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

[Pipeman]

That's not how it works. As it is it's technically Cyan grade, but practically speaking we're too low level to actually use it to it's fullest extent. Basically it should grow in power alongside us up to Early Cyan, similar to how our Cai Robe grew when we brokethrough to Green.

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Yeah, even if we did something impressive enough to get a more powerful one, it effectively wouldn't be an immediate quality upgrade but a weapon we can keep using for longer before we need to find a third one to replace that.

I think there might be some consideration for if and when we can use two weapons at once, but either way we're gonna be using this one for quite a while and certainly at least as long as any arts we choose in the first Inner Sect year, so those are gonna have to work with each other at least somewhat.

 

[Karnax626]

My problem isn't opinion pieces necessarily but that dismissal of an idea or stance on 'obvious' grounds is poor form. It's a bit redundant to preface things with 'I think' or end with ' this is my opinion' but it's important that one recognizes the implicity of it in their own arguments.

I don't like Harmony because it seems more about some arbitrary idealized Ling Qi people have than anything we've seen. She's inarguably self-centered, and I think that's a central characterization of hers. Forgetting about the boy she saved as soon as he wasn't immediately relevant, not terribly caring about Yan Renshu or the various nameless mooks we've crumped the moment they weren't immediately in the way of our interests. In how we brought disharmony to the Golden Fields Gang despite our intent. Of seeking out friendships in part to prove we could be a good friend as much as anything else. Reaching out to others to ultimately reinvent the self.

Sprawling interconnections? Becoming closer together? It just doesn't really come into play does it? We outright failed in bringing our commoner friends together with the Golden Field Gang, Meizhen has no real connection to anyone else we like barring CRX, and that is entirely independent of us. Most of our friendships exist regardless of the others. Even CRX's grand ideals fail to connect Qi to the teeming, suffering masses she was only recently exalted above. The kind of people she should share common experience with.

If Ling Qi does forge connections, it's directly between her and them rather than anything complex. And while she can definitely be motivated to try, it's not because it comes intuitively or that she's some social butterfly, it because it appeals to her directly. There was no real reason or connection try and bridge the GFG and Li Suyin and Su Ling other than Qi was friends with both it thought 'wouldn't it be convenient and cool if both my groups of friends liked each other?'

So all in all, it feels very unearned and arbitrary to try and slot Harmony. Like people think it *sounds* like the sort of thing that belongs and is positive and optimistic and therefore has to go in rather than it's applicable to both Ling Qi's experiences and her efforts/outlook so far. I suppose I'm coming from the perspective of connecting and reconciling Ling Qi's own nature to Home as a domain, rather than what directly sounds applicable to Home- w know the origin and the end goal, what's an interesting path to connect the two so to speak. Maybe we can revisit it or something similar eventually, but beelining it seems really out of place. Though I'm sure there's some pro-harmony people who can't agree at all with this.

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By definition Harmony works better with people closer to us than those who aren't. It allows us to see the bonds between others but when it comes to actual effects it primarily acts on our personal bonds, not others, so I don't see the art as being counter to your view of Ling Qi.

 

[Raising Kittens]

First up, the Meridians we're going to need at a bare minimum, incorporating an estimated two Perception Arts trained and in active use at once.

Current Meridians:

Meridians Unlocked:

Head: 3
-Lake(AMx2), Mountain(AM)

Lungs: 8
-Dark(FVM), Music(FVM), Dark(AEx2), Earth(AE), Water(FSSx2), Moon(PLR)

Spine: 7
-Mountain (AM), Dark (SCS), Wood(TRFx2), Wind(AS), Thunder(AS), blank

Heart: 8
-Wind( FZx3), Water(FVM), Dark(FVMx2), Wood(TRF), Fire(AC)

Arm: 7
-Heaven(FSA), Wind(FSAx2), Water(ACx2), Dark(FSSx2)

Leg: 6
-Darkness (SCSx2), Moon(PLRx2, SCS), Thunder(AS)

