Recent entries

Darxbane

Did Vin's mother actually have a spike, or was she so crazy that one wasn't necessary for Ruin to influence her?

Brandon Sanderson

She was crazy enough on her own.

Darxbane

In an annotation from book one, it is mentioned that The Lord Ruler needed all three magic systems in order to do what he did. I always assumed that it meant his Hemalurgy enhanced his Allomancy. Did Marsh get a double power, or is the Feruchemy-Allomancy combo enough? (a sidebar to this question is whether or not stacking abilities is possible through Hemalurgy)

Brandon Sanderson

He used Hemalurgy to pull off his most dramatic effects. Marsh didn't need them, but it makes things much easier.

Trae Cooper (paraphrased)

Why are Invested objects like metalminds and Hemalurgic spikes able to be Pushed and Pulled on, but Shardblades and Shardplate, which are also invested, are not susceptible to Pushing and Pulling?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There were a few concepts that he outlined in answering this question.

1.) The ability to Push/Pull an Invested object is predicated to the amount/power of the Investiture.

2.) Further, Invested objects also gain resistance to pulling/pushing based on proximity to soul possibly via the soul. An example given is that a Hemalurgic spike touches the blood of the person, and from there is now part of both the Spiritual Realm and the Physical Realm. This provides what Brandon termed a kind of "soul interference," based on its proximity to the soul.

This further explains why Vin required more than normal power to Push/Pull the metalminds from the Lord Ruler, because of their proximity to his soul, via the Spiritual Realm.

3.) The amount of Investiture is relatively low on Scadrial, whereas worlds like Sel and Roshar are pushing around "high power" according to Brandon. I interpreted this to mean that Hemalurgic spikes and metalminds have low amounts of Investiture compared to Shardplate and Shardblades.

Brandon said that theoretically you can Push/Pull Shardblades and Shardplates but you would need to wield an incredible amount of power. One example he gave that could so such as a thing is that if you were a Mistborn wielding the full power of the Well of Ascension, you could Push/Pull Shardblades/Plate.

Qarlin

I'm sad Ten Soon never got to talk to Vin again, since it was apparent they both missed each other.

Brandon Sanderson

Remember that TenSoon, with spikes, can communicate more easily with those on the other side....

Qarlin

A modern world update for a future Mistborn trilogy probably wouldn't involve as much metal, unless Mistings were rare, which apparently will not be the case. I'm thinking more like plastics, ceramics, fiberglass, and silicon. I mean for cars and guns and all that.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes and no. For the rich, this would be an option. But much like using metal weapons in the Mistborn world, it isn't always an option for everyone. You will see both.

Qarlin

Lemme guess, the "Mistborn" following Vin was actually Ruin, since Elend never actually saw him, and he disappeared every time Vin got close?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. 

Qarlin

Why did Ruin give off Allomantic Pulses? Because Preservation did and they're two sides of the same coin? Allomancy is of Preservation, so I figured that's why he did...

Brandon Sanderson

Manifestation of the awesome power he held, mixed with Vin's increased ability to sense these things. Allomantic pulses are like a ripple of sound in the fabric of creation itself—the power of creation being used, creating a drum beat to those attuned to it. Ruin created a similar beat when his consciousness was near.

Qarlin

Who were Ruin and Preservation? I mean, when they died, they had bodies, like Vin. And you went as far as to describe their hair color (Red and Black, respectively). Preservation even had a prominent nose. Why describe their dead bodies, if they weren't at one time mortals themselves? They created humans, but were at one time human themselves?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. (Sorry.)

Vegasdev

Was there ever anything to Reen's obsidian?

Brandon Sanderson

Reen's obsidian was a memento from his father, the parent he didn't share with Vin. I carried a small piece of obsidian like this for many years. It has no story function other than being important to Vin as a keepsake.

Vegasdev

Spook gets repaired, does Cett get his legs?

Brandon Sanderson

To give humankind the best shot at survival, Sazed repaired all genetic defects and physical ailments in the people who were in the storage caches. So yes, Cett can walk. He was so shocked by this that he spent the entire epilogue walking around in the cavern, marveling.

William Anderson

Does Khriss write the Ars Arcanum?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Someone else’s question was about the safehand.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

So that essay he told us about, the one that defined masculine arts as being ones with two hands and feminine needing only one? That was in order to let men secure power over Shardblades.

Leinton (paraphrased)

I also asked him about capitalization. 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He talked about how in modern English, capitalization is boring and doesn’t happen often enough, referring back to the Victorian era where they would just capitalize Important Words. 

