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    Vericon 2011 ()
    #13651 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Inside Puck's copy of Elantris Brandon wrote "Do not go to Shadesmar on this world (really, I'm not kidding)" on the title page, then said "You guys can chew on that for a little while."

    Footnote: Brandon has confirmed that the reason for this is that the Dor, the Splintered remains of Devotion and Dominion, are located in the Cognitive Realm, which makes the region dangerous to traverse.
    Brandon has since asked that people not ask for cosmere hints. He would prefer people to come with specific questions in mind.
    #cognitive realm #sel
    Sources: Puck's report - 17th Shard
    A Memory of Light Birmingham Signing ()
    #13653 Copy

    EHyde (paraphrased)

    In The Way of Kings, is assassination a common thing in the Parshendi culture, because it seems odd that they would have a specific custom for what assassins wear?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    It is something that happened quite a bit more in the past than it does now. But yes, you will find out much more about them. They are now more unified, but they used to be a bunch of different tribes, and they would send assassins into each other's camps.

    A Memory of Light Birmingham Signing ()
    #13655 Copy

    Questioner (paraphrased)

    In at least two of the books that I know of, a god is either dead or attacked in some form or fashion. Is there any reason for that?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Yes, there is an ongoing theme there, and it's primarily because there is an overarching story behind the story. The books are all in the same universe. And there is a character that's the same in all of the books. In Way of Kings it's Wit. He's actually in all of them.

    A Memory of Light Birmingham Signing ()
    #13658 Copy

    Questioner (paraphrased)

    If you were to choose (to be) a Feruchemist or an Allomancer, which would you choose?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    I would choose Allomancy, because I would want to have Steelpushing; that's my favorite of the powers.

    Questioner (paraphrased)

    Is that why you gave Waxillium Steelpushing?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Yes.

    A Memory of Light Birmingham Signing ()
    #13659 Copy

    Questioner (paraphrased)

    Why did you have to kill Vin and Elend?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    They demanded that they be allowed to take the chance they did. And I just let them take the chance. I didn't kill them, I just let them take the chance that they demanded that I let them take. That's kind of a cop-out answer, I'm sorry, but that's what it feels like to me. And if I always make it so that there are no consequences, then the books have no heart.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13660 Copy

    Vladimir

    I really want to know, Brandon how do you get these ideas about so diverse and innovative magic systems?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It just happens. I don't know. It's a blend of who I am--my science background, what I like in fiction, mixed with the way my mind works, what stories I seek to tell. I can't say specifically where I get the ideas, because they're all different. It's just part of my makeup.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13662 Copy

    Louise

    Have you already decided whether it's Shallan or Dalinar for the book 2 central plot? What about the tentative title?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I keep going back and forth. I'll probably have to sit down and completely write out both of their backstories--their flashback sequences--and after finishing that see which one best fits the theme and the plot of the novel, the story I'm trying to tell. So it's going to take a while to decide that, and it would require enough of my focus that I really need to do A MEMORY OF LIGHT first. So we'll know more after A MEMORY OF LIGHT is finished and I begin writing out their sequences

    Footnote: Shallan was the central character for Volume 2 of the Stormlight Archive, Words of Radiance
    Sources: Goodreads
    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13664 Copy

    Jet

    The Stormlight archive is a very big book. Do you have plans of including a glossary that's more expansive than the ars arcanum?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If I do make a glossary, it will probably be on my website. Perhaps I'll be able to slip in a longer glossary into future books. The problem is that the first book is already so long, as you said. I just don't have the pages for it now. As the series expands, maybe.The thing is, I've always partially liked a glossary and partially not liked them, because as series get longer and longer, you have to make decisions about what to include and what not to include. Using the glossary in the backs of the Wheel of Time books is somewhat bittersweet because it only covers around one percent of the things you'd want to be in there. So in some ways it's become irrelevant, because most of the things you'll want to look up are not going to be there. It seems like it served its purpose best in the early to middle books, but now if you really want to know you've got to go to Encyclopaedia WoT or a similar site. So maybe we'll just do an online glossary or send people to one of the fan-created wikis.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13665 Copy

    Jay

    Do Szeth and Kaladin both belong to the same order of knights radiant?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Szeth isn't actually in an order of Knights Radiant. Something different is happening with Szeth that people have already begun to guess. And Kaladin isn't yet a Knight Radiant, but the powers he uses are those of the Windrunners, one of the orders of the Knights Radiant. Szeth is using the same power set. So your phrasing is accurate to that extent.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13666 Copy

    Gary

    The Way of Kings is certainly a great first book of a series. It does, however, leave one hungry for more. What's the best guess on when for #2? And does it have a name?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'll try to write it so it can be published in late 2012, but it really depends on how long it takes to write A MEMORY OF LIGHT, since I won't start until after that is finished. As for the title, if it ends up being a Dalinar book it will be titled HIGHPRINCE OF WAR, but if it ends up a Shallan book it will have a different title.

