Recent entries

Brimis

Help us with some at-work Bands of Mourning conversation: what is the intended pronunciation of "Marasi"?

Peter Ahlstrom

MAHR-uh-see

Jason Paas

Are Odium and Devotion opposites?

Brandon Sanderson

One could make that argument.

Emilie Kearney

I love Marasi with Wax! But Steris looks like she is winning so I'm gonna stop reading cuz it made me cry. It's been fun.

Brandon Sanderson

I'm sorry. He just didn't feel about her the way she did about him. (Plus, her path leads other directions.)

DimensionalTwit

Would being fat be advantageous for steelpushing? Asking for a friend.

Brandon Sanderson

Advantageous in pushing against someone else, trying to knock them over. Disadvantageous when lifting yourself into the air

Leonardo Dabrowskej

Ever thought about a comic of the Reckoners world? I would freaking love it!

Brandon Sanderson

We have considered it! If the White Sand graphic novel does well, I might do others.

Sam Script

Are Aimians the mass exodus race mentioned in TWoK?

Peter Ahlstrom

What is the mention you're referring to?

Sam Script

https://t.co/h6P6Dvwr2l

We finally limit it to Aimian, Shinovar, or Iriali. Which is the answer or?

Peter Ahlstrom

RAFO.

James Montgomery

I'm planning on doing a cosplay of a Parshendi warrior for DragonCon this year. Are they barefoot or do they wear shoes?

Peter Ahlstrom

They wear shoes or boots.

Francis Ocoma

In Elantris, are Forton's "potions" magical, or is he using natural substances?

Brandon Sanderson

They are invested. (Magical.)

nightwing

Is Wayne cosmere-aware? a couple little moments make me wonder, even though it's more than unlikely.

Brandon Sanderson

He is not, but he has (unknowingly) spent time around people who are. A little has rubbed off.

Bill Eckert

Is there any relation between Shardplate and the spren like there are with the Blades?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. :)

Mathieu JurassicPark

Ooh could a kandra pretend to be Returned on Nalthis by using the bones of a recently deceased person?

Brandon Sanderson

Heightenings would still recognize them as being alive, as their flesh is alive--even if they're pasting it over dead bones.

Zach G

Dunno if you can answer this now, but if everyone is from Yolen way back when, is there a migration story?

Brandon Sanderson

Not all humans originated on Yolen, but the first humans were there. Watch the books for myths that hint at more.

Charles Horikami

Just reread Emperor's Soul. Use of cursing being nights and days. Important? Please tell me will be getting more eventually.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it's important. I will get into it some day.

Sam Script

Was Nahel name of a person? (Gonna be RAFO'd right?)

Peter Ahlstrom

I don't know, but I doubt it.

Bill Vaz

When you're writing, how many words you do per day on average? And when you're revising, how many words per day on average?

Brandon Sanderson

Writing between 2k and 3k. Revising, between 10k and 20k, depending on how difficult the section is.

Sam Script

My friend is eager to know whether power plants in Elendel use Allomancers to generate electricity. Do they?

Peter Ahlstrom

RAFO.

Sam Script

Do female listeners have periods? If yes, do all forms have it, or just mateform?

Peter Ahlstrom

If they do, it's just mateform. (Maybe slaveform too.)

Leinton

I think a lot about the fact that [Brandon] decided that Roshar needed 10 evenly spaced gas giants in its system.

Peter Ahlstrom

The spacing is not to scale...and the uninhabited planets are very hard to detect from Shadesmar.

Also few of these would be visible from Roshar. So...

Questioner

Are you going to write something about Hoid?

Brandon Sanderson

I am. He'll have his own series, but it's a long ways off. Gonna warn you right here, right now.

Questioner

Are you going to write books in <> order <>

Brandon Sanderson

I have an ending planned. It's possible I will get everything written and then write things in-between. But right now I'm pushing right toward the planned ending.

Hoidonalsium

Is Mraize's strange chicken Invested? Like the birds of Sixth of the Dusk?

