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

yrsillar · Nov 24, 2023

The Laurent said:
Actually, and I know this is a very weird place to take it, but the fact that Ling Qi's new Domain power lets her communicate even with baby spirit beasts... can she do the same with human babies?

Yeah she can it would basically translate the same way, just very basic needs being projected. Ling Qi will always know what a baby is crying for.

Snow · Nov 25, 2023

Katreus said:
Proposed Name

Xuanji
- Together, with these characters, 选本 (xuan3 ji2) = anthology
- Separately, alluding to 玄 (xuan2) meaning xuanwu (玄武) or Clan Xuan and 鸡 (ji1) meaning chicken so the Xuan Chicken

I suggest 奇跡 qiji, meaning miracle, strange event.

Sounds like
企 qi, from 企鵝 qi'e, penguin
鸡 ji, chicken
for penguin-chicken

But also sounds like 奇鸡 qiji, meaning strange chicken.

(She's totally a penguin tho

)

promethus · Nov 25, 2023

yrsillar said:
Yeah she can it would basically translate the same way, just very basic needs being projected. Ling Qi will always know what a baby is crying for.

God, I would give anything for a scene of CRX and LQ babysitting Tienli for a day.

Lena27 · Nov 25, 2023

yrsillar said:
Yeah she can it would basically translate the same way, just very basic needs being projected. Ling Qi will always know what a baby is crying for.

😳🫢 0_0 Mind blown.
Having just come home from babysitting my baby niece, I can tell you right now, that's the most OP ability for future mom Ling Qi ever. Do you know how many parents wish they had that? Do you??
I know she won't always be around for her kids because she'll be busy but...it'll be so much more expedient than when anyone else is taking care of her.
It's not always good to give babies what they want immediately without fail because thats how you get spoiled kids who thinks the world revolves around them (especially if they're an only child)...but i mean that would only happen when Ling Qi is there so, NBD...

SeptimusMagisto · Nov 25, 2023

The Dress has some of Qi's skin in her now, and I bet Qi has some of the Dress inside her somewhere.

This is good.

Yun · Nov 25, 2023

Actually on the topic of rewards given by Shenhua for deeds done if she feels Ling Qi has gone above, and beyond her expectations to be singled out for additional rewards... one possibility would be for her to do a sponsorship for the Ling similar to what she did for the Wang/Jia. Since a public declaration of support for the Ling by Shenhua would change the dynamics of LQ/YN finding individuals to adopt into the family as it removes any immediate issue of resource limitations sufficient that it would be viewed as a opportunity by most unattached cultivators, and the upcoming war arc is a opportunity to see for talented cultivators to shine, which is an opportunity for the Ling to grow through adopting those among them can endure the indirect scrutiny of the Duchess.

This would in part be preparation for the inevitability that not all Ling are going to be musicians, and any resolution to the conflict with the Cloud Nomads is going to be centuries down the line meaning loses are an unfortunate fact of life be they from battle, or simply the scrutiny of the Duchess making founding members of the Ling more inclined to undertake tribulations much less breakthrough attempts to Cyan.

Pempelune · Nov 25, 2023

We should thank the reactionary Meng for timing their fit just right! Were it not for Still Waters Deeping we'd have found it much harder to enter the final phase with positive MoI and given that they're likely to strenuously oppose the Embassy Town, that would have put a real damper on the whole thing.

FallenPears · Nov 25, 2023

Baby-speak would also be a great Isekai checker. When are we next meeting Tienli again?

BurnNote · Nov 25, 2023

I think Xuan Shi's nightmare is also important. Because I think it's reaching the point where it has to confront its dream self, like Sixiang and her nightmare. And this moment of "everything turned out alright, actually" would be an important trigger on that. I wonder what Shi's part in it will be? Maybe his desire to be a hero, to be at the heart of the story, vs his inclincation to stay at the sidelines? Encouraging that sort of thing would totally be something his muse would do, so it seems to fit. And it's also relevant to the latest dust-up.

Anyway, void chicken is great. Everybody should have a void chicken.

ActionKermit · Nov 25, 2023

SeptimusMagisto said:
The Dress has some of Qi's skin in her now, and I bet Qi has some of the Dress inside her somewhere.

This is good.

I'm gonna laugh if LQ's crazy adventures directly lead to her undergoing the same process that Shenhua does to her own retainers as a logical consequence

Faceless · Nov 25, 2023

weeblypanda said:
Isn't Hun Dun in that one Wuxia Marvel Movie 9 Rings?

I don't know but think hun dun represents insanity

Doramas · Nov 25, 2023

Elsecaller said:
Yeah we explicitly took the best possible option for that one. I think that vote and the votes to inform and later warn the white sky were the most important ones. That last one warning the white sky was very close too.

Also all the votes threading the needle with the MoI were important and somehow we managed to not piss off the white plumes whatsoever

Right, it only looks like we barely made it with the MoI because we started so low with them: MoI at -1 and Cao Chun at -2.
The MoI was the only group against the Summit from the very beginning!

And yet we managed to get them "on board", with deals that also benefits us as gaining legitimacy with the presence of central judges at the embassy.

The only reason we took the last favor hit with the MoI was because it was pitted against a better chance to establish the Embassy Town.
Which was our primary goal for the Summit beyond a simple ceasefire.

I honestly can't think of any way we could have gotten a better MoI favor that didn't involve giving up core objectives or just luckier rolls.

Karthak Urzak · Nov 25, 2023

Some interesting answers from the Q&A:

Who the three Jewel Emperors were:

Yrsillar said:
These guys are somewhat obscure to the main story, but looking back over some notes... The First Jewel Emperor was the Sage Qin's heir, the one who managed to hold his deceased fathers empire together and prevent the outbreak of civil war between his many, many siblings half and otherwise. He also sponsored the man who would invent and ascend to establish jade tablets as a baseline tech.
Jewel Emperor Two was a couple generations down and was the man who set down the foundations for what would become the Imperial Ministries and convinced the provinces to accept them into their modes of governance. No mean feat that!
The third Jewel Emperor is a little more contentious, second dynasty. The first of the second dynasty. He's the one who ultimately put Imperial governance back together again after the strife of the twin emperors.

Why the Dragon Gods might have cut down a heavenly pillar:

Yrsillar said:
The Persian inspired civ has a legend of a mighty Goddess who wished to cut down the heavenly pillar to make herself a throne.
That said, lost info, buried in cultural myth and stuff, not going to give an objectively correct answer for this.

