History Fanfic / ALongRoad

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/30084465/chapters/74095785 A Long Road]]'' is a crossover fic written by Vathara, showing what happens when ''Literature/GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivationMoDaoZuShi'' and ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' are thrown together and mixed. Mainly, it's a mess.

!Contains the following tropes

* WrongContextMagic: Subverted. While at first glance Valdemar's magic and Jianghu's Cultivation look like two uniquely different powersets, they're actually just two different methods of accessing the same basic collection of energies. Though they interact in unexpected ways to one another, the energy itself still operates on the same core principles.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome
** Heralds picked as children are thrilled and excited to start a new life, but Chosen adults are likelier to be confused, terrified and angry to be yanked out of their established lives. Companion Caryo admits she wouldn't blame Lan Wangji for being cranky, especially since he hails from a completely different culture and is now supposed to drop everything for Valdemar.
*** Heralds being picked tend to be a sore subject when you're not one of them. Families can be quite upset about suddenly losing a child to the calling and having to scramble to rearrange their plans for the future, while foreign countries blatantly consider a supernatural creature walking off with a native as kidnapping and brainwashing.
** Lan Wangji currently is the only heir to the Gusu Lan sect and lives in a far west country, meaning his being Chosen to be a Herald of Valdemar is a diplomatic minefield.
** Lan Zhan has been so thoroughly restrained and sheltered by his Sect's rules that he has no idea whatsoever about the true nature of his feelings regarding Wei Ying. He also makes no distinction between flirting and politeness because of the Cloud Recesses' strict gender segregation.
** The trust between the Twin Jades of Lan has been rather damaged by Lan Xichen's close friendship with Jin Guangyao who's stubbornly loyal to his greedy, ambitious father. Queen Selenay and her council also look at this relationship with wariness, as Jin Guangyao might convince Lan Xichen to leak info about Valdemar and Heralds.
** As in novel cannon, Wei Wuxian's ghost path isn't inherently evil, but it is dangerous because it's untested- all other cultivator branches have had centuries to work out the pitfalls and drawbacks of their abilities, but Wei Wuxian is discovering all these on his own.
*** The kind of person who develops a new cultivation method only needs need be an expert at ''discovering'' new cultivation methods- politics, logistics, and leadership aren't necessary traits to this end. Also, in a culture where bloodlines are universally important to leadership, this will remain true even after the death of a corrupt leader. Wen Qing is the unambiguous leader of the Wen Remnants, due both to her being the closest one remaining to the old main branch, and Wei Wuxian being ill-suited to lead refugees in domestic issues. She generally trusts him in matters of cultivation, ghosts, and protection, but she undoubtedly holds a superior position and vetoes several of his ideas.
** Lan Wangji's political education has been rather neglected, since the Lan elders could see he wasn't gifted with the right temperament and believed he would never be more than a spare. Then the Sunshot Campaign happened, and Lan Wangji got promoted to ''the'' heir of Gusu Lan, and he started to commit major blunders -- such as accidentally trying to force the Lan standards upon the First Disciple of another sect -- because he wasn't prepared to deal with it.

* AdultFear:
** Nie Mingjue disapproves his younger brother's plan to go to Valdemar because the country somehow ''takes'' good people, and they ''don't come back'', and Nie Mingjue doesn't want to risk his or his sworn brother Lan Xichen's younger sibling suffering this fate. And it comes true when Lan Wangji is Chosen as a Herald.
** Nie Mingjue also worries about bringing the Jin's military prowess against the Nie sect if he officially grants his protection to the Wen remnants.
** Courtesy of the Qinghe Nie sect's peculiar cultivation methods, any powerful warrior born from their ranks is unlikely to live longer than their thirties. Nie Huaisang is painfully aware of this, often sending doctors to sit on his brother in order to gain a bit more time. [[spoiler: It's strongly hinted that the ultimate goal of his original plan was to get Wei Wuxian to find a way to fix these issues, using his knowledge of resentful energy.]]
** Wei Wuxian is so paranoid about the Great Sects leading an assault against the Burial Mounds in his absence that he brings all the Wen remnants with him in his travel to Valdemar. He also secretly worries about the possibility of A-Yuan (barely a toddler) being lost in a foreign country and unable to ask for help.
** The Lan elders disapprove so much of their Second Jade falling in love with the Yiling Patriarch they would refuse to help Wei Wuxian in order to "free" Lan Wangji from this bond.
** A woodcutter was courting two sisters, and murdered one of them when she fell pregnant. The baby survives, but he's sickly and his aunt refuses to raise him for being a murderer's offspring.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/30084465/chapters/74095785 A Long Road]]'' is a crossover fic written by Vathara, showing what happens when ''Literature/MoDaoZuShi'' and ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' are thrown together and mixed. Mainly, it's a mess.

** Nie Huaisang feels rather weirded out in front of the Valdemaran fashion, since people keep their hair cropped short and wear a lot less of clothes.

** Lan Zhan has been so thoroughly restrained and sheltered by his Sect's rules that he has no idea whatsoever about the true nature of his feelings regarding Wei Ying.