Question
Are the Akura Path of Seven Pages unique? Is there only one "Book of Eternal Night" as long Mercy is alive none can walk her Path?
Will Wight
In that particular case, yes, there is only one book of Eternal Night and as long as Mercy is alive there will be nothing else.In the case of other books of seven pages, I think most of them are unique. I don't think all of them are. If I had to answer off the top of my head...Which I do because that is the whole premise, I believe that there are some of them that are not unique. Some of them are sort of mass produced…Like, not really but this is like two or three copies.
Questioner
Has Fury or Charity penned a book of seven pages?
Will Wight
No. No they have not. So what Charity did was Charity developed her book with her grandmother so - With Malice. Malice had started had this dream shadow book and she and Charity finished it together but once Charity started showing signs of ascending to sage, they finished the rest of it together. So it was an unfinished booked and that was true in a lot of like, there was a lot of things, a lot of these books Malice didn't do herself. So the first person who carried the book or the first person who helped her make it or whatever was the person who helped her finish it.
Questioner
Are there new books of Seven Pages being written?
Will Wight
Not anymore. Not really. They typically have more books than they have people capable of using the books so there’s really not a point in developing more.
Questioner
Is ascending harder if you don't join the Abidan?
Will Wight
In a sense, yeah. We're obviously going to go into that process a little later in the series. But in a sense it is harder in the sense that the Abidan want you to join them, or at least support them. So one of the things the previous books have said that the Abidan only get a recruit from cradle once every century or whatever. That is... that’s a count of people who do end up ascending and joining the Abidan. The number of people who ascend is greater.
Not everybody who ascends joins the Abidan, a lot of people just kind of ascend to the next world and...chill. One other fun fact about ascension, you can bring other people with you and they do not count as having been ascended. This also ties into the question earlier about are there people in the Abidan who are weaker than sages. There are people who were brought along with other people who ascended so they can be.. you know, you don’t have to ascend completely alone. You can bring people who were not qualified. They are not treated the same, they of course don't have the same level of power or skill or whatever but it is something that can be done.
Questioner
Aside from Sha Miara, who was the youngest when they advanced to monarch? Who was the oldest?
Will Wight
So among the current monarchs, I think...Emriss was the oldest when she advanced to monarch because she's a tree, so they advance slowly.I'm not sure is the youngest. Someone has asked this before...It could be the person who asked this now, I don't know, it's a mystery. I didn't remember then and I don't remember now. I don't know if I ever actually came up with an answer to that.
Questioner
How do you wind down/reset after an intense period of writing?
Will Wight
Slowly, Sam says, yes, My assistant gnome has spoken. Slowly is the correct answer. I uh, boy.... So what I like to do, the way I like to write, is I like to lock myself kind of... in a room, or a ship, for a week or two at a time. Then I just spend all my time writing, it's just what I do sort of from beginning to end. That has worked well so when I am done with that, it's typically been a long time so at the end of every day I’m really tired and I typically will play my Switch for an hour or whatever then go to sleep. Then I, when I’m done with that, I don’t know... when I am done with that, I crash. So I get home after that and I just kind of hole up and do nothing for a while I guess is the answer. I...uh, I just sort of crash, so I go home and I just sort of veg out for a couple of days. When it is really bad I sort of literally do nothing. Sort of just kind of lay on my bed and look at my computer forever and then hours pass and I'm like... "I don't know what I just did... maybe nothing...who knows? I have no memory from that period".
Occasionally I wake up and there's a bloody corpse of a bear and I’m in the woods and my clothes have been shredded and there is a lot of hair and I have dreams of the full moon but I don't....you know, I don't think that's weird or anything.
Questioner
Do you think your next series will have another tiny doll character?
