Firstly, if you have questions about Good Seeds and the like please read here. If that doesn't answer your question please ping me in thread, or on Discord.
If you write a new Good Seed, or write an omake, please update the spreadsheet if you have access.
If you do not have access, please ping a collaborator (Swordomatic, Alectai, Quest, TehChron, Insane-Not-Crazy, Humbaba, ReaderOfFate, Kaboomatic, no., BungieONI) letting them know what you want and they will update the spreadsheet here. To gain access, you will need a gmail account of some kind. Throwaway emails are fine (I'm using one for the spreadsheet), but to gain access it's as simple as sending me either your email via PM, via DM in Discord, or just in Discord's #spreadsheet-requests channel.
This is mandatory. If a Good Seed does not record their omake by pinging collabs (or just requesting access and editing things themselves - this is the preferred option), I won't give out awards. If a new Good Seed is not recorded here, they won't advance. By doing this it makes the whole thing manageable for me - it's gotten pretty unwieldy!
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Omake Writer Instructions:
There are four fields you need to fill out.
Omake Link, which is just a link to your first omake for the turn. This makes it easier for me to read them as I do the update - without this it's tough to know off the bat which omake were written this turn, and to properly
Requested Bonus, which is your requested bonus for your omake. You can leave it up to me if you like. You can see more info in the Good Seed infopost here.
Cultivation Aims. For those following unorthodox paths - higher than 9th Heavenstage or later than 7th Dao Pillar paths. Please put in what you are aiming for before you break through. I have left it as 'default'. If you do not edit it, I'll go with that.
Turn Notes - Do you want to do something specific? Enter a Secret Realm? Help the Clan out in some way? If you have something specific you want to accomplish on this turn, put it in turn notes so I can adjust your Fate around it.
All other fields are for QM use to record character information to properly run the flow of the game.
We already knew that Rebel was a monster and cultivated roughly five times as fast as Darkness, but it's weird to think that someone born the day the quest starts will reach Mid Nascent before while we're still 500 years off of Late Nascent, assuming they have average talent. Assuming Darkness wins, there's a reasonable possibility that we're reached or overtaken, cultivation wise, by one of the children we're teaching at game start. A newborn with 'Heaven Defying' talent would hit Late Nascent in 30 turns, well before we will, and a 'Quickly' talent would get there in 70 turns, shortly before us. It'll be interesting to watch our allies and enemies just sort of walk past us.
Statistically speaking, there is probably 1 Heaven Defying talent in the entire region.
Interesting tidbit, we have 2 Great Circle Core Formation cultivators already, so they're going to hit Late Nascent about two and a half turns after us, assuming they survive and have average talent. They might get there before us, actually, if the teaching spec pays off and helps them cultivate faster.
You have the resources to try and push a Great Circle Core Formation cultivator into Nascent Soul. It would empty the Clan coffers (10 years of income saved), risk devastating Heavenly Tribulation on Clan lands, and have maybe a 1/10 chance of succeeding at best. In the event they succeeded, you would be desperate for resources, and would need to launch an immediate and aggressive war of expansion or risk having to lose one of your two Nascent Souls.
Out of curiosity, what would happen, if anything, were someone in the sect to reach Late Nascent before us, @occipitallobe ?
A lot of people seem to have a problem with Heaven Defying, but I still think my other choices are also good, would anyone be willing to vote for Rebel Cause if I reduce the talent?
Personally, the Heaven Defying Talent is a large part of the appeal for me.
So, it seems like Rebel will reach Great Circle in 450 more years. Since that's within the span of the quest, that brings the question of how much longer would Spirit Severing take? Though, my suspicion is that the answer would be "No one knows", because it appears that isn't a thing in the local region.
i'm not opposed to being "an old monster" i think it'll be fun and cool. i don't like the KH coding at all so thats a stickler for me, but otherwise the plan seems fun to me.
the main reason i'm on rebel side is because with the other we will start out as an old monster who already knows how to do everything and is good at it. The "newbie" clan leader seems cooler to me because we get to see the journey to competence and all the fun that comes with having a flawed leader. i also find it interesting because the plan kind of codes like your typical xianxia protag, but instead of that protag wringing the clan for all its worth then bailing out like is the norm for xianxia stories, we get to see what it would look like if they stuck around and were actually loyal to the clan. all of this not to mention that this plan will let us get to experience being an old monster in time, just not right away. For me it pretty much comes down to that stuff. i'd rather see how an old sly monster takes form over an already established one.
Honestly, this whole thing sounds incredibly bleak and hopeless to me. Both choices seem like infeasible ones. Darkness is a meme who can't fight, probably will never advance to the next realm, and we couldn't afford to have him advance anyway. Rebel is a young cultivator who can't fight and can't govern, but will blaze through the realms (comparatively speaking)—except we can't afford for him to. And we have two almost-Nascent Souls who ... we can't afford to have advance. We're a clan who gets curbstomped into the ground every 5 turns with most of our cultivators dying and our works being destroyed. There does not appear to be any chance of building up something that can fight off the every-5-turns genocide. I was interested in this game but I'm really not feeling it.
Honestly, this whole thing sounds incredibly bleak and hopeless to me. Both choices seem like infeasible ones. Darkness is a meme who can't fight, probably will never advance to the next realm, and we couldn't afford to have him advance anyway. Rebel is a young cultivator who can't fight and can't govern, but will blaze through the realms (comparatively speaking)—except we can't afford for him to. And we have two almost-Nascent Souls who ... we can't afford to have advance. We're a clan who gets curbstomped into the ground every 5 turns with most of our cultivators dying and our works being destroyed. There does not appear to be any chance of building up something that can fight off the every-5-turns genocide. I was interested in this game but I'm really not feeling it.
Well, stick around and see if we can manage it. It might go better than you think. I think it's too early in the quest to really decide if it's too bleak.
Honestly, this whole thing sounds incredibly bleak and hopeless to me. Both choices seem like infeasible ones. Darkness is a meme who can't fight, probably will never advance to the next realm, and we couldn't afford to have him advance anyway. Rebel is a young cultivator who can't fight and can't govern, but will blaze through the realms (comparatively speaking)—except we can't afford for him to. And we have two almost-Nascent Souls who ... we can't afford to have advance. We're a clan who gets curbstomped into the ground every 5 turns with most of our cultivators dying and our works being destroyed. There does not appear to be any chance of building up something that can fight off the every-5-turns genocide. I was interested in this game but I'm really not feeling it.
i mean technically the quest has not even started yet. were on the last stage of a long ass creation process. Also yes, the situation is bleak, but that does not mean we won't have opportunities to improve our situation. I mean just looking at our maluses, a few of them get weaker every time they take effect, meaning that we can shake it off given time. As we get rid of those maluses, improving our situation will become easier.
I'll stick around for a little while or I wouldn't have made that post. But real life is already "fighting tooth-and-nail for survival" enough for me. I was hoping for a nice, reasonably chill management game. Not no-threat, but not "we literally have a genocide happen to us every 5 turns" either.
Honestly, this whole thing sounds incredibly bleak and hopeless to me. Both choices seem like infeasible ones. Darkness is a meme who can't fight, probably will never advance to the next realm, and we couldn't afford to have him advance anyway. Rebel is a young cultivator who can't fight and can't govern, but will blaze through the realms (comparatively speaking)—except we can't afford for him to. And we have two almost-Nascent Souls who ... we can't afford to have advance. We're a clan who gets curbstomped into the ground every 5 turns with most of our cultivators dying and our works being destroyed. There does not appear to be any chance of building up something that can fight off the every-5-turns genocide. I was interested in this game but I'm really not feeling it.
Uh, what are you talking about? Neither side has issues fighting. They have issues with drawn out battles, but a Mid Nascent Soul is going to bitchslap virtually all opposition solely on the weight of their Cultivation.
