[X] keep it, we could learn form it. (gain a special advancement dice that might give you exciting advancements and a large amount of advancement points but might pose a danger).
[x] Keep one. (and gain its corresponding action)
-[X] the lord of fate.
did we get anything out of the quick look at the books and sword? Do we expect the books and swords to be dangerous if, say, we store them away for a few turns?
Do we think we'd have an easier time reading the books AFTER ascending to the next step?
did we learn anything about the demonic cultivators during the other 8 raids? how did they use prisoners, where did they learn to cultivate, anything else of note about demons or gods?
How is the knowledge we got from them actually helping our first step disciples?
[X] keep it, we could learn form it. (gain a special advancement dice that might give you exciting advancements and a large amount of advancement points but might pose a danger). [X] keep both
[X] keep it, we could learn form it. (gain a special advancement dice that might give you exciting advancements and a large amount of advancement points but might pose a danger).
[X] Keep one. (and gain its corresponding action)
-[X] the lord of fate.
eh, I doubt that's much of a risk honestly. Our disciples seem like the kind to follow orders when it really matters, and we can either keep them under guard or with us all the time.
did we get anything out of the quick look at the books and sword? Do we expect the books and swords to be dangerous if, say, we store them away for a few turns?
The danger comes from trying to read them so locking them away reduces the danger they pose but people can get tempted or think that they wont be affected and try to read them so the longer they are around the more chance someone will read them.
Some were just killed after torture, some were eaten some were sacrificed in elaborate rituals. And many more, they are demonic cultivators things weren't pretty.
The only thing you found about gods is that they worship four different ones but nothing else about them.
Its mostly an efficiency thing, they use a lot more energy at a time then you and your disciples did in the first step. And while the results is shit and the method despicable you can both learn what not to do and use the things they learned about the basics to get more out of each drop of energy.
[X] keep it, we could learn form it. (gain a special advancement dice that might give you exciting advancements and a large amount of advancement points but might pose a danger).
[X] keep both
[X] keep both. (gain two emperor actions, one for each book and costing 1AP each).
[X] keep it, we could learn form it. (gain a special advancement dice that might give you exciting advancements and a large amount of advancement points but might pose a danger).
I'll think I'll close the vote, I'm about 50% done with the end of the turn might be done today but most likely tomorrow.
Scheduled vote count started by uri on Mar 2, 2024 at 4:58 PM, finished with 9 posts and 6 votes.
[X] keep it, we could learn form it. (gain a special advancement dice that might give you exciting advancements and a large amount of advancement points but might pose a danger).
Another decade has passed and with it passing you're inching ever closer to the apocalypse.
With the help of your divination, you estimate that the apocalypse will start anywhere between 8-23 decades (turns) from now.
As your information about the crises is almost nonexistent you cannot estimate how prepared you are for the coming crisis. But the being you saw in your visions does not spell good fortune.
Without knowing for how long you must fight it is difficult to say if your supplies will last but at least they'll last longer than they did yesterday.
You can only hope that the actions in the past decade have pushed you closer to survive
-[X] Mines and quarries.
The first project undertaken in the quest to supply the endless hunger of your empire was the expansion of your current mining enterprises, an easy enough prospect which only required assigning funds for local authorities and soon enough many mines had seen new shafts dug.
The second project was the opening of new mines, a far more difficult prospect as it often required the building of entire communities' wholesale. The focus has been on building open pit mines to help with the mental difficulties Keku experience deep in the earth.
And yet not all veins and martials could be mined through the open pit method and some actual deep mines had to be constructed although the use of prisoners to break the initial construction has proven efficient.
As a nice bonus this wholesale creation of new villages has allowed you to choose veins that are relatively close to the new roads constructed, increasing their output.
Another upside has been seen later this decade with the invention of the steam engine.
While a recent invention that has not yet seen much use, the expansion of mines has allowed a clerk to take initiative and put them to use in pumping water out of flooded mines increasing the efficiency of mining even if it had increased the cost of running the mines.
+8 base economic power, +2 base economic power due to advantageous positioning of the new mines, the usage of steam engines in the mines has pushed the spread of technology and the tech level multiplayer has risen by 0.1.
-[X] The house of God.
All over the empire new construction has taken place.
New spires have been raised towered the sky's as large cathedrals were completed to allow the population to worship their new religion in a centrally located place.
To allow them to worship you.
In the cities those cathedrals are massive constructions made of marble and adorned with master artwork, from exinite paintings to magnificent statues to colorful glass the wealth they displayed was truly staggering for the common Keku.
