When did Besk first meet Kai? Two different passages within the story imply two different times in Kai's life, so I'd love some confirmation.
Man, I tweaked this in writing, and now I wonder if I created a consistency error. He met Besk during his adventuring days, but later in them.
Is it correct that both the continents of Mokia and Nalhalla are located in the Pacific Ocean?
Besides that, any plan for a map in the re-releases?
Re-releases will have a world map included. So your answers will indeed be answered then!
How big is Roshar (the continent)?
That's a question for Isaac; he has the scale somewhere. I ask him when I want travel times or whatnot.
There is some confusion on the Coppermind on whether Sixthface is the name of the world (I seem to recall it was named ‘the cube’) or just one of the Faces of the world?
Furthermore, can you tell us something we don’t know about any of the Faces?
Ha. Not often I get questions about that particular story.
It's so unfinished that I haven't established, even for myself, all of the terminology.
So, do you have any plans to finish it one day?
It depends on a lot of factors. One is if there is interest for something a tad more ridiculous from readers. While it's not as off the wall as Alcatraz, that story is quite weird with a particularly specific kind of humor. If the Alcatraz re-releases do well, then perhaps there is room for something akin to them.
What is one Epic power you wished was in one of the Reckoners books but isn't?
If there had been one, I'd have put it in.
We have seen some Hoid-related groups on the diferent worlds of the Cosmere...
Worldbringers on Scadrial, Worldsingers on Roshar, Enefel on Sel (this one is a wild guess)
Is there a Hoid-related group on Nalthis? Maybe the Five Scholars are part of it? (That would explain the Shardblade/Nightblood thing you've been talking lately)
Hoid did not found the Five Scholars.
What would be your recommended reading order for the Cosmere?
Publication order, if you're already certain you're going to read them all. If you're uncertain, I'd try to find out which book will best match your interests and get you to read that one first.
Right now, order doesn't matter much, though. One thing to remember, however, is that I'm not releasing the books in a haphazard order. Other than Elantris, I've specifically chosen which books to do in which order, as I like the progression.
Could someone with enough Breaths use part of them to heal himself without the help of a Returned?? Could the God King have healed himself without Lightsong with enough knowledge?
The nature of the Warbreaker magic is tied to the shard of Endowment, which is about giving. There are, therefore, things you cannot do for yourself.
For healing can Big Breaths heal only one person at a time or can you heal a bunch of people at once?(as long as they are not yourself)?
Legends say you can heal many.
Why in the world would the Lord Ruler spike himself?
No.
...Because he needed to give himself the powers that he didn't have. He could have done it like-- gained the knowledge but the power was gone so fast he actually needed to-- Well no no no, the spikes, the spikes, the spikes. So, it doesn't matter if he was spiked because he was hiding the metals inside himself so people couldn't Push or Pull on them. That's the real reason he was doing that. Does that make sense?
Metal that's inside of him--
Ruin influenced him, what did the spiking do?
Well, the metals that were stuck through him were so people couldn’t Push or Pull on them. If they were outside his body people would know he was a Feruchemist. Which is the very thing he was-- so he would stick the metals inside of himself to hide them.
And he did that as Hemalurgic spikes?
I'd have to go back and look because-- Lord Ruler is he spiked or has he just got--
I thought he was... spiked but I can't remem--
You're asking something that I wrote 12 years ago.
Peter, was the Lord Ruler spiked?
Lord Ruler was spiked, right? Or is it just--
I don't think so.
--piereced with metalminds, right? They're not actual spikes, just metalminds.
And I want to ask the Sharders on there [the recorder] about that Lord Ruler question, because I didn’t think he was spiked but--
I think I recall him having the bands with spikes in them?
So is there a connection with K's? Where the characters...
You mean names with K's?
Yes...
I'm going to say it's more coincidence. It has to do with what I like to name people. Kaladin's original name was Merin and it was just bad. So I eventually settled on something I liked. I just like the sound of it. If you dig down into it, most of the names in the cosmere do not have similar linguistic roots. Some do. I'm just going to chalk it up to coincidence.
Is the Earth-like biome in Shinovar a product solely of environmental factors (e.g. shelter from the highstorms), or is there a magical component as well?
On Roshar, the environment and magic are so intertwined, environmental factors ARE magical components.
Interesting, hadn't really thought of it this way, but much of the environment and its events depend on magic - highstorms, plant and animal life, crem and water deposits, and those are just off the top of my head. Was it this way before the Shards showed up, or is this a change they caused (intentionally or not)?
This will eventually be revealed.
Any Shard can make aspects [avatars].
Did you mean to imply that Autonomy wrote the second letter in Oathbringer back there, with the aspects thing?