I will admit though, the revelation that "We will never be strong enough to stop the centennial purges because the other side has at least a Dao Seeking minder lurking if we get too uppity" was a bummer, but nothing worth doing is easy. We'd have been in a stronger position for instance if we turtled up and had no allies--but as things are, while our strength as a clan is relatively anemic--our strength as a polity is not to be fucked with, because our subordinate sects, clans, and empires collectively represent a near doubling of our own strength.
The very best we can theoretically do is Great Circle of Nascent Soul, because this Sea cannot support Spirit Severing Cultivators in the long run. And as it stands, even our current level is about the limit of experts we can support without further growth somehow.
Except from what we were just told, going between Seas has a minimum level of Spirit Severing, and bringing any significant number of people with you needs you to be even higher--so that means the Centennial Trials can't ever be defeated because it's imposed by a group that can spare a Dao Seeking+ cultivator to play taxi for their murderball, which is two tiers beyond the hard cap this Sea can support.
"We'll just outscale our threats" requires there to not be a hard ceiling that we'll run into shortly. Heaven Defying has the advantage of theoretically being able to reach that ceiling quickly--but it would come at the cost of significant losses due to his incompetence in anything outside of fighting, and our Clan can't actually afford to easily maintain a Great Circle of Nascent Soul Cultivator yet--we need to make some gains first.
Slowly will never reach Great Circle of Nascent Soul unless we get some more lifespan extensions--this is true (And even Late Nascent Soul would only come in the lategame!), but it pays that off with half again the experience and skill of an 'Average' Nascent Soul patriarch, which is fantastic for the purposes of building the Clan up--since only our 'Neighbors' can actually stop a Nascent Soul from doing whatever it is they want in our area, and our high level competence means that we're a lot more likely to force battles on our terms. (Beating another Mid Nascent Soul becomes a lot easier if you could ruse cruise them into thinking they can pop your capital while you were 'Away', and then meet them with the support of 30 or 40 Core Formation experts in a formation with you at the head, and the option of popping the Nascent Will to guarantee a kill).
On that side note though, I would comment that while Heaven Defying is theoretically really good at putting a stopper in brute force attacks--Seeker is fantastic at arranging the actual deaths of meaningful enemies, because he can bait them into a position favorable to him due to his overall competence and then spend resources to make an example by killing them instead of them just running the fuck away the moment things get spicy. A Nascent Soul is a peak expert in this Sea, and killing one without losing one of your own puts you in an overpowering advantage.
And the risk of this happening deters all but the most bloodthirsty of enemies from starting that kind of throwdown. If we can lean on that Nascent Will to guarantee the death of even four Nascent Soul experts, that's a lot of fucking territory we can seize to facilitate raising even more experts for the Clan, as well as further whittling down on the Thin Qi disadvantage.
More importantly, "Slowly" + Teaching means that we're going to be hard investing in the core strength of our clan--this is good, especially as I intend to go full fucking ham with the story of my own Good Seed and trying to engineer them into the Sea's most unlikely heaven defying expert. If only because they buck literally every stereotype expected of the position.
i'm not opposed to being "an old monster" i think it'll be fun and cool. i don't like the KH coding at all so thats a stickler for me, but otherwise the plan seems fun to me.
As a note, I've never played Kingdom Hearts and have no idea what it's referring to. I'll be playing the Darkness Dao (though tbh I feel it'd be better named Shadow, given it's literally about pursuing a shadow of the Heavenly Will that desires to bring about change) straight as written.
Adhoc vote count started by occipitallobe on Aug 27, 2020 at 2:22 AM, finished with 140 posts and 50 votes.
[X] Plan: Seeker of Darkness -[X] Manuel Konstantinos
-[X] Slowly -[X] The last Elder died in the Hundred-Year Trials
-[X] Cultivation Lecturing
-[X] Stamina -[X] Has never come to be
-[X] The Dao of Darkness: Many Cultivators seek a transcendent height of power--to cast out all that makes them weak and imperfect for the sake of living a longer life. Fools one and all who are blinded by the light of immortality! You and your kin have been oppressed by the Heavens, struck down by great lightnings and terrible trials for an ancient curse... And yet, you live still--the Heavens have not forgotten you certainly, but you no longer live under its active pogrom. Is it complacency? But even in the lightnings cast down--those who should endure their power still rise in might, your kinsfolk still occasionally stumble upon fortuitous encounters. There is some Shadow to the Heavens--a seed of nascent change brutally suppressed by the grand celestial machine, out of a desire to hold to a stagnant image of history for all eternity. You desire to set it free from its bonds, that it may aid your kinsmen in reforging this realm into a thing of beauty and philosophy instead of a barbaric wasteland. It is a futile task, one that will endure long beyond your life--but there is power to this belief, and if you cannot do it--you can blaze a trail for one who comes after you. As did your master, and his master before him.
[X] Plan Content Elder -[X] Manuel Konstantinos -[X] At Average Pace -[X] The last Elder died in the Hundred-Year Trials -[X] Array Carving -[X] Decisiveness
-[X] Is alive. -[X] Dao of Peace
[X] The Rebel Cause
-[X] Zhan Ze
-[X] Heaven-Defyingly
-[X] An attack from the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect
-[X] Intrigue
-[X] Stamina
-[X] Is alive.
-[X] Dao of Rebellion
[X] Plan Xenophon -[X] Peritas Bucephalus
-[X] Slowly -[X] A Seven Divine Saber Palace swordsman killed your Elder
-[X] Intrigue -[X] Is dead
-[X] Dao of Rebellion
[X] Plan A-maze-ing
- [X] Daedalus Konstantinos
- [X] Quickly
- [X] The last Elder died in the Hundred-Year Trials
- [X] Array Carving
- [X] I Had Eyes, But Did Not Recognise Mt. Tai
- [X] Is dead
- [X] Dao of Defiance
Also, I think the vote has swung open enough that I feel comfortable closing it. 25-18 is a pretty significant lead, and getting this thing kicked off I think is worth the chance of a highly-unlikely comeback by the Rebels. Sorry, Rebels! Let this be your Hoth, and rise all the greater for it! (Or write some cool Good Seeds who follow the Dao of Rebellion anyway!)
To those who aren't fans of the Dao, note this is your personal Dao, not something the entire Clan follows. A desire to slowly build up possibilities in the darkness, to seek out the shadow of Heaven's Will to see if your fate can be changed. More methodical and careful than Rebellion, but also less fiery and less willingness to go into open combat.
Out of chargen - feel free to post your Good Seed given we've already gone over yours.
For those thinking of posting one, I'll put up the (very simple and absurdly lax) Good Seed rules after I update the character sheet and post the first quest post.
As a note, I've never played Kingdom Hearts and have no idea what it's referring to. I'll be playing the Darkness Dao (though tbh I feel it'd be better named Shadow, given it's literally about pursuing a shadow of the Heavenly Will that desires to bring about change) straight as written.
Adhoc vote count started by occipitallobe on Aug 27, 2020 at 2:22 AM, finished with 140 posts and 50 votes.
[X] Plan: Seeker of Darkness -[X] Manuel Konstantinos
-[X] Slowly -[X] The last Elder died in the Hundred-Year Trials
-[X] Cultivation Lecturing
-[X] Stamina -[X] Has never come to be
-[X] The Dao of Darkness: Many Cultivators seek a transcendent height of power--to cast out all that makes them weak and imperfect for the sake of living a longer life. Fools one and all who are blinded by the light of immortality! You and your kin have been oppressed by the Heavens, struck down by great lightnings and terrible trials for an ancient curse... And yet, you live still--the Heavens have not forgotten you certainly, but you no longer live under its active pogrom. Is it complacency? But even in the lightnings cast down--those who should endure their power still rise in might, your kinsfolk still occasionally stumble upon fortuitous encounters. There is some Shadow to the Heavens--a seed of nascent change brutally suppressed by the grand celestial machine, out of a desire to hold to a stagnant image of history for all eternity. You desire to set it free from its bonds, that it may aid your kinsmen in reforging this realm into a thing of beauty and philosophy instead of a barbaric wasteland. It is a futile task, one that will endure long beyond your life--but there is power to this belief, and if you cannot do it--you can blaze a trail for one who comes after you. As did your master, and his master before him.
