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

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[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

This one. The other claims ownership and that's not completely untrue, but it's exactly the way you wind up with the kind of distance that the elder is talking about here.
 
yrsillar said:
It was true, Ling Qi thought. She could absorb an attack which would saly a dozen third realms into the impenetrable depths of her Mist, but that was an ability with little use in the project before her.
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Slay is misspelled
Also
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve your World, to maintain the community, the things and people you have.
 
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
 
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Ooh, so the Elder Ying visit is more cultivation-oriented, huh? Ling Qi is starting to really form her Way, the rejection of the idea that you have to be alone at the peak of cultivation is very much the sort of thing that is needed for Sovereign cultivation. It's all about rejecting the Law of the world to become a new Law.

Also Ling Qi's flashes of... Not mind-reading, but... Insight into people? Are apparently the beginnings of a new art. Her version of the Eye of Grudges?
 
[x] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

If it's a good world then the second follows from the first. If not then it should change.
 
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

I'll be voting for this 10,000%.

I am a huge fan of choice and free will. The second option has, at least to me, some unnerving implications, such as preventing people from leaving our community because we are trying to preserve it. I'm not a fan of that option.
 
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

The greatest price in any battle is Opportunity Cost, be it social or otherwise. Those with more options at the end of a battle are those who can be more gracious victors or better surviving losers. No other phrase has justified more atrocity than, "We had no other option."
 
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

Based upon what Ling Qi said in the update I wonder if what follows might be for those choices to be meaningfully regardless of the power possessed by those who make them.
 
ImperatorV said:
Ooh, so the Elder Ying visit is more cultivation-oriented, huh? Ling Qi is starting to really form her Way, the rejection of the idea that you have to be alone at the peak of cultivation is very much the sort of thing that is needed for Sovereign cultivation. It's all about rejecting the Law of the world to become a new Law.

Also Ling Qi's flashes of... Not mind-reading, but... Insight into people? Are apparently the beginnings of a new art. Her version of the Eye of Grudges?
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It's her first dabblings in Law, she has enough understanding of the Law of [Communication] that she can properly understand it when someone is trying to pass on insight to them, as well as the context behind it.

Mostly, it serves as a translation of MythTalk that happens when Sovereigns are trying to make a Point.
 
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve your World, to maintain the community, the things and people you have.

Of these two, i think the first one is better. I'm speaking hypothetically here, but if(when!) we succeed in overthrowing Shenhua, two seems like a really bad purpose for us. We have Cycle, all thing must End for New to rise from its ashes. It runs counter to it by saying we need to Maintain what we have. While one still have that leeway of Choice, and we can put anything in place of that.
 
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What I'm getting from this is that Sovereigns usually compress their understanding and meaning into neat ZIP files that can be handled by the young whippersnappers. Ling Qi has found a way to decompress these due to her dabbling in [communication], but that doesn't mean she's actually equipped to handle all the information it contains (yet).
 
yrsillar said:
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve your World, to maintain the community, the things and people you have.
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The second choice ties into Unity by specifying our World as a discrete thing to be protected. The first ties into Multiplicity, by focusing on the individual Choices of all those we shield.

And I'm more than happy to keep leaning into Multiplicity.
 
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve your World, to maintain the community, the things and people you have.

I'm definitely leaning towards the first. Our first successor art is by LQ's own description, a story of the world's ending. If you keep people or things forever, you'll break them.

To have a choice, one must live. Death ends all choices, and so we protect.
 
[X] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
 
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

violence is at the core removing someone else's ability to chose, so protection would have to be preserving the ability to chose
 
Hmm. Choice jumps out to me as flowing from some recent developments and meditations here, but a couple things to note. It's kinda vague and I think the second, World, option is more fleshed out as an ideal but not quite as up to date with the direction of our philosophy. Which makes sense, since this is just where we start with the concept. Both of these are going to develop and solidify. So Choice can end up more anchored, and World can end up more fluid, in the long-term.

I suspect we're going to be revisiting Protection with Zhengui in a few months, since he's also been meditating on protecting others and the form that his court will take, and the choice we make here will help inform how that process goes for him. Choice probably leans into his Renewal/Fire/Zhen side a bit more, while World leans into his Growth/Wood/Gui side? At least philosophically? Dynamism versus construction, or something.

[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.
Farting ideas out here. Choice could kinda rhyme with the Causality that we've tinkered around with a bit.

[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve your World, to maintain the community, the things and people you have.
World, here, reads a lot like an elevated version of our recently-neglected Home concept.

Anyway, both look like legit paths to me with room to grow/refine.
 
I can not choose world. It is the conception of preservation, of staying the same. It will turn us into something that breaks if people don't follow their path. I can't go for that.
 
[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve Choice, both your own and of those you shield.

[ ] The purpose of protection is to preserve your World, to maintain the community, the things and people you have.

Hmm, interesting options here. I can see how both of these taken to extremes could be bad.

