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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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Considering the Wang are so near the wall and are one of the few clans able to give us direct material support, I would vote for

[] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)
 
The foundation is the most vital, for everything else is built upon it.

Good military will have less impact if we don't have good defenses for them to man, and good materials won't be important unless we can build good thing out of them.

Not to mention, getting good infrastructure up for food and other fundamental needs will help us be more self-sufficient sooner, and enable us to turn the bulk of our attention towards getting results out of this task CRX, Ling Qi, & Co have taken up.
 
yrsillar said:
It was my thought then that it might be possible to build a hull around a man,
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...Power Armor? Or Giant Robots?? Yrs, are you adding Xianxia Gundam to Forgeverse via Xuan Shi like you did Xianxia One Piece???

yrsillar said:
"It's a small enough thing, considering how Chao's fortune's have improved this year," Wang Lian said.
[snip]
you are Baroness Ling, who has provided my little brother with a great deal of assistance.
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A direct observation that Ling Qi has manipulated Wang Chao into becoming a rising star among his generation of Wang scions, which naturally demands those who feel affection for Wang Chao to reciprocate favors.


[] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)
[] Military Support (+10 to combat rolls)
[] Political Support (+10 material acquisition rolls)

The standard Empire approach to claiming new ground in the Wall is to build forts and roads first, then more forts and roads before building villages and towns. On this matter, it seems straightforward to ask the architecture specialists of the Emerald Seas count clans for support building forts, especially since we're building everything from the ground up.

Additionally, the Argent Peak Sect as well as the White Plume Regiment would be nearby and assisting in defensive actions; militarily, the Wang's support would be welcome but probably not worth more than infrastructure. As well, the impetus for Cai Renxiang assigning Ling Qi towards befriending Wang Chao was her perception that the Wang were disaligning from the Cai faction; which was affirmed by Wang Chao's perception that the rest of the Emerald Seas count clans were falling from the Wang's military concerns, that the Wang were becoming politically isolated from the province. Political support from the Wang probably goes far with the military-focused border clans, but won't matter to the rest of the province.

Of the other clans, we have the Bao and the Meng in direct contact with Ling Qi. (Though, we don't know who Cai Renxiang is in contact with. She might have other resources to tap into, beyond Ling Qi's sight.) The Bao probably can be counted on to drum up political support, since they'll welcome to new trading partners. And, they're the traders that talk to everyone, so their word probably stretches far. The Meng are isolationist as a clan, and the faction that supports the White Sky project are the Weilu revivalists, so their best contributions probably are also along the lines of infrastructure.

(...Hopefully, between Xia Lin and Gan Guangli, their connections to other Emerald Seas militaries can buy military support for the project.)
 
Hold on... but political support actually means bonus to getting materials. In other words... more loot. More cinder blocks, more cattle, more defense talismans / formations... bonus on whatever we attempt to acquire. I'm leaning that way.

And yeah... more magic gundams ftw
 
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yrsillar said:
"A parallel not often explored. Your clan has solved the issue of the Tribulation of Earth's Law on land vehicles?"
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Please tell me this is what Xianxialand calls the square cube law lmao.

yrsillar said:
"I can't say I'm unhappy to see the tests done," Wang Chao said, stretching his arms overhead as they made their way out.

Ling Qi smiled, covering her mouth with her sleeve. "But sir Wang, I had thought you were eager to observe."

"Well, I mean-" Wang Chao said, scratching the back of his head and glancing toward Xuan Shi.

Xuan Shi chuckled. "This one appreciates the consideration sir Wang, but will admit that the conversation of peers was more interesting. The presentation of personal projects is the true draw."

Wang Chao squinted at both of them over his shoulder and let out a harrumph. "Hmph, I'd not think you the type for japes Miss Ling."
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you say that Wang Chao, but one of her primary combat techniques involves (freeze) burning people with her voice.

yrsillar said:
In the near future, Ling Qi and Cai Renxiang will be striking out into the Wall to begin preparing what will one day be their fief and the neutral meeting grounds. To that end you will have quite a few rolls in your future, this is your first chance to begin accumulating bonuses to those. Further Wang interactions may increase or decrease these still.

[] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)
[] Military Support (+10 to combat rolls)
[] Political Support (+10 material acquisition rolls)
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Just on first impressions this this seems like a neat vote. I suppose we're going to have to really start strategizing on how we're gonna set up our fief now huh?

First thoughts go with infrastructure support. If we want staying power then I feel that would be superior to military support in the long term. Material acquisitions... this seems like it should already be a strength of the Cai? Then again I doubt Shenhua would make it easy.
 
I guess the thing that occurs to me is what are we actually talking to people for here? What are our goals?

Our primary goal is, of course, support in our diplomatic mission. It is the one thing that the Cai cannot readily provide us - they can easily give us the men and resources needed to set up our base, but building the broader political support base is up to us.

In that vein, the fief building stuff seems like a bit of a distraction here? The reason we're talking to them is to acquire political support and connections. Other gains are secondary. The real question is why would we want the other options?

