Probably wrong since it been a while, but could that be related to the event that ended with the beast that gave us our first spirit sealed? He did say that someone betrayed his master and others.
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
That being said, as @Thor's Twin noted in discord, our official obligation is kinda to protect humans from spirits. It's perhaps our main responsibility as a noble.
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
[X] Aid the spirit, something about the prince set her on edge
Neutrality is out for obvious reasons.
I'd like to side with the Burning Tree for multiple reasons:
-The "Prince" borderline demands our help rather than asking. I have issues with that. Moreover he demands our active help while the Tree only asks for us not to attack him.
-The Prince calls the Tree mad when there is no evidence of such. At the very least the Tree speaks normally.
-The Tree calls him a Oathbreaker, which is an other major point against the Prince.
-In... virtually all cases of a conflict between a human and a spirit of nature the fault lies in the human, be it greed, ignorance or worse it's usually the human that goes back on his word or who fucked up hard enough to piss off the spirit.
-I'm hoping we get something Fire/Wood related that can help Zhengui. Reason being he's getting kind of left behind, we are going to hit Green 2 next turn when he barely went to sleep to reach Green 1 last turn...
Now, arguably, the reward could be based on whom we kill, and loot, rather than being based on whom we save and would (logically) reward us with a gift.
But I will point point out that this is a dream of a long past battle, hence i do not believe we will be able to "loot" the "dead" body of our foe, so i think the reward will be based on who we help.
Neutrality is out for obvious reasons.
I'd like to side with the Burning Tree for multiple reasons:
-The "Prince" borderline demands our help rather than asking. I have issues with that. Moreover he demands our active help while the Tree only asks for us not to attack him.
-The Prince calls the Tree mad when there is no evidence of such. At the very least the Tree speaks normally.
-The Tree calls him a Oathbreaker, which is an other major point against the Prince.
-In... virtually all cases of a conflict between a human and a spirit of nature the fault lies in the human, be it greed, ignorance or worse it's usually the human that goes back on his word or who fucked up hard enough to piss off the spirit.
-I'm hoping we get something Fire/Wood related that can help Zhengui. Reason being he's getting kind of left behind, we are going to hit Green 2 next turn when he barely went to sleep to reach Green 1 last turn...
Now, arguably, the reward could be based on whom we kill, and loot, rather than being based on whom we save and would (logically) reward us with a gift.
But I will point point out that this is a dream of a long past battle, hence i do not believe we will be able to "loot" the "dead" body of our foe, so i think the reward will be based on who we help.
- Location
- United States of America
No, it's not related. The spirit beast that gave us Zhengui was a Volcanic Tortoise, and the other half seemed to be an eternally regenerating lizard thing, (possibly a komodo Dragon type thing). Furthermore, Sixiang says that this is an old, old, dream, and given how old Sixiang is this dream is probably long before the Volcanic Tortoise was ever around.
Sooo... what's our chances of getting to loot his corpse?
Wiggin42
Wage Slave
[X] Aid the spirit, something about the prince set her on edge
Based on stats, the Horned Lord looks tougher. Video games have taught me that the hardest route has the best ending/rewards, and if we can't fight both I say we hit the stronger guy.
Also...
Based on stats, the Horned Lord looks tougher. Video games have taught me that the hardest route has the best ending/rewards, and if we can't fight both I say we hit the stronger guy.
Also...
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His name is Zhengui, and nah, that was barbarian invasion related, which is relatively recent. In contrast, this dream is some really old stuff.
Not to mention the immortal words of Zapp Brannigan.
I'm going to go a little contrarian here:
[X] Aid the prince, it was better to err on the side of the human
Ling Qi is still human. In an us-or-them situation, humans are still "us."
While Ling Qi remains blind to the danger spirits represent, we have gotten a bunch of clues that spirits are very dangerous. Humans might also be dangerous, but at least when a human decides to kill you there's a human reason for it.
