(Reminder: As with all information I share about the future, everything here is subject to change.) "Always in motion, is the future." -Yoda The Seven Judges of the Abidan Court (The Hound and the Titan) 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. Gadrael, the Titan The Way is fundamentally a force of protection, a barrier against chaos and destruction. Gadrael is the embodiment of that concept. Titan Abidan are the defenders of the Abidan worlds, raising shields and barriers against creatures of chaos and against the enemies of the Court. Whenever the Abidan need a world quarantined, a weapon sealed, a prison reinforced, or an attack turned aside, they call on the Titans. This generation's Gadrael was rescued from a dying world, then raised as a son by Makiel. His loyalty to the Hound is total. He once had a reputation as the weakest Judge, due to his lack of skill in any discipline but his own. Other Judges typically have expertise in more than one area; Suriel, for instance, is an accomplished Fox (who excel at instant travel) and an able Spider (who detect deviations in chaos). Makiel could have inherited the post of Razael the Wolf instead, had he desired to do so, and Ozriel was skilled enough to fulfill the duties of any Judge but Suriel. Gadrael cannot read Fate, he can barely cross through the Way, and his combat power is lower than many ordinary Abidan. But his barriers are flawless. Gadrael is is the sturdiest protector in existence, a one-man fortress, an immovable object, an impenetrable wall. Worlds under Gadrael's protection can rest easy, but there are thousands of Iterations under the purview of the Judges. And the Titans cannot be everywhere at once. ***
I really wanted to say more about Makiel, but...well, I don't want to spoil too much. Next Time: The Ghost and the Spider (Fun Fact: The original title for Unsouled was The Fox and the Phoenix.) -Will
139 Comments
Aaron J.E.
3/30/2017 09:30:30 pm
I know you are hard at work editing, but I appreciate you going out of your way to update, keep in contact with, and entertain your fan base. Keep fighting the good fight!
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Lyrian Rastler
3/30/2017 09:58:41 pm
Why the phoenix? Btw, that was a quick blog. Usually u take about a week b\w blogs.
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Adaen
3/31/2017 12:15:30 am
These are great Will, thanks so much for providing them so quickly!
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Yeah, there are tens of thousands of Abidan, but only seven Judges. That's why Suriel says that normally a deviation like the one on Cradle would be beneath her; normally it would be handled by a grunt in Sector 11.
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Latham
4/6/2017 08:07:12 am
Will I know you probably done with the book so I was hoping you can consider answering few more questions:
1.) I don't understand this question, I'm sorry. Probably not?
Tim
3/31/2017 12:50:42 am
How many 'Hounds' are under Makiel's supervision, and how many Titans are under Gadrael's?
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Havoc
3/31/2017 03:06:28 am
If there are just 'thousands' of iterations, and each iteration lasts for trillions of years, there should be billions of years between iterations ending.
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I don't think I said trillions, did I? I think I said billions.
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Captain Nemo
3/31/2017 05:22:20 am
The posts on the Abdian were a great idea! I really like how you've fleshed out the common denominator among the magic systems a bit more.
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They don't really, at least not in the way you're asking.
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James A
3/31/2017 07:18:58 am
Hi Will,
I'm glad you asked that!
James A.
3/31/2017 08:49:13 am
Amber is amazing, although I've only read the first set of 5. Also, is TMNT teenage mutant ninja turtles?
Enkidu
3/31/2017 11:38:04 am
I actually don't get a lot of Sanderson from you Will. I think that's why I'm so happy with your works. Its not Sanderson, or Butcher, or any current names on my list. It's Will. Sure, I get a little Zelazny, maybe a touch of Dragon Ball Z/martial arts anime in general, but they're more flavors rather than direct comparisons. I think you do a fantastic job of being original, and I hope you keep doing what you do!
Family of Raccoons
3/31/2017 12:00:17 pm
Will, as an avid fan of Sanderson's Cosmere, I wanted to correct something. Based on the charts he released, almost none of the planets share a system with one another.
Really? I thought it was implied that at least Scadrial and Sel were in the same system.
Nocturniquet
3/31/2017 02:35:27 pm
So by 'powers of the iterations themselves' we can sort of take it that you mean that each universe has slightly different physics which enable that magic system to function as it does.
RE: Nocturniquet
God of The Tower
4/2/2017 04:18:14 pm
Actually @Will Adonalsium is NOT the creator of all magic in the cosmere Brandon has said this himself and is proven in sixth of the dusk [short story ] Brandon says a number of planets have there own power source and all of the planets in the main story were pretty much created by the ppl who picked up shards of Adonalsium. It also seems like the cosmere is sorta diff than most realities in that Aldonalsium seems to be an object of power like a cosmic cube or something similar...
