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Path of the Immeasurable Swarm [Worm/Cradle]

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Arcman said:
Reading Threshold, and Christ, the current state of the Abidan will push a lot of Taylor's big buttons.
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Not having read the books, but has anyone ever ascended as a tight-knit group of...

Eithan, Yerin, Lindon
Taylor, Charity, Mercy, Miara

Seven at least mostly Monarch-level fresh ascendants before, some with Mantle Door exposure/insights? Because Fury ascended alone, and even if there were multiple people Ascending from Cradle before, I have to think they did so as individuals or at best pairs.

And independently, we know in this story a Monarch smacked an Abidan rep, so I'm curious how the group of 7 would compare to whatever internal Abidan factions exist combat power wise... and how the 6 without Eithan would compare by themselves, since the obvious first play is seperate the noobs from Eithan.

Also of note is that Taylor has always been - understandably - overly effective for her raw power level... and is sensitive to political games.
 
Epic Reader said:
Not having read the books, but has anyone ever ascended as a tight-knit group of...

Eithan, Yerin, Lindon
Taylor, Charity, Mercy, Miara

Seven at least mostly Monarch-level fresh ascendants before, some with Mantle Door exposure/insights? Because Fury ascended alone, and even if there were multiple people Ascending from Cradle before, I have to think they did so as individuals or at best pairs.

And independently, we know in this story a Monarch smacked an Abidan rep, so I'm curious how the group of 7 would compare to whatever internal Abidan factions exist combat power wise... and how the 6 without Eithan would compare by themselves, since the obvious first play is seperate the noobs from Eithan.

Also of note is that Taylor has always been - understandably - overly effective for her raw power level... and is sensitive to political games.
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The current crop of monarchs in Cradle are far stronger and far more talented than 99% of the low-star Abidan if Northstrider's short story in Threshold is any indication.

Lindon is even more nutty right after ascending.
 
I wonder if Queen Administrator/Hera will create her own mantle door considering her insights should be very different than everyone else who was ever in the Albion or Cradle.
 
In part because of this work, I decided to read through the Cradle series this week. I absolutely loved it so afterwards I came and reread all of this. There was a lot of context I was missing before, definitely looking forwards to the next chapter.
 
Arcman said:
The current crop of monarchs in Cradle are far stronger and far more talented than 99% of the low-star Abidan if Northstrider's short story in Threshold is any indication.

Lindon is even more nutty right after ascending.
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In all fairness, I do think that part of that is the Abidan lowering standards to recruit everyone they can due to crisis. I think the Monarchs were always going to be pretty exceptional with their centuries of experience, Northstrider especially as a researcher, but the Abidan recruits would probably be a bit more competent than what we saw in the short story in a more ordinary time.
 
Epic Reader said:
Not having read the books, but has anyone ever ascended as a tight-knit group of...

Eithan, Yerin, Lindon
Taylor, Charity, Mercy, Miara

Seven at least mostly Monarch-level fresh ascendants before, some with Mantle Door exposure/insights?
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Presumably the First Generation of the Abidan, since they created the doors and the labyrinth. However, it's generally unheard of - only the main characters have done that in recent memory.
 
The mad king will show up when it's dramatically appropriate, so, at the worst possible time. :)

I don't have a strict timeline, but in Canon, there was the Rise of the Wandering Titan and the rapid evacuation of the Sacred Valley, followed by Shen's delving into the labyrinth and more training for Reaper Squad, and their exploration of the labyrinth to counter Shen's plots. This took quite a long time, right?

I think by now, almost a comparable amount of time has elapsed?
 
viralstitch said:
I think by now, almost a comparable amount of time has elapsed?
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In the middle of book 10, our protagonists take some time to just be "the Twin Stars sect" for a period that is undefined but might be a year or two. I don't think it's totally fair to say that the Mad King will definitely not shift his timetable up or down a bit. Butterfly effect and all that, even if it wasn't totally clear how the cause and effect are linked. Even if it is, we might still have some time left before he turns up.
 
viralstitch said:
The mad king will show up when it's dramatically appropriate, so, at the worst possible time. :)

I don't have a strict timeline, but in Canon, there was the Rise of the Wandering Titan and the rapid evacuation of the Sacred Valley, followed by Shen's delving into the labyrinth and more training for Reaper Squad, and their exploration of the labyrinth to counter Shen's plots. This took quite a long time, right?

