Recent entries

PhotoFrog (paraphrased)

What is the origin of Shardplate?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO

PhotoFrog (paraphrased)

What attribute can be Feruchemically stored in lerasium and malatium?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Major RAFO

PhotoFrog (paraphrased)

Have we seen the influence of a third Shard on Scadrial?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes

PhotoFrog (paraphrased)

If all of the atium was burned at the end of era one to destroy ruin, how has Marsh survived into era 2?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Not all was burned, all that was in the well was, but there was a bag of atium left and some people had some other little bits of atium

PhotoFrog (paraphrased)

What types of Investiture can be stored in an Investiture mind [metalmind]?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Any, but some types are harder than others (they take more finagling, but technically any)

Naomi

Are you going to do a sequel for Warbreaker?

Brandon Sanderson

There will be a Warbreaker sequel eventually. I am confident that I will write it; I know what it's going to be about, and what the plotline of it is, and who the characters are, and all of that stuff. I just have to make sure that it slides into the right place.

Kelly

You mentioned once upon a time that you had an idea for a book based on certain viruses, bacteria, illnesses giving characters powers. Has the current crisis of COVID-19 given you any new ideas or inspiration for said idea to blossom and build on?

Brandon Sanderson

It has, it definitely has, and it's been really kind of helpful for that reason. I think I'm more likely to write Silence Divine than I've ever been before. But I've learned I have to really be careful to curtail my side projects, particularly when a Stormlight book is due, and a Stormlight book is due on July 1st. That is creeping up real quickly.

I actually got an email from someone today that just is begging me to release Rhythm of War now, while they're trapped in quarantine, because they need something to read. If by some chance you (the person who sent me that email) are watching, the book's just not ready! I can't release it, it's not done. I'm not holding it back because I'm cruel. These books, we go right to the deadline on these books, and this book will be turned in like the hour that is it required to be turned in and not before. The last hour it can be turned in and still be printed and shipped is when we will we turn the book in. There's just lots to do - going through all the beta reader comments now, and while several of the plot lines work just fine, there's some of the plot lines that need some work. You're going to be a much happier person with this book with me doing that. I cannot stop and write Silence Divine right now, I gotta keep my eyes on the goal.

Michael

Do you plan a novel for Renarin, Lunamor, or even Lopen?

Brandon Sanderson

I do plan a Lunamor—that's Rock—novella between [Stormlight] books four and five. That is very likely to get done. I would like to do a Lopen novella that's set between books one and two. That one's not guaranteed, but I do plan to do that.

Questioner

I want to know if Kalad's Phantoms made it to Idris to stop the Lifeless.

Brandon Sanderson

This is a spoiler—it spoils Warbreaker—so I have to be very careful, but what appears to happen at the end did happen.

Questioner

Can Skybreakers vow to follow a code of rules some might consider outlaw-ish, like the Pirate Code. Are they obliged to adhere to changes in the law after their vow?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes and yes.

What you're running into with what's happening right now, the Skybreakers are under the thumb of someone who has a much more rigid interpretation of what they should do than is necessary for the Order. And so you could totally be a Skybreaker who is not of this group, and this group would not look kindly on something like the Pirate Code necessarily. (Though the Pirate Code kind of works for them, because it's in international waters, so even with the current crop of Skybreakers you could probably argue the Pirate Code, and they'd probably be okay with it.)

But you could have even less, codes that's like, "I'm going to follow the code of the criminal underground. I'm going to follow the Mafia code." Current crop of Skybreakers, that would not fly with them. But in the Order in general, and the way that highspren work, and things like that, you would totally be okay.

Which is kind of dangerous, yes. But you would have to follow the code as the code changes. So that could get you into trouble, also. Skybreakers, they've got an interesting way of going about all this. Hopefully, all the Orders do; that's one of my goals with them.

Alexander

Who would win in a fight: Sadeas or Amaram?

