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Search 1165 Signings, Interviews, etc. (13808 Entries)

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Interviews: BYU Bookstore

Summary:

Entries

39

Date

Nov 22nd, 2016

Type

Paraphrased

Location

Provo, UT

TourCon

Arcanum Unbounded

Bookstore

BYU

Links

BYU

  • 1

    Question

    First, and I think we already knew this, but I wanted to confirm, as it's of great interest to me:

    Brandon Sanderson

    we will be seeing the actual Ghostbloods symbol at some point. He said that they actually had a draft at one point, but that it wasn't true enough to the book, so they're working on it some more. Also, he said there're a few really good interpretations around the internet, so there's that.

    Tags

  • 2

    Question

    If a person with an eidetic memory were to store in a coppermind, would their memories degrade upon tapping?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He said, paraphrased: True perfect memories are disputed by science, but if one did exist (or a magical one as we have seen already) then no, their memories would not degrade, as it's the brain's own failings that cause degradation, not magic.

    Footnote

    Also, his favorite flavor of gelato is lemon.

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  • 3

    Question

    not specified

    Brandon Sanderson

    There is a Shard on Threnody called Ambition.

    Footnote

    Other sources indicate this is past tense.

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  • 4

    Question

    In one of the Allomancer Jak broadsheets, there is a mention of a white-haired man who asks if the woman wants to hear a story.

    Brandon Sanderson

    This man is now confirmed to be Hoid!

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  • 5

    Question

    unknown

    Brandon Sanderson

    Lopen was actually considered to be the king of Alethkar for about 15 minutes. When his family was hiding Elhokar, his family did not want to lie about harboring the king, so they convinced Elhokar to renounce his kingship for about 15 minutes until the search ended. During that time, Lopen was considered to be the king.

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  • 6

    Question

    I asked if Hoid would call himself a good person, and I specified that I was not talking his cause but actually him as a person, and he said,

    Brandon Sanderson

    "No."

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  • 7

    Question

    I asked about the age Wit appears to be, and he kind of mentioned the obvious that he appears to be different ages depending on his disguise, but when I specifically asked about him as Wit in the SA, he said

    Brandon Sanderson

    mid-30's.

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  • 8

    Question

    no question specified

    Brandon Sanderson

    Without spoiling anything the scene where Drifter punches a certain "dead person" in Secret History is important because he normally can't hurt people.

    Tags

  • 9

    Question

    And lastly I asked him if Hoid had to describe Khriss, as in what he thought about her, what would be say.

    Brandon Sanderson

    And Brandon mentioned that it was good because Hoid had actually met Khriss, and then he wrote in my book verbatim, "Hoid thinks well of Khriss." Which I find particularly interesting, especially considering his opinion of the 17th Shard, as expressed in the First Letter.

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  • 10

    Question

    no question specified

    Brandon Sanderson

    He mentioned that if he could he would love to have open auditions for the Cosmere movies, and will post them if possible.

    Tags

  • 11

    Question

    no question specified

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Broadsheets, particularly the one in BoM, may have missing info in the Jak's assistant story, because of the nature of newspapers.

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  • 12

    Djarskublar

    So, say you have a gold/gold Twinborn and they worldhop to Roshar and they study the magic and do the whole Khriss and Nazh thing for a while so that they know a lot about the magic, but they've also left themselves a lot of options with what they can do. So then they manage to pull up a gold shadow of them having actually become a Surgebinder and then kind of meld themselves with that shadow a bunch, could they change their Cognitive Identity enough so that they could, like, tap a lot of Gold and grow the spren and actually be a Surgebinder?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Unfortunately, no. It's a good question, but no. That won't work for a couple of reasons. One of which is simply creating Investiture is not something that can happen, right?

    Djarskublar

    They are a gold Twinborn, so they can tap a lot of gold...

    Brandon Sanderson

    They can tap a whole bunch, that's true, they can do that, but simply having it is not gonna create a spren because the spren is from a different god, right, a different Shard.

    Djarskublar

    So if they had Regrowth cast on them, would that do it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    hems and haws for a second.

    Djarskublar

    A really, really big Regrowth like in the middle of a Highstorm.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Hmmm, this, you are getting to the realm of plausibility at that point. I still don't think gold is the way to do it. I think you just get all that Investiture. It would become sapient by you sticking a whole bunch of Investiture, and then you can bond to that. But it's not like people gain what you would have done. Does that make sense? That's just what's going to happen, is you're gonna, you can create a, potentially create a spren that way, but you are more likely to end up with something like Nightblood. But you could potentially create a spren, but I mean you're just gonna end up...