[X] Plan Content Elder -[X] Manuel Konstantinos -[X] At Average Pace -[X] The last Elder died in the Hundred-Year Trials -[X] Array Carving -[X] Decisiveness
-[X] Is alive. -[X] Dao of Peace
[X] The Rebel Cause
-[X] Zhan Ze
-[X] Heaven-Defyingly
-[X] An attack from the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect
-[X] Intrigue
-[X] Stamina
-[X] Is alive.
-[X] Dao of Rebellion
[X] Plan Xenophon -[X] Peritas Bucephalus
-[X] Slowly -[X] A Seven Divine Saber Palace swordsman killed your Elder
-[X] Intrigue -[X] Is dead
-[X] Dao of Rebellion
[X] Plan A-maze-ing
- [X] Daedalus Konstantinos
- [X] Quickly
- [X] The last Elder died in the Hundred-Year Trials
- [X] Array Carving
- [X] I Had Eyes, But Did Not Recognise Mt. Tai
- [X] Is dead
- [X] Dao of Defiance
Also, I think the vote has swung open enough that I feel comfortable closing it. 25-18 is a pretty significant lead, and getting this thing kicked off I think is worth the chance of a highly-unlikely comeback by the Rebels. Sorry, Rebels! Let this be your Hoth, and rise all the greater for it! (Or write some cool Good Seeds who follow the Dao of Rebellion anyway!)
To those who aren't fans of the Dao, note this is your personal Dao, not something the entire Clan follows. A desire to slowly build up possibilities in the darkness, to seek out the shadow of Heaven's Will to see if your fate can be changed. More methodical and careful than Rebellion, but also less fiery and less willingness to go into open combat.
Yeah, 'Dao of Heaven's Shadow' would probably be a more fitting name for the philosophy, I was just overcome by the power of memes. The idea that the Heavens dictate stasis at the core, and yet sources of change are only brutally repressed as opposed to entirely wiped out. Which is logicked as 'There is something in the Heavens attempting to further a change in its nature, and our best bet is to find that and bring it in line with our own beliefs'
Seeing as we took the old monster with slow cultivation, I guess it would be a lot more prudent to focus on the cultivation and resources of everyone below us, and raise up as many good seeds as possible.
The Fifth Turtle Sea is a place where clans are the be all and end all, where the Cultivator Dynasties are just that, dynasties. The ruling families of said dynasties are nearly all bitter rivals, and the entire sea is a low level warzone. One such family, the Naag, known for their powerful links, connections to serpents, and kind nature, was recently wiped out, the culmination of centuries and millennia of grudges. Their Patriarch was killed, their cultivators decimated, and the lone few that survived were exiled via a forbidden art, one that sent them some place unknown.
That place was the Third Turtle Sea. The survivors, a few thousand mortals, protected by the Ninth Prince of the Naag, who had regressed to the third heavenstage of Qi Condensation and was returned to the age of 16 years old via the same forbidden art that sent him to the Third Sea, and his contracted beasts, were left adrift in a foreign world, with no allies, no idea where they were, and a dark skin tone that immediately marked them as 'other'. Luckily, the Prince and his mortals were happened upon by the Flood Dragon Gang, a band of Wandering Cultivators who made a point of protecting the weak. And right now, the Ninth Prince certainly deserved that title.
Over the course of a year, the Ninth Prince won the trust of the Flood Dragon Gang through placing his life at risk multiple times to save both his fellow cultivators as well as mortals, until eventually, they sent him off to their allies, the Legions, realizing that the Prince was in no way suited for such a nomadic lifestyle, and reasoning that, as both the Prince and the Legions were obviously foreign to the Third Sea, they'd get along.
With the sponsorship of the Flood Dragon Gang, the Ninth Prince was warily admitted into the Legions' organizational structure, where he proved himself by nearly dying to save quite a few of his peers, which gave him access to the treatment of an actual legion clan member, instead of just a regular vassal qi condensation cultivator.
The Ninth Prince, whose real name is Anush Naag, is a beast tamer, contracting with three beasts, all of them snakes. The first is an enormous Boa Constrictor with scales as hard as a mortal metal. The second is a three-headed Spitting Cobra, all three heads being able to spit venom a distance of ten or so feet. The third is a King Cobra with the ability to command mortal snakes. In addition, the Ninth Prince has access to the Orb of Shesha, an indestructible pearl like treasure that grants Naag Royal Family members access to a subset of the Naag Techniques, with the Ninth Prince's Orb containing the entirety of his clan's techniques and notes on beast taming, their main heritage. The final gift the Ninth Prince has is a bloodline of similar potency to the Legion bloodline, allowing him to cultivate faster than normal, while also causing his pupils to look like those of snakes, and small patches of scales to grow on his body. The Ninth Prince has also been cursed, the Curse of Regression and Exile exiling him from the Fifth Sea, reducing him to Qi Condensation, rewinding his biological age to 16, and increasing the difficulty of ascending Great Realms.
The Dao the Ninth Prince follows is not some Dao of Serpents as one might think, but instead the Dao of Protection. There are those who are weak. Those who are untalented. Those who will never amount to anything in the grand scheme of things. These are the people that the cultivation world loves to trample on, seeing them as weak fools who are nothing but plaything to those stronger than them. This simple fact of life, the Ninth Prince denies. The weak deserve not exploitation, but protection, not because one day the weak will give rise to the strong, but because all beneath the sun and stars deserve peace and happiness. If they are not able to provide peace and happiness for themselves, their superiors will do so for them, for the duty of the strong is, has always been, and always will be, to protect the weak.
Personality wise, the Ninth Prince is cold, aloof, and generally thinks himself superior to most people, a holdover from his time as a prince of an enormous clan. This arrogance however, belies an absurdly strong protective instinct, as the Ninth Prince believes strongly in the concept of noblesse oblige, seeing nearly everyone at or below his level of power as his responsibility to protect, as well as implicitly trusting that those stronger than him in the clan hierarchy will do the same for him. If one manages to get past his arrogance, cold demeanor, and general sense of superiority, they will never find a more steadfast ally than the Ninth Prince of the Naag.
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Right. That's my good seed. I actually have to thank Alectai for giving me this opportunity, since him bringing Xianxia Romans into this quest gave me the idea to bring Xianxia Indians into this quest.
The snake bloodline as well as the curse of regression and exile was meant to put the Ninth Prince on the same rest of the clan, with the Orb being his actual treasure/cheat.
Current Status as of Turn 2: 36 Years Old, Ninth Heavenstage Qi Gathering Cultivator Starting Perk: Orb of Shesha: an indestructible, shock absorbing orb embedded in the Ninth Prince's forehead that contains the Naag clan's entire repository of thing relating to Beast Taming. Turn One Fate: Core Formation Ruse Cruise: Due to bravado, bullshit, and some minor illusionary properties of the Orb of Shesha, the Ninth Prince managed to trick a Core Formation Battle Blood Cannibal Sect cultivator into thinking he was possessed by a powerful snake whose combat strength was at Nascent Soul level. The Core Formation cultivator fled by using up a lifesaving treasure, and the Ninth Prince was rewarded with a small town next to a Qi Gathering Spirit Snake Pit.
Important Info: The Ninth Prince is going to be attempting to reach the 10th/11th/12th/13th/as many heavenstages as possible.
