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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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I can't say that I expected this... but it fits. It fits really well. Of course Cai Shenhua would choose a husband who's work is making things orderly and functional.
 
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Diao Luwen seems like quite the character. I think it would be interesting to interact with him further. If he's disatisfied with his apprentices perhaps there's an opening there, and to the rest of the Diao in assisting him in some small way.
 
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi walked with her hands hidden in her sleeves. She had adjusted her gown a bit for the occasion. She had shed her mantle in favor of a light, airy pibo of pale blue silk, and altered the color to a mix of midnight blue and black. She had extended the train and added a bit more lace to the hems and her sleeves as well. Her hair was styled up, a silver ornament of a grinning crescent shining in her hair. It had taken some help from Sixiang to get just right. Overall her look was the sort of traditional style more favored by the Bai.
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I will pay good money for art of this outfit. Especially Ling Qi in a pibo. Otherwise this is exactly how I imagined a Numeracy cultivator to look. Kinda nerdy but also intense.

Edit: I'm serious, any artist who are interested DM me.
 
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Dad of Dismissive Digits is certainly a character. RiP to Renxiang though, between the closest thing she has to a sister being a man eating dress monster, Big Cai being what she is, and now her dad, her home life just seems so loveless.
 
yrsillar said:
"The geomancy of Towns and cities is about directing the flows of energy properly, that includes manipulating what thoughts and feelings linger in the region's spiritual realm. So many old settlements are laid down with misunderstood principles, lazy and cheap formatting or at times I suspect active malice, it's been a terrible drain on the province you know. I am working to repair that as best I can, but you see what I have to work with."
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Cai Renxiang's favorite book is about applying geomancy to social relationships. As her father's Way is centered on applying geomantic architecture to manipulate society, perhaps that's the source of her interest?

(...Baby Renxiang wanted her mother's attention, and it melted her. Her father seems to not pay any attention to Renxiang at all. Was Renxiang's childhood desire to just see her Eighth Realm mother in part motivated by the lack of attention given to her by her father?)

And, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised the Hui actively misused geomancy in their schemes to suppress and sow discord among their vassals. Emperor An was planning on their eventual destruction from rebellion and then replacing the rulership with the Imperial Throne via the Sects? With the revitalization of Imperial Geomancy via the elevation of the Imperial Hammer Sect, he would have had a ready source of engineers to undo the Hui's works. (I wonder if Diao Luwen's apprentices are from the Imperial Hammer Sect, and therefore a sign of its failings? Or Diao Luwen is just too demanding given his higher cultivation? Emperor Xiang had given more sponsorship to the Sect, and she and Cai Shenhua were purported to have a close relationship, so there would be a plausible justification for him to recruit from the Sect?)

yrsillar said:
"Maybe, if that's the case, leave it in your home and not that ring. Let it absorb better feelings, use it for mundane painting even," he said dismissively.
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This means give it to Ling Qingge, right? For her to write letters or take up painting or whatever, yeah? We have the advice of a (not-really) expert and everything! :D
 
LimitlessMemes said:
Diao Luwen seems like quite the character. I think it would be interesting to interact with him further. If he's disatisfied with his apprentices perhaps there's an opening there, and to the rest of the Diao in assisting him in some small way.
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he stuck me as the kind of teaching master that is a massive perfectionist and never gives out any praise regardless of how well apprentices do. Especially since i doubt any nepotism would be blatant, what with he being Cai Shenhua's husband, meaning all the apprentices are there by either his or the Diao matriarch's command.
 
Fascinating. This perfunctory interaction is not at all of interest to him but the moment there is anything of potential interest to his fixations he actually engages. He states that the haphazard-and-occasionally-actively-malicious Urban planning has been a problem all across the province, and that's a big oof. This further explains the Mason Wars, if a "natural" way of urban planning via pacts with trees and the land came into direct conflict with Imperial developed geometries and geomancies. Half of both for systems like this usually means neither works. Yet this man was likely involved in the overhauls to the capital at Xiangmen, which makes me wonder if the capital was redesigned with Imperial Mason geometries or retains original energy flows that the cult of Xiangmen maintains. Perhaps it is able to do both successfully.

