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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Just hopping in briefly to comment on art stuff. I am 100% taking some color and design liberties as long as Yrsillar approves the result lol.

You may have noticed some elements disappearing slowly in LQ's base design (i'm personally of the opinion that the panel/tabard just doesn't suit her vibe, so I've avoided it after cover 3 and mostly just focused on flowier and more wispy/gossamer skirt layers that match her M.O. way better) I also play loosey goosier with LQ cause her dress is canonically mutable so yippee!

I also do colors changing for mood and vibe and also just cause frankly some color combinations don't look nearly as good visually compared to the ideal of them in written description. So Li Qing's black dress with white trims paired with a dark blue cloak.... gets a bit lighter and more blue/purple toned overall. And the white gets tuned down some. and the dark blue cloak with purple trim. also gets uh. less horrible as a concept.

Imagining her in stark black and white and dark blue and purple elements played straight with CRX and GG's white gold red??? kind of awful.

I like referring to actual hanfu for FoD designs, and I totally used yunjian/cloud collars as a starting point for CRX and Liming since I thought it would look rad as hell. For Meizhen, I looked at quju/curve hemmed robes since they personally gave me very slender and snakey vibes.

that;s ur minor insight into my artist opinion..... good night folks...
 
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Year 45 Month 10 Arc 2-2 Fin
The Mist roiled with swirling snows, filling the courtyard with leeching cold, frost crept up the curtain wall, hardened the packed dirt to stone and crawled up the columns supporting the peaked roof over the open viewing deck which overlooked the training field. Through it, nothing could be seen, only the blank white of deepest winter.

Until it split, and a crescent of wind and metal and light erupted from its depths. The wind screamed, the frozen ground split…

And two immense metal palms caught the arc of light,and the ear splitting whine a dozen turning blades grinding against steel drowned out the the melancholy piping carried on snowy gusts. The giant whose hands had caught the crescent blade bellowed, his stance low and widely set, shoulders set and trembling as metal screamed and sparks of light sprayed from between his palms. But a star bloomed above his back, a blinding star, a merciless star of colorless light, like a banner raised high over the giant's head.

A sphere of light bloomed, shrank to a pinprick, and lanced out in an all consuming blaze.

The snows and Mist were consumed in radiance, and Ling Qi shifted her qi from emanations of ice to dream, stepping sideways through the skien of realities with a delicate slide, dragging Xia Lin with her, just the briefest skim through the kaleidoscope of unformed dream. Rematerializing on frost slick ground, she was already playing the first notes of her Aria. The wind howled the coming of winter and frozen wind blasted out in a wide circle catching Gan Guangli as he turned, drawing a surprised cry as his gleaming white armor was caked in frost and rime, sending him reeling back a step as metal squealed and creaked and muscle and qi seized.

Xia Lin was back at her side, halberd freed from his grasp by the jump, her legs already bending into a low crouch. Her leap was a detonation. It cratered the earth for two meters around and cracked the dirt for twice that, ripping at Ling Qi's hair and gown as she briefly split the Aria's snowstorm, splitting the air with a chain of thunderclaps as she aimed her halberd at Cai Renxiang high above.

If Ling Qi could not set up, their bid was doomed, and so their roles were clear.

Cai wrought halberd met Cai wrought saber with a shockwave and a metallic ring like a grand temple gong.

And as ice groaned and shattered, and Gan Guangli's thundering stride approach, Ling Qi finally reached her Refrain, and reduced the field to featureless white. Gan Guangli raised both fists to shield the slits in his helm as the snow sought to bury him. Striding forward, slower, and slower with each passing step.

But she knew better than to think he was down already even if she could feel his qi leeching away. She pushed her foot against the ground and lept back, just as a golden hand larger than her whole body slapped down palm first where she she had stood. The air screamed and she darted aside, spinning past a second palm of blooming gold, and shot upward, rushing to the height limits of the match to avoid the grasp of third…

And then her world became radiance, as light lanced out again. She felt the heatless light, shredding the construct of her song silencing its notes…

And stepped aside again, reappearing on earth with only a few sizzling hairs. Cai Renxiang spun in midair, out in the corner of her eye, reorienting to meet the Xia Lin's whose position too had transposed mid swing. Light pulsed, the blade rang as it screamed a line across Liming's silken surface, hardened with armor of radiance.

And Cai Renxiang's free open palm lashed out, seeming to gently brush Xia Lin's breastplate…

Metal squealed and crumpled inward, and her partner hit the earth with a crack just as thunderous as her leap, faster than even Ling Qi could transpose them again. At same time, Gan Guangli's near frozen limbs flexed, molten golden and colorless light twining together to clad him in blazing solar armor, and his fist descended like a meteor.

It struck the earth, and snowflakes scattered as Ling Qi reappeared in midair across the field, already grasping the gorget of Xia Lin's armor and flinging the recovering girl away as the crater her body made was consumed in a column of radiance.

