Wobs from Oathbringer Update 5

[Yata]

Hi guys, I just recived some interesting WoB from Brandon in his Oathbringer's update, I wanted to post them under the already opened topic in Stormlight's subforum...But some of this are from books other than Stormlight, therefore I think it's better to put them here (some mod may change or delete it, if I am wrong).

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Yata:

• Can a Misting hurt himself burning the wrong metals or a bad alloy ?

• When someone Ascended with the Well, if He don't use the power and neither release it...Would He keep his status for long time ?

• Once someone refuses the call of the Beyond, may it change idea later ? (and reach the Beyond) Or is a one shot possibility ?

• What is the event showed in the books, that are earlier in the Cosmere's Timeline ? (just to understand if WoK's prologue is before or after Elantris's event)

 

[–]mistbornShardbearer[F,S] 4 punti 50 minuti fa 

• Not really, but they can swallow something they can't burn and end up with metal poisoning. Kind of similar.
• No, unfortunately.
• It may change later.
• I believe WoK prologue is before everything else you've seen. Some of the Dalinar flashbacks show scenes pretty early as well.

 

 

[–]YataVS 1 punto 17 minuti fa 

Thanks for the answers...So we may tell that a Misting's Allomancy is "safer" than a Mistborn's one.

Maybe because it's the original/natural way how Allomancy manifest itself (without godlike interferences

 

 

[–]mistbornShardbearer[F,S] 2 punti 13 minuti fa 

Sure, you could potentially say that. You can still make yourself sick, though, so I'm not sure. I guess it comes down to your definition of "hurt." But I'd call it safer, yes.

Maybe a better format is required:

Scadrial:
Q: Can a Misting hurt himself burning the wrong metals or a bad alloy ?

A: Not really, but they can swallow something they can't burn and end up with metal poisoning. Kind of similar.

Q: Thanks for the answers...So we may tell that a Misting's Allomancy is "safer" than a Mistborn's one. Maybe because it's the original/natural way how Allomancy manifest itself (without godlike interferences)
A: Sure, you could potentially say that. You can still make yourself sick, though, so I'm not sure. I guess it comes down to your definition of "hurt." But I'd call it safer, yes.

 

Q: When someone Ascended with the Well, if He don't use the power and neither release it...Would He keep his status for long time ?

A: No, unfortunately.

Realmatic mechanisms:

Q: Once someone refuses the call of the Beyond, may it change idea later ? (and reach the Beyond) Or is a one shot possibility ?

A: It may change later

Cosmere Timeline:

Q: What is the event showed in the books, that are earlier in the Cosmere's Timeline ? (just to understand if WoK's prologue is before or after Elantris's event)

A: I believe WoK prologue is before everything else you've seen. Some of the Dalinar flashbacks show scenes pretty early as well.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by Yata

[Glamdring804]

That's very cool. Thanks for posting this here. Maybe we can use this thread to collect the rest of the WoBs from Reddit?

[VirtuousTraveller]

@Yata thanks so much for your diligence in getting this information onto the 17th Shard!  We all appreciate you finding the opportunity to ask Brandon your questions!

5 hours ago, Yata said:

Q: When someone Ascended with the Well, if He don't use the power and neither release it...Would He keep his status for long time ?

A: No, unfortunately.

That's interesting about the Well of Ascension...we knew it wasn't actually all of Preservation, so it wasn't like the person would become a new Vessel by taking up the power there.  But I wonder...does this mean that with enough Investiture, anyone could gain the kind of soul-expanding perspective of the cosmere that moved TLR to act against Ruin or Harmony to act against the red haze?  As in, if someone breathed in enough Stormlight or acquired enough breaths, could they become cosmere aware?  I wonder if this is what happened with Vasher and the 5 Scholars on Nalthis...

[Yata]

@VirtuousTraveller well in the end yes.

As far as we know the only requirement to Ascend is to have (also for a limited time) an X amount of Investiture. All the Investiture carries with itself a Soul-expansion and a Intuitive use of the power itself (the Investiture want to be used and if no one directly it, It develop a mind of its own)...Simply when you have more than a certain threeshold you are no longer limitated by the mortal magics (the magic systems as we know) and you may use directly the Investiture to make...almost everything (expending a rightful amount of power) as we see with the Ascended Ones' feats.

