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

[occipitallobe]

Good Seed and Omake Spreadsheet Rules:

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.

 

[Theaxofwar]

Altar lord: this asshole must know how much I hate him and is enjoying the fact that he's too useful to kill.

OC actually: ow my head.

Click to shrink...

OC borrowing some of OGs scheming misunderstanding field.

 

[weeblypanda]

Of fucking course our biggest ally in the righteous path was ganked by Altar Lord! It just makes too much sense.

Also good job on Altar Lord for preventing us from making more surveillance towers. (I think that was one of the reasons for having the fairies eat SG's eyes)

 

[ConfusedCanuck]

Sure would suck if we negotiated to play Mercenary again for an invasion of the Southern mountains to fuck with Old Cannibal in exchange for the pass, their assistance in making it viable, and them looking the other away with the mountains in general wouldnt it?

Click to shrink...

It really would now wouldn't it lol

 

[ilbgar123]

I wonder... is the 'Set Lifespan' thing connected to the difference between a Death Step and a Life Step? If you have a Qi Spring, if Life springs from you, wouldn't it make sense that you get to dictate how much Life people get? Of course, equating Qi with Life introduces a weakness in that having more of one gives you more of the other, because Heaven's Law cannot disobey it's own rules. Which means that, like Altar Lord's metaphor, trading lifespan for Fate Defying is letting one Law grip you tighter in order to loosen the grip of another.

 

[adamashield]

Author notes: This could very well be my worse turn in terms of production. Still. Here^^.

King/Queen of the Desert.
A children Card game
Pleuron
Builder​

With the Hegemony on the Desert other forms of conflict are being used. Among the many things the clan do to defend themselves and counter attack are publicity stunts. Including, of course, children card games (for rich young masters).

Spoiler: one of the Pleuron's cards.

Pleuron is raising.

Spoiler: One of the Brotherhood cards.

The First Builder.

@Swordomatic, @Alectai, @Quest, @TehChron, @Insane-Not-Crazy, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic, @no., @BungieONI.

 

[Timewarriors]

I wonder... is the 'Set Lifespan' thing connected to the difference between a Death Step and a Life Step? If you have a Qi Spring, if Life springs from you, wouldn't it make sense that you get to dictate how much Life people get? Of course, equating Qi with Life introduces a weakness in that having more of one gives you more of the other, because Heaven's Law cannot disobey it's own rules. Which means that, like Altar Lord's metaphor, trading lifespan for Fate Defying is letting one Law grip you tighter in order to loosen the grip of another.

Click to shrink...

I imagine in a normal life step world you could be generous and set the lifespan to like 1000 for QC but that's sounds like a massive resource drain.

 

[Shard]

Probably just have reincarnation instead.

 

[adamashield]

Linking here for the Builder.

Note: I would like to ask a tribulation treasure (for my two good seeds).

@Swordomatic, @Alectai, @Quest, @TehChron, @Insane-Not-Crazy, @Humbaba, @ReaderOfFate, @Kaboomatic, @no., @BungieONI.

 

[Roth963]

I imagine in a normal life step world you could be generous and set the lifespan to like 1000 for QC but that's sounds like a massive resource drain.

Click to shrink...

That brings another question, is lifespan allocated, or limited.

Why people die in this world? Is that merely cell degradation, if so, dealing with it may be significantly easier than using life extending treasures and such.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

That brings another question, is lifespan allocated, or limited.

Click to shrink...

The Law of longevity is a set parameter for each living being.

You could be healthy as a horse, but when your lifespan ends, you're kaput, unless if you have the capacity to challenge Law.

Part of Law Creation tribulation on a World like this, Occi said, is dealing with the fact that Heaven just set your Lifespan value to "near zero" using your new grasp of a Law.

Fail, and die. Succeed, and you can live as long as you can keep on defying the Law of longevity.

 

[Roth963]

The Law of longevity is a set parameter for each living being.

You could be healthy as a horse, but when your lifespan ends, you're kaput, unless if you have the capacity to challenge Law.

Part of Law Creation tribulation on a World like this, Occi said, is dealing with the fact that Heaven just set your Lifespan value to "near zero" using your new grasp of a Law.

Fail, and die. Succeed, and you can live as long as you can keep on defying the Law of longevity.

Click to shrink...

I meant outside of beast worlds, it make sense lifespan is limited on a beast world, because the beasts need to eat, why would a human limit the lifespan of fellow humans, especially if he gets more cultivators to use as weapons this way.

 

[no.]

I meant outside of beast worlds, it make sense lifespan is limited on a beast world, because the beasts need to eat, why would a human limit the lifespan of fellow humans, especially if he gets more cultivators to use as weapons this way.

Click to shrink...

Because if no one can die, the world becomes completely overpopulated with mortals and bottlenecked cultivators very fast. It's in a world's ruler's best interest to kill anyone who can't jump to the next great realm to make room for someone else to try, and having set lifespans is the simplest way to do that.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

I meant outside of beast worlds, it make sense lifespan is limited on a beast world, because the beasts need to eat, why would a human limit the lifespan of fellow humans, especially if he gets more cultivators to use as weapons this way.

