Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

[occipitallobe]

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[TehChron]

.How dare they demand restitution when our ambassador gets so high on the racial supremacism juice in his veins that he insults Core Formation Elders of the clan he's headed for, then maims one of them after they punch him in the face for speaking racial supremacist insults?

Click to shrink...

I literally dont care.

This was them squeezing us for war funds after they had already got their pound of flesh.

 

[Garlak]

So, Spirit Stone qi-intake. Versus just breathing in Qi from the air, the Qi Respiration method.

Our Clan has done it for thousands of years by now. We haven't done the Qi Respiration method for thousands of years. I mean, we probably haven't lost the books and knowledge on how to Cultivate in a air-Qi-rich area; it's probably in the archives somewhere. But.

All our institutional knowledge is bound up in Spirit Stone Cultivation. All the tips and tricks for doing so. All the knowledgeable Seniors that Juniors can go to for assistance if they have a problem. All the medics and advisors and aids and common know-how. It's all about how to Cultivate in the desert environment.

Which means expecting somebody to "Just breath the air, bro" in the Plains is like telling somebody who's never foraged or never fished, to just partake of nature's bounty because the land is so goddamn rich that he can find all he needs. i.e. Our Legionnaires need Spirit Stones to Cultivate; that Junior who was coming back from the Mountain Bell Expedition (which itself was a mission to go out and help a besieged and beleaguered Righteous Sect in the middle of a vise by Demonic Powers; and one that the desert-dwelling Golden Devils did not need to involve themselves in, but did anyhow) really did need the Stones to be able to keep his Cultivation. And if he didn't keep his Cultivation, he could have died when the Trials came, or maybe from hardship, or maybe he'd have regressed and lost a stage or two, or etc, etc.

But the merchants were probably having logistics trouble -- the Missions Report stuff from the turn did attribute the Mountain Bell disaster (in QC) to logistics and bureaucracy issues after all -- and then when you add in stuff like "They're Plains guys" "The Junior is a Golden Devil" along with possible other factors or pressures which could range from intentional dickishness to malice to apathy, and you get them refusing to loan him Spirit Stones on credit. And him stealing stuff.

And then it escalates from there, as a Crippling of a QC Junior gets Tisamenos wroth and stewing on the unfairness of things. And he... doesn't deal with it well. Especially as he's the weakest-who-suddenly-became-strongest Silverblood Core. And so things escalate from there, and we wind up with the Righteous Coalition's diplomacy/coordinate Baozhai getting crippled.

And so the Righteous Coalition have to angrily demand concessions for this. And we have to choose to either pay or not.

And for those thinking that we should have hung Tisamenos or the QC Junior out to dry, well, those guys also had reasons for acting the way they did ranging from "is a Spirit-Stone qi-intake-method cultivator" to "Silverblood woes" (plus known or unknown/uncertain externals like "Logistics and bureaucracy issues inhibiting supplies? Ethnic/national/diplomatic tensions between Plains merchants and Golden Devils? Malicious actions?") plus Tisamenos being pissed that a QC Junior who set out to help in the Mountain Bell expedition, is going to wind up just up and fucking dying come the Trials because he's Crippled and he's Crippled because he wouldn't be loaned on credit, and it's just...

It's a stupid, sad, enraging mess, really.

But, like, while we can be mad at Tisamenos for blowing up a problem into a bigger problem... (exacerbated by his Silverblood stuff... which we thought was handled... but we didn't know for sure how he'd deal with non-Clan folk, plus the Golden Devil as a polity are not institutionally skilled at external diplomacy to begin with so...) or mad at the Righteous Path for demanding 1 Purchase's worth of Spirit Stones... Gah.

 

[adamashield]

While it sad that our npc Qc (that basically just a child for a Core elder) was crippled over something avoidable. And that those deposits were empty/not there.

I at last learn some stuff.
Like the average npc Qc do not have a breath method like the brotherhood.

And That the average npc devil is discriminated for some stuff.

That the strength sect still is desperate for spirit stones (they are for some fun with the OC actions).

And that even the hegemonic NS did not know enough about silver cores.

And that silver cores have OP regeneration in important areas.

Still I loved that even a silver core with mental contamination from the old days still loves and care a lot for our clan weakest cultivatiors members. Showing lots of unity there.

And strength purity lose a core. Sure they have lots of those. But now they have to train another or use a core lvl treasure since this was their diplomatic core elder.

What else I forgetting? Oh. This is precedent to us to judge the cultivator in our lands under our own rules.

And those guys literally breath the air we prepared for them in our cities. Since they have the opposite problem with cultivation. Anyway.

[X] Pay Restitution. 1 Purchase will be deducted from next Turn's income, and the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed. Crippling one of their Elders is a hugely aggressive move.

I agree that more or less a loan give what will happen in the short future.

