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It Belongs to a Museum

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[X] Student of Immortality
[X] The Last Firstborn

Favorite is Student of Immortality, but Last Firstborn is a close second because of having given architecture advice to the dwarves. :)

Too bad Telos didn't listen.
 
glyph said:
This might've come up before, but I'm afraid this thread is moving too fast for me, is Divided Loyalties canon for this quest?
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Probably not, it's going to take place decades later and will probably use the unbutterflied history.

Boney said:
No knowledge of Divided Loyalties will be needed to participate in this quest, and it will take place either decades before or decades after DL does, and may diverge in history from it.
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Unless it comes up directly, I'm going to assume Karl Franz is emperor.
 
One thing that strikes me is that the Last Firstborn seems like he's the real deal of the sort of character the Imprudent Tutor is pretending to be.

Both of them are wandering the lands — one leaving marks far and wide, the other deep — and both are seeking to spread knowledge for their own reasons.

The Last Firstborn is a walking font of Egyptomania, doing all he can to spread what remains of Nehekhara: it's gods, it's architecture, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was spreading it's art and it's culture in general at the same time. He's been largely bumbling his way through history by the read of it, but his effect on it seem at least as often positive as negative, especially with things like helping the Light College along under his belt. It does seem like he actually is trying to help even as he advances his own goals.

Meanwhile, the Imprudent Tutor just really, really loves giving away deep dark secrets. If anything, he seems to be collecting even more secrets so he can give them away, if his students going into demonology as time goes by are any indication. His effect on things is more checkered, and while there's some bright spots, there's a lot of bleak ones. He's a total fake, with the twist that this conman actually can and even will teach you. It's just that rather than his knowledge or his history that's the lie, it's more his sense of morality that's a sham. If there's any truth to him in that at all, it's that he does seem genuinely fond of his students. He doesn't have a rotten thing to say about them even to save himself from exile, and the one bit that keeps even after he breaks character is reminiscing fondly about his Nefereta and Luthor.

The saddest thing is that I really want them both to win. But that is impossible.
 
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Well, I like all of these characters.

I could see myself playing any of these characters.

Shame on you Boney for imposing this kind of FOMO on me.

But, some of them might be more fun in the short-term rather than long-term.

History-maker in particular might be mentally exhausting in the long-term.

So, my picks would be:

[X] Student of Immortality
[X] Survivor of Bhagar
[X] Hunter of the Cult of Blood
[X] The Last Firstborn

The Student of Immortality option in particular seems likely to be more about delving the deeper mysteries than losing focus over more down-to-earth grudges and worries.
 
The Phoenixian said:
Meanwhile, the Impudent Tutor just really, really loves giving away deep dark secrets. If anything, he seems to be collecting even more secrets so he can give them away, if his students going into demonology as time goes by are any indication. His effect on things is more checkered, and while there's some bright spots, there's a lot of bleak ones. He's a total fake, with the twist that this conman actually can and even will teach you. It's just that rather than his knowledge or his history that's the lie, it's more his sense of morality that's a sham. If there's any truth to him in that at all, it's that he does seem genuinely fond of his students. He doesn't have a rotten thing to say about them even to save himself from exile, and the one bit that keeps even after he breaks character is reminiscing fondly about his Nefereta and Luthor.
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It might be he thinks all knowledge should be free to everyone and that everyone could choose what to do with it as well. Which isn't great (for the good guys of the setting at least) dude just wants free knowledge for everyone about everything!! Is that knowledge how to summon like 30 daemons at once, sure. But they just wanted to know and knowledge should be passed down or it will be lost!
 
So while I am voting for Tutor. I will point out that Legioneery is the origin option with the most synergy with the aim that Luthor Harkon has for the museum.

"Motivation: To spread the glory of Nehekhara at its height, and tales of great leaders that actually go out there and do some leading, unlike some."

"Of the dozen simultaneous responses from Luthor Harkon to the meteoric rise of this new rival, one has empowered you with the privilege and responsibility to create a public monument to the wealth, power, wisdom, experience, and largesse of the Pirate King of the Vampire Coast, as well as to gather information and artefacts relating to the many branches of the Vampiric and Necromantic family trees.

- The spookier side of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. These are bad guys, but they're not the worst guys, and they're fun. Vampire pirates!
- The differing nature of Necromancy at sea, where the dead can hope for no better than the indifference of Manann instead of the tender mercy of Morr and so tend to be a lot more open to a better offer, means that the Zombie Pirates are a lot more intellectually active than their landbound cousins and some individuals might be inclined to shamble through a museum. The Vampire Coast is also populated by various kinds of Vampires, Ghouls, Wights, Spirits, and even the occasional mortal.
- The dominant affinities are Trophy, to glorify the deeds and further the infamy of the pirate crews and captains, Magic, without which nobody would be here, and History, which Luthor Harkon has lived through, lost, and seeks to rediscover."
 
Yeah, the Imprudent Tutor speaks to me because he'll be less mono focused on one area, and will just be gathering knowledge from all sources, and then happily give them away.

Necromancy? Fascinating. Chaos Rituals? So very creative? Chaos Dwaf Techno-Sorcery? Enthralling! A Skaven Doombell? A wonderous discovery!

Of all of the candidates, he's the one most likely to find fulfillment and happiness just by doing the job, rather than the job being a means to an end. He so loves to teach, and he'll find a place where that is a large part of his job.
 
