So the main question for me here is, is he deliberately lying about conditions in the colleges or does he legitimately not know? Because with the knowledge that most apprentices simply fail to graduate and become
Apprentices-In-Perpetuity (Yes I know, fandom wiki, sorry. Can't be bothered to dig up realms of sorcery right now) it seems to me like he's trying to play into the biases he thinks a Templar might have regarding the colleges in order to manipulate Markus into letting him go.
Rikard, as with Pietr before him, is definitely operating on less than total knowledge. Then again, so is Markus - he has no real idea what the Colleges are like for those who enrol with them, beyond generalities and what he has been able to reason out. They don't offer tours (
especially not to Witch Hunters) or publish census data, after all.
That said, it is worth remembering that magic
is dangerous, and a noteworthy portion of those who study it wind up badly injured or dead as a result. Balthasar Gelt, perhaps one of the most successful and prominent wizards the Colleges have ever produced, ended up scarred and maimed enough that he has to wear a full-face mask to cover the injuries. How that attrition rate compares to other professions is something that is difficult to tell, since there's no official body that gathers and compares statistics to refer to, but it is pretty unquestionable that it's got worse odds than "second son of an established noble family who likes to paint".
@Maugan Ra, the option to kill Rikard says he hates Markus too much to listen to any of his arguments. Is bringing in Maria any kind of option?
Markus is unwilling to bring Maria into this right now, largely because he isn't sure which side she would actually take. She came to find Markus in the first place, true, but she's also been living with Rikard for years - he has no idea how much she might or might not know about Rikard's abilities.
Not that I actually want such an option, but I am curious if it would be possible to pretend to turn a blind eye so we can ask someone else to do the deed? Or would that still qualify as dereliction of duty and see Markus burn regardless?
Theoretically yes, this would be fine and indeed many other Templars would recommend it if they knew the full circumstances. Markus would not be blamed for turning to others in this circumstance, and would not be guilty of dereliction.
The issue is that Markus as a person is entirely incapable of doing that. If he's going to condemn his brother to death, his own principles demand that he take responsibility and do it himself.
We haven't really interacted with the staff before running away to pray. Also, have we seen Maria stand in direct sunlight? She's also suspiciously social and interested in our career and who's our superior.
Maria is not a vampire.
I'm generally staying away from commenting on questions of, like, responsibility or possible consequences because that's what the vote is all about, but this is absurd. She's taking an interest in Markus' career and asking about his coworkers because
Markus is her brother and she cares about him.
Yes, Lahmians exist, but that doesn't mean "a woman talked to me and took interest in what I was saying" is evidence that she is a bloodsucking creature of the night.
We've seen how half a day's worth of prayer, by I think a person sanctioned by the church, can apparently produce a holy bullet, so this makes me wonder, why aren't there more holy bullets used by non-holy peoples? I don't expect the local militia to have a stock of magic bullets, let alone guns. Still, if all you need is some priest to pray half a day near a bullet just to make it effective against ghosts when he's already praying as his full-time occupation then I'd at least expect the city guard or state troops to have a good stockpile of these things by now for a rainy day. Unless of course, I'm obviously missing something, then please let me know, because the logistics of this just don't make any other sense with the current understanding I have right now.
A priest's job isn't actually praying all day. They're leaders, advisors and organisers - the average Sigmarite priest is going to spend most of his time drilling the town militia, gathering funds to help repair old Missus Brown's roof that got damaged in a storm or advising a young man about his future. That sort of work is
why people attend Throng and care about what they say.
On a more practical level the bullet wouldn't have
stayed blessed for long, for the same reason a spell wouldn't. One of the reasons Templars used special silver bullets for the really nasty shit is that those hold the "charge" a lot better.
It should also be noted that in Warhammer untrained mages are usually only a bad day or two away from becoming a local disaster. Leaving him alive would simply be pushing the issue down the road.
It is worth noting here that the risk posed by untrained mages is that they generally try to cast magic and fuck it up. If Rikard never casts a spell in his life, despite being able to perceive the Winds, then he is in theory no more dangerous to those around him than any other young nobleman. Volans quite famously did just that, swearing off of actually practicing magic after a catastrophic near-miss in his youth, and held to the vow until Teclis found him.
Whether you believe that Rikard is willing or capable of that level of restraint is one of the key questions underlining this vote.
The Fool is putting Arcane symbols and formulas in his artworks that I bet he sells to other nobles and that is a example of spending the years since Markus left studying and messing around with magic. We have evidence he is a liar by his own words and the paintings that are present in the room.
I just want to clarify this - Rikard's paintings don't contain any specific arcane symbols - Markus knows this because part of his training was how to recognise such signs for exactly this sort of investigation. They are representations of the winds that he sees when he looks at the night sky - the Celestial and Light winds, to be specific. Azyr always looks like it contains secret insights into the nature of the world in its shapes and patterns, and Hysh is attracted to orderly structures and geometric shapes.
A spellcaster could potentially glean some significant insight into the nature of the winds by studying Rikard's works, but they're not magical in and of themselves.
My goal here isn't "Rikard will never have to go to the Colleges" it's "Convince Rikard to go to the Colleges". You might say that it's impossible, but now that we've put dear old dad to rest, I think showing Rikard that Markus trusts him enough is a path towards doing so. It won't solve things immediately, but it's the first step to doing so. I prefer a possibility of change over the certainty of losing this opportunity forever on account of Rikard's death.
Since I've seen points like this being discussed - yes, if Markus chooses to turn a blind eye, he will stay in touch with both Maria and Rikard via letter and the odd visit when his other duties allow. Whether Rikard will ever cool down enough to reconsider his current decision in that case is less certain, but it's obviously a lot more likely to happen than if Markus kills him here and now.
(Still illegal, mind.)
This seems a bit silly.
The Colleges offer other options than "Fight for the state until you die".
Perpetual Apprenticeship, magic-dampening equipment, hell you can even pull through apprenticeship until you are a Journeyman and then just never return to graduate.
They don't force you. That would be silly.
The last thing anyone wants is to have battlemagic-grade Wizards who resent the Empire.
While magic-dampening equipment and perpetual apprentices do exist, the Colleges very much do force you to serve. If you become a Journeyman and then just walk away with no intention of returning, the Magisters Vigilant will hunt you down and either drag you back or kill you (though you're likely to get a friendly visit or two from respected mentors and such first trying to avoid such unpleasantness).
Magisters are, in fact, legally obligated to provide their services when called upon, both by the nobility and the Templars, and the Colleges are obliged to provide forces to the armies of the Emperor and the Electors when commanded. Generally a given Patriarch will choose to fulfil their obligations by providing specifically trained battle wizards who volunteer, for a variety of obvious reasons... but if there are more requests in a given year than militant volunteers, well, tough shit I guess some researcher is getting dragged out of their laboratory for a bit to make up the numbers.
This does in fact lead to a significant number of wizards who resent the Empire or at the very least their obligations towards it, and that does cause problems, but that hasn't been enough to change it.