Yeah, I did.
(He did imply that it was supposed to be fairly obvious.)
When Odium says, "We Killed You," who is he referring to?
*Hands RAFO card*
I do have a question about the Fourth Ideal of the Windrunners--
Mmhmm?
Does it have something to do with either killing or allowing people to die in order to protect others?
*RAFO card*
Aw, RAFO. *laughs*
Are you going to write books like, Way of Kings? Not the Way of Kings you already wrote but the Way of Kings in Way of Kings?
I am not planning to. Feels like it'd just be a lot of work for very little--
How many books are going to be in The Stormlight Archive?
Two five book arcs. Five will be an ending, and then six through ten will kind of be another story.
Why did you choose to write Marsh as a Steel Inquisitor?
Um, when I was doing the outline it is the thing that matched with the story I wanted, so--
What was the most outrageous things somebody has asked you to write?
A lot of times they'll have me write something insulting to their friends, just gleefully. That's pretty weird. Lots of inside jokes and things like that, that make no sense to me. You know, "From brain to sandy. Write brain to sandy! That's what we call you!" Stuff like that.
If I'm a Mistborn and I change planet-- if I go over to Roshar, do I have to bring metal from Scadrial with me?
No, you do not.
Could I use Stormlight, and just have the same power?
Not-- not-- It would take some work.
Yeah, okay. Okay, but I could use steel from Roshar, and you can-- Okay, thank you sir.
If you could go to any planet *inaudible*
Oh, they're often just terrible places, right? Maybe Wheel of Time after the end of the books. That would be a good one. Or I might pick early Age of Legends. That's it, do that. Early to mid Age of Legends, Wheel of Time.
Cephandrius is kinda like a bard. And Tanavast is almost a Paladin. And Ati we're thinking like a priest or cleric?
You're starting to stretch. You can definitely put Hoid into a bard category.
And then our final one was Preservation. Is he almost like a rogue or thief type person? Because he gives off that kind of vibe.
I'll RAFO it. You're going to have to wait on those until I write them out.
Was Azure hunting the Herald or is she hunting Zahel?
She's out hunting Zahel.
Did Harmony give Ironeyes full Mistborn powers, or anything other than what he has with his spikes...
Just what he has with the spikes, I believe. No-- okay let's say this: Harmony did not do anything... That doesn't mean that Marsh hasn't done things himself.
If you were to try and Awaken a dead Shardblade with Awakening, like you can with a metal sword, would that be possible, or what would happen?
That would probably not work. Not probably. That would just not work.
Lift can do Regrowth and Wayne can Heal. If Lift puts Regrowth on Wayne, can he store it?
Can he store it? That's a RAFO. But you are thinking along very appropriate lines of theory.
So I think you dropped like, so many cosmere bombs in Oathbringer. And I'm just low-key worried that there's not going to be much more to reveal. I hope that that's not the case and I just want a small confirmation.
There is still plenty to reveal. Remember it's two five book arcs.
So we're okay?
Yeah. I've still got a few bombs to drop.
When is the second Rithmatist book coming out?
I put an update on my blog two days ago, so you can look in there. I'm having a lot of trouble writing it.
*inaudible* Thom Merrilin *inaudible* what kind of story would that be?
Oh they would try to one-up each other. It would be one of these stories that kind of starts normal, and it spirals out of control and then just crazy insanity.
When Marsh and Sazed go to the Conventical of Seran, Marsh kind of tells Sazed, "You go do whatever you want, I gotta go do something, I'll be back." What was Marsh's purpose there? Why was he there?
I intend to do some Marsh stuff, from his viewpoint, eventually. I don't know if I'll ever get to it. There is actually something there. There is something that I intended to leave a place for me to play later on with. So the answer is a RAFO, but a legitimate RAFO. Not a "I'm trying to lead you on," or a "I don't feel like answering this right now."
If given the opportunity, which Shard would Kelsier want to punch next?
He would find it really fun to punch Honor. Really fun.
Does physical proximity of two planets have an effect on how easy it is to worldhop?
Yes.
Is Vivenna's sword in Oathbringer the same one that Vasher gives her in Warbreaker?
RAFO! But I'll give you a card.
...When a Shard vessel dies and they've held the Shard for a thousand years, how much do they remember about what they've done?
Depends on the shard. Usually, everything or most everything. It is not implausible that there are Shards that don't want to remember certain things. They have a large and vast mental capacity for remembering things.
Would Ruin be one that would be more likely to want to forget?
I think all of them would have things they might want to forget. It depends on whose personality would be more likely to make that actually happen.
Is Azure Returned?
