Path of the Immeasurable Swarm [Worm/Cradle]
- Thread starter derivativeoflife
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Elsewhere
Now I'm imagining Cultivator Hamlet.
"Your father is dead."
"Okay, time to murder my uncle."
"How did you know your uncle killed your father?"
"Wait, he did wha- I mean, yes! I know my uncle is guilty, and that's the only reason I'm going to murder him at the first available opportunity!"
You know, her dependence on plants being in the area or suffering a cost penalty...
How far can you stretch that? I could imagine her carrying a big sack of seed that she disperses through the battlefield at the very first moments of the fight. It may not be as efficient as having plants already around fully grown, but I bet it's more efficient than creating plants from nothing.
And she can carry it with her everywhere.
God help you if those seeds land on you directly and fall into cracks and crevices of your clothing.
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You know this is kind of interesting because while there is not very many time periods I can see Taylor particularly appreciating fury (although she has made friends with people I would never have expected her to) had Fury encountered Taylor before she was sent to Cradle he would probably have been her biggest fan. Although thinking about it that could be precisely why he keeps on checking up on her.
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's nice to see Taylor do some mentoring; it's not something the Cradle books focus on, but mentoring other people is 100% something that can help you advance in your own Path. You never understand something fully until you have to teach it, after all.
Also, Taylor's probably in a similar position to some of the other Uncrowned competitors, approaching peak Underlord and holding off on advancing until she's placed in the tournament and it won't disqualify her. I'd imagine Mercy's already right there, considering how advanced she is here compared to the books.
Meira is also the perfect competitor to send in as a 'fuck you' to the other teams. She attacks lifelines directly, and that can ruin a sacred artist without even leaving a scratch. This doesn't actually matter in the Uncrowned tournament we see, but it's still a consideration to keep in mind.
Fury remains one of my favourite characters, even if Taylor thinks he's annoying. He's significantly more complex than he acts, after all, and I suspect he's fond of Taylor, in his own way. You've got to respect a man who sees a technique once, and then invents three different perfected variations on it on the spot. EDIT: The fact Fury keeps showing up to talk to Taylor mean's he's actually significantly invested in her. He wouldn't bother if he found her boring, even if she was Mercy's best friend and Charity's star pupil.
RE: Sage stuff - it's very much a spiritual/metaphysical thing, more so than any other advancement we've seen so far. You probably need to be a Lord, at least. It's also a very personal, individual thing and I think it's mentioned that Sage's disciples actually have a harder time getting to Sage than others? It might just be implied, though.
Also, Taylor's probably in a similar position to some of the other Uncrowned competitors, approaching peak Underlord and holding off on advancing until she's placed in the tournament and it won't disqualify her. I'd imagine Mercy's already right there, considering how advanced she is here compared to the books.
Meira is also the perfect competitor to send in as a 'fuck you' to the other teams. She attacks lifelines directly, and that can ruin a sacred artist without even leaving a scratch. This doesn't actually matter in the Uncrowned tournament we see, but it's still a consideration to keep in mind.
Fury remains one of my favourite characters, even if Taylor thinks he's annoying. He's significantly more complex than he acts, after all, and I suspect he's fond of Taylor, in his own way. You've got to respect a man who sees a technique once, and then invents three different perfected variations on it on the spot. EDIT: The fact Fury keeps showing up to talk to Taylor mean's he's actually significantly invested in her. He wouldn't bother if he found her boring, even if she was Mercy's best friend and Charity's star pupil.
RE: Sage stuff - it's very much a spiritual/metaphysical thing, more so than any other advancement we've seen so far. You probably need to be a Lord, at least. It's also a very personal, individual thing and I think it's mentioned that Sage's disciples actually have a harder time getting to Sage than others? It might just be implied, though.
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Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Sages don't take pupils not because it is harder to achieve sagehood, but both because they can't necessarily teach someone to reach sage, they can't teach sage techniques, and if someone does reach it on their path, he becomes a weaker copy, you need to be unique to be truly great.
I suspect it is less advancement and more touching the way, a herald reach the way the same way powerful people from other worlds ascend past their reality, but a sage can do it by means of way manipulation like how the abidan use their powers.
But this is just a theory.
