TMLoCL - AMA #01

Alright everyone, after three years of waiting, the AMA is finally out!  Most of the questions are from three years ago, but some new ones have been contributed by my wonderful Patrons as well.  A special thanks to them, and I hope everyone enjoys this.  ^_^

(Also, I kinda threw out the “one question per person rule.” Consider it a bonus and an apology for making everyone wait - some questions, however, have been combined because they were similar.)

((Also, also: pasting from Google Docs still messes with my formatting and that makes it messy.  I will do my best to clean it up, although if someone knows how to paste with formatting, please let me know - putting in the fucking tabs is such a pain because it just selects the next table instead of tabbing.))

Timefrozen:

To Podi: Who, or what, created you? Or did you always exist? Or maybe you don't exist? Please shed some text notifications on this matter.

Podi: I was created by [To view this information you must complete your Beginner’s Protection Lives.] Technically, I have always existed, but that has more to do with how time, as a property, functions.

Starvingsloth:

To Cadence: Out of all your lives, which one you enjoy the most? (up to this point)

Cadence: If I had to choose one, I probably would choose my first life.  I never really appreciated what it meant to live in a modern, developed, country until I no longer was.  You have no idea how much you come to miss things like light switches, to say nothing about toilets or the internet.  Or readily available soap.

That said, some of my most enjoyable years were with Sut, but I am not sure how I would average out “joy.”  I suppose the real answer is that I try not to think about it, because I feel that if I start to think about the things I have lost I will never stop wanting them back…

To Podi: How many incarnators are currently in your reincarnation scam system?

Podi: At any one time there are [To view this information you must complete your Beginner’s Protection Lives] Incarnators within the system I am responsible for.  It certainly is not a scam, however.  Neither I, nor the system, is directly responsible for any of an Incarnator’s deaths, nor do we take anything from them.

To Podi: Am I eligible for Isekai!?!?!?!?

Podi: Yes.

Vladerag: Pretty much everyone from Earth is, and Podi isn’t the only thing out there doing it.  Whether or not it happens, however, is a different question entirely.  Technically, everyone is unique, but from a practical perspective whenever someone or something needs a person for Isekai there are a near infinite amount of options to choose from and no one is that unique.  In other words:  yes, but don’t count on it.

To Sut: What is your favorite... position? IYKWIM

Sut: …you can ask any question you want, to the ghost of an ancient emperor who was married to a world hopping being, and this is what you ask?  If I have to choose, it would be what you call doggy style and- wait, that is what you call that position?  How do you even talk about it without cringing?

Vladerag:  This was actually a more complex question than I think you realize.  Besides the whole, “having to put myself in the head of my character and then figure out their sex life,” which is its own oddity that I have to deal with as a writer who includes sexual content, I have tried to keep Cadence’s third life similar to the historic cultures that they were based on.  This led to interesting Google searches like, “ancient mesopotamia sexual positions,” and I learned - from cursory searches, I didn’t dive that deep down this rabbit hole - that doggy style was popular enough that scholars noticed.

What is the one trait you like from Princess Heme the most?

Sut:  Initially, I have to confess I was drawn to her for her beauty, but as time went on I learned the depth of her wisdom.  A fool learns from their mistakes, but the wise learn from others, and Heme was able to use her knowledge to help guide me through the future ramifications of decisions - sometimes without me even realizing she was the one guiding me.  It is one thing to have knowledge from elsewhere, and another to use it.  And why is this your second question for me?  I am almost surprised you didn’t ask what my favorite physical trait of her’s was…

Vladerag:  I might as well answer that too, because I ended up considering this with the last question when I was figuring out what Sut’s sexual preferences were: it is the hips, waist, and stomach - he likes the curves and definition.

To Dr. Karen Smith: What makes you interested in Archeology?

Dr. Karen Smith: That feeling of discovery, it is a rush that is hard to describe - like winning the lottery, maybe.  Sure, almost all of the work is tedious and routine, but when you do make a big discovery…  Once you start chasing it, and once you realize how much there is to discover, it is hard to stop.

