Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
GW: "A Vicarius has a vote in the High Council when they aren't one of the Triumverate."
Me: "Okay, so how many people are there on the High Council?"
GW: "One for each Major House."
Me: "...and how many is that?"
GW: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

THAT KIND OF MATTERS A LOT. DON'T TELL ME THAT THESE FUCKERS HAVE 1/Nth OF THE LEGISTLATIVE POWER OF TOR LITHANEL AND THEN REFUSE TO GIVE A FIGURE FOR N.
 
GW: "A Vicarius has a vote in the High Council when they aren't one of the Triumverate."
Me: "Okay, so how many people are there on the High Council?"
GW: "One for each Major House."
Me: "...and how many is that?"
GW: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

THAT KIND OF MATTERS A LOT. DON'T TELL ME THAT THESE FUCKERS HAVE 1/Nth OF THE LEGISTLATIVE POWER OF TOR LITHANEL AND THEN REFUSE TO GIVE A FIGURE FOR N.
Here we see yet another example of a QM lost to the throes of madness over the incoherent world building of the IP they follow. A common sight in many circles, and always a sign of great commitment or utter madness, many times both.

...Why is it called
Kraka why in god's name is it Kraka, like a goddamn writer wanted a more exotic word, I already have like five words for 'mountain' you bastards give me a goddamn break. I need answers, I need pictures of SPIDER- dwarf linguistic charts.
 
Last edited:
GW: "A Vicarius has a vote in the High Council when they aren't one of the Triumverate."
Me: "Okay, so how many people are there on the High Council?"
GW: "One for each Major House."
Me: "...and how many is that?"
GW: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

THAT KIND OF MATTERS A LOT. DON'T TELL ME THAT THESE FUCKERS HAVE 1/Nth OF THE LEGISTLATIVE POWER OF TOR LITHANEL AND THEN REFUSE TO GIVE A FIGURE FOR N.
While it isn't anything near a hard canon number, GW does seem to like between 10 and 13 as numbers for significant political groups. The Skaven have a council of 13, there are 12 Wood Elf Realms, 10 Kingdoms of Ulthuan, 10 provinces of the Empire, and 13 Dukedoms of Bretonnia. So based in precedent, probably something around that number?

Of course I don't have the books on Laurelorn, so there might be details in that making 10-13 an impossible number for the reality on the ground.
 
Part this, part wanting a break from screaming "WHAT IS A MAJOR HOUSE AND HOW MANY OF THEM ARE THERE" at an uncaring sky.
Major house = the largest house in a walled compound.
minor house= one of the houses in a compound for extended family or retainers.
Walled compounds: wealthy families and their retainers would live together in compounds for protection from other rival families.

The major house became the byword for the most powerful family of a clan/extended family/dynasty in a town or city because as the most powerful family they would live in the largest house. while less rich or powerful cousin and retainers would live in the minor houses. this terminology stayed even after families started spreading out of compounds in towns and cities.

so the Major house is the main family and their retailers, while the minor houses are cousin and their retainers, or retaniers that are liked/powerful enough to be 'adopted into the 'family'.

so a town with one Major house, would have one powerful family in change, but if you went into a town or city and there is 'a lot' of 'major' houses, what that means is that a bunch of families and their allies are fighting, directly or indirectly, for control


edit: @BoneyM so if we use the oldest concept of 'Major house'... one for every 'Compound/clan/District

don't know if that helps.... but its something?
 
Last edited:
GW: "A Vicarius has a vote in the High Council when they aren't one of the Triumverate."
Me: "Okay, so how many people are there on the High Council?"
GW: "One for each Major House."
Me: "...and how many is that?"
GW: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

THAT KIND OF MATTERS A LOT. DON'T TELL ME THAT THESE FUCKERS HAVE 1/Nth OF THE LEGISTLATIVE POWER OF TOR LITHANEL AND THEN REFUSE TO GIVE A FIGURE FOR N.
"Okay so wait a second. The Archecclesiatium runs the cult of Myrmidia?"

"Yes."

"And La Aquila Ultima is the head of the Cult as well?

"Yes."

"So how does that work?"

"...The highest position in the Empire is the Eagle of the North, who is currently based in Nuln, and commands the Northern Regiment of the Order of the Eagle..."

"Hm, yes, because when I am looking at the goddess of the Southern Realms what I really want is how it is in the Empire-- NO! WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?"
 
AlwaysHasBeen.gif
It all depends which army book you appear in, and how much the writer of the day likes you. The Haupt-Andersens appeared in a Vampire splat book, and got repeatedly stomped in a side bar for the vampire thrall model. In that book, they run a conspiracy that goes to the highest echelons of power, and can snare even Grey Wizards.

