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.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Which means that her projects in infrastructure and purging the peak's old dungeons are really about making sure that the prize that is going to be fought over can survive it, and getting an inventory of what treasures are actually there.
I had kinda forgotten that Shenhua had made her a gown of the same caliber as Renxiang's and her own. I wonder what it was woven out of.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We actually don't know that it's as good (or made out of the same kind of things) as hers and Renxiang's. It's her own work (rather than that of one of her disciples), but her own and Renxiang's are fundamentally part of them, and we don't know she did that for the Empress. It is possible but unconfirmed.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I remember it being mentioned somewhere that she used a whole leaf from Xiangmen to make it. Can't find the relevant section tho
ReignTorrential
Save Your Crown for a Rainy Day
FFS is way more important than MoSS here. Frankly, it was a bit silly to even do MoSS in the current turn, and it was driven by fearmongering over a falsely perceived inability to adequately complete MoSS projects after leaving the Sect. Raising the Bastion would have made a lot more sense as something to cultivate in a turn dominated by fief duties, but alas.
FFS, on the other hand, is our Art currently most deserving of narrative space. Besides the fact that it's our first successor, it's the current iteration of the Art line that connects us to the Polar nations. It's also our best excuse to connect personal Cultivation to the Polar peeps, as seen this turn with Jaromila.
For me FFS is more important even than ToN.
Last edited:
Mortal's Matter: A Clan's Foundation
- Location
- United States of America
Mortals Matter: A Clan's Foundation
"Is it true!?"
Min Meili looked up from the clothes she was folding and saw Su Fen, her friend and incurable gossip, standing at the doorway into the small storage closet.
"Umm… I, don't know?" Min Meili responded, dipping her head, and resuming her work. "I haven't really caught up on the latest today."
"You are the latest, silly! Is it true that you'll be a cultivator? That you'll be training with Madame Ling? That you'll breathe out lightning and walk on clouds!?"
"No, no, no," Min Meili refuted. "I'll simply be doing some training with Madame Ling. I won't be breathing out lightning or anything like that. Really."
"So you will be training with Madame Ling! Oh, this is so exciting, Little Minmin is going to be a cultivator! I'll have to tell everyone!"
"Please," Min Meili said, her hand darting out to grab Su Fen's sleeve. "It's not a big deal. Really. There's no need to bother the others about it."
Su Fen paused, a sly smile gracing her face. "Of course, it's a big deal! Unless… are you embarrassed by the attention, Little Minmin? Is there someone you don't want to treat you differently? It's ok, you can tell me, my lips are sealed!"
"Hmmph, the Sage Emperor himself would find his greatest challenge the sealing of your lips, Fenfen. But… no, it's nothing."
The smile slipped away from Su Fen's face, replaced by a small frown of concern. "Come on," she said, slipping into the closet, sitting down on the wooden floor, and patting the space beside her. "What's the matter."
"Really, it's nothing. Help me with the folding?"
"Meili…"
Sighing, Min Meili slid down and sat next to Su Fen, pulling her knees up and burying her face into them. She was glad that the closet was dark and cool. It made the prickling of hot tears at the corners of her eyes less embarrassing.
She felt herself hiccup a bit when Su Fen's hand started rubbing her back. "I'm just… so scared," Min Melie began, the words coming out horse. "At first I was excited, you know? A chance to become a cultivator! Even a minor one, even a lowly one, it felt like a dream come true. But… what if I fail? What if I can't do whatever it is that lets me become a cultivator? What if this is all a waste, and I'm thrown out, and I have to live on the streets, and Grandmother has to support me, and…"
"Meili," Su Fen interrupted, "it's going to be alright. They wouldn't have chosen to start with you if they didn't think you'll succeed."
"But the cost, Fen! If I don't succeed, will Lady Ling push the debt onto me? I wouldn't be able to pay that back, not in my entire life!"
"Well, what is the cost? Ten silver? Twenty before you learn if you have what it takes? To Lady Ling, that wouldn't even be something to remember."
