- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Modify Winter Hearth Resounding (Modify the art away from enhancing just music, to enhancing qi constructs in general and narrow its focus to resilience and revitalization.)
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Pronouns
- He
[X] Modify Winter Hearth Resounding (Modify the art away from enhancing just music, to enhancing qi constructs in general and narrow its focus to resilience and revitalization.)
- Pronouns
- They
[X] Modify Unstoppable Glacier's March (Invert the arts themes of advancement and motion. Making it an art which drives targets away from a fixed location, and enhances fortifications)
Do we know what "narrowing focus to resilience and revitalization" actually means? Like this sounds like our stacks of block dispel will only apply to cure, heal and shield spells.
So this will help our starless night reflection, and complement ZG's healing ash and defensive roots... but it doesn't benefit arts that focus on anything other than resilience and revitalization (damage, debuff, stealth, movement, perception) for us or our allies. Not sure if WHR helps Hanyi's songs, but if it did, it won't anymore.
On one hand, sure sacrificing WHR's potency in other areas in order to better synergize with ZG fits LQ's narrative struggle re: how much she's willing to shackle herself for her loved ones.
OTOH, the UGM mod doesn't seem particularly helpful, or particularly on theme with ZG, but I think it's less of a nerf to LQ. I also like the idea of being able to drop a pinball bumper on a strategic location or immobile ally to knock back any foes that approch to close range.
Right now all of our music arts get a free success at blocking a dispel attempt. I'd rather keep the WHR buff for all music arts than limit it qi constructs focused on resilience and revitalization.
Do we know what "narrowing focus to resilience and revitalization" actually means? Like this sounds like our stacks of block dispel will only apply to cure, heal and shield spells.
So this will help our starless night reflection, and complement ZG's healing ash and defensive roots... but it doesn't benefit arts that focus on anything other than resilience and revitalization (damage, debuff, stealth, movement, perception) for us or our allies. Not sure if WHR helps Hanyi's songs, but if it did, it won't anymore.
On one hand, sure sacrificing WHR's potency in other areas in order to better synergize with ZG fits LQ's narrative struggle re: how much she's willing to shackle herself for her loved ones.
OTOH, the UGM mod doesn't seem particularly helpful, or particularly on theme with ZG, but I think it's less of a nerf to LQ. I also like the idea of being able to drop a pinball bumper on a strategic location or immobile ally to knock back any foes that approch to close range.
Right now all of our music arts get a free success at blocking a dispel attempt. I'd rather keep the WHR buff for all music arts than limit it qi constructs focused on resilience and revitalization.
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
- Pronouns
- She/They
To clarify for those who didn't catch exactly why this is happening and didn't fully follow the discussion after the previous update, Yrs actually just made a mistake with the previous vote options. The vote is supposed to be a follow-up on this vote back in October, where we were given a choice between using the gardening arc to pursue a combination or a tech alteration:
We chose the latter, but Yrs misremembered and wrote the previous update to the former.
This is a problem because, while you can just sub out the voting text as Yrs initially did, there's reduced information and a degree of narrative incoherence. Much of the text in the previous update is essentially providing flavour, themes and IC justifications for the potential combo routes, which don't necessarily match and may even contradict those of the alteration routes. So when the switch was done people ended up voting based on art flavour and speculation, which weren't necessarily going to align with the QM's interpretation. You can see that, for instance, in how the thread's immediately recoiled from altering UGM because they don't like the proposed changes.
In the scenario where we'd left the vote as is, we could have ended up with a bunch of people voting for UGM and not liking the outcome and then there'd have been a serious backlash. This addendum update makes whatever outcome takes place more flavoursome while ensuring everyone roughly knows what they're getting.
I get that there's been cases in the past where people had more, uh,
(not sure if anyone actually needs this explanation but eh, just in case)
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I concur. I greatly preferred the mistakenly offered version of Glacier's March over the one now on offer. Worse, I prefer the way the current version synergizes over the one being offered. So...