Will Wight
I can almost guarantee that it will not. I have relied on psychic assistance and tiny doll characters like the dolls and lil' blue, I have relied on those mascot characters a little to much I think. So while I enjoy them and they are fun, I like shuffles, i like Dross, I like the dolls. I am probably going to try and get away from that just because it is like, you know it is like a hallmark of my writing. I would like to make it so that I am not the one where always there is little tiny cute mascot characters. So I am going to try, I don't know how well I’ll do it because I still think they're fun. So if I get something and I think of something I will probably just do it.
Questioner
How often do you read your own books?
Will Wight
However often I release books, so about twice a year I read my own books. Because I read the previous books in order to brush up on the next one, because is still of course I still have all my notes and all that and I generally remember what I put in my last book anyway. But you know it's never the same like there's a lot of times where - So shortly after Unsouled came out, I couldn't remember what Lindon's Dads name was because I was remembering all the names that I had potentially come up with. So I remembered it as one of a list of possibilities but I couldn't remember which one I settled on. - So that happens a lot. I remember what I planned to do as much as I remember what I actually did. So reading the books helps me refresh on that.
Questioner
How did you decide on the name Dross out of all the literal garbage names?
Will Wight
Wow. That’s a good question, and I remember doing it. I remember where I was when i was doing it. I was sitting in my car parked in the corner of a Wendy's parking lot with my seat all the way back and my laptop between me and my steering wheel. Which is where I sometimes just kind of get out of the house, I'm like "ok I just need an isolated place, I am just going to sit in the car" and I was sitting there just going through different versions of the names and I came up with a bunch and I don't really remember all of them I just remember I liked him being named for like trash you would find in a facility. I was thinking of all those, I kind of did it as I was going through the scene, I was going which of these trash synonyms do I like, and Dross sounded the most like a name. So...Dross.
Questioner
Would you ever allow another author to write in the cradle universe?
Will Wight
Probably not Cradle, and maybe not for the reason you expect. It's because I would have to write a story bible that is at all consistent. When you get somebody else to write in your Universe, typically what you do is you write a story bible which is a document which includes all of the world building and rules for the universe so that they cant accidently violate something that cant happen in your world. And I don't know that I could write something like that cohesive that was comprehensible to anybody but me. So unless I designed the series that way from the beginning in order for it to be shared, I don't think I could do that. Maybe with Traveler's gate universe I could do that but nobody wants to write in that universe so.
Questioner
Is Yerin stronger than the Sword Sage was at her age?
Will Wight
Spoilers.
Questioner
Which character is the most fun to write?
Will Wight
Ok, look. Ok look, alright. So, characters that are fun to write. To me...
(in response to a different comment: Eithan is a few inches shorter than Lindon. Lindon has grown some over the course of the series.)
To me, the most fun characters to write are the ones that I can either write off the top of my head, or that are just fun, just like genuinely just amusing to write. So I really like writing Eithan; Eithan is just a lot of fun, I hada really good grasp on Eithan before I wrote the series. Bliss is another one; Bliss is another one I just genuinely enjoy writing. Because I had a good enough grasp on the series, and they are interesting and unique enough. (brief pause for Will to blame his lack of game progress on us.) So, those are my favorite characters to write. Dross, and... Ok, so I say Dross, but Dross is not actually one of my favorite characters to write, not because he's not fun, but because it is difficult. So I always have to do, well usually have to do a Dross pass. So like Yerin, I have to do a pass specifically for Dross's voice, to make sure it is consistent, because it ends up being a little too much like Eithan, and a little too much frankly, like me. And I want him to sound like Dross, and not like me.
Questioner
Would you accept a copious donation of Oreos? Like a pallet?
Will Wight
You know, I don't know how many Oreos are in a pallet, but I'm going to guess it's not enough.
(Transcribers note: It is hard to get good data without being a retailer for Nabisco or having access to wholesalers, but as best as I can tell, there are twelve 20 oz packs of Double Stuf Oreos per case, and 36 cases per pallet. This would be approximately 540 pounds of Oreos. I will do everyone a favor and not figure out how many calories.)