[VirtuousTraveller]

39 minutes ago, Yata said:

As far as we know the only requirement to Ascend is to have (also for a limited time) an X amount of Investiture. All the Investiture carries with itself a Soul-expansion and a Intuitive use of the power itself (the Investiture want to be used and if no one directly it, It develop a mind of its own)...Simply when you have more than a certain threeshold you are no longer limitated by the mortal magics (the magic systems as we know) and you may use directly the Investiture to make...almost everything (expending a rightful amount of power) as we see with the Ascended Ones' feats.

So I wonder then what happens if you don't use it or give it up.  Would we assume that the Investiture would consume a person's physical body?  If this happened, would they be able to remain in the Cognitive or Spiritual Realms?  I know that Kriss's essay on Scadrial seems to imply that Roshar would possibly be the only other place where mortals could take on so much Investiture, so I wonder if we'll see someone "ascend" on Roshar.  I know Brandon has said that he wants the Stormlight Archive to stand alone as a series, but there's a lot happening there with the potential to break the whole cosmere open!

[Shardbearer]

Here's some more WoB from the update:

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Thanks again for doing these updates. It's nice to have something to look forward to optimistically, instead of the endless silent delay from four other major series I'm looking forward to.

So. On a totally unrelated note. Could Aluminum be used to protect a Surgebinder from a larkin?

 

 

 

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mistborn   Shardbearer • 13h

Yes.

 

 

 

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havoc_mayhem • 13h

Would a larkin be able to steal Stormlight from a surgebinder wearing Shardplate? Any comments on whether Shardplate or aluminium would be more effective protection?

 

 

 

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mistborn   Shardbearer • 7h

Getting through both would be relatively equal--with the problem being that Shardplate is powered by investiture, which the larkin could feed on. So aluminum is better in that specific case.

 

 

 

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havoc_mayhem • 3h

Thanks for the answer!

So that's interesting.

Would a Shardplate completely dissolve if it's drained of ALL investiture or would it just become inert? Would this be any different ifrom it's KR Plate vs. regular shardbearer Plate. Would a larkin be able to affect a Blade? Nightblood? 

[Eki]

Nice to get some clarification on Mistings and bad alloys! That one's been nagging at me since someone (maybe it was you, Yata?) brought the problem up a while back.

[Glamdring804]

Okay, here is a complete list of WoBs from the Reddit thread. This is complete as of 10:15 MST. It goes without saying, but obviously, spoilers for lots of stuff.

 

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ernie-kun: So there's a character that's absent for the entirety of Part 2? That's interesting to know. I'm guessing it's Jasnah.

Brandon: In book one, a main character was absent from several parts. (Dalinar and Shallan alternated.) Same with Words of Radiance, where Dalinar skipped two parts, I believe.

Note that this is an absence of viewpoints from the character, not necessarily an absence of the character entirely.

EDIT: The main characters of the first part of the Stormlight are Shallan, Kaladin, and Dalinar. Two more flashback character (Eshonai and Szeth) can be considered important characters without as many viewpoints, though in the above outline, I'd have listed them as tertiary characters in terms of number of viewpoints.

The actual tertiary characters are Jasnah, Adolin, Navani, and a few that I can't mention as it will be spoilers. These get significant screen time, but only have viewpoints here and there in the first five books. Jasnah, as I've said, grows more important in the back five. Others do as well.

zuriel45: I'd say spoilers, but I doubt you'd kill her off..

Pitchwife: This is entirely from memory so please forgive me if I get this wrong, but I believe Brandon has hedged on this topic in the past, e.g. who says she has to be alive (in the usual sense) to be a POV character?

Brandon: I've said that flashback characters (which are the ones I've announced as having "books" dedicated to them) can die before their book arrives.

---

Usuyami: What is the very last word of part 4?

Brandon: Villa. It's not particularly relevant. (Sorry.)

