#jingliu

[spectrie2000]

Someone is at a disadvantage

[animepopheart]

★ 【雪理Yukiri】 「 女仆镜流 」 ✔ republished w/permission ☆ follow our YT interview show!

[the-gequassel-shiro27]

My Issues with Blade's redemption Arc made me go down a rabbithole about the High Cloud Quintett and love their "social hierarchy". Most fantasy Media i know are written so that Long lived species (usually elves) tend to treat Humans regardless of Age as if they were children. However due to HSR having technically no "real concept" of humanity that distinguishes between Human (no additional animal traits) and human- like (e.g. foxian, halovian, vidharadaya). It is instead a matter of seniority and accomplishedness. Something i realized upon rereading the following part from Primeval and Other Times during the Trailblaze Mission The Lethe Below the Living.

"[...]Jing Yuan (In Reminiscence): "A genius? I suppose Master Jingliu's swordplay should be no trouble for you then."

Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "Hmph. You little rascal, do not try to act like my senior just yet."

Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "I am from a short-life species. Xianzhou swordplay takes hundreds, even thousands of years to master. I simply do not have the time."

Jingliu (In Reminiscence): "I heard your bold claim: 'I'd rather leave this world in a blaze than live until the end of time.' It seems you think little of us Xianzhou people, then?"

Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "My, my, the future Sword Champion has sharp ears. It was just drunken rambling. Don't take it to heart."

Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "It would be a waste to throw my skills away on the battlefield. You go to the front, and I will forge the divine weapons for you. It is a promise."

Jing Yuan (In Reminiscence): "Alright, deal! Then I want a devastator glaive, four meters long, decorated with green silk, and you should engrave the blade with cloud patterns, or maybe lightning...?"

Jingliu (In Reminiscence): "Wait until you have grown a bit taller!"

Jingliu (In Reminiscence): "Then it is settled. When the time comes, you shall arm each of us with a weapon of our own. Let us face the fires of war in your place and handle all that tedious business on your behalf."

Jingliu (In Reminiscence): "Come, friends, drink up! We five come from all walks of life, but here and now, we are one. Together, we shall bring glory to the Xianzhou and peace to all who dwell beneath the stars..."[...]"

Leaving Baiheng and Dan Feng out for now as they have no lines here. I love that Jingliu and Yingxing treat each other with a more or less mutual and equal amount of (humourous) respect. Meanwhile Jing Yuan is treated little like a (brazen) Child, seen how Jingliu and Yingxing react to his wish for a custom devastator Glaive. Despite Yingxing being potentially a child compared to both Jingliu and Jing Yuan when it comes to age. TBf Jing Yuan was at that point the student of Jingliu, while Yingxing's hair was already grey. All of this leads me to believe that respect/social Hierarchy in the HSR Universe between different "Races" of different longevity is based on seniority and skill. No matter your age, its the rank/stage of life that counts. Something that is also reflected in the hierarchy on the Astral Express btw. Anyways Yingxing as an accomplished Artisan was treated with respect no matter his age. Given he was especially close Dan Feng, who i presume was the Oldest among the High Cloud Quintett. Where do I want to go with this? First, I want to show a rather Heartwarming moment that points to my personal HC/belief that it was the breaking of the High Cloud Quintett that made Jing Yuan a Man, something that even the narrative points to. The following is from Blade's Lore.

"There was also the boy who kept bickering with him. Yet the moment the youth saw the Devastator Glaive, he grabbed it and never wished to part with it."

Aside from the rather cute image of a (still rather young and innocent) Jing Yuan seeing the custom devastator Glaive and immediately clutching it like a treasure/partner for life. The idea that Jing Yuan was treated like the youngest among the High Cloud Quintett makes the above incredibly heartwarming and everything that followed the death of Baiheng even more heartbreaking. The fact that first Yingxing and Dan Feng and then Jingliu independently tried to avoid involving Jing Yuan, implies they still saw him as a boy. Who needs their protection. Yingxing may have bickered with him, but he nonetheless made that weapon for him. Jingliu as Jing Yuan's teacher and de facto leader of the High Cloud Quintett took it upon herself to punish both Dan Feng and Yingxing. Meaning that Jing Yuan would have to raise his weapon against only one of his friends. Namely his teacher, which symbolically showed his complete "graduation". Meanwhile Dan Feng and Yingxing knew that they would endanger Jing Yuan's position as he would've had to stop them. Personally i like the idea that even when Jing Yuan became Seat of Divine Foresight, the other Members of the High Cloud Quintett couldn't help but view him as a boy. Which begs the question can you leave the past behind when the scars remain?

