To an extent actual populations are a good bit larger, especially if you are willing to claim every valley and countryside of your province rather then the areas you can administer and tax specifically which are all along or near the river. To a large extent you got marginal land that was well, marginal and recovered from a demonic sect, its far from the absolute worst but its not bad. On the coastal cities, like for example Jewel Blossom has give or take a million and a half mortals under it in spite of having less land area just because their province has a major coastal city. The number of cultivators you have is also to a large extent a product of how your sect has historically operated. Because it has been a traveling sect for so long, the high level ones tended to stick around far more then lower level ones. Its why you have so comparatively many golden cores and core formation elders compared to everyone else.
you forgot that we're a MINOR sect controlling a minor province in a deathworld.
For all we know the world is xianxia-large, but we're just a very small fish in a big pond. and yeah, as you can see the numbers are somewhat surprisingly low, especially if you expected pop in the millions.
@Blackstar does any local/neighbouring sect have any domain foundation (or above) cultivators? If not, then getting even a single one would likely bring us to "local big fish" status.
...and of course it means we can make even higher rank pills, of course.
@Blackstar does any local/neighbouring sect have any domain foundation (or above) cultivators? If not, then getting even a single one would likely bring us to "local big fish" status.
Jewel Blossom claims to have one at times but you have never actually seen the guy at any auction or heard of anyone else seeing the guy so your assuming he left or died or has basically been cultivating in a cave for a century and has not come out.
Hm. Maybe their Domain Foundation guy made it through the tribulation (we have those in this setting, right?) but was crippled in the process, so he can't really advance any farther and just sort of stays in isolation because, well, he's a bit underwhelming.
Turn 4: Solutions and No Cultivating
AA546 Dong Liang
Spirit Stone Vault: Approximately 30 thousand
Internal News:
With the establishment of gold mining and the expected problems of forming a new village, the gain of spirit stones over the last year has increased to almost five thousand for the year with a massive spike coming through the Winter. Song Zian has blamed constant spirit beast attacks on the site and persistent problems in building even the most basic of housing. Before the next Winter could have a similar result, disciple Song managed to pay for twenty outer disciples to construct log housing for the miners, setting up a village. His foresight has reduced the number of deaths with some evenings in the number of spirit stones gained across the province. Gold has also been shipped to the sect with eleven thousand kuping of gold provided to the sect after the first wasteful year.
In less fortuitous news the attacks by spirit beasts from the last few years have only worsened as it appears that several types of large rats have taken up habitation in the province. The Komodo rat is only a threat to the least prepared cultivators and several mortals but unfortunately, they have become pervasive in the province with several large dens. Getting senior cultivators to clear out the pests has been a major problem with the beasts hard to find, of little value, and an endless infestation. Through encouraging their hunting and a few hundred fire preparations the largest nests that encroached on sect land have been killed but many of the Qi Formation cultivators that have attempted hunting have simply never returned.
Banning hunting at any stage would be unseemly for any sect and would cause a massive loss of face, but the loss of Juniors needs to be stopped somehow. Too many juniors are lost for very little gain as even some of the most promising have their survival down to mere fortune. The cultivators that are trained from the peasants are going to be of a lower quality in a general sense but they shouldn't be remotely this bad according to several books. The sect is otherwise running smoothly but the province needs to be brought to a reasonable standard of safety before such cultivators can independently hunt and explore for places to cultivate and gather Qi.
