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Lumi 21

What is your favorite question that you had to RAFO at the time that has since been answered? Which current RAFO are you most excited for readers to find in the future?

Brandon Sanderson

I can tell you that RAFO-ing about Secret Projects and things and then eventually knowing I was gonna reveal these to everyone was a lot of fun. RAFO-ing, I have to be careful; I don't know if they're official RAFOs. 'Cause usually, when I put out teases about these, I didn't even tease these ones; I was teasing other secret projects, Kingmaker or the as-of-yet-not-announced/revealed 200,000 word secret project that I will someday maybe write. But knowing that I would be able to tell you guys eventually about this was really fun.

And, of course, there have been a whole lot of RAFOs around Stormlight Five's ending, and I am in the thick of working on that now, and it's very fun to imagine you all getting some of these things.

SleepoPeepo

Both Painter’s and Yumi’s magics involve transforming spiritual entities into other objects and shapes. Are they using the same basic system as one another, just in different applications? And, is there a connection between between these arts and trapping spren in fabrials?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes and yes.

amurgiceblade44

Can Yumi's magic work on Splinters other then Torio's spirits and is nightmare painting an Invested Art along the lines of Allomancy or sand mastery?

Brandon Sanderson

We've covered the painters one. Let's just RAFO Yumi. You will find out more in the book.

Miss Silver

Can we have Design's recipe for ramen noodles down to the exact grains of salt and herbs used?

Brandon Sanderson

Well we'll have to ask the person who's making the cosmere cookbook some day to figure that out because yes she does like to count the grains of salt. It's the sort of thing you do when you're a Cryptic.

Miss Silver

Did Hoid give her the recipe or did she make it up herself? Who taste tested it?

Brandon Sanderson

She made it up herself, and she tried it on poor unfortunate people that were offered free food.

LettersWords

You mentioned that [Tress of the Emerald Sea] won't reveal the person that Hoid is telling the story [to] within the text. Is the same true about [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Same is true. You can pick up from implications some of what's going on but there is no epilogue where you're chatting with the person or people or whatever that are listening to these things. I contemplated putting one in, and then I decided against it.

Rshara

Was Hoid frozen as a coat rack during the events of [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]? Was he frozen like that because he was in a time dilation bubble? If not, why?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO

Rshara

Was Virtuosity the Shard that wanted to survive? Did they Splinter the Shard and live on as a Sliver for that reason?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO

alercah

Before he got frozen, did Hoid come to Painter's planet just for the ramen?

Brandon Sanderson

*laughts* Knowing that ramen existed was probably a push in that direction. Hoid is quite the ramen fan for those who don't know. So yeah. He actually came to investigate other things, but ramen is a good bonus for coming to visit Painter's world.

alercah

When Hoid says that Virtuosity Splintered herself, does that mean "left a lot of Investiture lying around" or full-on "the Shard is no more" Splintering?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO

HeatHazeDaze524

The nightmares are described as being a black, dripping ink-like substance, evaporating to smoke before disappearing. I can think of a certain talking sword that shares very similar characteristics. Is this merely a coincidence, or something we should be reading into?

Brandon Sanderson

That is not a coincidence, but I'm not sure how far you can read into it. That is not a coincidence.

Rshara

Is Painter's planet tidally locked so his side is always dark, or is the darkness due to the shroud?

Brandon Sanderson

His darkness is due to the shroud, but there there's also some RAFO material in there at the same time. The shroud is a legitimate thing preventing light from reaching him.

eric-d-culver

How would a nightmare react to silver?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO

asmodeus

By the time of [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter], it has been more than 10,000 years since the Shattering. In this story, there is an implication that Virtuosity Splintered herself 1700 years ago. Can you tell us something about what she was doing in between?

Brandon Sanderson

In between?

Adam Horne

The 10,000 years since the Shattering and her...

Brandon Sanderson

Until then? Virtuosity was exploring the artistic expressions of the cosmere. And choosing not to settle in one location--something that Virtuosity was not keen on doing. Not for too long at least.

asmodeus

The nightmares seem a lot like Midnight Essence, and there's a lot of focus on art and transformation in both those magics. Is it relevant that the colors of the hion are reminiscent of the colors of Lightweavers and Elsecallers (the orders with Transformation)?

