I guess that makes sense. Still, it seems like an argument from a fanfic I read. Qi isn't the strongest, just the simplest. That is, even a complete idiot can use Qi effectively, and being/fighting smarter than your opponent isn't always going to help you if they're getting a +100 to their combat rolls. The main disadvantage it has it that it doesn't do any one thing very well, it's just okay at everything, which means you have to train like hell if you want to do something you haven't already got the basics down for, and you don't always have the time for that. Magic and Sight have weaknesses of their own, sure, mostly in the form of how much longer doing anything impressive takes with them, but it's hard to see how they aren't better when the first lets you mind control people if they let their guard down for a split second even if they have a 10 million PL advantage on you, and the second let's you see the future, as in, that's the most common ability for people with Sight, at least among Garenhulder Seers.
I mean, how much time did Dandeer actually need for her 'literally everyone is my slave now' ritual? Sure, it was (supposedly, we really only have Dandelor's word on that) a decade in the making, but she wasn't exactly without duties, and the Spirit Bomb is the closest equivalent Qi users have to that sort of thing so I'd take our estimate of the difficulty of magic rituals and ratchet them down a notch. As in, prepping something with your powers ahead of time. Even Sight isn't really something you can just store away like magic can. There's no indication Dandeer was at all weakened by the whole 'holding an almost complete ritual of planetary scale in reserve' so the main reason we weren't totally screwed is that she didn't devote her time to rituals specifically to mind control all the nobles, instead of half of them.
When we get back, we should break Dandeer's hands and then let them heal wrong. If she can't do hand gestures, her magic is crippled. That way, we can avoid anyone trying to kill her since her magic is already badly weakened, and have her magical expertise on demand. So long as we make it abundantly clear this is the only way she doesn't wind up dead, since she basically launched a coup on the rightful rulers and enslaved her entire race, she's unlikely to cause trouble. Magic? Just addressed that. Political maneuvering? No one's ever going to fully trust her with a butter knife again, never mind political power or their loyalty. Might cause some issues with the sorcerers though, since it probably looks like a toothless lion to them.
