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Questioner

Hello, Will. Can you tell us how powerful lindon is among the abidan?

Will Wight

Sure, I can tell you! Lindon isn't an Abidan. He's more like a Vroshir employed by the Abidan. So he doesn't exactly fit into their power structure.However, given that caveat, he's pretty powerful. Say about 3-4 levels under the Judges.

Questioner

Oh. Is he stronger than a silverlord?

Will Wight

There are Silverlords at many different levels of power, but there is a minimum level you have to reach to be considered for their organization. He's probably somewhere comparable to a mid-level Silverlord.

pepski7

Will said that Lindon would have won if he'd tried from the start.

Eithan would have won the tournament if he wanted to.

Will Wight

Lindon would have had the edge if he’d been trying from the start, but that’s not a guaranteed win.

If we’re ignoring plot concerns and going purely based on who I think would win if we just locked everybody in a room, then I think it’s Lindon against Yerin 60/40.

But that’s if it’s a surprise, as it was in canon.

With preparation, knowing who his opponent is, Lindon definitely beats her because he can practice against her better than she can practice against him.

He also most likely beats Mercy, IF there’s a fight in which she goes all-out before he faces her. If not, she has the edge because she knows what he’s capable of but the reverse isn’t true. And while he has Dross and guesswork, she has Charity, Fury, and Malice.

Lindon would have a hard time beating Sha Miara or Sophara in a tournament setting in time, preparation or not. He would have to advance to Overlord to beat Sha Miara, and against Sophara he’d need what he had in canon: an opportunity to see her fight a bunch of different opponents + time/resources to test his techniques and drain madra from a bunch of different opponents himself.

Eithan, as he said, had a chance of losing to Mercy, Sophara, or Sha Miara. When he beat her in nine seconds, that’s because he basically had to (which he alludes to in the book). If he misses the full combo, so to speak, she has a chance to come back and win.

He beats Lindon, just…straight-up. He’s better than Lindon, more powerful, most of Lindon’s unique advantages don’t work against him, and there’s no way Dross could simulate him accurately.

Yerin doesn’t realistically win against Eithan without pseudo-Herald (in which state she beats everybody), but she and Ruby wouldn’t be motivated to attain that level if her opponent was Eithan.

So anyway, TL;DR, probable winner is Eithan.

If you want to make money at the racetrack, you should bet on the favorite.

HOWEVER, that’s not guaranteed, even for him. Nobody has a 100% win rate no matter how good they are, and there are rules and restrictions in this game.

Also…

The problem with asking “who would win?” is that it ultimately comes down to the author’s interpretation and decisions. You’re really guessing what the author is going to do.

And, given that it is a story, Eithan was never going to win. Simply because the guy who’s better than everyone else easily breezing through and winning and saving the day isn’t a very interesting story.

Realistic, though.

t3tsubo

Would the Underlord level Eithan (that faced Sha Miara) really beat Overlord juiced up Sophara as she was in the finals though? I suppose yes if he advanced to Overlord himself, but if he did advanced I would have assumed he wins the tournament 100% easily

Will Wight

Yeah, in that case he’d have to advance and would be favored to win.

Not 100%, though, because roided-out Sophara is so juiced up as to permanently damage her spirit. Which Eithan wouldn’t do, so she would have the advantage in raw stats.

But, you know, Eithan would still most likely win.

HungerMadra

1. Did Lindon become a monarch right before ascending?

2. What was Kelsa's weapon that he promised her and even went on about how he was going to wait until he healed to do something worthy? Maybe I missed it, but I don't think it was revealed.

Will Wight

1. He did not. He bypassed Monarch by becoming a Dreadgod.

2. It has not yet been revealed.

ParadoxRed

So did lindon power degrade back to just being a sage by the time he ascends?

Will Wight

No.

I know I didn’t go into great detail, but he didn’t need to shed a bunch of power until he was weak enough to ascend. He had to wait until hunger aura had faded more in Cradle AND his power was better integrated into his body.

A regular Sage wouldn’t have been able to handle a bunch of Dreadgod weapons at once, body Li Markuth, and then face down a guy called the Devourer of Dimensions.

AdditionalAd3595

How's the anxiety doing? Loved the first chapter. Looking forward to it!

Edit: sorry that was probably weirdly parasocial and crossing into to personal.

Will Wight

Nah, it’s cool.

This stuff doesn’t make me very anxious. Having people read the first chapter and speculate on it is fun.

