Argent

Honorspren who are extra honorable attract Eddard Stark.

I asked. He RAFO'd.

Haha, we are getting a lot of new people these days - did Brandon send you here during the signings or something? Let me welcome you then. There is much information to be had, and it's going to take a while to make sense of it all, but that's a part of the fun - it's the type of research schools wish they had To answer one of your questions - yes, there will be a sequel to Warbreaker, but it's at least 5 years down the line. Maybe more. The working title is Nightblood.

I think it works the other way around. You've got newly formed Epics who are more willing to use their powers, and newly formed Epics who are less willing. If this was all there was to it, nothing interesting would happen - more likely or less likely, they would (probably) still use their powers, and eventually go bad. With the added concept of Gifters, however, things change. The Epics who are more likely to use their powers will probably use them regardless of whether they are Gifters or not - it's their nature to not share, I think. The last group, however, Epics who are not very likely to use their powers (in the beginning) and are Gifters sound like the type of people who will be more likely to share their powers. And that ends up keeping them closer to the light side.

@@WeiryWriter, Elantris #2 2015 is actually possible. It's one of things I asked him during one of the Chicago signings - he said he would still like to have it done then, but is not certain he'll be able to. But he wants to.

"Man, I wish I was dating a redhead... OH WAIT, NOW I AM!"

Heh, have an upvote back then - because looking like a meanie only works out for Vasher

It's sometimes funny how Brandon reigns over my life... A while back it was a particular Writing Excuses episode that introduced me to Patrick Rothfuss and his Kingkiller Chronicle. Spectacular books, but there is already a thread for them. The reason I bring this up is because it was Pat who introduced me to Jim C. Hines' Magic Ex Libris series. Magic Ex Libris, the first book of which is Libriomancer, is a really geeky fantasy, very similar to the Dresden Files. Like, very. I thought that might be a problem when I was reading Libriomancer, and boy was I wrong about it. Yes, it's a modern day urban fantasy whose main protagonist is a young male with access to magic and pop culture references. Which is similar to Dresden, yes, but it's also very different. I won't go into specifics - I say all this to ease your fears of plagiarism and repetitiveness, and convince you to give the series a shot. Now, the books themselves. The thing I loved the most about the magic system is how impossibly appealing it is. It's brilliant really. Because in its core, libriomancy allows its users to pull objects out of books. For example, you are a libriomancer and you love Brandon's books (and money) so very much, you go grab a hardcover of The Way of Kings and you pull a few diamonds out of it. Feeling sick? Just grab that healing elixir from Narnia. In great danger? Nothing a lightsaber won't fix! Curious about how The Stormlight Archive will end? Reach into Robin McKinley's Beauty, in which the Beast's library contains every book that has been or will be written! You are starting to see how this is a series by a book geek, for book geeks, with the main character being a book geek. Thinking about it is a vicious cycle, I'll tell you that. Oh, also Jim Hines is a really cool dude. Cool in a "I made a Facebook post about him and he randomly showed up and replied" kind of way. Or "we chatted on Facebook for a little bit and then he made this post and tagged me." So instead of discussing his books, I'll send you to go read them

While Kurkistan here anticipates your struggles and gloats behind a curtain of knowledge, allow me to direct you to the Cosmere 101 and Question and Answer threads, so that you might avoid some confusion. They are neither the most complete descriptions of the Cosmere, nor the most up-to-date ones, but they are definitely a good place to start. Once you familiarize yourself with those, you should know enough to start searching the interview database and expanding areas of your knowledge you feel particularly lacking.

My guess on this one is that it has to do with awareness, and maybe location of the metal. Inquisitors don't burn their spikes because they are metal reserves different from their "default" one - stomach, presumably*. The case is similar with Vin's earing. Alternatively, Vin's earing might be safe because for the longest time she is not aware that it is a source of Allomantic metal - so she doesn't "look" at it when she burns bronze. * Man, Allomancy is one weird magic system EDIT: A couple of interesting questions I think might have bigger implications: Have we seen the Heralds Nalan and Kalak in The Way of Kings? Adonalsium was Shattered into Shards; Shards can be Splintered into Splinters. Can Splinters be further reduced to another sentient form, do they turn into pure Investiture (when destroyed), or does something else happen? (What?) Are there any Type Four BioChromatic objects (other than Nightblood) on Nalthis at the time of Warbreaker? Seon Ien - it means "wisdom" according to the Ars Arcanum, but it's used pretty much exclusively for healing. Is this mismatch a mistake, or is it alright for Aons to syntactically mean one thing, but produce an effect different from their meaning?

I am arguing against the style guide then :-P

I think I love you :-D

I will agree with you here. My guess is that the past tense dominates the articles because it feels more natural for a story - Vin's story, for example, was told to us in past tense, so it makes sense that we'd try to preserve that about it. It takes a little formal training / knowledge to know that this is wrong

My guess? He'll add the other chapters from the readings he has done, except in full. Every reading whose source chapter has been published on the Steelhunt page, has been incomplete. To give you a basic idea, he has read only about 10-15% (my rough estimate) of the entire Lift interlude; the reading from Legion: Skin Deep is also only about half of the entire chapter; Shadows of Self and Sixth of the Dusk are sitting at about 30% revealed. So it's very possible that there is more to Eshonai's chapter, Jasnah's prologue, and Dalinar's vision. That's another three stretch goals. I also wouldn't be surprised if we saw an excerpt from Firefight too, knowing that publishing that is on the short-term agenda. Other than those... another Shadows of Self is not unlikely, it also being on the short term. Elantris 2, I doubt - I was left with the impression that he hasn't even started that one, though he still hopes to release it in 2015 for Elantris' 10-year anniversary.

