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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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We also still have the upcoming War Arc that IF's hinted is on the way as the finale of the "Second Tutorial". Because that's the time you're most likely to Die of No Fault Of Your Own (Because you happened to be fighting in an area that was in the Splash Zone for a Steelfather using a wide area attack on a Worthy Opponent I guess)

But that's probably not going to be on the table until at least Halla's first batch of murderkittens are ready to be taken over. Boy #2 still feels like the best candidate for the next protagonist unless a later murderkitten surpasses him, because his skills are going to be best suited for actually going out and comparing Halla's first generation "Unfuck Norse Cultivation" Project with the rest of the world, and refining it into a superior form, thanks to Wanderlust encouraging him to be on the move and all that. Girl is probably going to be best as the one who locks down whatever our holdings ultimately turn out to be after everything is finalized and makes sure we have a base of operations to come back to that continues to profit, and Boy #1...

Is probably going to be a headache, yeesh. Bloodthirst and Wrath and Poor Impulse Control are a terrible combination to have in one person. Girl might have Improved Bloodthirst, but she's also got enough traits tempering that where she can probably keep it under control. Boy #1 is a born Berserker. The only thing that mitigates it is that Girl can probably wrangle him by ways of being the only thing more fight-happy than he is, and Boy #2 has Stoic Calm to help moderate them while they're being raised and hopefully learn to mitigate their flaws.
 
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Looking at all the mysteries, eventually having an explorer protag will likely be necessary if only for the exposure to various cultivation systems.

However, Hallr having issues staying awake in Christian lands is interesting. If its distance from Norse lands, its going to be troublesome. More likely due to the metaphysics being different due to us being in the area of the Christian afterlife
 
Serous said:
Looking at all the mysteries, eventually having an explorer protag will likely be necessary if only for the exposure to various cultivation systems.

However, Hallr having issues staying awake in Christian lands is interesting. If its distance from Norse lands, its going to be troublesome. More likely due to the metaphysics being different due to us being in the area of the Christian afterlife
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Hallr was fine outside of the Knight's Manor, it seems more a Holy Ground thing that's bothering him rather than a distance thing.
 
Oh... and the Jarl Project is pretty much DOA for this generation, at least for the moment, at least in this place. Folkmarr has indicated pretty clearly that if we look like we're turning into a Jarl, he'll see that as a threat to his own position and (over)react accordingly... and he's plugged into the local family structures deeply enough that if he comes after us, the resulting vendettas will mean that we won't be able to survive staying in the valley.
 
Sirrocco said:
Oh... and the Jarl Project is pretty much DOA for this generation, at least for the moment, at least in this place. Folkmarr has indicated pretty clearly that if we look like we're turning into a Jarl, he'll see that as a threat to his own position and (over)react accordingly... and he's plugged into the local family structures deeply enough that if he comes after us, the resulting vendettas will mean that we won't be able to survive staying in the valley.
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Well, at least we learned that there's plenty of real estate outside of the Valley. Finding a place of our own that we can settle after we conclude our business here feels like the winning play in the long run, especially if we want to unlock Jarlsoul as Halla's Long Term Character Goal.

Maybe settle in the British Isles? We already have a connection there through Gabriel and Jerasmus, and Halla's fluent in English, which'll ease things along, and there's probably no small amount of trade opportunities in the area. It's also not completely isolated from the continental action like Greenland or Vinland would be.
 
Alectai said:
That would not Strictly be Nid, but it'd absolutely be Odreng for him to backstab a sister in battle like that--over what are words that have not yet become Actions. He can absolutely inform him that "Hey, Halla will probably kill you if she gets a chance", but giving him a full rundown of Halla's capabilities and tactics would Absolutely Turn Him Into The Asshole, especially as he learned those as she fought on his behalf in a wildly successful Raiding Trip as one of his top fighters.
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It would be Odreng for Folkmar to tell Horra how to beat Halla, yes, but if Horra instead goes to Audrikr and says "hey cuz, I heard you were part of that totally sick manor raid recently, how did it go?" he will undoubtably get an only slightly exaggerated retelling of the entire fight with the Squire, including how Halla blocked the Squire's javelins. Audrikr has no reason not to make his felag buddies sound as cool as possible (without lying), everybody benefits from that after all.

This isn't the regular Cultivation setting where everything is a closely guarded secret. Orthstirr is the power of stories, and stories are meant to be told.
 
So, I've found this thread recently and was curious: It seems that the thread believes that there is something "incomplete" about Norse cultivation, but has Halla herself had any IC reason to think this, or is she still in the process of putting it together?
 
Silverking said:
but has Halla herself had any IC reason to think this, or is she still in the process of putting it together?
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Eh... no, but! We do have a bible now and Halla is smart so im sure she will figure out that something is wrong. Afterall the best way so see that your house is leaking is to go and look at a non leaking house.
 
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So, I've been thinking norse cultivation is mostly external so why not lean into it instead of trying to make it internal?

Like, what would happen if we took a giant rock carved it up and carved our life story into it in runes? (puzzled of course).

