Recent entries

Questioner

What is Gilad's least favorite floor in the tower of Helgard? Also, did they skip floor 13 on the elevator?

Will Wight

If they had an elevator, they would skip Floor Sixteen. It's the worst. Gilad is most afraid of Floor Twenty-Two, where serpents of razor-sharp ice devour heat and light. He can't use his Naraka powers--not that powers from foreign Territories are very reliable in the Tower, but on most floors they can at least be used as a fallback--and he can't carry any torches or lights with him. His personally least favorite floor, though, is the first floor. It's usually well-populated, and many of those people know his name. He doesn't enjoy the attention.

Questioner

Why do you not like character development?

Will Wight

Yesterday, I saw a comment wherein a reader wondered why I didn't give character development the same attention as the plot, action, and magic scenes. "It would only benefit the story," this person said, and "I can't understand why he doesn't give this aspect of storytelling the same attention as the others." (Paraphrased, because I can't be bothered to look up the actual comment, but it's pretty close.)The thing is, he's not wrong. And neither are you, to suggest that the world-building is shallow. It is shallow. I have all this stuff charted out in my notes, but much of what I imagine about the world is only skated across or touched upon before we've left the area and moved on to the next.However, there's no such thing as a fast-paced, action-focused, character-focused, plot-focused, worldbuilding-focused fantasy novel. There are series that do all of those things well, but they tend to be much longer and they don't come out twice a year. And even they have priorities, because you cannot have every aspect of story-crafting as your highest priority.I have a limited amount of time to produce these novels if I want to keep releasing them regularly. Therefore, I have to choose what is most important to me.I think will is putting too much stock in keeping books close to the same length.There are two reasons why I put a high priority on keeping the books close to the same length. First is story consistency. It's very easy to let each book in a long series balloon longer and longer as the series progresses, because you're always adding new characters and new places and new aspects of the world to explore.Plus, you hear most of your feedback from your hardcore fans (because they tend to care the most and therefore talk the most), so they're always clamoring for more. However, a 120k book is structurally different from a 90k word book. It's not just "the same story, but more of it." You don't want people to sign on for one type of story and end up getting another.That said, I could see a Cradle book stretching up to 120k without it changing too much, and we might end up there. Which brings me back to the other point: release rate. It takes me longer to write a longer book.If I didn't give myself a cap, I would always write longer and longer books, because there are more cool things I want to cram in there. But I have to limit myself, or the stories will stretch and change and the release rate will slow down."Ah, but Will, you snide devil," I hear you say, "why don't you just take more time to write each book?"Two reasons: first, I don't believe most people want that. I believe most readers value consistent releases more highly than you might expect. I am firm in this belief, but I know everybody doesn't think that way, so in comes my second reason: it just doesn't work.If I took as long as I wanted for each book, and they each took more than a year to write and were as long as I wanted, they might individually become more highly rated. But the series as a whole would be less popular. My sales growth comes almost entirely from quick releases and ratings spikes on Amazon, and the way the Kindle store works means frequent releases are far better than infrequent releases, even if the infrequent releases have individually higher sales. My sales charts make it staggeringly obvious. Sales trend way down, and then a new release spikes the sales for all my books (especially books in that series) back up.If I were to take so long between books, I would fall below my minimum monthly income in about eight months. Which means that for the remaining 6-12 months it could take me to write this book, I'd be running off my savings.That is not a viable business model.Even beyond a business perspective and back to the artistic: the same thing happens to fans. Readers forget about me if they aren't reminded every few months. People stop talking about my books. Word of mouth slows down. People don't care as much. Fans are happier, more engaged, and more interested with more frequent releases.This might not be true if I had one Harry Potter mega-hit that sold a million copies and spawned a perpetual motion machine of fan engagement. Then I could take 2+ years for each book and really knock your socks off every time. But since I have not done that, I have to bow to reality.Bottom line: having established that I have to produce books in a finite amount of time, I therefore have a finite amount of space, and I have to choose carefully what I spend that space on.However, that doesn't mean I've given up on improving my world-building!Specifically in the areas of world-building and character development, I know that I can do more in the same amount of space and with the same amount of time. I am trying, and I push myself in these areas every book. There is a way to write an action scene that gives you deeper insight into the characters involved and demonstrates unique aspects of the world without taking up any more page space or sacrificing pacing, but it's hard to do.I am working on it, though! The issues you've brought up are valid, and I'm aware of them, and I'm working to improve, even within the constraints under which I now operate.Thanks! I don’t want to be one of THOSE writers who lets time stretch on forever between books...although Elder Empire fans might say I’m getting there.By the way, part of the “unanswered question” problem is that, when I set out to write this series, I knew a lot of the upcoming plot points but I did not know how long the series would be. So I wasn’t sure when I would reach the right place for those answers.Now, I have a much better idea of where we are and where we’re going.

