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.
[X] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)
- Location
- Staring into the void
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)
[X] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)
Heyo folks just letting you know I've started a patron exclusive side story, expanding on the Journey to the East Commissions, Chapter two, which is wholly new, went up today. It updates monthly. This one is going to stay Patreon exclusive until its complete. Please consider taking a look at the published books as well, volume 2 contains material exclusive to the books!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Can't argue against that. You convinced me!
[X] Infrastructure Support (+15 bonus to construction rolls)
Last edited:
- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
Hang on for a moment...
3 < 2 ?
[Calculating...]
[Calculating...]
[Calculating...]
[Calcul-]
Ok yeah, that checks out, that two is indeed bigger than the three.
Last edited:
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
yes, during the barb invasion back at turn 7
Here's my thoughts on the distribution of the first hundred common cultivators for our fief:
10 Guards
10 Ling Household attendants (bureaucrats, researchers, and other misc tasks)
5 Hanyi attendants (being an idol takes a lot of support staff)
30 Farmers or Miners (Farmers are also Zhengui attendants.)
40 Crafters
5 Scout/Priests
With levies being drawn from the the farmers, miners, and crafters (ie 70% of the population). The distribution of miners vs farmers depends on the natural resources of our fief, though I imagine farmers will be the majority of that given Zhengui's nature.
Hanyi's needs won't grow with our fief population, so that will proportionally shrink over time. Yu Nuan might need some assistants for herding, I'm not sure. However I can't imagine she wants that many. Most growth will be in additional guards, farmers, and crafter but probably keeping about the same proportions. Still, more Ling household attendants and scout/priests wouldn't go amiss.
Defending against an actual attack will involve us raising levies, which means that we'd have 80 combatants to throw at a problem. The purpose of the 10 guards and 5 scout/priests is to make sure problems don't surprise us and to solve minor problems without our intervention. Additionally, while not going out of their way to fight stuff, all cultivators can still fight and are expected to help deal with threats if directed to by a guard. Thus the guards might be able to throw 40 bodies at a problem in the fields, though I would expect them to get permission from us first.
I don't actually expect yrs to care about the details of this, but I think its interesting to think about the demographics.
10 Guards
10 Ling Household attendants (bureaucrats, researchers, and other misc tasks)
5 Hanyi attendants (being an idol takes a lot of support staff)
30 Farmers or Miners (Farmers are also Zhengui attendants.)
40 Crafters
5 Scout/Priests
With levies being drawn from the the farmers, miners, and crafters (ie 70% of the population). The distribution of miners vs farmers depends on the natural resources of our fief, though I imagine farmers will be the majority of that given Zhengui's nature.
Hanyi's needs won't grow with our fief population, so that will proportionally shrink over time. Yu Nuan might need some assistants for herding, I'm not sure. However I can't imagine she wants that many. Most growth will be in additional guards, farmers, and crafter but probably keeping about the same proportions. Still, more Ling household attendants and scout/priests wouldn't go amiss.
Defending against an actual attack will involve us raising levies, which means that we'd have 80 combatants to throw at a problem. The purpose of the 10 guards and 5 scout/priests is to make sure problems don't surprise us and to solve minor problems without our intervention. Additionally, while not going out of their way to fight stuff, all cultivators can still fight and are expected to help deal with threats if directed to by a guard. Thus the guards might be able to throw 40 bodies at a problem in the fields, though I would expect them to get permission from us first.
I don't actually expect yrs to care about the details of this, but I think its interesting to think about the demographics.
Last edited:
Are cultivators levied like that? I thought that the difficulty of cultivating for the majority of low level cultivators meant that they have very few Arts. So someone like a crafter cultivating something outside of their profession is a very large opportunity cost, and they'd still be unlikely to be able to do much against Cloud Nomads or hostile spirits. From memory, in FoD there were three Arts that were the standard loadout for Argent Sect soldiers (defensive, offensive, and movement) and I don't think you'd want to be missing any of those if you were trying to fend of a Cloud Nomad raid.
I think that for a lot of Red soul common cultivators three Arts would often be all that they can handle leaving no room for stuff to help their actual jobs, so if you expect those cultivators to fight and be useful it needs to be their main focus. My impression of baronies is that the family would be expected to do the bulk of the fighting to defend it, supported by what professional guards/soldiers they have, while non-combatant cultivators seek shelter. If they are facing somthing beyond their ability they'd appeal to their superior to send some of their own soldiers/family.
While levies make sense for a normal people, since a peasant with a spear is cheap and reasonably effective at what you need them to do, I'm not sure they do for cultivators. Even low level cultivators are pretty specialised and represent a not insignificant investment, especially for a barony, so you don't want to send them to fight unless that's their job or things are desperate. Nobles (so Green and above excluding any untalented family members) are the exception since they are talented enough to branch out while still having the strength to defend their territory that their rank ultimately rest on.
Basically, my assumption has been that in the Empire fighting is largely done by professional cultivator soldiers led by their nobles. And that the reason the Cloud Nomads are so dangerous is that, like IRL steppe nomads, the bulk of them are able to fight, counteracting their smaller population. Is this assumption correct, or am I underestimating the Art availabilty/general combat ability of low level cultivators?
I think that for a lot of Red soul common cultivators three Arts would often be all that they can handle leaving no room for stuff to help their actual jobs, so if you expect those cultivators to fight and be useful it needs to be their main focus. My impression of baronies is that the family would be expected to do the bulk of the fighting to defend it, supported by what professional guards/soldiers they have, while non-combatant cultivators seek shelter. If they are facing somthing beyond their ability they'd appeal to their superior to send some of their own soldiers/family.
While levies make sense for a normal people, since a peasant with a spear is cheap and reasonably effective at what you need them to do, I'm not sure they do for cultivators. Even low level cultivators are pretty specialised and represent a not insignificant investment, especially for a barony, so you don't want to send them to fight unless that's their job or things are desperate. Nobles (so Green and above excluding any untalented family members) are the exception since they are talented enough to branch out while still having the strength to defend their territory that their rank ultimately rest on.
Basically, my assumption has been that in the Empire fighting is largely done by professional cultivator soldiers led by their nobles. And that the reason the Cloud Nomads are so dangerous is that, like IRL steppe nomads, the bulk of them are able to fight, counteracting their smaller population. Is this assumption correct, or am I underestimating the Art availabilty/general combat ability of low level cultivators?
Yrs recently talked a lot about this on discord. These quotes should answer your questions.
On levies:
Yrsillar on Discord said:
On count armies:
Yrsillar on Discord said:
The levies probably don't have arts associated with their regular profession, at least initially. Having the opportunity to cultivate them would a great boon to their effectiveness. However it feels weird to have someone that spends the vast majority of their time farming a "soldier".
Said levies are also probably taught Cai soldier Arts instead of anything from us. However we might be able to piggyback on that a little if we come up with Arts for them that use the same meridians. Elemental shifts are basically going to be inevitable though: the Cai use Mountain/Light Arts and we don't. For instance Spine/Heart could be useful for buffing a leader's defenses and making nearby plants resistant to pests or blights. Since CRX likes us we might be able to choose which Cai soldier arts they learn, making this easier on us.
Edit: Counts have a lot more military demands on their resources and need a standing army. The same is probably true of Viscounts. For Barons, though, the expectations are probably much lower. Meanwhile Ducals very rarely need active soldiers (except insofar as they are acting as a lower noble) but, when they do, the shit has hit the fan.
Last edited: