Watch Brandon Sanderson of Mistborn & Stormlight Archive fame in his full panel from Chicago's C2E2

e e e [Applause] hey everybody how you doing yeah good to see you it's good to be back in Chicago um when I was uh when I was a young man Chicago was the big city that we visited I grew up in Lincoln Nebraska so yep we would we would drive 8 hours to come up here and go to the Sears Tower and and see all the sites so um things are a little different for me now now I usually just see insides of hotels and insides of Conference Centers but uh I'm glad to see you guys here um what we're going to do today is I actually start with the Q&A main reason for that is that the presentation part is a reading and I'm going to read from Stormlight 5 today right [Applause] right now here's the problem I have read from Stormlight 5 all of the parts that are non-spoilery for people who haven't read the previous Stormlight books I've already done that everything I have so this one will be slight spoilers well yeah more than slight so that's why I do the Q&A first because that way I can do the reading at the end and anyone who's really sensitive to spoilers maybe you're in the middle of rhythm of war or something will give you a chance to sneak out so you don't have to hear the spoilers uh and that way you can see the rest of uh you can see at least the Q&A and stuff so we will actually start with the Q&A warning you ahead of time I tend to go off on questions I tend to tangent a bit so um I'll be telling some stories and things as we get uh Q&A now one request your questions to me should be phrased in a ways to not spoil any book this is hard I know I know right sometimes if it's like a minor spoiler of something irrelevant you can talk around it and I'll get the idea but there are people in here uh who have read some of my books there are people who have read none of my books there are people in the middle of the book that you want to ask a question about so no spoilers all right and we're going to do the question question and answer from the two mics here and we're going to let you just get in line start throwing things at me and I'll start throwing answers back at you all right so you are first go ahead yes it's uh yes there we are uh so good to meet you um sorry if this has been asked before but um I know for a lot of your books and for storm light specifically mental health is a very big theme uh did you always intend that or did it kind of just happen during the writing process what an excellent question so the mental health themes in my books um did I intend that did I kind of develop that as it went along I'll repeat the questions because uh we're actually going to record this in case you want to see it it'll be on my YouTube channel so I want to get the I have a separate mic right here for them um so it's a little of both if that makes sense um but when I was in college one of my good friends um you can find him actually in Stormlight uh Dre from bridge 4 uh one of my one of my very dear friends he um he eventually made his way to being a doctor in the Navy um he began in Psychology and I thought I want to be a novelist right um I think that I should take some psychology classes but he was in these really cool interesting psychology classes that they don't let non- Majors into they wouldn't let me register so I just started going to the classes with him right universities don't like this because you know you're supposed to pay but I was a full-time student and the professors loved it they're like oh you care have a seat right um and so I sat through quite a bit um of you know his his kind of highlevel psychology classes where they're really digging into the interesting things um and this is where I started to pick up on like real psychology not pop psychology um and real definitions and kind of real mental health and um as a writer I thought wow um so many of us do this poorly right so many of us approach this in a in a way that actually does harm rather than good and so it kind of made this sort of decision point for me um was I going to try was I going to back off from it and just not make it an issue or was I going to include it and kind of lean in and try to do best practices right it wasn't so much that I'm like I want to make this a theme it was more if I'm going to do this i' better do it well if that makes sense um my wife struggles with depression um and as I was developing The Stormlight Archive in particular um one thing that a lot of people say and then she mentioned this she's like I'm kind of tired of stories that are only about that right like if you have depression uh as a teenager you'll get one of these teenage these teenage problem novels they call it like here's someone struggling with depression which can be really helpful right but what they don't give you is here's an epic fantasy story and someone with depression is can can be you know in an epic fantasy story as well um and it wasn't that I sat down and said I'm going to do this I sat down and said who is this character if you don't know uh the history of kaladan um there's uh the first time I tried writing the way of Kings was was in 2000 uh 2002 um and I had him be this very kind of more cliched her heroic Young Apprentice character who wins Shard blade and Shard plate and then has to go become you know a shardbearer and that happens in the prologue you can read that version of it it's called way of Kings Prime we put it for free on my website we actually gave a free audio book of it if you want to listen it's okay it's not amazing right this is this is early Brandon this is Baby Brandon in writing um kaledin never worked which is why I never released that book it had a different name back then um but he never worked and it wasn't until I had him make different decisions and I built him to into a more rounded character um that he started working and his mental health was a part of that it wasn't the defining feature but it was definitely part of it so altogether I would say yes there was some conscious choice but making a a theme was less let's make this Brandon Sanderson theme and it was more I'm going to do this well whatever I do I want to do it well so there's your answer thank you for the excellent question sitting there hit me hello hello yes it is quite loud okay so my name is Simon I'm from Chicago by way of Bulgaria my question is technologically speaking what is the difference between Space Age SC Adrians and space AG AG were Sharons and I hope this is not super spoilery oh that's not too spoilery we we can do something like that I probably won't answer it but it's not too spoilery um I will tell you this how about this um number one I love Bulgaria did I see you there when I went to Bulgaria by chance or any of your friends I was here you were here yeah um Bulgaria is the only place I've done a signing where we we did it in a mall and my editor over there is also a DJ right all my other editors in all my other countries they're what you expect them to be they you know they are people who rarely see the light of day and when they do they hiss at it right um my editor there same reasons but it's because he's at the club doing DJ stuff and he runs the side hustle of publishing fantasy books so he sat and djed for the crowd playing music and mixing it during my whole signing so that was pretty awesome I've worked with him yes so what is the difference between scad and Science and rosaran science for the future of the cosmere that is a rafo however I have a rafo card for you oh yes Becky you got want oh it's coming over so that's scar everyone say hi to scar from bridge 4 yeah when I was filling out Bridge 4S uh members I needed some extra characters and my writing group and friends at the time were like oh yeah put me in put me in put me in and so uh scar didn't get a choice he's he was he's one of the few people I know who's actually been in the military so he just went in he didn't get it he didn't get a say I'm like but um um he and Dre are both uh military men everyone else they let them choose and then my friend Ben if you ever watch our podcast uh Ben occasionally makes appearance he said do not put me in your book Sanderson I know you'll do to me no so he's the only one that's not in there um so a rafo card do you know what one of those is by chance so good story time I warned you I warned you all way back when little baby Brandon was part of The Wheel of Time fandom okay yeah um sorry about paring in the show it's not my fault I tried oh how I tried um yeah they're doing some stuff really well parin n my boy parin uh tangent time I'll get back to this everybody if if you happen to not uh like the show don't rag on the writers and creators they tried to there's certain things forces moving you can you can know that Jeff Bezos at one point said I want Game of Thrones buy it for me and they're like you can't have Game of Thrones like buy me something something that is my Game of Thrones um and there are certain forces at work um Rafe really went to bat for me I presented a completely different thing to do with parin that would still get what they wanted um minor spoilers for the television Show's first episode but instead of the big event that happens there I'm like what if he wounds Master Luhan he's worried about um the rage inside of him you can get all the same beats without doing the thing you did and then he also won't be traumatized for the entire