In the far-flung towns though the construction took a humbler note, still showing the wealth of the empire and emperor yet not drowning you in it they attempted to become a community center rather than this distinct place where you go to pry in.
To great successes as soon enough most keku in the towns have begun attending various events at least once a month.
True most didn't believe but for every ten that came to partake of the community established, one would return as a believer.
Cathedrals constructed, costing 10 effective economic power to maintain but increasing the spread and favor of your religion especially in the smaller towns.
-[X] water for the cities.
Wells, aqueducts and reservoirs all this and more you have expanded throughout your empire.
With the level of effort invested in this prospect water has become much easier to come by.
Sourcing the large amount of water needed for industrial uses has both been harder and easier, harder in that large volumes that must be moved and expended easier in that it has no need to be drinking water and as such there are more sources that it could be drawn from.
There have been some protests by local clerks about unsustainable practices but such cases are minor and easily fixed at this stage.
Water availability has risen, increasing general health and giving +2 base economic power due greater commercial availability.
-[X] education for the countryside
More schools, more students, more teachers.
At this time you've hit a point where more teachers are graduating their courses then you're using which has the beneficial effect of increasing teacher quality as actual competition is introduced, rather than the empire hiring any and all qualified -and many not- teachers.
The expansion of the city education network has gone as expected. Recent changes in the importance of education have seen large investment in private schooling. You have some reservation about it as they only induct wealthy -or semi wealthy- students and pay far more for the best teachers and such practices would inevitably lead to inequality and elitism.
Yet you quiet them down for why does it matter if the wealthy buy themselves their education when their seat in the public system would then go to someone who wouldn't have gotten the opportunity otherwise, you'll deal with this problem when all the children of the empire can receive the education they are entitled to.
Expanding to the countryside on the other hand has seen setback after setback mostly owing to the nature of the inhabitants.
Different from their city dwelling folks there is very little apparent use of education for a farmer son other than leaving his home for a good job in the city, or at least that is the opinion held by most of the countryside.
Such an opinion has seen great resistance to a systemized education being implemented and while you could have forced it, there is little upside to doing so, so you've compromised.
In every village -the larger ones at least- there would be a teacher hired by the empire that would teach the basics of reading and writing to young children and be available to teach more advanced subjects for older children should they seek them out on their own time.
This does mean that education quality is severely lacking but it serves as a foundation for later expansion and at least attempts to close the gap between the city and village admittedly to very little effect.
Medium education system has its maintenance increased to 85 EFEP and progress toward educated populace III is made, further due to both the expansion of the public schooling and private ones and population growth the threshold for another advancement dice has increased. Bringing your base total to 2 (3 with the imperial university institution).
-[X] An egg nests.
Little has actually gone wrong this past decade so most of the funds gathered here were used to help in the reconstruction from the demonic cultivator's attacks.
Slightly faster recovering from the demonic attack.
-[X] Investment opportunities.
Investment is as ever a slow game, waiting for the right opportunity and tipping the balance in favor of the creation of new businesses with the amount of funds at their disposal little growth was actually achieved yet growth is growth.
And stable growth is the best kind there is.
+2 base economic power.
-[X] the arteries of trade.
Construction this last decade has gone largely according to plan.
With ever more roads reaching their conclusion and the construction of new ones beginning.
The emperor road has also reached its conclusion, a road that stretches from one side of the empire to the other and from which many many more roads are planned to branch from.
About a third done, +5 base economic power. -[X] the connecting thread
For a while now you know that thoughts and intent possess power.
It was something you suspected contributed to Qi manipulation.
It was something that was proven when divine Qi was discovered.
And now it has been revealed that it possesses hidden depth that you still do not know.
For the one connection between all sixty five places of power has been stories, legends.
And while once you would have difficulty determining what came first the legend or the place of power.
With your knowledge about the power of belief it was natural to conclude that the legend came first and out of the belief of those who heard and spread it has the place of power been born.
This has some interesting implications both for the creation of new places of power and the empowering of current ones.
It has also raised questions regarding the interaction of divine Qi with places of power and if it's even possible for a mortal to contribute both to a place of power and to the generation of divine Qi.
knowledge, unlocks different actions.
-[X] Looking for enlightenment
Around the end of the decade you receive a particular almanac.
Authored by your daughter this almanac details the interactions of concepts with one another and their resistance for the creation of new pillars.
This almanac is mostly useless for your current third steps as it consists only of third step interactions, and such is not terribly helpful for those of the third pillar or above.