Questioner

Is necromancy via performing active reading on a corpse with a sufficienctly powerful reader theoretically possible? Is it possible that one of the Dead Mother's hearts could act as a catalyst to assist in this?

Will Wight

Necromancy in Elder Empire: yes, it is possible. It's not possible to invest or Awaken living things, but it is possible once they are dead, and one of the most difficult feats is Awakening them to a semblance of life.

Questioner

Many paths seem that all they need to do is hit somebody with one hit and the person dies, ex. Heavens Glory. It seemed like if somebody was hit, they die. What keeps underlords, sages, from being just one shot K.O. by a Jade or lowgold?

Will Wight

Within your body, your madra holds sway. This is why non-pure madra can't be effectively used in an Empty Palm style technique, because you can't just "inject" your madra into someone and expect it to do anything. It's also why fire Paths don't just set the air in their opponent's lungs on fire and walk away.The reason why a Heaven's Glory Jade can't just gun down an Underlord is an expansion of this principle. If your madra is sufficiently more powerful than your opponent's, it becomes hard for their Striker techniques to even hurt your skin. Often, the madra is simply dispersed when it touches you. The same is true for Forged madra--it can be dispersed by the natural madra of a more-advanced opponent.Ruler techniques will work equally on anyone, so they're usually what you use if you have to fight a more advanced opponent. However, there are some drawbacks.First of all, not every Path has a battle-ready Ruler technique. Second, Ruler techniques often take a long time to implement; you have to gather up compatible aura in the area and then activate it in a specific manner.It's also expected that an Underlord will have more powerful Ruler techniques than a Truegold, or will sense what is happening and dodge or disrupt it.As for Enforcer techniques, they of course work fine against higher-level opponents. But usually, someone more advanced than you will also get better results out of their Enforcer techniques. ml

Questioner

What does water turn into if left to gather madra for long enough like a stone will turn into a Titians bone.

Will Wight

Sacred pools, which are referred to differently in different lands, are actually fairly common. Titan's bone is almost mythical, because of how long it takes stone aura to condense in rocks and how deep you have to drill to excavate it. However, sacred pools, divine springs, and so on are commonly used to refine elixirs. They are often cultivated specifically in the gardens of powerful sects.Some believe that the deep ocean has the water with the most condensed and powerful aura, but that's difficult to judge. The power of water is of course overwhelming down there, but no one is known to have filled a container with deep-ocean water and returned to the surface without contaminating the power of the sample.

Questioner

I know you have said you are doing it and it might be in a book later, but i reallllllllly want a description of the steps of advancement and what each advancement does to the body/soul/core and the amount of power that seperates each advancement. If you say no to that.... what do you call the stage that this honoured one would have to be to leave Cradle

Will Wight

I can't answer any of this.However, the Sword Sage could have left Cradle had he wanted to. And there were still plenty of people stronger than him in the world.

Questioner

Are there any paths that utilize "space" aura like the rabbit, bat and mole in unsouled? (I can envision a path of the Infinite step. Highly focused on movement, mobility and field manipulation.)

Will Wight

Yes there are, and we'll get to see plenty of them...later in the series. Spoilers abound!