Brandon Sanderson

That was not done intentionally. The fact that they act like Midnight Essence was done intentionally. You will see me playing with similar things just like Lightweaving works on different planets with things like this. For instance, Midnight Essence... you're going to see pop up now and then. But I did not specifically choose the colors of the hion because they are similar to the Lightweaving orders of Knights Radiant.

Talendas

Could you nahel bond a nightmare?

Brandon Sanderson

Theoretically possible.

NeonBorealis

Could a Lightweaver with a Shard-Paintbrush trap a nightmare? And how proficient would Lightweavers be with these art oriented magic systems?

Brandon Sanderson

Lightweavers would be pretty darn good at this.

Let's RAFO whether you can make a Shard-Paintbrush.

learhpa

Could the painting mechanism Painter uses to trap nightmares be used to trap other things in the cosmere? A spren, perhaps, or a seon? How about a fused?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but he does not have any extra power to do this. So for instance, someone from another planet doing what he does would have the same effect on one of those mentioned. Someone from another planet who traveled to his planet who was as talented as him and learned the methodology of him would have the same abilities over the nightmares that he has.

MadnessLemon

Were Hoid's eyes open when he was spray painted copper?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Rshara

Is Hoid telling these stories accurately?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. As accurately as superhumanly possible.

PokemonTom09

Hoid offhandedly mentions "fay" as an example of self-aware Investiture similar to hijo and seons. Are these related to the fainlife from Dragonsteel? Also, how similar are they to traditional fae from fairy tales?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. I put that one knowing that you guys would cock your head. I didn't know that that would inspire multiple questions in the livestream

Adam Horne

What is the name of this system, and the two planets in the system?

Brandon Sanderson

Isaac has that somewhere. I'm not going to canonize it until Isaac... Next stream we can have Isaac do that because I talk to him about it before I pick these things. So yeah, we've got that somewhere. Well, we'll talk about it. I won't promise it next stream. We'll see if we will.

SleepoPeepo

How is Hoid able to talk about events that he wasn’t present for in such great detail, including a person’s internal thoughts and emotions?

Brandon Sanderson

A combination of things. One, he was there for some of it. Two, in some cases he was there kind of. And in other cases, artistic liberty.

He is, particularly in [Tress of the Emerald Sea], taking some artistic liberties. Now you can assume he has tried very hard to get his stories right when he is taking artistic liberties to the point that you can take most of it as canon, even in Tress. Did I get to the point in Tress about the Dougs? I don't think I did. There's a point, for instance, in Tress where Hoid's like, "I can't remember all these people's names. I'm going to all them all Doug." He does things like that--him acknowledging that he's telling the story after the fact. But he has a supernatural ability to retain stories and get close to the actual soul of the story. You may view all of these things as canon except for some of the places where he obviously fudges a little.

Trex6

In the preview chapters you mention fay as self aware invested beings along with seons and spirits. Will these beings appear in an upcoming project already announced (example: Secret Project Four, Kingmaker, etc.) or instead in one of the secret stories you’re still keeping close to your chest? Or have you not decided where to put them yet?

Brandon Sanderson

It is one of those, definitely. It is not in Secret Project Four.

Like all things in the Cosmere, you should assume in this case that I am picking a word in English that best represents the concept. For instance, when I say the word "fay," I am not saying specifically creatures straight out of our mythology from Scottish and Irish lore. Anymore than if I call something an "ottoman," I am not implying the Ottoman Empire existed in the Cosmere. And if I use something that has a Latin root, I am not implying Latin exists. These are just best practice translations. I picked that word very carefully when I wrote this to kind of indicate to you that there is a place where they might just call them "fay." But that is not Hoid referencing our world. Most of you knew that already, but I just want to reiterate that concept for people.

It is not Secret Project Four but it is one of those other things you mentioned.

Eric-d-Culver

Can you confirm: is Virtuosity one of the original sixteen Shards? If not, what Shards make it up?

Brandon Sanderson

Ah, this is an excellent question. Yes, Virtuosity is one of the original sixteen. That's a good question; they are getting wise to my tricks.

SleepoPeepo

Hoid’s narration includes references to both Roshar (spheres and chulls) and Scadrial (rice). Can we assume then that the person being told the story has spent time on both planets, or at least has detailed knowledge of them both?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Excellent question. The answer is yes, you can assume that.

Insane_Pupil

In [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter] chapter five, Hoid talks about being “frozen in time” and mentions it being an “ailment”—implying that this is at least somewhat involuntary. Does this have anything to do with why Hoid has been alive for so long? Is there anything you can tell us about the terms of his intermittent frozen state?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. Plot point in the book.