To her credit, Xia Lin was already drawing her legs back into a sprinting stance, gathering wind about her feet as she drew her halberd in back into a guard position…

Fists. The sky was filled with golden fists, above, below, around.

She was back on the ground, the afterimages left behind by the walk shattering into so much glittering ice under countless thunderous impacts. Ling Qi sang, and the scattered snow returned, and Xia Lin's feet blurred, impacting platforms of solid air as she blazed a skirmishing circle around Cai Renxiang from the perch in the air where she had reappeared, quick, cutting blades of wind and steel forcing their liege on guard, at least for a moment.

The fading snows renewed as her fingers danced across the ice wrought flute held to her lips calling back the dispersing flakes of snow back into a blinding whirl. This time, the delay was enough as darting crescent blade met overwhelming saber a dozen and a hundred times, light and fleeting clashes just enough avoid crushing weight.

Ling Qi sang her full refrain as Gan Guali wheeled to face her, and the dispersing whiteout returnined in full force, blotting out the field, the walls the manor in crushing emptiness and sent him staggering. The gleaming celestial light that girded his armor flickered out, and his fists crashed to the earth to hold him up, the rime crackling and forming int he chinks of his armor stiffening as qi rapidly drained away.

And above, her liege the colorless star too was sheathed in a shell of ice, but down in her belly, Ling Qi felt her danger sense scream.

Tiny bells chimed, softly, so softly ringing in a a sort of ending as potent as any she had seen.

Glittering lights, twinkling stars. A handful, a dozen, a score, a hundred and more. They sparked, they blazed, they bloomed. With resignation in her heart, Ling Qi pulled at the curtain of reality, for another skimming step.

The light scattered the echo of potential futures she left behind, an struck her in the shallow liminal with a blinding flash that sent her crashing back to the base earth, spine spasming as the dream qi she'd drawn on scattered and fled her suddenly leaden and painfully solid limbs.

Xia Lin crouched beside her, armor dented, rent, crumpled.

Together, they looked up at the featureless white second sun in the sky, before which Cai Renxiang was silhouetted.

Ling Qi let out a discontent sigh, and met her partner's eyes.

"Yield." They said together.

The blinding white sun dispersed, a field of glittering stars, drifting away on the breeze and mist.

"A…A good match, my companions!" Gan Guangli said through chattering teeth as he wrenched his fists out of the frozen earth, snow and ice crunching and cracking as he rose to his feet on shaking legs. "Miss Ling is as fierce as ever."

She smiled faintly as she sat up. "And you as sturdy."

"I don't know about that, without Lady Cai, I would certainly have been entombed," he laughed, reaching up to drag the slush and crackling ice off of his faceplate.

Cai Renxiang drifted down from the height limit they had set for the spar, observing their surroundings. "The Training Yard wards have held up well. I am well satisfied with the formationwork."

Ling Qi cast her faze around, indeed, though her whiteout had erased it all from vision, her snow as it lay was neatly bounded in a perfect square which followed the fencing demarcating the limits of the field. It wouldn't have held if she was trying to break it, she thought, but training wards did not need to be so potent.

"My strength still lacks," Xia Lin sighed, levering herself up, shaky herself from the impacts… and the repeated dreamsteps. "Lady Cai's defense is too potent."
Cai Renxiang glanced her way, and simply raised her free hand the one which had brushed aside Xia Lin blade and caved in her breastplate. There was a faint pink mark scored across the palm, and few specks of red. "I am no easy opponent, yet you still drew blood. Continue refining your edge. It is nearly awake I think."

Xia Lin's shoulders did straighten. Her damaged armor squealed loudly, steel uncrumpled, returning to its pristine shape.

Ling Qi chuckled. "I told you I would struggle to get my newly refined art up in a spar with you, Lady Cai," Ling Qi said, climbing to her feet herself.

"And that is well enough, it is a deadly enough threat with my arts keeping it suppressed. I could not let you complete that song."

Ling Qi pursed her lips, letting her temporary flute blow away in a cloud of snowflakes. "...I do not think I would wish to use the final technique in a spar."

"I shall thank you for that," Gan Guangli said, wincing.

"The repositioning tactic you suggested was most effective," Xia Lin said, raising her hand to her chin. "If disorienting. I can imagine many uses for all of us. Perhaps we should perform some drills with this?"

"That may be a good cooldown exercise, moving and repositioning all of you will be a little more draining mentally," Ling Qi mused.

"...If it is a tactic you intend to use regularly, I do suggest we all acclimate ourselves too it. As things are."

"A fine idea," Cai Renxiang replied. My own arts should make the information processing less difficult, and inure against the disorientation, but better to ensure there are no conflict in the qi patterns before attempting it."

Cai Renxiang's rigid light and the formless chaos of her dream qi…. Oh yes, they might take some work to function together, Ling Qi thought. "That's probably for the best."

"Then we will adjust the itinerary. From now until years end, weekly spars, followed by cooldown mobility exercises using Baroness Ling's movement art in tandem with my command art," Cai Renxiang said crisply, letting her voice carry. "We must all hone ourselves to our utmost."

