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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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[X] Speak of the journey through the Wall, the landscape and sky and spirits. [Sets starting bond with Xia Anxi to 1, Lao Keung to 0.]

I'm leaning this right now just because we seem to have more interests in common. Also the only other Violet caste Bai we've seen is a great husband. :V
 
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[X] Speak of the journey through the Wall, the landscape and sky and spirits. [Sets starting bond with Xia Anxi to 1, Lao Keung to 0.]

I think the red snek SL would be easier to traverse than the purple snek, if only more difficult to start, so I want a headstart in the purple snek.
 
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Leaning beefcake, both because beefcake and with Xia Anxi explicitly having personal interest in what's going on we can be more confident in him engaging us on his own initiative and we kinda wanna find out what both of these folks deal is.
 
yrsillar said:
[] Speak of the journey through the Wall, the landscape and sky and spirits. [Sets starting bond with Xia Anxi to 1, Lao Keung to 0.]
[] Speak of the foe beneath and her own experience delving into their uncanny realm. [Sets starting bond of Xia Anxi to 0, Lao Keung to 1]
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Mark my words, years from now this day will be recorded as the start of the real husbando wars.
 
yrsillar said:
Cai renxiang
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Missing Capitalization.

Seeing more of the Bai casts is certainly interesting. In this case I favour the red python, since he will be able to give us the true grass roots look on the whole bai society.

[] Speak of the foe beneath and her own experience delving into their uncanny realm. [Sets starting bond of Xia Anxi to 0, Lao Keung to 1]
 
Difficult choice ahead, Chiseled Beefcake or Snek Singer?

oh what i am saying, it's not hard at all. Though i really want to compare styles with Xia Anxi
 
Turn 4 Arc 5-2 said:
There were three groups of them, with three men in each group. They were all late yellow in cultivation, armed with long bows of green tinted bone. They wore light green and brown talisman armor of cloth and leather. Their faces were concealed by tight head wraps that left nothing of their features visible.
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yrsillar said:
The soldiers arrayed outside were not garbed like their Emerald Seas counterparts, favoring instead looser robes worn under a curraise of metal arranged like scales, and well fitted armored gloves.
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A comparison between the two Bai common soldiers: both wear cloth armor fitted closely to the skin, but the delegation here (presumably drawn from the White Serpents' armies) wear loose robes augmented with metal rather than leather. Considering the role of metal (in the form of bronze) in the rise of the Bai's power and supremacy over their province, possibly the metal on the delegation is a sign of the White Serpents' favor, and the lack of metal with the Green caste Bai a sign of poverty on his part.

[] Speak of the journey through the Wall, the landscape and sky and spirits. [Sets starting bond with Xia Anxi to 1, Lao Keung to 0.]
[X] Speak of the foe beneath and her own experience delving into their uncanny realm. [Sets starting bond of Xia Anxi to 0, Lao Keung to 1]
Ling Qi's purpose in this meeting is to attend to the lower castes (and thus draw out how willing the lower castes are in supporting Bai Suzhen and therefore Meizhen and Renxiang, I think). As given by how Bai Xilai, who Bai Suzhen likely judged the most suitable in advancing her faction's interests in the Emerald Sea, elided over the possibility of success re: the White Sky project (and therefore it can be inferred she thinks it's guaranteed to fail), I think it's unlikely either representative cares much about the White Sky or Shishigui in particular. Therefore, the topic -- of the Wall or the Shishigui -- is just a matter of which caste representative we want to appeal to.

In that light, the vote is a matter of choosing between the Violet and the Red.

The Violet caste is the astrologers and shipbuilders. They have gained the most infrastructure investment from the Emerald Sea we know of in the form of expansion of their port, in preparation of acting as the middleman in the Emerald Sea -- Savage Seas trade route. In terms of support for the White Sky project, Bai Xia Anxi has skills in divination, spirit ken, and music. He should be useful in terms of interfacing the religious element of the Empire with his counterparts among the White Sky, I think. However, Bai Suzhen's husband is also a Xia, so in terms of helping Meizhen build up support among her family, the main product of this choice for Ling Qi is the focus on the White Sky, maybe?

The Red caste is the common laborer and soldier. With the opening of borders and trade, possibly they stand to gain in luxuries previously restricted to those castes that had the wealth to import them directly, I think? Bai Lao Keung is an officer that has extenuating circumstances that required him to get out of Thousand Lakes, as well as "black humor" in his eyes as he says it's an honor to serve the White Serpents. Not a lot of special support for the White Sky project, and his interests align with talk about the Shishigui besides.

In other words, Lao Keung is a mystery box character. Very appealing, yes?
 