Questioner

What is the most reviled and infamous person in Cradle History?

Will Wight

One of the most well-known and reviled criminals in the history of the Blackflame Empire was a man named Gan Lo Zin, who operated the most well-known Remnant factory to be taken down and exposed.So-called Remnant factories kidnap children at Copper, then strap them to scripted devices and force-feed them scales. Their madra is cycled by force through scripts and madra devices, which is often inefficient, painful, and leads to long-term spiritual damage.However, this doesn't tend to matter. Because as soon as the children reach Jade, and thus leave stable Remnants of a high enough quality, they are slaughtered. Their Remnants are sealed and captured in boxes, to be categorized and sold to large organizations with a need for great quantities of bindings, dead matter, or Remnants for Lowgold bonding.When Gan Lo Zin was exposed, it caused a public outcry. It's estimated that he was responsible for the deaths of as many as thirty thousand people.However, when captured and questioned by the Skysworn, he maintained that he was far from the only one to operate such a facility. Outside the boundaries of the Empire, and even on other continents, he claimed that many large organizations ran their own Remnant factories.They were, he said, the inevitable price of progress.

Questioner

What would be Lindon's favorite series?

Will Wight

You know, I feel like Lindon wouldn't find Cradle to be his favorite series. He'd probably be reminded of all his unpleasant memories. He would enjoy Traveler's Gate the most, I think...not for the story, but for the existence of Valinhall, which he would see as easy, guaranteed progression.

Questioner

Is/was the fisher geisha married?

Will Wight

She was, and in fact I expect to go into slightly more detail in Skysworn.

Questioner

What path do professional sex workers follow? Are they in a house and ranked like the janitors?

Will Wight

Prostitutes often follow dream Paths, because dream madra can be used to alter appearances, induce emotions, and even find potential customers. In the Blackflame Empire, they are of course ranked. Everything is ranked. The top brothel is The Court of Roses, which caters to members of the royal family and influential clan leaders. The number one courtesan in the Court of Roses is Haru Mei, a woman on the Path of Twining Vines. She cycles aura of life and dreams, in a strange combination that helps her sense what others are feeling and manipulate those sensations.

Questioner

How would an underlord on the path of the white fox compare to the other underlords of the Blackflame empire?

Will Wight

When asked what Paths were the hardest for him to fight, the Underlord of the Cloud Hammer School said, "I despise beyond anything else the cowards who hide behind shadows and illusions. Let a true sacred artist come to me under the light of the sun and do battle. From anything else, I will flee; not because I fear the power of cowards, but because my time is too valuable to burn it away."

Questioner

Are there any sacred artists out there focused on conditioning their minds, not their bodies?

Will Wight

Madra flows through the body, so there are no Paths that don't affect the body in some way.

However, not every sacred artist lives by his fists.

The Path of the Diamond Sky focuses on polishing the power of the mind, until its practitioners have perfect memory, utter control over their emotions, and imaginations so vivid that some of them die inside self-created dreams.

Questioner

What is the average life expectancy of someone on the path of gluttonous avarice?

Will Wight

Adarsh is right.Some of them, of course, eat anything they can get their hands on. These are almost impossible to kill, as their bodies process the power they consume to protect them. But they often die on their own, as their organs will eventually fail so badly that Enforcer techniques can't preserve them any longer.However, some of them devour only the most valuable delicacies. Ancient Remnant dead matter processed by Soulsmiths to be edible, the delicately seasoned meat of a thousand-year-old Underlord-level sacred beast, or fruits of such pure power that they glitter like crystal.These practitioners might be rail-thin and live for centuries more than their counterparts. Their bodies also tend to take on strange properties.

Questioner

If I wanted to be the greatest travelling musician in the Blackflame empire, what Path should I be following to make this happen?

Will Wight

If you wanted to be the greatest musician in Cradle, you would have a rival. She is known as Nightsong, though the legends generally agree that she was not born with this name.

