I am yet again tapping the sign.
SaltyWaffles had it right a couple of pages back - the Vow of Poverty's most important tenet is effectively "I would rather live in poverty than obtain wealth corruptly".
Living in wealth isn't a problem. Even stealing wealth isn't that big problem as long as the wealth wasn't from the Empire or its allies and you pass it through the proper loopholes. One thing about it is just that Shadow Magic can be abused very easily and thus the Grey College must keep an eye on their own by necessity to prevent such abuses, or come down on them harshly if they happen.
All that is because the Vow of Poverty isn't really a vow at all. It's a) a PR tool to make people who know what Grey Wizards can do not shit themselves, b) an educational and corralling tool to limit excesses, put fear into Journeymen, and simultaneously pressure some into useful and Ulgu-conductive double-think while also keeping control of those who can't do that, and c) a readymade excuse to audit any member at any time and deal with anyone problematic. Ask any Karaz Ankor Dwarf whether they think Mathilde might have sworn the Vow of Poverty and they'll laugh you out of the room. Give them the wording and insist that the Grey Order has all its members swear this and they'll call you a liar and possibly declare a Grudge on you. Actually prove this to them and they'll lower their respect for Mathilde and consequently humanity as a whole by a noticeable amount.
Or maybe not quite. I don't remember the actual exact wording of the Vow (or even whether we ever got that). But I do remember that it's wording is at least supposed to very much not seem to outsiders as if it is leaving loopholes large enough to drive a mountain penthouse through.
Recently I was reading the Eight Peaks conquest arc and I was shocked at how often this came up. Vampire slaying choice rewards? Didn't pick the money. Involvement with the EIC? Focus exclusively on integrity and usefulness over economics or profit. Raiding with Johann? Gave up the money in exchange for unclear research opportunities. Raiding with Gretel? We did it again, except this time it was so much money.
Keeping in mind Gotrek's Widow and the Ilthimar library deal? I am, actually, starting to think this is consistent characterization.
Granted, there was that scam we ran that stole tons of dropped money just to enrich us, and we did embezzle as a baby Mathilde, but pobody's nerfect. Mathilde should become Supreme or Grey Matriarch exclusively to abolish student debt
Did you at all look at the reasoning at the time for why the players didn't pick the money? Because IMO it is reasoning that works IC too. Namely, we have enough money, money is easy to get, we can get things that we might not be able to find ever again no matter how much money we have, we can essentially "spend" this money to ingratiate ourselves with our comrades in arms, sources of easy CF and other higher value abstract currencies, and of course lots and lots of B Ö Ö K.
Yes, the existence of the Vow of Poverty also influenced our choices (and thus Mathilde), but it really didn't do that much work to make tangible rewards more appealing to the player base (and Mathilde) than seeing our base currency number go up. Promising Borek that we'd give the money to Gotrek's widow and then following through with that might have been pure altruism and honor, but I have confidence that we would have done that even if the Vow of Poverty hadn't been a thing.
Didn't we do that to build a rainy-day fund to do our job more effectively? The job where we killed a castle?
Do you know what we did when we got fired? We took all of the money for ourselves. And also stole a niter factory and a dung collector guild from Stirland and gave it to the EIC we partially own. The EIC which we funded purely through debt to Stirland which the EIC paid off on its own.
Valid - but Dawongr Mathilde's tower became the Eye of Gazul.
Nope. That one was paid for by Belegar in full. It's the other towers we spent money on. Towers to make research easier and safer, to make writing paper much (much) more comfortable, to aid the efforts of other local Wizards and aid in collaborative projects (especially with our girlfriend) and honestly, in part also vanity (especially the addition of one tower for each Wind). We also increased our personal living space below the towers with luxuries like a personal training room, multiple guest rooms, a room dedicated to displaying trophies and a bathroom with more features than your average modern day apartment bathroom.
