They were viscounts before their fall, they were rising pretty quickly.
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.
- Location
- United Kingdom
I don't think there's anything to smooth over. The majority of the ducals there sent a rep of their own accord without us needing to invite them, so we can't really be blamed for not inviting the Guo.
I just mean clarifying that we didn't mean it as an insult and we were just using a relevant political connection. The Guo do have an obligation to be offended if we were doing some kind of weird power game at them. Simply letting them know that wasn't our intention should be enough.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Personally, i feel like them getting pissy cause Ling Qi talked with someone she knew about something that might of been of interest to them, instead of trying to talk directly to them, would be pretty ridiculous. Especially since as stated, they didn't show up to the summit at all.
That'd be like not going to an important meeting, and then getting mad that people at the meeting discussed things relevant to it without you. I'd even go as far to say that doing such a thing would make you look pathetic.
That'd be like not going to an important meeting, and then getting mad that people at the meeting discussed things relevant to it without you. I'd even go as far to say that doing such a thing would make you look pathetic.
Not quite. It's not that we went and talked to other people in the meeting. It's that we went and recruited one of their underlings to help with something in the meeting without telling them.
They don't have an obligation to be offended about it. After all, they did skip the meeting, implying they didn't particularly care about what happened there. And we have a direct personal connection to the Han.
But they do have justification to be offended, if they wanted to. Not enough to do anything directly (without looking like pathetic jerks, that is), but they could still tut disapprovingly or make some offhand comments about "that young retainer of the Cai, not using proper channels". And the disapproving tuts of a neighboring Ducal clan have enough weight to be felt.
So going over, being polite and courteous, is the smart diplomatic thing to do. We probably shouldn't apologize (since that implies we were wrong to do what we did), but stress we have the utmost respect for the Guo and their wise rulership of the Golden Fields. If that is Han Jian's fiancé, perhaps even share some lighthearted stories from the Sect.
We are Renxiang's chief diplomat. It doesn't matter if someone is in the right or wrong about being offended, our job is to make sure they are not offended.
- Location
- Finland
Hanyi, like her mother, could in theory live as long as the concept of cold weather exists, sublime or not, wether or not she can become sublime, i don't know, maybe.
Zhengui might have a potential limit to how old he can get without hitting sublime, but if he does hit sublime (which i think is possible), then he too will be basicly immortal.
- Location
- Washington
My understanding is "abstract" spirits ascend in a manner much more like cultivators do, becoming an aspect of a greater spirit.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
That's true, people do get offended by things they really shouldn't all the time, and we'd have to deal with it either way.
Zeqing's age is impossible to pinpoint, but if I remember correctly the estimates for when Hanyi's conception occurred are somewhere between 4 and 7 thousand years ago? Hanyi's a lot less environmentally anchored, which could affect things quite a bit, but the template she's working from has the potential for a very long lifespan.
Zhengui can be expected to live many thousands of years "just" by hitting Violet realm. Xuanwu are a long-lived species.
Zhengui can be expected to live many thousands of years "just" by hitting Violet realm. Xuanwu are a long-lived species.
Snow
Doka
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Probably more like thishuh, I imagine this looks something like this?
Edit: More information on this style of headgear, from wikipedia.
Last edited:
- Location
- FR
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Zhengui stayed at Snowblossom
Year 46, Month 1 Arc 3-4
New
In the serene silence that filled the vast space, the faint creak of wooden doors opening, and the soft clink of fine porcelain was almost loud. Diao Linqin's hands gracefully took the tea set placed, before her and began to brew.
That was the solution gone with. It was a surprisingly mundane one. The simple jade tablets within the battered cabinet hung from their hooks in silence as a prism cultivator, one step from the pinnacle, brewed a mundane pot of tea.
"Honored Mother, Honored Father, and ancestors all, this one humbly requests your approval to reside in your halls, sup at your table, and join hands with thy daughter. Please, partake in this small offering."
