2016-12-03 [Arcanum Unbounded] Little City Books - Hoboken, NJ

[Pagerunner he/him]

I had an absolute blast. Really glad I went. Several interesting points from the general Q&A:

• Odium locked the Selish Shards in the Cognitive Realm to keep them from achieving sentience or someone Ascending.
• The in-world explanation for the safehand is that some men found an old book that said 'masculine arts are two-handed, feminine arts are one-handed' and used it to keep women from getting Shardblades. The women retaliated by not letting men write.

And, from my turn in the signing line (not verbatim yet, though someone has a recording)

• ETTMETAL IS HARMONIUM. It's chemically reactive, not nuclear. (Electrons, not protons.)
• There was a point when the Heralds didn't need to draw Stormlight from gems, although the stormlight-in-gems predates Honor's arrival.
• Ambition is not on a planet, but he/she is not the Shard Brandon has previously referred to as the one not on a planet. So, there are two out there.
• Back 5 are still planned to be the same five, but when he gets to those books he reserves the right to change them.

I really like the story of the Ettmetal = Harmonium confirmation, but I'll post that another day. He didn't mean to give away that much.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

2 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

I had an absolute blast. Really glad I went. Several interesting points from the general Q&A:

• Odium locked the Selish Shards in the Cognitive Realm to keep them from achieving sentience or someone Ascending.
• The in-world explanation for the safehand is that some men found an old book that said 'masculine arts are two-handed, feminine arts are one-handed' and used it to keep women from getting Shardblades. The women retaliated by not letting men write.

And, from my turn in the signing line (not verbatim yet, though someone has a recording)

• ETTMETAL IS HARMONIUM. It's chemically reactive, not nuclear. (Electrons, not protons.)
• Ambition is not on a planet, but he/she is not the Shard Brandon has previously referred to as the one not on a planet. So, there are two out there.

I really like the story of the Ettmetal = Harmonium confirmation, but I'll post that another day. He didn't mean to give away that much.

I am eager to hear it, as I found an old post a few months ago with some old WoBs about a LerAtium alloy/metal. I was wondering whether or not Ambition was the Shard that had been Splintered and left in space

[Eki]

3 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

• ETTMETAL IS HARMONIUM. It's chemically reactive, not nuclear. (Electrons, not protons.)
• There was a point when the Heralds didn't need to draw Stormlight from gems, although the stormlight-in-gems predates Honor's arrival.

These are really nice. The second one pretty much confirms that Stormlight isn't Honor's or Cultivation's Investiture - which pretty much means it has to be Adonalsium's.

Really glad Ettmetal is Harmonium/Sazedium, with Ett=One and other clues like that actually turning out to be relevant.

[Blightsong he/him]

18 minutes ago, Eki said:

These are really nice. The second one pretty much confirms that Stormlight isn't Honor's or Cultivation's Investiture - which pretty much means it has to be Adonalsium's.

Really glad Ettmetal is Harmonium/Sazedium, with Ett=One and other clues like that actually turning out to be relevant.

We still don't know if Stormlight is Adonalsium's investiture, just that the Stormlight originally in the storms was. That could have changed.

[Eki]

57 minutes ago, Blightsong said:

We still don't know if Stormlight is Adonalsium's investiture, just that the Stormlight originally in the storms was. That could have changed.

True. But it does tell us that Stormlight was part of the Rosharan ecosystem from the beginning (which stuff like the larkins hinted at). That gives us a clue to a lot of things, including the nature of the Listeners.

[skaa he/him]

27 minutes ago, Eki said:

True. But it does tell us that Stormlight was part of the Rosharan ecosystem from the beginning (which stuff like the larkins hinted at). That gives us a clue to a lot of things, including the nature of the Listeners.

Also, knowing which part of a Shardworld's magic wasn't brought about by any of the 16 is extremely valuable when making theories about the cosmere's general laws of magic. This is the kind of stuff people like me live for.

As for ettmetal being harmonium, while I was totally off about (among other things) what harmionium is made of, I'm glad to see that I'm pretty much spot on about it being the thing used in Southern tech. W00t!

