Remove ads

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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
I am leaning towards ice diplo route now. The arguments for it previously seem sound. Esp zhengui needing room and the ability to put our fief were we can control what will likely be a main trade route.
 
"
-Characters at the Sect who are not brought on board with your operation will have reduced access.
"
I want to know more about this. How and why are we bringing people on board? That's probably the most important part to me, imho.
 
Our music group, our moon senpai, likely Suyin and Su Ling , Han jian and Han Fang when they enter inner sect and some of other poltical people we gotten to know, we'll have less access to,
On the other hand, Fefe, Meizhan, Xuan Shi, Bao Qian, Gan and Ren we most likely to have around in Ice route, others could be recruited.
 
yrsillar said:
AN: Below I am going to list the exact details of the future route split to avoid any confusion. Please note we will not be voting for it yet the opportunity to do so will come when you meet with the Court to share your findings in the first arc of the next turn. Take the time until then to consider what you want from the story, since that is the primary thing at stake here.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
As someone who was really unhappy with the previous vote, thank you. Giving greater context about the vote, an awesome new scene among the "inner circle," the cheat sheat for the tradeoffs, and time to mull it over -- all of these are exactly what I wanted.

I'm now strongly considering the Ice route, now that it's not a knee-jerk vote to change the course of our life, but something we'd be building up to and have time to consider without recency bias. So yeah, yrs, this was not wasted effort at all. I really appreciate it.
 
I feel like the Ice Lady diplomat option has a lot more potential upside, they are somewhere between a ducal power to a potential peer to the Empire. The trouble is that this also means we're a lot smaller compared to them and thus aren't going to attract that much support from them for a while. Importantly we also aren't really offending the major count clans (besides the Sect), we just aren't interacting with them much. That means we will likely have more of an opportunity to build up our own powerbase before returning to ES politics in a few centuries without much in the way of ill will to overcome.

On the other hand the Sect is already quite a fan of ours and is basically a powerful Count clan. They are politically neutral but their whole thing is providing services, so we are vastly more likely to Arts and services from them than more normal Count clans. As a young Green that's pretty important. Additionally being under Sect command means that they will be treating us as a student and thus be assigned tasks with an eye towards our development. The Cai, in comparison, are probably going to assign us wherever we are most effective, regardless of whether we'd get much from it. This option is also a vastly smaller commitment: we're just choosing to continue at the Sect for another year rather than deciding much of our early career.

I'm personally a big fan of the diplomat path.
 
So Ice diplomacy turns be:
Turn 12 -17: Sect stuff, mainly war under ducal forces so white plumps.
Turn 18-19: Hui base, focusing on building it up, spirit supressing, cloud tribe stuff.
Turn 20: The actural diplomacy arc.
Turn 21+: Fief prospecting and building.
 
Well, extra dialogue is always nice, but the update has provided me with zero reasons to reconsider my vote for diplomacy route.
It confirmed some assumptions, and did not contradict any that i noticed, so unless we get new information later, i will still be voting for diplomacy.
 
The only thing i can think of dragging with us for this ride is mmmaaayyybbeeee su ling. but i guess the sect would object "losing" a seer. everyone else is staying sect or have higher allegiances already.
 
We could try getting Suyin maybe, probably not, but if the option comes in i definitely would vote to bring her in somehow.
Getting access to new materials nobody in the sect can get might be good enough a lure.
 
Getting these three days to reflect I think I've come to understand a bit more of what I thing would be interesting for Ling Qi's future. And even though I loved this Turn and everything surrounding the White Sky, I like Emerald Seas politics more. But like Renxiang says this is an opportunity for us to define our role in that arena. As a diplomat the Cai can trust to deal with interesting people outside their sphere, as someone with power beyond her means that gives her value she can leverage. Ice diplomacy sets us up to return to a position of notoriety and significance, from which we can do what Ling Qi excels at. And we still get half again this book, a hundred threadmarks, to finish for now the storylines of characters like Li Suyin, the Hans, Music club, Wang party and perhaps even Luo party. This is an ending, not an End.
 
