Is there a comparable way-- like you can become a Misting by burning an alloy of lerasium and some other metal--
Yes.
Is there a comparable way of becoming a Ferring?
Uh… *carefully* Comparable within certain limits of the definition of that word, then yes.
Just meaning, is there some in-world way--
There is some in-world procedure yes.
If you were a Twinborn with both steel, would you be able to move faster than people could use atium to see what you were going to do?
So you couldn't move faster than their atium, but you could move potentially faster than their mind's ability to process what they're seeing. You might be able to-- but the atium does lend a certain ability of natural reaction, but you are still limited by your muscles, and things like that. So I think you could probably beat atium that way. That would be a valid way.
What should I be looking out for to see Hoid in this one [The Bands of Mourning]?
He's pretty obvious in this one.
Oh he's obvious in this one? I remember the last one he barely popped in.
Yeah the last two he's been barely in. This one he actually is-- He's up to something in this one.
Would you come to regret naming your child Kaladin? It was requested I ask.
I might stay away from Moash but-- Considering what he did in [Words of Radiance].
*discussion fades in* ...I doubt they would come to regret that. It depends on your threshold for characters with depression but--
They haven't minded that so far. That's not an issue. I think they just want to make sure he doesn't end up leading the Voidbringers or something.
Yeah I think you'll be okay.
Has TenSoon ever left Scadrial?
RAFO. I believe that I have said that there are kandra on other planets, but I haven't said if it's TenSoon or not.
Is Austre Endowment by a different name?
RAFO.
The man speaking with Nale in the Words of Radiance prologue--the one talking about Ash getting worse--which is he: a Herald or a Squire?
Um… He is not a Squire.
*reading a personalization request* Did Kelsier fill copperminds for reasons other than to share knowledge? Did he want to forget certain memories?
*written* Yes. Yes.
Those may not be causally related. You asked two separate questions and got two separate answers.
*reading a personalization request* In the concept of an unreliable narrator, there is a...scope of unreliability. One can be limited by perspective, another can be unreliable with intent. Could you...examine the second type in the Cosmere? Who would be a good example?
Hoid can be very intentionally misleading. The thing is, there aren't many first person viewpoints in the Cosmere stories so if its ever from someone's actual viewpoint-- Like Kelsier is a little unreliable in his viewpoint in that he doesn't go into his plan, which is technically unreliable narrator and it technically is by intent, but it's more like, he's like "I can't think about this" and stuff, but is also him lying to the reader a little bit. Does that make sense? Kelsier is probably the best example of unreliable narrator.
Is the Felt question the one that you got away with?
No, that really is-- Felt really is Felt. He's been around, let's just say.
Are there more places I should look for him?
Eeehhhh, there are more places you could look for him, whether you find him or not is a matter of…
I'm going to guess that he's going by a different name in other places.
Things that he s-- There are things that he said in Mistborn which are relevant in minor ways... These are not huge big things, when you read them you'll be like "Oh, interesting".
I was wondering if the size of a piece of metal determines the amount of Feruchemical charge that can be stored in it.
Yes.
So how does that scale, like, in terms of the volume or mass of the metal or...
It-- So I've talked about this before, I'm trying to remember exactly what I've told people-- It does not scale as logically as you think it does. How about that? It's more like certain thresholds. You can have a-- You can store a Hemalurgic or Feruchemical charge even in very small pieces of metal, but larger pieces of metal will let you get more.
So it's kind of like there are different classes of sizes?
Yeah, kind of like that.
What is Syl's favorite form? What is her favorite form?
Syl is kind-- kind of ephemeral. Meaning she has a peculiar little personality and her favorites change quite often. I would say, she probably likes being the human-form the most, because she gets the best reaction from the people she's interacting with. But that wouldn't always have been the case, because she is responding to how people are perceiving her.
Are we ever going to get an official Cosmere timeline?
Yes, we will eventually. We're really close to being able to release it, I'm not sure when we will. Um, the real trick is-- Like now that we're locking down White Sand, that's kind of like the last wild card because the novel version wasn't canon. So it's like where do we make sure this is, and stuff like that. So yeah we should be, once White Sand is out I think, everything we can lock down. The trick is, like if I release it there are certain-- like where is Sixth of the Dusk exactly? It's not something I want because that's got spoilers.
..It is actually canon that Era Two [of Mistborn]takes place between the first half and the second half of [The Stormlight Archive]?
Well I haven't written the second half of Stormlight so that--
But does it take place after the first half?
Yes it takes place sometime after the first half, but it depends on how long I break and things like that, whether they overlap, maybe it takes place after 7, maybe it takes place after 5, maybe it takes place after-- Like we'll see when I get there how many years, because the timing on those is a little more tight.
