NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
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- Original Fantasy Action
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- 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
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I suspect they take other stuff, too, but Odr is definitely one usable currency, yeah.
He almost certainly has at least one, although given he's in roughly the same sort of league as Steinarr, two seems quite probable? A Varangian one, and something rooted in his heritage and Norse identity. (Which is why I came up with Spear-Dane Style off of the top of my head.) Neither are likely to be easily teachable. I suspect that if Halla gets a second Style, it will be something kind of relating to her path in life and her experiences. Maybe something centred around smithing, or possibly a Valkyrie or Shieldmaiden Style centred around the experience of being a female warrior.
On the topic of teachable Styles, it seems actually kind of hard to gauge whether it would be seen as normal or not to teach someone who's not your own child your Style? They're clearly a Big Deal, so that's a lot of power he'd be giving us for free. On the one hand, we did save his children's lives, but on the other hand, he already gave us Sagaseeker. But I doubt he has one we can learn in the first place, so whilst it'd be interesting to ask if we get the chance, it's not likely to lead anywhere. It does feel like he might be a great tutor for Atgeir tricks specifically though?
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I mean, him having both Varangian Way and Golden Chain seems pretty plausible...neither would be things he could teach for the same reason Steinarr can't, and two is probably right-ish from the implied differences between his power and Steinarr's at this point.
And I don't think this is how Styles work...I think that, our bloodline-associated Style aside, you generally need to find someone to teach you. That probably usually involves joining an organization, though a particular individual isn't impossible.
I think what little evidence we have suggests that Family Styles are rare. Ours comes from a very specific incident combined with a divine bloodline. Styles generally seem more like an organization thing. Like, the Varnagians have at least two, and I bet most large and serious Warbands each have their own Style and make people swear oaths not to teach them to outsiders. I'm gonna guess Eric has such a style for instance, which is part of why he has to hold back so much in sparring that it's worth less Training Dice.
Which is to say, I think Halfdan would teach us a family style if he had one, but if he has anything Norse it's likely locked behind some sort of Oath, which he's not gonna break for his own kids, never mind us.
He's canonically the one who's teaching her Atgeir Specific Stuff, yeah. He taught us Skewer-Flick and Slice Aside, for example, as well as presumably helping us with our Atgeir Hugareida Tricks after giving us a rundown on the options.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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Varangian Way yes, Golden Chain no. Golden Chain is but one of many styles to be found in Constantinople. Other examples include Four Horses and Great Gates, to name but a few.
All styles need to have some kind of anchor to be built upon. Whether that's some inheritable ability, a cultural pillar, a powerful figure, or even something as simple as a famed geographical feature or some renowned construct. It matters not what it is, simply that it is. However, there are two kinds of styles, Core Styles and Ring Styles.
Ring Styles are called that because you can learn one through proving yourself worthy of it, much like with an arm ring.
Core Styles are called that because they are anchored on something that's part of your core identity. Whether that's some special ability, some aspect of your heritage, or a cultural pillar, all that matters is that it's not something that can be easily replaced if lost. Steinarr should have a Gotlander Style, but he does not.
You can replace a giant chain. It would be costly, but you could do it. You can replace a set of gates or a quartet of bronze statues.
You can't really replace an island.
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Interesting. Is there an Agder Style, then? Or Hading Style? We did grow up around here and might be able to find a teacher with some effort if it's an available option, or does being the kid of immigrants shut that door for us? If there is, the original Hasvir surely practiced it...maybe seeing his fight with Blackhand in more deatil could unlock it for us?
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On a completely different topic here's Random Speculation Time:
A bit ago, Blackhand said he mostly only remembers the Hugr-focused stuff in terms of capabilities and secrets (hence him being fuzzy to the point of uselessness on Martial Styles). This is clearly, to some degree, because we picked the Hugr-boosting Boon at character creation...but does it also imply that there are two other instances of Blackhand out there providing different bonuses to other relatives of ours based on Hamr and Fylgja stuff?
Three is clearly an important number in Norse magic and culture, if not as important as nine, so this seems very possible. If true, I wonder what the Fylgja person got? I mean, obviously, the Hamr guy got Giant's Blood and a bonus equivalent to ours on learning Fire Hugareida on Stoker State and likely has quite a lot of Stoker State stuff by now (though he may have less of the full picture than we do, as I suspect Hamr-Blackhand is less chatty about mystical secrets). But the one who got Seeing Eyes and Blackhand's Fylgja insight...I'm a lot less clear on what they got. And that would mean there's a lot more stuff to get from our Fylgja that we haven't found out about as of yet.
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Shard
One and Many
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Not with that attitude you can't.
We've been told there's a strong cultural component (Edit: including just above, lol), so it's not primarily about being taught. I also think that it's definitely possible to learn Styles based on your own experiences because when people asked about building a giant chain and training with it to try and reverse-engineer the Golden Chain style, @Imperial Fister mentioned that Halla could develop a Style based off of that, but it would be a new one rather than the Golden Chain. This makes me fairly confident that Halla could develop her own. Also Varangian Way, FWIW, seems to work like a version of this too, as we've been told that it's actually heavily individual and changes based on the practitioner's experiences.
