Recent entries

George

Will, how many people of Northstriders level would it roughly take to defeat weakest member of The Wolves? I know that suitability is a huge factor in a fight, which is why i don'T expect a definite answer.

Will Wight

Assuming the weakest of the Wolves, i.e. someone who has no other powers besides those of the Abidan and little combat experience but they're trying to work in the Wolf Division anyway...AND assuming we mean "beat in a fight" rather than "kill"...Northstrider might be able to do it in a 1v1. There's a wide gap between the least of the Abidan and the Judges, plus people who are weaker than Northstrider could still technically ascend.

George

Do you ascend simply after reaching a certain level, or is it only possible after gaining an enlightenment of a certain laws of the universe, kinda like Linley did in Coiling Dragon later in the books?(For example, Profound Laws of Earth)If it is the latter, could technically a copper ascend by understanding a certain amount of laws, or is that, already, not possible, because mastering such laws allows you, immediately, to reach a higher cultivation rank even if it is an unconventional way.

Diego

I imagine it's a lot like the transition to iron for Lindon though. If someone weak ascends too early it probably limits their future growth. Or maybe the iteration the weakest Wolf came from allows early ascension so he's not all that strong yet.Hey Will another question: What stops immortals from mastering different magic systems from different iterations? (Like in disguise so they don't disturb fate too much)

Will Wight

@George: It's more like mastering Laws than pure cultivation, but no a Copper couldn't do it.@Diego: Yep, you nailed it. The weakest Wolf is from an Iteration other than Cradle (so he might have to leave a lot of his power behind) and has just started learning to tap into the Way.What stops immortals from going to another Iteration and learning the magic system?The Abidan. There's nothing in the rules of the universe to prevent that, and indeed one of the rival organizations of the Abidan is made up of people who do this.

Rohan

Will, is it possible for a person to learn to manipulate chaos in the same way they manipulate the way?

If the way is connected to order and Ozriel cannot be found by using the way, could that mean he has found a way to manipulate and hide in chaos? This will also support his motivations to find an alternate solution to erasing entire worlds from existence by venturing into chaos to see what other options are available.

Will Wight

Yes, it is possible. It's also possible that this is what Ozriel has done.

Rhys

Will, you said the spiders can sense through all of existence, is that all of the Abidan controlled existence or ALL of existence, ie even the bits they don't rule?

Will Wight

It's complicated, but the Way does extend through other inhabitable universes, not just the ones the Abidan control. So they can get some information from beyond their sphere of influence.

However, it doesn't literally mean that they can sense everything that exists at all times forever.

Adarsh

So if an iteration is tied to the way by human consciousness, could an iteration be severed from the way if a significant amount of their population was "hidden" from detection the same way Ozriel is currently hiding? Because if the Way can't sense them, they are effectively "Dead" right?

Also, what happens if someone in the spider division eventually becomes more suitable to being the head Spider than the current Spider*? Is there a peaceful transfer of power? A secret assassination? Lots of paperwork? A duel to the death? 

*Assuming the current Spider wants to keep his job.

Will Wight

1.) Yes it could, and that's an insightful thought.

2.) The other Judges vote to determine whether a current Judge needs replaced, either because there's someone more suitable or the current person isn't fulfilling their role to the satisfaction of the Court.

If that person wants to resist, they have to decide whether they want to fight six other Judges. Plus, the Court as a whole has control over all the mantles, so if one person tries to rebel, they won't be able to amplify their power. They'll be fighting alone against a bunch of Judges all mantled up.

An armed rebellion has never happened among Judges for several reasons. For one thing, Makiel can see it all coming and prepare accordingly. For another, high-ranking Abidan tend to be ordered, rule-abiding people. Even the Fox, who's considered something of a rebel by Abidan standards, doesn't violate the spirit of the law.

Joe

This isn't necessarily related to this particular post, but thinking of the immortal nature of the Abidan Court got me thinking about this. Are there any beings in any iterations that have not ascended and yet are inherently immortal (at least apart from being killed)? 

The Nye are partially what made me think of this, as the Eldest Nye has evidently been around since before his world was splintered and has been living in that splinter for some time. So even if the Nye aren't immortal, are there any naturally immortal beings?

Will Wight

Yes, there are immortals in the Iterations.

But the Eldest Nye hasn't been around since before his world was splintered. He's telling tales that have been passed down for generations.

Sean K

It seems like Eithan might have the makings of a great spider one day!

Will Wight

Yeah, I think he would!

Devin

You said in part 2 that Ozriel was skilled enough to fill any position save for Suriel, does that mean Ozriel is equal to or stronger than the other Judges in their spheres of power? 

