Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Which is why it works.
Kiddy pool fights and offenses, do matter, because they adjust the escalation notches on the higher level struggles, and because no feudal clan can tolerate the public appearance of not standing up for its members...within reason of course.
But unlike most xianxia, the high status individuals involved ARE aware of how much they can draw upon family support for various fights, and thus stick to those at least nominally in tune with their greater family agenda, or where they don't, their family DO step in to tell them to moderate or cut it out.
You see things like the Huangs telling Huang Da to pull back from his personal interests for creeping on the Bais' scion's little friend, because its not a fight the greater family wants, and he obeys, because thats kind of a precondition to keeping his family backing. He does still indulge himself in being creepy around people at a second remove, but that's hardly something the Bais would give a shit about and since nobody made a fuss, nobody has a fuss.
On the other hand we see Sun Shao in spoiling Liling allowed himself to take several inches of overreach, where he was then countered with a slap on the wrist and a strengthening of his enemies. He even noted as such to Liling.
Basically, much more like a realistic Face culture setting, because Face culture when not indulging teenage revenge fantasies has a LOT of methods to deescalate or moderate a conflict. Its the whole point of Face to begin with. The kiddy fights do matter, mostly because they show how well the clan is willing to back/indulge their kids and how much they are willing to rein them in when it goes overboard.
Integrated in your domain/aura. Technically they're just a focal point for your domain.
- Location
- United States of America
Well, we know that Gan Ganguli doesn't have a physical domain weapon, or not physical like we understand it. I think that he is the only one who doesn't use a flying sword domain weapon, but Cai might not use one either.
Actually, I can't remember ever actually seeing Cai's domain weapon.
DeAnno
Sometimes words have two meanings
Of all the major combat primary characters, CRX is ironically one of the ones we've seen fight the least, mostly due to missing all her tourney battles. I think that's something we need to rectify going Inner, if only so we can plan our build around her a bit better considering the Juniors in 18 months. In the unlikely event neither of us fields a challenge in the first month I'd actually support a full contact spar just to stay sharp.
This make me think that we should try to get a full moon art for SCS+. This being because Cai heavenly legion art apparrently make switching to shadow relativelly hard (equivalent to being in full light maybe ?). As thus in the tournament, we will be impaired rather than augmented by Cai art, if we keep this requirement of being in low light to have lesser costs.
- Location
- Who Knows
I'm pretty much speaking fluent but not talented at writing/reading if that matters. Feel free to send me any questions if you want!
One thing that just occurred to me. At the rate we're gaining power, I suspect that insulting someone based on their mother being a prostitute may well become significantly rarer. (as might treating prostitutes badly, come to that) We might be -so far- largely willing not to start shit, but someone is bound to wonder what might have happened if we were more like Ji Rong (or if we'd befriended Sun Lilling, come to that...) then promptly need a change of underwear.
That, and in some ways I imagine we've both done common-born newbie cultivators a favour- noble scions aren't going to forget the lessons of this year for a while, if it doesn't become a cautionary tale they get taught before being sent anywhere near a Sect- and handed something of a disadvantage for the same reason, in that I get the impression that in a conventional year, the actual noble scions tend to fight each other more than they do the common-born. (specifically, I suspect in a conventional year, Cai would have had her faction, the Golden Fields group would have been another, Sun would have been a third, as would Bai. The actual noble scions themselves would largely have fought each other, while their common-born subordinates fought. That's why the fighting was more disruptive than usual- because there was only ever two real factions, both had a reasonable chance to gain overall control, so it never broke down into the usual low-level squabbles that do sufficiently low levels of damage that the nobles can simple pay their subordinates enough to offset the cost. And don't usually half-destroy the residential area, for that matter. I have to wonder what the repair bills will be when the Sect need to repair the residential area. (I suspect that what happens is that over about 4ish years, the residential areas clear out as people either move on to the Inner Sect, become permanent Outer Sect members and find housing in different areas of the mountain or leave the Sect. Then the Elders fix the damage and the area is used to house the incomers.)
That, and in some ways I imagine we've both done common-born newbie cultivators a favour- noble scions aren't going to forget the lessons of this year for a while, if it doesn't become a cautionary tale they get taught before being sent anywhere near a Sect- and handed something of a disadvantage for the same reason, in that I get the impression that in a conventional year, the actual noble scions tend to fight each other more than they do the common-born. (specifically, I suspect in a conventional year, Cai would have had her faction, the Golden Fields group would have been another, Sun would have been a third, as would Bai. The actual noble scions themselves would largely have fought each other, while their common-born subordinates fought. That's why the fighting was more disruptive than usual- because there was only ever two real factions, both had a reasonable chance to gain overall control, so it never broke down into the usual low-level squabbles that do sufficiently low levels of damage that the nobles can simple pay their subordinates enough to offset the cost. And don't usually half-destroy the residential area, for that matter. I have to wonder what the repair bills will be when the Sect need to repair the residential area. (I suspect that what happens is that over about 4ish years, the residential areas clear out as people either move on to the Inner Sect, become permanent Outer Sect members and find housing in different areas of the mountain or leave the Sect. Then the Elders fix the damage and the area is used to house the incomers.)