Prominent spirit-blooded clans that haven't been plot relevant yet:

Yrsillar said:
Hm, most of the clans I've created have ended up in one story or another, see the guys riding the flying stone discs over in Journey, but I did have the idea the Zheng having some pig/boar based fellows as a count, in a further riff on Wukongs buddies. I have a vague idea of one of the Jin's remaining vassals being based on cranes. In the peaks, I have an idea about a descendant clan of the guy who invented Jade slips who are shiny and stone-like. For the Bai, I think I have down that one of their remaining count clans is centipede based, and was one of the first tribes conquered by Yao when he went back to his home turf in the northern marshlands, and took over the peoples who the Face eater had tributing children to her.
The Xuan I'm afraid I haven't designed any vassals for.

Life for common soldiers:

Yrsillar said:
The money is very good, if you can make it in, then you are instantly in a financial situation comparable to the upper middle class of mortals, if the money is spent well and you're willing to go low of cultivation mats. The downside is that a common soldiers life is very dangerous and you are at least moderately likely to die a good bit before you reach the end of a cultivators span.
Getting in, probably a minimum tenure of ten years, after which you'll have the option to retire or take up an admin/teaching role
but the pay for this is commensuretly less, and if you haven't built up your income stream is certainly going to be the end of further cultivation.
Family benefits: it depends on location, and the laws of the liege lords. So on paper pretty generous but as Gan Guangli's background shows this can get.... lost further from the center.

High Realm fertility:

Yrsillar said:
Oh boy, here we go on the big questions. At higher realms it often comes down to compatibility between partners, more so the higher you go. Its one reason why families aren't willing to push marriages between high talents too hard. Basically if you get along poorly enough with your spouse being able to make baby is just not a thing do the.... Spiritual interaction in the process.
Some ways are just flatly worse at making life though. Ways focused around killing and death especially, if you can't wrangle some kind of'creative' impulse out of your way a child will be difficult no matter what. Combined with the lack of interest such a person usually has its a pretty large obstacle.
As for that last question... probably a bit! Xuan Wu like to take things slow. At least the northern branch does.

If a Count or Marquis clan gets a White cultivator and doesn't seek to overthrow their Duke:

Yrsillar said:
It would be difficult and tense, the ruling power would certainly expect an overthrow even if it wasn't obvious. and the nature of a weight realm is such that theres certainly going to be something they want to change. There isn't really any legal precedent here, it would all be down to politics

Ducal palaces in other provinces:

Yrsillar said:
Hm, well it was mentioned in a Sect Promotional but the Xuan's Great Sect/ University, is a vast cushion topped structure that the Living Isles Serpent Head rests on while sleeping.
Flower Fruit mountain and SHuilian City as a whole probably count, but its all very decentralized and there's no specific super important spot.
Jing sailed off with their fancy stuff, but the Palace of Currents and the Mirror Throne in the sands is fun.

Other than Sun and Moon which Great Spirits meddle the most in the Empire:

Yrsillar said:
Mm, its hard to say other GS don't tend to interfere as much but right now... An's GS obv. probably the Celestial Dragon. Bronze Coils, and Angles Everlasting?
Sure, but who can tell what hes doing (Karthak note: the Reveler)
and yes, Dragon grandma is poking around the corners in her dreams

If the Reveler woke up:

Yrsillar said:
Massive earthquake, people being driven into frenzied inhibition stripped madness, you know nothin big.

If an item spirit could ascend past White:

Yrsillar said:
As of right now, no Object spirits top out at the peak of white, though the very oldest like the Imperial Throne/palace have been observed to press the limit in their areas of focus.

Huisheng or the Pure One vs. the Twilight King:

Yrsillar said:
He'd certainly have something to say about it, but I can't answer too much without main story spoilers.
The Pure One would get... interesting. Because he would get subsumed, but the Twilight King might very well break from assimilating him, at least in the form he currently existed in.
However, it wouldn;t be a sure thing, he might very well manage to reconcile the Pure ones Transcendance with his own conception of perfect one-ness.

Life in Shenhua's court:

Yrsillar said:
Shenhua doesn't spend every minute in her court, and often she will just position a lesser Simulcrae on the throne, one with less pressure and harsh enforcement of her laws. This allows for some degree of normal court stuff, but ES' nobility is by imperial standards notably bold and direct in how it interacts compared to the courts in other provinces.

Do barbarians count as human under the law:

Yrsillar said:
It is a contentious point in law and for quite awhile there was a lot of grey area that bad actors could move around in. Under post Twilight Laws, this was cracked down on and legally speaking the Cloud Tribes, Sea Folk, and even the Red Garden's inhabitants were recognized as illegal reagent sources.
So there's some weasel wording but they're considered human enough that using them for mats gets you slapped.

What a lovely view of foreigners the Empire has.

If it came out that Shenhua isn't planning on ascending any time soon:

Yrsillar said:
It would stall out a lot of court thinkers and plans for the future. And probably induce a fair bit of the table chaos as people reorganize their plans and time tables. Of course then they might start plotting for things that might actually happen, and Diao Linqin would rather they not.
Yeah its a fine line. If someone just asked her to her face, she would answer. If they implied a question she wouldn't deceive them
its about the intent
Shenhua has never made any bones about her intent to stay where she is and rule
people just choose, often in willful self delusion, to believe it.
they think she's wrong, or that some quirk of cultivation means that sascending will still be ruling or yadda yadda yadda
Note this is most prevalent out where Shenhua is not directly present.

Which roll surprised him most:

Yrsillar said:
Sun Liling not getting to ruin your dress lol

Who can raise a clan to the nobility:

Yrsillar said:
The rite to outright create new titles of nobility is limited to the Imperial throne and the provincial dukes. In practice counts and viscounts can inaugurate new barons with permission which they will usually receive if they ask.

If the Ministry of Integrity hadn't picked up Ji Rong:

Yrsillar said:
Well there are good odds he would have just died. It should be noted that not every disaster the MoI detect will happen, many will simply flame out and die as more more troubles or bandits or simply never meet the conditions for awakening... However If he lived and got swole... he Probably would have attracted some powerful spirit in the mines, a manifestation of the wrath and resentment that builds due to the conditions. Probably would have ended up at the head of a prisoner revolt and ended up some kind of bandit king.

Ministry of Integrity in the Ebon Rivers:

Yrsillar said:
They have limited penetration into the Ebon Rivers, the Zheng are strong enough to outright stall and stonewall imperial decress and this is one of the rare cases where they exercise it. The Ministry only has authority over taxes and spirit stone mines there... hence Ji Rong getting nabbed.

Punishment for saying stuff like that the Sage Emperor was a horrible rapist who got what he deserved:

Yrsillar said:
You would likely receive fairly severe censure fines mostly confiscation of property maybe, if its just like random shit talking. If you do it during one of the festival days associated with the Celestial dragon you probably get hammered under the laws which prohibit the disruption and tainting of imperial ceremonies.

Wiggy · Nov 25, 2023

People building a massive pillow building for the island's Snek head to sleep on is an adorable image.

