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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
[ ] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.

I 100% believe this insight is Absolubtly Required for us to take, especially this part
"takes without dominating, gives without submitting"

This is essentially the opposite if the core idea of the empire, the dragonic idea that there only exist those who are stronger and those who are weaker, where everyone either dominates you or submits to you.
This idea, needless to say is absolubtly rotten, it leads to people like the first emperor who conqured simply because might makes right.

If we ever want to build a civilization based on the idea of Equality, we NEED this insight.
 
[ ] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.

[ ] Do not take insight from MoSS



Regarding this vote, I see the offered insight as an exercise/meditation on the exclusion aspect of community that was mentioned earlier in the story. The community discriminates between those who are part of the community and those who are not. This insight defines a set of behaviors LQ expects from herself toward community members. She would expect this behavior from them, too.

This means that, for example, people who spy on us are not good neighbors in the eyes of LQ, which would affect how she interacts with them.

I am still unsure which way to vote
There's a big difference between spying and listening. Passive information gathering, gossip, etc. should be part of the latter l, and frankly if someone is doing something more active--trying to suborn agents in our household, for example--I would expect LQ to treat them differently anyway.
Yeah, the way it groups a good chunk of intrigue as 'being a bad neighbor' feels like it'd be pretty detrimental.
Does it do that? Most of the stuff that LQ does as part of her job should fall under listening.
 
[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
[x] Do not take insight from MoSS

I'm pretty sure the parts of this insight I most value (and there certainly are some) are already represented in Ling Qi's insights, and we can only have so many.

Repeatedly taking one insight over and over again isn't helpful.
 
Honestly, this feels like the "don't squash mortals in your presence, unintentionally" stuff for a white. At least, i can see it develop that way.
You know, spirit seeker lets us protect against that from the other side. Wonder if it'll help us shelter other people from our own power when we're the higher power? It'd be nice if we didn't have to worry about a Renxiang situation with our descendants.
 
[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
[x] Do not take insight from MoSS

I'm pretty sure the parts of this insight I most value (and there certainly are some) are already represented in Ling Qi's insights, and we can only have so many.

Repeatedly taking one insight over and over again isn't helpful.

I don't think this is correct. We've seen a lot of this before in her Concepts, but her Insights say nothing about reciprocity or most of the rest of this Insight right now.

Like, these are our Insights:

Insights
Regular:
  1. Truth and lies are the weft and warp of communication. Clarity, understanding, these determine the quality of words. (Clarity, Communication, Community.)
  2. There are endings and Endings, only the very last one is final. Just as winter ends in spring, small endings are new beginnings. (Cycles, Ending Creation.)
  3. Though a path might be hard and lonely, it has worth if you can present something of beauty to those you care for at the end. (Expression, Isolation, Want)
  4. There is no peace in emptiness, no content in stillness. Stagnation is death; act, change, move, think, and grow until the very end. (Power, Motion, Freedom)
  5. Branches and trunks bend and sway, but the roots must remain unyielding. Retreat only so far and then no more. (Persistence, Home, Growth)
  6. Even walking alone, footfalls echo beyond your hearing. (Community, Causality, Expression)
  7. The future changes with every step, never be certain you know what is coming (Causality, Mystery, Chaos)
  8. It is the artist's duty to question. The trickster's role to make fools of the mighty. Hold the mirror to history and tradition, and reveal their absurdities.(Creation, Expression, Truth)
Advanced:
  • One person's desires cannot, alone make a home nor a family. (Community, Power, Want)
  • Trust arises from choice. Love arises from trust. There can be no perfect safety, save in death. For love or trust to exist, so must the chance of heartbreak and betrayal. (Courage, Choice, Expression)
  • The world is never still. Power is change. In every soul sleeps that spark. There is power in stoking that, enflaming that. Power that may move mountains and gods alike. (Power, Motion, Choice)

None of those seem redundant with the currently offered Insight to me.
 
[x] Do not take insight from MoSS

I'm pretty sure the parts of this insight I most value (and there certainly are some) are already represented in Ling Qi's insights, and we can only have so many.

Repeatedly taking one insight over and over again isn't helpful.
which one, exactly?
Because i the closest i can find is this:
One person's desires cannot, alone make a home nor a family. (Community, Power, Want)
But its an advanced insight. And is more about not letting greed or other desires blind you and force your ideas on others.
And that's without the benefits each insight has just its own merit
 
[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
I do like the rest of the insight, but this part, "A good neighbor listens without spying" just does not feel right.

I don't know if our future tasks have completely changed, but Lady Ren once told us that one of the tasks she wants us to do is check on the Tax collector and law enforcer. How would we handle this? Or are they bad neighbors?

How would we have handled the summit incident ? We did spy on Xia Anxi, and he was not an enemy or a bad neighbor.

We also asked Meng Dan to spy on his clan. While this specific case might count as Meng being a bad neighbor, at the time, we were not 100% certain that they were behind it.

If we first have to decide they are a bad neighbor before we can spy on them, that can cause problems because how do we find out they are bad the competent ones will not just openly talk about plots against us. So to find out about it, we have to make an active effort, and that is just spying.

While a lot has changed, LQ is still quite good (and the best in Lady Ren's Group) at spying, so putting a somewhat hard limit on who she can spy on feels wrong in my opinion.

[X] Do not take insight from MoSS
 
This basically requires us to have identifed someone as an enemy before we can consider spying on them

If anything, this is a boon. People who can see our way will see that we aren't some brute who will spy on others/sneak into their mind simply because we have the power to.

Sometimse spying on your allies is respecting them by the standards of the (noble) community.

We should not lower ourselves to their level, Ling Qi can be better
 
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[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.

Explicitly laying out what Ling Qi wants in relationships, both personal and professional, is exactly what Insights are for. All of this is stuff she's already working toward or already believes, but making it a big rock in her soul that won't get washed away by change or time is very valuable. And the focus on reciprocity and respect even means that it's safe vis-a-vis friend-or-foe designation, so Ling Qi can't get rules-lawyered into tying her own hands against enemies.

And importantly, it defines "a good neighbor" in a way that's based entirely on actions, not identity or associations. This is immediately one of Ling Qi's stronger anti-xenophobia Insights.
 
[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
[X] A good neighbor listens without spying, speaks without demanding, takes without dominating, gives without submitting. Respect is the foundation of community.
 
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