I didn't name it
I just voted and argued for the actions that seem best
Prove it, please
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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.
I just voted and argued for the actions that seem best
Her liege is star aligned and might have her cultivation react to the starstone. You know, that's going to be opening with an artillery blast designed to help LQ take the stone under her control?
In the chaos the Shishigui might think that the other two parties laid an ambush, especially since LQ's effects are basically custom designed to deny their targets any information on the wider engagement.
Unless whomever is engaged against the G7 gets tarpitted by coordinating Cloud barbarians, two G5s, and sudden ambush by Dancing Rat Assassins
Then itll get a free hand to act, absolutely
More like Wood/Fire/Music, since wood grows plants.
- Location
- the internet
CRX primarily uses Light qi, I believe? I know it was recently confirmed by Yrs on discord that CRX used to use both Mountain and Light, and now she uses mostly Light...correct? I know she's been described as a "living star" in battle (in FoD) but does it explicitly say somewhere that she is primarily aligned with Stellar qi?
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
I mean, if we are just creating worst case situations then trying to secure the rock will get Ling Qi killed as the cyan realizes what's happening and splat her before going off to duel our cyan. If we give yourself too big a target stronger cultivators will disengage to attack. We've seen it before with Sun and thunder dome redux.
- Location
- Florida
Nope mostly just theorizing, not much if any moon auntie interaction and Six thought she was a robot for a bit so it's safe to say she doesn't have any stellar Qi in her as of now anyway.
All I'm doing
Is what you guys were when criticizing my preferred option
Let's not pretend that I'm just doing this unjustly and one sidedly to you or any such nonsense
I don't think she uses stellar qi, but she definitely has a connection to the stars.
The Xuan admirals called her the "Star Child" back in the tournament arc in forge.
Edit: ninja'd
- Location
- Colorado
I apologize for implying that you personally named it, but that doesn't change the fact that the name is dumb and misleading, according to your interpretation of the vote.
And no I'm not going to go back and count every single vote for this option and come back with the exact number of people who commented stuff like that. I probably overestimated a bit, but with some of the discussion about trying to shunt it into the dream or roll it down the mountain earlier I'm hesitant to believe we'll actually lead with a sensible approach.
And the G5s are with the 12 Stars faction, they might interfere, but at some point we have to trust that our other comrades are competent people who will do their part. Hidden rat assassins are a potential threat, but I'm not seeing a way to deal with them yet beyond staying alert.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
I don't believe I have ever said that. You have however repeatedly created worse case situations for the other vote options and then demanded that we account for those assumptions you created. The other vote options have had to argue against the Cyan being a defense specialist willing to defend the Shishigui. Now we have dancing assassins ready to tarpit us.
If the other votes have to plan around your assumptions then it does seem fair that your preferred vote has to plan around some assumptions as well, like the Cyan being willing to disengage from a peer to defend a religious object.
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???
No they havent. I argued basic facts about applying defensive techs over multiple people and that overlapping defensive techs are generally better at mitigating attacks then only a single layer of defenses
And assuming they'd defend the Shishigui when left to their own devices at a diplomatic summit when they're in the middle of bring bribed by them is an assumption so obvious Im like...
Why is that being contested?
If you're going to claim a majority of voters hold a specific motivation to disparage them then the onus is still on you to either prove it or retract the statement
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- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Here you go. This is the post that started the argument, that went on for pages, about if we should assume the Cyan is a defense focused cultivator. Please don't try and claim you never claimed this when you argued about it for pages.
As for the assumption that the 12 stars would defend the Shishigui being contested, the fact is that the 12 stars hate the Shishigui. Why is it the cyans first response to an attack to protect people he hates? Even if he's being bribed. That's not a common first response. They may go and help the Shishigui after the first attack. That may happen. But as a first response to intercept an alpha strike? Color me doubtful.
And again I notice that you're not actually engaging with my assumption. And instead are trying to force engagement with your assumptions. Why is the risk of the Cyan disengaging from a peer to protect a religious artifact not worth talking about? I would also question the obviousness of your assumptions. If people are questioning your assumptions, despite how obvious they appear to you, those people must not think the assumptions are obvious or they would agree with you.
...am
Am I going to be forced to quote the definition of "focus" at you?