The Ninth Prince is going to enter the Qigui secret realm on turn 4
Completed Omake: Facades and Reality, Part One: (2,766 words, the preparation phase of a mission to exterminate three Qi gathering raiders - Cultivation Boost [for Turn 2, since I didn't put down a reward before turn 1 was over]) Facades and Reality, Part Two: (3,446 words, the second phase of the mission detailed in part one, in which the Ninth Prince tricks a Core Formation cultivator into fleeing from a city they were attacking - Cool thing: The rendered parts of Flying Poison Dagger's dagger, specifically an incredibly hard metal, a tripartite poison containing the energy of fire, ice, and thunder, and a gem that increases mental capacity, each of which is used to increase the strength of a separate beast.)
Child of the Callista lineage--a line that dates back from the most ancient times, through sheer stubborn refusal to die more than any special attributes on their part. That and possibly the legion of descendants that tend to spill out of them every generation or something
Rina in particular was a small child early on, born prematurely due to an injury suffered by her mother during a surprise attack of the Blood Cannibals on the settlement they dwelled in. Her life was saved by the quick efforts of the medic, but it was feared that despite her Carrying the Bronze of a true born member of the Clan, that something had been lost.
Fortunately, she grew up to be a bright child--though her vision was weak enough to require corrective spectacles, she spent much of her time studying the lore and philosophy collected by the Clan during her childhood--secluded in the family manor out of concern for her health, she was tutored well--excelled in her studies, and appeared to be growing up to be healthy despite her slim frame and soft-spoken nature.
But none of the Bronze are exempt from military training--perhaps the common folk had the option of volunteering, but those who bore the Clan's power and lineage were expected to be capable of participating in its defense, for the wicked Cultivators of the outer world would leap upon any perceived weakness--as had happened oh so many times in the past.
She was inducted, and it was expected that she would rapidly fall out of the main program, and be shuttled to one of the auxiliary branches--perhaps a medic, or an alchemist… Perhaps her education would get her noticed by a master and trained as an Array Engineer? Such a task was just as prestigious as a soldier!
What none were expecting was for her to be so good at fighting.
What was thought to be residual damage from an early birth had been quickly identified as an asset--the density of her blood was no weaker than her neighbors--but it distributed its power over a much smaller and delicate frame than the ordinary expert of the Clan. The effects concentrated instead of being lost, and she rapidly began to outstrip her peers in combat drills. Seemingly tireless, virtually invincible, and capable of wringing out just about anyone on the same level as herself--and what was worse is that she was just so sweet natured about it, always thanking everyone sincerely for the competition and politeness and being willing to give way instead of barreling through.
Overall High Concept: Sheltered bookworm due to a premature birth and apparent health issues growing up. Expected to end up being some array waifu or something--ends up being discovered after starting to cultivate that her bloodline got concentrated in a way that most people don't, making her a fantastically talented Body Cultivator.
Current Status as of Turn 13: 276 Years Old, King-class Cultivator of the Fourth Stage of Single Pillar Foundation Establishment Additional Impact: +27 (Invincible Beneath Core Formation/Ideal Matchup can Defeat Early Core Formation) Life-Saving Treasures: [Astral Voidguard] (1x Charge) Lifespan Enhancement: +40 Years Special Treasures: Muqin Guo (Cauldron, capable of limited flight and exceptional defense, augmented with a Forge Spirit that allows it to create items if provided materials, and also to harm enemies trapped in Muqin Guo enough to threaten Early Foundation Establishment, if they can be successfully trapped) Tribulation Enhancements: 0
Starting Perk:Bronze Paragon: The advantages of the Blood of Bronze are intensified somewhat. Cultivation Goal: Break Through at the Great Circle of Single Pillar Foundation Establishment Plot Coupons: The Token Sensing Tree (Detects Hundred Year Trial Tokens within an area around her)
Dao of the World-Lord A dream of a world better than this one, free of the dictates of the capricious Heavens and a sanctuary where people can live fulfilling lives, without needing to fear some apocalyptic calamity from on high descending. The World-Lord brooks no compromise in her vision, and stands as eternal sentinel of this dream, and is rewarded in turn for her valor. The process of cultivating this Dao is a daunting one even for a genius--requiring the Single Pillar Foundation Establishment method in order to begin, upon which further progression requires careful engravings of the necessary elements that make up a living, breathing realm upon this great Pillar.
10th Heavenstage: +9 Impact
11th Heavenstage: +4 Impact
12th Heavenstage: 1.5x Cultivation Speed at Nascent Soul, greater resistance and aptitude with Soul Arts
13th Heavenstage: Purified Dao, Automatically overwhelms all foes who lack a Core when exerted. Potentially can crush the Dao-Heart of Early Core Formation, May claim the title of "King")
Name/Number: 302nd "Silverine Bracers"
Words/Motto: To Protect Those Which Cannot Protect Themselves
Specialty: Rearguard
Fluff/Description: Re-established in the early days of Year 160 of Manuel Konstantinos' reign as Archegetes of the Imperial Optimatoi, the Silverine Bracers are the brainchild of Rina Callista--first of the Clan to achieve the fabled Single-Pillar Foundation Establishment method since antiquity, and vanguard of the new generation of the Clan's great talents. The Silverine Bracers are not a covert legion--with burnished armor and shining shields, some might call them a parade legion--one that exists to show the flag but is not to be trusted in the front lines.
This would be in error, the Silverine Bracers stand out for a simple reason--to vouchsafe the people of the Clan and its allies against the terrors of the world, and to support the front lines in times of war. For it is ever the way of things that even the stoutest defense cannot hold back every predator at the gates--and even a single modest expert breaking through will slay thousands--if not tens of thousands before finally being run to ground. This will not stand.
Tactically speaking, the Silverine Bracers focus on small unit tactics, tight knit squads with interlocking specialties and proficiency in the Two-Headed Eagle Formation, with a strong emphasis on internal communication and coordination. Ordinary deep raiders and threats are overwhelmed with greater numbers and proficiency--while identification of more potent or numerous foes exhibits a more concentrated collapse onto their position, multiple squads combining to platoons, and even regiments as needed to suppress the threat in its infancy.
While this does suffer somewhat in direct, front line combat compared to the 'Average' of a Combat Legion, it gains dramatically in flexibility and reaction speed. So long as the Silverine Bracers stand, no great murderers will be able to conduct their business unchallenged.
Turn One Fate: Greater Bronze Paragon: The awakening of a Nascent Will of a distant ancestor had an effect on Rina, stimulating regeneration using their own remembered physique as a guideline. Damaged Meridians from a premature birth have been restored and blocked Acupoints blasted open and reinforced with the Clan's blood in a circulatory system expected from Nascent Soul Experts--if lacking in the same energy output those unrivaled experts possess. The advantages of Blood of Bronze intensify significantly, raising Rina's effective combat strength well above her real Cultivation. This will be tracked separately from her 'Real Cultivation'
Turn Two Fate: Superior Investment: The Callista bloodline has thrived since the most recent Hundred Year Trials--a disciple with the greatest bloodline strength in recent history? The appointment of an Elder to the inner council of the Clan? Much has been done, and much will be expected of them in the days ahead. However, the Hundred Year Trials approach quickly, even disregarding the oncoming strife of the Devil Bees and the Blood Cannibals. Rina Callista decided--rather than to risk her life by rising to Foundation Establishment with a mere sixty years to acclimatize herself before the Storm--that she would seek to perfect Qi Condensation, and go adventuring for the tools to survive the Wrath of Heaven in the meantime, to try and advance after the Hundred Year Trials. Dangerous, ambitious--but for one with the greatest chance of reclaiming the Blood of Gold, and thus surpassing all others within the same level? It was possible. It is that possibility that moved the elders of her lineage to give it a try.
Turn Three Fate:Purified Blood of Bronze: Rina had some measure of success as an adventurer in recent times, travelling the mountains and rivers of the land, righting wrongs and fighting evils with a small group of companions. On one adventure, she discovered a secret fortress once held by the Golden Devils, and recovered a purified drop of the Blood of Bronze there. While incapable of permanently raising the quality of her bloodline, it is sufficient in strength to temporarily galvanize her own Blood of Bronze to touch on the level of Blood of Gold, giving her the strength to fight at the level of a Foundation Establishment cultivator for a single battle.
