Recent entries

Questioner

Are there any items or artifacts that you would describe as the Excalibur of Cradle?  Something that legendary?

Will Wight

Yes.  One of the things I went and did originally is I went and designed other threats that are potentially existential threats to Cradle that aren't the dreadgods.  So I went through and did that.  And I think that is one of the only things that made it into the books from that is a reference to the plague that killed a monarch, Sha Leiala.  It's really like a biological weapon that sort of developed itself.  But there's a couple of those.  And there are a couple of references, I think in Reaper, I think there are a couple of references, to legendary weapons that aren't from Cradle specifically, but are other legendary weapons.  I wish I could off the top of my head give you a run down of a legendary weapon from Cradle, but I can't.  But there is stuff like that.

Questioner

If you could write anything you want right now, without worrying about sales, productivity, fan reaction, or anything else, what would you be writing?

Will Wight

I fully understand this question, but really, anything.  It's not a particular thing, it's just I like coming up with new ideas; it's just fun.  So most anything action-fantasy related.  I say anything, I mean in my very narrow niche.  So, I had been considering something that is more like a Korean light novel in style, something that is a game sort of system, but in the real world.  So something like Solo Leveling or The Gamer, those are the ones that I guess would be more popular that you would know.  Something like that I think would be fun, something I've wanted to do.  Because infamously I don't really understand LitRPG; I don't really get it.  I've read a lot of it; it's not really my cup of tea and it feels like ti should be.  So I would like to figure that out in the genre that is closest to what I would like to write.  So that's one thing I think would be fun.

Another thing I think would be fun is I mentioned space fantasy earlier; that is something I have been kicking around for awhile.  I think that aesthetic is really cool.  Again, it's just a theme, just a subgenre, it's not a particular story.  There are a few character ideas I really like, a few game mechanics I really like, or world mechanics.  I would love to do a sort of survival style fantast novel, like The Martian.  I would love to, these are... Gothic fantasy, gothic horror style fantasy, so not a horror novel, a fantasy novel, but in a gothic fantasy, like Innistrad, if that means anything to you.

Oh, I would also really would love to do holiday books; I've wanted to do those a long time.  Halloween, I love that aesthetic, I'd love it for a fantasy novel.  Christmas, I love that aesthetic, I'd love it for a fantasy novel.  Something like Nightmare before Christmas, but as a setting for a fantasy.  I think it would be really neat.  The problem with that is it feel like I would have to come up with holiday analogies for the other two seasons, because we have winter and we have fall.  I just think it would be cool.  I think it would be neat to have a character that has Christmas magic, right?  I think it would be fun.  So yeah, standard sort of ideas that I kick around.  Those are all sort of things that appeal to me.  But if I could write anything right now, it would probably batting one of those around until it felt like it clicked and then I would go with that.  

The funny thing is, when I consider writing a new thing, I kind of go around in circles.  I go around between, "Ah man, is this too much like Cradle, is this not enough like Cradle?  Is this the kind of thing people expect from me?  Is this a thing they expect too much?  Is this..."  And I get up in my head a little too much.  It's funny, because when I look at other creators who have that mentality, I don't care of it's too similar, or not similar enough.  Just do something.  It's fine.  So I know that's the attitude I should have.  And it is probably the attitude that I will actually go with.  But it's just...  It's hard.  I still go round and round about it.  That's it. 

There's a part of me that says... so I'm playing Stardew Valley right now, ConcernedApe, that's the developer of this, last week announced his next project, which is called Haunted Chocolatier.  And it basically is a gothic, or lightweight horror themed chocolate factory.  So it is sort of like a whimsical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, mixed with ghosts, mixed with Stardew Valley.  And what it looks like right now, and we have very little information about this so it could end up being completely wrong, but what it looks like right now, is effectively Stardew, but with a different, more fantastical theme.  And I love that.  I think that's great.  I wish people would just keep doing what people like from them more often.  I also think people should just straight up copy people more often.  I don't know why there aren't more knock offs of Harry Potter, weirdly.  Even though there is tons of school fantasy, I'm like, why aren't there more Harry Potter knock-offs?  Because there are tons of Twilight knock-offs.  But as much as I say that, then I think, yeah, but that would that be fun for me?  Is that what I want to do?  Then again, I think about the chance to start over on Cradle and redesign it from the ground up, knowing what I know now, and that appeals to me.  So, it wouldn't be Chinese cultivation novel inspired now, by the way.  Probably.  It would Probably have more different inspirations or conventions, not so much from the Chinese cultivation side of things.  It's just, you know.  I've done that.  So it would be a different thematic inspiration, if anything.  That's my answer.

