Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

[Josh and Mi’ch] were kind of explaining that your books were all in different worlds and Hoid can jump from world to world?

Yes, they’re all in the same universe. And there are some characters who have appeared in multiple books. Hoid, for instance, has appeared in all of them so far.

QUESTION

Yeah is he going to have his own book?

BRANDON SANDERSON

He will eventually have his own book series.

With the Wheel of Time, who’s your favorite character to read about, and then your favorite one to write about?

My favorite one to read- during the early parts of the series it was Perrin and during the later parts of the series it was Mat. And my favorite one to write was probably Perrin because- historically, like when I was a young guy reading the books, he was my favorite, he was the one I identified with.

I enjoy Way of Kings, it seems like that’s the one where everyone’s coming together. I was reading online about Galladon and Demoux being in it. I enjoyed that. Is that going to happen more often?

In that book- that series, yes. There will be more crossover. It’s kinda one of the core stories, along with the things happening on the Mistborn world and things like that. And so, there’s going to be a lot more crossover. Most of it’s still kind of subtle stuff, but if you keep your eyes open there’ll be some real zingers in the next two books.

What time period do they all fit in, do they all fit in time- at the same time?

No, like for instance, Way of Kings and Alloy of Law are pretty close to one another but Elantris is fairly far before them. So far I’ve written them chronologically basically, except I’ve skipped certain stories, like there’s a series called White Sand which is in the middle there somewhere which will actually be a jump back in time when I end up doing it and some things like that. And Dragonsteel is like way at the beginning which I’ll eventually do but I’ve done them chronologically so far.

So, is it next year, 2013 that [Stormlight 2] will come out?

2013, it’ll be next year.

QUESTION

At the end of the- like the fall?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yep, I am a quarter of the way through it, and as long as I turn in an early draft by April they’ll be able to do it by the fall.

The release date is currently scheduled at March 4, 2014. It is still subject to change.

So why is Shallan so whiny? No I’m just kidding...

Shallan is very young and has gone through a lot in her life.

QUESTION

And does she have a Shardblade?

BRANDON SANDERSON

She does have a Shardblade.

Just wanted to ask how you come up with all your different universes?

You know, it’s hard to say where specifically where they come from. You can point to certain ones and say, Mistborn, Mistborn came from me driving through a fog bank at 80 miles an hour and saying, “Wow that looks cool, can I use that?” And you can point at Warbreaker with me saying, “I’ve done this whole world of ash and I need to do something colorful, let’s build a color based magic system.” Way of Kings is definitely influenced by tidal pools and things like that. And so, each one’s different, it’s just things I see that I think will make interesting stories and settings.

When are we going to find out about how Elhokar can see like the symbols in the mirror and stuff like that. He can Soulcast then, right?

You’ll have to see, you’ll have to see...

And so like the Windrunners, they’re just one Order of the Knights Radiant, aren’t they?

Yes they are, in fact they are- every order is a grouping of one of these [points to the large symbols on the Radiant tables] and two of these [points at the smaller symbols], these are the Surges. So these are the ten, sort of forces. And so Windrunning is pressure and gravitation, which are those two. But the Skybreakers are right there [points to gold symbol in the upper middle], with a different combination and each of these different groupings would make one order of the Knights Radiant. And that is the symbol of the Windrunners, right there on the cover. [Points at the swordgylph under the dust jacket]. So, fun little easter-egg type things there.

So I was reading the Alloy of Law, and at the end I read through the Ars Arcanum. And I got confused because it’s written in first person, but it refers to Harmony in third person. I thought he was writing it, so who writes that part?

That’s a good question for you to be asking, one which people have been curious about, and I have not yet answered who writes all of the Ars Arcanum, but they are in-world, somebody's writing them. If you ever read The Way of Kings, it’s written in first-person too.

QUESTION

Are they all written by the same person?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Ah, have I answered that yet?

JOSH

You should.

BRANDON SANDERSON

I should? They are all written by the same person.

QUESTION

Because it sounds like they’re written by Hoid, I think.

BRANDON SANDERSON

They are all written by the same person.

Do you get carpal tunnel?

Nope, I don’t. Good question though. Who got carpal tunnel- Dan got carpal tunnel? One of my writer friends got carpal tunnel.

So, are you planning on doing anything else with Elantris or Warbreaker universes?

I am. I don’t know if you read Emperor’s Soul but it’s in the Elantris universe. It’s set on a different continent, so you have to keep your eyes open to see the connections but the magic systems are working on the same fundamental formula. You will enjoy that one if you liked Elantris and Warbreaker I will get back to eventually.

