So, are Shauka-daughter-Hasweth and Ali-daughter-Hasweth two different people? Are they the same person?
They are different people. Good question. They do have very similar names. That happens a lot among the Shin, and I'm trying to make it not confusing, but I can't promise it won't be. There are a lot of similar names, and a lot of people are named similar ways, and things like that.
So, it's not a "why." But how in the world did Vasher get to Roshar. Because I know about Kelsier not being able to really travel too easily outside of his realm, so how did this happen?
Oh, yeah, you're asking, because he's heavily Invested, with Investiture from uh-- yeah. So that's actually a RAFO. I thought you were going to ask a much easier question, this is a much harder question. It's a RAFO that I promise to answer. The books will dig into it, okay?
So, Hoid was there during the Shattering of Adonalsium. Odium is going around, like, destroying other Shards. We know that Hoid is collecting and has pieces of some of the other Shards.
Yes.
Since Hoid was there at the original Shattering of Adonalsium. Is there an echo image of the original Adonalsium in Hoid?
Uh, that's a RAFO. Here's your card. But it is a valid theory.
I have a two-parter on that.
You can ask me the next part, but it is a RAFO.
Is his end goal trying to join as many pieces of Adonalsium together to *inaudible*
Um, that, I will give a "that's a very good guess." And that is what the books seem to indicate is happening.
What was your hardest character to kill?
Oh. That's spoileriffic. I would say it's a character who dies at the end of The Wheel of Time, which is a series that I finished for another author. Because it was someone someone else created. And then, having to write some of those scenes.
That would be really hard, because you're killing somebody else's character.
Right? And somebody I grew up with, right? So, I would say those are the hardest guys.
Do we get to see more Vasher in Stormlight.
Um, yes. So, you're gonna see a little bit in the next book. There will be a point where you'll see some more, but it's a ways off.
So, if Nightblood, unsheathed, killed someone, would their soul still go to the Beyond?
So, that's gonna be a matter of-- There's gonna be disagreement in the cosmere about that. Nobody has been able to actively test it, because there are certain things you can see, but there are people who are actively discussing this concept.
So, no one knows for sure?
Nobody knows for sure. And I'll just leave it at that. It's an astute question that even Vasher has-- Vasher has his thoughts, but he does not have a definitive answer, and others disagree with him.
How many Shards have been Splintered, besides the four we know?
You're gonna make me canonize this? I can't canonize this. There's a couple that I'm just kind of...
Odium, Endowment, Devotion...
Okay, Odium has not been Splintered. Endowment and Devotion have been Splintered... Endowment hasn't been Splintered, sorry. Dominion and Devotion have been Splintered. I've confirmed that one other has been Splintered. And then Honor has been Splintered. Those are your four that I've canonized. The other one is, I don't know if I've mentioned who exactly it is, but it's not one that you've seen on one of the planets...
Yeah, I'm not gonna canonize it, exactly how many there are. Because there are things going on in the cosmere that I wanna settle down and decide on once I get to it, exactly what. And Splintering can be a vague term sometimes, too... So that's a RAFO.
Is Calamity the last book in the series?
I have a plan to do a book about Mizzy. But before I do that, I am writing a book called The Apocalypse Guard, which takes place in the alternate dimension that Megan sees into in these books. So, you should enjoy those. They'll be kinda the same style, but different characters from the alternate dimension. They're a blast, I just finished the first book.
What would a Cognitive Shadow see if they saw Szeth?
If they saw Szeth? They're going to see his soul kinda trailing along behind him. It's gonna be really freaky to them.
When are we gonna get more books in Wax & Wayne?
There will be one more, and it will be my next book I'm writing next year. Once I finish Apocalypse Guard, I'll write it next year. So just watch a percentage bar on my website, it will tell you when it's gonna come out.
Do all the other Smedrys get their Talents back?
You're gonna have to see. You've seen the, uh...
Yeah, I did.
Yeah, yeah. One more book coming. It will answer that.
Does Wayne ever get married? Does he ever feel redeemed?