Click to shrink...

Simple answer? Turnover and resource limitations.

Human Worlds focus on getting folks with more Dao comprehension every turn of the wheel, and the more souls you cycle through? The better results you can get.

There's a reason why the Imperator only reincarnates folks who reached the minimum standard of reaching FE at all, ya know.

No point on wasting precious Life Spring output on sustaining individuals who can't meet a base standard.

Stronger Life Steps can afford to set a lower minimum.

 

[Timewarriors]

I meant outside of beast worlds, it make sense lifespan is limited on a beast world, because the beasts need to eat, why would a human limit the lifespan of fellow humans, especially if he gets more cultivators to use as weapons this way.

Click to shrink...

Then you're full of talentless loser who can't help with the war and are eating up resources for the actual talent. Anyone below SS can't even qualify as a foot soldier for the Imperator.

 

[ilbgar123]

Simple answer? Turnover and resource limitations.

Human Worlds focus on getting folks with more Dao comprehension every turn of the wheel, and the more souls you cycle through? The better results you can get.

There's a reason why the Imperator only reincarnates folks who reached the minimum standard of reaching FE at all, ya know.

No point on wasting precious Life Spring output on sustaining individuals who can't meet a base standard.

Stronger Life Steps can afford to set a lower minimum.

Click to shrink...

That makes me wonder, is there a minimum Lifespan where you don't actually need backing from a Qi Spring? Because I'd expect a Beast World to do it's level best to wipe out humanity while propping up Beasts, but there were humans here before the Sea-Conquering Army that were doing just fine, which indicates to me that getting rid of the humans was seen as an unnecessary expenditure.

That suggests to me that there's a minimum bar on Lifespan before Qi or Laws get involved, and that setting it lower can also cost you Qi, one way or another, like trying to create True Vacuum despite the average mass-energy density of the universe already being so low. Which in turn, suggests that the ideal for a Human World might be some Hard Sci-Fi arcologies pushing the mortal population to insane heights, to raise the odds of a random mortal stumbling across insight/a useful Dao. It doesn't matter if you only raise up the one in a trillion talents, if you have a population in the quadrillions, and the mortals will provide a new crop of them in a relative eyeblink. If you get a thousand+ Good Seed-level aspirants every century or so, and the battle between the Turtle Emperor and the Human taskforce lasted upwards of a million years, that's ten million raised in less time than the battle took. Sure, it's likely that the vast majority of people will have to be outright barred from Cultivation so they don't eat up resources used for the likes of Aretaphilia or Rina, or some other Good Seed among Good Seeds, but most mortals never Cultivate anyway.

Simple answer? Turnover and resource limitations.

Human Worlds focus on getting folks with more Dao comprehension every turn of the wheel, and the more souls you cycle through? The better results you can get.

There's a reason why the Imperator only reincarnates folks who reached the minimum standard of reaching FE at all, ya know.

No point on wasting precious Life Spring output on sustaining individuals who can't meet a base standard.

Stronger Life Steps can afford to set a lower minimum.

Click to shrink...

Which is one of the reasons Heraclius offered Manuel, for all that he's an untalented nobody by the standards of the wider conflict, a spot, because he did more with less than anyone could reasonably expect. Admittedly some of that is Quest Protagonism(if unconventionally so, in that he largely takes the role of the Clan Elder of the insane genius protagonist of the story, because that's what he is), but a lot of it is Age and Treachery. He's sort of like Wei Fang, in that he's nothing special as a Cultivator, strictly speaking, but he's operating way outside what his role ought to be as a combination of unique circumstances and being tricky.

 

[Humbaba]

That makes me wonder, is there a minimum Lifespan where you don't actually need backing from a Qi Spring? Because I'd expect a Beast World to do it's level best to wipe out humanity while propping up Beasts, but there were humans here before the Sea-Conquering Army that were doing just fine, which indicates to me that getting rid of the humans was seen as an unnecessary expenditure.

That suggests to me that there's a minimum bar on Lifespan before Qi or Laws get involved, and that setting it lower can also cost you Qi, one way or another, like trying to create True Vacuum despite the average mass-energy density of the universe already being so low. Which in turn, suggests that the ideal for a Human World might be some Hard Sci-Fi arcologies pushing the mortal population to insane heights, to raise the odds of a random mortal stumbling across insight/a useful Dao. It doesn't matter if you only raise up the one in a trillion talents, if you have a population in the quadrillions, and the mortals will provide a new crop of them in a relative eyeblink. If you get a thousand+ Good Seed-level aspirants every century or so, and the battle between the Turtle Emperor and the Human taskforce lasted upwards of a million years, that's ten million raised in less time than the battle took. Sure, it's likely that the vast majority of people will have to be outright barred from Cultivation so they don't eat up resources used for the likes of Aretaphilia or Rina, or some other Good Seed among Good Seeds, but most mortals never Cultivate anyway.

