Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Quite right. CRX quest runs on month long turns rather than week-long, So this 'vote' would cover actions distributed from week 29 to week 32. And not all actions are guaranteed to succeed, so even if Ling Qi is offered the position she may not accept. A real quest would have had Probability of Success/Cost/time/reward information for each option, but I didn't want to work out enough of a fictional economy to put red stone values to the actions.
This is actually a really good point, but pills are such an integral part of the Xianxia experience, and of Forge of Destiny, that I really should have included a section about them.
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- Location
- United States of America
Han jian quest must realllly dislike us right about now tbh... while his group already had issues boiling we did kind of fuck up his dynamics by pulling Gu as a BFF. And giving her her inner fire x10 to get stronk.
Poor Han jian must be super stressed as of late
Poor Han jian must be super stressed as of late
- Location
- United States of America
Yeah, we have not been good for the inner dynamics of the Golden Fields group. Hopefully, they work it out and it is less awkward for everyone in the future.
Han Jian Negaverse is torn between two sides. One is of the opinion that everything going wrong is because Ling Qi is a secret mastermind fucking them over on her raise to power. The other half says that's fucking stupid and the reason everything is on fire is because they aren't dedicating the social actions to get shit in order.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And technically they are both wrong and yet right
The whole subtheme of casually exceeding everything Xiulan tries to do to the point that she mangles herself in pursuit of power... that can't possibly be an accident, right?
- Location
- United States of America
Honestly at this point I don't think they Can work it out. Frankly Gu does not want to be married to Fan yu, she doesn't even acknowledge poor Han fang, and she is pissed at Han jian for breaking her heart.
maybe she can learn to forgive Han jian with some meditation and over time with maturity but it doesn't change the fact that she doesn't want to be married to fan yu, she doesn't care for Han fang.
And now she has something she didn't have before, a determination to RISE . To become top dog. And she can't really do that with Han fang or fan yu and it puts her in an awkward position with Han jian.
Also side note. I wonder what her sisters reaction is going to be... she's not likely to be pleased
- Location
- Cyberspace
Mmm... to be honest, even after thinking about it, the sticking point is still "Ling Qi values her freedom". I just don't see her giving that up sooner or to a greater extent than necessary. She'll follow the sect's orders - that's liable to be a fairly light leash, as the sect is mostly interested in "don't break the rules, cultivate well, do odd jobs of your choice for the sect". The military is stricter, but not excessively so - "be loyal, train, fight on cue"; seeing as Ling Qi seems to see training as a calling and a hobby, has no particular grievance with the Empire or attachment outside it and fights are both kind of fun for her and aren't likely to occur constantly, that's not all that heavy of a commitment.
Currently I'm still leaning towards declining, but in a way that's more putting the decision off for later (perhaps after sect, or perhaps after service) and includes a willingness to continue to do things for Cai (and no interest in working for other power blocks). Cai is, given the setting, probably as close to an ideal liege as Ling Qi's likely to find, but I don't yet know where Ling Qi's future could take her. For example, it might be that staying with the sect is a preferred path for her - becoming a core disciple and then (eventually) an elder.
Closing that path off before even seeing what it's like in the inner sect seems to be rash to me.
Currently I'm still leaning towards declining, but in a way that's more putting the decision off for later (perhaps after sect, or perhaps after service) and includes a willingness to continue to do things for Cai (and no interest in working for other power blocks). Cai is, given the setting, probably as close to an ideal liege as Ling Qi's likely to find, but I don't yet know where Ling Qi's future could take her. For example, it might be that staying with the sect is a preferred path for her - becoming a core disciple and then (eventually) an elder.
Closing that path off before even seeing what it's like in the inner sect seems to be rash to me.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Ehhh, to be fair, it's not that Ling Qi necessarily is unwilling to have ties and restraints, she just wants to be strong enough that she can carry whatever weights she decides to take with her.
We could do a hell of a lot worse for an immediate suzerain than a yearmate who's already shown to be willing to generally let us do our own thing.
We could do a hell of a lot worse for an immediate suzerain than a yearmate who's already shown to be willing to generally let us do our own thing.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also, Ling Qi did say at one point that the more power you have the more freedom you have. It's one of the reasons she wants to become strong (although she doesn't have much of a goal, it's still a motive).