Diao Linqin's voice was soft and demure, far from the sharp and uncompromising tone Ling Qi was used to from their few interactions. It was a simple solution, one practiced all across the Empire. If one lacked any living elders, offer to their tablets, and a priest would interpret the omens as approval or disapproval. Sometimes it involved flipped coins, sometimes other methods of divination.
The Duchess too bowed her head, it felt almost fundamentally wrong to see. "Mother, Father. This dutiful daughter asks for nothing else."
Her voice too sounded wrong, sounded almost mortal. Ling Qi did not even begin to dare to really extend her senses, to try and look into and understand the strange feeling she got from seeing Cai Shenhua's eyes dim, almost imperceptibly.
"I would thump you over the head if you did," Sixiang whispered.
She wasn't sure how that would help.
"It would make me feel better before we both got vaporized."
Still, her attention roved to Zhu Fan, she supposed he would perform the divination. Of course, the outcome was certainly not in doubt, but there was a certain ceremony to things… Only, Zhu Fan did not appear to be preparing anything of the sort. He was the one who had opened the ancestral cabinet, he had lit the incense that burned on the altar and he was now sprinkling a handful of tiny flower petals over the surface of the wedding wine poured into oath chalice.
But Ling Qi even at this distance, did feel the slight shift in his attention as two cups of tea were placed gracefully down.
She followed the line of it and noted the worried tic in his cheek.
Back at the guest table, the woman who could only be the Empress, raised a dainty porcelain pale hand.
Power invaded the Throne of Seasons, a flowing torrent from far away, funneling down into the receptacle that occupied a dining chair seat. It was a cold power, a deep power, it smelled of lilies and fresh grave loam. It was an authority, whose barest taste she had gotten, invoking the Celestial Dragon against the Weeping Mother, imperious and unchallenged. It was a set of scales hanging in judgment over every second of every day of her life.
It passed so quickly, and Ling Qi felt, down in her bones what felt like the vibration of impossibly heavy gates being dragged open, and a rush of cold wind as every light in the throne room burned a ghastly pale green.
She saw something like flickering smoke, barely visible even to her eyes, standing over the Duchess and the Prime Minister, two figures impossibly distant and yet also somehow immediately present.
The tea set out drained from the cups.
And that sepulchral qi drained away as lights flickered back to their normal colors.
Ling Qi was stunned for a moment, and she could feel she was not the only one. That was.. What was that? It was obvious on the face of it, but absurd for it. The dead were… gone. Shades and echoes could linger on, they could be communicated with perhaps in unclear and fuzzy ways, such as the normal divination methods she had thought would be used, but…
Inexorable Justice.
The previous Emperor had ascended under that name. Patron of the Ministry of Integrity… and the Judge of the Dead. She understood that within the orthodox imperial cults, it was accepted that the Great Spirit he had become was the ultimate arbiter of vice and virtue, of reward and punishment for wicked deeds.
That was the inexorable part.
But there was a difference between a cult's dogma and the demonstrable reality… The dead were beyond reach.
"...Stuff really is changing fast," Sixiang murmured.
Cai Shenhua and her bride rose, resplendent, not a touch of that grave qi lingering in their presence.
The silence of the guests was almost deafening. Ling Qi knew without a doubt that very few had been expecting such a display. Bai Suzhen looked as if she had bitten into something deeply sour, though her expression cleared quickly. The older woman among the Guo was frozen in almost lifeless stillness.
…This had not just been a display by the Duchess though. Whatever the Empress had done, she had certainly done as more than a favor to a friend. It was a… display.
Of the power of the priesthood of Inexorable Justice, the Ministry of Integrity? Of the Throne… Ling Qi simply couldn't know.
Zhu Fan, to his credit, did not pause in stepping forward, the nuptial chalice held in both of his hands, presented to the brides.
"It is spoken, it is done. Through the heavenly pillar, through the Gates of Seasons, the bride has passed, accepted under heaven and above the earth, to the court of the pillar. The elders of the clan Cai, holders of the Throne, have spoken, drink deep, and be bound, as heaven and earth are bound."
