Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
[X] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]

I'm a bit concerned over deviation with some of those, honestly, and while I do think that Ling Qi could use another "connect to people" insight or two, I think that these are not the insights she needs.
 
[] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]
Just straight up pass

[X] Even walking alone, footfalls echo beyond your hearing
I like this, reminds her she's never alone no matter where she goes and it connects some insights together.
Personally I think the echoes are her friends and family that are following her or that she's coming back to.

[] One note never exists in isolation, its meaning is found in the whole composition
Hmm might tangle a few of our alone insights into a further mess than it is already, and I was already wary of it with SNR coming soon with void so gonna pass.

[] A song must have listeners to have value, music is a shared experience at heart.
Zeqing begs to differ, doesn't need people to have judged as valuable
 
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[X] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]
 
[X] Even walking alone, footfalls echo beyond your hearing
[X] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]

I'm good with either of these - though I want to know if our interpretations affect insights' compatibility and such.
 
[X] Even walking alone, footfalls echo beyond your hearing

I am a little torn, because we have very limited slots remaining, but for now I'm going with this. Being thoughtful about the consequences of your actions is just a character trait I greatly admire.
 
For full disclosure: My current preferences are No slot over Insight 1, but would be ok with insight 1 winning (think 1 adds value but not enough to be worth the slot). I consider the others risky for too little gain (2), and unmitigated disaster (3).

Let me make a case for No Slot:
  • As a guiding principle, the minimum threshold for which I would consider an insight worth slotting is if it can satisfy:
    "I think LQ will be meaningfully better off with this as a core tenet, and meaningfully worse off without it".
    Some examples in existing insights:
    - AM makes it much harder for LQ to not be sincere with herself, ymmv but I consider this good.
    - SCS codifies LQ's drive for growth, without which she probably won't get as far.
    - TRF, though not what I voted for, encodes LQ's bottom line, ensures that her core beliefs are solid and will not be compromised on in the name of convenience.

  • The mechanical constraint is unfortunate but real. In a sense, every insight we pick early is an option we don't get to pick later; and while I agree with Abeo that we should fairly evaluate options before us on their own merit, it is worth keeping in mind they're competing with one of:
    - A (selected or created) successor art insight.
    - An insight from an archive art we went back for because we miraculously had slots left over to round out LQ's Domain with by exercising moderation and restraint[1].

  • Current insights constrain future ones. This can be good and bad:
    • The good part is that once we're further along and have something resembling a coherent core of insights, further arts would likely either offer overall more compatible/synergistic insights or become entirely domain-incompatible, saving us the effort and risk, and making arts that do give insights (provided we select interesting ones and not just more of the same) more rewarding on average.
    • The bad part is that to get to that point, we need to be extra careful with early insights and make sure that they both meaningfully contribute in defining LQ as a person, but also make sure they don't constrain so much that they exclude parts worth keeping[2]. Extra care should be taken when evaluating insights that touch upon LQ's sense of value and worth, and things which must be done.

[1] Hopefully not because we deliberately let go of good opportunities, though this will always be a risk.
[2] Like the inherent value of beauty heard but not shared :mad:.
 
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[X] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]

Is it possible to get other insights from this art even if we do not get one this time?
 
[X] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]

Is it possible to get other insights from this art even if we do not get one this time?
No. Insights are a result of mulling an art and its themes over in their entirety - you can't mull it over more thoroughly to come up with a different insight unless you weren't doing it properly the first time.
 
[X] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]
[x] Even walking alone, footfalls echo beyond your hearing
 
[X] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]
[x] Even walking alone, footfalls echo beyond your hearing

Having this insight is fairly ok with me, though I do understand why peeps might want to wait for greener pastures.
 
[X] An interesting fact and a useful observation [No insight]
[X] Even walking alone, footfalls echo beyond your hearing
 
Ima make a case for 1 it makes it so that if Ling is ever lost in some way be it her drive her Way or her self worth this allows her to see that other people are there.

It would give her isolation a crack in the cage self inflicted or not and she was quite alone before she came to the sect but she was still helped out of that by a completely random guy out of the blue that said she's a candidate for becoming immortal and hauled her ass outa the gutter, so while she might be alone now she will still have people that would see value/rely/care for her.
 
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Ima make a case for 1 it makes it so that if Ling is ever lost in some way be it her drive her Way or her self worth this allows her to see that other people are there.

It would give her isolation a crack in the cage self inflicted or not and she was quite alone before she came to the sect but she was still helped out of that by a completely random guy out of the blue that said she's a candidate for becoming immortal and hauled her ass outa the gutter, so while she might be alone now she will still have people that would see value/rely/care for her.
I actually don't really think its about that. I think its about her actions affecting either her loved ones or affecting the world in general. But whatever.
 
I actually don't really think its about that. I think its about her actions affecting either her loved ones or affecting the world in general. But whatever.
I like it when interpreting what kinda meaning like this is its fun .
And if it means getting your buddies to bail you out like LanLans sister or us running to cai when we were being hunted by sun Liling's forces then I'm down :V
 
[X] Even walking alone, footfalls echo beyond your hearing

So what is this insight going to do eh? Well. Let me wildly speculate:
HDW is a very unique perception tech that doesn't use Seeing or Hearing but instead Being Heard as it's vector of choice. Now that's fascinating, because it's a Perception Tech that Perceives Others by focusing on their Perception of the user's music. This seems to be extremely unique among cultivators we've seen, and I've always loved that.

This insight though, is about remembering to pay attention to the Unheard Noises. The echoes beyond Hearing. It's a good thing that HDW works without us needing to Hear, it simply needs to Be Heard to work which is very different.

Hearing the sounds that are Unheard is the kind of paradoxical insight I expect from a paradox cultivator like us, with such classics as:
Motion without Motion (SCS)
Song without Sound (CtE within FSS is explicitly Silent)
Resist without Resistance (SNR is an armor art which has a No-Sell Dodge tech. Punching a lake or the sky has little resistance but this art gives Armor and SpArmor lol)

frankly this insight is solid gold and the reason everyone is sleeping on it is because you're awake you fools. Dream! Dream of hearing the unheard!
Hearing the Unheard is the first step I've seen in the quest that is Song Seeking! I wish for us to reconstruct lost songs just like The Burning Library was made of lost books! To be able to Hear a song that's been Unheard for ages requires an art and insight that could lead to that, and this is it! This is the beginning of reconstructing lost songs!

now all we need is something from PLR that's like "Reality without Realness" to rebuild the scenes for the song and something in the future about channeling other's compositions through yourself? I duno. I haven't seen an art that could build to that third step of actually composing the lost songs, but this HDW insight about Hearing the Unheard is really damn cool to me as a Forbidden Cactus made of Speculation and Effortposts hahaha <3 Gold <3

on a serious note: our lack of attention to our echoes hurt Xiulan, Zhengui, Hanyi, Six, Mom and worst of all Zhenguibrotherbestboytreasure<3<3 (he's on here twice because he's Zhen and Gui). We also see in the scene the coolness of this setting with our echoes of Ruan's trial we didn't help him with, Yuan's Heaven and Thunder shift, and our own Open Sincerity choices.
On top of that, because HDW is a nontraditional perception art that only requires Being Heard I'm 100% sure that the insight that talks about Hearing the Unheard will assist us against the stealthy underground rat-things we're about to fight. They might have great stealth but have they plugged their ears from our songs? If not, they're gonna have a bad time haha
 
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