Recent entries

    Orem Signing ()
    #4153 Copy

    Questioner

    How are the Warbreaker leatherbounds coming?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They're looking great! Oh man, the artists loved Warbreaker, for obvious reasons. We're getting the best art for any of the leatherbounds we've ever gotten, for Warbreaker. It is gorgeous!

    Questioner

    The Nalthis essay?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What's that? Oh, the Warbreaker leatherbound essay. Yeah, I should put that in, shouldn't I. We'll see.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4154 Copy

    Questioner

    You've previously said that Nightblood is the most powerful non-Shardic being in the Cosmere. Is he more powerful than the Unmade or Stormfather in terms of raw Investiture?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Raw Investiture? Here's the thing, when you say powerful, it can mean lots of different things. More raw Investiture than the Stormfather... probably not. Than the Unmade, probably. I would have to look, I don't have the numbers on this. But the Stormfather is very restricted in what he can do.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4155 Copy

    Questioner

    Does M-Bot follow the Three Laws of Robotics?

    Brandon Sanderson

    M-Bot does not follow the Three Laws of Robotics.

    Questioner

    Does he follow his own set of laws?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4156 Copy

    Questioner

    How would the city of Boston change over time in the Cognitive Realm, because its harbors have been constantly filled in with dirt?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right, right, right. It will change to match, but there will be a time lapse, right? They'll be lagging behind. 

    Questioner

    So, you could dump it full of dirt, and then it might take like five or ten years before it actually appears as land.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, that's exactly about how it would go.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4157 Copy

    Questioner

    Are you ever gonna write a book with dragons in it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have, technically, already written books with dragons in them. Dragons in the cosmere... you've only heard from one. There haven't been... Frost, who is Hoid's old friend from the planet where he grew, is a dragon. And he's the person that he's exchanging letters with. Look for where Hoid calls someone "you old reptile." So, there are dragons in the cosmere. They are shapeshifters. And so you will rarely see them in dragon form until I go back and do Hoid's origin story. Then, you'll see quite a number of them. But you will also see them later on.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4158 Copy

    Questioner

    Has anyone ever given you any flak about the endings of Shadows of Self?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, definitely. It is one of the more controversial endings that I've done. If people are going to have a problem with an ending, it's usually that one, or it's the Legion ending people have issues with. Or, of course, Alcatraz Five; but they're supposed to have an issue with that one.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4159 Copy

    Questioner

    Does the M in M-bot actually stand for anything?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He says it stands for Mushroom-bot. Spensa thinks it stands for Massacre-bot. Let's just say they have a difference of opinion on that. It's not going to get answered. She started calling him that and he was like, "Oh Mushroom-bot! Mushroom-bot sounds right!"

    Orem Signing ()
    #4161 Copy

    Wyndlerunner

    Hoid, he already has his Cryptic by Era 2, if I'm correct on the timeline. So have we seen him using his new fancy Lightweaving in action? Has he spoken his fifth Truth?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I will RAFO that for now. I'll RAFO both of those. Those are two separate things, but I will RAFO them. You have seen Hoid Lightweaving, but whether you have seen him use his fancy new Lightweaving... we'll leave that off for now. Let's just say that he knows that certain uses of Investiture are easier to detect than others, and if you don't want to be seen, there are certain things you don't do.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4163 Copy

    Wyndlerunner

    You've mentioned in the past aluminum savants being able to somewhat heal their spiritweb, healing them of the cracks, sort of healing them of Allomancy. Could a chromium savant do this to other people, kind of like in the Avatar [The Last Airbender] finale where he seals bending?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I will say RAFO, but I will say you're theorizing along correct directions.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4164 Copy

    Questioner

    I heard rumors for a collectible card game, possibly, for the Cosmere?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's possible. The guys who did the Mistborn RPG are really interested in doing one, so we'll see. It's just in the discussion stages right now. There's not even contracts for it or anything.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4165 Copy

    Questioner

    Is Skyward the title or the series title and is Claim the Stars is the book title?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, Skyward is the series title and the book title. Like I should have done with Mistborn because we had Final Empire in the first book, and people got so confused because, "Is this the last book? It says The Final." This time I didn't give a subtitle to the first book. It was just too confusing when I did it the first time.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4166 Copy

    Snipexe

    Are lighteyes or darkeyes dominant?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um... Depends.