Karthak Urzak · Nov 25, 2023

I just wanted to post a little more Q&A stuff but it got out of hand.

If other Sublimes have died:

Several Khemite Gods have died. The Isles of pyrrhos have seen some turnover and on sublime beast who turned them into an archipeligo while being 'killed' Any more than that you'd have to go back to dragon time
Probably at least on death in Banabar as well, maybe a couple regions not detailed enough yet

Other Ling clans in the Emerald Seas:

Ah my bad. Yes There are probably three Ling clans of note I'm thinking, ncluding you. One in the north and one in the east. As the character is not a flattering one I think they'd both have somewhat troubled and sordid histories themselves. Say the one in the east backed the Chu over their immediate liege lords when all that went down, and the one in the north is a celestial peaks exile clan

What happened to ASA creator's clan:

They never made it to safety, they were one of the many clans destroyed by Ogodei, their last member joined the Argent Peak Sect and contributed to its library having been a minor part of Yuan He's group

Someone in the Ling clan should cultivate it in their memory.

If any Bai realize Sun Shao wouldn't have rebelled if he hadn't been fucked over:

A few probably exist, keeping their voices down in Suzhen's faction

Suzhen's reforms on the scaleless:

It does, though its still very hm condescending. Their safety and prosperity is prioritized but their agency is probably not
Yes, strict Noblesse oblige isn't good, but its still a step up from bronze age ultra tyrants

Why Sovereigns can't be one-shotted:

The spiritual robustness that comes with having a nearly fully developed way, just as no well constructed arguement can be refuted with a single statement, no sovereign cultivator can be broken apart in one blow.
Plus at that point you are fully and completely free of biological restraints and you are basically an energy being that happens to still wear a body suit.

Why the ASA creator didn't break through to the fifth realm:

Yes, his insight was essentially vampiric, in nature, at third and fourth realm this could be focused down on enemies alone, but going up to indigo he felt he would become something far too harsh and hungry. A young lone man's insight clashing with the father and ruler he became

Cultivation styles of other countries:

The People of Khem emulate their gods in their cultivation. drawing on their legend and power through the blood consumed and passed down to perform relevant feats, indivuals develop their own variations and these all then ultimately return to the god upon their death. Their method is about ritual, iteration and perfection attained thorugh countless generations... but they're limited in their available fields.
The Celts perform a cultivation which focuses on a skill or profession, to advance in their method is to become completely peerless in a specific field of human endeavor, whether its masonry, spearmanship, wrestling, ruling, what have you.

Great Spirit attention:

Its difficult to say they're aware of laerge scale events to an extent, major shifts in the world, but the full great spirits are only concious agents in a certain limited sense, and probably do not have what we think of as 'free will'. They will put power and influence toward enforcing their Law but this is carried out through smaller and more local nodes and avatars.
This is the reason active interference from post-white entites is generally bad because they don't have the ability to really perceive probalems on a smaller scale than the continental at best.

How the Xi fell:

It was a slow motion collapse over time, as they weakened in time with the imperial dynasty and in the latter half of that time the one who would become the parent of the one who would be the Hui Matriarch took the Hui's long term project to hollow them from the inside and take over, was put into high gear and culminated

Inexorable Justice's Law:

They believe that his law creates karmic punishment for the breaking of contracts and behaviors considered 'vice' his spirits are the manifestations of that taking it a step further and actively punishing their bound agents for violations of their oath of service.

Xuan vs. Sea Folk Sublime Ancestor Thunderdome:

It was a full on war, mainly over the establishment of the Savage Seas region and the Xuan shoals, with both groups attempting to shove each other out of the living space. They fought seriously, but despite propoganda, not to the death, the sea peoples ancestor retreated when it became clear the Isle could not be forced out.

This is why in-universe Imperial writings shouldn't be trusted 100% They claim the Sea Folk Ancestor died.

White Sky noticing Ling Qi basically wears full armour all the time:

They've noticed, but chalk it up to unstable weirdo northerns. Why wouldn't she wear armor all the time if she has to be the diplomat between all these squabbling gods?

Commander Zhou's Way:

He also had gravity style arts. His Way was the way of a fortress, literally so. When active he would basically receive all blows and attacks targeted at the ones under his protection without fail. I did not have a solid name for it. But his words were probably something like Loyalty, Diamond, Strength. He was not always meant to die but when I decided on the war arc he was the sensible one to go

How the Cloud whacked Commader Zhou:

He was fighting the Sovereign Khan while his men retreated, holding back and keeping the tribesman locked in place, he was ambushed by the Shishigui sovereign in the middle of that fight and suffered a debilitating wound. Shishigui's outright suicidal fighting syle took him off guard and let me be wounded again after, and for the Khan to finish him off before Yuan He could arrive.

If there's a Count Diao, since Shenhua's wifey is the Matriarch:

There is a count of the Diao clan. He is a rather overshadowed man as you might guess. Violet I don't want to go into him too much since he may appear in the story.

Object spirit-blooded:

You can produce children with some object spirits, though it is rare as most object spirits don't develop those urges, Cui's quite a rare lineage. The Bao's ancestor was a more abstract spirit of 'Riches in the earth' so you probably want to think of something like a really shiny earth elemental Mommy.
Children of such a lineage would probably have an affinity for whatever their object parent was (Sword kid would sword good. House Kid would probably be like real sturdy and sedentary) Physical traits would probably come down to having material bits similar to their object parent like metallic skin or stone bones or what have you

The death of a Sovereign on the Liminal:

Yes the death of Sovereigns disturbs the dream too, though the length of the lingering effect is much more tied to how people react to and think about it... and some other metaphysical elements. It can definitely effect those connected to the Sovereign especially if they had a fairly externalized domain bound up in other people.

Grandma Serpent and the Reveler being seen as the Celestial Dragon's subordinates:

Its how things are seen by orthodox theology. Of course things are not so neat as that. Just like the Bai and the dukes are not lightly commanded around by the throne, the dragon does not lightly trample on her greatest subordinates pride. But they are subordinate in their way. The Empire Still exists after all, and things in the spirit tend to reflect things in the material

On the possibility of there being Zheng off-shoots thanks to people like the King of Explorers and how the Zheng would react:

That is certainly a possibility. Traveling Zheng have certainly left some flyaway seeds over the ages, but it would be rarer for those to be successful enough to generate a whole tribe of spirit bloods. Might be some interesting bloodlines kicking around in the more remote parts of Pyrrhos, Banabar and Khusan though!
As for how they'd react is would vary a bit, but in general, probably excited and eager to have to a tussle

And how the Bai would react to the news:

Horrified even

Why Yuan He hasn't broken through to White:

He hit the wall of attatchment, his way bound him to too many things and people and feelings, he couldn't give up the more personal aspects and fully become The Storm.
His central way is that of a military commander and martial hero taken to its utmost conclusion he would not keep his attatchments to actual people, yes

Conflict between Great Spirits:

They can squabble along the edges, though the sun and moon specifically are aligned in a particular way that doesn;t allow them to get too violent with each other most times, the followers and subdivisions of other great spirits can definitely get into religious conflicts which is how something like that would come out. They don't 'fight' in a way perceptible to people in the material world their domains and followers just come into conflict.
Yes, you don't really see much of that on the observable level. Like two great spirits in conflict would mostly look like say weather systems clashing and destablizing the local climate, or places where the laws of physicacs get wobbly and unreliable. You could see the cultivator followers and their bound or partnered spirits clashing in lgeions in some places though!
Yes, similarly in Pyrhhos where the divine are a bit more active

On if the Hui were always bad:

There were some off elements even at the beginning, but no they weren't immediately the awful solipistic nightmare they would become by the end.

