WeiryWriter

MeLaan probably has aluminum bones for the same reason that solid gold toilets are a thing. She's an immortal and probably has a good chunk of money if she is able to afford a skeleton's worth of aluminum, so why not have one?

But on a more serious note I do think it is important to note that she might not be using it for its magical attributes, but rather its more mundane ones. Aluminum is fairly strong, but also relatively light. That sounds like a perfect material to use.

@Figberts Would you mind posting a picture of the book/wob for archival purposes?

@Darkness Would you mind posting the audio you have from the Sydney event, if it isn't too much trouble?

58 minutes ago, kari-no-sugata said:

I'm pretty sure that was referring to Shallan taking a dip early on in WoR, rather than referring to something in Oathbringer.

This is correct.

18 minutes ago, The Flash said:

Are we possibly going to include some of the WoP? And WoI?

That is our intent.

So Brandon just recently mentioned on reddit that he will be at GenCon this year. If I had to guess it would be as part of the launch of Mistborn: House War, but he'll be doing a number of events:

Thursday

2:00pm-3:00pm - Worldbuilding: Creating a Universe of Worlds

4:00pm-5:00pm - Brandon Sanderson signing

Friday

1:00pm-2:00pm - Q&A with Brandon Sanderson

1:00pm-5:00pm - Play Magic: The Gathering with Brandon Sanderson

6:00pm-7:00pm - Writing Excuses LIVE!

7:00pm-8:00pm - Writing Excuses LIVE!

Saturday

12:00pm-1:00pm - Brandon Sanderson signing

2:00pm-3:00pm - Worldbuilding: Making Magic New Again

3:00pm-4:00pm - Writer's Craft: Can a Hero be Too Powerful?

There will be an Oathbringer spoiler subforum created "soon" (might have to wait until Chaos is back from vacation).

Yeah I think that makes a lot of sense! And definitely go ahead and start a new thread if you want, it is a distinct enough topic.

On 5/15/2017 at 8:51 PM, Extesian said:

I'd wondered about this before but I must admit I thought there was a pretty simple explanation. If I've missed something subtle (or obvious) let me know.

I figure the Shaod is a single, transformative event whereby the Dor, trapped in the Cognitive Realm and bursting to get out, was channelled through the mega-Aon that was Elantris to suddenly change the person to 'full' Elantrian. I don't believe the Shaod pre-dated Elantris, I think what would happen was, like with other magic systems, the magic users (and we still don't know how their 'chosen') would realize they could draw Aons magically and the more they did so, the closer the became to what we now consider Elantrians - ie the increasing use of investiture by drawing Aons would invest them and make them become more powerful. I think the point of Elantris was that it accelerated this process, and made it into one sudden transformation. When Elantris failed enough of that investiture was being channelled through to begin the sudden transformation, but not enough to complete it.

That was wordy. I'm saying I think pre-Elantris there was no Shaod, or at least the way we know it - there was something that triggered the ability to use Aons but it was a slow process of becoming more invested. During this time, someone realised they could supercharge it by building Elantris, which hijacked the normal, slow process. To use a stupid analogy, 'Elantrians' used to walk their way to being full Elantrian, slowly using the Aons. Elantris was like cutting off their legs but giving them a car to drive there. The Reod was stopping the supply of petrol. If that's right, it's not circular reasoning, it's just the mechanism that enables someone to use Aons went from a natural one to a supercharged one, and when that supercharged one failed, it collapsed the whole system.

Hmm, this is interesting. It seems like you are saying Elantrians are basically savants, and the Shaod kind of accelerates the process? I don't know if I'm totally on board with that, but I'll definitely be giving it some more thought.

My understanding of the situation is a little different though so I guess I'll share my thoughts on this as well. I think there are actually two things going on here. There's the Initiation, which gives people the ability to use AonDor, and there's the Transformation which turns them into silver-skinned immortals (or splotchy-skinned zombies as the case may be) and they are accomplished by two distinct processes. The Initiation is the more mysterious of the two, I do think it operates independently of Elantris (and began before the city was constructed, as there needed to be people who could use AonDor to construct it), and that the Reod had no effect on it. The Transformation on the other hand is entirely a function of Elantris, it's the result of a complex Aonic equation that automatically targets everyone who has been Initiated and "supercharges" them with the Dor making them immortal (amongst other enhancements).

Part of the reason I separate the two is that if the ability to use AonDor was tied into the incomplete Aonic equation it doesn't make sense to me that they would be able to use it before the equation was completed. Does that make sense?

55 minutes ago, jofwu said:

It's got a cover now!

https://www.amazon.com/Brandon-Sandersons-White-Sand-2/dp/152410342X/

Also, date was moved back to November 14... Which seems suspicious being the same date as Oathbringer...

Oooh nice!

And the date doesn't strain credulity, they released the 10th anniversary edition of Elantris on the same day as Shadows of Self. I guess it helps boost sales or something.

On 5/13/2017 at 1:24 AM, Argent said:

 

@WeiryWriter, the last link is dead - can you contact wot-tidbits about it (they say it's okay), because I don't know how to Tumblr beyond favoring things?