One of the character types I've wanted to do for quite some time is a, because I haven't done this before, is a nobleman.  Do like a noble.  Someone who is born into a noble house.  Someone who was born into more privilege and luxury, because that is something that I just haven't done before.  So my characters tend to not be there.  So, technically, Lindon is born into, like he's in a well off family, right?  Well, for Sacred Valley, right?  But the bottom of the bottom of the barrel in Cradle context.  So it's more something that they would face unique challenges and start in a very different place.  So that would be an interesting aspect to play with.  That's all.  Just be a little different.  That's it.  (responding to chat)  No, Eithat doesn't count, and here's why: Eithan is not the primary protagonist of the series.  So it's Lindon I'm comparing to, Lindon and Simon I'm comparing to.  Because of course I've written characters who are noble before.  Mercy is.  

Sage Of Quotes

Do Fury's kids have to abandon their paths and start on a new magic system? Are they able to advance without cradles aura?

Will Wight

So one of the things that I have... One of the tenants of this multiverse I guess is when you advance under your own power you have almost completed the definition of yourself if that makes any sense. You have finished defining yourself, you have... now transcended your mortal being. You are now this person. Now, of course, you can change and grow over the course of infinite lifetimes, as indeed we have seen from the Abidan. Some of them grow weary and retire. Some of them change from who they were as mortals. So you do change and grow but not as much as you would. In a way, your origin is somewhat fixed.

But people who are taken beyond their world are not subject to that principle. So they can continue to practice sacred arts if they have a source of aura. Can they get other sources of aura outside of Cradle? Yes, they can, that is something they can do. It's not inherently on other worlds that are not cradle but there are ways of doing that. And they can perceive sources of aura that other people who grew up in other worlds cannot. So that's the kind of thing that they could... they could find a way to keep practicing their sacred arts

OR

They could learn new magic systems from another source, another world, another... There would be other energy systems that they might be compatible with. Usually, they would be compatible with something that is reminiscent or... shares an icon you might say with the path they are already on. So if they're, talking about Akura family so if they are on a shadow path and there were some sort of shadow elemental path they would be able to learn that more easily. 

So.... Yeah, that's the answer. They would be able to learn new magic systems or they would be able to continue their own if they found an appropriate source of aura to continue to cultivate.

Questioner

Do natural spirits need lord revelations?  Do they need to be remade with soulfire to advance to the lord realm?

Will Wight

Yes they do need soulfire to advance to the lord realm.  In terms of do they need revelations, yes and no.  They need to understand themselves better like sacred beasts do and human sacred artists do, but it's a little bit different for them just like it is for anything else.  However, something like a naturally advancing tree for instance, it's really more about, like Emriss Silentborn when she was alive. it's really more about growing degress of sentience and awareness more than it is... Oh, hear we go.

Will's brother (offscreen)

We found batteries.

Will Wight

We found batteries.  I'm being dismembered.  She's trying to make me into a Skywalker by cutting my arm off.  That's how it works.  Except she was attacking me at the shoulder, so I don't get to be Luke.  And I don't get to be Lindon either.  

Questioner

Can one person inherit multiple distinct bloodline powers (eg akura armor + aurelius senses)?

Will Wight

No.  So, the idea is you have one... (Will gets distracted by a scarecrow.)  All right.  So you really have slot, so to speak, for a bloodline power.  So if you did inherit two bloodline powers, they would blend.  They would blend, or one would overwrite the other.  It depends on how powerful the ancestor leaving you the bloodline power was and ow much of it you inherited.  So if you inherited a really strong measure of a bloodline power, that one would be dominant.  The example of course is Akura armor and Arelius web detection, because those are the two major bloodline powers in the series.  With those two, it would really depend.  If you were a direct descendent of Malice almost certainly your bloodline would be stronger than the Arelius one, so it would probably just be overwritten.  But there's a possibility you would get a hybrid.  So if Malice left a stronger, it would kind of be like a, lets say a suit of armor that had some detection capabilities while it was active.  And was a different color, or was more sensitive to being controlled, or armor that now as part of its defensive mechanism web of madra.  Akura, your right.  Akura.  That's definitely how you say it and always was.

