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

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I think a song that works like what the Wang Matriach is doing works too. It can even start a new Ling clan tradition!!! High realm Ling scion always leaving a biography/song that fully express their Ways to guide future paths and prevent misinterpretations

Clan Remembrance, totally. Like in BT. Every time some scion of Ling does something really cool they get a line to a whole chunk of song. Start with how the Ling come from nothing and other Qi-ness. Totes.
 
Hmmm, I wonder if Ling Qi were to use the Weilu Lineage Tapestry again, would it now point to a different Weilu ancestor after her interaction with the Old Skeleton? He did claim kinship and blood, and Ling Qi has taken some of his Qi. Maybe she hasn't yet reach a point where the Tapestry would recognize that connection. It sure would be something for Ling Qi to interact with the Tapestry and get a different result, especially if Meng Dan was there who would notice the change.
 
Hmmm, I wonder if Ling Qi were to use the Weilu Lineage Tapestry again, would it now point to a different Weilu ancestor after her interaction with the Old Skeleton? He did claim kinship and blood, and Ling Qi has taken some of his Qi. Maybe she hasn't yet reach a point where the Tapestry would recognize that connection. It sure would be something for Ling Qi to interact with the Tapestry and get a different result, especially if Meng Dan was there who would notice the change.

You'd expect this to result in her having him listed as her ancestor, but no, now she shows up on all lineage tests as her own ancestor. No one knows how this is possible, but they are all forced to agree that blatant lies that can't be disproved are kind of like a heist.
 
Hmmm, I wonder if Ling Qi were to use the Weilu Lineage Tapestry again, would it now point to a different Weilu ancestor after her interaction with the Old Skeleton? He did claim kinship and blood, and Ling Qi has taken some of his Qi. Maybe she hasn't yet reach a point where the Tapestry would recognize that connection. It sure would be something for Ling Qi to interact with the Tapestry and get a different result, especially if Meng Dan was there who would notice the change.
Considering the titles he was claiming, this may actually make the tapestry hate us even more, which is impressive.
 
That's Sixiang's job :V
Watch Sixiang embellish the crap out of Ling Qi's biography in the name of artistic reinterpretation.

"Who are the 'Wraiths?'

"Oh, that's the thieving orphan street gang you founded before you heisted the sect invitation from that Ministry guy."

"Sixiang, none of this happened. You know none of this happened!"

"Well duh, but this is so much better then sleeping in various grimy alleyways for several years, almost starving a bunch of times and getting dragged by your ankle kicking and biting into the Ministry office."

"..."

"I mean sure if we are going for a realism and a sort of underdog tale that could work but frankly I feel that the market is sorta oversaturated with runaway underdogs at the moment. Where in my new improved biography you would be a prodigious career criminal from the very beginning!"

"I'm severely regretting giving you this task."

"Just wait until you hear about your hidden divine lineage!"
 
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I cough up? I started reading the books 2 weeks ago, and then started in this thread when i finished them.
And now here I am. I can hardly believe it.
 
To be clear, it's not really about exposing something bad and just walking away.


The Domain bonus boosts our social traits, after all. With the right presentation, there is little difference between revealing the rot someone has allowed to flourish and demanding that the rot be dealt with.

In short, it's a conviction and tool built for social combat and for working with rather than outright replacing existing systems, which seems pretty much perfect for our job and goals.
The issue is determining where the rot stops and the healthy flesh starts. And how much of the latter you are willing to sacrifice to get rid of the former...
 
The issue is determining where the rot stops and the healthy flesh starts. And how much of the latter you are willing to sacrifice to get rid of the former...
I mean, you're not wrong, but we specifically passed up the yeehaw insights in favor of the one focused on questioning the existing situation and working with existing institutions. And right before that, we decided against yeehawing into the enemy in favor of working with local institutions even though we knew they suffered from a little institutional rot. And before that, we decided to try and build up connections within the Emerald Seas rather than tearing down those we saw as obstructions to progress.