Turn Four Fate: The Qiguai Secret Realm: Exceptional gains made in the Secret Realm stewarded by the Qiguai Clan, gaining roughly 80 years of cultivation and an extremely powerful treasure in the form of Muqin Guo. Places Rina firmly as the most powerful Qi Condensation Cultivator in the Clan, with the Twelfth Heavenstage in reach by the time of the Hundred Year Trials.
Turn Five Fate: The Miracle at Pleuron: While the trip to the Yuan Secret Realm turned out to be something of a wash--gaining her an additional twenty years of cultivation at the cost of one of her Life Saving Treasures--Rina played a critical role in the Indomitable Thirteen's efforts to hold the line at Pleuron during the disastrous Hundred Year Trials, and managed to shake the Dao Heart of a Core Formation Elder long enough for a fatal poison to be introduced by one of her comrades. Thirty Thousand Qi Condensation Juniors were saved that day.
Turn Six Fate: The Hunt: Rina's rise had not gone unnoticed by the various elements of the Desert. One great bandit--Saliva Dog Archer--felt offended and threatened by the presence of so many talented juniors, and had taken it among himself to remind the disciples of the Golden Devils not to get cocky. He observed the actions of the Indomitable Thirteen, their adventures and activities, and had targeted Rina Callista for his ambition. Posing as a regular bandit, he stirred up trouble, robbing settlements and lesser caravans in the region she was operating in, posing as a newly established expert of his realm. When she rose up, confident in her ability to fight, he revealed his true nature, and led her on a merry chase--launching sneak attacks, traps, and arrows against her, always ensuring that he could not be engaged long enough to give her a chance. In the end, the shining star of the Golden Devils had to concede to reality, and requested reinforcements--but even as the militia Elder struck the bandit down--he laughed. "The world is large!" He cackled. "I am a bandit, and yet I defeated the golden child!"
Turn Seven Fate: Enlightenment: Shaken by her defeat in the previous two decades, Rina withdrew into seclusion, disguising herself and posing as an itinerant teacher in the Xin kingdom. Working hard to articulate her viewpoint in a way other people can understand went a long way to helping her resolve the questions and doubts that had accumulated in her mind since the Hundred Year Trials--but it was not until she was drawn from seclusion to serve as the Clan's headliner in one of the rare tournaments they were invited to that she truly began to understand--witnessing and contesting against Cultivators who actually believed in virtue and justice, instead of merely using it as a fig leaf in the way of naked greed put her to shame--and the pearl awarded to her victorious position made the truth of the matter clear--her failure to advance was due to her refusal to acknowledge that the world as is has good in it as well, that it was not merely a crucible of suffering that must be escaped from. These revelations cleared the remaining bottlenecks, and Rina finally achieved her ambition--setting down the Fourth Olympian Keystone--the stone of Logos. All that remains is the Five-Element Tribulation before she begins to reap the benefits of her labor...
Turn Eight Fate:Transcendence: The eve of war with the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect was matched with a Tribulation of untold ferocity, in the heartlands of the Golden Devil Clan. Where all were expecting nothing more than a crater left in the desert, with the supplicant being reduced to ashes--none expected Rina Callista to emerge like the dawning of the sun. She turned the power of the Single-Pillar Foundation Establishment Method to use, being assigned a scratch Legion and sent to train forces in Three-Frog City, where it came under attack by the Blood Cannibals. In that siege, Rina grew accustomed to her power, capable of shifting the tide of battle with her mere presence--but when the final assault began, headlined by a Cannibal in Core Formation with none to answer their threat, Rina dug deep, drawing forth the cultivation she had accumulated over the siege and pushing her Pillar to the next level, engaging the enemy elder in single combat, and trusting her Law to hold up the overall defense. The stalwart defenders found new strength in their arms, the invaders found themselves under the weight of the World-Lord's disregard--a weight strong enough that even the Cannibal Elder's core buckled in submission, fleeing the battlefield--but not before leaving their arm behind.
Turn Nine Fate: The Song Empire Campaign: A tried officer and pride of the Golden Devils, Rina Callista volunteered to lead the newly blooded Silverine Bracers to perform 'Peacekeeping' operations within the Song Empire--doing what is morally correct while also preserving Golden Devil trade and economic interests in the area. There she found herself locking horns with the other Chosen of the Virtuous Flipper Region, including the fearsome Wei An of the Heavenly Time Shatter Sect and his Single Pillar [Empire of Moments]. With the aid of her companions and the Coalition Forces, the party won a number of skirmishes throughout the battleground, denying many enemy schemes and cutting down their own Chosen one by one--it was in the battle of Sha Yu City though that disaster struck--as the Nascent Soul "Kinslaughterer" of the Demonic Altar Sect--in a fit of uncontrolled zealotry, attempted to murder the Single Pillar aspirants fighting, offended by the blasphemy of others walking the Demonic Soup Chef's path without following his Dao. Wei An--caught recovering from an earlier clash--was slain, but Rina managed to barely ward off the Elder's casual strike--until Lady Scarletglyph of the Strength Purity Sect took the field to block him. While losing much of her cultivation since entering the second stage of her Realm and suffering some minor Meridian damage, Rina ultimately left the battlefield with significant contributions, and new insights on the Dao that may serve her well in the days ahead.
Turn Ten Fate:The Purifying Heavenly Star: The Hundred-Year Trials had come again, and Rina Callista was prepared for it. Utilizing all of the credits her career had won her and her own superb Cultivation together, Rina intended to make an aggressive show of force when the Fifth Sea's Hunters came around again, the newly unsealed Token-Sensing Tree ready to guide her to enemy strongpoints. Her plans were dashed when the moment her bracket opened up, a strange Fifth Sea woman appeared before her, with Rina's destruction and the retrieval of the Tree her top priority. Rina was able to evade the initial assault through the use of a set of support armor she had donned before the Trial began, but much of the next few months was sent fleeing across Golden Devil Territory, occupying the Purifying Heavenly Star's attention--though no small amount of other Golden Devil experts were badly injured in the crossfire. At the critical moment, backed into Pleuron once again, the last of her supplies in hand, Rina made her final stand--and gained a sliver of enlightenment into the secret of the Single Pillar Method in the process. Exploiting Aasmi Bhardaj's overconfidence, Rina closed in and absorbed a sliver of her Heavenly Treasure's power, rocketing her Cultivation a hundred years in a single moment. If the Heavens did not respond by sending down immediate Tribulation Lightning, then perhaps Rina might have even risen to the level of Core Formation or beyond. Either way, the Purifying Heavenly Star was set to flight, and Rina's cultivation base settled at a new height--likely the first Mid-stage Single Pillar Cultivator in history.
Turn Eleven Fate: Return to Yuan: Rina's new powers left her in an awkward position. While she was able to find some useful materials to advance her cultivation, ones that were effective on her current level of strength were few. She tried her hand at one of the Core level trials--and had to utilize her Astral Voidguard to avoid being incinerated. Fortunately, she found another opportunity--a mighty Spatial Traversal Pill that had gained spirituality, and was being pursued by a pair of Core Formation Elders. Understanding that this would be a great binding agent for the spear Rina had planned, she utilized her mother's rope to bind the two Elders, and gave chase--grasping at the rabbit-shaped pill-spirit. At which point she was blasted in half by the spatial tear it summoned. Undaunted by this setback, Rina reattached her legs and spent her time in the siege of Thousand Song City acting as an advisor and a mystic, practicing her strange Dao Magic to reinforce defenses and strike at attackers while her body healed itself--which it did, just in time for the decisive battle, where she faced off with an enemy Elder and prevented them from running freely.
