Recent entries

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5252 Copy

    Questioner

    Are birds native to Roshar?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Birds are not native to Roshar.

    Questioner

    ...Did they come over with the initial humans?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They did. The humans brought them over, along with a lot of other beasts. Like, horses aren't native to Roshar either. You can tell pretty easily the non-native things. Like, Roshar doesn't have any grapes. So the word wine got genericized in the same the way that the word chicken did. You'll see bunches of that. Like the way the weather works. Roshar does not have weather patterns like Ashyn did. They're used to seasons. Suddenly, the words for the seasons, all these weird things that you may have been wondering through the first couple of books, you're like, "Oh I see why they just call hard alcohol a wine," or, "I see why they call everything a chicken." It's kind of related to this.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5253 Copy

    Questioner

    You always come up with new ideas for books, when you have so many to write as is, that you've recently started to go from saying things like, "Whenever I get to this book," like the Threnody novel, to, "If I ever get to it." Would you ever let another author write for Cosmere?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is possible. Isaac [Stewart], my art director and long friend for, you know, fifteen years, who's been collaborating on the visual style of Mistborn, really wants to write a Mistborn novel set on one of the Southern Continent places off by itself and I'm intrigued by this idea, 'cause he's somebody I've worked with for so long. So we might see how that happens. So far I haven't been willing to collaborate on any Cosmere stuff, but it's p-- I could see it happening.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5254 Copy

    Questioner

    In White Sand 2, you changed the artist. 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, that was-- we didn't want to do that, I actually hate doing that, but it was with-- keeping-- meeting deadlines and things we were having trouble with the old artist, and so we just needed to make the switch so that we could get the books out. And that's the thing I like the least about the comics industry, artists changing, it's really-- yeah. But it is something that had to happen, so we made the call. We do intend that the sec- now this artist will do the book three, so we shouldn't change again, but, yeah.

    With the Dark One comic, which we're working on right now, one of the things I've said up front is we need an artist to make sure that we don't ever change, because I really don't like doing that, I like the same visual style. 

    Questioner

    Yeah, it's like an actor doing this huge thing--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, yeah, and then you get a new actor, it's like-- who?

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5255 Copy

    Questioner

    Trell, who is he? Or if you're not going to reveal that, when will you...

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's going to take a little while to dig into that. It's going to need Mistborn Era 3, is all the Trell stuff.

    Questioner

    But I want more Wayne! Wayne is amazing!

    Brandon Sanderson

    I know! We've got one more book of Wayne. Wax and Wayne 4, we still got a book of Wayne. And then in Era 3, you'll be able to read the comic books in-world based on Wayne. So that'll be a part of it as well. You'll get a little touch of Wayne in there as well.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5256 Copy

    Questioner

    So, who's your favorite Planeswalker or like-- color of mana to play?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Can I say my own Planeswalker? 

    Questioner

    That's because you did write--

    Brandon Sanderson

    I did! If you throw my Davriel out, because obviously I'm gonna pick my own, let's see, who is my favorite? Ashiok is probably my favorite, just because they have such an interesting look to them and I like the powerset, that's the way I like to play, and there's so much mystery about Ashiok, so Ashiok. If we're talking about one that's actually had a story written about them, I really love how they handled Urza, just because you'd expect Urza to be very Gandalf-y and wise, and he was kind of, you know, that black side to Urza was really cool to me. And so-- yeah, there you go.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5257 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there a combination of two Surges that you wouldn't normally see, that'd be fun to write about.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh yeah. It was actually a tough decision to let myself-- make myself put them in the groupings that I did. Because my brain naturally wants to say, "What about this, what about this?"

