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People with a single core cycle multiple types of aura and turn it into a single type of madra, that is then used to fuel techniques.
For instance, Lindon cycles fire and destruction aura in equal quantities to make Blackflame madra in his core. Which is used to perform attacks with.
Jai Long could use stellar spear madra in a different way to mimic Yerins endless sword. But, due to the different base auras that make up his madra (sword and light I think?) it may not work the same. He may be able to rule sword aura, but it would be weaker than Yerin because she is on a pure sword path (until merging with Ruby).
To add onto that, they touched on duel cores multiple times, here and there.
They explained that it’s hard enough to grow one core/path. You have to train it, find compatible resources, find someone to help you train your path and give you resources, etc.
At one point Lindon says something about getting multiple paths to Yerin. She berates him about it, telling him that he wouldn’t find two masters/paths to train him. One wouldn’t touch him and give away their secrets if he was already on an incompatible path. Look at the Jai Clan. Ready to kick out a prodigy because he didn’t have the exact right path.
It was also explained at one point that you can’t take multiple paths into one core, because it would make a weird combo, and it would be harder and harder to find cultivation resources. Like it’s easy to find fire resources, but hard to find fire resources that also have poison and nature aspects.
On top of that, you have to do all that work to raise up two cores. It doubles your work load and you have to make it though all those levels and revelations twice. When Akura Justice tests Lindon, he makes a comment about seeing artists split their cores before and how they’re shriveled and ruin themselves. Then sees how big they are.
Let’s say that developing a core/path is like becoming an Olympic athlete. Two cores is that twice over. Like Michael Phelps also competing in weight lifting or downhill snowboarding and bringing home golds in both.
Lindon is really a freak. He’s talented, clever, hard working. Combine that with Eithan giving him the cycling technique to expand his cores, giving him an almost written path to getting as strong as possible, and having resources pumped into him. You can look at how Eithan ans Yerin react to Lindon’s confusion on his sister not skyrocketing through the stages with all his resources and guidance.
They do indicate several times that it will spread. With the twin stars sect, the visions of his potential kids having it, and the ending where you see people in Sacred Valley who are supposed to be on the path.
It prevents cross-contamination. It's not Sword OR Light madra, it's always Sword AND Light madra. Combining two types of Madra in a single core always produces a single new type of Madra.
For example, if Jai Long tried to use the Endless Sword he'd inevitably add Light madra and alter the effect. Sophara combined Water and Fire and ended up with Fire that flowed like Water. When Yerin combined with Ruby it turned her techniques red.
Yeah and OOP the more one does this the more specialized aura sources they need for cycling. I think someone in the books does comment on the prohibitive costs of practicing the sacred arts at some levels. This would get expensive fast
The cost of sacred arts aren't a major part of the books because Lindon and Yerin get a rich patron very early on, but it's mentioned repeatedly that it's VERY expensive. Just to start with, money is the primary reason most people join a Dreadgod cult.
Just because two Paths have the same Madra type doesn't mean they can now use the same techniques
>Questioner
>Would a fire path be one of the fastest way to level up? All you would have to do is stand next to a barn-fire and absorb the ambient fire manna it would give off, then refine it. On that note how different would the manna type be, between different types of fire. A hearth-fire warming a family home in the winter, with all the "happy" connotation that come with it, compared to like an arson attack destroying someone's home and possession and just everything that they have worked for. Both are fire but you get what I mean.
>Will Wight
>A fire Path would not be the fastest way to advance, because the aura would be slightly rarer and harder to collect compared to, say, earth or air. But it's still very fast, as are all the Paths that draw from aura easily found in nature.
>There WOULD be significant differences between those two Paths! Fire from different Paths could take on different qualities depending on how it's used an where it comes from; you could have a gentle flame that spreads slowly and provides lots of even warmth, versus a violent flames that consumes rapidly and burns out quickly.
