From comments he's made it sounds like he [Brandon] views Shallan as more deriving from Ryalla in Dragonsteel Prime, iirc.
Ryalla still exists as a separate individual. Part of Shallan’s character is derived from Jerick.
The White Sand novel won't come out in 2025 and may not come out in 2026 either, even if Brandon finishes writing it this year.
Sanderson is writing a new non-cosmere novella to accompany a printing of a collection of his other non-cosmere books... Perhaps this/these will be in that?
They won't be.
Any reason why not?
Rights issues like other people are saying.
It's too soon for an official typo thread, but am I wrong in thinking that Shallan's comment about Thaylen City qualifies? She mentions that Veil and Radiant felt more solid than they should have, but if I remember right the real physical her was actually Radiant at that point, no? I remember Jasnah reaching for her hand and being surprised that the real human was Radiant, not Shallan.
Is there enough switching around in perspectives that she could at one point have been in Shallan's place, but moved/switched by the time Jasnah touches her?
All that scene shows is that Radiant was the real physical Shallan at the moment Jasnah touched her.
I'm going to recommend we do change the SotD section of AU [to match Isles of the Emberdark]. Last I checked it was only a couple sentences added here and there, plus some minor wording changes. It does not decanonize any events that happen in SotD as you know it.
I have a fun story here. Early in my career, someone optioned the rights to make one of my stories (the Emperor's Soul) into a film. I was ecstatic, as it's not a story that at the time had gotten a lot of attention from Hollywood. I met with the writer, who had a good pedigree, and who seemed extremely excited about the project; turned out, he'd been the one to persuade the production company to go for the option. All seemed really promising.
A year or so later, I read his script and it was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. The character names were, largely, the same, though nothing that happened to them was remotely similar to the story. Emperor's Soul is a small-scale character drama that takes place largely in one room, with discussions of the nature of art between two characters who approach the idea differently.
The screenplay detailed an expansive fantasy epic with a new love interest for the main character (a pirate captain.) They globe-trotted, they fought monsters, they explored a world largely unrelated to mine, save for a few words here and there. It was then that I realized what was going on.
Hollywood doesn't buy spec scripts (original ideas) from screenwriters very often, and they NEVER buy spec scripts that are epic fantasy. Those are too big, too expensive, and too daunting: they are the sorts of stories where the producers and executives need the proof of an established book series to justify the production.
So this writer never had a chance to tell his own epic fantasy story, though he wanted to. Instead, he found a popularish story that nobody had snatched up, and used it as a means to tell the story he'd always wanted to tell, because he'd never otherwise have a chance of getting it made.
I'm convinced this is part of the issue with some of these adaptations; screenwriters and directors are creative, and want to tell their own stories, but it's almost impossible to get those made in things like the fantasy genre unless you're a huge established name like Cameron. I'm not saying they all do this deliberately, as that screenwriter did for my work, but I think it's an unconscious influence. They want to tell their stories, and this is the allowed method, so when given the chance at freedom they go off the rails, and the execs don't know the genre or property well enough to understand why this can lead to disaster.
PLS PLS somone explain what brandon sanderson meant when he said these covers are dialouge with one another
It's nothing hugely profound; mostly that I asked Michael if he could make the last and first covers compliment one another, then pushed for that direction. The first is blue on red; the last red on blue. The first has Dalinar in armor pointing left, the last has Dalinar having abandoned his armor turning right. Highstorm in the first, Everstorm in the last. Dalinar in red, as a symbol of blood from his past in the left, Dalinar in blue as a symbol of his kingship on the right.
Another commenter said that they thought it wasn't Dalinar on the first book, though Michael did tell me once he imagined it was, and to this day he wishes he'd made the cloak blue instead of red, but I like the symbolism this implies, even if it wasn't intentional on the first cover, the "dialogue" with it on the last cover is to provide deliberate contrast.
I was wondering about the Parshendi lifespan compared to humans.
They grow faster and have a slightly shorter lifespan. Not really that noticeable though, but the growing up earlier is noticeable.
The paintings (I think there were at least two, right?) that remind Lightsong of his dreams and the Manywar etc. Is the artist someone we know? If not, will we eventually meet him/her in a later book? Does the artist hope to affect Lightsong this way, or is it just some guy giving abstract art to his God?
Is the artist that painted those paintings Hoid?