 

[LordEdric]

[X] Pay Restitution. 1 Purchase will be deducted from next Turn's income, and the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed. Crippling one of their Elders is a hugely aggressive move.

 

[Theaxofwar]

[X] Pay Restitution. 1 Purchase will be deducted from next Turn's income, and the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed. Crippling one of their Elders is a hugely aggressive move.

 

[firespier]

[X] Pay Restitution. 1 Purchase will be deducted from next Turn's income, and the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed. Crippling one of their Elders is a hugely aggressive move.

 

[Xela63]

To be quite honest, I find it quite difficult to blame someone for arrogance that's externally imposed.

Like, Tisamenos's indignance was fair. It's Silver that amplified that out of control into this diplomatic incident, so calling it a matter to reflect on his own stupidity/arrogance, as you placed it, just feels more than a little off.

Click to shrink...

"Silverblood woes" (plus known or unknown/uncertain externals like "Logistics and bureaucracy issues inhibiting supplies?

Click to shrink...

How does Silver Blood protect him in any way? He fucked up big time. That's it. The reasons don't matter. A diplomat shouldn't be a diplomat if he can't keep his temper. Bonus points if you can lie without showing anything. He showed that he can't do the diplomacy game. That's it.

 

[jjffjhjf]

I literally dont care.

This was them squeezing us for war funds after they had already got their pound of flesh.

Click to shrink...

This was entirely reasonable on their end. Our guy is the one who fucked up. That's the whole it being a nat 1, its explicitly our bad here, and us paying for it. I'm not sure what about that you don't seem to be understanding.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

How does Silver Blood protect him in any way? He fucked up big time. That's it. The reasons don't matter. A diplomat shouldn't be a diplomat if he can't keep his temper. Bonus points if you can lie without showing anything. He showed that he can't do the diplomacy game. That's it.

Click to shrink...

You might want to reread my post.

I was SPECIFICALLY talking about calling it his own arrogance/stupidity to reflect on, when Tisamenos used to be nothing like this and the Silver forcefully imposed those traits on him.

I wasn't saying that he shouldn't be removed as a Diplomat, though. He's no longer suitable for it anymore, so he's best to be put in another role.

I do admit I'm a bit sad about what happened this update. Tisamenos having to represent the Clan's Diplo nat 1 is depressing, considering it seemed like he was building up to controlling his Blood the last time we saw him, and now that's all toppled in the worst way possible with the Blood literally rewriting his personality.

To be quite honest, I'd think the Silver Blood was an outright mistake if it wasn't for the fact that this degree of mental contamination was stated by Occi to be the highest we'd ever see, because Tisamenos was pushed from Two Pillar all the way he currently is.

I guess the scales of karma had to rebalance after his nat 100 last turn. Still, that doesn't really mean I have to like it.

It's a great Era, Qi is literally raining down from the skies. Maintaining his cultivation should not be an issue, even if advancing it might be

Click to shrink...

This is actually factually incorrect, though you might not have known it, which ofc is fine. This is from a while ago, after all.

I'll clarify:

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> there's nothing stopping you using Beast methods
> but you might only get 30-40% of what a dedicated Beast Core cultivator does
> likewise even if you only get 20-30% out of Spirit Stones as a Plains cultivator
> if you're Qi Condensation and manage to get your hands on a high-grade Spirit Stone
> 20-30% is absurd in the sense that if you have 100x the resources you need

> you don't lose efficiency
> you gain it
> like, everyone starts at ~1-2% efficiency
> in the Plains your efficiency is the core stat because Qi is everywhere

Here's the relevant quotes on using cultivation methods that you're not a dedicated cultivator of that style.

As a reminder, at Qi Condensation, you need to cultivate twelve hours a day to advance, and surprisingly enough ten to tread water.

This means, if all this QC wanted was to make sure their cultivation didn't disintegrate, they'd need to cultivate for twenty five hours to thirty three hours within a twenty four hour day.

I don't know about you, but unless if you're a certain violin player from YouTube, that's just a bit completely impossible.

And you know what happens to people whose cultivation declines in this world, right? They die, because someone pounces on their weakness to take their resources for themselves. This is especially pronounced in Qi Condensation, as you don't have as many reserves to fall back on early in your career. All of that is without taking into fact that Clan members are walking piñatas of good karma, significantly intensifying the matter.

I do want to be absolutely clear here: Tisamenos should not have crippled Baozhai. That he did is a failure of the Silver Blood and his own lack of will to control it, though I do admit I do have some sympathy because his personality was supplanted. It's horrific in the existential sense, but we do need to make sure this remnant of Tisamenos is put away from Diplomacy.

Even if what happened was a tragedy, the job of a diplomat is to keep a cool enough head throughout that so the Clan isn't fucked over, and what happened is the opposite of that.

