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Your Benevolent Dictator

What are wraiths like in cradle

Will Wight

They're not something you'd want to picnic on a beach with.

Questioner

I'm still turning over the line the Beast King had about "two golds he put to a task (mercy and Yerin)." Not sure if I missed something, Will missed something, or it's actually a secret and we didn't notice him influence them. Aside from that, it was the best book in the series for me.

Will Wight

It was meant to imply that the beasts they kept having to run around were in fact meant to steer their path and guide the conflict, but I recognize that was too vague. I cut some of the scenes that would have clarified that.I might just change his line in future editions.

Lil' Blue

Or is Yerin still gross and scary to Little Blue?

Will Wight

No. Her hatred and fear has only grown. Soon she will evolve into a Yerin-devouring monster.

Questioner

Would the top damage weapons from our world stack against Cradle?

Will Wight

They don't. At the level at which you are still affected by purely physical attacks, so Lords and below. Even Archlords would be affected by the artillery or military weapons to a degree. But they can react so quickly, and then they can throw missiles from their hands, a feasibly unlimited number of times, so they can break our stuff we can't break them. It would still be very difficult to beat an army led by lords, but you could. You could fight them. That's something where superior technology could even the odds to a degree. But once you get beyond Lord, to Sages, Heralds, and Monarchs, any one of them just wins. No interaction, Sages teleport you into space, what are you gonna do?

Tristan

Not sure if this has been answered already, but does madra regeneration get affected by the size/depth/whatever HEPW embiggens of a core? Eg does Eithan take the same time to refill his oversized core as any other Underlord given identical conditions or does he have to wait a proportionally longer time for his madra to refill?

Will Wight

A bigger core takes proportionally longer to refill. Someone else asked how Eithan refills it. Good question! Unless I cut the scene, you find out in Underlord.

Belga

In Blackflame you told us about Titan's Bone.“A stone is a piece of the earth, and it builds earth aura. An ordinary stone has only a mouthful of aura, but as the centuries pass, it grows stronger and stronger. It will continue absorbing power from the earth until it transforms. If left undisturbed, an ordinary rock will grow into a nugget of Titan’s Bone: all but unbreakable" What would happen if a source of fire aura was left undisturbed in the same way ? Inextinguishable flame ? Is this something we will hear about ?

Will Wight

Yes, there is such a flame! I’m hoping we’ll see examples of it soon, perhaps in Underlord, because they will be going to some neat places.

High-IQ-Jokes

I recently re-read the Cradle series up until this point. It's one of my favorite ongoing fantasy series right now.

One thing that bothered me slightly on my first read-through and immensely on my second read-through is how the Heaven's Glory school in Sacred Valley were able to poison and kill a Sage. Will said himself that the Sword Sage was two levels above Underlord, and I can't imagine even an Underlord getting poisoned by them.

I wonder if it was just an issue of planning and Will not thinking that he would make the power levels so extreme in the future, but that point just always stuck me as bizarre.

Will Wight

Hey OP! I know it looks like power creep getting out of hand, but this actually isn't a mistake! Weirdly enough. Usually if I do something that looks like a mistake, it is in fact a mistake.

In this case, I know exactly what happened to the Sword Sage and how he was killed, but (back when I was writing Unsouled) I didn't realize how obviously out-of-place this would become to the reader in a couple of books. If I had, I would have made it clear in Book 1 that it should have been impossible for mere Jades to do this.

The reason why I didn't comment on it initially is because none of the POV characters know how weird it was. They just know that a Sage is a big, powerful guy from other lands, they don't know exactly how strong he is or what that means. Even Yerin isn't really sure how much stronger he is than they are, because she doesn't know enough about the sacred arts yet.

I wanted the reader to notice that they shouldn't have been able to kill the Sword Sage, but in a "Hmm, I wonder how they did that?" sort of way, not in a "Wait a second, this is physically impossible" sort of way. Even though under normal circumstances, it is literally impossible. I just didn't realize how quickly and how clearly people would pick up on that in the next couple of books.

So anyway, TL;DR - the mystery has an answer, it is an answer I have planned out from the very beginning, and that answer will be revealed in the series. Also, I regret not making it clear in the first book that this was an intentional mystery and not a mistake.

P.S. I'm probably going to include the Sword Sage's death scene in a Presence Report, just not in Underlord.

veronkilla

"Even Yerin isn't really sure how much stronger he is than they are, because she doesn't know enough about the sacred arts yet."

Seems she's quickly come round though, since she referred to Eithan as a 'mere underlord' compared to her Master in the very next book.

Will Wight

She can know the names of the ranks and which ones are higher without knowing what that means in practical terms.

She isn’t sure HOW MUCH stronger he is than they are, “they” in this case including Eithan. But she knows he’s stronger.