A build focus is gaming jargon, that is literally your own misunderstanding lol
Good job catching me using words correctly
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Oh wow! So for pages and pages I had this misunderstanding and argued on it and you never commented on it? You never said, "I think there may be a misunderstanding."
So you either you are trying to change you argument right now to suit your needs, or you never actually engaged with my arguments.
LOL
And to top this train wreak off you still haven't engaged with my question. Why is the risk of the Cyan cultivator disengaging with a peer to deal with what he may think is a threat to a religious artifact not worth talking about?
Because if he does he dies?
If they won't stop Guan Zhi then no one else will and give her free reign to attack their exposed back?
Especially if they just finished eating a shot from her directly?
I genuinely dont see why that needs to be said. It's one of.those "yeah this seems so obvious as to be taken for granted" things
Uh huh
Accusing others of what you yourself were doing isnt deflection at all
Sure
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- Location
- Colorado
I'm not going to apologize for thinking that people who vote for a plan called 'Star Stealing Shenanigans' want to steal a star, especially since 'secure' could in fact be interpreted to mean steal. And there has indeed been discussion on possible methods for stealing the star. Your interpretation of what 'secure' means is equally valid, but I'm not voting for an option that's so open to interpretation.
And even if your option doesn't result in attempting to steal it I'm not convinced setting up field effects close to this thing is smart.
That's really not the danger of the 'secure the Rock option.' Sure that might result in our death, but it would give Guan Zhi an additional free shot at him after already hitting him with a surprise attack. If he does that he's going down. The real dangers are that the Green 7 defeats/breaks away from CRX's group and comes after us or that the White Sky pair decide to try for the Rock before they escape. In either case we'd be boned since a G3 and a half can't stand up to a G7 or a G6 & 8.
Best way to avoid fighting the G7 alone is to fight them with the support of CRX and the others. As far as I can tell there's nothing to be done about White Sky unless we resolve other things first.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
So the effort a cyan needs to stop Ling Qi will kill him in a peer on peer fight? Do you have anything to back that up? Or is just another one of those assumptions you have. Like the fact that there are dancing assassins waiting to tar pit us if we engage on the Shishigui.
I have never changed my arguments. I have been consistent in saying that the best way to keep the stone is killing off the Shishigui.
This is the first time I have seen you engage with my question rather than just comment on something else I said in my post.
To be fair I think the idea of pushing people of an objective and moving in to secure it is a good plan. I don't agree that we need to do it in the opening salvo's of an attack. I also don't agree with the idea that we should be concerned with a secondary objective before we have secured our primary objectives.
The leading plan is going to get people killed, because its trying to do to much in the opening seconds of the fight. Instead of focusing on killing as many people as we can, which an alpha strike is meant to do, we are focused on securing a secondary objective. You may have really strong opinions on what good tactics are given this post.
But hopefully you also understand that I have opinions on tactics and focus fire is a bread and butter tactic. It has worked before and it will work again. Stealing Shenanigans is well named. It's shenanigans. It's going to get people that didn't need to die killed because it's trying to be tricksy and do to much.
Now I am going on a walk. Hopefully when I get back this train wreck of an argument between you and me can be over. You have your opinion, which I vehemently disagree with, and I have my opinion, which you apparently vehemently disagree with.
Good day.
- Pronouns
- He
This made me burst out laughing over breakfest this morning. Excellent story!
ruat caelum
Magery
Life blooms like a flower, far away or by the road
- Location
- Australia
ruat caelum
You are Cai Renxiang, and you are a clock.
You are cold and dispassionate machinery cut into a woman's shape; ten thousand moving parts oscillating in perfect order. You are less a person than an answer: the ephemeral world dissected into quanta, the breath of the universe delineated into countable infinities. You are the strict proof set eternal in bone—an anthropomorphic shard of the singular reality that is Cai Shenhua.
It is not surprising.
You are, in the end, what you have been made to be.
You saw your mother for the first time when you were six years old and it broke you because that is what she is. You could not have imagined it was not deliberate. Nothing she does is not deliberate: careful, measured, a gear turned and a cord tugged and reality unfolding like the petals of a flower beneath her radiant sun. To think yourself independent is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of cause and effect: Cai Shenhua is the cause and you are the effect.
