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Interviews: Calamity-Seattle
Summary:
Entries
99
Date
Feb 17th, 2016
Location
Seattle, WA
TourCon
Calamity
Links
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1
Question
[paraphrased] I have Aspergers, and when I read Bands of Mourning, for the first time I could really identify with a character [Steris]. What kind of research did you do when writing her?Brandon Sanderson
I have several people in my life who have Aspergers, specifically, and they were a huge resource, as you might imagine. One of the things I like to do in my fiction is to try and get people who are heroic who have different types of psychology than what you normally see in heroes. The more I’ve lived in life, the more I realize that we all are really distinctive in our own way and our psychology all works differently. And yet we see a lot of heroes who have the same brain chemistry, it seems, and that’s always felt really weird to me. So one of my mandates has been to do that [vary characters’ psychology.]So what kind of research did I do? When I was in college, one of my favorite things to do was sneak into classes I wasn’t signed up for. And the psychology classes were my favorite. And this friend—this is coincidental—who wanted to be a chef actually got a psychology major. His parents were like “You should do something useful with your life,” so he got a psychology major. He ended up going to med school; he didn’t become a chef. He went to med school and he likes that too. [Note: Brandon talked about this friend during the first part of the signing.] I would sneak into his classes, and they were so useful as a writer. Just to look at the different [neuro]types and to start to see personality not as… We like to look at a lot of things as normal or abnormal, and that’s not the way it is. Everyone’s personality is on a spectrum, and what is normal and what is abnormal is completely a matter of perspective. Where you stand on this line. It’s trying to make a value judgment that shouldn’t really exist. So it’s coming to see personality as these swaths of interesting color is what the psychology classes taught me.I did do some specific research for Steris, and then I looked and I interviewed people as well.I’m glad that you picked up on it without me ever having to say who she was and things like that. That’s when I really feel like I’ve nailed something, when you can look at in and say, “Yeah, this is who this person is,” instead of someone pointing from the outside and saying who this person is or what they are.Tags
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2
Question
I listen to your podcast, Writing Excuses, and you’ve been this year breaking down stories into different parts. Was Bands of Mourning was your attempt to write a pulp novel?Brandon Sanderson
Actually, all of the Wax and Wayne books are a harkening back to classic serials of old novels. It’s interesting looking back at that. I kind of pitched those books to myself as Mistborn the television show, or the action serial. The other ones were the epic fantasy, these were the action serials, and I did try to kind of vary the genre. The first one is straight up detective novel, the second one’s a psychological thriller, and the third one is classic serial adventure story. That was very intentional. It was me trying to take different tones and mash them up with different stories and see what comes out.Tags
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3
Question
[paraphrased] Your magic systems are all very detailed and internally consistent. To what extent do you come up with the world and then write a story within it, versus building the world to fit the story?Brandon Sanderson
The answer is, “Yes.” Which is one of those unsatisfying authorly answers. It depends on the story. Like for instance with the Wax and Wayne books, I already had the world built, so in that I’m building a story around a setting that already existed. With the Reckoners, what happened is I had the idea for people who gained superpowers all going evil, and that concept spun me into building a story about it. So that’s more of an idea that spins a story rather than a setting. Sometimes I’ve had a character I’ve really wanted to tell a story about, like Raoden or something like this, and then I build magic to match. It happens all different ways, and really it’s a give and a take. Once you start with a character, you start building a story around them, and then you stop and you work on the magic for a while, then you go back to the character and then you go back to the magic and then you go to the setting and then you go to the plot. As you build an outline you weave all these things together. You’re not just spending time on one till it’s done and then the next until it’s done. It’s happened all different ways for me.Tags
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4
Question
Is there any connection between Odium and Trell?Brandon Sanderson
[Brandon hems and haws for a moment.] Um…yes, there is some connection. That’s a question where if you understood it then great, if you didn’t then don’t worry.Tags
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5
Question
Do you have any ideas for characters in different stories meeting each other?Brandon Sanderson