Epicrandom: Come now, this is important - is it "villa" or Villa". Capitalization matters.

Brandon: Ha. Not capitalized.

---

FirstRyder: On a totally unrelated note. Could Aluminum be used to protect a Surgebinder from a larkin?

Brandon: Yes.

havoc_mayhem: Would a larkin be able to steal Stormlight from a surgebinder wearing Shardplate? Any comments on whether Shardplate or aluminium would be more effective protection?

Brandon: Getting through both would be relatively equal--with the problem being that Shardplate is powered by investiture, which the larkin could feed on. So aluminum is better in that specific case.

---

Glamdring804: Are you the Vessel for the shard of Awesomeness?

Brandon:

---

Balyne: One quick question if I may - in WoR, when Kaladin is chasing Szeth through the storm, could he have just Lashed himself to Szeth and followed automatically? I realize he was new to his abilities and may not have thought of it, but was it possible?

Brandon: One thing about Lashing that is counter-intuative to people who know physics is that Lashings are usually in a direction, not toward an object. It means that physics wise, it's not actually increasing the gravitational pull of an object--but sending you a direction. I did this because of just this type of question; it made the magic too powerful.

---

Yata already posted his questions and replies.

---

Boogalyhu34: Will the cognitive realms of shardworlds be heavily affected by a more widespread knowledge of modern science among its population? Also, how much will Khriss talk about Realmatics in Arcanum?

Brandon: Yes. She mentions realmatic theory several times.

---

Phantine: Also, total Rafo-bait, but could you soulcast atium from god-metal into god-wood?

(My PCs actually want to turn it into god-blood and transfuse it into someone. But if I lead with that you'd just say it was way too cool not to allow, and I agree with you there.)

Brandon: So, in your games, remember that you're running an alternate reality where my word is no longer set in stone--yours is.

THAT SAID soulcasting atium would take a heap-ton of Investiture. You'd need a huge source to power that.

Phantine: Yep, exactly - cool ideas deserve to work out regardless of whether they'd be 'perfectly canon'.

Though, have to say, it's a lot of fun when your dudes come up with a massive magic-exploit scheme and it ends up getting sorta-justified later on.

Their iron koloss airship was technology far before its time (koloss die because they weigh too much, and keep growing forever - give one an ironmind to store all that weight, and it grows into a big blue beautiful balloon). It may have been less elegant than the southerners', but gosh did it have heart.

Brandon: One very, very big swollen heart.

---

YourMajesty90: Also, I'm dying to know who gets Szeths Honour Blade!!! I can keep a secret.

Brandon: And...RAFO. (Sorry.)

---

theyoungbard: Any comment on what you'll be working on post-Stormlight 3? Last I heard, it was either going to be the Aztlanian or the Lost Metal.

Also, you were tossing around the idea of a 1940's era Mistborn story as well? Have you made up your mind on whether that's going to happen?

Brandon: I'll do a State of the Sanderson once I finish Oathbringer. I do owe some more teen books to Random House, so Apocalypse Guard will be very high on the list. But the two you mentioned are equally important at this point.

---

IHeartMyKitten: Sorta related question: would Szeth still have been chosen to be a Skybreaker if Nalan'Elin had known that Szeth was willing to kill Adolin "on his own time" unlawfully without being compelled by his Oathstone? Or did Nalan'Elin know about that and still think he'd be a good fit?

Brandon: Nobody is perfect, and Nale knows this--but he has worse days than others. It's not so much the law, as willingness to follow a personal code, that Nale is most interested in. He's also more harsh with people once they join the order than before.

So, he wouldn't have loved it, but it wouldn't have stopped him from offering.

---

Enasor: While I am glad to hear the book is going along well, I will not hide the fact I am severely disappointed by Adolin's lack of page time. I cannot believe we won't get to read his thoughts following the events of WoR. If there was one POV I wanted to read, it was his, but according to the planning, we won't, not until the very end of the book.

I truly appreciate the efforts done to keep the fans informed, but I cannot hide my disappointment. I guess it is better knowing now than finding it out about it after having waited for the book for another year.

