Recent entries

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

All the defense's names are based off of families he knew in Nebraska, and the evil Tower [of Nebrask] is placed where his childhood house would be.

Nesh (paraphrased)

What is the name of the expanse on the Shadesmar map that was covered up by the word Shadesmar? 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The Expanse of Vibrance.

Nesh (paraphrased)

I asked whether the Teoish and Duladen could get their own magic systems.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Theoretically yes.

Finallity

I asked for a generic cosmere clue.

Brandon Sanderson

Hoid has metal he isn't supposed to have.

Questioner

So you mentioned earlier that you couldn't write and code at the same time because it used the same part of your brain. Do you have any advice for coders who may also want to write?

Brandon Sanderson

I would just say "separate it". Give yourself a few hours in-between. I don't feel that I personally could code all day, write during my lunch break, code all day, or something like that. But I probably could get up in the morning, do a little bit of writing, then go to work, code all day, something like that or come home, take two hours to play with the family and things like that. You've got to have time for that reservoir, does that make sense, inside of you. I think trying to go right into it might be a mistake. But it's going to be very different based on your own writing styles. Some people it might work for. You might like-- still in the mood. Does that make sense?

Zas678 (paraphrased)

Do people in the cosmere, besides Nalthis, have Breaths?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

No. To elaborate a little more, that's not to say they don't have a life force, because they do. But if someone not from Nalthis were to suddenly gain the ability to become an Awakener, they could not use what they have to Awaken something. That's not to say that they can't receive Breaths though.

Zas678 (paraphrased)

why does Marsh have a Feruchemical atium spike?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You'll have to figure that out! RAFO. 

Zas678 (paraphrased)

Why did Bloody Tan see TenSoon (as the Survivor) and Marsh (as Ironeyes)?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He said that he was not answering any questions on what Bloody Tan saw, or thought he saw.

Questioner

How much of your input was put into the Wheel of Time books that you did, or was it strictly of the notes that Robert Jordan had?

Brandon Sanderson

How much of the Wheel of Time books was through me, and how much was from the notes? ...When I went to pick up the Wheel of Time materials, I was handed two things. One was a stack of 200 pages. That 200 pages contained about 100 pages of written material that Robert Jordan had written for the last books. And about 100 pages of that was interviews with his assistants, Q&As about what was going to happen. The other thing I was handed was a disk with all of his worldbuilding notes. This did not contain much at all about the last book. This was just the worldbuilding through the whole series, talking about the different cultures and things like that. And I used that to write the books. So the actual writing, I would say, it's very hard to say. I was given full creative control, I will say that. Harriet said "Take this. I'm an editor, not a writer. Do what you feel you need." In all of that, there was one sentence on what to do with Perrin. So, you can guess, if it was Perrin, it was me. There was a whole lot done with Egwene. In fact, almost, I would say, half of her scenes were written, in fact half of that stack was Egwene stuff; of the hundred pages, fifty pages just written about Egwene and a big stack of notes on what to do with her. If it's in the books and it relates to Egwene, you can almost guarantee that that is something Robert Jordan wrote or instructed me to write. With Rand and Mat, it was about half and half. Gathering Storm Mat and A Memory of Light Mat was more me, Towers of Midnight Mat was more him. A lot of his Mat stuff related to the Tower of Ghenjei. Rand was sprinkled all the way through, about half and half, I would say, on that. Most of the words you're reading are mine. Almost everything he wrote was either Egwene or ended up in the three prologues.

So, yeah, it was a big project. There was not a lot finished on it. But at the same time, those interviews, with him with almost all the characters he kind of talked about who they were, where they were going, what the arcs he envisioned for them being, and things like that, which gave me a lot to do. And even the one thing on Perrin was near the end, so I knew what to shoot for, if that makes sense? And one of the things he did write is what ended up as the epilogue. I had a target, if that makes sense. Although, a lot of the actual writing was on me to do, which is why they had me do it, by the way, rather than getting a ghostwriter. If it had been 90% of the way done, they could have just gotten someone to quietly come in and finish those last few scenes, and it would have been the right thing to do, because it was mostly done by him. The fact that it wasn't, meant they needed a writer to actually put the whole thing together. There wasn't an outline. Robert Jordan was a discovery writer. He knew what he wanted to have happen, but he had no order or form or anything like that.

Questioner

At what point in your career were you able to write full-time, and what led to your decision to incorporate Dragonsteel?