Yes I do. You’ll see a bunch of that. And if you haven’t seen the little behind-the-scenes Mistborn novella, Secret History, which is ebook only right now. The print edition will come out in the fall. That involves characters from different stories meeting each other.Tags
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6
Question
As a writer who’s written a lot, do you still struggle with some aspects of writing, like your punctuation still sucks or something?Brandon Sanderson
My biggest weakness as a writer is repeating words and phrases, which is a very common thing for writers to have. There are people like Pat Rothfuss who don’t have this problem. Because they slave over every sentence. For years. [audience laughs] You know I love him. The way I deal with it is to highlight the ones I struggle with a lot, and have my assistant look for them. Then do a search and replace in Microsoft Word for the word but with brackets around it, so it leaves the same word it just brackets it so I can decide, do I really want that word, or did I just use it because that’s what I always use. The other big thing as a writer is I still don’t like revision. I want to be writing a new story, not revising an old one. Fortunately, this is a battle revision won like twenty years ago. More like fifteen. But I’ve gotten used to how I have to do it. When is the book done, and the number of drafts it requires. So I do it, even though, you know…Tags
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7
Question
With as many novels as you’ve written, do you have an assistant or a system you use to remember everything?Brandon Sanderson
Yes I do. What I use is a wiki. I use a personal wiki, just like Wikipedia. I use an open-source software called wikidpad. I have someone whose job it is to read my books after I write them, go make all of those notes into the wiki with page references so I can look them all up in the book. They have a very fun yet tedious job.Tags
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8
Question
What level of completion do you write your novels to before you send them to your editor?Brandon Sanderson
Here’s a quick look at my drafting process: Draft one, hopefully no one ever sees. I’m a momentum writer. A lot of writers are like this. I can’t stop in the middle and revise unless something is really broken. If there’s something I want to change, I just keep going and try it out for the next chapter. So if I decide I needed another character here, I will just write them in and everyone will act like they’ve always been there. I’ll try it out for a chapter. If it works, I’ll keep going that way, and if it doesn’t, I’ll cut them out and try something different. So first drafts can be really weird. “Am I supposed to know this person everyone else knows? Have I forgotten who this was?” And things like that. Characters just vanish, and I’ll leave out the foreshadowing—foreshadowing is really easy to add in later. Things like this. Second draft is to fix all of that stuff. I can sometimes send that off, but what I really like to send off is the third draft, which is the first polished. Where for the first time I try to make it pretty, or at least not cringe-worthy. So that’s what I send to an editor. That’s also what I send to alpha readers, which is my writing group, my agent, my friends and family and things like that. Once that gets back, I do a bunch of revisions until it’s good, and then we get beta readers, which are usually community beta readers. If you want to be a beta reader, I’m not the person to convince, Peter is. He’s my editorial assistant. He’s the one who picks the betas, and they do a bunch of reads, and I do a bunch of drafts based on what they say, and then I go to proofreaders.Tags
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9
Question
[Note: This question was asked by a young boy sitting near the front.] So for the Stormlight Archive series–Brandon Sanderson
The Stormlight Archive? How old are you? [audience laughter]Question
Nine?Brandon Sanderson
Nine? And you’re reading the Stormlight Archive? [loud cheering]Question
So the character Lift, with her powers, why does she only have to eat food instead of sucking in stormlight?Brandon Sanderson
So Lift is a really weird one. She visited the Old Magic and asked something very strange, and the Old Magic didn’t know how to treat that, and so answered with something equally strange. So you will actually see what happened with Lift and things like that, but suffice it to say some really weird things are going on.Tags
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Question
I wanted to say that I admire that your characters are people first, and not gender first. But I wanted to ask you, does anyone call you Branderson?Brandon Sanderson
Yes, it is starting to catch on. I don’t know if it would be my first choice, but I will accept Branderson as opposed to… if people called me BS.Tags
11
Question
If you took an allomancer and stuck them in another one of your worlds, could they still burn metal there?Brandon Sanderson
Yes they could.Tags
12
Question
With all the characters that you design, and you just said how you put a character in and see if it works, are there any characters that you keep on a backlog and try to mix and see if they fit?Brandon Sanderson
