Erai Sedai

Callsign: Nightblade. Checking in.

So just finished Skyward today. Wow. I'm blown away. I loved it! It's given me such a space craving now! (Trying to download Halo MCC 73gig update)

Can't wait for the next one. Gonna be a great series! 

I think i love WoK the most, but most enjoyable, i'd have to say WoR.

But seriously, i love them all so damnation much

Must just be in Australia that we say Nuhtella. I give my sister-in-law reason to laugh at me this time. 

2 questions:

1. How do you pronounce it? My brothers wife (originally from south africa) says Newtella. I say Nuhtella. 

2. Do you eat it straight from the jar? I do (judge me all you want, i won't stop!) Ive even started buying the smaller jars because the tea spoon gets to the bottom easier than the larger jars.

3. Bonus question, have you had Nutella with peanut butter? That's also good.

Sorry. I really really like nutella

2 hours ago, Extesian said:

@Darkness, you're my stormin' hero. And your collection of questions were crackers, with Brandon giving some beautiful tidbits of extra information he didn't necessarily need to. I love it!

My thoughts

I've become a little obsessed with gemstones and the role of 'color' on Roshar. We had a previous WoB covering the first part of this answer, but confirmation that the differences are a sort of feedback loop with Rosharan perception is excellent, and the way it has actually changed the mechanics of the magic system. And I think it gives insight into why soulcasting as a subset has this requirement for a specific gem for each essence.

Now THIS is one of the confirmations I've been waiting for in trying to figure out the three magic systems on Roshar. We had confirmation that the third system wasn't just fabrials generally, but fabrials were a part of it. This beautiful little bit of info isn't one I'd seen before and makes me increasingly think that Honorblades are part of that same system. I'll have to think more on that.

Seems like nice little confirmation that (SA spoiler) 

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Shallan, as a proto/lapsed transformation surgebinder, could already see investiture (just kinetic investiture?). Makes me think (though maybe this is already well known) that is how she could see Pattern initially to be able to pull him partially into the physical realm by drawing him.

And again nice confirmation (again, maybe we already knew) that taking a memory is forming a spiritual connection to the object, but that the thing that affects the object in the other realms is drawing it, not just taking a snapshot.

Nice! I think this was pretty certain already, but it's the first outright confirmation I've seen (and makes slightly redundant the comprehensive list of confirmed characters' eye colours in the books).

Mostly what he seems to be is useful (if unsurprising) with respect to some of the ideas people have had for Gaz's past. He's...just a dude.

This makes me very happy!! Hopefully will give some insights into Hoid, what Sigzil is capable of or at least what he knows.

Ha! We'll just never get out of him the words "Hoid used the bead of Lerasium to become an allomancer". Oh Brandon...

I feel like this is more solid confirmation than we previously had? Maybe not. But still confuses me when read next to the line in The Letter "Though, as you are now essentially immortal". Why only 'now'? Unless it refers to an inability for Frost to even be killed now, but as we know he's not a Shardholder, I remain confused.

Argh. Szeth, with the thing he got at the end of WoR, and I'm going to have to wait for 700 pages to find out about him. That will be some wait

I'm disappointed we don't get Axies, happy we get Lift viewpoints and intrigued but not surprised about Dalinar probably being more dangerous than Shallan and Kaladin (I really want to find out what Bondsmiths can actually do) and that Shallan is second (again, unsurprising but makes me dwell more on the strength of both transformation and lightweaving.

I echo Maxal's surprise at this in terms of Adolin's injuries. But the wording is interesting. As someone who Sees, perhaps Renarin doesn't like touching people because he actually glimpses into their soul when he does so, but with Adolin he wants to, even though it's traumatic, because the knowledge of his brother let's him help 'heal' Adolin in other conventional ways (psychologically and such).

Agreed!!!

@Erai Sedai I don't quite understand this, can you explain further?

 

So...yeah, that was longer than I should have posted  But some fantastic things so far, I'm really looking forward to any extra things (and I'm not sure if you were at all the Brandon sessions Darkness) but they're some nice things to go on. And some nice things to feed into questions for the people who go in Perth!

So I basically asked him if a copper ferring or twin born could access all of their stored memories at once. All in one go. And that was a RAFO. Sorry if I'm still making it confusing, I'm terrible at explanations!

15 hours ago, Darkness said:

that was me! I actually cosplayed as Brandon with a part in my hair, comic shirt, dress coat, and jeans, but it was subtle haha I dont think even he caught it. I have audio of the first half of his seminar, but had technical difficulties in the second half I also have audio of my personal questions for him, but the supanova staff said no recording of the main q&a so I hastily jotted down notes of anything new or interesting to me that I'll put up soon. 

Edit 1: Here is the transcript of me asking Brandon questions:

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Darkness: So, I have a massive list of questions just from my last readthrough of the Way of Kings. I tried to cut the list down and ended up with only 40…

Brandon: Great [nervous laugh] I don’t know if we’ll get to all 40…

Darkness: Haha, yeah… ok, so… Chapter 4 Kaladin noted a legger with a deep purple carapace near Tvlakv’s wagon. (Brandon: yeah… uh huh!) Would that be a suspicious legger?

Brandon: That’s a suspicious legger! (Later definitely confirmed it to be Aimian)

Darkness: Will we learn more about the corrupt lighteyes in Kaladin’s past? Katarotam? (silence) Will we learn more, just yes or no is fine.

Brandon: Ehh... Yes. In general, yeah.

Darkness: Ok. Um… did Taravangian arrange for his granddaughter to be trapped, so he could see Jasnah soulcasting?

Brandon: Um he used an opportunity, that he could’ve gotten to through… in a multitude of ways, in order to… check on some things. (ok) But it is his granddaughter and she really was in danger.

Darkness: Yep, he really did seem concerned.

Brandon: Yes.

Darkness: Further on in that… do different gemstones hold a different flavour, or different ‘frequency’ of Stormlight?

Brandon: Umm…. Nnnnnnnnooooooo… But kind of? Here’s the thing: So with the gemstones on Roshar… scientifically some of these gemstones are just really close to one another. Like chemical formula and whatever. But, their cognitive selves and their spiritual selves are gonna be very different because of human perception, right? (sure) And so, the answer is both a no and a yes because of that. So people’s perception has sort of changed how the magic works, to an extent… but it’s the same amount of investiture, just with slightly different flavourings.

Darkness: Right, so… is it easier for a soulcaster to turn rock into smoke with a smokestone as opposed to a ruby?

Brandon: So … Soulcasting… is gonna really depend on whether you’re using a soulcaster.

Darkness: First is for a soulcaster, second is for a surgebinder.

Brandon: A surgebinder is far less constrained than someone using a device accessing surges, right? (sure) A Knight Radiant is far less constrained than somebody using a mechanical means of accessing magic, and I would include Honorblades as a mechanical means of accessing a surge.

Darkness: Cool! So with the whole Jasnah scene, she inhales Stormlight, for using soulcasting. So how is it the soulcaster appears to glow more fiercely instead of growing dimmer in that scene?

Brandon: Um… heh heh heh… So… this is perception on Shallan’s part, watching and kind of resonating with the soulcasting, and some weird things are happening that she sees, and not necessarily anyone else is seeing.

Darkness: I love that! Alright… Also, did Taravangian recognize that Jasnah was not soulcasting traditionally? Like was it the hand sinking into the rock that gave it away?

Brandon: Taravangian knew and already suspected (ok… sure).

Darkness: How many memories can Shallan store at once?

Brandon: I don’t have a specific limit written down anywhere.

Darkness: But there is kind of a generalized upper ceiling?

Brandon: I would say that there is a generalized upper ceiling, but it’s not something I have defined.

Darkness: How close is Elithan to Adonalsium’s actually name? Does Adonalsium have a proper name? It seems more like a title…

Brandon: Um… Yeea… RAFO.

Darkness: Is logicspren a type of radiantspren?

