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Questioner

Does Lil' Blue have a path

Will Wight

No

Questioner

Who was the most powerful Blackflame and what rank did he/she hit?

Will Wight

The most powerful member of the Blackflame family was an Archlord, unless I decide to go back in time and retcon them into a Sage.

Questioner

So, in Cradle, what are Sages exactly?

Will Wight

Sages are Archlords who have achieved [something special] that sets them apart from their peers. There are levels above Archlord, but Sages are actually more rare than the stage immediately over Archlord. It's easier to advance than to distinguish yourself and become a Sage.

Questioner

What's another absurdly weak or isolated place on Cradle and what would their Lindon look like?

Will Wight

There's an underwater, sealed-off city at the bottom of the Trackless Sea that's surrounded by much more prosperous civilizations of aquatic sacred beasts.

The human population inside this city has developed mostly independently, just like Sacred Valley. Their Lindon would be anyone who, for whatever reason, couldn't master water aura and the Ruler techniques required to go outside the city.

That person would be like someone in our universe who can't use a car...not just someone who can't drive, but someone who is unable to get inside an automobile.

Questioner

How far ahead did you plan Lindon's return in Bloodline?

Will Wight

From book 1, I think. Yeah. I had the broad strokes of him coming back in book 1, but of course the details changed as his journey went on. So how far did I plan his return? The whole time, yeah. I always intended for him to come back, and there were certain aspects of his return that I certainly had from the very beginning.

Questioner

What can Dream madra do besides read Fate? Are Time and/or Space actual madra aspects?

Will Wight

Dream madra affects thoughts and perception.Space madra is somewhat different than most aspects; it's not shaping madra INTO space, as that makes no sense, but there is a way to develop madra so that it affects space.

atlantean0208

What is the point writing a Xuanhuan novel where the hero is weak and not winning the tournament and always weak among his peer. Most Xuanhuan novel, the hero if not powerful to fight cross level, they mostly unbeaten on the same level. Can you just stop writing Lindon like he some kind of Batman wannabe who always have to fight using scheme and plot instead of like a true Blackflame warrior who keep advance while just killing everybody in his path. You let blackflame as his path, but Lindon is more like a weak ants, so what is the point?

Will Wight

If I’m understanding your comment correctly, you want Lindon to win all the time because that’s what usually happens in the genre.

I agree, that does usually happen! But I don’t like that, and here’s why: usually in these web novels, the author pretends like the hero has been through a lot of adversity, but they haven’t. They win all the time, and they never lose, and they are always the best forever.

They never fight someone who is their equal because no one is their equal.

I don’t find that very interesting or engaging, to be honest. It’s pretty one-dimensional. I also don’t respect what the character has done if they only did it because they were the best of all time from the first chapter.

I would rather read about someone who becomes the best, not someone who is the best, so that’s where I intend to go with Cradle.

Is Lindon going to lose all the time? No, of course not! He lost here, and he’s as frustrated about it as you are.

But he’s going to buckle down and continue to push forward anyway, because that’s who he is.

Questioner

The Emperor is way more powerful than a lot of people on the blog give him credit for!

How about him vs. Northstrider or any of those guys Suriel showed Lindon at the beginning of Unsouled. Actually I believe The Emperor would kick any of their butts one on one. How about The Emperor vs. the three strongest people on the planet Cradle? Besides Suriel because she is not a resident of Cradle.

Basically is anyone on Cradle on par with The Elders, or could The Emperor handily destroy anyone on Cradle?

Will Wight

Their powers work differently, but no, the Emperor would not be one of the strongest people on Cradle. The reason the Abidan value Cradle is because it nurtures and produces extremely powerful individuals.

A fight against Yerin's master would be pretty even. Depends on the circumstances at that point, like how well-armed the Emperor is and how seriously the Sword Sage takes the fight from the very beginning.

The Last Reader

So is their another part the Heaven Earth Purification Wheel(HEPW) because Eithan's explanation for the name sounds slightly off

Will Wight

There is, but I'm not sure what you mean about Eithan's explanation.

Kazology

Which would you rather fight, one Orthos-sized Lil Blue or one hundred Lil Blue-sized Orthos?

