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

Doramas said:

I love the interaction between the new "siblings". I still can't believe Hanyi missed meeting Qiyi just by a hair's breadth.
And she won't be back to Snowblossom in months!

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Well we're at least tentatively slated to go meet up with hanyi at some point during her tour, so it wont be the full 4 months at least

yrsillar said:

Hanyi beamed, and Ling Qi hummed to herself. "I'm glad, when do you think you'll start touring again this year?"

"Hm, it's the seventh month now? So four more months I would think, with a four month duration," Bao Qian said. "We want to hit the road as autumn is closing, to give the fortune of a mild winter. You will be busy, but do you think you might make an appearance? At one of the larger venues of course."

Ling Qi considered. It wasn't a terrible idea. She was… popular there, in the Foundations the hilly foot of the Wall, strange as it was to think. It could only do her good to solidify any connections with the small lords and ladies in the south. Hanyi deserved to have her come to a performance or two anyway. "I will see what time I can clear, but I think at least one is a good idea."

"Perhaps we all may go… it is a family affair," Ling Qingge said quietly.

Ling Qi blinked. "If you would like Mother."

"Well, its fine if Big Sis' Mom and the littler sis want to come too, they can see how amazing I am," Hanyi said with a sniff.

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[X] Quantity of fishing (Ag. Production increase)
[X] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)
[X] Blessing against curses/Disease (Further removal of negative events and attack vectors)

So, strategic voting data:

1. Cultivation materials is currently far ahead in first place, which I'd imagine we're all happy with since we want good rolls there.
2. Happiness is comfortably in second
3. Quality fish is in third, but is jockeying for position with Oracle
4. Fish quantity is a number of votes behind quality and oracle. Could get up there with a push, but probably unlikely

My feeling on this is that we do want fish bonuses (if nothing else it's kind of weird to not have them from the Lake), and that it's important to get them in second place to provide good numerical bonuses since that's kind of their main point.

Happiness... I kind of see as a vibes option as much as anything. This isn't to say that +happiness isn't good - it is - but longer term, like, we're going to be hitting 135 happiness with just current upgrades, going up to 155 once we can get enough cultivator pop. We're going to have a loooottt of bonus manpower, looking at having like 34-38 effective by the end of the hamlet stage. And I'm not sure that we're actually going to have the facilities to use all of that? It'll make it easier to grind out production in the village stage without having to bring in more pop sure, but idk. I feel like we have a lot of happiness upgrades and we're probably going to continue to get them. You can always build more amenities to support a growing population, but natural resources like the lake have a finite capacity that we want to be as high as possible.

So yeah, personally I feel we need more quality fish votes and fewer happiness votes in order to swap their placement

[x] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)
[x] Blessing against curses/Disease (Further removal of negative events and attack vectors)
[x] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)

Hotspring town has always been my goal, and this is all the options that would lead itself to that. Quality fish for recreational fishing, Disease/Curse clear for that purification, and Cultivation mats for the Temple options and to really open the Lake for those sweet mystery boxes.

Now, some may argue that Health would have been the true hotspring choice, but I disagree. Our waters already fortify the body of our mortals, so instead of building up on that, I want to focus the build up on the more exotic purification/health against diseases and curses. That way, Cultivators would be more inclined to come to our lands but come in smaller numbers since those issues should be more exotic/rare. Aiming for a boost in the quality of customers over quantity, hence the quality fishing too.

[X] Cultivation Materials
[X] Quality of Fishing
[X] Blessings of Health

[X] Blessing against curses/Disease (Further removal of negative events and attack vectors)
[X] Oracles against Danger (Warnings of incoming danger, Defense increase.)
[X] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)

No such thing as too much healthcare. Defense against curses/diseases will never be in excess because we want as much of it as possible not only to keep our people healthy, but to thwart any potential plots by Ling Qi's political rivals or the Empire's geopolitical enemies.

That, and as the settlement grows, squalor will increase and promote disease so best we stay one step ahead of it.

When it comes to diseases and curses, it's always better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Cai Renxiang reaction:

yrsillar said:

the rates of rainfall and condensation, and observed fertility of the soil for the past six thousand years crammed into her too small mind

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Yes... Yes!

yrsillar said:

most had to merely be flushed away before she could properly comprehend it

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No! NO!!!!!