Brandon Sanderson

I am going to say Sadeas, at his prime. And this is because Sadeas at his prime was more aware of his weaknesses than Amaram was, if that makes sense. And Sadeas was more aware of his strengths and his weaknesses. Where Sadeas runs into problems is: Sadeas did not have the help and the sort of beginnings of cosmere awareness that Amaram had. Amaram had access to way more resources and way more... he was in a better position than Sadeas was because of the allies and friends that he had. Sadeas's vision was too myopic in the series, while Amaram's vision was bigger, but he, himself, did not have quite the capacity.

Isaac Stewart

Art director Isaac here with an art reveal today. Recently Brandon, Kara, and Adam have been discussing publicity for Rhythm of War, and one thing that Tor has asked for is a simplified symbol to represent the Stormlight Archive on certain marketing materials.

Now, to be clear, we love the original Stormlight Archive symbol, and we are in no way abandoning or replacing it. Many readers have bought shirts and decals or have even gotten tattoos of it. We are using it in The Way of Kings leatherbound and will continue to use it as a chapter icon in Rhythm of War and future Stormlight books. So rest assured that we are not retiring this tried and true iconic symbol.

However, the symbol is complex, and it doesn’t read well at small sizes, so at Tor’s request, we’ve sought a simplified design. During this search, it occurred to Brandon and me that eventually we’ll need simplified symbols for all of the Cosmere worlds—symbols that will need to be easily recognizable from far distances—basically, space-era versions of our current symbols.

So, after hundreds of drawings and thumbnails, we’re unveiling to you now the space-era symbol for the Stormlight Archive.

We’ve built this on the skeleton of the original symbol, preserving the relationship between the sword, circle, and main focal point. Instead of extra swords, we have rays of light. Instead of the complex double-eye of the Almighty, we’ve chosen the burst of light from the original Cosmere symbol.

Going forward, we will actively use both this symbol and the original in promoting the Stormlight Archive, and eventually you can expect space-age versions of many of the current Cosmere planetary symbols.

Trev

My friends and I were arguing over on Discord over who’s who on the Bridge 4 Movie Poster made for the Kickstarter. We were wondering if you could help clear things up.

Isaac Stewart

The text at the bottom is the key to those at the top. Starting with Kaladin, it reads clockwise. So, Kaladin, Teft, Hobber, Lopen, Rock, Renarin, Leyten, Sigzil, Moash, and Skar. On the plateau L->R: Lopen, Leyten, Skar, Kal, Moash, Teft, Sigzil, Rock, Hobber (missing Renarin).

Drew McCaffrey

Going hand-in-hand with the maps is the character Nazh, who annotates many of the in-universe maps. How much of Nazh was your idea? What about him appeals to you?

Isaac Stewart

The story behind Nazh is, I was in Brandon’s writing group when we were workshopping The Rithmatist. And there’s a character named Nalizar in that book. I could never remember his name, so I kept calling him Nazrilof. So it became this running gag with Brandon, like… “Nalizar and Nazh are different people. Nazh is your alter ego, Isaac, and Nalizar is a character in The Rithmatist.”

When we got to The Alloy of Law, Brandon and I were firmly in the camp of including maps that are artifacts from the world. And we thought, where are they getting these? And who’s labeling them? Diana Wynne Jones wrote a book called The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, and there’s a map in the front that basically says that if a location is labeled on the map, then by golly you’re gonna go to the place during the course of the story. Fantasy maps have gotten this reputation of being kind of spoilery.

So when we got to the map of Elendel, we were looking at it, thinking if we only labeled the places that were necessary for the story, then we’re falling into this trope of fantasy. So how can we subvert this a bit? So, if the novel is compiled by Khriss, presumably, then maybe she has somebody who goes and gets the maps and labels them for her with pertinent information. It might still feel a little like “these labeled things are the important parts” but at least there’s an in-world reason why that is. That allowed us to develop a character around that. Brandon said, “Why don’t we have Nazh do this?” to which I agreed, and Brandon said, “Isaac, welcome to the Cosmere.”

