Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

[Sirrocco]

So... I think we've sort of met in the middle on the whole "how do we buff our troops" question (rough consensus answer by my understanding: here are a bunch of different ideas for ways to buff low-tier troops. We should do the ones that are doable/workable/affordable/efficient, whichever those happen to be. We should do what we can to leverage the Cai Power Engine first, and then use our own powers to fill in the blanks, rather than duplicating effort.)

...so what does it all mean for our overall strategy for the next 12 months (assuming that Cai Renxiang and Ling Qi both make it into the inner sect)?

My read:
- Obviously our own cultivation matters greatly. We have a basic strategy in place, with a number of built-in synergies, that fits the role that Cai Renxiang intends for us to slot into, and we should hone it. I think that continuing our formations work is worthwhile. If nothing else, the ability to both create and overcome wards is never going to stop being important to us, and prepping formations is also useful in a "bag of tricks" sort of way. I don't think it's really worth our time to try to branch out into crafting, though, and I honestly tend to think that the little skeletal servitors are mostly a waste for us. I'll admit that they're potentially useful for digging things out of cracks and so forth.
- The degree to which our liege succeeds at her mother's tests, and the degree to which we contribute to making that happen are both going to be hugely important to our short-term and medium-term prospects. To me, this is a priority that clocks in only just under pushign our own cultivation forward (and the two are almost inextricably twined aroudn one another)
- By my understanding/recollection, our Domain is sort of fuzzy-coalesced around the idea of Family and the buffing thereof. It might be worth tweaking that domain a bit in various ways and/or our idea of who is Family so as to leverage that better. Sure, this isn't necessarily the psychologically healthiest way of doing things, but cultivation is like that some times. Of course, our domain is forever. We don't want to gain short-term advantage at the cost of long-term problems.
- If we're planning on leveraging our relationship with Li Suyin after we leave the sect, we're going to need to make quality time with her rather more of a priority. As things stand, I don't think she'd accept the call. At bare minimum we'd need to find out what she needs/craves and how to give it to her.
- In general, we're going to need to spend quality time with anyone who we want to be able to see again after the year is up (other than Cai and Bai, who are both nicely locked in). I suspect that one of our major value-adds for Cai Renxiang is going to be in pulling other people into her group. She's better at the social than we are, but she needs all the help she can get. In particular, I think for the next year we need to be spending *most* of our social time with people who we're pulling closer into Cai's orbit, one way or another.

 

[veekie]

This just makes me think of getting Suyin to pull a Dr. Robotnik by altering the Li Silk Guards/other puppets to be powered by caging first realm critters into them instead of spending spirit stones. She has the perfect bound spirit to capture them and everything.

Click to shrink...

Well...its more useful than prison or execution...

 

[Kai Merah]

You know what I think would be a fun way to develop our fief? Make it all about the spirits. Not necessarily in terms of binding them to our guards, but more like... We have good relations with many spirits, and because our fief citizens belong to us, the spirits treat them more kindly/are more forgiving of their mistakes. And there's a closer relation between humans and spirits in our domain like...

Every day, Farmer Hua and his family start the morning by taking in the (now empty) plate of lucky red buns and saucer of alcohol they left out the previous night. They have breakfast, giving thanks to the spirits and Lady Ling for their bounty, and then they go about their day.

Each field has a small altar with carefully tended joss sticks and small offerings for the prosperity of the field. At certain times each year, the best of the crops/livestock are sacrificed for bountiful harvests and healthy, fecund animals.

Every moon, Lady Ling puts on a concert, and for that one night, spirits and mortals can mingle freely without fear of mortals getting kidnapped or otherwise harmed. Mortals of Lady Ling are looked on more favorably by spirits because of Lady Ling's respect for, and close relationship with spirits, and so find it easier to get spirits to do small favours for them in return for equally small offerings. A lost animal is returned for an extra saucer of alcohol, a prediction of weather for the next few weeks is granted for a tenth of the crops planted during that time. Minor things of that nature.