Lingqin's Way and why White is not on the menu:

It is. She has a bit of shenhua brand jury rigging to allow her to be as she is, but it doesn;t change her entire cultivation base. Going to White would take her to the terminus of the path she was made for.
She was meant to become hm... an artificial Boddhisattva basically, both as the ultimate art piece and also as a way to bring his 'garden' into total alignment with his will by showing the 'flowers' how they could reach his twisted flavor of nirvana in utter passivity.
Linqin suffered because she was designed to suffer, but she would never have actually defied or left that path without Shenhua doing... shenhua things

Why Sovereign Qilin are pulling Shenhua's carriage:

They are in fact in the tank for Shenhua, she is very just indeed in their eyes. Pulling the carriage is basically acting as her heralds, so its not demeaning.

Chaperones:

Culturally dependant but in general chaperones are expected and encouraged by imperial courting customs up until the point where the contracts are drafted at least. The enforcement of this varies. For example a 'date' in a public place doesn;t necessarily require an active chaperone, but the couple going off to somewhere private would

The Sun's reaction to his daughter dying:

There were worldwide heatwaves for awhile, and astronomers observed s great many solar flares and eruptions during the period.
Of course in the moments right before the catacylsm there was also the first total solar eclipse in recorded history, so who knows what reactions were to what.

How long the Golden Fields disaster took:

Hm, I'd say in my mental timeline there was probably another fifty or so years of low level activity at the fringes, ramping up increasingly through that time then another ten or twenty years of the Lu's government apparattus taking more and more measure, with the imperial muster coming up another decade after that when the Lu finally stopped trying to keep their internal issues on the down low. Once the muster was called it was only a scant few years before everything blew up

Sun Liling's parents:

Sun Ce, her father died overseeing the Sun's first attempt at building a port city, he was commanding the project, and was killed battling the jungle Kaiju who vigorously objected to that. Her Mom is from a peaks clan... probably the Cao or the Sima, a count at least, I haven't clearly decided.
Its a bit cold but not particularly uncommon for cross provincial marriages, if the marriage contract doesn't stipulate any responsibilities beyond the death of one partner, and they usually don't. Once her husband was dead she didn't actually have any legal obligations or connections to the product of the contract, which belonged wholly to the Sun clan.

How strong the average Great Sect is, since the Argent is ridiculously stronger than baseline:

Generally Sect Head violet, one or two other violets, and then a chunk of indigos below them as most of the elders.
Argent Peak is super topheavy but as has been seen that's correcting with time.

Gu successions since most of the Head's kids don't seem interested in pushing beyond Green:

The long lifetimes do reduce the pressure or at least stretch it out to timescales that we would view as very long. So there has been some tensions and jostling among the main families of the Gu but not above the normal politicking levels. There's a fair amount of talk about Yanmei marrying internally for example to really firm up support. GuDad only rose to the headship about a century ago, and his father, the patriarch has another good century left in him give or take a couple decades.

How the heir to the Throne is picked:

Yes, not gonna get into the details of exact names here to leave myself room to come up with characters and relationships later. Generally the sitting emperor chooses among their children or if none are suitable their siblings children. They are advised in this by the clans Elders. How much is advise varies depending on imperial power and in the past it also tended to involve the favor of the dukes too, to varying degrees, An and Xiang both rose with the Bai in shambles tho so things are a bit tense there.

If peach-faced lovebird spirit beasts exist. (I asked for totally unbiased reasons).

Haha maybe somebody in the foothills of the ebon rivers region or the luo lands, or on the verdant edge of Golden Fields. Could be good little fellows for a clan who holds a border fief.

Bai caste size:

The White Bai are about standard ducal clan size, the other castes are bigger or smaller, the Black are similarly sized for obvious reasons, the violets and the cyans are relativeively small being about the size you'd expect of a count clan that old, but the rest of the castes combine to well... most of the cultivation population of the province especially now that Sun Shao took the scaleless lords away almost entirely.
So I'd say that they're probably a few times bigger than the everage count clan at least.

House spirits:

Hm, If I had to nail down an estimate, probably two or three hundred years of continual habitation of related subjects before you start seeing an awakening of the house. House Spirits tend to reflect the overall vibe of the family that lives in them, but tend toward a caregivers personality within those bounds, they aren;t usually martial in character unless its like a border castle or something. They tend toward nurturing and care roles.
There has almost certainly been some hermit crafters who have inadvertantly literally ended up in a relationship with their workshops though.
A Weilu style house built something antural like a tree would probably not develop its own spirit but rather the alterations would gradually become part of the tree or nature spirit involved in the base construction, which kind of just approaches the same result from the opposite direction since said spirit would become more and more 'human-like'

Is the Horned Lord in fact horned, or does he have antlers:

Yeah its just a bit of nomenclature oddness. Real answer I wasn;t thinking of the proper differences when I named them, in story answer assume that it was a bit of early translation confusion that stuck around in modern parlance.

How much of a reason the Bai whacking An's consort played in him suppressing the Bai:

It certainly contributed, but An also understood that actually creating a proper country out of the Empire would require breaking the power of the old dukes. Sun Shao was a gamble on his part, partially bet on the idea that Sun Shao would not actually be able to maintain ridiculous gathering of force he had at the time. Like it would have taken a full imperial muster to root out and 'arrest' Sun Shao as the Bai wanted.
There were a lot of factors to how things shook out and An's grudge against them was only one of them.

Architectural styles:

The Zheng like to incorporate mineral springs into just about everything. The Jin particularly like tropical garden groves to the extent that their larger ships will often have something like whole parks embedded in them. The Guo love their sand and steam baths, but generally prefer compact construction
For Counts... Luo prefer highly open construction with big windows and wide doors, and spaces big enough for their doggo buddies to be comfortable in The Bao like high cielings and jeweled columns and gemstone glass (edited)
the Diao like to use living wood construction adapted to modern imperial archiotectural spires but tend to work living flowers into everything

Kids reaction to ash zombies:

Zhengui would want to kill it super dead on instinct. hanyi would probably be grossed out, like a normal person would upon seeing a rotten corpse bloated up so bad it was splitting open.