All of that being said, your point that this QC could've just breathed the air is inherently flawed.

 

[fictionfan]

Abel Angelus
The builder

Database OR Afterlife

They were victorious, the second great march was over with all their fortresses including the final 'little dawn/eternal building' having successfully integrated with Pleuron, and even their Good Stones had integrated incredibly well.

The city and the Brotherhood had made an accord. Still there is so much to work. and all their reserves of material are being used in the city.

Since the agreement both the living city and the brotherhood agree that in the next trial they will fight as one.

So they will work like never before in order to make the city ready.

—--------------------------
Abel rides in on his bicycle looking around Pleuron. There had been a lot of changes since the last time he was here. The buildings were taller, the streets cleaner and the brotherhood was all over the place. Abel consulted his map. Yes this should be the eternal building.

The little 11° brother, of the third generation, could not believe his luck, if his eyes were not tricking him and his memory was right. that was Abel. Angelus Abel. Since the face in front of him match the mural arts in their home.

So, even with a clear breaking of the protocol, and since the doggo, the chief of security, confirmed that the devil in front of them was of the clan. They open the gate ahead of the approaching devil and send a signal that a VVIP. was approaching.

Rolling out a literal red carpet was nice, but the trumpets blowing to announce his arrival seemed a bit excessive for greeting a tech consultant.

The 11° brother, the first, finishes running and starts commanding his crew to modify the halls, in order to move them and get the hall with the most Angelus mural arts to be the one they would walk to; giving time to make sure their meeting area was prepare with the best food they could provide, so they hope they are ready.

The first scene was the five sworn brothers in a pit of fire ants, with a clearly more muscular Abel that had a bored face. The next scene, for some reason, was the entire brotherhood being angry at some shopkeeper.

The next one was a bigger than real life version of Abel with an incredible bike, while goatman and brothers work side by side making bikes in the background.

The third one was a sea of cyclists running for their lives while the brotherhood was watching in a fortress with lances in the hands while some of them were using a cannon to attack some incredible ugly blood path cultivators.

The fourth was Zeno Angelus, a more muscular Zeno Angelus with his wife being more muscular than she was in truth. Both looking stronger and more beautiful than they were, and the couple were sitting at the head of a table full of delicious food. For some reason the table with the food was the most elaborate object in the entire art. There was a little seed and a Big Tree in the background.

The last one was the entire brotherhood crying while the builder was holding a crinson disk. The brothers walked very sober when they reached that part of the halls.

Abel looked at the fantastic artwork as he walked along the path. The brotherhood had really outdone themselves. He wondered who that handsome muscular figure in the artwork was supposed to be. A generalized hero of the brotherhood or more a symbolic hero?


—------------------------

"I heard that you have been mass producing data disks. Well it seems to me that unless your goal is just to shrink down libraries you might not be getting the full use out of your efforts."

Abel throws down his amulet and a giant clockwork monstrosity appears.

"Behold the database. If you insert discs into this they will be added to it allowing for quick searching though the data as well as allowing the data to talk to each other."

The entire Brotherhood starts cheering, some of the brothers, the ones with skull masks, started to move some big disks that were close to urns to the giant clockwork. While they did that the Builder tapped with his hammer the ground, making a lot of analogue computers that were using what looked to be blood to power the machines.

Abel barely had to work to sell them on the idea. It seemed like the brotherhood was basically forcing him to take their money before he changed his mind for some reason. It was a good thing that Abel had a large external dimensional storage that he had just emptied or he wouldn't have been able to walk out under his own power.

With Abel Angelus leaving, the second builder looks within himself while his brothers finish the first step for their greatest work so far. Outside of helping juniors of course.

[My Brother, you were right that day in the ant pit] said the second builder. [with this will have our own legacy, our own afterlife, and with this we will be able to help our juniors even in death] finish the second brother,

[Indeed! Our war with heaven has truly started now, there is no turning back from here] darkly said the first builder.
_________________
@Swordomatic, @Alectai, @Quest, @TehChron, @Insane-Not-Crazy, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic, @no.

I would like a LST. Also can you assign me to a mission. I can't really pick.

 

[adamashield]

Once more thanks for the opportunity^^. and ghost in the shell intensify
Linking the collab here.
@Swordomatic, @Alectai, @Quest, @TehChron, @Insane-Not-Crazy, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic, @no.

this is light speed of threadmarking

 

[Hunter531]

[X] Pay Restitution. 1 Purchase will be deducted from next Turn's income, and the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed. Crippling one of their Elders is a hugely aggressive move.

