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Diego

Hey Will is there ultimately a finite number of souls in your universe that are just constantly reincarnated or do new souls pop out of somewhere over time ? Or maybe old souls kinda split and become new souls somehow?

Will Wight

Oh, this is kind of cool!The ancient Abidan who discovered the connection between human souls* and the Way did a lot of experiments to figure out what qualified someone as human. 

A lot of the experiments were horrible. They would do things like burn away sections of the brain to see how small a brain could be before it no longer had a connection to the Way.

They learned a lot this way, but the bottom line is that each soul is new. An infant starts developing a connection to the Way that gets stronger as it grows and becomes more aware, and when you die, the soul vanishes. The connection is severed.

So obviously the Abidan did experiments with resurrection; if you do what Suriel did, reverting them to their previous condition, the connection is reestablished. If you go with a more medical style of resurrection, for instance stopping and re-starting a heart, it also works...up to a point. Your body can only remain dead a certain amount of time before repairs are useless and the soul has departed.

(These parts were fun for me to write because I got to play with the science of a different universe. What tests would we try if we could measure the effect and presence of a soul?)

So...is the soul consciousness itself? Is it a mystical force that ceases to exist when you die? Does it go somewhere else?

There are theories, but even the Abidan don't know.

*(Cradle and the Abidan have two different definitions of what a soul is. The Abidan say it's the undefined property or force that connects a human's will to the Way, while the Cradle "soul" is what they would call a madra network.)

Rhys

Hey will, those experiments sound disturbingly similar yo how we learned about the physiology and anatomy of the brain in today's world. As a medical student you're always a little uncomfortable with some of the knowledge you have because of the way it was found. Is there a similar feeling among some of the Abidan? Like the information is useful, but they're a little guilty about how it was gained.

Will Wight

You've actually touched on something I'm a little nervous about, Rhys.Because the Abidan are all people who shoulder cosmic levels of responsibility, and who often ascended from positions of great power and influence. They'll be hard people who understand how life works, and accept dark truths without blinking. However, they'll also be people with strong moral convictions and opinions.So here's why I'm nervous: I hope I'm up to the task of conveying all that. Your question SHOULD have a wide variety of different answers, depending on the individual Abidan.Some of them would torture mortals for answers even now, because these are critical questions that affect the structure of existence, so they're far more important than individual lives. Others would never use the information at all, because of how it was obtained, and feel very strongly that it should be redacted.Everything is a complex situation among the Abidan, because they're all strong-willed, accomplished, intelligent individuals. With very different ideas on what is moral, immoral, or justified.I'll need to push myself to convey that effectively.

Archlord

Will Wight

Will Wight

What do you want to see in Skysworn

Questioner

Maybe adding some romantic relationships? I know he has a one track mind of "getting stronger" but he is still a 15 year old boy, he should be thinking about girls at least sometimes.

In most fiction works it is either "one fated love" or "A huge harem", I would love to see a more realistic approach in your work which mean Lindon having 4-5 different relationships during the course of the series.(not at the same time, of course).

Will Wight

You know, I understand and feel the same way, but I'm not sure this is the series for it.

It's not like I spend much time on Lindon's day-to-day life. I've been trimming away basically everything except progression and exploration, so anything focused purely on relationship development would be taking time away from either the story or the world.

It's the reason why so many series default to either a single, fated relationship or a harem: time.

For a harem, you just have one love interest per arc. It's part of the story formula, and you repeat it over and over. It takes no extra time because it's part of the story, and because the girls only get shallow development and have no real lives of their own.

And a single relationship is either gotten out of the way early or is someone intimately involved in the plot, just like the main character is, so their development together can be folded into plot development.

Basically, that's two ways to bake romance into a story without it taking up too much word count.

As it is now, an ongoing series of romantic relationships would mean 20-30k more words per novel. Which means either 20-30k fewer words spent on the meat and potatoes of the story, or a lot more time to develop and write each book.

Plus, writing engaging and organic character relationships is far more challenging than writing fights or cool magical doohickeys. So...it comes down to having a limited amount of time, and having to choose where I spend it.

However, despite everything I just said, I'm not entirely ruling it out. I'm spending some time over the next few days just trying to figure out how much of my books should be spent on plot progression, and how much room I have for other things. This will be part of that discussion.

