Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Wow. He makes this look like an artform.
A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
-
- Tags
- a song of ice and fire a sword without a hilt d&d 3.5 dungeons & dragons 100% high octane dragon fuel ave corvidae battle action dragon diplomacy best sister bureaucromancy delicious soul-stuff dragon dreams come true dragon ta'veren greatest uncle hubris is a coward's word in defiance of gods and men mammon's folly mutually assured mage's disjunction qm murderhobo top tier coatl
Well good night guys, see you tomorrow with likely a quick military confirmation and then onward toward the reveal of the Broken spheres.
- Location
- United States
The moment I've been waiting for. Imagine some poor lord finding this all out and then realizing that Stannis of all people was clearly informed months beforehand.
- Location
- Argentina
Well, if we are telling stories, I bring one from Opposite Land!
Yesterday, the Minister of Transport died in a car accident, while driving at night at an hour where the lockdown rules don't allow you to travel, presumably by either being exhausted, drunk, or the road (his road) being in disrepair.
I can't quite figure out which one was the punchline to this bizarre story, besides the politicians preaching that "You can't eat concrete" when discussing about funding public works before this.
Yesterday, the Minister of Transport died in a car accident, while driving at night at an hour where the lockdown rules don't allow you to travel, presumably by either being exhausted, drunk, or the road (his road) being in disrepair.
I can't quite figure out which one was the punchline to this bizarre story, besides the politicians preaching that "You can't eat concrete" when discussing about funding public works before this.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
There's actually quite a few people in this Curia session who are already aware of things, probably more than people present would expect.
Could probably even sum it.
Sec...
1 Qyburn (got up to speed somewhere along the way, too many points in time it could have happened to guess when)
2 Relath Toloresys (extraplanar immigrant)
3 Rhaella Targaryen (inner circle)
4 Salladhor Saan (informed in large meeting)
5 Sandor Clegane (would've been brought up to speed after firmly falling into inner circle)
6 Shad Ibn Mal (extraplanar immigrant)
7 Stannis Baratheon (informed in personal meeting)
8 Teana Strycos (inner circle)
9 Theon Greyjoy (no reason not to have prepared him by this point, even if literally just before the session)
10 Tyrael "the Tireless" (extraplanar immigrant)
11 Uthero Agrelys (informed in large meeting)
12 Valens of Andalos (former Inquisitor)
13 Vargo Alexi (no reason not to have prepared him by this point, even if literally just before the session)
14 Vee (inner circle)
15 Monford Velaryon (informed in large meeting)
16 Doran Martell (informed in large meeting)
17 Oberyn Sandviper (informed in large meeting)
18 Zherys Naethyreon (informed in large meeting)
19 Yrael Elaenos (extraplanar immigrant)
20 Ferrego Antaryon (informed in large meeting)
21 Aemon Targaryen (no reason not to have prepared him by this point, even if literally just before the session)
22 Alinor Torchwood (informed in large meeting)
23 Gerold Torchwood (informed in large meeting)
24 Asha Greyjoy (no reason not to have prepared her by this point, even if literally just before the session)
25 Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers (Chosen of the Old Gods)
26 Chesed (extraplanar immigrant)
27 Garin Drekelis (inner circle)
28 Iziku of the Deep (extraplanar immigrant)
29 Javad Rahbar (extraplanar immigrant)
30 Malarys Vanor (inner circle)
31 Marwyn (either informed by this by any number of people he's been in proximity of, or already well aware because he's an OG mage)
32 Menel Goldentooth (informed in large meeting)
33 Netzachel (extraplanar immigrant)
34 Roose Bolton (Qyburn is still interacting with him here and there, and has all the tact of a cannon broadside, would have dumped this on him by now)
35 Yohn Royce (no reason not to have prepared him by this point, even if literally just before the session)
36 Aricho Sereah (Headmaster of Scholarum)
37 Denerro Melolla (Headmaster of Scholarum)
38 Dileah Noroquo (Headmaster of Scholarum)
39 Hasaro Sireyana (Headmaster of Scholarum)
40 Horio of Tyrosh (Headmaster of Scholarum)
41 Sarah of Pentos (Headmaster of Scholarum)
42 Moqorro (Headmaster of Scholarum)
That's nearly three dozen people who won't react with shock at this news. Which will be telling to those who are floored by it, considering that's like having one quarter of the current Curia membership being either completely unsurprised, mildly uncomfortable, or only semi-jittery depending upon when they were brought up to speed.
