Oudeis

When Lightsong gave up his divine Breath, was the corpse left behind Stennimar, or the gorgeous body of Lightsong? I thought it was in the annotations, but I can't find it right now. I know I've heard WoB that it's at least possible for a Lifeless to remember some of his life, especially with Yesteel's mastery of Lifeless Commands. If Lightsong were given a Breath and turned into a Lifeless, would he remember being Lightsong, or being Stennimar, or both?

I was going to correct you here but I think I misunderstood you at first... Breath itself is, actually, not invisible. It's a shimmery field of energy as it transfers between people, or between a person and an object. In the book, you can't tell by looking at a rope whether it's invested, because the energy is hidden inside of it, but the energy still isn't invisible, just hidden. You also mention "seeing" the breath in stuff you've Awakened. You're right, you typically wouldn't be able to "see" it, but you also don't "see" what's explained in the book as Lifesense. Since seeing and hearing (and I guess a rumble controller) are the only ways to get feedback from a game, you'd have to find a way to translate the effect (both Lifesense, and Awakened objects) into something the player can experience, like making people with strong Auras, or objects you've personally Awakened, glow. That said... my solution is also my possibly very unpopular opinion to the whole scenario. I think you're right, it would take a huge number of people and an enormous budget and a LOT of time to accurately portray Awakening. That said, I think there are prolly a lot of ways to simplify the system into something that maybe could work in a video game, you'd just be untrue to the nature of the book itself. You could artificially limit what can be Awakened. Ropes can be found around, but all you can do is animate them with two or three pre-programmed Commands, at which point they take on the shape of a game sprite and act out those things. A huge downside is that it will lose a lot of the 'feel' and awesomeness of being a real Awakener. An upside is, it's technically do-able. The game does sound like it begs for one of those railroaded "be good or be evil" systems like Fable or Infamous. You can do good deeds, and a group of people who believe in your cause will periodically donate huge sums of Breath to you at once, or you can do terrible thing and demand Breath as tribute or you'll go around killing babies. Random thought: Why not be Returned? The start of a lot of video games gets stilted with, "the character has been living in this world his whole life, but the player needs a tutorial to learn how to open doors". Have your character wake up as a Returned at the start of the game. He'll speak the language and know what fruits are and not to jump off cliffs, but he won't know any people, and all the stuff that will have to get explained to the player, also has to get explained to him. The mystery of "who was I, why was I Returned" drives the game. It might explain why you're so good at Awakening; perhaps someone speculates at one point that in your past life you must've been a skilled Awakener, and some of that skill has transfered over, like how Lightsong was good at math and juggling. Or maybe you learn a lot about your past life at some point, and figure out that yes, you were in fact an amazing Awakener when you were alive. You'd start the game at Fifth Heightening, which could be fun, but still have to build up your store of "what you can Awaken/Command" from scratch. You'd be able to start the game with decent Life Sense. If you want to have hit points, you'll want a way for people to heal, so maybe you can decide that Returned can sacrifice more than 1 Breath per week in order to heal damage. Also, a Returned is in the perfect position to become the head of a cult of devoted followers willing to give up their Breath to you. Also, between your Return and the Hallandren Court of Gods, that sets it up for the dichotomy; do you follow the "Good" path and take your place as a typical God? Or perhaps in your first moments of life, did someone with a different plan tell you that there's another way, that you don't have to march to their tune, you can take the power and earn your own freedom. As the game progresses, you get visions like Lightsong did to move plot along, until at the climax your purpose is finally revealed to you, and you make one final decision whether you follow through with Endowment's plan for you, or reject its vision and forge your own path. Just a few random thoughts. TL;DR version: I agree with Shawn. A realistic, representative translation of Awakening, as Sanderson portrayed in Warbreaker, would be next to impossible. You should strongly consider either picking a different magic system, or a simplified (and regrettably inaccurate) version of Awakening. Personally, I think you should go with a translation on Awakening. Failing that, I'd love to see AonDor on the DS. EDIT: Typo.

