EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
It's the one where we vote either Commerce (Bao), Resources (Gu) or Intrigue (Bai). Intrigue won.
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- Somewhere.
I'm curious if this interlude unfolded as it did because we picked Intrigue.
That we'd occasionally get "anonymous" tips on matters of potential interest to us. The other choices were Gu trade bonuses and something else I forget.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
That interlude unfolded because someone commissioned for it (Picklepikki)
- Location
- Somewhere.
Yes, but I mean the details, not the setting?
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
@AbeoLogos I wouldn't go to that conclusion yet. Even if Meizhen would inherit the spy network, I'd argue that due to circumstances (priorities and command from above), she may not be able to provide as much had we not gone with Intrigue. That vote was kinda meta in a sense that it determines some events.
TimEd
Meteor maker
Seems like it would still be ridiculously important though? Just because Bai Meizhen is set to inherit the spy network in the future doesnt mean that Meizhen will even be able to get much use of that network, since she had no hand (or knowledge I assume) of its creation and handling.
Especially since we would be getting the Intrigue stuff only if Meizhen's dad is still alive, which means that we'd be getting info while the spy network is still at its current 'peak', since I doubt Meizhen would be able to properly inherit the network without massive sweping changes in most levels of it, either before or after said network is given to Meizhen.
Especially since we would be getting the Intrigue stuff only if Meizhen's dad is still alive, which means that we'd be getting info while the spy network is still at its current 'peak', since I doubt Meizhen would be able to properly inherit the network without massive sweping changes in most levels of it, either before or after said network is given to Meizhen.
Mother Nyx
Mother of Elpis
- Location
- The Kei Klub
- Pronouns
- She/Her
But, she'll have us!
I doubt it. The hints as to Meilen's speciality were all in place long before that vote. The implied timeline doesn't work for Meizhen being the intended bonus, since the switch over is probably 10-15 years off at minimum. It also doesn't fit with the rationale provided, which was warming a broken old guy's heart.
well, that's kind of the thing. A sunset on the perk is bleh. It'd be less blah if we benefitted from it with the border stuff, got a Bai lower castes informational package, or something, as much as the Sun/Bai/Cai politics stuff has been waylaid by barbarian invasion.
I agree at present, Meizhen wouldn't be a good inheritor. As much as she claims ES has made her soft, she still adheres very much to her aunt's high-handed perspective with regards to the other castes.
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....he's wearing a false persona isn't he?
This, but even if Meizhen is ill-suited to it, and Xiao Fang isn't going to be managing it, her dad is clearly going to be tutoring her when the handover is being planned for, so the only reason Meizhen wouldn't actually usefully inherit it is if that tutoring completely destroy's Meizhen's relationship with her father.
Let me be clearer with my disenchantment. The two more economical politics perks were both things that could be built on moving forwards and unambiguous upgrades over what we would otherwise enjoy.
Hou Zhuang's intrigue perk isn't something we can invest in or improve upon because there is no rapport between him and his daughter and she thinks very highly of us anyway. The benefit is stuck in an awkward place between short-lived and redundant.
On top of that, it wasn't any help when we stumbled directly across the matters it's best-suited for in the whole border banditry business. Yes, the perks were always intended to come into play a few years off when we're doing clan holding stuff, but if we're confronted with Bai/Sun/Cai politics being smeared in our faces now, it doesn't make sense that it would not yet help. We picked the perk specifically to help with political intrigue, if it doesn't there's an issue.
It really feels like this pivot to double-down the barb invasion plot was not planned, and it's wreaking havoc on the geopolitical plot's pacing.
Hou Zhuang's intrigue perk isn't something we can invest in or improve upon because there is no rapport between him and his daughter and she thinks very highly of us anyway. The benefit is stuck in an awkward place between short-lived and redundant.
On top of that, it wasn't any help when we stumbled directly across the matters it's best-suited for in the whole border banditry business. Yes, the perks were always intended to come into play a few years off when we're doing clan holding stuff, but if we're confronted with Bai/Sun/Cai politics being smeared in our faces now, it doesn't make sense that it would not yet help. We picked the perk specifically to help with political intrigue, if it doesn't there's an issue.
It really feels like this pivot to double-down the barb invasion plot was not planned, and it's wreaking havoc on the geopolitical plot's pacing.
accused of murder of the 6th prince.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Poor Zhuang. His clan shaped him into something weak and without shape of his own, but he has found a way to make that meaningful according to his values, not his clan's.