Brandon Sanderson

Good question! ...When did I go full-time? I went full-time before it was comfortable to do so. And my recommendation to most writers is the same. What I did is, I quit my job at the hotel the moment I got my first check. It was $5,000. But, I was working for, like $7/hr, so it wasn't like I was giving up a ton. I did keep my university courses, teaching those, as supplementary income, which I didn't quit until the next year, I spent another year teaching my university courses, I only kept on hold of one university class, my creative writing class.

I incorporated, about two or three years later, at the advice of a tax professional who said "This is a smart idea," incorporating, putting everything under the corporation's name. That way, if someone claims you plagiarized, and you have to go through a big lawsuit, the lawsuit is with the corporation and not you, and it protects you.

I think those were both very smart decisions. Going full-time before I felt comfortable, and incorporating. Incorporating cost 500 bucks, you just get a lawyer that specializes in this. It is totally worth that, plus deductions are way easier with a corporation. Like, you know, when you're deducting something on your own, they might look askance at some of the deductions you do, whereas when you're a corporation, you're so small-time as a writer that, who cares if they're not getting $3,000 for whatever. But it is fun, I do get to deduct my movies, when I watch movies, all of my video game systems and video games. Deductions! I get money every year from video game companies, and I have to stay up on what they're doing! You can have some fun deductions related to things like that.

Questioner

I reread Elantris, and I was wondering why there wasn't any mention of the Empire from The Emperor's Soul in it.

Brandon Sanderson

They mention it briefly, they mention countries from there, but they do not have a lot of contact at all. And they kind of view each other in the same way that Europe viewed the Far East, in that "we know there's something over there, but they're nowhere near as cool as we are." Even though the people over there were more populous, in places more advanced and larger than them, they just had no clue. And that's kinda, when I was building it, that's where I went. Like, the JinDo are transplants over, and we have references to MaiPon and we have some things like that, but there's a big mountain range in between, a very large space getting there, the only way you can get through is through some passes near Teod; they don't really even contact over there. Plus, the Empire thinks these people are a bunch of religious nutjobs, so they just stay away.

Questioner

Are the Ones Above from a planet or organization that we have seen in your other books?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, they are. Good question.

Questioner

When you started writing, especially Mistborn, did you know you were writing a series, or were you just kinda writing--

Brandon Sanderson

Did I know I was writing a series, or was I just kinda writing? I usually know I'm writing a series. I like to outline. The beginning, middle, and end; then what came before, and what came after before I start any project. That is different for some few; for instance, the Alcatraz books were more freeform. I didn't know how long they were going to be until I wrote the first one, but almost everything else I know the length of what I'm shooting for. It's just kind of a quirk in the way that I write.

Questioner

How old were you when you started writing?

Brandon Sanderson

How old was I when I started writing? That's an excellent question. I started writing when I was fifteen. I had not tried writing before that, in fact I had not discovered books until an English teacher handed me my very first fantasy novel when I was fourteen. ...My teacher, Ms. Reader, true story, got me hooked on fantasy.

Questioner

What, for you, is the "core" to writing compelling fantasy?

Brandon Sanderson

That is a really hard question to answer. Do you emphasize the fantasy, or not? A really great story is going to be about awesome characters that you fall in love with. Beyond that, it's going to need a really great plot. You can't separate these things from writing a great fantasy, because I think the worldbuilding needs to be really cool, if you have terrible characters and plot, it doesn't matter how good your worldbuilding is - you're not going to have a good story.

That said, the core of writing great fantasy as opposed to other fiction, assuming that you're already doing the plot and the character right, is to get down to that idea of the sense of wonder. What is wonderful about this place that would make people want to live there, or be fascinated by it? What's going to draw the imagination?

Fantasy is writing books that could not take place in our universe. For me, that's the dividing line. In science fiction there's the speculation "This could take place here," "This may be extrapolating science beyond what we know, but it could work." In fantasy we say, "No, this couldn't work in our ruleset, our laws of the universe." That's really focusing on it is what makes the genre tick. So you have to do that well.

Questioner

What's your secret to inventing new magic systems?

Brandon Sanderson

I look for a couple of things in a magic system. The first thing I usually look for is interesting conflicts within the magic system; interesting limitations, interesting flaws in the magic. The question "What can't the magic do?" is more interesting to me than what the magic can do. That's what gives a magic system compelling plot hooks.