To Vladerag: Will Podi ever be sentient? (Please answer in a non spoilery way and as creative as you can 😉)

Vladerag:  The indications have been small so far, but Podi is definitely sentient.  However, it doesn’t really feel the same way a human would.  What we feel is a small portion of Podi’s emotional range, but Podi is far less beholden to their emotions than we are.

Will there ever be romance between Podi and Cadence?

Vladerag: No, although in some ways their relationship is far more intimate than any romantic one could ever be.  Cadence doesn’t understand yet, and it will take her a very long time to learn how they are connected.  The ramifications of that connection will take longer still for her to understand.  But that is an “in universe” justification. From the practical writing perspective, Podi’s role in the story would make romance extremely complicated and I feel it would detract from the story overall.

How many worlds do you have planned so far?

Vladerag: Dozens.

Do you read all the comments in each chapters?

Vladerag: Eventually, yes.  Comments tend to happen in a predictable manner with most of them happening on the first and second day of publishing a chapter.  I like to keep up with the first few and then I wait to let them collect and I read them all at once.

What do you like and dislike from Royal Road?

Vladerag: I actually love Royal Road.  I am addicted to reading, it is my favorite activity and Royal Road is one of my major suppliers.  I am currently following 450 stories on RR and I am always looking for more.  Rather than what I like and dislike, I like everything except for one thing.  Your previous question regarding comments, an interesting bit of trivia for you: RR doesn’t separate notifications for comments/replies on your fictions or on other’s fictions that you have commented on.  It makes it really hard to keep track of conversations in other comment threads.

How did you come up with the idea of Many Lives of Cadence Lee?

Vladerag:  Unfortunately, I am not a very creative writer - hell, I am not a very good writer in general.  What I am is a damned good reader, upwards of 5k wpm good.  This means I consume a lot of written media - multiple books every day - and that in turn means that I need multiple books every day to feed that addiction.  I have a very good idea about what people want to read, and after reading The Ascendant: Endless Reincarnation, I realized that a lot of people want to read a serial reincarnation series but that there also was not really any available at the time.  Since I also wanted to read something like that, I decided to fill the gap.  It is both more and less cynical than it sounds.

Any tips on writing?

Vladerag:  Be a reader.  The more you read, the more examples you have and the more you have to compare your writing to.  The easiest way to understand the tropes in writing is to experience them through reading, and once you understand those you can think about what you would ideally like to read - then write that.

Kidpen:

To Daniel: How have you been doing since Cadence died?

Daniel:  At first?  I was an absolute mess, I felt that it was my fault.  Hell, Cadence said that if I blamed myself she would come back to haunt me, and I had a wild hope that it would happen.  It took years of therapy for me to stop blaming myself for her death.  I think, the worst part was the comments from people who said I should have just let us be mugged - that it was my fault.  Even if, in hindsight, that was true - and I am not sure it was - I eventually realized that I could only ever know what I knew at the time, and I only had an instant to make a decision.  I don’t blame myself any more, but I also can’t agree with the people who tell me that I was brave and did the right thing.  Nothing that ends with a kid dying is “right,” it was only the best I could have done at the time.

Feur de Veraenderung:

To Cadence: If you had only lived one life, which of your 4 lives would you want to live?

Cadence:  My third.  My first life might have been nicer, overall, but I wouldn’t throw away my husband and child for it.

Higher:

To Sut: How did yours and Hemere’s son grow?

Sut: Quite well.  He followed his mother’s footsteps and acted to stabilize the Empire during his own life, and afterwards.  Many might look down on that mindset, but there is a reason our Empire survived, and I believe it has much to do with the legacy they left.

Did he have a good relationship with his mother-in-law and sibling-in-law?

Sut:  He did.  Hemere took pains to separate herself and her son from the competition that normally comes with an Imperial harem, and the result of that was that he could have a friendly relationship with everyone.  In some ways, after Hemere died, they all took up the mantle and mothered him as if he were their own.

Did you ever talk about what his mother did to save him and how did he react?

