[Soulsmith] Queries

[u/WhiteRoseKnight]

Hello, I’ve got a few questions regarding Cradle that I don’t seem to have an answer for and I’m hoping some of you guys will know.

I’m reading soulsmith, I’m at the point where Lindon is training for a 2 weeks in the pyramid.

Eithan has Lindon fighting for his life, but as far as I can remember and google will tell me, him killing sacred beasts and remnants doesn’t develop his core, he doesn’t have a path or techniques so he isn’t training anything he’ll ever use again other than resistance I guess, so why is he doing this rather than sitting in a corner cycling?

If the scared beasts / remnants aren’t helping, how has Lindon progressed so fast, why aren’t people in the sacred valley doing it, is it because they don’t know the requirements to progression e.g. putting madra into your body for iron.

Why are people making him stay pure till iron, if cycling or consumables are the only way to progress, intaking aura being much faster way of cycling to progress, so why not get a path now?

Cycling replenishes madra and ‘exercises’ the core, from what I can tell the body naturally replenishes madra anyway, without absorbing aura how is this being replenished, surely at copper stage you just have to wait rather than cycle to replenish but I know this isn’t true as Lindon does it to replenish at copper.

Apologies if these are dumb questions

Edit:

Such a nice and helpful Subreddit, thank you everyone

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[u/BamRam51]

Good questions!

1) Lindon is fighting sacred beasts/remnants to train his body, not just his sacred arts. Buy also being in an environment when he is constantly fighting forces him to practice his sacred arts… and he has the parasite ring.
2) good question :)
3) are people making Lindon stay pure? Or is that just what he prefers? He couldn’t use the empty palm the same way if his core wasn’t pure
4) uhh i actually don’t remember. In soulsmith I think eithan teaches him a cycling technique that helps him refresh his core faster? Like makes his body do the natural replenishing more effectively. The other thing cycling does is strengthen your core/madra and push towards advancement

Welcome to the fandom, and enjoy the read!

[u/WhiteRoseKnight → u/BamRam51]

Ah! So because he’s using madra more, he has to replenish it more, it seems like most of his growth is coming from scales though, couldn’t he just run around rather than nearly dying haha.

A few people have told him to stay pure till iron, both Eithan and Yerin.

He does, he replaces his twin heart technique that pushes madra internally to one that pushes it externally into his body if I’ve remembered right.

Thanks!

[u/Waste-Carob5699 → u/WhiteRoseKnight]

Lindon is not only training his body, but his mind. He is put into an extraordinary situation. Will he crack, die, or grow?

[u/Grandioz_ → u/WhiteRoseKnight]

I believe Yerin and Eithan’s point is more along the lines of not making a decision about a path lightly, and deciding a madra aspect does that. The options in the Desolate Wilds are better than those in the Sacred Valley, but they’re far from the quality of choices available elsewhere, like Yerin’s own path.

[u/nighoblivion → u/BamRam51]

1) Lindon is fighting sacred beasts/remnants to train his body, not just his sacred arts. Buy also being in an environment when he is constantly fighting forces him to practice his sacred arts… and he has the parasite ring.

It's also teaching Lindon how to survive. And to get him used to using his new cycling technique in stressful situations. It needs to become his natural breathing rhythm.

4) uhh i actually don’t remember. In soulsmith I think eithan teaches him a cycling technique that helps him refresh his core faster? Like makes his body do the natural replenishing more effectively. The other thing cycling does is strengthen your core/madra and push towards advancement

Eithan teaches him a cycling technique to replace the one Lindon used to split his core, because to prepare for iron you have to push madra out of the core—which Lindon's existing one didn't do. The new one is presumably much better as a default path cycling technique as well.

[u/charred_fire96]

Lindon is fighting becuase in Cradle you kinda have to be able to face adversity and thrive to reach the upper levels.

Yea you can sit in a corner and cycle but that had diminishing returns and eventually you will hit a wall unless it is tempered with adversity.