Personal Actions(Choose Five):
[]Cultivate: A strong sect deserves a strong leader and while the further stages of the Open Lotus Art are undiscovered, that simply means more and harsher cultivation must be done. The golden core stage is not the end of the art and dozens have attempted to break through, with some historically accomplishing it. The methodology is unknown but it is certainly possible. Starting work from seeping the Qi into a general domain from the core to nourish the core is the current safe theory of cultivation and it must be attempted vigorously to achieve a great breakthrough. (30 Thousand Spirit Stones(to attempt/not per action)) (Bonus from closed-door cultivation if taken 4 times)
[]Make Formal Contact with a Sect: A proper diplomatic party is a gaudy and worthless affair compared to more important cultivation, but it is a formality that must be done. Gathering two elders and a gaggle of inner disciples along with some basic gifts before setting off to a sect can ensure a favorable impression and intimidate some of their inner disciples to avoid the border, at least for a few years. Being a known quantity further has the advantage as the most bloody-minded will not take offense to the sudden appearance of a new sect in the area. (5 Thousand Spirit Stones) (Jewel Blossom Sect)
[]Lead A War Party: Constant low-level raids from the Towering Horizon and Pearl Ferret sect have sapped through the lowest cultivators with their raids, stealing treasures and injuring our very weakest cultivators. Instead of allowing the insult to stand, a war party can be organized with the elders and inner disciples, crossing the border for a glorious slaughter of any that stand in our way. By the point that the enemy sects can respond we will have gained a massive amount of plunder, resources, and possibly even manuals and seeds. As long as the sect has a plentiful supply of pills at the golden core level any insult can be avenged and diplomatically reversed. (Loot) (Can combine with Pill Refining) (Choose Great Pearl Ferret or Towering Horizon Sect)
[]Pill Refining: The refinement of a new pill using the jade furnace is arduous work involving time spent away from cultivation for something as base as a few tens of thousands of spirit stones. The ingredients are there to make pills for golden core cultivators in a decent supply and spending time to make a few dozen can secure enough combat power and cultivation materials to further fund the sect. Local sourcing of ingredients and the poor financial accounts of the sect limit what can be done now but those will be fixed by the next auction. (Can Take Multiple Times)
[]Test New Pills: Using the jade furnace to work on the finest pills in the empire remains an option and poorer ingredients can be substituted for the first stages of experimentation. The refinement of a true five-element breakthrough pill is beyond the herbs available and too risky, but lower-level ones can be pioneered. Even successfully refining a pill capable of reliably breaking through otherwise stagnant outer disciples to inner ones would massively improve the capabilities of the sect and ensure it can overcome any obstacle. The work itself is going to be beneath an elder, but needs must be at the current loss rates. (Can be taken up to 3 times)
[]Fix the Inner Manual Pavillion: There are fourteen total manuals that contain techniques available to the sect but they are universally old and poorly worn. Replicating each Qi Condensation five times, each Core formation manual twice, and ensuring that there is a backup copy of each Golden Core manual will be essential. As none outside the Golden Core stage can be trusted with the manuals, work will be slow but contemplation while writing and adding notes to techniques can strengthen all involved. The mere opening of access to all the techniques involved will be more than sufficient an award for the elders as none have comprehensive knowledge.
[]Fix the Outer Manual Pavilion: There need to be at least a dozen copies of each technique for lesser cultivators with access partialed out individually rather than comprehensively to ensure that certain scrolls are not hoarded. As the techniques themselves are plain, the replication of several scrolls can be provided for literate and ambitious outer disciples who are willing to take up calligraphy. The practice will be useful for the future and ensuring a proper style of each character will be critical when they reach the point of making talismans. To entice the otherwise unwilling disciples, those writing will get total access to the copied techniques. Of course, as the pavilion is planned to be open access their access will be irrelevant in a few years but what is a bit of deceit compared to the future of the sect.
[]Compile Bestiaries: There is no unified bestiary outside of some of the books going around the imperial court and some locally compiled ones hidden away as sect-wide treasures. Telling other sects the exact information of how each beast could be used for poisons or pills would be the height of foolishness, but a simple identification manual would not go awry. Personally taking charge and writing down every beast from memory and the best ways of disposing of it will be important to minimize the number of imbeciles being unprepared and subsequently eaten. With identification can come more concrete rewards for hunting that the juniors can read and intuit.