...I'm not gonna answer that one for you. That's a definite RAFO. Boy, it-- You'll have to see. Getting Wayne into a committed relationship with someone else who wants to be in that relationship would be a big first step. And let's just hope he can someday do that.
I want to know if Kelsier and Hoid will ever get along?
They, uh-- that's a RAFO, but I wouldn't hold my breath. There are mashing of egos that just don't mesh well going on there.
How long will Kelsier's story go?
Kelsier's story has some more stages to it. I'm gonna RAFO that... But the stuff that's happening right now is set up for a later story with him.
My son wants to know if Hoid is a dragon.
He is not. But he knows some.
I kinda got the sense, like, spren. Did you base them off of quantum mechanics?
Yeah, there's some quantum mechanics and some Japanese Shinto rammed together in there.
Is Scadrial losing mass when people burn metals?
Yes, technically it is, but Investiture is another dimension to matter.
So it doesn't lose mass, it becomes Investiture?
It becomes Investiture... Basically, when you go into the cosmere, we've got matter, we've got energy here. You've got matter, energy, and Investiture there, and you can get things out of Investiture back into matter, and stuff like that. There's always energy, there's entropy, there's always diffusement... it's basically, add to the laws of thermodynamics a third item, and that's how we word it.
The Sleepless. When Syl is talking to Kal, and Kal just crunched up the leaves, and she says, "Is it the heart of a beetle that you have hidden in your hand?" Is that what she's talking about?
...Oh, the Sleepless? No, that is coincidence. Good question. Not a Sleepless question.
After Kaladin challenges Amaram, and he gets thrown into prison, are those incarcerationspren that he gets stuck with?
Yes. I'm being recorded, so I have to know if I want to canonize this. Yes. There's nothing more to it than that, I'm just not sure if I've been asked that question straight-up before. I just want to make sure that I've got the name right.
Are Shin who are not Truthless allowed to use the Honorblades?
Yes.
Are all Truthless given Honorblades when they're cast out, or is Szeth a special case?
Szeth is a special case.
Are the Heralds from Roshar originally?
RAFO.
"Most important words" that Dalinar had to say, were they the Words of Radiance?
You're gonna have to Read And Find Out. That one's not answered yet.
Have the Parshendi been to Scadrial during the Wax & Wayne books?
So, the Parshendi as a group have not. I will not confirm or deny if individuals have been. Wax & Wayne books take place after Stormlight Archive books 1 through 5.
Speaking of Way of Kings, when Shallan gets to Kharbranth, she sees two people in trenchcoats. Is that anyone spectacular or important or anyone like that?
RAFO.
That's what I figured. I was hoping.
There might be things in that scene. I won't confirm or deny any specific instances of them.
When I write a fourth [Reckoners] book, it'll be a Mizzy book.
Is Marsh happy?
Marsh is Marsh's version of happy.
I'm just worried about him.
...He has never been a happy person. But he's in a better place now than he's been in other times of his life.
There's a part of Marsh that really likes skulking around and being an incarnation of Death in peoples' minds. He's not really one, but you know what I mean? There's a part of him, the part that's related to his brother, that really digs that, even if he would never admit it.
How do they handle, like, trash and bathrooms in the Purelake? How does that work?
Fortunately, you have a couple of things going on here. You fortunately have low population. You have highstorms and driving and-- so, the waste is broken down really easily. The trash is a problem. But it's a pre-industrial society, so the trash is not stuff that doesn't ever biodegrade, and things like this, and you do have traders going through, and things like this. So, it all kind of works out. It's the low population that's really helping with a lot of this. It's not as bad, a big a deal as you would think it is...
All of Roshar has a slight issue in that you just can't bury things, but you do have the crem that comes down and hardens around things and creates a layer of stone, and things like this. In my opinion, the way I've worked it out, it all just kind of works out just fine...