Yes. Assuming you get a new code, of course - if somebody (e.g. me) shares a code with you, it won't count towards the goal. But every new code essentially adds 2% progress towards the next unlockable (at the moment of writing we are sitting at 173, so another 27 until a new piece of content). Also, regarding the total number of unlockables... I think Brandon said 10, but I am neither sure, nor can I find something to support my claim.

From the Introducing the Steelhunt blog: This being said, you will probably get access to the Steelhunt content either through the 17th Shard or Team Brandon. But that's my (fairly reasonable, I think) guess only.

Well, he might be forced* to. As we understand the four universal forces (electromagnetism, gravity, weak force, strong force), three of them (except gravity) are really a single force. There is no difference between, say, electromagnetism and the weak force, save for the (virtual) particle that transmits it. One of the current goals of particle physics is to figure out a way to add gravity to the mix, so we end up with only one universal force instead of four - quantum gravity. This being said, treating light and electromagnetism as the same thing (in the Cosmere) could be bad, because it would imply that Brandon is taking the physics of surges seriously - and if he is doing that, he might have to reduce too many of the surges/forces down to a single one. Am I making sense? * I am so punny.

It's up to you, really. I still think that Brandon will make the Steelhunt materials publicly available sometime after the event is over - thus giving the participants enough time to feel special, but also not excluding the majority of his fans from the fun. But if that doesn't happen, I think I am at least allowed to tell you what Steelhunt content we've unlocked so far (we get a new entry every 50 unique codes), and let you decide whether it's worth it: Words of Radiance - an interlude that seems to reveal a lot about the nature of spren (among other Cosmere things). The character of the interlude is a girl called Lift. Legion: Skin Deep - the full chapter of the reading from Legion's sequel Brandon has done on several signings. It's the one with the date between Stephen and Sylvia. Shadows of Self - the full chapter of the Shadows of Self reading that starts with Wax and Steris planning the guests list for their wedding. Sixth of the Dusk - I am not actually sure what the deal with this one is. I know it's a sample chapter from a story Brandon wrote for his podcast, Writing Excuses. It's set somewhere (new) in the Cosmere, but that's all I (we) know about it. So... is it worth it?

Versions works for me. Though finding a synonym that means exactly the same is probably the definition of futile effort.

Does does come from Brandon, or your personal understanding of physics? Because if it's the latter, we run the risk of simplifying everything down to only one surge - quantum gravity

Glad to see our flock grow - welcome! As a means of welcoming you, allow me to bash on your theory Well, only partially. I think there is merit to your idea, but I think I want to take it in a slightly different direction. The following analogy came to mind. We can think of Adonalsium as a molecule composed of 16 distinct atoms (of unique elements), where those atoms are the equivalent to the 16 Shards. Furthermore, each one of those atoms is composed of a number of a number of even smaller particles - Splinters in Cosmere terminology. It's not a perfect analogy, of course (subatomic particles come in many different flavors, while Splinters - as far as we know - are unique per Shard; that is to say, each Shard can have many Splinters, but they all fall within the same "group," e.g. Aons), but I think it works well enough. And, similarly to the elementary particles, there is a point in the division of Shardic power where we can no longer form anything sentient. To grow your idea further, I think that Splinters might be the smallest "unit of Shardic consciousness," and if you were to break them further (Adonalsium was Shattered, Shards are Splintered, but how should we describe the destruction of Splinters?), you'd get pure energy Investiture.

I've been using Shard, I think, to denote both the actual Shard of Adonalsium and the person holding it at the moment. To me they always felt the same, since the person's identity is largely overwritten (after some time). I don't think we'll see a rapid enough change of possession of a Shard that the language will get confusing.

Fine, #1 is also almost probably definitely with certainty a RAFO And I don't know whether I have a better idea. What worked for me is having over 20 questions prepared, and trying to unload as many of them as I possibly can, hoping to maximize the number of actual answers I get (so keeping some potential RAFOs, in case he was feeling generous, but aiming for questions that felt answerable). As opposed to yours, mine were chosen to be specific and preferably with a "yes/no" kind of answer. But again, I don't know whether that's a better approach, since it's the only one I've tried

I've been thinking about looking into a good Cosmere Tumblr - Adonalsium should've been the first or second name I should've tried... I am now a follower!

#2 is almost 100%, if not full 100%, RAFO. Or "wait until Szeth's book," which is essentially a RAFO. #4, bring a printout of the Double Eye with the orders and surges. It will be much easier for him to know what you are talking about. This being said, I must admit that I am a little skeptical about your approach open-ended questions... Hopefully you'll prove me wrong on this account Here's a signing advice for squeezing in extra questions. Bring a few books and a few friends. Hand a book or two to each one of your friends, and have them ask a question or two as they go through the line and have their (your) books signed/personalized. Then, wait until the end of the end, and unload ALL THE QUESTIONS IN THE WORLD. Brandon usually stays for about 20 minutes after each event to sign the bookstore's books, so he is willing to just sit there, sign, and answer questions.