Recent entries

    Words of Radiance Seattle signing ()
    #11951 Copy

    Questioner

    Is energy [i.e. Investiture] interchangeable between worlds?

    Brandon Sanderson

    To an extent.

    Questioner

    So like Breath could be used instead of stormlight?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It might require some hacking to achieve. Some cases it will not. For instance there's a certain sword that feeds on Investiture. And he'll feed on whatever Investiture he can get, and if he doesn't have any he'll just suck your soul out and feed on that.

    Questioner

    On the other hand if someone were to require Breaths and there were nobody giving out Breaths in that area, then...?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right. Then theoretically that's the same sort of system, but I have no idea who you could be talking about.

    Words of Radiance Seattle signing ()
    #11953 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Willshapers have to have Cohesion, because Cohesion is the "grab something solid and melt it and push it in any direction you want..." it's the weak atomic force.

    It's, you can take this and push your hand into it and leave a hand print, or things like that, and that's a Willshaper thing, not a Bondsmith thing.

    Footnote: In the context of looking at the Radiant chart
    Words of Radiance Seattle signing ()
    #11956 Copy

    Questioner

    Why was Drehy the first one to speak up for Kaladin from Bridge 4 in The Way of Kings. They were heckling him and he said "lay off of him."

    Brandon Sanderson

    Drehy was a little less beaten down than the others at that point. He was a little newer to being a bridgeman, was part of it. Also also he's one of those people—he's based off my friend Ryan Drayer—who is a big guy, tall, and is very used to sticking up for people, that's part of who he is. And I put his personality into the character a bit.

    Footnote: A lot of confusion/clarification, it's been slimmed down
    Words of Radiance Seattle signing ()
    #11957 Copy

    Questioner

    So what are the chances, once that last Stormlight comes out, that you might open up that worldbuilding wiki up for viewing?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You don't know, I might do that. That's feasible.

    Questioner

    It seems like it might be a cool way, other than like waiting another 3–4 years for it to be edited into 2 or 3 atlases or whatever, in this day and age a wiki seems like a good way to do that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. The fun thing is, it's now like 15 years old, so it's got all the old stuff from the original write in it as well.

    Questioner

    Which would also be kind of cool to see.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Which would be cool to see how I've changed things. There's stuff in there before spren were even part of the world and stuff like that.

    Words of Radiance Seattle signing ()
    #11958 Copy

    Questioner

    In Allomancy, aluminum won't be able to be pushed or pulled, right?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right.

    Questioner

    So if you put a piece of steel like a gun barrel, and then you surround it with aluminum, can you still push the gun barrel?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The aluminum will add some interference, it's gonna depend on how thick the aluminum is. It's probably unfeasible. That is a viable concept, I don't think it's feasible on a gun barrel.

    Words of Radiance Seattle signing ()
    #11961 Copy

    Questioner

    He said, "I was reading through *inaudible* Szeth section he mentioned that 'we are all that remains'. Is he saying that the Shin are the lost Order? The one that didn't abandon the oaths? Of course the section *inaudible* alternatives-- *interrupted*

    Brandon Sanderson

    What they are doing is-- Szeth is saying, "We are all that remains that remembers what happened before." [...] And they may be-- they may not remember accurately. But they consider themselves the only ones who know. Does that make sense? [...] It is not reference to the Orders.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11963 Copy

    Kendra

    You have to congratulate whoever did the Soonie pup ad. Effective advertising: I want one!

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, lots of people have said this. It was not something we were intending to do. It would have to be more than just a little puppy, though. You'd have to be able to rip out its spikes and transform it or something. You can go get a stuffed puppy anywhere.

    Kendra

    But it's a stuffed TenSoon, so it's a stuffed Irish wolfhound. And you can find those in adult. You cannot find those in puppy.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's true. I'll think about it.

    Kendra

    You don't have to do the spikes.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I know, but people will want the spikes. They are gonna be like "If you're gonna provide me with a Soonie pup"-- You'd have to be able to take out the spikes and turn it into a blob, so it's a mistwraith on the inside and a Soonie pup on the outside.