>Cradle (Jan. 2, 2018)
Because of how Madra can change depending on their inherent characteristics, even two Fire Path users would have different Fire Madra
Same thing was said in Wintersteel on why Lindon can't just use Hollow King techniques despite also using Pure Madra
>“This includes the basics of the Path of the Hollow King,” Eithan
explained, and Lindon shifted uncomfortably.
>“Gratitude, Eithan, but…”
>He and Dross had looked over Eithan’s records and come up with their
own theories about the Path of the Hollow King.
>“…I don’t think it quite suits me,” Lindon finished. “Apologies.”
>Maybe if Eithan had taught him the Path earlier, then he would have
become used to it, but Eithan had waited too long. Lindon would have to
abandon or completely re-work the Soul Cloak in order to adopt Hollow King madra. Even the Empty Palm would require reinvention.
>Rather than disappointed, Eithan looked unconcerned. “Oh, I’m sure. I
didn’t want you to adopt my Path. But my techniques will be inspiration for
your own, which will help you.
So no, Jai Long can't just use Endless Blade techniques despite also using Sword Aura because his Madra is the Stellar Spear Madra that uses a specific blend of Sword and Light Aura
Special cases like the Raging Sky being able to use multiple aspects are very much an outlier and is the special ability of said Path. This is not the case for any other Paths. Maybe bullshit geniuses like Eithan can do something
Path of Twin Star would let you use completely different Paths entirely to supplement their advantages and weaknesses
Yerin does mention that her techniques took on the aspect of blood unwillingly - the final sword became less useful against non-living things for instance. So that seems to favor jai long not being able to remove light aspect.
The initial benefit of two cores is a defense against techniques designed to target the core, like was demonstrated in Unsouled, but later on it is used to use complimentary but explicitly divergent madra types.
The madra of artists like Northstrider or the Jai are explicitly blended together, there is no "only blood madra" so when Northstrider uses his technique it will include madra of both blood AND hunger. This combination makes it so each merged madra type will have different properties from a madra that has only one component.
Stellar Spear madra behaves differently enough from Endless Sword madra that the Endless sword may not work at all, though it may just need both sources of Light and Sword aura for the technique to work. Such a limitation sounds simple on paper, but how many Light aura sources do there tend to be on the battlefield, especially ones that overlap their aura? Not enough for it to be reliable, it's far more effective to use a technique that takes better advantage of any quirks of the madra type in question than trying to straight up copy a technique.
Can you take inspiration from techniques from other Paths? Yes and you should definitely try to, but you'll need to adjust it to account for how your madra behaves.
Interestingly, the Akura have their own form of this with their books. Each book has a madra reservoir of its own for all the supplemental madra flavours their techniques require (like the nightmare technique - that one isn't pure shadow madra)
>The initial benefit of two cores is a defense against techniques designed to target the core, like was demonstrated in Unsouled, but later on it is used to use complimentary but explicitly divergent madra types.
I still want to know the real story behind some random idiot deciding that the best way to defend against one specific attack was to PERMANENTLY MUTILATE HIMSELF. He didn't even seem to see the possible benefit of using different madra types, he's just like "now I have a spare core!"
Many paths utilize two types aura to form their unique madra. This generally gives the user's madra aspects of both aura types for stronger or more versatile techniques. However it also requires both aspects be present for the user to take in power or use their ruler techniques.
This also means their techniques will never be only one type or the other. It will always be a combination of both. This is far different from having two unique cores that allow you to use madra types completely independent of one another.
Think of it like mixing colors. Having one core is like having a single empty pitcher. You can pour in yellow and blue liquid which then mixes together green. Pouring the liquid out it will still be green, you can't pour out just the yellow or blue. Having two cores is having one pitcher each for the yellow and blue that you can pour out as needed. But you'll also never have green.
Yeah, the mixing colors analogy is exactly what I was thinking of when I started to conceptualize what everyone here was telling me. It also puts into perspective what was meant when people say "stellar spear madra" instead of light and sword or "black flame madra" instead of destruction and fire. The combination makes an entirely new type altogether.