    Djarskublar

    So there are more optimal ways to do that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, go bond a spren. (evil grin of course)

    Djarskublar

    But you can't easily bond multiple, and if you did this you could maybe get multiple.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Nyeaaahhh... The spren still has to choose. If you want to be a Surgebinder, the choice is being made. You can't fake your way into it. Decision and Honor are too much a part of Surgebinding for you to be able to fake your way into that. Other magics you might be able to do that. Other magics that don't require, like, Surgebinding works because a piece of Honor or Cultivation or a mix has chosen you specifically. There is will from the actual Investiture involved in it in Roshar.

    Djarskublar

    Okay.

    Brandon Sanderson

    So it's not something you can cheat your way into, right. But cheating your way into Breath might be easier, right.

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  • 13

    Question

    In the signing line, I asked him what would have been included in a hypothetical Nalthian essay had there been one.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He said it would have talked about how close the scholars there were to being Cosmere aware, and how they knew more than anyone who wasn't a worldhopper. He also said he would have given clues to where the pool was. Also, he wrote "Are you listening?" In my book, although I have no idea what was meant by that.

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  • 14

    Question

    no question

    Brandon Sanderson

    Re the Kaladin flashback he read, he said we might have noticed there were holes in what we learned in the flashbacks in the previous books, and he was going to use these stealth flashbacks to fill them in. In the one he read, we learn more about Tarah. He said these flashbacks will be shorter than the main flashbacks. They're probably, like Argent said, in-chapter sequences when the character has a reason to think about them rather than part of a series of flashback chapters dedicated to exploring the past like the main flashbacks.

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  • 15

    Question

    First I asked if Spren could be affected by emotional allomancy,

    Brandon Sanderson

    and I got a RAFO, which is very interesting.

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  • 16

    Question

    Then I just asked for general information on Elend's mom.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon said that Elend takes after her a lot more than he does Straff, and then I asked if she had much of an influence on him growing up and who he became as a person and Brandon said yes, she did. (paraphrasing, my phone was dead at this point so I couldn't record it for exact wording) Just a bit of character info that's probably not too consequential, but interesting nonetheless.

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  • 17

    Question

    Then finally I asked if Vasher and Nightblood were separated before or after coming to Roshar (I kind of felt like this had probably been asked before but I couldn't find any info on it so I went ahead),

    Brandon Sanderson

    and after hesitating for a minute, he said that they were separated after.

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  • 18

    Question

    Someone else asked if we would see Hemalurgy somewhere other than Scadrial,

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon's answer? We already have. It's not meant to be obvious though so we probably won't recognize it.

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  • 19

    Question

    First, I asked the question above about if there is a power loss when a feruchemist switches powers from one metal-mind to another.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon said (paraphrasing) the power does have to enter the person, and there is a very little power loss. Less than we'd probably think.

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  • 20

    Question

    Second, I asked if Rust is a separate person than Ruin. I may have asked this question before, but it popped in my head.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He said good theory, but NO.

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  • 21

    Question

    Third, my written question was "How will the everstorm affect Vasher?"

    Brandon Sanderson

    He wrote: "Vasher will probably just hide, but it signals something bad for him..." Then he said out loud (paraphrasing) that we will find out what this means in a LONG time.

    Footnote

    I should have pressed him for more information, but I was just SO excited to have my oldest girls with me and to have them meet him. My impression from this was that we'd see very little of Vasher in the rest of the front 5 Stormlight Archive.

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  • 22

    Question

    I asked him what happens to the perpendicularity when a Shard dies.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He said that if the Shard's power is still there, even without a consciousness, the perpendicularity can still work fine, but there are other ways of destroying them.

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  • 23

    Question

    I also asked how to pronounce the main characters in Elantris:

    Brandon Sanderson

    RAY-O-DEN, SA-REE-NEE, hRAY-THEN

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  • 24

    Question

    no question

    Brandon Sanderson

    Also, during the Q&A he told a story about playing Mistborn RPG at I believe Gen Con were he met a fan dressed up like a Terrisman, from bald head to toe, who was really disappointed he wasn't going to be able to join the campaign. Brandon, however, told him that he could be his butler and the man proceeded to fetch him water and roll his dice, and ultimately ended up as a character in Mistborn Era 2!!! :)

    Footnote

    another commenter said Close. It was actually Tellingdwar. :)

    Tags

  • 25

    Question

    My brother asked a question about my cousin's theory on parshendi(I don't remember exactly what the question was)

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon said that the parshendi were created to be part of the Rosharian ecosystem.

