Date: 2016-12-03
Type: Paraphrased
Location: Hoboken, NJ
Reporter: Ted Herman
Does the Expanse of the Broken Sky refer to Taldain?
RAFO.
How much area do highstorms cover?
Ask Isaac (cosmere artist).
Why is Nazh short for Nazrilof?
It is a nickname.
The silent h is puzzling.
Is it relevant that Lift was ten when she stopped aging?
It isn’t a coincidence.
Is silver invested in the Threnody system?
RAFO.
I asked for info about Hoid’s silver sword.
Verbatim in personalization: it is not invested but it has personal value to him.
Can Lift convert cremling shells to investiture?
She can only convert what she is able to metabolize for nutrients to investiture.
Ym is confirmed to not be an Edgedancer. Does that mean that he would have become a Truthwatcher?
Yes.
Why don’t mistborn use aluminum vials?
Because they are too rare and expensive, though aluminum utilization is increasing in the AOL era.
Has Dalinar been on the bondsmith path for a long time? How about Gavilar?
Yes to both.
Does Wit know what became of Helaran?
Depends on where Wit was, so maybe.
How long has Khriss been cosmere-aware?
RAFO.
Is gestation period for humans the same on Roshar as Earth?
Basically, yes.
What is stick’s talos?
To be the best stick it can.
Before the Q&A, Brandon gave a talk on talos (sp) philosophy.
Will the everstorm only affect Parshendi or will it also affect those with Parshendi blood like Horneaters?
RAFO.
I asked for a personalization with some autobiographical details about Lift.
Verbatim: Name: Lift. Date of Birth: A number greater than ten. Birthplace: With my mom. Eye color: Brown.
Where did you get the name for David’s crystal grower?
I named it to annoy Peter [Ahlstrom] since he didn’t like the names for Dawnslight and Harmsway. (paraphrased)
If Lift didn’t get what she wanted from Nightwatcher (to stop aging) what did she get?
RAFO but it has to do with why she can metabolize food into stormlight.
Did Ishar intentionally deceive Nalan or does Ishar have bad info that he passed on?
Yes and no. All of the heralds are insane.
So I clarified the question to being did Ishar know that he was lying to Nalan
got a RAFO but he added something that seemed to mean that Ishar could perhaps see the future and that each insanity was unique and that uniqueness played a part in the info. Not really sure on the last part.
In the cosmere, you have matter, mind, and soul. Obviously, the physical world is most well understood (same as ours) and the spiritual is most mysterious. When anybody dies (going off from info in secret history) their soul, which was tied to their body, the connection is broken and the soul/cognitive shadow appears in the cognitive realm then goes on to the spiritual. If healing is applied at any moment while the soul/cognitive shadow is in the cognitive realm, the connection can be reestablished and that is why regrowth can heal recently dead. Type of wound shardblade vs not may determine how fast the shadow is sucked into the Spiritual Realm. Also amount of investiture a soul contains. Souls = investiture or at least all of them contain some?
So that’s a RAFO. We’ll dig into that a little later.
Am I close?
Yeah, you’re on the right track.
before, I had the general impression that there were maybe… *waves hand* a dozen or so Worldhoppers around, but this [the new book] totally blows that idea away. So, at the time that Khriss is writing the essays, approximately how many Worldhoppers were there in the Silverlight community?
Silverlight is a whole city.
that could mean a wide range of sizes…
a lot bigger than a village. Not saying yet exactly how many people are there, [RAFO card,] but they’re not all Worldhoppers. There are people who are born there, live out their whole lives and die there.
OK. Now, the Weeping that happens each year on Roshar, does that occur each time when the 3 moons are in a particular alignment?
no, it’s more related to the planet’s orbital position than the moons’ position.
If Hoid were a Magic card, what colors would he be?
Five color. Although, if he were to drop a color, it would be White.
Based on the bit during the open Q&A about Odium splintering Dominion and Devotion and shoving their power into the Cognitive, and that blocking off the Spiritual, which makes Sel’s magic so location (or Identity of location) based - if a Shardbearer traveled to Sel, could they still summon their Shardblade?
That’s interesting. Nobody’s ever asked me that before. That’s a RAFO! (I got a card!)
At the end of Hero of Ages, it’s significant that 1/16 of the soldiers who got sick were Atium mistings. We know now that there’s more than 16 metals - what exactly happened there?
Well, you have to remember, by that point, Preservation wasn’t entirely there. He was mostly concerned with leaving hints, clues, with the number 16, towards his plan.
So, were the other remaining group of soldiers that fell sick all still mistings of the other base metals?
Yes.
So, did Preservation bump out one of the base metal types so those could be Atium mistings? And if so, which was it?
Yes, that’s right. It would probably have been one of the metals that was difficult to get at that level of technology. It would have been Chromium - Chromium would be hard gather at that time. Actually, no, it would have been Aluminum. (about a minute later, while signing someone else’s book) - Hold on, there’s a caveat to that last answer. Let me finish signing this and expand on that. So, it would still have been Aluminum, but not for the reason your thinking. It would have been Aluminum, but there’s an asterisk next to that answer.
Is Niccolo Machiavelli’s political theory, the ends justify the means, incompatible with the Knights Radiants’ First Oath?
No. Although many of the Orders of KRs would find Machiavelli’s theory that the ends justify the means incompatible with additional Oaths and/or values of that Order, there are some Orders who could accept a Machiavellian. Brandon said that the Skybreakers where a Machiavellian could find a home.
As Brandon was signing my books, I asked if the Elsecallers would also accept a Machiavellian.
