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Kazology

I was really surprised to see Lindon's arm start phasing through things in Ghostwater. In Skysworn there was no mention of this, and Lindon seems to consider the Cloud Hammer arm largely for having a similar property. Was this something that you decided afterwards should be common to all remnant prosthetics, or is there a reason we didn't see this happening before? Followup: Gesha told Lindon that eventually the arm would become as part of his spirit as his original one. Is Lindon's forgetfulness with cycling madra through it a sign this hasn't happened yet, or will he always have to consciously choose to make the arm solid?

Will Wight

That was just a mistake. Full explanation: I wanted there to be something more to the adjustment process for his new arm rather than just periodically losing control of it. The original idea, and the difference between that and the Cloud Hammer arm, was that the hunger madra arm would require him to focus on controlling madra in order to keep it doing what he wanted it to. However, as I wrote, that got shortened to "it phases through objects when it doesn't have enough madra" simply because that was easier to illustrate. So while the original idea was distinct from the Cloud Hammer arm, I completely forgot to keep it consistent in the end.

MountainKing

Do cores convert a Sacred Artist's physical mass into madra, to create more madra?

Will Wight

Pure madra is actually generated by the way the human body processes life aura and blood aura. It really is the interaction of body, mind, and spirit, in a sense.

MountainKing

So a sacred artist's body is naturally consuming blood, dream, and life aura? 

Will Wight

Basically, yeah.

MountainKing

What kind of benefits do Cradlites get for doing that?

Will Wight

The ability to use madra.

Questioner

Can you create a new madra type by mixing two others together?

Will Wight

Yes, and in fact that's how most Paths work.

The classification of madra into aspects is purely a human invention to help them understand the properties of different Paths. You could combine water and fire madra into a burning, fluid, liquid power...if you figured out a way to do it.

Questioner

If you were to revisit Cradle what path would you pick for the MC to follow?

Will Wight

You know, there are a number of changes I would make to Cradle if I were able to go over it again.  So, there were a number of things I considered for the main character.  I probably would stick with the Path of Twin Stars though; I ended up really liking that.  That was something I picked for a number of reasons, some of which ended up being relevant, some of which ended up being unnecessary.  So I wouldn't change Lindon's path I don;t think.  I might change how it developed or how he learned about it or how he developed it, but I don;'t think I would actually change his double path.  And I don't think I would change, I like one being a combat thing and being a sort of control thing.  I also like it being thematically linked to one another; both sides being thematically linked to his path and thematically linked to the icon he eventually gains and to... I just like the way that came together.

One of the main things I would change I think, I would change... Now here's one thing.  So initially, ruler techniques were still the control option.  They were a lot more about dealing physical damage, there was a lot more of a division between dealing spiritual damage and dealing physical damage.  So striker techniques, and madra, and pure madra in general, would be better at damaging things that had a spirit and had a spiritual component, and not as good at, for instance, cutting though a door.  Where as ruler techniques and weapons were a lot better at physical destruction, destroying things that didn't already have their own madra system.  So that was a dichotomy I planned, one of those things that I was going to play into through Path of Twin Stars; he has one path that is good at physical destruction, one path that is good at combat in a spiritual way.  I would emphasize that more in the magic system.  

In terms of storytelling, what I would change is probably a lot more about that Abidan stuff.  So I would unravel that differently.  I think I would have more of a character and character arc for Suriel.  And I would arrange it differently.  Also, now that I know how many books there are going to be in the series, I would divvy out information in a more controlled way, because I know how many books there are going to be.  That is one of the things that was irritating, because I didn't know how many there were going to be, I didn't know how to split all of that up.

Questioner

What would an amazing pure goldsign be What would a meh pure goldsign be

Will Wight

Amazing: blades extending out of your forearms that cut through only spirits, ignoring matter and flesh. Meh: endless pure madra tears running down from your eyes.

Anon

On the topic of the planet Cradle and vital aura. Is the planet called Cradle because it's great for cultivation? OR is there another reason like some awesome being in the center who is not yet hatched / or is being suppressed? Such an incredible entity might be the source of the vital aura that makes Cradle such an great place to cultivate. 

Also, will Lindons double cores allow to for things like ascending to gold with black dragon madra and then raising the second cool to iron thus adapting Lindons blood forged body in a way the original human dragon path cultivators could not? 

Also, is the Black dragon path madra another way to consume and process the madra other paths? 

