Wetlander

Would it have helped if I said "my observation"? Because that's the basis of everything in this discussion - my reading of the texts, my reading of other people's reports, my reading of Brandon's vocal inflections and body language, etc. Or your reading of yada yada yada. Observation is by nature a very subjective thing, and people often interpret the same words in different ways. In my opinion, it can be observed that there are differences between the Soulcasting processes of Jasnah and Shallan. Perhaps there are also differences between the way Shallan and Renarin will use Illumination. Perhaps there isn't anything different at all, and as Shallan progresses she'll learn how to Soulcast things that don't want to change. Perhaps Renarin will suddenly take up drawing. Perhaps Shallan will progress beyond the need for drawings. Perhaps Renarin will never bother with drawing, and will create Illusions just by thinking about them. Perhaps his future sight has nothing to do with Illumination. Perhaps it is another aspect of Illumination. Perhaps it is the Truthwatcher Quirk. Perhaps it has more to do with Progression. Or nothing at all. As I said, of course I can't prove it, or it wouldn't be a subject of speculation. It's a suggestion, an idea, a "maybe it will be" notion. We won't know for sure until we see Renarin actually do something with it - and even then we will only have our own interpretations of what happens, unless Brandon (rather uncharacteristically) spells it out in great detail for us.

If someone happens to be hanging out specifically to do pictures, that works, but it doesn't happen very often. Often he'll suggest that while you're standing in line, you can make friends with someone behind or in front of you, and make arrangements to have them take pictures for you. In that case, the best way to do it is to hand them your phone/camera just before you get to the signing table, put your books on the table, go around and stand beside him (unless they've given other instructions on placement), let your friend figure out the composition, and then they say "1, 2, 3" and he'll look up on 3. He's got himself really well trained on that. But he's always okay with getting pictures, and (as others have said) he'll sign anything he wrote that you bring. (He'll also sign anything Pat Rothfuss wrote, if you ask him. ) Generally, he tends to personalize the new book for you; beyond that, it depends a lot on how long the line is and whether they're going to kick everyone out at a certain time. If there are limits, like "you need to go through the line again if you want him to sign/personalize more than 3," they will probably tell you just before the line forms. And definitely bring questions - if you don't pop out with them right away, he'll ask you if you have any.

That's what I said, isn't it? It's all theorizing and speculation; if we could prove it one way or the other, we wouldn't be speculating any more.

Again, I haven't spent a lot of time researching things just yet (still working on that storming transcription!) but Jasnah never seems to have to convince anything to change, while Shallan has to give everything a good reason - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Shallan couldn't get the stick to become fire, because she couldn't convince it; Jasnah didn't seem to need the consent of the thugs to make them become crystal, fire, and smoke.This could simply be a matter of their personalities, of course, and we haven't been in Jasnah's head for very many of her Soulcastings. Or it could be something specific to the Orders. We do know that Elsecallers have a greater facility with Shadesmar than any other Order (probably their Quirk), so it seems reasonable that they can access Soulcasting in a manner that Lightweavers cannot. Is it "different" or just "easier"? (I don't necessarily mean with different results - just a different way of manipulating the Surge to get the same result.) I don't know; there's still a lot we've not been told. As I said, this is purely theoretical; still, it seems logical that the two Orders who have access might also make somewhat different use of a given Surge as a matter of course. The Orders have different purposes and different Ideals; why not make different use of the shared Surge? I'm not saying that they must use it differently (which would be stupid because it's the same Surge, and WoB says it's much the same) but it seems like they might use it for different reasons and with a different emphasis. So Shallan (so far) has used Illumination to create illusions, and Renarin can probably do the same (if/when he figures out how) - but perhaps so far he has used Illumination to see things other people don't. As noted in my report, Brandon did say that Lightweaving (the creating of illusions as Shallan uses it) is solely of Illumination and not of Transformation - but he didn't say that Lightweaving was the sole use for Illumination. That might be a good question for someone to ask at a signing.

It occurs to me that Truthwatchers may use the Surge of Illumination in ways far different than Lightweaving per se. I'm wondering if Illumination is some of what allows them to "see things" in ways that others don't, perhaps, rather than creating illusions for others to see. This is partially based on the observation that Transformation seems to work differently for Jasnah than for Shallan, so perhaps other Surges are handled differently by the Orders that can access them. This just popped into my head, so it's not at all well thought out. I'd love to hear what y'all think.

One thing I forgot to add!!! At the 1/7 signing, a friend asked a follow-up question for me: Is there a similarity between what Shai does in "The Emperor's Soul" and what Shallan did with the deserters? His answer was that there's some similarity, but that's not the person he was thinking of, and that "no one is going to expect it" when we learn the answer. So... it could be Tien - at least if Brandon isn't too aware of the hopes and theories regarding him. Beyond that, I have no idea. I was SURE it was Shai when the thought occurred to me two hours later, but I was wrong.

