Are there a significant number of Shardblades that have made it off Roshar?
Define significant.
More than 1 / A number of them are that could come up later.
There is a connection between spren and Roshar that normally prevents spren, even dead ones, from leaving the planet. Note I said normally; do not imagine a large trade of Shardblades going off world.
At the present who is Odium more afraid of? Harmony, Dalinar or Hoid?
Harmony. Odium is extremely confident that he can outsmart Hoid.
Was Taldain one of the planets of the Iriali Long Trail? Was Scadrial?
RAFO
I asked about The Lopen, and it was a public Q&A, so I was trying not to be spoilery. But some of the things he said at the end of Words of Radiance, where he knew a lot about background processes. I asked if I should be suspicious of it, and you said, "Yes." Was that in reference to him becoming the king, that you revealed? Or is it because of something else that he knows about?
Background processes of...?
It seemed he knew more about the squires, the process of being squires
Oh, Lopen. Lopen knowing more. No, that's not about being the king. You are supposed to be suspicious of it because Lopen has been paying a lot of attention. He didn't have foreknowledge. It was completely accidental he ended up in Bridge Four. But once he did, he decided, "I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna learn about it." And he has been the one actively pursuing becoming a full Knight Radiant. He's the only one of the team who's actively been doing that. That's why you are supposed to be suspicious. There's not an ulterior motive. He is proactive.
When you tap the nicrosil portion of a medallion, will it run out over time? Or is it like a coppermind, where something discrete is taken, used, and returned?
Good question! Like a coppermind.
Khriss says there was Investiture on Threnody prior to Odium and Ambition's battle. Was that Investiture of Ambition?
RAFO!
Are the Aethers from one of the Shards that we know? Or are they of a Shard we haven't learned about?
Right now they are pre-Shattering.
But I will probably change that.
Can you hint at a form of Selish magic we haven't seen yet?
It is about patterns...
It's not that the glyphs use Thaylen graphemes. It's that they ultimately derive from the same source.
Where do gemstones come from?
Gemstones on Roshar are mostly coming from gemhearts. And, I remembered to stick in some mentions of this in Oathbringer, 'cause a lot of people have been asking about this. It's not something-- like, the daily ranching of animals for their gemhearts is not something that we bring up a lot, but there is some limited mining operations on Roshar as well, you've just gotta get through the crem.
Looking more closely at the [Steel Alphabet] font, it looks like we're missing some information. Note that the tin symbol for 'e' and 'i' are slightly different: the dot is in a different location. I suppose that the dots are diacritical marks, then.
Any other diacritical information we should know about the Steel Alphabet (or Alethi, for that matter), Peter?
Moving the dot to distinguish vowels is a modern innovation, within the last 100 years by ALLOY OF LAW. I suspect that dots may be gone entirely (except for the two changed vowels, and maybe "capital" letters) in many fonts by the time you get to the second trilogy. Numbers might get a moved dot too. The placement of the dots in the original symbology has to do with Allomancy, but they're largely superfluous in writing.
The Feruchemical symbols (which are in the RPG) are evolved from the same root (the ancient symbols you can see in MISTBORN 3), but I don't know about their use in modern writing. It could be something like the hiragana/katakana distinction. But that's just speculation right now.
Silver is not Allomantically inert the way aluminum is. In that annotation, Brandon just meant that silver didn't do anything if you swallowed it and tried to burn it. It can be Pushed and Pulled. Years after Brandon wrote that annotation, what he means by "Allomantically inert" has changed.
Does Nightblood think when he's on his own, or is it only when he's next-
He does think when he's on his own.
Okay. I thought that maybe he was like the Spren.
There might be a connection, but he does think on his own.
Theory: Imperial KKell power is the power to control the other KKell powers.
While considering the no relatives problem and what happened if the emperor died with no heir I thought "well the priests could just adopt someone into the imperial family like they tried with kkeris". This naturally led to the question, "Where do the priests get the power to adopt/unadopt people." With the logical conclusion that it is the imperial kkell power. Either the priests take a kkell oath or they adopt themselves into the imperial family.
That is actually correct as far as I know, but it never comes out in the chapters that were written. Though there may have been more than that.
Brandon cannibalized the magic system and at least one character from Aether of Night into Liar of Partinel. But that book didn't work and he hasn't decided if it will stay cannibalized into the Dragonsteel series or if he will separate it out again (when he gets around to rewriting Liar of Partinel from scratch).