And the amount of power we can get from being one of Lady Cai's first vassals and her left hand woman is immense. Getting in early is limiting and cuts off other options, but on the upside it grants us greater power than if we were to join later.
I just want to join the teaparties and embroidery sessions Cai and Bai have been having without us.
I can just imagine it, the two nobles sitting there all prim and proper, sipping their tea and/or calmly knitting whatever, with Ling Qi trying to figure out what super special secret technique they are practicing and exactly what benefit the tea gives. Being who she is, two minutes in she's blatantly asking what the trick to it is.
They share subtle words with far reaching implications, she sits there wondering aloud why they can't explain and use their words to talk like real people.
I can just imagine it, the two nobles sitting there all prim and proper, sipping their tea and/or calmly knitting whatever, with Ling Qi trying to figure out what super special secret technique they are practicing and exactly what benefit the tea gives. Being who she is, two minutes in she's blatantly asking what the trick to it is.
They share subtle words with far reaching implications, she sits there wondering aloud why they can't explain and use their words to talk like real people.
Bai Meizhen's Idol
- Location
- florida
Mmm I think the big sticking point. And something Cai failed to understand about Ling Qi is.
Ling isn't loyal to her liege, or authority. She cares very little about social order and sect rules unless it affects her directly. (See thief build).
She is however, doggedly loyal to her friends. Even when they annoy her.
I think that's what we should tell Cai.
Ling isn't loyal to her liege, or authority. She cares very little about social order and sect rules unless it affects her directly. (See thief build).
She is however, doggedly loyal to her friends. Even when they annoy her.
I think that's what we should tell Cai.
And the faction that wanted to waifu Xiulan is just perpetually bitter whereas everyone else insists the issue was that they spent social actions on her at all in the beginning.
Life's too short to stay away from the things you like.
I'm going to put in a lot of effort in making sure everything stays copacetic so let me stress that these are mostly observations. I did my best to avoid advocating, but it was impossible to avoid giving the appearance of taking a position in the CRX section so I gave up on it and said whatever.
Anyway, observations on some of the latest developments:
On Ling Qi
I'm going to put in a lot of effort in making sure everything stays copacetic so let me stress that these are mostly observations. I did my best to avoid advocating, but it was impossible to avoid giving the appearance of taking a position in the CRX section so I gave up on it and said whatever.
Anyway, observations on some of the latest developments:
On Ling Qi
- It says a lot about Ling Qi that learning a new language/deciphering new arrays is seen to her as a relaxing activity instead of, yanno, work. There's having a work ethic and being a work ethic, and Ling Qi's heading straight into 'I was deliriously self-indulgent when I went shopping for food earlier this week and bought some porcinis' territory.
- I can't decide if baby spymasters in Xianxia are spec'd to be more like Ling Qi is or more like that second year guy is. Ling Qi knows nearly nothing which is not usually what you want a spymaster to be like, but ask her to learn something and she learns it really quickly.
- On second thought, probably more like the second year guy. Ling Qi just breaks a lot of the rules just by being Ling Qi.
- She is kind of a fitting spymaster for CRX though. CRX has not a shred of subtlety in her soul, and Ling Qi's fairly straightforward when it comes to spy-like activities.
- On second thought, probably more like the second year guy. Ling Qi just breaks a lot of the rules just by being Ling Qi.
- Good gods this is one lonely girl. The fact that her offer is her way of saying 'want to be friends?' killed me.
- On that note, I kind of wonder what Gan Guangli gets up to during his time off. Like, I cannot imagine him not guarding CRX. Surely he has hobbies, right?
- (JUSTICE!!!)
- Ling Qi's little flash of jealousy/denial when she thought that it might be possible that Bai Meizhen had shared something private with Cai is something to watch out for. Ling Qi's got more of Zeqing in her than she'd like to admit.
- It was adorable though. Baby's first jealousy.
- It's probably been noted before, but CRX and Ling Qi make for ridiculously good foils of each other. Ling Qi wants to keep people by her side for extremely personal reasons, CRX wants to keep people by her side for extremely professional reasons. Ling Qi's deeply uncertain about what she wants to do in the future, CRX already has her future mapped out. Ling Qi is the freest person on the mountain, whereas CRX is in many ways the least.
- No one's mentioned this yet, so I think I should: if CRX fails to do what her mother wants her to do, what then? And what of her vassals?
- Upside: I'm pretty sure this is the plot of Kill La Kill.
