Recent entries

    Children of the Nameless Reddit AMA ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    Before we start, I wanted to say something about continuity and canon. I don't represent Wizards of the Coast, obviously. This was a very fun project, and I had a lot of freedom in developing Davriel, Tacenda, and the lore of the Approaches. However, I can't state or make official Magic canon, beyond the extent of what is in the text of the story.

    So, when I answer these questions, I'll often have a couple of different terms. If I mention Official Canon, this is (by my understanding) the current canon of the Magic storyline--as explained to me by the local in-house experts. I could be wrong on this sort of thing, but I'll try to pass along my understanding of what the canon answer is in relationship to this story. (For example, I was assured it was okay to have female demons in my story, despite it not being something that Wizards has done very much in the past.)

    I'll relate my own Head Canon on other items--things that I haven't cleared with Wizards. This should be taken as what I was going for, and can work for your understanding of the story, but it shouldn't be taken as gospel--and it could very well be contradicted by future decisions by the lore team. They take their continuity very seriously, and I am not up-to-date on everything they're doing with the stories of the other characters. I was pretty focused on my little corner of the multiverse.

    In other places, I'll talk about decisions I made (or didn't make) in relation to the story--if I am talking about the process, you shouldn't infer too much from decisions I didn't make. I did a lot of this work before talking to the lore team about larger continuity, so things I considered (and discarded) before the story was finished shouldn't be taken as hints for the larger story. To be honest, I didn't know much about it at that stage anyway.

    Children of the Nameless Reddit AMA ()
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    DataLoreHD

    When can we expect all your non-Cosmere novellas be collected into one anthology book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We are quietly getting everything ready for the non-cosmere collection, just in case. The thing that would make us pull the trigger early would be if Snapshot actually gets greenlit for a film at MGM--though I don't know how close we are to that. We want want to be ready just in case.

    I feel like it needs one more story or two before publishing it otherwise, though, so I'd expect a little wait.

    Glamdring804

    I remember hearing a while ago that there was a non-Cosmere collection in the works. I too would like to know if this is still a thing, before I go and buy each novella or short story individually.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It WILL happen, so you might want to wait--but the release of the movie (if it happens) for Snapshot will influence timing. I wouldn't expect it in 2019, if it does happen. 2020 would be much more likely.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    Lopen's arm. In Stormlight, you cannot regrow if your brain-- your soul has accepted the change?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Perception is very important to this, yes.

    Questioner

    So is he just crazy enough to believe that he still had an arm?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, it's more like, he never saw himself as being-- he saw himself as the person *inaudible* and not being disabled by what happened to him. It's not craziness, it's just a matter of perception. What you're running into Kaladin with his brands in particular is that he thinks he deserves them.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    What's the relationship between spren and seons?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They are the same thing from different magics.

    Questioner

    Okay, exact same thing from different magics?

    Brandon Sanderson

    "Exact," may be a little too strict, but yeah.

    Questioner

    So a seon can be transferred to another person, right?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Questioner

    Can a spren?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    Are we ever going to see the Moon Scepter on screen and what it does?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, you should see the Moon Scepter on screen. What it does is it works as a kind of Rosetta Stone for interpreting some of the magics.

    Questioner

    So that's why Hoid wanted it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's why Hoid wanted it, yes. He's  trying to figure out how to give himself-- To be able to use the magics on Sel, and that's a key that he wanted.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    If I were to alloy atium and lerasium, would I get harmonium? Or is harmonium different after the Shards combined?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's different after the Shards combined.

    Questioner

    If I was to take harmonium and separate it out through distillation, would I get lerasium and atium or something that functions similarly?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, you would-- It actually has become a different--

    Questioner

    Can't be split?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. I mean, you could find a way, but you're not going to get it through normal, mechanical means.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    What's Kaladin's last name?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Kaladin doesn't have a last name because, in Alethkar, your last name is your House name. He is vacillating on what his House name would be, everyone just calls him Kaladin Stormblessed. There's a realistic expectation that if he wanted to be a Kholin, he could be a Kholin, if he wanted to adopt that as his own House name instead of having a different one.

