- Location
- UK
[X] One person's desires cannot, alone make a home nor a family.
Traditionally(that is, in the cultivation mythos) , it would likely be along the lines of 'what is a sword?' 'what do you swing your sword for?' 'Cut or Stab best waifu?' etc.so....this is very deep and all
but what would swordboi tribulation be like?
Swordspirit: You face a choice, this gold blade of jewels or this worn soldiers shortsword?
Swordboi: *cuts spirit*
I assume you have some quotes for this?A few points on trials and tribulations:
-A tribulation requires people to push themselves to their limits in order to birth an insight.
-In order to do so, a tribulation requires either something at stake, or someone who is psychologically compelled to push themselves to their limits at a much lower threshold than normal people. However the Empire has limited uses for the latter case, pathological risk takers tend to deselect themselves from life in short order, since they also have lower thresholds for pissing off existing power structures.
-So we look to the other type of stakes:
--Physical stakes are near universal. An overwhelmingly powerful entity coming to eat your face is a consistently effective way to find out what someone REALLY believes in when their ass is in the fryer. They're also pretty easy to set up, the hard part is keeping it convincing or simply accepting that some of your trainees are going to die trying.
--Social stakes are prone to lasting consequences in a Sect environment, extending beyond the Sect, they're probably going to be less delibrate and more organically arising. I could definitely see some clans deliberately setting up a romance and then leveraging that bond to force a tribulation however. And for many parents(keeping in mind a lot of 'career' Greens would be settled down with family)...well at some point their children are going to get into shit deeper than they can help with, and that could count.
--Philosophical stakes...well either you've shaped your prospective cultivators towards a common philosophy which you then put to the test, or you have a custom tailored trial built to challenge their ideals. If you think about it this could be what Shenhua is doing to Renxiang. Put her ideals to the test with nearly impossible tasks, either she pushes through her limits to achieve her ideals AND the task, or she breaks one of them in the process and Shenhua might need a spare if that happens.
--Mental stakes, you can refer the Bloody Moon's Dream and when Zeqing hit Ling Qi with the Ghosts of Winters Past and Ghosts of Winters Future. Noting its a genre staple to go mad cultivating, pushing your mind to the limits and then it just shatters. In the worst case scenario, shattering and somehow passing the trial nonetheless, upon which you have a powerful but completely insane cultivator.
Of course, its never so simple and clear cut. Xiulan's Tribulation was a test of mental fortitude with physical consequences. She could have passed the mental test to hold out for the full barrage of lightning, and then failed the physical one when she fails to survive it. Or she could have failed the mental test, and left the peak a broken person that needed significant rebuilding and no boons.
As it is, she passed the mental test, and almost failed the physical, coming out with great power but also great consequences.
As such, while facepunching isn't necessary core to a tribulation, conflict competency remains very valuable. At the least, being qualified to fight usually means you have a variety of defenses to mitigate the consequences of failure so you might yet rebuild from a failed trial.
The house rocked under her feet, and she knew it to be Zhengui's stride,
I noticed some people commenting on how this option didn't appear to remix other insights as the other two do. For reference's sake, here are Ling Qi's Domain insights slotted so far:
-Sincerity is the measure by which the worthiness of the self and ones guests should be measured.
-There are endings and Endings, only the very last one is final. Just as winter ends in spring, small endings are new beginnings.
-Though a path might be hard and lonely, it has worth if you can present something of beauty to those you care for at the end.
Get in line, I was one of the original votersJust remember everyone, I read Forge of Destiny before it was cool.
oh lanlan, definitely bit more than she could chew way back when