Military is out imo. Infrastructure is interesting, given it is the Wang's specialty, but still has the question of how it actually addresses our primary mission?
 
Erebeal said:
I guess the thing that occurs to me is what are we actually talking to people for here? What are our goals?

Our primary goal is, of course, support in our diplomatic mission. It is the one thing that the Cai cannot readily provide us - they can easily give us the men and resources needed to set up our base, but building the broader political support base is up to us.

In that vein, the fief building stuff seems like a bit of a distraction here? The reason we're talking to them is to acquire political support and connections. Other gains are secondary. The real question is why would we want the other options?

Military is out imo. Infrastructure is interesting, given it is the Wang's specialty, but still has the question of how it actually addresses our primary mission?
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Because having a well built Fief to operate out of will make the rest of our mission easier. More secure, so we can worry less about the safety of the populace. Perhaps even with certain bonuses which can help with cultivation or other tasks.
 
Erebeal said:
Military is out imo. Infrastructure is interesting, given it is the Wang's specialty, but still has the question of how it actually addresses our primary mission?
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Removing or lessening one of our concerns does allow us to dedicate more time to the others. Beyond that, people love to show off. Asking for the favor to be repaid by the Wang doing what they do best seems like it sets a good tone going forward. We gain connections here either way, and I honestly just like the idea of getting something solid like roads and buildings in return here. It makes a lot of what we'll be doing later easier, and since I expect there to be difficult votes down the line about how to build things, I have some hope that this will let us get some riskier, cooler stuff done than we might have otherwise.
 
[] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)

[] Political Support (+10 material acquisition rolls)
These two feel more important, and of the two I'm inclined to back the infrastructure more. Especially given we have Cai as a political backer, and frankly as a new house I can imagine the other lords giving us a grace period while we get our affairs in order in regards to military (To say nothing of the military power Ling Qi herself presents!)
 
I think its worthwhile to first go over Ling Qi and company's abilities in the various fields:

Infrastructure
Zhengui is a natural genius at geomancy and we have some degree of Formations knowledge. Both of us are extremely capable of replacing large numbers of laborers (especially once we get some Phantasmal Mastery under our belt).

The big downside here is that we have very little training in the conventions that the empire uses, which risks a degree of us reinventing the wheel and effectively creating another standard which might not be terribly compatible with our neighbors. We also might make rookie mistakes that the empire has long since solved.

Military
LQ is a very strong Green who has an unusual number of Green spirits whom she can rely on. She is not the best at fighting her superiors but she truly shines when it comes to defeating her inferiors and does quite well against random peers. By the time we get to the fief it might well be possible for us to take on a solitary peak Green spirit beast. We also have excellent diplomatic skill when dealing unknown spirits. We are also going to be near to the Cai heir's land so it is likely the army will be fairly responsive to local disasters compared to if we were a random Baroness.

The weakness here is obvious: we are merely Green and will be in a warzone. Sure we have a bunch of very powerful Greens but LQ will probably be called away from her fief regularly and Cyan+ invaders are well within the range of possibility.

Political
We are pretty well politically connected. The only faction that truly dislikes us are the imperial conservatives and they tend to live to the north and so are mostly irrelevant. The Weilu Moderates and Old Tribes factions like us and, of the Counts, only the Diao dislike us and we are dealing with that. We also have Shenhua's approval. All told we are quite popular!

However our support among Imperial Moderates is fairly limited at best and they are going to be our neighbors. We also already have a lot on our plate which will ultimately limit our ability to engage in local politics compared to normal Barons. Finally we are acting contrary to imperial propaganda so we will likely have many surprisingly zealous detractors.
 
[X] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)

Wang are good with formations and infrastructure so might aswell get their speciality.
 
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[X] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)
15>10
Also, the Bao are going to be a better source of materials. Military, while important, is secondary.
 
[X] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)

Also it's interesting that the Wang have a matriarch. It seems likely that the Wang that helped shenhua is that Matriarch so at least 3 of her 4 heavenly Kings are women.
 
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This is the kind of vote that I love! It so clearly changes how effective we'll be in certain areas instead of others. So for a quick breakdown:

[] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)

The Wang specialty and strongest bonus of the three. Since we'll actually be building a fief either from scratch or near scratch this has obvious benefits. If it extends to geomancy and other formation help this could make our new home significantly more efficient! Definitely worth taking a look at in my opinion.


[] Military Support (+10 to combat rolls)

Military Support from a Count clan shouldn't be discounted (hehe) but I think this is actually the choice that is most easily not selected of the three. I feel as though we'll be receiving a sufficient military force from Shenhua to protect us from the local environment while we set up and that anything much more than that will be overkill. Maybe someone will make a good argument for it, but I don't think we should select it at this point.


[] Political Support (+10 material acquisition rolls)

Finally my personal favorite option! We're setting up a trade route and the opposite side of the table asked for resources in our first negotiation. It should be a no brainer that if their overall needs lean towards the material side that smaller gifts of the same type may go further than others as personal gifts (more bond levels!) while also being useful as we begin making our late green and potentially early cyan tools and talismans.

I really like this vote, thanks Yrs!
 
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