"This day, I take Diao Linquin, as my own," Cai Shenhua said, in a voice of celestial thunder, booming out through the court.
"This day, I accept the oath of Cai Shenhua, and become her own," Diao Linqin replied, a soft voice that filled the silence, in the wake of booming command, in a thousand echoed whispers, touched by yearning want.
From the chalice, both drank deep in turns until it lay empty, the wine infused with Xiangmen's qi emptied to the last drop.
Cai Shenhua's eyes burned bright enough to blind a mortal, even without looking directly at her.
"And now! Let all take their seats. It is time for the toasts!"
***
******
It was, Ling Qi decided, almost morbidly fascinating, watching a cultivator of the eighth realm, by almost any measure a near-divine being walking upon the earth, very steadily become drunk.
"I mean I keep trying to get you to go to more of Auntie's parties, but you keep saying no. Better get used to it before you go on that trip with Bao boy!"
What was even in those cups being poured, Ling Qi wondered, not even acknowledging Sixiang's silliness.
"I'd tell you, but I think I'd melt if I tried to check."
Well, on that, they were stone-dead serious at least.
She knew, intellectually, that the bride and groom were meant to take a moment to drink with each guest at their wedding. The Groom a quaff, the bride, a sip at least. She had not really squared that with the hundreds of dignitaries and officials and nobles in attendance.
"It is considered rude for the bride or groom to use simulacra," Meng Dan chuckled beside her. "It does make this stretch of ceremony drag on a little."
The cups used for the toast were much smaller than the great chalice used for the vow, but still exquisitely shaped from scraps of Xiangmen bark. There was an immense keg stored somewhere she could tell, as the cup refilled itself again and again. The mere fumes of accessing the liquor, wherever it was, made her head feel a little fuzzy. But far more than that was the dread of seeing a slight drunken flush beginning to climb the Duchess' cheeks as she attended each of her guests.
They thankfully did not count, being accessories to Renxiang. She didn't know if she could have handled even a thimbleful of whatever was being poured up there at the high tables.
…She hoped Renxiang was going to be okay.
She and the other retainers were seated down among the officials and officers, their special position lapsing down to something more reasonable in the seating arrangements. They were still largely surrounded by men and women centuries their senior and fourth realm besides, but there were at least some people around them at the upper end of the third realm and with the feel of cultivators in their first century.
There was a great deal of quiet chatter going on, in whispers and behind sleeves, much less hidden than in the procession. Small refreshments were laid across the table, sumptuous appetizers, and light drinks for the guests as the long, long ceremonial toasting finished.
"Indeed! At one's own wedding, implying that your guests do not merit your full attention…. Hah, you would be a poor host indeed. Goodness though… the vintage. I Do wonder…"
"Zheng brewed, it was among the wedding gifts brought by the guests," An official, sitting nearby said, plucking at one of the dishes daintily with a pair of chopsticks. "Such a potency though…"
"Personally brewed by our Zheng guest himself. Ah… A Wuneng vineyard blend… what I might do for a sip…" another sighed.
"Pass out on the floor," A third chuckled. "None of us without a fully formed gut pearl has any business with that."
Ling Qi smiled, chuckling politely. "I see…
She felt Qiyi shift around her shoulders, and glanced down curiously. Her gown had been… strangely quiet, first through the gates, and then during the ceremony. Qiyi's attention though… it lay where it had been fixed since they arrived.
On Cai Shenhua.
Awe, curiosity, and… for the first time, not a little fear, she felt through her connection to the gown spirit.
"The toasts are winding down, and the first day's feast will come soon enough," Xia Lin said. "Without a doubt, there are less potent blends of Wuneng that will be available to us."
"Oh? Has the heiress shared the menu then? I did not think her the type," one of the officials nearby said
"No, but my fellows were in charge of security for the shipment," Xia Lin replied calmly.
"Ahh, the White Plumes are ever reliable…"
Ling Qi tuned out of the conversation, keeping only enough of an ear upon it to be able to jump back in if she was referred to, her gaze wandering up to the tables where the count clans were seated. Because, since she had sat down, she had felt an attention on hr. Never overbearing, never pressing. But also clearly not trying to hide.