Edited December 4, 2016 by skaa

[Eki]

13 minutes ago, skaa said:

Also, knowing which part of a Shardworld's magic wasn't brought about by any of the 16 is extremely valuable when making theories about the cosmere's general laws of magic. This is the kind of stuff people like me live for.

Absolutely. For example, it would explain why it seems to be relatively easy to use Stormlight to fuel other types of magic, compared to many other sources of Investiture.

[ccstat he/him]

2 hours ago, Eki said:

"There was a point when the Heralds didn't need to draw Stormlight from gems, although the stormlight-in-gems predates Honor's arrival."

... pretty much confirms that Stormlight isn't Honor's or Cultivation's Investiture - which pretty much means it has to be Adonalsium's.

.... it would explain why it seems to be relatively easy to use Stormlight to fuel other types of magic, compared to many other sources of Investiture.

We'll have to see what the actual wording was, but I think you are over-interpreting this. Just because stormlight was once powered by Adonalsium pre-shattering, that doesn't mean it still is. I find it plausible or even probable that the Shards arriving in Roshar would incorporate any power already there into themselves, making it their own. We are told that Rayse has very intentionally not taken up any of the pieces of power from shattered Shards because he doesn't want his Intent corrupted. I have a hard time believing that a recently-Ascended Honor or Cultivation would be similarly reluctant to pick up extra power, especially if it were of a universal/unkeyed flavor as you postulate.

The interesting part to me (and again, I'll have to wait until we get a verbatim quote) is that at one time the Herald's didn't need to draw Stormlight from gems. This means that either they came from another location where investiture took a different form, or that something about the Heralds has changed during the history of Roshar, requiring them to find a new power source in the gems. My personal speculation is that something in the nature of the Herald's relationship with Honor allowed them to draw power from him directly, in a never-running-out sort of supply. Then when they broke the Oathpact or when Honor died, they lost that conduit of power and had to follow the example of those poor mortal Radiants.

[wicktacular]

Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I got a recording of video recording of the initial talk, the Q&A, and the preview chapter reading. Can anyone let me know what the etiquette for posting these is? I asked one of the bookstore employees if posting it was okay, and they got the OK from Brandon, but it was late and he was in the middle of signing other people's books, so I'd prefer to get independent confirmation here that it's okay to post.

I asked three questions, butdidn't get a recording of my own questions. To the best of my memory (and I'm probably largely paraphrasing here), they were:

1. 

Q. If Hoid were a Magic card, what colors would he be?

A. Five color. Although, if he were to drop a color, it would be White.

2.

Q. Based on the bit during the open Q&A about Odium splintering Dominion and Devotion and shoving their power into the Cognitive, and that blocking off the Spiritual, which makes Sel's magic so location (or Identity of location) based - if a Shardbearer traveled to Sel, could they still summon their Shardblade?

A. That's interesting. Nobody's ever asked me that before. That's a RAFO! (I got a card!)

3.

Q. At the end of Hero of Ages, it's significant that 1/16 of the soldiers who got sick were Atium mistings. We know now that there's more than 16 metals - what exactly happened there?

A. Well, you have to remember, by that point, Preservation wasn't entirely there. He was mostly concerned with leaving hints, clues, with the number 16, towards his plan.

Q. So, were the other remaining group of soldiers that fell sick all still mistings of the other base metals?

A. Yes. 

Q. So, did Preservation bump out one of the base metal types so those could be Atium mistings? And if so, which was it?

A. Yes, that's right. It would probably have been one of the metals that was difficult to get at that level of technology. It would have been Chromium - Chromium would be hard gather at that time. Actually, no, it would have been Aluminum.

A. (about a minute later, while signing someone else's book) - Hold on, there's a caveat to that last answer. Let me finish signing this and expand on that.

A. So, it would still have been Aluminum, but not for the reason your thinking. It would have been Aluminum, but there's an asterisk next to that answer.

[Mason Wheeler]

Wow! Ettmetal is Harmonium?  Pagerunner, why didn't you mention that tidbit to me when we talked last night?!?

I have to wonder, though.  If ettmetal explodes on contact with water, how in the world is anyone supposed to use it for normal Metallic Arts work?

Try to swallow it? KABOOM!

