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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] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own

yrsillar said:
Harmony of the Dancing Wind was a bright song with a strong spring and summer theme, expressing the complex feelings of connection in a small community. After her recent lessons, Ling Qi felt that her rendition of the song was colored somewhat. The image that formed in her mind's eye was of people pulling together, surviving a harsh winter, and celebrating the warm winds that followed.
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Are we beginning to reach the level where our domain is slightly influencing new arts?
That would be a interesting soft transition towards the time where all arts are self made.
In general I like the growth of our domain this turn.


yrsillar said:
Notes of music flowed through her veins,
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I get the image that our pulse is now music.
 
Black Noise said:
  • Bark Worn Rough is a worse Tranquil Rebuke at C-rank cost from an Appraisal Art no less. For comparison, in addition to being a counter, TR does:
    • Self-dispel 2 of effects
    • Counter-debuff enemy sp.def (last Short)
Overall impression:
  • New techs are okay? At least the one for HDW is. SES is just hilariously bad.
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OK, first, I am going to say that I think this is perfectly fine if archive are meant to be used by non-nobles that somehow got to the inner sect, or people who don't have familial ressources. E.G, they are meant to be strictly worse than arts barronial clans gives to their prized scions.

However, if not, I have to second this in particularity. Bark Worn Rough needs Heaven Scarred Trunk to be active, and... is worse than not only the current Tranquil Rebuke, but the mid-yellow version of Tranquil Rebuke:
Tranquil Rebuke: ooo
Cost 6 qi
Instant
Centering themselves, the user finds serenity, and in doing, rises above the world, as the mountain stands above the earth. Though this state is short lived, any spiritual technique which targets the user suffers harsh repercussions if their technique fails to find purchase. When used, adds three dice to the users spiritual defense. If the user wins such a clash, the attacker suffers one point of perfect lethal damage, as well as suffering a two die penalty to their own defenses for the next turn.
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Tranquil Rebuke had no "require other tech to be active to use", and not only did it enhance spiritual defence (something Bark Worn Rough doesn't), but it's retaliatory strike both did health damage to the enemy as well as debuffed them, while Bark Worn Rough "Damage the spirit".

With the rest of the techniques not really looking out of bound for mid-late yellow arts, it's pretty clear to me that the archive is problematic at both roles we had hoped it could play:
  • Plug holes in our build by using specific keywords. After all, as pointed by @Black Noise, HDW was purposefully gotten in the hope of a pure perception art and SES as a resist art. They /seemed/ to be about it, too. They aren't.
  • Being able to replace core arts if we get them from higher levels (E.G, get a archive 3 dodge art to replace SCS). If what we are seeing is what we can expect from the archive, it's a gamble whether a archive 3 dodge darkness art will be better than SCS even in green 4.
EDIT: To elaborate a bit: This "badness" compared to core arts would be tolerable if these Archive Arts didn't also take up so much meridian space. As is, SES going from 2 spine to 4 spine feels like a net loss given the gains.
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Mmmh, good point- if they are supposed to be very weak, then there is an argument for only ever getting the first level when it has almost no meridians.
 
[X] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own
 
yrsillar said:
Industrious Labors of Fall: C
Duration: Short
The third piece, which speaks of the labors made in preparation for the long winter ahead, steadies the musicians audience and fills them with determination for the trials ahead. Bolsters the armor, health and Resist of listeners, with greater effects on targets of higher bond.
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This is great for us. Or at least it would be if the duration wasn't "short". As is it's situationally usefull (like when we fight with a dozen or more allies), but otherwise TRF is much better.

SES is kinda disappointing tbh. It's a good art, but for someone with a stronger focus on spiritual defense than us.

HDW is still pretty good for being domain bait, but I doubt it's going to see much use.

PrimalShadow said:
Our discerning fans can now intuit that not paying any attention is what makes Ling Qi cool.
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So we are the hip and cool teacher to the emo (snek maid), while living in the leaves country.

Mmmh. Time to find a youthfull rival for abs a rivalry spurning us ever farther.
 
Erebeal said:
[x] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own

Ok, if we were still in the old system I'd like "eerie" more, but in the narrative system I think that this will just come off as stronger. People were complaining about our blade feeling weak before, and continuing on those more subtle effects isn't going to help there I don't think. Something like this, where the blade can have clear discrete effects tied to our actions rather than some vague background thing would, I think, do a lot.

The second point is that there is some really nice synergy here. Remember that a) our sword is AoE, and b) Hoarfrost Refrain is now AoE at base.

