Remove ads

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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
Going over some of the earlier updates while I check this out
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi shook her head absently as she closed her eyes, turning her attention inward. Silver light flickered under her eyelids as a single mirror like wisp manifested in the air and she examined herself. Not her still lacking features or figure, but the spirit beneath.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I suppose its been basically ingrained into her self image, but she's supposed to be fairly ethereally beautiful at this juncture.

I suppose even the Diviner's Eye and Argent Mirror together can't see through that particular illusion.
yrsillar said:
It was not often that she focused so closely, the opening of meridians had between her resources and Suyin's talisman, become a trivial task, something to be done swiftly between more intensive cultivation.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Somewhere a hundred cultivators spit blood at how offensive that statement was.

yrsillar said:
Her dantian blazed like a miniature star. A churning elemental furnace encased in soft, reflective silver, the light within blazing through the argent skin. Her meridians shone in their multitude; lines of the deepest black wound through her legs, a thick bundle of verdant green coiled around shimmering rainbow, running straight up her spine, veins of gleaming ice descended her arms and branched out through her fingertips, and threads of colorless and silver qi wound through her head and curled around her eyes and ears, even more curled in her chest, nesting her heart and lungs.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Moon is slowly becoming more prominent in her meridian map, but its pretty subtle. Looking at her with lower resolution qi-sight would give you an incomprehensible mess though, if you lack the resolution to see how they're distributed.


yrsillar said:
She had many more meridians than an average cultivator could ever hope to open. Cai Renxiang was much the same. Briefly she turned her attention to the other girl. Her meridians were a dense web of metal, mountain stone and blinding light. Where Ling Qi's were an organic tangle, Cai Renxiang's meridians were all right angles and straight lines.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Renxiang is apparently a modern skyscraper on the other hand.

yrsillar said:
It would not stay easy forever. Her spirit, already dense with spiritual channels, would require more and more care. She had already used most of the 'easy' spaces, where veins of impurity ran, leaving space that could be cleared for use with relative ease. Soon, she would have to begin carefully carving new channels, where no clear paths lay, The Elder in charge of the lessons had been very clear on how painstaking the process was, if one wanted to avoid causing themselves great harm, disrupting or damaging their extant meridians.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm, so from this I gather that the 'lower' Meridians probably map directly to your biological systems particularly nervous and circulatory systems. The impurities would then simply be all the bits occupying those spaces which contain stuff not necessary to function, and the definition of THAT as you move towards embodied spirit is pretty flexible.

The 'higher' Meridians are literally carved into your soul, and I assume, their 'positioning' is probably rather loosely tied into your physical mapping, considering by the time you reach that point you pretty much custom build your own arts already.


yrsillar said:
"Feel the places where spirit touches upon the physical world," Cai Renxiang continued. "It is these that you will need to excise. Do not tamper with the meridians connection to your dantian, you will only destroy it."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I wonder if it does actually destroy it, or if, since your dantian is how you manipulate your meridians, modifying the connection you're using to modify it would just cut it off to float off somewhere instead.

Difference is academic though. No way you're getting that back.

yrsillar said:
Integrated domain weapons are, even more than their lower ranked counterparts, merely extensions of their user. As such Domain weapons use the base attack and defense attributes of the user (as determined by non qualified bonuses). Techniques which increase the users attributes also improve their domain weapons attributes.

All damage dealt to the domain weapon from non-domain sources is reduced by 1 rank. An Integrated Domain Weapons Health is no longer a fixed value based on the talisman. Rather it is determined by the following formula.

D -1 +5(3+M)

D=Domain Rank
M=Meridians attuned to primary elements. Primary elements are the elements of the original weapon + the elements of the integrated art. In Ling Qi's case, this is Water, Dark, and Music.

