Let's say that she has fifty victims in a year, and only has kids with 10% of them. That means 5 kids a year and if even a fifth of those make it to childhood that's about a child a year for 3000 years. Makes sense for me, even if she fully digests them every once in a while it still builds up quickly for an immortal.
Sure, but then, as I edited in above, we get into the other side of the issue: Getting to adulthood.
Evidence suggests that basically any fully half-spirit child probably qualifies for the sect system (they won't necessarily become a baron, but you don't need Ling Qi or even Su Ling's level of talent to get in), and yet only Su Ling is there. Over the course of a mere 10 years, with your numbers, that's something close to a 90% mortality rate among those who make it to childhood if only Su Ling wound up getting out. A 90% childhood mortality rate ignoring infant mortality rates is just not a purely natural occurrence.
Sure, but then, as I edited in above, we get into the other side of the issue: Getting to adulthood.
Evidence suggests that basically any fully half-spirit child probably qualifies for the sect system (they won't necessarily become a baron, but you don't need Ling Qi or even Su Ling's level of talent to get in), and yet only Su Ling is there. Over the course of a mere 10 years, with your numbers, that's something close to a 90% mortality rate among those who make it to childhood if only Su Ling wound up getting out. A 90% childhood mortality rate ignoring infant mortality rates is just not a purely natural occurrence.
Yeah they get neglected or murdered before they hit fourteen when the resentment and fear that they are raising a monster overcomes any mercy they have left. Humans can be shitty and only Su Ling's grandma being a caring and formidable person prevented the same fate. We don't need her to meddle to get the same results.
Yeah they get neglected or murdered before they hit fourteen when the resentment and fear that they are raising a monster overcomes any mercy they have left. Humans can be shitty and only Su Ling's grandma being a caring and formidable person prevented the same fate. We don't need her to meddle to get the same results.
So, this fundamentally isn't how people work. It's not that they aren't shitty, it's that they aren't consistently so in a specific way, and particularly not in a specific way that is directly against their best interests in a clear and obvious fashion.
Killing children is rare, and a highly specific thing, particularly in this sort of situation because, as I mentioned earlier, in a rural subsistence economy children are (once they can walk and talk) a major economic asset, since you can put them to work very directly. They are a net gain, you have to actually and directly take food out of your own and your other children's mouths in order to get rid of them.
People certainly do things not in their best interests out of racism, but they do not universally turn down the opportunity to enslave rather than kill those they are racist against...and slavery is horrible, but it'd see the kids staying alive until 14 at way higher numbers than this. And that's assuming everyone hates the kids, which is a big assumption even in a highly racist society.
So, this fundamentally isn't how people work. It's not that they aren't shitty, it's that they aren't consistently so in a specific way, and particularly not in a specific way that is directly against their best interests in a clear and obvious fashion.
Killing children is rare, and a highly specific thing, particularly in this sort of situation because, as I mentioned earlier, in a rural subsistence economy children are (once they can walk and talk) a major economic asset, since you can put them to work very directly. They are a net gain, you have to actually and directly take food out of your own and your other children's mouths in order to get rid of them.
People certainly do things not in their best interests out of racism, but they do not universally turn down the opportunity to enslave rather than kill those they are racist against...and slavery is horrible, but it'd see the kids staying alive until 14 at way higher numbers than this. And that's assuming everyone hates the kids, which is a big assumption even in a highly racist society.
I mean this isn't your normal everyday racism. This is "that's not a human that's a monster". They have inhuman traits and come from a serial killing monster that has killed members of it's community. Now imagine a scenerio where they've been allowed to live but have been mistreated for sometime, with the village children bullying them like what happened to Su Ling. Now eventually imagine the poor bullied child begins to fight back, and with their blood becoming more prominent they start to win. At this point the parents of the community are going to be extremely afraid of the "monster" in their midst and want to get rid of it before they can no longer control it. This isn't people just being racist, this is people being terrified of a monster in their midsts. A real world example of this would be the witch hunts throughout history, and in this case they have a lot more proof than those people did.