Hoid did not make the paintings. The goal of those paintings—and this is spoilery, by the way—the paintings are actually what the text implies that they are. They are abstract paintings which Lightsong, having a touch of the divine, is able to see and read into things that aren't necessarily there.
Beyond that, art is a magical thing in the world of WARBREAKER. When an artist creates a work of art, part of the artist's soul ends up in the artwork. Someone who has many Breaths and who's Returned like Lightsong has the inherent ability to see into the art and perceive that. So Lightsong can interpret correctly an abstract piece, based on what the artist is trying to convey, in a way that a normal person couldn't.
I was not trying to make the artists anyone specifically important. In the case of those paintings, they are wonderful artists—I think they are two separate artists, if I'm thinking of the two paintings that you're indicating. As Lightsong has a splinter of divine nature inside him, he is able to interpret the paintings—to foresee, using them, and to see into the soul of the person who made them.
Would a non Returned be killed using Nightblood if it used up their Breath, or would they just become a Drab?
Yes, and very quickly, no matter whether they are Returned or not.
So the same would happen if they used Nightblood on Roshar with Stormlight?
Yes, just the same.
Do people in The Way of Kings have Biochromatic Breath and if not, how will Nightblood function?
Spoilers! No they don't, but Investitures from the various magics can power magics from other systems.
Will we see in Nightblood why the Returned base Breath cannot be given away in the same way the other Breath are given?? I'm referring to the fact that when a Returned gives his Breath the person who receive it don't reach any Heightening but use it to heal instead of reaching the Fifth Heightening and healing anyway.
RAFO.
Is the Lord Ruler evil?
If you ask me, Brandon Sanderson, probably yes, but he had some good intentions. If he hadn't been evil, he would not have done a lot of the things he'd done. But he thought he was not.
Was Honor capable of influencing or controlling the Radiants like Ruin is to anyone spiked?
No.
As of where Stormlight is in the timeline, has Virtuosity been Splintered yet?
I'll RAFO you there. We're gonna release that timeline pretty soon, here.
Would Taravangian be opposed to taking up any additional Shards?
That speaks into how much he knows about all of this yet, which I don't want to get into.
Would Sja-anat be any more willing to help the new Odium than the last one?
Yes. Not a whole lot more.
Would Sja-anat be able to corrupt a deadeye spren?
Theoretically possible.
Do you have anything in the works with Magic: The Gathering?
They gave me, like 4 years ago, right when they were doing new [sets] and said "Hey do you wanna do a Cosmere one?" And I'm like "Yes please!" And then I think they did that to a whole bunch of people at once and I think that the people that came back to them, they weren't expecting [to hear back from.] Like Final Fantasy and Doctor Who. And so the fact that I said yes... They probably put me on the shelf at the lower end of the pile because I haven't heard back from them even though I'm like "Hey I'm still here. I'm still interested."
As an aspiring author I know how your own characters can surprise you while writing. My question for you was, especially during Stormlight but for any of your books, which characters have surprised you the most by the direction they went, how they affected the plot, etc?
Excellent question! So the way I view this as an author is, I'm a heavy outliner. But I always give the characters volition. I don't know a character until I've seen through their eyes, and as I write things change. I would say Adolin is the most surprising. Adolin was not meant to be a main character. He did not have any viewpoints as I was originally planning The Stormlight Archive, and, as you can see from the books, he has a lot of them. And so Adolin is the big surprise of Stormlight.
I will say, oftentimes, I was actually talking about this to some people in the line just recently, characters will reach a point of decision. And at that point the outline usually will say "have them do this." But I will have written them for months at that point to be who they are at that point and I give them the opportunity to make different decisions. And someone at the end of Wind and Truth made the opposite decision. It's not magical where I'm like "oh the character is alive", no, it's just that who I wrote them to be and how the themes of the plot progressed I realized that at that point they can't make this decision. And so I rewrote their part and revised it to have the opposite decision get made. Once Wind and Truth is out I can tell you what that is. But you will have to read it and see if you can guess who, in the outline, was making a very different decision.
In Stormlight 5, we know they are looking for Ba-Ado-Mishram and some of it will take place in the Spiritual Realm, where we know that time is odd and somewhat condensed. Does that mean that we could have an interaction with Lopen and Wayne?
