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

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[] Her oldest active art, which had seen her through so many trials Forgotten Vale Melody

FVM should be what stay with us. It's the Ling Qi defining art: from her past in the street, cold and alone, to one of her first art in the sect, to her insight about traveling hard paths to bring something beautiful for her family. Ling Qi ultimate goal after all, is to have strong enough wings to bring her roots with her.
 
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So, with the clarification. I am probably going to vote for FVM. We are getting an advancement in it from domain growth, so that is probably as important as building your successor art. So narrative value is fulfilled. It being pretty much the symbol for the Journey that LQ is making. It would be fun to see how LQ's FVM evolves with her Domain.

And added bonus is that we can make FSS+ our first successor and having that made with Hanyi feels more right. These two seems to be the front runners for first successor art so it would tie everything together nicely.
 
I think that if it works like CRX says it works, that Forgotten Vale Melody makes sense to slot here.

Narratively, and according to the number-crunchers on the Discord they think it works well enough mechanically, if I'm not grossly misunderstanding them.
 
Something to think about though is what we'll actually be doing here. Renxiang described her art as her desire for Purity. I wonder how we would describe the arts we have on offer here in terms of the effect they'll have on LQ?
 
Some clarifications from discord, this being the pertinent one:
Black NoiseToday at 10:53 PM
right, so integrated art is basically getting a free "advance with LQ" without a successor creation process (though we can still do that if we want a variant taken in a different direction), correct?

YrsillarToday at 10:54 PM
Yes
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Which has also been edited into the update.

With this cleared up, I think I'll be going with FVM:
  • Biggest draw is that it'll continually evolve with LQ according to her Domain, and at it's base the insight is something worthy, given it represents a difficult journey gaining worth by presenting something beautiful to those you care about at the end.
  • Having FVM active through our domain weapon will hopefully solve a lot of the mechanical awkwardness of having another full layer of area control we'd have to cast in addition to PLR/BKSD; and hopefully the adjustment as it grows will make it work together with our other effects better.
  • Picking FVM here to become tied to LQ's progression means FSS+ is the obvious successor candidate we can make with Hanyi (either working with us on FSS or her own LWM).
EDIT: clarity
 
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I'm kinda leaning towards frozen soul serenade.
Not because of anykind of mechanical benefit, but because it is Zeqings gift to us, and i want to keep it with us for good.

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Though people have made decent points for Forgotten Vale Melody
 
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Erebeal said:
Something to think about though is what we'll actually be doing here. Renxiang described her art as her desire for Purity. I wonder how we would describe the arts we have on offer here in terms of the effect they'll have on LQ?
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All 3 of these are arts that have been slotted into LQ's domain, so probably something related to the domain insights we got from the arts.
 
Valmond said:
I'm kinda leaning towards frozen soul serenade.
Not because of anykind of mechanical benefit, but because it is Zeqings gift to us, and i want to keep it with us for good.

edit-
Though people have made decent points for Forgotten Vale Melody
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We can make a successor art for FSS and it can be a good bonding time with Hanyi
 
[] Her oldest active art, which had seen her through so many trials Forgotten Vale Melody

Even though it contains *shudder* water, this is my preferred option. Being cold, lost, and alone is not who LQ is anymore, but her actions are strongly defined by wanting to never ever be cold, lost, and alone ever again, ever.
With FVM being slotted, it gets set aside as a constant (external) reminder to LQ of where she came from, and what she is working hard to keep away from herself.
 
Mmm, thinking about effects on LQ:
  • FVM strikes me as being the art that emphasises things like her desire to produce something good, and tying into her art/music etc. In that sense, it ties in well to her actually doing stuff and working with the Cai well? I quite like this I think?
  • FSS... well, I'm kinda already not particularly enamored of the degree to which it has affected her, don't really want to go all in on #Endings, and would kinda like to take the opportunity of FSS+ to rejig it more.
  • TRF... would emphasise her determination and never-give-up-ness more? Fine I guess, but like it's just so ergh here
 
Erebeal said:
Something to think about though is what we'll actually be doing here. Renxiang described her art as her desire for Purity. I wonder how we would describe the arts we have on offer here in terms of the effect they'll have on LQ?
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I would imagine that it would be a willingness to endure suffering to achieve something beautiful. That's about the insight we got from it.
 
I think I like FVM the best.

Though I think, TRF would also perhaps have to do with protection and family. It does mention how "a tree alone doesn't make a forest", so it feels like FSS and FVM are more "solo" intended, while TRF is more "team" intended. ....But I think TRF doesn't mix well with our selected weapon.
 
