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

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Duesal said:
I'd like to see at least a few updates for this. Definitely a Ned POV now that he's learned of the Great Enemy.
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I'm afraid I am going to have to disappoint on the last bit at least. the distinction between the Void and winter is not one that is readily available without a lot more context than you can get across in a portion of one session of the Curia. Put simply the history of the Winter fey and the alien nature of the Void to the rest of Being is not relevant to Ned Stark's worldview. Winter is already alien enough.
 
It has come to my attention that you guys likely formed a Ned Stark shaped idea of what Paradise is like these days, for now while I polish off a presentation let me assure you it is not, with a reminder that the man is A) entirely untrained in the relevant skills and B) working his way though shock after shock. Basically do not take your idea of anything supernatural from Eddard
 
[X] Move on to infrastructure day
-[X] Have Rallos Ahrianna, the conservative Volantene merchant who resigned from the Curia, plied with Memory Moss to remove her recollections of the last closed session attended. Said knowledge, if spread, is liable to cause chaos and invite those very threats you warned about to make plays. Inquisitors shall be polite but insistent.
 
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DragonParadox said:
I will say Mace is kind of screwed as a leader because he did not come out as very stable in public.
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@DragonParadox In other news, doesn't it seem like Viserys kinda delivered an ultimatum in regards to political factions that has to be met from the other end by their leadership? His official political position is "support me, or we're all fucked".

So everyone else has to at least give believable lip service to "what we're doing will help that" or "what we're doing is better/more competent/smarter than the Emperor's play".
 
Crake said:


@DragonParadox In other news, doesn't it seem like Viserys kinda delivered an ultimatum in regards to political factions that has to be met from the other end by their leadership? His official political position is "support me, or we're all fucked".

So everyone else has to at least give believable lip service to "what we're doing will help that" or "what we're doing is better/more competent/smarter than the Emperor's play".
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In a a sense yes, but it is worth keeping in mind that he had already done that when he met most of those lords and in his public speeches going back to the early days in the Deep. the script has always been about scary monsters eating you if you did not hang together, this just added a layer of how screwed you would be if you did not have the Empire. Everyone in that room already give an oath to that notion.
 
DragonParadox said:
In a a sense yes, but it is worth keeping in mind that he had already done that when he met most of those lords and in his public speeches going back to the early days in the Deep. the script has always been about scary monsters eating you if you did not hang together, this just added a layer of how screwed you would be if you did not have the Empire. Everyone in that room already give an oath to that notion.
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Yes yet still compartmentalized politics as "something important people do to get a leg up" instead of just another theater of the same war Viserys was always fighting.

He basically just told them "you've all been conscripted, congratulations". So how much mental jump rope do you need to carry on as you were before, before people start to call you out on it?
 
Crake said:
Yes yet still compartmentalized politics as "something important people do to get a leg up" instead of just another theater of the same war Viserys was always fighting.

He basically just told them "you've all been conscripted, congratulations". So how much mental jump rope do you need to carry on as you were before, before people start to call you out on it?
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Not that much once the shock wears off. I mean look at it this way, for all the horrors he has recounted and all the long ago wars that have been lost and won, all the tragedies, what will be different for those people tomorrow morning when they wake? Yes there is a layer to reality added, a reason not to make deals with devils or daemons or fish-men, but in the context of imperial politics there are only so many resources to face all of that, so who gets them and how are they spread out? Viserys may have enshrined his own seat and the notion of Imperial Unity as sacrosanct, but there is still room to argue about the details. How much you argue depends on if you are an Imperialist or not.
 
Ah, wonderful. Even discussing imminent Armageddon/Rhana Dandra/Dagor Dagorath/War for the Dawn, congress can find a way to avoid doing their job until their interests have been sufficiently catered to.
 
Crake said:
Ah, wonderful. Even discussing imminent Armageddon/Rhana Dandra/Dagor Dagorath/War for the Dawn, congress can find a way to avoid doing their job until their interests have been sufficiently catered to.
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Good thing this congress is mostly just for show and Viserys retains all the real power. The second he sees bullshit gerrymandering he can step in and put an end to it.
 
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Part MMMDCCLXXXIV: As Good as Gold
  • Threadmarks
    • As Good as Gold ​

    Twenty-Fourth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

    In many ways Westeros presents the same challenges as your earlier conquests in Essos, only more so. Building roads and houses of healing, setting up schools and putting in place the infrastructure to allow the Grey Cloaks to provide some investigation of lawbreaking beyond 'whatever the local potentates find'. In others, however, it is a world apart.