    But right now he's just called Kaladin Stormblessed.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    To get into the mind of Bleeder, was that hard?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, to get into the mind of Bleeder, who is an antagonist in Shadows of Self, is probably the darkest I've gone in one of my books, and yeah. It was, but it was also somewhere I hadn't explored before, and so it was really interesting to me.

    Questioner

    It's my favorite character so far.

    Brandon Sanderson

    You will like, if I ever write the Threnody novel, you will like that one. Which is the Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, that book. I do have a book in the Cosmere sequence planned in that world, but it doesn't have that character.

    General Signed Books 2018 ()
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    MiToRo94

    Since all matter and energy are Investiture in different forms, and the magic of Investiture depends on the Shard it is most closely connected to, could it be theoretically possible for Lift to burn food on Scadrial to have the powers of a Mistborn?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This wouldn't happen naturally - she would still get Surgebinding powers, even on Scadrial.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    Did Kelsier help in the search for [Hoid] that Galladon and Demoux were doing in the Purelakes?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Good question--

    Questioner

    He's the only one that can call him something similar, like "Drifter" so -

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, I'm going to RAFO that-- Not quite where-- I'll just RAFO it. I'll just RAFO it. Kelsier is not on Roshar, but obviously that's not what you're asking, which is what I thought you were.

    Questioner

    He has an aura that fits in with--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Mmhmm!

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    Is the cosmere, the thread connecting several of your series, something that came from the beginning, or something that kind of grew?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What a great question! So the cosmere, which is the thread connects a lot of my books together. All of my epic fantasies are connected in this world called the cosmere. Was that from the beginning, or was it something that grew?

    So I had, I often point to the fact that I had those years not getting published as a big advantage, because while I was working on those books, I didn't write the first ones as a connected shared universe. It was after I had done a number of them, that I'm like, "Hey, there's something here! There's a thread that I can weave together." But by the time I got published, I knew all of that right?

    And so, like when I wrote Mistborn, which was my, the first book I wrote knowing it would get published. Elantris was my first published, it was number 6 in those years. I sat down specifically with Mistborn and built the cosmere, using some of these unpublished books as the history of what had happened. So from the get-go of reading it, it was all interconnected. Elantris got retrofitted a little bit, to fit in with this. From Mistborn is where it all kind of starts working together and things like that.

    I was inspired to do this by authors I had read who did this really well, that I liked. Stephen King did it. Michael Moorcock did it. It really kind of blew my mind when Asimov connected the Robots and the Foundation books. Of course, you know, comics have been doing it forever. But when I saw authors doing it is what made me really excited. I would count those as inspiration.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Questioner

    If you would spontaneously, prematurely die, is there any author you would consider ideal for finishing your work?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I usually pick Brian McClellan. Just because he's my student and I wanna be mean to him. I've warned him, I haven't asked him if he'd do it, I just warn him. I tell people that he will do it. And he's like, "Oh. *grumble*" We're good friends. But Brian would actually be a really good match. Properly outlined, Brian is one of the better writers out there.

    Second Questioner

    I love that caveat.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brian is-- Brian can go off. He knows this but-- yeah.

    Skyward Houston signing ()
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    Paladin Brewer

    Previously you were asked if Hoid could have been using the lerasium to alloy with other metals to change his spiritweb, and you answered it was technically possible. Does that mean you’re finally admitting that Hoid did not digest the bead?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I am not admitting that. It was possible for him to do that, but he did not.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    Would it be possible to Awaken a microbe, like a bacterium?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Probably not. I could imagine that happening. Awaken is the wrong term for it. I would say "No, because Awaken is the wrong term for it." But Investiture could potentially create something weird out of that.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    I noticed during Oathbringer, is there a symbolism between the color red? Because I noticed that red is mentioned many times. Is it tied directly to the Thrill?

    Brandon Sanderson

    When I am using red specifically for spren and eye color, I'm doing it intentionally. It means something. I'm not gonna tell you what it means yet.