Erebeal said:

Defense is really awkward due to the quest focus imo. If this was an actual city-builder quest where everything was focused on us building up our fief and defending it from threats it'd be really important.

As it is, however, the quest is largely focused on us doing other things, often involving travel. This makes defense have limited narrative presence. Yrs can't keep running "defend your town" arcs because that would be repetitive and also there won't be room for that around our main activities. Similarly, it's difficult to "punish" us for being away and unable to defend our home when that's largely outside of our control, and something that he wants us to be doing for the story. Moreover, you can really only play the "your home was burned down while you were away" card once for a story.

So yeah, I feel like with the story's focuses trying to grab the defense bonuses here doesn't necessarily do a lot for us. Obviously we should build our walls and stuff because that makes sense, but eh. Not feeling the fit or importance with the lake.

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Also, we're about an in-universe week away from Ling Qi reiterating that she thinks lakes suck at defence.

It's the next proper arc we're doing, with only maybe some Ling household moving in stuff first.

AbeoLogos said:

Also, we're about an in-universe week away from Ling Qi reiterating that she thinks lakes suck at defence.

It's the next proper arc we're doing, with only maybe some Ling household moving in stuff first.

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For me the Oracle is the better Defense choice, honestly, because, "Get warned of incoming danger and race home to fight it" has plot legs, as does, "Get warned about slowly approaching danger and then go out and deal with it." Snowblossom being the NPC Quest Giver.

[X] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)
[X] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)
[X] Blessings of Health (Happiness Bonus)

Golly, Three benefits??? I can't say any of these are bad choices either. Though some have more drawbacks than others obviously. Can't say I will really be bothered if any of them win.

[ ] Quantity of fishing (Ag. Production increase)
Would turn our food production primarily towards fishing. Which is good, though with our wide array of agriculture options already on the table and a Zhengui onhand, this feels like it may be redunant? Agriculture production increase is not something we will be short on, even with plans to do food banks and food kitchens.

[ ] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)
A minor agriculture increase, but primarily it makes our fish so fancy that it becomes a viable source of income. This has potential to be a REALLY big deal. Turning the lake into our money maker.

[ ] Blessings of Health (Happiness Bonus)
Eh....I mean health is nice and all, but is a happiness bonus that impressive? Were supposed to get happiness bonuses for each of the shrines we build, and we still have a shrine for the wind, a shrine for the snow, and a shrine for the Zhengui on our plate. I feel like mechanically, it would be redunant. We already see a happiness increase from building the snowblossom shrine. No need to stack it.

[X] Blessing against curses/Disease (Further removal of negative events and attack vectors)
Now this one is a Big deal. We know we will have negative events down the line and good odds of Snowblossom being attacked eventually. So if the lake can protect the settlement from curses and disease, that will be a HUGE boon to have. Id argue the most important one on this entire list in all honesty. Disease can wipe out cities, and curses are a terrible attack someone could unleash upon the populace. So protection from both is sweet.

[X] Oracles against Danger (Warnings of incoming danger, Defense increase.)
This is another one which is good for keeping Snowblossom safe. Especially if there is any occasion wherin Ling Qi is not around when something happens. At bare minimum, a warning of incoming danger would allow Ling Qi's household to retreat into the panic room. At best, it would give people time to rally a defense.

[X] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)
This is one im torn on because I confess, im not actually that motivated by the need to grow and get stronger. It places second to narrative for me. However if the lake is able to start supplying cultivation materials, it opens the doors for cultivators developing within our territory who build themselves around this lake, and come to Snowblossom for the sake of those materials. Those temple options too....This has some wonderful opportunity.

[ ] Blessings of Defense (Integrates Snowblossom into city defense arrays, Increased Defense, Expansion more difficult, potency increased while Snowblossom satisfied.)
This strikes me as making Snowblossom a lesser 🌲👍 . Huge defense buff and it gets bigger when the lake is happy. But at the huge cost of making expansion harder. We already created a delay for expansion by choosing to make the lake its own thing. Lets not double down on that and chain Snowblossom so harshly to the lake that the riverways become borderline impossible down the road.