    For far too long trade has been a dirty word in the halls of the 'well-bred', and much as that might have been ignored in practice by the more pragmatic members of the nobility who could still count their profits and all the power it might bring, even the most farsighted lord or lady would not give as much care to the road that lead to their gate as they did to the walls of their keep or the arms and armor of their armsmen.

    Much as the delegations from Yi Ti had transgressed against your patience they had gotten one thing right about the lands west of the Narrow Sea. All the way up the ladder from the humble landed knight to the kings in all but name who are no more, save only in Dorne, the nobility of Westeros is in the business of war, leashed a bit perhaps by the Iron Throne, but chaffing under it. Rare was the generation without a war, and not all of it could be laid at the feet of your ancestors. 'Knights must earn their spurs', a phrase that rings all too close to the 'Iron Price must be paid' to your ear. This then is what you must make, administrators and custodians of peaceful lands. Even in those provinces that fall under imperial administration the mindset of the previous age shall not die easily.

    Beyond the feuds that divide Marcher from Dornishman or Riverlander from the Crannogman of the Neck there lies in the very waft and weft of the 'Sunset Kingdoms' that are no more the notion that one's neighbors are more likely to be rivals than they are allies, and only the bonds of blood and kinship shall seal the allegiance against common foes.

    'Words are Wind,' goes the saying that can be heard from the Wall to the Sea of Dorne, and yet words more than the might of the Imperial Airforce or the heavy step of the Legion are what binds the Realm you have wrought together. Grand words at times, terrible words as you had spoken on the last day the Curia had met, but at the end of the day still just words which the men and women standing in the hall you are about to enter are meant to believe.

    Fortunately, there is one way to make sure those words will be believed, a way as well known and as well tested as time itself, and a gleam in the eye of everyone from beggars to princes—Imperial Marks of far greater worth than the old Gold Dragons and far more plentifully sourced than the Iron Throne of Robert Baratheon ever did. You know that among some of the more recently sworn lords there are already rumors of the vast wealth you supposedly confiscated from the Rock. The truth is rather different, five-and-a-half-million Imperial Marks, such as the liquid wealth of House Lannister was assessed at by auditors at the Ministry of Taxation, is certainly not nothing, but it pales to the liquidity you had already gathered... and that in turns pales to the real resources that limit you, manpower and the reach of a state apparatus still in the process of being put together.

    The first matter on the agenda is where to set up Scholarum Branches, beyond the Dreadfort for that is where Roose had already struck that bargain, stealing a march on those of his peers now very anxious to have their own mages to guard against those perils of which they had been made all too aware. The fact that the Headmasters are guaranteed a place in the upper chamber makes the choice all the more important.

    Where in Westeros do you plan to set up new Scholarum Branches?

    [] Write in

    Note:
    1. One already set up for the Dreadfort.
    2. For each two branches set up it will cost an action from the Ministry of Magic next turn of their total of three actions per turn
    3. You may promise more branches than can be set up in one turn, but the more time it takes the less pleased the locals will be, especially if their traditional rivals got one first
    OOC: And we are off. This is going to be you promising stuff, not necessarily locking in actions for next month.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • DragonParadox said:
    Note:
    1. One already set up for the Dreadfort.
    2. For each two branches set up it will cost an action from the Ministry of Magic next turn of their total of three actions per turn
    3. You may promise more branches than can be set up in one turn, but the more time it takes the less pleased the locals will be especially if their traditional rivals got one first
    OOC: And we are off, this is going to be you promising stuff, not necessarily locking in actions for next month.
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    Doesn't Dorne already technically have one? They were among the very first in all of Westeros to gather mages under their banner, beaten only by the Lannisters.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    As Good as Gold ​

    Twenty-Fourth Day of the Fifth Month 294 AC

    In many ways Westeros presents the same challenges as your earlier conquests in Essos, only more so; building roads and houses of healing, setting up schools and putting in place the infrastructure to allow the Grey Cloaks to provide some investigation of lawbreaking beyond 'whatever the local potentates find'. In others, however, it is a world apart. For far too long trade has been a dirty word in the halls of the 'well bred', and much as that might have been ignored in practice by the more pragmatic members of the nobility who could still count their profits and all the power it might bring, even the most farsighted lord or lady would not give as much care to the road that lead to their gate as they did to the walls of their keep or the arms and armor of their armsmen.

    Much as the delegations from Yi Ti had transgressed against your patience, they had gotten one thing right about the lands west of the Narrow Sea. All the way up the ladder from the humble landed knight to the kings in all but name who are no more, save only in Dorne, the nobility of Westeros is in the business of war, leashed a bit perhaps by the Iron Throne, but chaffing under it. Rare was the generation without a war, and not all of it could be laid at the feet of your ancestors. Knights must earn their spurs, a phrase that rings all too close to 'the iron price must be paid' to your ear. This then is what you must make, administrators and custodians, of peaceful lands. Even in those provinces that fall under imperial administration, the mindset of the previous age shall not die easily.