Will Wight

1.) It's called Cradle because it's great for cultivation, but there are often double meanings in Abidan designations. The Elder Empire world is called Asylum, which means protection, but it is also has...other implications.

2.) No, that specific chain of events will not happen.

3.) No.

bamfious

Mercy's 4th Technique is called "Dream of Darkness"

Will Wight

Funny story about that: I immediately regretted naming that technique in Uncrowned.

I don't like technique names that also contain the name of the aura, because then you end up with weird phrases like "She wove dream madra into the Dream of Darkness, which projected dreams into the darkness using dream aura and darkness aura and dark dreams of Dreamdark, the dreamiest darkest dream that ever dreamed a dark dream."

So when I was actually writing this technique in Wintersteel, I came up with a way cooler name for it: World of Night. And then I remembered I already revealed its name in Uncrowned (taken straight from the character sheet I made for Mercy's Path like three years ago), and I tore out my hair and burned all my clothes in regret.

EDIT: Also yes, the Book manages the extra aspects. She harvests only shadow aura, and her Book has a limited supply of other aspects that she can use initially, but she’ll eventually use that up and have to cycle more from the environment. Everything other than pure shadow is stored in the Book, not her core.

bamfious

Damn. It’s just one single line from one simple Sage....

Can’t Mercy alter it herself and make it different ?

World of Night is cooler.

Will Wight

Oh man, you’re right, I might do that.

It’s Charity’s technique, too, so that could add extra weight to Mercy going “Yeah, but...no.”

Kandra

So, mechanically, could you say that each page of the book acts as a second core, almost (but not quite)?

Will Wight

I have a technical answer and a meme answer.

Technically, it stores madra in the same way that any construct stores madra. Each page’s store of energy is used to power the binding on that page and that’s it.

Meme-ly, yes Mercy has eight cores.

Decadakon

Will Wight

He could practice Blackflame without a pure core. The pure core helps balance out the spiritual damage caused by Blackflame madra, but the treatment of the Sylvan Riverseed + medicine and/or rest could compensate for that. There are other ways around it.

Decadakon

Will Wight

Questioner

If Lindon were to die and release a remnant, would he in fact produce two remnants because of his two cores, a single hybrid remnant, or two conjoined remnants?

Will Wight

It would be a conjoined Remnant, not two Remnants. It would be unstable at first, as the pure madra began to dilute the Blackflame madra, but would eventually stabilize.It would be less powerful and aggressive than a full Blackflame Remnant, but it would be less likely to randomly attack people, which would probably increase its likelihood of finding a food source.

Questioner

And is there other ways to create illusions than with light + dreams?

Will Wight

Yes. There are light Paths or dream Paths that craft either purely visual or purely mental illusions. And there are other Paths that rely on sensory trickery, it’s just that those are the most common.

Shadow madra is a thing, for instance.

Questioner

Out of curiosity, what rank would Simon be on Cradle? Both with his mask and without.And would he be practicing the Path of Valinhall?

Will Wight

This is a tricky question, because while I know what you mean, they're practicing different magic systems. Simon hasn't worked on his madra at all, so if he were plopped down in Cradle, they would see him as completely untrained.If we're talking parallels, yes his chains are like a Goldsign, and the dolls would be something like a Remnant.In terms of combat potential, he'd be at Underlord level physically with his mask on. In fact, he might have an advantage even at that tier (WITH the mask on, in a head-to-head confrontation).But that's purely a physical measurement. He'd have to ghost armor his way through their techniques, and hope that Nye essence makes him faster than their Enforcer techniques so they didn't break the armor, lock him in place, and cook him alive with fireballs or something before he gets close.Then again, let's say there's a fight between Simon and a sacred artist with similar powers. Path of the Steel Chains, or whatever. It focuses on Enforcer techniques and making the body stronger and faster, and uses giant weapons.Simon would have the advantage in a shorter battle, but if the sacred artist hangs on past the first few minutes, Simon is going to start running out of powers. The sacred artist isn't. Sure, he'll exhaust his madra eventually, but it's not on a timer like many of Simon's powers are. The mask extends that, but of course the mask itself has a time limit.And because of the Iron body, once Simon runs out of Nye essence OR steel, the sacred artist is going to dribble him like a basketball.

