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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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We can have Tyene start trends for Imperium fashion, tying together the nobility of the realm as a whole, just like IRL people try to copy the British Royals etc. She literally already has her own fashion company, IIRC.

We should have another release of those figurines we had in our first festival. Brave legionnaire, stoic guardsmen, cunning mage, stalwart inquisitor, unstoppable minotaur, etc. Every major race and organization in the Imperium gets a showing. And, of course, the Companions, and the various villain figures, like an ominous Deep Ones Magus or a leering Cornugon. An upgraded set of action figures! We should release a new version with every conquest. :p We'll have collectors fighting over the vintage ones.

Maybe we could look into comic books as well to spread popularized propaganda of the various threats we've protected the world from? Comic books are amazing for propaganda.
 
Duesal said:
We can have Tyene start trends for Imperium fashion, tying together the nobility of the realm as a whole, just like IRL people try to copy the British Royals etc. She literally already has her own fashion company, IIRC.

We should have another release of those figurines we had in our first festival. Brave legionnaire, stoic guardsmen, cunning mage, stalwart inquisitor, unstoppable minotaur, etc. Every major race and organization in the Imperium gets a showing. And, of course, the Companions, and the various villain figures, like an ominous Deep Ones Magus or a leering Cornugon. An upgraded set of action figures! We should release a new version with every conquest. :p We'll have collectors fighting over the vintage ones.

Maybe we could look into comic books as well to spread popularized propaganda of the various threats we've protected the world from? Comic books are amazing for propaganda.
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Heh, I should dig up that write in I did ages ago for the first festival figurines. People found it too detailed for our manufacturing capabilities back then, maybe we can now? Maybe add a few more as you say!
 
bigbow said:
Hey Crake! Yeah its been something of a struggle catching up these past few weeks. So much so I engaged Threadmark jumpdrive a lot more than I'm used to. I swear the Thread's update speed is growing even faster. Between you, @Azel and @LonelyWolf999 you've been keeping most of my core concerns alive so I've not felt the need (much) to start shouting from the waves. And the rest of the thread of course has been ASWAHing along so all is good.

Was a tiny bit dissapointed with DP for how he handled the Lys aftermath. It felt like the end of an important PC quest, the ones we do once a month or two, but not, you know, taking the Free City of Lys!

Purple Days is flowing (actually got an update up about... a week ago? Could be going faster, but between bureocratic woes and somewhat depleting motivation... eh. To be honest I'm tiring of writing ASOIAF (ironic given my earlier musings, I know). Just want to crack my teeth on something that feels new and most of all original, because I want to wrangle my own setting how I like it and not have to juggle a dozen canon characters that dont really serve any purpose to my narrative. ASOIAF has really been done to death by fanfics and quests all around (which is a good thing!) And writing about it doesnt hold the slark it used to. Dont know which way I'll jump yet after finishing Purple Days, as I've been thinking up settings faster than I can put them to words. Steampunk or Atompunk... Both have moderately developed worldbuilding that should be pretty fun to set a story in, but scopes differ.

Atompunk is more grandiouse from the get go, world ending asteroids, intrigue, and shiny chrome figther jets soaring through the skies. Steampunk one is a bit more personal though and the stakes take longer to really sink in. family secrets, victorian men in black, one badass train, and a definitive Hero's journey. I'm thinking the last one could be easier to publish succsesfully for a newbie.

How's your life? Recovered from the car stuff okay? Its nice to see you posting regularly again after that semi-kind-of hiatus.
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I might just end back going into it, I made New Year's resolution to make my own quest this year. My intent for my setting was to be a sort of High Fantasy 18th Century Musket and Magic kind of deal.
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
I'm not following the logic
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Everyone was working together (and sharing information to a point) against the Big F, but now the threat of being spitroasted over an aquatic flame has been eliminated for the most part and look at all those new vacancies that were left over from the supernatural gang war.

Basically, the Paranet was made really obvious to the majority of supernaturals and now they have easy pickings for a whole bunch of talents they normally wouldn't. Now that the Former are gone, people can go to the ways things were to a point and start predating on each other.
 
