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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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dycouza said:
We do use the 1st tech all the time, we use it whenever we notice something we didn't. It's the secret sense. A Shishigui assassin, the near imperceptible sound of drumbeats, anything that's hard to notice. That's what makes it so good, because it doesn't demand we actually use sight, we can use it with sight or hearing or anything and if it was twice as good as one of those things at the cost of the other it'd be less for it. I'm okay with hearing taking precedent over sight but we need something thematically specialized but mechanically general, and hearing is the opposite of that. It's a cool quirk with no depth behind it.

The perception types as Xin described then aren't abstract concepts, Clairvoyance is perceiving things, Postcognition is inspecting things for clues to their history and Precognition is taking understanding of things around you and just predicting how they'll act in the future. We can do all these things as mortals in the order of difficulty Xin described, Ling Qi can just become supernaturally good at it. Postcognition as I understand it means looking at the Qi of an object and realizing some of that Qi is perceptibly more recent than others, fading like memories do, and divining that the concepts of Qi reads like a poem of its history.
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I mean, if you want to take apart the 3rd tech for points to improve the 1st tech, then sure, I'd be fine with it.

Hearing is more than just a quirk, since the aim is to make it work with music. Music is currently our best skill and *by far* better than the projection skill we currently use for the art. Narratively, it could leaverage the fact that for Ling Qi, music is not just sound and vibration. She basically sings to other people's souls, so couldnt music perception work by listening to the melody of other people or spirits souls for example? Like, there is a lot of potential in Ling Qi's insight into the nature of music that we can work with.


Part of the setting is that the world resists having its laws bent too much. It seems to be fairly flexible with some of them, but Time was mentioned before as a prime example for something that can trigger this reaction.(it was mentioned in the Stepping beyond the 3rd realm informational) Xin mentioned that looking back a bit is still fairly doable, which seems to imply that looking far into the past is actually getting hard, which would fit to the idea of the world trying to resist the attempt. The same principle but worse seems to apply to precognition: Xin mentioned that even she, a 7th realm spirit that is good with divinations, can only peer into the future for about a minute
Peering forward a second or two into your immediate surroundings involves a mere few million relevant factors after all. I might manage as much as a minute, barring interference.
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I definitely want to poach Meizhen and Xaun Shi. Suyin belongs in the sect, she will absolutely shine there, and we have the cyan breakthrough potion to hook further interaction later on anyway, so no poaching Suyin under any circumstance. Besides, we want her to be a powerful disciple able to teach Biyu when she goes to the sect if she decides to be a crafter. I would like to try to poach Su Ling if at all possible.
 
FixerUpper said:
I just realized I have unspent omake points. Heck, I don't even remember how many I have, but the minimum is... three omakes worth, I think? However many are in this thread anyway since I haven't spent any of them.

Ping me to let me know where the points should go.
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Just arrived here, so I don't know what to tell you on which to spend yet

But for your omake, you currently have 5 points
 
Definitely still liking the idea of going for the diplomacy route, and getting into the homesteading early. As much as the intersect tournament would have been fun, I think it feels better to not have the second big climactic end of sect thing be another tourney. This way, we're building to something different, paying off Zhengui's complaints of feeling stifled at the sect, and just going out and starting to actually do things. No spinning our wheels, all new stuff, dumped into the new and dangerous content right away.

Also, Ling Qi could end up with a crush on a cute Polar Nation guy and be slapped across the face with the whole "actually foreigners are also people" thing again while Six laughs at her, which just sounds hilarious.
 
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naths said:
I mean, if you want to take apart the 3rd tech for points to improve the 1st tech, then sure, I'd be fine with it.

Hearing is more than just a quirk, since the aim is to make it work with music. Music is currently our best skill and *by far* better than the projection skill we currently use for the art. Narratively, it could leaverage the fact that for Ling Qi, music is not just sound and vibration. She basically sings to other people's souls, so couldnt music perception work by listening to the melody of other people or spirits souls for example? Like, there is a lot of potential in Ling Qi's insight into the nature of music that we can work with.


Part of the setting is that the world resists having its laws bent too much. It seems to be fairly flexible with some of them, but Time was mentioned before as a prime example for something that can trigger this reaction.(it was mentioned in the Stepping beyond the 3rd realm informational) Xin mentioned that looking back a bit is still fairly doable, which seems to imply that looking far into the past is actually getting hard, which would fit to the idea of the world trying to resist the attempt. The same principle but worse seems to apply to precognition: Xin mentioned that even she, a 7th realm spirit that is good with divinations, can only peer into the future for about a minute
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Personally I really like the projections. They have a lot of character with descriptions of them flitting about to let Ling Qi see. That's why I want to expand that character, make them represent spirits of the Hidden Moon looking for lost secrets, like Ling Qi likes doing with her explorations. The wisps represents Ling Qi's curiosity, her watchfulness and even her own flitting nature. In the fifth realm I could see Ling Qi with an army of Moon spirits and shades of her own self that flies to places close and far to return with secrets. Or she'll just be able to hear everything within miles, but that's not nearly as fun or thematic.

I'm not against adding Music to a Memory themed RME+, since Ling Qi herself translates her past to song and make the projections into Songseekers. Making all the techs workable from a Music/hearing perspective sounds good so Yrs can use that if he choses. But I the core of the Art should be about what Ling Qi cares to see/listen to. And what she's shown interest in is secrets, those of unknown dangers and of culture and history. And Yrs is saying he might redesign the entire attribute/skill system so we might as well remove Intelligence. Or Formations since everything formation related would be maintained by Academics until we find a place for it. Or yes, Clairvoyance with Postcognition while still using Perception for the present.
 
angelofwhim said:
The only thing i can think of dragging with us for this ride is mmmaaayyybbeeee su ling. but i guess the sect would object "losing" a seer.
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flogoyog said:
Poaching Su Ling as our Boon from Shenshua to make her our right hand if we go ice diplomat might be very interesting.
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... I have to say, either side trying to force Su Ling to pick them seems likely to see her going with the other.

