I am wondering if it is possible for a person to take the power of a Shard and then later decide the whole god thing isn't working out. Can they retire and go back to being a person? Or are they immediately sent to the Beyond?
It is possible that they could retire as a person. Wouldn't be the first thing that would happen.
With Dawnshard, what was going on [with revisions], there was some big things that I needed to do, and some of them I was aware of. And because the book... basically, it was written in July, and we did the beta read in August, and I'm doing the revisions in September/October; it has a really accelerated timeline. Which means that the beta read wasn't as clean as I normally like a beta read to do. I really like a beta read to have seen a book after I've done revisions that the alpha read has caught all the big problems. Or that I've had time to layer things in. Like, there is a whole aspect of this book that I knew needed to be in the book, but I just didn't have the time, the brain focus, in the first two drafts to put in. So they all had to read and complain about this thing that I knew I was going to put into the book, but they thought I'd just completely missed. In that case, I had this thing to add in; but, still, giving their feedback helped me decide how to add it in. In other cases, there were characters that just needed some expanded screentime and stuff. I can talk about it better during the spoiler stream.
But also, I had multiple people who are themselves paraplegic read the book that I had written primarily from the viewpoint of a paraplegic woman. And they had just a ton of really great information on how to be more authentic to the life experience of someone like themselves, and also some of the pitfalls that authors often fall into that I hadn't known about. Really handy stuff.
And we will be releasing, with the Kickstarter (because we hit the stretch goal), all the different drafts of Dawnshard, along with the beta reader document, that you'll be able to just read what everyone said and see what I took from that. You can go read, like, the 3.0 and be like, "All right, I read the 2.0; I read the beta read document. Now I can read the 3.0 and see how Brandon changed things based on what the beta readers said."
And I do have a little document of the main things I'm changing and why that will go along with it. Hopefully, that sort of thing will be very helpful to you because this is the sort of thing that's really hard to explain because it's an instinct you pick up as a writer over time.
As Brandon has mentioned, we have some scenes from The Lopen viewpoint [in Dawnshard], and I'm going to show you The Lopen chapter icon.
I don't know if this will wind up in the actual main books, but if we have a Lopen chapter, we might.
So far, for Lopen, we've been using the generic Bridge Four icon, because usually what's happening is I have a whole section where we get a bunch of different Bridge Four viewpoints, and it makes more sense. But we needed one for The Lopen.
Will you ever consider writing someone with dyslexia into your books?
I would, in fact. Haven't found the right place for it. My son is dyslexic, and he has a big challenge with school. Dallin is just smart as a whip, but has real trouble with school, because he is very dyslexic. He just loves it when he finds out... like, Dav Pilkey, who does the Dog Man books, is dyslexic. When he finds an author who's dyslexic, it means a lot to him.
And finding a way to get dyslexia in... I would probably want to do it in a book with a word-based magic system. Because that would be an interesting thing, because having someone who's dyslexic who interacts with words differently than everyone else would be a really fascinating story when there's a conflict related to the actual worldbuilding.
But we'll see; we'll see if I can ever find time to do that. There's a lot of things to do. And dyslexia is one of those harder things to get across in fiction, because people aren't spending a lot of time reading in most books. So it is a character attribute, but it's not the sort of thing that comes up in the story all that often unless you construct the story in a way that it will.
Will we see more of Vasher and Vivenna in a certain upcoming book?
Yes, you will see at least one of them in a book coming out this November. You'll at least have a reference to the other. You may see one of them in two chapters as Tor is releasing them.
Dawnshard is about Rysn. But there's a small plot arc for multiple other characters. Lopen's got one. Even Huio's got one. Because I'm a novel writer, and even when I write in shorter form, I'm doing novel writer sort of things.
It is hard for me to keep in mind more than one big change for a book [while revising]. I can do it, but it's hard; it's a challenge. And fortunately, the way I write books is, generally I only have one big change per plot cycle or per viewpoint. Like, I can say, "For this viewpoint character, my big focus change for this is changing this part of who they are. This character needs to be more proactive." That's one of the ones that I had for the new Stormlight book, is there was a character that just wasn't proactive enough. And I'm like, "I need to change the way that they're viewing their life, and add a few scenes in appropriate places that up the character's proactivity."
