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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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mastigos said:
This sets us on the path of Linq Qi becoming hideously good at punching up above her weight level. Consider that as she advances her communication based Way and studies the Polar Theocracy's techniques this kind of spiritual mantling will get easier and easier. And so will communicating with and convincing spirits.

Then realize that that means that the more powerful she is, the more efficiently she'll be able to leverage that power to mantle whichever spirit or cultivator seems most aligned with her intended course of actions. Carrying the General into battle could become just the first (memorable) step towards an ongoing pattern/technique/way of "Ling Qi is just the guidance/delivery system for more powerful beings that happen to share her aims"

And of course it's compatible with advanced insight we got from mantling the Heron General



She's answering Hanyi's question, not BQ's
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Except that if Mantling well enough was a path to ultimate power, then this story would be about the White Sky Empire. That is a foundational aspect of their cultivation methods, and even if we grant for the sake of argument that Imperial cultivation methods can make Ling Qi truly superlative at Mantling, she doesn't have generations and generations of knowledge to work off of, so she's not going to do it with as much skill. I doubt she's ever going to be as good at it as the best of the best among the White Sky. Plus, consider that the White Sky Heron General equivalent wasn't a high-tier and the cultivator mantling them, it was a high-tier and their priesthood. That suggests a pretty harsh upper limit on what can be done without the mantle-user being Crucible-Charred for half a year afterward.

Like, this world is old and there's no reason to think Mantles are a new invention. The low-hanging branches are already well picked clean of fruit, and this is pretty far down the tree.
 
Varder said:
So as I understand it, Ling Qi used her and the spirits similarity to infiltrate it and change the concepts a little. I wonder if this kind of mind fuckery can be used on cultivators? Not sure if I like this, feels too close to Hui bullshit.
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It's what we voted for, really:

yrsillar said:
To want is to live, to grasp, to strive. At the foundation of every bond, in the root of every ambition, threaded through every movement of the world. Discern the deepest want in a soul, and there find the key to its understanding or undoing.
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Ling Qi found the spirit's Want and manipulated it.
 
Heyo folks, got some news. Its been awhile since I've added anything to the Destiny Store but I've gotten some new art in. Based on the choices voted on in my patreon polls we got these two adorable images...




So far I've got shirts, hoodies totes and stickers, more probably incoming including perhaps some new patreon rewards once I've looked into some price quotes! Come check it out here at the Destiny Cycle Store
 
Anderein said:
Except that if Mantling well enough was a path to ultimate power, then this story would be about the White Sky Empire. That is a foundational aspect of their cultivation methods, and even if we grant for the sake of argument that Imperial cultivation methods can make Ling Qi truly superlative at Mantling, she doesn't have generations and generations of knowledge to work off of, so she's not going to do it with as much skill. I doubt she's ever going to be as good at it as the best of the best among the White Sky. Plus, consider that the White Sky Heron General equivalent wasn't a high-tier and the cultivator mantling them, it was a high-tier and their priesthood. That suggests a pretty harsh upper limit on what can be done without the mantle-user being Crucible-Charred for half a year afterward.

Like, this world is old and there's no reason to think Mantles are a new invention. The low-hanging branches are already well picked clean of fruit, and this is pretty far down the tree.
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I don't think it's some miracle cheat, but considering how much White Sky and the Empire haven't talked, the idea that the two Cultivation methods mixing together would potentially find new ways to do things shouldn't seem that weird The idea that just because they're one of the strongest Empires/governments in the world but not quite as strong as the Sage's Empire that therefore they must surely have an inferior cultivation method is... honestly kinda silly.
 
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yrsillar said:
Heyo folks, got some news. Its been awhile since I've added anything to the Destiny Store but I've gotten some new art in. Based on the choices voted on in my patreon polls we got these two adorable images...




So far I've got shirts, hoodies totes and stickers, more probably incoming including perhaps some new patreon rewards once I've looked into some price quotes! Come check it out here at the Destiny Cycle Store
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H-how shameless miss Ling's dress shows the leg below the knees.
 
The Laurent said:
I don't think it's some miracle cheat, but considering how much White Sky and the Empire haven't talked, the idea that the two Cultivation methods mixing together would potentially find new elements to mix together. The idea that just because they're one of the strongest Empires/governments in the world but not quite as strong as the Sage's Empire that therefore they must surely have an inferior cultivation method is... honestly kinda silly.
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This. Plus, it's not like imperial cultivation doesn't have its own various methods to power with their own advantages and disadvantages. And, you know, being really good at one usually makes you strong because that's why the method exists. Mangling is t different in that regard, its just Ling Qi being a prodigy really good at it
 
If the emerald sea separates from the peaks, where will they get the spirit stones needed to advance at prism and white levels?

Or will they just cap out in strength?
 
You don't, technically, need stones to reach any level.
They just make the process so much easier and more reliable, especially early on.
I think secession from the Peaks would be less an issue of white/prism, and more about just getting enough people to green to keep everything functioning and having enough greens to reach past green over time..
 
Why would ES separate from the Peaks (and, by extension, from the empire)?

But assuming they would somehow survive (I don't think the peaks would just let them go) and ES only has one realm and the Peaks have two, I think? And the rest of the empire to call upon.

They would likely have to change and readopt some of the old ways that are currently banned or at least frowned upon in the empire.
And will likely have a lot less cultivators and mortals in the coming decades.
 
promethus said:
They wouldn't. As readers, IRL experiences might make us think it's a good idea and that empire is an evil or corrupt institute but the truth is existence of empire is a net positive in destiny-verse
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I don't know if that's actually what the story is saying, what with all of its frank discussion of actual ongoing Genocide.