Invaders who do not know the appropriate methods of appeasement for the spirits of Ling's fief, and do not have the same favour as those who belong to Lady Ling, inevitably have a bad time. Their mounts go lame, their food spoils faster, they often get hopelessly lost, several of them go missing every night. Or perhaps they run into a snow storm and then they all go missing.

Things of this nature. Like, I've been delving into fey stuff lately, particularly the wonderful Elsewhere University, so that's where I'm getting a lot of this from, and I just like the imagery of it. Our mortals and low ranked Cultivators are not exactly stronger than others, just a bit more spirit-touched and aware. Mainly because they have a bit more leeway to make mistakes, being ours, and so have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

If you never heard or read the appropriate stories growing up, if you didn't know to carry salt and iron always, or to beware the fairy rings and never say 'thank you', the customs would make no sense and you'd have a bad time in a fey-heavy place. But if you did know the right way to behave, well... It does make it easier to get rid of asshole outsiders. Just keep your mouth shut and watch them crash and burn on their own. Or offer them hospitality and wait for them to break it. Or trick them into making bets for high stakes. There are many, many methods of screwing over someone who doesn't know the right stories.

 

[Mr.rodent]

You know what I think would be a fun way to develop our fief? Make it all about the spirits. Not necessarily in terms of binding them to our guards, but more like... We have good relations with many spirits, and because our fief citizens belong to us, the spirits treat them more kindly/are more forgiving of their mistakes. And there's a closer relation between humans and spirits in our domain like...

Every day, Farmer Hua and his family start the morning by taking in the (now empty) plate of lucky red buns and saucer of alcohol they left out the previous night. They have breakfast, giving thanks to the spirits and Lady Ling for their bounty, and then they go about their day.

Each field has a small altar with carefully tended joss sticks and small offerings for the prosperity of the field. At certain times each year, the best of the crops/livestock are sacrificed for bountiful harvests and healthy, fecund animals.

Every moon, Lady Ling puts on a concert, and for that one night, spirits and mortals can mingle freely without fear of mortals getting kidnapped or otherwise harmed. Mortals of Lady Ling are looked on more favorably by spirits because of Lady Ling's respect for, and close relationship with spirits, and so find it easier to get spirits to do small favours for them in return for equally small offerings. A lost animal is returned for an extra saucer of alcohol, a prediction of weather for the next few weeks is granted for a tenth of the crops planted during that time. Minor things of that nature.

Invaders who do not know the appropriate methods of appeasement for the spirits of Ling's fief, and do not have the same favour as those who belong to Lady Ling, inevitably have a bad time. Their mounts go lame, their food spoils faster, they often get hopelessly lost, several of them go missing every night. Or perhaps they run into a snow storm and then they all go missing.

Things of this nature. Like, I've been delving into fey stuff lately, particularly the wonderful Elsewhere University, so that's where I'm getting a lot of this from, and I just like the imagery of it. Our mortals and low ranked Cultivators are not exactly stronger than others, just a bit more spirit-touched and aware. Mainly because they have a bit more leeway to make mistakes, being ours, and so have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

If you never heard or read the appropriate stories growing up, if you didn't know to carry salt and iron always, or to beware the fairy rings and never say 'thank you', the customs would make no sense and you'd have a bad time in a fey-heavy place. But if you did know the right way to behave, well... It does make it easier to get rid of asshole outsiders. Just keep your mouth shut and watch them crash and burn on their own. Or offer them hospitality and wait for them to break it. Or trick them into making bets for high stakes. There are many, many methods of screwing over someone who doesn't know the right stories.

Click to shrink...

I think the problem with this mindset is the lack of understanding of spirits and the setting in general.

Sure, ling qi could have some friendly spirits dwell in her province , and have good relations with them , but the thing about spirits is that they are fundamentally not human. They dont think, feel or act like one set personality or in a human way unless they've spend significant time around a human via a cultivator. Hence growing.

