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deadliestcrotch

Will has already confirmed (on the spoiler stream) that the last book will be loads of epilogue because he intends to tie up every last loose end.

Will Wight

I have seen this going around and I feel like I need to correct something: I’m absolutely not going to tie up every last loose end.

I’m not necessarily going to show you what happens to Naru Jing or every member of the Eight-Man Empire. I don’t mind leaving questions unanswered.

What I’ve said is that I prefer the last books in long series to spend tons of time on resolution, because it’s really like an epilogue for the whole series. Therefore the last book will have significantly more of that than usual, since I’m not ending on a sequel hook.

I’m certainly not going to tie up everything. There are lots of loose ends that I as a reader would not care to see tied up.

Spherius

Nooooooooo I was counting on getting the full story of Naru Jing in book 12! Way to shatter my hopes and dreams!

Will Wight

I’m not going to include the things nobody cares about, you know? Like I don’t think anybody wants to know what happens to Naru Jing, or the Jai clan. People like that. You know, Pride, Mercy. Yerin, probably not her either. Lindon, I don’t think people will mind not knowing what happens to him.

Yeah, the entire epilogue will be about the one thing I know everyone cares about the most: the relationship between Ziel and Akura Shira.

Could take half the book, maybe more. I might cut a Dreadgod fight for an extended dating montage.

Middle Felled

Is Dreadgod a Dross book? 

Will Wight

Well I used Dross' name I think more in this book than any other book so far. So, yes. 

Xyrd

I've been re-reading Cradle with an eye towards E=O when I noticed this.

From Soulsmith chapter 8, when we are getting fully introduced to the Aurelius bloodline power from Eithan's POV.

A power like the one he'd inherited from his father's line tended to make one careless. Superior awareness made him difficult to hit, but did nothing to protect him otherwise.

From Reaper chapter 2, when we are getting info-dumped about Ozriel's past.

He abandoned his weapons. He focused on another of his talents: his sight. When he advanced to Monarch, he developed the bloodline ability to see. Ozmanthus was so relieved that he wept. This was the ability that he wanted to define his legacy. And he would leave his descendants with the ability to see as he did, to one day catch up to him.

Is there any significance to Eithan's father's line, or is this just an "oops"?

Will Wight

I intended to go into this, but with the limited amount of time left in the series I don’t know if we’ll make it, so I can at least explain my thoughts:

Potential spoilers, sort of. I’m answering the question.

My original thinking was that he had a bloodline power already and took it to new heights. The reason the Eithan flashbacks in Reaper focus on his mother is because I had originally planned to include a series of further flashbacks later focusing on his father’s side of the family, but they felt unnecessary. They probably won’t be in Dreadgod unless I think of some cool way to fold them in.

Questioner

What is the goldsteel thing for?

Will Wight

I assume you mean this on the hat. And this is the logo for Bloodline. It's the cover of Bloodline without the Dreadgods on it. So there you go. 

Questioner

If you could collab with another author, living or dead, who would it be?

Will Wight

I'll answer that question in a second, but first, I would say the idea of collaboration seems really fun to me. I feel like I would enjoy it. However, on the other side, there's the reality that it's just easier to just keep writing books by myself and it's probably easier for whoever I would collaborate with too. So it's hard to justify "Let's take longer to write one book instead of us each writing two books, like we each write one faster." It's just hard to justify.

But if I could magically collaborate with anybody, who would I collaborate with? My obvious instinct I would say is Robert Jordan because he was just a huge influence on me growing up and I would love to learn from him. However, I don't think our styles would be particularly compatible so this would mostly be him going "Will, do this." and I'd be like "Yes sir." and then we'd just be kinda writing a Robert Jordan book and I'd be sort of happily writing on a toy typewriter in the background while he's doing the real work. A more fun collaboration, let's see... Jane Austen. 100 percent. We get the same thing where I get to learn from a master and I get to improve my skills and also now we get to have a Jane Austen novel with her trademark character relationships and well defined people in a Victorian-I guess Elizabethan, whatever-English setting. And at the same time we also get magic and sword fights. That's it. It's kinda like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. 

Sam just suggested D.B. Weiss and David Benioff and then my dad stage whispered "Who's that?" That's about right. I'm gonna move on. There's nothing I can say.

