With the increase in contact between the Xianzhou Alliance and other worlds, the unique art form of Butterfly Immersia was popularized to the masses. In this issue, Butterfly Shadow invited thirty veterans of the craft to vote for the top ten best Butterfly Immersia works within the last millennium to pamper our readers.
It matters not if you are from the Xianzhou Alliance or if you hail from a world beyond, we hope you would enjoy the following works. They are the zeitgeist of contemporary Xianzhou art and a great reflection of the Xianzhou's spiritual history.
Everyone knows your business is doing well. Your younger brothers are all successful, and you don't need an older brother like me anymore. Only now, after your little sister got beaten up by street thugs, that you thought about me. You don't know what else you can do. How would I know what I did to offend you? You won't even call me "Brother."
This piece is set on the Xianzhou Yaoqing at the end of the Three Sufferings Era. Taking the perspective of a Zhuming Foxian man, the piece recounts the story of how he joined the largest Brotherhood in the Yaoqing and became its legendary ringleader as a Yaoqing non-native. The eminent Mr. Wan Yi is one of the first creators who managed to put the art of Butterfly Immersia on the map of artistic appreciation. He pioneered the technology of the Empathy Matrix in this piece, significantly slowing the subjective perceptions of time for experiencers, thus launching Butterfly Immersias into an age of long stories.
During the Three Sufferings Era, the social order of the Xianzhou was close to collapsing. In the absence of a social order, organized crime rapidly filled the void and quickly rose up to build their own underground kingdoms. These criminal syndicates are collectively called the Brotherhood, with their ringleader being the Robe Brethren.
Four millennia have passed since. Under the protection of the Reignbow Arbiter, the Xianzhou realms had long returned to lawfulness and peace. Terms like the Brotherhood and Robe Brethren had faded into the sands of time, becoming one of the many historical terminologies.
However, as they have disappeared in society, the Robe Brethrens have embedded themselves in the depth of Xianzhou's soul as a cultural symbol. Members of the Brotherhood often speak a frightening but decorous Yaoqing dialect. Even in the modern era, one can still see teens trolling the streets and crudely imitating the Yaoqing dialect and fragments of the Brotherhood's tacit creed.
In my opinion, what they were reminiscing is not the cruel, chaotic, and lawless era, but the resilience, valor, and honor of these Robe Brethrens. However, these portrayals are merely the playwright's romantic interpretations.