I always wondered how awkward it would be for Arelius children and being able to hear or even see their parents having sex because of the expanded senses
There are scripts that can block their senses. The Arelius family knows how to handle their own abilities.
Also, for most people, it isn’t as clear or easy as it is for Eithan.
Eithan is aware of everything around himself for miles, can he hear just a symphony of farts at all times? Is that why he smiles?
He could! But a lot of having expanded senses is learning to filter them. So he knows how to tune out the endless cacophony of doors slamming, dogs barking, trebuchets firing, IKEA furniture collapsing, etc.
Question not related to this thread but.... At one point in the past you mentioned that Kelsa was originally supposed to leave sacred valley with Lindon but you instead created Yerin. Is Kelsa still going to be a relevant character in the series or will she be another Tenten? The 2 friends I got to read the series both liked her.
Hm, that's a good question. Hang on to that question. Remember that you asked it.
I have a slight suspicion that 113 is dead. Eithan jokes that if he continues to perform well, that he may have to learn 113's name. Likewise, jai daishou offers the death remnant the severed head of an aurelius servant, one who's name its specifically mentioned he never bothered to learn.
I can neither confirm nor deny One-Thirteen’s demise at this time.
In Ghostwater, right after Ziel uses his gatekey, the Beast King and Ziel have a conversation in which the beast king states
"Since you seem so willing to help others, I have something to occupy your time. I put a couple of golds on a task for me, and they seem to have gotten themselves stuck. How about you swing by and un-stick them."
Based on the following paragraphs, and the scene where Ziel intervenes on Yerin's and Mercy's behalf, the Beast King is claiming that he is responsible for Yerin's and Mercy's task.
My question is what do you all think the task the Beast king was talking about?
Yeah, this was my mistake. I should have taken out the line when I took out the other scenes, but I missed it.
The audiobook is in recording now with this line corrected, btw.
I do like releasing on the first of the month regardless of the day of the week, but fun fact: weekends are usually lower sales days.
I don’t know why. Probably sunspots.
Also, I released Ghostwater on a weekend and Amazon dropped the ball, so it was way late in the US and two days later in the UK. Which I suspect is because it was a weekend.
So now I’m wary of weekend releases. Wary.
I forget where it is mentioned, but someone says that part of the process of becoming underlord is making a soul vault. Do you think that this might be what happened when Lindon merged w/ that AI? (Again, I'm sorry that I don't remember its name, horrible memory for names combined w/ no time to read the books again.) OR, do you think that was some other sort of bond forged? If I remember right, a person can only have 1 soul vault, so it would be interesting to see how this plays out and what anyone who cares to post thinks.
I wonder if Lindon will jump way ahead of Yerin, so will she have to catch up to him again, or will Lindon once again have to catch up to her with her no longer being restrained since she absorbed the blood shadow?
What would happen if Ethan and Lindon were to spar, since they both have a method of predicting the present actions and how they'll impact the future.
What do you think is going to happen to Lindon's "borrowed" arm when he outranks it? What do you think he'll do to get a replacement?
That’s not an official soulspace, though it’s a subtle distinction.
This will be thoroughly demonstrated in Underlord! And a recurring theme in future books!
What a great question! Book 7.
His hand will come to life, tearing its way free and strangling him like Ash’s hand from Evil Dead.
I thought that if in Cradle there is something like the champion agumentation treatments of Asylum(in addition to sacred arts in general) could be be effected by turning humans into a sacred beast (or a dread beast).
Though turning humans into dread beasts if possible could result into something rather ghoulish.
I plan to explore this concept in Book 7. The plan might change, but as of now, it’s something I’m including in 7.
I wonder what Simon what do if he could re do it?
If he kept his current memories? Tell Leah what was about to happen and get her to stop it, murder Cormac with a knife, and then head to Valinhall.
He would still go to Kai? Not Indirial?
No, he’d head to Kai and then negotiate with the doll.
How much of Cradle is influenced by Naruto? Is there a larger genre of Asian Martial Arts Magic?
Yeah, like the others have said, wuxia and (especially) xianxia stories are a huge genre, and Cradle is my attempt at making one specifically for a Western fantasy novel audience.
Naruto isn’t actually much of an influence, though I understand why you’d think that. I probably should draw more from Naruto; early Naruto has some really tight storytelling.
I enjoy rule based series like Cradle and I enjoy the audiobooks.
Yeah, I’m happier and happier the more of Travis’ work I hear, and he was my first choice from the beginning. He’s amazing to work with, too.
I think I may have given you the wrong impression in my earlier comment: I’m not looking for restrictions or “rules” for my next series. But there’s an interesting scenario that comes up fairly regularly that I’m trying to get to the bottom of.
