Recent entries

ficklebutter

Is harvesting a sages/someone with acces to the way remnant an almost sure fire way to be able to gain access to the way? We’ve seen two examples of this in the series Yerin and Regan Shen. I just finished my 5th reread seconds ago so I’m brimming with questions if you do not like this question or feel it has an unsatisfying answer please feel free to say so and I’ll ask a different one.

Also I have a sneaky suspicion that eithan grandpa line has something to do with the connection between eithan and the Aurelius monarch I’ve got my Tin foil hat on Will and I’m watching you.

I love these books will please never give up writing. I wanna be an author and you’re one of my heroes.

Will Wight

Awww, you've warmed the cockles of my heart. I have warm cockles now thanks to you.

An almost surefire way? No. But it does help clear the way to higher levels if you manage to adopt a Remnant with greater advancement and/or insight, like a Sage's.

JM-SL

What kind of Iron Body had Harmony?

Will Wight

I don't remember. Off the top of my head, the standard Iron body for Akura elites is one that makes it easier to control their bloodline armor, which becomes a more common technique for them at Underlord and above.

SayLessThanYouKnow

I reread the Cradle books a lot, which is good cause I'm constantly missing details.

This time I just noticed in Soulsmith something related to Uncrowned. When Yerin and Lindon are entering the camp for the first time and confronted by the Sandvipers, Yerin beats one down. Something I didn't notice is

"You're strong, you get respect. You're weak, and you better know someone strong." Yerin slowly laid the flat of her blade down, resting it on the top of Resh's head. The Sandviper woman flinched, and frost began to form in her hair.

The frost come's from Yerin's sword (made from the Sage of Frozen Blade).

In Uncrowned Lindon is surprised when Yerin uses the sword's binding and says he never saw anything to suggest that it had such a binding, but here's the contradictory proof! Also he had previously noticed the blade giving off an intense cold.

Will Wight

It’s not the binding causing this effect, it’s the material the sword is made of.

rawlsrorty

Why is Akura Malice So Passive in Uncrowned?

 

First, I’d like to say that I love this series. I even loved Uncrowned (Akura Justice’s interactions with Lindon were worth the price of admission).

 

That said, I don’t understand why Malice acted the way she did. We hear, again and again, from Charity, that the stakes of the Uncrowned tournament are very high for the Akura. They have to do well because they have enemies encroaching from every corner.

 

Then, the dragon faction proceed to kill an entire vassal team of hers, forcing the Akura to embarrassingly put in a backup team from their own family. Another vassal team has their transportation sabotaged -again by her greatest enemies- and she does nothing. Then, the one monarch who should be a logical ally of hers makes a last minute decision that certainly looks like it’s screwing over her faction. And again, she does nothing.

 

I find Malice’s behavior in Uncrowned even more inexplicable than Northstrider’s. Either she’s playing 17-dimensional chess, or she’s much weaker than the other monarchs and so is afraid to stand up to them even when they blatantly provoke her.

Will Wight

It’s political. In the sense that she and the other Monarchs are constantly jockeying against each other to try and get one up on each other without provoking anyone into a fight.

 

I originally intended for there to be 2-3 scenes of the Monarchs interacting over the course of Uncrowned in order to explain what was going on from their perspective, but I cut it because I’m already introducing a ton of new characters and names in the book and didn’t want to throw in a bunch more character introductions.

 

As for why she didn’t just teleport them there, at this point in the series we haven’t seen anyone teleport anyone else between continents. The Arelius portals do it once every ten years, which requires a permanent portal network, and until the last time they actually had an active Monarch.

 

Charity borrows Malice’s power to teleport a bunch of people across a long distance on the same continent, and she spends time and resources setting that up.

 

(I intend to include the Monarch scenes in the next book because I’m going lighter on the new characters this time.)

OtherAndrew

Will you directly deal with the Abidan in your other series?

Will Wight

In Elder Empire, yes. In Traveler's Gate? ...maybe.

Leigh_Ola

So, I recently started watching Bleach. It's a popular anime with 300+ episodes that started airing in 2004.

I couldn't help but notice similarities between Simon (The protagonist in Will Wight's Traveler's Gate) and Ichigo (The protagonist in Bleach):

Ichigo is an adolescent boy who uses a ridiculously big sword. Just like Simon.

Ichigo has a mask that when worn, allows him to get stronger. The main upgrade is his speed. Just like Simon.

Ichigo gets chains around his arms when he uses his maximum power. Just like Simon.

Ichigo has a small, talking stuffed animal doll. Just like Simon.

When Ichigo uses his mask, he risks losing a control and going "mad". Just like Simon.

Ichigo's large sword comes from a dark, brooding, powerful man who's now stuck in his "world". More similarities.

There are even similarities between Ichigo's personality and Simon's...

The fact that Bleach has been running for years before Traveler's Gate was released, and Will Wight seems to be a fan of Anime makes this seem like more than just a series of coincidences.

Here's a link to pictures of Ichigo and other Bleach characters : https://www.wallpaperflare.com/anime-bleach-kurosaki-ichigo-orange-hair-chains-sword-anime-boys-wallpaper-tssqn

Perhaps there's more to this than I'm aware of, so I'd like someone - Will, maybe? - to clear this up, because watching Bleach is starting to unnerve me.