I mean this isn't your normal everyday racism. This is "that's not a human that's a monster". They have inhuman traits and come from a serial killing monster that has killed members of it's community. Now imagine a scenerio where they've been allowed to live but have been mistreated for sometime, with the village children bullying them like what happened to Su Ling. Now eventually imagine the poor bullied child begins to fight back, and with their blood becoming more prominent they start to win. At this point the parents of the community are going to be extremely afraid of the "monster" in their midst and want to get rid of it before they can no longer control it. This isn't people just being racist, this is people being terrified of a monster in their midsts. A real world example of this would be the witch hunts throughout history, and in this case they have a lot more proof than those people did.
If they really felt that way, they probably wouldn't keep the child in the first place. The ones kept would disproportionately be kept either by non-racist people, or those taking economic or other advantages of the child's existence. Both would defend the child, at least verbally, albeit for different reasons and neither would always lose in that defense (if feeling were such that they always lost, they wouldn't be allowed to keep the child in the first place).
The scenario you describe is possible, sure, but it's an extremely specific story of an extremely specific series of events...and one that is far from the only possibility. And it would need to be basically universal to achieve something absurd like a 90% mortality rate.
Ling Qi is still in the stage where she has to experiment. From around G1-G3, you're building your foundation. Finding the things you want to build your Way on. Then from G4-G6, you're experimenting, even more, finding the things that resonate with the foundation you've built. Ling Qi literally said it when she broke through to G5.
She just hit Framing. Now, she's looking for the things that fit her Domain, and well, you can't really just fill a house with things. You'll need to try different furniture, to see whether you like it, whether it fits the building, etc. You'll need to compare different colour pallets and find which one really fits you. That's all experimenting. That's trying new things to see what fits what you've done so far.
That's literally why you make successors. Yes, successors are about making old arts fit your Way more. I agree with this. But successors are also about investigating your current understanding, testing it and pushing it and exploring new things and ways to approach concepts!
And from what we've seen, they are shaped by what we've seen and experienced. FFS was shaped by lessons and knowledge we've gotten from other people. Not only Zeqing but Shenhua, Jaromila, Granny, etc. For Eyes of Grudges, it's building on our lessons from Shu Yue. And well...at their core, arts are lessons, so that's even more reason why we should finish our arts. So that we have more lessons and mindsets to apply to our successors.
It's only when we're in G7/G8 that I'll admit we're no longer experimenting. At that point, our Domain is fully/mostly developed. That's when we condense all our arts into a personal suite (not successors) that'll carry us to Cyan. That suite is an expression of our Way. That's when we pick a Name and reintegrate our Domain weapon. That's when we prepare for our breakthrough to Cyan and consolidate everything we have into a singular Way. But we're not there, We've barely been in G5, so using that is...not a good argument IMO.
Edit:
And well, you pointed out how Ling Qi already has all the quality arts, so she doesn't need to find more...that's just an argument to cultivate all our arts IMO. All of her arts fit her in some way. All the current projects are meant to fit her! Another cultivator at the same stage and realm would have different projects because they have a different Way, with different concepts and values!
I'm not enterely sure what you are disagreeing with me about. I think we have different takes on the word "experiment".
For me, experimenting with Arts is trying out different versions of weapons or figthing styles, to explore different and/or adyacent elements from your normal suite, searching for utilities arts that you have not tried because you were focused on battle arts, and so on.
For example, if you are an archer, you can experiment by trying out different long range perception arts. They can differ in elements used, practical characteristics or underlying philosophy. The important part is to find the art that fits you best.
Creating Successor Arts is not experimenting, even if it can give that impression because you are coming up with new techs and phylosophies. Creating a Successor Art is saying "from all these arts I have experimented with, this is the one I want to truly make mine, incorporate into my Domain and bring with me to Cyan". It's pretty definitive.
Since Framing is the stage where you have to start creating Successor Arts, it's also the stage where you have to stop most experimenting. You are suppossed to have reached Framing with which Arts turn into Successors mostly decided.
If we were willing to spend a few years in G4-G5 trying and half-mastering Arts, we could experiment and then decide which one fits us best. But our circumstances barred us from doing so.
Luckily, that didn't constitute a problem because we were flooded with high-quality arts that no newly-minted baron could have access to.
So, yes, we are going to master and make Successors out of our main arts (though not all). That doesn't mean that Ling Qi is going to "experiment" with new arts, though there is couple she may change.
Also, PLR isn't a good example of "experimenting at green". We had had that art since Outer Sect. The Dream Walking business as a whole does count as experimenting, and we did delve deeper and deeper into it as we advanced in the story and our cutivation.
