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Questioner

If Lindon had access to all the books you've read, what would be his favorite novel?

Will Wight

The Martian, by Andy Weir.It would blow his mind.

Questioner

Oh by the way is Akura Mercy a refiner or is studying to be one, or did she just have easy to use healing/medical elixir with her in the Skysworn exam.

Will Wight

She just keeps some on her in case of emergency.

For the record, I'm still CONSIDERING doing a story in Sacred Valley after Lindon left. I just have to be careful how I do it, to avoid the dreaded spoilerinos.

As for before Lindon left, that's not a bad idea. Or even before Lindon was born.

Questioner

Would Destruction madra strain your madra channels in the same way that blackflame does, or is that only blackflame?

Would it be possible for Lindon to use a technique that only used the destruction aspect of his madra? Kind of like how Jai Daishuo used a force ruler technique in Skysworn.

Will Wight

Sure he could, yeah. He could use fire aura to light fires or destruction aura to...accelerate the destruction of something that was already dissolving.

Destruction aura isn’t as useful as it sounds unless there’s a ton of it or you’re at a much higher level.

Destruction madra alone wouldn’t necessarily strain you the way Blackflame does, but it would also be more difficult to use in any useful way. If you didn’t learn to focus it effectively, a destruction Striker technique would be like spritzing weak acid on something.

myzvdr

How does LIndon's new improved body stack up. Combat adjacent, bottom 1/3, mid 1/3 top 1/3

Will Wight

What?

myzvdr

Compared to combat path bodies

Will Wight

Oh, gotcha. He would stack up well against higher-level combat bodies in the Blackflame Empire. And he will do so very soon.

Kalani

Would it be easier for Lindon to veil his unused core? Possible to hide it from others perception completely?

Will Wight

Yes, people have to scan more closely to detect his second core even when he's not veiling it. Blackflame is easier to detect than pure madra, and a core that's in use is easier to detect than one that isn't.

Questioner

On a scale of baby snow bunny to eldritch-horror who is scarier when fully equipped. Simon with the mask and cloak or Lindon with his goldsign and his wriggly arm?

Will Wight

I'd say Lindon when he gets going is basically a 6/horror. He's kind of a rough-looking guy anyway, and he gets the dark aura of the Burning Cloak, demonic eyes, a skeletal arm, and a big, hulking, burning turtle.

Questioner

Quick question Will, did Lindon keep the axe? I don't see any mention of it after the fight?

Will Wight

I intended for Lindon to keep the axe, but I wrote several versions of that scene, and it looks like I left that out. Oversight on my part, sorry.

Questioner

What is your view on a possible Lindon x Yerin romance?

Will Wight

All of the reasons listed in this conversations are reasons why I don’t like writing romance. It’s usually out of place and unnecessary, and you have to take time out of the plot to write it. Plus, it’s entirely based on emotional interactions, and emotional/relational interactions are what I have the hardest time writing. They’re my greatest weakness.All that said, a well-executed romance makes the whole story better. I don’t dislike it as a reader, it’s just hard as a writer.So what I’m trying to do is lay the foundation for a romance by creating two likeable characters who care for each other and have spent a lot of time together. Which is the groundwork a lot of stories don’t do, and why a lot of romance sub-plots fail.

Arch

But if Lindon X yerin does happen i would hope it would be really unhealthy awkward because neither of them know what a relaionship really is.

Will Wight

Frankly, this is the part I'm struggling with. Because neither Lindon nor Yerin are well-equipped for a healthy relationship, pairing them with anyone is going to result in significant emotional conflict.  

Which, for most stories, is great! Organic character conflict is awesome. But it also takes time to do it justice, which means I'll be cutting space that would otherwise go toward The Sacred Arts Adventure Hour and spending it on Lindon And/Or Yerin's Love-Time Troubles, which is a...steep transition to make 6+ books deep in a series.   So...working on it!

Polycore

Hey Will, we were wondering how would Lindon's Iron body stack against Bai Rou's madra? and can you tell how a Highgold Lindon (how he will be in the future when he reaches that stage) would fare against him?

Will Wight

Lindon's Iron body would help against Bai Rou, but not entirely, because Bai Rou's madra has a dream component that would attack the mind. It would be difficult for Lindon to defend himself, so he would have to rely on overwhelming attack.   Which would be possible, thanks to Blackflame, which Bai Rou can't do very much about. Except that Bai Rou is a Truegold in Skysworn armor, so he would be able to defend himself, counter, and beat Lindon with his counterattack.   As for how Lindon will fare at higher advancement, you'll just have to wait for Ghostwater, won't you?