Brandon: RAFO… but that’s a RAFO because that question isn’t specific enough, but I’m not going to tell you why.

Darkness: haha ok. What’s the story behind Vedeledev’s Golden Keys, or are we going to hear it?

Brandon: Vedeledev’s Golden Keys are more of a mythological thing like the sword that forbad people from entering the Garden of Eden, things like this that, they have existed but they’re more symbolic… (ok) does that make sense?

Darkness: Yep. So the Chapter 8 death rattle (reads it quickly)... we stand atop the mount, blah blah blah. Is that referencing the words of an Aimian?

Brandon: RAFO.

Darkness: Is there any spiritual or cognitive affect on the subject of Shallan’s memory collecting?

Brandon: Well… …

Darkness: Simply from taking the memory, not from the consequences of seeing the pictures or anything.

Brandon: Right… no, I would say no, but there is a sliiiiight spiritual connection happening. So, so… but it doesn’t really have an affect on the person.  I mean, you could say, you could make the argument that any slight connection like that does have one. But I don’t want you to read that much into it (ok). So the answer is yes, with an asterisk of no.

Darkness: Ok. Ishikk and the purelakers… are they actually fooling Vun Makak, like, at all?

(both laughing)

Brandon: Umm… I’m going to RAFO that.

Darkness: Ok. Ishikk says, in response to the ‘outsiders’ saying ‘this is a fool’s errand’, he says ‘you’ve got the fool part right.’ Is Ishikk more aware than he seems? Is he laughing and making a subtle Hoid joke?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: Dors Szeth’s connection to the Honorblade allow him to maintain a warrior’s fitness as a normal person would need to?

Brandon: Uh…. Noooo… I’m gonna say he… he… no. I’ll just say that.

Darkness: Are the quartz and iron in Szeth’s oathstone specific to Szeth’s in particular, or to oathstones in general?

Brandon: I’ll RAFO that.

Darkness: Ok. The Thrill of Battle and the Thrill of Contest are noted as ‘distinct’. Do the two come from different sources?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: When a darkeyed person obtains a shardblade. Does their new eye colour reflect the specific type of blade they bonded?

Brandon: Yes.

Darkness: Ok. Is Kaladin going to meet up with Jost again?

Brandon: RAFO.

Darkness: Is Cusicesh stuck in some kind of loop? Were his actions maybe recorded somewhere long ago?

Brandon: Mmm RAFO… yeah…

Darkness: Does the location of the ghostblood tattoo correspond to some kind of rank?

Brandon: No.

Darkness: Did any metal break off when Gaz lost his eye?

Brandon: Did any metal break off?

Darkness: Like… in him…

Brandon: Oh in him… you mean… no he doesn’t have a hemalurgic spike. Gaz is mostly what he seems to be.

Darkness: Ok I like that. Was it Syl or was it Kaladin himself that made things stick to his hands in the beginning? Are honorspren able to use a rudimentary form of the adhesion surge?

Brandon: Yes, they are. Windspren are too!

Darkness: Ok! Cool! That was my next question… ok, was Ivory watching when Shallan was in Jasnah’s bathing chamber and that whole swap thing kind of went down… what did he relay to Jasnah…?

Brandon: Umm… he would’ve been there… but I don’t have an answer for that, mostly because I haven’t considered it.

Darkness: Did the person Sigzil tried to kill actually die, and then afterward become not dead?

Brandon: We’ll RAFO that, mostly because I intend to dig into Sigzil’s past more.

Darkness: Ok so you’re probably going to RAFO who it was?

Brandon: Yeah… mhm… but we do get a Sigzil viewpoint in this next book so…

Darkness: Good! I like Sigzil. Previous to the heralds giving up, could the desolations be mathematically predicted, kind of like highstorms?

Brandon: Umm… no. Uh… ok let’s do 2 more.

Darkness: Ok. 2 more. Will Jashnah’s sisters show up in the present day arc? (I meant the 2 biological sisters that are mentioned in one part of tWoK but I guess Brandon wasn’t thinking about them)

Brandon: Jasnah sisters… Oh… OH! The other… veristatilians. (Sure) Um… yes. You will actually meet 2 more veristatilians in the next book!

