[] A great tapestry as long and thick as the trunk of a tree, vibrant with qi. On the floor is a small chest, slips of white jade glitter within. All around it are shelves holding thick volumes. One title catches your eye. A Complete Genealogy and Accounting of the House of Tsu.
Tsu the Diviner being the founder of the Weilu, this is a "complete" record of the ES founding clan's family tree. The Weilu don't exist anymore, so this has got to be an incredibly rare record. Possibly unique, though it's impossible to know. This option ties into our current political strategy and broader plotlines of Emerald Sea's history. Looking through genealogies (that she actually cares about) is also an opportunity for Ling Qi to examine the bonds of family through a different lens than her usual, which is a little interesting.
Not sure I'm actually interested in having the information dispensed to us at the moment though, even though it is relevant to the mission. Feels like it could be a bit of a slog, even if it was only touched on briefly.
[] A corner of the room which rings with phantom song, instruments lay strewn across the floor in disarray, and on its side is a fallen shelf, from which spill folios of pages marked with archaic musical notation and scattered strips of carved green jade. One title catches your eye. Collected Works of the Grandmistress Lei.
Grandmistress Lei was a hermit cultivator who married into the Meng. The Meng still exist, so presumably so do collections of her works, even if they'd probably never give us access. People have noted the similarities between our musical style and hers in the past, so it would be interesting for Ling Qi to immerse herself in the works of a master of a similar style. Not least finding out how similar it actually is, which is basically a black box of third-hand opinions to us at the moment.
I see some people mentioning opportunities with Bao Qian, but that kind of gives me pause. We're a Music cultivator, while he's only a Music enthusiast. If we were talking Music history, culture, or theory he might have a lot of relevance to say, but that's not the situation if we grab this collection. When we have the actual materials available to us first hand, his contribution seems superfluous and, at worst, a distraction from our project of personal exploration. if it came up with him, cool, but picking the option for the purpose of interacting with him is iffy to me. If our development of the collection's plot thread was dependent on Bao Qian, it would be a complete turn off for me.
Edit: oh right, had another thought. We arguably have more avenues to dredge up Grandmistress Lei stuff than Weilu genealogies. Even if it's not directly from her, we know there's derivative works from her students out there; in terms of musical meaningfulness, I'm not sure there's really a difference for Ling Qi if she's browsing a Grandmistress's works versus "merely" some Indigo+ student who came after. Then, we have our connection with the Dreaming moon. We know moon spirits hold onto things, and we know things like music are of interest to one of our patrons. Genealogies, being knowledge, are probably of interest to Hidden, especially after being lost, but good luck actually getting anything out of her. Other than that, the construction of human noble clans don't really seem to be broadly of interest to spirits.
I just see more opportunities for finding ancient music in our future.
