Puppet Master
Hey! Why'd you name yourself UwU?
Will Wight
I did not. That did not happen. However, the name Uru came from--a lot of people thought it came from the Myst games because one of the Mist games is Uru, and it actually didn't. I mean I played Myst but I'm not a huge Mist fan. It was really I was looking for a short, simple, easy-to-spell username that I could use, and it was in middle school I think. And what I liked about Uru was all three of the letters in it are words. So you are you. That said, it has no meaning. I didn't intend that as a statement: you are you. But it just you know--its all three letters are words and it's easy to spell, spelled the same forwards and backwards, and I thought it sounded kinda cool. So, there it is.
Fun fact about the username is I actually wrote a brief scene kinda like an almost-fanfiction thing, but it's about an original character Uru who, in a polytheistic pantheon, was this wizard who was kind of a go-between between the gods because the gods can't act directly. So he was sort of a mercenary wizard that got hired by the different gods in order to work for one god against another just for hire. So, I thought that was a neat concept. I might revisit it someday. I've still got the scene.
Lee
Can madra manipulate time?
Will Wight
Madra cannot. Nor can madra manipulate space. Aha, you see, that sounds like contradiction because it happened in book one. But did it? Did it?
Ira
How did they make it to the island on the ship without crashing.
Will Wight
When they were making it to the island on the ship-I assume you're referring to the chapter one of Underlord-they made it to the island on the ship. They had enough fuel and cloud aura and cloud madra to make it there no problem. And then they were making it back and none of them had any cloud aura, which Renfei did. So they didn't have a reserve of cloud scales or anything, she just powered it herself. So therefore, they're flying black without Renfei, they only have pure madra, blackflame madra, sword madra, and shadow madra on board. And none of that powers [the ship? buckshit?]. There you go.
Cash4Golda
Was the icy location where Northstrider killed the huge dragon at the end of GW on the Iceflower Continent? What kind of dragon and level was it?
Will Wight
It was on the ice flower continent if i recall correctly, and what level was it? I am not at liberty to discuss that, because it may or may not come up.
ReSpenDlent
Do you ever write profiles and interviews of your characters before writing them into your stories?
Will Wight
That's a technique that I've heard people....wow the word really is ReSpenDlent, oh cool okay. So I ever write profiles and interviews with my characters. I don't anymore, I used to do that, that was before i wrote a real book. See I did it for short stories, so i did because that's kinda a common writing exercise, i'm sure that why you mentioned it. And that is a good way to create characters, but i found to me, i was doing that more to stall for time and not write than i was to allow me to write. so i spent a lot of time interviewing my characters and having them explain what was in their pockets and doing all those other character development exercises, which i have nothing against, if they work for you great, but for me i realised i was doing that instead of writing them. So the one thing i have found that is a little helpful, is, I thought of doing this not to long ago, is for character dynamics, character interaction. So like Lindon and Yerin, so they know each other well, they've been interacting a lot. So one thing i do occasionally, very briefly, is i sort of think about or write down how they would interact in a certain scenario. I have them talking to each other and talking with other people together, in order to get an idea of their interactive dynamic, so they feel like they've had a lot of conversations and they talk back and forth. That's something that I think I'm probably going to do more. I've recently started thinking of character dynamics as something that i can play with a lot more than I do, and that's something that I'll probably be using that tool for.But for me, that exercise initially took the place of actually writing, so I stopped doing it.
Questioner
Cradle 7 Title?
Will Wight
We do know what Cradle 7 is called, I have a title. It's at the back of Underlord
Decadakon
Is lightning madra a derivative of storm madra or are they seperate?
Will Wight
They're the same thing.
Bamfious
Who has ascended to Monarch fastest without inheriting the power? How long did it take them and what’s their story?
Will Wight
yeah see that's still a great question, its just its another one of those things that its hard for me to answer, i really should do the research on this question and actually answer you cos you've asked me several times. So who ascended to monarch the fastest... that's a difficult question for me to answer, because i actually went back and looked over, this is kinda cool, i went back and did a timeline of all the living monarchs now, the 8 monarchs who are currently on - 7 monarchs who are still currently on Cradle. And so I have a good timeline for Northstrider, and Akura Malice and people like that, but i don't have, yeah i'd have to look it up, i'd have to partially look it up partially make it up. So i could make it an answer right now, but i'm afraid that it its going to contradict something else i'll say later. So that's why its tricky for me, so i apologise i really do wanna answer this question, I will eventually, I'm gonna make it happen. Its actually seven, seven are left.
Reality Spasm
We've seen a couple different techniques involving shadow, but what kind of alterations does shadow madra cause in other aspects?
Will Wight
Shadow Madra is difficult to detect. It's kind of subtle, so it's got kind of a veiling effect, so it hides things like you would expect shadow to. And shadow also affects the spirit more than a lot other aspects do. It's kind of insidious, it seeps into you. And so, it's not real great for dealing physical damage, to use a video game term. So, it doesn't really hurt you that much; it's not good for breaking boulders. But, it is pretty good for shredding peoples souls and scripts and whatever.