Will Wight

The Blackflame Empire

The Blackflame Empire was founded by dragons.

In Cradle, dragons are a race of sacred beasts that can...well, they're dragons. You know what they can do. Like all sacred beasts and Remnants, their intelligence is based largely on their age and advancement levels, so many of them have human-level intelligence or better.

A family of black dragons once conquered and ruled half a continent, which is a truly massive amount of territory in a world the size of Cradle. They held their empire against all rivals for centuries.

Until a mysterious disaster killed most of the dragons, crippling their ability to continue the bloodline. As you know, no one in a fantasy novel ever discovers the truth behind ancient disasters, so I'm sure it will remain a mystery forever.

With their rulers dead or dying, a clan of humans stumbled upon a method of harnessing the dragons' power. They abandoned their old Path, instead choosing to develop the same sacred arts used by the dragons.

The Blackflame Empire shrunk in size, the humans lacking the ability to control quite as much territory as the dragons could, though it was still home to over a billion people.*

This clan started calling their main branch the Blackflame family, for obvious reasons, and they stayed in control for almost five hundred years.

But human bodies were not well-suited to the power of dragons. Slowly, the family declined, until even those who lived in the heart of the empire thought of them more as symbols and legends than actual individuals.

More and more of the day-to-day workings of the Empire were left to the Blackflames' traditional servants, the Naru clan. They became the face of the Blackflame empire, with their loyal reputation and shining emerald wings, and the people grew to know and trust them.

Fifty years ago, they quietly ascended the throne.

The first Naru clan Empress has since moved into private seclusion, and her son now rules the Empire. As for the Blackflame family themselves, they died out decades ago, gradually eaten from the inside out by their own madra.

That's the story, anyway.

*(A truly ridiculous number of people live in Cradle. The main planet of Iteration 110 is quite a bit bigger than Earth.)

Questioner

Why people from sacred valley are so weak?

John

I think the weakness is easily explained by their isolation. There is much less danger in the sacred valley, and it seems the best way to advance is to be put into danger and have to find a way to survive.As for why a band of lowgolds has not come and stolen all their good artifacts (the schools seem to have some really nice ones), I was wondering that myself. Apparently the entrances to the valley are hidden / difficult to find, but I would think that some of the golds would just climb it to get in, or perhaps use some flying construct that can do better than one of those skimmer clouds.

Will Wight

John is right about their isolation. As for why some random guy hasn't wandered into the valley and ruled like a king, there is an explanation for that, and it will be shown to you clearly in future books.

Avinash

Maybe the valley is protected somehowlike some ancient master probably the missing OZRIEL grew up there and he protected it or shielded it somhow

Will Wight

I can neither confirm nor deny your theory, Avinash.I do want to point out that Suriel didn't say anything about Ozriel growing up in Sacred Valley, just in Cradle somewhere.So maybe he did, maybe he didn't. You don't know. IT'S A MYSTERY!

Questioner

Does the 8 man empire contribute to the hunger madra problem?

Will Wight

They do not.

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

Are there any betting organizations? To bet on the outcome of a duel for instancethere probably is but how advanced is it? Do they manage to show the fights live using dream madra?!

Will Wight

Are there any betting organizations? Yes, and if I have my way they'll show up in book six.

Zane

What was the name of the Li clan's path, and what sort of madra do they use?

Will Wight

Ah.. I have the answer for that, I don't remember. I think they're a venom path because they use snakes. That sounds right. I don't remember I have to look that up, but I think so. I think it's venom.

Questioner

What madra would a path using speech to destroy use?

Will Wight

Wind and destruction? The elemental categories are pretty soft, so I could see wind and blood, wind and life, wind and force...

Questioner

Once Pure Storm Baptism is complete, will Ziel be an Archlord?

Will Wight

Yes. He'll have the capacity to be an Archlord. He will be healed back up. He'll still have to probably work a little bit to get back to his former power, but he'll have the capacity to catch up, and it won't take long. Just have to jam him full of resources.

Questioner

Hi Will, do you actually quantify madra capacity for Eithan and Lindon and everyone in your notes? Or do you write without thinking of specific values? And will we ever see it explicitly in the story for some shock value?

Will Wight

Sometimes I do. I don't plan on giving hard numbers for it in canon, though.

Questioner

What does water turn into if left to gather madra for long enough like a stone will turn into a Titians bone.