That was separate from a different character, where I had approached some of the mental health things the wrong way, and early beta readers were able to point me the right direction on how to do it better. And that character, I didn't change structurally their plot; I changed their response to it, and then a few places where that response did require some major changes. But I could have them on mind: this revision, I'm doing this for this character.
And I had, like, three of those in my 4.0 draft. And for all the other characters, I could say, "In this, we are just focusing on tightening-normal-prose sort of cleaning." And that way, when I went to the 5.0, if there were things for those other characters, I could feel that I had already done the prose tightening for them, and I could get into some more of the problems they needed, and I was able to keep the big changes in my head for the other characters. And then, in the last draft, I was able to do the prose tightening on their viewpoints. And that worked really well for this specific book.
Is there going to be a physical release planned for The Original at some point in the future? Or is it going to be audio-only?
I would anticipate that we would, eventually, do this. It was written for audio. I know we've just kind of briefly said "yeah, probably." But it's not like we've made any plans. It's not like we have a release in mind.
The conversations that we've had are basically, like, "Yeah, that would be awesome if someone wanted it." And also, I'm like, "And there needs to be some rewriting." There are scenes where we're relying on the narrator, and it won't play on the page.
So the answer is "Yes, probably." But we can't say when. And we have no specific plans yet.
Getting those subject matter experts... like, the new Stormlight book. If I hadn't had some of these subject matter experts, I would have been at sea with no oars.
Someday, perhaps, for fans, I will release the first draft, and they can compare. But it's now so embarrassing, about which things I got wrong.
I did a [film] treatment for Mistborn, recently, where I'm like, "How would I envision this getting made?" And I basically had to throw out the book, start with the same premise, characters, and idea, and build it again for the medium, rather than try to pick specific scenes. Because specific scenes that I wrote in the book are there to work on the page. I needed a scene that did the same thing, but wasn't all internal. (Not really internal, but the character responding in their head.) And it needed to work differently. I have a lot more respect for adaptations.
I can't talk about details, but I wrote a picture book. 127 words!
How long is the outline?
The outline is really long. But that's because... the reason I was able to be so short is because the joke of the picture book is that the description that goes with the picture is comically simplistic. And then the picture, I spend, like, a page describing each one. So the actual text is 127 words. But the pitch is, like, 3000 words, or something like that. It's just ridiculously long.
The reason I did it is because one of the things that we want to do eventually is, each of the Stormlight books has... there's a character in the books named Wit who's a storyteller who will tell stories to the other characters. And I would eventually like to do those as picture books. I think they would adapt really well. But wanting to do that and not knowing the form, I'm like, "I really ought to learn the form before I expect to do something like that." So I'm like, "I'm going to go research picture books. I'm gonna look at the lengths, and read all the stuff I'm doing, and then try my hand at it and see if a publisher is interested in just a standard, not-based-on-the-Stormlight-books." And then, if I'm lucky and it sells (which there's no guarantee), then I'll be able to watch the process, as I like to do as something is getting made. And hopefully learn more about it, and things like that. So that's why I did.
If Hoid would be printed as an MtG card, what would be his color and converted mana cost?
Brandon said he would be a "Straight Blue Planswalker" and "expensive" "probably 7 to 9 mana 4-6 colorless UUU"
Are Windrunner's grace and ability to 'dance' on the wind due to their use of Adhesion with Gravitation?
This is part of it. Part of it is also them learning how to skydive, essentially.
I am in the very small minority of your readers that finds Hoid obnoxious and unpleasant. So will we see more characters talk negatively about Hoid, or expose some of what he has done in the past? I bet there are a lot more people like Shai out there ...
There are a ton. But I don't know when exactly I'll be able to get to them. Suffice it to say that you wouldn't find yourself alone in that opinion in the cosmere.
