The amount of Heralds that we have seen so far. Two? I had thought Wit was one.
Wit is not one, but you've seen Ash, you've seen Taln, you've seen Jezrien and Kalak in the prelude, you've seen Nale. Yeah, he was chasing Lift, among other things. You've heard of several others, but the others are going to start getting more and more obscure from there. I don't think there's any others.
Could the mantle of Herald be passed to another person. Could they--
Read And Find Out, I'm afraid.
I envision the Bondsmiths as, like, walking catapult. Is that viable, or is it different?
You'll have to wait and see. We'll RAFO that.
We see, in Secret History, all the people going Beyond after they die. Do all the victims go there? Or just people? Just sentients? Would a Ryshadium go the Beyond, if it died.
Um-- Yes.
What about, like, a rockbud, or a chasmfiend?
Um, that, you're gonna have to ask the philosophers about. Because, if it happens, it happens really fast, so they have trouble spotting it.
Is there a significant connection between Stormlight and spren?
Yes.
What is the extent of that, I guess? Is that a Read And Find Out?
That's a RAFO.
Does everyone meet the Nightwatcher when they die?
No.
As you look at the Double Eye, is there a pattern for Honor and Cultivation's disparate influences on each Surge or Order?
There are philosophers who think that there are, but-- it is more straightforward than those philosophers think it is.
Is it fair to say that Honor is focused on the past, and Cultivation is focused on the future? Or nostalgia.
No. Nope, not fair to say that. But it is an interesting theory. They would disagree with you, but you could make the argument.
Is Hoid somebody I should be rooting for?
Depends on-- Depends... There's a big, uh, "depends" attached to that.
Is that something we're gonna see in Stormlight Archive?
You will see some of it in Stormlight. It's not the main place you're gonna see it.
If you had a Shardblade, what would it look like?
Hm... it would have lots of glyphs on it.
So, we know that things can be Soulcast into aluminum. But can aluminum itself be Soulcast into something else?
It resists all forms of Investiture trying to change it to things.
An Elantrian, can they use an unkeyed nicrosilmind to-- as a substitute for the Dor?
...This is theoretically possible. Again, the Selish magic systems do not play well with the other magics, but that is theoretically possible to make happen.
Could you build Aons or something similar to Aons off of the natural landforms on Roshar, like the Dawncities and the other cities that are sort of symmetrical?
The Elantrian magic system, the Selish magic systems, are the ones that don't work very well-- don't interact very well with other worlds... Other ones are a lot more easy to interact between worlds.
If an Elantrian has a child, is that child an Elantrian?
Not necessarily.
...Like, two Elantrians have a child, it's possible that it's just a normal human?
...It is indeed.
[Question written down, unknown]
They can communicate with each other. So, there's at least one answer-- with the spren-- Yeah, but it's not-- you don't really communicate with spren in the same way.
Can they get, like, Odium- or Cultivation- or Honor-oriented spren to kinda animate them?
No, that's not quite how it works.
The intelligence in the eye of the chasmfiend, I was wondering. Or on the santhid rescuing her.
It's more, like, does a flower communicate with a bee. That's a similar sort of thing we're looking at here.
If people from Scadrial were to colonize, like, Nalthis, and not intermarry with the people there, would their children continue to have the Scadrial Investiture, or would they have the Nalthis Investiture? In the sense that, is it genetic, or is it planetary?
Scadrial is more genetic.
Than Nalthis, where they have the Breaths?
Yes.
So, would their children continue to--
Their children would continue, for a while, to have Scadrian Investiture.
For a while. Could you say, like, how many generations?
I cannot.
The respect for lighteyes seems to come from Radiants and their-- Is there a reason that the Makabaki and Iriali don't seem to care as much.
Yeah. That will become a little more evident as the books progress.
So, November is the National Writer's month. Have you ever participated in the NaNoWriMo challenge?
I have!
Awesome! How did that go?
It went pretty well. I'm a pretty compulsive writer, so-- I don't do it as much anymore, 'cause I'm almost always on tour during it or something. But during the early days when I was trying to break in, I did it all the time. I actually wrote a big chunk of the first draft of Way of Kings in 2002, in NaNoWriMo.
When people ask you who your favorite character is, you say they're all your children. And I always have the same thought: even Amaram?
Well, let's say, my favorites are all of the viewpoint characters who are not slimeballs... Yeah, he's definitely one of the exceptions to that.
What other exceptions?
Oh, I don't know. I'd have to think about it.
In Way of Kings, the Death Rattles, it say that the person who said it reported seeing strange dreams during the highstorms for the past two years. What do you have to say about that, I guess?
Highstorms. You often see strange things during the highstorms.
That's not a real answer.
It totally is a real answer! That person saw some weird stuff. Weird stuff happens. Dalinar sees weird things walking along throwing rocks at people, so. Who knows.
Can a Surgebinder use Breath like they can Stormlight?
This is possible and not really that hard to make work.
How would Nightblood react to Hoid?
Nightblood would probably try to be very friendly to Hoid, and then-- But Nightblood tries to be friendly to everybody. He's a very friendly, uh, demonic terrible sword that sucks your soul.
If you were gonna pick a thing to be, like, an Edgedancer, or a Windrunner, what would you be?
Probably a Bondsmith is what's natural to me. If I could pick any, I'd probably be Windrunner, but I don't think I'd fit Windrunner.
Does, like, Steelheart universe included in the cosmere?
It doesn't. Good question.
Do koloss have hair?
...It depends on the form. Some do, some don't. But, in general, they do. But it's not-- Here's the thing, it's not quite hair. They're not mammalian.
What are they if they're not mammalian?
They are their own-- uh, yeah.
Are there any fain or formerly fain holders of a Shard of Adonalsium?
