Sirrocco
Pedantic
So... you're looking at the bad boy who won't commit, and you think you can make him change?
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.
Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I disagree on the spirit blood. If we do end up with Zheng Fu like, 100 years from now and have Zheng spiritblood kids, the Zheng would want them since they do that whole thing, and that'll be a mess because LQ won't allow it
...is that a Teleport Into Dynamic Entry At The Critical Moment art?!
- Location
- PA
That MIGHT be worth a date if we could wring it out of him.
Personally I don't see wandering monkeys working well with Ling Qi's mindset.
Feels way to likely Ling would get…Clingy.
- Location
- A rock hurtling through space...
space in incorrect spot
missing spaces
missing apostrophe
tense - "it was only in the embrace of the Mist that the world remained right"?
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We also don't know if Zheng Fu is a typical Zheng and will go off if he gets bored of us. Very well could be a standard Zheng. But maybe not, let's find out!
Also Zheng trace lineage by the maternal line so may or may not want any of our spirit blooded descendants
Also Zheng trace lineage by the maternal line so may or may not want any of our spirit blooded descendants
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Ling Qi could really use to separate sex from politics a bit, to work through her hesitations with someone when we don't have a few baronies riding on the success of her doing so.
So yeah, I'm in on Zheng. He's a fling, and a first lover, and someone everyone knows will walk away in a few weeks or years, not an actual husband.
Because I want our girl to be able to have fun, and because I kinda hate how unrealistic it is to have selection process for first boyfriend -> monogamous for life without any steps in between, and I'm worried that's what the thread is setting itself up for.
So yeah, I'm in on Zheng. He's a fling, and a first lover, and someone everyone knows will walk away in a few weeks or years, not an actual husband.
Because I want our girl to be able to have fun, and because I kinda hate how unrealistic it is to have selection process for first boyfriend -> monogamous for life without any steps in between, and I'm worried that's what the thread is setting itself up for.
Btw looking back Ling Qi is absolutely hilarious.
Like holy shit she put her money where her mouth was like a week later in story. Anyone who thought she was just an arrogant upstart is gonna be eating crow now. This is a huge feather in her cap.
Immediately saves a city and reveals a traitorous spy network.
Like holy shit she put her money where her mouth was like a week later in story. Anyone who thought she was just an arrogant upstart is gonna be eating crow now. This is a huge feather in her cap.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Renxiang will be by turns stupefied and utterly gleeful in her Renxiang-y way.
Renaissance
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Renaissance
***
Wish I could've been there to see your face when you woke up. Hah! Bet you thought you had been shanghaied by the Jin like in all those books you like to read. Nothing so outlandish.
No, you are going south. South to the Emerald Seas. It'll be a long trip, and you'll spend even longer there, but I am sure it'll be worth it for you in the end.
Oh, I'm sure you'll moan at first but there is something you've got to understand.
I am old and times are a changin. You deserve a better master to teach you than a bucket of bilge water like me.
To that end I've reached out to some acquaintances. You will be joining the workshop of Meng Yihan. He was impressed with the samples I sent him and has agreed to teach you. Work hard and you'll shine.
Xuan Gan
***
As the carriage slowed down Lang Hai slid the letter into one of his pockets, right next to his letter of introduction, and collected his supplies. His master hadn't been joking when he said the trip would take a while. At least it had provided ample time to practice his landscapes and cityscapes.
The one he was quite proud of was the quiet little village that straddled the river and the swamps where he had disembarked and gotten a carriage. There was a quiet surrealism in the picture from the mist that danced about on the river's edge and the soft glow of lanterns that shone through windows.
Still it wouldn't do if he appeared less than presentable to his new home. First impressions counted for a lot. One by one he placed his brushes and small canvases back into his storage ring, a gift from Master Xuan, making sure that nothing got jostled too badly.
"Young master," the voice of the carriage driver said, cutting through whatever formations kept the inside quiet, "you have someone waiting for you."
"Thank you for letting me know." Lang Hai replied. "I'll be ready shortly."
"We still have a couple minutes, the city is quite busy right now."
Over the next several minutes the carriage slowed down, eventually rolling to a stop. As Lang Hai stepped out of the carriage he saw his welcome.
The young man waiting next to the stables had a handsome face and was short and thin, looking like a river reed, even his hair was a dirty blond that reminded Lang Hai of dried reeds. The colors on the man's apron were much more interesting however with splashes of bright reds and yellows covering most of it and deep greens sprinkled throughout.
Perhaps Lang Hai hadn't needed to clean up so well.
"Are you Lang Hai?!" The young man said, his voice carrying over the sound of horses and carriages rolling about the stables.
"I am." Lang Hai said. "And you…?"
"Deng Zhen, at your service." The other man said with a bow that Lang Hai copied. "Greeter from Meng Yihan's workshop. We are quite excited to have you with us. Your work, the one with the waves and cliffs especially, was extremely well received and everyone is excited to meet you."
Lang Hai felt some heat try to crawl up his neck before he pushed those feelings down. Praise was something he had a weakness against but this was a future coworker. Professionalism was going to be key. This was work, not play.
Though perhaps later Lang Hai would ask the man to model some poses or movements for him. Purely for academic purposes of course.
"I'm glad that my humble works have been enjoyed." Lang Hai said as he fell beside Deng Zhen and the two of them started walking towards the city. "I am also looking forward to seeing some of the pieces from the workshop, I'll admit to knowing only the standouts of Meng Yihan's work and even then only through jade recordings."
"Oh for sure." Deng Zhen said as they stepped onto a cobblestone path leading into the city. "It's tough even for us to get to see actual works from outside of the province too. We'll get you set up, you've got a really nice view from your rooms by the way, and then show you around the workshop before the big performance tonight."
"The workshop hosts performances?"
"Hmm?" Deng Zhen said. "Oh, no. The performance is being held at the temple. It's a big warding festival, meant to keep the winter from being too harsh. It's a pretty big deal and while attendance isn't mandatory it's considered ill luck for the winter if you don't attend."
They talked a while longer while they worked their way through the city gates about the differences in seasons between the Savage Seas and the Emerald Seas. Hearing about how cold and dangerous the winters this far south made Lang Hai very glad he had made it to the city in time for the warding festival.
Soon enough the two of them were in the city proper and conversation turned towards different things. Though before Lang Hai could really grill Deng Zhen about where the libraries in the city were, a new voice broke through their conversation.
