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WoT Interview Search

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Your search for the tag 'dragons' yielded 21 results

  • 1

    Interview: Sep 6th, 1993

    Robert Jordan

    Dear Carol,

    Thank you very much for the copy of The Chronicles. I was not aware that I had fans who followed my work so closely. It is a real pleasure to discover. I apologize for the delay in writing, but in addition to writing (which takes no small amount of time), I have been on a round-the-world promotional trip and a close family member had to have open heart surgery, both of which occupied me fully. I do not have access to Prodigy, but please keep me on your mailing list through Tor.

    By the way, the capture of Yurian Stonebow did not "bring and end to the Trolloc Wars" (Guide to WoT). Yurian Stonebow "rose from the ashes of the Trolloc Wars." That is, he came along after the wars ended.

    Footnote

    This 'Guide to WoT' was something in the fan club newsletter; the Big White Book was published a few years later. The first quote is probably from this 'guide', and the second is from The Great Hunt.

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  • 2

    Interview: Apr 6th, 2001

    lowlander

    Are there any dragons (like real dragons (=animals)) in Rand's world? If not where did they get the idea of dragons?

    Robert Jordan

    There are no animal dragons of any kind in this world. The people speak of a man called the Dragon. They know that the banner that has a certain creature on it was the banner of this man and they have taken to calling this creature the dragon. To them it is a simple association with the name of this man.

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  • 3

    Interview: Apr, 2003

    Budapest Q&A (Verbatim)

    Question

    And there is the Ring of Tamyrlin. It's just a signet ring, or . . . ?

    Robert Jordan

    Read and find out. Again, this is something I don't know whether I'm going to put it in or not.

    Question

    Okay.

    Robert Jordan

    But you see there are things that I might want to put in, I might want to use, and giving you the answer lets it out and means I might as well not use it because . . .

    Question

    It's more interesting.

    Question

    Does Telamon mean "dragon" or does it mean "Kinslayer" or is it something else?

    Robert Jordan

    What? In Lews Therin Telamon? No, no. It means something else. That's his name. Lews Therin is the name he was born with. Telamon, a name he was given later.

    Question

    It does not mean dragon?

    Robert Jordan

    It does not mean dragon, no.

    Question

    And are dragons definitely not the same as raken and to'raken?

    Robert Jordan

    Definitely not. Definitely not.

    Harriet McDougal

    Oh that's an interesting question.

    Question

    But, I mean the name [sounds?] the same. . .

    Robert Jordan

    But no, they're definitely not. They're definitely not.

    Harriet McDougal

    They're flying creatures.

    Question

    They're like a dragon image.

    Robert Jordan

    Yeah, I know they are somewhat of a dragon image. But no, they're definitely not.

    Harriet McDougal

    Oh, cool. That's a wonderful thing to have noticed. That's great.

    Robert Jordan

    Although who can say what may be said in the next Age? Remember, things get repeated, things get distorted. And what the next Age believes is true history of a previous Age may not be in any way close to what actually happened. So who knows?

    Question

    So was . . .  In the Age of Legends, a dragon was a completely symbolic thing? It did not refer to an actual creature?

    Robert Jordan

    Not to an actual creature. But beyond that, read and find out.

    Question

    Did they have dragons like . . . ?

    Robert Jordan

    No, it was symbolic at that time. There were no dragons flying around in the Age of Legends, no.

    Question

    And did they have [inaudible...]

    Robert Jordan

    They named this man the dragon as a symbol. And his banner was a dragon as a symbol.

    Question

    [inaudible]

    Robert Jordan

    No, that . . . I think you better read and find out.  Again, I don't know if I'm going to use it, but I don't want to put out too much.

    Question

    So if you don't use it, after you finish the series, we come back to this question.

    Robert Jordan

    Okay, okay.

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  • 4

    Interview: Sep 3rd, 2005

    Question

    When you first starting thinking about the series and thinking about writing it: when you were naming things, and places and people, did you have any sort of process or did you say, hey that sounds cool?

    Robert Jordan

    Well, I don't know, it is a combination of things. I gave this recently, so it is probably already on the net. How did I come up with the division of the One Power, the male and female half? I had seen a novel, there are a lot now, but this was the first I had seen like this. Young woman wants to be whatever it was, a magician, whatever, but she can't because she is a woman, and women aren't allowed to do that so she is going to struggle through it.

    I thought it was interesting, one of the earlier novels of the feminist struggle, and all that. I put it back, because it didn't seem something I cared to read, but I thought about it because the thought that occurred to me is okay, that's real easy, women aren't allowed to do this, it is historically based or grounded at least, what if it was men who couldn't, now how would that be, as my wife points out to me, we have the upper body strength, and she is convinced all of the inequities in the world vis a vis gender, are subject to the fact that we have all the upper body strength, and I am sorry about that baby, I ain't giving it up. So, how could there be a situation where men were not allowed to do this, and it does not somehow get itself reversed over time, add into this I wanted a near gender equal world as I could, and how could I have a situation where women could maintain gender equality?