[]Fix the Training Camps: Recruiting by having students demonstrate a basic technique has been a time-honored tradition but it is clearly not working. Most students can to some extent gather Qi but go no further with their abilities and those who manage a single technique learn it by rote with little idea of how to do it. Instead of trying to make the current system work it can be reformed into a more comprehensive exam akin to a lesser version of that for imperial bureaucrats. A disciple will need to be able to perform simple arithmetic, read two thousand characters, and perform their choice of two techniques of different categories. Educating the hopefuls to the point that they can even attempt the latter will be challenging, but getting the local gentry to do it can be done with a tiny portion of local gold production.
[]Fix Incompetent Measurement: Instead of using mortal measurements centered around either the length or weight of a peasant a new system can be divided. Weight measures will be standardized on a mass of gold and length measures by a golden standard. Simple scales can be purchased from several merchants for a pittance and the sect can be furnished with several improvements to the accuracy of recipes. Physical measurements are of course not needed for any with a developed Qi sense, but for lesser stages, they are more than necessary. Working through the manuals and ensuring that they are written with the updated standards will take years but it will ensure that something as inexact as finger lengths is never again used as a measurement. (Coapplies if Taken With Writing Actions)
[]Fix Deaths of Idiocy: Qi Formation disciples are effectively youths who are at best capable of holding a specialized small spear or bow with poor results. Without breaking through to a further stage any Qi Formation disciple is merely a slightly faster mortal that has a few large techniques with negligible practice in applying them. Ensuring that they do not die of idiocy will leave the sect over-burdened with thousands of useless cultivators that lack the resources to break through but a middling solution can be taken. Ensuring that hunting parties can be made safe with a late-stage Body Refinement cultivator will be one part of the effort. The other part will be to remove the useless and unambitious any that cannot reach Body Refinement by twenty years of age will be expelled.
[]Hire a Dozen Scholars: Importing scholars from other provinces is a technically illegal practice but one that is necessary if the sect is to be adequately administered. The mortals are unlikely to be capable of any large or significant understanding of cultivation or the challenges involved but the simplest parts of management can be transferred over. To prevent any thefts or loss of secrets to the mortals, they will have to be confined to the grounds of the sect for a decade of work with a following memory-clearing pill, but that is certainly cheaper than getting cultivators involved.
[]Improve Training Selectivity: Current policies of trying to train every single prospective student that can be easily reached at major villages have massively increased the amount of Outer Disciples but have done little to produce capable inner disciples. Changing the policy towards improving the quality of disciples, by instructing them for a year on several better-rounded techniques by more senior outer disciples. Reducing the number of incoming disciples will improve the attention given to each one significantly improving how many make it through to be inner disciples. With a reduced number of students far fewer will be tested, practically ensuring that masses of otherwise promising disciples will never get their opportunity.
[]Organize Remedial Education: The Outer Disciples are illiterate cultivators that could better be compared to peasants than actually respectable cultivators. Getting them all in front of instructors is going to be expensive but there are certainly a number of merchants that can be compensated enough to teach basic characters and numbers. Any large-scale literacy program is certain to cause complaints but if access to techniques and manuals can be conditionally channeled through it the enthusiasm will be considerable.
[]Inner Disciple Rewards: Changing inner disciple rewards to be more in tune with current circumstances and focusing them on the education of juniors and the buildup of sect resources will be essential for the future. The reward for contributing pills for the sect will be reduced in favor of increasing the rewards provided for teaching juniors. Hunting spirit beasts will continue to be rewarded, but only mildly so, and with benefits for higher stage ones eliminated unless a cultivator of that stage. The largest change will come towards instructing juniors with contribution points directly exchangeable for personal training with elders or access to the manual pavilion for a day.
[]Outer Disciple Rewards: Preventing Outer Disciples from running at the nearest spirit beast will take effort and a smart change in contribution points. The opening of the manual pavilion for them to study will practically eliminate a source of rewards but that can be fixed. Outer disciples will be able to directly pay contribution points to inner disciples for training at a partial rate with the rest subsidized by the sect. Treasures, pills, and equipment can also be directly sold to outer disciples for contribution points if the specific costs and supply still need to be determined at some future point.