She follows the Path of the Moonlit Flute, and her powers vary according to the storyteller. Some say that she played a song over a battle between two Sages who had hated one another for years, and they walked away friends. Only weeks later, the two were married.

It is said she rides a Remnant, but never the same one. She simply plays a song on her flute, and Remnants compete to carry her around.

Questioner

What book/novel in the world of Cradle is poularly considered a must read amongst Crade inhabitants and why? Lastly, what does it retail at?

Will Wight

Children of Eternity is a popular novel about a romance between an immortal man and woman in their never-ending quest to stay together, but the world keeps tearing them apart.

It's fairly cheap in the Blackflame Empire, at sixteen low-grade scales per copy. But of course, the scales of some Paths are worth more than others.

Questioner

What is a powerful elixir with a huge drawback

Will Wight

A Dragon's Tear. It's refined from two perfectly balanced varieties of madra (the actual ingredients used depend on the refiner's Path and the availability in the region). When you swallow it, it releases an explosion of power that "supercharges" your soul, so to speak, releasing enormous power temporarily. However, it strains the madra channels, which can lead to permanent spiritual damage. In a severe case, it could leave you with no more power than an Unsouled. More importantly, it's addictive. Not chemically, but even users with no spiritual damage report feeling that their souls feel weaker afterwards in comparison to that brief moment of transcendent power.

Questioner

What would be a popular tale/story/folklore that people would tell their children to scare them in the world of cradle?

Will Wight

The Lonely Wolf.Once, there was a wolf pup born as the smallest in his litter. He wanted nothing more than to be close to his brothers and sisters, but they would shove him out of the den every night, where he would shiver alone in the cold. Every morning, he would try to get close to them again, but every night he was pushed out of the cave once more.So it was that when a tiger walked into the den and devoured the whole pack, he missed the lonely wolf pup.The lonely wolf survived, but he was even lonelier than ever. He tried to join another pack, but they too rejected him. He tried to join a flock of birds, but they flew away. Schools of fish fled when he approached the river.He wandered through life alone, and the years passed. Then the decades. Then the centuries.The lonely wolf had become more than a simple beast. The shadows responded to his desire to get close to others, and now they hid him. At last, hidden in the shadows, he could slip into other packs and pretend to be one of them. None of the wolves, not even other sacred wolves, ever saw more than a flickering shadow.But in a way, he was lonelier than ever. Now he could stay close, but not close enough. No one could see him, nor treat him as part of their family. He was nothing but a ghost, drifting through the lives of others.The loneliness grew until it became an ache, then a pain. Then a hunger.And he thought of one way to be closer to his fellow wolves.The first time he swallowed a wolf pup, he finally felt that burden on his soul lighten. Now that there was another wolf inside his skin, his loneliness was relieved. But only briefly.When his stomach was empty again, he swallowed another wolf. Then another. He worked his way up the pack until he was alone again.Then he found a village.Like a creeping shadow, the lonely wolf moved through the homes, looking for someone to join him inside his body. He started with the infants, and when they had all joined him, he moved his way up to the little children. Only when the entire village was with him did he move on to the next village.So at night, as the firelight flickers, keep watching those patches of shifting shadows at the corner of your eye. It might be the lonely wolf, just looking for another friend.

Questioner

Are there any paths that are agriculturally focused?

Will Wight

The Redflower family actually uses several Paths in conjunction in order to keep the Empire fed.The Path of the Yellow Flower involves moving earth and nurturing soil. The Path of the Green Flower encourages growth and the health of crops. The Path of the Blue Flower gathers water from the air and facilitates irrigation. The Path of the White Flower controls air flow and climate regulation.The Path of the Red Flower, for which the family was named, was designed to defend the others.

Questioner

Are there any places on cradle where information on sacred art techniques are widely available and indigenous practitioners are encouraged to develop their own paths?

Will Wight

The Dawnspring Archive.It's both a location and an organization dedicated to helping young sacred artists develop their own, personal Path. They have dream tablets from all over the world and from all sorts of Paths, which can encourage children to expand their imaginations and experiences with the sacred arts.