The Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon

[Moogle]

Pretty sure that you couldn't, since that Investure is used and returned to the Shard immediately.

 

I may be wrong, but I think Shaggai's idea was to store the entirety of a Shard in a gigantic nicrosilmind. Because the Investiture is stored, it wouldn't be returned to the Shard in question.

 

For example: this means that if you could Soulcast yourself enough nicrosil, and also got ahold of the Gravity Surge, that you could just fly around in a highstorm and drain it dry. Repeat for a few years, and you'd have Honor (or another Shard?) stored up. Then, you tap all the Investiture, and take ahold of the Shard yourself.

 

Or, a Compounding Nicrosil Twinborn could just store up Harmony (or the Preservation half of Harmony) in all the nicrosil on Scadrial.

[Aether]

I may be wrong, but I think Shaggai's idea was to store the entirety of a Shard in a gigantic nicrosilmind. Because the Investiture is stored, it wouldn't be returned to the Shard in question.

 

For example: this means that if you could Soulcast yourself enough nicrosil, and also got ahold of the Gravity Surge, that you could just fly around in a highstorm and drain it dry. Repeat for a few years, and you'd have Honor (or another Shard?) stored up. Then, you tap all the Investiture, and take ahold of the Shard yourself.

 

Or, a Compounding Nicrosil Twinborn could just store up Harmony (or the Preservation half of Harmony) in all the nicrosil on Scadrial.

You might be wrong with your main point, but I find it doubtful that you can Soulcast Allomantic metals, as they are the focus behind the Scadrian magic. Gemstones seem to be the focus for Rosharan magic (or at least one of them), and it is stated in the Way of Kings that you cannot Soulcast gemstones, presumably because of their role as a focus.

[Argent]

You can Soulcast metals suitable for the Metallic Arts (or at least Allomancy), somebody asked this during the Words of Radiance tour. I think Brandon said alloys probably wouldn't work though - just pure metals, like iron or copper.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Argent

[Moogle]

You might be wrong with your main point, but I find it doubtful that you can Soulcast Allomantic metals, as they are the focus behind the Scadrian magic. Gemstones seem to be the focus for Rosharan magic (or at least one of them), and it is stated in the Way of Kings that you cannot Soulcast gemstones, presumably because of their role as a focus.

 

Here's the WoB on the subject:

 

Q:  If I were to try to Soulcast pewter, the way Shallan does with the blood in The Way of Kings, would it come out that an Allomancer be able to use it?

A:  You could create Allomantically viable metals, yes.

Q:  But is it automatic?

A:  I would say that the pure metals are, but the alloys are not.

(source)

 

The bit on alloys, if I may offer my own interpretation, is likely because Allomantic alloys have to be a specific percentage and a Surgebinder likely needs to have specific knowledge of the percentages to properly Soulcast them. These percentages are not automatically used.

[Aether]

Yet again I sit corrected. Thank you for providing the WoB, Moogle!

 

EDIT: This does make me think that it will be considerably easier for Scadrial to procure the scantier Allomantic metals once they establish contact with Soulcasters on Roshar.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Aether

[PorridgeBrick]

Could a Nicrosil Twinborn who got ahold of another form of Investiture, would they be able to use their compounding abilities to drain unlimited amounts of power from the Shard whose Investiture they're using (assuming unlimited amounts of Nicrosil around)? If they drained enough, would they become the Shardholder? Could this be used to deSplinter a Shard?

This applies to any compounding, really. All Allomancy uses the Shard's power, so storing that energy takes it away. You might be able to do it with one of the Selian magics, too: while we haven't seen any yet capable of storing the Dor iirc, the method of accessing power is very similar to Allomancy. But no matter what method you use, I suspect it's going to be like trying to drink the entire Atlantic Ocean: just too enormous to ever really accomplish.

[Shaggai]

I may be wrong, but I think Shaggai's idea was to store the entirety of a Shard in a gigantic nicrosilmind. Because the Investiture is stored, it wouldn't be returned to the Shard in question.

 

For example: this means that if you could Soulcast yourself enough nicrosil, and also got ahold of the Gravity Surge, that you could just fly around in a highstorm and drain it dry. Repeat for a few years, and you'd have Honor (or another Shard?) stored up. Then, you tap all the Investiture, and take ahold of the Shard yourself.