    Snipexe

    Okay, and how do mixes work?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Different things can happen, but on Roshar, heterochromia is usually indication of a mixed parentage.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4171 Copy

    Snipexe

    Would a primate be turned into a koloss if the spikes were placed in the correct bindpoints?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Something like a koloss, but you would not call it a koloss.

    Snipexe

    Would they lose intelligence or gain, if they were?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You could do it either way.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4172 Copy

    Snipexe

    Does Hoid's Lightweaving produce light?

    Brandon Sanderson

    *After a very long pause* He has used different types of Lightweaving, or he has access to different types of Lightweaving.

    Snipexe

    Does the Yolish Lightweaving produce light?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yolish Lightweaving could produce light.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4176 Copy

    Questioner

    Is [Hoid] ever actually what he's actually like in any of the books? I thought Way of Kings would be it, but I'm not sure.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Wit is very similar to the real Hoid. He's worked a long time to build a place for himself where he can kinda be himself. I mean, when you see his book from his viewpoint, he'll feel very like Wit from Stormlight.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4177 Copy

    Questioner

    When in the books do you think is Hoid's most genuine moment?

    Brandon Sanderson

    When Shallan hugs him... maybe. You get him out of sorts there. He doesn't quite know what to do. I don't know if that counts as genuine. He often would consider himself as being very genuine. But you rarely catch him with his guard down.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4179 Copy

    Questioner

    Are you going to make another Warbreaker book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Someday I will. It probably won't happen until after Stormlight 5 is out, because I want to keep those Stormlight books moving along.  But once Stormlight 5 is out, Ill take a little breather from Stormlight before doing number six to do some things. Maybe like this.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4182 Copy

    Questioner

    My thought is, you know how the Stormfather in Oathbringer says he's not able, or he's never seen Dalinar be able to create the bridge. Does that mean Honor could be reborn?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, there are things standing in the way, but cosmereologically, it is fully possible that another person could become Honor. The Vessel that was holding Honor before is gone. Though the Stormfather is kind of his Cognitive Shadow at this point, in a way. But the power, something else could be done with it. Or it could remain in the state it is now. Your answer is yes, but there are some hindrances along the way.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4183 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there an exact date when the final book of the Alcatraz series is coming out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not an exact date. It's about, at this point, about three quarters done. I wrote about half of it. And I'm cowriting the other half with a friend of mine to get the voice right. And she's up to the ending that I outlined. So we'll see how we both feel about that ending. And then maybe we'll release it this year? Maybe next year? It's pretty close, though.

    Orem Signing ()
    #4184 Copy

    Questioner

    Can Hemalurgy be used to steal other...like, the Stormlight...

    Brandon Sanderson

    It could. It's very complicated, particularly with surgebinding, because the bond with the spren is a voluntary thing. So, you could steal the power, but you would also be stealing the sprenbond which the spren then has autonomy over. So, it might not turn out really well for you. It might not turn out well for anyone involved. Much easier to steal things where there isn't an autonomous being involved in your gaining of the magical powers.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4185 Copy

    Questioner

    Do you have any updates on games or movies or shows?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Okay, let's go down the big run-down.

    We've been having moderate luck with board games, people are actually producing the things that they sign up to do. So, we should be having another board game before too long. We have the House War game, and we have the Reckoners game coming out, and there might be another one to announce eventually. We've been having a lot more luck there than we have other places. Video games, nada. There's just nothing. I would love to do a video game, but-- yeah. I don't know what's going on over there. We sold the Mistborn rights, they were really nice, and then they didn't do anything for, like, five years, and eventually, they're like, "We can't make this."

    So, Hollywood. Steelheart series is owned by Fox, with 21 Laps producing, that's Shawn Levy's company, he made the Night at the Museum films. They still own that, they are on their second renewal of the options, so they've had it for a number of years. I have not heard anything from them since last July, when they called and said they wanted to keep it still and wrote us a check. I don't know what's going on there.