Jofwu

Can you elaborate on why you picked the name Virtuosity? As in, what does it mean to you and how does it fit in to the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

So Virtuosity is specifically relating to artistic talent and artistic sense. I actually was just debating between Artistry and Virtuosity, and I settled on Virtuosity after a decently long debate; it's one of the reasons I haven't canonized this one yet. It is the last big hole. (I know there is one I haven't revealed that you guys kind of know what that one's general Intent is so this is the last big one to reveal, as I believe. I think there is only one, and I think you know part of that one. Maybe I am wrong. I'll have to go back and see; it's hard to remember what you guys know and what you don't know sometimes.)

I wanted to get this one into the Cosmere so that we basically have all sixteen, now. The big decision was: what do I call them? And at the end, Virtuosity just rang to me in the same way Odium did, and so I picked that one. This is the Shard of artistic intent, and artistic talent, and artistic appreciation.

Neon Borealis

The story [Yumi and the Nightmare Painter] uses the Fibonacci sequence several times as a recurring element related to art (and the golden ratio). Given that nightmares need "over a dozen" feedings to materialize and the number 13 features heavily on Yumi's rituals, would you say that 13 is related to Virtuosity in the same way that 16 is to Preservation and 10 is to Honor?

Brandon Sanderson

Wow. Good guess.

Cheyenne Sedai

All three secret projects we've seen so far have been different in terms of voice than your usual books. For Brandon; how did this change in voice change your stories and the world you depict in these secret projects? Is there anything you implemented that you would like to bring into other books you write?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's an excellent question. That's part why I do voice like this. To experiment with different things. Project 2, Frugal Wizard, has a kind of funny ephemera book like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I like playing with ephemera, which is a fancy word for in world books and such that's included as part of the book, and I think that my experiments with ephemera are useful there. My experiments there with that one, playing with historical settings, is also very useful for me.

On the other two it is figuring out Hoid's voice. That is the thing that will probably be most useful in the future as I work out how I want him to tell Dragonsteel, which is his backstory. Neither of these is the right voice. Yumi is closer but at the same time I wanted to have something like this. I always wanted to write something with this fairy tale feel to it, and fairy tale is the wrong term. It's like modern fairy tale, like the Princess Bride is the er-example of this but even Harry Potter one. These sort of quips in narrative that give it a feel of a narrator telling you a story, the Hobbit has this as well. I liked that. I liked the feel of that. It's a sort of different kind of story telling, it has a sort of classic feel to it and I liked doing that.

Emily Sanderson

And with both of these I feel like there were times where you were like 'Is this too much Hoid? Too little Hoid? Does this work?' And I could really tell why you were doing it and if it was too distracting to the story or not.

Brandon Sanderson

Now here is the really interesting thing. The beta readers can not agree on this. There is no consensus on if their is too much Hoid or not enough, if it is distracting or the best thing about the book. Some of you I will warn will find the voice too distracting. I'm doing what I can, particularly in Yumi where I am pulling back a little bit where I'm putting Hoid interjections in parentheses and stuff like that. It doesn't work in Tress. Tress is so much in his voice, that whenever I add parentheses it's like; 'Why did I parenthesize this one when everything is so strongly in his voice?'

Emily Sanderson

It was interesting reading them because you didn't tell me that was what was going on. I had to figure it out. It was interesting to see when I figured it out; 'Wait a second this is in the Cosmere, wait a minute Hoid is telling this story' was kinda fun. It's been interesting to see people's reaction to that.

Brandon Sanderson

The readers reading the early chapters and be like 'Hey wait a minute!' That is a lot of fun. Very satisfying to me. That they can pick out Hoid's voice that easily. Means I'm doing my job right.

Brandon Sanderson

[Secret Project Three], Yumi [and the Nightmare Painter], is partially written because Emily likes romance books. Cheesy romances. And I don't want to ever be described as cheesy. But I'm like, "Well, I know Emily likes sincere romance stories, and so I'm going to put some more romance stories into the two that I wrote most specifically for you." One and Three have a little bit more romance. Well, not a little bit more; I mean, they are focused around that idea.

Neither of them are romance stories; I wouldn't shelve them in the romance section, even if they weren't sci-fi/fantasy. But they definitely have much more of a romantic subtheme than other things that I've worked on.

