Recent entries

    Arcanum Unbounded release party ()
    #7755 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    For instance, Lopen did become king of Alethkar. For a short time. Because he and his family hid King Elhokar and, at least in his perception, convinced the king to abdicate for a short time so they could not lie when they said "We don't have King Elhokar with us." This is canon, okay. And, so, Lopen became... In his mind, at least, they got the king to agree for a fifteen-minute "Lopen is king of Alethkar" abdication, so that they wouldn't have to lie (because it was very important to them), so they could get him out of danger when some people were looking for him. That story, some day I might write it, I don't know if I'll ever be able to. But when he says (I think he references that at some point in one of the later books) "I was king," he really was!

    Arcanum Unbounded release party ()
    #7756 Copy

    Questioner

    Broadsheets of Bands of Mourning. The story that Allomancer Jak's sidekick... in it, there's this <part>, "After disembarking the the lift, I walked to the location where my foe would have hit the ground. I found no trace of him, and though no one witnessed his fall, a young white-haired man was there and offered to tell me a story. I declined." Is that Hoid?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, there's a reference to a young white-haired man offering to tell a story. Whenever those words combine together, chances are very, very good that Hoid is involved. Yes, that is Hoid, but one thing I have to tell you is, not everything in that story... you are getting a story which was written by somebody, and then turned into a thing for a broadsheet. So, there have been some inaccuracies perpetuated in the broadsheets. So, yes, that's where that came from.

    Arcanum Unbounded release party ()
    #7758 Copy

    Slowswift

    When you take a memory out of a coppermind it starts <degrade away>.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Slowswift

    Would that happen with someone who has an eidetic memory?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well... no. With the exception of, a photographic memory is disputed by science. In the cosmere they exist, magically enhanced. But there is science in our world that says these aren't real things. So, I'm not sure. You'd have to go to the science and see if they're actually real.

    Slowswift

    But if it is real, then it would...?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Then it would not degrade. It's the brain's own failings that are causing this.

    Arcanum Unbounded Seattle signing ()
    #7760 Copy

    Questioner

    At the end of the last Wax and Wayne book, which I love, that statue that they though was the Lord Ruler. It was Kelsier.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That was Kelsier.

    Questioner

    Ok. I thought so, because the way the other thing ended with the eye, the eye thing was throwing me off and then I went and grabbed the secret thing and I was like "No that can't..."

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is Kelsier.

    Questioner

    And will we find out more in the next Wax and Wayne book or do we need to wait and find out more later?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You will find out more in the Wax and Wayne book, really that that's going on there is foreshadowing for era 3, and for future Secret History stories if I do them. So the Wax and Wayne books are not about the return of Kelsier, but the return of Kelsier is very important for later things in the series.

    Arcanum Unbounded Hoboken signing ()
    #7761 Copy

    Questioner

    *inaudible question relating to Hemalurgy*

    Brandon Sanderson

    So Hemalurgy... Yes, to an extent. The koloss are an example of this. Koloss are made, but then they can be passed on a little bit. You get koloss *inaudible* koloss. So it doesn't quite work exactly, but some things can be passed on.

    Questioner

    Do the *inaudible* get passed on?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Uh... Not necessarily. They're not still pierced by metal.

    Questioner

    Apparently they use Hemalurgic *inaudible* bloodline to the point where there's Mistborn again?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is something that people in-world are wondering.

    General Reddit 2015 ()
    #7762 Copy

    Doom-Slayer

    So how do the exact mechanics of Feruchemy in relation to Compounding work?

    This confusion is primarily around how [the Lord Ruler] gets his near infinite age.

    Okay. So first off, I understand the concept of how they work. Feruchemy is net zero, Allomancy is net positive, combine them and you end with a net positive Feruchemy ability.

    So how Feruchemy normally works... you take say weight, store half your normal weight and then you can access it whenever you want. So you (originally X weight) are taking A weight, storing it, and then you are at (X-A) weight, with access to A. So we have a metalmind that store magnitude with the efficiency of how its received based on how quickly or slowly it is drawn upon.

    All the metalminds except atium seem to act this way. Atium seems to work as storing magnitude/time rather than just magnitude. The way I understand it is that say a 30 year old person becomes 50 years old for 1 day, this would give access to 20 years difference for a 1 day period.