 

[Humbaba]

> there's nothing stopping you using Beast methods
> but you might only get 30-40% of what a dedicated Beast Core cultivator does
> likewise even if you only get 20-30% out of Spirit Stones as a Plains cultivator
> if you're Qi Condensation and manage to get your hands on a high-grade Spirit Stone
> 20-30% is absurd in the sense that if you have 100x the resources you need

> you don't lose efficiency
> you gain it
> like, everyone starts at ~1-2% efficiency
> in the Plains your efficiency is the core stat because Qi is everywhere

Here's the relevant quotes on using cultivation methods that you're not a dedicated cultivator of that style.

As a reminder, at Qi Condensation, you need to cultivate twelve hours a day to advance, and surprisingly enough ten to tread water.

This means, if all this QC wanted was to make sure their cultivation didn't disintegrate, they'd need to cultivate for twenty five hours to thirty three hours within a twenty four hour day.

I don't know about you, but unless if you're a certain violin player from YouTube, that's just a bit completely impossible.

And you know what happens to people whose cultivation declines in this world, right? They die, because someone pounces on their weakness to take their resources for themselves. This is especially pronounced in Qi Condensation, as you don't have as many reserves to fall back on early in your career. All of that is without taking into fact that Clan members are walking piñatas of good karma, significantly intensifying the matter.

I do want to be absolutely clear here: Tisamenos should not have crippled Baozhai. That he did is a failure of the Silver Blood and his own lack of will to control it, though I do admit I do have some sympathy because his personality was supplanted. It's horrific in the existential sense, but we do need to make sure this remnant of Tisamenos is put away from Diplomacy.

Even if what happened was a tragedy, the job of a diplomat is to keep a cool enough head throughout that so the Clan isn't fucked over, and what happened is the opposite of that.

All of that being said, your point that this QC could've just breathed the air is inherently flawed.

Click to shrink...

This is a discussion we had on discord earlier, and serves to highlight one of the the major flaws of discord as a tool, as this information is easily missable, buried deep in the thread and paints a very different picture from what you get from the threadmarks (which simply says you use all 3 methods (beast core, Spirit stone and environmental) to varying degrees partly dependant on environmental location) and does not imply that your benefits from other paths massively suffer.

With that said I will note from that discord discussion that Occi has said that they have been deliberately ambiguous on whether the QC was justified or not.

The clan still has their Air respiration techniques, even though they mostly use spirit stones. It is plausible that if they were being specifically deployed beyond the desert they'd have been trained to the point they could subsist, and it is plausible that they were not. It is plausible that the QC was entirely correct or that they might have gone past the point of stealing just enough to survive. Tisamenos' internal narration is too highly effected by his Silver blood and own anger after all.

Either way Tisamenos' actions are incredibly poor. Handled correctly (in universe) this could easily have resulted in a benefit to the clan, or an under the table bribe sufficient to help the Legionnaire in question. What is crippling to a Qi condensation is frequently solvable with higher realm attention after all. It's just not economical most of the time.

There is certainly a conversation to be had about how much of the blame to lay directly on Tisamenos and how much is on Manuel's failure to properly check his control before assigning him back there, but that is seperate.

 

[adamashield]

Plus shadow of heaven getting stronger.

 

[GardenerBriareus]

[X] Pay Restitution. 1 Purchase will be deducted from next Turn's income, and the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed. Crippling one of their Elders is a hugely aggressive move.

The new Tisamenos was a coward to some degree as well. Yet the feeling that welled up inside him did not make him brave, not even fearless. It just set his teeth on edge, the way the world was all... wrong. The Bronze-Blooded running around with nobody to guide them, like ants in an overturned anthill. The inferior creatures that inhabited this world talking to them - talking down to them, it was all intolerable. It would not stand. It was not courage that drove him, but a feeling that the world must be overturned bursting out of him, beyond his control.

Click to shrink...

Pretty much everything that I'd feared. The Blood of Silver actively suppresses the empathy of those who hold it with regards to those who are "beneath them" in the hierarchy of the Sea-Conquering Army.

He had returned to the Council of Righteous Elders, and delivered a thundering denunciation, his ire ever-growing. Yet the new Blood Defiance Federation had closed ranks, unwilling to offer criticism or the like to the Strength Purity Sect as they would've mere decades before.

It was as if a dog was sitting upon the Imperator's sacred throne, crouched beneath the double-headed eagle and passing down judgement upon human beings. Intolerable. Utterly intolerable.

He had stalked across the stage, asking at first for reparations, and for guarantees that the policy of the Clan would be carried out, and Spirit Stones given freely to returning Clan members, provided those members - Clan or not - were delivered to the Clan along with the receipt so that the Clan might judge the one asking.

Click to shrink...

Worse yet, it seems to completely destroy the host's capacity for thinking outside of that racial hierarchy. Tisamenos has outright lost the ability to think of those outside the Optimatoi as being capable of opposing them, even while he thinks of his former kin as nothing but servants who need the hand of a Silver-Blooded master to guide them.

They had both been denied, the Blood Defiance Federation claiming a desperate need for Spirit Stones forcing vendors and the like into desperate positions. That theft was not justified, no matter the cause.