But should you get any more third steps this almanac would see their speed of cultivation rise by up to one hundred percent up to the third pillar. as they may plan for more harmonious concepts.
Gain concepts almanac I, which lowers the number of turns it takes to cultivate a pillar (up to the third pillar) to 2 instead of 4.
-[X] traveling demigods
-[X] tour the empire
This last decade both you and your disciples have traveled the breadth and length of your empire with but one mission.
To show the populace the might of the cultivator to drive them to see you as gods.
This demonstration of supernatural might has been effective.
Your nascent religion went from something practiced by a few dozen to almost ten percent of the empire following.
Unfortunately such rapid expansion has seen the favor of worship drop, which seems to have significantly impacted the amount of divine Qi gained ,as the past decade has seen the supply of divine Qi only tripled despite the fact that the religion has seen a growth in membership of well over a hundred times.
The total divine Qi gained per turn has increased to 6 (out of which you get 1.5 a turn).
Advancements.
A new era has dawned upon the world, the era of steam.
With the invention of the steam engine power unimaginable has become available for the common keku.
Truly you live in interesting times.
Tech level rises to 5, all advancement degrades a level. Tech multiplayer rises to 4.5.
Your tech level has increased and now new and improved tools are at your disposal but it takes time for the advancements to spread across the entire breadth of the empire. This is represented by your tech multiplayer not jumping straight to 5 but taking several turns to get there.
At base you get half of the progress remaining (so from 4 you go to 4.5 then to 4.75 then to 4.87 and so on) but investing heavily in projects that utilize the new technology increases that, other than that positive events can also help.
Cultivator reports.
This decade has seen the training and awakening of two hundred and thirty-four new first step cultivators.
A single first step cultivator has fallen in battle against the demonic forces and has been brought to rest.
One hundred and six first step cultivators have attempted tribulation of which four succeeded.
128 new first step cultivators
4 new second step cultivators.
Faction actions
Five sects: this decade has seen the five sects focus on the training of their disciples following a few battles with the demonic faction and only awakened twenty or so first step cultivators.
Well I'm not entirely happy with all the sections here but perfect is the enemy of good enough. turn 6 will probably be out during the weekend as I'm busy until then.
Feel free to ask questions if you have any, and I'll hopefully edit the sheets either later today or tomorrow.
We would probably be best served in repeating our general course from this turn, invest in cultivation speed and divine q, we can invest one of our personal actions in fostering the region and the rest will go to insights.
If nothing critical happens, this leaves us with four cultivation actions which will double for eight insights, I think we should put two to water and fire again.
The rest I am not sure about, those that interest me most are life, air and earth, we can also possibly put double investment in water since both water insights are amazing and we might want to increase the chances of getting them both, the water insight that double our action as long as they align is critical.
We would probably be best served in repeating our general course from this turn, invest in cultivation speed and divine q, we can invest one of our personal actions in fostering the region and the rest will go to insights.
I think both artifice and earth hearing are things we are best delaying for after core formation, likewise, the insights spree may give us traits that will grant us advantages there.
Divine qi might be worth the investment though, with the connecting threads possibly pointing out to it being possible to use it in the empowerment of a place of power.
But a major reason I find investing in insights in particular more advantageous now is that we get double the progress for insights.
I think both artifice and earth hearing are things we are best delaying for after core formation, likewise, the insights spree may give us traits that will grant us advantages there.
Divine qi might be worth the investment though, with the connecting threads possibly pointing out to it being possible to use it in the empowerment of a place of power.
But a major reason I find investing in insights in particular more advantageous now is that we get double the progress for insights.
+8 base economic power, +2 base economic power due to advantageous positioning of the new mines, the usage of steam engines in the mines has pushed the spread of technology and the tech level multiplayer has risen by 0.1
Cathedrals constructed, costing 10 effective economic power to maintain but increasing the spread and favor of your religion especially in the smaller towns.
Good. And hey, it still tripled, and there's plenty of room for improvement. 10% in a decade is nothing to scoff at, and there's still 90% left to hope for, and that's not counting the potential for developing rituals that would work out better to generate divine QI, or just the population growth due to prosperity and lowering of mortality rates.
Good. We'll need to keep an eye on water scarcity problems, a big advantage of us being the emperor is that yes, we CAN keep in mind negative externalities and consider the "hidden" costs of, for example, pollution.
We might also be eventually able to do something like developing purification arrays for when pollutants just can't be dealt with any other way. It would be expensive as Cultivators' time is an extremely valuable resource, but we could for example centralize some types of refining processes to reduce the number of such arrays or alchemical products (or cultivators with useful techniques) required later on.