Of course, it mustn't have worked well enough in drumming up sales, or a new guy in charge really hated vampires, because they decided to stomp them right to hell in the next splat. There, you have a journeyman wizard repeatedly beat the vampires in their shadow games on her lonesome, where previously the whole Grey Order was basically helpless. Then super wizard and the new Elector Count, a Witch Hunter (notice anything with that?) and descendant of Frederik van Hal (aka the guy who fucked up Sylvania in the first place) team up and tear down Castle Drakenhof. Most of the fanbase expects them to just flat out drop Vampires as a main line army, because where do you go from there?

That's a rhetorical question, by the way. The next book, a dwarfen splat for the new K8P subfaction, mentions the ECs daughter proceeded to stomp on the vampires some more, since they apparently wanted to make their position on vampire fans clear.

Because I'm already ranting, do you know why we know this, since it's from a dwaf book, but involves no dwarfs? Because super wizard (now a magister) is one of their lords (yes, one of three lords in a dwarf army book is a wizard. Surely that's completely sane and not at all lore breaking), and it's mentioned how she likes to show up for some vampire dunking now and then. In between casually conquering Karak-bloody-Eight-Peaks (and it is casually, since they make it a point to mention how quick and bloodless the whole thing goes down, especially the final battle she commands. Because that makes sense, but then they did the same for Drakenhof), building magical superweapons (yes, in a dwarfhold), and destroying million+ Waaghs with magical superweapons. You can't make that shit up (unless your GW, I guess).

I haven't even mentioned all of it. She's also super rich and best friends with the Empress (a former Haupt-Andersen, just to really drive the point home, and then that little extra bit further). That isn't the end of it either (bloody pseudo runefangs), but I don't want to be sued for reprinting copyrighted material.

At this point, the only way we'll get a vampire army book is if they decide she's a secret mega necromancer for some reason that would surely make total sense. No, I'm not bitter about my favorite army getting kicked to the curb in the lore. Incidentally, anyone want to buy some models?

Well, Elfs are slated for the next book, so hopefully we'll get a reprieve there. I'd say they can't shoehorn Ms Perfect into those when she's palling around with dwarfs, but that would feel too much like tempting fate.
 
Major house = the largest house in a walled compound.
minor house= one of the houses in a compound for extended family or retainers.
Walled compounds: wealthy families and their retainers could like together in compounds for protection from other rival families.

The major house became the byword for the most powerful family of a clan/extended family/dynasty in a town or city because as the most powerful family they would live in the largest house. while less rich or powerful cousin and retainers would live in the minor houses. this terminology stayed even after families started spreading out of compounds in towns and cities.

so the Major house is the main family and their retailers, while the minor houses are cousin and their retainers, or retaniers that are liked/powerful enough to be 'adopted into the 'family'.

so a town with one Major house, would have one powerful family in change, but if you went into a town or city and there is 'a lot' of 'major' houses, what that means is that a bunch of families and their allies are fighting, directly or indirectly, for control


edit: @BoneyM so if we use the oldest concept of 'Major house'... one for every 'Compound/clan/District

don't know if that helps.... but its something?

It's a very logical reading of it but it doesn't really work with the given facts of Tor Lithanel. I think whoever made the lore just said "Major House is a fantasy-y way of saying 'influential family', right?" and went with that. It's not really a roadblock though, just a lot of behind-the-scenes work that needs to be done.
 
It's a very logical reading of it but it doesn't really work with the given facts of Tor Lithanel. I think whoever made the lore just said "Major House is a fantasy-y way of saying 'influential family', right?" and went with that. It's not really a roadblock though, just a lot of behind-the-scenes work that needs to be done.
If I was in your shoes and was trying to make it easier for myself, I would roll dice for how many 'Major houses' are on the high council (at the moment)

we know that the three 'outer wards' have 3-4. (9-12)

and making an assumption that is common to politics: that the ward of the sun, as the most powerful would not want to be out voted easily by an alliance of the outer wards, would need numbers that can on average compete with all of them.

The Ward of the Sun: 2d4+2

edit: well... she did say one of the major families just died out...
Jyn Ryvia threw 2 4-faced dice. Total: 2
1 1 1 1
 
Last edited:
If I was in your shoes and was trying to make it easier for myself, I would roll dice for how many 'Major houses' are on the high council (at the moment)

we know that the three 'outer wards' have 3-4. (9-12)

and making an assumption that is common to politics: that the ward of the sun, as the most powerful would not want to be out voted easily by an alliance of the outer wards, would need numbers that can on average compete with all of them.

