Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

I just wanted to say ... I like how the main characters are named Wax and Wayne.

Thanks. In all honesty, I was hesitant about the pun. I liked it, on one hand, but also worried that it was too goofy. By the time I tried changing the character names, however, they were too strongly cemented in my head, so changing them proved too difficult and I just left them as-is.

The Alloy of Law left me wanting more books in the universe right away. Any hints as to when we might get to see the next trilogy?

My current plan is to hold out on the second trilogy until I've reached a breaking point in the Stormlight Archive. (So after book five.) My reasoning is that the second trilogy is very involved, and I'm not certain if I want two thick-booked series going at once. There is a good chance I'll return and do another shorter book, like this one, in the world before then. Either about Wax, or perhaps a quick glimpse of the southern continent.

MORGHUS (REDDIT.com)

That's awesome! I really enjoyed both worlds, but right now the Stormlight Archive is the one that got me totally hooked. How was the reception for the first Stormlight compared to Alloy of Law? :)

BRANDON SANDERSON (REDDIT.com)

I would say the reception is about what I hoped. The Way of Kings has made much more of an impact, as I would hope would be the case. A book that is the result of many years of effort compared to a fun diversion...well, I would be worried if Alloy of Law had been the one everyone latched onto.

That said, I've been very pleased with the reception to Alloy of Law. The sales are strong, and most people seem to be enjoying it for what it is rather than expecting it to be something it is not.

Hey Brandon! As much as I want to fan-gush, I'll keep it short so you can get back to your A Memory of Light drafting.

How was Sazed/Harmony able to communicate with Waxillium near the end of the book? During the original trilogy, Ruin could occasionally implant thoughts into people's minds, but he couldn't just listen in whenever he felt like it. Is Harmony just way more powerful?

There is interesting discussion about this one below, which I like to see. I thought this might spark some discussion. Remember that human beings were given more of preservation than Ruin during their creation, which led to Preservation eventually being overwhelmed by Ruin. That was the bargain; people would be of preservation at their core, but in turn Ruin got to claim the world once Preservation wound down.

Another factor to consider here is that Wax was given a special earring designed for communication with a being that he actually worships.

Who wrote the "Ars Arcanum"? Since the writer obviously had knowledge of the Cosmere I assumed that it was you making an editorial note, but then I thought that it could be Hoid (who was suspiciously absent) or Sazed or any Shardbearer... Does that make sense at all?

The Ars Arcanum is written in-cosmere by someone, but I don't want to saw who yet.

Not really a question, but the one thing that disappointed me was that you didn't come up with new slang names for Allomancers! After three hundred years, do you really think they would still be calling steel mistings "coinshots"?

Anyway, thanks for doing this and keep up the good work.

I toyed with this one, but decided that I would keep them the same for a few reasons. First off, I felt that certain things in-world would hamper some linquistic diversity. (Having the books Sazed left behind as a guide to Allomancy and history, everyone living in a small geographic area, the semi-religious nature of Allomancy making people look at it in traditional ways.) So, while I advanced the slang of the world, some of the terms I decided to leave the same.

Another reason for this came when I was writing the book. At first, I experimented with greater linguistic diversity—I even tried a vowel shift, as I figured three hundred years might be enough for that. In the end, I pulled back. I was already worried that this book not feel "Mistborn" enough, and so I wanted some direct ties back to the original series. Fiddling too much with the language while changing the setting and characters so drastically felt like a mistake to me.

Is it significant that Miles said that the "men of gold and red" would come and rule? Is there a connection between this and the "gold and red" cigar box that Miles keeps The Suit's comings and goings on?

This is all very significant.

How long before Way of Kings is Alloy of Law? I heard somewhere that it's a hundred years, but I don't think that's right.

I intended them to be happening roughly close to one another, with Way of Kings slightly before.

Why on earth does Marsh have a Feruchemical Atium Spike? You've said that Ironeyes is in fact Marsh. Did Ruin spike someone for him? Or did Sazed grant him the power?

Dead inquisitors Vin killed. Some were granted the spike for reasons I haven't spoken of yet.

A little safer question- Why did you not have Waxillium fall for Marasi? Why stick with the contract with Steris?

Marasi, as she was in Alloy of Law, was just plain wrong for Wax. As I write books, I allow my characters to grow more free-form (while my setting and plot are outlined in detail.) In writing the book, I felt that a Marasi hook-up at the end would not only be wrong for the character, but wrong for the story. If I do direct sequels (which I probably will) perhaps things will change.

TenSoon wonders, and I wonder too- How can Kandra think and be sentient without Brains? Doesn't the body need a physical coordinator to relay between the Physical and Cognitive realm? Or do the spikes do a good enough job with that?

I imagine Kandra having a non-centralized nervous system, with brain power spread through their bodies. Well, non-centralized is probably the wrong way to say it. They have lobes of thought and memory attached to muscles here and there, and don't have a single 'brain.' They certainly have brain-like material, though.