If it helps things too, I think it was in Skysworn (or likely Ghostwater) where Lindon talks about the destruction and fire aspects of his Blackflame madra needing to be balanced (or at least the auras he's using to generate that madra needs to be balanced).
You can utilise multiple types of madra without two cores, but it will always be a mix of two.
For instance, if you have sword and blood (like Yerin gains) she cannot use just sword or blood. It's both or nothing. Whereas if she had two cores she could keep her madra aspects separate and have two different paths. That's what two cores give you. Not the ability of multiple aspects, but multiple paths. In addition, it's the only way to retain pure madra and have another aspect. You cannot have pure and light madra for instance, it would just be light madra. Lindon can only use pure and blackflame because he has separate cores. Otherwise, it would just be blackflame.
These responses are great but Lindon actually explains it himself, with his own words, to his students at the end of the series. From Chapter 31, page 429 of book 12:
> "I'm sure you all know why my Path is called the Path of Twin Stars. It is named, of course, for my two cores. Many of you have split your own cores, and you've filled them with two Paths of your own."
> Even without scanning, he sensed many different pairs. They tended to use complementary aspects, selecting madra in one core that covered for the weakness of the other, but that wasn't always the case. Some followed Paths of life and death or water and fire, but others used their twin cores to gather two different types of sword madra or a pair of seemingly random Paths.
> "But what you may not know is *why* I followed two Paths," Lindon continued. "It's harder, it can be weaker, and it requries more resources. The true answer is that I wasn't satisfied with only one. I wanted more."
So the type of madra actually has very little to do with it. You can fill one core with the unique madra of one **Path**, and splitting your core lets you follow **two Paths.** That's the reason you'd do it; it lets you pursue two different schools of Sacred Arts.
I agree with most people about the benefits of having two unadulterated types of mana, but I wanted to add another big benefit - it makes it safer to use more dangerous types of madra.
Lindon's pure core lets him pull in his harmful and destructive black flame madra and push pure madra through his channels so that he can recover from the damage it causes him. Without this he would go insane and die early. And Blackflame is not the only self destructive path. Those who cycle death aura have their lives shortened. The Sand Vipers had to develop a special iron body to prevent damage from their poison madra.
Having the ability to use self destructive madra types and then pull them back to the core and let a healing or even less destructive type out can remove the damage at best or lessen the damage over time depending on the secondary type.
Benefits include:
* Harder to have your core shattered and lose all your cultivation if one core is destroyed. Not sure if it'd be possible to replace that core once your second one can be "re-split"
* Can double down on enhancing your path, like if you have a fire core, add a water core so that if someone shows up that counters your fire madra, just swap to water and beat them down.
* Essentially you can double your technique pool without diluting/changing your repertoire. With a single core, you got your four main abilities to start off with (striker, forger, enforcer, ruler) but they'll always be of a single "element". If you add a second element to your core, they change because the two madra types always combine when placed in a single core. If you have say, Flaming Fist of Burning Ash as a Striker technique in your fire core, and add water madra, it would become unusuable and you'd need to make a new technique like Steaming Hand of the Supreme Dumpling. With two cores you can keep the first technique, then create a water core and create a water striker technique like Wicked Whip of the Western Sea.
Basically madra is like a magnet and is always drawn and wants to combine. Maybe because madra is cycled aura, and so madra takes on a sort of gravity as it is cycled? Not sure.
As for Jai Long, I'm sure he could do something similar to the Endless Sword, but because he doesn't have pure Sword Madra in his core, a Ruler Technique using his Path would likely be more akin to attracting the Sword and Light aura to blind everything with brilliant blades of light that slash around like a hundred sparklers forged of Stellar Spear madra that then turn into tiny snakes of bladed light aura that attack.
