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

this makes me ask the question:

Where did Empire get their moons from?
Where did Weilu get their moons from?

Weilu is the group of the initial duchies that was not culturally unified, and this would likely result in a more syncretic co-important understanding of multi-faced deities like Moon.

The Bai Arts we have gotten are significantly about Reflecting the waters of Lake Hei and the night sky (which is space or The Outer Night potentially)
Jing/Xuan are sailors who put much importance on Guiding
Zheng Mothers rule the culture

Here, at this minor shrine to Winter, we see three aspects. Crone is easily mapped to Hidden, the Woman could map to Bloody or Grin (in a society where inter-human fighting is deeply discouraged Blood becomes much more Just and Righteous), the Youth could be Guidance or Dream (guiding/leading the people, or dreaming of a future and enforcing that dream upon reality).

I do not believe any of these are Mother, or Reflections.

We know that Weilu, even before this Third Dynasty, were considered excellent spiritualists. Weilu was not united, so syncretic co-habitation of beliefs in major deities (like Moon) would be more necessary for their confederation than the culturally united regions.

So did all the regions have all the Moons pre-Weilu joining? Or did Weilu joining assist in the creation/adoption of the Imperial Eight Faced Moon?

I am curious as to how many Moons/Winters White Sky recognizes, because unless the Youth is Dream it's not like Six should be recognized as one of the Winter spirits.

[X] The Mature Woman

Changing my vote, because why not? We've got kids, and we'll fight like hell protect our family.

[X] The Young Woman

I would like to point out that there is no reason to assume the middle woman is "Mother" given that Cold-Dark-End do not make for fertility. I believe "Mother Moon" is missing from here

New never before seen Interlude about our favourite snakes:

As an advocate for the Mature Woman, I agree that there's no particular "Mother" theming present in the figure. For that matter, the young woman probably shouldn't be understood as a "Maiden" either; she's draped in the regalia of temporal power and we know Jaromila, who resembles her, is married and has at least one kid. The culture seems very much like one that skips straight to the business of adulthood.

Now, there could be Motherhood aspects to the Mature Woman figure. Not why I'm interested, but it's possible. My interest is more in how she seems like a force of nature fighting back against nature. It's relevant to Ling Qi's themes and philosophical struggles.

JowKeen said:

I am curious as to how many Moons/Winters White Sky recognizes, because unless the Youth is Dream it's not like Six should be recognized as one of the Winter spirits.

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Given that Sixang is a muse, a spirit of storytellers. If the Winters are in fact syncretized with moon spirits, she would be an aspect of the Crone. As one of the duties of the elderly in a lot of tribal cultures was to maintain and retell the oral history of the tribe. It's not 1-to-1 of course, since the Crone is also clearly a keeper of mysteries ala the hidden moon, but it is the closest of the three aspects we, the audience know about.

[X] The Young Woman

[X] The Young Woman

Throwing my hat in, I believe if we are paralleling the imperial and polar deities then Mother's nurturing nature would be assigned to Koliada whereas Reflecting's nature would be to the Young Woman's
Course when it comes to great spirits they wear whatever hat they want for each civ so it's kinda silly
Especially if their not even the same great spirit we think it is

[X] The Mature Woman

I think this is neat. I duno.
I think she's probably an almost completely alien concept (to Ling Qi) of female empowerment, to a dark-cold-selfish potential that might resonate with Xuan Shi's story of gender-swapped power dynamics. I'd rather Ling Qi understand her traumas as an issue of power dynamics primarily and reduce the gendered aspects involved.

It would also help her understand the dangers involved with clearing up the "these boys aren't married" misunderstanding.

I think we can rely on Jaromila to explain Emissary and Ice Lady stuff. I don't think either of us will bring up "what's the whole marriage assumption stuff about?" because of all the other stuff going on. I'm really glad we clarified the marriage stuff here and GG is going to be cloistered and safe. I'm gonna assume Meng Dan will be Hidden Moon enough to uh, not get pinned in the Barracks or something.

