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Mmm-hmm. The simple 3x rule with 3x groupings was crude, and I freely acknowledge that it'll be mismatched in some places.I mostly like this Realm list, but this just isn't true. Going on as few as two or three raids can get you into this Realm easily enough. Certainly any professional warrior will wind up in it pretty rapidly, and personal deeds are more than sufficient to do so...Sten is nearing the peak of this Realm at 642 Orthstirr, and while impressive, he's certainly no ruler and only 24 years old, to say nothing of Halla, who hit it with only a single raid and a few fights under her belt. I suspect almost all professional warriors hit this benchmark before the age of 25 even if they never rule a thing, which makes it poorly named and described.244-729 Orthstirr: The Ruling Realm. Mostly the province of Jarls and the like, as it is very difficult to reach this realm through personal deeds only.
The same is almost certainly true for the next one up (currently Ringgiver's Realm). Just being badass for long enough almost certainly gets you north of 729 Orthstirr by the age of 30 (again, Sten is almost certain to get there by then, and Halla would almost get there by 30 from farm ownership and her existing deeds alone), and I suspect basically anyone Ironbrother level has hit that point even if they're younger. The top two small realms are likely legitimately restricted to rulers and other people cheating the system (2188 is very hard to get to on personal deeds), but 250 Orthstirr is too common among normal warriors, and 750 too common among hardened veterans for the names to make sense on those two small Realms.
I'd retitle the 'Ruling Realm' as the 'Warrior's Realm' or maybe 'Stoneson's Realm' and the Ringgiver's Realm as the 'Veteran's Realm' or 'Ironbrother's Realm' to more accurately reflect reality on the ground. Maybe fiddle with the top two as well to reflect the new pattern in some way (though keeping them as ruling terms would be appropriate).
OTOH, I don't know how much skew we have with OP main characters relative to the rest of the setting. Xianxia protagonists and their immediate peers are "supposed" to be (by narrative convention) a realm ahead of where they're "supposed" to be (by in-universe standards).
Three high-risk high-reward raids also feels to me like the sort of thing that gets people swearing to you if you survive, and plausibly produces Jarls out of those foolish and lucky enough to do it or die trying.
I'll change it and maybe put the improved version in a new post eventually, but lemme think out loud and do some brainstorming here first, and maybe @Imperial Fister can chime in on what the setting is "supposed" to look like and how much of a prodigy Halla is with protagonist advantages.
I don't think I want to name the realms after Stoneson/Ironbrother/Steelfather, they're too much of a separate organization, not a cultivation core element. They're hardly even teaching people, as I understand it.
Currently: a very simple 3x pattern.
1-3, 4-9, 10-27 ... 28-81, 82-243, 244-729 ... 730-2187, 2188-6561, 6562-19683.
Fix one: I nudge some of the names up a tier as you suggested. 244-729 gets a new name for elite warriors, "Ruling Realm" becomes a name in or for the third Great Realm instead of the end of the second.
Fix two: I stretch out one of the ranges. Maybe stretch the first small realm from 1-3 to instead be 1-9, then the others go 10-27, 28-81 ... 82-243, 244-729, 730-2187 ... 2188-6561, 6562-20k, 20k-60k.
Fix three: I stretch all the ranges a little, get some rounder numbers. 1-3, 4-10, 11-30 ... 31-100, 101-300, 301-1000 ... 1001-3K, 3K-10K, 10K-30K.
And here's another possible interpretation of the sixth small realm, the one you quoted:
"244-729, The Killing Realm. This is the realm where sheer quantity of orthstirr becomes decisive in fights, consistently defeating those lower-ranked cultivators unwise enough to fight. In lower realms, it is possible to fight up a realm by skill and gear and luck, hoping for the opponent to run dry from spending orthstirr at the wrong time or on the wrong maneuver. But in the Killing Realm, the cultivator has achieved enough orthstirr to simply outspend and out-dice anyone from the Kenning Realm (81-243) or even lower in the same realm by pouring dozens of orthstirr into every attack and defense."
(I don't understand the mechanics well enough to confidently say this is true, but I think that the 250-700 range, whatever you call it, feels like the one where fights are most likely to be won through More Orthstirr.)
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