Recent entries

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1141 Copy

    Questioner

    Do pills contain toxins?

    Will Wight

    Not exactly. The more I developed refining, I understood why wuxia made pills have toxins. In Cradle they follow some of the same rules, such as elixirs and pills having less effect the more you use them. 

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1142 Copy

    Felix

    I wanted to inquire as to how a combination of let's say life and death madra would occur in a path.

    Will Wight

    Most of the people on Cradle consider death madra a variant of life madra because they share a lot of the same properties, and if you combined death madra with life madra you would basically just have death madra. So that's basically just what it would be; it would just be death madra. You've taken life and combined it with the form of death and that really is just death. That's all you'd have. However, there is at least one character that exists that I have outlined that uses both life and death madra. And they use two different paths.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1144 Copy

    TheLostReader

    What would be an effective death madra path?

    Will Wight

    The weirdest thing about death madra is that it's kind of like blackflame madra in that it's not really healthy to interact with. Like pure destruction madra, which everybody of course thinks is gonna be the best cause it sounds awesome, it doesn't do well on it's own, so it usually needs like a physical medium. So therefore you would see a lot of destruction fire, destruction wind, death wind, death fire something. Something that has a physical form. Cause otherwise it's kind of like you're projecting radiation at your enemy, and they're just like waiting until they die. So an example of an effective death madra path would be off the top of my head like a death sword path so that you could really focus it and it would be very focused and then you could like, try and cut off somebodies life with a slice. Now, would that be necessarily any more effective than actually just straight up sword madra? Not necessarily, because one of the things that we're gonna get into, I mentioned this mechanic a little bit earlier, but everybody's got life madra in them, everybody's got life force in them, they all generate cause you're alive. So you generate life force, so you've got kind of a life line, so you've got a life line. So therefore death madra has to sever or erode away that life line in order to kill someone. So it's not as completely overpowered as it seems.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1146 Copy

    Scholar Warrior

    Could you explain some about how the business is working and adapted over time? I think you mentioned you now have a full-time team?

    Will Wight

    Yes, I can, and I would like to do that. So, the team now consists of quite a few people. I'm gonna miss somebody--and they're on here listening, too--so I'm gonna miss somebody and then they're gonna be mad. 

    Lil' Blue

    All caps TEAM.

    Will Wight

    Yeah, the TEAM!

    So, I started off with House of Blades. It was me; my family helped a lot; my friends helped a lot; and we had a family contact with a guy who was a graphic designer who had done some work with my dad fifteen years before. And so I had a contact with him and he helped me develop the covers, and so he thought, like I did, that House of Blades wasn't going to make any money. So he helped me work out a deal with some student graphic designers of his, and I would pay them half of a fair value of a cover upfront and then they would have the first ten percent of profits until they got paid the other half. And we all kind of knew--we were going into this eye's wide open--we all kinda knew that I probably would never make that much money. So, you know, joke's on us. That was great for me; it was a cool experience for them, and then, again, they got paid so it was a real job. And so that was it. That was the team.

    Over time we have evolved that. We've just continued to bring people on board--especially this last year. One of the big reasons we were able to hire Travis and that we were able to do the audiobooks at all is because I hired an assistant. I hired a few more people part time to do things like manage my social media, Facebook page, and a woman to optimize our meeting time and kind of administrate the team. There was a woman we brought on, not long ago, that does our bookkeeping and interfaces with our accountant. We have my business manager--the one who's always kind of whipping me to write, and he's the one who always wants the books to cost more and for us to make more money so that we can, therefore, serve the readers better--that's his whole thing. He's like, "The more money we have, the more we can do for people and produce more books," and I'm always like, "But I want the books to be cheaper; and I want to spend longer on them; and all I care about is the story and the art." So he's like the devil to the angel that I am. That's how I think of it in my head. He probably has the exact opposite picture.

