Dragonsteel Nexus 2024

Questioner

So, what’s your favorite Studio Ghibli movie?

Brandon Sanderson

For me, it is Mononoke. I am an epic fantasy man at heart, and I think you could probably call Nausicaä epic fantasy as well. But a lot of them are kind of a different subgenre. Like, Spirited Away’s a portal fantasy, and he does a lot of things like that. I saw Spirited Away; it was my number one, it was my first. My brother had loved Miyazaki beforehand, and they were showing it at one of the theaters up here when it was a first release way back whenever that was, before Spirited Away. It was actually in theaters. My brother’s like, “You’re going to love this. Just trust me. Go to it.” And I went, and there were, like, five people in the audience. And I loved it. I’m like, "Wow, this is straight up epic fantasy. A really, really cool epic fantasy. How have I never listened to my brother before and seen any of the other stuff?" Since then I’ve been very much a fan of the work.

Questioner

Are the Rhythms recorded somewhere?

Brandon Sanderson

For the singers? No, they are not. They’re in my wiki as text, and as I have said before, I’m gonna let an (eventually) person who makes films figure out how to film that.

Questioner

Who’s your favorite Stormlight character?

Brandon Sanderson

It’s whoever I’m writing at the moment.

Questioner

What would be on their Spotify wrapped this year? The character's Spotify wrapped?

Brandon Sanderson

I kind of listen to whoever is my favorite, is whoever I’m writing at the moment. And so it would be really hard for me to pick that. I do have a Stormlight 5 playlist that I can put on Spotify. It’s not as big as the previous years’ ones with three and four but I’ll try to remember to make that public. It would probably be something on that list.

Questioner

What was your favorite part or chapter to write in Wind and Truth?

Brandon Sanderson

It’s too spoilery to say, but I would say my favorite section has to do with a certain Kholin son sequence who knows his way around a sword.

Questioner

So Scadrial doesn’t have a moon. There’s a character with a name referencing that. How does that get translated?

Brandon Sanderson

To them, it probably just kind of comes out as a more, like, nonsense word, like they don’t know what—Like, in other words, it’s the word in their language-

Questioner

A literal translation?

Brandon Sanderson

A literal translation that we translate for you because you’re in on the joke. Let’s just say this person picked that name specifically because they’re in on that as well. Maybe something that they maybe miss.

It’s an excellent question; no one’s asked me that before, and I kind of expected someone to.

Questioner

Question about Hoid. With the exception of Stormlight, whenever he appears, he always goes by Hoid. I understand that certainly makes it easier for the readers to be able to track him; but is there an in-universe explanation for why he doesn’t try to disguise himself? He certainly disguises his outfit, his face...

Brandon Sanderson

The real answer is, when I wrote Warbreaker, I gave him an alias; and then I’m like, "This is going to be too obscure, even for me," and I changed it back. You can find that in the early drafts of Warbreaker, you can actually (because I posted those all online), you can see the moment where I decided "No, he needs his actual name." (I think it’s in there. I think I changed it in between drafts; maybe it was even earlier than that.) He was originally just going to go by Dust in that book. And I realized I needed to do this. And then by the time that I thought, "You know, it is a little odd, when he’s trying to hide from certain individuals, that he’s going by a well-known alias on some of them." But by then I’d already written the books, and I’m like, "Hoid is just brash. Hoid doesn’t care as much as he implies he cares if he gets discovered." Beyond that, people who are looking for him…

So basically, the rationale I came up with is: he doesn’t care, and people who are looking for him are generally looking for him by all sorts of descriptions, because they know he uses all sorts of different names. So I just go with that. I’ve been a little bit more circumspect here and there, but we’ll see; we’ll see how much I am going forward in the future. It’s a legitimate question, and it’s one that I had to confront in, like, 2006, and made my call.

Sometimes, once in a while, we do things that are better for the fans, even if it doesn’t always make 100% the best sense, because people don’t always make 100% the best sense. And so, sometimes characters can make a decision that may not be actually optimized.

Questioner

There’s a little Reshi girl who I’m sure some people are fans of. How many languages does she speak? And if so, what languages does she speak?

Brandon Sanderson

I’m going to RAFO this, not because it’s a big secret, but because I’m like... which ones? She speaks Alethi, she speaks Reshi, she speaks Azish; are there others? I don’t honestly know, I’d have to go look at my notes and see what I’ve written down.

She’s picked up a lot, how about that?

Questioner

I’ve got a question about Terken from White Sand. I was wondering if a Shardblade could cut through it, or if it would stop it?

Brandon Sanderson

I’m going to RAFO that for now. Answers will come. I’m gonna say probably a Shardblade would cut it, but I’m gonna look at that more closely, because you’ve got a really good argument that it wouldn’t. So, we’ll see.

Questioner

If cats were in the cosmere, who would be the crazy cat lady?

Brandon Sanderson

You haven’t met her yet. I know exactly who it is. You’ll know her when you meet her.

And there are cats in the cosmere. Not on Roshar, but...

Questioner

Does the spren’s perception of the Oath have anything to do with the result if an Oath is broken?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. It definitely does. Now let’s be clear, that there’s also some weirdness going on with Oaths being broken right now on Roshar that isn’t a natural outgrowth of the way that Oaths are done. Mechanics of all of that might be in the book that you get tonight.

Questioner

For those of us waiting on the novelization of White Sand, could you give us a brief recap that could help us in this upcoming book? The magic system in White Sand?

Brandon Sanderson

The magic system in White Sand is not terribly relevant in most ways, except for the fact that the sand responds to Investiture; it’s how it gets recharged. So the sand gets used up and has cool magical effects, but then it needs to recharge. The sun on Taldain (or the sunlight, or something about the atmosphere) provides Investiture for that. Stormlight works the same, as does uses of magic nearby. But you don’t even need to know any of that. All you need to know is: there is some stuff that turns from black to white if people are using magical powers. And as far as the people who are using it, it’s just a substance you can get that does that. You don’t even need to know anything about another planet; it just is a substance that reacts that way. Now, if you really like the cosmere stuff, you can dig in deeply and find out why; but it’s not necessary.

Questioner

You mentioned earlier in the spoiler Q&A that you will not promise that you’re going to write- Like, you won’t promise things that you won’t fulfill. You’re not gonna promise that you're gonna write write books that you won’t. So, what is a project that you see you might not get to?

Brandon Sanderson

I think something like The Silence Divine. I sure would like to, but I won’t promise that I’m gonna get it to it. I’ve got a lot of books in the mainline Cosmere sequence that I need to get to. If it comes down to: am I gonna finish the Stormlight Archive, or am I gonna write Silence Divine? I’ll finish the Stormlight Archive. There are some of these side projects that I just can’t promise that I will be able to get to. The ones that I am promising are the ones that I’ve made promises about in the past about. So, there will be a Warbreaker sequel, there will be a Rithmatist sequel.

Questioner

Where did you get the inspiration to make all of your books?

Brandon Sanderson

Every one of them is different. I would say I was mostly inspired by the great books I read when I was younger. Like, Dragonriders of Pern was a big inspiration on me. So is the Wheel of Time, and some of these things I read when I was young. At the same time, every time I write a book, I have a different method of coming about why I decided to write it. Some, like Tress of the Emerald Sea, start because I watch a movie and I ask, "What if?" Or in that case, my wife asks "What if?" And then I write a book for her about the what if. Some of them come about because I realize, "Hey, a really powerful magical hurricane hitting a planet would do really interesting things to the ecology." That’s an interesting idea, right. And so, everything’s different. Sometimes it’s a plot idea; sometimes it’s a character idea; sometimes it’s a setting idea. Usually it’s a bunch of each of those combining together.

Questioner

My question is about whenever you’re approaching a new story, or branch of story, or exploration of an existing one. Is there a sense that you are inhabiting a worldhopper scholar? Or are you Brandon at the time, looking at a new story?

