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Latham

1. Suriel can manipulate strings of fate (even attaching one to London and forged madra ball) - is that a path of attributes of a path in your design, it seems that Fox clans Elder dreams of return of strategies and sees future ( this makes him connected to the way). Will there be others that can help Lindon learn to read fate from his connection to Suriel

2 if I was Ozriel and knew that other Abidan are looking for me and Suriel is the only one remotely compassionate I would try to sway Suriel to my camp and IF Somehow I, Ozriel learn about Suriels connection to Lindon, I would try to help and influence London from the very first steps along his development. So is it possible that something happenes along this line?

3. So far we have seen London primarily desire to do baby steps but he was the only one observe Suriels supreme powers- so naturally he would try to duplicate those right ? Right? It might bring conflict to Abidan if Makiel will notice that Suriels little protege tries to copy her powers while Ozriel in the shadows helping Lindon and stirring the pot to force the split in the court.ISo unique training along Eithans path? Or talking to Eithan and tell him everything about Suriel?

Will Wight

1.) I don't understand this question, I'm sorry. Probably not?

2.) It's possible that Ozriel has done something to sway Suriel to his side, but she hasn't seen it yet.

Suriel's connection to Lindon is relatively recent. So if Ozriel does learn about it and start intervening with Lindon, it won't have happened yet.

3.) Lindon is taking baby steps because those are the only steps he can take, but he has seen Suriel. No one else on Cradle has had their eyes widened quite so far.

Questioner

Do natural spirits need lord revelations?  Do they need to be remade with soulfire to advance to the lord realm?

Will Wight

Yes they do need soulfire to advance to the lord realm.  In terms of do they need revelations, yes and no.  They need to understand themselves better like sacred beasts do and human sacred artists do, but it's a little bit different for them just like it is for anything else.  However, something like a naturally advancing tree for instance, it's really more about, like Emriss Silentborn when she was alive. it's really more about growing degress of sentience and awareness more than it is... Oh, hear we go.

Will's brother (offscreen)

We found batteries.

Will Wight

We found batteries.  I'm being dismembered.  She's trying to make me into a Skywalker by cutting my arm off.  That's how it works.  Except she was attacking me at the shoulder, so I don't get to be Luke.  And I don't get to be Lindon either.  

Will Wight

Makiel, the Hound

The story of each universe is written in Fate.

Fate governs the natural lifespan of each Iteration. It isn't a detailed plan that determines every action of each person, but rather a force like gravity that pushes a world toward a healthy life ending in that Iteration's natural death.

Since humans tie the universe to the Way, people figure prominently in Fate. One individual life is unlikely to affect the destiny of an entire Iteration, but their actions might be a necessary step toward a world's continued existence. Or its end.

Makiel and the Hound Division of the Abidan supervise Fate. They tap into the Way to read the past and the future, and to deal with any deviations that may jeopardize one or more worlds.

Makiel is something of a leader among the seven Judges, though the Eledari Pact technically gives him no authority over his peers. This is a tradition continued from the original Makiel, who first realized the need for such a pact and organized its creation.

He is rigid and inflexible, utterly dedicated to the enforcement of the rules that protect existence. This mindset has led him to clash with Ozriel, who tends to value his own will over externally imposed guidelines. He has tried many times to recover the Scythe and Mantle of Ozriel in order to pass the title to a different, more worthy bearer, but the Reaper has eluded or defeated him at every turn.

Questioner

How do monarchs have babies on Cradle? Do they just appear instantly at the nine months stage? Do they rocket out of the womb at mach 9? The core is right below the navel, which is where a baby would be. Does this effect the baby or it's own developing core?

Will Wight

The children of Monarchs are born just like anyone else. Monarchs are not only extremely powerful, they are also skilled at controlling their power; they're not going to harm their child unless they want to. When the baby is within the womb, the Monarch's own spirit protects it, and it is born normally. Monarchs have smoother and easier pregnancies than most women, due to their superhuman resilience. The children of Monarchs are often born with special advantages. Some bloodline legacies (powers inherited through lineage) are from sacred beasts that have taken human form, but others come from Monarch ancestors.

