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.
There is, like, zero evidence that Shao thinks like that. The obvious difference between Sun Shao and Ling Qi is that he believes family is defined by shared blood while she defines family as shared friendship.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I agree that we don't necessarily have evidence that he focuses on family as an abstract separate from the people within it. But this is also not true, I don't think. Based on the bits we got from his perspective, he seems to view his loyal soldiers as part of the family as well.
No, the biggest difference is that his view of family is hierarchal, with him being in charge and the one who decides things for the family, while Ling Qi's is based on mutual bonds. His focus on Sacrifice is likewise very different, and combines with the first to mean he gets to decide which family member sacrifices what. And finally, Shao also views those who are non-family to him personally as 'Other' and inherently an enemy, which is likewise very different from Ling Qi's acknowledgment of various overlapping social groups.
Hmm, what are some long commission series people would love to splurge on if they were to win the lottery or something like that? 
Myself, I would probably pay for the story of Ogodei, from the man's own perspective.
Myself, I would probably pay for the story of Ogodei, from the man's own perspective.
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- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
I'd make the argument that Sun Shao's Sovereignty didn't change in itself that much, and the description implies more that it simply changed its context to handle the damage it had taken.It looks like Sovereignty and Law can still change to some extent at Violet.
A test. His entire life was a test and a tool to inspire indolent white worms. His family was the sacrifice for their failure. At the ragged edge where Duty and Law had once been bound as one, there was a wet rip of snapping flesh and sinew.
The Precipice - Tales of Destiny
Red was the color of exhaustion. It was the color of faces flushed and ruddy with exertion, of eyes rimmed and veined in crimson from the endless pouring (...)www.royalroad.com
Manicured fingers tapped on woven wicker as the Duke considered him. In his mind's eye, Sun Shao saw his lord through senses unclouded by expectation. Fuxi was a machine of interlocking blades and gears, oiled in venom, a metal serpent with a hundred heads whose fangs were spears fit impale the leviathans of the deep. It had no sympathy. It had no love, only the memory and echoes of these feelings wielded like theater masks.
This creature saw the sacrifice in his soul and thought them cut from the same cloth.
"Your family is a particular misfortune, but you are young for one of such stature. A new wife of good blood will be found. You have many centuries to sire new sons and daughters of your line. The House of Sun will continue to stand high."
Sinew snapped, bone splintered, and his heart pounded with the boiling of blood. A Law, bent and tarnished, snapped into a new configuration. The Sovereignty of War burned on his brow, greedily consuming this new fuel.
Family is Everything.
These words stood at his core. He had believed all of the Thousand Lakes to be kin, ruled under sometimes imperfect wisdom but unassailable strength. They were one people and one land, something greater than a mere province of the Empire.
He was wrong.
The Bai were not Family, but Other. He and his, the unscaled, those who had descended too far from the blood to even stand among the gray, were not their kin. They were tools at most, trash and debris at worst. To the Other, they were just clutter and mud on the serpents' shining streets.
There could be no friendship with those who were not kin. Not Family. At best, there could be mutual exploitation for temporary goals. The interests of one's own could never remain aligned with the that of the Other forever.
Everything for Family.
Before Shao realized what Fuxi truly was, he thought of the entirety of the Thousand Lakes as Family.
Sun Shao at that point had given everything and more for family, sacrificing his men, his life, his honor, and now his wife and kids in defense of people who seemed to care not at all for it. There was a traitor in the midst of family (The Thousand Lakes) who was attacking him, making him weaker, and spitting on his sacrifices, but yet nothing seemed to be done about it. His Sovereignty was bent and tarnished because how could family tolerate such betrayal from within?
If Sun Shao had accepted that family could betray you, that sometimes you sacrificed for your loved ones and they would disdain and discard that, his Way would have probably Broken. But he managed to survive by concluding that the betrayers had never been family, and the people they hid behind were not family either, just Others who used Sun Shao's family (the Scaleless) as tools.
Sun Shao's Sovereignty stayed intact by cutting a distinction between Family and Society. But nothing about it changed.
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Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hmm, what are some long commission series people would love to splurge on if they were to win the lottery or something like that?
Myself, I would probably pay for the story of Ogodei, from the man's own perspective.
