Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- Aotearoa
[X] DarkLight140
@DarkLight140 Only thing might be, emphasise our predecessor? We made the same recommendation last time to no effect.
@DarkLight140 Only thing might be, emphasise our predecessor? We made the same recommendation last time to no effect.
- Location
- Germiston, South Africa
[X] DarkLight140
Ranald is a strange god. Almost all citizens of the Empire worship him when appropriate, the common sign of the crossed fingers being an entreaty to him for good fortune. And yet he is almost as actively suppressed as the Outlawed Gods, such as the elven god of murder, Khaine, or the shipwrecker's god and enemy of Manann, Stromfels. To understand why, you must understand the fourfold nature of Ranald.
Most know Ranald as Ranald the Gamester, God of Gaming, Gambling, and Luck. A prayer to him is a thumb on the scale of chance, tipping the odds in your favour. He is especially venerated by those who make fortunes by chance - gamblers, of course, but also merchants, businessmen and traders. He is worshipped by most citizens in small ways, with crossed fingers, lucky amulets and superstitions all being prayers to the God of Luck. Trade and business guilds are often dedicated to him, and small, hidden shrines to him can be found in most slums and shanties in the towns and cities of the Empire and beyond - except in Marienburg, where a large temple to Ranald stands openly. It is also said that anywhere there is gambling is a shrine to Ranald.
The second most followed aspect of Ranald is that of Ranald the Night Prowler, God of Thieves. Though this aspect is poorly looked upon by most of those in power, the Strictures of Ranald the Night Prowler frown on violence, so cities with a criminal underbelly dominated by Ranald are vastly preferable to those dominated by Khaine. Worship of Ranald is built right into the Thieves Cant, the deliberately confusing argot of the underclasses, and the majority of Ranald's priests began by worshipping this facet of him.
The least-known guise of Ranald is Ranald the Deceiver, God of Irony and Illusion, Charlatans and Tricksters, favoured by spies, liars, con artists, and Grey Wizards. He smiles on attempts to outwit and outfox your enemies, though he smiles just as readily on suitably entertaining failures. To openly admit to worshipping him is to fail at doing so, as no true liar admits to being one, so worship of this guise tends to be more personal and uncodified than even that of Ranald's other followers.
And finally, there is the most thoroughly and enthusiastically suppressed face of Ranald: Ranald the Protector. He is the God of Freedom, of defending the defenceless, assisting the poor, and standing up for the rights of the common man. But when taken to extremes, he is also the God of revolution, equality, and democracy, and as such is a constant danger to the status quo of the Empire. He is worshipped by rabble-rousers, democrats, cells of would-be revolutionaries and groups of brigands that steal from the wealthy to give to the impoverished. These worshippers are much of why the worship of Ranald is outright forbidden in Bretonnia, and viewed with so much suspicion elsewhere.
Everyone that worships Ranald is drawn to one face of the God, but to worship one facet is to worship all of Ranald. To accept Ranald as your patron deity is accept the importance of fortune, a lax attitude towards laws, a flexible approach to the truth, and the importance of freedom.
Ranald is usually portrayed as a charming rogue with a wicked smile, but sometimes depicted as a crow, magpie, or a black cat. The only symbol holy to him is the simple cross: X. This makes it easy to work into innocuous-looking patterns and tattoos, as the symbol loses some of it's potency if worn openly.
Most know Ranald as Ranald the Gamester, God of Gaming, Gambling, and Luck. A prayer to him is a thumb on the scale of chance, tipping the odds in your favour. He is especially venerated by those who make fortunes by chance - gamblers, of course, but also merchants, businessmen and traders. He is worshipped by most citizens in small ways, with crossed fingers, lucky amulets and superstitions all being prayers to the God of Luck. Trade and business guilds are often dedicated to him, and small, hidden shrines to him can be found in most slums and shanties in the towns and cities of the Empire and beyond - except in Marienburg, where a large temple to Ranald stands openly. It is also said that anywhere there is gambling is a shrine to Ranald.
The second most followed aspect of Ranald is that of Ranald the Night Prowler, God of Thieves. Though this aspect is poorly looked upon by most of those in power, the Strictures of Ranald the Night Prowler frown on violence, so cities with a criminal underbelly dominated by Ranald are vastly preferable to those dominated by Khaine. Worship of Ranald is built right into the Thieves Cant, the deliberately confusing argot of the underclasses, and the majority of Ranald's priests began by worshipping this facet of him.