@God of the Tower
Family of raccoons
3/31/2017 05:59:14 am
So, we have the Pheonix, titan, reaper, ghost, hound, spider, fox, and wolf.
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Wait a minute.
3/31/2017 06:01:44 am
Wait wait wait. There are seven, not nine!
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Hahaha, I was wondering when someone would notice. I thought it would take longer.
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Reddan
3/31/2017 11:14:16 am
So Ozriel climbed his way up to the heights and provided something the Abidan, powerful as they were, didn't already have. Bet that's going to be interesting to learn about.
Wow talk about big-egos. Your basically saying Ozriel joined because he thought it was a way (no pun intended) to help more people and he pretty much did his job much better than anyone else.
Pretty much. From Ozriel's perspective, he joined because he felt a personal responsibility to use his massive power for the benefit of as many people as possible, and the Abidan rules are preventing him from saving people. But they won't let him look for another, better way, even though he's shouldering the heaviest burden out of any of them.
Illar
4/1/2017 11:05:40 am
So the Abidan are trying to clean the multiverse with mop and bucket while Ozriel has an industrial pressure washer? And he maybe wants to figure out how to keep the chaos from being tracked in all over the nice clean multiverse?
Tim
3/31/2017 06:53:18 am
Will, are the seven Judges and the various members of the Divisions bound by Fate as well.
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Fate guides the actions of the Abidan as well!
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Scotty
3/31/2017 10:41:54 am
Will the hounds be looking into lindon then at some point??
Illar
4/1/2017 11:17:07 am
What would a "screw up" be? Wouldn't anything that someone did be part of that world's natural evolution?
@Illar:
Daniel
4/1/2017 08:29:31 pm
You know all this talk of fate reminds me of the game kingdoms of amalour where you play the one character in existence that has slipped free from the bonds of fate and use your fatelessness to save the world.
Rhys
4/3/2017 03:45:56 am
In response to Daniels comments about fateless heroes, the one I always think of is sparhawk from edding's the elenium.
Patrick
3/31/2017 06:57:21 am
I have to say.....f*ck this is cool. I absolutely love the world-building and premise behind this. Thanks for taking the time to do these Will, it's a real treat. Looking forward to Blackflame.
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Adarsh
3/31/2017 07:55:40 am
So I know that what Li Markuth did was a violation of Fate, but would it also be a violation of fate if in some super high-tech world some scientists accidentally create a breach between iterations and wind up on Cradle or Amalgam? OR does it only count if it was your own personal power?
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Luke
3/31/2017 09:09:44 am
Cool! You should think about writing one of your Cradle short stories centered on the daily lives of Abidan, just so we can get a better idea of the differences between what it is like to live in an Iteration compared to living as an Abidan, etc.
Tacroy
3/31/2017 04:52:04 pm
Huh but then at what point does something become a violation of Fate?
Whenever it becomes a violation of Fate.
Riley
3/31/2017 09:28:42 pm
Wait... if anything moving from one iteration to another is a violation, then how does one ascend from their world? Is that an exception to the rule since Sanctum has knowledge of the Way, the Abidan, and other iterations?
NItin
3/31/2017 09:56:00 am
Did Ozriel forge his own Scythe? It was mentioned in first book that he managed to touch the way without even ascending. Atleast his fury did. Was he at same cultivation level as Sha Miara?
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Sha Miara inherited power that the most talented Truegolds would have to train their whole lives and exhaust fortunes to achieve. That's the base level of power she'd have if she were never taught anything about the sacred arts and never trained a day in her life.
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Timmy
3/31/2017 10:51:24 am
Wait, so who is Sha Miara? Is she the princess that Suriel showed Lindon? (Sorry its been a while since I have read cradle)
Tim
3/31/2017 11:21:40 am
Timmy, you recalled correctly. She is indeed the girl Suriel showed Lindon, though I'm not sure if she is a princess. I thought that she is the queen of the Ninecloud Court.
Daniel
3/31/2017 11:49:33 am
Suriel isn't from cradle though remember? She's from sector 16(which we know literally nothing else about)
Tim
3/31/2017 12:16:58 pm
I didnt' say that Suriel originated from Cradle. I merely used the time she needed to reach the strength of Sha Miara as a standard.
I don't remember how young she is without looking it up in my notes, but no older than 15 or so.
Garrett
3/31/2017 03:52:55 pm
Wait, so is Ozriel the Soulsmith that created the spear that was locked inside the transcendent ruins?
