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Interview #1153: Calamity-Chicago

Summary

Entry #1

Question

What race is Sazed?

Brandon Sanderson

The Terris have intermixed to the point that they… Skin tone run the gamut, from being indistinguishable to being darker skinned. When I say darker-skinned I mean say, like as perhaps as a dark Indian, East Indian… But they can range in that skin tone.

Entry #2

Question

What does Curiosity mean to you? We see Vin talking to Kelsier and developing trust just because she is curious. Same thing with Moash and Kaladin, so what is curiosity?

Brandon Sanderson

I think curiosity is one of the driving forces in the human experience. You read books because of curiosity, you watch shows because of curiosity. Almost everything we do, curiosity is a basic motivation. It’s kinda what makes us human.

Entry #3

Argent

Returned, they don’t quite fit the other splinters—their Breath, rather—because it’s the divine breath that’s the splinter right?

Brandon Sanderson

Ehhhhhhh…. Ehhhhhhh….

Argent

Okay, that was vague.

Brandon Sanderson

Not a 100% correlation there

Argent

So in that case it’s not entirely fair to say that the Returned are vessels for…

Brandon Sanderson

No… Well, more vessels than the people that are in T’Telir… So, Endowment is in control of what’s happening, right?

Argent

The giving of _____

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. So what you’ve got to remember—and this is something that people keep mistaking is- something like a spren is still part of the god, and it’s not that different from the fact that the rock has a part of the body in it, and that everything is kind of made—in [the] Mistborn world in particular—everything is made out of their essence. And so… the breath _are_ similar, but it’s less that- they’re not autonomous in most cases and it’s more like- it’s like a hybrid of what’s happening in Mistborn where everybody’s got a bit of Preservation in them. Everyone’s got a bit of Endowment in them.

Argent

Innate investiture.

Brandon Sanderson

Innate investiture that they are born with.

Argent

I was looking to _Divine_ Breath, _____ specifically.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh _Divine_ breath! Divine Breath is it’s own special thing, and it’s more like what happened with the Honorblades, in that the god is pouring a bit of its investiture, infusing the magic ____.

Tags

splinters ,

honorblades ,

investiture ,

divine breath

Entry #4

Question

At the end of Bands of Mourning, Wax begins seeing what seems like souls, as he’s holding the bands. He sees lines. He ponders that man/metals are the same thing. Is he seeing investiture there?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, to an extent. Yes. He’s seeing the cosmere-equivalent of atoms/investiture/energy waves all being the same thing.

Question

Okay, so kind of a building block of things?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes; it’s almost like he’s seeing the ____, the atoms.

Tags

investiture ,

Wax

Entry #5

Question

_____ Southern’s(?) connection to the Spiritual world ____. So, that being said, you know the ____ inanimate matter ___ the source, but inanimate matter is projected into the Cognitive realm. So does inanimate matter have a connection to the Spiritual world the same as ____

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but it doesn’t have the same thing going on. So yeah.

Footnote

incomplete question

Entry #6

Question

At the end of Sixth of Dusk, were those Mistborn space-opera-people that showed up at the end?

Brandon Sanderson

Not gonna say. Lot of people have theorized that, but I have remained closed-lipped.

Entry #7

Question

Is Aslydin a Feruchemist?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Entry #8

Question

Reckoners books?

Brandon Sanderson

STEELHEART SEQUEL TRILOGY CONFIRMED - Alternate Dimension, dealing with the origin of Calamity.

Entry #9

Question

I’m _____ ____ Adonalsium. Out of the people that were leftover from just before the Breaking, did they think it was a good idea or a bad idea?

Brandon Sanderson

Opinions are mixed.

Question

Is it mixed between vessels and non-vessels?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of the vessels support the decision that they made. I would say of those remaining, who are not vessels, the majority think it was a bad idea. I would say ____ it’s not 100%

Question

____ Talking about opinion besides the

Brandon Sanderson

Not many, it is a number that you could count to reasonably.

Tags

shattering

Entry #10

Question

I know you wrote the Eleventh Metal for the Mistborn Adventure Game. Of the other stories included in the expansions (Darzon’s Story, Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, and House of Tin and Ash), should they be considered canon?