    Snapshot is owned by MGM. Snapshot is a novella I wrote about a year ago, it's kind of Phillip K. Dick-ish, with a little bit of Se7en, the serial killer show. It's different. MGM bought that, they have assigned a screenwriter. The screenwriter said his goal would be early this year, in his schedule, to work on it. And they've been fairly good at staying in contact with us every couple of months. We haven't heard from them since, about, December, when they said that there would be there, so we probably need an update there. But things seem to be moving just fine there.

    DMG has the Cosmere. They bought it up in pieces, and eventually just bought the rest of it from me. They have been really good to work with. DMG has always involved me in everything. They have shown me every screenplay and script they have come up with, and they made the VR experience as a tool to try to explain the Stormlight to studio execs who don't read books. Which you can get on VR systems, if you want. It's kind of trippy, with you down in the chasms in the Shattered Plains. But that was primarily so we can go to studio execs and be like "It's like this!" But they have been really good to work with. Right now, latest news is they're worried Stormlight is going to be too hard to do as a film series. Surprising! So, latest discussions with them-- Though, we did get a screenplay from them that came in at 250 pages. Which, if you don't know screenplay format, one page equals one minute, so 250 pages is 4+ hours. And it still cut out a lot, so they're like, "Well..." So, I don't know where that will go but that is where we're looking right now. Mistborn, they're still looking at for a feature. They have a screenplay that they are trying to get studios to partner with them, and things like that. They're doing the whole Hollywood runaround. So, who knows.

    Most likely, the best thing that could happen for Stormlight would be for Wheel of Time to get made and do really well, and then everyone will be like "Wow, we want more epic fantasy. It's not just Game of Thrones, it's lots of stuff!" Hopefully, that'll go places, but I don't know any more than you guys really know about that. I can't say specifics. I did do a phone call with one of the people involved, they reached out and said "Hey!" but it's just "Hey, we're the TV people, hi!" So, we will wait eagerly for updates on that.

    We haven't announced a deal, but we've signed contracts on Legion for another television show. Legion, this will be our third or fourth option on that. If you don't know how Hollywood works, they option things, which means they rent the rights, and they get them for three to four years depending, with payments every year or eighteen months. And during that time, they try to get it in development, try to get everyone excited about it, try to get it to a screenplay, and stuff like that. And at the end of those years, they either pay you the rest of the money, if they have the option-- it's like a rental that applies, it's like rent-to-own. The big price, that they pay a little of that price. Or they just decide to let the option lapse, and then it goes to someone else. So, that has happened at least several times. Nobody wanted it for a while, when the Marvel show was happening, and suddenly, they want it again.

    So, there's your rundown. A whole lot of "Well, this looks promising, I think," which is how it's always kind of gone. Hopefully, Wheel of Time or Name of the Wind will come out and do really well, and that will spark everybody wanting to make very expensive fantasy properties and very expensive television shows. Because The Stormlight Archive will not be cheap. It will be really, really not cheap. So, if you have an aunt or an uncle who happens to runs Netflix Originals division, tell them they need a billion dollars. They've got it, right? They have to spend it, or they'll have to pay taxes on it, so might as well do Stormlight.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4186 Copy

    Karen Ahlstrom (paraphrased)

    1. Just as highstorms come less frequently around the Weeping, they are more frequent around Midpeace.

    2. Following the advent of the Everstorm, the normal highstorm calculations/schedule was found to be thrown off by about four (Rosharan) months.

    3. Highstorms move at about 370 miles per hour. The Everstorm moves at about 120 miles per hour. Those are variable of course, and shouldn't be taken as official, definitive numbers.

    4. For approximate Everstorm timing calculations we used a cycle of 9.1 (Rosharan) days.

    5. Roshar's circumference is about 22110 miles. Again, this shouldn't be taken as an official, definitive number.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4187 Copy

    Jofwu (paraphrased)

    1. In your "Oathbringer's Timeline" blog post you said that Oathbringer ends on the 100th day of the year. What event does that refer to? The battle, the wedding, the epilogue?

