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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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[X] The lesson of the roots

I think I rather learn of this first. Seems more interesting and I like the narrative of learning and accepting the existence of the bad, yet still choosing to move forward
 
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yrsillar said:
Shu Yue nodded, and she did her beast to ignore the unsettling crackling of shifting vertebrae. "There is a unique opportunity. You have mastered the maintenance of the self. If the General did not burn you away, only a clash with the most terrible lurkers of the liminal, or a failed invasion of a higher realms mind will break your self."

Tap tap went their fingers, the sound dry and papery.

"Or a moment of carelessness."
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Always good to have a solid sense of self. Which will be especially nice with our new persistence art. No matter the burns, no matter the wounds, we will persist.
 
[X] the lesson of the palace
We thread close to the dream of Tsu the diviner. Let's see what his distant disciples think of the Emerald Sea.
 
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Alectai said:
Roots, yeah, it fits better with Ling Qi's narrative, which is why it's the one that got the most glazing. I don't think we're quite ready for Palace of One yet.
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I think we are ready but its lessons will be more interesting learned when we are closer to its level. I'd rather explore it than be guided through.

That said, if we take the lesson of the roots here, I think there's a lot of narrative momentum pushing toward Ling Qi doing something terrible during the war arc, not just seeing it. We had the successful summit which committed to the slow but distant grinding away of the cloud tribes, followed by giving one of the Meng to the Bai, followed by learning a bit of the depth that the sect fell to with Kohatu, and then directly learning how to carve away at what someone is in the reflections of the worst that the Emerald Seas has had and guided by a victim of it. We keep stepping closer to the atrocities all around us, and choosing this here feels like it sets us up to commit one.
 
Hope is the terrible lash, the dream of impossible ambitions being only just beyond the touch of one's fingertips.

I would say we just understand Hope, because it's the vision that sets the future into motion. Hope is what drives cultivators to do what they do, it's what gives CRX and Ling Qi the Will to proceed even knowing that the fruits of their labor will only be enjoyed by those that come after them.

To see Hope, and how it can be bent and twisted, will give insight into the flaws inherent in the use of Hope as well as how to strengthen our own Dreams against such twisting in turn.

I would as let us witness the dreams of ancient masters rather than the charnel house ruins of their pretensions.
 
adaer said:
I think we are ready but its lessons will be more interesting learned when we are closer to its level. I'd rather explore it than be guided through.

That said, if we take the lesson of the roots here, I think there's a lot of narrative momentum pushing toward Ling Qi doing something terrible during the war arc, not just seeing it. We had the successful summit which committed to the slow but distant grinding away of the cloud tribes, followed by giving one of the Meng to the Bai, followed by learning a bit of the depth that the sect fell to with Kohatu, and then directly learning how to carve away at what someone is in the reflections of the worst that the Emerald Seas has had and guided by a victim of it. We keep stepping closer to the atrocities all around us, and choosing this here feels like it sets us up to commit one.
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Personally I rather hope we are forced to do something terrible but necessary to others.
We already have that whole self sacrificial Spiel down pad, now let us learn what it means to make others bleed for our path.
 
Roots are interesting to me because of the breaker of ways aspect involved with it, plus expanding her abilities to the realm of nightmares.

If we fought Lilling now for instance we literally have only one way of winning that fight (rather than just fleeing). We know how to break her way, expanding on that could be fun.

[X] The lesson of the roots
 
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[ ] the lesson of the palace
This one is more appealing to me. More orientated towards building, rather than the root's destruction.
 
Personally the Palace interests me a lot more but I do get the vibe that it could be more interesting to do later. Cause I feel like there's no real way we don't eventually explore Palace of One and its legacy in the future. Cause Ling Qi will have to meditate on her own legacy and how people will look and take up her path after she's long gone.
 
Huh. Tough vote.

So, working on the assumption that this builds on Thief of Names. Roots can definitely be interesting. During the summit, Ling Qi realised that breaking something in Liling would break her too, so getting guidance on how exactly to do that within Ling Qi's Way sounds like a good opportunity.
Palace also sounds fun. I've always liked the idea or Ling Qi ascending into Palace of One, so exploring it more would help see if it's feasible in the first place.