- As CRX herself noted, her current relationship with Ling Qi is temporary. This makes me wonder about the student council edifice CRX is building: does it expire once CRX transfers into the Inner Sect or does she plan on somehow having it survive her? If she doesn't have any plans on having it survive her, next year when she is gone is going to be really interesting.
- Is CRX planning to replicate her Outer Sect government in the Inner Sect? I think we need to know what CRX's short-term and long-term plans are before we swear or don't swear vassalage. I think that's going to be more of a sticking point than how likable or not CRX is.
- Was it a coincidence that Li Suyin's mood improved after her cultivation evened out a bit? I mean sure, there was the pale manual, but she was really chipper this week. So, probably not a coincidence.
- The scout thing's really cool.
- I really hope that the place Li Suyin's going to try to appeal to for a spider bebbeh is not the same place we stole spidersilk from. Because that could get awkward for everyone.
- It's possible Li Suyin has realized that Ling Qi's pale manual has more than to it than meets the eye. The first time we talked to her about it we said it was coached as something we discovered in a bunch of ruins, this week we said it was from a scumbag. Relevant quotes below.
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- I adore her. Despite being a two-tailed beastperson she's the one with the perspective best approaching 'normal' and she doesn't hesitate to let us know about it.
- Kind of sad to see that she was scared to offend us though. As has been noted, her Social Link with us has been capped for a while.
- It's interesting to me that Li Suyin will be getting a spirit beast before Su Ling. Prior to it happening, I was almost certain Su Ling would get one first. Since she offered to help Li Suyin get anything besides a spider, I'm sure she knows how. Is it a limitation that's personal to her, or does she not have the time/resources to invest in a spirit beast right now? Or are people descended from spirit beasts less able to bind spirit beasts that aren't of the same type?
- I kind of want to know what she gets up to in the city when off the mountain. It was mentioned in the first update that cultivators went down from the mountain and broke things in the city all the time due to youthful high spirits and we've yet to hear anything about that personally.
- Friendly Neighborhood Fox Girl???
- (JUSTICE!!!)?
- How Bai Meizhen fights is a lot like how she acts socially. She's not aggressive, but attack her and she hits back twice as hard. Similarly, she doesn't really speak until spoken to. Her learning how to sew from CRX is probably on CRX's recommendation, but it does demonstrate a level of social proactiveness that seems unusual for Bai.
- Then again, many weeks ago, when Ling Qi only had one dress robe and CRX first sent an invitation, I did note that Bai Meizhen seemed to be color-coordinating with us (both in blue). So maybe she's just super subtle about such things.
- I'm not sure Bai's approach to allies is the wrong approach though. No one gives out gifts like we do, and there's a good reason for that: gifts are never gifts. There's a seminal work about gift-giving called 'Le Don' (the Gift) by Marcel Mauss where the guy basically goes: gifts are a way of maintaining social harmony but demand reciprocity. In a setting based somewhat on mythical China, no one is going to want to be a mooch and giving gifts is going to be seen a lot like pity to those who are sufficiently prideful.
- The fact that Bai Meizhen has spoken well of us to Cai Renxiang leads me to wonder what their conversation about us was like.
- I kind of doubt CRX extended vassalage towards us without first informing Bai Meizhen. Bai's support is still more important than our own and it wouldn't do to alienate both of us by extending it. If Ling Qi knew enough to ask Han Jian about Gu Xiulan taking time to go on a Trial, CRX almost definitely knew to ask Bai Meizhen about the girl who rooms with her and was first seen defending her from eight other cultivators.
- She might not have, though. Bluff and forthright is usually code for 'rude and thoughtless' and CRX often seems to be dancing on the fine line between them.
- Your average girl gets her heart broken and the trope is she cuts her hair. Gu Xiulan gets her heart broken and she undergoes a Heavenly Tribulation. Is this the Xianxia equivalent of the whole 'heartbroken girl walks into a lake and drowns herself' trope?
- Yes, I know, not just heartbreak, but.
- Most metal character we know of right now. I mean damn. I can't wait for her to get some sort awesome claw-thing to put on her burned arm. Or maybe bandages that part to reveal her horrible limb when she needs it to. That or she'll do what Endeavor (from Boku No hero Academia) does and wear her flames as part of her costume. Just walk around, constantly on fire.
