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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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I think we should avoid tactics that separate us from our spirits. It may make things more difficult down the road, but our domain works best when we have our family around us.

So I'll be voting for:
[] She promised, even if it was hard. (Ling Qi will avoid tactics which leave out or separate her from her spirits and deliberate self sacrifice outside of actual necessity. Affects Zhengui's development.)
 
Just want to point out that we avoided a cultivation snarl by voting to not to force our family away, this vote has the potential to have a snarl as well. For arguements for/against please consider the following insights:
Insights
1:Sincerity is the measure by which the worthiness of the self and ones guests should be measured.
2:There are endings and Endings, only the very last one is final. Just as winter ends in spring, small endings are new beginnings.
3:Though a path might be hard and lonely, it has worth if you can present something of beauty to those you care for at the end.
4:There is no peace in emptiness, no content in stillness. Stagnation is death; act, change, move, think, and grow until the very end.
5:Branches and trunks bend and sway, but the roots must remain unyielding. Retreat only so far and then no more.
Advanced Inslights
  • One person's desires cannot, alone make a home nor a family.
 
Orkus Majorkus said:
That vote. Some QMs just want to watch their threads burn.

Delicious.
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I don't think this vote is particularly controversial?

[X] She promised, even if it was hard. (Ling Qi will avoid tactics which leave out or separate her from her spirits and deliberate self sacrifice outside of actual necessity. Affects Zhengui's development.)
 
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In the interests of fairness since I answered the question in discord, the promise does not mean that Ling Qi and Zhengui cannot fight on different fronts, he acknowledges in the update that she needed him to stop the mook swarm.
 
yrsillar said:
In the interests of fairness since I answered the question in discord, the promise does not mean that Ling Qi and Zhengui cannot fight on different fronts, he acknowledges in the update that she needed him to stop the mook swarm.
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...what does it mean, then? What is an example of a tactic that it would rule out? Having us fight while out spirits do something unrelated?
 
[X] She promised, even if it was hard. (Ling Qi will avoid tactics which leave out or separate her from her spirits and deliberate self sacrifice outside of actual necessity. Affects Zhengui's development.)
I'm willing to vote for this because...Well, that last fight? It WAS awkward splitting the team up like that. While we could communicate from distances some, it wasn't enough, not for actual splitting the party tactics to be that effective.
 
Self sacrifice tactics like blocking a knife with your neck, leaving your spirits behind to do something alone even when you don't need too, haring off to fight an enemy alone just because zhengui's movement is low etc.
 
Rayous said:
we avoided a cultivation snarl by voting to not to force our family away
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Was this confirmed? I know we were all worrying about it, but I thought it was just hypothetical.
Zaealix said:
[X] She promised, even if it was hard. (Ling Qi will avoid tactics which leave out or separate her from her spirits and deliberate self sacrifice outside of actual necessity. Affects Zhengui's development.)
I'm willing to vote for this because...Well, that last fight? It WAS awkward splitting the team up like that. While we could communicate from distances some, it wasn't enough, not for actual splitting the party tactics to be that effective.
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Moratorium friendo
 
yrsillar said:
Self sacrifice tactics like blocking a knife with your neck, leaving your spirits behind to do something alone even when you don't need too, haring off to fight an enemy alone just because zhengui's movement is low etc.
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All of these might be neccessary at some point, to prevent far worse things in the future. As cruel as it is, zhengui's needs to figure out how to keep up. I think that's what this is. Do you want more earth/plant stuff, where Zhen can be certain we'll stick around and so he can further plant himself, be more of a tank, or do we need him to have some movement art, to keep up when we chase?

Fire or Wood? What'll it be?
 
So first off, the talk with Renxiang was really well done. We've done the best as far as LQ can, now we just hope she meets us halfway.


Now, this vote looks pretty difficult, the tradeoff is not trivial at all, and the effect on development for both Zhengui and LQ is both significant and hard to estimate.

[] She promised, even if it was hard. (Ling Qi will avoid tactics which leave out or separate her from her spirits and deliberate self sacrifice outside of actual necessity. Affects Zhengui's development.)