Both of them provide useful tools for the Ith war too. The Other areas pretty connected and communal, so learning yet another way to disconnect them from their hive minds is good.

In the same vein, learning how to turn hope and motivation into weapons would be good against any military. We also have that tech from PLR, either Joyous Toast or Lunatic Cresdendo that works on similar ish principles? Except it's belief instead of hope. Maybe learning about Palace of One can help us build on that and tie that tech back into the narrative since we're basically reworking our whole kit.

There's also the fact that Shu Yue is taking us. Because of that, Roots may be better if we want to maximise lessons. Palace of One is cool, but if we could, I'd like Ling Qi to explore it by herself.

So, I guess I'm for roots. I hope Sixiang would be with us by then so we can go with them and explore their Nightmare side... And that Grandpa Nightmare lurks there, so that we can say hello!
 
An interesting argument I've seen on the discord is that it is questionable whether the thread can be trusted with the implied dark and heavy topics involved in going through the roots.
 
NotteBoy97 said:
Personally the Palace interests me a lot more but I do get the vibe that it could be more interesting to do later. Cause I feel like there's no real way we don't eventually explore Palace of One and its legacy in the future. Cause Ling Qi will have to meditate on her own legacy and how people will look and take up her path after she's long gone.
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That future investigation is easier to do with a stronger foundation in the topic, though. Especially since anything that comes up here needs to come up again repeatedly for structural reasons, which means that not only does doing Roots mean missing out on the ongoing reflection on what we learn about the Palace of One here, it also means that the ongoing Roots reflections from this lesson take up narrative space that makes it harder to fit in future reflections on the Palace.

Personally I'm treating this vote as us only really getting one of these, and in that light I'm way more invested in the story of the Palace of One.
 
Aliya said:
An interesting argument I've seen on the discord is that it is questionable whether the thread can be trusted with the implied dark and heavy topics involved in going through the roots.
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I think this thread could handle them acceptably if not perfectly, especially since I don't expect it to be overly gratuitous. Obviously the subject matter is dark even when addressed through implication and metaphor, but I think anything tonally consistent with the story would be workable. Personally I more wonder whether we want to handle those themes and topics. Even when it isn't handled poorly, it's a lot.
 
Orkus Majorkus said:
I KNEW IT, SABERS ARE KATANAS
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I think it's an art error. Yrs said on the discord that Renxiang's saber is of the fuckhuge variety.

Yrsillar said:
Cai sabers are explicitly the big lad one in the middle there with the wide blade
regular es sabers are more like the dadao and the one to its right, short thick blades developed from tools for hacking through underbrush and stuff
I've always described her as wielding it like a big two hander
and the Cai Saber style is about relentless advance and crushing unstoppable force :p
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Edit: He said this is about right:
 
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NotteBoy97 said:
Personally the Palace interests me a lot more but I do get the vibe that it could be more interesting to do later. Cause I feel like there's no real way we don't eventually explore Palace of One and its legacy in the future. Cause Ling Qi will have to meditate on her own legacy and how people will look and take up her path after she's long gone.
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We don't always get the "laters" for things we want to do later. Personally unless explicitly told otherwise I find it safer to treat every vote as if it is the last chance for all options involved, because there is a significant chance it is.
 
I am leaning Roots. We were asked to promise last we went to Xiangmen not the explore there, and everywhere else was fair game. And who knows with the War and the fief stuff when we will get another chance at this...

We are finally tall enough for this ride, let's find out what all the hype is about.
 
I somehow feel like going to the Palace of One is… premature? That kind of feels like some form of dreamwalking capstone, best explored when LQ is nearing Cyan and the limit of her ability to dreamwalk as a Green realm.
 
Hmm Palace of the One is very tempting, seems like she was in a similar path as far as providing a route to unity where we're aiming for communicating.
 
True, but the Palace of One failed. I would like to see what the failure of the Palace created rather than the ideal the Palace failed to achieve.
 
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