The issue with Wood arts is partially an outgrowth of the narrative problems with TRF, where we never once cultivated it with Zhengui. It
was, effectively, packaged with him but that didn't matter. We never had the choice to make it happen, and it didn't happen. Then, later, we got and cultivated SES and it was narratively awkward. No narratives ever developed from it. We
also never cultivated it with Zhengui. Imperturbable Manor's Hearth was unpopular because it hit all of Zhengui's elements but none of his themes, but mostly it was strongly redundant with what TRF already did. After that, there's no Wood arts from the archive till the last vote. The Bai art drop only gave us BKSD with wood, which we will be cultivating but barely has anything to do with Zhengui. Wood has been unpopular for stretches of the quest in part because of the screwy handling of the narrative around it. (Plus the complete lack of Yin Wood that isn't poison/gross. Throw us a bone, Yrsillar!)
It's really hard to lobby for any of the Wood arts from the last archive dive when they
already lost a vote enshrined in the narrative followed up by us cementing the choice with meridian selection! On top of that, they're deeply flawed arts. Every art from that archive dive was mediocre or didn't fit in our build, with the exception of the ultra-cold-maiden art which thankfully lost out on narrative grounds. This ties back into my complaint about us being in Emerald Seas. I feel like there should be enough Wood arts in the archive that it should be a lot easier to find arts that actually match our needs. This doesn't mean being stronger or higher quality, but hitting more of our needs and having fewer redundancies with our other arts. Just as a matter of a broader selection.
As it is, it's basically impossible to argue that a mediocre art should replace the already pre-selected mediocre art when its meridians are wrong and the themes are only a half-step improvement. If I actually suggested it, people would be tearing my throat out. Nigh-incoherently vague pleas to the mercy of the great
@yrsillar delivering us from our plight is among the more productive courses of action actually available to me. If you want an actual concrete suggestion, it'd be to allow us to magically run Burning Glade Restoration off of Zhengui's meridians in a cooperative effort that has no existing mechanical or narrative precedent. Art crafting is approximately 4 million years away and explicitly influenced by arts we've cultivated in the past, so not cultivating anything Zhengui-ish in the meantime actively sabotages any efforts there in the future, but I'd be open to drastically premature access to that in a way that throws the established mechanics directly on their head too, sure.
I'm open to suggests and/or collaboration for brainstorming a better way forward, but there's a reason I've been light on concrete suggestions. The paths for alternatives have been trimmed really effectively.
Edit: hell, I even have to disagree with the idea that a lack of perfect arts leads to interesting choices. Currently, our choice of which art to make a successor to first is set to be one of the least interesting votes of the quest. It's going to be FSS. There's no feasible competitor from a mechanical, build, or narrative point of view. Having something that actually jives with Zhengui in a compelling way would actually provide a challenger worth mentioning. A more fitting art here would make choices more interesting, not less.