[X] Modify Winter Hearth Resounding (Modify the art away from enhancing just music, to enhancing qi constructs in general and narrow its focus to resilience and revitalization.)
I'm pretty sure its talking about this tech:
Right now its split between harming enemies and aiding allies. The substitution would remove the part associated with enemies and use the freed up space to have the first tech also boost our allies' qi constructs instead of just our own musical ones. This would improve all our spirits' arts as well as improve PLR.
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Ling Qi's morning routine
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
[X] Modify Unstoppable Glacier's March (Invert the arts themes of advancement and motion. Making it an art which drives targets away from a fixed location, and enhances fortifications)
Pills flow like water.
With massive ducal backing;
Consume drugs like fire.
Snorting lines of stones.
For fast drug-fueled advance;
Funds must grow like trees.
The secret of Clans,
'twas inside you all along:
The Great Dao of Drugs.
-An excerpt from a collection of haiku titled 'the Elements of Cultivation', dating back to the second dynasty.
With massive ducal backing;
Consume drugs like fire.
Snorting lines of stones.
For fast drug-fueled advance;
Funds must grow like trees.
The secret of Clans,
'twas inside you all along:
The Great Dao of Drugs.
-An excerpt from a collection of haiku titled 'the Elements of Cultivation', dating back to the second dynasty.
Tomb Raider
The wind screamed past Gu Tai as he rocketed upward through the hollowed tower of the palace complex. It was an immense thing many hundreds of meters tall. The main structural elements had withstood the Cataclysm, but it could not resist sinking into the newly molten bedrock. Now it was far below ground, with only a weathered crown peaking above the sand. It was an ancient tomb, and Gu Tai was certain that here he would find secrets of his ancestors.
But, like all tombs, it had its worms.
He glanced over his shoulder, past the crackling flames that half transformed his arms into wings, just as the almighty crash shook the world, and an open circular maw rimmed with row upon row of serrated teeth opened below him and roared. The qi flowing through his arms flared, catching the rising wave of wind to spiral higher. For an instant, he alighted upon a shattered patch of floor, still clinging tenaciously to the tower wall. Below him the worm was shrouded in the dust and noise of shattering rock as it climbed the hollow tower.
Gu Tai grinned as the heet blooming under the soles of his boots flared, turning ancient stone red and orange with heat. A moment later, the coiled tension in his crouched legs released as he launched himself upward, bright white streamers of flame trailing from his shoes as he flew toward the pinprick of sunlight overhead, just a few bare meters above the rising cloud of dust and debris.
In a few short seconds he flew up from the top of the tower just as the flames under his boots began to gutter out, and the drag of the earth began to grasp at his limbs. As the great black worm erupted from the tower top below him, hide caked in compacted ashen armor and mouth gaping, Gu Tai looked up to the the clear blue sky and the blazing sun standing at its peak, and breathed.
Solar qi flooded his channels, and the flames licking at robes blazed, a pair of short sabers burning with the light of the sun appeared in his hands as a controlled burst of flames flipped him face down, and launched him straight back down.
The exhilaration of solar qi burning through his whole body, on the very edge of self-destruction brought a bark of laughter from his lips that was swiftly ripped away by the wind. The flames that bloomed from his sabers roared out, like wings of flame.
He fell, the worm rose.
And the beast's bulk fell to the sand in two halves with a thunderous boom.
Gu Tai stood with a grimace, as boiling streamers of blood and other fluids reached his nose. His grimace transformed into a smirk as he gave his blades a swift twirl and dismissed them back to storage. One blow, just as he suspected.
"Just who do you think you're showing off to, Gu Tai?" cackled a croaking voice from above.
Gu Tai glanced up, squinting against the noontime glare as a shadow passed over him, the wide wingspan of his raven companion Yuzhao, who alighted on his shoulder, talons digging into the leather pauldron he wore there.