    Okay, now I split men and women, have different sources of power and the male source of power is tainted. Okay, you've gotta stop men and at the same time, out of this beginning came the division of the One Power, the White Tower existing as the political center of power for three thousand years, false dragon, the destruction of the world by men, false dragons arising periodically to remind humanity exactly why men can't be allowed to channel and why the White Tower must remain the center of political power. A lot of stuff came out of that one notion.

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  • 5

    Interview: Sep 4th, 2005

    Question

    At the end of The Great Hunt when Rand and Ishamael were fighting in the air above Falme, they appeared in the sky over many places and my question is whether this is something done by the One Power or something done by the Creator? How did they appear in the sky?

    Robert Jordan

    An effect of the Wheel, really. It wasn't the Creator. The Wheel is more than a simple mechanism. Remember the Wheel can spin out ta'veren, can spin out Heroes as a self-correcting device because the Pattern is drifting from what it is supposed to be. We are not talking about something as simple as a spinning wheel at all, we are talking something more along the lines of the most complex computer you could possibly imagine. There were at that time, two, there were false Dragons that had a chance to create a lot of disruption. By the appearance in the sky at that battle, not just in Falme but in other places, those false Dragons were taken off the board because there was only room now for one, for one Dragon.

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  • 6

    Interview: Nov 9th, 2009

    Brandon Sanderson

    We will most probably not be seeing any actual dragons in the series—the naming of Aludra's cannons is not because of the shared fire breathing, but simply a general association with power.

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  • 7

    Interview: Nov 9th, 2009

    Brandon Sanderson

    The dragon on the gate at Harriet's and Jim's home was there after it appeared in the books, and the books were given to the carver for a template.

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  • 8

    Interview: Nov 8th, 2010

    Question

    Did dragons ever exist in the Wheel of Time? Are they actual mythological creatures? (In the Wheel of Time)

    Brandon Sanderson

    The creatures don't exist in life. They know the symbol is a dragon, but they don't know where it came from. Maybe it's one of those things where the symbol remained, but the meaning was lost.

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  • 9

    Interview: Nov 11th, 2011

    Wetlandernw

    Are there mature Worms in A Memory of Light? Would a mature Worm be a dragon?

    Brandon Sanderson

    RAFO! (With a smile and a look that indicated we'll see something significant along that line, anyway.) As to the second part, they wouldn't really know what a dragon looked like, so they wouldn't call it that, anyway.

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  • 10

    Interview: Nov, 2009

    Brandon Sanderson

    During the era when I was trying to find my voice and find out what I was going to do as a writer, I felt that Robert Jordan had really captured the story of the hero's journey, the monomyth type epic fantasy, and done it about as well as it could be done. And so I started to look for things that I could add. This was very good for me to be doing, to be spending this time thinking about, not just retreading what had gone before, but really doing what some of the greats in the past had done.

    One of the reasons I love the Wheel of Time is because I felt that when it came out, it best blended what was familiar about fantasy with a lot of new concepts. A lot of the books that were coming out were using the old familiar tropes: elves, even if they called them a different name, and dwarves, and even dragons, and these sorts of things. And then you came along to the Wheel of Time, which didn't use any of those things, or if it did, it twisted them completely on their head. No one knew what a dragon was, and a dragon was a person. And you know, the magic system having a logical approach to it rather than just being something that happened. And he really took the genre in a different direction. And I said, I have to do something like this. Not that I ever wanted to, or intend to, or think that I could be revolutionary in the genre in the way he was, but I wanted to add something. I wanted to take a step forward rather than taking the same steps that people had taken.

    And so I began to ask myself what hadn't been done. And so you end up with me, Brandon, who...sometimes I look at myself as a postmodern fantasy writer. If you read the Mistborn trilogy, it's very much a postmodern fantasy epic. It's the fantasy epic for someone who's read all these great fantasy epics. And the story's kind of aware of all of those. It's the story of what happens if the dark lord wins? What happens if the prophecies are lies? What happens if all the things we assume about the standard fantasy epic all go horribly wrong?

    I don't want to simply be someone. . . to be postmodern, you have to be a little bit deconstructionalist, which means you're relying on the very things that you're tearing apart. I think there's a level beyond that, which is actually adding something new, not just giving commentary on what's come before. But I do love the whole postmodern aspect. I love delving into that. It's something that I think can be unique to my generation because we've grown up reading all these epics, where the generation before us didn't.

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  • 11

    Interview: Jul, 2009

    Feifner

    Do you think you will ever include dragons in your books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Dragonsteel, a series I’ll do someday, has Dragons in it. Hint: This world/series is very important to Hoid.

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  • 12

    Interview: Apr 21st, 2006

    Robert Jordan

    For Rachel, the phoenix is the female symbol of power in Chinese cosmology as the dragon is of male power, so a phoenix wouldn't do for me. Although there is a phoenix among the symbols carved into my Chinese chair, which you may have seen in Faces of Fantasy and elsewhere.