Killer_Whale said:
Even though it contains *shudder* water, this is my preferred option. Being cold, lost, and alone is not who LQ is anymore, but her actions are strongly defined by wanting to never ever be cold, lost, and alone ever again, ever.
With FVM being slotted, it gets set aside as a constant (external) reminder to LQ of where she came from, and what she is working hard to keep away from herself.
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Tbf we have kinda moved past based elemental crutches, so it being water matters little. It will change anyway to fit LQ more with her domain.

Also LQ likes the cold :p Lost and alone she can be without, but when you like drinking liquid hydrogen you have kinda gone past not liking the cold.
 
Dammit, I can't help but feel that a defensive weapon would work better for FVM, since the whole point would be for it to maintain our misty fortress of solitude for as long as possible.
 
yrsillar said:
"At the most base mechanical level, it is an exercise in spiritual surgery, transferring an art and the meridians it occupies to new housing. It is permanent, and so it is wise to think hard on what is being sacrificed."
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Umm...
yrsillar said:
"It trains the mind for the stages which come after," Cai Renxiang replied calmly, letting her eyes drift shut again. "A cultivator is not merely their body, and a cultivator's body is not merely flesh. Even if you can speak the words, you do not understand them without experience. These exercises replace much trial and error which our ancestors needed perform to ascend the realms."
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Ok but trial and error sounds a lot better than spiritual self mutilation. Like you'd have to give a lot of detail about the time taken and methods of trial and error needed to convince me this way is actually better. Especially since we have plenty of evidence that large numbers of said ancestors were still demonstrably capable of getting past this level.

This is just really sudden and the acceptance of "spiritually self mutilate yourself" by Ling Qi feels way, way to offhanded. Especially since she literally didn't know anything about it.

Cai Renxiang "Oh I just permanently cut off a bit of my personality and shoved it in a silk ribbon"
Ling Qi "Cool, I had no idea this was coming but I too am happy to shove important parts of my physical and spiritual makeup into my weapon with no buildup".
 
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Erebeal said:
Dammit, I can't help but feel that a defensive weapon would work better for FVM, since the whole point would be for it to maintain our misty fortress of solitude for as long as possible.
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Perhaps but I feel that mechanics aren't really important right now. It's about narrative and focusing on mechanics will produce sub par results for Ling Qi growth.
 
Regarding FSS, my take would be: FSS isn't LQ's thing, it's LQ's thing with Zeqing and Hanyi and that's the way it should be developed.

FVM otoh was always LQ's personal thing that also reflects both her journey so far (lonely and harsh) and likely path ahead (not much easier but surrounded by family).
 
FSS is still LQ's thing. It has a big impact on her character, especially connected to FVM as they seem to complement each other. So dissmissing it as 'Not LQ's thing' does it a disservice.

FVM is still better in the Domain weapon imo.
 
Humbaba said:
Umm...


Ok but trial and error sounds a lot better than spiritual self mutilation. Like you'd have to give a lot of detail about the time taken and methods of trial and error needed to convince me this way is actually better. Especially since we have plenty of evidence that large numbers of said ancestors were still demonstrably capable of getting past this level.

This is just really sudden and the acceptance of "spiritually self mutilate yourself" by Ling Qi feels way, way to offhanded. Especially since she literally didn't know anything about it.

Cai Renxiang "Oh I just permanently cut off a bit of my personality and shoved it in a silk ribbon"
Ling Qi "Cool, I had no idea this was coming but I too am happy to shove important parts of my physical and spiritual makeup into my weapon with no buildup".
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You missed the part about it being "transfer into a new housing," and not mutilation.

It's not excising, cutting, or removing completely it's about having parts of your SELF no longer being contained within your fleshy body and now being within your domain-proper as part of the process of learning. It's still a part of you but no longer directly inside of you hence the art continuing to grow with you and advance. I imagine the "trial and error" part in learning how to begin spreading yourself into your domain was doing so without actually cutting parts of your soul completely off or losing anything in the process.
 
Humbaba said:
Umm...


Ok but trial and error sounds a lot better than spiritual self mutilation. Like you'd have to give a lot of detail about the time taken and methods of trial and error needed to convince me this way is actually better. Especially since we have plenty of evidence that large numbers of said ancestors were still demonstrably capable of getting past this level.

This is just really sudden and the acceptance of "spiritually self mutilate yourself" by Ling Qi feels way, way to offhanded. Especially since she literally didn't know anything about it.

Cai Renxiang "Oh I just permanently cut off a bit of my personality and shoved it in a silk ribbon"
Ling Qi "Cool, I had no idea this was coming but I too am happy to shove important parts of my physical and spiritual makeup into my weapon with no buildup".
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I'd assume the "trial and error" also contained a lot of "spiritually self mutilating yourself", just a lot less controlled.
 
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