It's not really a final installment of the quest because the story I had was just too complex to exposit the end all at once, but I am creating this last thread as a way to explain any loose plot threads about the quest's overarching story on request.
I meant to post this up later today, but work is a bitch.
So feel free to ask any questions about the overall storyline of the quest, questions you wanted resolved and answered, the fates of different characters and the history of ones who's backstory you wanted to know about.
>>43527012
Can we get a basic recap?
>>43527012
Seconding the request for a recap. Also asking for information on what happened during the timeskip between Sky fighting the Flame Doctrine and the current point in the quest.
>>43527012
So, where is Zhu'er right now?
>>43527012
who was that guy that attacked us in the last thread and where is our father really?
Soooo quest over?
Shit.
>>43527068
Of the entire plot so far?
Alright, I'll do my best, but it's got a lot of characters I'll be leaving out because they were really just added plot complexity.
>Sky grows up isolated on the far end of China with his mysterious father. One day his father vanishes after Sky inadvertently reveals their presence by using his unique style. After a massive storm obliterates their mountain home, Sky goes off on a quest to find his father. >On the way he meets Zhu'er, who is later revealed to be Tang Zhu of the Tang Clan, a famed clan of assassins. He later meets Duan Lei (the Swiftest Saber of Hunan), and the other hopefuls for the TTYH; Xiao Jian of the Heaven Swords, Qiu Qiang of the Iron Palm Sect, Li Honglan of the Phoenix Society, Zhou AI of the Emei Sect, and Genshu of the Shaolin Sect, and that Wudang guy who's name I forget.
>>43527179
Yeah, I'm not happy about it either, but I'm willing to answer questions why since you guys deserve that much for sticking with me through this bullshit.
>>43527184
so this is the end? we're going out with a whimper?
>>43527012
A rundown of the fates of Zhu'er and Duan Lei would be nice.
>>43527184
You know what? It's too much, even for me.
Here's the character pastebin; read if you want to remember the characters since 100% of the plot revolves around them.
>>43527204
could you write an epilogue for the characters, at least? Like, a short bit with Sky and his harem
>>43527227
http://pastebin.com/gkRu0b2M
>>43527204
Done questing for good? Or will we see you some day years from now? Should I be holding my breath? Need me to drink snake poison? I'll do it, you know, if I have to. Just saying.
>>43527248
Do you get some kind of thrill from starting and suddenly ending quests?
>>43527288
No, but I do apparently have difficulty loosing friends in car accidents and keeping homes.
>>43527307
your sure, you cant just put it on hold and then when life gets better return to it, if you feel up for it? it has happened to some quests and they are doing quite well.
>>43527307
Dude, if you're going through rough shit, you really shouldn't have pushed yourself to do this. Just take as much time you need to deal with it.
>>43527110
The Flame Cult part I cut out because it revealed a huge portion of the plot before I wanted it too. I honestly shouldn't have rushed it so quickly, but I was homeless at the time.
So, basically what happened was just Sky fighting the Flame Cult and training himself for months while developing a rivalry with the new Fire God, Zhurong, who was the Thai-fighter you fought at first; he was holding back IMMENSELY at first.
Zhurong's title was inherited from the previous Zhurong, who was one of Feng Renshu's martial siblings, one of four.
The BIG secret of the setting had to do with Storm Dragon's origins, which I'll get to in a second.
>>43527122
She actually after discovering who Sky really was completely lost it; this seeming massive betrayal caused her to flee Duan Lei and rejoin the Tang Clan, and would begin hunting Sky as one of his most dangerous and tragic antagonists for pretty much the rest of the quest.
At a crucial point in the story she would sacrifice herself to save Sky's life and die in his arms, leaving Sky grieving for her loss for the rest of his life in that he would genuinely forever blame himself for not telling her the truth of his origins when he had the chance.
>>43527219
Duan Lei actually has what must unequivocally be the happiest ending in the story, as eventually he marries his sweetheart with Sky's help after everything ends up and goes down in history as a famous martial artist who started with nothing and became world-famous and married a beautiful woman he deeply loved and lived happily ever after.
I wasn't kidding when I said he was basically the protagonist of his own story.
>>43527243
Sky doesn't retire with a harem.
Eventually he was going to marry Ao Zhengzhu (after a lot of bullshit that complicated both of their lives) and finally find a semblance of peace after all sorting out all the garbage of his father's past life, which in the end is sort of what he really wanted.
Next is the origins of the Five Gods.
>>43527248
>ANDAAAAAA: Who the FUCK was that guy?
