Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
You know, I hadn't thought about it, but he could totally be a candidate for the Everchosen Bracket.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's what inspired me to write it. Most everchosen are beefed up warriors with magical abilities that are just conveniently given to them by the Gods. I wanted to explore an Everchosen candidate who is magic focused and is fairly squishy in melee. He's also canonically Chaos, but the mechanics don't reflect it because they want Chaos and Vampire Counts to be distinct I guess.
Also, Heinrich was a pretty interesting character to explore. I enjoyed the process of writing it.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Speaking of atypical Everchosen, surprisingly few Chaos Champions in general seem to go for, well, stealth. You can have cultists doing subterfuge and infiltrating societies and armies, but for some reason you don't seem to find anyone from the tier of Chaos Warrior and up really make much use of sneaking about as an individual. Even in the context of a wargame, there's sneaky characters in other factions, like Deathmaster Sniktch.
- Location
- Leeds
Wait, so this order could be called boy joy?
Sounds like a pedo club.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
It's hard to be stealthy when you're leading the entire united forces of Chaos down south to destroy the world. Stealth doesn't really scale up that far.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sneaky characters almost always have the "A Killer, Not a Leader" special rule, which means they can never be leaders. An Everchosen has to be a leader, a commander, a general.
I wouldn't say it's impossible for a Chaos Champion to be stealth focused, but I don't think they'd be Everchosen. It's way too high profile of a position, and assassins don't want to be high profile (and before anyone says anything, Mathilde is not an assassin first and foremost. She dabbles, but she doesn't come close to Snikch or Shadowblade).
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Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
I finally got around to reading that series of omakes.
It took me a while to get used to her flowery descriptions, but once I did it was great.
Hope to hear how that fight works out for her.
deathofrats0808
Don’t think of it as dying; just as leaving early
- Location
- Earth
Stealth focused characters are a touch unusual anyway. Outside of the DE and the Skaven, I can only really think of Oxyotl and arguably Alith Anar?
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
As I understand it, it's well, cultural pressure.
Chaos Champions usually have to earn that title on piles of skulls by personally and openly killing them all, ideally with their own still steaming innards. And it's ahrd doing that as a stealth build, given Chaos isn't "stealthy" save for the cultists.
Add in that people like Warriors of Chaos, IE typically Norscan Barbarians with the rare few getting to wear full plate mail, are basically raised in a culture/environment as antithetical to stealth as one can get.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's hard to argue that any unit is truly stealth focused if it doesn't have the Hidden special rule, but that rule is so rarely given. The only units that have it which come to mind are the Skaven Assassins, the Dark Elf Khainite Assassins, and the Nasty Skulkers and Night Goblin Fanatics.
Not even Oxyotl, the badass who stealthed his way through the Realm of Chaos, has an actual stealth mechanic, because the Lizardmen for some reason don't have stealth mechanics.
The Many Faces of Ranald
So, when The Father face of the coin appeared some people speculated, mostly jokingly, as to what could be the other facets of Ranald that we are still unaware of. And that made me think about what would happen if Mathilde kept learning more about her God, and somehow I came up with an idea that wouldn't let go. This is the result of that idea. I am sorry.
The Many Faces of Ranald
You are not surprised, exactly - after all, you were already told of this, and by no less a figure than a dragon of Ulthuan. But you can't help but feel a little betrayed. Was Ranald only a mask, worn in order to trick the foolish humans? Were the elves right after all, and the God you worshipped no more than the costume of another?
Perhaps. But as the priest turns to face you, the smile on his face is not a mocking one. All men contain multitudes; the way one acts with his family is not the way one acts with his friends, which is not the way one acts with his superiors or with his subordinates. Is the Mathilde Panoramia sees the same one that Anton sees? That Belegar sees? There is no deception in that, no lie - only the simple fact that one can be many different things, and seldom all of them at once. Perhaps Gods, being so much greater than mortals, contain multitudes in a more literal sense. You give a small nod, to yourself as much as to the priest, and by the time he hands you the goblet you are smiling. This is a side of your friend that you have never seen before, but it is still that same friend, and you are happy that he is letting you see it. And so you down the wine in one gulp and join the dance.
[New face of the Coin - The Dancer: A +20 bonus to all artistic endeavors, and to diplomacy checks concerning artists and entertainers.]