I still feel great anxiety about the book’s actual reception on release.

Jmw566

So far as I can tell, the 'Disciplines' of magic that he's learning are:

1. Rituals and Binding (OG)

2. Elemental Magic (water specifically?)

3. Edit: it was pointed out that the Doom-y scenario he tries to use a “path finding” spell which could be divination based

4. Curses

5. Not enough info in the civil war scenario

6. Not enough info in the invincible 'hero' scenario

All the scenarios share the same sci-fi vibe where the magic is combined with technology, so I think I agree that they're all pretty similar mechanically, but each discipline seems fairly narrow/deep instead of being versatile. It should give our hero the chance to fight by switching up different schools to be able to play into what the scenario needs in a way that other characters in the verse can't while not having him just be *better* than each individual enemy at things in general. I'm really looking forward to it since it seems like conflicts will be decided by much more than just "X is faster/stronger, so they blitz" and be more of a tactical play against advantages of certain disciplines over others.

I don't know if the limitations are as hard-coded into the magic system as Cradle's cores are, though. It seems to me that the magic being ritual/knowledge based and not really technique/feeling based indicates that the problem is a psychological one. I think that the limitation for knowing one system is that it's perspective-altering diving that deep into one discipline and you just can't really conceivably bend your mind around it another way. Like one of those illusions where you see one perspective until someone tells you where to focus and the image flips to something else. But you don't really know how to make it flip back, so you can only see the new image. I think that's why he had to live the lives/memories of his other selves. He was trying to just import the knowledge of the magic, but that wouldn't have been possible without having the perspective of his other selves.

Will Wight

||I’m really looking forward to it since it seems like conflicts will be decided by much more than just “X is faster/stronger, so they blitz”

Very vague and minor spoilers for Book 1 (nothing plot-related, just having to do with my intentions)…

Ultimately yeah, that’s the plan, but I’ll warn you now that there’s a lot of blitzing. Especially in the first book.

Astroturf01

Alright, be honest, is there a subtle reference intended with dying as a prisoner of war being Light Four?

Will Wight

It’s not, unfortunately. I didn’t notice until Andrew Rowe pointed it out. If I had noticed earlier, I would have leaned into it.

Ashamed-Subject-8573

 

Will or someone please post the Blackflame bloopers.

I’ve tried deleting in my kindle app about 30 times and they won’t show up. I tried the cloud reader. No bloopers will come.

Please share with those of us that Amazon has not blessed?

Will Wight

I’m going to post all the new bloopers on the blog when the Kickstarter books arrive, which was when the bloopers were supposed to go live in the first place.

They’ll all be public soon, even if your ebook didn’t update or you didn’t back the KS, I promise.

swiftttyy

1. Will there be bloopers the books? I hope there are bloopers

2. Is this series set in the Willverse?

3. Will there be Abidan/Vrosheer(idk how to spell it) side plot/references in the series, like in Cradle and Elder Empire?

I know most of these are unanswerable, but I wanna ask just in case

Will Wight

1. Yes

2. MAYBE (yes)

3. No

The first book is written mostly as though it’s not connected to the broader multiverse, but it is.

Professional_Topic18

3. Will there be appearances in later books?

Will Wight

MAYBE

Volitant_Anuran

Have you bestowed upon this iteration a portion of your Will power?

Will Wight

Only a portion, lest I destroy everyone in it

SESender

4. where does this place chronologically in book order?

or is that mega spoiler?

Will Wight

It’s a spoiler, idk if it’s a mega spoiler yet. That depends on Future Will and whether he does or does not deviate from my plans.

Future Will loves to deviate. He’s a notorious deviant.

JMacPhoneTime

You dont have to answer, but is it on Fathom?

The descriptions of it in Reaper sound a lot like a reasonable setting for a large scale magic space adventure.

Will Wight

That seems like it would be a cool place to set a space series, for sure.

deppuv

What are the limits to practicality?  (re: Cradle anime) I think the show would pay for itself after the first season (by whatever distribution platform) and you could easily get investors for the first season, either from our community or elsewhere. I'd be at the front of the list. Also, hi, fellow Central Floridian!

Will Wight

Hello back! I think I can see you across the swamp.

Unfortunately, funding and making profit from an animated series are both way less straightforward than you would think.

And even if I did come up with the money to hire a great animation studio, who’s going to write it? If I do it, that means I’m not writing books.

Point is, it’s very complicated, and even untangling that mess takes time and energy away from producing novels.

