DragonCon 2016 Cinder Spires Panel Highlights

[nedserD C B yrraH]

I just got back from DragonCon. I stopped and spent time with my mom before heading back to work. I did manage to ask several of our questions, but couldn't get them all in. Sorry, if I snubbed your questions. I already felt a little rude asking four. Either way, I really hope someone got video and gets it posted.

Highlights

I never asked but it seemed to me that the original cast of characters would remain central to the plot of the next book.

Yes there are Female Warriorborn, Warriorborn makeup ~2% of the avg population, More on warriorborn Below.

The avg lifespan of a Cat in the Cinder Spires in 60-70 years. It is comparable to humans in the CS.

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A Commodore cat is coming and is slightly better at everything than Rowl. Which Rowl cannot allow. Also possibly a very small and aggressive one might appear as well.

There are a few more type of crystals but we have seen the most common. Trim crystals are simply smaller Lift crystals. I imagine the "rare" ones are cool and plot relevant. 

It is possible to reverse the polarity of a ship and its webbing, so to speak, and have the ether push instead of pull the webbing when powered but would essentially be rewiring the entire ship. Generally it is simply easier to ascend or descend a few hundred feet into a different etheric current.

The 3 seashells moment would likely involve something similar to a sponge or leather scrappings. Rather Roman-esque.

The spires are not identical. In fact, the Pikers actually live on a mountain and are on constant guard against "things" that come up the mountain.

Many of the warriorborn, male and female, live at the base of the spire as farmers and woodcutters. There are regular people but they are each extremely dangerous regular people. There is apparently a plant similar to kudzu as well.

Jim got a specialist to assist with the venting calculations and the amount of vent space is rather large but actually needed for a structure the size of a spire.

The Biggest reveal for me was

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The major arc of the series is that the tech that has been sustaining life in the spires is starting to break down. It is worse in Aurora than Albion. He also mentioned that the Britain/Spain = Albion/Aurora corollary is less strong than it appears but we'll see more about that in the next book

[Dina]

Thanks, yrraH 

[WonderandAwe]

Wow.  That last spoiler is a big one....

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....and explains a lot about Aurora's tactics.   

I like how Albion blames their aggression on the citizens instead of the situation (Gwen's comment about greedy and corrupt leaders in Aurora).  I read someone where when a person acts immorally, they blame the situation, but when someone else acts immorally, they blame the person. 

[nedserD C B yrraH]

Everyone is the hero of their own story.

[Quantus]

Wow.  That last spoiler is a big one....

(click to show/hide)

....and explains a lot about Aurora's tactics.   

I like how Albion blames their aggression on the citizens instead of the situation (Gwen's comment about greedy and corrupt leaders in Aurora).  I read someone where when a person acts immorally, they blame the situation, but when someone else acts immorally, they blame the person. 

Agreed.  It also explains some of the perspective of Espira and the other Auroran's we saw.

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They they view the Albion's as an overly decadent people, when the reality is that their lot in life simply hasn't gotten as bad yet (environmentally).  Also why they'd be prone to more aggressive war tactics, if they are struggling more to provide the basics for their citizens.  Plus War has always been an effective solution to a population straining the limits of the available resources

[nedserD C B yrraH]

I would also point out that

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This type of problem creates vulnerabilities of all types. Outside influence, homegrown corruption, increased selfishness/envy due to shrinking resources. Nationalism/Spire-priorism is a common reaction to these constraints and often results in matching behavior from other nations/spires. Wouldn't be hard to for a foreign puppet-master to insert itself and/or wreck social havoc on a troubled spire. Yay Cycles of history.

Agreed.  It also explains some of the perspective of Espira and the other Auroran's we saw.

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They they view the Albion's as an overly decadent people, when the reality is that their lot in life simply hasn't gotten as bad yet (environmentally).  Also why they'd be prone to more aggressive war tactics, if they are struggling more to provide the basics for their citizens.  Plus War has always been an effective solution to a population straining the limits of the available resources

War has also historically been a time of necessity-driven invention. So I am really looking froward to seeing what Gwen can do with Journeyman assisting her.

[Quantus]

I would also point out that

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This type of problem creates vulnerabilities of all types. Outside influence, homegrown corruption, increased selfishness/envy due to shrinking resources. Nationalism/Spire-priorism is a common reaction to these constraints and often results in matching behavior from other nations/spires. Wouldn't be hard to for a foreign puppet-master to insert itself and/or wreck social havoc on a troubled spire. Yay Cycles of history. War has also historically been a time of necessity-driven invention. So I am really looking froward to seeing what Gwen can do with Journeyman assisting her.

Agreed.  I myself am looking forward to

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what Journeyman and Gwen can do with Folly assisting them.   Methinks they are both operating on a fundamental misunderstanding of what crystals (and by extension crystal based devices and constructs) are, and Folly or Ferus can correct some of that.

[nedserD C B yrraH]

Oh I agree but we can't forget

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to include Predator in the equation. Her contributions, via Folly, seem vital to story arc.

[Quantus]

Oh I agree but we can't forget

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to include Predator in the equation. Her contributions, via Folly, seem vital to story arc.

I am really curious to know

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how unique she is.  Do all Airships develop some level of consciousness like her, or is it specific to "natural" cores?  Is the Mistshark one such (it felt similar to Folly's senses)?

[nedserD C B yrraH]

Another thread I saw here reminded me of another question that was asked at the CS Q&A. The first question was if the Almoghty in CS is the same Almighty as the DF. Jim initially said yes, but quickly changed it to a no, saying something like "That would make people mad."

Don't want to make false assumption on my memories. I hope we get video of it.

[Quantus]

Another thread I saw here reminded me of another question that was asked at the CS Q&A. The first question was if the Almoghty in CS is the same Almighty as the DF. Jim initially said yes, but quickly changed it to a no, saying something like "That would make people mad."

Don't want to make false assumption on my memories. I hope we get video of it.

Interesting.  In CS there are specific references to people actually spotting Archangels, and to luring somebody out of Heaven, so Ive been assuming that there are actually creatures abroad in the world that have adopted those names, possibly the same folks that built the Spires.  That doesnt mean that the Almighty couldnt be a pre-existing religious figure, unrelated to a set of current and tangible usurpers. 

It does sound like some of the best evidence so far that CS is a future earth, though. 

[nedserD C B yrraH]

That was my thinking as well. But it could be an alien world that man has failed to tame. Still future though.

[Quantus]

That was my thinking as well. But it could be an alien world that man has failed to tame. Still future though.

Good point, that would be reasonable, and might even make more sense than some cataclysm that unleashed Ether and Mist on the world