    The Lord Ruler then exploits this by gaining access to say 20 years difference over 10 days (magnification by Compounding) which he then slowly feeds into himself to lower his age.

    Why this difference? I'm assuming its to maintain a neutral "body age" because with just magnitude a person could permanently make themselves younger by Compounding.

    With just magnitude of "20 years of youth" being stored, if the Lord Ruler magnified it, he could turn it into "200 years of youth" and then he would never need the constant stream off youth (and wouldn't have died without the bracelets)

    Hope this makes sense.

    Brandon Sanderson

    All right, so there are a few things you have to understand about cosmere magics to grok all of this.

    First, is that magics can be hacked together. You'll see more of this in the future of the cosmere, but an early one is the hack here--where you're essentially powering Feruchemy with Allomancy. (A little more complex than that, but it seems like you get the idea.)

    The piece you're missing is the nature of a person's Spiritual aspect. This is similar to a Platonic idea--the idea that there's a perfect version of everyone somewhere. It's a mix of their connections to places, people, and times with raw Investiture. The soul, you might say.

    (Note that over time, a person's perception of themselves shapes their Cognitive aspect as well, and the Cognitive aspect can interfere with the Spiritual aspect trying to make the Physical aspect repair itself.) Healing in the cosmere often works by aligning your Physical self with your Spiritual self--making the Physical regrow. More powerful forms of Investiture can repair the soul as well.

    However, your age is part of your Connection to places, people, and times. Your soul "knows" things, like where you were born, what Investiture you are aligned with, and--yes--how old you are. When you're healing yourself, you're restoring yourself to a perfect state--when you're done, everything is good. When you're changing your age, however, you are transforming yourself to something unnatural. Against what your soul understands to be true.

    So the Spiritual aspect will push for a restoration to the way you should be. With this Compounding hack, you're not changing connection; it's a purely Physical Realm change.

    This dichotomy cannot remain for long. And the greater the disparity, the more pressure the spirit will exert. Ten or twenty years won't matter much. A thousand will matter a lot. So the only way to use Compounding to change your age is to store up all this extra youth in a metalmind, then be constantly tapping it to counteract the soul's attempt to restore you to how you should be.

    Yes, all of this means there are FAR more efficient means of counteracting aging than the one used by the Lord Ruler. It's a hack, and not meant to be terribly efficient. Eventually, he wouldn't have been able to maintain himself this way at all. Changing Connection (or even involving ones Cognitive Aspect a little more) would have been far more efficient, though actively more difficult.

    Though this is the point where I ping [Peter Ahlstrom] and get him to double-check all this. Once in a while, my fingers still type the wrong term in places. (See silvereye vs tineye.)

    Boskone 54 ()
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    yulerule

    If a Parshendi takes a parshman by the hand, gives them a gemstone with a spren in it, leads him out into a highstorm, can the parshman become a Parshendi in the same way that they become a voidbringer?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Now, yes, before no. The everstorm changed them, there’s something going on. In fact, as that scene continues, with Gavilar and Eshonai, there is a clue in that scene. But I didn’t get to that part.

    /r/fantasy AMA 2013 ()
    #7764 Copy

    Phantine

    How cosmere-aware was the Lord Ruler? If a Returned waltzed into Kredik Shaw, would he have any idea what was going on? Or at least be able to recognize, "Hey that guy seems Endowmenty."

    Brandon Sanderson

    Aware enough to know he wasn't alone, but not so aware that he'd know specifics. He didn't hold the power long enough to explore outward very far.

    General Signed Books 2018 ()
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    20180417_163327.jpg

    Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

    If a person held enough breath to attain the 5th heightening, lived for a thousand years, and then sold all but their initial breath, would their spiritual age force them to rapidly age as we saw with Rashek, or would they resume natural aging from the point at which they ceased?

    Brandon Sanderson (written)

    I think they would rapidly age.

    But I'm not ready to say 100%.

    JordanCon 2016 ()
    #7773 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    1) The Nightwatcher and Stormfather are parallel entities such that Nighwatcher:Cultivation :: Stormfather:Honor.

    2) There is sort of a parallel for Odium, but the parallel is the various Unmade instead of a single entity.

    3) They are parallel in that they are all Splinters.