Some aspects of Aether of Night were also put into the Mistborn series. Decay in that book is Ruin. Obviously Ruin would not show up in a different Shard book now. Aether is the trunk novel with the most overt Shard presence. Also, it was never intended to be a standalone, especially with the blatant sequel setup at the end. None of Brandon's trunk Shard novels were meant as standalones, unless you count Elantris with its non-immediate sequel.
Nobody except Brandon has ever read all of Liar of Partinel. His writing group got about 75% of it, and those people are not going to talk.
And rightfully so, if Adonalsium was Shattered at its ending.
As I understand it, that does not happen at the end of that book.
I found out today that the official name is the Cosmere.
I asked Brandon about Susebron's tongue, and he said that it would not have been possible for him to regrow it anytime he wanted to. Brandon will be exploring the limits of the self-image modification of Returned in the sequel.
No elves or goblins in Dragonsteel either.
Jerick used to be an elf when Brandon was 14.
Investiture on First of the Sun is associated with a Shard?
Yes, it is. That one is even closer associated with a Shard, the actual Investiture of the magic. Remember when I say Investiture, I mean matter, energy and magic. Sometimes the word Investiture refers just to the magic such as the Aviar and in that it is associated directly with one of the Shards...
Which one?
Patji is a Shard of Adonalsium. *silence*
Sorry, can you say that again?
Patji is a Shard of Adonalsium.
Is that one of the Aviar?
No, Patji is the island.
Island or islands?
The island but Patji is one of the islands.
It's a Shard?!
Yes, big asterisk! But yes.
Shard as in equal or Shard as in a mass of Investiture?
As in one of the 16 Shards of Adonalsium is represented and involved in First of the Sun. In fact, one of the letters references First of the Sun in this *Indicates Oathbringer*
Sorry, I probably killed some theories on that one.
Yup, but by doing that you've confirmed some as well so it's fine!
The question is about the Lord Ruler's death. He is basically killed because Vin was able to remove his Feruchemy storage bracelets thus depriving him of his stored youth and strength correct? Once he didn't have access to these she could simply kill him like a normal man.Now on page 627 about the 3rd paragraph down the Lord Ruler states " I've survived burning and beheadings. I've been stabbed and sliced, crushed and dismembered." (I also think this is also reference somewhere else in the book that I could not locate)If all it took to drain the Lord Ruler of his power was to remove access to his Feruchemy items wouldn't he have died if he was dismembered? Remove the storage devices from the trunk of the body and he would die?
I asked Brandon about this once, and I'm pretty sure he said the beheading survival part was a lie/exaggeration. I'd have to go back and check my notes.
The Lord Ruler would have reason to want people to believe he had survived beheadings and being burned to ash.
I am glad Dragonsteel will not be on the front of the book, because Tage tells me there aren't really any dragons. If I picked up a book called Dragonsteel and then realized there weren't really any dragons (in the classical sense) I would feel extremely cheated and never read it just because of my anger.
There was one dragon in the original book, of whom Brandon added more appearances in the later drafts. He was almost completely exciseable from the plot of that book (at least, in a simple, non-spoiler explanation), though he was clearly important to the universe as a whole and the series' overall arc.
Okay, just for my amusement, here's an analysis of your books so far (the ones I have):
White Sand I 1.0 - 0.49 pptt (pause per ten thousand words)
Star's End 1.0 - 0.34 pptt
Lord Mastrel 1.0 - 0.83 pptt
Knight Life 3.0 - 0.40 pptt
The Sixth Incarnation of Pandora 1.0 - 1.48 pptt
Elantris 6.0 - 3.51 ppttElantris 8.6 - 4.16 pptt
Dragonsteel 7.0 - 5.70 pptt
White Sand II 2.7 - 6.11 pptt
Mythwalker 0.6 - 10.2 pptt
Mistborn Prime 4.0 - 9.63 pptt
Aether of Night 3.0 - 11.99 pptt
Final Empire Prime 1.0 - 9.65 pptt
Way of Kings 2.1 - 8.1 pptt
Mistborn Final Empire 2.0 - 10.97 pptt
Mistborn Final Empire 3.1 - 11.56 pptt
Mistborn Well of Ascension 3.0 - 13.25 pptt
Alcatraz Initiated 4.0 - 8.71 pptt
Mistborn Hero of Ages 3.0 - 9.68 pptt
Warbreaker Parts 1-2 1.2/1.0 - 11.5 pptt
Star's End and Knight Life only have 3 pauses each! Anyway, there's an upward trend, and then it more or less levels off. :) It took reading the book out loud for me to notice it. I have no idea how this compares with other writers. Well, the book I just rewrote has 2.47 pptt.Make of that what you will.