Since then, Nazh’s role has grown into basically a sidekick for Khriss. Now, when working with Nazh, we think of him as a grumpy James Bond.

The Dusty Wheel

Where does your favorite scene take place in this book [Rhythm of War]?

Brandon Sanderson

In this one it's in Part 4. It's a character who only has one viewpoint in Part 4. It is the ... Let's just say it's the chapter in this book where we get a story from Wit. We usually get one in every book - sometimes two - we get one in this book and it's the chapter that has his story.

Adam Horne

A few people have wondered if we're ever going to see time travel in the cosmere.

Brandon Sanderson

Time travel into the past is something that I decided very early in the life of the cosmere that I was not going to deal with. So people can time travel into the future, but we can do that right now - not very much, but if you go fast, you are time traveling into the future by laws of relativity, and it's easier to do that in the cosmere. There are a couple things for storytelling that really throw a lot of wrenches into your worldbuilding. One of them's time travel; as soon as you introduce time travel, it changes everything.

Another one is bringing characters back from the dead, and since my very first cosmere book starts with someone being resurrected in chapter one, I knew that people coming back from the dead was not something I could have a hard fast rule against in the cosmere. Multiple books are based on the idea of people being resurrected; that's where Warbreaker and Elantris both come from, is that kind of idea.

Since I knew I was going to be doing that one, the other two that I think that really mess with things in strange ways are alternate dimensions and time travel. And that's when I just said I'm going to put those both off-limits in the cosmere. You saw me doing alternate dimension stuff in Steelheart, in part because I won't let myself do it in the cosmere. I'm already playing with fire with the way that people can become cognitive shadows in the cosmere, and I don't want to have the other two messing up narratives and storylines and things on the level that they would. So no time travel into the past ever in the cosmere.

Brandon Sanderson

You wanna know a cool story, guys? When I was just, like, fourteen, maybe twelve, we went to Jackson Hole and you [Brandon's dad] bought me my first ring. I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but you bought me a ring that had a big topaz in it. (Big for my age.) And when I started writing my very first book, I named a character Topaz. Which is still one of Hoid's aliases, that's where his first name came from, was the topaz that my father bought for me.

If any of you have read Dragonsteel (someday, I'll let everyone read it), that's why he's named Topaz in that. Well, he had a topaz, that's where he got it in-world. But name came from my father buying me a ring that was a really cool looking ring that I always kind of thought about and then named a character after.

Adam Horne

People want to know if you still have the ring.

Brandon Sanderson

I do not still have the ring. I wish that I did. We had a rough time where we moved from Nebraska to Idaho, and a lot of things got lost. A lot of my items (I was not there, I was in Korea at the time) got carefully and delicately packed up my brother, who was very, very kind. But somewhere in that, the ring didn't make that transfer.

Pagerunner

Your original five-part Tor pitch when they first signed you. You posted three on the blog way back in the day: Elantris, Mistborn, and Oathshards. What were the other two? And can we see 'em?

Brandon Sanderson

Oathshards... is that what I called Stormlight Archive, before it was Stormlight Archive? It probably was. That might have been what I pitched them as the name of the series. I only vaguely remember that.

What else did I pitch to Tor? We're stretching back 20 years now. I have no idea. I literally have no idea. It was probably Dragonsteel, would be my guess. And probably White Sand. It would've been two other cosmere books, so the only other one is Aether of Night. And I didn't really have any other big cosmere books planned in my head, other than those, at that point. I've since added the Threnody novel, but that's a newer thing. So, probably that. Man, I have no idea.

The Dusty Wheel

Everyone's here to find out more details about what's going on with the state of Sanderson. What can you tell the fans that you haven't said yet? How are things going, what's in process, and what can we expect?