I happened to notice that Aon Ene in AonDor, which is said to represent debate, is used to control timing in Aon sequences. Is this an intentional connection with logicspren, which are drawn to debates, being used for timing in fabrials?
Yes, it is. There are a few more connections like this in some of the other magics I hope to be able to get to before too long.
Will we see more fights like these [Kaladin vs Zahel] in the future of the cosmere to settle all the debates? Would have loved to see full Surgebinder vs Returned Awakener.
Also can you say who would win if Zahel and Kal went all out?
I assume Kal couldn't really lash someone with a lot of Breath. But my money is on the Windrunner.
Being able to fly is a huge tactical advantage in most fights, so I'd agree with you to an extent. But Vasher could probably beat anyone alive in a fair swordfight.
Finally, thank you for writing Kaladin like this during this chapter [Rhythm of War Chapter Fifteen]. As someone who struggles with depression and is often brooding, I do have my good days and still have some serotonin in my brain. I get excited about doing things I’m good at and I think you nailed that aspect.
One of the worries I had starting this book with Kaladin down was that people would forget that he can be up--so I wanted to make sure to get there in this section as well.
Are there any mythologies that you have hoped to incorporate into the cosmere in some form, like Celtic, Norse, Egyptian, or Chinese?
No, that's not really how I look at it. I don't generally say "I'm going to be inspired by this mythology." I know a lot of writers do, and that's fine. I tend to look and say, "This part of this mythology is really interesting. It says something about this culture." The Norse mythology that they are going to lose; Ragnarok is going to happen. That is fascinating. The idea that Greek and Roman mythologies had these different names for what were essentially the same gods that, over time, became more and more like one another is a really cool idea. I like that aspect of it.
But even when I wrote the spren, which have some roots in Shinto and some Asian mythologies, it's not like I'm sitting down and saying, "I'm gonna use this." What I'm saying is, "What fascinates me." The idea that everything has a soul fascinates me. The idea from Plato that there are multiple realms of existence. These things mix together. And certainly there are other seeds like that that I will incorporate. But I don't sit down and say, "This is the time to do this."
Once in a while, I'll use a culture like that and say, "I'm gonna use the linguistics of this culture and kind of base some things on this culture because it is interesting to me." You've seen me do that with the Horneaters. But mythologies, not as much.
As a medical student who is currently in my musculoskeletal class, how different is the internal anatomy of the "humans" of the worlds of the cosmere? Like structure and number of muscles, bones, organs, things like that.
In general, you wouldn't have a problem. There would be minor differences. Like, there's gonna be some slight anatomy differences for, like, Scadrians, who were changed to deal with the ash and stuff. You'd be like, "Wow, the lungs are different here." And Roshar is a lower-gravity, higher-oxygen environment, and you're gonna find longer bones, you're gonna find stuff like that on Roshar. But, in general, you would be like, "This is a human whose species is slightly evolved for a different environment." Rather than "this is not human at all."
Now, if you were to ask about an Aimian, either variety, they would be very, very, very different. You would be like Bones trying to operate on Spock. The Sleepless, you'd need a very different degree for dealing with them. I'm very excited to eventually get the Sleepless fully into the stories. They're from my second novel, Star's End, is the very first appearance of them. And they got ported over to the cosmere once I designed the cosmere. And are a really cool, in my mind, science fiction race that are not a hivemind, but an individual is made up of a group of large insects that share Cognitive load across all of them, and there's just so many fun things you can do with that. Because they can selectively breed parts of their own body to do different things and have, like, fifty generations of this group of insect that they are selectively breeding to do this specific thing, and stuff like that. Hasn't been a lot of space for them in the cosmere, yet. Just some brief appearances. They'll be very important during the space age.
One of the reasons I've not been firm on what the names of the sixteen Shards are is because I want that flexibility to be able to say "no, this is what the cosmere needs, is a persona like this to have a Shard, and the Shard doing this." By the time Rhythm of War comes out, I think we will have canonized all sixteen or very close to all sixteen. But I wanted to take my time doing that.