first season and you can actually go on a fun adventure with his friends um and they took it all the way to the higher-ups and fought for my version of it I even wrote it out for them and they said no so it's their show they can do what they want but uh but they they did the um Rafe went straight up with with my version so um so you know the there's there's some very wonderful things about that show most of them are are people named like rosand and people like that and there are some really good writers on that show and they are working very hard to give you a fantastic experience um there's just lots of lots of forces at play I'll just say that so way back when baby Brandon he's part of The Wheel of Time fandom right Wheel of Time fandom um was Hardcore yes they were absolutely hardcore and um Robert Jordan often didn't want to answer questions because they would spoil future books and so he developed something he called read and find out and if a fan asked him a question that was a little too detailed a little too um like it would spoil things he's planning or it might just give too much out early he would say rafo read and find out uh it became one of his catchphrases when I was asked to finish the Wheel of Time the first time I flew out to meet Harriet the same day that she gave me the ending of The Wheel of Time all the materials that he had he had written she also gave me something and it's a bracelet which I still have and it was a fan gave us a charm bracelet that said rafo on it she handed it to me and said I'm bething you the rafo it is yours now um you may use the the rafo As You Wish um and so I can I keep that at home it's like the There's an actual kilogram somewhere right like it's actual rafo whoever Bears this is the bearer of the rafo and so I printed out cards um because I always felt bad saying no I'm not going to answer your question so at least you get a momento of the fact that you asked a very smart question that I'm not going to answer yet hello how are you well how are you nice costume thank you dungeon master yeah um so one of the aspects I liked of the storm like archive was renar um as somebody on the Spectrum Mele picked it up and I'm like wow there's representation of me because of that I want to ask when are we getting more renarin when are you getting more rarin oh excellent question so um story time um one of my very first attempts at doing this is an eless and I did it poorly this is when I was starting to take these classes before I it was before I had taken them so if you go read there there's a side character who's on the Spectrum and it's very pop psychology right um it's basically what you get by watching movies about people on the Spectrum um before they started to figure out that it was a spectrum right um and you know I wrote that book um and then I wrote seven others and I got way better um but that's the book that sold and I always thought you know I did that a little wrong so I start started getting to know people um when I was in college at this very time um I knew several people on the Spectrum but we didn't really have the language for it back in the 90s that we now do um and I started to kind of dig in deep and understand how this works um I now have a child on the Spectrum um and um I've really been able to kind of learn a whole lot um but the interesting thing is there is I wrote this before he was diagnosed right and so it's kind of cool that I was able to able to I'm glad that I that I had patient people who were willing to help me do better um and uh renar and Steris are the two big examples of me just kind of actually digging into what does it feel like what is it like and things like that you will get um the most rearin you've ever gotten so far in Stormlight 5 yeah now let me warn you he's not a main main character yet so you're you read that he won't get as much as you want until like books 6 through 10 um uh but for now you're going to get more than you've ever gotten so there we are hello hey my name is Michael I live up near Madison Wisconsin oh sweet I enjoy Madison good convention there a Sci-Fi con right down Town Madison haven't been to that one yet but we do love the city so I'm curious with the incredible ability Bond Smiths have to reassemble things yes would they theoretically be able to reassemble ad analum himself out of the shards if they were detached from their hosts so this is kind of a chicken in the egg question would they be able to reassemble Aden Alum um can you use adum's own power to reassemble aen Alum can someone externally do it um I'm going to give you a raffo on that right now but I'm going to warn you this idea of using something to reassemble itself is more tricky than you would uh you might assume all right okay good question hello hi hi Brandon uh my name is Flynn uh I live in Kenosha which is Southern Wisconsin here okay uh so uh I'm a huge fan of the misor books uh that's how I got into your series uh it's a fantastic uh piece of writing just just on its own then I discovered that there were multiple eras which is fantastic one of the most interesting Part Parts to me about it now stop me if this is too spoil but in anticipation of the ghost Bloods era that you're writing uh you've mentioned that you also want to write a Space Age series obviously after that you mentioned at one point briefly entertaining the idea of doing a cyberpunk series in between that and I just want to ask ask what is the status of that I know it's obviously very demanding but so what's the status that what that that's great so story time so um why did I decide to do what I did with misbourne for those who don't know for those who don't know mistborn I originally pitched as a Trilogy of trilogies um this is because my idea and I still remember explaining this for the first time to my wife at Outback state steakhous yep back in like 2006 or 7 um back when I was working on the the first one and I noticed that um I I love the fantasy genre I absolutely I consider myself self a scholar of the fantasy genre I um I've read a ton in it I've seen how it evolved and at the time what I'm I'm always looking for what have people not do done I feel like fantasy is a genre um it it it still has and back then in particular had a lot of room to grow uh this is because I feel like Grandpa tolken came along sauntered up released just these amazing books that no one had any idea what to do with right created a new sub genre and then sauntered off into the sunset uh and said do with them what you will um you know like I don't think people uh young people today today can understand what an impact that had right um it's very difficult to find anything before tolken that truly explores secondary World fantasy that doesn't have connections to our world and even Middle Earth you can argue has a bit but even things like Conan were supposed to take place in our prehistory our world and you can find a few in the 1800s um that they're very Whimsical fairy talish sort of things tolken taking that and just wholesale inventing Epic Fantasy um me that basically all of the 70s and 80s and a big chunk of the 90s were like people scrambling to figure out what he did and trying to catch up it's like somebody walked into Greek times and said here's a mobile phone bye-bye guys right that's tolken um and so I grew up in that era and there's a lot of fantastic authors doing a lot of really cool things but it was all very deeply tolk and influenced uh as you might expect um and so as my generation was like responding a little bit against that saying all right what can we do that hasn't been done and a lot of um a lot of um books have this sort of magic going away because of tolken with the elves going away and so you find a lot in my generation of the magic coming back right that's kind of a a a a Core theme you can see not just among me but other writers of my generation uh in fantasy one thing I had never seen is I had never seen somebody take an epic fantasy story uh Trilogy and then say that is the foundation of religion and mythology in a modernday Trilogy and then take that and say yes and then that's the foundation of the scientific understanding that leads to space travel in a more space Opera um sort of way kind of that whole Continuum you had seen things um very frequently with the it's a fantasy world that used to be Earth um but you never never seen this uh and so I wanted to to do it it was one of those key ideas just like I'd never seen a fantasy Heist um and some of these things I had not seen people really take science fiction rigor for worldbuilding and apply it to Epic Fantasy um there just some things that I'm like nobody has done this I'd better do it so I pitched a Trilogy of trilogies to my editor and I still remember his response Moshe he's like wow you're ambitious and I said you have no idea bud uh you have no idea um but I loved this idea however then The Wheel of Time hit me like a freight train right and it took my career places that I didn't know it was going to go and it took about five years of my dedicated writing time uh to do those three books correctly which meant that I couldn't get to era 2 of misbourne when I wanted to uh but what I could do is write a shorter series um that was the of of pric of the first book were very Standalone that was just more fast-paced a little bit less uh continuity Laden but of course once you if you read that series it it goes there um that