---
You knew, when you first embarked on this journey, that not all faces of your God will be to your liking. And what of it? You don't like every facet of Wilhelmina either, and that doesn't make her any less of a friend. And yet, now that you know the truth, you must make a difficult choice - your duty, or your faith? The smug smile of the Sartosan captain tells you that he thinks he knows the answer. You fear he might be right.
[New face of the Coin - The Jack O' the Sea: Smugglers , pirates, and other such ne'er-do-wells will recognize you as worthy of respect and deference.]
---
You keep staring at the new face of the coin, trying in vain to find an alternative explanation, but there is none. In a way, this makes sense - you think back to the cult of Karnos, and to your theories regarding Taal's part in the matter. If a God might want to pose as his competition, perhaps he might pretend to be his own rival. And you know that some places worship Ranald as female. And really, for the most part you are not opposed to Her domains. After all, you always treasured knowledge for its own sake. Really, this is fine. Perfectly fine.
You try very hard not to think about the implications of Ranald being his own mother-in-law.
[New face of the Coin - The Scales: Lies told to you fail to deceive you. You may still be told falsehoods that the speaker believes to be true.]
---
This...does not make much sense to you. At all. And you have no idea what conclusions to draw from this regarding the myths that tell of a relationship between this God and the one you worship. But you have to admit, as you kneel down to scratch Wolf behind his ears, that the clues have been there right from the very beginning.
[New face of the Coin - The Wolf: You may communicate with wolves, and all wolves are positively inclined towards you. In addition, you become immune to the effects of cold weather.]
---
Well, there is that one myth about Ranald creating the halflings. But why this God in particular? Perhaps some things are beyond your comprehension.
[New face of the Coin - The Pipe: A +40 bonus to rolling tobacco.]
---
This...this can't be true, can it? But the more you think about it, the more plausible it seems. This explains why He found it so easy to control you, that one time, and their domains certainly have some overlap. And though you try to tell yourself this must not be true, cannot be true, that the events leading up to the reclamation of Karak Eight Peaks prove it to be false, you fail to convince yourself. After all, you know of more than one scam in which the conman pretends to have been robbed by himself.
[New face of the Coin - The Proppa Lad: A +15 bonus to rolls involving cunning, and a +5 to rolls involving brutality.]
---
This...explains the myth about Sartosa, you suppose? But...what?
[New face of the Coin - The Trident: A +20 bonus to all nautical endeavors.]
---
...what?
[New face of the Coin - The Shark: A +50 bonus to all rolls to eat priests of opposing faiths.]
---
What?
[New face of the Coin - The Daughter: A +20 bonus to all rolls regarding the Forest of Shadows.]
---
WHAT? Oh, wait, this one you pretty much figured actually.
[New face of the Coin - The Dealer: Allows you to summon a transparent limb which can only be used to move goods around. Any action taken with it, including simply stealing the goods, will cause the places where it was used to become more prosperous.]
---
You sink into your pillows and try to let yourself enjoy the moment. It's a beautiful day, Mandred's laughter and Wolf's barks mix into a strangely calming melody, and you are just the right amount of drunk. Heidi smiles at you, and you once again suppress your desire to tell her everything, to finally confide in someone, anyone. Even Wolf only knows bits and pieces, Ranald's power somehow subverting the link between you that should let you share everything. But though your faith is shaken, you will not betray your God's trust. If Heidi does not know, you will not be the one to tell her. Sometimes, you can swear that her smile seems mocking. Perhaps she does know, and this is all just a cruel joke. You push down those thoughts - nothing good ever comes of them.
Mandred suddenly runs up to you to excitedly tell you about one thing or another, so you give him a tolerant smile and put on your best listening face. Lately you've been thinking of that one heresy, the one that claims that Ranald created all things as a joke, including all other Gods. For a while you actually considered it, but you are now sure (or as sure as you can be of anything, these days) that Ranald isn't Gazul or The Great Maw. And that's something, at least. Ranald sure is a lot of Gods, but he isn't all of them. Maybe it would be easier to work by process of elimination?
Mandred has gotten louder and has begun pulling on your robes. You turn to him, and do your best to address whatever it is that he thinks is so important, and not for the first time you think to yourself that you liked him better when he couldn't talk. And yet, for all his faults, and they are many, you do feel some affection for the young man, and as you look upon his face you can't help but smile. He has his mother's mischievous eyes, and sometimes he smirks in a way that can't help but remind you of your oldest friend. At the same time, he somehow has this regal bearing about him, even at his young age. You imagine that he'll grow up to be what people imagine when they think 'Emperor'. Really, if you hadn't known it, you would have never guessed that Ranald stole...