- Her spirit beast is likely to be nearly as special as Ling Qi's own after getting its nature changed like that. And probably combat viable already.
- I like how self-aware she is. "I really should hate Ling Qi, but I don't. Weird."
- It's the power of friendship, Gu. It's the power of friendship.
- Poor Fan Yu.
- Poor Han Jian.
- Poor Han Fang?
- But mostly: poor Gu Xiulan.
- Not much to say atm? He seems to be doing a lot of stuff off-screen. I hope he makes it to the Inner Sect, though his current chances seem to be less than ours and I don't even like our own odds. Everyone seems to be hitting green and I don't think that'll be in the cards for Han Jian who's generally stable and unlikely to try any drastic measures like taking on a Heavenly Tribulation before being ready.
- Sun Liling's castle is an obvious plot hook. I'm just not sure what kind yet. Hopefully it is not a solo mission, I doubt it'll go quite as well as the Yan Renshu mission.
- Stealth arts seem to be becoming more common. Tigerbro's seems to be passive too which is interesting.
- Speaking of Yan Renshu: he's never shown to operate directly, but the problem with him is he can operate indirectly via his puppets. With much of his base swept away from him his resources are going to be low, but that means that he's going to go from mass-production to bespoke tailoring: he's probably going to spend a bit of time putting some finishing touches to a ratchet masterpiece.
- Odds are he'll either try to poison us or poison turtlebro while hibernating or both.
- If he does send a masterpiece after us, let's try to keep it intact for dissection and mad science since we're already developing by default a specialization in constructs. Maybe steal his techniques if at all possible.
- Also, what is up with Mom's living conditions. That she's being so coy about it suggests to me that she's operating under the assumption that either her mail's being read and she doesn't want to give away too much information or that Ling Qi would act in an unfortunate way should she learn about her circumstances. Really need to meet in person at some point.
- I'm pretty sure that the sun has 'phases' just like the moon does. There was a mention of a Falling Sun Temple way back when. That indicates to me that there's a Rising Sun Temple, and maybe a High Sun Temple, and so on.
- I wonder who the Eclipse Spirit belongs to. Maybe it's its own Great Spirit.
- We still don't know who was responsible for directing Huang's attention away from us. The IC speculation (from Gu Xiulan, iirc?) was that a boy had fallen for us and got his family to pull some strings. But Gu Xiulan tends to think in that direction, so if we cut out the possibility of some new candidate, let's review those with the power and motive to do so.
- It seems too early for Cai Renxiang to have done so. I did speculate at some point that it was her though, if only through PM, but I think that the cost/benefit of that would be a little ludicrous for CRX to be responsible. To make my student government run a little more smoothly, let's have my mom complain to Huang's father.
- Bai Meizhen is canonically unwilling to let the rest of her family know that we exist so that precludes her.
- Han Jian's close to us, but not that close to us. I doubt it'd be him since in order to justify it he'd probably have to express interest in us which I hope he's smart enough to know not to do.
- Could it have been Xuan Shi? I'm not sure if the timing works out for our little brother to have been in his sphere of awareness.
- Man, I still have no idea who it was.
- It seems too early for Cai Renxiang to have done so. I did speculate at some point that it was her though, if only through PM, but I think that the cost/benefit of that would be a little ludicrous for CRX to be responsible. To make my student government run a little more smoothly, let's have my mom complain to Huang's father.
- After it was discovered that Yan Renshu could bind people, I thought that that was how Huang Da was planning to compel silence from us, but now that the mechanics have been revealed to be more bluff than not, I'm even more curious. How was Huang Da planning to compel silence from three cultivators when he was still at red?
- wtf has Ji Rong been up to.
- I still want to know what was up with the deal with those gang of cultivators that got hurt while we played with Hanyi. I bet it was hilarious.
- Is it just me, or are there going to be more greens in the tournament than there will be spots for the Inner Sect? Our year really is full of monsters.
- I'm curious about the relative wealth of all the people here. CRX thinks Huang's relatively impoverished. Gu Xiulan considers Huang to be relatively rich. Bai considers the Gu to have descended into mercantilism. Han's rich enough that his family can afford to load him up on enough medicine that his low talent is almost meaningless (except when it comes to breaking through).
What? Did we even read the same quest?