Sage Emperor cultivation:

He cultivated the Imperial Eight... codified them actually but he was primarily a Heaven cultivator with a secondary focus on the other Yang leaning elements.
His first wife was the opposite, and they had a bit of a dual cultivation thing going on.

Clans with an ancestor from a species that's typically "weak":

Hah, not sure Ling Qi could have handled that back then. I'd say yes. There is certainly a few examples of count clans scattered around the Empire who have risen based around a spirit beast type that's normally 'weak'. At the very least I feel there should be a moon bunny clan somewhere.
Hm, maybe fit in the idea of their being a wild pig/boar based count clan in ebon rivers for thematic resonance?
Ah, there's a good one, seagull based clan in ALabaster Sands. They make very good scouts and rangers
No french fry shall remain unstolen

If Shenhua's rebellion had failed:

The Imperial Seat steps in, An and Jiao resume their plans which they put on pause. With the Bao contingent who were backing proto nationilsm discreded the north cedes itself to the throne, and An and Jiao come in with an imperial decreee stripping the Hui of authority while the Bai are still broken and the utter nightmare of what they did to win on full display disgusting the Zheng.
The Meng Join Sun Shao, the Luo probably break off for the Golden Fields and get a sweet deal on it, given the relative fertility of their lands, the central valley ends up a rump emerald seas under a puppet duke and the south probably gets turned into a full on military march under the sects

On becoming a corpse immortal:

You need to be at least third realm and have gained at least one advanced insight. They tend to degrade at varying rates but no corpse immortal has been recorded as lastling longer than their original lifespan over again so a third realm is three hundred years max etc. There are all sorts of rites to shore up your mind and make sure you don;t become one by accident if there are ways to do it deliberately they are mondo mega banned
The disadavantages beside increasing magic senility is that you become if anything even more disconnected from reality and monomoniacally focused on your Way and final goals.
Ah no it doesn't happen at all if your killed
it only happens when you cling on past the point where you would naturally die
No there has been no recorded instances of a corpse immortal actually advancing its cultivation

On if the Jin have lost any treasure fleets and if any of their targets are looking for payback:

They've been damaged and lost ships even quite large ships before but thus far they have not lost a fleet or a flagship
As far as planned retaliations that falls in the spoiler realms

What An's Bai consort was like:

Hehe, she was a rather staid and reserved soul for a Bai, I wouldn;t call her kind but she was known for being remarkably even tempered, with a particular penchant for dry wit.

Nobility promotion:

Han Jian basically gave Ling Qi the 'simple answers for children' verion of things, which is not a lie, but does not include the many nuances to the situation either. A single cultivator of those realms qualifies you for those titles but you have to convince someone above you to give them too you. Generally before your given authority over such a large area and so many people you have to prove that you can stably maintain those levels of power and actually handle the infrastructure of it.
and yes theres the court clan option if you don't quite have the numbers as well

City spirits:

Yes, cities and other settlements do develop something like their own spirits with time. Like greater spirits such as mountains they are often very difficult to communicate with. In many ways a city spirit is the amalgamation of all the smaller place spirits within it and thus is can take a very, very long time for a clear overarching identity to come to the fore. I'd say some of the oldest continuously settled cities in the empire have clear and present city spirits, with most of the rest falling into the sort not quite 'awake' vibes sort of overarching spirit

How long the chaos in the outer sect lasted and how the sect's rep was impacted:

About five years including lq's year It was just starting to cause some rumbles and rumors

Why Diao Luwen was picked to be Renxiang's father:

Legal ties to the Diao and a manageable temperament mostly. He is also an excellent architect and city planner so giving him some extra authority helped make his work go smoother. It was a beneficial arrangement all around.

Leadership of the non-White Bai castes:

They operate on the Matriarch-Head-Heir system though they have some latitude in determining that. The lower castes have to have their head choices validated and agreed too by the White Serpent head. The same with their heirs. The heads of each caste have to spend at least three months of every year in Zhengjian reporting to the white serpent head.
The elders must visit Zhengjian for a full month every decade for inspection. A lower caste is never allowed to give orders to a white Serpent, though a white serpent of lower cultivation also cannot give orders to a higher cultivation low caste unless acting with authority of their own elders. Its considered embarassing and childish for a young white serpent to try.

The Red Jungle before the Sage:

The jungle was definitely very deathwordy from the beginning but it didn;t reach its full modern state until after the war with Qin

On if Guo are as spirit-blooded as the Zheng, Xuan and Bai:

They do. Guo do manifest beast traits pretty regularly

How often Emperors ascend:

Emperors have a slightly lower rate of ascension because by nature they tend to be more focused on temporal affairs but more like a third instead of a half rather than any great reduction.
most ascend simply reinforcing other great spirits of imperial rule

Why the Sage was the way he was which ended up with him dying by way of dickrot:

Yeah like Qin was absolutely a voracious monster who demanded tribute and submission and all but that piece is definitely pretty hysterical in tone you know? He was bad but not like unthinking lustbeast bad. The Bai and the Zheng women took him on willingly after all.
but generally speaking culturally having many children and wives was a sign of power among the peaks tribes and even more so among the remaining dragons and thats the cultural context for his understanding of what power meant.
the Priestess ultimately earned so much focus and ire not merely because she refused him, but that she succeeded in resisting his armies and power for so long insulting and rebuking him all the way.

If an ascension could create more celestial bodies:

That is in theory possible, but would probably be the result of multiple ascenions together. There are after all two fairly mysterious bodies out orbitting beyond the sun, so there are other things in the destiny cycle system.

Long-term Liminal exposure:

A red realm or a mortal would lose their minds long time, even shielded by a higher cultivator, they'd be bleeding identity slow and sure, and suffer increasing mental deviations and probably lose track of who they even are.
This is what kills most cultivation applicants in Khem for example
but a third realm in a curated space might be able to last indefinitely, though it'd probably start to warp their perceptions and way eventually since they're still functionally living in a realm of thought and metaphor. It'd be a bit like spending long periods in space, if you;re healthy you can manage but its gonna fuck you up internally even with best practices.

Yuan He if Diao Linqin said she'd become the next Sect head:

He'd be pretty horrified since it would mean his sect is officially a tool of the Duchess and no longer even a semi independant existence.

Not!Greece cultivation:

So my thoughts on the hellenic cultivation is that its based on deeds and legends. You start out gaining power through imitating the feats of gods and heroes and gaining powers through succeeded at that, and as you grow stronger you start gaining your own legends, the acclaim lets you carve your own feats and powers into the world and grow greater still.
a 'demigod' is one who is only a few steps from becoming a new god epithet. Someone who is so legendary that they are spoken of in the same breath as their parent god.
there's no actual bloodline going on for the most part. Its just if you've risen to such feats you were clearly the child of X all along.

