- Pronouns
- He
I don't think Xiangmen counts as a sublime, the Emerald Seas' sublime was the Horned Lord but he disappeared.
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
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What are the 7 different sublime spirits? And what's the celestial pillar?
There's the Celestial Dragon the Grandmother Serpent, the Stone Ape, the Sleeping Isle, the Immortal Phoenix and the Red Garden are the onesI can think of.
There's also the Owl with prompted the Ministry of Integrity but we've been told that she/it/? hasn't ascended yet.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
No, The Herald of Death is a Sublime Ancestor, the youngest among them. It's all here in the bonus chapter. So she did ascend
- Location
- The Space Between
interesting that Shang Tsung's allies were the "soulwrights". Recasts the later Twilight King debacle in a different light, especially because the Lu were the hammerblow that cracked Shang Tsung's alliance.
Not to mention the industrial-esque advancements made by formation-craft. No wonder it seems like everyone has lost knowledge. They all have.
Yeah it sounds a lot like this conflict echoes on to this day, to lesser degrees.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gramma Serpent, Stone Ape, Momma Dragon, Sleeping Isle, Xiangmen, Sunflower Demon. Technically the phoenix skeleton at the Grave of the Sun is some sort of sublime-alike
there's an unknown underwater "barbarian" sublime that is presumed alive. It fought the Living Isle kaiju-style and the two sides have come to ceasefire
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wait I thought the Mu weren't spirit blooded. How do they have a sublime? :0
"The Mu don't have ties to pre-existing provinces"
current empress is White Serpent blooded
lmao
Not to mention the industrial-esque advancements made by formation-craft. No wonder it seems like everyone has lost knowledge. They all have.
Yeah it sounds a lot like this conflict echoes on to this day, to lesser degrees.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gramma Serpent, Stone Ape, Momma Dragon, Sleeping Isle, Xiangmen, Sunflower Demon. Technically the phoenix skeleton at the Grave of the Sun is some sort of sublime-alike
there's an unknown underwater "barbarian" sublime that is presumed alive. It fought the Living Isle kaiju-style and the two sides have come to ceasefire
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wait I thought the Mu weren't spirit blooded. How do they have a sublime? :0
"The Mu don't have ties to pre-existing provinces"
current empress is White Serpent blooded
lmao
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notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
The Mu might have been spirit-blooded once and just kept a relationship with the Owl, or there might be another way to keep a Spirit Beast around without direct blood ties. We don't know the details, just that they have an Owl Sublime.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Also they're distantly descended from the Sage emperor (as are most major nobles at this point) so they probably have some dragon blood too.
The owl was best buds with the Mu's founding matriarch, and continued to watch over her descendents, but the Mu did not fuck the owl. It's something of a sore spot for them, and the fact that she's not a 'true' Sublime Ancestor is not advertised. Sublime, yes; ancestor, no.
The going theory at the moment is that a direct blood relation is needed to more easily call upon a Sublime - hence Sun Shao's marriage to the Sunflower Goddess and her 'adoption' of Liling (though the Sunflower Goddess isn't technically a Sublime in the same way as Granny Snek or the Reveler, but rather a different form of greater-than-White entity; a genius loci of the jungle).
Xiangmen is the seventh, one of the few remaining Heavenly Pillarwoods on the planet, and contemporary to Yggdrasil. Greater-than-White entity, yes. Ancestor? Lol no, tree don't give a fuck.
In terms of extant 'sublimes' (taken to mean 'greater-than-white' because that's a goddamn mouthful), you have Granny Snek, the Reveler, Momma Dragon, Largest Turtle, Goth Owl, Sunflower Thot, and T R E E. The historical total is ten, but three of those are no longer present for various reasons: Crab Lad, Explody Birb and Prongs.
The going theory at the moment is that a direct blood relation is needed to more easily call upon a Sublime - hence Sun Shao's marriage to the Sunflower Goddess and her 'adoption' of Liling (though the Sunflower Goddess isn't technically a Sublime in the same way as Granny Snek or the Reveler, but rather a different form of greater-than-White entity; a genius loci of the jungle).
Xiangmen is the seventh, one of the few remaining Heavenly Pillarwoods on the planet, and contemporary to Yggdrasil. Greater-than-White entity, yes. Ancestor? Lol no, tree don't give a fuck.
In terms of extant 'sublimes' (taken to mean 'greater-than-white' because that's a goddamn mouthful), you have Granny Snek, the Reveler, Momma Dragon, Largest Turtle, Goth Owl, Sunflower Thot, and T R E E. The historical total is ten, but three of those are no longer present for various reasons: Crab Lad, Explody Birb and Prongs.