Try to wear it as a bracer?  You're just fine until, for whatever reason, you start to sweat.  (Or it starts to rain.). KABOOM!

Try to spike someone? Blood is full of water. KABOOM!

This all seems a bit... inharmonious.

 

Anyway, I got the chance to ask a few questions.

 

Q: before, I had the general impression that there were maybe... *waves hand* a dozen or so Worldhoppers around, but this [the new book] totally blows that idea away.  So, at the time that Khriss is writing the essays, approximately how many Worldhoppers were there in the Silverlight community?

A: Silverlight is a whole city.

Q: that could mean a wide range of sizes...

A: a lot bigger than a village.  Not saying yet exactly how many people are there, [RAFO card,] but they're not all Worldhoppers. There are people who are born there, live out their whole lives and die there.

Q: OK.  Now, the Weeping that happens each year on Roshar, does that occur each time when the 3 moons are in a particular alignment?

A: no, it's more related to the planet's orbital position than the moons' position. 

 

I also told him a horrible pun and got one back in return.

Me: what do you call it when a Faceless Immortal says two things that can't both be true?

Brandon: uhh... I dunno. What?

Me: a kandra-diction.

Brandon: *grinning* oh yeah?  Well, how do you know, when a Radiant shows up at your holiday party, that he'll be well-dressed?

Me: umm... no idea.

Brandon: because he's in-vest-ed.

[WeiryWriter he/him]

1 hour ago, wicktacular said:

I got a recording of video recording of the initial talk, the Q&A, and the preview chapter reading. Can anyone let me know what the etiquette for posting these is? I asked one of the bookstore employees if posting it was okay, and they got the OK from Brandon, but it was late and he was in the middle of signing other people's books, so I'd prefer to get independent confirmation here that it's okay to post.

You're totally good to post the initial talk and the general q&a now. For readings Brandon generally asks that they not get posted before the end of his tour (so it can be a special treat to those who can make it to an event) but you should be fine to post that anytime after Tuesday's Chicago signing.

[bleedscarlet he/him]

On 12/3/2016 at 1:28 AM, AndrewStirlingMacDonald said:

I'll be there, probably with my three kids in tow (as my sitter fell through at the last minute and I haven't found anyone else so far). I'm coming from Allentown, which isn't too far. The auditorium seats 100 and then has additional standing room. I was told seating will be first come, first serve, so I'll probably try to get there as early as I can to ensure a seat - I pulled a muscle in my leg yesterday, and it's still getting more sore. Anyway, the point is, what I really mean, if anyone wants to sit around talking cosmere, or maybe playing Magic (I'll bring the standard deck I've most been playing with lately) or something, I'm definitely planning to go into full-on line-party mode for this one. So come find me! I'll be the big guy with the kilt and the beard and the ltattoos of Aon Kii and Allomantic Bronze (pre-Catacendre version). Hope to see you all there!

That kilt was wicked!! Didn't get to say hi, but I'm pretty sure EVERYONE noticed it

[Ted aka WinespringBrother he/him]

I was at the signing, and setup a recorder for the questions that Brandon answered as he was signing books, but there are hours of recordings so it will be some time to transfer them to a computer for transcribing. I shared my live video of the initial lecture/q&a/reading to the open facebook group The Stormlight Archive. I also asked a lot of questions and got some answers, paraphrased (or some cases verbatim) as follows:

 

Does the Expanse of the Broken Sky refer to Taldain? RAFO. (for Drew)

How much area do highstorms cover? Ask Isaac.

Why is Nazh short for Nazrilof? It's a nickname.

Is it relevant that Lift was ten when she stopped aging? It isn't a coincidence. (for Alice)

Is silver invested in the Threnody system? RAFO.

I asked for info about Hoid's silver sword and he replied verbatim (personalization) that it is not invested but that it has personal value to him.

Can Lift convert cremling shells to investiture? She can only convert what she is able to metabolize to investiture.

Ym is confirmed to not be an Edgedancer. Does that mean that he would have become a Truthwatcher? Yes.

Why don't mistborn use aluminum vials? Because they are too rare and expensive, though aluminum utilization is increasing in the AOL era.

Has Dalinar been on the bondsmith path for a long time? How about Gavilar? Yes to both.