Brandon Sanderson

It is an Aviar.

Hoidonalsium

Was Hoid's Cryptic the same one that was meant for Elhokar?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Hoidonalsium

Is there anything more to the Cryptic than Pattern? Like Shallan's Pattern?

Brandon Sanderson

There's more to every individual! But it is not a more powerful Cryptic or anything like that.

Hoidonalsium

In that one long rejection of Odium, how many Oaths did Dalinar swear before merging the Realms? And is "I am Unity" the fifth.

Brandon Sanderson

No, that is not an Oath. He swore one ideal in that experience.

Hoidonalsium

Okay. How many Oaths is he on?

Brandon Sanderson

The number you think. So, he should have just finished three, right? Or maybe four. I'll have to go look. It's the number that you think it is. I'm not being sneaky on you. There's nothing sneaky there. He doesn't get armor, so I can't remember where he is... He should be at three. "Life before death." "I will unite instead of divide." "I will stand up each time I fall." Yeah, so he's done three.

Hoidonalsium

So, there's a whole lot of things that happen in a very short period of time when Dalinar brings the worlds together. "We killed you" from Odium. Who is "we" and who is "you"?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

What are you reading?

Brandon Sanderson

Right now, I actually just started reading [Under] the Pendulum Sun... I read two chapters of it, it was very good. It's by an author [Jeannette Ng] who is British, who came to one of my signings earlier, so I looked it up... She came in costume, she came as Jasnah, and she's a professional writer herself, so I'm like, "I've got to read her book." ...The first two chapters were delightful. Missionaries going to fairyland, the land of the fae.

Questioner

Skyward. Is that gonna be a Cosmere story?

Brandon Sanderson

Not right now... I've decided mostly. It's possible I'll pull it out, but I feel like I need to reference Earth for some of the things I'm doing. That's kind of my baseline.

Questioner

For a hardcore fan, one clue you'd give out... [About] Hoid, or Dragonsteel, or Restares.

Brandon Sanderson

...The problem is, so little of Dragonsteel is still canon. I've pulled so much out of it.

The Sho Del are still canon, and Hoid has an interesting relationship with several of them.

Questioner

When Odium says "We killed you." Is that RAFO, or?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO... I'm just not confirming it or denying it, what it means.

Questioner

Stormfather is the spren of the storm. What is the Nightwatcher the spren of?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

Can I expect any more from Sixth of the Dusk?

Brandon Sanderson

Eventually. I have a second novella planned for him. I just have to slot it in at the right moment. We'll see if it happens.

Questioner

When Skybreakers are about to decide to follow Dawnsingers. Why now? Why not before?

Brandon Sanderson

So this is a little complicated... Until they came back, by Nale's interpretation, then the law of the land was human. When they returned, the law of the land, in his opinion, became Dawnsinger. And at that point, it was his job to switch to them. It is his logic, but you don't have to agree with that logic. Because Nale's logic is maybe not the best.

Questioner

Back to Stormlight. Is there significance to the color of moons?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there is a significance to the colors of the moons in Stormlight, but it is not a major player in theories. There is a significance, but it's not, like, one of these things that you're going to read book seven and be like "The colors of the moons! It was there all along!" Sometimes, I put stuff like that in, right? It's not like that.

Questioner

Yes, or no. With all of the cosmere books that have been put out, do we have enough information to deduce the Ghostbloods' motives?

Brandon Sanderson

Ummm... *laugher* I would say yes, but it's not like you are a fool if you haven't gotten it.