>>43527495
would we have been able to change their fates?
>>43527495
So, the core of the plot is of course Storm Dragon and his complex backstory.
Centuries before the story even begins, five martial artists of no particular standing aid an Immortal in danger (the one Sky met in his dream), and he each grants them one wish; they all make the same one, to learn transcendent martial arts knowledge surpassing all of the Wulin, heavenly kungfu that elevates man to the level of gods and tresspasses on the realm of Heaven in it's power.
They each learned one style; one learned a style that balanced Heaven and Earth, HEAVEN'S BLESSINGS, another learned to scour the world with Fire with THE FIRE SUTRA, another learned to make his body as invulnerable as Metal with his BLACK ARMOR SKILL, still another learned the absolute flexibility and Wood with the EMERALD LIFE MANUAL, and the last learned how to control water with the DRAGON WAVE ART.
Each one upon mastering his skill became barely human in the level of internal power they had attained, and the Immortal saw that he had made a mistake given men with all of their flaws and failings the power of the gods.
He made them swear a binding oath to never abuse their power and knowledge, as it was gained through an act of altruism and thus should they ever abuse this power it would fade.
Unfortunately the Immortal had no such power to enforce this oath, and it was him just lying through his teeth.
Well shoot, this is the end of an era, huh?
You know, your quest was one of the things that convinced me to try running again, so... Thanks for that.
I don't pretend it's as compelling or well-written, but... Well, thanks. It's nice to brighten people's days again.
>>43527660
>control water
>absolute flexibility and wood(?)
>invulnerable as metal
>scour the world with fire
>b̶a̶l̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶H̶e̶a̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶E̶a̶r̶t̶h̶ chuck fucking lightning
It's like the Wu Xing!
Except, you know, with lightning, for some reason.
>>43527660
So was Ba the only one who really followed the fake rules laid down?
>>43527660
The five xia however didn't realize the oath wasn't binding, so kept it; they all isolated themselves from Tian Xia and trained successors and their children, keeping their secret while only rarely adventuring out from their hidden lands (which changed depending on the era), becoming known in Chinese legend as the Five Gods; Eastern Azure Dragon (Wood), Southern Vermillion Bird (Fire), Western White Tiger (Metal), Northern Black Tortoise (Water), and Central Golden Dragon (Earth).
Each inheritor of their style took a ceremonial name, the title he inherited, which is why the Five Gods appear as singular beings when they are mentioned at all.
This actually worked out pretty well, and for over a thousand years nobody actually realized they existed, though occasionally splinter styles based off of their own would appear from observers who occasionally caught them using it.
Then one day Vermillion Bird went mad, and everything changed.
>>43527744
No, it's EXACTLY the Wu Xing and the Five Gods were where it originated from in Chinese culture in this story. Lightning is associated with Earth (because it falls from Heaven to Earth) in Chinese mythology for some reason.
Please write a book, the world needs more good Wuxia.
>>43527835
>Lightning is associated with Earth (because it falls from Heaven to Earth) in Chinese mythology for some reason.
Huh. I'm not going to pretend to know anything about it, but you'd think it'd be associated with Fire instead.
And Wikipedia seems to say that storms and electrical currents fall under Water for some reason.
>>43527835
One day, Feng Renshu, who was the successor to Heaven's Blessings and the next in line to become Central Golden Dragon was slated to marry Vermillion Bird's younger sister, as the Five Gods frequently married within their extended families to keep an eye on each other and keep the secret of their knowledge.
He hated it.
He'd never met this woman he was planning to marry, and resented that he was being forced do by his father, and after coincidentally meeting a beautiful young woman from the Western Territories who was ALSO getting married against her will, he basically eloped with her and completely ignored all of his responsibilities. This was shown in the Valentine's Special WHQ.
Vermillion Bird went mad, enraged that his school brother and perhaps his best friend in the world had so spurned his family, and vanished as completely as Feng Renshu did, breaking the cycle of inheritance.
In retrospect, his mental state might not have been helped by what MUST be generations of mild inbreeding between the families, as they kept marrying into one another...or maybe it's just the nature of xia to be incredibly melodramatic, and Vermillion Bird was simply much more powerful then other xia.
>>43527980
>everything happened because Ba cannot into talking out his problems
Sasuga Wuxia.
>>43527980
Feng Renshu and Ma Shuzheng married and made a simple life for themselves, with Renshu hiding his full skills to make a modest living for themselves where they could be happy and be themselves instead of defined by their heritages.
