Q/A 2 (Patreon)

Thanks for all your questions!

How many chapters have you written so far, and what comes after the Academy Arc?

I'm still around 50 chapters ahead, so I have enough of a backlog that it doesn't keep me up at night, but my goal now is to slowly increase it. 

After the Academy Arc, Arien will have to face the outside world, where the stakes will no longer be a place in the rankings, but life or death.

How big is the world beyond what we've seen so far?

Much bigger. I'll probably post a map of the continent soon, although it's still in a beta version because there are a few smaller details that need fixing.

Before the academy, he discovered many affinities. So how come he didn't discover any while he was in the academy where they have means to help you get ones? Or did he discover new ones and we just didn't learn about it?

I think I've touched on this before. Unlocking Aspects doesn't work like collecting Pokémon. With every Aspect you unlock, discovering another one becomes more difficult. Only certain Skills, Traits, and Professions can increase the chances of discovering additional ones. Plus he discovered Light Aspect. 

Oaths worried me, both from a loss of free will perspective but also from unclear exit clauses. It would be nice to see a class talk about them.

Oaths are a type of mind/spirit magic. There will be more about them later, but the main principle is that the person has to genuinely accept and agree to the conditions imposed by the Oath.

What's Ariens reason for keeping one skill open? Doesn't he like what he's got? Is there something specific he's trying for, or does he just keep it open in case something great comes up?

Just like in Book 1, Arien is a bit of a miser and prefers to keep his last Skill slot open because "something better might come along." You also have to remember that everyone's time is limited, so assigning, for example, another Aspect means he has less time to train everything else.

Do students like Arien have goals for skills they are trying to unlock, if so what are they? We know certain classes of skills exist but details seem very sparse and like the type of thing that would be at the front of a lot of their minds. So far aspects and combining aspects are the main things we have seen (along with unaspected magic more recently). Basically what options are know to exist, what are the trade offs, and what do students think they need to do to unlock them?. 

Similar to Traits, both the Academy and noble families avoid directly telling their children about the "Skill and Profession tree" because they are, correctly, afraid that doing so might reduce their chances of discovering those Skills or Professions naturally.

They can still push them toward training specific areas of magic, though, because they know that doing so increases the probability of certain discoveries. For example, House Draemont specializes in Death Magic, and through the right training, exercises, and by deliberately creating certain situations for its members, they can usually make it much more likely that they will discover that Aspect.

*Is mist aspects a combination of wind and water, and if so does it propagate down wards or upwards or only effect mist? (Upwards would be affected anything build from a combination with mist, downward work be water and wind assume those are is parts that make it up) *

No, it is a separate Aspect, just like Magma isn't a combination of Earth and Fire.

Does Arien have a desire to unlock any specific affinities? Or is he going with the flow for the most part? Does Arien have an aim for his build? 

So far, Arien has been aiming for a Battle Mage build. Fire for AoE, Lightning for damage, Life for support, and Earth for defense, with additional Aspects and Skills later that would help him survive. However, there will be some changes during the fifth year.

How do other countries train their mages?

Magic schools and traditional Mentor-Student systems. Also, in the Common Knowledge chapter, Malbek mentioned that other races follow somewhat different training methods because they don't use Spellcasting. Spellcasting is very useful when training entire groups of mages at once, but it also limits their later development.

Does rarity of an aspect provide inherent power, or does it just make something more niche? For instance if both a lightning and a fire aspect where at the same rank and they attacked a shield, would one have more output than the other? 

It's mainly about how niche the Aspect is. Some will have higher damage, others better AoE, while others will be stronger in defense or battlefield control.

Do rarer aspects have a cost to them or is it all positives? 

They're harder to train because there are fewer experts and less knowledge available. Also, an average mage with a Fire Aspect will usually still beat an average Mist user in a one-on-one fight.

What was the masters feedback after the trip to the forest?

That he's a stinking lazy bum ;). Obviously, I'm joking. In general, he received some praise for Mana Threads and for "improving the group's camp conditions." He was criticized for his lack of initiative. He also received advice regarding his fights, what he could have done better, and which combinations might be worth considering.

What to Will's brother as he should have finished the academy?

Malbek was forced to join the Explorers, which he absolutely hates, but he'll tell you about it himself soon when he appears in Wayhold.

Finally are there any noble families or powerful factions that specialized in creating environments tailored to unlocking rare aspects and trying to expose children to them so they may acquire them early?

Yes. Some Houses focus on a single Aspect, like Draemont, others focus more on unlocking as many as possible, like Voltorey, while others focus on rarer and more unusual ones, like Ravenshade.

One criticism people sometimes make about Arien is that he "wasted" his early advantage. I see it more as him managing to maintain his lead despite the enormous advantage people like Reyna, Pori, or Celestine had. They had been prepared to become mages since childhood, and although they unlocked the System later, by the time they actually began training magic, they already had a lot of knowledge and Skills, such as Meditation, ready to assign at a high level.

Could you list all of the aspects including those that haven't been mentioned, alternatively the number of them, rarity ranks or all of the above if your feeling generous.

I'll make something like that when I have more free time. Good idea.

Does awakening the system as early as Arien provide any other benefit then just more time training? 

It gives him the opportunity to assign a Profession earlier and, because of that, he has more Attributes by the age of ten than everyone else.

What is Ariens major talent that sets himself apart for the other prodigies such as Reyna and Effie. 

Arien isn't a genius like Effie. Reyna is also talented when it comes to magic, but she doesn't really love magic itself. Arien's greatest advantage is his different perspective on the world, which will also influence the way he approaches magic, as well as his Trait.