The eyes on them, some subtle from the manor windows, some more openly gaping from the neighboring drillyard, certainly caught them. Ling Qi chuckled. It certainly would raise morale a bit to let everyone see what their protectors could do, and motivate a bit of striving in the more ambitious.
"Ah, perhaps we might allow a small break for meditation to restore our stamina first," Ling Qi said kindly, both Xia Lin and Gan Guangli were looking a little… haggard still."

Cai Renxiang glanced over them all once. "Very well a quarter hour rest, and then we will determine the shape of the mobility drills. It was a fine spar,all of you. I am confident in our success, come years end."

It was the right thing to say, Ling Qi knew, even if, by nature, it had to be at least a little bit of a lie.

Snowblossom Meditations has been locked in by an earlier vote please select a project and event to pursue in the second slot of the coming month
[ ] The Sins that Crawl
[ ] River God's Envy

The Sins that Crawl
It has been ages since you have thought on Zhengui's progenitors. The chained volcano tortoise, imprisoned to serve as a source of power for the Argent Peak Sect's formations, the ever regenerating corpse whose shattered core that tortoise transmuted into Zhengui's egg. You have seen the reptilian leviathan whole though in your early foray into Dreaming. Where she crawled and burrowed through the piled ruin and dust of ages. So to Elder Ying spoke to you of shame she was bound not to speak of, but which you were free to seek out. You have grown skilled in the arts of dreaming, and there are conversations to be had, conversations Zhengui deserves as well, and meditations on preservation and defense, where stability stands amid ceaseless change. Completes and transmutes Starless Shroud into a new personal art, advances Zhengui's growth. Locks in dreamwalking storyarc. +1 XP to Community, Choice, Persistence, and Protection.


River God's Envy
Once, the kin of Rivers could see the sky, could climb, could leap, could become kin of dragons, those days had long since passed, ancient in memory before ever great Tsu drew breath. Yet still one remembered. O scion of Kings and Gods, clad in their shadow and graveshroud, what have you that is your own? What is yours which is not mere echo and shadow? So spake Tsu as Great Jing rose against him, in all of its fury. Advances and Streamlines Beast King's Savage Dirge, unlocking new. Locks in Exploration of Cathedral of Winds. +1 XP to Power, Expression, Creation.

Monthly Cultivation advancement

110 Base x Talent(6)x1.5(Completed other requirements)=990 Spiritual and Physical XP
 
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[ ] The Sins that Crawl
This has been a loong time coming, and gaining a new defensive personal art is just the cherry on top.

[ ] River God's Envy
I do like this one as well, reaching level 5 in two more concepts and the Cathedral of Winds, but I personally like the first one more.
 
[X] The Sins that Crawl

4 Concepts points, improves our art, gets one of dream destinations started and improves Zhengui, I like this option alot.
 
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Renxiang's arts seem well designed to counter Qi's shenanigans. Which makes me wonder, what kind of arts would counter Renxiang?
Could probably make an argument for Gan-like brute force, maybe arts like that one lake art Ling Qi used to use that just negates and absorbs an attack if you're specialized in that kinda thing rather than merely dabbling in it... basically, stuff that allows you to just endure or deflect her attacks and walk up to her, without relying on evasion or buffs/debuffs that can be dispelled.

Alternatively, you take a similar build, but focus on raw power instead of dispells and whatnot, and just beam-clash your way to victory.
 
Ahhhh that was badass! By the way, is LQ still at Crucible Charred 4?

Crucible Charred: (G) 4
The after effect of carrying the Sovereign of Steel and Flame into the dream to do battle. The mortal functions of your body are returned within your tolerances for pain, cultivation returns slower, but returns all the same, sluggish and charred meridians slowly being cleansed of flame, your dantian beginning to cycle your own qi through damaged channels.

She went that hard with a handicap, imagine her by the end of the year when she's fully back into her power? I'm excited.

110 Base x Talent(6)x1.5(Completed other requirements)=990 Spiritual and Physical XP

We're back! Feels good.

[ ] The Sins that Crawl
[ ] River God's Envy


Between these two I think the Zhengui route will be the clear winner. I'm not really clear on what the River God route entails what with all the metaphors but the Cathedral exploration is tempting.
 
[X] River God's Envy

mostly because I want to explore Cathedral of Winds; it has been left hanging for a long time, whereas the other is a new addition.
 
[X] The Sins that Crawl

Want to do the Cathedral with the others, and the dream would be a nice way to get LQ used for the new version of the art.
Also, Zhengui might help with the cathedral, so getting him some training is also nice.

But mostly because i really like the dream scenes.
 
[X] The Sins that Crawl

Time to introduce our Son Little Brother to his other Mother!
 
The BKSD project is pretty cool, and I really like it.

... but if we're getting a new defensive art it's very important that we have time to get it properly up to speed before we leave on campaign. It's not really a choice here. Cathedral also isn't an area we'll be expanding our fief to any time soon.

[X] The Sins that Crawl
 
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