(This is, of course, a lie. Even Cai Shenhua makes mistakes. But you were only a child when you looked up and felt for a moment as the first humans must have, before the stars were counted and named—staring up into the pitiless night and hearing a silence so vast it permitted nothing except itself. You saw something without doubt and you thought that made it right.
You emerged from that moment a diamond: not because you were flawless and shining but because you had been crushed too perfectly to be allowed to be anything else).
She broke you, and she remade you, because she can do no more and she can do no less. You were recast in her image—and yet you are nothing like her at all. You are short where she is tall, serious where she is amused, strictly industrious where she gives every appearance of being indolent. She is not, of course, but the point is that you cannot imagine even pretending to be. And deeper still is this: your truths do not converge. They diverge, each step in the sequence of your relationship forever trending further apart no matter how much you try to contort yourself to her ineffable purpose.
This is a problem that has vexed you for some time. You exist as you are because it is what Cai Shenhua wishes you to be. And yet when you seek the meanest insights into her simplest designs you come away with more questions than answers. Even her arts, the elegant expressions of her empyrean soul—they offer you nothing.
When you think of perfection, you think of her. But with every step you have taken along your Way, the ontological entelechy of Cai Renxiang not as she is but as she must be, the truth sears away your thoughts like the Sun sears away the night: you are not Cai Shenhua. You cannot be Cai Shenhua.
Does anyone in the world understand how that feels? To have seen the pinnacle of heaven, the tyrannical radiance that scours away all imperfection and impurity, a glory so absolute that by its very nature it cannot allow anything less to exist, and know not that they will never be that great but that it is wrong to be that great?
Does anyone in the world understand how it feels to turn away from perfection and know that they are right?
Cai Shenhua is the one who breaks.
When she broke you, what emerged is something that wishes no other needs to be broken. You look around yourself and you see inefficiency. Excess. Corruption. Impurity. These things offend you. But you do not wish them gone because they are anathematic to the principles of order. Order is not enough. The blade that pares the world must be swung not because it is correct but because it is right. Each cut must be kinder than the last.
It was not kindness, the mistake that led to Cai Renxiang. But it was a lesson. Only a world that turns on the axis of virtue need never know the tyrant's light. The arc of the universe is long, but you will see it bend toward justice—and if not you, then those who come after, who have grown amid the pillars of a city that sees purity as a means but never an end.
Cai Shenhua is perfection.
Cai Renxiang, you are coming to understand, is iteration.
You do not exist to shatter the world in your image. You exist to take the world that has already been shattered and make it better. This is why you have Gan Guangli. This is why you have Ling Qi. You surround yourself not with those who have always known glory but those who have suffered because of it. You need them because they know what it means to have lived as you wish no other has to live; you need them because they understand the end you seek when you chase the difference between a world that is at order and a world that is good.
You were wrong, before. You had thought to make of yourself an answer—a solution to the problem of evil, a quod erat demonstratum that the only possible society is assembled from ten thousand moving parts that thread through one another like a key into a lock. You sought to reflect the truth that broke you as if you were nothing more than a mirror convinced it was a person. But you are none of these things. You are not an answer. You are a question.
Is this good?
Is this right?
Is this just?
If it is, let it remain—if it is not, let it be so.
How could anyone have ever thought you dispassionate? Who could have ever called you cold? You do not seek a world that cuts down a hundred bandits because it cannot permit them to exist; you seek a world that never has to cut down a single bandit because it does not permit them to exist.
This is your radiance. This is why Gan Guangli towers beneath its fury, with glory on his brow and duty in his fist. This is why Ling Qi lurks within its shadows, with moonlight in her hair and winter between her teeth.
This is why you are more than you were made to be.
You are Cai Renxiang, and you are a clock.
A clock is something that names the invisible, that defines it with each sharp tick and booming tock until it is counted and known. It is a mechanism that translates something beyond human comprehension into a friend of fools and children alike. A clock does not discriminate between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the meek: it offers them the same truth from the same face regardless.
You are a clock, but not for time.
It is justice that moves your hands.
And you will keep it until the world is kind again.
CRX is my favourite character in this series of quests, so I wrote something about her. Shoutouts to @Xepheria and @Erebeal for feedback, and a thank you to @yrsillar for writing such an excellent character.
glyph
completely and utterly fine
[X] Plan Bishoujo Battle: Barbarian X Bard
[X] Plan XCOM door breach:
Doesn't look like XCOM has much chances, so changing my vote to include my second favorite plan. The more we focus the Shishigui the better in my opinion.
