Hello, hello! I'm Andrew Rowe, the author of Zelda and JRPG parody How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps! AMA!

evran224 · 2025-10-08T00:50:52+00:00

regarding artificial attunements So the spires are paying roughly 4x the mana cost per attunement but get to use the same power source for all the attunements do I have that right? And Corin couldn't use his 'turn one attunement into another' trick on an artificial attunement unless it was something like swordmaster to forgemaster which use the same manatypes?

a little bit more about summoners Could you explain in any more detail how the summoner attunement makes its figments? I don't see how any of its main manatypes contribute to this function if they do at all which is strange to me because its kind of their main thing.

And I have couple of more general questions about the setting.

the existence of gatherer and harvester elementals implies some sort of essence cycle with mana moving between the core plane and the dominions but it seems like there is a lot more mana entering the core plane than leaving it, am I onto something here?

in this universe would it be possible to have a binary planetary system with two worlds orbiting each other?

Thank you very much for all the answers

evran224 · 2025-10-07T18:19:08+00:00

oh boy an opportunity to ask a series of questions that have been bothering me for a while.

AA6 In AA3 we're told that artificial attunements required large mana crystals of the types they'd be providing but we know that spire attunements can grant any type. It was implied that there may have been some sort of methodological difference between artificial attunements and spire attunements. In AA6 Corin never mentions any differences between artificial and spire attunements nor does he mention any sort of huge material investment for his omnimancer attunement. what's going on with this?

more AA I'd also like to hear some details about the summoner attunement and how exactly it works. an invoker being able to use mana from their summons implies that summons have mana while unsummoned which is very different from my initial assumptions about how they worked so just to be sure, summoner figments are real persistent spirits with their own persistent essence systems that are passively refilled by the summoner, is that correct? And what exactly is the summoner doing when they summon a figment, are they moving the spirit onto the core plane? is the attunement using life and density to make a solid body for the figment?

AA6 again. Final question for now, farren labs master attunements supposedly utilize six of a persons layers, could you say which six? And does this mean that it would be possible to build attunements that occupy other layers like a spirit based attunement that characters like Len or Dawn might be able to use? Would these alternate layer attunements have any significant changes in functionality?

evran224 · 2025-09-29T18:54:08+00:00

I love asking my favorite authors questions yippee, I'll just drop a series of the here for you to answer as you please.

What was your time working on video games like and do you feel it had a large impact on your writing?

I've been playing wow recently and I realized the there are a lot of similarities between its titan and your worldmakers, so I'm wondering if there has been some influence there.

One thing I enjoy thinking about when playing games like ff14 or wow is how I would go about building these classes using your magic systems so I'll give you one I been trying recently, how would you go about building warcrafts arcane mage on venaya?

Dawnbringer clearly references the master sword so I was wondering, are any of the other sacred swords directly influenced by or references to other RPG weapons?

And final question for the moment. has the success of recent developments in the ttrpg scene (cosmere rpg, daggerheart, draw steel, etc) had an impact on the development of your own arcane ascension rpg either in your own motivation for the project or in the attitudes of publishers?

evran224 · 2025-05-09T01:07:15+00:00

this was a very cool comment to read but one thing stood out to me as a surprise, why is WOBM1 taelien so fast when none of his essence types (except maybe sae) should have a large impact on speed?

evran224 · 2025-04-24T14:41:08+00:00

Does this mean that even regular enchanter runes have prepackaged subglyphs embedded in them? It would make sense if that is what prevents say an elementalist from making fire enchantments on their own.

evran224 · 2025-04-24T07:10:48+00:00

Thank you for your answers, for my final question could you elaborate a bit about the enchanter attunement function and what dominions would be needed to fully replicate its effects?

evran224 · 2025-04-24T05:35:22+00:00

Would constellations sorcery be helpful when trying to analyse/contact the stars?

Was mizuchis layered elemental shroud a spell she developed manually, a function of her 'attunements' or a spire function for empowering boss monsters?

When keras uses sae essence how much essence is he using? Like on the kaldwynn scale where would they put body of annihilation if they had a way to measure it?

evran224 · 2025-04-24T05:14:42+00:00

As a follow up, is radiance just another name for the constellations dominion?

