- Location
- Malaysia
I don't think that's true, it just means that the prices for everything would be constantly changing. Since prices shown in this quest are stable, I suppose one could infer that the supply of stones is generally stable as well.
Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
I don't think that's true, it just means that the prices for everything would be constantly changing. Since prices shown in this quest are stable, I suppose one could infer that the supply of stones is generally stable as well.
- Location
- Spain
Indeed.
The Sect isn't a company town gouging their employes for profit, is an education institution than encourages their students to do formative work.
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And Xianxia is the only place that matters, since that's what we're discussing.
Separately, I suspect the ability to 'cash out' your sect points is recent, and a result of the empress' increased patronage.
Anomen
「Innocent」
- Location
- United States
The economic aspects of the Empire don't make sense, and aren't going to make sense unless people really start caring about them and provide an in-game reason to flesh them out. Simply put, yrsillar, who has admitted to not knowing how economics might work in this society (check when people brought up how much silver was actually worth to mortals) simply doesn't emphasize it and instead opted to copy elements from other popular series. That's fine by me, since the game doesn't focus on economics and it doesn't matter at all for the story or characters we are involved with. How the hell a spirit stone currency stays stable is irrelevant, because it will by background magic. I mean, it's still a fun theoretical discussion and if you want to write your own story about how it works, I'd probably read it, but I don't think it'll ever come up here.
Well, we are between updates right now.
Motile Mollusc
Bitten by a radioactive were-tilde
- Location
- Here
I'm now imagining a cultivator following the Dao of Economy, focusing on the spiritual aspects of the Money element. Their cultivation art allows them to apply successes from Bartering or Bureaucracy tests that gain them money, and they get virtual stones each week they do enough dealing in things that only exist due to collective agreement in the 'economy' like fiat currencies.
Anomen
「Innocent」
- Location
- United States
It's also a military institution for the training of supersoldiers (more super than normal, anyway), and a political institution for the socialization of noble groups (which is more in line with its original purpose).
I'm not saying that you shouldn't talk about it. I think it's neat, personally. I just think that when applying real world economics to a fantasy world based in genre elements that emerged from poorly written wish fulfillment webfiction, things more often than not will fall apart. It's like doing traditional pen and paper roleplay: The DM may give the impression of having constructed a vast world, but usually it's just a few quests and plotlines that are adapted to the players' actions. If you push too far, it can become apparent that the world is artificial, as can be seen in the numerous nonsensicalities that people bring up from vanilla D+D editions, but that artificiality doesn't stop people from having fun in the setting.
That's true. These are mostly things I thought of while reading ISSTH, anyway. I'm not sure I can figure out an answer, other than maybe that the mines somehow match the consumption by cultivators, or most cultivators, outside of sects, don't consume spirit stones on a regular basis.
Anomen
「Innocent」
- Location
- United States
Things work out a bit better in ISSTH, from what little I remember of it. I dropped it when he was in the desert place at Core Formation, but I think that spirit stones only store Qi, thus speeding up cultivation a bit by reducing the downtime people need to recover. Meng only wanted so many because of his mirror, right?
- Location
- Brazil
It does bring about the question: what happens when the mines run dry? Might this be the reason the imperial house sided with Sun? They were desperately in need of new land to exploit?
When you realize we are the Sound-Shadow girl with a powerful snake ally.
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We've already seen one such art at once remove: Meizhen had a cultivation art that only works when cultivating in a large body of water, which was one reason that the Bais normally wouldn't send anyone promising to the Sects, since it'd impair their own cultivation art.
Elemental dependency for cultivation is one big, in genre way, to get virtual stones.
Heck, we have one ourselves, but we lucked out in getting the Moon one, which works anywhere we have a clear unobstructed view of the night sky...but I suspect Ling Qi would be impaired if she had to stay indoors indefinitely.
Hmm, that actually could work as a Heaven/Water/Metal lead in going by the symbolism. A little esoteric for anyone to break into without already being noble though, and you'd almost certainly not see such a cultivator in the sect due to being an isolated economy.
Not even out of genre, Wealth is a concept as founded as Music. There are chinese ritual implements made out of linked coins.
- Location
- Malaysia
I guess fantasy worlds generally never totally run out of resources. If they do, they turn into a Dark Sun-style post-apocalyptic world instead. In keeping with the theme, I suspect that great feats, such Sublime Ancestors wrecking a region would also create new sources of spirit stones while making them extraordinarily dangerous to explore.
It's not really any crazier than an oil-backed currency. Just imagine people could drink a gallon of gas and then run 60 mph to work or whatever.
Given the Argent Sect is apparently built on a mountain that naturally produces spirit stones but is not mined, it seems entirely possible that the Mu family is maintaining an artificial monopoly on spirit stones- which makes perfect sense, if there is a way to control cultivation it's by controlling the spirit stone supply. 'Wildcatting' spirit stones on a large scale would probably be fairly obvious, so the idea that the empire can control their supply isn't hard to imagine. The descriptions of the Argent Vent actually seem to indicate that stones are a renewable resource, if still a limited one.
In that case, it is likely that the cultivation 'world' undergoes periods of artificial scarcity as powerful cultivator families rise to prominence and prevent widespread mining. As their control spread and the empire grows however, they would experience a liquidity crisis which requires them to turn mining over to other parties. This in turn would allow the other parties to grow in power and rise to oppose them, which they ultimately would do on a large scale.
The resulting civil war(s) would probably cause a temporary glut in stones as widespread mining ensues due to a breakdown of the monopoly, followed by a shortage due to easily accessible deposits being exploited and economic disruption ensueing.