Inner Disciple Actions(Costs Two Personal To Focus on Three) (Several Will Passively Proceed depending on Reward Allocation):
[]Establish a Herb Garden: Getting more seeds sown for supplying critical pill-making ingredients will ensure a steady supply for lower disciples and ensure that the very finest harvests can be made available for proper refinement. The inner disciples would of course prefer to be cultivating rather than weeding gardens and dealing with complicated spirit herbs but it's not like illiterate outer disciples could be trusted with the task. (Choose a Herb) (Can be taken up to 3 times)
[]Prepare Pills for War: Spreading the rumor that wide-scale conflict is coming and encouraging the most precocious to start the production of pills of their level takes a good amount of convincing to ensure surprise is not lost. It can however still be done as with the right hints and management of core disciples even the most stubborn and focused on their cultivation will favor their survival.
[]Prepare Pills for Breakthrough: The youths generally do not need to be told or encouraged to make their pills to attempt to break through to further stages, but they do need to be managed to provide pills to anyone else. Ensuring that rewards are provided and encouragement for training is made to those who can supply masses of lower-ranked pills for the advancement of outer disciples can build up sect numbers. These pills are typically available and traded for, but a glut now can be valuable for improving combat power.
[]Hunt Spirit Beasts: The wily spirit beasts in the rivers and mountains are a threat to outer disciples, are a nuisance to the mortals, and contain valuable reagents. Leading inner disciples into mortal danger would be frowned upon but by popularizing certain recipes requiring the parts of beasts and offering the correct rewards for their hunting many can be enticed to take their chances. Some may never return but a few hundred carcases can help sect funds and spirit stone reserves.
[]Train in Combat: Combat training for juniors is seemingly all they tend to do as they practice, but it stays a key part of cultivation. A sound body hosts a sound mind and being able to at least match any other cultivator in the sect helps to keep up morale and ensure that other sects think twice before invading the sect territory. Taking some time to personally manage them and organize a few lower bracket tournaments can help the sect martially and build up some prestige by committing a few cheap cultivation resources.
[]Fix a Lack of Equipment: There is a persistent and constant shortage of equipment for outer cultivators and that needs to be fixed to allow for consistent cultivation. Commissioning several Qi Condensation cultivators to make fifty simple gold-coated pill furnaces along with several escape charms and enough spears will take several thousand spirit stones but the investment in the juniors will persist for a while. Rewarding each Junior capable of breaking through to Body Refinement will cost the sect some resources, but the investment is certain to be repaid by having more competent juniors. (Approximately Five Thousand Spirit Stones)
[]Train Juniors: Training illiterate juniors in the basics of cultivation and the techniques of the Open Lotus Art is a time-consuming but necessary measure. Ensuring that those who want access to training improve juniors can encourage a virtuous cycle of constant promotions for those willing and able to instruct. Quality of instruction is never going to be the best, but those that are capable will rise no matter the quality of instruction. (Can be Taken Twice)
Ingredient
Availability
Element
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Celestial Dewberries
Seeds
Fire
Qi Reserves
Elemental Shift
Spirit Poison
Burning Plums
Herb Gardens
Fire
Stimulant
Qi Reserves
Qi Density
Star Grass
Seeds
Fire
Meridian Flow
Physical Poison
Qi Recovery
Stone Seed Flower
Seeds
Earth
Qi Hardening
Spiritual Poison
Qi Density
Divine Moss
Herb Gardens
Earth
Mental Poison
Qi Density
Qi Hardening
Heavenly Razor Wheat
Herb Gardens
Metal
Sustenance
Qi Recovery
Qi Density
Black Rotherb
Seeds
Metal
Physical Poison
Mental Poison
Breakthrough Aid
Spiritual Reed
Herb Gardens
Water
Qi Hardening
Qi Recovery
Mental Poison
Frost Hemp
Small Cultivation
Water
Qi Recovery
Mental Poison
Elemental Shift
Rose Tallow
Herb Gardens
Water
Elemental Shift
Mental Poison
Qi Recovery
Orange Rime Slime
Spores
Water
Qi Density
Qi Recovery
Spirit Poison
Relentless Growth Vine
Herb Gardens
Wood
Root Growth
Physical Poison
Spirit Poison
White Bark Trees
Seeds
Wood
Spirit Poison
Meridian Growth
Root Growth
The Growing Shrub
Herb Gardens
Wood
Meridian Growth
Elemental Shift
Physical Poison
Spotted Shrub
Herb Gardens
Wood
Spirit Poison
Mental Poison
Breakthrough Aid
Cultivation Base
Total
Stagnant
Advancement
Deaths
Domain Foundation
0
0
0
0
Golden Core
7
4
0
0
Core Formation
15
9
0
0
Qi Condensation
43
27
1
0
Body Refinement
152
N/A
37
22
Qi Formation
149
N/A
99
117
Province Population: Approximately forty thousand
Passive Spirit Stone Income: Approximately a five thousand
We don't ACTUALLY need to bully the inner disciples every turn. They'll do stuff on their own without us.