    What would be really interesting, you could do really cool things as a Stoneward with manipulating matter and changing it and stuff, and then burning things into it with-- whichever power that is-- [Division]... I should know. Well, I should know. But I always go look at the list. The Dustbringer power. But I think you could do really interesting sculpture type stuff with that. With the burning, you could add color to the things, to an extent. Like grayscale? But it's not really something that's built into the magic.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5258 Copy

    Questioner

    If an Inquisitor went to Roshar, would they be a lighteyes or darkeyes?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If an Inquisitor went to Roshar, they would probably be like someone who has heterochromia, one eye of each, meaning people don't know what to do with them and they are very awkward with trying to figure out how to treat them. The society breaks down a little bit when you run into anything that ruins their perfect system. Which is not so perfect, obviously.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5261 Copy

    Questioner

    I've seen a lot of forum posts about the mistcloaks themselves. What is the standard wear underneath those? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    So there isn't a lot of standardization, because Mistborn are rare and each Mistborn commissions their own cloak. Most of the time, I think you're going to find that they would wear a buttoning shirt with short sleeves. Probably something dark would be my guess, probably a dark gray. But it just really depends on the person.

    Questioner

    Okay. I was thinking about working up a Mistborn cosplay--

    Brandon Sanderson

    My theme for clothing other than miscloaks was a look a little of-- Dickensian London was my inspiration, so.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5264 Copy

    Questioner 1

    Are we gonna see more of the girl from The Emperor's Soul? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    You will probably see at least a cameo from Shai. But I do have a second story outlined now, but I don't know when I have time or would have time to write it, so we will see if I can make that happen or not.

    Questioner 2

    Will we have a full-fledged story on the other part of Elantris, that Shai is on?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think it's likely, but I can't promise it. But it's equally likely right now that we will-- I will outline a new graphic novel series, as to I will just do a story, but I can't one hundred percent promise.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5268 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Darksiders have almost as advanced technology as second Era Scadrians.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Questioner

    But then we see Darksiders in The Secret-- in Mistborn: The Secret History. So are they gonna be the first spacefarers, are they gonna get there before Scadrians?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, where it is right now is that certain things have happened to Taldain that have isolated it and cut it off.

    Questioner

    Yeah, a little bit in Arcanum Unbounded talked about that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    And some-- they're under-- going through some difficult times, let's say... So, I will RAFO whether or not they're going to make it first to make it to space, but let's just say they were well on target to making it first before certain events happened.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5269 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Are you ever gonna make an official quiz that sorts people into Knights-- Knights Radiant? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    You know, I'm less likely to do a quiz and more likely to do a list of-- kind of attributes and traits and requirements. I feel that some people are more likely to be able to sort themselves than a quiz sorting them. Granted, it does depend on the spren also, so there are two parties in this. And so, you don't have absolute influence over which order you might end up in. But it is possible to be viable as a candidate for multiple orders and it also is going to depend on the spren.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5275 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Besides Hoid, are we ever going to see people with powers from multiple worlds? Like, a Pewterarm Stoneward?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is inevitable, but I don't think you should be expecting it soon. But it is absolutely an inevitability that this will become part of the story.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5276 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Are we ever gonna see a Twinborn who has Feruchemical iron and Allomantic pewter, and he's pretty much-- sort of like how Ham was training Vin about how to use her body, and we just gonna see this amazing martial artist on a massive scale?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is totally possible. I'm not gonna promise any given combination, 'cause the-- I've changed several times the powersets of characters while I'm planning, so.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5277 Copy

    Truthwatcher_17.5

    Are we ever gonna see more names for specific types of Twinborns?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, I intend to do more of those as the Eras progress. There are so many to name that I don't know that I'll ever release a chart of all of them, and partially I don't want to canonize names because I might decide something sounds cooler for when I actually use that person's powers in a book.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5278 Copy

    Questioner

    I was intrigued ever since I saw your State of the Sanderson about Death Without Pizza.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's good. I'm one chapter, or no I guess it's like three chapters. I'm one day's work away from finishing my revision, to then kick it back to Peter [Orullian]. I'm really, really excited how it's turning out. He knows his metal culture really well, and one of the tricks has been integrating that without making it feel jokey and things like that. I'm very pleased with how it's going.

