Trivia / Warbreaker

• Word of God: Sanderson tends to expose a lot of otherwise-unshown background in this way.
  • The Voice that speaks to the Returned and lets them come back is one of the Shards from Sanderson's wider cosmology. It is named Endowment.
  • Clod the Lifeless was made from Arsteel's corpse.
  • It is actually possible to only transfer some breaths at a time. Denth lied when he told Vivenna she couldn't as he needed the breaths for himself.
  • The lifeless are actually self aware to some degree.
  • Blushweaver the honest is so named because she was killed for giving a testimony in court. She knew the gang she was working against would kill her but did it anyway.
  • Blushweaver returned because she saw the burning of T'telir and wanted to prevent it much like Lightsong.
  • The story teller for Siri is in fact Hoid a world hopper.
  • Other people are also world hoppers, Vasher was one and leaves Nalthis eventually for Roshar. Vivenna also leaves and eventually ends up on Roshar. They can be seen again in The Stormlight Archive as Zahel and Azure respectively.
  • Nightblood is the most invested object in the Cosmere that is not a shard.
  • Nightblood is actually smarter than he is given credit for. He is also capable of making new memories and learning unlike the characters believe.
  • The world the story is set on is named Nalthis.
• What Could Have Been: The story went through many drafts which were posted to be read online as it was written. Some changes happened as well.
  • Originally Siri was supposed to be leaving with the cook as well as support, this was scrapped when Brandon decided that having her alone was a better story.
  • Originally the book didn't exist at all in the Cosmere. Instead Vasher was simply a character in The Stormlight Archive. He appeared in the original draft of the book. Warbreaker was eventually written as a backstory and also because Brandon wanted a chance to explore the world of Nalthis for readers.
  • How awakening worked also changed. Originally you could only awaken things that looked human or were human shaped. Brandon decided this was to limiting and so changed it so anything could be awakened. Instead he made it so awakening human shaped objects just cost less breath than normal.

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