EnaMai, I added a couple questions that it seemed were missing, and edited to have more of Brandon's exact phrasing.
Q: Who are the 5 main characters from the first half of the SA? A: Kaladin, Shallan, Szeth, Eshonai, Dalinar in that order Q: When are we going to get Hoid’s book? A: Hoid has 6 books, they are the 3 books of Dragonsteel, which are prequels and the last Mistborn trilogy of the nine book arc will have him as a main character. Q: What powers does [Hoid] have, what magics is he using? A: If you watch in these books, he has used on screen so far three of the different magics? Q: Have we seen those three, do we know what those three are? A: You know at least two of them. More obvious clues are in [Words of Radiance]. Watch where he and Kaladin have some interactions. Watch carefully, you will see something in what he mentions. You've seen him and Shallan, that scene in one of her flashbacks, in that scene he uses one if you watch. Q: I was interested in the implications?? of Gaz coming back. A: Gaz was always planned to come back. Which is why there's kind of a mystery to him in the first book, like where did he go? It's something Robert Jordan did that I liked. Q: Do you know how you're going to write how Hoid goes between worlds? A: Yes I do. There is a big clue in [WoR]. There is a very big clue in the very first book I published. Q: Do you hear the Parshendi song as you write it? A: To an extent, yes, but I'm not as musically inclined as some, and so if we ever do it, I'd probably have somebody else come up with something more... It's more of a cadence though. Q: Are you going to expand on the Cosmere in its own book? A: Yes, the thing that started it all, Dragonsteel, is going to be about the Costmere a lot more, and the third Mistborn trilogy will be also. I want to make sure that it never comes to the forefront until I am warning people, "Now, you need to know this stuff." Q: Will you ever have characters uyse the different systems of magic openly in front of each other? A: I'll warn you this, the third Mistborn trilogy is a space opera, which will involve travel between planets. Q: What was Kaladin’s original decision that you changed? A: Kaladin won the Plate and Blade in chapter one and kept it. Q: How did you decide that you were going to tackle racism, classism, gender, all those things in WoK? A: One of the things I like about Fantasy is the ability to tackle things like this in a way that removes the baggage from our current society which is why you see me doing things like the gender relations centered around whether the hand is sleeved or not. I want to do something that is one step removed so that it is pertinent…The Parshendi-Human thing is going to be a big deal for the series so I wanted to introduce it early on in the books. Q: Would aluminum give an atium shadow? Like if someone threw an aluminum spear? A: The aluminum would not give an atium shadow. Good question. Q: When you were planning Zahel being Vasher, how long did you do that? A: Vasher was in the 2002 version of WoK by name. I only changed him to the new name after I finished this entire draft. Because I was like, oh he'd probably go under a pseudonym. So he's been in Roshar 12 years our time. Q: The Ars Arcanum-is there an in-Cosmere author of that? A: Yes, it is in Cosmere Q: Because it seems like it'd be written by someone like Hoid A: It’s not him. I don't know if I’ve released who it is; but its probably not who people are thinking but it is in-world. Q: So what was the Moment? A: It was actually right near the climax. It was the phrase 'These words are accepted.'... Oh I thought you were talking about the Moment of Inspiration. Oh the moment you're asking about is the moment where Kaladin, in the original writing, he took the Blade and plate instead of turning it down. Q: Why didn't Shallan summon her Shardblade on the ship when they were attacked? A: The Shardblade has a lot of....I mean if you look at it she thought about it. She has this psychological thing where she ignores the past, and it's so painful to her, the things that happened. Q: Why did you gloss over (can't make this out)? A: Because Jasnah, that was not going to happen in this book. In the initial plot it didn't happen, and Shallan was unable to, in the initial scenes I wrote, come into her own and so I had to make major revisions to the plot for ths outline, the biggest thing I did was that. Q: What’s your favorite original Shardholder? (Props to bartbug for this question) A: I don’t know...The tricky thing is that I’m going to have to write them as their personalities because right now they are just concepts. I’m very fond of Bavadin but I can’t say. Q Is Bavadin the only shard on Taldain? A: He is the only shard on the planet. (is he the sun?) - RAFO Q: Would a Hemalurgic spike take surges? A: Hemalurgy can interact with every one of the magics. I designed it specifically in writing Mistborn for future use. Because some of the magics are so limited by their planet I wanted one that transcended all of them and Hemalurgy is very important to the entire Cosmere Its invention is a thing of great power and great danger to the entire Cosmere. Q: Have people not from/on Scadrial used Hemalurgy? A: Yes. Q: What was the pouch on the Radiant in Dalinar’s vision in WoR? A: RAFO. I'm not saying its important, but you have to get a RAFO. Q: Were there spren bonds before Aharietiam? A: I'm not going to answer that one either but we will delve much more into this. The spren were around back then but they're not nearly what they are now they've changed over the course of the book obviously. I think the Cosmere theroists have figured it out. They are much more prevalent following Honor and what happened to him, but there were some spren on the planet before even that happened. Q: If there is one Shard on the planet, then are there more Shards in that Solar System?/Are there other shards in the Taldain solar system? A: Now that’s a clever question. There is only one for that solar system. There are other places with only one. It’s not uncommon. We’ve gone to places with more than one because that is where the conflict is Cosmere centric. Q: What was Jasnah's "last thoughts?" A: Her "last thoughts" were of escaping. Q: Is Jasnah's book going to be one of the backstories? A: It is. She’s on the back five. Q: So that bit at the end with Szeth.. A: That's setting up for book 3, which is going to be crazy. Q: There's another book with a black sword... A: It's the same sword, yes. In fact I wrote the original WoK involving the character who has that sword, then I wrote Warbreaker about him then I wrote [WoR]. Q: Do all the humans have innate Investiture? A: I believe that they all do. I don't think that you've seen anyone without innate Investiture yet. [Drabs] do not have innate Investiture. And on Scadrial they have the pieces of Ruin and Preservation in them. And they do have it on Roshar. Q: Which Shard is that? A: You'll have to RAFO Q: In WoK you do this one thing from the PoV of Gaz, where you turn him from random bad guy to interesting character. You said that if we read carefully we could figure out what happened to him but I never could? A: So he had his debts. He was owing people debts and they came due and he deserted. Q: What’s the deal with safehands? A: You’ll find out eventually. There is something it originated in. Inspired by bottoms of feet being offensive in Korea. Q: Why do they ride horses instead of fast insects of some sort? A: That is an excellent question that I am not going to answer. Q: At the very end of WoR, Dalinar touches a Shardblade and it screams at him. Should that particular Blade have been safe? A: No it should not have. It's a clue that something has happened. There are other clues that something is wrong with what the story you've been told is. Q: Because Option 2 is that it's unsafe to touche an honorblade, but there's no evidence of that. A: There is no evidence of that. There's much stronger evidence that something else is going on. Q: Did Hoid switch out the blades? A: Hoid did not switch out the blades, but good question. Q: Does the Silence Divine take place in the Cosmere? A: It does, it takes place on a planet called Threnody. There is no shard on that planet however. The magic is more something you interact with, not something you perform b/c there isn’t a shard there. Q: If Kelsier’s Cognitive Shadow or a Seon went to the forests of calamity, would they be shades? A: Yes, that is the same thing. The people on that planet; their Investiture; the lack of shard means that their cognitive shadows react differently. The ghost of Leras is the same thing too. Q: If Nightblood were on Roshar would he be a Shardblade? A: Yes, they are exactly the same thing. He is a Shardblade that is twisted and is a lot more powerful than normal.
