Character Speculation

[Lord Meeker he/him]

I was reading on the Arcanum and came across a particularly interesting post.

Quote

Brandon Sanderson 

...First 5 book arc, then there'll be a break in-world of about a decade. So it won't be as big as the Mistborn jumps. But there'll be a break in world and then we'll come back to it in book 6. And book 6 is where we'll refocus on different characters, some characters go through the whole thing. Some characters kind of fade more into the background and new characters become the focus. So you can imagine it as two series set in the same world...

I was wondering what characters would fade and what characters would stay. My thoughts are this. Kaladin will stay throughout the series as well as Bridge Four. Those guys are too awesome to fade to the background. Lift will become more of a main character. Brandon said he was grooming her for an important part later. Dalinar will fade. He's older so I am expecting Brandon to kill him off. Adolin and Shallan will leave to have kiddos and might be seen occasionally. What are your thoughts?

Full post here

Spoiler

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

Do you have intentions to have a conclusion to the cosmere, or is it something that's going to be ever expanding?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

I did build a conclusion in, and I will write toward it. My goal is to get to it before I get too old. And if I want to still noodle in the cosmere, do planets that we didn't get to or things like that.

So the cosmere main timeline that I'm working on, my plan is to try release a book every year or so in this main timeline. Depends on how long the Stormlight books are. *laughter*

Oathbringer rough draft was 540,000 words. A normal novel is considered 90,000-100,000. The Way of Kings was 300,000. This happens to us fantasy writers. It depends on how long the Stormlight books take. But the main line is 10 Stormlight books in 2 5 book arcs. First 5 book arc, then there'll be a break in-world of about a decade. So it won't be as big as the Mistborn jumps. But there'll be a break in world and then we'll come back to it in book 6. And book 6 is where we'll refocus on different characters, some characters go through the whole thing. Some characters kind of fade more into the background and new characters become the focus. So you can imagine it as two series set in the same world.

We have the mainline Mistborn series, which is taking Mistborn through a bunch of different eras, eventually landing us in science fiction, space travel. I originally plotted those as 9 books, but then I wrote the Wax and Waynebooks as more part of that.  

But the ending of the cosmere is the science fiction Mistborn trilogy. Chronologically, that's the last thing I have in the plot. That science fiction Mistborn trilogy is space opera. It's Star Wars meets the cosmere. That's our endpoint. 

Right before I write that I will do Dragonsteel, which is Hoid's backstory. Which is flashing back to the beginning of the cosmere, before Adonalsium was Shattered.

So that's our time line. You'll get that...Right now, it's finish the first 5 Stormlight books, do the 1980's level Mistbornbooks, next 5 of Stormlight, Dragonsteel, ending.

I'll probably work some Elantris books and a Warbreaker book in there but that's my main line. Anything that's not in there, like the Threnody novel and things like this, I plan to do but they have to fill a slot of a side project when I have extra time. Might be pushed to be a novella, instead. That's my main line plan. And that's plenty for me to do.

And granted, I just finished book of mine number 42 or 43 or something like that, that I've written since I turned 21. So in 20 years, I wrote 40 books. That sounds like a lot but it depends on how long Stormlight books are.

*laughter*

Like, last year, I basically only did one thing. I had Snapshot and then Stormlight. Those take a lot of work.

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by Sahin the Just

[The One Who Connects he/him]

5 minutes ago, Sahin the Just said:

I was wondering what characters would fade and what characters would stay.

Lift, Renarin, Jasnah, Taln, and Shalash will have flashback arcs in the back 5 books, so they will become bigger characters(the ones who are alive anyways..)

Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Eshonai/Venli, and Szeth are the big names in the front 5, so they are the most likely to fade away later on, as they've been fleshed out quite a bit.

Everyone else is up for debate. They could become more, they could become less, they could stay minor, they could die, etc.. we don't know enough.

---

Personally, the only characters that I solidly want to have a bigger impact are Taln and Rysn. Anyone else is an added bonus to me, but that could change depending on how characters shape up in Books 4, 5, and Wandersail.

[Lord Meeker he/him]

1 minute ago, The One Who Connects said:

Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Eshonai/Venli, and Szeth are the big names in the front 5, so they are the most likely to fade away later on, as they've been fleshed out quite a bit.

I agree with Shallan and Dalinar. I want more of Szeth, because I like the Order his character is in. Kaladin, I just don't want him to go away, he is jsut to awesome.