Because people often ask for English novels similar to the Cradle series, and the suggestions they get are not very much like Cradle. It’s Sufficiently Advanced Magic, Dakota Krout’s books, Mother of Learning, etc.
I’m not saying anything negative about any of those books, they’re just not very similar to Cradle. SAM and MoL are JRPGs with a heavy focus on technical magic and a protagonist getting stronger by improving skill, not by improving through a cultivation system. Dakota Krout’s first series is a dungeon core series and his second series is a VRMMO LitRPG.
The plot, setting, characters, and even subgenre are different.
The cultivation element is the way in which Cradle is most similar to those series, and even so it is executed WILDLY differently in each series.
It makes me wonder what elements people are identifying in Cradle that resonate with them, so I can understand my readers better. I’m trying to drill deeper into what it is that people are reallyenjoying.
And it also suggests to me that there’s a market out there for more series similar to Cradle. And I don’t think the big appeal comes from the East Asian mythological style elements; I suspect that the superficial stylings could be easily changed.
So anyway, when people catch up to Cradle, they’re hungry for something similar. But what is it they’re really hungry for? That’s what I’m trying to figure out.
I know she's a main character, but maybe writing something specific to Yerin would be cool?
One potential title I have for book (I think it’s 9, but it might be 8, or even not used at all) is Wintersteel. And it’s a Yerin-focused book. Lindon’s still in it, of course, but Yerin has the A storyline.
I have a plot for it and so on. The main concern is that it might not fit the story by the time I get there.
As of 9/29/2019, Will has changed his mind.
As many of you know, my original vision for the title “Wintersteel” was to use it for a Yerin-led book with Lindon playing the backup role that Yerin usually plays.
Uncrowned ending with Lindon being eliminated from the tournament suggests this as well.
However, I abandoned that plotline as soon as I began writing Book 7. As I said in the original quote, my big fear was that the plot I had in mind for the Yerin book wouldn’t fit by the time we got there, and that was the case here.
I tried to figure out a new title, but by the time I started Uncrowned, I had already developed a lot of Book 8 in relation to the title Wintersteel, so I still felt it fit the best.
However, this is the first time where I might re-title a book after announcing it. I’m still considering it. For one reason: because of what I said before, now fans (reasonably) expect it to be all about Yerin.
It won’t be. It’s a Lindon book.
Yerin obviously has her own thing going on as well, and it will be important, but Lindon will pursue a goal of his own like usual. As you would expect if I hadn’t said anything.
This is a good illustration of why I’m always hesitant to talk about my future plans for the series and should probably do so less frequently. What I say outside of the book creates expectations that you carry into the book.
That’s not a bad thing! But it is double-edged, as in this case with people now thinking that Yerin will be the only one doing anything that matters in the next book.
TL:DR - Wintersteel is a Lindon book like usual, though of course Yerin does have a major storyline. And even though I enjoy talking about the stories, I need to learn to keep my trap shut.
...and now that I’ve said all of THAT, let me include my usual disclaimer that I haven’t written the book yet and anything can change in that process.
It was a hobby, but what about now that he has a mind-enhancing constrict?
What would Yerin even do during her free time? All she knows how to do is train.
Well, that’s the point: she doesn’t know how to just spend time with somebody.
You say you aren't good at romance but honestly Lindon + Yerin feels like one of the more natural progressions of romance I've read.
How many dolls are there?
There are about fifty dolls. I never confirmed the real number.
I've had this deep suspicion since BF, that the reason we got gems such as "Fierce River of Fierce Flowing Breath" was that Will came up empty on more epic names like "Void Dragons Dance", and decided to throw some humor in.
It’s honestly because epic names like Void Dragon’s Dance can sometimes be a little TOO serious to be taken seriously, so making some jokes about technique names helps to lighten the mood and kind of hang a lampshade on the edgier names.
There can only be so many Sword of Annihilation or Hellfire Sun Descends before they start to feel a little too grandiose.
What are Mercy's hobbies?
My favorite: “There’s an old saying about asking forgiveness rather than permission,” Eithan said, “but the essence of it is, ‘I’m going to do what I want.’” --Blackflame
Followed closely by: “Huan, how long have you known me?” “Long enough to know that you do what you want.” --Ghostwater
Hey, I’m glad you put this together!
I know I’m late to this thread, but that dialogue in Ghostwater was a callback to the line in Blackflame, and no one’s ever mentioned catching that before. It’s neat that you did!
+1 point for you (the points do nothing).
What would a non-illusory based path of pure light look like?
I can think of a few uses for pure light techniques. Bending sight, blinding opponents, cleansing areas of shadow aura, just plain lighting things up...it probably wouldn’t be the greatest punch-em-up Path, but it would be useful.