"It's more," Min Meili said, "It's a lot more."
"How much more could it possibly be?"
"I… don't know. Grandmother said that I'll be using spirit stones to become a cultivator. But she won't tell me how much a spirit stone costs. And, it's not because she doesn't know."
"Well, why won't she tell you?"
"She said… she said that it would make me too anxious. Too worried. That it'll be more difficult to become a cultivator if I am worried about the cost. Even though she's the one who always told me, 'know the costs for what you do.'"
"Meili, Meili, Meili. Do you trust your Grandmother?"
"Y…Yeah."
"Then trust her, ok? She's not going to set you up to fail and ruin your life. If she thinks this is a good opportunity, then go for it. It'll be fine."
"Ok, ok. I can do that."
"Good! Now, come on, let's get you cleaned up a bit."
Taking one of the cloths stored in the closet, Min Meili dapped at her eyes, drying the tears as Su Fen stood up and stretched. Taking a moment, Min Meili took a breath, and then let it out, trying to force all the anxiousness and nervousness to leave as well. It didn't work, but she thought that it had helped a little bit.
And then, the mid-morning bell rang. It was time to meet Madame Ling and Grandmother in the garden.
"Thanks Fenfen. Talk to you later?"
"Of course Meimei! You'll have to tell me all about it!"
A quick hug for goodbyes and a short walk to the gardens later, Min Meili found herself sitting down on a finely woven rug in the shadows of a well-maintained tree. Upon her lap was a fine scroll detailing a strange rhythm she was supposed to breathe in to take in the qi from a spirit stone into something called her dantian.
"Grandmother," she began, "what is a dantian and how will breathing pull this qi into it?"
Sitting next to her, Grandmother laced her fingers together and stretched, making a popping sound, and sighed. "A dantian is the source of a cultivator's strength. It is where qi goes and from whence qi can be used. As for the breathing helping to pull in qi? I don't know myself. Perhaps the pattern of breathing is important, perhaps it is the intent and the pattern that is key, or maybe it is something else entirely. So, just follow the pattern on the scroll for now."
Nodding, Min Meili resumed her practice, repeating the breathing pattern listed on the scroll. The timing of the breaths was crucial, the scroll said, and so she was practicing before she had. So she bent her attention to the rhythm. Closing her eyes, Min Meili focused on following the instructions in her scroll. Slowly everything faded away, just replaced by the rhythm of her breathing. Then something warm was placed in her hands, right in front of her belly.
"Keep the pattern," she heard Grandmother say. "Keep the pattern."
So she kept the rhythm, even if the heat in her hands was distracting. The warmth kept seeming to shift, with every inhale coming closer and with every exhale going away. But, gradually, the heat was shifting towards her overall. Closer, closer, until it was almost touching her. But there was something there, something that kept it from actually touching her. Then the heat petered out, dying like a flame that had burnt through all its fuel.
"You can stop now, Meili," Grandmother said.
Opening her eyes, Min Meili looked down at her hands which were holding a dull ashen stone. A stone that looked like it should be filled with life and light instead of being grey and inert.
"What… what is this Grandmother?"
"That, dear Meili, was a spirit stone. But it's been all used up, whatever energy it held leaving because of your efforts."
"Wait, that means,"
"Congratulations," Grandmother said with a smile. "You can be a cultivator."
A/N: @yrsillar an omake for the omake throne! A potential look at a Ling Clan servant on the road to becoming a red soul cultivator. I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed writing it!
"Is it true!?"
Min Meili looked up from the clothes she was folding and saw Su Fen, her friend and incurable gossip, standing at the doorway into the small storage closet.
"Umm… I, don't know?" Min Meili responded, dipping her head, and resuming her work. "I haven't really caught up on the latest today."
"You are the latest, silly! Is it true that you'll be a cultivator? That you'll be training with Madame Ling? That you'll breathe out lightning and walk on clouds!?"
"No, no, no," Min Meili refuted. "I'll simply be doing some training with Madame Ling. I won't be breathing out lightning or anything like that. Really."
