Pardon my ignorance in whole xianxia terms, I've been reading Library of Heaven's Path and notice some new thing like "formation". I am unable to grasp what is actually a formation and formation plate. I am imagining it is just bunch of taoist paper that glued into walls and pillars of a temple like those on old chinese tv/movie.
What is a formation (array) or such?
hugehence I never asked or find out myself, I just purely used my imagination. XD just think of it as the one they use in Wakanda in Infinity Wars.
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hugehence There is 2 type of formation. I also currently write about formation was a bit confused. I might need some other term to prevent confusion.
There is a formation trap and a formation of squad.
Formation as a trap (array). In example in Library of Heaven's Path. It required calculation before positioning (spiritual items) usually flag. There are 2 types, 1 was naturally occurred (perhaps in real world, people suspect Bermuda Triangle had stronger magnetic field for example), the other was intentionally created. It was usually made to become a barrier. A deeper system would add something like energy gate blablabla (or a weakness but in LoHP it would be kicked once and gone.).
Formation plate was used to reduce the calculation and setting time. For example there is a ready made inflated kid pool. That is formation plate, you only need to inflate this and bamn! completed. If you manually make a pool, you need to calculate, check the site, plan, design, before dig, make some plaster, add some blablabla steps. The second would be more powerful but it is time consuming. Power vs Speed.
The 2nd Formation is as a collaborative form/combination attack/team tactic. You can find in AST or Dragon Marked War God. Some cultivators worked together into 1 and increased their power (whether attack strength, defense, etc). This was more common in classic wuxia, people using sword together to attack. (Of course MC would kill those arrogant family of young master with 1 whip).
MasterRabbink so the bremuda triangle is a formation after all!
Thatch Suspect! (Not necessary guilty) Lol
hugehence think of a formation as somethig you would see those fantasy wizards use. Looks kind of like a thing they use to summon the devil and such. or imagine a compass. or a star and such
A "formationt" is ,to put it simply , a magic circle drawn in the ground
and a formation array ,well ,you can think of it like multiple interconnecting magic circles
if it helps ,you can visualise them spinning
For me a formation is akin to a formula written with mediums to produce a specific effect. Take for example a formation to hide a specific area. Formation flags are placed at specific areas and depending on the difficulty and area use different flags. You could say that its similar to fuinjutsu from naruto.
To me Formation (as also mentioned earlier by JungChian) when spoken of in Wuxia is talking about similar to a summoning circle/pentagram type of thing. Through the more static descriptions shared across novels, I think of Formations as anchored on the summoner's energies and with a limited effective time period that is higher based on the summoner's personal power/energy/skill, whilst an Array as more permanent and anchored on some type of physical objects (Artifacts, magic stones, ley lines and the ilk). In one novel an entire region in a barrier was a giant array that used entire mountains and other large natural formations along "ley lines" (power vectors/buried artifacts making these natural structures magical power sources). In another the person set stones in a "pattern".