Fair, but it's still unlikely that it would be possible for them, they aren't high nobility who can afford to send cyan assassins which you'd need at this point, Qi can escape anything below cyan with ease.
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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Still wouldn't exactly be popular though, which might make things kind of awkward.
My concern is less actual assassination attempts, to be honest, and more that it's likely to get distinctly tedious dealing with what's likely to be considerable hostility from the inevitable subordinate nobles likely to be around.
IOW, it's more the headache of dealing with the Bao's equivalent of Court Clans. At Duchy level they're Viscounts, but presumably there's some Barons directly subordinate to the Count Clans in their Capital.
There are people who think Xuan Shi is boring? Ling Qi took him on a liminal adventure where he almost got eaten by a Lord of Nightmares and had a nice chat with the Prism avatar of the scariest Goddess in the Polar Nation, and his response afterwards was "may I please have some more?"
He's got a Young Mistress chicken for a daughter. He decided the best way to deal with his issues was to bond with a spirit who delights in failure, and try tobreak reform them with success. He's building an Iron Man suit for Zhengui.
He may not be bold and brash like Wang Chao or Gan Guangli but if you proposed to do something batshit insane he'd very calmly look you in the eye and say he's in. He is a certified madlad.
He's got a Young Mistress chicken for a daughter. He decided the best way to deal with his issues was to bond with a spirit who delights in failure, and try to
He may not be bold and brash like Wang Chao or Gan Guangli but if you proposed to do something batshit insane he'd very calmly look you in the eye and say he's in. He is a certified madlad.
Mind, we where told that one of the reasons for why we dropped in rep with the Celestial hills after the summit was due to the fact that our projects and the war diverted Cai resources that where being invested into infrastructure in the Celestial Hills south instead. So it is not just a cultural thing they got hangups about. Killing LQ wont really stop the war and that Cai resources are going south.
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If the Celestial Hills are feeling grumpy now just wait until Galidan breaks through to White. Yrs said that if that happens the Empress will have to cut funding to other projects to increase defense funding in the south.
- Location
- Staring into the void
We'll just have to do a Shenhua and get to white first. 
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The khan of the 12 stars cloud nomads orginazation
He's also in the free sample of the latest Amazon book.
Year 45 Month 13 Arc 2-4
"I think I favor the lower powered effects. With enough power, one can make the senses experience almost anything. But this is not," Ling Qi paused for thought as they set foot on a chiseled path that defied the law of earth, carrying them vertical and then even upside down compared to what her senses told her should be the right way.
It wasn't exactly defying the Law of Earth, not on such a large scale, but the arrays worked into the carved geode bent it slightly, making it so that in this space wherever you stood in the hollowed sphere, the 'floor' was down.
Which did explain something of how the central stage was floating like that with so little energy, it was being pulled in every direction equally, and so it appeared suspended, merely rotating slowly.
"It is not…?" Meng Dan repeated, drawing her out of her thoughts.
"It's just not widely applicable enough," Ling Qi said. They soon found their seating, a closed private balcony, shrouded in thin silk hangings. These too were woven with a great deal of qi. Similar to the arrays which allowed the audience clear sight of the Sect Arena, these would ensure that no matter the turning of the stage, every viewer would have a clear view of the permanence, it was even reactive, if she was seeing things right, magnifying whatever particular part you were focused on viewing.
"Yeah, this is cool and all, but can you really do it anywhere else?" Sixiang shrugged, flopping into a seat beside her with a whirr and a clank. "Like yeah I could blow all of this outta the water if I took an audience on a trip home, but half of their brains would melt, so what'd be the point?"
"Facilities which could support higher level performances exist in the county capitals. Access to those of higher station and influence has an outsized effect," Yin Hui said. Unfolding her writing tray, her brush spun between her fingers idly as paper whispered out on its own, fresh and clean and ready for notes. "Though the Baroness already has a great deal of high access."
"That's my thought. I already have ways to get my words to most of the counts. If I want to talk to the Meng, all I need to do is turn your way after all," Ling Qi said, shooting Meng Dan a smile.
"But a dozen or a hundred barons and viscounts are rather harder to keep track of," he replied, chuckling. "And not half as handsome."
"Though she does a good job trying! And making me try too," Sixiang said, giving her an amused look.
