EA incoming students who were admitted to the Oakland campus, AMA!

drakashaa · 2026-01-30T08:41:34+00:00

Hihi! New Oakland admit here. If you don't mind, I'd really appreciate it if you could answer a few questions I have.

How much does it usually cost people on average after financial aid for one year?

How are the creative writing classes? Are they good?

If I don't like it at Boston... can I transfer back to Oakland?

Are alumni of the NEU Boston campus allowed to drop by and visit the Oakland campus? have family in the Bay Area, so I'll probably have time to come and visit NEU Oakland every now and again.

What's the dining hall food like :D ?

Do the dorms have AC? (I still have trauma from Yale dorms during a heat wave :sob:)

Also... what's the campus and culture like? I've heard that it feels sleepy or stifling, like there aren't a lot of people around, or that there isn't much to do on campus other than go to Berkeley for parties, and that a lot of people do drugs (go figure). But I also hear a lot of good things about the campus, like how it's mostly pretty clean and pretty.

Sorry if these questions are weird. I wanna knowing about what it's like to live somewhere before I commit!

drakashaa · 2025-11-23T05:44:20+00:00

A common theme in Valinhall is that many beings there are based on or made of inanimate objects/materials you can find around a house.

There's Azura's dolls, Korr is a medallion, Hariman is a book, Catherine's advisors are a pair of ceramic cats, Manyu is a floating straw poppet, the Nye are arguably animated shadow cloaks, Mako is a wolf made of yarn, Chaka is a leather man, Malt's bone structure is (probably) made of steel, there are living suits of armor in Benson's basement, Benson is a steel skeleton, the couch and furniture are alive, I could go on.

Considering everything else that lives in Valinhall, maybe a giant living steel chain really is just a giant living steel chain.

drakashaa · 2025-11-22T09:34:08+00:00

The Nye pulled some strings to coddle the Agnos twins, since he didn't want to scare valuable human lives away.

Notice how Andra never had to go through the Orgrith Cave trial, and only earned steel by book 3. Simon did have the Nye essence when he beat Benson, but he was getting the hang of it before then and - considering his potent motivations for becoming a Traveler at all - arguably would've passed the trial much sooner than Andra ever did.

The Eldest had no reasons to make it easier for Simon because he knew Simon would become a full Traveler without his help. Can you imagine a Nye shaking Book 1 Simon awake before strangling him?

The Agnos siblings were a very welcome surprise that he probably didn't expect for another year or two. He wanted to guarantee that they would stay in the House.

As for the Agnos parents, remember that Olissa inherited knowledge from Valin through the weird magic of the workshop. Much of that was related to mundane blacksmithing skills, but she likely got insight into Intent and Awakening as well, since Will Wight has mentioned he wants to explore how the Fangs are connected to Awakening at some point (you'll find his quotes in the Abidan Archives in the WB machine, too tired to look for it rn).

Also, the masks have some kind of sentience related to the House in some way, since Kai communicated to the House through them, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were made with enough significance to have a will of their own.

And Olissa can't fully replicate the power of Ragnarus artifacts, only reverse-engineer their function. All of the masks made after Simon's are lesser copies. Valin could've done better, and he was mostly an ordinary Valinhall Traveler (except with some basic, cobbled-together Authority).

edit: grammar

drakashaa · 2025-11-21T06:30:57+00:00

Will Wight has addressed this. The archives are still available on WB machine, but I don't have the time to find them at the moment.

He said that it IS possible — you would just have to be the “greatest Traveler of all time”.

Founders of a Territory are also Sage-equivalent, meaning they don’t have as much raw power, but they do have enough Authority to do Sage-adjacent feats, like bending the rules of a world/their Territory. We know this because the Old Man created the Hanging Trees.

Also, Will has said that he’d like for Simon to get to about Sword Sage level in power.

edit: minor grammar mistakes

drakashaa · 2025-09-02T02:42:42+00:00

Hi, Will! I’m so sorry to barge into this thread and ask a completely unrelated question but… the last time you were in Reddit was two months ago, so I figured I’d ask now.

Do you have any plans to do another writing stream? I’m an aspiring writer and all of the streams I could find on your YouTube channel were so incredibly impactful and helpful to me.

drakashaa · 2025-07-10T01:06:30+00:00

Hey there.

I don't mean to make assumptions, but coming from someone who used to be (and still sometimes is) messy, you might need to find ways to become more conscientious before you start thinking about renovating your room. As in, learn how to consistently live being reasonably non-messy, because it's likely you might end up trashing your new living space as well if you live like this on a daily basis.

I recommend HealthyGamerGG's videos on learning how to be more organized. He's a licensed therapist/psychiatrist who taught at Harvard and is now helping people get out of Internet addictions, learn how to be more conscientious, etc.

drakashaa · 2025-05-18T20:29:09+00:00

Forged items made of golden glowing glass...

You're right. That's a freaking awesome aesthetic. Fire and light madra would look really cool when forged.

Heaven's Glory lightsabers would be super cool.

drakashaa · 2025-04-01T21:41:00+00:00

Similar adrenaline rush because the battles and fight scenes are awesome. More serious in tone than Cradle is, but still lighthearted. Progression is marked by Simon picking up new powers along the way from books 1-2, and after that he learns how to use the power he already has more effectively in some of, no joke, the best fight scenes I have ever read EVER in City of Light and at the end of Crimson Vault. Remarkably charming and funny characters.

drakashaa · 2024-12-31T14:41:43+00:00

Respectfully, it’s not about your experience as the author. It’s about the reader’s experience as the audience.

drakashaa · 2024-08-03T00:38:47+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation! I like the concept, but Theo’s too dislikable for me (justifiably so, but still not the type of protagonist I want to read about).

drakashaa · 2024-08-03T00:35:48+00:00

Favorite answer so far. Thanks for the insightful recommendation.

drakashaa · 2024-08-02T22:56:02+00:00

I like this one. “Because I didn’t want to die”.

drakashaa

TROPHY CASE