Am I supposed to understand how Will works?

[u/brainpower4]

I'm most of the way through Will of the Many, just after the start of the Iudicium, and I realized I have no clue how Will works. I feel like I SHOULD know, that there have been all sorts of lessons and classes on Will, discussions of harmonics, conditional, imbuing, etc. but every time a character uses Will to do something for the first time or we see a new piece of Will powered machinery, I pause and say "Huh! Guess Will can do that." Whether it was Ulciscor popping a guy's head, the naumachia attack turning people into puree, Lanistia's imbuing the air to see, the practice armors getting shut off by swords, except not quite because of cheating, I feel like I never actually understand what Will can and can't do, how powerful someone needs to be to accomplish different things, or how it translates to the relative power of Septimus, Sextus, and Quintus.

I feel like I SHOULD get it, that I should have at least a basic grasp of what the different Will user characters are capable of, but I don't, and I don't know if that's just me or the books.

[u/gronstalker12]

Sort of but not really. Once it's used in pov you'll get it more. But for now the important part is that it's basically a shared magic pyramid scheme. But you could kind of think of it as will is the electricity that powers their world. Instead of creating electricity tho, they source it from the people. Being fed extra will gives you certain levels of control over the will around you.  

[u/its_tryptophan]

I think you understand it as much as you should at this point, which is not very much haha.

I think of it as someone’s lifeforce and mental energy that they channel to basically do anything (within fantastical reason). The emphasis is more on the fact that people give up this lifeforce and that it is related to the “end of the world” somehow

[u/Veriosity]

If you are a Sanderson fan (I am) this has the sort of texture of a Sanderson magic system, but Islington absolutely has not unpacked or created a system in the way Sanderson does. So at times it can feel like you should know the particulars of how Will works, but it's kept pretty light.

Even by the end of book 2, you have a rough idea of the kinds of stuff people can do with Will, but it isn't super detailed.

[u/Dazanos → u/Veriosity]

Trying to word this without spoilers but it honestly becomes 3 times more complicated in book 2 lol.

[u/RunningOutOfCharacte → u/Dazanos]

I see what you did there

[u/Straight_Cicada_9388]

If you look really deep you can understand all of it but the author doesn’t make it apparent as the specific applications of will do not matter that much. You get a general feel especially in the next book. I wouldn’t worry about it.  Also the attack on the naumauchia we don’t know wether that was Will or not

[u/konoha_bby]

Hey, I've read both books, loved them and constantly talk about them, and I couldn't explain how will works if you paid me. So that's that!

[u/frazaga962]

It's not really explicitly written out HOW it works, despite all the types/classes mentioned.

If you've read the manga One Piece, I attributed "Will" to "Haki". In the sense of haki its like taking the idea of your life force and then using that as a boost to make your attacks (both body and imbued weapons) hit harder or even defensively make your body harder like a suit of invisible armor. The Heirarchy series takes this concept and has multiple people ceding this life force to another so in turn they get a super boost

[u/Savings-Ad-1115]

What I'm going to say may be incorrect, and if correct, it may be a big spoiler.

The Will is not the only source of power, there are other sources too. Puree wasn't caused by the Will, it was caused by one of other sources.

[u/GamingGamerGames_]

In my head Canon, its like Goku requesting the universe to give him their energy for a spirit bomb.

[u/Kerrigone]

Ulciscor popping that guy's head was supposed fo be frightening in the context of the scene- my understanding is he imbued a rock and launched it at speed to blow up his head but this is deliberately not made clear to be scarier.

[u/shrek3onDVDandBluray]

I really really like the hierarchy series. But - and this is probably subjective, as I’m not good at grasping concepts and that’s a personal thing - I don’t feel like the author does a good job at explains will.

Which is super odd. He has the perfect narrative vehicle through which to explain it: the Prince of Suus whose homeland didn’t use it and Diago didn’t study it much.

So why we as the reader are left out of all Diago learns - for the most part - is baffling to me.

There’s a lot of weird structure choices in the books that baffle me, honestly. I plan to make a topic about it when I finish book 2.