Click to shrink...

Beasts usually aren't looking to wipe out humans. Humans are a beast's primary growth source past life step. Eating Law Creations+ for their dao insight is how beasts cultivate. Setting a limit to low cuts off their primary food supply/growth source.

There may in fact be a lower limit, but setting the lifespan limit too low just means that beast falls behind or is outcompeted by either other beasts or the Human side of the war.

The reason our Heaven has its limits set so low is that it is in emergency mode and doesn't want the risk of someone with stupid talent overtaking the baby turtles and getting the life spring while they are still working through Heaven construction.

 

[Roth963]

Which is one of the reasons Heraclius offered Manuel, for all that he's an untalented nobody by the standards of the wider conflict,

Click to shrink...

This made me wonder, do you keep your memories through reincarnation, can you reroll your talent or is manual stuck forever being untalented even after his rebirth? (Although with infinite retries, a planet better than the dead turtle and keeping his memories, he would probably be able to inch his way closer each life until either he ascends past law creation or hit impossible wall).

 

[CuriousRaptor]

Man i was worried it was Scarletglyph who died. She was too useful and too good to be allowed free reign, and frankly her loss hurts the SPS order of battle more than any other early nascent i care to think of, given she could block OC when needed.

 

[Timewarriors]

This made me wonder, do you keep your memories through reincarnation, can you reroll your talent or is manual stuck forever being untalented even after his rebirth? (Although with infinite retries, a planet better than the dead turtle and keeping his memories, he would probably be able to inch his way closer each life until either he ascends past law creation or hit impossible wall).

Click to shrink...

Memory no but you retain your Dao understanding.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Aww.

I liked Scarletglyph.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

That makes me wonder, is there a minimum Lifespan where you don't actually need backing from a Qi Spring?

Click to shrink...

Yes, it's called having a Life Spring yourself so you can defray the Qi you need to exist and then some. Or, be a Dao Seeker who doesn't need Qi to live.

Even when you've transcended the Law of longevity as a Law Creation or up, that doesn't mean that you're suddenly net neutral. Rather the opposite. The continued existence of someone at Law Creation or up in the World is like a wound in the Heavenly Law, as they constantly enforce their own personal Law or Laws where they are as opposed to the natural laws of the World itself.

Still, in a healthy Beast World, they wouldn't block off the path to Law Creation as vigorously as they do in the current state of the Turtle World. A Beast can only truly grow when consuming the souls of humans at least Law Creation and higher, after all.

Humans can't create Life Springs by themselves, as a reminder. They can only steal them from Beasts to step into Life Step themselves, and can split off a piece once their own is large enough to raise up subordinate Life Steps.

 

[ilbgar123]

Yes, it's called having a Life Spring yourself so you can defray the Qi you need to exist and then some. Or, be a Dao Seeker who doesn't need Qi to live.

Even when you've transcended the Law of longevity as a Law Creation or up, that doesn't mean that you're suddenly net neutral. Rather the opposite. The continued existence of someone at Law Creation or up in the World is like a wound in the Heavenly Law, as they constantly enforce their own personal Law or Laws where they are as opposed to the natural laws of the World itself.

Still, in a healthy Beast World, they wouldn't block off the path to Law Creation as vigorously as they do in the current state of the Turtle World. A Beast can only truly grow when consuming the souls of humans at least Law Creation and higher, after all.

Humans can't create Life Springs by themselves, as a reminder. They can only steal them from Beasts to step into Life Step themselves, and can split off a piece once their own is large enough to raise up subordinate Life Steps.

Click to shrink...

The idea was that on, say, a Dead Beast where the Laws are fraying, what would Lifespan look like?

Okay, but then where did the first Beast to get a Qi Spring come from? Did humans evolved naturally on a Beast World or...?

 

[ReaderOfFate]

Okay, but then where did the first Beast to get a Qi Spring come from?

Click to shrink...

Qi Springs are something World Beasts naturally get on maturity. It's not something they create consciously.

As for the origin story behind all of this? Total mystery.

Occi said he'd be revealing some of it (only the parts that are semi-relevant to the Quest of course) as part of the 5 million word reward.

 

[ilbgar123]

Qi Springs are something World Beasts naturally get on maturity. It's not something they create consciously.

As for the origin story behind all of this? Total mystery.

Occi said he'd be revealing some of it (only the parts that are semi-relevant to the Quest of course) as part of the 5 million word reward.

Click to shrink...

Ah, okay, I was under the impression they needed to eat Heaven-Constructers for that.

 

[Timewarriors]

The idea was that on, say, a Dead Beast where the Laws are fraying, what would Lifespan look like?

Okay, but then where did the first Beast to get a Qi Spring come from? Did humans evolved naturally on a Beast World or...?

Click to shrink...

I'm pretty sure a dead beast would have no qi spring at all and thus no world.