Recent entries

Questioner

How many continents are there on Cradle?

Will Wight

I think five major continents.

Questioner

Do sacred beasts have "physical" cores like dreadbeasts, or are they like sacred artists' cores?

Will Wight

Dreadbeasts have their spirits all mangled up with their bodies, so they’re weird. Sacred beasts have spirits like humans do.

Questioner

Will those powers eventually affect Yerin or will she be able to access them as she advances?

Will Wight

Maybe, maybe not!

Questioner

Additionally, those colored rings of madra that Lindon sees around the sword sages remnant! Those just little cool visual effects? Extra soul spaces (will yerin find some presents as she advances?) Or are they indications he has more than one path!?!

Will Wight

They are little extra powers that the Sword Sage gained over his long career that he had stored in his soul. They became part of his spirit over time, and merged with his Remnant when he died.The only spoiler is the nature of what those powers were.

Questioner

So the reason that Blackflame is corrosive to madra channels is because the fire part slighty damages them, and the destruction part speeds that up?

Will Wight

That, and because their cycling techniques emphasize output over safety. The original version of this Path was developed by pure-blooded black dragons for use by other pure-blooded black dragons, so they weren’t concerned about the fragility of humans.

Questioner

If two monarchs were to somehow fall in love, and get married what would the wedding look like? How powerful would their kids be?

Will Wight

Rarely happens, but the wedding would be a continental event that involved altered weather, lights in the sky, and all conflict forcibly stopped. Their children would have to start from the Foundation level like everyone else, but depending on their inherited abilities, they might be able to exert a Lowgold level of power as toddlers.

Questioner

The wastland artist in the excerpt is described as "horned". What does his horn (horns?) look like?A heavy rhinotype horn, like a stag etc or?

Will Wight

Two upward-curving emerald horns. They’re luminous lime green at the base and they run up the gradient to the points, which are dark green.

Questioner

Are you able to reverse advancement/progress? For example, it was mentioned that not having a perfect iron body hurts your chances for advancement. Is it at all possible to reverse damage done by not advancing correctly?

Will Wight

Often, yes.

Questioner

Are Elder Whisper the ancestor of all the little sacred beast foxes in the sacred valley?

Will Wight

Yes

Questioner

Is Hunger Madra an artificial creation? If not, where would it show up naturally? If this is too spoiler-y, then what techniques did the Path of the Broken Star use, and how did its practitioners evolve into the Jai clan?

Will Wight

It is artificial.

Questioner

What Iron body does Cassius have?Edit: Also, since I don't think it's a spoiler at this point, is there a stage between Lord and Herald?

Will Wight

I don’t remember. I do have a name for Cassias’ Iron body, I just don’t have my notes with me and I can’t remember.

It goes Archlord—Herald, unless you’re awesome enough to be titled a Sage.

Questioner

Is there another level we haven't seen yet or were you counting sage (or just miscounting) in saying there were 5 levels between Eithan and the Monarchs?

Will Wight

I've been going back and forth on the number of ranks and how to describe them. I knew generally what they were, but I've been messing with them behind the scenes for a while.

So it could either be that I was counting Sage back then or that, at the time I answered the question, there were five ranks. I don't really remember.

Questioner

Are there any sacred beast only villages?

Will Wight

Yes, and hopefully you will get to see an example very soon.

Questioner

When are you functionally immortal?

Will Wight

I may change this, as with anything that hasn't happened in the books yet, so take it with a grain of salt.But Sages almost don't age, and Heralds and Monarchs do not.Most Heralds and Monarchs, I should say.

Questioner

so does that apply to normal Archlords as well, or just Sages?

Will Wight

No.

Questioner

I'm going to assume that means it only applies to Sages

Will Wight

Yes.

Questioner

How does aging work as you advance?

Will Wight

For the Lord realm, your body is re-forged in stronger soulfire each time you advance, so your body is made more like it was in your prime. If you were younger than your prime, you would look older, and older people look younger. Then, from there on, you age more slowly. It gets stronger each time you advance, but it only happens when you advance, so basically Jai Daishou's only hope of living significantly longer would have been to hit Overlord. Which he accepted that he couldn't do.

Ruff

so i think dream madra can be refined to nightmare madra.... i think that is the only way that works.... unless its not meant to be literal nightmare madra and that the feeling of his madra is like nightmares but it still falss under a specific madra type. or at least thats what i thought. I thought there are so many prime madras (imagine as you will the prime colors that can be combined and refined into a whole bunch of other types of colors)

Will Wight

@Ruff I thought there are so many prime madras

There are, but different cultures and sects disagree on what they are. There are greater aspects and lesser aspects of madra. Greater aspects are universal and usually elemental, like fire or water. Lesser aspects are the weird things that practitioners can do to their madra over time to make it take on a certain quality, like making it sticky or in the shape of a snake. Lesser aspects are what make everything confusing.

I'll be going into this eventually in the books, but I haven't up to this point because A.) most characters aren't aware of this, and B.) I'm trying to find a way to explain it so that it makes the magic system less confusing instead of more confusing, which is what I'm afraid of.

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