Properly diagnosing existing issues and not being overzealous in their removal is important, but given the way Ling Qi's been developing and we've been voting, I feel being too paranoid about that would be counterproductive. We're already paying attention to details, to how things we want to change got that way in the first place, and who we need to talk to to enact change. Vigilance is important, but too much focus on the mistakes we can make will make it difficult to enact any change at all.
 
Blood and fire. Took me more than a week, but I finally binged the story up to date on Royal Road, and then I find out there's even more here!?
Not gonna lie, was a bit of a struggle to get into the story at first, but after I forced my way through the first half dozen chapters it became much easier.
Forge of Destiny is pretty much the polar opposite of the only other Xianxia series I've ever gotten into, Cradle. Here the pacing is quite leisurely and we learn lots of extra details about the world, while in Cradle the pacing is rarely anything but full throttle. Got lots of other thoughts on the series but need to get my thoughts together; this was a long sucker.
 
One question before I read all the stuff that's here and not yet on Royal Road: What are the fault lines and differences in opinions between Weilu sympathizers and Imperials? I get a feeling that the real Celestial Peaks Imperials are all "foreigners are filthy untermenschen barbarians and the Emerald Seas people are practically half foreign" and that the Imperial idea for dealing with spirits is to dominate them, while the Weilu coexist with them, but I'm not sure if that's true. It all feels a bit unclear to me. Like, what is it that makes Ling Qi more Weilu than Imperial in her actions?
 
One question before I read all the stuff that's here and not yet on Royal Road: What are the fault lines and differences in opinions between Weilu sympathizers and Imperials? I get a feeling that the real Celestial Peaks Imperials are all "foreigners are filthy untermenschen barbarians and the Emerald Seas people are practically half foreign" and that the Imperial idea for dealing with spirits is to dominate them, while the Weilu coexist with them, but I'm not sure if that's true. It all feels a bit unclear to me. Like, what is it that makes Ling Qi more Weilu than Imperial in her actions?
Celestial Peaks people see Emerald Seas as an irrelevant backwater area more than practically half foreign. As for the Weilu faction, there are four (or 5? I feel like I'm forgetting one?) sub groups that are different from one another. Reformers, reactionaries, those in the Weilu faction who are influenced by and represent Imperial ideals, Moderates...like all politics, its complex.
 
One question before I read all the stuff that's here and not yet on Royal Road: What are the fault lines and differences in opinions between Weilu sympathizers and Imperials? I get a feeling that the real Celestial Peaks Imperials are all "foreigners are filthy untermenschen barbarians and the Emerald Seas people are practically half foreign" and that the Imperial idea for dealing with spirits is to dominate them, while the Weilu coexist with them, but I'm not sure if that's true. It all feels a bit unclear to me. Like, what is it that makes Ling Qi more Weilu than Imperial in her actions?

Now, I may have mixed up some stuff, so don't trust my word 100%, but, you're right. Imperials are basically the descendants of dragons. They try to dominate everything, and everything must have a place to them. While the Weilu try to coexist and work with them.

This means a number of things. While imperials will try to lobotomize any and all spirit courts in the land to build, the Weilu try to work with them and make pacts. While the imperials consider spirits their lessers, the Weilu consider them their kin. Which is why dog spirits in the Peaks don't really advance far because well, they're treated like animals. While the imperials want a set way for everything, like say, how to communicate with local river spirits and the like, Weilu can negotiate and actually communicate with them, and their pacts might change.

And you see this in how Ling Qi acts with her spirits, treating them as family, and how she generally respects spirits too, like how she acknowledges Liming's existence and calls her she instead of it. And she tries to make pacts with them, like how she gave up some of her cultivation to that river spirit during Hanyi's concert.

Now, though Ling Qi is Weilu, there are different flavours of Weilu too. There are Weilu reformists, who try to take the best of the old ways and bring back the Weilu. LQ is firmly in this bracket. Then there are the reactionaries, who want things to go back to how things were before Shenhua (so basically the Hui). I'm not sure about the Weilu conservatives and moderates though


And yeah. The Emerald Seas in THE imperial backwater. Except instead of the usual trope where the MC leaves and moves to a better region, Ling Qi is staying and trying to improve the ES.
 