The whole sages don't take apprentices things seems to be more cultural in that the general expectation when someone formally takes on an apprentice is that they are teaching their apprentice their path and essentially walking them through the steps they took to get where they are at while avoiding the pitfalls. The issue is that reaching sage is very personal and you can't just have someone copy what you did and expect it to work which makes the traditional master apprentice ideal impossible. That being said based on what we see of several sages I suspect most sages do effectively have apprentices, it is just due to cultural factors they would just call them a student or something else instead.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
Aren't Taylor aiming to become a Monarch herself? She just like the goal Mercy has, and so has decided to help her with achieving it, or am I misremembering something?
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
She did, but it was before reaper revealed the consequences of monrachs, now Malice probably expect her to become the equivalent of Fury or Charity for Mercy.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
Just because Malice expect that, don't mean that it's what Taylor is going to do, Taylor has never let obstacles stop her before, I doubt she's going to start now, not like Malice is anywhere near the worst she has faced.
Also I'm not sure what the consequence of Monarchs is, I haven't read Cradle, so if it's not been in this story I don't know about it, if it is in this story I must have missed it.
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I don't think Taylor HAS an overarching goal at this point other than have a happy life and support her friends. That is, fundamentally, what Taylor wants. She has habits of escalation, but honestly it never made her happy. Her friends made her happy. Taylor may have been the one to make the plan happen, but it was always one of her friend's plan, normally Lisa's, that was being done.
Because that's what Taylor ultimately wants - someone worth being loyal to and fighting for. I think she found that in Mercy. Taylor would, I think, be happy as Mercy's dragon. Fighting for a person she considers friend... answering to no authority other than her friendship... working to support people she considers her people... Taylor, I think, on some level knows this.
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
Each and every Monarch is too powerful for Cradle; they're supposed to ascend, and their refusal to leave is actively breaking reality in the process.
In the past, the deadly Hunger Aura emanated by the Monarchs used to poison and corrupt the world. However, a precursor civilization used scripting technology to siphon and seal all of the Hunger Aura of the world into a man known as Subject One. Subject One was the first and greatest Dreadgod, and the four other Dreadgods rampaging across Cradle are basically his familiars.
The five Dreadgods are only being sustained by the Hunger Aura created by the Monarchs, and will be starved out if and when all of the Monarchs leave. That the Monarchs refuse to get off of their asses and depart for greener pastures doesn't speak well of their collective ethical sensibilities.
TL;DR: Every Monarch on Cradle is basically an Eidolon who doesn't care that he let the Endbringers off of the leash.
In the past, the deadly Hunger Aura emanated by the Monarchs used to poison and corrupt the world. However, a precursor civilization used scripting technology to siphon and seal all of the Hunger Aura of the world into a man known as Subject One. Subject One was the first and greatest Dreadgod, and the four other Dreadgods rampaging across Cradle are basically his familiars.
The five Dreadgods are only being sustained by the Hunger Aura created by the Monarchs, and will be starved out if and when all of the Monarchs leave. That the Monarchs refuse to get off of their asses and depart for greener pastures doesn't speak well of their collective ethical sensibilities.
TL;DR: Every Monarch on Cradle is basically an Eidolon who doesn't care that he let the Endbringers off of the leash.
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Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
the monrachs existing powers hunger madra, some ancient sacred artists tried to harvest the hunger madra as opposed to letting it run wild and consume things.
One of them was chosen to become the host (more accurately he jumped to be chosen, it was a shit ton of power after all), he was driven insane by his hunger, he was trapped in the place that would become sacred valley, Lindon's home, under a giant script that suck the madra out of things, this is why sacred valley is so weak, you can't be stronger than jade there, and the effect is worst the stronger you are.
They experimented on him, and in the process created the dreadbeast and dreadgods, those are now also powered by hunger madra, the dreagods are like endbringers, but ramped up, unlike the endbringers who were immortal because no one can kill them, it is possible to kill dreadgods, but they will revive as long as hunger madra exist (meaning monrachs are on cradle) and the rest will get the hunger madra the dead one used, growing stronger and smarter, the last batch of 12 monrachs discovered why they can't kill the dreadgods, two survived.
Current factions don't allow others to get more than one monrach on the lain of ganging up on him, they are comfortable with the dreadgids' current level of power of just barely stronger than them, more monrachs means stronger dreadgods, they would allow unaffiliated monrach to rise as long as he agrees to keep this a secret and not go against their laws about it.
Current goal in the book is finding a way to either kill or force all monrachs to ascend to destroy the dreadgods, kind off, it was implied it will be the goal, but this all thing was revealed late in the book, so the how of the process and how to keep more monrachs from staying after they leave wasn't thought off.