Edit: We also voted to have all the Headmasters informed, and to get most mages ware by the time they graduated from Scholarum courses, so this should actually include all of the Headmasters, not just Teana, so over forty people know what's going on.
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- Location
- Germany
Bolton would have dug on his own even without Qyburn. His families lore is heavy focusing on the Others and thus inevitably mentions the Void taint on them.
I'd also bet good money on Walder Frey knowing quite a lot since knowing things about the political landscape is precisely how he improves his houses standing. With the planes in reach, he would immediately go for sociopolitical intel. It's hard to miss the Sundering when doing this.
Even with all the people who are already clued in we still need to teach at the pace of the slowest kid in the class. We're probably going to have to give a lecture on basic planar mechanics just to get to the point where the Westerosi and Magister contingents understand enough to get what the sundering actually means.
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
The cool thing here is, we can use illusion magic to basically give everyone a power point presentation.
Basically pull a Carl Sagan and really go over shit.
- Location
- United States
Nothing quite like magical holograms for illustrating things.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
And the formatting is always exactly how you want it. 🧐
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
Problem is all those spells are context sensitive and supposed to be evocative of specific emotions. Used for torture or debilitation since it makes it highly likely a negative response will be invoked by it.
That's not to say it couldn't get across a rhetorical point if you're having a losing argument against someone literally too stubborn or violently opposed to believing anything you have to say, but generally speaking you don't want to torment your advisors / parliament equivalent. Also, taken in isolation, if you're using it against someone like that you pretty much are working them over during a moment of vulnerability, and anyone strong willed enough it won't work against since they've developed their sense of self and convictions sufficiently, that they pretty much have to be convinced in good faith, with no mental alterations to believe what you're selling.
Like no amount of villainous grand standing would have broken Melisandre, but subverting her beliefs and showing her their goals wouldn't be accomplished by going off on her own. Basically holding her overriding priorities hostage against her suspicion of alternative perspectives and belief systems and getting her to permit them in isolation so long as it meets her goals, instead of actively trying to erode them or incite religious violence to ensure doctrinal primacy.
I foresee roughly 20% of the Curia is guaranteed to be opposed to Viserys' vision for the future. Like, yeah, okay, once they get over the "reality is fucked", most of them probably like the much more abstract, remote idea of their preferred deity being placed in charge of secular affairs, now that there is even less of a reason for there to be a divide (no guaranteed afterlife) than there was before, compared to the less abstract, in-your-face Dragon Emperor who clearly has the charisma and force of personality to lead his own cult for all he rejects people ascribing divinity to him.
Roughly 1-2% of those people will also figure out that we reject the notion of divinity because we see ourselves as something above the Gods, and those are the ones to look out for.
That's not to say it couldn't get across a rhetorical point if you're having a losing argument against someone literally too stubborn or violently opposed to believing anything you have to say, but generally speaking you don't want to torment your advisors / parliament equivalent. Also, taken in isolation, if you're using it against someone like that you pretty much are working them over during a moment of vulnerability, and anyone strong willed enough it won't work against since they've developed their sense of self and convictions sufficiently, that they pretty much have to be convinced in good faith, with no mental alterations to believe what you're selling.
Like no amount of villainous grand standing would have broken Melisandre, but subverting her beliefs and showing her their goals wouldn't be accomplished by going off on her own. Basically holding her overriding priorities hostage against her suspicion of alternative perspectives and belief systems and getting her to permit them in isolation so long as it meets her goals, instead of actively trying to erode them or incite religious violence to ensure doctrinal primacy.
I foresee roughly 20% of the Curia is guaranteed to be opposed to Viserys' vision for the future. Like, yeah, okay, once they get over the "reality is fucked", most of them probably like the much more abstract, remote idea of their preferred deity being placed in charge of secular affairs, now that there is even less of a reason for there to be a divide (no guaranteed afterlife) than there was before, compared to the less abstract, in-your-face Dragon Emperor who clearly has the charisma and force of personality to lead his own cult for all he rejects people ascribing divinity to him.
