#i realized about halfway in that the question was probably more about sword spirit style things

[robininthelabyrinth]

Okay character/writing questions!

1. Is there any reason you had the Wen clan always eat noodles? I'm thinking if Fire and Light butnit might have happened in other fics and it really stuck in my head 😅

2. Do you have any sword-lore headcanons for clans other than the Nie?

1 - So for the usual writer reasons (aka getting caught up in some extremely minor point of worldbuilding that 3 people will notice and fewer will care about), I did a deep dive researching types of food that would be associated with the areas that fandom has tentatively assigned to the various sects, including both current regional food specialties and also historical agriculture trends, and then once I had some vague semblance of a reasonable basis, came up with whatever headcanons made me the hungriest at the time I was writing.

and then I was very sad because I didn't have noodles

2 - So once upon a time my friends and I came up with an Avatar: the Last Airbender fusion for MDZS that included A-Qing being the avatar on account of being off in her own story doing her own thing and sometimes that happens (and also she's badass and versatile so why not) and Jiang Cheng getting lightning from his mom's side and it not quite fitting in with the water bending from the Jiang sect, etc., I wrote a short fic about it at one point.

The relevance of that to your question is that ever since then, I've sort of unconsciously mentally categorized the sects' sword styles into a similar sort of vague elemental grouping vibe. Is this in any way accurate or based on anything in canon? Not in the slightest, and I don't even begin to pretend that it is. I do not know anything about swords. (Also I am VERY influenced by the donghua and the feels it gives me, but that is also very subjective.)

But to give a few examples, I see the traditional Jiang sect sword style as being very water-like - flexible, adaptive, quick to find a weakness and exploit it, more speedy than other styles, with a focus on clever and creative attacks and defense that is more about avoiding or re-directing attacks than actual blocking, lots remaining in motion at all times, jumping and twisting and whatnot. After Jiang Cheng revitalizes the sect, the style is a little more aggressive, a little firmer and less flexible but also adding more power to it, making it more effective in live combat rather than agreed-upon duels.

The Lan sect, in contrast, has a seemingly delicate and refined style, very gentlemanly and just plain old pretty to look at, like dancing; it's the sort of thing you might, if you were poetically inclined, to compare to a gentle breeze right up until that seemingly 'delicate' style slams into you with all of that ridiculous Lan sect arm strength and then you start thinking things about hurricanes instead.

The Jin sect style has a solid basis, grounded and firm and assertive, a little flashy at times, but has grown to be just a little too rigid in the current generation, in large part because their last few sect leaders no longer really practiced the sword as much as all that - they cultivated with it, of course, but it wasn't really a priority for them, leaving it in the hands of the people hired to teach all the Jin disciples the style. This results in a style that is both symmetrical and utilitarian, useful for fighting in larger groups (especially for defense) and easy to teach but also a little soulless and routine, and also, on an individual level, contains perhaps more flourishes than there really ought to be, people trying to put their own stamp on it and regain the spark the style used to be known for.

The Wen sect sword style is, unsurprisingly, extremely aggressive, right up there with the Nie sect's saber style. It is also a little soulless, though in this case it's because what happened through accident and negligence in the Jin sect was deliberately cultivated in the Wen sect: they know their advantage is in their numbers, so they broke down the style to what could be conveyed to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. It may not be the prettiest style around, might incorporate a few things that the other sects would term as dirty tricks, but it is stunningly effective, especially at the lower levels - a true talent in another style like Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji will be able to cut through Wen disciples like wheat, forcing them to use their bodies to wear them out for later fighters to take down, but someone who's still learning another sect's style will more than likely get mowed down.

The Nie sect style is also a very aggressive style, although unlike the Wen sect style it still gives its disciples a very solid grounding in defense as well (no 'throw lives away because there are always more' philosophies here!) I tend to see it as requiring more brute strength than the other sects' styles, all in the shoulders and arms and back; it's very grounded and stable, with a firm foundation, that will occasionally just go completely wild on you. Fighting them when they're in defense mode like trying to fight a cliff-face that sporadically landslides; fighting them when they're in attack mode is like trying to stop an avalanche.