It could be possible. But it would be an imitation, like a puppet. That'd be a bad idea, crossing the streams like that.
So the same with someone like Elend?
Yeah, so the Spiritual Realm would be trying to create them. Making them what they should be, but it wouldn't be them. Like the visions. You could interact with them, but it wouldn't be them.
So the SR is using raw investiture to create them?
Yep.
So since they are like the visions, could one replay them over and over?
They could.
Is Nightblood and Azure's sword made of the same material?
Not anymore.
Is Nightblood made of a normal metal?
It is not.
Is he made of Dragonsteel?
Good question. He is not.
And can you describe the Dor? Is it like a-- Are the two Shards kind of mixed or is more one than the other--
Yes, it is the two Shards mixed. And it is very dangerous because of that.
All the Shards basically agreed not to settle on the same planet. Six of them - that we know of - immediately, basically broke that.
So... they did not make an oath to it. There was a suggestion made... and perhaps the people who made the suggestion did not understand that, if you want the Shards to do something, you need an actual oath. And they did not get one.
As we know, many characters in Stormlight have gone through ups and downs, but there's one character that has kind of progressed one way. Is there any good thing you can say there is next book about Moash?
What can I say about Moash? I can say Moash makes an appearance. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but he does make an appearance.
Are the dragons in the Cosmere compatible with the current Investiture systems you've introduced? Or would they even care to use them?
So, when you talk about dragons in the Cosmere there's generally two branches. The dragons from Yolen are kind of... you can imagine their inspirations as being a little bit along the lines of Tolkien elves—they predate humans, they are very long-lived, and they act like deities to people. People actually pray to them and they can respond through the bond by sending something very equivalent to a Soothing or a Rioting to those who follow them, to bolster them, give them courage, or to take away their fear, or things like that. They are one style of dragon, you will find dragons that are on other planets that have been created in their image, so to speak, that don't have some of those deific powers.
And so it really depends, is the answer. The Yolen dragons are not really interested in other Investiture, they're highly Invested themselves and most of the magic systems, they wouldn't be able to use, in the same way that trying to Push or Pull on a Shardblade wouldn't do anything because of the high levels of Investiture. They just are already so full that they would not be able to use most of them. What you might call the "lesser dragons", they could theoretically.
Can Marsh bond a spren?
This is possible, but it would require a little bit of a dance, but not a huge one. He could do it. I think Marsh could figure it out without too much trouble.
Which one?
Well, that would depend on which one's willing! I could fit Marsh into several different orders, depending on how things went with him. I'll give you a RAFO card for that, it's a half RAFO.
Did Vasher ever have a sibling who was a scholar or was notable in any way?
RAFO!
How many different types of Investiture can somebody use simultaneously? Because we know there are characters that are gathering different Investitures.
So, how many different kinds of Investiture can a person theoretically use? Well, Adonalsium used them all at once, so it's theoretically possible to use them all. They interfere with each other and it becomes increasingly difficult the more you add, and that's all I'll say right now.
Mister Brandon has two Questions for Janci:
The first is: Were the three novels [from Skyward Flight] always going to focus on FM, Alanik, and Jorgen - if not, who were the runner ups?
I was given a list when we first started to talk about doing this and it was basically all living members of Skyward Flight except Spensa and Jorgen.
And I took the list and I went and read the books, 'cause I was behind - Brandon writes faster than I read - so I had to go read the books and I was so happy because they're so amazing. But as I read them I was keeping my eye on Jorgen because he is my favorite and he wasn't on my list and I was like "There's got to be a reason he's not on my list" and I got to the end and I didn't find a reason why he wasn't on my list. And also I was really exited of doing an alien point of view, that sounded really challenging. These are the things I say when I'm pre writing that I then hate myself for later. I'm like: "That sounds so awesome!"
When we then got together to start brainstorming, I was like: "So, could I write about Alanik?". I started with that one cause that's the one I wanted less and Branon's like "Sure." and I was like "So, can I have Jorgen?" and I got a yes, that made me really super happy.
The reason Jorgen wasn't on the list is I had a lot of things I was planning for Jorgen and so what that meant is the Jorgen Novella needed a lot more me influencing and talking about where I want Jorgen to go. The other two characters, I did not have plans for where I was going to go with there characters going forward and so I just thought, I give Janci the blank slates, but she was really interested in Jorgen. It actually worked better, that you did pick Jorgen, because shoehorning all of that into Defiant would have been very hard and now basically we were able to do part of his arch in his own novella and that helped out a lot.