I'll be happy with any of the three, but I would like to know of all of them in time

RebelYell said:

Throwing my hat in, I believe if we are paralleling the imperial and polar deities then Mother's nurturing nature would be assigned to Koliada whereas Reflecting's nature would be to the Young Woman's
Course when it comes to great spirits they wear whatever hat they want for each civ so it's kinda silly
Especially if their not even the same great spirit we think it is

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Koliada being "joyous, inspirational" also maps with some aspects of Dreaming Moon, though also Imperial Dawn Sun iirc. Perkunas as man's unrestrained true nature has shades of Grinning and maybe Dreaming's madness themes. Crowfather resembles some aspects of the Hidden moon that we're aware of. In Imperial practice, it's the Sun that's the more martially-aligned; here, it seems that winter/moon holds that role. Which kind of makes sense, since it's the one that's around more consistently down here.

So yeah, things are different. And interesting!

[X] The Young Woman
[X] The Mature Woman

Insert Tally

[X] The Mature Woman

Changing my vote too

MinuteEarth released a video a few days ago that I've just realized perfectly fits Xiulan's Fire/Heaven cultivation and reveals how she can deal with the Gu's sacrificial nature and return to the story after learning from her father:

Her spirit Linhuo is a wildfire spark, of lightning igniting a wildfire. The wildfire burns a forest releasing water vapor into the air that forms into storm clouds. The heat is so great that the rain vaporizes on contact, rising up again without depleting meaning the storm just grows larger and larger the more the fire burns. And then it can move about like storms do, lightning igniting more wildfires to feed the storm. Fire creating storms creating fires ad infinitum. And it's this cycle and the firestorm in particular that Xiulan embodies.

This captures the Gu trait of burning brightly and dying out since the storm needs the fire and fire needs wood, only it cheats where the fire causes the storm to last unnaturally long and the storm starts more fires in fresh forests. She can solve her family's problem on the military path her father has set her on by cultivating that the fires of battle grow and maintains her storm, moving from battlefield to battlefield to keep going in a way her uncles could not while teetering on a blade's edge in the traditional Gu fashion. And appropriately just as the firestorm needs new forests to burn there are no better place for a firestorm vanguard to fight than the Emerald Seas currently under attack from the Cloud Tribes.

Within the next few years Xiulan realizes what she wants to fight for risks be damned, and with a passion that makes her father burn with despairing pride she takes her Zheng boytoy and on the back of a dark phoenix flies to the aid of her sister and her friends. Her Gu fire heritage feeding her dark storm clouds that empower her and Linhuo to strike the barbarians down with lightning. Zhengui fitting perfectly into this dynamic by taking this wanton destruction and turning it into more fuel. She joins us and Xia Lin in the vanguard and we get our friend back.

[X] The Young Woman

Been doing some more thinking.

The one who probably is going to take the most away from this expedition is CRX. The disdaining of martial valor in favor of spiritual strength (here, I must clarify that I mean it in a real world way, i.e. strength of your soul, of your commitment, of your moral ethics, not your spiritual cultivation) is something that the Empire that we have seen doesn't really seem to have. However, it mirrors a lot of real-world philosophies, most notably for our purposes, Confucianism. Confucius notably did believe strongly that physical power could not compare to moral power - a lot like this arm wrestling competition, no? After a dynastic change, ancient Confucian scholar, when asked why a man who had won the empire on horseback should listen to such drivel, was promptly replied to something of the effect of: "Yes, you won it on horseback - but can you rule it on horseback?"

Confucian thought holds five values up as being the most important for the scholar-gentleman and benevolence - aka, kindness - is one of them. Having grown up during a time of constant warfare and seeking a way out of that, Confucius was kind of like the anti-Machiavelli. I do believe we have a local equivalent in... Scholar Kong, I think his name was?, I might be getting that wrong since the actual Chinese for Confucius is Kong Zi, that existed and while Confucius never managed to propagate his political and philosophical theory in any widespread, successful way during his lifetime, neither did this Master Kong.

Seeing some of his principles at work, even in a completely alien context, might give CRX inspiration towards her own ideal system and doctrine.

Hopefully this means she's more willing to take sabbatical and travel the world in order to see how other systems and cultures shake up. Not gonna lie, that'd be pretty sweet from my point of view.

Two hour warning

There's a new sidestory on the Royal Road page.

Bonus: Handmaiden

Locking up tally please?