How many different types of Investiture can somebody use simultaneously? Because we know there are characters that are gathering different Investitures.
So, how many different kinds of Investiture can a person theoretically use? Well, Adonalsium used them all at once, so it's theoretically possible to use them all. They interfere with each other and it becomes increasingly difficult the more you add, and that's all I'll say right now.
Did Vasher ever have a sibling who was a scholar or was notable in any way?
RAFO!
Can Marsh bond a spren?
This is possible, but it would require a little bit of a dance, but not a huge one. He could do it. I think Marsh could figure it out without too much trouble.
Which one?
Well, that would depend on which one's willing! I could fit Marsh into several different orders, depending on how things went with him. I'll give you a RAFO card for that, it's a half RAFO.
Are the dragons in the Cosmere compatible with the current Investiture systems you've introduced? Or would they even care to use them?
So, when you talk about dragons in the Cosmere there's generally two branches. The dragons from Yolen are kind of... you can imagine their inspirations as being a little bit along the lines of Tolkien elves—they predate humans, they are very long-lived, and they act like deities to people. People actually pray to them and they can respond through the bond by sending something very equivalent to a Soothing or a Rioting to those who follow them, to bolster them, give them courage, or to take away their fear, or things like that. They are one style of dragon, you will find dragons that are on other planets that have been created in their image, so to speak, that don't have some of those deific powers.
And so it really depends, is the answer. The Yolen dragons are not really interested in other Investiture, they're highly Invested themselves and most of the magic systems, they wouldn't be able to use, in the same way that trying to Push or Pull on a Shardblade wouldn't do anything because of the high levels of Investiture. They just are already so full that they would not be able to use most of them. What you might call the "lesser dragons", they could theoretically.
As we know, many characters in Stormlight have gone through ups and downs, but there's one character that has kind of progressed one way. Is there any good thing you can say there is next book about Moash?
What can I say about Moash? I can say Moash makes an appearance. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but he does make an appearance.
Baxil trod the streets of Azimir unseen. Every inch of him, save his eyes, was wrapped in tight crimson cloths, the tied-off tails of which sometimes escaped his cloak and waved in the wind of an unknown current. Hand on his katar, slid into its sheath at his side, he watched for anyone in the crowd who could notice him. Nothing so far. Good.
This was a city haphazardly prepared for war. Baxil strode through the camp, which had taken the place of the grand market. The soldiers camped in concentric rings that he was certain they thought were evenly spaced with smooth curves.
Not a soul saw him. These days, people could only see Baxil if they were looking for him, and he could only touch them if they were trying to kill him. He left the camp, and for old times' sake, whispered prayer to the Prime Kadasix. "If you could see that I could get what I deserve, I would appreciate it. Thanks."
Azimir was famed for its tea shops, which filled the same niche that winehouses did in the east. By this point, Baxil had sampled a wide variety of both, and had his favorites. Here in Azimir, one shop in particular was known for its discretion. They had instructions to watch for him, so as he entered, the bouncer by the door leapt to his feet.
"Master Crimson!" he said. "We got your note."
"As well you did," Baxil said, "or we might not be able to have this conversation. He's here?"
"He is, master," the bouncer said, ushering him in further. "And he's an odd one."
"You don't know the half of it, <Ulak>," Baxil said, tipping him a few spheres which became real as he dropped them. "See that we're not interrupted." Baxil entered the private room, separated from the rest by hanging beads, and walked through an invisible cloud of incense to approach the luxurious table, one of the most exclusive in the city. There, Axies the Collector was seated, passing the time by hitting his hand with a small hammer.
"Surely you have painspren by now," Baxil said, sliding into the booth across from the Aimian. Axies preferred to wear little in the way of clothing, in part because he kept his notes on his skin in the form of tattoos. An entire book, secure in the place where he could never lose it. Like all of his kind, he could change the color of any part of his skin at will.
"I have painspren, yes, of course," Axies said. "I've had them for millennia, Crimson Memory. But you see, we're in the builder's quarter of the city, where men frequently hammer. There's a curious report from ahundred-and-fifty-two years ago of a peculiar spren drawn to the pain of men who have hit their fingers with a hammer while aiming for a nail. If one were to search for that specific spren, this would be the place."
"And you believe this report?" Baxil asked.
"Hardly," Axies said. "It was almost certainly a joke." He then hit his hand with the hammer. He winced, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes.
"Tell me honestly," Baxil said, leaning forward. "You enjoy the punishment, don't you?"
"What kind of deviant would enjoy this?" Axies said. Then hit his thumb square on with the hammer.
"Then why?"
"Pain is fleeting. The thrill of accomplishment is eternal." Smack. "Yes, almost certainly a joke."
"If the Prime Kadasix should allow," Baxil said, relaxing on his bench, resting one arm across the top, "I should someday like to understand you."
"At least I," Axies said, as the cups arrived, "can taste my tea." He took a sip from his, then eyed Baxil from over the rim.
Baxil sighed, but did as expected. He held his hand out over the tea, feeling the heat of the steam, and imagined. People throughout the teahouse enjoyed their drinks, especially the stark black <gerimon> tea as they provided for him. Bitter. Sharp. Like drinking the venom of something aggressive. This was tea that fought back.
