Is there not enough of wulin displayed in LOCH/ROCH ?

[tape]

In most of the other novels, many other sects are usually mentioned, and play a significant role in the story.

In LOCH/ROCH however, pretty much only the Quanzhen Sect and Beggar's Sect are mentioned, and other masters are rarely spoken of unless they have a direct connection with the protagonists. Do you like this aspect of LOCH/ROCH, or would you prefer it to be more like SOD/HSDS/DGSD/XXK etc where the sects are prominent?

It makes you wonder why Ouyang Feng wants to become the world's best martial artist so much, and why these wuxia characters care so much about their jianghu rep. Aside from Quanzhen and Beggar's Sect, it seems like there's only 100 other people in the wulin !

[Dirt]

I do like seeing more sects, however, I also think the storylines where one person is trying to become 'Wulin Meng Zhu' is overplayed in many TVB wuxia series. Are those storylines as prevalent in stories by other authors? It seems that most of those kinds of people are Wei Jun Zhi like Yu Buqun. Is he the archetype?

[Ian Liew]

In HSDS there were only 6 major sects anyway, although there were tons of little upstart gangs.

Shaolin technically existed, but was still recovering from losing all their best martial artists during the Fire Monk tragedy. Reverend Wu Si was mentioned at the end of ROCH, although he didn't appear in person until the beginning of HSDS. Kunlun's He Zhudao appeared very early in HSDS, and given his heritage Kunlun must have existed during ROCH at least. Huashan never even noticed that the greats were clashing up there, so they probably weren't too good either (not that they were during HSDS). I don't think there was any reference to Kongdong at all.

Wudang and Emei had obviously yet to be formed, so maybe the other famous sects weren't that great? There were little sects like Xianxia, which Huang Yaoshi categorised as being unfit to scrub the feet of Peach Blossom Island's disciples. Sha Tongtian and Hao Tonghai had their sect (can't remember the name, though), and so did Pang Lianhu. I guess in LOCH and ROCH we dealt with the elite so much that the other sects were just not worth looking at. The story didn't seem to be any poorer for the lack of their participation.

[Ken Cheng]

Kunlun's He Zhudao appeared very early in HSDS, and given his heritage Kunlun must have existed during ROCH at least.

The Kunlun Sect was quite venerable: it had existed since long before the DGSD era. The oldest operating sects were Shaolin, the Beggar's Union, Kunlun, and the Ming Cult.

Until Gwok Jing and Yeung Hong came into contact with the Greats, you wonder how important the lives and fates of the Gwok and Yeung families really were to wulin at large. The Gwoks and Yeungs wouldn't have much of an impact on wulin at large until the time of ROCH.

[Ken Cheng]

I guess in LOCH and ROCH we dealt with the elite so much that the other sects were just not worth looking at. The story didn't seem to be any poorer for the lack of their participation.

It didn't, but gave the impression that the world of L/ROCH featured a very insular and exclusive wulin than the broader wulin that is more common in wuxia stories.