Brandon Sanderson

The Eleventh Metal and Allomancer Jak are, the others are not.

Entry #11

Question

Is Iyatil of Malwish descent?

Brandon Sanderson

In the same way that I [Brandon Sanderson] am of Danish descent.

Question

Would she perhaps have been born on either Taldain or Threnody?

Brandon Sanderson

She was not born on either one.

Tags

Iyatil

Entry #12

Question

Is it significant that Paalm’s name does not follow the standard kandra naming convention?

Brandon Sanderson

It does [follow the convention]. It’s not always written that way, but it is. Good question.

Entry #13

Question

Hoid, in the Liar of Partinel sample chapters, is referred to as a Jesk. Is this related to the Jesker Mysteries religion in Elantris?

Brandon Sanderson

No. Good question.

Entry #14

Question

Will we get a more comprehensive Ars Arcanum in the Arcanum Unbounded?

Brandon Sanderson

It depends… there will be cool things in there, but I don’t think they’ll count as “Ars Arcanum” exactly. It’ll be more focused on maps and things like that. There’ll be a star chart for each world.

Entry #15

Question

Have we seen Iyatil in any other context, published or unpublished?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

Entry #16

Question

Was the shattering of Adonalsium done, for the forces to attack the Anti-Adonalsium?

Brandon Sanderson

You’re focusing too much on the idea of the anti-adonalsium. What was really asked is “is there a force that opposes Adonalsium” and it left me a lot of wiggle room. In other words, the people who killed it was a force, or any person who opposed Adonalsium you could say is a force. What they were trying to get was a “devil” but that assumes Adonalsium is a more Christian-style God, and I have not confirmed any of that.

Entry #17

Question

In the religion with Trell and Nalt, is that in any relation to Nalthis?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Entry #18

Question

In SH, we see an Aon written in the steel alphabet, have we seen anything similar?

Brandon Sanderson

I don’t think we’ve shown you any, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. For instance the Aon on the wall in Emperor’s Soul would probably not look exactly like an Aon, because it’s different culture.

Question

Similar to the Dakhor monks use different…

Brandon Sanderson

No, more like, if you started writing in Chinese characters, and they became popular here in America, they’d change so they don’t actually look like their origin. But I don’t think I’ve ever DRAWN one out like that, but there are references to other cultures across the cosmere.

Tags

aons ,

Mistborn: Secret History ,

culture

Entry #19

Question

Is the death process, like dying from the physical to the cognitive staging area and moving to the beyond the same across the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. it is a universal process. People don’t always hang out as long, depending on their investiture.

Question

Is the God Beyond related to “the Beyond” spoken about?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Tags

transitions ,

God Beyond ,

spiritual realm

Entry #20

Question

Harmony says the Beyond is a place he can’t reach, is that true for all shards or?…

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

Entry #21

Alterodent

If a hermit were to take a whole lot of Cadmium and go off and live by himself, how far within a lifetime, reasonably, could he get into the future by essentially time-capsuling himself?

Brandon Sanderson

Alterodent

Assuming they live to be 70 or 75.

Brandon Sanderson

They could get pretty far.

Alterodent

What would the savantism do to them?

Brandon Sanderson

The savantism would probably allow them to get further… It’s completely reasonable… you can treat this like relativistic travel.

Tags

allomancy ,

cadmium ,

savants

Entry #22

Kurkistan

How broadly can a time-bubbler control the attributes of the bubble? Like could he make it ten times smaller to make it ten times more powerful?

Brandon Sanderson

It is more controllable than I have generally shown in the books.

Kurkistan

And does the size correspond inversely to the strength?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

Tags

time bubbles

Entry #23

Kurkistan

So when that cork [in Bands of Mourning] was thrown above the train, if the cork had been thrown by someone who was standing _besides_ the train, what would have happened when the bubble hit [the cork]? So the bubble’s moving at 60mph and the cork [is not moving laterally relative to the bubble] and gets hit by a bubble…

Brandon Sanderson

Right. Right right right… So… this one’s complicated. Let me see if I can… So anything that touches the bubble will be immediately lodged into the bubble, and be hit by that… So say you throw something up, the bubble hits it, is that what you’re asking?