Sut:  No. He learned about it from others, but it was not something we ever talked about.  Perhaps I should have, but if the reflection that death has granted me has taught me anything: I am not perfect, and that was one of my failures as a father.

Benw8888:

To Hemere’s son: What do you feel about your mother?

Uppilimus Sen: Distant, I suppose.  She was a good woman, and she gave her life for me, but I never knew her.  My mother is more of a story to me than anything else.  I wish I could have known her and loved her as my mother, but I do respect her as the one who gave me, and saved, my life.

BedlessSleeper:

To Vladerag: Would there be any appearances from the characters you use to explain the world at the beginning of some chapters? (e.g-S ranked Adventurer 'Dre The Massacre')

Vladerag: Yes actually, and I suppose the first cameo will be in this very chapter on RR.  My Patrons will see it in Part 2 of the Extra.

Luke Scheffe:

To Podi: Here's my question for Podi: How many reincarnators are currently active throughout the multiverse?

Podi:  The amount of reincarnators is uncountable and reincarnation itself is ill-defined by most beings.  Existence after death is common and my definition of the term does include many of those that others may not.  However, from context I presume you are asking about the total amount of Incarnators in the multiverse.  This information is restricted until the following conditions are met: First,  [To view this information you must complete your Beginner’s Protection Lives].  Second,  [To view this information you must complete your Beginner’s Protection Lives], and third:  [To view this information you must complete your Beginner’s Protection Lives].  You are allowed to know that there are more than you might think, but far from enough.

What do you do in your free time?

Podi: I do not experience time quite the same as you do, nor do I think or act in the same ways you are used to.  Effectively, I have no free time, nor anything that I would do if I had any.  What you would think of as my “work” is extremely entertaining to me, but even that is merely translating it for how humans think.  I have a purpose and I must fulfill that purpose in the same way that gravity must bend space.

To Vladerag: what do you consider the meaning of life to be?

Vladerag:  Personally, I feel that looking for meaning in life is a mistake.  People often ask “why,” but it is likely that there is either no answer, the answer is different for everyone, or the answer is ultimately irrelevant to our lives.  Would knowing the meaning of life change how you walk your dog or pay your bills?  Probably not.  I believe that until, or perhaps if, humanity reaches a point of universal post-scarcity, the reality is that the meaning of life is far less important than the meaning of a paycheck.  Perhaps you could say that I believe the meaning of life is for us to contribute our small part towards pushing humanity to that point.  One day, in the far future, we will be able to do pretty much anything and will want for nothing.  When that happens it will matter what life means to us, and given the nature of humanity I worry that we will destroy ourselves trying to answer it.

Oldage:

To Catherine Felius: What was life like after your maids sudden death?

Catherine:  Difficult. Very difficult.  Ann wasn’t just my maid and agent, she was my friend.  Annora was someone I could trust completely with every secret and that I could relax around without worrying about how I am seen or am holding myself- to say nothing of her intelligence work for me.  I learned the day she died that trust was something a [Lady] cannot afford because anyone you trust is a target and a weakness.  If you care for someone, keep them at just the right distance.  Close enough that you can know they are well, but far enough that they won’t be hurt from your attention.

Littlecreepy:

To Sut: What happened to her child after she died?

Sut:  Sen grew up to be quite the proficient general and administrator for the Empire.  The mark he made on history is subtle - few [Historians] will ever know, or talk about, all the fights and wars that didn’t happen because of his steadying hand and cool head.  Sen was able to be friendly with everyone due to his unique position, and that allowed him to mediate issues and solve problems before they became problems.

Preadandedit:

To Podi: If it doesn't cause spoilers and is applicable, does Podi have a most and least favorite Incarnator?

Podi: Yes.

Vladerag:  Asking whether Podi has a favorite isn’t the same as asking who it is, and Podi can be a tad literal.  Of course, if you did ask who was his favorite all you would get is Podi telling you that it can’t tell you.

Aki-chi:

To Sut: What's the name of the baby Cadence died having?

