Questioner
Do you put things into the series knowing full well they will become memes?
Will Wight
Not necessarily. I mean I do the bloopers that way. So, of course the bloopers are memes in and of themselves. Other than that, they only things I do, are I include memes that are currently in the fandom, reference them in series. So, there were a couple of people that didn't like that the Winter Sage referenced "Blerin", which was the fan name for Yerin's blood shadow and so there was people that didn't like that because that was a fandom meme and it brought them out of the story. And I'm going "I'm sorry, I understand not liking that, I get that. I understand having that opinion. I'm not gonna stop doing stuff like that though, because I enjoy it." And it's not something that she necessarily wouldn't have suggested. It was something that wasn't out of character for the character to suggest and it was something that only makes sense, you only get it if you understand the fandom. For people that didn't know that was a nickname, it wouldn't seem out of place, it would just be a joke. So, I don't mind that kind of thing at all, I'll write that kind of thing in. And that's never going away, that's just gonna be part of my writing style.
Questioner
Will we see Lindon again after the 12th Cradle book?
Will Wight
Maybe. Maybe.
Questioner
Do the Abidan get vacations?
Will Wight
Yes.
Chris
Will you ever write death matches again?
Will Wight
I assume so, at some point. The problem is that I always have other things to work on. So, I didn't realize this until today, but I've released 4 books in the last 365 days. So, that's a lot. That's a lot of books. There's always more to work on. I'm always trying to make it more efficient, always trying to work on the next book and short stories are never important or urgent. They are always kind of low on the totem pole and while I enjoy writing them and people enjoy reading them and I would like to get back to them, it's hard to find time to do that when I could be working on another book, for instance.
Omega
What is the difference between a soulsmith's inheritance and a soulsmith's Legacy?
Will Wight
I think they are just different terms for the same thing, but I don't exactly recall what you are talking about, so I would have to look that up.
Ben
What would a fire and dream path be like? Burn the body and mind?
Will Wight
Yeah, burn the body and mind, burn the psyche, burn memories away. That sort of thing.
Questioner
Fisher Gesha Spinoff?
Will Wight
100%. It's gonna be romantic comedy following Fisher Gesha's dating life as she goes around and really just lives it up. It's kind of like Golden Girls, but its one girl. So, it's Spider Girl, but not the comic.
Questioner
Since sacred beasts can become sentient over time, do advanced ones view ownership of sacred beasts akin to slavery? For example, Eithan says his family owned a breeding pair of Heavenly Sky Tigers. What would Reigan Shen think of that?
Will Wight
By and large, its kind of like how humans think of monkeys. So, if it's not a sentient sacred beast, they don't really care. It's just an animal to them as well. They eat non-sentient sacred beasts. So its just a distinction between are you sentient or are you not sentient. That's it. While virtually any animal can become sentient by absorbing aura, its so far removed that that's not considered something that anybody really worries about. Unless they have developed sentience, in which case, then they're off limits. And that counts as effectively cannibalism in their world, if you ate a sentient creature.
Questioner
Who is your fourth favorite character in Cradle?
Will Wight
*long pause* Yerin
Questioner
Would it be possible to add a new district onto Elysia or is it too stable to be changed that drastically?
Will Wight
At this point, it's probably too stable.
Questioner
Who did Estyr have children with?
Will Wight
Her husband.
Questioner
What are the lifespans of the different advancement stages?
Will Wight
You get into the hundreds of years, easily 200 years as an Underlord. 100-200 years more as Overlord. Archlord would be high hundreds. Functionally, people on Cradle don't ever live to their maximum lifespan. The more advanced into the sacred arts you go, the more risks you start taking. So then at Sage and Herald it's functionally an unlimited lifespan. It's not technically unlimited and you'd live for several thousand years before you died. There're ways to extend that though. If you wanted to live forever you could.
Questioner
Is it possible for a sage to get all the icons?
Will Wight
No, that is not possible.
Questioner
Who'd win in a game of chess? The Eldest Nye or Eithan?
Will Wight
I feel like the Eldest Nye would win, but he'd be annoyed by the game. Eithan would be very annoying the entire time. He wouldn't care whether he'd won or not. The Eldest Nye would win the game, but he wouldn't have a good game with Eithan annoying him.
Questioner
You said before that in Wintersteel, you mostly cut Yan Shoumei's stuff like her backstory. Would you consider turning them into a short story?
Will Wight
I'm going to be honest with you, I don't remember scenes I cut from Wintersteel.
So it's been a while. I don't remember which Yan Shoumei scenes I kept and which ones I did not. I don't really remember. So it's hard for me to answer. There was some stuff about her being abandoned as a baby and raised by a group of fishermen then she's kind of representing her city and Anagi was a local Archlord who was sort of pushing her out. I had all that in there, but I don't remember if that made it to the final book or not. Someone will have to tell me.
There was an extra fight scene between Yerin and Yan Shoumei and Calan Archer.
Questioner
If the Way existed on our world would Florida have it’s own icon? If so would you possess Florida authority?
Will Wight
Well I would have authority over all of Florida, I think. It would colloquially be known as the Swamp Icon. It would be a gator halfway disappearing into some muck. I would gain the ability to turn things into swamps, survive in swamps, and permanent sunscreen.
Questioner
Is there any way to get your books into libraries?
Will Wight
Yes. I think they are in some libraries. I just don't know how to get them in every library. I don't know how that works, frankly.
Helpful Gnome Assistant
You can request them in your public library, wherever you live and they'll make it happen.
Will Wight
Typically you can request a book and they can get it took you. Some kind of shared book program.
Questioner
Have you read any of the Dragon Heart books?
Will Wight
I don't think so. Dragon Heart sounds like a title... let me Google it. I've seen the movie. I don't know which of these is the Dragon Heart you mean. I've read the Dragon Riders of Pern.
Questioner
Have you ever traveled abroad?
Will Wight
Yes I have. I have been to Guatemala, Honduras, Spain. Canada if that counts as abroad. Florida counts as abroad so the rest of the United States counts as one and then Florida counts as it's own thing. And I have been to Alaska. And Germany. And Israel.
The reason why "Canada, if that counts" is not because Canada isn't a different country, it's because with Canada all you have to do is cross the boarder. I wasn't saying Canada is part of the United States.
Questioner
When you wrote Akura Grace, did you you write her with the intentions of killing her off?
Will Wight
((Warns against Wintersteel spoilers despite this being a launch stream for next book))
No, not particularly. I wrote her in Uncrowned to be another Akura to be another notable person in this generation. Then I realized I was going to use her again in Winter Steel. And then she just kind of worked out. I sort of killed most of those people. Interesting
Questioner
What is your favorite scene in Cradle?
Will Wight
I think I answered that earlier. It's the Dross scene at the end of Ghostwater. Because it was difficult for me to write and it came out well.
