WeiryWriter

How do you think the mechanical allomancy, aka alloman-tech, of the southern continent work/what does it do? Do you think we will ever actually see Mistborn: Birthright?

Yeah, this is stuff we knew, user Jeremy posted about it here. And I'm moving this to the Mistborn forum, the News forum is for site news.

It's incredibly rare for authors to have any say over their covers, that's all decided by the Marketing people. And there's a simple solution that is better than white-washing the cast so you can have it now. We just wait. Let other projects be the "test cases" you describe. Technology would continue to improve/get cheaper as well. And more books would be out so the adapters would have a fuller idea of the story. As you say the skin color doesn't matter to you, but it certainly matters to others. Why should your opinion over rule theirs just to make it come out sooner?

Some notes: "People of Color" refers to pretty much everyone who isn't White, it does not refer exclusively to people of African decent, it includes Asians, Native Americans, Indians, etc. It is different from "Colored people" which does refer to people of African decent. There is nothing wrong with not realizing what the characters actually look like, I certainly pictured everyone as white when I first read WoK. The important thing is what you decide to do when you find out their canon appearances. Brandon has said that Shallan, and probably the Horneaters, would look more like a Caucasian/Asian mix. The cover art, and the interior piece with Shallan, which were done by Michael Whelan, are not canon, Brandon has little real control over them. This is how Dalinar's blue cloak wound up being red on the cover of WoK. I know people who were very angry with the cover of WoR because it white-washes Kaladin. As you say Western culture has issues with race and at this point it would be unlikely for a primarily non-White cast to be popular. Recasting a significant portion to be White however is not a solution, that is just perpetuating the race issues. I get that you are just trying to adapt to the "realities" of Western media but if we don't challenge those realities they're never going to change for the better.

Okay I did not make this clear in my last post, what made me mad was things like "anime is a terrible idea". Let me be clear, I would love a live-action adaptation. I don't have an issue with people who want one. In a perfect world we would have one, there is no denying that there is a lot you can do with live-action that can't be done with animation, but that doesn't make it a superior medium or make it the most practical option for the real world. What I do have an issue with is people looking at my suggestion of an alternative, potentially more pragmatic, medium (suggested in an effort to avoid some issues a live-action adaptation would/could have), which I genuinely think is a great idea for reasons I have already discussed, and saying "No, that is a terrible idea, anime is so juvenile. There's no way it could be popular in the mainstream."(I apologize for the paraphrasing but this is the gist of what is coming across) Pardon me for feeling attacked. Also of course changes have to be made in an adaptation, that is just a fact. I guess I just prefer those changes to benefit the story in some way. I'm sorry but white-washing the cast wouldn't benefit the story at all. And again the preference for live-action is not hurtful. What I would say was hurtful is a young person of color who reads the book is so excited about there being people who look like them being super awesome knights and stuff and being really excited to watch the live-action adaptation... only to see that it is all a bunch of white people. Do you get how that kid would feel? It might not make a difference to you, but it certainly would to that kid. This is an important issue, and I feel passionate about it.

First and foremost, I could not care less about a Stormlight adaptation being super mega popular. In no way should that be a goal because there is no way to guarantee that sort of thing. The goal should be a good and faithful adaptation. An adaptation with a white-washed cast would fail to be the latter. Animation is not a terrible idea, Ben McSweeney (you know one of the guys who actually does artwork for the books) thinks it's the best choice of medium and I agree. Yes there is somewhat of a stigma against it in older generations but going back to my first point, I do not care about it being popular. I've discussed the pros of the medium elsewhere in the thread. As you do acknowledge in your post Western culture has endemic problems with race, and that would cause difficulties with casting and marketing. However white-washing the cast is not a solution, that's ignoring the problem (not to mention hurtful to all the people of color who enjoy reading these awesome characters that look like themselves). (I would also not call casting the characters as Asian and Pacific Islanders "progressive" I would call it "being faithful to the source material"). And I should probably post this since I've been working on it sparingly all day and I'm really tired of being angry. P.S. Disregarding the white-washing, Richard Armitage would not work for Kaladin, he's 43. Kaladin is 22 (20 Rosharan years x 1.1)

However all systems can be classified as end-positive, end-negative, or end-neutral (which the question does not ask about). (source)

The Metallic Arts do not require Scadrian metal, any metal with the requisite purity/alloy mixture can be used. We know it's been used off world but whether the spiker needs to be Scadrian was RAFO'd (I think).

