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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)
 
From the way the beast gods are described you can see a lot of similarities with the hui, with them having been blinded by pride, an entitlement of their power, & both a personal emptiness & nihilism of the world.
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
I think I am persuaded.

[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)

The self-eating of the leader acceding to the enemy (for the jungle was the first enemy, the bai's betrayal was not doing enough about it) in exchange for the 'saftey' and continuance of the people whose blood he spent like water against the enemy.
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)


I think this is the more useful. Sun Shao on his own may believe in nothing, but he wouldn't have succeeded without those who did - but the perception was firmly that the Bai had left them no choice, and so the cornered rats chose to believe for the alternative was death
 
[x] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)
 
yrsillar said:
Leaving the planning room behind and reentering the embassy's halls, Ji Rong glanced her way.

"Probably can't expect friendly. You're friends with the snakes."

"I knew that going in," Ling Qi said. In the end, the Emerald Seas was aligned with the Bai clan, and Meizhen was her friend. Merely being able to be understood, to be sincere could not overcome all obstacles. It could not actually alter this situation, where the fact and reality meant they were irreconcilably opposed.
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Whatttt??? How can that be? Snakes are friendly, and cute, and cuddly. There's nothing wrong with being friends with snakes!

I mean... sure, in the past they spent your ancestor's lives like cheap coinage, but that's in the past. Right?
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)

I like the arguments so far for both, but I like the potential visual for this more, as the vermin arrive, do a thing, and then their "death" technique appears as they consume each other
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)

This one speaks to me more. I'm not sure I follow the metaphor of the rats as nihilism.

This update also gave me the image of how terrifying an enemy looking at you, and reciting your insight and philosophy in full back to you would be in the world of cultivators.....
 
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If the EG is rule by strength and the Wolf God rule by right, then:

Vermin God as rule by mass

[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)

VG as rule by ruthlessness

[] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
yrsillar said:
And a chorus rose to match the music, intertwining with the actors voices to boom and shriek. The shadow of vast wings wide enough to blot out the sky, the prideful call of the Eagle God, who laughed off the Stag Gods cowardly fears, and declared that the storm of his wings alone would end this nonsense.

Crimson eyes in the dark, a great and terrible wolf surrounded by his lessers, the Wolf God, who snarled of kin stolen by trickery made weak by luxury, whose submission was an insult to his strength, who would need exterminating alongside the humans for the strength of the pack. A mountain stirred and rumbled, muscle and fur and power, the Bear God, vowed to end the noise of squabbling human life which disturbed his slumber.

A hissing voice of thousands joined the chorus, the buzzing of insects and the chittering of rats, The Vermin God agreed to lend their might, for man was growing wise and canny in the protection of their stores, and food would grow scarce all too soon.
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Here's the mention of the vermin god we have from previous efforts, during our slightly heretical play. Plus the sections on the other two beast gods mentioned in this update. I don't think it informs this vote overly much, but it might be interesting to read for some.

As for me, hmm. The western territories lens is useful, but I can't help but think about other political institutions at work in our current collection of crises.

[ ] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)

This one is applicable to a lot of human institutions. The Sun, our own local dearly departed Hui, the clans of the empire and emerald seas, the cloud tribes, and so on. It feels wrong for the Ya-Lith-Kai though. Their whole thing is consensus. Well, and Sacrifice. They might be acting stupidly, but they're not, cannot by definition be, acting in Isolation. Isn't a huge deal or anything, but this lesson/meaning for the art/Power would be difficult to ever neatly map to them. Since they're one of our big competitors, not my preference.

[ ] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)

Now, this one's a bit muddled with the nihilism and belief in nothing. Not quite sure what it's grasping at. But the general point it seems to be driving at is self-importance that discards consequences as meaningful, even as that means the downfall of the actor. This can be applied to most of the same actors above, plus actors like the Xi who pursued a mindless and bloody unity that (probably) contributed to their own downfall. I do sometimes wonder whether their rule became even bloodier in the wake of the Twilight King, to compensate for their lost strength, and that's what inspired somebody to finally strike them down.

But regardless, I think this lesson is more applicable to the Ya-Lith-Kai, which isn't pursuing goals individualistically. But it, it's leaders and thinkers and speech-givers, are pursuing goals fueled by self-consumption of the community as a whole, even as it's the community in unity that's being mobilized. Actually pretty literal self-consumption given some of their techniques. Also fits that dork-ass dude who sided with them, Yan Renshu. I like having a meditation on conflict that we can fit to any of our enemies without too much stretching. If I thought the western territories demanded one answer or the other I'd probably prioritize differently, but both are fine here, probably.

[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
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[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)
 
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[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
[] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)

Sounds like Yan Renshu :V

[X] The Vermin God is the Power of personal emptiness, of isolation in multitude. A thousand devouring mouths that acknowledged only themselves. (+1 Isolation XP)

Gonna have to vote for this though because it fits the Sun a bit better than the endings option IMO, which is a better fit for the underground guys.
 
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[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
[X] The Vermin God is the Power of nihilism, of belief in nothing. A selfishness so complete that it would devour itself and think itself genius in the doing. (+1 Endings XP)
 
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