soups | ( songerein ) jiang yanli ▶ the untamed ▶ reserved

Player: Pia
Age: 27
Contact:

haseul
Current Characters: N/A

Character: Jiang Yanli (Chinese name order)
Canon: The Untamed + CRAU. Canon point is Post-Death, with Vestige CRAU
Age: ~25 (The Untamed doesn't work on an exact timeline with totally concrete ages)

Background Information: Character wiki; the wiki relies heavily on novelization information, and Jiang Yanli's role is made meatier in the show. I'll link a bulleted list of timeline events here, and there are definitely spoilers abound.

⇢ vestige info
From the FAQ of vestigemods:
Vestige is a musebox-game horror jamjar based on Cabin In The Woods, in which characters are pulled into this containment zone run by the Technicians working from a lab underground with the goal of creating Good Quality Suffering™️ to appease the elder gods who hover on the verge of creating a worldwide apocalypse. But of course, suffering is pointless if everyone is too numb to properly suffer, so there are plenty of morale boosts provided in between bouts of fear and misery.

Jiang Yanli's was there from the game's opening to the end of 2020 (July 2020 - Dec 2020), inactive from then until the game's closure. Her purpose in the game was to 1) explore the bonds of her family being alive again and away from their traditional setting, and 2) to grow Jiang Yanli's confidence and capability to survive as the nature of the game was very much based on imminent death and staying alive for as long as possible under this condition.

Notable threads and developments include:

■ Got a taste of modern liquor.
■ Discussed being an aunt with her brother, causing her to contemplate what has happened to her siblings after her memories come to an end.
■ Offers to sacrifice her well-being for Wei Wuxian in order to remove an event effect from him.
■ Learned (?) how to tell jokes.
■ Had a drunk and flirty duck meat roast.
■ Died as part of the canon update mechanic. She regained all of her memories up until her canon death and went through a state of melancholy and surreal mourning after knowing how her life progressed and then ended.
■ Fills the motherly hole in her soul with a volatile duck.
■ Deals with brother #1 dying...
■ ...and then brother #2.
■ Has her marital bedroom goings-on put on blast.
■ Learned what a modern high-heel was.

Substantial changes to her personality would include being more numb to disaster and negative outcomes, being more on guard and ready to have to defend herself (or fight, if possible) and with some residual PTSD related to dying and leaving her son orphaned. She has also embraced being grateful for being taken to another dimension, free to breathe more easily for so many reasons outside of her world filled with clans and rigid traditions. Jiang Yanli will also be without her robes; she has gotten used to having to wear modern clothing with the sparse supplies available in Vestige's setting.

Personality:

There has perhaps never been someone so willing to do everything in her power to protect and support her family. That's Jiang Yanli to a 'T' -- her name literally means "to dislike separation," and she asks for Wei Wuxian to keep she and her siblings together numerous times in canon, feeling a great unrest when they aren't together and harmonious. Jiang Yanli's base identity is very tied into her family, where she's from, and the union of these things -- it's part of why she's so absolutely lost when Lotus Pier is lost and her brothers begin to grow distant from their old selves and one another.

She's basically an ideal-homemaker and sister; Jiang Yanli is endlessly supportive, gentle in nature, maternal in every instinct she has. She prefers cooking to cultivating, always has a kind word to say in an effort to soothe a soul. She's not a stranger to fooling around, having spent a whole childhood wrangling and playing with two upstart brothers. Jiang Yanli has an absolute sense of empathy, kind nature extending to basically anyone. She wants to be a good person, kind and giving without the promise of something in return.

However, to only see Jiang Yanli as a pretty girl with a knack for making soup is a mistake. She lacks the raw power for cultivation that both of her brother's possess, but her talents are just as necessary -- just perhaps not so obvious, looking at her. Yanli is observant, quick to know the emotional states and going's on of her brothers, no matter how tight-lipped they might be in an effort to protect her. She quickly assesses Wei Wuxian's new cultivation techniques, as well as his accompanying emotional grievances, even if she kept her knowledge of the subject close to the vest.