Finally, the one I would love to see relies on a project we haven't taken yet: garden of mists. Coupled with melodies of the spirit seekers, this would allow so many things that go at the heart of Ling Qi's themes: it's an amazing medium to fit isolation and community, as well as boundaries and want in. Practically, it could eventually evolve into a soft territorial defense art that's pretty much the opposite of what looks to be the traditional hard shell of spiritual denial: a ward based on intentions, that lets in the traveler, protects the lost, and ejects the malevolent.
Garden of Mists is in one of those Arts that may be dropped narratively because we haven't used or worked in it for a very long time. Let's see the main Successor Arts candidates.
We already have FFS as a main attack art and Eyes of Grudges as a perception art.
LFWT is obviously going to get a Successor as our movement art. It already has liminal components, see Open the Vault, so the Successor could lean more into that and absorb PLR's movement components.
BKSD could merge with PLR to make our construct Successor Art. If LFWT is getting the dream-jumping, this Successor could get the field effects: disrupting enemies and stregthening allies/ourselves are common characteristics of both arts.
SNR is a bit more on the air. I personally like the concept of using the usually greedy darkness element to protect allies. It really resonates with how Ling Qi understands and interacts with Darkness. But some in the thread aren't big fans of it, so here is where we could experiment with other defensive arts. I guess that if we get the Void Concept that would solidify SNR's position.
Those are 5 Successor Arts plus SSC as a Cultivation art. That's already a full art suite. Mastering the original arts and creating and mastering their Successors will take more than enough actions to keep us occupied.
These are the arts we should focus on.
Garden of Mists is just one out of at least 4 Projects inside WHR. If we aren't going to master it because we are already full, as we have just seen, then it's a bit of a waste to do it just because the formation faction likes it. I guess it's true that WHR could become our formations Successor Art.
UGM has a minimum of 2 Projects left, maybe more. But we most certainly won't master it because the art isn't very popular. Specially now that Soul of Ice is a "Special Project".
MoSS is a special case because it's half a social art. Yrs already said he will likely retcon social arts into traits; traits that would increase when we successfully used them in an appropriate situations. That would include the Spirit Seeker trait.
That leaves Raising the Bastion as an orphaned Project. I have always liked it, so I would actually support doing it next turn so MoSS can become a purely social art and let Yrs go through with his social arts retcon more easily.
That would be the one exception to the "only take Projects from arts we are going to master and make Successors of" motto I think we should take from now on.
Garden of Mists is in one of those Arts that may be dropped narratively becuase we haven't used or worked in it for a very long time. Let's see the main Successor Arts candidates.
Garden of Mists has some narrative support since Renxiang's dad, the super architect, said liminal formations work would suit Ling Qi well.
Interest sparked in his eyes, and Ling Qi found herself uncomfortable under his focused gaze. "You dabble in dream work yourself, I see. Gates and thresholds? Not a bad focus for a young girl just building her house."
Ling Qi's gaze flickered to her liege's direction. Why was her father focused on Ling Qi? Lady Renxiang's blank expression was unhelpful.
"I have only just begun to study such things," Ling Qi said. "I was under the impression that liminal works were out of fashion."
"Of a kind, of a kind," he dismissed, waving a hand. His palms and fingers were cracked and calloused like a workman's, at odds with the rest of his appearance. "The geomancy of towns and cities is about directing the flow of energy properly. That includes manipulating what thoughts and feelings linger in the region's spiritual realm.
Garden of Mists will turn WHM into a liminal formation art and advance Ling Qi's liminal carver trait. She'll need it when it's time to truly focus on her fief.
Your formation craft works best with the things in between. Not barriers or locks, but in doorways, thresholds and borders.
Garden of Mists is just one out of at least 4 Projects inside WHR. If we aren't going to master it because we are already full, as we have just seen, then it's a bit of a waste to do it just because the formation faction likes it.
UGM has a minimum of 2 Projects left, maybe more. But we most certainly won't master it because the art isn't very popular. Specially now that Soul of Ice is a "Special Project".
That would be the one exception to the "only take Projects from arts we are going to master and make Successors of" motto I think we should take from now on.