The second thing I'm looking for in a magic system is a different way to approach it. It is very hard to do powers that other writers haven't done before, new magical abilities, but my goal is to try to present them in a light that people haven't seen before. I usually try to apply some sort of scientific principle to the magic, to give it more of a realistic feel when I can manage it.

Last, I'm looking for something that just feels awesome. In a lot of discussions of magic systems I often neglect to mention that usually my inspiration for a magic system first comes with something that just strikes me as great--as interesting, as fun, as cool to write about. Then I go from there, making it work storywise. 

I have some essays on my website called Sanderson's Laws of Magic that approach some of the ways that I look at magic systems.

Questioner

How did you come up with The Stormlight Archive's gem magic/technology?

Brandon Sanderson

One of the things to keep in mind is I that developed this book before Mistborn was published. I do wonder if sometimes people are going to say, "Oh, he did metals before, and now he's doing crystals." But the thoughts arose quite independently in my head. You may know that there is a unifying theory of magic for all of my worlds--a behind-the-scenes rationale. Like a lot of people believe there's unifying theory of physics, I have a unifying theory of magic that I try to work within in order to build my worlds. As an armchair scientist, believing in a unifying theory helps me. I'm always looking for interesting ways that magic can be transferred, and interesting ways that people can become users of magic. I don't want just to fall into expected methodologies. If you look at a lot of fantasy--and this is what I did in Mistborn so it's certainly not bad; or if it is, I'm part of the problem--a lot of magic is just something you're born with. You're born with this special power that is either genetic or placed upon you by fate, or something like that. In my books I want interesting and different ways of doing that. That's why in Warbreaker the magic is simply the ability to accumulate life force from other people, and anyone who does that becomes a practitioner of magic. 

In The Way of Kings, I was looking for some sort of reservoir. Essentially, I wanted magical batteries, because I wanted to take this series toward developing a magical technology. The first book only hints at this, in some of the art and some of the things that are happening. There's a point where one character's fireplace gets replaced with a magical device that creates heat. And he's kind of sad, thinking something like, "I liked my hearth, but now I can touch this and it creates heat, which is still a good thing." But we're seeing the advent of this age, and therefore I wanted something that would work with a more mystical magic inside of a person and that could also form the basis for a mechanical magic. That was one aspect of it. Another big aspect is that I always like to have a visual representation, something in my magic to show that it's not all just happening abstractly but that you can see happen. I loved the imagery of glowing gemstones. When I wrote Mistborn I used Burning metals--metabolizing metals--because it's a natural process and it's an easy connection to make. Even though it's odd in some ways, it's natural in other ways; metabolizing food is how we all get our energy. The idea of a glowing object, illuminated and full of light, is a natural connection for the mind to make: This is a power source; this is a source of natural energy. And since I was working with the highstorms, I wanted some way that you could trap the energy of the storm and use it. The gemstones were an outgrowth of that.

Questioner

What is your most memorable gaming experience/best gaming memory?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably Final Fantasy 10. At that time I was working the graveyard shift at a hotel, and I was doing a lot of writing on my own trying to get published. I would come home every morning at seven a.m. and play for a couple of hours alone in the quiet apartment, thinking about my own stories, experiencing the story of the game.

Other than that, I would say, honestly, the game that sucked most of my time was probably the original X-Wing game, which really made me feel like I got to be an X-Wing pilot, which, you know—Star Wars geek! That was so much fun! In a lot of ways every space game since then has failed to live up to the sense that I got from that game.

Brandon Sanderson

A full-blown Radiant can heal almost anything (cut from a Shardblade included) because of the way the magic works--their soul is literally bonded to Investiture, and it suffuses them in such a way that even the soul is very resilient to damage.

Honorblades are what you'd consider a "prototype" for what eventually happened with Shardblades. An Honorblade can be used by anyone, without need for oaths, which makes them very dangerous--but since the bond isn't as deep, they are far less efficient. They use more Stormlight, for example, and can't heal to the extent that a Radiant can.

So the difference is not in the device that did the damage, but in the method using to heal. Over the course of the first two book, the reader should be able to subtly pick out differences from what Szeth says is possible (in more than just healing) and what Kaladin experiences.

Pawell2812

yeah but what does mercantile ecosystem mean? Are people on Scadrial shipping goods off-world? if yes who and what? (metals most likely) and did the Lord Ruler know?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO--but we should get into these things eventually.