Her eyes fell on a tall man left of the center of the seating He was a tall, thin man, with a narrow face only accentuated by the oiled point of the beard hanging from his chin. On his head was a dark cloth wrap, fixed with a bright clear black jewel set in silver fixing. He was not looking at her. He was not gesturing toward her, or in any way showing interest. He gestured, the pale grey silk of his robe glinting metallic under the light as he spoke with a much younger woman, who was wearing similar colors.
Jia Hong, patriarch of the Jia clan, one of Cai Shenhua's inner circle of supporters during her rebellion, was an equal to the heron General Xia Ren. he was not looking at her at all. And yet, she understood without a doubt that she had his attention.
She took a deep breath rejoining the easy conversation as Meng Dan cast her a curious look. She smiled at him. "Just thinking of the appointments I have to keep."
Huisheng had given her an assignment, and it seemed her target was aware to a degree.
"I see," Meng Dan said, swirling the light clear wine in his cup. "Already have the order in your head?"
"Perhaps," Ling Qi said.
[ ] She would approach Jia Hong, simply, and boldly, taking what initiative she could.
[ ] She would allow him to approach her, to suss out how much he could see.
That was the solution gone with. It was a surprisingly mundane one. The simple jade tablets within the battered cabinet hung from their hooks in silence as a prism cultivator, one step from the pinnacle, brewed a mundane pot of tea.
"Honored Mother, Honored Father, and ancestors all, this one humbly requests your approval to reside in your halls, sup at your table, and join hands with thy daughter. Please, partake in this small offering."
Diao Linqin's voice was soft and demure, far from the sharp and uncompromising tone Ling Qi was used to from their few interactions. It was a simple solution, one practiced all across the Empire. If one lacked any living elders, offer to their tablets, and a priest would interpret the omens as approval or disapproval. Sometimes it involved flipped coins, sometimes other methods of divination.
The Duchess too bowed her head, it felt almost fundamentally wrong to see. "Mother, Father. This dutiful daughter asks for nothing else."
Her voice too sounded wrong, sounded almost mortal. Ling Qi did not even begin to dare to really extend her senses, to try and look into and understand the strange feeling she got from seeing Cai Shenhua's eyes dim, almost imperceptibly.
"I would thump you over the head if you did," Sixiang whispered.
She wasn't sure how that would help.
"It would make me feel better before we both got vaporized."
Still, her attention roved to Zhu Fan, she supposed he would perform the divination. Of course, the outcome was certainly not in doubt, but there was a certain ceremony to things… Only, Zhu Fan did not appear to be preparing anything of the sort. He was the one who had opened the ancestral cabinet, he had lit the incense that burned on the altar and he was now sprinkling a handful of tiny flower petals over the surface of the wedding wine poured into oath chalice.
But Ling Qi even at this distance, did feel the slight shift in his attention as two cups of tea were placed gracefully down.
She followed the line of it and noted the worried tic in his cheek.
Back at the guest table, the woman who could only be the Empress, raised a dainty porcelain pale hand.
Power invaded the Throne of Seasons, a flowing torrent from far away, funneling down into the receptacle that occupied a dining chair seat. It was a cold power, a deep power, it smelled of lilies and fresh grave loam. It was an authority, whose barest taste she had gotten, invoking the Celestial Dragon against the Weeping Mother, imperious and unchallenged. It was a set of scales hanging in judgment over every second of every day of her life.
It passed so quickly, and Ling Qi felt, down in her bones what felt like the vibration of impossibly heavy gates being dragged open, and a rush of cold wind as every light in the throne room burned a ghastly pale green.
She saw something like flickering smoke, barely visible even to her eyes, standing over the Duchess and the Prime Minister, two figures impossibly distant and yet also somehow immediately present.
The tea set out drained from the cups.
And that sepulchral qi drained away as lights flickered back to their normal colors.