Questioner

So if I loose my horse while training for the Blue Ribbon Race, and I accidentally run into a elderspawn instead of the usual skunks and such, what should I do?

Will Wight

Now, this depends entirely on what kind of Elderspawn you've encountered.

If it has the spindly legs of a spider and eyes on stalks, you just don't want to do anything interesting. As long as it has no reason to investigate you, it won't tear you apart and rearrange your organs alphabetically. You should respond in the most boring possible fashion: by turning and running away, screaming as loud as you can.

This is the response it expects, and it will be bored and turn away. Usually.

If it looks like a frog the size of a human infant, dripping with luminous slime and humming with a high-pitched sound you can barely hear, you should kill it immediately. If you succeed, you have saved us all from an outbreak.

If you leave it alone for too long, it will consume anything organic nearby: grass, leaves, roadkill, garbage, small animals and insects. When it has eaten many times its body weight, it will give birth.

The hordes of Othaghor have devastated many isolated communities. No one has seen these Elderspawn in centuries, which contributes to many ordinary citizens considering them myths. They are not.

Questioner

Have you thought about writing short stories about the Emperor and the Regents (from EE)? Could you give us a hint what these might be like?

Will Wight

I have! Especially while working on OKAK, I thought that might be something I would have liked to explore.   I would like to show the Elder War at its peak, when the Emperor and his companions had to go into territories warped and shaped by a Great Elder and convince slaves who had grown up with decades of indoctrination to follow fellow humans instead of the alien gods who own them.   I think that could be cool.

Questioner

Would the body of a sacred artist over the iron stage retain it's heightened abilities if the artist core was cracked/permanently damaged.

Will Wight

In most cases, yes. Even if you're spiritually injured, your Iron body still functions. It's a physical change in your body. But there are Iron bodies, like Lindon's, that require madra. In that case, you wouldn't see much benefit from it. Indeed, it might make your spiritual injuries even worse.

God of the Tower

How many other worlds have elders on them? Whats the strongest power in Valinhall and Ragnarus? Are different types of madra really different essences of intent of the universe? How many things in vallinhall are awakened objects?

Will Wight

1.) The only worlds with Elders in them are doomed, except for Asylum.2.) The strongest power in Valinhall and Ragnarus...I'm not sure. That's a difficult question.3.) Each Iteration has its own unique expression of power. In Asylum, it shows up as Intent. In Cradle, it's madra.4.) The relationship between Valinhall and Awakened objects is something I'll have to explore in a prequel novel/novella.

Questioner

The other Raccoon Families have brought up a good point about Gokren, the Sandviper TrueGold. Does BlackFlame hold the power to incinerate not only the human, but their remnant at the same time? Or was it just because Orthos is a walking trash compactor and ate Gokren and his remnant?

Will Wight

No, I just skipped the scene with Orthos and Lindon dealing with the Remnants. The technique didn't destroy the Remnants; I just looked back over the scene, and they kill the guys and then the text skips ahead five minutes.

I had intended to imply that Lindon and Orthos spent five minutes cleaning up the Remnants, but I didn't state that. It's an oversight on my part. I should have said something specifically.

manty05

Is it possible to develop a veil like technique that blocks the Arelius senses.

Will Wight

Yes, but it would be difficult, given that Arelius senses pick up physical sensory information, not spiritual. But you could develop a technique that would do it, and carry a construct around that prevented them from spying on you. Either it could scramble the particular threads of madra they’re using, or it could generate a shadow or cloud or whatever that blocked them from picking up anything from within it.

It would be relatively easier to script a room or container to block them out, but you’d still need to know how.

Questioner

I'd love to know what you think about Warhammer 40k. How do you think the crew would hold up in the 40k universe?