When Vermillion Bird reappeared in the south as Zhurong, Fire Gods, Feng Renshu wasn't sure it was his old friend and even if it was felt that the other remaining Wulin Gods would take care of it.
It turns out, by abandoning their duties completely and running away, they'd proven that the Immortal's threat was completely a lie and all of the Five Gods had hidden for generations along with their families for absolutely nothing at all, and all of them were still reeling from this revelation.
Black Tortoise's daughter would leave as well, eventually becoming known as Empress Stingray, Ao Guang's wife and Ao Zhengzhu's mother, who secretly is vastly stronger then her husband and once loved Feng Renshu, though he did not care for her.
White Tiger and Azure Dragon stayed hidden, though White Tiger's successor's son always wondered why exactly Renshu had acted as he did, and would eventually become known as Ironheart, meeting Sky decades later.
After seeing that Zhurong would not be stopped, Renshu resolved to do something about it and became Storm Dragon (or rather was named Storm Dragon) to lead the collected Wulin to rectify his mistake, becoming the legend he is today and eventually slaying Zhurong in mortal combat.
He eventually returned home, only to discover that his wife had been murdered and his son orphaned in retaliation for his sudden and humiliating defeat of so many masters, never even knowing which one did the deed.
His heart heavy with grief, he took his son an retired as far away from the Wulin as possible, regretting ever leaving it and wishing somewhere in his heart that he'd simply let Zhurong destroy it rather then loose his beloved wife.
>>43528222
Feng Renshu, who at this point was arguably the most powerful being on Tian Xia, was not in fact kidnapped, as nothing COULD make him do something he didn't want to do.
Sky's display of Heaven's Blessings alerted a Tang Clan spy in Nine Village Valley searching for the missing heiress of the Thirteenth Family of Tang, Tang Zhu (whom Sky would later meet as Zhu'er).
Sky never even saw the man, but he recognized the description of the style and sent word to his immediate superior, Tang Shijing, the Scholar With Nine Lives, who's father arranged the hit that killed Renshu's wife and used materials in his house to painstakingly piece together the other identities of the Five Gods and then kept this information secret that he might one day use it to his advantage.
Tang Shijing then sent a coded message to Azure Dragon (who nurtured thoughts of taking over the Wulin) and gathered together with Black Tortoise and resolved to find and capture Storm Dragon.
Their battle leveled the mountain they were on, but finally ended when Azure Dragon revealed that they knew he had a son and that it would be truly impossible for Renshu to actually protect him at all times.
Renshu immediately surrendered rather then put Sky in danger through his actions upon them swearing to leave Sky unharmed, which they did.
So what's up with Brother Genshu?
>>43528436
He of course didn't realize how determined Sky would be to get back his father, because when it comes right down to it Renshu never was very bright compared to his wife and intellectually speaking Sky was EXTREMELY intelligent, much like his mother.
Sky's entry into the Wulin basically is just something that sets off a ridiculous number of plots and existing schemes (including a long-running one to depose the Emperor himself) by sheer coincidence and the wild card nature of his backstory and skills.
Every storyline would more or less barely at all be related to Sky's own while he pieced together his family history, while he struck like lightning and broke more rules and established traditions then any xia who ever lived as he recklessly tore shit up in search of his father.
As Tang Shijing said, dealing with Sky is like trying to catch lightning; there IS no safe way to hold it.
>>43528478
Genshu's big secret is that there isn't one.
He has some difficulty with the "passive" nature of his faith and beliefs, but other then that he's exactly as he appeared to be; an extremely talented xia who did his best to be a good Buddhist and was a snarky-ass guy at heart.
>>43528630
>Genshu's big secret is that there isn't one.
He trolled us even with his backstory.
>>43528566
The overall villains would basically Tang Shijing (who would gradually be proven to be less powerful then Sky but significantly more dangerous because of his ability to manipulate people), Ironheart (who had no grudge against Sky but wished to know if Central Golden Dragon's style was more powerful then his own inherited style), Azure Dragon (who secretly wanted to rule Tian Xia and saw Renshu as the strongest obstacle), and Black Shadow Buddah (who was leader of the massive Black Lotus Syndicate and worked with the others to control the wulin and the secular world).
>>43528630
What'd Genshu's fighting style be like, if he wasn't holding back? Does he just know a fuckton of different techniques and shit?
>>43528738
So Zhu'er bitch ass fiance', Zhuzheng's mom, dad's bro, and someone we'd yet to meet?
>>43528738
hey, WulinSage,
could we have changed the characters' fates to be less tragic?
>>43527264
As to if I'm done questing for good?