@Snowfire Re: Viserys' height, after looking up Karrin Murphy's, there is no way that Viserys is five feet tall. The point of comparison to Rhaegar was to demonstrate that Viserys is "discount Rhaegar" in canon, another way that characters who found him contemptible to a "real dragon" could short sell him (haha), as if he needed to be already.

Viserys is above five feet. I kind of guessed above five and a half, but no shorter for sure.
 
Crake said:
I might just end back going into it, I made New Year's resolution to make my own quest this year. My intent for my setting was to be a sort of High Fantasy 18th Century Musket and Magic kind of deal.
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Hey I remember that idea! Couldnt help much because Quest systems aint my strength, but it sounded cool (and vaguely ominous). The urge to go full Napoleon from the players would be hard to avoid though, twice so with magic!
 
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bigbow said:
Heh, I should dig up that write in I did ages ago for the first festival figurines. People found it too detailed for our manufacturing capabilities back then, maybe we can now? Maybe add a few more as you say!
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A Fabricate combined with Divine Insight can easily mass produce intricately detailed steel figurines. Feel free to go all out with the detailing, we can definitely make it.
 
bigbow said:
Hey I remember that idea! Couldnt help much because Quest systems aint my strength, but it sounded cool (and vaguely ominous). The urge to go full Napoleon from the players would be hard to avoid though, twice so with magic!
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Well, it's a definite possibility, considering certain details about the setting and characters... but I would put it so far off that I couldn't even imagine what the lead-in and follow through of it would look like, seeing as how there would be just so much other stuff going on.
 
Walliseatscheese said:
Everyone was working together (and sharing information to a point) against the Big F, but now the threat of being spitroasted over an aquatic flame has been eliminated for the most part and look at all those new vacancies that were left over from the supernatural gang war.

Basically, the Paranet was made really obvious to the majority of supernaturals and now they have easy pickings for a whole bunch of talents they normally wouldn't. Now that the Former are gone, people can go to the ways things were to a point and start predating on each other.
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Yeah but...

What predators are there that would do it?

Why would the paranet turn upon themselves?
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
Yeah but...

What predators are there that would do it?

Why would the paranet turn upon themselves?
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The point is this: The Fomor used to kidnap a whole ton of would-be wizards. Viserys kills all the Fomor. Now there's tons of would-be wizards out there who don't know shit. Many of them will go Warlock by accident and start wrecking things and killing people, overwhelming the Paranet's limited ability to handle that.

Also, what is the difference between Warlocks and the variety of evil things, including evil mortals with magic, Viserys deals with on the regular? Aside from the fact that Warlocks, specially unwitting ones, are less culpable for their actions due to being fucked over by metaphysics.
 
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TotallyNotEvil said:
Yeah but...

What predators are there that would do it?

Why would the paranet turn upon themselves?
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Fey. Vampires. Gods. Fallen Angels. Demons. Various Magical Bullshit. Existing Warlocks that haven't been caught yet. You know, the usual stuff that the White Council doesn't protect anyone against except when absolutely forced to.

For those unaware, the job of the White Council is to self police the most powerful magical humans so they don't become Law Breakers and end up destroying the world. Any protection of anyone is outside of their declared duties and is usually done through bluffs at best. Harry is at odds with the WC 99% of the time because he gives a damn and tries his best to help people from supernatural nasties.

Paranet people are going to be driven to desperation to protect themselves and that's where the new epidemic of Warlocks is going to come flooding in from.

There's a reason why Viserys is challenging them about this, and it boils down to "Fulfill your Obligation of Nobility if you're going to declare yourself 'Protectors of Humanity' and use your gifts to take advantage of mortals like you do."

There's also a reason why Viserys calls Harry "Ser" and it ain't because he's Winter's Knight.
 
