Between I Hate Dragons and its extended version, and the cosmere princess reading at FanX, you seem to want to reuse the idea of magical knacks. Will they make a return in the cosmere?
The cosmere princess reading at FanX was I Hate Dragons, same world. Will they make a return in the cosmere? If I can find a way to make them not silly. Like, they can be a little funny, but they just... they can't be too far, and that story was too far.
Would Dalinar and Kelsier get along?
No, I don't think they would. Young Dalinar? Yes. Adult Dalinar? Probably not. Kelsier's a hard person to get along with, unless you buy in to him being in charge. Dalinar is not gonna do that. If you think Kelsier does a good job being in charge, he's gonna get along with you. And he can get along with a lot of people; he's a sweet talker, right?
Yeah, the noble side of things, he definitely would not like.
Did spiritweb entanglement cause Nikaro to be heavily Invested and would leave a Cognitive Shadow upon death?
Nikaro probably is Invested enough to leave a Cognitive Shadow, but I'm not 100% sure. I'd have to really look it. He's got some residual effects of a bunch of the stuff he went through; there might be enough clinging to him.
When do we get a book about the pancake-shaped people that only speak in flatulence?
Wrong book series, my friend. No, you will not get about the pancake-shaped people that only speak in flatulence. We'll leave it to you whether Hoid was joking or not, how about that.
You said four years ago that only one Vessel is a dragon.
Yeah, I think I was just wrong. There are two dragon Vessels; there are not more. I don't know what I was doing. There's two dragon Vessels. That's just a Brandon brain fart. Medelantorius is still Valor's Vessel.
Which language in the cosmere is closest to the English language?
No idea. Not a linguist. They're all very different.
Is the location of Silverlight linked significantly to the disappearance of Reason?
I wouldn't say so, but who knows. I would not say so.
Rall Elorim was initially planned as the setting for Book Four. Which plotlines were set in Rall Elorim?
The invasion of Urithiru was going to be an invasion of Rall Elorim, and Kaladin there behind the scenes working, and Navani and Raboniel was all happening there. I just didn't feel right with how much I had to do with the worldbuilding in that one. And that one's, like, my big, I'm-doing-a-whole-bunch-of-science worldbuilding, that I also didn't want to throw an entire new setting at you, as well, so I kept it at Urithiru.
Aona and Skai, ever a couple?
RAFO.
Is El related to Zellion?
The letters El (E L), are related to that, and they are related to Adonalsium. There's just some similar linguistic things in there.
How did the Fused get the Lifelight from Lift?
Not sure what you're 100% referencing on there. Like, how did they get it out of her? Because you can just use the same things that would get Stormlight, everything else out would work.
With Scadrians expanding into the cosmere, will we see interactions between hemalurgy and aviar?
Yes. Yeah, you could see interactions between hemalurgy and the aviar. It would be terrible. It would be terrible, but you could definitely see interactions. Is it specifically tied to human souls? No.
Do dead Shardblades look different from living ones?
You can figure it out pretty easily. Dead Shardblades were mostly frozen in a showy form; certainly, that's part of it. Do they look different? Not to the casual observer, how about that? But there are distinctions you can figure out.
IRL Towers game?
People have asked for this. I'm not convinced that I can make it happen, but it's possible.
What was the scene that was twenty years in the making?
There were a lot of them in that book, and I'm trying to remember which tweet I was talking about when it was twenty years in the making, and I can't remember what I was writing when I did that. The things that I knew were the final confrontation, though I did, as you guys all know, age up Gavinor so that it wasn't just a baby there. The only real choices for me were Gavinor and a random child that Dalinar didn't know. Which actually, in some ways, would be more appropriate, and things like that. But Taravangian likes to hit people where it will hurt. For those who wanted it to be Adolin, it could have been Adolin; that's an option. I never seriously considered... Well, I did consider it, but it was never in any part of the outlines. It could have been Adolin; I worried about what that would do for the things I'm planning for the second half, now that I have it. But that's a valid choice, for those who would have thought it could be Adolin. I think you had a good thought; it would fit the prophecies, and it would match.