An integrated domain weapon acts like an allied combatant for all mechanical purposes and may use active domain effects as if they were art's without using the cultivators actions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm...gonna want to shove Moon in there some time. Once we actually have enough to be worth it.
It does mean that in terms of white room optimality you actually want a domain weapon which doesn't share any elements with the art you want to integrate, and you want to integrate arts with as many elements as possible.

Well, assuming you actually HAVE the varied meridians, I suspect most cultivators advancing on a single elemental track won't even notice.

Also makes me wonder how this would work for cases like Ji Rong and Gan's Domain's Shield. Do they get a better health formula or do they get armor abilities?


yrsillar said:
An integrated domain weapon acts like an allied combatant for all mechanical purposes and may use active domain effects as if they were art's without using the cultivators actions.

Once a cultivator has integrated an art, the way in which their domain behaves changes. The Unawakened Domain Effects are passive and always active unless deliberately suppressed or overpowered by a more powerful domain effect. In addition to this, the cultivator may 'awaken' their domain by expressing their domain weapon, this may be done freely and does not cost the cultivator an action. If the Domain weapon is destroyed the user loses access to their awakened domain until the weapon is repaired.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Hmmm, now that we got the full thing lets see:

Unawakened Domain Effects

Ling Qi's Domain effects are tiered by her personal bonds. Personal effects are Ling Qi's personal benefits, Bond 0 effects are applied to all allies in a scene, while higher bond effects apply only to appropriately ranked allies. Paired effects apply to both Ling Qi and Bond 4 allies in the same scene
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This isn't new, its just cleaned up and organized.
Personal Effects
  • +20 to Speed and Initiative, +10 to Music Derived Attributes and Skills, and +10 to Physical Avoid and Spiritual Avoid.
  • Social Perception Increased by one rank within a space considered 'hers'
  • Immunity to effects which reduce speed, initiative or avoid(Bypassed by effects of Rank C or higher, adjusted for potency)
  • Immunity to Compulsion or Illusion effects which would cause action against allies of Bond 3 or higher (Bypassed by effects of rank A or higher, adjusted for potency)
  • E Rank Damage Reduction against Music and Sound Effects
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
A little scattered mechanically, but holistically it mostly expresses Personal Freedom.
Bond 0 Effects
  • +10 to Speed and Initiative
  • Immunity to Compulsion or Illusion effects which would cause action against allies of Bond 3 or higher (Bypassed by effects of rank C or higher, adjusted for potency)
Bond 3 Effects
  • +20 to Speed and Initiative
  • Immunity to Compulsion or Illusion effects which would cause action against allies of Bond 3 or higher (Bypassed by effects of rank B or higher, adjusted for potency)
Bond 4 Effects
  • +20 to Speed and Initiative, +10 to Spiritual Avoid
  • +1 rank to Spiritual Avoid, Spiritual Armor and Combat Perception(Boosted Rank cannot exceed Ling Qi's)
  • Immunity to effects which reduce speed, initiative or avoid(Bypassed by effects of Rank C or higher, adjusted for potency)
  • Immunity to Compulsion or Illusion effects which would cause action against allies of Bond 3 or higher (Bypassed by effects of rank A or higher, adjusted for potency)

Paired Effects
  • Immunity to Effects which induce Immobility or Helplessness(Bypassed by effects of Rank U or higher)
  • +1 Rank to Composure and Resolve
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Those ally-immunities are going to be a bitch for anyone to run into by surprise when in a teamfight. I suspect Su Ling will be extremely hype if she learns about the Immunity to Illusion that would lead them to harm allies.

Also vaguely amused by the idea of speedboosted Zhengui.

