Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Cosmere Q&A - 17th Shard (Verbatim)

Is JeksonsonVallano important? Is JeksonsonVallano SzethsonsonVallano's brother?

He is the same person as Szeth; I just changed the name. Sorry, no hidden truth there.

szeth, way of kings prime, stormlight archive,

Cosmere Q&A - 17th Shard (Verbatim)

You said that a person can have more than one Shardblade--can they be dual-wielded?

Someone did exactly this in the original draft of Way of Kings, back in 2002.

shardblade, way of kings prime, stormlight archive,

Interview with Brandon Sanderson - Chris King (Miyabi) (Verbatim)

Are there any eventual plans for release of things like Way of Kings Prime or the old version of Dragonsteel after the new version is released?

Once there are no more spoilers in those books I'll do what I have done with things like White Sand and whatnot, that if people write me—Mistborn Prime is a good example. There's no real spoilers in Mistborn Prime if you've read the trilogy. It's not a very good book but you can read it and kind of understand the history of where the story came from. So I'll do the same thing with those books.

dragonsteel, way of kings prime,

WoR Signing Report - Awesomeness Summoned (Verbatim)

Why did you put Nightblood in The Stormlight Archive?

Nightblood and Vasher were in the original version of the Way of Kings before I wrote Warbreaker. Warbreaker in a way was actually introducing those two characters I'd already created.

warbreaker, way of kings prime, nightblood, vasher,

WoR Signing Report - Bartbug (Verbatim)

What was Kaladin's original decision that you changed?

Kaladin won the Plate and Blade in chapter one and kept it.

kaladin, way of kings prime,

WoR Signing Report - Bartbug (Verbatim)

When you were planning Zahel being Vasher, how long did you do that?

Vasher was in the 2002 version of The Way of Kings by name. I only changed him to the new name after I finished this entire draft. Because I was like, oh he'd probably go under a pseudonym. So he's been in Roshar 12 years our time.

vasher, way of kings prime,

WoR Signing Report - Bartbug (Verbatim)

So what was the Moment?

It was actually right near the climax. It was the phrase 'These words are accepted.'... Oh I thought you were talking about the Moment of Inspiration. Oh the moment you're asking about is the moment where Kaladin, in the original writing, he took the Blade and plate instead of turning it down.

kaladin, way of kings prime,

Salt Lake City Comic-Con 2014 (Verbatim)

Who is your favorite character you've written, if you had to pick one?

That's a hard question, I can't pick a favorite character. Dalinar is what I normally say, just because I've been working on him the longest. Honestly, I don't know. It's whoever I'm working on at the time.

Question

Dalinar is a good character, I like Kaladin a lot too.

Brandon Sanderson

Kaladin has really worked out well. It's interesting because Kaladin-- the first time I wrote The Way of Kings, in 2002, did not work and I had to rip him out and try a completely different personality and things for him. So it's cool to see it finally working.

brandon's favorites, dalinar, kaladin, way of kings prime,

Firefight Signing Line Audio (Paraphrased)

I read online, something about one of your original drafts, I think it was about Gavilar, and it was where he was blind?

Yeah that was actually Taravangian, in the oldest version. One of the very first things I wrote was that, though Taravangian had a different name then, and was very different. Szeth has stayed the same through all the revisions. Kaladin has changed wildly, and almost everybody has changed dramatically, except Szeth is the same person. Him and Dalinar are the same.

way of kings prime, taravangian, szeth, kaladin, dalinar,

Firefight Signing Line Audio (Paraphrased)

When are you going to write the other Warbreaker book? Last time I came to hear you talk, you said you were going to, and now you have 3000 other projects!

I know, and the Warbreaker fans really get on my case about that. Well, I wrote Words of Radiance, and I got Vasher into it, so that would kindle interest, and make sure that you at least got to see your characters again. But did you hear the story about that? So, I wrote The Way of Kings in 2002, the first version, and in that version Kaladin trained with a swordmaster, and that swordmaster, a guy named Vasher, had a mysterious past. After I finished that book, later on I wrote Warbreaker as a prequel to The Way of Kings, to show Vasher's backstory. But then Warbreaker came out before The Way of Kings, which was a really kind of interesting thing. So in my head, Warbreaker is the prequel, but to everyone else...

Yes, it is a totally different world, different planets, people get around...

Wetlander

So how much of Vasher's backstory do we actually have?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, a huge chunk of it! If you were reading The Way of Kings, you would know nothing, and then you'd read Warbreaker and you'd be like, "Oh, here's a whole past that he had!" That doesn't mean it's all of his past.

Note from Wetlander: "He's not giving any hints as to whether Vasher had any connection with Roshar prior to Warbreaker. Or at least not without someone asking a much more direct question."

vasher, nightblood book, way of kings prime,

Changing Hands, AZ

Some background on Nightblood.

Vasher + Nightblood were written into the Way of Kings Prime, then he wrote Warbreaker before returning to rewrite The Way of Kings.

Vasher, Nightblood, Warbreaker, Way of Kings Prime,

Chicago

I was wondering when you first thought to put Nightblood in Words of Radiance?

Nightblood in Words of Radiance happened because… So I wrote the original draft of Way of Kings in 2002 and Vasher was Kaladin’s swordmaster and I thought “This guy has a really interesting past, he’s not natively from Roshar”. So I went and wrote his backstory and that became the book Warbreaker. So he predates-- And then I came back and I re-wrote Way of Kings and I cut him out of it to save him for the later books. So when did I first think of it? Well 2003 probably? Was where that was happening.

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