It's no bigger a deal in the Purelake, in other words, than these other places. In fact it's kind of a smaller deal. Like, you might ask, like, traveling out on the greatshells in the Reshi Sea, they would have a harder problem in some ways, 'cause they have a tight population density on top of something that they also can't bury anything, and stuff like that. I just had to work out the ecology of the system to work.
How accurate is the Vorin version of the afterlife?
How accurate is it? Well, the thing I'm not doing is confirming or denying, right? Like, afterlife in the cosmere, you have seen that-- As a person there, I would believe that there is an afterlife, and things like this. I would say the Vorin one is contradicted by many people all around.
In Rithmatist, when Joel goes to see if he’ll be chosen as a Rithmatist and the chalk outline thing comes out and looks at him. What was it thinking?
You will find out eventually.
He was asked if Joel could be a new type of Rithmatist.
He said that it was possible. But when he saw that I put that in my notes, he said "no, he's not. I just didn't want to say it outright. Joel is not a new kind of rithmatist". He may have denied that Joel could be a Rithmatist at all, but I don't remember the exact wording, so I cannot confirm.
Are we going to see Book 5 of Alcatraz?
Are you going to see Book 5 of Alcatraz, that counts as awesome. So I have written Book 5 of Alcatraz... I have written it, Tor is re-releasing them, because we bought them back from Scholastic and are then, I bought the rights back, I didn't think they were treating the books very well, and we sold them again to Tor, and Tor just got the cover art for the first four and it looks really cool. It's the best cover art I've had on an Alcatraz book, which is good because Alcatraz, in the books, makes fun of the cover art on the books because it is so bad. I don't think our publisher liked that. *laughter* So I'm going to have to change the line or something. Anyway the plan is to re-release those starting in January next year and release them every one to two months until we get to the fifth book in the summer and release it then. So it's still a little ways off, I've been saying that for a long time but there is at least cover art now and the book is actually written.
I was wondering if the Tranquiline halls, if that's in the spiritual, the physical, or the Cognitive?
So... that's a big fat RAFO, because that's actually a false dilemma, there are other options than those three. One of which just being that it is a mythological piece from their theology and not an actual location.
So it's not an actual place?
That's a fourth option for the three, does that makes sense? So its a bigger RAFO even than that, it's a RAFO in that I'm not going to confirm that its one of those three. Good question.
I asked Brandon for the name of Dalinar's wife.
Dalinar's wife's name was Evi.
Will we be finding out what Dalinar's wife's name was, or has her name been similarly wiped from the flashbacks like Dalinar's mind?
I feel I should RAFO questions about the flashbacks, except to say that I wouldn't jump into them without understanding what readers want to see--and either fulfilling that, or subverting it in the name of the story. (The latter happening very rarely.)
Is what Navani said about Dalinar's wife accurate?
What specifically?
She says that she thought they could have been friends.
And that she's kind of the unassuming personality, the sweetness…
Yes, yes. That is correct.
Correct objectively or correct in her opinion?
Oh, definitely correct in her opinion. But yes. And Navani is something of a slightly untrustworthy narrator, but I would go with, in that case, the fact that she's saying it and not being angry and– Her natural instinct would be to hate this woman; that's how Navani is, and the fact that she doesn't probably means that in this case she's being pretty truthful.
Can you tell me the name of Dalinar's wife?
Well… I can but I'm not going to, because it's not that big a deal but it is something for him in the books. I would just rather you read it in the books, but you will find out.
Will it be in the third book?
Well in the flashbacks he doesn't have that issue so when you see her from his viewpoint in the flashbacks he can say her name and he can hear it. So the flashbacks involve him meeting her and things like that, so you'll know her name then. And it's not like some big secret like "Oh her name--" but I would rather you just read it there.
Is Dalinar's wife really dead?
Is Dalinar's wife what?
Really dead.
Is Dalinar's wife really dead? That is a Read And Find Out, and you will discover it in the third book.
So is there an opposing force to Adonalsium.
Good question, which has been asked before and i haven't answered it so I'm going to RAFO you as well.