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Wasn't Meizhen full 3rd by the end of the Truce? That was like, only three months in.
 
lioli said:
Ling Qi's purpose in this meeting is to attend to the lower castes (and thus draw out how willing the lower castes are in supporting Bai Suzhen and therefore Meizhen and Renxiang, I think). As given by how Bai Xilai, who Bai Suzhen likely judged the most suitable in advancing her faction's interests in the Emerald Sea, elided over the possibility of success re: the White Sky project (and therefore it can be inferred she thinks it's guaranteed to fail), I think it's unlikely either representative cares much about the White Sky or Shishigui in particular. Therefore, the topic -- of the Wall or the Shishigui -- is just a matter of which caste representative we want to appeal to.
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Ling Qi's role isn't to sound out the lower castes but the lowest status attendees. That being both Xia Anxi and Lao Keung as Meizhen is so far above them they cannot speak with her the way they can with Ling Qi, who is a mere Baroness herself. Caste politics have little to do with this, other than the broader implications of us voting to focus more on one over the other.
 
Interesting.
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Lao Keung did not smile as he dipped his head. Ling Qi thought she saw a glimmer of black humor in his eyes. "It is an honor to so directly serve the great White Serpents. I look forward to adding my own small strength to guarding the expedition's safety. I hope to learn from your experiences with foreign foes and battlefields."
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Clearly he's unhappy about something here. Unhappy about being sent away from the province? Unhappy about being so powerful and yet through caste merely a Guard Captain? Unhappy about the dubious "honor" of serving White Serpents, knowing there are plenty of White Serpents that will end up arrayed against him and the worthy/honorable Bai Suzhen? Unhappy having to kowtow so low when he knows what his worth is in lands such as these?

[] Speak of the foe beneath and her own experience delving into their uncanny realm. [Sets starting bond of Xia Anxi to 0, Lao Keung to 1]

Xia Anxi will be easier to make inroads with later on, and is likely someone that we will naturally wish to make inroads with. Lao Keung does not have an inherent bridge to connect to us, and his perspective as a reformer-faction supporter from the lowest caste of Bai is interesting. Especially considering the reformer-faction of Emerald Seas is Cai and both Ling Qi and Gan Guangli are commoners. Gan Guangli especially has decided, intentionally, to pursue a Guard Captain path rather than being the path that is available to Red Pythons.

I think there are interesting opportunities to explore the honor and status of lower caste Bai such as Red Python from our perspective as an outsider, ally, and friend of a White Caste. There is no necessity for White Bai to understand the honor or respect of lesser castes. I think there is value in such, value which Bai Meizhen may be best equipped to take advantage of.

Along these lines, I don't believe we need to be well matched to Lao Keung for the slight attitude boost to be productive. As we've done in other cases, using what influence we have to connect those that would make sense to connect. I believe Gan Guangli would make a good connection for Lao Keung, and a small boost to relations can more easily allow us to make that happen

EDIT: Separately, I also think it good sense to more fully brief them on the severity of the threat below. It is likely they were briefed of them, but the absolute strangeness of their civilization is hard to fully grasp.
 
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[] Speak of the journey through the Wall, the landscape and sky and spirits. [Sets starting bond with Xia Anxi to 1, Lao Keung to 0.]
 
Obviously talking about our journey through the wall is something we want to do with people being considered for going with us. But Xia Anxi is a speaker while Lao Keung specifically asked about foreign fields, so if we want to sound them out it might be better to give the soldier a chance to speak about what he knows and see if the would be diplomat can keep up. What matters isn't the bond, it's us getting to know these two.

Twink>Hunk tho
 
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[] Speak of the foe beneath and her own experience delving into their uncanny realm. [Sets starting bond of Xia Anxi to 0, Lao Keung to 1]

I'm inclined to vote for this as his black humor to the White caste has me curious.

Also I'm going to laugh if the Fae truths from the stories result in a chance for an advanced insight due to Bai social counters.
 
JowKeen said:
Lao Keung did not smile as he dipped his head. Ling Qi thought she saw a glimmer of black humor in his eyes. "It is an honor to so directly serve the great White Serpents. I look forward to adding my own small strength to guarding the expedition's safety. I hope to learn from your experiences with foreign foes and battlefields."
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Yun said:
I'm inclined to vote for this as his black humor to the White caste has me curious.
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Another possibility is that he had no choice in being here whatsoever. Maybe being of the lowest status of the group, he will be expected to use himself as a meatshield for Bai Meizhen if need be.
 
[X] Speak of the foe beneath and her own experience delving into their uncanny realm. [Sets starting bond of Xia Anxi to 0, Lao Keung to 1]

Like a cold drink on a hot day, LQ deserves a muscle snek in her life.
 
[] Speak of the foe beneath and her own experience delving into their uncanny realm. [Sets starting bond of Xia Anxi to 0, Lao Keung to 1]

[] Speak of the journey through the Wall, the landscape and sky and spirits. [Sets starting bond with Xia Anxi to 1, Lao Keung to 0.]
 
[X] Speak of the journey through the Wall, the landscape and sky and spirits. [Sets starting bond with Xia Anxi to 1, Lao Keung to 0.]

This seems like a more useful contact, and I'm interested in getting some of his lore about astronomy and whatnot.
 
[x] Speak of the journey through the Wall, the landscape and sky and spirits. [Sets starting bond with Xia Anxi to 1, Lao Keung to 0.]
 
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