Recent entries

    Miscellaneous 2017 ()
    #6251 Copy

    Argent

    That Reddit thread established that the "H" sound is produced by writing another letter, and then marking it to denote that it should be pronounced as /h/ (while still looking like the other letter, for symmetric purposes). And on that note, the name of that traditional Vorin dress is "havah" - how would that get written? Is there a dedicated symbol for /h/ when it's not a "symmetric placeholder", or would the women just pick any letter and mark both instances here? Or something else altogether? 

    Isaac Stewart

    I believe they would just use the dedicated symbol for /h/.

    The Way of Kings Annotations ()
    #6252 Copy
    Double-Eye-Basic-2003.gif Double-Eye-Complex-2003.gif Double-Eye-Gems.jpg

    Brandon Sanderson

    Endpapers

    The endpapers were one of the things that we weren't certain whether we'd get into the final book or not. Tor was iffy on paying for them, as they add a large expense to the novels. In the end, Tor stepped up because they believed in the project, for which I am very grateful.

    These are one of the last things we finished, and it took several tries to get them right. I knew I wanted them to be in-world pieces of art–things that are supposed to have been created by artists living within the world of Roshar. The front endpapers are murals crafted from stone and gems fitted together, and the back endpapers are stained glass. But the tones and the exact look of the images took some time to get right. (For a while, the symbols of the various magics on the first one had gemstones overlaying them. That turned out to look bad on the page. Perhaps when Peter is putting this up, he can grab those old drafts and post them beneath here.)

    The first one of these is the one I'll talk about the most, the design that outlines the magic for Roshar. (Well, some of the magic.) This design is one of the very first things I developed for the art of this book, way back in 2001. The "Double Eye," as the people in world would call it, is a connection of ten elements.

    I avoid elemental magic systems. I feel they're overdone. However, one of the concepts of this world was to have a theology that believed in ten fundamental elements instead of the ordinary four or five. A focus would be on them, and on the ten fundamental forces—the interplay between the two being a major factor in the magic, the philosophy, and the cosmology of the world.

    Well, that's what these twenty symbols represent, with each of the larger symbols being a Radiant element. The smaller symbols are the forces. You can draw a circle around one element and the two forces that connect to it, and you have one of the orders of Knights Radiant.

    For example, top right is the symbol for air—with the symbols for pressure and gravitation connected to it. The Windrunners.  

    Peter Ahlstrom

    Indeed, there was a lot of swapping around at the last minute to get everything working right with the magic. This is actually why the Way of Kings audiobook gets the Ars Arcanum chart wrong—it was using a version that was messed up between rounds of changes.

    Miscellaneous 2016 ()
    #6253 Copy

    Peter Ahlstrom

    The [Scadrian] calendars don't appear in Arcanum Unbounded, but they're mentioned on the map as old calendar/new calendar. Since the Lord Ruler actually kept the calendar the same, what this is referring to is only the placement of seasons, since those have to change from year to year because of the orbit.

    Librarypalooza ()
    #6256 Copy

    Paladin Brewer (paraphrased)

    Is Threnody in the same planetary system as Sel?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    [No, they are not]

    Peter Ahlstrom (paraphrased)

    Folks, I hate to be a killjoy, but I just asked Brandon about this, and he says that he answered that question with "No, they are not."

    Brandon says he specifically remembers this question, and he remembers saying that Threnody and Sel were not in the same system.

    In any case, Threnody and Sel do not revolve around the same star. (And they're not in a binary system system either, for those trying to salvage something out of this.)

    Miscellaneous 2015 ()
    #6257 Copy

    Peter Ahlstrom

    By the way, Brandon originally wrote the prologue to The Alloy of Law soon after finishing The Alloy of Law and he meant it to be the prologue to Shadows of Self. Then he decided that The Alloy of Law needed a better prologue than its current chapter 1, which was originally the prologue.

