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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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[X] The ethereal green lights of the Grinning Moon.
{Laughing Flight of the Wind Thief; Mobility and Stealth Art}
 
PrimalShadow said:
Ooof. Pretty good odds that we reinforced that last bit there by choosing to leave the Sect.

Disappointing our mentors was always the thing that made me saddest about not staying in the Sect.
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I will say that from the tone of the section it seems that by being a disappointment the other students that held their interest did not turn out to be much. At the very least Ling Qi is making a splash and should be fun to watch. But I agree that the saddest part of leaving the sect is leaving Elder Jiao and Xin.
 
Lena27 said:
Wait what? I was under the impression that Gu Xiulan abortive relationship with Han Jian was due to him finally being direct with her, that he didn't have feelings for her?
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PrimalShadow said:
It is unknown how Han Jian felt romantically about Xiulan. The reason he gave us wasn't based on personal feelings; it was based on the match being unfeasible politically.
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yrsillar said:
He wished things between the Gu and the Han were simpler, that his silly childish promise wasn't impossible
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It's implied that Han Jian did have feelings for Gu Xiulan, both from the above quote and that his plans (to, if possible, give his spot to her) entail a level of personal sacrifice greater than one shows to a mere estranged friend.

PrimalShadow said:
Disappointing our mentors was always the thing that made me saddest about not staying in the Sect.
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Elder Sima Jiao is likely disappointed, but I'm not sure Aunt Xin is.

Theo Promes said:
Well, yes I do, because in the feudal system of our setting, the relationships between individuals are explicitly political. Marriages are used to secure political alliances, personal friendships between people are a direct expression of political power. Just look at Bai Meizhen's friendship with Cai Renxiang resulting in a burgeoning wider alliance between the Bai and Cai. Gu Xiulan's abortive relationship with Han Jian due to political concerns.

For this setting, there is little difference between the relationship of Cai Shenhua to some other noble, and the relationship of Clan Cai to that other noble's clan. Politics pervade into personal relationships far more than we are used to it, in modern times.
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Nonetheless, the distinction about what Alma (as well as I myself) enjoys reading about is still valid. It's one thing to read about, for example, the friendship between Ling Qi and Su Ling, and it's quite another to read about, for example, a member of a ministry attending a banquet as a function of her job as one of the cogs in the institution. Maybe "I don't care for politics" isn't the best way to phrase that distinction, but no amount of saying that "Ling Qi's friendship with Su Ling is politics too" will change what we enjoy reading about.
 
Disappointed in this art choice, I won't lie.

Not surprised - I expected GM to win, but the Mantle art sounded absolutely beautiful.

Think this is the first vote I've disagreed with. Odd feeling.
 
I sympathize with @Anima, even if I don't neccesarily agree.

I mean, who amongst us has not had at least one occasion where you're banging your head against the keyboard in frustration that the rest of the questers just can't get it through their heads how obviously wrong they are?
 
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Yeangst said:
I sympathize with @Anima, even if I don't neccesarily agree.

I mean, who amongst us has not had at least one occasion where your banging your head against the keyboard frustration that the rest of the questers just can't get it through their heads how obviously wrong they are?
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Not me. I think all the leading votes that I've disagreed with have had reasonable arguments backing them, which is why I've changed my own vote so many times.
 
[X] The ethereal green lights of the Grinning Moon.
{Laughing Flight of the Wind Thief; Mobility and Stealth Art}

Sneaky sneaky sneaky.
Stealth and mobility will be useful both in and out of combat.
 
So, uhh....

larkins said:
You're using different definitions of politics. You're including relationships between individuals. I believe Anima is referring to institutions and their relationships.
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Raising Kittens said:
Not really - 'politics' basically covers all interpersonal relationships, in all situations. School, work, sports teams, business... it's all 'politics'. Who you're friends with, who likes you or doesn't, reputation, etc, all comes into play.

You're associating 'politics' explicitly with the 'national' and 'international' variety, which is far more limiting than it actually is.
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I have made my point, which is that politics is a driving factor behind FoD from day one. I'll leave you two to argue the definition between yourselves at your leisure ;)
 
PrimalShadow said:
Ooof. Pretty good odds that we reinforced that last bit there by choosing to leave the Sect.

Disappointing our mentors was always the thing that made me saddest about not staying in the Sect.
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Thinking back to his comments after our tournament fight with Ji Rong, I'm pretty sure we didn't end up a disappointment so much as he was merely disappointed we didn't choose to stay on (and subsequently become his disciple). Main thing I can think of which would've disappointed him would be if we were mediocre, and that's something I don't see happening for a good long while, if ever.

It probably helps that we're now using his style when teaching students of our own (like poor Xiao Fen).
 
