Recent entries

AdelRD

Who will be the main interlude character in Stormlight Five?

Brandon Sanderson

Stormlight Five is Szeth as the main interlude character. Flashbacks of Szeth's childhood intermixed with Szeth in the modern day.

Homie Reborn

How many times have humans been created and/or evolved in the cosmere? We know it's at least two, but could it be more?

Brandon Sanderson

It could be more. And I won't put a definite number on it, because that would lock me into not being able to change my mind if I come up with a world where it makes sense.

Albinrath

A lot of things changed for certain characters between Warbreaker and Stormlight. Will we get any of that story in future Stormlight books, or do we have to wait until Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson

You probably are gonna have to wait until Nightblood. There is a chance I'll do some Vasher stuff in Stormlight to catch you up. It's gonna depend on how long it takes to get to Nightblood, and various things like that. I have plans to find a place for some of this if I can't get to Nightblood in time. But most of it, I'm hoping, will be able to be in the Warbreaker sequel.

AdelRD

What Radiant Order would Khriss be in?

Brandon Sanderson

Khriss could fit into several different Radiant Orders. She's most obviously Elsecaller, but I don't want Elsecallers to be the only scholar Order. That's the thing to keep in mind; in fact, there could be a scholar in basically any Order.

The thing about the Orders is, I don't necessarily want the Knights Radiant Orders to be too restrictive. I don't want them to be Harry Potter houses, in other words. What do I mean by that? I don't want them to be too exclusive to anyone who would want to be in them. The number one thing that's going to determine what Order you would be in is what Order you would want to be in and whether you jive with the spren of that Order in the right way. And it's possible that you won't be able to just jive with the spren, and it wouldn't work out, but it's not like "All the brave ones go into this Order, and all the nerdy ones go into this Order." That's not how I want to run it. I want to kind of run these based on the Truths that you're speaking, the Oaths that you're speaking, what those mean to you, what you're trying to do. And some of those aren't going to be archetypal: the whole idea of protecting, or things like that.

I could make a pretty good argument for Khriss in Lightweaver. I could make a pretty good argument for Khriss in Truthwatcher. You could make good arguments for a good half the Orders for any given character, and that's how I want it to be.

AbjectBed3833

When Raboniel said "For Ado's sake," was she referring to Ba-Ado-Mishram or Adonalsium?

Brandon Sanderson

Adonalsium.

Questioner

Leatherbounds. Will Skyward be part of that?

Brandon Sanderson

There are plans to eventually do Skyward. Here's the thing: we have the rights. Reckoners, we don't have the rights on. So we would like to maybe do a Reckoners one, but we would have to go to the publisher and work out the rights. By the time we signed for Skyward, we knew this was a thing we loved to do, so we just included it in the contract. So Skyward is actually more likely than Steelheart, even though Steelheart came out first. Though I would like to do both of them eventually.

The primary Cosmere stories are our focus, and so it remains to be seen whether we will have the resources in-house to put together other books. We would like to. We are not promising them.

Asmodeus9

So far in the Cosmere we have seen different kinds of stories that fit a wide variety of genres across many different worlds. Was the Cosmere intentionally built specifically to be this open-ended sandbox that you can play in? Or is that something that happened more over time as you came up with more and more stories that you might be able to tell in there?

Brandon Sanderson

It's a little of both. You have to go back to the fact that, before I published, I write these thirteen novels and got very experienced at the idea of telling new worlds and new stories, and that's part of what excites me. And I built the Cosmere specifically to be able to tell different kinds of stories. Now, as I've matured as an author, there are stories that have occurred to me to tell that may not have occurred to me when I was younger, and I wouldn't have realized that I would want the space to tell. But I always was aware that this is something that I like to do and that the structure that I built should allow me that flexibility and freedom.

