Remove ads

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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
I honestly don't care if we have a terrible relationship with certain factions who form the minority anyways. I'd rather focus on getting a Revered relationship with one faction than play a tedious balancing act with people we share little common ground with.

Besides, LQ is the Protagonist in a xianxia, making tons of enemies is par for the course. And eventually pave the road to her ascension with the skulls of cannon fodder her foes.
 
Last edited:
Well that was an awesome beefy update. There is alot to unpack here.

We already knew of course that Shenhua hates the Hui but I love how she took malicious glee at what we relayed. It was rather amusing to hear that Hui Peng was the Herald that introduced her in court.

I also loved how the Bao like us even more after this, I'm sure they saw dollar signs and thought to themselves "I knew this girl was a worthwhile investment!" I also think that since the faction that had a coup against the faction trying to join the peaks is in charge, we definitely benefited from that as they seem to love healthy trade relations and don't care too much where they get it from, seeing as they likely have one with their own city state of Shishigui.

I also love how the positive attention of the Great Spirits on Ling Qi has been revealed in court. That's bound to help us with the religious types, and Shenhua seems to be amused that they are actually working with her.

No opinion on the insights yet.

Thanks Yrsillar!
 
Last edited:
[] To journey and seek knowledge is virtue unto itself

LQ has had trouble with viewing her SCS insight purely in terms of getting stronger, this implicitly rejects that and offers learning as another potential change. It also suggests the beginning of a teacher-ish role, where we go out into the Cold and bring back treasure and knowledge for out loved ones.

[] The future changes with every step, never be certain you know what is coming

Listen, this is (to some extent) a Taoist setting. An insight that we should be as water and adapt to whatever life throws at us is never going to go amiss. The downside would presumably be that we won't handle being in the same situation over and over again very well but that seems unlikely to come up that often and also there's going to be plenty of friends and allies we can lean on when it does happen.
 
The Bao are all about trade. Since one of their scions is already courting Ling Qi and she just presented a massive trade opportunity the likes of which would make any self-respecting trader get a massive profit boner, I think it's reasonable that even the most hardline imperial among them would feel conflicted at worst.
 
Heh, what may have been the very last of the Hui was also the one who heralded the beginning of Shenhua who brought about their end. Given the poetic nature of that I wonder if Ling Qi's part in it might end up part of a play at some point.
 
Elsecaller said:
I also loved how the Bao like us even more after this, I'm sure they saw dollar signs and thought to themselves "I knew this girl was a worthwhile investment!" I also think that since the faction that had a coup against the faction trying to join the peaks is in charge, we definitely benefited from that as they seem to love healthy trade relations and don't care too much where they get it from, seeing as they likely have one with their own city state of Shishigui.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
And lookie there a convienant Bao scion who isn't doing anything important available to get sent on a diplo mission to the middle of nowhere. Qian looking around as he finds himself in the middle of the Wall

 
[] The future changes with every step, never be certain you know what is coming

While I'd be okay with incorporating exploration and curiosity into our Domain this is a perfect fit for Ling Qi's Mist Domain. About walking a path and living a life not knowing what's ahead of her but knowing that every step and choice matters. Her wariness of the threats that lurk beyond sight, and curiosity for the things she might discover. Her SCS Insight is that stagnation is death and always moving forward and this is why she can never stop, what drives her to act, change, move, think, and grow, because she can never know what's coming and she must always be ready to protect what she loves.
 
[] The future changes with every step, never be certain you know what is coming

This is an insight based around the future being not 100% certain until the moment it becomes the present, and probably insures Ling Qi will always have an element of self doubt. Also I don't think it really has much to do with heart demons as that seems more like Ling Qi wants her cake, and wishes to eat it, but regardless this fits well with her other insights at a quick glance.

[] To journey and seek knowledge is virtue unto itself

Huh I'm... honestly alright with this insight.

This is an insight for one who wishes to seek out the tribes within the Wall to learn their culture, and traditions. Now working that into the duties given to CRX, whatever LQ's fief requires, and other unknowns will be difficult, but not impossible imo.

This would build off of Ling Qi's desire to reduce casualties seeing as seen in the Yuan He interlude even a prisim cannot protect the world, and thus seeking out knowledge to understand the other side to avoid conflict seems like an approach to doing so. Like it won't matter for the current conflict unless it drags on for centuries, but if/when Shenhua wins an actual understanding of at least some of the CN culture seems like it would be useful saving lives that while not particularly important in the grand scheme of things seems rather important to LQ herself.

Also it is very much so biting the bullet, and including a hard virtue into Ling Qi's Way, which if you want one is probably best to do sooner rather than later as the trend for Shenhua's expectations are "past results become the new minimum threshold for success". This seems like an external pressure that can incrementally leading to your Way being built around your job/duty.
 
I'm a touch concerned that the uncertain future insight might lend itself to paranoia. We don't want to end up paralyzed by uncertainty after all.
 
Briefvoice said:
I really don't want to take the insight about journeying being a virtue. It would make it nearly impossible for Ling Qi to ever settle in one place for too long.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Why so? It only says that journeying and learning new things are a reward for itself, I don't see where it says we have to go journeying constantly.
 
Moratorium is up.

[X] The future changes with every step, never be certain you know what is coming

Epistemic humility is great, this synergizes wonderfully with HDW, and LQ isn't a knowledge for its own sake type. The one moon quest we did for the Hidden, we retrieved treasures which we then used or sold. I like nerd protagonists, but LQ has always been practical-minded first. So I don't like the second insight at all for her.
Unseelie said:
...just how large is this world? On earth that would be two fifths of the circumference.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
About 10x the area of Earth.
 
Unseelie said:
...just how large is this world? On earth that would be two fifths of the circumference.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
IIRC
Somewhere about 8 times the size of our earth
Or at least that's what this world map from @Xepheria is scaled to, more or less
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny) Original

The the Celestial Empire in its entirety is the size of all of Asia
Which rather explains how variable its climate and environs are from one part to another, got everything from dense jungles, to swampland, to salt flats, to desert, to mountains,
 
Xianxia as a genre is big on scale. Everything is ancient and enormous beyond imagining, except for the protagonist who has to get through all of the world building before the audience dies of old age.
 
[X] The future changes with every step, never be certain you know what is coming

I like this for its synergy with HDW, I like this as a mindset that fits well with Ling Qi's willingness to always struggle for the future that she wants rather than being consigned to thinking the future can't exist, and I like this because of a willingness to acknowledge that there is always more things to learn because things are always changing.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top