#wick meta

This method works better for characters who are not glitter and shipped with every person and creature and object under the sun.

This tutorial is written for people not familiar with tag ids. If you know how tag ids work, you should read the last two paragraph of this tutorial first.

You can find the Tag Search by looking at the menu at the top of the AO3 page that’s off to the left side.

Click Search and click Tag (the third option from the top).

Type in your character. If the character only ever appears in one fandom, you also include that. If the character you want to search as a very common name, you will probably have to include a fandom to avoid pulling in unrelated tags. Do not include more than one fandom otherwise the result will only pull up any tags that exist in all the fandoms you listed.

Select Relationship for type

Select Canonical

Hit Search Tags

The results should pull up every relationship that includes that character for that specific fandom or if you did not restrict by fandom, every relationship that has character with an identical name to the character you’re searching for.

For the character I picked, “Arm”, there are 29 results.

Open the Work Search page in a new tab or window. You can find a link in the same menu as Tag Search.

Or you can also open it through button labeled Work Search beside the Tag Search heading.

On the Work Search page, find the Any Field box. 

This next part will be time-consuming but you will need to format all the relationships you want to parallel search like this: "X/Y" OR "X & A"  OR   "B & Z".

The tags need to match how they were shown on the Tag Search page. Each relationship needs to be placed between straight quotes. Curly quotes will break this search. Between each relationship tag, there needs to be an OR in all caps, but not one at the start or end.

After you’ve formatted things like this you can paste it into the Any Field box. (You could have just composed your search in there but if you’re parallel searching many relationship tags, doing it in notepad or something may make it easier to see what you’ve already included.)

There are filter options on this page. If you want to sort by completed or such, this is the point you need to do it at this point. This kind of search does not allow you to filter after you have clicked search. Unlike filtering on a specific tag, there is no filtering sidebar. A few other caveats:

If you want to exclude tags, you will have to input them into the Any Field box alongside the relationship tags. Those excluded tags will need to be formatted like such: - "tag 1"  - "tag 2"

Basically they just need a minus sign in front of them. You do not need to include OR between them.

If you include more than one tag in the Character, Relationship, or Additional Tag boxes, the search will only bring up results that match all of your search parameters. So if you inputted “Fluff” and “High School” into the Additional Tag field, it would only bring up works that have both the “Fluff” and “High School” tag as well as any of the relationship tags in the Any Field.

I just want search for every work that includes Arm so I have no other filtering added. It looks like something below.

Once you’ve finished setting up your search, click the search button.

In the case of my search, I only set it up to pull up any of the 29 relationship tags I found  that included Arm. When I saved this screenshot, there were 412 results.

A few important things to note. While AO3 doesn’t really restrict how many text characters you put into the Any Field box, most browsers have a limit. So if you want to parallel search a lot of relationship or any tags in fact, you may run into your browser breaking your search.

If you’re searching a high number of tags, it’s better to use tag ids instead because they’re shorter and so you’ll be able to include way more information with less text characters. The tutorial works similarly except the list will be formatted like such: filter_ids:123 OR filter_id:456

@pumpkinpaix: Do you know how long the Qishan indoctrination lasted? something tells me anywhere between 2 weeks and 2 months.

Me: Off the top of my head no.

[Two seconds later]

Also me: *rattles off events and their exact timeframes from memory to calculate it*

[Five Seconds Later]

😅 Me: I actually remembered more events to consider. Actually let me grab all the information and calculate it for real.

Here's that turned into a meta.

The day that Wang Lingjiao dies we learn this: "She had been following Wen Chao for almost half a year. Half a year was the most time that Wen Chao could spend on a woman, from loving her to becoming tired of her." (Evil, Part One). Since she was with Wen Chao during the indoctrination, this places a hard maximum time frame it can occur in less than six months. To determine the duration of the indoctrination, I started with the half year of Wen Chao/Wang Lingjiao. Then I list all the events within that timeframe and their duration to subtract from that half year period. That gets the range for the indoctrination.