A big advantage we'll have on basically any other xianxia setting is that we ARE improving our tech. Most xianxia settings basically get stuck in pre-steam tech outside for qi-dependent stuff... So there's some interesting possibilities in combining high tech and "magic".
The expansion of the city education network has gone as expected. Recent changes in the importance of education have seen large investment in private schooling. You have some reservation about it as they only induct wealthy -or semi wealthy- students and pay far more for the best teachers and such practices would inevitably lead to inequality and elitism.
Yet you quiet them down for why does it matter if the wealthy buy themselves their education when their seat in the public system would then go to someone who wouldn't have gotten the opportunity otherwise, you'll deal with this problem when all the children of the empire can receive the education they are entitled to.
Fair enough. There's nothing inherently wrong with private education, as long as public education is of acceptable quality anyway.
Who knows, if we approve of it maybe we could even offer scholarships to some of them... or we could improve some of the public ones to be of Even better quality
Different from their city dwelling folks there is very little apparent use of education for a farmer son other than leaving his home for a good job in the city, or at least that is the opinion held by most of the countryside.
Such an opinion has seen great resistance to a systemized education being implemented and while you could have forced it, there is little upside to doing so, so you've compromised.
In every village -the larger ones at least- there would be a teacher hired by the empire that would teach the basics of reading and writing to young children and be available to teach more advanced subjects for older children should they seek them out on their own time.
This does mean that education quality is severely lacking but it serves as a foundation for later expansion and at least attempts to close the gap between the city and village admittedly to very little effect.
Admittedly people have yet to realize that tech leads to urbanisation as there will be less of a need for farmers, so initial resistance to this makes sense.
That said with most Ketka being able to fly decent distances easily, there's space for a middle ground where it's easier to centralize into towns, and then you can just fly to the actual farmland in the morning...
Well, this will mostly "solve" itself. In time they'll recognize the value of education, or they'll just move to the cities. They can't complain we didn't offer the chance to get an education at least.
It's kinda weird, now that I think about it. Wasn't there an undercurrent of "we want education too, they're only keeping it for the cities" before?
We might want to accelerate a bit maybe..
Then again our current lowest hanging fruits are probably spreading steam tech faster and spreading the faith
With your knowledge about the power of belief it was natural to conclude that the legend came first and out of the belief of those who heard and spread it has the place of power been born.
Makes sense. I wonder if stories of specific powers of ours might strengthen those powers directly... But I suppose divine QI kinda sorta does tha already.
We really need to improve the odds of tribulation for our disciples.
Maybe if we get that 2x effect at some point we can use a turn to solve the various problems we have there. The half third step guy, the broken, tribulation research...
Good, I wonder how long it will take us for us to reach combustion engines and electricity... I think it should take 15 points, so we should get there definitely before the apocalypse even in the worst case scenario I think.
Now that we have new tech available weight want to raise the incentives for new discoveries. There's quite a few things we could benefit from, like trains, better textiles, steamships, plenty of chemical or metallurgical discoveries...
Still too low. We really need to improve the rates of rank up.
Or, you know, research how to better help the "Broken". If we can ensure people that fail the Tribulation will suffer less, that's also an incentive for more people to try, especially when they'd be approaching the end of their lifespan otherwise.
Keep in mind the bonus might go up if, for example, we get that other *2 water insight. In that case we might be better off using at least some of the normal actions on not cultivation stuff, like research.
Well, we obviously need to see what options we're offered. There's a lot of possibilities.
Education III Is not that far off, roads are in progress, faith is spreading with lots of room to grow, there's room for many discoveries here if we incentivize research and inventions...
And of course for cultivation there's getting more insights, another pillar, various avenues of research...
Good. And hey, it still tripled, and there's plenty of room for improvement. 10% in a decade is nothing to scoff at, and there's still 90% left to hope for, and that's not counting the potential for developing rituals that would work out better to generate divine QI, or just the population growth due to prosperity and lowering of mortality rates.
With the new connecting thread, well, maybe we can make the religion more effective with addition of holy sites and holy days.
The energy isn't near at max output, considering an increase from 1% to 10% just tripped it, specific things may draw stronger reactions and thus generate additional energy.
Still too low. We really need to improve the rates of rank up.
Or, you know, research how to better help the "Broken". If we can ensure people that fail the Tribulation will suffer less, that's also an incentive for more people to try, especially when they'd be approaching the end of their lifespan otherwise.
That's complicated, we will undeniably have easier time doing so post core formation, but the earlier we do it, the more cultivations advance.