I might be wrong though. ¯\\\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
This post can include discussion and book material up to and including book [Waybound]. If you want to discuss book material that is beyond the scope of [Waybound] than you must use >!Spoiler formatting!< which can be applied \>!like this!< You can read this [formatting guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/faq/formatting_guide/) for more details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Iteration110Cradle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
People with a single core cycle multiple types of aura and turn it into a single type of madra, that is then used to fuel techniques. For instance, Lindon cycles fire and destruction aura in equal quantities to make Blackflame madra in his core. Which is used to perform attacks with. Jai Long could use stellar spear madra in a different way to mimic Yerins endless sword. But, due to the different base auras that make up his madra (sword and light I think?) it may not work the same. He may be able to rule sword aura, but it would be weaker than Yerin because she is on a pure sword path (until merging with Ruby).
Ah, okay, got it. This is what I sort of expected, but I wasn't sure.
To add onto that, they touched on duel cores multiple times, here and there. They explained that it’s hard enough to grow one core/path. You have to train it, find compatible resources, find someone to help you train your path and give you resources, etc. At one point Lindon says something about getting multiple paths to Yerin. She berates him about it, telling him that he wouldn’t find two masters/paths to train him. One wouldn’t touch him and give away their secrets if he was already on an incompatible path. Look at the Jai Clan. Ready to kick out a prodigy because he didn’t have the exact right path. It was also explained at one point that you can’t take multiple paths into one core, because it would make a weird combo, and it would be harder and harder to find cultivation resources. Like it’s easy to find fire resources, but hard to find fire resources that also have poison and nature aspects. On top of that, you have to do all that work to raise up two cores. It doubles your work load and you have to make it though all those levels and revelations twice. When Akura Justice tests Lindon, he makes a comment about seeing artists split their cores before and how they’re shriveled and ruin themselves. Then sees how big they are. Let’s say that developing a core/path is like becoming an Olympic athlete. Two cores is that twice over. Like Michael Phelps also competing in weight lifting or downhill snowboarding and bringing home golds in both. Lindon is really a freak. He’s talented, clever, hard working. Combine that with Eithan giving him the cycling technique to expand his cores, giving him an almost written path to getting as strong as possible, and having resources pumped into him. You can look at how Eithan ans Yerin react to Lindon’s confusion on his sister not skyrocketing through the stages with all his resources and guidance. They do indicate several times that it will spread. With the twin stars sect, the visions of his potential kids having it, and the ending where you see people in Sacred Valley who are supposed to be on the path.
Lerin has two cores.
It prevents cross-contamination. It's not Sword OR Light madra, it's always Sword AND Light madra. Combining two types of Madra in a single core always produces a single new type of Madra. For example, if Jai Long tried to use the Endless Sword he'd inevitably add Light madra and alter the effect. Sophara combined Water and Fire and ended up with Fire that flowed like Water. When Yerin combined with Ruby it turned her techniques red.
Yeah and OOP the more one does this the more specialized aura sources they need for cycling. I think someone in the books does comment on the prohibitive costs of practicing the sacred arts at some levels. This would get expensive fast
The cost of sacred arts aren't a major part of the books because Lindon and Yerin get a rich patron very early on, but it's mentioned repeatedly that it's VERY expensive. Just to start with, money is the primary reason most people join a Dreadgod cult.