This in turn would pretty much create an all-out bloodbath as cultivators of varied allegiances fought over scarce resources. Eventually one group would come out on top and enforce the monopoly again, and the cycle would pretty much repeat itself.
Wonder if the Sun family found any spirit stone deposits out in the West? I'm betting the answer is yes.
In that case, it is likely that the cultivation 'world' undergoes periods of artificial scarcity as powerful cultivator families rise to prominence and prevent widespread mining. As their control spread and the empire grows however, they would experience a liquidity crisis which requires them to turn mining over to other parties. This in turn would allow the other parties to grow in power and rise to oppose them, which they ultimately would do on a large scale.
The resulting civil war(s) would probably cause a temporary glut in stones as widespread mining ensues due to a breakdown of the monopoly, followed by a shortage due to easily accessible deposits being exploited and economic disruption ensueing.
This in turn would pretty much create an all-out bloodbath as cultivators of varied allegiances fought over scarce resources. Eventually one group would come out on top and enforce the monopoly again, and the cycle would pretty much repeat itself.
Wonder if the Sun family found any spirit stone deposits out in the West? I'm betting the answer is yes.
It used to be mined, but it was mined out.
Presumably the same process that creates Spirit Stones is continuing, making something like stability possible. Over mining would be an issue, depleting readily available built-up resources, but more would 'grow', however slowly. I bet their are more than a few people invested in artificially speeding this up or whatever.
Otherwise, the mines are just incredibly tightly controlled and managed, with the Empire/Nobles micromanaging the output. They'd be drawing upon vast reserves when things fall below quotas, and stocking them back up otherwise.
It could be a future plot point, the mines beginning to run dry and not enough quality new ones found. Dig deeper, free/awaken/attract the Gnawing Ones, etc
Otherwise, the mines are just incredibly tightly controlled and managed, with the Empire/Nobles micromanaging the output. They'd be drawing upon vast reserves when things fall below quotas, and stocking them back up otherwise.
It could be a future plot point, the mines beginning to run dry and not enough quality new ones found. Dig deeper, free/awaken/attract the Gnawing Ones, etc
- Location
- Brazil
The speed at which the empire churns out cultivators and the speed which this kind of resource typically takes to form is drastically different, tho.
There are only so many "1000 year old ginseng" in the world at any one time. Mostly because it takes a thousand fucking years for it to form, and it's a rare thing to begin with.
There are only so many "1000 year old ginseng" in the world at any one time. Mostly because it takes a thousand fucking years for it to form, and it's a rare thing to begin with.
The Argent Vent is described as 'a small deposit of spirit stones surrounding a crevice that leaks silver mist'. You can literally walk into the cave or mine and see the spirit stones in the walls. Bai Meizhen tells us there are better and bigger deposits on the other mountains. So it really can't be mined out. And if there are stones that close to the surface it seems very unlikely there aren't a lot more beneath the surface that could be mined.
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- Location
- Brazil
Yeah, but those are literal scraps. The Argent Peak's lore is that it's mined out.
Alright, first off. I want to apologize for the delays. I had intended to go full bore and finish the update today, but some rather important family matters consumed my afternoon. I will have the update out by tomorrow afternoon.
Now, to weigh in on the current conversation...
Spirit Stone production is pretty heavily regulated and controlled, and there is indeed an entire ministry whose job is dealing with that, they don't exactly get the publicity the Integrity guys do though.
That said, spirit stones are somewhat renewable, but it is at a pretty low rate when considering any sort of mass exploitation. So while the outer mountain has its tiny seams here and there, it's acknowledged as mined out and will remain that way for few centuries to come before efforts to start up production would be worth anyone's time again.
The better sort of owners take more careful care of their resources and don't over exploit them and leave them dry the way a lot of the mines in the southern mountains have been.
Now, to weigh in on the current conversation...
Spirit Stone production is pretty heavily regulated and controlled, and there is indeed an entire ministry whose job is dealing with that, they don't exactly get the publicity the Integrity guys do though.
That said, spirit stones are somewhat renewable, but it is at a pretty low rate when considering any sort of mass exploitation. So while the outer mountain has its tiny seams here and there, it's acknowledged as mined out and will remain that way for few centuries to come before efforts to start up production would be worth anyone's time again.
The better sort of owners take more careful care of their resources and don't over exploit them and leave them dry the way a lot of the mines in the southern mountains have been.
Yeah, resources drying out and new forms of cultivation having to be developed after the former order collapsed is a thing in many Xianxias. Mostly to make the MC rediscover some ancient knowledge or renewed resource that had been forgotten and thus gain an edge.
You could write a story in the future of this setting where the stone mines ran out and the empire collapsed and was conquered by the Wind Barbarians, whose methods of absorbing energy from the elements were less efficient but still usable. Then some millennia later a young girl called Li Meizhen stumbles upon an old moon locket lost in the ruins of her family manor, wich contains the shade of a shadow spirit that will teach her the secrets of the Moon and the usage of those stupid red pebbles that had started to turn up in the river...
- Location
- Cyberspace
Hmmm... I don't remember that (ancient resource renewed) showing up in most of the stories I've read so far. Ancient lost knowledge, sure. Ancient cultivation methods that were lost in a cataclysm when the laws of cultivation were changed, definitely ("Martial World", for example. Or another whose name escapes me). But I've not seen "ancient resource that was exhausted and is now no longer recognized" before - not that I recall, at least.
- Location
- Brazil
Yeah, problem comes when humans breed like rabbits.
I suppose enormously bloody campaigns must have some appeal to the Higher Ups, if you lose enough to end up with a net negative for pop after the baby boon, but secure territory, you've probably bought a good deal of time on low level spirit stone consumption. And probably got a kickass army out of it, too.