"My writing desk is a dull and dreary place without your best readings," Ling Qi said sorrowfully.
"No fair making that kind of face," Sixiang complained, crossing their arms.
"Interesting. I will have to make a note of this method for making a muse perform clerical work," Yinhui said dryly. "Though I doubt the general applicability."
"Aw, you're probably cute enough to get one of my little cousins to follow you around if you tried," Sixiang drawled.
Ling Qi let out a huff of laughter, meeting Meng Dan's eye as the stage began to glitter layers of illusion spinning up and radiating out, casting a vision of the mountains of the Wall in the center of the theater, where the opening scenes of the play would take place. "Don't think I don't appreciate this though. What they've done to compose the opening score into minor art effects is an amazing bit of work."
"You can certainly tell better than I," Meng Dan said. "But this is only work after all, whatever pleasure we might take. Please look forward to a proper outing."
She tilted her head as the lights dimmed and the first actors wreathed in qi reactive costumes keyed to the arrays in the stage began to emerge. "Oh? I wonder what you have in mind."
"I am told Lady Ling enjoys her adventures," he said, tapping his finger against his chin. "But is always the one bearing the burden of the host. Perhaps a guest pass into the Deep Library at Blue Mountain?"
She laughed. "Well, I can't fault you for lacking research."
"I would be a poor scholar if I hadn't pre-studied my subject," Meng Dan agreed. "But lets set that aside for the moment. I would like your opinion on the next scene and the particular use of the musical qi used during the opening soliloquy."
She nodded, and swatted Sixiang, who was still verbally prodding at Yinhui, despite the other moon spirit deliberately ignoring them in favor of note taking now.
She still couldn't quite believe how comfortable she had managed to become.
Ling Qi stretched her arms overhead, hands clasped together. Cycling her qi through her dully aching back. She simply wasn't used to sitting down for such long periods by choice, especially after her medically enforced rest. All of the showing had been excellent, by any measure, but she was feeling rather jittery just from all the stillness.
"You look as if you're about to leap," Meng Dan said. "I hope you haven't found me so troublesome."
"If I was to leap, I might just pull you over with me. I bet you would make a very amusing sound," Ling Qi teased, leaning against the hand rail which lined the hanging garden they had finished out their day in.
It resembled a basket sized for an irate Gan Guangli. Some three or four meters across, made of living, woven roots and filled with fertile earth, dangling from one of Xiangmen's countless twigs. A raised rail ran all the way around the flowering beds which surrounded the little platform and bench in the center, and the plants spilled from beneath it in hanging vies of flowering buds and leaves.
"I am made of sterner stuff than you think," Meng Dan sniffed. "It would be a very manly shriek."
She chuckled, turning back to him, resting her back against the rail. He could read her well. She did feel the strong urge to just leap over the side and fly a bit, in the shadow of the vast glittering canopy.
But she did understand why the airspace was restricted.
"I'm sure," she agreed, glancing up toward the main branch, where Sixiang and Yinhui were, debating over something or another. The two moon spirits did get on well she thought even if they showed it by bickering like siblings over silly things. "Well we have a short list of troupes worth approaching now, not a bad use of my first day in Xiangmen."
"Productive. And I have learned a thing or two. Ling Qi is surprisingly technically minded," Meng Dan said. He was sat on the bench, facing her, arms spread across the back of the bench. "I had an inkling of it, but your focus on the… machinery of a story or a song over the surface components did surprise me."
Ling Qi frowned playfully. "You aren't the first to say that. The surface presentation is important, but to make a good piece, you need to understand how every component fits together, and where you can leave their imagination to fill in, a casual listener or viewer won't notice these things, but they will notice their absence."
"I see," he chuckled. "Yes. I think it truly does make sense why you get along so well with Lady Cai."
She gave him an unimpressed look. His smile never wavered. She turned her head and huffed.
They remained in silence like that for awhile, listening to the high winds rustle the leaves.
"I do wonder what I should prepare for my personal suite," Meng Dan said casually, drumming his fingers on the stone. "I am no poet sadly. My writing is too technical. Nor a musician, nor a maker of wonders or a warrior."
"I do not need to be bought… but I understand it's a matter of pride," Ling Qi said. "Though… if I might make a suggestion…"
"By all means," Meng Dan said, leaning forward.