The first one feels very dodgy to me, as in it's mainly a dodge type of mindset. Keep moving, keep your options open but also keeping options open for those you shield. This has potential to lure us into false choices or no-win choices or perhaps a total freedom like issue where it becomes we don't interact with other people because doing so may narrow the choices available to them.

The second one is more straightforward and the more armor like option. Something is going to harm us or the things we care about we stop it from doing so. But as others point out this leans us into a stasis problem. How far do we take preservation? If someone wishes to leave and that would cause disruption in the community do we force them to stay in order to protect others?

Not sure where I fall in favor of yet. Let's see what people got to say.
 
ApeofLight said:
The first one feels very dodgy to me, as in it's mainly a dodge type of mindset. Keep moving, keep your options open but also keeping options open for those you shield. This has potential to lure us into false choices or no-win choices or perhaps a total freedom like issue where it becomes we don't interact with other people because doing so may narrow the choices available to them.
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That problem doesn't actually make sense though. Definitionally, when speaking with an ally (which is who this applies to), you can always make their options expand rather than contract...after all, you can offer them numerous options and offer not to interfere as one of them.
 
This was a really fun update. I knew Elder Ying would be fun! I especially love the callback to our first lesson with her, when she told us the story of the Nameless and eventually ended with why cultivation always leads to Isolation.

yrsillar said:
"What most consider the fundamentals of defense, are Armor and Motion. That is the ability to endure and the ability to avoid. But these are only the simplest methods suitable for the lower realm battlefield. Absorption, diffusion, redirection, causal disruption, even these are but slightly more advanced examples of defensive techniques. Consider then, defense is not only a thing for war. Perception is itself a layer of defense, prediction, organization, administration, these things too must be considered, for life is not only war, can never be only war…"
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I love that Ling Qi does most of these things when she fights. She's truly a defensive cultivator!

yrsillar said:
Ling Qi nodded faintly, the Elder's words echoing her own thoughts. She thought there was something else there though. It wasn't enough to stop an attack. A defense, a good defense, should put you in a position to take advantage of your enemy. It wasn't enough to react, though she knew she did enough of that. The knife she had taken to the throat, her family and friends may not have liked that choice but she was not ashamed of it.

Because it had given Xiulan the opportunity to end the threat then and there, and Ling Qi had lived.

The best defense was one which positioned your enemies to be ruined.
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This would lead to some cool discussions with Lao Keung, me thinks. After we heard his thoughts on giving up men in war. I think it also opens up opportunities for future SNR development. Does it really fit in the concept of giving an opportunity? We'll need to answer these questions when making an armour successor, whether it's TRF+ or SNR+.

Ling Qi held very still, forcing herself not to flinch or jerk in reaction. Beside her in the empty space on the stone bench, sat Elder Ying, sitting with her chin on her hands, looking ahead. The Elder Ying standing in the center of the grotto remained where she was still speaking, though Ling Qi could not hear her now.
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Lol. Lmao, even. I thought Shu Yue and Jiao were the only ones who could spook LQ now. Guess I was wrong.

yrsillar said:
"It's not bad, to be a little naive," Elder Ying hummed. "My Way is at its end, I will climb no higher than this. But… I once thought as you did, as a girl. I can remember that, even if I could not tell you why. Being alone does not mean you do not care.
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I find this to be very sad. This isn't the first time that a cultivator has forgotten why they act the way the do, only the that they should. Does this happen when you cut things out or is it just the natural progression of cultivation? Also, Elder Ying subtly implies that she believes Ling Qi can and will reach Sovereignty. She believes in us!!

yrsillar said:
"You've chosen a cruel path, to see so deeply. Though I suggest you refine it soon," Elder Ying said mildly. "Ah, but you've learned how to refine arts by now."
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So I'm guessing this will be a function of ToN. If the Mantle art is added on top of that, then that successor will be OP!! Or maybe the mantle art will be our first original art?

Anyway, I wonder what Diao Linqin would say about this. Is this too deep? Too shallow? I hope it comes up when we next meet her.

yrsillar said:
Elder Ying pursed her lips. "Old sins. You aren't the first to make friends with foreigners, disciple. Though you might be the first to try to make it more. You know a certain Elder of the old Argent Peak Sect was a traveler of the world."

The sword saint, the grave with the broken sword, Xuan Shi's favorite author, who had died in Ogodei's invasion, holding back the invader so that the disciples of the Sect could evacuate. "Then why…"

"Wars are ugly things, and we make sacrifices, and debase ourselves to win them. In the tales the hero's virtue wins, but it is never so clean," Elder Ying said absently, gazing up at the sky. "Well, I have my oaths. You'll learn something of our sacrifices, running about in the liminal with your spirit beast."
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Nice. Can't wait to do Burrowing Behemoth. I'm guessing that Shi would be part of this adventure? It's related to Zhengui, his favourite childhood author, and friend from foreign lands.
 
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