Voting closed, writing has begun.
Hedgefolk exist and are technically breaching rules against non-College magic, but compared to things like Chaos sorcerers and Necromancers they are miles down the list of priorities, and may in fact be beneficiaries of a blind eye or two when they pick up the slack in areas that Imperial institutions have failed to penetrate.
On the topic of the Seed in general, what limits it is how easy the counter to it is to stumble upon: if she goes down, just keep stabbing her until the roots stop moving. It has multiple charges but if she gets killed once where nobody's around to distract whoever/whatever did it, it's very likely to result in Game Over. Also it rather depends on Mathilde's death leaving her mostly in one piece, and there's a lot of ways to die in the setting that aren't so polite.
As an Engineer, about half her time for a couple of years. As a mere artillery operator, a couple of months.
She took over as Magister Matriarch when Hexensohn had his little oops under Drakenhof. There's a bundle of equally unnerving stories about her, but that tends to be the case for any Wizard prominent enough to become a household name. Nothing substantial, as Mathilde has no way of sifting fact from hysterical peasant rumour.
Sure, it's been an option previously.
As someone who has more than a little bit of fanfiction in their past, I completely understand the idea of wanting to fix the very obvious flaws in a setting, and when Mathilde is older, wiser, stronger, and more powerful that's definitely a path that can be set upon. But for the present, the Empire is amongst the least of evils in a setting with some very very evil evils indeed, and Mathilde will be more or less faithful to it because of it. That's not a character flaw, that's pragmatism.
As for the Colleges specifically, if measured by modern ethical standards, they're a terrifying boot camp dedicated to indoctrination under the explicit threat of death. But in the setting as it exists in this time period, they're a way for those cursed and/or blessed with magic to have a future that doesn't involve chaos gods or burning at the stake, and to Mathilde specifically they're her home. Magic almost caused her to be burned at the stake, but it's also her favourite hobby, one of her senses, and an enormous part of her worldview. On top of that, if she had never manifested magic at all she'd be a Stirlandian peasant, and, y'know, fuck that. She'd admit there are flaws in the Colleges and once she has the power to do so she may very well try to reform them, but she won't be seeing them as negatively as anyone with a modern viewpoint would.
If I started Karl Franz Quest I'd want this exact attitude right there from the start, but this Quest isn't about starting at the top and making the world less shit, it's starting damn near the bottom and working your way up one step at a time so that when you are at the top, you know you've earned every scrap of it. And while that climb is underway, you gotta put at least some of that revolutionary energy on the backburner and work within the systems as they are.
Sounds like the really early periodic table, where there was a whole bunch of assumptions and people promoted various compounds and alloys to element out of ignorance and/or how much they liked them.
This I'm keeping a wary eye upon. Mathilde's got her hands on a couple of artefacts and a spell mastery that allow her to punch above her weight, and some people have been overestimating her abilities because of it.
Every Peak will have a Warboss (or Warlord or Master Moulder or Warlock-Engineer or...) and each of them are going to be Up To Something - it's an important part of how I write that every character is a target in motion that is up to their own nefarious deeds rather than waiting around for the protagonist to arrive. This does make K8P somethingof a target-rich environment for Major Shenanigans for Mathilde to get into the middle of. That said, killing Skarsnik would have been a big deal if he had been all grown up and ruining everybody's day, but killing Skarsnik in TYOOS 2478 is a cheeky in-joke for the thread and a complete nothing for Mathilde herself, and derailing Grimgor is an assumption the thread has leapt to which they're having too much fun with to speak against.
When it does start to gather momentum I stick a pin in this sort of thinking, but it'll always happen at some level because people fundamentally like to show off their knowledge and this sort of thing is a perfect opportunity. As long as people are aware that it's okay to use it for speculation and blue-sky brainstorming but never for a reason for Mathilde to do things, I think it's harmless.
A symptom of being on Expedition, I think. This is a major arc for the readers (and writer!) of the Quest but for Mathilde it's been less than one 'turn' and in a few years time it'll either be the prelude to her actual next vocation or a jaunt she took to clear her head after the Sylvanian campaign, and at that point (I hope) the thread will be focusing more on relationships and long-term goals and making her mark on the world.
None of the above is to dismiss your concerns, but just to make it clear to all that share those worries that these are things I'm aware of and keeping an eye on. Thanks for voicing them.
Just like many Henges can only be properly seen from the right angle, spotting their influence upon the Winds takes a different mindset than one uses when they're just looking around for Ulgu to use or confused orks to stab. This is absolutely in the realm of 'turns', if Mathilde sticks around after the battles.
None willing to admit it. And unfortunately not - there actually seems to be something of the opposite, as many academic wizards seem to see overwhelming dryness as a sort of protective shield to keep the unworthy away.
Keeping on target is not among the strengths of the greenskins. When they start fighting nearby, relaxing because they're not currently fighting you is a mistake the Dwarves are too experienced to make.
There's been some chatter about homesteading the valley the Expedition went through to find the Underway route to Death Pass. It seems to be uninhabited, has the river to act as a buffer from all the bad neighbours, and is about to be on a major trade route.
She does, actually. Otherwise the story of his ascension is a little gross to her.
If there's anything directed at me that I haven't responded to please repeat it because I had to do a little skimming to catch up. This thread's been flying lately.