I think un-screwing the rewards systems might actually be underrated? People follow incentives, after all. Sure, the way they do so might not be what we imagine, but still.
[]Fix the Inner Manual Pavillion: There are fourteen total manuals that contain techniques available to the sect but they are universally old and poorly worn. Replicating each Qi Condensation five times, each Core formation manual twice, and ensuring that there is a backup copy of each Golden Core manual will be essential. As none outside the Golden Core stage can be trusted with the manuals, work will be slow but contemplation while writing and adding notes to techniques can strengthen all involved. The mere opening of access to all the techniques involved will be more than sufficient an award for the elders as none have comprehensive knowledge.
[]Fix the Outer Manual Pavilion: There need to be at least a dozen copies of each technique for lesser cultivators with access partialed out individually rather than comprehensively to ensure that certain scrolls are not hoarded. As the techniques themselves are plain, the replication of several scrolls can be provided for literate and ambitious outer disciples who are willing to take up calligraphy. The practice will be useful for the future and ensuring a proper style of each character will be critical when they reach the point of making talismans. To entice the otherwise unwilling disciples, those writing will get total access to the copied techniques. Of course, as the pavilion is planned to be open access their access will be irrelevant in a few years but what is a bit of deceit compared to the future of the sect.
[]Fix Incompetent Measurement: Instead of using mortal measurements centered around either the length or weight of a peasant a new system can be divided. Weight measures will be standardized on a mass of gold and length measures by a golden standard. Simple scales can be purchased from several merchants for a pittance and the sect can be furnished with several improvements to the accuracy of recipes. Physical measurements are of course not needed for any with a developed Qi sense, but for lesser stages, they are more than necessary. Working through the manuals and ensuring that they are written with the updated standards will take years but it will ensure that something as inexact as finger lengths is never again used as a measurement. (Coapplies if Taken With Writing Actions)
[]Inner Disciple Rewards: Changing inner disciple rewards to be more in tune with current circumstances and focusing them on the education of juniors and the buildup of sect resources will be essential for the future. The reward for contributing pills for the sect will be reduced in favor of increasing the rewards provided for teaching juniors. Hunting spirit beasts will continue to be rewarded, but only mildly so, and with benefits for higher stage ones eliminated unless a cultivator of that stage. The largest change will come towards instructing juniors with contribution points directly exchangeable for personal training with elders or access to the manual pavilion for a day.
[]Outer Disciple Rewards: Preventing Outer Disciples from running at the nearest spirit beast will take effort and a smart change in contribution points. The opening of the manual pavilion for them to study will practically eliminate a source of rewards but that can be fixed. Outer disciples will be able to directly pay contribution points to inner disciples for training at a partial rate with the rest subsidized by the sect. Treasures, pills, and equipment can also be directly sold to outer disciples for contribution points if the specific costs and supply still need to be determined at some future point.
