Search the most comprehensive database of interviews and book signings from Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson and the rest of Team Jordan.
2012-04-30: I had the great pleasure of speaking with Harriet McDougal Rigney about her life. She's an amazing talent and person and it will take you less than an hour to agree.
2012-04-24: Some thoughts I had during JordanCon4 and the upcoming conclusion of "The Wheel of Time."
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Apr 23rd, 2016
Verbatim
Atlanta, GA
JordanCon 8
Atlanta Marriott Perimeter
Various (Ted, Deana, Rosemary, others)
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How does Nightblood compare to a more living Shardblade?
More living Blade? Well, let’s just RAFO that one..
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You said “have.” The question was, are there?
I’m sure there are people around...[Laughter] I’m sure you can go to any city in the United States and find someone who claims to be Jesus, right? So yes! Absolutely!
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So, why is it that there are only dead swords?
That’s a good question that will be answered in the future.
Could they make a lightsaber?
They could make...metal weapons of a similar style to that, so no, we’re not talking lightsabers. Creating plasma is not something that we’re looking at.
A bow, for example?
They could create, probably...Well, let’s RAFO that one, I’ll show you what’s going to be happening.
You mentioned the ecology on Roshar, and you mentioned that mostly the non-sentient spren predate the [shattering of Adonalsium?]. So my question is about the evolution of life on Roshar, and how essential the highstorms are to life on Roshar, how the plants evolved...so can we assume that life that is dependent on the highstorms predates the Shattering of Adonalsium?
Um…
Can we correctly assume? [Laughter]
I’ll tell you this. The highstorms predate, and there was a lot of natural evolution on Roshar resulting in a lot of what we have there.
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Correctly?
You can correctly. Now here’s the distinction. Some of them are not. Some of them are using tricks of...um….uh...no....relativistic time travel to move forward in the future. Some of them are not aging and others are just aging really slowly. And those are three separate things among characters you have actually seen. I will give you hints as you read the books.
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...where you can give a power to someone through [...]
Through any means, or through Hemalurgic means?
Er, explain what you mean by that question.
In Nalthis, you are giving up your power voluntarily to someone else.
Specifically in the context of Scadrial here.
I mean, can you not imagine a person who’s crazy and who’s like, I will give up my power to this, you know?
But don’t the end results negate?
You can’t imagine somebody who would do that? I am absolutely sure that at some point even at creating Inquisitors there’s somebody who would be like, yes, I will give my life to the Lord Ruler, so, yes.
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So the Nightwatcher is a spren?
They call the Nightwatcher a spren. Everyone in the books thinks the Nightwatcher is a spren. That’s what they would call...that’s what they would call, if they knew what Honor was, they would call Honor a spren. A spren is Investiture that is alive. So they would call Nightblood a spren. That’s the word for what all of these things are. They would probably call Adonalsium a spren. [Laughter] If...Right...So.
What would Hoid call one of those? What would Hoid call the Nightwatcher?
Um…[long pause]
If Hoid were to use a non-proper noun?
Unpleasant names. [general laughter]
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So you would say that Legion is best consumed in forty-four minute blocks?
Yeah, I mean, when I came up with the idea, I thought, this would make a great television show, let me write a few episodes.
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Can the kandra produce human children with consumed parts?
You know, I saw a big thread on Reddit about it and chose not to participate, despite being asked to.
I thought she said that you did, so…
I gave vague and unuseful answers, and so I’m going to give the same to you. RAFO.
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Not strictly a mercenary…?
No, not a mercenary, she’s kind of a freedom of information type person.
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So we’re not Drabs?
So we’re not Drabs. That’s exactly it. We’re not Drabs.
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So the Shard wouldn’t be able to heal…?
Well, the Shard...Like, here’s the thing we have to get at with this, what we’re getting at, which is the question of, for instance, is Kaladin’s depression a flaw in him that needs to be healed? And that is a question for philosophers. There are certainly people in the Cosmere and outside the Cosmere that say yes, this needs to be healed, but what about somebody who’s...say, someone who is autistic, and their mind just works in a different way, and this way allows a certain bond to happen that couldn’t otherwise happen? Is that a flaw, or - is it a bug or a feature, to speak in coding terms? Is what’s up with Kaladin a bug or a feature? I know that my wife would probably get rid of her depression if she could, but it’s also fundamental in how she sees the world and who she is, would that change her into a different person? And things like this. So, I want you when you discuss this, to be very careful about treating mental illness as a flaw as opposed to an aspect of a human personality that allows certain different things to happen. Does that make sense? [Applause]
The way I was sort of thinking, was, could Odium say, “Oh, I’m just going to fix this” and then [...]?
Right, right, yeah. If he - if there was - that is possible, but it would be hard to do without the consent of the person, but that is possible. You can fix somebody in a way that they didn’t want to be fixed, and it would ruin things.
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Selish.