A spirit need not be malicious to hurt or harm a mortal, simple lack of understanding of human biology or lifespans could have a spirit try to play with a human only to kill them by accident. And then move on.

Is the spirit evil for this? Or does it get a pass because of its ignorance? How do we balance protecting the mortals in our province while simultaneously keeping the very varied spirits happy as well? I'm sure the empire does it's best to keep coehesence but there's a reason for WARDS existing to keep spirits out.

Secondly, People already honour the spirits. The great ones that is, the ones who directly effect their lives and homes and have the most impact. Aka the gods. This is what the temples are for and priest that tend to it.

Farmers give thanks to bountiful earth, and I'm sure their fields are blessed every now and then either by nature spirits or from their provincial lord sending a cultivator with a growth art or spirit to enhance the fields.

So people already honour spirits, but remember mortals can't see spirits , only spirit beast. And even then I believe you have to be high enough in cultivation to even understand what their saying or be talented like biyu and ling qi.

So any type of "understanding between mortals and spirits " is doomed from the get go...

A thing that can happen however is a certain type of spirit becoming popular or common within a province. In our case, possibly moon spirits.

Just as that one clans lord used spider spirits and thus spiders became popular in the area for its cultivators and other lords, so too would moon spirits become popular in our fief.

Again tho, the problem here is that there are different aspects of the moon , and possibly an extremely large variety of types of spirits for each category. Some could be beneficial while others ...not so much.

 

[TehChron]

That approach is basically retreading the path that the Weilu walked.

And I reaaaaaally doubt that parallel is gonna go unnoticed.

 

[Kai Merah]

I think the problem with this mindset is the lack of understanding of spirits and the setting in general.

Sure, ling qi could have some friendly spirits dwell in her province , and have good relations with them , but the thing about spirits is that they are fundamentally not human. They dont think, feel or act like one set personality or in a human way unless they've spend significant time around a human via a cultivator. Hence growing.

A spirit need not be malicious to hurt or harm a mortal, simple lack of understanding of human biology or lifespans could have a spirit try to play with a human only to kill them by accident. And then move on.

Is the spirit evil for this? Or does it get a pass because of its ignorance? How do we balance protecting the mortals in our province while simultaneously keeping the very varied spirits happy as well? I'm sure the empire does it's best to keep coehesence but there's a reason for WARDS existing to keep spirits out.

Secondly, People already honour the spirits. The great ones that is, the ones who directly effect their lives and homes and have the most impact. Aka the gods. This is what the temples are for and priest that tend to it.

Farmers give thanks to bountiful earth, and I'm sure their fields are blessed every now and then either by nature spirits or from their provincial lord sending a cultivator with a growth art or spirit to enhance the fields.

So people already honour spirits, but remember mortals can't see spirits , only spirit beast. And even then I believe you have to be high enough in cultivation to even understand what their saying or be talented like biyu and ling qi.

So any type of "understanding between mortals and spirits " is doomed from the get go...

A thing that can happen however is a certain type of spirit becoming popular or common within a province. In our case, possibly moon spirits.

Just as that one clans lord used spider spirits and thus spiders became popular in the area for its cultivators and other lords, so too would moon spirits become popular in our fief.

Again tho, the problem here is that there are different aspects of the moon , and possibly an extremely large variety of types of spirits for each category. Some could be beneficial while others ...not so much.

Click to shrink...

To answer your concerns, my idea is that mortals don't need to necessarily speak to spirits to know how to be safe around them. Similar to how you don't need to have ever seen or spoken to a fey to know that carrying around salt and iron is a good idea. Or that if you get terribly lost on a familiar road, you should pause and turn your clothes inside out. Small things like that.

And as mortals learn how to avoid being killed by spirits, spirits also slowly learn how to not accidentally kill mortals or how it's impolite to return them a hundred years past their time after a revel. But the general idea being that they have the time to learn their way around each other because Ling Qi is there to smooth things over for both sides.