Sut:  Uppilimus Sen, Prince of the Empire.

To Podi: Are all incarnations considered to be of similar difficulty with a slight scaling or is it just my imagination?

Podi:  It is not your imagination, but it is a coincidence brought about by the general probabilities involved.  Incarnation is a multiple step process that can be described best as “mostly random.”

To Cadence: Tango or Valsa?

Cadence:  Valsa means waltz, right?  I am actually less familiar with dances from Earth than I would like to be, but I think I know enough to say that each has its place.  Sut would have been more of a fan of tango, but around Catherine I would definitely go with the waltz.  I don’t have favorites so much as I have moods, often influenced by who is around me at the time.  Of course, right now I am a monstrous killing machine, and honestly the best I can do is wiggle around while looking kind of stupid.

Metal affinity or nature affinity?

Cadence: Um, metal…?  No, nature!  Wait, what is the context here!?

Does Candence get to romancing in this life?

Cadence:  I can’t really see how that would occur…

Vladerag:  Cadence’s views on romance and sexuality will inevitably expand as the series goes on as a natural result of her literally experiencing what it is like to live different lives.  As it currently stands, Cadence’s views are from the perspective of a cisgender heterosexual human woman and is strongly influenced by her views from her first and third lives.  While she might consider a cross species romance, she would never have a relationship with a non-sapient monstrous species like a wyvern.  And I, as the writer, will never write that.  It is way too close to beastiality.

How tall is she compared to everyone on the new party?

Rei:  Right now, at her shoulders - that would be at the top of where her wings join her body - she is a bit taller than Rauvin and maybe twice as long from nose to end of her tail.  Fully extended, her wings are four times as long from wingtip to wingtip.  Hewka’s tendency to crouch and her awareness of her surroundings make it very easy to forget how large she is.

Vladerag:  Hewka’s current wyvern form is roughly the same size as Clydesdale draft horse.  She is about 2m (6.5ft) tall at the shoulders, ~3.9m (12.7ft) long from nose to the tip of her tail, and has a wingspan of 8m (26.25ft).  You shouldn’t ask a lady her weight, but between you and me she weighs 600kg (1322lbs).  She shouldn’t really be able to fly like she does, but the system runs a lot more interference than she is aware of.

Brynath:

To Podi: How do you feel about Cadence starting a religion venerating you, and are you hopeful that she will get more followers for you in her lives?

Podi:  Resigned, but mildly annoyed.  It is inevitable, but I am not a god.  I do not need, or want, followers and I do not answer prayers.

Skittles:

To Cadence: If you had something similar to the Gratitude in Death skill that would let you send a message to someone after you died, what would you say to Catherine from your second life? Or Daniel from your first?

Cadence:  …I don’t know, the thought terrifies me.  Having time to put together your last words makes you want to pack more meaning into them.  I think I would just tell them that I am ok, and that they didn’t need to grieve, but it depends on how much I could say.

David Giles:

To Vladerag: Which life was your favorite to write so far?

Vladerag: I guess the current one, her fourth life.  To be honest this is all basically just the prologue to the real story and a lot of this writing feels like busywork, it is what comes afterwards that I am excited about.

How do you decide how long a given life is going to be?

Vladerag:  A mix of planning and boredom.  The planning comes down to asking the question: “but what if the protagonist didn’t succeed?” to situations from similar stories.  As a general rule of thumb, most stories you know that the protagonist must survive and succeed eventually - they have plot armor, but Cadence doesn’t.  The boredom part has more to do with me.  I think faster than I write and the way I write stories leads to me imagining far ahead of where the written story is.  I am busy imagining what Cadence might be, and what she currently is pales in comparison.  I have to stop myself from rushing through things and just having her trip down the stairs to get where I want to go.

What are some life ideas you considered then discarded?