    Miscellaneous 2015 ()
    #6259 Copy

    Peter Ahlstrom

    So, Brandon confirmed in the preface to this version [of Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell] that Hoid is definitely not there.

    However, I wouldn't rule out the person I thought was Hoid actually being someone else important.

    Miscellaneous 2014 ()
    #6261 Copy

    Peter Ahlstrom

    The red-headed attendant who is Jasnah Prime's ward is named Shinri Davar. Brandon considers her to be not the same person as Shallan at all, unlike Merin who he does consider to be the same person as Kaladin, if his life had gone differently. She has a completely different plot from Shallan's.

    In Prime, Jasnah is much more of a main character than Shinri is.

    Miscellaneous 2014 ()
    #6262 Copy

    Zea mays

    This is not a 'typo' per se, maybe it's a "translation" thing that I notice when reading the book (probably me being far too pedantic):

    In Kaladin's POV's, Moash is consistently described as a 'hawk-faced man'. What's a hawk, precious? Is it some kind of chicken?

    Them again, I can't think of an economic way of describing such a physiognomy that does not reference birds of prey.

    Peter Ahlstrom

    Brandon says it's an idiom leftover from centuries earlier.

    Miscellaneous 2014 ()
    #6263 Copy

    AonarFaileas

    That's just an issue of phrasing. As Lashings work by creating localized gravitational forces (don't think, it's magic ) it would have created a localized gravitational force of approximately 0.63Gs upwards relative to Szeth's current position on Roshar, which after competition from Roshar's 0.7Gs of gravity, would have left Szeth feeling only 0.07Gs, or, one tenth of the regular gravitational force.  

    Peter Ahlstrom

    No. Lashing is not a vector addition to the planet's gravity. When you use a Lashing, you dismiss the planet's gravity's influence on you entirely.

    AonarFaileas

    So it would have been a 9/20ths (45%) Lashing, then?  (0.7-0.7*0.45*2=0.07)

    Or do Lashings completely cancel out gravity and then reapply the gravitational force at a different strength?

    Peter Ahlstrom

    The general rule when you do a Basic Lashing is that it replaces all other Basic Lashings (including the planet's gravity) on you or the object. The default Basic Lashing strength is 1 Roshar gravity.

    As you get more practiced you can use partial lashings or multiple Lashings, or (Kaladin does this accidentally one time) NOT dismiss the previous Lashings entirely, so that different Lashings are pulling in different directions. But usually when someone does a Lashing, you should assume that Lashing's effect is the only "gravity" that currently exists for that person or thing.

    Miscellaneous 2014 ()
    #6264 Copy

    Paragrin

    You know you're a Sanderfan when... You're reading Beowulf in English class, the teacher is talking about all the Christian references having been added after the original writing, and you're thinking Storming Hierocracy.

    Peter Ahlstrom

    Actually Brandon did this in Elantris with a poem based on the style of Beowulf. None of the poem actually appears in the published book though. And we can't find the longer version of the poem. It's probably on a really old laptop.

    A Memory of Light Seattle Signing ()
    #6272 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Seasons on Roshar are based around the storms (ie long lighter storms in the winter, short stronger storms in the summer) rather than time or temperature

    Temperature stays fairly constant because of the lack of an axial tilt

    Despite not having traditional seasons they have the concept of seasons which must have come from somewhere else (read as: cosmere shenanigans)

    Miscellaneous 2018 ()
    #6274 Copy

    Storm Cellar

    We know Snapping is not the same in Mistborn Era 2.  We know Wayne knew he was a slider, but could not afford bendalloy for his early life. How do the poor skaa know they can burn rare metals?  Is there a ceremony, or a formal process of testing skaa for metal powers?

    (The assumption is that nobles can just give their children a mix of metals to see if any of them are reactive.)  