I am likely done writing Legion novellas. I still hold out hope for a television show; we have the rights to that sold. And there's a decent chance we'll do some audio originals that I'll do with a co-author on those. So if you really like Steven Leeds, I've always imagined Legion as a television show pitch. That is from the very first novella, I am writing in-depth episodes (kind of like the Sherlock episodes of the BBC Sherlock), standalone episodes that build on each other was my pitch to myself.
Where does Dawnshard fit, time-frame wise?
Three months after Oathbringer, which puts it in Rosharan terms seven months-ish before Rhythm of War. (Ten-month years.)
But we should probably mention that you don't have to read this one to read Rhythm of War.
You do not. I have written Rhythm of War in such a way that, if you haven't read this, you will not really be confused. There will be a few things where you're like, "Oh, that's probably what that's referencing." And if you read this after, it's not going to ruin either story.
I did something very specific with the Rysn interlude in Rhythm of War that allows us to preserve most of what happened in Dawnshard, so far, so that you will not have it spoiled when you get to that interlude. I've done something very different for that interlude, let's just say. And I did that because I hadn't written Dawnshard yet, when I wrote the Rysn interlude. In fact, it's the last thing I wrote for the book, was that interlude. And let's just say that interlude is from a different viewpoint. We'll just say that.
And references to what happened are in the story, but they're mostly kind of vague, because even most of the people in the main storyline don't know the specifics of what happened in the novella. It's kind of like what happened in Edgedancer, where what happened to Lift is not really generally understood and known by everyone else, because she was off on her own.
It is done. First draft is finished. It is The Lopen and Rysn.
What are two cosmere characters that have never met (and maybe never will) that you would be most excited to write a scene involving?
It is Lift and Wayne. Preferably after Lift is of age, and they can go drinking together. But even before, I think, they would make a very interesting pairing.
Alloy of Law leatherbounds? Have you made any decisions?
Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self will come together. They will be separate leatherbound books, but they will be packaged together, not in a slip case. They will probably be, together, around $150 as a package.
We're gonna try to keep elements of the design from the Mistborn books, so that they look good in a line, but have something that is a little bit different about them.
Because of our contracts, we will not sell them separately.
How much Szeth in Book 4?
Szeth gets a viewpoint (an interlude, I believe) and has a small, but significant, role in this book.
I’m curious, based on Adolin’s behavior towards his father getting more and more rebellious and antagonistic.
Did Dalinar tell his family about Evi and what he was confessing g before the book was published or did they find out like the general public?
He kind of told them. He had the book read to Adolin and Renarin, in draft form, before he started releasing those drafts.
I perked up when Zahel mentioned Hoid! I just wonder how much we'll get to read about Hoid in this book. I really hope it's more than just an epilogue, he really seems like the type of guy who can offer A LOT of information but is too engrossed in his own journey towards a hitherto unknown goal to care about the plebian things lol
He's a little more involved than normal. (A trend that should continue into the next book, the final of this sequence.)
Chapter Sixteen
Seems like a good place to talk about my philosophy on how I choose viewpoint characters for these books. I've been getting DMs saying, "Why no Dalinar viewpoints?" or "Why no Adolin viewpoints?" And I can understand frustration there.
When I started this series, however, I dug into the multi-book epic fantasy stories I'd enjoyed in the past, as well as the more popular examples, and tried to really nail down the pitfalls of the format. A main one felt, to me, to be character sprawl. These series tend to end up with so many interesting characters that the author, in turn, ends up having entire sequences (and even books) that don't move the storyline forward, but instead investigate new storylines.
While I do appreciate some of that, I wanted to do what I could to mitigate that. Which meant limiting my viewpoints, even among main characters. This helps prevent sprawl, at least for me, because when I'm in someone's head, I naturally begin working on subplots and character arcs for them. In this case, I needed to keep my focus, and limit myself. To not try to do full sequences for every character in every part of every book. While I know some of you would have enjoyed that, I would really rather finish this series before I am a hundred--and feel that the books need to be as focused as is reasonable for their length.
