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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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Tamwin5 said:
This insight won't stop us from acting against enemies, or planning for the duchesses eventual way implosion. The big thing this insight will interfere with is changing the status quo.

The emerald seas has been a mess for thousands of years, and we are trying to unify it. To forge a cultural identity, based around Weilu beliefs, and yes attitudes just like this insight.

So what happens if someone says "No thanks, the lack of unity is better for me!"? Or more likely "Hmm, change is scary, I'd rather not." Well, as long as they are still being a good neighbor, we are out of luck. We can keep trying to convince them of course, but being polite only gets us so far.

Forging a unified Emerald Seas will involve making people unhappy. It will go directly against many people's ways. There will be some people who need to be dragged kicking and screaming into a better tomorrow. And there will always be people who choose the success of themself or their family over the success of the Emerald Seas as a whole.

I really like the message of the insight. It's a great attitude for living life, and being a good neighbor.

Making a better tomorrow where everyone can be good neighbors is more important than that.

(Note: I don't think this insight will make it impossible. Just that it will be much harder, and we will likely need to rely on other people to be the ones applying pressure.)
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Threads 266-Perceptions 3 - Forge of Destiny

Home. It still eluded her. The house in the sect town wasn’t really hers. Tonghou had certainly never been home. But this, she had built, a little retreat (...)
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Moving forward was not an abandonment of the past because the past couldn't be abandoned. It was always there on her back, whether she wanted it or not. She was leaving the Sect and many of these people behind, but a home did not have to be grand or eternal.

Home was the people she gathered and called her own.

That was the lesson of Tsu, she thought, the one muddled and forgotten. When the tribes came to Xiangmen, they were not bound by blood or culture or duty or law. Not then. They came in desperation, but that is not why they stayed. Tsu bound them and made them a people.
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Just as Tsu changed the status quo in a big way, so will Ling Qi.
Vikram said:
We do not have his advantages, this is being extremely foolhardy. The Cai is a ducal clan with 3 members and 2 retainers. The duchess is a time bomb.
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The estimated time for Shenhua going KABOOOM is when her wife dies. The Prime Minister is 450 years old, and Prisms live 800-900 years. So unless someone pulls off a successful assassination the bomb will go off in 350-450 years. By that time there'll be a whole bunch more Cai members and retainers, and Ling Qi and Renxiang will at minimum be Prism.
 
Glau said:
Oh- other thing to consider?

We are building Ling Qi's way to define success as others taking up her way. Embedding this will spread.
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Like our good uncle Huisheng? :V
Joke aside, i still love that little bit from the nightmare tribulation.
yrsillar said:
"And yet, I am here," said the thief. "I live, not as the Pure One, for he too was wrong by degrees. My Way is unbroken, because it is not mine alone to begin with. Old and dusty it might be, it merely awaits new feet. There is no virtue in stagnation, in fearing the lash, in seeking silence. Choice is pain. Choice is strife. Choice is disunity. Choice is life, the grand dream of the Nameless."
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And ngl, i would find it funny if this insight causes LQ to be regarded as another Heretic lol.
 
promethus said:
I think I remember something like that in discord from yrs but can't trust my memory so will need to be verified by YRS. there must be a some drawback on why people doesn't do that? maybe the time it takes is one of the drawbacks but it is weird we still haven't had any in-text explanation on why people doesn't spend time on green peak getting more insights. At least the genius who hit peak green near 20,25.
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Quite the opposite even. Most people spend a lot of time in Green, they should easily have filled all their basic insight slots before they even start preparing to breakthrough.

People don't because:
-They lack the compatible arts.
-They lack the resources to both complete their arts and progress cultivation base
-They need the power right now for some reason, and breakthrough without full preparations.
-They reached peak Green near the end of their lifespan and can't spare the time.

If you had the time you would be pretty rushed or unambitious not to fill out your Insight slots and grab all the low hanging fruits for Concept development before Cyan Breakthrough.

Cyan Breakthrough can kill you. If you didn't prepare everything its because you can't afford to.
 
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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.
 
So, reading the Nightmare tribulation again, i find these do echo this vote a bit.
yrsillar said:
"Communication, exchange, these things do not negate dominion, negate power. Tools and trinkets, useful but not transformative. To reject the imposition of will is to reject Sovereignty. Fine enough, but if that is your conclusion, then leave ambition behind child, and seek not the heavens."

The Brother Darksong's multitude of voices hammered from every direction, scathing and scornful.
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yrsillar said:
"You would stifle tribulation, stunt this student you cling too even now?"

"I will do nothing of the sort, for I am only a mask and a shell. Old and rotten memories, just as thee, if much more handsome. The girl has her answer, though she realized it not, until this moment. She-I-we- needed but a moment's repose to think, and a fool's perspective to see."

The thief's crescent grin widened, baring too many teeth, and eyes of winter ice burned behind a mask of silver. "False dilemma do you preach, O worm. Wills are imposed, power is wielded, but truth cannot be passed down from the lonely king, the bloodstained general, the austere artist, the enlightened priest, sitting alone. The sundering of Totality was no error to be repaired. Behold! We are multitude, in all its hideousness and beauty!"
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At least, i think it does have similarities.
 
ShiroiYuki said:
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?
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I think you and many of the others in the same camp are missing a very important part of this Insight: what it does NOT say is that Ling Qi is always a good neighbor.

I can even see potential for a future Insight exploring the conflict between the duty of a good leader and the requirements for being a good neighbor
 
Regarding the moose I was never in favour of just murdering him (unless he's a cruel tyrant oppressing adorable snow leopards). He's sticking to his home and not bothering us. Say no to banditry.
Also it would be far more satisfying if he eventually acknowledges Zhengui as his Lord.
 