    Brandon Sanderson

    There are lots of ways--remember that lots of groups are seeing Allomancy as valuable to them, and are actively recruiting.  There's no formal process, at least not for everyone, though some houses do have them. But there are events, even at fairs and the like, where you can get a vial and see if you feel anything--in exchange for promises of service if you do turn out to have abilities.  Beyond that, just like getting gold foil to put on food is not horribly expensive in our world, getting little bits of many of these metals is not THAT expensive. It may not give you enough power to do anything useful, but it can be enough to tell.

    Miscellaneous 2018 ()
    #6276 Copy

    Storm Cellar

    If you have a child that can't stop making up/writing stories and never wants to sleep at night, what is the best way to encourage them without letting them be nocturnal? (Child in question is about 13.)

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well...I'm maybe not a great person to ask, because I was nocturnal myself.  So I don't have experience at forcing the kid to go to bed--I stayed up myself, doing exactly this.  It's not a great thing, because it can have implications for school work and the like. But I never figured it out myself.  I STILL go to bed at around 4:00am. In high school, I stayed up late and took a nap every day, which I wouldn't recommend. But making sure they have time each day to write--like piano lessons, but for stories--might be a way to channel that energy and perhaps make sure they get some done each day, and are more relaxed, as they feel the story is progressing.  This helps me a lot.

    The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson ()
    #6282 Copy
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    Snipexe

    Is there one true Shardblade form for a spren?

    Brandon Sanderson

    "True" in this sense is mutable and it can change, based on perception. I would say yes, but it is not a kind of platonic truth, it is a momentary truth.

    Snipexe

    Will dead Shardblades change, when an owner has them for a long time will they slowly change or will they stay the same?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Shardblades have changed before that were considered dead.

    The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson ()
    #6284 Copy
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    Questioner

    In the second series of Stormlight Archive, are they going to be about the same characters?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's an excellent question. So when I sat down to build The Stormlight Archive, there were a couple of things that I learned from The Wheel of Time. One was that the further an epic fantasy series goes, the more important it is that you have a structure to the series. It's very easy for the books to start blending into one another, and it's also very easy to let side characters take over books. This is very natural for us as writers, particularly in a big epic fantasy, and I felt that when I approached The Stormlight Archive there are a couple of things I did. One is that I said "All right, I'm going to confine all my side characters to these things called interludes, where I can just go crazy and do whatever I want, but they have to be like, isolated in their own containment unit called the interludes to prevent me from turning from the books just going in all directions at once."

    The other thing I said is, "Each book is going to be about an order of Knights Radiant, and it's going to have a flashback sequence directly tied to that order." So that when you say "All right, which book is book three," you're like, "Oh, that's Dalinar's book, that's the Bondsmith book." All of the characters are in all of the books, but each book has kind of its own soul and theme that helps me as a writer structure where I'm going to release information, and what it's going to be about. And so when I set down this, I said said "I'm going to pick 10 characters, 10 orders (and they are not always going to be exactly what you expect), but I'm going to build each book to have a theme based around those things."

    The first five were Dalinar, Kaladin, Shallan, Eshonai and Szeth. So those are the five books you are going to get in the first arc. And the second arc is Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln and Jasnah, right. Now, all the characters from the first five will be in all those books, and some of them will still be main characters. You can expect it, like it is one series. All the ones that survive *crowd groans* no spoilers. But you can expect in the back five, people that you are expecting that are main characters now will still be main characters, and you will have a lot of space dedicated to them still, but the flashback sequences, and the themes of the book, will focus on those five. And so it hopefully will help it all have a structure and a feeling. 

    Between book 5 and book 6, in-world, there will be a time jump of about 10 years, so just be expecting that. But I can't say anything more without getting into spoilers, so I won't. But that's what you can expect.

    The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson ()
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    Questioner

    Do you have any plans of writing any prequels for the Mistborn [series]?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, not right now. One of the reasons that-- I have to put an asterisk on that. I did write out a prequel story happening hundreds of years earlier that was going to be the video game, that ended up never getting made. So there's a chance I will do something with that,a graphic novel or something. So there is a chance. What I won't probably tell is the story that you read in the epigraphs, the story of Rashek and Alendi and all those things, because I feel like that story is told best the way it is in the books, that you get it revealed as it's going along. If I told it again, I feel like it would just be a rehash of that. I can see myself telling other stories potentially, but I am the type that generally likes to keep moving forward. There are some great prequels out there to books that I love, but mostly I like sequels, so I like to move forward. Not impossible, but yeah.