40 Successes for next

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Dropping AM, AE, AS, FZ, AC, FSA leaves us with the following (right now):

Head: 0/3
Lungs: 5/8
Spine: 3/7
Heart: 4/8
Arm: 2/7
Leg: 5/6

Mastering FVM, FSS, SCS, TRF, and PLR to their Green Two Maximums, and not including any Arts we don't have yet, brings us to:

Head: 0/3
Lungs: 5/8 +1 (FSS) +1 (PLR): 7/8
Spine: 3/7 +1 (SCS): 4/7
Heart: 4/8 +1 (TRF): 5/8
Arm: 2/7
Leg: 5/6 +1 (PLR): 6/6

Which means... wow, we don't need to do anything right this instant. Okay; that's almost a relief.

We can pick up, train, and use any of the three new Perception Arts right away. CWY is Head/Spine, CDE is Head/Lung, and HDW is Head/Heart.

We would need to open another Lung Meridian to master FSS and PLR if we master CDE to the peak of Green One prior to mastering and condensing FSS.

The same is true for either AFL or ENM. Both Arts are Leg/Arm, and we simply don't have the available Leg Meridians at this time.

Meridians (post condensing):

Head: 0/3
Lungs: 4/8 (FSS: 1. FVM: 1. PLR: 2)
Spine: 2/7 (SCS: 1. TRF: 1)
Heart: 2/8 (FVM: 1. TRF: 1)
Arm: 1/7 (FSS: 1)
Leg: 4/6 (SCS: 1. PLR 3)

We still couldn't master AFL or ENM without opening another Leg Meridian, though ENM doesn't reach Mastery until Green Three, meaning it's not crucial to do right away. However, we could master CDE and any other Perception Art and only need to open a single head meridian... provided we master and condense CDE first. Given the extremely high odds that a successor to CDE exists in the Second Floor Archive, however, we'll probably want to open the other two Head Meridians anyway.

So that's three Head Meridians and one Leg Meridian. That's four AP, and requires 40/41/42/43 successes; condensing CDE and/or AFL adds another 3 AP to that each, for up to ten, not counting training them in the first place.

Now, speculation. Successors to SCS, FVM, TRF, and FSS are most likely going to require Meridians in the same areas, and are - to my understanding - going to 'subsume/include' the Meridians from the precursor Art, thus Condensing making it much easier to pick them up.

In the 'best-case scenario' that I can think of, each of those successor Arts will require one new Meridian per region - call it another eight Meridians in total - in Green Two.

In the worst-case scenario, each will require up to four new Meridians each, for another sixteen in total in Green Two. I hope this isn't the case; I expect either two or three Meridians to be needed.

The minimum brings the Meridian Count to (again, not incorporating Arts we don't already know):

Head: 0/3
Lungs: 6/8 (FSS+: 2. FVM+: 2. PLR: 2)
Spine: 4/7 (SCS+: 2. TRF+: 2)
Heart: 4/8 (FVM+: 2. TRF+: 2)
Arm: 2/7 (FSS+: 2)
Leg: 5/6 (SCS+: 2. PLR 3)

Maximum:

Head: 0/3
Lungs: 8/8 (FSS+: 3. FVM: 3+. PLR: 2)
Spine: 6/7 (SCS+: 3. TRF+: 3)
Heart: 6/8 (FVM+: 3. TRF+: 3)
Arm: 3/7 (FSS+: 3)
Leg: 6/6 (SCS+: 3. PLR 3)

Okay then; even in that 'worst-case' scenario we 'only' need to open another two Leg Meridians (for one of ENM/AFL) and two Lung Meridians (for CDE). If we go with CWY, that's an additional Spine Meridian needed, bringing the total to nine: +3 Head, +3 Leg, +2 Lung, +1 Spine; 40/41/42/43/44/45/46/47/48 successes.

The better case is one additional Lung Meridian and another Leg meridian, for +5 Meridians: +3 Head, +2 Leg; 40/41/42/43/44 successes.