I don't know.
I really enjoy DOING it and I like all of you guys (I can recognize several of you just based on how you write your posts in fact), but one of the issues preventing me from continuing is that I'm not into wuxia 100% of the time; I have a LOT of other hobbies, and happened to start this quest on a lark one day in the hospital while I laid up because of a fucked-up leg which is why I could post so often; I literally wasn't going anywhere at the time. I also had the story partially laid out, and was shocked when everyone liked it so much and we burned through what I had relatively fast and had to rewrite everything to give you guys some agency in the story instead of just railroading you all the time, which would be unfair.
Then my life completely fell apart, and my ability and even desire to post declined, and by the time I got my life together I had less time to post and still wasn't very into wuxia at the moment (it's one of MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY things I'm into), so everything I wrote was REALLY forcing me to do it when I currently have less time to do it then ever.
I'd want to start up another quest, but what would I start? And could I sustain it for long?
Is it even FAIR to you guys (who are seriously really awesome) for me to start up another half-lived quest after so many others?
I don't really think so, but my opinion is biased.
>>43527642
>>43528903
I have no idea.
Like, things happened differently then I originally planned it when you guys started this, and this story still isn't finished as of now due to what I'm sure you noticed is it's absurd complexity of backstory.
I'm guessing lots of sad things would still have happened; Wuxia isn't wuxia without SOME tragedy.
>>43528903
I feel a little bad for the people waifuing certain characters, because though I had a setup similar to a harem show thing, I wasn't ever really interested in writing a harem anime ending.
Most because harem anime are pretty much complete garbage anyway, excepting the original one of course....and even that has some pretty lousy spinoffs honestly.
I was more keeping it true to the roots of the genre; where often many romantic potentials would be attracted to the lead but eventually mature and find better people for them to be with...or alternatively go crazy and try to kill their lover because of rejection.
Sort of an either/or thing there/
So what was with the Anda guy?
>>43528937
If you want to write, then write what you want to write. You did it well enough to attract players who didn't have a clue at the time what Wuxia was about. I don't doubt anything else you choose to do would get readers as well.
And if you have doubts about how long you'll be able to run for? Then try and write something you yourself would want to follow for as long as it ran, even if it never reached a proper end.
We're all just random people on the Internet. You don't owe us anything. But if you want to write, write.
>>43528937
Sage, it may be unfair to start up another quest, but then again, if you've lost a considerable amount of interest in this quest, I don't think you should be focusing on it. If it burns you out, if it doesn't satisfy you, then there's not much point in doing it. Do whatever brightens you up. I think the important thing is that the players and the storyteller enjoy an experience together.
>>43529109
Oh! Hah.
He was a Mongolian, as many suspected, and basically one of the few guys who associated with Renshu in the wulin BEFORE he became Storm Dragon but AFTER be left the Five Gods.
He stuck around Renshu even after he became Storm Dragon and they became Sworn Brothers (he was to Renshu what Duan Lei is to Sky, almost literally), and is mostly left out of tellings of Storm Dragon's legend because A; he was Mongolian and thus inferior and B; everyone was more concerned with how his legend related to THEM or made THEM look better then recording facts.
The irony of course being they were overlooking the one person who could tell them the entirety of Storm Dragon's story because of simple racism and one-upsmamship.
He'd basically randomly keep running into Sky and then running away, before Sky caught him at a calm moment and got him to more or less give you the exposition I'm doing now.
His aimless wanderings are because A; he has a REALLY terrible sense of direction for a Mongolian and B: his Han his TERRIBLE and he's shit at asking for or following directions. He actually thought you WERE Renshu at first and was telling "Renshu" that he remembered his promise to be his sworn brother forever, leaping off before he could figure out otherwise.
He's basically a joke character who is actually incredibly crucial to the plot, even though he just randomly shows up out of nowhere and leaves everyone confused before leaping away.
>>43528937
If you're determined to keep questing nothing can really stop you. Just pick up something you do really like and run it until you feel either its run its course, we fuck up and kill ourselves and everything else, or you just can't sustain it.
Even if we can't say this one ended in the best way, I can say that the quest itself was great shit while it lasted, and I looked forward to every thread, and I'm sure many people agree with me.
That being said, you don't have to force yourself to do it. It's all you, mang.
>>43529129
>You don't owe us anything.
I have an hyperactive sense of guilt and abandonment issues, so I recognize it's just me, but you guys are still pretty cool.
>>43529350
>Even if we can't say this one ended in the best way
The worst part is I could see that as I went on increasingly I would have to give you less and less choices to really sustain the overly complex narrative I'd constructed and that it would be better more as a novel then a Quest.
