Questioner
It has been confirmed by Will that Lindon does not need his pure core to offset the blackflame madra degeneration of his madra channels, as Lil'Blue can heal the damage caused
Will Wight
I may have said this, but it’s not entirely accurate/complete. With Little Blue’s help, Lindon could replace his pure Path with another random Path and not be crippled from damage to his madra channels. However, he would have to play around Blackflame damage by intentionally limiting the amount he used Blackflame. Basically, he’d use his other Path as the default and Blackflame as backup.
Whereas with pure madra, since it causes almost no strain to the madra channels and even somewhat helps cleanse impurities, he can lean on Blackflame harder.
Point is, he could learn another Path if he wanted, he’d just have to be intentional about managing his madra.
Akrasia
Do remnants exist only on cradle? theoretically, if suriel were to die on cradle, would she leave a remnant?
Will Wight
Great question! Puppet Master is indeed correct: practicing the sacred arts is essentially nurturing a Remnant inside you, so when someone from Cradle dies anywhere, they leave a Remnant. Not if someone from outside dies on Cradle.
If Suriel did practice the sacred arts, she would advance absurdly quickly, and her Remnant could potentially eliminate all life on Cradle. But it wouldn't. It would heal people and fix decaying structures and prop up failing governments until it eventually ran out of energy and dissipated into aura.
Questioner
(paraphrased)
How are Sacred Beast's born?
Will Wight
(paraphrased)
So some sacred beasts start as normal animals that live long enough that they have been transformed by aura. Others are actually born as baby sacred beasts, like dragons. Or, in Orthos' case, dragon-turtles
Questioner
(paraphrased)
How do Sacred Beast's advance and when do they learn to shapeshift?
Will Wight
(paraphrased)
Sacred beasts advance differently than sacred artists. Notably in their interactions with soulfire. So at the Lord realm, they start getting limited shape-shifting abilities, which get less limited as they advance
Lil' Blue
(paraphrased)
So, when the Beast King got bathed in soulfire, was that the animal variety?
Your Benevolent Dictator
(paraphrased)
Wait really? So Jay long really could fix his face?
Will Wight
(paraphrased)
Neither Jai Long nor the Beast King are sacred beasts
Questioner
it's mentioned there is only one underlord in the desolate wilds, and only a handful in the blackflame empire, so who is the underlord in the wilds? Assuming someone from the cloud hammers or the 5th unmentioned sect, or another unmentioned sect?
Will Wight
The Cloud Hammers are a relatively small sect, but they produced an Underlord and have a pretty good chance at a second one, so their influence is growing in the Blackflame Empire. And the Arelius family is far bigger and more important than the Jai clan branch from the Desolate Wilds. I should have explained that better in the book, using clearer terminology, and I apologize for that. The Jai in the Wilds are the unimportant. The cast-offs. The only reason the main branch of the clan got involved with them at all was because of Eithan's actions, as well as Cassias' and Jai Long's. Otherwise, the main branch would have let them die alone and never noticed or cared. EDIT: And the Cloud Hammer Underlord stayed out of the events of Soulsmith because he considered squabbling for prizes with Golds beneath him. If Eithan had stayed longer (cough cough if the books were longer cough cough), then the CH Underlord would have made an appearance.
Questioner
Word of Will response to :That's a different take on it than I had. At this point, I'm not considering Lindon's personal growth as much as his team's. You've got the sword master with what I assume will eventually be 6 sword arms sticking from her back, the strategist with no outstanding combat strength, and I'm thinking Jai Long and Jai Chen, as well. Overwhelming destructive power was actually missing from their group. Besides that, Lindon's second core is the air of mystery and the unexpected for me. Curious what he's really able to do with it later.
Will Wight
"You've nailed my thought process. My priority is to balance his eventual team more than Lindon as an individual."
Questioner
How are everyday tasks handled?
Will Wight
Different places in the world handle the basic necessities of life differently. Some places have sects that focus entirely on farming or whatever, but other places prize independence and self-sufficiency. Those sacred artists value the ability to provide food, resources, and basic societal infrastructure for the people that depend on them.
Questioner
Would a fire path be one of the fastest way to level up? All you would have to do is stand next to a barn-fire and absorb the ambient fire manna it would give off, then refine it. On that note how different would the manna type be, between different types of fire. A hearth-fire warming a family home in the winter, with all the "happy" connotation that come with it, compared to like an arson attack destroying someone's home and possession and just everything that they have worked for. Both are fire but you get what I mean.