Brandon Sanderson

I started the fourth draft of Rhythm of War today. This is the big beta read revision. I spent the last week taking a break from Rhythm of War and working on the novella that's going to go in between books 3 and 4 (theoretically, if I actually finish it). I did one of those between books 2 and 3, and I really liked it. But I only got two chapters of that done, about 10% of it. So, who knows how long it will take me to get that finished after this is done. I've got about two months of work to do this revision, and then one month left for the final polish, which will be June. Right now, just digging into that. Beta reads have given me a lot of useful feedback. A lot of things I'm changing are just slight tonal tweaks here and there, just to balance out.

One of the things that happens, particularly with a Stormlight book, is: I write a lot of viewpoints separately and then interweave them, and that ends up creating generally some tonal problems here and there, and some pacing problems that just need to be smoothed out. Either chapters need to be rearranged, or the tone of a chapter needs to change, because I have too many heavy tone chapters in a row and one of them needs to be lightened up, or vice versa. Things like that.

The Dusty Wheel

Can you give the fans a hint, maybe, about character groupings? I know that's been a big question among the fans.

Brandon Sanderson

I'm not sure if I can give too much of a hint about that. What I can say is, start to make people's expectations: this is the Venli/Eshonai book. But really, it's the Venli/Eshonai flashbacks, and the main book is focusing a lot more on another character. This just naturally happened during the writing process; there was another character that ended up taking a lot of the time. It's not a person who has a flashback sequence in the books. So, you can theorize on who that would be; it's someone who does not have a flashback sequence, so it's not Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Szeth, Eshonai. But, really, it's this character's book, mixed with flashbacks for Venli/Eshonai. It really turned into that character's book a lot more than I was expecting, and it was one of those happy accidents where I really liked how it turned out. But fans who go into this expecting something that's as much Eshonai or Venli's book as the last book was Dalinar's book are probably going to be disappointed, because it's more of a split between these three characters. Venli/Eshonai in the flashbacks, and then someone else in the present.

So, hardcore fans, expect another character to really be the focus of this book.

The Dusty Wheel

Do you have a favorite you've already announced that's in Rhythm of War that has been your favorite character to write in this book?

Brandon Sanderson

It has been this character that I'm not going to tell you who it is.

Brandon Sanderson

First, to address the chull in the room. Will the pandemic change how we're rolling out the book? I get this question a lot, so I figured I should note that even the book were coming out next month, we would be very unlikely to delay its release. Books have enough digital/mail-order distribution that I have a hard time seeing this influencing th8ings. So don't worry.

I AM a little uncertain about the Stormlight kickstarter in June/July. If we're entering a global recession, and a lot of people are losing their jobs, it feels like it might be a little tone deaf to say, "Hey, want to spend a lot of money on a luxury leatherbound book?" At the same time, I wouldn't want to delay the book for those who do want to buy it. We'll have to talk to my team and see what they think. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

Anyway, let's get to the actual update! I have (as of Wednesday) finished the third draft of the book, incorporating my team's suggestions and those of my editor. We started the beta read a month or so ago, with me turning each part in to the beta readers as I finished it.

To forestall the inevitable question--we are not looking for new beta readers at this time. Though we add a few new people to each book, to make sure we have a variety of responses, there are a LOT of people who want those slots--and I generally let Peter, my editorial director, handle the decisions. For now, I think he has all the help he needs.

I still have two drafts to go. 4.0 is the big one, and I've allocated two months to do it. (April and May.) This involves me tweaking the book based on the feedback of my beta readers, who are a test audience. Though the book is in good shape at 3.0, judging on their responses, there are a few plot arcs that need subtle tweaks to work the way I want them to--and 4.0 will involve these changes.

5.0 is the final polish, and I'll be spending June on that. This does leave me with a week+ right now to work on a novella, which I've begun outlining, to go between books three and four like Edgedancer went between two and three. That's less time than I wanted, as I had to take time out of the 3.0 to work on the Mistborn film screenplay. (Short version: I've seen enough bad screenplays based on my books that I figured I'd see if I could do better or not, and am slowly working my way through an extensive treatment.) So I'll likely only start the novella now, then finish it in July.