The more I think about it the more fun History Maker sounds. Just spinning every exhibit towards his personal shit and how much of an asshole Nagash, Khetep, the heads of all the cults at the time, etc all were.

"Here we have an authentic 3rd dynasty vase, of the same sort that would have been in the council room in ~-2048 while the head of the cult of Djaf, Idio Ta, was berating poor Queen Rasut about how unqualified she was to raise her own son and she needed to step aside for the Vizier Khetep. This is notable because three months after that meeting she finally acceded to those demands and Khetep demonstrated his superior child-rearing technique by strangling the young prince to death at the first opportunity, then went for a victory lap by raising the man who would go on to kill everyone in the country. You may have heard of him, if the name Nagash rings a bell."
 
Both options are good, but I would rather play as the Hermaeus Mora of Malus who mortals seek out for their vast stores of knowledge and can possibly make vampires less insane and therefore more effective and interesting. The museum can and should have a section dedicated to books. Perhaps our students each sent us a copy of their books and we could have the largest collection of dark knowledge on the planet outside of Silvania.
 
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The Phoenixian said:
One thing that strikes me is that the Last Firstborn seems like he's the real deal of the sort of character the Impudent Tutor is pretending to be.

Both of them are wandering the lands — one leaving marks far and wide, the other deep — and both are seeking to spread knowledge for their own reasons.

The Last Firstborn is a walking font of Egyptomania, doing all he can to spread what remains of Nehekhara: it's gods, it's architecture, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was spreading it's art and it's culture in general at the same time. He's been largely bumbling his way through history by the read of it, but his effect on it seem at least as often positive as negative, especially with things like helping the Light College along under his belt. It does seem like he actually is trying to help even as he advances his own goals.

Meanwhile, the Impudent Tutor just really, really loves giving away deep dark secrets. If anything, he seems to be collecting even more secrets so he can give them away, if his students going into demonology as time goes by are any indication. His effect on things is more checkered, and while there's some bright spots, there's a lot of bleak ones. He's a total fake, with the twist that this conman actually can and even will teach you. It's just that rather than his knowledge or his history that's the lie, it's more his sense of morality that's a sham. If there's any truth to him in that at all, it's that he does seem genuinely fond of his students. He doesn't have a rotten thing to say about them even to save himself from exile, and the one bit that keeps even after he breaks character is reminiscing fondly about his Nefereta and Luthor.

The saddest thing is that I really want them both to win. But that is impossible.
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I do not think the Tutor pretends to be moral, even in his own head his standards for morality are 'better than Nagash Cultists' which is a very low bar to clear. I also do not think he loves giving away dark secrets as he has no standards for what secrets he will teach at all, if you are smart enough to grasp something congrats you are worthy. If you ask him for something unwise that's on you. By the standards of the kind of people you could find in Awakening he is very much on the lighter side of things, there is no malice to him.

Also he isn't a brave person for all his power which makes for a good contrast to Mathilde and heck, if we really want him to work on his many, many flaws we'd have a whole quest to start chipping away at it.
 
[X] Imprudent Tutor
Very funny, and seems like a pretty good motivation for running a museum. Vampires (Minutiae) also seems relevant for someone working in the Vampire Coast.

[X] Student of Immortality
I like the idea of searching for better immortality, researching magic seems reasonably fitting for a magic museum, he has Nehekharan History (Minutiae) which is again relevant to a museum, and I really like the Preservation (Minutiae) because it does seem very useful to preserve our artifacts. In a world like this it might be a fool's errand, but preventing and reversing the ceaselessly degrading march of time for what we collect, for ourselves, and perhaps for our mentor and others seems like a nice goal. Being the oldest guy in almost any given room is also neat (although there's more competition for that on Lustria than most anywhere else).

[X] History-Maker of Nagash
As others have said, the idea of being so incredibly spiteful as to help Nagash and still be on the warpath millennia later is amusing and provides a nice motivation. But beyond that, he has War Statuary (Detailed), which sounds somewhat interesting and I know some people are very keen on it, he has Preservation (Detailed), which again I like because I do want to actually preserve what we exhibit, and Necromancy (Surface), which will be useful in a museum for the undead. Surface might not seem like much but Boney has said that even that much is actually quite a lot of knowledge.
 
Alright, let's go back to the criteria: a subject expert whose schema of knowledge runs up against political, social and cultural expediency.

The Imprudent Tutor... The character still amuses me, but upon reflection I worry it risks a curator who entirely lacks a backbone, one who cleaves far too easily to expediency rather than having a schema of his own that he wishes to express. We could temper that, of course, but I'd prefer to hedge against it to begin with.

By contrast: the Last Firstborn wants to spread knowledge of the Gods of Nehekhara, which is entirely distinct from the desires of Harkon or the Vampirates. The Legionary of Setep wants to burnish Harkon's glory, but in a distinctly mainstream Nehekharan way that may not be to his tastes, while the Survivor of Bhagar wants to use his museum to raise Harkon into a challenger to Nagash, which for all its alignment with Harkon's goals could easily impinge upon his sense of political autonomy. Finally, the History-Maker of Nagash is possibly most dedicated of all to a particular vision of the past, even if just how blinkered and self-serving it is horrifies me a little!

[X] History-Maker of Nagash
[X] Survivor of Bhagar
[X] Legionary of Setep
[X] The Last Firstborn
 
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