And I also am very aware, and have been from the beginning, that I didn't want to tell the same story over and over. In fact, once I wrote Dragonsteel (which, we'll release Dragonsteel Prime for the Words of Radiance Kickstarter; you guys'll be able to read it), it has more of a classic fantasy farmboy goes on an adventure story than I've generally done in my other books. And I wrote that, and the cosmerenauts or the lore keepers or the Arcanists who watch the things I've said know that the only book I abandoned out of those thirteen was book number nine, which was the book I started right after I wrote Dragonsteel. And I found myself writing kind of the same story again, another similar feel, similar vibe, of this kind of more classic fantasy tropes. And I actually abandoned it, and the main reason I did is I was like "I've done this story. I'm not going to do this story again. I don't want to be telling the same archetype over and over again." I do like taking a stab at an archetype, a lot of times, even if it's a well-worn one; I think that that's fun. But I don't want to be doing it over and over. I want to do it once really well and then move on. So that is why I think I could have even said early on that I would have known that sub-genre hopping was a thing taht I was going to be doing a lot of.

NC23Nick

Is there a character in either the Stormlight or Mistborn series that you feel you underdeveloped and wished you had spent more time on?

Brandon Sanderson

Usually, when I run into situations like this, I just write a story about them. Are there characters I wish I had time to write more stories about? Yes. I wish, for instance, I had time to write more stories about all of Bridge Four. There are plenty of characters in Bridge Four that you just barely even get their names, because there's so many people to track. And there's, of course, Kaladin and the core team, but I would have liked to have been able to spend more time (and maybe someday I will) fleshing out more of those characters. There's that.

I think Dockson could have used a little more time in Mistborn, maybe, but that's something I would do with a short story. Though, there are things I might change going back, I don't think expanding anyone's story is something that I would do if I were to rewrite the books. That's my instinct.

Sam Flynn

How long do you think Stormlight Five will be?

Brandon Sanderson

Similar length to the others. I've said that every time. We'll see. But that's my expectation, similar length to the other ones.

Every time, I've said "I think this one'll be shorter" and then it isn't, so I'm not gonna say that this time so you guys can't "gotcha" me. But it's possible it'll be shorter; who knows?

Flagrandall

Will Stormlight Five feel like the end of a series, or will it be more open-ended so that the next five books finish the story?

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to be somewhere in between those two. It will be a climactic book and should be paced differently than any other Stormlight book. I'm not sure how much I wanna to spoil, but just the pacing is going to be different. I'm going to be treating it different in how I write and build it just from a structural level. But it should feel like a climactic book. But it's not the end. It's not as much an ending as Mistborn Era One was, and even Mistborn Era One left a big door open for future eras; and it's not that decisive. When I release Book Six, it will be Book Six of The Stormlight Archive. And yes, there will be a change in focus, but if you hadn't known that, it would feel like a time jump and a little bit of a changeover, but you wouldn't go into it going, like, "Oh, this reads like a completely different series." Yes, Lift is going to be a bigger character and the Heralds are going to be bigger characters, and Renarin and Jasnah will be bigger characters. But Renarin and Jasnah are alraedy fairly decently prominent characters in The Stormlight Archive, so it's not gonna be out of nowhere.

I'll just have to let you guys see what you think, but that's what my impression of it is.

Potato

What kind of attractions would be in an in-universe cosmere amusement park?

Brandon Sanderson

I don't know. If I were going to come up with an in-universe one, I would try to build it in a modern or future era where you could use the powers in interesting ways. Like a roller coaster that goes in and out of speed bubbles could be interesting in that it is a dimension of experience that we can't have in our world, and so I would write those kind of things in so that reading about it would be more interesting. That's how I approach these things; the magic system and the worldbuilding would be relevant to how the theme park runs.

Questioner

Where was Ivory the night Shallan stole the Soulcaster?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Abandon the King

Is the current state of the Cosmere still true to your original vision? Or has it deviated much from those early development days?

Brandon Sanderson

Depends on what you mean. For instance, I would have guessed that I would have been back to Elantris sooner than I'm getting back to Elantris, if you would have asked me in 2006, when I was really building the Cosmere out, 2004 and 2005, I would have said, "Oh yeah, I'll be back to Elantris. And I don't know when I'll be back to Stormlight." And back then, I thought I would be getting to Dragonsteel pretty soon, actually, I would have imagined Dragonsteel was going to happen, and then Elantris was going to happen, and then Stormlight was going to happen. This was pre-Wheel of Time, pre-me figuring out how to fix Stormlight, and all of that. And Stormlight coming together and working in 2009 (from the version that I wrote in 2002 that didn't work) is a big upheaval for doing the Cosmere, because that's when Bridge Four moved out of Dragonsteel and into Stormlight, and Dalinar had already jumped ship, and Stormlight then became the flagship Cosmere epic, replacing Dragonsteel, which does change how I view things quite a bit. Dragonsteel is still going to be there, but it has become much more Hoid's story than anyone else's, and some of the characters in Dragonsteel probably may not even show up in it anymore, because other incarnations of them have made it into other books. So there is that.