Vladerag:  This is a more interesting and complicated question than you might realize.  The short answer is that I haven’t discarded any of them, but the more accurate one would be that I have decided that some lives are - for lack of a better term - too interesting to be used in TMLoCL and deserve their own series.  Sometimes I go too deep into worldbuilding and I think that I, and perhaps readers, might like to stay in that world longer than Cadence would.  Connecting to the previous question, those worlds deserve a protagonist with enough plot armor to see the plot get very interesting.  Perhaps the closest to a “discarded” life would be Cadence as a succubus, which I waffle back and forth on.

Solarlancer:

To Vladerag: Do you like killing the MC?

Vladerag:  I like traumatizing Cadence and every life she leaves behind friends and lovers, plans and hopes and dreams.  Podi is helping her hold together, but he doesn’t help her work through it, so I have to wonder what might happen if Podi just suddenly stopped dampening her emotions one day?

Is there a world you have imagined long time ago that you look forward to showing in the story? And what can you tell about it without being to spoilery?

Vladerag:  Vikings.

What is your favorite thing about writing this story?

Vladerag:  How much people enjoy it.  It is really heartening to see, and a little bit daunting as well.

When will we see a world without the system ( i think that was mentioned a long time ago)?

Vladerag:  Right now TMLoCL is somewhere around 600 pages, so going by the current pace…  Another 1200 pages?  This is subject to change, of course.  If I suddenly get a better idea than my current ones it could basically happen at any time.

What is the most powerful skill so far that a character had but you saw no reason to list it or mc didn't know someone had it and what did in do?

Vladerag:  Technically, Mana Manipulation can create antimatter, but the knowledge - and skill level - a character would have to have makes this impractical.  A more interesting, from my point of view, thing to note is the math that forced me to nerf basically every skill in this current life.  Even now, with the right skills, a person could end up with over 100% efficiency in a task.  This would make them a free energy machine, which blatantly and brutally violates physics.  What someone could do with that is limited only by knowledge and imagination, but it will make for a very interesting - and strange - society in the future as their science advances.

Benjamin Schaefer:

To Podi: is you being an asshole right after someone dies on purpose, or are you just always accidentally unsympathetic dick?

Podi: Yes.

Cadence:  I don’t really think Podi is like that.  He is the one preventing me from falling apart, even if I don’t like him suppressing my feelings.

Vladerag:  Podi is answering what you wrote, but doesn’t really get at the spirit of the question.  Podi does, in fact, feel sympathy for Cadence - that doesn’t mean he will act on it, and everything Podi does is on purpose.

Reji:

To Vladerag: why you have two masks(theatre symbol, dramaturgic?) as your avatar in Patreon?

Vladerag:  Much like Cadence, I find it easy to slip into roles.  In fact, I find it necessary.  Depression isn’t feeling sad, it is feeling nothing, and I think it is hard for a lot of people to grasp what that can mean.  Why does someone do anything?  Emotions are what drive us to act, from the most simple action to the least and without feeling it is easy to just… stop.  On top of that, my personality can be described, kindly, as abrasive.  Honest people would call me a bit of an asshole, and I agree with the assessment; I don’t like myself much.  But I don’t need to be just me, I can be a Writer, or a Relative, or an Employee.  I adopt the roles as a supplement to my personality.  On reflection, I am aware this sounds… insane.  Thankfully, Writers are allowed to be insane.

Chrysdt:

To Podi:  Hi! I wanted to ask if Podi is rewarding moral achievements over ...other achievements?

Podi: No. Achievements are awarded based on fulfilling conditions and no moral judgements are made, nor are the Achievements created with the purpose of promoting any sort of morality.

Cadence:  I, personally, feel like Podi is judging my sex life…

Vladerag:  Podi acts in a completely amoral manner.  This is not to say that Podi acts in a bad way or lacks morality, but that Podi does factor in morality when making decisions.  In so far as Podi possesses morality, you would probably find it very different from your own.

W Maxwell Cassity-Guilliom:

To Rei: do you intend to have a lifelong combat partnership with your tamed beasts, or did you want to tame beasts more for transportation, special skills like Cut, Fly, Surf etc, or simply status? Bonus question, do you plan to outlive Hewka or somehow help her become immortal?