So, roughly speaking, on top of the four AP in green two to master a given Art to Green Two 'standards', it will take the following AP for each Art, not counting any additional Arts beyond mastering CDE + Condensing and one of CWY, or HDW.

CWY: 4 (mastery) + 1 (Worst Case Spine Meridian) + 1 (Head Meridian): 5-6 AP.
ENM: 4 (mastery) + 2 (Leg Meridians) + 1 (Worst Case Leg Meridian): 6-7 AP.
CDE: 4 (mastery) + 2 (Worst Case Lung Meridians) + 3 (Condensing): 7-9 AP.
HDW: 4 (mastery) + 1 (Head Meridian): 5 AP. Note: HDW doesn't need its third Head Meridian until Green Three.
AFL: 4 (mastery) + 2 (Leg Meridians) + 1 (Worst Case Leg Meridian) + 3 (Condensing): 6-9-10 AP.

The idea is to master and condense CDE first, then learn the other Perception Art. Otherwise, we'd need two additional Head Meridians for CWY or one for HDW... but we'd also skip on condensing CDE, which we might want to do to pick up the successor. Which probably requires more Head and Lung Meridians anyway.

Bit of a wash, that.

Condensing AFL is put in mostly because it could be done.

Still, even in the 'best case' and minimizing times (no condensing; CDE, HDW, ENM), that's 4 + 6 + 6 = 16 AP.

I'll get to the actual math later - what we'd need to do to drop AP expenditures for mastering Arts, for example.

 

[Arkeus]

We still couldn't master AFL or ENM without opening another Leg Meridian, though ENM doesn't reach Mastery until Green Three, meaning it's not crucial to do right away. However, we could master CDE and any other Perception Art and only need to open a single head meridian... provided we master and condense CDE first. Given the extremely high odds that a successor to CDE exists in the Second Floor Archive, however, we'll probably want to open the other two Head Meridians anyway.

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In the 'best-case scenario' that I can think of, each of those successor Arts will require one new Meridian per region - call it another eight Meridians in total - in Green Two.

In the worst-case scenario, each will require up to four new Meridians each, for another sixteen in total in Green Two. I hope this isn't the case; I expect either two or three Meridians to be needed.

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You are over-estimating how much arts need in green 2.

CDE successor (if there is one) will begin in Green 3 (archive 3 most likely, maybe one of the rare archive 2 that begins in green 3), and SCS/FVM/TRF/FSS successors won't need a new meridian in Green 2, but in Green 3. After all, AE only has 5 meridians and is Green 3, and PLR, which has 7 meridians, gets its 6th in Green 3 and 7th in Green 4.

So all those other meridians would be for foundation, which I admit will be fairly soon, but not as urgent.

 

[Raising Kittens]

You are over-estimating how much arts need in green 2.

CDE successor (if there is one) will begin in Green 3 (archive 3 most likely, maybe one of the rare archive 2 that begins in green 3), and SCS/FVM/TRF/FSS successors won't need a new meridian in Green 2, but in Green 3. After all, AE only has 5 meridians and is Green 3, and PLR, which has 7 meridians, gets its 6th in Green 3 and 7th in Green 4.

So all those other meridians would be for foundation, which I admit will be fairly soon, but not as urgent.

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You are quite possibly correct, given that those Arts that we can see in Green Two only need four-five Meridians, including PLR, which 'only' needs seven for Mastery in Green Four.

And I will be pleasantly surprised when it turns out to be the case.

Until that point, however, I'll plan like we'll have less time in the short term than we actually will - it looks like it'll average out fairly quickly.

And in the case of CDE, so much the better; one less Art to squeeze in in the short term.

 

[veekie]

Audacious Fairy's Lark

Potency: Green 1
Potency Growth: Green 2(4)
Max Level 5
Needed Meridians: Legx2, Arm(1). Leg(3), Arm(5)
Keywords: Dance, Dexterity, Dodge, Revelry, Stealth, Wind, Wits, Yin
Experience: 80, 120, 160, 200, 300

An art developed on the observations of a man observing his young daughters frustrations in his attempts to capture low grade wind spirit in the family gardens. The art follows in the footsteps of ephemeral spirits, floating ever just out of reach, and mocks those who would try to grasp its user. Requiring flight for its mastery techniques, this art was never of great use to those it was intended for.