In the end I had a hard time picking just three. XD
Better quality fish would make us richer and be a huge boon for Snowblossom. But I couldn't help but go with two buffs to the regions defense and a means of drawing in a long term cultivator base for our territory.

The Laurent said:

For me the Oracle is the better Defense choice, honestly, because, "Get warned of incoming danger and race home to fight it" has plot legs, as does, "Get warned about slowly approaching danger and then go out and deal with it." Snowblossom being the NPC Quest Giver.

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I think the logistics are tricky, in and out of universe.

Not sure how the lake would warn us when we're afar. That's where the lake isn't, and it's not in the lake's nature to shout at us from far away. Us picking the Shenglu/lake focus further removes the ability to give us warnings at a distance.

And getting forewarning of an encroaching danger is something that's... never happened before, in the quest. It's not really yrsillar's style.

And in both these cases, we could get warnings from things other than the lake, in ways that largely make more sense even. Human scouts being a big one. Edit: and if we're focused on getting warned of an encroaching danger plot, the observatory at Xin'an is right there to predict large-scale dire portents threatening the region as a whole.

But nothing other than the lake gives us lake-centric bonuses. From an opportunity cost perspective, I'm not seeing the Oracle option, even if it's better than the other defense choice.

For the oracle option I'd think the lake would hint to our priests and they'd mention something to our household person in charge and also the guard. The people in charge make the call to add extra scouting efforts (distance, manpower, focus, etc.). If the warning is especially clear they send us a message to come back or plan for some downtime after we finish up whatever urgent stuff we're doing.

[X] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)
This one is a must have in my opinion. Not only are exotic materials a potentially great income source, they can be used to manufacture equipment for the future cultivators living here and more Temple options sound all kinds of great.

[X] Blessings of Health (Happiness Bonus)
This is just a nice all around buff and I feel should have narrative consequences of friendlier lake spirit and people liking her more.

The third one is more difficult, I like both Oracle and fishing, but I feel like at least one fishing boon is more thematically appropriate.
[X] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)

[X] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)

[X] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)

[X] Oracles against Danger (Warnings of incoming danger, Defense increase.)

[X] Blessings of Health (Happiness Bonus)
[X] Blessing against curses/Disease (Further removal of negative events and attack vectors)
[X] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)

yrsillar said:

"There is also the effect on Snowblossom lake's personality, if she takes those wild rivers into her being," Ling Qi said.

Meng Duyi grunted in approval. Had he left that out to test her?

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That's something to be concerned with.

yrsillar said:

Why come little swimmers fish are plenty, waters cool, mortal whispers pon the shore, winter winter comes, do not little hands need dig burrows, seal larders, prepare to sleep, or fly fly away to warmer winds?

Ling Qi felt her temple's throb, a vein pulsing under her skin as she worked to translate the crush of information down into something so clear. She saw images of men on flying horses flying away, of people digging little holes and building up huts of turf and grass and wandering away to follow herds in later days, of shining fish and rippling waters, temperatures and quantities and countless years swimming by at speeds that made her mind ache.

+2 Clarity XP

"To give our thanks for your benevolence, and to deepen our relationship, to offer you gifts and sovereignty, intertwined with the young prince of the High Garden. We will not come or go, most of us. Your shore our home, through all the passing years."

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Nice to have extra XP, honestly I barely remembered that we had Clarity as a concept but it's actually very fitting for LQ to have. Clarity fits her skillset given Silver Eyes and her Way.

[X] Blessings of Health (Happiness Bonus)
[X] Blessing against curses/Disease (Further removal of negative events and attack vectors)
[X] Cultivation materials (One guaranteed exotic material, chance for others, Temple options)

Having three options for the Blessing is really nice, the Blessing of Health and defense against curses and diseases is useful for the people and cultivation materials are awesome to have.

Man I really wish we wouldn't put primary focus on resources for us cultivators, pushing as hard as I can for maximum fish stonks.

[X] Quality of the fishing (Small ag increase, adds wealth options to fishery)
[X] Quantity of fishing (Ag. Production increase)