Such things have a life of sorts. Not the individual cups so much as the concept of tea. With this many people thinking about it, savoring it, contemplating it, Baxil could taste it, and remember what it had been like to drink. During a time that seemed so distant, yet so familiar all at once, before his blessing, and before his curse. Today, a great number of people thinking about the same thing let him feel the bitter tea on his tongue as he sat with his hand over the cup.
"You're sure you're not a spren?" Axies asked. "I'm putting you in the appendix regardless, you understand."
Baxil smiled. "You brought my bandages?"
Axies placed them on the tabletop. Red wrapped, prepared in the most special of ways as Baxil needed. The key to his survival. In turn, he placed a gemstone on the table. He was not a spren, but they did find him fascinating.
Axies snatched it up and peered at the little spren inside. "Better to find them in the wild," he mumbled, "but this will have to do. Little friend, how elusive you've proven."
Baxil took the bandages and slid them in the pocket of his cloak, then rose from his seat.
"She's here in Azimir, by the way," Axies noted.
"'She'?"
"Your old employer. The Herald."
Shalash. He'd known her only as 'Mistress' during another life. Had been rather infatuated with her, and maybe had never stopped. "How?" he asked. "I'd thought she was at the tower city."
"No, she went with the Alethi army on campaign," Axies said, still inspecting his gemstone prize. "I think their king wanted to interview her. At least, that's the impression I got when I chatted with her. They took the other one, too, the big fellow. To the fight for Emul. They're back now though, tucked away in an Azish hospital. I believe her king has mostly forgotten about her."
Here? In the hospital? He could go see her. Baxil pulled his cloak tight. No. Not like this. "Best get out of the city, Axies," he said. "I think dark times are coming to Azimir in the days ahead."
"Yes," Axies said. "I concur." Axies would stay, of course, hunting the rare spren of enraged passions during war. Well, the Aimian had proven resilient, while Baxil himself always felt like he was one calm breeze away from dissipating. Like smoke from a dead fire.
So, one hand on his katar, he left a few spheres on the table as payment and and continued on his quest, hoping that someday, he might be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of sipping tea once again.
As an aspiring author I know how your own characters can surprise you while writing. My question for you was, especially during Stormlight but for any of your books, which characters have surprised you the most by the direction they went, how they affected the plot, etc?
Excellent question! So the way I view this as an author is, I'm a heavy outliner. But I always give the characters volition. I don't know a character until I've seen through their eyes, and as I write things change. I would say Adolin is the most surprising. Adolin was not meant to be a main character. He did not have any viewpoints as I was originally planning The Stormlight Archive, and, as you can see from the books, he has a lot of them. And so Adolin is the big surprise of Stormlight.
I will say, oftentimes, I was actually talking about this to some people in the line just recently, characters will reach a point of decision. And at that point the outline usually will say "have them do this." But I will have written them for months at that point to be who they are at that point and I give them the opportunity to make different decisions. And someone at the end of Wind and Truth made the opposite decision. It's not magical where I'm like "oh the character is alive", no, it's just that who I wrote them to be and how the themes of the plot progressed I realized that at that point they can't make this decision. And so I rewrote their part and revised it to have the opposite decision get made. Once Wind and Truth is out I can tell you what that is. But you will have to read it and see if you can guess who, in the outline, was making a very different decision.
Is Nightblood and Azure's sword made of the same material?
Not anymore.
Is Nightblood made of a normal metal?
It is not.
Is he made of Dragonsteel?
Good question. He is not.
In Stormlight 5, we know they are looking for Ba-Ado-Mishram and some of it will take place in the Spiritual Realm, where we know that time is odd and somewhat condensed. Does that mean that we could have an interaction with Lopen and Wayne?
It could be possible. But it would be an imitation, like a puppet. That'd be a bad idea, crossing the streams like that.
So the same with someone like Elend?
Yeah, so the Spiritual Realm would be trying to create them. Making them what they should be, but it wouldn't be them. Like the visions. You could interact with them, but it wouldn't be them.
So the SR is using raw investiture to create them?
Yep.
So since they are like the visions, could one replay them over and over?
They could.
Would Sja-anat be able to corrupt a deadeye spren?
Theoretically possible.
Would Sja-anat be any more willing to help the new Odium than the last one?
Yes. Not a whole lot more.
Would Taravangian be opposed to taking up any additional Shards?
That speaks into how much he knows about all of this yet, which I don't want to get into.
As of where Stormlight is in the timeline, has Virtuosity been Splintered yet?
I'll RAFO you there. We're gonna release that timeline pretty soon, here.
Was Honor capable of influencing or controlling the Radiants like Ruin is to anyone spiked?
No.
My question is about Ruin and Preservation creating life. Is that an example of two individuals having a super team up? Or is there some co-influence, cross-influence that let them do something that would be outside of themselves?
Rephrase that for me. Talk around a little bit. Let me see if I'm gonna get the right answer, okay?