Here. Though spoken more than written.
Hadn't needed to write shit all for 10 years
Also thats a good interlude request. The Bai/Cai fight.
Naw. Nothing unusual happened at all. The commoners were catalysts for the noble blocs, but ultimately nobody IC will consider it that way. Ling Qi was in the right place at the right time, but anyone could have done it.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think you're vastly overstating how fast we've cultivated compared to top-tier cultivators and also the impact of that growth rate. I don't think we're cultivating faster than the typical person who reaches Violet, and I think we'd have to reach, say, Prism for our strong feelings to affect Empire-wide culture.
If you only mean locally, I think where we've actually reached and our backing are way, way bigger factors than how fast we grow for influencing the people we rule over.
Cetashywo's Reviews: Smelting
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Okay! I am beginning my read-through of Forge of Destiny. For @yrsillar sake and for anyone else interested I'll post some thoughts about things as I go. I was initially going to just burn through the whole thing, but it's too dense and too interesting to just binge, so I'll just start with smelting.
I had a lot of trouble getting past the first update. It was confusing and without an intro to Xianxia as a genre I was lost. That said, I powered through to the second update, and my interest immediately deepened. Ling Qi was an immediately sympathetic protagonist. Her background as a commoner is pretty cliched, but the actual experiences she talked about are not- living on the street, real insecurity, poverty, and struggle. Usually you get a commoner as the protagonist in a lot of fantasy stories to make them "down to earth" but the drawbacks of their upbringing are just a few snide remarks and an impression of them being more grounded than the airy nobles.
Here, though, right off the bat Ling Qi is faced with heavy insecurity and a constant struggle to boost her own confidence. And this is the other part I like a lot about Qi, just from smelting. She is not unrealistically confident or cocky, and has to work pretty hard just to push herself to interact with others out of her fear. She is no pushover, but it's clear that there is effort involved in her making connections, with approaching Bai, with asking for help. She isn't immediately warm and friendly to everyone- she has an affected politeness of manner but it's clear she's straining against her own fears.
Cultivation early on is a bit of a mystery to me, but I read on further and it becomes a lot clearer with some of the obvious exposition in the later chapters. The confusion someone might feel, especially if they're new to Xianxia, is something that Qi feels as well, so there's less confusion. She's new to the genre too.
All the characters are intriguing and fun! I like that none of them wrap themselves around the protagonist. All of them seem to have motivations, they have hidden motives, they have rivalries and hatreds and agendas. And Qi is just caught in the middle, not feeling like the most important actor in the story. She isn't special, not particularly. She has good experience in adversity and strong talent, but she's just another student. Her teacher acknowledges her, but it's clear that her acknowledgement is small, and it's all the sweeter to Qi because Qi has rarely been acknowledged for anything in her life.
I will also say I love the descriptions. Yrisllar has a good talent for vivid description, for making each character seem unique and notable in a few lines, and for describing surroundings. Sometimes the descriptions could drag on for too long, but that was outweighed by how nice they could be.
Finally, I like the setting. Xianxia is new to me. Chinese-inspired fantasy is new to me. So having it introduced by Forge of Destiny is great! It means I have the chance to really enjoy the influences, and it definitely does have that influence. It's not just window-dressing.
So I am overall pretty pleased with the story so far. I couldn't give much of a shit about the mechanics, but then I thankfully don't have to because I'm reading it mostly as a story right now. I am sure later on that will become more important, but I have no real complaints either way. My impression is that everything I've seen so far is a retreading of a lot of tropes (drawing on my fantasy experience here), like there being this big competitive training academy, and the commoner protagonist, and the quest for power that I recognize, but it does it well and keeps you reading. I am sure as I go on things will get further off the beaten path and we'll really get into some fun.
I had a lot of trouble getting past the first update. It was confusing and without an intro to Xianxia as a genre I was lost. That said, I powered through to the second update, and my interest immediately deepened. Ling Qi was an immediately sympathetic protagonist. Her background as a commoner is pretty cliched, but the actual experiences she talked about are not- living on the street, real insecurity, poverty, and struggle. Usually you get a commoner as the protagonist in a lot of fantasy stories to make them "down to earth" but the drawbacks of their upbringing are just a few snide remarks and an impression of them being more grounded than the airy nobles.
Here, though, right off the bat Ling Qi is faced with heavy insecurity and a constant struggle to boost her own confidence. And this is the other part I like a lot about Qi, just from smelting. She is not unrealistically confident or cocky, and has to work pretty hard just to push herself to interact with others out of her fear. She is no pushover, but it's clear that there is effort involved in her making connections, with approaching Bai, with asking for help. She isn't immediately warm and friendly to everyone- she has an affected politeness of manner but it's clear she's straining against her own fears.
Cultivation early on is a bit of a mystery to me, but I read on further and it becomes a lot clearer with some of the obvious exposition in the later chapters. The confusion someone might feel, especially if they're new to Xianxia, is something that Qi feels as well, so there's less confusion. She's new to the genre too.