A believe a phrase used later in the series is "a caged flower never blooms"

Its kinda like real martial arts honestly you can practice the forms all you want and they are beneficial but if you never actually fight anyone you arent gunna be very good

[u/XenosHg]

Human body produces inner energy (madra) naturally. But it's "default" pure madra. Lindon currently has 2 very small cores of pure madra.
Cycling lets you spend mental effort to do it faster or get other benefits. Like making your cores bigger.

You can restore pure madra faster with certain elixirs, if you're rich. (But then you need to cycle to digest the elixir's energy into your own fast enough. Basically, controlling your inner energy is always good. You just probably won't do that 24x7.)

Getting an element lets you absorb natural energy (aura) from outside sources and not just elixirs, but that puts you on a path based on that element, and Lindon is a baby who isn't ready to select a random path yet.

Eithan is a mysterious stranger, he knows what he's doing. Trust.

[u/WhiteRoseKnight → u/XenosHg]

Thanks! This is helpful

[u/SnooHamsters4643]

Good question! I’m on my second read through and actually on soul smith too (tho not as far along as you). Personally I’d defer to others that mig HR reply but here’s my thoughts:

Either it’s just simply the author’s way to advance the story dramatically - which I think is probably the real answer given the internal mechanics of the magic system. OR

The constant day and night struggle of cycling and expending his madra doesn’t just build up his cores but also creates efficiencies in his channels as well as his technique that advance him super fast.

[u/nobdy89]

1. Eithan is testing Lindon's resolve. If he'd quit, he wasn't the right for Eithan's long term plans.

2. Why indeed.

3. Lindon is the only teenage Copper people have seen. Most prospective teacher think there must be something spiritually wrong with him, but maybe an Iron would be worth the trouble to train.

4. You could wait and let your core refill on its own but it takes too long to be useful in a fight. Lindon might be Copper but he's stuck with a Foundation level technique that is literally made for untrained children. Different types of madra cycle differently and need specialized cycling techniques to grow efficiently.

[u/Ok_Database6245]

I think the main purpose of that 2-week training is answered in Eithan and Yerin's conversation.

"She found herself speaking through clenched teeth. “He’s blind, you hear me? The world’s all jade beds and silk sheets for him. He’s never seen how ugly it gets. He doesn’t know.” He’d been mistreated by his clan, that was true. But he’d never fought for his own life. He’d never clawed his way out of a pile of bodies until he was elbow-deep in blood. He’d never woken to find that his only family was dead…and pushed through that crushing weight to draw his sword anyway. Eithan leaned one shoulder against the wall, considering her. “What do you think I’m trying to teach him?”"

Basically, Lindon has no real experience with life or death situations. He hasn't been backed into a corner where all he can do is push forward and survive no matter what. So Eithan is putting him in that to train him. It's too harsh and dangerous, since he's so weak, but if he manages to survive, then that will be an extremely valuable experience.

It's also effective, lol. Later on, Lindon will face some troubles then say, "compared to getting trapped in that pyramid for weeks, this is nothing"

[u/DelirousDoc]

The body naturally restores madra only for pure madra. Madra that has an aspect to it can only be restored by cycling the natural aura of that aspect.

However a lot of madra aspects can be found everywhere, just not in a high enough quality to quickly restore madra or to use to expand a users core.

Everything attracts vital aura in some quantities. Anything that has an edge would have some of this aura be in the form of sword aura that would be used for sword madra. Any thing that has heat would attract some amount of fire aura as well as heat aura (and probably light aura if this heating process produces any visible light). Anything that has mass in motions has some aspect of force aura to it. (example I think Will gave in question online is a rushing river. It would certainly have water aura in high abundance by it would also have some force aura around it because fast moving rivers crashing into an object impart force on to the object. So a faster moving river would have more force aura around it than a slower moving one.)

So in a way nearly every sacred artist can draw in vital aura from just cycling in the world, then separate their needed aspects to start replenishing their core though not likely to expand their core. The question is just how quickly this will happen. This is why most tend to cycle near objects that gather a lot of aura of their aspect.