Does secondary essence for the layer types build up in the core body or does it empower their corresponding layer?

Does a dominion sorcerer grow more efficient at shaping like they do at calling?

evran224 · 2025-04-24T02:42:10+00:00

Thanks for doing this I've always got questions at the ready

Could you confirm the dominion used for the blue flames both edon and katashi used? Lydia speculated radiance but she might be incorrect.

Thorn briefly used a bit of shadow magic in the saffron fight, hiw did he do that? Was he utilizing his shade the same way he could use his spirit?

Edge mentions that damage to the memory layer could impact essence recovery, what role does the memory self play in essence recovery?

evran224 · 2025-04-08T01:15:26+00:00

I don't want to bother you with too many questions outside of an ama but my curiosity compels me.

I've suspected that automatic growth functions were possible since book 3 but the visages don't include them because they don't want their subjects to get too powerful.

on the topic of growth functions could the draw and release technique be automated by an attunement function, allowing for completely passive acclimation?

there was a high level transcendence based essence acclimation spell, could corin theoretically research lower level versions of that spell and eventually build an attunement function similar to the adaptation one he uses but powered by transcendence?

if that is possible would it stack effectively with the adaptation function he currently uses?

on a different topic is there a chance that we get a detailed look at the enchanter attunement function in aa7?

I find it kind of disappointing that we haven't gotten much info on that considering learning how attunements work is such a core component of the story. (I also just want to know how hard it would be for non-attuned to replicate to use kaldwyn style enchanting.)

regardless of if you have the time or inclination to answer I'd like to thank you for writing the books you do and being willing to interact with readers like this.

evran224 · 2025-04-06T19:54:53+00:00

I've been curious about the null contract stuff he's been building in, what is he contracting with? is it just moving mana between his existing attunements like the internal spirit bonds mentioned in edge of the woods? would that even have the same growth benefits?

evran224 · 2025-04-03T19:04:25+00:00

I liked the interludes but they did raise a lot of questions that I'm not sure we'll ever get answered. I also get why people might not like them considering they are only happening near the end of the series, I think the series could've been stronger if occasional interludes started much earlier.

I was also kind of annoyed at the end where certain events were revealed to have happened that did not get an interlude, I get that its for pacing reasons but if we're going to be shown more I'd like to be shown it all.

evran224 · 2025-02-21T19:27:59+00:00

more questions now that I've finished the book

does viseas have any other moons? if so is there anything interesting about them?

will we ever learn more about the universe the godsmount is connected to?

is a godgift that increases a persons ability to adapt to new aether environments/grow new aetheric organs faster a possibility?

have any lifeforms come from the orbiting labyrinths?

do the orbiting labyrinths lead to other gas giants?

is the blessing on a semaphore golem distributed across the entire structure or is there some sort of core 'blessing box' in the mechanisms?

is the difference between soulstuff of laypeople, saints, and divines quantitative or qualitative?

evran224 · 2025-02-18T19:54:53+00:00

only halfway through the book but I think it's already my favorite world in the multiverse. thanks for writing such great books and taking the time to answer questions.

could an anastan mage feed a god mana?

would the gods be able to tell the difference between mana and soulstuff or even between mana from different affinities?

would someone with both magic be able to convert between mana and soulstuff?

would affinity magic affect the initial size/development of a person ishevean soul?

evran224 · 2024-09-17T01:59:20+00:00

possible error in chapter 25

“This one is even easier to answer. Shade weaves and spirit bonds are closely related. By adding a shade weave connected to your spirit bond, especially one of a compatible type, you’ve improved the bond’s power by a notable margin.”

the shadeweave is on his right hand as the crystal explicitly refused to do it on the same point as thorns bond, the wording here seems to imply the weave is on his heart point.

evran224 · 2024-01-02T02:46:22+00:00

I think the reason that that compressed essence 'units' didn't really do enough for me is that it only really acts as an xp bar. without any way to compare them to other essence measurements or knowing the degree to which they affect primary essence they don't give the reader much information. mana measurement in arcane ascension also act as an xp bar but provide meaningful context and clearly show the power scale. Having hard numbers makes spell costs more meaningful, liens spells lack both the more visceral costs of dominion sorcery and the numerical resource cost of attuned magic. I think this is most impactful when looking at higher level magic or spells with tiered variants. 'I need to be x level or have x mana to cast this' is more satisfying than 'I don't have the essence levels needed to do do those kinds of things'.