She's got opinions.

She'd be interesting to bring along, but if we want her to come, the first step needs to be talking to her about it, y'know? And the plan might just die right there, depending.
 
I meant Projection, the skill, which is currently an E rank skill and so clearly worse than our music skills.
I also like the constructs and would like to keep them, but that doesnt require the projection skill. FVM and BKSD show that music can make constructs too.
The art is still mainly our primary perception art. I really enjoy reading about the wisps hiding in the dress to give LQ 360° vision and i like seeing the scrying tech get better and it is going to be fun to try out the scrying support artifact we looted last turn.

That said, I don't mind it getting extra functions about secrets, and maybe some postcognition down the line, as long as the main focus remains on giving LQ a better awareness of her surroundings and on clairvoyance (and yes, i believe both of these are compatible with a music theme)
 
I'm still torn on the future choice between sect and diplomatic mission. I really don't want to miss the opportunity for networking with more Empire VIPs, but I can see how the fief stuff is also important.
 
I think I won't be voting for the ice lady diplomat path. Not only does the barbarians not interest much, but the position is basically a dead-end. We got the point explained to us when Meizen choose it in-quest rather than compete for a leadership position. Honestly, this would be the kind of project given to a noble in exile rather than a ducal heir...

On a more mechanical PoV, I think jumping into the Fief thing as we are would be a major mistake. It would compete for our time, resources and attention with the much more vital issue of getting Ling Qi into a working build and cultivation Path.
 
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Ayashi said:
I think I won't be voting for the ice lady diplomat path. Not only does the barbarians not interest much, but the position is basically a dead-end. We got the point explained to us when Meizen choose it in-quest rather than compete for a leadership position. Honestly, this would be the kind of project given to a noble in exile rather than a ducal heir...
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I really disagree with the line of thinking that it's a dead end. This is a massive opportunity and in no way a dead end. We can get a barony here that has absolutely massive potential for growth. A city that is a gateway to a massive trade route will become a massive deal. Plus we could totally carve a county out of the wall in the event that our cultivation brings us to count level. And this county having friendly neighbors their southern neighbors. I honestly believe that there is more room for growth in the diplomat route than the sect route.
 
Elsecaller said:
I really disagree with the line of thinking that it's a dead end. This is a massive opportunity and in no way a dead end. We can get a barony here that has absolutely massive potential for growth. A city that is a gateway to a massive trade route will become a massive deal. Plus we could totally carve a county out of the wall in the event that our cultivation brings us to count level. And this county having friendly neighbors their southern neighbors. I honestly believe that there is more room for growth in the diplomat route than the sect route.
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You are reasoning as a random fifth child of minor nobility or even merchant-born trying to make a name for himself. The thing is CRX is already set to inherit the Emerald Sea, aka a fifth (sixth?) of the Empire!
A trade post with the barbarians is a nice idea, preferably one that gets delegated to someone appropriate while we get back to the real goal: getting CRX to sit on the "throne" of the province.
 
Ayashi said:
You are reasoning as a random fifth child of minor nobility or even merchant-born trying to make a name for himself. The thing is CRX is already set to inherit the Emerald Sea, aka a fifth (sixth?) of the Empire!
A trade post with the barbarians is a nice idea, preferably one that gets delegated to someone appropriate while we get back to the real goal: getting CRX to sit on the "throne" of the province.
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Negotiating an alliance or even trade with a major polity is not something that you send to a merchant-born. Heck the Xuan Patriarch seem to be fairly involved with the trade with Khem. He's a Duke and a white.
 
Elsecaller said:
Negotiating an alliance or even trade with a major polity is not something that you send to a merchant-born. Heck the Xuan Patriarch seem to be fairly involved with the trade with Khem. He's a Duke and a white.
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Not something we would, but the Xuan are weirdos in not being hella xenophobic, they're outliers in how much respect this sort of thing garners.
 
[X] Plan: take Pills like Water
[X] Turn 12 plan: Why are all my skills capped

I'm mostly in favor of a lot of things here so may as well. The good thing about this is I can save my cool plan name next turn :V
 
Ayashi said:
You are reasoning as a random fifth child of minor nobility or even merchant-born trying to make a name for himself. The thing is CRX is already set to inherit the Emerald Sea, aka a fifth (sixth?) of the Empire!
A trade post with the barbarians is a nice idea, preferably one that gets delegated to someone appropriate while we get back to the real goal: getting CRX to sit on the "throne" of the province.
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It is about making a name for oneself, that is correct, but you're missing the subtlety. Cai Renxiang having "built a successful trade alliance with a foreign polity, on her own" on her resume before she ascends to her ducal throne is a huge signifier that her reign will be a continuation of Shenhua's, focused on building the stability and prosperity of the Emerald Seas rather than seeking favor with the Empress or consolidating power which can be concerns with a political changeover like this. It provides the people with a stake in the province to try to get into her inner circle before she ascends so that they can have a sympathetic ear in her court to potential adjudicate matters in their favor. And while the tournament path will certainly provide other opportunities for Renxiang in this vein they will instead be focused on her martial accomplishments rather than policy ones.
 
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