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This might be a world builder but oh well. I think we can assume that the Way isn't madra. So does becoming part of the Abidan force you to change you path, or does it simply enhance the path you are currently on?
You wouldn't have to change your path when you went up to the Abidan. Your understanding of your path would certainly change. But the Way can be integrated into what you already do.
Does Lindon actually need his hunger madra arm to use the Consume technique?
Yes, he does. That's sort of how his body and soul work now.
At what level can a royal madra user transfer their power?
That is sort of a weird question to answer because there is really only one line that does that and its the royal line. So, at what level? I mean, they are all Monarchs kind of by default. In order to design a system like that you'd probably have to be a Monarch. I suspect you could do it if you had Sages cooperating, but it would be difficult.
Are there any people on Cradle who don't cycle at all or is it as natural as breathing?
You can be born with madra and not ever cycle or develop it.They can sort of feel their spirits, even without training, so it requires a degree of deliberate or culturally enforced ignorance to never do anything with it, but there are definitely isolated locations where they don’t learn to cycle and therefore don’t quite advance or use real techniques.
Here's something I've been wondering: you mentioned that creating a path around guns would be pointless, but then how are sword paths even remotely viable? It seems like the best paths would focus on long-range capabilities, and have techniques or an iron body that greatly enhance speed, allowing them to stay out of range. It doesn't matter how good a sword is if it can't land a hit.Also, how are armies organized in times of war? Are soldiers required to change to a standard path for uniformity among the ranks, arranged into divisions of people with similar skill-sets, or thrown onto the field with no regard for paths? Are officers determined by merit or cultivation level? Are more powerful sacred artists fielded first or last, as using them early could allow more control of the battlefield, but they don't want to risk the shame of being seen defeated. Do coups often follow wars? As the conflict would likely create powerful sacred artists to challenge the ruling power.
It depends on what you mean by "best" Paths. Best Path for what? Best Path for killing a sword artist, sure.However, the real answer is that in this world, a sword isn't a short-range weapon.The nature of sacred arts in this world means there aren't armies as we know them. It's pointless to mass together a bunch of people when one enemy who's advanced enough could kill all of them unopposed.War-level combat is a lot more about matching experts with experts. This is a world where it's even viable for wars to be settled by duels; if their Underlord beats your Underlord, and you don't have anyone else as strong or stronger, you might as well surrender.There are squads and divisions divided by specialty function and ability, which we'll get into. Also, Carthage must be destroyed.
That seems strange, as all previous examples of conflict (heavens glory, jai clan) show the leaders more than willing to throw weak fodder at their enemies, because if they go and fight themselves, they risk losing face, or appearing weak (pride/appearance of strength being a pillar of the culture here) Wouldn't kings and lords want to avoid this as much as possible? Sending low-rank fodder to fight their low-rank fodder (enemy kings won't want to risk themselves needlessly either, after all) seems like a preferable alternative, especially since if your fodder survives, they will likely become stronger from the fighting.
An Underlord loses face when he HAS to go deal with a group of Golds, because he's lowering himself to their level.If the enemy doesn't have an Underlord of their own, he doesn't have to deal with them at all. The threat of him doing so is enough.If they keep defying him, then he would lose more respect and reputation by allowing them to continue hurting his interests unopposed than he would taking care of them himself.So basically, if you're not roughly equal to the enemy in strength, you don't fight.If you ARE roughly equal in strength, as you say, fights are usually carried out by the lower ranks. It's not normally duels between the upper-level people, I was just using that as an illustration of where the real power is. It's a viable strategy, but it's not common.
And furthermore Carthage must be destroyed.
When will Underlord be released?
This was by far the most common fan-submitted question.
...
The time approaches when ravens cry with the voices of men. I see a day when lakes and rivers reverse their flow, when dogs and cats merge into the perfect pets, and when the moon cackles and stares at the people below while blood leaks from the corner of its mouth. Ia! Ia! These are the signs that the time of Underlord is nigh!
What makes Jai Chen's madra pink?
Love.
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?
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.
Why do you not like character development?