    Look, this developed over time. This is year six. Only this year has our team really been this organized. So we have major quarterly meetings in which we plan out kind of the schedule for the year. We take a look at where we are, where we can go. But that's the only reason we were organized enough to make these audiobooks happen. We had people on it. And so that's why we were able to get the audiobooks out. Now, the audiobooks have provided such steady income that now--ebooks are very spikey, you get one big spike and then it drips down--we've been in just a much steadier financial position and that's helped--we have a lot more overhead now because, again, I hired a lot of people. But we also have much steadier income as a direct result of bringing them on. So it's actually pretty cool to see the baseline of the business go up as we spend more money and hire more people. So it's actually been really cool.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1148 Copy

    Ira

    How did they make it to the island on the ship without crashing.

    Will Wight

    When they were making it to the island on the ship-I assume you're referring to the chapter one of Underlord-they made it to the island on the ship. They had enough fuel and cloud aura and cloud madra to make it there no problem. And then they were making it back and none of them had any cloud aura, which Renfei did. So they didn't have a reserve of cloud scales or anything, she just powered it herself. So therefore, they're flying black without Renfei, they only have pure madra, blackflame madra, sword madra, and shadow madra on board. And none of that powers [the ship? buckshit?]. There you go.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1149 Copy

    Cash4Golda

    Was the icy location where Northstrider killed the huge dragon at the end of GW on the Iceflower Continent? What kind of dragon and level was it? 

    Will Wight

    It was on the ice flower continent if i recall correctly, and what level was it? I am not at liberty to discuss that, because it may or may not come up.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1150 Copy

    ReSpenDlent

    Do you ever write profiles and interviews of your characters before writing them into your stories? 

    Will Wight

    That's a technique that I've heard people....wow the word really is ReSpenDlent, oh cool okay. So I ever write profiles and interviews with my characters. I don't anymore, I used to do that, that was before i wrote a real book. See I did it for short stories, so i did because that's kinda a common writing exercise, i'm sure that why you mentioned it. And that is a good way to create characters, but i found to me, i was doing that more to stall for time and not write than i was to allow me to write. so i spent a lot of time interviewing my characters and having them explain what was in their pockets and doing all those other character development exercises, which i have nothing against, if they work for you great, but for me i realised i was doing that instead of writing them. So the one thing i have found that is a little helpful, is, I thought of doing this not to long ago, is for character dynamics, character interaction. So like Lindon and Yerin, so they know each other well, they've been interacting a lot. So one thing i do occasionally, very briefly, is i sort of think about or write down how they would interact in a certain scenario. I have them talking to each other and talking with other people together, in order to get an idea of their interactive dynamic, so they feel like they've had a lot of conversations and they talk back and forth. That's something that I think I'm probably going to do more. I've recently started thinking of character dynamics as something that i can play with a lot more than I do, and that's something that I'll probably be using that tool for.But for me, that exercise initially took the place of actually writing, so I stopped doing it.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1151 Copy

    Bamfious

    Who has ascended to Monarch fastest without inheriting the power? How long did it take them and what’s their story?

    Will Wight

    yeah see that's still a great question, its just its another one of those things that its hard for me to answer, i really should do the research on this question and actually answer you cos you've asked me several times. So who ascended to monarch the fastest... that's a difficult question for me to answer, because i actually went back and looked over, this is kinda cool, i went back and did a timeline of all the living monarchs now, the 8 monarchs who are currently on - 7 monarchs who are still currently on Cradle. And so I have a good timeline for Northstrider, and Akura Malice and people like that, but i don't have, yeah i'd have to look it up, i'd have to partially look it up partially make it up. So i could make it an answer right now, but i'm afraid that it its going to contradict something else i'll say later. So that's why its tricky for me, so i apologise i really do wanna answer this question, I will eventually, I'm gonna make it happen. Its actually seven, seven are left.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1152 Copy

    Puppet Master

    Hey! Why'd you name yourself UwU?