That's why when I outline, I look at all the characters that COULD have a viewpoint in a given section--then narrow my scope to a few of them. Dalinar most certainly could have had viewpoints in Part One of this book, but I decided it was Navani's perspective that made the most sense for this story. So, while you get to see a healthy dose of Dalinar, we don't have his viewpoints.
Those will come later in the book, in a part where it makes sense to have his perspective on things. I need to look for the characters that are adding the most to a given sequence--that usually means the ones who are changing the most, learning the most, or who have the most tension in their sequence. I do feel bad for this somewhat cutthroat use of viewpoints at times, but I believe it is the right decision--it's either this, or watch the series balloon to many more books while at the same time slowing the narrative down to the point that books pass, and you wonder what was actually accomplished in them.
Only three more chapters left in these previews before you get the entire book! (Also, apologies for those who found this annotation repetitive from things I've said before. It is difficult to judge, sometimes, what is new information to the majority of readers and what is becoming well-worn, so to speak.)
As Elantris was getting published, I sat down and did an outline for the Mistborn trilogy (which I expanded to nine books in the middle of that outline" and said, "What if I made this backbone series to the cosmere?" (As I was then kind of officially calling it in my head.) I went to my editor, I pitched it; I talked about Adonalsium, this god who was Shattered long ago, and sixteen individuals took up pieces of that god, the Intents of the god. Like that god's Honor, or that god's sense of entropy (which was called Ruin) or things like this, and then went out into the cosmere and were kind of ruling over these planets, or involved in these planets, or sometimes just lightly touching these planets. The sixteen Shards of Adonalsium, as we call them.
Has knowing that Tor releases the first big chunk of your books when they're coming out change the way you write? For example, more cliffhangers, things like that?
Nope, it hasn't. Good question. But I am the one who picks what Tor releases. They would not be releasing nearly as much if it weren't my choice, if I hadn't suggested it and strongly encouraged it. It doesn't change how I write the chapters. That's not really a factor in it for me.
I am having a lot of fun writing a little annotation for every time Tor does a release on Tuesdays. I go on Reddit on the thread and write a little annotation about the chapter (or chapters).
Do you see yourself ever releasing any more Sanderson Curiosities? And if so, when?
Response to Way of Kings Prime was strong enough that I would at least like to release, in hardcover form, the good ones. The good books from the Sandersons Curiosities are: White Sand, Aether of Night, and Dragonsteel. They are all of an equivalent quality, I would say; as in being slightly worse than Elantris. Maybe significantly worse, but has similar problems. They're all good enough books that I don't think you waste your time reading them. They are just not good enough books that I would want to mass release them. They are, I think, great books to read as somebody who is like, "This is one of Brandon's early books that could have gotten published, good enough to get published, but didn't quite make it there." And I think people can have a lot of fun with those.
So I would imagine that we do one of these per Stormlight Kickstarter. Because we will probably continue to do... the Stormlight Archive books are just a big enough thing and require a big enough gear-up and enough funds that we'll probably continue to do one of those every three years. We will continue to do other leatherbounds, not as Kickstarters. They have smaller print runs, and we probably will continue to do all of those in bonded leather, and then do the Stormlight books in Kickstarters. And we will probably have a new Curiosity each time. So I would expect us to have White Sand, Dragonsteel, and Aether of Night curiosities in the next three of these Kickstarters.
And then we'll take a long, hard look at what we have left. Because after that, we go down another jump in quality. We have Mistborn Prime and Final Empire Prime, which are probably the next two in quality. Where they aren't bad books, and I think they're readable, but they're a little step further away from what ended up being my vision. But I think that White Sand, Dragonsteel, and Aether of Night are probably a little bit stronger of novels than Way of Kings Prime. So maybe Final Empire Prime and Mistborn Prime are both kind of equivalent to that.
