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Dross cycled Charity's madra scales of shadow and dream. Does he only cycle the dream aspect of the scale?
Yeah, that's kinda how that works. There's a couple of ways to cycle things. It doesn't have to actually be the exact madra type that you cycle. So if you get the scale, you can process just the part of it that you can process.
My main problem with romance is that it's added to literally every story as though it's a required component, and it's often just thrown in there. In nine out of ten stories, the characters are just in love because they're in love, and we expect that because it's the weird side item that comes with every single meal.
So I intentionally left it out of Traveler's Gate.
But now that TG has become much bigger than I thought it would, if I want to expand on the character's lives, logically there's going to be SOME romance in there. There's romance in everyone's life to some degree.
It just won't be the focus, because the focus is fighting giant interdimensional monsters with a huge sword.
***As for the anime influences, the parallels to the Shounen Jump Big Three are almost entirely coincidences.
The madra in Cradle parallels chakra from Naruto because they're both based on chi myths and legends that originated in China and Korea. We're drawing on the same source material. But the two magic systems work exactly the same way, so picturing madra flow as chakra flow is dead-on.
The only One Piece connection is that they both involve pirates on a magical sea, but I wasn't intentionally making that parallel. They're pirates because I wanted to do a pirates vs. ninjas thing, and it's a magical sea because awesome things are awesome. I would love to write something that was directly inspired by One Piece, though. That would be amazing.
I love the Devil Fruits system but I wish it had more rules, and I love how haki solves the main Fruit problem (i.e. why aren't the Logia users invincible?) by giving them a catch-all force that can be used against anyone with any powers. But it's also kind of vague, as haki is just sort of "general magical power," so I'd want some more character there.
And if I wrote my own series I'd get to tweak those as I wish, which would be so much fun!
The Traveler's Gate parallels...I get the connection to Bleach, I really really do, but believe it or not it's entirely a series of coincidences. Simon uses a large Japanese-style sword because it's cool, and if I was inspired by anyone it was Sephiroth. With that sweet sweet Masamune.
The black cloak was a last-minute addition. Seriously, it was like the last thing I added to the book. My cover artists had come up with that sweet-looking Nye on the cover, but my beta readers kept assuming it was Simon (because anyone on the cover has to be the main character, I guess). And they were confused when he never wore a black cloak; I had him in peasant clothes all book.
So I gave him a cloak. Now it's Simon on the cover if you want it to be, or it's the Eldest, or it's just a random Nye. However you interpret it.
And the mask was complete improv. I gave Malachi a mask as his Ragnarus artifact, but when he died it was just sitting there on the floor. And I've always had this pet peeve where main characters let their enemies' strongest weapons sit there and rot instead of taking them and use them for good.
So I had Simon take it. Then I had to think...well, he has to find a use for this mask. For Malachi it allowed him to draw more from his Territory, but how would that help Simon? The chains already limit how much he can draw. Maybe they can fix it and make it work for Valinhall...
And that's how that happened.
If I were to take anything from Bleach, it would be shikai/bankai. In fact, I'm trying to figure out how to work something like that into Cradle, because I think it allows for a lot of character individuality.
***
That said, I can tell you where I DID intentionally copy the Big Three as well as a bunch of other anime series, and that's in the fight scenes. I usually picture fights as a choreographed anime sequence in my head, and work from there. If you think of them as reading an anime, awesome!
And finally, to answer your main question: yes, I picture Lindon and Yerin as Chinese, as well as most of the characters. The only exceptions so far are Suriel and Eithan (and, in Blackflame, the rest of Eithan's family).
Thanks for reading, Simon! Glad you're enjoying the stories!
What are the mechanics of a soul oath? Does the oath need to be made with equal consideration on each side? What happens if you break an oath? Can an oath be annulled by mutual agreement?
A soul oath is your spirit holding you to an agreement. When two people’s spirits are holding them to the same agreement, they resonate, and it creates a sort of subtle link.
Therefore, both people have to recognize that they have made an oath. Forcing someone to swear an oath under duress works, but is much weaker, because both participants know the oath is unfair. However, making a false oath isn’t really possible, because your spirit and the other person’s would recognize that you had made an oath.
Yes, you can annul an oath under mutual agreement.
If you break one, your spirit suffers the consequences. So you can have your madra channels or core injured, your madra can become more difficult to control, etc.