Brandon Sanderson

I’m Brandon at the time, looking at a new story. That’s different from the way some authors approach things, but I approach my art as the artist. I like to be in control of it and doing things deliberately. I can look at from the different perspectives. Like I can step into the character’s shoes, and a scholar’s shoes, and things like that. But at the end of the day, when I’m approaching a book, I’m approaching it as an artist first and trying to tell the best story that I can. And I’m looking at all the technical details; all of the crunchy things that make writing work, I’m paying a lot of attention to when I’m writing a story.

Questioner

I’d like to ask about the process in writing characters who you are relentlessly mean to, and how that feels to you.

Brandon Sanderson

So, good question. I don’t usually approach it from that perspective; I look at it after the fact. When I’m writing the story, I’m like, "What is this character’s story? Who are they, what decisions would they make, what does this do to them?" And I’m gonna try not to pull punches. Once in a while, you have to pull one or two, right? And that’s the nature of art sometimes as well. But I don’t really look at it and say, "Ooh, have I punished this character too much? Not enough?" I look and say, "Well, what is their story? And what is the right story that I’m telling?" I do feel bad after the fact sometimes. I am human, and afterwards I’m like, "*shuddering noise*, that’s rough." But that’s not how I’m approaching it as an artist, if that makes sense.

Questioner

A lot of franchises out there today are kind of focused on continuing as long as possible, maybe making as much money as possible. I was wondering if there will be a definitive end to the Cosmere overall at some point.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, it’s a great question. So, I can say there will be, yes. I have planned a definitive end. The asterisk I’m gonna put on there: if I’m still around after that’s done, I might go write little side stories. You might get more things like the Secret Projects that are taking place. But the Cosmere itself has a definitive end.

Right now, the plan is: Era 3 Ghostbloods of Mistborn with the Elantris sequels; then Era 2 of Stormlight; then Dragonsteel, the Hoid origin story; then Era 4 being the end. There might be a cyberpunk Mistborn in there; it’s totally possible. But the Space Age era (it could end up being Era 5 if we do Cyberpunk), that has been plotted as the end point. That’s what we’re shooting toward. And I plan that to be a definitive ending.

That said, I don’t know what I would do with myself if I weren’t writing, so maybe I’d be like, "The Cosmere is done. Here are some stories that are not in the Cosmere, like Rithmatist, but really feel like they could be," or something like that. We’ll see. Let’s just focus on getting through. There’s a whole lot of writing there. We just hit the halfway point, and, you know, I’m turning 50 next year. So, I'm gonna keep going.

Questioner

On your podcast, you were talking about authors who you felt wrote something revolutionary and literary and beautiful that changed people’s lives. And you mentioned that you felt you had not quite reached that point. I’m wondering, what do you feel you need to do to reach that point? And do you have any plans to get there?

Brandon Sanderson

Here’s the sad thing: I think to get there, most of us, we can’t still be around. Meaning, their books have to have been- This is not a question. The reason I think I can’t say that I got there is that I think majority of people it’s 50 years after they’ve passed away, 100 years after they’ve passed away, looking back.

It’s a really interesting study. Here’s a cool thing for you to do: go look and see what the best-sellers were on the New York Times list in any given year since it’s been counting; since, like, the early late 20s, early 30s. And recognize how few of those you recognize, despite them being the best sellers. And then once in a while, you hit one you’re like, "Oh wow; that was recognized during its era."

Now it does happen sometimes. I think Harry Potter has done that; it has changed the face of the structure of publishing, and things like that. But I’m not sure we can say that other things that have sold nearly as well have done so until we’re well past it. In 50 years, do people look at Twilight kicking off a certain paranormal romance boom as being a huge turning point? Or is it seen more in a line with things like Anne Rice? I don’t think we can say yet; and I certainly don’t think I can say yet whether my crop of what I call the third generation fantasy writers. (There was the Tolkein era. There was the people who were deeply influenced by Tolkein. And then there were those of us who grew up reading fantasy as best-sellers.) And I’m not sure that we can yet say.

I certainly can say books change lives. I can point at, for instance, Dragonsbane changing my life. I think it’s an amazing, fantastic book. Did it change the face of the fantasy landscape? No, it did not. And you can look back in hindsight. Barbra Hambly is an amazing writer; I think she’s Guest of Honor at Worldcon this year or next year and worthy of all the praise. But most of us don’t write something that changes the nature of a genre. That’s okay. We’re here to change people’s lives. And if you change people’s lives- if you only write a few books, and it changes the life in some way of your friends and family, then that’s a powerful, important book. You don’t have to change the face of publishing.

Now, maybe I will. Maybe in 100 years people will look back and be like, "And then Sanderson came along and the sort of way that he approached magic and worldbuilding and storytelling with the interconnected thing is still to this day having huge ripple effects." That would be awesome, but that’s not why I write.

Questioner

I was wondering if you would ever consider a musical adaptation of your works. Personally, I think that Warbreaker would make a great musical.

Brandon Sanderson

Warbreaker musical? Yes, I would consider it. I definitely would. Broadway musicals are tough, right? And I’ve seen way more that didn’t work that did. And that’s not to, you know, Sturgeon's law. It’s just really hard; really really hard. And I do feel like they may be trying being a little safe the last, maybe, 15 years with Broadway. But there’s always off-Broadway stuff that’s really interesting. Maybe they would want to take a try. Dan wrote, not a musical, but a stage play of one of his books.

Yes, I would consider it.

Questioner

Quick question about heightenings. How equivalent are they with the Radiant’s Oath? Which heightenings would be...

Brandon Sanderson

I do not want to say yet, because I would end up canonizing that, and I really do think that I need… That’s the sort of thing I’d have to release as a blog post, so that all of the numbers can go through all the Arcanists and everybody. So I’m going to RAFO you.

Questioner

With Connection, you can make people understand the language of the place that they’re in by changing their native language for people who are multilingual. So my question is regarding people who grow up bilingual, how does that interact with it?

Brandon Sanderson

There are multiple ways to interact with that. One would be to replace one of the languages. But also, you can make Connection with more advanced uses to not just replace but to add to, and you’ll see people figuring that out. Or to change, kind of, your past in a little bit of a Forging way where it’s like, "You practiced this all when you were young." And so, there are lots of different ways it can manifest, depending on the skill of the person who is making that bond.

Questioner

I myself grew up with Spanish and English, and there’s this thing called Spanglish. Which, some people really grew up with Spanglish rather than the two languages.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that could totally totally happen. In fact, you can tell. Here’s an example: You can tell, in certain books, when someone has a bit of an accent or they use a bit of something like that, that often times that’s a tell. Like, if someone has no accent, they may be using magical means to circumvent. And if they do have a bit of an accent, then they may have learned it; or they may have been bilingual, and they’re adding on, or things like that. So, it can be a tell.

Glamdring804 (paraphrased)

I was was wondering what kind of physical limitations there are on Selish magic systems: could there be, for example, a magic system based off of tying knots on a rope?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, that one isn’t even hard to imagine. It’s very plausible.

Glamdring804 (paraphrased)

Okay, so how much of a sort of nation-identity would it take to manifest a new magic system on Sel?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

So it’s fairly easy. You’d just need a "sustainable population," whatever you decide that means.

LittleMoss (paraphrased)

Are there any named characters other than Axies that we've seen with the Curse of Kind?

Karen Alstrom (paraphrased)

So, we don't know exactly what the curse of kind is yet. I don't even know what it is. I've recently been in meetings where Brandon has clarified "well, this-and-that is *not* what the curse of kind is," but not what it actually *is*. But no, you haven't met any other Siah Aimians in the books.

Kingsdaughter613 (paraphrased)

I asked you at JordanCon about Khriss and Kelsier working together. Can you share anymore about that project?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

This is a story I plan to write someday. Something did go down there.

Kingsdaughter613 (paraphrased)

Is it possible Adien has Childhood Disintegrative Disease, not autism?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You may have just saved me. I’m writing that down. Yeeesss. You may have just solved a problem.