Like, what is it that makes Ling Qi more Weilu than Imperial in her actions?
A lot of Celestial Peak attitudes stem from the fact the Sage Emperor was raised by a dragon and so believed you either were above or below something equality isn't a thing. So Celestial Peaks is at the top of the pyramid and everyone else is further down. This dictates how they do everything from acedemic institutes to political philosophy and art to military and foreign relations (they all suck and need to be conquered). There is good stuff in there too, we as readers just tend to side with the protagonist especially one who isn't domineering to their spirits and friends but Peak policies have directly benefitted Ling Qi and Cai Renxiang is a pretty strong adherent to Celestial Peak style of doing things, she just modifies it since Emerald Seas is a bag of cats and she's gonna have to rule it one day and can't just tell everyone what to do like Mama Cai can.

Ling Qi is still trying to figure all that out but so far she doesn't feel like you have to be all of one side or the other.
 
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One question before I read all the stuff that's here and not yet on Royal Road: What are the fault lines and differences in opinions between Weilu sympathizers and Imperials?

There are at least 7 cultural groups in the Emerald Seas; each comital clan (and geographical area, which does not quite correspond to the clans) consists of some combination of them; no clan we know about has more than 4 (and most have only 3) (not all the clans have been revealed). Our reputation is mostly fixed to the cultural groups but the numbers rarely do differ slightly between the clans.

(reputation is on the front page, but it has spoilers due to changes since RR)

The ES cultural groups we know about are:
  • Old Tribes: very small in number, only found in limited places; very distinct culture
  • Weilu Moderates: relatively common in much of the ES (even where Imperials are common), except where the Reformer-Reactionary split exists
  • Weilu Reformers: post-Hui faction, opposed to Weilu Reactionaries
  • Weilu Conservatives: relatively common in much of the ES, except where Imperials are common
  • Weilu Reactionaries: post-Hui faction, opposed to Weilu Reformers
  • Imperial Moderates: common in parts of the ES but completely absent in others
  • Imperial Conservatives: less common in the ES than Imperial Moderates, but important for similarity to other provinces.
Note also that the Hui deliberately stirred strife between the various groups.

I hesitate to say too much because the things I'm likely to say are recent spoilers.
 
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What are you even talking about? Dogs are the exception to the rule that domesticated spirit lineages are weak.

There was some discussion on the Discord about how Peaks doggos don't really reach their full potential because they're treated like pets instead of like actual people.

Yeah the Kang's Dogs are well, what you would expect from domesticated dogs capable of human level abstract thinking, but they're still doggos, and their instincts make them behave like very intelligent domesticated dogs

I.E their humans are basically part of their pack mentality and slot into a social family role, meaning that they don't really concern themselves with tracking what weird human political stuff the two legs get up too

Of course, the humans don't quite see it the same way, and ultimately see the beasts as subordinate, and that bleeds into how they're raised. They'd never acknowledge it, but there's a reason their dogs don't often achieve higher realms.

This is from a discussion about how spirit beasts are raised and how it affects their behavior and cultivation
 
Turn 15: End
Ling Qi breathed out, and Huisheng's gaol faded away, the liquid darkness, the cool stone she sat upon, even the overgrown pillar of stone the old and crumbling skeleton was bound too. All of it faded away, until there was only roiling white and grey mist, a blank canvas and a stage. There was silence as Ling Qi cycled her qi. Dark and Wind and Ice and Dream, shot through with flecks of other qi. A chaotic Mishmash, it should have been unstable, but somehow it held steady, a balance that only she could keep.

In her hands, a construct formed, with the soft crackle of forming ice, blue and white rime, the moist air freezing into the shape of a flute, while the flickering shadow of a blade circled in the dark, the low tone of air whistling through the gaps in her domain blade setting a slow beat.