The general scope and idea, though, that hasn't changed. The general idea of telling this interconnected web of epic fantasy stories that started moving together and coming together, that's all still working; the general plan for what the backstory of the cosmere is has remained the same, and it is working. So that's the big change, I would say. And the Elantris fans are probably in the chat going "Aww." I will get to you, I will, but Stormlight working has changed some things around.

Questioner (paraphrased)

What spren types are Glys, Ivory, and Wyndle?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO, because I haven't decided yet. I know generally what they are, but I don't know how I am going to call them in the books. It happens with other things in my writing, Shards for example - Odium was originally Hatred; the idea was the same, but I decided to change the actual word.

Argent (paraphrased)

Is the number of Unmade fixed?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes.

Argent (paraphrased)

Is it ten, is it ten, is it ten, is it ten, is it ten?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Is it ten? No, it's not ten.

Questioner

Is it possible - not will there be, but is it possible - for a Parshendi to become a Knight Radiant?

Brandon Sanderson

In the past, they would've said— How about this, in-world everybody would tell you no. It's never happened.

Questioner

Is there like a Cosmere-significant reason why, on Scadrial, the Investiture is hereditary, but that that doesn't really seem to be the case on any of the other worlds?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes there is, but it has to do more with the fact that on Scadrial, human beings were directly created by Ruin and Preservation. And most of the Cosmere worlds you've seen don't have that same sort of aspect. It is the case on Nalthis, but it's not the case on Roshar, it's not the case on Taldain, it's not the case on Sel. And so because of that instance, that's how I'm kind of working, that changed the way people interact with magic directly. But there is some wiggle room there for me. But that's your answer, that's the actual... there's.. I'm not hiding anything there, there is wiggle room. What I'm saying is don't extrapolate that that has to happen every time that the Shards were directly involved in the creation...

Very Nice Name 16

You write a lot of immortals in your books. How do you think about people living on large time frames like that and how that affects the way they think and act compared to ordinary people? And also, say, 10,000-year-old compared to a 2000-year-old to a 300-year-old?

Brandon Sanderson

This is actually something I've dedicated a lot of thought to. I think fantasy and science fiction, one of the things it does well is explore human experiences that aren't possible in contemporary or realistic fiction. And so there are a lot of people out there searching for the key to human immortality. And what would it be like? How would we deal with it? These are questions that are interesting to me, and doing a story on a 10,000-year timescale lets me play around with that. I will say that various people you've met are immortal; some are not. Some, it's more time dilation shenanigans than it is extended lifespan.

But regardless, how do I approach this? By gut and instinct, just trying different things out. No human being's experience is identical to another human being's experience, so I figure no immortal's experience will be identical to other immortals' experiences, and so I can have lots of different responses. I can base it partially on the magic system and how they were made immortal. And then that lets me play with different experiences. Like, the things the Heralds are going through, Hoid hasn't gone through. Some of the sort of degradation of what's happening with their souls is unique... not wholly unique, but individual to the experiences they're having. And I play with those differently than I play with someone who's been elevated to holding near-infinite power in one of the Shards and how their experience goes. And then you've got, just, random people who have run across things that have changed their experiences in different ways, and I will approach them in a different way. And I can't really say how exactly I'm gonna do this with everybody. It's just gonna be different for each character in each situation.

That's a very long non-answer. I've thought about it a lot; I don't have answers yet. You'll see them in the books when I write them.

MrCargoPants

Im thinking on using a marewill flower in a tattoo soon but after searching i cant decide which flower resemble the most. If you ever thought about it which would be your decision?

Ben McSweeney

There’s a canon design forthcoming at some point soon. It became important enough to make something of it.