She's also a master of diplomacy and reason. When Jin Zixun insults Wei Wuxian as the 'son of a servant' who cheated in a cultivation competition, she keeps her anger in check while scathingly cutting down the other disciple in a masterful display of class and justice; she was assertive and fair in the face of a clan that others might have just knelt to. And again -- she'd do anything for her brothers. From defending Wei Wuxian, to taking care to make sure that Jiang Cheng is safe and emotionally sound, there isn't anything she wouldn't do for them.

Which is ultimately Yanli's downfall. She's forgiving, self-sacrificing -- even though the Jin sect turned against Wei Wuxian quickly after the death of Jin Zixuan, and even though she didn't know all the details of what happened, her first instinct was to go to her brother. To make sure that he was alright and communicate the issue. Her brother would never do this on purpose, and she's willing to see him, to hear him out even as her heart is broken. Supposedly because of his actions. It's for Wei Wuxian that she even dies, putting herself in harm's way and being killed while she and her brothers are together one last time.

It's also worth noting that Jiang Yanli is very solitary when it comes to her own emotions. Unless she's pushed to the brink, she's forever the dutiful "third parent"-type sibling who puts the burdens of others on her own shoulders, leaving nowhere for her own emotions to go. She keeps her own feelings of grief and insecurity inside of herself, even going so far as to leave a misunderstanding with Jin Zixuan unexplained because she would rather move past defending herself instead of arguing a point. If it was someone else, she would certainly be more willing -- but Jiang Yanli is selfless, often showcasing that she puts many others above herself.

And, no matter how weak her cultivation skills are, Jiang Yanli's heart and mind are strong. She's been through so much loss -- her clan was slaughtered, her home destroyed. Jiang Yanli watched as the two people closest to her drifted further and further apart with nothing she could do about their choices, even if the outcome hurt her deeply. Her husband was killed; someone she had pined for and watched over for years snatched away in a diabolical incident and leaving her alone with her son. And after each horrific circumstance and emotional turmoil, she endured. She rebuilt Lotus Pier, she stood strong as a Yunmeng Jiang sect cultivator and daughter in the face of adversity and outside pressure. If she had lived longer, she would have raised her son on her own as a young master of the Jin clan, moving forward despite the loss of his father. Jiang Yanli has had a lot thrown at her, from war to personal loss, and she came out on the other side as much as she possibly could.

Abilities & Inventory:

■ It's worth noting that despite never showcasing her skills in canon, Yanli is a cultivator, meaning she has a Golden Core -- the spiritual center of a cultivator's magic. She's never shown using talismans or spells in The Untamed, with an implication that she doesn't actually have a lot of strength in this area. Thus, it's assumed she doesn't have any actual gift for cultivation at all, making her incapable of using canon magic.

■ Instead of focusing on cultivation, Jiang Yanli instead took to practical chores -- mending, cooking, cleaning, basic healing practices. Her ability to make a soup on the fly -- and the sheer amount that she makes -- is iconic; basically anyone who knows Jiang Yanli well will know that she's probably got soup stashed somewhere to whip out at any given moment.

She will be bringing the following items (going off of her vestige crau canon point):
■ Her sword
■ A small, worn satchel
■ A bag of spices (in the satchel)
■ a roll of gauze
■ a needle and some thread
■ a bag of breadcrumbs

Suitability & Plans: In Vestige, Jiang Yanli had to focus on her family and survival more than anything else. She was just beginning how to learn to take care of herself in a fight, to make it through danger on her own. In Songerein, I want her to relax and take a breather -- she can focus more on branching out, relaxing, not looking for the impending doom lurking around every corner. It will benefit her confidence, independence and all around emotional state to gain CR and not be so codependent on her brothers.

Alternatively, Songerein affords her the opportunity to actually learn to use and cultivate a form of magic. Her ability with a sword could never reach above subpar, but magic -- that deals with emotion and not physical prowess -- is something that she can actually wield effectively. It's also a good method for sorting out her own emotional issues through understanding how to identify and harness her feelings as a skill.

Test Drive Sample: tdm toplevel | tdm thread | tdm thread | log thread from another game (i replied later in the game and then had moving preparations to do, so i wanted to supplement the tdm threads!)

Questions: Any questions you might have.