In the Mist there bloomed a city, a sad city, a cramped city, a sick city. A city that had long since ceased to grow. It was not dead, not yet just yet, but it had begun to die a death of inches. Crumbling roads were aching bones, uncaring lords a fading mind. The men and women who walked those streets, a strained and sluggish heart.

Here was born a restless, impetuous child.

Born of betrayal, of misery, of banishment, to a woman barely more than a child herself. Their name 'Ling' itself a brand. It meant zero, it meant nothing, a stark reminder of what the girls mother had been reduced too.

The shadow city born in the Mist was a groaning labyrinth of leaning buildings, whose angles seemed to conspire to cut off the sky, whose smoke and noise turned it gray and ugly, a mirror of the streets below. Figures separated from the Mist, coalescing from the shadows of the buildings. People, the citizens in their multitudes, bent laborors, cruel and haughty guards, citizens determined to lose themselves in what small prosperity they could grasp, every one of them determined not to see anything beyond their own noses.

Among the many, the slight hunched figure of a woman and child, rendered in glittering black, a hole in the fog.

And the girl and her mother were not special or different from the rest. The girl, a child, knew no better than what she saw, and the Mother crushed by her position, by stress and pain could not be better.

A looming shadow of great weight fell over the woman and the child, suffusing the air with the stink of cheap wine. It only took one sharp blow to sunder them. A sound like shattering glass drifted through the Mist. The child fled a streak of darkness vanishing into the labyrinth. The woman collapsed in on herself with the sound of sobs.

Fear, miscommunication, anger, pain. Severing and sundering the fragile threads of their connection.
The girl took the lesson that there was no safety in others, in reaching out. Yet the wound was an aching hole, never healing.

Ling Qi breathed in as her song reached a pause, the viewpoint spiraling away from the individual phantoms and streets. She had always cultivated Dark Qi easily. Hunger, want, greed, these things came easily to her. They felt natural. Even now, with her qi cycling, she could feel how deeply it had soaked into her bones, her muscles her flesh.

It was so easy to become mist and shadow these days.

She didn't regret it. Desire was not wrong. It was not evil. It was not something to be clipped away for a more perfect mind. Want was the soul of cultivation, the soul of humankind, it was behind every accomplishment, good and bad.

But she had seen how it could become twisted and broken. She saw a fox, which had devoured centuries of victims, eaten deeply of its own children and yet was near skeletal with starvation. Just now in the city of Haishan, she had met a yawning pit of pride which warped proportionality beyond reason, and which no respect would ever satisfy.

Ling Qi frowned.

Yan Renshu bond reactivated, set to -4

No, there was nothing evil about wanting. But it could not be all that you were.

Qi cycled, qi pulsed, she drew her breath into her lungs and exhaled beginning the next stanza of her song. The air crackled softly as moisture became falling snow, pure and white but swiftly dirtied to gray by dust and mud. She sang of the girl, little more than an animal, living only to survive. One rat, one starving street hound among the packs and swarms that roamed Tonghou's streets.

They devoured the weakest, the strongest, the kindest and the cruelest alike. It was those who stayed low who survived, unpunished by peers or sneering folk garbed as guardians. The living were those who heeded only the call of empty belly and cold limbs.

They were a multitude. They were alone.

A shadow with a face of bone came to the girl, and took her away. She had something the others lacked, they said, a spark, a fire.

The shadow was wrong. It was nothing so active. She was only lucky.

It is often said that luck is merely another talent, but so few who say those words understand them. Luck is most often all that separates a pauper from a prince.

At the mountain, where the girl was taken there were many people and many trials. Forms appeared in the mist, familiar faces, figures, caught in moments of action. There, freed from privation of the body, the girl was able to contemplate the privation of her spirit and there, reach out.

Bai Meizhen, staring at her like she was some strange animal. Su Ling, squinting and suspicious, Suyin, painfully open and kind. Xiulan haughty and demanding. It wouldn't have been enough without them reaching back.

As starvation is privation of the body, isolation is privation of the soul. Thus is born suffering. But, one has only two hands with which to reach out. Yet, others have two hands as well. The cold, sad street cannot be unmade by the efforts of one.