In the worst case, you can die, though those risks are exaggerated in rumor. Usually, if you do die from breaking an oath, it’s because your powers screwed up.
Some people with more powerful souls even influence the aura around them to hold them to their oath, meaning the natural world would curse them with consequences for oath-breaking.
Is lightning madra a derivative of storm madra or are they seperate?
They're the same thing.
What is a powerful elixir with a huge drawback
A Dragon's Tear. It's refined from two perfectly balanced varieties of madra (the actual ingredients used depend on the refiner's Path and the availability in the region). When you swallow it, it releases an explosion of power that "supercharges" your soul, so to speak, releasing enormous power temporarily. However, it strains the madra channels, which can lead to permanent spiritual damage. In a severe case, it could leave you with no more power than an Unsouled. More importantly, it's addictive. Not chemically, but even users with no spiritual damage report feeling that their souls feel weaker afterwards in comparison to that brief moment of transcendent power.
So how does aura become madra?
A sacred artist draws the aura into themselves and into their core, where they make it part of their spirit. If they succeed, they’ve taken control of a small amount of aura, which merges with their current madra so they share properties.
Are there any iron bodies that can affect the soul?
Yes, there absolutely are. So there will be iron bodies that will be more resistant to spiritual attacks. So an attack of madra will do more than an aura technique, and there will be some that would interact with aura differently, that's a potential iron body. There could be iron bodies that effect the processing of madra, but that gets kind of weird, because at that point it overlaps with a change in your cycling. So that's really the domain of the Jade cycling technique.
Strictly for research, how long does it take to sign a few thousand books?
Heh, we determined this, and I think we determined it was what, I think 20 hours? 21 hours? Is that right? Something like that. Yeah, we calculated it and I think that's what we came up with. It's something like that, a solid signing. I think that's right. I'd have to you know uh I think we wrote it down somewhere. You know, uh, not that bad, haha just gotta do it all, just gotta sit down for 20 hours and (scribbling motion with hand).
Wouldn't it technically be a Lord?
Overlord in Traveler's Gate makes sense since they're lords over all the other lords in a part of the kingdom. They're literally over lords.
But it seems strange to me to have an Underlord and Overlord but no Lord ranking, nor any lordly classes to be under or over.
You've traced my thought process accurately, Brian, but I'm considering one other factor.
Just like Lowgold, Highgold, and Truegold are sub-levels of the Gold stage (or "stages of the Gold realm"--I'm still working on the terminology), Underlord, [THIS ONE], and Archlord are the three stages in the Lord realm. So I'm trying to stick with the pattern of made-up compound word involving the suffix "-lord."
I'm just trying to keep the terms relatively consistent so that they're somewhat easier to keep track of.
It also breaks down neatly into a chart, should I ever get down to making one of those.
Incidentally, how do you feel about Underlady / Overlady?
Is necromancy a thing on Cradle?
Not in the traditional sense, so not in the sense that like death madra allows you to resurrect skeletons. What they do have is they make corpse puppets. In that case, yeah you can reanimate corpses, but they can really be made out of anything. So you could also make yourself a little metal battle-droid, and that would probably be better than an actual corpse.
Will popped into the discord during a conversation referencing this WoW entry, and had this to add to clarify...
I say above that death madra cannot be used to resurrect skeletons. In the following sentence, I say that “they” can make corpse puppets. “They” in this case refers to the sacred artists of Cradle in general, not specifically death artists.
Are there any cool places/creatures/magic systems you've thought of that you haven't had a chance to share with us in the books, but can talk about here?
Yes there are cool places/creatures/magic systems.
In Cradle, one on the things that I was originally intending, was I wanted ziel to have another sacred beast contract. Just like Lindon does, because we don't see a lot of that, mainly because I don't want to introduce two characters, so it's not something you see anybody but lindon do very much. There are other sacred artists out there that work with sacred beasts. What I really wanted to do was show off somebody else that did that.
Now what his original design called for, instead of a giant hammer and a script based path, he had a void key and he kept creatures in it, and he was kinda like a Pokemon trainer if I'm being honest. So he had a core that allowed him to share and connect with madra from a bunch of different creatures, but he formed a contract in a different way. What he would do, is he would then release these less advanced Sacred Beasts that he had a bond with, and use them according to the situation.
