Remove ads

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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
Erebeal said:
Ok, so in terms of what's important here (apart from me being :smugface: about LQ trusting Renxiang's strength :p), I think a big takeaway is the importance of fear to Ling Qi:



This is a big deal to her. Decisions made out of fear go back to her original sin, and she really doesn't like them because they make her feel weak. And weakness is failure - it's everything she's trying to avoid. Now, one idea that springs to mind is that we could, perhaps, point to this as something she uses to differentiate #FVM approved suffering - tribulations aren't taken on out of fear, they're suffering deliberately endured for to attain greater strength. They're an expression of strength rather than weakness. Hurting a friend is then something she sees as a major personal sin as a result of such weakness.

That being said, again, she doesn't seem to have gone back to her original decision to run away from home here, which was absolutely a fear-driven decision that she claims she believes was absolutely justified and correct despite the pain it caused to her and her mother. Yet she doesn't bring it up here despite its clear parallels.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm not gonna lie, that's an oversight on my part and I think I'm going to fix that :p
 
Garlak said:
I gotta ask: why?

She says that she "can't stop"... but why? Why is that the case?

"...Did it really all come back to power? She was still so very small and weak. Her path still stretched on, infinite and difficult. There was so much more distance left to run."

Why do you need to go further and further? Why does it all come back to power?

If you have enough power to achieve what you want, and achieve security, then... that's fine, isn't it. It's like money or riches in the real world; you get enough for security and happiness. But you don't make a religion out of pursuing it. You could reach for more and more wealth and/or prestige and/or whatever, but at that point, you're basically just keeping score.


But you've convinced yourself that you're always in danger of somebody rolling over in their sleep once and upending or demolishing all you've ever built. You see a world full of supremely strong people, and you fear that this means that you can never know enough security, and so you tell yourself that you need to reach further, reach higher, and never stop moving.

But I think the truth is, is that even if you ascend, that uncertainty and danger won't go away. Because even if you become a Top Dog somehow, you'll still have risks and dangers and challenges and problems anyway. Maybe you'll be more secure, but at the same time, you'll also have to play the game for eternity; because you'll be ageless and immortal. At least as a mortal, or even a cultivator, you'd be able to die of old age and pass on and be done with it all.

So, all in all...

I'm not sure why "it'd break you." I mean, maybe it might now.

Because Ling Qi is a literal teenager and is still suffering from insecurities and issues galore.

But, like... How much has Ling Qi actually went back and re-examined the age old motivation for why she began this? That is, looked at Cultivation and her advancing forwards asked "Why?"

I think Cultivating because of a "from", as Rincewind would put it, is different from Cultivating because of a "to". Don't Cultivate out of fear, not forever, but do Cultivate towards a positive goal or for a positive reason.

And, frankly, know when enough is enough or when/where you need to/ought to stop, too. -_-

This, on the other hand, feels like a better reason to advance. Advance so that you can keep up with your friends and comrades; the people you've befriended and decided you want to stick around with.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Remember that one of her insights that she has engraved on her soul is this:

"There is no peace in emptiness, no content in stillness. Stagnation is death; act, change, move think, and grow until the very end."

The way that she sees it right now, stopping would be stagnation which is anathema to her very being.
 
Last edited:
Anyway, for the vote I favour boldness as well. Like, humility could be a good idea if we had knowledge of Ice Lady customs that said "this is the culturally appropriate approach to take"... but we don't.

Moreover, if they ally with us it'll likely be because they believe we're strong. And, frankly, we are. In the context of the empire ES is a relatively weak and poor province... but internationally they're still a powerful state if they sort their shit out and aren't being sabotaged by their leadership. Like hell, the nomads have been constantly getting pushed back over time, and even in their biggest incursion with Ogodei they ultimately lost, and were nowhere near as successful as the Mongols. We aren't currently living under the Yuan dynasty after all :p
 
Garlak said:
I gotta ask: why?

She says that she "can't stop"... but why? Why is that the case?

"...Did it really all come back to power? She was still so very small and weak. Her path still stretched on, infinite and difficult. There was so much more distance left to run."

Why do you need to go further and further? Why does it all come back to power?

If you have enough power to achieve what you want, and achieve security, then... that's fine, isn't it. It's like money or riches in the real world; you get enough for security and happiness. But you don't make a religion out of pursuing it. You could reach for more and more wealth and/or prestige and/or whatever, but at that point, you're basically just keeping score.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The insight from SCS, To never stop progressing is internalized. It's already mentioned in the update. If LQ stops or plans to stop progressing at a certain point she is just going to break.
 
Echki said:
The insight from SCS, To never stop progressing is internalized. It's already mentioned in the update. If LQ stops or plans to stop progressing at a certain point she is just going to break.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, it's absolutely possible to adjust insights here in Green.

The thing is though that there's a reason that insight resonated with her in the first place, and that ties into her deeper motivations - her fear of weakness, her desire for security - as well as her experiences here in the Sect of growing stronger and what that's taught her.

She's driven to behave in a certain way, and it's worked out really well for her.
 
[X] To approach confidently, and speak first before making any mention of the gifts you have been provided
 
yrsillar said:
stop either though," Sixiang said sadly. "It'd break you. I believe you'll find a solution though. Just because you can't stop doesn't mean you have to sprint and leave everyone behind, you know?"

"I don't want to slow down either," Ling Qi replied. "I-I at least have to keep up with Renxiang."

She didn't care for the idea of the girl advancing alone. Not when she saw what the end of that path could be.

"Stubborn," Sixiang huffed. "You're gonna have to make a choice somewhere though."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think we need to simply train our friends/spirits. Not train with them, but train them. As in suspending ap/dice on their cultivation/art/breakthrough s.
 
[X] To approach confidently, and speak first before making any mention of the gifts you have been provided
 
The problem is that cultivation here means defining yourself in ever sharper relief.

"Yourself" can be complex and nuanced, or it can be simple and straightforward. Either way, what it cannot seem to be is contradictory, because the further you progress, the starker the conflict becomes by design.

We need to either thread a golden needle and find a way to balance freedom and roots, or one of them has to go.

Hell, maybe one of them being not cut away, but reshaped is a better answer than simple balance. Roots would probbaly be the better candidate.
 
Last edited:
I feel like the answer to the contradiction is in the question "Is the Moon lonely?"

yrsillar said:
Cultivation was an exercise in isolation. To be powerful was to be lonely. Elder Ying had taught her that. With each step you took, more peers fell away. The longer you lived, the more of your family and friends would die off. She hated the idea of that. Having looked on the face of the Duchess, even in memory, she hated it even more. If she got the power she needed, would she become like that? Not the same of course, but something equally inhuman in a different way?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Do the Moon's peers fall away? Is the Moon isolated? It is the most powerful being that LQ has ever met, mighty beyond the comprehension of even Shenhua, yet Elder Ying's thesis sits awkwardly when discussing it. Fundamentally the Moon is a community and likely a collection of peers. Even as a whole there is also the Sun.

Ling Qi is worried about the people she cares about dying and yet the Moon reaches out again and again despite knowing with virtual certainty that the people it reaches out to will die in a tiny fraction of its own life. Perhaps Sixiang could help explain to Ling Qi why that is.

[X] To approach confidently, and speak first before making any mention of the gifts you have been provided
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top