Yesterday, I saw a comment wherein a reader wondered why I didn't give character development the same attention as the plot, action, and magic scenes. "It would only benefit the story," this person said, and "I can't understand why he doesn't give this aspect of storytelling the same attention as the others." (Paraphrased, because I can't be bothered to look up the actual comment, but it's pretty close.)The thing is, he's not wrong. And neither are you, to suggest that the world-building is shallow. It is shallow. I have all this stuff charted out in my notes, but much of what I imagine about the world is only skated across or touched upon before we've left the area and moved on to the next.However, there's no such thing as a fast-paced, action-focused, character-focused, plot-focused, worldbuilding-focused fantasy novel. There are series that do all of those things well, but they tend to be much longer and they don't come out twice a year. And even they have priorities, because you cannot have every aspect of story-crafting as your highest priority.I have a limited amount of time to produce these novels if I want to keep releasing them regularly. Therefore, I have to choose what is most important to me.I think will is putting too much stock in keeping books close to the same length.There are two reasons why I put a high priority on keeping the books close to the same length. First is story consistency. It's very easy to let each book in a long series balloon longer and longer as the series progresses, because you're always adding new characters and new places and new aspects of the world to explore.Plus, you hear most of your feedback from your hardcore fans (because they tend to care the most and therefore talk the most), so they're always clamoring for more. However, a 120k book is structurally different from a 90k word book. It's not just "the same story, but more of it." You don't want people to sign on for one type of story and end up getting another.That said, I could see a Cradle book stretching up to 120k without it changing too much, and we might end up there. Which brings me back to the other point: release rate. It takes me longer to write a longer book.If I didn't give myself a cap, I would always write longer and longer books, because there are more cool things I want to cram in there. But I have to limit myself, or the stories will stretch and change and the release rate will slow down."Ah, but Will, you snide devil," I hear you say, "why don't you just take more time to write each book?"Two reasons: first, I don't believe most people want that. I believe most readers value consistent releases more highly than you might expect. I am firm in this belief, but I know everybody doesn't think that way, so in comes my second reason: it just doesn't work.If I took as long as I wanted for each book, and they each took more than a year to write and were as long as I wanted, they might individually become more highly rated. But the series as a whole would be less popular. My sales growth comes almost entirely from quick releases and ratings spikes on Amazon, and the way the Kindle store works means frequent releases are far better than infrequent releases, even if the infrequent releases have individually higher sales. My sales charts make it staggeringly obvious. Sales trend way down, and then a new release spikes the sales for all my books (especially books in that series) back up.If I were to take so long between books, I would fall below my minimum monthly income in about eight months. Which means that for the remaining 6-12 months it could take me to write this book, I'd be running off my savings.That is not a viable business model.Even beyond a business perspective and back to the artistic: the same thing happens to fans. Readers forget about me if they aren't reminded every few months. People stop talking about my books. Word of mouth slows down. People don't care as much. Fans are happier, more engaged, and more interested with more frequent releases.This might not be true if I had one Harry Potter mega-hit that sold a million copies and spawned a perpetual motion machine of fan engagement. Then I could take 2+ years for each book and really knock your socks off every time. But since I have not done that, I have to bow to reality.Bottom line: having established that I have to produce books in a finite amount of time, I therefore have a finite amount of space, and I have to choose carefully what I spend that space on.However, that doesn't mean I've given up on improving my world-building!Specifically in the areas of world-building and character development, I know that I can do more in the same amount of space and with the same amount of time. I am trying, and I push myself in these areas every book. There is a way to write an action scene that gives you deeper insight into the characters involved and demonstrates unique aspects of the world without taking up any more page space or sacrificing pacing, but it's hard to do.I am working on it, though! The issues you've brought up are valid, and I'm aware of them, and I'm working to improve, even within the constraints under which I now operate.Thanks! I don’t want to be one of THOSE writers who lets time stretch on forever between books...although Elder Empire fans might say I’m getting there.By the way, part of the “unanswered question” problem is that, when I set out to write this series, I knew a lot of the upcoming plot points but I did not know how long the series would be. So I wasn’t sure when I would reach the right place for those answers.Now, I have a much better idea of where we are and where we’re going.
