Sorry, as a card-carrying member of the Necromancy faction I am contractually obligated to not let things die. It's why I haven't stopped harping on Hysh Users exploding even after Horstmann and his party stabbed a Higher Daemon.
In my eyes, the shape of the sea being an elf construct rather than a natural feature makes it more likely to be linked to Asuryan, not less.
I'd argue it's less likely, because it means there's no argument of "Asuryan put it there, it must be linked to him". Whereas "This is the optimal shape for the Vortex to work" is a pretty good reason, without bringing religion into it. Indeed, until you'd brought it up, I'd always assumed that the islands were that shape because it looks like the center of a stylised whirlpool.
Could have been even more casual than that. Something like "past a ring of waystones the trees turn darker and coniferous. That's the edges of the Dreaming Wood" or something like that. Mathilde said that she learnt this information from artists, and she was making conversation with them by complimenting their work and asking about their fields of interest. I imagine some of them would be the type to go on long descriptions about how vibrant and spiky the tree's needles are.
Her mannerisms do strike me as that of a relatively young elf, particularly her confusion over a few things and the tangents she goes on. Maybe she sees talking to Mathilde as a way to shed the "layers" of protective casing she puts on herself on her duty of ruling and be a child again, since Mathilde is pretty young. Maybe she feels the kinship of a person with a great responsibility dumped on them and having to act like she knows what she's doing even though she doesn't, and trying her best to make it work and change things.
I think that is far to much projecting what we want from her, rather than what she has shown.
I think it's cute that she's jumping up and down over the corpses of her political opponents. I could stand to see more of that.
I'm just pointing out that 'Maybe she feels the kinship of a person[Mathy]' is assuming a lot from a handful of interactions
Hey, most of them had nothing to do with that. Rag on Sigmar and Ranald all you like—even if the latter at least showed up—but the others weren't even called.
The Lords Thanan for one seem like they might have at least a couple of projects requiring the border between night and day.
You do realize that we might be next on the chopping block? We're being middle management for a woman who in a move that makes a hostile takeover look like smalltime, turned a families' ancestral home and seat of power into a proverbial doghouse. I'm not loosing my cool and I'm grateful for the support, but her willing and able to play that fast and hard does not bode well for our ability to run interference for the Waystone Project.
and that's to far the other way, maybe that is totally how politics works here, and she would have seem weak if she didn't do something like that,
First, the word "Kinship" as I use here means a "sharing of characteristics or origins". You do not need to be close to a person at all to feel kinship with them.
There is no "chopping block". Marrisith didn't execute House Elwynn for being political dissidents, she took advantage of their fortioutous death to assert her authority. There is no "hostile takeover" here, House Elwynn died and the major house became the property of the crown. As property of the crown, the Queen reserves the right to do whatever she feels with the property, including leasing it to her research partners as an olive branch. The fact that it also makes a statement is simply a positive.
not that racy.
I hope so, for I am not enthusiastic about negotiating with someone who can play the game better than we can, in their home territory.
She could have just bought up a couple of studios for us to use, but she went through all the trouble of stomping on their grave in a humiliating manner. I'm grateful for the space, but I'm not going to think that she will have compunctions against twisting our arms if it suits her interests.
It's a house not a grave. It's her property after their death. DId you somehow miss how "crowded" the city is? She can't just rent a few studios because they all belong to the other Major Houses. If she rented their space, she'd be putting the project under their hands and getting us involved in the local politics of that House in particular.
The House in question favored isolation and voted against contact with foreigners. Upon their deaths, she dabbed on their graves and turned it into a meeting place for project of foreigners of all shapes and stripes. A strong political symbol, but incredibly ruthless. It's clear that she did not like those people. But the place isn't the point. The point is that she won't hesitate to apply pressure from her position of authority, and we'll be on the back foot in negotiations with her.
I'll be incredibly honest, I have no idea what's so ruthless about settling in the house of dead isolationists. I have no idea where you're connecting the dots here. She made the house our research space, so that means she's the type of person who will apply position from a position of authority? How do these things relate? What even gave you that idea from the interactions we had with her?
It's has nothing to do with the house. It's that we shouldn't slack or leeway in dealings with her. Which is to be expected, but it's still a sight to see. I don't think anyone cares about the last family, but the story will be different if she says to axe pursuit of pushing back the Chaos Wastes in favor of something else because that doesn't create enough value for the Grey Lords. Or if we need shipments from Ulthuan for a certain type of stone, or reagents to juryrig an enchantment made by Caledor Dragontamer, and we get half of what's needed and a prod to make do.
She's not a moron so she won't do anything that will kill the project, but it is under her authority, and I wouldn't be surprised if she had a lot to say about how the project should work and what goals it should have. I also wouldn't be surprised if she made us offers we couldn't refuse regarding it's direction.