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Snowfire said:
And this idea really needs to go away. It's not that simple. Certainly not for Viserys, and it would be a challenge to Lya on a scale that I'm finding hard to find an apt comparison. The issue here is the metaphysics, and how I've merged them (yes, merged). There isn't really an effective solution to Black Magic that can be put in place by Viserys, and any one that Lya came up with would come with its own extremely serious downsides. To express a moment on this:

Whilst D&D casters can pull of some pretty incredible shit, they're in some ways actually more limited than DF Wizards in terms of pure utility. Also, a minor point of order. Outsiders aren't made by Gods. They're created from the background of the plane of existence that a soul goes to when it passes into the afterlife. It takes time, and the process is always different, but that's basically how their population continues. And it's...not so much that Lya might fail - which she could. There are other consequences, and I can't explain them because Viserys literally doesn't have the type of mindset needed to put it all the little pieces together. Lya does.
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New idea for Viserys-fixes, this time not just spell-combinations.
Ask someone to worship him.

He does, at this point which includes Mythic Tier 3 I think, have some actual connection to his worshippers. In this mixed universe that could give him the metaphysical authority over someone's soul to try for changes that magic alone would struggle with.
 
Walliseatscheese said:
For those unaware, the job of the White Council is to self police the most powerful magical humans so they don't become Law Breakers and end up destroying the world. Any protection of anyone is outside of their declared duties and is usually done through bluffs at best. Harry is at odds with the WC 99% of the time because he gives a damn and tries his best to help people from supernatural nasties.

Paranet people are going to be driven to desperation to protect themselves and that's where the new epidemic of Warlocks is going to come flooding in from.
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I'm not quite sure about the Wardens here. Officially the Wardens have a pretty narrow mission statement, but I rather imagine that a Warden as an individual almost certainly expand their duties. I think a lot of coloring comes from Harry's viewpoint, which was usually the pointy bit of Morgans sword.

@Snowfire , what if Viserys were to list some of the magical curses and effects he has experience with, ending with a "so how is this different?". (Probably won't work, but I'd love him chatting with Listens-to-Wind)

~~
How is Maelor doing these days, does he live in a romantic comedy yet? Rows of mysterious noble ladies fainting and stumbling into him.

Also do we have to schedule "fun days" for Dany again?
- No. An Inquisition excursion is not mandatory fun time-
 
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DragonParadox said:
Elsewhere, Elsewhen

Your mother told you that you had been born knowing the most important rule of the Lower Realms. As a baby you had cried little. As a child you had learned to speak just the right words to make yourself seem more useful alive than dead to all the gangs to the Deeps. As woman you had striven to become just a part of the background, grey as ash you dressed, as common as stone. Who would think to assault as simple stone? Who would try to solve the riddle of ash?

Then he had come, the Messenger. He knew that which you had hidden for all the years of your life. He knew of your power. Somehow you did not face the flames. You had thought it a cruel trick of the Masters at first, but he spoke true. There were those in the Middle Realms who could hide their thoughts from the Winged Ones. For all that, they were not free to act as they pleased, so they had need of you.

Unseen you walked though the paths of the Middle Realms, less than a shadow in starlight, more silent a breeze through the mountains. Numberless seemed the lines of light that marked the bindings and alarms of the mighty, but they did not see you because you were of no importance to them. At the last there were guards, more for show than any practical use. They were easily befuddled. Their deaths were swift and painless, that much you could do.

And so you came upon the prize you sought: a book black as the void, bound with blood-red runes. With hurried steppes you came upon the meeting place and set the stolen treasure in the messenger's hands. That is when he spoke the most unexpected of words

"Child of the Deeps, would you die free?"
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I want that book. A treasure of the Red Dragon Empire, possibly one that the Valyrians used to win the war? Hell yes. Gimme.
 
dpara said:
I'm not quite sure about the Wardens here. Officially the Wardens have a pretty narrow mission statement, but I rather imagine that a Warden as an individual almost certainly expand their duties. I think a lot of coloring comes from Harry's viewpoint, which was usually the pointy bit of Morgans sword.


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To actually discuss the current chapter. How is Maelor doing these days, does he live in a romantic comedy yet? Mysterious noble ladies fainting and stumbling into him.

Also do we have to schedule "fun days" for Dany again?
- No. An Inquisition excursion is not mandatory fun time-
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No, his days consist of running ragged all across Western Essos every month doing spy work. Then when he comes home, he has to deal with a bunch of administrative tasks and errands because he wants to be a Lord some day.