You feel a terrible sinking feeling as the final piece of the puzzle falls into place.
You've stopped talking, and Mandred is asking you something, but you hear nothing. Your feel your coin grow warm, but you have no need to take it out. You know exactly what you'll see. 'May Ranald favour you', goes the common Ranaldite curse. You've always been favoured, haven't you? And you attributed every stroke of fortune to Him, and ignored every instance of bad luck. When everything went wrong, you didn't think to ask if he was to blame. When He failed to help you, after, you didn't blame him. Because you thought that you were different, that you were his friend. That he was laughing with you. But now, now you see, now you finally see, that this whole time...the joke was on you.
[New face of the Coin - The Hammer: Causes an ally to die by easily preventable causes.]
The Many Faces of Ranald
You are not surprised, exactly - after all, you were already told of this, and by no less a figure than a dragon of Ulthuan. But you can't help but feel a little betrayed. Was Ranald only a mask, worn in order to trick the foolish humans? Were the elves right after all, and the God you worshipped no more than the costume of another?
Perhaps. But as the priest turns to face you, the smile on his face is not a mocking one. All men contain multitudes; the way one acts with his family is not the way one acts with his friends, which is not the way one acts with his superiors or with his subordinates. Is the Mathilde Panoramia sees the same one that Anton sees? That Belegar sees? There is no deception in that, no lie - only the simple fact that one can be many different things, and seldom all of them at once. Perhaps Gods, being so much greater than mortals, contain multitudes in a more literal sense. You give a small nod, to yourself as much as to the priest, and by the time he hands you the goblet you are smiling. This is a side of your friend that you have never seen before, but it is still that same friend, and you are happy that he is letting you see it. And so you down the wine in one gulp and join the dance.
[New face of the Coin - The Dancer: A +20 bonus to all artistic endeavors, and to diplomacy checks concerning artists and entertainers.]
---
You knew, when you first embarked on this journey, that not all faces of your God will be to your liking. And what of it? You don't like every facet of Wilhelmina either, and that doesn't make her any less of a friend. And yet, now that you know the truth, you must make a difficult choice - your duty, or your faith? The smug smile of the Sartosan captain tells you that he thinks he knows the answer. You fear he might be right.
[New face of the Coin - The Jack O' the Sea: Smugglers , pirates, and other such ne'er-do-wells will recognize you as worthy of respect and deference.]
---
You keep staring at the new face of the coin, trying in vain to find an alternative explanation, but there is none. In a way, this makes sense - you think back to the cult of Karnos, and to your theories regarding Taal's part in the matter. If a God might want to pose as his competition, perhaps he might pretend to be his own rival. And you know that some places worship Ranald as female. And really, for the most part you are not opposed to Her domains. After all, you always treasured knowledge for its own sake. Really, this is fine. Perfectly fine.
You try very hard not to think about the implications of Ranald being his own mother-in-law.
[New face of the Coin - The Scales: Lies told to you fail to deceive you. You may still be told falsehoods that the speaker believes to be true.]
---
This...does not make much sense to you. At all. And you have no idea what conclusions to draw from this regarding the myths that tell of a relationship between this God and the one you worship. But you have to admit, as you kneel down to scratch Wolf behind his ears, that the clues have been there right from the very beginning.
[New face of the Coin - The Wolf: You may communicate with wolves, and all wolves are positively inclined towards you. In addition, you become immune to the effects of cold weather.]
---
Well, there is that one myth about Ranald creating the halflings. But why this God in particular? Perhaps some things are beyond your comprehension.
[New face of the Coin - The Pipe: A +40 bonus to rolling tobacco.]
---
This...this can't be true, can it? But the more you think about it, the more plausible it seems. This explains why He found it so easy to control you, that one time, and their domains certainly have some overlap. And though you try to tell yourself this must not be true, cannot be true, that the events leading up to the reclamation of Karak Eight Peaks prove it to be false, you fail to convince yourself. After all, you know of more than one scam in which the conman pretends to have been robbed by himself.
[New face of the Coin - The Proppa Lad: A +15 bonus to rolls involving cunning, and a +5 to rolls involving brutality.]
---
This...explains the myth about Sartosa, you suppose? But...what?
[New face of the Coin - The Trident: A +20 bonus to all nautical endeavors.]