Blightsong

The whole Radiant/Light motif fits naming their Sprenblades 'Dawnshards'.

The term 'Shards' in-world have almost exclusively been in the context of Shardblades or Shardplate. I don't see why they would name a fabrial something in a way that breaks the pattern.

Y'know, if I'm right this wouldn't even really be a spoiler for Brandon to confirm. Maybe the main man u/mistborn could weigh in?

Brandon Sanderson

The nature of the Dawnshards will become (slightly) more clear as the series progresses. For now, RAFO.

falschneun

Hmmm, I just read this timetable update then went back and read State of the Sanderson 2016. I think there is a decent chance that the novella between The Apocalypse Guard 2 and 3 could be Silverlight. Could we be so lucky, /u/mistborn?

Brandon Sanderson

There's a decent chance. I've also got several on First of the Sun plotted, which are possibilities--and even a Threnody story I want to do. However, there's also a non-cosmere "minority report" style thriller I want to write, and a more thoughtful story about a world where big data predicts all of our choices. So...who knows.

havoc_mayhem

Do you have any thoughts on a short story set on Nalthis? It's the only major Shardworld we haven't yet revisited.

Brandon Sanderson

I haven't been able to get any shorts on Nalthis to work so far. Maybe eventually.

DinoDonkeyDoodle

I really hope /u/mistborn explores the issues a safehand causes like he did women using the One Power in his ending to WoT (ie, it is all arbitrary).

Brandon Sanderson

It's not exactly arbitrary, but it is completely sexist. See it as you would something like foot-binding on Earth--something that grew, over time, partially to mark/distinguish/hamper women with enough means to be "refined" enough to do something this wildly impractical. There's a reason darkeyed women (and a lot of lower lighteyed women) wear gloves.

Fantasy Faction

Could any type of spren bond with a person (even if the results wouldn't be a Knight Radiant)? Or only the ones associated with a branch of the Knights?

Brandon Sanderson

Ooh, that's an excellent question. This is something theoretically possible for a lesser spren to achieve.

Fantasy Faction

Is Hoid drawn to novel-worthy plots? Or does he ever just show up in a completely "normal" time/place, with no ramifications on the cosmere, Shards, etc.?

Brandon Sanderson

He is drawn to places specifically because of what's happening in those worlds. He is there and he is meddling.

Fantasy Faction

In The Way of Kings, when Shallan zones out and draws a picture of a dead noble at a dinner table, was she drawing her own father after she killed him with her Shardblade?

Brandon Sanderson

Ooh, good question! You will want to read Words of Radiance, where her flashbacks may indeed involve this scene that she drew.

Fantasy Faction

Finally, and most importantly, if all your protagonists had an epic all out brawl, who would win?

Brandon Sanderson

Some of them are immortal, but that would kind of be cheating. If you let people who are immortal participate, it's going to very much favor someone like Hoid, who is really, really, really hard to kill. Of course, he would not be very good at offing anyone either, because of certain things in his past. It would be really futile when it got down to the last two. But if we take that out.

You'd have to set ground rules. Do they get access to their magic? Where is it taking place? If we take away all magic and we just say people are beating up on each other, who's going to win? It's probably Kelsier because he'll fight dirty. Vasher fights really dirty, too. If Kelsier and Vasher gang up on the rest, and then it depends who's still not in pieces at the end. It'd be Kelsier or Vasher probably.

Fantasy Faction

And, if the convention of printing books disappeared tomorrow and every one began reading ebooks only do you think the way you write books would change (i.e. being able to disregard wordcounts or even being able to consider serialising a book)?

Brandon Sanderson

I think that would offer some very interesting opportunities. I think I would be unwise not to try to take advantage of them, if such a thing did happen. In fact, it's possible to try right now. I've got thoughts in my head about how I would do this. Because the form of the story is a very important thing to me, if you can't tell from the way I was talking about everything before. The form of the book, looking at the book and saying, what am I doing with this actual thing? What is the shape of it? Elantris had a specific shape, with the chapter triads that were happening at the same time as one another. These things are interesting to me, and I want to do things like this with e-books also. But there are other things we would lose. Just like if you go and you can compare, a great example of this is the US cover of Words of Radiance, which was hand painted in oil by Michael Whelan. It has a certain feel to it.