The most obvious cost to this is that is severely limits LQ's versatility, especially in light of the brewing war. It shouldn't prevent tactically "correct" options like leaving Zhengui to guard a front provided they're perceived as necessary, but this cuts off a lot of otherwise viable strategies for LQ as a solo operative. An a gap in capabilities that will only grow with cultivation as stuff like Wind Thief comes online.

The main benefit here as I see it is in LQ becoming more aligned with her spirits, with them (esp. Zhengui) likely developing in a way that supports this, likely making LQ working with her spirits that much stronger.

Then there's the mixed bag that we can't overlook is that it forces LQ to acknowledge and put an end to her self-sacrificial streak.

[] She could not make that promise, not knowing what the future could hold. (Ling Qi remains open to all tactics. Affects Zhengui's development.)

The cost here would be the strain on our relationship with our spirits, and effectively forcing Zhengui's development in a hard to predict direction. I expect that it would require greater effort on our part to prevent further fraying of the relationship and strengthening the bonds, with a large outcome variance based on how our spirits choose to deal with this.

The benefits... besides maintaining tactical freedom to use our ever-growing mastery of a wide skillset, I don't think this strain is something we can't grow past, and if we play it perfectly we can end up with a team of independently stronger spirits for it (though likely weaker when we're working as an actual team), but getting from here to that seems hard.

Plus we'll have to watch for self-sacrificial tendencies if they crop up (though that will only become a problem if we keep voting for those).


Overall it's really hard to say what's the better choice. I think both approaches are viable and neither is clearly superior in mid-long-term outcomes.

Personally I'll probably vote for no promise barring convincing arguments otherwise, since I'm more interested in seeing how LQ and her spirits grow in that world than the one where we do make that promise.
 
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Are spirits somehow vulnerable when materializing? I don't think I've seen such mentioned, so just carrying Zhengui in our dantian while we chase an enemy, and him manifesting when we force battle, would likely solve many issues.
 
yrsillar said:
Self sacrifice tactics like blocking a knife with your neck, leaving your spirits behind to do something alone even when you don't need too, haring off to fight an enemy alone just because zhengui's movement is low etc.
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Well now I'm not so sure about promising anymore. Not blocking a knife with your neck, yeah I'm fine with ruling that out. Splitting the party is just too useful though.
 
An Argument in favor of THE PROMISE TOWARDS THE FAMILY

Is Ling Qi not at her best, when she supports and in turn is supported by family? Low movement, pah! Zhengui is just as much as family as Hanyi or her blood family. Encouragement from Family can work more than just wonders towards self confidence.
The family can help each of their family when they want to and don't need to pay each other for some favor to save face, like strangers. Zhengui and Hanyi have reaffirmed their willingness to work and live their best life together. They have faith in Ling Qi to do the best for them. In my opinion Ling Qi should reaffirm that faith to work together. Faith, after all, is known to move even mountains!

Also, Ling Qi is already known for her spirits, let's leverage that! Vote for the Promise now and maybe gain ancillary benefits while war training! An Offer by interesting vote LLC.
 
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TotallyNotEvil said:
Are spirits somehow vulnerable when materializing? I don't think I've seen such mentioned, so just carrying Zhengui in our dantian while we chase an enemy, and him manifesting when we force battle, would likely solve many issues.
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IIRC materializing is not a free action, so carrying a spirit around in our dantian means we don't get as strong of a start in fights if we deploy them first thing.
 
A cruel (and not necessarily true) way of looking at this vote is choosing if LQ will metaphorically slow down for her spirits, to support and be supported by them, or if she'll make no promises and leave it up to them to figure out how they're catching up (we'll help but I fear how much we can will be limited).

It's not a happy road to take, and it may invite cultivation difficulties that will have to be resolved in advanced insights, but I can't say that it's a bad option.
 
The worst tactical trade off is air combat. Zhengui can't fly and likely never will be able to, promising this will mean that Ling Qi's arguably most valuable talisman is reduced to a mere armor piece for combat purposes.

Probably still worth it though.
 
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