"So you will be training with Madame Ling! Oh, this is so exciting, Little Minmin is going to be a cultivator! I'll have to tell everyone!"
"Please," Min Meili said, her hand darting out to grab Su Fen's sleeve. "It's not a big deal. Really. There's no need to bother the others about it."
Su Fen paused, a sly smile gracing her face. "Of course, it's a big deal! Unless… are you embarrassed by the attention, Little Minmin? Is there someone you don't want to treat you differently? It's ok, you can tell me, my lips are sealed!"
"Hmmph, the Sage Emperor himself would find his greatest challenge the sealing of your lips, Fenfen. But… no, it's nothing."
The smile slipped away from Su Fen's face, replaced by a small frown of concern. "Come on," she said, slipping into the closet, sitting down on the wooden floor, and patting the space beside her. "What's the matter."
"Really, it's nothing. Help me with the folding?"
"Meili…"
Sighing, Min Meili slid down and sat next to Su Fen, pulling her knees up and burying her face into them. She was glad that the closet was dark and cool. It made the prickling of hot tears at the corners of her eyes less embarrassing.
She felt herself hiccup a bit when Su Fen's hand started rubbing her back. "I'm just… so scared," Min Melie began, the words coming out horse. "At first I was excited, you know? A chance to become a cultivator! Even a minor one, even a lowly one, it felt like a dream come true. But… what if I fail? What if I can't do whatever it is that lets me become a cultivator? What if this is all a waste, and I'm thrown out, and I have to live on the streets, and Grandmother has to support me, and…"
"Meili," Su Fen interrupted, "it's going to be alright. They wouldn't have chosen to start with you if they didn't think you'll succeed."
"But the cost, Fen! If I don't succeed, will Lady Ling push the debt onto me? I wouldn't be able to pay that back, not in my entire life!"
"Well, what is the cost? Ten silver? Twenty before you learn if you have what it takes? To Lady Ling, that wouldn't even be something to remember."
"It's more," Min Meili said, "It's a lot more."
"How much more could it possibly be?"
"I… don't know. Grandmother said that I'll be using spirit stones to become a cultivator. But she won't tell me how much a spirit stone costs. And, it's not because she doesn't know."
"Well, why won't she tell you?"
"She said… she said that it would make me too anxious. Too worried. That it'll be more difficult to become a cultivator if I am worried about the cost. Even though she's the one who always told me, 'know the costs for what you do.'"
"Meili, Meili, Meili. Do you trust your Grandmother?"
"Y…Yeah."
"Then trust her, ok? She's not going to set you up to fail and ruin your life. If she thinks this is a good opportunity, then go for it. It'll be fine."
"Ok, ok. I can do that."
"Good! Now, come on, let's get you cleaned up a bit."
Taking one of the cloths stored in the closet, Min Meili dapped at her eyes, drying the tears as Su Fen stood up and stretched. Taking a moment, Min Meili took a breath, and then let it out, trying to force all the anxiousness and nervousness to leave as well. It didn't work, but she thought that it had helped a little bit.
And then, the mid-morning bell rang. It was time to meet Madame Ling and Grandmother in the garden.
"Thanks Fenfen. Talk to you later?"
"Of course Meimei! You'll have to tell me all about it!"
A quick hug for goodbyes and a short walk to the gardens later, Min Meili found herself sitting down on a finely woven rug in the shadows of a well-maintained tree. Upon her lap was a fine scroll detailing a strange rhythm she was supposed to breathe in to take in the qi from a spirit stone into something called her dantian.
"Grandmother," she began, "what is a dantian and how will breathing pull this qi into it?"
Sitting next to her, Grandmother laced her fingers together and stretched, making a popping sound, and sighed. "A dantian is the source of a cultivator's strength. It is where qi goes and from whence qi can be used. As for the breathing helping to pull in qi? I don't know myself. Perhaps the pattern of breathing is important, perhaps it is the intent and the pattern that is key, or maybe it is something else entirely. So, just follow the pattern on the scroll for now."