was after the wheel time was done um so basically I I interjected this middle uh series because I wanted to be back on scadrial and um I did knew I wouldn't be able to get there for a while um but then then someone very smart uh a fan came and said hm now that there's four books in the wax and Wayne series which became era 2 and you were planning nine other books if you do the math one more Trilogy puts you at 16 which if you've read the mistborn books is like a very important relevant number and I'm like oh wow yeah oh wow if I write just three more books uh so I'm yeah keep them shorter shorter like Wax and Wayne Right um I'm pretty much in my head committed to doing that uh that we're going to have that we're going to have all five eras now um so [Music] [Applause] yeah so that gives us Epic Fantasy steampunk modernday urban fantasy cyberpunk and space optra right and so um so that's that is currently the plan now here's the thing I don't want to Promise Too Many sequels because you know there's only so much writing time even though I rebel against that and sometimes grab a time turn Turner and write an extra book um I can't do that too much or it screws up continuity in our reality right uh you got to watch out for that if you use the time Turner too much people are like but why not save Harry's parents um and things like that it just is bad for you so so uh I can't do it but yes I I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do that so thank you yep yeah hello hello um my name is Kaylee I'm currently local you might remember me from signings in the 2010s back when I was nobody back when you came to my high school and I was a very very OV excited teenager to meet you that is awesome be there in Colorado okay okay all right okay so I'm hoping that this question isn't too spoilery I'm going to try to word it in a way that isn't spoilery circum lute that's what we say okay so you've said before that um a certain main Stormlight character's younger brother would have been a lightweaver what would his truths have been oh that's that's a very deep rafo so you've got your card that's a rafo that's a rafo that's a rafo that's a rafo that's definitely a rafo um I can give you the first one though oh I can give you the first one okay um he was going to have to acknowledge that he was not the person he was uh he was trying to be but he could be someone better all right but I'll leave you there I can't get you the rest of them all right good question hello I'm Ezekiel from the BBS hey Ezekiel uh I don't think this is too spoly so in uh Words of Radiance you started off a chapter talking about breaths calling it The Life of men and then immediately afterwards you had C bring up uh how the El Lefty are soul casted into statues and I believe you said it in a live stream that you can't soulcast Stone I mean you awaken Stone Heart yeah but you uh can awaken soulcast his Stone so was that intentional um so it's intentional to get you thinking um do not expect this to be a major foreshadowing Point um main reason being that while I am uh for those uh there there might be like spouses in here or kids who've come with parents who like what why are they asking these very detailed questions um my for I know most of you know this but my all of all of my Epic Fantasy Books share a continuity hidden behind the scenes right uh this started story time um this started because I um back in the 90s shared continuity was a frightening thing uh one of my favorite uh shows of all time is um Deep Space 9 uh the Star Trek show oh we got we've got some fellow geezers here right um who like uh who like the best Star Trek um next generation is awesome Next Generation has the best episodes of Star Trek but Deep Space 9 has the best story of Star Trek does that make sense um and so um you can watch the DVD extras where they'd be like they would have to take their their episodes that shared continuity and hide them from the executives and show them the goofy fangi episode about the little bumbling FIS doing funny things to distract the studio Executives so that they didn't know that there is this giant shared continuity that they were trying to build across Seasons because everyone would have said no now the Nerds all knew that this is something awesome but the executives and that this time the editors in New York were scared of it because they were frightened that if too much continuity happened you would start losing readers who didn't keep up on it all which is a genuine concern right anyone in here been like I can't keep up on the MCU anymore there's just too much stuff therefore I'm not as excited as I once was right that's the worry right and so to do something like like I'm doing um it's a dance and the dance is to try to make sure each independent story Works fantastically well on its own without any knowledge of the other pieces that doesn't mean I won't bring those pieces in in fact I do quite a bit but I don't want to build big huge climactic moments based on knowledge of magic system that is not native to a given planet that Mak sense so we shouldn't expect a statue of the lopin running around in the future I mean nothing's impossible uh but I wouldn't expect it yeah thank you um I actually used this yeah give Applause oh you have the guitar good yeah um so I um well we'll we'll just go on next question next question yeah I could go story time again but let's there's actually a lot of people in line so we'll do questions yeah hi I'm John um from here excellent I have to pick one of these so this is the one um was Chris one of hoy's apprentices was Chris one of hoy's apprentices excellent question he he does not counter in his list his short list of apprentices you will find a lot of people people he deeply influenced that he doesn't count and Chris definitely had and he have some history thank you all right excellent costume oh thank you uh I'm Angela from Chicago and I was wondering if you have any music associations with anything or anybody in your uh good question so music associations um with anything or anybody particularly my writing I assume um yeah um because my wife and I have some songs um she would say she would she would hate that I say this but our song is little bird house in your soul by They Might Be Giants not your question but I'm story timing this is because anytime she has a song stuck in her head I start singing that to annoy her by getting that stuck in her head instead um so that's it's a great reason to have a couple song right um so music associations um so there's a I do have several playlists on Spotify which are the actual playlists that I listen to while working on given books so if you go to my spot playlist um octav is around I think it's mbor one on Spotify um you can find for instance my like storite 3 and four um writing playlist and I would deeply associate a lot of those songs with things like like this um I am known uh I'll tell you this one uh this isn't on the playlist because I try to keep it themed to at least a certain feel most of the time um but anytime in the in the books when I was writing zeth particularly when zeth does the things that zeth does I would turn on Daft Punk right um particularly 2007 alive uh their live album um rip death punk the robots blew up well one robot blew up um so yes but regardless so there there's one Music Association if I hear something from that album I imagine people flying toward the ceiling thank you uhhuh yes Applause uh go ahead hi Brandon I'm Elizabeth I'm from Chicago huge fan thank you trying not to get raffo but for the arcanists in the audience um I had a question about Odom's intent pun intended for going after ambition okay so obviously with devotion and Dominion teaming up he didn't want to tum over there um are we ever going to learn more about the background on thrity because Chris implies that there was always investiture there before The Clash so I'm looking for a little bit of information about the evil before the Admiral background story um before The Clash the evil was not the evil okay um it is The Clash that warped it um and um secret project 5 has a a splintered piece of um ambition as a plot Point um so uh some of these books get like if if I'm doing like a book like so all that stuff I said about not having to know multiple magic that goes out the window for things like secret project 5 right right um those are books that are about that they're kind of the but anyway um so you will you will find out some more there it's going to take me a long time to get to what actually happened with the ambition why and things like that know that odium was not expecting it to be as hard as it was and ended up severely wounded in that Clash awesome thank you mhm hey Brandon Chuck from Chicago um a question about The Stormlight Archive go for it in the latest book the high or the storm father references a man long ago that made him laugh once will we ever get a interlude chapter or a short story about the one time the storm father laughed rafo o yeah yeah there's your rafo get your card thank you for the question all right all right hello Brandon Chris from Omaha Nebraska oh hey Omaha yeah youat Runza for me yeah yeah I miss Runza uh my question is did Adan alium ever create any avatars uh did adim ever create any avatars that's so I'm not going to wff of this I'm going to give you an answer but here's the thing on this answer uh some of these things are canon