Leinton (paraphrased)

I asked him about parshmen vs Parshendi. 

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He said that the Parshendi were a nation.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Can someone bond more than one Honorblade?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Honorblade?  You can't bond an Honorblade, though it can be given to you. Shardblades, however, come from a spren bond and it is possible to bond more than one.

Questioner

Does Hoid ever show up somewhere, stand around for awhile, realize that there isn't a novel-worthy plot going on, and leave?

Brandon Sanderson

*laughs* Yes, Hoid gets around a lot and that has happened a couple of times. He does not know everything.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Any chance of a Shardspear?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Shardspear? YOU are going to get RAFO'd.

Leinton (paraphrased)

Can Breath be used to power Surgebinding?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

They are very similar Investitures, and most of the magics can be powered with the other magics if you are capable of making that happen.

Questioner (paraphrased)

What would happen to the Breath?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The Breath would be consumed in the same way that Stormlight is. A renewing resource, much like atium is.

Leinton (paraphrased)

Are there birds outside of Shinovar on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There are, but very few and they are all in the west. So you're not going to find birds in Alethkar for instance. Unless they're chickens that have been brought, or something like that.

Questioner (paraphrased)

To the spren, is becoming mindless the same as death?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

They consider it as such.

Leinton (paraphrased)

If Endowment were killed, would the Returned still come?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Somebody needs to hold the magic. If no one holds the magic, the magic will start to gain sentience. Interesting and bizarre things happen then, so I would say yes, but with the caveat that with whoever picks up the power or what happens with the power could end up changing that.

Questioner (paraphrased)

What kind of changes do Slivers go through after letting go of a Shard's power?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It leaves them, imagine it like a balloon that has been deflated.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Okay, so would Rashek still have had powers?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He would have had some residual effects. But it also works the soul in weird ways, like a balloon that has been deflated.

Leinton (paraphrased)

Is there a difference between Shadesmar and the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Shadesmar is a word for the Cognitive Realm specifically touching [Roshar]. It's like San Diego is a word for a place in America. It's a local word.

Leinton (paraphrased)

Does Nightblood rip souls out of people, by chance?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Nightblood consumes Investiture, including the spark of life.

Questioner (paraphrased)

In the cosmere you have so much going on, what happens when you come up with something that would conflict with something else?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Then I don't put that in the cosmere.

Questioner (paraphrased)

For the people you have coming back in the Stormlight Archive--how do you pick who makes the cut?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It just depends on where I feel like going, the interludes are complete freedom for me.

Questioner (paraphrased)

How deep are you going into Shadesmar in Words of Radiance?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Not terribly deep in Words of Radiance. We're going to have to wait until Jasnah or Shallan are exploring it more.

Questioner (paraphrased)

When are we first getting a look at the cosmere coming together?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The third Mistborn trilogy is going to involve--it's the first one I planned to do a lot with. I doubt I will do much in the second Mistborn trilogy, more than I probably have done [so far]. It's fun for me, so I'll keep including things in. You'll notice that Hoid is a bigger part of the Stormlight than previous ones, but I still don't want it to come to the forefront quite yet.

Questioner (paraphrased)

For the Dangerous Women story, are you going to write anything again in that world?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

That world will show up again. Silence probably won't, but the world itself, yes. It's called Threnody, it is one of the Cosmere worlds. There's not a Shard there but there are interesting things happening. There's actually been a character in other books who's from Threnody. It will eventually be clear who that is, but they have shown up in many previous Sanderson novels.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Would that be Hoid?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Hoid is not from Threnody. Good question though. Hoid is from Yolen.

Questioner (paraphrased)

You very clearly make rules for the wine in this world, like the different colors and different alcohol content. I was wondering what the inspiration for that is, and also what some of them are actually made from, because it doesn't seem like grapes.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It's not grapes, it's a local fruit. So we would not probably call it wine, we would probably call it something else. And it's based on my desire to do funky things with world building in every way I can. The color is a cultural thing.

Questioner (paraphrased)

For a Windrunner, if he had enough heating fabrials and enough Stormlight, how high up could he get?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You could exit orbit. Windrunners, remember they're gravitation and pressure. So if he knew what he was doing, we have actually factored how long it would take to get to the various moons.

Questioner (paraphrased)

It seems like a movie adaptation would have just constant spren everywhere?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

That's why I made it so that not every use of the emotion causes them-so it wouldn't get too crazy even when I'm writing them.  And what's happening is the spren exist on the Cognitive plane, on Shadesmar, so they have to be attracted, they have to be nearby enough to flock to you, so it depends on how common the spren is.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Where did you get the basis for the spren?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

The spren are partially based out of Shinto mythology, the idea that everything has a soul and a spirit to it.  And partially mixing that with my desire to have some sort of a unique representation of emotion in these books.

