You being the GM in no way prevents you from being disingenuous.
You could have clarified what the trait actually does. Instead you chose to imply people were voting for it being they didn't know what it does.
Going deeper, it seems rather suspicious that Polyglot is on the list at all. Nothing about the Dum expedition involved languages. Nothing related to seeking out ancient archives or forgotten lore. Even claiming it had anything to do with learning about foreign cultures is a significant stretch. And yet Polyglot is once more on the trait list. As it has been on ever trait choice.
Deeper still it is clear that you, as a person, enjoy languages. Most Warhammer quests barely give it a thought. They certainly don't sprinkle custom made Khazalid throughout the text. They don't dig out the big map of what languages descend from other languages.
Having Mathilde be a Polyglot is a subject where I no longer trust you objectivity.
So yes. Disingenuous.
Do you really think it's a breach of trust for a QM to tweak things in such a way that the players
have the option to steer things in a direction that they personally would enjoy? That it would be, what, somehow purer for them to completely take their hands off the wheel and go in whatever direction chance dictates, even if it takes the quest further away from the things that would make it enjoyable for them to write? Is that really the stand you want to make? That QMs are obligated to put never put as much as a finger on the scale to make it so the quest they dedicate a not insignificant part of their life to writing is enjoyable for them to write?
Really?
That being said:
I imply people are voting for it because people don't know what it does because I saw multiple people voting on it while saying reasons for doing so that indicated a misunderstanding of what the trait would allow. Not to impugn the honour of every single person that voted for it or whatever reason you've got your back up at me over this really minor piece of snark.
And Polyglot? Polyglot is an option because Mathilde would have been monumentally screwed multiple times if it weren't for the Chaos Dwarves spreading a lingua franca that is mutually intelligible with Khazalid. And because it was an oddity in the Khazalid phrasing of stone being an excellent insulator of magic that confirmed to her that something odd was going on, which lead to the recovery of Karak Vlag. And because a hiccup in communication lead to her assuming people were referring to Karag Dum, when they were actually referring to Cor-Dum. And because she once more was able to bring Asarnil in because of an established relationship that was built on her being able to speak with him in his native tongue. And because it was the exact phrasing of the words Borek said that were relayed to King Belegar that introduced doubt in his mind that the High King was engaging in theft with the Karak-Waystones. And probably a bunch of other things I'm forgetting. Any
one of these would be a solid reason for Mathilde to think that languages should be something she should focus her energies and attention on in the years to come.
I clarify all of this for the edification of everyone else present in the thread, not because I feel I owe you some sort of explanation to regain your trust in me or whatever. Because if there's some sort of moral code you think you can try to cram me into for me to earn your stamp of approval, I don't want it. I invite you to consider the way you're approaching this quest, and if it comes with a list of esoteric conditions for me as a QM to meet, I think it might be best for you to instead exclude yourself from it.