As for how I've been weathering things here with the quarantine, really it hasn't effected me--other than to perhaps give me a little more time to work. (Since some of my publicity appearances have been canceled.) I already work from home, and other than needing to move my writing group and class to digital, I've pretty much been living my life as normal.

The TL;DR of all of this is that we are still on schedule, beta reads indicate the book is mostly working as intended, and the release is still on target for November. Thanks for reading!

Tanner Boyce

I was hoping that you would talk about about the book you wanted to write about people getting magic powers from when they're sick.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, The Silence Divine. It would be a really great time to write this right now. In fact, someone wrote to me on Reddit and was like, "Hey, you gonna write this now?" The problem is, it is not a good time to write this because Stormlight Four is due July 1st, and I am needing to finish the third draft this week, and then launch into the fourth of five drafts.

This story, I always get a ton of offers from people to help me out with it. Which I really do appreciate you guys doing that, because my immunology experience is kind of low, which is why I didn't actually write this story when I wanted to.

So, this cool story about people who get a disease get magical talents while they have the disease and what-not, I will write this someday. This takes place on Ashyn, which is in the Rosharan system. And there is kind of deep lore stuff about the history of Roshar that Ashyn is related to, and I want to do that. And there's some fun inter-connectivity to the magics. I just haven't had the time, yet.

If there are those who are watching who are very into immunology, I do have people offering to help me out. I certainly wouldn't say no to more offers of help, since some of you may have already written to me and said "I'll help out!" And that was on Reddit, which has a terrible message management system. So I'm usually good at copying and pasting usernames and/or emails of people into a file, but not always.

Some day, I'll write this story. The trick is... viruses and bacterias are so different, I have to commit to one or the other. Or, I could do both, but then I'm gonna have to deal with that. And then there's the whole part of it, me wanting certain chronic diseases to have longer-lasting abilities, and I'm not sure if that will work. There's just all sorts of questions that I just need to sit down with a panel of experts and ask them my stupid questions and have them tell me what I'm doing wrong so we can actually make this work.

I think it'll be great when I write it someday. The thing is, I have to finish this (Stormlight [Four]). And then, I really do want to have a novella in the Stormlight universe (probably not this one; something actually on Roshar) to do with the Kickstarter. Because a lot of people are fans and want to read new stuff, but do not have the means or the inclination to spend $200 on the leatherbound copy of The Way of Kings. And we would like to have something on there that people who want to spend less money can get all the swag, instead of buying this very beautiful but very expensive book, they could also just buy the novella. So I want to do something like Edgedancer that will take place between books three and four.

Payden McRoberts

So with the great map in Oathbringer, I was able to update my map of Roshar from space! Enjoy!

As always, thanks to @BrandSanderson, @IzykStewart, and @PeterAhlstrom for making such an inspiring and awesome world.

[Payden_McRoberts_1_Roshar_From_Space.png]

Peter Ahlstrom

Did you use the one from the ebook? Also your equator is too high...

Payden McRoberts (Part 1/Part 2)

Yeah, I made a grid of 100 degrees latitude and 200 longitude, projected it into azimuthal equidistant, and wasn’t quite able to match it to the graticule in the ebook map. I got it as close as I could and assumed your projection was slightly different.

[Payden_McRoberts_2_Azimuthal_Equidistant.jpg]

[Payden_McRoberts_3_Azimuthal_Equidistant.jpg]

Is the equator supposed to go through the top of Kadrix?

Peter Ahlstrom

Yes. Through the word Kadrix. I’m guessing the latitude the projection is centered on is a bit off.

Wubdor

Any news on the Taldain print by any chance?

Isaac Stewart

Do you mean the Taldain map print? If so, we've got a new map of Taldain in the works, and I think it will make a fantastic print. More soon on that.

Zin the Poet

Will we ever see Sixth as a main character again?