And I know that mortals do propitiate great spirits, but I was thinking they could have smaller altars to specific spirits that would be personally invested in their field or their animals due to the personal relationship they've cultivated by being a respectful vassal of Ling Qi's. Small offerings don't mean much to great spirits, but they might mean a lot more to smaller spirits, who might consequently work harder to keep getting those small offerings.

 

[TehChron]

To answer your concerns, my idea is that mortals don't need to necessarily speak to spirits to know how to be safe around them. Similar to how you don't need to have ever seen or spoken to a fey to know that carrying around salt and iron is a good idea. Or that if you get terribly lost on a familiar road, you should pause and turn your clothes inside out. Small things like that.

And as mortals learn how to avoid being killed by spirits, spirits also slowly learn how to not accidentally kill mortals or how it's impolite to return them a hundred years past their time after a revel. But the general idea being that they have the time to learn their way around each other because Ling Qi is there to smooth things over for both sides.

And I know that mortals do propitiate great spirits, but I was thinking they could have smaller altars to specific spirits that would be personally invested in their field or their animals due to the personal relationship they've cultivated by being a respectful vassal of Ling Qi's. Small offerings don't mean much to great spirits, but they might mean a lot more to smaller spirits, who might consequently work harder to keep getting those small offerings.

Click to shrink...

Ah.

Yeah that'll never happen.

There's just too much culture clash and mutually exclusive senses of self preservation. Inevitably, you'd have to appease the spirits by laying blame on the mortals for getting something wrong on accident and getting murdered by an offended spirit of some stripe.

And that'll just start a spiral of flat out nastiness since Ling Qi as an Imperial Cultivator isnt there to make things good for spirits.

But for mortals.

 

[archangis]

Who said it's revolutionary?

We have the tools to make it happen, and it can be done with a clearly defined line of investment and research.

We can then make it in house for what is likely just manufacturing costs with little markup, saving us money and getting people to a level of base competence sooner. That's not revolutionary.

It's just good sense.

Click to shrink...

I fail to see the interest of paying for research when we could get a talisman makers to make the equivalent without cost.

Ah.

Yeah that'll never happen.

There's just too much culture clash and mutually exclusive senses of self preservation. Inevitably, you'd have to appease the spirits by laying blame on the mortals for getting something wrong on accident and getting murdered by an offended spirit of some stripe.

And that'll just start a spiral of flat out nastiness since Ling Qi as an Imperial Cultivator isnt there to make things good for spirits.

But for mortals.

Click to shrink...

Spirits are not human. They will not react as ones.

 

[AbeoLogos]

It's bad enough mortals have to deal with cultivators, lets not complicate their lives with spirits everywhere. It's a risky idea for really not very much benefit.

Dealing with wild spirits for mutual benefit is absolutely something we can do, but let's keep it between spirit and cultivator.

 

[BungieONI]

It's bad enough mortals have to deal with cultivators, lets not complicate their lives with spirits everywhere. It's a risky idea for really not very much benefit.

Dealing with wild spirits for mutual benefit is absolutely something we can do, but let's keep it between spirit and cultivator.

Click to shrink...

At the very least we know that sort of relationship actually works and so we can do research on the matter of mortals and spirits.

(We being Ling Qi or someone she knows who's hired/interested/paid to do it)

 

[FallenPears]

That approach is basically retreading the path that the Weilu walked.

And I reaaaaaally doubt that parallel is gonna go unnoticed.

Click to shrink...

Based on what we've heard of them I don't really think that's going to be a problem so long as we keep our insatiable love of abs and ass under control...

Dear god we're doomed.

 

[veekie]

Okay, worth keeping in mind that even the friendliest spirits we know can and will casually kill people. They don't care about anything outside their microcosm and they find great difficulty not wholly adhering to their concept.