Then, after that, we have another big dip in quality, and then you get things like Star's End, which was my second novel. You get things like Knight Life, which was my attempt at a comedic, sort of Bob Asprin adventure-style comedy. (Mostly cringe, with a little bit of actual comedy.) And the book I called The Sixth Incarnation of Pandora, which is a cyberpunk look at immortality, where people have been turned into superweapons with nanites and stuff like that, and I have no idea how that book measures up anymore. It's the book I wrote right before Elantris. But those ones, I could even see releasing those.
Then, we have a huge dip in quality for White Sand Prime and Lord Mastrell Prime, which are the first versions, the first books I wrote, and are really bad. And Mythwalker, which is the one I didn't finish because it just wasn't any good. And those are the other Sanderson Curiosities. I would not expect us to ever release those. Those are just bad enough that they aren't worth charging you for. Whereas a lot of these books are things I was experimenting with and exploring with and getting better at, they're my journeyman works, the first version (White Sand Prime and Lord Mastrell) are the equivalent of the stuff you do as a filmmaker in high school with your parents' camera, your parents' phone, where you make your own Indiana Jones movie with your parents' phone when you're sixteen. That's the equivalent of what you would be getting, and I just don't know if I can charge people for that. Maybe we'll put 'em up free on my website, and if people really wanna complete the collection, they can complete them and have them bound themselves.
How much artistic license did Michael [Whelan] have when designing the cover [of Rhythm of War] and what your process is when working with him to get the cover vision that you're going for?
Our preference is to give artists a lot of leeway for personal interpretation. I, personally, believe any piece of fan-art or official art is that artist's vision of what they saw in their head when they were reading the book. And that's going to differ greatly from what someone else would see, and I like seeing those interpretations. I like seeing those visions. So we try to give quite a bit of leeway and flexibility to the artist.
For instance, Michael (being the consummate professional he is) sent, like, ten sketches of possibilities. And we had ones we liked the most, and fortunately they were the same ones that he liked the most. But mostly, we say, "These are all great. Which one do you enjoy? Which one are you most excited to paint?" And we move that direction most of the time. Isaac will usually have continuity comments, and we want to make sure that things are in continuity, but we give a lot of freedom to the artists. We don't really want to chain them down. We want art to inspire art.
And so, because of that, people look different in some of our official interpretations. And I think that's okay, because that's how artwork goes. We're not trying to match a really exacting style guide on the characters, usually. And that lets us have the cover art for the UK cover look very different from the covert art form the US cover, and even have different interpretations on the characters in different ways. We'll catch the big things. We'll say "put a glove on her" if there's a scandalous hand exposed. We'll say "this is what the patch looks like that should be on Kaladin's shoulder." Stuff like that, we will do, but we try to give a lot of freedom.
I really like this cover. This is my favorite of his covers since the first one.
How are you feeling about Dawnshard?
Dawnshard is just a lot of fun to write. How am I feeling about it? The structure's a little odd, so I'm not sure what alphas and betas will think of that. "Little odd" meaning it's about a trip to Aimia, but about half of it is the trip there, and half of it... it's kind of like what happened with, actually, the King Kong movie that Peter Jackson made, where there's as much stuff happening before you get to the place as actually on the place. So that's one thing that I'm... I'm not concerned about, but I'm wondering how people respond to.
I have to say, it's been a real pleasure to write it because Rysn and Lopen are not characters that I get to do a lot of viewpoints from. And if I had to do this from one of the main-line Stormlight characters, I think it wouldn't be nearly as fun, because I basically exhaust my excitement for writing about them during the books, where they are very involved, and it takes me eighteen months to recuperate and then to get back to it excited again. But I almost never get to write Lopen scenes, and we only get one Rysn scene per book, and they both have really interesting ways of seeing the world. (Lopen in particular. And he's a blast to write. Always keeps things fun and interesting.)
Stormlight tabletop RPG game. Have you ever looked into that? Would you ever consider that?
We would consider it. Since we've done one with Mistborn, it is certainly something we would consider. And Stormlight would be the thing we would do. But the Mistborn game is still having active support, and we enjoy our partnership there with Crafty, so there hasn't been a lot of real nitty-gritty detail discussion of doing a tabletop RPG. I expect it will happen someday, how about that; but we don't have any immediate plans.