    4) The Unmade are voluntary Splinters, because Odium ("like almost all of the other Shards") voluntarily Splintered part of it's power.

    5) The Stormfather is different from the others because it's a Sliver.

    /r/books AMA 2015 ()
    #7774 Copy

    ccstat

    You confirmed at the Atlanta signing that 9-point constructions could be applied to ellipses to generate valid Rithmatic defenses. Could the same be done using open conics such as hyperbolas and parabolas? (Or do open conics become lines of Forbiddance instead of lines of Warding?) Also, the disparity in strength between the sides and points of an ellipse is attributed to their difference in curvature. Does this mean that a large circle is inherently weaker than a small circle since its local curvature is less?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes to all questions, though with a circle, there is an innate structural strength that does weaken with larger sizes, but it isn't as fast as the curvature would indicate.

    Words of Radiance Chicago signing ()
    #7776 Copy

    Questioner

    Are gemhearts, the gems in those chemically identical to mined [gem] stones?

    Brandon Sanderson

    *clarification* They are very similar. Not 100% chemically identical, they are far more pure for one thing. You would call them the same substance, but you would say, "Wow, this gem has no impurities." They may have flaws, but no impurities. Meaning, in a lot of gemstones the colors waver and vary as they different minerals come in, and things like that, and so what makes a--

    Questioner

    So it's just a pure ionic bond?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah.

    Arcanum Unbounded Seattle signing ()
    #7777 Copy

    Questioner

    Can it be restored? The Splinters...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um, Splinters, can they be restored to... So it is, that is a yes, but restoring them will not restore Honor, the Vessel of Honor, right. They would restore Honor the Shard if this were to happen, but a new Vessel would have to take it.

    Questioner

    Ok so, [Adonalsium] can be put back together?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Adonalsium? It is theoretically possible to put a Shard back into, you know, to meld Shards together. The fact that we have already seen someone meld powers, in Sazed. So yes, but the question is who or what was Adonalsium, and is putting it back together going to do anything? Or...

    Oathbringer Houston signing ()
    #7778 Copy

    Questioner

    I was wondering if there was a connection between when we meet Preservation in Secret History, and the way he is, and the Stormfather. Like, is he dead yet, in Secret History?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There is a similarity, but-- Dying for a Shard takes a long time, in a lot of cases. So, it's similar. But the Stormfather is something different, *inaudible* remnants left over after the god died. 

    Questioner

    So is he dead?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Honor is dead, yes. But, at the same time, the Stormfather is kind of his Cognitive Shadow. So-- what does "dead" mean?

    Leipzig Book Fair ()
    #7779 Copy

    Questioner

    You have this technical approach to Allomantic powers. But Feruchemy seems to me very different. So it's not very logical that you can store up health. What is health?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well. I feel that it is. But it has its own definitions. In the Cosmere perception - I don't know if you know...

    Questioner

    Yeah.

    Brandon Sanderson

    ... it really affects... It's kind of more like a concept of heallth. The idea of your body's ability to recuperate quickly. The magic system translates to your body's ability to match your spiritual self. When that is depleted, your body in the Cosmere starts to stray (? a bit indistinctive in the recording). Foreign things can get into it, diseases get into you, and your spirit can get a little more corrupted. Your body getting corrupted, your spirit's not getting corrupted. You get it, and it makes you extra connected to your spiritual sense. Your body moves to match it closely and better.

    Questioner

    So the same about speed and ...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Those are a little different. But each has their little behind the scenes explanation for myself. The problem is... The physics of it is very Cosmere-physics for Feruchemy, whereas for Allomancy it's a lot more out world physics with a different power source. We're changing that. But the physics do work for me. But obviously it's magic, so I'm breaking them anyway.

    Arched Doorway Interview ()
    #7780 Copy

    Rebecca Lovatt

    I'm going to skip asking you to tell us about yourself, I think you're already fairly well known. But are there any stories about yourself that readers wouldn't know?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, I'm sure there are tons of stories about myself. The one my dad told at my wedding is a fun one. My parents, like any normal people, will occasionally let certain words slip through their lips around their children that they probably don't want their children repeating. I was 4 or 5 and I had learned to say, from my father, certain expletives. And I walked around saying them all the time. So my parents had to sit me down and say, "Ok we don't say these words because they are bad words." So I said, "All right, I got it."