    Kendra

    It'd have to be something like a backpack dog. Maybe the spikes are clasps on the outside or something.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11968 Copy

    Questioner

    Can you write the Fourth Ideal of the Windrunners?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No. No no no no no no. [...] The Fourth Ideal is guessable, I feel. Much more so than... Well, you probably could have guessed the Second-- Third Ideal as the book progressed. I think you could guess the fourth one right now, but it's going to be hard. It's not obvious, but it's there.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11972 Copy

    Questioner

    What happens if you put Shardplate in a highstorm? If you are in Shardplate and you go out into a highstorm...

    Brandon Sanderson

    You're pretty well protected, but a boulder flying through the air can still do some major damage to a person in Shardplate.

    Questioner

    What will happen to the gems in the Shardplate?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They will be recharged.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11975 Copy

    Questioner

    So, can we talk about your science fiction stuff, like Defending Elysium? Do you have any intention to go further with that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have no current intentions. I kind of have ideas for where I would go, but I just have so many projects that right now I'm letting that one lay as is.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11978 Copy

    Mike

    Where are you going with the lunar allegory of Wax and Wayne?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There's no moon on Scadrial, and it just cracked me up that they would have these names that were a pun that they wouldn't get. [...] I came up with Wayne's name first and then I needed a name for the straight man he played off of, and the idea of Wax and Wayne amused me. I am easily amused by bad puns, Mike.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11980 Copy

    Questioner

    The Alethkar culture, being competitive and all that. Is that [like a forethought of] capitalism and stuff like that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, I wouldn't say that it is specifically. That could be in there in the back of my mind. There were very competitive cultures long before capitalism was around. They would certainly like capitalism, but there are other influences causing this in Alethi culture.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11985 Copy

    Questioner

    Are Cognitive elements like spren and seons only present on physical planes on worlds where Shards have been [Splintered]?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No. But it does require <Cognitive *inaudible*>. Alternately the Shard would have to give up pieces of their power for that. But it doesn't have to be that they were [Splintered] by someone. Seons existed on, sorry, spren existed on Roshar before the Shattering of Adonalsium. Not as many.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11989 Copy

    Questioner

    [In Forging], if you rewrite the history of an item, and it took effect permanently, would there ever be a potential to have a butterfly effect, out beyond the history of the item, that might directly affect something somewhere else in the world?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would be very very hard for that to ever happen, because it's like spliced DNA or something like that. It's not real. It's a forgery. Nothing else considers it, that it did that. The only tricky bit would be if you have children, and you've rewritten yourself in an interesting way that’s actually changed your DNA, that... might have ramifications.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11991 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there a particular reason behind the spelling, or is it just coincidence that Kelsier and Kaladin are both K-names?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Just coincidence. Kaladin's original name was Merin, and it was a weak name that didn't work for me, so I changed it. It took me forever to find a good name for him. It comes from "paladin". Not the inworld origin, but that was the word that [inspired it]. [...] It was more that I was searching for sounds, and I realized it sounded a bit like [paladin], but I was okay with that. Just like Elantris sounds a little bit like Atlantis. It's not like I was purposely [choosing it]. I just liked the sound of it.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11993 Copy

    Questioner

    On Sel, it seems like a lot of the magic is tied-in to the location on the planet. Could you take something like Soulforging and do it on another planet, or is it just tied into Sel?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is tied into Sel, and there's this distinct reason for that, and it has to do with one of the big differences between the magic there and other places that people haven't picked out of me yet.

    Questioner

    So is that tied into how you can get Investiture there?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. It's all tied in. I’ve only made it vaguely - It's not obvious, but I think you could pick it out if you worked at it.

    Footnote: We now know that the reason magic on Sel is tied to location is because the investiture there comes from the Cognitive Realm (where location is important), and not the Spiritual.
    #magic system #sel
    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11995 Copy

    Questioner

    From Shadows of Self, you just sort of name Hoid. Is he just not caring anymore, or is it just space in the book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    In Alloy [of Law], he wasn't really interested. He showed up only for a wedding. By this [Shadows of Self], he's noticed something else is happening on-world, so he's come back to investigate, but he's not really relevant. You will see him taking a larger role as he becomes more interested in what's happening on-planet. His level of involvement is kind of directly tied to how interested he is in what's going on.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11996 Copy

    Questioner #1

    Which world does Hoid enjoy visiting the most?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Scadrial almost has instant noodles. So he's very interested in Scadrial.

