Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

not serious questions.* Have you seen or heard of the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica? Is Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, or Twilight BEST PONY?

*It isn't really neccessary to answer these, but I want to know. As for the others, who I know want to downvote this post so bad. Deal with it. I can ask the questions I want.

I have heard of Madoka Magica, but have not watched it. I don't know the other one. I haven't really gotten into an anime since Bebop, though people keep telling me I need to watch one of the Full Metal Alchemist shows.

Well, my son (having only girl cousins) has a stuffed rabbit he named Fluttershy...so that one? I'm afraid you're talking to the wrong Dragonsteel person for MLP discussion. Peter's a fan, but I've never actually seen an episode of the new incarnation. (My little sisters, many years ago, did make me suffer through the movie with the sea ponies about a billion times, however.)

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Hey Brandon, it’s Eric. I can’t tell you how amazing it is for you to actually come here. I really hope you enjoy 17th Shard. We did, after all, build it for you and for Brandon fans everywhere. Hopefully, you approve. (I’m actually totally terrified the site will go down with all the traffic with you here. I highly doubt it will. But hey! At least we won’t get DoS’d again.) It is such an honor for you to join us.

I have just a few questions for you. Cosmere, of course. What else did you expect, though, deep in the den of the crazy theorizers of 17th Shard?

You guys are awesome, and I really appreciate what you've done here.

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Is Splintering a Shard permanent?

No.

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In the Ars Arcanum of the Way of Kings, next to the Essences are listed ten Body Focuses. Are these Body Focuses the focus (in cosmere terms) of Surgebinding?

RAFO.

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Is there a cosmere-specific term you use to describe, say, a Shard’s power inside someone? For example, people on Scadrial had little bits of Preservation in them that made them sentient (and, with enough Preservation, Allomancy). This obviously doesn’t make these people Slivers or Splinters, so I was just wondering if you had a word for it.

In my own terms, I refer to all of this as types of investiture. The degree, and effects, can be very different--but those people are invested. I term this Innate Investiture, and it is similar to what happens with people on Nalthis. That is also innate.

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A lerasium Mistborn’s kids would surely be Allomancers. If such a lerasium Mistborn traveled to, say, Nalthis, fell in love and had kids with a native Nalthisean, would those kids be Allomancers? Or something else?

In most cases, they would still be Allomancers. Mixed, potentially, with something else depending on the native innate investiture. That mixture could do some strange things, though.

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Hello there ^^. I have four questions. Two are serious, and two are not. I care the most about the first one, so if you can only answer one, please answer that. Thanks for coming to answer our questions.

My pleasure. Thanks for reading.

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serious Questions. Does the intent/personality of the Shard affect the personalities of the humans they create? What do you call a human from each Shardworld (demonyms like Scadrialeese) ?

It has some very small effect.

Selish, Scadrian, Nalthian, Rosharan.

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Hey Brandon! It's Kerry. Thank you so much for doing this! I have a rather random-looking assortment of questions for you:

How does Snapping work after Sazed changed it? If you don’t want to reveal it all right now, are there any hints you can give us?

He couldn't get rid of this entirely. I don't want to spoil things, but Snapping was built into Allomancy primarily because of larger-scale magical issues. This is getting deep into the issue, but it has to do with a person's spiritual makeup and a 'wounded' spirit being easier to fill with something else, kind of like a cut would let something into the bloodstream. Sazed made this threshold on Scadrial much easier to obtain.

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Can obligators marry?

Yes.

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Can anyone with access to Shadesmar learn how to worldhop?

In theory. Getting to Sel is really tough...

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In your books, we see a lot of really interesting and diverse world elements that make these places and cultures really come to life. What are some of the world elements you’ve had the most fun creating, and what do you like best about them?

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy it here! We're crazy, but we like it that way.

I'd say that the spren on Roshar have been my favorite so far--they are so different, but also so RIGHT. They have a mythological fae-feel to them, but also fit into the cosmere arcanum just perfectly. I also like writing them.

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Hey!

It's so cool that you're doing this, Mr. Sanderson. Thanks so much! I know this will fuel discussions for at least the rest of the year.

(For the record, you should totally check out the chatroom.)

1. So, those things on the inside cover of WoK. Crabwasps, or crabdragons?

(These guys, for clarification.)

They range between the size of a hand to perhaps the size of a small melon. You'll find out more about them eventually. Like most things from Aimia, they're pretty odd, and are also now very rare since the scouring.

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2. Just after the Shattering (but before they started created humans or something), did all Shards have roughly the same amount of raw power?

Yes. Good question.

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3. Can Demoux burn malatium?

Interesting theory.

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4. Does Forgery use the Dor?

Yes.

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Hey Brandon!

Thank you so very much for coming here to answer our questions, I know this'll probably be taking some time away from Stormlight 2, so I appreciate you being here very much. You're my absolute favorite author, the logic of your magic and the way your stories and characters ring true is beyond compare in my opinion. I've got 4 questions, but if that seems like too many feel free to skip the later ones. Thanks again so very much :D

Thank you for reading, and for the kind words. I'm thrilled that people out there are paying enough attention to even ask questions like this. It's flattering.

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Can all Investitures be classified as end-positive, neutral, or negative?