Will Wight

One Orthos-sized Lil' Blue.

Questioner

Do you have tons of notes on a magic system and slowly reveal more over time, or is the creative process more organic in how they develop?

Will Wight

A little of both. I usually start out with a ton of detailed notes and then let it develop from there.

Vital aura, for instance. I know exactly how I wanted aura to work, but I had trouble describing it clearly in Unsouled, so I started tweaking the rules and principles in later books and let it deviate from what I originally intended and found difficult to explain.

...although in doing so I kind of tripped over my own feet a little bit, because describing it only gets more difficult when you change your mind, but oh well. Live and learn.

Tievel

Was Ghostwater just a completely empty water Territory/fragment before Northstrider corralled it?

Will Wight

It was a chunk of ocean floor that outlived its world.

Terrible

Could Lindon create a technique based off of his explosive failures with the Dragon’s Breath Striker technique that allows him to fly around like a Blackflame Iron Man?

Will Wight

Not Blackflame, no. Blackflame doesn't produce enough thrust. Maybe with a Ruler technique, but that still wouldn't be ideal with Blackflame.

Questioner

Are you a DotA fan as you use the name Abidan, which is one of the heroes in it?

Will Wight

No, that's a character from... it's a demon from mythology. So that's a common name, that gets used in a lot of fantasy. That's actually not where the name of the Abidan organization came from, but that is where the name of the DotA character came from.

Kalani

Will the Mighty, would enforcing a weapon with Blackflame erode it like self enforcement does?

Will Wight

Depends on the weapon.

Hammy

I don't think [Lindon and Yerin] should date at all. I don't have a reason, just imo I do not think they work and it kind of a troupe that the two lead characters of opposite gender started dating in a book.

Will Wight

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools?from=Main.TropesAreNotBad   

Just as a clarification, a "trope" is just a literary element used to build a story. The story's a house, and a trope is a brick. Stories are made of tropes.   As for this specific subject, I know that if I do end up pairing Lindon and Yerin, some people are going to be thrilled and others will be disappointed. I'm aware of that with every choice I make. There's nothing wrong with not wanting a specific pairing, or not wanting something to happen in a story.

Questioner

Dross’ relationship with Lindon for some reason reminded me of Vampire Hunter D. D is kept alive at one point in the first movie by an independent entity in his hand which lives off D but also allowed D to heal/regenerate (or at least regenerate faster). I wonder if such a relation would be possible in cradle. Essentially a symbiotic relationship (with a parasite or something of the sort), which could leave both parties better off but didn’t necessarily require a contract or sharing of madra. Now Dross is a construct and seems to operates off all madra, so maybe he’s a special case?

Will Wight

Yes, that would be possible.

Ruff

Will Wight

@Ruff I thought there are so many prime madras

There are, but different cultures and sects disagree on what they are. There are greater aspects and lesser aspects of madra. Greater aspects are universal and usually elemental, like fire or water. Lesser aspects are the weird things that practitioners can do to their madra over time to make it take on a certain quality, like making it sticky or in the shape of a snake. Lesser aspects are what make everything confusing.

I'll be going into this eventually in the books, but I haven't up to this point because A.) most characters aren't aware of this, and B.) I'm trying to find a way to explain it so that it makes the magic system less confusing instead of more confusing, which is what I'm afraid of.

kwwaites

How could Eithan claim to be under 35 for the uncrowned tourney?

Will Wight

There’s two ways that could’ve happened with information that is already presented in Reaper. The Origin Shroud if its powerful enough to deceive the Mad King and Ozriel then it’s powerful enough to deceive people on Cradle, right? And then Eithan had to incarnate into a real mortal body. This wasn’t like a fake thing where he was disguising himself he had to really be mortal. He could easily have actually been under 35. Those 2 solutions are both possible.

Questioner

Can Suu be used to release the Great Devourer from Ninjago?

Will Wight

I had to address that question because it was also one that burns in my heart, and the answer is absolutely yes. Suu can be used to release the Great Devourer from Ninjago.

Questioner

Would linden have won if he was allowed all of the constructs against the Jai clan?

Will Wight

Probably, but he knew he almost certainly wouldn't be allowed. It was a long shot.