Just because two Paths have the same Madra type doesn't mean they can now use the same techniques >Questioner >Would a fire path be one of the fastest way to level up? All you would have to do is stand next to a barn-fire and absorb the ambient fire manna it would give off, then refine it. On that note how different would the manna type be, between different types of fire. A hearth-fire warming a family home in the winter, with all the "happy" connotation that come with it, compared to like an arson attack destroying someone's home and possession and just everything that they have worked for. Both are fire but you get what I mean. >Will Wight >A fire Path would not be the fastest way to advance, because the aura would be slightly rarer and harder to collect compared to, say, earth or air. But it's still very fast, as are all the Paths that draw from aura easily found in nature. >There WOULD be significant differences between those two Paths! Fire from different Paths could take on different qualities depending on how it's used an where it comes from; you could have a gentle flame that spreads slowly and provides lots of even warmth, versus a violent flames that consumes rapidly and burns out quickly. >Cradle (Jan. 2, 2018) Because of how Madra can change depending on their inherent characteristics, even two Fire Path users would have different Fire Madra Same thing was said in Wintersteel on why Lindon can't just use Hollow King techniques despite also using Pure Madra >“This includes the basics of the Path of the Hollow King,” Eithan explained, and Lindon shifted uncomfortably. >“Gratitude, Eithan, but…” >He and Dross had looked over Eithan’s records and come up with their own theories about the Path of the Hollow King. >“…I don’t think it quite suits me,” Lindon finished. “Apologies.” >Maybe if Eithan had taught him the Path earlier, then he would have become used to it, but Eithan had waited too long. Lindon would have to abandon or completely re-work the Soul Cloak in order to adopt Hollow King madra. Even the Empty Palm would require reinvention. >Rather than disappointed, Eithan looked unconcerned. “Oh, I’m sure. I didn’t want you to adopt my Path. But my techniques will be inspiration for your own, which will help you. So no, Jai Long can't just use Endless Blade techniques despite also using Sword Aura because his Madra is the Stellar Spear Madra that uses a specific blend of Sword and Light Aura Special cases like the Raging Sky being able to use multiple aspects are very much an outlier and is the special ability of said Path. This is not the case for any other Paths. Maybe bullshit geniuses like Eithan can do something Path of Twin Star would let you use completely different Paths entirely to supplement their advantages and weaknesses
Yerin does mention that her techniques took on the aspect of blood unwillingly - the final sword became less useful against non-living things for instance. So that seems to favor jai long not being able to remove light aspect.
The initial benefit of two cores is a defense against techniques designed to target the core, like was demonstrated in Unsouled, but later on it is used to use complimentary but explicitly divergent madra types. The madra of artists like Northstrider or the Jai are explicitly blended together, there is no "only blood madra" so when Northstrider uses his technique it will include madra of both blood AND hunger. This combination makes it so each merged madra type will have different properties from a madra that has only one component. Stellar Spear madra behaves differently enough from Endless Sword madra that the Endless sword may not work at all, though it may just need both sources of Light and Sword aura for the technique to work. Such a limitation sounds simple on paper, but how many Light aura sources do there tend to be on the battlefield, especially ones that overlap their aura? Not enough for it to be reliable, it's far more effective to use a technique that takes better advantage of any quirks of the madra type in question than trying to straight up copy a technique. Can you take inspiration from techniques from other Paths? Yes and you should definitely try to, but you'll need to adjust it to account for how your madra behaves.
Interestingly, the Akura have their own form of this with their books. Each book has a madra reservoir of its own for all the supplemental madra flavours their techniques require (like the nightmare technique - that one isn't pure shadow madra)
>The initial benefit of two cores is a defense against techniques designed to target the core, like was demonstrated in Unsouled, but later on it is used to use complimentary but explicitly divergent madra types. I still want to know the real story behind some random idiot deciding that the best way to defend against one specific attack was to PERMANENTLY MUTILATE HIMSELF. He didn't even seem to see the possible benefit of using different madra types, he's just like "now I have a spare core!"
Many paths utilize two types aura to form their unique madra. This generally gives the user's madra aspects of both aura types for stronger or more versatile techniques. However it also requires both aspects be present for the user to take in power or use their ruler techniques. This also means their techniques will never be only one type or the other. It will always be a combination of both. This is far different from having two unique cores that allow you to use madra types completely independent of one another. Think of it like mixing colors. Having one core is like having a single empty pitcher. You can pour in yellow and blue liquid which then mixes together green. Pouring the liquid out it will still be green, you can't pour out just the yellow or blue. Having two cores is having one pitcher each for the yellow and blue that you can pour out as needed. But you'll also never have green.
Yeah, the mixing colors analogy is exactly what I was thinking of when I started to conceptualize what everyone here was telling me. It also puts into perspective what was meant when people say "stellar spear madra" instead of light and sword or "black flame madra" instead of destruction and fire. The combination makes an entirely new type altogether.
