Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
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NoxOfUmbra
Shadow of the night
- Location
- Colombia, South América
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
In fact, we are Ling Qi
That is how she is cultivating now, not like the house is on a vent.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
We provide her with red spirit stones to cultivate with. It's incredibly extravagant by mortal standards, but she's our mom.
Going by the expenses that are shown at the start of the turn we are spending 10 red stones on Household expenses (including pills and medicine). So we are sending her both regular stones and drugs to use. Remember she can only use like one stone a week at early red/no gold.
A single red stone probably more then covers the mortal side of the expenses for the entire household each month.
Mini Qi
The art is amazing, but we NEED a companion piece that shows how CRX is reacting!
- Location
- NZ
I kind of wanted to but I'm not exactly sure what Cai's immediate reaction was aside from it being awkwards afterwards.
did we ever went through the house staff to see if they too can cultivate or not feasible?
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
It's not really feasible right now. We really can't devote the additional time needed to make sure their cultivation goes smoothly.
Once Qingge reaches Yellow it wouldn't be too bad to let her guide them in turn I think.
They are likely already long atropied is the idea, we don't value them enough to dump ridiculous amounts of wealth into making it up, especially when, unlike Qingge, we don't have any assurance of decent talent even back in their prime.
Do it for their children.
I don't think Qingge has talent either, she was tested for it with the He. It's just that even if it's a bit of a waste we're willing to spend spirit stones to give her a few more years. Most likely anyone could cultivate and reach immortality if they had the rescources, but there are only so many red stones to go around and the empire wants those stones to go to the people that can use them most efficiently. Which means we could splurgle stones on our servants but every stone spent on them is a stone not spent on actual talent. And since they need more stones for the same results for every girl in our household that reaches red there are two less soldiers, producers or bureaucrats keeping the empire running. It's nepotism that's the problem.
Qingge was never tested. Her performance is vastly anomalous for her age, suggesting she was likely around Ling Qi' level of talent in her youth, but she was simply never tested or given the opportunity to cultivate.
Talent is a hard gate.
- Location
- Greece
I'd have to pull a hard disagree here.
We do not live in a meritocracy, and nearly nobody sees it that way. The family being the core political power unit in a society where priority is placed on the family over the state most of the time. This means that most families splurge on family members so that they can maintain comat supremacy, and even weaker members of a barony get to be red, with weaker members of a dukedom getting to be green. The imperials means of power is the stranglehold they keep n spirit stones, the rarest of which they do not share, regardless of talent.
The reason the imperials talent test commoners is mostly as a culturally approved power play to keep the big families in check. Furbrishing their ministries and the Sects is a bonus, not their main purpose. This can e easily proven by the attrition rate of new barons, which comes from being given dangerous fiefs.
Edit: did a brainfart, the major reason is that they get entrenched in the system and do not damage it, but this still means they neither need nor want meritocracy, just to neuter the dangers. end edit.
Moreover, a stone is not something that goes towards a person, but rather a family, cuz in universe, there is no Ling Qi barony, there is only the Ling Clan's barony. Ling Qi may, as the head of the house, decide where the stones go, but overall, investing in what you have to make your house more efficient is not nepotism but rather pragmatism, until and unless society moves past feudalism.
But wait, there is more. Red stones are abundant and so are red Realms. Sure, they are far less common than mortals, but every baron hoards hundreds if not thousands of them and uses them to power formations, a use often more frivolous than giving to one's family. Heck, children are allowed to waste red stones as fuel on formations for school competitions. These stones would not most likely go to a competent bureaucrat or footsoldier, they would most likely be used on something more frivolous.
But even if we assume people lived in a more meritocratic society, as long as stones are legal tender owned by people(rather than, say, state funding with expectations on its use), then people can use said stones as they please. This is not nepotism, it is how money works. Maybe it shouldn't work that way, but using one's money on one's family has not been considered to be a bad thing in even the most meritocratic society to date. We could push the political discussion further and attest that class differences created by money earned not by merit but by famillial right are inherently a problem, and I wouldn't actually disagree, but as much as this would be interesting argument, the setting is, like, twelve revolutions away from such a thing, so this is not the right thread for that discussion: either way, red stones you do not use will most likely go towards something more frivolous than a low talent family member.
One thing that should be said here is that the thread assumed the majority of people have a talent of 1, but I do not remember it even having being stated. The QM has, on multiple occasions, said that talent as a mechanic is a whole number for the protagonist regardless of starting point because it makes bookkeeping easier, but in-universe most people can have fractions, such as 6,5 or 3,3. Who knows, maybe that means all people can actually cultivate, they just have talents of 1,1 or 1,01 or maybe even lower.
Mind you, this is still a nearly unsurmountable gate, just not a hard one.
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Oh yes, but the issue is mostly it takes exponential amounts of stones AND time spent doing nothing else hammering at the basic breakthrough for every bit less ability, and aggravating it by being well past the prime age hurts a lot too.
That Qingge still had anything left to work with, and that she had two daughters with different fathers but both having significant amounts of talent suggests that if she HAD taken the marriage and thus awakened to cultivation she might well have eclipsed her would-be husband with a bit of work ethic.
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Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
Huh... I am pretty sure none of that is confirmed. Qingge's performance is around what you'd expect of a Talent 2 with really bad work ethic... with the 'detail' that she is way too old to begin. However, considering it's as far as we know not seen too weird that she can begin now, it's likely that her perormance is fairly average for someone who had good talent (3/4?) and then got it astrophied.
- Location
- Greece
Man, sometimes I wish there was a "fair enough" rating for times when I do not quite agree yet not quite disagree either, for a reason or another. Both of these takes seem valid, yet neither has enough proof imo for me to call it insightful or informative.
Guess I'll just like both?
I dont think that it is mainly or even mostly intended as a power play.
they go for talent 5+ commoners as seen here:
but it is less to deny other nobles their talented recruits and more because those are the people that could find a way to cultivate even without support from the empire. We see Jiao's toughts on it in the Bonus 8 interlude from RR:
also, we have a wog from way back that recruiting among commoners is perfectly fine for nobles to do:
So given the motivations, if we managed to find a talent 5+ commoner and convinced them to join up with us, then the imperials probably wouldnt mind it all that much as we would bring them into the system that way.
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- Location
- Greece
Huh thank you for reminding me. Dumbest thing is, I had read that info, and it actually further helps my argument (there are far, far, far more red stones in circulation than all the 5+ talent people in the empire can use in full excess mode), but somehow, that info completely slipped my mind.
I thought it is more to catch the big talents that might manage to cultivate on their own or be snatched up by some rogue factors. Like, you want all the talent 7+ people in the empire integrated into your power structures designed to keep cultivators grounded.
It's hard to run an empire if billybob the oddly talented mountain hick learns to cultivate on his own, and decides to turn bandit.
Third realm is the point where you can start killing towns without too much effort after all, and at the talents needed to cultivate without aid, reaching it isn't especially difficult.
Which brings me back to Su ling really. That girl doesn't want to buy into the system, but I can't see that going well, long term.
- Location
- Greece
Her brand of not buying it is not immediately destructive, so she may be able to hide it enough to cruise by. Assuming she gets some character development to hide her bluntness, or that one of her two powerful friends manage to somehow find employment that'll keep her safe regardless
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