Liam

Outsource the slice of life to Jane Austen.

Will Wight

I'll be honest with you Liam, I would actually just outsource it all to Jane Austen. Again, it's another scenario that ends with me typing with a toy typewriter in the background while they do the real work.

Pride and Prejudice and Dreadgods. That's it, I'll read that, I'll be honest.

Avinash

Been waiting for a new post to ask somethings

So finding out abidan archives was an info overload and I felt kinda like what dross must have felt on trying to integrate the Aurelius library. So I have a few questions/confusion.

1. Regarding Monarchs Will said that there are 8 active monarchs in cradle and at the end of underlord 7 live ones are mentioned Akura malice Seshethkunaaz, (dragon one) Sha miara Northstrider 8 man empire , counted as one, Emriss silent born ,The monarch remnant, Reigan shen , who apparently killed a monarch recently (possibly the Aurelius )

Now I am not counting the Aurelius monarch as he's been dead for a few years (~6) and Will said active monarchs.So the question is is there an unknown/hidden monarch?

Am I missing someone's name or is eithan the aurelius monarch and is hiding/repowered?

2. Of Markuth

I believed he was abidan level but he was confirmed to be sage at most, so I can get how he can travel off world maybe using portals or something like a Stargate but looking to fight the 4 dreadgods together or even one at a time when even monarchs cannot handle them alone seems unbelievable.Remember how malice was on the verge of retreating after 3 days and the blood Phoenix was still good to go but it retreated (maybe the influence of makael judge 001 ) wore off.

3. A few random musing

i. Who is judge 007 cause the reaper is 008.

ii. Is a ward key like a battery or an amplifier

iii.Do u have to die and be reborn(leaving ur remanent behind) to ascend/touch the way , this would explain the death of sage of endless sword.

Will Wight

This is a lot of questions, and these blog comments aren't a great medium for an in-depth discussion, but I'll do what I can.

1.) There are eight Monarch factions. Currently seven living/active Monarchs.

2.) He was an Archlord (or similar level) when he ascended from Cradle, but he has advanced beyond that in a different magic system after leaving. When he came back, he believed himself to be more powerful than anyone in the Iteration. Maybe he was, who knows? Maybe he was just prideful and Northstrider would have beaten the crap out of him. But he was definitely not more powerful than Suriel.

3a.) Zakariel is Judge Zero-zero-seven.

3b.) No, it's like a passkey that lets you walk in and out unharmed.

3c.) Maybe! That would be a spoiler.

FelCandy

When you started writing Cradle, I assume you had a general idea of where the characters and world would end up, has the story up through Dreadgod met or exceeded your expectations?

Will Wight

Exceeded, of course. My, people talk about getting your view, your vision on paper. It I indeed very difficult, when you're doing anything artistic you're trying to get what's on your brain onto paper, and it never works exactly as you intended it. In a lot of ways I find out that's a good thing, I have, a lot of times you find I have a vision in my head of what kind of an emotional impact this is going to have, so I have, so I'm imagining this being a really cool thing; but then I have to actually make it a really cool thing, in your head, and that's hard. What happens is, it then becomes more real, as it gets on the page. So, I think it improves, when you get it on, when you make it real. When you get it to the page. Now there are things you can't do, or things that don't work out as well as you thought; but you've got to make it real. 

Questioner

If Lindon had consumed part of Eithan would the Dreadgod arm have broken?

Will Wight

That was honestly one of the scenes I really liked because that was a moment I didn't think of until I was writing it. Like I wanted Lindon to have one goodbye gesture and I realized oh man he can shake his hand and tried to drain power from him. But it doesn't work because it's blocked by Ozriel's armor. So that does not work. That is not a way that Eithan sneakily left Lindon power. I've seen people speculating that maybe he did get something and that Eithan allowed it. No, the armor blocked it and he couldn't allow Lindon that power now without violating the Eledari Pact which he is now bound by once again. The only reason he was out of it is the same reason why, well this is an interesting thing, let me go into this for a second while I'm sitting here at the bottom of the ocean.