Who were Kelsier’s parents?
Kelsier’s parents? I haven’t talked a lot about Kelsier’s parents. He's obviously a half-breed. So he was raised in noble society, unlike a lot of the half-breeds. He knew his nature. He gets his skaa half from his mother, but they hid in plain sight. Like, she pretended to be noble.
You said that Hoid knows all sixteen of the original Vessels. Was he ever involved in their little, "We're going to Shatter Adonalsium," thing?
Involved? Under loose definitions, yes.
Queen Aesudan, when we see her in Kholinar, seems to have some knowledge of Gavilar's doings and his plans. And given Gavilar's propensity for trying to marry his children to members of secret societies, as seen with Jasnah and Amaram, was Queen Aesudan a member or affiliate of the Sons of Honor?
RAFO!
Is Hoid the secret weapon that Shattered Adonalsium?
No, good question!
Is there a question that's asked most often?
Yeah, "When's the sequel to X" is number one. Followed by what you would think are the standards. "Who's your favorite character," "What's your favorite book." Those style questions take up easily the top 20. Not at a signing like this at BYU full of Sharders, but at Comic Con, every second question is probably "When is this coming out, are you working on a sequel to this."
I was re-reading the original Mistborn trilogy, and I was struck by how devoutly Demoux believes in the divine nature of Kelsier. And I just had to wonder, what must it have been like for him when he later became a Worldhopper and got a peek behind the curtain?
Yeah, that's a very interesting aspect of his character, for specifically that reason, and I am going to write about it and explore it more deeply at a later point.
One of the Letters in Oathbringer suggests that the Shards had a pact to all go their separate ways. And some of them held to it and some of them didn't?
Yes.
Out of all of them, how is it possible that one of the ones that didn't is the one whose nature is to obsessively keep your word at all costs?
He would argue that he kept his word.
Okay, so loophole.
He wouldn't even call it a loophole.
What would happen if someone carried Nightblood unsheathed into a perpendicularity?
RAFO.
What's the most RAFOd question that you're asked?
These days, it's about probably the sphere that Gavilar gave Szeth. That's probably the most commonly RAFOd one. But I'm not 100% sure. No, no, it's names of Shards that I haven't named yet. That's gotta be it.
*inaudible*
Technically, Marsh shows up onscreen. I guess he's not technically... I guess you would have to argue whether or not he counts.
Will you ever consider writing more in the Legion world?
So, if I do any more Legion, they will be television scripts or audio originals. This is it for the books. But it's a springboard.
Back closer to the release of Rithmatist, you were talking about it being two to three books. Is it pretty much two books now?
It's still three books in the outline. But if I can make that second book have a satisfying ending, so that it doesn't have a cliffhanger like the first one, I will be very much more happy. Even though the outline's still for three books. But, I just have to... getting Legion cleared off my list is a big step forward. Getting Alcatraz off my list would be another big step forward. Rithmatist is the most popular of those three. But it's also the one that I had the most trouble getting the sequel done with. But things are looking better and better as I clear other things off my list.
If you had to pick three topics to learn and you have an aspect like Stephen?
Great question. I would love to have an interpreter with me who can interpret all languages. Maybe... because there's no one aspect who does all of that. It might be too big of an aspect. But I would love to be able to go on tour and be able to do that. So that would be definitely number one. Probably a writer, to look over my shoulder and improve my books. Speed up the editing process, and things like that. And then I would pick something probably like physics or chemistry. Something I know a little bit about, enough to know that I really don't know what I'm doing. Because I have to rely sometimes on Peter and people on physics questions and things like that, and it would be nice to just have it.
Do you have [Stormlight] Four and Five <plotted out> already?
Yeah, but the outlines are such a mess. I mean, you could do it, you could take those outlines. But by February, they'll be in really good shape. Because now at this point, what's happened is, as I've written the books, I've moved things. And so, the outlines got to be bigger and bigger messes as I moved things around. But after I outline Four, Five by nature kind of reorganizes itself, because all the pieces that get left over, I have to make sure fit before I can write Four. So our outline should be in really good shape come February. Right now, they're a mess.
Does it get harder, or does it get easier, to write the Stormlight Archive books?
Stormlight Archives get progressively harder. The more to keep track of, the more difficult. Each one's been a little harder than the one before.
Is the concept of the King's Wit inspired by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night?