Even though I knew how I wanted it to end, the REALLY complex backstory limited my options because of you guys went way off the rails I'd just have no idea how to make everything fit together anymore.
Maybe try to split the next quest into short stand alone arcs instead? There was this Double Cross Quest which format i'm rather fond of. Then again the source material ruleset was in a sense an "Anime Episode Generator."
>>43529424
>Maybe try to split the next quest into short stand alone arcs instead?
That's probably what I'd do, though I'm still not sure what I'd do for a Quest.
I might actually go back to another Quest thread I briefly ran a LONG time ago (WHQ was my second) that I dropped because I had ironically begun moving in the house that I would loose while QMing WHQ, a quest based off the universe of The Witcher.
Or wait, is that irony?
I never know what's irony or not.
>>43529527
>Witcher quest
Color me intrigued.
>>43529527
it may count as situational irony.
>>43529204
>I think the important thing is that the players and the storyteller enjoy an experience together.
I keep getting told that and I suppose it's true, but as someone who feels a strong sense of betrayal when stories go unfinished or undonefinish the ASoIaF books you fat fucking bastard AARRRGH!, I have a hard time convincing myself of the truth of it.
>>43529420
>Even though I knew how I wanted it to end, the REALLY complex backstory limited my options because of you guys went way off the rails I'd just have no idea how to make everything fit together anymore.
Way I see it, you have two options when it comes to this. Either, you say
>Alright guys, I have a world and I have a story I'd like to tell in it. I'm not confident I'll be able to improvise properly, so I'll only prompt for write-ins when appropriate, or otherwise reserve the right to veto them. Where possible, I'll try to incorporate your ideas into the story, but let's see what happens.
or
>Alright guys, I have a world and I have a story I'd like to tell in it. I'm not confident I'll be able to tell the story I want to tell, so I'm fully expecting to go off the rails. I can't promise a happy ending, or that there'll even be a proper ending, but let's see what happens.
>>43529420
Really complicated stuff is hard to do, mainly because /tg/ is destructive as individuals, and as a group of people, we are pretty much entirely incompetent. Just the nature of large groups with differing opinions. It may be better for us to not be directly involved in the plots and stuff, or related in any way, really. The world will turn on its own, after all. It could get to the point where the world was about to end when we finally realize "Well shit, I can do something about that" because it didn't require us to get involved in the first place.
But, then again, I am terrible with this stuff!
>>43529576
Went on for maybe two threads before it stopped.
It's in the /tg/ archive under Witcher Quest Deux.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?searchall=Witcher+quest
I think I also stopped because there was ANOTHER Witcher quest in at the time and I felt bad for horning in on that guy's territory, though I guess for some reason it didn't take place in the Northern Kingdoms setting I think?
>>43529591
I know the feeling, but as a reader of fanfics, I've come to accept that some stories just can't be finished.
It's nice to find that, some time in the future, it gets picked up on and continued, though.
But on another note, take time off from WHQ. However long you want. Sometimes, obsessing over something makes it worse. Sometimes you just got to clear your head before tacking a problem at another angle.
>>43529579
Thanks for clarifying.
I need an app for my phone to help me clarify when something's ironic or not.
>>43529627
I kept jumping between the two, convinced there was a "right answer".
>>43529628
Weirdly, to some degree this was a recurring them of Sky's tale; though his life is filled with an incredible number of coincidences, a lot of what he ran into had nothing to do with him and even though he was definitely the lead character mostly he went around messing up OTHER people's lives and problems.
I think the strongest them of Legend of Wulin Hero was that you can be the most powerful person in the world and it STILL won't solve any of your actual problems, because they don't stem from things that you can just punch in the face with your lightning superpowers.
Feng Renshu is (even in-setting) just a few steps shy of a physical god and look what being powerful got him.
>>43529698
>It's nice to find that, some time in the future, it gets picked up on and continued, though.
Hopefully one day you'll all find a book called "Catch the Lightning" on the bookshelves somewhere and you'll buy it, even though much of it will be spoiled and you'll all be like those guys who talked about Jon Snow's real parents right in front of the guys who just watched the show and ruined everything for them.
Heh.
>>43529646
muh nigga
If you want to run this again, go for it. Prime real estate now.
You could really do any quest if you feel you want to. If you're into vidya, interest is high in a Metal Gear setting, and since there are many different time periods and styles to it, you can set it in one flavor and not feel bad about other people running a metal gear quest in a different flavor.