In no particular order or ranking:
- A 4-parter on the four current husbandos' childhoods: Xuan Shi, Meng Dan, and Bao Qian. For Six, it'll be their past incarnations before they met LQ.
- A sidestory on Zhengui's parents and their cultivators, before they were imprisoned.
- The tales that inspired our arts. We already have ones for LFWT and MoSS.
- The founding tale of other provinces. We already have the tales for the Emerald Seas, Thousand Lakes, and the Western Territories. The Golden Fields, Savage Seas, etc are still there. Also for the founding tales of GS, like the rest of the Moon aspects, the Sun aspects, the Crowfather and the Crone.
- Sidestories on Shenhua's heavenly kings. We've only seen Xia Ren so far.
- General cultivation and worldbuilding lore. I really enjoyed stuff like the King of Explorers.
- Continuations of current sidestories, like Celestial Spheres, Radiant Serpent, King of Explorers (but from his bond sister's POV), etc.
- Outside POVs of Ling Qi in some of her best moments, like the Liling chase, the Caldera battle, etc.
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Turn 17: Arc 4-3
"We had some words on the nature of ice, it's a conversation I would enjoy continuing," Ling Qi said. "As I wrestle with the meaning I intend to impart."
"Such a conversation will alarm those whose duty is our protection," Jaromila pointed out. "Even if we restrain ourselves to this cozy little room."
"I would not worry about informing those who need to know that we are sharing a few friendly pointers," Ling Qi said. That was well within her rights as an individual noble of the Empire, her personal cultivation was her own, if she was not using proscribed methods no one could object to her sharing them.
"Is the girl asking to wrestle or share hunting lore?" Ilsur asked, squinting between them.
"She is suggesting something of both I think," Jaromila said absently.
"Overcomplicated methods," the tribesman grumbled.
"I do think we can restrain ourselves. Remain in this room and not damage it. I'm not being entirely facetious when I call it a conversation," Ling Qi said, bowing her head. "I think we understand each other well, but testing my understanding against yours will further that more than an hour's idle conversation. And… I am not sure there is anyone currently around who could better point out flaws in my methods."
Jaromila considered her, resting her chin on one hand.
"...You're people are strange."
Ling Qi couldn't help a snort of laughter. "I'm strange."
"Not so much, I think," her guest replied. "A debate then. I'm not opposed. We will inform our guards."
"As will I," Ling Qi said, rising to her feet.
Proceeding to the door they stepped out to the hall outside, where guardians of both parties stood in steady observation of the others.
"Gentlemen," Ling Qi greeted the two on 'her' side. Ministry employees, not agents but soldiers in their employ. "The Lady Jaromila and I intend to exchange some small pointers in cultivation, to get to know one another better. I am informing you to avoid any unnecessary alarm."
The older man she could perceive behind the darkly lacquered helm, looked briefly over her shoulder to the foreign party.
"Is Lady Ling certain that is wise?"
"There are few better ways to get a peer's measure, and I risk only my own secrets," Ling Qi said. She had no real concern of Jaromila seriously trying to hurt her, and she doubted this man did either. That would be… utterly pointless and self harming, if one thought about the situation which led here for even a moment.
"Understood," the man replied, dipping his head. In this case, her peoples, the Empire's martial and cultivation centered mindset helped. Because, as Meizhen had taught her long ago, 'trading pointers' sparring with fist or qi was considered a legitimate way to understand and grow closer to a peer.
Paying attention to Jaromila and her people on the other side, it looked like the conversation was a bit longer, and her guards a bit more incredulous of the idea, though obviously she couldn't overhear, not without being rude and attempting to penetrate the screen of qi shrouding the conversation.
"Thank you for your service. I will make certain you know if there is a problem," Ling Qi said politely.
Her response was a fist thumped against a breastplate, and a respectful bow of his head. She moved back to the door, lingering politely to wait for Jaromila. It took only another minute or so before the older woman followed her back inside.
"Out of curiosity, how did you explain this to them?" Ling Qi asked as the door clicked shut behind them.
"A debate, as I said. It is not… unknown for Emissaries to meet under Sudica's eaves, and argue their methods, it is not a thing, but related, more theological."
"They think we are debating the will of the spirits on some matter?"
"Are we not?"