(which may be obvious, given that I paid yrsillar real money that i worked moderately hard to get in order to read more words about him)
OK but, as a counterargument: Hou Zhuang is great and I love him.
(which may be obvious, given that I paid yrsillar real money that i worked moderately hard to get in order to read more words about him)
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- Location
- Florida
Relax we might be in the middle of a war but that doesn't mean the juicy secrets won't come we just need to wait, like a fisherman watching his reel if your antsy and impatient they won't bite but if your as still as an unbroken lake front?
REEL THAT SUCKER IN BOIS WE GOT A BIG ONE
REEL THAT SUCKER IN BOIS WE GOT A BIG ONE
He's absolutely great. I love him too. I'm sad to see him planning probably to die, but respect his Path if that's where it leads to his own satisfaction. Or the closest to satisfaction he's still capable of.
I'm just complaining about imbalanced meta-incentives. Xiulan's mother or Bling Santa Bao having positive dispositions towards us leading to tangible benefits are both centuries-long benefits that can be built on and represent diversification of favourable contacts within their respective clan structures.
Hou Zhuang is a short to medium term benefit at best, he doesn't really represent a meaningful "in" with the Bai, and we're set up to get a replacement whose benefit for us doesn't rely on his like for us whatsoever, making potential investment in the link -and arguably the vote we had itself- more or less moot. It's just wonky.
In terms of politics, there's definitely going to be stuff around the inter-sect event, but if we're busy paying attention to war stuff right up to it, we should auto-lose whatever intrigue there is. Sun Liling won't be sitting on her hands in the leadup.
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TimEd
Meteor maker
No, the Cai's have us. Meizhen could request Ling Qi to help, but really, she's not had any exoerience in these stuff at all.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I mean, to be fair, Sun Liling has not exactly wowed me with her subtlety and commitment to deniable ops. Take this, a month before we got sent on our retrieval mission in Cai territory near the Bai border:
A mistress of shadows, she is not.
Got the skills and connections. But not the temperament.
- Location
- Florida
With all this talk about secrets and subterfuge I just had a wild thought of somehow sweet talking Sun Lilings murder flower spirit into somehow secretly working for us under the little radar.
Why you might even say...
SHE'S A PLANT BA DUM TIS
Thank you everyone ill be here all night!
Why you might even say...
SHE'S A PLANT BA DUM TIS
Thank you everyone ill be here all night!
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She doesn't actually need to be all that subtle to cut deals with teams from the other two sects, just rich, armed with a decent pitch about the prestige available for outperforming the Argent Sect's very unfair wunderkind year, and actually be engaging with the issue. Meanwhile, we don't know the format of the contest(s), the team selection process, the number of people allowed on or needed for a team, the team qualification process if any, the number of teams participating from each sect, the age/year ranges for the separate divisions in the competition, or even a vague sense of what the other Argent Sect teams will look like, much less the makeup of the other sects' representation.
We haven't engaged with the issue at all, and we're totally ignorant to the details. Meizhen is probably aware of the details, but as a Bai there's no way she has any pull or access to the goings-on at other Great Sects. Renxiang will be perfectly competent at requisitioning any material preparation necessary, but basically wholly lacks the subtlety to make the necessary inquiries; if she's not being spoon-fed info, we're basically blind. We don't have any other allies or agents relevant to the matter at this time.
Counter-persuasion and pulling on local strings to influence potential foes/allies in the other sects is very basic baby stuff we should all be expected to be doing on our own. This is absolutely part of the Shenhua test. Renxiang has to put us to work on this soon, and it has to be us because she's decided to make Ling Qi a social operator in addition to an occasional sneak. It's literally our job.
This to me sounds like Meizhen is the last obstacle keeping Suzhen from reaching for White. Maybe she needs a strong heir as part of her path and Meizhen is shaping up for that. Cai Shenhua also hinted on an budding alliance between the Cai, Bai and Zheng of the Ebon Rivers province, so could these parents Hou Zhuang speak of be Bai Suzhen marrying that Zheng Po that was at the tournament? Because those two were ribbing each other like an old married couple already, family feud or no.
And Meizhen is absolutely the best person in the story to run a spy network! Especially in the Thousand Lakes province that we know is fright with discontent because of the Bai's tyranny. She's played games of intrigue her whole life, both with the Bai and in the sect. Her finding her new personal ideology only makes her better for the role since she'd likely be the first truly diplomatic White Serpent Bai in ...history. Scouring enemies and building ties with allies using her mothers legacy is about as perfect for Meizhen's path as I can imagine.
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