Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
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pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
Im just gonna assume they are about as prone to panicking as Kislevites themselves.
But i am pretty sure that Bretonnian horses are pretty impossible to spook, at least the one that their true elites use.
I've been told by my sis that 'Andalusian' horses not only don't give a fuck, but actively try to bite peoples faces off when annoying so they are rarely found these days.
but in the past that was a 'good' trait.
- Location
- Chicago
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- She/They
You had a pair of Arabians boarded at your home? What kind of stuff do you get into
No, but seriously, it depends on the horse. It's specified in Warhammer (I don't know much about reality) that there are the scared and flighty regular horses, draft and work horses and riding horses, and then there are the more trained and experienced Destriers and Chargers who don't panic nearly as easily. I assume the horses Kislevites bring into war aren't likely to break at the scent of blood and should be somewhat braver.
Lol. They were beautiful too- Fancy and Miss Shaham were their names, never knew if "Shaham" meant anything in particular. One was chestnut and sleek, the other was midnight black and gleaming. I learned to braid on their tails.
But the interesting thing is that yeah, it is possible to train horses to not freak at battle, but it is *hard*. Loud noises, dangerous things moving quickly, lack of ability to run away, smell of blood- that's the minimum you need to acclimate them to, without having them kill themselves in panic first and against pretty much every instinct the horse has.
That's the real difference between a warhorse and a plough horse- and my guess is monsters and magic only make this worse.
So figure you need years of training and bonding with one particular horse in order to be able to ride it into battle. I'm unsure if the training will transfer between riders, given how much of it is about the horse trusting the rider.
Either way, it would definitely eat more time than it saved, overall, to have ice witches train battle steeds.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
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In the tabletop horses and knights were part of the same model so any attack that targets the horse targets the knight, and therefore the horse benefits from the Blessing as well.
But even if they weren't blessed, Bretonnians would die for their horses. You know what they say about Bretonnians. They love horses more than they love their wives. Just like Hochlanders love their rifles more than their wives. And Averlanders love their cows more than their wives.
This rumor is very common and keeps being recycled for any given location.
- Location
- Finland
Yes thats the game mechanical effect, just wondering how it would work in practice.
I am somewhat amused by the ideas that the valiant knights blessed by the Lady are accompanied by horses who have gone through similar trials to prove themselves worthy of being blessed.
And if there are not enough horses who have proven themselves worthy, well though luck, time to walk.
Arguably monsters make it better, because they exist in the wild so any horse someone tamed needs to have adapted to survive them beforehand. Particularly the breeds that kislevites use, descend from horses that came across from the dark lands and probably braved the chaos wastes, so they have the hardiness that is implied by surviving those environments.
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- Location
- UK
[X] Bring in Ice Witches
More dispellers than Mathilde and one ice witch sounds like a great idea against an Athel Loren warhost, and hopefully gives us more opportunity to murderblend our way into friendship with Boris.
More dispellers than Mathilde and one ice witch sounds like a great idea against an Athel Loren warhost, and hopefully gives us more opportunity to murderblend our way into friendship with Boris.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
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- She/Her
Depends on the way it's actually pronounced. I'm going to assume the black one is Shaham, because it means "Prince or Granite". The other possible meaning depending on if the h in the middle is a throaty H (literally unpronouncable in English. We have like 8 unpronouncable letters for english speakers), then it would mean the fat/gristle present inside meat. I assume it's the first one.
Shaham is usually a male name though.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
At least Hochlanders probably don't get accused of buggering their guns.
My understanding is that it's a common joke about Welsh/Scots that they fuck sheep. Might be some of that coming into the setting.
MiracleGrow
Miracles for only $19.99 [They/Them]
- Location
- DOOR STUCK DOOR STUCK PLEASE I BEG U
It depends on the horse really. I have a horse I ride frequently and it doesn't even flinch when I shoot my rifle while riding it. Just takes a lot of patience and work to get them where ya want them. But all horses got personalities. Mine for instance no matter how much I try to get him to not to, likes to sneak up behind you and lick your ears and then sneeze really hard.
Well acts like it sneezes. It just blows air through it's nostrils and flicks it head.
Well acts like it sneezes. It just blows air through it's nostrils and flicks it head.
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Bretonnian warhorses cheat, they're the descendants of Elven steeds that were left behind after the War of the Beard and interbred with forest ponies. And considering that Kurgan horses can function on an entirely carnivorous diet if they need to, there might be something exotic lurking in the family tree of the steppe horses as well.