Questioner

It's referenced that on Roshar, a foot is longer than is cosmere standard. I can't find anywhere how long it actually is.

Brandon Sanderson

That's gonna come down to questions for Isaac and Karen. Not that you should go ask them right now. Mainly, what's going on is, we have to have height charts and things like that. Let me talk about the reason for this. I want to be able to say something in world like, "Kaladin's about 6'4." So that people can picture him compared to the people around him. He's probably closer to 7 foot compared to people from Scadrial. But if I say he's 7 foot, you're going to imagine him of the wrong proportions and size compared to the people around him. So I went ahead and said, we will use feet, but scale them different in order-- this is kind of just me fudging for your perception. When you see actual people from Roshar next to people from Scadrial, particularly tall Alethi, they're gonna look like giants.

Questioner

What would an Edgedancer think of snowboarding?

Brandon Sanderson

They would probably think it's really cool, and glad that mundane, normal people can experience the joy and thrill of what is everyday for an Edgedancer.

Questioner

What do you think is the book that you had the most fun writing?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say probably the most fun would be the Wax & Wayne series. If we're just looking at pure fun. It was Alcatraz before that, but it became Wax & Wayne once I started writing those.

Questioner

Close to the end of Rhythm of War, Dalinar Connects Kaladin to something, which gives him the vision of Tien. Did he Connect him to Tien's dead soul, and if so, does Dalinar know what he did?

Brandon Sanderson

There are two prevailing theories on what happened here among cosmerenauts, in-world Arcanists. You would get two different answers. The most common answer is, Dalinar attached himself to the Spiritual Realm, pulled out possibilities, and showed one of those to Kaladin.

Questioner

If so, where did the horse come from?

Brandon Sanderson

Either pure coincidence, or some sort of matching of Fortune to the moment, that ended up leading Kaladin to the place he needed to be, which is the way a lot of Fortune works. Fortune would be like, "You should go here," and you don't even know why. That's what the Arcanist answer would be, it would be the most common answer. Some people would say he reached into the Beyond and connected Tien to Kaladin via Tien's actual soul. I will leave these both as equally valid theories. As I've said many times, I'm not gonna say whether there is an actual afterlife in the cosmere because it is too foundational to too many characters' beliefs, or lack of beliefs, or worldview in-world to have the author contradict them either way.

Failsafe

If one were to Riot or Soothe out of a cadmium bubble or a bendalloy bubble, would the emotional Allomancy be effectual? If so, how would it be affected by the speed bubble, and how would that work in reverse?

Brandon Sanderson

If you were to... Someone's inside a bubble, and you're shooting Allomancy into it from outside, would it have an effect? The answer to that would be yes. Shooting out of it should work also. It is going to be affected though. I think depending on the speed of it, you're gonna end up with a stretching or condensing of it. If you're doing it from inside a bubble, you could probably effectively get something like a duralumin hit. And if you're doing it from outside in, and they're moving very fast, you're gonna have a lesser effect.

Questioner

Would it have some randomness, like a bullet?

Brandon Sanderson

You probably wouldn't be able to target... No, you would be able to. You would be fine. You can do kind of a cone, and things like that. It might be hard to hit the specific individual, but it wouldn't be as much trouble as a bullet.

Questioner

What about with duralumin?

Brandon Sanderson

The thing about duralumin is, if you wanted to extra duralumin it, what you'd have to do is eat some within a speed bubble, use it, then eat some more, then use it. You could therefore kind of multiply up, but yeah. So yes, you could do that, but you'd have to do it multiple times.

spectral.limina

Just to confirm, is that a fast bubble or slow bubble?

Brandon Sanderson

That'd be a fast bubble, cause you're piling it up. More time is passing for you than people outside. Basically, you're doing five times duralumin push in one burst. It could probably get pretty dangerous, some people's emotions.

Questioner

Can Odium or any other [Shards] edit text like Ruin could? ...Or is that a special Ruin thing.  

Brandon Sanderson

This is possible for others as well. The trick about it is, [Ruin] saturated everything on Scadrial in a way that not all Shards saturate their planets.  

Questioner

Okay, what do you mean "saturate"?