Or is the Spider just unfamiliar with using methods not involving The Way to find something he is looking for, while Ozriel, being newer, doesn't rely on The Way as much as other Judges?

Will Wight

That's the question!

The other Judges aren't really sure how Ozriel managed to elude them. If Telariel wasn't good at his job, he wouldn't have ascended to the position in the first place, but Ozriel somehow managed to completely evade all detection by the Way.

Some of the Judges have wondered if Ozriel actually obliterated himself.

Devin

Would hiding somewhere not governed by the Abidan have something to do with why he can't be found THE Spider?

Will Wight

Could be! That's one explanation. It's also why Suriel was hanging out in Cradle, so FAR from Iterations the Abidan don't control: she was stalling, trying to order her thoughts in the last place Ozriel would come back to.

She has a long journey ahead of her.

Jack

1) You said each world had its own magic system. Does Amalgam have its own system seperate from the territories or is that all it had from the beginning?

2) Some iterations have galactic colonies. Are there aliens in the Willverse?

Will Wight

1.) Amalgam's magic system is its unique property that allows it to collect and draw power from Territories. 

2.) There is alien life, but the only sentient non-human life was either once human or gained sentience from humanity in some way.

The Elders, for instance, were never human, but they gained the ability to interact with the world in a way we recognize as intelligent from humanity.

Sir Wolpertinger

1. If The Ghosts decide where the fragments of iterations go does that mean they pick which territories Amalgam can access?

2. You mentioned before that it once a person leaves their iteration they can't use that magics iteration any longer, but since Valinhall travelers summon the magic into themselves does that mean they still can, and if they can, are other travelers able to?and finally

3. Have you ever considered writing a story wherein the main character is a villain? It's obviously been tried many times, but with your unique writing style I think it could be really awesome.

Will Wight

1.) They could if they wanted to, yes.

2.) They can, and most of Ragnarus' magical weapons would still work too. If another Traveler took their creatures to a different world, like the Avernus birds for instance, their powers would probably stay intact (it depends on the magic system in their destination, but usually yes).

3.) Instead of Elder Empire, I almost wrote a story about a girl on a quest to become a dark lord while a guy is trying to trick people into thinking he's the hero destined to oppose that dark lord.

There were a few cool things about the story and the setting, but now I don't think I'll ever write that particular story. Too much of it went into Elder Empire and Cradle instead.

But yes, I would like to write a villain story. The trick is finding the sweet spot between "totally evil and therefore unsympathetic" and "effectively just a hero in black armor."

Daniel

How advanced is their scientific understanding on cradle? Cause I mean I know they have lots of knowledge of their magic and their alchemy equivalent but do they understand stuff like, there is a top of the atmosphere, cradle revolves around the sun, space is empty, other planets exist... stuff like that

Will Wight

It's not great in Sacred Valley, but there are places in Cradle where their scientific understanding is pretty advanced.

But their technology never advanced to the level you'd THINK it could, what with scripts and constructs.

Why? A few reasons, but here's the main one: thanks to the sacred arts, if you have the resources, you can learn to DO pretty much anything yourself. You don't have to develop the technology to fly in a world where you can learn to fly.

It's more complicated than that, but we'll explore it as we get into the more advanced areas of the world.

Reddan

On a bit of a Suriel kick here with these questions:

How many years has the current Suriel been alive?

Is she as strong/skillful as her predecessor? (Is that a useful distinction or are all the judges really close together)

How well did she know her predecessor?

What other court roles could Suriel have filled if she wanted?

Was/is Suriel a "wild" Abidan, or did she come from Sanctum (or another place like Sanctum)?

Will Wight

1.) Age:

...I won't lie to you, I don't know. I haven't invented that answer yet.

2.) Skill:

She's more temperamentally suited to the role of the Phoenix than her predecessor was, but they both had different strengths and weaknesses. All in all, they were basically on the same tier.

3.) Familiarity:

She worked alongside him for many years. They were very familiar.

4.) Roles:

She has skill in almost all the other roles, but she's only Judge-level as a Phoenix. That's pretty common.

Most of the Judges excel in one area, though they're skilled in several others. The only exceptions are Gadrael, Makiel, and Ozriel: Gadrael because he's useless in every area but one, Makiel because he has the skills of a Judge in two areas, and Ozriel because he's good at everything. Except healing.

5.) Wild or not?

She did ascend from an Iteration on her own; she's not from Cradle, but she's not from Sanctum either. She mastered her original magic system before rising into the Abidan and eventually making her way onto the Court.

Before she was a Judge, she was personally acquainted with both Ozriel and the previous Suriel.