Does Wit know what became of Helaran? Depends on where Wit was, so maybe.

How long has Khriss been cosmere-aware? RAFO.

Is gestation period for humans the same on Roshar as Earth? Basically, yes. (for Andrew)

What is stick's talos? To be the best stick it can. (for Andrew)

Will the everstorm only affect Parshendi or will it also affect those with Parshendi blood like Horneaters? RAFO.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Segren

[yulerule]

Yup, I saw the kilt, first I wondered what character it was then remebered the earlier post.

Anyway, for the past couple of weeks I've been workiing on a theory, this is what I typed up and showed to Brandon:

 

Healing/regrowth and cognitive realm/souls

In the cosmere, you have matter, mind, and soul. Obviously, the physical world is most well understood (same as ours) and the spiritual is most mysterious. When anybody dies (going off from info in secret history) their soul, which was tied to their body, the connection is broken and the soul/cognitive shadow appears in the cognitive realm then goes on to the spiritual. If healing is applied at any moment while the soul/cognitive shadow is in the cognitive realm, the connection can be reestablished and that is why  reGrowth can heal recently dead. Type of wound  shardblade vs not   may determine how fast the shadow is sucked into the Spiritual Realm. Also amount of investiture a soul contains. Souls = investiture or at least all of them contain some?

 

Brandon said, "

Quote

So that's a rafo. We'll dig into that a little later.

Me: Am I close?

Brandon: Yeah, you're on the right track.

 

I also got confirmed that the metal that spren turn into is god metal (we probably already knew that). I also aked about the connection between the spren and surgebinder, such that the spren turns into what the surgebinder wants, like 

Spoiler

In Edgedancer, Lift turns into a bar of metal and into a Shardfork. Windle himself isn't "in tune" with Lift, so his turning into something that she needs with no prior warning ...

Brandon said that since the spren fill in the soul, they're connected on that level, so like their minds are separated, but since the souls are melded/connected/same that the spren can turn into stuff the Surgebinder wants.  This is heavily paraphrased.

[Eki]

1 hour ago, Mason Wheeler said:

Wow! Ettmetal is Harmonium?  Pagerunner, why didn't you mention that tidbit to me when we talked last night?!?

I have to wonder, though.  If ettmetal explodes on contact with water, how in the world is anyone supposed to use it for normal Metallic Arts work?

Try to swallow it? KABOOM!

Try to wear it as a bracer?  You're just fine until, for whatever reason, you start to sweat.  (Or it starts to rain.). KABOOM!

Try to spike someone? Blood is full of water. KABOOM!

This all seems a bit... inharmonious.

Well, remember that Harmony is two opposites mashed together. To me it makes sense that his God Metal would be unstable. Why it reacts to water in particular... who knows.

[Pagerunner he/him]

11 hours ago, AnanasSpren said:

I am eager to hear it, as I found an old post a few months ago with some old WoBs about a LerAtium alloy/metal.

The longer answer makes it sound like Harmonium isn't a Lerasium/Atium alloy, but a whole new metal. He described it as "super-cesium," and that its volatility was based on electrons, not on protons or neutrons. So, the Lerasium and Atium are combined at a more fundamental level than that.

7 hours ago, Eki said:

These are really nice. The second one pretty much confirms that Stormlight isn't Honor's or Cultivation's Investiture - which pretty much means it has to be Adonalsium's.

There was a following conversation about this topic, about how a lot of the elements were there before Honor arrived, but he coopted them. So, Stormlight is there, but there are big differences now. So, modern Stormlight might not be Adonalsium's Investiture. But there was probably ancient Stormlight that was. I'll wait until we get the transcript taken care of, since I was still on cloud 9 from the Harmonium reveal and the Herald reveal.

5 hours ago, skaa said:

Also, knowing which part of a Shardworld's magic wasn't brought about by any of the 16 is extremely valuable when making theories about the cosmere's general laws of magic. This is the kind of stuff people like me live for.

As for ettmetal being harmonium, while I was totally off about (among other things) what harmionium is made of, I'm glad to see that I'm pretty much spot on about it being the thing used in Southern tech. W00t!