The elders are the exemple of a suzerain that let us do our thing. Cai very much isn't. It an important part of her character that she is a control/ordee freak.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
Well, a good part of the conversation was actually CRX telling us that she liked how our loyalty express itself. She might not quite understand the concept of friendship because of how broken she is, but she is well aware that Ling Qi is loyal to friends, not to lieges. She just... has a very tainted view of what friendship means, thanks to mother dearest.
As Jiao said, Ling Qi's currently 'half a spymaster'. She is better in field work than Fu Xiang I believe, but much worse when it comes to social manipulation.[*]I can't decide if baby spymasters in Xianxia are spec'd to be more like Ling Qi is or more like that second year guy is. Ling Qi knows nearly nothing which is not usually what you want a spymaster to be like, but ask her to learn something and she learns it really quickly.
[*]On second thought, probably more like the second year guy. Ling Qi just breaks a lot of the rules just by being Ling Qi.
[*]She is kind of a fitting spymaster for CRX though. CRX has not a shred of subtlety in her soul, and Ling Qi's fairly straightforward when it comes to spy-like activities.
I am beginning to ship GG and Su Ling somewhat, to be honest.
She did the same a couple weeks ago, when Meizhen told us about doing embroidery wit CRX. Yrsillar has also gone on record saying that Zeqing is right... though as a joke.
A very 'amusing' thing is that for all that CRX preach about Order and Peace, she has turned the sect into a place that constantly has small-scale conflicts into one that semi-regularly has wide-scale conflicts. It can be argued to be much less peaceful, and will create a very interesting environment next year.
Li Suyin's love. I think it has less to do with the cultivation itself being improved, and more to do with side effects of breaking through, as well as letting go of a lot of stress built up.
Yrsillar has apparently said that if we had taken Su Ling's minor action when she was breaking through we could have uncapped it then, so I messed up badly there.
I think it has more to do with Su Ling not being that much after power, and a spirit beast is about power. She wants to improve to 'find herself' currently, and is spending a lot of time helping mortals because of her own beliefs and because she is a cinnamon bun.
You might remember, Meizhen interlude had her thinking that logically it was better for Ling Qi to stay in Emerald Sea, though that was after tentatively offering to take us to Thousand Lake. She is of multiple minds about this, I think, but CRX vassalage is in her mind definitely better than going to the MoI, which is something that is plausible for Ling Qi to do.
For someone coming from a family with a lot of internal struggles and power plays, she views loyalty and friendship as incredibly important. This is, I think, a good part of her issues with Han Jian. She put herself out for him, and feels he didn't give back (with obvious bias).
Han Jian's superior resources as well as Heijin makes him one of the more probable contender there, though. Not a certainty by any measure, but I would put his chance as around as high as Chu Song's, maybe higher.
Well, mom is also considered by Ling Qi as someone who constantly deflect and hides what she thinks. I am more and more thinking the ??? comes from our mom, and our forthrightness comes from our dad, lol.
We have been told after last update (on discord, you should come) that the Lu's sublime ancestor was The Purifying Sun. Make of that what you will.
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- Location
- United Kingdom
The thing is if we do become her vassal, then our most likely position will be spy/spymaster. By definition, she needs to give us some leeway in our role if we want to be in any way effective. Though it is true that she might not be used to giving direct vassals much independence.
I... do not know how to Discord. Searching through the thread throws up way too many posts for me to find a link to too. >_>;;
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
@Prospalz was clever and put the permanent link to the discord on Yrsillar's profile. Even if you don't use the actual discord client, clicking on the link will take you there.
I highly suggest for people to go in discord for the couple hours after an update, as @yrsillar is often there and willing to respond to questions or just goof around.
I think assuming that CRX means us to be a spymaster is reaching. She might, or she might just be looking for potent new vassals.
Regardless, we know that CRX actually likes leaving people a long leash in how they do things currently. She is not yet her mom... and if anything, having friends around her will help her to never be her mom.
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- Location
- Spain
You are understimating his chances. You are actually undestimating everybody chances.
There are eight slots in the tournament for facepunchers, and only eleven strong candidates (That is, Cai, Bai, Sun, Chu, Guangly, Lu Feng, Ling Qi, Han Jian, Ji Rong, Xiulan, Kang Zihao)
So Han Jian actually has a pretty decent chance overall.
Of course it depends of the tournament estructure, single combat elimination could make the whole thing very luck based, but honestly i doubt is that simple.