Another reasonable assumption would be that peasants without a last name, those disowned by their parents, or foundlings that are taken in by a College adopt the name of the College as their surname, so that there are plenty of Magister Golds, Journeyman Lights, etc out there.
That would act as an extra-layer of protection, as you wouldn't know that every Magister Grey are hiding their identity. Some are legitimately surnamed Grey.
However that would also confuse how Bertha recognised it rather than being confused if it meant one of several genuine magisters or an actual secret. And it would be a bit counterproductive if the secret psuedonym they used to protect Magisters from assassination attempts just redirected those attempts at another unrelated magister.
Its a reasonable take but its got its own flaws.
Another reasonable assumption would be that peasants without a last name, those disowned by their parents, or foundlings that are taken in by a College adopt the name of the College as their surname, so that there are plenty of Magister Golds, Journeyman Lights, etc out there.
That would act as an extra-layer of protection, as you wouldn't know that every Magister Grey are hiding their identity. Some are legitimately surnamed Grey.
However that would also confuse how Bertha recognised it rather than being confused if it meant one of several genuine magisters or an actual secret. And it would be a bit counterproductive if the secret psuedonym they used to protect Magisters from assassination attempts just redirected those attempts at another unrelated magister.
Its a reasonable take but its got its own flaws.
My current thinking on this is that those without surnames often take the name of their master.
If they don't have a master, or their master doesn't want to pass on their name in that manner, they get a name based on their college and their (known) talents. For the grey order that might be "Mist", "Smoke", "Blade", "Steel", "Shade", but not actually "Grey" because that has a different use.
But in most colleges the colour of their college is one of the options. For instance the gold order might surname someone "Gold", "Silver", "Gelt", "Metal", "Smith" or "Aurum".
Sticking to the colour-name for every surname-less apprentice would be too many people with the same surname, and increase confusion in an academic environment where the surname is the more used of the two, so they switch things up as feels appropriate.
[X] [Favour] You've restored an arm for them, after they had it cleansed of Dhar - your master is currently missing an arm because the one torn from him is full of Dhar. Get them to arrange a meeting with a Hag Witch who will cleanse Regimand's arm so it can be restored.
[X] Your windherding experiments with Cecilia have hit a snag - but there's a party going on in Kislev, and she's suggested the two of you could practise your singing and your dancing together, to improve the synchronicity of your casting.
[X] Bertha thinks a practical demonstration of her counterspelling techniques is in order - find somewhere secluded and practise your spell interactions.
[X] Bertha and Filiberta are planning on spending a lot of time with Jutta. You could join them and observe her progress with those she knows.
[X] [Favour] You've restored an arm for them, after they had it cleansed of Dhar - your master is currently missing an arm because the one torn from him is full of Dhar. Get them to arrange a meeting with a Hag Witch who will cleanse Regimand's arm so it can be restored.
[X] Your windherding experiments with Cecilia have hit a snag - but there's a party going on in Kislev, and she's suggested the two of you could practise your singing and your dancing together, to improve the synchronicity of your casting.
[X] Experiment with casting Sanctuary in tents and other temporary structures.
[X] Bertha and Filiberta are planning on spending a lot of time with Jutta. You could join them and observe her progress with those she knows.
You know one of the things I wonder about is how our Liege if going to take Mathilde playing a major part in the restoration of Vlag? He is if I recall right already suspicious. I do not think this will help with that
You know one of the things I wonder about is how our Liege if going to take Mathilde playing a major part in the restoration of Vlag? He is if I recall right already suspicious. I do not think this will help with that
I mean speaking objectively he shouldn't trust us, which is only going to be reinforced with every bit of information we pull from the ether. We have the knowledge to destroy him and his children utterly, and have his interests as likely a distant third at best even after accounting for where the Articles and our oath as a knight should have him.