To be honest it was too complex of a power set, it's more suited to a protagonists than a secondary character. Mainly because you have to introduce every single little creature he's fighting with, and you have to describe it, and you have to name it, and because they're sacred beasts they're mostly intelligent, so you have to give them a personality, so instead of creating one character you're creating half a dozen characters.
So I had a mantis that used sword madra, but he didn't grow any bigger, so was literally like the size of a mantis, so he would like go and attack....there was some cool stuff that I did with him, that was neat. Then I could have him really understand Sacred Beasts and talk about the difference between sacred beasts and humans, and how they viewed the world, and there's just a lot of things I wanted to do with that, and that was a cool thing that never made it into the books.
One of the things I developed recently, I spent some time just going through making up some magic systems for fun. One of the ones I worked on was the idea that spells, it's a world I'm envisioning kinda wizards, casting spells, so of course when you think of the traditional fantasy setting, wizards casting spells, it's a very intellectual thing, but there becomes kind of a problem where the spread of information, like so if you have wizards that work like they do in D&D, where its all knowledge and education, and then you have the internet, every wizard is gonna have access to every spell. Not that I was intending to give the internet, but there's a perfectly efficient was to learn these spells.
So therefore I thought, okay what is a way to keep the intellectual nerdy side of it but also it'd be a very personal thing that you really do have to explore in kind of an arcane way. So I thought of, each spell you have to really describe in a personal, interactive way, and by describe I mean write down in a book, or you could do sculptures, you can do songs, you could do poems. What you're doing is you're describing a concept, and this whole whatever, alter or whatever you're building that becomes the structure of the spell, it suggest the nature of what the spell does, so if you're sculpting a really big buff dude, and then you're writing all this poetry about how strength was the most important value, and then you wrote a thesis in your own blood on how only strength matters, maybe you'd get a strength buff, maybe you wouldn't anything because you didn't put enough passion into it. You're subjectively describing the effect you want, rather than objectively describing it like a programmer would to a computer, because its not literally interpreting your commands, its is interpretively and artistically manifesting your ideas.
That feels more magical to me, instead of a scientific mathematical sort of magic system, is more of an artistic, expressive magic system. I thought that would be a cool way of doing it, and it could take years to craft the perfect spell for you, but then once you do, the spells are very flexible and they have a lot of power to them, its not just a spell that sets things on fire, its a spell that is fire, is a living flame or is a spirit of fire or creates a fiery house I don't know, I didn't flesh it out too far. That's something that I really liked, that concept, and that's something I might work on further developing some day.
Dross’ relationship with Lindon for some reason reminded me of Vampire Hunter D. D is kept alive at one point in the first movie by an independent entity in his hand which lives off D but also allowed D to heal/regenerate (or at least regenerate faster). I wonder if such a relation would be possible in cradle. Essentially a symbiotic relationship (with a parasite or something of the sort), which could leave both parties better off but didn’t necessarily require a contract or sharing of madra. Now Dross is a construct and seems to operates off all madra, so maybe he’s a special case?
Yes, that would be possible.
[From a reddit post regarding Little Blue]"Sylvan Riverseeds were natural spirits—beings like Remnants, only born of accumulated vital aura rather than the death of a sacred artist. They only formed in places where the aura was both extremely strong and in perfect balance. If the aura slanted toward one aspect or another, a different natural spirit would form. Typically, you would find that balance of aura in the heart of a forest, next to a spring or a river. In such a place, air and earth, heat and cold, life and death all coexisted at the same point in roughly equal amounts." Location 9460 in cradle foundationInteresting. Except Ghostwater reiterates the life & water line about Sylvan Riverseeds, and explains that Sylvan Dreamseeds are created when a different two elements are in balance:“Sylvan Dreamseeds,” Dross explained. “Just like Riverseeds are pure spirits that are born in areas with a strong balance between water and life aura, these little guys are born under the influence of dream aura. From the dream tablets, you see. The library and the Well are here purely to create the right conditions for their birth.Wight, Will. Ghostwater (Cradle Book 5) (Kindle Locations 2364-2367). Hidden Gnome Publishing. Kindle Edition.
When Dross says what he does about life and water, it’s a simplification. The first answer is more technically correct.
1) Would someone from the Abidan Court leave a remnant, can someone who uses the power of the Way even leave a remnant?
2) If Lindon, Yerin and Eithan advance to the world beyond Cradle would they be babies in the new world or adults?