Brandon Sanderson

I have written the opening to a sequel to Sixth of the Dusk (which I will not call Seventh of the Dusk, though people like to joke about that). The problem is, Sixth of the Dusk takes place far enough forward in the future of the cosmere that writing stories about him is really tough without giving major spoilers to other cosmere series. In fact, I wrote this opening, and it has huge spoilers for other cosmere series. And so the question for myself is: do I try to write around the spoilers? Or do I release it with the spoilers? Or do I just wait until it's no longer spoilers to release it? I really like the story, the outline for it is sharp. I know where Sixth fits into all of this, even though he was a discovery-written character.

So yes, most likely you will, but I can't say when exactly.

Ethan

Is Lift a translation of a Rosharan word for lift, or is "Lift" the actual sound people make when they say her name?

Brandon Sanderson

It is in translation. Most of the time you will be able to assume that a name like that is in translation. Wax and Wayne probably isn't, it's probably just their names. That one's the hard one to decide on, because I like the pun, but they don't have a moon on Scadrial so waxing and waning is not part of the conversation as much. But I always imagine that the languages on Scadrial kind of sound Earth-y, even though they have no relation to Earth whatsoever, because that's just how I built Scadrial, as kind of an Earth analogue. But most of the time, if you run into a name like Lift, it is in translation.

Adam Horne

I'm assuming that a Shardbearer can sever their own soul, right? If they were to stab themselves?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, yeah, they could sever their own soul.

Sapoy

Is there anyone in the cosmere capable of winning a fight against Lan Mandragoran without Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

No. I would not say that there is. Lan is the best swordsman I have ever written. Adolin, of the people I have written about, would be the closest, but Lan would win.

Brandon Sanderson

Recently, I have been working on Stormlight, and video game time is much smaller than it was last year, because I just need to be sure that I am getting that book done by July 1st. The fifth draft needs to be done by July 1st. So, pretty tight scheduling, making this happen. Particularly if I want to have time to do the Wandersail novella that I would really like to do and have out before Book Four is, because there are certain things in Book Four that reference stuff in the Wandersail novella that isn't written yet.

Phantrosity

Before modern gemology, gems were only defined by color, so green sapphires were 'oriental emeralds'. Is that true on Roshar?

Peter Ahlstrom

No.

Questioner

I loved Warbreaker so much. It was one of my favorites. The only problem I had was the end was a little abrupt, with Siri and Susebron. Do you know, will we have a novella, or understand more what happens after that?

Brandon Sanderson

So when I write the sequel, I will make sure that I include some stuff. The sequel isn't about them. It's about Vivenna, but I will at least indicate what's going on with them. The whole ending was just a little bit abrupt on that one. It was more of a discovery-written book than my others. But yeah, that is one of its kind of drawbacks is that ending.

Questioner

Will we see them for like a little scene at all?

Brandon Sanderson

You might get a letter from them, is what I'm planning. It's possible I'll sneak into an interlude or something like that with them, but we'll have to see when I actually write it.

Questioner

Will Shallan and Adolin have children before the book [Stormlight 4], or later on in the series?

Brandon Sanderson

*Hands over a RAFO card*

Questioner

Are we ever going to know what happened to Kaladin's flute that he lost in [Stormlight] book <two>?

Brandon Sanderson

So, I just did a reading that mentions the flute.

Questioner

I know. I heard that and I was wondering, "Is that?..."

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah that is the flute.

Questioner

Is there a specific Shard that most of the spren come from?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of the spren are going to be related to a combination of Honor and Cultivation, weighted certain directions for certain types of spren. But the spren are mostly both of them. 

Questioner

Are they considered Splinters?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you could call spren Splinters if you wanted to. They work in the same way as a Splinter, so yeah.

Questioner

Calamity from the Reckoners series–is there any connection between him and the delvers from Starsight?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Very, very loose connection, but there is a connection. 

Questioner

Okay, because I was like, "They both come from the dark nowhere, quiet, they hate people and everything. There is a connection."

Brandon Sanderson

There is a connection. And Apocalypse Guard was kind of supposed to bridge between these things, but it didn't end up coming out, and it may not even be a bridge when we finally revise it because we have to make the book good, rather than worrying about that. But it was supposed to kind of do that. It's gonna work well if I can fix the ending. I've just gotta fix the ending.

