Not really. Control of a feudal structure is based upon the monopoly on asskicking. Limited supplies are good for stability because it dictates that the number of true badass doesn't scale with population so hard and that the long standing families both hog the limited supplies AND stretch their personal supplies with virtual stones
Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Not really. Control of a feudal structure is based upon the monopoly on asskicking. Limited supplies are good for stability because it dictates that the number of true badass doesn't scale with population so hard and that the long standing families both hog the limited supplies AND stretch their personal supplies with virtual stones
Limited supplies of spirit stone makes sense, except that people are carrying that stuff around and using it as if it were cash.
Now it's plausible that it's only the high end stones that are rare, but so far as we can tell, the exchange rate for stones is stable and corresponds exactly to the ratio in cultivation bonuses.
Now it's plausible that it's only the high end stones that are rare, but so far as we can tell, the exchange rate for stones is stable and corresponds exactly to the ratio in cultivation bonuses.
- Location
- Brazil
Yeah, but we've seen quite a few indications that the empire needs its low level cultivators to work. Having bureocrats with pothographic memory and Indiana Jones surveyors and the like is likely hella profitable. The lowest grade of cultivator is simply tremendously better than mortals. I distinctly recall someone mathing that a red tier fellow can pick up something in an afternoon and match or exceed a thirty year old master at it.
You could just not let people cultivate at all, yes, but that's simply a tremendous waste. You never know where true talent is hiding, or when you will need those people to repel the next flavor of barbarian that decides to invade.
It's like using cars as ammo to conquer oil fields. You can't just not make cars, but at the same time, the amount you have and want isn't sustainable with the oil you have.
But... We were told only the lower level stones are conveniently priced?
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Anomen
「Innocent」
- Location
- United States
"Stable" over the course of less than a year, doesn't really mean much. And the exchange rate we know is 1 green=50 yellow=500 red, so I'm not sure how they correspond exactly to the bonuses?
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- Location
- Sydney
That's precisely the point - people are trying to use the costs of commodities in a modern context in a world that is of a very different kind.
We are seeing the top 1% of the top 1% here in terms of spirit stone expenditures. We're also seeing them in the time of their life when they're going to be using the most spirit stones. It would make perfect sense if there's a "trade school" branch out there where they help you awaken, give you enough stones to get to red soul/gold body, and then you spend eight years working for the government to repay that initial expenditure. Maybe you get a red spirit stone every month, but quite possibly you don't.
Glengarry Glen Xianxia said:
A lot of the structure of the sect and the broader society makes sense as a method of funneling stones to where they produce more successful die rolls. Everybody gets the bare minimum required to cultivate every week. If you want to invest more than that you either need to be good enough to earn it outright from the sect or you need to be rich enough that you're also throwing enough drugs at your cultivation to get a decent yield per spirit stone.
Meizhen and Cui
Dirtnap
Kanmusu Affecionado
He can still shrink down can he not?
- Location
- United Kingdom
If we got 25 successes for EPC, shouldn't we get 5 successes added to Qi?
It is not a pervasive trope, but it has been used many times.
A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality has a setting where the centuries and thousands of year old plants necessary to make cultivation pills have died out from overharvesting, and cultivation is thus in decline. The talentless MC finds an artifact that can rapidly age any young plant, and thus goes up in cultivation fueled by a drug binge.
Path to Heaven 's world also has suffered from spirit beast near-extinctions from overhunting, but have already recovered by developing new recipes that work with the resources at hand. MC finds the ghost of an ancient crafter, whose recipes are totally forgotten by now but have become cheap and practical again because the species have recovered in the meantime.
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Does this count?So I was going through the media here, and I was wondering. Is Cui really not in any of Bai Meizhen's portraits? Or am I just unobservant?@yrsillar
*Edit*
Also this
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- Location
- Cyberspace
I'd forgotten about that part of Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality, I guess.
Or you know, just look to the Moonfill and scale the time up for an equivalent 3 tiers higher. Wait a whole decade for 3 drops, and you're probably going to be fighting everyone else in the know, including spirit beasts going for it
- Location
- Brazil
I absolutely want to go for it when we get lands.
Training someone to "journeyman" levels in weeks, and Master in months, for a handful of spirit stones as initial bulls investment is awesome for a ruler. Skilled subjects are productive subjects.
...it doesn't correspond exactly to the ratio in cultivation bonuses?
RSS give 1 die for the first stone and 2 dice for each stone thereafter.
YSS give 5 dice for the first stone and 10 dice for each stone thereafter.
So YSS are 5x more powerful then RSS, but they cost 10x as much.
I'm sure this already happens, to a degree. Most Cultivators seem to be needed or used for defending mortals from spirits and barbarians though. Depends on resources available.
Maybe if we're clever or handle a lot of things ourselves, we could free up some Reds from guard duty to take up more productive occupations. That does mean less guards, though.
Thats probably done on a smaller scale by many smaller noble families to bulk it out. Larger ones can afford to pack it all with relatives and distant branch families. But it's expensive.. What the Sect does here is ludicrous for any noble family to try. You'd be looking at instead of a SCHOOL...an apprenticeship. Survey your mortal population for those with the best Talent and drive and train them, maybe even teach them some portion of your family arts and adopt them(you think most families breed their way there? adoption is the main way they're going to get there in reasonable time from a first generation superman).
Maybe do 2-3 a year and maybe one of them might be worth something if you were picky and felt your time was well spent this way.
The rest...well you still need low level judges, guards, and courtiers. Even if they never pass Red they are useful.
Hey, work lets you pay for food which lets you write more in the future. It's a win win.
BTW, any chance Lu Feng makes it as apocrypha?
Not a problem. On that note, about your earlier post, I hope everything is alright with your family. I've had enough experience with "urgent family matters" that the phrase always makes me nervous.