A dog, yapping at his ears. Yapping as though it were above human beings. Yap. Yap. Yap.

He was not proud to admit that his temper had failed him.

He had spoken to Baozhai, and called the Blood Defiance Federation a number of unworthy and inspid fools, unwilling to shoulder even the slightest blame for crippling someone who had come to aid and defend them.

Then he had spoken words he admitted had perhaps been unwise.

"Better that you had been ground into nothing under the heel of my ancestors than lived to insult your betters in such a way."

Baozhai had taken it poorly, and had swung at him, a furious punch to the face dodged easily. His gorge rose at the notion of this pathetic thing daring to strike at him, and he had struck back. Fluid, simple, fast. Faster and stronger than Baozhai could have ever hoped to be, and with three strikes, each as lazy and deliberate as the last, he crippled three prime meridians, crippling her and leaving her lying on the floor.

Click to shrink...

...Jesus fucking Christ.

Jesus fucking Christ, the Blood of Silver has turned Tisamenos into a walking caricature of what the Righteous Powers think the "Golden Devils" are like. If this is how our ancestors behaved, then I can't begrudge the Blacksmiths for despising us, given the institutional memory of dealing with a clan of megalomaniacal freaks.

Because this is no payment

This is a loan, and we shall collect on it

Click to shrink...

Our representative degenerated into a pantomime villain thanks to the Blood of Silver, issued a deranged, petulant series of rants to the gathered assembly, and then crippled a woman he'd once considered his friend because she took offence at the sheer depth of venomous contempt he clearly held toward her, her sect, and all humanity for not being part of the Optimatoi master race.

Forget payment, this is borderline weregild, and paying it is the absolute minimum we should be doing. Tisamenos needs to be put in some kind of quarantine until we can find a way to remove the Blood's corruptive influence - or failing that, purge the Blood of Silver now and forevermore. No amount of power or skill will save us if the means of acquiring it leaves us permanently deranged. You might as well cut off your own hands in exchange for a sword you can no longer wield.

This is a disaster and a tragedy, but it's not the Righteous Powers' fault. This is all on Tisamenos.

Having the Wei Princess personally beat you up for your stupidity/arrogance hopefully ought to be a wake-up call for Tisamenos. I'm guessing Tisamenos will be on time out for a while, as well as forced meditation to get that Silver arrogance much much more under control.

Click to shrink...

The impression I get is that the "Silver arrogance" isn't something you control. As long as the Blood is in you, it gnaws at your mind and soul, bends and twists and impels you to assume what it's been made to consider a "proper" mindset. There's no victory, there's at best a continuous struggle which you will eventually lose, because the Blood will never tire or weaken in its assault on your psyche.

 

[Xela63]

Forget payment, this is borderline weregild, and paying it is the absolute minimum we should be doing. Tisamenos needs to be put in some kind of quarantine until we can find a way to remove the Blood's corruptive influence - or failing that, purge the Blood of Silver now and forevermore. No amount of power or skill will save us if the means of acquiring it leaves us permanently deranged. You might as well cut off your own hands in exchange for a sword you can no longer wield.

This is a disaster and a tragedy, but it's not the Righteous Powers' fault. This is all on Tisamenos.

Click to shrink...

That depends on where we want the clan to go. If we want to exterminate all other clans/subjugate them and then go and become a conquering power on a galactic stage, we might as well keep it, if you get what I'm saying. But yes, this early we should quarantine them/hold them in reserve.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

The impression I get is that the "Silver arrogance" isn't something you control. As long as the Blood is in you, it gnaws at your mind and soul, bends and twists and impels you to assume what it's been made to consider a "proper" mindset. There's no victory, there's at best a continuous struggle which you will eventually lose, because the Blood will never tire or weaken in its assault on your psyche.

Click to shrink...

You're overestimating the effect.

Granted, this is because Tisamenos is the only sample you have, but in Discord, Occi said that Tisamenos was the worst example of someone dealing with Silver Blood we'd ever face.

This is because of one crucial factor.

Tisamenos was only at Two Pillar when he was catapulted to a Super Core. The vast majority of other Silver Cores would rise from Seven Pillar.

Now, why does this matter? It has to do with the nature of Foundation Establishment itself. In Foundation Establishment, piece by piece, you establish the tenets of your Dao, until at Seven Pillar, where you have all of the tenets aligned and firmly stuck in your mind, prepared for the Tribulation to test your steadfastness.

Tisamenos, in contrast, had barely any of that mental tempering. He had been in Foundation only for a few decades at most. That means his mind was like a leaf swept over by a gust compared to an actual tree that an established Dao would make a person.

