Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- UK
It's raining men, hallelujah, it's raining men, amen!
Zhengui has some stealth tactics of his own. I wonder how they will work with his new and growing size.
Maybe they will evolve into an earth underground movement technique. Can you imagine a situation where Ling Qi is alone and surrounded by enemies, and suddenly half a mile of ground around her erupts upwards carrying everyone onto a mountain, and she can go all: "No, it is YOU who are surrounded!"
Maybe they will evolve into an earth underground movement technique. Can you imagine a situation where Ling Qi is alone and surrounded by enemies, and suddenly half a mile of ground around her erupts upwards carrying everyone onto a mountain, and she can go all: "No, it is YOU who are surrounded!"
- Location
- Vancouver
A lot of people here are simplifiying the nobles view of us to a binary state. Either they look down, sneer, dislike us no matter what or they are pretty ambivalent.
This contradicts our experience so far, remember we started out at the bottom of the barrel, the uncouth present and now we can walk around noble galas with no problem. All with very clear progression of views.
So I don't think we should so easily dismiss this political hit as "the nobles were gonna hate us anyways"
Of course in this case the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages but we shouldn't dismiss them out of hand.
This contradicts our experience so far, remember we started out at the bottom of the barrel, the uncouth present and now we can walk around noble galas with no problem. All with very clear progression of views.
So I don't think we should so easily dismiss this political hit as "the nobles were gonna hate us anyways"
Of course in this case the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages but we shouldn't dismiss them out of hand.
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
Another thing to keep in mind about Zhengui is that, being land-borne, his circumstances as he grows older will be different from the island-style Xuan Wu up north. Those Xuan Wu can stay and go wherever they want because no one cares about a random patch of water, but meanwhile Zhengui has to be standing on land and land can be valuable.
We may in fact run into problems where we have to run a bureaucratic gauntlet for Zhengui to go anywhere, if the only place we can put him that doesn't step on anyone's toes is surrounded by places that do.
We may in fact run into problems where we have to run a bureaucratic gauntlet for Zhengui to go anywhere, if the only place we can put him that doesn't step on anyone's toes is surrounded by places that do.
Mobile Battle Province
which honestly is super minor compared to "your mother is a (ex-)whore"
Plus I would be deeply unsurprised if several of the other rich teenagers had staff of a similar proffession. With the possible mitigating factor of cultivation improving looks.
Which come to think of it, puts an odd spin on their relationship with mortals in general
- Location
- Europe
I think there's a "problem" that people haven't yet considered.
Does Mom even have management experience?
Because this is going to be throwing her in the deep end. Not only are these people she has a close relationship with, they're also going to be reliant on her ability to manage, some are doubtlessly going to fuck up and even if they do nothing wrong there is going to be significant pressure making their employment a constant source of stress.
For any of you who've ever run a business or seen one run you can probably also see another problem, will Mom be ruthless enough to cut people off if they don't work well? She clearly cares enough to bring them here so will she be able to harden her heart enough to make this work?
If she fucks this up the reputation hit will be big, not enormous, but a definite hit for years if not decades.
I think it's worth letting her do this despite that, for one it allows us to see if Mom can have a use besides trophy Mom status. And doing it this way allows us to ease Mom into household control before we move to full scale when we start to rule, should she be capable. For another, self-actualization is essential for mental health, so letting mom be who she wants to be is also essential.
But I think we're going to want to put in at least a few ap to check in on her, and if possible get her some tutoring on the subject of household management/bureaucracy. Though her childhood as a noble might leave a bit more prepared than a lay person.
Does Mom even have management experience?
Because this is going to be throwing her in the deep end. Not only are these people she has a close relationship with, they're also going to be reliant on her ability to manage, some are doubtlessly going to fuck up and even if they do nothing wrong there is going to be significant pressure making their employment a constant source of stress.
For any of you who've ever run a business or seen one run you can probably also see another problem, will Mom be ruthless enough to cut people off if they don't work well? She clearly cares enough to bring them here so will she be able to harden her heart enough to make this work?
