The Ultimate List of Questions for Brandon

[quizno43 he/him]

Do the Shades on Threnody have the same effect on people as Shardblades?

[+Extesian he/him]

On 21/03/2017 at 10:48 AM, Jondesu said:

If someone swallowed and burned Lerasium while on Roshar or another planet (not Scadrial), would it still turn them into a Mistborn by default?

Here's a brand new WoB from yesterday.

Quote

Q: Did Hoid use the bead of lerasium to rewrite his spiritual DNA in a way to give him something other than allomantic powers?

A: His goal was to become an allomancer.

Q: Yeah and did he use it to create other powers?

A: It could not give powers other than allomancy.

Q: Because it’s lerasium?

A: Yes.

Q: So he did burn it and become an allomancer.

A: Well you have seen him use allomancy…

Q: It’s creating a lot of confusion.

A: You have actually seen him use allomancy.

I guess it really would have made it too powerful...

[kenod]

Is it possible to make Investure interference work reversed? I mean it like already Invested objects being hard to affect with other Investure, would it be possible to use high levels of Investure on already Invested objects (storing a lot in a Hemalurgic spike, Awakening a low charge metalmind) and removing the previous Investure, or corrupt it?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

So.. I spent maybe an hour and a half beforehand and came to the realization that there are a lot of things to ask about Nalthis. Apologies right out the gate for massive post

Nalthis Questionnaire

The Future:

1. Excluding the Warbreaker Sequel(and a potential Nalthis Essay), will we ever go back to Nalthis?
2. What will the "teching up" be like on Nalthis? Can you give us any hints about Magic/Tech interactions?
3. What type of society is Nalthis heading to? (Industrial, Artistic, Militaristic, Commercial, Scientific, etc..)
4. Will we ever see large scale combat with Awakening? (like your annotation snippet about the Manywar)
5. Once we hit space era, will Nalthis discover other worlds or will those other worlds discover Nalthis?

The Artisan's Script:

1. Do you have an actual key for this language or is it just a concept?
2. What way would the script be read? (Left to right, right to left, top down, etc..)
   • Does this change if written as a glyph/picture?
3. How specific do the variations in color go? ie: Is there a difference between light blue and sky blue, dark blue and blue-black, etc..?
   • Do you need the 3rd Heightening(Color Recognition) in order to read/write in this language?
4. Given that the "colors represent sounds," does this language function in a similar way to the Stormwarden's Script?
   • ie: Would (Parah + Shen + Idi = Parshendi) equate to (Green + Turquoise + Navy Blue = Parshendi)
5. In what way do the colors represent sounds? Do colors represent (|) sounds of letters like in Alethi, (||) individual syllables or (|||) some other term?
6. If written in lines rather than dots, do the lines represent individual words or sentences?
7. For both lines and dots, how are the spaces between words represented? How are different sentences marked?

General Awakening: (bit of Cosmere crossover)

1. Does awakening stone/steel physically require the 9th heightening to do, or is it just to gain the knowledge on how?
   • In other words: Could Vasher create another Nightblood without being at the 9th Heightening since he already knows how to make it?
2. How does Command Breaking actually work? How does this method differ from a person at the 8th Heightening doing it with their "instinctive knowledge"?
3. Would it be possible to replicate a Thunderclast by awakening stone in the shape of one if you knew the right command?
   • If so, what might this command be? (Probably RAFO, but could be useful info about Thunderclast/Voidspren if he answers)
4. Would it cost less to awaken something that had previously been awakened? (Since it was "closer to life" at one point)
5. Would the corpse of a Thunderclast be easier to awaken than plain stone in the shape of one? (Other Questions #5 shows why this matters)
6. Is there a breath penalty for making a lifeless animal since it isn't close to human life? (WoB that a Canine Awakener has an affinity for canine shape so...)
7. What effects, if any, would giving breath to an animal have on that animal? And could they ever become sapient enough to awaken?
8. Would a child be better at the mental images of awakening since they have more active imaginations than adults do? (They can imagine things being alive/moving easily enough without Breath, but now...)
9. Citing any example in the book: Could another person in that situation have done the same thing but with a different Command?