(By request, I have now calculated the number of calories. 907,200 calories in a pallet of Oreos, assuming the above quantities. For comparison, that's 1,055.07 kwH. In 2017, the average home used 867 kwH per month.)
Questioner
Who creates Iterations? Can the Cradle world be duplicated?
Will Wight
Ok, that's a good question. Can the Cradle world be duplicated? In the sense that technically it could I guess... Like in the sense that if you shuffled a deck of cards technically you could get the same order. You almost certainly will not, but technically it is a possibility. Now, all the people living there would not be there; they would be completely different people. You could get a world that is very very similar. There is not anything like parallel dimensions. That's not a thing. At least not as a primary universal mechanic. There might be some Iterations that have some version of that.
And who created new Iterations? Iterations are born as a natural part of the life cycle that Ozriel and Makiel and them are always talking about. So as an Iteration gets closer to it's intended life span, as fate runs out and it starts to die, it splits up into fragments, which are basically like Territories from Traveler's Gate, and they float around in the void, and they eventually connect to one another based on common threads and ideas and concepts. And then they fuse and they become the seed of a new Iteration, which over time gathers population, and becomes a new Iteration. And the Abidan kind of, they are like gardeners, they kind of maintain that process. So that is the idea.
Questioner
Is the Traveler's Blade series in the works or will I be sad?
Will Wight
I don't know what to tell you. You will probably be sad AND it's in the works. I haven't started anything. Other than Cradle. Cradle I have. Cradle I'm in the middle of. Eight books deep in fact.
Questioner
What is the relationship between aura and physical processes on Cradle? Does a rainstorm cause an abundance of aura or does the aura cause the rainstorm?
Will Wight
A little of both, up to a point. The aura causes the rainstorm and the rainstorm gathers or causes water aura, as you choose to see it, but that is not an infinite loop. Otherwise, of course, all of Cradle would be water aura. So there's a natural cap.
Questioner
Do the other planets or asteroids or space bodies in Cradle's Iterations gather aura?
Will Wight
Yes, they do. The other celestial bodies in Cradle do have the same rules and laws of aura that Cradle does. It won't be as rich or as powerful, but it'll be there.
Questioner
Was Northstrider originally a fish species?
Will Wight
He was not. At no point was he anything but human.
Questioner
Does Eithan keep random cleaning supplies in his soulspace?
Will Wight
Not in his soulspace, no. He keeps random cleaning supplies all around him and in his void key, but not his soulspace.
Questioner
How many books left until Cradle ends?
Will Wight
My goal is twelve books. I'm open to doing one more or one less, but it's roughly twelve, and I think that's about on track.
Questioner
All the Monarchs could ascend at any time, we assume?
Will Wight
That is technically correct. The Monarchs have the ability to ascend past Cradle. If you're a Monarch, you have the ability to personally get out of Cradle. They have all chosen not to.
Questioner
What other stories and monsters are the cradle kaiju inspired by?
Will Wight
So obviously they are modeled off the sacred guardian beasts of Chinese and east Asian mythology however those are benevolent divine creatures and obviously the Dreadgods are not; they are quite malevolent. So they are also modeled off of any big kaiju, you got it right, they are just big monsters. So I picked them, I didn't model their power off the actual mythological versions, that would have been difficult to do. So I kinda just picked their powers based on, like, I had their names kinda tied to what they were and then I (annoying subnautica notification). So I came up with their appearances while coming up with their names and based on that I kind of had their powers developed and then I kind of just themed them as big kaiju around that. So the bleeding phoenix of course, ok, so I'm going blood and rebirth, that makes sense and that's where that power came from. And the Silent King was I was like ok, white tiger with a cool halo, that sounds kind of mental to me so that's dream madra. So then I had the Silent King mind controlling people. Then there's the Wandering Titan who is big and made of stone, big crushy, smashy guy.