Ling Qi dipped her head in acknowledgement. She supposed that wasn't untrue, given a certain point of view.
Ling Qi glanced to Ilsur, who had wandered over to one of the tables, and was currently loading a plate. Apparently fully disinterested, or at least affecting the appearance of it. "I hope your husband won't be too uncomfortable."
Restraining themselves or not, it was going to get cold in here.
"He is fine, I am sure, unless you are uncomfortable…?"
Ling Qi considered, she didn't think she was. She understood that to one outside of the… conversation she was proposing, there would only be vague impressions, like those she got when around high realms in battle. "No it's fine."
"I am going to enjoy this feast, before you two ruin it," Ilsur said bluntly. He sat down with a loaded plate and the entire pitcher of that fermented milk beverage. "Do as you need for your shaman ritual."
…Kind of crude, but she couldn't exactly blame him
"May I begin?" She asked.
"Go ahead."
Ling Qi hummed to herself, folding her hands into her sleeves as she stood across from Jaromilla over the hearthfire. She met the woman's eyes as her hum took on a tune, becoming the first bar of her song. Tendrils of frost spread from under her gown, and the brightly burning fire guttered lower, the merry glow turning a sullen red.
Cold and Darkness were bound up in her mind, different manifestations of the same fundamental principle of consumption and want. They were both absences, yawning voids which devoured light and heat. Ambition, hunger, greed, these things were not vices at base. Her ice, her thoughts which she had woven into Zeqing's art, was the frozen winter cold, blanketing the world, consuming and ending the year before, but it was in service of the spring to come after. The energy taken to be released with the spring.
Jaromila's head tilted back as the cold washed over her, slick clear ice forming over the carpet, first creeping up her gown. Her lips parted, but she didn't sing, not like Ling Qi. The foreign woman was not a singer, or a musician, not like her. No, Jaromila was a speaker. And she argued now without human words.
It was like being struck across the face with a mace. Her ice, the mantle she wore at least, was expressed as pressure. Immense crushing pressure, with all the weight of the world behind it. Ice to grind the mountains flat and carve valley and gorge. Her ice was not a season, Ling Qi could feel that her winter was more akin to Zeqing's. It was not something that ended in human timeframes. The furniture in the room groaned, and fractal spiderweb cracks formed in the ice creeping up the walls.
Yet, she sang back and found there was still a cycle there, advance and recession, the way Xuan Shi had described the tide to her when she asked about the ocean, if far far slower.
Cold as consumption, cold as pressure, clashed and met in the room between them. The now sullenly burning fire flickered, nearly went out. It's orange core went black and wood snapped and crackled not from being burned, but from the shattering of deep cold. The tongues of the fire became a dark, dark blue.
Jaromila considered her in the new darkness of the room, and spoke another wordless phrase. A thousand years of glacial grind compressed into the space of a human sentence.
Ling Qi rocked back, catching herself on her heel. A question, an interrogation on the nature of transition, of where the line between spring and winter came. Where came the release of the floods, and the warm spring wind.
Mixed, too mixed. Her metaphor was still brittle and muddled, the lyrics and melody unharmonious. Ling Qi frowned as she sang out, seeing the flowers of frost blooming, twisted and shattering on the ice rimed walls. Was she still trying to much to encompass what wasn't hers?
She knew she was not the spring, that was for others, but perhaps had she still been trying to fight her own nature in some ways? She considered her vision of a field of white, twists of frost blooming in the shape of flowers. Snowblossom Shattering, that was the name she had thought for her finishing technique, fancifully taken from the river and lake of her new home.
But those things weren't named for such blooms, but rather, the patterns made by the cracking ice when seen from above.
Ling Qi frowned, adjusting notes in her mind, and met the looming pressure with her own resolve, the unrelenting killing ice of deep winter. That was the core of the art even now. The difference lay in the desire to gift what she had taken, rather than hoarding it herself. The clear ice forming on every surface in the groaning room deepened, turned opaque, the frost within turning white and blue, as it buried what lay beneath, the faint lines of petals traced in cracks and frost.
Freeze and take and consume, that the spring might come after, and use that which was taken. It was… easier to admit to what she wanted now. That she had accepted being binding.