    Footnote: The second book, Words of Radiance featured Shallan as the central character. The Third, Dalinar's focus, is titled Oathbringer 
    Sources: Goodreads
    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13668 Copy

    T.T

    Barring the Almighty, did we seen a Shardholder (like Sazed) in this book?"

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think "Shardholder" would get confusing alongside "Shardbearer." Basically, in the Cosmere's terms, when someone holds a Shard of Adonalsium, I call that person a Shard of Adonalsium. They are imbued with the power of that Shard, but they also become the Shard. Fans can use whatever terminology they wish, but this is how I term it.You did at least see the direct effects of two of the Shards of Adonalsium, but I won't say whether or not you actually saw a Shard of Adonalsium.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13673 Copy

    Dustin

    I felt the illustrations added a lot to the book physically and to the story. Will there be more in book two and so on if you have your way or was it a one book experiment?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm glad you like what the illustrations added to the book and the story. I plan future volumes to have more of them.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13674 Copy

    Dustin

    Your sidekick characters (Nightblood, TenSoon in WoA and Syl) are always interesting, sometimes more so than side characters. Is this planned out or does it just happen? Do you control their lines more than other characters? (I really liked Syl's personality if that wasn't clear.)

    Brandon Sanderson

    Thank you. That is partially intentional. One of the aspects of writing characters like them is that if we're not going to get viewpoints from them, their personality has to be strong enough to manifest externally. Which tends to have an effect, if it's not done well--or sometimes even if it is done well--of making them feel one-sided. In some ways I play this up; for instance Nightblood really is one-sided because of the way his personality works, the way he was crafted. He's a construct, and he has a main focus.So with someone like Syl, I really wanted to bring out a lot of personality in her dialogue so that we could characterize her without having any of the internal thoughts and monologue and emotions that I sometimes instill in other characters. But Syl also was meant to be a vibrant splash of color in Kaladin's sometimes dreary viewpoints. Because of that, I really needed her to just pop off the page. So it was done intentionally.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13675 Copy

    Josep

    Just a nagging question: What happened to Gaz? After some character development he just vanishes in chapter 59 without further explanation. Will he be back on the next books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm planning for you to find out what happened to Gaz. There are sufficient clues that you can guess. But it is not explicitly stated, and I'm not going to say it's as obvious as Robert Jordan implied Asmodean's killer is. I was tempted to spell it out explicitly, but there wasn't a good place for it. I will probably answer it eventually, maybe in the next book, but until then you are free to theorize.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13676 Copy

    Bahador

    I really like the dialogs between Jasnah and Shallan, covering atheism, god, blind faith, etc.

    Are you going to expand on these philosophical topics? Will it play a larger part in the plot?

    I really enjoyed these moments and hope to see more of them

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm glad you liked them. These questions are very important to Shallan and Jasnah and to an extent other characters such as Dalinar, so you will indeed see much more of this. I wouldn't include it if it weren't very important to the characters. And what's important to the characters has a strong influence on what's important to the plot.If what happens at the end of Part Five with Dalinar is to be believed, then there is a very interesting theological conundrum to this world. Something claiming to be God claims also that it has been killed. Which then in some ways leaves someone who is atheist right, and yet at the same time wrong. When Jasnah and Dalinar meet, you can expect some discussion of what it means to be atheist if there was a God and God is now dead. Or will she say that obviously wasn't God? Those circles of thought are very fascinating to me and to the characters.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13677 Copy

    SeekingPlumb

    Question. When writing TWoK, did you write the story lines individually & then weave them together (e.g. Place the chapters as desired.), after the fact? Or did you write the book generally in the order that we see the end result?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wrote the parts by viewpoint. Meaning that for Part One, I wrote Kaladin straight through and then Shallan straight through. And then I switched for Part Two and wrote Dalinar and Kaladin, and then I switched back. So I did write the storylines individually by viewpoint, but in sections by part.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13679 Copy

    Louise

    Did spren lose their memories and personalities because of the loss of their attached radiants? But retain a basic attraction to things associated with the radiants they bonded to previously?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not all types of spren bonded to Radiants. You will find out more about this in the future. However, if you're speaking specifically of spren that were bonded to Radiants, then yes, you're on the right track.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13680 Copy

