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Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)

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Bit soon to be shipping with the Xuan. Maybe after we get a few promotion.

Connected or not, it would be pretty unseemly for a ducal house member to marry into a barons family.
 
veekie said:
Already busted. Thats pretty much what low status branch members are for.
But also why Renxiang told us to wait for Cyan/Indigo at least, so they won't fob off the lowest trash they have
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Fine then.

It's way to soon to be shipping. We probably have a decade or more before it even starts to become relevant. There will be other options and if people start hedging one way now, it will build momentum and may result in losing out on a better option later.

An offer to visit =/= a marriage proposal. This is entirely conjecture, and the reality is that there are other possible motives.


This is massively jumping the gun. Are you just bored or something?
 
I just had a thought. The two admirals from the party...they seemed to have a deep psychic connection, right? What if one of them was actually a high-level Xuanwu transformed into a human? It would explain the connection, we know they call each other Brother the same as they referred to Zhengui, and they were heavily covered so you can't see any identifying marks.
 
Asael said:
An offer to visit =/= a marriage proposal. This is entirely conjecture, and the reality is that there are other possible motives.
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Look at what he said.
Xuan Ce: "You two(unspecified, context says can be Xuan Shi or Zhengui equally) should come visit the family."
Ling Qi: "I'll come with Zhengui"
Xuan Ce: *Suddenly irritated despite having agreed to his offer*

The exchange of subtext is pretty clear. He's not saying it straight because that way leaves both parties no way to deescalate and save face.
 
veekie said:
Look at what he said.
Xuan Ce: "You two(unspecified, context says can be Xuan Shi or Zhengui equally) should come visit the family."
Ling Qi: "I'll come with Zhengui"
Xuan Ce: *Suddenly irritated despite having agreed to his offer*

The exchange of subtext is pretty clear. He's not saying it straight because that way leaves both parties no way to deescalate and save face.
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yrsillar said:
Cai gave her a faint look a of approval out of the corner of her eye, so she hadn't screwed that up too badly. Still, she couldn't help but feel that the elder Xuan looked faintly disappointed, which was alarming. There was no sign of it in his voice when he spoke next though. "Yes, the precious one," he chuckled instead, making Ling Qi flush slightly. "Perhaps thy wings should carry the two of you north in the future. It would do the child good to meet his kin."

"I would have no objection," Cai Renxiang said smoothly. "Though I would need ask that you not borrow my retainer for too long Lord Xuan."

"I am no thief," the older man huffed, glancing at her again. "...Yet I must express disappointment in mine grand nephews lack of rigor in some matters," the man said with a sigh.

"Your words are too kind. I would be pleased to visit your lands alongside Zhengui in the future," Ling Qi said politely. "I am undeserving of such attention."

"Hmph, this suthron dance can be tiring," Xuan Ce grunted, for the first time showing a bit of irritation. "Perhaps to those without Sight your words might be true. Portents swirl about this place, forming the seeds of a hurricane, and yet I see you clearly amidst the gathering winds. The Star Child and Moon Wraith both will know no simple future."
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The subtext is very clear and I really don't see where you could have gotten that view from.

The most likely reason he was disappointed was that Xuan Shi had not engaged with us. Every time we have talked to him it was on our own violition. It is very likely that Xuan Shi was sent to the sect in order to try and get him out of his shell.

The next section was Xuan Ce finding a little humor in the name of Zhengui. Then he states that he hopes that we might visit in the future. He literally says "It would do the child good to meet his kin." There is only one child in the conversation. Xuan Shi has reached green and thus adult hood. We have reached green and thus adult hood. Cai has reached green and thus adult hood. Zhengui is less then a year old and is yellow. Zhengui is very much still a child. Then there is "to meet his kin." We know he is thinking of a male given his word choice of his. That eliminates both us and Cai. This leaves Xuan Shi and Zhengui. However why would Xuan shi need to "meet his kin?" He has lived with his kin almost his entire life. The only person Xuan Ce could even be remotely talking about is Zhengui. Your idea that he was hoping that Ling Qi and Xuan Shi would go north together is wrong.

Now we move onto Xuan Ce irritation and what could be the source of his irritation. Ling Qi states

"Your words are too kind. I would be pleased to visit your lands alongside Zhengui in the future," Ling Qi said politely. "I am undeserving of such attention."

This is where Xuan Ce becomes irritated. First he complains that this dance is tiring. The dance he is talking about is almost assuredly the way people are very careful with anything they say. Next he states: "Perhaps to those without Sight your words might be true." Which words is Xuan Ce calling out as a lie? That his words are too kind? No that doesn't make much sense because he has been very kind inviting Ling Qi and Zhengui up north to visit Zhengui's kin. Is he calling us out and saying that we don't feel pleased about visiting his lands? I don't think so because there was no line stating Ling Qi's feeling about such a trip. At best we would feel indifferent but that is not something you really call people out about. The only line that makes sense here is when Ling Qi talks about being undeserving. It is here that Xuan Ce takes issue. He feels that we do deserve attention because of the things that he is seeing. We can even see where a lot of his irritiation could come from in a following line by Cai.