Nodding, Min Meili resumed her practice, repeating the breathing pattern listed on the scroll. The timing of the breaths was crucial, the scroll said, and so she was practicing before she had. So she bent her attention to the rhythm. Closing her eyes, Min Meili focused on following the instructions in her scroll. Slowly everything faded away, just replaced by the rhythm of her breathing. Then something warm was placed in her hands, right in front of her belly.
"Keep the pattern," she heard Grandmother say. "Keep the pattern."
So she kept the rhythm, even if the heat in her hands was distracting. The warmth kept seeming to shift, with every inhale coming closer and with every exhale going away. But, gradually, the heat was shifting towards her overall. Closer, closer, until it was almost touching her. But there was something there, something that kept it from actually touching her. Then the heat petered out, dying like a flame that had burnt through all its fuel.
"You can stop now, Meili," Grandmother said.
Opening her eyes, Min Meili looked down at her hands which were holding a dull ashen stone. A stone that looked like it should be filled with life and light instead of being grey and inert.
"What… what is this Grandmother?"
"That, dear Meili, was a spirit stone. But it's been all used up, whatever energy it held leaving because of your efforts."
"Wait, that means,"
"Congratulations," Grandmother said with a smile. "You can be a cultivator."
A/N: @yrsillar an omake for the omake throne! A potential look at a Ling Clan servant on the road to becoming a red soul cultivator. I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed writing it!
I just experienced a moment of sympathy for Liling. Yrs was asked on Discord about the possibility of a commission featuring her mom, and his response was:
Well, considering she went back to the Peaks right after her father died without sparing Liling a second thought, I'm not particularly surprised by that assessment.
If the situation is already delicate in the summit, I can't wait to see how tense everyone will be when we see Liling next turn.
Oh, btw. I think I found Liling's theme song. It's quite fitting for her post-adoption.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjlM_RnsVE
Lady_Story
Humble Teller of Stories, Villainess of Legend
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
I know right. Like imagine just not having a mother (me) and always wanting one. I feel bad for Liling in that regard.
Lady_Story
Humble Teller of Stories, Villainess of Legend
- Pronouns
- She/Her/They/Them
And it's the reason I think you are a very very kind person, for knowing me and my antics so well!
Holy shit.
Since when did Renxiang pick up a sense of humor?!?
Since when did Renxiang pick up a sense of humor?!?
TimEd
Meteor maker
We've tried very hard to needle her into learning.
On Shenhua's potential ascension, coming into the topic late but...keep in mind two crucial factors:
-A Great Spirit's influence is far more limited than a White Cultivators'. Each and every founding clan went on to subvert their ascended founder's core ideals with no opposition, and the earlier ascended are much more influential than the later ones.
Should Shenhua Ascend, then I expect it to be more of a fundamental blow against stasis than direct destruction of thrones. A change in social inertia, traditions and dominance being easier to overcome in any field.
That's not a bad thing, nor inherently a good thing. Thrones WILL fall, if they simply rely on inertia and accumulated power to remain, but they may not, if those upon their thrones take heed of a changing world.
-We have since learned that a White is basically a Great Spirit already, merely anchored to the world by their attachments, and matters for which their Ideal would be better served through the being remaining within the world than as a Law.
What likely holds Shenhua to this world are two things:
1) Her love for Linqin binds her to mortality.
2) There are a great many things she can change and revolutionize more effectively as a cultivator than as a spirit.
Renxiang doesn't know this, but I expect that Renxiang's victory as she intends it would have Shenhua ascend on the spot, provided Linqin has already passed on. Because if she is sufficiently convinced that her successors will carry on the revolution better than she can, she would lose the last thing holding her to this world.
-A Great Spirit's influence is far more limited than a White Cultivators'. Each and every founding clan went on to subvert their ascended founder's core ideals with no opposition, and the earlier ascended are much more influential than the later ones.