Questioner
Has it been cleared up why Lindon didn't take more water from the Life Well, I believe is the deaging one, because apparently he had extra empty vials.
Will Wight
That's referenced in Underlord a little bit. So, I go into that a little. But, the bottom line is that he just didn't see an application for advancement so he didn't think of it as very important, so he just didn't prioritize it. And then, he also didn't expect the fight with Harmony to culminate in the destruction of the world, because he wasn't aware that he was in a book. So, he thought he was going to have time to go back.
Lil' Blue
How prevalent is illiteracy on Cradle?
Will Wight
That just depends very wildly on where you are. So, in the Ninecloud court everyone is literate. Out in the back end of nowhere, in the desolate wilds of the Blackflame empire, lots of illiteracy.
EtherealSpark
Will we ever see Jai Long and his sister again?
Will Wight
Yes.
Questioner
In one of the short stories you had Northstrider fighting Alin. And one of the thoughts that we read from Northstrider was mentioning about how weak one of the Abidan was that contacted him. Does that mean, I guess theoretically, that Northstrider would be able to kill them if he fought them.
Will Wight
Yeah. Northstrider could beat some of the weaker or less combat focused lower level Abidan. Absolutely. Suriel would, you know juggle him like a ball.
Wodan
What is the official path of Arelius clan? And what are its basic principles?
Will Wight
That's an interesting question. So, the official path of the Arelius clan.
The Arelius family in the Blackflame Empire does not have an official path. They don't have one; the elders are all on different paths. I mean they really do a lot of different stuff. They usually use their different paths to create links and bonds--kind of like arranged marriages between the different sects and schools of the empire. The path that Cassius is on, the Path of Silver Grace, the School of Silver Grace is actually an influential and prestigious school in the Blackflame Empire. Therefore, they send qualified people there from the Arelius Family in order to create bonds. So, really, it's their people in different sects and schools all over the empire.
However, as has been alluded to for the last few books, there is a homeland continent the Arelius family come from and they have a main clan there. That clan does indeed have an official path but I'm not going to share it with you yet because I think it's going to come into play in book seven. Books seven and eight, so it's at least going to be featured in it. I don't know how prominent it's going to be so that's not as much of a spoiler as it sounds like.
Arch
Remnants. They grow in intelligence and insight when they rank up, don't they?
Will Wight
They often do. Yes.
Arch
And is it possible for a Remnant to touch the Way and become a Monarch or ascend or anything like that?
Will Wight
Yes, it is possible, so Remnants can cultivate, basically. They can advance to the point where they can develop their body--their bodies become more and more real as well as more and more intelligent and advanced. Therefore, by the higher levels they're almost no different from sacred artists. There actually is one Monarch alive on Cradle right now who was a Remnant.
Questioner
Do you think you'd be interested in making a series about that once you are finished with one of your other projects? Or is like not really a thing anymore and you are planning on focusing on the single iterations with greater Way level conflict being more of an overarching plot instead of, like, a specific series.
Will Wight
I could still do an Abidan series. Its gonna be a long time before I do though and so its hard for me to say what I'm gonna do because it gonna be a while.
Questioner
Its far enough in the future?
Will Wight
Ya. It's just difficult for me. Who knows ideas I'll have in the next few years. Maybe I'll want to do an Avengers type series where it all comes together. But, maybe I won't.
Decadakon
After learning a path, could you work backwards and get a new iron body and, like, purify your core?
Will Wight
Technically, you could. That is something that absolutely could happen. It would be incredibly inefficient and expensive. More expensive if its less, you know, one or the other. But, ya, you could definitely do that. You can undo the effects of an iron body, it's just difficult and expensive. You can definitely purify your core, it's just difficult and expensive. And you can retrain, it's just difficult and expensive.
TransEmo
What is the madra type of the Wei testing bowl?
Will Wight
Pure. It's pure madra scripted to behave in a certain way. But, it's really just scripted to enhance the normal reactions that pure madra would have to their spirits.
Questioner 2
Where would they get that much pure madra?
Will Wight
Kids.
MountainKing
Are there any iron bodies that can affect the soul?
Will Wight
Yes, there absolutely are. So there will be iron bodies that will be more resistant to spiritual attacks. So an attack of madra will do more than an aura technique, and there will be some that would interact with aura differently, that's a potential iron body. There could be iron bodies that effect the processing of madra, but that gets kind of weird, because at that point it overlaps with a change in your cycling. So that's really the domain of the Jade cycling technique.
MountainKing
Last week, we were discussing if Elder Whisper was a Highgold or a Truegold, so is he a truegold?
Will Wight
I cannot confirm that. That's a spoiler.