Jake 1802

Has writing any of the Secret Projects changed any of the plot points or plans for upcoming Cosmere books?

Brandon Sanderson

Not appreciable, except for: I've been able to expand a few worlds, I've been able to build out some side characters that I'd had in the back of my head. I am sure you will see references to these planets in future books, where you wouldn't have if I hadn't written these, almost assuredly. That's part of it.

And then, Secret Project Four, which you guys don't know much about yet (but you will get to, coming up soon), that does have more Cosmere implications. It's something I've been wanting to do. But once I get a book done, I feel way more confident in... because all the various things that could happen, one of them has solidified into actually happening.

Greyhive 9

In your 2019 State of the Sanderson, you talked about a 35-book plan for the Cosmere, which you acknowledged you need to focus on in order to finish by the age of 74. With your newfound writing capacity, you could: finish sooner, add more Cosmere books (or movies/TV shows), add more projects outside of the Cosmere. Have you pondered this?

Brandon Sanderson

I am unlikely to go faster. But I'm also avoiding adding too many outside-the-Cosmere projects. Let's see if I can balance getting these four [Secret Projects] done and Stormlight Five in a reasonable amount of time, and circle back to me when Stormlight Five is out. But if I'm able to do more of this in the future, I will add some more secret projects, would be what I would do with the extra time.

If I'm able to. I'm gonna be working hard on these for the next foreseeable few years. Most likely, you're not going to be seeing any secret projects from me for quite a while, now.

Brandon Sanderson

This is still in the concepting stage, but for those who've bought into the Year of Sanderson, we've got a reveal for the Cytoverse box, this time. If there are those of you who haven't read that series, there's a race of slugs that we have grown enamored with cute renditions of the slug, because the main character names her pet one Doomslug. Then we ended up having Boomslug, as well, and we've kind of extrapolated form there. So one of the things we're gonna do is, we are going to be doing a set of slug themed Go Fish. We've done playing cards before; we thought it would be fun to have one that would be cool for you to play with your family, instead of just playing cards.

Isaac Stewart

We're announcing tonight that the artist for Secret Project number three is Aliya Chen. She is currently a visual development artist and illustrator in the animation industry, working for studios such as Netflix and Riot Games. She's a long-time fan of science fiction and fantasy. Stormlight is her all-time favorite series for years. She says it's such a huge honor to be working with Brandon and Dragonsteel.

Daniel Greene

And is this [Secret Project Two] targeted towards a more YA audience? General? Or does it not really have an audience?

Brandon Sanderson

General audience. This is general audience. I kind of pitched it to my fans; it's kind of, I'm doing the "when he first arrives in the past and he doesn't remember how he got there," I'm kind of playing with the Jason Bourne style plot. But it's like Jason Bourne mixed with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mixed with Timeline by Michael Crichton and just a little bit of Harry Dresden.

Daniel Greene

It sounds like it [Secret Project Two] has incredible potential for a series; has that been in your head at all? Or is this a one-shot?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, yeah. I am not going to turn this into a series, myself. But I brainstormed a lot of the ideas for this with Dan Wells, and so I can absolutely see Dan writing... And the fictional author of the Handbook itself, the in-world book, is a character that Dan and I have both used in our books. This guy, Cecil G. Bagsworth III, interdimensional explorer. He's the author of The Frugal Wizard's Handbook; he's actually a shared character of Dan and mine. If people like this book, I would expect that Dan'll want to take a crack at doing some other Frugal Wizard-adjacent story.

Brandon Sanderson

Years ago, a title popped into my head. And it was called: The Frugal Wizard's Guide to London. And I'm like, "Wow, that's a good title. It feels too Harry Potter-esque; I don't know what I'll do with that." But once in a while, you get one of those titles. And, as a writer, you're like, "I need to find a book for that title." The Way of Kings was another one.

The Frugal Wizard idea was really fun to me. And then, over Covid, one of the things I often do when I am going to bed is I just tell myself a story as I'm going to sleep. This is something I've done since I was a kid; I have insomnia, and this is just a way to pass the time. And one of the things I was telling stories in my head about was people doing time travel disaster tourism. I did a whole podcast with Dan on this. This is just the idea of: what if you were to have a story where someone could travel into the past to a kind of famous event and not have to worry about changing the future? If you could just take that element away and just have fun with doing tourism in the past?

