Currently we are basically draining two divine qi for every ten years, we didn't actually pay for those divine qi yet, but with the speed we are spending our lifespan, it is only a matter of time.
True, though to be fair our divine qi per turn is only going up, which means the later we pay the better off we are as it's a lower % of what we have per turn (and of course we presumably have reaped the rewards of using it for other things in the meantime).
...Of course something else to consider is that during the Apocalypse we WILL have losses. That will lead to fewer Keku, which means fewer people to pray.
On the other hand
we get proof we were right about the Apocalypse, and the Emperor will be fighting right with everyone else. So that will likely inspire more faith in the people we save, giving us more zealots that give more divine qi in general.
I wonder if we'll get more or less divine charges AFTER the Apocalypse, assuming we survive.
This means that feasibily, we can completely remove our lifepan needs, 2541 first steps currently, most ascend within two or three decades, and of those, something like 95% die, this means that merely by taking ten years from a person (most of which they wouldn't use), we can get 2541 lifespan, those will refresh themselves around every three decades, more if we took more lifespan from those we don't expect to survive tribulation.
Our burn life for power boost, our burn life for death energy boost, and probably more if we develop techniques that capitalize on those insights, that's a complete removal of all our lifespan needs.
And that's without refinement or specific study.
shame we can't convert lifespan into divine charges, or that would definitely help a LOT.
We probably don't even need to make this mandatory, and if we do we can indeed only have it done with cultivators right about to undergo tribulation.
Right now we're basically consuming 40 years of lifespan per turn to get the extra 4 APs. Being able to stop worrying about the lifespan for this means we can effectively "tax" our cultivators to save us 8 PERSONAL Divine Charges per turn. Right now that's basically half of the charges we get per turn (18-3 = 15), and would be enough to pay for plenty of divine insights, to accumulate rez-charges, to power up various divine insights during the Apocalypse when needed, and it's basically enough to pay for an extra core insight in two turns if we want to go for that (which we might IF the Apocalypse doesn't start on the very first turn it can).
oh, and of course we can also use the raw lifespan for a combat boost, which we could probably really REALLY use against enemy champions, IN PARTICULAR THE CHAOS PRIMARCHS. If we can spend Divine Qi and Lifespan like water, then I could see Shikatu being able to kill hundreds of Chaos Marines AND/OR a Primarch on his own. Especially if we can get more relevant combat insights first, which I think we're trying to do next turn.
...WAIT A SECOND... I HAD A THOUGHT!
This decade one hundred and seventy two first steps have braved the tribulation of them only five have broken through.
172 first steps tried, 5 succeeded (unknown amount of broken.
@uri can you give me an estimate on how many there are? ).
IF they gave us 10 years each, that's 172 years for us.
Let's say there's also 5 broken to go with the 5 that succeeded.
If we wanted to give them back the lifespan, it costs us 2 divine charges per 10 years. They're only 10 survivors, so... 20 divine charges.
nope, can't somehow make it net positive by repaying only the survivors.
...Unless... what if we gave our words we'd give back the lifespan
Only to the survivors of the Apocalypse?
We're expecting a LOT of people to dying. In that case we'd have to "refund" lifespan only to a small number of survivors, likely making it net positive for us. And in any case it would be a problem only for the future.
There's also another possibility, actually: People usually are less unhappy if they get a choice, even if the choice is obvious and in their favour I think.
What if we spinned the lifespan tax as the cost
for Kuvara/Okertatu's tribulation assistance? Okertatu wanted 1 divine charge (FROM THE EMPIRE, NOT PERSONAL) for 10 first steps. Kuvara might need even less than that.
If each of them pays us 10 or even 20 lifespan before undergoing the tribulation, it means we're basically payed 10 or 20 lifespan per divine charge invested in their tribulation.
We can basically have them pay for the tribulation assistance, basically, and while they use an empire-resource (divine charges from the empire), we get lifespan
directly usable by Shikatu for both conversion into APs and for temporary combat boosts.
That said, BEFORE we go for this, we should try and go for life insights and see if we can come up with a more efficient exchange rate through one of them. We can already use divine charges to extend someone's lifespan, an insight to trade lifespan directly with fewer losses should be viable. Or even one to convert lifespan into divine charges, maybe, though that one's more iffy.
