For myself, I suspect knowing that language will unlock interactions while investigating the waystone network in Nehekhara. Sure, we could probably do some of that without, but it seems like an action, or series of actions, that having the language could massively enhance.
It is a big assumption but most of the times where people where talking about what language to learn ever since the Old One Tongue debate happened have argued for it. High Nehekharan will allow Mathilde to access knowledge from a magic using society that was started from humans. There is some really interesting knowledge of Waystones which is why it's part of the Waystone Projects actions.
Well, maybe not the next plan vote. That one will have space dedicated to making the Orbs of Sorcery; along with possibly finishing the Rider spell if Trio wins; arguing over whether to spend an action on book-writing to get Aethyric Vitae out the same turn the orbs are made; and potentially creating a prototype waystone if the foundations action succeeds in one go (this doesn't seem likely to me, but who knows until it's written) or just regular Waystones job actions if it doesn't.
I was enthusiastic about exploring the Nehekharan network early on, but as the prototype waystone gets closer and closer the question of "Why spend an AP doing this? What are we hoping to learn?" gets louder. I'm not...against doing it. I'm just not as enthused as before when it seemed of practical use rather than the worldbuilding vacation it increasingly looks like.
I feel like there's three possible reasons for investigating Nehekara. One is the kinks possible with River leylines. It's becoming increasingly possible everything will Just Work it will turn out our biggest issues are political, but if we need to use river leylines or hit some other snag then that knowledge could still be useful.
Forgot to mention with my vote, but I found this very touching. It's nice to see us trust Johann enough to let him be there while we play soul surgery. I imagine there a precious few people she would want with her during such a moment. Feels like a lovely callback to his attempts to Gild his eyes. And maybe I'm looking into it too much, but I like how the writing portrays our concern with Johann as just bruising, rather than something along the lines of "Only embarrassing yourselves in front of Johann instead of your entire Alma mater". It's nice to know she feels comfortable failing like that in front of him.
Terrible idea, but I love the idea of just going full tilt into making it Cataclysm Magic, just for the sheer flex of having one of those in our repertoire.
My main thought was that the Nehekharan's seemed like they had their own "use the network to power X effect for the good of the nation" thing going on, so studying that might help us figure out how to recreate that in the Empire.
Well, I mean, "aside from three things that are each a good argument for learning the language on their own" is kind of a harsh metric.
It's a good point. I can hope for it, but I guess it would be that joke with the schedule cubes, either way.
Honestly, the idea of someone attacking Mathilde only for her to explode into a suffocating black fog is a pretty great one. Potentially problematic if we're surrounded by allies though.
Do note that in any SP duel we participate in, Mathilde will be there with her seed that can raise the freshly dead. As well as probably the heads of the Jade and Light colleges with their healing spells. Being cut in half by a sword is not exactly insurmountable, unlike being turned to gold or expelled from reality.
Funnily enough, given that 1.) its strikes can pretty much explode training dummies and 2.) nothing about getting better as a wizard makes you inherently harder to vaporize than a random peasant, this is a very reasonable assumption.
On an entirely unrelated note, seeing as Apparitions don't fully exist in the world and, in fact, have no conventional biology to begin with, do you think a organizational staff or military unit composed either partially or wholly of them could be described as filled with nothing personnel?
Yeah, it's an easy assumption that the one-and-done nature of 'Ambush' makes it very inferior to 'Duel'. I think in practice, with the Rider's strength, one instant attack from absolutely nowhere is going to be sufficient to put all but the biggest tankiest targets down. The teleport adds both speed (intervening distance is irrelevant) and eliminates the possibility of friendly-fire if there are allies between you and what you want killed. It makes the spell into a very interesting 'Fireball' variant rather than the tanky fighter the others have.
Plus the schedule discussed previously calls for this coming turn to be a Father turn. Which includes recruiting Bretonnia and a couple of other actions relating to known or speculated Daughters.