If you aren't into vidya but are into the Warhams, you could run a WHFantasy quest, or even a Warmachines quest.
There's a lot out there, and people will hop on even if they don't know about it, you're a great writer so people will read your stuff regardless.
>>43529763
Snape Kills Dumbledore.
>>43529826
>>43529763
Hey I read that witcher quest!! Holy fuck. Also sad to see WHQ end but if you ain't having fun with it better to stop or let it lie.
>>43529420
So are you planning to eventually write a novel or something? It'd be a shame to have all this story developed and do nothing with it.
>>43529777
>If you're into vidya, interest is high in a Metal Gear setting, and since there are many different time periods and styles to it, you can set it in one flavor and not feel bad about other people running a metal gear quest in a different flavor.
I don't think I COULD run a Metal Gear Quest without making it a ridiculous parody of itself. I LOVE the series but holy shit is is ever the silliest thing on planet fucking earth, which is part of why I love it in the first place.
No, I've actually been into the Witcher series since BEFORE the games came out, as I have a French Canadian friend who has some French editions of the novels and taught me a bit so I could read some of the short stories.
I liked Witcher 3 because it was in effect a novel in the form of a videogame, and I can genuinely think of quite a few novels with less quality writin and nuance of story then the Witcher games had.
Certainly with less wit.
>Of you aren't into vidya but are into the Warhams, you could run a WHFantasy quest, or even a Warmachines quest.
I played Warhammer Fantasy ages ago, but never 40k and find the fluff of 40k mildly tiring and it's fandom EXTREMELY trying at the best of times.
I like Warmachine/Hordes (I have far more friends who play that and played it longer myself), but I'm not sure what I'd do with that. Probably a more Iron Kingdoms RPG-styled Quest if I did.
>>43529903
So that WAS you.
Hm. Your words rang familiar to me when read, but I wasn't sure and it seemed somehow rude to ask.
>>43529995
Hell, I dunno.
Every time I look at all this I feel guilt for not having DONE anything with it (you guys are largely responsible for showing me people WOULD read it), and wonder if I should buckle the fuck down and put word to digital paper.
Then I get home from a 45-hour work"day" and then just flop onto my bed and pass the fuck out before I can get anything done.
>>43529999
No unfortunately that wasn't me. I guess I just never saw it while you ran? I just archive dove all the threads. Bully I guess the dogma of if it isn't fun let it lie or stop doing it is fairly universal even if I seem to be the only one among my friends and family that adheres to it.
>>43529999
>without making it a ridiculous parody of itself.
First, you show up my trips with your quads, fuck, secondly, how is that a bad thing? Metal Gear is one of the only series where going full crazy is entirely okay, and in some instances, encouraged. Second controller slot, mang.
>No, I've actually been into the Witcher series since BEFORE the games came out
I always forget there were books, damn good series and one of the few that doesn't spoonfeed info to the player, if you wanted to know, you payed attention and sought it out. And morally ambiguous done right.
>but never 40k and find the fluff of 40k mildly tiring and it's fandom EXTREMELY trying at the best of times.
Yeah, sometimes the fans are absolute shitbags. Other times they are absolutely amazing. As for the setting itself, you have to basically go full-retard to get it, or at the very least treat everything as an overblown caricature.
>>43529999
That's a lot of nines.
If you still want to run another quest, why not make a list of anime/games/books that would make for an interesting setting and let the players vote for which one to play in?
>>43530159
40K was better when it wasn't taking itself OMG SO SRSly.
>>43530261
Back when rules for Orkz were full of inane shit.
So what was the zombie dude we last fought, some fucked-up Tang assassin?
So the Tang guy who tried to pick a fight with us in the 1st thread, was he gonna be a relevant character or just a random minion?
>>43530159
>And morally ambiguous done right.
Interestingly, that's not really a theme of the stories, or even the games if you take a close look at it.
A theme of the stories is that Geralt ALWAYS does the "right" thing (he does some damn heroic shit in the books for literally nothing other then he wants to) in a world that seems to constantly show that there IS no "right" thing....but if everyone watching can agree what Geralt did was "right" then how can that be true?
The answer of course is not that right and wrong are especially hard to figure out (most of us know the basics when we're kids and then as we get older we convince ourselves that these were childish), but that the human race is kind of at heart composed of petty assholes who do the wrong thing because it's easier even though most of us know not to do it.
That's why at the end of the original novels he dies; he's a genuinely good man in a world that's too awful for good men. The world doesn't WANT heroes and good men, which is why it kills them and tears them down when they try to help people. The world wants "realism" and the allowance to do what it wants to do.