"Deng Zhen, Deng Zhen have you seen this yet!"
Both of them looked towards the voice. A taller almost brutish man was pushing his way through the crowds. He looked perhaps a touch older than Deng Zhen and his pitch black hair fell to his shoulders. He wore heavy dark green clothes that looked woven in a purposefully rough style and had several different splatters of color on the sleeves. In his hand he held a piece of jade that was already emitting light, ready to show the picture stored within.
"Seen what He Chao? I was only in the workshop for a couple hours this morning, I must have missed it."
"This!" He Chao proclaimed as the jade in his hands gleamed even brighter. "Look at what those bastards at Peng Zexian's did!"
An image of a painting flashed into existence between the three of them and Lang Hai nodded. It was a very good painting.
A lord sat upon his throne in court with his courtiers below, each waiting their turn to stand before the lord. The colors, even dulled and distorted through the projection, were clearly rich and varied. Yet the strongest aspect of the piece was its clear composition. The forms and bodies of the courtiers created an equilateral triangle anchoring the piece and shifting the gaze of the viewer to the lord on his throne. Specifically to a point in the middle of the forehead just above the lord's eyes. The seat of sovereignty.
"It is quite an excellent picture." Lang Hai said as he scanned the rest of the picture. Just as he suspected everything else in the painting was placed in clear relation to the lord and his sovereignty. "A masterful example of well planned composition."
"I'm sorry," He Chao said as he looked up from glaring at the picture and seemed to see Lang Hai for the first time, "but who are you?"
Before Lang Hai could shoot back Deng Zhen interjected. "Come now, He Chao. This is Lang Hai, a fellow student newly arrived from the Savage Seas."
Lang Hai could feel the twisting of qi that allowed Deng Zhen to speak before he could. Interesting. Some kind of learned social skill? Why would a painter need something like that?
"Oh, him." He Chao said before turning back to look at Lang Hai. "Your works were passingly good, though your colors were quite drab."
Lang Hai instantly decided he liked Deng Zhen more than He Chao. He sniffed before changing the subject back to the picture in front of them. "I fail to see why this painting is such the problem you are portraying it as."
"It is less the painting and more of the workshop that produced it." Deng Zhen said carefully, as if he was tiptoeing around a sensitive subject. "Meng Yihan and Peng Zexian are officially cordial towards each other. However we have somewhat of a rivalry going on with Peng Zexian's workshop."
As he nodded along to the explanation Lang Hai started to see the problem. It was one of honor and pride. "So now we need to create something that matches or exceeds their work." He said thoughtfully.
"And fast." He Chao said sullenly. "The longer it takes us to match this the more they will mock us and the further ahead they will get on their next project. Even planning out such a piece will take ages."
"What if we attacked the weaknesses of the painting instead? Force them to respond to us?" Lang Hai said as he studied the floating image more closely. Already an idea for a painting was spinning into creation inside his mind.
"Something on your mind?" Deng Zhen asked as he too peered closer at the painting.
"Yes, I've seen statues more lifelike than the people in this painting. No one is doing anything, there is no energy."
"Of course not." He Chao said. "Using shen to animate a painting would be paramount to declaring a loss. What a ridiculous idea to ask our seniors to step into a competition like this."
"There is a difference between the energy of a painting and animating the painting." Deng Zhen said stiffly. "It's all about cause and effect, look at this." He pulled out one of his paintings from his storage ring. One he had created during his trip here, the one of the village and mist.
"Oh, I haven't seen this one before." Deng Zhen said as he switched from staring at the projected image to the painting held in Lang Hai's hands.
"I created it on the trip here." Lang Hai said. "But that's not the point, look at the mist, you can guess where it was before I started painting it and where it will go next. It has motion and energy behind it, even though it is a still image."
"Just like your painting of the waves and cliffs." Deng Zhen muttered.
"Exactly." Lang Hai said, pleased that his new friend had cottoned on so quickly. "I frequently study motion and energy in an attempt to add the vigor of life to my still paintings."
"What is your proposal?" He Chao said surly, clearly seeing that he was outnumbered in this conversation.
"A hunting party." Lang Hai said confidently. "Show a lord and his retinue striking down a deer or lion. I understand that hunting is very traditional activity here in the Emerald Seas, it is something that will resonate with many prospective buyers and can easily show movement and energy."
"That is… not a bad idea." He Chao said even though it sounded like it physically pained him to say it.
"Wasn't Qiu Li working on some animal sketches?" Deng Zhen said, looking up from the paintings.
"He was." He Chao said. "It will at least give us a place to start." He looked around. "Deng Zhen since you still need to take our newest member to meet the master. I'll go and round up some of the others to see if this idea is a viable place to start."
"That sounds excellent." Deng Zhen said quickly.
Once He Chao was out of earshot Lang Hai spoke up. "He seems like an unpleasant person."
Deng Zhen sighed and motioned for Lang Hai to walk a bit quicker as they worked their way through the city streets. "I won't say you are wrong, but He Chao is under a lot of pressure. He's hit a snarl in his cultivation and is trying to gain more personal attention from Master Meng Yihan by taking a leadership role in this rivalry."
"Is it something I should be concerned about?" Lang Hai asked as he ducked under an awning.
"He's not going to be your friend." Deng Zhen said with a shrug. "But it won't go beyond that."
***
The workshop was nestled at the edge of the mortal and cultivation districts. It was larger than Lang Hai was expecting, the two story building took up almost an entire block. Even as he stood outside he could feel the qi of the building, qi of dreams, wood, stone, paint, and creativity. There was so much qi here that it almost felt like the building was a bubble ready to pop.
"Come on in!" Deng Zhen said as he opened a side door with a simple press of his hands to the wood.
Once Lang Hai stepped inside he could hear the noise of creation. Hammers and saws echoed from one of the backrooms and above him he could hear the work of chisels on stone. He could even make out the sound of brushes on canvas from many of the smaller rooms that he walked past.
"I didn't realize the workshop was so large." Lang Hai admitted as Deng Zhen ushered him up a flight of stairs.
"Master Meng Yihan is a painter first and foremost." Deng Zhen said as he followed behind. "But he also sees value in all acts of creation. There are just as many sculptors and architects working under him as there are painters. Cooperation creates new ideas," Deng Zhen continued as they worked their way through the upper rooms, "that's one Master Meng Yihan's favorite sayings, so don't be surprised if he asks you to help with a sculpture or something."