Kingsdaughter613 (paraphrased)

Recently in Marvel comics, Xavier and Magneto have functionally changed perspectives. What’s your opinion on that?

[Some conversation on how they periodically do this and how this one was more of a natural shift over decades.]

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I’d rather comics told a story and ended, even if the story took decades to tell. But if that can’t happen then there should be character change and progression, so this gets a thumbs up from me.

Kingsdaughter613 (paraphrased)

Who would you say are the Xavier and Magneto of the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Dalinar and Taravangian

Kingsdaughter613 (paraphrased)

Is that kind of perspective swap/role reversal possible for them?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

(With a sneaky smile) Yes, it’s possible. It’s definitely possible.

Zaqwer (paraphrased)

On this map of Arelon you drew, there is an Eon plantation in the bottom left and one in the upper right. Can you tell me what's going on with this?

Isaac Stewart (paraphrased)

So we decided that they're run by two different memebers of the same family, one in the north and one in the south. They're far enough away from each other that it's not too confusing to the people there. I don't remember if they're brothers or cousins. Maybe they've got a feud and that's why they're so far apart.

Questioner

In The Way of Kings, stormwater is described as having a metallic taste, which comes from the crem in the water. Are there trace amounts of a god metal in crem?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, excellent question. You get a partial RAFO.

Let's just say... again, I write fantasy, right? I start with what I want to have happen, and then I justify it. That's how I define the difference between what I do and the hard science fiction writers. If we got Eric James Stone up here, who writes hard science fiction; he starts with the science and extrapolates story. I start with the story and go backward, right? And so, I started with the highstorms; and then I went backward and said, “Okay, I know I'm doing this. What would I need in a system to make this actually work (at least on a scale of thousands of years, if not hundreds of thousands of years).” Roshar is not geologically stable on… if you're accounting for the scale of planetary development, Roshar's gonna have some moons hit it during that timeframe. But during thousands of years, during the lifetime of civilizations, it is stable enough. What can I do to make it stable enough during that? And the crem and the rainwater that falls from it was an extremely important part of me figuring out the little bits I needed to fudge using cosmere mechanics in order to make Roshar actually exist.

That's why you get a RAFO: because I didn't quite answer! Read between the lines.

Questioner

I wanted to ask if you had ever been asked a question that you gave a RAFO to because hearing it at the time gave you an idea for something you wanted to write? And if so, and if it's been written, where was it?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh boy, this does happen. And sometimes it's reminders of... "Oh, yeah, I put that in; I need to do something with that." But can I remember one? I'm not sure if I quite can remember one. I'll try to think about it, but it does happen. It totally happens.

Questioner

In the Cognitive Realm, things there are kind of a representation of what people think of them. Like, you can find a sphere of a table in Shadesmar, and you get obsidian ground where people think there's water, and so on. My question is, what happens to abstract ideas and stories? Is there a sphere somewhere of the story of The Girl That Looked Up, since enough people know about it? Or do abstract ideas without physical representations not have Cognitive representations?

Brandon Sanderson

Excellent question. It's a little bit squishy and timey-wimey. Something like The Girl That Looked Up, you might end up having it influence Investiture that is becoming self-aware, but it won't necessarily appear in the Cognitive Realm as a feature, necessarily. But some things that people think about might show up as features like that. So it's not off the table; not very common. More likely it's some sort of manifestation of something like spren.

Questioner

Would there be, like, a spren of calculus, then?

Brandon Sanderson

As calculus gets done more and more, a spren of calculus is viable. Do understand that there's a finite amount of that Investiture becoming self-aware, and the perceptions and the number of people perceiving and also the Investiture's kind of perception of itself all influences that. That just gives me some wiggle room on saying, "That's why there's not a spren of X, but there is Y."

Questioner

Moash. What inspiration did you have for him? Was there, like, an archetype or a media influence?

Brandon Sanderson

I do really like when heroic figures and villainous figures have a shared backstory. Things they've gone through together, that they have then taken different perspectives and made different choices with kind of a shared basis of understanding. One of the most famous of this would be Professor X and Magneto, where you've got friends who kind of share some attribute. I would say that Kaladin and Moash are a very different dynamic; they were actually the exact sort of group and suffered some of the same things and took different perspectives. And that contrast really is fun for authors to write, and asking what decisions would lead you to one direction versus the other.

Questioner

My question is about Investiture and measurement. I liked in Sunlit Man that they used BEUs as a standardized measure. Is this a cosmere-wide measure? Why do they suddenly start using BEUs as a measurement?

Brandon Sanderson

Like the real world, it's a little messier than people would like it.

What's that famous xkcd comic where someone's like, "Wow, there's 16 different measurement methods or archetypes. We should come up with one that unifies them all." And then there's another panel at the end, it's like, "Well, now there's 17 different..."

BEUs are used by some of the universities at Silverlight and are the most common standard for measurement, but not the only one, and there are dissenting opinions that don't like certain things about BEUs as a measurement. But I would say if you use BEU in most space age scholarly circles, they know what it is and have the constants handy to get between the measurements that they like to use and BEUs.

Questioner

In one of your previous Q&As, you had said that Awakening could theoretically be done via sign language…

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

…and so the question is: Why wasn't Susebron able to Awaken things prior to getting his tongue?

Brandon Sanderson

So the thing about this is… With a lot of the cosmere magic systems, knowing what you're doing and how to move the magic along takes a certain amount of knowledge, practice, and volition.

Now, if you had a society on Nalthis where enough people were using sign language a lot of the time, it would develop naturally, and they wouldn't need training in order to do it. But an individual in a system where that is not the norm... A little bit of training could have gotten him there, but nobody had that to train him, and they really didn't want him to.

He could have figured it out… if he hadn't been an abused man held in isolation his entire life. It's really not on him.

Questioner

If someone with Allomantic powers was turned into a sunheart, like from Sunlit Man, could their spiritweb then be accessed through a hemalurgic spike and still get those powers back out? And use it like a transfer process?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's totally possible.

Here's the thing: that process of distillation that's going on there is gonna mess with the spiritweb in ways that you probably… You couldn't take the layman, give them the spike, and have them get it to work, but it wouldn't… On the scale of how hard the questions you guys ask: this is more like a three in difficulty than a ten.

You just need magical WinZip.

Questioner

Rhythm of War, Lasting Integrity. We’re introduced to a character referred to as “Sixteen.” I believe you have confirmed this character is a Scadrian worldhopper.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Can you confirm or deny if this character has been seen in any other book?

Brandon Sanderson

I’m going to RAFO Sixteen.

Questioner

I have a quick question about musicals in the cosmere.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay. A Hero for All Ages, yes.

Questioner

So Hawkeye had a spoof musical for The Avengers. Have you and Dan, or any of your friends, ever paid any mind to joke musicals within the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

So, I referenced A Hero for All Ages. Do you have any idea what that is?

Questioner

No, I do not.

Brandon Sanderson

In the broadsheets for Era 2, there is an advertisement for a musical based on Era 1 called A Hero for All Ages. It was probably Ben McSweeney’s joke, so you can go ask him to confirm. And if so, you can ask him how much of that he's thought of.

He drew those broadsheets, and we just left spaces on each broadsheet for him to do his wacky Ben Stuff, because he's really clever and creative. He knows the Mistborn world really well.

Questioner

In The Way of Kings, the first Dawnchant translation by Navani reads: “To be human is to want that which we cannot have.” Ironically, what I want and cannot have is more information about that language. If a fully constructed version of the Dawnchant were to appear in the future, what linguistic features would you incorporate to reflect specific cultural aspects of the Dawnsingers? And do you have an idea of how it would sound? If so, could you give us a quick demonstration?

