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Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

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PrimalShadow said:
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:

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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Ultimately yes as it will be unavoidable in the future unless Ling Qi decides she wants to cut all ties and spend all her time cultivating which I do not see the thread doing at all (besides it isn't what I or anyone else voted for to begin with). Now sure Ling Qi is giving up 'freedom' as it were, but any choice Ling Qi makes does that and she fully acknowledged that all the chains and desires she has will impact her and those around in some way during her yellow breakthrough she merely hopes she is strong enough to support bringing them along.

Overall I can't think of anyone person that will be significantly better than Cai short of getting offered a job in the Ministry of Integrity, but that comes with it's own problems with the Bai Clan and showing loyalty to the throne. However we may even be able to do both @yrsillar kinda depends on the specifics of both vassalage and whatever oaths the Ministry enforces.
 
archangis said:
How abou we try being IC for once?
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Its impossible to be truly free. Ling Qi recognizes that's an impossible notion. No matter what, if we choose to stay in the Empire, we're either gonna have to work for a Ministry or the army, if not we HAVE to swear our allegiance to a Noble.

The ONLY way to be truly free?

Leave the empire and throw away all our "shackles" aka our friendships.

That's the only way to be "truly" free. At least we're free enough to choose our shackles in this situation.
 
Codex said:
Its impossible to be truly free. Ling Qi recognizes that's an impossible notion. No matter what, if we choose to stay in the Empire, we're either gonna have to work for a Ministry or the army, if not we HAVE to swear our allegiance to a Noble.

The ONLY way to be truly free?

Leave the empire and throw away all our "shackles" aka our friendships.

That's the only way to be "truly" free. At least we're free enough to choose our shackles in this situation.
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That's how things are. But should we compromise our desires to conform to the greater world? We are in a Xianxia world, and forging your destiny is a bit of time honored tradition. Ambitious, reckless, and fraught with hardship, but we could certainly try. Melding freedom and bonds is a seemingly impossible contradiction, but it certainly seems like a hell of a Way to follow.
 
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Guys another benifit to the whole cai thing is her lack of a large family at this point of time.

Swearing allegiance to any other noble house means dealing with the inner family politics of their house . Cousins , siblings , spirits etc not all of whom will be good people or people who we wish to deal with but can't because they are technically our lords.

Cai has a new household and they are trying to attract families to become the nobles of her lands that she knows are completely loyal as well as talented.

Her mother may well be a horrible person and complete tyrant but let's be honest...what lord of a household isnt? They all need to be a little cruel to keep petty squabbles and power plays down while defending their borders from death world shenanigans
 
Floom said:
That's how things are. But should we compromise our desires to conform to the greater world? We are in a Xianxia world, and forging your destiny is a bit of time honored tradition. Ambitious, reckless, and fraught with hardship, but we could certainly try.
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Well in any case i think it's too early for life-long commitments.

The moment we swear formal loyalty, well, that's it.

It's almost as a marriage.

it's not like we are in any particular rush, we still have eight years of army work ahead.
 
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Broken25 said:
Well in any case i think it's too early for life-long commitments.

The moment we swear formal loyalty, well, that's it.

It's almost as a marriage.
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Agreed, and it is far too early to make these kinds of decisions, even if there is a benefit to getting in on the ground level. The future is still too uncertain, and Ling Qi doesn't fully know what she wants to stand for as a cultivator.
 
mc2rpg said:
Trying to avoid making a decision is a decision. It is a decision to tell Cai we aren't interested in joining up, and thus removing one of our best future prospects.
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And how do we know it's "the best"? Best for who? Best for what? And considering how rapidly fortunes can change, who's to say this is the best that Ling Qi will ever get?
 
There is also being part of the Imperial guard, if we get good enough in the inner sect. There are other options, and other avenues. More time and more information is going to be needed
 
drake_azathoth said:
Literally all of Sun Shao's army was Green at the end of his campaign. I assume he didn't send all of them out on James Bond style missions and did in fact treat them as an army with garrisons and such...