Observe Zeqing very nearly taking Ling Qi home as an ice sculpture for a slip of the tongue, and this by a girl who knows what kind of spirit she is, with a spirit who has been in relatively long association with humans, and thus capable of some moderation.

Observe Sixiang, a benign Moon fairy of one of the more pleasant Moon aspects performing invasions of privacy, giving out lewd propositions and generally inspiring strong emotions of all sorts for fun, despite recommendations to the contrary.

Take Heizui, the relatively minor river dragon, bringer of good harvests and queller of floods...who is also going to read offensive thoughts and punish them, and given the species reputation, likely to be a threat to any attractive mortal girls in the area, who find themselves being romanced by a giant crocodile they cannot communicate with, and who would be mortally insulted by the idea that they might not be a desirable mate.

Mortals and spirits don't mix well. If you're creating a fief where the spirits roam wild, then you're also creating a fief where the ordinary humans occupy a small enclave, fanatically adhering to arbitrary and exact rules outside of it save for activities and ceremonies where a cultivator or spirit blooded guides them to perform.

Even in the friendliest outcome we're going to be destroying or binding many of the spirits in our fief to create safe spaces for people. Striking a balance basically means carving up a small safe urban core where theres only minor 'civilized' spirits, a wide rural expanse occupied only by subdued spirits and spirit beasts for agriculture that requires cultivators to work the fields and patrol the borders, and then the rest is going to be untouched primeval forests where only small, well protected groups venture.

 

[AbeoLogos]

At the very least we know that sort of relationship actually works and so we can do research on the matter of mortals and spirits.

(We being Ling Qi or someone she knows who's hired/interested/paid to do it)

Click to shrink...

I don't know that we do know that, though. We know the Weilu had much closer and wilder association with spirits in general than contemporary Imperial custom, but the Weilu weren't mortals. They were an immensely powerful cultivator clan/family/people. With horns. Ling Qi doesn't know squat about how mortals fit into the equation.

Unless you meant we know that positive cultivator/spirit interaction actually works, in which case yes it's a thing we ought to do as much as feasible.

 

[BungieONI]

Unless you meant we know that positive cultivator/spirit interaction actually works, in which case yes it's a thing we ought to do as much as feasible.

Click to shrink...

This is what I meant.

 

[FallenPears]

So, I was checking out our cultivation stats, and I noticed that excepting for head, we have 6 to 8 of each type of Meridian Leg, Heart, Lung, Spine, which fits good with our build based on the arts we prefer. Seems good.

However, we also have 7 arm meridians. Currently, 2 of those are for FSS which is fine, but the other 5 are split between FSA and AC, which we will be replacing as I understand it.

Now lots of people want to be rid of archery entirely. Not getting into that argument, do we have an alternative use for these arm meridians then? Getting a better version of AC might work, but it doesn't seem like it would be as cohesive to our build as it could be, as others have pointed out we want to not have to put down our flute in combat.

I'm just a little worried in the long term we'll end up having to have a sub-optimal build because of these arm meridians, so any ideas for what we can do with them?

There is a good chance meridian numbers get high enough that 7 is still a tiny amount and they all get fed into FSS+ or whatever, but that may be quite a while, and in the meantime we may still be dealing with this.

At the very least, I feel that if we need another arm meridian any time soon we should really consider trading out an art for it instead of just unlocking a new one. Providing we don't come up with a good plan of course.

 

[Arkeus]

Yes, we have too many arms meridians.

As mentioned, FSA and AC are going to go and we don't know what to replace them with, either. A spiritual offence buffing art or something 'AC like' that is not melee-specific would make sense for one, but that still leaves "what do we do with FSA meridians". FSS doesn't need anymore arms meridians. I guess AE needs one, but we don't need we want to level AE.

The most likely possibility is we'll use a 3heart/4arm squad offensive art like AC that's not melee, and we'll use the last arm meridian for AE. However, that does mean getting a very offensive squad art. Another possibility is to get something like a leg/arm stealth/larceny art.