It didn't really help that Tisamenos was already weak willed, though. That definitely compounded on the issue, as I'd imagine there'd be rare individuals at that stage who would have will comparable to later on in Foundation even at Two Pillar. Stilll, that's exceptionally rare, and not something to be counted on.

EDIT: Make no mistake, I despise personality erasure. Death of personality is one of the worst fates I've seen in a horror novel, to be honest, and considering I rather liked Tisamenos, this is particularly infuriating.

That being said, this is an outlier result. Throwing away the Silver Blood for something like this would be foolish.

 

[TehChron]

This was entirely reasonable on their end. Our guy is the one who fucked up. That's the whole it being a nat 1, its explicitly our bad here, and us paying for it. I'm not sure what about that you don't seem to be understanding.

Click to shrink...

Then I'll leave you to your confusion. Insistence that we were entirely in the wrong reflects a perspective that is irreconcilable with my own.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

Like, I acknowledge that they're squeezing us here, but holy shit would we be trying to squeeze Strength Purity if our roles were reversed.

Click to shrink...

This is less because of what happened IC, and more because Chron was really excited for the Turn 15 vote where he, and maybe a few others would vote for the Technique Palace, and the rest of the thread would pop off with a plan that focused more on the moment.

Now, that's not really possible, since it's not a thing we can afford even if we went all in with Nascent actions, so he's a bit miffed, as you can imagine.

So, just keep that in mind when reading that post, is all.

Otherwise I'd imagine Chron wouldn't care nearly as much. This nat 1 could've been significantly worse than this, after all, for instance, the Droplet of Rust and Ruin explicitly had a caveat in there was a possibility that others would find out, causing reputation losses. A critical failure there would mean our attempt to prepare to kill the Blacksmiths would've been viewed in the worst possible manner.

 

[Alectai]

Then I'll leave you to your confusion. Insistence that we were entirely in the wrong reflects a perspective that is irreconcilable with my own.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, to be fair, it's not like Tisamenos wasn't provoked.

That being said, the correct path would have been to turn it on them and smugly bait them into a position where we could squeeze them for advantage, not escalating to a brawl. And he is absolutely in the wrong for escalating to basically a genocide crack.

Still, Nat 1s gonna Nat 1, I hate that it happened, but if it had to fall somewhere, this is one of the better areas for it to happen on.

 

[w34v3r]

This was entirely reasonable on their end. Our guy is the one who fucked up. That's the whole it being a nat 1, its explicitly our bad here, and us paying for it. I'm not sure what about that you don't seem to be understanding.

Click to shrink...

The part where they mangled one of your boys who tried to use an established and reputable system before resorting to thievery, and instead denied him basic access to services included in your goddamned standing arrangement, then acted like he was some sort of lowlife for trying to survive when they wouldn't fucking hold up their end of a deal. The silverblood is a fucking punk, no disagreement, but the inciting incident was them engaging in oath breaking, or at least betrayal, and Wei Princess's line about a crippling for a crippling was just total bullshit given what they'd already done. It demonstrated a clear lack of intent to deal honestly, fairly, or to even stick to agreements. As much as people want to preserve relations right now, they intend to remember this and consider these people to be worthy of only contempt.

 

[CelestialJade]

[X] Pay Restitution. 1 Purchase will be deducted from next Turn's income, and the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed. Crippling one of their Elders is a hugely aggressive move.

We must collect interest, our Silver Blooded junior made a mistake, he was punished for it, and now needs to reflect on it.
But the greatest mistake was not made by one of our Clansman. They deliberately provoked the clan, and harmed juniors we sent to their battlefield. If we don't retaliate, I fear such incident's will increase, and our clan members will be forced to criminal act's to survive, or death.

"the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed." We should not.

 

[CuriousRaptor]

[X] Pay Restitution. 1 Purchase will be deducted from next Turn's income, and the Strength Purity Sect will consider the matter closed. Crippling one of their Elders is a hugely aggressive move.

It's clear that the Anti-GD faction did this as a screw you to us. It's also equally clear that our head diplomat SHOULD have handled this far far far better. Going full Young Master parody and deliberately crippling a core peer is far beyond bounds of acceptability. I'm thankful the Wei Princess was so even-handed about this, and she was even handed about it compared to what we'd have gotten from say Elder Strike. This still hurts and hurts a great deal. I doubt either side is going to forget this.

For us, it's a reminder that the Righteous path are only temporary allies at best, and that even in the staunchest of allied righteous powers there are factions near frothing at the mouth to fight us. However, our prior actions are not forgotten, if we'd have not helped them so much, we'd have been given back a corpse instead of a crippled core that healed.

The ones spoiling to fight us now have to take into account how strong our silver cores are, and how amny other things that thought they knew about the GD are not lininig up to truth. This also puts us in a bad light which they will use to further errode support though.