If you go to their page, at the top with the red buttons there is one that says "Ask", which is the standard message feature. (That page can be accessed for any tumblr-blog by apending "/ask" to the end of the main url)

21 hours ago, maxal said:

I am more worried over Brandon saying he prefers to make a bad movie than no movie at all as I would prefer the opposite.

I think that is a misinterpretation of what he actually means. He would rather make a movie and risk it being bad than to not make an attempt at all. Which I think is a very sensible perspective, after all one of those options may have a less 100% chance of producing a good movie, but the other has a zero percent chance.

12 hours ago, maxal said:

This one is surprising, but it also gives me some level of fear... I have been hoping Kaladin's depression wouldn't such a major plot point going into book 3. I felt we had spent enough time with it, I was hoping the story wouldn't focus on that (not to say it would disappear, just that it wouldn't be so present), but if it only becomes obvious to beta readers now then well.... Ah. 

It's important to note that Brandon likes to employ a diverse group of people for his beta readers. Yes some of them are supefans who know this stuff but others are casual fans who may not have picked up on it yet.

10 hours ago, Just another guyn said:

Where do I send audio I have from a signing?

Preferably you post it in the associated event thread in this forum (either by uploading it to soundcloud or to a google drive).

Millimorts could be an application of the micromort which is a one-in-a-million chance of death.

Gollancz has the ebook distribution rights for Brandon's books in the UK, so I'm not sure there is a legal way of getting the Tor version there.

15 hours ago, Flynn said:

We have a WoP that Edgedancer will only be available in Arcanum Unbounded until 5-years-after-Arcanum-Unbounded-came-out (2021-11-22). 

That is superseded by a more recent one where Peter mentions Tor is amending their contract with Brandon in order to do a solo release of Edgedancer.

wot-tidbits on tumblr has also post the following collection of videos/recordings of stuff Brandon did while in Bulgaria:

Quote

Here is  the full package of all recordings of Brandon Sanderson while visiting Bulgaria on 28 and 29 March 2017

We start with the only recording of the first Q&A at mall Bulgaria.

https://web.facebook.com/groups/368803339975431/permalink/626426507546445/

On the other day we had online interview in two parts (as there was problem with connection) 

https://www.facebook.com/Ozone.bg/videos/10155148544718320/

https://www.facebook.com/Ozone.bg/videos/10155148570203320/

And the evening Brandon Sanderson continued his inhumanity with long lecture about writing and stuff. Two parts.

https://www.facebook.com/Ozone.bg/videos/10155148980048320/

https://www.facebook.com/Ozone.bg/videos/10155149118493320/

And here is an audio file from close meeting/lunch between Brandon Sanderson and several Bulgarian literature bloggers. (lucky bastards) 

https://ufile.io/191f5

Okay so dragonssleepinfire over on tumblr went to this signing and asked the following question:

Quote

Q: In Words of Radience

B: Yes

Q: After Eshonai bonds the storm spren, she starts hearing this screaming voice in her head.

B: Yes

Q: Is that her voice?

B: Well, um… It is a combination of her voice and something that is happening with Roshar, and at the end of the next book you’ll get a big clue.

 

I was pretty surprised that he said with Roshar and not in Roshar, but he’d been signing for a while so he might have not phrased it right. Then again it might be a clue.

12 minutes ago, Argent said:

You are sure about this? Dragonsteel before Era 3? Because this seems unlikely. 

 

Brandon probably meant Era 4.

1 hour ago, BlackYeti said:

Note: in creating these I used @WeiryWriter's depiction of Aon Aon from the Coppermind since I found the dimensions were pretty much perfect. I didn't use his Aon Rao though since I found that the dimensions were a little off.

The Aon Aon should be practically exact as I literally traced the image from the 10th Anniversary edition when creating the current version of the vector. The Aon Rao is from several years prior and was based on the old versions of the Aons (I haven't gotten around to updating all of them yet). If you look closely the proportions for the Aons changed with the 10th Anniversary edition, originally Aon Aon was square-ish, but now it is slightly wider than it is tall. I think that the location of the chasm line also may have been changed in the updated Aon designs. If I remember correctly Raoden's drawing of the chasm line for the Elantris mega-Aon is one of the things that was changed in the text.

1 hour ago, jofwu said:

Hmm... This makes me really uncomfortable. Changing the end of WoR slightly was one thing. This would completely invalidate the canonicity of the graphic novels, and I strongly dislike the idea of him retconning something that significant. I would 100% prefer a weak Cosmere explanation over a perfectly Cosmere-consistent explanation that rewrites the canon.

My thoughts exactly.

7 minutes ago, maxal said:

This one, he mentions magic would heal hormonal imbalance so it got me thinking, would autism be considered as a "hormonal imbalance"?

No.

6 hours ago, Figberts said:

AU spoiler 

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In the essays, it says that the Homeland is bother continent, and the Evil is Ambition after being destroyed by Odium.

 

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