Totally. What I have is this notes file, literally called “Cool stuff that I need to use sometime.” And it’s like when I see something in the news or I meet a person and say, “I need to use that someday.” It can be years before I end up sticking them in. There’s a cool example of something like this that I finally managed to stick in years later. It happens all the time. I’ll try to think of it, so when you come through the line ask me and I’ll try to remember.Tags
13
Question
In the Wax and Wayne series, how do you come up with all of Wayne’s little wisecracks?Brandon Sanderson
So here’s the deal. It’s kinda hard to write people who are more clever than you are. It’s one of the tricks you have to learn as a writer. The big difference, they do it off the cuff in the moment, and you can spend a week or two trying to find the perfect thing to say, and that’s really how it goes. Oftentimes the characters who are more humorous, like Wayne’s a great example. It’s very natural how he says things; it can take me weeks to come up with like a couple of lines of dialogue for Wayne, where other things get written very quickly. My favorite Wayneisms are when I can have him use a word that looks–when you’re reading along you assume it’s a word, but then you go back and you’re like, “Wait a minute. Did he actually say defecation of character?” Or something like that. So you don’t even notice on the first read through. The things that a copy editor’s like, “You used the wrong word here,” those are my favorite Wayneisms. Those take forever.Tags
14
Question
Is Dalinar’s wife really dead?Brandon Sanderson
That is a RAFO, and you will discover it in the third book.Tags
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Specifically in the Mistborn series, do you have a favorite emotional moment that you wrote?Brandon Sanderson
I am and ending person, so I would say endings of various books, and endings of series in particular, are among my favorite. I’ll just leave it there.Tags
16
Question
Can you tell us anything about perpendicularities?Brandon Sanderson
No.Tags
17
Question
Who was your favorite Mistborn character to write? Personally I hated Elend and Vin but I loved Zane.Brandon Sanderson
You hated Elend and Vin and you loved Zane… Um. I–I’d probably stay away from you. [more laughter] But who’s my favorite? Picking a favorite character is almost impossible. It’s whoever you’re writing at the moment. But I kind of have a personal connection with Sazed, so I’ll say Sazed.Tags
18
Question
Did the Lord Ruler ever have children?Brandon Sanderson
Yes.Tags
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Question
If you starred in a buddy cop movie with Pat Rothfuss, would you be the good cop or the bad cop?Brandon Sanderson
If you know anything at all about us, I’d be the good cop and he’s definitely the bad cop. Definitely. I mean, come on.Tags
20
Question
We’ve seen the Cognitive Realm now on Roshar, with the spheres, and on Scadrial with the mists, but what does it look like on Nalthis and Sel?Brandon Sanderson
That is a big FAT RAFO.Tags
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Question
What happened with Abraham’s court marshal?Brandon Sanderson
So, that is backstory that is also a RAFO. Why Abraham was there is not something that he likes to talk about. It’s not that he’s shy, but at the same time it’s not something that he easily talks about, so I will not talk about it. I will let him someday, perhaps, talk about it.Tags
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With the changes that happened to all the cities in the Reckoners—like we know there was a big war in Portland—did you have anything specific that happened in Seattle?Brandon Sanderson
Um…yes, but I don’t want to canonize any of that. I’ll save it for when I’m actually writing.Tags
23
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What kind of Epic is Mizzy?Brandon Sanderson
That is another thing I’m going to save. If I do a sequel trilogy—which I may or may not actually do after the next thing—Mizzy would be the protagonist.Tags
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The alternate world that we see sometimes with Megan. Did Firefight and David know each other before David died?Brandon Sanderson
Firefight knows of him. But he did not know him.Tags
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Question
We were wondering who would win in a fight, a Mistborn or a Windrunner.Brandon Sanderson
It would really depend on the situation. I would say the Windrunner would win on a battlefield and the Mistborn will when at sneaking around and slitting people’s throats.Tags
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Question
So I just finished The Bands of Mourning, which was my favorite out of that series. Did you know when you were writing Alloy of Law how you were going to link this to the original, with the kandra, the bands of the Lord Ruler...Brandon Sanderson
Yeah the kandra were seeded, MeLaan you can go and look back in the original three. Like I’m going to use her in the next series, for sure. Now what I usually do is when I’m starting a series, and I did this for this one, is I will write the first book in the series. So I did this with Steelheart, I did this with the original Mistborn, I did this with Alloy of Law. I write the first book, I sit down, and say “Okay, what worked about that, what can I expand upon” and then I outline the series with those characters and then go back and revise the first one to match and then I release the first one. Does that make sense?Question