I think that I have occasionally said 'yes' with the caveat that, obviously somebody opposed him because he was Shattered. I haven't confirmed if there is like a 'Devil' or something like that if that's what you're looking for.
Why does Bastille say they're speaking Melerandian in book 1 and Nalhallan from book 2 on?
When I originally wrote Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians, I put that in there partially as a throwaway joke. Melerand is one of the main kingdoms in Dragonsteel, and I thought it would be amusing for them to be speaking that language somehow filtered into this world. By the end of the book I decided that Alcatraz could not be anywhere in the same continuity as Dragonsteel and that I was probably wrong for including that. Though there are other jokes in there relating to my other books—it's much like the scene where Quentin speaks in Spook's dialect. Those were just jokes, inside references to my other books.
Remember that Alcatraz was written as a writing experiment, not as something that I was intending to publish. As the series grew more serious to me, meaning that I developed what I actually wanted to happen—which with me usually happens as I write book two of a series, when I sit down and build an arc for the entire series—I "realified" Alcatraz's world a little bit, if that makes sense, made it its own substantial thing. So at that point it wasn't appropriate for them to be speaking Melerandian anymore.
Is there a plan for a book focusing on Hoid or will he always remain an enigma?
The final Mistborn sequence will have him as a main character, as will the Dragonsteel prequel novels.
Is Dragonsteel still planned to be the bookends for the cosmere (2 eras)?
Yes, but not exactly how you think. It will make sense when I do it, but the final Mistborn series will be the actual end--Dragonsteel will link to it, though.
In Words of Radiance, the Stormfather refers to himself as a Sliver, how is this the case when he is apparently a Splinter?
The Stormfather is a Cognitive Shadow, but he doesn't know the correct terminology. Terms such as Splinter and Sliver don't really apply to him.
Have you written/will you write something equivalent to the Silmarillion for the cosmere?
It's not impossible, but I'm not planning on it currently. There WILL be a prequel series, dealing with the events leading to the shattering of Adonalsium, but will focus mostly on Hoid and not really be equivalent.
Is that planned to be completed/released after the main overall Cosmere story is completed? Or will it lead up to the finale of the main Cosmere stories?
It will lead up to the finale.
Did Nazh retrieve Jasnah's belongings from the bottom of the sea by visiting Shadesmar, finding the correct beads, and moving them to land?
Yes, that would be the easiest way. Nazh spends a fair bit of time in Shadesmar, and that this would be the first thing he would think of when asked to retrieve Jasnah's stuff.
Did Shardplate always have gemstones, or were they added later, after the Recreance?
They were added, but maybe not just after the Recreance. They were added to Shardplate about the same time that the discovery was made that adding a gemstone to a Shardblade would allow it to be bonded.
Did Wayne really steal a Returned horse?
*laughs* Did Wayne really steal a Returned horse is what you guys are asking? Aaaahhh I did not have Wayne stealing a Returned horse--
Or otherwise invested?
I'm not going to say whether or not-- there could have been things going on, but no, there is no stealing a Returned horse-- Is there a theory that the horse was Returned and that, from like, the prologue?
Oh no, that's just from me.
OK, OK, sometimes people ask these questions and there's like this huge forum thread where they think they've figured something out and I'm like "Returned horse?? What??"
When you took over the whole Wheel of Time thing, that must have been-- there was so much going on there... they had their own characters and you had to immerse yourself in that role and to try to create-- writing in your own words. Do you think that helped you develop as a writer?
