Remove ads

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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
yrsillar said:
"...I see. Do your lands lie at the northern gates then?"

Ling Qi frowned, growing concerned that she and the girl were talking past each other now. "I do not think so," she said slowly.

"Oh, that makes more sense," the girl said, to herself. "The tales always said the northern gates were a world away. Your spirit feels like the spirits of the earthflames that ring the Polar gates is all."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
!!!

The Polar Gates refer to both North and South! Their Nation spans both polar ice caps, and the gates are the pathway connecting the two lands! That's a fascinating effect, I wonder how or what is maintaining that effect? The stars? The Sun and Moon? A quirk in the Nameless Father or Mother?

yrsillar said:
"I offered my heart and eyes to my godmother as my ascension price," she said proudly. "It was a dangerous choice, but I'm certain it was the right one, I will complete my first quest and craft a new heart before my mortal one decays."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So they still practice self-mutilation! Offering bits of their body (and spirit, too, probably) to their patron ice spirit, as part of their breakthrough practices. They then craft replacements for their sacrificed organs, presumably from the sun-iron?

I wonder if they have to sacrifice for every Realm, from Red to Ascension? Or, like with Imperial cultivation, overt restrictions come with Yellow, mildly, and Green, blatantly.

yrsillar said:
"The bright moons are the lantern of Sudica illuminating the night and it's terrors. The crescents are the axes of Fryja, raised against the stars. The Black Moon is the cloak of the Crone, thrown over the world, that good folk know to close their homes and pray, so that her curses touch only the demons of the night."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
To sum up:
  • Sudica: Young Woman, face of early winter. Associated with the bright moons — Full, both Gibbous, and both Half Moons; has the domains of the Guiding and Reflective Moons. Patron of Emissaries, who act as the bridge between everybody — intra- and inter-community communications, priest and judge both.
  • Fryja: Mature Woman, associated with the Crescent Moons, which are her axes. Has no overlap in the domains of the Imperial Eight Maidens. Patron of warriors.
  • Crone: Associated with the New Moon, which is a warning that the Crone is attacking everybody she sees. Also patron of warriors.
  • Ling Qi's Moons: Hidden is basically similar in broad respects with the Crone, but Grinning's and Dreaming's portfolios are associated with the Sun. Presumably, with Koliada in particular, who is joyous and inspirational.
 
Last edited:
[X] Toward the stairs, where she could feel Cai Renxiang

I am not predisposed to putting an ally in more danger if I can help it, and while the danger Gan Guangli faces is of a mild sort, his agitation at being constantly hit on isn't going to help the appearance of unity we've been trying to get Ling Qi to cultivate so far this arc.
 
Last edited:
Zeful said:
[X] Toward the stairs, where she could feel Cai Renxiang

I am not predisposed to putting an ally in more danger if I can help it, and while the danger Gan Guangli faces is of a mild sort, his agitation at being constantly hit on isn't going to help the appearance of unity we've been trying to get Ling Qi to cultivate so far this arc.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
2 hour moratorium
 
EternalObserver said:
Ah, here's the Ice Lady cultivation. Self-mutilation being part of the practice
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It almost seems close to the red garden version of cultivation. Where as the red garden seems, at least from the hearsay, to gain power by cutting pieces off and inviting in multiple spirits, ice lady cultivation ties yourself to a much more powerful singular spirit. Very interested to see what benefits such a strategy brings as the downsides seem obvious. If Sveta doesn't complete her quest in time, she's dead.
 
CedeTheBees said:
While I'd love to go see Xia Lin and get a scene with the two jocks together, I also want to see Renren alone with just her two main retainers.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Orkus Majorkus said:
On the other hand, taking Gan Flexington into the barracks will be throwing chum in the water and that has a certain appeal
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
These are the extremes I am torn between.