"I'm afraid I have little experience with that." Lang Hai said.
"No one does when they start!" Deng Zhen said. "Now let me introduce you to Master Meng Yihan, he should be right over…"
All of a sudden Deng Zhen fell silent and bowed his head and Lang Hai followed suit. As they had turned the corner the two of them saw two other figures conversing. One was a short and stout man, shorter than Deng Zhen, with a white beard and shocks of white hair while the other was a woman of dusky skin that almost towered over the man.
It didn't sound like they were talking about much at all, just some idle conversation about decent tea shops in the city, but these two were assuredly higher realm cultivators. To Lang Hai the man felt like the first sunrise of the new year, that singular moment of profound change and possibilities. The woman on the other hand felt like a cold mist making him want the hearth.
Then the conversation was over. The woman nodded once and walked away, faint music trailing in her wake and the man clapped his hands, dragging Lang Hai's attention towards him.
"Lang Hai correct? I am Meng Yihan." The man said as he walked over to where the two of them were standing. "I hold Xuan Gan in high regard and am more than glad to host and guide you in your practice."
"I am honored." Lang Hai said.
"Normally I would give you a personalized lesson as soon as you got settled," Meng Yihan continued, "unfortunately we may have to wait a bit longer on that. I've just received a commission that will require a large amount of my attention for a time, but I do believe you will have something to occupy yourself with, right Deng Zhen?"
"Yes, Master Meng Yihan." Deng Zhen said quickly. "We have already started collaborating on a painting."
"Excellent!" Meng Yihan said. "Now I will have to ask for your help a while longer, Deng Zhen, please go and show our new member to his quarters. After that you both will be free for the evening."
"Of course, Master." Deng Zhen said.
"Who was Master Meng Yihan talking to?" Lang Hai asked once Meng Yihan had left their sight.
"That was Lady Ling." Deng Zhen said with a bit of awe in his voice. "Left hand of the heir to the province."
As Lang Hai was walking around his new bedroom and listening with half an ear about how amazing Lady Ling was he began to think that perhaps his Master had been wrong. This new phase of his life might be just as outlandish as all those adventure stories he had read.
***
AN.
@yrsillar
So this piece is based around the idea I've had for a Weilu renaissance which I believe, if everything goes well, is imminent.
To have a renaissance several things need to happen. The first and most important is you need money, not just some money, but a lot of people getting a lot of money. Enough money that they can start dumping money on artists for a simple lack of better things to do with that money. With trade opening up with the Southlands there is a high possibility of extreme amounts of money flowing into the Emerald Seas.
Second, you need a guiding force. Someone or a group directing the focus of the artists. And would you look at that, that's basically who we are trying to become.
What would make a Weilu Renaissance interesting is the conflict it would have with mainstream Peaks culture. IRL this would just result in criticisms and maybe some extra effort from other artists, but Imperial culture is heavily influenced by dragons, and dragons can't let a challenge go unanswered. They must prove their superiority.
My guess is that we are going to trigger two renaissances. One for the Weilu and one for the Peaks as they try to prove their superiority. A very exciting time for artists.
***
Wish I could've been there to see your face when you woke up. Hah! Bet you thought you had been shanghaied by the Jin like in all those books you like to read. Nothing so outlandish.
No, you are going south. South to the Emerald Seas. It'll be a long trip, and you'll spend even longer there, but I am sure it'll be worth it for you in the end.
Oh, I'm sure you'll moan at first but there is something you've got to understand.
I am old and times are a changin. You deserve a better master to teach you than a bucket of bilge water like me.
To that end I've reached out to some acquaintances. You will be joining the workshop of Meng Yihan. He was impressed with the samples I sent him and has agreed to teach you. Work hard and you'll shine.
Xuan Gan
***
As the carriage slowed down Lang Hai slid the letter into one of his pockets, right next to his letter of introduction, and collected his supplies. His master hadn't been joking when he said the trip would take a while. At least it had provided ample time to practice his landscapes and cityscapes.
The one he was quite proud of was the quiet little village that straddled the river and the swamps where he had disembarked and gotten a carriage. There was a quiet surrealism in the picture from the mist that danced about on the river's edge and the soft glow of lanterns that shone through windows.
Still it wouldn't do if he appeared less than presentable to his new home. First impressions counted for a lot. One by one he placed his brushes and small canvases back into his storage ring, a gift from Master Xuan, making sure that nothing got jostled too badly.
"Young master," the voice of the carriage driver said, cutting through whatever formations kept the inside quiet, "you have someone waiting for you."
"Thank you for letting me know." Lang Hai replied. "I'll be ready shortly."
"We still have a couple minutes, the city is quite busy right now."
Over the next several minutes the carriage slowed down, eventually rolling to a stop. As Lang Hai stepped out of the carriage he saw his welcome.
The young man waiting next to the stables had a handsome face and was short and thin, looking like a river reed, even his hair was a dirty blond that reminded Lang Hai of dried reeds. The colors on the man's apron were much more interesting however with splashes of bright reds and yellows covering most of it and deep greens sprinkled throughout.
Perhaps Lang Hai hadn't needed to clean up so well.
"Are you Lang Hai?!" The young man said, his voice carrying over the sound of horses and carriages rolling about the stables.
"I am." Lang Hai said. "And you…?"
"Deng Zhen, at your service." The other man said with a bow that Lang Hai copied. "Greeter from Meng Yihan's workshop. We are quite excited to have you with us. Your work, the one with the waves and cliffs especially, was extremely well received and everyone is excited to meet you."
Lang Hai felt some heat try to crawl up his neck before he pushed those feelings down. Praise was something he had a weakness against but this was a future coworker. Professionalism was going to be key. This was work, not play.
Though perhaps later Lang Hai would ask the man to model some poses or movements for him. Purely for academic purposes of course.
"I'm glad that my humble works have been enjoyed." Lang Hai said as he fell beside Deng Zhen and the two of them started walking towards the city. "I am also looking forward to seeing some of the pieces from the workshop, I'll admit to knowing only the standouts of Meng Yihan's work and even then only through jade recordings."
"Oh for sure." Deng Zhen said as they stepped onto a cobblestone path leading into the city. "It's tough even for us to get to see actual works from outside of the province too. We'll get you set up, you've got a really nice view from your rooms by the way, and then show you around the workshop before the big performance tonight."
"The workshop hosts performances?"
