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For those interested, the Grey Priesthood has exactly 169 Grey Seers at any given time. Yes, they're extremely few proportionally speaking when compared to the Skaven mass.
 
You know I've seen the arguments for this, but it seems very cynical, like we only care about military goals and military risks. A lot of us wanted to move towards integration, at least that's the impression I got. Semaphore does not feel like as good a first step in that direction.
I don't see it that way personally. I think that the best way to integrate the spiders is to first prove that they can be effective, trustworthy allies, and semaphore is undoubtedly the language best suited for military communication. Once there is some mutual trust built up, then we can push for closer relations.
 
We're probably going to need some cultural lessons though.

[ ] Perform a series of autopsies upon the corpses of the We; they have confirmed they are okay with this, and would otherwise simply eat them.

Otherwise some Dwarves may get a nasty suprise when they get invited to the family barbecue.
 
I think trying to force integration too fast is going to produce unpleasant backlash.

Especially since the We might not be capable of holding their end of the bargain at this time; there's a whole lot of unknowns involved.

Oh I agree on taking things slow, but I feel like teahing them military signaling rather than a language is a first step that prioritizes utility in battle over giving them the chance to come to better understand non-We life through their means of communication.
 
Are we really that desperate for college favour that we need to stick our nose in someone else's research though? Could we also assist him as he works on the Skaven in his free time while giving him work to do as his job if we really do want to get involved in his project? I just feel we're getting no work out of Johan for two turns in a row now.

[edit] on a reread college favor isn't your only motivation, but my second point does still stand, we can investigate Johan and get work out of him at the same time. At least I think so.
We can't, actually. It's the difference between your boss telling you to do what you want and helping out, and your boss telling you what to do and then following you home to poke their nose into what you do for your free time.

Now, I still don't really care about helping Johann because I see the upside of the action to be a new research project or, if we get lucky/unlucky, a new action sink.
 
You know I've seen the arguments for this, but it seems very cynical, like we only care about military goals and military risks. A lot of us wanted to move towards integration, at least that's the impression I got. Semaphore does not feel like as good a first step in that direction.
Personally I'm for integration, however result speaks louder than words and conviniently enough the spooderfrends have the chance to give a good showing to everyone.
I imagine integration would be more seamless if you know that giant intelligent (semi) talking spider,

1. Is on your side
2. Probably saved your life several time
3. Finds Skaven and Greenskins delicious and you conveniently enough not
 
Hey, could we maybe not talk about genocide, again?
Is it tho? Now I understand that the topic makes people uncomfortable but I really don't think the targeted destruction of major cities would qualify (if anything its more terrorism).

Bombing cities/villages is an established and accepted tactic of a certain global superpower irl. It's not just to kill the inhabitants (if anything its a side effect) but serves to destroy a nation's industrial production, damage morale and its ability to fight in a prolonged war. This is why the bombing of cities was used by both the allies and the axis during WW2.

It's actually a legitimate tactic to render the Skaven incapable of being a threat without having to wipe out a large portion of their population as there would need to be years spent rebuilding before they can become anywhere near as much of a threat. Once again I understand that genocide should not be promoted or glorified but the fear of invoking it should also not be used as a way to censor legitimate debate about how to resolve a narrative conflict which we are very likely to face in the future of this quest.

I fully accept that I might be punished for speaking my mind here and for arguing but I felt this was important to express. There is a fine line between censorship and following the rules of the site. I also might have misunderstood the way the original comment so feel free to let me know.
 
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I feel like teahing them military signaling rather than a language is a first step that prioritizes utility in battle over giving them the chance to come to better understand non-We life through their means of communication.
Unlike some, I'd be entirely happy with a plan that taught both.

But I absolutely want a form of communication that doesn't require one party or the other exposing themselves to attack, because that's a big disincentive towards both sides actually using that form of communication.

And hoping writing will work out so well that we'll be able to use it for message drops rather than face-to-face where meanings can be double-checked is...

Let's say "ambitious."
 
Now, I still don't really care about helping Johann because I see the upside of the action to be a new research project or, if we get lucky/unlucky, a new action sink.

I see the upside as being that when Johann has to write a paper on his own time he has to include Amthilde as a co-author if we contributed to finding his samples and let him work on it when he was in the clock. I don't expect Mathilde to actually help with the reverse engineering or writing. She's being that guy who only writes the grant application and expects his name first on the paper.

They already have a language, and we are still getting the magic items. They'll still be able to communicate.

If they're telepaths they may not.
 
We can't, actually. It's the difference between your boss telling you to do what you want and helping out, and your boss telling you what to do and then following you home to poke their nose into what you do for your free time.

I see it less as your boss following you home, and more as a grey wizard following you into skaven territory to watch your back and attend to their own work there at the same time. If there's a diplomacy roll it won't be challenging.
 
Yes, but that is not what I was getting at, more that in learning Rickspiel they might organically l;earn more about its speakers. Amber magic is a useful tool but as seen talking to them it has its limits.
And I honestly look forward to teaching them in the coming turns. I just don't want to take the chance of literate spiders heading out into the Underway if we fail the relocation.
 
Personally I'm for integration, however result speaks louder than words and conviniently enough the spooderfrends have the chance to give a good showing to everyone.
I imagine integration would be more seamless if you know that giant intelligent (semi) talking spider,

1. Is on your side
2. Probably saved your life several time
3. Finds Skaven and Greenskins delicious and you conveniently enough not

I agree with everything above, but I'm not seeing this as a reason to teach semaphore first. What we tech first is in some ways symbolic of what we see the We as and it is going to trickle down to the dwarfs to some degree.
 
I see the upside as being that when Johann has to write a paper on his own time he has to include Amthilde as a co-author if we contributed to finding his samples and let him work on it when he was in the clock. I don't expect Mathilde to actually help with the reverse engineering or writing.

Considering Dhar lore and potential snake juice research I think Mathilde would be of great help reverse engineering a safer fuel.
 
Citation very needed, I just went through all his comments since posting the update and cannot find it.
Ugh, really? I'll try to find it, though I don't have time right now. Sorry if I was wrong.

I agree with everything above, but I'm not seeing this as a reason to teach semaphore first. What we tech first is in some ways symbolic of what we see the We as and it is going to trickle down to the dwarfs to some degree.
The Dwarves aren't going to see the We as anything other than allies of convenience for s long, long time. The best way to make them more accepting is to make the spiders into as useful an ally as possible.
 
I still like that we could claim that the Wes is a diminutive of the Weberlings.

Considering Dhar lore and potential snake juice research I think Mathilde would be of great help reverse engineering a safer fuel.

Oh, I agree that in a few years Mathilde may well be in a perfect place to write an even more important paper (co-athored by Maximillian, with him contributing his knowledge of craftsmanship as well as being a write-slave) that describes her discovery of snake-tech, that makes a casual citation to his original paper somewhere early on.

The Dwarves aren't going to see the We as anything other than allies of convenience for s long, long time. The best way to make them more accepting is to make the spiders into as useful an ally as possible.

And I think writing is better than that, as it allows you to write letters and describe complex strategy as well as plan how you actually live near each other, which being restricted to semaphore would make much harder.

Hand signals are something animals can learn to respond to. Only peer sapients can write you a letter.
 
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