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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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fictionfan said:
It just that most elves are older than shakespeare would be if he was still alive today and their language has a similar amount of linguistics drift as ours has, but unlike our languages the old meanings don't go away.

For example Mathilde means "battle mighty weaver". But if we manage to get enough rep with the elves that word is likely to take on new meanings. With elves of the future saying "You are such a Mathilde".
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Eltharin sounds like a beautiful and endlessly complex language, but what's really going on is that it's a relatively normal language loaded up with several millenia of slang used all at once :V
 
@Boney I have a possible action proposal for next turn's actions, and want to see if it's viable:

I assume Max hasn't spent enough time in Laurelorn to build a blacksmith workshop for himself, and I want to inquire on the possibility of having him be introduced into the local blacksmith scene. I'm assuming that particular field is dominated by whatever Major House dominates the worship of Vaul, and anything Max can scrounge up on the house in his exploration while building his workshop would be helpful. Maybe he can get himself into a Kithband dedicated to smithing if the elves in question are openminded enough.

I say all this, but honestly I don't have high hopes for Max. Poor guy still has 7 Diplo.
 
fictionfan said:
For example Mathilde means "battle mighty weaver". But if we manage to get enough rep with the elves that word is likely to take on new meanings of sneakiness. With elves of the future saying "You are such a Mathilde".
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That's the IRL and therefore Reikspiel etymology of 'Mathilde Weber'. Converting it into Eltharin requires and allows for a bit more creativity - Asarnil went with it as a shortening of 'Malavoi Ithil' to mean 'Silver Savage', which is a good example of the kind of name-punnery that Elves use on those they see as their peers - it has shades of her as a human, as a Wizard, as a swordswoman, and her association with Karak Eight Peaks. It'd be a nightmare to try to do something with 'Weber' because Eltharin doesn't really have W or B.

Codex said:
@Boney I have a possible action proposal for next turn's actions, and want to see if it's viable:

I assume Max hasn't spent enough time in Laurelorn to build a blacksmith workshop for himself, and I want to inquire on the possibility of having him be introduced into the local blacksmith scene. I'm assuming that particular field is dominated by whatever Major House dominates the worship of Vaul, and anything Max can scrounge up on the house in his exploration while building his workshop would be helpful. Maybe he can get himself into a Kithband dedicated to smithing if the elves in question are openminded enough.

I say all this, but honestly I don't have high hopes for Max. Poor guy still has 7 Diplo.
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Sure, this would be viable. Remind me if I forget to add it.
 
Execute/Dumbo said:
Eltharin sounds like a beautiful and endlessly complex language, but what's really going on is that it's a relatively normal language loaded up with several millenia of slang used all at once :V
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If the Dwarfs didn't fight against slang so hard the same thing would have happened to them.

It is a very good thing that we picked Polyglot because well Mathilde might have thought she spoke Eltharin, native fluent Eltharin is more like a dozen languages pretending to be one.
 
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Boney said:
On further thought, I suppose if you mangle it into Wee-dar you could go with 'Yenlui Daroir' as 'Dwarf-friend', or 'Yenlui Darlioth' to mean 'sees opportunity in disorder'.
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'Malavoi Ithil Yenlui Darlioth'. Silver Savage who sees opportunity in disorder.

Sounds quite uncharitable when translated.
 
@Boney, if you don't mind answering, narrative question: Queen Marrisith met Mathilde in the woods alone, without any guard detail?

I'm asking because in does not seem that prudent in general. When Mathilde met Luitpold, there were greatswords around the palace and it was in the presence of Dragomas and Algard, who presumably could stop anything untoward Mathilde could try, and Belegar always has a detail of Hammerers when he is in public; when we met with Marrisith the first time, she had Kadoh around and I could imagine some guards were outside, but in the forest for a time she had no one to rely on in case Mathilde tried something. No kind of royal guards or something?

Now of course she probably is quite capable combatant herself and has enough of enchanted items both for defense and offense, maybe even a teleport away failsafe, but why invite opportunity? Or was there something more esoteric, like invisible guards, or bound spirit guardians or something special about the place they met only she could control, and Mathilde hadn't noticed? Or does Marrisith judge the risk acceptable, and doesn't want to lose this time she can be less Queen and more herself?
 
myrix said:
@Boney, if you don't mind answering, narrative question: Queen Marrisith met Mathilde in the woods alone, without any guard detail?

I'm asking because in does not seem that prudent in general. When Mathilde met Luitpold, there were greatswords around the palace and it was in the presence of Dragomas and Algard, who presumably could stop anything untoward Mathilde could try, and Belegar always has a detail of Hammerers when he is in public; when we met with Marrisith the first time, she had Kadoh around and I could imagine some guards were outside, but in the forest for a time she had no one to rely on in case Mathilde tried something. No kind of royal guards or something?

Now of course she probably is quite capable combatant herself and has enough of enchanted items both for defense and offense, maybe even a teleport away failsafe, but why invite opportunity? Or was there something more esoteric, like invisible guards, or bound spirit guardians or something special about the place they met only she could control, and Mathilde hadn't noticed? Or does Marrisith judge the risk acceptable, and doesn't want to lose this time she can be less Queen and more herself?
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Marrisith met Mathilde in the part of Laurelorn that is completely under the power of the Grey Lords, who are best known for obliterating an entire Dwarven Throng.
 