[hsrmeta]

Was the Sedition of Imbibator Lunae another round of the Phantasmoon Games?

In light of the deluge of information we've gotten these last few patches, pieces of old information have connected seamlessly with the new. Some were easier to discern, such as the links between Voracity and Abundance, while others were harder, like the influence of Voracity upon the Sedition. Now, what does seem incredibly clear to me is the fact that there seems to be a husk of Voracity beneath the Ambrosial Arbor. While the previous two metas do explore this in depth, and while the mythological and game canon point to a sound possibility, what I was missing was the key component: the ritualistic Game that was introduced as a crucial aspect of the Vorcity + Abundance puzzle.

The Phantasmoon Games as a necessity

As Ruan Mei says herself during Arcadia of Terror & Mystery, The Lethe Below the Living, this ritual that involves sealing these husks of Voracity beneath Abundance Plaguemarks like the Panarch Elwood entails using the power of Voracity against itself while Abundance keeps these husks contained. While not all are as clearly defined as the Phantasmoon Games, they all possess the same bones as one another, even if they appear markedly different.

Which is what makes this possibility very interesting, especially when juxtaposed to one of the questions you can ask Asat Pramad during the MSQ of 4.4, In Ravages Does The Whistle Sound, of the truth behind the Phantasmoon Games. While Planarcadia's is very well-defined, it's on the planet of Vonwacq that possesses interesting parallels to the Xianzhou Luofu, both with their own "games."

The "games" of Vonwaq and the Luofu

In the planar ornament, Vonwacq's Island of Birth, of the relic set Sprightly Vonwacq, gives tale of a cycle wherein Vonwaq's own plaguemark, the Thestang Tree, would produce a monster known as a demon king that would not only be reborn every sixty years, but demand that the tribespeople of Vonwacq set aside their conflicts and send their strongest warriors to Wacq Island where they would be forced to face this monster, Supplicants of their own kind. However, this isn't the only instance of a plaguemark producing a similar monster.

In Jingliu's companion quest, Clouds Leave No Trace, and in her 4th character story, we learn of another instance wherein a "demon king" was born: the Half-Draconic Abomination, the failed byproduct Dan Feng and Yingxing's scheme to combine the essences of Dan Feng, the flesh of Shuhu, and the power of the Ambrosial Arbor in a hopeless attempt to try and revive their lost friend, Baiheng.

Now, what's also interesting is the fact that their respective Plaguemarks, the Thestang Tree and the Ambrosial Arbor, are both shown to be capable of similar kinds of creation.

The Alien Tree Seed, a trace item that's said to come from the Thestang Tree, demonstrates the same alchemical properties: it outright tells us that the Thestang Tree combines the genes of different species to create the ideal lifeform (demon king), which isn't a far cry from how the Ambrosial Arbor was utilized in the same, catalystic respect during the Sedition to create the Half-Draconic Abomination, another hybrid, Abundance being.

Both Dan Heng IL's first character story and this conversation with a Mirage Echo in A Dragon Gallant, Its Ocean Distant of Topclouded Towerthrust reveal to us what may have been the first "game" ever performed on the Luofu; not a congregation of warriors or Supplicants, but a regular maintenance of the Ambrosial Arbor that forced Yubie to drastic action, while it became a draining ritual for other High Elders like Dan Feng, an exact echo of the necessary evil these "games" became as Asat told us.

Was Yaoshi the true spreader of Abundance?

Backpedaling to what Ruan Mei said during Arcadia of Mystery & Terror, The Lethe Below the Living, Aha became the arbitrator of Oroboros' remains following the Swarm Disaster and summarily proliferated them across the cosmos, utilizing Abundance Plaguemarks as a stopgap.

Knowing this, however, challenges a long held belief in canon, especially where it concerns the Xianzhou Alliance and what they've believed all 8,000+ years of their existence.

In Ambrosial Arbor's Arrival of Investigation of Ancient Pattern Rubbings from the Luofu, it's basically summed up that when Yaoshi first appeared to the Xianzhou hexafleet, THEY blessed them with the first Plaguemark: the Ambrosial Arbor. However, with the extreme likelihood of a husk of Oroboros sealed beneath the Arbor's roots, it begs the question: was it really Yaoshi that did this?

In the mission summary of Postmodern Imagenesis, A Resounding Gong, what's summarized is the fact that Aha very much stole a Plaguemark, or a plucked branch that was eventually transplanted in the Phantasmoon Courtyard as the capstone to the Voracity interred within the planet.

