NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Action
-
- Tags
- norse mythology (mythology) original xianxia cultivation western cultivation ask sirihand did your mother tell you anything? discussion pleases yggdrasil farming gloating gets people killed granary management hubris is a coward's word you will die norsemen do not die when they are killed the qm has a bad memory the qm is bad at math viking courtroom drama (legal drama) vikings
- Location
- San Ramon, CA
"Just keep dumping it in the Well; it'll fill up eventually."
Exploration and attempts at manipulation.
Besides the Yggdrasil equivalent we want to plant, can we make other changes?
Metaphors from her life:
Make a field and grow crops?
Put up a runestones to commemorate Muna? (Paint the runes with odr?)
Put up structures from her Farmlife like a house or a workshop?
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
No idea! And it'd be hard to find out given how the quantifications don't exist in universe. Just that 8 motes of Odr is a "Small pool" at the bottom of a Well 'Dozens of times deeper than you are tall'. It seems to be more than a puddle, but only a bit more.
My guess though that your maximum Odr condensed in the space of a single cultivation session is the tens digit of your Aspects. We got a bonus Mote but in doing so we went over our safe limit and had to rely on Blackhand to shut the gate for us. That's useful in the sense that we have a safety net, so we can risk experimenting to develop a safer means of condensing it, but it does mean we need to find a safe way to channel our maximum limit without going over it if we're going to make good progress here (Though I suspect that once we have a reliable Method developed, we can use training dice to cultivate our Odr as well)
This is an exciting pile of Mysteries that need lots of exploration!
My guess though that your maximum Odr condensed in the space of a single cultivation session is the tens digit of your Aspects. We got a bonus Mote but in doing so we went over our safe limit and had to rely on Blackhand to shut the gate for us. That's useful in the sense that we have a safety net, so we can risk experimenting to develop a safer means of condensing it, but it does mean we need to find a safe way to channel our maximum limit without going over it if we're going to make good progress here (Though I suspect that once we have a reliable Method developed, we can use training dice to cultivate our Odr as well)
This is an exciting pile of Mysteries that need lots of exploration!
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CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
So if the end goal of our cultivation method is to grow a world tree within your soul, does that mean our own world tree is in someone else's soul? And is that someone The Enemy?
Probably not but what if
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I wonder if it's Nidhogg that's eating the excess Orthstirr? He's supposed to be hanging out around one of Yggdrasil's Wells, and IF mentioned once that if we 'Looked high enough in the sky, we could see its leaves'
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Presuming the Daughter of Ash seed is part of Hallr and the Ignition Hugareida, it'd be interesting if Standstill's Seed is making oneself an implacable shield where all blows come to a standstill, like a more advanced Halting Vortex.
Edit: A thought occurs, since we know now that a miniature Yggdrasil in the soul is required, I would be interested in seeing if replaying the tale of Odin sacrificing himself to himself would mean anything in this system.
Edit: A thought occurs, since we know now that a miniature Yggdrasil in the soul is required, I would be interested in seeing if replaying the tale of Odin sacrificing himself to himself would mean anything in this system.
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A Fair Warning
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
I feel like I have to warn you all about this one last time, as the end of the grace period is coming up.
I will tell you straight up — because I don't want you to feel like you've been cheated or railroaded and I certainly don't want anyone getting angry with me — you can die from trying this. Norse Cultivation — true Norse Cultivation — is full of landmines and traps set by the Enemy, all of which can kill you or worse. All of which are designed to stop you from succeeding. To stop normal people from succeeding.
The Enemy has had a long time to plot and plan and make contingencies. Beating it in one life is an impossibility — that's not a challenge, it is a fact. Eventually, your luck will run out and you'll hit one of those landmines and die.
Consider this your final ooc warning. I will try my damndest to make Halla's death as climactic as possible, as satisfying as possible, but sometimes... it just isn't. I'll lay hints and warnings inside the story text, but this is the last ooc warning.
Please remember that Halla's death isn't the end of the Overarching Quest. Halla won't be gone, either. She just won't be the player character anymore. The lessons learned in this Story Thread carry on into the next and the lessons from that Story Thread carry on to the one after it and so on.