One of them was chosen to become the host (more accurately he jumped to be chosen, it was a shit ton of power after all), he was driven insane by his hunger, he was trapped in the place that would become sacred valley, Lindon's home, under a giant script that suck the madra out of things, this is why sacred valley is so weak, you can't be stronger than jade there, and the effect is worst the stronger you are.
They experimented on him, and in the process created the dreadbeast and dreadgods, those are now also powered by hunger madra, the dreagods are like endbringers, but ramped up, unlike the endbringers who were immortal because no one can kill them, it is possible to kill dreadgods, but they will revive as long as hunger madra exist (meaning monrachs are on cradle) and the rest will get the hunger madra the dead one used, growing stronger and smarter, the last batch of 12 monrachs discovered why they can't kill the dreadgods, two survived.
Current factions don't allow others to get more than one monrach on the lain of ganging up on him, they are comfortable with the dreadgids' current level of power of just barely stronger than them, more monrachs means stronger dreadgods, they would allow unaffiliated monrach to rise as long as he agrees to keep this a secret and not go against their laws about it.
Current goal in the book is finding a way to either kill or force all monrachs to ascend to destroy the dreadgods, kind off, it was implied it will be the goal, but this all thing was revealed late in the book, so the how of the process and how to keep more monrachs from staying after they leave wasn't thought off.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
That just sound like more reason for Taylor to ascend, after all Mercy alone wont be enough to force all the Monarchs to leave, so if that's the goal, they will need to gather a team of Monarchs that are ready to leave(or descend to Herald if lowering your cultivation is possible) and will work together, to kill or force the recalcitrant Monarchs to leave.
No. This is Taylor we are talking about. Her friends squad all become monarchs. Taylor kills and then becomes the Dreadgod, but now powered by a number of Monarchs who are on her side in addition to all the other monarchs.
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
This is how you turn the moon into a Natural Treasure that shines with Dreadbeast-inducing light every night
Or the moon starts showing up with a huge crazy grin on it's face and now Link has three days to collect all the masks to save your universe.This is how you turn the moon into a Natural Treasure that shines with Dreadbeast-inducing light every night
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, Cradle is still xianxia. The solution to problems is either A) be strong enough to punch it until it stops existing (this works even for concepts like hatred. just get swole, bro.) or B) eat it and take the power for yourself.
If you're a non-protagonist chumpo you can seal it away to wait for the protagonist to come along and do either A or B, though. Only losers do this.
If you're a non-protagonist chumpo you can seal it away to wait for the protagonist to come along and do either A or B, though. Only losers do this.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
That would require the capability to do that, considering the current Monarchs can't do it, what make you think that Taylors group can just figure out how to do it?
Because they have spare brain power for things besides running vast empires, and watching out for those other OP dick waffles.
Even in cultivator stories the people in charge are generally not the ones who solve problems because they're too busy either causing problems or making sure all the problems don't insta gib the empire/civilization/all life/the actual planet/the universe/the local cluster/the local Nexus/the greater Nexus/the whole of the local creation.
Even in cultivator stories the people in charge are generally not the ones who solve problems because they're too busy either causing problems or making sure all the problems don't insta gib the empire/civilization/all life/the actual planet/the universe/the local cluster/the local Nexus/the greater Nexus/the whole of the local creation.
- Location
- Earth
Darn. I was hoping this new timeline would change the gaping plothole of Lindon not collecting the vital water in ghostwater. Any chance that could be edited? It doesn't really change things on the wider plot scale. It just deeply bugs me because it's so antithetical to his character.
The practical minded/base desire fueled dragon hoarding part of his character specifically.
The practical minded/base desire fueled dragon hoarding part of his character specifically.
I was mainly making a Ranma joke, but yes I take and appreciate your point. Practical (not necessarily pragmatic) combat philosophy does not seem to be a very cultivation attitude — maybe the monastic cultural origins? — but it could be.
In furtherance of Ranma, Anything Goes would be a very cultivator attitude.
AzureShogun
Tanks are better than Mechs
- Location
- United Kingdom
The last comma is incorrect I think.
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Loving this story! One thing I like a lot is how it doesn't linger too long, which isn't to say I would have been dissatisfied if you had chosen to make this a 500k behemoth, but it's also nice to see faster stories once in a while.