Yes, a lot of Shakespeare's fools. But the fool in Twelfth Night, and the fool (for a different reason) in King Lear, both are inspirations. And I think you would find that as a blanket truth for a lot of us writers. I haven't asked Robin Hobb this, but I'm willing to bet that there's some Shakespeare's fool characters in that. Twelfth Night is my favorite of his fools. In fact, in the very first versions that I wrote of him, he was way more jester-like than he ended up being in the published version of the Cosmere. But if anyone reads Dragonsteel, the one at BYU, he'll feel even more like a jester.
Would you have someone do what you did for Robert Jordan?
Yeah. I would be one of the biggest hypocrites in the universe if I didn't, I think. And earlier in my career, I said the books just weren't... there hadn't been enough of them. But I'm getting to the point where I think that they could be. There's still so many to write. But I would at least have someone finish four and five of Stormlight if I got hit by a car, and four of the Wax and Wayne books. Whether it would be reasonable to have someone finish the entire Cosmere, I don't know. But at least the ones I haven't finished of main sequences, yes.
Have we seen Adolin at his prime yet, at his best?
I would guess... that depends on your point of view.
Do you think you'd have more creativity with ironpulling?
Yeah, you do. I really want to do something with ironpulling as a main character to show all the creativity, and stuff. But, I just feel like it'd be easier. There's so much metal around, bouncing off of stuff would be so much fun.
How do you decide what perspective you put it in? First person, third person?
A lot of it depends on the number of viewpoints I'm gonna have for a book. It's a pretty easy thing, but if I'm gonna have one viewpoint, I'll put it almost always in first. Not always, but almost always, because I can use the tools. Genre influences it also. First person's more prevalent in YA than it is in adult. And kind of, like, what tone do I want for it? Like, the first person book I'll do in the Cosmere, I probably won't do one until I do Hoid's book. Because he's the storyteller telling you the story. And the other ones, I want to be trustworthy, like the narration of which, even if a specific viewpoint is untrustworthy, the narration is trustworthy.
The natural sarcasm in Wit, is that just purely natural? Or do you have inspiration for all of those sarcastic comments?
I often, if I have to write a lot of the character, will look for a similar humor style, and see if I can channel it. If I'm writing Wit, for instance, I'll go to somebody more biting. Some modern comedians, or occasionally Oscar Wilde. If I'm writing Shallan, I'll try to look for something softer and more wordplay-ish, like Jane Austen. And just kind of read a bunch of it, and try to get the feel. It just depends. If I'm writing Lopen, I will try to look for the kind of uplifting humor, self-effacing style. Like, I just kind of have a different style for each type, and I try to find a person or writing in the real world that has that type of humor and try to use it.
In Secret History, Fuzz mentions having buried something. That's the atium, right?
RAFO.
So, I was just thinking, if it's something of greater import, I'll just leave it to that it's not the atium. But it's something else, I think. But, I was just thinking, if he wanted to hide something, he could build a planet around it? Because he built a planet. I'm guessing, if I asked a question about that...
You would get RAFOd. Excellent question.
Do you think when the Alcatraz series is done, you can make a short story where they have a Smedry family reunion?
Ooh, what a great idea. I'll have to think about that. I like that idea a lot. If I write it, you can take credit for it, if I forget to credit you.
What is your favorite kind of Lens?
I would like to be able to speak all languages. So the Lens of Rashid, I would say, because that would be really cool.
I was wondering, where did you get the idea for <crystals>?
It came from the crystal sword, and just grew out of that. Most of the things in the Alcatraz books, I start with an idea, and then I grow it outward. Which is the reverse process of how I normally write books, where it's where I outline and then build according to the outline. The Alcatraz books are me practicing the other style of writing, which we call discovery writing. Because I think writers need to know how to do both.
If his name wasn't Stephen Leeds, what would it be? Did you have an alternate name?
No, I didn't have an alternate name. If I were naming it now, I would think of something that works really well as a one-word title, because Legion is just too fraught with too many other different properties. And the name Leeds works okay, but not great. It's not as good, and so I would need a name like that, that works as a last name, but also works as a title. Like, when they did Castle. That works really well as both a title and as a name. And so it needs something along those lines. Monk was another good one. Like, this genre tends to do that. And so I wasn't thinking of Leeds. I was thinking of Leeds as a small internal pun, because he's the middle management of his own brain. But I don't think it works as well as its own in a title. So it would still probably be Stephen, but I would find another word there.
What are the Deepest Ones? ...The quote is "God Beyond protect them if the fighting had drawn one of the Deepest Ones" from Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell.
You will find out if I ever write the next book... the next book set on Threnody.