All the characters are intriguing and fun! I like that none of them wrap themselves around the protagonist. All of them seem to have motivations, they have hidden motives, they have rivalries and hatreds and agendas. And Qi is just caught in the middle, not feeling like the most important actor in the story. She isn't special, not particularly. She has good experience in adversity and strong talent, but she's just another student. Her teacher acknowledges her, but it's clear that her acknowledgement is small, and it's all the sweeter to Qi because Qi has rarely been acknowledged for anything in her life.
I will also say I love the descriptions. Yrisllar has a good talent for vivid description, for making each character seem unique and notable in a few lines, and for describing surroundings. Sometimes the descriptions could drag on for too long, but that was outweighed by how nice they could be.
Finally, I like the setting. Xianxia is new to me. Chinese-inspired fantasy is new to me. So having it introduced by Forge of Destiny is great! It means I have the chance to really enjoy the influences, and it definitely does have that influence. It's not just window-dressing.
So I am overall pretty pleased with the story so far. I couldn't give much of a shit about the mechanics, but then I thankfully don't have to because I'm reading it mostly as a story right now. I am sure later on that will become more important, but I have no real complaints either way. My impression is that everything I've seen so far is a retreading of a lot of tropes (drawing on my fantasy experience here), like there being this big competitive training academy, and the commoner protagonist, and the quest for power that I recognize, but it does it well and keeps you reading. I am sure as I go on things will get further off the beaten path and we'll really get into some fun.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, Ling Qi's growth rate isn't special for anyone who reaches Violet or otherwise becomes a top level player.
What's exceptional is that she came out of fucking nowhere, with no backing, and is still tracking at a rate that you'd expect from a Count-level Heiress. It's not impossible for her to be Indigo before she's 50 if we keep exploring our Moon Patronage and keep getting funding from RenRen.
EDIT:
By the way @Cetashwayo . Ling is her 'Family Name', Qi is her given one--that being said, people usually use the full name in conversation here.
What's exceptional is that she came out of fucking nowhere, with no backing, and is still tracking at a rate that you'd expect from a Count-level Heiress. It's not impossible for her to be Indigo before she's 50 if we keep exploring our Moon Patronage and keep getting funding from RenRen.
EDIT:
By the way @Cetashwayo . Ling is her 'Family Name', Qi is her given one--that being said, people usually use the full name in conversation here.
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Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Also found some point of view confusion in Smelting 4. Everything else is written in third-person but this is in second-person. Yrs mentioned some PoV switches early on so I figured I'd highlight it.
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Thanks. I've edited that and will keep in mind. Did not know Chinese names had similar rules to Japanese ones in that respect.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, there's no honorifics, it's just full name or last name.
They do share the whole "Talking to each other with strictly your given name is a sign of intimacy" thing though.
Also, there's a lot of brick jokes that only start paying off later in these opening chapters, see how many you can catch!
- Location
- Who Knows
Oh wow, what a mood.Here. Though spoken more than written.
Hadn't needed to write shit all for 10 years
I graduated my Sunday Chinese teenage classes but I learned mostly useless things and also cheated on a lot of the tests.
One year we spent an entire school year on Journey to the West. That was great in terms of learning jackshit and watching the cartoon in class when the teacher wasn't feeling up to it. Pretty much every Chinese American millennial will probably recognize that show though as part of their childhood. It's kind of mediocre in a lot of ways but man if the opening and ending weren't catchy as fuck.
Oh actually, in the spirit of cultural exchange, here's the first episode subtitled via some poor soul on YouTube. They....aren't the best since I can definitely spot some on-off subs that skip over things but it's good enough to get what's going on.
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Thanks for the review!
The early chapters do have a lot of errors, tense confusion specifically, until I started this quest, all my writing had been done in first person, so it took time to adjust. That said, my current project is working through this and fixing all the errors and generally overhauling things for neater publishing since this part of the quest is complete. I can only ask that you hang in there through the sometimes choppy writing quality, since its going to be some time before the edit is posted up for general consumption as a story.
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Pfft, I read through to the second test on the plane, there's no chance of losing my interest with that
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Other way around actually. China was the culturally dominant power of the region. If something is both chinese and japanese, it's good odds that china came up with it first.
Also contextually, your family is a big chunk of your identity, so it goes Clan name, personal name, sometimes home city if you are foreign.
Likewise, formality is a big deal, so full name is normal use
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Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
Watching over their juniors is basically Reality TV for them.
Well...lets just say the Asian reputation for helicopter parenting isn't entirely baseless.
For the middle to upper classes of the artisans, merchants, ministers and the middle(and upper, but thats less reliable) nobility, theres a lot of pressure to perform, which since the father is often as not engaged heavily to their work, basically means the retired patriarch(and the mother, and the aunts and the greataunts and the sisters) is going to be making sure his grandsons don't let down the family name.
Grosstoad
Birdbrain - Dick - Rules-Lawyer - Creeper
That sounds like helicopter family-ing.