And this matched with that sort of title; I'm like, "The Frugal Wizard, what if that were a reference to the idea that people can travel the dimensions and go to different time periods?" And the Frugal Wizard's a person who wrote guidebooks for if you want to, for instance, go back to the Titanic. And it's like, "The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for How to Survive the Titanic," if you want to go have that experience. So Secret Project Two is actually somebody who goes back to medieval England for reasons that are mysterious in the book. I haven't revealed them yet. But it's The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England.

And part of the joke is that the Frugal Wizard's handbook's got an interesting voice. It's Hitchhiker's Gudie-esque, where the main character is getting these entries explaining the world to him, and they are written in a voice that is very distinctive, shall we say.

Daniel Greene

There's a feeling of passing time within the Cosmere. We're seeing Mistborn jump forward ages; Stormlight Archive is now introducing new tech. And you're also just kind of dabbling into science fiction outside of the Cosmere with things like Skyward. Is there gonna become a time where sci-fantasy is a better description of what's going within the Cosmere as your writing progresses? Or is this, to you, always firmly gonna be a fantasy series.

Brandon Sanderson

No, I think you're probably right. I've told fans for years, what I'm pushing toward is something a little more Star Wars-esque in the larger worldbuilding, where you're going to many different planets, and there's both a science fiction and fantasy mix. One of my favorite movies (despite how it's aging worse and worse) is The Fifth Element. And I like that blend a lot of science fiction and fantasy. I suspect that there will always be places where I'm doing straight-up true fantasy in the Cosmere, that it will give me enough opportunities to go to planets where some of this tech just hasn't reached yet and do fantasy stories. But the main through-line of the Cosmere is pushing toward sci-fantasy.

Daniel Greene

And that kind of leads to a question where: does the complete opposite end of the spectrum attract you within the Cosmere? Writing something that is hard science fiction, maybe something more in the vein of a Star Trek than fantasy at all? Or is it more just gonna be sci-fantasy?

Brandon Sanderson

I could see myself doing something Star Trek, which is... I would call Star Trek hard fantasy, but it's, like, the lightest of hard fantasy. I could see myself doing that. I could see myself doing military science fiction. But true, Arthur C. Clark style hard science fiction, is not something I'm equipped really well to write. I could do it; it would take a lot of work and a lot of help from professionals, so it's not impossible. But writing the Cosmere version of Red Mars is just not something that's really in my wheelhouse. I'll leave that to the Kim Stanley Robinsons of the world and those who are really good at the actual science. There's a reason why I make up half of my science, and it's because that's what interests me and I find fun.

While I won't ever say no to anything that I might write in the future, I think that one's fairly unlikely.

Daniel Greene

You said you'd like to die in every adaptation. Is there a particular death from a story you'd love to have? Like, Syl thrown through you at a distance? Or is there a death that stands out from the Cosmere that really should be Sanderson?

Brandon Sanderson

You know, the only really dramatic one that I think of is Vin and Zane's assault on the keep in book two of Mistborn. There's, like, a semi-lobby-sequence-from-Matrix-esque sequence in Mistborn Two. That's one of the ones where I'm like, "I oughtta be on that wall when they come passin' by." But, no, I haven't really otherwise thought "hmm, who should I be." I want to not be distracting. I don't want to be, like, one of the guys who dies in the bridge crews that's all very dramatic, and things. I want real actors for those. Peter Jackson died in a really fun way in the third Lord of the Rings film, right? He's all done up in makeup so you can barely tell it's him, but he does a very good death, and that's inspiration to me. That's my kind; the behind-the-scenes guy who gets to get shot by a bunch of arrows. I want to be there; that's what I aspire to.

vernastking

The medieval England that you envision in this story [Secret Project Two] is a rather interesting take based on what we have seen. It seems to be pre-Norman conquest to me. What did you look to in creating this particular setting? And why did you choose this era as opposed to another period?