Darkness: Cool! Alrighty… and… oh there’s a good one! (I had a much better final question, but I got flustered and missed it haha) What does antiseptic look like in the Cognitive and would it frighten away any rotspren or grinders there?

Brandon: Mmm… no it would look like a bead unfortunately. You could manifest it, like how you see Kelsier doing with stuff but really… no. Maybe if you got some antiseptic in (into the Cognitive Realm), the rotspren might recognize it but just the soul of it, no.

Darkness: Ok! That’s it for today. Thank you very much!

Brandon: Thanks!

 

 

Edit 2: Here are my hastily scribbled notes from the signing. I think I got everything that could be considered 'new'. I didn't write a lot of things about writing process, world building, new author advice, and release dates (Oathbringer coming November 14th in Aus and USA, November 16th in Britain)

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Verbatim:

Q: From Secret History, does Hoid have all the magic from the universe you’ve created?

A: He does not have all the magic. He did take the bead of Lerasium, and you have seen him use allomancy. So, he is confirmed to have used allomancy.

Q: Did you change Gawyn’s fate?

A: Yes and no. Gawyn was the most written character by Robert Jordan. I made small tweaks, but he was mostly written. Harriet has said not to specify which characters were killed by whom, but I can say that about 1/3 was Robert Jordan, 1/3 was Harriet, and 1/3 was me.

Q: Regarding a certain dragon mentioned in Stormlight Archive, and dragons in general in the Cosmere: is functional immortality a natural part of a dragon’s lifespan?

A: The way I have written dragons in the Cosmere… ALL dragons are naturally functionally immortal. They can be killed, but they don’t age.

Q: Will we see more of Szeth in book 3?

A: Szeth has 6 chapters in the 3^rd book, mostly in the last part. You’ll be reading along and be like, “Where’s Szeth?” But that’s just where I could fit him in.

Q: When does the next Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell happen?

A: There’s a book in that world about an entire expeditionary team that sails forth to destroy the evil. The book starts with a person holding to the plank of a ship as the entire fleet sails back while it’s being destroyed.

Q: Do you ever go to India?

A: I have never been to India. I would love to go to India, the trick is I have to be invited. So they’d have to have some kind of convention and invite me.

Q: Please don’t kill Dalinar! No questions, just please don’t kill Dalinar.

A: (Very seriously) You will enjoy this next book! (Added after) But… ehhh… it’s gonna be painful.

Q: Are we going to get a Jasnah book?

A: Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln, and Jasnah are the back 5. Jasnah is book 8 right now, maybe book 10.

Q: When will we next see Axies the collector?

A: Axies is mentioned in the next book but you don’t see him, so probably in book 4.

Q: Will we see more of Lift?

A: You will see more of Lift in this book. There are even some Lift viewpoints.

Q: Who is the most dangerous of Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar?

A: Hmm… haw… Depends on which era of their lives… Probably Dalinar is the most dangerous. But that’s a really tough question! After Dalinar probably Shallan.

Q: Who of those three would you kill, main, or sleep with?

A: (Fumbled around a bit... ended up not answering that one)

Paraphrased:

Q: What inspired the Epics? (This came up a few times)

A: I got cut off in traffic and thought, ‘you’re so lucky I don’t have superpowers because I would totally blow up your car!” And then I started to think about how I couldn’t be trusted with superpowers and what the world would be like if no one with superpowers could be trusted.

Q: I just got a job as an editor. What advice can you give me about my job from the perspective of an author?

A: The editor’s job is to figure out what the author is trying to do, and how to help them make a better book than the author has written. Get them to try out options even when they don’t want to listen or change the parts that don’t work.

Q: How do you keep all of your information straight? (This one came up a lot too)

A: I have a dedicated database shared between me and my assistants. I use wiki dpad and have 2 amazing assistants to make sure I keep it all straight, but I still mess up a lot!

A: RAFO on bronze/copper twinborns because I want to leave myself room to create things.