That was my thought as well, and I closed that question by asking if Surgebinding was around before Honor arrived. Which it wasn't. 'cause that would have blown a whole lot of collected wisdom out of the water.

1 hour ago, Mason Wheeler said:

Wow! Ettmetal is Harmonium?  Pagerunner, why didn't you mention that tidbit to me when we talked last night?!?

Whoops... I thought I mentioned that. I was telling everybody who would listen! I guess I'll just blame it on how late it was. I realized on the way back that I hadn't heard your questions, either.

 

Everyone always says how the best part of signings is the other fans. It's so true - it was great to be able to talk about this stuff in person, to share in the experience as people were getting all kinds of WoBs, to geek out. I might have made a few recruits to the Shard, I might have recruited a girl to my old college, and I got to compare my list of questions with @Segren's list (which might have been the highlight, aside from my actual signing turn).

One fun story: right when the signing line had begun, I saw the lights starting to flicker. So, I got a joke lined up and ready in case it happened again. A few minutes later, all the lights in the room went out. (We think they were on a timer, or something, since it happened right at 6:00, IIRC.) Pitch black, and I shout "All right, who sucked the Stormlight out of the lights!"

Brandon is a total boss - he finished his reading at around 5:30 or so, and then said he'd be there at least 2 hours to get everyone through. The line finished up at midnight, exactly. What a pro.

Okay, so here's the in-depth story of my Harmonium signing (some liberties with descriptions may be taken for comedic effect, and not an exact transcription):

P: *holding out list of Allomantic metal symbols* Is ettmetal's symbol one of these 4? *Points at the unused ones*
B: No. It has a symbol, but I don't think you've seen it yet. No, you haven't seen it.
P: *making connections internally* Oh, that's interesting, since we have seen Harmonium's symbol.
B: No, you haven't. Have you?
P: Yeah, we have.
*momentary staredown*
P: It looks like the double lerasium. *waves hands around in the air like an idiot to pantomime the axis of reflection*
B: *looks crestfallen* Oh. Right. Then, I guess you have seen ettmetal's symbol.
P: *cackles internally* So, ettmetal is Harmonium!
B: *sadly* Yes...
P: Am I allowed to tell people? I can keep it a secret if you want.
B: No, you can tell people.
P: *almost ditches the rest of his signing turn to go tell people*

I got through my other questions, with good conversations on all of them (but none quite as much fun as this one!), he finishes signing my last book, and I realize: I didn't get RAFOd on anything! I say it out loud, "aww, man, I didn't get a card!" (1st world problems). He says, "Ask one more." After our discussion on Stormlight and ettmetal and looking at my pages of printouts, I'm sure he knows I've got some RAFO-bait. So, I ask, "Are the Cognitive Shadows on Braize the mythical Shades of the Knights Radiant?" No words, just hands me the card, I say my thanks and head out. That must have been 6:30 or so. I stuck around, chatting with other people in line, until it closed. It was great. I had some people pull out their copies of AU and read the Taldain essay while they waited, since they were wondering about Odium/Trell. I'm like, "You should really read this..."

So, I'm really looking forward to his next signing. I might also think about going to JordanCon, if this is representative. I had a lot more fun that I expected.

[Mason Wheeler]

Didn't the Harmony symbol get used in Secret History? 

Edited December 4, 2016 by Mason Wheeler

[CCQ]

I asked some Q's at a signing and they were mostly RAFO

1) if Lift didn't get what she wanted from Nightwatcher (to stop aging) what did she get?

Brandon-Rafo but it has to do with why she can metabolize food into stormlight.

2)Did Ishar intentionally deceive Nalan or does Ishar have bad info that he passed on?

Brandon- Yes and no. All of the heralds are insane.

So I clarified the question to being did Ishar know that he was lying to Nalan and got a RAFO but he added something that seemed to mean that Ishar could perhaps see the future and that each insanity was unique and that uniqueness played a part in the info. Not really sure on the last part.

3)If spren grant powers of gravitation, tension etc. physical stuff why do Ryshadium gain some sort of sentience?

Not sure what the answer was here. After I thought about it it seemed like he said because that's what that bond does.

Does anyone have more info about these Q's?