 

[Shaper47]

The real thing that caused this were what diplomatic position both of us were taking. Each side was flexing their muscles as they had been strengthened, they insult us because they feel strong, we insult them because we feel strong, they attack us because they feel insulted and it goes badly for them.

I think it's important to remember who was crippling whose cultivators first and who has had a policy of attempting to genocide the other for the last few thousand years.

 

[copperheed]

Nascent Nightmares

Error! Error! Possible Non-Canonical Contaminate Approaching!

Trigger Warning: Forced against will (non-sexual) and Gore. I wasn't intending to get as graphic, but thought it helped the dreadful situation.

Ai was immobilized with fear; sitting there in her great grandfather's glorious throne room. She didn't worry that the throne room looked like a dining hall, she loathed it all the same. He said that only family was important enough to attend him here and so she, her sisters, her brother, her cousins, aunts, uncles, and distant family relations all sat in immobilizing fear at the enormous dining table in Kinslayer's throne room.

Said demon sat at the head of the table "leading the family discussion" she thought bitterly as he casually savored one of her mother's toes, languorously licking his granddaughter's blood off his finger; he always started with the feet. She wished she could at least reach over and hug her younger, and last remaining, brother to her chest and try to calm him and dry his tears since her Reviled Elder thought weakness of spirit ruined the flavor of his progeny's flesh.

She'd learned first hand that he could cause mind breaking pain without injuring the body. Unlike her oldest brother and sister who tried to take the blame for younger siblings, she never stood up or the younger ones because her fear out weighed her love for them; seeing her braver older siblings being broken and eaten before in a riot of carnage when Reviled Elder lost his temper over their "righteousness". It was little consolation that he hadn't ravaged a family member in more than 50 years.

So, as much as Ai's heart broke when little Hua'er couldn't fight the tears of grief at seeing their mother laid out on Kinslayer's feasting table, her fear and self loathing at the fear held her back. She did her best to disassociate herself from the here and now by staring straight ahead over the shoulder of her granduncle (half brother of her grandparents), who was younger than her.

Adrenaline spiked as she noticed the conversation had come to a frightening silence. Everyone was staring at her! Then her mother turned her head, agony written on her features as she spoke in most controlled tone she used when things were dire but she didn't want Ai to fear, "Ai'er dear, your Honored Elder … asked you … a question. Apologize … to him for being … for being … absent minded dear one."

Shit! Don't cry! Don't lose it! Don't end up on the table … next to … STOP! Do your manners and don't throw up! Ai thought wildly. She stumbled her way through her abject apologies, which she truthfully meant. The embarrassment over fumbling the forms didn't even register over the fear.

"You're forgiven young Ai'er," the Reviled Elder magnanimously intoned. "I simply asked if you if you would care for some refreshment?" he asked, holding up a goblet. Her thoughts spun wildly to figure out what he was talking about. He never offers anyone anything. We sit here for hours while he eats and there's no food … !!! In the goblet … that's …

Barely preventing herself from vomiting, Ai apologized again, "Mighty Elder, I couldn't possibly … interrupt yourself during your most valued time."

"And I realize the great honor I'm doing you little Ai'er, so please drink up," he offered, the cup directly in front of her now, his unnatural speed unnerving her now that it was directed at her for the first time ever. As she started to make poor excuses, her head was thrown back and hot thick liquid poured into her mouth and throat. Her coughs and struggling gagging splashed some of the blood on her face and her nostrils burned with the scent of it as most of it forced it's way slimyly down her ineffectively resisting throat.

The Reviled Elder started to say something and was interrupted by Ai's stomach revolting at the leaden lump inside of her. When she'd finished vomiting on the table, he made an annoyed sound and then forced her to eat her own vomit! If she'd thought the blood was awful, this was magnitudes worse! As her stomach started to rebel again, he laughed at her and forced her to hold it in.

With a chuckle, he offered her one of his fingers. "And now an appetizer, young Ai'er?"

In confusion and ingrained terror, she jerked back from him. He calmly offered her his pinkie finger. When she continued to be stricken with indecision and fear, he sighed and placed it in her trembling hand. He then casually placed a hand on Huaban's, her younger brother, throat. "Eat it." he said calmly, with a blatant threat behind it.

It wasn't sausage like she was expecting; it had the more solid texture of shrimp. She was And as much as she wanted to gag on it, she was surprised she could even chew a cultivator's finger. When she got to the bone, she thought her teeth might break, but it actress more like a hard candy. It took long enough that the disgust and fear turned to embarrassment to be making sucking noises in front of her whole family. It sounded so lewd and her mother was right there!

"Very good," he smiled at her, offering her another digit. She took this with a very wary hand and slowly placed it in her mouth, watching and waiting for the backhand blow she knew she had no chance of avoiding. Instead he watched with a weird patronizing smile on his face the entire time she fearfully ate his own finger.

