Questioner
How will Lindon act the first time he meets someone weaker then him? While Lindon has gotten to what I would call half-iron (his cores are half the size they should be so he levels them up faster then he normal would, and only one avenged to iron) and that makes him stronger then most people his age in the Sacred Valley. Knowing that and meeting them while stronger then them are different. I bring this up because out side of a few people everyone we have met seems to have no trouble "bullying" those weaker then themselves. I know this is a might makes right society but still part of the honor of that system is to ingore/protect those weaker then you. If you only follow those "laws" when other are watching you then that's not honor its saving face. When will we meet people who follow these codes of conduct not for themselves or for "face" but because they believe in them?
Will Wight
This is 100% a spoiler.
Questioner
Who does all of the farming in Cradle? In a society so focused on martial martial abilities. Who would waste time on farming? We know the population of Cradle is many times greater then Earth. So tens of billion of people need to eat. The only real solution I could think of is if there are Paths that happen to both greatly help agriculture and has combat potential. Or as we saw in book two slavery.
Will Wight
There are Paths that are used for agriculture and irrigation, they're just usually low-key. There's a (very) brief reference in Blackflame to the Redflower family, who are in charge of feeding the Empire. By law, they are neutral in every conflict, and anybody who starts a fight with them or tries to pressure them will soon regret it.
Questioner
Do we have a rough time scale of when Ozriel became part of the Abidan?
Will Wight
I'm still trying to decide whether or not the time scale is important enough to have Suriel explore it in the books. But it was several thousand years ago.
Questioner
What conditioner does Eithan use?
Will Wight
He has an entire team of refiners who do nothing but make his hair products.
Questioner
How does advancing work with Soulfire in the Lord stages?
Will Wight
You'll find out!
Decadakon
How do you inherit power? Do you just jump straight to monarch
Will Wight
Very carefully.
Lil' Blue
Is the age slowing an order of magnitude as you advance or is there xnumber of years added for each stage?
Will Wight
For the Lord realm, your body is re-forged in stronger soulfire each time you advance, so your body is made more like it was in your prime. If you were younger than your prime, you would look older, and older people look younger. Then, from there on, you age more slowly. It gets stronger each time you advance, but it only happens when you advance, so basically Jai Daishou's only hope of living significantly longer would have been to hit Overlord. Which he accepted that he couldn't do.
Tievel
I know your pain, Anu. I was inspired to try my hand at my take on xianxia, but I can't get past that any of my takes on the magic system want to be based on Cradle, and aren't as good without being a straight copycat. Vital aura, specifically, may be my favorite magic innovation I've ever read.
Will Wight
There are a lot of changes I'd make to the Cradle magic system if I got a do-over. The general shape of it would stay the same, but basically I would use harder definitions so that people understand what's going on more. It's hard because I was trying to start with people who kind of but not really knew how the magic worked so that I could build out from there, because most people are just giving their beliefs and theories on how the sacred arts works. But as a result it's gotten confusing, so I would have been clearer from the beginning.
Decadakon
Is there a path that utilizes black holes? Or is that too dangerous?
Will Wight
No, no one on Cradle is strong enough for that. Plus it would destroy the world.
Tievel1
Will, what would you change if you had to do Cradle over?
Will Wight
There's a lot (as with all the books I've ever written), but I can hit the highlights off the top of my head. I would keep the series only in Lindon's POV, perhaps in first-person, or maybe in third and then just do one POV from Lindon, one from the bad guy, and maybe a brief interlude from Suriel.
EDIT FOR CLARITY: This means no Yerin or Eithan chapters, for instance.(edited)I would change vital aura, maybe getting rid of it entirely, but at least defining it more clearly. Not because it doesn't work now, but for the sake of removing ambiguity and increasing clarity.Basically I would streamline the whole thing so it's more immediately clear.Also, I would give Lindon more of a personal connection to the world and everything he's doing.So lots of general changes. There are specific things I would tweak, but mostly in the service of this general style change so that everything feels more immediate. I feel like it would increase the impact of the stories.