in stuff I've done so far that I may not canonize going forward right the answer is yes um in original outlines going back to Dragon steel and things like this the answer is yes um that you would have seen that will I do that when I write the actual series I cannot guarantee so it's a tentative yes um but it is not a it's not canon yet are any of them still around uh I'll that for you you're fishing for a card aren't you uhhuh it's actually really easy to get a rafo card out of me you just have to be like so how's the book end um yeah I actually usually jokingly say well to that one but yeah go ahead hi Brandon uh my name is Josh just uh I love the world building that you've done and a lot of your uh books and was just wondering if you had any advice for if you're playing like a d and d or any type of thing like that what you would recommend for where to start when building such a in-depth world where to start when building a world if you're if you're a GM building um interconnectivity um so sanderson's laws we should watch uh a thing on are more for narrative purposes if you're actually strictly looking at World building more important than n sanderson's laws I feel is the Dune principle um when you read Dune or now we can watch the Fantastic films um you will notice that the interesting worldbuilding elements that Frank Herbert added become integral to one another your economy your religion your uh ecology all are tied to the spice in really interesting ways and that interconnectivity makes for is part of what makes for a really immersive powerful interesting world now it can become a one-trick pony particularly in World in uh gaming right where you're gaming you're like and it's also related to this thing like of course it is right so you do have to watch that but if you set up in found your world in the right way you can make everything spin around a Fantastical resource or around um you know a singular event that has huge ramifications um such as the assassination of a king um and you can build out from that and make everything connect together and why this is so helpful is um it is difficult particularly in gaming for you to get your players immersed in this huge thing you've built because you might have pages and pages and pages but what they're mostly doing is kicking down doors stabbing things in the eyes and picking their pockets right um and you want them to engage with the World building so they get invested in the story so that when kicking down doors and stabbing things through the eyes gets a little dull they actually can go engage with the interesting world and story you need to make uh easy on-ramp to them to get into that and some of these hooks such as everything being interconnected um really give you those on-ramps and help you step them into um going from murder hobo to political mocking Nations involved in the actual fate of uh of the world so that's my advice for you it it depends on your group as always with anything in gaming yeah [Applause] I tried very hard in one of my my old famous campaigns to uh to get rid of the murder hobo mentality but then uh Dan Wells who I podcast with created a character that that was like fundamental uh if you don't know what murder hobo is it's a joke we use in the um gaming uh Community to reference how player characters in role playing games you know they're supposed to be like faded her heroes or maybe not faded but the heroes who save the world they're Epic Fantasy peronist but what do they actually do they don't live anywhere they're they're homeless people who go around finding places to kill things get their money and buy better equipment to kill things and so someone jokingly called the murder hobos and so it's been kind of kind of become a thing um but I tried very hard but then Dan built his whole character around the idea of someone who found that very that aspect fun it's very hard to get that group dislodged from any sort of such thinking hi Brandon uh my name is Stephen I'm here from the Chicago area you've spoken at length about uh like real world Inspirations for bridge 4 and other characters I'm curious if you have any stories about the inspiration of Light song oh yeah so uh inspiration of Light song by the way I'll probably only be able to get to a few more questions so I'm going to let most of you sit down I'm going to take two at each uh each one so the two you who asked the question the person behind them with the beard and then the two of you uh the rest of you I'm sorry you can't complain of Genny I'm having dinner with you tonight he's one of our arcanists um so uh yeah um so I'm sorry I there are a lot of you but let's get these and then we'll we'll do the reading um all right origins of Light song Light song actually has a pretty simple origin um as I was working the whole War breaker thing um book came about from a couple of things number one I had written a luness and I had written mistborn and my editor said I don't want you to get pigeon hold into doing the same thing aess has this really dreary landscape and mistborn has this really drill landscape can you do something more colorful and I said you bet I can um and uh I'd already kind of been planning it but it was kind of funny that he said that um and Light song Started as a simple question to myself what would if there were a God who didn't believe in his own religion right um where do I go from that right and um I thought that concept was really interesting I could dig into it like you know someone who is worshiped but is kind of a conscientious objector to the entire religion built around him um and so I'm like who would this person be um the other thing was going on is I did want to play with humor in different ways in war breaker uh because I was looking to do some different things than I had done in mistborn to have a contrast and so it kind of naturally evolved into rert everit from uh like from the the um Ideal Husband right just kind of sve jokester Oscar wildes person trapped in this whole thing and I would say those Al together are what produced Light song Thank you hi Brandon um my name is nisser I'm from Boston I saw you at Dragon steel last year oh awesome uh my question is around connections between corrupted investiture on different planets uhuh we have the Shroud uh we have midnight Ence uh we have the nightmares and we have night blood all of them have like Uzi black smoke yep are they all like connected somehow with the corrupted investure of odium ambition um so yes and no so the question is all of these different um kind of manifestations we've got the midnight Essence we've got the Shroud we've got night blood are they are they connected um are they all related in some way to odium or uh ambition so the answer is no to the second so when I was building the cosmere when one of the things that I knew is that I wanted to explore uh Magic system really in depth and in order to do that I built fundamental principles by how um magic investure um would manifest and I wanted to be consistent for instance I wanted the rules if you're making Illusions in one world I wanted those Illusions to behave a lot the same way that they would on other worlds and so I built these fundamental principles that I build up from uh and one of those fundamental principles is about um investure that is trying to become alive and is being held back by something and that is where you get midi enence sort of things it's it's like one step from being able to become self-aware but it's being held back uh and there's there's even kind of some frustration in there as much as something not truly self-aware can have so if you watch for that theme you'll see that more and more got it okay thank you yep hey there U my name is Rick I finally have just took an 8 hour drive here from Lincoln oh hey great uh Colby Ridge Popcorn I actually order that in for my home theater get a big bag of it so yeah I'll make sure I get a runzo on the way home for you yeah um my question is I've been standing up this entire time trying to figure out how to say this if someone else were to grab a Shard with the god medal change um yes okay that's like like that's a really hard to like say anything about this without SP there's a whole bunch of asteres okay mhm yeah so there you go all right it's as far as I can go on that one all right hi in the side overs you introduced two slugs that you didn't go into and I would really like to know what they did do um so one of them is an illusion slug is that one of the ones we've already talked about but that was I I knew that one a little bit you listed it with the plushies you just said gray slug for the gray slug so you will find out what the gray slug does in the sequel series that I just finished reading and editing the first book of so um that's a rafo you can have a card but it is a promise that it's coming all right [Applause] all right so we're going to this is the part where I'm going to talk for like five minutes while those of you who do not want spoilers um for the end of the first Arc of The Stormlight Archive to make your way um to an exit I will not be offended um uh I love preserving mystery for people it will not bother me at all so uh sneak on out um those of you who are up to date um or who don't mind um you know this will have some decent spoilers but not for book five um what we're going to do is yeah we'll we'll let them sneak out before I tell you what you're gonna do