Questioner

On the reading–just yes or no–is the flute that Lift has related to Hoid's flute?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. I wouldn't mention the flute without it being relevant.

Questioner

In the first book, when does Kaladin actually say the first ideal?

Brandon Sanderson

This is not supposed to be sneaky. But I'd have to look at the book and point at it. There shouldn't be anything sneaky there.

Argent

Is Toby from Legion inspired (visually) by Morgan Freeman? We only know J.C.'s "actor"...

Peter Ahlstrom

Yes.

Questioner 1

Does aluminum actually make the metals disappear, like, be metabolized? Or does it just cut the Spiritual connection?

Brandon Sanderson

So... I haven't actually canonized that... I've gone back and forth. For a while, I said it got rid of them. And there may even be... But the more I thought about that, the more it doesn't make much sense.

Questioner 1

It doesn't. Especially the way that duralumin works, it doesn't really make sense.

Brandon Sanderson

And so, I've been kind of pushing the other way. Since I haven't said it in-world, it's not truly canon, but I believe I've answered other fans saying that it burns them all away in a flash, and we might need it to do that, for future things. So, I'm undecided.

Questioner 2

It needs to get rid of them, but a path to sever the connection at the same time.

Brandon Sanderson

One of the big problems is, if it only severs the connection and leaves the metals, than you have heavy metal poisoning from some of the metals.

Questioner 1

But if it makes them burn away, that doesn't work the same way as duralumin. Duralumin only burns the ones you're burning.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. I kinda have to err back on the side of "it gets rid of them," just we don't have to deal with metal poisoning, but I've kind of been wavering a little bit, thinking, "Is there a better way to explain this."

Questioner

Can you become a Nightblood savant? 

Brandon Sanderson

Um... No, I don't think that would work. Just the way that things are working, probably not. Whether Nightblood is savant or not... But you probably could not become a savant of Nightblood.

Questioner

Did whoever wrote the The Way of Kings, have access or exposure to BioChromatic Breath? There was a scene in Chapter 26, it could just be speaking of candles and breath. But the way you wrote it made me think that there was some connection.

Brandon Sanderson

There has been longstanding travel between those two planets.

Brandon Sanderson

If you guys don't know who Nazh is, Nazh is the person who annotates all the maps and pieces of art in the Stormlight books. The affectation is that the Ars Arcanum for the books and a lot of the illustrations are things that have been collected or put together by Khriss and [Nazh]. You describe Nazh as "grumpy James Bond," who is sent into the world to grab artifacts for Khriss when she's putting together kind of her guide to a world in the cosmere.

Isaac Stewart

I've discovered a lot more about Nazh in the last year, just because we're getting closer to including him in more things. Right now, his personality is "grumpy James Bond" because he goes on missions, he's kind of a grump... but he kinda likes that sort of thing - he likes going off on his own, figuring out ways to do things. He has a specific skill set that works really well for this sort of thing.

Brandon Sanderson

But things kinda go poorly for him most of the time.

Isaac Stewart

Yeah. I wouldn't say he's a Mr. Bean type character, but if you imagine the situations that he gets into, they're those sorts of things - but usually not funny, though he may tell them in a grumpy, funny way later on.

Brandon Sanderson

Basically, as Hoid is to me, Nazh is to Isaac. This is very fun because he can write all these annotations on the artwork, and you'll see Nazh popping up in the books now and then, just as cameo references to this guy. The affectation is the text of the book like The Way of Kings is not something that they have in-world, but all of the art in the Ars Arcanum they do, and those are produced by Khriss and Nazh.

Coachdorax

Did you write Amaram as an opposite of Dalinar or was he simply a bad guy meant to spur Kaladin?