When he gets some time off, he finds a dozen Gremlins in his room and Glyra left a note saying he can watch them for a day because she has to prep for a really big heist/prank and he's totally "invited" to come along, I.E she will nag him to use some of his personal time to give some spice trader their comeuppance for their duplicitous business practices.

At the end of the month, when he makes an accounting of himself before Viserys, seemingly trading off that routine "progress report" with Valaena, he's informed of all the NEW SHIT he has to look forward to the next month.

And he can't even resent Viserys for it because A) he asked for it, and B) Viserys doesn't even take time off.
 
Also, don't quote me on this, but I think @DragonParadox stopped with Mandatory Fun Time earlier in 293 AC. Something tells me that Viserys has come to accept that they are all too busy to manufacture more paper childhood for Dany.

With that said, Dany clearly still takes personal hours, which Viserys notably doesn't. She spends time healing people because she is selfless in a lot of ways Viserys isn't and finds personal fulfillment in the small things and helping individuals, rather than just helping people. Viserys does enjoy helping people, but these are personal pledges, half intent to do a good deed for someone at times, and half making sure that the world he builds with every breath he draws is a just and noble one.

It also appears that she is spending time with Rhaella, which is good because I am fairly sure that even if Viserys specifically made sure to schedule activities in such a way that she could join him in them, the amount of time we spend with her each month could probably be measured on one hand in days and hours. Being generous. We spent a lot of last month not only abroad but also engaged in entirely different intrigue actions.
 
Of Men and Monsters -- Distant Red Dragon Ancestors who fought the Void-tainted armies of the Bloodstone Emperor after the flights of dragons were wiped from the world through Kinstrife -- pre-pre-Valyria
Of Magic Most Ancient -- Distant Red Dragon Ancestor -- pre-Valyria
A New Day -- Distant Red Dragon Ancestor (presumably juvenile or younger) -- pre-Valyria
Dreams of Dominion -- Distant Red Dragon Ancestor -- proto-Valyria
Dreams of Ash -- Child of the Deeps -- ancient dragonblooded sorceress, one of the first rebels -- proto-Valyria
Child of Fire -- A dragonblooded sacrifice-to-be awakens the magic of fire and escapes the Dragon Priests of proto-Valyria -- proto-Valyria
Fractured Visions & Forlorn Hope -- Sevros, a slave in proto-Valyria, is taught sorcery by a Golden Kobold in hopes of rebellion and revenge for the callous murder of his sister, and is planning to steal blood for a grander defiance against his master Vermex by aiming to get the blood, presumably the blood of the dragon for halfdragon leaders of the rebellion -- proto-Valyria
With a Dragon's Twisted Tongue -- A dragonblooded sorcerer is jumped by a detachment of the Claw of the Winged Masters, fights back, flees, and then is rescued by another much stronger dragonblooded sorcerer who proceeds to recruit the Claws as well -- proto-Valyria
The Forgotten Wyrm -- Kepeskezir, Shadow-weaver, Devil's Bane, a Red Dragon imprisoned by the Flamelord (and who saw the dangers of halfdragon children) decides to sire his own halfdragon child on a sorceress out of spite, fully anticipating they will cause the downfall of the Red Dragon Empire -- proto-Valyria
Hope in Odd Places -- A halfdragon in proto-Valyria meets with a cursed halfdragon who managed to kill a True Dragon, and a devil, scheming for the rebellion against the Winged Masters -- proto-Valyria, the Rebellion against the Winged Masters
Dragon Fall -- The first Dragonlord strikes down a Red Dragon and rides its clutchmate like a common steed in the middle of battle -- proto-Valyria, the Rebellion against the Winged Masters
Ascendant -- Daelor Targaryen competes in the Dance of Fire and Steel in the Valyrian Freehold and takes his place among the Forty Families -- Valyria
Secret of Blood -- Rhea Targaryen is poisoned by jealous peers, but manages to unlock Blood Wish and heal herself -- Valyria
A Gift of Gold -- Terrax, the dragon of Jaenara Belaerys, through a fluke of destiny, manages to throw of the shackles of his mind and gain sentiency, and barely avoids murdering Jaenara on the spot -- Valyria
Dreamer's Eyes -- The Fourteen convene before the Doom, even as Daenys the Dreamer senses what is to come -- Valyria, pre-Doom
Of Fate and Choice & Heirs of the Downfallen -- Laenor Targaryen, a Seer of Syrax, is tempted by Ilvessa the Marilith to serve Abraxas as the Doom sunders Valyria, something that he is tempted by but ultimately refuses -- The Doom
Whom Powers Answer -- Viserys Targaryen traverses time and empowers the boy he once was, setting ablaze the spark of his own magic

Random little side-project on my part. I tried chronologically arranging Viserys' distant ancestors.