Ling Qi was stunned for a moment, and she could feel she was not the only one. That was.. What was that? It was obvious on the face of it, but absurd for it. The dead were… gone. Shades and echoes could linger on, they could be communicated with perhaps in unclear and fuzzy ways, such as the normal divination methods she had thought would be used, but…
Inexorable Justice.
The previous Emperor had ascended under that name. Patron of the Ministry of Integrity… and the Judge of the Dead. She understood that within the orthodox imperial cults, it was accepted that the Great Spirit he had become was the ultimate arbiter of vice and virtue, of reward and punishment for wicked deeds.
That was the inexorable part.
But there was a difference between a cult's dogma and the demonstrable reality… The dead were beyond reach.
"...Stuff really is changing fast," Sixiang murmured.
Cai Shenhua and her bride rose, resplendent, not a touch of that grave qi lingering in their presence.
The silence of the guests was almost deafening. Ling Qi knew without a doubt that very few had been expecting such a display. Bai Suzhen looked as if she had bitten into something deeply sour, though her expression cleared quickly. The older woman among the Guo was frozen in almost lifeless stillness.
…This had not just been a display by the Duchess though. Whatever the Empress had done, she had certainly done as more than a favor to a friend. It was a… display.
Of the power of the priesthood of Inexorable Justice, the Ministry of Integrity? Of the Throne… Ling Qi simply couldn't know.
Zhu Fan, to his credit, did not pause in stepping forward, the nuptial chalice held in both of his hands, presented to the brides.
"It is spoken, it is done. Through the heavenly pillar, through the Gates of Seasons, the bride has passed, accepted under heaven and above the earth, to the court of the pillar. The elders of the clan Cai, holders of the Throne, have spoken, drink deep, and be bound, as heaven and earth are bound."
"This day, I take Diao Linquin, as my own," Cai Shenhua said, in a voice of celestial thunder, booming out through the court.
"This day, I accept the oath of Cai Shenhua, and become her own," Diao Linqin replied, a soft voice that filled the silence, in the wake of booming command, in a thousand echoed whispers, touched by yearning want.
From the chalice, both drank deep in turns until it lay empty, the wine infused with Xiangmen's qi emptied to the last drop.
Cai Shenhua's eyes burned bright enough to blind a mortal, even without looking directly at her.
"And now! Let all take their seats. It is time for the toasts!"
***
******
It was, Ling Qi decided, almost morbidly fascinating, watching a cultivator of the eighth realm, by almost any measure a near-divine being walking upon the earth, very steadily become drunk.
"I mean I keep trying to get you to go to more of Auntie's parties, but you keep saying no. Better get used to it before you go on that trip with Bao boy!"
What was even in those cups being poured, Ling Qi wondered, not even acknowledging Sixiang's silliness.
"I'd tell you, but I think I'd melt if I tried to check."
Well, on that, they were stone-dead serious at least.
She knew, intellectually, that the bride and groom were meant to take a moment to drink with each guest at their wedding. The Groom a quaff, the bride, a sip at least. She had not really squared that with the hundreds of dignitaries and officials and nobles in attendance.
"It is considered rude for the bride or groom to use simulacra," Meng Dan chuckled beside her. "It does make this stretch of ceremony drag on a little."
The cups used for the toast were much smaller than the great chalice used for the vow, but still exquisitely shaped from scraps of Xiangmen bark. There was an immense keg stored somewhere she could tell, as the cup refilled itself again and again. The mere fumes of accessing the liquor, wherever it was, made her head feel a little fuzzy. But far more than that was the dread of seeing a slight drunken flush beginning to climb the Duchess' cheeks as she attended each of her guests.
They thankfully did not count, being accessories to Renxiang. She didn't know if she could have handled even a thimbleful of whatever was being poured up there at the high tables.
…She hoped Renxiang was going to be okay.
She and the other retainers were seated down among the officials and officers, their special position lapsing down to something more reasonable in the seating arrangements. They were still largely surrounded by men and women centuries their senior and fourth realm besides, but there were at least some people around them at the upper end of the third realm and with the feel of cultivators in their first century.