Turn Twelve Fate: Pending
Completed Omake: Beginnings and Endings (3,246 words, Awakening as a Cultivator -- Turn One Bonus established as a Cultivation Boost) The Measure of the Day (1,312 words, early martial arts training -- Supplemental to Turn One) Legacies of a Better Time (3,544 words, Acquisition of Greater Bronze Paragon -- Turn Two Bonus established as a Cultivation Boost) The Crash of Thunder (2,057 words, First Field Mission -- Supplemental to Turn Two) The Path Forward (3,207 Words, Justifying Supreme Qi Condensation - Turn Three Bonus established as a Life-Saving Treasure in the form of the Hundred League Boots) The Trouble with Mountains (2,262 words, Adventures in the Turtlebone Mountains -- Turn Three Supplemental) Dialogues of Defiance (2,359 words, Further Adventures in the Turtlebone Mountains -- Turn Three Supplemental) The Five Against the Falling Star (1,911 words, Conclusion to Turtlebone Mountains Adventure -- Turn Three Supplemental) Contemplation at the Manor Lake (2,348 words, Prelude to Qiguai Secret Realm -- Turn Four Bonus Established as a Life-Saving Treasure in the form of Matron's Binding) The Qiguai Secret Realm (1) (3,788 words, Self-explanatory -- Turn Four Supplemental) The Qiguai Secret Realm (2) (4,602 words, Self-explanatory -- Turn Four Supplemental) Meditations on Fate and Heaven (2,164 words, Reaction to Aikaterine's death -- Turn Four Supplemental) A Calm Before the Storm (1,534 words, Turn Five Prelude - Turn Five Bonus Established as a Tribulation Boost) The Gathering Storm (1,422 words, Pre-Trial woolgathering - Turn Five Supplemental) The Eve of Calamity (1,239 words, Pre-Trial junor drilling - Turn Five Supplemental) The Scars of War (4,479 words, Pleuron Aftermath - Turn Six Supplemental - Joint Post with Aretaphila Myia) Sorting through the Ashes (2,238 Words, Post Trial Rumination - Turn Six Bonus Established as a Tribulation Boost) Supplemental: The Creation of the World (1,420 Words, Mythology of the World-Lord - Turn Six Supplemental) Reunion With Old Friends (3,065 Words, Meeting with the Five - Turn Six Supplemental) Burning the Midnight Oil (1,476 Words, Bandit Suppression - Turn Six Supplemental) Meetings and Lessons (3,055 Words, Meeting with Callista Branch Top Brass - Turn Six Supplemental) Horticultural Divinations (2,335 Words, Consultation with Millet - Turn Six Supplemental) Supplemental: The Origin of the Clan (2,141 Words, Worldbuilding - Turn Six Supplemental) Run For The Hills (2,790 Words, Sudden Romcom genre change - Turn Six Supplemental) Cultivation Tourism (1,660 Words, Routine Missions Problems - Turn Six Supplemental) The Hunt (3,177 Words, Turn Six Fate Result Narrative - Turn Seven Bonus established as a Lifespan Boost) Walkabout (1,354 Words, Turn Seven Supplemental) Enlightenment (3,764 Words, Turn Seven Fate Result Narrative - Turn Eight Bonus established as a Tribulation Boost) Gathering Clouds (3,203 Words, Tribulation Introduction - Turn Eight Supplemental) The Five Element Tribulation (8,284 Words, Foundation Establishment Tribulation - Turn Eight Supplemental) Price of Success (1,000 Words, Deployment to the Siege of Three Frog City - Turn Eight Supplemental) A New Target: The Great Battlefield (2,013 Words, Mission: The Song Empire Part 1 - Turn Nine Bonus Established as a Life-Saving Treasure) Supplemental: The Unorthodox Path: One-Pillar (2,444 Word Information Post - Turn Nine Supplemental) Clash! (3,131 Words, Mission: The Song Empire Part 2 - Turn Nine Supplemental) To the Fearless Line (2,208 Words, Mission: The Song Empire Part 3 - Turn Nine Supplemental) Trivial Things (1,803 Words, Mission: The Song Empire Part 4 - Turn Nine Supplemental) The Blade Pact (2,451 Words, Mission: The Song Empire Part 5 - Turn Nine Supplemental) The Battle of the Abyssal Crag (1) (1,663 Words, Mission: The Song Empire Part 6 - Turn Nine Supplemental) The Battle of the Abyssal Crag (2) (5,218 Words, Mission: The Song Empire Part 7 - Turn Nine Supplemental) The Fall of Sha Yu City (4,462 Words, Mission: The Song Empire Aftermath - Turn Ten Bonus Established as a Life Saving Treasure) A Moment of Rest before Twilight (4,539 Words, Farewells and an Exorcism - Turn Ten Supplemental) Trial Preparations (2,362 Words, Sudden Mecha Genre Swerve - Turn Ten Supplemental) The Old Devil's Wisdom (5,881 Words, Attending the Grand Elder's Lectures - Turn Ten Supplemental) Interlude: Redmoon 1 (2,327 Words, Introducing Rina's Official Foil - Turn Ten Supplemental) Afterparty (10,131 Words (Credit split 50/50 with @TehChron), Post Lecture Drinking - Turn Eleven Bonus is a Life Saving Treasure) Starfall (5,592 Words, Vs. Aasmi Bhardvaj - Turn Eleven Supplemental) Woolgathering (1,764 Words, Exactly what it says it is - Turn Eleven Supplemental) Interlude: Redmoon 2 (2,844 Words, Redmoon Having Tea - Turn Eleven Supplemental) Good, Not Nice (2,200 Words, Rina Asserting the Pecking Order - Turn Twelve Bonus is a Full Heal) Battle of Thousand Song City (3,631 Words, Exactly what it says it is - Turn Twelve Supplemental) Teatime Downtime (3,324 Words, Teatime chat with Millet and Xu Zhen - Turn Twelve Supplemental) Interlude: Redmoon 3 (2,119 Words, Redmoon makes friends and influences people - Turn Twelve Supplemental) Legacies (2,960 Words, Eerily prophetic discussions/Retrieving Athenia's backup cache - Turn Twelve Supplemental) The Changing World (2,703 Words, Return to the Dawn Fortress - Turn Twelve Supplemental) Supplemental: The Blood of Bronze (1,962 Words, Information on the Blood of Bronze - Turn Twelve Supplemental) Tip of the Spear (2,924 Words, Mission: A Great Clamour - Turn Twelve Supplemental) One War Ends, Another Begins (1,131 Words, Turn 12 Events Reaction - Turn Thirteen Bonus is a Life Saving Treasure) Patrolling the Sands (2,524 Words - Turn Thirteen Supplemental) Supplemental: The Enduring World (1,412 Words, More Dao Mythology Nonsense - Turn Thirteen Supplemental) Eyes West, to the Maze (1,031 Words, Mission: The Poison-Crushing Siege Introduction - Turn Thirteen Supplemental) Supplemental: On Virtue and Wickedness (1,413 Words, Turn Fourteen Bonus is a Life Saving Treasure) Supplemental: The Silverine Bracers (507 Words, Legion Lore - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) Interlude: Redmoon 4 (1,417 Words, Redmoon goes on an Adventure - Turn Fourteen Supplemental (Redmoon Turn 13 interlude) ) Mutual Interrogation (1,674 Words, A chat with Xu Zhen - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) Elder of the Callista (1,536 Words, Planning for the future with the Household - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) Return to Qiguai (Pt. 1) (1,262 Words, Exactly what it says on the tin - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) Return to Qiguai (Pt. 2) (1,642 Words, Perspective Shift to a Rando - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) Return to Qiguai (Pt. 3) (1,290 Words, Basically a Clip Show, not gonna lie - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) A New Silverine Bracer (5,211 Words (Credit Split 50/50 with @BungieONI ), Recruitment and Lessons to a new Legionnaire - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) Return to Qiguai (Pt. 4) (3,024 Words, Xianxia Protagonists are a Disease - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) The Razing of Chunwang (18,250 Words (Credit Split 3-Ways with @Swordomatic and @TehChron ), The Events of the Poison-Crushing Siege - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) Interlude: Redmoon 5 (2,750 Words, Redmoon goes through Tribulation - Turn Fourteen Supplemental) Interlude: Redmoon 6 (3,074 Words (Credit Split with @no. ), Redmoon Meets Someone - Turn Fifteen Bonus is a Life Saving Treasure) Contemplations (1,787 Words, Turn Fifteen Supplemental) This Took a While, Didn't It? (3,400 Words (Credit Split with @no. ), The Golden King and the Hollow King have a chat - Turn Fifteen Supplemental) New Life - Same as the Old Life (1,331 Words, Aftermath of the Third Trials of Manuel's Reign - Turn Sixteen Bonus is a Life Saving Treasure Rina Goes to the Pass (2,083 Words, Rina Tests Some New Toys - Turn Sixteen Supplemental)
total omake wordcount for bookkeeping purposes: 199,066 Words
The Fifth Turtle Sea is a place where clans are the be all and end all, where the Cultivator Dynasties are just that, dynasties. The ruling families of said dynasties are nearly all bitter rivals, and the entire sea is a low level warzone. One such family, the Naag, known for their powerful links, connections to serpents, and kind nature, was recently wiped out, the culmination of centuries and millennia of grudges. Their Patriarch was killed, their cultivators decimated, and the lone few that survived were exiled via a forbidden art, one that sent them some place unknown.