You've said that Inquisitors could have children. Would those children have a better chance at being Allomancers compared to if they had the kids before they were Inquisitors?

Yes, but there also could be...complications.

I almost forgot! If you burn Nicrosil, will it deplete Feruchemial Storages? Or just Allomantic?

Just Allomantic.

I actually really liked Steris, and was hoping to see more characterization of her. I think of her a bit as a tsundere character, where we have not had many chances to see the dere, just the tsun.

Her businesslike demeanor to everything developed because she had high expectations placed upon her by her family's station. She was an interesting counterpoint to Wax who decided to turn his back on his family to live in the Roughs. Her particular response to marriage and relationships was influenced by her own father's infidelity to her mother. She didn't include a clause for mistresses in the marriage contract because she wants her husband to cheat on her; she just came to expect affairs because of her mother and father's relationship. Still, she and Marasi seem to care for each other, so I don't think she held that against her half-sister.

One question, two parts: If a double Nicrosil Twinborn started Compounding and storing Investiture in a Nicrosilmind, could they do something cool by tapping a whole huge bunch at once? And since Scadrialians have both Ruin and Preservation in them, could they store both those qualities in a one Nicrosilmind, or would it require two different ones?

Ha. All things regarding Investiture (particularly in regards to Feruchemy) are instant RAFOs at this point, I'm afraid. I've got to save SOME things for future books.

While I eagerly await the next novel in The Stormlight Archive I recently read your description of The Rithamist as "It’s kind of like playing magical chalkboard Starcraft, in a gearpunk world, told through the eyes of the unmagical son of the cleaning lady." and was instantly intrigued. How is the progress on it going?

zas678 got it below. The Rithmatist MIGHT come out this year, if I have spare time to revise it. I don't know that I will, as other projects come first. It feels bad to leave it hanging all of this time, but my real worry is that it had an ending that implied more books (which is the type of ending I like to write.) That is bad at this juncture. A cool stand-alone is fine, yet another series people will wait to see more of is bad. So I can't release it until I can either support it, or until I can fix the ending to not imply more volumes. That, plus the book needs a heavy draft.

ZAS678

From what I've heard, he wrote it a couple of years ago, but it needs a good 3-4 months of Brandon revisions. So it will be a while, because he really feels like he needs to get out WoT and then Stormlight Archive 2. After that he may write it.

I have my own theory but I thought I should ask, if the koloss reproduce through hemalurgic spike's how can there be half koloss in Alloy of law.

I am holding this answer back for future books, I'm afraid. I have said some things, but the full truth is still subject to debate. I will answer this eventually in the books.

As I read the book (The Alloy of Law) I started to get a very strong vibe of western combined with a Sherlock Holmes rip-off. Then I realized I was being a whinging baby and decided that such a thing was awesome. (And not a rip-off really, and probably intended.) Did you have moments like that yourself or is that part of the normal creative process for a writer anyway?

When I write a book on a whim like this one, my influences (such as the ones you mention) tend to be more overt. I don't have the time to refine the influences and distill out the essence of the story and really, REALLY put my stamp on it. I didn't mind it here, since my goal was to just write a fun story, even more of a pulp type story.

I wanted to do something along the lines of what Lucas and Spielberg originally did with Indiana Jones--that is look at some of their powerful influences, then write an action-adventure story that played off what had come before. This was a dangerous road, since Mistborn had been about subverting tropes before. I wanted Mistborn to be more than that, however. I wanted to simplify for this series while expanding its scope, if that makes any sense.

What you talk about was actually my biggest worry for the book. I tried to prepare people, and tell them that this was more pulp, more fun than anything else. Part of my desire to do this was to let myself blow off some steam from other books, TWoK and the WoT, which are more serious and solemn. I worry a little about fantasy (particularly epic fantasy) becoming too self-important. Sometimes, it should be okay to just have a fun adventure story.

Anyway, in answer to your question, yes I thought about it and I do have moments like that. Often, they worry me, and so I set about refining out the influences. In this case, I didn't let myself worry as much.

I dislike double posting, but I have one question that came up recently from your tweet. You said that there are "multiple" people from Mistborn in WoK. Does this include Hoid?

Yes, it does.

CORWIN01

Are they just vague allusions?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Vague, no. But I wouldn't say they, save Hoid, have any important impact on the events of the book.

Was there something in particular which made you want to revisit the Mistborn universe after the first trilogy?

It was the original concept for the Mistborn series, in which I pitched a fantasy world that progressed drastically in technology through its lifetime, with the magic as a common thread. I felt that revisiting the world in a more modern world would provide unique ways to explore storytelling.

What would it take for me to successfully bribe you into writing a sequel to Alloy? I think you may have answered this one before, but where do you come up with your names for all your characters? Thank you! I really love your work.