*marks off moonwalking as no longer being sufficiently silly and out of place to prevent the invoking of Poe's Law*
I mean speaking objectively he shouldn't trust us, which is only going to be reinforced with every bit of information we pull from the ether. We have the knowledge to destroy him and his children utterly, and have his interests as likely a distant third at best even after accounting for where the Articles and our oath as a knight should have him.
*marks off moonwalking as no longer being sufficiently silly and out of place to prevent the invoking of Poe's Law*
Fair enough, though given that this Belegar is not our Belegar I think 'the dwarfs' more broadly would have out loyalty, not that is makes that much of a difference as far as Stirland goes. Also I do not think Belegar will need us for a while so we have some work in Stirland do do yet.
Fair enough, though given that this Belegar is not our Belegar I think 'the dwarfs' more broadly would have out loyalty, not that is makes that much of a difference as far as Stirland goes. Also I do not think Belegar will need us for a while so we have some work in Stirland do do yet.
There's roughly 3 and a half years until Mathilde originally joined up with Belegar - and given Dwarven planning timescales the date of the expedition launch is unlikely to change.
Of course, by telling Thorgrim some of what happened in Karak Eight Peaks first time around you've definitely stirred up the butterflies - but he's still unlikely to want to go before the Elector's Meet where he'll be trying to recruit the Empire's aid.
Adhoc vote count started by kingreaper on Jan 7, 2022 at 2:58 PM, finished with 31 posts and 12 votes.
[X] [Favour] You've restored an arm for them, after they had it cleansed of Dhar - your master is currently missing an arm because the one torn from him is full of Dhar. Get them to arrange a meeting with a Hag Witch who will cleanse Regimand's arm so it can be restored.
[X] Your windherding experiments with Cecilia have hit a snag - but there's a party going on in Kislev, and she's suggested the two of you could practise your singing and your dancing together, to improve the synchronicity of your casting.
[X] Bertha thinks a practical demonstration of her counterspelling techniques is in order - find somewhere secluded and practise your spell interactions.
[X] Bertha and Filiberta splitting the day in guardianship of Jutta will be exhausted. You could take a shift by yourself, during the time she's expected to sleep, and take the strain off them.
[X] The Stubborn Bulls have explored Praag, and rejoined the caravan afterwards - if you expect to fight alongside them in Stirland and Sylvania you could join them for practise once more.
[X] Lucille seems interested in serving Ranald, but you don't yet know her well enough to trust her with any secrets. Talking about her past could give you more insight on who she is.
Not closing the vote just yet, but looks like spending time with Cecilia and with Jutta+Bertha+Filiberta is mostly locked in, so I'm gonna start sketching those out. Third place however is still in contention (if it's a tie between the two Kislevarin options when I close it I'll probably have you get taught by whichever one has more free time or learn a bit from each; but at the moment it's a three-way tie with counterspelling)
Right then, voting is closed and writing shall begin. Probably be a day or so, but hopefully not longer than that.
Scheduled vote count started by kingreaper on Jan 4, 2022 at 12:46 PM, finished with 33 posts and 13 votes.
[X] [Favour] You've restored an arm for them, after they had it cleansed of Dhar - your master is currently missing an arm because the one torn from him is full of Dhar. Get them to arrange a meeting with a Hag Witch who will cleanse Regimand's arm so it can be restored.
[X] Your windherding experiments with Cecilia have hit a snag - but there's a party going on in Kislev, and she's suggested the two of you could practise your singing and your dancing together, to improve the synchronicity of your casting.
[X] Bertha thinks a practical demonstration of her counterspelling techniques is in order - find somewhere secluded and practise your spell interactions.
[X] Bertha and Filiberta splitting the day in guardianship of Jutta will be exhausted. You could take a shift by yourself, during the time she's expected to sleep, and take the strain off them.
[X] The Stubborn Bulls have explored Praag, and rejoined the caravan afterwards - if you expect to fight alongside them in Stirland and Sylvania you could join them for practise once more.