    Questioner

    What kind of metal influences were you going for?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...Peter really likes the lyrical metal like that, like Dreamtheater. I don't know my subgenres very well, but Apocalyptica gets a mention, that's one I knew, Dragonforce gets a mention, I knew them. But I guess Dragonforce is the same subgenre. My job is worldbuilding and plot, and his job is character voice and making sure all of that works. I'm fascinated by it all.

    Questioner

    So is he more in the editing process, or is he an official co-writer?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He's a co-writer! I came up with the plot and the worldbuilding, I sent it to him, he wrote the whole first draft. Now I'm doing the next draft and then I'm kicking it back to him to do another pass and make sure the voice still matches, and then we'll take it out to publishers.

    Questioner

    What's the character's name?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The main character's name is Jack Solomon.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5279 Copy

    Questioner

    I was wondering about the pictures in the cover of this [Oathbringer]. Are they specific characters in the book, or just art?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They are the Heralds. I went to some artists and said, "Do me your rendition of something that would be on the Sistine Chapel in-world for the Heralds," so that's four of the ten. So that is what we ended up with.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5280 Copy

    Questioner

    I read Skyward, like, two weeks ago, I finished it in two nights. It was honestly one of my favorite books I've ever read, and I can't wait to see where it goes. 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Thank you! Book two is done. 

    Questioner

    I'm excited to see what-- I need to read, uh, about the "Defense of Elysium"?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, yeah, Defending Elysium, it's free on my website. It'll tie-in in ways that you'll find interesting. One of my very first short stories.

    Questioner

    I'm super, super excited to see it. I loved the whole idea of when they're peering into the stars, it's like they're looking back with hatred. It's awesome.

    Idaho Falls signing ()
    #5281 Copy

    MiToRo94

    When Dalinar first goes to meet the Nightwatcher and he sees Cultivation as well, presumably.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He does.

    MiToRo94

    They are surrounded by a green mist. So is that mist comparable to Preservation's mist on Scadrial? Would that be like "Cultivationlight?"

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, that is in the same sort of vein. 

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5283 Copy

    Chaos

    Odium said to Taravangian, "You did this without access to Fortune or the Spiritual Realm?" How does one access Fortune without the Spiritual Realm or Feruchemical chromium, as almost all future sight tends to utilize the Spiritual Realm in some way?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, that line is mostly just me saying... *long pause* I think you're picking apart those things too much.

    Chaos

    Right, that makes sense. Hey, Odium said it, so I didn't know-- Gotta take that seriously, so.

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, yeah, don't read too much into picking apart those two things. You can read it as-- Honestly, that is me making sure I am being clear in the text.

    Chaos

    That there are those are two different things.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah those are two different things, but they are just interrelated. Fortune is a property, and the Spiritual Realm is a place, but not a place. Do you know what I mean? To use Fortune, you're always involving the Spiritual Realm, but in the Spiritual Realm, you're not always involving Fortune.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5286 Copy

    Glamdring804

    Szeth has an afterglow because his soul is lagging behind his body slightly.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Glamdring804

    So if he was moving fast enough, could a Shardblade pass through his physical body and not cut the soul?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ummm, that sounds like the sort of thing-- I'm going to say, the soul is more stretchy, so I don't think that's possible. But you could do some weird things where you're cutting the soul and not the body.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5288 Copy

    Brainless

    So if you jumped off a high place and you were a steel Feruchemist, could you store the speed of you falling?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, because-- I'm going to say you need to be moving under your own-- because otherwise it's all relative, right? If you're falling, it's no different than if you're traveling on the planet or things like that.

    Glamdring804

    So it's related more to muscle contractions.

    Brandon Sanderson

    *hesitantly* Yes, kind of. Feruchemy bends all sorts of weird things, ever since I started doing the weight one. So, yes.