Will Wight

No one holds up well in the 40k universe. So, not well. Warhammer 40k, to those of you who don't know, is the setting that coined the term grimdark. So, anybody can easily die in the Warhammer 40k universe. If the emperor of humanity can die, anyone can (he's technically not dead, but..). How would they fare? Badly. Everyone fares badly. But what do I think of Warhammer 40k? I love the lore. Big fan of the lore. Not a huge fan of most of the games or the books. Some of the books are great, but they tend to get extremely detailed.

One of the reasons why I've said I like the space fantasy or space opera aesthetic more than I like the sci-fi aesthetic is because sci-fi tends to be on the side of... harder sci-fi, harder concepts, stuff that might actually exist in science, and I don't really care about that- my favorite part of Star Wars is the Jedi. I don't care how X-wing hyperdrives work, so there's a lot of that in Warhammer 40k, there's a lot of, "ah yes, this legion has a wide and storied history," and I'm like, "oh cool, I'm good with that," and they're like, "Here it is!" and then for 40 pages they explain to you the entire history of whatever, the Burning Legion. Just kidding, that's from Warcraft, but whatever order of Space Marines it is and that's annoying to me. It's also, like, they get into the detail of how exactly Space Marines work. Oh, I don't care, they're bio-engineered by what is effectively an immortal living god. They're superhuman, you got me. I don't need to know that they have two hearts and six livers.

So, it tends to be irritating to me that- the Warhammer 40k books that I like the most were probably the Eisenhorn books, I thought those were great. [game related mumbling] So that's my sort of breakdown of Warhammer 40k, but I love the lore. Big fan of it. I obviously am not a grimdark kind of guy, so the tone is not my favorite. But I feel like it's so bombastic and over the top with everything that it gets away with it, it's not as serious as everyone in the universe is. Because it's all kind of inherently- a little ridiculous. Which I like. Big fan of that. I'm a big fan of Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, so there is no such thing as too over the top.

Questioner

What path do professional sex workers follow? Are they in a house and ranked like the janitors?

Will Wight

Prostitutes often follow dream Paths, because dream madra can be used to alter appearances, induce emotions, and even find potential customers. In the Blackflame Empire, they are of course ranked. Everything is ranked. The top brothel is The Court of Roses, which caters to members of the royal family and influential clan leaders. The number one courtesan in the Court of Roses is Haru Mei, a woman on the Path of Twining Vines. She cycles aura of life and dreams, in a strange combination that helps her sense what others are feeling and manipulate those sensations.

Tievel

This would be a longer one, but any chance we could (someday) get a primer on how and why "internal" vital aura aspects operate differently than others? Such as blood and dream aura, which non-blood/dream madra shouldn't be able to affect, but the spirit somehow defends against Ruler techniques of them since Blood artists can't go around giving Lords heart attacks willy nilly.

Will Wight

Maybe someday?

Terrible

Could two different Sacred Beasts who had advanced to Underlord or beyond, and taken human form have a child together? If so, what would that child be like?

Will Wight

Yes. Weird.

TheDazeOfOurLives

According to another famous narrative, God once ordered to collect dust from earth from which Adam is supposed to be created from. Only Azrael (Angel of Death) succeeded, whereupon he was destined to become the angel concerning life and death of humanity.

I thought this was humorous as Ozriel is the Monarch of the Arelius family and they are so focused on cleaning things and finding dust.

fudgemetal

Sweet catch my dude, wonder if WW is aware

Will Wight

I am absolutely aware.

Questioner

How would Lindon fare in Naruto?

Will Wight

I don't even know how Naruto would fare in Naruto these days. This is another Will rant. I know you know this, I know you're asking Naruto questions because it sets me off, but like, what the heck is the power scale now? I don't even know. Like, you have Naruto making a hole in the moon and now he gets outfought by a cyborg who can just do hand to hand martial arts. Like, what the heck? He just got kicked in the face. How in the world can he be kicked? This is like Goku losing a lifting competition to a human being. I don't get it. I can't go any further. Legit, that's the shortest I've ever talked about that topic.