    The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson ()
    #6287 Copy
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    Questioner

    Soul Forging. Emperor's Soul. If one created the stamp properly, could you, using it, say, Windrunner you stamp, rewrote past to be Lightweaver. Possible?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is possible and a little easier than a lot of other things. It's gonna run into problems... in that the Oaths are gonna be hard to align.

    Questioner

    Probably require some very fine crafting on the stamp.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Very fine crafting on the stamp. And there are certain people that they're just gonna have a hard time fitting into certain Orders. This is a lot easier though than just taking a random person and making them into one, because you're gonna already have Investiture that they've got.

    Questioner

    And have the basis of the First Oath.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. So this is not as hard as it might at first sound. It's the sort of thing that people in the cosmere are looking at. Like, being able to transfer magics between-- and things like that is one of very much interest in the cosmere.

    The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson ()
    #6288 Copy
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    Questioner

    In Mistborn 3, when Ruin is controlling Inquisitors. Before, they said that Inquisitors were bald. When Ruin is controlling them, does he still have them shave and stuff like that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They still kind of go through their daily life. It's not like he's-- His control can get stronger, and weaker at times. And so they mostly kind of just do what they would normally be doing, until he moves that one right there at that moment where he seizes them, if that make sense. So yes, but it's less like he's like "I am now going to puppet-control them to go to the bathroom," right? He just lets them do that, and when he needs them he seizes control.

    The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson ()
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    Questioner

    So I'm wondering, how omniscient are the Vessels?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is a difficult question to answer because they don't know everything, but they could theoretically. And so, the actual Vessel needs to apply the power and learn things. And they don't know the future exactly. Particularly, you'll notice some hints of this in Oathbringer. There are certain things that really foul with their ability to see the future. It's whenever we kind of get the equivalence of an atium shadow right? Reflection that reflects that someone sees the future, and then suddenly you end up with this kind of difficult chain to follow.

    Questioner

    Can you tell me who might be the most all-knowing out of all of them?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I will say the older they are the more they generally know.

    Questioner

    So probably not Harmony then?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Probably not Harmony.

    The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson ()
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    Questioner

    lWhat if you mixed-- ike in Alcatraz, what if you mixed like a Windbringer's Lens with like a Fire--forgot the name.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh man that would be terrible. You'd have a big black firestorm. It'd be awesome. Someone should do that.

    Questioner

    So they are allowed to mix?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They can. It's very hard.

    Footnote: The questioner was probably referring to Windstormer's Lenses and Firebringer's Lenses.
    #occulators lenses
    The Great American Read: Other Worlds with Brandon Sanderson ()
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    Questioner

    Based off of your previous question, the first Kaladin became Adolin?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Adolin was actually in that book, and so the first Kaladin wasn't even-- didn't even become Adolin, like the first Kaladin was like-- you've read this book before probably. The young peasant boy trains to be a knight, that sort of thing and was just too familiar, it was too-- I was playing the tropes and hitting the nails on the head, but in a way that was not interesting. Adolin and Renarinare both in that book basically as the people that they ended up being. Shallan and Kaladin are the people that I basically pulled out and replaced with new characters, because neither of them were working. I'll someday release that book and you can read it and be horrified about this book where really, really different things happen, and the characters half feel like themselves and half don't. Bridge Four isn't in that version of the book, Bridge Four is actually in Dragonsteel. Which is another book I wrote, which is where Dalinar started too. I wrote 13 books before I sold one. Dragonsteel was number 7 or 8. Half the ideas for the version of The Way of Kings you read came from that and half the ideas came from the original Stormlight Archive.