[X] Lucille seems interested in serving Ranald, but you don't yet know her well enough to trust her with any secrets. Talking about her past could give you more insight on who she is.
[X] [Favour] You've restored an arm for them, after they had it cleansed of Dhar - your master is currently missing an arm because the one torn from him is full of Dhar. Get them to arrange a meeting with a Hag Witch who will cleanse Regimand's arm so it can be restored.
[X] Your windherding experiments with Cecilia have hit a snag - but there's a party going on in Kislev, and she's suggested the two of you could practise your singing and your dancing together, to improve the synchronicity of your casting.
[X] Bertha and Filiberta are planning on spending a lot of time with Jutta. You could join them and observe her progress with those she knows. [X] Ask Rosalind Schultz to tutor you in Kislevarin
"My request is a symmetrical one. I restored the arm of your sister after it had been cleansed from the corruption of dark magic - my master, the man who taught me the secrets of magic, is missing his arm. We have it safely stored, but we cannot cleanse it of the corruption of dark magic."
"A fair trade indeed." Says Věnceslava, smiling.
Ljiljana looks thoughtful. "I know Hag Witch south of Kislev - she owes, and can repay. Will make arrangements for contact."
"Not the Hag I saw at High Pass then?"
"Nyet, I owe her." Ljiljana replies. "And her home is far from Empire, would require your master to spend much time travelling Ancient Widow's lands. Svetlana knows rites, she can cleanse arm."
When you approach Rosalind about studying Kislevarin she seems surprised - you're almost at the border at this point, and she knows you have business back in Stirland - but she eagerly agrees to your request for tuition; just as soon as you finish discussing certain other matters...
-
"I would have tried harder to get to know you all, but, well... with those coins weighing down my belt I couldn't bring myself to get attached." She says. "All Morr told me was that I'd need the coins - but there's only one spell that makes use of them."
"If I'd realised the stress you were under I'd have made more of an effort to connect with you." You reply. "But as it was, other priorities kept coming up first. Hence me only finding time for Kislevarin lessons on the way out of the country."
"You've certainly been keeping busy." She replies. "Off on secret trysts with Bertha and Cecilia..."
You allow your face to redden. "They were training exercises!"
"I thought so." She grins. "The Kislevarin equivalent of 'Friend of Rhya' is 'Zhena Vdovy' for women - literally 'Wife of the Widow' - while for men it's 'Muzh Tor' - 'Tor's Husband'."
"I'll keep that in mind." You say flatly. "What about you - has anyone caught your eye?"
"Yes and no." She replies. "There's someone I'm interested in, but given my order it wouldn't work out."
"Ah, the vow of celibacy?"
"Exactly." She shrugs. "The urges will fade as I go deeper into my wind."
-
"So how much did your god tell you about what was coming?"
"My god?" You smile. "What makes you sure I have one in particular?"
"They were with you when we were freeing the souls from the Daemon Engine." Rosalind answers. "You were thrumming with divine energy, at least as much as I was."
"Ah... how much do you know about the elven pantheon?"
"Not much - Morai-Heg is either Morr or his identical twin sister, Asuryan is their king, that's about it."
"Well they have a god called Loec, he's their laughing god of shadows, trickery, dance and song. Those who focus on the grey wind often channel his efforts." You can feel Ranald's smile - you're still not sure whether Ranald is Loec or whether it's just a fun lie, and you're pretty sure that amuses Him. "His most famous deeds are all about stealing souls from Chaos - most often elven souls from Slaanesh."
"So you were channelling an elven god?"
"I wasn't aware of it at the time, but it sounds plausible." More likely The Protector side of your coin was activating, imprinting the knowledge of your actions on every soul rescued from the daemons. "He's a god I have a strong connection with, and I was acting in line with his domains. I guess he was helping out."
"You guess?" She tilts her head to the left. "You didn't feel his presence?"
"I was distracted." You shrug. "And not everyone's windsense is equally attuned to the divine."
"But surely you'd be aware when your god was interacting with you?"
