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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] Ceiling!

When the choice sounds like it's between fighting a spider and an octopus I pick spider everytime. Screw spiders, long live the octopus!
 
ooo it's interesting that the sites are as-relevant-to-LQ

That means various sites may be more meaningful/impactful to other cultivators, it's simply that they don't resonate with Ling Qi particularly much.
 
If we end up keeping the tie, can we fight both? 👀
Adhoc vote count started by WhoTheHeckity on Jan 11, 2022 at 6:45 PM, finished with 71 posts and 42 votes.
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Pretty please @yrsillar
 
I'm really hoping water comes out on top, and that the creature ends up being some sort of Kelpy or siren (Which isn't a mermaid, btw. Siren's are bird ladies, look it up) that tries to charm and drown us. Watching them freak out as their charms harmlessly bounce off of our domain sounds hilarious.
 
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Fifteen and One Crowns
  • Apocrypha
    • Fifteen and One Crowns​

    And with their final enemy defeated Zheng Er and his armies were finally able to return home to Waterfall Cavern. It was decided a week-long celebration would be held to honor the great heroes and soldiers that had finally brought peace back to the lands of rivers and mountains. There was much drinking, dancing, feasting and merrymaking amongst all the peoples.

    Now it came to be that on the second day of celebration many of the generals and advisors to Zheng Er gathered together. They discussed many things and said amongst themselves, "Who is greater in these lands then Zheng Er? Who is more kind or just or wise? Let us take the fifteen broken crowns and bring them to a great smith to be forged into a great crown and present it to Zheng Er on the last day of celebration for who else should rule over these lands and people." So it was that the fifteen broken crowns of the would-be rulers of the Ebon Rivers were gathered and presented to the greatest smith in the lands to be forged anew.

    It was then on the seventh day of celebration before the sun had set and before many had gone too deep into their cups that the generals and advisors came before Zheng Er. With them they brought the great crown, a thing of gold, silver, rubies, diamonds, and all manners of other precious stones and metals, and bowed before Zheng Er. They then presented the crown and said "Oh Great and Mighty Zheng Er! We present to you this great crown to show our devotion! None are as wise or as strong as you! You have slain fifteen others that would claim to rule over the lands and people and have proven yourself merciful and just! Who other than you is fit to rule these lands!"

    At those words Zheng Er began to weep, tears dripping from his eyes. He picked up the crown that had been crafted for him and asked "How?" Then with the mightiest cry he threw the crown to the ground causing a great clamor like thirty claps of thunder all at once, destroying the crown so thoroughly it was not but dust and splinters. "How could I be so misunderstood!?"

    All gathered had stopped at the noise and the cry from Zheng Er and a hush fell across the whole city.

    "Oh how I weep! For ten years have I fought beside you all! For ten years we did walk these lands end to end, slaying any that dared to say 'I am king, I shall rule'! You call me wise but I am a fool! How could I be so misunderstood by those I called friend? By those that I called family?

    "Was it not my own grandmother, called Zhi and known as the Conqueror, that struck down that last vile serpent that proclaimed itself a god of this land? Did she not say 'Let not the dragon rule again and make of my people cattle'? Oh, how quickly you wish to make of me a dragon and yourselves cattle again! Ten years we fought against those fifteen that had crowned themselves and sought to oppress their people like animals and it takes only seven days before you seek to crown another.

    "If I am wise it is only because I have listened to those wiser than I. Li An! It was your stratagem that allowed us to take the Fortress of Obsidian Walls, I but gave the order. Tao Guo! It was your cunning that kept us fed as we marched through the Mire of One-Hundred Maws, if left to me we would have starved. Zeng Wu! It was your words, not mine, that roused the people of the Deep Valley of Three Rivers that let us turn the tide against the King of Five-Hundred Flying Blades.

    "If I am strong it is only because I was taught by the mightiest among us. Fu Yong! It was you who first showed me how to wield a cudgel. Ye Ru! You taught me how to fight for days on end with no rest. Peng Ah! Without you I would have never learned how to defeat the Thousand and One Strikes of the King of River and Sky.

    "If I am great it is only because I have surrounded myself by greatness!"

    All in the city knew that Zheng Er was speaking the truth for many had been there to witness the things he spoke of.

    "Let me be clear and state my mind. None shall rule these lands like the dragons did, one lording above all others and only ever taking from the people! Now I know that you are all troubled and asking yourselves 'But if there is no ruler who shall settle disputes amongst us? Who shall protect us if some great beast wishes to rule over us like a dragon? Will brother and sister have to fight each other during times of famine for a grain of rice?' To this I say nay!

    "I will lead a council of our wisest elders and let one of the elders be in charge of this part of land or that part of land to insure the people are taken care of and protected. As the lead of this council it will fall to me to judge disputes among the elders and ensure all the peoples are protected and cared for but remain free to do as they will. For ten years I did fight so for ten years will I lead this council and then step down and let another lead for ten years. Let none hold this position for longer lest they decide to make themselves a king."