Brandon Sanderson

Creating it, does that make sense? And so this was partially an aspect of the fact that everything on that planet, every atom was, y'know, had him in it... I mean he didn't create the atoms, let's say that, but yeah... The whole planet's existence and particularly the people on it are [Ruin], attuned to [Ruin].

Darkless

I have my own theory but I thought I should ask, if the koloss reproduce through Hemalurgic spikes how can there be half koloss in Alloy of Law.

Brandon Sanderson

I am holding this answer back for future books, I'm afraid. I have said some things, but the full truth is still subject to debate. I will answer this eventually in the books.

Questioner

What's the difference between a spike prepared for a Koloss and a spike prepared for a Mistwraith or Kandra? What side effects might occur from... [?]... Koloss spikes?

Brandon Sanderson

It's the pieces of the soul that are being ripped off and the amount of the soul that's being ripped off. That's a big part of it. What side effects would there be? You would probably not get something as intelligent.

Questioner

What's the difference in how you prepare those spikes?

Brandon Sanderson

The Koloss spikes, you've seen how they're done. The Kandra spikes were prepared by the Lord Ruler. He gave them to them, and so we don't know what he did, at least in canon.

Questioner 2

That means that we kind of screwed up the role playing.

Brandon Sanderson

You can totally do- I imagine all the role playing happening in a slightly different alternate universe, where there are slight variations and differences.

But yeah, there are no- Kandra spikes are prepared and given by the Lord Ruler, they didn't even know how to make them themselves. I mean they had an inkling of what went on, but they didn't know.

Mason Wheeler

In Bands of Mourning, in the party scene. Hoid was outside; talked with Wax. Khriss is inside; talked with Wax. Were there any other worldhoppers present? And if so, how many?

Brandon Sanderson

At least one was present. Probably two. At least one, probably two.

Brandon Sanderson

Now, I would like to point out that I have been miss-represented. While I have a penchant for characters who avoid marriage, I have some (not as many, I admit) who look forward to it. Let's look at viewpoint characters in my current novel:

Jasnah: Female. Doesn't want to get married.

Taln: Male. Doesn't want to get married.

Shinri: Female. Eager to get married, and engaged.

Merin: Male. Never really thought about it (only 17) but not really opposed to it.

Jek: Male. Neutral.

Dalenar: Male. Has been married twice, and is currently married. Wanted to the first time, was forced into it the second time.

So, while I wouldn't argue that I tend to have a lot of characters who (perhaps) share my philosophy, I try to represent the other side as well.

Tacticus Prime

Also, what is going on in this chart? Is it all RAFO, or can you hint at anything?

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/twok_endsheet-rear-2-webres.jpg

Brandon Sanderson

That's...I'm sorry, that's a RAFO. But thank you for reading! Answers are coming.

Kingsdaughter613

Primary question: Peter recently said something about atium in Era 1 actually being an atium-electrum alloy, which is called nalatium. Is this accurate?

Brandon Sanderson

This is accurate, yes.

You could, by the way, just continue to call it atium. That's what they think atium is in-world. It's very slightly tainted.

Kingsdaughter613

Secondary questions: If the above is yes, did Kelsier get malatium by separating the atium and gold from the silver in nalatium? If so, do atium and gold have similar melting points?

Brandon Sanderson

That's more of a RAFO in that I'm not sure I want to canonize any of that right now. 

jurble

but one kingdom (led by a mysterious figure who knew far too much)

Did this evolve into or influence the Ishar/Tezim situation at all? Or maybe the latter is a parody even of that idea.

Brandon Sanderson

The mysterious figure was [Aronack] (though I don't remember how I spelled it) one of the original figures planning to kill Adonalsium. Back then, before the cosmere fully formed, they were demigods--but I later decided it was more interesting for the Shards to have been (mostly) ordinary mortals before the shattering. So he's no longer canon.

He was basically breaking the agreement between the others of his kind by giving rapid technological development to his people. This was, in part, because I was intrigued by the idea of a single highly-advanced (in technology) culture among a group of bronze age peoples. An idea you see play out in science fiction (with advanced aliens among modern cultures on earth) but not often in fantasy. (Except in some versions of "Old world meets new world" style recreations of what happened on Earth.)

ericsando

(mostly) - translation: dragons?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, at least one Dragon. And at least One Sho Del.