I'm sure you can see where I'm going there :V

And then, of course, we have Dissonance as well. Being able to throw our sword into clumps of tough enemies to have it ramp up dissonance like that could also be pretty handy.
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It's like having the Quadra Magic, KOTR/Bahamut Zero, Mimic combo in FFVII (so much nostalgia for nuking shit like that) :3

......oh if we pick this now does that mean we could gain a stronger version of this effect next domain level? Because that would be awesome, Ling Qi would be a real one-woman-army with that ability in the future.
 
Now, for non-rant parts:
yrsillar said:
When she opened her eyes though, she beheld her tutors face, looking even more like a blank and lifeless mask than usual. The spirit stared at her with empty white eyes, and in that moment Ling Qi, who stood atop a mountain peak above the clouds ankle deep in snow, felt for the first time a chill.

"Acceptable," her mentor said, Zeqing did not even pretend that the words came from her lips, which remained as still and unmoving as a corpse. "You should be on your way then. These days have tired me."
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Zeqing totally had to resist the urge to eat us here (again), barely passed it seems.

I do wonder how fss1 insight would've gone, a less tainted acceptance of Endings, but I guess with these voting patterns it's something this thread would find out.
yrsillar said:
"I'm making Momma sick," Hanyi said quietly. "Everytime I get bigger, or learn a new song, Momma gets sicker. You're doing it too."

Ling Qi grimaced, looking away from the ice child. "I know… but she doesn't want to stop teaching us either."

"...I liked how things were. I could always play and Momma would always wait for me. It was like that forever, you know?" Hanyi said instead of replying, looking up at Ling Qi with sad eyes. "...I liked learning Mommas songs more though."
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As greedy as LQ that one, honest with herself too.

yrsillar said:
Hesitating for a moment, Ling Qi reached out and placed a hand on the little spirits head, ruffling her hair in way she had seen Zeqing do once or twice. "I'll see you soon Hanyi."
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Headpats are the first step to adoption.

yrsillar said:
Insights
-Sincerity is the measure by which the worthiness of the self and ones guests should be measured.
-There are endings and Endings, only the very last one is final. Just as winter ends in spring, small endings are new beginnings.
-Though a path might be hard and lonely, it has worth if you can present something of beauty to those you care for at the end.
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Nice to see AM's insight restated narratively to match FVM and FSS, though we seem to lack the 'core' insight about home here? (@yrsillar in error or intentional? Also shouldn't we have 4 open insight slots now and not 3?)

As for the effect:
Domain Effect: Allies in a scene with whom Ling Qi has at least four ranks of positive relation receive a one rank bonus to Spiritual Avoid, Armor and Combat Perception(Boosted Rank cannot exceed Ling Qi's), So long as at least one such ally is in the scene with Ling Qi she receives a half rank bonus to resisting or avoiding effects which would induce immobility or helplessness. In addition, when within a space Ling Qi considers to be 'hers' she receives a half rank bonus to Social Perception.
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That is a big buff to our closest allies, but the rest (besides the 'social perception at home') kinda seem wonky? It does seem to be going somewhere though, and at 900 xp we should get Domain E soon enough and find out.

As for the vote:
[X] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own

Technically "eerie cry" is better for us and might grow into a persistent source of Qi-steal down the line, but song echo is just so much better narrative.
 
How does this tech work @yrsillar? In the old system that would be "counter on miss", but that seems a rather weird fit for an art that isn't enhancing Avoid? It could mean "counter if damage falls to nothing", but from what you've said that requires a fairly large Armor/Pen gap, which we're unlikely to achieve...

yrsillar said:
Bark Worn Rough: C
Duration: Immediate
Damage: E
While Heaven Scarred Trunk is active, the user may activate this technique whenever targeted by a spiritual attack. Sharpening their own spirit into rough edges, the user damages the spirit of the enemy who targeted her if their own assault fails.
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My immediate thought on looking at the tech is that it would seem to fit a more "blade armor" kind of effect, where if they hit us they get hurt (with possibly the addenda that *sufficiently* powerful techs would just completely destroy it). Given that spiritual attacks against us are likely to be doing significantly more than E damage unless they're really weak, this would still seem balanced?

... though hmm, that's fair for FSS like attacks, but would be really good against FVM I guess. Though I'd also suggest that that's kinda the point? The tech isn't particularly useful as a counter to something like FSS because that just does so much more damage - you'd lose massively anyway. Something like Meizhen's Blackwater Riptide which is designed to actually counter serious damage arts I would assume would do more damage.

However, as a counter to weaker spiritual DoT effects like FVM it could work really well?
 
[x] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own
 
Looking at these arts I am quite happy with how they have turned out and how our domain is shaping up. SES is going to be great practice for ling qi in narrowing down an art to a single meridian.

