an interesting chapter to say the least, giving us insights into the jade college faction internal feuds and gods.
What I found most interesting and perhaps obvious to others but was enlightening to me was the factional infighting in the jade college
My thinking when i read up on Huberts situation through WOB.
It's not an accident, it's intentional. The Celestial College encourages a focus on divination instead of things like lightning bolts because seeing the future can be such a game-changer. The effect of this is most Celestial Wizards end up focusing on mystical Azyr over elemental, and the side-effect of sidelining those that are heavily elemental is considered an acceptable price to pay.
(there's cultural and historical reasons for it too, but the above is why the status quo isn't challenged from within or without)
For me when i read this my thinking was something like this.
'well why doesn't the celestial college at least try to help foster what few find their talents in the elemental azyr or how come someone hasn't tried to establish a little in group/faction dedicating themselves to mastery over elemental azyr?'
Same thoughts were cooking in my head in terms of recruiting hedgewise into the colleges and thinking the could just be recruited and teaching their secret little magic stuff of the hedgewise to their apprentices only and things would be fine and dandy.
As the Jade college has quite functionally shown, expecting different groups of people with different idea's on how to move the college going forward to all work together fine and dandy isn't exactly something that happens in reality much.
I guess I can understand now the hesitation to hire outside mages like the hedgewise like the 'wise ones' of Osternmark or Ostland where distrust of male magic users and throwing them under the bus is common place amongst them by the colleges who may consider their idea detrimental to the colleges future, especially Paranorth and his faction peeps in the Jades.
Or perhaps the mercenary wizards of Tilea/Estalia who may face wariness of recruitment from the celestials college for example for their battle focused magic skill perhaps lies in the scope of elemental due to mainly developing their magic for war and hard realities of it and those who in the upper echalons of the celestial college for 'historical and cultural reasons' would wish to avoid recrutement of such mages to prevent the rise of a skilled elemental azyr battle mage who could challenge the overall focus on the mystical side of Azyr for the obvious reasons boney highlighted in the quote above.
Either way, enlightening to me in realizing why colleges may hesitate to extend a lending hand in cultivating mages of different ways of thinking and approaches that challenge the culture of the college in question and may even stifly such individuals growth and promotions in the college.
Perhaps obvious to others but i just liked to note it in my thoughts on the chapter.
Previously i was once a hardliner for more dwarf boogaloo and still somewhat wish for some more fun times with them as advisor and defenitly when they go reconquer the silver pinnacle but i'm starting to show an interest in working closely with the colleges in the future and learning all the unique intracies, religous, factions within, and political thoughts of the other colleges and the grey especially.
Perhaps their was once a time when the grey college was more divided? sneaky infighting for what others believed the 'correct' future for the grey college occurring in it's past. Perhaps a hedgewise group held once more influence in the grey college only to be silenced in the past or even during the night of a thousand wizard duel boogaloo hidden and covered up. Relations with the hedgewise only thawing with Alagard and his triple agent.
learning about the new lord magister grey who in cannon seems to have a thing for sigmar although how he'll go about it and religion in how to move the grey college and the rest of the others in the future of DL remains to be seen
All speculation but i'm heavily interested in involving ourselves with and learning about the other colleges for now and perhaps in time, even establishing for ourselves a faction to be noticed by the other factions within the colleges would be cool.
Alas, i'll hold such lofty dreams and speculations for when we make it to the next arc vote but i'll certainly be waiting with interest however long it takes and hopefully the waystone research project will turn out to be gamer.