If she fucks this up the reputation hit will be big, not enormous, but a definite hit for years if not decades.
I think it's worth letting her do this despite that, for one it allows us to see if Mom can have a use besides trophy Mom status. And doing it this way allows us to ease Mom into household control before we move to full scale when we start to rule, should she be capable. For another, self-actualization is essential for mental health, so letting mom be who she wants to be is also essential.
But I think we're going to want to put in at least a few ap to check in on her, and if possible get her some tutoring on the subject of household management/bureaucracy. Though her childhood as a noble might leave a bit more prepared than a lay person.
- Location
- The Core
Well, as it happens we know the expert who also happens to be a Xuan Wu fan. Seems worth asking. That being said, we really should look into doing something major for Xuan Shi, the guy has helped us out loads and we haven't really been able to return the favour so far. Preferably before asking him to turn our turtle into the actual juggernaut.
idk, invite him and CRX to a fancy restaurant and then leave after five minutes, or whatever.
Yes. you are completely right. I really want it now.
I'd...assume that ceases to be an option soon anyways? like, there ought to be a hard limit on how big a spirit you can keep in there, right? Else, we can literally airdrop a mountain on whoever we dislike, that seems to be a bit much.
Well, there is a certain adage about never arguing right of way with an abrams tank. same reasoning applies, kinda? like, sure, we don't want to accidentally park on any important cities, but... what are they gonna do, tow our volcano?
jokes aside, high-rank cultivators seem to have a lot of leeway when it comes to landscaping decisions, I don't think that will be much of a problem.
- Location
- northern europe
[?] Ask Cai to come up with an acceptable spin on this
[?] Write-in: Tell Mother that she can call for her comrades as an action she takes in her own right as an Immortal, the day she awakens.
I'd like one of these two but if write ins are not allowed, then
[X] Accept Mother's request (-2 Yellow stones)
[?] Write-in: Tell Mother that she can call for her comrades as an action she takes in her own right as an Immortal, the day she awakens.
I'd like one of these two but if write ins are not allowed, then
[X] Accept Mother's request (-2 Yellow stones)
DeusExBritannia
Red-White-Black-White
- Location
- Texas
[X] Write-in: Tell Mother that she can call for her comrades as an action she takes in her own right as an Immortal, the day she awakens.
Kai Merah
Hound Hearted Hedonist
- Location
- Somewhere in the corners of my imagination
So, just to confirm, third grade Zhengui, the size of a dino, can still be airdropped?
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
I mean, I figure that specific thing would go over badly, given that he's trying to get over CRX. I think we should try to learn more about him personally, what he likes and what he wants, so we can better understand what things we can do to show our gratitude.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sure, but it's trivial for a third realm cultivator to dodge that and we can't be sure they'd take damage even if they didn't.
- Location
- The Core
Yes, that was not a serious suggestion. But you never know...
A Nobody
This is a little something that came to me a while ago and I finally got around to putting it down. I am not actually much of a writer but this just would not leave my head. Its what I image might happen to someone rather unremarkable that joins the sect.
Shua Yan – A Nobody
A nobody.
That's what had been when he was still mortal. The third son of a scribe and a low ranking government official, he was one amongst a million. Doomed by upbringing to take a similar vocation. Whereas doomed might be too harsh a word. It was not as if he disliked the work, quite the opposite he enjoyed the calligraphy. The pure art of writing and drawing with a brush putting his emotions on paper.
And there lay the crux. His parents work was not invigorating, it was paperwork plain and simple, the content boring to any teen and the notion of having to do the same chilling.
He wanted to be a hero, to have an adventure, to be an immortal and visit all the corners of the world he had read about.
When the examiner passed through their city and declared he had the talent he had been ecstatic. He did not mind the 8 years service it would entail, since there was no way his parents could pay for his stay at the sect. In his mind he already saw himself a mighty warrior fighting against all matter of barbarians.