This reminds me of the pall of misery we saw hanging over the outer city on the quest with Moon Aunties. Could be the result of sloppy or malign engineering. Another line of evidence pointing to corruption in the city.


Random Thought: in the reality warping realm of the Liminal could a cultivator be bent to better match sacred geometries and/or geomancies for a time? Because that would be a cool union of Imperial and Emerald Seas ideas. I put that forward as my speculative idea for how the White Room improves cultivation
 
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yrsillar said:
"It's nothing," he said, squinting at her again. "I smell Hui on you girl. Did you take any artifacts from the one you killed?"

"We acquired a great deal of treasure," Ling Qi said slowly. "But most is being reviewed and catalogued for auction. All I have right now is a brush."

"Give it here a moment then. I won't have some child getting their fingers blown off or mind melted by one of their tricks. Enough of that in their trashy settlements and bunkers," Diao Luwen grumped.
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Oh shoot. If he smelled Hui on her then Cai Shenhua will definitely smell the idol on Ling Qi...I hope she doesn't react too badly to it. :o:eek::eek2:😰😥🥶😓

EDIT: I forgot that this idol wasn't a Hui artifact but actually from one of the Dream Cults. So not as much to fear. However, its a secret we're keeping and if there's anyone who could find out its Shenhua. Let's hope she doesn't have a problem with it.
 
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Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the fact he is so monofocused on work wasn't a factor in picking him to be Shenhua's husband. Since it's a political marriage, f he's completely disinterested in family or romance, then Lingquin has less to worry about emotionally in her relationship with Shenhua.

Still far from a good father though.

I do hope we might get a chance to address something of what we saw of Liming's self in that dream relatively soon though. Getting Renxiang to try and have a better relationship or finding a way for others to voluntarily go to her space and interact with her.
 
JowKeen said:
Fascinating. This perfunctory interaction is not at all of interest to him but the moment there is anything of potential interest to his fixations he actually engages. He states that the haphazard-and-occasionally-actively-malicious Urban planning has been a problem all across the province, and that's a big oof. This further explains the Mason Wars, if a "natural" way of urban planning via pacts with trees and the land came into direct conflict with Imperial developed geometries and geomancies. Half of both for systems like this usually means neither works. Yet this man was likely involved in the overhauls to the capital at Xiangmen, which makes me wonder if the capital was redesigned with Imperial Mason geometries or retains original energy flows that the cult of Xiangmen maintains.

This reminds me of the pall of misery we saw hanging over the outer city on the quest with Moon Aunties. Could be the result of sloppy or malign engineering. Another line of evidence pointing to corruption in the city.
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I'm thinking that it is actually a lingering effect of the Hui being in governance for so long. I am positive that they would have messed with newly developing cities to create problems for their vassals because that seems to be how they controlled their subjects. It wouldn't take much manipulation I feel to mess up something as intricate and complicated as city planning, especially on the spiritual level.
 
Lena27 said:
Oh shoot. If he smelled Hui on her then Cai Shenhua will definitely smell the idol on Ling Qi...I hope she doesn't react too badly to it. :o:eek::eek2:😰😥🥶😓
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The idol isn't Hui, again, it's frowned upon but not actually proscribed. And Shenhua seems All about co-opting the old when she can and only bulldozing it if it refuses to change to be something useful again.
 
Can you imagine though, living in a city and suffering misfortune and difficulties. Your family is at each other's throats, no one seems to get along, even basic cooperation seems to be a struggle.

And then someone pulls up and is like "Oh yeah, it's because this street is angled the wrong way, it messes the whole city up on a spiritual level."

That would probably make a whole lot of people really angry. Not a lot they can do, because they're mortals, but still pretty angry.
 
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