Also, the "something about the prince set her on edge" is not part of the update, but part of the vote block. It only becomes true if we vote for it. You could even go so far as to say it becomes true because she has no other reason to attack a member of one of the founding clans of the empire who's in a fight with a dangerous spirit beast.
- Location
- foraging for beans
[X] Aid the spirit, something about the prince set her on edge
My thought is that the thing that's setting Ling Qi on edge about the Weilu guy is the AM insight about detecting lies. This is probably yrs writing in a subtle hint because we slotted the thing.
My thought is that the thing that's setting Ling Qi on edge about the Weilu guy is the AM insight about detecting lies. This is probably yrs writing in a subtle hint because we slotted the thing.
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
When i read the part on the sites one thing immediately came to mind: what if we used one to enhance the other ?
We know they are, if not right next to each other at least relatively close physically.
It's common knowledge that Water helps trees (Wood) grow, and we just had more evidence that it is possible to physically affect cultivation sites with how the insects drained whatever site was there. (there's also our impact of the Argent Vent last year)
Maybe it'll take some more know how, but i think it's possible to use the Water site to enhance the Wood site.
imo the Prince is dead, we're seeing a dream/ghost of him, so there will be no "interact with (him) in the future".
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
The point i take out of this is that Weilu loot isn't rare and we'll have (many) other opportunities for some.
The strange elemental combination of Fire/Wood of the Tree ? I'm guessing not so much ...
The dreams and inhabitants of dreams are not exactly inconsequential phantoms, I'll note. There is a great spirit of Dreams, and our familiar is a primarily Dream-spirit with no physical body, lol.
The probabilities of any of these people following us out of the dream to stab us in the face is pretty zero-ish, but it doesn't mean that there are no consequences to stabbing them in the face.
(Even aside from the whole Blood Moon Test angle)
The probabilities of any of these people following us out of the dream to stab us in the face is pretty zero-ish, but it doesn't mean that there are no consequences to stabbing them in the face.
(Even aside from the whole Blood Moon Test angle)
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deadcrystal
Slaaneshi Cultist
- Location
- The Warp
Except that the Empire uses spirits, has Sublime ancestors and has treaties with groups of spirits. It isn't nearly so simple as that.
If it were spirit beasts outside a village, sure.
LQ is not remotely blind to the danger of spirits. She's killed whole bunches of spirit beasts, helped with rituals to keep spirits away from civilians, and Zequing dropped her into 'training' that would have killed her if she hadn't managed to get through it.
- Location
- United States of America
Ehhh... there's plenty in the post itself to put Ling Qi's teeth on edge regarding the Weilu Prince. He called the Spirit Beast a "Mad Beast" but the spirit beast is perfectly capable of communicating and behaving in a rational manner towards unknown possible aggressors. That's a contradiction there that is unsettling.
Furthermore, there is a reason that this conflict is taking place and the Ent called the Weilu an "oathbreaker." Now, the Ent might be lying and the Ent is the aggressor, but that doesn't jive with the fact that the Weilu's father is also present somewhere in the conflict. If the Ent is the aggressor, then the father would probably be rushing to assist the son, unless the whole forest is attacking which is a totally different problem. If the whole forest was attacking, then something was screwed up and riled the forest beyond belief. We didn't get the whole forest attacking people when the Shaman unleashed his curse and Elder Ying smashed it into a crater.
So there is certainly something fishy going on here, and the Weilu seems like he's in the wrong. On the other hand, we do have an obligation to assist humans against Spirit Beasts, which is probably the most convincing argument I've got to assist the Weilu prince.
noteably, we and our allies get a multi-attacker bonus of +5 to hit and pen no matter who we choose. with Ling Qi, Shen Hu, Lanhua and whoever we choose that is +20 per stat and person.
That is enough to compensate for the Avoid of the Prince or the Armor of the Tree that whoever we choose wins.
That is enough to compensate for the Avoid of the Prince or the Armor of the Tree that whoever we choose wins.