    Louise

    Which one will you focused more in the future, the Heralds or Radiants? Will you dig deeper into each of Heralds story and some of Radiants?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I feel that I should probably RAFO this one. We are going to delve into the Radiants as orders a lot. But the Radiants as individuals? Depends on what you mean. Kaladin is well on the path toward becoming one of them, though he's not one yet, as Teft is quick to point out. So if you mean focusing on actual Knights Radiant, we'll have to see if anyone actually manages to become one.The Heralds are integral to the entire story, which is why the Prelude focuses on them. Since someone showed up at the end of the book claiming to be one of them, I think you can obviously expect some attention to be drawn there. Who each of the Heralds are and what their natures were is important.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13681 Copy

    Meleah

    The inside cover is beautiful. Do you plan to do something similar with every book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We asked for colored endpages. At first Tor was hesitant; they're very expensive. We kind of begged a bit, then showed them these cool pages and talked about how great the book would be with them, and eventually Tor decided that they would go with it. One of the aspects of doing colored endpages like that is that generally you have to use the same endpages for the entire series, to offset the printing cost. So those same endpages will be in every hardcover of the series. There will be different interior art, however.

    Goodreads Fantasy Book Discussion Warbreaker Q&A ()
    #13682 Copy

    David

    I have read Elantris, the Mistborn Trilogy and Warbreaker and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. But I have to say, The portion of Chapter 33 with Hoid (or Dust) the storyteller was a painful experience and I was glad you never brought him back. What was the idea or point of him pulling things from his pocket and dropping it on the ground? I feel like I missed some theme or clues here.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That was simply a way that he tells stories—there was no particular theme other than that. He throws puffs of different-colored dust into the air as he's speaking to try and evoke the feelings of the story that he's telling. Sorry it didn't work for you; not everything is going to work for everyone, but this is how he does it.

    Goodreads Fantasy Book Discussion Warbreaker Q&A ()
    #13683 Copy

    David

    Do you plan to annotate Warbreaker?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I've written annotations for WARBREAKER already. There is supposed to be a special edition WARBREAKER e-book from Tor.com coming that will include all the annotations right there with the text, but I'm not sure when it will appear. The annotations will still go up chapter-by-chapter on my website, but if you get the special edition e-book you can have them all at once. We'll see when that happens

    Footnote: The annotations for Warbreaker, and many of Brandon's other works, are available on his website.
    #annotations
    Sources: Goodreads
    Goodreads Fantasy Book Discussion Warbreaker Q&A ()
    #13685 Copy

    Chris

    I've seen in reviews of Mistborn that a criticsm that pops up from time to time is that you tend to repeat the basic principles of the magic system. I've seen that some feel hit over the head with it. Personally, I liked that fact since the magic system was new and it helped me to remember and understand.

    I'm also seeing criticsm now with Warbreaker that the magic system isn't explained enough to thoroughly understand it. I've pointed out in discussions that not even Vasher understands it all.

    But here's my question: Did criticsm of the magic system's explanations in Mistborn have anything to do with Warbreaker having considerably less explanation in its magic system?"

    Brandon Sanderson

    Wow, that's a very detailed and interesting question. The answer is no.

    ...Okay, there's more to that answer. I accepted the criticisms of the Mistborn books with the knowledge that there was really no other way around it—the way I was writing those books and the complexity of the magic system made me feel like I needed to give those hints. It's not like I'm trying to write down to the lowest denominator, but at the same time I want to make sure that the complicated magic system is a force driving the book—and is something interesting rather than something confusing. Across a three-book epic like that I wanted to make sure that I was not leaving people behind. That's always a balance in a book series. And I don't know where to set that balance. In fact, I think the balance is going to be different for every person. Any given book that you read, some people are going to find it overexplained and some people are going to find it underexplained. I'm always trying to strike the right balance, particularly for the tone of a given book, to make that work for the novel.

    With Warbreaker, as you've pointed out, the magic system is much less understood by the poeple taking part in it. In the Mistborn books the magic system is very well understood. Even though there are little pieces of it that people don't know yet, those peices are easy to grasp and understand and use once people figure out what they are. In the Mistborn books the world is in a state where people have spend 1000 years using this magic system and perfecting it and understanding it. In Warbreaker, they haven't. They still don't know much about what's going on. It's very mysticized. People haven't sat down and spent enough time pursuing scholarly research about it, figuring it out. Beyond that there's no immortal Lord Ruler figure explaining it all to them—or if there is, it's Vasher and he's not telling anyone. And so the magic in Warbreaker has a very different feel to it. I wanted it to be a little confusing, because it is confusing for the main characters.