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I am fully in favour of adopting a grumpy moose uncle into the family.
He'll make an awesome babysitter.
After some persuasion.
 
Karthak Urzak said:
Regarding the moose I was never in favour of just murdering him (unless he's a cruel tyrant oppressing adorable snow leopards). He's sticking to his home and not bothering us. Say no to banditry.
Also it would be far more satisfying if he eventually acknowledges Zhengui as his Lord.
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I'm fully expecting moose lord to start doing stuff like using the river that feeds Snowblossom as toilets the moment Zhengui gets big enough to be able to claim sovereignty over his territory. That's the impression I got of him.
 
Adhoc vote count started by EternalObserver on May 17, 2024 at 7:06 AM, finished with 299 posts and 132 votes.
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barty said:
I'm fully expecting moose lord to start doing stuff like using the river that feeds Snowblossom as toilets the moment Zhengui gets big enough to be able to claim sovereignty over his territory. That's the impression I got of him.
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Then our precious baby boy will make him taste the dirt and teach him more neighborly manners. Yrs on Zhengui's future court:
Yrsillar said:
He will gather a pretty varied court as time goes on since he can fulfill an overall season neutral spirit king role once he is strong enough, embodying the overall natural cycles of the land
full spirits will probably come first with spirit beasts probably requiring some actual subjugation
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Karthak Urzak said:
Then our precious baby boy will make him taste the dirt and teach him more neighborly manners. Yrs on Zhengui's future court:
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Oh, that makes me think of a possible flashpoint: the moment the Piper agrees to be part of Zhengui's court, the moose will have a problem with that, since the Cathedral of Winds is rather firmly in its territory.
 
veekie said:
If you had the time you would be pretty rushed or unambitious not to fill out your Insight slots and grab all the low hanging fruits for Concept development before Cyan Breakthrough.
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no veekie. my question was specifically about LQ , Yanmei ,CRX tier geniuses and it was about additional insights beyond the required 10. I was wondering where is the point of diminishing returns for insights and whether there is a limit to insights at green. If the more insights at green is an advantage how much is it worth delaying cyan breakthrough is the question I am trying to get an answer to. if everything else being the same and assuming you have access to necessary resources what is better,10 insights and cyan at 20 or 20 insights and cyan at 30? . obviously that is a extreme example but do genius delay breakthrough by 2 3 years for a few more additional insights? suppressing breakthroughs for better foundation is a xianxia staple and iirc we did the same before on other realm breakthroughs even in destiny verse.
 
promethus said:
no veekie. my question was specifically about LQ , Yanmei ,CRX tier geniuses and it was about additional insights beyond the required 10. I was wondering where is the point of diminishing returns for insights and whether there is a limit to insights at green. If the more insights at green is an advantage how much is it worth delaying cyan breakthrough is the question I am trying to get an answer to. if everything else being the same and assuming you have access to necessary resources what is better,10 insights and cyan at 20 or 20 insights and cyan at 30? . obviously that is a extreme example but do genius delay breakthrough by 2 3 years for a few more additional insights? suppressing breakthroughs for better foundation is a xianxia staple and iirc we did the same before on other realm breakthroughs even in destiny verse.
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Unless there are some specific things you want to have in your foundation, I don't think its worth it. Additional insights are additional constraints, and at Cyan you still want to have wiggle room. It also increases the chance your insights will clash in the future. Having more insights is not always better
 
promethus said:
no veekie. my question was specifically about LQ , Yanmei ,CRX tier geniuses and it was about additional insights beyond the required 10. I was wondering where is the point of diminishing returns for insights and whether there is a limit to insights at green. If the more insights at green is an advantage how much is it worth delaying cyan breakthrough is the question I am trying to get an answer to. if everything else being the same and assuming you have access to necessary resources what is better,10 insights and cyan at 20 or 20 insights and cyan at 30? . obviously that is a extreme example but do genius delay breakthrough by 2 3 years for a few more additional insights? suppressing breakthroughs for better foundation is a xianxia staple and iirc we did the same before on other realm breakthroughs even in destiny verse.
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I do not remember exact count, but there is "hard" limit of I think 19 normal insights by green 8, or at least there was when we were introduced to the insight system. That might have been retconned, or the limit might be soft, or... Many more possible things there.
 
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mastigos said:
I think you and many of the others in the same camp are missing a very important part of this Insight: what it does NOT say is that Ling Qi is always a good neighbor.

I can even see potential for a future Insight exploring the conflict between the duty of a good leader and the requirements for being a good neighbor
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So we judge others and say they are bad because they don't follow "the rules" of this insight but LQ herself does not have to follow said rules ?
I feel like if LQ does take an insight like this, especially if we want her to change things, than she should live up to those rules and not just say "yeah, but It's ok for me to be a bad neighbor"
 
Ling Qi can be a bad neighbor if it's worth it. She just knows that she is making that choice.

After all, where in our insights does it say that it is better to be good than bad?
 
Blademaster said:
Unless there are some specific things you want to have in your foundation, I don't think its worth it. Additional insights are additional constraints, and at Cyan you still want to have wiggle room. It also increases the chance your insights will clash in the future. Having more insights is not always better
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Constraints, but they can also give more wiggle room, can't they? If I understand the rules correctly, if your insights aren't diverse enough you risk winding up like Renxiang's father, for example. He's only Indigo but he's almost like a robot. We've seen Prisms who have more rounded personalities.
 
Glau said:
Ling Qi can be a bad neighbor if it's worth it. She just knows that she is making that choice.

After all, where in our insights does it say that it is better to be good than bad?
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Ok, this argument was specifically debunked by Yrs. I am pro-insight, but we do not get to wiggle out of it. We have to at least try to be a good neighbor.
 
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