Boney said:
Marrisith met Mathilde in the part of Laurelorn that is completely under the power of the Grey Lords, who are best known for obliterating an entire Dwarven Throng.
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Eh, there is always a chance would-be assassin would do something fast and unexpected and catch you off guard, but yeah, understandable.
 
myrix said:
Eh, there is always a chance would-be assassin would do something fast and unexpected and catch you off guard, but yeah, understandable.
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There's not a whole lot that can be done against a theoretical assassin that is willing to spend a lifetime serving the forces of good just to get a shot at their target, and is willing to die to take that shot.
 
I found some art of the soldiers of the empire. I don't know if it's supposed to be representative , but the Stirland soldier is clearly a guy in his work clothes, holding a stick with nails in, while everyone else gets suits of armor, trendy clothes , and all kinds of cool weapons.

 
Phalfpipe said:
I found some art of the soldiers of the empire. I don't know if it's supposed to be representative , but the Stirland soldier is clearly a guy in his work clothes, holding a stick with nails in, while everyone else gets suits of armor, trendy clothes , and all kinds of cool weapons.

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Holy crap, that much shorter?
Makes the identification of tribe much less impressive.
 
Boney said:
There's not a whole lot that can be done against a theoretical assassin that is willing to spend a lifetime serving the forces of good just to get a shot at their target, and is willing to die to take that shot.
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And the Grey Lords might even have the prophecy/precog chops to be able to detect that coming and deal with it, I suppose. A largely Azyr high magic spell could well allow some pretty good divinations within a situation like this with few variables.
 
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Alratan said:
And the Grey Lords might even have the prophecy/precog chops to be able to detect that coming and deal with it, I suppose. A largely Azyr high magic spell could we'll allow some pretty good divinations within a situation like this with few variables.
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Especially if they put some Hysh in it, to reveal hiding foes.
 
You know the more I read about the Grey Lords the more I suspect that Dwarf Throng was 'destroyed' by having them march unwittingly into the Dreaming Woods and then left to starve and go mad. Whatever runesmiths they had with them would not be very good at dealing with subtle magic that was all around it, I mean it's not like they could dispel the whole realm. If my guess is true there might be an army worth of War of Vengeance Dwarf equipment in the possession of the Grey Lords, though I am not sure if there is a diplomatic way to ask about that.
 
Googling about Grey Lords is fun. First you find the Skaven ones, but then you find out the Elven ones are basically former dragon riders who were exiled for making an artifact of great power... used to enslave Dragons.

Why are they even named Grey Lords...
 
Whassup said:
Googling about Grey Lords is fun. First you find the Skaven ones, but then you find out the Elven ones are basically former dragon riders who were exiled for making an artifact of great power... used to enslave Dragons.

Why are they even named Grey Lords...
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So I checked out the sources of the wiki, and there are apparently two sources to keep in mind here.

The first is 4th Edition WFRP, which Boney isn't taking verbatim but acquiring informaiton from to build the base of the Eonir and Laurelorn. This is the source that is most reliable for information on the Eonir, but it still shouldn't be taken as canon to DL instantly.

The second source here that mentions that the Grey Lords were banished for making the Fell Fangs, Dragon mind control devices, is from a different source. It's from a novel called "Brunner the Bounty Hunter", focusing on an Old World Dog of War mercenary. I don't know if it's a Black Library book or much about its origins, but considering it's a novel it's generally not assumed to be canon unless Boney says outright that it is. I have no idea whether Boney has read that book or is willing to use the lore from it.

Boney has generally been quite vague about the Grey Lords. The wiki mentions something about "the Grey Lords summoning a Spirit Army" in the wiki, but Boney doesn't specify anything other than the disappearance of the throng. The reason for the Grey Lord's exile is also not given in DL, so there is no guarantee they were exiled for mind controlling dragons here.
 
I wonder if these guys are the original Grey Lords - so over 3500 years old - possibly well over if they were good enough to yeet a smallish Dawi army... or if they're the original Grey Lord apprentices or something (so still very old but not quite in the same age bracket as Malekith).
 
Zero Gravitas said:
I wonder if these guys are the original Grey Lords - so over 3500 years old - possibly well over if they were good enough to yeet a smallish Dawi army... or if they're the original Grey Lord apprentices or something (so still very old but not quite in the same age bracket as Malekith).
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Malekith is around 7000 years old. Even assuming these people were the original Grey Lords, they'd still be somewhere between 2000-3000 years younger than him. That's still a significant gap.

Very few people match Malekith and Morathi's age. The Grey Lords would be in roughly the same age bracket as Khatep I believe (well, he'd be a couple hundred years younger, but closer in age than Malekith).

EDIT: I got my calcs wrong, there is in fact a chance that Khatep is older than the Grey Lords, since he's the first guy who figured out immortality in Nehekhara sometime after -2350 IC. Or maybe just the same age.
 
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Andres110 said:
How does looting ancient forgotten runic secrets work, by the by? I know runesmiths don't write down their knowledge. Is it simply a matter of finding runes and copying them?
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Well, in Lure of the Lich Lord, which had an entry on dwarf Rune Guardians as a possible tomb encounter, said that Runesmiths would consider an intact and still active example to be almost priceless, because it would let them study and learn to recreate the Master Rune of Awakening that is on it. So presumably that is the case.
 
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