Yeah.Brandon Sanderson
So not everything do I know writing the first one but by the time I’m through the revisions I usually do.Tags
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Question
How often do your dreams ever influence your books?Brandon Sanderson
Once in awhile.Question
Once in awhile.Brandon Sanderson
Yup. […] writer you have a cool dream […] something there […] Usually there’s not but once in awhile there really is something and it turns around in your head and eventually ends up in the books.Tags
28
Question
When are we going to see Ironeyes again?Brandon Sanderson
He will probably make an appearance in The Lost Metal. I’m not sure he will be back from where he is in time.Tags
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Question
Vasher/Zahel is a Returned, which means he needs Breath to live. But Breath doesn’t exist--Brandon Sanderson
Right.Question
--on Roshar. Does he use St--Brandon Sanderson
He uses Stormlight. One of the reasons-- In fact one of the primary reasons he’s on Roshar is because Stormlight is so much easier to come by than Breath. And in fact researching about things like this is one of the reasons he discovered Roshar in the first place.Question
So it’s the same reason why Night-- the sword…Brandon Sanderson
Nightblood.Question
Yes.Brandon Sanderson
The exact mechanics of how Nightblood ended up there will be explored in a future book.Tags
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Question
least favorite “children’s” book?Brandon Sanderson
The Dubliners.Tags
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Question
What would happen if you went to the Nightwatcher asked for your boon to have a boon and no curse?Brandon Sanderson
You would…Question
Probably end up with nothing?Brandon Sanderson
It depends on the mood the Nightwatcher is in. When you read Book 3 of Stormlight you’ll get to see a little bit of what the Nightwatcher is, and that will inform what you think about these things, okay?Tags
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Question
Why does everyone know about his [Kaladin] Stormblessed name? Like Gaz knows about it before he survives the highstorms. Like how do they know?Brandon Sanderson
How do they know? The rumors were already spreading, people started talking about it and things like that.Tags
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Question
For all the spren, like the honorspren and the liespren, I’ve noticed that all of the characters, the honorspren have been girls and all the liespren have been boys. Is that just ‘cause all the people who attract liespren are girls and all the other people--Brandon Sanderson
So it’s not a one to one ratio of people who are more likely to attract a spren of the opposite gender.Brandon Sanderson
Yeah I’ll delve into it eventually in the books. Maybe just obliquely, but there is a reason for it.Tags
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Question
I kind of envision the Old Magic working a little bit like Hemalurgy, where some-- takes a part of the Physical DNA of the person and transmutes it onto the Cognitive DNA because everything seems to be a Cognitive shift for the person, am I thinking along the right lines?Brandon Sanderson
You are thinking along very-- Yes you are thinking along the right lines. I won’t tell you exactly but you are thinking along the right lines.Question
And then the curse Kelek’s Breath, is that a clue as to the origin of some of the Heralds?Brandon Sanderson
Erm… Explain why you think it might be.Question
Uh, well, Warbreaker--Brandon Sanderson
MmhmmQuestion
The use of Breath…Brandon Sanderson
UhuhQuestion
It seems like they have similar strength to somebody who has extra EndowmentBrandon Sanderson
Okay.Question
So I’m wondering if they come from-- I can’t remember the name..Brandon Sanderson
The Heralds-- You’re wondering if the Heralds come from Nalthis?Question
Yeah.Brandon Sanderson
The Heralds do not come from Nalthis, but that is an excellent question.Tags
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Question
Have we ever seen the Physical embodiment of either Odium or Cultivation? Similar to what we saw with Ruin chasing...Vin?Brandon Sanderson
So *pause* physical embodiment is kind of hard thing to define with Shards because you could argue that everything is a physical embodiment of them, does that make sense?Question
Yes. I mean more a physical form that the uses share--Brandon Sanderson
Oh okay, okay. So have you ever seen Odium’s? I don’t believe you’ve seen Odium’s.Question
What about Cultivation’s?Brandon Sanderson
Cultivation is a RAFO.Tags
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So burning prayers, is that so certain Shard’s can hear what’s being said?Brandon Sanderson
I’ll leave that one vague for now.Tags
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For spren, when the Oaths are broken I’m kind of envisioning the mind of the spren gets trapped in that person’s Spiritweb somehow. Is that along the right lines or not along the right lines?Brandon Sanderson
*long pause* Ehhh, in between those two answers.Tags
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Question
Well you answered my question about Allomancers being able to burn metals in other realms--Brandon Sanderson
Yes.Question
