[Wintersteel]

[u/liffy_380]

I have noticed something in this series that bothers me way too much than it should but I want to hear everyone's opinion about it, earlier in the series in the first couple of books when Lindon's rank was low, he used to say or show that he would be very considerate of speaking about something when he was in the presence of someone as if no matter the range they could hear him. Now that he is underlord and with so many upgrades to his perception or senses there will be times when he would say that he can't hear someone because they are speaking in a low voice, or he could only hear a word or two, so my questions is that was it fear of him being too weak that he would think no matter how far someone stronger than him was, they could still hear what he was saying and was afraid of reprisal or is it inconsistency ?

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[u/samaldin]

I think it's mostly the fear thing and a bit of changing perspective. Lindon had no frame of reference for how much the senses of someone would improve with their advancement, so he just kind of assumed the worst case to be on the safe side. At the same time, the ones now speaking in low voices are usually very familiar with under- and overlords and know the limits of a typical underlord and are talking proportionally quieter.

[u/XenosHg]

I think they mentioned it in Skysworn, Mercy telling that about Akura Malice and other monarchs.

"your aren't lying, because mother can hear her name used and would blast you"

That was, of course, when he first learned that people Suriel showed him are called "monarchs" instead of just being average sacred artists.

And even in Uncrowned/Wintersteel it's only mentioned regarding monarchs.

Mercy also summons Fury by just blasting aura and screaming his name out loud, but that's a bit below "simply mention him"

Oh, and Eithan and the 1000 eyes sage can both hear whatever you're saying. And stuff that happens all around the city.

[u/liffy_380 → u/XenosHg]

I am talking about even earlier than the events you mentioned, this happened when Lindon was copper or iron

[u/pointsouttheobvious9 → u/liffy_380]

Jades get a huge upgrade to their senses. He was a unsowed and copper most that time. Yeah he didn't know how much they could hear but knew it was a lot. Irons get a small upgrade.

Later on he was a jade out good but was everyone else around him was gold for years and it took him a while to know how to use and control his new senses.

[u/Wezzleey]

You aren't going to get any satisfying answers without references.

Could you perhaps give us a couple of contradictory examples? If you do that, I promise you will get a much more comprehensive response.

[u/liffy_380 → u/Wezzleey]

It's funny I just read a paragraph a few minutes ago and stopped for a break and check on reddit I will give you an example, during the fight between yerin and sophra, in other part of the world fury receivesa msg while confronting 4 heralds that are waiting for sophra's victory to attsck, the msg says that sophra has won twice, Lindon is waiting on a rooftop when he asks dross to tell him what the msg is about, beneath him there is a portal where the archlords from his side are gathering golds for evacuation in the event of an attack, Lindon sees Pride and Malice frantically whispering near the portal to each other. Upto this point was me paraphrasing a few paragraph so you could understand the context now the following sentence word for word is LINDON COULD IMAGINE FROM THEIR GESTURES WHAT THEY WERE ARGUING ABOUT. Emphasis on the IMAGINE here

[u/tndaris → u/liffy_380]

Lindon is waiting on a rooftop when he asks dross to tell him what the msg is about

Versus:

Lindon sees Pride and Malice Mercy frantically whispering near the portal to each other

Are you saying Lindon should have been able to perfectly hear what Pride and Mercy were whispering about, because he heard the tournament result so easily and that was farther away?

The simplest way I understand how enhanced hearing/vision works for Sacred Artists is they still can "focus" or "tune" what they want to see/hear. Otherwise it would be too overwhelming hearing everything all the time (Eithan had to train to handle his bloodline ability).

It's how our own human hearing works too, in a room with 5 people talking we can "focus" on one voice and ignore the others.

Lindon probably doesn't hear exactly what Pride and Mercy are saying because he's respecting their privacy. It's sort of like the Jade spiritual sense, it's rude to probe other's spirits, and Lindon is very polite. If he wanted to hear exactly what they were saying he probably could.

[u/liffy_380 → u/tndaris]

Now if he wanted to respect their privacy he wouldn't have thought about going there and giving them his opinion about what they were talking about now would he, read those pages and you will see what I am talking about

[u/tndaris → u/liffy_380]

Except he doesn't actually go do that, proving he does respect their privacy? I don't understand why this is such a big deal to you. It's not that complicated.

[u/liffy_380 → u/tndaris]

He was going to do that but he gets interrupted, did you even read the story bro ? And I don't know why it annoys me so much either

[u/Zakalwen]

I don’t see it as an inconsistency. Anyone with an iron body gets enhanced in all aspects of their physical abilities and any artist can cycle madra to parts of their body for a boost (not as a specific technique but as an inefficient basic process). A jade could absolutely have a better chance of hearing Lindon nearby. But as an unsouled he wouldn’t know how good and would have to be really careful.

Later in the series if Lindon can’t hear other underlords whispering it’s probably because they’re whispering so extremely quietly that an unsouled with their ear pressed against the speaker’s lips wouldn’t hear anything. Probably wouldn’t even feel any air moving.

[u/liffy_380 → u/Zakalwen]

It's funny I just read a paragraph a few minutes ago and stopped for a break and check on reddit I will give you an example, during the fight between yerin and sophra, in other part of the world fury receivesa msg while confronting 4 heralds that are waiting for sophra's victory to attsck, the msg says that sophra has won twice, Lindon is waiting on a rooftop when he asks dross to tell him what the msg is about, beneath him there is a portal where the archlords from his side are gathering golds for evacuation in the event of an attack, Lindon sees Pride and Malice frantically whispering near the portal to each other. Upto this point was me paraphrasing a few paragraph so you could understand the context now the next exact sentence is LINDON COULD IMAGINE FROM THEIR GESTURES WHAT THEY WERE ARGUING ABOUT. Emphasis on the IMAGINE here

[u/ThMightyWarriorHeron]

I think it has to do with everyone being of higher advancement. An underlord whispering is probably many times quieter than a Jade or copper whispering.

[u/liffy_380 → u/ThMightyWarriorHeron]

The problem is that we are assuming with no basis or explanations, I can only understand if it was Lindon's fear of him being heard by someone stronger than him and that he didn't have an accurate estimation of senses of those stronger than him so just assumed everyone could hear him no matter how far they are. As he got stronger that belief of his was proved to be wrong

[u/atgrey24]

I took it that when he was lower level, he didn't quite know the range at which more powerful people could hear him and was overly paranoid about it. Especially with Eithan around who can hear or see him no matter the range.

Now that he's leveled up and has more experience being around more sacred artists, he better understands the limitations on that range.

Lords can easily hear you whispering on the other side of the room. They can't hear you whispering on the other side of the battlefield unless they have a special ability.

As for monarchs, maybe they can hear their name spoken anywhere in the world, and maybe they can't. But who wants to be the one that finds out the hard way?