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
I don't know about Wind conductive materials, but I know from very early on in the thread that the speed of the Winds through air is about 750 miles per hour:While the telegraph isn't exactly cable internet, it's certainly a predecessor on the technological tree. Between that and a chance to end the whole world . . . I think you know what modern people would pick.
. . .
Would asking about research into the travel speed of Winds in Wind-conductive materials be considered munchkinism?
EDIT: As a point of reference, about 750 miles per hour is roughly equivalent to 1200 Km per hour or 333 Meters per second, which is 10 meters per second slower than the speed of sound through air (343 m/s). Specifically the speed of sound through dry air at 20 Celsius.
Last edited:
- Location
- Russia
Speed of sound through air depends on temperature. At 20C it is indeed 343 m/s, but at 0C it is only 331 m/s. Do you remember what time of the year it was in that update? Maybe Winds do propagate with exactly the speed of sound and it was a chilly day in the update.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It was Turn 3 so the first 6 months of 2471 IC. The area was a burial mound somewhat close to Wurtbad, which as you might know is close to the River Stir. It was around morning, and Mathilde mentions morning mist at some point. That's all I got.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
It may well be that with the imperfect surveying and timepieces of the setting, the exact speed's dependency on temperature and humidity and so on cannot be easily measured, assuming it exists.
750 miles an hour could just be an approximate speed determined by something a little better than a rule of thumb- "we know it's less than 800 and more than 700."
I think sending messages with winds isn't a novel concept. The Celestials have a spell to write messages in the sky, the Golds have a spell to write secret runes on a metal object, the Amethysts apparently have some form of telepathy. Each of those is somewhat limited, with only the Celestials having a long distance method, and one that's very public and that has to be kind of vague, but I think if it was as simple as 'short wind burst for 0 long wind burst for 1' either someone would have figured it out already, because this has very clear military applications and the Colleges would love to have something like this, or the bottleneck isn't magic theory but information theory (I seem to recall that morse code is an engineering guild secret) and Mathilde could only solve this problem using our OOC knowledge.
Probably it's a little of column A and a little of column B: I think it's pretty likely that the winds are too noisy to send messages with them unless you actually make them behave in an orderly fashion, which is to say cast a spell, and people did try to do that and the results are what they are. And maybe it's possible to get around this using some error correction code, but people in the setting lack the theoretical framework to even consider the possibility, let alone actually work it out.
Probably it's a little of column A and a little of column B: I think it's pretty likely that the winds are too noisy to send messages with them unless you actually make them behave in an orderly fashion, which is to say cast a spell, and people did try to do that and the results are what they are. And maybe it's possible to get around this using some error correction code, but people in the setting lack the theoretical framework to even consider the possibility, let alone actually work it out.
Last edited:
- Location
- Russia
What I'm curious about is Alkharad's possession technique. With Winds propagating at the speed of sound he would have a horrible lag trying to use Winds as a medium for his commands, but he obviously could control his creatures more-or-less in real time. What did he use? It wasn't something exclusive to vampires either since his pupils were living humans IIRC and they could use that technique too.
Last edited:
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
In 4th Edition WFRP Archives of the Empire Volume 1 Page 52 the Dronduraz Runesmith clan of Karak Varn, who are now posing as Blacksmith Imperial Dwarves in the Empire since the fall of their hold, have a "Rune of Distance" that allows two individuals to communicate with each other for 10 minutes in up to a distance of 100 miles.
I don't think I should make this clear, but I will anyway. It's from 4th Edition, so not canon unless Boney says so. It's from an Imperial Dwarf clan who are hiding the fact that they are Runesmiths from the general populace in the first place. And it's a secret Rune they use to communicate with each other to maintain their low profile and keep each other safe by keeping each other up to date.
I don't think I should make this clear, but I will anyway. It's from 4th Edition, so not canon unless Boney says so. It's from an Imperial Dwarf clan who are hiding the fact that they are Runesmiths from the general populace in the first place. And it's a secret Rune they use to communicate with each other to maintain their low profile and keep each other safe by keeping each other up to date.
pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
Dude might've been around somewhere. Its probably no problem for him to trail a dozen or so miles behind his target. (Or maybe he could split fractions of his soul and do something like sci-fi quantum entanglement or something idk)
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
Not with his entire class, though- the attacks on Roswita all had his students warged into some animals.
Finally got caught up. This is an amazing epic so far. Excellant pacing.
[x] Ice Witches
[x] Ice Witches
pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
Are we sure that was the case for this specific one? All the other ones we observed happened in Stirland/Sylvania proper IIRC.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
Yes.
And I think even when Roswita was in Sylvania she would still have been a good ways from Teufelheim.
pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
"Please let this be a normal field trip
-Unnamed Acolyte
It's sung rather than spoken I think, with a tumpitti TUMP rhythm, "The RUSsians shall not HAVE ConstantinO-Ople."
- Location
- Earth
Both Godly possession and daemonic possession seem to work through the soul, so our best guess should be that necromantic possession also works through the soul. One interesting data point that corroborates this would be when Mathilde howled in Ostermark and Wolf guided her from Laurelorn hundreds of miles away—the familiar bond would be another example of manipulating souls, if in a different manner than possession.
I mean is it a different manner or just a different use? If I said the familiar bond was master and familiar constantly low key possessing each other doesn't that kind of describe 'the other half of one's soul'.
- Location
- Earth
We know which framing of it will get Mathilde research papers, and which framing of it will get her on the run, so they are defined differently.
Whether or not the actual difference is qualitative or quantitative is... immaterial
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I had another idea for a windherding enchantment that we could try. The idea is a riding cloak that has Shadowcloak and Dazzling Brightness enchantments. The idea is that it is useful escape/utility item that we could use as windherding practice because it combines 2 Relatively Simple spells. There could be one quick incantation to activate both the dazzle and Shadowcloak, and a different incantation to activate just Shadowcloak. The idea is that if you are sneaking and get spotted you can break line of sight and then hide, or the user can just become really sneaky on demand. It feels like a useful item we could either use ourselves, or give to the Hochlander, or give to Eike when she becomes our apprentice. It might be over-complicated and less effective to use windherding for something like this compared to just making a cloak with Shroud of Invisibility but that is a more difficult Moderately Complicated spell so maybe it balances out. As for the name I am calling it the Cloak of Flashy Escapes.
Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Not sure what a howled "dot" would sound like.
...though now I'm picturing Wolf opening his mouth, probably dramatically posed under a full moon and all, and just having actual telegraph sounds come out.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mean, putting aside that Morse code likely isn't a thing in Warhammer, I'm sure Mathilde knows some sort of code or something yeah. Can Wolf howl it? Maybe? It's probably straight up better for the two of them to communicate telepathically and Wolf to communicate with someone close by with Lingua Praestantia or something then have him howl out a code or something. We don't even use Wolf in operations. We keep him at home.
Last edited:
Yeah, I don't love the idea of making Windherding trinkets with Egrimm but if we have to this seems like a decent one. I kind of like the image of a user using the blinding enchantment to blind enemies and then use the stealth enchantment to hide in a kind of 'ninja throwing a smoke bomb and vanishing' way. It could also be used to sneak up on an enemy and flashbang them at the start of an engagement.
Or better yet, recruit a Celestial Wizard enchanter for WEB-MAT.
I'd love to add the capacity for flying bursts to our previous model of wind-herding enchantement. And more generally, the Celestial spells seem mighty practical to have in our toolbox. Free rerolls? Yes please!