    I'm a Mormon, and in the LDS church children are assigned to talk in their own meeting. Your talk is like 30 seconds when you're a 5-year-old, and you're just supposed to get up and say, "I like Jesus," and that's the end. But I decided I would talk about these words, with nobody knowing, even my parents. So I got up in front of all the little primary kids and I said, "We don't say 'oh rust' because it's a bad word." And then I proceeded to talk about all the bad words I knew-to the other kids. That was my talk.

    So there you go, Brandon swore from the pulpit in Mormon church when he was a kid.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    Well done, corrupting the youth.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #7784 Copy

    Kurkistan

    If you're on Threnody and you get withered by a shade, are you better off burning Allomantic aluminum, or tapping Feruchemical gold?

    *laughter*

    [clarification on the question]

    Brandon Sanderson

    They would both work pretty well. I would say if you burned aluminum, that would kind of have the effect that you are wanting it to have, which is the effect-- negating and sucking out, so that's probably safer. But the gold would work, too.

    Kurkistan

    So would it be fair to describe withering as a kind of cancerous Forging-

    Brandon Sanderson

    Sure.

    Kurkistan

    That just kind of slowly takes over your soul?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Sure.

    /r/books AMA 2015 ()
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    WeiryWriter

    Could you explain a little more about Cognitive Shadows? When you first mentioned the name and gave the examples of Kelsier and the Shades from Threnody you kind of gave the impression that they were kind of like ghosts. But this past December at the Orem signing you mentioned that the Stormfather and the mist were also Cognitive Shadows. The first makes sense to me, I had an [entire theory about that (although I argued he was specifically Tanavast’s and not Honor’s). The second however really doesn’t make sense to me, unless it was actually the mist spirit that is the shadow and that got missed in the report (it wasn’t verbatim), but even still Preservation is still alive at that point so how can he have a “ghost”? (Unless him sacrificing his mind to form Ruin’s prison counts as “death” in this situation?)

    Brandon Sanderson

    On the first question, I did not say the mists themselves were a Cognitive Shadow. That must have been a misunderstanding. The Stormfather totally is, though. Cognitive Shadows are basically ghosts, which can take a lot of different forms in the Cosmere, but follow general rules.

    WeiryWriter

    Is the mist /spirit/ a Cognitive Shadow then?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The mist spirit is a little more complicated than that. That was actually Leras, kind of. He was in the process of dying. But other things are involved there that, unfortunately, must be RAFOd.

    Words of Radiance San Francisco signing ()
    #7788 Copy

    Questioner

    If Kelsier's [Cognitive Shadow] or a seon went to the Forests of Hell, would they be shades there?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, that is the same thing. Now, you can see that there-- the people on that planet; their Investiture; the lack of Shard means that their Cognitive Shadows react differently.

    [...]

    In fact, the Cognitive Shadow is also the same thing as the ghost you saw in Mistborn, that was the spirit of Leras is the same thing too.

    General Twitter 2016 ()
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    Silverstars

    Every time Shallan thinks about Jasnah it's so gay which is #relatable, @BrandSanderson did you realize how bi you wrote her?? Either way, thank you.

    Brandon Sanderson

    This wasn't directly on my mind while writing, but looking back, I think it was in my subconscious. I'm flattered to hear it.

    Barnes & Noble B-Fest 2016 ()
    #7790 Copy

    Questioner

    How would you pronounce Rock's full name?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I usually get this wrong. *apprehensively chants the name* I think, but there might be something in there. It actually means... in Horneater you don't have to use a pronoun at the beginning, which is one of the weird things, you usually start with a verb. It means something along the lines of "I saw a beautiful wet stone that no one is paying attention to, but it was really cool because of the water pattern on it." Right, like, that's what his name means, and it kinda just means "Hey, appreciate the beauty of nature." Its kind of a little Horneater, their version of the haiku. The meaning is "Nature is beautiful, don't walk past the beauty of nature and ignore it." But his name actually kinda means "lonely, or forgotten rock". But "I saw a beautiful rock washed by rainwater that everyone is ignoring." Anyway, it doesn't translate all that well, I'm using a bunch of weird Asian and Indo-European language structures for this so it's not real easy to translate to English.