In fact, you can see the oil. You can see the brush strokes if you look very closely at the painting. You look at the gorgeous digital painting that Stephan Martiniere did for the US edition of Elantris. But if you look at these different covers, one is digital only, and has this interesting use of digital light, and the other has texture and feel. Those are two different forms for creating art, and they both have awesome things to them. I think if we lost the book as a form, we might lose some of that idea—the book as a texture, and what it feels like to hold it goes away. I'd be sad to lose that. But I can't tell right now if that would be the sadness of someone watching an antiquated technology that no longer really matters in life go away, or if it would be losing something that will very much negatively impact society. We will just have to see. Time will tell.

Fantasy Faction

Someone from Earth is about to be sent off to the cosmere. They've read your first Stormlight book, but they've never really taken time to really dig deep and find out about how it sits in the overall "cosmere", so they're totally unprepared. What basic concepts regarding shards, magic systems and world hopping do you think are most important?

Brandon Sanderson

The first, most important thing to say to the person who's being sent there is to enjoy the story you're in. All of the cosmere stuff, the interconnection between my books and all these wonderful little things, are right now mostly Easter eggs. Which means that if you spend the whole book only worried about that, you're going to miss the beauty and fun that is the book that you're part of. I often say to people, don't worry if you read them "out of order," because it's all Easter eggs right now. Don't worry and stress if you miss something about the cosmere, because while someday that might be important, you first need to enjoy the book that you're part of. But the primer I'd give to this person is that the worlds are connected. If you show up on a planet and there's a guy named Hoid around, then be very afraid, because you're someplace very dangerous.

callumke (paraphrased)

Can you tell me something about the cosmere that you haven't told anyone before?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There are inhabited planets in the cosmere that don't have any Shards there. There may be inhabited planets that only have a Splinter of a Shard. There are 10 core cosmere planets, which tell the overarching story of the cosmere.

callumke (paraphrased)

Are all the cosmere books so far set on these 10 core worlds?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. 

callumke (paraphrased)

Are there any of the 10 core worlds without a Shard?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

All 10 core worlds have significant Shardic influence.

callumke (paraphrased)

How many Heralds appear in The Way of Kings

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

More than you might expect. Some have appeared, some have been mentioned but not appeared.

callumke (paraphrased)

You have said previously that The Stormlight Archive will include Lightweaving. Is that still the plan?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. 

callumke (paraphrased)

Have we seen a Roshar native in The Way of Kings who can use Lightweaving?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, we have seen someone who has potential.

callumke (paraphrased)

Is Shallan's memory a Surge? 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I want to wait for the right opportunity before revealing more surges.

callumke (paraphrased)

You have said before that all the planets had their names before the arrival of the Shards. Is Roshar the planet's name before the Shards arrived?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. 

callumke (paraphrased)

What is the definition of Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO. Investiture is off the table as far as questions go.

Oversleep

Could a Feruchemist hide from Lifesense by storing and which metals?

Brandon Sanderson

So Lifesense on Nalthis, someone storing, what now, Investiture? Could they hide from Lifesense? Um, yeah that would work.

Oversleep

And which metals would they need to store, Investiture, Connection…

Brandon Sanderson

That would probably be Investiture, that’s theoretically plausible, hiding your entire sense, a little bit easier with a copper cloud, which is how you would normally go about it, but you could make your Investiture vanish to the point that… yeah I think that’s theoretically possible.

Oversleep

So Lifesense works on Connection?

Brandon Sanderson

Lifesense works by sensing… life, so it’s not necessarily just Connection because you can go off-world from Nalthis and still sense the life to which you are not Connected.

swieczq

Would someone with enough knowledge be able to use Autonomy’s Investiture if Taldain’s star was seen from his world?

Brandon Sanderson

So I’m on a world and I see Taldain’s star, what you're asking if someone could use the Investiture? Oh, OK I see. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. That’s good! You stumped me. I haven’t gotten that question before. I would say yes, if the light particles are reaching you. I mean technically you could use the light from one of those stars to power a solar sail so…

Questioner

I know it’s a RAFO but, are the Ones Above [Scadrians]?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

I just wanted to make sure.

Mr. Suit

Can spren - like Syl - be pierced by hemalurgic spike? Will it give some effect?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. A spren can be pierced by Invested metal…

Oversleep

Could it be spiked?

Brandon Sanderson

Could a spike be used to give abilities to spren? That’s not going to work really well.