The mantle of pressure around Jaromila's shoulders and the timeless patient darkness that had crept in behind her blue eyes rumbled, and bore down on her.
She did not bother to try and stand against it, that inevitability she felt there. Her persistence was not the mountain, standing astride the world until it was at last ground down.
The world changes, it is the truth, not the shape which is to be preserved.
Let the glacier pass its way, her winter would still be there, long after it had receded back to the mountains. It could no more stop the end of winter than she could stop it.
The ice shattered, and in the center of the room, the blackened fire roared back to healthy orange and yellow, burning bright.
"Interesting perspective," Jaromila said. "It cannot be easy, shaping a mantle with no godmother to guide."
"It is, Its still not complete, but thank you for helping me realize where some of the flaws lie," Ling Qi said. There was more adjustment to do, to tighten the story, the song into something cohesive, but she had a start.
Please Choose a modification of the Snowblossom Shattering technique.
[ ] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all wounds removed and all negative effects on them dispelled.
[ ] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all traits buffed by 1 for the duration of the scene, and the potency of their next technique is increased by 2
"Such a conversation will alarm those whose duty is our protection," Jaromila pointed out. "Even if we restrain ourselves to this cozy little room."
"I would not worry about informing those who need to know that we are sharing a few friendly pointers," Ling Qi said. That was well within her rights as an individual noble of the Empire, her personal cultivation was her own, if she was not using proscribed methods no one could object to her sharing them.
"Is the girl asking to wrestle or share hunting lore?" Ilsur asked, squinting between them.
"She is suggesting something of both I think," Jaromila said absently.
"Overcomplicated methods," the tribesman grumbled.
"I do think we can restrain ourselves. Remain in this room and not damage it. I'm not being entirely facetious when I call it a conversation," Ling Qi said, bowing her head. "I think we understand each other well, but testing my understanding against yours will further that more than an hour's idle conversation. And… I am not sure there is anyone currently around who could better point out flaws in my methods."
Jaromila considered her, resting her chin on one hand.
"...You're people are strange."
Ling Qi couldn't help a snort of laughter. "I'm strange."
"Not so much, I think," her guest replied. "A debate then. I'm not opposed. We will inform our guards."
"As will I," Ling Qi said, rising to her feet.
Proceeding to the door they stepped out to the hall outside, where guardians of both parties stood in steady observation of the others.
"Gentlemen," Ling Qi greeted the two on 'her' side. Ministry employees, not agents but soldiers in their employ. "The Lady Jaromila and I intend to exchange some small pointers in cultivation, to get to know one another better. I am informing you to avoid any unnecessary alarm."
The older man she could perceive behind the darkly lacquered helm, looked briefly over her shoulder to the foreign party.
"Is Lady Ling certain that is wise?"
"There are few better ways to get a peer's measure, and I risk only my own secrets," Ling Qi said. She had no real concern of Jaromila seriously trying to hurt her, and she doubted this man did either. That would be… utterly pointless and self harming, if one thought about the situation which led here for even a moment.
"Understood," the man replied, dipping his head. In this case, her peoples, the Empire's martial and cultivation centered mindset helped. Because, as Meizhen had taught her long ago, 'trading pointers' sparring with fist or qi was considered a legitimate way to understand and grow closer to a peer.
Paying attention to Jaromila and her people on the other side, it looked like the conversation was a bit longer, and her guards a bit more incredulous of the idea, though obviously she couldn't overhear, not without being rude and attempting to penetrate the screen of qi shrouding the conversation.
"Thank you for your service. I will make certain you know if there is a problem," Ling Qi said politely.
Her response was a fist thumped against a breastplate, and a respectful bow of his head. She moved back to the door, lingering politely to wait for Jaromila. It took only another minute or so before the older woman followed her back inside.
"Out of curiosity, how did you explain this to them?" Ling Qi asked as the door clicked shut behind them.
"A debate, as I said. It is not… unknown for Emissaries to meet under Sudica's eaves, and argue their methods, it is not a thing, but related, more theological."
"They think we are debating the will of the spirits on some matter?"
"Are we not?"
Ling Qi dipped her head in acknowledgement. She supposed that wasn't untrue, given a certain point of view.
