A Blog of Dubious Intent
Hidden Gnome Publishing
In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.
Into the Halloween night, I send your stories...
To every subscriber of my mailing list, you should just have received the three Halloween stories in your inbox!
Happy ghosty-ghouly crawly-candy day!
If you didn't get the email, check your Junk and Promotions folders. If you still don't have it, add info@willwight.com and then contact me using the Contact Me button on the site. I'll send you the stories directly.
I said this in the message too, but very soon I'll give ALL the short stories so far another copy editing pass (they don't receive the editing attention I give to my books, so I'd like to cleanse them of the typo scourge) and repackage them into one file. Then I'll send everyone a single PDF containing ALL the short stories.
So if you're missing one, or if you think you may be missing one, you'll have your collection complete soon. And if you don't have any of the free stories at all, sign up soon!
By the way, if you like short stories, did you know that my collection of Traveler's Gate short stories is FREE for the next five days? It's true!
Enjoy your night! Don't get bitten by a werewolf and die! Get bitten by a werewolf and survive, thus gaining their powers.
​-Will
Thanks. Poor Simon, he's so put upon.
Will link
It amuses me to keep him uncomfortable.
Simon link
Simon is my favorite
Seems there's a conspiracy afoot to get Simon a social life. What will the Eldest Nye think? As for the Cradle story Will, way to show that some jobs aren't worth the pay. :)
Thanks much for the stories. I am looking forward to Blackflame soon and more TG in the hopefully not too distant future.
Not TOO distant, James!
Eldest Nye is perfectly happy with Simon having a social life, so long as it's a ploy to get close to a target and rob them of their powerful artifacts.
All three stories were definitely worth the wait! Thank you Will. I hope you have a happy Halloween.
Thanks, Matt! I got to eat some Reese's and sleep. It was great.
After all the work you've been putting in, you've definitely deserved it.
Mahfuz
Thank you, Leah.
Loved the short stories! Especially Simon's, it made me realize how much I miss Traveler's Gate.
Jamss
Yeah I have to agree it was great to have a short story from each of the series though it did indeed make me nostalgic for our poor hero who's only comfortable fighting deadly monsters.
Aaron J.E.
Existential horror is the best horror - I loved the Blackwatch story. And, as ever, Simon was a delite. All the stories were excellent, well worth the wait.
The Traveler's Gate one was fun to write, but I personally liked the Elder Empire one the best.
These were fantastic!
I love how different each of the worlds you've made are. I think I'm so attached to the traveler's gate series because of the short story collection you put out, it just makes the world feel so alive and real (I'm not sure why but i can't seem to forget the tower of winter short story).
I would love something similar for Cradle just to see more path sects and what the world at large is doing while Lindon is busy becoming a god or whatever he's working towards.
The Elder Empire series doesn't really need short stories in my opinion since you're telling 2 stories at once with multiple flashbacks leading into the world as a whole. It already feels more holistic just by virtue of how you write them.
Keep it up Will, love everything you've put out!
Yeah, writing the Chronicles helped me flesh out the Traveler's Gate world in my own mind, though it helps that the Territories make it easy to write short stories anyway.
And I think you're absolutely right that EE has a more fleshed-out world just from the main stories. For one thing, I'm writing two books that look at the same events, so you get to see a lot more details, plus there are the flashback storylines. But there are also those little world-building quotes in front of the chapters that allow me to pack some extra detail in there that would usually go to a short story.
The next few short stories will probably be Cradle. Maybe not the Christmas one.
Ravi Persaud link
These were beautiful, thanks Will! I think, I, like many of my fellow fans thoroughly enjoy Simon's misery in social situations. Maybe you can torture him more with the dreaded romance ;)
I COULD do a detailed writeup on each story, but I think we all have little enough time as is, so 3 impressions it is:
A Sword Unclean - Get a new sword.
In Unsolved Cases of the Blackwatch, - "Who watches the Watchman?"
In The Reaping Dance - I think the dolls should just go to balls in Simon's stead.
Romance for Simon would be great... eventually. I'd like to see him interact with a few more females first though. Romance now would be kind of hollow.
That would be kind of hilarious; Simon sends a bunch of dolls to a dance instead of him. They're just kind of standing on the dance floor in a little group, staring up at disconcerted partygoers.
Romance almost always seems kind of hollow, in my experience, unless it's a core part of the series. That's one reason I've avoided it thus far.
But you're right, Simon needs to have more personal interactions with women. Fortunately, the only three characters around him his own age are all female, and he has no male friends.
I SAY "fortunately," but I mean fortunately for me.
Confused...
Wait, I know theres Leah, but who are the other 2?