Sorry.

Brandon: I don't know if you're the same person who wrote to me in private, as I closed that window--so forgive me if I'm repeating myself somewhat.

I am well aware that many people are very interested in what is happening to Adolin, and I consider him one of the more interesting and unexpected developments of the series, in deviation from the original outline. I intend to dig into things with him in the book.

He's done a lot with very few viewpoints in the books so far. Why not read and see where he goes in this one?

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ArgentSun: Can tapping enough Feruchemical zinc allow one to match Taravangian's intellect on the day he created the Diagram? Or are the effects different somehow?

Brandon: The effects are similar, but not exactly the same. Zinc is speed of thought specifically--while what happens to Taravangian increases multiple types of intelligence, not just raw 'processing power' so to speak.

---

Rankweis: I've been thinking about the Parshendi and I guess this is as good a place to ask as any - when the parshendi change, there's an obvious change in the physical realm, and there seems to be a change in the cognitive realm as well. Is there a change in the spiritual realm? I know we haven't dug much into it, but it seems like a change in the spiritual realm is very difficult or impossible - if you could change in the spiritual realm is it really the same 'thing' at the end of the process? Mostly I'm curious about the first question...the second question is more of a philosophical train of thought.

Brandon: Things in the spiritual realm do change, but subtly. For instance, a person's spiritual component knows how old they are.

---

zuriel45: Out of curiosity, in the epitaphs will we be getting another Letter?

Brandon: I intend for the first five to all have letters.

---

Phantine: Is there anything interesting about the etymology of the Drominad system?

Whenever I think of it I immediately think 'Dromedary'.

Brandon: I'll get into it someday, but it's nothing that should be immediately obvious.

I think that's everything. If I missed something, let me know.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Glamdring804

[Spoolofwhool]

These are some very nice WoBs.

[Jondesu]

Thanks, y'all, that's great! I love the way he talked about Adolin; he obviously knows how much we like him and has enjoyed writing him too, so he's not going to be sidelined or left unimportant.

[Magestar]

5 hours ago, Glamdring804 said:

Brandon: The effects are similar, but not exactly the same. Zinc is speed of thought specifically--while what happens to Taravangian increases multiple types of intelligence, not just raw 'processing power' so to speak.

This is very interesting to me.  I'd assumed for a long while that it was just that, basically raw processing power, and I'd had a few people tell me otherwise, but it's nice to see some WoB confirming it.   

Taravangian's intellgience is very interesting to me.  The whole concept is cool, and is one I've thought about outside of/before reading SA.  I might do a theory on it at some point.

Thanks for collecting these.  

[Spoolofwhool]

1 hour ago, Magestar said:

This is very interesting to me.  I'd assumed for a long while that it was just that, basically raw processing power, and I'd had a few people tell me otherwise, but it's nice to see some WoB confirming it.   

Taravangian's intellgience is very interesting to me.  The whole concept is cool, and is one I've thought about outside of/before reading SA.  I might do a theory on it at some point.

Thanks for collecting these.  

Yeah, it's a nice WoB since it seems to support the "super-intelligence" theory over the "prophecy" theory, which I've been thinking for awhile. I'm guessing the other types of intelligence probably include memory and intuition.

[Magestar]

7 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Yeah, it's a nice WoB since it seems to support the "super-intelligence" theory over the "prophecy" theory, which I've been thinking for awhile. I'm guessing the other types of intelligence probably include memory and intuition.

Very likely.  I've always assumed, personally, that if you had enough knowledge combined with enough raw intellect/processing power, then you could basically tell the future.  Taravangian was already very learned in both overall cosmere knowledge and knowledge of Roshar, so I assumed that if he gained huge processing power than he could tell a flawed version of the future;  The Diagram.  I think the Diagram is flawed, however, I could be wrong, and new info is making me wonder.

I've talked about this in other topics before, although I enjoy talking about it quite a good deal.  I definitely think, considering new information, that Mr. T definitely gained some realmatic knowledge, as well as possible some general knowledge of Roshar, when he created the Diagram.  Possible in a similar way to how Sazed/Rashek/Vin gained knowledge rapidly after ascending.

