Eveep
What would Ghostwater do if it were a territory?
Will Wight
You know, I considered something like that. When I was developing the territories I kind of put in every idea that I had except for one. Which was I didn't want to do a water theme territory and that was one of things that I had considered other people on the other side of the world because there are a couple of other territories that are inaccessible from where they are. So I considered a water one. I don't know if I'll do that though.
Questioner
Would there be any point in using 8 peak natural treasures like Titan's bone as soulfire fuel to advance?
Will Wight
Yeah, if you were advancing to Archlord it would be very fast. It wouldn't give any better of a body. You would have to then control that aura though, which would be difficult if you were advancing to Archlord. However, it would make a lot of high quality soulfire, so if you are an Archlord and you would have all of that then you would be super filled up on soulfire.
Questioner
Did you read Coiling Dragon?
Will Wight
Coiling Dragon was one of the original cultivation novels I read. I don't know if it was my first, it was one of my first. And I really liked it. It was funny, because it was kind of pitched to its original audience as a more Western style cultivation story, and it abandoned that very quickly.
Questioner
Do Iterations typically only have 1 habitable planet tying them to the Way or are there multiple in the Iterations' corner of their universe?
Will Wight
Yes. Typically, Iterations only have one habitable planet. No, that's not true. One inhabited planet. So that is typically the case. But that doesn't mean they only have one habitable planet and it doesn't mean that none of them have multiple inhabited planets. So there are some, definitely.
Questioner
What is Fury's title?
Will Wight
I wish I could answer that question. It's a good question. But I actually do have a list of things that he was called, because he was, like I mentioned before, he was considered a god of war, a herald of war in some cultures. So I actually have some nicknames for him, I just don't remember. It's stuff like that, stuff about him being - yeah, Goku. That's his nickname.
Mike
Why do Sages get titles, but Heralds don't?
Will Wight
Heralds do. They just are unofficial. Sages get titles because, they do. It's cultural. I don't know. It's to indicate what kind of Icon they manifested. So, it's more individual whereas Heralds are less defined by what exactly they can do. So that really is the answer.
Questioner
Have you watched Warrior on HBO? The main is how I now picture Lindon in my head.
Will Wight
I have not. Moving on.
Questioner
Will we ever get a full map of Cradle with the continents and major territories listed?
Will Wight
That depends! That actually depends on whether someone else makes one. As I have said many times in the past, I hate maps. I hate 'em. Cannot stand maps. In a previous life, I'm pretty sure a map killed my family- and probably me as well. I'm imagining a brutal map massacre, as in a massacre perpetrated by a map. So I just don't like maps. They have insulted me forever and I will have my revenge by not making them.
Questioner
What flavor do you wish Oreo would add to their catalog?
Will Wight
Hmm, flavor. That I wish Oreo would add to their catalog. Hmm.
Happiness.
Questioner
One late night, Mercy and Dross gather everyone together to play a roleplaying tabletop game. What game do they play and how do they play it?
Will Wight
Alright, I'm probably not going to answer that in the spirit that it was asked. But I can tell you what everybody's- I can probably make up what everybody's D&D class would be. Like, which D&D class would they all pick. So, I can pretty comfortably say that Lindon would be a wizard and Yerin would be a fighter, like, that's pretty clear. Because wizards are just, you know, the best class. And fighters are, Yerin would be very happy.
Artificer would be good too, that's true. I haven't actually run an artificer, so I haven't tried it for myself. But thematically they fit. But I think he would go wizard because he'd be going with what's the class that's going to be the best later, and I think that's pretty undisputedly the wizard.
So, and then I think Yerin would really enjoy the idea of attacking four times when everybody is only attacking once or twice. That's kind of her jam, if you will. Let's see. Eithan, bard. Hands down. I think that's probably the easiest one. Mercy, probably cleric. Orthos would be eating the pieces, I think.
[very in-depth analysis on Will's Gaming Channel]
And then, who else? So Orthos eating the pieces, and then Dross is DMing, 100%.
Questioner
Was there any anime influence on Cradle.
Will Wight
Y...yeees, but I don't have any specifics for you. A lot of people are like, it's clearly inspired by Naruto. Which, in a way, I guess it's- the magic system was not, oddly enough, even though it seems like it should be. But specific elements, some of the elements work. But it was really more of a, I admire Naruto a lot, but it's not something I-
Questioner
Do you like Dark Souls?
