Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

I was wondering if any of the characters from interludes will end up with their own books.

Yes, they will. Lift, specifically, is one of the characters in the back five. I think she might be the only one who has had a view point so far. That’s, um, no... There are others. So, yes, interlude characters will end up with their own books later on. Right now they’re side characters.

stormlight archive

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lift

I basically asked how long he thinks it will take him to write future Stormlight books, since The Way of Kings took 6 months to write and Words of Radiance took 18 months to write.

My anticipation is that Stormlight should take about 12 months to write. It went in six months the first time because I had written the book already once. And so being able to start over from scratch, I had done it all once, so it was really like, even though I really wrote every word new, it was like doing a second draft. Words of Radiance took so long because I had to lurch out of the Wheel of Time mindset. I hadn't written this book before, I had written the other one, and I was so steeped in the Wheel of Time doing two books that it took a lot more to pull me out. And I would start on it and would end up getting distracted by some other project like one of the novellas or I'd start on it and then I'd go back and do a revision on Steelheart and then I'd start on it. Eventually I managed to start on it and stay in it, but it took that extra six months of spinning my heels before I really dug into the book. And so, I would say that I'm hoping 12 months. I might be able to do them faster, maybe nine months. I don't know. They are big complicated books to write, and you can't really do these on the speed that you can do other things. It doesn't scale. If I can write a novella that's 20k words and I can write that oftentimes in a week, that doesn't mean that when I'm working on Words of Radiance I can do twenty thousand words a week, because it's just a lot harder to get everything connected. The longer you go, the longer it winds up taking per word.

brandon on writing

A few fun tidbits: Brandon assumes that eventually they'll make a collective art book of all of the Stormlight art. In addition, in the picture of Adolin, the double underlined sigh was "his addition." Also, this may already have been known, but for sure each of the ten books will be named after in-world books. Because of this, " The Stormlight Archive" is a play on words (literally an archive of books).

stormlight archive

Are we going to be seeing more Wit in the Stormlight Archive?

Depends on if you mean the character or actual wittiness. I'm never sure if I'm actually witty or not—you'll have to judge. But the character never knows when to leave well enough alone and will be muddling things for quite a long time.

hoid

So one of the things I really like about this is that in the Ars Arcanum and the blurb on the back of the dust jacket, they're not just Brandon Sanderson explaining the magic system, or Brandon Sanderson summarizing the book for casual perusing, they're written in world by characters in the world, and I was wondering if you could tell us or give us a hint as to who wrote the dust jacket.

I can tell you it's not the same person as who's writing the Ars Arcanum, and neither of those are Hoid. How about that? That gives you something. I had to fight to get in world text on the back cover. I personally really don't like summary blurbs. Those summary blurbs are either bland or they spoil too much, and they really get on my nerves. They're marketing copy, not author copy. And so I fought and I fought and I fought. I won with Elantris, getting the prologue on the back of the hard cover, but then they didn't do that for the paperback. But for the hardcovers of these I won, so I'm glad you appreciate that—I intend to keep doing that. But yes, they're being written in world by a group of people on Roshar.

ars arcanum

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brandon on publishing

So, the Purelake in Shadesmar is mountainous. Does this in any way have to do with the fact that the Purelake is so shallow?

I haven't yet discussed the nature of the relationship between Shadesmar and the Physical world.

darkanimereal1 (Paraphrased)

So, when Dalinar has his vision in what he assumes in the Purelake, he sees an obsidian fortress. Is that fortress in any way related to the fact that the Purelake in Shadesmar is mountainous?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

shadesmar

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cognitive realm

Please don’t tell me you’re going to do a love triangle between Adolin, Kaladin, and Shallan.

(he phrased this very carefully) I'm not a fan of the traditional love triangle. However, I am fond of conflict in relationships.

brandon on writing

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shallan

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adolin

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kaladin

The weepings--Shallan and Kaladin react very differently to them.

They do.

Question

It just seems to me that the Weepings feel very close to Cultivation.

Brandon Sanderson

The primary thing you're noticing -- and I'm not going to say there's not any magical influence -- but the primary thing you're noticing is that Kaladin has season affective disorder and Shallan likes the rain. That's the primary thing you're noticing. I like the rain--my wife hates it. My wife gets depressed when it rains and I love when it rains.

changed "defective" to "affective"

shallan

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kaladin

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weeping

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seasonal affective disorder

Did Taravangian go to see the Nightwatcher before or after Gavilar's assassination?

Um, oh man. I'm going to have to look at my timeline. I believe it's before, but I can't guarantee I'm right, because these things are all happening around the same time.

Question

Because he says that Gavilar confided in him the night of.

Brandon Sanderson

Ooooh, you're right. Nope, it's after. It is after. You can send that question to Peter so we can confirm it. There might be something I'm forgetting about Taravangian.

[Peter said by PM: "As far as I can tell from what the book says, he went to the Nightwatcher after the assassination."]

taravangian

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chronology

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nightwatcher

What caused a Desolation to end? Was it just the defeat of Odium's forces? Because the Desolations start when the Heralds break under torture.

Because the Heralds can no longer be in existence. There is a certain period of time that they can be there, and after that, if they're there, they will start a new one. So the Heralds do need to leave for a Desolation to end.

Question

Oh. So they've got a time limit.

Brandon Sanderson

They do. Otherwise the Desolation will start again. What they discovered is not all of them have to. As long as one remains, the Desolation will not start again.

Question

So, by the nine leaving, did that actually break the Oathpact for them? Did it change the cycle of Desolations?

Brandon Sanderson

They have not completely broken the Oathpact, despite what they may think.

desolations

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heralds

How much stormlight equals one breath? Do you have an actual ratio?

I have a ratio. It's not on me.

Question

Okay, that's a Peter question again.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, well, I may not answer it even then.

stormlight

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breath

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investiture conversion

Are the Heralds actually aware that Taln is back?

Are the Heralds aware that Taln is back? Uh, you're implying that this person actually is Taln. [The smile on Brandon's face at this moment was the best, most excruciatingly awful smile ever. And we thought Peter was a tease.] Which is not guaranteed. It's not guaranteed. However, the return of the Voidbringers does indeed indicate to them, in their mind, that he would have returned.

Question

So they assume because the Voidbringers are returning--

Brandon Sanderson

Because the Voidbringers are returning, would be a clue to them that Taln has returned.

taln

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heralds

You mentioned that human can’t bond Honorblades, but Nalan tells Szeth that his bond with his Honorblade has been broken. Can you clear this up?

Humans CAN bond Honorblades. There's a crucial difference between Honorblades and Shardblades. When you drop an Honorblade, it does not disappear, even if it has been bonded. A Shardblade will disappear when dropped.

nalan

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szeth

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honorblades

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shardblades

Which map holds the Easter Egg?

The main map of Roshar.

Question

From which book?

Brandon Sanderson

Either book, it's the main one that will go in each copy. It's VERY hard and it won't change a whole lot.

Question

Does it have anything to do with the compass?

Brandon Sanderson

Not the compass.

roshar

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easter eggs

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maps

How many parties were there to the original Oathpact?

The Heralds and Honor. They thought that by walking away from their oaths, that it would break the Oathpact. They're going to find out that it's not quite as broken as they had previously thought (meaning the Heralds).

heralds

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honor

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oathpact