Kurkistan

Yeah.

Brandon Sanderson

But it does not have “momentum” the same as the thing? So it would probably be in the bubble for a short time.

Kurkistan

So if I threw the cork straight, and then the bubble came from the right, the cork would shift to the right within the bubble as the bubble thought it was moving or something?

Brandon Sanderson

Kurkistan

So the bubble thinks the cork is travelling like 60mph North, the cork thinks it’s not moving at all…

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah…

Kurkistan

So does the cork move the opposite direction of the bubble or something?

Brandon Sanderson

Ask Peter the math on that one, and I’ll have him run the math. That one’s kind of… it’s kind of like the time travel train experiment stuff, with the flags and things. So let’s go ahead and PAFO that one.

Footnote

Result of PAFO: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/52790-calamity-tour-chicago-naperville/page-4?p=414459#entry414459

Tags

time bubbles ,

hypotheticals

Entry #24

Kurkistan

How exactly does hemalurgic decay work for Feruchemy? Is it like a leaky tube or something, or…?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah… yeah. (Here misunderstanding and thinking that the question’s about the power of the Feruchemy itself, not storing/tapping metalminds)

Kurkistan

So they try to store 10 units of health and only 9 gets through, or…?

Brandon Sanderson

Hemalurgic decay meaning someone who has been spiked is less powerful? That Hemalurgic decay] or the Hemalurgic decay when a Hemalurgic spike is left outside of blood?

Kurkistan

Less powerful. So like the Inquisitors are less powerful Feruchemists so they had to spend longer storing: so _why_ did they have to spend longer storing?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah they lose a little bit, it’s a leaky… You’re there, exactly. It just doesn’t quite… it’s not as efficient: it’s [an] efficiency thing.

Tags

hemalurgy

Entry #25

Question

So, what is the actual Firefight, Megan’s opposite, what’s their weakness?

Brandon Sanderson

I’m not going to tell you. That’s a RAFO.

Entry #26

Question

If a Kandra and a human were to have a baby, what would that baby be like?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say that right now… It would depend. The kandra would have to remain in human form, keep the same body, and then would give birth to a human. If it was a woman [human] with a man [kandra], it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, with a kandra. Does that make sense?

Question

Yeah.

Brandon Sanderson

Because when the kandra is in human form, they can identically recreate the bodily functions and things if they want to.

Tags

kandra

Entry #27

Question

With Forgery and ChayShan, can anybody from that country do them?

Brandon Sanderson

Forge? No.

Entry #28

Question

With safehand culture, with one hand feminine, two hand masculine: is knitting considered masculine?

Brandon Sanderson

Knitting is not one of the prime arts, and so it would be considered either direction. It’s not one of the major arts, so men can knit their socks and things like that at war and not have to feel feminine, but women could knit if they wanted to, also.

Question

Okay. So, Dalinar can make baby socks.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, Dalinar can make baby socks and not feel- (we were walking away at this point, he stopped talking).

Tags

safehand ,

culture

Entry #29

Question

Have we seen the world mirrored by the Expanse of Broken Sky?

Brandon Sanderson

(long grunting and contemplation) I’m not answering that, RAFO

Question

What does First of the Sun look like on the Cognitive Realm? I think it’s a whole bunch of grubs, or worms.

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO, c’mon you know I’m not gonna reveal Cognitive Realm on the other ones.

Question

The Expanse of Vibrance… Nalthis?

Brandon Sanderson

(more grunting) You would be making a good guess, if you said that. That’s an informed guess.

Argent

That’s not an answer, keep pushing.

Question

Is the only reason that Yolen is not reachable, according to Khriss, because it doesn’t have any sentience on it thinking of it as a planet, so it doesn’t appear in the Cognitive?

Brandon Sanderson

Ahh, no. Good question, but no.

Tags

Cognitive Realm ,

Yolen ,

Khriss ,

Nalthis ,

Sixth of the Dusk


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