Questioner

What is a piece of cut content that you fully fleshed out, but never found a good spot to put in the books? Besides jade cycling techniques, that is.

Will Wight

Well, I shared a lot of that before, I guess, Bloodline I think.  I shared some of the things I had thought about there.  There's a lot of paths that I made.  I think one thing - this is funny, but I made a full character sheet for Charity, Akura Charity.  So the owls thing, that's a real technique.  I know all the techniques in The Book of the Silver Heart.  I have a character sheet for Pride too somewhere, but, you know.  It's Pride.  Charity though, I have names for her weapons and artifacts.  I have some elaborate stuff, and we just never got into it.  Maybe I'll shove it into the nest book.  She still has a role in the series of course.  So maybe I'll elaborate on that.  So that's one thing.  I have character sheets for quite a number of people, but Charity is one that I was looking through my notes the other day, and I was like, huh.  I fleshed out her path.  And I never really did a whole lot with it.  

So, anything else... Another piece of cut content...  Oh, there is a lot of setting stuff.  A lot of Serpent's Grave.  Even in Elder Empire.  I actually built the Gray Island, for the Consultant Headquarters in Elder Empire, I built that in Minecraft so I would have a map for it.  I just went into creator mode in Minecraft and built the whole thing.  Built the docks, built the different traps, and the underground chamber, and all that stuff.  I ended up losing that map because I transitioned computers and didn't back it up.  So I was really salty about that.  So that's another thing; there's a few setting things that I fleshed out then didn't get to include, because of course I, instead f lingering on settings, blow past them at the speed of light.  So there's stuff with Blackflame City and stuff with Serpent's Grave that I came up with, then just didn't use.  I do that a lot with characters and settings; come up with details for them that are probably never going to come up.  There's a few sages that I think are super cool that are probably never going to come up.  Just a few paths they get to use that are (aren't?) cool.  There's also some that I initially had that overlap with another character or they just aren't that important.  So there was one guy that was on a sun path, and he was conjuring... It's kind of like Heaven's Glory but taken to the utmost extreme, because he's a sage.  So yeah, a few things like that.  

One of the first things I did in Blackflame actually, was I went through and defined all the monarchs, and the most prominent heralds and sages and stuff, because I wanted to know who the most powerful figures in the world are.  I did this in Elder Empire too; I went and elaborated on the regents and guild heads in one document in order to define the setting and the magic system.  That's one thing I really enjoy doing, and I recommend anyone do it if you are trying to write a progression fantasy sort of setting where people scale in power, is if you define the upper end of the system really quick, even to yourself, it can help you answer questions you didn't even know you had.  Somebody asked me earlier, how do you get past being stuck, and the answer I am sorry to say, is really just write nonsense.  Write the best scene you can think of.  Well, I don't know what to write.  To bad, keep writing.  Write as though someone is holding a gun to your head so words keep coming out of your fingers.  So that's how you do it.  Another answer that I'll elaborate on is you want to know more about your story.  One of the ways to do that is to answer questions to yourself.  Defining powerful people in your magic system is another way to answer questions you didn't even know you had.

So, one of the first things I did for Elder Empire, which I didn't do this for Cradle, mainly because I just went through and I had a file that's literally called powerful people of Cradle, and I just went through and outlined all the monarchs and their relationships to one another, and their factions, and what continent their on, their most powerful and loyal sages and heralds, all that kind of thing.  So, I went through and did all that around Blackflame, when I was really trying to define the setting, and of course I had done a little bit of that already, because 3 of the monarchs show up in Unsouled, so clearly I had done some of that already, but I finished the documentation there.  And in Elder Empire, I wrote a scene with the Emperor and the first generation Champions, uniting the world.  And of course at least of those first generation Champions became a regent.  And I didn't know anything about Estyr Six at the time; I just thought about a woman with long hair, and a black coat, and three lizard skulls that she was levitating around her with her powers that I thought was really cool, and because of that image, I fleshed her out into one of the major people in the setting.  And that ended up helping me fill in history of the setting that I didn't know I needed, and the dominoes sort of fell, and that inspired me and gave me some gaps to fill in later.

Questioner

How many bunches of Jades does it take to kill a Monarch?

Will Wight

I thought I had escaped this forever. (Will's sister laughing off screen.)