Will Wight

So I love Bleach, but it didn’t actually have any influence on Simon’s design.

Obviously I’m going for a very anime aesthetic, hence the giant swords, but I described them to my artist as Final Fantasy swords rather than Bleach swords. The chains and doll and mask don’t come from Bleach at all.

Chains: I just needed a visual indicator of the increasing influence of the Territory and thought chains would be cool.

Doll: I wanted a prop to show that Kai was crazy, and I thought talking to dolls was a cool way to do that, and then I thought it would be funny if he WASN’T crazy and the dolls actually talked. Plus Simon is alone a lot and needed someone to trade dialogue with, so that’s where that came from.

Mask: I didn’t intend to give Simon a mask power-up, but Malachi had a mask that he would have dropped when he died, and I thought it would be logical if Simon picked it up. Then I was like “Hey, I wonder what would happen if Valinhall took this in like they’ve taken so many other things?” And thus the mask was born.

Bleach did have one major influence on my writing: the Abidan organization that oversees the multiverse was essentially the Gotei 13 in its first iteration. The fact that the Judges have long flowing white mantles of energy now is a nod to the haori of the Bleach Captains.

atlantean0208

 

What is the point writing a Xuanhuan novel where the hero is weak and not winning the tournament and always weak among his peer. Most Xuanhuan novel, the hero if not powerful to fight cross level, they mostly unbeaten on the same level. Can you just stop writing Lindon like he some kind of Batman wannabe who always have to fight using scheme and plot instead of like a true Blackflame warrior who keep advance while just killing everybody in his path. You let blackflame as his path, but Lindon is more like a weak ants, so what is the point?

Will Wight

If I’m understanding your comment correctly, you want Lindon to win all the time because that’s what usually happens in the genre.

I agree, that does usually happen! But I don’t like that, and here’s why: usually in these web novels, the author pretends like the hero has been through a lot of adversity, but they haven’t. They win all the time, and they never lose, and they are always the best forever.

They never fight someone who is their equal because no one is their equal.

I don’t find that very interesting or engaging, to be honest. It’s pretty one-dimensional. I also don’t respect what the character has done if they only did it because they were the best of all time from the first chapter.

I would rather read about someone who becomes the best, not someone who is the best, so that’s where I intend to go with Cradle.

Is Lindon going to lose all the time? No, of course not! He lost here, and he’s as frustrated about it as you are.

But he’s going to buckle down and continue to push forward anyway, because that’s who he is.

goody123

Travelers Gate Trilogy has been my personal favorite fantasy series since i read it. And Cradle is easily one of my favorites of all time (if the books length was as long as other epic fantasy series like WoT, Malazan or Stormlight Archives i bet it easily rivals them .. in fact i feel Cradle is just as epic for me).Thank you for bringing life to series i didn't i needed but i did. Which also coincidentally the reason why life is alot more bearable to live(given IRL is brutal)Btw Travelers Gate and Cradle related question if you don't mind me asking.1. If Simon goes ascension route. Is Caela eligible as his future presence ? How about the Eldest ?2. Why did Eithan decide to pick pure madra path ?

Will Wight

Well, we can agree on at least one thing: real life is best escaped whenever possible. I'm glad you enjoy the books!1.) Yeah, Caela could potentially become his Presence if he ascended.2.) It's a spoooooky myyyyyysteeeerrrryyyyy....

TemerityInc

Out of curiosity, has anything in the plot or world building changed from your original ideas because of a fan idea?

Will Wight

Not yet! I have often changed my presentation of an idea based on fan feedback, like bringing in a concept earlier or differently than I planned, but I haven’t changed the plan based on fan ideas.

As George RR Martin likes to say, if you set up the book so that the butler did it, and then you read online than everyone guessed the butler did it, you can’t now change it to the maid doing it. The foreshadowing and thematic setup won’t make any sense.

So I can’t imagine changing direction dramatically based on fans guessing correctly or coming up with a new idea, but I could imagine someday adopting a smaller idea. Like “It would be cool to see Lindon do X,” and I read that and think “Hmmm, it WOULD be cool to see Lindon do X.”

But most of the time, either fan ideas make no sense with what’s been established in the books or I’ve already considered them.

Will Wight

At last, here's Worm! I was waiting for this! I thought people would bring up Worm characters immediately, and I was kind of prepared for it, but this took longer than I expected.

1.) Suriel vs. Projected Siberian

The real answer to this is that Suriel analyzes the structure of the energy making up the Siberian projection and--depending on the mechanics of how the power works--either severs it from the source or deconstructs it, destroying the projection.

However, I suspect you wanted a punch-em-up, so let's take that case.

The Siberian's hit isn't enough to break Suriel's armor, but it knocks her backwards. At which point Suriel realizes this, does some calculations with her Presence, and retaliates with a blow that should knock the Siberian into orbit.

It fails, because the Siberian disperses any kinetic energy directed into her. All that energy has to go somewhere, so it's either absorbed by the construct itself or vented into her surroundings.