Do you ever dive into fan theories? And has it perhaps helped you to come up with a solution for some plot issue you have trouble figuring out?
Plot issues, no. Because, if I'm having trouble with a plot issue, that's usually during the outlining stage, and it happens well before fans are seeing things and can theorize on things. But, once in a while, in writing group I'll be doing something, and they'll start theorizing, and I'll be like, "Oh, that's a way better idea than what I had!" And that helps a ton; writing group can do that. The danger of writing group is, sometimes, they can take over the book. But as an outliner (as I am), that never happens to me. So if they are theorizing about something...
Really what it helps me is when people are theorizing along certain directions, it tells me what they're interested in, what they're thinking about, what they're expecting. And as a storyteller, one of my big goals is always to be in control of reader expectations, at least on the large scale, so that I know how people are gonna respond to what I'm writing. And I am creating and shaping that experience for people, and fan theories are really great for helping me understand where I need to put emphasis, what I've explained, what details are foreshadowed well enough.
I'm of the philosophy that most major things that happen in a series (like the ones I write) should be foreshadowed well enough that people are figuring out what's happening. This doesn't alarm me when people figure out early what's going to happen, because this entire series is about the journey. And I feel like if my signposts are correct, people are gonna have a general instinct.
That said, I always do like to add a few zingers that people aren't anticipating at all. I like those, when either they're the sort of zinger that surprises the cast; something happened in life that nobody's anticipating. And the fun is how people respond, rather than the actual surprise itself. Or the sort of surprising-yet-inevitable; the things that you aren't expecting until it happens, and then realize you should have expected it. So, I do like to throw those out now and then. Like, the little twist that happens with Adolin at the end of Words of Radiance; this is not something that I think people could have guessed, but it makes sense with his character. And so people were shocked, but not surprised, if that makes sense. And those sorts of twists, I really like to do.
But fan theories, I do read them when they pop up on Reddit. Mostly because people are asking me about them. And I find them very interesting. But they're more relevant in a "market research" sort of way than they are in a "figure out how to fix this problem" sort of way.
Is it a lack of want that we don't see Zahel or Azure form bonds? Or would a bond prevent them from using Awakenings. How compatible are the two systems?
RAFO, I'm afraid.
In his current revised in-world framework, would Vasher include the Lifeless in the same category as Shadows in the Type IIs? You've talked in the Warbreaker Annotations about how it was a mistake for the awakeners to keep the Lifeless in the dark:
Lightsong Sees the Lifeless and Takes Command of Them
They keep them in the dark. This is a bad idea. They don't realize it, but the Lifeless are far more aware than everyone assumes. Clod in this book is a foreshadowing of that, and there won't be much more about it in the rest of the novel. It's one of the focus points for the sequel, if I ever write it. (Which will actually have a Lifeless as a viewpoint character, if I can find a way to swing it.)
And then there is the in-story information given to us about how Lifeless retain some measure of their skills from before their death. Would it be fair to say that the Lifeless would be considered by Vasher to be Cognitive Shadows of this nature:
For the weaker ones, just kill the body again, make sure no one Invests the soul with more strength, and they’ll slip away in a few minutes.
This is RAFO material in that it is a possible plot point for a future Warbreaker book. (Sorry.)
So, initially spren had imitated the heralds which then brought about the Knight Radiants and granted them similar powers. Can a spren, upon seeing worldhoppers like Vasher using biochromatic breaths, learn to imitate those as well over time? For Vasher can gain access to stormlight, so I'm wondering if spren can somehow also be able to access different investiture.
There is something to this theory, but I need to RAFO details.
So, Zahel seems to carry a lot of baggage from his various experiences with war and violence.
Will we get to see what lead to him being this way?
Goal is for you to eventually get these answers. Either in the Warbreaker sequel, or another place that will become evident as the cosmere progresses.
And if you let a man die with too Invested a soul—or Invest him right as he’s dying—he’ll leave behind a shadow you can nail back onto a body. His own, if you’re feeling charitable.