hello hi uh thanks for coming thanks for thanks for listening to me go on tangents uh it's one of my favorite things to do so Stormlight 5 um let's talk non-spoiler about Stormlight 5 for a few minutes um Stormlight 5 is the end of the first Arc of The Stormlight Archive right I've been saying that since the be since the beginning since book one but then I went and I ended like you know um Miss born and people are expecting it to end like that that's not what I mean by the end of the first Arc this is more like an anime Arc than it is like the end of right of Miss born one um and I need to start preparing that for people because one of the things I'm getting from beta readers is number one it's going really well people are really liking the book number two they're like Oh I thought this would be an ending like end of uh of uh mbor 3 no it's more like the end like I said of an anime Arc this is um the end of Stormlight is book 10 you are going to get some um some decent resolutions on things I've been promising for a while but you're not going to get resolutions on everything because it's not the end yet um this has been a real challenge right when I work on a The Stormlight books in particular they are they are very difficult in the best of ways um because I love epics I love telling an epic but the big challenge is making sure that your epic is engaging and not slow and boring um and that you're doing new things within a series but it still feels like the series and the way that I break this up in my head is by taking it little chunk by little chunk so each Stormlight book I plot as if it were a Trilogy right and then storm lights uh like each of those chunks are plotted like a normal book with a act one act two act three so you've got like almost like nine acts in a given Stormlight book and then I plotted the first five to kind of be like hey let's get to the halfway point of the series and tie up some things and start to um to kind of propel us toward what the the conflict for the next five are going to be this is all a big Balancing Act I'm really hoping it works because Stormlight 5 is a very important book um I haven't been as worried for a book I don't think since I released the first Wheel of Time book to see how people would respond to that so uh don't worry the beta readers are are are really liking it but because of that I've actually done way more beta reads on this book than I've ever done before I will do a draft get more people to read it do a draft get more people to read it um it is it is a lot of work uh but I have now almost exactly like one month remaining one month and and in change to turn in the final draft which I worked on on the flight here um because uh it's very tight um what we are going to read to you today so you can find online readings I've done um from uh the for for kaledin at the beginning of Stormlight five you can also find a few of the interludes um so what I have left that I haven't ever read is Shalon from the beginning of Stormlight 5 right now um this is the beginning so we're going to get it's going to involve some setup that you're not going to get pay off for until December but I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to read for the next 38 minutes which will probably take us through my guest will be two Shalon sections um at the start of the book these are sandwiched between kaledin sections that I've done readings from already all right and I think I'm going to go sit up here for this um and uh hopefully I can um I can juggle this in my water bottle and um we're just going to do that see if I turn this sideways will it go no drop box um all right Shalon lingered at top lasting Integrity the great Fortress of the honor spr thinking about all the people she'd been the way she changed based on perspective indeed life was largely about perspective like this strange structure a hollow rectangular block hundreds of feet tall dominating Shades Mars landscape people spren lived along the inside walls walking up and down them ignoring conventions of gravity looking down along one of the inside walls could be the stomach could be stomach turning unless you changed your perspective perspective unless you convinced yourself that walking up and down that wall was normal whether a person was strong or not wasn't usually subject to debate yet if gravity could be a matter of opinion she turned away from the heart of lasting integrity and walked along the very top of the wall looking out to surve a Shades Mar rolling ocean of beads in One Direction Jagged obsidian Highlands lined with crystalline trees and the other on the wall with her an even more daunting sight two spren with heads made of geometric lines each wearing a robe of some too stiff glossy black material two spren she' bonded two one during her childhood one as an adult she'd hurt the first and suppressed the memory Shalon knelt down before Testament her original spren the cryptic sat with her back to the stone railing the lines and pattern that made up her head were crooked like broken Twigs in the center the lines were scratched and rough as if someone had taken a knife to them more telling her pattern was almost Frozen nearby patterns had pulsed like a vibrant heart always moving always forming some new geometric display comparing that to that to the comparing the two broke shal Long's heart she had done this to Testament by rejecting the bond after using her Shard blade to kill her mother Testament reached out with a long fingered hand and Shalon pained took it it gripped hers lightly but Shalon got the sense that it was all the strength Testament had Testament responded to being a dead eyee differently from Maya who stood nearby with adelyn and K Maya had always seemed strong of body even as a dead eye Spen spren broke in different ways it appeared just like people Testament squeezed shon's hand again bearing no expression but that torpid motion of lines Why Shalon asked why don't you hate me pattern rested his hand on Shalon shoulder we both knew the danger the sacrifice and bonding to to humans again I HT her yet here you are pattern said able to stand tall able to control the surges able to protect the world she should hate me Shalon whispered but there's no vital in the way she holds my hand no judgment in the way she remains with us because the sacrifice was worth something Shalon pattern said uncharacteristically reserved it worked in the end you recovered did better I am still here and remarkably I am not even a little bit dead I do not think you will kill me at all Shalon I am very happy about that can I heal her Shalon asked maybe if I Bond her again I think after talking to K pattern said I think you were still bonded to her but Shalon looked over his shoulder at him I broke the bond that did this some breaks are messy pattern said a slice with a sharpened knife is clean slice with a dull one is ragged your break done by a child without full intent is like the one ragged in some ways that makes it worse but it does mean there is still some connection between you two so so no pattern said I do not think merely saying words again would heal her his head his P head pattern spun a little more slowly as if you were contemplating something profound these numbers are are unfamiliar Shalon strange irrational in a sequence I do not understand I mean I mean we are walking on unfamiliar ground a better metaphor for you yes unfamiliar ground in the deepest part in the Deep Past Dead eyes did not exist it was what they had learned in part from the honor spr and from Maya the dead eyes all of them except Testament had been B bonded to ancient Radiance before the recreant together they rejected their Oaths human and spr alike they thought it would cause a painful but survivable instead something had gone terribly wrong the result had been the dead eyes the explanation might lie with K the very person Shalon had been sent to Lasting Integrity To Kill she squeezed testament's hand I'm going to help you Shalon whispered whatever it takes Testament didn't respond but Shalon leaned in wrapping her arms around the cryptic pattern's Ro robe always felt hard yet Testaments bent like cloth thank you Shalon said for coming to me when I was young thank you for protecting me I still remember it I I still don't do not remember it all but thank you the cryptic slowly but deliberately put her arms around Shalon and squeezed back rest now Shalon said wiping her eyes and standing up I'm going to figure this out all right I have to skip an insert from kaledin that I've already read in that chapter and Skip forward to the next Shalon um oh yes woo woo indeed all right this should be it Shalon and pattern left Testament to rest and crossed the wall lasting Integrity to meet with Adel and Maya and the heral kle who were speaking with a kind of spren that collect called a seone she manifests as a hovering ball of light roughly the Sha size of a head with an odd symbol at the center other than them the top of the the wall top was empty this day you don't remember patteron asked Softly As She and he and Shon walked the events with Testament I thought you did I thought with Veil gone Vil is not gone Shalon said she's part of me like she always was I don't understand it's hard to explain Shalon said and I'm not sure I've entirely figured it out healing is not an event pattern but a process I've Incorporated Veil into myself she doesn't take so she