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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Droman said:
He chose to prioritize achievable objectives and present a Dwarf Realm to their foes that would kill for every Dwarf dead and every foot of Dwarf lands taken. He did what every King of every Karak under siege by enemies, cut off from allies, would have done.

That our actions took place does not diminish just how extraordinary in nature they are.
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Oh, I don't dispute that, be we are humans and thus more likely to see to good side of things. I feel that Thorgrim might not feel so positive. Dwarves have been portrayed as much more likely to emphatize their failures or perceived failures.

I wouldn't be surprised if Thorgrim thought that K8P and now Karak Vlag are proofs that his whole approach was flawed and that someone else might have done better. And feel guily enough about it...
 
Garlak said:
I'd waffled on that.

On the one hand, the Wastes surged south even before the Lieutenant of Asavar Kul detoured and went marching on the Norse Dwarfs, but...

... Hm. Actually... On that thought...

... What if it is the Norse Dwarfs? And I mean, right now?

That is -- what if the Norse Dwarfs are being kept alive... in order to farm them for sacrifices for Chaos?

The Norse Dwarfs, and Dwarf Holds, are being used as batteries or blood sacrifices to empower the Chaos Wastes to spread south.

At first, the Wastes surged south, with the coming of the Everchosen. But after his defeat, the tides of Chaos would naturally begin to wane... So a Lieutenant set out to provide the suddenly-needed boost of energy, to keep the Chaos Wastes far south.
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Chaos does not need active effort to expand the Wastes, just break down the barriers, fracture the systems that pour magic back into the Aethyr. The Wastes have been slowly expanding for millennia, it's only picking up speed now because the general dissolution of the Waystone network is getting worse and worse by the day, the system forced to breaking point.
 
Garlak said:
I'd waffled on that.

On the one hand, the Wastes surged south even before the Lieutenant of Asavar Kul detoured and went marching on the Norse Dwarfs, but...

... Hm. Actually... On that thought...

... What if it is the Norse Dwarfs? And I mean, right now?

That is -- what if the Norse Dwarfs are being kept alive... in order to farm them for sacrifices for Chaos?

The Norse Dwarfs, and Dwarf Holds, are being used as batteries or blood sacrifices to empower the Chaos Wastes to spread south.

At first, the Wastes surged south, with the coming of the Everchosen. But after his defeat, the tides of Chaos would naturally begin to wane... So a Lieutenant set out to provide the suddenly-needed boost of energy, to keep the Chaos Wastes far south.

Hm.

Maybe the Norse Dwarfs are in a similar situation as that of Karak Vlag.

Being kept alive for sport and for a purpose both. Because if they all died out, Chaos would have less non-Chaos-worshippers to sacrifice in the north.

Hmmm.

Dammit, now I want to take a look at the Norse Dwarfs! Even more-so than I had wanted to do before.
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I don't see how this conclusion follows.

Here is another one: The Wastes surged south because there was a massive Storm of Magic, like there always is and always will be when the Chaos Gods put their bickering aside and focus on empowering an Everchosen to try and take Mallus. This overwhelmed the Waystone network / whatever alternative magic siphoning device the Norse Dwarfholds had, allowing the Wastes to expand.

Once Asavar Kul was defeated, the Chaos Gods went back to normal operations and the Wastes receded as the Winds returned to the usual magical output, but not as far as they would have before the Invasion, because the devices the Norse Dwarves used to siphon the winds for their Karak Runes were destroyed. Same output from the North, but less of it is used up safely. Therefore the Wastes spread farther south.
 
Rafin said:
Doesn't that risk seeding future Dwarf babies with pre-corrupted souls.
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The only other option they have is to point them towards Underearth, which would be worse.

Rafin said:
Also, how does their belief of reincarnation upon improper burial jive with the existence of the Dawi-Zarr? Is one of the reasons that it's terrible because you're just a bad roll of the dice away from being reincarnated over there, likely becoming someone that willingly writes over his eternal soul to Hashut?
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They don't consider them Dwarves, so don't see it as a possibility.

ThatGuyMike said:
Is Arsanil in Regiments of Renown? I thought he was only in Dogs of War
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Depends which version you use, I think. IIRC it was originally in White Dwarf and it's been cobbled together a number of times into an unofficial army book.

Bucarcar said:
But Dwarves arent corruptable by chaos in Lore, if i remember correctly so it's more likely demonettes
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They absolutely can be corrupted.
 
Sparsebeard said:
I swear I remember Boney alluding to High-Kings going slayer over disappointing their vassals rather than such vassal outright rebelling.

Or are you saying that he could go slayer but he would remain King? If that's the case how does that work?
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He asks his carriers to get the throne of power nearer so he can hit them with his sword hammer.

just kidding, the high king can't go slayer.
 
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Chronic said:
Once Asavar Kul was defeated, the Chaos Gods went back to normal operations and the Wastes receded as the Winds returned to the usual magical output, but not as far as they would have before the Invasion, because the devices the Norse Dwarves used to siphon the winds for their Karak Runes were destroyed. Same output from the North, but less of it is used up safely. Therefore the Wastes spread farther south.
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So you'd have to somehow get together a campaign, or crew of elite badasses, to head into Norsca and start re-powering-on Norscan Dwarfholds. After probably reclaiming them first. That would be a pretty tall order. If it's even doable, if there's even any wind-siphoning-apparatus-equivalents left in Norsca.