There was a great deal of quiet chatter going on, in whispers and behind sleeves, much less hidden than in the procession. Small refreshments were laid across the table, sumptuous appetizers, and light drinks for the guests as the long, long ceremonial toasting finished.
"Indeed! At one's own wedding, implying that your guests do not merit your full attention…. Hah, you would be a poor host indeed. Goodness though… the vintage. I Do wonder…"
"Zheng brewed, it was among the wedding gifts brought by the guests," An official, sitting nearby said, plucking at one of the dishes daintily with a pair of chopsticks. "Such a potency though…"
"Personally brewed by our Zheng guest himself. Ah… A Wuneng vineyard blend… what I might do for a sip…" another sighed.
"Pass out on the floor," A third chuckled. "None of us without a fully formed gut pearl has any business with that."
Ling Qi smiled, chuckling politely. "I see…
She felt Qiyi shift around her shoulders, and glanced down curiously. Her gown had been… strangely quiet, first through the gates, and then during the ceremony. Qiyi's attention though… it lay where it had been fixed since they arrived.
On Cai Shenhua.
Awe, curiosity, and… for the first time, not a little fear, she felt through her connection to the gown spirit.
"The toasts are winding down, and the first day's feast will come soon enough," Xia Lin said. "Without a doubt, there are less potent blends of Wuneng that will be available to us."
"Oh? Has the heiress shared the menu then? I did not think her the type," one of the officials nearby said
"No, but my fellows were in charge of security for the shipment," Xia Lin replied calmly.
"Ahh, the White Plumes are ever reliable…"
Ling Qi tuned out of the conversation, keeping only enough of an ear upon it to be able to jump back in if she was referred to, her gaze wandering up to the tables where the count clans were seated. Because, since she had sat down, she had felt an attention on hr. Never overbearing, never pressing. But also clearly not trying to hide.
Her eyes fell on a tall man left of the center of the seating He was a tall, thin man, with a narrow face only accentuated by the oiled point of the beard hanging from his chin. On his head was a dark cloth wrap, fixed with a bright clear black jewel set in silver fixing. He was not looking at her. He was not gesturing toward her, or in any way showing interest. He gestured, the pale grey silk of his robe glinting metallic under the light as he spoke with a much younger woman, who was wearing similar colors.
Jia Hong, patriarch of the Jia clan, one of Cai Shenhua's inner circle of supporters during her rebellion, was an equal to the heron General Xia Ren. he was not looking at her at all. And yet, she understood without a doubt that she had his attention.
She took a deep breath rejoining the easy conversation as Meng Dan cast her a curious look. She smiled at him. "Just thinking of the appointments I have to keep."
Huisheng had given her an assignment, and it seemed her target was aware to a degree.
"I see," Meng Dan said, swirling the light clear wine in his cup. "Already have the order in your head?"
"Perhaps," Ling Qi said.
[ ] She would approach Jia Hong, simply, and boldly, taking what initiative she could.
[ ] She would allow him to approach her, to suss out how much he could see.
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Peering to deep into that can get you killed. That is immensely personal and likely the few shards of mortality she has left.
Ay yo WTF!?!!?!?
She's making a statement the question is what it is.
The question is does Inexorable Justice have authority over Bai and other Duke clan souls and to what degree.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The most human we've ever seen her. Respect from a daughter to her dead parents.
Hot damn that is a lovely gesture and a huge flex.
Yah, the Bai's own Inviolate Death is the Sovereign that made death, uh, inviolate. The reason why it's supposed to be impossible normally. And it's getting bypassed so publicly.
Sure but wasnt Yaos Ascension just basically "the dead stay dead, no more coming back to life"?
This does not appear to go against that law.
Mr.Error
The Clock-Hand that Tampers with Time
- Location
- The Cosmos
- Pronouns
- He/Him
All of them? Inexorable Justice is the 'judge all equally' ascension so
Might change later:
[ ] She would approach Jia Hong, simply, and boldly, taking what initiative she could.