, Beard mentions that the Blackthorn gave Beard his knife, supposedly for valor. In one of Dalinar's flashback chapters, he has lost his knife, and has no idea where he left it. Are these two things related, or is this just pure coincidence?

I'm pretty sure Beard never received even a look from Dalinar, let alone a knife.

[Wander89 he/him]

I'd like to ask (unless there's already been an answer) if there have been any characters put into the books that are not currently in any other novels that are being kept secret for future novels. Potentially other Worldhoppers that are to show up in Dragonsteel or another non-confirmed Cosmere book.

[Hempknight he/him]

I have a couple I'm not sure have been asked. 

1. With eons being geographically linked to sel and Brandon saying that it's the molecular structure of the metal you burn in allomancy that opens the lock to the investiture. Are metals basically universal eons were the shape of the molecular structure for each metal is constant throughout the cosmere?

2. Does lift turning food into investiture have anything to do with her viewing the world threw child's eyes? E.g I need more awesomeness we're would it come from? Well it must be food that's were I get my other energy from.

3. Are all the unmade still on Roshar 

thank you. 

[Fezzik]

1. Yep, exactly.

2. Lift turning food into investiture is because of her visit to the nightwatcher (which is also where she asked to never change, a la Peter pan) so sorta?

3. Within the Rosharan system, definitely. Within Roshar, the planet or continent, maybe not.

@Hempknight

Edited September 6, 2019 by John203

[Karger he/him]

You have previously mentioned that there is a way to turn harmonium into Atium and Lerasium.  Would you get exactly equal masses or moralities of both or would there be slightly more of one or the other? 

[Stoneward13 he/him]

I don't know if this has ever been asked of Brandon, and I couldn't find a WoB with this question either, so maybe someone here can help me. My question is if there is a way to navigate the Cognitive Realm (Shadesmar) the same way you would navigate the Physical realm with a compass? Do compasses work in the other realms? Gravity still seems to be in effect in those places, so if there is a magnetic pull, it stands to reason that a compass would still function.... BUT, what is "north" in Shadesmar? I dunno, man. I'm very curious if there is an official answer.

 

[--delete--]

Does the Set have a practical use for silver that has been 'spent' repelling Threnody's shades or reversing withering?

[LiquidBlue]

The nightwatcher seems unable or unwilling to give boons to off-worlders, is this correct? If a duralumin hemalurgic spike charged with connection to Roshar was implanted in an off-worlder, would the nightwatcher be able to give them a boon?

[LiquidBlue]

If a aluminum misting ingested other allomantic metals then burned aluminum, would the aluminum eliminate all of the metals or just the aluminum.

(My guess is just the aluminum. The metals are not invested themselves, and are only potent within an allomancy of the appropriate type.)

[Hakedohn]

a question I have had for a while is about lifts gift for investiture. In my reading of SLA and edgedancer, I think lifts ability to convert food into investiture as a wonder gift with alot of distinct advantages ( For example, having access to her powers when there is not an available source of investiture . However, am I correct in assuming that it would also dramatically limit the level of investiture mastery she will be able to achieve. It seems that the level of investiture she is granted by eating is dramatically less than that of other Radiants. 

[Ciridae]

Why did the parshmen know to get angry at people touching their corpses? The listeners had oral histories about humans hacking apart singer corpses to get at the gemhearts, so it makes sense they would hate seeing that. But pre-Everstorm parshmen wouldnt have that. Not even having your wife and child taken from you could cause a reaction like that from the parshmen, Sah says as much. So is it instinctual? Why would it be? 

[Guest Edonidd]

I've had 2 kind of interconnected questions for a while.

1a.  We know for instance that Kaladin is faster, quicker, more agile than average.  And Rock is much stronger than average.  And kind of by appearances, we can guess that Shellan is probably less nsturally physically gifted than average.  Would holding stormlight lessen the gap, or even completely even the physical stats, or augment the natural gifts and widen the gap?  Not talking about training, or reaction times, or anything like that.  Just pure physical capabilities.

1b.  By the same token, but looking at the other side of the coin.  Do some KR/surgebinders have more pure abilities with surges than others.  Szeth, had more training, and Kaladin had more of an innate apptitude; but once training catches up and experience replaces aptitude will all KR of a certain order be pretty equal?  This probably has more to do with other orders, especially the offensive powers like dustbringers.  Will certain KR just be stronger in the surges?  

 

A possible third question to go along with the above 2.  Does the exact spren they bonded play any part in that?  For instance we know Syl is something like a princess among honor spren, she was the first new honor spren made by The Stormfather after Honor was destroyed.  Then we saw Rock noticing all the honor spren watching Bridge 4 practice.  Would Kaladins power be affected in any way if he had bonded one of those other spren?  What if he had bonded the special one that Rock gave gems to?  Or the honor spren king/emperor/leader who may have been made by Honor himself.  Does which spren you bond have any impact?  Does their compatibility and their attitude factor into it at all?

[Quantus he/him]

Would Wit's mysterious Topaz qualify as a Perfect Gem by Rosharan standards?

[The Young Pyromancer he/him]

Have any of the five scholars achieved the goal that they returned for?

How does the presence of an avatar of autonomy affect a magic system?

Let’s say a returned wielding nightblood is about to be possessed by Yelig-nar and draws nightblood at the exact same time in a desperate hope to counter the effect.  Simultaneously, a Larkin bites the returned’s leg.  What happens?

Edited October 10, 2019 by The Young Pyromancer

[Karger he/him]

49 minutes ago, The Young Pyromancer said:

Let’s say a returned wielding nightblood is about to be possessed by Yelig-nar and draws nightblood at the exact same time in a desperate hope to counter the effect.  Simultaneously, a Larkin bites the returned’s leg.  What happens?

The returned dies.

[Dunkum he/him]

8 hours ago, Karger said:

The returned dies.

yelig nar might die too in this scenario.  larkin and nightblood are probably fine, as long as the larkin isn't evil.

[The Young Pyromancer he/him]

But does Yelig-nar work by producing invesiture and eventually overloading them or by consuming the target's spiritweb to power the effects?

And which one kills the returned first?  This might give us an idea of each one's relative power level.