Remove ads

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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
yrsillar said:
Sixty five years into his rule neighboring chieftains presented a suit to their king and he was reprimanded for excessive cruelty against his subjects, causing spiritual pollution in the region, and dishonouring his lady wife.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
...holy shit, just actually parsed this line.

He was so cruel to his subjects that it caused regional spiritual pollution.
Which is to say he was so unjust that his neighbors couldn't stand the number of vengeful ghosts he was causing anymore and reported him.
 
veekie said:
...holy shit, just actually parsed this line.

He was so cruel to his subjects that it caused regional spiritual pollution.
Which is to say he was so unjust that his neighbors couldn't stand the number of vengeful ghosts he was causing anymore and reported him.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Gives a different context to how he was unfaithful to his wife.
 
veekie said:
...holy shit, just actually parsed this line.

He was so cruel to his subjects that it caused regional spiritual pollution.
Which is to say he was so unjust that his neighbors couldn't stand the number of vengeful ghosts he was causing anymore and reported him.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Since dishonoring his wife is also in there, I'm pretty sure that's a list of three different things.
"1 Excessive Cruelty to his subjects, 2 causing spiritual pollution, and 3 dishonoring his lady wife" instead of "1 Excessive Cruelty to his subjects, causing spiritual pollution, and 2 dishonoring his lady wife."
 
As in, you can read into what they didn't say.
Spiritual pollution doesn't just 'happen' accidentally. When it comes up its either some kind of mass death event, creating miasmic spirits or otherwise seriously defiling extant pacts and ceremonies keeping such things away.

So you look to which is most likely? He's cruel, so probably vengeful dead or entire populations wronged in grievous and excessive manner.
 
Or he was just a general fuckup, who was pretty cruel, and also pretty disdainful of existing spirit pacts, and also had no consideration for the fact that his wife actually had a fairly important father who might not want to put up with him philandering. That genuinely seems more likely to me.
 
Yep, it is more probable that he just failed to continue the spiritual rituals which kept the surrounding spirits nice and docile.

Like that time Ling Qi needed to pacify that Deer spirit, except applied to his whole territory.
 
TimEd said:
We cannot yet afford to host anyone of note yet. Heck we can't even foist this off to our mother since she has no knowledge of the values cultivators use. This means we would either need to handle all this personally, or hire an intermediary which would cut into the profits further.

Really, selling this would give us more of that much needed foundation for when we finally formally establish our Clan.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I am not really in favor of selling the tapestry. It's a unique piece and gives unique political avenues to Ling Qi. Money isn't unique. Sure money is powerful, but once Zhengui starts doing his thing I don't think the Ling clan will want for money ever again. With Zhengui promising to be an engine of commerce the world has never before seen I am much more interested in how Ling Qi can use this tapestry to make connections and allies way above her weight class.

You are right in that we cannot afford to host anyone yet. The key word is yet. Eventually we will be able too, and this tapestry may be key in actually getting those people of note to the table. Half the war in politics in getting people to sit at the same table. With this tapestry we will have a really strong pull.
 
Varder said:
That is true. But secretes that are known to everyone or at least are available for learning for everyone are not secrets at all. It's a balance that I think would be destroyed by renting it to anyone willing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So what I'm hearing is that if we have people we dislike, and we let everyone except them touch it, the Hidden Moon is still happy. This method clearly cannot fail.

...and, I mean, considering the weird way a certain Lady Sun apparently became spirit-blooded, I'm thinking we wouldn't want her touching the tapestry anyway. If the tapestry detects three parents, does it grudgingly figure out a structure for that, or does it get upset? I wanna know.

I think that would objectively be the funniest way for that reveal to happen when she shows up again, though. She gets in on the tapestry-touching party, and the tapestry spirit just jumps out of the scroll and starts yelling at her. "NO! TWO PARENTS! NOT ONE, NOT THREE! TWO! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"
 
Karugus said:
I don't think 'renting' it will really be as easy as people suggest. It's literally an upstart nobody charging people for the opportunity to understand more of their heritage using a priceless piece of history.

I can't do all the political nuance of this sort of discovery justice. But there is going to be some kind of undercurrent that a literal nobody shouldn't have this historical relic when there's entire clans who define their identity based off of information that's likely recorded on this tapestry. And that's before we start trying to charge people for the privilege. We do not value this tapestry the same way other clans might- we can either use that to engender good will and useful concessions, or we can maybe parlay giving it to the Cai as Ling Qi letting all Emerald Sea families share in their common ancestry (with the underlying caveat that its another tool for the Cai to control them).

Treating this irreverently or as a commodity to be traded or exploited is liable to make enemies.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This.
I was going to launch into an explanation of why renting it out to the general public or to only people of our choice is really a terrible idea either way, b/c its a pretty irreverent, mercantile way of treating such a priceless artifact that other clans would kill to have. But you saved me the trouble. So thnx, lol.
 