And then the difference between them was: With Jorgen, it was like "This is were his story goes, this is how it ends." and than I had to take that and figure out how to make that work, which I love. That's my favorite thing: It's to take constraints and then riff off of them and sort of figure out why and how. So that made me really happy.
So the difference between the White Sand novel and the White Sand graphic novels, what was the thought behind changing Ais's gender?
There were a couple thoughts. The main one was, I just thought the character was more interesting. A lot of my early books, you'll notice I did a thing where I'm like "I want to make sure that I'm doing the female character really well." And you can see the problem in that sentence, and that is really how I approached it, I'd say "Well I want to make sure I do the female character really well." And I think I did do the female character pretty well in some of those early books. But you'll see a consistency to them, and this is just coming aware of your biases.
Now, there is nothing wrong with writing a book intentionally and saying, "You know what? Because of the way I want to write this book in this world, I'm going to make the cast almost all one gender or the other." I don't think there's a problem with that. It's when you're doing it consistently on accident, that there's a problem. And I had to kind of sit down and say, "Did I do this because I thought it was best for the character, or did I do this because I love Inspector Javert and I just wanna have to have Inspector Javert in my book?" And that's where the character came from, quite obviously.
And I sat down and said, "If I were going to build this character from the ground up to be my own character and I were trying to throw away all biases, what would be the best for the character?" And Ais being female was not a "I need more women in the book," it was more of, "If I'm throwing away these biases and building the characters, what works the best?" and I just really liked how that character came out when I was rebuilding. Yeah, anyway, we'll go with that.
What can you tell us about food in Arelon? Is there a specific Earth culture that it resembles? Because in Elantris, we only really see cooking and eating when it's Kiin's cooking. And he kind of has a mishmash.
I was looking at Renaissance Europe, maybe Spanish...with the coastline...Let's go with Spanish-esque. So some olives, something close to a paella. I would imagine it being somewhere along those likes, probably. The problem is I don't really know what they ate in Renaissance Spain. I only know what they eat in Spain right now. But I was looking at it like a Renaissance Mediterranean for Arelon when I was building it.
Can Feruchemists tell whose metalmind it is, when it's not their own, based on the Identity?
This is theoretically possible, but they can't tell just as a rule. Like, just automatically.
Can a person Compounding luck defeat a Mistborn burning atium?
*Hesitantly* Yes. That is theoretically possible. I would say the emphasis on, "Could there?" But it is plausible that that could get around it.
If you attempted to use Hemalurgy on a gold Compounder, would they survive?
I'll RAFO that. There are certain things...follow the lead of the books as they explain this more and more. It's an excellent question that you should be asking, but I'm not going to answer right now.
In one of the prologues to the first book, the assassination of Gavilar, mentions--I don't have the character's name--mentions his bodyguard or the head of his bodyguard being one of the greatest swordsmen in the realm, right? And then we get into Words of Radiance, which has such emphasis on duels. I kept waiting for this guy to come in again. I don't know if Szeth killed him in the assassination?
A conscious decision on my part. I'm going to RAFO it, but not for any good reason. Just a little reason, I might make reference to it, I might not.
Could the entire city of Newcago in the Reckoners world act as a giant steel metalmind?
Sure! Yes. That'd be awesome.
If a gold Ferring got electrocuted, would he get paralyzed and/or heal and react normally?
So he gets electrocuted. You're asking does Cosmere healing prevent you from being stunned by a taser?
Huh, what a good question. I'm going to say, and I could contradict this, so this is Word of Brandon canon until I contradict it, you could still stun them with electrical stimulation of muscles, because it's not doing any harm and it's just how muscles normally work. So I think that's a good workaround.
Are we going to see Compounding of aluminum?
You'll get a RAFO.
So if a steel Compounder became an Edgedancer...
Oh, here we go. [Audience laughs]
If a steel Compounder became an Edgedancer, how fast could they go?
[Dramatic sigh] They could go quite fast. They are not going to ever reach superhero levels of bending reality for speed. So, I will say quick, but not that quick. We aren't outracing an atom bomb, as the Flash periodically does.
