Miscellaneous 2025

Axies the Collector's Deck of Radiant Spren

- Windrunners: honorspren (Radiant spren), windspren (armor spren)

- Skybreakers: highspren (Radiant spren), gravitationspren (armor spren)

- Dustbringers: ashspren (Radiant spren), flamespren (armor spren)

- Edgedancers: cultivationspren (Radiant spren), lifespren (armor spren)

- Truthwatchers: mistspren (Radiant spren), concentrationspren (armor spren)

- Lightweavers: Cryptic (Radiant spren), creationspren (armor spren)

- Elsecallers: inkspren (Radiant spren), logicspren (armor spren)

- Willshapers: Reacher (Radiant spren), joyspren (armor spren)

- Stonewards: peakspren (Radiant spren), bindspren (armor spren)

- Bondsmiths: Stormfather, Nightwatcher, the Sibling (Radiant spren), gloryspren (only included based on vibes; not necessarily armor spren)

Priscellie

The Plate spren for A and 3-9 are canonical, and the deck can be cited in the Coppermind as confirmation for those orders. 

The Skybreaker Plate spren are canonically confirmed to be mandras/luckspren. While I was working on the deck I was under the impression that gravitationspren were the same thing, but I art directed these cards over a year ago at this point, and don't recall where I got that impression. Continuity was totally slammed with WaT at the time, and the explanatory card did not go through their department. In the absence of confirmation from a more definitive source, you can cite mandras/luckspren as the Skybreaker plate spren and treat the 2 card art as an example of an official depiction of mandras/luckspren, but do NOT make any assumptions about whether or not gravitationspren are the same thing based on the explanatory card.

As for the question of whether Bondsmiths can have Radiant Plate, which came up previously, I am not privy to any more information than you guys. Gloryspren were included so that we could have something on the 10 card, and chosen solely because of their significance in the Oathbringer sanderlanche and [WaT] the scene where Dalinar opens the perpendicularity to the Spiritual Realm.  No conclusions about the question of Bondsmith Plate should be drawn based on their inclusion here. No canon, just vibes.

Peter Ahlstrom

In the alpha draft of Words of Radiance, at the end Eshonai survived—there was a scene much like the one in Oathbringer where Venli goes to find her body, except it was Thude and Bila who found her, and she was alive. Brandon deleted that scene before it went to the beta read. (One reason was that the end of Words of Radiance already had a character who the audience thought was dead and who turned up alive, in Jasnah. In fact, that scene immediately followed Eshonai's.)

(Rereading the scene just now, it had a great line at the end: “This is what they planned all along, Thude. Our gods. We thought ourselves so brave, so bold. We thought ourselves hidden.“We never were. We were just...just yeast...boxed away to someday leaven the next batch of horrors...”)

In Wind and Truth, nothing like that happened in the drafting. Brandon rewrote scenes in the revisions, but the fate of every character was essentially the same.

SquattingDog99

Also, what did he write on July 18th? I just finished reading the other day and I’m trying to find an answer.

TheTenthLawyer

Peter’s guess is that it was the first reveal of the Champion. Brandon couldn’t remember when the Betas asked him; he said he’d have to check his notes.

Peter Ahlstrom

That's not what I said. But specifically, it was chapter 143. 

Mybrainisnotworking_

I remember Sanderson saying to ask him what he wrote on a specific date, because that was a segment that he was particularly proud of. Unfortunately I don't remember the exact date he mentioned, but what do you all think he might be referring to?

-Ninety-

According to u/PeterAhlstrom it was chapter 143.

Peter Ahlstrom

The Dalinar section of chapter 143. But he ended the day writing the Taravangian section of chapter 145. Anyway it was the end of the Dalinar sequence, starting as early as the Dalinar section of chapter 137 but possibly a couple chapters after that.

grandpa_fathom

As I’ve read Brandon’s books, I smile every time I come across allusions, borrowings, and references to real-world influences. I’m hoping the community can help me flush out this list (speculation welcome).

• Kelsier as a Christ figure resurrected & starting a religion
• Dalinar as Genghis Kahn
• Shards as the Greek (or insert your favorite) pantheon
• Wit as a Shakespearean fool
• Chana & Shallan as Abraham & Isaac
• Nohadon as King Benjamin
• translation lenses (Alcatraz) as urim & thummim
• Iriali exodus as the Mosaic exodus

Brandon Sanderson

• Kelsier as a Christ figure resurrected & starting a religion (More that he is trying deliberately to ape off of similar stories from Sazeds myths. Then ended up living, kind of, and now has to work with what he did.)

• Dalinar as Genghis Kahn (More Subutai in military strategy and position. But I did intentionally include one Genghis myth for the history lovers in Dalinar's backstory. This is because one inspiration for the Alethi is the Yuan Dynasty, where the Mongols had to learn to rule China.)

• Shards as the Greek (or insert your favorite) pantheon (Kind of, kind of not. More uplifted humans in over their heads. I wasnt looking at panthons here as they don’t really involve one another.)

• Wit as a Shakespearean fool (Yup. See Lear and 12th night)

• Chana & Shallan as Abraham & Isaac (Not intentional, but I can see it might be unconscious.)

• Nohadon as King Benjamin (I doubt he was as silly, but this is an influence and a concious one.)

• translation lenses (Alcatraz) as urim & thummim (Also not intentional. When I think about powers, I just wish I could speak and read all languages. But maybe there is something unconscious here? For all this looks like a slam dunk, I really think it was just me thinking of powers I wanted, and relating them to wearing glasses.)

• Iriali exodus as the Mosaic exodus (Also not deliberately done...but you probably have something here. This is almost certain part of the inspiration.)

WaitUntilTheHighway

I feel like Rock was one of the best characters in Kaladin's world, and it seems like he was 'sent off' for literally no plot-relevant reason. It's like it's a TV show and the actor died so they had to get rid of the character. I'm bummed because I'm almost done with RoW now and there's just no more fun camaraderie among bridge four, largely thanks to Rock being gone. He was one of my faves.

Brandon Sanderson

As others have said, Rock will get his own novella--but that's not why I sent him off. Even if there had been no time for a novella, or no plot-relevant things for him to do, he would have left.

I need Bridge Four to be alive. Their time together, as a cohesive unit, was a powerful moment in time--and you can always reread the first few books to experience it again. However, in life, nothing remains the same, and time draws people apart. Rock has a family, a people, and responsibilities. He has to be about those, now that he's free from Alethi slavery.

Bridge Four, as it stood in books one and two, had to eventually evolve, and some members had to go their own way. That's life. For all Kaladin wanted to grasp for it, hold it together by force, he couldn't--just as we can't keep rigidly hold of the friends and family we love. Time inevitably divides us.

Each book of the Stormlight Archive must be something new. New tone, new feeling, evolved from the previous volume. They are too big, too weighty, to be allowed to repeat the same plot cycles, same emotional beats, or to allow the characters to stagnate into repetitive playacting of the people they were in the first few volumes. As readers travel through the series, I intend for them to realize this, though it may take a while for it to really click.

Brandon Sanderson

My plan was for Renarin to be gay when I wrote Way of Kings Prime in 2002.