Questioner

Please confirm Lindon's height. I was not picturing an NBA player. I am confused.

Will Wight

I mean every time I describe Lindon I talk about how giant he is. So I don't know...I mean that is the only descriptor I use for Lindon. He is very tall. 

Questioner

If all of your protagonists had to take the SAT's and the GRE's, who would score the best? Who would score the lowest?

Will Wight

For everyone on his list, we have to assume that they don't get questions that are impossible for them to answer. Like questions relating to Earth's literature or technology.

Yerin would score the worst, as she's illiterate and would have no idea what to do with the tests.

Simon would be second-worst. His parents only cared about his education until the events of the HoB prologue, when he was eight years old. After that, the only math skill he exercised was counting, and he rarely wrote anything besides his name.

Calder is next up. He received a noble education, thanks to his mother, but not early in life. He would score better in math than in English (assuming we translated the fictional Imperial language he actually speaks into English), and his scores would be decent in both categories.

Leah would do better than Calder, but not much better. She's extremely well-educated, but to the limits of her time period and world.

Lindon's education is more suited to standardized tests; he actually learned math and linguistics (obviously he's not speaking English, as none of these characters are) from textbooks, and while his scientific education is either not applicable to our tests or is downright wrong even by Cradle standards, his mathematical and language skills are solid.

Shera would do the best. Gardeners got a great education and she has a well-trained memory and a precise mind. She would score higher than any of my other protagonists.

...if she could be bothered to finish the test.

Questioner

The other Raccoon Families have brought up a good point about Gokren, the Sandviper TrueGold. Does BlackFlame hold the power to incinerate not only the human, but their remnant at the same time? Or was it just because Orthos is a walking trash compactor and ate Gokren and his remnant?

Will Wight

No, I just skipped the scene with Orthos and Lindon dealing with the Remnants. The technique didn't destroy the Remnants; I just looked back over the scene, and they kill the guys and then the text skips ahead five minutes.

I had intended to imply that Lindon and Orthos spent five minutes cleaning up the Remnants, but I didn't state that. It's an oversight on my part. I should have said something specifically.

AntiSqueaker

If Lindon had a magic encyclopedia with every single Path/Territory/Awakened Weapon/miscellaneous magic powers throughout all the Iterations, which one would most interest him?

Will Wight

I don't have the mental energy to answer that right now, unfortunately, because it's an interesting question. I'm releasing a book, so my MP is 0.  

Questioner

Lindon’s iron body can’t regenerate on its own given enough time/madra?

Will Wight

Regenerate limbs? No.

Questioner

Word of Will response to :That's a different take on it than I had. At this point, I'm not considering Lindon's personal growth as much as his team's. You've got the sword master with what I assume will eventually be 6 sword arms sticking from her back, the strategist with no outstanding combat strength, and I'm thinking Jai Long and Jai Chen, as well. Overwhelming destructive power was actually missing from their group. Besides that, Lindon's second core is the air of mystery and the unexpected for me. Curious what he's really able to do with it later.

Will Wight

"You've nailed my thought process. My priority is to balance his eventual team more than Lindon as an individual."

Questioner

How will Lindon act the first time he meets someone weaker then him? While Lindon has gotten to what I would call half-iron (his cores are half the size they should be so he levels them up faster then he normal would, and only one avenged to iron) and that makes him stronger then most people his age in the Sacred Valley. Knowing that and meeting them while stronger then them are different. I bring this up because out side of a few people everyone we have met seems to have no trouble "bullying" those weaker then themselves. I know this is a might makes right society but still part of the honor of that system is to ingore/protect those weaker then you. If you only follow those "laws" when other are watching you then that's not honor its saving face. When will we meet people who follow these codes of conduct not for themselves or for "face" but because they believe in them?

Will Wight

This is 100% a spoiler.

Questioner

I was quite disappointed at Kelsa disappearing from the story given she was probably my favorite Unsouled character :p

Will Wight

Early on in development, I had considered having Kelsa traveling with Lindon, and Yerin's character being a guy. But I couldn't justify Kelsa's presence, really, and I thought Yerin worked better as a woman. So Kelsa got left behind.

That's...certainly not the last we'll see of her, though. Spoilers.

Questioner

Will we find out what Eithan took from the Ruins on Yerin’s behalf? Also Will we learn about the black scripted stones Lindon took from the ruins?

Will Wight

I thought he lost those stones. Did he not? I have a file specifically to keep track of Lindon’s inventory, so I’ll have to check.

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.