    2. Looking at my own Oathbringer Timeline, it seems like Venli spent only a few days in Marat. Is that true?

    3. What day did Shallan and Jasnah leave for the Shattered Plains?

    Karen Ahlstrom (paraphrased)

    First, note that the timeline is a flexible thing that can be changed to make other events work if needed.

    1. The 100th day of the year marking the end of Oathbringer refers to the last event in the final chapter.

    2. Venli spent just 5 days in Marat before they left for Thaylen City. 

    3. Shallan and Jasnah left for the Shattered Plains on "Day 6927". (referring to the day number used in my calendar as explained in the "Roshar's Date System" blog post)

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4188 Copy

    Isaac Stewart (paraphrased)

    The stamp-like glyph at the bottom corner of the "Ironstance Scroll" artwork in Words of Radiance is the symbol of the Calligrapher's Guild. It uses the phonemes from "Isaac", but doesn't phonetically represent that.

    Jofwu (paraphrased)

    I thanked Isaac for explaining that rather mysterious glyph, and asked if he could say anything about the even more mysterious glyph that has appeared in every book so far.

    Isaac Stewart (paraphrased)

    I don't know what it means, but that Brandon has asked me to put it in several places. Compare it to the Calligrapher's Guild glyph. "That's all I'll say."

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4190 Copy

    Argent (paraphrased)

    Nazh writes that "spren fishing" is illegal in Ravizadth. What exactly is spren fishing?

    Isaac Stewart (paraphrased)

    It is the act of forcefully attracting spren in Shadesmar for your own purposes. For example, you know how when Adolin is genuinely afraid there, his fear attracts fearspren naturally? That's okay. But if someone were to engineer situations that would attract certain kinds of spren because they wanted to make use of those spren - for study, or other reasons - that would be "fishing". If spren have formal ethics, this would be unethical.

    Argent (paraphrased)

    So this has a lot to do with consent? Drawing spren naturally is part of how spren work, but forcing them to come, that's a no-no?

    Isaac Stewart (paraphrased)

    Pretty much.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4192 Copy

    Isaac Stewart (paraphrased)

    The Nalthis essay and star chart (similar to the ones Khriss put together for the other Shardworlds in Arcanum Unbounded) are in the works, but we don't know when we'll release them. Warbreaker's 10th anniversary next year is a good candidate, but it may happen even earlier.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4193 Copy

    WinespringBrother

    Given that Shards, and perhaps, Ascended beings, have intents similar to their names...

    Brandon Sanderson

    More that they have names similar to their intents.

    WinespringBrother

    So, would Unity be a natural enemy of Autonomy?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um... Possibly. You say "natural," and so I--

    WinespringBrother

    Well, would one eliminate the other one? But more towards Autonomy trying to break up--

    Brandon Sanderson

    To break up Unity. It's so hard to say, because Autonomy is a bit of a strange duck. Like, what counts as being Autonomous? Is absorbing everything and becoming one again Autonomous or not? That's kind of your question that you get into. And the way Autonomy looks at it right now, is no. Autonomy wants to remain Autonomy. Autonomy does not want to be corrupted by anything else. And Autonomy would think the Shards are better on their own. But is this a natural effect, or part of the-- Does that make sense?

    WinespringBrother

    Well, but it's also along the lines of, Odium wants to break up the other ones, so they don't--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Odium just wants to be top dog. And your two ways to be top dog are to climb higher, or to lower everyone else. And he's like, we're gonna lower everyone else. Because I know, if I combine, it stops being me, is what his opinion is. I would no longer be the person I am. I would change into someone else. And then that person gets to rule, and I don't want that person to rule. I want to.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4194 Copy