PhoenixAgent003

Will Travis record an addition to the audio book? (re: the new bloopers)

Will Wight

Audible is in control of that, but almost certainly not.

Spherious

So, not to be greedy for info, but, uh...can we get a ballpark length for The Captain?

Will Wight

120k, I think. That’s the ballpark, anyway.

terrafirma91

All the covers being posted together made me think we need a new Uncrowned cover.  CIRCLES

Will Wight

Fun fact: the cover designer wanted the banner to be straight so that the circular emblem would line up with the others.

I wanted it blowing in the breeze because I thought it looked cooler.

So that one’s on me.

HeraklesHemitheos

It’s a good looking cover as is. Though when it comes around to Uncrowned having a special hardback edition, presumably via future kickstarter, can the cover design match the pattern of the others? Pretty please?

Will Wight

The special editions will.

Rikulz

Okay but how about answering the real question. How many takes did this take? 😂

Will Wight

This is my second take. The first take would have worked, but the audio wasn’t great so we had to get closer with the camera.

I generally do pretty well when I don’t have a script and can just deliver. When I have to remember a bunch of stuff I fall apart and have an existential crisis and it takes us sixteen hours to get thirty seconds of usable footage.

mishaxz

I wonder if that's his real name or a made up one

Well I guess it's no different than something like will Wheaton

It's just funny because it sounds like the start of a sentence..

Will white prevail?

Will Wight

I know it sounds made up, but I swear it is my real name. Pretty sure one of my ancestors was undead.

Vedcikk

"She had an even harder time saying the word 'Romantic' than she did the word 'Jewelry'"-

Yeah that's undoubtedly Yerin

Will Wight

You’re going to be very surprised when Suriel starts talking about Valentine’s Day traditions in Cradle and has trouble pronouncing the local words for “romance” and “jewelry.”

StormShadow83

I hope Waybound is going well. Also, don't be so hard on yourself. You've already provided so much joy to so many people!

Will Wight

Thanks! I really like how Waybound is going right now, but I’ve spent a long time on it already, so I’m starting to feel like I need to wrap it up.

Also, I usually don’t like how my books are going, so that kind of makes me nervous. Maybe the fact that I’m enjoying it right now is a bad sign…

Sir_JRoddious

I'm curious whether waybound will start with them training or them stepping out, then flashing back to the training

Will Wight

You know, I did consider the flashback angle.

I usually don’t like messing with sequential timelines, but there was an argument for it structurally.

That way the book doesn’t go TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN - FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT since I can alternate between character and action scenes.

I didn’t do the flashback route, though. It might have been the more elegant solution, I’m not sure, but I dislike jumping back and forth in time too much.

I don’t mind real flashbacks—like, to a character’s backstory, or a B Story set in the past—but interweaving the present-day narrative strikes me as unnecessarily confusing.

TallerLindon

If Eithan died when he was Underlord and under the veil… would he die for good?

Will Wight

Under no circumstances could anyone with Cradle-limited powers have truly killed him, but they could have “killed” him. Meaning destroying his body and forcibly ejecting him from the Iteration.

The others would have seen him die, and it would have looked real to them. Body, Remnant, everything.

Meanwhile, his real self would reincorporate in the Way around Sector 11 trying to figure out a backup plan. Origin Shroud intact, because mere physical violence can’t do anything to an artifact on that level.

If he had been killed in this way, his current life in Cradle would indeed have ended, and at best he could try to avoid detection and start over with another incarnation.

Which he very much wanted to avoid.

If an attack on a higher level had been used, like hypothetically if someone had used Penance on him or if the Mad King had hit him with an attack, then it would have forcibly bypassed his restrictions and revealed his power.

Which, for him, would be the worst-case scenario. “Dying” is bad, but having his power exposed would bring the Abidan.

MedicoreWade

What happens when a space like [Valinhall] destabilizes? Does it just evaporate into the void or would it be like adding an extra sun to a solar system?

Will Wight

In this case, it would feel like an earthquake and would gradually interfere with the relationship the rooms have with one another.

Some of the deeper rooms might be lost or destroyed with only a few minutes of un-veiled Yerin’s presence, the House’s layout would shift chaotically, and doors might become unreliable or toss you out into the Void.

The effects would be worse the longer she stayed until she restricted her power or just chose to tear it apart, which would reduce Valinhall to its base components: fragments of destroyed Iterations floating in the Void.