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Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

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Floom said:
Don't forget that Han Jian and Golden Field's group in general would be awkward towards us as well, considering we would become an extension of Cai, and thus they would be considered allies of Cai if they maintained their friendship with us, which might not be line they want to cross right now. Especially since Han Jian befriended us to get away from politics, not to attract more of it.

Really, all of our relationships are going to become very complicated if we take Cai's offer, or really any offer.
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They're already awkward and have been so for a prolonged period of time.

I would not be quick to reject this offer out of hand. We are not sure about what all vassalage entails in benefits and obligations and, as yrsillar said, whever we're going to go we'll end up below someone. We could certainly do worse than vassal to the heir of the empire's rising star.

I would not instant accept it either though, we need to seek out info before we break through.
 
Another point that should be brought up is how this decision might affect Ling Qi's future cultivation:

We know that advancing beyond Cyan requires a "Way", likely some form of conceptualization of self, in preparation for becoming more spirit than mortal. While it is extraordinarily far off, vassalage is a lifelong commitment, and being bound underneath someone else's authority clashes with Ling Qi's personality, specifically the "wind" portion.

Ling Qi's personality is one very much aligned with the wind, even if it isn't her primary element in terms of arts. She gave up a secure home and warm hearth just to seek freedom, and she avoids contact and close bindings habitually. She avoids conflict as best she can, and prefers to go around problems rather than charge through them. Wind is part of Ling Qi in a fundamental way, and accepting a vassalage does clash with that, even if we are given some latitude. I worry about how accepting a vassalage might fundamentally change Ling Qi, and if that change would be untenable.
 
Ayashi said:
Ling Qi is going to move to Inner in a few months. By that point we'll be saying goodby to quite a few of our friends, definitively SuSu, most of the Golden group, maybe even Xiulan, but also to the whole CRX faction. Only CRX and Meizhen are garenteed to pass in inner at his point(and ling qi ofcourse). We'll be meeting Xiulan's older sis and... that's about it.
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Eh.

First, CRX is the heir of the province. She has people ready to help inside the inner sect already.

Also, you forgot glasses guy. He is in the production track and will probably join the inner sect too.

And finally, i actually think that Guan has a good chance of passing the tournament.

(Also, Suyin has a good chance of joining the inner sect too, so no, not saying bye to her).
 
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Thor's Twin said:
I mean, I think it is a good time to list the pro's and cons as we know of them. Might help clear up how I'm feeling on the matter.

Pro's
1. One of, if not the, wealthiest faction in the Sect. We may have accesses to a plethora of drugs and equipment that we would never get otherwise.
2. The most influential faction in the sect. As the heir of the Duchesses of the province that the sect is based in, Lady Cai has a ton of influence outside of the sect.
3. Loyalty. She is big on loyalty and in rewarding those who are loyal to her. She won't stab us in the back.
4. Paradoxical freedom. By having access to the highest levels of government in the province, we will have a freedom that few will ever have. The crux? We have to give up freedom to do so.

Con's
1. Long-term commitment. This is possibly a quest long commitment. While that may not be a bad thing, as a person valuing freedom as much as Ling Qi, this is not a positive.
2. Spotlight. I mean, becoming the vassal of Lady Cai will place a huge spotlight on Ling Qi. As a person who loves the shadows, spotlights are not conducive to our strengths.
3. Lady Cai's mother. She is a totalitarian dictator and we will have to deal with her. It is a cause of worry for someone who likes choice as much as Ling Qi.
4. Deteriorating relationships with current friends. We don't know how this will affect our relationship with Xiulan, Su Ling, Li Suyin, or Meizhen. Might be something to talk to them about.

Edit:
Pro
5. We will have rights and privileges that we would never have otherwise.

Con
5. We will have tasks that need to be done and will have to follow orders from Cai.
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Add to Pro:

Nobody will dare try to blackmail Ling Qi by going after her mother and little sister.
 
A lot of people have more than fair chance to join eventually. SuSu's have good chances to be green next year, for example, and that is not their ceiling.

This year is full of monsters tho. Ling Qi is not guaranteed to win the tournament, she can quite easily be hit by Liling train in the first round of duels, and that would be it. Or by Cai or Meizhen; they are participating too.
 
Prospalz said:
A lot of people have more than fair chance to join eventually. SuSu's have good chances to be green next year, for example, and that is not their ceiling.

This year is full of monsters tho. Ling Qi is not guaranteed to win the tournament, she can quite easily be hit by Liling train in the first round of duels, and that would be it. Or by Cai or Meizhen; they are participating too.
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That's only if it's single elimination
 
One thing to consider about becomeing a vassal to the Cai: She has great ambitions and few compunctions about carrying them out. In fact, we've seen hints that something might be going on on the scale of the entire empire:
yrsillar said:
Control was necessary, the empire was a quilt coming apart at the seams, pulled by the petty and endless squabbles of hundreds of clans. The establishment of the Sects and even the Ministry of integrity were but poorly crafted patches, peeling away and adding their own rips to the fabric of society.
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Serving under Lady Cai would put us smack-dab in the middle of whatever turmoil the Cai kick up and/or confront. Is that something we want?
 
One last thing, and this is mostly just some mild paranoia:

Ling Qi keeps on mentioning Cai's halo, and how Cai always seems to be honest. Almost too insistent that she's honest. It could be nothing, but I can't help but find CRX a little bit shady, despite how much light she casts.
 
Prospalz said:
A lot of people have more than fair chance to join eventually. SuSu's have good chances to be green next year, for example, and that is not their ceiling.
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Suyin is in the production track. Which is, uh, considerably less packed with monsters than the combat track this year.