I haven't ever just looked it up; I need to look it up, because I have timestamps on all the chapters I finish, so I can find out which chapter it was. But I don't remember. I think it might have been the wedding. My best bet is the wedding, and being able to finally canonize what people had guessed long ago.
Can we expect to see barbecue?
Yeah, you can expect to see barbecue. In fact, there are things that you would eat there right now that you might consider barbecue-like.
Potential Cosmere video games?
While I would love to tell a new story, I think for marketability and for people wanting to play the game, I think if we make a Mistborn game, my goal would be to make the story of Book One, expanded as a game. I imagine it as a single-player, story-driven RPG that. I don't know what you guys think of that, but that's what I think. The only other real option is between Books One and Two, I feel. But I think that not being able to play as Kelsier as an alternate character, not being able to play as Vin learning how to use allomancy. I think it is a better idea to just do... And there are some really good games that have done this. Like, there are several of the Lord of the Rings games. The ones they made up a new story were actually pretty awesome, the Shadow of Mordor. But the Lord of the Rings game, I remember the one for Two Towers being just really good, playing through the game, and I just think that's the right move. Particularly, a lot of people who are gamers may have heard of Mistborn and not played.
Some of you are saying you'd rather a brand new story and time period. Yeah, I get it. That's what my first try was, was Mistborn: Birthright, when I first tried a video game fifteen years ago. And it was gonna be during the Final Empire era, and kind of the origin of mistborn and mistcloaks and things like that. The more I think about it, that would be a really great game to make after we have made a game of Book One, if that makes sense.
Now that there are no mistborn in the Mistborn series and there's no stormlight in the Stormlight series, should we expect the city of Elantris to be destroyed next?
That's a good question. You can get a RAFO. You shouldn't expect... I didn't imagine this was the theme.
Are there still mistborn? The truth is, there are some Mistborn, because I think Marsh still counts. He's a hemalurgic mistborn. Marsh still counts. Other than that, I guess if you don't count hemalurgically made Mistborn, there aren't any. It's still possible, as someone has said; it's very, very difficult, and there aren't any right now, but it's possible.
Oh, you're right, Wax is a mistborn, you're right. So there you go. Wax is a mistborn, Hoid is a mistborn. They both had lerasium beads. As long as Hoid is there and Wax is still around, you still have mistborn. And Wax kind of knows, but he doesn't tell anybody.
*sarcastically* Oh, yes, I forgot about the Ghostblood Kelsier, who's totally a mistborn. Totally hasn't lost all his powers.
Hoid stories are tough. Getting that voice, that balance of humor with actually telling something meaningful, right is difficult. And I did one reading of one earlier (maybe at Nexus, I believe) which was called Kingmaker, and this one which I never really named about Princess <Celebrin>. And anyway, it's fun and it didn't quite work. I think there's actually one more sitting somewhere that I didn't finish. This is how much work it took to get to Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, was three failed attempts at doing Hoid stories that just didn't quite work. But maybe I'll do a reading of that other one sometime. It's a little more spoilery. But you can go watch this one, which has almost no spoilers for anything, that is not canon and enjoy that reading. I think the book is very fun; it just went too silly. And that's a hard balance to walk, with Hoid.
I have just seen post about some (added 150 page) changes on Final Empire. The publisher on my country said some changes happened. Do you guys now what Brandon Sanderson changed and added to book. I dont wanna buy the book again.
There were a bunch of changes made to the leatherbound, but they’re mostly small wording changes. The biggest plot change concerns the use of Allomancy in the Pits of Hathsin, especially when Kelsier goes back to destroy it. There was a plot hole in the original version.
Hero of Ages required many geographical and architectural changes in the city of Fadrex in order to fix inconsistencies.
I always figured a 'mink' is any feline mammal on roshar
They're not felines. They're actually minks or at least Mustelidae.
I like that Brandon is enjoying doing these secret projects because it keeps him energized, but at the same time I have a hard time seeing Stormlight 6 out by 31, especially if he has to push things back while working on Hollywood stuff. I enjoy reading the books he puts out, but Stormlight is what I want most of all.