Freedom of movement in the Empire:

It is somewhat regional nobles can move pretty freely between peaks and sands, but generally individualized permissions is the name of the day for interprovincial movement
common cultivators can move with relative freedom in the emerald seas but there are permissions and licenses in the peaks and sands you need, thousand lakes is full regional lockdowns with you not being allowed to leave your birth settlement without dispensation. Golden fields doesn;t have much beurocracy but travel is pretty hard
mortals basically only have freedom of movement as attatchments to cultivators

Xuan architecture:

Generally yes, those Xuan Wu who take up being an island will build up sediment on their back to form ecosystems their humans partners will generally assist in the island sculpting makeovers. Only on relatively young island turntles do you walk directly on the shell anywhere but the edges where things slope into the sea, or on the 'mountains' when the indivual has a spikier shell.
Evern on smaller torts being 'ships' there is still construction on their backs, walkways and decks and such

Demons and devils:

Demon or daemon are general catch all terms for malicious spirits and banned cultivation methods not a specific class of being. Other cultures will use the term differently especially if they have a more dualistic worldview like the not-persian folks.
Devil is probably in universe a translation for a word referring to an individual as cruel powerful and ruthless., with a vibe of an interrogator or interlocuter.

Zheng White life:

You'd be surprised how calming the final break through can be, but generally they follow the revellers example spending a great deal of time in his realm, wrestling with concepts figuratively and literally, 'debating' each other and projecting lesser avatars out to do normal Zheng stuff.

Shu Yue lifespan:

They, that is Shu Yue is certainly limited to a cultivator lifespan, they might theoretically leave something behind when their face wears out though. Definitely in the gray no ones is a hundred percent sure zone.

Renxiang's security in the Sect:

Liming and the Sect's Elders were considered enough, though obviously potential enemies couldn't knowthat

White Sky cultivator lifespans:

Those who make it all the way to ascension equivalent do not. Those who are lower have roughly similar lifespans, BUT other polar cultivators can ascend into their mantle to keep a city or locale going.
The mantle taker takes their place, though by the nature of things they are going to have a lot of similarities to the previous holder
its not full subsumption like the Khem cultivators tho

barty · Nov 25, 2023

Renxiang's security in the Sect:

Liming and the Sect's Elders were considered enough, though obviously potential enemies couldn't knowthat

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Technically, Lin Hai was also around most of the time, and he might be the single most devoted person to CRX's safety, even if it was probably not part of his mission, officially speaking.

The Laurent · Nov 25, 2023

So, at a guess, it seems like the way to keep your attachments as you ascend up towards White is to have a Way that involves keeping your attachments.

Which in one sense is an obvious statement, and in one sense nothing of the sort.

LucidProp · Nov 25, 2023

The Celts perform a cultivation which focuses on a skill or profession, to advance in their method is to become completely peerless in a specific field of human endeavor, whether its masonry, spearmanship, wrestling, ruling, what have you.

Information that Celt cultivation is all about being the very best at one thing gave me this mental image of a Celt Swordmaster partnering up with a Sword Cultivator.

One's really good at using swords, and the other is literally a sword.

Maximum cutting power couple.

That said, how does Celt ascension work exactly? If it's all about being the best in a specific area, does that mean the Celt Swordmaster now has to kill and replace the Celt Ascended Spirit of Being Really Good At Swords to complete the ascension?

SITB · Nov 25, 2023

LucidProp said:
Information that Celt cultivation is all about being the very best at one thing gave me this mental image of a Celt Swordmaster partnering up with a Sword Cultivator.

One's really good at using swords, and the other is literally a sword.

Maximum cutting power couple.

That said, how does Celt ascension work exactly? If it's all about being the best in a specific area, does that mean the Celt Swordmaster now has to kill and replace the Celt Ascended Spirit of Being Really Good At Swords to complete the ascension?

Maybe they just have to innovate and become greater than those that came before them?

LucidProp · Nov 25, 2023

SITB said:
Maybe they just have to innovate and become greater than those that came before them?

To prove that your innovation is better than what came before, it's going to need to be measured against what already exists.

Even for non-combat professions, that could be pretty deadly in a "no one uses typewriters anymore because we now have computers and smartphones" kind of way.

Snow · Nov 25, 2023

Karthak Urzak said:
What happened to ASA creator's clan:
Someone in the Ling clan should cultivate it in their memory.

Aww, I guess that confirms that the Gong barony in Journey to the East isn't them then.

Karthak Urzak · Nov 25, 2023

I am addicted.

How the fuck a Zheng became Imperial Minister of Law:

He retired, but yes he was in on Jiao and An's fellowship. Definitely black sheep material for the Zheng though he probably influenced some of the thoughts those rowdy youngsters nowadays are having.

If spirits and spirit beasts also become more "narrow" when they break through to White:

Generally a spirit beast is already fairly narrow in mindset, there is level of purification and leaving behind of non essential things even for them though.

Are there dinosaurs:

There may be some dinosaur like reptiles here and there but there was never a particular era for them, unless as noted above, you count the dragons

How Jia Hong was Huisheng's student even though he didn't attend the Argent Peak:

The Sects were shall we say very slow to respond to Hui inquiries by the time things grew to open rebellion, but this exploded into full support for the rebels under Jia Hong, who I will get into further details about in the story. Suffice to say Huisheng's prison is a bit fucky in spacial relations to the rest of reality.

Side effects of Sublime waking up:

Mm, the general passive effect is probably more like a tsunami, it sweeps out from the point of 'impact' and eventually recedes, but the sublime actually doing things would cause their own rimpacts too
and in theoretical terms they would eventually be forced back to sleep by the laws imposed by the Nameless.

If there are Weilu who think the Pure One was a mistake, since his teachings led to the Horned Lord disappearing:

No, not really, those factions were well and suppressed by the time most weilu types attatch their nostalgia too. You do get a handful of arch reactionary history types harking back even further tho, or see SWD
Nah, but he does call back the masons war stone builders as a negative force
so even he doesn;t directly castigate the Pure One but there is some degree of grumbling about all foreign influences

Zheng beast bonds:

Ah almost missed this one. The Zheng don't often bind spirit beasts in the Imperial fashion. They do sometimes travel with or swear oaths with beast companions but the exact nature of these contracts are a clan secret.
they can range from no 'real' bond to pretty deep blood contract and cultivation sharing type agreements

Spirits of specific events:

I also remember that episode. It was an excellent one, despite my general decreas in enjoyment as the seasons went on.
A sufficiently expansive impactful and lengthy conflict could certainly generate its own spirit, especially if people remember and either hate or venerate the conflict.
A thorough historical refutation of the wars aims and values would probably be the way to kill such a spirit.

