What is Tia's cola brand?
Tia's cola brand is, um...
<Non-determined>?
Non-- Like it's a in-world cola. I just didn't want to mention a name of one. If-- If I were going to choose one, it would be something like RC, or something like that.
Yeah. Something obscure and random.
Like... obscure. Kind of indie cola. Probably one I've never even heard of, right?
Are all of the Heralds still alive?
The Oathpact has not been broken, so yes.
Could I have you write the name of-- or the intent of the Shard that's hiding on it's uninhabited world away from everybody?
Mostly because I don't want to canonize these things and so I get locked into it and the decision is absolutely made. I haven't changed many of them, but I have tweaked them before. I've tweaked like how I wanted to represent the intent, so...
Do you have plans to write a longer series?
Yes, The Way of Kings will come out next year.
Do you have new stuff, or new ideas?
Yes—one is The Silence Divine, a world like ours where you gain magic by diseases; another is a world where the only superheroes are all evil super villains and a group of regular people called the Executioners [Reckoners] gather to hunt them down and take them out.
Several fans asked whether there would be a sequel to Warbreaker.
Nightblood will be released after The Wheel of Time
Will there be any sequels to Elantris?
In 2015, the 10th anniversary of the series, he intends to release Dragonriders, three books based on side characters. They will take place 10 years after events, in the city of Dakhor.
So how many spikes did Paalm have before the end? Asked in Chicago, you said to follow-up after tour.
Paalm was only using one spike at a time, all of them made from the unknown metal.
Regarding the Mistborn books, do you think you will ever write a prequel trilogy?
I've considered it, but I don't think it's a good idea. I love the hero's journey, like Rand's journey at the beginning of the Wheel of Time. When writing the Mistborn books, I knew Robert Jordan had done epic fantasy the best it could be done, so I thought, 'what hasn’t been done?' The answer I came to was 'what if the hero lost?' The idea was a good one, but that would make a downer of a book.
[Star wars prequels reference] *general laughter*
*laughter*
I wrote Mistborn a thousand years after the hero lost. I'm thinking of writing a sequel set centuries after Mistborn.
Brandon went on to say that he wrote Mistborn as 1000 years after the heroes lost, and he is more strongly considering a sequel trilogy that would take place about 600 years after Mistborn.
Who is the Alethi Lift saw in Edgedancer? She saw a tall person when she wandered through...
Oh, the tall person? RAFO.
My question is about Yolen. If, or when, you chose to write Hoid's origin story, do you plan to keep the same plots in Yolen? Where the moss is taking over the planet?
So I need to give you some back history to this one... My epic fantasy books, this is all of them but not Steelheart and not The Rithmatist, so the epic fantasy, are all connected, if you weren't aware. They all have little ties between characters, and there's a character named Hoid who's shown up in all of the books basically; he's the same person. When I was earlier in my career, before I published, I tried writing his origin story and I failed. The book wasn't very good, and I tried it again later, after I was published, and I failed again. It still wasn't very good. And this still happens to me. Sometimes I try things out and they just don't work. So the question am I going to try it; when I go back to it will it be the same story? The core part of it will be the same. There are certain events that Hoid has talked about in the books that are published that I will make sure are still relevant, but the story continues to evolve in my head. So I will have to decide eventually what things I want to do and what I don't. I think it will change from what I originally planned, but the soul should be the same. The core should still be the same. It will be very different from Dragonsteel, though, which was the one I wrote in 1998, because that had Bridge Four in it, and I moved them to The Stormlight Archive. So most of that book is gone, and it ended up in The Stormlight Archive, so who knows what will go-- It'll be very different from that.
So at the end of Bands of Mourning with the, um, statue? Is that spike in the actual eye, is that *inaudible* or is that an *inaudible*?
That actually is not. Yeah, good question.
Are there any Shards who-- that have merged like Sazed's Shards?
That is a RAFO, good question. Excellent question.
Just trying to think outside the box.
I think that's the first time I've been asked that.
How hard was it for you to write Kaladin *inaudible* end of the second book?
It was pretty hard. Knowing people whom I love, who have depression, when they are in a depressive funk. And knowing I had to get that across accurately, but try not to make people hate him too much? It was a challenge.
You're very meticulous about your magic systems. Aren't you afraid sometimes that this takes away the sense of wonder? For example in The Way of Kings, it's more wonderous, in my opinion, than in Mistborn. So, how do you manage this?