[ ] Plan Shock Literature
-[ ] Fix the Outer Manual Pavilion
-[ ] Fix the Training Camps
-[ ] Fix Incompetent Measurement
-[ ] Hire a Dozen Scholars
-[ ] Inner Disciple Rewards
Okay, so this is my first attempt at a plan. Prioritize fixing the Outer Disciple Issues, particularly addressing the illiteracy problem. Fix the Training Camps will crater our Outer Disciple numbers for a turn or two until more reasonable standards are enacted, but it's necessary to actually get those reasonable standards enacted. And we're in the best position to do it now while the Herb Gardens are fairly small and we have a sizeable "reserve" of Outer Disciples.
Inner Disciple Rewards is the exception, because that will help get our Inner Disciples addressing the other parts of the Sect without us micromanaging them. And Hire a Dozen Scholars since being able to actually see how much money we have and are making sounds like a novel idea.
Though funny enough, that's one of the options we could drop if need be for a turn. If we're not spending the Spirit Stones (yet), then we don't actually need to be certain how many of them there are (yet.) Probably would want to do it next turn though.
I might trade that Hire a Dozen Scholars for Remedial Education if it's something that can be built into something long-term instead of just being for the current crop of Outer Disciples.
Please tell me the Elders are smart enough to hire the scholars on a rotating basis so they can fill each other in on the details rather than having to break in a new batch completely from scratch when the old batch's term of service ends and their memories get erased.
Please tell me the Elders are smart enough to hire the scholars on a rotating basis so they can fill each other in on the details rather than having to break in a new batch completely from scratch when the old batch's term of service ends and their memories get erased.
Well, they'd unintentionally end up doing that looking for scholars that can be trusted, are willing to work a decade for a sect, and are wiling to live at the sect.
[]Plan: Big Fix
-[]Fix the Inner Manual Pavillion
-[]Fix the Outer Manual Pavilion
-[]Fix the Training Camps
-[]Fix Incompetent Measurement
-[]Organize Remedial Education
What about something like this? Try and get as much synergy on literacy as possible.
I want to delay Inner Manual Pavillion for a turn. That action involves making the Elders write all the manual copies since no one else can be trusted and it'll take too long for the Sect Leader to do it himself, and we want to have examples of our other reforms working (or some other action that shores up our political position somehow) before we piss them off like that.
Edit: On 2nd thought, maybe we have the opportunity right now with 100+ Outer Disciple KIAs and the issues found with observing the Inner Disciples in previous turns.
I want to delay Inner Manual Pavillion for a turn. That action involves making the Elders write all the manual copies since no one else can be trusted and it'll take too long for the Sect Leader to do it himself, and we want to have examples of our other reforms working (or some other action that shores up our political position somehow) before we piss them off like that.
Edit: On 2nd thought, maybe we have the opportunity right now with 100+ Outer Disciple KIAs and the issues found with observing the Inner Disciples in previous turns.
As I understand it, the Inner Manual copying should probably not piss off the Elders too much, because a lot of the Elders themselves do not know some or all of the techniques in some of the manuals. So the opportunity to copy the books is also the opportunity to learn their contents comprehensively.
Well, they'd unintentionally end up doing that looking for scholars that can be trusted, are willing to work a decade for a sect, and are wiling to live at the sect.
Hmm. One issue here is that under this plan, we're not fixing the trainee literacy issue specifically, so most Outer Disciples still won't be able to read those manuals in the Pavilion.
[ ] Plan Attempting Literacy
-[ ] Fix the Inner Manual Pavilion
-[ ] Fix the Outer Manual Pavilion
-[ ] Fix the Training Camps
-[ ] Fix Incompetent Measurement
-[ ] Inner Disciple Rewards
Fix the Training Camps is the action that will at least start us on the path to addressing the literacy issue among our Outer Disciples.
Hmm. One issue here is that under this plan, we're not fixing the trainee literacy issue specifically, so most Outer Disciples still won't be able to read those manuals in the Pavilion.
