Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

WoR Signing Report - Awesomeness Summoned (Verbatim)

Is Hoid the most knowledgeable about what's going on in the cosmere?

No, Khriss is the most aware by a long shot. Nazh knows a lot as well. Hoid might know more than Nazh but he is pretty in the know as well so it's close.

khriss, nazh, hoid,

Ask the Author: Brandon Sanderson (Verbatim)

Does Khriss write the Ars Arcanum?

Can a Seeker inside a Coppercloud Seek someone out of one?

What about a Soother instead of a Seeker?

Do all Epics' weaknesses come from things in their past?

RAFO.

It is possible.

Yes, again possible.

RAFO.

ars arcanum, epics,

WOR-Omaha, NE

A couple of days ago, you mentioned some person called Khriss. Has he actually appeared or been referenced in any of...

She! has appeared and.... Q: I guessed as much because one of the pictures says "Dear woman!" toward the end of the book. A: She has appeared in--if you ask around about Khriss, she has appeared in unpublished books. Q: Is Khriss the author of some of the Ars Arcanums? A: [Teasing]Oh I dunno. That's very interesting Q: Does Khriss owe Nazh a new coat? A: [Long pause]I'll stay closed mouthed on Khriss.

Khriss, Nazh, unpublished books,

Brandon Sanderson Book Signing at JordanCon 8 (Paraphrased)

Does Khrissala know about the red haze and was she trying to clue Wax in on what was going on?

Khriss knows too much for me to share. (text written as personalization)

Khriss, Scadrial, Wax,

Brandon Sanderson Book Signing at JordanCon 8 (Paraphrased)

Written down question

Arcanum Unbound,

Chicago

You are releasing a graphic novel version of White Sand, which one is going to be canon to the cosmere, the graphic novel or the novel you originally wrote?

Oh definitely the graphic novel. The book I originally wrote has its problems, and I never released it. The books don’t become canon until I release them. This will be the canon release of White Sand. I don’t think-- If the graphic novel does well we are not going to write novels, I’m going to do the second one as a graphic novel original. That’s just how we are going to do it-- is my plan right now. There are things when we went back to it that we tweaked, for instance Hoid’s appearance in the original novel was only a reference. He was mentioned by, what did I end up calling him, Eis? Ais, I had both names for a while, it was only a reference to one of his old cases, that’s his only appearance. And we’re like “Ehh people are going to expect more now”. So we are writing in a better appearance for him. Stuff like that, I feel Khriss’ character needs better development than the novel had, so we are working on that. Stuff, you know. Things you would do in a major revision.

White Sand,

Shadows of Self-Denver

Does Khriss have a way of changing her appearance?

Yes.

Khriss,

Shadows of Self-Denver

Is Vathi Khriss?

No, someone else. But you'll see Khriss in a soon-to-be-published book.

Vathi, Khriss,

Calamity-Chicago

Have we seen the world mirrored by the Expanse of Broken Sky?

(long grunting and contemplation) I’m not answering that, RAFO

OdysseyCon 2016

How well would Jasnah and Khriss get along?

Uhhhm, I would say that they would get along well, like scholars from different disciplines, meaning with respect for the other's discipline.

Jasnah, Khriss,

Brandon Sanderson RAFOlympics at JordanCon 8 (Verbatim)

In Secret History, is Khriss working with the 17th Shard at that time?

Khriss works with anybody who is interested in the information that she has. She is a...no, not a freelancer, really, she is a...She’d get along with Edward Snowden, right? She is for the good of the Cosmere in her opinion, she is providing this information. She thinks it’ll be useful for everyone. So if the 17th Shard comes to her and says “We want to know this” and she knows it, she will tell them. If Hoid comes to her and says “I want to know this”, she would tell him. So Khriss will work with anyone who she thinks their motives are...are for the good of the Cosmere in general.

Question

Not strictly a mercenary…?

Brandon Sanderson

No, not a mercenary, she’s kind of a freedom of information type person.

khrissalla, 17th shard,

Brandon Sanderson RAFOlympics at JordanCon 8 (Verbatim)

With Awakening, given that you know the correct command word, could you potentially give anything to the other person, using Awakening?

Using Awakening, it has to be related to the fundamental aspects of Investiture.

Question

Which are…? How would we find what those are?

Brandon Sanderson

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.

awakening,

Brandon Sanderson RAFOlympics at JordanCon 8 (Verbatim)

Will we ever see the entire map of how the different planets are spaced out in…

Oh, yeah, the Cosmere collection will have a star chart of the Cosmere.

Question

A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Cosmere, if you will…

Brandon Sanderson

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]

Question

Are you referring to Arcanum Unbounded, is that…

Brandon Sanderson

Arcanum Unbounded, yeah.

cosmere starchart, khriss, sixth of the dusk, arcanum unbounded,

BYU Bookstore (Paraphrased)

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

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.

hoid, khriss,

BYU Bookstore (Paraphrased)

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?

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.

twinborn, gold, worldhopping, roshar, spren, identity,

DragonCon 2016

You mentioned in the last couple of (I don't understand the word but from the context He talk about Ars Arcanum where Khriss talk about what we call "perks") that you get interesting results when you mix type of investitures.

Yes

Question

Can you mix a form of magic with a source of investiture ? Vasher uses stormlight replacing Breath or that requires (word I don't understand) like Hemalurgy or something like that ?

Brandon Sanderson

Most of them required (again the word I don't understand). Some of them are little bit easier than others. It's depends on really what you need. For istance, white sand can be charged in the presence of any Investiture right? But it's not really using the magic, is just charging it with other Investiture but you know it would be very easy for istance to use Breath to fuel...Windrunning right? Because the oath and the bond and things like that make it pretty easy. However fueling Allomancy with something else is going to be a lot harder. So it really depends on the magic. It's the sort of thing that there will be lots of science in the books dedicated to making happen in the future and you will find some of the process these work easiser than other ones.

investiture combining,

Little City Books-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

How long has Khriss been cosmere-aware?

RAFO.

khriss,

Little City Books-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

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.

Mason Wheeler

that could mean a wide range of sizes...

Brandon Sanderson

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.

silverlight, cognitive realm, worldhoppers,

Harold Washington Library Center-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

How old is the picture that’s hanging in Silverlight?

The picture in Silverlight is…. Okay, so on Cosmere times, it’s very recent. Buuut, the Cosmere scale is very large. Khriss’s essays are older than it, but not by much. She had that...It is in existence when she wrote the essays, but the essays are much older than Sixth of the Dusk. Okay? Sixth of the Dusk had not happened yet when she was writing these essays. We’re gonna need some dating periods, but we’ll get eventually get that.

Silverlight, Cosmere timeline, Khriss, Sixth of the Dusk,

Harold Washington Library Center-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

Speed bubbles-

Ehh these are the hardest ones...

Harold Washington Library Center-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

I read that you had said if you had written Khriss’s essay on Nalthis, it would have been more or less that she was talking about the magic, and then mentioning that there were scholars on this planet that were like, spitting distance from, like…

Yeah, yeah.

Harold Washington Library Center-AU Tour (Paraphrased)

Are there requirements to join the Seventeenth Shard, and would they accept, for lack of a better term, a non-enhanced member?

Yes and yes. Well, um, Baon is not Invested.