Will Wight
A fire Path would not be the fastest way to advance, because the aura would be slightly rarer and harder to collect compared to, say, earth or air. But it's still very fast, as are all the Paths that draw from aura easily found in nature.
There WOULD be significant differences between those two Paths! Fire from different Paths could take on different qualities depending on how it's used an where it comes from; you could have a gentle flame that spreads slowly and provides lots of even warmth, versus a violent flames that consumes rapidly and burns out quickly.
Questioner
How will Lindon act the first time he meets someone weaker then him? While Lindon has gotten to what I would call half-iron (his cores are half the size they should be so he levels them up faster then he normal would, and only one avenged to iron) and that makes him stronger then most people his age in the Sacred Valley. Knowing that and meeting them while stronger then them are different. I bring this up because out side of a few people everyone we have met seems to have no trouble "bullying" those weaker then themselves. I know this is a might makes right society but still part of the honor of that system is to ingore/protect those weaker then you. If you only follow those "laws" when other are watching you then that's not honor its saving face. When will we meet people who follow these codes of conduct not for themselves or for "face" but because they believe in them?
Will Wight
This is 100% a spoiler.
Questioner
Who does all of the farming in Cradle? In a society so focused on martial martial abilities. Who would waste time on farming? We know the population of Cradle is many times greater then Earth. So tens of billion of people need to eat. The only real solution I could think of is if there are Paths that happen to both greatly help agriculture and has combat potential. Or as we saw in book two slavery.
Will Wight
There are Paths that are used for agriculture and irrigation, they're just usually low-key. There's a (very) brief reference in Blackflame to the Redflower family, who are in charge of feeding the Empire. By law, they are neutral in every conflict, and anybody who starts a fight with them or tries to pressure them will soon regret it.
Questioner
Do we have a rough time scale of when Ozriel became part of the Abidan?
Will Wight
I'm still trying to decide whether or not the time scale is important enough to have Suriel explore it in the books. But it was several thousand years ago.
Questioner
What conditioner does Eithan use?
Will Wight
He has an entire team of refiners who do nothing but make his hair products.
Questioner
How does advancing work with Soulfire in the Lord stages?
Will Wight
You'll find out!
Questioner
What would happen if Eithan tried using his Madra dissolving technique on Yerin's Blood Shadow parasite?
Will Wight
I'm not sure if I can answer this.
Questioner
How many techniques can a Path have?
Will Wight
No limit, really. But it's not like knowing more techniques is necessarily an advantage.
Questioner
How are scales made and what are they? An inert Forger technique for storing power?
Will Wight
Scales: pretty much, yeah. It's a way to store inert power. They actually take more concentration and skill to make than normal Forged madra, which we'll (probably) go into in Skysworn.
Questioner
How did the Blood line powers originate and how come the Jae Clan don't have any? Are they not one the "Great Families?"
Will Wight
Not everyone inherits a bloodline legacy. Higher-level sacred beasts can take human form, so some people have sacred beast lineage that gives them certain innate supernatural abilities. That includes the Arelius family, but not the Jai clan.
In most cases, a bloodline legacy means that you're naturally inclined more toward one Path than another, though. Your madra might not be entirely pure, even at birth.
The Arelius are an exception to that.
Questioner
So ozriel was born in sacred valley. A great disaster came from sacred valley and killed the dragons. Was ozriel this disaster?
Will Wight
I have never confirmed that Ozriel was born in Sacred Valley. Nor have I confirmed that he wasn't.
Questioner
The other Raccoon Families have brought up a good point about Gokren, the Sandviper TrueGold. Does BlackFlame hold the power to incinerate not only the human, but their remnant at the same time? Or was it just because Orthos is a walking trash compactor and ate Gokren and his remnant?
Will Wight
No, I just skipped the scene with Orthos and Lindon dealing with the Remnants. The technique didn't destroy the Remnants; I just looked back over the scene, and they kill the guys and then the text skips ahead five minutes.
I had intended to imply that Lindon and Orthos spent five minutes cleaning up the Remnants, but I didn't state that. It's an oversight on my part. I should have said something specifically.
Questioner
Are some people in cradle aware of other world with normal people in them?
Will Wight
Yes, there are people on Cradle aware of the existence and nature of other worlds.