So they're more interweaved with those, those are closer to the same time period.
They are much closer to the same time period than other things, which is why I have to be dodgy on those ones, mostly just because they are on a similar timeline.
Have Hoid and Sazed, since he became Harmony, had a conversation?
Um… yes, that has happened.
Was it meaningful?
Um, Hoid considers everything meaningful.
Of course he does. Would Sazed consider it meaningful?
Ok, Sazed considers every individual important.
I currently have a pet theory--
Oh yeah? What is it?
That... there's a-- That there was-- Whatever the fourth Shard that Odium [Splintered]-- People-- The people who founded Threnody were--
So you should read Khriss' introductions to the worlds in the Cosmere Collection.
Is-- As of Era Two in Mistborn, is Bavadin still alive?
Ehhh... *long pause* I'm pretty sure I've answered that, but just in case I haven't I'm going to RAFO it.
Can you clarify what the structure you are planning on, is going to be for Dragonsteel is? Like for some reason I have it in my head that it's seven?
Yeah it was originally, way back when, seven. I've-- Right now I've cut so much out of that and stuck it in other books, I'm only at three. So we'll see.
Did Odium originally have a planet he was Invested in?
Odium's plan always involved not getting stuck on one
Has Wax seen the influence of a Shard other than Preservation, Ruin, Harmony--
Yes.
--i.e., like Autonomy?
He has seen the influence of another Shard.
Might that Shard be Autonomy?
It might!
*giggles*
*after reading a personalization request* Expansion of the soul, what do you mean by that?
There was something in Secret History...it had to do with Kelsier expanding his soul. And then Hoid also says something about it.
So what do you mean by "Does worldhopping involve the expansion of a soul">?
Well Hoid... kind of was like...
I'm just trying to get you to be a little more specific. But I'm going to say "Sometimes".
That was the whole point. You get a "Maaaaybe".
You get a Sometimes.
*reading a personalization request* Could a Rosharan be--
Hemalurgically spiked with a gem or fabrial?
*presumably writes RAFO in book*
*exasperated "ugh" sound*
Haha.
Does Hoid learn languages magically or is he just a gifted linguist?
He is learning them magically. He does-- He's decent with languages but he needs to be able speak as if he were a local in order to pass the way he does. And no matter how gifted you are, doing that, particularly for multiple tongues, is-- Yeah.
Does Lift's metabolic waste include crem?
*laughs* ...That's an excellent question. I'm not going to-- I'm not going to answer that one but it's an excellent question.
Wow, you're RAFO'ing that? I was at least expecting a laugh
I'm RAFO'ing y-- You got a laugh. I didn't say RAFO, I said I'm not going to answer that, which can be considered two different answers.
What happened to the Ministries?
The Ministries, being a legacy of the time of the Lord Ruler's rule, there are trappings of them left but they don't use any of the same names or anything like that.
Can't have the old labeling.
Yeah. I mean-- There are cities you can go to where there are more echoes of that sort of thing.
Yeah because New Seran made me think of that.
Yeah. I mean there are cities you can go that have more echoes of that but in Elendel you can barely even find the trappings anymore-- but you can find some of them. But You won't go in there and find, like, the Ministry of this-or-that. Because it was run by Kelsier's crew, most of that did not make the transition. Though there were notable Obligators who made it through and so they have left their mark. You have to search for it though.
What happened in the Cognitive Realm during the Catacendre?
Um… *sighs* So, um... Have you read Secret History?
Yes.
You are in the Cognitive Realm for the Catacendre in Secret History, that's some things that happened. Saying what happened there is like saying "what happened on Earth in 19--"
Well I was thinking more like what you couldn't see on-screen, if you would comment on that.
"What you see is what you get for that one." Is what I'm going to say of it.
*reading a personalization request* Specifically what Khriss knows about the red haze around Scadrial and if she was trying to clue Wax in on the situation.
I can't tell you what Khriss knows about the red haze. Definitely not. She knows too much and I-- ...I can say "She knows too much".
I wanted to know what your stance on gods were, if you were trying-- If you had a meta-message about God.
If I what?
If you had a meta-message about God.
I do not really. What I'm fascinated by ends up in the books and I'm fascinated by religion. But even in something like The Stormlight Archive, I don't want there necessarily even be a definitive answer? There are god... lowercase "g" gods. Whether there is a capital "G" God is still, in my opinion, left to the interpretation of various people. I'm not necessarily trying to say anything specific, I'm trying to say what the different characters say. Does that make sense? Jasnah doesn't speak my belief, but neither does Dalinar. But they speak their belief, and I try to respect their belief the best I can. So it's more like trying to be true to the different characters.