What an excellent question! It's a card, it's a RAFO card.
Any clues on where we see Hemalurgy elsewhere in the cosmere?
No, we'll RAFO that for now.
How does rewriting the Spiritual aspect work?
...So, it has ramifications through the other two Realms. It can happen. You've seen it happen.
That's what happens with kandra, right?
Yes, to an extent, yes.
With the koloss?
Yeah, both of them. Hemalurgy is, like, sticking a piece of someone's spirit to another person's spirit and creating a Frankenstein's monster of spirits.
Can you tell me why Jasnah wanted to potentially assassinate her sister-in-law, the queen?
She felt that the queen was seeking to usurp power, for one thing, and was reckless for another. And so Jasnah was worried about the safety of the throne.
So, in Warbreaker, Awakened items have to emulate humans. Why is that?
It's a matter of perception on the people using the magic. And there are ramifications on the fact that the Shards themselves were all once humanoid.
So, Renarin. Is there anything special about him, like regarding him being able to see the future, or, like, Rock not being able to see his spren? So he's different than other Truthwatchers?
Read [Oathbringer]. Then come back and ask.
I had a question regarding the sixteen Shards... If they are, or when they are reformed to Adonalsium, will it have to be one person holding all sixteen Shards?
That's a RAFO. I'm gonna RAFO that partially because there's not even-- who knows if it can all be recombined.
Would you care if I took what we have on, like, Aonic, and sort of rolled it into a conlang?
Yeah, that'd be fine. Aonic is the one that, like, in some ways the least useful.
It has the most words that I've found for it.
If you're interested in conlangs, go talk to Peter, and maybe we'll sic you on something. Maybe we can get you working on something officially. I've tried to get Peter to do something... Go talk to him. Talk nerd stuff with him.
What is the most fully-developed you've made any of the languages in the books? Or do you just come up with the sounds and just sort of stop?
It depends on which ones. Like, the further we go in the books, the more developed they become. Peter is a linguist, was a linguistics major, so I lean on him heavily for some of these things. Korean gets used all the time. Because I speak Korean and did my mission in Korea...
What new series are you planning for the cosmere? Do you have any?
I really wanna do at least a book set on the same world as Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell.
What are your plans for the third Mistborn trilogy?
1980s level technology... little bit of a, "how nerd culture works" in Mistborn world, on Scadrial. Lots of fun stuff. Allomancer taskforces and SWAT teams.
So, would Allomancy work if the metals were a suppository?
That is theoretically possible, but gross... There's nothing special about the stomach. It's kinda getting it into your spirit, and things.
What was your opinion of the Blackthorn?
What about it? What do you mean?
Like, in general, people call him a monster, when I ask, ask around. I think he's a badass.
He totally was a badass. He was also not morally centered.
Do you have a cameo, or a character that represents you?
I do not. They're all a piece of me... Every character is me in one way, and every character is not me in other ways.
How do you write a good follower? Like, you have a lot of good leaders. But what are some good attributes of followers?
I think that a good follower is willing to-- perform... Knowing that we all wear different hats, and not everyone can call the shots every time, and being willing to be the person that trusts someone else to call the shots.
I read the earlier version of The Way of Kings. When did Kaladin get depressed?
That was when I realized he was the main character and the least-- the least a character, right? And so, it was when I sat down and asked myself, what went wrong with it? And the main thing of the things I came up was that Kaladin wasn't real. And so I started looking at what would make him real. And depression doesn't make more real, but it's an outgrowth of him making the other decision, what happened with his brother, he had PTSD, and all of this stuff. It grew out of that.
The Lopen's cousins? Is there any significance to them, or are they just--
No, they're just, like, his cousins and his distant cousins. He just is somebody who knows everyone and is related to half the Herdazians around. There's no secret, they just really are.
When they show up, ever time, I'm like, there's gotta be something with these guys.
They're a tight-knit group, those Herdazians.
What did Lopen do to get on a bridge crew?
Lopen? Someone just thought he was annoying. Lopen, he's like the only person in Bridge Four who's, like, not a criminal. It's just like, "Oh, that stupid Herdazian, send him to a bridge crew, get him away." He's legitimately, like-- all of them have deep, dark, tragic pasts, but not The Lopen.
Is he one of your friends?
No...
Can you describe what Shadesmar looks like on either Nalthis or Sel.
Yeah. On Sel? Looks like a big old storm that will destroy you. More than a storm, it's like a big pressurized-- it's like plasma, almost. It is really dangerous. Really dangerous. That 'cause the Dor is hanging out there.
So, when Cenn dies, and he says "The Black Piper in the night, he holds us in the palm, playing a tune no man can hear." Is that a reference to Hoid?
No. Good question!
Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
I did. I considered-- When I started, I'm like, "Brandon Sanderson's a boring name, I should do a cooler name." And my editor and my agent prevailed upon me that, no, it was not a boring name, it was just fine. That was the big decision point.
So, you post enough on Reddit. But you get by with not always getting noticed, and you can actually post stuff kind of like normally, like a person. How long do you think that will last until, you like-- like, if you get a movie or a TV deal...
People miss when Arnold [Schwarzenegger] posts on Reddit. People just aren't used to reading usernames. And I know, if they're miss Arnold, they're always gonna miss me.
Did you have an inspiration for the Talents, in Alcatraz?
Stupid things that myself or my family do.
You actually mentioned at a signing I went to last year that the Rithmatist magic was going to be, like a cosmere thing, but you pulled it out. What about it wasn't working?
It wasn't the magic, it was the setting. I decided I didn't want Earth in the cosmere, even a alternate version of it. The magic still kind of works very cosmere-y.
Are there a finite number of types of spren, or can new ones be created?
New ones can be created.