Daniel
3/31/2017 10:13:05 am
So it seems to me that the other multiversal powers are actually doing more to stabalise iterations just by allowing people to cross from one too the other and share tech because that would push population higher and allow them to stabalise iterations by bringing in more people.
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Not quite! I hope to get into the mechanics of this in a Suriel storyline at some point, but basically unsupervised inter-world interaction has consequences that spill over into other worlds. THOSE Iterations might be better off, but they're shifting consequences onto other worlds.
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Daniel
3/31/2017 02:16:40 pm
Hmmmmm. That's quite intriguing will. Seems like just an exchange of tech could easily exponentially increase the populations of various iterations and stabilize them without to many people going back and forth. Unless that destabilizing effect is based of something more obtuse than that. A limited version of that is something that Ozriel might argue for. If there's a plague that's about to wipe out an entire planet and someone in another dimension has figured out a cure, why shouldn't we give them the cure? No magic powers necessary--we're giving them something they COULD have figured out on their own, but didn't. The Iteration gets to live at least a few thousand more years instead of getting Reaped.
jim
4/2/2017 03:28:53 pm
Not sure how I feel about a Suriel storyline in the Cradle series...
Hey Will I don't quiet understand a part of this deviating from fate business. (I hope u don't take it the wrong way) I mean u mentioned that new iterations are formed from fragments drifting in the eternal nothingness or whatever.
Well, they don't usually have to do much terraforming. The fragments tend to combine into a single, inhabitable, central planet, and then the Iteration spreads out from there into a full universe. Like a seed growing.
Daniel
3/31/2017 10:16:04 am
Is there room in the willverse for an iteration that is populated entirely by nonhuman intelligence? And what about AI? Do they add stability to they way or do they not count cause they are "artificial"?
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This is one of the sacrifices I had to make in designing the Willverse, which I still think is a hilarious name: truly artificial intelligence doesn't exist.
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Daniel
3/31/2017 02:06:39 pm
Huh. Well I'm glad that you wove a reason as to why AI doesn't work in your universe. Makes you greater than most in that regard.
Years ago, I got to a point in this system's development and I realized I was pretending they didn't have AI. Which they would obviously have, as advanced as they are.
For clarification:
Ruan
4/2/2017 02:43:46 am
I like the idea of humans being a fundamental part of the universe. I also like your reasoning for a universe without true AI, despite being super advanced. It reminds me of Dune but hopefully with less space drugs. It's also pretty cool that the reason for a lack of AI isn't simple as "Yeah we are afraid they destroy us and stuff." It shows you put some thought into it.
Daniel
3/31/2017 11:07:48 am
Last question for now. Would a powerful enough remnant be able to operate like a human since it would retain most of its memories? Or asked another way, will we ever just see a remnant wandering around just minding its own business and interacting with other humans like it was still alive?(albite less powerful)
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Yes, to both.
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Daniel
3/31/2017 02:07:42 pm
Awesome! Can't wait to see that:)
Daniel
4/1/2017 08:43:22 pm
Has a sufficiently advanced remnant ever ascended off of cradle? Cause that would make an awesome story.
Daniel
3/31/2017 11:57:40 am
Got some more silly paths if you want them.
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Guy who plays Zelda too much
3/31/2017 12:21:03 pm
Nice job Daniel! I like these paths....in particular the path of the T-Rex arms.
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Daniel
3/31/2017 10:52:34 pm
The path of hot wax
Garbagiel the raccoon
4/3/2017 06:02:16 am
Path of many roombas
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Daniel
4/3/2017 11:59:27 pm
Path of grouchy cats
Reddan
3/31/2017 01:14:06 pm
Reading back through Soulsmith, Gadrael as Titan explains the buckler-type weapon and why he put the barriers around the Limit-Harrow collision himself.
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I know, I actually tried to change the name of the Hounds because they're not the loyal followers at all, but uh...well, I couldn't think of any totemic animal that suited their role as detectives.
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Daniel
3/31/2017 02:10:45 pm
Speaking of batman you should listen to the song Mind of the bat by miracle of sound.
Reddan
3/31/2017 07:24:32 pm
I think the Hounds make a lot of sense - the tie-in to things like bomb- and/or drug-sniffing dogs and especially bloodhounds is pretty powerful, and mirrors the Hound's task of searching for deviations.
Yosef
4/1/2017 04:35:22 am
I suppose you could of choosen Cats as they don't follow any one but exepct people to do as they say.
Pavis
3/31/2017 03:47:41 pm
Is our reality an Iteration in the Willverse?
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J
4/1/2017 11:02:08 am
How you you know?!
Marek
4/1/2017 11:12:23 am
because humans aren't important here. Sad face.