Oh, Selish, that’s what we settled on, isn’t it, yeah, Selish magic system. This is why we have copy editors [laughter] That’s a feature of the Sel’s magic system that… as far as I know, no-one has pulled out in any decent reason for. But there’s a distinct reason that could be figured out, but it’s… one of these things that will make sense when I explain it, but I’m not sure if it’s quote-unquote “intuitively obvious” to the average reader. I don’t really think that it necessarily is that, but it will make perfect sense once it’s explained.
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Yeah, Writing Excuses! We recommend a book on every episode of Writing Excuses, um, so.
Have you read Pat’s books?
Have I read Rothfuss? Yeah, I’ve read Rothfuss’ books. I’ve got… I get them early! Uhm, so, um… I’ve got the Wise Man’s Fear and The Slow Regard of Silent Things, and both came with a number in the corner like “if this ends up on eBay, we know who we gave it to” sort of thing, it was watermarked, “this is Brandon’s copy, don’t sell it”.
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That’s… not as far off as people laughing think that it is. [More laughter] It’s not a space station, it’s not that futuristic, but there is a place in the Cosmere where a lot of worldhoppers have settled, is where Iyatil is from, even though her ethnicity is not from there.
Clarifying question. Is that place in the Physical Realm?
[laughs] RAFO!
It’s the Cognitive Restaurant At The End Of The Universe? [many references to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy follow]
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Which are…? How would we find what those are?
How would you find what those are? Spend a lot of time researching the Cosmere, have some conversations with Khriss, and come up with some theories! There’s a bunch of them written in the books and indicated, so yes.
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A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Cosmere, if you will…
Now, you’ve got to remember that at the point that this comes out… the collection’s been interesting for a couple of reasons. For one reason, the collection’s coming out before Sixth of the Dusk happens in the Cosmere, right. And so Khriss gives an introduction to each world, so you’ll find her introduction to First of the Sun to be a very interesting introduction that doesn’t know things that you know because of that. In addition, the star chart is a star chart created by people who are not spacefaring. And so it is a star chart more along the lines of… it may not be one hundred percent the scale and things like that, like they’ve been able to figure out a lot of things by using the Cognitive Realm, so they’d be like “alright, here’s the relationship”, but it will be a while before you get what feels like a Star Trek star chart. Your star chart you’re gonna get in this is a fantasy star chart, which will give you the relative positions and things like that, but it’s not gonna be like you can measure exactly, which we do have! But I’m not gonna be giving you that. [audience laughs]
Are you referring to Arcanum Unbounded, is that…
Arcanum Unbounded, yeah.
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Is Harmony involved in more of them, or is he… does he keep his attention on the main one.
Harmony considers himself to be the god of all of them.
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I guess, specifically, does someone have to have both… with Connection, are there more than one elements that people would have to have to have Connection to… provide avenue to power from a different area.
Oh, um… there are multiple things that could help with it, yes. There are certain things that you can Connect through to make one strong Connection would be enough for variety of magics, yeah.
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Would the Scadrian be able to use it.
Yes. You have seen people from off-planet who have Breath before.
Or… perfect pitch?
Yes. [laughter] And are making use of it in variety of ways.
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And does it have to do with Connection.
Ah… [sigh] Yes, but not the way you’re thinking. I’m wiggling out of... Yes, it has to do with Connection, but so does a dog. Cause a dog is Connected to things. [laughs in the audience] You said “does it have to do with”! The answer is yes. [more laughs]
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An iron is iron, does it have the same effect if it will be iron that was created on…
Oh, I see what you’re saying… the metals are themselves… I’ve said this before, I think, but… the metals themselves, where you get it is not relevant.
So if say Wit is drinking flakes on Roshar, then those flakes could be Roshar-bought.
Yes.
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Would that story be… canon?
No, the story would not be canon. Most likely not. I mean, it’s possible.
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Is that an intentional creation or mimicry?
Yes, that is intentional.
I mean, intentional on the part of the person who made that…
Yes.
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So she wouldn’t be…?
Mhm, yes, that things that she eats that she can metabolize, she can turn into Stormlight.
So what would happen if she ate Nightblood? [laughter]
Yeah, eating Nightblood would not be a smart idea for anyone. [more laughter] Nightblood would eat you. In Soviet Russia, sword eats you? I don’t know…
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Let me ask a parallel to that. Does the NW perceive those as the same boon or two parallel boons?
RAFO!!! (big grin in his voice)
laughter
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But I think it’s commonly accepted that Ruin was sort of manipulating some…Totally taking the Spook example off the table, I’m just saying, someone by accident stab - whoops! stab - whoops! and have a power?
Again, Ruin was involved in that. Every spike that you saw had Ruin’s intent behind it. I’m not going to answer your question, RAFO. You tried, you got me to admit that I was trying to wiggle around it, and I’ll tell you, today I wiggled around one question that none of you saw me wiggle around, really well, today. Today. I’m not going to tell you which one it is but there is one here that you all thought, you’re all like “woo!” but you didn’t realize you’d given me so much wiggle room.
So about that space station.
It’s not that one.
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