Recent entries

chrisisbest197

This is just a guess, but I'm thinking Will will probably write Wintersteel, another Cradle book, and then start a brand new series or start writing the Travelers Blade.

Will Wight

That was my initial plan. Wintersteel, Cradle 9, new thing (Traveler’s Blade is still on the table), Cradle 10.

That’s a very, very soft plan, though. We change plans all the time. And even if we write them in that order, they might come out in a different order.

Like I could write Cradle 8 & 9 and then the new thing, but write and release Cradle 10 first while holding the new thing back.

Point is, I don’t know. Always in motion is the future. But that was our original goal!

Ray745

 I saw this sentence in the same chapter we first see "web of madra" used and it caught my eye

"Well this is a lucky daym" he said, hopping down from the wall. His blond hair flowed behind him like a banner, and a simple Endorcer technique made him drift slowly to the muddy ground.

I know of no Enforcer technique that would be able to slow someone falling. In fact, the only way Eithan, specifically, could slow himself would be with soulfire controlling aura. Either Will made a typo there or just hadn't fully mapped out the sacred arts system in his head yet, this is Chapter 5 of Soulsmith, our first meeting with Eithan, so I can't say for sure which it might be, I'd be interested to hear /u/Will_Wight 's answer to it.

Will Wight

It’s a construct that makes him lighter.

Middle of chapter eight (Soulsmith):

Eithan skipped along behind, touching down with one foot and using an Enforcer binding to launch himself far enough that he almost appeared to be drifting through the air.

In my original character sheet for him, he used the construct all the time, and we were going to explore it in Blackflame. But he didn’t really need it, so I just didn’t go into it.

Thelonelypartygoer

It's repeatedly mentioned in the text of Traveler's Gate that Lirial, as a territory, is ill suited to open combat, but I don't see how to reconcile that with the Lirial powers we've seen. The ability to call Lirial crystals alone seems like it would be an overwhelmingly powerful combat ability and it's one that I don't think we've seen any good answers to from other territories. The fact that Leah easily dispatched grandmaster Endross seems telling. Is this a contradiction or am I missing something?

Will Wight

Leah is extraordinary by Lirial standards, though I didn’t convey that very well because of the lack of other Lirial Travelers to compare.

They mostly have entirely utility powers. Her being able to call crystal so much and on such a scale is extremely unusual.

It’s like you have a Bard class who specializes entirely in support magic, only there’s one specific bard who strides into battle with a flaming electric guitar chainsaw and goes around slicing dudes in half to the tune of his own sick riffs.

If you saw that guy, you’d be like “Wait a second, who said bards aren’t a combat class?”

Leah is that bard.

Slogfarts

Is Lindon's name a reference to Lyndon Hardy?

Will Wight

My choice of name for Lindon had nothing to do with him, sorry to disappoint!

I’ve read his books, but they don’t have any sort of special place in my heart or anything.

emperor_calder

Interesting Contradictions in Lindon's FateWhen Suriel first examines Lindon's fate:

The boy fights against a relative of his, a young man with long black hair and an iron badge. The boy cheats, releases emerald hornets, ekes out a technical victory.

With a bulky brown pack on his back, he bends his head over a scroll, studying a Path by candlelight in someone else’s home.

And when she shows him his fate later:

The frozen world was wiped out, replaced with another. He was still standing on the stone of the arena stage, but the clouds Li Markuth summoned had never appeared, and the sun beat down out of a clear sky. Wei Jin Amon faced him, and though he resisted longer than anyone expected, he still lost.

That night, he nursed his wounds alone when the First Elder barged in without knocking. The old man slapped a book down on his table: Path of the White Fox.

Will Wight

This is intentional. She’s showing him something that is equally likely to occur as what she saw earlier.

The details change, but the broad strokes don’t.

Nugget Monkey

Would Lindon have won in Uncrowned if he had fought Yerin from the beginning and not been weakened a decent amount before beginning to fight?

Will Wight

Possibly! That would have made it more likely for sure.

True Ruler of None

What are the chances that in the process of writing 7 books of Cradle the conclusion and outline in Will head of OKAK changed ?