How effective would pewter Allomancy and iron Feruchemy be in a Twinborn?
That would do some really cool stuff. Some really cool stuff.
The next tattoo I'm going to get will be the Oaths from the Windrunners, because they are a huge part of my life. And I was just wondering if you'd be able to give me one of them? There's two more, right?
There are more Oaths.
Or if you could tell me which books they're going to come out in, so I can plan on--
So that's a huge spoiler, and they're recording me right now. So I can, maybe, if you promise you're not going to share this on the internet... So I can give you Oath #3. That'll be it for a while
Okay, that's fine. I appreciate it...
That's the wording as I have it in my head right now. I might not use the exact words, but that's okay because the Oaths are concepts and each person who speaks them will speak them slightly differently. Like you will see in future books people speaking Oaths you have seen before, they'll be slightly reworded to match their personality. But that's the concept. You might be able to see that it's a very important thing.
Can spren be put back together, through Bondsmiths rejoined, as Shards can be joined and combined?
That, um… so what do you mean by spren put back together?
Could a Bondsmith combine spren in the way that Shards can be combined?
Ok, so the answer is they can be combined. Whether the Bondsmith is a method or not I won't say, but spren can be combined.
The Mistborn Era Three is going to be set in like present day. Are there going to be like Coinshots doing ear piercings and like carpenter work and y'know...
You'll just have to see.
Will Dalinar have shardplate by the end of Oathbringer?
That's a spoiler.
For Dalinar, is forgetting his wife the curse, or…
That's a Read And Find Out.
When will we find out what the Nightwatcher looks like?
Um… well, Dalinar, in the past, met the Nightwatcher. Dalinar's third book is getting flashback sequences to his past experiences. You can postulate that one of those important past experiences might be a visit to the Nightwatcher.
As the Cosmere gets a lot bigger, what is your biggest worry going forward writing the books?
Going forward, my biggest worry is making sure that I do things like get The Stormlight Archive done as a solid, complete whole, rather than letting it become... like, too distracted about the Cosmere. Like, I'm not worried about that for Mistborn, but I'm worried about that for Stormlight. Stormlight needs to be a self-contained whole, it needs to be a self-contained epic, and I have to be really careful not to-- in the later books in particular-- let it turn into the Avengers, something like that. So that's my biggest worry right now, is that I will let too much of that seep in. I'm being very careful about it.
Does Hemalurgy require intent to steal the stuff? Or could somebody in theory just stab through in the exact-- I understand the chances are extremely slim, it's like accupuncture ...happen by accident?
Here's the thing, you've seen it happen without the intent of the person holding the spike.
But I think it's commonly accepted that Ruin was sort of manipulating some-- I'm specifically taking the Spook example off the table, I'm just saying, someone by accident stab - whoops! stab - whoops! and have a power?
Again, Ruin was involved in that. Every spike-- spiking that you saw had Ruin's intent behind it. I'm not going to answer your question, RAFO. You tried, you got me to admit that I was trying to wiggle around it, and I will tell you, today I wiggled around one question that none of you saw me wiggle around, really well, today. Today. I'm not going to tell you which one it is but there is one here that you all thought, you're all like "woo!" but you didn't realize you'd given me so much wiggle room.
So about that space station.
It's not that one.
This is just from our discussion earlier. So Taravangian… He asks for two things. The capacity to stop what is coming and the capacity to save humankind. And then he gets this weird thing to happen. Is the intelligence and empathy thing because both of those things can't come true at the same time?
That's an excellent question. RAFO!
Let me ask a parallel to that. Are those-- Does the Nightwatcher perceive those as the same boon or two parallel boons?
RAFO!
So what would happen if [Lift] ate Nightblood? *laughter*
Yeah, eating Nightblood would not be a smart idea for anyone. *laughter* Nightblood would eat you. In Soviet Russia, sword eats you? I don't know…
If Lift ate something that had like, gold leaf on it, 'cause some foods like-- She would be turning that gold leaf into Investiture or Stormlight, right?
If it is giving-- So the gold leaf would probably pass through her system.
So she wouldn't be...
Mmhmm, yes, that things that she eats that she can metabolize, she can turn into Stormlight.
So was Vasher, or the lady that created-- that was part of the process creating Nightblood a worldhopper, then?
Vasher had been to Roshar before he created Nightblood, yes.
Has Hoid had a direct interaction with the Nightwatcher at this point. You said he'd be calling her very nasty names?