    Brainless

    The thing about Feruchemy is it feels like you could be like a savant short of it, but it would be much more minor than something like a savant for-- It would be more things like what you could get for exercise and stuff like that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. Yeah, that's possible.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5289 Copy

    Questioner

    When can we get a Herald of War perspective?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You've gotten one really brief one. You really won't get them until starting around book six. So, you got a little bit left. Taln is a main character in the back five books, but he's only kinda just a tangential character in the first ones.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5290 Copy

    Questioner

    When you're sad, would a seon, especially when you're a kid, would it like nuzzle you and tell you nice things?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would definitely tell you nice things. Seons barely have any weight to them, and touch, and so nuzzling is not a natural instinct, I would say, for them... But they will definitely comfort you.

    Questioner

    Okay. So they're not born?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, not really anymore. They were all created kind of around the same point.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5291 Copy

    Brainless

    You've always said that your favorite sort of magic was being a Coinshot or being a Windrunner because you really want to fly. So I thought that iron Feruchemy you can fly using just iron Feruchemy. So if you had a paraglider and a place to jump off of, you're paragliding, go downwards, your momentum increases, you increase your weight when you're going downwards. You pull upward and then you decrease your weight. Your velocity will increase and you'll go up--

    Brandon Sanderson

    We have thought about that. I'm not sure if the math-- Like, we're trying to conserve momentum. We're trying to follow the math of that. So the question is, would that work? It probably would, but I'd have to look at the math. Because I tried to make very clear in the Wax and Wayne books that we conserve momentum...

    Really what we're doing is, we're breaking potential energy, right, when we're doing this. Because iron Feruchemy is just the weirdest of all of them. Because we're breaking potential energy, what you just said probably works, doesn't it.

    Brainless

    That was in context with the thing I was saying yesterday, about Feruchemical savants. If you did that every day for years, would you potentially get to the point where you could potentially make one side of your body heavier than the other side?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...There are many people in the cosmere who would think this idea has merit and they would want to test it.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5294 Copy

    Chaos

    Do you need a perfect gemstone to imprison an Unmade or a powerful spren?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. Well, the stronger the spren, the better the gemstone needs to be. Those flaws in the crystal structure are going to lead to leaking if it's not. But an Unmade requires an extra-special level of perfection.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5296 Copy

    Jess

    Can we get a small, just a small tidbit or a reveal of what Marasi is going to be doing in The Lost Metal?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, opening scene of The Lost Metal is her and Wayne. It's a couple of years later and Wax is basically retired to a thing and Wayne is her deputy now instead, mainly so she can keep him channeled in the right direction.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5297 Copy

    Jess

    The Cognitive aspect of an object is the way that the object views itself and others view it. Say the Vessel of a Shard started to view their power in a somewhat different way than when they first got that power, and the people on the planet also start to view it that way. Would the intent/mandate of that Shard be altered by that changes?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Within some limitations, yes. Certain Shards--certain Vessels believe it can go further than others believe it can go. But there is at least some wiggle room there.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5298 Copy

    Questioner

    I'm a geologist. I was wondering does Scadrial have tectonics the way Earth does?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. Scadrial does have tectonics. Roshar doesn't. I think it's the only one I built that doesn't, because of some specific things. But yes, Scadrial tectonic.

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5299 Copy

    Questioner

    *inaudible* also storing Stormlight. Did you decide the value of the gems first?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So I actually retrofitted it. What we looked at is how much food does it create, how much is that equivalency in our world, what factors do we need to change, and things like that. And we retrofitted how much things were worth. There's also a measurement in there of how much-- amount of Stormlight there is and how much that is worth, how much energy and work that can do.

    Questioner

    *inaudible*

    Brandon Sanderson

    I assign other people to do a lot of that these days. I say, "Here is the situation I want, run the math on this and come back and tell me how much I may use here or there."

    MisCon 2018 ()
    #5300 Copy

    Questioner

    Was Syl starting to bond with Tien before he died?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, good question. But Tien was starting to bond a different spren.

    Questioner

    I was suspecting that he was bonding a spren, but then Syl says, at one point, I think she was familiar with Kaladin's hometown, so I was like, maybe!

    Brandon Sanderson

    Good question, but no, he was going in a different direction.

    Questioner

    Can you tell me--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Lightweaver.