Dragon god slapdown:

Sublime or sublime+ They were able to straight up defy the sun and moon after all. I can;t really answer the rest of that (Karthak note: how the Nameless deployed the nerf bat) other than saying.
They made it so.
yes, they were nerfed way down
though the one Zhi killed had managed to claw his way back to white powerlevels

Destiny inspiration:

Hm well as a general baseline I would shout out the many many setting sourcebooks for dnd and other table top games I read and enjoyed as a kid, and books of mythology too. I have always loved worldbuilding.
Closer to the current dat... some of Er Gen's works and other Xianxia, in that I was often frustrated by how paper thin the worlds were despite the cool core ideas. Kill Six Billion Demons, Exalted, Greenwood and Salvatore's earlier forgotten realms work. Journey to the West is a real banger if you can wrap your head around it.
Salvatore especially I know people like to shit on Drizzt these days, but really his style of intropsective character writing probably informs a lot of what I do.
The whole explosion of fantasy licensed fantasy novels coming out when I was younger were also a general influence, read enough of them and even the settings people deride as generic really feel alive and full of people acting and doing and influencing the course of the world.
at least till the editorial guillotine came down, but thats another story
Yeah ultimately that is a big influence on the shape of the destiny-verse, I wanted to avoid the general fantasy western europe vibe completely
and use stuff from other cultures and times to inform the wordlbuilding

Fucked up social mores:

You are of course supposed to be connected with your biofamily, cousins and academic or martial peers are acceptable. Your childhood tutors are almost always from servant clans though, and its considered impolitic to be too emotionally attatched to them.

Hypotethical Horned Lord return (if he was suddenly sleeping outside Xiangmen again).

There would be a lot of scrambling to dig up older reituals for worship and propriation probably a surge of political support for the Weilu based factions, and honestly probably a boost for Shenhua if there's no signs that he's displeased with her rule.
I am sure everyone. Everyone would have an opinion and be trying to to assign every event in the province and twitch of his nostrils their preferred meaning
but geerally if a bunch of negative events started to happn thered be a lot of assigning his will to them.

The Throne would go "fuck." The Zheng and Bai would be smug.

The Horned Lord's children:

There are deer spirits left in the Emerald Seas and often serve as the local minor spirit lords in the northern half of thepromise, they're much more common in the Bao lands and the northern Diao
they don't generally get beyond indigo though and even thats realtively rare. Its generally accepted that the purest bloodlines disappeared with the Weilu

If despite Imperial law there are clans where a spirit or spirit beast is the de facto leader:

Theres probably at least one sure

Human-spirit relations in other provinces:

The Bai ways heavily resemble the imperial ways except for being much more based around waterways, since the imperial ways are deeply influenced by them
Zheng Towns tend to sprawl a lot more in the valleys since the land is surprisingly tame, and have a lot less wards
Xuan villages are sparse by very exactly laid out, since they're mostly in custom terraformed locales

The monk, the snake and the monkey.

Can't share in full detail since it might become story relevant, but I will say that the Pure One fully failed to change or reach the mind of Granny Snek, and had only limited influence on the Reveller. Who is premissed on the concept of a wukong-like who rejects the notions and trappings of typical ascetic enlightenment.

Zheng culture:

Ah, alright, the Zheng land is absolutely chock full of hidden vales where mighty beasts roam, secret half liminal realms for the kiddies to quest in, and well maintained tribulation sites. There is definitely a rtificality too it though and this is a big source of the growing discontent,
the wandering period typically ends once you've completed your name quest or have given up on doing that.
cyans usually settle down to take up longer term projects or teach new gens, same but more with indigo. Sovereigns are a bit too indidvual to assign a generalization

When Argent Peak military service is supposed to start:

Yeah there's some variation but generally after three years if they're stuck in outer probably 4-5 if they make inner.

Indigo goodies:

Fifth is in large part refining and growing your ability to use shen, and developing the foundations of the second word that will define your sovereignty

What happened to turn Yan Renshu into such a prick:

Basically the Sect rules were loosened and enforcement reduced. This allowed more abuses to happen and for the Outer Sect to become more chaotic. Yan Renshu was very arrogant and genuinely smart, but in the beginning it was more like that kid who is just absolutely sure he is the smartest person around... and then goes to college and finds himself to be nowhere near unique. He mouthed off and offended a high noble in his year and the guy chose to permanently fuck up his leg as a punishment, and got away with it. Yan Renshu spiralled from there.

What it would have taken for Yuan He to look Shenhua in the eye and say "no, we're not doing that" in regards to the outer sect.

actual death yes
or complete destruction of cultivation potential

If a Great Spirit's Law could spread all over the world if no already existing Laws by some miracle contradicted it:

Yes, that would be possible.

The Storm's death:

About two thirds of them died. there were around... probably thirty left in the end? The Khan might have genuinely been able to win if he'd figured out certain tricks used earlier on and taken out vital companions earlier in the match. Can't state exactly the thing Yuan He did to kill as that may be a spoiler.
mostly fourth and fifth realm with an upper crust of sixth realms and Yuan He who broke through during the conflicct to seventh.
yeah probably 12-20 (Karthak note: Violets) with 20 being the most extreme
and probably made partially of slapdash mid war breakthroughs.

Sea Folk Ancestor:

The Father of Depths was not a specific real world animal but a general hm manifestation of the power of the abyssal plain, so some cthulu elements some leviathan type stuff.
There is certainly a shark sublime out there somewhere tho cause sharks are cool

The Thousand Wings incursion:

So after Ogodei there was a fairly large revenge backlash as his scattered armies were hunted down and their supported tribes either exterminated or broken. The Cloud were driven all the way back to the mountains while the Sects were forming and Prince An had an imperial force squinting directly at the Hui and keeping them from fucking about.
Eventually though An had to return to the peaks and his political enemies agitated for the imperial force sitting on the Hui supporting the sects and their vassals to be withdrawn. At that point the Hui got to their old tricks of breaking up their vassal powerblocks and any systems of cooperation they built. Enter the Thousand Wings following an ambitious violet khan who thought he could manage to go up a stage reuiniting ogodei's scattered forces while the imperials were down again. He did a lot of damage before Yuan He pinned him down and killed him.

