In the most traditional portions of the Empire, in the country manors, the towns and villages and small cities, few spirits are so widely and consistently worshiped as the solar and lunar spirits. Great Spirits as old as the Empire itself and more. Though that worship has changed and shifted, grown and shrunk, even during the height of the late ...
2023-09-17 20:26:47 +0000 UTC View Post“I am not concerned. You will convey the truth of the Sundering Vale to your compatriots,” Dzintara said plainly.
“I will,” Ling Qi said. Her mind was already racing for the words she would use.
<It’s a sublime ancestor. Don’t poke it,> Sixiang suggested in a murmur, falling silent for a moment as Ling Qi pushed the...
2023-09-14 23:26:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe mist expanded. It flowed from under the hem of her gown, shrouding the grove. It billowed from her sleeves, and a flute of translucent ice crystalized in her hands. A dusting of frost rippled out from her tread as she took a single step forward. She observed Dzintara as she raised the instrument to her lips.
The woman in front of her t...
2023-09-11 23:37:40 +0000 UTC View PostAN: Apologies everyone this was meant to be posted yesterday.
“I will not fail you today, Lady Mingxia.”
Xiao Yan knelt at the bedside, her own sleeping robe pooled about her feet as the light of dawn filtered through the slats covering the windows. Her lady’s bedchambers were cavernous, but sparsely furnished....
2023-09-11 14:22:15 +0000 UTC View Post“As the doors of the great hall creaked shut behind them, Gu Xiulan cast a glance up at Zheng Nan, her lips curling up in a smirk. “My, I have never seen you squirm like that.”
“Yeah well, the Ambassador’s intent wasn’t crawling under your skin,” Zheng Nan grumbled. “Feels like the lady wanted to skin me alive.”
...
What it says on on the tin folks, come on by if you've ever had a lore or setting question!
2023-09-06 19:05:18 +0000 UTC View PostThe air above was hot and dry, and the harsh wind wicked away the sheen of sweat on my brow. All around me was the gleaming skeleton of civilization. The bare bones inviolable frames of towers a hundred stories high and more jutting in the south, toward the center of ruin, and the distant buzzing shapes of the still active hornets-the flying aut...
2023-09-04 23:05:50 +0000 UTC View Post“Explain this failure now.”
Her Lady’s voice was a whipcrack, as cold as the depths of Lake Hei, and it filled Xiao Yan with shame and the taste of bile in the back of her throat.
“I was outmaneuvered, Mistress, there are no excuses.”
She had pride enough for that, to not give petty ‘explanations’ that were but th...
2023-08-30 19:46:12 +0000 UTC View PostJust testing out doing an alert for this here too. Come one down to the discord, link found in the directory and go to the Wednesday Q&A if you have any setting lore questions no matter how small or silly.!
2023-08-30 17:52:35 +0000 UTC View Post“So it is something your scholars have an interest in as well?” Jaromila asked.
“It is. Her Grace has indicated some interest in celestial phenomena. If your people could be convinced to share their knowledge, I believe I can convince ours to share their equipment.”
“Superb. That is one more item which can be used to drive ...
2023-08-28 20:33:24 +0000 UTC View PostTo use the same framework by which she examined the previous Beast Gods, then the Vermin God was power which arose from emptiness of the self. It was the power represented by consumption without thought, building nothing, only taking. It was the same sort of power Su Ling’s mother had and Bleak Sky’s Yearning had, a bottomless hunger that co...
2023-08-24 22:59:46 +0000 UTC View Post“And what is the purpose of this?”
“C’mon, help me out here. Princess gave the okay. The baroness wants to talk to a few of us because…”
Ji Rong glanced toward her, raising his eyebrows as if to say “take it away.”
“Among our guests is a faction which lives south of the Red Jungle. They have knowledge of a cre...
2023-08-21 21:21:17 +0000 UTC View PostAN: Here we have the beginning of a three part series exploring a 'normal' relationship between and White Serpent and Black Viper. Enjoy!
Bai Mingxia stood tall and straight, her pale white and blue gown, cut and embroidered to resemble cascading waters, shimmering under the light. She held her shoulders out and her chin u...
2023-08-20 13:25:06 +0000 UTC View Post“They’re quarrying them out mostly,” Ji Rong said.
“Excuse me?”
“There’s basically three big camps down there that they’re building up. Supposedly, Liling’s gramps had his astrologers do some big ritual thing after they killed the tribes in the foothills. Then he went out and struck three different mountains along t...
2023-08-17 23:16:52 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi blinked and managed to keep her reaction to the meaning gleaned from a moment spent listening so closely to that heartbeat to herself.
“Thirdly is your territorial claims. We already spoke of this in public, of course.”
“Yeah, yeah, you wanna get everyone on the same page so we don’t go stabbing your little buddies to...
2023-08-15 00:33:56 +0000 UTC View PostThey descended to the heavy vibration of the advancing column. It took everything from the lower realm riders to maintain the calm and control of their steeds, but Gu Xiulan was proud to say that none of her men allowed their beasts to panic or for the order of march to be disrupted. They maintained their formation in the face of the incessant b...