    Beyond the feuds that divide Marcher from Dornishman or Riverlander from the Crannogman of the Neck, there lies in the very weft and weave of the 'Sunset Kingdoms' that are no more, the notion that one's neighbors are more likely to be rivals than they are allies, and only the bonds of blood and kinship shall seal the allegiance against common foes.

    'Words are Wind,' goes the saying that can be heard from the Wall to the Sea of Dorne, yet words more than the might of the Imperial Airf Force or the heavy step of the Legion are what binds together the Realm you have wrought. Grand words at times, terrible words as you had spoken on the last day the Curia had met, but at the end of the day still just words which the men and women standing in the hall you are about to enter are meant to believe.

    Fortunately, there is one way to make sure those words will be believed, a way as well known and as well tested as time itself, and a gleam in the eye of everyone from beggars to princes—Imperial Marks of far greater worth than the old Gold Dragons and far more plentifully sourced than the Iron Throne of Robert Baratheon ever did. You know that among some of the more recently sworn lords there are already rumors of the vast wealth you supposedly confiscated from the Rock. The truth is rather different, five-and-a-half-million Imperial Marks, such as the liquid wealth of House Lannister was assessed at by auditors at the Ministry of Taxation, is certainly not nothing, but it pales to the liquidity you had already gathered... and that in turns pales to the real resources that limit you, manpower and the reach of a state apparatus still in the process of being put together.

    The first matter on the agenda is where to set up Scholarum Branches, beyond the Dreadfort that is where Roose had already struck that bargain, stealing a march on those of his peers now very anxious to make their own mages to guard against those perils of which they had been made all too aware. The fact that the Headmasters are guaranteed a place in the upper chamber makes the choice all the more important.

    Where in Westeros do you plan to set up new Scholarum Branches?

    [] Write in

    Note:
    1. One already set up for the Dreadfort.
    2. For each two branches set up it will cost an action from the Ministry of Magic next turn of their total of three actions per turn
    3. You may promise more branches than can be set up in one turn, but the more time it takes the less pleased the locals will be especially if their traditional rivals got one first
    OOC: And we are off, this is going to be you promising stuff, not necessarily locking in actions for next month.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Made some additional edits to the chapter, DP.
     
    [X] Plan Spread Out
    -[X] Dreadfort / Duchy of the Dreadlands (automatic)
    -[X] Citadel / Duchy of Oldtown (automatic)
    -[X] Sunspear / Duchy of Eastern Dorne (automatic)
    -[X] Kings Landing / Governorship of the Southern Crownlands (1st Action)
    -[X] Greyport / Duchy of Greyport (1st Action)
    -[X] Gulltown / Duchy of Runestone (2nd Action)
    -[X] Saltpans / Duchy of Greater Darry (2nd Action)
    -[X] Summerhall (following turn)
    -[X] Saath (following turn)

    Basically one per former LP-ship with the exception of the Iron Isles due to being... well... a bit of a backwater. Also focusing on cities.
    For the Riverlands, the alternative would be to establish it in Seaguard, though that carries some potentially destabilizing risk for the Mallister / Frey situation, so Saltpans looks much better.
     
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    Okay, Oldtown would have gotten one anyway, if the Citadel-remnants can be remodelled that's perfect.
    Dorne's magic orders must be integrated.

    Aside from that we'll propably want one east and one west for simple coverage. The Vale, maybe in Gulltown, and one in KL as the most populous city (and therefore the area with the most candidates).
    Everyone in the Riverlands can have the choice to go to a Scholarium in any direction.

    [X] Facilities in:
    -[X] Dreadfort (locked in)
    -[X] Oldtown (free?)
    -[X] Sunspear (free)
    -[X] King's Landing
    -[X] Gulltown

    Possibly one more in the Stormlands for Stannis?

    Edit: Oh hey, I actually agree with Azel for the most part, miracle of miracles, ninja of ninjas.
     
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    Artemis1992 said:
    Possibly one more in the Stormlands for Stannis?
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    Stormlands are a bit short on population and have no real population centers. I was thinking to have them services by Kings Landing / Dorne / SD / Myr, which has the added benefit that they are forced to open up a bit.
    Artemis1992 said:
    Edit: Oh hey, I actually agree with Azel for the most part, miracle of miracles, ninja of ninjas.
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    Hey now, it's not as if we never agree on anything...
     
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