His parents however had not shared his enthusiasm, the reason come soon apparent. His grandfather on his father side had been an immortal.
Had been the evocative term here.
He passed away when his father was still only 7 years old. Once his father was examined to have the talent years later he chose to be a mortal, being scarred by the strife he had seen his father go through. Thus his parents pleaded him to reconsider, to avoid all the strife and pain his choice would bring.
He thought them fools, his father especially. They did not part on the best of terms. But then it did not matter only the promise of being one of the immortals was on his mind.
After arriving at the sect everything happened in a haze, drunk on dreams of power he awakened within a short two weeks. His new noble friends telling him how good it was inviting him into their groups. Everything was good he had made friend in noble circles and so he disregarded everyone else. He was on his way to greatness.
Or so he thought. A few weeks in the wonder began to wear of and he realized he lacked resources to keep up his progress. He worked hard to make up for it but it was for naught since everybody else was working just as hard. Almost desperate he turned he turned to his new friends.
And they were happy to help, if he just helped them in return. Help them take notes. Be with them to fight of competitors. At first he was just too happy to do these small things they were not much among friends after all. But small tasks soon became bigger.
This was the point where he began to realize he was just a servant to them. He balked, but what choice did he have. He needed the resources, he had already realized did not have the talent to make it on hard work alone.
For a time he went along with it. Until he was discarded, he was not even a servant, a was just a pawn. Worse a sacrificial pawn. Thrown away to buy time in a fight between minor nobles for perceived slights to buy his friends some time to run away. It was worse than being a nobody. Beaten he swore he would never be a pawn again, rather be a nobody.
So for a time he struggled along.
Then the Lady Cai came along and with here the enforcers. He signed up within the day. A chance to be someone even if just one among many, patrolling the sect. At least he had some resources to show for it. But still he struggled. On the one hand he was overtaken by street rats and criminals, people he would not have looked at again where he still mortal. They had more talent than he could ever hope to match. On the other hand nobles and rich mortals with more resources than he could ever hope to lay his eyes passed by just as fast.
What it came down to was a simple reason. He was simply not cut out for being a fighter, he hesitated in crucial moments, he had no stomach for the brutality. He would much rather fight from a distance or not at all. Unfortunately in his daydreams of grandeur he had chosen the most aggressive and heroic seeming arts he could fight. As such the realization almost crushed him. What was a cultivator if not a heroic fighter, a bulwark to the monsters and barbarians lurking outside the borders, able to crush all in their way.
What would he be? He already was a nobody. What was lower than a nobody? This was the first time he thought his father might have been right.
And he thought about his parents and how he had ignored them for months. To depression came guilt and shame. Resolve formed to mend at least this mistake, for the first time in months he sat down and took up his brush meaning to write a letter to his parents explaining his foolishness, his regret.
But when he began to write about all which had happed it was as if the brush got a life on his own. He wrote and wrote, banned his impotent rage, his crushed dreams and his conflicted feelings on paper. In the end what he created was not a letter but rather an outpouring of feelings that he had held back. He felt better then he had in weeks, and for the first time in a long while cultivating in the night did not seems such a struggle anymore. He did this more now just writing, practicing his calligraphy, his writing had been good before but now it almost seemed alive. Forgetting his troubles, ignoring all the fighting happening outside.
That had been 4 weeks ago.
And now here he was. Dragged out of his home by one of the few true friends he made during his brief time as an enforcer. Watching the production students present the fruits of their labor. Once again he felt like a fool. In his single minded pursuit of power, of trying to force himself along a path he was not meant for, he somehow managed to ignore an entire subset of people.
Never had he stopped to think about where his medicines came from, who build their homes created all the wonderous things he had already gotten used to. They were not fighters. But still they carried the sects on their efforts. Ensuring it had everything its people would need.
He had been close to giving up. Just be a nobody. But looking at them he thought "Maybe. Just maybe there is still a way for me. A way to be someone. To do something. Maybe something requiring an artful brush."
After all if he tried again he would try with something he enjoyed. Something he was good at.