EternalObserver said:
Ah, here's the Ice Lady cultivation. Self-mutilation being part of the practice
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I have to wonder if physical mutilation is able to replace the spiritual mutilation that Imperial cultivation does.
 
ichypa said:
I have to wonder if physical mutilation is able to replace the spiritual mutilation that Imperial cultivation does.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Possibly, my current running theory is that as Khem subsumes spiritual cultivation into their physical cultivation these ice ladies do the opposite. Spiritual cultivation being the singular path they explore.
 
Zeful said:
I am not predisposed to putting an ally in more danger if I can help it, and while the danger Gan Guangli faces is of a mild sort, his agitation at being constantly hit on isn't going to help the appearance of unity we've been trying to get Ling Qi to cultivate so far this arc.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's a very good point. I'd hate to subject Gan to something Ling Qi would hate having happen to her.
 
the moons as implements of Winter. Winter is the "great spirit" here, with Moon being their implements.

Interesting.

Called the lack of Mother btw. Everything else was where it was expected. Grin-Blood Fryja. Guidance-Reflection Sudica. Hidden Crone.

Others said that Dream might be only Sun down here, and they were correct. This is very interesting.

It makes me wonder, again, where the Imperial Moons come from? How localized are the Great Spirit Concepts, and are all global interpretations simultaneously valid? Are they capable of traveling away from their conceptual-origins intact?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[] To the dining hall, to find Meng Dan
my preference is to consolidate celestial information gained with Meng Dan (who has been digging on history/stories), as well as culturally warn him about the marriage stuff. Allows us to collectively give a much more thorough report to Renxiang later.

[] Toward the stairs, where she could feel Cai Renxiang
Second place is getting the gang back together of us, GG and Renxiang <3

[] Toward the barracks to find Xia Lin
dislike. Seems like a bad idea.
 
Hmm, are we sure we want to leave Meng Dan alone without an escort? We might have to save him. Also it might be nice to see what he has learned.

[X] To the dining hall, to find Meng Dan
 
Last edited:
lioli said:
The Polar Gates refer to both North and South! Their Nation spans both polar ice caps, and the gates are the pathway connecting the two lands! That's a fascinating effect, I wonder how or what is maintaining that effect? The stars? The Sun and Moon? A quirk in the Nameless Father or Mother?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm... I'm not sure about this. While it is clear that the polar gates connect both north and south, I don't know if their nation covers both poles. The way Sveta was speaking it sounded as if an exdous happened. Some great conflict that forced the northern tribes to use the gate and arrive in the south.

That's just my read though. The polar gates seem to be the method by which the stars reach into the world, so any travel through them must be very very dangerous.
 
Zeful said:
[] Toward the stairs, where she could feel Cai Renxiang

I am not predisposed to putting an ally in more danger if I can help it, and while the danger Gan Guangli faces is of a mild sort, his agitation at being constantly hit on isn't going to help the appearance of unity we've been trying to get Ling Qi to cultivate so far this arc.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This brings up another point though: Meng Dan is also an unwed, unsupervised man. Now he's not a prime sun-flavored husbando like Guangli is, but it might be safer to collect him just in case. Some ice ladies may find his moon connection intriguing. And we'll get to hear about his findings on the murals and history behind them sooner.
 
memoryofglory said:
This brings up another point though: Meng Dan is also an unwed, unsupervised man. Now he's not a prime sun-flavored husbando like Guangli is, but it might be safer to collect him just in case. Some ice ladies may find his moon connection intriguing. And we'll get to hear about his findings on the murals and history behind them sooner.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Dan is focused on the Hidden Moon, and given the societal connotations regarding The Black Moon, he's not going to be inundated with propositions the way Gan would be, as the latter's association with the Imperial Sun and mannerisms slot him into existing social structures among the ice ladies, while the former would be clearly foreign and exotic. So while I totally expect Meng Dan to receive propositions, it will be from ladies who don't neatly conform to the social systems of the White Sky/Nation of Polar Gates, so not only will they be less numerous, but the nature of the proposition won't inherently grate against Meng Dan's desires and goals the way it clearly already is for Gan.