---
...what?
[New face of the Coin - The Shark: A +50 bonus to all rolls to eat priests of opposing faiths.]
---
What?
[New face of the Coin - The Daughter: A +20 bonus to all rolls regarding the Forest of Shadows.]
---
WHAT? Oh, wait, this one you pretty much figured actually.
[New face of the Coin - The Dealer: Allows you to summon a transparent limb which can only be used to move goods around. Any action taken with it, including simply stealing the goods, will cause the places where it was used to become more prosperous.]
---
You sink into your pillows and try to let yourself enjoy the moment. It's a beautiful day, Mandred's laughter and Wolf's barks mix into a strangely calming melody, and you are just the right amount of drunk. Heidi smiles at you, and you once again suppress your desire to tell her everything, to finally confide in someone, anyone. Even Wolf only knows bits and pieces, Ranald's power somehow subverting the link between you that should let you share everything. But though your faith is shaken, you will not betray your God's trust. If Heidi does not know, you will not be the one to tell her. Sometimes, you can swear that her smile seems mocking. Perhaps she does know, and this is all just a cruel joke. You push down those thoughts - nothing good ever comes of them.
Mandred suddenly runs up to you to excitedly tell you about one thing or another, so you give him a tolerant smile and put on your best listening face. Lately you've been thinking of that one heresy, the one that claims that Ranald created all things as a joke, including all other Gods. For a while you actually considered it, but you are now sure (or as sure as you can be of anything, these days) that Ranald isn't Gazul or The Great Maw. And that's something, at least. Ranald sure is a lot of Gods, but he isn't all of them. Maybe it would be easier to work by process of elimination?
Mandred has gotten louder and has begun pulling on your robes. You turn to him, and do your best to address whatever it is that he thinks is so important, and not for the first time you think to yourself that you liked him better when he couldn't talk. And yet, for all his faults, and they are many, you do feel some affection for the young man, and as you look upon his face you can't help but smile. He has his mother's mischievous eyes, and sometimes he smirks in a way that can't help but remind you of your oldest friend. At the same time, he somehow has this regal bearing about him, even at his young age. You imagine that he'll grow up to be what people imagine when they think 'Emperor'. Really, if you hadn't known it, you would have never guessed that Ranald stole...
You feel a terrible sinking feeling as the final piece of the puzzle falls into place.
You've stopped talking, and Mandred is asking you something, but you hear nothing. Your feel your coin grow warm, but you have no need to take it out. You know exactly what you'll see. 'May Ranald favour you', goes the common Ranaldite curse. You've always been favoured, haven't you? And you attributed every stroke of fortune to Him, and ignored every instance of bad luck. When everything went wrong, you didn't think to ask if he was to blame. When He failed to help you, after, you didn't blame him. Because you thought that you were different, that you were his friend. That he was laughing with you. But now, now you see, now you finally see, that this whole time...the joke was on you.
[New face of the Coin - The Hammer: Causes an ally to die by easily preventable causes.]
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deathofrats0808
Don’t think of it as dying; just as leaving early
- Location
- Earth
I'd argue that you absolutely don't need the Hidden rule, that's about being undetected in a mass of people specifically. Oxyotl doesn't have it, but he does have the Chameleon special rule, which (wile lacking flavour text) is definitely representing him being hard to see.
Tasoli
Life is for Living
- Location
- Behind the Keyboard.
Surprised to see that Chaos is not four Ranalds under a coat.
Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
I'm suprised the conclusion she came to isn't that Ranald has been slowly stealing all the gods domains.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
I suspect that several gods ago the thread would have been divided between "all gods are Ranald in a trenchcoat" and "Ranald is actively fucking with us and lending his aid to endeavours that aren't actually a domain of his".
That would've been the obvious twist, but I thought of something even crueler.
What, even from His own family? Surely not.
I imagine the thread is too busy with arguments between the 'stop wasting AP on the coin' faction and the 'just one more face' faction to formulate any coherent theory.
- Location
- on the way to the fire.
- Pronouns
- He
I find your lack of faith in the thread disturbing... we are more than capable of arguing on multiple subjects without reaching a coherent theory in any of them.
Edit: also I now imagine Mathilde accuring so many faces of the coin that it's practically a book, and she has to spend a minute or two flipping the coin over and over again to reach the face she wanted that day, with grumbling about accidentally missing the face she wanted and having to browse through the whole collection again.