Even if he was a year late.
----------
So thats that.
Actually I have an idea in mind as to where he could end up if he applied himself.
I hope you enjoyed.
Shua Yan – A Nobody
A nobody.
That's what had been when he was still mortal. The third son of a scribe and a low ranking government official, he was one amongst a million. Doomed by upbringing to take a similar vocation. Whereas doomed might be too harsh a word. It was not as if he disliked the work, quite the opposite he enjoyed the calligraphy. The pure art of writing and drawing with a brush putting his emotions on paper.
And there lay the crux. His parents work was not invigorating, it was paperwork plain and simple, the content boring to any teen and the notion of having to do the same chilling.
He wanted to be a hero, to have an adventure, to be an immortal and visit all the corners of the world he had read about.
When the examiner passed through their city and declared he had the talent he had been ecstatic. He did not mind the 8 years service it would entail, since there was no way his parents could pay for his stay at the sect. In his mind he already saw himself a mighty warrior fighting against all matter of barbarians.
His parents however had not shared his enthusiasm, the reason come soon apparent. His grandfather on his father side had been an immortal.
Had been the evocative term here.
He passed away when his father was still only 7 years old. Once his father was examined to have the talent years later he chose to be a mortal, being scarred by the strife he had seen his father go through. Thus his parents pleaded him to reconsider, to avoid all the strife and pain his choice would bring.
He thought them fools, his father especially. They did not part on the best of terms. But then it did not matter only the promise of being one of the immortals was on his mind.
After arriving at the sect everything happened in a haze, drunk on dreams of power he awakened within a short two weeks. His new noble friends telling him how good it was inviting him into their groups. Everything was good he had made friend in noble circles and so he disregarded everyone else. He was on his way to greatness.
Or so he thought. A few weeks in the wonder began to wear of and he realized he lacked resources to keep up his progress. He worked hard to make up for it but it was for naught since everybody else was working just as hard. Almost desperate he turned he turned to his new friends.
And they were happy to help, if he just helped them in return. Help them take notes. Be with them to fight of competitors. At first he was just too happy to do these small things they were not much among friends after all. But small tasks soon became bigger.
This was the point where he began to realize he was just a servant to them. He balked, but what choice did he have. He needed the resources, he had already realized did not have the talent to make it on hard work alone.
For a time he went along with it. Until he was discarded, he was not even a servant, a was just a pawn. Worse a sacrificial pawn. Thrown away to buy time in a fight between minor nobles for perceived slights to buy his friends some time to run away. It was worse than being a nobody. Beaten he swore he would never be a pawn again, rather be a nobody.
So for a time he struggled along.
Then the Lady Cai came along and with here the enforcers. He signed up within the day. A chance to be someone even if just one among many, patrolling the sect. At least he had some resources to show for it. But still he struggled. On the one hand he was overtaken by street rats and criminals, people he would not have looked at again where he still mortal. They had more talent than he could ever hope to match. On the other hand nobles and rich mortals with more resources than he could ever hope to lay his eyes passed by just as fast.
What it came down to was a simple reason. He was simply not cut out for being a fighter, he hesitated in crucial moments, he had no stomach for the brutality. He would much rather fight from a distance or not at all. Unfortunately in his daydreams of grandeur he had chosen the most aggressive and heroic seeming arts he could fight. As such the realization almost crushed him. What was a cultivator if not a heroic fighter, a bulwark to the monsters and barbarians lurking outside the borders, able to crush all in their way.
What would he be? He already was a nobody. What was lower than a nobody? This was the first time he thought his father might have been right.
And he thought about his parents and how he had ignored them for months. To depression came guilt and shame. Resolve formed to mend at least this mistake, for the first time in months he sat down and took up his brush meaning to write a letter to his parents explaining his foolishness, his regret.
