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Interviews: JordanCon 6 - Cosmere questions
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1
nalesean
Suppose you had a Feruchemist that was also skilled in forgery. If they soul stamped themselves, would they normally be able to still use Feruchemy, and if they were able to use Feruchemy after a soul stamp would they be able to access their own metalminds.Brandon Sanderson
[Paraphrased]You could do so, but it would require jury rigging in order to make it work, since the soul stamp overwrites the current spiritual aspect of a person. He then said that the accessing the metalminds would also require some amount of jury rigging.Tags
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2
nalesean
With a yes or no answer, would the following analogy be correct? If Syl is to Stormfather, as Wyndle is to Nightwatcher, then is Pattern to Cusicesh?Brandon Sanderson
[Paraphrased]: No, not exactly.Tags
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3
nalesean
If a Feruchemist using an aluminum metalmind stored their identity to zero, then filled a coppermind with all of their knowledge, would another Feruchemist with an identity set to zero be able to access the first Feruchemist's coppermind?Brandon Sanderson
[Paraphrased] I'm not going to tell you a definite yes or no, this is something that needs to be saved for future books, but you are thinking along the correct lines about how identity works regarding Feruchemists.Tags
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4
darniil
Zahel has parted ways with something he's had for a while. Will we ever get to read about how that happened?Brandon Sanderson
I may not write the actual story, but you will find out what happened, yes.Tags
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5
darniil
Shadows for Silence - where does it fall in the overall cosmere timeline, in relation to the other books?Brandon Sanderson
[Paraphrased]In the latter half of things, but before the Stormlight Archive.Tags
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6
rossnewberry
I asked Peter about the pattern of highstorms and Weepings, and whether the pattern they followed was possibly palindromic.Peter Ahlstrom
He replied that it seemed to be. Left some wiggle room in the answer, but there you go.Tags
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7
rossnewberry
I also asked Peter about the different meter used in the epigraphs containing bits of the Listener songs, and whether that was because they were supposed to be sung to different Rhythms.Peter Ahlstrom
He said yes.Tags
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8
rossnewberry
Later, I asked Brandon what the Rhythm was for the Listener Song of Listing.Brandon Sanderson
He said that it's not one of the emotive Rhythms, and that the Parshendi have certain Rhythms for those chants.Tags
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9
rossnewberry
Finally, Isaac taught us how to say Bridge 4 in Alethi,Isaac Stewart
which is "vev gesheh." Vev = 4, Gesheh = bridge.Tags
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10
Question
What are Cultivation's feelings with regards to the Stormfather?Brandon Sanderson
Cultivation's feelings-- I don't think that has spoilers-- Cultivation is, um uhhh [long pause] I just have to decide how I can say things that are not spoilers. Cultivation, the Stormfather reminds her of certain things about someone else she knew, and she feels the same way about the Stormfather in some ways as this person she knew.Tags
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11
Question
Are there kandra hiding in any of your books, besides the Mistborn ones?Brandon Sanderson
Yes there are! [smugly] yes there are...Tags
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12
Question
Any hints at the thing hiding in the maps of Roshar?Brandon Sanderson
The map of Roshar, what hints can I give you? The same thing is hiding in all of the maps of Roshar. All of the ones we have done so far have the same thing.Tags
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13
Question
Will Hoid ever have a book of his own?Brandon Sanderson
Yes he will. He will several.Tags
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14
Question
Is Harmony aware of events on Roshar?Brandon Sanderson
[hesitantly] Yeeeeeeees, some of them.Tags
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15
Question
Will you tell us a little about the sword from Warbreaker?Brandon Sanderson
Nightblood is a weapon that I devised. He is partially inspired by my love of Michael Moorcock's writing. He was built into the cosmere using many of the foundational cosmere magic system things that exist on multiple worlds.Tags
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16
Question
Do Nightblood and TenSoon have the same voice?Brandon Sanderson
You read Nightblood and TenSoon with the same voice, okay. Sure… Suuuure… Yes they totally can.Tags
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17
Question
Shadows for Silence, cosmere timeline, where does it fall with the rest of the books.Brandon Sanderson
It is middle cosmere, a little on the late side but not-- It is pre-Stormlight Archive, so yeah.Tags
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18
Question
Why was the base form of Shardblades chosen to be blades, as swords?Brandon Sanderson
It's because the Shardblades were devised-- I can't spoil the second book-- They were devised as imitations of the Honorblades, which were created and given to the Heralds. So since the original pattern was the Honorblades, they were built to feel like the Honorblades.Tags
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19
Question
Is Hemalurgy still practiced during Harmony's reign?Brandon Sanderson
Yes.Tags
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20
Question
When will we see a Hoid book?Brandon Sanderson
You will see a Hoid book-- You will NOT see a Hoid book until I finish the first five books of Stormlight and the next Mistborn trilogy at the earliest. More likely is after Stormlight is done.Tags
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21
Question
From the moment you begin worldbuilding, how long did it take you before it really resembled what we read in The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance?Brandon Sanderson
Resembled? I would say about a year. But I started worldbuilding it in 2001, if you read the version I wrote in 2002 you would say "This feels like Roshar" but the spren weren't in it yet.Tags
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22
Question
Are we going to see any chapters that are expressly(?) Hoid now that he is becoming more and more important?Brandon Sanderson
You have seen two. Are you going to see more? Yes. I would say that if you look at the structure of the first two Stormlight books, you will find several themes and those themes are likely to be repeated in future books. And Hoid does like having the last word.Tags
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23
Question
Did the original sixteen Shardholders all know each other?Brandon Sanderson
Yes they at least-- Yes, I would say that they did.Tags
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24
Question
Unknown question.Brandon Sanderson
Hoid waxes poetic on the idea that the more people expect the harder it is on the artist. This is more the critic in me having noticed my own expectations for a piece play dramatically into how much I enjoy it [...] How someone who analyzes art like a critic in my analyzes art what would be an observation they would make. Hoid is not me and he does not voice necessarily my personal opinions but he is an artist and a critic so he notices some of the things I notice.Tags
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25
Question
Did Ben or Isaac design the glyphs in The Stormlight Archive?Isaac Stewart, Ben McSweeney
I did. So here's an interesting thing the-- [trolling] no I'm not going to tell you that. *lots of laughter* I think it would be a spoiler for Book 3. Bridge Four in Alethi, you guys ready? Vev Gesheh. Vev is the number four, Gesheh is bridge. When I design the glyphs, I always make sure I know how to say it in Alethi before I design the glyph.
