Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Twitter 2013 (WoT) (Verbatim)

Is the woman who told Rand at the end that he was right to bring Moridin, Nakomi?

I have been advised to RAFO questions regarding most everything from there on.

Brandon Sanderson

It's funny to say RAFO when there is no more to read, but what that term means is "This is supposed to be ambiguous."

David Catherine

With all of the homages to global myths/legends, is Nakomi the Wandering Jew/Jenn?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a very clever question that nobody has yet asked me. I'm not going to say more, however.

Ryan Lee

I gotta ask, is Nakomi / the Woman at the End a Shard of Adonalsium? Perhaps Balance?

Brandon Sanderson

No. There is not crossover between my shared world and the Wheel of Time. (Sorry.)

kcf

Who helped Rand out of the Shayol Ghul after the fight with the Dark One and told him he knew what he needed to do?

Brandon Sanderson

Hi, Neth. This is one I'm not answering, but if you track me down in person, you might be able to beat it out of me.

Terez

Is Nakomi the avatar of the Creator?

Werthead

SIFADFOE (Scream In Frustration And Don't Find Out, Ever) :-)

Terez

Yay, that means I can officially not give a shit about Nakomi. :)

Brandon Sanderson

You are allowed that right officially. She's becoming the Asmodean kill of this sequence of books.

Brandon Sanderson

I, of course, should have realized she'd become so big a thing as she did—but that wasn't the intention.

Melissa Houghton

I want to know what the heck was with Nakomi—who/what she is. Also was that her at the end of A Memory of Light?

Brandon Sanderson

Just answered this. Have a look below. (Sorry. It's a RAFO, I'm afraid.)

Peter Wikberg

Who/What is Nakomi?

Brandon Sanderson

That is a good question, but not one I'm planning to answer any time soon. (sorry.)

Arran Cook

Who was Nakomi? How did the body swap happen? How did Rand light the pipe?

Brandon Sanderson

You've asked all three of the big questions I'm not allowed or unable to answer, I'm afraid.

Lachie Stoller

Who was the old Aiel lady at the end of Rand's battle?

James Starke

Is Nakomi the person that Rand encountered at the mouth of Shayol Ghul? And is she the embodiment of The Creator?

Brandon Sanderson

This is one that I'm not answering, I'm afraid. RJ wanted some things about the ending to remain ambiguous.

nakomi, rafo, a memory of light, rand, moridin, crossover,

Twitter 2013 (WoT) (Verbatim)

I assume the answer is no, but in your interconnected universe, does the Wheel of Time have a place?

No. I felt it would be arrogant to do something like that.

Brandon Sanderson

That said, you could imagine that most possibilities of worlds are mirror worlds to the WoT...

brandon on writing wot, cosmere, crossover,

AMOL Signing Report - JaimieKrycho (Paraphrased)

Do you see Robert Jordan’s characters coming out in your writing?

No. That may happen unconsciously, but my goal is not to have that happen, because I want to tell different stories. It would be like if Kelsier started coming out in Dalinar. It's just not something we want to have happen as a writer. We want everyone to be their own individual.

brandon on writing, characterization, brandon's influences, crossover,

WOR Signing Report - Herowannabe (Verbatim)

When Sazed

You do know that I've got a character in one of the books named Bowen? [Clarification: My name is Bowen. He said this while personalizing our books]

Herowannabe

Really?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. He's actually been in the books so far, but not by name. He's one of the Worldhoppers. If you go look and talk to them they may have identified him, some people who have read.

Herowannabe

Thank you for naming a character after me!

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. I did it. He's from White Sand. I wrote the book in '98. Yeah, he's one of the Purelake guys.

Herowannabe

Is he Blunt?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, yeah. [...] (later) So yeah, Bowen, you'll have to see because when I redid the linguistics for the world, his name I think got changed. I think it's now Baon. But in the very first draft of the very first book I ever wrote his name was Bowen. And the reason I think I changed it - is because he's a bowman. And I'm like I can't name the bowman—the archer—Bowen. That's kinda dumb. But in my head he's still Bowen.

Herowannabe

Anyway, my question...

blunt, fan names in the books, crossover, worldhopping, white sand, stormlight archive, baon, unpublished works,

WOR Signing Report - Herowannabe (Verbatim)

I’m curious, I’ve got a list of various cosmere bits of metal, and I wonder if you would rank them from like 1 to 10 or easy to difficult on how hard it would be to steelpush on them?

Okay.

Herowannabe

So, like metal inside a person’s body?

Brandon Sanderson

It depends on how strong the investiture in them is.

Herowannabe

Is that going to be the answer for all of these?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably. :)

Herowannabe

How about a spike charged with Hemalurgy? Not in a person.

Brandon Sanderson

Not in a person? It depends on how strong—yeah. A spike is moderately—in the realm of these sorts of things—moderately easy to push on, because a spike does not rip off very much investiture. Only enough to short circuit the soul, and it loses that over time. So I would put that at the bottom—with the top being very hard—to be one of the easier things.