3 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

Personally, the only characters that I solidly want to have a bigger impact are Taln and Rysn. Anyone else is an added bonus to me, but that could change depending on how characters shape up in Books 4, 5, and Wandersail.

OOOOOH! Yes. I want to know more about Taln, and I want Rysn to be able to heal her legs or have them healed

 

.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1 minute ago, Sahin the Just said:

I want Rysn to be able to heal her legs or have them healed

It'd be good for her to walk again, but I'm not sure she'll need to. I'd like to talk to you about the Lanceryn.

[Lord Meeker he/him]

2 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

I'd like to talk to you about the Lanceryn.

Honestly that would be crazy! I want that to happen.

[Sallin Zeras he/him]

Kaladin: I think he'll stay for the whole series, alongside Bridge Four, just like you said. Or Brandon just kills off all of Bridge Four slowly.

Dalinar: There are many things Brandon could do with him. He could turn into Honor, or, maybe he even created his own Shard, Unity. Yes I know that doesn't make any sense at all, but it sounds cool, also, Odium said he "Ascended". He could also be killed off, either in the time gap, for us to have flashbacks of that, or in book 5, I think book 4 is way too early. He could also become a sort of mentor for the Radiants, or just the leader that doesn't really fight, but is pretty smart and handles the political stuff.

Shallan: I agree with you, though not with Adolin...

Adolin: It could be that what you said is going to happen, but I think Brandon is going to do one of two things. Either he kills him off after having kids with Shallan, or, he becomes the Champion of Odium, as we have seen that Adolin is very prone to sudden acts of "passion" or "hate", though after reading Oathbringer and his reaction to his actions, I'm not so sure about that anymore.

Szeth: I think he will stay for the whole series too. We are just going to start to actually know him in a deeper level in book 4(That meaning we are going to have more than 6 chapters with him), so I think it would be pretty lame for him to just become a minor character after such a short time of knowing him. Also, he's the most badass character, so there's that.

Rysn: She will absolutely have a major role on the last 5 books. I don't really have a reason for it, its just a feeling I've got.

Vyre/Moash: I think he's going to be Kaladin's main antagonist, for them to have an epic duel at the final book, as every other antagonist that Kal's had is gone for some reason or another. Either that, or he ends up having a redemption arc, which I think is not very plausible, since I think what he did in Part 3 of OB was just Brandon telling us, "Hey, he's completely evil now"

Vasher and Vivenna: I thin k we won't have to wait long for them to become HUGE characters in the story. I've also thought of Warbreaker as a way to introduce these characters before they are expanded on in SA.

Venli: I think she will be a big character for book 4 and 5, but that's that. She will serve as a bridge between humanity and the singers. She'll probably just make a few singers join the KR and then she'll be killed off, or something.

The Unmade: The Unmade will be there as long as Odium is there, and I'm really excited to see a full on confrontation between the KR and The Unmade and Odium's Champion.

Cultivation: She is going to be extremely important in the story, I'd even dare to say that her influence will start to be more noticeable in book 4, and it will progressively get bigger and bigger. I just think that, at the end, she's going to destroy Odium and say "I had this planned all along" and they they kill him/imprison him/whatever they are going to do to him. I mean, if Preservation could come up with a cool plan to defeat Ruin, imagine Cultivation...

Taravangian: He's probably going to be that bad guy that isn't really THE bad guy and gets killed off half way through the story because of that. Or, in one of his smart days, he's going to betray Odium.

The Heralds: They are all going to start to be more prominent(except Jezrien, xd), and I think they are going to be hunted down by Vyre with the weird knife thing. They are all probably going to be dead by the end. And if Dalinar does end up being a Shard, I think he'll appoint other characters as Heralds, like making Kal the new Jezrien, or stuff like that.

I really cant think of anyone else that might be important in the future, besides the main characters for the last 5 books, Lift, Jasnah, Renarin, Ash, and Taln.

If you're wondering why I have the time to write something so long is because I don't have a life. Well, I actually do. Its called Brandon Sanderson.

 

[EddyJ he/him]

Extremely unlikely theory incoming: Odium is shattered and, to prevent the destruction/damaging of Roshar’s Cognitive Realm (see Sel) one of the main characters Ascends to Odium. Like Mr. T, for instance. 

[RShara she/her]

I think the three main characters of the first five are going to step back--Dalinar, Shallan and Kaladin.  They'll either be dead or doing something else, and be secondary characters.  Given that right now, the back five are Lift, Renarin, Jasnah, Taln and Ash, I don't see how those three will figure closely into their stories.