Illar
4/1/2017 11:34:20 am
Is there an Iteration that, like earth, has no magic system at all? And if so can they ascend past their Iteration with technology alone?
Daniel
4/1/2017 02:17:40 pm
Will said earlier that the most common ilegal way access was commited by tech based scientists so I think we can assume that there are a bunch of high tech worlds or at least a few with really high populations.
@J
Daniel
4/1/2017 08:34:10 pm
Oh. Sorry will I miss understood that. Didn't mean to put words in your mouth
Lyrian Rastler
4/1/2017 01:09:33 am
Then are all of the itenaries in a completely separated existence, separated by a "something" from which the way originates, and the only connection between the 2 existences is your books.
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George
4/1/2017 03:59:32 am
Will, is Sha Miara the QUeen or Princess of the Ninecloud Court.
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Rhys
4/3/2017 03:54:34 am
Could you explain a little more about how people inherit power? I don't think we've seen that demonstratesd yet
George
4/3/2017 05:30:28 am
So, whenever the current Queen(maybe King) of the Ninecloud Country decides to step down from her position in order for another person to replace her, she gives up her power, and transfers it to her successor?
LeGrand
4/3/2017 12:08:32 pm
I don't know for sure, but I got the impression the power was passed through Remnants. Didn't Yerin say something about the Sword Sage's Remnant being passed down from master to student? Then, to inherit power you just have to bind the Remnant to yourself as you become Gold. But don't quote me on this.
Lyndrek
4/1/2017 07:52:57 am
I am totally loving this Will. Thank you for your efforts.
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Tim
4/1/2017 08:07:33 am
Will, what does the Eight-Man-Empire, when they have conquered a country. Do they just take a of food and gold and move on, therefore simply going through the effort simply to show that they CAN conquer a whole country.
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Zeussaxis
4/3/2017 05:45:29 pm
Also, now that I lobbed that into the thread...we've talked a lot about 'realistic' worlds with scientific explanations. How about totally absurd worlds with blatant disregard for rules, such as Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld?
Daniel
4/1/2017 11:11:40 am
If the fate of every iteration is to die this consigning the willverse to eventual destruction if the Abidan fail in their defense then why do they put so much emphasis on obeying fate?
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Daniel
4/1/2017 08:38:13 pm
Oh ok so instead of trying to subvert fate so that everywhere can live forever, and by doing so actually accelerate their demise, they decided to supervise and streamline the natural process to ensure existence continues smoothly.
Daniel
4/1/2017 08:48:17 pm
Alright cool. Thanks for explaining that. And that was a super fast reply so thanks again
Kaileonis
4/3/2017 02:27:18 pm
Hello Will,
Oh, this is kind of cool!
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Rhys
4/3/2017 03:53:37 am
Hey will, those experiments sound disturbingly similar yo how we learned about the physiology and anatomy of the brain in today's world. As a medical student you're always a little uncomfortable with some of the knowledge you have because of the way it was found. Is there a similar feeling among some of the Abidan? Like the information is useful, but they're a little guilty about how it was gained.
You've actually touched on something I'm a little nervous about, Rhys.
Mike
4/3/2017 08:27:09 pm
You mention later in this chain that strong people in this universe have earned their strength and have to have a likewise strong will and conviction to get there. (Reminds me of Vallinhall. I think those travelers would feel at home in Cradle.) I was wondering... is there a point where that conviction causes a person to lose their humanity, and so connection to the way. If someone became so focused on one thing, would they become shallow enough mentally to become a living revenant?
JP
4/2/2017 05:16:39 pm
This sounds like the set up for a war among God's. Could be epic
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Daniel
4/2/2017 06:11:15 pm
Could be iteration shatteringly awesome yes. But it would be unwise for any abidan to attack a man whose blade can erase entire universes from existence, you know?
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Joe
4/4/2017 05:14:57 am
This isn't necessarily related to this particular post, but thinking of the immortal nature of the Abidan Court got me thinking about this. Are there any beings in any iterations that have not ascended and yet are inherently immortal (at least apart from being killed)?
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George
4/4/2017 07:04:29 am
Will, was the T-shirt sale a success?
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The sales were fine, but I was dissatisfied with the quality of the Soulsmith T-shirts.
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Adarsh
4/4/2017 11:54:16 am
So in an earlier, comment, you said that a person can only stay dead for so long before their soul departs and they can't be revived. What if they were cryogenically preserved in some sort of high tech world? Could that time the soul sticks around be extended? Or is there some sort of hard limit?
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Jack
4/4/2017 02:29:47 pm
Hey Will couple of questions.
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U know what would blow my mind? If London turns out to b Ozriel.
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My phone took forever to stop autocorrecting Lindon to London.
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