Question The difference between a Sect and a Palace (Cultivation)

Who is well versed in the xuanhuan/xianxia genre (cultivation world). Can you tell me what is the difference between Palace, Sect, Temple, Valley and Pavilion?

 

They're all pretty much the same. The overall names might be different, but with essentially the same pyramid structure. They will probably have different names for the same/similar positions. Usually one acts as the head, with a bunch of elders beneath. These guys can be further divided into groups like halls, mountains, etc depending on function. There also might be bunch of half dead old fogeys acting as 'reserves' of some kind.

Anyways, these authors aren't exactly known for thier unique world building,so you don't need to think too much.

 

The same difference that's between A# and Bb. It's the same thing but people act like the whole world is gonna end if you call one thing the other.

 

Huh?

Aren't there plenty? Palace is either a typical royalty and nobility deal, just throw in some connections with immortals in xianxia/xuanhuan world or even their own style of advancing( in case of latter, the palace often schemes to bring down sects and remain as the only top dog around while in the former, the rulers of common humanity from which geniuses are recruited from are glorified puppets any time an immortal visits and wants something).

Valleys and Pavilions are just other names for sects. The only thing about them is that these two also often stand in for clans who became an independent power. Oh, and a Pavilion might provide a service like an immortal cafe or auctions or dating or sell info to anyone.

A sect isn't necessarily religious meaning. The ones that are get depicted as cuckoo or plain evil, while the rest are basically fantasy universities, with the worse traits up to eleven.

The authors mostly write temples as training grounds of monks(who always have some flaws as chinese authors love taking shots at Buddhism) or just tack on temple at end of a name of a generic organization that has nothing in common with that.

 

Sect (宗 zōng) (派 pài) – an organization dedicated to the practice of cultivation and/or martial arts. Typically led by a Sect Leader (掌门) or Patriarch (老祖). With the help of Sect Elders (老), they instruct Disciples (弟子) in the proper methods of cultivation or training in the martial arts styles of the Sect. The Disciples live in the Sect, which provides for their daily needs. There is practically always a strict hierarchy amongst members of a Sect, and respect for the elder generations is demanded.

• In some novels, the common Disciples are divided into another hierarchy of Core Disciples (核心弟子), Inner Disciples (内门弟子), and Outer Disciples (外围弟子) – based on their level of talent and meritorious service to the Sect. Disciples higher on the hierarchy have greater status and receive more resources from the Sect.
• Religious Sect (Temple) (教 jiào) – a sect with a strong religious background. If the religion being practiced is evil, then this term is translated as a Cult. Commonly seen in Wuxia novels.

 

How dare you say that my Holy Maiden Sect is the same shit as a valley!!!

 

Palace - Normally associated with cultivators who are from royalty or those noble clans, Also referred sometimes to power supporting a mortal royal family, or extremely extremely rich ones who can compete with royalty.
Temple - Cultivators who focus on Buddhism, Taoism, or any other religion based martial arts - bar Christianity, they are almost always churches
Valley - Mostly refers to alchemist sects or something associated with them, also refers to nomadic ones, loose grouping of cultivators or extremely closed group of people ones living in a particularly valuable place geographically, Most of these lands have some special shit on them or under them
Pavilion - Mostly used for sects that dabble in trading/markets along cultivation or those literary ones aka book pavillion etc
Cults - Demonic ones
Houses - Noble Families/ Trade Houses

Sect - Pmuch normal martial ones or anything not above, but some lazy have everything as sects anyway.

 

The main difference isn't about that, whether the faction is based in some valley, on top of a mountain, or whatever.

But stuff like Clan, Sect, School, Religion, etc. changes things.

If it's a Clan, then they're blood related. Sect & School can have some overlap, and it changes from novel to novel, but basically anyone is welcome so long as they meet the requirements to join.

Sect is more implied to have pyramid structure while a school could just be a place you pay tuition to get to learn stuff, and while sects are pretty much "for life", after you're finished with your school studies or you graduate or whatever you're no longer part of the school, but usually they're pretty much all the same anyway.

Something to note about Gate/Sect (门) is that these are the ones that are on top of mountains, but that doesn't actually say anything about how the rules work, so it's no wonder that everything just gets translated into Sect.

As for religions/cults, well I don't think I need to explain anything.


And anyway, in most novels the different factions tend to work exactly the same as each other regardless of type, so meh.

 

I feel that authors usually give names of cultivation groups based on the location of their headquarters.
A cultivation group with their headquarters on a mountain would usually be called a sect.
A cultivation group with their headquarters at a temple would usually be called a Temple.
A cultivation group with their headquarters in a cave/valley would usually be called a Valley.
A cultivation group with their headquarters in a city would usually be called a Pavilion.
A cultivation group with a relationship to a governing body would usually be called a Palace.
It actually depends on the author on most part.

 

Hmm, what you asked was tacit knowledge, tricky to make it explicite desc

1. Palace, Pavilion, Grotto, Monastery - these were obvious about building, why so important? Identity palace (grandeur, normally used as HQ e.g. Empyrean Heavenly Palace in MW), pavilion (reserved, e.g.Misty Pavilion)
2. Sect, Gate - umbrella term, e.g. Nine Palace Sect, sect that have nine palaces
3. Temple, Cult - about way or teaching, e.g. Shaolin Temple, Cheonma Cult
4. Valley, Desert, Mount, etc - Geography e.g. Emeishan (Mount Emei), Alchemy Valley in ISSTH (sect located in valley majoring in alchemy)

• What's differences? You can just called them all sectarian in analogus like Snickers and M&M's are just flavor and form both are the same, both are candy
• Why not call them all as sect? Is a whim of factions (parties)

 

Basically agree. Though I would have phrased it:

Temple: Primary focus is the religion. Could have things such as alchemy, medicine, healing, curses, blacksmithing, prophecies etc but all are because of the religion or the god being worshiped.

Valley/Mountain (uncommon usage): Primary focus is the land. Without the land xxx Valley/Mountain wouldn't exist. Whether it's because of a unique cultivation method, the herbs that grow in that kind of habitat, some kind of dragon vein (or something) that's being used to craft weapons.

Pavilion: Primary focus is the building or, more likely, it's contents. Such as (basically) being a library, trading house, smithy, alchemy, cultivation rooms.

Cults: Seem to have a negative feel. Tend to be smaller and work from the shadows such as infiltration, subversion, abduction, assassination or genocide.

Palace: Seem to be a combination of a governing body and a sect. (The cultivation side usually suffers due to having to spend time managing the peasants.)

House: Focus on the family/relatives. The obvious example being trading family with trading/auction houses in multiple locations, each being managed by a different family member. The next obvious example would be a smaller family consisting of something like grandparents, parents, children. Might be two or three sets of parents and children. Not many, if any, servants or guards.

Clan: Focus on the family/relatives but usually larger and more generations down the line from a House. To the point where there is usually a disgruntled family who plots for more power/control. Usually a large compound with servants and guards and their families,though lower ranked/power family members themselves could be the servants and guards.

Sect: Focus on cultivation. There could be divisions that are a valley/mountain(uncommon usage), cult or pavilion within the sect either by name or function. This is where the primary usage of mountain usually lie. Such as each mountain within the sect's boundary having a specific elder, cultivation type or function (such as array, blacksmithing, alchemy)