Edited December 6, 2016 by Kurkistan
Merged into signing thread

[Spoolofwhool]

1) It's theorized that Lift asked the Nightwatcher for a boon which would prevent her from changing while the world changed around her. She assumed that the Nightwatcher would make her remain the same age eternally. In Edgedancer though, it's confirmed that she is physically aging, but it's possible that her mental development is frozen, so intellectually she will always be 11-12. The ability to metabolize food into stormlight likely has to do with that, as Wyndle says, she's more into the cognitive realm than normal people. The curse then is questionable, but the fact that her body still ages may be it, as then eventually she will be a 12 year old mind in a 30 year old body.

2) No real opinion or info on that. 

3) The spren bonds really are about changing the spiritweb, and by extension the cognitive and physical of the host. The type of spren determines what the bond does. In the case of KRs, the spren were chosen to make bonds which were designed to give the hosts surgebinding powers, as well as the power to take up stormlight. In the case of Listeners, the spren bond grant them the difference forms. In the case of Greatshells, the spren bond gives them the ability to support their great size. Finally, with Ryshadium's, they get increased sentience. I think the crux of the matter is that surgebinding powers are not physical, as you asked. They delve into far greater things over all three realms, as they are changing the fundamental forces which govern the Cosmere. 

Edited December 6, 2016 by Kurkistan
Merged into signing thread

[WeiryWriter he/him]

On 12/4/2016 at 1:13 PM, CCQ said:

I asked some Q's at a signing and they were mostly RAFO

1) if Lift didn't get what she wanted from Nightwatcher (to stop aging) what did she get?

Brandon-Rafo but it has to do with why she can metabolize food into stormlight.

2)Did Ishar intentionally deceive Nalan or does Ishar have bad info that he passed on?

Brandon- Yes and no. All of the heralds are insane.

So I clarified the question to being did Ishar know that he was lying to Nalan and got a RAFO but he added something that seemed to mean that Ishar could perhaps see the future and that each insanity was unique and that uniqueness played a part in the info. Not really sure on the last part.

3)If spren grant powers of gravitation, tension etc. physical stuff why do Ryshadium gain some sort of sentience?

Not sure what the answer was here. After I thought about it it seemed like he said because that's what that bond does.

Does anyone have more info about these Q's?

Just a heads up but this really isn't the place to do signing reports. They should go into the relevant event thread in in the Events and Signings forum. For reference here are our guidelines for this sort of thing.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Kurkistan
Merged into signing thread

[skaa he/him]

9 hours ago, Mason Wheeler said:

Didn't the Harmony symbol get used in Secret History? 

Creating that symbol was mostly Isaac's responsibility anyway, and he created it as far back as last year, even though it wasn't used in either SoS or BoM. So it's easy to imagine Brandon forgetting, what with the amount of things on his plate.

Edited December 5, 2016 by skaa

[Zalocx he/him]

Oh darn, should have paid attention to tour dates. I live like two towns over!

Harmonium/Ettmetal being hard to use seems to be a feature and not a bug, since if anyone knows the danger posed by hacking the metallic arts at the highest level (Hemalurgy, compounding, TLR style Fullborn Compounding, God Metals) its Him. So it doesn't surprise me that Harmonium would be something you can't just swallow or slap on as a bracelet, makes it much harder to potentially abuse. 

Also I don't think there is any mystical reason for it being so volatile when exposed to water, I think Harmony just based its physical characteristics on Group 1/2 metals.

[Argent he/him]

That's... a lot of information.

[Vindicator]

So Gavilar WAS a potential Bondsmith! That is news to me. I wonder just how much he knew...

[Pagerunner he/him]

48 minutes ago, Vindicator said:

So Gavilar WAS a potential Bondsmith! That is news to me. I wonder just how much he knew...

Segren didn't put all his info in his post; Brandon said that Gavilar had been on the Bondsmith path for longer than Dalinar has been. It raised some interesting questions for me about whether or not he might have been Surgebinding on the night of his assassination. But, someone else at the signing (don't remember who) mentioned that he had a deadsprenblade, so he might not have been as far along the path.

He's also missing a answer about a hypothetical 'Kelserium' that has some interesting implications.