Ling Qi glanced to Ilsur, who had wandered over to one of the tables, and was currently loading a plate. Apparently fully disinterested, or at least affecting the appearance of it. "I hope your husband won't be too uncomfortable."
Restraining themselves or not, it was going to get cold in here.
"He is fine, I am sure, unless you are uncomfortable…?"
Ling Qi considered, she didn't think she was. She understood that to one outside of the… conversation she was proposing, there would only be vague impressions, like those she got when around high realms in battle. "No it's fine."
"I am going to enjoy this feast, before you two ruin it," Ilsur said bluntly. He sat down with a loaded plate and the entire pitcher of that fermented milk beverage. "Do as you need for your shaman ritual."
…Kind of crude, but she couldn't exactly blame him
"May I begin?" She asked.
"Go ahead."
Ling Qi hummed to herself, folding her hands into her sleeves as she stood across from Jaromilla over the hearthfire. She met the woman's eyes as her hum took on a tune, becoming the first bar of her song. Tendrils of frost spread from under her gown, and the brightly burning fire guttered lower, the merry glow turning a sullen red.
Cold and Darkness were bound up in her mind, different manifestations of the same fundamental principle of consumption and want. They were both absences, yawning voids which devoured light and heat. Ambition, hunger, greed, these things were not vices at base. Her ice, her thoughts which she had woven into Zeqing's art, was the frozen winter cold, blanketing the world, consuming and ending the year before, but it was in service of the spring to come after. The energy taken to be released with the spring.
Jaromila's head tilted back as the cold washed over her, slick clear ice forming over the carpet, first creeping up her gown. Her lips parted, but she didn't sing, not like Ling Qi. The foreign woman was not a singer, or a musician, not like her. No, Jaromila was a speaker. And she argued now without human words.
It was like being struck across the face with a mace. Her ice, the mantle she wore at least, was expressed as pressure. Immense crushing pressure, with all the weight of the world behind it. Ice to grind the mountains flat and carve valley and gorge. Her ice was not a season, Ling Qi could feel that her winter was more akin to Zeqing's. It was not something that ended in human timeframes. The furniture in the room groaned, and fractal spiderweb cracks formed in the ice creeping up the walls.
Yet, she sang back and found there was still a cycle there, advance and recession, the way Xuan Shi had described the tide to her when she asked about the ocean, if far far slower.
Cold as consumption, cold as pressure, clashed and met in the room between them. The now sullenly burning fire flickered, nearly went out. It's orange core went black and wood snapped and crackled not from being burned, but from the shattering of deep cold. The tongues of the fire became a dark, dark blue.
Jaromila considered her in the new darkness of the room, and spoke another wordless phrase. A thousand years of glacial grind compressed into the space of a human sentence.
Ling Qi rocked back, catching herself on her heel. A question, an interrogation on the nature of transition, of where the line between spring and winter came. Where came the release of the floods, and the warm spring wind.
Mixed, too mixed. Her metaphor was still brittle and muddled, the lyrics and melody unharmonious. Ling Qi frowned as she sang out, seeing the flowers of frost blooming, twisted and shattering on the ice rimed walls. Was she still trying to much to encompass what wasn't hers?
She knew she was not the spring, that was for others, but perhaps had she still been trying to fight her own nature in some ways? She considered her vision of a field of white, twists of frost blooming in the shape of flowers. Snowblossom Shattering, that was the name she had thought for her finishing technique, fancifully taken from the river and lake of her new home.
But those things weren't named for such blooms, but rather, the patterns made by the cracking ice when seen from above.
Ling Qi frowned, adjusting notes in her mind, and met the looming pressure with her own resolve, the unrelenting killing ice of deep winter. That was the core of the art even now. The difference lay in the desire to gift what she had taken, rather than hoarding it herself. The clear ice forming on every surface in the groaning room deepened, turned opaque, the frost within turning white and blue, as it buried what lay beneath, the faint lines of petals traced in cracks and frost.
Freeze and take and consume, that the spring might come after, and use that which was taken. It was… easier to admit to what she wanted now. That she had accepted being binding.
The mantle of pressure around Jaromila's shoulders and the timeless patient darkness that had crept in behind her blue eyes rumbled, and bore down on her.