Theo Promes said:
So, uhh....





I have made my point, which is that politics is a driving factor behind FoD from day one. I'll leave you two to argue the definition between yourselves at your leisure ;)
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Eh? I wasn't disputing that; I was disputing your statement:
'Politics pervade into personal relationships far more than we are used to it, in modern times.'

I was not explaining the 'definition' of the word 'politics' to you.

I was trying to inform you that you were wrong in that specific statement, and why you were wrong, in that the reality of 'politics' extends to everything anybody ever does.

That you are being condescending... really suppose I should have expected it, this is the internet, but it doesn't excuse it.
 
PrimalShadow said:
Ooof. Pretty good odds that we reinforced that last bit there by choosing to leave the Sect.

Disappointing our mentors was always the thing that made me saddest about not staying in the Sect.
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Not really, they were disappointed that Shenhua's politics bullshit meant that they couldn't actually tell us about the offer and had to merely drop vague hints about it compared to CRX being able to go all out on trying to sell us on her explicit offer.

If anything they're probably proud of us even if they wish they could have had the chance to convince us to stay
 
I just remembered that Ling Qi's mother is researching and studying all the propriety that comes with being a noble house and training all the servants.
Only the clan head has no idea how any of that stuff works.

We're probably going to have to be educated by mom, again.
The crazy demon said:
The Imperial Cultivation style runs on spirit stones, but it's not the only way to cultivate.

Last update mentioned people testing themselves in blizzards and self mutilation in order to cultivate, to use a recent example.
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I wonder if the speed of these methods is proportional to the danger involved?
 
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Lena27 said:
Ah well. Either way, it seems you're going to get what you want bc the Grinning Moon option is pretty far ahead. I won't mind that outcome too much, it does fit with her background well. I just think a lot of us don't value defense enough, it shouldn't be constantly neglected in favor of stealth.
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Aside from how we haven't really had a proper stealth art before (ENM was a possibility for next turn, and stealth needs decent+ investment to actually work), it would be helpful to think of stealth as another layer of an overall defense strategy; hard to hit something you can't target.

Our other layers are filters (similar but slightly different from stealth), dodging, and armor (and technically Six based self-cleanse). We've seen in our spar with Cai and the challenge against swordboy, TRF or something like it is enough to let us deal with incoming damage so long as we're dodging and phasing through most of it with SCS. A superlative stealth art would make us all but untouchable to single target attacks, while mobility, dodge and the decent armor we do have should let us deal with AoE's.

If I had to point at our major build weaknesses, I'd say they're as follows:
> lack of proper spiritual defense (fade). SES and Six give us decent armor and self cleansing but we're too easily hit.
> counters, very strong ones that can work through spiritual attacks like Meizhen's (who can counter us through out field effects) would negate much of our defense by bypassing dodge and stealth. The realistic way to handle it is either of:
- stronger spiritual defense (the exposed vector for counters on most of our offense). Something we want to work on anyway since we need to shore up sp.def.
- exotic stealth bullshit (muddle the connection so it's harder to attack us through our arts), something we might get from the grinning moon art (or something ENM-like).
- 'soft' offense that's hard to counter, effects like lunatic whirl which prevent the use of arm meridian arts (presumably needed for stronger damaging counters, though SES is pure spine).
 
Black Noise said:
If I had to point at our major build weaknesses, I'd say they're as follows:
> lack of proper spiritual defense (fade). SES and Six give us decent armor and self cleansing but we're too easily hit.
> counters, very strong ones that can work through spiritual attacks like Meizhen's (who can counter us through out field effects) would negate much of our defense by bypassing dodge and stealth. The realistic way to handle it is either of:
- stronger spiritual defense (the exposed vector for counters on most of our offense). Something we want to work on anyway since we need to shore up sp.def.
- exotic stealth bullshit (muddle the connection so it's harder to attack us through our arts), something we might get from the grinning moon art (or something ENM-like).
- 'soft' offense that's hard to counter, effects like lunatic whirl which prevent the use of arm meridian arts (presumably needed for stronger damaging counters, though SES is pure spine).
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This is a very good argument for us to pick up a spiritual defense art ASAP. It's fairly likely we'll face a counter if we make a spiritual attack, so it seems to be one of our most important secondary attributes. Picking up DLS seems like a good idea, especially if Wind Thief allows us to use combat stealth. Hopefully we can get a Cai art that improves both our physical and spiritual defense, like the current Hidden Moon art, as well.
 
Mmm, the way I see it, the Starlight Mantle would probably help us with our "If you can rock powerful dispels you win vs Ling Qi" issue, but obscurity is also a strong defense.
 
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