Will's brother (offscreen)

That is a top tier question.

Will Wight

That is a top tier question. How many bunches of Jades does it take to kill a Monarch? In Sacred Valley? All of them. Literally, every one. A bunch of Jades is like a cluster of Jades that grows on the same vine so if you have a sacred artist that's sprouting off the same vine as another, I think thats... It's like that simulation of how many lions does it take to take on the sun and the answer is, well, with enough, an infinite number of lions, eventually you would quench the sun and the sun would go out and the lions would win. So there you go.

Questioner

Who is/was the hardest character for you to write?

Will Wight

Well, I mentioned this not too long ago when someone went through and compiled all the Yerin-isms in all the books, that's what I call it when Yerin has some sort of folksy saying that she just happens to pull off the top of her head, I call those Yerin-isms, and those are hard to write. And they were harder. She was, for a long time, the hardest character to write just because of that dialogue convention that I made up myself. So, I have no one else to blame. But I wrote it that way so she would have a unique manner of speaking and I used to do an entire Yerin pass for the early books. Now, later on I got better at coming up with them off the top of my head. So, that became easier. But that's always hard.

In terms of the easiest characters for me to write, they always are Dross and Eithan. Just because I can just write jokes off the top of my head for them all day long. That's fun, very easy. So, yeah, there you go.

Questioner

What's your favorite RPG?

Will Wight

What is my favorite RPG?  Skyrim, as lame as that sounds.  It's so funny, because often, one of the reasons I go off about Subnautica so much, is it's not the most well known thing.  It's not obscure by any means, but I'm not talking about Stardew Valley or Minecraft.  It's not news to anybody that Undertale is good.  But it's often true that the most popular stuff is popular for a reason.  So, yeah, Skyrim is good.  It's a really good RPG.  I don't know what to say.  But I really loved Divinity Original Sin 2.  I have a lot of time in Divinity Original Sin 2, I've played through on every character in Divinity Original Sin 2.  Big fan of Divinity Original Sin 2.  I got half way though a play though not too long ago.  So yeah, big fan of that one.  When that first came out I was singing its praises to friends non-stop.  And I played through the first act, well Fort Joy certainly, literally four or five dozen times.  I've put a lot of time into that game.  

So, let's see.  Favorite RPG.  Ok, someone is saying meh Skyrim; consume one soup and you beat the game.  Ok, here is why I like Skyrim.  Yes you can be completely OP in Skyrim; you can be completely busted in Skyrim.  You can be OP, that's fine, but it's a single player game so who cares?  And it's sometimes fun to just be busted OP.  And if you want to play the game in a more challenging way, you can.  So I've done some playthrough where I've deliberately not done the fortify restoration loop or some other means of getting unlimited power fast, and it was fun.  

(responding to chat) So, Witcher.  Ok, I hate to say this, because I really like the Witcher books, but Witcher 3, I'm not a big fan.  And I've talked about it positively in the past; I do think it's a good game.  I'm not going to crap on it as a creation.  But, I don't really like it.  And the reason is it feels like it is the split between an open world and a linear RPG, so there is a lot of stuff that I wanted to go and run and do, that was a goal I set myself, like I want to go around and play all the best Gwent players, or I want to collect the cards.  Oh, you can't.  Because they are a higher level than you, and any random bandit patrol will just mulch you.  So therefore you have to level up before you can do stuff you actually want to do.  And one the things I love about Breath of the Wild, which is not really an RPG, otherwise that would have been my answer, is it's truly open world.  It's something where, one the first things I do, anytime I do a Breath of the Wild playthrough, is I go through and find all the towers so I complete the map, so I can have the map fully open and do whatever I want to do.  And that's fun.  I want to be able to set and drop objectives as I feel like.  Because the story really is the story of me, going through the game, right?  So Witcher I couldn't do that.  I had to progress with the story and not go off on my own.  I was like, oh, this is really annoying.  Until you get to certain parts of the the story where you are mandated to go and run around.  And that's also annoying.

Questioner

What is Shira’s Path? And does Ziel think she's cute?

Will Wight

Wow.  More Akura Shira questions.   For somebody that has like 4 lines in the whole series, that's a higher number of questions than I anticipated.

Will's brother (offscreen)

Mu Enkai, is that you?