Oh, my question was does Perrin lose a body part in the book, since Mat has lost one, Rand has lost one, does Perrin lose one next?

Perrin’s body part was the knee, where he got shot through the leg with the arrow. Because the mythological symbolism is with Mat- it’s the Odin mythology, and Odin lost an eye. Perrin is actually the blacksmith mythology, which if you’ve read in Hephaestus and Perun and of the various blacksmiths, they usually have a bad leg. I wasn’t going to chop off his leg. I had that wound, and he kind of feels a phantom wound, if you’ll read in the last book there are several times where his leg aches even though he was healed. That’s the symbolism there.

QUESTION

So, did you just decide to [inaudible] or was that..?

BRANDON SANDERSON

No, Robert Jordan had done that, that was him.

QUESTION

I wasn’t sure if I was just coming up with a fantasy or not.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Though I knew he had to be wounded in the leg, I didn’t know how or how badly so I kind of came up with how it happened.

Brandon started reading Robert Jordan when he was nine and ten, and he used to get under the covers with a candle. And his mother liked to stay up, he’s a night owl, so his mother would stay up til one or two in the morning. And so then he’d blow the candle out before she’d come up. So what I did was I got him a flashlight so he could read better, but I got him a great big one like this. [guestures] So she’d holler up and say, “Are you still up there Brandon,” and he’d say, “No!”. So, when he was little he was reading these books, Robert Jordan’s books, he read every single one. I’d take him down and he’d play pinball or go over and write books. And then when he got into junior high it was cards, Dungeons and Dragons, that kind of stuff. So that’s a true story you can put that on your website. Almost burned the house down a couple of times.

If you make a Feruchemical storage and you burn it, can you put the excess back into a Feruchemical storage?

Yes.

Brandon, have we seen a point of view chapter from the character who writes the Ars Arcanum?

I’m not gonna tell you that. That would be way too much giving away.

QUESTION

Is the character who writes the Ars Arcanum from Sel originally?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I’m not gonna tell you anything about the character who writes the Ars Arcanum.

Is the city that the Parshendi are in Urithiru?

In the Way of Kings, Jasnah tells Shallan that Urithiru is not on the Shattered Plains. So either Jasnah is incorrect or that is not Urithiru.

QUESTION

In other words, you’re not going to tell me?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I’m just clarifying for you so that you have all the information you need in order to make judgements and ask questions.

Brandon pronounced Urithiru like "You-rith-ir-oo".

Is it possible to build a city that only exists in Shadesmar?

Yes.

QUESTION

Do people inhabit Shadesmar, like normal people?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Define normal.

QUESTION

Let’s rephrase that, describe the people that inhabit Shadesmar.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Well, you have seen people who inhabit Shadesmar.

The next question I have is does Odium have to recover after Shattering a Shard?

It is a difficult process that is very taxing.

What is the technology level of the singular society that existed when Adonalsium Shattered?

What was the technology level of the society that existed when Adonalsium Shattered? It was less than our own.

QUESTION

Are you going to give us anything more specific than that?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Less than our own.

Adonalsium is not Shattered in Dragonsteel.

Do you have any more Legion? Is there anywhere to find it or is a limited print run?

Ah, Legion had a limited print run, but we are in discussions that- enough people are asking that that I think we’re going to do a paperback that’ll come out. So, eventually we should be releasing a little paperback of that that you can get. At the very least you should be able to get it on my website eventually. This is the first time I’d done something that small and we didn’t know about the limited edition and things so we just wanted to do- we were very cautious about it and it sold out very quickly. So hopefully we’ll be able to do some more.

Can Cadsuane’s Aes Sedai, Merise, Corele, and Beldeine, use the bond to compel their Asha’man?

Wow. Oh boy. I’m going to have such trouble with her questions. I have trouble with her questions when I’m steeped in the Wheel of Time lore and working on the notes every day, and now that I haven’t even looked at them in like ten months...

QUESTION

Tell her to ask Maria?

BRANDON SANDERSON

But that’s one I should know, is the thing. It’s not a hard question. It’s just one where I’m... I don’t think they can. But, you should really ask Maria. But I don’t think they can. I should know that one, you can tell her I should know that one, but I don’t think they can. I knew it at one point.

Will we find out what happened to Taren Ferry in A Memory of Light?

Umm, I’ll tell people if they can’t infer it, eventually what happened.

Have Elayne’s axe and red-hot iron been fulfilled?

Axe and red-hot iron been fulfilled? You can ask Maria but I believe they have.