"I have a reason to be interested in histories, and a historian is what you are. A gift of your own talents would be more satisfying than any petty luxury," Ling Qi said.
He peered over the top of his glasses at her, folding his hands under his chin. "...I see, given your disinterest in your family line, I had discarded the notion. You are, unlike your interest in song and story, much more focused on the surface of tradition."
"I admit that," she said smiling lightly. "Nor have I changed my mind about my own genealogy. The ling are the Ling, in the end, what came before is only the soil and the roots, not the blossom. I would only look ridiculous, trying to lean on such a thing. But… I do have pragmatic reasons to know what the Weilu were, what they became in the end. How they went."
To understand Huisheng. She needed a grounding in his context. The roots that produced the Arch Heretic and Supreme Thief.
"My lady does not ask for small gifts. It's not quite a heart's blood poem, but you ask after a subject that many lifelong academics only achieve mastery in a narrow slice of," Meng Dan said thoughtfully. "Much of which is concealed even from me, among clan vaults and secrets…"
"I would not ask for anything which would divide you against your clan," Ling Qi said quietly. He relaxed a fraction.
"But, as you said, the Archive of Blue Mountain is deep, no?"
"It is," he said. "But I am afraid I must still ask after a more specific question, should you like this gift to be delivered in the next decade."
He was silent, clearing thinking over something, and she did not speak, letting him turn over his thoughts.
"What they became, you said. Would you say your interest lies in cultural and political accounts of the post-Qin to Strife era?" Meng Dan said, easily slipping into more technical language. "The reactions and developments to the strain of provincial consolidation under the first dynasty? Or do you mean a focus on accounts from the decline and vanishing period specifically, records from the clans to which they ceded more and more authority too?"
She blinked, then chuckled. "Ah, well I should have known I needed to be less vague with an expert."
She considered his question. "It is rude to answer a question with a question, but if I had to narrow in my interest, I would say that I want to have a clearer picture of how the Weilu clan developed after the Masons War. I want to understand their… internal state, under the Sage, and what prompted their isolationism and withdrawal."
"I see," Meng Dan said, shaking his head. "There are no definitive answers to this. The consensus among historians is… divisive among different schools."
"Then give me yours, I will trust your judgement," Ling Qi said. "Focus on…"
[ ] The Weilu's isolationism, how it came about and manifested.
[ ] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.
It wasn't exactly defying the Law of Earth, not on such a large scale, but the arrays worked into the carved geode bent it slightly, making it so that in this space wherever you stood in the hollowed sphere, the 'floor' was down.
Which did explain something of how the central stage was floating like that with so little energy, it was being pulled in every direction equally, and so it appeared suspended, merely rotating slowly.
"It is not…?" Meng Dan repeated, drawing her out of her thoughts.
"It's just not widely applicable enough," Ling Qi said. They soon found their seating, a closed private balcony, shrouded in thin silk hangings. These too were woven with a great deal of qi. Similar to the arrays which allowed the audience clear sight of the Sect Arena, these would ensure that no matter the turning of the stage, every viewer would have a clear view of the permanence, it was even reactive, if she was seeing things right, magnifying whatever particular part you were focused on viewing.
"Yeah, this is cool and all, but can you really do it anywhere else?" Sixiang shrugged, flopping into a seat beside her with a whirr and a clank. "Like yeah I could blow all of this outta the water if I took an audience on a trip home, but half of their brains would melt, so what'd be the point?"
"Facilities which could support higher level performances exist in the county capitals. Access to those of higher station and influence has an outsized effect," Yin Hui said. Unfolding her writing tray, her brush spun between her fingers idly as paper whispered out on its own, fresh and clean and ready for notes. "Though the Baroness already has a great deal of high access."
"That's my thought. I already have ways to get my words to most of the counts. If I want to talk to the Meng, all I need to do is turn your way after all," Ling Qi said, shooting Meng Dan a smile.
"But a dozen or a hundred barons and viscounts are rather harder to keep track of," he replied, chuckling. "And not half as handsome."
"Though she does a good job trying! And making me try too," Sixiang said, giving her an amused look.
"My writing desk is a dull and dreary place without your best readings," Ling Qi said sorrowfully.
"No fair making that kind of face," Sixiang complained, crossing their arms.
