When are you going to work on the next Mistborn book?
Right now I am going to write Rithmatist 2, followed by Stormlight 3, and the next Mistborn book [Shadows of Self] is going to come after that. Tor has asked that I write the next Stormlight book before I write the next Mistborn books, so I will be doing that. I do have a chunk of the sequel written, but I had to put off writing it until later.
Are there kandra hiding in any of your books, besides the Mistborn ones?
Yes there are! Yes there are.
Alcatraz?
Alcatraz 5. When am I going to write Alcatraz 5? I have a few things on my plate but I do want to finish it. I have re-releases of the series coming out next year probably. We sold the series to Tor, I bought it back from Scholastic. We are repackaging them with new covers and we are hiring an illustrator to illustrate them, to have cool illustrations all through the book. It looks like we'll do 25-30, little half-pagers and things like that through the book. We're doing a map, Isaac is commissioning a very nice map. And then we are going to re-release them and so I will try to have Book 5 come out when we have that going.
What are Cultivation's feelings with regards to the Stormfather?
Cultivation's feelings... Cultivation is, *long pause* I just have to decide how I can say things that are not spoilers. Cultivation-- The Stormfather reminds her of certain things about someone else she knew, and she feels the same way about the Stormfather in some ways as this person that she knew.
Hoid has said that what he does, when he heals or comes back to life or whatever, heals the soul
Yes.
But Hemalurgy is like ripping off a piece of the soul. Could he heal that?
It is possible. Well, his particular brand of healing is very Spiritual Realm based. And so, it would-- he could. Not all brands of healing are capable. It depends on what's happening, and things like that. But yes, he would. Most Shardbearers [Surgebinders?] when they're in the throes of their powers would heal spiritually. *brief pause* Not all of them. Not all healing will do that, though.
Yeah. Because I was thinking that maybe you could spike him multiple times and compound his power.
Yes. Spiking him could do some weird things though. But spiking can do weird things to anyone.
Location of Shardpools: are they determined by the Shard, by the planet, or something else?
RAFO. *laughter* RAFO. We end on a RAFO.
Can you tell us about a cultural inspiration you’ve used in a world that we have not seen?
I wrote one that was based off of Mesoamerican- there’s a tribe out of Costa Rica. And I didn’t get the story done, but I used that one… it was really an obscure tribe, which made it really hard to name things and stuff like that. What else have I done that you haven’t seen… <thinking noises> There’s Polynesian stuff you haven’t seen, but you’ve also seen a lot of it [already], so…
In Scadrial the amount of investiture in humans from Preservation, aka, the amount of Mistborn and mist powers, is that decreasing or just being diffused among the population?
That power is being diffused among the population, though everybody has some of it already. That power is not.
Are Renarin's visions compulsive or involuntary?
Renarin's visions are-- have an element of that to them... So I'll ask you a question in return.
Okay.
How do Rosharans view seeing the future?
Oh yeah, very bad. Of Odium.
Yep. They sure do.
Is there a arbitary range limiter placed on the powers of an Epic, or does it vary from person to person?
It varies from person to person.
For Chicago, what was the range of the city turning into...
I've got it in my notes. It was basically enough to get me to Soldier Field, because that's where *inaudible* needed to do, does that make sense? I'm like eh we'll get to Soldier Field and go a little ways.
Like a mile?
It's more than a mile, it's a couple miles. But the guy was at seven miles and I'm like "uhhh, you could be in danger".
The question is, where was [Steelheart] standing when did [the Grand Transfersion].
He was in a bank that I actually looked up, that was downtown, and I changed the name of it. It was right downtown, it was right at the epicenter. [...] The problem is, it went out that far into the lake as well, and I wanted to get a good chunk of the lake, but not like, you know... and so, it's probably like a four mile radius or something like that, so the seven mile guy is probably okay. I wanted to get downtown, Soldier Field, a little bit beyond...
Chicago proper.
Yeah.
[...] For the picture of all the Radiants and their surges, in the background there’s two dragons. Are those just--
Those are not dragons. Those are little beasties from the world. You’ve seen them before.
Larkin?
Yeah. But you can call them "dragon bugs" if you want, that’s what Isaac called them when I described them.
So are they just from the world, or do they have any over-reaching signif--
Well they have a certain ability that you may have seen in-world, which is pretty distinctive and different, and so they have a lot of mythological import. They are not widely known by most cultures right now.
If you were to make a language that was very complex, and one word could describe a complex idea and you were to raise a child with that language, would their Awakening ability be significantly more powerful?
Yeah, sure. *laughter*
If a Shard wanted to affect another Shard’s magic system, would they need to Invest themselves in the world, or can they just kind of show up and do things?
“Affect their magic system”? What do you mean by that?