The Heightenings: (bit of crossover)

1. Are there any more than the 10 Heightenings we know or is this the hard cap?
2. Do the early Heightenings (1-5) have any additional effects beyond what is listed in the Ars Arcanum?
3. Can Vasher replicate Heightenings if he drew in enough Stormlight? (I doubt it, but it's best to be sure)

Other Questions: (lot of crossover)

1. Is there a way to Worldhop off of Nalthis that doesn't use Endowment's Perpendicularity? And if so, is this what Vasher used?
2. Is it possible to ascend by holding enough Breath? And if so, do you have a rough estimate of how many that would take?
3. Can you store the "understanding of commands" granted by the 6th Heightening in a Coppermind?
4. Can you store the visualizations used in Awakening in a Coppermind? (IIRC, Sazed can store a visual memory, so this isn't too big of a leap in logic)
5. You've said that Thunderclasts are animated stone, rather than animating a greatshell corpse turned to stone. This is remarkably similar to a WoB that it is easier to Awaken a corpse Soulcast into stone than to Awaken stone itself. Is this similarity intentional and does animating a Thunderclast operate on the same principle/mechanic as Awakening stone?
6. We have semi-conflicting WoB's (1) (2) about giving Parshmen breath, so can you clarify what it would do and if they could develop a form around it?
   • If they can make a form, would "Breathform" be canon? And could they use that Breath to awaken or would that compromise the Form?
7. You've said that turning a Koloss into a Lifeless is difficult because it wants to revert back to human size and strength. Would a Lifeless Steel Inquisitor have this issue since they already are normal human size/strength?
8. How does the Breath bonus/penalty for "affinity to life" work on Kandra? Do they get a bonus based on their current form or do they just not get a bonus/penalty at all?
9. Are Parshmen and/or Koloss sapient enough to Awaken?
10. What do the Tears of Edgli actually look like? (Someone asked us today and we don't have an answer, so it's here now)

[Oversleep]

Important question: can Inquisitors cry? Are the physically able to cry? I mean, their eyesockets are occupied by giant bits of metal.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Oversleep

[Landis963 he/him]

4 hours ago, Oversleep said:

Important question: can Inquisitors cry? Are the physically able to cry? I mean, their eyesockets are occupied by giant bits of metal.

Common sense would suggest "no."  Luckily, the purpose of tears is to lubricate and clear the eyes, which the insertion of a large storm-off spike tends to render moot.  

[Oversleep]

6 hours ago, Landis963 said:

Common sense would suggest "no."  Luckily, the purpose of tears is to lubricate and clear the eyes, which the insertion of a large storm-off spike tends to render moot.  

Yeah but I'm thinking more of crying because of emotions. I'm not sure whether they could do that.

[Landis963 he/him]

3 hours ago, Oversleep said:

Yeah but I'm thinking more of crying because of emotions. I'm not sure whether they could do that.

Actually, both the tear gland and the tear duct are out of the way of the eye spike.  So it is physically possible for them to cry with the spike in place. 

[LiquidBlue]

Can a misting burn gold-metal alloys of their metal? For example, can a gold misting burn malatium?

[Jondesu he/him]

Do Shards that are not on a planet (Ambition, if not splintered, and whatever the other one is) still create/influence a magic system in any way?  

 

Does Silverlight have a magic system?

Edited March 30, 2017 by Jondesu

[LiquidBlue]

Pure tin and iron have different allotropes which means that they are elementally pure but can exhibit different physical, chemical, and magnetic properties[1]. Do allotropes have allomatic or ferchemical significance?

 

 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropy#Metals

[Oversleep]

32 minutes ago, Jondesu said:

Does Silverlight have a magic system?

Lumping this question together with the previous one suggests that Silverlight has a Shard. We do not know that. I'd keep them separate or else Brandon will say something like "you're making assumpitons!"

Edited March 30, 2017 by Oversleep

[Jondesu he/him]

2 hours ago, Oversleep said:

Lumping this question together with the previous one suggests that Silverlight has a Shard. We do not know that. I'd keep them separate or else Brandon will say something like "you're making assumpitons!"

I doubt I'll have the chance to ask him anytime soon myself, but yeah, I agree. I separated them in the original post now.

[Stark he/him]

When you get "cut" with a shardblade, the affected limb goes grey.  When cut with Nightblood, the wound is blackened and drained of colour.  Does this have to do with Nightblood being more heavily invested, or is it to do with Nightblood's artificial nature?

[feldi]

In the end of WoR Sadis is literlly trying to provoke Adolin, while defentlly knowing him to be hotheaded, and was trying to use it against him, also it's such a simple and sudden death, can it be that Sadis is still alive? Is it a known theory? Are there any more solid hints? A WoB?

[feldi]

3 hours ago, Stark said:

When you get "cut" with a shardblade, the affected limb goes grey.  When cut with Nightblood, the wound is blackened and drained of colour.  Does this have to do with Nightblood being more heavily invested, or is it to do with Nightblood's artificial nature?

I think it's because nightblood also kill in the spiritual realm, and a curropted/dead soul is black (like we can see dripping from nightblood).