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  • 13

    Interview: Sep, 2012

    Cheese Ninja

    Do you ever plan to continue "I Hate Dragons"? I have a theory that Skip does not have a separate knack to make him smell delicious to dragons, but rather that he is high in levels of human magical potential, which the dragons need in their diet.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Perhaps. I've got a few more chapters than I've posted. Including some viewpoints from the most powerful magical sword ever created. Most powerful...in that he has the most powers. Thousands of them. All useless.

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  • 14

    Interview: Sep, 2012

    Arcanist

    1.A few years ago you posted a long post about your future plans on your website: Do you plan a post like this again or could you perhaps describe the current version of your plans right here?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Sure.

    BOOKS YOU WILL SEE SOON: (The books that are done.)

    AMOL: January

    The Rithmatist (once named Scribbler): Summer 2013

    Steelheart: Fall 2013 or spring 2014.

    BOOKS YOU WILL SEE SOMEWHAT SOON: (Working on right now.)

    Stormlight 2: Hopefully Fall 2013.

    Shadows of Self (New Wax and Wayne): 2014

    OTHER:

    Alcatraz 5: I own the rights again now, and hope to write this book sometime in the near future.

    Stormlight 3: Goal is to write this soon after Stormlight 2

    Steelheart and Rithmatist Sequels: I will probably try to do one of each of these between Stormlight 2 and 3.

    MAYBE MAYBE:

    Elantris 2: I'd still love to do a sequel for 2015, the 10th anniversary of the book's release.

    Warbreaker 2: Long ways off.

    STALLED PROJECTS

    Dark One: Unlikely any time soon.

    The King's Necromancer: Unlikely any time soon.

    I Hate Dragons: Unlikely any time soon.

    Death By Pizza: Turned out mediocre. Won't be released anytime soon.

    The Silence Divine: Will be written someday.

    White Sand: Will be written someday.

    Mistborn modern trilogy: Will be written during the gap between Stormlight 5 and 6.

    The Liar of Partinel Didn't turn out well. Scraped.

    Dragonsteel: Won't be written until Stormlight is done.

    Not a lot of changes from back then, except that Steelheart got finished and Rithmatist got a release date for certain.

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  • 15

    Interview: Sep 24th, 2013

    Question

    You know Hoid's Letter, that is in The Way of Kings, it is given to a dragon right?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He calls himself an old reptile.

    Question

    Is he immortal?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Functionally, meaning he doesn't age but can be killed.

    Question

    And it is a he and not a she?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is a he.

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  • 16

    Interview: Mar 29th, 2014

    Question

    We have yet to see a dragon from you, I was wondering if those are coming?

    Brandon Sanderson

    One of my worlds has dragons.

    Question

    Is it Dragonsteel?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, it is.

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  • 17

    Interview: Apr 8th, 2016

    Blightsong

    Are sandlings from white sand an early concept for crustaceans on Roshar, with greatshells being a parallel to deep sandlings.

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, um, the idea for white sand came first, and it was more that I was exploring divergent ecology, but I've been doing that in Dragonsteel and in White Sand and in here with Roshar. I would say that the fact that white sand hadn't been published meant that I could do something's that were similar without worrying about repeating myself, but it's not like I used them specifically as models.

    Blightsong

    *jokingly* So does this mean we are going to get to see little dragons running around in Dragonsteel?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Uh, well, in Dragonsteel the dragons are sapient, so when I write Dragonsteel I will put dragons in there, but the dragons are intelligent and uh, can take human form, but there are actual little dragons.

    Blightsong

    Wait, they can take human form?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, yes, yup.

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  • 18

    Interview: Apr 8th, 2016

    Question

    I was wondering if we were very going to see Dragons in the Cosmere?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, Dragonsteel. One of the first books I ever wrote in the Cosmere has dragons. It's also just one of the weaker books, so I can't publish it as is, but yea. Being a big fan of dragons, I did write them into the Cosmere. They are the one standard fantasy race in there.

    Question

    Are they ever going to infiltrate the other worlds kind of?

    Brandon Sanderson

    *Talks about the letter and Frost, Flashback order, and the girls costume*

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  • 19

    Interview: Apr 23rd, 2016

    Question

    You recently said that dragons in the Cosmere can take the form of humans. A Kandra from Mistborn can do something very similar. Is there a meaningful connection between what the dragons and Kandra can do?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, except for on fundamental Cosmere rules stuff, but that’s… I would say no, in the same way that, “is there any similarity in the way that bats and birds can fly?” Well, there is some similarity, but there is divergent evolution and stuff like that.

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  • 20

    Interview: Apr 23rd, 2016

    Question

    If a Kandra were to somehow take the form of a dragon, would they notice any difference in anatomy, or is it spot-on in person?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I’m going to RAFO that, to leave Dragonsteel for Dragonsteel when we get there.

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