Andra and Elaina (Indirial's daughter).
Less confused...
But I thought that Andra was like 12 or something.
She was thirteen when Simon was sixteen, and she's been living in Valinhall since then. She's still younger than he is, but not significantly.
Not very confused...
I think she still comes across as a little too young. Maybe show that she has matured significantly since entering Valinhall?
...a little too young for what?
I said Simon needs more interactions with women, and fortunately for me the only friends he has around his own age are all girls. Makes it easy to give him interactions with female characters.
No longer confused...
Ok. I was thinking of someone for his romantic interest. Andra is too young for that, plus I'm fully aboard the Simon+Leah ship.
Perfect! I was mostly talking about the degree of non-romantic interaction necessary to ground or balance a romantic relationship, not candidates for his love interest.
Although I'm not convinced Andra IS too young, if we think a little longer-term. They're between two and three years apart, with the gap sliding slightly her way every time he spends the night outside Valinhall, so when he's 22 she'll be 20. That's not too much of a gap at all.
Not that I'm setting that up, I'm just saying.
UNCONFUSED
I don't know if she will have completely gotten over the fact that Simon killed so many of her families friends. Besides, Simon will still be like 17 or 18 in the next book, right?
I agree with almost everything Tyler said - these were fantastic, and I really like how different each setting is!
I really enjoy glimpses into the worlds that expand upon them from different points of view than we normally get. Seeing a different Path and how a more experienced sacred artist viewed advancement, seeing how more average people deal with encounters touched by Elders - these are tons of fun to read while also adding depth to the background of the books we love to read.
Reading about Simon is always fun too!
Thanks, Scott!
I'd like to do a few more Cradle short stories, just to give a more complete impression of how normal people experience the sacred arts.
Though Blackflame should fill in some of those blanks, as Lindon finally learns the basics.
Is there any chance that the travelers gate shorts will be available as a paper back? I gifted the main stories last year and my brother would love these too.
OMEGA READER
I'm not sure how much Will wan'ts to say on this subject yet. But it's on the table. Just not sure which table yet. May need to go buy a table...
I COULD get a paperback version going. I'm just not convinced I'd sell more than about five copies.
Curses, can't edit "wan'ts". It will forever haunt me.
The Simon story reminded me of how much of the Traveler's Gate story I have forgotten. I am going to have to read them again. Maybe Lindon can go in and take the poison jars to help further his bloodforged body. Probably not going to happen, but that is where my mind went immediately since the story is not tied in to any of the characters.
I'm mostly using that scene to introduce the idea of natural spirits, as well as the effects of blood madra and (subtly) a little better idea of how aura works.
You typed "size" instead of "side" once in the travellers gate story. So instead of having "side" and "size" both in the same sentence "size" appears twice
If you have any other notes like this, by all means, send them to me. I give these basically a lick and a promise before I send them out the door, and I haven't had a chance to edit and re-send them yet. So any typos you catch will be fixed, if I get them in the next few days.
I have a theory as to why Lindon got the Blood forged body: he is so under-powered compared to everyone else that is guaranteed that he will get injured. His bloodforged body allows him to recuperate faster, so Will doesn't have to write too many "he woke up a week later fully healed" scenes or a bunch of chapters where Lindon has a broken arm.
This is indeed one of my reasons, Adarsh.
Could Lindon actually improve his forged body in some ways after the initial advancement? Maybe he could regenerate more quickly or become physically stronger later
Brian C
Is it bad that I just want more stories where Simon finds himself in more uncomfortable situations? The way he handles them always make me chuckle.
I find it fun to put him there, especially when I want to keep the story light.
Nikk
I loved all 3 short stories! But I like Simon's the best. A light story, lots of fun, made me smile. I'd love for The Reaping Dance to be expanded upon. See what happens with Alaisa at Winter's Day and how Andra would react to Simon going to an event with a young woman. And how Simon tries, and fails, to get out of it
I'm considering doing that as my Christmas story, since Winter's Day is effectively their Christmas.
I would pay for a Kindle compendium of all of your current year short stories at the end of the year. Good money. Real good money. As long as that didn't cost you anything to put it up!
I'm trying to decide between bundling the short stories by the year and bundling them by subject matter. So once I get ten Traveler's Gate stories, for instance, I bundle them and put them up.