So for Roshar, let’s say additional Surges or modified Surges. For Scadrial different metals. For Nalthis--
That would require more than just showing up.
Is there such a thing as a Feruchemical savant?
I did not write Feruchemical savants into the original outline. Whether or not I will do them- it’s highly unlikely because it’s not there and Mistborn is getting trickier and trickier in that regard. But I didn’t write them in, so… that’s a “probably not”.
What is the ratio of parshmen to humans?
Depends on the country. Some have a lot, some have not as many at all. I would say that the humans vastly outnumber the parshmen overall.
The YA book you were talking about earlier, is that Dark One? That your doing for--
I'm not doing Dark One. I pitched it to them and they decided one of my other pitches they liked better. The Apocalypse Guard... So the Apocalypse Guard is-- So people have started to explore the multiverse and found that there are dimensions in which the planet is doomed to some catastrophe. It's going to extinction event. And the Apocalypse Guard is a group of scientists, soldiers, and experts who save the planet that they have discovered that is doomed. So it's about saving planets.
That sounds very non-cosmere.
It's non-cosmere. But you have, if you've been reading non-cosmere books-- there's another non-cosmere book which explores the concept of a multiverse and alternate dimensions. It might be in the same continuity.
Are Renarin's visions Surgebinding?
*nervous laughter* RAFO!
So you can imagine that that's you [Aradel] or you can imagine that you are the person who inspired the name that ended up becoming what he's named after. However you imagine it. But the name worked, and I wanted a Goradel descendant, and lo and behold you ended up being a big part of the book.
Chalklings, we know, can catch rides off of Nebrask. If Melody had chalklings on a slate and carried them around, could she give them verbal commands later, after she had made them?
You will have to find out how her magic works as we progress. Everyone would say "No, that's not possible" but she had done things that are supposedly-- that seem impossible. So what you are proposing is probably likely, probably possible, but it depends on her magic.
So you have circles, or Lines of Warding. If you draw a semi-circle, like if a Rithmatist was backed up against a wall, can just a semi-circle act as a Line of Warding?
It can, but the sides are going to be so weak. I mean they can just go around it, but yes, the semi-circle would work.
So if you drew a semi-circle, and drew the other half up the wall--
That would be fine.
Would it be equally strong as if it was all flat on the ground?
It would probably-- It would be really hard to get that corner so it would be. In theoretical, magical Christmasland, yes. 'Cause chalklings are two-dimensional, so they don't even see that it's changed really. I mean it does but--
If you drew a Line of Forbiddance on, like, a slate and then you can hold the slate--
Moving stuff around starts playing with things. So I'm going to say, I will deal with that in the next book but it doesn't work how you want it to work.
Okay, I'll accept that answer.
For logistical reasons, when I was building the magic, I was "Ehhh, we've got to not have this be possible."
Could you make fences, like Rithmatic fences, by having fence posts and drawing Lines of Forbiddance down them and creating a forcefield--
Theoretically, yes.
How high up do they [Lines of Forbiddance] go?
Thickness determines height.
So you have Lines of Forbiddance, you draw them on the ground and you get forcefields. How about when you draw them on a chalkboard? Does it project out into the room?
It would project out into the room, yes.
At the Words of Radiance signing, I asked you what Renarin's eye color was. You said if there wasn't one in the wiki, you would canonize one for me. Peter has said there is not a color in the wiki.
Not a color in the wiki, okay.
Fan art has used blue--
You're going to get this in.
--and blue is my favorite color.
Oh is it?
So if you need a color--
Alright Renarin's eyes are blue. *cheers*
How accurate would you say the northern continent on the Sycla map is? Is it horribly inaccurate?
This map has severe deficiencies, especially in the northwest.
Is there any reason why the cities seem to be on the borders?
Seem to be where?
On the borders, or coastline, like literally all of them.
So Brandon can tell me if I'm wrong on this, but normally at the level of technology we're at in this world you've got to have cities near water. That's really what it is. Early cities are almost always near a source of water.
And so the rivers are just the borders?
Yeah. I mean we have the rivers that come in through the border in some places but rivers also are just a great border between places. Especially when there is-- when you're not building bridges over all of them. I will tell you... I won't answer what's going on up here.
Is it really this enclosed though? Like it's pretty enclosed?
It's pretty enclosed. This right here is pretty distorted, I will tell you that. And I made it look bigger than it is...
Eric, we will eventually release a more correct map.
*written* What series is Vax associated with?
I'm going to RAFO this one. So there... I'm totally going to RAFO that. You just got-- You got a good one so I'm going to RAFO the other.
Humans on Scadrial have Investiture of both Preservation and Ruin inside of them.
Yes.
Feruchemically, does storing Investiture in Nicrosil store this connection to Ruin/Preservation/Harmony?