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I mean, it's not a Sublime Ancestor, since no imperial cultivator seems to have possessed enough game to seduce a tree, but Xiangmen at minimum predates Tsu and Horned Lord. I would be shocked if it's spirit wasn't also post-White like a Sublime Ancestor.
- Location
- Canada
Grandmother Serpent was not a Sublime back then, and Yao most likely wasn't a White at the time either
Evidenced by the fact she was slithering around sunbathing and hunting and whatnot
Sublime Ancestors are dormant and inactive by nature because they are a more physical equivalent to the ascension undertaken by those who become Great Spirits
The Sublime's spirit ascends, but they uniquely leave their physical body behind, which lies in dormant slumber
That's the reason why they just stick around in one place without moving: Celestial Dragon's body endlessly circles above the Peaks, Grandmother Serpent sleeps in Lake Hei, The Reveler lies beneath a waterfall, etc.
Sublime Ancestors are Gods, in the same sense that Great Spirits are, they just left something behind when they ascended
Their sleeping body also acts as a backdoor and vessel that allows them back into the physical world in a far more easily
For a Great Spirit, manifesting a direct avatar with power beyond Violet level is a costly expenditure of resources, and coming back as a Physical God beyond White Level is nigh unheard of due to how costly it'd be
(Xin isn't an avatar of the Hidden Moon, she's her own entity, albeit one that the Hidden Moon can speak and perform minor actions through, and even then the entire Moon Auntie's event was weird quasi dreamcape stuff)
Sublime Ancestors are an exception, by popping back into their physical form they can manifest their full power on the physical world they left behind
Also of note is that all the Sublime Ancestors of the Empire were bonded spirits, which probably isn't a coincidence
Spirits tend to have harder limits on how powerful they may naturally grow, and part of their benifits from being bonded to a cultivator is that it can help them to break through those limits and redefine themselves
Grandmother Serpent likely would not have ascended if she never met Yao
A better reference for a feat of Grandmother Serpent after she became a Sublime Ancestor would be the one and only time she was awoken, when the Sage Emperor courted the White Serpent Queen he was forced to prove himself against Grandmother, whatever brief contest they had carved the bay of the Thousand Lakes
Current Sublime Ancestors of the Empire: The Celestial Dragon, Grandmother Serpent, The Reveler (Monkey), The Living Isle, and The Herald of Endings (Owl)
Previous Sublimes, now either dead or otherwise missing: The Purifying Sun (Phoenix), The Horned Lord (Elk), Grandfather of Tides (Crab)
There is also one prospective Sublime: Father Fortress (Scorpion)
And then there are the very rare Greater-Than-White entities that aren't Sublime Ancestors, like The God Tree Xiangmen, the Sunflower Goddess and possibly others we have yet to know of
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I'm not sure whether or not she was ascended at the time, we don't really know enough about the process to say for sure, but I could easily believe it either way. The Fisher was definitely White, in his side story he directly said that he ascended to the peak of power and wasn't happy with the world as he found it. So he went adventuring and eventually fell in love with a giant snake because apparently that's sort of thing that happens if you're a White.
I was wrong earlier when I said that it was the Fisherman who withstood a single flick from her tail, that was the Sage when he wanted to prove himself in the original empire. We actually get to see some of the trials which Yao (the fisherman) went through and they aren't really lesser (ex: surviving and withstanding her venom) which is why I'm not sure whether she was ascended at the time or not. The Sage and Fisherman are both regarded as being on roughly the same level, although I'm not sure how comparable they are. Unless I'm reading this wrong, the Fisherman and his wooing of Grandmother Serpent (still ridiculous thing to write) predate the Sage and his unification.
A couple of other thoughts from reading the interlude: There do exist variations of power within the different sublime ancestors, as some are older but they all stand roughly on par. This might be like looking at the difference between the Sun Liling and Bai Meizhen. In different situations one might best the other, but any fight would be hugely destructive to both sides. The sublime ancestors are immense and ridiculous yes, but they are not outside of the reach of even Whites as we see with the death of the Purifying Sun which says something because mythologically birds of fire (Phoenix) are related to rebirth. That something was able to harm and permanently kill a sublime ancestors shows that despite the relative lack of peers at the highest levels no one is truly untouchable. I would posit that the unified Sun and the unified Moon along with whatever other astronomy stuff (stars, the void, etc) probably sit as the most powerful though. Finally, we see the remark that it might be possible for Cai Shensua to create a sublime "object spirit". The fact a still mortal might potentially create a sublime level spirit has all sorts of implications.