Robert Jordan once answered a question like this saying, "Well, the answer should be intuitively obvious to the casual observer." Which I never thought was fair. Like, no, it was not. Szeth, some people guessed it. And some people will guess this. A lot of the foreshadowing in my books, it's this weird thing where, when you do proper foreshadowing, and then people have three years between books, they're gonna figure some things out. Which presents a really interesting challenge to me as a writer, because, like, there are big things that get revealed in Oathbringer, that people who have been steeped in the world for the last seven years... they kinda knew this would happen. We get the beta readers, and they're like, "So? Doesn't everyone know that?" But at the same time, the casual reader, beta readers were like "Holy cow! This is a huge revelation!" And books need to work both for the person who has been really steeped in it, and the person who's reading along that maybe doesn't want to go get all the spoilers from all the fan guessing. So it is this weird balancing act that, as a writer, you have to perform, particularly with the longer books in the longer series, where you want to make sure they're engaging to the hardcore fan, but not overwhelming to the person who maybe hasn't reread the books since the last one came out. And I don't know that I have that balance figured out, but it is something I think about a lot...

Questioner

So, I was gonna ask about which character the next book would focus on?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, no, that's not spoilery... I said from the get-go I am perfectly all right writing a flashback sequence for a character who has already died in the books. So it's not telling you any spoilers to tell you who the various characters are. So, the front five are Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Eshonai, and Szeth. Those are our front five. And our back five are Lift, Jasnah, Ash, Taln, and Renarin. And, not in that order. I've flipped the order quite a bit as I've been going. 'Cause Dalinar was gonna be book five, and now he's book three. So now Szeth is book five, and Eshonai is book four. Right now, Lift is book six. But the back five, I'm not concerned about, other than making sure I'm setting up the right things, and it's gonna come together.

Questioner

Shallan's personas. How would they be viewed in the Spiritual Realm? Would they be an individual? Or would they be seen as being slightly separate?

Brandon Sanderson

They would be seen as an individual.

Questioner

I wanted to ask whether cake has a soul? In Realmatic theory, stuff has souls. So, somebody turns wheat into flour, and flour has a soul. Do they come together when I bake the cake?

Brandon Sanderson

...So, this gets into some weird cosmere theory stuff. The level that if you are a student of philosophy, you'll recognize just wearing on the sleeve where this one came from. This is a mashup of Shinto beliefs and the theory of the forms by Plato, and kind of its own weird thing, that became Realmatic theory in the cosmere...

So, in the cosmere, things take on an Identity and a soul based on how people perceive them. It's human perception that is creating a lot of this, because the various powers that made the universe have this sort of desire to be sentient. And power left long too long in the cosmere starts thinking, that's just how it goes, and starts thinking of itself the way it is perceived. So, that cake, as soon as its created, the disparate parts of the souls start being thought of as a cake, and start gaining some traction as a cake. If you left that cake alone long enough, which wouldn't take too long for a cake because people don't look at cake and think "Oh, a bunch of wheat and flour." They think "Cake." That thing will start having a combined soul of the various bits of power, and the longer you leave it, the more permanency it's gonna have as a Spiritual artifact in the cosmere.

So, yes, cake has a soul.

Questioner 1

What kind of time frame will we look for, or will we see another book?

Brandon Sanderson

Time frame for another Sixth of the Dusk book? So, I outlined a pretty good novella, which was actually about Sixth, going into Shadesmar. It was pretty cool, but then I didn't have time to write it, so I can't make any promises.

Questioner 2

So, there is one coming, maybe?

Brandon Sanderson

Maybe. There is an outline for another story, specifically about Sixth, because exploring Shadesmar would be a fun thing for him. But can't promise.

Brandon Sanderson

*reading a personalization request* Name a Shard not--

FirstSelector

Preservation... from the alternate [Well of Ascension] ending.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh! Oh, oh, oh, oh! What do you mean by that?

FirstSelector

I thought that those four were-- the four mist-people--

Brandon Sanderson

Oh the four mist-people that's-- Oh... *sighs* I gotta RAFO that, right?

FirstSelector

Well it's not canon technically.

Brandon Sanderson

No it's not canon... Okay I just have to dig back deep... But there's stuff--

FirstSelector

Star.

Brandon Sanderson

There's a star, just remember the star.

*writes*

"Endowment was there*"

Leah Burkhart

Have you ever completely lost motivation or inspiration to write? When?