Rei: Is cutting a special skill…?  Your questions have an answer that is tied together, so I will answer them together.  First, I gained the Class [Wyvern Rider], so of course that involves me riding wyverns.  As a [Ranger], I could tame other Monsters or Animals, but I think that would be very difficult to manage.  Hewka isn’t easy to take care of and Hewka is able to talk to me.  Imagine trying to give a bath to a wyvern that can’t communicate and has no idea what you are doing.  Second, outliving my companions would be a real concern in taming more.  Everyone around me right now will eventually die from age, and I won’t.  Adding to that doesn’t seem like something I want, but fortunately for me wyverns are draconic.  Hewka has a real chance of achieving an Evolution that allows her to live for a very long time, or possibly forever.  The challenge will be getting her there before she passes away.

Zackman2k12:

To Ophia: Question to the priest who tried to read Cadence: what did you see that made your brains go kablooey?

Ophia:  You have no idea what kind of…  kind of thing that wyvern really is.  You think you know, but you don’t know how and can’t imagine what anything that could do that is capable of.  I don’t know whether to call it soulless or the most powerful soul I have ever seen.  Worlds burning, stars being born, the smallest flutter of a butterfly's wings…

Aleth:  My dear Ophia does not have a mind that can handle what she has seen and I can not tell you any secrets. What I can say is that I do not want to know what would drive whatever created the being behind Cadence Lee to make something like that.

To Podi: How do you get an agreement from those gods who let your reincarnated being into the world, seems to me they wouldn't be amused by an outsider.

Podi: I do not. Statistically, most gods cannot see through the protections that hide the Incarnator system from detection.  Of those that can, most can not act in a way that would be considered detrimental to the Incarnator system and of those that could act in that way, very few ever do.  Whether they act against Incarnators themselves is considered irrelevant.

eiznel 4869:

To Vladerag: What is the significance of Cadence's name? I noticed she's been gravitating towards artistic/musical skills, and thought that's a really cool theme.

Vladerag:  Rather than Cadence’s name being significant, it would be more accurate that I chose the name first and then wrote the musical connection afterwards.  I wish I had something profound to say here, but I am actually really bad with character names so if I find something that works I grab onto it with both hands.

Pooya Daravi:

To Cadence/Sut/Sut's first wife: Did you guys end up having a threesome at some point? (fingers crossed)

Vladerag: The following answers do not currently apply, but will apply in a future - edited - version of TMLoCL.  Cadence would have got a couple of Achievements for this, so numbers will have to be reworked.  I also want to say that I originally planned for this to be a “no,” but I changed my mind later to something more along the lines of: tentative yes.

Cadence:  Once.

Malnia:  She was actually really shy about that kind of thing. Considering the rumors of Ra’Sharon I hadn’t expected her to be so prudish, but honestly I am glad that she was.  Sex can get… competitive in a harem, it is a complicated dynamic.

Sut:  I certainly enjoyed it, but I actually have very little to do with the…  Scheduling?  The ladies have their own concerns and politics, and I was politely informed to mind my own business and stay out of it.  I tried to argue, thinking that I should have some input in who would be in my bed, but all of them - even Hem - lectured me until I gave in.

Cadence:  I was literally trying to stop the Empire from tearing itself apart in a succession crisis somewhere down the road, or getting invaded or something.  I think Sut thought that the politics involved was mostly over once we were married, but the reality is that it was a delicate balancing act.

Malnia: Even if we are on Sut’s side, some things have to be balanced to prevent one of our relatives from fabricating a casus beli from situations.  From the outside, others think that which of us in his bed means something about how he is thinking about the nations we came from.  It is a whole thing, and Sut…  He is smart about most things and I love him but…

Cadence:  He is kinda weak to beautiful women and thinks a lot more about tits than politics regarding his harem.

Sut:  …I have been dead for centuries and my wives are still lecturing me about something that I agreed they were right about.

Cadence:  So, to come back around to your question: yes, we did, once.  I was so nervous and hesitant that I can’t say it was great, but it was…  Well, Malnia could probably have convinced me to do it again.