    I wouldn't say that the criticism of the Mistborn books is what drove me; the needs of the various plots is what drove me.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13686 Copy

    Flip

    You have quite the world you have created. I look at the map and see a lot of different locations. How many of the named locations are actually going to be used? ... Anyway, I am always curious as to how much of one's world that has been built actually gets used.

    Brandon Sanderson

    You'll have to read and see what happens. I will say this: When I build a map, I don't consider it to be a to-do list. In fact, it makes a world feel unrealistic to me when every single place on the map ends up getting visited. So it's not a to-do list, but many of those locations are very important.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13687 Copy

    Amanda

    Will Kaladin (or Shallan, or any of the other characters) be going to visit the various places Kaladin saw in his dream, and if so, for extended periods of time or just short trips? I think the interludes are wonderful ways of showing other parts of the world, if I may also comment.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm glad you liked the interludes. One of the reasons to include them is to show parts of the world that I won't be getting to for a while, but this is an epic, and there will be characters traveling to various places you've seen. Maybe not all of them, but some places will be visited. Some for extended periods, some for shorter periods.

    Goodreads WoK Fantasy Book Club Q&A ()
    #13688 Copy

    Jon

    Did I miss the explanation for why women have a safe hand and why they must keep it covered?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, you haven't missed it. People have asked about this. There will be more explanation in-world as it comes along, but it's for much the same reason that in some cultures in our world you don't show people the bottoms of your feet, and in other cultures showing the top of your head is offensive. It's part of what has grown out of the Vorin culture, and there are reasons for it. One of them has to do with a famous book written by an artist who claimed that true feminine pursuits and arts were those that could be performed with one hand, while masculine arts were those performed with two hands, in a way associating delicacy with women and brute force with men. Some people in Roshar disagree with this idea, but the custom has grown out of that foundational work on masculine and feminine arts. That's where that came from. One aspect of this is that women began to paint one-handed and do things one-handed in upper, higher society. You'll notice that the lower classes don't pay a lot of attention to it—they'll just wear a glove.As a student of human nature and of anthropology, it fascinates me how some cultures create one thing as being taboo whereas in another culture, the same thing can be very much not taboo. It's just what we do as people.There's more to it than that, but that will stand for now.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #13689 Copy

    Necarion

    The compounding trick that the Lord Ruler performed. When you're storing Investiture, are you storing your "Mistborn-ness" or all the powers individually?

    Brandon Sanderson

    All of the powers individually.

    Necarion

    Oh okay!

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, the compounding trick. Really what's happening is you're fueling Feruchemy with the power of Allomancy, but you're filtering it through you, and then you're storing it.

    Necarion

    So it's not that you're a more powerful mistborn when you've tapped [investiture]

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, good question.

    Words of Radiance Washington, DC signing ()
    #13691 Copy

    Rybal (paraphrased)

    How did you come up with the geography on Roshar?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    The geography on Roshar was developed as a natural outgrowth of the highstorm, which was the first concept for Roshar, which was inspired by the storm of Jupiter, which was me wanting to tell a story about a world with a continual magical storm. And then I built the ecology and all of these things up from that. Roshar had to grow up--I had to find a mechanism by which stone was deposited by rain, because I felt that the constant weathering over that long of a time would leave no continents. So the crem was my kind of scientific-with-one-foot-in-magic hack on keeping the continent. So the continent does drift. They don't have plate tectonics. The continent actually moves as it gets weathered on the east and gets pushed that direction over millennia of time.

    General Twitter 2010 ()
    #13693 Copy

    TheMightyTweet

    Why didn’t the Parshendi use fire arrows? The bridges are made of wood for Storm’s sake!

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is a pretty strong hardwoord we’re talking about. Fire arrows worked against slow-moving siege equipment.

    But something carried at this speed, then crossed quickly, made of hardwood–the fires wouldn’t have time to get a hold.

    General Twitter 2010 ()
    #13694 Copy

    agdeeds

    Did anything help inspire Navani’s character in tWoK?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Numerous things. Partially, the fact that there’s a distinct lack of mothers in fantasy fiction. Everybody seems to be an orphan.

    Partially, the need for a strong, well-rounded woman of an older, wiser nature to balance out Shallan’s impulsive nature.

    And, in part, she was designed because I wanted a Fabrial engineer among the cast, and extrapolated personality from there.

    Goodreads: Ask the Author Q&A ()
    #13696 Copy

    Adrienne

    Can the various forms of Investiture on other worlds in the cosmere be classified as "end positive" or "end negative" like they are on Scadrial?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Some can. Not all.

    Footnote: This question excludes "end-neutral" and Brandon has previously established that all magics do fall into one of these three classifications.
    #investiture
    Sources: Goodreads