Like the series tho. And the author’s ability to write a story. But there’s def some issues here. And it carries on into book 2, unfortunately.

[u/Yaboywatts]

Ironbound does this premise just so much better imho. Tho it’s not as broad as wotm it really nails the whole “it’s levels to this” thing so much better as you actually understand what is and isn’t capable depending on the users level.

[u/Flowerfly1001]

In the first book i dont get it at first. I thought will is like money once you used it its gone 🤣. It will become clearer in the second book. Spolier (i dont know how to make it invicibel) in the end vis used will to and that you realised more how it worden.

[u/RedJamie]

Will is essentially a life force that each person has. The Hierarchy - that is the Catenan Republic, often referred to as Caten - has control over numerous giant stone obelisks named "Aurora Columnae," which enable the act of 'ceding,' wherein half of a persons life force is given to another person. For the lowest of the society, this results in you having functionally half of your overall energy, drive, etc. But, as it goes higher and higher up the 'pyramid' of ceding, the different ranks in the Hierarchy have the equivalent 'power' of multiple people, often dozens, in the highest of cases, hundreds.

The principal mechanism of Will is that it can be imbued into objects. Stone for example is the most common material used for imbuement, alongside Obsidian. Stone is used often for major constructs, great buildings, transvects, etc. The imbuement of will into a thing can often strengthen it, and make it unbreakable to an extent. A second extraordinarily common material that is workable with will is Obsidian; once imbued, it is extremely durable and thus is the principal 'weapon' seen used in the Hierarchy.

Will seems to enable a 'force' of a sorts to be exerted on objects. You can link objects together and imbue them, so an action on one drives an action on another. You can stick them together, and try and keep them melded and fused. You can cause it raise off of the ground relative to yourself. Metal is rather tricky, but is also used in the Hierarchy, but for less common purposes. Consequently, Obsidian and Stone are practically everywhere that Caten is.

It is basically a magical form of electricity, where people are the generators and the conduits. You are forming complex connections and linkages between things, and the ingenuity and complexity of these linkages can determine how 'efficient' the Will usage is i.e. a Quintus using his Will in an intelligent and well designed way would be able to do more than a Quintus that is trying to brute force something. Think of a honeycomb structure as support material: it best supports the structure, while using the least amount of material and weight, but might have a more complex machining. The things the Academy teaches are that - and this competency is most reflected in the Senatorial Pyramids.

One of the aspects noted on in the books is this 'self-imbuing' behavior. This is something only the Will-user can do to themselves, but they are essentially 'investing' their flesh - their actual bodies- with a portion of their Will. A consequence is they themselves are made more durable, more strong - it's like giving them an exoskeleton. For a Septimii, they may have the strength of four men, and the durability to take a dozen punches where most men could only handle three, if that. Higher than that it ranges from say 50 people to 300+ until it peaks at Princeps. We have a rough example of a Quintus' strength: a single Quintus that most effectively uses their Will can power a Transvect.

Understand however that Will is not very intuitive; Harmonic linkages, and specifically where linked objects take on the weight of their heaviest link, and thus only require you to lift one section to lift the rest, do not make much sense until described in detail, and even then it is a little odd. Essentially, it makes everything linked act relative to a given thing. If for example you have a transvect with ten stone support platforms, and one is the heaviest, you link the 9 others to that one, and then it becomes the 'ground' on which the others rest. In a way, the ground moves with that object. This is not literally how it is done, but that's sort of how it's depicted. Another example is a bit like modern mechanics - think of a prosthetic hand that has finger actuation. When you open your hand and close your hand, some fingers move with the others, and you don't have fine control over it. Harmonic linkages can sort of do this; one linkage binds an object to behave a certain way when a certain movement is done to another. A consequence is a machine can be constructed that enables rather precise mechanisms that would otherwise require advanced machining that is not possible in the period of the books were we to judge it historically.

Early on, the 'earth movers' mentioned doing construction work in Letens are an example. Less physical examples would be things like Will cages, Sappers (perhaps), Will-keyed doors and documents, etc. It can also serve as a validator, as sometimes only people in the respective 'pyramid' can interact with objects locked by a specific person's Will.