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

[X] Speak on the nature of isolation, of the innate division between things, of the lonely void that grew with each realm. (Additional Exploration and XP to Isolation Concept)

[X] Speak on the nature of isolation, of the innate division between things, of the lonely void that grew with each realm. (Additional Exploration and XP to Isolation Concept)

I think this one for now. Mostly because I just learned about Hi Fi rush and a major theme of that story is that friends are pretty awesome.

[X] Speak on the nature of power, of the innate ambition of dominance and command that underlies Sovereignty (Additional Exploration and XP to Power Concept)

Better both narratively (it's the one she has trouble with) and mechanically (lower-level concepts are more useful to improve).

[X] Speak on the nature of isolation, of the innate division between things, of the lonely void that grew with each realm. (Additional Exploration and XP to Isolation Concept)

I think this is best both mechanically and narratively. Mechanically, we're at Isolation IV (6/8). Getting 2 XP here will push us towards our first rank V concept while talking about the Isolation caused by cultivation.

Narratively, it makes sense. The questions we're asking Xin are about cultivation. One comes from our talk with Elder Ying and the other from the tribulation arc. The Power option is about Sovereignty and how it forces people to take on your Way. However, there's an answer in Communication.

yrsillar said:

The truth of art is communication. To have ones Way taken up shows the greatest mastery of self.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

You don't have to force people with Sovereignty. You simply have to communicate with them, so that they'll willingly take up your Way and ideals. We already have an answer to that.

But for Isolation, we really don't have an answer to that. When we first talked to Elder Ying, she mentioned that those who move up in realms get isolated from others. She's brought it up again, and we still don't. So hopefully, talking with Xin would help us with that. Plus, it touches upon Multitude, the division that separates all things. We haven't interrogated that enough since the tribulation, and, as a self-imposed connector, learning how to bridge these gaps is essential. That's why we have Communication, after all.

Plus, as Anderein mentioned earlier, talking about Isolation is something we can do with both Xin and Jiao. Jiao can say a lot about Power and Isolation, but I'm not sure if Xin can say much about Power as it pertains to herself. But she can say a lot about Isolation and the void between realms. As spirits develop, they get more personality; they grow more defined. And that separates them from other spirits and isolates them. However, Xin, as an avatar of the Moon, has something even more interesting, as she's both herself and the Hidden Moon because of her cultivation realm.

Thus we can learn both Jiao and Xin's views of Isolation as one goes up and how to possibly bridge the gap.

Edit: Plus, based on the wording of the vote (and the fact that Paying Respects gives both Power and Isolation XP), I think we will do both, but one will get more narrative space/exploration. Power will get lots of exploration since it's ranking up to IV, so I'd like to focus on Isolation.

[X] Speak on the nature of isolation, of the innate division between things, of the lonely void that grew with each realm. (Additional Exploration and XP to Isolation Concept)

[x] Speak on the nature of isolation, of the innate division between things, of the lonely void that grew with each realm. (Additional Exploration and XP to Isolation Concept)

Because I have the faint hope that we might learn how to do something for Jiao's isolation, or at least come to some understanding of why he defends it so fiercely.

...another thought:

Isolation is what makes power dangerous. Unconnected means not having anyone to empathize with, both with power and with the lack of it, so there's a thought that isolation comes from power differentials getting too great and breaking communication...

Anyways. Not being able to communicate, or to be honestly communicated too, is when you get abuse of power, I think.

[X] Speak on the nature of isolation, of the innate division between things, of the lonely void that grew with each realm. (Additional Exploration and XP to Isolation Concept)

[X] Speak on the nature of isolation, of the innate division between things, of the lonely void that grew with each realm. (Additional Exploration and XP to Isolation Concept)