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Questioner

It seems like Dreadgods and Dreadbeasts have their spirits fused with their flesh comparative to heralds.

Will Wight

That's a question that gets asked a lot, Dreadgods and Dreadbeasts have their spirits fused with their flesh, Heralds do too, what's the difference? Difference is, Heralds do it correctly, they do it when their bodies and spirits can handle it, and Dreadbeasts do it when their bodies and spirits can't handle it. The Dreadgods are what happens when that is taken to absurd ridiculous extremes, then they mutated into something else entirely and became an exception to the rule.

Questioner

When will we see Fisher Gesha?

Questioner

When will we see Fisher Gesha?

Will Wight

Soon. There is some Fisher Gesha coming up soon. Do not expect a full Fisher Gesha storyline in Dreadgod, so don't get your hopes too high. But, you know, you can get your hopes a little high.

Will Wight

Soon. There is some Fisher Gesha coming up soon. Do not expect a full Fisher Gesha storyline in Dreadgod, so don't get your hopes too high. But, you know, you can get your hopes a little high.

Questioner

Who would be the best cook out of all the Dreadgods?

Will Wight

The Silent King would absolutely be the best cook. First of all he's the most intelligent of them, the most sentient. He absorbs the thoughts of others so he's probably absorbed the skills of thousands if not millions of people who were really good at cooking, so he's probably an extremely experienced chef secondhand. Plus he's got razor sharp talons he can use to mince ingredients really quickly. And he's got an army of servants who are mind controlled to prep things for him. I suspect that the Silent King could really prepare a great meal. That was my passionate and enthusiastic response to who would be the best cook among the Dreadgods.

Logan

What do you like most about Dreadgod?

Will Wight

Yikes. What do I like most about Dreadgod without spoiling it? I'm really trying to answer this question. I think the characters get to be cool a lot in this book. Certain characters in particular. Including Lindon, I think lindon gets some very cool moments. I think there are some characters that you wouldn't expect to get their hype moments in this book. That's all I'm gonna say about it.

Windrunner

Could the Abidan destroy the DreadGods if they chose?

Will Wight

Yes.

manty65

How do monarchs usually prepare for a fight against a dreadgod or another monarch.

Will Wight

That will absolutely be shown in the series, so I won't comment on it here.

Questioner

Will Dross be back for real in Dreadgod?

Will Wight

Could be. maybe this current Dross is the Dross you're going to get forever. I actually have some more versions of Dross that I'm happy to try out. One of them is country farmer Dross, he's got a straw hat and little tiny overalls on his little round body, he's chewing on a piece of wheat. I'm excited for you to meet him.

Byron

Sexy Dross?

Will Wight

I actually wrote Sexy Dross into Reaper and my readers agreed it was way to spicy to ever see the light of day so we've hidden that from you. It is content you would certainly love, but we had to keep it hidden away in the vaults to be released in case of emergency.

Your Benevolent Dictator

Did you use the method of writing that you did for Wintersteel with this one?

Will Wight

I've actually gotten questions like that several times, because I described my writing process for Wintersteel and then of course Wintersteel is a really good book if I do say so myself. I don't, but other people do so I'm glad. I think Wintersteel came out really well and so people want to know, did you use the same writing process? The answer is, I never use the same writing process twice. I try to iterate every time. I really do try to, every time I write a book I try to build on and improve on what I did last time.

The focus is on not wasting time, and what I mean by that is not truly really wasting it. Truly doing something that does not lead to progress in the manuscript. Anything that I do that is lateral progress or is inefficient or is something where I was spinning my wheels trying to decide if this character's design should be red or blue, that's not helping. Anything that I do that adds to the story and is really developing the story I try to keep. The idea behind that is, prior to Wintersteel I had been writing a lot of wasted words. So I'd write 30 to 50 thousand words that wouldn't end up in the manuscript because I would be going off on a tangent and then realize "Well, that doesn't make any sense." So then I'd cut it and then I'd have to come back and start over or I'd have to write another part or whatever. [I'm] trying to stop that. I've gotten better at that every time so I think probably Dreadgod was my most efficient one so far in Cradle. So it's an evolved version of that. It's all steps on the same journey, I guess you might say.

rocksoffjagger

I would have assumed Eithan would be hard to write because coming up with wit that feels real and genuine requires you to repeatedly create unique, context-dependent inventions of language, rather than just falling back on cookie-cutter patterns and stock phrases.

P.S. I really hope this won't be the last we see of Eithan as an important character in the series. I really want to see him being a smart-ass in his trial and his interactions with the other judges.

P.P.S. I'm forgetting the exact line, but my favorite Eithan moment was during the uncrowned tournament (I believe the fight for the crowns in the second stage) where he says something like "I really must insist that we go back to murdering each other in the spirit of the competition." (Heavily paraphrasing).