 

Or, a Compounding Nicrosil Twinborn could just store up Harmony (or the Preservation half of Harmony) in all the nicrosil on Scadrial.

Yup. But you wouldn't have to only do it during highstorms. You'd need a little Stormlight to begin with, but by Compounding it you could drain increasingly more. It would be difficult to do the swallowing, but by Soulcasting a massive block of nicrosil to act as a main storage, and then Soulcasting a huge amount of nicrosil pellets to which you'd transfer the Stormlight for compounding, you could probably Compound huge amounts of Stormlight quite quickly. Is there some sort of Misting/Ferring which can steal the contents of metalminds? I vaguely remember some mention of that in some topic, but I can't remember which one it was. If I'm not misremembering something about this, you could have a bunch of Nicrosil Twinborn putting Honor into a nicrosilmind, which the other person could then tap at then end in order to become Honor.

This applies to any compounding, really. All Allomancy uses the Shard's power, so storing that energy takes it away. You might be able to do it with one of the Selian magics, too: while we haven't seen any yet capable of storing the Dor iirc, the method of accessing power is very similar to Allomancy. But no matter what method you use, I suspect it's going to be like trying to drink the entire Atlantic Ocean: just too enormous to ever really accomplish.

With other compounding you'd only be able to drain Harmony/Preservation. Nicrosil compounding allows any Shard to be drained.

[PorridgeBrick]

Would it still be Stormlight, though, after you store it? What little we know about Nicrosil (MAG) suggests that it converts all it stores into generic Investiture. If you store the power from Allomantic steel, you don't get Allomantic steel when you tap, you get Investiture that can be used to fuel Allomantic steel. And even if it still is Stormlight inside, that doesn't mean that burning metal containing it would cause the energy to suddenly come from a different Shard. It's still Preservation's system, he fuels it. His power could easily be given the properties of Stormlight without actually coming from Honor.

[Shaggai]

Would it still be Stormlight, though, after you store it? What little we know about Nicrosil (MAG) suggests that it converts all it stores into generic Investiture. If you store the power from Allomantic steel, you don't get Allomantic steel when you tap, you get Investiture that can be used to fuel Allomantic steel. And even if it still is Stormlight inside, that doesn't mean that burning metal containing it would cause the energy to suddenly come from a different Shard. It's still Preservation's system, he fuels it. His power could easily be given the properties of Stormlight without actually coming from Honor.

Huh. I didn't know that. What's the difference between Investiture that can be used to fuel Allomantic steel and an Allomantic steel store? I was assuming that the Investiture, when stored, remained Investiture, and that Compounding something draws it from the power of that Shard.

[PorridgeBrick]

It does remain Investiture. The difference is typed versus untyped. It's like a lump of clay versus a beautiful pot. Both are clay, but one is shaped into a specific task while one has yet to be shaped and can be made into anything. Or a beam of white light, containing all the spectrum, while a red light has been filtered down to one wavelength.

[Shaggai]

It does remain Investiture. The difference is typed versus untyped. It's like a lump of clay versus a beautiful pot. Both are clay, but one is shaped into a specific task while one has yet to be shaped and can be made into anything. Or a beam of white light, containing all the spectrum, while a red light has been filtered down to one wavelength.

So Feruchemical nicrosil deshapes the pot, basically?

[PorridgeBrick]

As far as the MAG indiciates, yes.

[Shaggai]

As far as the MAG indiciates, yes.

Interesting. I don't have it, but as far as I can tell it's set before the advent of Harmony. So apparently the genericising (yes, that's a word now) of Investiture holds true between Shards. On the other hand, it seems somewhat likely to me that that sort of thing might have been simplified for the sake of gameplay. Particularly when it manages to overwrite the Shardic association of the Investiture and makes it part of Preservation.

[Moogle]

Compounding does not draw energy from the Shard in question. Compounding is when you draw Preservation's Investiture through a Feruchemically charged metal, and instead of being filtered into the regular Allomantic effect, you get the Feruchemical effect.

 

 

Open The Fridge

My question is if there’s anything that you’ve never been asked that you would like to talk about?