Herowannabe

How about a metalmind? A feruchemy metalmind that is "full."

Brandon Sanderson

That is going to be middle of the realm. Generally easier than, for instance, a shardblade, which is going to be very hard.

Aaradel

But a shardblade isn’t actual metal. Ish?

Brandon Sanderson

Ish. Is Lerasium a metal? Yeah.

Herowannabe

So would that be the same for Shardplate, too?

Brandon Sanderson

Shardplate and blade are very hard. Blade is probably going to be harder. [...]

Herowannabe

Halfshard? Like a halfshard shield?

Brandon Sanderson

Halfshard shield is going to be in moderate.

Herowannabe

Nightblood? I imagine is going to be very difficult.

Brandon Sanderson

Very hard. Of all the things you’ve listed, he’s the hardest. Far beyond even a shardblade.

Herowannabe

Far beyond metal inside a person?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, depending on how invested the person is.

Aaradel

If someone was invested as much as Nightblood I’m pretty sure it’s going to be very difficult.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, for instance, the Godking, at the end, with all of those Breaths. Pushing on something inside of him? Getting through all that? Gonna be REAL hard. Average person on Scadrial? You’ve seen how hard that is. A drab? Much easier.

Herowannabe

That was actually going to be my next one- No, sorry, not a drab, a Lifeless.

Brandon Sanderson

A Lifeless. Lifeless are kinda weird, because they’ve had their soul leave, but then they’ve had a replacement stuck in, in the form of Breath, which puts them in a really weird position compared to a Drab, which has had part of their investiture ripped away, but the majority of it remains. So anyway, I’m going to give you one more. Pick your favorite.

Herowannabe

Okay, a soul-stamped piece of metal.

Brandon Sanderson

A soul-stamped piece of metal is going to be on the lower, easier side. Not a lot of investiture going on in a soulstamp.

allomancy, hemalurgy, feruchemy, metallic arts, shardblades, shardplate, lerasium, shards, nightblood, breath, lifeless, drabs, cosmere, crossover, warbreaker, mistborn, stormlight archive,

WOR Signing Table Q&A (Verbatim)

Is Vasher trying to find Nightblood?

Vasher misses Nightblood and feels responsible for him.

Rhandric

How many worldhoppers have we seen?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, I haven't kept track, you've seen quite a few. There's one from Mistborn, did you catch him? I don't think people have really picked out the Terriswoman yet, who makes her way into them, but they're mostly not supposed to be noticeable yet, until you get to know them as characters and you look back and be like "oh that was that person."

Rhandric

Is it the Terriswoman I think it is?

Brandon Sanderson

I don't know which Terriswoman you think it is.

Rhandric

Tindwyl?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

Kurkistan

Speaking of the Terriswoman, is she the nurse in Warbreaker?

Brandon Sanderson

< Pauses; gleefully says > RAAAAAAFO!

The last Q&A was transcribed by Kurkistan.

vasher, nightblood, worldhopping, terris, mistborn, stormlight archive, warbreaker, crossover,

WOR Signing Table Q&A (Verbatim)

When do we get to see a Radiant and a Mistborn go at it?

It's gonna be a while. It is gonna be a while. Unless—yeah.

radiants, crossover, mistborn, stormlight archive,

WOR Signing Table Q&A (Verbatim)

Is Shai on Roshar?

Hehehe, good question!

Question

Has she already popped up?

Brandon Sanderson

She has not already popped up.

Question

So she's not a Radiant. Or is she?

Brandon Sanderson

You have not seen her on screen yet, other than in her story.

radiants, roshar, shai, worldhopping, crossover, emperor's soul, stormlight archive,

WOR Signing Table Q&A (Verbatim)

When are we gonna see a published copy of [White Sand]?

We're working on a graphic novel of it right now.

Question

Who's gonna do the art?

Brandon Sanderson

We have four or five people who have sent us pitches, and we are looking through them to decide who we want to use.

Question

Can you put me in one of your novels? I'm a three-fingered Irishman who speaks four languages.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, write me an email that says "I'm a three-fingered Irishman who speaks four languages," we'll see what we can do. [...] Who did you think Hoid was, in White Sand?

Question

Hoid is not a real person, he did not start life as [can't make out].

Brandon Sanderson

No, who did you think he was in White Sand?

Question

I don't know yet, I'm not that far.

hoid, white sand, crossover, worldhopping,

WOR Signing Table Q&A (Verbatim)

I wanted to ask about how, you mentioned that in the [third] trilogy for Mistborn, all the things are tied together. All the different worlds. In books that you write after you've written that, are you going to attempt to tie them in?

I will tie them in. I've already seeded hidden things that I can use to tie them in the way I want to. So it should all be there, the things I want to use. When you read, watch for a character named Hoid.

crossover, hoid, cosmere, third mistborn trilogy,