For ease of estimation, I'm doing to do the following approximations:

Treating a month as 30 days

defining a few days as between 3 and 6 days

Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao's relationship began prior Qishan Indoctrination

All the Relevant Timeframes

Let's start with "For the reason that other sects taught badly and wasted talent, the Wen Sect demanded all of the sects to each dispatch at least twenty disciples to Qishan within three days" (Courage, Part One). The indoctrination was likely sparked off by the Burning of the Cloud Recesses that occured "last month" (Courage, Part Two). I consider if safe to assume that Wang Lingjiao was already together with Wen Chao at this point because Lan Wangji is still fairly injuried at this point and the Wens don't seem to have long enough tempers to wait long after the burning combined with the fact that MXTX has a tendency for every tight timelines so let's say a few days prior to the demand's release.

Next is the night-hunt at Dusk-Creek Mountain. On the day that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are rescued the latter shouts, "'Jiang Cheng! Where the hell are you?! It’s almost been seven days!!!'" (Courage, Part Five). That's nice we have a definitive amount of time seven days total between being trapped, killing the Xuanwu of Slaughter, and the rescue.

Now we must consider how long it took for them to arrive in Yunmeng post-rescue. In Poison, Part One, Wei Wuxian confirms that, "it only takes five days [sic] from Dusk-Creek Mountain to Yunmeng”. Jiang Cheng berates him for only counting the time to return Yunmeng but not time to arrive in Dusk-Creek Mountain and search for him. They traveled with a feverish Wei Wuxian and an injuried Lan Wangji so I'll use the entire five days. It'll also include the mount of time it took before Wei Wuxian to wake up post passing out just to make things easier and I don't doubt they did rush back since Wei Wuxian was ill. While the seven days arguably count as part of the indoctrination proper, I consider the five days not to be part of the indoctrinationeven if formally it hadn't ended and some disciples might have remained with the Wens based on the fact that post-Dusk Creek Mt night night the indoctrination "disintegrated completely. All of the disciples returned to their sects" (Poisons, Part Two).

It took Wei Wuxian a few days to recover and then "half a month later" the Fall of Lotus Pier occurs (Poison, Part Two). The paragraph following states one day so that suggests this is loose time keeping and not tight time keeping so I consider it fair to consider it half a month and then the fall. The Fall of Lotus Pier itself takes less than a day because Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng return late into that night to the sect's doors closed (Poisons, Part Three). It's safe to say a half a month and 1 day from his recovery to the Fall.

They travel "half a day" to escape after discovering their sect dead, but that night Wei Wuxian returns there after Jiang Cheng is captured (Poisons, Part Four). Wen Ning helps him save Jiang Cheng and then it takes "the second day" for them to arrive at Wen Qing's Yiling branch (Poison, Part Four). That adds another 3 days from the fall to arriving in Yiling.

After arriving, Jiang Cheng kicks up a fuss and "with the needle in Jiang Cheng’s head, he slept for three days" (Poisons, Part Five). It takes them a "few days" (Poisons, Part Five) between him waking up and arriving in the fake Baoshan Sanren Mountain. "Jiang Cheng had been in the mountain for seven days" for the golden core transfer (Poisons, Part Five). Jiang Cheng waits almost "almost six days" for Wei Wuxian to find him post transfer (Evil, Part Two).

Between then and Wang Lingjiao's death is "three months" that timeframe is repeated in Evil, Part One to Two. Though the reference points are slightly different it's either when Wei Wuxian disappeared or when the Sunshot Campaign sects joined together so it's a bit of a loose timeframe but we can take that as a minimum amount of time.

Maths

I am going to do this in two "phases" all the concrete timeframes and then the "few day" rougher estimates grouped together.

Conversions from months to days

half a year so 365/2 = 182.5, rounded up to 183 for Wen Chao/Wang Lingjiao

(.5 X 30) = 15 for post-Wei Wuxian's recovery up to Fall of Lotus Pier

(3 x 30) = 90 for between Wei Wuxian in the mass graves/start of the Sunshot Campaign to Wang Lingjiao's death

Concrete timeframes:

183 - 3 [travel to Qishan] - 5 [return to Yunmeng post rescue] - 15 [Wei Wuxian's recovery to before the Fall of Lotus Pier] - 1 [Fall of Lotus Pier] - 1 [Jiang Cheng's capture and rescue] - 2 [arrival in Yiling] - 3 [k.o'd Jiang Cheng] - 7 [gold core transfer] - 6 [Jiang Cheng waiting for Wei Wuxian] - 90 [between WWX in the mass graves/start of Sunshot Campaign to Wang Lingjiao's Death] = 50 days

Looser timeframes:

50 - (3-6 [Burning of Cloud Recesses to release of indoctrination demand]) - (3-6 [Wei Wuxian recovery]) - (3-6 [travel to fake BSSR mt.]) = 32-41 days

Now remember how the quote was almost half a year, I'm going to take off another 3-6 days to account for the fact so 26-38 days.

