Questioner
If Urg'naut was set loose on a dying Iteration, would he be able to destroy it as thoroughly as Ozriel?
Will Wight
Probably, yeah. If he was put into an Iteration that was dying, would be be able to just obliterate everything, yeah probably. That would be within his powers. But the problem is, you can't control him, so you couldn't even consistently get him to do that. So even if you could move him around and put him in different Iterations, what he would be doing is constantly working toward a goal, eliminating the Abidan and their organisation and other living Iterations. He also is less interested in destroying already dying Iterations, because they're already dying, they're good, he approves, they're on their way! So that would be the difference.
Questioner
Are there any times Lindon or Yerin surprised you?
Will Wight
Characters don't surprise me, how do I put this, this is a hard thing to explain, but there's a generally common saying that characters have done something on their own, or they've run off and they've surprised you, or oh man the characters did something I didn't expect. I don't really understand that, because I made up the characters, they do what I tell them to.
What I do understand is that the better I get to know them the more they do something that I didn't necessarily plot out ahead of time, and that's what people mean, so I do understand that experience. But what they never do is they never do something that is completely out of line with the story I'm telling, they never surprise me in that way, so they always stay within certain bounds.
So it's just that I get to know the characters really well, and they grow and change and my understanding of them grows and changes and I get very familiar with them. So they change and they do things that I can now predict that maybe i didn't think about ahead of time.
Will Wight
So, some people are asking me about Anagi, I don't know how much I can tell you, I will say we will get some details about that in Wintersteel, but not as many as I'd originally planned. I didn't cut much from Wintersteel. Some of the few things I cut in this book were scenes that were extra background scenes for the villains, or opponents, they're not all villains, but the other people in the Uncrowned tournament. Some of the stuff I cut was backstory for Yan Shoumei. So we had a whole thing with her where we learned about her backstory, we learned about where she came from, we learned about her rivalry with this person named Anagi and who they are and who raised her, all that stuff. Most of that got removed, it wasn't really necessary to the forward progress of the story. It fleshed her out a little bit, but she really didn't need to be fleshed out, but it was fun to write.
Questioner
How did you design Dross?
Will Wight
hmm, so the first thing I did, was i started from what is a primarily mechanical construct, with like a ghost inside it. So I went through Dross' evolution, and I started off that way, and then I thought ok, how do I show Dross' improvement in a certain area, every time he gets improved? So every time I had him become more complex, and then more organic, and then more solid, and I had to do that every time he advanced in his development in Ghostwater. So as I did that, he sort of took shape, 'cos i had to think every time, what's the next step? So I didn't really start off with an image of him as like a purple tentacled Mike Wazowski, but that's kinda what he became, and i'm happy with it, I liked it.
Questioner
Is storm madra an aspect of wind madra?
Will Wight
Storm is just kinda what they call lightning aura. It's just lightning. So there are storm paths, thats aren't necessarily completely lightning aura. They're also wind, and maybe force, or water. So Tiberian Aurelius followed a storm path in the sense that it was mostly lightning, but he also had aura aspects from a lot of other things that you would find in storms. So storm path and storm aura are often used differently, and i know that's confusing and weird, but there are cultures on Cradle that I didn't think it was organic for them to just call it lightning or electricity. I thought it would be more poetic or they would probably say storm.
Questioner
Will the Song of Fallen Ash ever make another appearance?
Will Wight
Maybe, i dunno. I tend to make up those techniques as they're needed in those cases, like I just make em up in batches and just think of a bunch of cool names. Then often after I do that, I then make up what they actually are, so I will at times design entire paths around just a cool word or name I made up, or a cool technique or whatever, and that is one of them, where I sort of outlined the path roughly just because I thought the name was cool. So yeah, we might see more of it. I'm not sure exactly in what context we would, but yeah, maybe.
Questioner
What would be the result if Little Blue and Dross did a fusion dance?