 

[tryrar]

So, I was checking out our cultivation stats, and I noticed that excepting for head, we have 6 to 8 of each type of Meridian Leg, Heart, Lung, Spine, which fits good with our build based on the arts we prefer. Seems good.

However, we also have 7 arm meridians. Currently, 2 of those are for FSS which is fine, but the other 5 are split between FSA and AC, which we will be replacing as I understand it.

Now lots of people want to be rid of archery entirely. Not getting into that argument, do we have an alternative use for these arm meridians then? Getting a better version of AC might work, but it doesn't seem like it would be as cohesive to our build as it could be, as others have pointed out we want to not have to put down our flute in combat.

I'm just a little worried in the long term we'll end up having to have a sub-optimal build because of these arm meridians, so any ideas for what we can do with them?

There is a good chance meridian numbers get high enough that 7 is still a tiny amount and they all get fed into FSS+ or whatever, but that may be quite a while, and in the meantime we may still be dealing with this.

At the very least, I feel that if we need another arm meridian any time soon we should really consider trading out an art for it instead of just unlocking a new one. Providing we don't come up with a good plan of course.

Click to shrink...

I personally want to get more blaster arts, preferably music-based. Maybe a better personal melee art for emergencies(not incompatible with an AC upgrade, of course).

My art wishlist is a pure darkness-based blaster music art(high likelikood of going "armor? what''s that?" And a Green level melee punchy art(since those can be used with kicks as well), with some group support options(though it would be better if it focused on the melee part more than the support part).

Mainly, I'd also want to replace Fleeting Zephyr with a Green level general area support art(i.e. one that boosts general offense AND defense, and maybe movement if we're lucky)

 

[veekie]

We can look for Moon Arm arts I figure. Or even a Moon successor for FSA. They aren't that different

 

[BungieONI]

So, I was checking out our cultivation stats, and I noticed that excepting for head, we have 6 to 8 of each type of Meridian Leg, Heart, Lung, Spine, which fits good with our build based on the arts we prefer. Seems good.

However, we also have 7 arm meridians. Currently, 2 of those are for FSS which is fine, but the other 5 are split between FSA and AC, which we will be replacing as I understand it.

Now lots of people want to be rid of archery entirely. Not getting into that argument, do we have an alternative use for these arm meridians then? Getting a better version of AC might work, but it doesn't seem like it would be as cohesive to our build as it could be, as others have pointed out we want to not have to put down our flute in combat.

I'm just a little worried in the long term we'll end up having to have a sub-optimal build because of these arm meridians, so any ideas for what we can do with them?

There is a good chance meridian numbers get high enough that 7 is still a tiny amount and they all get fed into FSS+ or whatever, but that may be quite a while, and in the meantime we may still be dealing with this.

At the very least, I feel that if we need another arm meridian any time soon we should really consider trading out an art for it instead of just unlocking a new one. Providing we don't come up with a good plan of course.

Click to shrink...

FSS+ is basically a given, since that art path is literally too useful to let go outside of potentially very specific circumstances i.e finding something straight up better. So as you noted, and I agree FSS+ will eat some of those, but it will take some time before we actually get it.

Thus as you mention, we need replacements. To start we probably want very specific elements from these arts, so that our ever important wacky elemental balance doesn't get wackier. The best suggestion I can come up with for elements is Moon and/or Music. The pre-reqs for those are Darkness and Thunder obviously, but Thunder is outside our area so I would suggest us getting Darkness if we can't get Moon and/or Music.

So, presuming we can find a Moon element art with Yin aspect preferably, what would I want if I was playing this alone? Illusion arts mostly. Preferably Qi sapping illusions. Similar paradigm to PLR though in this case it's very specifically meant to distract and badly hamper single peer or slightly above opponents. We are able to stand against a peer, but from what I understand of our diceless narrative themes, as provided by our arts currently, we can potentially struggle to actually "stick" with our main strategy.