Art: Final Frost's Serenade
Year's End Aria
Potency: G4
Type: Bind, Cold, Drain, Song
Duration: Scene
The beginnings of a song of endings, sharp as an arctic wind, eerie as a forest canopy wreathed in glittering ice. With the progression of the melody comes the winter cold. Frost and ice crystalizing in a spreading wave, it encrusts and encases all, even the wind itself may become a driving sleet which further freezes and slows. Within, heat and motion dies and the world slowly grows still, and flowers of frost bloom from cold cracked flesh, a-glitter with lost life.Reduce the Movement Trait of enemies in the scene by one. Enemies in the vicinity are slowly drained of qi.
You may choose to focus the effect of the Aria on a single target, during which the drain of qi stops for other enemies. For the focused target, their movement trait will be continually reduced, until it reaches zero, rendering them unable to move until dispelled.
And lo comes the depth of winter, the darkest and longest night, a song of whispering wind over snowfield and frozen river, the cry of sleet sweeping through forest and village, and music of hanging ice rattling from canopy and gutter. The night which takes, ending the year past, burying the dead, and making the land anew. Your voice whips a foe, forming frost and ice or thickening what is already there, and shatters techniques like gossamer ice.
When used against a foe, this technique strips away artifice, leeches the heat from their bones, and freezes the qi in their channels. This technique dispels one positive effect maintained by the target and prevents them from using the activating technique until dispelled, in addition to dealing damage.
Snowblossom Shattering
Potency: G5
Type: Cold, Dispel, Finisher, Support
Duration: Scene
But Winter itself must end. The new world born consumes the dregs of the old. The last howl of winter carries across the battlefield, rending foes unto statues of ice, blooming with flowers of frost. Petals fly and shatter, and carry new waters, harbingers of life born anew. Each target which has been successfully damaged by Stillness of the Solstice Night, or which has had their movement trait reduced by three or more due to Year's End Aria suffers an Immediate Potency G7 attack so long as they remain in the same scene. This attack ignores defensive techniques of lower potency.
In the aftermath, for each enemy killed one ally of equivalent or lower realm to that enemy has their qi greatly restored, all negative effects on them dispelled, and their next technique empowered, increasing potency by one.
This technique may only be used once per scene.
Winter's Heart Increases to 3
Final Frosts Serenade. The alliteration appealed, Ling Qi thought, lowering her flute. Around her was a copse of trees, dripping faintly with melted frost, a few shattered trunks and stumps where the impurity had run too deep, but largely a clean copse, quiet and serene. She observed the dew on the grass, and the faint mist curling around the roots, a product of the swiftly changing temperature.
She was winter, in her bones. She wished for a moment that Zhengui was here, to take on the next step, the one she couldn't perform. Her truth, the truth of isolation, of cold. It was real, it continued, and turning one's face away from it was only an act of deliberate ignorance and cowardice.
And she had been a coward still, in the beginning. Trying to turn her back on what she had been and seen and done fully, that had been cowardice, in its way. It was rubbed in her face how brittle and fragile such a path was, once in a dream.
She exhaled, and the flute of ice in her hands melted away into fog and vapor,leaving only beads of moisture on her fingertips.
"Ah Big Sis is so cool!" Hanyi exclaimed, smiling up at her.
"I'm only working off a good foundation. You did quite well yourself," Ling Qi said, patting her on the shoulder. She thought her junior sister wouldn't appreciate Ling Qi making a mess of her hair.
"Well, I gotta be able to move around quick," Hanyi said, crossing her arms."It's like, the mean version of what I do for my supplicants, you know?"
"The difference between receiving offerings and taking sacrifices huh," Ling Qi said., raising an eyebrow. "And that bit at the end where you came back to me?"
"You're my senior sister," Hanyi sniffed. "I gotta share."
"Oh, does that mean I get my pick from your chest of gifts?" Ling Qi said, smiling.
I!" Hanyi's eyes went wide, and she pouted furiously, kicking the ground. "I mean… I guess."
Ling Qi chuckled, and this time she did ruffle Hanyi's hair drawing an irate yelp."I don't need anything Junior Sister, just have fun. Maybe get some pretty things for the house next time."
Hanyi continued to pout up at her from under her hand. "That was mean."
"It was funny," Ling Qi corrected wisely, lifting her hand. She looked around at their surroundings, feeling the slowly warming air. "Come on. Lets go back up, and give her one last song."