Approximately how old are the scabbard and hilt of Rand’s new sword?

RAFO

Does Nicola’s Foretelling represent a single moment in time?

Which one is she talking about?

QUESTION

Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives. The great battle done, but the world not done with battle. The land divided by the return, and the guardians balance the servants. The future teeters on the edge of a blade

BRANDON SANDERSON

MAFO. I’m gonna MAFO that one. I think I know that one, but I don’t think I want to touch it.

Was the Reod natural?

The Reod natural? [Laughs]

MI'CH

Here’s the thing, you’ve answered this question for us already, we just need it on audio.

JOSH

It wasn’t the Reod that was the question it was was the earthquake natural?

MI'CH

No, Eric’s asking if the Reod was natural.

JOSH

To heck with Eric, we don’t care about him.

MI'CH

You’ve told us that the earthquake was not caused by natural events.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yeah, it’s a complicated question because the earthquake was not caused by natural but the Reod was a natural effect of the earthquake, then... does that make sense? So the Reod is natural, a natural result of... does that make sense? That’s why it was a tricky question.

QUESTION

But the earthquake was not natural.

BRANDON SANDERSON

No, it was not.

AARON

So the Reod is a natural reaction to an unnatural occurrence.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes.

JOSH

And wasn’t it because there was like magical strain on the land?

BRANDON SANDERSON

That is certainly part of what was going on.

People will be making your books into movies soon, right?

I’m hoping, we’re trying.

QUESTION

Which one first?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Mistborn, we’re working very hard to try and get it made. I can’t promise but we’re trying.

Who do you want to be like Vin and Elend?

I don’t really cast people in my head. And so I would rather let the director decide that and the casting director and things. It’s not one of my things, is to cast people.

For a while, I really- I was kind of hopeful for Ellen Page, but I don’t think that’s viable now, I think that she’s too old now.

When is the timeline for the sequel to Alloy of Law?

Sequel for Alloy of Law? Probably not next year but the year after. I’m pretty dominated by finishing the second Stormlight book right now. So once I do that, then things will open up a little bit more for what I might do. I do actually have half a sequel for Alloy of Law written but I don’t have time to finish it right now.

If you slash somebody with a Shardblade, kill them, and then cut them again, will the Shardblade make them bleed?

Yes. Just like a chasmfiend once it dies, they are chopping it apart with Shardblades.

So what’s going on here is, for Stormlight 2 I needed a lullaby in-world. And poetry is not my forte. However, my father-in-law is a semi-professional singer/songwriter. He’s released a couple of albums, they’re just local, he does stuff like that. So, I asked him to compose a lullaby that I just left blanks in the story from. And he actually turned it in just like a couple of days ago. And it’s quite good and it fits in.

So, what I’ve been doing lately is writing on Stormlight 2. And Stormlight 2, if you’re unaware with what’s going on in the Stormlight series, I conceived the series as ten volumes, two five book arcs, with each volume focusing on a character by giving them a flashback sequence. So if you’ve read the first one, Kaladin, one of the main characters, there’s a sequence of flashbacks that kind of inform how he came to be where he is at the start of the book. And I intended that for each of the ten primary characters because I kind of began them all in the middle of their stories, which is what happens when you’re writing a book. The beginning of a story is not the beginning of a book. It’s impossible to tell the beginning of a story because there’s always something more that could come before. So you start with people who have passions, who have lives, who have things going on and then I wanted to use these sequences to bring you back up to where they were when they started.

This was a method I thought I would use in order to help divide each book and help me envision each book as a stand-alone volume in the series. Because one of the challenges of writing a big series like this is you don’t want them all to blend together. You want them each to feel distinct, to have their own climaxes and their own story because when they start to blend together it can be detrimental to the series in the long run. So in my original outline, I spent a lot of time figuring out what everyone’s story was going to be but I didn’t actually have to do them in a certain order because they all are flashbacks I didn’t have to have the flashbacks in certain parts. And so I wasn’t sure whether I was going to do Dalinar or Shallan for the second book, I always knew I was going to do Kaladin for the first book. And I ended up deciding on Shallan, in part because I want to get into her story because of things that are happening in the plot but also because I wanted Dalinar’s sequence to come later.

Now, I’m not promising that characters all survive that long. It’s entirely possible, just so you know, that I would kill someone off and still show their flashback sequence. Because the flashbacks aren’t them having a flashback, the flashbacks are- it’s not them sitting there and remembering that, it is simply a non-linear way of telling their story. So just so you know, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Dalinar survives til book five.