3) Does any world beyond Cradle use Madras?
1.) Most of the seven Court members are not from Cradle, so no, they would not leave a Remnant. Any normal Abidan from Cradle would leave one, but it might not be capable of tapping into the Way. If it can't, then it's much less powerful than the Abidan was in life, and would be easily exterminated by anything capable of killing an Abidan.
2.) Depends on where they go and when/how they advance. Lots of factors in play.
3.) Not exactly. This is difficult to answer without getting into spoiler-y specifics.
Were there ever sacred artists that use a hunger madra Path?
Effectively no.
Will, how many people of Northstriders level would it roughly take to defeat weakest member of The Wolves? I know that suitability is a huge factor in a fight, which is why i don'T expect a definite answer.
Assuming the weakest of the Wolves, i.e. someone who has no other powers besides those of the Abidan and little combat experience but they're trying to work in the Wolf Division anyway...AND assuming we mean "beat in a fight" rather than "kill"...Northstrider might be able to do it in a 1v1. There's a wide gap between the least of the Abidan and the Judges, plus people who are weaker than Northstrider could still technically ascend.
Do you ascend simply after reaching a certain level, or is it only possible after gaining an enlightenment of a certain laws of the universe, kinda like Linley did in Coiling Dragon later in the books?(For example, Profound Laws of Earth)If it is the latter, could technically a copper ascend by understanding a certain amount of laws, or is that, already, not possible, because mastering such laws allows you, immediately, to reach a higher cultivation rank even if it is an unconventional way.
I imagine it's a lot like the transition to iron for Lindon though. If someone weak ascends too early it probably limits their future growth. Or maybe the iteration the weakest Wolf came from allows early ascension so he's not all that strong yet.Hey Will another question: What stops immortals from mastering different magic systems from different iterations? (Like in disguise so they don't disturb fate too much)
@George: It's more like mastering Laws than pure cultivation, but no a Copper couldn't do it.@Diego: Yep, you nailed it. The weakest Wolf is from an Iteration other than Cradle (so he might have to leave a lot of his power behind) and has just started learning to tap into the Way.What stops immortals from going to another Iteration and learning the magic system?The Abidan. There's nothing in the rules of the universe to prevent that, and indeed one of the rival organizations of the Abidan is made up of people who do this.
1. Do the Nye have actual bodies besides Cloth chains and essence? 2. What was Valinhall like before Valinhall got there 3. How did Valin get gold from Elysia if it hadn’t been opened in 300 years
1.) No. 2.) It wasn’t. 3.) He slipped in.
What would a monarch level poison do?
It would be sentient, more like a plague than a poison, and it would not only devour the spirit and the mind, but would corrupt the madra and aura of the land around it as well. Inside a Monarch, being contained by their spirit, it might just act like a normal poison would in a normal person.
Are there other colors of dragon madra beyond "black"flame?
The dragons who inhabited the lands of the Blackflame empire were (and are) black, the color of the destructive aura that they cycled. There are sea dragons that are blue, sky dragons with a variety of colors, and earthbound land dragons that might be green or brown.But you asked about the color of their flame, not the color of their scales. Yes, there are dragons with toxic green flame, frigid icy "flame" that consumes even as it freezes, good old natural flame, and red living flames that drift around like Remnants burning as much as possible to extend their fleeting lives.
Can one person inherit multiple distinct bloodline powers (eg akura armor + aurelius senses)?
No. So, the idea is you have one... (Will gets distracted by a scarecrow.) All right. So you really have slot, so to speak, for a bloodline power. So if you did inherit two bloodline powers, they would blend. They would blend, or one would overwrite the other. It depends on how powerful the ancestor leaving you the bloodline power was and ow much of it you inherited. So if you inherited a really strong measure of a bloodline power, that one would be dominant. The example of course is Akura armor and Arelius web detection, because those are the two major bloodline powers in the series. With those two, it would really depend. If you were a direct descendent of Malice almost certainly your bloodline would be stronger than the Arelius one, so it would probably just be overwritten. But there's a possibility you would get a hybrid. So if Malice left a stronger, it would kind of be like a, lets say a suit of armor that had some detection capabilities while it was active. And was a different color, or was more sensitive to being controlled, or armor that now as part of its defensive mechanism web of madra. Akura, your right. Akura. That's definitely how you say it and always was.