Brandon Sanderson

This is a challenge I'm going to leave for an eventual TV or film adaptation and be like: “You guys figure it out.” Original Dawnchant would incorporate some of the way that the singers speak. The thing about it is… I’ve always imagined that the Rhythms that they’re adding add context in a way that the text doesn't have to give. So I don't imagine it tonal in the way that Chinese, the various Chinese dialects are, right? I more imagine it as more like sign language, where you can add emotion through the way that you're doing the signs, and things like that, than a tonal language. Because you can pair what you're saying with any of the Rhythms, rather than having them being innate. And so I didn't want the text itself to change, does that make sense? Because you add it on? So, someone experiencing it is much like speaking to them in any language, but I think it would probably have, like, extra pauses and very long vowels, and things like this, to give extra time for those Rhythms to really manifest themselves.

Questioner

We all know, heaven forbid, if you don't finish what you have planned… you probably have backup plans.

Brandon Sanderson

I do have backup plans.

Questioner

What I'm worried about is: who is going to keep narrating The Stormlight Archive for the audiobooks? Because I'm sure that the last half is a lot later. I just love Michael Kramer.

Brandon Sanderson

I love Michael Kramer. I think they're on board, but I did see this thread on Reddit. I don't know if you were referencing that. They were running the math. You guys do like to number crunch. We will see. I think and I hope we'll have Michael and Kate for many, many, many, many years. They're a pair of very healthy individuals.

I think that that is a bridge we will cross if we ever have to get to it. It is something, perhaps, to be thinking of - maybe we should have some understudies doing some books, and you can see, as a fandom, who you really like and things like that. Because there is some, like... Michael and Kate are my favorite readers because of the Wheel of Time. I got the audiobooks back in the 90s from the library back when that's basically the only place you can get. So when Mistborn was audio, they said, “Who do you want?” I'm like, “Michael and Kate.” And they said, “Well, we're just gonna get Michael.” They did. But when Stormlight happened, I'm like... It's extra work to get two voice actors, and so it took until I had done, like, Wheel of Time stuff, and they were happy with me, and I got away with all this stuff on Stormlight that I could get both of them. But there are some audience members who prefer a different narrator for every series, and I can totally understand this, as well. That's why we try, sometimes, to do a variety. 

You're welcome to give us feedback on the narrators you like, the ones you would prefer us to keep using, and things like that. You don't have to mention Michael and Kate; they are fantastic. But let us know. That sort of feedback is actually really helpful. Peter watches this very closely, and he's very deeply involved in picking the narrators, so it's kind of his department. They usually bring to me options, or… I do listen to audiobooks, so I'll often ask for various people.

Questioner

In watching the second season of Arcane, I can’t help but think how well that animation would fit Stormlight. Have you ever thought of either Stormlight or a different cosmere story (or non-cosmere) being done in animation?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, I mean, I love animation. I have been watching very closely how animation has been evolving over the last few years, particularly how the audience has been evolving. Let's just say: If someone came to me with the budget that Arcane has...

I won't say never, but let me say I'm very unlikely to ever crowdfund television or film. Why is this? I've been watching that world too. And too often people promise money and they give an inferior product because… Doing it yourself… There are certain things I know I can do. There are certain things I don't know that I can do. And I would really like to have the experience of people who are passionate about making the work, right? Walking into Hollywood with a bunch of money, even if we crowdfunded it, and we walked into Hollywood and said, “We've already paid for it, make it!” They're all too happy to take the money!

But when we see like… I really think that - and maybe I'm too optimistic about this - but I think the difference between something like Dune and something like the Halo TV show is all in the passion of a talented filmmaker making something they would love to make, rather than people… not to say anything, but executives and things like that saying, "Well, this is a product, we must make it this way." And to get the person on the Dune side, you need someone who's organically passionate about making the thing. And so just walking into Hollywood and saying, “Hey, I raised $200 million, let's make it!” I'm really, really worried about that production, right? Even though I think they could probably do it, I don't know that we want to, right? Maybe I'll change, maybe more of this will happen. And Arcane is this fantastic example of something that's really, really well done, but also paid for, as I'm led to understand, more by Riot than by Netflix. Netflix would not shell out the money to make Arcane, and so they were able to do it.

So, who knows? I'm talking myself in circles, but… they know their way around animation, because of all the trailers and things they've done. I’m just - I'm nervous about it, and I've started making really good contacts in Hollywood. So, the answer is I am considering animation, I'm considering everything, but it's that partner. Finding the people who are super passionate and super skilled about this specifically, rather than just, “Hey, this is a thing that sells a lot of copies, so let's make it.”

On which series would I choose. My philosophy so far has been: Stormlight is the thing I make once everyone outside this room is hungry for it. And so I would start with something non-Stormlight to prove myself to the world. When I do Stormlight, I want people to be as excited as they were for when the Harry Potter adaptations happened, or for when The Avengers happened after you had seen several good MCU films, like I want that level of excitement. Rather than, “This is the introduction.”

And I know some of you have - probably a lot of you - started with The Stormlight Archive. I generally don't start people there, right? The Stormlight Archive is so hard to pitch. You've probably heard this joke before, but the pitch for The Stormlight Archive is: “This is the book Brandon thinks is his best series.” So once you trust me, then The Stormlight Archive has the best pitch ever! It's the book Brandon says you should read after you trust him. You get to trust me by reading Mistborn or Tress of the Emerald Sea or some of these things, right?

Mistborn 1 hit the USA TODAY bestseller list last week. Now, Mistborn 1… This is its, as far as I know, first appearance on a bestseller list. This is very odd. Mistborn: The Final Empire - it’s eighteen years old, right? And I was a nobody when I released it, so it didn't hit the bestseller list. And normally, you only get to hit the bestseller list your first few weeks. But some books start becoming perpetual, and they start appearing. And so, we were blindsided by this. We're like, “Really?” We're spot number 140, so, you know. But we popped onto that list, which is really interesting, it's really interesting to have a book almost 20 years old pop onto one of those lists. It doesn't happen very often. So anyway, we're really excited by that and maybe it indicates some movement that eventually I'm going to be able to find a Peter Jackson who grew up reading my books and has made a couple of great films and is like, “What I want to do is this.” And that's how you end up with Dune, right? That's how you end up with a really fantastic adaptation.

Questioner

Space age question for you. Generational ships. What would it take for something like that to emerge in the Cognitive Realm? And would it look like its planet of origin?

Brandon Sanderson

A generational ship just manifesting on its own? Not terribly likely. There are specific circumstances you could come up with.. And you're asking, "What would it take?"

For instance, let's say there is a planetwide catastrophe. And everybody's aware it's coming for hundreds of years and focusing on a story told about some sort of ark that might save them. And that they are all believing this is a thing that did exist or could exist. Over time, if there were the right Investiture on the Cognitive Realm, you could see something like that manifest. But I don't know if it would actually work, if it would take them off world or if it would just be echoes of that represented. You'd be much more likely to find some spren-like entity that thinks of themselves of the crew of said ancient ship than the ship itself.

You'd have to have very specific circumstances, and I don't even know if it necessarily would work.

Questioner

I was curious if there was a broad reason why Sel magic systems are more location-based, or Scadrial you can move around a lot?

Brandon Sanderson

So, Sel is the big oddity; there's a few other instances like this, but Sel is highly warped by the way that the power of the two Shards that were destroyed on Sel. What happened with them distorted it a ton and messed everything up. And the system has been self-corrected in order to make certain things function. You shouldn't expect what's on Sel to be the standard, though it is not the only one like that.

Questioner

Quick question about the Unmade. Specifically, their names and the number of them. Is there a specific relation between that and the Heralds? Or the number of Desolations?

Brandon Sanderson

The number of Desolations and things anywhere you've seen in the text is mythologized. The number of Desolations - and a lot of these numbers from history - I'm treating kind of like the 40 years of wandering in the Bible, where 40 becomes a theme that is used to represent suffering, rather than an actual 40 years. And the number of Desolations is the same way. Any number you've seen in the text is actually wrong. They don't have the records to say how many there were, but they think that now that it has been mythologized

The number of Unmade is nine. There are only nine of them. And that is a cosmereologically relevant number.