Passives
+5 to Stealth
+10 to Speed
+5 to Initiative
+5 on attempts to escape grapples or confinement

Laughing Breeze: D
Duration: Short
The user's footsteps are light, and they float freely over the earth, bendy nary a single strand of grass in their passing. In flight, the user is merely pushed aside by blows that might have struck home, floating from danger like a cascade of flower petals in the wind. Greatly enhances the users speed and stealth by allowing them to defy gravity for short bursts. With flight, this technique is greatly enhanced, and physical avoid is enhanced as well.

Plucking Gust: D
Duration: Immediate
Just the playful sprite plucked the hairpin from the child's head, the users light touch can free more potent things from an enemies ownership. The user may make a melee attack, using dance or stealth as its skill against an unaware or unready target to remove an accessory talisman from their person.

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Audacious Fairy's Lark
-Elements: Wind
-Meridians: Leg Primary, Arm Secondary
-Keywords: Dance, Dexterity, Dodge, Revelry, Stealth, Wits , Yin

And here is one of the most cheery arts I've seen to date...and a scary as hell larceny art. Its about the Wind, flighty, fast, and subtle. The Wind is not seen, is not caught, and cannot be stopped. The wind will sweep in, and spirit away your precious things.
The description is an interesting one, few cultivators would explore this art because its a Green 1-2 art that relies upon and augments flight a capability belonging to Cyan cultivators or certain rare spiritblooded.
It is, as such, an art made to express the creator's pure joy at seeing their children playing with wind sprites in the garden.

-Combat utility: Undispellable Debuff(circumstantial), Aerial Superiority

So, bear in mind that for cultivators, their talismans are very important to their strategy, through discounts, dice bonuses and more. Most debuffs can be dispelled, most dispelled buffs can be recast at cost...a lost talisman cannot be dispelled or recast. Unfortunately, Plucking Gust is melee based, fortunately, doots are melee and we can attack using Stealth or Dance, of which Laughing Breeze buffs Stealth significantly.
That said, this portion is only effective once, nobody would be Unaware more than once in an encounter, at least, not without Ephermal Nights Memory(which would make an amusing combo where you steal all their stuff while repeatedly resetting their memory)

Aerial superiority on the other hand, is something that had been gone over extensively by the thread, so I'd focus on what the first level does when we're using our dress:
-Greatly enhanced great enhancement of Speed C27+10(passive)
-Greatly enhanced great enhancement of Stealth C20/25+5(passive)
-Enhanced Physical Avoid C28

Pretty respectable overall, but its not useful offensively without a way to force Unaware status.

-Playstyle utility: Scouting

This however is the meat of the art, despite being an Arm art, Laughing Breeze is really good for recon, even against superior cultivation.

-Domain slot message: "Remember to have fun", "Be free", "Nobody can touch you"

Its a fun having art, very Grinning Moon to show cleverness like that. I'm not entirely sure how well this fits into a Home however, though I suppose its element of joy and daring does help add some mischievous children to the Home.

 

[Aranfan]

I remember that talk now kinda, it was TehChron who brought it up. Don't remember the entire thread worth of effort bit. Can you point me at where it happened to come up so I can find it for myself?

E: At least I think it was TehChron.

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It was me.

 

[Ayashi]

@Raising Kittens i think you overestimate the need of condensing meridians. We're soon going to be cultivating with full GSS per turn, so opening new meridians is still going to be automatic for a good long time yet.

Its a fun having art, very Grinning Moon to show cleverness like that. I'm not entirely sure how well this fits into a Home however, though I suppose its element of joy and daring does help add some mischievous children to the Home.

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While it's not very* relevant today, eventually Ling Qi will be the Matriarch of a Clan. Children is going to be a major part of her life, and it would be nice if they are also part of her Home Dao.