Awakened Domain
[The Mist]
The cold and cloying mist enshrouds and announces &*(Y^ Incomplete Integration-description pending
  • The Mist may extend up to far distance, or be shrunk down to adjacent at will.
  • The Mist infuses all other Lung based techniques Ling Qi channels, granting +15 to Resist and Spiritual Hit
  • The Mist enables combat stealth within it's range, and penalizes enemy perception by one half rank
  • This Mist swirls with images and phantasms, within it, enemy multiattacker penalty is reduced by one and allies multiattacker bonuses are increased by one (per stack)
  • The Mist distorts space at its perimeter, making leaving or attacking from outside difficult. A movement technique of Rank C or higher is required to leave and attacks from outside suffer a one rank penalty to Hit
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Thats some sweet sweet action economy and field control. Skipping the whole FVM wind up cycle is pretty big.
Bond 0 Effects
  • The Mist although cold, is light and peaceful for allies, parting easily and obstructing them not at all.
  • +10 to Spiritual Armor and Physical Avoid
Bond 3 Effects
  • The Mist is an ally and companion, as much as Ling Qi herself, spawning phantoms and swirling protectively around the ally.
  • +15 to Spiritual Armor and Physical Avoid, +10 to Spiritual Avoid
  • E Rank Qi regeneration while Lost Child's Elegy is active
Bond 4 Effects
  • The Mist is warm and inviting, it embraces and bolsters, it soaks up harmful effects into itself. Most of all, it reminds your friends that they are not alone.
  • +20 to Spiritual Armor, Physical and Spiritual Avoid
  • +15 to Resist
  • D Rank Qi regeneration while Lost Child's Elegy is active
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Pity Xiulan is leaving, because...just imagine having to deal with Xiulan equipped with D rank Qi recharge. Would have been FUN to watch her just fwoom without need to reload.

Active Effects
-Dissonance of the Lonely Street: C

This effect infuses area effects of lung based arts, subtly changing their tenor and expression to a darker and more violent one. This effect may only infuse one art at a time. Infused arts deal E rank damage to enemies within in addition to their other effects. If the effect would already deal damage, the damage is instead increased by one rank(Max C).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So thats:
-Frozen Soul Serenade
--Spring's End Aria gains E rank chip damage with the qi drain, applied to a Close field
--Hoarfrost Refrain goes from C rank main target B rank secondaries to C rank damage on all targets.
--Echoes of Absolute Winter adds F rank damage to Spring's End Aria, but this boost makes Spring's End Aria already higher damage than that. Not sure how this would execute.

-Roaming Moon's Eye
--Inquisitive Study is either unaffected, or gives Ling Qi eye lasers. Weak eye lasers but its a funny thought because Watchful Moon's Analysis makes it an armor piercing eye laser.
--Seeking Moon's Eyes get an attack. Not an impressive one, but they can noclip and that makes it neat.
--Initiate's Viewing Pool is probably not going to be affected, because I doubt we're getting scry-lasers this quickly.

-Phantasmagoria of Lunar Revelry
--Illustrious Phantasmal Festival and Lunatic Whirl will now savage participants. Dance to death!
-Lost Child's Elegy: B
An elegy to things lost and unattainable, left behind in the mists of time; of hearths that will never be warmed and happiness forgotten. The blade circles foes, thickening the mist and cutting them off from the world and their allies. Enemies within the mist are affected by D rank qi drain and a slow lethargy that drags at their limbs, penalizing hit, speed and initiative for each action spent in The Mist, this penalty stacks up to five times. Any enemy with two or more stacks may be focused on under the effect, and if they fail an automatic dispel test they become isolated, neither providing effects to other enemies or benefitting from effects from other enemies. The weapon may only target one enemy at a time with this effect. Enemies under this effect suffer C rank Qi drain. Enemies under this effect only perceive Ling Qi and her domain weapon. Ling Qi may affect a number of targets this way equal to her cultivation potency.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So passively banish one enemy(its a dispel test, so target their striker or tank) or actively use it to banish three into the realm of One V One Me?
Alternatively Ling Qi may target an ally within the mist, granting them a stacking buff to Physical and Spiritual Armor as well as Resist. Allies targeted this way cannot be affected by area of effect debuffs unless the effects rank exceeds her domain rank, adjusted for potency.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Or solitude as protection for allies. Neat!
Also using this to shield Xiulan would be Fun, though at current time we're most likely to use it on Hanyi so she could get Lost Child Protection.