I highly doubt (though cannot promise) that Hollywood will push Stormlight back. More likely, it will push back Elantris sequels, which is why I'm being cagey on them, and take any time away from secret projects I might have otherwise have struck me. The screenplays will be the secret projects, just not so secret.
I plan to write Ghostbloods 2 next year, and three in 2027. That puts me (almost certainly) writing Stormlight six the year after. They take two years to write, so we finish it 2030, hence the 2031 release expectation.
That said, I'm pretty excited for the next five stormlight. I doubt it will be sooner than 2031, but sooner is more likely than later as I see it right now.
It has to be so freeing knowing you can write whatever you want, and if it's good enough you can release it as a secret project. If you don't like it, just abandon it. No one knows or cares.
It's legit wonderful. I get to experiment a lot. There were three before this [Fires of December] that didn't make it, things I wrote for a few days to see what I thought. With these, as nobody is expecting them, I can push myself in inexpensive directions and I don't have to stress failed experiments. I think I read one of those early this year, where it went to silly and insincere.
Would a Nightwatcher Bondsmith be able to create Lifelight for Radiants?
This is theoretically possible.
Is Kelsier telling the full truth about the Pits of Hathsin?
By his perception.
I notice a lot of similarities between the Charred and the Inquisitors. Loss of personality, corruption of Investiture, bloodlust, violent tendencies, etc. The Scadrian scientists were responsible for teaching the Cinder King how to create them, and they mentioned how you have to add a "special form of Investiture" to the sunhearts in order to result in a Charred warrior. My question is: is that "special Investiture" Hemalurgy or Connected to Ruin?
Yes. Good job.
This is why you don't make your questions yes or no.
Well no, I don't know if I would have said more. I think that is an excellent question. Sometimes you don't want to ask yes or no questions. Sometimes you do, because you want to know if you're theorizing the right direction. This is the way to ask a yes or no question. I don't know that I would have given any more, and so asking it yes or no lets me say yes rather than RAFO. And I think I would have RAFO'd it if they would have asked it more open-ended.
Did Odium have a perpendicularity on Ashyn?
That's a RAFO.
Did Odium hijack Braize's original purpose?
Yes; I'm not a hundred percent sure of what you're saying. But Odium does intend to use Braize for its original purpose-- or he knows of its original purpose, how about that? Did he hijack it? I don't know if that's the right thing. Will he use it for that? I don't know.
Starling said Ed has Vaxillian heritage, but there's also a callout of "true Vaxilians". Does Ed have "true Vaxillian" heritage?
Yes. He's not full, he's mostly human.
Did the original Zellion have significant ties to the Shard of Invention?
RAFO.
Could Wayne have survived the explosion by compounding gold because he was a Mistborn?
No, I don't think he could have. And I think I'm not gonna canonize things that you maybe want me to canonize. Let's just RAFO that.
Can you expand on why silver is effective at nullifying Shades and Spores? And does it work because silver is used on Earth as an antibacterial and antifungal?
I love that connection, but I would be lying if I told you that's where I came up with it. I don't want to sound more clever than I am.
Silver is like that because I wanted a... There's a place in White Sand novel where we see that people are able to interfere with flows of sand mastery holding people up by mixing in... Like, you stick their arms in there, the Investiture whacks things out. It's like, it needs a straight connection down to the ground, and when something gets muddled in that, you can knock a sand master down. I wanted something that could do that for basically all magic systems, something that wasn't just inert, that was destructive. Silver is what I came up with, and the main reason I picked silver is I had not used it as an Allomantic metal. It's just what it is. Was not an Allomantic metal, and I wanted a metal that did that. There we are.
Does Atium, when alloyed, invert the Internal/External axis of metal it's alloyed with?
Not necessarily.
By the end of the main Cosmere novels, will we have known why Vasher was brought back by Endowment?
I intend you to, but can't promise it.
If Hoid were a bloodmaker, could he store health or would that count as hurting himself?
I think he could psychological his way around it. It would probably fail the first few times. Whether he could psychologically convince himself that it was largely for preservation purposes, I think he probably could.