[Kingsdaughter613]

So basically Mr. T was the Cosmere's Hari Seldon on steroids for a day. Though individuals would still seem to be a problem...

[Spoolofwhool]

7 hours ago, Magestar said:

I've talked about this in other topics before, although I enjoy talking about it quite a good deal.  I definitely think, considering new information, that Mr. T definitely gained some realmatic knowledge, as well as possible some general knowledge of Roshar, when he created the Diagram.  Possible in a similar way to how Sazed/Rashek/Vin gained knowledge rapidly after ascending.

It's possible he gained some knowledge during that day. If it involves increasing his innate investiture, that could happen. However, it's also possible that he just had read texts about it before hand. Rosharans in the past had knowledge of realmatics, particularly since three orders of the KRs could travel to Shadesmare. 

[Yata]

Other little update to the Wobs:
 

Possession in the Cosmere

Q: I've been thinking about possession within the Cosmere - is it possible for beings (dead, alive, or inbetween) to possess other beings in the Cosmere? Allomantic control over spiked creatures, and the existence of the Lifeless are both close to the idea, but neither is quite what I've been trying to imagine. I think I am looking more into whether one being's cognitive (and/or spiritual) aspect can fully replace (temporarily or permanently) another's. I imagine the victim would natively fight this, similarly to how Rashek's spiritual aspect resisted his anti-aging trick, but... is such a thing possible?

A: This is possible. (There are places where you've already seen the process either begin, or work partially.)

 

Nightblood's grow (I had this idea for ages, I am glad someone asked it)

Q:  Is Nightblood any more Invested now than when she was created?

A: RAFO. (Good question.)

 

End-positive and End-Negative (a bit long, but it's a good explaination)

Q:  is the creation of Skaze end-negative?

A: So, you're not quite using the term right. The terms "End negative" and "End positive" refer to a specific system--in most cases, we're talking about the individual(s) using the magic. Do you draw more magic out, or is it powered by your own native investiture?

Awakening is what we call end neutral, despite the fact that (obviously) the Breaths came from someone else in the first place. That's not the point in contention here--do the same number of breaths (the same amount of investiture) continue to exist in the system as you're manipulating the magic.

In something like AonDor, you are drawing out much more power than you put in--end positive. That power is put to work doing something, such as healing a body, or creating a blast of power.

The Skaze, like the Seons, were created when a Shard was splintered. The terminology doesn't quite work there, at least not in the way that scholars in the cosmere would use it.

The question from the physicist in this thread about where investiture goes, and what it means for a shard to have access to certain amounts of power, is related to all of this. I'm hoping to be able to find some time to craft a response there, as there are some fundamental understandings of the magic that are relevant to the discussion that i should point out.

 

Roshar's knowledge of Alluminium 

Q:  On the topic of aluminium, will we hear soon about how Rosharans know how to soulcast it? Was it natural on the planet and the source was depleted? Or was it brought over at some point in history?

A: Those are excellent questions, and a RAFO, unfortunately.

 

Stormlight's titles and themes

Q:  Does Oathbringer follows the theme of that the title is an in-universe book? Because i thought Oathbringer was the name of Dalinars old shardblade?

A: The first will be made apparent as the series progresses. (Yes, that's a RAFO.)

 

Nightblood VS Shards

Q:  if you were to chuck Nightblood into a Shard that had the intent of Evil would Nightblood splinter it?

A: Splintering is a completely different process from what Nightblood does.

 

Hoid and age

Q:  Now we have some idea of how Hoid changes his age?

A: I haven't said if this is a method Hoid uses or not, but it's part of the reason the Lord Ruler turned to dust when he lost his metalminds. (His body tried to match the age his spirit said he was.)

 

Soulcast High Invested Target

Q:   is soulcasting an invested object harder ? And if it is a human (lets say, an allomancer) but he is not burning any metal, would he be as easy as soulcast as any "normal" person ?