yrsillar said:
Ling Qi opened her eyes and looked upon the change her cultivation had wrought in the dark and twisted blade. It's profile was simpler now; a long, thin double edged blade. It was still hollow, but the gaps in the metal had narrowed until they were no more than the holes on a flute, faint wisps of mist leaking from the darkened openings. The handle was now more a mouthpiece of dark lacquered wood whose grain shifted like liquid.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
*Squints*



yrsillar said:
For a time, Ling Qi remained seated, idly manipulating her Singing Mist Blade through the air, altering the tone and beat of the faint melody it played. It felt like stretching a cramped limb, muscles tingling and blood flowing in response to her exertion. It was… alien, because the blade was her, but it was not flesh and blood, it was wood and metal. When she grasped the handle, she could feel it like she was holding her own hand. When she played the Forgotten Vale Melody it felt the same as if she were playing it with her own lips and breath.

It felt foreign and disorienting, her body had changed, she wasn't quite the same anymore. It helped though, to close her eyes and recall how she had gotten here. It was her choice, and her change. She was going to keep growing, and she would change on the way, but that was fine. That was the price of cultivation. Ling Qi stood, and her blade twirled in the air, whistling faintly as it rose to hover over her shoulder. Ling Qi looked down at her hand, flexing it open and closed for a moment. Then she took a deep breath, and Awoke.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Just a bit of transhumanism.
I can see why its a useful prop. You are your Domain, but its really hard to make the leap from "I am the body" to "I am the domain" without an intermediate step of "I am the body and also this external thing"

yrsillar said:
Then, the door opened, unsealing the meditation room. Cai Renxiang stood in the doorway, and the mist rushed out into the unoccupied hall, suffusing the air and surrounding her. Ling Qi felt the difference then. The Mist around her was still cool, but it was a spring mornings chill and not winters harsh bite. Around her, the phantoms faced outward, menacing with fang and blade, and the coldness of the lonely street was replaced by the warmth of a friends arm round the shoulders.

"It is good that your efforts have borne fruit," Cai Renxiang said mildly, briefly glancing around. "However, please reign yourself in. You are leaking."

Ling Qi blinked and flushed slightly in embarrassment. Cai renxiang was right, leaving the open door aside, the sealing on the room was imperfect and she could feel streamers of herself leaking through the cracks into the rest of the house. With a feeling like sucking in her stomach, the mist shrank condensing into the area right around her and Cai. She would have shrunken it further, but… it actually felt a little good to have a friend within it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Heh, she gets everywhere.

yrsillar said:
"Sorry about that," Ling Qi apologized, smiling. "I guess I got a little lost in the sensation."

"Understandable," Cai Renxiang replied. She reached out to prod one of the shifting phantoms near to her, frowning thoughtfully as it dispersed into smoke. "Your domain is a somewhat…. Unique sensation."

Somehow, that statement just made her feel more anxious, Ling Qi thought irritably. "Well, what is your like then?"

"Inwardly focused," Cai Renxiang replied.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Think its a little rare to have a domain aura be friendly?

Or just that Renxiang's experience with domain effects tend to be more something she needs to defend against.


yrsillar said:
"Sure," Ling Qi said, taking a step forward only to pause. She was curious. "Do you think you could show me again? I've seen your weapon, but I think it might be different now."

Cai Renxiang paused as well when she spoke, and for a second, Ling Qi thought she had overstepped herself again. Then, there was the faint ringing of bells, and Cai Renxiang was bathed in light. Her face an imperious and featureless mask of liquid metal and light and her gown empyreal armor forged from radiance. She looked daunting, inhuman, perfect, and serene.