"Hmm?" Deng Zhen said. "Oh, no. The performance is being held at the temple. It's a big warding festival, meant to keep the winter from being too harsh. It's a pretty big deal and while attendance isn't mandatory it's considered ill luck for the winter if you don't attend."
They talked a while longer while they worked their way through the city gates about the differences in seasons between the Savage Seas and the Emerald Seas. Hearing about how cold and dangerous the winters this far south made Lang Hai very glad he had made it to the city in time for the warding festival.
Soon enough the two of them were in the city proper and conversation turned towards different things. Though before Lang Hai could really grill Deng Zhen about where the libraries in the city were, a new voice broke through their conversation.
"Deng Zhen, Deng Zhen have you seen this yet!"
Both of them looked towards the voice. A taller almost brutish man was pushing his way through the crowds. He looked perhaps a touch older than Deng Zhen and his pitch black hair fell to his shoulders. He wore heavy dark green clothes that looked woven in a purposefully rough style and had several different splatters of color on the sleeves. In his hand he held a piece of jade that was already emitting light, ready to show the picture stored within.
"Seen what He Chao? I was only in the workshop for a couple hours this morning, I must have missed it."
"This!" He Chao proclaimed as the jade in his hands gleamed even brighter. "Look at what those bastards at Peng Zexian's did!"
An image of a painting flashed into existence between the three of them and Lang Hai nodded. It was a very good painting.
A lord sat upon his throne in court with his courtiers below, each waiting their turn to stand before the lord. The colors, even dulled and distorted through the projection, were clearly rich and varied. Yet the strongest aspect of the piece was its clear composition. The forms and bodies of the courtiers created an equilateral triangle anchoring the piece and shifting the gaze of the viewer to the lord on his throne. Specifically to a point in the middle of the forehead just above the lord's eyes. The seat of sovereignty.
"It is quite an excellent picture." Lang Hai said as he scanned the rest of the picture. Just as he suspected everything else in the painting was placed in clear relation to the lord and his sovereignty. "A masterful example of well planned composition."
"I'm sorry," He Chao said as he looked up from glaring at the picture and seemed to see Lang Hai for the first time, "but who are you?"
Before Lang Hai could shoot back Deng Zhen interjected. "Come now, He Chao. This is Lang Hai, a fellow student newly arrived from the Savage Seas."
Lang Hai could feel the twisting of qi that allowed Deng Zhen to speak before he could. Interesting. Some kind of learned social skill? Why would a painter need something like that?
"Oh, him." He Chao said before turning back to look at Lang Hai. "Your works were passingly good, though your colors were quite drab."
Lang Hai instantly decided he liked Deng Zhen more than He Chao. He sniffed before changing the subject back to the picture in front of them. "I fail to see why this painting is such the problem you are portraying it as."
"It is less the painting and more of the workshop that produced it." Deng Zhen said carefully, as if he was tiptoeing around a sensitive subject. "Meng Yihan and Peng Zexian are officially cordial towards each other. However we have somewhat of a rivalry going on with Peng Zexian's workshop."
As he nodded along to the explanation Lang Hai started to see the problem. It was one of honor and pride. "So now we need to create something that matches or exceeds their work." He said thoughtfully.
"And fast." He Chao said sullenly. "The longer it takes us to match this the more they will mock us and the further ahead they will get on their next project. Even planning out such a piece will take ages."
"What if we attacked the weaknesses of the painting instead? Force them to respond to us?" Lang Hai said as he studied the floating image more closely. Already an idea for a painting was spinning into creation inside his mind.
"Something on your mind?" Deng Zhen asked as he too peered closer at the painting.
"Yes, I've seen statues more lifelike than the people in this painting. No one is doing anything, there is no energy."
"Of course not." He Chao said. "Using shen to animate a painting would be paramount to declaring a loss. What a ridiculous idea to ask our seniors to step into a competition like this."
"There is a difference between the energy of a painting and animating the painting." Deng Zhen said stiffly. "It's all about cause and effect, look at this." He pulled out one of his paintings from his storage ring. One he had created during his trip here, the one of the village and mist.
"Oh, I haven't seen this one before." Deng Zhen said as he switched from staring at the projected image to the painting held in Lang Hai's hands.
"I created it on the trip here." Lang Hai said. "But that's not the point, look at the mist, you can guess where it was before I started painting it and where it will go next. It has motion and energy behind it, even though it is a still image."
"Just like your painting of the waves and cliffs." Deng Zhen muttered.
"Exactly." Lang Hai said, pleased that his new friend had cottoned on so quickly. "I frequently study motion and energy in an attempt to add the vigor of life to my still paintings."
"What is your proposal?" He Chao said surly, clearly seeing that he was outnumbered in this conversation.
"A hunting party." Lang Hai said confidently. "Show a lord and his retinue striking down a deer or lion. I understand that hunting is very traditional activity here in the Emerald Seas, it is something that will resonate with many prospective buyers and can easily show movement and energy."
"That is… not a bad idea." He Chao said even though it sounded like it physically pained him to say it.
"Wasn't Qiu Li working on some animal sketches?" Deng Zhen said, looking up from the paintings.
"He was." He Chao said. "It will at least give us a place to start." He looked around. "Deng Zhen since you still need to take our newest member to meet the master. I'll go and round up some of the others to see if this idea is a viable place to start."
"That sounds excellent." Deng Zhen said quickly.
Once He Chao was out of earshot Lang Hai spoke up. "He seems like an unpleasant person."
Deng Zhen sighed and motioned for Lang Hai to walk a bit quicker as they worked their way through the city streets. "I won't say you are wrong, but He Chao is under a lot of pressure. He's hit a snarl in his cultivation and is trying to gain more personal attention from Master Meng Yihan by taking a leadership role in this rivalry."
"Is it something I should be concerned about?" Lang Hai asked as he ducked under an awning.
"He's not going to be your friend." Deng Zhen said with a shrug. "But it won't go beyond that."
***
The workshop was nestled at the edge of the mortal and cultivation districts. It was larger than Lang Hai was expecting, the two story building took up almost an entire block. Even as he stood outside he could feel the qi of the building, qi of dreams, wood, stone, paint, and creativity. There was so much qi here that it almost felt like the building was a bubble ready to pop.
"Come on in!" Deng Zhen said as he opened a side door with a simple press of his hands to the wood.
Once Lang Hai stepped inside he could hear the noise of creation. Hammers and saws echoed from one of the backrooms and above him he could hear the work of chisels on stone. He could even make out the sound of brushes on canvas from many of the smaller rooms that he walked past.