Questioner

Can a Scadrial Shard see what's on a computer screen?

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on the computer screen, but in general, yes. But it depends on how the computer screen is being...

Questioner

If so, can a Shard - Ruin - change the words on a screen? Or would that be impossible, because technically they're written on metal?

Brandon Sanderson

It's gonna be a lot harder to do that than what Ruin was able to do in the past. Basically, humans being involved between point A and point B is the failure point in a lot of cases with what Ruin was doing and changing and whatnot. If a human is typing it? Much easier to get that change. But between, say, RAM and screen or whatever like that; much harder. Not impossible, but way hard. Okay? I'm going to give you kind of a tacit “assume it's not happening.”

Questioner

Could an Allomancer, such as a Coinshot, somehow modify/change whatever data and programming in a computer level at a firmware level? Since Intent and Investiture does weird things.

Brandon Sanderson

So they can destroy it pretty easily. That does technically mean it changed. So yes, but by destroying it.

Questioner

Do the Shards of Adonalsium still have a tangible connection to Adonalsium? The Vessel and the power?

Brandon Sanderson

Technically, yes, because the remnants of Adonalsium are the Shards, and that connects all of them. Probably not in the way that this question’s intended to mean, but it is a technical yes. But what's left of Adonalsium is the Shards.

Questioner

Why is Awakening a recent development on Nalthis?

Brandon Sanderson

There's a bunch of reasons for this. It's not necessarilyas … Define "recent" by how people are using them, and things like that. There's a whole bunch of reasons for this 

I think I’m gonna RAFO because I just realized I was gonna stumble over something that I plan to talk about. But anyway, I’m gonna RAFO. With a “hopefully I will get it to you later.”

Questioner

What adjective would you use for describing something in or of the cosmere? Would you say “cosmerian”?

Brandon Sanderson

I used “cosmereological” earlier, kind of in a scientific term. Cosmereological… it's a mouthful, though, so maybe the fandom will come up with better things, and I'll start using that. I believe you guys came up with “worldhopper,” right? I believe that was a fandom term that I just eventually started adopting. So, sometimes you come up with better terms than me. I use “cosmereological” right now.

Questioner

Could a sufficiently advanced Skybreaker or Dustbringer use the Division Surge to forcibly split the Nahel bond?

Brandon Sanderson

So what you're talking about is something in the cosmere that's called microkinesis. It is a possible manifestation of base cosmere surges, and it is about as dangerous as you imagine. A sufficiently trained and invested Skybreaker or Dustbringer probably could do it. It has been done, but not by them during...

So yes, fission and fusion are part of the magic systems. They call it “microkinesis,” but yeah. So you can read about that in Dragonsteel Prime. It’s in there. But they are the same Surge.

Questioner

Regarding Sarene’s father and the rift between him and his brother Kiin. You touched on it but never really expanded on it. So I wanted to know if you could fill us in on that. And then also, kind of curious as to who you think is in the right?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, it's one of these complicated things, right? Because Kiin tried to seize the throne. He thought he was in the right; I think he was in the wrong, personally. But it is closer a decision… Like, he had more justification than Sarene’s father thinks he did. Imagine disagreements between brothers that grow to the point that kingdoms are involved, and you will get there. It's a very normal sort of thing that happens to families. Except these people had access to armies.

Questioner

One of my favorite books is Warbreaker, and it’s been eating me for years what’s going on with Vivenna and Vasher. Are we going to get some kind of sequel soon, or is that going to be explained in any upcoming books?

Brandon Sanderson

When The Wheel of Time came along, there was a certain path my career, I thought, was taking. And there are certain things I began that got changed. And so, I learned very quickly to stop promising sequels to things when I can't see the future. But I promised to finish the Alcatraz series, the Legion series, The Rithmatist, Warbreaker, and Elantris. I have finished Alcatraz and Legion. And I'm doing Elantris next. Warbreaker and Rithmatist will come. But I feel like Elantris just fits better right now. It is something I am going to do. Assuming I live long enough, which shouldn't be… as long as I'm making it to the end of The Stormlight Archive, by that time you should have it. I can't promise it soon. Because I sat down, I'm like, “All right, what am I doing next?” And the Elantris sequels fit so much better into the framework of what I'm doing, that it felt like I should do those.

Questioner

You mentioned earlier about Investiture with spren and concepts. You mentioned there's only a certain amount that there could be. Is it possible for a concept to not be popular enough, where that concept could die, those spren could die? Or would they change?

Brandon Sanderson

They would change over time. Which some of them would call death, be aware. When you are essentially an immortal piece of something that's become self-aware, it would be very traumatic. And an individual that's obtained sapience-level intelligence is going to resist that to the point that it would have to be something devastating on a catastrophic level to actually do it to them. They would call that death. Lesser spren wouldn’t call it death; they would just be changing over time. Any more than an atom becoming part of a new compound is gonna think that it died.

msyverw

So we see a lot in the cosmere about how different magic systems interact and have these resonances. Is it possible for magic systems from different planets, such as Surgebinding and Allomancy or Feruchemy, to have the same kind of resonances?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, yeah, that's totally possible. The purpose of these resonances is to, number one: give me some fun things I can do. But really, number two: it's just like if you're imagining these things, like... I don't know, something on the electromagnetic spectrum, right? When they hit they're gonna interfere and/or they're going to change one another. And I think the magic systems are doing things like that, and I like to play with that idea. So the answer is yes.

Questioner

Is it possible that the Southern Scadrians could have pulled some kind of shenanigans to convince the North that the Bands of Mourning were drained, when they were not actually drained?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that's possible.

Questioner

For the Dawnshard “Change.” Did that have any interaction with the Nahel Bond coming to fruition?

Brandon Sanderson

I mean, “any…” It gives me a lot of wiggle room, but the real answer to you is “no.” That's moving in the wrong direction of theorizing. So good question, but no.

Questioner

I've been a big fan of your books for years now, and I'm also a big fan of MTG, and I was wondering can we ever expect a Universes Beyond: Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Some of you know the answer to this already because I have talked about it. I would be open to the idea. In fact, when they were first exploring Universes Beyond, before we kind of knew where they were going, they came to me and said, “Hey, would you be ever interested in doing one of these?” And I wrote back and said, “Yes, absolutely, gimme, gimme, gimme.” (Maybe just a little more professional, I don’t know). And then I didn't hear back from them, which is not uncommon: Wizards [of the Coast] is a very big company and there's a lot of moving parts.

I think… This is only “Brandon fan theory” time. I think they did this to a bunch of people, including some very large IPs, and I think all of them said “yes,” too. When you're going, you're like: “Hey Brandon, would you like to? Hey Marvel, would you like to? Hey Lord of the Rings, would you like to?” My “yes,” maybe, is a “yes” that goes pretty far down on the list. I am eager for them to work through all the other properties that would make decent Magic sets and eventually come to me

I would, I've decided, hold out for a full set. Not just a few cards. I would want to do a full-blown set. And I've told them, if they ever get around to this, I will fly out to Seattle and be involved. Because I do like it so much. So the answer is: I do think it's probably something that will happen, assuming MTG doesn't fall apart. You know, the wheels don't come off by trying to do so many sets in one year. I think it is something that will eventually happen, but I'm in a place where I can wait to do it until they're willing to give me the full set, or something like that. 

We did specifically write into the Brotherwise agreement, when we were doing things with them. Because we partnered with them large-scale to do all kinds of things. We found a partner in them we really liked, and we're like, “We're just going to make stuff with them because it works so well.” We did put a carve-out saying, “We're going to do everything with you unless Magic: The Gathering comes and specifically asks Brandon to do a Magic set. Brandon's reserving the rights to do that.” 