Q: Renarin is not comfortable touching people, but he does touch Adolin. Is he healing him?

A: Renarin is not healing Adolin “with his powers”. He’s not really confident in his powers at all. You’ll see him develop that way more in book 3.

A: Hoid has… a lot of things influencing that. I liked the robot’s story in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books, I wanted to have a character that moved behind the scenes of each story like that.

A: Personal favourite scene is when Kaladin finlly says the words of radiance. I waited a long time to write that scene.

Q: What was the driving force for Kaladin?

A: 2 things: 1 being a surgeon and a big brother, another was writing a hero who never thought he was succeeding.

Q: Do you every drop hints for things that never come to pass as you change and tweak the story?

A: Oh ya, all the time. Best example is Arcanum Unbounded originally had a different story that was foreshadowed through Mistborn Era 1 among others, but it just never fit in the story. It just didn’t jive once you start putting the jig saw together. You learn not to get too disappointed when that happens.

Q: Nakomi?!?!

A: Nakomi is one of the things I’m not allowed to answer. Robert Jordan wrote the scene where she meets Rand coming out of the pit. I wrote the other one.

Q: When will we return to the Reckoners? (This was asked a few times)

A: Apocalypse Guard will come out sometime next year.

Q: When you paint a shardplate, how do you change the paint job? Do you have to break the pieces to get it off?

A: You would use a paint thinner and it would come off alright. Actually, you have to reapply the paint pretty often as it would naturally wear off on its own and it would have trouble sticking to the plate.

Q: Where’d you get the inspiration for the Shattered Plains?

A: I can’t say specifically, but probably the cliff’s in Southern Utah had a large bearing on it.

Q: (Someone came with an entire interview prepared, so maybe they’ll post it somewhere… but here are my highlights)

Apocalypse Guard is about this superpowered team that goes around saving entire worlds, but their intern without powers gets trapped on a doomed planet and has to figure out how to save it / herself. SA and Mistborn both have screenplays. SA’s is WAY too long, which is why we’re going to a VR platform as a pitch for movies. SA has a couple drafts of screenplays and I’m very hopeful that it will go into the visuals phase next. (yes, I know that is confusing, but that bit is verbatim)

Teaching has really helped me be more defined as a writer. Writing is done very often by instinct, and I’ve discovered a lot about my writing style and process by putting it into lectures and words. That especially helps when the writing is hard. When it’s easy you just go with it, but when it’s hard I can really pinpoint what’s going on.

Apocalypse Guard is a first person, very quirky, fun person to write. I’ve written 50 pages so far in between SA work, and it was very refreshing and I’m very happy with it.

A: He’ll try to get to Australia every 4 or 5 years or so. They do invite him regularly and he was invited last year and the year before, but his schedule just doesn’t allow it yearly.

A: His signature used to be his initials, but it sort of morphed slowly into a symbol over the years. He also uses his whole arm to sign now instead of his wrist. It doesn’t hurt him to sign so much now!

A: Oathbringer starts with all these characters and all this stuff coming from everywhere and you’ll be like, “Woah!” But it’ll start to gel around chapter 11, so just trust me

Q: What’s one thing you wished hadn’t been cut?

A: There was a scene where Perrin, the Ogier, and everyone cleansed the Ways that had to be cut that I was sad about.

Personalisations:

“I am hope.”

“I know your soul.”

Edit 3: My 20 minute video file of the seminar turned out to be a little over 2 GB, so it isn't letting me upload it to Youtube, Facebook, or the shard, or email, or anything else... but honestly it isn't anything that you can't hear by listening to his posted lectures. There weren't any new WoBs of note from it and people were specifically directed to avoid spoilery things in their questions.

Thanks so much for taking down everyone's questions!

Quote

A: RAFO on bronze/copper twinborns because I want to leave myself room to create things

That was the answer I got when asking if copper information once stored can be drawn upon all at once

On 2017-4-13 at 11:01 PM, The Sovereign said:

Xbox/PS4/PC? I play on the Xbox NA server.