"You never know who might be watching my friend," he said cheerfully. "One should always act with a bit of flair."
"Naturally," the old bird squawked sarcastically, spreading and closing his wings in the manner that a man might stretch his arms. Under the bright sunlight, the ravens black feathers shimmered with a shadow of the radiance that was their birthright. "Of course, now we have to dig through the steaming innards of an infant sandworm to get back down."
Gu Tai clicked his tongue as he began to walk back toward the tower, each step bringing with it risers of boiling fluid and the scent of cooking wormflesh. "It was either that, or damaging the ruins below further. I would not have been able to achieve such a smooth kill without the blessing of the Zenith."
"Ya Ya, I still say anything worth the finding wouldn't have been damaged by a little scuffle," Yuzhao dismissed. "You- Oh is that a shine mine eyes spot?"
Gu Tai blinked following Yuzhao's gaze toward a quivering fold of purplish flesh. There was indeed, something gleaming beneath it. Hurrying his steps, he crouched down, only grimacing a little as he pried open the edge of what seemed to be a scab or cyst. His expression quickly became a grin as he saw what lay within, a gleaming straight sword, undamaged down to the damp red tassel dangling from its hilt. There was a wet sucking sound as he pulled it free and gave it a flick, removing the last traces of worm blood.
"Well now, not my preference, but a fine piece anyway," Gu Tai said cheerfully, putting the blade through a few elementary motions to test its balance. A bit of power sparked within the metal, nothing awake but a good sign nonetheless.
"Hm, hm fine indeed. I'm sure some little sparrow will pay well to feather their nest with that," Yuzhao agreed, fluffing his feathers. "Mayhap a good omen for the day after all!"
"Perhaps," Gu Tai thought, sending the sword into his storage ring, where it came to rest slithering down a neat pile of ceramics and old coins.
As he began the business of carving his way back down into the tower, Gu Tai had to admit that he hoped Yuzhao was right. Things had not been going as well as he had hoped so far. The funds and contracts he had gathered and received at the outset were fairly generous, and had purchased him a fine enough sand runner to live out of while a home was being constructed, but he had to admit some dissatisfaction.
How many weeks had it been now, since he had spoken to anyone other than Yuzhao?
Burning with white flames, one of his sabers flashed out three times carving open a way through the already decaying wormflesh. Gu Tai stepped out of the gory passage with a sigh and let himself enter freefall, Yuzhao letting out an indignant caw as he took to the air. It was, he knew a bit foolish of him to feel that way. He had only been out here a short time, it was ridiculous to expect that he would discover any great treasures or secrets in a scant year or two.
The sleeves of his tunic flapped in the wind as he fell down into the dark, lit only by the glow of his saber. The floor of the worm tunnel that lay at the bottom came into view, and Gu Tai took hold of the wind, stilling it as his boots struck stone with a heavy crack whose echo bounced wildly in the sphere of stilled air. Stepping out of the small crater left in the stone, he shook the new made gravel off of his boots.
The worm tunnels had intersected with the sunken ruin here, shattering the worn stone and metalwork that had withstood the Catacylsm but had since rotted. He cast a brief glance down the eerily ribbed tunnel going off to his left.
"Only one infant and just after the hatching feast I'd judge, the adults won't back back for the better part of a decade," Yuzhao grumbled huffily, settling back on his shoulder. "Should mark the spot though, eggs sell well."
Gu Tai hummed his agreement. The Guo felt they were a delicacy if he remembered, their unique constitution rendered the lethal toxins in sandworm eggs a pleasant spice. But, that was something for later. He turned to the right, where the scattered colonnades of a palace hall lay. Several columns were tipped over and parts of the roof sagged. The floor too was covered by a layer of old stone showing the signs of having flowed between the columns as liquid once.
