Is there a deeper reason for not wanting DL's butterflies to be canon? I can think of a few potential ones, but I don't actually know if they are something to worry about.
- Lower entry level for complete newcomers, since canon lore (from approved sources) and a sense for your sense of the setting are enough now while the other way might forever create a feeling of being less informed than DL veterans.
- Complete elimination of cross-quest metagaming attempts. No setting up vampiric artifact breadcrumbs with Mathilde. No researching Order-relevant tech or magic with our mummy.
- Since Mathilde frequently has setting reshaping impact with her actions and those can't be foreseen, the Quests will likely diverge anyway. Better to bite that bullet now.
- There's already a major divergence in Nyklaus von Carstein, who you don't want to exclude. The existence of other characters with effects on artifact distribution like Karl Franz, Grimgor or Skarsnik is also preferable.
Still, my inner RPG player is delighted by the idea of a Boney-verse and of our actions having lasting impacts even on other characters' stories.
Maybe, if you fancy, you could go for a compromise where events similar to DL events that didn't come from canon could crop up here? Like a parallel universe that didn't quite have a Mathilde, but that echoes her butterflies somehow, with things like a Van Hal dynasty, the death of Luitpold's first wife, Belegar employing Human mercenaries, the recent rise in power of Ranald, Drycha messing with Kislev and the assassination of Boris' predecessor all having happened, but due to reasons that as far as anyone knows have nothing to do with a certain overly flashy Grey Magister.
I don't know. I think it would be cool even if others might consider it wank.