Jessiah
Will, why didn't you tell us Simon had dance moves like jagger ? lol xD, oh that elder empire story! I need more like that asap!!! ah I hope that sword appears in the other cradle books sounds cool and interesting to deal with, death madra can be used like necromancy? O__O
I got more of a 'blood madra' impression. The way it uses blood and sucks out life made me think of every book I've read that involves a blood ritual
Blood and Death Madra actually the way I see it the death madra and blood madra fro the sword fed off each other in an ever increasing infinite loop that got bigger the more death and blood was spilled ! Suppppperrrrrr OP like that Spear Jai Long has now matter a fact cant wait !
Infinite loop: That's right!
More like that EE story: I totally agree, I enjoyed writing that one.
Like necromancy: Not exactly; blood madra affects the body directly, and this particular type of madra drove people aggressively crazy.
Moves like Jagger: He figured out how not to embarrass himself. He has a ways to go before he knows what he's doing.
Every book I've read that involves a blood ritual: Spot on.
So are the sword & other deadly artifacts supposed to be a common type of thing in Cradle, or were they just a rare(but deadly) occurrence?
Most people don't practice a Path that's as strictly lethal as this blood/death Path. These guys figured, "If we use the sacred arts in combat so much, then surely the most lethal Path is the best."
And they were sort of right, until they all killed each other.
By 'common thing', I meant more along the lines of 'ancient tomb with valuable/powerful weapons/treasures that travelers stumble upon and try to loot'. Also, what's the general technology level in Cradle? It seems like a blend of low-tech and madra usage
Then yes, it is pretty common!
It's an old world, in which aura tends to gather and condense naturally over time into very valuable materials/treasures, so treasure-hunting and adventuring can be actual careers.
On top of that, animals can advance into sacred beasts over time, which means that small non-human civilizations can rise spontaneously from the wilderness.
In other words, it would be a great world to run a DnD campaign in. That was not by design, but I'm willing to take credit for it nonetheless.
Technology is pretty medieval with a few exceptions, although constructs have changed things in more civilized areas. I explore that more in Blackflame, where you get to see what a more advanced civilization is like.
For instance, there are mechanisms for audio communication, but they're expensive and they can be blocked by natural phenomena. Likewise, they have aerial transportation, but any number of crazy aura-fueled weather patterns or terrifying flying monsters can make travel impossible, so they tend to stay within very controlled routes.
Also, this is a world where a single individual can become so strong as to be untouchable, so that tends to create a situation in which personal advancement is far more reliable than technological.
Instead of inventing and perfecting a device so that everyone can have an ability, you can just develop that ability yourself.
Here's a more commonplace example of "treasure-hunting" than what we saw in 'A Sword Unclean':
--There's an abandoned temple at the top of a mountain. It's broken and ruined, but you suspect Cloudgrass will grow in the cracks; Cloudgrass grows wherever the wind is strong, and contains within it vital aura condensed from the wind and clouds.
--It can be used to create a Thousand-Mile Cloud, to further someone's advancement in cloud or wind sacred arts, or even drained and purified to make scales. You don't care; you just need to grab some so that you can sell it.
--Nobody else has taken it yet because the winds are very strong up there, a cloud covers the mountain 24/7, and packs of Blood Eagles (sacred beasts nourished by the pure wind aura of the area) circle the peak, looking for prey.
--They don't watch for an approach through the earth. You're part of a mining clan, and you use your techniques to excavate a tunnel right up and into the ruins of the temple. There's plenty of Cloudgrass, a few ruined lines of ancient script that you make casts of in case a scriptor will pay you for them, and a Blood Eagle sitting on its nest. You kill the bird and its Remnant, taking both bodies back with you--you can sell the Remnant to a Soulsmith and the body to a medicinal refinery.
That sort of thing. The people who go around looking for naturally forming treasure typically have a reliable source of leads, a skill-set that allows them to go where no one else can, and a way to turn those leads into cash.
If you make a career out of it, you typically know where you can go, you find out which of those places have valuable resources there, and you spend your time making a circuit between those locations.
And if someone else with similar skills starts taking your stuff, well, it depends on how strong they are. If they're more advanced than you, that's how life works. Suck it up. If you're more advanced than they are, you threaten them until they leave or you just kill them.
Cradle life!
Reading the three short stories really made clear to me why I love, and keep going back to, Simon and the Traveler's Gate series: the characters seen to genuinely like one another. Sure, Leah is giving Simon a hard time, but in his best interests. Elaina is probably the most critical of Simon in her short story but even she's willing and able to see he's trying, even if she (initially) thinks he's wrong/weak. Simon's got a team and while they may disagree they've got one another's back when it counts.
Meanwhile, Cradle definitely has some of that, specifically with Lindon and Yerin, but most of its been "Ha ha, you are so weak, urp I'm dead now", much like this short story was. It's a genuinely fascinating world but it's two (maybe three, now) against the entirety of that world.