- Pronouns
- He
Hmm, I've been wondering, what happens to a cultivators bound spirits/spirit beasts if the cultivator ascends?
I would be willing to bet good money that Mount Tai itself could be counted among that number.
- Location
- Canada
Firstly yes, we do
As I have outlined, she couldn't be ascended and still active in the manner that she was
Reveler still likes to walk around the Ebon Rivers, but he needs to use Avatars around the Violet/Indigo level like the rest of them and his true body is under a waterfall somewhere
And secondly no, he did not say that... like at all
His words were that he fought the other men in the Skittering Fens over the promises of the Face Eater, and when he found her wanting he killed her and sought the fulfillment of his promise elsewhere
Or to perhaps put it in clearer terms if need be, the Face Eater was trying to create the deadliest human possible so she could to breed with him and create a race of spiritbloods to try and take over the world with
She did this by trapping bunch of them in a the Skittering Fens and having them fight each other to the death with the winner getting the honor of bedding her
Yao won, but when he emerged to claim his prize he was disgusted, not because she was an insect, but because he was promised the honor of bedding the deadliest thing in the world and she wasn't deadly enough
So he killed her, took her strength and left to find the deadliest creature he could so he could claim what he was promised
He eventually traveled around enough that he was satisfied what he sought was the White Serpent who would become Grandmother Serpent
He wasn't unhappy with some state of the world, he just wanted to find the deadliest waifu
And he never claimed at any point to be at the peak of his power
They aren't beyond harm
But it can't really be overstated that Twilight King was not just a White
He was something else, quite possibly the strongest White level cultivator we know of
More Humanoid Abomination than anything
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I would also point out that the Twilight King's whole thing was having an ever expanding army of zombies/vampires chained to his soul, some of whom had to have been pretty powerful individuals by the time the Lu hit the Godzilla Threshold button and Phoenix Nuked everything. It's not like he 1v1'd the Purifying Sun.
Okay guys, going to still be working on the rather lengthy scene here, but I have something for you guys to vote on over the weekend, the current plan vote wants to modify Roaming Moon's Eye so please vote on what keyword you'll be swapping for here. I think there was already a pretty good consensus but we can use my delay here to avoid slowing things down later on. Use the following format.
[] Replace (existing keyword here) with (new Keyword)
[] Replace (existing keyword here) with (new Keyword)
- Location
- Leeds
Like:
[X] Replace Academics with Explosive
A clear an objective improvement?
- Location
- Staring into the void
Roaming Moon's Eye said:
[] Replace Water with Ash
Edit:
[] Replace Water with Dream
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Given the fact that the Lu killed, and sealed the Twilight King twice in a white tier fight... I'm inclined to believe the individual who wanted to become Emperor was a GS when he started his assault on the Empire. Because soul qi being super banned afterward makes sense if it would allow a GS whose Way involved "Become Emperor" to systematically make the mortal realm a part of it human by human.
This would explain how Meizhen knows Great Spirits aren't immortal as the high nobility at the ducal level are aware that the Empire killed one via the Purifying Sun requiring enough power to takeover that the Twilight King was sufficiently weakened in the spiritual realm to permit somebody to give him the boot into the mortal realm as a Beyond White entity. The Purifying Sun harnessed this gross violation of the "immortals should not directly interfere in the mortal realm" to scatter the Twilight King to the four winds via a sufficiently large explosion.
This would explain how Meizhen knows Great Spirits aren't immortal as the high nobility at the ducal level are aware that the Empire killed one via the Purifying Sun requiring enough power to takeover that the Twilight King was sufficiently weakened in the spiritual realm to permit somebody to give him the boot into the mortal realm as a Beyond White entity. The Purifying Sun harnessed this gross violation of the "immortals should not directly interfere in the mortal realm" to scatter the Twilight King to the four winds via a sufficiently large explosion.
- Location
- US
[] Replace Water with Music
I'm not sure if this is actually viable, but it would be interesting. Maybe. I honestly have like zero idea how art modification even works. The top keywords are more important and instrumental than the second line, right? So this would have a pretty significant change on the art. I guess my reasoning is that if we want music to be the vector, might as well make sure it becomes a core part of it.
I'm not sure if this is actually viable, but it would be interesting. Maybe. I honestly have like zero idea how art modification even works. The top keywords are more important and instrumental than the second line, right? So this would have a pretty significant change on the art. I guess my reasoning is that if we want music to be the vector, might as well make sure it becomes a core part of it.
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- Location
- United States of America
I would much rather replace Academics with Music. Projection, I feel, is far too crucial for the wisps that are a key feature I wish to keep around.
[] Replace Intelligence with Wits