Lena27 said:
This.
I was going to launch into an explanation of why renting it out to the general public or to only people of our choice is really a terrible idea either way, b/c its a pretty irreverent, mercantile way of treating such a priceless artifact that other clans would kill to have. But you saved me the trouble. So thnx, lol.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If you do it in the dumbest possible way, sure, but it's a simple matter to just not do it in the dumbest possible way.
 
reignonyrparade said:
Since dishonoring his wife is also in there, I'm pretty sure that's a list of three different things.
"1 Excessive Cruelty to his subjects, 2 causing spiritual pollution, and 3 dishonoring his lady wife" instead of "1 Excessive Cruelty to his subjects, causing spiritual pollution, and 2 dishonoring his lady wife."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It also possible that he killed so many of his own subjects that their spirits started bothering neighbors, that would certainly qualify as Excessive Cruelty, being unfaithful is just a bonus.
 
FakePriest said:
It also possible that he killed so many of his own subjects that their spirits started bothering neighbors, that would certainly qualify as Excessive Cruelty, being unfaithful is just a bonus.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It is possible. I'm not saying it's NOT possible. But I was responding to "holy shit I just parsed this line" which implied that it was definitely the case, and it really isn't. General fuckups who don't bother with the spirit pacts they're responsible for and are also cruel enough to toss in if you're reprimanding them for the spirit pact thing anyway (as they're presumably also tossing in the dishonoring his wife thing) are almost certainly more common than people who manage to be so cruel that that alone is causing spiritual problems for their neighbors.
 
reignonyrparade said:
It is possible. I'm not saying it's NOT possible. But I was responding to "holy shit I just parsed this line" which implied that it was definitely the case, and it really isn't. General fuckups who don't bother with the spirit pacts they're responsible for and are also cruel enough to toss in if you're reprimanding them for the spirit pact thing anyway (as they're presumably also tossing in the dishonoring his wife thing) are almost certainly more common than people who manage to be so cruel that that alone is causing spiritual problems for their neighbors.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You would be surprised. History knows many examples of petty tyrants who tortured and killed hundreds of their own. I'm not saying your interpretation wrong, we didn't have enough context to confirm or deny it.
 
Karugus said:
I don't think 'renting' it will really be as easy as people suggest. It's literally an upstart nobody charging people for the opportunity to understand more of their heritage using a priceless piece of history.

I can't do all the political nuance of this sort of discovery justice. But there is going to be some kind of undercurrent that a literal nobody shouldn't have this historical relic when there's entire clans who define their identity based off of information that's likely recorded on this tapestry. And that's before we start trying to charge people for the privilege. We do not value this tapestry the same way other clans might- we can either use that to engender good will and useful concessions, or we can maybe parlay giving it to the Cai as Ling Qi letting all Emerald Sea families share in their common ancestry (with the underlying caveat that its another tool for the Cai to control them).

Treating this irreverently or as a commodity to be traded or exploited is liable to make enemies.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This

Either offer it to a friendly/allied faction/clan for favors.

Or keep it locked deep inside our vaults and only allow close allies or people who gives us really big under the table concessions to access it. And even then rarely.
 
FakePriest said:
You would be surprised. History knows many examples of petty tyrants who tortured and killed hundreds of their own. I'm not saying your interpretation wrong, we didn't have enough context to confirm or deny it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I wouldn't be surprised, because I'm not disputing anything about that at all? "History knows many examples" would be a great response if I thought he definitely hadn't been so cruel that his cruelty alone caused spiritual pollution, but I've explicitly established don't think he definitely hadn't been that cruel.
 
Lena27 said:
This.
I was going to launch into an explanation of why renting it out to the general public or to only people of our choice is really a terrible idea either way, b/c its a pretty irreverent, mercantile way of treating such a priceless artifact that other clans would kill to have. But you saved me the trouble. So thnx, lol.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Already explained that renting it for cash is basically a low return proposition. Making it available on request would be a useful social draw on the other hand, so long as its used to back up a general social pull effort.

This is a relic that's valuable in that the people most interested in it are the Scholars who want to research it, and the Traditionalists who want to bolster their credentials. Which are both people we want to make more contacts with and are traditionally reclusive!
 
So best option likely is to offer scholars and clans to come view it and try to gain social favors since favors are worth more than money, The question is how would be keep it secured so someone cyan or higher won't come and loot it or murder us for it.
 
flazeo25 said:
So best option likely is to offer scholars and clans to come view it and try to gain social favors since favors are worth more than money, The question is how would be keep it secured so someone cyan or higher won't come and loot it or murder us for it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think the answer is Cai. Allowing her scholars access to the tapestry for storing it seems like a pretty small price to pay.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top