So yeah, Green might not be as impressive as you suppose. Not town guards, but not necessarily elite either. Even Green Beret sit in garrisons quite a lot more than they go on missions.
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According to Han Jian, Sun Shao's army was more powerful than any that any of the Empire's provinces could muster.

And a good part of the thread is speculating that shenanigans were behind that.

So probably not the best example to go with.

Granted, I do agree with the point that the Empire probably doesn't have every Green working at something constantly. James Bond doesn't do back to back missions, after all.

mc2rpg said:
Trying to avoid making a decision is a decision. It is a decision to tell Cai we aren't interested in joining up, and thus removing one of our best future prospects.
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Not necessarily.

It tells Cai something, but not that Ling Qi is uninterested. It could be that and that Ling Qi is trying to work out a polite way to turn down an offer of vassalage. Alternately, it could tell her that someone else is making an offer to her and Ling Qi is trying to decide which one is better.
 
Floom said:
And how do we know it's "the best"? Best for who? Best for what? And considering how rapidly fortunes can change, who's to say this is the best that Ling Qi will ever get?
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Well, objetively, it's a very good offer.

CRX is a ducal heir, and as far as we know, the only vassal she has for now is GG. So acepting this offer would make Ling Qi into the second vassal of a ducal heir.

This kind of relationships tend to stick through time, and Cai raises in power we can expect to rise in the ranks swiftly in her wake, so indeed, it's quite a good choice, if we want to prioritize temporal power.
 
Don't forget that Meizhen's favourite aunt is likely to become Head of the Bai Clan when she breaks through to White. Things might change there, and if anything being friends with her (favoured?) niece would likely leave us better off than otherwise.

I hope the conversation with Meizhen runs along the lines of 'this happened, how do I say no without doing it wrong? How do I put this choice off for as long as possible, how do I retain as much freedom as possible?'

Personally I like the idea of hiding amongst and under the friendships of powerful friends until we are strong enough to mostly do our own thing, while technically sworn to one of them that leaves us to it.

Siding with Cai has its own obvious drawbacks, but the Bai's have a subtler one we might not have fully considered:

Do we actually want to be anywhere near that God-forsaken demon-infested bloody jungle? Because the Bai live next door.

All the good intentions and friendship in the world pales next to living near that mess. Maybe when we can nuke things from orbit. Until then? Noooooooooope.
 
I also think that it is too early to make formal decisions.

The fear I have, and this may be unfounded, is that Cai turns us into a secret police force. Cai would order us to suppress families that Cai just wants to get rid of. A Gestapo lite.

This would mean we turn into a force that denies freedom.
 
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Neshuakadal said:
The fear I have, and this may be unfounded, is that Cai turns us into a secret police force. Cai would order us to suppress families that Cai just wants to get rid of. A Gestapo lite.
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This is clearly what we are specializing towards, anyone we swear to is going to want us to do this sort of thing. Having Ling Qi not act as her patron's secret police if we continue with our current focus would be so irresponsible of our patron that I would not consider them worth serving.
 
mc2rpg said:
This is clearly what we are specializing towards, anyone we swear to is going to want us to do this sort of thing. Having Ling Qi not act as her patron's secret police if we continue with our current focus would be so irresponsible of our patron that I would not consider them worth serving.
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...It is kind of what we are ALREADY doing unless people have forgotten us stealing that girl's correspondence with home or love letters or whatever for blackmail. Ling Qi doesn't give a damn.

One of the reasons I think working for Lady Cai could lead to a lot of travel is that it'd be quite advantageous of her to have us go and dig up dirt on political rivals. Many of whom may be in other duchies.
 
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I wonder how Meizhen react(ed) to CRX trying to grab her Best (only?) Friend.
Depending on how CRX probed her for info she might not know yet, and when we run to her for knowlegde on vassalhood under Cai and what it would imply... That might have some repercussions on the link between them.
 
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