doesn't take control any longer but she's not gone Veil is me but Veil is not always Shalon but you are Shalon imagine it she said as Veil moving to the back of the wagon as we ride toward the future she's still there coaching me and we're both aware of the world there was more to it than that of course Shalon projected some uncomfortable aspects of herself into Veil now she had to face them she worried she'd worried that aelyn would find it dis difficult but well Adel and Clin was storming wonderful after the discussion last night he seemed to understand together they knew that there was work to do but Shalon had taken an enormous step toward healing and along with it acknowledged something important she didn't deserve hatred but understanding it was hard to believe but Vil insisted they try anyway but pattern said radiant is still separate more separate Shalon said so still in the front of the wagon yes that might change it might not need to change I'm figuring this out as I go pattern but I do feel better more importantly I no longer need Veil to stand between me and the memories so you do remember yes and no Shalon said it's a jumble I was young and the events were traumatic and there is so much pain associated with memories of my mother I need time to process humans are squishy not just bodies minds too memories too ideas too H he seemed pleased by that as a child she bonded a friend something your mother had not liked a man had come either to hurt Shalon or separate her from Testament her father had fought him and during their struggle shon's mother had had come at her with a knife in self-defense Shalon had killed her mother with an early manifestation of Testament as a Shard blade Shalon in trauma had rejected her nent oath and buried those memories but if her bond with Testament had never been fully broken what did that mean and which memories of those days between her mother's death and the arrival of pattern which of those involved Testament I Knew I Had A Shard blade long before I had bought a pattern I thought about it in Caron she convinced herself that the weapon belonged to her father and be kept in his safe she' gone there before leaving and drawn it out to dismiss it pretending it was an ordinary blade pretending she had 10 seconds to summon it however a part of her had known even even then it was Testament a friend to whom she'd done great harm that was the one thing Shalon clearly remembered Testament was her friend a nippled pattern on the wall that it delighted then engaged AG than protected a young girl her friend had never been as talkative as pattern indeed shalan could only remember rare soft fragments of speech encouraging her to stand against the darkness in her family Shalon had loved her mysterious friend dearly though her members were jumbled the emotions shown through the pain strength could be a matter of perception sometimes and today Shalon Shalon found she could choose strength they approached l in my myanc Shalon still found it incredible that this man was one of the Heralds of the Almighty the short balding fellow kept rubbing his hands together as if thinking washing them of an with an invisible soap and water Adel and Amaya practically towered over him as they spoke to the ball of light Maya was obviously paying attention she wasn't completely healed her eyes were still scratch out and her coloring when Brown instead of vibrant green like the others of her kind but she was getting better she no longer wandered off or just started uh stared blankly during conversations she was even starting to talk more here and there I worry about what is to come the ball of light was saying it had transformed into an approximation of wit's face making all of made all of soft white blue light and spoke with his voice the SP spren was a way to contact him as they've discovered a few days ago the war is about to intensify and I'll rest upon the contest of Champions Odom's chosen Warrior against wh whomever old dalinar chooses father will choose himself adelyn said when The Blackthorn needs to be certain something is done right he will do it himself alen paused then glanced at Maya storm him he's probably our best chance though Whit Shalon said it's really happening it is indeed the contest is set contracts agreed to Shalon they've said it for 10 days from now so soon Shalon asked storms where U adelyn said arms folded they've already set wind Runners sent wind Runners to get us appar apparently should arrive today Shalon chewed on that trying not to feel emotional Whiplash it had taken weeks to reach lasting Integrity but wind raders could have them back to athero within the day depending on how much storm light they' brought she found herself eager to return she'd had enough of the honor Sprint in their elitism she missed blue skies and plants that didn't crinkle when you touched them though shadesmar had a sun it was distant and cold she could never Thrive here plus as she indicated The Testament she had work to do Whit Shalon said stepping closer the glowing version of his face focused on her my brothers are safe you're certain very certain brilliant one he said back soft you're sure the ghost Bloods will move against you yes she said after a year and a half of flirting with the ghost blood she' finally stepped up and said no doing so it essentially declared W on them war on them she found adelyn's hand for support he knew the entire story now wit I know their faces their plans I'm lik the greatest threat on the planet to their organization and they've tried to kill yasna for Less everyone I love is in danger I have I have to manage jinar and try to prepare him Whit said but I think I can help you as well I've been watching M's little crew I'll send your people draw my drawings of their members but take care Shalon I know this group and their leader they can be brutal as can I Shalon whispered she G glanced to KC who was staring out over the beat Ocean and the dead-eyed spren who still stood on the the shore despite him she felt safe here with pattern adelin and Maya safe enough to voice it wait I'm worried though am I ready I ask myself that same question now and then he said and Shalon I'm 10,000 years old during the trip she said I started to create a new persona went formless a version of me but how did she explain it a version of me with no face a version of me who could do Terrible Things walked away from with but that capacity is still inside of me Shalon he said and she looked up meeting his eyes if it weren't for that capacity then what good would choices be if we never had the power to do terrible things then what um then what was he what Heroes heroism would it be to resist but did you turn it away he asked and aelyn squeezed her hand yes then heroism it is Shalon I'm remembering what I did to my mother she said and my father and to a lesser extent 10 and now M I'm going to have to kill him wit is that my destiny to kill every person who has ever mentored me and that finally her fears found voice did it sound silly foolish ridiculous this pattern she'd seen in her life which did not laugh though and he considered himself an expert on what was ridiculous would that any of us he said could protect ourselves from the costs of heroism but again if there were no cost no sacrifice then would it be heroism at all I cannot promise you that it will be easy Shalon but I'm proud of you I'm proud of you radiant whispered I'm proud of you Veil the part of her that was Veil agreed thank you she said I have to go wit said but I'll leave you with this the ghost Bloods want something extremely valuable and you have the key to to it standing with you right now if you want to destroy them you might not need to kill every last one of them instead you might just need a powerful leverage over them the glowing sphere melded from his face back to a sphere he's gone the friend said I'm sorry wit's final words lingered with Shalon reinforcing something she'd been considering a way to protect rashar from the ghost Bloods and indeed she knew what and indeed she knew what their next Target was likely to be they'd sent her to Lasting Integrity to get Intel on one of the unmade and the heral standing with her had the secret had the secrets they all wanted to know I need she said to kle to know everything you know about ba Ado misham The Herald rung his hands and looked to the side as if seeking to escape we're not going to hurt you adelyn said calmly you know that by now I do kle said it's just wasn't supposed to be involved none of us are I don't think the other Heralds follow that Shalon noted folding her arms what did you do kle not much he said putting his head uh um hand to his head I I can't can't do much these days I don't know why I can't decide I I he looked up at them then formed fists pulling them close up to his chest I was at athero when the plan to capture misham was conceived then I joined them on their mission I'm I guess I'm the only one alive who actually knows what happened to her it's why the ghost Bloods and their cursed Lord of scars want me just tell us Shalon said some of us learned you could capture sprad inside gemstones he explained mishram for all her power was a spren the radiance prepared a Flawless heliodor the color of sunlight and they trapped her inside and then they hid her prison not in the Physical Realm and not in shadesmar he bit his lip between his teeth then forced out the another part in