Will Wight

Sacred pools, which are referred to differently in different lands, are actually fairly common. Titan's bone is almost mythical, because of how long it takes stone aura to condense in rocks and how deep you have to drill to excavate it. However, sacred pools, divine springs, and so on are commonly used to refine elixirs. They are often cultivated specifically in the gardens of powerful sects.Some believe that the deep ocean has the water with the most condensed and powerful aura, but that's difficult to judge. The power of water is of course overwhelming down there, but no one is known to have filled a container with deep-ocean water and returned to the surface without contaminating the power of the sample.

the questioner

Will, you said in the previous thread that if Lindon were to fight against an elder of his clan he MIGHT win.His biggest problem would be their illusions.Does it mean, though, that physically they are more or less on the same level.I remember the scene in the 1st book, when he was attacked by an iron of the, I think, Mon family, because he shamed that iron by winning against him. Before he could hit Lindon,though, his attack was blocked by an elder, which seemed to lindon, as though the elder teleported in front of him. Would lindon accomplish similar feats..

Will Wight

The elder didn't seem to teleport because he was moving so fast (although he WAS fast, just not that fast). It was because of his mastery over illusion.

That's exactly what Lindon would have to deal with.

Physically, he'd be on a similar level to the Jades of Sacred Valley. His Iron body is of a higher quality, but it's specialized for recovery, not pure strength.

Questioner

Hey Will I want to know something about Asylum's magic system. Intent, does it work even if the object itself does not possess the property the user is attempting to augment it for?

Eg.) Superstitions about the luck a rabbit's foot gives. If the person whom hangs it around his neck 'believes' it grants him that property does it actually accumulate that property?

Will Wight

Luck is one of those things that's difficult to quantify. People do invest objects to make them luckier, but they've been proven not to affect things that actually rely on pure unaffected randomness, like a lottery.

Therefore, it's believed that objects like a lucky rabbit's foot (for instance) would only increase your confidence or concentration, depending on what you mean by "luck."

Most of the invested or Awakened objects with crazy powers have Kameira elements, meaning they're borrowing some of the elemental powers of the Kameira. Or the reality-twisting powers of the Elders.

Michael Redman

If you had to choose a path, which path would you choose?

The answer I've given to this before, there's a couple of them. Path of the Cloud Hammer from the Blackflame empire, I would love to have that. I think Cloud/Force madra seems really cool. It lets you, like, double jump and fly around on clouds like Dragon Ball era Goku. Telekinesis type abilities, I think that's neat. Oh right, Path of the Broken Star, which I've talked about before. It was one of the paths that Lindon could have chosen in Blackflame. It's neat, it's basically like purple energy beams.

Questioner

When Lindon's Story in Cradle is done and finished, do you think the world may get more stories? If no, what are our chances of getting some kind of Index like the Aurelius Archives, covering madra types and paths?

Will Wight

So when Lindon's story is done in Cradle, one thing I'd like to do before the series is over, and I know I am running out of time now, but I would like to do some spin-off short stories, kind of like I've done a long time ago in the past for Traveler's Gate and the one I did for Ziel.  I'd like to do a few more of those.  And the Halloween one I did like five years ago now.  Four years, three years, whatever.  All the years blur together.  So, I'd like to do some of that.  After Lindon's story is over in Cradle, I think... I can't make a decision on that yet.  It's something that I'm open to do more Cradle side stories or extra Cradle stories, I just can't commit to that yet, because a lot of it would depend on me being clear about where the story ends which of course I can't do.  It would also depend on how people respond to that, what else I'm working on.  I do know it won't be the first thing I'm doing; new Cradle book won't be the first thing I'm doing.  I've got to write something else guys.  I love writing new things, and I have been on Cradle for a long time.  I really love Cradle, I really enjoy writing it; that does not mean it is something new though.  So for me, just for my personal preference, I would love alternating between Cradle and something else, but now Cradle is just about over, so I'm probably going to do a new series afterwards.  I have a couple of ideas that I'm batting around for that.  

Questioner

Is there an infinite amount of madra types?

Will Wight

Yes.

manga-terra

Could someone follow a path based on infusing madra directly into the body, with a possible blood/life path as the actual path to deal with the physical issues of the path?

Will Wight

I don't fully understand the theory there, but that sounds plausible.

NYNorthman

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?

Will Wight

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.