Polyamory:

In the Empire, legal polyamory is the express and unique privelege of the emperor or emperess, which serves to allow them to have a much wider alliance network for practical purposes. Other powerful nobles might get away with having de facto poly going though this is probably not an equal scenario but just a matter of having multiple 'side pieces'

Han Jian:

His Father definitely loves him, but is both incredibly busy and a heavily military man who doesn't necessarily know how to parent. As was hinted in that side story, he mostly expresses affection by buying Han Jian things he asks for like toys and such and expressing pride in his cultivation. His Father did increase the frequency of his visits as much as he could post assassination.
His Mother is from an arranged marriage and while she performs all the expected maternal duties in the public sphere she is not really very interested in him. She is currently with another child since Han Jian's out of his formative period and she has a contract quota to turn out.
He his pretty well liked among his cousins in a distant sort of way. He's not super close with any of them but no one dislikes him or thinks too poorly of him in the younger generation.
Similar with other clan scions he has a couple of loosely friendly acquaintances among all the clans vassals.
Nanny was the only tutor/caretaker he was particularly close with. He kind of shut down a bit after her death and didn;t let himself get attatched to any of the others.
Yes Han Jian is very good at being that somewhat affable guy that no one dislikes.
I think she's probably from another Golden Fields count though I haven't decided exactly
maybe even the Fan, since his Dad is close with one of their high ups?
Yeah that'd make sense politically speaking
Dads the heir... so probably fifth but slated to hit sixth in good time for dad

Han Fang:

A fair number dislike him but there's respect for him in others adoption for meritorious service isn't exactly unknown, its very much a wait and see how he does for most, especially since he seems to be sticking to being Han Jian's loyal bodyguard over having his own political ambitions
(Karthak note: third realm) Yeah its hardened the dislike of the people against him but basically brought the fence sitters down onto the 'hes a credit to the clan' side of things

Australia hellstorm:

In theory it would be possible for a white or maybe a very tough prison to endure the outer storm and poke their head inside. Can;t comment on what happens once they're in though, its a mysterrrry~

Shenhua's fashion blitz:

It is on a pretty rapid churn court fashions used to take deacdes to centuries to shift heavily, and its now down more to years to decades. There is a fair amount of grumbling from the older generations but its more bewildered than anything else.
Women's fashion is stricter, males could get away with less clothes for much longer due to Weilu fashions involving a fair bit of bare chested barbarian chic, but female fashions still tended more toward the heavily wrapped up look

Polar nation metropolises:

I think in this scenario the city-cultivators would gradually form a collective, there are a couple very built up places in their deeper regions where multiple this has begun to occur, and it is sparking a bit of debate on how to handle the scenario from a theologicl standpoint.

Do Sovereign cultivators attract courts like beasts do:

Not in the same way, though there are exceptions based on way. A place a high cultivator spends enough time in will be more qi dense and thus spawn fairies, but most of the time it doesn't rise above that unless their way has something that would require the generation of a system around them.

If beasts and spirits can create simulacrums:

They generally can though usually with more limits and restrictions than a human.
beasts generally being more limited
Foxes in particular are good at splitting themselves and other tricksy things though

Religious expression:

Generally what the Imperial orthodoxy wants is adherance to their particular religious calender including the days of major rituals and observances. They also prefer that all spirits be worshipped in the context of the Celestial Court/Beuracracy, acknowledging all as being ultimately subordinate to the Celestial Dragon. This is for a couple of reasons both political and secular, but it is definitely an evidence backed observation that enforcing this spiritual hierarchy results in more tame and predictable spirits especially in the peaks.
The belief is that unity among the empires spirits and adherance to its hierarchies promotes material unity among the empires population and will spread the prosperity and tamed nature of the peaks beyond its borders
That is the good faith and genuine belief among much of the imperial clergy (edited)
Essentially refusing to follow this is a minor act of rebellion of harking back to times when the provinces were independant and keeping that unhelpful discord alive in the hearts of men great and small.

Why the deaths of all those Sovereigns didn't leave Xiangmen icky and stained:

It is entirely down to Xiangmen yes, though the countryside around took heavy clean up efforts
Ogodei's grave could probably be cleaned up with concerted effort but its in a remote place and investment is spent elsewhere.

Let's settle it once and for all if Shenhua's dad or grandad was the family's first cultivator:

yep grandfather
gen one baron gen two viscount, gen three shenhua

What the Mu owl does:

It mostly empowers the Mu clan's arts and cultivation, reinforces Yao's law... and is probably related to what the MoI are and An did but thats quite classiffied.

Qingge and Biyu titles:

Yeah Qingge's just in a weird spot, a spot that didn't really exist pre great sect system outside of oddities. Madam is just the general respctful term though she would be in her rights to be called Lady Ling if she insisted.
Biyu is a child and probably wouldn;t be called by a title outside of really formal scenarios

Foxes:

So this divide exists, note Lin Hai's companion calling SUyin 'nightkin'
basically most foxes are associated with either the Dawn Sun or the grinning moon, with axtra grouping of the most malicious foxes being associated with the nightmare aspect of dreaming or just a general unmoored and malevolent attitutde.
all fox spirits originate as pure spirits though, mythologically speaking having become embodied at varying times in prehistory going by local legend

Naming conventions:

The imperial cultural sphere operated largely off the [clan][individual] system due to shared prehistoric origins. The Cloud do not use surnames officiallys but use tribal affiliation or a patryonym if that isn't exact enough.
The White Sky generally prefer the use of job titles to surnames in public use. With more exacting titles or settlement names used to differentiate. They do have surnames however, mostly based off of professions or patroynms and matronyms. You just aren't expected to use them in a formal or professional context.
Hence Emissary Jaromila, calling her by her surname when she is acting in that role would imply that she is acting nepotistically.

Dogs and horses reaching third realm despite domestication:

The answer is not known by imperial scholars but a pre imperial ascension is one of the suspected possibilities, it is also theorized that the different relationship that people tend to have with those two species contributes to their retention of cultivation abilities, animals raised solely for meat are the worst effected for example and degenerate quickly under domestication. This is the leading and most accepted theory. Observation of cats in places where they're becoming more common companions and pets is the current research field among academics.

Ableism:

Unfortunately attitudes toward disability are not great, as Gan Guangli knows well with his dad, even QIngling's treatment as a chid is on the upper end of things. Whellchairs exist primarily as a temporary medical device, so while physicians offices and medical pavillions have access you won't find it elsewhere unless a particular noble has a reason like a disabled child that they don't shut away from public life. War injuries are more respected but also you're supposed to be able to get them fixed, there's much less accomodation for people who can't.
Even Xiang's efforts focus more on improving medical access to repair injuries over accomodating special needs.

Lady_Story · Nov 25, 2023

Dress-chan 🥹

Karthak Urzak · Nov 25, 2023

Lady_Story said:
Dress-chan 🥹

Is receiving the very best medical care.

FallenPears · Nov 25, 2023

Karthak Urzak said:
On becoming a corpse immortal:

Hm, wonder if you can bind a corpse immortal? And if so, considering the effect binding has on spirits, would that potentially allow one to grow?

You know. Assuming you dodge all the ministry hit squads.

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

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