Hanyi nodded quietly. "Yeah, let's. We're gonna be real busy soon huh?"
They absolutely were. Ling Qi sighed. The next two months would be full of preparations.
But for now, they soared back to the mountain peak and the frozen rubble that remained of Zeqing's home. And there until the sun set, they poured their hearts into one final song of mourning.
***
Which was why it was necessary to wrap up as many minor duties as possible. Of course, if she was left to wait anyway, it only made sense to use her time constructively.
"You're a cultivation addict," Sixiang drawled.
As they liked.
Ling Qi sat cross legged atop a thin shell of ice, floating atop the waters of snowblossom lake. Barely a fingerwidth thick, the ice floe she had made bobbed gently with the movement of the waters. The lake was not a cultivation site, but it was rich with life and thus qi. And, with her contemplation of the Starless Night's Reflection Art. It was a gifted art, collected by the Cai in their trade with the distant Bai clan, an art of unbreakable defense, focused on the contemplation of a still and silent lake, reflecting back the stars and moon like glittering twins.
It was not an art she focused on often, its themes of stillness and serenity clashed with some of her other insights, but her contemplation of her Master's Art had influenced her thoughts. Silence and stillness did not need to be opposed to music and motion. Codas, punctuation, the intake of breath, these were a part of her work and her self. Winter was a song that wiped the board clean. The silence it made did not last long, but as a transitory moment, it was important.
The lake and the world were large, her efforts small. But her little ice floe made ripples all the same. The lesson of the Starless Night's Reflection was too her, a meditation on smallness, though she had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't the lesson its Bai makers would have intended.
She wondered, if she asked, would Lao Keung have an answer? She turned her head to look at the young man approaching her across the lake. He wore a thick coat of fur which increased his bulk considerably, and he wrapped his head in a pair of scarves. She thought he looked faintly ridiculous.
"Solidarity," he said, stopping near her ice floe. He stood on the lake surface as if it were no different from the ground.
"Solidarity?" Ling Qi questioned, tilting her head.
"My men are not so resilient as I."
Ling Qi understood, the second realm soldiers and the first realm logistical crew attached to them were both used to the humid heat of the Thousand Lakes, and less able to ignore the environment. "Noble of you."
"It costs me nothing," he shrugged.
As you like," Ling Qi said, rising to her feet. "Well, other than the cold what do you think of the region?"
"Fertile, despite the chill, a high quality location for a settlement," Lao Keung replied. "Although the concentration of forces here is absurd and excessive, for the local spiritual dangers."
"Maybe so, but there's no reason for us to scatter," Ling Qi said. "Better to have a strong center before venturing satellite settlements."
"And it does not concern you that your overlord denies your owed land?"
"That's a strange way to think of it," Ling Qi said.
"Is it?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. "I rather think you are the strange one."
"You are very blunt."
"Lady Bai informed me that I was to offer you assistance to the fullest of my abilities. I asked if that included my words."
"I begin to understand why a man of your talent is in such a provincial posting," Ling Qi said dryly. "Let me turn your question around. What do I gain beside hardship in demanding my own settlement right now."
"The fulfillment of your role. The prosperity of your clan."
Ling Qi considered this, turning her eyes to the lake shore. The outpost there had expanded, more rough cabins had been thrown up, and the central area had been ringed with a crude palisade. "I can do both of those things here."
"You trust your lord so?"
"Of course," Ling Qi said.
"Hm," Lao Keung said. "What assistance did you require?"
Right to business then. "There have been a people in the outpost reporting minor illnesses. We've swept for disease spirits, and found nothing, instead the source seems to be the water. There were no problems earlier so I have to assume that whatever the problem is does not affect higher cultivators. As a member of the Bai clan I thought you might have some insights into waterborne toxins."
He frowned behind his scarf. "It is too cold for the type of spirits I am familiar with, or the sorts of disease making vermin which would be my initial guess. If it is only effecting the mortals then I would suspect the water is merely too qi rich."
"But it doesn't seem to be," Ling Qi said. "Unless you sense something different?"
"No, the qi potency of the region is within the healthy band for mortals," Lao Keung said. "Perhaps some spirit of the depths, which rises when there is no high realm watchers?"
"As you said, our force concentration is very high here."
"It is unlikely," he admitted. "Something which has drifted in and settled recently then."