Can combination magic be applied with any variation of aspects or are their some aspects that are completely incompatible with each other (earth/lightning, fire/ice, plant/fire)? / Do all mana aspects combine or are there rules that make some combination illogical? (Not need specifics just more a question about the nature of aspects as a whole)

They can. Some combinations are harder than others, but imagination and a mage's level of mana manipulation are the main limits when it comes to combining Aspects.

Will their be more joyful expressions of magic and life then just the stressful academy moments?

There will. While writing some of these chapters, even I started feeling a little depressed, and I also wanted Arien to occasionally get a break from the constant grind.

How do aspects evolve? And is there more to discovering an aspect? Something like lightening making someone’s reactions faster? Or Earth making someone more difficult to move?

Through the right Professions, Skills, and Traits. And yes, both Monsters and the hybrids Arien hates so much :) can combine Aspects with Skills based on Stamina, which creates even more interesting combinations.

Can skills go higher than level 100, or is that the cap?

Level 100 is the cap, although it is very, very difficult to reach. It does, however, provide some very interesting effects and also does "something" with the System.

In chapter 84, in the description for the profession fire mage, it said that his fire aspect will become eligible for transformation. Does transformation means increase in rarity and does it mean there can be multiple aspects for elements?

Yes. It can result in a new rarity class and an upgraded version of Fire, for example Dark Flames [Rare].

I feel like it would be good if he got something with more synergy, Fire, Life and Earth are together are so random--Froyobaggins' wife

Yes, right now his synergy is pretty terrible :). But remember that his goal is to travel to Tyranny with Will after the Academy, so he's thinking more in terms of what will actually be useful on the road.

I wonder if knowledge of earth physics helps with raising affinities. Understanding the basics of heat transfer, electric polarity, electron, charge building, ect. or do things work by different enough rules once magic is in the mix that it doesn't matter. It seems to have helped him a bit with developing his life affinity.

Yes. Understanding some basic principles is one of the reasons he already has so many Aspects, although it doesn't work strictly on the basis of "I know electrons exist, so now I truly understand how this works." If he had been a physicist in his previous life, it would be much closer to that.

Its actually about warriors. You mentioned they also get skills. Do they use mana to fuel it? Or stamina. After the side note about mages, it seems unless they are greater mages they aren't really to useful, so curious about warriors and archers.

Warriors also have their own Skills, fueled primarily by Stamina, although some can make use of both Stamina and mana and, as I mentioned above, combine them.

I'm not sure I'd say ordinary Mages aren't very useful. You have to remember that the limited number of Skill slots practically forces people to cooperate. That's exactly why teams join together into Tens and even larger groups.

Also why didn't he got a meditation skill if they are spoused to be important for mages

It is important, but Arien's Vitality basically compensates for not having it, which allows him to keep one additional Skill slot free.

Does his trait help discovering any aspects like space or only elemental ones like fire and water?

Yes, it can help with any Aspect, although some of them are still extremely difficult to discover.

Wouldn't the combination of water and fire result in mist? How does that work if there’s already a separate "mist" aspect? Following up on a point raised in another comment, would it be illogical to combine water and fire? Or would it simply produce a mediocre form of mist magic?

It could work and create mist, although offensively it would indeed be rather useless. It could still serve as good cover while escaping.

Combining Water and Fire could also, for example, create boiling water, which would be very useful if dropped on soldiers trying to storm a wall.

How was magic first discovered?

That will be explained, but not for another few books.

I take it whether you won a "Vizimir" lottery depends on if you're (un)fortuate enough be in a group with prodigal student like Cedrick, Effie, Reyna, etc. My question is did Malbek get him too and if so how'd he fare

Possibly :). Malbek didn't get him, and if he'd been unlucky enough to, he wouldn't have graduated from the Academy.

Is the scope of the story primarily going to be centered around Wyndor (I think that was the kingdom's name) and the conflicts within it? Or is this meant to be just one kingdom among many and after the current arc you intend for the MC to explore other regions other than the Tyranny? I ask because you seem to have put a lot of thought into the various factions of the kingdom and the conflicts between them.

Wyndor will always remain important. I've spent a lot of time on the politics between the Factions because they will directly affect Arien in later parts of the story.

The story will also take place in other parts of the continent, and we'll gradually learn more about them in future arcs. I want to avoid the effect where the MC suddenly moves to a completely new part of the world and we have to learn everything about it from scratch, at least in most cases.

Events happening across the world will also affect every country. The approaching conflict between the Old and New Empires has already been mentioned, and there are more dark clouds gathering on the horizon.

Will we ever see characters like Velyn, Sanrey, or Bud again?

Yes. Some sooner, some later, but I try to make sure that each of them serves a larger purpose. There will also be many new characters along the way, some appearing only briefly and others staying for much longer.

How many books will it take to tell the whole story?

At the moment, I think around ten, although that will also depend a little on how many people stick around for the long run.

My dream is to finish the entire story. I was raised with the idea that if you start something, you should see it through to the end, and that's very much how I feel about EoN.

That said, my family will always be my priority. If EoN ever stops doing well enough for me to justify spending this much of my free time on it, I'll still want to finish the story, but it will probably take much longer. That could eventually mean fewer chapters per week or, in the worst case, a hiatus while I focus on other things.

Right now, though, everything is going incredibly well, so there's no reason to be pessimistic. :)

Thank you all, genuinely, for the support. The fact that I can spend this much time working on EoN is largely because of you, and I really appreciate it.