Will Wight

Tbh, the scenes with Ozriel are now a lot less elaborate than they were in the original outline.   As I originally envisioned, all the pre-chapter text in Kings was going to be excerpts from a conversation Ozriel was having with Sector 11 Control. Where they had brought him in because the Elders were loose so he was supposed to erase the Iteration, but he kept jerking them around as Sector Control became more and more panicked over the course of the book.   Until they finally appeal to another Judge who basically goes “Idk guys, we can’t control him either.”   And then only at the end does the situation become dire enough for him to actually be willing to do his job, and then the good guys resolve it right before.   I actually wrote out most of that conversation screenplay style.It’s saved on my phone from my original OKAK notes from 2015.My only reluctance for [releasing] that kind of thing is that it wouldn’t be edited at all. It’s literally off-the-cuff dialogue thoughts from 2015. And I know you might say “Oh that’s okay, we don’t care, any content is interesting!” but there will always be that guy who goes through and points out the issues in the comments.   There’s always some guy.

Kris

The Uncrowned timeline is all over the place, specifically about Yerin and Lindon's calls.

Will Wight

This timeline thing was interesting!I pulled up my Uncrowned timeline, and I compared it against what's in the book, and I figured out what the issue is. Well, what the issues are.1.) "five times in the last week"That was just me using "the last week" as an approximation. Of course I know every other day for a week =/= 5, but in my mind Lindon wasn't being precise.I still should have phrased that better to prevent confusion, though.2.) It hasn't been just one week, it's been months.That week he was referring to wasn't the first week, it was the latest one.I had intended to convey that BY showing that the fight against the other Underlords is the next day, so it's clearly been months, because we established already that this wasn't going to happen for months. And then I have Dross refer to the effect the calls are having on his mentality like they've been going on for a while.But!The transition between Charity handing him the construct and then cutting to him talking on the roof suggests that very little time has passed, and then the only specific amount of time I refer to IN THAT SCENE is a week.I was relying on the fight with the Akura Underlords being the next day to be that concrete anchor in time rather than saying "X months later," and then him being in a different place with different clothes while they all talk as though a lot of time has passed to be subtle details that supported that.But the quick transition followed by using the word "week" implies that it has only been a week in a way that I didn't realize.Interesting! I've learned something to look out for! Thanks!

Madeline

I would love to see more of Lindon updating the Path of Twin Stars manual, like he did in the first few books. Not having that seems so weird, given that a big part of his background is the fact that up until the last few years he was not considered worthy of being taught a Path, and now he is forging one of his own. It feels like him taking a moment to write down what he's learned is something that was cut in the editting process, but in the process, the Lindon of the last few books has gone through changes that don't make sense, as there's never a reason given for NOT having those scenes anymore. Even a throwaway couple of paragraphs of "wow the last year or so has gone by in a blur and I haven't had the opportunity to update this even though I was previously determined to add to the Path manual immediately to get my thoughts down right away, it seemed like with the later techniques I really should perfect them first" would go a long way towards explaining what otherwise makes no sense.

Will Wight

That's actually a good example of something that I don't think is necessary to explain at all.In Uncrowned, he takes notes on things several times. In Underlord, he's repeatedly referring to and studying notes. And in all the previous books, we've seen him again and again take notes on everything he learns.Why would that be shown every time?To me, this is like having a character with a beloved car, and in the first few books there are specific scenes showing him in the car. In later books, those scenes don't show up as much, because he's established as someone who loves his car.I don't see those reminders as particularly necessary.

Kommunist Keth the Kandra

Ok so hear me out on this one. I've been noticing a trend in will's books. first we had traveller's gate. orphan main character. Then Elder Empire. Calder only has his mother. Then Cradle. Lindon has both parents. next series traveller's blade or something will likely feature both parents as well as another parental figure in simon, unless im drunk again

Will Wight

No joke, I try to switch up how many parents the main characters have to avoid the “every hero is an orphan” thing.By which I mean yes, the next main character I write will be born from the fusion of six individuals who all combined their DNA in a cloning spell gone wrong.

Will Wight

You shouldn't be looking for the “right” names for your progression tiers. The ones that fit your world perfectly and really click for you.

The truth is, literally anything works.

You don’t need to look for the terms that fit your world now, just pick names you like and then change your world to make them fit.

