Remove ads

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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
Problem with threatening a Zheng is that, they don't care.
They want to fight.
Social standing and imperial decorum is a joke to them.
Short of death and/or permanent crippling, there is nothing they really care about, and at that point you have made yourself an enemy with one of the most powerful clans in the empire.
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
[X] She proposed that any ducal representative wishing to speak with the White Sky ask her to arrange an appointment, which she would personally mediate. (Reduce chances and severity of diplomatic insult. Claims some of Ling Qi's 'free' negotiation time)
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
Don't really trust Liling not to mess things up but have to juggle public opinion and rather the chance of her overstepping than the certainty of us doing so by rejecting unsupervised conversation.
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)

I would be more willing to choose the first option if we didnt have the increasingly-not-so-minor cases of sabotage to take care of.
The 'free' negotiation time is pretty abstract, and we may end up having to spend it anyway solving the diplomatic insults that happened because we didn't take the option that reduces them.
But if we are going to end up dedicating time to that anyway, better to choose the option that would allow to make good use of our time in case no incident happens.
It's also a good way to legitimize the shared construction site.
 
Random observations:
  • Forgot how fun Liling is when she's not trying to run you through with a spear (and honestly even then). She's playing ball for now though which is nice.
  • Rong seems to have experienced his first encounter with bigger stakes he can't just punch harder at, if I'm reading his state right. Will be interesting to see how he's handling that.
  • LQ showing off those storytelling skills from all that practice with Huisheng, wonder how the others see us now that we can actually spin a proper tale of the crazy stuff we get up to.
  • Ducals aren't really taking the astronomy stuff seriously but then it really is a distant concern for the empire, suspect it's a bigger deal for white sky.
  • We get to see what the western marches action is about, looks like jungle is unfriendly all around; surprising to get free info dropped by the Zheng guy here; I'll leave it to someone less tired to figure out what it means political landscape wise.
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
[X] She proposed that any ducal representative wishing to speak with the White Sky ask her to arrange an appointment, which she would personally mediate. (Reduce chances and severity of diplomatic insult. Claims some of Ling Qi's 'free' negotiation time)

Frankly my assumption is we'll probably end up voting to spend as much or more of Ling Qi's free negotiation time meddling with this stuff anyway, so might as well lock it in for the sake of more control over that meddling.

And also yes I don't trust half of them.
 
[X] She proposed that any ducal representative wishing to speak with the White Sky ask her to arrange an appointment, which she would personally mediate. (Reduce chances and severity of diplomatic insult. Claims some of Ling Qi's 'free' negotiation time)
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
Adhoc vote count started by Killer_Whale on Apr 13, 2023 at 9:10 AM, finished with 67 posts and 52 votes.
Click to expand...
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
You know, random speculation. People have been talking about "how Cai Shenhua seems to genuinely be carrying on deep emotional attachments when she is an 8th Realm whose Way is not about that, and why losing this person will probably fuck her" and speculation/thoughts about all sorts of tricks, workarounds, but... what if she's literally just made her love of her now-wife into her Domain Weapon/etc.

So that it could not be forgotten even into the 8th Realm. Which of course means that her death would break something very, very fragile that cannot be un-broken.

I dunno, just me thinking out loud.

(I was just thinking about Ling Qi and how Loneliness means that she'll always remember and have a part of that with her no matter what.)
 
Putting something into your Domain (including your Domain weapon) is making it part of your Way. It has to be something stranger than that or Suzhen wouldn't have been weirded out about it.

Like, Isolation is a key part of Ling Qi's Way and nobody who has examined her Way will ever find that strange...if Love was in Shenhua's Domain, then it would likewise just not be strange or notable. What's weird is that she still has it even though it isn't enshrined in her Way like that.
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
[X] She proposed that any ducal representative wishing to speak with the White Sky ask her to arrange an appointment, which she would personally mediate. (Reduce chances and severity of diplomatic insult. Claims some of Ling Qi's 'free' negotiation time)

[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)

I think it boils down to whatever is valued more, not "insulting" the ducal representatives or not tying up even more of our precious time. Its my opinion that there cant truly be an insult in dictating how contact in OUR diplomatic mission may be established, if that has the added benefit of potentially reducing tention, thats more than worth it. On the other hand we are stretched thin as it is so there´s also value in merely coordinating.
So I am fine with either.
 
[X] She proposed that any ducal representative wishing to speak with the White Sky ask her to arrange an appointment, which she would personally mediate. (Reduce chances and severity of diplomatic insult. Claims some of Ling Qi's 'free' negotiation time)

[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)

I think access will help avoid them being clever to get around it. I'd like to lean in to the whole COMMUNICATION thing we've got going on, but I'm not sure it's worth the time and it seems to largely be happening on its own anyway.
 
Winged One said:
I don't trust Liling or the MoI to not start shit the first chance they get. That is probably their explicit purposes here, though the MoI party's nominal boss might not know it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's one thing to think something like that, it's another to actually say it out loud, or to do something that all but says it. Being the first to be directly impolite makes you the social aggressor, even if preserving politeness requires polite fictions, and it's not in Ling Qi's interest to be the one to throw the first punch.
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)
 
[X] She proposed that meetings could take place in the still being constructed meeting hall at specific times, when the primary negotiations were in recess. She would merely coordinate appointments. (Does not claim any of Ling Qi's time. No penalties or bonuses to diplomatic insults)

ArcanaVitae said:
Ling Qi is showing off that she is in fact really good at Social Fu. I kinda expected things to be more volatile but I"m happy they weren't.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, this was a great example of how far she's come. Just seeing how smoothly she handled this many nobles, including unknowns and possible hostiles, is something her initial self probably couldn't even conceive of. Especially the way she managed to control their actions without giving any offense.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top