This is an excellent question. It's actually something I think about a lot, and tomorrow my lecture ('cause they asked me to do a lecture) will be a little bit about this idea. So, if you're interested in writing, you can come to the lecture. But balance between a sense of wonder and a sense of understanding of the magic, that's a difficult balance. And I don't think there's a right way to do it. I think a lot of great books sometimes use both. For instance, I don't know if you've read Name of the Wind, but Pat Rothfuss uses both a hard magic system and a soft magic system. The Naming, which is very soft, and the Sympathy, which is very hard. Hard is a term for very rule-based, so we explain it a lot. The more you explain, the less sense of wonder you have. But the more you explain, the more you can also use the magic to solve all kinds of cool problems and create sort of an intellectual enjoyment. And so it's a different distinction between wonder and this sort of intellectual problem-solving sense, and I tend to go this direction a little bit. I think fantasy naturally has a bunch of wonder to it in the settings and the world, so I think that they balance each other naturally when I push a little bit in this direction. But it is a trade-off. It is something that I wonder about.
For spoiler reasons... is the Thrill at all attached to Odium?
Book three will give more explanation to this. But attached, you could say, that is related.
Is, like, fabrials that can imitate, I mean, very specific forms of Surgebinding... Are there fabrials that can imitate the Surge-- <stages> of Voidbinding?
Yes. That is theoretically possible.
Could a Forger, like, reforge a Shardplate to look differently?
So here's the thing... Um, yes, *but*... Anything that is Invested is-- resists all of the forms of Investiture. And the level of Investiture in it determines how hard it is. Forging is one of these things that-- It's very hard to reforge things that are Invested. Not impossible though. So yes, *but*... Do you see what I'm saying? There's that-- there's a pretty significant "but" on that one.
So is it possible to Awaken a Shardblade? That's the question-- that's my question for you.
Um... With the magic system of Awakening, you mean?
Yeah.
So, all forms of Investiture strongly resist other forms of Investiture.
Makes sense.
*brief interruption* Nightblood is essentially an Awakened... Trying to do that.
'Cause he shows up in Words of Radiance, right?
Yes. So, it-- let's just say it'd be very, very hard. Because it's like saying, "Can-- I want to turn on a lightbulb that's been turned on." Yes, you can... maybe... I don't know what that even means. It's already Invested. It's already Awakened.
I was wondering, like, are we gonna... From the Secret History...
Uh-huh.
The people he met with... Are they the ones from Bands of Mourning, and Are we gonna see them anymore?
Which people? Nazh and Khriss?
Yes.
Uh, Nazh-- Khriss is in Bands of Mourning. Nazh is referenced in many of the books. He's been in-- uh-- he's been in a lot of them... Just briefly, or annotating maps or things like that.
Okay. So are we gonna see them more kind of like Hoid in the future?
Yeah, they're-- they are Hoid-esque. Khriss is the one who's been writing all the Ars Arcanum from the beginning, so...
It seemed like in Alloy of Law you made us like Marasi better than Steris, and then kind of switched it. Was your intention the whole time for them to end up with Steris, or...?
Yes, yes.
Okay, it was.
In fact, I like Steris a lot in the first book. But you are seeing things through the eyes of other characters. And Steris takes a little bit of time to warm up to. Like, many people like her. And once you get to know here--which, I always knew her--then there's a level of <thoughtfulness> there.
Marsh is still alive hundreds of years after.
Uh-huh.
He's got, like, Lord Ruler level healing powers. Why does he still have a crushed eye socket?
So all healing in the cosmere has to do--or almost all has to do--with your perception of yourself.
So in the Rithmatist... The constable had acid wash over him and it destroyed the thing that possessed him. The professor who got acid dumped on him did not have the thing expelled. Why the difference?
You will find out in the next book.
Ah, got another read and find out.
Yeah.
How many magic systems have you written?
Uh... You know, this is a hard one, because do you count each Order of the Knights Radiant, or each Surge as their own magic system, or...
I have never read those books, so I don't know.
So... probably a dozen. Maybe two.
Why so many? When so many people just stick with one?
Uh, because it's fun.
If an Epic gives her powers to someone, is that person then vulnerable to their weakness?
Much much less so, but still vulnerable. Um... But it is-- it is... yeah, it is weakened.
Who owns all your copyright for all your symbols and logos and everything else?
I own the copyright on most-- almost-- on all of those.
On everything?
Yep, yep. And that is something we did intentionally after noticing that... sometimes, like the Wheel of Time--they weren't good at keeping track who owned those, and it was really problematic when they wanted to do t-shirts and things. And so I just bought the rights when I did them.
That's awesome. Cause I've, uh, looked at licensing and royalties and other things like that with some companies, and it's...
