What inspired the sword stances in The Way of Kings? Windstance and stonestance--
Yeah, it was old-school, what they call-- the old books that you would see-- sword training guides. Where you would see a guy in a stance, and then go like this, and things. I just thought they were really interesting, and I developed the stances around that.
What's your favorite Magic color deck? Favorite combination?
I'm playing blue!
So, you have this [Mistborn] trilogy, and then you have the trilogy coming after, and then--
Another trilogy.
Another trilogy. Is there any sort of date or time?
No. The Wax & Wayne books will finish very soon. I'm working on the last one of those. So those two will be complete. Then it might be a little before I jump to a 1980s level.
So, I loved your Shadows for Silence story. It was just so creepy, and I like how you included the family history aspect of the name. Do you think you'll write another story in that world?
I will.
I am so excited! It was really cool to see you write a more creepier story than your other books. I really liked that change.
It is gonna be nice and creepy.
I am assuming in the next [Elantris] book, you plan on addressing... the bad guy of Fjordell?
Wyrn? The next book will take place in Fjordell. It focuses mostly on Kiin's family, that's Sarene's uncle. They are the main characters in that one.
Do you plan on keeping most of those characters? Like Raoden, Galladon?
You will see of them, but it's kind of more of an Anne McCaffrey style sequel. In this one, new main characters, with the old ones a little more in the background.
When were you planning on having the fourth Wax & Wayne book?
So, it'll be the next Cosmere book I write. I probably won't get to it until earlier next year. So well see when the publisher decides to publish it after I turn it in.
What is your favorite class of Knights Radiant.
Ooh, probably-- see, that's hard. I like them all. I would probably, if I were to choose one for myself, probably choose Bondsmith.
I'm curious. Are any of those rare metals from Mistborn on any other world?
So, not those exact metals, unless they've been taken off-world. But there are other metals like them that you could find.
So they could have Allomantic lore?
They theoretically could...
Let's just say it's not a coincidence that you find Investiture manifesting as metal on other places. Such as Shardblades, as well.
So, the end of Bands of Mourning. When Harmony is showing Wax, kind of, what's going on outside the world. Is that Odium?
That's a RAFO. Here's your card.
Vasher is called the first Returned. Was he actually the first?
He is not the very first person to Return. The lore surrounding Vasher and the first Returned and things like that is not strict on the world. Meaning, it's been many, many years.
Do you purposefully take ideas from the Book of Mormon and turn them inside out, on their head, so no one knows where you got the ideas from? Like when you have Kelsier saying, in this moment, and he defeats the Lord Ruler, just in Ruler's capital city, and like how in the Book of Mormon when the Lamanites, besieged Zarahemla, because no one else can see it coming?
So, I don't intentionally take, usually, from the Book of Mormon. There's a lot of unconscious things coming out. The only thing you can say is that I based The Way of Kings a little bit on King Benjamin's speech.
Are there ever any Coinshots or Lurchers that get motion sick?
Yes, that does happen. It's kind of like being left-handed in Roshar. There are certain things that are not a good match.
Is [Nightblood] like, the Shardblades, kind of thing?
It is. So, what happened is: Vasher, who was involved in the creation of Nightblood, visited Roshar and came back with this knowledge, and they tried to create something.
So he based it off those?
Yes. And they got it kind of right.
Did the Lord Ruler ever have any children?
Yes, he did.
Where did you come up with the idea for spren?
So, the spren are based a little bit on Platonic philosophy, and a little bit on Shinto philosophy. And it's kind of a melding of those two concepts.
My friend is mad at you about the last of the Librarians series.
Okay, well, it's not the last. Because, tell them to look at the page at the very end end, some people missed, another character-- Alcatraz wrote the last one, another character refused to let be the ending. She is going to write an actual last book. There's a last page hidden in there.
Do you know if anyone is planning on writing any more about Alcatraz's story? Maybe not Alcatraz?
Yes, one person. Bastille has refused to let it end. Alcatraz tried to end it in the most awful way possible, intentionally, so she's not gonna let him get away with that.
With the Kaladin soundtrack, how similar is that going to be to other studios, like Two Steps from Hell, audiomachine?
Hopefully fairly similar. Two Steps from Hell tends to go a little harder than I think most of this album is going to be. I love it, but every one of them is, like, trailer music. That's what Two Steps from Hell is, right? And I think you'll find a few more quieter pieces on the Kaladin album, but that's what we're shooting for, a symphonic album like that.
How long until the next Rithmatist?
Um, that's the slow one. Stormlight 3 taking as long as it has, that's what it has slowed down. I keep saying it's only gonna be a couple years, but-- I don't know, honestly...
My goal is to start closing up some of theses series in the next couple of years, so I'm hoping to finish off the Legion trilogy and Wax & Wayne next year, and just start closing some things off.
Do you already know how The Stormlight Archive is going to end?
I do!