Will Wight

I have a (relatively) professional demeanor when dealing with fans, but as a person, almost everything I say is a joke. Responding to things seriously is out of character for me.

So part of what makes writing Eithan easier is that I’m more comfortable writing jokes than serious dialogue.

Another part is that I’ve been sitting on the character since I was in college, so I have a great understanding of his personality and can write in-character for him without thinking.

P.S. Minor spoilers for Dreadgod: Currently, the prologue of Book 11 is the Trial of Ozriel.

P.P.S. That’s one of my favorite one-off Eithan lines too. Probably my favorite joke, and the one I was looking forward to the most, is him throwing the match against Yan Shoumei in Wintersteel.

Questioner

Which Dreadgod would make the best pet?

Will Wight

I would not recommend any of them. You're barking up the wrong tree.

PlaceboJesus

[Emriss] may actually be saddened by the state of the world, but I think a certain part of that "sadness" is the mask she's been wearing while she waited for an opportunity like this one. To put it to a whole class of self-absorbed murdering bastards.

Will Wight

”I don’t forget anything,” she said sadly.

I don’t see her sadness as a facade at all. She’s sad because she’s thinking back over everything she remembers from her long history and ruminating on how nothing fundamental has changed.

She doesn’t take Northstrider’s threat to heart at all, because she’s always been conscious of the threat the other Monarchs can pose. Him outright threatening her doesn’t change anything for her.

That is certainly not mutually exclusive with anger.

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:

\ ___________ /

Will Wight

First things first, I know one of the things that people ask a lot, and of course, the first couple of questions are about this. Is about the...

shadowsaber

Are you the real Will Wight?

Will Wight

Yes I am. (continuing previous thought) Did you use the method of writing that you did with Wintersteel with this one? I knew this would be about the method of writing, that's what YBD asked. I had been prepared to talk about my method of writing Dreadgod, so let me just, for just one second this is probably going to answer some of the questions that are coming up. So I'm just going to briefly outline how I wrote Dreadgod. Almost a year ago now? Maybe, maybe a year ago, I say down with a friend of mine, and we worked on the last 3 books in Cradle, and we kind of speculated and talked about the last 3 books and we sort of planned them like they were a trilogy. Now they are not structured like a trilogy, just, If you're going out there writing a trilogy don't structure it, it's like they're written like the last three books in a long series, but we planned them like they were a trilogy. So we planned Reaper, Dreadgod, and unnamed book 12, we'll call it Lindon Dies. As, we planned it like they were a trilogy, we plotted them together, so that they had a story that went through the 3 books. The one we were most worried about was Reaper, that was the one I was very concerned about, because of the ending, obviously recontextualizing a lot of the series I didn't know how people would respond to that. I was very nervous about that. So, then Dreadgod kind of comes off that so last September I think is when I started plotting Dreadgod, er started working on Dreadgod specifically. So I sat down and plotted that book specifically, based on the broader plan I had. I started plotting Dreadgod specifically, and I started writing it, and then around November, I had it to beta readers, so I had gone through an alpha draft, and I had taken it to now beta readers around November. They said, yeah, you know it's good, we need to do a little more work on it, but the base of it is there. So I paused it. Put it into the fridge for awhile, and I started working on book 12. So around the end of November and December January and into February I think? I was working on 12, so that then I could go back to Dreadgod, and insert some things that would set up events in 12 a little better. So I just I had planned them together and so I kinda knew where we were going, but I wanted to make sure that I could set them up appropriately a book ahead of time. So that was kind of the, and then I went back of course and finished off Dreadgod, and then we got the manuscript to Travis so he could read it and now it's coming out. Right. So that was the process for Dreadgod, also during that is when we were deciding whether this was going to be 12 books or 13 books. That was the whole debate, the whole process. We did end up deciding I could do it in 12 books, mainly because I don't have a character limit in book 12. If this one needs to be 200,00 words, significantly longer than Wintersteel it can be, that's not a big deal. If that needs to end up happening, I will, I'm not committing to that. Please don't hold me to that, I'm just going, it's going to be long and I'm gonna wrap up everything that I can. In book 12, that's the idea. 

Questioner

What would have happened if Penance was used to kill a Dreadgod?

Will Wight

One of the Dreadgods would have died. So, what would have happened is that that would have severed one of the Dreadgods existences and there now have been only three Dreadgods. So, that is why some of the Monarchs were encouraging them to do it. Because, it would have permanently killed a Dreadgod. We are working on incredible levels here. However, that would also have made the other three permanently more powerful. So, that's why the other Monarchs did not want it to happen because that is what would have happened.

Anonymous

Can we hear the back cover description?