Hedgefolk exist and are technically breaching rules against non-College magic, but compared to things like Chaos sorcerers and Necromancers they are miles down the list of priorities, and may in fact be beneficiaries of a blind eye or two when they pick up the slack in areas that Imperial institutions have failed to penetrate.
On the topic of the Seed in general, what limits it is how easy the counter to it is to stumble upon: if she goes down, just keep stabbing her until the roots stop moving. It has multiple charges but if she gets killed once where nobody's around to distract whoever/whatever did it, it's very likely to result in Game Over. Also it rather depends on Mathilde's death leaving her mostly in one piece, and there's a lot of ways to die in the setting that aren't so polite.
As an Engineer, about half her time for a couple of years. As a mere artillery operator, a couple of months.
She took over as Magister Matriarch when Hexensohn had his little oops under Drakenhof. There's a bundle of equally unnerving stories about her, but that tends to be the case for any Wizard prominent enough to become a household name. Nothing substantial, as Mathilde has no way of sifting fact from hysterical peasant rumour.
Sure, it's been an option previously.
As someone who has more than a little bit of fanfiction in their past, I completely understand the idea of wanting to fix the very obvious flaws in a setting, and when Mathilde is older, wiser, stronger, and more powerful that's definitely a path that can be set upon. But for the present, the Empire is amongst the least of evils in a setting with some very very evil evils indeed, and Mathilde will be more or less faithful to it because of it. That's not a character flaw, that's pragmatism.
As for the Colleges specifically, if measured by modern ethical standards, they're a terrifying boot camp dedicated to indoctrination under the explicit threat of death. But in the setting as it exists in this time period, they're a way for those cursed and/or blessed with magic to have a future that doesn't involve chaos gods or burning at the stake, and to Mathilde specifically they're her home. Magic almost caused her to be burned at the stake, but it's also her favourite hobby, one of her senses, and an enormous part of her worldview. On top of that, if she had never manifested magic at all she'd be a Stirlandian peasant, and, y'know, fuck that. She'd admit there are flaws in the Colleges and once she has the power to do so she may very well try to reform them, but she won't be seeing them as negatively as anyone with a modern viewpoint would.
If I started Karl Franz Quest I'd want this exact attitude right there from the start, but this Quest isn't about starting at the top and making the world less shit, it's starting damn near the bottom and working your way up one step at a time so that when you are at the top, you know you've earned every scrap of it. And while that climb is underway, you gotta put at least some of that revolutionary energy on the backburner and work within the systems as they are.
Sounds like the really early periodic table, where there was a whole bunch of assumptions and people promoted various compounds and alloys to element out of ignorance and/or how much they liked them.
This I'm keeping a wary eye upon. Mathilde's got her hands on a couple of artefacts and a spell mastery that allow her to punch above her weight, and some people have been overestimating her abilities because of it.
Every Peak will have a Warboss (or Warlord or Master Moulder or Warlock-Engineer or...) and each of them are going to be Up To Something - it's an important part of how I write that every character is a target in motion that is up to their own nefarious deeds rather than waiting around for the protagonist to arrive. This does make K8P somethingof a target-rich environment for Major Shenanigans for Mathilde to get into the middle of. That said, killing Skarsnik would have been a big deal if he had been all grown up and ruining everybody's day, but killing Skarsnik in TYOOS 2478 is a cheeky in-joke for the thread and a complete nothing for Mathilde herself, and derailing Grimgor is an assumption the thread has leapt to which they're having too much fun with to speak against.
When it does start to gather momentum I stick a pin in this sort of thinking, but it'll always happen at some level because people fundamentally like to show off their knowledge and this sort of thing is a perfect opportunity. As long as people are aware that it's okay to use it for speculation and blue-sky brainstorming but never for a reason for Mathilde to do things, I think it's harmless.
A symptom of being on Expedition, I think. This is a major arc for the readers (and writer!) of the Quest but for Mathilde it's been less than one 'turn' and in a few years time it'll either be the prelude to her actual next vocation or a jaunt she took to clear her head after the Sylvanian campaign, and at that point (I hope) the thread will be focusing more on relationships and long-term goals and making her mark on the world.
None of the above is to dismiss your concerns, but just to make it clear to all that share those worries that these are things I'm aware of and keeping an eye on. Thanks for voicing them.
Just like many Henges can only be properly seen from the right angle, spotting their influence upon the Winds takes a different mindset than one uses when they're just looking around for Ulgu to use or confused orks to stab. This is absolutely in the realm of 'turns', if Mathilde sticks around after the battles.
None willing to admit it. And unfortunately not - there actually seems to be something of the opposite, as many academic wizards seem to see overwhelming dryness as a sort of protective shield to keep the unworthy away.
Keeping on target is not among the strengths of the greenskins. When they start fighting nearby, relaxing because they're not currently fighting you is a mistake the Dwarves are too experienced to make.
There's been some chatter about homesteading the valley the Expedition went through to find the Underway route to Death Pass. It seems to be uninhabited, has the river to act as a buffer from all the bad neighbours, and is about to be on a major trade route.
She does, actually. Otherwise the story of his ascension is a little gross to her.
If there's anything directed at me that I haven't responded to please repeat it because I had to do a little skimming to catch up. This thread's been flying lately.