the spiritual realm misham milish hid it there how Shalon asked look sharing a look with adelin I don't know goac said backing away I promise you I don't know but now now they'll send more people for me won't they they'll trap me in to gemstone or they think they'll be able to he looked to the two of them wise eyed wide eyed and fled toward the way down none of them gave chase this was unfortunately usual behavior for kle Maya grunted softly watching him go he's gotten a lot worse she said Shalon started you knew him met him a few times Maya said then took a deep breath never never thought much of him even then well Shalon said we know something more about mishram at least her prism is part of what mise has been hunting for a long time now I suspect I me might need to find it first before he can do so ba adom mishram adelyn said thoughtful leaning back against the Wall's battlements the most powerful of the unmade what would the ghost Bloods want with her though pattern said power so much power she was nearly a God she bonded the singers once could M could m m be wanting to do something similar Schon shivered considering and thinking of M and his master aatl somehow commanding the entirety of the enemy Army was that possible whatever the reason Shalon said I have to stop him her prison is in the spiritual realm though adelyn said frowning what does that even mean pattern said means we will never be able to find it surely it's possible Shalon said the ancient radiat put it there we should be able to take it out you don't understand pattern said holding hands apart and gesturing in his way you think sh Mar is odd yes black sky little Sun pattern with arms and legs for perambulating his head spun a little faster the spiritual realm is Stranger by orders of magnitude it is a place where the future blends with the present the past Echoes like the Striking of a clock time and distance stretch like numbers infinitely repeating it is where gods live and even baffles some of them Shalon took that in then glanced at Testament huddled in the shadow of the wall further back along the walk our best guess she said is that the dead eyes were created because mishram was imprisoned right agreed pattern said mishram became like a god to the singers the parment she connected to rashar Shar and Echoes of that filter to the spr ah so wonderfully odd her imprisonment is the reason broken bonds now have such an effect on the spread it's because Maya said humans have no honor the God I mean I heard that the misham had been captured I heard that the radiance would destroy the world that is why I decided decided it was done she shook her head I don't know it all I'd like to considering the breaking what the breaking Breaking the Bond did to me that day the day misham had been captured something deeper had happened an event connect connecting humankind honor spr and the bonds we need to figure out how misham or a prison has power over bonds Shalon said looking to pattern we need to go into the spiritual realm and find that prison however difficult it is his pattern slowed then fin he laced his fingers together very well though you know what I said when I said I was sure you wouldn't get me killed yes I should like he declared to make a retraction and that is the first of the two chapters I'm G to get you one more so girl in past uh kaladin chatting with wit as well you can read that scene online I think I read that at Dragon still last year uh so yep nice little goofy conversation well long goofy conversation considering how hard far I have to scroll um all right here we go it was nice for Shalon to take a few hours to think for once sitting wearing a bright blue Hava rather than her traveling clothing settled at the top row of the stone opening for within lasting Integrity drawing how long had it been since she'd simply let herself draw how long had it been since uh it she' sketched a little during her trip but that felt like an eternity ago she relaxed flowing with the drying a depiction of of the vertigo she felt looking up along the inside walls of lasting Integrity a surreal painting like something from one of the older art movements where perspective was intentionally alien and offputting she liked to think that the old serialist had made contact with spren and shadesmar warping their minds to new ways of seeing things though she'd never been quite as good with Landscapes as she was with people she was proud of the sense her sketch gave of falling yet into what you could not see because the unnatural perspective held your eyes upward like others she'd done today a strange face kept sneaking into the art in this case she'd absently warp the shadings of one wall into that face feminine a singer with angular car Caris and shadows and curves forming a strat likee design on her face Shalon flipped through her Sketchbook each drawing done today had that singer face hidden somewhere and she didn't remember making them she done something similar at U where the presence of an unmade had warped her sketches she tried not to let it disturb her quite so much this time then then it had been a message was there a similar one now she looked toward aelyn who paced at the center of the Forum a place where just a few days before he'd been on trial today he'd been joined by godi a lanky Edge dancer shon's agents had joined them as well ishna vaa and barel along with their cryptic together they waited for the wind Runners and for the fruits of some final efforts in lasting Integrity she started another sketch as they waited in the end 12 arrived 12 honors spr from a population of hundreds that was how many showed up in response to adelyn's Call to Arms he and geki greeted each one with smile but she knew he'd expected more one other did arrive NM the former sea captain still had his unique facial hair though he walked on unsteady feet they still didn't know why he'd been assaulted by those tuari that adelin had saved him from NM didn't join gaki and adalin but instead walked down the steps to join Shalon radiant kin he said that was still odd to hear even a year after the wedding hadn't been assumed that she would take adelyn's name among thethy eyes either party was equally likely to take their name or as keep their name as adopt a new one in her case she was needed in the colon line of succession she doubted she'd take a throne that adelyn had turned down but dalinar wanted people he trusted in line her adoption into the colon house would strengthen their claim should it come to that in explaining this to her delanor and navani had been speaking pragmatically but Shalon knew she remembered that day differently for her it was the day when a set of parents had for the first time wanted her NM settled down beside her your mission was Su success 12 New Radiance we expected more though radiant said emerging after the support adelin got at the trial I anticipated an excellent recruitment effort a good number of the honors friends support him notam said but that doesn't mean they want to be bonded one can be out right at the honor spend spr leadership and think humans are deserving of support without wanting to take that step down below the 12 honor sprs started to fade I've never seen this before NM added I thought theyd go in a blink instead they fade away to nothing not nothing radiant said they'll appe appear on the other side I hear it's traumatic NM said he had a stiff formal way of speaking even the word even when the words were casual clipping each word as if he were making an announcement from the quarter deck of a ship spren on the other side forget themselves only briefly radiant said these will probably stay in a group which helps and immediately make their way to Aero drawn by the squires training them do you even need them now though NM asked isn't the war soon to end wind Runners are our primary method of traveling long distances and I supect suspect they'll be helpful in peace time beyond that even if dandar wins the contest I worry about what is to come next I think the more Radiance we have the more stable our position will be then I should hurry NM said standing to join them so that I'm not left alone raan approved but Shalon she noticed something you sound reluctant Shalon said he looked at her glowing the same soft blue that all of all the honors BR his uniform his hair everything about him was made of the same soft light solid not transparent but also not quite real in the way she understood reality there is nothing more for me here NM said I've been rejected of mine and it and seen their pettiness I should like to be of service though I admit I do not wish to bond human I loath the idea is that petty of me in turn absolutely not Shalon said I have two bonds NM and understand the cost better than most it's not pettiness or even cowardness to be hesitant it's just like it's not cowardly or Petty to reject any relationship pardon NM said but other sorts of relationships don't lead to soldiers with remarkable powers that did admittedly complicate the matter but after learning what she'd done to Testament who sat with pattern a few rows down shalan couldn't help help but question their mission itself they needed wind Runners yes but it made her in increasingly uncomfortable demand that a spr bond it wasn't intimate in the traditional human sense of the world but it's felt as deeply personal we can use every windrunner yes she said but I don't think you should