I will probably do one anyway.

It depends on the series. For Mistborn, I build a 'feel for certain regions and develop names using the linguistic rules of that region. The Central Dominance (and Elendel in this book) had a slightly French feel to the linguistics, and many of the names came from that paradigm.

However, unique to the Mistborn world was the need to give people simple nicknames in a thieving crew sort of way. Wax, Clubs, Breeze, Mr. Suit, all of these are along those lines.

I'm not sure how free we are around here with spoilers regarding the Mistborn trilogy, so I'll try my best to avoid anything that will get me strung up.

The Mistborn trilogy left everything on the table, so to speak, with regards to the validity of a particular religion and its deitie(s). I worried the final scenario left no room for other religions to manifest in that world thereafter, and yet here we have Alloy of Law, which involved a few different religions (some of which we -the readers- know to be false) and somehow it seemed to work. My questions are:

1.What were some general challenges that you had to deal with when establishing the religious backdrop of the story?

2.Though you include brief examples of interaction with a deity in the novel, can you further explain some of the limits of that deity's ability to interact with the world in which the story takes place? The brief explanation in the novel seemed rushed. Then again, there didn't seem to be room for much philosophical debate during the awesome actions scenes.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to deal with questions like these.

You covered the biggest challenge. However, you have to remember that as a religious person, I do believe in God in our world--and we have a ton of religions, many of which are related and interpreting the same concepts and scriptures in many different ways.

As for this deity, you're right--this book didn't have the space for a lot of philosophy. However, I can get into it a little bit here. He does not interact partially because of his innate nature, which allows him to see many different sides of a lot of different debates and activities. On the other hand, I am a firm believer that the nature of free will demands people to actually be given opportunities to make decisions. Stopping them just before, ala Minority Report, doesn't cut it for me. So, the deity in question feels he must be very careful about direct involvement, instead letting people act and react--and letting choices be made.

That said, I want him to be involved. Just more in a "I give people the tools they need to accomplish goodness," rather than "I'll just step in and make sure everyone does everything right."

I was just rambling on r/WoT about how awesome you are but yeah. Awesome.

Will there be a sequel to Alloy of Law? It felt like there would be but I want to know for sure lol

Are Allomancer more or less common than in the time of the survivor?

First one: Yes, most likely.

Second one: They are more common, but slightly less powerful.

I was a little confused about how this book ties in with the other Mistborn books that you have planned. Wikipedia states that you're planning a "trilogy of trilogies" and that Alloy is a stand alone novel. I thought it was odd that it ended with something of a cliffhanger. Can you tell us then... Can we expect to see these characters again someday? Or is it the mystery/conspiracy aspect that will carry over to future books? Both maybe?

Thanks so much for the stories! Any nibbling from Hollywood for adaptations yet? It's not often that you find a good story that has both a compelling plot and interesting action to go with it. I think a Mistborn movie would be quite a sight to see. :)

I do plan to do more Wax and Wayne. The second trilogy is very involved, and I don't think will be a good balance to the Stormlight books. However, I don't want to leave Mistborn alone, as I have so many plans for the rest of the series. Therefore, I decided some smaller novels like this one would be appropriate while the majority of my attention is on the Stormlight Archive.

The Mistborn film is trudging along, bit by bit. The latest screenplay should come to me in the next month or so. We have a shot, but it's still a slim one. More than nibbles (I've sold rights to some producers) but no studio involvement or major talent attached quite yet.

Of course these are going to be spoiler-tastic.

How are there kandra and koloss? Kandra especially, since they did their "mass suicide" thing at the end of the original trilogy.

The nice thing about the kandra for me in the narrative was that, though removing their spikes turns them feral, you can always stick those spikes back in. TenSoon feared that this was the end of his people, and it could have been, if those spikes hadn't gone back in quickly. As it was, there were costs. Time spent without spikes causes a kandra's memories to deteriorate, and some that were left a relatively long time were essentially reborn as new people. But the race survived, even if it is unlikely that their numbers will be added to.

MIDWESTREDDITOR

Thank you very much for answering my questions!

If I may be allowed a follow-up question: Did TenSoon survive, then (as the TenSoon who experienced growth under Vin)?

(If it's not spoiler-tastic to the series, this is something I might share with my fiancee. TenSoon was one of her favorite characters. You, uh, kinda killed most of her favorites.)

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes, though he did lose some things.

How did you channel that much snark and oddball humor for Wayne without going a little crazy?

Characters like him actually provide a snark outlet for me, so that it can be very cathartic to write them.

So the number 16 is importanton Scadrial, on pg 245, Wax is trying to find out where Miles is going to be next and he writes down the number "35.17" I couldn't help but notice that the 3+5+1+7=16, was that intentional or am I seeing things that aren't really there?

I slip it in here and there for fun, but it isn't actually important. It is fun when people notice it, though.