But Ruin was the one providing the Intent, same with when Spook got spiked.

Vin's mom was being influenced by Ruin at that point (making her love one child, Vin, while making her see the other as a monster) so she is perhaps not the best example.

Yeah it's a mistake from the original Hardcover edition (which is the version that got read for the audiobook). Brandon talks about it in the annotations: (source)

Just found an interview with Alex from Crafty Games at GenCon:

Yeah, I edited my post, I initially mis-read your post.

aaand I completely misread your post. I'm pretty sure the term of the post TLR World of Ash is the "Collapse" (or maybe post-Collapse?):

But Elhokar *isn't* Dalinar, Adolin or Kaladin, he's Elhokar. It is not fair to him think otherwise. Think about things from his perspective, the Assassin in White killed his father, who was in full shardplate at the time, who was also a very skilled fighter (probably significantly better than Elhokar is) but he died anyway. The Assassin in White has also just finished a world tour of assassination fostering an environment of fear for the world leaders of Roshar, not just Elhokar. Him being terrified out of his mind is completely understandable, it's possible Szeth saying he was there for Dalinar and not for him did not even register. "Taking the opportunity to face his fear" is understandable request when it is something like spiders, the dark, or enclosed spaces, not when it is a regicidal maniac who has already taken out your father, who was a much better man then you are.

That's actually from the Fan Expo back in the spring, not from the event this past week. It was already posted about here.

The current plan is for Stormlight 3 to come out March-ish 2016, 2 years after WoR. According to Peter (if I remember correctly) 2015 was never a real possibility, Stormlight books take too long to write and Brandon also had to work on some other projects as well. And writing Stormlight "back to back" as you suggest would probably take longer. It just isn't how Brandon works, he needs the side projects so he doesn't burn out doing the big things. To be frank it is going to take a while to get all the books out, though probably closer to early/mid-twenties. Let's say Brandon keeps to the 18 months - 2 year plan between books. That is 15-20 right there. Plus the longer gap between WoR and WoK brings it up to 17.5-22. Then add the break between Books 5 and 6 when he plans on doing the second Mistborn trilogy, which say will be 5-ish years, maybe more. That's 22.5-27+. Brandon already writes faster than most epic fantasy authors, he should be allowed to write in the order he wants to write. And we should accept that books don't always come as fast as we want them. Rithmatist 2 isn't coming out anytime remotely soon, but I've accepted that.

Yes, Wax and Wayne are planned to get a trilogy, the second of which, Shadows of Self, is planed for Late 2015. So it's there's 9 originally planned Mistborn books + 3 Wax and Wayne books.

*squints* Is this Peter-the-cryptically-helpful or Peter-the-troll? *strokes chin* Well if we are talking about ability to use Rosharan Lightweaving, then Renarin should count, as a Truthwatcher he has access to the Illumination Surge (i.e. Lightweaving). Though I guess he would be a lightweaver-in-potentia, since he probably hasn't progressed that far... I'm just, having the second lightweaver not be an Order of the Lightweavers Lightweaver is a very Aes Sedai twist that non-cosmere-literate people will miss. Which just sounds like Brandon. But you are Peter... Stop making me doubt things!

He can lightweave, that makes him a lightweaver. I don't see a reason why he wouldn't count as one of the two lightweavers Kaladin knows.

Hoid isn't a Surgebinder, he has access to Yolish Lightweaving.

I'm pretty sure it's Shallan (a member of the Order of Lightweavers) and Hoid (who is able to lightweave).

After, it takes place sometime between HoA and WoK.

But you wouldn't say that a Shard has been Shattered, you would say it is Splintered. Shattering is used in relation to Adonalsium. It's like "autopsy" vs "necropsy", it's the first if it is done on a person, the second if done on an animal, but they are the same thing. To go with a Wheel of Time it's gentling vs stilling. Same process but you call it something different based on what it is happening to. Also I wouldn't say that all Splinters are sentient, the divine Breaths don't seem so to me.

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say here. If Splintering can be done "by another force as well" who is it not the same as Shattering? A Shard can voluntarily Splinter off a fragment of it's power without being Splintered, which is the case with Endowment. Honor, Devotion, and Dominion have all been killed and Splintered.