    Questioner #2

    Is he doing anything to push that along?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He is not as involved in that as certain other forces are.

    Questioner #2

    There are forces involved in the developing instant noodles?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, oh yes.

    Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
    #11997 Copy

    Questioner

    I really enjoyed the newspaper clippings that you've done in recent books, and I was just wondering what preparation you did for writing those sections because they are really engaging.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He's enjoyed the newspaper clippings - which there is a bunch of them here, if you didn't pick one of these up, as promotion for this book. Because we have to chop it up, the broadsheet, in the book itself, we printed full ones that you can take, just because they look so nifty. I love the little one about the Soonie pups.

    What preparation did I do?

    My whole team, me, and Isaac [Stewart], and Ben McSweeney would put these together. Ben is one of the artists I use a lot, and Isaac is one of my employees. We read a whole bunch of period newspapers and saw what they were doing. And we were like "wow, they advertised whiskey and cigars a whole bunch!" Stuff like that. *audience laughter* And we just kind of tried to get the tone down for those. And for these things I wrote some of them, but I didn't write all of them. Actually Ben wrote some and Isaac wrote some. With the idea being that we wanted to have a different type of voice for the newspapers, so it felt like a bunch of different journalists were writing articles. And so we would brainstorm a bunch of ideas together, and we would all go off and write little clips about them, and we put the best ones into the newspaper. And of course we hit little hints about the plot lines of this book and future books.

    Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide ()
    #11998 Copy

    Natalie Perkins

    I'm one of those readers that gets swept in the stories and fails to come up with any theories whatsover.

    However I did notice one... 2 years ago.

    Hoid

    I can't believe this is being talked about. I remember making a thread about it shortly after I joined the forums (I can't even find it anymore) About how I thought it was odd to see Hoid in Mistborn as an informant, Elantris as a beggar, Warbreaker as a storyteller, and I had a strong feeling it was in the first chapter as Liar as well but was too lazy to investigate.

    It was before these forums got so crazy crowded and I'm pretty sure my questions on whether the use of the name was intentional were brushed off. Weird right? Ever since then I considered my speculations unimportant (much like my speculation's on Reen's obsidian, the nobility really being Terris, and Vin being a feruchemist, by the way, don't ask about the second two, I'm crazy)

    Anyway, just wanted to add this. I sure wish I could find my original Hoid post but I'm pretty sure it was so old, it's been deleted.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I remember when you pointed Hoid out, notxaxlie. I was curious to see if others would start talking about it then, but it just kind of faded. You were certainly one of the first to spot that point.

    Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide ()
    #11999 Copy

    Pygmalion

    ......wooooooooooooooah......

    I still can't stop thinking that in my head. It's all that's really coming to mind at the moment.

    I made the stupid mistake of finishing the book this afternoon in a public place. Therefore I looked like a complete moron as I burst into tears when Elend died. I think it was a good ending. I'm still not totally decided on that. I'm just in shock.

    It's just so amazing how the books progressed, developing into this huge cosmic epic that I never expected from just reading The Final Empire a year ago. I guess in some sense what I'm feeling is a slight sense of... awe, maybe? I want to know how he comes up with stuff. I mean seriously, talk about not just writing another fantasy series.

    But I'm also shocked that no one else seemed to have figured out that Sazed was the Hero of Ages. I thought it might be him when I started the book, but it could as easily have been Vin or Elend. But at about a third of the way through, page 215 to be exact, there was this line from Sazed thinking in his head:

    "I am, unforunately, in charge."

    Sound familiar?

    "I am, unfortunately, the Hero of Ages."

    No one else would have used the same wording as Sazed did when he was thinking to himself. I have to assume that was intentional on Brandon's part. It was very subtle... I'm actually surprised I noticed.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm gratified that you noticed. The Terris dialect IS very subtle. That speech pattern is one hint, the other is the use of "I think" to soften phrases at the ending. Beyond that, Sazed speaks with compound, complex sentences using frequent hedging to indicate that he's often uncertain. (That's another Terris speech pattern, not wanting to offend with language.)

    The epigraphs in this book particularly (though I did it for Kwaan too) are intended to "sound" Terris, and like Sazed in particular. I didn't think anyone would catch it. You made my day!