Will Wight

Yes, it's Mu Enkai.  I do not remember; I don't remember that.  She is not an important person to me.  So I don't know.  I'm sure I have an answer to that question somewhere.  But I don't, I don't know.  I wish I knew.  Let's see.  Akura Shira's path.  I need to start saying Akura by the way.  Akura is how I always say it; it's sort of the Japanese pronunciation convention because it's obviously a Japanese inspired name.  But I told Travis  I guess, a long time ago, to pronounce Akura, and now the audio books say Akura, so I need to line up with the audio books.  I need to get in line.  So Akura.  Akura Shira.  What would be her path.  I don't know.  I can't think of anything sufficiently weird.  I was trying to think of she summons leaches or something.  I'll have to figure it out.

Questioner

Rocket boots?

Will Wight

Rocket boots.  It's probably rocket boots.  That's what it is.  It should be a fan path.

Questioner

What is Akura Shira's favorite kind of flower?

Will Wight

Is this the fourth Akura Shira question? What is the deal...? What is Akura Shira's favorite kind of flower? The Osmanthus flower.

Questioner

Is Akura Shira only interested in Ziel in hope of marrying a Archlord?

Will Wight

Is this the third Akura Shira question? That's another good fodder for a short story now. I need to just do this whole thing where it's just like somebody awkwardly pursuing Ziel or smoothly pursuing Ziel and Ziel just completely apathetic because that's usually how he reacts to things. So is she only interested in Ziel in hope of marrying a Archlord? No.

Questioner

What did Fury ask as his prize when he won the uncrowned tournament?

Will Wight

You know, I have that information but I don't remember it. That's one of those things... these are a lot of those things that I just write down in my notes and then it just gets buried in my big pile of notes. So it's on my computer somewhere but I don't remember the answer and I don't want to speculate. I think it was probably the right to create a perfect descendant then what he did was make Akura Shira.

Questioner

Will you kill off Akura Shira in the next book?

Will Wight

That's a misconception people have. I don't kill off the characters in the books because the characters are not real and I am not in their world. So, I am not doing anything to them. What's happening is I am designing a scenario in which they are maliciously killed by me.

Questioner

What other names were you considering for advancement stages?

Will Wight

Boy, there was a lot. I went real back and forth on those. One of them was Highgold was initially going to be the highest level of Gold and I was going to put something like Lowgold, something/Midgold, and we even went back and forth on Truegold being the middle but that ended up sounding like it was better than Highgold so we switched it up to where it was.

We also had, I think I tried out colors as the Foundation stages instead of materials. But because I wanted to the badges as a physical thing that's why they're physical materials.

Questioner

Superhighgold.

Will Wight

That's what it was. It was Lowgold, Highgold, Superhighgold. Like your hair turns gold and your eyes turn green.

So then for the Lord realm and higher I went back and forth on so many things. So many. I ended up really liking the sound of the word Underlord, that's why I kept that as the thing. I liked Underlord, I liked Archlord, and I didn't want to use the term Overlord again because I'd used it in Traveler's Gate. So I did not want to do that but, of course, I gave in because it made sense. You know, Underlord Overlord, right? Makes sense. So, because of that [trails off into Stardew Valley game play].

Questioner

Did you do a poll for the Overlord thing?

Will Wight

Yeah, I think I did.

Questioner

Ultra Instinct Gold.

Will Wight

I actually really liked, I'm going to spoil Dragon Ball Super a little bit for those who aren't caught up on the manga. So Dragon Ball Super, everybody probably knows this by now who cares but Goku got a power up a few years ago called Ultra Instinct and the idea behind that is it's skill taken to the highest expression. It is your instincts are perfected to the point you no longer need to think and I thought that was a really cool power up. I thought that was neat. I was not a fan of Super Saiyan Blue. I think they ended up making it look cool but it's just another Super Saiyan, right? But Ultra Instinct I thought was really neat. And then Vegeta did something in the anime that was kind of the opposite path and I liked that idea. And they expanded on that in the manga and in even more detail in the last couple of months. So that Vegeta has his own like different path he's embarking on and it really was similar to Sage and Herald and I thought that was really fun. So I really liked that.