--is that because the Shards are sort of… My impression from the book was that the Shards were--in the Mistborn books--specifically in that area but is it because the universe is formed across all of them that that is why the metals--Brandon Sanderson
So, most of the magics are not region-dependent, because the Spiritual Realm-- in the Spiritual Realm space doesn’t exist. All things are the same distance from one another.Tags
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Question
Okay, so when Kelsier is in the-- Which Realm is he in?Brandon Sanderson
He’s in the Cognitive Realm.Question
Is he seeing people from other worlds or is he--Brandon Sanderson
No, he meets some people who are traveling but Cognitive Realm is location dependent. He is on the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial and the people he runs into there-- until he kind of travels off into space, which is where he finds the fortress.Question
So even though he’s tied to Scadrial could he go to the Cognitive Realm of other worlds?Brandon Sanderson
He would have trouble getting to another planet, being a Cognitive shadow like he was.Question
So is there some particular thing that somebody would need to have to be able to move between the realms?Brandon Sanderson
A body is helpful.Question
That does make sense.Brandon Sanderson
Depends on what their ties are and things like that. Not always, but yeah.Tags
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What can you tell me about where spren come from?Brandon Sanderson
Spren come from where everything in the world of Roshar comes from. The are a natural part of life there. They come from the same place rocks and the wind and all of that...Tags
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Question
Did you worry with Secret History that it was a bit too meta for people who had no idea…Brandon Sanderson
No, that’s why all the warnings are there. It’s kind of intended for the people--Question
Yeah, fair enough.Brandon Sanderson
--who want something, does that make sense? Like it isn’t really-- it is a story, but it's not a real story, it’s got weird narrative and things to it. It is there for those who really want to know.Question
And I’m one of those people, I just have to wonder if you had no idea you’d be really confused through at least the first half.Brandon Sanderson
Yes you would. But that’s why all the warnings are there.Tags
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Was Adonalsium the one who created the cosmere universe as a whole?Brandon Sanderson
That is widely assumed to be the case.Tags
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With The Reckoners you had to make the decision not to put it into your cosmere cosmology, was that a difficult one?Brandon Sanderson
It was not difficult once I realized I did not want Earth to be part of everything else.Question
If it had been would [CalamityDavid? have been a Shard of Adonalsium?]Brandon Sanderson
That’s an interesting question. Maybe.Tags
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Secret History was cool, thank you for that. Do you plan to have a series of that?Brandon Sanderson
If I can squeeze them in.Question
Would they primarily be in the Cognitive Realm like this one?Brandon Sanderson
Not always, they’d just be behind the scenes stuff happening with characters who are more cosmere aware.Tags
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Where Hoid and Frost some of the older humans created by Adonalsium?Brandon Sanderson
You will find that out eventually… Frost is not a human.Tags
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Is Yesteel on Roshar right now?Brandon Sanderson
That is a RAFO.Tags
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Who’d win, Vin or Kaladin?Brandon Sanderson
On a battlefield Kaladin, off a battlefield probably Vin.Tags
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If Kelsier hadn’t died and became Emperor instead of Elend, how would he have ruled?Brandon Sanderson
Poorly. He would have gotten bored pretty fast.Tags
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If Vasher is on Roshar where the hell is Vivenna?Brandon Sanderson
OOOOOH that’s a RAFO!Tags
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rani
Any kind of Investiture to make a Shardblade?Brandon Sanderson
Not any but there are multiple methods. Some work better than others.rani
Can you Forge a Shardblade?Brandon Sanderson
Um… *sighs* To Forge a Shardblade, meaning make a regular sword through Forgery into a shardblade, would require so much Investiture it’s like asking if we can make lead into gold using a particle accelerator. Yes but it's horribly, horribly, horribly inefficient.Tags
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rani
Hoid uses the term subastral, is that the term for a region of the Cognitive Realm, like Shadesmar is?Brandon Sanderson
Yeah. It’s like planet but-- That’s his term for the different-- Because Shadesmar is all like one plane.rani
So wait you’re saying subastral is different?Brandon Sanderson
No subastral is a region of Shadesmar.Tags
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Megan and Steelheart, what was the nature of their relationship? How did they know each other, meet each other?Brandon Sanderson
Employer and an employee. More like high-level employer and very competent contractor.Tags
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Can I get the name of a character we have not met yet?Brandon Sanderson
