Some more stuff as my reading is becoming more and more of me essentially liveblogging my reread of DL:
"Lady Magister," she replies. "Mmm. Sounds almost like ladroi nastirr. There used to be a temple by that name - a well-regarded, hmm, let's say a house of worship dedicated to Atharti. I believe you know Her as Vylmar."
You're not sure what the proper reaction is to having your title so mangled by a Queen, but you try not to let any of it show on your face. "Worship of Vylmar has been outlawed for centuries in the Empire."
She frowns. "Why?"
"He was seen as too similar to the Tempter, I believe."
Her frown deepens. "Did this forbidding banish all desire for pleasure from the Empire?"
"I don't believe it did."
Page 132 of Tome of Salvation gives quite the informative paragraph on Vylmar here:
"Some Gods are outlawed because the values they preach are too similar to the Dark Powers, or due to their association with another forbidden god, such as Vylmar, the god of drinking and debauchery. Centuries ago, worship of Vylmar was very fashionable amongst the Imperial elite, and the parties thrown in his honour were wild and raucous affairs that lasted for days. However, the somewhat prudish cult of Sigmar objected to such behaviour, deeming Vylmar's worship to be inappropriate for upstanding Empire citizens, so it applied pressure on the Emperor to ban the cult. The similarities between Vylmar and Slaanesh hardly helped matters, despite the fact that the two Gods are unrelated; many of Vylmar's priests found themselves burnt at the stake. Today Vylmar is worshipped by only a handful of cults, and always discretely at that. It is not unheard of for cults of Slaanesh to masquerade as cults of Vylmar as a way of gaining more credence amongst otherwise wary worshippers."
It's funny to me that the text itself says that the Cult of Sigmar is "somewhat prudish".
He laughs. "The Grey Lords make a potion that makes Elven blood poisonous to insects. Anything that sees Elves as a meal has long since gone extinct. And that's another sign of change for us to watch for - if we're getting bitten, it means that there's something new doing the biting, and that often indicates some greater source of imbalance. Swamp Goblins especially like to cultivate their own strains of pests."
This part of the update has been stuck in my mind ever since. I genuinely find it interesting and fascinating that Swamp Goblins apparently selectively breed special pests? It's not really something I'd expect. Goblins can be very smart and apparently somewhat patient without Orcs hounding them. If they were led by Orcs, I don't think they would have had the opportunity to create strains of bugs that achieve their desired goals. Although, it is a possibility they use magic to speed up the process. I also know that the reason Forest Goblins get along with Spiders so much is because their shamans imbibe weird shroom drugs that let them communicate with them. Maybe the Swampers have something like that.
"The Warden of Storm," Vicarius Galenstra says to you as the two of you make your way through the Schadensumpf, "must concern herself with a hundred miles of the Old North Road that runs along the western treeline of Laurelorn, and the Marienburger towns and villages built along it, all filled with humans eager to fill the heads of passers-by with tales of fountains of youth and magic swords to be found in our lands. There are holy places less than a dozen miles from a human village.
I believe that Galenstra here is referencing something from Archives of the Empire Page 84: "Downstream from the Vale of Despair is the magical Fountain of Lebin, a huge stone basin of unknown origin that purifies the tainted river water. Nordland folklore describes it as a fountain of youth. Eonir legends recall an ancient blade that was enchanted by the water to defeat a forgotten evil."
So yeah, it is canon that the Ward of Storm has stories about fountains of youth and magic swords. The towns of Oostwald and Loenen in the Wasteland bordering Laurelorn are pretty close to the Fountains.
One cannot spend a lifetime staring up the shaft of extinction at the hands of humanity and still dismiss them so easily.
I find it interesting that Galenstra's description of impending doom is "staring up the shaft of extinction", which I take to mean the shaft of an arrow. It's really neat that even his metaphors are representative of his lifestyle and personality.
I'm not 100% certain I understnad what you mean, but: Urban planning? Urbanism? Spatial planning?
You know how my K8P post has different sections with a different heading? Geography, Topography, Agriculture, Economics, Demographics etc.? I wanted an equivalent for cities so I could add some sort of heading that shows that I'm going to be talking about Tor Lithanel. I've since given up and decided to split Tor Lithanel between Geography for the physical locations within the city and Society for the actual people of the city. A necessary split because the society section requires that I go over Cityborn vs Forestborn and the Cityborn are intrinsically linked to Tor Lithanel anyways, but going over the buildings of Tor Lithanel in the society section feels awkward so I'll have to divide it.