But when he began to write about all which had happed it was as if the brush got a life on his own. He wrote and wrote, banned his impotent rage, his crushed dreams and his conflicted feelings on paper. In the end what he created was not a letter but rather an outpouring of feelings that he had held back. He felt better then he had in weeks, and for the first time in a long while cultivating in the night did not seems such a struggle anymore. He did this more now just writing, practicing his calligraphy, his writing had been good before but now it almost seemed alive. Forgetting his troubles, ignoring all the fighting happening outside.
That had been 4 weeks ago.
And now here he was. Dragged out of his home by one of the few true friends he made during his brief time as an enforcer. Watching the production students present the fruits of their labor. Once again he felt like a fool. In his single minded pursuit of power, of trying to force himself along a path he was not meant for, he somehow managed to ignore an entire subset of people.
Never had he stopped to think about where his medicines came from, who build their homes created all the wonderous things he had already gotten used to. They were not fighters. But still they carried the sects on their efforts. Ensuring it had everything its people would need.
He had been close to giving up. Just be a nobody. But looking at them he thought "Maybe. Just maybe there is still a way for me. A way to be someone. To do something. Maybe something requiring an artful brush."
After all if he tried again he would try with something he enjoyed. Something he was good at.
Even if he was a year late.
----------
So thats that.
Actually I have an idea in mind as to where he could end up if he applied himself.
I had something in mind of a cultivator using a brush and ink with special effects. A few arts I thought up.
Inkstone Body Cultivation
A cultivation Art created to fuel techniques using large amount of ink, fortify the users physique and give a counter to the copious amount of water based arts represented by the ink.
It helps with physical attributes, since the creator of the art was not into body cultivation. It also gives the user a way to create (by using qi) and store ink inside their body, progressively more the higher you go in this art.
Also when hit the user will leave his opponents weapon covered in ink with a dulling effect.
Water / Ink / Earth(stone)
Octopus Illusion Step
A movement technique strongest in escaping also one of the reason why we need that much ink.
First step would basically be like an octpus jump back and leave a cloud of ink. Ink slightly slows enemy.
Later instead of leaving a cloud we could leave a clone. Further still lie the abilities to make the clone explode and switch places with it. Last5 step have more than one clone.
Prohibitly expensive in qi, cost can be lowered by using ink. Hence why the inkstone art is so important
Water / Ink / Darkness?
Sealing Brushstroke Technique
A technique containing several strokes that put negative effects on the target if hit. If hit with all strokes of the technique the target can be sealed for a time.
One level per stroke the seal is the last stroke.
Water / Ink / Wood
Additionally I imagine him having some paper based arts as well but I have to think about that.
I image him wearing a paper armor inscribed with ink giving him boosts. a few ink clones and 1-2 paper clones with the same augments as his armor. And charms. Lots of charms.
Inkstone Body Cultivation
A cultivation Art created to fuel techniques using large amount of ink, fortify the users physique and give a counter to the copious amount of water based arts represented by the ink.
It helps with physical attributes, since the creator of the art was not into body cultivation. It also gives the user a way to create (by using qi) and store ink inside their body, progressively more the higher you go in this art.
Also when hit the user will leave his opponents weapon covered in ink with a dulling effect.
Water / Ink / Earth(stone)
Octopus Illusion Step
A movement technique strongest in escaping also one of the reason why we need that much ink.
First step would basically be like an octpus jump back and leave a cloud of ink. Ink slightly slows enemy.
Later instead of leaving a cloud we could leave a clone. Further still lie the abilities to make the clone explode and switch places with it. Last5 step have more than one clone.
Prohibitly expensive in qi, cost can be lowered by using ink. Hence why the inkstone art is so important
Water / Ink / Darkness?
Sealing Brushstroke Technique
A technique containing several strokes that put negative effects on the target if hit. If hit with all strokes of the technique the target can be sealed for a time.
One level per stroke the seal is the last stroke.
Water / Ink / Wood
Additionally I imagine him having some paper based arts as well but I have to think about that.
I image him wearing a paper armor inscribed with ink giving him boosts. a few ink clones and 1-2 paper clones with the same augments as his armor. And charms. Lots of charms.
I hope you enjoyed.