Brandon Sanderson

Closest I've come was about two years before I got published. I'd been rejected so much, and had worked for 8 years.

Questioner

Can Shardblades cut Aluminum?

Brandon Sanderson

You're gonna have to... yes they can, well yeah. They can cut aluminum but... yeah.

Questioner

What is your favorite Dresden Files book?

Brandon Sanderson

I am going to say that I prefer Codex Alera. I read those and [?]. The second one? yeah, I don't know. They are all very good. I'm reading The Aeronaut's Windlass right now and I'm liking that a lot, but i really like Codex Alera.

Questioner

Was there an author that inspired you to write?

Brandon Sanderson

Barbara Hambly wrote the book Dragonsbane. It would be her or Anne McCaffrey, who is the first person I read.

Czanos

Would anything interesting happen if an Allomancer Burned a Hemalurgic spike, or a Feruchemist Tapped one?

Brandon Sanderson

Er, well, it’s possible. But you’d have to be burning a Hemalurgic spike that killed you and took your power…

Just like you can’t gain anything by burning a metalmind unless you infused it yourself.

Questioner

What came first, Pattern or Chalklings?

Brandon Sanderson

Pattern was before Chalklings, good question. For some part of its existence, The Rithmatist was in the cosmere, until I finally decided I just don't want Earth in the cosmere at all, even a bizarre sort of version of Earth.

Questioner

Are the people from Dalinar's visions, the ones he has the vision through, related to one another?

Brandon Sanderson

No. It's not a Wheel of Time thing where you are going through generations. Good question.

havoc_mayhem

You've once said that there were three sentient species on Yolen: Human, Dragon and [Sho Del]. We've seen a lot of 'people' on the different planets that were either descended from or intentionally based on humans. Frost is known to be a dragon.

Are any of the non-human species we've seen descended from or based on either Dragons or [Sho Del]?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO! :)

havoc_mayhem

What colour is Frost's blood? What color is a [Sho Del]'s blood?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO, more because I'm not ready to canonize Dragonsteel facts yet, as opposed because it will be a huge revelation.

Jerich

Is the Hoed from Elantris similar to the state of [dead] Shardblades? If so is it possible to awaken a Shardblade if the bearer speaks the oaths of the Knights Radiant?

Brandon Sanderson

The status is... I would say not as similar as you're probably thinking, but it does have a similarity in that two bacteria causing a disease are both caused by a bacteria, so there is a similarity there.

I can imagine a sequence where a Shardblade would be reawakened, but I think it would be very difficult.

It's not the same that they're in the middle of a transition, like in Elantris.

Jerich

Oh, okay. So you have to actually... it'd be harder.

Brandon Sanderson

It'd be harder, yeah. It's not the same, they're not in the middle of a transition. They have had something ripped from them, and it's very painful and it's left them mostly mindless.

Jerich

So they have to have that something added back?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. So what you've got going on: the spren gain-- the bond lets them have sentience in the physical plane, like they can think and all these things, and when that was ripped away from them-- imagine... (this is a very bad metaphor, it's the first one coming to my head though): imagine you had wetware, you had a head-jack or something like that, and someone just ripped it out of your head. 

Jerich

*stunned/horrified*

Oh.

Brandon Sanderson

Instead of surgically operating it out. Like that's what's happened, a piece of their soul's been ripped off.

Megasif

In London I wanted to ask about Nightblood. The way he is Invested, is that a one-off-case kind of thing, or is it possible to do another of that level?

Brandon Sanderson

It was really bizarre, and I will explain it eventually and that will let you know why. It's theoretically possible to do almost anything so it's theoretically possible to do what he did but it'd be very hard.

Questioner

Can a Shard go to a planet, create an autonomous Splinter, and then leave the system of the planet and then *inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's possible. In fact, that's happened. You've seen that happen.

Questioner

What does the Everstorm look like in the Cognitive Realm. Is the reason you didn't describe it--

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I'm saving that for another book. So it's a RAFO.