That place was the Third Turtle Sea. The survivors, a few thousand mortals, protected by the Ninth Prince of the Naag, who had regressed to the third heavenstage of Qi Condensation and was returned to the age of 16 years old via the same forbidden art that sent him to the Third Sea, and his contracted beasts, were left adrift in a foreign world, with no allies, no idea where they were, and a dark skin tone that immediately marked them as 'other'. Luckily, the Prince and his mortals were happened upon by the Flood Dragon Gang, a band of Wandering Cultivators who made a point of protecting the weak. And right now, the Ninth Prince certainly deserved that title.
Over the course of a year, the Ninth Prince won the trust of the Flood Dragon Gang through placing his life at risk multiple times to save both his fellow cultivators as well as mortals, until eventually, they sent him off to their allies, the Legions, realizing that the Prince was in no way suited for such a nomadic lifestyle, and reasoning that, as both the Prince and the Legions were obviously foreign to the Third Sea, they'd get along.
With the sponsorship of the Flood Dragon Gang, the Ninth Prince was warily admitted into the Legions' organizational structure, where he proved himself by nearly dying to save quite a few of his peers, which gave him access to the treatment of an actual legion clan member, instead of just a regular vassal qi condensation cultivator.
The Ninth Prince, whose real name is Anush Naag, is a beast tamer, contracting with three beasts, all of them snakes. The first is an enormous Boa Constrictor with scales as hard as a mortal metal. The second is a three-headed Spitting Cobra, all three heads being able to spit venom a distance of ten or so feet. The third is a King Cobra with the ability to command mortal snakes. In addition, the Ninth Prince has access to the Orb of Shesha, an indestructible pearl like treasure that grants Naag Royal Family members access to a subset of the Naag Techniques, with the Ninth Prince's Orb containing the entirety of his clan's techniques and notes on beast taming, their main heritage. The final gift the Ninth Prince has is a bloodline of similar potency to the Legion bloodline, allowing him to cultivate faster than normal, while also causing his pupils to look like those of snakes, and small patches of scales to grow on his body. The Ninth Prince has also been cursed, the Curse of Regression and Exile exiling him from the Fifth Sea, reducing him to Qi Condensation, rewinding his biological age to 16, and increasing the difficulty of ascending Great Realms.
The Dao the Ninth Prince follows is not some Dao of Serpents as one might think, but instead the Dao of Protection. There are those who are weak. Those who are untalented. Those who will never amount to anything in the grand scheme of things. These are the people that the cultivation world loves to trample on, seeing them as weak fools who are nothing but plaything to those stronger than them. This simple fact of life, the Ninth Prince denies. The weak deserve not exploitation, but protection, not because one day the weak will give rise to the strong, but because all beneath the sun and stars deserve peace and happiness. If they are not able to provide peace and happiness for themselves, their superiors will do so for them, for the duty of the strong is, has always been, and always will be, to protect the weak.
Personality wise, the Ninth Prince is cold, aloof, and generally thinks himself superior to most people, a holdover from his time as a prince of an enormous clan. This arrogance however, belies an absurdly strong protective instinct, as the Ninth Prince believes strongly in the concept of noblesse oblige, seeing nearly everyone at or below his level of power as his responsibility to protect, as well as implicitly trusting that those stronger than him in the clan hierarchy will do the same for him. If one manages to get past his arrogance, cold demeanor, and general sense of superiority, they will never find a more steadfast ally than the Ninth Prince of the Naag.
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Right. That's my good seed. I actually have to thank Alectai for giving me this opportunity, since him bringing Xianxia Romans into this quest gave me the idea to bring Xianxia Indians into this quest.
The snake bloodline as well as the curse of regression and exile was meant to put the Ninth Prince on the same rest of the clan, with the Orb being his actual treasure/cheat.
Manuel sighed. This was a fortune by any measure. Normally wasting wealth like this would be a calamity for the Clan. Indeed, until last year he was happy with his lifespan, assuming he might reach mid Nascent Soul by the end of his life. With his talent, why waste wealth on him? No, he was better used serving as an adviser, and as a useful assistant to the true Archegetes, a duty he had fulfilled with pleasure. Sometimes he even served as Clan Head while old Alexios was away, administering this and that, seeking to wound or cripple their enemies, slowing down the constant fall of the Golden Devil Clan.
Work he had enjoyed for the last seven hundred years or so. Of course, when he he had risen to Nascent Soul, there had been three elders, and the territory held had still included some of the mountains, as well as much more of the desert. The Battle Blood Cannibal Sect had been far weaker then, and his tasks had mostly been to serve as a useful backup, a failsafe option to assist other Nascent Souls in escaping from dangerous encounters, or serving as a Dao Protector for more valuable juniors.
He chuckled wryly. Last year, the Hundred-Year Trials came to them once again. Everyone knew the rules. Qi Gathering against Qi Gathering, Foundation Building against Foundation Building, Core Formation against Core Formation. Numbers and traps didn't matter, but try and act against those in a realm below yours... Elder Alexios hadn't cared, driven by fear to save his dying grandson.
An amulet flashed. Manuel had been there to watch over him, to assist Alexios in escaping. He didn't even see the attack that took Alexios's life. He had been Manuel's master when Manuel began the path of cultivation. His confidante and over time best friend, for nearly fifteen hundred years.
Now Alexios was dead.
Manuel focused harder. Breaking through was easy enough. He could have done it a century ago, but the increase in resource consumption had not been justified. Now, with Alexios dead and the other Sects and Clans on their doorstep... He was risking backlash, doing this so quickly.
He smiled, and waved a hand. A complex formation arose, channeling the spirit energy into him more efficiently. It would drain the Clan reserves, but it would be worth it. Without a mid stage Nascent Soul, they would fall too fast, too soon.
It was a mere two years later that he stepped through. A small crackle of Heaven's lightning, reminding him of the eternal threat that Heaven presented. An angry thundercloud leaving, Heaven unable to act at this moment. His strength rose, and he was satisfied.
He had neglected the Clan for some time, but it was worth it. They were... well, not safe. But at least safe in this moment, the danger had been pushed back. Moss had grown on him while he cultivated, the green patina of his skin covered by an even greener moss. As he stood and shook, the moss fell off, clumps littering the ground.
His secluded cultivation had ended. Now was the time to act.