My initial mechanism, my initial plan, for having Eithan hide was that I was going to have Suriel do research into how Abidan retire and what retired Abidan do, how that mechanism works because that's clearly a mechanism by which he could have been hiding, right? When Judges retire, or when powerful Abidan are allowed to retire they can get out of Eledari Pact by reintroducing themselves into the Iteration in which they were born or certain other Iterations that will allow them like Sanctum, you can just live there if you want. So they give up their extra powers that are beyond the world but are still very powerful and knowledgeable and have a lot of Authority and so on and so forth. So they don't give up their full power, they are still extremely powerful. Usually what they do is they go into hiding and just kind of live like normal people.

But they know Ozriel couldn't have done that on Cradle because he would be immediately found out because their Presence would have found him, they would have scanned him, and found out who he was. However, the Presences have a sort of a shared memory and a way that they check facts against the Way. Like against pure order and truth. And that is fundamentally incorruptible except for the fact that Ozriel found a way to do it. So the idea was that he broke into the records, the metaphysical record storage system, and changed his origin so nobody recognizes it and just retires normally to Cradle.

So one of the reasons she's sure he can't be on Cradle in book one is that he can't be because we would see him and notice him and, as soon as I saw, would recognize him. Except that he just basically persuaded reality that he was a different person than he was. So I really wanted to do that because it would have first of all allowed for her to explore some interesting mechanisms of the system and the way it works. But that was a casualty of me not knowing how many books were going to be in the series. So I didn't know how to pace out the Abidan story line correctly because I didn't know how many parcels I was going to be allowed. And when I finally got there I was like okay so do I need, do I want Suriel doing research into background information on the world and the metaphysics of this system that we're not even really involved in yet or do I want her doing cool things like fighting? And, I eventually decided that it was more fun to have her intervene in worlds and fight Vroshir and all that kind of stuff than do researching behind the scenes.

I liked that better because it wasn't a single artifact that a bunch of transcendent craftsmen created together. It was a scheme that Ozriel cooked up and one that only he could have executed because the reason why other people can't do that is because you would have to be skilled in almost every other discipline and he is. So he can do things other people can't do. So, anyway, that would have been fun.

rmulli

Who has the biggest butt in the entire Willverse?

Will Wight

The Wandering Titan, the humanoid Dreadgod. He's kinda got a shell. So, I think that's probably my answer.

Cradle Enjoyer

What Sage would have trained Lindon had he become an Uncrowned?

Will Wight

I had an answer to this, I had charted all of this out, uh, shoot, I don't remember the, ... I don't remember. Dang it, that's a good question. Uh, I had a real answer to this, and I'm trying to, mmm I'll have to come back to that. I'll have to see if I can, well there's a, I'm just going to speculate on what I may have been thinking, I really did chart this out, I had, because, so I had actually made tournament brackets for the Uncrowned, and I had charted it out, based on who would win. Right? Like who would get the people, and either one was a possibility so the sage's had discussed that, and I really had, had this in an Excel spreadsheet, no joke, uh, but, yeah, so there's a, there is a sage that hasn't shown up much, that I think he has a cameo in Dreadgod actually?; but it's a fire, a fire sage, so he probably would have done it. Yeah, probably. That's my guess, on my, I'm speculating on my past intentions. (Takes sip)

Rhys

1. You mentioned that the blackflame emporer was the level above under lord. How much higher were the proper black fame family? 2. How big is the ninecloud court, compared to the blackflame empire now and at its height. 3. Were any of the dragons at the peak of the cultivation of cradle I.e like northstrider or Shia miara4. Who would win a war between ninecloud court of today and the blackflame empire of the dragons5. Finally has the loss of the blackflame family resulted in a reduction of territory? Have other states taken land from them now there is no longer a blackflame cultivator to be afraid of?

Will Wight

1.) Can't tell you, spoilers.2.) Can't tell you, spoilers.3.) No.4.) The Ninecloud Court of today. The Ninecloud Court existed back during this dragon empire, and they outlived it for a reason.

5.) Yes! Partially because Blackflame cultivators were scary death-weapons that are now gone, lending boldness to the border-states, and partially because the clans are still (fifty years later) pushing and testing the new Imperial clan, trying to get as much autonomy as possible. It's resulting in weaker borders due to a lack of cooperation.

However, the Naru clan are much better administrators than the Blackflames ever were, and the life of the average citizen in the Empire has improved over the last few decades.