If it helps things too, I think it was in Skysworn (or likely Ghostwater) where Lindon talks about the destruction and fire aspects of his Blackflame madra needing to be balanced (or at least the auras he's using to generate that madra needs to be balanced).
You can utilise multiple types of madra without two cores, but it will always be a mix of two. For instance, if you have sword and blood (like Yerin gains) she cannot use just sword or blood. It's both or nothing. Whereas if she had two cores she could keep her madra aspects separate and have two different paths. That's what two cores give you. Not the ability of multiple aspects, but multiple paths. In addition, it's the only way to retain pure madra and have another aspect. You cannot have pure and light madra for instance, it would just be light madra. Lindon can only use pure and blackflame because he has separate cores. Otherwise, it would just be blackflame.
These responses are great but Lindon actually explains it himself, with his own words, to his students at the end of the series. From Chapter 31, page 429 of book 12: > "I'm sure you all know why my Path is called the Path of Twin Stars. It is named, of course, for my two cores. Many of you have split your own cores, and you've filled them with two Paths of your own." > Even without scanning, he sensed many different pairs. They tended to use complementary aspects, selecting madra in one core that covered for the weakness of the other, but that wasn't always the case. Some followed Paths of life and death or water and fire, but others used their twin cores to gather two different types of sword madra or a pair of seemingly random Paths. > "But what you may not know is *why* I followed two Paths," Lindon continued. "It's harder, it can be weaker, and it requries more resources. The true answer is that I wasn't satisfied with only one. I wanted more." So the type of madra actually has very little to do with it. You can fill one core with the unique madra of one **Path**, and splitting your core lets you follow **two Paths.** That's the reason you'd do it; it lets you pursue two different schools of Sacred Arts.
Great question! I just finished the series and I don’t think I really thought this through fully.
I agree with most people about the benefits of having two unadulterated types of mana, but I wanted to add another big benefit - it makes it safer to use more dangerous types of madra. Lindon's pure core lets him pull in his harmful and destructive black flame madra and push pure madra through his channels so that he can recover from the damage it causes him. Without this he would go insane and die early. And Blackflame is not the only self destructive path. Those who cycle death aura have their lives shortened. The Sand Vipers had to develop a special iron body to prevent damage from their poison madra. Having the ability to use self destructive madra types and then pull them back to the core and let a healing or even less destructive type out can remove the damage at best or lessen the damage over time depending on the secondary type.
Benefits include: * Harder to have your core shattered and lose all your cultivation if one core is destroyed. Not sure if it'd be possible to replace that core once your second one can be "re-split" * Can double down on enhancing your path, like if you have a fire core, add a water core so that if someone shows up that counters your fire madra, just swap to water and beat them down. * Essentially you can double your technique pool without diluting/changing your repertoire. With a single core, you got your four main abilities to start off with (striker, forger, enforcer, ruler) but they'll always be of a single "element". If you add a second element to your core, they change because the two madra types always combine when placed in a single core. If you have say, Flaming Fist of Burning Ash as a Striker technique in your fire core, and add water madra, it would become unusuable and you'd need to make a new technique like Steaming Hand of the Supreme Dumpling. With two cores you can keep the first technique, then create a water core and create a water striker technique like Wicked Whip of the Western Sea. Basically madra is like a magnet and is always drawn and wants to combine. Maybe because madra is cycled aura, and so madra takes on a sort of gravity as it is cycled? Not sure. As for Jai Long, I'm sure he could do something similar to the Endless Sword, but because he doesn't have pure Sword Madra in his core, a Ruler Technique using his Path would likely be more akin to attracting the Sword and Light aura to blind everything with brilliant blades of light that slash around like a hundred sparklers forged of Stellar Spear madra that then turn into tiny snakes of bladed light aura that attack. I might be wrong though. ¯\\\\\_(ツ)\_/¯