You are on the right track, and asking the right questions but RAFO.
Is there an average height for the Shin people?
Shorter than the average Alethi, I should think. :)
Do you know the general skin tone and hair color of the Thaylen people? Because there seems to be few descriptions in the books. And how exactly long are their eyebrows? (Fan art problems, sorry.)
No idea about Thaylen skin tones, if the text doesn't state it clearly then I guess it's open to discussion. With the eyebrows, I'd think the length varies depending on age and care. The Thaylen riding the chull in the first book has brow-fans that look to be near a foot long. I'm not sure if that's above average, but I'd think there's probably some upper range determined by sheer practicality. Though I don't think they have to fan out, they could be braided or beaded... really, this is a /u/mistborn question.
Could you give us some clues about how the two lines of buttons on Vorin havah actually look like? I find it hard to imagine correctly. (When designing this costume, has Brandon got some in-world reference?)
The cut of a havah is similar to a cheongsam through the torso, with full sleeves and skirts falling from the hips. Beneath the slitted outer skirt are many thin layers like fine silk which interweave to create a sort of accordion effect. This would (I think?) allow the dress to fall at a sharp angle from the hip when still, while expanding to allow a full range of leg movement. The buttons run from the throat down to the waist, following a line from the jaw down to the collarbone, curving out to follow the bust and then down the line of the torso. I don't think there's a rule for the number of buttons, but when in doubt remember that "10" is significant to the culture. Frog buttons are legit, I think.
Will we see a sketch of larkin some day?
I think you're the third person to ask about larkins, so I'm putting it on a to-do list. :)
How is the illustrating process for Stormlight 3 going? Is there any new guest artist? Will we see more new species/fashion pages/character depictions? I remember a WoB saying that there's a plan for Unkalaki outfit design. Is it still possible?
We're still in the early draft process. Almost certainly, but it's not for me to say. Almost definitely/possibly/no idea. If there's an Unkalaki design, it might be slated for Dan.
Is there any chance that we can see more of your personal Stormlight art? Just like that Chasmfiend piece =)
Maybe? I'd like to do more, but I like to do lots of stuff and I keep busy.
Is there anything you're looking forward to illustrating that you haven't had an opportunity to do yet?
Oh, there's a few things.
I want to know what the heck a Thunderclast is. :)
Which order of the Knights Radiant would/are you be in?
Lightweavers is the easy, obvious answer, but we're still learning a lot about each Order so I think it's still pretty early to say.
I was curious about the concept of flow, and how the Thrill compares to that.
What do you mean? Expand upon that.
[clarification]
So you mean like in the zone, in the moment. The Thrill does overlap with that a little bit, but the Thrill is something distinct. It does give you some of that focus.
What is it like to be famous really only because someone else famous hired you? That sounds impersonal, but it kind of feels like that's what happened to me.
Nope, I know what you mean. It's a weird place, being on the coattails.
I try not to give it a lot of thought, really... I trust that I'm the right person for this job, because I bring a unique combination of skills and interests to the table beyond just my ability to render.
It also helps that Brandon and I started working together before he became the Fantasy Superstar... when I first started drawing for him back in 2008, he had only a handful of novels out, and his part in The Wheel of Time had not yet been the rousing success it eventually was.
Lastly, I do a lot of work for other clients aside from Brandon, and some of those clients also represent high-profile property like LEGO and Gears of War. If I'm good enough for them, and good enough that they keep coming back and asking me to do more work, I must be doing something right.
So I try to not fall victim to a sense of Imposter Syndrome. I think I might maybe be good at this stuff, or at least good enough. :)
Are you getting to work on White Sand?
Sadly, no. I'm not involved with White Sand, but Isaac speaks very highly of the artwork. He keeps promising to show me some of it through internal channels, but I haven't seen it yet.
I know they're certainly taking their time to do it well, and I'm as excited as anyone to see how it comes out!
Do you have any favourites out of the work you've done?
I like the Plate and Blades we've designed. The Axehound was a milestone challenge, and the Chasmfiend was one of those where it seemed to be going badly until it started going well... passing through those is always satisfying after the fact.
With [Feruchemical] zinc, you get mental speed. How is that any different from [Feruchemical] steel, except without [physical] speed?
I think of the mental speed actually turning you into... Let's say you sped up your body, and you wanted to figure out some really complex equations.
So it lets you have intuitive leaps.
Right. It basically turns you into Ken Jennings. That's how I imagine it.
So it's not like bullet time?
No... It'll bullet time a little bit, it certainly will, because you're thinking faster than everyone else, but it has applications beyond bullet timing. Bullet time is really--
That’s steel’s thing?
That’s kind of steel's thing. They kind of overlap on that one, because the steel thing... But yeah. It's more like "I think fast, but my reaction speed is not sped up".
