Questioner
Have you thought about writing short stories about the Emperor and the Regents (from EE)? Could you give us a hint what these might be like?
Will Wight
I have! Especially while working on OKAK, I thought that might be something I would have liked to explore. I would like to show the Elder War at its peak, when the Emperor and his companions had to go into territories warped and shaped by a Great Elder and convince slaves who had grown up with decades of indoctrination to follow fellow humans instead of the alien gods who own them. I think that could be cool.
Questioner
How did a bunch of Sages kill the Sword Jade? (Real question) Where can you find the best cookies on Cradle?
Will Wight
Deep in the Diamondvale Mountains lies the home of the Honeyfinger sect, confectioners and craftsmen without equal who raise ancient chocolate plants over generations and summon incomprehensible sugars from other worlds. They’re currently working to perfect a disc, a sandwich of two chocolate cookies with creme between them, the birth of which could change Cradle forever.
Questioner
Any advice on developing magic systems for a fledgling writer? The Cradle series is one of my favorites hands down b/c of how well the magic system is thought out. Looking forward to future works!
Will Wight
Hey! I like to start with a general concept (e.g. “magical martial arts”) and then include all the things I know I want the practitioners to be able to do. Throw fireballs, leap really high, whatever. Then I try to make sure it’s restricted in enough ways. Does it take years of training to form a fireball? Can you throw as many fireballs as you want? Usually it takes some kind of resource to use magic, even if that resource is just your physical stamina. After that, I start trying to push the magic system by thinking of crazy new ideas or coming up with weird implementations. Like, if you use a spell by writing it on a scroll, what happens if you use a material other than paper? Thinking it through more thoroughly in that way helps me to flesh it out some more, make it more real, and identify areas where I might need another rule.
Questioner
The reason for Lindon being labeled Unsouled was amazing. I don't want to spoil anything but it's so true about the limits we put on ourselves, other people's expectations of us and how we live our lives. Is this mindset, this possibility blindness, inspired by something or someone close to you?
Will Wight
Not anything specific that I can think of, just the knowledge that usually the thing that most shapes my opinion of myself is the story I tell myself about who I am. In order to change my thoughts, I have to change that story first.
Questioner
After reading your bio, I now smell cookies. Please tell us more about bear surgery.
Will Wight
People assume that it’s about performing surgery on bears, but it’s far more about using bears as surgical tools.
Questioner
If you could be a type of Oreo, what flavor would you be and why?
Will Wight
Most Stuf.I don’t want to settle for an inferior amount of stuf.
bamfious
Are you able to confirm if Cradle was a naturally formed iteration? Or was someone "playing Adriel" and made Cradle?
Will Wight
Cradle is a naturally formed Iteration.
Questioner
Question from your #1 fan, my 12-yr-old karate student, Teketel: "Who is Eithan's second cousin?"
Will Wight
That's far too much of a spoiler!
The identity of Eithan's second cousin is the sort of knowledge that would warp the mind and tear the cosmos. For you student's own protection, I cannot tell you.
Lamanai
(In response to Will's post about re-listening to the Cradle audiobooks)
Must feel weird reading your own book. I know some actors hate watching their own show/movie.
Will Wight
It really is very uncomfortable.
But whenever I write a new book in a series, I re-read the older ones as well as my notes.
This is just the first time I’ve done it on audio, because reading with my eyes is so much faster.
Ray745
May I ask why then? Why are you listening instead of reading if you can do it so much more quickly by reading? Is it just for a change of pace, or to allow yourself to multitask, or some other reason that I can't even fathom with my puny little non-author brain?
Thanks so much!
Will Wight
I want to have a more intuitive grasp of Travis’ voices for the characters—I’ve heard them all, but I’m so much more familiar with the characters as I wrote them that I sometimes forget what the audio voices sound like.
Also, I don’t want to skim or skip any sections even if I’m familiar with them. I think the slower speed might give me a new perspective.