You're espousing a double standard. Beauty is no more empirical than evil. If simple popular opinion defines "beauty" well enough for a wall to decide, "I want to be beautiful," why doesn't Nightblood simply default to the popular concept of evil? The terms are alike in nebulousness. Why are you asserting that beauty is more empirical than evil? By what unit do we decide that one painting is more inherently beautiful than another? How many units more beautiful is this song than that statue? Why shouldn't the popular definition of evil be as acceptable as the popular definition of beauty? You suggest that the wall accepts the Forgery simply because it's influenced by the concept of beauty as seen by the Rose Empire as a whole. Nightblood was forged at the height of power of a militant theocracy, the Cult of the Returned. Popular definitions of "evil" would have been defined, strong, and pervasive, almost axiomatically more than the Rose Empire's concept of beauty. Why isn't that clear enough for Nightblood to default to? Saying that objects "want" to change is, as my chemistry professor used to say, like saying that Hydrogen's electrons "want" to join Oxygen. It isn't a matter of want. It's simply a matter of what is inevitable by the laws of physics. If the bonding ever fails it won't be because Oxygen somehow offended Hydrogen, or because Neon snuck over and changed Hydrogen's mind. Shallan's stick didn't say, "I want to be a stick," it simply said, "I am a stick." Does anyone on this thread have a real answer they'd like to share, or can we accept that it's a question for Mr. Sanderson?

Sorry, a mistake on my part, I hadn't meant to talk about the window, though the window provides nice supporting evidence for my real point. The mural. And again I put to you. If a wall can know there is some inherent benefit to being painted colorfully, if a window can prefer to be beautiful (and however much Shai admits that might be her being romantic, she still admits it's possible), why can't a metal sword know what 'evil' is?

If a window knows what beauty is (Emperor's Soul), why doesn't Nightblood know what Honor is?

The unforgeable metal in Emperor's Soul?

Cool. The link I gave you is just the written transcript, however. If you'd rather listen to the source audio, it's here.

This is the only way I will imagine Jasnah looking and dressing in any reading I ever do of any Stormlight book from now on. ...Except for the bathtub scene.

RShara: I recorded the first hour and forty-three minutes of the signing line in DC last night before my phone died. Here is the rough transcript. I didn't include Wheel of Time questions or general writer's questions.

...lol, Argent. Updated the OP to include the rough transcription.

What's more... MAJOR spoilers for books 3 and/or 4...

Here is the document. I'm so far about 20 minutes in, not many cosmere question, a few more sheer writing questions (I'm only transcribing the Cosmere ones.)

Kay here's the link to the audio for the signing line. Right now it tells me it's "still processing" but hopefully that'll be done soon. This is my first time on soundcloud so hopefully I've properly set it as "public" or whatnot. Gonna be a busy day, so I won't be able to transcript it myself for a while. My friend's question wasn't recorded so here's the paraphrase: "Are there creatures native to the Spiritual Realm, the way spren are native to the Cognitive Realm?" "Yes, but they're not what you think." Also, the car accident was 100% the other guy's fault, and no one was hurt. It was simply an annoying and expensive delay. Edit: I might not have added the link last time...

