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

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[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth

Ling Qi has accepted that truth is important for good communication but absolute truth can and will make reaching a compromise more difficult in many case.
It's time to reflect on the place of truth in our way and mend it.

Also i feel like we have many choices to learn more about Isolation and exclusion like Shu ye, the Bai, the various comital clans...
But apart from Shenhua and Renxian, the Cai, there doesn't seem to be a lot of source on truth. (Yes there is Yuan he, the argent sect Master but we left the sect).
 
[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth

The other choice may pair well with out Borders talk/discussions, but we do need some experienced authority to talk to us about Truth. A view from a Master Liar, especially since we have small experience with Shenhua's Unvarnished Truth.
 
yrsillar said:
"The nature and theory of borders in geomantic terms," Ling Qi said after a long moments thought. "As a practitioner of dreamwalking, I have some instinctive understanding, but I think it would help me improve in many ways to dig deep into what it means to divide things."

"Is that so?" Meng Duyi said evenly, looking out over Snowblossom. "Your qi is one of attraction, acceptance. To me, it seems you have already decided that boundaries are things to be trampled over."

Ling Qi looked down."Community is, at the basest level defined by division, there are other factors, many of them, but… If I cannot come to understand and decide how that stands with my way, then my foundation is a thing of mud."
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You can't accept everything because if you do so it's not very easy to bear of Revolutionary Mom's Wife showed LQ.

yrsillar said:
"My uncle was that sort of man, wasn't he?"

She grimaced, bowing her head. It was true that Meng Delun's battle with the general, the wild venting of his power had lodged this thought in her head like a weed, and she could not dispute it. For there to be an 'Us' there must in turn be a 'them'.
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He went to deep into making an Us and an Them but for all that he did that he had a point.

yrsillar said:
"Is it truly impossible to reach Sovereignty, without trampling others?"

She asked the question that had lingered since her tribulation with the Nightmare of the Emerald Seas. There she had found a work around to the challenge, forced a third option where only two were presented. Take from Sixiang or be taken from by them.

But was that really always an option? It was a solution in the moment, but it left the root question unanswered.

He glanced her way. "It is. I find it strange a girl your age would ask, even moreso one who would speak the words you have. No, every moment a human lives they impose their will on the world. You may, and should try to be kind, to take minimally. But strife and conflict are intrinsic to the imperfect world the Mother and Father created. Beasts hunt and compete for space, grasses and trees strangle out competition with their roots and shade, men disagree over who shall stand where and have what. You have no issue enforcing your will and your sisters will upon the spirits of winter here."

"They can't be allowed to rampage and blow in as they wish across Shenglu, arranging beneficial rites is the most peaceful solution."

"It is, and yet the empty hungering whiteout, the weeping matron of the glacier, they would, given their will, rampage and devour," Meng Duyi said mildly.

"If you reject the notion of achieving oneness, of abandoning desire to reach a better state, and you do. You are no follower of the Dreaming Way… then why even ask this? So long as people are people, you will always trample the will and want of some in favor of others. As you said, the cost of multitude is multitude."

Ling Qi squeezed her eyes shut. He was right, she knew. She did not want to be tyrannical. She wished to achieve through the word rather than the sword.

But she already knew it was pointless folly to pretend that one could live without the sword, if one wished to hold anything, defend anything, advance anything.

"It was a foolish musing," Ling Qi admitted aloud. "I have merely been grappling with thoughts on where the line is."
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LQ very much doesn't want to be a tyrant and has seen a lot of Sovereigns and worries about becoming like that. Also he seems happy that she isn't fully drinking the Dreaming Way juice just taking a couple of lessons.

yrsillar said:
"I will not achieve enlightenment in this life, but my pride is too much," Meng Duyi replied. "I work to winnow my desires every day, in order to achieve more harmonious projects, with which more people can take the time to contemplate their spirits rather than suffering in privation. And for that I will not grasp that crown, my way is unsuited for it. This old man has foolishly pursued two hares, and for that he will capture neither. But, to teach is an Elder's prerogative, whatever mistakes they have made."

Ling Qi frowned, considering his words. Was Sovereignty not doing the impossible though? If one said 'you cannot' it was the prerogative of the ascended to say 'I Can'.

Which fundamentally defied and trampled the desire of the one who said 'you cannot'.

Frustrating, but… he was most likely right.

Even if she intended to get a second opinion soon, to quell and focus these thoughts.

"Thank you, teacher, for indulging my foolish questions," Ling Qi said, clasping her hands and bowing her head.
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Sovereignty makes one inclined towards conflict and refusal of limitations which is awesome but as mentioned leads to conflict.

yrsillar said:
"It is not onerous," Meng Duyi said. "Borders then, the nature of that which divides, of categorization and… multitude. I will prepare lessons for this, when you return from your journey. Though we have only a few short months before you march to war."

She grimaced. "...Is it even worth it to beg when we will be interrupted so?"

Meng Duying rapped his cane on the ground. "It is the observation of my ancestors that focusing wholly on war twists the spirit. It was the madness of the Strife which made the Xi what they were, and whose bloodthirst saw the rise of the Hui. Contemplations of other things will not dull the blades you are sharpening."

She bowed once again.
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That's a good point to much war is bad for the Soul.

yrsillar said:
What are your thoughts on the Crucible of Peoples, teacher, the student is curious.

Sixiang cast her a surprised look, but didn't say anything, kneeling at her side. Their qi was coiled tightly, ready to scatter, to fly them from this place with all haste.

When the world groans for change, when traditions become shackles, it births such engines. It names itself the Crucible today. In the past it bore other names. In the future, it will bear still more. I am beyond fear, but I am not beyond pity, for the person who hollowed themselves and filled what was left with the hells purging fires.

Study your foe, and pray that you need not give rise to its successor to claw your future into being.
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Makes sense that he'd pity someone who is like that.

yrsillar said:
The student has forgotten, has chosen to forget. You have earned the answer, you merely hesitate at its implication.

Choice is pain. Choice is strife. Choice is disunity. Choice is life, the grand dream of the Nameless.

As they had under his mantle, facing Brother Darksong, Ling Qi, Sixiang, and Huisheng spoke as one. She did know. She did, so why…

The sword is unkind. Its cruelty is difficult to bear. You have been immersed in the flame of surety, a Sovereign's annihilating intent. What child would not shy away from what caused them such pain.

She grimaced, looking down. He was right. She had turned her thoughts toward peace toward harmonizing peoples and spirits with such abandon… but she had already chosen the path of Choice, when she defied the Nightmares conundrum.

And there were consequences to that. They too were hers.

Meng Duyi's words itched in her ears. He was right. She had rejected the fundamental premise of the Dreaming Way, that the path to transcendence via the sublimation of desire was worth pursuing.

No, that really wasn't something she could countenance.
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Choices have power and LQ has already chosen to study Choice.

[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth

I feel like LQ is already really good at the other stuff and getting the pov of the person who got her to think about Choice and want damaged her truth and sincerity stuff would be great.
 
[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth

We haven't had enough digging on this topic IMO, while the other one has been explored decently for a while now?
 
[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth
 
[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth

I think this would be interesting given the teacher.
 
[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth
 
[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth
the other one deals with a long-term question that will probably be the defining problem LQ will build her way as an answer to. But before we that we need to get the foundations right so this is the best choice for now
 
[X] The teachers meditations on Choice and Sincerity, and their interactions with Truth
 
[X] The teachers meditations on Exclusion and Isolation and their interaction with Community

Huisheng is really the resident expert on being isolated from community since it is the culmination of his story.
 
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