Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Brandon Sanderson RAFOlympics at JordanCon 8 (Verbatim)

Do the flakes that Shai blows off the front of the soulstamp have any hidden power?

No. The blowing off is just related directly to my experience. The soulstamps come from - I lived in Korea for two years as a Mormon missionary, and then I went to Taiwan to visit, since there’s a huge Brandon Sanderson fan base in Taiwan. For those who don’t know, the publisher who got Mistborn published it the same month or so that Hunger Games came out, and everyone who read the Hunger Games and wanted more ended up buying Mistborn. [laughter] Yeah, it’s like Maze Runner or one of these other YA dystopians that took off in the halo of the Hunger Games. Over there, Mistborn was in the halo of the Hunger Games. It actually sold about as well in Taiwan. It was really fun, you can go to my timeline on Facebook and - here, people like to ask questions. A lot of the super fans like to have questions and things like that. There, the super fans like to get pictures. And so there are like 5,000 pictures of me and teenage schoolgirls [...] just all over Facebook. But I visited the palace museum...Anyway, I remember seeing someone in Korea carving these, he would do a little bit, then blow a little off, do a little bit, and blow it off. Kind of the old school carver. Now most days they’re actually made by machines. You load in a design, and it goes and it will carve it out to look like the little computer design. But occasionally you see people doing it the old school way. That’s why I did it like that, because I’d actually seen someone carving one. There is not supposed to be any hidden magical meaning, other than that the stone they’re using is a traditional type of stone, which may or may not have Invested properties.

Shai, soulstamps,

Brandon Sanderson RAFOlympics at JordanCon 8 (Verbatim)

In the Emperor’s Soul, you indicate sort of the [opposite?] to the kandra in regards to… Soulstamps should be made with bone and are considered the lesser… With crystal is the highest. With kandras, their true bodies are crystal, they are considered weak. Bones are considered strong.

Iiii… I’m gonna stop you right there, just because that’s gonna depend on the kandra, and their age, and how they feel about it. There are plenty of kandra, I think MeLaan would argue against that and be like “no! Non-bone true bodies are way better! Look, I can take my hands off and stab people with swords underneath. This is super better!” Whereas TenSoon would be like… That’s not… It’s a little bit like when I was in Korea, and people are like “things made out of concrete just feel worse! It’s bad for the to always be surrounded by concrete. Wood is better for you.” I… think there are people who would disagree with that, I think there are people who would totally agree with that.

kandra, soulstamps,