+2 XP to Persistence and Want
Persistence Advances to III (0/5)
Persistence Advances to III (0/5)
She did not bother to try and stand against it, that inevitability she felt there. Her persistence was not the mountain, standing astride the world until it was at last ground down.
The world changes, it is the truth, not the shape which is to be preserved.
Let the glacier pass its way, her winter would still be there, long after it had receded back to the mountains. It could no more stop the end of winter than she could stop it.
The ice shattered, and in the center of the room, the blackened fire roared back to healthy orange and yellow, burning bright.
"Interesting perspective," Jaromila said. "It cannot be easy, shaping a mantle with no godmother to guide."
"It is, Its still not complete, but thank you for helping me realize where some of the flaws lie," Ling Qi said. There was more adjustment to do, to tighten the story, the song into something cohesive, but she had a start.
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 deep ice, stripped of all they were, made faceless in death, only the faint patterns in the frost carrying memory of life. When spring calls, they shatter, cracking apart into petals of frost, carried on the vitality that floods forth. 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.
This technique may only be used once per scene.
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 deep ice, stripped of all they were, made faceless in death, only the faint patterns in the frost carrying memory of life. When spring calls, they shatter, cracking apart into petals of frost, carried on the vitality that floods forth. 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.
This technique may only be used once per scene.
Please Choose a modification of the Snowblossom Shattering technique.
[ ] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all wounds removed and all negative effects on them dispelled.
[ ] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all traits buffed by 1 for the duration of the scene, and the potency of their next technique is increased by 2
My first thought is that we are now a 2 stage boss! Both of these options are good, but I like the trait and potency boost more. This looks like a big 'oh shit' button to press and getting stronger after it feels better than healing.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
This new aesthetic is way cooler
The glacier talk makes me hopeful that the UGM project will take inspiration from this debate and be made sexier.
Probably second option mechanically? Like unless we fight entirely alone we will have Zhengui with us and he is already on the path of getting heal techs. Even if they are really up for some upgrades at this point. Could see him pick up debuff remover also.
Second also fits with the forgotten support/buffer thing LQ was aiming for.
Second also fits with the forgotten support/buffer thing LQ was aiming for.
I agree, the second option looks cooler.
Awesome update! Very fun to refine this with Jaromila's help! And now that we can total the potency to get the boost, that means we can actually use it against scrubs and get buffed as long as we get enough of them which is excellent!
@yrsillar this still has the old name for Frozen Night's Refrain.
Zhengui can only heal through ash clouds atm which aren't very potent. His reset only heals himself iirc. Either way he should improve his healing eventually yeah.
Ilsur knows what's important here and saves the food from the winter ladies. respect
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Which is better depends on when we're generally gonna use Snowblossom Shattering, I think. As well as on how much we can rely on always having allies with us.
If we're actually using it as a finisher (ie: the last thing we do in a fight, or last big thing anyway), then the first option with the full heal is superior, since it means we're replenished and ready for a new fight, and the buff would've often been wasted anyway (since using it is intended to, y'know, end the fight). This is also the better option if we fight alone, I think, as is discussed a bit more below. It's also probably better if we need to fight many times in succession. So it's a better option for tournaments by a fair bit, though that's less relevant than it might be.
On the other hand, with the second choice, we can use SBS a bit earlier on, especially if we have allies about, and rely on its bonus to make our and our allies next moves more effective to make up for not having a finisher any more, and can meaningfully buff a whole group. With proper coordination, the +2 potency on follow-up attacks is quite potent after all. This is much less useful when alone and doesn't help our stamina as much, but it is a potent offensive buff if fighting in a group, and becomes more so the more people are in the group with us. It is an extremely potent buff if we're commanding an actual army of some sort.
So the first is better if we're gonna hold off on our finisher until the very end, the second if we use it a tad earlier and have allies to make use of the buff. I'm always reluctant to take too many things that absolutely rely on allies, and even the first version is still very good for a group of allies (I'm not sure 'too much healing' is ever gonna be a thing even with Zhengui on the team), so I think I'm leaning towards the healing option, but either would be cool.