... Wait. no. Rather, you reclaim more Old Holds instead. The ones that drain magic. That seems more doable.

It's also something the Dwarfs would love to do.

And, interestingly/amusingly, there would now be concrete payoffs for doing so.

If reclaiming more Old Holds would mean a possibility or chance of diverting and draining excess magic energy from the world, such that the Wastes might be slowed or reversed in their crawl southwards...

... And of course, another thing you might do is... Waystone research. Like with whatever we might be able to pull off in Karak Eight Peaks and in Athel Loren. Ugh. We need all the Waystone- and Chaos Wastes- and Aethyr-related knowledge that we can afford to get. Because all those topics are relevant and useful. And we probably need Dwarf and Elf knowledge and expertise. Couldn't hurt at least anyway.

I wonder if Teclis knows anything about Waystones? I know he helped stabilize one in... Talabheim I think? In the Blackhearts trilogy. (Yeah, it was Talabheim. The book "Tainted Blood.")

It was a fun series to read. Anybody else read the Blackhearts series by Nathan Long?
 
@Garlak if you want to learn more about the wastes from a novel perspective it might be worrth voting for Uzkulak. The Chaos Dwarfs have been living next to the Wastes for a long while and worshipers of Hashut though they may be, they don't want the world inundated with magic lest they all turn to stone.
 
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Dec 21, 2020 at 9:32 AM, finished with 932 posts and 241 votes.
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C'mon Ruprecht fans, I believe in you. We don't need combes and Uzkulak to make this turn exciting!
 
You know what might be in the Combes? Skaven magic books. You know what might be at Uzbulak? Cathayan magic books. Really, we can't afford not to go looking!
 
Yikes, getting back to the forest elves and helping to fix their waystones suddenly seems very important.

Though I don't think anyone needs to worry about Vlag surviving against Orcs and Skaven. They might have the most veteran army in the Dwarf empire right now.
 
[x] Visit Uzkulak, the Chaos Dwarf equivalent to Barak Varr
[x] Visit the combes that Qrech told you about
[x] Thane Borek Forkbeard
[x] Head Engineer Gotrek Gurnisson
[x] Head Ranger Snorri Farstrider
 
It's not about being exciting, there's genuine security reasons to go to both locations for the good of the expedition. Ruprecht on the other hand isn't that important a social option.
 
[X] Head Engineer Gotrek Gurnisson
[X] Head Ranger Snorri Farstrider
[X] Thane Borek Forkbeard
[X] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart the Younger
[X] Visit Uzkulak, the Chaos Dwarf equivalent to Barak Varr

Not particularly enthusiastic about Uzkulak, but it is our best opportunity to figure out if somebody is planning something big ahead of time - whether that is targeted towards the convoy or simply another chaos venture in general.
 
picklepikkl said:
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Dec 21, 2020 at 9:32 AM, finished with 932 posts and 241 votes.
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C'mon Ruprecht fans, I believe in you. We don't need combes and Uzkulak to make this turn exciting!
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There is a difference between needing and wanting...

And we WANT to go there.
Deathbybunnies said:
You know what might be in the Combes? Skaven magic books. You know what might be at Uzbulak? Cathayan magic books. Really, we can't afford not to go looking!
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Don´t forget Cathayan Ninja and Martial arts books...
 
[X] Head Engineer Gotrek Gurnisson
[X] Head Ranger Snorri Farstrider
[X] Thane Borek Forkbeard
[X] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart the Younger
[X] Citharus, Barbitus, and Timpania
 
The last Cathayan books we got were of some maps on areas in Cathay. Which we can't even make use of at all, so... yeah.

And that was from a Clan Eshin Sorcerer, so it had the vague possibility of being a Cathayan book about Eshin magic or skills, or the Cathayan origin the Eshin developed those magic and skills from. It could have turned out useful, largely due to being from Clan Eshin.

Any further Cathayan books would be way more random and uncertain. And they're more likely to come from Uzkulak than the Combes, as Uzkulak is a major trade hub between Cathay and the Old World. The Combes are just Clan Moulder's battle outposts to war against the Dawi Zharr for slaves and experiments.

(So on the one hand... Cathayan books: actually fairly likely. On the other hand... Cathan books: far more likely to be even less useful and relevant. Because they wouldn't be on Eshin Sorcery. They'd just be random Cathayan books. Sooo. They could be on any damn topic in Cathay, unlikely to be relevant to us. That's if there even are books. Or if we choose to risk stealing or buying them. Or whatever. ... Would we even know if Cathayan books were any good? We can't speak or read Cathayan, so we'd have to rely on the honesty of translators...)

Plus, if we keep coming up with treasures and reasons and things we might potentially stumble upon in Uzkulak or the Combe, we'll soon enough have come up with a list that has everything. It can potentially solve all the problems of the world. Why, it could even be a boat. :V
 
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[X] Visit Uzkulak, the Chaos Dwarf equivalent to Barak Varr
[X] Visit the combes that Qrech told you about
[X] Asarnil the Dragonlord
[X] Deathfang
 
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