[Serious Debate™] What is the optimal number of girls in a xianxia harem?

[ItsDevil]

Greetings, cultivators of the Narrative Dao! ?

I'm writing a xianxia-harem novel (with a mix of corporate satire, emotional optimization, and chaos managed by a celestial Excel sheet), and I've run into the existential question that every enlightened author must face on their path:

? What is the optimal number of members in a cultivation harem to achieve:

A strong narrative ?

Meaningful emotional bonds ?

And above all, one that doesn't require the reader to open a spreadsheet just to keep track of who's who ?

? Three, like the basic stages of cultivation? ? Five, like the elements? ? Seven, like the heavenly realms? ? Nine, so the protagonist has a daily existential crisis? ? Twelve, to simulate a divine board of directors?

And the question that torments me most when writing dialogue: Should they have symbolic arcs, complementary Daos, their own backstories... or the classic "they all love him just because"?

I'm exploring all of this in my novel, Immortal CEO’s Manual: Managing a Celestial Harem, where a former Japanese CEO dies from overwork and reincarnates in a cultivation world... With no talent for fighting, of course. But plenty of talent for organizing a functional, emotional harem using management strategy ?

? I'm trying to balance comedy, romance, progression, and strategy, but I need your ancestral wisdom. How do you all handle it? How many waifus is too many? Have you managed to let each one shine without sacrificing the narrative pace? What mistakes have you made?

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Author's Signature: Its Devil

Immortal CEO’s Manual: Managing a Celestial Harem ? Cultivation, strategy, romance, and emotional chaos… all optimized with corporate efficiency. ? Link: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1652360/immortal-ceos-manual-managing-a-celestial-harem/
? CEO of the Dao. Expert in stealing hearts and pretending it was all part of the plan.

 

[RainyLiquid]

As many as are needed to crush your enemies.

 

[greyblob]

 

[JayMark]

All of them.

 

[HelloHound]

realistically at or less than 6 if you want them to have some semblance of a personality with the most successful ones being around 3 or so

 

[Alski]

1 for every day of the week.

 

[NotaNuffian]

one for every second in a year,

 

[CharlesEBrown]

42. That is always the answer.

(More seriously - how many characters can you "juggle" writing well? That -1 for the MC is the optimal number).

 

[Fallion]

At most 5 but I'd advise 2-3. There's only so much attention you can give each one in the story and the majority of your readers are going to forget a character aften less than 10 chapters if they don't have at least some meaningful presence within that time.
It does also somewhat depend on your upload schedule, if you're able to do daily uploads people will remember it better between chapters than if you do weekly.

 

[Rezcore]

The answer: Yes

 

[Snake99]

No more than 7, and make sure they have different personalities and appearances.

 

[Placeholder]

> make sure they have different personalities and appearances.

Moreover motivations. I've read vast quantities of mediocre Japanese webnovels with lazily-written harem members.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

69
69 is always the right answer.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

11

Because eventually one has to die bringing it to nice and round number.

 

[JayMark]

69
69 is always the right answer.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

View attachment 39372

No.

 

[Ai-chan]

200 in each realm. This includes bitches the rapist protagonists rape for whatever reason.

 

[Zagaroth]

There are many ways to decide.

If they are all/each romantically attracted to the MC, and are willing to 'share', then you probably want a smaller harem, and maybe have them lean toward bi so that they can develop relationships with each other. Of course, if you do this too well, you wind up with a polycule instead of a harem. :D

If they are uniting with the MC for more extrinsic reasons, then there may be room for more, and they do not have to get along terribly well. For example, if each of them comes from a different House or Clan or what ever, and becoming one of the MC's wives is part of the [group] uniting under the MC, then they don't even have to like the MC. They just have to 'seal the deal' of it being a marriage, and then avoid his bedroom in the future.

But there's another aspect that can limit things as well. How many personalities of women in a harem can you writing into a scene, without ever referencing the MC?

Here's how you find out. Start writing the early part of a social gathering, but the only people are going to be the potential harem members. Begin with two of them talking while enjoying tea or something, and then slowly introduce more of them. How long can you keep writing them while giving each one a unique voice/style/personality?

When adding more just makes things confusing and hard to keep track of who is who, back off the numbers by a couple of steps. You now have your hard cap.

It's possible that in a future story this cap may change, but for now, just stick with it.

Also, you can have an actual harem where all of them are having sex with the MC, or you could have small harem with a larger pseudo-harem, where you surround the MC with women who he has non-romantic relationships with.

You can have the like-siblings relationship, the drinking-buddies relationship, if the MC is old/mature enough you can have him effectively adopt a girl or teen and be a father figure, he could simply be a respected boss/military leader to some, etc. They can admire him without wanting to sleep with him.

Plus, women already tend to have more sexual stamina than men. That whole refractory period thing, and it gets longer every cycle. Women don't have to worry about it, they can keep going. So if you have 3 women with strong sexual appetites who are part of his proper harem, the man isn't just satisfied, he's a bit wrung out from trying to keep up. Who needs more romantic relationships on top of that?

Some of this comes from my writing a very detailed thruple where each of the three is equally an MC, and there are also a bunch of women in his life who have nothing remotely romantic/sexual going on with the MMC, of the FMC who may be slightly more in charge of the relationship, just because both of the other two really like seeing her happy. So I do have a bit of experience here.

 

[Corty]

Are we that down that we are now prompting AI to make a thread for us on SHF because we can't ask the question ourselves?

 

[Alfir]

Thread: What is the optimal number of girls in a xianxia harem?
CN Protagonist: Not enough.
JN Protagonist: Huh? We count them?
CN Protagonist: Fool! Of course, we count them! How can we compare?
JN Protagonist: Uuuh... I have a lot I left from the other world... I just returned home to Earth... So zero, I guess?
SH Protagonist: One.
CN Protagonist: What? A harem of one?
SH Protagonist: One shapeshifter... A talented one...
JN Protagonist: I got one, too... Well, she followed me back to Earth, actually...
CN Protagonist: (Facepalms) Wait for me, I am gonna look for one right now.
Ash Ketchum: Anyone seen my Ditto?