And upon rereading all the levelups, the Red Dragons were such massive assholes. I'm glad they're dead and gone, and if Tiamat tries to bring them back with the full extent of their stupid evil instincts, they die, and they get turned into crafting materials.

EDIT: Side note, no, Terrax is not Viserys' ancestor.
 
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@Snowfire, the chapter starts with a DF canon mistake. There are more than two vampire courts remaining: ever heard of Jade?

And if this were a vote, I would have Viserys say something like "I founded my own institution to teach magic to mortals under my rule. The masses do matter!"

Goldfish said:
Not even five minutes before you posted this, I was thinking "It's about time for another Horde Thief chapter."
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Filthy casual. I think that every night.
 
You know what I want? More cute scenes with our changeling wards and some family time without mother and sister. Maybe spend some time fawning over Garin's kids or just walking the streets of the deep in disguise to speak to his people as one of them.
 
zxzx24 said:
I do question how they would react to him having created formalized magical education.
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The thing is VIserys can't substantiate most of his claims to anyone who isn't Harry and willing to take him at his word.

I mean soulgaze is a thing, but most beings as paranoid as Senior Council Members would probably be hesitant to say the least in meeting a dragon's eye.

So there's no point in trying to argue them around on the disgusting stuff that absolutely must change at some point, the only thing worth doing is acting as they expect you to, someone to take seriously and tread carefully around, someone who is reasonable to a degree and willing to work with them, and someone with enough leverage either in what they could do if acting on their own terms without them being able to track his movements or motivations and no way to really pin him down (other than here and now, at any rate, and it's obviously not a fight they think they have a good shot of winning, or they might have just straight up sprung a trap on him).

It should be enough to get the requisite support to keep things afloat, and with Viserys and his new friends' efforts maybe even right some wrongs and fix some deficiencies.

The real plan is to either wait for backup to arrive, if you trust Lya's ingenuity (he does) or to figure out a path for oneself (and perhaps one back).

From there it would not be a simple fix but they have enough power and resources to largely start working on making the White Council look like a bunch of jackasses who didn't consistently push for improvements every single moment and time they had room to breathe and resources to spare, lost in their own mire of hubris and cynicism even as they view Viserys with contempt and skepticism.

The WC has nothing to offer Viserys but what they should offer to themselves. The only harm they do is to the world they should be fighting to preserve. Expecting more concessions but agreement to restrain his movements and actions towards what has been discussed in the open would be ludicrous. I expect these people to at minimum demand Viserys play by the rulebook all the Powers play by.

Except I'm pretty sure Viserys' whole thing is being true to himself, so not a chance in hell.

In practice, if this was a part of ASWaH being voted on, I see a vote like that going one of two ways: We get annoyed and seek allies elsewhere, or we accept paltry restrictions that we would be content to operate under regardless so that they do what they should have done in the first place.
 
065tdsa said:
The point is this: The Fomor used to kidnap a whole ton of would-be wizards. Viserys kills all the Fomor. Now there's tons of would-be wizards out there who don't know shit. Many of them will go Warlock by accident and start wrecking things and killing people, overwhelming the Paranet's limited ability to handle that.
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Walliseatscheese said:
Fey. Vampires. Gods. Fallen Angels. Demons. Various Magical Bullshit. Existing Warlocks that haven't been caught yet. You know, the usual stuff that the White Council doesn't protect anyone against except when absolutely forced to.
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Here's my issue with that: there simply are now, at most, the same, and very likely, far less of these around than there were a given number of months ago.

So I still see no reason for the "it will be drowning in a flood of Warlocks" when it should be business as it was, pre-Formor.
 
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