2023-08-10 19:17:49 +0000 UTC View PostAN: So here it is the first chapter of a new story in a new setting, patron exlusive for now at least. I hope everyone will enjoy this diversion and come to look forward to it as well.
The wind rushed past my ears as I fell into the darkness. Luxuriating in the feeling of freefall, my heart pounded in my ears. P...
2023-08-07 21:36:26 +0000 UTC View PostAN: This one will make a bit more sense for patreon readers in just a little bit here
It was easy to think a thing, say a thing, plan a thing. But the doing was always more fraught. So it was here too. Ling Qingge had found strength here, of a sort. She did not know if it was the mystic effect of cultivation on her will an...
2023-08-06 17:35:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe interior of the hall was empty, still filled with tools and the signs of work being done. There, she saw two familiar figures. Xuan Shi stood by a cracked span of paneling, and beside him, Xia Lin, with her helmet off and her hand on her hip, looked very vexed.
“Baroness,” Xia Lin greeted, looking over Xuan Shi’s head. The word d...
2023-08-03 21:20:10 +0000 UTC View PostHere's reminding everyone the first Author Q&A will be tomorrow and I'll be active in the channel and answering questions from 2pm to 4pm EST!
Just take the Discord link in the directory and head to the Wednesday channel in the Patron Exclusives
2023-08-01 22:32:29 +0000 UTC View Post“Will you agree that we should at least hear the matter from the other side?” Ling Qi strode forward, leaving the medical tent behind. Her longer stride carried her a bit faster than Jin Tae, who had to hurry to keep up.
“For the sake of thoroughness, of course,” Jin Tae replied. “But I am curious as to what it is that you think ...
2023-08-01 00:30:50 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a beautiful village, Ministry Agent Kang Yun thought. Nestled among the misty vales and high stone hills that lay between the true Peaks of the capital, shrouded in greenery and bustling with life. It was the very image of what an imperial town should be. His black robes swished over the dusty road winding its way among the farms. He pass...
2023-07-30 18:17:26 +0000 UTC View PostThere were drums, Ji Rong had said. Drums always beating. Ling Qi pondered that statement as she soared in the sky over mountain and valley, river and cliff.
She was proceeding ahead of the carriage to arrive at the summit location in time to arrange the schedule for Renxiang and to give herself time to think and cultivate. She’d not had...
2023-07-27 22:54:31 +0000 UTC View Post“Zhengui,” Ling Qi said, raising her voice just enough over his bickering.
“Yes, Big Sister?” both of his heads replied, united in the moment.
“I assume it is not possible to both heat the earth and to purify the underground water?”
“Um, I don’t think so…”
“To attempt both projects would muddle the f...
2023-07-24 23:12:27 +0000 UTC View PostHua Su clapped her hands twice and bowed her head, the sickly sweet scent of the incense smoke filling her senses. Three parts Autumn WInd Extract, four parts ground Seventh Night Petals, two parts Blue Moon Resin,... and one part Argent Ichor. Father had created this mixture, to create an incense capable of putting the dead of Ogodei’s rampag...
2023-07-23 22:09:29 +0000 UTC View PostTwo months, and her cultivation soared, breaking into the Foundation stage, surging toward the threshold.
Two months, and the fighting had not stopped, the dead rose from the dunes without end, no matter how many were struck down.
Two months, and Father had rallied the Gu, rallied their neighbors, and pushed the dead back from the oa...
2023-07-22 19:29:43 +0000 UTC View PostSomething about the way his voice dropped gave her shivers. The brash thug of a cultivator she knew Ji Rong to be should not whisper like that.
“I won’t risk her anger, trying to get inside her head, even if I could. Honestly, I probably can’t get in.”
“That’s fine. We ain’t friends. I know that. I think you're a prissy...
2023-07-21 22:25:27 +0000 UTC View PostIt was the better part of half an hour later when she finished. The refreshments on the table were depleted, mostly by Zheng Fu.
“And that concludes what I can tell you of our guests at the moment. I would like to thank Sir Xuan for helping me make sense of and organize this information.”
Xuan Shi tilted his chin down in acknowle...
2023-07-17 22:45:00 +0000 UTC View PostAN: Here is the first of the weekly commissions posting here. This one is a piece about Ling Qingge early on after her arrival at the Sect.
“Momma!”
Ling Qingge caught her daughter as the girl ran up the garden path, hiding the wince from the slight twinge it brought to her shoulder as she lifted the c...
2023-07-17 02:54:51 +0000 UTC View PostLing Qi and Cai Renxiang had spoken on this issue. Even if the members of the ducal clans had no desire at all to interact with the summit beyond observing, having a system in place, a system for all of them, that could not be seen as pushing one or more out was vital. Even if someone like Meizhen would never undermine her on purpose, they still...
2023-07-13 23:12:52 +0000 UTC View Post