Conclusion

The indoctrination lasts at maximum approximately 26 to 38 days so a month give or take a week. While this does have about 6-9 days for Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao to have already started their relationship (the burning of Cloud Recesses estimate combined with the travel to Qishan), it would still be reasonable to reduce it futher to account for the start of a relationship for your writing purposes.

For the longest time I struggled to explain wuxia. I had a conversation a while back where I could finally put it to words by wuxia felt like low fantasy to me even if it isn't necessarily considered that in China.

Wuxia reminds me a lot of Western. The concept is tied to a fictionalized past in a space adjacent or outside of societal law. Westerns are set in the 1850s-1900s. Wuxia is set in ancient China. Westerns have the West while Wuxia has the Jianghu. Both are exaggerations of the life. Where wuxia tips into fantasy for me is the level of exaggeration tends to lean into the supernatural. I have a very loose definition of fantasy. If you consider fantasy to be the Tolkien kind, then it makes sense for it to clock as genre fiction. For me, I accept anything that has supernatural elements (even if they are rooted in real life practices) as fantasy. If it just lightly supernatural that still qualifies as low fantasy to me.

The difference between that and xianxia is power level. Wuxia focuses on martial artists and xianxia is about cultivators seeking immortality. Xianxia is also characterized by its Daoist and Chinese folklore influences. Here is where you'll see people fighting aganist mythological beasts. It can be tricky to tell wuxia and xianxia apart when you're first introduced to them because of they are set in the same setting. Xianxia is essentially the high fantasy version of wuxia. Except that's not exactly true.

During this conversation I was introduced to xiuzhen, I would describe xiuzhen as the emerging genre of similar to xianxia except it is set outside of the traditional historical setting (sci-fi, contemporary, etc). It is about coexistence of the supernational, religion, etc with the technological advancement. That's not exactly accurate because the paper itself mentions that xiuzhen gets used somewhat interchangably with xianixa. The setting difference could be my own personal bias or it could be a difference that becomes more distinct with time.

Learning about xiuzhen feels a lot like hopepunk to me. In the sense that's a niche classification that recharacterizes what became before it and also is somewhat sorted based on traits that are difficult to understand if you're not part of the communities or cultures where that classification were created. This isn't unique to China. Look at all the different kinds of -punk (solarpunk, lunarpunk, cyberpunk, steampunk, etc) genres that exist. It's just China had a lot longer to develop niches and more time for the layers to build up.

Xiaxia is a part and separate from xuanhuan which remixes Chinese mythology with Western fantasy elements. Xuanhuan is distinct from qiuhan (Western style fantasies written in Chinese). New classifications pop up that re-contextualize the past. I don't have a perfect handle on where exactly lines are drawn because I wasn't there when these genres developed and I'm learning them through a language difference.

This is unrelated to the MDZS timeline I made. It has the broadest possible age ranges for characters based on the novel.

Wei Wuxian

Wei Wuxian is the protagonist and we closely follow his perspective so we have a fairly good idea what age he is during different events: 1. he was fifteen during the disciple exchange at Gusu (Refinement, Part One) 2. he was 16 at the Discussion Conference at Qishan as it was a year since he saw Lan Wangji (Allure, Part Three) 3. he killed the Xuanwu of Slaughter "at the mere age of seventeen" (Poisons, Part One). 4. he was "seventeen or eighteen" during the golden core transplant (Hatred, Part Eight) 5. at the night-hunt at Phoenix Mountain he "lost the first kiss that he had been guarding for twenty years" (Departure, Part One) making him at least 20 then.

( read more )

In summary:

Night-hunt at Phoenix Mt.: 20 or 21.

Ambush at Qiongqi Path: 21 or 22.

