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Chosen by the Dragon God

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[X] Your insight seems sound, thank you for it and I'll consider it.
-[X] Perhaps my perspective as a princess limited my understanding of hardship, especially as regarding cadre 1f, but that doesn't make alleviating hardship outside of my interests.
--[X] From you, I want a list of students that would be otherwise forced to drop out of classes due to injury. As you have pointed out, many interests make use of magical education. A program limited to students already partially educated but who would otherwise drop out would likely be of appropriate testing size and politically innocuous.
 
Tascion said:
Any thoughts on improving your plan? I personally think pursuing information on Green Flame is unsalvagable at this point, but you often have thoughts that I don't.
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I think that Prentigold might honestly not have had cause to review Green Flame's commands since the Mystic Path era. They're things that wouldn't come up casually, but they're still glaring weakspots that could be used to incapacitate or otherwise ward her away from being able to provide information. At this point... I think Prentigold might be savvy enough to, if it's brought up, use that as an excuse to clamp down on Green Flame's small freedoms or prevent her from doing what she likes to do. On second thought, perhaps we could just quietly open a portal from her office to Mishrak's dinner table and pass food through it. It'd suck, but it's a better proposition than exposing her to this guy. He's just too much of an unknown quantity with too much power to make things worse. I'll change my vote.

[x] Your insight seems sound, thank you for it and I'll consider it.
-[x] Perhaps my perspective as a princess limited my understanding of hardship, especially as regarding cadre 1f, but that doesn't make alleviating hardship outside of my interests.
--[x] From you, I want a list of students that would be otherwise forced to drop out of classes due to injury. As you have pointed out, many interests make use of magical education. A program limited to students already partially educated but who would otherwise drop out would likely be of appropriate testing size and politically innocuous.
 
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Flashkannon said:
I think that Prentigold might honestly not have had cause to review Green Flame's commands since the Mystic Path era.
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Elves are often really powerful, right?
Maybe I'm overestimating the range of power that Prentigold might expect, but I have trouble imagining him not considering Green Flame as one of the most significant potential threats to him, the school, and so on.

I had assumed that the more 'in the know about history' a person was, the more any enslaved elf is untrustworthy to anyone but its master. That was the prime driver of my expectation that Prentigold investigated Green Flame's restrictions at every notable authority change. The question would bug me at least: who is really the master of an enslaved elf, regardless of what the elf claims?
 
Tascion said:
Elves are often really powerful, right?
Maybe I'm overestimating the range of power that Prentigold might expect, but I have trouble imagining him not considering Green Flame as one of the most significant potential threats to him, the school, and so on.
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Most of the threatening behavior, I believe, is covered by the base enslavement - what I think he hasn't thought too much about is what other commands she may have been given beyond the immediately dangerous - he likely checked for kill commands, or things like that, but did he check to see if they told her not to talk about something specific? For example, I can't believe he left their ban on discussion of the War in Heaven on purpose- why would he want her to not speak about that? It'd make more sense if he had just given her new commands and told her to ignore contravening commands, in my mind.
 
Took a bit to find this again, in School of Sorcery. Here's the biggest informant on what we (the readers... if Elys knows this its only because of that Well of Knowledge) should know of Prentigold's thoughts on Green Flame:
Chandagnac said:
if you want to change the situation, you have to do something about it. No one else will do it for you.'

'I could,' says Green Flame, speaking up for the first time. 'I think I should. Battling demons is what I was made for. It would be the right thing to do, to protect one of my students by slaying a demon cultist.'

'Your concern for your students does you credit,' says the headmaster, as he gets up and walks over to where she is standing in the corner of the room. 'Someday, you'll be a real girl.' He condescendingly pats her on the cheek. 'But I forbid it. If you rush in without thinking, you'll only get him killed. Or worse.'

Green Flame stands frozen, more statue-like than ever.

'It is by overcoming adversity that you will become truly strong. What kind of teacher would I be if I took away the trials which will enable you to achieve greatness?' Prentigold glowers at you and Phil. 'I've told you everything you need to know. It's up to you to rise to the occasion. Don't disappoint me.'
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So, from just this, the situation doesn't seem to be quite as grim as him just wanting to maintain power over her. Certainly not ideal, and hard to get a read on as ever, but at the very least he doesn't seem like he'd be too broken up if she got free... just, don't expect him to actually help with her getting free unless he has some ulterior motive.

