Questioner
Since Cradle was meant to be your side project series originally, what aspect of the story do you think expanded the most as it became arguably your flagship series?
Will Wight
Not really arguably, it's definitely my flagship series. That's a great question. So Unsouled and Soulsmith are the ones I wrote when it was just a side series and not my flagship series. And Blackflame was when I was like, "Hey! Wait a second, this is the number one thing." So, I guess there was more to it - I expanded further into the world. Lindon and Yerin's adventures would've been way narrower, they would've been way smaller in scope. A lot more limited. So I think that's probably the main difference. Instead of seeing all this stuff about Cradle as a whole and getting into that, it probably- [back to game]
Questioner
As the author, who is your favorite character to write about?
Will Wight
Hmm, I don't know. I like writing about a lot of different characters. Some of the characters are easier to write than others, some of the characters are more fun to write.
Questioner
What is the goldsteel thing for?
Will Wight
I assume you mean this on the hat. And this is the logo for Bloodline. It's the cover of Bloodline without the Dreadgods on it. So there you go.
Lil' Blue
Would the characters from Kung Fu Panda be considered Sacred Beasts?
Will Wight
Absolutely.
Questioner
In Bamfious's interview you said you changed Lindon's love interest because of Bamfious's bet. Were you telling the truth when you answered that or were you teasing Bamf?
Will Wight
I think it's pretty clear that I never joke around, ever. And that every answer I provide is absolutely serious and you should take me seriously at all times.
Questioner
Is it in anyway disappointing that Cradle has been more successful than Elder Empire?
Will Wight
It's hard to say that Cradle has been disappointing in any way. Cradle has vastly exceeded my expectations. So, I can't in good conscience say that Cradle has disappointed me at all. But, I mean, I guess, sort of, I do wish Elder Empire had been more successful, but isn't that kind of like of course I do, it'd be great if everybody loved every series I write. But, I didn't have any real expectations of that, there's no blame or anything like that. The only thing that I feel a little bit disappointed in, I guess, is I put a lot more work in Elder Empire than I initially did into Cradle. Now at this point in Cradle, I'm trying hard. But, it was a lot harder to write Elder Empire. The minimum standard of Elder Empire is a lot higher, it's just difficult to write. So, when you put that much effort into something and people enjoy it less than they do the thing you put less effort into, that is difficult. But, nowadays there's not that difference. Now writing Cradle, after basically Soulsmith, I put just as much effort into Cradle, but it's a lot more straightforward, it's a lot easier to write, basically. It's easier and people like it more. It feels better when you're effort is proportional to the response, but that's not always the case. So, there you go.
Questioner
Will we ever hear more about the Weeping Dragon and the Silent King?
Will Wight
Nope. They're never coming out. Those two Dreadgods will remain forever anonymous.
Questioner
Do you put things into the series knowing full well they will become memes?
Will Wight
Not necessarily. I mean I do the bloopers that way. So, of course the bloopers are memes in and of themselves. Other than that, they only things I do, are I include memes that are currently in the fandom, reference them in series. So, there were a couple of people that didn't like that the Winter Sage referenced "Blerin", which was the fan name for Yerin's blood shadow and so there was people that didn't like that because that was a fandom meme and it brought them out of the story. And I'm going "I'm sorry, I understand not liking that, I get that. I understand having that opinion. I'm not gonna stop doing stuff like that though, because I enjoy it." And it's not something that she necessarily wouldn't have suggested. It was something that wasn't out of character for the character to suggest and it was something that only makes sense, you only get it if you understand the fandom. For people that didn't know that was a nickname, it wouldn't seem out of place, it would just be a joke. So, I don't mind that kind of thing at all, I'll write that kind of thing in. And that's never going away, that's just gonna be part of my writing style.
Questioner
Will we see Lindon again after the 12th Cradle book?
Will Wight
Maybe. Maybe.
Questioner
Do the Abidan get vacations?
Will Wight
Yes.
Purplish
Do Presences (or spirits like Dross) have to do what they're told? What if they don’t like the person whose brain they’re a part of?