Maybe healing pillar will give us senses that make it easier (and may be beneficial in cultivation improving medicine in general), so it might tilt things to go with more healing.
On the other hand, increased durability from earth will almost certainly be helpful in the tribulation.
And the sheets have been updated, Ive noticed that i've actually used the gross number of cultivators gained this turn and not the net so that has been fixed.
It was a city problem, in the "education is for the rich and well off and not for the poor" kind, -of course that wasn't actually true but people are going to people- the countryside was mostly insulated from this.
You shouldn't worry about this too much, as this is mostly a problem that is going to solve itself -especially when considering your culture choice- in short order.
Good. We'll need to keep an eye on water scarcity problems, a big advantage of us being the emperor is that yes, we CAN keep in mind negative externalities and consider the "hidden" costs of, for example, pollution.
It will continue to be my opinion that the fact your character can live so long is the biggest advantage cultivation brings you.
Even setting aside the fact that you can plan for the tully long term with the decant expectation that you'll see the fruits of your labor, the stability it brings the empire to have a semi immortal emperor cannot be denied.
There is nothing inherently wrong with it but your character is a teacher at heart and kinda hates the fact that education might be gatekeept by wealth.
Or, you know, research how to better help the "Broken". If we can ensure people that fail the Tribulation will suffer less, that's also an incentive for more people to try, especially when they'd be approaching the end of their lifespan otherwise.
That is indeed something that is locked behind such projects, there is also the possibility of healing some enough for them to attempt tribulation once more although their chances would be lower than normal and it's fairly late in that tree of actions.
We already seen a bunch, and I am not sure they are particularly attractive.
We already have better teaching ability and a connection to our students, what more could we want? We are better off exploring the connection in most situations I think.
It will continue to be my opinion that the fact your character can live so long is the biggest advantage cultivation brings you.
Even setting aside the fact that you can plan for the tully long term with the decant expectation that you'll see the fruits of your labor, the stability it brings the empire to have a semi immortal emperor cannot be denied.
EVERYONE cn be sure of the stability of leadership, of the fact we'll keep both the long term (no change of policies or short sighted decisions due to election days) and the big picture in mind (so no super-pollution or negative externalities in general because the costs are paid by someone else)
An enlightened dictator/tyrant IS the best type of leader. Of course in the real world there's a very low chance of such a person getting to power, staying in power, AND not be corrupted by the power. Here it's a bit more likely, and in any case nothing really is capable of stopping us.
I'm kind of reminded of My Little Pony, actually. They had a single "Princess", basically a demigod, in charge for more than a thousand years, and in fact they've been mostly peaceful years. A bit stagnant,admittedly, but that was a kid show, and in any case our tech pursuit will help avoiding that.
There is nothing inherently wrong with it but your character is a teacher at heart and kinda hates the fact that education might be gatekeept by wealth.
That is indeed something that is locked behind such projects, there is also the possibility of healing some enough for them to attempt tribulation once more although their chances would be lower than normal and it's fairly late in that tree of actions.
If we use a personal action to have diseased people brought to us that nobody else can heal, we can heal them ourselves.
It's an easy source of miracles, and a way to likely gain zealots.
Just to get an idea, do other cultivators know this technique? How many people can be healed by us that NOBODY ELSE can heal? And how much time does it take us, is it seconds, minutes, hours..?
If it's quick enough it might not even take a full action.
Effect: enhance the body natural healing to heal, the worse the injury and the higher the boost the higher the cost. May use the medicine skill to heal injuries that the body may not be able to heal on its own.
We already have better teaching ability and a connection to our students, what more could we want? We are better off exploring the connection in most situations I think.
Counter: we can only (easily) develop more insights while in the third step, while we can train the insight abilities (like earth whispers) also while in the next step.
I want to at least have another round of teaching insights, but then again I mostly see no reason not to go AT LEASST three insights per pillar, and possibly 4 or even 5. After all divine QI and doubling help a lot with getting them easily, even if we don't get the other doubling insight again.
Still, I can accept leaving teaching for later
We definitely want to at least go for earth, water and fire. That's 3 APs (6 insights) already.
Reading at least will become more popular in the country side once there are more books and newspapers as there is little entertainment at night so if you buy last weeks newspaper on your weekly trip to the city to sell food you can read it aloud at night as a form of entertainment.
Reading at least will become more popular in the country side once there are more books and newspapers as there is little entertainment at night so if you buy last weeks newspaper on your weekly trip to the city to sell food you can read it aloud at night as a form of entertainment.