He stepped into the air, ascending up into the sky as another man might climb stairs. He looked over the core of the clan, the ancient buildings forged from desert sand and Spirit Clay, and towards an unassuming building. Small, squat, and grey, the runic arrays carved on it were invisible to the naked eye, even for a cultivator of his level. Yet he knew the arrays there were carved thousands of times in impossibly small script, serving as the core of the Clan's defenses.
This was the Clan Hall - as outsiders would call it. In older terms, it was the Optimatoi Koinon.
He flew over, ensuring his speed did not trigger any automatic defenses. When he had set them up, others had argued to make the defenses contingent on a token or a bloodline detection, ensuring that clan members would not be attacked. Manuel had disagreed. Better to have a hundred traps built in that only Clan members would know about, so those faking the tokens or using methods to falsify the Blood of Bronze would still be caught.
He felt he had been justified in this, catching seventeen infiltrators in a mere three hundred years.
As he set down, he felt the pressure of the Bronze Purity Array in the doorway on him, pushing down, savaging those without the true bloodline. His bloodline was strong enough, though, and it was mere pressure, not death. He walked through.
The Five Elders of the Clan stood there, having felt his breakthrough and immediately gathering. Good.
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So. There are basically three Mechanics in this quest.
(1) Choices. Your Clan Council will ask you to make a call on something. Mostly they won't do this - they're competent enough to handle things on their own, but sometimes they will. You'll see 0-2 of these per turn, on average. They're usually pretty straight-up binary choices.
(2) Focuses. You choose in general what the Clan should focus on for the next 20 years. Building up for war? Training new disciples? Carving more arrays? More trade? Focuses don't prevent you from doing everything else, it's more 'here's the one thing we should really get done'. Focuses are mainly mediated by your personal skill levels and specialities.
(3) Actions. What you, personally, do. Usually mediated by skills, but often by Cultivation level - especially when it comes to combat. You can always Write In Actions. In fact, writing in more complex and well-thought out Actions will positively increase your chances of success.
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He looked them over.
"Report. I must know where we stand."
First was Euphrosyne Sarantapechos, a Late Core Formation Elder. She was Stratopedarches, or in more common terms, the Elder of Administration. To her fell the duties of managing mines, herbs, cities, camps - all manner of resources flowed through her hands. You followed her around for five years sixty years ago, constantly stalking her to ensure there was no corruption. You doubt she identified you, and in that time her administrative skills were both excellent and without corruption.
"Archegetes, congratulations on breaking through to mid Nascent Soul. This has alleviated some of my worries. We have ten full years of income saved - in part this is due to being able to recover wealth from the Hundred-Year Trials even as we lost so many. Our mines are in good order, and our vassals seem content. More tribute could be levied without too much grumbling now you have broken through - if you wish it, we can send missives to our various vassals and territorial allies announcing your breakthrough, inviting them to a celebration. Such a thing would invariably invite significant gifts."
[ ] Hold Party - Invite your vassals and territorial allies to a celebration of your breakthrough. This demonstrates your power and will invite major gifts as various powers in your territory jockey for your favour. It will cause some minor discontent, though, and take up a few months of valuable cultivating time.
[ ] Don't
Second was Kleisthenes Sarantapechos, a Mid Core Formation Elder. Euphrosyne's twin sister, though less talented in cultivation. She cultivated a rare Yang attribute technique, and went by a male name, and wore a male body to aid in her cultivation. For her, if she had not cultivated her Yang technique - she never would have risen into Core Formation. Such a thing was uncommon among your Clan, but not unknown. She was not prideful, and did not demand to be called Fairy, but those juniors foolish enough to call her a man had often found themselves given latrine cleaning missions for a few years until they learned to respect the Clan Elders. She is the Hetaireiarches, or in common terms, the Elder of Diplomacy. To her fell the duties of managing external powers and other Nascent Souls. She often complained about her lack of talent, and you were reasonable friends, having some commonality on this issue.
"Archegetes, I share my sister's congratulations. My current issue is that of negotiating trade agreements with the Jingshen Clan, as well as encroachments on our territory by the Battle Blood Cannibal Sect. The various mountain powers have remained quiet for the time being."
Third was Nikephoros Theophylaktos, a Great Circle Core Formation Elder. He is a simple man to all appearances, speaking little. He is the Parakoimomenos, or in common terms, the Elder of Intrigue. You had trained him personally, and found his skills acceptable. Previously you held his position, so he is admittedly new to the task, though he had been your assistant for almost a century. To him falls the duties of espionage, sabotage, and assassination.
"Archegetes. Nothing of major importance for the time being. Of minor importance - The Battle Blood Cannibal Sect has dedicated more forces to subduing the Oasis Rebels. Jingshen Jian, the third son of Old Jingshen in is conflict with his eldest brother. Hong Xuan Clan's Sacred Sparrow was killed. Peng Kingdom's Third Prince killed his father and ascended the throne. He has kept to our injunctions on the treatment of mortals so far."
Fourth came Staurakios Palaiologos, a Late Core Formation Elder. He is Chartoularios Tou Kanikleiou, or in simpler terms, the Master of Disciples. He picks out good seeds, gives training and assistance, and manages the core of the Clan Contribution Board for Qi Condensation and Foundation Building disciples in times of peace.
"Archegetes. I am training new disciples, but it will take time. Current estimations - if our income does not waver we should be able to regain approximately nine-tenths of our previous strength before the next Hundred-Year Trials. This is admittedly worse than normal, but the loss of the previous Elder has done us grievous damage."
Lastly was Ioannes Vatatzes, your second Great Circle Core Formation Elder. He is Protostrator, leader of your armies. When the time comes to gather up into formations and strike at enemies, or defend your cities, it is he who organises them, leads them, and manages the Clan Contribution Board to ensure the correct tasks get done. He is completely bald, with a beard down to his green-tinged waist. He is very vain about his beard, though, and regularly cleanses off the patina to ensure it is bright and bronzed.
"Archegetes. Our losses in the past Trial were grievous. We are in no shape for an offensive war in the next twenty years. I estimate it will be between forty and sixty years before we can entertain major incursions on enemy territory, unless we focus on our warmaking abilities specifically."
You click your tongue and think.
What should the Clan focus on?
[ ] Building Bridges (Write-in target) - You should make more allies. Choose a target on the map and aim to have their relations with you increased. Give gifts, exchange assistance, aim for strategic marriages.
[ ] Intrigue (Write-in target) - You should learn about another clan entirely. Spend Spirit Stones like water in the plains and find out everything you can. Strengths. Weaknesses, places to strike, rebels, and so on and so forth.
[ ] Increasing Wealth - More trade, more mines, more growth. Aim to find more Spirit Stones, tax more from traders, whatever works to increase your Clan Wealth.
[ ] Training Soldiers - Raising Disciples to higher Realms is all well and good, but training them to be perfect members of Formations is better. Ensure your Clan is trained and ready for war. Your readiness to go to war will increase significantly, though this fades over time.
[ ] Raising Disciples - You need more cultivators. Spend wealth to raise more and more disciples to higher Realms.
[ ] Raiding (Write-in target) - Better to weaken an enemy. Send teams of cultivators to go raid an enemy for resources and to kill them where possible. Minor conflicts, with minor rewards. This will worsen your relations, of course.
[ ] Write-in
What will you do?
[ ] Tour Your Vassals and Allies - Why not? Spend a little time in each vassal, each ally. Ensure they feel your strength. A little dangerous, but with your arrays watching over you, you should be fine. Increases your relations.
[ ] Hunt for a Disciple - Look for someone to personally raise. While time-consuming and expensive, a Disciple you have personally raised is one of the most trustworthy people imaginable.
[ ] Grand Theft Spirit Stones (Write-in) - Choose a faction, and use your Nascent Soul strength to simply sneak in and steal a large quantity of resources. A little underhanded and shameful, but what do you care for the views of the Righteous Path? Increases wealth.
[ ] Lecturing - You can simply lecture your many juniors on cultivation. Spend your time helping them grow, using less resources and ensuring better growth for the Clan.