How did Ishar find the Well of Control?
RAFO!
The Lord Ruler has very strong Allomancy. Does he achieve this by Compounding Feruchemical Nicrosil?
I'm gonna RAFO this like you're see me do with a lot of Nicrosil questions. The Lord Ruler's Allomancy was not just due to a bead of Lerasium, how about that?
How many times did Rashek fall in love?
RAFO!
What point in history did the Iriali arrive on Roshar?
We'll keep that as a RAFO.
Did the Lord Ruler figure out how to make kandra himself, or did he get the idea from something that already existed on Scadrial?
There was already existent things on Scadrial that I would say gave him the idea.
A while ago you told us that all Investiture in the Cosmere was assigned to a Shard at the Shattering, and that Investiture purified of Shardic alignment was impossible. Since then, we’ve seen Dawnshards, aethers, the Old Magic gods on Roshar (Wind/Stone/Night), and purified Dor. Are these things all still aligned to Shards? Have you changed how this works?
I've tweaked it a little bit. I still imagine it's all still aligned to a Shard, but it's more in its history. And I've begun letting it be wiped a little bit more, and things like that. I do think that, for instance, the old gods were Shardic-aligned, when happened. They kind of predate the Shattering, but kind of not. When you read Wind and Truth you can kinda figure that out.
I'm letting it be wiped of Intent and for all intents and purposes acting like it is completely wiped. But that's not really 100% possible. All Investiture came from Adonalsium. (Asterisk: the Aethers claim they didn't.) And therefore, all Investiture still came from Adonalsium, even if you... If you file off the serial numbers of something, it's still the thing. You just don't recognize it. That's where I am right now on this. It's a good question. I could change on this. This is one of those ones where I could change on as things go along. Because, again, the Aethers claim they are not derived from Adonalsium.
Was Autonomy's Intent changed after fighting Dominion? Is there any Dominiony bit to Autonomy?
Autonomy, the Vessel always had a bit of a Dominion-ish feel. So yes, but it's not from the fight specifically.
Do Shades need a form of Connection to speak different languages?
Yes, but it is pretty easy for them to do.
Who are the planets in the cosmere named after?
Cosmere planets mostly are named after a lot of different things. A lot of them are named by people who were mapping the cosmere and were able to get some sort of knowledge of them. Like, Roshar is named that because that's what it's called by the people who live there. Scadrial got its name, partially, in a slightly different way. But, again, it's involved, the first contact and what do we call this. A lot of places call their planet, in their language, just "the planet". Like, Earth just means "ground." And so you can imagine that a lot of these words are similar things like that from a dominant culture on the planet.
Does Sibling think that Night left the planet, the continent, the system?
Let's RAFO that for now.
Does the gravity of the planet you're standing on affect how powerful Windrunner Lashings are?
Yes. Mostly your perception of what gravity is affects them. But the amount of Investiture required to get to a certain speed does not change, only the increments that your brain naturally makes them in.
Was Chana being at Shallan's wedding always part of the plan? Was that why you skipped over it in Oathbringer?
That isn't why I skipped over it in Oathbringer, though it was always part of the plan. I skipped over it in Oathbringer because I worried I was doing too many scenes that felt similar, and I wanted to save that scene for later when it would have more impact.
It felt like too big. It's so hard; this is, like, a vibes thing. When I'm writing it, and I'm like, "I feel like this scene, to have the emotional weight I want it to, won't fit here in the pacing. So let's save it and put in a different place."
Do you have plans for stories that expand the Iriali?
Yes I do. Will I get to them? I don't know.
Will you write a deleted scene in Nightblood's POV talking with the Honorblades?
Probably not. You can fanfic it if you want.
If someone has a Hemalurgic spike granting an Allomantic power while burning Lerasium, would that spike block Lerasium from imbuing that specific power?
No this isn't how how I'd imagine it'd work. If someone has a Hemalurgic spike granting a power while burning Lerasium, it would still attach that power to their soul. And removing the spike would only remove the part that the Hemalurgy had given.