"I didn't realize the workshop was so large." Lang Hai admitted as Deng Zhen ushered him up a flight of stairs.
"Master Meng Yihan is a painter first and foremost." Deng Zhen said as he followed behind. "But he also sees value in all acts of creation. There are just as many sculptors and architects working under him as there are painters. Cooperation creates new ideas," Deng Zhen continued as they worked their way through the upper rooms, "that's one Master Meng Yihan's favorite sayings, so don't be surprised if he asks you to help with a sculpture or something."
"I'm afraid I have little experience with that." Lang Hai said.
"No one does when they start!" Deng Zhen said. "Now let me introduce you to Master Meng Yihan, he should be right over…"
All of a sudden Deng Zhen fell silent and bowed his head and Lang Hai followed suit. As they had turned the corner the two of them saw two other figures conversing. One was a short and stout man, shorter than Deng Zhen, with a white beard and shocks of white hair while the other was a woman of dusky skin that almost towered over the man.
It didn't sound like they were talking about much at all, just some idle conversation about decent tea shops in the city, but these two were assuredly higher realm cultivators. To Lang Hai the man felt like the first sunrise of the new year, that singular moment of profound change and possibilities. The woman on the other hand felt like a cold mist making him want the hearth.
Then the conversation was over. The woman nodded once and walked away, faint music trailing in her wake and the man clapped his hands, dragging Lang Hai's attention towards him.
"Lang Hai correct? I am Meng Yihan." The man said as he walked over to where the two of them were standing. "I hold Xuan Gan in high regard and am more than glad to host and guide you in your practice."
"I am honored." Lang Hai said.
"Normally I would give you a personalized lesson as soon as you got settled," Meng Yihan continued, "unfortunately we may have to wait a bit longer on that. I've just received a commission that will require a large amount of my attention for a time, but I do believe you will have something to occupy yourself with, right Deng Zhen?"
"Yes, Master Meng Yihan." Deng Zhen said quickly. "We have already started collaborating on a painting."
"Excellent!" Meng Yihan said. "Now I will have to ask for your help a while longer, Deng Zhen, please go and show our new member to his quarters. After that you both will be free for the evening."
"Of course, Master." Deng Zhen said.
"Who was Master Meng Yihan talking to?" Lang Hai asked once Meng Yihan had left their sight.
"That was Lady Ling." Deng Zhen said with a bit of awe in his voice. "Left hand of the heir to the province."
As Lang Hai was walking around his new bedroom and listening with half an ear about how amazing Lady Ling was he began to think that perhaps his Master had been wrong. This new phase of his life might be just as outlandish as all those adventure stories he had read.
***
AN.
@yrsillar
So this piece is based around the idea I've had for a Weilu renaissance which I believe, if everything goes well, is imminent.
To have a renaissance several things need to happen. The first and most important is you need money, not just some money, but a lot of people getting a lot of money. Enough money that they can start dumping money on artists for a simple lack of better things to do with that money. With trade opening up with the Southlands there is a high possibility of extreme amounts of money flowing into the Emerald Seas.
Second, you need a guiding force. Someone or a group directing the focus of the artists. And would you look at that, that's basically who we are trying to become.
What would make a Weilu Renaissance interesting is the conflict it would have with mainstream Peaks culture. IRL this would just result in criticisms and maybe some extra effort from other artists, but Imperial culture is heavily influenced by dragons, and dragons can't let a challenge go unanswered. They must prove their superiority.
My guess is that we are going to trigger two renaissances. One for the Weilu and one for the Peaks as they try to prove their superiority. A very exciting time for artists.
i wonder if ling qi got loot, i think some of the tools the gardener used against her, li suyin would be interested in help lingqi in studying develop ways around these countermeasures
Wait a second , is that the reason the ruler here was dragging his feet when we first reported the invasion under his city?(we were talking to the clan head at the time right?) Because we were mean to his little girl?
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Sirrocco
Pedantic
I'd just like to point out how thin a reed you're trying to stand on here.
- Maybe this Zheng who appears to be acting very Zheng-like is not actually Zheng-like at heart. Maybe this guy who's flirting with a girl in their first meeting, in a corruption-filled cistern, actually wants to settle down in his heart of hearts.
- Maybe he just needs the right woman to help him understand that? Maybe we could try?
- This isn't even counting Ling Qi's own damage from a romantic perspective, which is a pretty serious barrier to such things all on its own.
And you haven't even provided a particularly coherent reason to want the guy... aside, possibly, from his very Zheng-like charisma.
So maybe we'll find the unicorn Zheng who has all of the Zheng features that we like, and none of the utter refusal to commit that we don't.
You know? From what I can tell, a lot of women have felt that way about various Zheng men over the years. It... generally hasn't ended well. Or, rather, it hasn't ended well from the perspective of the women. The Zheng men in question have enjoyed it just fine.
Okay, this? This I can respect. Yes. This is how one ought to approach romance with the Zheng. This, or not at all.
Though I gotta ask, how does the whole "first fling" idea fit into the culture of the Empire?
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- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
I wouldn't say he was dragging his feet. As soon as he was told he went to awaken his father and sent his sons and sisters out to combat the threat. The trick is that the district head didn't quite believe us at first and so was so to report the issue to the ruler. From what we see the ruler acted as soon as he was told about the attack.
The ruler wasn't dragging his feet. It was the sub-minister(and then later the branch minister) in charge of things and it's going to be the minister's ass when they uncover the institutional laxity.
By the time the Xu was involved, shit was already on fire
I think we had a conversation with CRX at some point where she told us that standard practice was political marriages with secret affairs if you want emotional intimacy
- Location
- USA
So this is super ranty, and I'm leaving your quote in here because like the first three paragraphs and the closing statement pertain to it.
The rest is me venting my spleen on the romance/courtship system that barely exists, and how it should probably have it's own special action so Qi might get married this IRL century.
Feel free to skip. It's long and venting and probably incoherent. I feel emotionally drained now that I'm done writing. That's how bad it was for me.
Pretty sure that's exactly what we're doing.
