Questioner
Would you accept a copious donation of Oreos? Like a pallet?
Will Wight
You know, I don't know how many Oreos are in a pallet, but I'm going to guess it's not enough.
(Transcribers note: It is hard to get good data without being a retailer for Nabisco or having access to wholesalers, but as best as I can tell, there are twelve 20 oz packs of Double Stuf Oreos per case, and 36 cases per pallet. This would be approximately 540 pounds of Oreos. I will do everyone a favor and not figure out how many calories.)
(By request, I have now calculated the number of calories. 907,200 calories in a pallet of Oreos, assuming the above quantities. For comparison, that's 1,055.07 kwH. In 2017, the average home used 867 kwH per month.)
Questioner
Who creates Iterations? Can the Cradle world be duplicated?
Will Wight
Ok, that's a good question. Can the Cradle world be duplicated? In the sense that technically it could I guess... Like in the sense that if you shuffled a deck of cards technically you could get the same order. You almost certainly will not, but technically it is a possibility. Now, all the people living there would not be there; they would be completely different people. You could get a world that is very very similar. There is not anything like parallel dimensions. That's not a thing. At least not as a primary universal mechanic. There might be some Iterations that have some version of that.
And who created new Iterations? Iterations are born as a natural part of the life cycle that Ozriel and Makiel and them are always talking about. So as an Iteration gets closer to it's intended life span, as fate runs out and it starts to die, it splits up into fragments, which are basically like Territories from Traveler's Gate, and they float around in the void, and they eventually connect to one another based on common threads and ideas and concepts. And then they fuse and they become the seed of a new Iteration, which over time gathers population, and becomes a new Iteration. And the Abidan kind of, they are like gardeners, they kind of maintain that process. So that is the idea.
Questioner
Is the Traveler's Blade series in the works or will I be sad?
Will Wight
I don't know what to tell you. You will probably be sad AND it's in the works. I haven't started anything. Other than Cradle. Cradle I have. Cradle I'm in the middle of. Eight books deep in fact.
Questioner
What is the relationship between aura and physical processes on Cradle? Does a rainstorm cause an abundance of aura or does the aura cause the rainstorm?
Will Wight
A little of both, up to a point. The aura causes the rainstorm and the rainstorm gathers or causes water aura, as you choose to see it, but that is not an infinite loop. Otherwise, of course, all of Cradle would be water aura. So there's a natural cap.
Questioner
Do the other planets or asteroids or space bodies in Cradle's Iterations gather aura?
Will Wight
Yes, they do. The other celestial bodies in Cradle do have the same rules and laws of aura that Cradle does. It won't be as rich or as powerful, but it'll be there.
Questioner
Was Northstrider originally a fish species?
Will Wight
He was not. At no point was he anything but human.
Questioner
Does Eithan keep random cleaning supplies in his soulspace?
Will Wight
Not in his soulspace, no. He keeps random cleaning supplies all around him and in his void key, but not his soulspace.
Questioner
How many books left until Cradle ends?
Will Wight
My goal is twelve books. I'm open to doing one more or one less, but it's roughly twelve, and I think that's about on track.
Questioner
All the Monarchs could ascend at any time, we assume?
Will Wight
That is technically correct. The Monarchs have the ability to ascend past Cradle. If you're a Monarch, you have the ability to personally get out of Cradle. They have all chosen not to.
Questioner
What other stories and monsters are the cradle kaiju inspired by?
Will Wight
So obviously they are modeled off the sacred guardian beasts of Chinese and east Asian mythology however those are benevolent divine creatures and obviously the Dreadgods are not; they are quite malevolent. So they are also modeled off of any big kaiju, you got it right, they are just big monsters. So I picked them, I didn't model their power off the actual mythological versions, that would have been difficult to do. So I kinda just picked their powers based on, like, I had their names kinda tied to what they were and then I (annoying subnautica notification). So I came up with their appearances while coming up with their names and based on that I kind of had their powers developed and then I kind of just themed them as big kaiju around that. So the bleeding phoenix of course, ok, so I'm going blood and rebirth, that makes sense and that's where that power came from. And the Silent King was I was like ok, white tiger with a cool halo, that sounds kind of mental to me so that's dream madra. So then I had the Silent King mind controlling people. Then there's the Wandering Titan who is big and made of stone, big crushy, smashy guy.
Arch
How many pancakes or Cradle pancake equivalents could Akura Fury eat in one sitting?
Will Wight
The only appropriate answer I can think of to that is "Yes."
Questioner
If humans are born with pure cores, what are sacred beasts born with?