    Questioner

    Azure's cloth was red, and Adolin picked up a red glass sphere.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Some of that is going to be coincidence. But the color of the thing that is going to Scadrial is not coincidence.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    What happens if there was a Feruchemist who was an Elantrian? Could they store Elantrian abilities into a nicrosil metalmind?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm RAFOing most of the stuff, but that one's a RAFO just because I am leaving nicrosil Feruchemy far away until I get there... I'm basically RAFOing everything about Investiture and Connection metalminds and things like that...

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    I heard you talk about the Vorin languages have a vowel shift. I'm a linguist so...

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm kind of bad at vowel shifts, but it does have a vowel shift. You'll see Kalak being called Kelek, and some of these things like this. And I try to stay consistent with it, but I've also not been as rigorous with it as I maybe should be. Peter always points out little errors I've made. So it's a vowel shift that has some inconsistencies, how about that. But of course, real-world vowels shifts have it.

    Questioner

    You need to publish something only about the conlang.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Only about the linguistics? Yeah, having an assistant who has a degree in linguistics is really handy. Peter's been of very big use, particularly on Stormlight, because I didn't have him before those books. I just kind of had to muddle through it. And now I've got him. I'll call him up and say, "Pronounce this; pronounce this." There are lots of names in Stormlight that I can't pronounce that he can... The Arabic /q/ ...he can do, and I can't. Which we use a lot in some of the names over in Azir, and stuff like that.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    Did you actually go through a horseback riding orientation for that scene in Words of Radiance, because that is literally how it works.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have done it before in my life, and I was drawing on that. I did have to go get some horse experts, because I got some things wrong. That's kind of a little bit how my first experience riding horses went. I have a cousin who... rode show horses when she was younger.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    AmbitionsAvatar

    Why didn't we get to see Dalinar meet Gallant in Oathbringer in the flashbacks? I was so disappointed...

    Brandon Sanderson

    I planned that for a different flashback... I intentionally didn't put that one in, because it didn't fit the rest of the narrative that I was telling. But I will do that eventually.

    AmbitionsAvatar

    Is it after he arrives at the Shattered Plains?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I will RAFO that for now, because I'd have to go look exactly at the timeline where I'm slipping it in.

    AmbitionsAvatar

    But it's around that time?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, it's more recent than most of the things that you're reading about... Let's say, the person that Dalinar has been through most of his life would not end up with him... I will get into it. I realize that that was a hole that is not in the story, and it's an intentional one. But I eventually worked in the flashbacks with Kaladin in the last book, I found a little extra place for them. I'll try to find some of those for Dalinar.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    Is Lhan from the [Way of Kings Prime] reading the same one from Book 2?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, that is the same Brother Lhan. I knew he wasn't going to get to have a big part in the books once I moved Taln so far off. So I gave him a nice cameo with his own interlude so that at least he would be in the books. Because in that version, he basically wandered around, following Taln, complaining for the entire book.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    What is the inspiration for the Parshendi?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There are a lot of different inspirations. One is wanting to build out of the setting a species that interacted with the setting and had a symbiotic relationship with the setting. The other was the idea of a people whose caste system, you could change castes and physically change into other castes of the system. So something like the hives you see, where you can switch from worker to various different tasks. I liked the cultural aspects of what that did.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    What's your Smedry talent?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...I usually say "being long-winded." But the truth is, when I wrote the books, I kind of did all the stuff that I do as the first powers. So I'm habitually late, bad at dancing, good at breaking things... But if you actually go "What's the core one," probably being long-winded. I can say things that could be said in one word, in seventeen instead.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    I have a quick question about the uniforms in Skyward. Is there a specific color for Skyward flight?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not for Skyward flight. They are all using the same jumpsuits, and things like this. By the second book, they probably will have... once they kind get ahead of it a little bit, they can start doing things like painting the ships. But in this book, really, you're basically wearing a jumpsuit--

