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

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George said:
Arts to create heat for forging are definitely a staple in the genre

Honestly though, Destiny stands out for not having special magic ores be the norm for cultivator weaponry.
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That we know of. Honestly having our blade be made out of a shard of solid darkness sounds like a pretty mystical ore.

Edit sure the low level stuff seems pretty unmystical but as we go up I expect that to change. In fact I expect we are on the cusp of seeing some really weird materials.
 
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George said:
Arts to create heat for forging are definitely a staple in the genre

Honestly though, Destiny stands out for not having special magic ores be the norm for cultivator weaponry.
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It's nice indeed.

We know that weird magic ore materials exist because of the Adamant and Orichalcum levels in Physical cultivation, going off the example of Iron, Bronze, and Gold. But that we haven't seen a single lick of those metals indicates to me that they are the exception for equipment and other tools, which is probably due to rarity and difficulty of production. What's interesting is that balancing this out we have really effing weird and esoteric building materials allowed by Formations, as noted in the Cloudbow or stuff like Zhengui's ever burning talisman.

Speaking of Empire metallurgy, @yrsillar when was steel discovered and how common is it currently, and which provinces produce the most?

This particular question is interesting because ancient China also developed steel working independently from Europe as well as blast furnaces.
 
Ayashi said:
Considering the kind of shit we pulled of at yellow i think making fireballs is at least in the realm of possibilities.
And Xiulan agrees with me.
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Fireballs yes. Concentrated sustained heat needed for smelting needs a dedicated cultivator or formation though?

Possible =/= economical

Iron is cheap as hell to produce....once you have the techniques to produce fire of that intensity conventionally.
 
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Neshuakadal said:
That we know of. Honestly having our blade be made out of a shard of solid darkness sounds like a pretty mystical ore.

Edit sure the low level stuff seems pretty unmystical but as we go up I expect that to change. In fact I expect we are on the cusp of seeing some really weird materials.
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Tons of mystical materials, but no ores specifically yet. It's better in a lot of ways, though it makes the focus on metals in the earlier periods a little odd since they don't seem to matter at all now.
 
George said:
Tons of mystical materials, but no ores specifically yet. It's better in a lot of ways, though it makes the focus on metals in the earlier periods a little odd since they don't seem to matter at all now.
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Do you mean focus on metals in the early periods/updates of the quest, or in the early periods of the Empire's history and lore?
 
George said:
History and lore. Viewing things as bronze age and iron age when metal doesn't seem to play all that major a role now makes me wonder about the transition.
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Ahhh okay then.

Personally from what I can gather all this esoteric materials work is caused from being in the theoretical officer track of the Sect more than anything else because we have so many of these disparate crafters existing and making things. From a logistical standpoint of fielding and arming armies, and the even more important idea of maintaining working farms and mines, metal like bronze and iron should still reign supreme especially in the low levels because of how good at being a tool it is even without formations or further expense than forging it. We don't have the right focus to see this though because of where the "camera" most often is I figure.

For an iron/bronze age divide, the Empire's historians almost certainly don't organize their history by that measure, though they likely have copious commentary on it's general amounts as seen in stuff like, tax forms or something. Commentary on census like data pretty much.
 
BungieONI said:
Ahhh okay then.

Personally from what I can gather all this esoteric materials work is caused from being in the theoretical officer track of the Sect more than anything else because we have so many of these disparate crafters existing and making things. From a logistical standpoint of fielding and arming armies, and the even more important idea of maintaining working farms and mines, metal like bronze and iron should still reign supreme especially in the low levels because of how good at being a tool it is even without formations or further expense than forging it. We don't have the right focus to see this though because of where the "camera" most often is I figure.

For an iron/bronze age divide, the Empire's historians almost certainly don't organize their history by that measure, though they likely have copious commentary on it's general amounts as seen in stuff like, tax forms or something. Commentary on census like data pretty much.
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Mmm, yeah, definitely. Like we already had yrs inform us before of how the cultivator experience is kind of isolated from the mortal one.

Hmm...if anything I imagine the mortals probably hit the iron age much sooner than the cultivators, as the limited bronze stocks are used up by cultivators who prefer it, and iron's(not steel) deficiencies as a military material is mostly irrelevant if the mortals are using them for cooking pots, saws, chisels and hammers.

The hard part is figuring out how to build the furnaces for it without using cultivation magic. Too expensive
 
veekie said:
Mmm, yeah, definitely. Like we already had yrs inform us before of how the cultivator experience is kind of isolated from the mortal one.

Hmm...if anything I imagine the mortals probably hit the iron age much sooner than the cultivators, as the limited bronze stocks are used up by cultivators who prefer it, and iron's(not steel) deficiencies as a military material is mostly irrelevant if the mortals are using them for cooking pots, saws, chisels and hammers.

