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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Currently in favor of Yuan He interlude

I'm intrigued by the Faceless mystery box as well

But for now, I WILL RESIST THE TEMPTATION
 
I'm probably gonna go for mommy dearest, but the fact that Sect Head Yuan's interlude is called The Declining Storm is... concerning.
 
I think this chapter highlights the essence of LQ's heart demon. How can someone so devoted to others also come to embody their Endings?

It manifests in different ways, like her selfish protectiveness, but it boils down to reconciling with the idea that the things you love will ultimately vanish being etched into your soul.

I've never read xianxia with cultivation so heavily tied to the self before.
 
I'm leaning Yuan He atm.

I'm not sure what Qingge can have to say that hasn't already been said. It's not as if anything has particularly changed about her situation, or that LQ going off on a dangerous trip is new. Neither is she really in any position to have a meaningful perspective on the war, rather than the old "oh look people are nervous and there's more military around the city". Possibly I'm missing something but 🤷
 
While I really enjoyed the chapter, the ending kind of hammers home why I wished we went for the better personal understanding and heart demon help. Heck I would have been fine with the music option, this is the second time we've turned down significant upgrade to our music after all.

It just feels like trying to resolve the heart demon is much more important than making a tier 1 bond in the hopes of making the negotiation smoother. Like, we had an opportunity handed to us on a platter to finally make roads on something that will only get worse and worse as time goes on.

It's nice to see Hanyi understand herself a little better, but not really when Ling Qi is still fundamentally broken on a spiritual level.

[] The Mortal (Ling Qingge)
 
RR, at the moment, leaves off at Turn 6: Arc 2-1, after the first scene break.
...wow. That's, uh, right when I joined the quest. My first post was the vote on T6 1-2. This is a weird feeling, since I think of everything since I joined the quest as having happened "recently."
I'm probably gonna go for mommy dearest, but the fact that Sect Head Yuan's interlude is called The Declining Storm is... concerning.
We know Yuan He is old as balls and that losing his most likely replacement is a large part of why the attack in Turn 7 hurt so badly.
 
I'm leaning Yuan He atm.

I'm not sure what Qingge can have to say that hasn't already been said. It's not as if anything has particularly changed about her situation, or that LQ going off on a dangerous trip is new. Neither is she really in any position to have a meaningful perspective on the war, rather than the old "oh look people are nervous and there's more military around the city". Possibly I'm missing something but 🤷
I'm actually assuming something new to have been going on with Qingge to warrant her inclusion here, rather than it just being another look into her daily life. Though I guess her take on how life's changed since her interlude in the last thread could be interesting too.
 
While the Qingge option might reveal some more about the long-term character arcs related to her, for some reason it's not really grabbing me. No matter what we choose here, that plot's going to come up again, and then we can have Ling Qi participate and learn these things too. Watching from an interlude perspective would mean that when Ling Qi learns the same things in the main plot, it would become a rehash of what we the players already know, instead of keeping us in sync with Ling Qi.

Going for it now almost feels almost like cheating, the kind that you'd feel kind of bad about in retrospect because doing it the normal way would've been more fun.

Meanwhile, the Yuan He interlude would give us more perspective for the greater situation for Argent, which is important for understanding the events of the story but not so emotionally charged, and there's no guarantee we'd ever get that perspective from the main plot. Plus, Yuan He is a pretty interesting character and I kinda feel like we haven't seen enough of him.
 
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Hm. Interesting. Jeroma's mother is almost a mirror reflection of Ling Qi's mother. Sort of. Both nobles, both cast out from there home for following their heart, and suffering for it.

Granted, Jeroma's dad is a lot better of a person than Ling Qi's sperm donor. Lets leave it at that.

As for the vote... For me, its got to be The Mortal. I like the family.
 
[X] The Mortal (Ling Qingge)

I want to have a worms eye view of all of these events. We speak so much of great cultures interacting, but how do the little mortals see all of these great changes in so littles time along the wall?
 
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Did we ever see confirmation on if he ran? I was of the impression he was maybe murdered...
It's a tough call. On one hand Qingge was given the wrong date of departure. The caravan left one day before she was told it would. On the other hand convincing a caravan to leave early isn't that hard and we have no confirmation that he ever left with the caravan.
 
Its not like a mortal was going to be running anywhere in a deathworld.
More likely the family was involved. How? We wouldn't know for a long while
 
The man was unacceptable, he was a man of the new tribes, with hair of straw and pallid skin, shiftless and untrustworthy by definition
So here's (one of) the sin(s) of the Nation of the Polar Gates. Racism, against the New Tribes, somehow still foreign and apparently an underclass even after millennia after Sudica United the Tribes. Didn't she Ascend? Cementing her principles of unity and connection into the Law of the region?

Though, I suppose all her Ascension can do is make sure her teachings work, but it's up to those who follow to use her teachings the way they were supposed to. (Unless the Polar Gates cultivation method doesn't get that kind of Great Spirit Lawmaking, but from the mention of "changing the mantle to suit the cultivator," I think we can safely assume both cultivation methods create new spirits that enforce new laws on the region.)

Family is what keeps us warm and protects us from the chill.
This is winter, which ends the old and makes way for the new."

"Ice is beauty, it gave people time to tell stories and make pretty things, and makes them appreciate all the work they did when it was warm," Hanyi muttered.
And here's the FSS+/Hanyi insights! Hanyi believes winter is a time to rest, and enjoy the fruits of one's labors. Her Frozen Peak Serenade seems it might combine with Lonely Winter Maiden to do the trapping people in dreams thing we saw Zeqing and Black Sky's Yearning do?

Jaromila believes winter is renewal and change, which directly synergizes with what Ling Qi is trying to do with UGM. I doubt we'll get the time to do any training with her, but I bet that'll get Ling Qi the insights to change UGM.

And Ling Qi believes winter is loneliness, which family guards against. FSS+ evolution is pushed toward something with IFF, possibly moving the CtE damage Rank Up condition towards something to do with isolation rather than relative distance to caster.

(This insight is where Ling Qi and Cai Renxiang probably have their most common point in their respective philosophies. Namely, the role of family in the care of people. IRL Confucism models the structure of society on the family unit, and the likens the duty of those higher on the social hierarchy to care for those on the lower rungs to the duty of parents towards their children. Cai Renxiang seems to have some inclination towards the philosophy of the Forgeverse equivalent, and it probably will come up during her Way setting, I think.)
 
Hm. Interesting. Jeroma's mother is almost a mirror reflection of Ling Qi's mother. Sort of. Both nobles, both cast out from there home for following their heart, and suffering for it.

Granted, Jeroma's dad is a lot better of a person than Ling Qi's sperm donor. Lets leave it at that.

As for the vote... For me, its got to be The Mortal. I like the family.
Just saying LQ's mom wasn't noble. She belonged to a servant family of a noble cultivator family. Big difference.
 
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