*for all that she wants to deny it Zhengui totally falls into this...

 

[Karnax626]

@Raising Kittens i think you overestimate the need of condensing meridians. We're soon going to be cultivating with full GSS per turn, so opening new meridians is still going to be automatic for a good long time yet.

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One thing to bear in mind with successor arts (SCS+, FVM+ etc), is that we can only crunch an art after it's been mastered, so if we want max efficiency then we want to crunch the art fully first, then start training the successor. Not to mention that the number of each type of meridian we have is still going to be important, as I find it hard to believe that the increase above ~54 meridians won't be significant even when taking into account multiple GSS.

 

[Arkeus]

One thing to bear in mind with successor arts (SCS+, FVM+ etc), is that we can only crunch an art after it's been mastered, so if we want max efficiency then we want to crunch the art fully first, then start training the successor. Not to mention that the number of each type of meridian we have is still going to be important, as I find it hard to believe that the increase above ~54 meridians won't be significant even when taking into account multiple GSS.

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Not just that, but ultimately opening meridians until we have a good idea about what arts we want to take long term is a bad idea. We are already in a position where we might have a been too many arms meridian, and just opening new meridians each time we find a fun art without knowledge of exactly the kind of build/arts we want by the time we are past the 54 softcap isn't the way to do things longer term.

 

[Raising Kittens]

@Raising Kittens i think you overestimate the need of condensing meridians. We're soon going to be cultivating with full GSS per turn, so opening new meridians is still going to be automatic for a good long time yet.

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Easily opening new Meridians is all well and good, but each new Meridian opened is an irrevocable decision that makes each future Meridian more difficult to open. When the first 'soft-cap' is reached, I expect the difficulty to at least double: to jump from 54 successes to 108 successes, for example. Not particularly feasible on one AP, even in Green Two, without resorting to expensive measures.

This same ease applies to condensing Meridians - even condensing the Third Meridian of SCS will only require 65 successes, easily in reach on one AP at max GSS.

Condensing Meridians improves the efficiency of our Meridian use, increasing the value of each Meridian already opened and, furthermore, not altering the cost of opening new Meridians in any way.

The immediate AP cost of each action is essentially the same while running on max GSS in green two at this point in time. However, the long term opportunity cost of opening a Meridian is much higher than the opportunity cost of Condensing a critical Art.

This is especially the case because successor Arts subsume the meridians of their precursors, add on to that, and can't be condensed until the successor Art is mastered, increasing the base difficulty of the action: If we take PLR into account, I'd expect SCS+ to take seven~eight Meridians by Green Four. On fifty-four Meridians, that means no more than eight Arts.

With Meridian Condensing, on the other hand, we can squeeze in substantially more Arts, broadening our toolkit even if we can't further condense our Arts (due to not reaching mastery of the new Arts in question). Condensing ASAP means SCS+ only requires 3-4 Meridians, at least doubling the number of Arts we can have equipped at once.

So yes, we could open eleven new Meridians instead of condensing those Meridians. It would hobble us at an inconvenient time in the not-too-distant future, and doesn't provide any genuine benefits over opening those Meridians.

Now, if you'd rather spend that AP on other things entirely, well... that is why I want the extra few months at Green Two, so we can have the AP to do exactly that at a time when it's most useful.

 

[Asael]

What's with people hating on darkness anyway?

It's been consistently awesome for LQ in pretty much every way.


Edit: much more so than wind, which seems popular even though it went almost forgotten for the better part of a year.

 

[commando2341]

[Analysis]

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Just wanted to comment that I've been really impressed by your analysis of the arts we've been given. Very insightful.

 

[PrimalShadow]

For those who are interested: Expected xp/AP for new arts at 16YSS and medium pills:

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What about for 12YSS and 8GSS, which is the regime we are likely to be at when actually training these arts?

 

[Ayashi]

One thing to bear in mind with successor arts (SCS+, FVM+ etc), is that we can only crunch an art after it's been mastered, so if we want max efficiency then we want to crunch the art fully first, then start training the successor. Not to mention that the number of each type of meridian we have is still going to be important, as I find it hard to believe that the increase above ~54 meridians won't be significant even when taking into account multiple GSS.