EJ, if you get this, PM me. Here's a rough transcription of all of the cosmere-specific questions asked. If you want to hear a lot of good questions and answers about how to write your own book, or some Wheel of Time stuff, listen to the audio or hope someone better at transcription takes a crack at it. Can the Heralds Surgebind without their blades? If not, are they under the same restrictions as <can’t quite hear the last bit> A: The Heralds without their Blades are incapable of the powers you’re familiar with. Which order of Knight Radiant would you want to be? A: Bondsmiths (this is different from a previous answer). But the Bondsmiths are difficult to get into, only a certain number of people can be Bondsmiths. Is Hoid the one who comes out of the lake that Rock is talking about? A: RAFO card. What tweak did you wish you’d made? A: I wish I had had Kaladin choose not to kill Szeth. I was looking at the map of Roshar, and it kinda looked like a spiral to me… A: That was intentional. You are on to something that no one has figure out yet. (at 42:36 the questioner says something VERY QUIETLY and i cannot make it out) The gravitational constant is the same (presumably he means that, since Roshar’s gravity is .7G, that means the planet has 7/10 the mass of Earth). Are you going to make any of your primary characters into worldhoppers? A: Some of them already are. (He is specifically going to RAFO if main characters from SA will be worldhoppers) Do Surges shared by adjacent Orders act the same? (This was a long, involved question and I paraphrased A: Mainly, yes. The mix of the two Surges will modify their use slightly, but for the most part, individual Surges are themselves. When you see Skybreakers use the Gravity Surge, it will look much the same as when Windrunners use it. Winner for my favorite question: In book 1, Dalinar catches a Chasmfiend claw. In book 2, he catches a Shardblade. Will he catch something impressive in every book? A: Dalinar is pretty good at catching things, isn’t he… um, RAFO? Three of Sixteen reigned, but now the Broken One rules. Did Odium follow three Shards to Roshar? A: Odium is the third Shard on Roshar. Has decided who the “Back Five” viewpoint characters are, but not their order. Taln is one of them. “The person who calls himself Taln.” Once all ten books are done, if you go back and re-read some of the chapter titles from earlier books, you will find foreshadowing. Can you steal Channeling with Hemalurgy? A: “They are in different universes, so I would say ‘no’.” Who would win in an argument, Shallan or Lightsong? A: “Lightsong. More practice.” More books on Sel? A: Yes, eventually. More books on Nalthis? A: Yes, a long way off. Brandon actually asked this of a fan dressed as Where’s Waldo: Is your name actually Waldo? A: No, unfortunately. When Dragonsteel? A: Long, long, long time. How much Stormlight is equal to one Breath? A: … This is one of the times I have to go to Peter and say, “They’re asking, we have to canonize this.” (So, I guess, perhaps ask later and he’ll have an answer? Or post and hope Peter tells us? Though I wonder, as Sigzil says, we don’t really have units yet for Stormlight. I guess the amount 1 Chip can hold, assuming each polestone holds the same amount?) Would Allomancy (presumably he means steelpush/ironpull) affect Shardblades? A: It cannot affect Shardblades. Well, “cannot” is a strong term. Things with Innate Investiture are much more difficult to affect with any of the magics at all. For example, Szeth cannot Lash people in Shardplate. Duralumin and a really strong push could probably do it. Followup: I was wondering if Shardblades are actually metal. A: It’s metalish… it’s metal enough for allomancy to push on it. If an Elantrian bonded to a Seon and traveled to Roshar, would that act as a Nahel bond? A: It would act very very similarly, yes. But it would be like… it wouldn’t necesarily do the exact same things. (Analogy about radios that he says is bad). It would act the same but wouldn’t grant the same powers. Is Shardplate crem? A: No, it is not, good question. In what way is becoming an allomantic savant like being a body-builder? A: That’s a good analogy Are other magic systems like that? Will we see them soon? A: Other systems are like that… will we see them soon? RAFO. Is it difficult to worldhop from Sel because it’s cognitive realm is ocean? A: No, that is not the reason, good question. What alloy did Hoid drink? A: He wanted to make people act in the way he wanted them to. Are there any locations on Roshar with red stone? A: Yes. Where did the red stone at Feverstone come from? A: Roshar. Is Vasher the one who brought Nightblood to Roshar? A: RAFO. Follow up: Please please please? Is Eshonai going to be one of the Radiants? A: In the past, Parshendi were not allowed to become Knights Radiant. However, from what I’ve said, might imply that that can change. No promises. Can spren be resurrected? A: Theoretically possible, but very difficult without the people who originally betrayed their oaths. Is your hand okay? A: I’m doing all right. And that’s all I got before my phone died. He seriously asked, “Do you have any questions?” prolly more often than people had actual questions, so if you’re nervous (like I was at my first signing) if you’ll sound silly for asking him your fan theories… he apparently loves this stuff. Do it! Make his day!

er... the word is "retrocognitive". I like the way you think and my personal RAMPANT SPECULATION is fairly off from yours. I humbly posit my own thoughts, taking care to note that I'm basing it on even less information than you are. First, as Shardlet says, Sja-anat. I'm going with Stonewards/Taln, for literally no reason than the Thunderclasts. (thunder, thunder, thunder, thunder, clasts! You get 80's points if you get the reference, and yes the theme song goes through my head every time I see the word mentioned) Re-Shephir, for similar reasons, if she's associated with the Midnight Essences (which actually seems like a huge stretch, but it's the best we've got) I'm giving her Skybreakers/Nalan, the smoke essence. Dai-gonarthis... no clue. Let's stick with your idea of the Willshapers. Nergaoul. Here's where my speculation kicks up to 11. It seems that Knights Radiant all have some secondary ability that isn't expressly Surgebinding. Shallan creates a spiritual link to things she sees which allows (in fact, compels) her to draw them perfectly from memory. But Kaladin; he fights. The first time he picked up a spear, the time he demonstrated for Bridge 4 in the chasms, the duel. When he gets in combat, he simply knows what to do. I think The Thrill is a deliberate perversion, a corruption of that. So I put Nergaoul with the Windrunners/Jezrien. Moelach. Death Rattles. Seeing the future. If we assume that Renarin's ability to see the future is his "added bonus" for being a Truthwatcher, the Death Rattles might be a corruption of that. I'm still not certain; Syl was pretty clear that foresight is of the Void, though Honor admitted that he did it and that Cultivation was even better, so who knows.