LewsTherinTelescope

Is [Aronack] (though not necessarily with the same name) still one of the original Vessels in the current version of the Cosmere? If so, does he have a different name in the current canon?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO, I'm afraid.

Ben McSweeney

Chull shells are traditionally shaped by domestic herders for a variety of utilitarian ways and reasons in cultures across Roshar. The porous stone is strong but relatively light and easy to carve away without injuring the chull so long as you do not approach their actual carapace beneath the rock layer.

aluminum22

So, is what we see in the art not even their shell, is it just... Like a rock?

Ben McSweeney

We see carapace on the limbs and belly, but the part of the back that is visible and rocky is basically very porous stone yes. It’s carapace inside, at a deep enough point, but the boulder grows from that.

That’s why the stone can be carved and anchored and adapted, and it doesn’t hurt the chull at all… if anything they might appreciate becoming a bit lighter, like shearing a sheep.

aluminum22

Very interesting, so forgive the questions, but when you say the 'boulder' grows from that, what's the boulder made of?

Ben McSweeney

Crem, stone, and other general trace minerals in the food they’re eating (they eat rockbuds, cracking them open like eggs and chewing up the veggie goodness), processed by the digestion and then extruded naturally through various channels in the back and legs.

Ultimately the idea here to design a creature that performs a particular role, and when sleeping or hunkered down it looks like a boulder. It has a (somewhat) more typical crabby shape under the stone, but I was designing towards a goal and working backwards.

Mike Lach

When will we be getting a non-cosmere short story collection? I'd like to have all of the cytoverse in print

Brandon Sanderson

We've got it prepared and ready, just have to find time for it. (And I have to decide if I want to do an exclusive story for it or not.)

Shreyas Wajekar

I'm just going to throw in a title suggestion for Stormlight 5. Knight(s) of Withered Truth(s).

Brandon Sanderson

That's a good one. I've toyed with Knights of Woeful Truth for a while. That's the frontrunner, but yours isn't a bad one.

Maor Bril

SA 5 Title: Knight Of Winds and Thunder

Brandon Sanderson

That's not bad, actually. One of the better suggestions I've been given. But it can't just be cool, it has to match the text. Knight of or Knights of is likely to start it, but the last words are ones I'm still mulling over.

Syen Adnan Moquith

Any chance you can release the original ‘too dark’ version of the Rhythm of War?

Brandon Sanderson

I think it's Oathbringer you're talking about. If you're referencing the sequence I trimmed where Dalinar is brutally murdering a bunch of people. (In the scene after the avalanche.) Unless I'm forgetting something else? I'd be happy to release the scenes for you, if those are the ones you're talking about.

Daniel Danchik

How long until we see more of Sel?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably not for a few years.

Brandon Sanderson

I took it a little easy over the Holidays, and actually worked on Stormlight 5's prologue as I'm eager to get to it.

Gavilar viewpoint. Final perspective on the book one prologue. Some interesting secrets revealed in this one...

Counterblaste

There are some rumors he's [Brandon's] working on Forspoken

Brandon Sanderson

I was asked to work on a game for Square-Enix, but I don't know if it is this one or not. (I think, looking at it, that the one I was asked to work on might have been different--but it's hard to say, because titles of games and even gameplay changes around a lot during development.) Unfortunately, I had to say no, as I'd already agreed to other things. Forspoken looks cool, though.

Kalanit Taub

Any Wax and Wayne short stories/novellas planned?

Brandon Sanderson

Not currently, I'm afraid. This series started life as a short story, though, so who knows.

EagleTiger32

At one point a seon is described as speaking with an odd rhythm.

1. Would someone on Roshar recognize that rhythm, and

2. Could a seon reproduce the tones Navani discovers in Rhythm of War?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, they are speaking with an odd rhythm. This is... You are close but not quite there.

Questioner

Will Harmony make Mistborn to continue the power legacy?

Brandon Sanderson

There's your RAFO.

Questioner

Teft is one of my husband's and my favorite characters.

Brandon Sanderson

I'm sorry.