Died between 21 to 23

Present would have been 35 or 36.

Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang, Su She, Wen Ning, Jin Zixuan

Everyone at the disciple exchange at Gusu was "fifteen or sixteen" (Refinement, Part One). Since loquats appear during the incident at Lake Biling (Refinement, Part Six), that overlaps that exchange in early spring to early summer. As that is relatively far into the year, the low end will be considered have turned 15 that year and the high end will be would have turned 17 that year (but were 16 at the start of the exchange).( more words )

Therefore, broadly speaking these are the possible age ranges for everyone who showed up during the Gusu Exchange during different events.

Gusu Exchange: 15-16 (but up to 17 when WWX is expelled)

indoctrination at Qishan: 16 to 18

start of Sunshot Campaign: 16-19

Night-hunt at Phoenix Mt.: 19-23

Ambush at Qiongqi Path: 20-23

First Siege on the Burial Mounds: 20-24

Second Siege on the Burial Mounds: 34-37

( Explanation for including LWJ, SS, and WN )

Narrowing stuff down for specific characters in this group:

Jiang Cheng

The prologue introduces him as Wei Wuxian's shidi, making him younger than Wei Wuxian. Since he was "seventeen already" during the massacre at Lotus Pier, he is approximately Wei Wuxian's age only a few months younger (Courage, Part). So use WWX's ages at signficant events.

Jin Zixuan

( short meta sentences )

Marriage: 19-23

Died at 20-23

Note

( commentary on the use of xiong and whether that reflects age status )

Also posted to AO3 here.

comments

405+ BWD

Rampage of the Xuanwu of Slaughter.1.1 A creature fails to ascend into a Xuanwu. It rampages, consuming thousands of people. As cultivators rallied together to defeat it, it vanished one winter in Qishan after attacking a village.

Discovery of the Dancing Goddess.2.1, I Hundreds of years ago, a human-shaped stone is found in the Danfan Mountains by a hunter and is worshipped as a local deity, the Dancing Goddess.

Ascension of the Damsel of Annual Blossoms.3.1, II A poet was the first owner of the garden and tended to the flowers as friends, reading it poetry daily. This led to the Damsel of Annual Blossoms spirit crystalizing. When people enter the garden under the moonlight and recite poetry, if it makes her happy she gifts the reader a flower that doesn’t lose its scent for three years. If it isn’t acceptable to her, she hits the reader with a flower, knocking them out, and then tosses them from the garden.

160 BWD B

81 Day Battle against a Qiongqi.4.1, III Wen Mao battles a Qiongqi for eighty-one days launching him to fame.

Leaving Monkhood.5.1 Lan An exits monkhood at 20 and becomes a musician.

Establishment of the Qishan Wen Sect.6.1 Wen Mao pioneers cultivational sects based on clan lines.

(Find it with all the linked citations and anotations on AO3)

[ko-fi]

Wei Wuxian was never adopted by Jiang Fengmian. His official status is "the head disciple of Sect Leader Jiang" (Refinement pt 6). Jiang Fengmian and Wei Wuxian formally have a teacher student relationship. Wei Wuxian is also a servant. This isn't aligned with our modern perception of servants. For example, Wen Zhuliu is also a servant but he was allowed to change his name to Wen. Wei Wuxian was a wealthy pre-death. His servant position meant he was lower Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli in the social hierarchy but he was still himself pretty high up. He was high on the list of eligible bachelors so he had enough clout to be marriable. This is now headcanon territory Wei Wuxian was likely a servant in the sense he was ordered to be Jiang Cheng's companion. He is supposed to serve Jiang Cheng as aide like how Wei Changze served Jiang Fengmian.

Okay back to book supported stuff, Wei Wuxian is treated like family by the main Jiang family except Yu Ziyuan. It is to the degree rumors float around about Wei Wuxian actually being Jiang Fengmian's illegitimate son. So Wei Wuxian is indulged to hell by Jiang Fengmian, Jiang Yanli, and Jiang Cheng. He is like family but it would still be reasonable for him to marry Jiang Yanli. He is actually extremely good suitor for Jiang Yanli within society. (Not as good as marrying a sect leader but still very good). Because he is a Jiang disciple and close to the family.