Ben
Is there a reason for that?
Isaac
There is a reason for that.
Ben
Are you going to tell us what that reason is?
Isaac
Nope. The glyph writing system is just a-- You are supposed to be able to look at it and say "Hey that's-- That means bridge" but it could be elongated, it could be changed, it could be-- but the same shapes are in there and that means "bridge" or whatever else that is. The glyphs don't really relate to pronunciation. You learn them from seeing the glyph and knowing what the word is for that. But the people, the people who create the glyphs have a different process from those who read them. It can be somewhat difficult to draw the glyphs, we generally go through several iterations of different looks of things before we come up with something that we like.
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26
Question
Lift stands outside Kredik Shaw, her goal is to eat the Lord Ruler's lunch, can she get a way with it?Brandon Sanderson
I think she totally can. She's Lift, she'll just get him while he's sleeping.Footnote
Why is the Lord Ruler napping at lunch time???Tags
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27
Question
Hoid mentions that no story is new, is repeated, this feels like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time overarching philosophy, any connection?Brandon Sanderson
Certainly, though it is more a storyteller's connection. Storytellers know that the same stories are told over and over and we have just learned to interpret them differently for our different lives.Tags
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28
Question
Will we get more of Lift?Brandon Sanderson
You will get a lot more with Lift. She was written into the outline from the very begining as one of the people who gets a book of her own. With Lift part of the inspiration was-- Boy, what was the inspiration for Lift? When I was building the Stormlight Archive I said "I want the Knights Radiant to run the gamut of different character styles, ages, and types of story." And when you say "knight"-- When I say knight you imagine one thing, what you don't imagine is a thirteen-year-old hispanic girl, right? And I said "I want to have the people who are in the Knights Radiant to not be the standard what you think of." They are the entire world's cultures having different people. And so I said "What are somebody who does not fit that mold?" That you would say is not a knight. Lift was partially developed out of me wanting to build a character who was awesome but was so different from what everyone would think of. ‘Cause you say knight and they think of white dude in armor and I wanted something very different from that. And that's where she came from. It also came partially from my wife reading a lot of fantasy and complaining and she's like "You know the asians show up in fantasy, asian culture inspires a lot. European culture of course does. You see a lot of these things but where are the hispanics?" Yeah there's one. So she challenged me to put a hispanic culture in my books because I had never done it before and so Lift is an outgrowth of that, so are the Herdazians. They are meant to be sort of in the same way that the Alethi are inspired by Korean culture, mashed up with this sort of concept of medieval knights. Shallan is based a little off of Western American/Europe culture. The Herdazians are launching off some of the original hispanic concepts. So the thing is, you want every culture to be new and original but you are working from somewhere. And the problem is we all work from the same stories for so long that is part of the reason why fantasy is starting to feel so stale.Tags
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29
Question
Have you decided on the POV characters for the back five of The Stormlight Archive?Brandon Sanderson
Yes I did. When I created the original ten book outline I did decide everybody who was going to have a book.Tags
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30
Question
Concerning everything on Roshar, is it safe to say The Stormlight Archive will become the backbone series of the story of the cosmere?Brandon Sanderson
There are three backbone series: Dragonsteel, Mistborn, and The Stormlight Archive. And Mistborn is past, present, future, Stormlight is the center, and Dragonsteel is the beginning. So really it goes: Dragonsteel, Mistborn, Stormlight, Mistborn, Stormlight, Mistborn. Is basically how this backbone sequence goes.Tags
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31
Question
Unknown question.Brandon Sanderson
The drawing glyphs is based on Korean and Chinese writing systems. I'm Mormon, I served a mission in Korea for two years, loved the writing system and the language. It was part of what inspired me to do that. There is this really cool thing where in Korea they used Chinese characters to write for a long time and they are very difficult to learn because you just have to memorize them and there was a great king Sejong who said "My people are being mostly illiterate because these are so hard and we don't even speak Chinese, we are not Chinese. We use their characters, can we develop a language, a writing system that will allow us to do this" and his scholars got together and devised Korean which is a way to phonetically write Chinese characters kind of, it's their own thing. You write them in little groups to make little Chinese characters, it's the coolest thing ever. But you can right most Korean things, not everything, most you can write as a Chinese character or as a phonetic Korean construction of three letters that create that Chinese character sound and I liked that idea and it spun me into the idea of the Aons and the Aonic language and things like that.Tags
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32
Question
What does Glys look like?Brandon Sanderson
Uhhm, RAFO. [smiles] Looks like a big RAFO.Tags
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33
Question
Hoid can regrow his head, so can the Lord Ruler, what would happen if you cut them both off and switched them?Brandon Sanderson
That's… really weird.Tags
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