"And the next," he said to her. "And this time savor it. Feel the juices in your mouth, the texture of the flesh, and feel for the Qi. By now you'll be able to sense it. Feel for its taste and texture just like normal food. When you can sense that, you'll start to see that it's better than sweets or wine or any other of your favorite dishes. Even when you taste someone, this will still be the best of Qi you'll ever have."

Ai was only half listening to him talk about the importance of Qi in the body and she knew he was giving her the secrets of cultivation, but she'd found the secret of the Qi and it just tasted so good! It was sugar, sweets, her favorite fish, grandfather's hand made buns, and all of her other foods all rolled into one, yet even more scrumptious. She happily ate and made the disgusting sucking noises to get the bones down as fast as possible.

She was halted as she'd bitten into his thumb of her own accord! A fearful spike of adrenaline shot through her, but he continued smiling. This smile was less patronizing to a child and now more condescending to someone he was debating with. "While you enjoy my thumb, listen well to my words on Blood. Alter Lord is an ass and doesn't understand the true nature of what we do."

She didn't know anyone named Alter Lord. But she did? But if he let her keep nibbling on his thumb if she listened, she would pay more attention for the chance at the delicious taste of him! "It is labeled Bloodpath by heaven itself. He is a fool to ignore the implications! It is why I'm the strongest of his disciples, as much as he ignores my genius, but I cultivate and consume in iterations of my own Blood!" He announces with a sweeping gesture at her many relatives; not that she cares what they think as she latches onto his wrist with both hands so that she can finish eating the last part of his thumb!

Having finished all of his fingers on that hand, she looked hungrily up at him, daring to think that she'd keep going even if he told her to stop. Instead he gave a simple nod of consent for her to continue. She tore at him, relishing and consuming. It took her hours but each deliciously savored moment was gone faster than the next and soon she just gulped him down, crunching bone and tearing flesh as fast as possible to fuel more of the rush of power and pleasure.

When only his head remained, he smiled cruelly at her. Any fear she had of him was gone as she was drunk with the power he'd given her. "You cursed me once, but now that you can feel my teaching to your core, you know I'm right! You can feel the power of my Righteous Truth! You can …" And he finally shut up when she swallowed his entire head into her gullet.

"Now look at the feast before you on the table," he mockingly teased her from inside her belly. She looked and he'd been stupid enough to leave an even better feast lying on the table for her! The gluttonous assholes had taken some of it, but it was hers now and it was all hers!

"Ai'er, You've become Honored Hu Ai now …" her mother trailed off seeing the look in her daughter's eyes and opened her mouth to scream!

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Hu Ai woke up out of her meditation trance screaming and covered in debris and stone dust. The cave she'd been cultivating in, annihilated by her nascent strength. Flailing into the air, she got hold of herself while a cold rain blew down around her. She was numb, not from the cold rain or mountain height which didn't bother her anymore but from the desire she'd felt in the … dream. The hunger, the desire, it was always there whispering, prodding, demanding. Demanding, often in Kinslayer's voice, that she become a monster just like him. And she was slowly losing the fight. She kept it to direct fights and the worst people in the Sect, but it grew louder as she grew stronger. Don't dwell on it. Take it one day at a time.

She didn't sleep anymore, but when she meditated her mind would occasionally wander into dreams. Something ((Old Cannibal. What does she call him? Teacher?)) punished her for, though lightly for him since he admitted she needed a lot of training being the youngest Nascent Soul ever. Poison woman had offered her something for that. Even though Old Cannibal had confirmed that it wasn't poison, she couldn't trust anyone here and she lived with the nightmares rather than take something from someone when there were an infinite number of ways, all of them she knew nothing about, to hurt by someone with a gift.

Curse Heaven she hated her life! She still lived in fear, she was so inept compared to her "peers", and even ((Old Cannibal. What does she call him? Teacher?)) saying she was by far the best student, she always had to be looking two and three layers deep with what he did and said with her because being the best student meant that he wanted to impart over a thousand years of malicious cunning into every lesson! The pain and especially the fear would never end!

No. No. This was infinitely better. She was still scared, living with horrible monsters, and there wasn't even the small solace of family, but she had power now. Even if it was a small fraction, she'd learn and grow strong enough to smite anyone that threatened her family, including and especially Heaven.

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Already found some mistakes! I beg your forgiveness!

I made this because Hu Ai seems to be the least invested in Bloodpath, for Bloodbath sake. She's been in awful condition her whole life and if living meant becoming an "evil" cultivator without any true understanding of what it does, doesn't make her as bad as the rest of them. Especially since we have the excerpt about her doing her best to avoid the desire the Bloodpath pushes on her.

She hits me as a possible vampire protagonist.

And this omake doesn't make her my Good Seed in any sense, but I felt inspired to write it and felt that if nothing else could show a possible person behind the horror like Occipitallobe has down so well with so many other characters.