Will Wight
Impossible, and here's why. Dross can't do a fusion dance, because Dross doesn't have fingers. He therefore can't extend his fingers at the proper angle in order to execute a proper fusion dance so....can't happen. Couldn't wear the potara earrings either, because he doesn't have ears so...we're out of luck really.
Questioner
Is there a salt territory and Will incarnated?
Will Wight
Yes.
Questioner
What is your favorite path, not necessarily the path you would want? What path would you want to practice, assuming you gain madra channels?
Will Wight
So, the path that I have set up that I would practice, is probably Cloudhammer, from the Blackflame Empire. Even though I never went into it, it is the one I would probably take, because it's good for combat, it's good for not combat. You can walk in the air on it, you can repel people, you can do a lot of things with it. And it feels like its the kind of, you can also cultivate it anywhere, like that aura is all over the place. So, yeah. Felt like the most convenient and the one I would most like in a real world scenario.
Questioner
Would it be possible to bond Emriss like Yerin did the Sword Sage?
Will Wight
Yes, technically. If she allowed you to, because you're not more powerful than Emriss. She's maximum power. So, yeah if she let you, you could adopt Emriss as a Remnant. That'd be a lot more like her adopting you though. Actually no, I guess it wouldn't be possible. Maybe, it could be if she let it happen. Could be. Technically possible, could be, and that is even if she allowed it.
Questioner
Hard copies of the books?
Will Wight
I would love for their to be hardback of the books. That would be very cool. I think there could be some day but for now, we don't have them. The reason we don't is because its a difficult thing to know how many we would have. Just a lot of time and effort to put into developing something that we wouldn't have on sale, it'd be a limited run. So...maybe someday.
Questioner
I wrote a book and I'm not sure what to do except shotgunning and emailing random publishers.
Will Wight
Don't do that. The first thing to do is, you want to make sure your book is actually good. So you want to get it to people that will tell you the truth, and will read it, and can give you good feedback. So, if you are sure that your book, if your not sure it's good, I'm never sure my books are good, so if you are confident, if the other people around you are telling you your book is good enough to be read by other people, then I would highly suggest, beginning by putting your book up on Kindle. Get your book professionally edited and make sure it is formatted well. All these resources are available free online; there are tons of people who can explain the process better than I can. And just very much recommend Kindle Direct Publishing. KDP. Do what I did. And the reason why I increasingly recommend that; I used to be, "You know what, if you can get a traditional publishing deal, great for you. Check all out, try all your options." And more and more I'm just like, don't do that, just do KDP. Because it doesn't seem like what the publishers offer you is a whole lot better than what you get on KDP. So I have honestly liked my setup with KDP a lot more than the deals a lot of my peers have been offered. And the more experience I get, the more I go, yeah, I would recommend to anyone starting out to publish your own book on KDP. Do it the right way. KDP is Kindle Direct Publishing; that is a phrase I was using a second ago. And that is the program by which you publish books directly on Kindle. It is how I am published. So I highly recommend publishing your stuff on Kindle. But do it the right way. So do it the way other experienced authors tell you to do; do your research. Get a good cover, and you know, have a good book.
Questioner
Will we see Lindon back in Sacred Valley in Wintersteel?
Will Wight
That is definitely a spoiler. That's the most spoiler. I'm sad, because -
Will Wight
Travis loves reading mushy stuff. I've just learned this about Travis. I did not know that. So that means I'm going to have to just get real mushy in one of these bloopers. It's just going to have to be - I'm going to write a fanfic - oh, I'll just include excerpts from my Twilight fanfic.
Questioner
Are you as funny as your characters in real life?
Will Wight
As funny as a character like Yerin? Yes. As funny as a character like Dross and Eithan? I don't know. You'd have to ask the people around me. That person said yes I am, so I guess you have your answer.
Questioner
Would the average person on Cradle consider Lindon and Yerin super rich and spoiled?