Questioner

We know that Taln has amazing willpower. So it’s kind of a two-parter. What Herald had the weakest willpower that allowed the Desolations to become so short? And what is the difference between that Herald and Taln that allowed them to have…?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm gonna RAFO this because I am gonna delve into some of these things in upcoming books, so you get a RAFO card also. But the idea is: let's focus more on how awesome Taln is and less on how… right? I would say all of the Heralds really tried. And the whole way the system was set up was designed to break them. Not by intent, but I think focusing on who broke the most is maybe the wrong way to look at it, rather than holding up and saying: “Wow, why did this guy not?” And he's got a book coming up in the back half where we'll find out a lot about him.

Questioner

Is there any relationship between the Lift’s ability to eat food and create Stormlight [Lifelight] and Scadrians’ ability to eat metal and burn it?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Could someone burning bronze detect a non-Metalborn’s Investiture? Like how much Breath someone has, or that someone is a Surgebinder?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but you need that Investiture to be kinetic. This is the term that I use for “it's actually being used.” Really hard for somebody who can sense Investiture to just tell it's sitting in an object. And I did this quite intentionally, because there are too many plot points where something is Invested and you don't know. It's just too overstepping of a power. So when you use Investiture, it creates these pulses; and these pulses are what's being sent. Basically, in the same way that, you know, we can only see light with the photons are bouncing around against our retinas and things. Those who can sense Investiture need to have something hitting them to be able to tell where it is. And usually that means it has to be in active use. You'll see in Stormlight, in Oathbringer you see spren who can do the same thing; but it only works for certain magics at certain points. And that should lead you to some understanding of how this works.

Questioner

I was wondering if Shallan has any familial connection to Chanarach?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

What would happen if a Herald fell into a black hole?

Brandon Sanderson

Investiture is going to respond to a black hole, maybe not in exactly the same way as light and matter, but in a similar way. It's going to crush them, pull them in, hold them. Their soul will probably still be… there’ll be some cognitive remnant in the Cognitive Realm, depending on how the black hole is manifesting there, which we haven't gotten into yet. So, what would happen? Let's quote Halle Berry from X-Men: “What happens to a toad when it gets struck by lightning? Same as everything else.” Basically, the same thing that happens to everything else. The question is, would their immortality remain? Yes, asterisk.

Questioner

I have a question about chasmfiends. Are they the kind of animal that mates for life and has really strong social structures? Or are they very territorial, and they hate each other?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO, but with a promise there's a little bit in Wind and Truth for you. Ask me later - Wind and Truth’s not gonna answer everything, but there's some in there that'll lead you to theorizing in the right way.

Questioner

You’ve mentioned in Scadrial, the future, there’s gonna be Sleepless. Have we seen any Sleepless so far? And if so, is Sir Squeekins, the rat that Wayne traded to Hoid, a Sleepless?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm going to RAFO that for you. (It's mostly a for-fun RAFO, don't read too much into that one.) But you have seen Sleepless around, yes.

Questioner

I love larkins, and I want to understand more about how they work. And so I was wondering, can they consume all types of Investiture? And what do they do with the Investiture that they consume?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, they can consume all kinds of Investiture. And they use this for growth. Basically, they store it away, and they are waiting for a time where they will go pupate, and they will come out bigger. And then bigger, and then bigger, and then bigger. Their growth is not linear, and this is one of the ways that we're justifying - that I'm justifying for myself - how we're getting to some of the size of the various greatshells that exist on Roshar. So you'll find that getting to that state either requires long periods of time (which some of them just take a long, long, long, like, centuries), and some of the species, they use Investiture. Chasmfiends use Investiture in order to get to the size that they get to. And larkins do the same.

Before you ask, chasmfiends cannot eat Investiture the way larkins do. They get it a different way.

Questioner

On Canticle, the rings around the planet are blue and gold and they're non-equatorial, which are both noted in the text. Is there something about the rings (the color or non-equatorialness) that points to either who made it or the purpose of it?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but it's a pretty tenuous and vague one. But there's a yes in there.

Questioner

In Lost Metal, when they're testing the trellium. And they notice that the spectral response is flat-lined, with some really weird effects in the red. And they also note that Harmonium had the same spectral output. Is that because when you have an impulse in the time domain, that's a flat line in the frequency domain? And if so, is there also a phase shift between them to know which Shard you're looking at?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, that should all - yeah, I believe you're correct in all of that.

Questioner

Has Weatherlove, the god of storms, or any other Returned of the Court of Gods visited Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

The answer is no. Except asterisk, there is one. Very obvious one.

Questioner

But not currently serving at the time of Warbreaker?

Brandon Sanderson

Not currently serving. No one that is serving in the Court of Gods has made their way to Roshar.

We’ll say “as of the timeline on Stormlight Archive.” I can't promise for the future era, because there’s a bunch I haven’t written there yet.

Questioner

My favorite scene, and actually one of the scenes that I think was most powerful in anything I've read, was the scene between Kaladin and Shallan, when they're in the chasms in the Shattered Plains. And what I wanted to know is, what was the inspiration, either in your life or a family member's life, behind that beautiful scene?

Brandon Sanderson

There's a whole bunch of inspirations. And some of them are personal to individuals, so I won't go too far. But there are moments where people have shared with me things in their life that felt very personal to them that meant a lot to me, and usually it unfortunately also coincides with moments of great trauma. And so those are moments that are both cathartic and traumatic all at once. And I was drawing upon a lot of those, particularly putting two people who have both been through things together. Because I'm usually a sounding board. I'm usually the safe person you can go to to talk about these things that you know won't overreact. But sometimes I underreact, which can be just as bad. And there are certain things that people can share that will not cause underreaction that I have observed in others, that is something that I actually haven't experienced. And like everything that I tried to do in my writing, part of it is about exploring what it is to be someone else. And that's what I was exploring there.

Questioner

Are there any naturally occurring instances of steelpushing or ironpulling fields on Scadrial?

Brandon Sanderson

Natural instances, Scadrial. Uhm… RAFO. This is a… yeah, RAFO.

Questioner

If you encase a gemstone in aluminum, will that prevent, or only greatly reduce, the speed of Stormlight leakage?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, the Stormlight will still leak out of the gemstone. Assume that you’re like, creating a perfect shell for it. The Stormlight is still eventually just gonna make its way into the Spiritual Realm. The aluminum can't act as a Stormlight containment, necessarily, unless the Stormlight is persistent enough that it's not just evaporating into the Spiritual Realm. So, for instance, you could use some sort of device like this to encase a sapient spren who is already locked into the Physical Realm. But Stormlight’s just eventually gonna evaporate due to Stormlight evaporation, which is changing realms. The aluminum's not going to stop that.

Questioner

Would it be possible for, like, a full power, Fifth Ideal Bondsmith to gather all the Shards of Adonalsium and re-unite them back into one?

Brandon Sanderson

Hehehe… RAFO! Obviously - but that’s a RAFO with… “this is probably orders of magnitude more difficult than you're imagining, even for them.”

Questioner

My question is relating to the color of gemstones. In your Ars Arcanum, you always need one color per gemstone for all the different magics. But different gemstones can be different colors, and they give off different wavelengths.

Brandon Sanderson

They do, and in fact rubies and sapphires are basically the same thing. On Roshar, the color is very relevant to certain applications of small permutations of the magic. And so, because of that, they will define, for instance, a blue topaz and a brown topaz as different gemstones, when we would not on Earth. So color is really - it's not going to influence some things, but it does influence others, kind of some minor applications. The answer is, the chemical property is less important than the color as it applies to that magic.

Questioner

My question actually was the wavelength of the color. Because Navani did so much magic, and the wavelength and the sound affects things.

Brandon Sanderson

Yep, wavelength is important. It's going to be a bit of a... I want to say a spectrum, but wavelength…there's gonna be a range that would be workable, if that makes sense.

Questioner

So it would also affect how fabrials are going to-

Brandon Sanderson

It’s going to affect fabrials, it’s going to affect some applications of Soulcasting, and some things like this.

Questioner

If we were to get a POV from a new character in Stormlight that we haven't seen a POV from, who would it be that would change our perspective on the series or what's going on the most?