"Cai Renxiang frowned slightly, pausing to finally take a sip from her cup. "Divinations regarding the future are hardly reliable," she said quietly."

If people from the savage seas place a much higher importance on divination then people in the south do it would make sense that he is irritated about not being able to speak plainly about such omens. If I could see something that only people from my town took seriously going out and having other people just not believe me would be irritating.

All in all his invitation to Ling Qi and Zhengui as well as the cause of his irritation are fairly clear just from this passage.
 
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veekie said:
Already busted. Thats pretty much what low status branch members are for.
But also why Renxiang told us to wait for Cyan/Indigo at least, so they won't fob off the lowest trash they have
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Ah no. Low branch family members are for barons to marry into their family. There is a difference. I feel we would have to rise in status quite a bit to keep our name.
Edit at least I would think so but, I'm new so if you have wog.
 
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victor janus said:
Ah no. Low branch family members are for barons to marry into their family. There is a difference. I feel we would have to rise in status quite a bit to keep our name.
Edit at least I would think so but, I'm new so if you have wog.
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There is WoG on it, though a marriage with a Duccal house probably strains it. Basically, Ling Qi's value as a marriage prospect is heavily tied with her being the Head of clan Ling which is directly subordinate of the heir of the province. If you marry Ling Qi into your house, clan Ling no longer exists and the connection is severed.
 
BurnNote said:
He's got too much personality. An eroge protagonist has bland-aligned qi.
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Yeah, Zhengui has a moon-aligned Qi!

Asael said:
Connected or not, it would be pretty unseemly for a ducal house member to marry into a barons family.
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Why? Each ducal clan (except the Cai and possibly the Sun) has thousands of members, most of which cannot be all that important. Besides, it would be rather strange if each of the ducal clans held only the ducal title; Many branch families likely have their own demesnes. For example, Yrs has stated that the Bai number around 100k and so there probably are hundreds of Bai counts, viscounts and barons.
 
AbeoLogos said:
There is WoG on it, though a marriage with a Duccal house probably strains it. Basically, Ling Qi's value as a marriage prospect is heavily tied with her being the Head of clan Ling which is directly subordinate of the heir of the province. If you marry Ling Qi into your house, clan Ling no longer exists and the connection is severed.
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Untrue: the vassalhood vassalage was between CRX and Ling Qi, not between Cai Clan and the Ling Family's head. So long as Ling Qi and CRX are both live and willing the vassalage will remain.
Having Ling Qi marry into an other house has the issue of adding an other "superior" to Ling Qi (the husband if in a very traditional family, or just the husband's clan in general for families less so), hence divided loyalties.
If the husband marries into Ling Qi family then the divided loyalty is on him rather than Ling Qi. Much better result from CRX point of view.
 
Does anyone else have butterflies right now? This really feels like the actual test of our build-we can support perfectly, but can we stand on our own?
 
Ayashi said:
Untrue: the vassalhood vassalage was between CRX and Ling Qi, not between Cai Clan and the Ling Family's head. So long as Ling Qi and CRX are both live and willing the vassalage will remain.
Having Ling Qi marry into an other house has the issue of adding an other "superior" to Ling Qi (the husband if in a very traditional family, or just the husband's clan in general for families less so), hence divided loyalties.
If the husband marries into Ling Qi family then the divided loyalty is on him rather than Ling Qi. Much better result from CRX point of view.
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No, that's not right. Clan Ling is vassal to clan Cai, with Cai Renxiang having direct oversight. As clan Head, Ling Qi owes fealty to the Cai, and Cai Renxiang specifically as the Cai-designated superior. Ling Qi's personal oath of service to Cai Renxiang is incredibly socially important, but it's ultimately, legalistically, subordinate to the clan structures in play. Ling Qi bound her clan to that of Cai Renxiang's; if Ling Qi dies, the Ling are still Cai vassals. Marriage is a totally different thing, and as clan head Ling Qi's marriage carries the fate of her clan.

@yrsillar could you confirm this? I'm pretty sure this is going to be a big huge dumb argument, and we need to understand this kind of thing anyway.
 
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yrsillar said:
At fifty meters up, she expressed Zhengui above the concentration of mountain and metal that could be nothing but Chu Song's spirit. Her little brother dropped like a stone with an excited woop from both of his heads even as his shell began to glow with magmatic heat that distorted the very air around him.
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This would have been the perfect time for dramatic entrance!
 
BungieONI said:
*Thinks about that for a moment*
But... like...

Huh. That actually sorta kinda maybe works? Its a very specific cross of very specific qualities.
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I'm so mad, this was my exact reaction. "You're wrong! That's just jamming ice and music together, not taking into account her intense loyalty to a... vicious snake-themed pseudo-villain... and tendency towards irreverent snark... and poor background.... with a central, character-defining trauma involving family... wait........"

"Fuck, I want you to be, but you're not wrong."
 
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