Marriage is fundamentally a social, legal, and economic contract pertaining to inheritance and property rights. Love might inform, but marriage is not, has never been, and will never be truly about love. Because why get the government involved if it was about love and not other things? As a more modern take: Gay marriage was fought for so hard, not because people wanted to live together in love which doesn't require the government to get involved at any point any more than it does for average people, but because they wanted the default inheritence to be to the SO instead of potentially hated blood kin, wanted the legal right to be able to make calls about the care of a sick same sex lover, to have legal rights over children in their care as a step-parent, and a plethora of other legal and economic issues.
When you put it up to a group of questers like us, we're going to take the best social, legal, and economic option that we can. Xuan Shi has the technical lead right now, doesn't he? At relationship 3, IIRC. He actually has some great optics in those categories, which is a big reason we put effort into cultivating that relationship over the course of the quest. Even if the relationship feels very platonic with confusing teenage feelings on deeper levels of intimacy, but still very friends, this is the closest we have to romance. He's even tried to actually woo us and build a relationship, only to get shut down by his shyness and Qi's trauma.
Secondly, we've been dancing around romance for multiple threads. I'm really wishing it'd come to a head with someone, even if it only falls apart before we get to the marriage stay. And honestly, I'd love to see some of the Husbandos actually pop up and do an interrupt. It'd help make it feel like other characters have agency. Like if [Husbando] popped up before we got to go to Uncle Skelly and said 'hey, I got a thing, right now, wanna come?' Instead of three turns later. That'd feel like building a relationship, and it'd feel like they wanted the relationship. The closest we've come I think was a 1 turn wait to go do stuff with Bao Quan.
So, at least to me, we (and Ling Qi as a reflection of us) aren't looking for love. Because there's no real reciprocation from our options. We are barely getting the taste of courtship from the guy who's ostensibly the most invested, our Bao option. And because his investments are mostly business, it doesn't feel like he's trying to woo us.
To be clear, I'm not saying 'suck it up buttercup' over trauma. Ling Qi likely suffered reams of trauma between being a whore's child at the tier of society where misogyny is actually very present, and then being on the street and the kinds of sexual traumas she'd experience there even without being raped.
But.
Qi's trauma, that she is healing from, has really stymied any chance at multiple boyfriend->Mr. Right Monogamy. Either we continue to drag out the romance forever IRL, each turn is huge so, or we need to make the choice. Adding husbandos is worse, it's just filling out more options and we already have a very tight schedule due to non-romance options. Maybe Yrs should have a special romance/courtship social action, but if that doesn't happen, we're never going to have the time to have multiple BFs. We probably won't have a BF for long. It'll be BF->Fiance->Husband in likely quick succession.
The Expanding Qi Bowl is legitimately making romance in the quest sense, very uninteresting because nothing big ever happens. It just stretches it all out.
If this were a story, this would be great, I would be down in the trenches f'real.
As a quester, I'd really like the romance options to be trimmed down a bit with more impact. Have CRX come along with a 'I need you to focus internally/externally in your husband choice' or something like some of them pulling themselves from the Qi bowl openly so it's no longer a quester option. This is getting crazy. We've had Turtle Lad, and the Glittering Man for ever. Meng Dan just got added not really all that long ago. Wang Chao was an option there for a minute. Whoops here comes two sneky lads. Now Monke boy? The way the quest has done things in the past I would be surprised if Jin Boy Son of a Sailor wasn't a legitimate candidate for a turn or two before he blew it. Some people even seem to consider Sixiang a viable husbando even though that's probably stupid illegal in the empire and gets us about diddly.
Where's the Ice Clan option? How's about the civilized Sky Nomad option? Cause those are coming aren't they.
We've got the options to make incredibly impactful choices already, options that we already get along with. We don't really need anymore.
Xuan Shi offers Xuanwu specific knowledge, probably a selection of good arts, and likely continued provincial economic options that wouldn't really be impacted by marriage at all. He also offers his mad creator skills. He's also tried to build a romantic relationship with us, gently, and is seemingly satisfied with friendship.
The two Sneks might let us double down on our Bai arts, I'm going to say there's a significant amount of overlap in the Snek arts. Music Snek leans into what we've been doing with our clan openly. Muscle Snek would likely offer arts and skills more appropriate for a frontier clan, and I would be willing to bet internet cookies those skills and arts have significant cross applicability into the stealthier parts of our skills.
Meng Dan is a fellow Lunartic. He's humorous, able to access a lot of the stuff that we already do, and would shore up internal positions within the province. And if we couldn't squeeze more Ling Qi aligned arts or insights out of the Meng marriage I'd be surprised. And after the Wang they're very close for economic and military purposes.
Bao Quan has a lot of the provincial pros that Meng Dan has, and his entrepreneurial instinct would be very helpful in getting the Clan up off the ground and wealthy enough to encourage the growth of our clan members. The Bao are farther away, but their economic tendrils fill the province and the Empire at large. And we confuse the fuck out of the boy and only use him for business anyways, can we cut the poor lad loose?
That's already five good options already. And I probably forgot one or two. We haven't even had a Jia option, and the Luo option might be the older man option since the younger one fell through.
Of course, now we have Monke Lad who's a fellow Dreamer and fellow Tribulation seeker or something.
I mean yay! More shit in an already stuffed and clogged toilet. Because we haven't been flushing, because romance/courtship is not a high priority for Ling Qi, the Quest, Yrs, the Questers (who all love to push their ship but we don't ever seem to do anything about it except get more options that split the questing base further to continue TO NEVER DO ANYTHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE THAT'S ACTUALLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE WE'RE SITTING NOBILITY), social actions. So it all just piles on itself until it's a hulking stinky monster in a cistern.
Like I just feel like the romance option is being stove piped into a stove pipe and next thing I'll be doing power points like I'm a section chief in the Army again because everything is so bloated with useless refuse.
Can we please please please get a special 'courtship' social action? For husbando actions only. Can the Husbando options also, iunno, actually put in some fucking effort themselves, efforts that show they have agency and are people with self-respect when Qi ignores them for two months? Oh, only the Bao option really has, besides that thing Xuan Shi invited us to with the sex spot at the end, and we treat him like a business contact and nothing more though he's put in the second most amount of effort to get to know and be respectful of Qi.
So, of course, we're going to have one, maybe two on the absolute outside, boyfriend and it will either immediately fall apart or chug right along into matrimony.
