How the Fateweaver Shrine Fates work in Guardians of Azuma

I read descriptions about this.  I read opinions of players who had different reasons for wanting or not wanting to do it.

I am the sort of player who has back up files.  I saved a file at the point of planting the Plum Sapling where every eligible candidate was at Level 10, had gone through all Bonding Events and would accept my proposal if I made one.

I went forward from there and married Kai, and had two children with him.  At this point, the game was given an update with new rewards and ability to increase Bond Levels.  In the file where I was married to Kai, I raised every character with a Profile to Level 12 to obtain a Life-sized Cut Out Recipe.

All Villages were at Level 10 and I completed all the Pure Azuma Quests.

I was promoted to god after returning the Heart Shards to Mihoshi Habaki.

What I had not done was go through the Trials.

I decided to try the Orb at the Fateweaver Shrine.  I knew where it was as I had walked into it by accident and backed off instantly.

I initiated Fate 2.

This places every one again at the point where you must begin a courtship and experience their romantic events anew if you never did that.  I had gone through all of them before I married Kai.

When I entered my new life, I was unmarried but Friendship with every one remained the same.  The lowest was Level 12.  One loses all intimacy with other characters when one marries so nothing changed there.

I always felt one was supposed to marry Subaru so I decided to do that.  I began to court him which meant telling him 'I love you' and then experiencing all the romantic Bonding Events again as I had done all of them with every one before I ever proposed to Kai..  

I married Subaru and began to compare him with Kai.  This detracted from my enjoyment of my new life!

My actual life was the same.  All the landscapes I created were in place.  All the gear I had made and everything in inventory remained intact.

I used the time between wedding and the decision to have a child to find chests I had missed and try to raise my level in preparation for the final trials.

Subaru, unlike Kai was not at the Shrine every morning to give me my lunch and again at night to serve me dinner.  Is this a glitch or who he is?  Even when we had our first child, he was erratic.

This brings me to something I did not expect!  Before I changed my fate, I had been promoted to godhood.  The main quests were done.

When I had my first son with Subaru, however, my new son  brought a heart shard to me two days after his birth!  I had to go throufh the entire sequence of Quests again!  And finally tell Mihoshi Hqbqki if I accepted godhood or not yet again.

I only had one child with Subaru so far.  I began to wonder if time passed in both fates or if it stood still in my fate with Kai.  I decided to find out.  I missed my life with him.

So the answer is that time continued to pass.  Any experience earned with Subaru now is there in my life with Kai.  I am assuming I can return to Subaru at any time and have a second child.

What was interesting is that my first child with Subaru was born at Level 22.  My friendship with my first child with Kai was transferred to the son of Subaru.

This is the bizarre aspect of the new Fates:

While never losing access to the various levels of the Forest of Endings, aftwr your new first child is born, the heart shards quest will activate.  The gods will meet and tell you that the shards must be collected and given back to Mihoshi Habaki again.

First you need to collect the other four from the Level 110 Bosses, and then go to the Entrance to the Forest of Endings in the Heavenly Realm.  You then must go through each level of the Forest of Endings in order.  There will be no bosses, and indeed when you reach the endpoint of Level 9, you can go directly up to Mihoshi Habaki.  Incidentally, you will  have lost your status so if you wish to be named guardian and god, you must agree to the promotion again.

One more aspect of this I have not tested but it states this clearly:  to save a new Fate, you must marry again.  You cannot start a path and then save it without completing the new life with a marriage!

In conclusion, perhaps the best strategy would be to refrain from all the courtships and do them one by one using the Orb.  Perhaps do not have a child either until you have created every fate.  Mind you, I go back to the Firest of Endings almost daily anyway.