Questioner (paraphrased)

The coats that the Alethi wear, that the officers wear. Is it a Prussian sort of thing?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I'm thinking in my head probably French early 1800's. Just past Napoleonic. Bound tails.

Questioner (paraphrased)

How did you come up with the whole thing in Mistborn where you use metals?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I was looking for something that bridged science and superstition. Metals had an alchemical feel.

Questioner (paraphrased)

What about Kaladin getting sliced with the Shardblade and then being able to rejuvenate?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

That is a clue for what is going on with Szeth and his understanding of Shardblades and the Shardblade he has.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Which is an Honorblade, right?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I can't say, but Szeth says in Book One you can't heal a Shardblade wound with Stormlight. There are other very big but subtle discrepancies between what Szeth does and what Kaladin does.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Why does the Stormfather consider himself dead, or will that be covered?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

That will be covered, eventually.

Questioner (paraphrased)

What you can tell me about Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

That is the word for someone or something which has gained a portion of the magic of Adonalsium, so the original whatever-it-is. Like a Shardblade is an Invested object, and people if they draw in the Stormlight, they're drawing in the magic--they're Invested.

Questioner (paraphrased)

A while back someone asked if Hoid's sword is Nightblood, you said that was interesting. Is it similarly Invested?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I'm going to RAFO that. It is a very interesting question.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Do you have a story arc for the whole cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes. I do. The original plot outline was 36 books.

DefiantBurrito (paraphrased)

Can you tell me what Wit put in his drink in Shallan's flashback scene?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

It was something that you or I would probably not want to eat in our world, but that Wit got some benefit from eating...

DefiantBurrito (paraphrased)

Something we've seen in the Mistborn books, perhaps?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

[sounding pleased] Yes, perhaps like something you've seen in Mistborn.

Vegasdev

The other lake in Alendi's bumps?

Brandon Sanderson

A manifestation of Ruin's gathered consciousness, much like the dark mists in book two. The lake was still around in Vin's era, but had been moved under ground. (Note that the Well is a very similar manifestation. You've also seen one other manifestation like this....)

Peter Ahlstrom

Such as...this?

The "lake" was barely ten feet deep—more like a pool. Its water was a crystalline blue, and Raoden could see no inlets or outlets.

If that's what you're hinting at...I never thought of the connection before! I just kept thinking of Aether of Night, and never thought of this pool at all.

Brandon Sanderson

Both are accurate, but the first is what I meant, as most people here don't have access to Aether.

Chaos

I'm also thinking that the Dor in Elantris is another Shard of Adonalsium. Certainly in the Elantris world, where the Dor came from is rather ambiguous, which I expected it would be. Of course, if other Shards of Adonalsium do exist, the Dor could have come from that source.

Brandon Sanderson

I will RAFO from here on the other Shards of Adonalsium, as it would be better for me not to give spoilers. Please feel free to speculate. Readers have met four shards other than Ruin and Preservation.

Peter Ahlstrom

Have we met these four by name, or just by influence? I can't think of a name that would go with the one that the Elantris lake is a manifestation of.

Hoid could be one? I know nothing his purpose other than that he shows up in lots of different books, sometimes begging and sometimes telling stories. Since most of these series happen on different planets (though two of them may happen on the same planet as each other), I'm assuming he has mad planet-hopping skills.

...Nightblood...

Brandon Sanderson

Ookla, I'm going to be tight lipped on this, as I don't want to give things away for future books. But I'll tell you this:

You've interacted with two directly. One is a tough call. You've never met the Shard itself, but you've seen its power. The other one you have not met directly, but have seen its influence.

Chaos

I thought Nightblood was explained sufficiently for my tastes in Warbreaker, so I doubt that it is a Shard, but I've been plenty wrong before. Also, I don't know if Hoid could even be a Shard. Certainly he has mean planet-hopping skills, but I don't know what purpose a celestial storyteller would have in this universe. He doesn't really have the same kind of power as Ruin or Preservation did, so normally I would rule him out right off the bat. But it is possible that these Shards come in many shapes, not just in the near-deific quantity Ruin or Preservation had. I think it's a bit of a stretch to say Hoid is a Shard... but, then again, I don't have any ideas for what those four other Shards are.

Maybe Hoid is just a traveler trying to find remnants of Adonalsium and stories about them. He doesn't need to be a shard, I suppose.

