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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.

Questioner

Given a person has two cores of the same madra type, such as Lindon did before blackflame, could one not internalise the “forge a scale, cycle to replenish core, take in scale to expand” by just cycling madra out of one core, closing it off and using the madra now cycling the body to expand the 2nd core, rinse and repeat?

Will Wight

No, that only works very early in your career as a sacred artist, when expanding your core is most of what matters. You'd lose more by splitting your core than you'd gain from that technique.

Questioner

 I’ve always been a bit confused about what makes a talented sacred artist advance faster than their peers? They just refine madra better?

Will Wight

Yeah, that is part of it.  It's really a... How I think of it, is it's more like a madra talent, a talent for madra control, so it's something that just sort of clicks better for you.  So that's one aspect of it.  Another aspect is maybe you understand your techniques better or faster.  So that's one thing.  Another thing is some people seem to have a deeper connection to certain types of aura than others.  so if you are born into a clan or sect or something that only practices one path, your talent is determined by how compatible you are with that particular path.  Which may bot be the thing you are really best at.  But you would never know, because you are only ever exposed to one path.  So that's another factor of talent.

The reason why it is poorly defined in the book is because there is a number of things that people mean when they say talent.  And I found that to be true in a number of the cultivation novels I read.  They would talk about talent, but it would be unclear exactly what talent was.  So either they would have something like talent is effectively your XP gain modifier, or how fast you level up.  Or, they didn't really define talent at all.  Some people were talented because they were good at weapons, other people were talented because they were good at magic, and other people were talented because they learn really fast, and so on and so forth.  And I like that a little better; that felt kind of real.  Some people are more talented at certain things because the logic of it just clicked for them  Other people are more physically or mentally suited to the task.  You know, that kind of thing.  And it felt good to me.  So that's sort of where I've been.

fscada

Are there offensive paths that use traditionally non-offensive madra (Like life madra?)

Will Wight

Yes, definitely. There are a lot of paths like water or life (that do that). Although it isn't presented like this in the books, around the world blood madra is considered a non-offensive path because mostly people use it for therapy and medicine. The only ones who use it for combat are bloodthirsty crazy people. So (in cradle) you don't think typically of blood as a combat path, unless you're reading the books because then you see it all the time.

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.

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.

Azqa

I think you'd stopped reading comments by the time I posted this one on a different blog post, so I'll copy it below since it seems relevant to me.

UnsouledCopperIronJadeLowgoldHighgoldTruegoldUnderlord

Lindon finds badges of other materials - "The first row contained a badge each of copper, iron, jade, and gold. That much he expected. But the second row moved from halfsilver to goldsteel to materials he couldn't identify. One of them was a deep, fiery red, and the other a blue so rich it was like a Forged slice of the sky."

Does the description of the power scale change at Underlord, or is that one term an aberration? Will we see people at Halfsilver / Goldsteel level, or is Underlord [now the ___Lord range of levels] simply represented by one of those?

Heck, I was wondering if Underlord was more a political title than truly an advancement-in-the-sacred-arts label.

If Halfsilver is used for the ___Lord stage, then what about "Silverlord"?

Will Wight

The materials motif changes after Gold, reflecting the fact that improving the quality of your madra alone is not how you advance. You could technically get all the way to Truegold just by cycling and refining your madra, it would just take forever.

I actually like Silverlord a lot, because it sounds cool. It seems kind of random in sequence, though: Underlord, Silverlord, Overlord.

Daniel

We could suggest rediculous path names and you could write wrandom blurbs about them. Like the path of the tap dancing tigersOr the path of puff the dragonOr the path of the zesty zebra Or the path of the soulless spiritOr the path of the drunken master

Will

>Path of the Tap-Dancing TigersA Path whose Enforcer techniques are designed to combine the ferocity of wild beasts with the precise steps of a dance.Its practitioners tend to mumble the name of the Path, to avoid public mockery.>Path of Puff the DragonThe sacred artists on the Path of Puff the Dragon have combined cloud madra with fire madra to build a whole set of skills revolving around clouds of blazing heat and light.>Path of the Zesty ZebraA sad attempt by an ancient crackpot to channel the power of language into a Path, relying on alliteration to evoke the force of the spoken word.Alas, all attempts aroused annoyance alone.>Path of the Soulless SpiritA mental Path focused inward, on controlling the practitioner's thoughts and feelings. Its adherents can endure the most difficult and painful training without complaint, producing unparalleled discipline and control in its disciples.However, sacred artists on this Path tend to wander around with lifeless eyes like zombies. It can be disturbing to the uninitiated.>Path of the Drunken MasterI have to drink before a fight, you hear me? Can't throw a punch until I've emptied a bottle. Hand me that.What? Does the alcohol make my movements harder to read?Uh...sure, let's go with that.