Should Shenhua Ascend, then I expect it to be more of a fundamental blow against stasis than direct destruction of thrones. A change in social inertia, traditions and dominance being easier to overcome in any field.
That's not a bad thing, nor inherently a good thing. Thrones WILL fall, if they simply rely on inertia and accumulated power to remain, but they may not, if those upon their thrones take heed of a changing world.
-We have since learned that a White is basically a Great Spirit already, merely anchored to the world by their attachments, and matters for which their Ideal would be better served through the being remaining within the world than as a Law.
What likely holds Shenhua to this world are two things:
1) Her love for Linqin binds her to mortality.
2) There are a great many things she can change and revolutionize more effectively as a cultivator than as a spirit.
Renxiang doesn't know this, but I expect that Renxiang's victory as she intends it would have Shenhua ascend on the spot, provided Linqin has already passed on. Because if she is sufficiently convinced that her successors will carry on the revolution better than she can, she would lose the last thing holding her to this world.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm actually not sure that Renxiang is unaware of this. Like, I think she probably is aware of this possibility...but her plan is to do this while Linqin is still alive, so it'd be upon her death that Shenhua ascended, which is, I think best for everyone and something Renxiang is planning on.
- Location
- FR
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Clearly, yrs wants to be away while we burn the thread down and thoroughly salt the ashes /s
- Location
- Staring into the void
Salty ashes... Just like ASA...
there are 2 extra Liling interludes added to the Royal Road version. (Plots and Plans/Huntress)
- Location
- Estonia
Common desire: reform/fix The Empire, order, justice.
Common conclusion: the foundations of The Empire are inherently corrupt.
In the context, the Empress thinking that Jiao and her father got "too greedy or eager" likely means that she thinks that they just had too high, unrealistic, standards. Which likely means that she was able to continue her Path by resolving the contradiction by having lower standards of reform/justice.
Those lower standards could either be:
1) A realpolitik mindset, that certain amount of corruption is just unavoidable, so the goal should be minimization, not removal.
2) Some enlightened apathy, that was hinted at. That things mostly are, how they are. Or at least a Path of limited action.
3) Something closer to Ling Qi, actually. That perfection is the enemy of good enough and it's still worth to try.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think there's also a possibility of a fourth option: She's focused exclusively on a specific area (the Peaks) and going to let the rest of the Empire fragment and no longer be her business. They were too greedy because they tried to save the whole thing, not just a part of it.
It's also possible that whatever she did to radically alter her already established Way before the rebellion has left her permanently unable to ascend. Her Domain could be a schizophrenic mess that is only kept from violently exploding by forcibly suppressing some parts of her cultivation via some application of dress-magic.
I'm looking forward to peeping at Sun Liling with our fancy new thief-goggles. Especially if we still have Huisheng's influence gunking up our Meridian.
He might have a lot to say/feel about Liling's current state, considering Choice and all.
He might have a lot to say/feel about Liling's current state, considering Choice and all.
clearly he should act up to aggressively shout into her psyche or whatever, and cause a pair of horns to burst out of Ling Qi's skull from the exertion
This doesn't really align with what we've seen, in that the Empire's central authority is exerting the expected degree of effort in maintaining cohesion, in that she's funding imperial institutions and spreading her personal initiatives to at least the Emerald Seas through a receptive Ducal power.
Her earlier inaction is easier explained by being a Prism holding a role that required a White, she could not actually exert the power of the throne, because if challenged she'd have to fold.
I think its far simpler - Mu An and Sima Jiao began with the premise that all you need to achieve virtue was to slay all evil. It assumes more or less, than people belong to either Good or Evil.
Their entire toolkit was about how to kill or cripple malign actors, which is why Jiao was stuck, as his perception expanded, so did the definition of malign actor, and were he to follow through, he would have to slay them all.
Mu Xiang had already seen that people often did not have the CHOICE to do good. Thus, grassroots reform, creating positive institutions is her demonstrated weapon of choice for doing so, possibly so that the new state could chestburst the Empire later.