If we're actually using it as a finisher (ie: the last thing we do in a fight, or last big thing anyway), then the first option with the full heal is superior, since it means we're replenished and ready for a new fight, and the buff would've often been wasted anyway (since using it is intended to, y'know, end the fight). This is also the better option if we fight alone, I think, as is discussed a bit more below. It's also probably better if we need to fight many times in succession. So it's a better option for tournaments by a fair bit, though that's less relevant than it might be.
On the other hand, with the second choice, we can use SBS a bit earlier on, especially if we have allies about, and rely on its bonus to make our and our allies next moves more effective to make up for not having a finisher any more, and can meaningfully buff a whole group. With proper coordination, the +2 potency on follow-up attacks is quite potent after all. This is much less useful when alone and doesn't help our stamina as much, but it is a potent offensive buff if fighting in a group, and becomes more so the more people are in the group with us. It is an extremely potent buff if we're commanding an actual army of some sort.
So the first is better if we're gonna hold off on our finisher until the very end, the second if we use it a tad earlier and have allies to make use of the buff. I'm always reluctant to take too many things that absolutely rely on allies, and even the first version is still very good for a group of allies (I'm not sure 'too much healing' is ever gonna be a thing even with Zhengui on the team), so I think I'm leaning towards the healing option, but either would be cool.
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Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Never liked the inclusion of spring themes into Ling Qi's cultivation. It doesn't fit her, and it never did.
But this is not that bad. Certainly better than what was before.
- Location
- Europe
This is a tricky choice.
On the one hand, pushing up traits and potency is nice -- especially if it can push you up a color.
On the other, healing + cleansing + Qi restore is an extremely solid combo for a finisher. If we win a fight we will survive it and flush our debuffs, as will our allies. It makes Ling Qi a very reliable combatant in just about any scenario, since she can keep herself running at full effectiveness as long as she can put out her finisher.
I think for a finisher the heal + cleansing effect is better. If our finisher can't manage then a minor buff won't be enough to make the difference, but coming out of a fight healthy is extremely useful.
Edit: after checking the trait tutorial I'm pretty sure an art can't push you up a full color. That limits the arts effect a fair bit.
On the one hand, pushing up traits and potency is nice -- especially if it can push you up a color.
On the other, healing + cleansing + Qi restore is an extremely solid combo for a finisher. If we win a fight we will survive it and flush our debuffs, as will our allies. It makes Ling Qi a very reliable combatant in just about any scenario, since she can keep herself running at full effectiveness as long as she can put out her finisher.
I think for a finisher the heal + cleansing effect is better. If our finisher can't manage then a minor buff won't be enough to make the difference, but coming out of a fight healthy is extremely useful.
Edit: after checking the trait tutorial I'm pretty sure an art can't push you up a full color. That limits the arts effect a fair bit.
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The second can still be used as a finisher at the end of a fight when we have allies (which our spirits who should always be with us definitely count as), it would just be the second last move rather than the last. We use it to kill off our opponents which powers up our allies enough to use their own finishers and end their fights. Like an example I could see is Renxiang was in a stalemate with that Shishigui at the caldera, we end our enemies which powers her up enough to break that stalemate and kill the shishigui. Also works with something like Qi killing a commander and powering up Zhengui to explode the earth and destroy any remaining scrubs.
Heck thinking about it, we could even use it at the end of a fight like a lesser version of the first one in some situations where we power up Zhengui's healing techs.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sure. However, being able to use it strategically to buff allies will often prelude it being the last thing we do, but remains correct nonetheless. Of course, with bad enough wounds or effects lingering on our allies, healing not being the last thing may also be correct, but it'll be a more common situation with buffs.
My point wasn't that we would only use it under the circumstances I described, just that using it earlier is likely to be more common if we take the buff option rather than the healing.
And once again, we are reminded that for all their high minded manners the Empire is the warriorest of warrior cultures in the relevant setting.
NoxOfUmbra
Shadow of the night
- Location
- Colombia, South América
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all wounds removed and all negative effects on them dispelled.
I'm my humble opinion, this is way better. It's a full heal, full hp, full mp, full sp, and back to fresh. And that is way more huge than temporary increased damage, in most cases.
I'm my humble opinion, this is way better. It's a full heal, full hp, full mp, full sp, and back to fresh. And that is way more huge than temporary increased damage, in most cases.