And the Elder Empire series... man, does anyone actually trust one another in that series? Everyone is a puppeteer or a cat's paw or both, betrayals abound, and no one is willing to even entertain the idea of talking about their problems without it being an ultimatum.
I was following you until you said what you did about Elder Empire.
Both of those protagonists started with an actual group of friends, unlike either of my other series (although Lindon is getting one, and Simon kind of had one by the end). And most of those friends stayed loyal.
Sure, Calder was betrayed by the most important person in his life and it's left him emotionally unbalanced and unable to cope with his own feelings in a healthy way, but he's still got like five old friends that stuck with him the whole time.
Shera had two great friends too. Though that number got smaller recently.
Im still mad about that. Shera was doing so well, then her BF got iced, and now I feel sad whenever I think of reading EE.
Will, I want to buy the cradle books in actual book format. When can I expect that to be available?
As soon as I, uh, do that.
(;¬_¬)
I need to edit the text file, add front and back matter, format it, and send it to my graphic designer. He then turns that into the paperback file, sends it back, and I put it up on Createspace.
Which means I'd have to stop writing Blackflame and start editing the Unsouled file. Which I should have done already, but writing Blackflame is more fun...
Soon, though! Soon!
Seems like you should have a minion for that sort of thing. Not that I am offering you any minions, you have to find your own. Once you get the first one it is easier, since your minion can find minions...
Will, can someone acquire multiple goldsigns from different remnants? I know you have only mentioned that people have A goldsign but wondered if they could get different techniques and madra reserves by subsuming more than one (extra reserves based on one part in soulsmith where Yerin discussed not having touched the power from her master's remnant yet and also the mystery of her belt).
Also, does a sacred artist have much of a choice in what the goldsign is? I'm guessing no based on Jai Long, but he was rushed when he took in the remnant trying to save his sister and maybe didn't know the consequences.
While we don't have a clear answer on if more than one can be acquired, I feel that it was at least partially answered on whether they can pick their own or not. They can pick their own to a certain extent, as long as the remnant is compatible with their madra. Of course there is still quite a bit we don't know about this world. It could also be an anything goes as long as you can dominate the remnant with your madra and using one that is compatible is the preferred method or easier.
If you bond the same Remnant, you get the same Goldsign.
That said, no two Remnants are EXACTLY alike, so sometimes there are variations. Also, you don't HAVE to bond a Remnant that was on exactly the same Path as you, as long as its madra isn't too incompatible with your own.
Which is why Jai Long was able to bond a Remnant outside his Stellar Spear Path, even though it resulted in an unfortunate Goldsign.
That travelers gate story was too cute. It really made my day.
I really want the next short story to continue that one. It was just so perfect!
I'm considering doing a Winter's Day continuation for Christmas. It's effectively their Christmas celebration, and it seems appropriate that the holiday stories would stay light.
Out of curiosity, what rank would Simon be on Cradle? Both with his mask and without.
And would he be practicing the Path of Valinhall?
IMAGINE him with a doll as his Goldsign x'D
Wouldn't his Goldsign be his chains? The dolls are more of a construct, like Suriel's Presence.
Damn! You're probably right about chains...
Just imagine if his chain-tatooes became actual chains that he could use to beat people with on Cradle. I mean, they are actual representations of the power of Valinhall, so on Cradle that concentration of Valinhall Madra would probably bring them to life. It might also cause Simon to Incarnate.
This is a tricky question, because while I know what you mean, they're practicing different magic systems. Simon hasn't worked on his madra at all, so if he were plopped down in Cradle, they would see him as completely untrained.
If we're talking parallels, yes his chains are like a Goldsign, and the dolls would be something like a Remnant.
In terms of combat potential, he'd be at Underlord level physically with his mask on. In fact, he might have an advantage even at that tier (WITH the mask on, in a head-to-head confrontation).
But that's purely a physical measurement. He'd have to ghost armor his way through their techniques, and hope that Nye essence makes him faster than their Enforcer techniques so they didn't break the armor, lock him in place, and cook him alive with fireballs or something before he gets close.
Then again, let's say there's a fight between Simon and a sacred artist with similar powers. Path of the Steel Chains, or whatever. It focuses on Enforcer techniques and making the body stronger and faster, and uses giant weapons.
Simon would have the advantage in a shorter battle, but if the sacred artist hangs on past the first few minutes, Simon is going to start running out of powers. The sacred artist isn't. Sure, he'll exhaust his madra eventually, but it's not on a timer like many of Simon's powers are. The mask extends that, but of course the mask itself has a time limit.