Oversleep

Could you steal from a spren?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you could steal the Investiture of a spren. Any Investiture can be used in a spike if you know what you’re doing. It’s actually not that hard to use one on a spren.

Oversleep

Because I thought you said Hemalurgy needs moving blood.

Brandon Sanderson

It needs, uh, yeah… there are places where spren have more physical form, more tangible form.

Questioner

Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

No, no, no, not Roshar.

Questioner

The Cognitive Realm on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, if you go to the Cognitive Realm on Roshar the spren act differently than they do.

Oversleep

So you could spike in the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah I’ll leave a RAFO with you on that. That’s your fifth one. So there are ways to get any Investiture into Hemalurgy if you know what you’re doing. But yeah this is not something that would be a common use for Hemalurgy. Let’s just say that.

Oversleep

We do not concern ourselves with common uses.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, I know you don’t. But yeah Hemalurgy, when you’re spiking into somebody you… you’ll see when we get around to it.

Questioner

Have you ever considered giving your brain - when you die in a hundred years, [having] written thousand books, have you considered giving your brain to scientists?

Brandon Sanderson

Did you know that there's an app for Einstein's brain? You can download an app that has a diagram of his brain cause he did donate his to science and was dissected.

Questioner

Are you planning to do that?

Brandon Sanderson

Not right now but I'm an organ donor so maybe... I don't think they donate the brain to people.

Questioner

Did Hoid use the bead of lerasium to rewrite his spiritual DNA or Web in a way other than just giving himself Allomantic powers?

Brandon Sanderson

His goal was to become an Allomancer.

Questioner

And did he use it to create other powers than Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

It could not give powers other than Allomancy.

Questioner

Because it’s lerasium?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Oversleep

So he did burn it and become a Mistborn, right?

Brandon Sanderson

You have seen him use Allomancy…

Oversleep

Yes, because it’s creating a lot of <misunderstandings>.

Brandon Sanderson

You have actually seen him use Allomancy.

Oversleep

Is gravity a physical aspect of the spiritual bond Connecting objects to the planet?

Brandon Sanderson

Gravity, like all laws of physics in the cosmere, works like it does here with an additional aspect in that mass and energy can become Investiture. So while you are Connected to the planet gravity is not a manifestation of that. But Investiture can override it because Investiture, energy, mass are all the same thing.

Oversleep

So can Connectors alter it, store it?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. You know I’m going to RAFO all that stuff.

Questioner

Does titles of the five books from the first arc create a ketek?

Brandon Sanderson

No. I actually considered it but it’s just too confusing so I actually tossed that out before I even started the first book. But I did consider it. It just was too confusing.

Oversleep

You told me - when we were interviewing you on Friday to tell the 17th Shard to tell them you told us how the Cosmere ends and...

Brandon Sanderson

And I totally did, right! The answer is it ends well.

Oversleep

They wanted me to tell you that they were like mindblown!

Mr. Suit

Is it possible to bring Adonalsium together again and was it the reason the Ire was on Scadrial?

Brandon Sanderson

This is a RAFO. There are people who believe it's possible and others who believe it's impossible. It’s one of the big questions of the series.

Questioner

Is there going to be more Lift in the next book?

Brandon Sanderson

No, you’ll see some of her, she's reserved... most of her you'll see in the book 6 and on but you'll see little glimpses of her in the other ones. The stuff she has in Oathbringer is a riot, it's very fun.

Questioner

In all your books, who's your favorite character?

Brandon Sanderson

You know, I usually cheat on that question and I say "whoever I'm writing right now", cause I like them all, they're my children...

Questioner

Okay, but you have to pick one.

Brandon Sanderson

Probably Dalinar, probably but...

Translator

My favorite is Steris.

Brandon Sanderson

Steris is a lot of fun.

Questioner

Will there be a second part of Warbringer [Warbreaker]?

Brandon Sanderson

Some day. I can’t promise when, it will be a side project, but it will happen.

Questioner

Can you make TenSoon puppies? Like, plushies?

Brandon Sanderson

We thought about it, it's so hard to do. So hard. We thought about it, maybe, it's not impossible, but very hard.

Questioner

If Vasher is Zahel, in Stormlight Archive? Will <inaudible>

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO.

You know what that means? That means "Read And Find Out". It means I'm not gonna answer right now because it will give you a spoiler... but read and find out.