Date: 2013-10-05
Type: Paraphrased
Location: Chicago, IL
Reporter: Argent
Pat Rothfuss recently worked with the folks from Albino Dragon to create a Kickstarted Name of the Wind deck of cards in which each face card features a character from the book. All those designs were discussed with Pat, and the final result is shaping up to be pretty spectacular. Are there plans—or if not, are you open to planning—to do something like this for one or more of your own worlds?
I know about Pat’s deck, it’s really awesome stuff! I can only say that I do have plans to do something similar, but you will have to wait for Words of Radiance to find out more about it.
The Kickstarter took place in late spring of 2013.
Anything you can tell us about Steelheart’s sequel, Firefight?
It starts off in Chicago, but then moves to New York. It will show off an… interesting version of Manhattan, similarly to how Steelheart ‘s showed off an interesting version of Chicago. It will also introduce three new Epics.
Was Hemalurgy inspired by your time in Asia, and more specifically - acupuncture?
Yes. A lot of the stuff in my books that looks like it came from Asia really did come from my time there.
Was Calamity and its appearance in Steelheart just kind of an ad hoc? We know that it showed up about a year before the Epics started showing up, so people naturally assume one was the cause and one was the effect, but was that really the case and are both of them just the effects of something else?
Good question! I will say that this is something I’ve done before, so my fans will kind of expect it. I am aware of this expectation too, and I am careful about repeating myself.
Feruchemy is the “balance” between Ruin and Preservation. Would any combination of Shards create a “balance” magic, so to speak, or are only certain Shards compatible?
Feruchemy ended up being a balance system, because of how polar Ruin and Preservation were. Any world with at least two Shards will result in a similar phenomenon.
Like Roshar?
Like Roshar. There is something like that going on there.
Aside from the Greater Roshar system, are there any other multiple shardworld systems?
Yes. You have not necessarily seen them though.
How do you spell “Lyss” the woman Jasnah meets with in the Words of Radiance prologue?
Not sure, but I think it’s L-y-s-s.
In Words of Radiance it is actually spelled “Liss”.
Could a Seeker who was properly trained and experienced detect AonDor or Awakening? Similarly, does a Coppercloud block an Awakener’s life sense?
A Seeker could sense somebody else using magic not native Scadrial. RAFO on the Coppercloud blocking similar magic.
If Ati had somehow managed to give up Ruin and returned to being a regular person, would his mind have gradually reverted from its corruption by Ruin’s intent, or would he always be determined to destroy?
Over time Ruin’s influence would fade, but Ati would remain a Sliver, so there would be some permanent effects.
Do the Spiritual and Physical Realms have names, like Shadesmar is the Cognitive Realm?
Kind of, but not really. Shadesmar is just a rough translation of “Cognitive Realm” in the language of whoever first found out about it. Other people, planets, and worlds wouldn’t call it Shadesmar, they would call it whatever their words for “Cognitive Realm” are. This applies to the Physical and Spiritual as well.
Are all of the Heralds who gave up their Honorblades still alive?
Good question! RAFO.
Are Renarin and Adolin Dalinar’s legitimate children?
Good question! Yes, they are both legitimate. Though Renarin didn’t get as much of the hair, which is probably what people are asking about.
Fabrials replicate Soulcasting abilities. Is it possible for fabrials to replicate all such Surgebinding abilities?
Yes, good question! Fabrials can replicate all of the Surgebinding abilities.
If a Dakhor, Dilaf, could erase a symbol written by an Elantrian, Raoden, could an Elantrian erase/heal a Dakhor bone-symbol?
This is a theoretical possibility, but not a specialization of AonDor.
Is there any other canonical way to refer to a set of Shardplate and a Shardblade other than Shards, so as to not confuse them with the Shards of Adonalsium?
They call them just Shard(s). It is a little confusing, because there are other Shards, but they don’t know about them. I call them a set, but there is no canonical way to refer to them.
Is Cultivation’s Shardholder still alive.
Good question, what do you think?
I want to say, but that’s based on my knowledge before I read Lift’s interlude from Words of Radiance . Now I am leaning towards no. Based on that interlude, it looks like spren have essence from both Honor and Cultivation. It’s almost like they exist in a spectrum, on one end of which is Honor, and on the other - Cultivation; so there are spren that are, for the lack of better example, 90% Honor and 10% Cultivation, and there are spren that are 15% Honor and 85% Cultivation.
That’s a very astute observation!
And since we know that Honor is Splintered, then it might be the case that Cultivation is also Splintered, and their Splinters form the spren.
In a prior signing report it was revealed that Cultivation’s shardholder is indeed alive.
Are Honorspren Splinters, or do they hold Splinters?
Honorspren would be termed Splinters.
What is Stormlight?
I don’t want to answer this, but I’ll just say “Investiture.”
Did David get Steelheart’s weakness absolutely correct, or was it just close enough to allow him to destroy Steelheart?
It was absolutely correct. This is something David and Reckoners will actually discuss in Firefight . The second book will reveal much more about the Epics’ weaknesses, and you will find out that there is actually a pattern to them, even though everyone thinks it’s random.
Are weaknesses somehow related to things, events, or phenomena the Epics feared, or hated, or disliked before they turned Epic?
RAFO, second book. This is the exact question people—and David—are asking in the second book. Good question though.
Are there still no Splinters on Scadrial, after the events of The Alloy of Law ?
Yes, there are no Splinters on Scadrial. Unless they’ve been brought. There are no Splinters of Ruin or Preservation.
Does Nightblood need to sleep?
Nightblood does not need to sleep, but he sure thinks he needs to.
Will Llarimar become Susebron’s high priest?
I would not be surprised of the events too him there.
Do you think he would be unhappy with the position?
No. Susebron is going to make at least, if not a good God King, then at least an earnest one, and Llarimar would approve of that.
What command would you have to give to an Awakened object like Nightblood in order for it to not go insane?
I am going to RAFO that about Nightblood, but is Nightblood insane? It just has no concept of… It was commanded to do something it was not equipped to judge. I would not call Nightblood insane. I would say that you have commanded something with no concept of morality to make moral decisions, and that’s very confusing to him.
Ashe says to Sarene “your god”. Do Seons (and Skaze) have a religion/god?
They have an inkling of the nature of their original Shards, which they would consider their gods.
Kind of like a first, a prime, a parent?
Yes. They kind of know what happened that created them, and they also know this is not the god being worshiped (by Sarene), so…
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