Anon

On the topic of the planet Cradle and vital aura. Is the planet called Cradle because it's great for cultivation? OR is there another reason like some awesome being in the center who is not yet hatched / or is being suppressed? Such an incredible entity might be the source of the vital aura that makes Cradle such an great place to cultivate. 

Also, will Lindons double cores allow to for things like ascending to gold with black dragon madra and then raising the second cool to iron thus adapting Lindons blood forged body in a way the original human dragon path cultivators could not? 

Also, is the Black dragon path madra another way to consume and process the madra other paths? 

Will Wight

1.) It's called Cradle because it's great for cultivation, but there are often double meanings in Abidan designations. The Elder Empire world is called Asylum, which means protection, but it is also has...other implications.

2.) No, that specific chain of events will not happen.

3.) No.

Nocturniquet

So far Will seems to always paint Ozriel in a good light as if he is noble and one of the good guys.I think we will slowly begin to see him as the villain of the overall universe for a few reasons.He has an absolutists goal that cannot currently be achieved because the government forbids it. If the abidan were removed from the picture or overthrown then Ozriel would be free to enact his ideals.Will confirmed there are non-abidan entities that illegally use the Way and/or are opposed to the abidan. Makes sense that Ozriel could rally or lead these people against the Abidan.If this is the case I find it to be great writing because in most stories the villain simply is and we never get to experience his rise to "villainship" in real time. It's always as if the main characters are fighting to stop the master plan or fix the world after the villain has almost fully succeeded.This way we start off with Ozriel as a good intenioned character who slowly goes too far.

Will Wight

I can't comment on ultimately what role Ozriel will play in the story, because obviously that's a spoiler.I will say this: I'm painting him that way now because that's how Suriel sees him. She sees him as ultimately good-intentioned, maybe a little arrogant, but the system has some good points too.Her viewpoint and yours might change as the series goes on.Maybe he'll be even MORE of a good guy. Who knows?

Devin

How would a fight between the Reaper and the Wolf go?Also, could a retired Judge craft a new mantle and weapon to be on par with a current Judge? And if so, did Ozriel craft his own mantle and weapon?

 

Will Wight

Ozriel crafted his own weapon, but I don't think the mantle (I'd have to check my notes to be sure, but I don't think so).A retired Judge could not (in theory) craft his own mantle and weapon to be on par with a current Judge, because you couldn't do it secretly. The Abidan would notice the rare materials and the huge conflux of power it would take to create something like that.It's also difficult for anyone but the Abidan to do it because it requires materials and magic from multiple worlds.

Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor

1) Would someone from the Abidan Court leave a remnant, can someone who uses the power of the Way even leave a remnant?

2) If Lindon, Yerin and Eithan advance to the world beyond Cradle would they be babies in the new world or adults?

3) Does any world beyond Cradle use Madras?

Will Wight

1.) Most of the seven Court members are not from Cradle, so no, they would not leave a Remnant. Any normal Abidan from Cradle would leave one, but it might not be capable of tapping into the Way. If it can't, then it's much less powerful than the Abidan was in life, and would be easily exterminated by anything capable of killing an Abidan.

2.) Depends on where they go and when/how they advance. Lots of factors in play.

3.) Not exactly. This is difficult to answer without getting into spoiler-y specifics.

Nitin

Has any asked before what was Ozriel's real name?

Will Wight

No, and no one's asked me Suriel's real name either.

Adarsh

Well what are they?And as a side note why do all their names end with -el? Is that a culture thing?

Will Wight

I made up seven archangel names.Razael, Suriel, and Adriel at least have all already been used--I found out through Google; I have no idea what Blood Omen: Soul Reaver is--but I made all of them up according to general angel mythology.Kaballah, Jewish tradition, and some Christian tradition holds that there are seven archangels, but their names vary wildly, so I came up with ones that sounded cool.In the original draft of this universe, they had taken the titles of seven actual archangels, but I eventually nixed that. The angel names stuck because A.) I had gotten used to them, and B.) they're a court of seven holier-than-thou celestial judges, and naming them like archangels reinforces that point.As for why the angels have names ending in -el, it's because in Hebrew, the -el ending refers to God. So it has an "of God" or "of the Lord" or "God's" connotation.In this universe, it's because it was an ancient naming convention they used because it sounded authoritative.

Mike

If the world is so large.... does gravity not work the same way in this universe?

Will Wight

Part of the answer is "magic," and part of it is how this world developed differently because of magic.I made Cradle very big. Why? A few reasons.First, a lot of wuxia and xianxia stories do it so they can scale up to ridiculous numbers. Where first the character thinks a huge city has ten thousand people, later a huge city has ten BILLION people.Also, they're so special they're not just one in a million, they're one in a TRILLION! And they go from crossing a thousand miles in a single step to a hundred thousand miles!