"Interesting. I will have to make a note of this method for making a muse perform clerical work," Yinhui said dryly. "Though I doubt the general applicability."
"Aw, you're probably cute enough to get one of my little cousins to follow you around if you tried," Sixiang drawled.
Ling Qi let out a huff of laughter, meeting Meng Dan's eye as the stage began to glitter layers of illusion spinning up and radiating out, casting a vision of the mountains of the Wall in the center of the theater, where the opening scenes of the play would take place. "Don't think I don't appreciate this though. What they've done to compose the opening score into minor art effects is an amazing bit of work."
"You can certainly tell better than I," Meng Dan said. "But this is only work after all, whatever pleasure we might take. Please look forward to a proper outing."
She tilted her head as the lights dimmed and the first actors wreathed in qi reactive costumes keyed to the arrays in the stage began to emerge. "Oh? I wonder what you have in mind."
"I am told Lady Ling enjoys her adventures," he said, tapping his finger against his chin. "But is always the one bearing the burden of the host. Perhaps a guest pass into the Deep Library at Blue Mountain?"
She laughed. "Well, I can't fault you for lacking research."
"I would be a poor scholar if I hadn't pre-studied my subject," Meng Dan agreed. "But lets set that aside for the moment. I would like your opinion on the next scene and the particular use of the musical qi used during the opening soliloquy."
She nodded, and swatted Sixiang, who was still verbally prodding at Yinhui, despite the other moon spirit deliberately ignoring them in favor of note taking now.
She still couldn't quite believe how comfortable she had managed to become.
***
Ling Qi stretched her arms overhead, hands clasped together. Cycling her qi through her dully aching back. She simply wasn't used to sitting down for such long periods by choice, especially after her medically enforced rest. All of the showing had been excellent, by any measure, but she was feeling rather jittery just from all the stillness.
"You look as if you're about to leap," Meng Dan said. "I hope you haven't found me so troublesome."
"If I was to leap, I might just pull you over with me. I bet you would make a very amusing sound," Ling Qi teased, leaning against the hand rail which lined the hanging garden they had finished out their day in.
It resembled a basket sized for an irate Gan Guangli. Some three or four meters across, made of living, woven roots and filled with fertile earth, dangling from one of Xiangmen's countless twigs. A raised rail ran all the way around the flowering beds which surrounded the little platform and bench in the center, and the plants spilled from beneath it in hanging vies of flowering buds and leaves.
"I am made of sterner stuff than you think," Meng Dan sniffed. "It would be a very manly shriek."
She chuckled, turning back to him, resting her back against the rail. He could read her well. She did feel the strong urge to just leap over the side and fly a bit, in the shadow of the vast glittering canopy.
But she did understand why the airspace was restricted.
"I'm sure," she agreed, glancing up toward the main branch, where Sixiang and Yinhui were, debating over something or another. The two moon spirits did get on well she thought even if they showed it by bickering like siblings over silly things. "Well we have a short list of troupes worth approaching now, not a bad use of my first day in Xiangmen."
"Productive. And I have learned a thing or two. Ling Qi is surprisingly technically minded," Meng Dan said. He was sat on the bench, facing her, arms spread across the back of the bench. "I had an inkling of it, but your focus on the… machinery of a story or a song over the surface components did surprise me."
Ling Qi frowned playfully. "You aren't the first to say that. The surface presentation is important, but to make a good piece, you need to understand how every component fits together, and where you can leave their imagination to fill in, a casual listener or viewer won't notice these things, but they will notice their absence."
"I see," he chuckled. "Yes. I think it truly does make sense why you get along so well with Lady Cai."
She gave him an unimpressed look. His smile never wavered. She turned her head and huffed.
They remained in silence like that for awhile, listening to the high winds rustle the leaves.
"I do wonder what I should prepare for my personal suite," Meng Dan said casually, drumming his fingers on the stone. "I am no poet sadly. My writing is too technical. Nor a musician, nor a maker of wonders or a warrior."
"I do not need to be bought… but I understand it's a matter of pride," Ling Qi said. "Though… if I might make a suggestion…"
"By all means," Meng Dan said, leaning forward.
"I have a reason to be interested in histories, and a historian is what you are. A gift of your own talents would be more satisfying than any petty luxury," Ling Qi said.