    White Sand vol.1 Orem signing ()
    #7792 Copy

    Questioner

    So, the fan page wanted to know. Would it be possible for Hemalurgy to steal a living Shardblade? That was the top voted question.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ok, so you're bonded to a Shardblade. You get spiked, then they spike off the bond so that the Shardblade is bonded to someone else.

    Questioner

    I assume so...

    Brandon Sanderson

    But can they do it with a living Shardblade? You can definitely do it with a dead Shardblade because its just stealing the Connection. With a living Shardblade, yes you could do that 'though the spren could break the bond at will.

    Questioner

    So the spren would survive? That was the second-- the corollary--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ehhh. Would the spren survive? The spren would survive as long as the oaths were--

    Questioner

    Intact?

    Brandon Sanderson

    --the person didn't break the oaths. But you could theoretically steal the bond, break the oaths, and kill the spren. If you wanted to. Its a very convoluted to kill a spren, they are easier to kill than that, but yes. You could do that. That is a viable but twisted route that you can do. You would end up with a dead spren and a Shardblade, so there is that. But there are easier ways to accomplish that...

    Shadows of Self release party ()
    #7793 Copy

    Seonid

    Would you tell me the intent of Bavadin's Shard?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Hmm…  Are we ready to release that?

    Isaac Stewart

    I don't know-- well we haven't-- We haven't written it into the scripts yet, but we've only done so many of the scripts so-- I don't know if that would be better place for us to reveal it or not...

    Brandon Sanderson

    If you're confident that you like what we're doing with it then we can release it now.

    Isaac Stewart

    Great. Well we had that big discussion and it sounded like that’s what we wanted to do.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Okay, we're going to have Isaac write it. He's in charge of White Sand now. And you can choose whether to share this with people or not because it's not on the recording.

    Seonid

    Oh it isn't?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, I talked around it on purpose.

    Isaac Stewart

    *writes* Autonomy.

    Steelheart Portland signing ()
    #7794 Copy

    Kogiopsis

    Kind of along the same lines, I just want to confirm something. If someone from Earth saw an Alethi, what ethnicity would they assume they were?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would-- The model I use are actually for the half-Hawaiian, half-Asians that are kind of common in Hawaii. That's the model I've used; I actually have one of their faces for Kaladin. So it would depend on what your perspective is, you might say-- some people might say Arab, but the model I'm using is kind of more Hawaiian/Asian mix is what you'd get. The only ones that would look Caucasian to you straight-up would probably be the Shin, though if you get someone who has Horneater blood-- The Horneaters might look-- they just-- they're gonna look like bizarre… redhead… things, but they might look Caucasian to you.

    swamp-spirit

    So would Shallan also be more towards that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, Shallan has lighter skin. But she still has the epicanthic fold, and so she maybe would look to you like a Caucasian/Asian mix? With red hair? So… Anyway, she would look fairly Caucasian.

    swamp-spirit

    I will attempt to send you excited fanart.

    Kogiopsis

    I've been picturing the Alethi as Indian, myself.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, like East India? That’s a pretty good picture on them. That would work very well.

    Words of Radiance Seattle signing ()
    #7795 Copy

    AhoyMatey (paraphrased)

    I picked up the Easter Eggs for Mraize being a Worldhopper. It was actually the sand that did it, having been fortunate enough to read White Sand.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Now there’s something odd about that sand. What color is the sand in WoR?

    Oathbringer release party ()
    #7796 Copy

    Ethour

    Would a Shardfork be effective in combat?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...Depends on who has it. I think-- There were war tridents that were used, historically, but I'm gonna say that, on average, a sword's a better choice. But, I mean-- Lift isn't hot on hurting people, even when she's fighting them, so it's kind of a weird thing.

    /r/books AMA 2015 ()
    #7799 Copy

    Boogalyhu34

    Is the mist creature, that was seen through out the second Mistborn book, Preservation/the mists version of the Stormfather, which seems to be related to Honor/Highstorms.

    Brandon Sanderson

    You are on the right track.

    Boogalyhu34

    The aforementioned mist being was called a "shadow of self" in one of the original 3 MB books. Does this have anything to do with a book of the same name? The Stormfather also called himself a "shadow" of what Honor was, does this support my above theory?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Stormfather would use the same language.