Basically create a standing stone on our property, that's got to do something.
 
KreenWarrior said:
Oh, how about a runestone? A place inside to record your Saga?
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Yeah, that sounds good.

TheCount said:
i mean... we could very well already be.

Most of the valley is related, one way or the other to Horra by blood.
The only families we know most likely isnt? Steinar's, for obvious reasons, and Halfdan's.

Abjorn's family though? Easily could be related on a similar way as Folkmarr's.
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Abjorn's dad is an old war buddy of Steinar, who only settled here after his adventures...I think evidence is good that he basically came here with dad. Stigandr and Stigmar's family could be related, though.

Drieder said:
Are we one of his top fighters? I might not have been paying attention but I thought we did a bit over average overall.
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We're definitely a top fighter, yeah. We and Abjorn basically killed the horse together, with only Audrikr even helping much, we fought well in the early stages of the town raid, we killed the Priest in single combat, and we outperformed everyone at the Trials. In terms of actually killing cultivators, it was us, the team effort we were part of (and essential to), and Barki. It's arguable we weren't his actual single top fighter, but we're up there.

Sirrocco said:
Oh... and the Jarl Project is pretty much DOA for this generation, at least for the moment, at least in this place. Folkmarr has indicated pretty clearly that if we look like we're turning into a Jarl, he'll see that as a threat to his own position and (over)react accordingly... and he's plugged into the local family structures deeply enough that if he comes after us, the resulting vendettas will mean that we won't be able to survive staying in the valley.
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I actually strongly disagree. That was part of Folkmarr being overly dramatic, and absent the Horra thing he talked about it as being inconvenient for him, not making us enemies per se. If we resolve the Horra situation cleanly enough to not have any major blood feuds (his sons may try anyway, but as long as it's just them we can manage), I think Jarl is still on the table.

Silverking said:
So, I've found this thread recently and was curious: It seems that the thread believes that there is something "incomplete" about Norse cultivation, but has Halla herself had any IC reason to think this, or is she still in the process of putting it together?
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Halla has a lot less reason than we do, but she does know that Christian Cultivation is very different apparently including living centuries and involving some sort of internal cycling thing. Her figuring out that Norse Cultivation could maybe duplicate some of that if you did things with it is possible, but probably hasn't happened yet.
 
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In terms of importance as a top fighter our relevance dropped after the successful knight manor raid. If we were 2x as strong as the average fighter before, we would have been about 1.5x as strong as the average after.
 
Shard said:
In terms of importance as a top fighter our relevance dropped after the successful knight manor raid. If we were 2x as strong as the average fighter before, we would have been about 1.5x as strong as the average after.
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Orthstirr is not the only measure of strength. I'm not convinced it's even the most important one. Saying that it is what determines power is exactly like saying that qi pool alone determines strength in a more standard xianxia which...no, it doesn't.

Combat pool is probably more important once you have enough orthstirr to actually fight your peers without easily running out, just for example, and we're still ahead of almost the whole Felag there based on their actions during the fights we saw if in some cases only marginally so. Our tricks (and especially Hugareida Tricks) also, for the most part, looked a fair bit better than those we saw from most of the Felag, especially our defensive and mobility options.

Like, in standard xianxia terms, we had better martial skills, techniques, and qi pool than almost any other member of the felag we saw fight, and of those only the qi pool advantage has been reduced, and even then not as much as you might think (we got at least 20 more orthstirr than anyone else on that raid except Barki and Folkmarr given our inspiring poetry and the single combat with the Priest, and likely more).
 
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Alectai said:
Is probably going to be a headache, yeesh. Bloodthirst and Wrath and Poor Impulse Control are a terrible combination to have in one person. Girl might have Improved Bloodthirst, but she's also got enough traits tempering that where she can probably keep it under control. Boy #1 is a born Berserker. The only thing that mitigates it is that Girl can probably wrangle him by ways of being the only thing more fight-happy than he is, and Boy #2 has Stoic Calm to help moderate them while they're being raised and hopefully learn to mitigate their flaws.
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Wasn't it said by Imperial that the girl is more likely to be the problem child even over boy 1. I think people are thinking the worst of boy 1 before he is even born after all.
 
Incidentally, if we learn Latin from Jerasmus, I think telling him that it's to read the bible might not be the best idea. IIRC he told Gabriel not to share dets on Christian Cultivation.
 
Shard said:
Incidentally, if we learn Latin from Jerasmus, I think telling him that it's to read the bible might not be the best idea. IIRC he told Gabriel not to share dets on Christian Cultivation.
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He liked us less then (he was at 6-7 on the scale then, he's at 9 now), and I'm fairly convinced the bible doesn't directly have that kind of detail, though it could in this reality, I suppose. Like, mostly, a bible is useful for finding out how Christians think rather than their cultivation secrets. Plus for learning Latin, which is worthwhile in its own right.

CedeTheBees said:
I doubt it. We would've autofailed with him too if that was a thing.
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That's definitely possible, yeah.
 
