Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
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Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Wait what? Is there such a thing?
- Location
- United States
Really? Because it's already a huge gap. Ling Qi literally has to work an extra day every single week to even keep pace with Ji Rong (and if Ji Rong works all 7 days it is literally impossible for Ling Qi to keep up unless she can somehow out-resource Sun Liling which she can't). And Ling Qi will never be able to even hope to compete with a talent 9 under any circumstances unless they got to the end of white and stopped and waited for Ling Qi to catch up. A talent 9 could be so lazy they only work 4 days a week and "very talented" Ling Qi would still be unable to keep up even if she worked every single day of her life without burning out.
It seems, to me, that the mathematics of talent are already incredibly steep. If they were any stronger Ling Qi would never have been able to defeat Ji Rong at the tournament. Even as they are now, it's questionable that she'll ever beat him again (except, of course, that she's the protagonist and he's the foil).
Sounds like yet another incompleteness theorem which shows up anywhere you try to have complete meta-knowledge.
This particular discussion reminds me of the Infinite Library from Worth the Candle which contains every book that has ever been or will ever be published (and gets around incompleteness because it doesn't even try to provide complete meta knowledge about itself). It's the first magical library I think of because it's actually (very) explicit about what it contains unlike other handwavey "all possible text" libraries (excluding the ones that come about due a knowledge hoarder like Wan Shi Tong where the answer is "it contains whatever books the hoarder has managed to hoard").
The Infinity Library of WtC defines terms like book and published (and avoids incompleteness paradoxes of "all possible texts"), has a consistent paradox free handling of future books, has anti abuse measures against future manipulation, and discussions on bad and worse ways to organize a library containing somewhere around 100 billion books. That detail makes it stand out so much more than other similar magical library concepts, though I can imagine some would hate it.
I do wonder if we'll get into the empire and sect's libraries and whether there is something like library magic in this world or whether they have reasonable organization systems. There was a sidestory about book and library spirits, which was interesting and fun.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
So a few things: First is that archaeologist are very interested in what people throw away. The different trash heaps of history provide a great deal of detail into what the average life a person was. The very act of disposing of something is information archaeologists are interested. What do people value and what do people throw away? Second is that the archives is a place that most people will never see. If you walk into most libraries and think that what you see is what that library has you are mistaken. There are boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of old newspapers, magazines, and books. All of it is in storage until someone asks for them. The vast majority of people don't need them and so the vast majority of people will never see them. Libraries are not just about storing books. They are also about finding out what people want to read and getting those materials out to easy to see spaces.
If a library can no longer afford or has space to store books then they often have a book sale to move some of the books they no longer need into private libraries. Then the rest often go to a a larger library. If the absolute worst happens (I have never heard of this happening to any libraries connected to the one I worked at) then they might be sent to special storage units which are essentially landfills for books. This doesn't happen often and it is very different from book burning which is happening in the update.
As for storage not being cheap the question then becomes so what? People will spend an amazing amount of money to preserve even the least well written books. Storing books is worth the price for many reasons that I have already talked about.
Another thing to remember is that this is a feudal society where reputation of the clan is a big deal. One of the big rep boosters is the size of the clans library. This is really helpful for the archivists managing these private libraries because there is often money coming in to expand a preserve the library in order to get a good library. This means trying to keep everything because that is what libraries try to do.
Honestly I feel like people may be misinterpreting both what is happening in the chapter and what I am deeply sadden by. What is happening in the update is the destruction of books for censorship purposes. I am and will always be against the destruction of books for censorship purposes. Libraries can't store everything. Sometimes you can't find a good home for the books you no longer can store. Sometimes those books quietly vanish. But that is not what is happening in this update. Information is being destroyed to try and control what people know and what people think. If you believe those actions are ok then we are simply going to disagree forever.
- Location
- earth
[X] Songs and poems of peoples and ways of life long gone (Spirit Ken, Beast handling)
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
Sure, but Talent 9 are not born that way, really. If they are, they are the equivalent of 'the world has never before seen this'.
Now, take your Ji Rong example. He was around the same place we were week 12 (We had more Qi and more meridians opened, he had better fighting stats and one of his art had one more level). This means he lost 15% of the 40 weeks left to him after that. Then Ling Qi had 5 weeks of Elder tutoring, and 8 weeks of inner sect disciple tutoring, and 12~ weeks of Zeqing tutoring, found pills a ducal couldn't easily get for themselves, found extremely potent cultivation sites while Ji Rong was unable to have any until week 38 or so, got White Room from CRX, got 2 spirits (which increases cultivation speed). That's without going into our arts lucky finds.
Remainder than in the old system, Elder/Inner sect tutoring gave +1 action, so 20% increase in cultivation speed even before we take dice into actions.
Basically, Talent 7 would need to give much, much more than 2% increase in speed overall (given the weeks he lost) for Ji Rong to be even competitive at all even after we adjust for "Ji Rong is a duelist". Hence, the 'luck' aspect, or "Talent does more than it is shown".
Obviously there is the 'easier' solution of "Ji Rong was doing closed door cultivation every weeks and so had 6 actions to our 5 in non-tutoring weeks". Don't be lazy Ling Qi
Not directly, its a consequence of other policies.
So, first thing. The Imperial Throne, as Imperial Thrones through the ages have done, seeks to increase centralization and accountability under the Imperial line.
The biggest obstacle to this are the founding clans, of which only three are still extant, the Bai, Xuan and Zheng. This is because they have weight of historical momentum, they have ancient networks of allegiances/connections, and are numerous enough to be considered their own ethnic groups...and their ruling families all have enough Imperial blood to make a claim on the throne if the Imperial line falls.