Brandon Sanderson

I meant Amaram to be the representation of the corrupt side of the Alethi. Meaning they are all talk and very little heart. Very little of what they say, to the worst of the Alethi, gets to who they really are. They would rather be known as someone honorable than be actually honorable. And this I consider a major problem with their society, and I needed somebody to represent this. Part of it is, to represent a contrast to Kaladin’s ideals. This belief that lighteyes were these paragons of virtue. But I also needed somebody, you may say an opposite to Dalinar. In a way, he is an opposite to Dalinar, but more he just represents Alethi society. And I did want it to be that he wasn’t just all the way corrupt. When he makes his decision in Book One in the flashbacks, he is making a decision. There is a moment where he is considering. By the time you are seeing him in later books, that decision has taken him down a path that leaves him very far from any sort of redemption. But it was a choice. And he wasn’t just corrupt from the get go. But yeah, he represents what I feel would be bad about Alethi society. A kind of honor society that is more about looking honorable than being.

Grant Hogan

Is The Rithmatist supposed to get 1 or 2 sequels?

Peter Ahlstrom

Brandon hasn't decided.

Tytch Jans

Are Denth and Tonk Fah in Warbreaker siblings? I assumed so for some reason

Peter Ahlstrom

No

Peter Ahlstrom

There are many reasons that not much of Way of Kings Prime has been made public. I think the most important is that it spoils book 6

Ryan J. Kelly

Re-reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson I had my mind blown by seeing the word "shash." I hadn't remembered that by the time I read TWoK.

Peter Ahlstrom

That's actually a coincidence. Just a convergence of phonology.

Matthew Miller

Have all ten primary characters in The Stormlight Archive been at least mentioned in WoK?

Peter Ahlstrom

No.

Joe ST

Quickly, before you holiday..><.. the Aztek Federation is mentioned as a singular nation (c15) but it also says nations (c17)

Peter Ahlstrom

It's a federation

Tristan Gilmore

This is perhaps more of a Writing Excuses question, but at what point in the story do you intentionally finish "building up" and transition to reveals and answering the intrigue you've established? Or do these need to be intertwined to keep the novel from being a constant uphill/downhill of interest?

Brandon Sanderson

In answer to your second question first: yes, it is good to stagger these a bit. This is something I didn't understand as well when I was brand new into writing, in some of my early - particularly unpublished - books. The "Brandon avalanche" which people talk about that comes at the end of a book where all the threads are finally coming together and stuff, was just way too much in these early books, and what happened is you couldn't follow all the threads or give them time to actually have impact, because always another one was happening. And it ended up having kind of boring situations leading to too much excitement that you couldn't actually take time to reflect on anything that was happening. So staggering your reveals is a really good thing to practice. Even if you want to have an avalanche at the end like I have, staggering some of that, having some character climaxes happen at different parts, in different points in the story, just a really good idea.

But where do you start doing it? That's kind of the definition for me... like that transition... that moment act 2 into act 3, the moment right after where things have just turned south, is the moment where I start trying to have those reveals in most books. But again, I'm trying to stagger them, I'm trying to have mini-reveals. Particularly in a big epic fantasy, you want lots of ups and downs.

Star Share Gaming

Would you ever consider writing a cyberpunk Era 4 for Mistborn? Or are you gonna be doing just the four Eras?

Brandon Sanderson

I would consider, and I've talked about before liking that idea. Once I did the Wax and Wayne novels, it became a natural thing to ask if there is a step between the 1980s and the science fiction era. And a cyberpunk-type era would make a lot of sense. The caveat to that is I have a lot on my plate in finishing the Cosmere already, and so I can't make any promises. But it does seem like it would be a natural fit to do.

Original Mistborn series was each between 200,000 and 250,000 words. For a frame of reference, Way of Kings books tend to be between 400,000 and 450,000. And the Wax and Wayne books tend to be between 100,000 and 110,000. So, having another 100,000 to 110,000 word, faster-paced shorter series (shorter in total word count) would make a lot of sense. Because Era 3, the 1980s era, is going to go back to the 250,000 to 250,000 word sized books.