*pause* who can I dredge up… The problem is I don’t usually canonize them until I’m sitting and writing them. Uh… *sound obscured*Tags
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Say something is brought into the Cognitive Realm, and then the actual object is brought in through a portal…Brandon Sanderson
That’s a RAFO, good question.Tags
55
Question
Who is the Lord Ruler’s child/children?Brandon Sanderson
People are searching a little too hard for this, he had several, they mixed with the population. There might be specific individuals who claim heirship and things like that but it’s not like there’s one hidden person among the population, does that make sense? Even those who claim heirship may not have any more blood than a lot of other people. I think this is one where fans have latched onto it a little too strongly and I need to let them know they can back off, there’s not a big secret for them to be hunting.Tags
56
Question
How is a new Feruchemist made?Brandon Sanderson
What do you mean?Question
Well you can make a new Mistborn by lerasium--Brandon Sanderson
Oh, okay. Other than through birth?Question
Yeah.Brandon Sanderson
That’s a RAFO, good question though. Right now, as far as anyone knows, it’s by birth only. But-- Well we’ll leave it there. You know that the extra Preservation instead of Ruin had some effects on people on Scadrial.Tags
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You’ve said that Shard’s have intents, what about shard-planets, [...] pulls those shards to that planet?Brandon Sanderson
Yes, but it’s not something I’m going to talk about for a long time.Tags
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Speaking of intents, Investiture, and what Shards can see, hypothetically if Odium were to go to Scadrial would some things not be visible to him, like, say, metal?Brandon Sanderson
Metal would be hard for him to see, yes.Tags
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It feels like Roshar is-- has an essence, where it’s like a prism, you can see all the rest of them, due to the nature of the Cognitive Realm and the spren’s ideas, Cognitive things coming to light. Have I spent too much time looking at the Shard?Brandon Sanderson
No, you are on the right path. Of all the things you noted, that one is the one that is perhaps the most important.Question
The prism idea.Brandon Sanderson
The idea that Roshar is special and a key on Shadesmar.Tags
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In Secret History we learned a little about how the Cognitive Realm...could bleed into the Physical if the person was slightly broken.Brandon Sanderson
Broken as Kelsier’s term is not right, and he realizes that over the course of the book, but yeah.Question
My thoughts were on Wayne, so he seems to notice--and it might just be kleptomania--a connection between items that makes him feel as if he’s not stealing, just trading things for equal value. And I’m wondering if he’s noticing something in the Cognitive-- in one of the other Realms that is actually noteworthy.Brandon Sanderson
He’s just goofy.Tags
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Question
In Bands of Mourning we saw the medallions that can give people Connection to the area that they are in. Two thoughts on that. One… if a person were to get a connection to one of the areas from Elantris would they be able to gain the powers from the area?Brandon Sanderson
Yeah that’s a good question, it’s not that easy. But it is an excellent question.Question
And if there was an area where the primary language was sign language, would a person gain the ability to speak sign language to the people present by using that connection?Brandon Sanderson
Yes. It is definitely related to the Cognitive Realm and how people are thinking about language.Tags
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What happens when you Lash water, or a body of water?Brandon Sanderson
Excellent question, it’s going to have some hard time gripping on--Question
Would it have a gravity well going on?Brandon Sanderson
Yeah it would have a gravity well, it think-- yeah. You are the first person to ask about that, I don’t think even my assistant has asked about that. So that’s your tentative answer until I think about it some more, but I think it would.Tags
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What’s the upper limit of Lashing, is it Stormlight?Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, it’s-- Well define for me what you mean by upper limit?Question
*audio obscured*Brandon Sanderson
That would take a lot of Stormlight.Question
[So it’s something about the Stormlight?]Brandon Sanderson
Definitely.Tags
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Question
The visitors in the Sixth of the Dusk, do I know who they are?Brandon Sanderson
I haven’t answered this for sure, but I have told people that it takes place in the future and is related to the rest of the cosmere…Question
Do we know how soon we’ll find out?Brandon Sanderson
It’s a little ways off.Question
Will it be the series the visitors are from [...]Brandon Sanderson
Sixth of the Dusk is not going to be a series. You will see references to them elsewhere but…Tags
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The worldjumpers in [Secret History] are they ones that have shown up in other books? And we just don’t know their--Brandon Sanderson