Hallr is here to give you folk a small safety net, but it is not all encompassing. Remember, the end of Halla's grace period is coming up, two turns away as of this post.
I will tell you straight up — because I don't want you to feel like you've been cheated or railroaded and I certainly don't want anyone getting angry with me — you can die from trying this. Norse Cultivation — true Norse Cultivation — is full of landmines and traps set by the Enemy, all of which can kill you or worse. All of which are designed to stop you from succeeding. To stop normal people from succeeding.
The Enemy has had a long time to plot and plan and make contingencies. Beating it in one life is an impossibility — that's not a challenge, it is a fact. Eventually, your luck will run out and you'll hit one of those landmines and die.
Consider this your final ooc warning. I will try my damndest to make Halla's death as climactic as possible, as satisfying as possible, but sometimes... it just isn't. I'll lay hints and warnings inside the story text, but this is the last ooc warning.
Please remember that Halla's death isn't the end of the Overarching Quest. Halla won't be gone, either. She just won't be the player character anymore. The lessons learned in this Story Thread carry on into the next and the lessons from that Story Thread carry on to the one after it and so on.
Hallr is here to give you folk a small safety net, but it is not all encompassing. Remember, the end of Halla's grace period is coming up, two turns away as of this post.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Oh boy.
Now I'm even more nervous. At least the Bible being read should put the idea in Halla's head that a good way to advance is to, you know, record her studies somewhere, for those who aren't actually going to inherit Charred Soul.
Still, yeah, it's a bit nerve wracking, but hopefully we can make enough progress to give the next generation a leg up. Hitting a landmine may be inevitable, but I'm hoping we don't step right into one literally after getting our foot in the door!
I don't expect Halla to push to the very end in one life, but I'm hoping we can at least map the first stage out before passing the torch! Even if the only thing Halla does successfully is develop a safe Odr Condensation method and figure out how to progress to the Second Realm, I'll call it a successful First Life, actually getting to the Second Realm is just bonus.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
That's exactly the plan. We're not going to try and push forward openly, but we are going to try and take stock of what we've already found on the part of the trail we've already blazed. Actually figuring out an Odr Condensation Method will come after the Murderkittens appear.
If Halla goes the way of all mortals after making an heir but before the heir is reasonably playable, will that result in a timeskip until they are?
I.e. Imagine after recovering from the birth Halla Starts experimenting with cultivation and after a few turns she makes a mistake that kills her.
Would we just skip ahead until her babies are as old as Halla was when we began playing?
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Goddamn, the Enemy has really had a LONG time to really infest Norse Cultivation.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Given the warning, we may want to wait even longer than that, honestly. We want to live long enough to not only see the kids grow up but teach and protect them during their childhood as well. Like, I'm down for figuring out how to use odr and carefully drawing more, but I think we should wait a while before we try too much else, including planting a seed.
Honestly, I both want to give the kids a happy childhood, and also very much don't want to start play again with a young child. I'd like to try and put our in-depth experimentation off a bit more so we can play our children once they've hit a reasonable age. I'm not saying stop all experimentation until they're 16 or anything, but maybe slow it down a little and figure out more precautions to take.
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Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Traps in Norse Cultivation so far:
0. Steelfather. Dead end, cursed immortality.
0->1. Weaving Orthsirr to open the Gate and access Odr. Instant Death if you don't know how (or aren't able) to then close it.
1->2. ??? Planting a seed and letting it grow. Instant death if conditions, Odr, etc aren't correct. Possible permanent dead end in the future if choice of Seed is bad (flawed foundation).
We really need a way to get more information.. beyond just experimenting.
0. Steelfather. Dead end, cursed immortality.
0->1. Weaving Orthsirr to open the Gate and access Odr. Instant Death if you don't know how (or aren't able) to then close it.
1->2. ??? Planting a seed and letting it grow. Instant death if conditions, Odr, etc aren't correct. Possible permanent dead end in the future if choice of Seed is bad (flawed foundation).