She was so very alone.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Purity her shield against the world's disorder?

yrsillar said:
"Hmm?" Cai Renxiang murmured in surprise and glanced down to see a child formed from mist and fog gently grasp her fingers. The child had familiar dark features, hair that could not be tamed, and ice blue eyes.

Ling Qi let out a squeak of morbid embarrassment, and like that she pulled her domain back in, the Mist vanishing in an instant. Cai Renxiang armor and radiance flashed away as well, leaving only two girls staring awkwardly at each other.

…The tea was easily the most uncomfortable time she had experienced in awhile.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
:3

Wheres the Sending Hugs gif when you need it?

[X] Family Ties (Qingge, Biyu, Household, Su Ling)
 
Last edited:
While i want Family Ties (Qingge, Biyu, Household, Su Ling) the fact is we're not voting for which one happens but for which one happens first.
As such i'll go with the other option to give Ling Qi some time to regain her control while in the presence of people that won't be affected negatively before going back in contact with normal mortals and even a pre-teen/toddler sister.

[X] Work Out (Zhengui, Hanyi, Bao Qian)
 
veekie said:
I suppose even the Diviner's Eye and Argent Mirror together can't see through that particular illusion.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think the problem is that she's comparing herself to people who are also ramping up into inhuman levels of attractiveness, and while her appearance has been accentuated and "perfected", she didn't like the type of features she had. Not something that'd change as her appearance got refined.
 
Last edited:
veekie said:
Fixed.

As for why the order matters...Ling Qi is still getting used to her awakened domain, so odds are good that the Bond 2+ people at the first meeting may be hugged involuntarily before she gets her Bai brand pokerface under control
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's more reason to go first.

Half the reason the people in the house are spooked about talking to us is because Ling Qi's pokerface is scary. Her slipping in and letting it slip that she's actually not a horrible spirit creature waiting for a mistake might help.

Because Ling Qi sort of reflexively tries to conceal weakness as a matter of course.
 
Still cant decide.

Her uncontrolled Domain might be good or bad for Quingye to see, and I cannot decide which vote I would most prefer happen (first).
 
yrsillar said:
She was so very alone.

"Hmm?" Cai Renxiang murmured in surprise and glanced down to see a child formed from mist and fog gently grasp her fingers. The child had familiar dark features, hair that could not be tamed, and ice blue eyes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ling Qi: [screaming spiritually] "I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND!"

TotallyNotEvil said:
I really want to see how a CRX Quest would be reacting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
As the light of Cai Renxiang's domain shone around her, she suddenly felt a tug on her hand. Looking down, she saw a child-like figure of mist bearing familiar features: dark skin, unkempt hair, eyes as blue as an icy river.

With a squeak of embarrassment, Ling Qi's domain disappeared, and the child with it. Cai Renxiang, likewise, retracted her domain, her armor of imperious light quickly disappearing. The two stood there for several moments, neither sure how to proceed. Indecision is unbecoming of a leader, so it naturally fell to Cai Renxiang to make the first move.

"Come, the tea will get cold," she turned and began walking out of the room, retreating from the awkward situation as a wise general would from an unfavorable battle.

"R-right," her retainer agreed, quickly following after her.

Tea was spent in silence that day.

***

BrightShade401 said:
Eeeeeeeeee! Smol Qi so cute! Wanna take home! Wanna trade domains! Get smol Ren!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Dwarfus Minorfus said:
I've said it once, and I'll say it again. We made the right choice recruiting best wraith Ling Qi.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Alextie said:
"My Horror Movie Villain Retainer Can't Be This Cute"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
DefinitelyGood said:
I really want to see how a LQ Quest would be reacting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
DongusExBrichinia said:
CRX: "Nothing can pierce the Radiant Armor of Absolute Order! It's unpiercable!"
Ling Qi: *activates Dissonance of Ultimate Chibi Qi Friendship Hand-holding*
CRX: "Impossible! It's pierced straight to my heart!"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top