If it's absorbed by the construct, then Suriel has no choice but to sever, disassemble, or overload the construct, again depending on the mechanics of the power. If it's vented into her surroundings, then Suriel hits her hard enough to send a square-mile chunk of the city into orbit.

2.) Suriel vs. Zion

This is more even than anyone else vs. Zion, because Suriel can counter his most overpowered ability: Contessa's power. Her Presence is connected to Fate and has similar capabilities, so they can both see what steps are needed to defeat the other.

This would be a fight that would threaten Suriel, and I could see her contacting other Abidan for help. In the end, if she had to fight alone, it would be a close battle. This is an enemy she would normally call Gadrael, Razael, or Ozriel for.

I believe she COULD take it, but it would be difficult.

3.) Simon vs. Skitter

This would be the most irritating power Simon has ever gone up against.

As long as we are talking Skitter and not Khepri, I think Simon would get it. She still doesn't have superhuman speed, so while she's commanding her deadly cloud of insects, he just runs up in bullet time and puts a sword through her head.

MountainKing

Who would be a better father figure for Lindon, Fury or Northstrider?

Will Wight

They would both be terrible, but Fury is actually a negligent father. Northstrider would at least take care of him.

Donraj

I liked the bit after the fight with Naian Blackflame where Lindon reflects that he hasn't really done much to make him a good person and that it was nice to do something charitable for a stranger for a change.

Will Wight

I felt like Lindon needed to at least acknowledge the fact that he’s usually driven by selfish motivations.

Argent

How would the Abidan Presence view Dross? Is he... weird? Immature? Undeveloped? Freak?

Will Wight

Immature or underdeveloped.

CharmingLordEithan

Who is the most charming Monarch?

Will Wight

Charming: probably Malice, I would guess. Most of them can be charming when they want to be.

Discord

Is Reigan Shen a furry?

Will Wight

I mean, he’s an animal in human form, so I guess technically...

notacommittee

If Eithans second best feature is his skin, what is his best? Hair, smile, ...?

Will Wight

He would say his winning personality.

Questioner

How charming was Tiberian Arelius?

Will Wight

Tiberian was very charming.

Questioner

When will Wintersteel pick up?

Will Wight

As I have it planned currently, it’s going to pick up immediately after Uncrowned ends.

Questioner

Why aren't the books longer?

Will Wight

If I could still release 2 books a year and have them be 20k-30k words longer than they are now, but make no extra profit, I’d do it in a heartbeat. (I wouldn’t literally double the size of the books in the middle of a series, that would be jarring, but I could imagine a substantial increase of ~25%.)

But it’s like you said: if I take that whole year to write one double-sized book and release it, I’ll have fewer people reading it. So I’ve done two books’ worth of work for less than one regular book’s worth of visibility and engagement.

I can’t maintain momentum at that pace, so I’ll slowly lose visibility until I vanish in the sea of Kindle Unlimited.

Also, I have people emailing me angrily every time about having to wait six months. I can’t even imagine the response if I said I was adjusting my pace to one book per year.

There are a lot of reasons, but they mostly relate back to momentum.

I’m reliant on Amazon for all of my marketing, which includes letting anyone who isn’t subscribed to my social media accounts know that the book is released. Most of my readers are not following me for releases, they simply notice that a new Cradle book is out and go buy it.

Amazon is geared toward a structure of pushing the leaders, i.e. the more you sell, the more visibility you get on the site, and the more you sell. As long as you keep pushing that wheel of releases, you stay highly ranked on the site.

And I am dependent on that rank to reach most of my readers. The MOST efficient release schedule would be a book every 1-3 months, but they would take a...significant drop...in quality if I tried to write them in that amount of time.

I’ve stuck to a schedule of 2 books per year, which I’ve been able to do because I’m already established and have a large fan base, but I do see a huge dip in reader engagement and awareness between those two releases. I’ve been told by many other authors that this schedule is not frequent enough or maintainable...except that I’ve been able to do it.

High-profile published authors can do otherwise because their publishers handle the job of getting the word out to readers, but since I’m dependent on Amazon, the name of the game is momentum.

So...given that I have a finite time frame within which to write and produce a book, I have a finite word count, and trial and error has taught me that the sweet spot for that word count is about 90-100k words.

There are many other reasons, such as consistency within a series, but this is the main one. If I only release one book a year, people forget about me, sales and visibility drop, more people forget about me, and then instead of topping the Amazon charts I’m no longer able to write full-time. And then the books take even longer.

That’s the partial answer. TL;DR - It’s about how Amazon works.

However, this answer is complex and always evolving. Any part of it could change as my situation and Amazon’s policies change, which they both often do.

AlexandertheDrake

Has anyone one else noticed that Yerin knew the symbol for Unsouled in book one?

Will Wight

She is! This is addressed in Blackflame, I believe. She recognizes some of the old symbols, like the one used to indicate Unsouled, which are separate from the script used in everyday writing. The reason being that those symbols are often used in training manuals.

Also, since Unsouled is a concept unique to Sacred Valley, she learned about that symbol and its meaning since arriving there with her master.