We really need a way to get more information.. beyond just experimenting.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
You managed to avoid the one that gets most people just starting out, thanks in part to Hallr and in part to having people around you.
Remember, no man is an island and that is even more true for the Norse.
The Norse are extremely petty. Petty to a frankly absurd degree. Take Gunnar — favorite example appearing again — guy died because he hit his wife (because she stole food from the neighbors during a famine) and when his enemies came to his home to kill him — a decade or more after the incident — she refused to give him a lock of hair to use to restring his bow when the string snapped, so he died.
I figured this post would make people nervous, but I think that it is needed.
You'll get a choice; play right now, at that age, or time skip to 12 or 16. This gives you less control over how you develop, but also lets you get right into the thick of it earlier.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, Planting a Seed is probably a step too far for now, but we can at least develop a safe means of Odr Condensation, I think, we know that Hallr can at least close that Gate if our techniques don't work, especially if we have him do so well before our Aspects start to wear out, and we can compare and contrast with Gabriel--at least in generalities if not specifics.
That, I think, should be relatively safe, especially since we survived it once when we didn't know the risk, and we're going to be much more cautious afterwards. Figuring out Odr Applications will come with that.
I want to have all of the basic terminology and details locked down before we start pushing to significantly expand from there. If the Enemy fears the potential of the Norse Style to the point where they've put all of that time and effort to sabotage anyone who tries mimicking it then I want to study it, just to spite them.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
I think Aki Runson may have helped much more if he was available, too. Because he can see souls.
Also it looks like our family has really been on the losing end of our Feud with The Enemy as it stands. Unless The Enemy has more enemies than, well, just our family.
Also it looks like our family has really been on the losing end of our Feud with The Enemy as it stands. Unless The Enemy has more enemies than, well, just our family.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
One of the real questions, I think, is figuring out "Is the whole 'Blacks out when you're doing things related to Cultivation' " thing a Work of the Enemy or just a normal thing that the Norse style has that the Enemy exploits by putting their landmines in those blind spots?
Because that's one of the biggest headaches here. It's why discussing the generalities with Gabriel or Jerasmus may be fruitful--if they black out too during those moments of growth, then it's probably just an innate effect of Cultivation in general rather than the Enemy's Hand at work, but if they don't... That's a key detail.
Because that's one of the biggest headaches here. It's why discussing the generalities with Gabriel or Jerasmus may be fruitful--if they black out too during those moments of growth, then it's probably just an innate effect of Cultivation in general rather than the Enemy's Hand at work, but if they don't... That's a key detail.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Doubt it. I think they're within the Norse culture itself. They can't really intervene outside of Norselands.
The Enemy notably, while able to put in, 'You Die' landmines, can't make it outright impossible.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
- Pronouns
- He/They
Jesus isn't as much of a dick as the Enemy is (unless you're a fruit tree, of course ;P)
Also, my mother would be cross with me if I made the Big J the Big Bad Evil Guy and I'm not looking to piss her off.
I was about to say, instant death traps and generations long feuds seen a tad off the mark there.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yep, they can put mines in the way, but they can't actually close the path forward. We just have to use Charred Soul's Inheritance effect as a minesweeper, which is what makes this mad gambit possible at all. We seem to have cleared the first hurdle that stops most people, now we have to explore and perfect this stage before we dare advance further--and hopefully have more questlines and our kids ready to take over before we start thinking of stepping forward again.
Remember after all, just taking your first step on the Path is apparently Instant Death, we just avoided it because Hallr could close the gate for us, and apparently having minders also was important. (Though why that was important seems unclear, since it didn't look like they did anything--unless it was their presence alone that deterred the first Landmine from fully exploding maybe.)
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I adore the parable where Jesus curses a Fig tree (literally and metaphysically) for not bearing figs out of season. Also, good to know.
Edit: Makes me consider Emperor Constantine, then. Rome had plenty of experience grinding down pagans in real life; why wouldn't they here? And if he converted to Christianity, which is a MUCH bigger deal in this cultivation world...
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