Who was it that said "it is not freedom that most good men want, but license?"
John Adams I think, but Sapkowski mockingly quotes it via another character (pretty sure it's Emhyr who says it) as a way of verbally illustrating the problems of trying to be a good person in a world filled with imperfections.
As I once said to a friend;
>"The reason exceptional people are exceptional is because by definition the rest of us AREN'T."
what would have happened to the rest of the top ten hero's that where not talked about already
So, you've commented on fates of several characters already, but did you have anything specific in mind for:
Zhou Ai,
Qiu Qiang,
Yang Meilin,
and how big a heart attack Sho Eiji would have gotten when Sky marries Ao Zhengzhu?
>>43530329
He reported to Tang Shijing what happened and started the whole sequence of events.
He's one of Zhu'er's cousins, actually.
>>43530307
Nope, he was some crazy guy who your dad killed his dad and then he locked himself into a tomb and spent a bajillion years training in forbidden esoteric styles that ruined his body to kill Storm Dragon. That kinda thing happens a lot in the jianghu, you know?
The thing that made him important (aside from being alarmingly hard to kill) was that he only knew where to start looking for Sky because Tang Shijing pointed him in the right direction.
Oh!
Another funny thing I never got around to; you know Sho Eiji, the guy from th Rykuyan Islands who followed Zhu'er around? He was actually EXCEPTIONALLY skilled despite me making a joke of him, and his swordplay and martial arts skills (especially his swordplay) could easily have placed him in the TTYH if he tried or cared about it.
>>43530470
>Nope, he was some crazy guy who your dad killed his dad and then he locked himself into a tomb and spent a bajillion years training in forbidden esoteric styles that ruined his body to kill Storm Dragon.
He didn't really think that would work, did he?
I mean, come on.
>>43530359
>>43530460
Zhou Ai would've developed a spine and forced herself to stand up to the Abbess of Emei (who was basically imprisoning her), eventually becoming known as a great hero throughout the Wulin and one of Lightning Tiger's closest friends.
Qiu Qiang would've remained "frenemies" with Sky for the rest of their lives, with Qiang gradually mellowing down and them keeping in touch via letters; as I pointed out, Qiang's relationship with Sky is pretty much the closest thing he's ever had to a real friend.
Yang Meilin with the help of the Blue Flame Faction of the Junzi Society would have reformed the Junzi Society for the better to make it less stodgy and old-fashioned and also would be a close friend of Sky's, with her writings on the period becoming the single definitive source on the Wulin and the legend of Lightning Tiger and Storm Dragon, immortalizing her in history forever.
Xiao Jian would have taken Black Dragon Slayer if Sky hadn't (a choice I was leaving up to you) and either became a terrifying evil in the Wulin in his obsession to beat Sky or later one of his allies as Sky helps him resolve the political conflicts of the Heaven Sword Alliance. They'd never exactly be friendly with each other though.
>>43530581
I DID say crazy, didn't I?
And it happens in Wuxia stories all the time and works out okay, how was he supposed to know Renshu was cheating and literally had Godmode Kungfu that he learned by someone who knows the cheat codes to the universe?
>>43530701
If someone did manage to kill Sky, would Qiu Qiang really go out of his way to murder them?
>>43530261
That was a very, VERY long time ago now.
I don't think many fans who say that think about it and realize how long ago this truly was.
>>43530808
Yeah, probably.
He doesn't really have a lot of solutions for dealing with grief.
>>43530852
what about hong lang
>>43530852
QQ best husbando confirmed.
He punches his sadness away.
You ever played Onimusha? Just popped into my head that game. Fucking loved that series. Fuck yeah, Oda as a bad guy!
>>43530872
Li Honglan I actually haven't decided on an end for yet. Like I said, still incomplete as a story.
>>43530900
>You ever played Onimusha?
Yep. Back in the old days when Capcom DID THINGS with all those brilliant IP's they own instead of going needlessly bankrupt, the stupid sods.
>Fuck yeah, Oda as a bad guy!
Oda Nobunaga is fairly stereotypically portrayed in nearly all fictionalized media about the Sengoku Period as a villain.
His weird behavior (which was hardly unique to him; Mirumoto Date was an ODD dude for the time period) and his tendency to do crazy things that miraculously worked out for him and that one time he set all those monks on fire and burned their whole temple down gave him a sort of sinister reputation.
Nobody talks about how those monks were constantly raiding his lands and killing folks and generally being obnoxious pains in his ass and were no less dangerous or armed then any other army he fought (and more persist and then several of them), but people don't want ambiguous situations in history.