Roughly 1-2% of those people will also figure out that we reject the notion of divinity because we see ourselves as something above the Gods, and those are the ones to look out for.
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I wasn't seriously suggesting using them, I just find those particular spells funny in the context of this quest. I largely agree with your estimation of their utility here, but not with the above.
I see you say stuff like this in the thread a lot, but not much in the actual text of the updates to support it. Viserys consistently demonstrates that he doesn't view the gods as inherently being superior to him in an abstract philosophical way, but I can't think of a singe instance were he indulged in condescending to them.
He isn't shy about pursuing his own interests over theirs or advancing his own power into their domains, but there's a difference between wanting to be in charge and subscribing to a self indulgent philosophy that justifies doing so by virtue of innate superiority.
Especially since Viserys more than has the knowledge ranks to know how he stacks up against a god.
I would not say Viserys sees himself as above divinity, more as something someone that exists in the space the gods cannot reach. Gods have their place in his conception of the world after all and he acknowledges that thy are mighty it is just that they are also limited in ways he could never accept for himself. Admittedly that is a fine distinction that I do not expect many to gleam none way or the other
- Location
- San Ramon, CA
Viserys: If I want someone to bake me some bread, I hire a baker. If I need someone to go to far-off lands and get rare materials, I hire a trader. If I need someone to cast a ritual I either don't know or have time for, I hire a mage. If I need someone to convert worship and sacrifice into phenomenal cosmic power, I negotiate with gods. And if what I want isn't in a specific god's purview, then I find another or make one myself. As for myself, I have an empire to run.
Pretty much, it is not so much that he sees himself above all gods as that he does not see the gods as being above him. There is no qualitatively distinct space in him mind marked 'gods'. Gods are stories made true by their own telling god are the same sort of beings as the fey and as outsiders though in the different way. And the thing is that perspective is not even unique to him, it is quintessentially draconic. Drragons are not scared to Tiamat because she is a god of dragons, but because she it the meanest, strongest and greediest dragon out there.
Given that quite a few people more than 0.5% might realize how Viserys sees gods by inferring it off Relathwhom they do after all share the Curia with.
- Location
- E-Girl Deseret
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, considering we metaphysically kicked her teeth in and smashed one of her most involved plans to pieces.... does that make us a stronger and meaner dragon? Or does it not count because we didn't do it personally?
You did not beat her, you beat her avatar. Which is like having defeated Tiamat at competitive video games. Certainly worth bragging, but it does not dethrone her.
Vote closed.
Interlude in beta.
Interlude MLXIX: Behind the Smile
Behind the Smile
Twentieth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC
There was a quiet hum of excited voices with just the smallest echo of sorcery to them as the hall filled, the shuffle of feet over fine marble as each man or woman found their own seat as if to some grand spectacle. All these people were not yet familiar to Duke Baelor Hightower, but he knew they would be soon.
He loved the sight of Oldtown stretching out below the feet of the High Tower and he loved to walk its streets mingling with all manner of folk from lands far and wide, and he loved to read a book in the windowless halls below where the treasures of his House had been gathered from time out of mind, but all these things the imperial city had more of. Strangers from lands so distant they were beyond the borders of the world, books in tongues unseen by mortal man, wide boulevards that stretched into green parks where elder gods seemed to whisper and the halls of power grand beyond telling, where the fate of the world was writ.
He tipped his head to Duke Darry, wondering where the man would stand in the byplay of Tyrell and Redwyne. He was one of those he did not have a good read on simply because his House had been so long defined by their doomed stand in the Rebellion that Baelor had thought he would be a throne's man through and through. That did not quite seem to be the case judging from the fact that he had made some approving noises at Mace's talk of arming armsmen with weapons fit to match the Legion.
As soon to walk up to King Aegon the first and ask him if you could have a dragon egg...