Yes.Question
--names.Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, they’re only tangential in the other books. I think one of them has only shown up on screen once. The other one’s shown up a couple of times but mostly in certain annotations and things like that. In the books, like on the maps.Tags
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At the end of Hero of Ages, there’s the--I forget what it’s called, when the kandra all remove their Hemalurgic nails--and then I forget which character wakes up and just sees the blobs everywhere, and then after what everything that happens I don’t really know what happened to the kandra after that.Brandon Sanderson
They returned their spikes but that left them with holes in their memory.Question
Who did? The survivors?Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, the survivors.Tags
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As of the current Wax and Wayne book [The Bands of Mourning] have we seen any Shards that have been Splintered that have recombined?Brandon Sanderson
Have you seen any? No you have not. Good question.Tags
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Have you ever considered doing a pronunciation guide for your characters?Brandon Sanderson
I should do that, shouldn’t I?Question
It would help so much [...]Brandon Sanderson
The thing about that is I’m kind of of the philosophy that however you do it in your head is the right version in your version of the story. Because the characters won’t look the same to everyone. Everyone imagines them differently, might as well say the names differently...Tags
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If you were an Epic what would your powers be?Brandon Sanderson
Truthfully it would be something like summoning books out of the air. But if I wanted one I would pick flying.Tags
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Can you create a shardblade with Breath?Brandon Sanderson
Yes. That’s what Nightblood is.Tags
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How many magic systems are in The Stormlight Archive, and how many of them [have been seen?]Brandon Sanderson
I would see the only major one you haven’t seen is Voidbinding, it depends on how you count them. I count fabrials as one, Surgebinding as one, and Voidbinding as one. And then the Old Magic is kind of its own weird thing.Tags
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With Nightblood coming in [to Words of Radiance] does that produce a magic system from a different book or does that stay separate?Brandon Sanderson
It will stay separate.Tags
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If you put a Line of Forbidding on a wall going up could it be stairs?Brandon Sanderson
It could theoretically work but it would be like a magnet and push you off. It’d be pretty hard to use.Tags
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So what makes some spren rarer than others?Brandon Sanderson
That is not a question I’ve answered yet so you will find out someday perhaps.Tags
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What would happen if the King’s Wit, Wayne, and Mat Cauthon from these last three Wheel of Time books went into a room and locked it?Brandon Sanderson
I think they’d all like each other. And they’d try to one-up each other, it’d be an epic [...]Tags
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In Rithmatist, when Joel goes to see if he’ll be chosen as a Rithmatist and the chalk outline thing comes out and looks at him. What was it thinking?Brandon Sanderson
You will find out eventually.Tags
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Could you draw a flying carpet with a glyph of rending so it could carry you, with a line of Forbiddance at the back--Brandon Sanderson
I think that’s a little beyond what it could do.Tags
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I was wondering what magic systems the Wit uses.Brandon Sanderson
The Wit uses a variety.Tags
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Is Shardplate also made up of spren or is it different?Brandon Sanderson
You get a RAFO card. It means you’re asking a good question but I’m not going to answer it.Tags
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Do the Parshendi that ran away, do they eventually help?Brandon Sanderson
You’ll have to find out. Those are all questions about the future books. I’m not going to answer questions about future books.Tags
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Is there such a thing as a ranged Shardblade?Brandon Sanderson
Ranged Shardblade? There are those who are better at throwing theirs.Tags
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What Shard is the opposite of Odium in the sense of the [board? Borg?]Brandon Sanderson
There are several that could be considered opposite--Question
I mean in the assimilation sense, you’ve said that Odium doesn’t want to absorb any of the other ones but which one would want to?Brandon Sanderson
Oh, which one would want to join with him?Question
Or any of them.Brandon Sanderson
*pause* I think that *long pause/picks up after next question* I think that if personalities had been different, Honor and Odium, there would have been a very natural pairing, not that they’re opposites but they would have attracted.Tags