He peered over the top of his glasses at her, folding his hands under his chin. "...I see, given your disinterest in your family line, I had discarded the notion. You are, unlike your interest in song and story, much more focused on the surface of tradition."
"I admit that," she said smiling lightly. "Nor have I changed my mind about my own genealogy. The ling are the Ling, in the end, what came before is only the soil and the roots, not the blossom. I would only look ridiculous, trying to lean on such a thing. But… I do have pragmatic reasons to know what the Weilu were, what they became in the end. How they went."
To understand Huisheng. She needed a grounding in his context. The roots that produced the Arch Heretic and Supreme Thief.
"My lady does not ask for small gifts. It's not quite a heart's blood poem, but you ask after a subject that many lifelong academics only achieve mastery in a narrow slice of," Meng Dan said thoughtfully. "Much of which is concealed even from me, among clan vaults and secrets…"
"I would not ask for anything which would divide you against your clan," Ling Qi said quietly. He relaxed a fraction.
"But, as you said, the Archive of Blue Mountain is deep, no?"
"It is," he said. "But I am afraid I must still ask after a more specific question, should you like this gift to be delivered in the next decade."
He was silent, clearing thinking over something, and she did not speak, letting him turn over his thoughts.
"What they became, you said. Would you say your interest lies in cultural and political accounts of the post-Qin to Strife era?" Meng Dan said, easily slipping into more technical language. "The reactions and developments to the strain of provincial consolidation under the first dynasty? Or do you mean a focus on accounts from the decline and vanishing period specifically, records from the clans to which they ceded more and more authority too?"
She blinked, then chuckled. "Ah, well I should have known I needed to be less vague with an expert."
She considered his question. "It is rude to answer a question with a question, but if I had to narrow in my interest, I would say that I want to have a clearer picture of how the Weilu clan developed after the Masons War. I want to understand their… internal state, under the Sage, and what prompted their isolationism and withdrawal."
"I see," Meng Dan said, shaking his head. "There are no definitive answers to this. The consensus among historians is… divisive among different schools."
"Then give me yours, I will trust your judgement," Ling Qi said. "Focus on…"
[ ] The Weilu's isolationism, how it came about and manifested.
[ ] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.
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- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
What a tough vote.
I see Qi has deleted the last few months in a wheel chair from her memory
Too traumatic.
[x] The Weilu's isolationism, how it came about and manifested.
what made these deer people decide to hide from everyone?
what made these deer people decide to hide from everyone?
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Since she stood from that chair, she had chair sat again.
- Location
- USA
I personally find the isolation more interesting. Also given our big push for diplomacy (White Sky) I think learning about the Weilu isolationism is pretty relevant.
I was so sure he would prepare Compiled Clan Traditions of the Empire for us
Whenever Qi and Dan are talking to one another the conversation just flows so smoothly. He's so cute when he's trying to understand her but always gets more intrigued the deeper he gets.
[X] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.
I feel like if we're trying to understand the Arch-Heretic then understanding the Weilu's orthodoxy spirituality is pretty dang important. And understanding conflicts in the consolidation between Weilu and Imperial spirituality also feels like a pretty decent source of inspiration for our own project of creating a Emerald Seas cultural identity. Understanding their worldview and how it interacted with Imperial doctrine is just what we need to revive the best parts of the Weilu's practices and harmoniously weaving them into the cultural sphere with our wide outreach. This is a perfect opportunity.
[X] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.
I feel like if we're trying to understand the Arch-Heretic then understanding the Weilu's orthodoxy spirituality is pretty dang important. And understanding conflicts in the consolidation between Weilu and Imperial spirituality also feels like a pretty decent source of inspiration for our own project of creating a Emerald Seas cultural identity. Understanding their worldview and how it interacted with Imperial doctrine is just what we need to revive the best parts of the Weilu's practices and harmoniously weaving them into the cultural sphere with our wide outreach. This is a perfect opportunity.
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CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] The Weilu's isolationism, how it came about and manifested.
[X] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.
They're both good tbh
[X] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.
They're both good tbh
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SleepyCaterpilar
Just a Rapariga
[X] The Weilu's isolationism, how it came about and manifested.
[X] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.
- Pronouns
- He
[X] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.
NoxOfUmbra
Shadow of the night
- Location
- Colombia, South América
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] The Weilu's spiritualism, and how it reacted to consolidation.