So, the chapter title is King of the forest and the treant refers to us as "children of river and hill". This seems to me like a territorial dispute. The prince didn't seem nearly as objectionable as others are making out, he has blood on him (trees don't bleed) and he is furious at not being able to down his foe but hopeful when he sees what he thinks to be allies. I find it interesting that he says soldiers which is plural when he doesn't perceive Ling Qi so he is referring to both Shen Hu and Lanhua. That means he thinks the mud spirit should be on his side.
Now it seems like he demanded we help him but we also note he was using archaic diction, so it could not be as demanding as it seems. People are fixating on "mad beast" but for all we know he is saying berserker or something else that doesn't translate as well into modern. Please note we experience the treant unleash a "furious howl that sent a shiver down her spine".
That said, still not sure who to vote for. Man having CDE to spy out the total battlefield and get more info would be nice right now. Heck, the focused observe on the prince and the treant would be great too.
Now it seems like he demanded we help him but we also note he was using archaic diction, so it could not be as demanding as it seems. People are fixating on "mad beast" but for all we know he is saying berserker or something else that doesn't translate as well into modern. Please note we experience the treant unleash a "furious howl that sent a shiver down her spine".
That said, still not sure who to vote for. Man having CDE to spy out the total battlefield and get more info would be nice right now. Heck, the focused observe on the prince and the treant would be great too.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
I don't think we know how old Sixiang is? I wouldn' be surprised if they are quite young actually.
- Location
- United States of America
[X] Aid the prince, it was better to err on the side of the human
I don't think that the Ent is wrong in attacking the Weilu. I suspect that there is a legitimate grievance between the Weilu and the spirits of the Forest that has no way of being resolved except through violence. That being said, we are a noble of the Celestial Empire and without knowing the situation our default stance should be to protect the humans and citizens of the Empire from spirit beasts.
Now, there are plenty of reasons to believe that the Weilu dude is in the wrong, but simply because we have a suspicion that the humans messed up terribly does not resolve us of obligations to the Empress, the Cai, or the Empire in general, even if the Empire might not exist yet in the dream. If we had concrete evidence of Weilu wrongdoing then siding with the tree would be part of our obligation to keep the peace between the spirits and the Empire, but as it is we only have strong suspicions which are not enough in my mind.
As sad as I am to side with the likely wrongdoer, I feel that this would cleave more properly to our obligations in spirit. The letter of our obligations actually doesn't matter all that much because we can't actually influence the historical outcome of the fight since that outcome has already occurred.
I don't think that the Ent is wrong in attacking the Weilu. I suspect that there is a legitimate grievance between the Weilu and the spirits of the Forest that has no way of being resolved except through violence. That being said, we are a noble of the Celestial Empire and without knowing the situation our default stance should be to protect the humans and citizens of the Empire from spirit beasts.
Now, there are plenty of reasons to believe that the Weilu dude is in the wrong, but simply because we have a suspicion that the humans messed up terribly does not resolve us of obligations to the Empress, the Cai, or the Empire in general, even if the Empire might not exist yet in the dream. If we had concrete evidence of Weilu wrongdoing then siding with the tree would be part of our obligation to keep the peace between the spirits and the Empire, but as it is we only have strong suspicions which are not enough in my mind.
As sad as I am to side with the likely wrongdoer, I feel that this would cleave more properly to our obligations in spirit. The letter of our obligations actually doesn't matter all that much because we can't actually influence the historical outcome of the fight since that outcome has already occurred.
Ling Qi: "Your first problem is you're thinking of cultivating qi as its own thing, instead of letting The Drugs do it for you."
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
The more i think on it the more i'm in favor of the spirit. Even if the Prince isn't lying and the Tree is "mad" i'd rather side with a mad person than with an oathbreaker.
I can forgive a lot of things, but a traitor is not among them.
I can forgive a lot of things, but a traitor is not among them.
We have no obligation to dead dream/ghost people, only towards living ones.
[X] Aid the prince, it was better to err on the side of the human