The story has even gone so far as to have a character decide that the Sage's Empire and Virtue can't coexist.

It's clearly very ambivalent about Empire, with all sorts of competing opinions. So I would not suspect that the story is backing up the idea that Empire is DEFINITELY a net-positive.
 
Centralized organizations and states aggregate and amplify power.
A running theme is that you have to strike a balance between the acquisition of power and using it well. The ways of life most suited to getting a lot of power quickly are also the same ones least able to wield it well.

Meanwhile to avoid power entirely just leaves you prey to those who aren't so scrupulous.

The Laurent said:
I don't think it's some miracle cheat, but considering how much White Sky and the Empire haven't talked, the idea that the two Cultivation methods mixing together would potentially find new ways to do things shouldn't seem that weird The idea that just because they're one of the strongest Empires/governments in the world but not quite as strong as the Sage's Empire that therefore they must surely have an inferior cultivation method is... honestly kinda silly.
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Note that mixing cultivation methods is also known for being risky, without protagonist privilege you can easily cripple or dead end yourself, theres no prior art, and the resource logistics network don't supply you properly because your needs are different from both sources.
 
Maybe I'm missing the crux of the conversation, but Mantling itself isn't a foreign concept to Imperial cultivation, especially not in the Emerald Seas. Judging by Huisheng, the Weilu probably did it or something similar, the Hui did it, and the Meng apparently still know how to do it, though it's not often talked about or done.
 
Glau said:
You need somewhere to draw qi from. Stone, site, or beast, right?
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Yes, and that somewhere needs to be compatible with the person doing the drawing.
Which is why stones allow for easy source of QI for the green and below, and cyan+ stones start to loose usefulness.
Now, that reduced stone amounts would still hurt, at all levels, but the biggest issue would be just get enough greens that you will get enough people with drive to keep going, because most people never do, even with the stones.
 
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LittenLeKitten said:
Maybe I'm missing the crux of the conversation, but Mantling itself isn't a foreign concept to Imperial cultivation, especially not in the Emerald Seas. Judging by Huisheng, the Weilu probably did it or something similar, the Hui did it, and the Meng apparently still know how to do it, though it's not often talked about or done.
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The Hui doing it is a real problem, because the Hui were such shitheads that anything they did was automatically suspect. I suspect in older times, most clans had something that allows this (though probably with differing effectiveness). It's clearly a technique with long history in the ES, and it's bloody useful. But now only the Meng retain it, because the Hui did it particularly well, and nobody wants to be like the Hui. That's also why the dreaming way got a lot less popular.
 
LittenLeKitten said:
Maybe I'm missing the crux of the conversation, but Mantling itself isn't a foreign concept to Imperial cultivation, especially not in the Emerald Seas. Judging by Huisheng, the Weilu probably did it or something similar, the Hui did it, and the Meng apparently still know how to do it, though it's not often talked about or done.
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It's more of the degree of which it is used. In the Empire, it's a kinda niche technique mostly used in the Emerald Sea. It is thus seen as a little 'primitive' not totally orthodox. Remember cultivation is very individualistic, trends and patterns are a thing but the truly powerful are driven, ambitious individuals. Relying on outside means, such as mantling a stronger beast or elder, is a weakness. Using numbers, formations, arrays, and other treasures might be fine but the cultivators themselves should be crux of power not outside tools.

The fact that the Polar Nations use it so extensively while showing the threat it could pose is jarring. The PN doesn't have very mobile high-end cultivators but with Mantling the effectiveness of their 'Greens and Under', where the bulk of cultivators are stuck at, means that they can always punch up. They also have mobile arrays that can, for a short time, bring their more powerful cultivators to bear.
 
The Laurent said:
The story has even gone so far as to have a character decide that the Sage's Empire and Virtue can't coexist.
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Oh, don't get me wrong. Empire is not morally good or virtuous. No power structure is. I oppose the idea that this problem is unique to Sage's empire. The starting point of this discussion was about provinces breaking away from empires and starting separate kingdoms. The issues inherent to the empire wouldn't magically vanish and 8 separate virtuous kingdoms wouldn't come from the end of the empire. As a perfect example the genocide against cloud you mentioned is not an empire's policy. It is an emerald seas campaign. The net positives I mentioned here are not about moral superiority. It is about power accumulation and projection on a national scale in a dead world, advances in cultivation and other technical knowledge, trade concerns, positives to human life from imperial bureaucracy, and the way the imperial power structures reduce the clash of cultivators.
 
Glau said:
Back once more to the oldest struggle over political organization. Equality is so much better to live in and under. Hierarchy wins wars.
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the problem is more maintaining actual equality. its suprisingly hard to create sustainable equality for large groups, and almost always the existence of state and government actually increrases equality compared to anarchy(since even the strongest can be bound by traditions, expectations, the pressure of other strong people and the need to preserve their power). feudal empire is not exactly the best, and I am no fan of hierarchy, or noble privilege, but it should be noted that the empire has its good sides.
even without any talk of anarchy, it has the nobles at least formally supposed to protect and care for the mortals, it curbs violence between its factions, it allows stuff like the ministries to exist. the empire also has its problems- most of all corruption. but any government has at lest some, andd I can't see us turning this into a democracy
 
The problem with equality as a goal is that some animals are more equal than others.

The obvious solution is to kick out everybody who isn't part of the "no really I mean equality" faction.
 
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