The Ward of the Sun: 2d4+2

edit: well... she did say one of the major families just died out...

The High Council is explicitly only made up of Major Houses from Tor Lithanel. The only way for someone from outside those families, or outside of Tor Lithanel entirely, to get a seat on the High Council is to be the Vicarius in charge of an entire Ward. Laurelorn society is kiiiind of stratified.
 
In the 1400s, egged on by Skaven and Daemons, a man named Jaffar reunited most of Araby by force, named himself the new Grand Sultan, and launched an invasion of Tilea from Sartosa. At this time Bretonnia is only a few centuries old and the Empire is in the early stages of the Time of Three Emperors, and both look up from their internal conflicts to send forces to defend Tilea and, when it is freed, to retaliate. In Araby the Crusaders are met by a rebellion against Jaffar's rule and the two forces join sides to wrest Araby from Jaffar's control, one city at a time.
Just clarifying, but did you change things so that Jaffar invaded Tilea(which would have been one hell of a meat grinder considering how fortified Tilean city-states are and how many mercenary armies are based in that peninsula), or is that a typo and you meant Estalia like in the lore?
 
Okay I'm getting in on this now, the laurelorn elves (from what I can find on wiki's)are fine with exiling anyone who basically talks about their culture at all but somehow tries to maintain diplomatic relations with the empire?

How does that work exactly, if they want someone to leave a specific area do they just call it ''west part of laurelorn'' if they want their forces to work together with empire forces ever do they not say kithbands but like ''these unnamed elves will join you''

Or what, does anyone have any idea how that is supposed to work?

Or do they secretly have exiles do all the talking, execpt that wouldn't make any sense?
 
Clearly the elves consider the question of how many major houses there are and who is in them to be a terribly embarrassing one, as having the need to ask something both so vital and so common displays a complete lack of either basic preparation or political savvy.

This has lead to no one knowing how many major houses there are or who is in them, not even the people who are.
 
GW: "A Vicarius has a vote in the High Council when they aren't one of the Triumverate."
Me: "Okay, so how many people are there on the High Council?"
GW: "One for each Major House."
Me: "...and how many is that?"
GW: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

THAT KIND OF MATTERS A LOT. DON'T TELL ME THAT THESE FUCKERS HAVE 1/Nth OF THE LEGISTLATIVE POWER OF TOR LITHANEL AND THEN REFUSE TO GIVE A FIGURE FOR N.
...Are you ok Boney? Because it's not often you go full caps.
 
The Araby lore is really cool. I was wondering why there was crusader states in it in Total Warhammer 2. They seemed out of place, but this helps put it in more context. I like it.
 
Even they wouldn't want to deal with that mess. :V
COunterpoint ITS ACTUALLY WORSE
Disney owns:
Marvel. The edgy rival to DC's Cheesecake.
Starwars. The family friendly space opera for the whole family.

WB: Owns
DC Superheros: Cheese cake superheros! The world isn't quite as divided.
-INSERT SPACETHING HERE!

Warner Brothers is going to buy WH movie rights!
Games Workshop is stomping on WH40k videos because WB is insanely anti fans!
I remember what they did to the Middle Earth Oblivion/Skyrim project!

The grimdark is real!
 
Last edited:
Warner Brothers has gotten to a point where it owns what looks like 100 or more networks (and presumably the thousands of products made for them)and a football team, I would be surprised if even their best accountants actually knew every single thing they own with complete certainty.

If they grab Warhammer I fear either we would see endless terrifying crossovers or simply a disappearance of the whole thing.

EDIT: Since they own Roosterteeth that means they own Red Vs Blue right?
Can that count as the sci- fi thing?
 
Last edited:
-INSERT SPACETHING HERE!
Can that count as the sci- fi thing?
WB does own a "space thing"--the TV rights to Babylon 5 are still with them. It's why Straczynski says that a B5 movie will never be made for the big screen, even though he owns the film rights--WB will almost certainly want to stick their oar in if he tries to make it.

Anyway, this is getting a little too far afield from WHF and this thread in particular.
 
COunterpoint ITS ACTUALLY WORSE
Disney owns:
Marvel. The edgy rival to DC's Cheesecake.
Starwars. The family friendly space opera for the whole family.

WB: Owns
DC Superheros: Cheese cake superheros! The world isn't quite as divided.
-INSERT SPACETHING HERE!

Warner Brothers is going to buy WH movie rights!
Games Workshop is stomping on WH40k videos because WB is insanely anti fans!
I remember what they did to the Middle Earth Oblivion/Skyrim project!

The grimdark is real!
Derp. The correct term is grimderp. :V
 
Back
Top