His footfalls were silent, muffled by the wind as he strode out across the striated rock. Passing through the ancient fallen halls, he considered his direction as he came to the first intersection. If he considered the locations of the other collapsed towers the central complex, should be-
"On the right,"Yuzhao said. He gave the bird a mock glare, earning a gravelly cackle.
They took the right hall, and descended the stair they found there. Sand packed most of the side chambers, long since collapsed by the weight above, but he made his way along, searing sand to glass and flash cooling it with the wind to seal gaps in the stonework where necessary, sweeping his path free where he could. Like that he descended into the silence of the ruin.
It was a little awe inspiring, he had to admit, to see what the people of old Golden Fields had accomplished. He certainly couldn't imagine the defenses of Pheonixhome remaining so intact under these conditions. It was also sobering, seeing the silhouettes of people on the walls, outlined in their last moments.
There were no bones.
Still, some trinkets remained, a strongbox in a small room, its formation mechanisms long decayed revealed a small trove of green stones and a few talismans. A miraculously preserved dining room had a marble topped table, it's legs and sides finished with exquisite scrollwork depicting the flights of the vanished phoenixes.
All the while, he descended down, until at last he reached a chamber with tall and wide doors of polished ivory, thick enough and once enhanced enough to withstand siegework. It took all of his strength to wedge one open enough to let him slip inside.
The threadbare remains of a crimson carpet fell to dust under his boots as he beheld the palaces throne hall. It seemed almost familiar, the style hardly different from his Uncle's hall, though the roaring flames were long cold and the tapestries rotted. However, none of that mattered, for the throne itself still sat at the end of the hall, encrusted in gemstones and burning with old, still active formations.
Excitement rising in his chest, he strode down the hall swiftly, his eyes darting around for the almost expected trap or ambush. But, it seemed there was nothing-
"Ware," croaked Yuzhao. "The throne's not as it seems."
Gu Tai frowned, looking up at the dais it rested on. Focusing his senses, he relaized Yuzhao was right, the heat map of it was off, rigid and unnatural. Raising his empty hand he let dispelling qi bloom, spreading through the room like a hot summer breeze.
The throne vanished, and in it's place was only a drifting scrap of parchment. He snatched it from the air before it hit the ground, and with growing agitation. He saw the simple illusion formation and turned it over to reveal the script on the other side.
'To slow, Sir or Miss! You'll need to be faster!'
A few hastily scribbled words, underscored by a childish drawing of a girl's face with a mocking expression. He stared down at it in incomprehension for a long moment and Yuzhao cackled in her ear.
"You knew you weren't the only one out here Tai," the crow chortled. "Looks like we have a rival."
He drew in a sharp breath, crumpling the note in his hand. It was infuriating to have a treasure snatched from under his nose, but… somehow a smile found its way onto his face.
He wasn't going to lose.
AN: Getting back on track with commission releases
But, like all tombs, it had its worms.
He glanced over his shoulder, past the crackling flames that half transformed his arms into wings, just as the almighty crash shook the world, and an open circular maw rimmed with row upon row of serrated teeth opened below him and roared. The qi flowing through his arms flared, catching the rising wave of wind to spiral higher. For an instant, he alighted upon a shattered patch of floor, still clinging tenaciously to the tower wall. Below him the worm was shrouded in the dust and noise of shattering rock as it climbed the hollow tower.
Gu Tai grinned as the heet blooming under the soles of his boots flared, turning ancient stone red and orange with heat. A moment later, the coiled tension in his crouched legs released as he launched himself upward, bright white streamers of flame trailing from his shoes as he flew toward the pinprick of sunlight overhead, just a few bare meters above the rising cloud of dust and debris.
In a few short seconds he flew up from the top of the tower just as the flames under his boots began to gutter out, and the drag of the earth began to grasp at his limbs. As the great black worm erupted from the tower top below him, hide caked in compacted ashen armor and mouth gaping, Gu Tai looked up to the the clear blue sky and the blazing sun standing at its peak, and breathed.