As for SES arts the resist art getting no big buff is kind of sad but the ping damage is going to make it hard for people to be able to justify hitting us with spiritual attacks. This effect would stack very nicely with tranquil rebuke and cause some very interesting situations with spiritual counters. My current belief is that spiritual counters are rarer than physical counters simply because it seems more difficult to balance your own spirit defending and then attacking, then say an arm doing that. Rough Bark currently works very well with our domain given the rank ups in resist that can happen.

Lets move on to HDW, first for everyone who wanted more perception the final head meridian is last. Of course with two heart meridians between the two head meridians we wouldn't get a another perception art with those two meridians. It seems a little silly to have expected otherwise.

Anyway HDW works really well with our domain with all those stacking defenses. One of the greatest weakness of an attrition style build is when they have to protect VIPs. Where one simply can't get rid of the enemies fast enough to protect the VIP. Now though our VIPs are going to getting a bunch of useful defensive buffs which is pretty sweet.

All in all the new techs do jobs that are useful to us and help seal holes in our build while pairing up with our domain in interesting ways. They are not spotlight arts like FSS or FVM are and that shows. However, that is fine and they will hum in the background doing work that needs to be done and I am happy that we got them. Thanks for all the hard work put into making the arts fair and useful @yrsillar !
 
Ok, now that we've finished updating the stats: positive stuff!

I really like the way the domain is being described now. I love that the slots all have these nice philosophical descriptions, and that the domain effect is just put together as this overall thing at the top. The effects feel nice and robust and thematic. It might not be a super optimised build like Meizhen's min/max-Fear-why-don't-I-have-any-friends build, but I really like it anyway.

I also really like the way the changes to Zeqing and Hanyi and our relationships here are being built up. It's really cool.
 
It makes sense the Archive arts cost so many meridians though. Part of the issue with quality arts is that not only are they more effective and potent, they are also more efficient as well. So a lower quality art being both less effective and more expensive makes sense to me.
 
[X] It's cry grew ever more eerie
Adhoc vote count started by Rhydarson on Mar 1, 2019 at 4:32 PM, finished with 80 posts and 40 votes.
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[X] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own

I think narratively this is the way more sensible option, especially with how just having the SMB buffs her music already.

My main issue with the weak SES/HDW upgrades isn't that they were weak, it's that they cost a lot of extra meridians for little punch. I feel bad Yrs has to review them again though. If he wants to keep them weak like this he could maybe just remove the meridians required on level ups.
 
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[X] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own

Ling Qi: Apple Bottom Jeans
Sword: (jeans)
LQ: And the boots with the fur
S: (with the fur)
LQ: The whole club was looking at her
S: (at her)
LQ: She hit the floor
S: (she hit the floor)

Our sword can be the noise. I have to vote for that.

Sidenote: looks like our winter family story thread is coming to a head. Best be ready for that.
 
Given the mild displeasure regarding our new arts I'd like to point out that now that we have just a bit of breathing room would be a great time to look into custom making arts.

A lot of time, effort and salt is being put into hoping we can find arts that sort of kind of fit our build. That time, plus the resource superiority that is supposed to come from our Renxiang, should let us do things the rich way. Namely, buying exactly what we want, instead of slumming it in the archives ike a pleb.
 
[X] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own
Coherency is good civilization
 
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[X] Began to sing a more coherent song that echoed her own

This should enhance both Hoarfrost Refrain's effects and Call to Endings, allowing CtE to hit harder even if we can't quite manage to touch our target.

CtE also explains LWM. LWM enables CtE so very, very hard, mesmerizing people into Touch range - quite literally death by hugs.

As stated, it also applies to FVM - including the Big Finale. Boom.

Let the Wombo Combo grow, and flow through you.

On the other hand, the Arts are reasonably good. They aren't as good as FVM, SCS, or FSS, but that should be expected.

SCS was a gift straight from the Grinning Moon, and though it's provenance is otherwise unknown it was enough to make Meizhen sit up and take notice.

FVM is the early versions of someone's Magnum Opus, their Masterwork, an Art someone essentially dedicated their entire life to crafting, slowly honing it through their travels.

And FSS is literally one half of what makes a Yuki-onna a Yuuki-onna. It's an early variant of the blizzards they are surrounded with, and this particular version was supercharged, too.

Comparing our other Arts to these is... not absurd, but recognize that these Archive Arts are supposed to be at least one full step down in quality, if not two, and then measure again.

We hold ourselves up to a high standard because we have high standards to meet, but we need to keep in mind that most other Cultivators not only don't meet those standards, they can't ever hope to.
 
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