The highest levels of the Ninecloud Court (like Luminous Queen Sha Miara) are on the same tier as the Dreadgods. They are capable of evaporating seas and obliterating nations singlehandedly.The dragons of the Blackflame Empire were scary, but not THAT scary.

Questioner

Who is your favorite dreadgod?

Will Wight

Uh, let's see. Believe it or not it's probably the weeping dragon. Sounds weird. It's gotten the least page space. I just think he looks cool. I think it's a neat visual. I think it's a cool visual image of like a sapphire blue dragon, miles long just sorta undulating over clouds like waves. Seems neat. I also like the idea of raining lightning, living lightning, that kinda slithers around. I think that's cool.

Questioner

Please tell us more about Sesh's reign. Can you tell us anything about him at all?

Will Wight

Ah, yeah. I think he... the way I think of him is or the Akura family sees him as this tyrant who wants to kill humanity kind of thing but I see him as more of a character who believes that Cradle is run by the rule of the jungle anyway, the law of the jungle. And that we should all kind of embrace that and that everybody would really be better off if we were just honest about it. So I see him as sort of someone who from the outside looks cruel but doesn't think of himself as that way. And he goes listen I'm going to get mine because I'm the strongest so let's all be clear about that. And that the problem with a lot of things, including the relationship between the Monarchs and the Dreadgods comes from the fact that we're trying to impose order on chaos. So kind of in that way, he's similar to his... his worldview is more similar to the Vroshir than to the Abidan because he's going look let's deal with the world as it is and not try to make it something that it isn't. That's how I think of him.

Questioner

Is Lindon considered a Dreadgod now?

Will Wight

No, he is not.

mardy-quief

So I just finished reaper (again) and I noticed something. Lindon's shiny new arm tried to eat Eithan a little at the end - but the question is how? I know it sounds like a dumb question but bare with me. Consider the following

a) His old arm he could eat people because of the binding in it which he got from the transcendent ruins

b) His new arm comes from Subject One a Dreadgod which only have one giga binding (which Shen stole)

c) Lindon isn't a real hunger artist as dross points out.

So my question is how did he use consume on Eithan at the end?

Thanks in advance :)

Will Wight

It’s a basic property of the madra.

Bindings are crystallized techniques you can use just by running madra through them, but Lindon knows how to use the Consume technique. The arm itself has the power for it.

But even without that, hunger’s basic property is that it devours, just like fire madra burns. The Consume technique is a refined way of doing that and bringing it into your spirit effectively, and Lindon’s modified Heart of Twin Stars helps separate and process the energy.

Without a technique, you’re just kind of gulping down everything all at once and you have little control over where anything goes, or whether you get it or the arm does, or whether it gets incorporated into your advancement, etc.

The Last Reader

So are the Monarch not actively trying to become more powerful then without ascending because that has some backward thinking considering the dreadgods can kill them if they aren't careful

Will Wight

Monarchs have basically tapped out the limits of sacred arts. Which is why Northstrider was looking into alternate means of becoming stronger in GW.

Questioner

Will we ever hear more about the Weeping Dragon and the Silent King?

Will Wight

Nope. They're never coming out. Those two Dreadgods will remain forever anonymous. 

Questioner

Are there any items or artifacts that you would describe as the Excalibur of Cradle?  Something that legendary?

Will Wight

Yes.  One of the things I went and did originally is I went and designed other threats that are potentially existential threats to Cradle that aren't the dreadgods.  So I went through and did that.  And I think that is one of the only things that made it into the books from that is a reference to the plague that killed a monarch, Sha Leiala.  It's really like a biological weapon that sort of developed itself.  But there's a couple of those.  And there are a couple of references, I think in Reaper, I think there are a couple of references, to legendary weapons that aren't from Cradle specifically, but are other legendary weapons.  I wish I could off the top of my head give you a run down of a legendary weapon from Cradle, but I can't.  But there is stuff like that.

Mierin

speaking of questions for will were the dreadgods inspired at all by the endbringers in worm or are they just very similar in concepts

Will Wight

Not really. I hope they end up being similar in execution later on in the series, because his execution of the Endbringers was my second-favorite part of that series, but I needed some giant monsters to serve a specific plot function later on.

Brandon Quill

Do either Reigan Shen or Lindon fully count as a dreadgod yet? If so, which?

Will Wight

They do not.