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Tasoli
Life is for Living
- Location
- Behind the Keyboard.
Untill she gets the Ranalad the Seeker face which works as search engine at least.
Nah, forcing her to go through endless facets is totally Ranalds humor. The order probably too
- Location
- Sweden
I don't think their friendship would survive this one to be honest. That would be a neat AU to read though, something of a bright mirror to the Black Magister AU. She looses faith but keeps to the Articles, maybe picks up a research thread to take away a gods domain too.
Think you dropped a word, but that otherwise sounds right.
I bet it wouldn't be random shuffling either. He's the type to give each configuration just enough of a pattern to torment an academic with the implication of meaningful order and then subvert it for the items Mathilde is actually likely to use to make them more frustrating to find.
Bonus points if any given configuration seems to imply something about the broader domains the faces represent, but each individual arrangement has unreconcilable differences with the rest of the set.
- Location
- The Space Between
all this talk of Brettonia has just been more fuel to the idea that The Lady of the Lake is one of the daughters of Ranald.
Steals Children
Covered in mystery and mist
Makes an extremely misogynist society, but it's in such a way that women can masquerade as men easily. In addition, it's a misogynist monarchy of men that also all worship and listen to the command of the Magocracy of Damsels of The Lady.
Green Knight tests Questing Knights to see if they're good enough men to be Grail Knights. Definitely could just be The Lady dressed up in armor.
"Peasant Revolts" get spun into Returning Rightful Heir and the commoners are then able to be raised in station by their new Lord who is "actually the rightful heir"
Points all that violence of mankind on errantry wars against the enemies of mankind, except for when they fight Araby.
The profile overlap between Shallya/Shalyak and The Lady
Mix with the profile overlap of mystery, violence, guardianship, and trickery from Ranald
Hell, the fact that they'd support winners of peasant revolts at all is excusing them of the crimes of killing tyrants by potentially falsifying noble credentials for the winner. So maybe that's some of Ranald's Death-To-Tyrants sorta vibe
It also is a nation that's younger than The Empire, which means this cult of The Lady would have started post-Sigmar. Shallya and Ranald would have been established in the lands of the Empire by that point, so they'd have plenty of time to have had a child and for that child to want to be a God. But not a "God" god, you know. Something more local. Maybe steal that western land and make something out of it I duno.
Yeah. Yeah I'm thinking The Lady is one of the daughters for sure. That weird mixture of trickery, mysticism, muddled never-clear bureaucracy combined with the tenets of Chivalry being divinely rewarded in ways that allow the virtuous to better protect the peasantry, and the land itself being blessed with healing and mercy. Just makes sense.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
anyway. The sisters are definitely Verena and Myrmidia. Just makes sense.
heh xP
Steals Children
Covered in mystery and mist
Makes an extremely misogynist society, but it's in such a way that women can masquerade as men easily. In addition, it's a misogynist monarchy of men that also all worship and listen to the command of the Magocracy of Damsels of The Lady.
Green Knight tests Questing Knights to see if they're good enough men to be Grail Knights. Definitely could just be The Lady dressed up in armor.
"Peasant Revolts" get spun into Returning Rightful Heir and the commoners are then able to be raised in station by their new Lord who is "actually the rightful heir"
Points all that violence of mankind on errantry wars against the enemies of mankind, except for when they fight Araby.
The profile overlap between Shallya/Shalyak and The Lady
Mix with the profile overlap of mystery, violence, guardianship, and trickery from Ranald
Hell, the fact that they'd support winners of peasant revolts at all is excusing them of the crimes of killing tyrants by potentially falsifying noble credentials for the winner. So maybe that's some of Ranald's Death-To-Tyrants sorta vibe
It also is a nation that's younger than The Empire, which means this cult of The Lady would have started post-Sigmar. Shallya and Ranald would have been established in the lands of the Empire by that point, so they'd have plenty of time to have had a child and for that child to want to be a God. But not a "God" god, you know. Something more local. Maybe steal that western land and make something out of it I duno.
Yeah. Yeah I'm thinking The Lady is one of the daughters for sure. That weird mixture of trickery, mysticism, muddled never-clear bureaucracy combined with the tenets of Chivalry being divinely rewarded in ways that allow the virtuous to better protect the peasantry, and the land itself being blessed with healing and mercy. Just makes sense.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
anyway. The sisters are definitely Verena and Myrmidia. Just makes sense.
heh xP
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