Brandon Sanderson

I was gonna say Taln, but you have actually had a brief viewpoint from Taln. You have had... There's a lot of people that know a lot. Let's say that if you had a viewpoint from, say, Tanavast, it would probably change your perspective on things quite a bit. That would probably be a good one.

AAKS

Would anti-Stormlight be harmful to any of the Dawnshards?

Brandon Sanderson

Dawnshards would be more dangerous to the anti-Stormlight than the anti-Stormlight would be to the Dawnshards.

Questioner

Tien's rocks he finds. Are they the same ones Rock’s named after?

Brandon Sanderson

An excellent question. The answer is no. Good question. There is something going on with the rocks, but they're not the same.

Questioner

When Kaladin is younger in the first book, he talks about wanting to go see two cities: the City of Storms and the City of Shadows. Those have never been mentioned after that. Do they exist?

Brandon Sanderson

Rall Elorim is the City of Shadows. Those who know your really deep cuts: Book 4 was going to take place there, and it just did not work in the outline. But the original outline... that line was there because someday he was going to go see that.

The City of Storms. I'll leave it to fandom to work out what's going on with that one.

Rall Elorim, we did take the story that I was… because most of Rhythm of War stayed the same. It was just gonna be there instead. You will find some references to it in the RPG. We repurposed my worldbuilding there, and we are going to let you have some fun there in the RPG.

Questioner

If a kandra ate the bones of a child, could they eat other bones and grow up as that person?

Brandon Sanderson

They could, but they wouldn't actually be the person. So, you could imagine a kandra doing that. It would probably not be psychologically good for anyone involved. But that's totally within the realm of what a kandra might do. In fact, there's probably kandra who have done that.

Questioner

Is one of them Shallan?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

If an aviar's Connection or Identity were to be manipulated in any way, would it change the abilities that it could grant?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

If you were to cook them and eat them, would it give somebody who could turn those calories into Investiture any additional abilities?

Brandon Sanderson

Unlikely.

Questioner

In Aether of Night, two different aethers sort of combine and powers one of them up. Is this something that could happen in canon? And if so, could any two aethers be combined in some sort of way?

Brandon Sanderson

In canon, there are ways this could happen, but I'm gonna RAFO everything else to leave it for maybe eventual exploration. But that is possible, yeah.

Questioner

Giant robots are cool. Is there any possibility that we might get to see proper giant robots at some point in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. There is definitely a possibility.

Questioner

So, kind of along the lines of Bondsmiths: Would one be capable of reuniting a Shard that had been [Splintered], like maybe Honor?

Brandon Sanderson

So once again, there's some order of magnitudes difficulty to this, but that is the Surge that would be involved in that. So the answer is yes. But be aware it's not an easy prospect.

Questioner

My friend wanted to know about in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, why Hoid had six eggs on him?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, there's a very interesting story to that that I'll someday let Hoid tell.

Questioner

Who is Hoid telling Tress's story to?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, who do you think Hoid is telling Tress's story to?

Questioner

I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.

Brandon Sanderson

I think fandom’s figured this out, and I'm not going to answer this one. I'm going to give you a RAFO card. Ask around. I left the clues very deliberately, and this is the sort of thing I don't like to answer, because the clues are there. It is a world you have seen before in the cosmere. Both of those books that he told are being told specifically to an audience in the cosmere.

Questioner

Does everyone have Breath, or just people on Nalthis?

Brandon Sanderson

That is an excellent question. Everyone doesn't have Breath. People on Nalthis have an extra bit of Investiture given to them that forms the Breath. When the Breath leaves, it takes a little bit extra with it also. A Drab? An average person going to Nalthis isn't quite a Drab, but they would be considered a Drab by them. A Drab has lost something a little extra.

Questioner

I've been coming since the first Dragonsteel. And there is a man that has come every year that I run into every year, and I've always mentioned - I call him “The Whimsy Guy.” Because for years he went on about how Whimsy was the most terrifying Shard, until you so rudely told him it was not. You said that Whimsy was only dangerous to your sensibility. Something along those lines.

And that got me thinking, because that sounded very Wayne. And you have a very specific trope in a lot of your characters, in every single one of your st- well, maybe not every one, but a lot of your stories. We have Lopen, we have Wayne, we have Lift; we have a lot of these. And we know that Whimsy is just off doing whatever Whimsy does. And we also know multiple Shards can touch the same person, and one Shard touching somebody could actually make them more favorable for another Shard. So, is Whimsy just kind of going off and slightly touching a bunch of different people with the only purpose of pissing off all of the main characters in your stories?

Brandon Sanderson

You think Wayne needs the help of a Shard to piss off the other main characters? So the actual answer is: this is not needed for these characters in order to act like they are. Wayne needed no help.

Questioner

Can you use the Surge of Gravitation to cause time dilation?

Brandon Sanderson

In the right situations, yes. But the truth is, you can get that with multiple different magic systems if you know what you’re doing.

Questioner

Can you enlighten me on those magic systems?

Brandon Sanderson

Any large collection of Investiture can warp space-time.

Questioner

Shallan has bonded two spren. Is it possible for a spren to bond two people?

Brandon Sanderson

This is theoretically possible.

Questioner

Did breaking a bond damage a spren before the Recreance? If so, was Ba-Ado-Mishram part of the natural healing process while being, or before becoming, Unmade?

Brandon Sanderson

Breaking a bond before the Recreance was… It hurt, but it was not long-term-damaging hurt. Ba-Ado-Mishram would definitely consider that they could help, but whether they actually could or not is a matter that you can dispute.

Questioner

Are we at some point, right at the very end of the Cosmere or whatever, going to definitively know what all sixteen god metals do?

Brandon Sanderson

I plan for you to be able to do so, yes.

Questioner

There's a similarity between Sand Mastery using water out of someone's body, as well as the spores on...

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Intentional connection.

Questioner

Is it a luhel bond?

Brandon Sanderson

Let's just say that a certain Shard in the cosmere likes to mimic other magic systems.

Questioner

Have we seen said Shard before?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you have.

Brandon Sanderson

Alright? So I'm going to give you a quick primer of what happened and then after the reading I'll kind of explain what the premise was that made me want to write this story. So, [the] story's about two cops. Right? Cop 1, the guy named Dane is kind of annoyed that his partner is moving into a desk job, and they don't ever go out on the street anymore. His partner Lisa is like, "I want to be a desk jockey. It's a much better job. I have political aspirations. But that doesn't mean I've lost my edge." And they're kind of arguing about this stuff. He's like, "For old time's sake, let's go out on this -- I got this call." She's like, "We're not beat cops anymore. Why are we doing this?" He's like, "Well, we're detectives. We can still go do this." So they go out on this call, and shenanigans happen, and there is a giant explosion that neither of them are expecting. And then this happens next. Alright? 

Brandon Sanderson

So I can't quite finish that chapter. But very soon after, Dane finds out it's only been three days in his timeline as well. So what is the premise of this story? One gets sent back three days. One gets sent forward three days. And they have to figure out what happened and try to stop it. And that was the idea that really made me want to write this. Three days back, three days forward. Why is his three days in the future and it feels like a post apocalypse? What is happening to her, and why can't anybody notice her? And how can they solve what happened in those chapters, that unfortunately you didn't see, which have the mystery of what's going on? And then kind of try to make it a nice puzzle story, approaching it from two directions. So that's Moment Zero, moment zero being the moment where the explosion happened. 

Brandon Sanderson

Lisa started awake. In bed. Her bed. Alone. Had it been a dream? Hand to her head, she sat up, then glanced through gossamer drapes at the rising sun. Clock on the nightstand said 6:37. Three minutes before her alarm was set to go off. She flipped off the alarm and meandered toward the bathroom, memories of one last investigation with Dane before he got a job in another city. Gunshots, a white light? The device is on a timer.

(aside to audience) That was a quote by the way.