Actually, we only know three people who will go for the production track: Glasses guy, Suyin, and Xuan Shi. That's it. Maybe Renshu, too, now that his faction was destroyed.

We can't properly gauge their chances of actually getting in since we don't actually know who they are competing against, but, well, narrative logic says that when people with names compete with people without the named people win.
 
Broken25 said:
Eh.

First, CRX is the heir of the province. She has people ready to help inside the inner sect already.

Also, you forgot glasses guy. He is in the production track and will probably join the inner sect too.

And finally, i actually think that Guan has a good chance of passing the tournament.

(Also, Suyin has a good chance of joining the inner sect too, so no, not saying bye to her).
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She has people ready to help, she doesn't have a faction. The two are different scale, are definitively a long way from "the biggest faction in the sect making the best pills and gear avaliable".

Having a chance is different from actually passing. Even hitting Green is no garentee since there's a few green outer sect disciples.
Just as being on the prod track doesn't mean you'll get one of the 16(?) slots shared between new and older Outer disciples.
 
Yeangst said:
That's only if it's single elimination
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IIRC, it is.

Anyway, I am pretty sure that not signing up for some kind of vassalage would probably fuck us over politically and in terms of actually progressing further as cultivator; I kind of feel that "total freedom serve nobody" thing is a bit of a pipedream if we wish to be somebody who actually can achieve something.
Broken25 said:
Suyin is in the production track. Which is, uh, considerably less packed with monsters than the combat track this year.
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Fair. I am not so sold on "Named characters win" but production chart isn't bursting at the seams with monsters as far as we know, yes.
 
I appreciate @Aze helping me by compiling some of the stuff on the discord, but there are a few points he missed:

While we've been stealing people's hairpins and pranking them with paintballs, Cai has been grinding her social and insight skills.

Yrsillar said the scout only doesn't get our autosux. That means the scout gets our art passives and other bonuses, although I'm still not sure if that means our scouts get to use our arts in an active manner or if they get our equipment bonus.

Most upper nobility has a claim to the throne. False claimants get incinerated by the most active Sublime Ancestor the Celestial Dragon, who's a Heaven/Wind beast. You know this now. Folks who mess with the throne generally have a bad time.

Sun Shao regularly conquers the Jungle, but it keeps growing back. The Celestial Dragon tried to kill the queen while the Dragon was White back after she killed the Sage Emperor in bed, but he was driven off by the Queen and her spirits. Not sure he came back after that.

There is a finite number of formations in the book.

Xuan Shi is Peak Second realm. Implying he's capable of attempting a breakthrough in both Physcial and Spiritual.

And most importantly of all, the Vault Warriors array Suyin was so excited about this update? Its been confirmed by yrsillar to be a "pretty strong home defense thinger". Makes sense why Suyin would be so excited considering the last time her home was invaded. We should definitely get it considering our desire to protect our home and belongings from Renshu and Sun.
 
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Codex said:
And most importantly of all, the Vault Warriors array Suyin was so excited about this update? Its been confirmed by yrsillar to be a "pretty strong home defense thinger". Makes sense why Suyin would be so excited considering the last time her home was invaded. We should definitely get it considering our desire to protect our home and belongings from Renshu and Sun.
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I just hope it wont be a creepy skeleton guards thing. If only form a reputation PoV, having a tiny ske scout mouse is fine, having creepy spooky skeletons guard your lair home sends a poor message to everyone around.
 
We are already portable mobile creepy music Silent Hill with horrible gribblies nibbling at you from the mist.

Spooky scary skeletons do not even register all that much.
 
PrimalShadow said:
Serving under Lady Cai would put us smack-dab in the middle of whatever turmoil the Cai kick up and/or confront. Is that something we want
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Yes, why wouldn't it be? Either way it still happens, but if we aren't with Cai we don't get to stick our finger on the scale. The risk of missing out on the center of big Empire spanning events is one of the most damning parts if every faction but Cai.
 
Ayashi said:
I just hope it wont be a creepy skeleton guards thing. If only form a reputation PoV, having a tiny ske scout mouse is fine, having creepy spooky skeletons guard your lair home sends a poor message to everyone around.
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Some might consider spooky skeletons guarding one's home to be pretty good message to send. Plus, we can probably conceal the spooky skeletons in our closet. Meizhen left plenty of room in there after the Lake Scene.
 
Our primary consideration a is really "how can we stay friends with Bai." Vasselage to someone else might be awkward. (or maybe not? Maybe that's normal for noble friendships because everybody has chains of command?)

We might put off the decision for a few years during our service in the army but when we get out we will be back to the same question.

However...

@yrsillar, would it be plausible to pull off something like we have now, that is, where we just hang around Bai Mezhin and everybody just lumps us into her political faction and even though we aren't technically her underling? The empire hates loose cultivators, but if we clearly have a political allegiance then we're not loose, and shouldn't be disturbing anybody, right? Or does acquiring a noble title mandate that we swear to somebody, even if we avoid being given any land?

I normally hate "have your cake and eat it too" ideas, but I felt I had to bring it up once I thought of it.
 
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In regards to future paths Bai vassalage to me is a terrible idea because Meizhen mentioned everyone views their kin as rivals unless the Clan is threatened by outsiders, which makes it a terrible place to live much less raise a family if we decide to have Qi go that route.
 
yrsillar said:
If you stay in the empire and arent a member of a ministry or part of the army. Your gonna have to swear to someone.
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@yrsillar Would it possible to leave the empire, if temporarily, and later return? Perhaps on some form of sanctioned expedition to monitor the areas outside the empire? And if we really want to reach, is it possible to claim a new province for the Empire?
 
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