Solar qi flooded his channels, and the flames licking at robes blazed, a pair of short sabers burning with the light of the sun appeared in his hands as a controlled burst of flames flipped him face down, and launched him straight back down.
The exhilaration of solar qi burning through his whole body, on the very edge of self-destruction brought a bark of laughter from his lips that was swiftly ripped away by the wind. The flames that bloomed from his sabers roared out, like wings of flame.
He fell, the worm rose.
And the beast's bulk fell to the sand in two halves with a thunderous boom.
Gu Tai stood with a grimace, as boiling streamers of blood and other fluids reached his nose. His grimace transformed into a smirk as he gave his blades a swift twirl and dismissed them back to storage. One blow, just as he suspected.
"Just who do you think you're showing off to, Gu Tai?" cackled a croaking voice from above.
Gu Tai glanced up, squinting against the noontime glare as a shadow passed over him, the wide wingspan of his raven companion Yuzhao, who alighted on his shoulder, talons digging into the leather pauldron he wore there.
"You never know who might be watching my friend," he said cheerfully. "One should always act with a bit of flair."
"Naturally," the old bird squawked sarcastically, spreading and closing his wings in the manner that a man might stretch his arms. Under the bright sunlight, the ravens black feathers shimmered with a shadow of the radiance that was their birthright. "Of course, now we have to dig through the steaming innards of an infant sandworm to get back down."
Gu Tai clicked his tongue as he began to walk back toward the tower, each step bringing with it risers of boiling fluid and the scent of cooking wormflesh. "It was either that, or damaging the ruins below further. I would not have been able to achieve such a smooth kill without the blessing of the Zenith."
"Ya Ya, I still say anything worth the finding wouldn't have been damaged by a little scuffle," Yuzhao dismissed. "You- Oh is that a shine mine eyes spot?"
Gu Tai blinked following Yuzhao's gaze toward a quivering fold of purplish flesh. There was indeed, something gleaming beneath it. Hurrying his steps, he crouched down, only grimacing a little as he pried open the edge of what seemed to be a scab or cyst. His expression quickly became a grin as he saw what lay within, a gleaming straight sword, undamaged down to the damp red tassel dangling from its hilt. There was a wet sucking sound as he pulled it free and gave it a flick, removing the last traces of worm blood.
"Well now, not my preference, but a fine piece anyway," Gu Tai said cheerfully, putting the blade through a few elementary motions to test its balance. A bit of power sparked within the metal, nothing awake but a good sign nonetheless.
"Hm, hm fine indeed. I'm sure some little sparrow will pay well to feather their nest with that," Yuzhao agreed, fluffing his feathers. "Mayhap a good omen for the day after all!"
"Perhaps," Gu Tai thought, sending the sword into his storage ring, where it came to rest slithering down a neat pile of ceramics and old coins.
As he began the business of carving his way back down into the tower, Gu Tai had to admit that he hoped Yuzhao was right. Things had not been going as well as he had hoped so far. The funds and contracts he had gathered and received at the outset were fairly generous, and had purchased him a fine enough sand runner to live out of while a home was being constructed, but he had to admit some dissatisfaction.
How many weeks had it been now, since he had spoken to anyone other than Yuzhao?
Burning with white flames, one of his sabers flashed out three times carving open a way through the already decaying wormflesh. Gu Tai stepped out of the gory passage with a sigh and let himself enter freefall, Yuzhao letting out an indignant caw as he took to the air. It was, he knew a bit foolish of him to feel that way. He had only been out here a short time, it was ridiculous to expect that he would discover any great treasures or secrets in a scant year or two.
The sleeves of his tunic flapped in the wind as he fell down into the dark, lit only by the glow of his saber. The floor of the worm tunnel that lay at the bottom came into view, and Gu Tai took hold of the wind, stilling it as his boots struck stone with a heavy crack whose echo bounced wildly in the sphere of stilled air. Stepping out of the small crater left in the stone, he shook the new made gravel off of his boots.