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  • 26

    Question

    At what point did you decide how Alcatraz 5 would end? I mean, obviously you always knew that Alcatraz was going to end up on the altar, but at what point did you decide Attica's fate?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Pretty much right from the start. After four books of Alcatraz telling everyone he's a coward and a liar, there needed to be a truly horrible event to justify his feeling like a failure and refusing to accept the hero worship. I hesitated about putting that in a kid's book, but ultimately it was necessary for the story. Without a real, tragic experience in his life, Alcatraz's pessimism would have just seemed silly.

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  • 27

    Question

    Also, I forgot to mention, the girl behind me asked if animals could be affected by emotional allomancy, and Brandon told her

    Brandon Sanderson

    that the closer they were to sapience, the easier it would be to affect them.

    Tags

  • 28

    Question

    I also attended the event and asked if anyone on Scadrial was cosmere aware pre-Lord Ruler.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He said yes (including Leras and Ati).

    Footnote

    After looking a bit more into this I found that someone else was also thinking along the same lines and got a more detailed confirmation from Brandon: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cosmere/comments/5b66wg/no_spoilers_kwaan_might_have_understood_realmatic/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/Cosmere/comments/5b66wg/no_spoilers_kwaan_might_have_understood_realmatic/d9njbqq/ Kwaan was cosmere-aware and trees can think.

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  • 29

    Question

    Probably time for more later – but just quick – my friend asked (and I was there with him asking my own question) Brandon and Isaac at the Provo release where the perspective on the end papers is from –

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon confirmed that it was from Silverlight, after checking with Isaac. There was some wonkiness in the response though – Isaac said something like as it was “imagined” from Silverlight, and I tried to get clarification for what that meant (is that because Silverlight is mobile?), but stayed pretty vague (got the impression he was maybe saying there was some sort of artistic license taken?). I consider it confirmed that it is from the perspective of Silverlight, but that that there is more going on there.

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  • 30

    Question

    I asked why Hoid gave the memory coin to Wax, what his motivation was (since it seemed to cast a more positive light on someone Hoid does not like), and

    Brandon Sanderson

    Brandon said he did it to correct a lie that was being perpetuated.

    Question

    I said that I was still suspicious of Hoid,

    Brandon Sanderson

    to which he said I should be, as those two (Hoid and Kelsier) do not get along. He said that the memory uncovered a truth that Kelsier did not want to be known.

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  • 31

    Question

    When Harmony ascended, I think he said he had trouble seeing what was going on in the Spiritual realm. Does he get better at this?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He does. Also it's important to note that the Spiritual Realm is not the Beyond.

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  • 32

    Question

    At the beginning of WoK, Kaladin is annoyed by a mischievous wind spren, but not particularly shocked. Are personality quirks common to specific types of spren?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, although you'll see those quirks more common in elemental spren than in emotional spren.

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  • 33

    Question

    When a Threnodite shade ruins silver, is that a natural, physical process, like a chemical reaction resulting in silver phosphate, or is the silver actually transmuted into something no longer silver?

    Brandon Sanderson

    RAFO

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  • 34

    Question

    Regarding the movie options:

    Brandon Sanderson

    Sanderson has high hopes, and will try to get a PG-13 rating as much as he can (because we all know it's not going to be PG.) If the movies are bad, they'll pull more people into the Sanderson craziness and we'll have more people to complain with.

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  • 35

    Question

    no question

    Brandon Sanderson

    Some things in the cosmere, such as if there really is a God as we think of it and whether there is life after death, will never be answered.

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  • 36

    Question

    no question

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is possible to travel back in time. I think the exact words went more or less like: "Nobody has managed to travel backwards in time yet."

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  • 37

    Question

    no question

    Brandon Sanderson

    The 17th Shard is about nonintervention, but they're not doing so great a job, seeing as they took the common cold to Roshar.

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  • 38

    Question

    no question specified

    Brandon Sanderson

    The "how-did-Vasher-get-to-Roshar" thing will be explained. For now, we know that Vasher got tired of "sucking souls" and, through previous study with a group of scholars, knew how easy it was to get Investiture on Roshar (same way he knew what a Shardblade was so he could try to replicate it (and we all know how that turned out: Nightblood)). With this same group of scholars, he figured out how to get into the Cognitive realm.

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  • 39

    Question

    no question specified

    Brandon Sanderson

    The myth Hoid tells in Words of Radiance is referencing how worldhopping works.

    Footnote

    what myth? about Fleet?

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