Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Can Odium influence people the same way that Ruin can?

[misunderstands question as a question about kandra/koloss/parshendi] Well, you see, the kandra and the koloss have a "hole" in them that allows Ruin to come in and take over. The Parshendi naturally are protected from this, but when they expose themselves to the storms, and the spren come in, many of these spren have that kind of "hole" in them, and that’s what allows Odium to take control of them.

Zas678

No, I'm talking about how Ruin was able to push people, place things in their minds, stuff like that. Can Odium do the same thing?

Brandon Sanderson (Paraphrased)

Well, Odium wasn't around when those people were created [Here it sounded like the mankind that's on that planet, not the specific generation], so it's a little different for him than Ruin. So if he influences people in that way, it's through the Unmade.

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And my other question is about Taravangian. It becomes clear that when he's smart, he's less compassionate, and when he's dumb, he's more compassionate.

Yeah, he mentions that in his interlude.

Zas678

Is that intentional, or is that just how you believe intelligence works?

Brandon Sanderson (Parapharased)

No, that's intentional. There's plenty of really smart people who are also compassionate, and dumb people who aren't.

Zas678

So when Taravangian is smart, his Cognitive aspect is stronger. So when he’s dumb, is his Spiritual aspect stronger?

Brandon Sanderson

*grins and pulls out a RAFO card*

taravangian

Have we seen all of the Heralds?

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned all of them, and you've seen a number of them, such as Shalash running around [I'm pretty sure he mentioned something that made it clear that it was the Mistress, or the person cutting off the faces]

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Can Parshendi receive a Boon and a Curse?

Yes they can.

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Are we ever going to see a spren viewpoint?

Yes it's likely.

Question

A book where the flashbacks are spren?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably not. Or it's not planned right now.

stormlight archive

Odium is able to influence all 3 important planets in the Rosharan system, Roshar, Braize, and Ashyn.

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There's also going to be about a 15 year gap in-world between The Stormlight Archive arc 1 and arc 2.

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So what does the term koloss-blooded mean?

Well, Sazed changed how the koloss reproduced, so now they reproduce naturally, and when the kids come to a coming-of-age, they decide if they’re going to accept the spikes and become a koloss, or if they’re going to stay normal.

koloss

Did Kelsier chose not to move on after he died? Or did he want to move on but couldn't for some reason?

RAFO!

The thing is, Kelsier's wife, Mare, had certainly moved on, and that would be motivating him to go on to the next life.

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How did TenSoon overpower OreSeur if TenSoon had the Blessing of Potency?

"TenSoon is wily!"

There are also some drugs that affect kandra bodies.

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Would Inqusitors’s kids have Allomancy?

Not usually. It happens sometimes, but not usually.

[Brandon] then mentioned a little about sDNA, but that it's not inherited as much as it is when it's natural.

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Another thing he talked about was some common themes that appear in fantasy. One of them is that Renaissance air of the Rise of the Common man. You see that in Mistborn for example. The great writing question of the cosmere, the underlying theme is, What do men do when given the Power of the Gods? How do they act? What do they do?

brandon on inspiration

How do spren choose what human they'll bond with?

Well, it depends on the spren type. There's some spren that choose on their own, while there's other spren where it's done by committee. Wyndle, Lift's spren, was placed with Lift by a committee. It's a culture difference. Some are free spirited, others more organized.

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The way that Hoid and Defending Elysium do FTL travel is very different.

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Could Shai soul Forge herself into becoming an Elantrian?

That would be really hard. First of all, she'd have to change where she's born, then soul Forge the fact that she became an Elantrian. Even then, she'd probably look like an Elantrian, but not have any powers. There would probably need to be some kind of bridge, or she would need some kind of super push from AonDor to make it work.

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When Hoid is playing for Kaladin, has he awakened some part of himself to help him play?

No, he's not Awakened anything to help him play.

Question

Did he use Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson (Paraphrased)

RAFO.

hoid

Odium didn't start in Roshar.

odium

The Stormlight Archive is set before The Alloy of Law.

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chronology

We have met the "Ones above" in Sixth of the Dusk.

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Is Mraize a worldhopper?

Yes, he's been to a few planets, highly supervised by his babsk.

Question (Paraphrased)

So what planet is she [Iyatil] from?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, that's kind of a hard thing to say. She has three planets she's "from". For example, she's living now on Roshar, but then she's from a different planet, but that's not the planet that her people are from.

Question (Paraphrased)

So there was a mass exodus to that planet?

Brandon Sanderson

Not exactly. If you were to find a Japanese American, where would they say that they are from? Her people did not have a mass exodus.

Question (Paraphrased)

Have we seen mass exoduses before?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there are some in the cosmere. There's a mass exodus that is mentioned in one of the interludes in The Way of Kings.

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So what happens when Shards die?

Well, it depends on how long the Shardholders have held the Shard. After they dies, the Shard is often able to continue acting, a kind of "Cognitive shadow". For example, the mists were able to continue doing what Preservation wished in helping out Vin and snapping people. With the Stormfather, he is that Cognitive shadow, and he's semi sentient. It's that power, but no one is actually holding it. We also see this on Threnody.

In this case, shardholder means vessel.

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Shadesmar- you can WALK to the other planets. It's a pretty far ways away (at least days, if not more), but you can go to Shadesmar, walk in the directions where it says "The Expanse of the Vapors" and it runs into Scadrial . In Shadesmar all of that empty space doesn't really have any human interaction, so it doesn't really have an aspect in the cognitive realm, so all of that place gets shortened immensely. Whenever a planet has enough thinking life on it that's it’s considering it a planet, it drops into Shadesmar.

cognitive realm

Eventually, he;ll come out with a Shadesmar map of the cosmere, and a Starmap as well.

He's actually still unsure about which book the next The Stormlight Archive is going to be about. He said it might be about Szeth, but then again it might be about Dalinar or Eshonai. He said he was going to have to plot it out a little more and see. He said that the determining factor will be what information are we going to need in order to progress. It might be that he needs to do Dalinar's book because that's the only way to get in some of that information, but Szeth can kind of talk about some of his on screen. He said he'll do a little more plotting and see.

stormlight archive

Brandon also has some more writing laws that he's going to write about, including Sanderson's 0th law: Always err on the side of awesome.

sanderson's laws

Elantris has a 10th anniversary edition coming out! It's going to have pretty maps and new illustrations, and maybe a couple new line edits.

Alcatraz: Tor has bought the rights, and will re-release Alcatraz 1-4, then release book 5 sometime next year or early 2016.

Shadows of Self: There is a likely date of Oct 2015 for that book.

Calamity (Steelheart 3): That book has a likely early 2016 layout.

Rithmatist 2: He said that he wanted to write this book, but because it's based in this world slightly, he has to use a lot more research. He said he's doing a lot of research of ancient Aztec culture, that it will be held in South America.

Who's your favorite side character?

That's a hard one, but I might have to say Syl. Or Wayne! He's just so much fun to write. Oh, and about him, look out for intentional misspellings in Shadows of Self. My alpha readers skipped completely over them!

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