A: It is harder to soulcast an invested object, but soulcasters--by their nature--are used to dealing with this.When allomancers aren't burning metal, they are not considered highly-invested.

 

I think to have reported all the new Wobs...If I missed something let me know

Edited November 20, 2016 by Yata

[Auger]

10 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

So basically Mr. T was the Cosmere's Hari Seldon on steroids for a day. Though individuals would still seem to be a problem...

I lol'd.

[Auger]

OMG this WoB is the best by far:

Hoid and age

Q:  Now we have some idea of how Hoid changes his age?

A: I haven't said if this is a method Hoid uses or not, but it's part of the reason the Lord Ruler turned to dust when he lost his metalminds. (His body tried to match the age his spirit said he was.)

 

Hoid has no ties to the spiritual realm, so he can be whatever age he please (or is stuck at a certain age).

[Spoolofwhool]

12 minutes ago, Auger said:

OMG this WoB is the best by far:

Hoid and age

Q:  Now we have some idea of how Hoid changes his age?

A: I haven't said if this is a method Hoid uses or not, but it's part of the reason the Lord Ruler turned to dust when he lost his metalminds. (His body tried to match the age his spirit said he was.)

 

Hoid has no ties to the spiritual realm, so he can be whatever age he please (or is stuck at a certain age).

He has a soul, as I posted in the Hoid's Soul topic. More likely is that he has access to an ability similar to atium feruchemy where he can modify the soul's age, therefore modifying the body's age. That, or he uses lightweaving to make himself look younger or older.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Spoolofwhool

[Jondesu]

1 hour ago, Spoolofwhool said:

He has a soul, as I posted in the Hoid's Soul topic. More likely is that he has access to an ability similar to atium feruchemy where he can modify the soul's age, therefore modifying the body's age. That, or he uses lightweaving to make himself look younger or older.

Agreed. We know, in fact, that he has something that can change the Spiritweb (the Lerasium bead) if he can figure out how to do more with it than turn himself into a Mistborn, but he obviously had some way of remaining alive long before that.  I think he must have had some way of rewriting his own Spiritweb long prior to that, but perhaps limited, since he can't just make himself an Elantrian or a Knight Radiant, for instance (though both of those require more than just a change in the person's own Spiritweb).

[Glamdring804]

This post had been a mother load of WoBs. I guess he's feeling as ecstatic as we are about having nearly finished the first draft.

@Chaos: Brandon said he was tentatively coming to the Montana region next year for some sort of convention. Do you know what convention that is? I can't think of any major ones around here.

[Chaos]

12 minutes ago, Glamdring804 said:

This post had been a mother load of WoBs. I guess he's feeling as ecstatic as we are about having nearly finished the first draft.

@Chaos: Brandon said he was tentatively coming to the Montana region next year for some sort of convention. Do you know what convention that is? I can't think of any major ones around here.

The only thing I can think of is MisCon in Missoula. He hasn't mentioned anything on it or has it in his events page so I don't know.

[Glamdring804]

21 minutes ago, Chaos said:

The only thing I can think of is MisCon in Missoula. He hasn't mentioned anything on it or has it in his events page so I don't know.

Okay, thanks. Sadly, Bozeman is probably too small for the Oathbringer tour. We're still like a year out I guess, so it's just a waiting game.

[Djarskublar]

Yay he replied to my post!

 

Djarskublar:

So good work!

I'd like confirmation/denial of a theory of mine. Is the reason people can recall breaths from objects but not Lifeless or sentient awakened objects because they no longer have the same Identity as the awakener?

 

 

 

2

 

 

mistborn   Shardbearer • 52m

You are on the right track.

 

[Spoolofwhool]

41 minutes ago, Djarskublar said:

Yay he replied to my post!

 

Djarskublar:

So good work!

I'd like confirmation/denial of a theory of mine. Is the reason people can recall breaths from objects but not Lifeless or sentient awakened objects because they no longer have the same Identity as the awakener?

 

 

 

2

 

 

mistborn   Shardbearer • 52m

You are on the right track.

 

Nice confirmation that Shashara wouldn't have been able to simply retake Nightblood's breaths.