Ling Qi considered the Cathedral of Winds and the impurity beasts she had encountered below it. Something leaking in then? "What would be the best way to confirm?"
"Directly combing the lake bottom, I would think. Do you want my assistance with this?" Lao Keung asked.
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble. Going alone is pointlessly risky," Ling Qi replied.
"You are hardly alone."
"Neither Zhengui or Hanyi will operate well on the bottom of a lake," Ling Qi said dryly.
"I am hardly a violet caste myself," Lao Keung replied. "But, I was instructed to offer you my full cooperation. It is my opinion that we should begin by the outflow. If there are any traces to be found, that will be the best place to find them.
Ling Qi nodded. "I agree."
She stepped off of her ice floe, hovering a few centimeters above the water, and Lao Keung turned to follow her.
Ling Qi considered the young man beside her as they walked. He was at once, painfully straightforward, and somehow difficult to get a read on. He was very blunt, but he gave very little indication of what mattered to him.
"What are your thoughts on our project?" Ling Qi asked as they crossed the lake.
"The road is very fine, and make this an important logistical line for further settlement. Acquiring that service from the Wang clan was quite a coup," Lao Keung said.
"Not really what I was referring too," Ling Qi said.
"Oh, your diplomacy. I don't forsee long term success, but it is a useful military maneuver, to buy time with," he said.
She frowned at him. "Why is that?"
"Even with all the ages the Empire has stood for, it has not been enough to stifle conflict. Why would you assume that a people wholly foreign can be trusted in the long term?"
"The Empire was once new," Ling Qi pointed out. "Things have to begin somewhere."
"The Empire was born from overwhelming force, just as the three kingdoms before it were," Lao Keung replied. "But I do not think you aim for conquest."
"The Diviner united, he did not conquer," Ling Qi said, they came to the far south shore where the lake water flowed into the river going north.
"Respecting your founding, strength is inherently coercive, it can be important to dress it all up in fine robes of legitimacy, but one shouldn't forget the truth of things."
"Too cynical," Ling Qi frowned. "And too reductive. The strong rule, but all rulership is not the same. How a ruler chooses to exercise their power is important."
"With individuals, it all drifts back to the average in the end," Lao Keung replied, turning to face her on the sandy shore.
"The average as dictated by past actions. Traditions and expectations bind. Even the mightiest cultivator is born a mortal child learning how things should be from those around them."
He seemed to mull this over for a moment. "I accept your point Lady Ling. Shall we descend?"
"We should," Ling Qi said.
He nodded once and reached up, unwrapping his head scarf, and vanishing it into a storage ring. His coat followed, leaving him in a sleeveless tunic. Ling Qi did not stare, obviously, not everyone could wear a talisman as potent as hers.
As he began to wade out into the water, she followed, her gown remaining perfectly dry despite being submerged, little fractal blooms of ice growing and melting from the hems and her hair. It was a bit different to encounter someone who disagreed with her direction, but not from a position of age and authority. It made her curious, why he thought the way he did.
As they began to walk down along the lakebed she decided to ask…
[ ] About the Red Python caste and their relation among the Bai (+1 Want XP)
[ ] About the Bai as a whole and how current events had changed them. (+1 Power XP)
I'm interested in seeing things from the Red Python point of view, we have seen a lot from the heights of the White Caste and we know some decent amount of the generally intended direction for the Bai to move in but what is it like not having the fostered ambitions of the White Caste? Rather, what does it mean to grow up in such a society and find fulfillment there?
It was not an art she focused on often, its themes of stillness and serenity clashed with some of her other insights, but her contemplation of her Master's Art had influenced her thoughts. Silence and stillness did not need to be opposed to music and motion. Codas, punctuation, the intake of breath, these were a part of her work and her self. Winter was a song that wiped the board clean. The silence it made did not last long, but as a transitory moment, it was important.
The lake and the world were large, her efforts small. But her little ice floe made ripples all the same. The lesson of the Starless Night's Reflection was too her, a meditation on smallness, though she had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't the lesson its Bai makers would have intended.
Take what is given, and make it your own, even if the result is not what the original maker thought of. I firmly believe Ling Qi can do this with all the arts people say don't suit her.
As for the vote, I'll wait and see what the people with Big Brains have to say before making a decision.
Agreed we already learned enough about leadership, know how they act and current events, but learning more about the bottom rung of those that count as 'bai' would be more intresting.