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The visuals are a lot more cohesive with the story arc the art is trying to tell, with these alterations. I'm pretty neutral on flower aesthetics, but the shift has moved them out of being in conflict with the art's goals.
The petal patterning in the obscuring, erasing ice is now something like the etched echo and promise of life's potential that Winter reaps and releases. It can also be read as kind of forcibly anonymizing opponents into only what they represent in the framework of our art, which is a flex. They lose their identifying features in the deep ice, what remains of their forms instead stamped with only faint acknowledgment that life was here and will be again, not who or what it was.
Which is pretty rude! Domineering. Way more than I think Ling Qi has ever managed to show herself to be in combat, before, if I'm being honest. Which, uh, cool. There's also interesting implications for Ling Qi's Hidden Moon aspects and increasing(ly deliberate) interaction with histories. Xia Ren would be thrilled by an art that destructively consumes the past to give rise to new beginnings, and probably pat us on the back for it. But I kind of feel like Ling Qi's too much of a troll/thief for things to be so simple? Leaning into the more archival aspects of Hidden Moon, tinged with her other lunar patrons, I could see Ling Qi using that erasure to plunge the subject directly into her Hidden palm via its metaphorical transformation into a Secret. Thus, Ling Qi splits the present into both the Past and the Future, to pay herself for her efforts twice. That's likely a long way off, though.
More immediately, and amusingly, the art is kind of like Ling Qi wall papers over people. Flower patterns and everything!
[ ] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all wounds removed and all negative effects on them dispelled.
Revitalization in the wake of Winter is a solid metaphorical embodiment of Spring coming. Relatively straightforward and it works.
[ ] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all traits buffed by 1 for the duration of the scene, and the potency of their next technique is increased by 2
This option leans more into the broader themes of new beginnings and transformation through endings and release of potential, etc, I think. Where a full-heal returns to a status quo, this option opens avenues for the previously untenable. Technical implementation could be more challenging, depending on exactly who we're empowering and what their own aesthetic and affect is though. It works fine with all of our own spirits, and is at worst neutral with our close allies, thankfully. Meizhen's probably the toughest fit, but something with water wouldn't be too hard to finagle, I think.
I'm leaning towards option 2 for the moment.
The petal patterning in the obscuring, erasing ice is now something like the etched echo and promise of life's potential that Winter reaps and releases. It can also be read as kind of forcibly anonymizing opponents into only what they represent in the framework of our art, which is a flex. They lose their identifying features in the deep ice, what remains of their forms instead stamped with only faint acknowledgment that life was here and will be again, not who or what it was.
Which is pretty rude! Domineering. Way more than I think Ling Qi has ever managed to show herself to be in combat, before, if I'm being honest. Which, uh, cool. There's also interesting implications for Ling Qi's Hidden Moon aspects and increasing(ly deliberate) interaction with histories. Xia Ren would be thrilled by an art that destructively consumes the past to give rise to new beginnings, and probably pat us on the back for it. But I kind of feel like Ling Qi's too much of a troll/thief for things to be so simple? Leaning into the more archival aspects of Hidden Moon, tinged with her other lunar patrons, I could see Ling Qi using that erasure to plunge the subject directly into her Hidden palm via its metaphorical transformation into a Secret. Thus, Ling Qi splits the present into both the Past and the Future, to pay herself for her efforts twice. That's likely a long way off, though.
More immediately, and amusingly, the art is kind of like Ling Qi wall papers over people. Flower patterns and everything!
[ ] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all wounds removed and all negative effects on them dispelled.
Revitalization in the wake of Winter is a solid metaphorical embodiment of Spring coming. Relatively straightforward and it works.
[ ] Total the Potency of enemies killed this way, allies of potency equal or less to that amount have their qi fully restored, all traits buffed by 1 for the duration of the scene, and the potency of their next technique is increased by 2
This option leans more into the broader themes of new beginnings and transformation through endings and release of potential, etc, I think. Where a full-heal returns to a status quo, this option opens avenues for the previously untenable. Technical implementation could be more challenging, depending on exactly who we're empowering and what their own aesthetic and affect is though. It works fine with all of our own spirits, and is at worst neutral with our close allies, thankfully. Meizhen's probably the toughest fit, but something with water wouldn't be too hard to finagle, I think.
I'm leaning towards option 2 for the moment.