The worm tunnels had intersected with the sunken ruin here, shattering the worn stone and metalwork that had withstood the Catacylsm but had since rotted. He cast a brief glance down the eerily ribbed tunnel going off to his left.
"Only one infant and just after the hatching feast I'd judge, the adults won't back back for the better part of a decade," Yuzhao grumbled huffily, settling back on his shoulder. "Should mark the spot though, eggs sell well."
Gu Tai hummed his agreement. The Guo felt they were a delicacy if he remembered, their unique constitution rendered the lethal toxins in sandworm eggs a pleasant spice. But, that was something for later. He turned to the right, where the scattered colonnades of a palace hall lay. Several columns were tipped over and parts of the roof sagged. The floor too was covered by a layer of old stone showing the signs of having flowed between the columns as liquid once.
His footfalls were silent, muffled by the wind as he strode out across the striated rock. Passing through the ancient fallen halls, he considered his direction as he came to the first intersection. If he considered the locations of the other collapsed towers the central complex, should be-
"On the right,"Yuzhao said. He gave the bird a mock glare, earning a gravelly cackle.
They took the right hall, and descended the stair they found there. Sand packed most of the side chambers, long since collapsed by the weight above, but he made his way along, searing sand to glass and flash cooling it with the wind to seal gaps in the stonework where necessary, sweeping his path free where he could. Like that he descended into the silence of the ruin.
It was a little awe inspiring, he had to admit, to see what the people of old Golden Fields had accomplished. He certainly couldn't imagine the defenses of Pheonixhome remaining so intact under these conditions. It was also sobering, seeing the silhouettes of people on the walls, outlined in their last moments.
There were no bones.
Still, some trinkets remained, a strongbox in a small room, its formation mechanisms long decayed revealed a small trove of green stones and a few talismans. A miraculously preserved dining room had a marble topped table, it's legs and sides finished with exquisite scrollwork depicting the flights of the vanished phoenixes.
All the while, he descended down, until at last he reached a chamber with tall and wide doors of polished ivory, thick enough and once enhanced enough to withstand siegework. It took all of his strength to wedge one open enough to let him slip inside.
The threadbare remains of a crimson carpet fell to dust under his boots as he beheld the palaces throne hall. It seemed almost familiar, the style hardly different from his Uncle's hall, though the roaring flames were long cold and the tapestries rotted. However, none of that mattered, for the throne itself still sat at the end of the hall, encrusted in gemstones and burning with old, still active formations.
Excitement rising in his chest, he strode down the hall swiftly, his eyes darting around for the almost expected trap or ambush. But, it seemed there was nothing-
"Ware," croaked Yuzhao. "The throne's not as it seems."
Gu Tai frowned, looking up at the dais it rested on. Focusing his senses, he relaized Yuzhao was right, the heat map of it was off, rigid and unnatural. Raising his empty hand he let dispelling qi bloom, spreading through the room like a hot summer breeze.
The throne vanished, and in it's place was only a drifting scrap of parchment. He snatched it from the air before it hit the ground, and with growing agitation. He saw the simple illusion formation and turned it over to reveal the script on the other side.
'To slow, Sir or Miss! You'll need to be faster!'
A few hastily scribbled words, underscored by a childish drawing of a girl's face with a mocking expression. He stared down at it in incomprehension for a long moment and Yuzhao cackled in her ear.
"You knew you weren't the only one out here Tai," the crow chortled. "Looks like we have a rival."
He drew in a sharp breath, crumpling the note in his hand. It was infuriating to have a treasure snatched from under his nose, but… somehow a smile found its way onto his face.
He wasn't going to lose.
AN: Getting back on track with commission releases
Aww man I forgot about this one. Hes cool.
Khepri14
Thus kindly I scatter...
- Location
- Following the wind
...ToD!Treasure Princess Yuffie?