The least-known guise of Ranald is Ranald the Deceiver, God of Irony and Illusion, Charlatans and Tricksters, favoured by spies, liars, con artists, and Grey Wizards. He smiles on attempts to outwit and outfox your enemies, though he smiles just as readily on suitably entertaining failures. To openly admit to worshipping him is to fail at doing so, as no true liar admits to being one, so worship of this guise tends to be more personal and uncodified than even that of Ranald's other followers.
And finally, there is the most thoroughly and enthusiastically suppressed face of Ranald: Ranald the Protector. He is the God of Freedom, of defending the defenceless, assisting the poor, and standing up for the rights of the common man. But when taken to extremes, he is also the God of revolution, equality, and democracy, and as such is a constant danger to the status quo of the Empire. He is worshipped by rabble-rousers, democrats, cells of would-be revolutionaries and groups of brigands that steal from the wealthy to give to the impoverished. These worshippers are much of why the worship of Ranald is outright forbidden in Bretonnia, and viewed with so much suspicion elsewhere.
Everyone that worships Ranald is drawn to one face of the God, but to worship one facet is to worship all of Ranald. To accept Ranald as your patron deity is accept the importance of fortune, a lax attitude towards laws, a flexible approach to the truth, and the importance of freedom.
Ranald is usually portrayed as a charming rogue with a wicked smile, but sometimes depicted as a crow, magpie, or a black cat. The only symbol holy to him is the simple cross: X. This makes it easy to work into innocuous-looking patterns and tattoos, as the symbol loses some of it's potency if worn openly.
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Q: Which Warhammer god do Objectivists worship?
A:
A:
Ayn Ranald
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HanEmpire
Delicious
Ranald is the patron god of the parasites, Objectivists wouldn't worship him. Handrich maybe.
With either enough spells learned, or other magical skills practised, or some other suitably impoved grasp of magic, your Journeyman Wizard stat will upgrade into... let's go with 'Really Good Journeyman Wizard' for now, which will come with a Learning boost. Improved Enchanter traits would also come with a Learning boost, as would a suitably well-stocked laboratory or library or similar in your Palace-Shrine. And there's always just random chance - rolling crits while doing magical or research stuff can lead to improved Learning.
I'm taking away Ranald's Blessing for this.
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
So on the subject of further expanding our information network in the future, as both a fluff idea and a write in suggestion for @BoneyM , might I suggest that we get the owners of as many of the local taverns as possible in our pocket. That way not only do we get a someone who will feed us any interesting info that people let slip while drinking but we also have someone ready to tell us whenever someone suspicious or just particularly noteworthy comes to town and rents a room.
[X] DarkLight140
- Location
- USA
So, first step, find someone to handle it.
Got the ranald priests to use.
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
Of course, especially now that I think about it having the Inn Keepers informing for us would also allow us to more easily spot when someone suddenly starts spending large amounts of money as the typical response for most people after getting payed is to go to the Inn and drink it away (as shown with the guy we paid earlier). Now most can be explained rather easily, but some are goldmines.
backgroundnoise
Getting Too Old For This...
- Location
- The Shadowlands
Just found this quest, and not only is the premise brilliant, it's really, really fun to read. I never thought I'd see a quest like this from this particular point of view, but I'm very glad I did.
Using criminals with fairly-heavy anti-authority stance, who are priests of the God of Revolutions, as the main informational hub for an Elector-Count strikes me a bad idea. They are useful against some of the threats (proscribed cults and vampires), but they are not terribly useful for criminal activity (chances are, they are in on it), nobility (they dislike them), the populace (chances are they would take their side instead of the Elector).
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
Well I think a good option would be to recruit a bounty hunter, assuming we take the time to grab a reputable one we would get a subordinate skilled at tracking down targets and strong enough in a fight to handle most situations.
Another option would be to see about recruiting a traveling minstrel, aka a Bard, who can easily get access to noble courts and common taverns alike. If we can find one skilled and loyal enough we could even fund him creating a traveling troupe that doubles as a collection of spies/assassins.
While those are both good options for recruiting capable subordinates they don't really address our need for trustworthy headquarters staff, what we really need is someone we can depend on to help us manage sources, collate information from those sources into a usable form and generally do admin stuff.
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
Well then I think our best bet would be one of the Inn Keepers, someone who can easily and covertly receive reports and pass them to us without anyone being the wiser.
Edit: Although another option would be one of the servants at the palace, like the head maid or someone in a similar position. Someone who the servants we inevitably turn into our agents will be easily able to report to and who can easily pass info to us.
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