    Hearing this the people did rejoice for truly Zheng Er was the greatest among them. With this declared the people returned to their feasting and celebrating but on the next day…

    -Excerpt from the Tales of Fifteen and One Crowns, originally an oral story believed to be a fantastical re-telling of the history of Zheng Er before his ascension as the Crownbreaker

    A.N.
    @yrsillar     Omake for the Omake throne. Got inspired after reading a certain interlude. A bit on the shorter end but basically just wanted to write the monologue.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Thinking about it, how plausible is it that the water spirits we just met are less siren lures and more anglerfish ones, if we go with the water bossfight? A puppet master fight could be fun.
     
    yrsillar said:
    The chamber was vast, its organic ceiling stretching far overhead, and the stone was shot through with colors, pink and gold, blue and green, with all the shades of the dawn between. Great pillars of limestone, smooth and slick with moisture stretched from the floor to the high ceiling above, shaped wholly by natures hand.

    "The rock feels strange and light here, as if it might float away into the sky on the current that flows through it," Gan Guangli mused. "And the substance flowing in the stone drinks hungrily of the light and the sun."

    "Well, we'll have to make note then. Maybe get a sample back to the Sect's alchemists," Ling Qi said. She clapped her hands twice and bowed toward the crystal, offering simple respect since she did not yet understand the sleeping spirits nature.

    "Carefully of course," Gan Guangli said, following her lead. "Let us not forget the lessons of the Argent Vents."

    "Naturally," Ling Qi said, straightening up. "Let me guide a little into a container and then-"

    Exotic Deposit Found-Shining Air
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    Hmm, definitely exotic, its some kind of vapor that can pass through stone(seems to preferentially move in stone even), absorbs light and carries light through stone, while removing weight? While also prismatically splitting the light?

    yrsillar said:
    It was hard to tell, with the dense area of the cavern but she didn't think the crystal itself was a part of the spirit, but rather… a dwelling? In so much as those could be said to be separate things for spirits. She recalled well Zeqing's little house on the peak.
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    I'd call it a focal point

    [ ] Water!
    yrsillar said:
    The floor of the space was a series of deep inky blue pools in scalloped depressions of varying height, rippling softly under the wind that blew through the cavern.
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    yrsillar said:
    And there was light, because in the west of the chamber, above a series of rising platforms of stone that emerged from the water was a single huge crystal of numerous colors, through which the light of the fading sun refracted.
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    yrsillar said:
    She could feel other smaller spirits though, swimming in the pure, clear waters and flitting through the gallery of growing stone above.
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    yrsillar said:
    She saw pale faces and bodies in the water, glimmering fish scales and fair hair like trailing water weeds. Wide and doe like eyes peered back with a seeming childish curiosity, and soft bubbling voices raised in song.
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    Fish scales, light hair, musical and youth. PRETTY generic as water spirites go, other than the youth part.
    Could be Morgen, Rusalka or Nereid, those all appear as aquatic young maidens. The description of the hair makes me think of Rusalka since thats precisely what their hair is supposed to look like.
    PROBABLY not Potamides, considering they aren't trying to kill Guangli(those like to beautify young girls but murder young men by drowning).
    Probably not Selkies, since they have fish scale, not sealskin.

    ...but the main thought is that when you have a swarm of childish spirits theres probably a big momma somewhere around.
    Either way, the water threat is probably a spiritual attack, since they lure.
    Collateral damage risk - Ling Qi's attacks will freeze the water, and I'm not sure how her mist propagates through solid ice or water. Gan could fight them as they emerge, but going into the water after them seems unwise.
    That said, they're spiritual attackers and Qi is a spiritual attack specialist.

    [ ] Ceiling!
    yrsillar said:
    The chamber was vast, its organic ceiling stretching far overhead, and the stone was shot through with colors, pink and gold, blue and green, with all the shades of the dawn between. Great pillars of limestone, smooth and slick with moisture stretched from the floor to the high ceiling above, shaped wholly by natures hand.
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    yrsillar said:
    And there was much wind. Ling Qi felt the movement of air currents above, arriving through holes worn in old stone, the piping arose as the wind flowed through the complex galleries of growing stone in the ceiling.
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    yrsillar said:
    She could feel other smaller spirits though, swimming in the pure, clear waters and flitting through the gallery of growing stone above.
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    The threat from the ceiling seems like birds or bats instead. More stealthy, considering we hadn't seen any of them despite hearing and sensing them.
    Collateral damage wise, Qi's mist should be able to take them on without needing to damage the environment, and Gan can fight open air foes easily enough, he just needs to grow to get in reach and grab them.


    [X] Ceiling!

    I'll take GG punching Batman.
     
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