Cradle has Copper through Gold for the first advancement levels, but precious materials have absolutely nothing to do with the sacred arts. That was just an easy way for me to visually show progression, so I picked valuable materials and then changed the setting to support that choice.

You can pick any labeled sequence. Materials that increase in value or hardness. Luminosity; maybe someone starting out is Dull and a master is Radiant (or a Windrunner ayooo). Someone mentioned colors, which would absolutely work because a rainbow is a labeled sequence.

You could still DO colors that don’t progress in order of the rainbow, but it’s less intuitive.

There’s increasing physical scope: he’s a room-scale mage because his spells can only affect anything in the same room he’s in, but this archmage over here is a national-scale mage who’s shaping the weather and sending his eye familiars all over the sky to watch you.

Increasing size: Tiny, Medium, Large, Massive. Sounds stupid? Sure it does, so tweak it: “His brontosaurus shook the earth with its steps, so its body contained enough mana to bury their entire camp. She hid inside the doorway, closing her eyes, clutching her shivering baby velociraptor to her chest.”

In that case, you don’t need official categories. Big, Bigger, Biggest. You just need to know that the bigger your dinosaur is physically, the more magic power it can hold.

In that way, a progression system doesn’t need discrete tiers. If your magic capacity is measured in balloons, and you have fifteen balloons of magic but the enemy has figured out how to get one massive hot air balloon, who has the advantage? How does that affect what spells you can both cast?

That’s something where the comparison isn’t as clear-cut as it is in Cradle (a Jade beats an Iron every time), but there are still crystal-clear methods of progress (increase the size of your balloons or the number).

I say all this not to give you more ideas, but to encourage you to stop spending time trying to think of the one that fits your setting BEST. Any of them work.

The one that fits your setting best is the one that you make fit your setting. So spend an hour brainstorming, pick the idea you think sounds the coolest, then work it into your setting.

If you finish your first book and your readers tell you that your tiers of progression are dumb (which I can’t imagine unless they’re intentionally ridiculous, like you measure power output in Spirit Clowns), THEN you go back and change it. It’s no big deal to change it later.

Any tips on how to overcome this hump?

Yes, pick literally any progressive sequence, attach it to your setting, and move on.

Nugget Monkey

Would Lindon have won in Uncrowned if he had fought Yerin from the beginning and not been weakened a decent amount before beginning to fight?

Will Wight

Possibly! That would have made it more likely for sure.

True Ruler of None

Will you make a Patreon?

Will Wight

I would make a Patreon if I figured out a good way to provide some extra content to people without slowing the books down.

The books are profitable already, so I’m not doing a Patreon just to produce the books, because I don’t need it. But I know people enjoy and engage with Patreon, so if I had some other content I could give to patrons that they would like, I’d do that...as long as it didn’t slow down book production.

All the ideas I have for fun, regular content updates would take me book-writing time to produce, and I don’t want to delay books for everybody in order to produce short stories or whatever for patrons.

Which is why I don’t have a Patreon.

Lashann

I feel Patreon treats fans unfairly and separates us into groups of have $$ and have not$$. For many teens in college it is hard to buy ramen noodles - forget Patreon. I think selling a book with goodies for slightly higher price is a good way for folks with $$ to support Will. I always read on KU and a week later buy the book. Hope it helps some.

Will Wight

It absolutely does help; thanks a lot!

I don’t think Patreon is inherently unfair. In theory, it’s about supporting artists who otherwise couldn’t afford to create art (or not do it full-time). It makes sense for the people who pay to receive some kind of reward for their support.

bamfious

Mercy's 4th Technique is called "Dream of Darkness"

Will Wight

Funny story about that: I immediately regretted naming that technique in Uncrowned.

I don't like technique names that also contain the name of the aura, because then you end up with weird phrases like "She wove dream madra into the Dream of Darkness, which projected dreams into the darkness using dream aura and darkness aura and dark dreams of Dreamdark, the dreamiest darkest dream that ever dreamed a dark dream."

So when I was actually writing this technique in Wintersteel, I came up with a way cooler name for it: World of Night. And then I remembered I already revealed its name in Uncrowned (taken straight from the character sheet I made for Mercy's Path like three years ago), and I tore out my hair and burned all my clothes in regret.

EDIT: Also yes, the Book manages the extra aspects. She harvests only shadow aura, and her Book has a limited supply of other aspects that she can use initially, but she’ll eventually use that up and have to cycle more from the environment. Everything other than pure shadow is stored in the Book, not her core.

bamfious

Damn. It’s just one single line from one simple Sage....

Can’t Mercy alter it herself and make it different ?

World of Night is cooler.

Will Wight

Oh man, you’re right, I might do that.

It’s Charity’s technique, too, so that could add extra weight to Mercy going “Yeah, but...no.”

Kandra

So, mechanically, could you say that each page of the book acts as a second core, almost (but not quite)?

Will Wight

I have a technical answer and a meme answer.

Technically, it stores madra in the same way that any construct stores madra. Each page’s store of energy is used to power the binding on that page and that’s it.

Meme-ly, yes Mercy has eight cores.

SirDrezland

Is there any answer as to why Lindon could endure the memories of an archlord and not go into a coma or die?

Kilorrulo

Most likely in cases like the tablet Lindon observed if the original memories weren’t too complex or filled with high level skills/madra uses, the requirement to view them is lower. Since the archlord was just sitting down and writing about a foundation level technique, it wasn’t too much for Lindon to bear.

Will Wight

This is correct. There’s nothing inherently about an Archlord’s memories that make them difficult to read for someone of a lower advancement level. Unless they use techniques that are too advanced.

Ziel steered Lindon to a memory that was basically an Archlord sitting down and writing.

Natsuguri

So a High Gold decides to fight a Copper despite there being a higher ranking sacred artist right next to him. The High Gold kicks the Copper in the head while he is unaware of the High Gold's presence, and on his knees. That doesn't kill the Copper as the High Gold expects and he realises that the Copper is now Iron. The High Gold acts all reasonable to put the Iron off his guard then makes a flashy and painful strike to distract the Iron so he can sneak around to attack the Iron from behind. The High Gold arrogantly assumes he's delivered a mortal blow. The High Gold the tries smarmying up the the more powerful sacred artist and breaks the cardinal rule of 'don't turn your back on an enemy you're fighting!'. The seriously wounded Iron disimpales himself and attacks his would be assassin from behind because, well High Gold presented his back to the person he'd just tried to kill, why wouldn't you in such a mismatched fight? And yet it is the Iron who is labelled with cowardice and dishonour.

Is it just me?

Will Wight

I know this aspect of the series frustrates people sometimes, but it sounds like you’re reading it exactly as intended.

Did Lindon do anything wrong? No. The hurt and embarrassed people in power are reframing things so that it looks like they were in the right.

Does it make any sense that the powerless person they were picking on could possibly be the offender and THEM the victims? No, but they can get away with claiming they are and no one is going to call them on it for Lindon’s sake. The witnesses know the truth, the truth just doesn’t really matter.

It goes back to what the First Elder tells Lindon in book one. Essentially, even if he does nothing wrong, if the people in charge say he did, then he did. The truth is whatever they say because they’re stronger than he is.

So the definition of honor in Cradle is inconsistent. Yeah, it is. Everybody’s got their own definition and they constantly shift the goalposts to make themselves look better.

There’s at least one negative review of Unsouled where they say that the honor in Cradle isn’t anything like real, historical notions of honor in China. Absolutely right. This is “honor” in a fictional society where more advanced people are better in every way than less advanced people.

You don’t want a reputation for picking on people weaker than you because then someone higher on the totem pole might have a reason to beat the crap out of you, but at the same time, you can throw your weight around as long as you have an excuse.

chrisisbest197

When Calder first meets Ozriel in OKAK I kind of expected him to be a little more...angry. I mean Ozriel and the Abidan literally imprisoned Calder and all the other humans with these hellish monstrosities for all of eternity, with zero consideration for their suffering. And then on top of that Ozriel threatens to wipe them all out if the Elders escape, which by the way would not permanently kill the elders so the humans still get the short end of the stick.

I just expected Calder to at least be more mad about it. Kinda like how he stood up to the emperor regarding the prison.

