The Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon

[WeiryWriter]

When a listener is born, what form are they in?

[GreyPilgrim]

(I feel like someone must have asked this before, but if not:)

Is cross-Shardworld breeding possible? I.e., could a Scadrian have a child with a Nalthian?

If so, in the above case, could one be born with a Breath as well as the potential to use the Metallic Arts?

[Aether]

This has been answered before. I'll see if I can't find the WoB.

 

EDIT: It doesn't seem to be on theoryland. I'll let the more WoB savvy Sharders search for it instead, but the WoB basically says that yes, they could have children and that the combination of the magic systems would produce some "interesting effects" or something like that. He didn't want to give up any specific information on it.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Aether

[WeiryWriter]

Here is the WoB in question:
 

Chaos

A lerasium Mistborn's kids would surely be Allomancers. If such a lerasium Mistborn traveled to, say, Nalthis, fell in love and had kids with a native Nalthisean, would those kids be Allomancers? Or something else?

Brandon Sanderson

In most cases, they would still be Allomancers. Mixed, potentially, with something else depending on the native innate investiture. That mixture could do some strange things, though.

 

(source)

[GreyPilgrim]

Thanks, Weiry.

[Shaggai]

Could a Nicrosil Ferring, who was Hemalurgically granted Allomantic pewter and stored their pewter reserves in their metalminds, tap their metalminds and use their pewter reserves?

[Stalagmite]

How many beads of Lerasium were at the Well of Ascension before Hoid arrived?

[Meg]

How many beads of Lerasium were at the Well of Ascension before Hoid arrived?

 

 

My guess is: There were two beads of lerasium before Hoid arrived. We know that Hoid got one bead of lerasium. And Vin took one to save Elend.

Unfortunately I've found no evidence on the question how many beads of lerasium existed in the first place.

[Stalagmite]

I guess that there were at least 10

[Stalagmite]

Could an Elantrian use AonDor to make themselves a mistborn or feruchemist?

[DoctorWh0m]

I guess that there were at least 10

I'd say 16 at a guess, considering this is Scadrial.

[Aether]

Is Ym's Spren a different individual than Glys (Renarin's Spren)? If yes, were they ever bonded at the same time?

 

I think it is quite likely that there were two proto-Truthwatchers at the same time during the Words of Radiance. If the answer is yes on both accounts, this would conclusively prove that the Radiants aren't limited to one Knight per Order this time around.

[Moogle]

If Ruin never Invested Scadrial, could fabrials be made on Roshar?

 

(If the answer is no, the trapping of spren in gemstones to make fabrials would likely be a use of Hemalurgy. It'd explain why Soulcasting ardents have altered appearances, anyways.)

Edited April 30, 2014 by Moogle

[ccstat]

Moogle, I don't understand your reasoning here. Can you elaborate on how you got to your question?

 

I am probably missing something because your proposal of fabrials as Hemalurgy doesn't make any sense to me. 

 

First: I can see a tenuous connection between the magic systems, but not nearly enough of one to propose they are the same. (In fact, they seem entirely distinct to me, with only Realmatic themes tying them together.)  

 

Second: What makes you think that a Shard's investiture on one shardworld would materially affect the (very prominent) practice of magic on another shardworld, itself heavily invested by different Shards? It makes much more sense to me that a prevalent magic system would be powered by that planet's shards rather than be a manifestation of a non-locally invested Shard's system. 

 

Third: Assuming for argument that a non-local Shard's system could be involved, as you suggest, why would it matter whether that Shard had invested in a planet at all? If I, as a Rosharan, can access Ruin's power from Roshar, it shouldn't make a difference whether Ruin is tied up in Scadrial or floating around doing his own thing in a random nebula somewhere.

 

If you are just looking for an explanation for the alterations to the Soulcasting ardents, I think you can much more easily look to Shadesmar and the surges.

Edited April 30, 2014 by ccstat

[Aether]

I think what Moogle was suggesting was that fabrialmaking might be a type of Hemalurgy. Fabrials work by trapping Spren (Spiritual matter) and attaching them to a metal framwork, which does smack somewhat of how Hemalurgic spikes work. If this is true, than if Ruin and Preservation hadn't made the Metallic Arts, than fabrials would not be possible on Roshar.

 

I find the connection tenuous, at best, but he just might be on to something.

[Moogle]

...

 

Your questions are what brought up the question in the first place.

 

First of all, there's one huge issue: Hemalurgy is usable by anyone in the Cosmere. You don't need Scadrian DNA or Scadrian metals. And we know it's been used off of Scadrial. This is at odds with most other magic systems.

 

The mechanics of Hemalurgy are thus:

• You stab someone, breaking off a chunk of their soul (Investiture).
• You then put this Investiture in a vessel.
• You then use this vessel and staple the stolen soul-bit to yours.