[Jondesu he/him]

@feldi, Sadeas' Shardblade appeared next to him, which only happens when the bond is broken in death. That's our confirmation that he died, and I don't see any reason for him to be resurrected. He served his purpose.

[Yata he/him]

8 hours ago, feldi said:

I think it's because nightblood also kill in the spiritual realm, and a curropted/dead soul is black (like we can see dripping from nightblood).

Dead souls aren't Black, there is no difference at all between a Dead and living soul. Much more Nightblood doesn't corrupt(with the context of meshing Shard's Investiture) Upon cut...It merelly cut Upon target's physical, spiritual and cognitive.

[Stark he/him]

A few questions here, on two subjects:  If an Awakener travels to Roshar and uses the proper Commands to one-breath revive a Chasmfiend to make the most terrifying Lifeless ever, would that one breath contain sufficent Investiture to replace the function of the Spren that departed at the time of its death?  Or would it collapse on itself and be useless?  Or would it take more breath to Awaken it to a functional standpoint?  On a similar vein, making a lifeless uses the body's colour, but shardblade killed limbs are already greyed out.  Would awakening a shardblade killed corpse require colour from more sources?  Would the shardblade killed limbs function?

 

Finally on this vein, what would be the result of this hypothetical:  If as an Awakener, you store all your Breath in a vessel.  Then a dying person gives you their own breath before they expire.  If you then use that one Breath to turn the person's body into a Lifeless, is there a fucntional, or Cosmere significant difference to using a person's own Breath to re-animate their own corpse? [Edit: I could totally see this situation being the basis for some sort of Idranian Frankenstein type horror story - where the mad Awakener/Scientist traps a loved ones soul in its own undying body for all time.]

 

Next subject:  It has been asked what would happen if you tried to summon a Shardblade on Sel, and that got RAFO'd interestingly.  What would happen if a Listener worldhopped to Sel and managed to bond a Seon?  Is that possible, and would that create a new form?  Would the form reflect the Aon at the core of the Seon? 

Edited April 3, 2017 by Stark

[Silarn]

Since Sanderson has been weirdly indirect in answers to whether or not Hoid used/consumed the lerasium - not simply saying yes but instead being roundabout and saying things like - well you've seen him use allomancy! (In addition to the original comments if it being his 'original intent' or something like that...)

I propose a slightly different question (or two):

Is Hoid's allomantic ability on par with that of Elend (post lerasium, of course)?

Is there at least a portion of the lerasium bead Hoid took that still exists?

That line of questioning also led me to wonder,

Since allomancy is an aspect of Preservation and theoretically allows basic communication by Harmony,

How aware of Hoid's location/actions is Harmony?

Edited April 3, 2017 by Silarn

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1 hour ago, Silarn said:

 How aware of Hoid's location/actions is Harmony?

Prett sure that one of the Poland signings (Warsaw maybe?) had a definitive answer about whether he used the Lerasium.

I can't really answer much else, but Brandon has said that Harmony is aware of Hoid, but not exactly aware of who he is/what he's doing

[Darkness he/him]

what, if anything, do shards themselves gain from having perpendicularities (aside from worldhopping minions)?

 

[Oversleep]

14 hours ago, The One Who Connects said:

Prett sure that one of the Poland signings (Warsaw maybe?) had a definitive answer about whether he used the Lerasium.

No. We do not have definitive answer. (And it was in Krakow)
WoB:

Quote

Q: Did Hoid use the bead of lerasium to rewrite his spiritual DNA in a way to give him something other than allomantic powers?

A: His goal was to become an allomancer.

Q: Yeah and did he use it to create other powers?

A: It could not give powers other than allomancy.

Q: Because it’s lerasium?

A: Yes.

Q: So he did burn it and become a Mistborn?

A: Well you have seen him use allomancy…

Q: It’s creating a lot of confusion.

A: You have actually seen him use allomancy.

On one hand it can be read as "yeah, he did burn it cause he's an Allomancer, put two and two together"... but then why avoid saying it outright, even when asked for clarification on that?

Edited April 4, 2017 by Oversleep

[The One Who Connects he/him]

38 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

No. We do not have definitive answer. (And it was in Krakow)
WoB:

On one hand it can be read as "yeah, he did burn it cause he's an Allomancer, put two and two together"... but then why avoid saying it outright, even when asked for clarification on that?

Could've sworn it was in the first transcript.. Oh well, I remembered it happened.

It was definitive that he did not use it for anything other than Allomancy. That's my bad for inferring cause/effect.

[Fezzik]

This hoid/bead debate reminds me of the Asmodean debates. BS will deliberately avoid stating explicitly that hoid is an allomancer via lerasium until stormlight 9, where hoid will mention it off-handedly.