[X] About the Red Python caste and their relation among the Bai (+1 Want XP)
[ ] About the Red Python caste and their relation among the Bai (+1 Want XP)
I want to find out about the Red Caste. We've not heard much about them, and asking about his caste seems like a better way to learn about him.
Plus, if we go pick Diviner's Path next turn, we'll certainly learn about Meizhen's thoughts on how things are going because of the summit.
And Want XP!! We've not gotten any in a while. I think it'll be fun exploring it, especially since LQ touched upon it during her G5 breakthrough.
Also Void roll ahead!!! @yrsillar , please note that @Xepheria and @CedeTheBees donated some omake points to the roll at the start of the turn. I'm mentioning them in case they've changed their minds.
Yeah, I'm down from hearing from the Red Caste. Red Caste is lowest besides Grey, correct? I bet this guy has all sorts of opinions.
I hope we get to hear his opinion on Bai Meizhen in particular, and boy do I hope it's like: If more White Castes were like her, there'd be less Red Castes like me.
With respect, screw Lao Keung's thoughts on the inevitability of conflict. His founder was fucking Yao. The murderhoboest murderhobo to ever murderhobo. The polar opposite of Tsu. Don't insinuate that the Diviner had anything in common with that maniac, young man!
With respect, screw Lao Keung's thoughts on the inevitability of conflict. His founder was fucking Yao. The murderhoboest murderhobo to ever murderhobo. The polar opposite of Tsu. Don't insinuate that the Diviner had anything in common with that maniac, young man!
Also Void roll ahead!!! @yrsillar , please note that @Xepheria and @CedeTheBees donated some omake points to the roll at the start of the turn. I'm mentioning them in case they've changed their minds.
I'm not enterely sure what you are disagreeing with me about. I think we have different takes on the word "experiment".
For me, experimenting with Arts is trying out different versions of weapons or figthing styles, to explore different and/or adyacent elements from your normal suite, searching for utilities arts that you have not tried because you were focused on battle arts, and so on.
For example, if you are an archer, you can experiment by trying out different long range perception arts. They can differ in elements used, practical characteristics or underlying philosophy. The important part is to find the art that fits you best.
Creating Successor Arts is not experimenting, even if it can give that impression because you are coming up with new techs and phylosophies. Creating a Successor Art is saying "from all these arts I have experimented with, this is the one I want to truly make mine, incorporate into my Domain and bring with me to Cyan". It's pretty definitive.
Since Framing is the stage where you have to start creating Successor Arts, it's also the stage where you have to stop most experimenting. You are suppossed to have reached Framing with which Arts turn into Successors mostly decided.
If we were willing to spend a few years in G4-G5 trying and half-mastering Arts, we could experiment and then decide which one fits us best. But our circumstances barred us from doing so.
Luckily, that didn't constitute a problem because we were flooded with high-quality arts that no newly-minted baron could have access to.
So, yes, we are going to master and make Successors out of our main arts (though not all). That doesn't mean that Ling Qi is going to "experiment" with new arts, though there is couple she may change.
Also, PLR isn't a good example of "experimenting at green". We had had that art since Outer Sect. The Dream Walking business as a whole does count as experimenting, and we did delve deeper and deeper into it as we advanced in the story and our cutivation.
Garden of Mists is in one of those Arts that may be dropped narratively because we haven't used or worked in it for a very long time. Let's see the main Successor Arts candidates.
We already have FFS as a main attack art and Eyes of Grudges as a perception art.
LFWT is obviously going to get a Successor as our movement art. It already has liminal components, see Open the Vault, so the Successor could lean more into that and absorb PLR's movement components.
BKSD could merge with PLR to make our construct Successor Art. If LFWT is getting the dream-jumping, this Successor could get the field effects: disrupting enemies and stregthening allies/ourselves are common characteristics of both arts.
SNR is a bit more on the air. I personally like the concept of using the usually greedy darkness element to protect allies. It really resonates with how Ling Qi understands and interacts with Darkness. But some in the thread aren't big fans of it, so here is where we could experiment with other defensive arts. I guess that if we get the Void Concept that would solidify SNR's position.
Those are 5 Successor Arts plus SSC as a Cultivation art. That's already a full art suite. Mastering the original arts and creating and mastering their Successors will take more than enough actions to keep us occupied.