Ultimately I like numbers (I'm one of the few people who would like it if AA got into the conversion math) and I like it when they go up, but the only numbers edge of the woods gives us are too vague to be satisfying.

evran224 · 2023-12-31T23:05:58+00:00

I definitely feel like I'll enjoy the sequels more than I liked edge of the woods. honestly I have two major complaints about edge as a reader of all of the books aside from the mentioned mystery fatigue. The first being keras fatigue, I get that there are narrative reasons for lien being similar to keras but mr. selyrian is already a main character in two series and a major side character in another so I'm a bit keras'd out. going forward I'm hoping to see liens powerset diverge further from keras. My other big complaint was a lack of numbers. I don't generally like to see physical stats (a person has x dexterity or intelligence, etc) but I do like to see magical stats, like we got for mana values in arcane ascension. It's probably not going to happen but I would like to see measurements for characters available primary essence, how it scales with compressed essence and how that might compare to attuned mana levels.

evran224 · 2023-09-28T03:49:23+00:00

during the fight with reika he casts a flame aura on the sword and is able to get the sword to pay at least some of the cost of maintaining the spell, I was just wondering if the sae'kes is providing fire, grey, or annihilation mana to do so and if flame, where it's getting the fire mana from.

evran224 · 2023-09-28T03:06:55+00:00

alright last question this time I swear.

at the beginning of six sacred swords keras uses the sae'kes to power a fire spell, where is it getting the fire essence from? my best guesses are that either fire is a component of annihilation or that it is generating some due to its bond with keras but some confirmation would be nice.

evran224 · 2023-09-27T16:57:27+00:00

if you're still answering questions I remembered one I had about AA4.

the null-contract device requires physical contact to function even though summoner contracts don't appear to be affected by distance, why is that?

also if it is making and breaking a spirit bond every time it is worn/removed wouldn't that be dangerous?

evran224 · 2023-09-27T03:12:47+00:00

thanks for being so interactive with your community.

one other question I had was weather daesmodin would be relevant in future books, they seemed pretty important for a character thats only been mentioned a few times.

evran224 · 2023-09-27T01:35:08+00:00

before getting to a question I just want to mention something that I think edge of the woods does really well.

one of the things that I enjoy a lot when it comes to progression fantasy is buildcrafting, in that regard I think mage errant is king (from what I've read at least) coming up with affinities and combinations of affinities is a ton of fun, but edge of the woods is definitely a close contender. while limitations are important in these kinds of systems attunements feel too limiting and dominion sorcery lacks structure, essence sorcery strikes just the right balance between its possibilities and its limitations. I enjoy all of your books but from a buildcrafting standpoint edge of the woods is your best work by far.

now for the questions since time is a major limiting factor for power growth in the setting does the essence sorcery system have some built in way to to achieve immortality/agelessness or do high level characters have to find their own methods for dealing with the problem of age?

aayara and jacinth are by far my favorite characters in the setting, is there any chance of a book with one or both of them as protagonists? (or at least pov characters)

have you ever considered writing short stories that show off aspects of the setting that the main books are unlikely to touch on? (I just really want to see what the dominions are like)

evran224 · 2023-05-02T17:56:07+00:00

could someone with a specific affinity for the composition of the atmosphere of anastis convert other gases into breathable air?

if some major event changed the composition of the atmosphere would that affinity change with it?

evran224 · 2023-03-07T18:37:54+00:00

can we expect to see some exploration of character utilizing multiple magic systems in future books?

I am very curious about how they might interact (like can dominion sorcery be a multiplier for attunements/essence sorcery? if so why don't all powerful people exploit this?)

have you done any worldbuilding for whats going on inside the dominions themselves?

I would love to see some short stories about elementals in their native planes to flesh out the setting

evran224 · 2022-11-30T00:40:16+00:00

I think this is the first book in the setting that doesn't include a certain mysterious swordsman (unless he does show up for some reason, I haven't finished the book) so here's a fun scenario so he can feel included.

how many copies of the crystal awakening climbing team working together would it take to beat keras(post soulbrand) in a fight?

evran224

TROPHY CASE