Acting directly against them is a non-option, each of them can destroy the Empire in a suicide pact if need be.
So marginalization. Incrementally move the spiritblooded, which they all are and cannot change, towards social margins.
This won't hurt the founding clans at all, but it DOES cut the number of politically successful new nobles of non-spiritblooded houses as they are pressured out.
Which would make the spiritblooded founding clans stand out more and isolate them in court.
Secondly, the spiritblooded don't need as much infrastructure. The Imperial Seat maintains its power through its control of the Prism Stone mines, which pure-human cultivators need to cultivate in the Imperial method, unless they have rare and valuable cultivation arts.
Spiritblooded can cultivate without stones entirely if they need to, their inborn spirit heritage gives them the ability to progress regardless. Spiritblooded don't need pills, they can hunt beasts and spirits to eat raw cores...and thats destabilizing because dependency upon a logistics chain of alchemists and resource gatherers needed to refine pills is a big part of how you control who gets to cultivate and become powerful.
In short. Control.
Spiritblooded find it easier to opt out of civilization.
Thats not desirable
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- Location
- Sydney
[X] Songs and poems of peoples and ways of life long gone (Spirit Ken, Beast handling)
TimEd
Meteor maker
[x] Songs and poems of peoples and ways of life long gone (Spirit Ken, Beast handling)
we just might have conflict with the ruling monarch if we continue supporting Spirit freedom. This means that we should pick this so the world doesnt turn into something similar to Avatar where spirits are minor or relegated to their own world.
we just might have conflict with the ruling monarch if we continue supporting Spirit freedom. This means that we should pick this so the world doesnt turn into something similar to Avatar where spirits are minor or relegated to their own world.
- Location
- New York
[X] Songs and poems of peoples and ways of life long gone (Spirit Ken, Beast handling)
I think this both mechanically and thematically first as the best choice. I have many more arguments but the vote doesn't exactly need them. Though I do find it curious that people are talking of the human centric policies of the empire. We should also mention the same thing occurring in our province, I mean the duchess is currently marginalizing the oldest clans that are closest to the spirits. By choosing this option we continue to somewhat align ourselves with them. I will also say it's interesting that every choice so far has been colored through grinning moon because of the location chosen. Makes me wonder how it would have gone in the other choices.
Ok more speculation. So far I think we have chosen our base, the foundation of our new cultivation art, as grinning moon. The brothel kind of ties into our domain, at least more than the streets would have(might be wrong about that). Then the art choice seems to be how our cultivation will express itself, kind of where it grows from its start. And this last choice will probably be, mechanically the modifiers focused on, otherwise maybe how we can continue to gain power? Seeking out suppressed art? I don't know.
I think this both mechanically and thematically first as the best choice. I have many more arguments but the vote doesn't exactly need them. Though I do find it curious that people are talking of the human centric policies of the empire. We should also mention the same thing occurring in our province, I mean the duchess is currently marginalizing the oldest clans that are closest to the spirits. By choosing this option we continue to somewhat align ourselves with them. I will also say it's interesting that every choice so far has been colored through grinning moon because of the location chosen. Makes me wonder how it would have gone in the other choices.
Ok more speculation. So far I think we have chosen our base, the foundation of our new cultivation art, as grinning moon. The brothel kind of ties into our domain, at least more than the streets would have(might be wrong about that). Then the art choice seems to be how our cultivation will express itself, kind of where it grows from its start. And this last choice will probably be, mechanically the modifiers focused on, otherwise maybe how we can continue to gain power? Seeking out suppressed art? I don't know.
- Location
- Red Blood on Golden Shield
[X] Historical Plays, works of wit and satire, (Speech, Government,)
Plus, all those depictions of Bai aligned forces doing horrible things to the barbarians that came out of the jungle are super awkward now that the Western Territories are part of the Empire. Why, that sort of record would acknowledge a long standing grudge between two provinces of the Empire, and therefore potentially give face to some form of open civil war.
Better to quietly purge those records, so the two provinces merely have bad relations and thus no excuse to escalate beyond maneuvering in the Imperial Court.
Yes; that is why I brought it up. Household trash is an excellent example of something that archaeologists care about but contemporary people freely dispose of in massive quantities.
I'm confused why you are bringing this up as if it is something you need to inform me of, or as if it conflicts with the point I'm making rather than enforcing it.
That is unsurprising. Book burning IRL has a strong stigma associated with it, so it makes sense that we would use other means to dispose of books. It also makes sense that if the books can be given away rather than thrown away, that is something appropriate to do.
But of course, these points don't carry over to FoD. For one thing, I doubt that book-burning is as stigmatized. More importantly, non-destructive means of disposal can run into the "makes wild spirits" problem, so that may be a no-go. As far as giving the books away goes? Cultivator novels in general and FoD in particular both have a strong tradition of hoarding arts. Giving books away clearly goes against the grain of the culture.
Bigger != Better. A big library filled with junk plus a few gems is probably less attractive than a smaller library with just the gems.
I mean, we have in-character (literal) word of god that that is happening, so I'm certainly not to dispute that fact. What I do dispute is that having more information is always better. Having bad information mixed in with the good dilutes and diminishes the over quality of what you have collected. Pruning the info you have is useful for the same reasons pruning a tree is useful: it keep nutrients (time & attention) flowing to healthy regions, and prevents parasites and decay (misunderstandings) from infecting you via the unhealthy ones.
- Location
- Yes
[X] Songs and poems of peoples and ways of life long gone (Spirit Ken, Beast handling)
[X] Songs and poems of peoples and ways of life long gone (Spirit Ken, Beast handling)