I would change vital aura, maybe getting rid of it entirely, but at least defining it more clearly. Not because it doesn't work now, but for the sake of removing ambiguity and increasing clarity.
Basically I would streamline the whole thing so it's more immediately clear.
Also, I would give Lindon more of a personal connection to the world and everything he's doing.
So lot of general changes. There are specific things I would tweak, but mostly in the service of this general style change so that everything feels more immediate. I feel like it would increase the impact of the stories.
Questioner
What if Eithan also had a mini-Presence?
Will Wight
Honestly, if Eithan ended up with a mini-Presence like Dross, he'd be way too overpowered.
Questioner
Quick question Will, did Lindon keep the axe? I don't see any mention of it after the fight?
Will Wight
I intended for Lindon to keep the axe, but I wrote several versions of that scene, and it looks like I left that out. Oversight on my part, sorry.
Questioner
Just out of curiosity, how many more books from the cradle are you planning on writing, if I had my way we would follow Lindon for forever, but that's unfair, so I am just wondering if you are planning on connecting all of the multiple universes or what your plans are, as much as you are willing to tell anyway
Will Wight
It depends on how well I feel the series is going when we leave Cradle (which I don’t consider a spoiler, because obviously). The story might end there, or it might end there temporarily, or it might just keep going. I have roughly 12-15 books planned out in the world of Cradle itself.
Questioner
Dross’ relationship with Lindon for some reason reminded me of Vampire Hunter D. D is kept alive at one point in the first movie by an independent entity in his hand which lives off D but also allowed D to heal/regenerate (or at least regenerate faster). I wonder if such a relation would be possible in cradle. Essentially a symbiotic relationship (with a parasite or something of the sort), which could leave both parties better off but didn’t necessarily require a contract or sharing of madra. Now Dross is a construct and seems to operates off all madra, so maybe he’s a special case?
Will Wight
Yes, that would be possible.
Questioner
(regarding mercy's clumsiness)I made crazy theory post a while ago that she's constantly looking briefly (split seconds) into the future, thus appearing clumsy but always managing to avoid enemies.
Will Wight
That’s a cooler idea than the one I went with. I wish it weren’t too late to change it.
Questioner
Why didn't Lindon's arm grow back, or start to grow back when he was chugging from the life pool? Orthos de-aged and healed a big crack in his shell. Shouldn't Lindon have healed a bit?
Will Wight
It worked the way it did because healing the crack in Orthos’ shell was easier than regenerating Lindon’s arm, and it had been too long, and his current arm is now bonded to his life aura just like his physical arm once was. You could regenerate his physical arm, but you’d have to do it intentionally
Questioner
Lindon’s iron body can’t regenerate on its own given enough time/madra?
Will Wight
Regenerate limbs? No.
Questioner
Come on as a person who started on the path of more split cores, I can say I am slightly disappointed it is never happening.
Will Wight
I don’t recall saying that.
Questioner
Is Dross the Dolls?Not that I have a problem with it, but does Will just like his protagonist to have a battle facilitating comedic voice in his head that nobody else can hear? Now don't take this as hate, I love the dolls and I'm really enjoying Dross so far, and if it works, run with it, but am I the only one noticing the similarity...?
Will Wight
Yeah, honestly this was one of the reasons I was hesitant about introducing Dross in the first place. I developed him for a different reason than I developed the dolls; Simon needed someone to interact with during the many scenes he was alone, whereas Lindon has Orthos and Yerin. I then gave the dolls powers in order to keep them relevant during combat scenes, which is when I most needed them talking. As for Dross, I developed his powers (and his role in the series) first, and then worked backwards to give him an engaging personality. However, I'm fully aware that now any entity that speaks directly into the MC's head and gives him combat advice is going to read like the dolls. They exist for different reasons and they're different people, but I'm aware they fill the same niche. Oh well. I'll try not to have psychic advisors in future series.
Questioner
Did you hesitant with just dross or when making all the presences for the abidan as well? besides I don't think it matters it just another away your books connect other than the way.
Will Wight
Nah, just Dross. I knew the Abidan needed some kind of magical AI.