Eithan, for instance, would just dodge until Simon gave up, retreated, or had to take the mask off. A lot of an actual matchup would come down to information. Does the sacred artist know that Simon has a time limit, and does Simon know that he has to finish the fight quickly? Does Simon know what Path his opponent is on? Does he have Caela with him? How do the sacred artist's techniques interact with ghost armor?Then again, if some Abidan plucked Simon out of his world and dumped him into Cradle, Simon WOULD be able to learn sacred arts. In addition to his Traveler powers.He'd have to adjust to the planet itself, which is bigger and has higher gravity, and some of his Traveler abilities wouldn't work--notably, he probably wouldn't be able to cut open a Gate, so there goes the healing pool. But he'd still be able to call steel, essence, and so on, and he'd be able to use the mask and doll as long as he had them on him to begin with.Summoning Mithra would PROBABLY be possible, but it would certainly take longer.

To expand on the theory behind what I just said:Amalgam (the TG world) has a bunch of tiny fragmented worlds stuck to it like ticks on a dog. Those are the Territories. It's easy to cut Gates to and from these miniature worlds because they're close, and they're already somewhat connected to the main world. They're like the elemental planes in D&D, if that means anything to you.Cradle is NOT close. So anything Simon takes from his Territory will still work the same, but anything he has to call on the Territory for--like cutting a Gate, or summoning a weapon, or calling more power from a room (as Simon and Kai have both done before)--is going to either take much longer, reflecting the greater distance, or isn't going to work at all.This is metaphysical distance, by the way. These are worlds as in dimensions, not worlds as in planets. Although they are also planets. Suriel gets into detail about this in Blackflame, in a scene that I had originally written for Soulsmith and then cut.But there's a reserve of steel and of Nye essence inside his body, and those will work. Anything he carries with him and all his internal powers will function as normal, just like they do when he's inside someone else's Territory.

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

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.

Lil' Blue

What color is Seth and would he have cared with the Blackflame ruling the continent?

Will Wight

He is a gold dragon. He is the original gold dragon. His human form, unless I changed this, and I very well might, is a black kid. Someone sent me a picture of art of him as a little white 12 year old. I didn't think that image fit. I thought it seem like he should be a different ethnicity than the main characters, because he is from a long way away, kind of like Eithan. The whole reason he's white instead of Asian, which is the primary ethnicity of he continent, is to serve the purpose to say hey he's from a long way away. So that's his human form, but that really changes a lot. He actually can alter his skin color however he wants to. That's just kind of the form he chosen to take because that's the form humans take where he grew up. They can change little details like that very easily at his level.

Would he cared if the the Blackflames ruled the continent? His thing is he is all about the survival of the fittest, that's because dragons are the fittest. So when you do this survival of the fittest ideology, he always wins, so he and his people are the best. He feels like that the whole magic of Cradle and the whole sacred arts should be very pure and real, The strongest people directly win and they get what they need and that's the best for everybody and that's how Cradle works. That all this civilization stuff that the Akura clan love so much is just design to make naturally weaker people comfortable which does nothing but makes everything worse. So that's where all the problems come from. His main problem with the Black dragons ruling is that they are ruling and setting up a civilization, and not just holding territory. So that will be his main ideology difference with the black dragons.

Questioner

In Skysworn one of the goldsigns was a swarm of eyes. What path does that belong to?

Will Wight

Oh boy.  I do not remember at all.  I do not even remember what you are talking about.  That is a long time ago.  That is a question for Past Will.  I do not remember at all.  I'm sure I had an answer at some point.  I don't know.  Path of the many eyes.  Wasn't that a Futurama joke?  Something...  Oh yeah, the beast of a thousand eyes or whatever.  Yup.  Path of a thousand eyes.  That's it.  That's what it is.  The gold sign is typically called bees not the bees.  It's the path of the cage.  And it involves caging bees.  So, one of the things you do is put a cage around people's head and you summon a bunch of little forged bees inside it.  Another thing you can do with the path of cage that is really interesting is you can break into other people's cages.  So, if there was some sort of national treasure you need to break into the path of the cage would be perfect for that.  You follow a lot of secret maps.  It's really more a thing they do; it's a cultural thing more than a map thing.

pepski7

Will said that Lindon would have won if he'd tried from the start.

Eithan would have won the tournament if he wanted to.

Will Wight

Lindon would have had the edge if he’d been trying from the start, but that’s not a guaranteed win.

If we’re ignoring plot concerns and going purely based on who I think would win if we just locked everybody in a room, then I think it’s Lindon against Yerin 60/40.

But that’s if it’s a surprise, as it was in canon.

With preparation, knowing who his opponent is, Lindon definitely beats her because he can practice against her better than she can practice against him.