However to incorporate what others have said. I would still want a Moon element art, in a melee/group support art for squad level engagements. In my head I imagine it being an art which invests us and our squad with the illusory aspects of the moon, providing false images and fake battlers which eventually become real. If you're at all familiar with the Shadow's from DnD, it's a similar concept of a truly painful and potentially lethal illusion so long as you cannot break the illusion. Also fits well with our dodge tank build since it means that attacks aimed at us sometimes will be made to actively miss. I'd put in some direct damage or armor boosts, but I'm not really sure how to do that except by circumventing physical entirely and having the art "bless" our strikes with a form of mental attack along with the physical.

A 3 heart/4 arm AC-alike would also be acceptable to me and not being melee makes much sense to me. For this one I'd look to darkness and Moon. What I am imagining would be an art which uses the collective shadows of the squad to assist in attacks and defense, with a at least vaguely similar technique spread. Specifically something like Pressure Crack in effect, but distinctly different, which also may benefit from lowered light conditions as provided by FVM or AE.

For general area support buffing attack/defense/movement and Moon. It'd obviously be a heart and arm spread with potentially one or two leg. The concept that occurs to me is "illusory speed" where you seem slower than you actually are, your real self and those of your allies hidden amongst a gathering of illusions as the moon laughs at the petty illusion of "distance" and lets you move through it faster than you should. Kinda like a dream. For defense it obscures your true forms, making hits go off course and sure strikes be grazes and the like and then providing you with what are essentially surprise bonuses for your attacks. Not sure if that properly matches the meridians though.

 

[Horium]

I don't think it's a real problem.

As previously mentioned, even if we discontinue archery, offensive buffs and FSS-like arts are suitable art replacements which would utilize arm meridians, without even mentioning utility arts like larceny (which imho should be at least partly arm).

 

[DeAnno]

I'm just a little worried in the long term we'll end up having to have a sub-optimal build because of these arm meridians, so any ideas for what we can do with them?

Click to shrink...

I think a Domain Weapon art of some kind would be likely to use Arm Meridians, and we're already pretty invested in our domain weapon.

 

[Grigori]

I'm not too worried about the arm meridians, we'll likely pick up more Heart/Arm or Lung/Arm arts along the way.

She appears to use it rarely, with only three 'spirited' dresses in existence.

Click to shrink...

Minor quibble but I'm pretty sure it's four. For herself, the Empress, her number one supporter in the province and for her daughter.

 

[Ayashi]

Now lots of people want to be rid of archery entirely. Not getting into that argument, do we have an alternative use for these arm meridians then? Getting a better version of AC might work, but it doesn't seem like it would be as cohesive to our build as it could be, as others have pointed out we want to not have to put down our flute in combat.

Click to shrink...

I would like the Arms meridians to go to a stealth attack Art. Something that builds up on backstabbing, first attack, midden blows, ambush and that kind of things.

I think a Domain Weapon art of some kind would be likely to use Arm Meridians, and we're already pretty invested in our domain weapon.

Click to shrink...

That's an idea, but we have no prof so far that such Arts exist :/

 

[mc2rpg]

We will always need a few different ways to hurt people, having 7 arm meridians is not a problem at all.

 

[Nemonowan]

From what Cai told us, we NEED to cultivate a weapon to be respectable, and the bow is both acceptable and innately easy for us. Discarding it would therefore be suboptimal.
Granted, it doesn't mesh well with our expected music/stealth path, but if we concentrate on a narrow aspect of it it wouldn't be too costly and could even plug some holes in our build.
For instance, a long-range archery wind art gives us some sniping capability that we lack and that would have been useful at times, for instance. Of course it needs a matching perception art, but that is something that we also could use as we have seen from our fight whith Shen.
Another possibility would be a stealth sniping bow art, to sinergyze with our moon/dark orientation.