Ruin ruins, and Preservation preserves. If they're creating life, well, that takes a little of everything, right? Is that an influence, like Ruin being in proximity to Preservation and vice versa? Would their co-mingling happen... and how would that influence other dual or triple Shards?
I get what you're saying. Each of the Shards has certain strengths and weaknesses, and they're capable of certain things and not other things. Some of them can do what was done by Ruin and Preservation on their own. Most cannot. Most combinations of two could; some would need three. So, it really kind of depends on the situation and the Shard. Each pairing and grouping of Shards will have different sort of augmentations to what they can accomplish, and things like this, because the Shards aren't all-powerful, they're just part of something that once was, if that makes sense. (That's not how math works in infinity, but it is how infinity works in the cosmere.)
If you could have Alcatraz Smedry's Breaking Talent, what would you do first?
What would I do first if I had Alcatraz's Breaking Talent? God, I've never been asked that before, that's an excellent question. What would I do first? What can I break that would be really, really, really cool to break? I would do something really weird, like I try to break the water in a cup and see if I could get hydrogen and oxygen out of it. That might be really cool. I'd try to do that. I'd see how far I could push the Talent, and how far I could bust it. If it really is Alcatraz's power, I would accidentally break everything I don't want to break, and I wouldn't be able to break the thing that I want, so it probably wouldn't go well for me. First I'd try to see if I could pull off nuclear fission. At that point, I might be scared of what I could potentially accomplish.
I was wondering, as a writer have you ever doubted yourself, and if so, what did you do?
What an excellent question. The answer is yes. I think every writer has, right? I've had it multiple times. Every time a book comes out, there is a part of you that says, "Well, this is the one that's gonna end your career, Sanderson." [crowd laughs] "No one's gonna like this one." And there is some reinforcement of that. I'm in entertainment, right? Sometimes that happens. It hasn't happened yet, but there's nothing I can do about that, right?
I have to follow what I want, the stories I want to tell, and hope that it continues to work. There is a time... The bigger moments of doubt were when I was unpublished. I had written 12 novels and I hadn't sold any, and I was getting a lot of questions about "What are you going to do with your life? 10 years writing books and no one's buying them. Maybe that's a hint?"
I've told this story before, I won't go on at length, but the thing that really changed my mindset then was realizing I wasn't writing the books necessarily because I wanted to be a famous author. I was writing the books because I had stories I needed to tell. I realized that if I reached my deathbed, and I had finished writing a hundred novels, and I loved doing it, then that was a success. And that's the bigger bar of success. There is another bar to becoming a pro and then becoming a bestseller, but the biggest hurdle is doing it. I felt like if I did that, I was successful, and I made that decision. It took a whole bunch of weight off of me, and you can see, I think that's been one of my sort of superpowers as a writer, is that I got to make that decision before I sold anything. I have friends who sold books and hadn't yet had that decision process. So suddenly, being out there having to write while published was super difficult for them because they hadn't already kind of gotten over this idea of "What happens if people don't like my books?" I had that "You know, if it happens, it happens. I'm still going to write." [moment] and that's been really helpful to me. I hope that you'll be able to find some moment [like that] yourself.
Thank you for being here, obviously.
My pleasure.
I was wondering with how much research you've done into mental illness, and how much it's affected The Stormlight Archive, to even memes like people saying, "If I was in that world, I would definitely be a Radiant." [crowd mildly laughs]. How much has that affected the relationships that you have with the people around you, having that better understanding?
I sure hope that it has been helpful, right? More what it does is it puts pressure on me. One of my children has depression and I'm like, "I have to be the dad who understands this and does it well, because if I'm not, then there are millions of fans that would get on my case." In some ways, it's really helpful, but in other ways, I'm like, "oh, now I have to put these things that I have learned and talked about into application." And that's actually kind of terrifying, where it's like, I'm not a licensed therapist, I don't try to be. But I'm a dad, and I want to be understanding and want to be helpful. You also have to go to school, so how do you balance that as a dad and make sure, and these sorts of things? I think it has been [helpful], that would really be a question one of my family members. Like, "does he do a better job?" I want to understand people. That's one of the main reasons I became a writer, because I want to understand what it is to be outside of my head, and that's the real sort of challenge for me, is understanding. I hope it helps me, but I don't get to say if I'm good at it or not. I just get to say, "I'm trying."
Going back to Alcatraz, one of my favourite series--would be a great TV series.
I think so as well. [audience briefly cheers]
I heard a story, and I don't know if this is true, that you were given a challenge and they gave you three random items, and you had to make it into a book. Is that how Alcatraz came to be?
So it's not quite, but it's close. Nobody gave me them, but I was enjoying watching Whose Line is it Anyway? at the time [audience cheers] and I thought, "Can I do this myself?" and I somewhere found--I went to my writing group, it was, and said, "Alright, throw things at me, to be the items that I need to use for this given book." I can't remember which one it was, it was like two or three. And they just threw things at me, and I wrote them down, and I used them all, just like a Whose Line sort of thing. That was one of the books. I think it was number two because the "I am a fish" thing came from that. Yeah. Good question, thank you.