Yes, though in the overwhelming majority of cases, it's end-positive or at least neutral. Hemalurgy really is an oddity in the cosmere

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Why does Devotion's Shardpool act so differently from Preservation’s?

For similar reasons to why the Dor acts so differently from Preservation's essence...

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Did people exist on Nalthis prior to Endowment's arrival there?

Some planets had people before the shattering.

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Is the Dor made up of both Devotion and Dominion’s power?

The Dor's nature, and why it acts as it does, is in part related to this question.

WINDRUNNER

Also the TWoK nerd in me is totally embarrassed that I didn't ask any questions on that.(It was the first of your books I read, and my favorite) I can't wait for Stormlight 2 though, and will hopefully be at the release!

BRANDON SANDERSON

Thanks!

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Is Wax's sister a Duralumin ferring?

I'm curious what makes you guess that particular power.

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Hello, Brandon! Thank you for doing this. Here are my questions (all serious): 1. Is it possible to give cats intelligence with Hemalurgy? Or transfer cat's identity to a human?

1: Hemalurgy can do some very, very odd things. And the endowment of intelligence is a common result of tinkering with shard-based magic.

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2. How is heat a mental attribute in Feruchemy?

2: Because I messed up. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but that power was supposed to be swapped with another one. (You might be able to guess which one.) However, by the time I realized my mistake, it had already been canonized in print in the trilogy, so I was stuck with it. I've been tempted to go back and correct the error, but it reaches pretty far back. People drawing upon warmth is mentioned in the first book. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that in general the 'physical, mental, etc' things are applied by people--they are boxes that people investigating the magic have used to describe it.

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3. How much power does a Breath and a freshly charged Hemalurgic spike have relative to each other?

3: This is a RAFO. I don't want to be pinned down on this one quite yet.

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Fourth: Tell us something new about Cognitive Realm, please :)

4: You will get plenty in the next Stormlight book. But more than one type of spren live there.

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Hey Brandon - Just wondering, are you ever going to go back and write about The Further Adventures of Lestibournes? I think his character is pivotal to the Mistborn trilogy and felt cheated that the trilogy mostly focused on Vin, Kel, Sazed, and Elend. I would like to know more of his backstory and how he became the stud that he is. Thanks, Justin

He became quite the 'stud' in the years following the first trilogy. I might be persuaded to show some of this at some point. He also knew many things he really should not have.

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Hi Mr. Sanderson. Thank you for doing this, you're awesome . My questions: 1.) Are there any racist jokes in the Mistborn world?

Yes, I would think there are lots of racist jokes everywhere. It's more of a thing on Roshar, however, where the races are more distinct and rub each other the wrong way more often.

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2.) What do the Terrismen who aren't stewards or breeders do? Are there castrated Terris craftsmen around in the Terris dominance? what do the terriswomen who aren't breeders do?

Lots of things. There is a full society up there. Lots of small villages.

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3.) If there's really no upper limit to feruchemy for practical reasons* , why didn't Sazed just fill steel at ridiculous levels for a few minutes in WoA, and then go back to running instead of leaving his steelminds there?Say, being some 100,000 times slower than he would normally be for about a minute. Meaning that a feruchemist should be able to fill a given metalmind in very short periods of time if you fill at a high enough rate.

The low end is bounded. You can pull out tons--but in filling, you can only go so far. I didn't ever explicitly talk about this in the series, but the implications are there. Not all have the same bounds, but in your example, the body just can't slow beyond a certain point. Think of it this way--you can only fill a weight metalmind with as much weight as you have to give. So you can become very, very light--but you only add to a time for doubling your weight. You can't make yourself 100,000 times slower and gain 100,000 times multiplication. You can give up all of your normal speed, and so when you tap that speed out you are at 200% for an equal period. (And that's a theoretical maximum; realistically, you can only go to down around 75% slower or the like.)

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4.) If tapping heat means your own body gets hotter, does it also mean you become immune to hot temperatures so long as you're tapping it, or should you fill heat and grow colder for that to happen?

As everything in Feruchemy, you become immune to the effects of the ability only. Like weight doesn't crush you, but at the same time doesn't have a net gain in strength. Growing colder, however, would be more helpful in this regard.

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Hey Brandon, thank you so much for doing this :D Would you be willing to write a Ketek in High Imperial? It's just something that's been going around in my head for a while, I think it'd be pretty cool XD.

Ha. I...really would rather pass on this one. Getting the Ketek right in KINGS took weeks of writing and rewriting. I'm not sure I'd like to try something, even for fun, in a quick forum write like this.

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On a slightly more serious note, are we going to be seeing Eastern Slang/High Imperial throughout the whole of the mistborn sequence? How about on any of the other shardworlds?

RAFO. (But you will see it again.)

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Is there any relationship between Hemalurgic bindpoints and the body focuses in Surgebinding? Specifically, the eyespikes and the eyes being a body focus in Surgebinding?

The relationship is there, but it's not a very strong connection.

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Can a misting burn the god-metal alloys of their metal? If not, do the god-metals even 'exist' if there are no full mistborn?

There are metals which exist that any Allomancer can burn, regardless of their own orientation.

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PS: what do you think to a Sadeas and Zane pairing? Not many people seem to like the idea, but I think they'd get on swimmingly :P

Sadeas would make great use of Zane. Far better use than his father did.

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