Questioner

Would a fire path be one of the fastest way to level up? All you would have to do is stand next to a barn-fire and absorb the ambient fire manna it would give off, then refine it. On that note how different would the manna type be, between different types of fire. A hearth-fire warming a family home in the winter, with all the "happy" connotation that come with it, compared to like an arson attack destroying someone's home and possession and just everything that they have worked for. Both are fire but you get what I mean.

Will Wight

A fire Path would not be the fastest way to advance, because the aura would be slightly rarer and harder to collect compared to, say, earth or air. But it's still very fast, as are all the Paths that draw from aura easily found in nature.

There WOULD be significant differences between those two Paths! Fire from different Paths could take on different qualities depending on how it's used an where it comes from; you could have a gentle flame that spreads slowly and provides lots of even warmth, versus a violent flames that consumes rapidly and burns out quickly.

Questioner

Can you bond a Dreadbeast?

Will Wight

Not in the same way. There are certainly ways to create a bond between yourself and a Dreadbeast, but a sacred beast is a healthy bond between two souls that resonate together. With a Dreadbeast it would not be that. Technically though you could come up with a way to bond two sacred artists like that so that would work too. It would be a different thing.

Questioner

Are Cradle characters stronger than any other Iteration?

Will Wight

No, but they have the best average growth rate. It's extremely rare for someone of another Iteration to ascend past their starting power scale, but with Cradle it happens reliably 2-3 times per generation.

Lil' Blue

Oh, here's a legit one. In Sword Unclean, you mentioned pure aura, is that a typo or is that a retcon?

Will Wight

It's not a retcon, so it was probably a typo. Without looking it up, I suspect I meant "pure __ aura," with the blank filled in by whatever type of aura he was talking about.

Questioner

Is Seshethkunaaz the dragon Monarch or is he/she/it someone/something else?

Will Wight

Yes, although I haven’t edited these passages yet, so I might have messed up the spelling.

Questioner

So in the new Ghostwater excerpt is the construct that may have something to do with ghostwater littleblue or is it a yet to be introduced construct?

Will Wight

It’s yet to be introduced! It shows up in the first couple of GW chapters.

RMvice

Was elder whisper a witness to the end of the first blackflame empire

Will Wight

Possibly.

Bamfious (paraphrased)

Can an Archlord get to Monarch without becoming a Sage?

Will Wight (paraphrased)

Yes.

Questioner

If, for example, I messed up on my cultivation at iron level and this prevents me from advancing further, is there any way to undo my advancements? kind of like a level reset?

Will Wight

Level reset? Yes.

Questioner

What kinds of madra do the great schools of sacred valley use other than Heavens glory. I think they were Falling leaf, Golden blade and Divine wind.

Will Wight

Holy Wind: a strange Path of wind, light, and dream techniques that create zones of unnatural weather.Golden Sword: a Path of sword madra that uses Enforcer techniques on their weapon. The name of their Path comes from the goldsteel swords they use more than from their techniques.Fallen Leaf: focused on using life madra to guide the growth of spirit-fruits and sacred herbs.

Lil' Blue

Are there any sacred beast only villages?

Will Wight

Yes, and hopefully you will get to see an example very soon.

Questioner

Many paths seem that all they need to do is hit somebody with one hit and the person dies, ex. Heavens Glory. It seemed like if somebody was hit, they die. What keeps underlords, sages, from being just one shot K.O. by a Jade or lowgold?

Will Wight

Within your body, your madra holds sway. This is why non-pure madra can't be effectively used in an Empty Palm style technique, because you can't just "inject" your madra into someone and expect it to do anything. It's also why fire Paths don't just set the air in their opponent's lungs on fire and walk away.The reason why a Heaven's Glory Jade can't just gun down an Underlord is an expansion of this principle. If your madra is sufficiently more powerful than your opponent's, it becomes hard for their Striker techniques to even hurt your skin. Often, the madra is simply dispersed when it touches you. The same is true for Forged madra--it can be dispersed by the natural madra of a more-advanced opponent.Ruler techniques will work equally on anyone, so they're usually what you use if you have to fight a more advanced opponent. However, there are some drawbacks.First of all, not every Path has a battle-ready Ruler technique. Second, Ruler techniques often take a long time to implement; you have to gather up compatible aura in the area and then activate it in a specific manner.It's also expected that an Underlord will have more powerful Ruler techniques than a Truegold, or will sense what is happening and dodge or disrupt it.As for Enforcer techniques, they of course work fine against higher-level opponents. But usually, someone more advanced than you will also get better results out of their Enforcer techniques. ml

Questioner

What were the original blackflames goldsign?

Will Wight

A dragon's tail. They often used it when fighting.