    Argent

    During past events and interviews you've said that you've had to make your peace, so to speak, with some fans guessing reveals in future books before those books have even come out. Obviously you can't write for just a fraction of your fans who obsess every detail, and every word that Hoid ever utters. (Balderdash.) But have you ever written anything specifically for those people going, "Oh, that's gonna blow their socks off"?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, yeah. So, for any who didn't hear, I get the question of, "How do I feel about fans guessing things before I've revealed them in the books? How do I respond to that?" And I've said I have to just make peace with that. Because I feel like trying to change-- like, I'm such an outliner, that if I change the target, if I change what I'm doing, then it's just not gonna work at all. Changing the target after I've shot the arrow, it would mean me moving the target away so the arrow misses, and saying "Haha, you guys got it wrong!" just wouldn't work for the way I tell stories. But the way I tell stories, you need to be able to see the arrow flying. I like that. And when you get three years in between books, you're gonna see where those arrows are flying. So, I just had to make peace with the idea that the hardcore fans, and maybe even some of the medium-core fans, they're going to know, they're going to see these things. Like, the big revelation-- one of the big problems I had with this was: the big revelation at the end of Oathbringer was something that the hardcore fans had figured out in book one. But the characters hadn't, because they are steeped in this world, and in the lore, and in the customs of the world. So something that was mind-shattering to a lot of the characters was old hat to some of the readers. And I had to figure out how to-- one of the things the beta readers helped me with on that book was figuring how to make sure I layered surprises at the end of Oathbringer, so that ones would be emotionally impactful to the readers while the characters were reeling from something the readers might not be reeling from. That was a challenge.

    Anyway, the actual question he asked is, "Are there things I write saying 'Oh, they're gonna love this one'? Do I tease?" Yes, I totally tease. I write in words that I'm like, "Oh, I'm gonna name-drop this person they have never heard of. Because I feel like the character would name-drop, and plus it's gonna drive them crazy." I try to hold myself to the cosmere-aware sections of the books for doing that. Things like Secret History or the Letter epigraphs, and things like this. Places where the casual reader will be like, "You know, I don't get any of this, so it doesn't matter. I can move on." Where I'm kind of, like, taking you and quarantining you in your own section of letters from the cosmere, and stuff like that. But I'm gonna read you one of those in a minute.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4195 Copy

    Questioner

    I know you've been asked several times about other authors that have influenced your work, but are there people in other lines of work, other medias, that you deliberately learn from? And if so, who?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. So, I do really like film. I love films that, like-- one of my favorite films of all time is Gattaca. And I really like films that do interesting things with narrative, like parallel narrative between characters and stuff like that. I like films are trying, even if they fail, to do really interesting things. Like, Interstellar; I really liked Interstellar. Interstellar is a hugely flawed movie, but it's, like, so ambitious and interesting. And I like it when movies do that. So, I do study a lot of films. I like movies that have good structure. I love the original Star Wars trilogy for its structure. It teaches you so much about structure that Lucas apparently didn't learn. He learned other things; Lucas had really big dreams and great ideas and I really liked that he-- Even in the prequels, I liked that he told us a consistent narrative across three. I like doing that.

    Watchmen was really influential on me, as like basically everyone who's read it. Watchmen was influential. And some other graphic novels. I loved Kingdom Come when I first read it back in the 90s or whenever it was. The roommate gave me that, and I'm like, "Wow, these do different things with the medium that I--" Yeah

    I read a lot of webcomics, also. I don't know how much influence they have over me. But Dr. McNinja, until it ended, was my jam. But I would list those. Films, and the occasional really powerful graphic novel that have influenced me a lot.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4196 Copy

    Questioner

    In the early 2000s, you started toying with this idea of the cosmere, these interconnected stories that are separate, but you've got your little Easter eggs. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Marvel movies started coming out. Were you like, "Wow, I can't believe this got so popular, this idea of--"

    Brandon Sanderson

    Like, it had always been in their comics. I didn't invent interconnected universe. I didn't even invent them in books. Like, Michael Moorcock, I don't know if you guys have read Michael Moorcock, but I really like Michael Moorcock's work, and he connected a bunch of his things together. And Stephen King famously did it. I think the one that first blew my mind when someone did this was when Asimov connected Robots and Foundation together. 'Cause I had read the Robots books, then I read the Foundation books, and then I read the later Foundation books and I'm like, "They're the same world?!?" That was a very mind-blowing moment for me.