Do you have all the details in mind, or do you just kind of have a general idea and you figure it out as you go?
So, I'm a planner. I tend to like having a pretty detailed plan. For something like The Stormlight Archive, that generally kind of boils down to: the next book has a five page plan, the book after that has a three page plan, the book after that a two page plan, one page, one page, and the last book we go back to a five page plan. So there is lots of wiggle room in one of these outlines, but at the same time, I've got touchstones and things I know I'm writing toward.
Do all the other Smedrys get their Talents back?
You're gonna have to see. You've seen the, uh...
Yeah, I did.
Yeah, yeah. One more book coming. It will answer that.
Does Wayne ever get married? Does he ever feel redeemed?
...I'm not gonna answer that one for you. That's a definite RAFO. Boy, it-- You'll have to see. Getting Wayne into a committed relationship with someone else who wants to be in that relationship would be a big first step. And let's just hope he can someday do that.
I want to know if Kelsier and Hoid will ever get along?
They, uh-- that's a RAFO, but I wouldn't hold my breath. There are mashing of egos that just don't mesh well going on there.
How long will Kelsier's story go?
Kelsier's story has some more stages to it. I'm gonna RAFO that... But the stuff that's happening right now is set up for a later story with him.
My son wants to know if Hoid is a dragon.
He is not. But he knows some.
I kinda got the sense, like, spren. Did you base them off of quantum mechanics?
Yeah, there's some quantum mechanics and some Japanese Shinto rammed together in there.
I was just wondering if a Shard's intent can change over time without changing holders?
Without changing holders? The holder can have a slight effect on how the-- a big effect on how the intent is interpreted, but what the intent is stays the same. So it's gonna be filtered. The way it manifests can change, and you'll see that happening, but it is the same intent. When it was broken off, it took a certain thing with it.
Is Scadrial losing mass when people burn metals?
Yes, technically it is, but Investiture is another dimension to matter.
So it doesn't lose mass, it becomes Investiture?
It becomes Investiture... Basically, when you go into the cosmere, we've got matter, we've got energy here. You've got matter, energy, and Investiture there, and you can get things out of Investiture back into matter, and stuff like that. There's always energy, there's entropy, there's always diffusement... it's basically, add to the laws of thermodynamics a third item, and that's how we word it.
The Sleepless. When Syl is talking to Kal, and Kal just crunched up the leaves, and she says, "Is it the heart of a beetle that you have hidden in your hand?" Is that what she's talking about?
...Oh, the Sleepless? No, that is coincidence. Good question. Not a Sleepless question.
After Kaladin challenges Amaram, and he gets thrown into prison, are those incarcerationspren that he gets stuck with?
Yes. I'm being recorded, so I have to know if I want to canonize this. Yes. There's nothing more to it than that, I'm just not sure if I've been asked that question straight-up before. I just want to make sure that I've got the name right.
Are Shin who are not Truthless allowed to use the Honorblades?
Yes.
Are all Truthless given Honorblades when they're cast out, or is Szeth a special case?
Szeth is a special case.
You know how Wax has control of his Steelpushes? Well, if someone has an Ironpull ability, can get practiced enough to, in the Wax & Wayne era, swing through downtown Elendel Spiderman-like with controlled Ironpulls?
I've actually thought about that, and I went away from it, just because of Spiderman. I have to be really careful that I just don't go Spiderman-y. But I would say it's an in-world possibility that someone could do that, and it wouldn't be that hard if you've got the buildings. The trick is, most downtowns are not tall enough, and I would say in Elendel even now, there aren't enough skyscrapers that you could really go full-on Spiderman. But if you could, if you were, like, downtown Manhattan, you could do it.
Are the Heralds from Roshar originally?
RAFO.
"Most important words" that Dalinar had to say, were they the Words of Radiance?
You're gonna have to Read And Find Out. That one's not answered yet.
Have the Parshendi been to Scadrial during the Wax & Wayne books?
So, the Parshendi as a group have not. I will not confirm or deny if individuals have been. Wax & Wayne books take place after Stormlight Archive books 1 through 5.
Speaking of Way of Kings, when Shallan gets to Kharbranth, she sees two people in trenchcoats. Is that anyone spectacular or important or anyone like that?
RAFO.
That's what I figured. I was hoping.
There might be things in that scene. I won't confirm or deny any specific instances of them.
When I write a fourth [Reckoners] book, it'll be a Mizzy book.
Is Marsh happy?
Marsh is Marsh's version of happy.
I'm just worried about him.
...He has never been a happy person. But he's in a better place now than he's been in other times of his life.
There's a part of Marsh that really likes skulking around and being an incarnation of Death in peoples' minds. He's not really one, but you know what I mean? There's a part of him, the part that's related to his brother, that really digs that, even if he would never admit it.
How do they handle, like, trash and bathrooms in the Purelake? How does that work?