Marriage is fundamentally a social, legal, and economic contract pertaining to inheritance and property rights. Love might inform, but marriage is not, has never been, and will never be truly about love. Because why get the government involved if it was about love and not other things? As a more modern take: Gay marriage was fought for so hard, not because people wanted to live together in love which doesn't require the government to get involved at any point any more than it does for average people, but because they wanted the default inheritence to be to the SO instead of potentially hated blood kin, wanted the legal right to be able to make calls about the care of a sick same sex lover, to have legal rights over children in their care as a step-parent, and a plethora of other legal and economic issues.
When you put it up to a group of questers like us, we're going to take the best social, legal, and economic option that we can. Xuan Shi has the technical lead right now, doesn't he? At relationship 3, IIRC. He actually has some great optics in those categories, which is a big reason we put effort into cultivating that relationship over the course of the quest. Even if the relationship feels very platonic with confusing teenage feelings on deeper levels of intimacy, but still very friends, this is the closest we have to romance. He's even tried to actually woo us and build a relationship, only to get shut down by his shyness and Qi's trauma.
Secondly, we've been dancing around romance for multiple threads. I'm really wishing it'd come to a head with someone, even if it only falls apart before we get to the marriage stay. And honestly, I'd love to see some of the Husbandos actually pop up and do an interrupt. It'd help make it feel like other characters have agency. Like if [Husbando] popped up before we got to go to Uncle Skelly and said 'hey, I got a thing, right now, wanna come?' Instead of three turns later. That'd feel like building a relationship, and it'd feel like they wanted the relationship. The closest we've come I think was a 1 turn wait to go do stuff with Bao Quan.
So, at least to me, we (and Ling Qi as a reflection of us) aren't looking for love. Because there's no real reciprocation from our options. We are barely getting the taste of courtship from the guy who's ostensibly the most invested, our Bao option. And because his investments are mostly business, it doesn't feel like he's trying to woo us.
To be clear, I'm not saying 'suck it up buttercup' over trauma. Ling Qi likely suffered reams of trauma between being a whore's child at the tier of society where misogyny is actually very present, and then being on the street and the kinds of sexual traumas she'd experience there even without being raped.
But.
Qi's trauma, that she is healing from, has really stymied any chance at multiple boyfriend->Mr. Right Monogamy. Either we continue to drag out the romance forever IRL, each turn is huge so, or we need to make the choice. Adding husbandos is worse, it's just filling out more options and we already have a very tight schedule due to non-romance options. Maybe Yrs should have a special romance/courtship social action, but if that doesn't happen, we're never going to have the time to have multiple BFs. We probably won't have a BF for long. It'll be BF->Fiance->Husband in likely quick succession.
The Expanding Qi Bowl is legitimately making romance in the quest sense, very uninteresting because nothing big ever happens. It just stretches it all out.
If this were a story, this would be great, I would be down in the trenches f'real.
As a quester, I'd really like the romance options to be trimmed down a bit with more impact. Have CRX come along with a 'I need you to focus internally/externally in your husband choice' or something like some of them pulling themselves from the Qi bowl openly so it's no longer a quester option. This is getting crazy. We've had Turtle Lad, and the Glittering Man for ever. Meng Dan just got added not really all that long ago. Wang Chao was an option there for a minute. Whoops here comes two sneky lads. Now Monke boy? The way the quest has done things in the past I would be surprised if Jin Boy Son of a Sailor wasn't a legitimate candidate for a turn or two before he blew it. Some people even seem to consider Sixiang a viable husbando even though that's probably stupid illegal in the empire and gets us about diddly.
Where's the Ice Clan option? How's about the civilized Sky Nomad option? Cause those are coming aren't they.
We've got the options to make incredibly impactful choices already, options that we already get along with. We don't really need anymore.
Xuan Shi offers Xuanwu specific knowledge, probably a selection of good arts, and likely continued provincial economic options that wouldn't really be impacted by marriage at all. He also offers his mad creator skills. He's also tried to build a romantic relationship with us, gently, and is seemingly satisfied with friendship.
The two Sneks might let us double down on our Bai arts, I'm going to say there's a significant amount of overlap in the Snek arts. Music Snek leans into what we've been doing with our clan openly. Muscle Snek would likely offer arts and skills more appropriate for a frontier clan, and I would be willing to bet internet cookies those skills and arts have significant cross applicability into the stealthier parts of our skills.
Meng Dan is a fellow Lunartic. He's humorous, able to access a lot of the stuff that we already do, and would shore up internal positions within the province. And if we couldn't squeeze more Ling Qi aligned arts or insights out of the Meng marriage I'd be surprised. And after the Wang they're very close for economic and military purposes.
Bao Quan has a lot of the provincial pros that Meng Dan has, and his entrepreneurial instinct would be very helpful in getting the Clan up off the ground and wealthy enough to encourage the growth of our clan members. The Bao are farther away, but their economic tendrils fill the province and the Empire at large. And we confuse the fuck out of the boy and only use him for business anyways, can we cut the poor lad loose?
That's already five good options already. And I probably forgot one or two. We haven't even had a Jia option, and the Luo option might be the older man option since the younger one fell through.
Of course, now we have Monke Lad who's a fellow Dreamer and fellow Tribulation seeker or something.
I mean yay! More shit in an already stuffed and clogged toilet. Because we haven't been flushing, because romance/courtship is not a high priority for Ling Qi, the Quest, Yrs, the Questers (who all love to push their ship but we don't ever seem to do anything about it except get more options that split the questing base further to continue TO NEVER DO ANYTHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE THAT'S ACTUALLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE WE'RE SITTING NOBILITY), social actions. So it all just piles on itself until it's a hulking stinky monster in a cistern.
Like I just feel like the romance option is being stove piped into a stove pipe and next thing I'll be doing power points like I'm a section chief in the Army again because everything is so bloated with useless refuse.
Can we please please please get a special 'courtship' social action? For husbando actions only. Can the Husbando options also, iunno, actually put in some fucking effort themselves, efforts that show they have agency and are people with self-respect when Qi ignores them for two months? Oh, only the Bao option really has, besides that thing Xuan Shi invited us to with the sex spot at the end, and we treat him like a business contact and nothing more though he's put in the second most amount of effort to get to know and be respectful of Qi.
So, of course, we're going to have one, maybe two on the absolute outside, boyfriend and it will either immediately fall apart or chug right along into matrimony.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
VERY poorly with the non-cultivators, at least- we know that it's a very patriarchal society at that level with heavy shades of parents controlling children and husbands controlling wives, and with patrilineal inheritance you've got the incentives to have taboos around sex before or out of marriage, for the wives and daughters.