Whether this affects your votes or not I guess will probably depend a lot on your opinion on metagaming/Divine Insight stuff. I'm sticking with my vote from before, though.
 
x_lksk said:
So, from just this, the situation doesn't seem to be quite as grim as him just wanting to maintain power over her.
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To argue the contrary position, that could have just been Prentigold posturing to present himself in a good light to his students. He wouldn't want a bunch of students causing trouble by trying to free Green Flame.
 
x_lksk said:
Whether this affects your votes or not I guess will probably depend a lot on your opinion on metagaming/Divine Insight stuff. I'm sticking with my vote from before, though.
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I say it about once every other update, but I really need to reread School of Sorcery so that it all sinks in.

More than that, I had forgotten what we're doing here and who we were playing. I need to rewrite my vote, to better reflect Elys. Why are we being evasive? All that's gotten us is suspicion, because he can tell we're being evasive, he doesn't know us very well, and we could potentially prova a problem for him, if we so chose.

[x] I need two things from you, headmaster:
-[x] First, it needn't be now, but from the way you spoke earlier, at least some of the people, like perhaps the Imperial Legion, or Isolia's sponsor, would object to being supplanted as financial supporters, or for their students to have other financial support available to choose from. Please tell me about anyone you think would try to stop Mishrak from starting this program, if they knew about it.
-[x] Second, through Cadre 1F, I also met Green Flame. I want to invite her and her students to a dinner party, because they helped me and we're friends now, but she can't come, because she can't go too far from the school. Could you fix that?
 
Adhoc vote count started by Chandagnac on Nov 27, 2021 at 6:31 AM, finished with 18 posts and 6 votes.
  • [X] Your insight seems sound, thank you for it and I'll consider it.
    -[X] Perhaps my perspective as a princess limited my understanding of hardship, especially as regarding cadre 1f, but that doesn't make alleviating hardship outside of my interests.
    --[X] From you, I want a list of students that would be otherwise forced to drop out of classes due to injury. As you have pointed out, many interests make use of magical education. A program limited to students already partially educated but who would otherwise drop out would likely be of appropriate testing size and politically innocuous.
    [x] I need two things from you, headmaster:
    -[x] First, it needn't be now, but from the way you spoke earlier, at least some of the people, like perhaps the Imperial Legion, or Isolia's sponsor, would object to being supplanted as financial supporters, or for their students to have other financial support available to choose from. Please tell me about anyone you think would try to stop Mishrak from starting this program, if they knew about it.
    -[x] Second, through Cadre 1F, I also met Green Flame. She's a good teacher, but I noticed that she's hampered in her teaching by commands placed on her. Could you re-evaluate which commands she's under are absolutely necessary, which are just unexamined artifacts of previous administrations, and adjust what she's required to do accordingly?
    [x] I need two things from you, headmaster:
    -[x] First, it needn't be now, but from the way you spoke earlier, at least some of the people, like perhaps the Imperial Legion, or Isolia's sponsor, would object to being supplanted as financial supporters, or for their students to have other financial support available to choose from. Please tell me about anyone you think would try to stop Mishrak from starting this program, if they knew about it.
    -[x] Second, through Cadre 1F, I also met Green Flame. She's a good teacher, but I noticed that she's hampered in her teaching by commands placed on her. Could you re-evaluate which commands she's under are absolutely necessary, which are just unexamined artifacts of previous administrations, and adjust what she's required to do accordingly?
    --[x] For instance, the rule preventing her from traveling twenty-seven miles away from the Tyrepheum Academy without being incapacitated could be reworked; it's both an obvious glaring weakness that could be exploited, and it prevents her from assisting her pupils in certain circumstances.
    ---[x] If you are hesitant to remove the rule completely, maybe you could add in a time limit of some sort? Say, two full days outside the radius before she is incapacitated?
    [x] I need two things from you, headmaster:
    -[x] First, it needn't be now, but from the way you spoke earlier, at least some of the people, like perhaps the Imperial Legion, or Isolia's sponsor, would object to being supplanted as financial supporters, or for their students to have other financial support available to choose from. Please tell me about anyone you think would try to stop Mishrak from starting this program, if they knew about it.
    -[x] Second, through Cadre 1F, I also met Green Flame. I want to invite her and her students to a dinner party, because they helped me and we're friends now, but she can't come, because she can't go too far from the school. Could you fix that?
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Okay, kinda confusing... o_O

It seems like exactly half of the votes want to ask Prentigold how to loosen Green Flame's bindings, whereas the other half haven't mentioned it.

I want to update, but I feel like this is an important choice: do you want to ask Prentigold if he will let Green Flame come to your dinner party or not?
 
Yes, ask Prentigold if he will let Green Flame come to your dinner party. No clue if it will help, but at least we tried.
 
Yes. I think backing out now would just make him suspicious and annoyed, making it harder to do again in the future. Yeah, this did go significantly off the rails... but I'm feeling like "Yes" right now would be the best way to salvage it.
 