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The limit of 54 meridians is still 15 meridians away, like i said a good long while.

 

[deadcrystal]

Yeah, even if we did something impressive enough to get a more powerful one, it effectively wouldn't be an immediate quality upgrade but a weapon we can keep using for longer before we need to find a third one to replace that.

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I don't know what the actual expected timeline is, but I think rough 5 years to Cyan minimum?

So Ling Qi will have long since left the sect before reaching Cyan, and it'll be even longer before reaching the next one, uh, Indigo? Violet? idk

So it's going to be a minimum of a decade before Ling Qi's cultivation is exceeding the limits of her current Domain weapon.

Honestly when we reach that point, and if we manage to get a replacement then at that point we're probably safe to drop her old weapon into what will become the Ling clan vault.

I mean, at the moment we're sacrificing Long-term clan possibilities for Ling Qi's personal growth. i.e. selling the Death mirror that could have formed a very nice item to defend the fief against spiritual attacks. At her current stage I think keeping the mirror would have been sort of counting her chickens before they hatch kind of deal.

And I think that that sort of thing is defs the correct thing to do at this moment in time. With the Ling clan having exactly one cultivator and no fief as yet, LQ's personal growth is probably the best use of our resources. I think that hitting Indigo promptly will get Ling Qi promoted to Viscount automatically, and I personally think that getting that will be most effective in the mid-term for her fief rather than trying to build a family Arts library and Talisman Vault prior to reaching it. I'd honestly leave any long term fief building stuff outside civilian administration till Cyan, because I get the impression that Cyan's a pretty big deal and difference.

What's with people hating on darkness anyway?

It's been consistently awesome for LQ in pretty much every way.


Edit: much more so than wind, which seems popular even though it went almost forgotten for the better part of a year.

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Well personally I'm a complete sucker for Darkness so I'd push for it if it were anything other than totally opposite to LQ.

But yeah, it's a bit baffling, even as her character has changed and evolved she really hasn't moved away from Darkness.

 

[Alectai]

Hey @yrsillar

Just out of curiosity, what would the Eightfold Path Pills/Highsun/Darkmoon/So and so stuff qualify as in this new system? Minor Pillmaker Pills or Major Pillmaker Pills?

And if they count as Minor (Which is plausible, given how they were accessible if you quested in the Outer Sect), what would qualify as major?

 

[Arkeus]

For those who are interested: Expected xp/AP for new arts at 16YSS and medium pills:
Covetous: 47
ENM: 58
Harmony: 56
Lark: 58
Diviner: 95

(yeah, Covetous has problems. It's pure Darkness and despite being Darkness focused we have a distinct lack of cultivation boosts there)

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What about for 12YSS and 8GSS, which is the regime we are likely to be at when actually training these arts?

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With EPC7:

Covetous: 116
ENM: 144
Harmony: 165
Lark: 144
Diviner: 216

Yeah, we can cap ECD in 4AP if we wait for EPC7 and 8GSS (as well as appraisal bronze). For reference, we can get EPC7 turn 3 if we play things right, though also getting appraisal bronze the same turn will need luck with rare pills or EPC drip turn 2.

You really should be using Erebeal's planner here.

 

[PrimalShadow]

That's an opinion man. I for one love Home as a transient thing, of cherished people coming and going, or Home as something that can be lost or found. And must be fought for all the more earnestly as a result.

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Well then, your opinion appears to be in the distinct minority judging from what people have said so far:

I'm really liking this Domain Message at first impulse...alas it finishes in Green 3, so it'd take a while to get there, but it does bridge between Argent Mirrors See Truth and the Home Domain by elaborating that the Truth is not something that should divide you, but another way to connect.

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Harmony of the Dancing Wind seems like an Art we might actually want to slot in our domain. The very literal power of friendship seem a good fit for the Home and In-group overall idea of our Dao.