This has non-obvious applications. For example, our best guess at mechanical mistfabrials currently is that you create a Hemalurgic spike with the power you want, and then you infuse it with the mists. It then filters the mists into an effect you want.

 

Compare to new-style fabrials: create a gem with an imprisoned spren ('specialized' Investiture) and then you infuse it with Stormlight. It then filters the Stormlight into an effect you want.

 

The comparison is striking. We have had consistent RAFOs on whether gemstone spikes would work. I'm thinking that maybe they do, and we've already seen them: faceted gemstones.

 

Consider also that one can use gemstones to 'force' a bond to a spren (Shardblade). If that isn't almost exactly like Hemalurgy, I don't know what is.

• There is a forced change to your spiritweb.
• This change results in physical changes (lightened eyes).
• It is less 'powerful' or there is less Investiture than if you had gotten the powers naturally. Ten heartbeats vs zero.

I think it's unlikely, but compelling. Realmatics generally allows for Investiture to be filtered into useful effects. I'm suggesting that Hemalurgy's core effect is to allow spirit-web traits to be placed into objects rather than just living things, and fabrials on Roshar require Hemalurgy to be made. Characters like Dalinar feel uncomfortable around fabrials, which is slightly suspicious. It could just be Dalinar not liking change, but it could also be that most people just instinctively dislike Hemalurgy. 

 

The more likely alternative is that Hemalurgy's 'power' is to dismantle souls and staple things to souls, and it just so happens that Realmatics by default allows free-floating chunks of Investiture to be bound to objects. I think the question is worth asking though, on the off chance that it's right. It would change a lot of things.

[corwin01]

I wonder if Brandon's comments about the population of the Southern hemisphere using the Metallic Arts in different ways, as well as new applications of the Metallic Arts in order for FTL to be possible, I wonder if a Scadrian "fabrial" is a part of that?

[Argent]

Many of us have been assuming so. An Allomantically powered machine.

[Meg]

I'm just running through the first post (the list itself) and think I found one question answered:

Could Nightblood be fueled by other forms of Investiture, like Stormlight?

Answer:

 

Q: Is Nightblood going to be able to eat Stormlight?

A: Nightblood will drain any Investiture, so yes.

This one:

Have we seen any kandra outside of Scadrial?

is kind of answered, too:

 

Q: Are there kandra hiding in any of your books, besides the Mistborn ones?

A: Yes there are! [smugly] yes there are...

source

as is this:

How many parties were there to the Oathpact?

Q: How many parties were there to the original Oathpact?

A: The Heralds and Honor. They thought that by walking away from their oaths, that it would break the Oathpact. They're going to find out that it's not quite as broken as they had previously thought (meaning the Heralds).

source

I'd think if others see already answered questions it would be helpful to add those too.

[Moogle]

Is there a theory post on this?

 

Not yet, unfortunately. There's really not enough to make one in detail, though feel free to make one if you want. Shardblade gems forcing bonding seems vaguely Hemalurgic, and then all the old-style fabrials seem to be made of metal frameworks.

[Meg]

I don't know if this has any affects to your theory but I remind that in Navani's terms the "fabrial" is not the whole thing but only the gem with the captured spren inside. The end product (gem + metal frameworks) is called machine by Navani. (see Navani's Notebook: One).

I've got a question, too, then: Could fabrials be encased in wood or something else?

edit: typo

Edited May 2, 2014 by Meg

[PorridgeBrick]

@Moogle: I think I saw a WoB recently that might interest you. It remarked that charging a Hemalurgic Spike and infusing a gem are realmatically the exact same thing. I can't seem to find it, however. Anyone else know where it is?

[Tempus]

I saw that one. Steelheart Signing, Jordan Landing.

 

 

Q: On Scadrial, is there a method to invest a piece of metal with mists, similar to how gemstones can be invested with stormlight?

B: Yes.

Q: Did the Lord Ruler employ this method?

B: *hesistantly* Yes.

Q: Do Scadrians on the Southern Continent use this method?

B: RAFO *everybody laughs* Now, I should tell you that in the basic worldbuilding of what’s going on in that making a hemalurgic spike is exactly the same as investing a gemstone.  *mind-blown noice* Same sort of process.  So the answer yes to all those questions could simply be yes because they are making hemalurgy.  They are technically true.

Somebody, Mi’ch/Kendra maybe?: Eric’s going to love that.

B: I have to tell you that because otherwise Peter is going to give me an email like “you told them this?” and I’m like “yah”

[Moogle]

Thanks, Tempus. I'd really really like an answer to the Ruin question now.

[Meg]

If a Herald touches a (corrupted, one with a captured spren)Shardblade does he (or she) hear the screams?

edit: Another question:

If a non-Herald were to bond an Honorblade would that process be the same as with (corrupted) Shardblades (taking five days)?

Edited May 2, 2014 by Meg