In the cosmere, as space becomes more developed...*inaudible* outer space.
It's an interesting question that I've had to ponder. Would the space race happen more slowly because there's an alternative, or would it happen more quickly because you know other planets are inhabited. I'm not going to answer what I came up with, because it's a plot point in the books. So I'll give you a RAFO card, but that's the question to ask yourself.
That wasn't my question! My question was, in the Cognitive Realm, with the gap between planets...
Oh! Will the gap between planets get larger as more people travel in between it. So, barring things like space stations, there's going to be so few minds in between, that I don't expect space to become larger because of that.
I don't expect it to be a factor, except--barring--there will be possibilities of certain regions popping up.
Shallan's Lightweaving. How does she make those physical? Is it light becoming matter?
So I'm not going to answer this one either, so you get another RAFO card. But I'll tell you which way to think. Here, energy and matter are basically the same thing. Investiture, energy, and matter are the same thing in the cosmere.
In our world, when we touch, we are touching energy, right? We are not actually touching. The atoms are repelling each other or whatever. I'm not a physicist. I'm sorry, physicists!
Contact is a weird, weird thing. Keep in mind, Investiture is another state of matter and energy in the cosmere. It's not really that hard to extrapolate along.
I've been recently introduced to you as an author, and I heard "lighteyed" and "darkeyed." What is that?
So, in The Stormlight Archive, their ethnic divisions in one of the cultures is by eye color. It traces back to when there was an ancient magic that eye color was related to, and in the modern culture, if you have light eyes (like you), that's nobility. If you have dark eyes (like you), you are not noble, you are... you know. So, instead of dividing by skin color or by nationality, they are much more interested in eye color. But that's only one of the cultures, that's a big important one.
You said before that if a human ate an Aviar worm, it would not do anything, right? Someone's tried that? What would happen if a baby...?
Still wouldn't work. The gut flora is too different. And they're not part of the symbiotic life cycle there. That system has evolved to the symbiosis that it has, and humans are too new to trying to make that work.
Humans are not new on the planet, but they are not part of that system.
Could they be trained into it?
Training wouldn't work.
Not like training, but through generations.
Through generations, that would be theoretically possible.
Would it be possible for an inanimate object that was Invested to the point of sentience Ascend to Shardhood?
To become a Vessel of Adonalsium, or become a Shard through...? This is a tricky question because the power left alone will become sapient. And at that point, the distinction between being a Shard and a Vessel is fine but still extant. And I would say the power could not become a Vessel in the same way because it's defined as something different. But it is possible for the power to be left alone and to gain sapience on its own.
The example we were thinking of was Sel. It was stated in Arcanum that the landscape itself was Invested to the point of... Could the planet of Sel be the Vessel of Devotion?
At this point, it's playing semantics, and I would say no. But there are people in-cosmere that would argue that the semantic distinction is irrelevant and that it is the same.
Nightblood is the most ridiculously over-Invested thing in the cosmere, second only to the Shards?
Yes.
Was this true from the moment of its creation, or did it grow in power over time.
Grew in power over time. Kind of answers a question that people have been wondering. But, yes.
You said that every rational being in the cosmere who knows about Nightblood is terrified of him. Does that include Vessels?
There are Vessels who are scared, yes. That does include Vessels. Terrified might be a strong term, but yes.
Let's say a Bloodsealer got his hands on a Dakhor monk's bones. Could it still access the Dor? Or you know, whatever they use. Could they even be reanimated - and if so, could they still be useful?
That's a really good question. So the bones are a conduit, much like Allomantic metal is. Allomantic metals are pretty easy to affect Investitures. I would say getting ahold of a Dakhor monk's bones, likely, would work. Likely, they're not going to resist too much. But, I'm going to say harder to access the magic than you'd think, but easier than with regular bones.
So I'm going to give you a yes.
At the time of the Recreance, were there any Bondsmiths?
This is a plot point. You are supposed to be asking that question.
I was mostly trying to find out if the Sibling was bonded, and if the break in the bond is what caused the Sibling to go into slumber.
Let's just say this is a RAFO with the promise that I intend to answer the question relatively quickly.
Was the wall around Elantris Soulcast?
Ah, good question! It was not Soulcast. Excellent question.
So what was *inaudible* find out later, maybe?
Their own magic was involved in the creation of Elantris. The local magic was involved.