So in part, it's an homage to the genre.In part, it's so that I can set other stories in the same world and they've never even heard of the people, places, or events in Lindon's story.And in part it's to illustrate that this isn't Earth. The Iterations are Narnia-style "worlds," not different planets, but since it's a whole new universe each time, they are ALSO different planets. I wanted a way to show that without putting a second moon in the sky, so "greater surface area and population" it is.

***As for the mechanics of it: I said "Magic" earlier, but that basically boils down to "This is how vital aura works."Vital aura is the power of the world that sacred artists harvest and use to strengthen their madra. It's the spirit of the world, basically. It makes what would otherwise be an uninhabitable planet, habitable.The planet IS less dense than earth, but because of its huge volume, it's more massive. Gravity is much greater. Humans are supported by madra from birth in part because otherwise they wouldn't be able to adapt to the gravity.You have other problems too: does this less-dense core spin fast enough to create a magnetosphere? Wouldn't continents bigger than Earth's just be massive deserts everywhere except immediately along the coast? Wouldn't the surface of such a planet be wracked by storms? Vital aura!

I'll get into it later in the books, but for me building this world, aura served a couple of functions. First, it allows people to adapt to what would otherwise be very harsh natural conditions (Sacred Valley and the immediate surrounding areas have, so far, been very mild. Conditions will accelerate as we get deeper into Cradle). Second, vital aura is generated by natural forces AND it changes natural forces.

I'll continue showing how it works in future books, but the bottom line is that aura allows me to have thriving ecosystems where everything is fire-aspect: trees with burning fruit pollinated by insects with wings of flame, and so on and so forth. Same in the depths of the ocean and on the tops of clouds.

It's magic. But it DOES work consistently according to a set of rules, and it DOES interact with physics.However, I'm not as attached to real-world physics as Brandon Sanderson is. He enjoys figuring out the physical implications of every nuance in his magic systems. I do not enjoy that, so I will not be doing it.If there's a gap between real physics and magic, I'll be filling in that gap with magic. Not physics. Just a personal preference.

Will Wight

It has many times more surface area than Earth.Also, as B pointed out, we haven't seen any REALLY civilized places yet. We'll see a city in Blackflame, but even that will be a relatively small, isolated city.Thanks to vital aura and the power of madra, there are lots of inhabited places in Cradle that would be uninhabitable on Earth. For instance, there are cities on the bottom of the ocean. And on the surface of the ocean. And on the clouds.

Nitin

Adriel? Is he the first Abidan?Did anyone work under Reaper or was he one man machine?Sanctum is home of Abidan or is it a world of ascended beings? Or both?Titan tanksPhoenix healersWolf dps.There goes our raid!

Will Wight

Adriel: You'll have to find out in a few days, won't you?Ozriel: The Reaper is a one-man band.Sanctum is home to the Abidan AND people who have ascended beyond other Iterations, but mostly it houses the Abidan and the civilizations that support them.Titan tanksWolf DPSPhoenix healersFox...rogues?Ghost bardsSpider scoutsHounds don't raid, they're in the RP servers solving crimesReaper OP, needs nerf.TL;DR - balance team, wtf

John

How far do you outline?

Will Wight

I always have a plan, but often I leave details vague just in case I have a better idea or change my mind later. Gives me some elbow room.

I do a TON of world-building before I start, but a lot of it is fluid. When I'm writing the book, if what I planned doesn't serve the story as well as I imagined it would, I'll change the planned backstory as needed. Nothing is set in stone until it shows up in a book.

As for parts that are more narrow than world-building elements--like characters, scenes, twists, etc.--most of those I design as needed when I'm working on the book. I don't determine their fate several books ahead of time.

However, that's for MOST characters and scenes. There are a few incredibly specific elements that I've already determined way ahead of time, including several that are still four or five books away.

TL;DR - Me setting up a specific character twist two books ahead is uncommon, but not terribly rare.

Shane

For some reason, I think Lindon and the Fox would get on well together.

Will Wight

I've wanted to write a scene with the Fox for years now.With anybody really, but mainly between Ozriel and Zakariel. Because Zakariel irritates all the other Judges with a smile on her face, but the only one who gets on HER nerves is Ozriel.Fun fact: probably the first scene I wrote for this series, when I was working out the Suriel storyline, was a dialogue between Ozriel and Zakariel.

Kaileonis

Will we get to enjoy that scene that you wrote about?

Will Wight

Probably not, no. I originally wrote it for Elder Empire.