Yes, but if manuals are widely available, the disciples may start trying to learn to read on their own time, or at least spending a few years going "oh no, my illiteracy is causing me problems," and thus hopefully actually being primed to be receptive when we get around to providing them with teachers.
Part of me is leaning towards a decisive action plan of doing Inner+Outer of both Pavilion and Rewards at once, if we did pass up on it for next turn maybe something like this for a plan?
I certainly don't want to take either of the Training options right now, since those are going to crater our recruitment just after we had a ton of losses.
After some thought, I've completely changed my mind on the Inner Manual Pavilion. Now is probably a good time to do so and justify to the other Elders why changes are needed via pointing to the pile of 100+ dead Outer Disciples (and the untimely and tragic death of the prodigious Qiao Jiafu.)
And I think we need to do it especially if we're altering Inner Disciple Rewards, because one of the Rewards we're altering things towards is access to said Pavillion. And it'd be really nice if the Pavillion had more than a single mouldy, dog-eared copy of the manual for each technique.
Hire a Dozen Scholars I think can wait a turn. That's the Bureaucracy for our Sect so we can count the number of Spirit Stones we actually have and make. Which we definitely want before the auction, but I don't think we particularly need right now.
Before the next Winter could have a similar result, disciple Song managed to pay for twenty outer disciples to construct log housing for the miners, setting up a village. His foresight has reduced the number of deaths with some evenings in the number of spirit stones gained across the province.
[]Hire a Dozen Scholars: Importing scholars from other provinces is a technically illegal practice but one that is necessary if the sect is to be adequately administered. The mortals are unlikely to be capable of any large or significant understanding of cultivation or the challenges involved but the simplest parts of management can be transferred over. To prevent any thefts or loss of secrets to the mortals, they will have to be confined to the grounds of the sect for a decade of work with a following memory-clearing pill, but that is certainly cheaper than getting cultivators involved.
couldn't we have such mortal scholars copy even golden core scrolls/books, and then have them take the memory pill to forget what they wrote once they were done? That would free time from the Elders.
also just how accurate is that pill? How much would they forget, can it be somehow reversed, do we risk them forgetting too much or too little?
I agree with the various "fix manuals/rewards/education" plans. once things are PROPERLY fixed, hopefully the disciples will follow adequate incentives to remove the need for us to convert personal actions into disciple actions
couldn't we have such mortal scholars copy even golden core scrolls/books, and then have them take the memory pill to forget what they wrote once they were done? That would free time from the Elders.
1) We have a Forget The Stuff You Did pill, but we don't have a Never Make Typos pill. The mortals don't know enough about cultivation to proofread their own work. And we don't want Core Formation elders randomly exploding because a mis-copied instruction manual is causing their meridians to do exciting and improbable things.
2) Memory erasure pills may not be foolproof. We may be willing to gamble on a 1% chance of some secrets getting out, but not willing to gamble on others.
3) Scholars remembering details of the manuals after they leave isn't the only problem. All kinds of shenanigans involving kidnappings, hypnotism, and Heaven only knows what-all else could pop up, and mortals are a lot more vulnerable to that kind of thing than high-ranking cultivators.
4) We're specifically trying to promote a culture of literacy within the sect; we don't want to be reliant on mortal scholars forever. Encouraging the elders to think of the value and potential of preserving written works while expanding and recopying them is useful in its own right.
5) The manuals are so valuable that they're probably kept in the equivalent of elaborately booby-trapped safes under extensive security alarm systems. Giving even a short whitelist of mortals access to them probably means toning down some of the security measures, making it more likely that some outsider will find a way to steal a copy.
Song, a local project manager, is less insulated from the consequences of his fuckups killing his workforce than Sergo. Not that he'll be punished, but he's having to look them in the eye.
Also, Master Xian is a much nicer boss than Comrade Stalin, and is much, much less likely to have you executed for "wasting time" building housing for your workforce so they don't die of exposure.
Also, Master Xian is a much nicer boss than Comrade Stalin, and is much, much less likely to have you executed for "wasting time" building housing for your workforce so they don't die of exposure.