"Sometimes yes, sometimes no. My god isn't like Morr, he works more in feelings and happenstance - in order to send a message in a dream I'm pretty sure he'd have to ask Morr to pass it along." You pause for a moment in thought. "With Loec it's more like a dance where you just instinctively know the right steps. You only really know he's there when you're talking to him, or when something is about to go wrong and he steps on your foot."
"So your decision to visit the site of Karak Vlag when you did?"
"Might have been just a whim that was lucky, might have been a step in my dance with Loec." You smile. "I'm not entirely sure that there's a difference between the two."
-
"So why did you learn Kislevarin in the first place?"
"My grandfather's advice. He fled Kislev for the Empire and worries that I might have to make the same trip in reverse someday."
"Was he magical?"
"His mother was a Hag Witch - when his wife died in childbirth, his sight manifested."
"And he joined the colleges?"
She nods. "Amethyst, just like me."
-
Rosalind sighs. "I still keep asking myself why Morr couldn't trust me with the full truth of what I needed them for."
"The problem of prophecy - I assume you've talked to the Chaplain of the Bulls?"
"Yes; he has an inspiring voice and a surfeit of piety, but he doesn't exactly have an answer for why I was left believing this would be a horrifically pyrrhic victory - merely a certainty that Morr had good cause."
"Normally I'd suggest your next port of call for explaining the vagaries of fate would be the Celestials; but neither of them are in a fit state to help." You lean back on your seat and stretch your legs. "So I suppose I'll just have to give you the Grey College's version.
"We don't typically deal in prophecy, but it's surprisingly similar to a situation we do deal with - having a spy amongst our enemies. We get information that we're not supposed to have, and we need to work out how to make use of it.
"Simply handing all this information over to everyone who might need to hear it means revealing that we have that information to our enemies - and worse, if our enemies are smart it risks revealing our sources.
"Prophecy is similar." You continue. "I don't know exactly how similar - but it still relies heavily on not tipping your hand too hard."
Rosalind looks downtrodden. "So Morr couldn't trust me enough to be sure I wouldn't share what he told me?"
"Morr trusted you, a lot, to give you such an important task. And given that you never told anyone outside the church of your fears, I'm sure you wouldn't have shared information if he asked you not to." You smile at her reassuring. "He might well trust you absolutely - I don't know how suspicious he is, or how well he knows you - that's not why he couldn't tell you more."
"Then why?"
"The Celestials would probably tell you something about how precise prophecies are self-destroying. But in this case I think it's simpler than that; there are two ways that telling you more could have broken things through pure tradecraft.
"Firstly, whenever anyone talks to anyone else there's a danger of being overheard. The danger can be smaller or larger, but it always exists - and that's including magical means. One of the ruinous powers claims dominion over prophecy; and while it certainly doesn't overhear every prophecy it's agents may well be capable of overhearing the messages Morr sends you."
"You worry about them being able to overhear even communications from the gods?" She looks concerned. "I always thought of such things as perfectly private."
"Knowledge of the grey wind rather erodes the belief that anything can be perfectly private." You reply. "A sufficiently driven mage can watch every moment of your life - they could overhear mutterings in your sleep, could listen in to your every prayer.
"What the plotter can and cannot hear is beyond our knowledge - perhaps even beyond Morr's - but I know of no way to send a message between mortals that another mortal cannot overhear, so I see no reason to assume the gods have means that other gods cannot intercept."
"And if Morr were to know of a way to overhear the dreams he sends, he wouldn't be able to tell us without a chance of that being overheard?" You nod. "What's the second reason?"
"The second is far simpler - as you said, you would have tried harder to get to know us all, if you had known the coins weren't intended for us. Anyone watching you, who saw you with the coins and recognised what spell you were practising, could determine your beliefs from your actions."
"So I had to believe this was a doomed expedition, so that our enemies would believe that Morr expected us to fail, and wouldn't change their tactics..." She tilts her head back and forth in thought. "And even now that it's happened, there will be those who think it was mere fortune that my practise turned out to be useful as it was - that won't believe Morr knew the engines would be there."
