Brandon Sanderson’s Malazan-Sized NDA Is Echoing a Similar Secrecy Vow During Lincoln’s Cabinet Drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation
SALT LAKE CITY, UT — In a move that has historians and fantasy fans alike drawing parallels to one of the most guarded documents in American history, Brandon Sanderson has reportedly asked his beta readers to sign an NDA so airtight it resembles the oath of secrecy President Abraham Lincoln demanded from his cabinet in 1862 while drafting the Emancipation Proclamation. According to sources close to the Sanderson-adjacent inner circle, the upcoming Cosmere project—rumored to be a massive, multivolume crossover event—comes with a security protocol not seen since Lincoln locked his Cabinet members in a room and made them swear on the Bible never to whisper the words ‘freedom for slaves’ before the Union victory.
“It’s eerie,” said Dr. Evelyn Reed, a historian of secretive political movements. “Lincoln’s men were told that the entire fate of the republic depended on their silence. Sanderson’s team appears to understand that one leak could shatter the trust in his Sanderlanche. The stakes are different—one is about a nation’s soul, the other about a book’s plot—but the methodology is identical.” This “malazan-sized” obligation, as one fan forum labeled it, has already sparked conspiracy theories, with some claiming the project is titled “The Lost Oath” and that it will link the Stormlight and Mistborn timelines in the same way the Emancipation Proclamation linked the fate of slaves to the survival of the Union. Whether Sanderson is drafting narrative freedom or just protecting a surprise, his NDA is already a historical footnote.