Brandon Sanderson

Couple of reasons. Good question, by the way. I'm somewhere in the 700s with this, maybe inching to the 800s, but it's my own kind of... The place that I stopped, the very next interlude, the next section from the in-world book that you would get to read is a FAQ that says "why are things in this world so different from what I understand about the historical record?" And the answer is a long-winded and hopefully somewhat amusing take on "it's another dimension: some things are gonna be different, some things are not gonna be different, that's a selling point." I did that because, despite knowing a bit about the Anglo-Saxon era, I am not an expert. I am not George RR Martin-level of understanding of the historical nuances of... I'm not a medievalist. I am a storyteller. And so while I'm fascinated about that time period, I really like it, I picked that period in part because the what-ifs of |what if the Norman invasion hadn't happened| is one of my favorite sort of what-ifs. I like that era because of the... The contrast between civilization and untamed wilds is so interesting to me. I just like a lot of things about that time period. And so when I decided that Frugal Wizard was not going to actually be the Titanic... If you didn't know, the first idea I had for this was "time travel back to the Titanic, and you are trying to stop the Titanic from sinking, while someone's secretly among the crew is also a time traveler from the future who is trying to make sure it does sink," and it's like a competition. Can you save the Titanic? The twist would have been that you don't know that there's somebody else there. You're just there to save the Titanic or something like that. There's an evil jumper. But regardless, I didn't want to do that. Number one, Titanic: a little overdone. Number two, I am much better, even though I'm not a good medievalist, I'm much more of a medievalist than I am a scholar of the Titanic. And getting the things right with the Titanic would just be like "grr." So I'm like, "All right, what time period could I write in that I could fuzz a little bit by having it be in another dimension but that would be exciting to me and that I would be able to not embarrass myself in the first draft until we actually get a medievalist to look at it?" And the answer was pre-Norman conquest, late Anglo-Saxon England. 

You may still get that Titanic book because Dan loves all kinds of disasters and misery and he may... Again, Cecil is a shared character of ours, and so it's totally possible that you'll get The Frugal Wizards's Handbook for Surviving (or for Sinking) (or for Saving) the Titanic at some point in the future.

Jofwu

You mentioned that three of the four stories were for your wife and one was for yourself. Was this one for Emily, and if so could you elaborate on why you picked to write this "for her"?

Brandon Sanderson

[Secret Projects] One, Two, and Three I wrote as gifts for her, but if I'm going to be perfectly honest, One and Three were written with her in mind, and Two was written because I wanted to do another Secret Project and surprise her again. I don't think that Emily specifically loves this style of story, though Three was written specifically because I was looking for a style of story that Emily really likes to read. And One was written based on a prompt that she was kind of involved in creating and was me wanting to write... Tress is basically me saying "I'm going to write a book for Emily before I met her, who is just going to able to pick up and love a book. What am I going to put on that book?|"And Secret Project Three is a book for Emily right now. That's kind of how they are. Two was "I want to surprise her again. That was really fun. I am going to write another book and I'm going to give it to her for Mother's Day," I think it is when I gave it to her, and this one she didn't know I was writing. Others she did and read along with me and things like this, and this one was just like "You get another book! Here you go!" But to be perfectly honest, this one is a little more for me because it's the deviation I wanted. Four is for me in a different sort of way. Four is written in a "This is something the Cosmere needs that I've been planning to write for a long time that I have scheduled to write, and I don't know when I'll ever get to write it, so I'm going to write it now." That's gonna make you assume it's a book I've told you about before, but it's not! Everyone is going to be like "It means that he wrote this one, he wrote that one." It's actually not. But it's covering something else I've wanted to do with the Cosmere for a long time, and when we get to Four, I'll explain to you why and how. This one is loosely, very loosely based on the first Cosmere story I ever wrote. Not Dragonsteel; because I didn't know Cosmere back then, I was just writing a story back when, Teenager Dragonsteel. But the first time I actually wrote something involving a connected universe. And this one is in direct lineage of that one.

Clark Nichols

Does the Frugal Wizard provide a selection of different realities to choose from?

Brandon Sanderson

You will find out later on when you read more of the "guidebook," which has lots of interesting offers for you, that most people buy the cheap version, which is "we give you whatever we have." You don't get to really choose; you just get three promises. Your three promises are: intelligible English, no current world-wide pandemic, and roughly in the time period with a tech level pre-gunpowder". I think those are the three promises that they make. And if you want to buy a specific dimension, they have a whole roster of what they have right now, you could go browse through. And there'll probably be, at any given time, several hundred that they've fully investigated, and they'll say things like, "Hey, there's a version of Chaucer living in this one." So you could go to get that. Or it's like, "Oh, look at this one. Gunpowder was invented earlier, and it's Roman times on the British Isles, but they have gunpowder." You would be able to pick those. Those would be luxury experiences, much more expensive that you could buy that dimension if you want. Most are the Wizard Wildcard Dimensions (trademark). And those are just, they went and made sure that the three things they want are contained therein, and then you buy one and you just get a random, and it could be anywhere between whenever the Middle Ages started, vaguely 200 or 300 AD, all the way up to 1200 AD to 1400 maybe, just kind of somewhere in there, you're gonna get something, you're not sure what it's gonna be, and you will be able to understand them but, there may or may not be actual references to what you're expecting or knowing. If you want to purchase your own Wizard Dimension from the Frugal Wizard Company and you want a specific experience, you may want to hold out until they've got a dimension they've investigated that matches what you want. But they will also very happily sell you ones that don't match those three criteria, because they got a bunch of those. Those are steeply discounted.