They want a good guy and a bad guy and a clear narrative that's easy for them to follow, and I'll be damned if a guy who wasn't called the "Demon Lord" by his enemies on occasion while he was STILL LIVING doesn't make a great villain.
>>43531074
>tfw Nobunaga is -always- either shown as some majestic heroic looking motherfucker
>or a majestic dark looking motherfucker
Man, he didn't even have that nice of hair in reality! Come on! Why is his hair always so fucking nice?! And his fucking facial hair!
Also cloaks, cloaks everywhere.
It's too bad most of the time he doesn't seem to get portrayed as brilliant as he was, or they exaggerate it. Interesting man.
>>43531074
Dragging a civilization known for having static social structure and tradition for millennia kicking and screaming to modern age tend to have make people see you as supersatan by said civilization.
A Quest on Onimusha universe would be interesting, you don't have to set it in japan, you could set it during Alexander Conquest or Rise of the Mongol.
>>43531178
>tfw modern France in Onimusha 3
>>43531144
>Man, he didn't even have that nice of hair in reality! Come on! Why is his hair always so fucking nice?! And his fucking facial hair!
Interestingly the ridiculous hats that the various Sengoku-era generals ware in fiction (Date's half-crescent, Takeda's lion-mane and mask, Tokugawa's...thing, Tadakatsu's GIANT ANTLERS, Sanada's bright red armor, etc) are all well-documented by the time period and with many of them the original examples survived to this day (by the way, it's fascinating how Japan is so obsessed with this one period of history that they know what everyone's favorite hats looked like), and Nobunaga's topknot is probably something he DID wear, just not in pictures of himself drawn at the time.
Of course this was a time period where the person said "okay, so draw what I tell you, not what you actually see", which is why all portraits Date had commissioned of himself show him with BOTH eyes even though he lost one to disease fairly early on in life and his lack of an eye is pretty well documented by sources not attributed directly to him.
The cloaks are probably made up, but INTERESTINGLY his big scary black armor suits have some basis in reality; Nobunaga had lots of contact with Jesuit preachers (probably because they helped him get all those guns he loved) and was kind of a Westaboo, and the weird armor he wore in battle was documented, and it probably means he wore a suit of armor more suited to a western knight then the o-yoroi everyone else wore all the time.
>>43531178
Speaking of which, is there any setting or genre you think would combine well with wuxia? I like the idea of an European Renaissance wuxia with fencers fighting it out in the swashbuckling world. I don't know what would be stand-in for chi powers, though.
>>43531450
Screw you I'm prettier?
>>43527012
I liked fire sagat guy. Could we bro up with the fire sagat guy?
>>43531431
>fighting a guy in plate armor with a katana
>jesuschristhowdifficultyspike.jpg
>>43531450
Modern Gang Warfare, as the RZA and the Wu-Tang Clan have adequately show.
An important part of the genre is to have people that are not PART of the time period and society being portrayed but exist sort of outside and parallel to it, a sub-society with it's own expectations, codes, rules of behavior, and locations that people not "in the know" are aware of.
If it's not it's own sub-society with it's own weird rules then you're basically just telling a story with superpowered people beating each other up with superpowers. That's one of the reasons European knights and such don't work very well; they were EXTREMELY a part of the rest of their society and integrated into it.
I think the Japanese equivalent would be stuff like Fuutaro Yamada's Ninpocho (Ninja Scroll) novels, which all take place during real historical periods but tend to revolve around semi-historical people and ninjas clans killing each other with freakish superpowers and it all somehow going completely unnoticed by actual history.
>>43531603
No, that was the new Zhurong, Sky's "brother" and inheritor of the True Flame Sutra.
One important event that happened during the time gap was Sky challenging him again to figure out what he knows and then THIS time the guy not really pulling his punches after recognizing Sky's style and giving Sky the most vicious beat-down of his life.
Zhurong would be the ACTUAL rival character for the story, a foe who seems continually just at or just beyond Sky's level of skill who is constantly driven to kill Sky in battle.
>>43531654
Not as big a deal as all that since they mostly shot at each other and uses cavalry charges. Hell, a katana wouldn't even be able to cut through an o-yoroi, it's still made out of metal after all.
>>43531797
ain't nothing wrong with broing it up AFTER defeating the rival.
Oh wow, just saw this.
Fuck.
It was a good ride WulinSage, and I just want to say that your quest was easily one of the best on board in the time that it was running. Good luck on future endeavors.