Will Wight
That was a discussion that was going on not too long ago. Would the average person consider them that way? I guess, the average person wouldn't understand who or what they are, they would just assume that they're rich and spoiled or else extremely talented - they don't understand what it takes to advance in the sacred arts to that degree so they wouldn't know. So that's forming the opinion - but it depends on what their personal biases are. So if they are just assuming that only the rich get to advance, then yeah, they would go, "These guys must be rich and spoiled, because they're young and advanced." If they're like, no, only talented people can advance, then they'd go, "Wow these guys must be really talented."
(He dies in game but it was his fault, Madhouse needs to animate the series)
They would consider them beyond anything they've encountered, so the average person would just be like, they wouldn't know what to say, like encountering someone from the future. So they'd say, "I guess you're rich and spoiled with all your future technology."
Questioner
What kind of fanart would you like to see more of?
Will Wight
Any kind..? It's always fun for me to see fanart. It's funny, because whenever fanart is posted, especially on Reddit, people are always like, "Ah, that isn't exactly how I pictured it in the book," and "On page 33, they said that this character is this much taller," or "I don't get that vibe from this person at all." And I don't ever do that with my books, but I've also found that I am a lot less picky as a writer than as a fan. For me, if I recognize who the character is, I'm happy. I'm like, "Hey! It's Lindon! Cool!" or "Hey! It's Mercy! Cool!" and that's it. Some of the art resonates with me more than others, but that's the nature of art, I guess.
Questioner
What idea usually comes first for you? Magic, character, story?
Will Wight
Well, it's not story, I'll tell you that. What I normally do is I have notebooks on my phone and computer, note files. And whenever I have an idea, for whatever reason, I just write it down. So I have places to write those down and when I'm coming up with a new thing I just go through my thousands of ideas and pick the ones that I think are appropriate. So I'm generally organized, but I'm not a super organized person, so a lot of times I'll just find something in the wrong place and I'll think of it. But typically when I'm looking for new ideas, when I'm actively going out and seeking - like "I need a new idea here," let's say what I'm like if I'm going to develop a new series. I would look at the world and magic system first, just because that's what interests me. I go, "What's the concept? What's the high concept? What's the idea?" that hooks me, hooks my imagination. So someone asked me earlier about a Pioneer world story and that concept interests me. So that idea of someone being a magical terraforming group, that sounds really cool. I actually fleshed out an idea this past week, like what would magical terraforming look like, in real life, like you had to go to Mars and what spells would you need and how would you do it with magic instead of how people actually plan to do it with real technology. And that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that. So that was a concept that definitely interested me.
(game: crits and shooting fire guys)
Imagine you create gravity or magnetism in your terraforming. That is true, and I had that under the domain of earth magic. And I was thinking, as long as you have the magical ability to turn energy into matter and matter into energy, you can solve any problem with magic. Even if you're restricted on what types of matter you can create, from what types of energy, that's basically the only ability it takes and that's what magic often is, is it's just you turn energy into some kind of matter. So that'd be cool.
Questioner
If sacred beasts only die when they are killed, and never of old age, which Whisper seems to prove, could a very patient sacred beast just cycle and practice in isolation for a few millennia and emerge a Monarch?
Will Wight
No. Some sacred beasts could, like Emriss kind of did that. But she's a tree. Their lifespan gets extended a lot, but they're not literally ageless.
Questioner
What would have happened if Suriel’s marble had fallen into the cracks in Ghostwater, which I believe lead into the void?
Will Wight
It would have not fallen into the cracks. So if he had dropped it in there, it would have avoided the cracks. If he really intentionally threw it into the void, it would have come back. It is conceptually linked to Lindon, so he cannot lose it under any circumstances barring the intervention of a truly powerful individual. If the Mad King wants to take this marble he's gonna get it, but that would be beneath him. I don't know why he'd want that. It'd be a weird thing for him to do, just descend and rob some random dude instead of just annihilating everything.