Silver doesn't resist allomancy, it's simply allomantically inert, like lead. I wonder if you're thinking of aluminum, which cannot be pushed or pulled, doesn't have an atium shadow, and seems to interfere with pewter. Ironically it, itself, is not allomantically inert. Innate investiture seems to block some allomancy, but not all. It blocks steel and iron, but obviously not zinc or brass. And, as we've seen, even iron and steel are simply hindrances to be overcome, not absolute barriers. I wonder if it would take less Stormlight to Lash a Drab, or more to Lash a Thug flaring pewter.

1:11:10 - Question about Ars Arcanum? A: It’s not Hoid. IDK if I’ve released who it is; but its probably not who people are thinking but it is in-world. From San Fransisco Signing

Where to Meet ((Sorry for the double post but I wanted this to be distinctive)) My friend and I will be waiting at the McDonald's in the mall from about 4pm to 5:30pm. I will try to have my copy of Words of Radiance displayed rather prominently so you can find me. The McDonald's is in the part of the mall north of the parking garage/bus stop. I picked it cuz it's pretty easy to find and it's not hard to spend a dollar and justify hanging out there.

On that note, I've checked and by the time the signing itself is over, literally every food-place within miles will be closed, except for the cafe within the B&N itself. Also, keep in mind, this will be day 3 out of 4 (at least), and he'll have to be in Philly the next day. Hopefully, his plan is to spend the night in NoVa and travel up to Philly the next day, in which case we might be lucky and he'll agree to stay late to talk to us, but prepare yourself for the idea that he might not. I bought a copy of WoR when I went in before and kept the receipt, and for my friend visiting from NY I ordered a copy of WoK which should arrive tomorrow or Thursday morning, so we'll buy that and have a second receipt for him, then. I agree with you that it seems like it might be tight; I for one plan to see who I can sweet-talk at 5:30 or so into giving me my wristband early, and I will cite exactly this reason.

Since attaching the picture seems to be down, here's what the flyer for the event says: Barnes & Noble welcomes best selling author, Brandon Sanderson author of "Words of Radiance" Thursday, March 20, at 7:00pm. Please read the following guidelines to ensure we are able to accommodate as many customers as possible for this special event. The wristband is your entry into the signing line. Please purchase your copies of the book prior to entering the signing line. Wristbands will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis on our second floor beginning at 6:00pm on March 20. We will issue a limit of one wristband per person. Everyone in line must have a ticket. Customers must be present to receive a wristband. Wristbands are non-transfeable. Autographing guidelines: Multiple copies of Words of Radiance are allowed. No other memorabilia, photographs, or non-book items may be autographed. Books may be personalized. Photographs Photographs will be permitted. Event guidelines subject to change.

The whole thing has something close to point symmetry, and Urithiru is where the origin point would be.

Not entirely relevant, but as I think someone's pointed out, the map has latitudes... I realize they don't actually help with distance, but it is worth noting that we can see latitude 0. Can Peter confirm or deny whether this is (at least approximately) the actual equator?

Just picked up my copy, and to get the scoop on the signing. It all looks pretty basic. Attached, please find the flyer they hand out explaining some ground rules, nothing unexpected. I'm told the only food place that will be open past the end of the signing will be the cafe within the Barnes & Noble itself; I wouldn't hate it if someone were to prove me wrong.

I wonder if this topic might interest you? There's very little there you haven't written here, but perhaps it'll give you something to think about? Also I still really wanna know what the thing is Peter says we've missed, and I wonder if it's the Highstorms.

Mayhaps upvotes will be the spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down?