Brandon Sanderson

Oooooh, ok. Hm. That one is so hard! Every time people ask me something like this... What have I never been asked that people should be asking, is basically what the question is? Something that the fans have just missed... They pick up on so much, that it’s hard... I do wonder if, you know… all the magic systems [in my books] are connected and work on some basic fundamental principles, and a lot of people haven’t been asking questions about this. One thing I did get a question on today, and I’ll just talk about this one... they didn’t ask the right question, but I nudged them the right way, is understanding that tie between Aondor [the magic system from Elantris] and allomancy [Mistborn’s magic system].

People ask about getting the power from metals and things, but that’s not actually how it works. The power’s not coming from metal. I talked a little about this before, but you are drawing power from some source, and the metal is actually just a gateway. It’s actually the molecular structure of the metal… what’s going on there, the pattern, the resonance of that metal works in the same way as an Aon does in Elantris. It filters the power. So it is just a sign of “this is what power this energy is going to be shaped into and give you.” When you understand that, compounding [in Alloy of Law] makes much more sense.

Compounding is where you are able to kind of draw in more power than you should with feruchemy. What’s going on there is you’re actually charging a piece of metal, and then you are burning that metal as a feruchemical charge. What is happening is that the feruchemical charge overwrites the allomantic charge, and so you actually fuel feruchemy with allomancy, is what you are doing. Then if you just get out another piece of metal and store it in, since you’re not drawing the power from yourself, you’re cheating the system, you’re short-circuiting the system a little bit. So you can actually use the power that usually fuels allomancy, to fuel feruchemy, which you can then store in a metalmind, and basically build up these huge reservoirs of it. So what’s going on there is… imagine there’s like, an imprint, a wavelength, so to speak. A beat for an allomantic thing, that when you burn a metal, it says “ok, this is what power we give.” When it’s got that charge, it changes that beat and says, “now we get this power.” And you access a set of feruchemical power. That’s why compounding is so powerful.

(source)

 

So Compounding wouldn't let you get the Investiture of any Shard but Preservation (unless they were fueling Allomancy through you for some reason). But with things like the highstorms, you've got a recharging source of Investiture to draw on that should be enough to eventually steal the entirety of the Shard's Investiture.

 

Nicrosil might convert Investiture into 'generic' Investiture, but that doesn't mean that 'generic' Investiture still isn't typed according to the Shard it came from. And in any case, the Investiture would still have been taken from the Shard in question even if it was converted to generic Investiture, so the method would still work to take all of the Investiture.

Edited April 12, 2014 by Moogle

[Observer]

I guess the real trick now would be to try and absorb Preservation out of Harmony and not get Ruined as a result.

[Eri]

How many Heralds were present at the SA prologue party (= the party where Szeth killed Gavilar)?

[Asperity]

Was Saint Seiya an influence for shardplate?

Are there any existing entities currently in the Cosmere that have been in existence since the beginning of the Cosmere? (Essentially a way to find out if anyone is 'immortal' or whatnot.)

Edited April 12, 2014 by Kythis

[Moogle]

Hoid went through Cultivation's Shardpool to get to Roshar as opposed to Honor's. Yet, he notes he never got along well with Cultivation. Why did he choose her Shardpool rather than Honor's?

[Meg]

Nothing we've seen suggests that keeping a gem in darkness affects its Stormlight retention (or decay) rate.

 

I'm still sure Stormlight (in gems?) can be preserved. What else would this line mean:

Already, they had to ration their gemstones and lanterns to explore the building.

(WoR, Chapter 87, p. 1048 Gollancz edition)

How to ration lanterns seems evident: don't lighten them.

But why would they need to ration gemstones, if they could not be stored in a way they don't loose Stormlight (more than not stored or sheltered).

I think the whole thought of rationing gemstones and lanterns implies that my idea isn't that unrealistic.

[Aether]

I'm still sure Stormlight (in gems?) can be preserved. What else would this line mean:

How to ration lanterns seems evident: don't lighten them.

But why would they need to ration gemstones, if they could not be stored in a way they don't loose Stormlight (more than not stored or sheltered).

I think the whole thought of rationing gemstones and lanterns implies that my idea isn't that unrealistic.

I think the more correct interpretation of that quote is that they had to use less Spheres for each lamp, so that they would have enough to light up the living quarters as well as enough to use for exploring and to work the Oathgate.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Aether

[Shaggai]

Compounding does not draw energy from the Shard in question. Compounding is when you draw Preservation's Investiture through a Feruchemically charged metal, and instead of being filtered into the regular Allomantic effect, you get the Feruchemical effect.