Toboe said:
Et cetera censeo:
We should try Gabriel first. He is more likely to mess up and tell us secrets.
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In terms of cultivation stuff? Absolutely. But I feel like talking about that with him is a whole separate thing from learning Latin and looking at the bible. Trying to combine them and not including Jerasmus in the language stuff would get weird and make it look like we're trying to get Gabriel alone, which is a bad look for many reasons.
 
Honestly the most depressing thing about the Horra reveal exploding like this is the populating of our Foes list which has just hit 9. And all of them former friends/felagi too. Guhhh. Hopefully we can reverse this trend in the future. Preferably without stabbing them. Though Horra was already a hard target on account of being frickin old anyway. So legal action was essentially the main route before, just even moreso now.

Though retrospectively Folkmarr having rapid relationship swings is kind of, very him. The relationship difference between Yes and No to being part of his Felag was like, 12.
 
KreenWarrior said:
One thing Norse cultivation is missing is a core/dantien/internal space. Christians have a Tabernacle and a castle around it (and priests have some connection to a church). Chinese cultivation probably has a dantien/core. Developing such a thing may help us internalize cultivation.
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Your thoughts made me remember of the Wuxia/Xianxia staple of "losing face", which could be the Chinese version of orthstirr ("social strength"), only the Chinese "solidify" it into themselves instead of "letting it flow", which could make their cultivation slower but also therefore slow their aging.

KreenWarrior said:
I would borrow from Christian cultivation and stylize it as a building. The Hearth, Mead Hall or Longhouse. A pace for warrior spirits (in the form of Orthstirr) to gather and lend strength.
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Valhalla might be the Norse equivalent to that, which reinforces the external Cultivation view.
Not sure how big the Norse population is, but if they're small compared to others, developing a Cultivation/culture that offers faster advancement as a "loan" (in the sense that it doesn't truly belong to you) could be needed to a group that doesn't have as many resources available.
They cycle their fame among themselves, rather than keeping their energy internally. Like a fire that consumes itself.
Thus raiding (getting resources outside of their territory) becomes a way to get more "fuel".
 
Shard said:
Honestly the most depressing thing about the Horra reveal exploding like this is the populating of our Foes list which has just hit 9. And all of them former friends/felagi too. Guhhh. Hopefully we can reverse this trend in the future. Preferably without stabbing them. Though Horra was already a hard target on account of being frickin old anyway. So legal action was essentially the main route before, just even moreso now.
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Eh. The actual foes list only went up by one: Folkmarr. The others all just work for him and will thus back him, hence listing them. We can avoid the whole issue by just getting Folkmarr to chill the hell out, which seems pretty doable in the long term, honestly. Halla's being almost as dramatic as Folkmarr here, but she's 16 years old so it's to be expected. With a bit of time, thought, and distance we should be able to reach some sort of accommodation both we and Folkmarr are satisfied with.
 
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Viking society is honestly pretty insane from a cultivation standpoint.

Rapid cultivation
Cultivation through fighting
Super vengeance orientated
Blood Feuds pop up all the time
Raids on each other/outside (even more blood feuds)
Norns to make fighting even more desirable cause you die anyway
Always gotta fight back if ever insulted or attacked or else

It's just an insane murdermachine with every aspect being dedicated to fighting and.. huh.

Why did Steinarr *lose* Orthsirr when he kicked back and had a farm? Orthsirr being the one thing that's truly yours becomes even more of a lie with every detail about it. But the more we know about Orthsirr, the more it's really more, 'what the society that you're in thinks about you'. And it has to be a Norse society. If Steinarr's Orthsirr was truly his, and he didn't Nid it away, he should have retained his Orthsirr. If Orthsirr is really ours, killing a Draugr solo should generate Orthsirr sans poetry. Nidingr wouldn't be a factor if Orthsirr is 'really' inherent.

If you move out from your society does your Orthsirr just start plumetting? Do societies have a 'pool' of Orthsirr that's really just reallocated? You can only get Nid from your home society, raiding other societies generates no Nid.

.. If the Norselands were unified enough then raiding anywhere could end up being Nid.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
In terms of cultivation stuff? Absolutely. But I feel like talking about that with him is a whole separate thing from learning Latin and looking at the bible. Trying to combine them and not including Jerasmus in the language stuff would get weird and make it look like we're trying to get Gabriel alone, which is a bad look for many reasons.
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Unless we have a good reason to have Gabriel with us that doesn't apply to Jerasmus as much.
Like buying Gabriel as farmhand type of thrall.
 
Toboe said:
Unless we have a good reason to have Gabriel with us that doesn't apply to Jerasmus as much.
Like buying Gabriel as farmhand type of thrall.
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I mean, we're a short walk from Dad's farm, so Jerasmus could still easily join us for bible study and not inviting him would be both weird and conspicuous. Also, I think we're buying them both...that's the plan anyway.

Buying and freeing Gabriel but leaving Jerasmus enslaved to Dad when Jerasmus is a vastly more powerful cultivator seemingly here largely to look after Gabriel seems like a bad plan that leads to bad things.
 
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