Read that as "you are a dork", which would have set the tone for a very different omake. Great character study either way!
[X] Plan XCOM door breach:
Doesn't look like XCOM has much chances, so changing my vote to include my second favorite plan. The more we focus the Shishigui the better in my opinion.
Read that as "you are a dork", which would have set the tone for a very different omake. Great character study either way!
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So. Taking a second look at the enemy numbers, and yeesh. They are a tough lot. Ok, so let's look at this:
Our on-scene forces consist of 1 Cyan, 28 Greens, and spirit partners. The enemy's on-scene forces consist of 1 Cyan, 26 Greens, 100+ Yellows, and 1 spirit partner for almost all of those. Of the enemy Greens, only 6 are below G3; in our total forces, only 7 are not below G3, but an unknown number went with the perimeter group, so they aren't all with us.
On paper, our present forces are outmatched numerically, qualitatively, and arguably doctrinally. Numerically, because they outnumber us by a large margin, especially including spirit beasts which every Cloud Nomad has one of, and Imperial cultivators sometimes do not, even in the third realm. Qualitatively, because their average cultivation stage is notably higher, which gets worse when you acknowledge that each of the Cloud Nomads has a spirit beast that matches their cultivation level, while Imperial Cultivators often have spirit partners who trail behind by several stages or even a realm. Doctrinally, because Cloud Nomads cultivate teamwork as a way of life, while our forces are a mish-mash of bespoke combat philosophies, and the Cyan we're bringing to the fight is explicitly not oriented around team combat. Touching on all three of these is the fact Cloud Nomad spirit partners help setup and maintain their buff networks, which gives them an action economy advantage.
We have two advantages. One, we're ambushing them with an artillery strike, while they're on the ground. Two, this isn't one group, but three. There are decent odds the separate groups will not fight as a fully integrated singular force, and one or another may even try to flee immediately, which would be to our advantage. Further, the group containing the shishigui probably cannot buff up to the same degree as typical because of the qi incompatibility between shishigui and surface cultivators.
However, that doesn't change the fact that we're at a gigantic disadvantage here. I'd argue the split factions only put them on level with our own broad teamwork issues. The sensible response would be for at least our Cyan and peak Green allies in the Perimeter group to run over to the caldera to support us as quickly as possible, because there's a real chance we won't last until the further-out sect reinforcements arrive.
Realistically, Ling Qi personally is going to be in a position of struggling to survive and keep allies alive, not the kind of master horse-catcher role we first envisioned. One thing of particular urgency to acknowledge is Hanyi has no business being outside of our dantian before our allies join the fray; this time she will absolutely get her ass sniped, regardless of what we or Zhengui try to do about it, before then. There's just too many, too strong cultivators on the field. Like, yes 11 of the Green cultivators in the Caldera are "weaker" than Ling Qi, but 9 of those are Green 3, which is where Ling Qi still is in physical cultivation, and is where all of her arts are; we haven't actually cultivated any of our arts at G4 yet! The 3 G4 Nomad "peers"? They should actually be stronger than us, especially if we're driven away from Zhengui for some reason.
tl;dr: We're in trouble here, and there's not much we can do about it. Aiming artillery at the two most numerous/threatening/invested in hostilities with the Empire groups is sensible, because otherwise there's real danger Ling Qi gets all but taken out of the fight in the first minute or so, as the lone enemy target on the field for the opposition.
[X] Plan Star Stealing Shenanigans
However, beyond blasting them, I'm skeptical that anything else we do really matters because of just how tough the enemy is. At least, not in this narrow timespan. I'd rather let our incoming allies choose their own targets for when they actually make it over the rim, rather than our engagement choosing for them, so I'm inclined to sit on the plot rock as the "neutral" option. And trying to murderize the low-realm enemy chaff simply isn't feasible because of how spread out they are and slow-to-act Ling Qi's arts are, again in the timeframe this vote is operating in.
Yes, sitting on the plot rock may invite attention from the more powerful enemies, but my position is there's enough powerful enemies on the field as it is, and few enough powerful allies, that that's virtually an inevitability anyway. There's very decent odds Zhengui finally explodes this fight. Now, that could be a decent justification for some advanced skills!