Sometimes Baelor was quite amazed at how his fellow lords could miss the obvious though it was writ in the sky with tongues of fire. There would be no sharing of the great weapons of the Legion and no Airforce in the hand of any lord, now or ever. Swords they would be gifted, aye swords by the thousands, to name, to treasure and to hold in place of high honor for power was no longer drawn from its sheath as glimmering steel. Not that it had stopped Baelor from acquiring one of the finest blades that djinn-craft could forge, fate and fortune folded into steel, but he had not done so because he thought the power and prestige of a lord was likely to hang on battle-craft. No, Baelor knew better than most lords and sooner that the world had far too many horrors in it, and even if he did not go looking for them as his father had alas done they could still be looking form him.
He shook off the thought and the nagging guilt that always came with it with a weary sigh as he took his seat and looked upon the chamber.
If there was anyone in all the Imperium who would have the means to stage a military conflict against the crown it would be the ones who were today selected to lead the Legion and the Airforce, and he was very curious indeed to know what manner of folk the Imperator would trust with that much power. Some were obvious, Gerold Torchwood had earned his name quite literally in the service of the Dragon Banner and he had been with the Imperator as long as some Companions, and they did not call Clegane 'Hound' just for his habit of barking at any who approached him unwarily. He would serve faithfully unless... well, unless you were as foolish as the man Baelor had seen hang yesterday. He smiled as he recalled the flash of horror in Mace's face when he thought no one was looking, no doubt considering how close to that fate he had come. It was quite remarkable how many blindspots the man could have and how deep they ran, it was not that he was the oaf he sometimes allowed himself to seem, but if he was approached from the wrong angle... well, there was a reason Baelor would prefer to look to Redwyne, history and all its prestige aside.
"Netzachel Far Traveler, the Hallowed One, Keeper of the lore of War and of Master of its many arts!" the herald called, interrupting Baelor's thoughts once more.
Well, I always did think those folk who went to war could use with consulting more books and not less, the young duke thought as he beheld the being he thought was called a codex archon. He wondered if he should make the jest aloud. They did call him Brightsmile after all, and the reputation had served him well. Best not, he decided after listening some more to the tale of the angel. There was something just a touch unsettling about the voice that issued from those pages the more he listened to it, as though the hairs on the back of his neck had been informed of some fact that escaped his conscious mind.
Not many others seemed to get the message, the applause was long and loud lingering in the hall into the entrance of the next. General Vaerios Ghand was... well, certainly not holy, though he seemed rather enamored of holy things, the sort that burned with red flame.
Time to earn by hay, as father was wont to say. The silent lord is oft forgotten and while that may be a good thing when one is doing things best left in the shadows the same cannot be said for open court. "General Ghand, do you believe that there is merit in the notion that we are living in the last days of the age as some proclaim from the altar?"
"I do," the man replies without hesitation. "One has but to see all the things that crawl from the dark to trouble the world to know that it is so. Soon it shall be given to each of us to fight for the soul of our world even as we each fight for our souls with each sunrise."
Baelor nodded gracefully. "And I would be the last to deny you that faith as a citizen of the Imperium, but I contest that the belief that these are the last days of the age might move you to let use say... less prudent military tactics. For myself I would prefer if the marshals of the realm marched first by facts, good or ill, and then by faith. Evil things are abroad, I know it well, and they seek to end all that is, but the fate of the world is not preordained for good or ill. This I must myself have faith in if I am to get out of bed in the morning." He waited for the laughter to subside, mostly from his fellow dukes, though a few of the Essosi potentates joined in.
"Whether I am right or you are, my lord, such things are well out of both our hands," the general glanced towards the throne. "I shall not be making any decisions thinking I know the day or the hour of wrath, this I pledge."
That had the air of a quote of some kind, though Baelor had not read the holy texts of the Red Priests, a deficiency he vowed to correct soon for there were a very many of them in the realm and some of them quite influential. "Then I am content for my part," he replied and took his seat once more. Fanatical religious belief that you are a divine envoy come to save the world, that was one way to assure loyalty, the Duke of Hightower thought.
OOC: And that was Baelor, he can be quite insightful, but he does not get everything right, like the fact that Viserys considers the whole belief that he is Azor Ahai more of a negative that a positive.
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Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
Most would I assume since they think being seen as the messiah would sound like a sweet gig to them, but we know better since we've seen the Life of Brian.