How does madra regenerate? How does a technique that would increase regeneration work?
It's the interaction between life aura, blood aura, and dream aura in humans. It's really like human aura. Humans have a unique relationship to it, so it comes back as they exist and live and are healthy and alive. It comes from your body and mind. A regenerative cycling technique would improve the efficiency of that process or increase the speed of that process.
Lindon and Yerin go to an "educational dream tablet viewing" a.k.a a date.
If we ever get a scene or story about those two going on a date, I definitely want it to be Yerin who plans the outing. Because I imagine that would be hilarious.
How would Lindon be any less hilarious? he knows nothing about the world or women?
I know I’ve said this a lot, but it bears repeating: the main reason there hasn’t been overt romantic development in Cradle thus far is because it’s hard to find space. Not my unwillingness to write it. There just aren’t many purely character/relational scenes in the whole series. So I need to either make room for those, thus potentially altering the fundamental formula of the series thus far, or find a way to work the same level of relational development into plot scenes. I’m trying the second one, but it’s hard.
What kind of Goldsign would a White Fox Gold have? What would it do?
I actually don't have an answer for that weirdly enough. I should. Maybe I did. Maybe I do, and I just don't remember what it is. So, a tail would be an obvious one, that could be it. But I would think it would be more something like a hovering cloud or something vague and insubstantial or like a sort of almost like a streaming cloak behind them of images and dreams. Something like that. Maybe even dancing foxfire.
Would the body of a sacred artist over the iron stage retain it's heightened abilities if the artist core was cracked/permanently damaged.
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.
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?
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.
Is it possible to develop a veil like technique that blocks the Arelius senses.
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.
You say you aren't good at romance but honestly Lindon + Yerin feels like one of the more natural progressions of romance I've read.
Okay guys these are the strongest characters1. Abidan Court2. Great Elders before they were sealed3.Strongest Cradle characters, including Li Markuth (not really Cradle universe), Ninecloud Court Princess, NorthStrider, Eithan, Yerins master4 .Sealed Great Elders and Emperor tie5. Urzia, Meia and other enhanced warroirs6. Ragnarus Incarnation7. Valinhall
That's just about right!
#3 is a broad variety of characters over several different power levels--the Ninecloud Court princess and Northstrider are a level beyond Li Markuth and the Sword Sage, who are both a level beyond Underlord. Some of those would defeat the Emperor and the sealed Great Elders easily, some would have a hard time, and some of them couldn't do it.
Also #5-7 are all very close. Valinhall can compete with the Champions, but they would be difficult fights. And while the Ragnarus Incarnation is the strongest Incarnation thus far, and thus a notch above Valinhall/the Champions, in the end (City of Light SPOILER ALERT, I guess) a Valinhall Traveler DID beat him.
But I'd still put him a notch above them in terms of pure power level.
How do they make pure scales without those machines from the Desolate Wilds?
They have other ways to do it in the Blackflame Empire, but it’s a similar process. Sometimes they have Foundation kids do it for training.
Harmony (peak true gold) vs Kiro. Who wins?
I mean, if they are both at peak truegold, that's real contention, that's a real fight. But of course Kiro wasn't at peak truegold in Underlord, he was an Underlord. So probably Harmony, I would say, if they are at an equal advancement level, I would say Harmony probably wins. Mainly because he is ruthless and he would do anything to win and Kiro wouldn't necessarily despite how he comes across in the book, he is kind of the most level headed of all the characters introduced in that book.
[Reddit comment tree]
-Is the Sword Sage Really Dead? From what we have seen over the course of Ghost Water sages are really fucking strong and sturdy, so I don't think some poison and a couple of low golds could kill him.
--Yerin absorbed his remnant. He might need to still use that if he is alive.
---The difficulty of a bunch of jades managing to off the sage is probably due to a combination of godbeast crypt related issues and the lack of clear definitions of power levels at the time of writing
That’s a perfectly reasonable assumption. However! This is one of the few times in which I actually did intend him to be absurdly stronger than the Jades and still die. There is a reason, and it was planned from the very beginning. Many times I can’t say that, but I can this time!