Reality Spasm

We've seen a couple different techniques involving shadow, but what kind of alterations does shadow madra cause in other aspects?

Will Wight

Shadow Madra is difficult to detect. It's kind of subtle, so it's got kind of a veiling effect, so it hides things like you would expect shadow to. And shadow also affects the spirit more than a lot other aspects do. It's kind of insidious, it seeps into you. And so, it's not real great for dealing physical damage, to use a video game term. So, it doesn't really hurt you that much; it's not good for breaking boulders. But, it is pretty good for shredding peoples souls and scripts and whatever.

Altonahk

Is there such a thing as Gravity Aura, or is it just Force Aura? If there is: are there gravity paths? If it's force aura: do any force paths cycle it?

Will Wight

I actually had a real difficulty about that! When I initially came up with the Fishers, they were using gravity aura, they were using attractive force aura so it was effectively the power of gravity. That's what they were doing because gravity was a constant power....so I ended up saying no, what they call connection madra or whatever was just directional force madra. So I ended up saying no on that, sometime in development that's what earth power was going to be, was just gravity, kind of like the dresden files where earth magic is gravity magic, but I steered away from that.

manty05

I thought that if in Cradle there is something like the champion agumentation treatments of Asylum(in addition to sacred arts in general) could be be effected by turning humans into a sacred beast (or a dread beast).

Though turning humans into dread beasts if possible could result into something rather ghoulish.

Will Wight

I plan to explore this concept in Book 7. The plan might change, but as of now, it’s something I’m including in 7.

Questioner

What would have happened to the house of blades or any other terrioty fragment if humans didnt discover it?Would it break apart and be consumed by the unamed world or would it just reach an all time low of power and sit there?

Will Wight

A fragment would slowly dissolve into the void if not bound to the Way by human will. This is true even for corrupted fragments, which is the preferred outcome: they drift off into nothingness until they dissolve.

Avinash

1. So what the heck happened between valin and the queen cause from what i gathered from the short stories they used to be thick as thieves, kinda like simon and leah (is history gonna repeat itself ) 2. So at the risk of repeating this request, would love some info about the abidan court or at least the willverse or whatever u call it.3. What about the First Mistress of Mist cause as u said (or impied) she was running a guild in a time when humans were basically livestock/slaves.4. So i asked this before and u said to wait for Blackflame so i wont ask this point again.5. Were the elders trapped by the abidan or are they beneath their notice? 6. Would love a comparison system for power between different worlds.7. so much to ask but dont wanna be a bother or be the reason for causing a delay in blackflame so ill stop here ans any you can leave any which u want to keep for plot purpose

Will Wight

1.) The answer to this is pretty tightly related to why Valin hates Damasca in the first place.2.) I'm calling it the Willverse now. That's hilarious.3.) I don't know how much more I'm going to explore her, but yeah, she was running a Guild when humans were AT BEST servants. It would be an interesting time to write about.4.) Yes. Wait for Blackflame.5.) The Elders were trapped by the Abidan. In their current forms, they're beneath the notice of the Abidan, but if they escaped Asylum, it would be a different matter entirely.6.) It's hard to come up with a comparison, because comparing one magic system to another is like comparing apples to non-Euclidean geometry.7.) Hahaha thanks! I have spent a long time on this thread, thanks to the site bug that has prevented me from responding to anything over the last few days. I do need to get back to work.

Avinash

so 2 last question 1. are Territories the surviving fragments/parts of the Worlds(main planets in Willverse) that were destroyed by the Corruption or by the abidan.(as punishment or cause they got corrupted)2. why were the ELDERS trapped on asylum was it a matter of opportunity(all were present there) or were the people of asylum punised for some purposeor was there a significant power/structure on asylum that was supposed to keep the ELDERS in check but something went wrong.(like were the people advanced enough to subdue the ELDERS or was there a prison )

Will Wight

1.) They're fragments of worlds that died naturally, uncorrupted.2.) SPOILERS!

Polycore

Hey Will, we were wondering how would Lindon's Iron body stack against Bai Rou's madra? and can you tell how a Highgold Lindon (how he will be in the future when he reaches that stage) would fare against him?