It may go further, as--given the incredible shape-shifting capabilities of Elation-related beings like Sparkle/Sparxie and Asat Pramad--it may even be possible that Aha disguised THEMSELVES as Yaoshi in order to confer this blessing, not unlike how it's speculated Aha was Nous back in 3.7.

More than that, there's many telltale signs that these "games" were extremely manipulated.

In the Planar Ornament set, Sprightly Vonwacq, a shocking revelation surfaces: a higher civilization had created a control room that became the means by which the planet's games with the so-called "demon king" were orchestrated and controlled, speaking of the sophistication behind its mechanisms. And yet, this isn't the only place this is evident.

Between Investigation of Ancient Pattern Rubbings from the Luofu and Report: A Rare Plant Specimen, like the control room found beneath/within the Thestang Tree, something similar is hinted to exist beneath the Ambrosial Arbor, outright said to be a secret technology. In the report, samples from the Ambrosial Arbor are curiously noted to be bionic in nature, which fits with what we've learned.

Again, in Investigation of Ancient Pattern Rubbings from the Luofu, we're outright told that the Plaguemarks are capable of producing sophisticated technology, such as starskiffs and jade abacuses. Therefore, it would stand to reason that the Thestang Tree and Ambrosial Arbor share technological roots, and if not the Master of Elation personally fleshing out such technology, then it stands to reason the ones behind it may be connected to Aha somehow.

(Of course, this is much harder to prove, but the connection remains glaring, all the same.)

Conclusion

To sum it all up, the chances are low but not zero that the Sedition of Imbibator Lunae, when juxtaposed to the "demon king" games of Vonwacq, may have enough in common to make the possibility, well--possible. And if this were the case, Dan Feng, Jingliu, Yingxing, and Baiheng were all unknowing supplicants to this bloody game. If the case, it remains to be seen if Aha actually found it amusing (Aha is said to be the one laughing during the fight with Phantylia, so might it be connected?).

[quietplace26]

A continuation with Baiheng!Mc

After rereading the lore again just to see what I missed, I can 100% say...

Dan Feng and Yingxing will still get punished, since in the lore, the way she revived Baiheng is by the use of the Vidyadhara Transmutation arcanum, and Yingxing (I think it's correct) biting or offering the flesh of Shuhu to revive her (whatever happened, the ritual eventually turns him mara struck)

So in the scenario with sane Abomination Baiheng!Mc, Dan Feng loses half of his powers, and MIGHT be ostracized by his fellow Vidyadhara for sacrificing the High Elder's power to revive an abundance abomination, and Yingxing unfortunately becomes mara struck, so both Blade and Baiheng are essentially wanted by the Xianzhou for being Abominations of the Abundance

Also in the Baiheng to Bailu!Mc, Jing Yuan frequently checks up on her to see how she is doing almost everyday treating her like a little sister, Bailu!Mc seeing Jing Yuan and having her memories gone is fangirling inside... It wasn't until she met Dan Heng and soon Jingliu and Blade that a sense of nostalgia courses through her... Especially during Jingliu's quest where most if not all of the members of the group gather together, where she was secretly following Dan Heng knowing that looking at him ended up making her remember memories she no longer remembers

Also here's an interesting idea... what if, it was Baiheng!Mc who turned Yingxing into Blade after his death... maybe his death was too traumatic or unfair that Baiheng!Mc revives Yingxing... Making her a wanted fugitive for dabbling into the Abundance, imagine the betrayal of her friends seeing what she has done... Of all of them, it was their precious Baiheng!Mc while Yingxing felt betrayed, the very same power that killed his parents was used on him to become the same abomination, and by Baiheng!Mc herself?! (Cue of 5, 1 must pay the price)

Also idea of Yingxing, Dan Feng, and Jingliu being her love interest?

That last idea... I don't think my heart can take the angst. Especially if they all turn their backs on her for what she did, cause I can see it happening... 😰

As for love interests, yeah, I can agree with the suggestions, but again, if we go that last route... I think Baiheng!MC ends up alone... 🥺

Tagging: @platinumrosetail, @arn9tails, @bloodytea, @lovelyjane-stuff, @fireriyu

[mochito-artist1]

Old art with Jingliu. I still like it.

[velocitychroma]

jingliu covered in blood eating raw flesh from a borisin's corpse after several weeks on a battlefield send post

[velocitychroma]

jingliu wip