Recent entries

Questioner

What's the most well known joke on Cradle?

Will Wight

Q: What's the easiest way to make sure your enemy dies before you do?

A: Go home, sell your sword, and wait.

Questioner

When it comes to the path of the stellar spear's gold sign, is it all their hair? Is personal grooming difficult?

Will Wight

In fact, it is only the hair on their heads. It used to be ALL their hair, and they altered their Path over the generations to change their Remnants so that it only armored the hair on their heads.

Questioner

What were the original blackflames goldsign?

Will Wight

A dragon's tail. They often used it when fighting.

Questioner

Are there any madra viruses in cradle? Like the same way a virus in real life is basically a random peice of DNA which uses cells to replicate itself, are there techniques which implant themselves in someone’s spirit and force a copy of themselves? And if so, would they differ by stage and advancement?

Will Wight

There are techniques like this, but they aren't as overpowered as you might think thanks to a simple rule: your own spirit is sovereign within your body.

It's the same reason why a water or blood artist wouldn't just stop your heart instantly. They can't. Your spirit is far stronger inside your body than anyone else's madra.

You can overcome that by a huge difference in power: a Herald could stop a thousand Underlords' hearts all at once. But techniques that insert themselves into enemies' bodies tend to degrade very quickly and do limited damage.

Questioner

What's life like for the average person in Sanctum? Are they living it up in a post scarcity universe, or are they still doing the 9 to 5 grind?

Will Wight

People in Sanctum have their basic needs met in a peaceful, prosperous world, but their society is engineered so that everyone has the opportunity to play a part. The Abidan see people as a valuable resource, so they've done their best to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to provide a benefit to society.

Some people choose not to, of course. And some people hate doing what they're best at, but they do it anyway. People are people.

Questioner

Where in your collective works would I go for the spiciest dish? As a corollary, how much trouble am I in for?

Will Wight

Cradle. There's a pepper that grows in chambers beneath active volcanoes, where fire aura is most intense.

Even if you just took the plant out of that area and brought it to the surface, you couldn't go within five hundred yards of the pepper without the heat being so intense it would make you turn back.

This is what those above Archlords use to season their food.

Questioner

If Lindon were to die and release a remnant, would he in fact produce two remnants because of his two cores, a single hybrid remnant, or two conjoined remnants?

Will Wight

It would be a conjoined Remnant, not two Remnants. It would be unstable at first, as the pure madra began to dilute the Blackflame madra, but would eventually stabilize.It would be less powerful and aggressive than a full Blackflame Remnant, but it would be less likely to randomly attack people, which would probably increase its likelihood of finding a food source.

Questioner

What are some of the coolest Cycling techniques on Cradle (like the one that increases madra regeneration, or maybe a technique that would make Ruler techniques easier, or a technique that acts like a Halfsilver Ring, etc.)

Will Wight

There's the Endless Revolving Cycle technique, which focuses entirely on madra regeneration, to the exclusion of all else. Their advancement isn't as fast, and they can't put an enormous amount of power into their techniques, but they can effectively use sacred arts all day long. They have to use elixirs to strengthen their madra channels in order to withstand the strain of constant use.

Questioner

What's another absurdly weak or isolated place on Cradle and what would their Lindon look like?

Will Wight

There's an underwater, sealed-off city at the bottom of the Trackless Sea that's surrounded by much more prosperous civilizations of aquatic sacred beasts.

The human population inside this city has developed mostly independently, just like Sacred Valley. Their Lindon would be anyone who, for whatever reason, couldn't master water aura and the Ruler techniques required to go outside the city.

That person would be like someone in our universe who can't use a car...not just someone who can't drive, but someone who is unable to get inside an automobile.

Questioner

Are the sacred animals bound to their stage, or could one, asy orthos for example, advance further?

Will Wight

Sacred beasts can and do advance. However, they cycle naturally, so their advancement is different from humans. Orthos has been stuck at the Truegold stage for decades, and he has long since given up any hopes of reaching Underlord, even if his consciousness was stable enough to support the advancement.

Questioner

Has anyone ever taken in cradle ever taken a spectre as a remnant to advance to gold. If so what path were they on.

Will Wight

I'm sorry, I don't think I understand the question.

Questioner

Is/was there a country on cradle that leaves dangerous scripts/weapons around that children can accidentally use and kill themselves. And if so, how long did/will that country last before the population dies off?

Will Wight

I'm going to be honest: in most cultures on Cradle, child safety isn't a huge priority. Sacred arts schools often list their mortality rate, and a lower rate of survival is often considered a mark of a difficult, elite school for the most talented.

Most of the cultures on Cradle have techniques, constructs, or weapons around that children could use to hurt themselves. The sad truth is, you have to lose a LOT of kids before it affects the population. And most cultures respond by having more children, rather than protecting the ones they have.

Questioner

Can you create a new madra type by mixing two others together?

Will Wight

Yes, and in fact that's how most Paths work.

The classification of madra into aspects is purely a human invention to help them understand the properties of different Paths. You could combine water and fire madra into a burning, fluid, liquid power...if you figured out a way to do it.

Questioner

What is the food equivalent of chicken on cradle?

Will Wight

It's chicken. They have chickens in Cradle.

Questioner

What is the smallest Sacred Beast to achieve underlord status in cradle?

Will Wight

Nessandarius the Flea, Lord of the Bloodlight Path.

He has grown larger and more humanoid as he advanced, and after refining his body in soulfire, he now looks like a two-foot-tall hooded man.

Questioner

Does the Will verse have ice cream (or a close analogue)? And if so, what are the favorite flavors of the Abidan Judges?

Will Wight

Of course it has ice cream. I'm not a monster.

Suriel: peanut butter ice cream with real nuts.

Gadrael: mint ice cream. No chocolate chips.

Ozriel: strawberries and cream flavor.

Makiel: he doesn't eat ice cream, because there's no purpose to it.

Questioner

Ok will I need to know how old is Lindon and what is his birthday is

Also how Long is a day on cradle, a month on cradle, and a year on cradle

Will Wight

As for the time on Cradle, it's the same time as ours. Why? Because it's easier to tell the story that way. I don't want you to have to remember custom details for how long times or distances are.

So they're all the standard measurements.

Off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure Lindon is eighteen now. He doesn't have a birthday, so to speak. In Sacred Valley, they count every child's age up a year each new year.

Questioner

How would you, using cradle lingo in the blackflame empire, ask someone if they wanted to "Netflix and chill"?

Will Wight

In the Blackflame Empire, you'd likely be asking a girl if she wanted to come cycle back at your place. There's no benefit to cycling together, so it's just a thin excuse she's meant to see through.

Questioner

Would the body of a sacred artist over the iron stage retain it's heightened abilities if the artist core was cracked/permanently damaged.

Will Wight

In most cases, yes. Even if you're spiritually injured, your Iron body still functions. It's a physical change in your body. But there are Iron bodies, like Lindon's, that require madra. In that case, you wouldn't see much benefit from it. Indeed, it might make your spiritual injuries even worse.

Questioner

What is the most powerful path and what is the weakest

Will Wight

The most powerful and weakest Paths are difficult to answer, as that's largely a matter of opinion. I'll give you a very powerful one and a very weak one, though:

Path of the Untamed Spark. It revolves around nurturing a flame of life and fire that consumes anything living and is difficult to extinguish. It's a killing Path, and at its height it can depopulate cities.

Path of Shadeleaf. It's a purely aesthetic Path built around molding and folding shadow madra like origami to create pleasing shapes and displays. It has almost no other use.