Yes.
Is the rapier a weapon that people who do not have a Shardblade use on Roshar?
Brandon asked why I asked this question. I answered that at the end of WoR, Jasnah created a Shardblade rapier. It was a weapon I do not recall any other person using in WoK or WoR. Brandon then said he would not answer. I asked if that would deserve a RAFO. He smiled and gave me a RAFO.
I asked if in the future, he would have Lift use a Trident as her main Shard weapon.
Yes. The reader should not be surprised if Lift uses a trident as a Shard weapon (a ShardTrident).
I asked whether Aluminum blocking investiture is simply an on/off situation, or whether different amounts/different alloys would inhibit it in different degrees
It was theoretically possible.
How much compounding would a nicrosil twinborn would need to do to get a metalmind that is as Invested as Nightblood?
Wow so much.
A thousand breaths doesn’t seem to be that much - the God King has tens of thousands - would a piece of stone or wood or cloth or plain metal that has a thousand breaths be as Invested as Nightblood, or is there something more?
needs more
If an allomancer worldhopper really wanted to hack the magic system and knew what they were doing, could they get their hands on some Tanavast-ium or Rayse-ium or Egdli-um? Basically make god metals from the other shards?
Yes.
Is Iyatil wondering around the cosmere (Roshar) with a heating medallion? She’s a southern Scadrial, so she needs one of those so she won’t freeze to death in normal temperatures.
RAFO.
So somewhere it says that the number of Breaths doesn’t determine the power of the object. But are the number of Breaths directly tied to how much Investiture is in an object? You’re repeatedly said that Nightblood is ridiculously heavily invested, more so than Shardblades, Honorblades, or the Bands of Mourning. But it only has a thousand Breaths, which doesn’t seem all that much from the point of view of the GodKing - Tenth Heightening, over 50,000.
RAFO.
Do you actually need to physically inhale or can you like cognitively inhale. Can you think about inhaling without actually inhaling.
This is possible.
Think about breathing
That would be fine
If the technology for 3D printing, CNC milling and the like existed on Sel, would a Forger be able to use it to create stamps, or would they have to do it by hand.
They would be able to, but since they have to still create the stamps themselves, they’d have to be the ones to model/draw the stamps. (I take that to mean that a forger couldn’t just download someone else’s stamp and print it out and use it)
Does TenSoon look like an Irish Wolfhound (which is how I’ve seen a lot of people draw him) or more like an actual wolf?
He looks more like a large wolf-like dog, such as a husky or something (though more wolflike than a husky, he was just using that as an example)
Will we ever get some sort of dictionary/guide to Aons or Forging, one that tells us how they’re made, with what all the various parts of a seal mean and how we could theoretically design them?
We might, but it would be a ton of work for him to put together. He compared it to when people ask if we’ll ever get the full text of the Way of Kings (the in-universe book) and he said that we might, but all he has is an outline.
When a spren changes into a weapon, are they locked into one specific design for that type of weapon? Like, if Syl chose to be a longsword, could she only become that specific longsword?
no, they can become whatever they want/need.
Who has the best and worst handwriting in the cosmere?
Hoid’s is just terrible, but it can also be really beautiful when he wants to, but Brandon said he didn’t have a real answer for this one.
Can you tell me anything new about the force or whatever that opposed Adonalsium (this was what I had him answer in my personalization)
I would count groups of people as a force. (verbatim)
I just remembered that someone asked about the whole movie deal thing, and Brandon gave a more thorough explanation.
What happened is that DMG, which is a chinese company, came to him first about the Emperor’s Soul, because they wanted to make stuff that has more asian characters and they wanted to do it in hollywood because Hollywood’s seriously lacking in representation of asians. So he sold that to them first, and then they called him back a couple months later asking about the entire cosmere. At that time, Mistborn was still optioned by another group, but brandon sold all the other stuff, and they started on Way of Kings right away, and then as soon as Mistborn became available they bought that up so that they had the entire cosmere. And he said that Way of Kings is ahead right now, but Mistborn will likely be first, because it’ll be easier to produce and stuff.
question not specified
I also got confirmed that the metal that spren turn into is god metal (we probably already knew that).
I also asked about the connection between the spren and surgebinder, such that the spren turns into what the surgebinder wants, like In Edgedancer, Lift turns into a bar of metal and into a Shardfork. Wyndle himself isn’t “in tune” with Lift, so his turning into something that she needs with no prior warning …
Since the spren fill in the soul, they’re connected on that level, so like their minds are separated, but since the souls are melded/connected/same that the spren can turn into stuff the Surgebinder wants. This is heavily paraphrased.
*holding out list of Allomantic metal symbols* Is ettmetal’s symbol one of these 4? *Points at the unused ones*
No. It has a symbol, but I don’t think you’ve seen it yet. No, you haven’t seen it.
*making connections internally* Oh, that’s interesting, since we have seen Harmonium’s symbol.
No, you haven’t. Have you?
Yeah, we have. *momentary staredown* It looks like the double lerasium. *waves hands around in the air like an idiot to pantomime the axis of reflection*
*looks crestfallen* Oh. Right. Then, I guess you have seen ettmetal’s symbol.
*cackles internally* So, ettmetal is Harmonium!
*sadly* Yes…
Am I allowed to tell people? I can keep it a secret if you want.
No, you can tell people.
*almost ditches the rest of his signing turn to go tell people*
Are the Cognitive Shadows on Braize the mythical Shades of the Knights Radiant?
RAFO Card
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