Amira Kessem

​What percentage of fantasy vs sci-fi is Frugal Wizard?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say 50-50-ish. I would say 50-50, but in-world they would say it 's all sci-fi. Just like Anne McCaffrey said the Dragonriders of Pern are science fiction, not fantasy. And these dragons teleport and fly and breathe fire. Yeah, but it's science fiction. And are telepathic. All I'm saying is that Dragonriders of Pern can be classified as straigh-up science fiction if you want; so could this. I would classify Dragonriders of Pern as fantasy novel with science fiction roots that changes to science fiction as the series progresses. But still stays partially fantasy, and I would say Frugal Wizard has a foot in each of those genres.

Freddie Washington

If you die in an alternate dimension [in Secret Project Two], do you die in your home dimension as well?

Brandon Sanderson

The way that this works is: you are physically picking up and leaving, so you don't leave behind a version of yourself. Now, if you go to a dimension where there is another version of you, it's like you were twins; there's two of you with different life experiences. You are two different individuals in that case, and you could each die, but you aren't hacking in like in the Matrix, where you're putting on something. You are actually physically leaving and going to another dimension.

heavyraines17

Loved the first few chapters, getting a great ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ vibe from the Frugal Wizard’s Handbook. In that vein, what are your Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy two word reviews for planets in the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Scadrial- almost livable

Stormlight- bring raincoat

Nalthis- good food

Threnody- stay away

Sel- not visited, they can't get there

First of the Sun- cute birds

There's some for you

X-Thorin

If inter-dimensional travel exists in this story [Secret Project Two], could they eventually travel to the Cosmere’s universe? Or do these worlds exist in different multiverses?

Brandon Sanderson

You will get to a point in the book where they kind of explain probability and the idea that theoretically anything is possible. They could not travel to the cosmere. What is theoretically possible is they could travel to a dimension that, by coincidence, matches the cosmere one-to-one, but it would not be the cosmere. But the chances of them being able to find that are so infinitesimally small that the atoms in this room, the oxygen atoms, all bouncing to one side of the room and suffocating us all is more likely, I would guess. But even if they did, it would not be the cosmere, it would just be be coincidentionally an identical version of the cosmere that just through random happenstance popped up.

StrikerEZ

Is there real magic in this alternate dimension of Earth [in Secret Project Two]?

Brandon Sanderson

That is a RAFO. I don't want to spoil too much on that, but you should be asking that question, how about that.

sodapoptheelf

"Medical nanites" are mentioned. Does Secret Project Two take place in the same continuity as The Original?

Brandon Sanderson

I do not have it in the same continuity right now. Now, whether The Original happens on a dimension that's analogous, then you start getting into, "Well, anything could be connected once you're going to interdimensional travel and things." I would say that the only conscious thing that I'm doing to connect to anything else I've written is using Cecil's name, and even that's a little tongue-in-cheek.

Peter Ahlstrom

Could this be connected to Apocalypse Guard?

Brandon Sanderson

I am doing another book series that has interdimensional stuff. There's a decent chance that when I revise Apocalypse Guard I will be like "You know what, I should only have one interdimensional travel series," and I might intentionally connect those. But for right now, the only intentional connection I have made is using Cecil's name. And saying it's the same personality, the same Cecil.

Chip Groover

Did you write the full pages of The Frugal Wizard book and then cut them off? Do you know the missing words on those pages?

Brandon Sanderson

I wrote to the end of a paragraph and then cut them off. So I didn't write beyond that. I knew it would be there, but I wanted the paragraph to feel as naturalistic as possible.

Potato_Tiger

If spren are attracted by emotions, then why hasn't a Vulcan type society arisen on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.