Azure is Vivenna. And RAFO.
Is there any significance to Syl appearing to Kaladin in full sized human form?
To her? Yes. In world, I would not say a huge significance.
Kelsier said to Vin, "Always make sure to burn off your metals before you go to sleep," because of toxicity issues. And when we get to Second Era, that just makes me think, because cadmium is truly nasty stuff. And most metals to burn them off, that'll be just fine. But with its effect, it would mean that trying to burn it off would shorten the night and you don't end up with any time to sleep. How does Marasi deal with this?
You measure very carefully and you deal with the side effects of being an Allomancer.
Opening a perpendicularity. Is that a Bondsmith power or just something special Dalinar did for other reasons?
Yeah, we will RAFO that.
Was it moral for Adolin to kill Sadeas?
Which morality scheme are you looking for?
Yours. Your personal morality.
My personal morality. It depends on the day. That one's on a line. I would say yes. There's a little bit of-- there's enough chaotic good in me. I would generally put myself in neutral good. But there's enough chaotic good in me to say, "Yeah, that guy asked for it. He betrayed you, he was threatening your family." I would side on Adolin's side, I think.
I'm curious, did you have [Sazed's] end result planned out from the beginning?
Yes and no. Mostly what I would do is I would generally write the first book as an exploration. Then I will outline the series, make sure the first book matches the series, then write the rest of the series. With Mistborn I did more of a write straight through all three. And then make sure they all fit... So where I had that, it would be very hard for me to pinpoint, because I kind of wrote the three books as a whole.
But I am an outliner, so I do know a lot of things ahead of time. You're asking me to remember back ten years, what happened while I was editing. I often say yeah I knew ahead, but the honest truth is it came in there somewhere. It might have been ahead. I would have to go look and see what my outline looked like.
Sah-zed, that's how you pronounce it, right?
Well, it depends on who you are. You can say it however you want. It's said all different ways in the books. Because he is Terris, and everybody's just kind of saying his name, right?
So Kelsier says Say-zed. But in world, he would say something more like Sahz-d, not Say-zed, himself. But I say Say-zed. You can say Sah-zed. Some people would say that.
First Mistborn series, second book. One of my favorite relationships was between Vin and TenSoon. And I was wondering if there was ever a version where they meet back up again.
...I never had an outline where they did.
How do you pronounce Szeth's name?
Zeth.
Just the Z?
Yeah. There's a little bit of s...
And Sazed?
So, he says something more close to Saze-d. But Kelsier says Say-zed. And people just kind of go with what Kelsier does. I say Say-zed also.
Hypothetically speaking, if some of the main Radiants were to die at the end of book 5, go to Braize and then spend the time in between 5 and 6 there, would they age?
There are lots of problems with that question. If a Radiant dies, they don't go to Braize. A Herald would, but a Herald is a Cognitive Shadow, so there's inherent problems in there. When you're a Cognitive Shadow, aging is different there, because you're basically a ghost. Even if you've been stapled to a body, it happens weirdly. So there's all kinds of flaws in that question.
Is Patji related at all to Autonomy?
Yes.
Would you be willing to admit the name of the Vessel of the Shard on Obrodai.
*gives RAFO card*
Is Kaladin's name influenced by Dune?
I've read Dune many times, so maybe? It's more looking at-- A lot of Dune names are Arabic inspired, and I went to that region for a lot of the names. But I think the word "Paladin" was probably more in the back of my head. I didn't even think of it until I started writing it, and I'm like, "Oh I bet that's where I got it." But it's often kind of based off of like, Khalid, or things like that? Like a lot of the Arabic names go Khalid.
I was actually just thinking that the other day how the Knights are a lot like paladins.
It wasn't like, "I'll come up with the word." But after I started writing I'm like, "Oh I bet that's why the name felt right to me". But you can't separate an author from their influences, and I've read Dune like 5 times.
What was your inspiration for Jasnah?
I had done several times, when I was designing characters in the cosmere, someone who kind of thought they were an awesome scholar but really wasn't. That's the kind of thing with Sarene and a little bit of the thing with Shallan. They're young people who haven't quite made it there yet, whose opinion of themselves is kind of beyond their actual skill level. Who would be, like, the scholar? Like, the ideal Rosharan societal scholar? And I built Jasnah out of that, and then took her in a way that would allow her to also be in conflict with that at the same time. Always a good source of writing a character.
So do each Shard's perpendicularity-- is that, like are they their own individual color or is that sort of--
There is a small thematic connection. This is not to be taken as one of the bigger deals in the cosmere, but there is a small thematic connection.
Has Hoid tried to get to First of the Sun?
Hoid has tried before.
