Questioner
Dross has nearly infinite knowledge.
Will Wight
He doesn’t! Let me nip that in the bud right now. To borrow the catch phrase from a certain fictional class rep, he doesn’t know everything, he only knows what he knows. That’s what I was illustrating when they leave GW and he doesn’t know what the sun is.He might know how to recreate the wells. That could be within the scope of his knowledge, because it happened within Ghostwater and under the supervision of people and constructs whose knowledge rested in Northstrider’s oracle tree, but Dross only got pieces of that.This will be explained relatively early in Underlord, but I thought I’d jump out in front of it now. Rebuilding the Wells is certainly a possibility, depending on what Dross knows, but infinitely knowledgeable he is not.
manty65
How do Remnants cycle?
Will Wight
They feed on other Remnants and similar sources of compatible madra, which is how they stay cohesive enough to avoid dispersing. As long as they do that, they passively absorb vital aura.
Zhanzy
Suriel mentions Li Markuth as Gold whereas we know he is greater than that and possibly an archlord so is this a mistake ?
Will Wight
That was me looking for an imperfect solution to a problem.I never intended Li Markuth to merely be Gold, which is why he says as much when he shows up, and of course Suriel knows exactly what his power level is. However, I didn’t want to throw new terms at the reader in book one, so I had her refer to him in the same way everyone else was.Of course, now it’s confusing. In hindsight, I should have said something like “The stronger practitioner’s core.”
Terrible
At what point in its advancement could one of the dragons in Ghostwater have a child with a human?
Will Wight
It’s different on an individual basis, but potentially Underlord.
Kingtape
Who would win: one Orthos-sized Little Blue or 5 Little Blue-sizes Orthoses?
Will Wight
Orthos wins that regardless of size, now that his spirit is stable. He might not win forever, though.
masonjones95
Is there a rite of passage or test for a apprentice soulsmith who wants to become a full soulsmith.
Will Wight
Yes, and I designed it forever ago, I’m just hoping to fit it in sometime.
eransamo
Can magnets draw/repel sword aura?
Will Wight
No.
Mahfuzul Alam
Say if Lindon touches the Way can he also touch the Void? And if so, can he harvest madra from the Void?
Will Wight
Yes.“Can he draw madra from the Void?” Probably he wouldn’t be drawing madra.
eransamo
Does the collective will of Cradle inhabitants affect the power of the Monarchs?
Will Wight
Not directly, no.
Kingtape
Are there any "hidden elders" of the Cradle world, i.e. powerful experts who have secluded themselves , whether it be for cultivation or otherwise? Who is the most interesting of them?
Will Wight
There are hidden elders! The most interesting of them, in my opinion, is a Monarch whose power and crimes were so great that they justified the building of a one-man Monarch prison. It still exists in Cradle, but is it still occupied? Who knows?
hunch
Hey Will, is there going to be emotional engagement/resolution for the starting scene in ghostwater? (A yes/no answer would be fine). It was a pretty big, character building event for Lindon—the first time he had a large group of innocents/regular strangers depending on him and he failed them, resulting in many of their deaths. Burning horribly before his very eyes as he tried to subdue their killer in time. We don't get an internal monologue on his impressions and thoughts, whether it be self recrimination, anger at the skysworn for mishandling the situation, sheer horror, anger at the phoenix, whatever it may be. All it says afterwards when it switches back to his perspective is that he's 'numb'. Which is unsatisfying, and really leaves a big mystery hole in his characterization. But it's understandable if he's repressing what happened (as has been implied by the numbness and him single mindedly throwing himself into advancement), only to have to confront it later.
Will Wight
At a previous point in the book's development, most of Lindon's actions stemmed from his emotional reaction to that scene. Which is why it's the prologue.That's still happening, but I pushed it to the background a bit. Basically, the reason why he confronts Ekeri directly instead of looking for a way out is because of his emotional response to the town at the beginning. He realizes that he could have won if he had just stood up and fought from the very beginning, but because he thought of himself as weak, other people died. In an earlier draft, that all boiled out in the scene at the end with Orthos, where he erupts in grief and trauma and frustration, but I ended up feeling like it worked better if these were emotional forces that Lindon himself wasn't entirely aware of. Orthos' statement that Lindon is still haunted by the Remnant of his weak self is his response to Lindon's problem illustrated in the prologue. Lindon wasn't too weak to deal with the problem, but he thought he was.So thematically, it resonates in all of Lindon's journey throughout Ghostwater, though Lindon doesn't (and probably won't) confront those emotions directly in a scene.
Terrible
How would someone go about creating a Cradle version of Tony Stark’s power armor from Infinity War?
Will Wight
It might be a spoiler even to say this, but I'm going to do it anyway: this might be too spoiler-y to answer.
Terrible
Could Lindon create a technique based off of his explosive failures with the Dragon’s Breath Striker technique that allows him to fly around like a Blackflame Iron Man?
Will Wight
Not Blackflame, no. Blackflame doesn't produce enough thrust. Maybe with a Ruler technique, but that still wouldn't be ideal with Blackflame.
The Silent King
Is there an audiobook for Cradle in the works?
Will Wight
Yes! In fact, we posted an audition on ACX looking for narrators just this past week!
Questioner
Is the tournament that has been mentioned going to be similar to the tournament from book 1 and if so what are the participating levels going to be?
Will Wight
In that they are both tournaments, yes! In layout and scale, no.
>What are the participating levels going to be?
RAFO!
Terrible
How many Silverfang Carp or Sea Drakes would Lindon have needed to match Yerin in strength?
Will Wight
He would have needed to eat Drakes for another month or two, when he would have reached the limit of that food to strengthen him. After which he would have to find something better.
Questioner
Can you tell us when Lindon lost his parasite ring please? We're all wondering why he didn't have it with him inside Ghostwater as it was normally in his pocket up until then
Will Wight
He lost it in Ghostwater. It was in his pack. I thought I had referenced it directly, but apparently I didn't. It spilled out and he didn't find it.
madbookworm
Will we ever see more to the paths Lindon didn't chose in blackflame? Like the crawling shadows, or the one that makes water go super fast?
Will Wight
Probably, yes! I'm still deciding what Paths will be represented in the upcoming tournament (and the pre-tournament contest), so it's entirely possible that those will be among them.
Kazology
I was really surprised to see Lindon's arm start phasing through things in Ghostwater. In Skysworn there was no mention of this, and Lindon seems to consider the Cloud Hammer arm largely for having a similar property. Was this something that you decided afterwards should be common to all remnant prosthetics, or is there a reason we didn't see this happening before? Followup: Gesha told Lindon that eventually the arm would become as part of his spirit as his original one. Is Lindon's forgetfulness with cycling madra through it a sign this hasn't happened yet, or will he always have to consciously choose to make the arm solid?
Will Wight
That was just a mistake. Full explanation: I wanted there to be something more to the adjustment process for his new arm rather than just periodically losing control of it. The original idea, and the difference between that and the Cloud Hammer arm, was that the hunger madra arm would require him to focus on controlling madra in order to keep it doing what he wanted it to. However, as I wrote, that got shortened to "it phases through objects when it doesn't have enough madra" simply because that was easier to illustrate. So while the original idea was distinct from the Cloud Hammer arm, I completely forgot to keep it consistent in the end.
Your Benevolent Dictator
What are wraiths like in cradle
Will Wight
They're not something you'd want to picnic on a beach with.