Also I don't really find him that interesting so if leaving him to the tender mercies of the group's hosts has the potential to make him more interesting then two birds, one stone.
 
*scratches head* I mean, everybody here has been pretty polite and guest rights seem to be an important thing. Anybody strong enough to bother Danny boy would have to be high enough rank to know better than to overly bother the foreigner in the middle of diplomatic talks. Even the Cloud guys aren't doing more than the occasional pithy shot
 
yrsillar said:
The half remembered images from a book she had read while figuring out the vagaries of stellar and lunar qi came to mind. It was a depiction of the heavenly spheres.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
A sphere based cosmology makes a lot a sense from what we know of FOD's universe. I wonder how many spheres exist and if they can judge how far individual stars are from them. Would be interesting to see if different star "bands" exist and if that holds any correlation to how angry those stars are.
 
[] Toward the stairs, where she could feel Cai Renxiang

Both more and less enlightening than I hoped. I'm glad Zhengui got a revelation though.
Cai option feels most appropriate but also most boring maybe. Concerned the others aren't getting as much screen time but I'll let yrs work that out.
 
"She was the first," the girl replied humbly. "When the Daniar and the other New tribes arrived through the gates, Sudica and her sisters were those who wisely saw that allowing old and new tribes to war would only bring victory to the Outer night. She gathered the first great althing, and laid down the first laws of the confederation. In her apotheosis, she became the face of early winter, who prepares us for the Night."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Huh so I wonder if the living metal is useful for permitting more New Tribes to reach the southern poles without using the polar gates themselves through being yeeted across the physical realm, which is probably backed by a GS to go the distance.

"Oh," the girl said, wringing out her rag. "I offered my heart and eyes to my godmother as my ascension price," she said proudly. "It was a dangerous choice, but I'm certain it was the right one, I will complete my first quest and craft a new heart before my mortal one decays."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Also if there is a degree of selection for what quests are available a sufficiently ambitious, or lacking in formal backing cultivator might take something to not fall behind in life.

Basically they're adventuring through the polar gates for lost artifacts, and more importantly lost tribes to send back south, which is safer if you don't have the usual characteristic of a heartbeat for the Stars to detect.
"That is a beacon, meant to rescue those lost far from home," The older woman said directly to her. "Not an invitation for such a party."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Last edited:
Yun said:
Basically they're adventuring through the polar gates for lost artifacts, and more importantly lost tribes to send back south, which is safer if you don't have the usual characteristic of a heartbeat for the Stars to detect.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't think any of this is true at all. There is no indication that they are adventuring through the polar gates, no sign that they are searching for lost tribes, and no information that the stars detect people via heartbeat.
 
"we also bind ourselves with spirits"

"ah, like the Cloud tribes"

"No no no, much less intimate. We stuff them into our soul-pockets and the partner becomes more human and we become more like them."

"but. But you don't fuse?"

"No"

"Oh. Okay then."

"er well sometimes we do be makin babies with them"

">.>"

"yeah most of our noblest lineages are spirit-blooded. It's awesome! My friend has ball-and-socket knee joints!"

">.>"
 
[X] To the dining hall, to find Meng Dan
[X] Toward the stairs, where she could feel Cai Renxiang
 
Last edited:
yrsillar said:
"No, no," he dismissed with a nervous chuckle as they met in the hall. "Sir Osrik was just insistent that I find you if I was leaving."

Ling Qi raised an eyebrow.

Gan Guangli's shoulders sagged, and when he spoke it was at a much lower volume than his usual boom. "Is this what it is like to be an unmarried young lady? Treated as if you cannot possibly fend for yourself?"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"A young man like you shouldn't be walking around alone." XD
 
I want Meng Dan. We are NOT in social link rounds, and knowledge of their culture is power for the main diplomat. I supported Gan Guangli the previous time because first hand knowledge of their religion was more useful for diplomcy, but now that we get to double dip, I'll be voting Meng Dan to get some second hand knowledge of history too. Our mission, currently, comes first, and Meng Dan is our best choice to advance it.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top