And because of the Iron body, once Simon runs out of Nye essence OR steel, the sacred artist is going to dribble him like a basketball.
Eithan, for instance, would just dodge until Simon gave up, retreated, or had to take the mask off.
A lot of an actual matchup would come down to information. Does the sacred artist know that Simon has a time limit, and does Simon know that he has to finish the fight quickly? Does Simon know what Path his opponent is on? Does he have Caela with him? How do the sacred artist's techniques interact with ghost armor?
Then again, if some Abidan plucked Simon out of his world and dumped him into Cradle, Simon WOULD be able to learn sacred arts. In addition to his Traveler powers.
He'd have to adjust to the planet itself, which is bigger and has higher gravity, and some of his Traveler abilities wouldn't work--notably, he probably wouldn't be able to cut open a Gate, so there goes the healing pool. But he'd still be able to call steel, essence, and so on, and he'd be able to use the mask and doll as long as he had them on him to begin with.
Summoning Mithra would PROBABLY be possible, but it would certainly take longer.
To expand on the theory behind what I just said:
Amalgam (the TG world) has a bunch of tiny fragmented worlds stuck to it like ticks on a dog. Those are the Territories. It's easy to cut Gates to and from these miniature worlds because they're close, and they're already somewhat connected to the main world. They're like the elemental planes in D&D, if that means anything to you.
Cradle is NOT close. So anything Simon takes from his Territory will still work the same, but anything he has to call on the Territory for--like cutting a Gate, or summoning a weapon, or calling more power from a room (as Simon and Kai have both done before)--is going to either take much longer, reflecting the greater distance, or isn't going to work at all.
This is metaphysical distance, by the way. These are worlds as in dimensions, not worlds as in planets. Although they are also planets. Suriel gets into detail about this in Blackflame, in a scene that I had originally written for Soulsmith and then cut.
But there's a reserve of steel and of Nye essence inside his body, and those will work. Anything he carries with him and all his internal powers will function as normal, just like they do when he's inside someone else's Territory.
Fascinating idea... you might want to try experimenting with that later on if you are interested. I know I would love to read a mash-up story using characters from different series!
If you do plan on doing a series like this, you at least gotta make sure that Simon has a fair chance before getting eaten alive by the Sacred Arts. d:
Actually, since Eithan's sensory abilities are supernatural, wouldn't Simon be able to render himself invisible to them by using Nye essence with his cloak? Plus his dolls can predict the future during fights, so he would probably be able to wipe the floor with most Underlords and hold his own against even stronger beings as long as he had his mask.
RE: Adarsh
No, Simon's not that good. Wait until you see an Underlord fight.
But his cloak would still work on Ethan, right?
Luke:
I have to admit, I'm tempted to do a crossover thing. I was initially just including Easter eggs in the different series, but now that they're "officially" in the same universe, it would be really fun to do one big series where I toss everything into the pot.
I doubt I will, though, because that would be a big gamble. If it works, great! If it doesn't, I've ruined all my series.
Maybe something unofficial, like a short story.
Under normal circumstances, yes, Simon's cloak would work against Eithan. There are, however, other circumstances in which it would not. So it would depend on the conditions in which the fight occurred.
I can't explain any further without getting into the mechanics of how Eithan's power works, which is touched on in Blackflame and further explored later.
TL;DR - Spoilers!
So we know that Simon, with his mask, is around Underlord level in a fairly combat intensive "Path". We also know that Simon+Mask is capable of going 1 on 1 with Incarnations and winning against most of them, at least temporarily. Would this mean that the Incarnations are at the Underlord level, or are they higher than that, but their abilities are ill suited to 1v1 combat so Simon+Mask could stand up to them. That guy from the beginning of Unsouled seemed to be as powerful or maybe a little more so than Incarnated Alin, and he was past Gold(likely past Underlord as well).
Also, would Incarnations still transform the world around them to mimic their Territory if they were on a world other than Amalgam, like Cradle? Or would the "Metaphysical Distance" be too great and cause the process to be slower/not work.
As to making a big "Crossover Series", you don't have to use the Main Characters of each series. While such a series would need the involvement of the Abidan, it could be used to answer questions we(The Readers) still have. What exactly are the Territories, and why are they attached to Amalgam? Who were the mysterious prior inhabitants of these territories(The vanished Daniri of Lyrial, the Giant of Helgard, the Nye, Old One Eye of Ragnarus)? Who wanted more Incarnations in Amalgam? What are the Elders, and how did they come to be? What is causing Worlds to collapse into each other, and why has Ozriel abandoned his position?
How would an Incarnation fair in the Cradle Universe? What about someone from the Elder Empire?
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