Brandon Sanderson

This is slightly a tangent, but here is a relevant chunk from the Warbreaker Annotations. As this won't be posted for months, I'll put it here as a sneak preview.

Chapter Thirty-Two

This whole scene came about because I wanted an interesting way to delve into the history. Siri needed to hear it, and I felt that many readers would want to know it. However, that threatened to put me into the realm of the dreaded info dump.

And so I brought in the big guns. This cameo is so obvious (or, at least, someday it will be) that I almost didn’t use the name Hoid for the character, as I felt it would be too obvious. The first draft had him using one of his other favorite pseudonyms. However, in the end, I decided that too many people would be confused (or, at least, even more confused) if I didn’t use the same name. So here it is. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about. . .well, let’s just say that there’s a lot more to this random appearance than you might think.

Chaos

Brandon, I believe in one of Sazed's epigraphs, he actually called it "Adonasium" rather than what you are referring to here, which is "Adonalsium". I'm thinking that's just a typo, right?

I don't suppose you could tell us which book series of yours will tell us more about Adonalsium, would you? You know, just so us theorizers on the forum know when to properly theorize about these things...

Brandon Sanderson

Well, I guess this means that the proofreaders did not add the "L" when I marked the error on the manuscript.(sigh). Yes, the correct spelling is Adonalsium. I will try to get this fixed for the paperback, but I've been trying to get that blasted steel/iron error in the back of book one fixed for two years now. . .

If it helps, Sazed would probably under-pronounce the "L" as that letter, like in Tindwyl's name, is said very softly in Terris.

As for your other question, you will have to wait and see. Now, you could search my old books for clues, but I would caution against this. While there are hints in these, they are not yet canon. Just as I changed how things were presented in the Mistborn books during editing, I would have fixed a lot in these books during revision. Beyond that, reading them would give big spoilers for books yet to be released. White Sand, Dragonsteel, and Way of Kings in particular are going to be published some day for almost certain. (Though in very different forms). Aether of Nightshould be safe, as should Final Empire prime and Mistborn prime, though of those three, only Aether is worth reading, and then only barely. (It is still pretty bad).

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

As it turns out, there is an error in the Feruchemical table when Brandon put it in Mistborn 2. If you look closely, Determination (electrum) doesn't belong in its group. The group that it is in is obviously more physical powers. Determination was supposed to be a mental metal, and Warmth was supposed to be in that Physical group. He just made a mistake originally. But it turns out that Feruchemy obeys different rules than Allomancy, so Brandon isn't retconning it, but saying that Feruchemy works differently now. Apparently there was going to be a table of Feruchemy at the end of Alloy of Law, but it wasn't ready because Isaac kept thinking like an Allomancer. Feruchemy has its own rules (for example, Brandon confirmed that pewter does steal Feruchemical health, probably because that second group of physical Feruchemical powers are also "physical", so pewter can steal them.) Hemalurgy also obeys different rules.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There is a way to get a non-powered person to access a metalmind.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Feruchemy is about multipliers. The more the Lord Ruler aged, the less "multiplier" he could store in his metalmind. And the more he aged the more he would need to Compound to stay alive. There could exist an upper bound to the amount of time the Lord Ruler could survive off this trick.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

What happens to seons during the Reod is that the Reod messes with the seon's spirit.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Lerasium overwrites Spiritual DNA. It can do some interesting things, and can overwrite your Spiritual DNA in different ways if you do it right. If a Surgebinder ate lerasium, he would become an Allomancer, but Brandon implied other things could be done.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Ketchup does not exist in the Final Empire, since it is from a fruit, which are flowering plants. The Lord Ruler did not engineer fruit. Mostly people eat vegetables and roots.

Chaos (paraphrased)

I continued to ask about the Lord Ruler and his Allomantic strength.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There's an upper bound to the amount of power you can get from being a savant. Brandon said that, obviously, the Lord Ruler wasn't using duralumin and Elend could only get that powerful in Soothing using duralumin. He implied that there was a way to Compound to enhance Allomancy.

Chaos (paraphrased)

We asked if it was possible to use bronze to Seek Feruchemy.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He said it could be possible. If it were to happen, it was very hard, because the Inquisitors would desperately like to be able to find Feruchemists that way, and it was implied they had not discovered this power. So, it is a freaking hard technique to learn, if possible at all.

Chaos (paraphrased)

We asked some questions about the Lord Ruler, like if he knew about chromium and nicrosil.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Brandon said he knew about those metals, and then also said "The Lord Ruler knew a lot of things that no one knows."

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Seons are remnants of a dead Shard.