"Exactly. The coins could plausibly have been intended for the Dwarven Slayers, to send them all on their way before they could be sacrificed; or for the Knights of the Bull after a failed charge..." You smile. "Plausible deniability is a powerful thing."
-
... maybe next week you'll get around to learning more than a handful of Kislevarin words.
Learning from Rosalind: 8+30(learning)=38, minor failure (Even with Xeno-Linguistics and perfect recall you've only got two days to work with)
Relationship with Rosalind 84+17=101 - major success
You spend the time talking, and don't actually learn much.
---
AN: The other two sections of this turn are still to come, I just got a bit carried away with this one. No vote this time, but comments and such-like are appreciated
"I'll keep that in mind." You say flatly. "What about you - has anyone caught your eye?"
"I've got a husband waiting for me back in Ostland." She reaches up and twirls her finger through her raven hair. "He's a real hunk - tall, strong, and with gorgeous long hair."
Gonna double check whether it's a requirement or a recommendation - thought it was the latter, but now you say that I'm unsure. If it's a requirement I'll rewrite.
EDIT: Found it, it's not in the section on the Amethyst order, it's in a section on relationships for all the orders. Rewritten now.
Really liked this chapter! I had been interested in then option for talking to Rosalind about her connection to Morr for a while now, and this seems to go in the same direction.
Really liked this chapter! I had been interested in then option for talking to Rosalind about her connection to Morr for a while now, and this seems to go in the same direction.
Given the rolls I got, and the reasoning for the casting vote, I felt like "We got distracted talking about other stuff" would be a fun way to go.
----
Have rewritten the chapter somewhat because I'd misremembered the Amethyst as being just generally-celibate, rather than legally-required-to-be-celibate. Have cut out the sections about her father and her husband for now - she doesn't have a husband, she presumably still had a father at some point, but I'll need to rethink the details.
Given the rolls I got, and the reasoning for the casting vote, I felt like "We got distracted talking about other stuff" would be a fun way to go.
----
Have rewritten the chapter somewhat because I'd misremembered the Amethyst as being just generally-celibate, rather than legally-required-to-be-celibate. Have cut out the sections about her father and her husband for now - she doesn't have a husband, she presumably still had a father at some point, but I'll need to rethink the details.
Eh. I'm more inclined to carve out an exception along the lines of ' if married when they come into their magic with a strong predisposition to Shyish, let's not give them an extra reason to go necromancer.'
Eh. I'm more inclined to carve out an exception along the lines of ' if married when they come into their magic with a strong predisposition to Shyish, let's not give them an extra reason to go necromancer.'
That could work for her father, but it's not the story I had in my head for her.
And her father runs into the issue of her surname being one that speaks to Imperial ancestry - which was fine when it was her husband's name, but now that it's not it would presumably be her father's. Still, surnames do drift, so I could still have him be as I had him, Amethyst mage, son of a Hag Witch; and he fathered Rosalind either in a casual fling or an existing relationship.
I may add something more in when I do the rest of the update, or I might just leave it until you interact with her a bit more.
I trust we also did the secret (joke) handshake and such.
Has Mathilde ever met a Amethyst wizard she didn't like? The closest I can think is Von Drakken who she just had a short professional meeting rather than an actual social action.
I trust we also did the secret (joke) handshake and such.
Has Mathilde ever met a Amethyst wizard she didn't like? The closest I can think is Von Drakken who she just had a short professional meeting rather than an actual social action.
"Is terrifying," Algard says from behind you, causing the two of you to jump, "but I don't think she's entrenched enough to make a play for more, even if she was willing. And she might not be willing - she stepped up as Magister Matriarch largely because there wasn't anyone else suitable after Hexensohn's..." he pauses for a fraction of a second, eyes darting over to you, "unfortunate fate.