Will Wight

You know, I actually wrote a draft of this conversation in which Calder lost his temper and challenged Ozriel more directly.

I changed it because it didn’t feel organic to me, when I read it in context. It felt like he was powerlessly raging against something he had no ability to influence.

I also thought it read more like what the younger version of Calder might have done than the current Calder who’s focused on saving the world from an imminent crisis.

But I did consider it! And I do think getting angry at the injustice could have been consistent with Calder’s character.

I just ultimately decided the reaction in the final version was MORE consistent. But you be the judge! (Or the Judge...)

chrisisbest197

It's not that I think it wasn't consistent, it was actually a very cool headed response to someone who is basically a god, which shows some growth. It's just that I think it would have been interesting.

It could have even been Calder just calmly pointing out how badly the Abidan fucked the people of Asylum lol. Also now that I think about it, it also seems like a similar situation to the incarnations in Travelers gate.

Will Wight

Hahaha yeah, it is similar to the Incarnations. I like that mechanic of people going crazy with power.

I agree that it would have been cool to have Calder point it out to Ozriel’s face, especially since Ozriel basically agrees.

Kingbarbarossa

That's always an issue with forum (or reddit in this case) feedback. This sub is 6k members. Even if ALL of us agree, which we don't, we're still representing <1% of the overall cradle readership. Are we a voice for the majority or minority, or some mixture of the two? I dunno, I've no idea how to find out, and the answer to that question would HEAVILY inform how I interpret any feedback I see here, were I the creator.

That said, I'm certainly of the camp that would like to see more content, but that doesn't necessarily have to take place within book 8 specifically. I'd buy a novella of the skysworn missions you mentioned above, for example. I'm also loving the cut scenes bits at the end of the recent books, I'd buy a collection of that too.

Edit: Also! I really enjoy these windows into your creative process. The post you wrote on listening to the cradle series on audio book was really interesting as well. I've both read and listened to the books, but I really enjoy the audio books because they allow me to do other things at the same time. Roadtrips obviously, but I often listen to your books while playing games too. They've been a fantastic accompaniment to my For Honor sessions over the past few years.

Will Wight

Right!

That’s one of the issues I run into a lot. I have to take the fan feedback I get as representative, because I don’t have any alternative, but at the same time I know it is representative only of my top few hundred most active fans.

Amazon reviews are more representative, because many people will take the time to review but not to interact online, but that’s still only about 1% of my readers.

So it’s tough.

Kingbarbarossa

Yeah, and is there even a good way to get that information? Do you hire a statistician to do a survey? Do they email everyone that bought the most recent book based on the kindle/audible account info? What % of those purchases were gifts? How do you know they finished the book? I dunno. And the big one, do people actually even want the thing they say/think they want?

Will Wight

do people actually even want the thing they say/think they want?

That IS the big one.

Belgriest

There's nothing I enjoy more than a series sometimes taking a break to do something fun, or quirky, or clearly "this is for the fans."

It's gotta be measured though. You can't have this sort of thing last a third of the book. I think you're in the extreme, Will. For you, such a moment would be one scene and you'd think about cutting it, while I think for most of us a chapter or two or that would be fine.

I could use a literary example but did you ever watch Naruto? There's a filler episode early on when the gang try to discover what's under Kakashi's mask. Though it certainly didn't drive the plot forward, that was a great episode.

Obviously for you it'd have to have some kind of plot relevance and I think that's fine, but a little "willservice" wouldn't go amiss 8 books in.

Will Wight

I think that’s a great analogy!

Similarly, in One Piece (the manga, not the anime) after each arc they usually visit one random island and go on a standard adventure that only lasts 1-2 chapters and has nothing to do with the plot.

I like those. We get to see the sorts of antics they get up to in their downtime without slowing down a real story arc.

gruntbuggly

I for one, would love a scene with Yerin and Lindon doing laundry. Can you imagine her blush when her basket falls over and Lindon picks up a pair of her underwear?

_LightBreaker_

She doesn't wear underwear. She just uses SA robes.

Will Wight

A lot of traditional martial arts outfits (maybe all of them, but I’m no expert) did have some kind of undergarment.

Do sacred arts robes? That depends on your imaaaaaaagination!