    But when I was writing a lot of this stuff in the late 90s, early 2000s, the rule of thumb was, "People don't want continuing narrative." Like, I still remember watching the DVD extras on the Deep Space Nine DVDs. (Which is the best Star Trek, fight me.) And in Deep Space Nine, they would talk about how they would have to-- they had this big arc they wanted to do for seasons. Go listen to it, it's hilarious. They're like, "But we couldn't tell the executives about that, because they would say 'People don't want continuing story arcs, they want individual adventures.'" So, they would write the Ferengi episodes, which were standalones that were goofy and funny, and sent those as their samples to the studio execs, and hide the fact they were making this big, interconnected epic out of Deep Space Nine. And that was the conventional wisdom. That's just where storytelling was going. So, I'm like, "I have to be really hidden about this, everybody's gonna--"

    But, Marvel wasn't the first case we have. It was the television show 24. When 24 came out (this is old news to a lot of you, it's like 20 years ago), but when that show came out, people were like "Wow, a continuing narrative. Some people really like this." And then Marvel did their thing, and Marvel became Marvel over the next years. And that was, like, a thing. And then Netflix started doing stuff where it's like, "We're releasing a whole season at once so you can binge. It's like a nine hour movie." And meanwhile, this whole time, I'm like, "Yes! I was born at the right time!"

    I will tell you that when DMG came to buy the Cosmere, it was with stars in their eyes, because shared universes were suddenly the thing, and I had the only one on the market for sale. They're all really really stretching, they're like, "Universal Monsters universe?" They're always trying to make some shared universe. And meanwhile, they're like, "There's a guy who already has one. We'll just go buy it!" That was a big part behind them grabbing that. I think that now, people are more wary, because so many of them that they tried to make failed. But the reason they failed, at least in my opinion, is because they did it the wrong way. Instead of starting with something great, that people would want more of, they started saying, "You are going to get 30 of these. You'd better like the first one. Oh, you think it's mediocre? Well, you'd better like the second one, right?" Where this has always been a theme for me with the Cosmere, that I really want each individual story to stand on its own, and if you want to dig into the connections behind them, there is that depth for you to dig into, and you can start making all of these connections and being part of the fandom. But if you just want to read Warbreaker, it is a standalone. You don't need any of this other stuff, it's all Easter egg, and I think that is part of the issue with some of these. It's this thing I told the writers the other day. This magic phrase of, "Everybody wants to start a book thinking it's a standalone and wants to finish it thinking, knowing it's a series." Like, you want to pick up that first book, or whatever it is, and have it be so good that it wraps up and just knocks your socks off. And at that point, you want a sequel. You don't really want the sequel when you start, you just want a good well-told story. So, I tell a lot of writers, try to make sure that first story is really good, and then worry about sequels. So, that's been my philosophy, and hopefully it has worked out.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4197 Copy

    Questioner

    At what point did you go, "Elantris was good, Mistborn was good, now let's do 40 more books"?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, a brief, brief history (writer's side, not the in-world side) of the Cosmere is this. So, Elantris was written without the cosmere in mind. This was-- Elantris was the first, kind of, book in my--

    So, the way my history works, I was told early on that your first five books are generally terrible. And this was actually really relieving to me, because I'm like "Oh, I don't have to be good until book six." So I wrote five books as, just, lots of experimenting. Lots of different types of stories. And I didn't really even try, I sent one or two of them out, but I didn't really aggressively try to publish them. They were White Sand--not White Sand that you can get from my newsletter signup, an earlier version--which is my first book. And then Star's End, which was a little science fiction book, and then a sequel to White Sand, and something called Knight Life, which was a comedy. Yes. But bits of that got repurposed into Alcatraz. And then The Sixth Incarnation of Pandora, which was a weird cyberpunk, far-future thing. And I got done with all of those, and I'm like, "All right. I kind of know what I want to do. I thought it was epic fantasy. I now know it's epic fantasy." And then I wrote Elantris. My next books were Elantris, a rewrite of White Sand, and Dragonsteel. And this was kind of me exploring "What do I want to do? How do I want to-- What is my-- What do I want to add to this genre?"