Will Wight
I do. I do like Dark Souls. Dark Souls 1 made it into my game of the decade list out of personal enjoyment, I don't remember what number it was but Dark Souls 1 is my jam. And I played that game a million times. None of the other Dark Souls really did it for me, neither did any of the other Dark Souls versions that FromSoftware put out. But, number one, I just really love. Never, just, like I played through the others and they were fine. I don't even think I made it through any of the others. So, yeah, but I really loved Dark Souls 1. There's the answer.
Mountainking
How do Makiel and Gadrael bond as father and son?
Will Wight
They play catch. Just like you would imagine. Just like, kind of a stereotypical father and son relationship. Is Makiel literally Gadrael's father? No. But they definitely [portal decisions]
So they play catch. They play catch with moons. They just sort of- they have really big mitts. Just throw moons at one another. Kind of like, you guys seen Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann where they're just throwing galaxies like frisbees? I know you all have. I know you know exactly what I'm talking about. That's exactly what happens. It's like that, but with moons and giant baseball mitts.
Questioner
How far away are the nearest pair of scissors from you?
Will Wight
Did somebody put you up to asking that? Somebody asked, "How far away are the nearest pair of scissors from you?" They are in my hand. That is how far away they are. Who told that? Did people really, do you guys know this? Somebody told you, oh, Sam told you. Yeah, I always have scissors. And I did, indeed, have scissors right there. So, I do almost always have scissors within arm's length.
Mike
Do Ghosts control what magic system a new world has?
Will Wight
Sort of, yeah. Like, indirectly. They have input on it. As they're assembling a world they can sort of nudge it in one direction or another.
Questioner
Why does Naruto have the best shonen ending?
Will Wight
Don't do that to me. I know what you're doing. I see. Someone asked me why does Naruto have the best ending of any shonen series, and it's because the person in question knows that I could talk on that topic forever, because I do not like Naruto's ending at all. So, uh, trying to set me off.
Questioner
Does Mercy have a mental enhancement? Her Path seems to involve a great deal of multitasking.
Will Wight
Yes she does. She does. It's not as clear and dramatic as ghostwater.
Questioner
Is there an afterlife on Cradle, or is it just Remnants and spirits and nowhere else after death?
Will Wight
I will answer that with a question: is there an afterlife in real life? Hmmmm, who knows. I really don't go into the afterlife of what actually happens- the metaphysics of what happens in Cradle, or in the Willverse, or with the Abidan too much. Mainly because that tends to be a contentious topic among people that think I'm promoting something or selling them... something. So I don't really intend to go into that. So, death is the great mystery.
Questioner
You've mentioned in the past the possibility of hardback books at some point, but nothing definitive. With the more recent (presumably good) sales numbers for Wintersteel and Bloodline, have you given any more thought to this idea? Do you think there's enough interest to justify some kind of limited Collector's Edition through Kickstarter or something once you conclude the Cradle series?
Will Wight
The sales numbers are indeed good, no more need to presume, I can confirm that the sales numbers have been very good. We did hit #1 in the Kindle Store for Wintersteel and Bloodline, already, so yes they have been good.
About the hardcover thing. Yes, I have considered doing hardcovers. We actually recently did a test run- a very limited number of copies, fifteen copies or something like that, of a test hardcover. We did that, and then I have the only existing Traveler's Gate- House of Blades hardcover. So we've considered that, it really has to do with getting printings- doing printings, getting enough people. There's kind of some concern over whether or not anyone would want that, whether we'd sell enough to justify the cost of doing a printing. Since we have to do limited print as opposed to print on demand, which is what we do with the paperbacks, it would probably be paired with a Kickstarter or something. So, you do at a certain tier, then we would have hardback copies of the book, I don't know.
Yeah, like a Collector's Edition kind of thing. And then we'd probably do new covers and- probably. But that's really all, completely up in the air. So I can't be held to anything about that. But that's most likely what would happen, is we'd probably do some sort of special edition.
Questioner
So the main character dies to a bad roll.
Will Wight
You know, this would be very gimmicky, but something I've always wanted to do is a narrative, maybe short story, maybe a novella, maybe a series of short stories where I am actually rolling the dice to see what happens to the the character for random events. Now, of course, the character still makes all of his character based decisions, but to see what happens, I roll the dice to see what sort of random events happen and where I'm open about that with the audience. So, I show them what roll I get and I go "Uh oh, he rolled a 1, this fight is gonna go badly." I always thought that would be fun, so it's kind of like a narrative of a one player table top game, basically. And, I think that'd be fun, it'd be kind of like those choose you're own adventure things where the author is like "pick A, B or C" and the Patreon supporters vote, or whatever it is. I just thought it would be neat, I just thought it'd be kind of fun. I don't have any plans for that or anything. It'd just be fun.