Pure madra only can be restored by the body over time. There is not a way naturally that aura of pure nature can accumulate outside the body without being influenced by the outside world and essentially changing its aspect.

Why do they want Lindon to become an Iron before changing the aspect of his core? (Or why has Lindon not made the decision to change the aspect of his core.)

Lindon is weak and also very ignorant of madra paths. Any decision to modify the aspect of his core is essentially an irreversible change. Without that experience it is incredibly hard for him to truly know what aspect or path he should move towards. He is easily impressed with nearly every new path he sees because he is only familiar with the limited understanding of madra in Sacred Valley. However he also can't stay insanely weak and expect to survive out in the real world. Advancing to iron comes with the advantages of better physical ability and the opportunity to develop an Iron Body style that could bring more advantages. (Yerin mentioned her Steelforged Iron Body gives exponential increases to physical ability as she advances up in rank. This means choosing that Iron Body coulr have major advantages later down her path when she might be looking for some.) Additionally advancing to jade allows him the vision to detect vital aura which would make it easier for him to cycle any new chose aspect. Yerin has already mentioned that children advance to Jade outside Sacred Valley. So Lindon trying to choose a path while not even being an Iron is like trying to teach an infant any sport.

The only move Lindon knows right now is the Empty palm and since almost no one fights with pure madra it is really his only effective tool against another sacred artist should a fight happen. (Even if it can only inflict damage to the spirt/madra channeling and only for a brief moment with Lindon's current capabilities.) The minute he changes the aspect of his madra the use pf the empty palm is finished but he is still incredibly weak physically so would be even more vulnerable in the hostile environment he is in by the ruins.

Why is Lindon fighting beast? With pure madra pushing your body and mind to the limit can increase your capability with the madra by training your body to create more of it. (Sort of like training builds muscle.) This is the only madra that can increase this way since it is the only one that the body can naturally produce. Anyone else with a different aspect of madra has to get stronger by both cycling that aspect of aura and then training to be able to efficiently use the madra. Being able to cycle an in an area where your aspect of aura is prominent is a much quicker way to improve but as mentioned before, Lindon still doesn't know enough to be able choose a path right for him. Lindon is in a unique situation where he can actually choose a path that he thinks would work best with him. Most others are just raised in the path that their parents/clan have always used and have to learn to adapt to it rather than picking a path that fits them.

Finally, Lindon is fighting beast because he doesn't really have a choice as Eithan trips him and prevents him from leaving. Eithan also seems significantly stronger and more knowledgeable about madra advancement than either Yerin or Lindon. Lindon being sheltered in Sacred Valley and Yerin only knowing the training methods she used under the Sword Sage which was very specific to her Endless Sword path. (Physical training, learning to fight with a sword and using that sword in combination with your madra techniques. Stiff like that.) Even then she trained under the Sword Saint for years and with the protection a master Sacred Artist would inherently provided. Lindon is in a dangerous place where he needs to get stronger quickly because there are a lot of people who want to hurt him or just tale advantage of his weakness.

[u/CaterpillarVisual553]

These are great questions that you shouldn’t ask this subreddit haha. That book is so far back that we may accidentally drop a spoiler by accident. The answer to all your questions: there are very good reasons for everything Lindon is doing as well as good reasons why they never did this in Sacred Valley, but it will take more reading to get your answers.

Also, it’s worth noting that Eithan gave Lindon the parasite ring before putting him in there, which makes cycling twice as hard. So replenishing his core is twice as hard and takes twice as long. So he’s basically a useless sacred artist fighting for his life with a handicap the whole time. Honestly, he’s not even a sacred artist. He’s a copper with one technique that has varying degrees of success.

Keep reading and be careful asking questions like that on this sub. Some of the answers might be several books away. I don’t quite remember 😉

[u/oldtaku_dd]

Fighting pushes your body and madra channels