 

 

So Compounding wouldn't let you get the Investiture of any Shard but Preservation (unless they were fueling Allomancy through you for some reason). But with things like the highstorms, you've got a recharging source of Investiture to draw on that should be enough to eventually steal the entirety of the Shard's Investiture.

 

Nicrosil might convert Investiture into 'generic' Investiture, but that doesn't mean that 'generic' Investiture still isn't typed according to the Shard it came from. And in any case, the Investiture would still have been taken from the Shard in question even if it was converted to generic Investiture, so the method would still work to take all of the Investiture.

That makes sense.

[Argent]

Hoid went through Cultivation's Shardpool to get to Roshar as opposed to Honor's. Yet, he notes he never got along well with Cultivation. Why did he choose her Shardpool rather than Honor's?

 

Far too much implied knowledge. We are not 100% certain it was Hoid who came out of the Horneater lake, we don't know he was using it to worldhop, we don't know those lakes are Cultivation's pool, and we are not even 100% sure he was referring to her when he mentioned that bit about there being only one woman his age around here. Best case scenario Brandon would answer with a question along the lines of "why do you think X?" - worst case it's an outright RAFO, especially with how stingy he has been about the Shardpools.

[Moogle]

Far too much implied knowledge. We are not 100% certain it was Hoid who came out of the Horneater lake, we don't know he was using it to worldhop, we don't know those lakes are Cultivation's pool, and we are not even 100% sure he was referring to her when he mentioned that bit about there being only one woman his age around here. Best case scenario Brandon would answer with a question along the lines of "why do you think X?" - worst case it's an outright RAFO, especially with how stingy he has been about the Shardpools.

 

Thinking on it, I'll agree that it's easy RAFO bait, but I disagree with your use of saying we're not 100% certain on a few of those things.

 

Here's the Hoid one:

Q:  Will we learn more about the character currently known as Hoid in Words of Radiance?

A:  Yes, you will. Watch for a story told at a bar.

 

The story told at the bar includes no mention of anyone who could be Hoid except for someone with a physical description matching Hoid's coming out of the pool and making fun of Rock's beard.

 

As to the other things, we can't be 100% certain, but I think 99.9% certain would not be a bad amount of certainty to have. For worldhopping, for example:

 

Q:  The prevailing theory on the 17th Shard is that Hoid worldhops using Shadesmar. I was wondering if you were willing to confirm or deny that?

A:  Hoid has indeed gotten between worlds before through Shadesmar.

Q:  And would you be willing to give us a hint as to how he does that?

A:  There are hints in the books. There is a hint in the very first cosmere book I released. [that would be Elantris] Which I thought was a huge hint, but so far I haven't seen anyone talking about it.  I thought for sure once people started figuring the cosmere, they would see the massive in-your-face hint I put in that book, but so far, as far as I know, no one has.  Now, the one [hint] about the map, that one I don't think is obvious. I know people have been trying to figure it out. It's going to be fun once you figure it out, but it's not something huge and obvious. The Elantris once was, like, enormously "HIIINT!"

 

Elantris had a small section where the Shardpool was described as a gate, and Sel is the most Cosmere-aware of the Shardworlds, so... if I may be so arrogant as to say it, everything in my question seems obviously correct and has been hinted at heavily by Brandon in previous interviews. I'd be genuinely surprised if anything in my question was wrong, besides the assumption that Honor has a Shardpool on Roshar, which is sort of what I was asking with the question anyways.

 

But yes, obvious RAFO bait. I'd still ask it if I ever want to a signing on the off chance that he'd throw out a tidbit. He's answered some things I previously thought would be RAFO'd before.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Moogle

[Meg]

I think the more correct interpretation of that quote is that they had to use less Spheres for each lamp, so that they would have enough to light up the living quarters as well as enough to use for exploring and use to work the Oathgate.

That's an obvious interpretation and more likely to be correct than mine.

[Sabrina Stormshard]

If a person bonded 2 spren an order apart, e.g. an Order 1 spren and an Order 3 spren, would the overlap give them access to the powers of all 3 Orders (1,2 and 3)?