After a long time, I did the next one. I also updated the previous ones to make the timeline bullet points clear/easier to read. Crossposted on ao3 for those who prefer that format.

Jiang Yanli

Jiang Yanli is "two or three" years older than Wei Wuxian and was "twelve or thirteen" during the childhood memory scene (Departure, Part Three). So take Wei Wuxian's age and add 2 to 3 years.

Gusu Exchange: 17 or 18

Discussion Conference at Qishan: 18 or 19

Indoctrination at Qishan: 19 or 20

Start of Sunshot Campaign: 19 or 21

Night-hunt at Phoenix Mt.: 22-24

Ambush at Qiongqi Path: 23-25

Massacre at the Nightless City: 23-25 (Death)

If alive for the Second Seige: 37-39

Lan Xichen

Lan Xichen is at most three years older than Lan Wangji as he appeared during the archery competition at the Discussion Conference at Qishan that was limited to disciples under twenty (Allure, Part Three). Therefore, he is one to three years older than Lan Wangji. If Lan Wangji is his highest possible age, there cannot be a 3 year age difference as 18 + 3 that would squarely place L Xichen at 20-21 the year of the Discussion Conference at Qishan. If LWJ were in his highest potential age, the maximum difference can be 2 years as if could happen in the year Lan Xichen turns 20 but before his birthday. I'm taking Lan Wangji's possible age ranges and adding 1 for the low end and 2 for the high end.

Gusu Exchange: 16-18

discussion conference at Qishan: 17 to 20 (year he turns 20 but before his birthday if you use LWJ's higher possible ranger)

start of Sunshot Campaign: 16-21

Night-hunt at Phoenix Mt.: 20-25

Ambush at Qiongqi Path: 21-26

First Siege on the Burial Mounds: 21-27

Second Siege on the Burial Mounds: 35-39

Nie Mingjue

Nie Mingjue's age is difficult to place. He inherits the sect leader role before 20 so likely 19 (Contentment, Part Three). Nie Mingjue and Huaisang’s father died half a year after his saber shatters during a night-hunt (Guile, Part Four). The Night-hunt Prohibition occurs the year prior to the Indoctrination Camp at Qishan so the night-hunt that shatters the saber must occur before then (Courage, Part One).

Additionally, Nie Mingjue was not mentioned to be a sect leader in the conversation during the Disciple Exchange at Gusu, while that detail could have been omitted considering how gossipy all the disciples are and how important it would be to mention that position, it is likely at that point he wasn’t yet the sect leader (Refinement, Part One). Thus it is likely the summonings and night-hunt happened between these two events.

Furthermore, we do not see any Nie sect members mentioned during the Discussion Conference at Qishan so unlike Lan Xichen, we cannot use that to say if he under or over twenty.

So the earliest Nie baba can die is after the disciple exchange at Gusu, so the year when the discussion conference at occurs. Taking the Nie Huaisang possible age ranges and compare the lowest bracket (16) to 19. That maximum age difference is 3.

Since Nie Mingjue is already sect leader when the Sunshot campaign begins, the youngest he can be then is 19 the year he turns 20 (Contentment, Part Three) which would be 1 year older than Nie Huaisang on the low end.

As for placing his death, it must occurs year after the First Siege on the Burial mound as he raced to yell at Jin Guangshan for his attempt to shelther Xue Yang (Dew, Part Three). An unknown amount of time after that, Jin Guangyao visits Nie Mingjue and the two come into conflict over Jin Guangshan's imprisonment rather than execution of Xue Yang after which two months Nie Mingjue dies (Guile Four and Five). This is likely then the year Xue Yang gets captured, the year after First Siege on the Burial Mounds.

In summary, Nie Mingjue is between 1 to 3 years older than Nie Huaisang depending on when you place when Nie baba's death. So he has the same age ranges as Lan Xichen without the limitation LXC has for the Qishan Indoctrination.

Gusu Exchange: 16-19

discussion conference at Qishan: 17 to 21

start of Sunshot Campaign: 16-22

Night-hunt at Phoenix Mt.: 20-26

Ambush at Qiongqi Path: 21-27

First Siege on the Burial Mounds: 21-28

Death: 22-28

If alive: Second Siege on the Burial Mounds: 35-40

comments

to help @sarah-yyy when writing reading fic

General

Khun is the polite address for another person and means 'you'. It is also used as a suffix before a name like Mr/Mrs. when you're trying to show respect.