Fortunately, you have a couple of things going on here. You fortunately have low population. You have highstorms and driving and-- so, the waste is broken down really easily. The trash is a problem. But it's a pre-industrial society, so the trash is not stuff that doesn't ever biodegrade, and things like this, and you do have traders going through, and things like this. So, it all kind of works out. It's the low population that's really helping with a lot of this. It's not as bad, a big a deal as you would think it is...
All of Roshar has a slight issue in that you just can't bury things, but you do have the crem that comes down and hardens around things and creates a layer of stone, and things like this. In my opinion, the way I've worked it out, it all just kind of works out just fine...
It's no bigger a deal in the Purelake, in other words, than these other places. In fact it's kind of a smaller deal. Like, you might ask, like, traveling out on the greatshells in the Reshi Sea, they would have a harder problem in some ways, 'cause they have a tight population density on top of something that they also can't bury anything, and stuff like that. I just had to work out the ecology of the system to work.
How accurate is the Vorin version of the afterlife?
How accurate is it? Well, the thing I'm not doing is confirming or denying, right? Like, afterlife in the cosmere, you have seen that-- As a person there, I would believe that there is an afterlife, and things like this. I would say the Vorin one is contradicted by many people all around.
So, are Shauka-daughter-Hasweth and Ali-daughter-Hasweth two different people? Are they the same person?
They are different people. Good question. They do have very similar names. That happens a lot among the Shin, and I'm trying to make it not confusing, but I can't promise it won't be. There are a lot of similar names, and a lot of people are named similar ways, and things like that.
So, it's not a "why." But how in the world did Vasher get to Roshar. Because I know about Kelsier not being able to really travel too easily outside of his realm, so how did this happen?
Oh, yeah, you're asking, because he's heavily Invested, with Investiture from uh-- yeah. So that's actually a RAFO. I thought you were going to ask a much easier question, this is a much harder question. It's a RAFO that I promise to answer. The books will dig into it, okay?
So, Hoid was there during the Shattering of Adonalsium. Odium is going around, like, destroying other Shards. We know that Hoid is collecting and has pieces of some of the other Shards.
Yes.
Since Hoid was there at the original Shattering of Adonalsium. Is there an echo image of the original Adonalsium in Hoid?
Uh, that's a RAFO. Here's your card. But it is a valid theory.
I have a two-parter on that.
You can ask me the next part, but it is a RAFO.
Is his end goal trying to join as many pieces of Adonalsium together to *inaudible*
Um, that, I will give a "that's a very good guess." And that is what the books seem to indicate is happening.
What was your hardest character to kill?
Oh. That's spoileriffic. I would say it's a character who dies at the end of The Wheel of Time, which is a series that I finished for another author. Because it was someone someone else created. And then, having to write some of those scenes.
That would be really hard, because you're killing somebody else's character.
Right? And somebody I grew up with, right? So, I would say those are the hardest guys.
Do we get to see more Vasher in Stormlight.
Um, yes. So, you're gonna see a little bit in the next book. There will be a point where you'll see some more, but it's a ways off.
So, if Nightblood, unsheathed, killed someone, would their soul still go to the Beyond?
So, that's gonna be a matter of-- There's gonna be disagreement in the cosmere about that. Nobody has been able to actively test it, because there are certain things you can see, but there are people who are actively discussing this concept.
So, no one knows for sure?
Nobody knows for sure. And I'll just leave it at that. It's an astute question that even Vasher has-- Vasher has his thoughts, but he does not have a definitive answer, and others disagree with him.
How many Shards have been Splintered, besides the four we know?
You're gonna make me canonize this? I can't canonize this. There's a couple that I'm just kind of...
Odium, Endowment, Devotion...
Okay, Odium has not been Splintered. Endowment and Devotion have been Splintered... Endowment hasn't been Splintered, sorry. Dominion and Devotion have been Splintered. I've confirmed that one other has been Splintered. And then Honor has been Splintered. Those are your four that I've canonized. The other one is, I don't know if I've mentioned who exactly it is, but it's not one that you've seen on one of the planets...
Yeah, I'm not gonna canonize it, exactly how many there are. Because there are things going on in the cosmere that I wanna settle down and decide on once I get to it, exactly what. And Splintering can be a vague term sometimes, too... So that's a RAFO.
Is Calamity the last book in the series?
I have a plan to do a book about Mizzy. But before I do that, I am writing a book called The Apocalypse Guard, which takes place in the alternate dimension that Megan sees into in these books. So, you should enjoy those. They'll be kinda the same style, but different characters from the alternate dimension. They're a blast, I just finished the first book.
What would a Cognitive Shadow see if they saw Szeth?
If they saw Szeth? They're going to see his soul kinda trailing along behind him. It's gonna be really freaky to them.
When are we gonna get more books in Wax & Wayne?
There will be one more, and it will be my next book I'm writing next year. Once I finish Apocalypse Guard, I'll write it next year. So just watch a percentage bar on my website, it will tell you when it's gonna come out.