I think by now, almost a comparable amount of time has elapsed?
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The worst possible timing would be somehow the glass breaks that happen in Ward somehow affect Cradle as well while at the same time the mad king shows up (double apocalypse).
 
No that's just one apocalypse. I doubt anyone on the bet/gimel side is gonna make trouble if Taylor comes back as a Kung-Fu wizard, and Queenie is there to remind the shards that they're not harder than the last referee.
 
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w34v3r said:
No that's just one apocalypse. I doubt anyone on the bet/gimel side is gonna make trouble if Taylor comes back as a Kung-Fu wizard, and Queenie is there to remind the shards that they're not harder than the last referee.
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The problem is the 2 apocalypses can compound eachover (for example the Eye working with the mad king, or the fusion of so many worlds into Cradle letting other fiends show up).
 
Coldmage said:
The worst possible timing would be somehow the glass breaks that happen in Ward somehow affect Cradle as well while at the same time the mad king shows up (double apocalypse).
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Not sure of the timeline here but it feels like Taylor has been in Cradle for 4-5 years* so on the short end that would have happened nearing 2 years ago already since it happened 2 years and 4-5 months after Gold Morning.

*The absolute minimum timeframe from what I could find is Taylor was in Cradle for 6 months before meeting Mercy as a Highgold, sometime later Mercy was mentioned to have been a Truegold for three months, a while after that Mercy became Underlord at 15, and Mercy became Archlord at 18 a bit back. So the Ice Breaking wrapped up months in the past at the very least.
 
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Hey everyone, thanks for reading! I realized recently that there's probably less than ten chapters left in Path of the Immeasurable Swarm, which is pretty wild. When I first started this fic, I was expecting it to be a fun little diversion that I'd lose interest in within a couple of weeks. I definitely did not expect it to turn into the longest story I'd ever written by far, or for the response to be so positive.

I have a few small announcements to make/questions to ask. First, wormstorysearch.com is currently broken with SV and isn't seeing updates here. Because of that, I've decided to finally get off my ass and make an AO3 account, and I'll be posting this fic over there as well. Because of that, I decided to rewrite some of the fic's earliest chapters. The problem with writing serials is that it sometimes takes you a while to really get a handle on the characters and their relationships, and so the start of the story ends up feeling a little off. I won't be making any major changes to the plot, as that would require a whole lot more work, and I'll probably keep the current version under apocrypha.

Second, one thing I've learned while writing this fic is that I really can't work on multiple major projects at once. When I started this fic, it was as a diversion from my main project that I was feeling stuck on at the time, which was a Slytherin Harry fic. I never ended up going back to that fic, and my current plan is to start on an original fiction once Path is complete. Would people be interested in reading that fic, knowing that it will almost certainly never be continued? It's currently sitting at around 100k words, and towards the end of year two.

Third, it kind of sucks that I can only work on one major project at once, especially since I'm not exactly the fastest writer in the world. I have a lot of cool ideas for stories that I'll probably never do anything with. But one other thing I've learned is that rewriting is a whole lot easier for me than writing from scratch. So I wanted to ask if anyone is interested in writing a story with me. I'm looking for someone who's sort of the opposite of me, i.e. someone who has no trouble writing consistently but maybe isn't always 100% happy with how it turns out. I want to be totally upfront that my main focus has to stay on Path, and after Path is finished, on my original fiction. I would be something more like an editor, or maybe an editor plus. If you're interested, feel free to DM me your ideas, or ask me about my ideas, because I will absolutely take the excuse to talk about them.

Thanks again for all your support!
 
derivativeoflife said:
Would people be interested in reading that fic, knowing that it will almost certainly never be continued? It's currently sitting at around 100k words, and towards the end of year two.
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Sure, I read tons of incomplete & never-likely-to-be-completed fics. In some ways incomplete works get a special place in your mind, you're forced to stop and imagine the possibilities, and you can't grade it for expectations it didn't live up to.
 
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