If you have read The Emperor's Soul, what do you think of Forgery as an art form? Is it one that you wish you could use?
It's pretty cool, I especially like the stamps... I think they'd be fun to design, just as visual props.
I'm not sure I'd be a Forger at heart... maybe. I think Brandon's playing around with some concepts regarding reproduction and the essence of content that are highly relevant to modern creative concerns, but that's another conversation altogether.
Did you have any hand making Aons for the first Elantris book, or preparing some for the second book?
No, that's all Isaac Stewart. He's been working with Brandon much longer than I have, and he's responsible for all the maps and icons and symbols and most of the chapter heading illustrations, with the exception of The Rithmatist where I got to do it all.
Have you made like a map of the whole Cosmere? Like a star chart or something?
Nope! That's not something that's been relevant to my tasks up to now. If Brandon wanted something like that, he'd probably go to Isaac first, he's the man with the maps.
What happens if you Compound chromium?
RAFO.
A RAFO happens.
A RAFO happens, yeah. Chromium, come on...
Do you have any drawings of the Cognitive or Spiritual realm that we haven't seen that you can share?
Not yet... there's a few doodles somewhere of a black sun against a sea of beads, but they're not even close to comprehensive... a circle over scribbles hardly counts.
What are the dimensions of Urithiru relative to something like the Sears Tower?
That's a question for Peter and Isaac. They work out the math. It's bigger! More area, but maybe not taller. I'm not sure.
Hey, thanks for doing this!
My question is how developed are your ideas of what Spren look like and how they behave? I would love to see some illustrations of them in the future.
There's some early illustrations of them in the original pitch package, where they look very Miyazaki if I say so myself, but my understanding of them has widened considerably in the time since then.
I usually envision (and illustrate) them as ghostly, glowing shapes of infinite variety, a lot like the classical interpretation of a hologram. To the best of my understanding, spren appear to be made of stormlight when they're made apparent at all. Some have more detailed features than others, but I don't think any appear solid unless they actually manifest in the Physical Realm, and the only manifestations we know of are Shardblades (living blades have freedom to reshape though, so who knows what that could mean).
As to their details, if you take the few descriptors that Brandon gives and let your imagination run, you probably can't go wrong... even among the spren, two of the same type might look very different in detail. And an awakened spren has a lot of mutability, Syl is changing shape all the time.
As with all concepts, the text rules. So angerspren is gonna look like blood-red pools boiling up from the ground, and gloryspren will look like tiny translucent globes of golden light. Brandon wrote it, so that's what it is.
But you can translate "blood-red pools [of light] boiling up from the ground" in a few creative ways, and any of them might be equally valid. As the Interlude suggests, the appearance of spren is kinda quantum... fluid until/unless observed. I have a lot of fun seeing how creative I can get with the description while making sure I'm staying true to the text.
With Stormlight, the better the gem is cut, the less Stormlight it leaks, and the longer it holds its charge. If a gem was perfectly cut, on a molecular scale, would it leak Stormlight at all?
In a theoretical flawless gem, then no it would not.
Would it actually give off light?
[...] Theoretically no it would not, but it's not what you're thinking...
No no no, that’s not what I’m thinking, I figured that’s something totally different.
Well, actually, it probably would still give off light, because it's drawing out of the Spiritual Realm. So I’d say it still lights, but it doesn't leak. The leaking is not where the illumination is coming from. The illumination is coming from a direct... It's basically a light bulb screwed into the Spiritual Realm.
What tips would you have for a beginner sketch artist/free hand drawer? How can I improve my illustrations? (I'm left handed, don't know if that'll make a difference or not.) I'm not horrible, I just tend to make large mistakes and since I prefer pen and pencil drawings (in a LOT of colors of ink) I can't really fix it.
Being a lefty shouldn't hold you back, I've known plenty of excellent animators and illustrators who work sinister. Biggest hassle I know of is setting up your desktop workspace with hotkeys and all, everything is biased for dexters.
Gosh, tips... well, practice is the big one, but I know that sounds glib. I think it's true, though, that in order to be successful as an illustrator you need to love the process more than the project or the results... it's as much about doing the thing as seeing and being the thing. Rewards and results are fleeting, but the job is forever. So, you know, it's part of the process to review your work, identify your weaknesses, and seek active solutions.
I can't emphasize the value of rough layout and structural sketch lines enough... I never go straight to the finish lines, I need those buildup sketches in order to know where the finish inks will go. Even more so when working with real media, where you can't Undo your way out. If you're not applying the classic rules of structural composition, that might go a long way towards helping improve your stuff. My go-to was red pencil, but you can do a lot with a 4H or even an HB with a light hand.
If you're already doing that, then I'm not sure what to suggest... keep practicing, I guess?