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Do any of the Shards have psychoses?Brandon Sanderson
Any of the people? Yes, we all have them.Tags
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In Secret History we find out that when Kelsier had the power of Preservation, whenever he was near someone with cracks in their minds he would end up healing them up naturally, right? When he tried to--Brandon Sanderson
Not heal them up but--Question
The intent was that he would Preserve them, right? So my theory is that Snapping, when they’re getting physically damaged their cracks are wider and wider and that it ends up Preservation, if they have a good Connection with Preservation or whatever randomly comes in those cracks. Am I anywhere along the right track?Brandon Sanderson
This theory has merit.Tags
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In the event that [...can people Snap off-Scadrial?]Brandon Sanderson
Keep in mind that the Shards are mostly Spiritual [...] space and time do not matter to them. Time does, space does not.Tags
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Can Vasher draw Breath from a highstorm?Brandon Sanderson
I will answer that eventually... You know what, yes he can. Not Breath though, he can draw Investiture the way he needs it.Tags
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Who were Kelsier’s parents?Brandon Sanderson
Kelsier’s parents? I haven’t talked much about Kelsier’s parents [...] So he was raised in Noble society, unlike a lot of the half-breeds, he knew his nature, he get’s his skaa half from his mother but they hid in plain sight. Like she pretended to be Noble.Tags
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Is the two-way radio a fabrial?Brandon Sanderson
No.Tags
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Is Nightblood a minor Shard?Brandon Sanderson
Nightblood is one of the most heavily Invested things in the cosmere that is not a Shard.Tags
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Are any of the fish in the Purelake Invested?Brandon Sanderson
The fish in the Purelake, like the Ryshadium and other things you will see, are not 100% normal.Tags
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Has Wax drawn on the mists at some point?Brandon Sanderson
Yes.Tags
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When you are burning a Compounded metal are you getting the metal’s effect and the stored power?Brandon Sanderson
Okay, so when you are Compounding--Question
Can you explain, I’m unclear on the Compounding.Brandon Sanderson
Compounding is a way to hack the magic system so you can get a Feruchemical attribute out of-- basically powering Feruchemy with Allomancy. If that makes sense.Question
So you’re not actually burning the metalmind?Brandon Sanderson
Kind of? There’s a big explanation on Reddit, if you send me an email I can link you to it, that steps you through exactly, easier than explaining it here.Tags
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twinborn surgebinder?Brandon Sanderson
possible but unlikely.Tags
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So nicrosil. Wax couldn’t use a blank gold metalmind because he’s not a gold ferring, why can he use a blank nicrosil metalmind?Brandon Sanderson
So this will all come out eventually but the idea is there are certain ways to connect yourself to the magic, to hack the magic and make it think you have the Spiritual DNA that you don’t actually have. And this is one of the ways.Question
And the people who made this medallion have this thing that a regular nicrosil Ferring couldn’t--Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, you’re picking up on it. We’ll dig deeper into it as the series progresses.Tags
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What is the intent of the Seventeenth Shard?Brandon Sanderson
That has not been revealed yet.Tags
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Aluminum, when you burn aluminum, does it actually destroy the metals or just take away their power?Brandon Sanderson
It destroys the metals.Question
Same with chromium?Brandon Sanderson
Yeah.Question
So it actually gets rid of the metals?Brandon Sanderson
It actually trans-- It does a-- matter, energy, investiture are the same things in the cosmere. You have some sort of transfer happening relating to those things.Question
The question sort of relates to metal poisoning--Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, you would not get metal poisoning after that.Tags
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Could a Leecher take away stores in a metalmind?Brandon Sanderson
You’ll have to find out. That’s a RAFO.Tags
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We saw the broadsheet lady destroy--do something to--was that Nazh that was in the broadsheet?Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, mmhmm. I’m not going to talk on that one. that’s a RAFO.Tags
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So there’s Snapping on Scadrial, where an event happens and then you can use the magic. Is there something like Snapping on Roshar, whereBrandon Sanderson
Yes and no. They’re working under the same sort of assumption, the spren are just looking for a specific thing that is similar to what Snapping does.Tags
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