force yourself to bond a human if that makes you uncomfortable you can be a good person and say no NM I've learned that perhaps NM said perhaps I will stay a little longer here then with effort I might persuade others of um others of my kind to offer you support he pointed and Drew her attention to a group of honors walking past wearing traveling clothing and carrying gear as if to leave on a long hike they waved to Shalon and aen but did not join those fading away objectors Shalon asked as adelin wave back to them those you mentioned earlier yes they don't agree with how you you were treated but also don't want to go to war they leave lasting Integrity to make their own way she nodded well radiant godi is staying to continue to normalize relations with the honor spread and I might leave one of my agents as well if you stay that would help they could use a solid Ally here I am your ally he said but as I warned you the honor friend leadership does not care for me even if they have been forced to revoke my Exile his expression grew distant we have an entire Navy that once sailed the beat ocean it is a shame to see those boats abandoned in the ship yards gives the enemy full control of Shades Marc perhaps I could sail under honors Sprint Authority again storms if Shalon hadn't said anything n a might have actually gone to become a Radiance friend meaning she'd just actively gone against their orders in coming here perhaps she wouldn't mention that part in her report to dinar no other spren came lucindia the spren who had been shon's guide since her arrival at lasting Integrity made no appearance Shalon had hoped she would change her mind despite their occasional clashes NM Shalon said thank you for how you stood up for us during the trial I am one person stretched thin radiant kin he said standing with his hands clasped behind his back like colors on the Mast which have waved too long in the wind I don't know what I believe or trust any longer but what was done to you was not right I could not play the Sham role they demanded of me I ask your forgiveness for even considering it it was natural to want your own life back NM he turned her to her blue eyes meeting hers I lay on the ground battered and assaulted and watched your husband rise in my defense against overwhelming odds he saved me with no expectation of reward in that moment I knew that honor lived he nodded curtly to Shalon then walked down the steps to talk with adelyn Shalon slowly turned back to her sketch where she soon found that she drawn yet another face in adalin Shadow storms don't be unnerved she thought you were upset when you drew pattern for the first time back in kbron but look how that turned turned out she would not be afraid of her own art she gritted her teeth and forced herself to flip to the next sheet and start drawing again till someone else settled down beside her KC leaned forward Hands clasped singing small and fragile I'm not going with you he said softly I I can't it's not safe for you here Shalon said sketching fingers moving as if of their own accord if I got to you M's other assassins can do so I I will hide better but I can't leave the seal and she can't travel right now it wouldn't be good for her Shalon didn't argue never seemed to work with K instead she lost herself in a sketch of him a Herald to add to her collection she might have said this was the rarest of gems to obtain but was a Herald equally rare actually rarer than anyone else one might say because of their immortality they were less so we are broken Shalon collect finally saidwe are not the heroes you wish us to be not anymore I know how that feels I don't think you do he said wrapping his arms around himself I don't believe anyone does he looked at aen chatting with NM and geki you're really going to try to find mishram if I don't Shalon said my enemies will then what he said will you release her I I cannot decide always cannot decide I have preached for her freedom in the past but now I worry she might join in strength and oium she hates humans he put his hand to his head sh says all the unmade should be contained yet what we did to the singers by imprisoning her I'll worry about that when we find her gemstone Shalon said honestly I'll probably bring it back to the Bon Smiths and let everyone decide together he didn't decide to respond so she continued drawing this familiar sound of charcoal pencil on paper the distilled attention of creation like the most potent of alcohol she attracted a few creation spr like little swirling lights these ones though behaved oddly and here she'd never seen them change shape like they did in the Physical Realm but these started adopting the look of her pencil and eraser she kept drawing lines imitating life freeing it but altering it at the same time you could never make an exact copy that wasn't the point every sketch was a picture of the Artist as well their perspective their emphasis their Instinct reclaiming a moment otherwise lost once she got to the end it was Sublime the moment when you basked in the thing you'd created the feeling of awe mixed with this belief that this beautiful object had come to you come from you accompanied by the slightest worry that because if you didn't understand how you did it you maybe didn't deserve to have been part of the creation she loved the feeling even the uncertainty of it radiant KCT said hands clasped as he stared down at the stone floor of the amphitheater what do you fear what kind of question was that I don't know she lied I fear options he said I see every choice I make and I see the terrible results results that could stem from them if I stay here I see you fail without me if I go I see my presence broken as I am cause your failure I cannot continue I I do not she rested her hand on his then handed him the sketch he took the picture frowning then his eyes widened as he saw it depicting him Standing Tall wearing robes and striding from a fanciful City with colorful walls and strange trees with long fronds she'd made up he carried a staff with nod shape at the top and stro toward the gloring light on the horizon though in the picture he looked backward and his face was determined decisive do you often do this he asked sketch people she said then blushed yes I kind of do it all the time when I'm feeling like myself at least not simply sketching child do you often draw upon Fortune Glimpse someone's possible selves then pull one forth touch in some way what could have been what might still be he glanced at her and must have seen the utter confusion arise as he sighed is this a skill commonly employed by lightweavers during your time not that I know of she said but I don't exactly understand what you're saying he glanced toward pattern in Testament to spren of course you've bonded to strange things happen when a n n bond is imbricated there were rules against it once I believe how long have you had them both for some time she said though I didn't know it I didn't remember it until just recently and how often he asked holding up the sheet do you glimpse into the spiritual realm then manifested in your art I she thought back to pictur she'd done like one found in the pocket of a dead man like sketches of the unmade lurking athero or faces turning up in her art without her intending to draw them she began to feel like a fool for objecting so quickly to someone who obviously knew far more about these things than she did it might happen now and then she said there was NM at athero and it showed up in my art now these faces she turned one toward him he nodded because you've been thinking about traveling to the spiritual real and finding ba ad from that's her one interpretation of her yes he said if you were someone else I would assume you had seen some ancient art and were unconsciously influenced by it for you he Shrugged fortun can do unthought fantatic things I'm sorry fantatic it means unnerving he said I'm sorry I don't keep on up on shifts in language nor I'm an expert on Fortune best speak to midias your wit about that and vtic man himself that one I will stop there it's not the end of the chapter but we're about out of [Applause] time so there we go um thank you for coming out to see me um thanks for stopping by the booth uh playing the little game we have set up there um we're testing out some doing some things with dragon shal every year we do some sort of game game for people who are there we're trying one at our booth it's it's not very extravagant but it's the beginning ages of that um uh appreciate you as always supporting me uh we will stick this up online if you want to uh see it again we'll probably put up the text so you can read it without have to hear me stumble over words now and then otherwise I look forward to seeing those of you who have tickets at the signing line I'm going to head there right now [Applause] [Music] so for

Channel: Popverse

Views: 32,512

Keywords: comic con, comic convention, Popverse, Popverse Says, The Popverse, Reed Pop, c2e2, c2e2 24, c2e2 2024, chicago, c2e2 2024 walk through, c2e2 2024 full walkthrough, interview, brandon sanderson, brandon sanderson panel, brandon sanderson interview, mistborn, wheel of time, brandon sanderson lecture, brandon sanderson writing, 06-Dragonsteel Prime Chapters 51 - Closing Credits, brandon sanderson youtube, stormlight archive

Id: com-hv7ynRI

Length: 87min 39sec (5259 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024