For Herald and Sage and Monarch, I had a lot of different ideas. And that's honestly one of the reasons I don't talk about the advancement stages until later in the series. One is I don't like overwhelming the reader with terminology as much as I do. Like I'm already doing it more than I want to. But another one is because I wanted to be able to change my mind on the cultivation rank names. And then I didn't. I especially didn't like Herald because it implies that they have to be attached to a Monarch in order to get that rank. And that's not true. So what I did instead was because of that, because I ended up using the name, I invented this kind of cultural concept that most Heralds only advance because they are sponsored by someone which makes sense. So, therefore, they became known as Heralds of a Monarch. And that was something that was already kind of true. So I sort of just brought it out to explain the name. So that was how that went.

Questioner

If you had to pick between Sage first or Herald before Monarch which would you choose and why?

Will Wight

A Herald. I'd pick Herald. As much as I think Sage is the, I guess, more optimal option just because you gain access to abilities you didn't have and as Herald you don't exactly, like it's sort of you are like you were before but just kind of better at it. Uh, Heralds get a few things that I think are really important. And this I think is mentioned in Reaper but I don't think it gets fully explained but Heralds are effectively immune to any attack or attempt to harm them that doesn't have intention behind it, doesn't have will behind it. So, therefore, they can't drown unless someone drowns them. So they can just lay there at the bottom of the ocean and just sit there forever. And that would suck, they wouldn't have a good time but they wouldn't die. So they could fall from any height and be fine. They would have to be thrown into something to be hurt by it. So just for the sake of improving yourself-

Questioner

Only Will can kill a Herald? I see what you did there.

Will Wight

*laughs* For the sake of survival, if you're picking superpowers you always pick the one ensures your survival first. And yeah, that's my answer, I guess.

Questioner

Pure madra has multiple characteristics that can be selectively emphasized. Do other madra types have multiple characteristics as well? It seems like shadow madra and dream madra do.

Will Wight

Yeah.  Yes, so, one of the things I've called them in my notes, and I think maybe I've referenced them in the books a couple of times, is I call them lesser aspects.  So what they really are, is while they are not types of aura on their own, it is a characteristic that a type of madra can be programmed or cultivated to possess.  So, the Fisher path, like Fisher Gesha, is really just force madra; it's force madra that pulls and binds together.  So connection madra is not a thing, it's not a major aspect, but it is something that can be activated in force aura.  So it's sort of similar to how sword aura is really just an offshoot of force aura, and cloud aura is an interaction of wind and water aura in a unique pattern that appears in a cloud.  And as you learn to sense that particular pattern and cultivate it in your spirit, train your spiritual perception, you can sense that more clearly and it feels like one complete aspect to you, even though technically it isn't.  So yeah.  There's lots of... All madra aspects have this.

Questioner

When it is said that Northstrider drains a dragon of their latent authority, is that just authority associated with his dragon icon, or is it just a neutral flavor of authority?

Will Wight

No, it's dragon icon.  So it's dragon icon authority.  Dragons are multi-iteration representations of strength and power, all sorts of stuuf, elemental control, all that kind of thing.  And therefore, when he drains them, he expands his authority and his connection to the dragon icon.

Questioner

What's your favorite doughnut shoppe?

Will Wight

Krispy Kreme.  Is there another donut shop?  There's actually a couple of donut shops near us.  What is it?  Duck Donuts?  Voodoo Donuts.  And then Donut King.  There are a couple of those that are decent.  But I just... Nothing beats a glazed Krispy Kreme donut heated up in the microwave.  That's he peak of desserts really.  So it's really funny when you get more expensive desserts and you're like, yeah, this is pretty good, but I could have put a Krispy Kreme donut in the microwave.  (Transcriber's note:  Bear in mind I am simply a recorder of Will's words.  His positions are his own.  I take no blame for the horrors he perpetrates.)

Questioner

What happens to the contents of a sacred artist's soulspace when they die?

Will Wight

So your soulspace can be, it tends to meld with your remnant. So anything that happens to be in the soulspace sort of dissolves to spiritual energy and it merges with your remnant. So in some cases you can take what is in their soulspace from their remnant. You can have a soulsmith extract it. But usually it just kind of becomes a useless mass of energy in the remnant. So those rings around the soulspace, the Sword Sage's remnant, those were, I don't remember if I revealed exactly what they were so I'll be a little vague. Might not matter but I just don't remember. They are constructs that were in his spirit before he died. So, therefore, they just kind of became circles of energy. So they were not useful constructs, then. Yerin doesn't have them anymore they were just kind of absorbed and digested.