    Will Wight

    I did not. That did not happen. However, the name Uru came from--a lot of people thought it came from the Myst games because one of the Mist games is Uru, and it actually didn't. I mean I played Myst but I'm not a huge Mist fan. It was really I was looking for a short, simple, easy-to-spell username that I could use, and it was in middle school I think. And what I liked about Uru was all three of the letters in it are words. So you are you. That said, it has no meaning. I didn't intend that as a statement: you are you. But it just you know--its all three letters are words and it's easy to spell, spelled the same forwards and backwards, and I thought it sounded kinda cool. So, there it is.

    Fun fact about the username is I actually wrote a brief scene kinda like an almost-fanfiction thing, but it's about an original character Uru who, in a polytheistic pantheon, was this wizard who was kind of a go-between between the gods because the gods can't act directly. So he was sort of a mercenary wizard that got hired by the different gods in order to work for one god against another just for hire. So, I thought that was a neat concept. I might revisit it someday. I've still got the scene.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1153 Copy

    Reality Spasm

    We've seen a couple different techniques involving shadow, but what kind of alterations does shadow madra cause in other aspects?

    Will Wight

    Shadow Madra is difficult to detect. It's kind of subtle, so it's got kind of a veiling effect, so it hides things like you would expect shadow to. And shadow also affects the spirit more than a lot other aspects do. It's kind of insidious, it seeps into you. And so, it's not real great for dealing physical damage, to use a video game term. So, it doesn't really hurt you that much; it's not good for breaking boulders. But, it is pretty good for shredding peoples souls and scripts and whatever.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1154 Copy

    Questioner

    Has it been cleared up why Lindon didn't take more water from the Life Well, I believe is the deaging one, because apparently he had extra empty vials.

    Will Wight

    That's referenced in Underlord a little bit. So, I go into that a little. But, the bottom line is that he just didn't see an application for advancement so he didn't think of it as very important, so he just didn't prioritize it. And then, he also didn't expect the fight with Harmony to culminate in the destruction of the world, because he wasn't aware that he was in a book. So, he thought he was going to have time to go back.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1155 Copy

    Lil' Blue

    How prevalent is illiteracy on Cradle?

    Will Wight

    That just depends very wildly on where you are. So, in the Ninecloud court everyone is literate. Out in the back end of nowhere, in the desolate wilds of the Blackflame empire, lots of illiteracy.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1157 Copy

    Questioner

    In one of the short stories you had Northstrider fighting Alin. And one of the thoughts that we read from Northstrider was mentioning about how weak one of the Abidan was that contacted him. Does that mean, I guess theoretically, that Northstrider would be able to kill them if he fought them. 

    Will Wight

    Yeah. Northstrider could beat some of the weaker or less combat focused lower level Abidan. Absolutely. Suriel would, you know juggle him like a ball.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1158 Copy

    Arch

    Remnants. They grow in intelligence and insight when they rank up, don't they?

    Will Wight

    They often do. Yes.

    Arch

    And is it possible for a Remnant to touch the Way and become a Monarch or ascend or anything like that?

    Will Wight

    Yes, it is possible, so Remnants can cultivate, basically. They can advance to the point where they can develop their body--their bodies become more and more real as well as more and more intelligent and advanced. Therefore, by the higher levels they're almost no different from sacred artists. There actually is one Monarch alive on Cradle right now who was a Remnant.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1159 Copy

    TransEmo

    What is the madra type of the Wei testing bowl?

    Will Wight

    Pure. It's pure madra scripted to behave in a certain way. But, it's really just scripted to enhance the normal reactions that pure madra would have to their spirits. 

    Questioner 2

    Where would they get that much pure madra?

    Will Wight

    Kids.

    Underlord Release Q&A ()
    #1160 Copy

    Decadakon

    After learning a path, could you work backwards and get a new iron body and, like, purify your core?

    Will Wight

    Technically, you could. That is something that absolutely could happen. It would be incredibly inefficient and expensive. More expensive if its less, you know, one or the other. But, ya, you could definitely do that. You can undo the effects of an iron body, it's just difficult and expensive. You can definitely purify your core, it's just difficult and expensive. And you can retrain, it's just difficult and expensive.