But that part is just a theory. It’s always hard to get immersed in a story I wrote myself, and it’s even harder when the slower pace of listening to audio gives me so much time to think.
I’m sitting there thinking about what I should have done, what I should do later, ideas for the future, speculation about what I was thinking when I wrote the scene...
Windrunner
Where was Tharlos at the end of OKAK?
Will Wight
Tbh there’s a pretty mundane explanation if you don’t mind knowing it:
Tharlos is incapable of coordination with the others because he’s incapable of consistency, which is why he doesn’t help.
The reason he isn’t mentioned again is because of the scenes I removed dealing with Tharlos specifically.
One I actually wrote and then removed, so I have that saved, but the other one was supposed to be a Bliss epilogue that I never wrote.
I felt like the epilogue scene would put too much emphasis on a Great Elder who in the grand scheme of things didn’t do much, and would detract pacing-wise from the emotional impact of the ending, so I cut it.
Of course, what I then should have done was tossed in a throwaway line at the end where Calder senses what Tharlos is doing in order to tie up that loose end. But I didn’t think about it.
TL;DR - The reason it doesn’t exist is because I cut the Tharlos scene, and then I didn’t include a line patching it up because I forgot to.
Aussby
Ozriel isn't dead because he appears in OKAK and Will said it happens after Cradle.
Will Wight
Without officially confirming or denying anything, I want to say that I don’t feel bound to anything I said outside the books.
I generally say whatever I’m thinking at the time, but I have to be free to change my mind until it’s in a book.
So I would have felt no qualms about changing the timeline around until I have established it in a published work.
Broshinsky997
So Li Markuth was on a different path? since he had something like Shadow and Storms i think?
Will Wight
Correct!
Though he also came from a Li clan so long ago as to be unrecognizable to the modern family.
True Ruler of None
Does Reigan Shen do catnip?
Will Wight
All the time.
Sari-Not-Sorry
Is the Unknown Wanderer mentioned in Of Dawn and Darkness Valin? If not, will it be revealed who that is later?
Will Wight
It is!
Sari-Not-Sorry
Is it more of an Easter Egg or does it have potential ramifications of him visiting (and escaping from!) that iteration?
Will Wight
It's an Easter Egg, but it did still canonically happen.
chill-cheif
Can all territories grow in power like valinhall. And how powerful is Simon overall compared to the rest of amalgam?
Will Wight
All Territories can grow in power, yes!
Compared to the rest of Amalgam, Simon is extremely powerful for a short period of time. One of the most powerful active participants in the world.
KinOfTheMountain
Could an Elderspawn become soulbound to a awakened item with only human intent?
Will Wight
It could not! Elders don't interact with Intent in quite the same way.
TristanLN
Can people at the peak of their progression on Amalgam manifest their Territory on the physical world? Similar to how Incarnations are able to
Will Wight
There are ways to learn abilities like that, yes! But it's not like every advanced Helgard Traveler can turn dust to snow, for instance.
yaboiLu
Can you carry a person in your soul space or void key and if so what prank does Eithan pull using it?
Will Wight
You can't, but if you could, Eithan's best prank would be showing up unexpectedly in yours.
bob_51
What is an amazing idea for a book series that you are never going to write
Will Wight
Man, who knows?
I'd love to write a Minecraft/Terraria-style LitRPG. There are webnovels and light novels like it, but nothing I could find in the English LitRPG scene (though granted, I looked last year).
To those of you reading this comment later: please don't respond with suggestions for LitRPG books with Minecraft elements in them. This was an idea I liked at the time but am not pursuing. I don't need suggestions.
Vulcanized-Homeboy
What core technique does yerin have? It's never been mentioned?
Will Wight
That's true, and it's not a spoiler, it just never came up.
I don't remember the name off the top of my head, but her Jade cycling technique focuses on increasing power output and madra control. Like her Iron body, it's made with her future advancement in mind: so that she can use more powerful techniques more easily and they'll hit even harder.