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Of that shortlist, I really like what they all give us, but hot damn do I like Harmony's friendship themes. I'm cautiously inclined to domain it just based on the first levels alone.

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So yeah, I'm expressing an opinion (as anything concerning personal aesthetics has to be), but it is one that seems to resonate with a lot of people and match their intuitions. If it doesn't match your intuitions, that is a pity, but Quests are majority rules, after all.

 

[George]

Diviner: 95

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Oh wow, put me down for cultivating diviner then, at least if we can use the EPC GSS on AG.

 

[Aazog]

What's with people hating on darkness anyway?

It's been consistently awesome for LQ in pretty much every way.


Edit: much more so than wind, which seems popular even though it went almost forgotten for the better part of a year.

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Because people keep thinking that Darkness = Edgy and they dont like edgy... I dont get it either. I personally think that Darkness has been way more useful than wind, I like the combination of Moon and Darkness.

 

[Raising Kittens]

The limit of 54 meridians is still 15 meridians away, like i said a good long while.

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My estimate is fifteen to eighteen months without condensing.

Without condensing, we need to open the following Meridians:

+3 Head Meridians, for two new Perception Arts. We need to do this either way, really.
+1 Lung Meridian for CDE (Yes, I really like this Art).
+3 Leg Meridians for either ENM or AFL.

That's halfway.

In Green Three (revised Expectations), we'll need (Month Ten):
+1 Leg Meridian for PLR.
+1 Meridian for SCS+, FSS+, FVM+, TRF+

That's twelve.

In Green Four (Month 15),
+1 Lung Meridian for PLR
+1 Meridian for SCS+, FSS+, FVM+, TRF+

PLR, SCS+, FSS+, FVM+, all at 7 Meridians; TRF+ at six; three new Arts at 5 each: 49; spare Arm Meridians, 2; 51. Successors to the new Arts: ???. Any other Art we're unaware of: ???.

We'll be pushing that mark far too quickly for my tastes.

In Green Five, I have no idea, as we aren't there yet. However, I expect to pick up another round of successor Arts at that time... which will need even more Meridians, and we'll be Green Five by the 23 month mark at the latest.

 

[PrimalShadow]

So all in all, it feels very unearned and arbitrary to try and slot Harmony.

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We don't slot things into our domain because they are "earned"; we slot them because they are the building blocks that we want to define us.

Our initial Domain theme was Home, despite the fact that much of our experience has been defined by lacking a home. Our Argent Mirror insight was about "revealing all deceptions, including those of the self", despite our limited experience with such things; there was some Argent Mirror-y introspection about how we grasp onto our friends and the like, but it is more a case of an isolated example than a repeated pattern.

So the question you should be asking isn't whether this is the kind of person that Ling Qi has been or even whether it is the kind of person that Ling Qi is - the question you want to ask yourself is whether this is the kind of person that Ling Qi wants to be.

 

[Vanguard_D]

What's with people hating on darkness anyway?

It's been consistently awesome for LQ in pretty much every way.


Edit: much more so than wind, which seems popular even though it went almost forgotten for the better part of a year.

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Way back in the first thread there was a lot of vocal people that considered Darkness to be the ultimate evil that would make LQ a horrible person. (I am not kidding). Sadly that mentality has stuck around so the get rid of darkness brigade pops up from time to time.

Darkness by itself is easy to vilify and rally people against. Just throw out words like "edgy", "gloomy" and "yandere".

So in the end it just some loud people that does not like that darkness is a part of LQ and wants it gone. Ignoring them is best because thankfully they are not a majority and shouting them down just makes em lay low for awhile.

 

[Thor's Twin]

I feel that we will want to get Lark eventually, or something like Lark, simply because I feel that in order to be good at something we will need multiple arts supporting that thing, not just one. Lark is very much like SCS in that it deals with stealth, speed, and dodging, but it does do those things differently then SCS and reinforces the stealth, speed, and dodge aspects of Ling Qi, which are core parts of Ling Qi's combat capabilities.