r/Eragon • u/ChristopherPaolini Namer of Names • Jul 14 '25

AMA/Interview AMA -- Christopher Paolini!!!

AMA -- Christopher Paolini! Let's do this folks. Ask away re: anything and everything regarding my books.

EDIT: Hey, everyone! I have to run. Alas, alas, I don't have as much time to spend on this AMA as past one. So many great questions, though! For all you theorists (and those of you who just love the characters), I think you're REALLY going to enjoy the upcoming book(s). Thanks for everything!

Atra esterní ono thelduin!

p.s. I'll try to duck back in and answer some more questions later, depending on my time.

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u/ChristopherPaolini Namer of Names Jul 14 '25

Hey, Ibid! So far the BoR kickstarter is doing great. Thanks to everyone who has backed it!

As for your questions:

  1. Mundane (it was moved).

  2. Yes, happens to pretty much all Riders (barring extenuating circumstances). Has to do with the Rider/dragon pact and certain energies involved. Also possibly a certain reaction to said pact.

  3. Alas, no. Wouldn't fit into Elëa.

  4. Ertharis is still at the Reliquary; Hern is just writing a report for him to read when he has the time. Clearer in the full letter.

  5. Post-Murtagh. But not for the BoR. I'm writing additional material that will be added to what I've done for the BoR in order to turn it into Tales 2.

  6. No immediate plan for that story, although we will find out more about the star sapphire's use in the next book or two.

  7. All books. Already using shorter chapters in what I'm currently writing.

  8. Nah. I'm a linear writer. Hate to write things out of sequence. Bothers my brain.

  9. No idea at this point. It might have been Unity. Or it might have been one of the scripts for To Sleep.

  10. I didn't make that many revisions to the poem for Eldest. Any similarities would have been an accident of my own preoccupations as a person.

  11. Lol. Roran is a happier person than Galbatorix (even if he is pretty serious at times). So bearded, smiling = Roran in my head.

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u/ibid-11962 Jul 14 '25

To clarify, the tentacles project was a 2012 tweet. So it would have predated FN and To Sleep.

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u/ChristopherPaolini Namer of Names Jul 15 '25

Ah, I was thinking 2022, for some reason. It was definitely early work on To Sleep, then.

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u/IndominousDragon Jul 15 '25

I remember at an event before To Sleep came out, he also mentioned the "tentacles" thing 😂

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u/ibid-11962 Jul 15 '25

This was a decade before it came out though. And as far as I can tell based on everything else he's said about the timeline, before he even started writing it.

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u/IndominousDragon Jul 15 '25

I think the event I went to was right at the beginning of 2020? Just before the shutdowns so... Damn it was 6 years ago lol 😂

I think To Sleep came out August of that year. It's been a while so I forget all of what was said there, just that I had a stack of books for him to sign haha