Will Wight

Lindon's Iron body would help against Bai Rou, but not entirely, because Bai Rou's madra has a dream component that would attack the mind. It would be difficult for Lindon to defend himself, so he would have to rely on overwhelming attack.   Which would be possible, thanks to Blackflame, which Bai Rou can't do very much about. Except that Bai Rou is a Truegold in Skysworn armor, so he would be able to defend himself, counter, and beat Lindon with his counterattack.   As for how Lindon will fare at higher advancement, you'll just have to wait for Ghostwater, won't you?

Broshinsky997

If lindon did the Sacred Valley bowl test with the madra thing right now, what would happen?

Will Wight

Whatever he wanted to happen. He could control the madra freely.

Havoc

If there are just 'thousands' of iterations, and each iteration lasts for trillions of years, there should be billions of years between iterations ending. 

What do the Abidan do to occupy their time in between?

Will Wight

I don't think I said trillions, did I? I think I said billions.

Either way, that's how long they COULD last. That's their maximum natural lifespan. It very rarely happens that an Iteration dies of old age, because they're tethered to the survival of humanity.

Most of the time, Iterations only last a few thousand years.

Let me put it to you this way: the Abidan have never shepherded a world from its birth to its full possible lifespan. An Iteration dying when humans die is still a natural death.

Questioner

Why has the fact that Lindon's new arm has six fingers never been brought up since he got it put on?

Will Wight

Because it doesn't anymore. If I recall correctly, during the scene where they're altering the arm, he said he tweaks it to make it more like a human hand. I didn't specifically mention that he meant a five-fingered human hand, but I should have.

acog

So we saw DreadLindon tank a Monarch's blow like it was nothing:

Shadow madra Forged into blades and swept at him, but he weakened them with the Hollow Domain. Then he allowed them to land. They cut his body and his spirit together, but he healed as fast as she damaged him.

Yeah, it was weakened with the Hollow Domain first, but it's still a Monarch's melee-range attack. We've seen that same level of attack obliterate mountains. So clearly Lindon's Iron body is now healing at hyperspeed.

-Varya-

Lindon was also helped here by Malice's own madra and bloodline ability strengthening his healing powers as he was consuming it.

Will Wight

^ This is what I was going to point out.

He can’t tank Monarch hits forever without a source of Monarch-level energy to Consume.

PlaceboJesus

Even with how much he expended healing himself, he did come out ahead in that exchange right?

Like how large an elixer are we talking?

Will Wight

About this big:

\ ___________ /

Questioner

What is the most reviled and infamous person in Cradle History?

Will Wight

One of the most well-known and reviled criminals in the history of the Blackflame Empire was a man named Gan Lo Zin, who operated the most well-known Remnant factory to be taken down and exposed.So-called Remnant factories kidnap children at Copper, then strap them to scripted devices and force-feed them scales. Their madra is cycled by force through scripts and madra devices, which is often inefficient, painful, and leads to long-term spiritual damage.However, this doesn't tend to matter. Because as soon as the children reach Jade, and thus leave stable Remnants of a high enough quality, they are slaughtered. Their Remnants are sealed and captured in boxes, to be categorized and sold to large organizations with a need for great quantities of bindings, dead matter, or Remnants for Lowgold bonding.When Gan Lo Zin was exposed, it caused a public outcry. It's estimated that he was responsible for the deaths of as many as thirty thousand people.However, when captured and questioned by the Skysworn, he maintained that he was far from the only one to operate such a facility. Outside the boundaries of the Empire, and even on other continents, he claimed that many large organizations ran their own Remnant factories.They were, he said, the inevitable price of progress.

Questioner

Are there any madra viruses in cradle? Like the same way a virus in real life is basically a random peice of DNA which uses cells to replicate itself, are there techniques which implant themselves in someone’s spirit and force a copy of themselves? And if so, would they differ by stage and advancement?

Will Wight

There are techniques like this, but they aren't as overpowered as you might think thanks to a simple rule: your own spirit is sovereign within your body.

It's the same reason why a water or blood artist wouldn't just stop your heart instantly. They can't. Your spirit is far stronger inside your body than anyone else's madra.

You can overcome that by a huge difference in power: a Herald could stop a thousand Underlords' hearts all at once. But techniques that insert themselves into enemies' bodies tend to degrade very quickly and do limited damage.