*nervous laughter* Hoid is… let's go ahead and RAFO that one.
You called Nightblood a miscrea-- a misformed Shardblade.
A Shardblade created with a different magic system.
Is that an intentional creation or mimicry? Or--
Yes, that is intentional.
Intentional on the part of the person who made Nightblood…
Mmhmm.
So I've got to say, I love [Shadows Beneath] and I was wondering if you were doing any more projects like that.
Um, [Shadows Beneath], are we doing any more projects like that. Getting all four of us together to do something is tough. We have talked about doing one where we each write a story in someone else's world and I think that would be the most likely that you would see, like I write a John Cleaver story, and Dan writes a Stormlight story, and Mary writes a Schlock Mercenary story, something like that, but we don't have any immediate plans to do another [Shadows Beneath] where we brainstorm something on air like we did.
Would that story be canon?
Would the story be canon? No, the story would not be canon. Most likely not. I mean, it's possible.
Will iron mined-- created and mined on Roshar work to power Allomancy on Scadrial? This is a clarification from earlier session.
Um, hehe… Okay, so what do you want to have happen, talk to me. Explain to me--
…Iron is iron, does it have the same effect if it will be iron that was created on Roshar--
Oh, I see what you're saying.
--power Allomancy on Scadrial--
The metals are themselves-- and I've said this before, I think, but-- the metals themselves-- where you get it is not relevant.
So if say Wit is drinking flakes on Roshar, then those flakes could be Roshar-derived.
Yes.
My question's about Secret History, specifically it's kind of a two-parter. The first part's easier to answer. Is it relevant that the glowing substance that Hoid puts on his oar is very similarly described as the same stuff that the Ire drink, the glowing--
Yeah, that is relevant.
And does it have to do with Connection.
Ah… *sighs* Yes, but not the way you're thinking. That's a "I'm wiggling out of..." Yes, it has to do with Connection, but so does a dog. Cause a dog is Connected to things. *laughs in the audience* You said "does it have to do with"! The answer is yes.
Someone who has Breath Investiture, can they give Breath to somebody who doesn't, so like somebody from Scadrial, or--
Yes.
Would the Scadrian be able to use it?
Yes. You have seen people from off-planet who have Breath before.
Or, indeed, perfect pitch?
Uhuh. *laughter* And are making use of it in a variety of ways.
In Bands of Mourning you got more into the Connection element and gave us some hints there. During a previous seminar a question came up on how that relates to your Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual Realm. I guess, we've talked about if people were to go different places it seems from the hints you've given in your books that there's a Physical aspect to Connection as far as where people are when they use the Connection as well as there's some ideal with… in the Secret History that we've got, when Kelsier was, when he wasn't Connected enough to Preservation. So can you give us anything more--
I just gave you a ton in Secret History! So much! I gave you a lot in Secret History to philosophize upon, this is very relevant to a lot of the things that happen in the cosmere.
I guess, specifically, does someone have to have both-- with Connection, are there more than one elements that people would have to have to have Connection to provide avenue to power from a different area.
Oh, um… there are multiple things that could help with it, yes. There are certain things that you can Connect through to make one strong Connection would be enough for a variety of magics, yeah.
What would happen if a Forger got their hands on Nightblood and they Soulstamped Nightblood?
Nightblood is so heavily Invested that it would be like trying to freeze the ocean with an ice cube. *crowd wows* Maybe not that scale, that's your metaphor.
In The Emperor's Soul… you indicate sort of the opposite of the kandra in regards to… Soulstamps can be made with bone and are considered the lesser, with crystal is the highest. With kandras, if their true bodies are crystal, they are considered weak. Bones are considered strong.
Ehhh… I'm gonna stop you right there, just because that's gonna depend on the kandra, and their age, and how they feel about it. There are plenty of kandra, I think MeLaan would argue against that and be like "No! Non-bone true bodies are way better! Look, I can take my hands off and stab people with the swords underneath. This is super better!" Whereas TenSoon would be like, "That's not…" It's a little bit like when I was in Korea, and people are like "Things made out of concrete just feel worse! It's bad for the kibun to always be surrounded by concrete. Wood is better for you." I… think there are people who would disagree with that, I think there are people who would totally agree with that.
My question. If you were to combine a Soulstamp of a crystal, with a kandra true body of a crystal, would they have additional powers that could compete with regards to Mistborn. If it compounds?
Alright, so if you took the crystal that they're making Soulstamps out of and you gave it to a kandra, and they used it for bones, generally the kandra are not drawing any sort of extra Investiture or power from the bones, they're making-- they're using. That's-- Though TenSoon would argue that I'm wrong. *general laughter*