    Questioner

    It's blue, it's unceremonial.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Mmhmm.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    How do you approach creating scenes? Do you create how you want the scene to play out, and then make the magic system? Or do you make the magic system work first?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Usually, I do magic system first. The way scenes, I construct, is usually I have big goals in my story. For instance, in Mistborn, Vin is going to learn to train all the powers of a Mistborn. By the end, I want her to be fairly competent. So then I have that goal, and I write down, "What are scenes that can move me toward that goal?" In that outline, it would be: she trains with Ham in one scene, she trains with Marsh in another scene, she trains with Breeze in another scene. What else can I make those scenes do to move character and stuff, to try to pack more into those scenes. But I'll construct those scenes as goals towards the ending.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    It kind of felt like you let Adolin off the hook for murder.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would say no, I didn't. There will be more implications there, but what you've gotta understand is, Adolin does not view what he did as murder. His dad is uncertain if it is. And his dad is the ultimate judge of legality. There will be far-reaching implications of this, but kind of the way a society like that works, if you didn't get caught and you are the son of the king, then you get a little-- you know what I mean?

    Questioner

    Is it yet to be resolved?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yet to have the full extent of its implications, how about that? I would say that you are perfectly right if you were to say he did something morally wrong. There are many who would agree with you; there are many who would disagree with you. And that disagreement is part of what the story is about.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    Someday... once I'm sure everything that it would spoil has been released, I will release [Way of Kings Prime] so you can read it. You can probably see that, if you read Stormlight, a chunk of the book belonging to Taln moved to Szeth, instead, who was a character in the first book but had a slightly different plot. Eventually, we will get to the whole story, though.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    What was your inspiration for Wayne?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Wayne had a lot of inspirations... Obviously, there's some Mat Cauthon going on for me when I do Wayne, particularly the way that Mat would see the world differently from the that way he would act. The original inspiration for Wayne was a character who changed personalities based on which hat he wore. He was actually the lead in a Mistborn story I was writing, and he didn't work well without someone to play off of... Some characters work way better when they are surrounded by more normal people. Not gonna say anything about things like the Minion movie (which my children loved), but it's very hard to tell a story about everyone being crazy instead of having a framework of someone to keep it going in the right direction. So that was a big inspiration for Wayne.

    The other big inspiration for Wayne was something I noticed about human nature, where I wanted to tell a story about a character who had some really deep-- Wayne should bother you. Like the way he treats Steris. And the way he treats Ranette. And the way he treats some of the people in his life should really bother you. And one of my goals with Wayne was to tell a story that mimics what I see in real life, where there are people I know and I love who also have this way about them that you realize they aren't quite-- grown-up's the wrong term... Like, all of us are the heroes in our own group of friends. We're all the hero of our story. We each have different things we're working on. And some of them are classic good storytelling things, like "I'm gonna learn to be more bold." Which is totally me. Totally something I need to work on. But some of them are "I treat people who aren't in my inner circle really poorly, especially if they're trying to get into my inner circle. And then when you're in my inner circle, I have a dysfunctional relationship with you a lot of time." And I thought I could only really do that with a character that you loved while you were really annoyed by them, because otherwise I feel like the character wouldn't work. Maybe I could do it a different way, but I really wanted to dig into that in these new Mistborn books, and Wayne was my vehicle for doing this.

    Some kind of nebulous sort of writerly things going on there.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    I like Mistborn: Secret History. Is there going to be a Mistborn: Secret History 2?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I hope to be able to write one. But this comes back to the "Let's make sure I'm getting the things that I have promised sequels to moving at a reasonable rate before I do side projects like that." So, I'd like to do one, but I'm not promising one.

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
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    Questioner

    What do you feel about people who take your books and are really inspired by them and taking them as their life motto? For the example, the Stormlight Archive mantra "Life before death..."

    Brandon Sanderson

    I am honored. Absolutely. The things that I am putting in the books are things I'm passionate about, things I'm thinking about, things that I think are relevant. I am completely honored. And I guess it would depend on whose motto you take. But absolutely honored, I think it's awesome.