He also most likely beats Mercy, IF there’s a fight in which she goes all-out before he faces her. If not, she has the edge because she knows what he’s capable of but the reverse isn’t true. And while he has Dross and guesswork, she has Charity, Fury, and Malice.

Lindon would have a hard time beating Sha Miara or Sophara in a tournament setting in time, preparation or not. He would have to advance to Overlord to beat Sha Miara, and against Sophara he’d need what he had in canon: an opportunity to see her fight a bunch of different opponents + time/resources to test his techniques and drain madra from a bunch of different opponents himself.

Eithan, as he said, had a chance of losing to Mercy, Sophara, or Sha Miara. When he beat her in nine seconds, that’s because he basically had to (which he alludes to in the book). If he misses the full combo, so to speak, she has a chance to come back and win.

He beats Lindon, just…straight-up. He’s better than Lindon, more powerful, most of Lindon’s unique advantages don’t work against him, and there’s no way Dross could simulate him accurately.

Yerin doesn’t realistically win against Eithan without pseudo-Herald (in which state she beats everybody), but she and Ruby wouldn’t be motivated to attain that level if her opponent was Eithan.

So anyway, TL;DR, probable winner is Eithan.

If you want to make money at the racetrack, you should bet on the favorite.

HOWEVER, that’s not guaranteed, even for him. Nobody has a 100% win rate no matter how good they are, and there are rules and restrictions in this game.

Also…

The problem with asking “who would win?” is that it ultimately comes down to the author’s interpretation and decisions. You’re really guessing what the author is going to do.

And, given that it is a story, Eithan was never going to win. Simply because the guy who’s better than everyone else easily breezing through and winning and saving the day isn’t a very interesting story.

Realistic, though.

t3tsubo

Would the Underlord level Eithan (that faced Sha Miara) really beat Overlord juiced up Sophara as she was in the finals though? I suppose yes if he advanced to Overlord himself, but if he did advanced I would have assumed he wins the tournament 100% easily

Will Wight

Yeah, in that case he’d have to advance and would be favored to win.

Not 100%, though, because roided-out Sophara is so juiced up as to permanently damage her spirit. Which Eithan wouldn’t do, so she would have the advantage in raw stats.

But, you know, Eithan would still most likely win.

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....

Questioner

Is there a sylvan seed for every aspect of madra? If not, what aspects can become seeds?

Will Wight

Here's how I see sylvan whatever seeds. I see them as natural spirits that form from centers of especially pure aura. So anything where it's not capable, where that wouldn't happen naturally, I suspect there would be no sylvan blade seed for instance like why would there be that many swords occurring naturally, that sort of thing. In general, I think most aspects do indeed have their own little blue equivalents, little green, little purple. Little green is the healer.

Nltin

Did Ozriel forge his own Scythe? It was mentioned in first book that he managed to touch the way without even ascending. Atleast his fury did. Was he at same cultivation level as Sha Miara?

Was Sha Miara born with enough madra to qualify as true gold or something considering she is only 12?

Will Wight

Sha Miara inherited power that the most talented Truegolds would have to train their whole lives and exhaust fortunes to achieve. That's the base level of power she'd have if she were never taught anything about the sacred arts and never trained a day in her life.

The story about Ozriel's Scythe is going to have to wait until much later, I think, but he was a legendary Soulsmith of his time.

He did reach the same cultivation level as Sha Miara and the rest during his time on Cradle, yes, but he would have been considered a freak even among people of that tier.

Tim

Will, how old is Sha Miara.

It would be a bit too extreme for her to be 12, and yet be amongst the strongest on Cradle. 

Suriel, one of the strongest person in existence, said that she didnt even reach that level in 30 years, yet a girl is supposed to have managed to achieve it. Wouldn'T she have the potential, then, to outclass the members of the Abidan, given enough time?

Will

I don't remember how young she is without looking it up in my notes, but no older than 15 or so.

What's wrong with that?

Sure, she's decades ahead of Suriel. But in the grand scheme of things, there were a lot of people among all worlds who were decades ahead of Suriel at some point.

A lot of people have the potential to become Judges, but very, very few ever make it that far. There's a long way from the Ninecloud Court to the Court of Seven.

Kalani

Would it be easier for Lindon to veil his unused core? Possible to hide it from others perception completely?

Will Wight

Yes, people have to scan more closely to detect his second core even when he's not veiling it. Blackflame is easier to detect than pure madra, and a core that's in use is easier to detect than one that isn't.