We also know that for cultivators, it's both strongly egalitarian and strongly clan-based, so they are probably far more interested in children that have high cultivation rather than reliable father to son inheritance.
Which implies that sleeping around quietly is applauded, but things that lose the clan public face via loud breaches of trust in marriage vows are frowned on.
I think, especially with the Zheng's reputation, that Ling Qi *should* be ok having a fling. On the other hand, there will be more risk being seen as a public couple than just quietly getting some sugar.
While I largely agree with the second part of your rant, I feel like this is a flawed premise that undermines the rest of your point- this isn't about property and inheritance, this is about having talented kids.
And that means that for the whole empire, despite how it plays in public, monogamy is not real important. For women. Men get no advantage to them or their family from sleeping around, but that's never stopped this before...
If you are a high red/low yellow wannabe mom, it makes a lot more sense from the perspective of "I want my child to have the best chances in life" to sleep with a green or indigo who would never marry you.
Assuming, of course, that cultivation talent is at least partially inheritable, which I think is settled?
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- Location
- Washington
Talent isn't the only thing though. It IS about inheritance and property rights because inheritance and property rights represent Access To Cultivation Resources. Marriage is a contract with an varyingly implicit to explicit assumption about the cultivation resources the resulting kids will have access to, and it's an interclan alliance that is based on the assumption that Next Generation Our Cousin-To-Be Will Be More Friendly, and all of THOSE things are jeopardized by "sleeping around is quietly applauded" despite the lack of strict concern about Father-To-Son-Inheritance.
Also so much of the original basis of the empire's society would've been driven by people actively working to maintain spirit blood and an important part of THAT is going to be People Are Having Kids With The People They're Supposed To Be Having Kids With, And Not With Some Rando. Yes spirit blood is SOMEWHAT less important at this point in time but the social structures they developed would most likely stick around.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ling Qi needs therapy before she dates anyone. Though given the absence of that some self directed cultivation-based soul searching might do in a pinch...but she's not there yet on this subject (though Sixiang has recently made noises like she needs to consider the issue soon, so maybe that happens fairly quickly, we'll see).
I think most statements about her love life and how she should pursue it need to wait until she's gone through the necessary soul searching in question. All I think we can really say with any certainty is that, due to the importance of family to her Way, she should under no circumstances marry purely for political or economic advantage. I'm pretty sure that, if she marries, she fundamentally needs to marry someone she's comfortable making part of her family or she risks deep and permanent breaking of her Way.
Now, that doesn't necessarily have to be romantic love (though I suspect it will be if we ever get there), and she doesn't have to ignore suitors just because they have economic advantages (Bao Qian remains very possible, IMO), but even from a pure cost/benefit analysis due to the nature of her cultivation she's better off marrying a poor peasant she'll consider part of her family than the most prestigious bachelor in the Empire that she will not, because the former strengthens her Way and the latter damages it, and her personal power is more important than any suitor's material benefits.
I think most statements about her love life and how she should pursue it need to wait until she's gone through the necessary soul searching in question. All I think we can really say with any certainty is that, due to the importance of family to her Way, she should under no circumstances marry purely for political or economic advantage. I'm pretty sure that, if she marries, she fundamentally needs to marry someone she's comfortable making part of her family or she risks deep and permanent breaking of her Way.
Now, that doesn't necessarily have to be romantic love (though I suspect it will be if we ever get there), and she doesn't have to ignore suitors just because they have economic advantages (Bao Qian remains very possible, IMO), but even from a pure cost/benefit analysis due to the nature of her cultivation she's better off marrying a poor peasant she'll consider part of her family than the most prestigious bachelor in the Empire that she will not, because the former strengthens her Way and the latter damages it, and her personal power is more important than any suitor's material benefits.
- Location
- USA
Who inherit your fortune and arts and properties.
Who then continue to grow in talent because they can afford to because of their inheritance and property. Which in turn allows for more talent to have a chance to flourish which feeds into more fortune and arts and properties. If nothing else, having and maintaining that wealth shows that you are at least moderately talented. And catches the eye of talented suitors for more breedable talent.
Marriage is also eugenics, especially in Xianxia land. The more you know.
Which is also why whose kids you have, as a female, and whose kids you father, as a male, is important.
These aren't random nobodies, these are nobles and talented individuals within the nobility. It matters now. Because they've made a contract saying it matters, signing it and confirming it matters, and laying out things like penalties for breach of contract.
That's why marriage is a legal thing, why the government is involved. It's a contract. Without things like prenups or betrothal contracts, there's a generic in place contract with stipulations for when things fall through defined by law.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
But given the ease of adoption into a clan, and the way that direct children frequently have thier resources taken away and given to more talented children still within the family- to the point of power, not blood, determining leadership, I think y'all are still taking real-world logic and assuming it transfers 100%.
It doesn't. Incentives are different.
A clan dies when it fails to have a powerful enough cultivator, not when it loses all it's money.
So bringing in new blood for fresh potential works equally well with a marriage, or like the Zheng: the women pick promising men on a per-child basis.
The same incentives that allow the Zheng to thrive like that will also push everyone else in that direction.
Also? Contacts, and the respect for them, is almost entirely a face thing, not a real commitment, when dealing with politics and power.
Low status is breaking the wrong rules. Middle status is following ask the rules. High status is breaking the rules you can get away with breaking.
It doesn't. Incentives are different.
A clan dies when it fails to have a powerful enough cultivator, not when it loses all it's money.
So bringing in new blood for fresh potential works equally well with a marriage, or like the Zheng: the women pick promising men on a per-child basis.
The same incentives that allow the Zheng to thrive like that will also push everyone else in that direction.
Also? Contacts, and the respect for them, is almost entirely a face thing, not a real commitment, when dealing with politics and power.
Low status is breaking the wrong rules. Middle status is following ask the rules. High status is breaking the rules you can get away with breaking.
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LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
Much as I like the Zheng, I feel like Ling Qi, whose family history consists of her father running away from her mother after promising to take her with him, thus condemning her and Ling Qi to poverty, is a poor fit for her.
Ling Qi's stronger than her mother and she'll never face poverty again, but a Zheng probably will press buttons that'd make for a terrible romantic relationship with Ling Qi.
Ling Qi's stronger than her mother and she'll never face poverty again, but a Zheng probably will press buttons that'd make for a terrible romantic relationship with Ling Qi.
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- Location
- California
If you want, but talk fast. The wedding is already scheduled for Spring.