These are the arts we should focus on.
Garden of Mists is just one out of at least 4 Projects inside WHR. If we aren't going to master it because we are already full, as we have just seen, then it's a bit of a waste to do it just because the formation faction likes it. I guess it's true that WHR could become our formations Successor Art.
UGM has a minimum of 2 Projects left, maybe more. But we most certainly won't master it because the art isn't very popular. Specially now that Soul of Ice is a "Special Project".
MoSS is a special case because it's half a social art. Yrs already said he will likely retcon social arts into traits; traits that would increase when we successfully used them in an appropriate situations. That would include the Spirit Seeker trait.
That leaves Raising the Bastion as an orphaned Project. I have always liked it, so I would actually support doing it next turn so MoSS can become a purely social art and let Yrs go through with his social arts retcon more easily.
That would be the one exception to the "only take Projects from arts we are going to master and make Successors of" motto I think we should take from now on.
Huh. Maybe there was some disconnect in the definition of "experiment". I view it as cultivating arts outside of things that you're good with. Pushing the boundaries of your knowledge and working out how different things fit with what you've built. Basically, the exact opposite of what Glau said, about cultivating arts to create a pure Way. I guess I thought you were perpetuating the argument about not cultivating all of our arts because some don't fit us, which is objectively wrong. That's on me, I guess.
That being said, I still disagree with you about what successors are supposed to do. Successors are about expanding your thoughts and ideas on concepts, which fits *my* definition of experimenting. And I also disagree about successors being the arts we carry to Cyan. Again, that's what the personal art suite at G7 is for. That's when you make a bunch of arts as an expression of your Way, to help finalize it. We can totally make an art using something from TRF, even though we don't make a TRF+.
I also disagree about what we're supposed to do in G5, which, again, may be because of our different definitions of experimenting. I'm not talking about fighting styles, I'm talking about themes and concepts. And I'm not talking about cultivating new arts (though there are some really nice arts in the unequipped arta tab), I'm talking about all the arts we're currently cultivating.
For PLR, I don't really get your point? Ling Qi was in Green in the Outer Sect. And PLR's themes of Chaos, Revelry, and Dream didn't fit Ling Qi at all. Remember, then she didn't believe in the power of stories. She wasn't as Community focused as she currently is. Maybe Family, but not Community. But then she explored it and pushed her boundaries. She now believes in the power of Dreams and stories. She was able to approach Revelry, something that's pretty anathema to her because of her trauma. I think it's a pretty good example of experimenting with something that didn't really fit us until we found the right approach.
That being said, I do agree that we need to complete MoSS. Looking at our recent breakthrough, it's painfully close to LQ's growing Way, bringing people (and spirits) together through clear communication and Understanding. I really think getting an insight from it would be a huge step toward defining LQ's Way.
For our other arts, I've always been a fan of SNR. We can cultivate it and get an antithesis insight, like with FSS. The latest chapter partly supports that. Or we can hope it gets supercharged by Xin so that get a discount ISM!!! That's my hope at least.
For WHR, I also like it, but I guess it's pretty dead. From what I understand, there's a lot of salt from previous art votes. I just want to do the project that upgrades Unbroken Will before we pick GoM, since we've not upgraded our defence trait in a while. GoM is a given. I'm also pretty sure that it'll just change the other projects, instead of removing the other WHR projects.
And UGM, again, people don't really want to cultivate it. Well, they do, because they want to cultivate SoI, which was only separated because UGM is icky, but I digress. I'm okay with FFS eating it for fuel, but I really want an insight from it too. Something about directed change/growth, or slow steady growth still being growth/change, sounds like a way to temper our SCS insight even more. And just having an option for more physical attacks, when spiritual attacks aren't enough, like at the Caldera. I'm hoping Starlit Labyrinth and Glacier Auntie will help with it.
Edit: Also, I'm not a big fan of rushing FFS just to get another thing off the list. Spreading it out works better narratively IMO. And Yrs has said that we don't necessarily need to master it to get to G6. We just need to make meaningful progress. Completing 3 projects can totally count as meaningful progress, depending on the narrative arcs they're connected to.
Protip, soak in a bath. It leeches the salt out, and then you can flush it into the ocean where the Sharks are crying in frustrated rage over any bad rolls.