Phi means elder brother or sister. It's also romantized Pee (you see why I use Phi). You can say this in front of a name or on its own. It's very widely used for the "senior" in different kinds of relationships. (You see Tine call Fang this). Fic writers often shorten it to P in P'Name or P Name [your preference I prefer the first] as they read subtitles which have limited space and shorten the address.

Nong means younger brother or sister. It's used similarly to Phi but for the junior of a relationship. Also used as a nickname for younger people. It is shorten in subtitles to N'Name because of the limited space so fic writers have also adopted this.

Ai is an impolite/rude preffix before a name used to show affection between friends of the same age. It is more common than E' also means a curse word before a name. (Corrected: March 28, 2020)

E' I cannot remember what word it's shorten from but it's a rude way to address someone. It's functionally Curse Word (I think Bitch) suffix. You sometimes see if when someone is shouting at their friend after they'd gone something frustrating.

Nicknames and Names

This gets its own section because it's a different from how other cultures do names. Often characters will introduce themselves by nickname. This is because in Thailand people are given a nickname and in the two week period before a legal name must be chosen. Names are culturally significant and so families will deliberate a name for a long time and ask priests to help decide a name. These nicknames will sometimes be a shorten form of a person's name but may also just be a word the parents like. You'll often see a letter from the alphabet (though there are ones more popular than others). There can also be neat stuff like in SOTUS Oon (warmth) is Arthit's nickname and Arthit means the sun (the character does not like people using or knowing his nickname). So you know Sarawat's friend: Man? That is his nickname not his legal name.

You'll also see Nickname Name as an introduction. I'm mostly saying this because seeing two names is unlikely to be Name Surname. (Surnames in Thai culture due to laws and customs mean are quite restricted in the sense that you can only have a surname if you are from that clan so it means sense lots of shows don't bother with them).

Uni Culture and Terms

Student ID Lines: The way that IDs work isn't that you get the same ID all years. The first number changes depending on what year you're in. These IDs are in a system that is open to other students. There's a practice passing done useful textbooks and materials from a Student ID Senior to the person who just got the ID. This is known as a Student ID Line. This is Fang's relationship to Tine in addition to being his club senior. In more active Student ID Lines you'll have a mentor-mentee relationship as Fang is shown having with Tine. You see that implied in the meet up with the other line seniors (if a line is particularly active you may also have alumnus appear during events). You see Student ID Line event in the scene where Tine shouts about topping and bottoming.

ID Rumor: I don't know if this is true of all Thai Universities but I saw it in SOTUS and so I will share because it is cute. So you'll describe your Student ID Line by the last four numbers of your ID. Let's say 0206. If another Student ID Line has 2060 aka the same numbers but scrambled it's rumored you'll date.

Moon and Stars: At the start of the first year, there's several events. One of them is the Moon and Star competition. From the freshmen class of each college within the university, the most handsome guy and the prettiest gal are chosen. They are that colleges Moon and Star. They participate in events and practice for a competition (that is a talent show) to be the university Moon and Star (each role is decided separately so the Enginneering Moon may win and the Fine Arts Star). These two end up being representatives of the school for the academic year at events.

Freshman Events: Every university has events of which some are mandatory and some optional where freshmen do ice breaker and other bonding events together. For more competitive colleges this is when hazing would happen (it's less common now but depending on when the series is set it happens).

Engineers/Fine Arts Students: This doesn't happen in 2gether, but often one character in a BL is an engineering student. This is because engineers are lucrative career in Thailand so this is the will make bank major. Fine Arts majors are known for being beautiful which is why pretty people are often mentioned to be this major.

Uniforms: Everyone wears a uniform. The same uniform. You can tell if a person is in elementary school, junior high, or university by their uniform. University as you see in 2gether is white dress shirt and black skirt or pants. First years are required to wear a tie. 2gether does not follow this likely for visuals. The exception to the first year tie rule is the university has a international college those first year students don't have to wear the tie. An exception to the uniform rule you'll often see if higher year engineering students in the practical smocks.