Questioner

Simon vs. Elder Whisper

Yerin vs. Elder Whisper

Five-Tailed Fox

Elder Whisper is a master of illusion. I think Yerin could break out of it but I dont know if Sacred Animals can advance like Trugold to Underlord. Ill say Whisper wins.

With Simon, he should be dead as he has no experience with illusions.

Will Wight

The Five-Tailed Fox gets it.

Sacred beasts CAN advance just like humans can, though of course their process is a little...weirder.

There is a power in Valinhall that can break illusions, but Simon doesn't have it yet, so he dies.

Questioner

What other stories and monsters are the cradle kaiju inspired by?

Will Wight

So obviously they are modeled off the sacred guardian beasts of Chinese and east Asian mythology however those are benevolent divine creatures and obviously the Dreadgods are not; they are quite malevolent. So they are also modeled off of any big kaiju, you got it right, they are just big monsters.  So I picked them, I didn't model their power off the actual mythological versions, that would have been difficult to do.  So I kinda just picked their powers based on, like, I had their names kinda tied to what they were and then I (annoying subnautica notification).  So I came up with their appearances while coming up with their names and based on that I kind of had their powers developed and then I kind of just themed them as big kaiju around that.  So the bleeding phoenix of course, ok, so I'm going blood and rebirth, that makes sense and that's where that power came from. And the Silent King was I was like ok, white tiger with a cool halo, that sounds kind of mental to me so that's dream madra.  So then I had the Silent King mind controlling people.  Then there's the Wandering Titan who is big and made of stone, big crushy, smashy guy.

CaptnThumbs

Mercy's path seems to be a mixture of madras. Is the book in her soulspace a requirement to her path?

Will Wight

Yes, the book is, in a sense, her Path.

Questioner

Eithan vs. Hellsing: I think Hellsing would lose, but how would the fight go?

Eithan vs. Queen Mab from the Dresden Files

Eithan vs. Thor

Yerin vs. the Juggernaut (from x-men)

Lindon vs. the Wolverine

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR BLACKFLAME**

Eithan vs. the turtle in Blackflame: We know already that the turtle will win the awesomeness fight, but in a death match, which would walk out? (The turtle was mentioned in the previous blog)

Will Wight

1.) Eithan vs. Alucard

I'm assuming you mean Alucard as an individual and not the Hellsing Organization as a whole. Eithan would win because, as overwhelming as Alucard looks, he has a number of exploitable weaknesses.

One-on-one, Eithan would just keep cutting him up until he fully released his powers or ran out of regeneration. If he fully released his powers, then his original body is vulnerable, and since Eithan can instantly sense everything around him in a fairly broad space, he would know that and kill the original.

Even in the situation where he had to go around killing all the individuals, an army isn't really much threat to an Underlord.

2.) Eithan vs. Queen Mab

I...am going to skip over this one for spoiler reasons.

There's a subplot in Blackflame that revolves around what Path Eithan is on, and I can't answer this question without affecting your interpretation of the Path.

3.) Eithan vs. Thor

If you mean the Marvel comics Thor, that would be a good fight. Thor can fly and summon lightning, which would be difficult to deal with, but in the end if Eithan was really motivated to kill him, he could.

No specifics, again, because I don't want to influence your reading of Eithan's Path.

4.) Yerin vs. the Juggernaut

I'm not sure...this is a cool matchup to consider. I'm playing this fight out in my head, and I think it would come down to how long it took Yerin to figure out that she needed to get his helmet off.

She couldn't break the armor, but at the same time he'd be too slow to hit her. I'd think she'd probably kill him through gaps in the armor, cutting him slowly with sword madra. Death by a thousand cuts.

5.) Lindon vs. Wolverine

Wolverine tears him apart. No contest.

Now, if you mean Lindon versus A wolverine, I think he could probably handle that.

6.) SPOILER ALERT

Eithan vs. The Turtle

NONE CAN STAND AGAINST THE MIGHT OF THE TURTLE!

(...but not really, Eithan would win.)