Will Wight

I don't, am I allowed to do that? (Looking at Rebecca) Oh, I am! Oh great, so that's why I have, great. So, we have an early printing of Dreadgod, this is the not for resale. (...) This goes live Tuesday, so therefore this will go up on Tuesday as well, this is the book, this is roughly the exact same size as Reaper. If you were satisfied with Reaper's length, that's where this is. I then I am going to now, try to read the back cover, but unfortunately there is a 'Not For Resale' over one of the paragraphs. I'm going to do my best to interpret the words here, we will, I might just be making it up. If I start talking about velociraptors at any point that means I'm making it up. Okay alright. 

"The battle in the heavens has left a target on Lindon's back. His most reliable ally, gone. The Monarchs see him as a threat, and he has inherited one of the most valuable facilities in the world."

'Not For Resale'. I'm gonna need to wait for another copy. Dub dub dub dub, something about his enemies, yadda yadda yadda, his enemies are working together to kill him. I think is what that line says. Now we're going to move on. We'll post the whole thing after the stream, I'm just going to decode this as best as I can. Something something something, his enemies band together to kill him is the gist of that line, and then it is

"If it weren't for the dreadgods. All four are empowered and unleashed, rampaging through Cradle. Grudges old and new must be set aside. The Monarchs need every capable fighter to help them defend their territory, and Lindon needs time. While he fights, he sends his friends off to train, they'll need to advance impossibly fast if they want to join him in the battle against the kings and queens of Cradle. Together, they will need power enough to rival a dreadgod."

There you go, the back cover copy. So, the idea there, here's one thing, I've never talked about this before actually, I don't like writing back cover copies. Heres why. I don't use it to make my decisions in a book when I'm reading, so when I'm reading a book I don't use the back cover copy to decide, I only use it to determine what is the content of this book. So for me, a list of tags, is just as good and a one line description of the premise is just as good as a, you know a multi paragraph thing. So when I'm writing these, I am trying to go 'What would I get excited about in the book?' So I'm trying to go, but it's book 11 right? I basically really want every back of the book to be like 'Did you like book 10? If so read this! If you did not, don't read this.' Right?; but as I was writing this, I have his most reliable ally is gone, so I obviously want to elude to the fact that Eithan is not around, but I don't want to say on the back 'Eithan's gone', because if someone is just reading through the Amazon pages in order, they're going 'Oh what happened to Eithan in Reaper? Hmm' So there's that, and then I have he's inherited one of the most valuable facilities in the world, I originally had that as one of the most valuable properties in the world, and then i was going, well first of all that sounds like a Monopoly board, and second of all, is that clear enough that I'm referring to the Labyrinth? Again, I can't say the Labyrinth, because some people haven't read the previous book. So, then we're talking about all that, so it's hard to elude to the plot of this book accurately and tease you a little bit without giving stuff away from previous books. It's just an interesting word puzzle, but that part I enjoy. It's fun, you get to kinda like figure out how to fit these things into a trailer like format. So that's fun. (...) So the general plot of the book is Lindon is well ahead of his friends, and he is coming up with a plan to help train them up to his level. So that they can work together against the dreadgods and the Monarchs.

Telewyn

Maybe none of them want to, but do any of the Dreadgods have the capacity to ascend from Cradle under their own power?

Will Wight

No, they do not have the ability to ascend. The Dreadgods cannot ascend. It's not a matter of power level; they are too much part of the rules/substance/fabric of the world. That actually will come up a little in Dreadgod. It doesn't get super explained, but that subject is in there. So it's a good question, it's just a little technical.

Questioner

Me and my friend have been arguing about this point. It sounds to me that Dreadgods are more powerful or aware when they first awaken then slowly get corrupted by the hunger madra but he thinks that they become more aware the more they are awake.

Will Wight

It fluctuates depending on how strong they are. How strong they are at a certain time is how aware they are in general. But also the Dreadgods, some Dreadgods are more intelligent than the others. The Silent King is always aware, he's always self aware, and he's the smartest one. And the Weeping Dragon actually is the second most self aware. I kind of wanted to do the, I thought it would make sense for the Bleeding Phoenix to be that person because the Bleeding Phoenix absorbs a lot of awareness like its Emissaries and its Blood Shadows are all aware to some degree. But I figured the hive mind thing actually causes more problems than it solves, so the Bleeding Phoenix is now third. And the Wandering Titan is just kind of an idiot.

Questioner

If Cradle unified and managed to raise a group of 100,000 heralds, each of whom managed to advance to monarch at the same time, could they kill the Dreadgods?

Will Wight

Yes. The current monarchs could kill the dreadgods. They could find a way to do it. It's not an impossible problem. It is something they are reluctant to do because it would cause a lot of other problems.

Decadakon

Do dreadgods have remnants?

Will Wight

Dreadgods do not have Remnants, nor do dreadbeasts.

Questioner

How are Cassias and the other Arelius family leaders going to respond now that they have seen or heard of Ethan at the end of Reaper?

Will Wight

You will get to see that in the next book. I suppose technically that’s a Dreadgod spoiler. I have already outlined that scene and I do know the answer but it’s in Dreadgod.