[Secret History spoilers] was that mean to be a subtle nod to Kelsier tied in with the awesome exposition and realisations?
Yes, to an extent.
Are Elantrians or regular people who've brought enough breath to stop ageing prone to the psychological effect Zahel mentioned - to use a spoiler safe phrasing.
RAFO, I'm afraid.
Was Pattern alone in Lin's safebox?
RAFO.
Can we expect these kind of chapter notes [Rhythm of War Annotations] for the rest of the book once it’s released? I absolutely love them.
I wish I could say yes, but these sorts of things are really tough for me to promise. I used to do way more of them, but the amount of writing I need to do these days can get prohibitive. For example, Dawnshard taking a little longer to revise than anticipated has put me behind on Skyward 3, and I'd really like to make deadline on that.
If the gemstone was split you could essentially get entangled particles. Stormlight powered quantum computers?
RAFO. :)
I would want to ask him what he added [to Dawnshard during revisions]. Was he generally adding little parts everywhere and surprised that he had increased the word count or maybe writing entirely new chapters? Was this increase of words planned?
This increase wasn't planned, but I found that (based on some beta reader responses) that I needed to fill out a few character arcs and dig deeper into a few side characters, and their motivations, in order for the story to actually work. This required several new scenes and expansion to several others. It wasn't what I wanted to do, but it was what the story needed. Since I'll be releasing (as part of the kickstarter rewards) all drafts of the story, you'll be able to see for yourself what I mean, if you are interested enough to dig into the earlier drafts.
Indeed! But most of the best mines were not in the central dominance, so they didn't play as often into the story. You should expect mining all across the land, but do remember that the amount of metal used by allomancers (who are still relatively rare) doesn't really impact how much needs to be mined. Compared to what's needed for industry and the like, the amount used by allomancers just doesn't figure in. And so what is produced in the Final Empire would be similar to what would be in any other nation of their tech level.
Just as a point of clarification, was Vasher physically articulating his Commands in this chapter, or is he capable of bypassing that need, for whatever reason? (skill, Heightening, etc.)
You can assume he whispered each Command as he gave them.
Chapter Fifteen
I've been waiting for you guys to read this one, as it has some of my favorite moments in the first part. From the conversation with Rlain, and me finally being able to talk about some of the mechanics that let the Listeners survive on the Shattered Plains, to--of course--being able to write a fight using Awakening for the first time in a while. I also enjoy writing about Kaladin through the eye of someone like Zahel, as it gives me some interesting opportunities.
Obviously, I'm pushing (again) the boundaries of what a reader can be expected to remember/know about the cosmere to enjoy these books.
It's my opinion that thinking "Zahel can do weird, mysterious stuff I don't understand" is all right for those readers who don't have a larger cosmere experience. In fact, I'm confident that even if Warbreaker hadn't been released, I'd be writing scenes like this in the same way. It's a common trope in fantasy for the powerful figure, like Gandalf, to do things that seem outside the rules everyone else has to follow. One thing I like about having the cosmere to play with as a creator is that it lets me do scenes like this, which both are mysterious but also fully explained by the greater magic system, if you want to dig into it.
I will say that Zahel is making an informed guess about Szeth in this chapter. He doesn't know 100%.
This is your last relatively cosmere-aware chapter for the previews, I'm afraid. There are a few more similar to this much later in the book.
Writing the climactic sequence of Rhythm of War was the culmination of decades of planning and hoping. “It’s one of the big touchstone moments from when I built the outline all those years ago. When I was first trying to break in, I wrote so many first novels,” he says. “You can’t sell book three of a series if a publisher rejected book one, which meant I was creating all these outlines for huge series I never got to write. Young Brandon wished he could write some of the cool things he’d imagined for later books. This one I actually got to execute, and it was so satisfying. I finally got to a book four.”
I just have a quick question about the appearance of the new Kholinar palace and the towers being built for the shanay-im. Do they have the same almost organic look as the palace?
Yes, though not to the extent of the palace.