The hard part is figuring out how to build the furnaces for it without using cultivation magic. Too expensive
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There's the whole thing with the primitive bloomeries and sponge iron that Europe and China came up with at different times. There's also something to keep in mind in that the cultivators do care for the mortals in their charge, that's the point of cultivator society, so I imagine that Reds and Yellows would also be involved in figuring this stuff out.

Stuff like a minor hub village having a Red furnace or Blacksmith or something. The progression is definitely not going to match what happened IRL given the existence of qi and spirits and all these other things. So I think it's more accurate to say "Figure out how to do it without much cultivator magic, and lots of low level cultivator muscle".

Which is really the point of Reds, in particular. Lots and lots of kinda supernatural muscle.
 
Hm so we're getting into the realm of an outright worldbuilding post with the questions being asked, but short answer is thus.

Bronze or rather its tin component had some genuine mystical weight too it,it was the sacred metal which the serpents of thousand lakes supplemented their diet and forged their scales. Gifting some of the deposits to her husband for human use was a major driver of early Bai dominance in their region.

However, that very rarity is what put iron into widespread use for tools among both mortals and cultivators, and led to the improved ironworking that eventually led to its phaseout, up to and including the development of steel by Zheng smiths in the second dynasty, which was the point where bronze became firmly subpar for modern talisman craft.
 
Shard said:
Are there secret cultivation stages that are accessible in this quest?
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If there are... well, they're secret.

I mean, I don't think it works that way. We're following a particular path to the peak, and it has certain attributes, and one of those is its stages of cultivation. It's just that as soon as yo're asking "are there secret blah" as an OOC question....
 
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Shard said:
Are there secret cultivation stages that are accessible in this quest?
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While the variety of ways of cultivating used overseas means they may exist in-universe, we're highly encouraged to follow the beaten path and are very, very far from being the most talented person around. We are not a bad enough dude to come up on our own with anything better than what we can go read in a book.
 
We know that there is something fishy going on with the Sun Flower Goddess because Great Spirits don't have the same control that the Sun Flower Goddess has over their respective domains. Additionally, there is the Iron Tooth Hag in the South that the Barbarians are afraid of. So there do appear to be different end goal cultivation stages, but those are probably not possible when using the traditional Imperial Cultivation system.
 
Sirrocco said:
If there are... well, they're secret.

I mean, I don't think it works that way. We're following a particular path to the peak, and it has certain attributes, and one of those is its stages of cultivation. It's just that as soon as yo're asking "are there secret blah" as an OOC question....
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Pretty much yeah. Its not really linear in the big picture but the linear Imperial system is reliable as hell.
 
Shard said:
Are there secret cultivation stages that are accessible in this quest?
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There being secret cultivation stages defeats the point of a lot of Yrs worldbuilding since he has outright stated he wants a defined cultivation system with a defined end.

yrsillar said:
Hm so we're getting into the realm of an outright worldbuilding post with the questions being asked, but short answer is thus.

Bronze or rather its tin component had some genuine mystical weight too it,it was the sacred metal which the serpents of thousand lakes supplemented their diet and forged their scales. Gifting some of the deposits to her husband for human use was a major driver of early Bai dominance in their region.

However, that very rarity is what put iron into widespread use for tools among both mortals and cultivators, and led to the improved ironworking that eventually led to its phaseout, up to and including the development of steel by Zheng smiths in the second dynasty, which was the point where bronze became firmly subpar for modern talisman craft.
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Makes sense considering the rivers of the Zheng.
 
[X] Aid the spirit, something about the prince set her on edge.

I know it's a bit late and hilariously unnecessary, but I might as well toss one more vote on the useful reward pile rather than the dudes we are building a reputation as emulating pile.
 
I wonder if spider friend could discover aluminum... although fire friend would probably get the best use out of it.
 
Hangwind said:
I wonder if spider friend could discover aluminum... although fire friend would probably get the best use out of it.
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Depends if aluminum exists, which is probable given it's so common normally speaking. On the flipside, world with conceptual elemental definitions and spirits, so it might not.
 
Even if aluminum exists it needs some pretty heavy infrastructure to be useful as more than extreme niche stuff. iirc even just a couple centuries ago the stuff was worth more than gold due to that.
 
Ayashi said:
Even if aluminum exists it needs some pretty heavy infrastructure to be useful as more than extreme niche stuff. iirc even just a couple centuries ago the stuff was worth more than gold due to that.
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In the real world. The problem with aluminum is that it's impure. And purification is something that the Empire puts great focus on.
 
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