Questioner

I was wondering if we would get to see him again.

Brandon Sanderson

Well, you can read the books again! If I write the Lopen story that's supposed to go between books 1 and 2, then he would appear in that book. So it is possible that you will see more of Teft, but you are not going to see, you know.

Questioner

So, the Diagram was basically created to help Taravangian figure out if he was having a bad day or a good day, kind of?

Brandon Sanderson

That's not one of the reasons they were founded, but that is certainly one of their duties.

Questioner

And we found out it was because Odium helped Taravangian figure out the Diagram. Now that Todium exists, will he still have to use the Diagram and go forth with the Diagram? And how will that shape what this contest of champions is gonna be?

Brandon Sanderson

I won't tell you how it's gonna shape, but he now has access to what Odium could do, which is limited ability to see the future, and a little bit better than a lot of the Shards are at that. He could see what the Diagram was an inferior version of making, in a lot of ways. In other words, the physical print thing, the Diagram, is no longer necessary to him.

Questioner

Now that it's Todium, will he have problems with having his good days and bad days?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Questioner

There are two Shards that aren't confirmed. One I call "Concealment", which we haven't figured out about because it conceals itself from the rest of the cosmere. The other one I call Unity, that might be two different Shards later, like Harmony, that Dalinar gets. Do either of these Shards exist, or will they exist?

Brandon Sanderson

Plausible existence of one of the Shards you have talked about. The ways you are theorizing, in some of the things you're saying here, are intentional on my part, and you're following correct paths.

Questioner

Are the Ghostbloods on Roshar the same organization as the Set on Scadrial? And if not, is the--

Brandon Sanderson

*immediately hands him RAFO card*

I will tell you this. The Lord of Scars is Kelsier. Not hiding something there. I'm not being tricksy like I was with the Sovereign. You can trust that. More about that will be forthcoming in a book that might be released about one year from now!

Questioner

Szeth references birds other than chickens. When he's training with the Skybreakers, he uses an analogy that they scattered like sparrows before a hawk. So there are other non-chickens in Shinovar. Are they going to end up... Probably not being like Aviar, but are we going to see more of them in book 5?

Brandon Sanderson

You will see birds in book 5, most likely. Whether or not they are like Aviar or the weird fish, I will leave as a RAFO. But the two Aviar you have seen are not native.

Questioner

What gave you the inspiration for cytonic slugs?

Brandon Sanderson

The cytonic slugs came into existence when I started writing a short story I called The Eyes. This was a much later derivation of Defending Elysium, where I wanted to tell a story about human refugees in space who were fixing a hyperdrive that turned out to be a living thing. And most people didn't understand that the hyperdrive was a living thing, it was a secret.

I started writing this short story, and the lore was not clicking quite right. In that one, they were these glowing things. They looked like a power source, so people didn't know they were alive. The whole story didn't work, it wasn't the right rebuild of things from Defending Elysium. So I shelved that story. Sometime I'll let you guys read it. I may have put it out, I can't remember, but if I haven't I'll-- I only got two or three pages into it.

But that idea kept going in the back of my head. And eventually, when I was writing and building Skyward, I knew what I wanted was something that would look innocent, that Spensa would mistake for being the ship's hyperdrive. That would just look like it was something that's there, I like to hide things in plain sight. So putting a cute slug in... Why a slug? I don't know. I like underwater sea slugs, that just look cool. That's a cute thing I'd like to have as a pet. They're really something you can't, in our world, have as a pet. You could have it in a fish tank, but you can't get it out and play with it. What if you had one you could? So I built that as the hyperdrive and started having her teleport around, so that when you found out about the hyperdrives, you're like "it's been there all along, that makes sense!" The only thing I had to tweak from my original draft is, I realized eventually M-Bot was gonna have to have been crashed there for a long long time, so Doomslug had to be the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of the hyperdrive for that ship, rather than the actual hyperdrive.

Questioner

At the end of Oathbringer, Taravangian makes a deal with Odium about defending Kharbranth, can you please spare Kharbranth. At the end of Rhythm of War, is that still relevant? Does he still have a pact with himself?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. Excellent question, I like the way you guys are thinking.