Will Wight
Wow, that's a really good question. So the way Presences work is they have to, uh, they have varying degrees of personality and individuality. So obviously Dross is on the higher scale of that. Whereas Suriel keeps hers toned down. So they still have a sense of identity and they still have a sense of - I can't name the word I'm thinking of, so I'm going to skip it. They still understand who they are and they are individuals, but they don't necessarily - you do kind of form a partnership, but it's either- sometimes they don't really mind. But every once in a while you would have conflict. Some people even prefer that, they prefer to have somebody who will talk back to them. You see that a little bit with Suriel in book one. She likes having a voice to debate.
[chopping trees]
So some people even like having the debate, but... you would get another one. You would get another Presence or alter it so that it fits more if you really can't resolve your differences. But typically you're getting one that's supposed to- [knocking over trees] So yeah, you would typically get assigned a Presence, based on one that would work well with you so they usually don't make that mistake. But if somehow you end up in a conflict with your Presence you would just get another one.
Chris
Will you ever write death matches again?
Will Wight
I assume so, at some point. The problem is that I always have other things to work on. So, I didn't realize this until today, but I've released 4 books in the last 365 days. So, that's a lot. That's a lot of books. There's always more to work on. I'm always trying to make it more efficient, always trying to work on the next book and short stories are never important or urgent. They are always kind of low on the totem pole and while I enjoy writing them and people enjoy reading them and I would like to get back to them, it's hard to find time to do that when I could be working on another book, for instance.
Omega
What is the difference between a soulsmith's inheritance and a soulsmith's Legacy?
Will Wight
I think they are just different terms for the same thing, but I don't exactly recall what you are talking about, so I would have to look that up.
Ben
What would a fire and dream path be like? Burn the body and mind?
Will Wight
Yeah, burn the body and mind, burn the psyche, burn memories away. That sort of thing.
Questioner
Fisher Gesha Spinoff?
Will Wight
100%. It's gonna be romantic comedy following Fisher Gesha's dating life as she goes around and really just lives it up. It's kind of like Golden Girls, but its one girl. So, it's Spider Girl, but not the comic.
Questioner
Since sacred beasts can become sentient over time, do advanced ones view ownership of sacred beasts akin to slavery? For example, Eithan says his family owned a breeding pair of Heavenly Sky Tigers. What would Reigan Shen think of that?
Will Wight
By and large, its kind of like how humans think of monkeys. So, if it's not a sentient sacred beast, they don't really care. It's just an animal to them as well. They eat non-sentient sacred beasts. So its just a distinction between are you sentient or are you not sentient. That's it. While virtually any animal can become sentient by absorbing aura, its so far removed that that's not considered something that anybody really worries about. Unless they have developed sentience, in which case, then they're off limits. And that counts as effectively cannibalism in their world, if you ate a sentient creature.
Questioner
Who is your fourth favorite character in Cradle?
Will Wight
*long pause* Yerin
Questioner
Would it be possible to add a new district onto Elysia or is it too stable to be changed that drastically?
Will Wight
At this point, it's probably too stable.
Questioner
Who did Estyr have children with?
Will Wight
Her husband.
Questioner
When someone like a Monarch from Cradle ascends, how do they rank up in terms of power among the Abidan? Do powerful individuals get to skip lower Abidan ranks compared to less powerful new recruits?
Will Wight
We'll explore that a little bit, I think. I think that's something I'm going to go into in the future. But, definitely the more powerful you were, you get to skip some things when you ascend. One of the things is, a lot more people ascend than are considered to be recruits for the Abidan. I sort of implied this a little bit [unintelligible] the books, but I didn't really go into it. But, a lot more people ascend on their own than are considered Abidan recruits, either because of talent, or temperament, or they just don't want to, yada yada yada. There's a lot of reasons why you could ascend from your world and then not be recruited into the Abidan. So powerful individuals coming in would be higher priority recruits and would get to skip some of the extra hoops that other people have to jump through.