I'm working on the transcript from the release day event in Seattle; it's going to take a while to work my way through the entire three hours of signing-table chaos. Here are a few things from my own personal Q&A while he was signing stock and we were packing up the stuff. I hadn't really had a chance to sort through the questions I'd collected, so in retrospect there are a couple I wish I hadn't bothered with (I still have a dozen or so unasked), but... it is what it is. I'll post the signing-table stuff when I figure out what's worth collecting; a lot of it was the same questions we've heard a couple dozen times already, and some of it is, of course, indecipherable. ALA: Were any of the original Shardholders related? We know that Honor and Cultivation were romantically involved, but were any of them brother and sister or child/parent? BWS: There was at least one relationship of that style. ALA: Was Adonalsium shattered all at once? Or did each Shard form at a separate time? BWS: All at once. ALA: Do Cryptics have the same general dislike of Honorspren as Syl has towards Cryptics? BWS: RAFO!! ALA: Prior to becoming pregnant, did the queen spend most of her time at the Shattered Plains, or in the capital? BWS: She has spent most of her time in the capital. She obviously has been back and forth. I would say she has spent more time off the Shattered Plains than at it. ALA: But she was at the Shattered Plains, rather than Elhokar going back to the capital? BWS: He has been back at least once, but it is a long trip. ALA: In addition to the two abilities given by each surge, does a Knight Radiant order have a third blended ability, the interaction of its two given surges? BWS: Not specifically as phrased there, but each order has quirks that are unique to it. They are magical quirks, but it’s not necessarily a blend of the powers. ALA: So Shallan’s Memories is kind of a … BWS: Is associated with her Order, yes. ALA: It’s not just because she had that wonderful ability, and Pattern came along and went, “Oh, I like this one!” BWS: No that is not necessarily what attracted Pattern. ALA: When Shallan does Lightweaving, is that a combination of Illumination and Transformation, or is Lightweaving just of Illumination? BWS: Lightweaving is just of Illumination. Lightweaving is a long-established power in the cosmere. Very early books, in fact one of the very first stories I ever wrote, Lightweaving was the magic. (That story is unpublished, written long ago – long before Liar of Partinel) And so, this stems from my own personal affection for illusion and my feeling that it had not been used as well as I wanted it to be used in fantasy fiction. So I consider it only Illumination truly in the Stormlight Archive. ALA: The bit with the bandits out there, and the deserters, and she convinces them to all go… Was she doing Lightweaving? Was she doing Transformation? Was she doing some combination? BWS: She was… You have seen what she was doing before, done by another character. ALA: Have you actually written out the Diagram, and the Words of Radiance, and so on? BWS: Oh, heavens, no. That’s the sort of thing that falls into the worldbuilders’ disease thing; there’s no way that writing those out is worth the effort, so no, I have not. Definitely not the Diagram. If I were going to write any of them, I would write The Way of Kings, but even that, it’s probably 30 or 40 thousand words in-world. ALA: How much time elapses between the beginning of the main part of the story (where they start out at the Shattered Plains) and the end of the series? BWS: And the end of the series? Because the end of the series, um, we have a 15-year gap between (books number) 5 and 6. So, the first five will probably be Wheel-of-Time-ish, sort of, each one picks up where the last one left off; we have a little more time, maybe, than Wheel of Time, but not terribly much, so it will probably be just a couple of years for the first ones, but then we will jump. ALA: Human, spren, splinter sliver shard Adonalsium – which of these is most similar ontologically to Nakomi? BWS: (laughter) I can’t say anything about Nakomi! Robert Jordan did not want anything said about Nakomi! I can’t say anything at all about Nakomi! Dig into the notes when they are released, and then you can find out things said about Nakomi. The little tiny hints we have, I told you he wrote that thing at the end, and I’m like well, okay. So.

Shardlet - I'm planning to be at the Seattle (U-Books) signing as well. Will you be recording the whole signing-table conversation again, or are you leaving early with your son? I'll have friends with me this time, so I'm not 100% sure about my activities, but if you're not recording, I'll put my recorder on the signing table and see what I can get. Hope to see you there! (I should be easy to spot - I'm going to try to do the master-servant thing again.)

There's a fairly high probability that the Seattle event is actually on January 6. The UBooks tumblr post says "Tuesday, January 7" which is a non-existent date (the 7th is Wednesday), but the bookstore's website says "Tuesday, January 6." The website specifically says "Join us as we welcome Sanderson for a reading and signing on the day the book comes out." So... I'm going with the 6th for planning purposes. It also sounds rather like it will be a non-ticketed event held in the bookstore itself. Shardlet? KaraokeAng? anyone else going to be there?

You folks are awesome!! Thanks for the recordings, transcript & q/a! Y'all made my day.

I knew there was a reason I don't hang out here much... I just blew almost two hours on this forum and a few of its links. *sigh* I'm sure most of you know this already, but Brandon did say the other night that "every Herald was either mentioned or shown" in WoK. This comment was a result of asking if the old woman in the Palaneum was Palah herself, which he said was "a very good guess."

FWIW, Brandon did confirm outright that the Palaneum is named after Palah. (Also, it's modeled after the Atheneum.) When I asked if the old woman wandering around in the Palaneum was Palah herself, he said, "That's a very good guess." He also said that every one of the Heralds was either mentioned or shown in WoK.

Sorry to have taken so long to get here, and not have read quite all the comments... So if this is a repetition, sorry again. However: I can confirm that the order is Elsecallers. KaraokeAng & Shardlet - it sure was fun to meet you!! Loved getting all the names of the surges and orders straightened out.

Also, where is Hoid? Peter has said it should be obvious (to us), but the only person who I suspected was the beggar in black who is at the Yomen Wedding, talking to Joshin and Mi'chelle. Your guess is correct; I confirmed it with Brandon at the Seattle signing