Sorry i lagged on this! We're both PC NA

Brandon was awesome as usual today! So glad I got to meet my favourite author! It was a great day

These are so storming good!

Can't wait to see some of your art!

Oh, and welcome!

Welcome! We can't wait until you start connecting those dots with us!

I'm yet to even find a dot!

Did the original Elantrians count as humans technically?

23 minutes ago, Calderis said:

This is the first rebirth after Honor was shattered. Maybe Tanavast facilitated the process somehow, and without that intervention Taln is... broken. 

Ooo true true. Didn't think about this one probably being the first rebirth without honor. That could be a pretty important point

That's what I was wondering as well. If Jasnah were to go off world, what happens to her spren???

Bridge 4!!

Personally I think it has something to do with trying to become an Elantrian. Or maybe we won't get the answer until the end of the first stormlight arc.

Ive got the feeling it's gonna be something pretty significant though! 

22 minutes ago, Unhinged said:

Think about it the socially awkward streetwise thief and the quiet bookish prince... wait this sounds familiar.

Hahaha this made me chuckle

Heal Way of Kings, kill Edgedancer

6. The Hero of Ages -- 17
13. The Way of Kings --18
15. Edgedancer-- 0

1 hour ago, Weltall said:

Here's another WoB confirming that Splintering isn't necessarily permanent.

Nice find!

12 minutes ago, Jondesu said:

I imagine something along the lines of the transformation from dragon to human and back from Seventh Son (haven't seen the movie, but it was shown briefly in the trailer).  A full-on dragon (mostly European style in that case, though I think Brandon's dragons will have some more Asian influence), landing and simply…shrinking down and looking human in a single fluid motion.  To clarify on the appearance, I expect the Cosmere dragons to have the long bodies of Chinese dragons, somewhat, but to retain arms and legs, and I somewhat don't expect them to breath fire, but I'm not sure why I've got that stuck in my head.  They'll be cunning and crafty by nature, though, which Hoid implies fairly heavily about Frost, but with the usual range of personalities we'd expect of any sapient race in the Cosmere, rather than the stereotyped dragon personality of other mediums (always greedy and quick to anger, for instance).

This is what I think as well. But at the same time I've got the feeling he might want to reinvent it all a bit and they'll be "types" of dragons we just can't imagine right now.

I've got the feeling he's gonna surprise us either way

18 minutes ago, Thanatos said:

Edit x3...

Could it be... that Sazed may end up being Balderdash or Gibberish... as Hoid referred Adonalsium coming back together in his conversation with Dalinar?

Hmmmmm...

 

This is honestly what i believe will happen. But i feel like that may be too obvious and is meant for misdirection.

Interesting responses though!

1 minute ago, Calderis said:

 

Ruin and Preservation weren't splintered. All of the Shards are peices of a shattered Adonalsium. Sazed picked up two separate shards and they have intermingled to the point that if he dropped them, they would be picked up together as a single shard. 

If the Shards themselves can be merged, splinters of shards most definitely can. 

That's what i wanted to hear!! Awesome!

Thanks!

10 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

First of all, WoT has nothing to do with Cosmere. Secondly, I believe it has been directly confirmed that merging pieces of a shard back into a shard is possible. We've essentially seen this happen with Ruin and Preservation merging into Harmony.

I didn't think Ruin and Preservation were actually splintered though, were they? I thought Sazed was able to take up both of those shards as they left their host.

And i know WoT has nothing to do with Stormlight. But i mean, Brandon literally finished off that series. I'd be a fool if i assumed he took no inspiration from it what-so-ever haha
 

10 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

I believe it has been directly confirmed that merging pieces of a shard back into a shard is possible

Source though? that's what i couldn't find :\

This might already be answered somewhere, but i couldn't find it. Do you think a splintered shard could be fixed? I think we're lead to believe that it's irreversible, but one moment from The Wheel of Time comes to mind. Spoilers ahead for WoT.
 

Do you think someone in the Cosmere will ever be able to "heal" a splintered shard?