There's also the fact that it's an interesting plot rock! Maybe poking it will do Something. I'm not too chuffed whether it's good or bad. We've seen star-tainted stuff react to lunar energies in the past, so if anyone has a chance of triggering some horrifying reaction, it's us.
Zero apologies for this monster of a post.
Our on-scene forces consist of 1 Cyan, 28 Greens, and spirit partners. The enemy's on-scene forces consist of 1 Cyan, 26 Greens, 100+ Yellows, and 1 spirit partner for almost all of those. Of the enemy Greens, only 6 are below G3; in our total forces, only 7 are not below G3, but an unknown number went with the perimeter group, so they aren't all with us.
On paper, our present forces are outmatched numerically, qualitatively, and arguably doctrinally. Numerically, because they outnumber us by a large margin, especially including spirit beasts which every Cloud Nomad has one of, and Imperial cultivators sometimes do not, even in the third realm. Qualitatively, because their average cultivation stage is notably higher, which gets worse when you acknowledge that each of the Cloud Nomads has a spirit beast that matches their cultivation level, while Imperial Cultivators often have spirit partners who trail behind by several stages or even a realm. Doctrinally, because Cloud Nomads cultivate teamwork as a way of life, while our forces are a mish-mash of bespoke combat philosophies, and the Cyan we're bringing to the fight is explicitly not oriented around team combat. Touching on all three of these is the fact Cloud Nomad spirit partners help setup and maintain their buff networks, which gives them an action economy advantage.
We have two advantages. One, we're ambushing them with an artillery strike, while they're on the ground. Two, this isn't one group, but three. There are decent odds the separate groups will not fight as a fully integrated singular force, and one or another may even try to flee immediately, which would be to our advantage. Further, the group containing the shishigui probably cannot buff up to the same degree as typical because of the qi incompatibility between shishigui and surface cultivators.
However, that doesn't change the fact that we're at a gigantic disadvantage here. I'd argue the split factions only put them on level with our own broad teamwork issues. The sensible response would be for at least our Cyan and peak Green allies in the Perimeter group to run over to the caldera to support us as quickly as possible, because there's a real chance we won't last until the further-out sect reinforcements arrive.
Realistically, Ling Qi personally is going to be in a position of struggling to survive and keep allies alive, not the kind of master horse-catcher role we first envisioned. One thing of particular urgency to acknowledge is Hanyi has no business being outside of our dantian before our allies join the fray; this time she will absolutely get her ass sniped, regardless of what we or Zhengui try to do about it, before then. There's just too many, too strong cultivators on the field. Like, yes 11 of the Green cultivators in the Caldera are "weaker" than Ling Qi, but 9 of those are Green 3, which is where Ling Qi still is in physical cultivation, and is where all of her arts are; we haven't actually cultivated any of our arts at G4 yet! The 3 G4 Nomad "peers"? They should actually be stronger than us, especially if we're driven away from Zhengui for some reason.
tl;dr: We're in trouble here, and there's not much we can do about it. Aiming artillery at the two most numerous/threatening/invested in hostilities with the Empire groups is sensible, because otherwise there's real danger Ling Qi gets all but taken out of the fight in the first minute or so, as the lone enemy target on the field for the opposition.
[X] Plan Star Stealing Shenanigans
However, beyond blasting them, I'm skeptical that anything else we do really matters because of just how tough the enemy is. At least, not in this narrow timespan. I'd rather let our incoming allies choose their own targets for when they actually make it over the rim, rather than our engagement choosing for them, so I'm inclined to sit on the plot rock as the "neutral" option. And trying to murderize the low-realm enemy chaff simply isn't feasible because of how spread out they are and slow-to-act Ling Qi's arts are, again in the timeframe this vote is operating in.
Yes, sitting on the plot rock may invite attention from the more powerful enemies, but my position is there's enough powerful enemies on the field as it is, and few enough powerful allies, that that's virtually an inevitability anyway. There's very decent odds Zhengui finally explodes this fight. Now, that could be a decent justification for some advanced skills!
There's also the fact that it's an interesting plot rock! Maybe poking it will do Something. I'm not too chuffed whether it's good or bad. We've seen star-tainted stuff react to lunar energies in the past, so if anyone has a chance of triggering some horrifying reaction, it's us.
Zero apologies for this monster of a post.
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