Yeah. I don't think you want to do something like that. Now cover art you don't want to buy outright. The artist needs to be able to use that for other things. But the symbols you can... most artists will sell you those outright.
What are the chances that one of Megan's alternate realities could secretly be the cosmere, but we'll never see it?
Heh... Um, I would like to keep these two separate. But if you believe in infinite variety then I suppose...
If I believe it hard enough! Okay, alright. But they're-- But they're meant to be separate.
They are meant to be separate. I will do other things with that-- within-- kind of that idea of multiple dimensions and things like that.
In the Reckoners? In that world?
Yeah.
Is there a point in trying to figure out who has the Blade everyone is wondering about?
Not really, no. At this point there just aren't enough clues to do more than guess.
Can Kaladin wear Shardplate at the end of Words of Radiance?
it would affect him like it affects Szeth, so not a good idea.
Is Jasnah's return similar to Kelsier's?
No. Good question.
Can Nightwatcher RAFO people?
*laughs* Nightwatcher can do whatever she wants!
Have we seen a Knight of all of the Orders yet?
You have not seen a Knight of all of the orders yet I don't believe.
Even one that doesn't have a spren yet?
I think you have met everybody.
What kind of spren do Dustbringers have?
RAFO. But you asked a very wise question.
In the middle of Words of Radiance, there's a scene where Kaladin's hanging out in the barracks, and Rock kicks out an ardent sketching them. Is that the guy drawing all the pictures?
That is Nazh. You've found him. You have discovered Nazh!
Is Edgli the name of Endowment?
RAFO.
Will the next book explain how that sword [Nightblood] got there, and why that guy [Zahel/Vasher] isn't with that sword?
The next book will give you some hints.
In order to use magic from one world on another world, do they need a bit of [the first world's] Shard with you?
It helps a lot. But there are other ways to do it. What's going on in the Cosmere is people have 3 sets of DNA. They have Physical DNA, Spiritual DNA, and Cognitive DNA. Their Spiritual DNA is what encodes the magic system into them, their Investiture. So if you can find a way to rewrite your Spiritual DNA, you can do all kinds of funky things. That's what Hemalurgy does. It rips off a piece of someone else's soul, staples it to yours. So if you went with a Hemalurgic spike to the right place, ripped off a piece of someone's soul and stapled it to yourself, you could create short circuits that will let you do all kinds of goofy stuff.
Do you have to be a willing subject to be Soulforged?
You do not. Working with the soul is really hard though. You have to be a supreme expert in what you're doing, because soul is Investiture.
Would it be possible to Soulforge Nightblood and change the command that was given to him when he was Invested?
That is possible. That would actually not be a very difficult Soulforge. The problem is, he's Invested. So reInvesting him, which is what Soulforgery is, is really hard. So you'd have to figure out how you could use Forgery on something that is already Invested. But Forgery can get through some of those hoops a lot easier than some other magic systems can.
Are there any other characters from Elantris or other things?
There are indeed others around. I don't know how obvious they are in this book, but there are a couple.
*inaudible*
Eshonai indeed gets a flashback sequence. Now, Parshendi were not allowed to be surgebinders in previous eras. I'll just mention that.
Are spren visible on Roshar because Cultivation is present?
Cultivation has a lot to do with the spren but the spren-- would-- it's hard to separate them, but some spren did exist before Cultivation arrived.
Was there any specific reason why you chose to not have men not be able to read in [Roshar]?
Yes, it relates back to the origin of where the safehand comes from and things like this.
How did Hoid and whoever he's sending the letters to deliver the letters?
RAFO.
Are there lifeforms that are native to the Spiritual Realm like the spren are native to the Cognitive Realm?
Yes, but they're not what you're thinking.
Are there factions in the Spiritual Realm? Like there are different stories about the Tranquiline Halls and the Iridescent Tones.
Yes... there are actual factions but they're not what you're thinking of.
Are the Unmade actually spren as Taravangian thinks they are?
As far as anyone knows. I'm not going to answer other than that.
Given that Investiture is Investiture, would there be potential Investiture of like, kandra to Parshendi using Hemalurgic spikes?
Hemalurgic spikes can be used on any planet.
Would it be potential for Parshendi to develop a form using the spikes?
Wow, that would be a really weird hack of the magic system that would be theoretically possible. But that's a really weird one. I had never even considered that one. Parshendi adopting other Investiture could happen, the spikes is not one I've considered.
If after speaking the Third Ideal, Kaladin were to betray his oaths, would Syl turn into a Shardblade?
Yes.
Is there any significance to Adolin's mother's chain being missing?
Only to him.