angelofwhim said:
The only thing i can think of dragging with us for this ride is mmmaaayyybbeeee su ling. but i guess the sect would object "losing" a seer. everyone else is staying sect or have higher allegiances already.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Poaching Su Ling as our Boon from Shenshua to make her our right hand if we go ice diplomat might be very interesting.
We saw in her interlude she had a thing for Gan.
And spirit blooded interacting with white sky culture would be facinating.
 
angelofwhim said:
The only thing i can think of dragging with us for this ride is mmmaaayyybbeeee su ling. but i guess the sect would object "losing" a seer. everyone else is staying sect or have higher allegiances already.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

In narrative Sixiang already mentioned Meizhen (and of course her handmaiden as a package deal) as easy to get. Xuan Shi should be fairly easy to get as well for similar reasons to Meizhen, though with perhaps slightly more difficult. From there the list gets harder, but I can see us poaching a couple other charas here and there from the sect. I could see Bian Ya joining up with us for instance.
 
I'm not sure I would want to 'poach' Suyin for Ice Diplo even if it was an option since Suyin I feel has a good thing going for her at Argent Sect with her underground focus and I don't feel like she would benefit much from us dragging her from that.
 
Yeah, the sect is Suyin´s place to shine. She got deals and training and access to regents for her projects there that we cant really give her. Would like to not cripple our friends progress just to get em with us.
 
It is unlikely that we could poach Suyin, I wouldn't want to either. We do have hearts dream exilar in the future, giving me some comfort.
 
I didn't realize how much I missed these moments where Qi, Renxiang, and Guangli talk about their future in a candid way, all of them acutely aware of how they will have to fight and scrape for every scrap of power and respect.
 
I liked tourney route before but am now on the fence. Creating a fief sounds fun (might vote for that alone) but we lose so many husbando options 😂 Sect resources aren't to be underestimated though or else it wouldn't be one of the Empire's greatest sects attracting talents across province lines, but for LQ personally I think being MC she will flourish regardless.
 
Sect already stamped "Property of Argent" all over Suyin's head by promoting her to the upper 500 so doubtful we'd pry her loose without dumping a scrooge mcduck money bin on her which we don't have and Renxiang unlikely to give us
 
reigndrops said:
I liked tourney route before but am now on the fence. Creating a fief sounds fun (might vote for that alone) but we lose so many husbando options 😂 Sect resources aren't to be underestimated though or else it wouldn't be one of the Empire's greatest sects attracting talents across province lines, but for LQ personally I think being MC she will flourish regardless.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We lose husbando candidates? Like the two I can think of is either probably gonna follow us due to capitalism (Bao) and the other I can see us recruting if we play our cards right (Xuan Shi).

Btw, AS attraction is its prestige. Having the sect head that fought and killed Ogodei helps alot.
 
JohnnieBoy123 said:
I feel like the Ice Lady diplomat option has a lot more potential upside, they are somewhere between a ducal power to a potential peer to the Empire.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

EDIT: This is not correct. See Quotes on following page responding. In short: the White Sky is by in text explanation an equivalent to a duchy belonging to the nation built around the polar gates and does represent significant power and people.

The ice ladies route connects us to a major power, but not at all ducal level much less empire. When the cloud tribes united under Ogodei we saw they were about on par with a duchy. That was the whole of the tribes (excepting maybe a few dissenters). The White Sky alliance isn't nearly there. I rate them maybe on the rank viscounts, maybe counts if their alliance is larger than shown. So about as powerful as the Boa or Gu clans (Gu Xiulan's family) depending.

A major power and certainly valuable but not as extreme. If they were on the level of a duchy that would be like gaining a bond on par with the one to CRX (and her mother by proxy) and I would be all for that. It is worth noting we care about our position with them not because of the White Sky alliance in and of itself, but being part of the alliance gives us political capitol within the ES.

Going tourney would give us the opportunity to connect with other clans who are going to powers and groups on par with the White Sky but we don't know exactly what options or what such a connection would entail. In all, I don't see there being any significant greater gain or opportunity if we go either way. I think that's what makes it such an interesting choice.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top