Lost Child's Elegy: Active
Type: Isolation
Duration: Scene
An elegy to things lost and unattainable, left behind in the mists of time; of hearths that will never be warmed and happiness forgotten. The blade circles a foe, thickening the mist and cutting them off from the world and their allies. The target has their Qi potency, primary movement, and ally traits reduced by 2. Each time the enemy acts this penalty increases by 2. If Qi potency is reduced to zero, the target is incapacited. Enemies under this effect only perceive Ling Qi and her domain weapon. Ling Qi may affect a number of targets this way equal to her cultivation potency.

=>
Lonely End: Active
Type: Isolation
Duration: Scene
An elegy to things lost and unattainable, left behind in the mists of time; of hearths that will never be warmed and happiness forgotten. The blade circles a foe, thickening the mist and cutting them off from the world and their allies. The target has their Qi potency, primary movement, and ally traits reduced by 2. Each time the enemy acts this penalty increases by 2. If Qi potency is reduced to zero, the target is incapacited. Enemies under this effect only perceive Ling Qi and her domain weapon. Ling Qi may only target one enemy at a time.

This technique cannot be dispelled by the target, unless they exceed Ling Qi's cultivation by a realm. Only defeated Ling Qi or another party dispelling the technique can release them.

Addendum:

Qi Growth has been forgotten in the new system You should have been receiving 2 XP per month automatically from SSC so progress on increasing your Qi stands at
6/18

What the girl wanted simply couldn't be done alone. No power could change that. And so the girl learned to speak, to act, to express.

And when the time came, she reached out, with paper and ink, to salvage her first failure in those arts.

There in the Mist, a woman and girl, the latter so tall now, and the former so small. The shades embraced, and the Mist whipped up, whirling them away.

The girl was no saint, she could not love all. She did not even want to try. But she would see that people spoke, that they did not shatter over miscommunication, by silence.

People would speak, people would hear. Perhaps it would change nothing in the end, for one could hear without listening, and speak without expression.

And though she only had two hands, so did others. The threads of connection did not demand that one alone bear their burden.

And so would the lonely streets be driven back.

Ling Qi's music faltered, color and darkness flashing in her Mist, It thickened and thinned, her phantoms distorted, her illusions bent.

And her dantian cracked, its outer surface flaking away like a clay mold, revealing the denser, more potent core of whirling wind gusting around a core of black ice which shimmered with a hundred hundred memories and dreams yet to be. Ling Qi felt her body lighten, mortal flesh becoming just a little more phantasmal, her own awareness expanding past her skin, into the air and the Mist and snow.

The fifth stage, the Framing Stage was hers. Her domain was more, realer than before, like the house the stage named referenced, she was close to half done. The frame was there, waiting to be filled.

The phantoms of her friends and family and acquaintances gathered around her in a half circle, herself at the Zenith as the Mist cleared and as one, they bowed to her audience. The ancient horned skeleton bound to the pillar regarded her with sockets full of glittering black petals.

"Interesting."

Phantasmal Mastery Trait Gained

You have long wielded phantoms, shadows, and dreams, and in doing gained a mastery of qi constructs beyond even the hard limits of art and technique. Your construct arts may act and behave in ways outside the limits of their nature, constrained by your focus and the difference between the techniques purpose and the acts it is directed to perform. The Value of the phantasmal Mastery trait is added to the potency of all Construct Techniques.

And with that, we'll be closing the curtain, until next turn, until next week. Thank you everyone.
 
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It is interesting that the new version isn't a straight upgrade, but rather trades AOE for being undispellable by the target. Those who stand alone fall.
 
Forms appeared in the mist, familiar faces, gures, caught in moments of action.
Not sure what that word is supposed to be.

As starvation is privation of the body, isolation is privation of the soul. Thus is born suffering. But, one has only two hands with which to reach out. Yet, others have two hands as well. The cold, sad street cannot be unmade by the efforts of one.
I love this new Isolation concept. It feels so her.

Our girl has come so far :')
 
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