It totally did. The most I've grown as a writer was my first year writing, but after that, the number two time that changed me the most, was working on The Wheel of Time. It was incredible, and awesome, and terrifying, all at once. The hardest thing I've ever done professionally was write those books. For those who don't know, I didn't know Robert Jordan or his wife. I got a phone call one day, asking if I would finish his series. His wife, who was also his editor, she discovered him and then married him, which is a really good way to make sure your editorial advice is taken; *laughter* he asked her to find somebody-- before he passed away he said to her "If I don't make it, go find somebody". So she read Mistborn and she called me, and asked me "Would you be willing--" Now she knew I was a fan of the series, because I'd written a eulogy for Robert Jordan on my website, and that's how she found out about me. But then she just called and said 'here', and the things was, she then had to go grieve, right, she's like "Once you're done I can edit it, but I'm an editor, not a writer, I can't write this myself". So she gave me all the stuff, and then I basically did it all by myself for a year, and wrote that first one. I did send her some test chapters, is this right, is this wrong, but it was a very daunting task, he had not finished very much of the book. He had some notes, but he was a discovery writer so his notes were very vague. "I'm thinking about this happening", "oh, this character has a scene that's kind of like this", "I might do this, I might do this". A lot of stuff like that in the notes and so there was a lot of-- I describe it like someone takes a Ming vase and they smash it and they throw away half the pieces and they throw in pieces of another vase just to screw you up and they give it to you and they're like, "Alright, now make the vase, see if you can do that".
He did a lot of foreshadowing in his books...
There were certain things he did, to have out, and some of the most important ones he did have, other ones, I just had to catch the ball that he had thrown using my experience as a writer.
In terms of books that you wish you could have written yourself?
I read a lot of things for pleasure. I think I need to stay up on what everyone else is doing. As a teen, my favorite writers were Anne McCaffrey, Melanie Rawn, Barbara Hambly, Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, it would probably be. David Eddings too. I grew out of David Eddings, happens when you get into your twenties, but during my teens he was the bomb. Do kids still say that, the bomb? I'll have to figure out what they're saying now. Nowadays I read Pat Rothfuss, I really like Pat, I really really like Naomi Novik's Uprooted, if you guys didn't read that this summer it's a fantastic novel. I like Brent Weeks' work a lot, Brian McClellan's, Nora Jemisin, you guys read NK Jemisin? She writes very literary fantasy; if you're an English major and you like that kind of stuff, which I do, it's amazing. Her most recent one has a character who writes in the second person, and it works. It's the first time I ever read a book where the second person, which is you do this, you do that, it actually works, it works really well. The second person past tense, so you did this, you did-- it's a person telling themselves a story so it actually, it really works. The Fifth Season. So, yeah, I read a lot of stuff.
When you take stock of the idea that you have largely been responsible for the cultivation of millions of writers *Brandon laughs nervously* to me, that's what you really bring to the world.
How do I take stock of cultivating-- Millions? I don't know if there are millions, but there are tens of thousands that watch my lectures and listen to the podcast. I think it's great. When I was trying to break in, the way I learned to write was by going and asking questions of writers and they took time for me. Captain Kirk sat me down at a convention once and talked to me for like an hour about becoming a writer, L.E. Modesit did the same thing. They were a huge resource for me, and we live in an era of social media where I can be a resource in a different way. When I was doing it I just had to try to go to a con and find them, right, there wasn't an internet-- I'm old guys, there wasn't an internet when I was a kid learning how to write and so you had to find them, talk to them in person. I can post these things out there. So I hope that it's useful. I hope the main thing that people take away from my writing is there are multiple ways to do it and there is no one right way to write. There is not a Brandon Sanderson method other than, the Brandon Sanderson method is tools you should try, and you should try George's tools, and you should try Stephen King's tools, and JK Rowling's tools, and everybody who talks about it, try the different methods they have of writing and hopefully it'll end up working out and you'll find your own method.
You’ve been known to say that the fantasy genre is the best genre because you can do anything another genre can do and you can have dragons. And yet, we haven’t had a dragon from you yet. Well we see a Sanderson Dragon anytime before Dragonsteel? I’m assuming Dragonsteel has dragons?
Yes, I smile inwardly as I say that, because I know that--indeed--I don't use a lot of dragons. I do like reading about them, but I haven't found myself eager to put them into my works. I think it's because I've read so many excellent dragon books, I figure, that area of fantasy is being covered by others--and I should try different things.
That said, Dragonsteel has dragons, and so you will eventually see them there. I don't know that I'll do them before.