I mean, we are going to ask for advice and a list of students. We're just going to avoid anything that might bring down more heat on Cadre 1F or reveal anything about our plans to free Green Flame from slavery.
 
Definitely yes. I feel like that's what Elys would do, and part of the reason this went so poorly is because we were being evasive and putting up a front to someone who can apparantly sense BS. Maybe that's just a schoolteacher power or something, but the more we've tried to hide, the more he's seen through us.
 
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Acknowledgements
  • Informational
    • All right, three people have said that Elys should ask Prentigold to let Green Flame come to her dinner party, two people have argued against that, I suspect Tascion would say 'no' as well, and I don't think anyone else is still participating in this.

    I dunno. I feel like the Hedge-maze-verse experiment has run its course, I've lost almost all of the readers I ever had, and maybe it's time to call it quits. It takes up a lot of my time, time I could be using to do something more lucrative, or that I could use to write something else that people might actually enjoy. :(

    My thanks go to x_lksk, without whose inquiries I probably wouldn't have bothered coming back to the Hedge-maze-verse at all after I lost interest in School of Sorcery.

    Thanks to Zam, whose friendship and encouragement I have been able to rely on for more than a decade.

    Thanks to Indivisible, who has been an enthusiastic participant in all of my more recent quests and whose comments I've enjoyed.

    Thanks to Tascion, who was one of my favourite participants in Tinpot Princess and School of Sorcery, so I'm grateful he came back for this.

    Thanks to prof_Chemical for some interesting and thought-provoking discussion.

    Thanks to Nevill, without whom I probably never would have finished Sorry, Your Time-Traveling Privileges Have Been Revoked, and whose participation I've enjoyed in all of my quests, even if it seems like he's dropped out of this in recent weeks.

    And thanks to Flashkannon, whom I've very much enjoyed conversing with and whose detailed comments I always look forward to reading.

    Thank you all, every one.


    I'm not saying that I'm going to abandon this right here and right now. It's just that I'm at a low ebb right now. I just don't feel like updating, especially since there is no consensus as to what Elys should do next. And the Winterfest User Choice Awards (which seem designed to show off quests and fics that are several hundred times more popular than anything I've ever written) aren't helping.

    Yes, I'm jealous and lazy and a generally unpleasant person. Tell me something I don't already know.
     
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  • Informational
    • Chandagnac said:
    And the Winterfest User Choice Awards (which seem designed to show off quests and fics that are several hundred times more popular than anything I've ever written) aren't helping.
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    Deeply ironic that you say this less then two hours after Tinpot Princess received a vote for best original quest in the nomination thread. It's not going to win the category, you're up against some real titans, but at least people know you exist right?

    I'll freely admit I usually don't vote in this thread, but I don't vote in many of the more popular threads that I follow either so meh.

    Anyway, I will say that it has been fun and, while you may not have been able to pull in the consistent readership you wanted, you've written some genuinely good stuff and I appreciate the effort you've put into it so far. I hope that whatever you go on to next works out better for you.
     
    I appreciate what you write, but you should take care of yourself first and foremost. If you need a break then take a break and if you need to stop then stop. Thank you for all of the time you've spent on this and for sharing the world you've made with us.
     
    come back whenever you want. and remember to take care of yourself. thanks for all the updates, time and energy you put in. reading your quests was a worthwhile journey, and if i ever write anything divinity related it will be a huge influence.
     
    It hurt to read that, but I do get it; I struggle with chronic depression too (just in the past week, there have been a couple days when I just laid in bed for hours even after I woke up, partly because I couldn't find the motivation to get up, and partly out of self loathing for missed opportunities and stuff). And even without depression, burnout is definitely a thing, for everyone. You are far from the only quest maker on this site to have this sort of problem, the authors of several more popular quests have gone on months long hiatuses as well, because of their own personal issues. Kei, author of On the Road to Elspar, suddenly disappeared for a couple months because of mental health reasons, and just came back recently, clearly still struggling. Pusakuronu, author of Dungeon Keeper Ami, put their writing on hold half a year ago now because of a personal crisis, giving a couple short updates on their situation since then, and still isn't back. So, yeah, take a step back Chandagnac, take a break. Do something else for a bit. Helping yourself will help the stories you write, too. I just hope this comes back off of hiatus eventually, even if it is months and months from now.
     
    Hm. I'm never quite sure what to say on these occasions, but as always, I will hold out hope. Do what you gotta do, Chandagnac, I have and will continue to greatly enjoy your works and writing. Thank you for sharing your time and ideas with us readers.
    ♥️
     
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