(back to reading) She waited for it to fade as dreams always did. She'd fallen asleep in her clothing though, because of the long night spent working to make up for ditching the others? But if so, how had she gotten home? She didn't remember, but in her morning daze that didn't bother her very much.

She showered and got ready. By the sounds of the plates thumping below, <Nova?> was already up and making breakfast. That was odd, as Nova was not a morning person, but maybe that was changing now she was 14 and heading to high school. She'd gotten up on her own a few days ago too.

Lisa walked down the steps, feeling an ethereal sense of displacement. That dream hadn't faded. She remembered it, as if it were real. She emerged in the kitchen where Nova was scrambling eggs at the stove, dressed in her plaid school uniform. The girl wore her black hair straight and long, like her mother. She had a ready dimpled grin for Lisa, though she turned too quickly to show off. Her eggs, still in their pan. Her elbow knocked a box of cereal off the counter, just like she had a few days ago. Puff cereal scattered across the floor and some rolled up to Lisa's feet. She stared at it, dumbfounded, remembering --

"Oh, shi -- I mean, shoot. Sorry, mom." (aside to audience) That's in quotes, or italics.

"Oh, shi --" Nova said, "I mean shoot. Sorry, mom." She put down the pan and scrambled for the broom. 

This had happened already. On Monday. 

"Nova," Lisa said, "is this some kind of prank?"

"No, didn't mean to, I'm nervous about practice, sorry, sorry." She moved to clean but Lisa took her by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes. The girl tugged against the grip. Eyes to the side, fingers twitching, as if trying to go through sweeping motions.

"Nova?" Lisa asked, feeling legitimate horror. That look on her daughter's face was so unnatural. It was as if she didn't even see Lisa. "Nova!"

Nova focused on her just for a second. Then her body started jerking again, and her head turned. As soon as Lisa released her, the girl jumped to clean up in a flurry before gobbling up the eggs.

"Sorry mom," Nova said, "I left you some though. Early morning practice for the recital, remember?" Nova beamed, back to her normal self, then took Lisa's hands. "You're going to come, right? Even if work is busy?"

"Coming? I already went." It was distinct in her mind, the sounds, scents, smells of the auditorium. Jazz piano echoing through the hall fading to applause. Could she have dreamed that?

"Not just the practice," Nova said. "The actual recital."

"Which is..."

"On Wednesday!"

"And today is..."

"Monday!" Nova rolled her eyes. "As if you don't have every minute of your life scheduled."

"You... flub the ending of Amazing Blue."

"I won't flub anything!" Nova said, letting goand grabbing her backpack. Then she paused before digging in her pocket and pulling out a red coral bracelet. Lisa's hand went to her wrist, and the identical one she was already wearing.

"Here," Nova said, giving her the new one. "I made this for you." Then she bit her lip, getting out a second. "I made one for Dane too. Will you give it to him, to help him think about us?" Nova glanced down, holding them both out.

"Nova," Lisa said, holding up her hand with the bracelet she was already wearing. "Nova."

"I know, mom," the girl said with a sigh. "I know that you two... but please just give it to him. It's important that I try."

"Nova, look at my arm." She tapped the bracelet, and Nova looked at it for a moment, cocked her head, then shook herself like from a dream.

"I know," the girl said, with the exact same sign and following intonation, "I know, mom. I know that you two... but please just give it to him. It's important that I try." Then she withdrew her hand, dropping the bracelets, letting them drop on the floor. "Thanks!" She said, as if Lisa had taken them. "You don't think Dad will come this year, will he?" Lisa stood, feeling stunned. "That's good," Nova said after a moment. "Bye!" She scampered out.

Lisa sank into her chair, feet disturbing cereal puffs that Nova hadn't fully cleaned up. How... how had Lisa gotten home last night? With a frown she called Dane, but it went immediately to voicemail because of his stupid smartphone with its anorexic battery. She started a text but as she did, one came from Noah's father. I suppose it said, "I'll live with that." She frowned until she remembered texting him a few days ago, promising to record the recital for him, but suggesting it would be a bad idea for him to come in person. She scrolled up and found the exact text he'd just sent, dated 5:52, Monday. Just like this one was. Same date, same time. 

Heart beginning to beat more rapidly, she ran upstairs and checked the bed and then the floor next to it. There, Dane's gun on the floor, the one he'd given her out of the back of his car. She'd been holding it during the explosion. Shaking, she scrambled downstairs and made a furious drive to headquarters, arriving around 7:30, having beaten most of the traffic. She burst in, hurrying to her office, rushing up to <Rona> who was early. Something she never did on Tuesdays or Thursdays, when she dropped off carpool for her kids.

If she was there... "Rona?" Lisa said. Rona kept typing. "Rona!" Lisa said, feeling something in her start to crack. "Please!" The woman shook, then glanced at Lisa, and started.

"Director! You should know better than to sneak up on an armed woman like that." She said it with a smile, but Lisa's nerves were fraying, and Rona frowned soon after. "Director? The... <Goffrey> case. We're close," Rona said. "Just need one of the Kim brothers to take the plea. I'll have a testimony on your desk the moment it happens. You'll have to talk to the DA though. Good luck with that, Director."

Lisa stood up, feeling a cold down her bones. Nearby, none of the officers passing were even looking at her. It was as if she were invisible. Even Rona went back to her typing absently and started again when she turned and saw Lisa there, as if she'd forgotten. Davis walked in with coffee for his team. Monday was his day. Whiteboard had a perfect replica of Lisa's notes from Saturday, the one she'd raced on Tuesday night to outline their battle plan for the actual arrest. She glanced at her office. Glass was cracked in the door. They'd replaced that on Monday.

Oh, heck. "Dane," she whispered. She put a hand on Rona's shoulder, who was startled again. 

"Director, you still worried about the case?"

"Dane. Is he in?"

"Director, it's before noon. What do you think?" 

Lisa began walking out faster with each step until something even more unnerving happened. People started turning toward her and, noticing her, smiling and waving, suddenly saying, "Good morning!" because... because it was 7:48. That was around when she normally arrived at the office. Probably the exact time she'd arrived on Monday, the... other Monday. Now that she was supposed to be here, people suddenly began interacting with her, like normal. But this was anything but normal. She fled.

Back to her car. She drove to Dane's apartment, which wasn't too far, but there was more traffic on the road now and people kept almost hitting her. It happened five times. After the fifth car swerved away and honked, Lisa parked and walked the rest of the way. She had to try twice to get Tim, the bean pole of a doorman, to notice her.

"Ah, Ms. Lisa," he eventually said.

"Dane," she said, sweating, "has he come out today?"

"Nope, Ms. Lisa," Tim said, "after all, it's before noon."

"Yes, I know." She rushed past the broken elevator -- the thing had been out of service for years -- and rushed up the steps to the second floor. Breathing deeply, she there forced herself to adopt a semblance of calm. Something had happened to that house with the device. Something incredible. Something mind-breakingly strange. Either that, or she was going insane. It it had happened to Dane too, would Tim have even noticed him leaving? She used the spare key -- she kept meaning to give it back -- to get in. The place smelled of a distinct scent. Call it l'eau de bachelor. Mingling orders of leftover chinese, beer cans in the recycling, and dirty clothing piled in the tiny laundry room. Dane wasn't slovenly. In her beat days, she'd seen slovenly and beyond. He was average, at least for people who lived on their own and didn't often have visitors.

She pushed open the bedroom door, and... he wasn't there. Bed was messy, but that didn't mean much. His phone, however, was on the stand. He'd forgotten to plug it in, and she got a dead battery sign when she tried to turn it on. She couldn't imagine him going out and forgetting it, but maybe... if he was confused, like she'd been when first waking? Only his sidearm, sidearm precinct deputy weapon FN-509, hung in a holster from a peg by his bed. He only locked it away when someone was staying over, and he'd never leave without it.

Feeling confused, exhausted, and overwhelmed, Lisa sat down quietly on the corner of his bed. Somehow, impossibly, that white light had sent her 3 days in the past, but where or when had it sent Dane?