Mason Wheeler

I don't believe so.

A few of those, and a few where he was talking about personal matters.

OK, the pre-signing Q&A session is uploaded to Arcanum.

OK, I have approximately 2.5 hours of audio here, comprising the general Q&A session, a reading from upcoming the 3rd Legion book, and the questions people asked during signing. The first two sections should be pretty clear, but once people started standing in line to ask questions, things got really noisy in there and I don't know how intelligible the audio will be. Someone else set down a phone on the table to record at that point, much closer to him and the people asking questions than I was, so hopefully we'll be able to get a clear idea of what was asked and answered. There were a few points there where Brandon looked up at me and said "this is off the record." I'm going to go through and edit those out before posting the audio, so it'll be a bit before it's up. I had the opportunity to ask a few Scadrial questions. Q: "I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted." I get how Kwaan could have figured out that Ruin was messing with records, but how could he have possibly known that metal was immune? A: (paraphrasing) It was actually not too difficult to figure out, but I don't want to go into the details of it here. Q: Will the Well of Ascension fill up again after another 1000 years, or did Harmony do away with that? A: The people living there in his time believe that it's no longer a thing, and they have good reasons to believe that. Q: Harmony was able to make it so the koloss reproduce like ordinary people. Why didn't he do the same for the kandra? A: (squirming a little) That kind of gets into details I don't want to discuss, but... I'll say this. It was a conscious choice. Q: When a metallic Invested object is melted down, it doesn't lose its Invested nature, such as the spike-bullet in Shadows of Self. A: Yes... Q: So if Wax were to take one of his ironminds, have it melted down and then alloyed into steel, and attempt to burn that, what would happen? A: (paraphrasing heavily here) This is getting really deep into the mechanics of the magic system, but basically it wouldn't work, and he'd get the "there's a reserve here but I can't use it" effect, which is what you'd see in a lot of similar cases. Q: If a Listener was on Scadrial, would they be able to hear Allomantic pulses like a Seeker? A: RAFO Q: OK, similarly, if a thieving crew had an Aviar of the same breed as Kokerlii, would it be able to function as a Smoker for them? A: Yes. (This surprised me. Why RAFO the one and answer the other?) So that's what I've got for now. I haven't listened to the audio yet. I'll post it to Arcanum after redacting a few things at Brandon's request and possibly trying to clean it up a bit.

I'm here right now, with my computer and microphone to record the Q&A for the Shard.

OK, just got in a couple questions. Hiding the first one, as it's an Oathbringer spoiler: Q: Kelsier told Vin to burn off all your metals each night before going to bed, to avoid toxicity problems. A: Yeah. Q: Well, cadmium is really nasty stuff in that regard. But also, if you try to do that, you'd end up with less hours of the night in which to sleep. How does Marasi deal with that? [Note: this question is the basic premise of my fic, Bedtime.] A: You measure carefully and then deal with the consequences of being an Allomancer. Also, I got to meet @JoyBlu and @OrangeJedi, which was cool!

@JoyBlu once again your photos end up upside-down. That's weird!

Ok, I got there with my GF (who I'm slowly getting into the Cosmere) and there was a big line, and my number is high enough that I figured we could go grab some food first. So I'll be back in a while.

About to head over. I'm wearing black slacks, a leather jacket, and an Oathbringer UNITE THEM tee, if anyone wants to say hi.

Surprised no one's made a thread for this yet, since it's happening this evening. Will anyone else be there?

@Pagerunner What, you mean now I have to think up *more* cool questions to ask him?!?

When I was taking pictures of people, I asked them, "do you mind if I get a pic of you so I can post it on the 17th Shard?" That's probably the simplest way to handle this. (Everyone I asked was fine with it, BTW, probably because the whole point of going to an event in cosplay is to be seen in your costume.)

That's right. I remember because I was at that one.

OK, so if we're posting cosplay pictures from the event, here are the best ones I saw: A pair of Shardbearers with two very different Blades: Shallan and Pattern: You can see how Pattern's patterns are done in two layers, one in front of the other. What this image doesn't show is that the one in front can rotate, thus giving the impression of an ever-shifting pattern. Navani and Dalinar: That was a lot of fun, seeing all the cool costumes. Hopefully there will be plenty more at the next one.

@CaptainRyan Why did you ask if there were 9 Desolations? Vorinism holds that there were 100 of them (or was it 99?), and even if that's not precise, it still implies that there were a lot more than a single-digit number.

Aww, you should have come talk to me. I saw a few different Navanis, but none of them were wearing a red scarf.

@BLU3 So you already got it posted? Great! That means I won't have to. Can you post links to the material on here?

...or not. Not sure what happened, but the video came out terrible. For the first three minutes, Brandon was walking around on-stage at super speed, and then it just froze entirely. No idea what went wrong there, but something is badly broken and I don't think I can restore it. The audio's fine, though. I'll clean it up and post it soon.

I recorded the general session, but not the Q&As. I'll have that up on YouTube later today.

Wow, that was a great release party! I got a few questions answered by Brandon: Q: You know the principle where someone who has two powers actually has three powers, because of resonance? A: Yeah? Q: How does this apply to Harmony, who has two entire Shards? A: RAFO Q: It seems like the Diagram Cult derives their entire moral authority for the atrocities they commit from the notion that "this is a very, very smart plan." A: Basically, yeah. Q: And they're filling in the gaps with information gleaned from Death Rattles, despite knowing full well that they're coming from one of Odium's Unmade spren. This seams very, very dumb. Have they ever considered the possibility that they could be being fed disinformation? A: Yes, but they figure that the benefits of having access to someone who can see the future outweigh that risk. And even if they are being deliberately given bad information, knowing what subjects they're being misinformed about tells them something useful. Q: You've said before that in Shadesmar, the world is flat, and that this would present trouble for a hypothetical Radiant sailing around the world, because they'd reach a point that corresponds to the edge of the map and their spren would have trouble following. A: Yeah. Q: That "discontinuity line," is the Origin of Storms located on it? A: That's a very good question... but no. Q: If the Parshendi are "Listeners," would it be proper to call the Aimians "Watchers?" A: Some people would say that. I wouldn't, simply because the name is already in use in the Marvel universe. Q: So... ettmetal is Harmonium. A: Umm...? Q: You already revealed that one. A: Oh, you're right. I did. Q: And its chemical properties are similar to Cesium, exploding violently on contact with water. A: Yeah. Q: And people are made of water. A: Yeah. Q: Which means any attempt to swallow it, spike someone with it, or even just wear it as jewelry will not end well. A: Yup. Q: Why would Harmony choose for his god-metal something so inharmonious? A: He didn't choose it. His metal is so unstable because Harmony is made of two powers that don't mesh well. So, a few fun answers there. Did anyone else get any good answers out of him?

Here I am, half an hour early. Tons of people here already! This is gonna be awesome!

BTW does anyone have any information on food? I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people show up without having eaten yet. If there are no accommodations, (and I haven't seen them at other events, but they haven't been here,) I know of a great local pizza place we could order from...

Yeah, that's pretty reasonable for audio. Raw video, on the other hand... my phone takes video at somewhere around 100 MB/minute. There's no way I'll manage 3+ hours of that!

Well I'm not about to use my phone; it would run out of space before the event's over! OK, thanks.

@Argent I'll be there with my computer, to record both audio and video. How would I find you or whoever the appropriate people are to get things set up when I arrive?