Will Wight
If you're born a sacred beast, you are born with whatever madra your species has. You just have that naturally. So you're always born with aspected madra. So it depends on what you are. If you're not born a sacred beast, if you're just born a regular animal, you absorb ambient aura over time and slowly develop aspected madra. But since of course there is no pure aura, you can never develop pure madra.
Questioner
What can you tell us about Pride's Path? I was disappointed we didn't get to see Lindon fight him.
Will Wight
Pride's book is all Enforcer techniques. They're all solo combat, Enforcer, beat 'em up techniques. That is who Pride is and that is what his Path is about. Some of them are movement techniques, and so we get to see new types of Enforcer techniques that we haven't seen before. So it's not just a full-body Enforcer technique, which is obviously the most vanilla one. He's got a defensive one, a full-body one, one that is an attack technique, and one that is a movement technique. Those are the four that he can use proficiently. And of course, there are seven techniques in his book, as there are in all the books, but he hasn't unlocked those yet.
Questioner
Are there members of the Abidan that are below Sage level or didn't ascend?
Will Wight
Yes there are. So, the way the Abidan work, which I hope to get into at some point, is there are people who
(Pause for Will to argue with the game. It's a liar.)
(Also, a moment of silence for the massacre on Obraxis Prime)
So, the Abidan, there are definitely people who are born to Abdidan, who didn't ascend on their own, so they can join, maybe they can develop the powers necessary. That's certainly possible. There are definitely people among the Abidan, who are in technical terms, not great.
Questioner
Can all madra be converted to hunger madra?
Will Wight
No.
Questioner
Dross cycled Charity's madra scales of shadow and dream. Does he only cycle the dream aspect of the scale?
Will Wight
Yeah, that's kinda how that works. There's a couple of ways to cycle things. It doesn't have to actually be the exact madra type that you cycle. So if you get the scale, you can process just the part of it that you can process.
Questioner
Can an iteration be moved between sectors? And does it affect new iterations in the sector if it can?
Will Wight
An iteration can be moved between sectors. It is kind of a fluid designation as to which sector an iteration is in. It does cause some problems when it is moved so, it is difficult to do and it doesn't happen alot. It's a Judge level operation for that to happen.
Questioner
Hypothetically, if Orthos did not go to Sacred Valley and instead went with Lindon, would he be able to fight along side Lindon in the tournament? Or would he be considered a separate contender?
Will Wight
No. He is over the age requirement. So, there are some people who could take their contracted beasts. Lindon and Orthos would not be one of them. Orthos would be considered a separate competitor and he would be considered too old.
Questioner
Will Lindon get involved more in politics?
Will Wight
Almost certainly not. In the sense that he's going to be his opinion and involvement are going to be politically important in the world, ya. But in the sense that he's going to actively, like there's gonna be a lot of conflict around political discussion and manuevering and such, no. Its an adventure series, not a politics series.
Questioner
So someone has suggested that I talk about something that I've been sort of into recently that kind of cool. I have just a few weeks ago found the choose your own adventure subreddit. r/makeyourchoice, I think is the subreddit. That led me on this whole rabbit whole down to a bunch of choose your own adventure games.
Will Wight
So what they are, they're basically graphics or little games where people offer hypothetical prizes that you can buy with points. So, for instance you have a point budget and certain powers are more expensive than others and then make yourself like a little build and then think about how you would play. So, its fun to do. And what its helped me do, is help me think about what I like in terms of character building. Because one of the things that I appreciate is when characters are making a build. Characters are themed, characters are focused in some way and it helps me feel like one character can't do everything. One character is good at something. So, it really is what traditional classes do. Where its like, you know a rogue is gonna be a sneaky, stabby kind of guy that does traps and the fighter is not gonna be that guy. I've really enjoyed that and its made me think about how I am going to work in my next magic system because I would like there to be some character building, designing element to it. And the choose your own adventure thing has given me sort of a model of what I like about that kind of system, so I've really enjoyed that.
And then I made one particular build that revolved around me making clones and I don't remember which choose your own adventure this was. But, you could make a permanent clone once per day or you could make temporary clones and I shared this with a friend of mine. So, if you make a permanent clone, the cooldown of the clone ability is shared between your clones. I don't remember where I got this. So, I had heard, I had read about this ability on reddit. I don't know that I even ever found the actual choose your own adventure. I think it was just an ability that people described to me and I thought it was cool. It captured my imagination it was like a Naruto clone thing, like I mentioned earlier. And this clone ability, I was telling my friend about it, about how that would be a neat power to have and a friend of mine was just constantly asking me about the logistics of clones and how would I stop the clones from taking over and how would I deal with all these clones and how would I house the clones and I'm like I don't have to do this, they are independent entities, they can house themselves. And I couldn't stop him talking about the clones. So it ended up just being the clone wars.