    But the idea of the interconnected universe grew out of doing these things, writing these books. I started planning The Way of Kings then, I started planning the book that became Warbreaker then. It was called Mythwalker at the time. And I wrote a book called The Final Empire and a another one called Mistborn, which are neither of the ones that you guys actually have read. What eventually happened, is when I sold Elantris, this whole thing of the cosmere had really come together, this is what I wanted to do, I was really excited by it.

    And so, the first book that I wrote knowing about the cosmere was Mistborn. And Elantris got retrofitted into this as I was writing the Mistborn trilogy. And it was while I was working on the Mistborn trilogy that I made the nine book arc that is kind of the core, though-line of the Cosmere, the past/present/future Mistborn. I called my editor in... 2005 with a really big, exciting, sort of huge outline for 40 books (it was 32 back then), I'm like, "It's gonna be this, it's gonna be this, it connects here, and all this stuff--" That's when it all kind of happened, and I built that all out. It was the process of working on the Mistborn original trilogy and building out the nine book arc for those that really solidified a lot of these ideas. By then, I had written Dragonsteel, so I knew--- Dragonsteel was book number seven, so I knew about Adonalsium and all of this stuff, but it was really kind of in Mistborn where I decided how I was gonna incorporate all of that. And even then, even in Mistborn, there are still things that I was still putting together.

    So, yeah. There's a brief history of it. By the time I had those three books done, 'cause I wrote them in a row, I was pretty solid on how all of this was gonna come together.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4198 Copy

    Questioner

    Why can't Zahel sleep at night?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, multiple reasons. None of which are particularly pleasant. He just has a rough time with a lot of different things.

    Billy Todd

    I'll inject a follow-up on that. How many of those reasons would give rise to a bounty?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Multiples, depending on who's offering the bounty.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4199 Copy

    Argent

    I thought, like, at one of the signings you told me that when Odium was on Sel and Splintered the Shards there, the reason he did the Cognitive Realm hack was because he was not yet experienced in Splintering stuff.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right. He did not want what happened to happen, but he didn't know that he didn't want what happened to happen.

    Argent

    What I was getting at is, I could never find a recording of you saying "He was not experienced. He didn't want the power to be taken by anyone, and that's the only solution he could figure out." Does that sound like something you would say?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is something I would say, yes... There are better ways to do what he wanted to do, which he later did a better job with. But there's not a lot of experimenting he could do.

    Argent

    Limited number of subjects, right?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Mmhmm.

    JordanCon 2018 ()
    #4200 Copy

    Isaac Stewart

    I think they might have [the Highprince glyphs] in order on the warcamps map, when I have them on the edge. They might be in order, but I might have put them together in a way that they just looks nice... I think I might have picked an order that looked cool. I'm like, "Ah, this one looks better here and moved them around."

    Pagerunner

    One of them's upside down, right?

    Isaac Stewart

    I think they go all into a symbol in the middle... You might have some of them upside down. I'll have to look at my old file that has the originals. And you can see, too, that their glyphs, they're starting to look different from what I do now stylistically.

    Pagerunner

    You talked about the Shard line, and I've seen that, they all have this line down the middle.

    Isaac Stewart

    Yeah, we started changing things. That's just how things work. Things evolve. But, it works in the history. There was probably a time when the calligraphy, it was just in the vogue to do it this way. The rules could have changed. If you're the Calligrapher's Guild, you're gonna want to change the style, see what's in vogue. Because, hey, now all the nobles need to change their house logos so their logos, their glyphs don't look... "Oh, that looks so old." They want to stay relevant, so they probably do things like that. It's interesting how that-- Even though there's a kind of way they look like mistakes, it's how things work in the real world, people make slight changes and people do things a slightly different way, but I imagine those particular glyphs are a little more simplified than some of the stuff that we're doing. If we were to go into, like, Sadeas's glyph, for example, it's really simple. But I have other places where it's got more lines and stuff. His personal banner is probably gonna have more stuff in it.

    Pagerunner

    One of the Kholin glyphs has all these extra letters. It's like, "Wait a minute, what are these letters?"

    Isaac Stewart

    People call them "screw with you" lines. No, they call them "screw you lines," and it was never meant to mess with people. It was meant to make it look cool.