The thing about Warbands all having their own signature Styles was confirmed:
On family styles, I don't think other families necessarily have their own bloodline thingies like Stoker State, but I think that if a powerful cultivator knows or invents a Style and could teach it to their children, they definitely would, so you'd still see some inheritances being passed down that way. Also a lot of families are going to have have some degree of descent from some kind of notable hero or famous figure. Honestly a family of strong cultivators headed by a powerful patriarch with a signature Style they can teach to others seems likely to be how a lot of Warbands get started.
Halfdan I think could totally have a style based around being one of the Spear-Danes, which he and his kids can learn, but Hall might need to travel to Denmark and spend some time there before she could unlock, or something like that.
Yes. What I mean is that it might be worth fishing around for a training bonus to Atgeir Hugareida, by seeing if we could bargain some training sessions for making him an atgeir or something.
I think Halla would need to be a whole lot better at smithing in order to get a Style centered around it. We're talking "smith worthy of tale and song" territory here. Styles are no small thing after all.
As for Valkyrie or Shieldmaiden style, that I really doubt. Halla is more of a "warrior who's female" than a "female warrior". What I mean by that is her gender really doesn't affect how she acts as a warrior. Heck, pregnancies aside, her gender hasn't actually been an issue for her ambitions in that regard since she passed the trials all those turns ago. As such, her identity as a female warrior isn't all that much different than if she had been born a man. That lack of a distinctive identity means that it can't really serve well as an anchor for a style.
Shard
One and Many
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Sten is the closest person we know who would have a 'Be really good at smithing' Martial Style.
Of course.
We could also try grabbing the Knight's Oath from the Feudal Christians and adapting a variation for Norse Cultivation.
Of course.
We could make a style that's based on, like, a Muna. They definitely can't be replaced.
We could also try grabbing the Knight's Oath from the Feudal Christians and adapting a variation for Norse Cultivation.
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Sure, but you don't spontaneously manifest Styles generally speaking. Someone still needs to teach them to you. The culture is a necessary prerequisite but living in a culture by itself does not teach you the style...Steinarr did not learn a style just by living near the Golden Chain, he went and trained on it. We have not spontaneously manifested any styles local to Agder or the Hading...we'd need a teacher.
We did pick up level 1 in our family style on our own, but we didn't have the ability to increase it...that required training.
A Danish style is very possible after what IF said above, but it sounds like his kids, growing up in Agder as opposed to Denmark, probably couldn't learn it. They lack the cultural touchstones, I think. They could learn the local style as well as we can, though, assuming we can figure that out.
We did already asked him about Atgeir stuff and he's already providing Training Dice, and he owes us, and his son married our sister. I'm pretty sure he's doing his best to teach us already.
I mean...she's pretty much there. We're fully capable of making a Realized item, which is basically the pinnacle of smithing. We could get better, certainly, inasmuch as we could make doing that easier and more reliable, but if there's a minimum for learning something based on smithing accomplishments, we're already there in terms of skill, and likely to hit the actual accomplishment really soon.
There's sort of not a whole lot better at smithing to get. Like, Sten is a master smith, he absolutely is, but within a turn or two when we hit Forgefire 4, we'll be rolling 20 dice to his 27 when we last checked (maybe 29?) and with an effective +5 success bonus...in terms of raw smithing skill, we'll be within 1-2 successes of him.
Like, Halla is not actually as good a smith as Sten for many reasons, but when she's rolling within 1-2 successes of him, she's sure doing really well and more than well enough to pick up something like that if 'being a good enough smith' was the needed prerequisite.
I honestly don't believe we're anywhere near the limits of forging. Maybe of like human Norse techniques but considering we're only figuring out what Dwarves can do (and not to mention the Finnish style that Sten has and every other culture), thinking there's not much more to learn seems like overconfidence.
Heck, this is only Forged Iron with some bits and pieces of elemental stuff thrown in. We haven't even accessed Egg Iron which I'm sure would be a whole different beast once we tier 9 that and Realize/figure out other forging schools.
Heck, this is only Forged Iron with some bits and pieces of elemental stuff thrown in. We haven't even accessed Egg Iron which I'm sure would be a whole different beast once we tier 9 that and Realize/figure out other forging schools.
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Oh, I'm sure there's much further to go, but if you count Sten as a master smith, and I'm pretty sure you should by reasonable standards, Halla is definitely right on the verge. Saying she 'needs to be a whole lot better' to get something like a Style based on it is a wild underestimation of her capabilities.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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There isn't one for the Hading, not anymore. Drysalt culled the teachers and students, Blackhand killed the last master, and the waves of newcomers flocking to newly emptied land saw to the end of local custom as it merged with Jurgdby.
As for Agder... eh. Unlike with Denmark, which has consolidated, Norway hasn't formed yet. You are all Norwegian, but there is no Norway. Not yet.
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Fair enough.
As for the smithing, I probably overstated that yeah, but it is the pinnacle of smithing that we know about. I'm sure there's much further to go, but saying we couldn't learn a style based on smithing when we can do that seems to diminish Halla's demonstrated capabilities.
Like, I'm not saying she's the best ever, but she's really good and it's getting a little frustrating seeing people keep saying she's mediocre at one of her few legitimately really good skills, so I probably overcompensated there.
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Probably start writing important stuff down. Which we should. The issues come when we start writing down real secrets, because passing them on probably triggers the Enemy Attack...or at least, we have to assume it could.
Shard
One and Many
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I wouldn't consider ourselves 'really good' until we hit Rank 7 in a skill and unlock whatever it is that Rank 7 Skill does.
And probably a bunch of skill tricks that add successes and stuff of course.