MiracleGrow
Miracles for only $19.99 [They/Them]
- Location
- DOOR STUCK DOOR STUCK PLEASE I BEG U
Could be in the same vein that norscan Mammoth's are considered perfectly normal.
"Why yes, of course my horse breaths fire!" Etc
Best not to question if your horse starts leaving half eaten marmots around the camp eh?
Codex
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Speaking of Horses and horse adjacent creatures, Knights of the Grail Page 69 has a profile for something called the Hagranyms:
"The Orcs of the Grey Mountains call their special mounts Hagranyms. The Hagranyms are not animals; many are more intelligent than the Orcs riding them. This is one reason why all attempts by Bretonnians to tame them have failed; the Hagranyms refuse to cooperate and are clever enough to cause all kinds of problems. The other reason is that all Hagranyms are bloodthirsty killers, delighting in slaughter for its own sake as well as for food.
They have chosen to ally with the Orcs because it increases their chances for slaughtering something other than Orcs. Most Orcs think that they have tamed the Hagranym by their superior strength. Only a few of the most intelligent trainers have found that the creatures choose to cooperate. The Orcs know that the Hagranym are individually stronger, and it is only their belief in their intellectual superiority that sustains the relationship. If the Orcs find out that they are being manipulated, it will be war."
In terms of appearance, they're muscular horses with a beard. The Warhammer World is weird.
"The Orcs of the Grey Mountains call their special mounts Hagranyms. The Hagranyms are not animals; many are more intelligent than the Orcs riding them. This is one reason why all attempts by Bretonnians to tame them have failed; the Hagranyms refuse to cooperate and are clever enough to cause all kinds of problems. The other reason is that all Hagranyms are bloodthirsty killers, delighting in slaughter for its own sake as well as for food.
They have chosen to ally with the Orcs because it increases their chances for slaughtering something other than Orcs. Most Orcs think that they have tamed the Hagranym by their superior strength. Only a few of the most intelligent trainers have found that the creatures choose to cooperate. The Orcs know that the Hagranym are individually stronger, and it is only their belief in their intellectual superiority that sustains the relationship. If the Orcs find out that they are being manipulated, it will be war."
In terms of appearance, they're muscular horses with a beard. The Warhammer World is weird.
consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
My growing concern right now is that the Ice Witches won't actually come, because unless the Kreml Guard was deployed on maneuvers down south they had basically every opportunity to accompany the infantry force led by the heir to the throne that is specifically supposed to be courting them, and whatever political or security concerns led to us not passing them twice on our recent trip may prevent them from leaving the capital.
I'm still voting for it anyway, because Gambler, but it's a bit of a worry.
I'm still voting for it anyway, because Gambler, but it's a bit of a worry.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
Whoops, forgot to vote.
[x] Find the Boyar
[x] Find the Boyar
The combat use of horses is based on their instinctive behavior. Other herd herbivores either simply run away, or get into a circle with their horns out (while males or the largest male runs around the herd killing predators.) The horses get into a wedge led by the leader and make their way to the side free for escape. Trampling and biting opponents along the way. This behavior is convenient to use in war, unlike other animals.(The attack of the horses can be directed)At the same time, cultures using spear attacks used stallions (aggressive and acting incisively.) Cultures of horse archers used geldings or mares.(more easily controlled and less aggressive yu, who will not attack an enemy horse by exposing the rider to a blow). Excuse me for the mistakes I write through an auto-translator
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Codex
Fantasy Addict
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So I've recently come across an interesting term called "NobleDark". At first, I wondered what that was all about because it sounded like NobleBright except the opposite, and I found this description from TVtropes:
"Has been referred to as "NobleDark", derived from the term "GrimDark" and its inverse "NobleBright": the world is a dark, horrible place, but change is not impossible if it is strived for."
When I found out about it, I found that I quite liked the term. It's like a mix between NobleBright and Grimdark, and to me, it really does represent pre-End Times Warhammer Fantasy. Hell, I would say modern AoS is very might NobleDark that occasionally shifts to NobleBright. This quest is also probably a very good representation of it.
The Warhammer World as presented in DL is pretty bad and out of shape, but it's not unsalvagable. Through honest, hard work from good people, it can change for the better, and I think that makes the victories so much more satisfying than normal.
"Has been referred to as "NobleDark", derived from the term "GrimDark" and its inverse "NobleBright": the world is a dark, horrible place, but change is not impossible if it is strived for."
When I found out about it, I found that I quite liked the term. It's like a mix between NobleBright and Grimdark, and to me, it really does represent pre-End Times Warhammer Fantasy. Hell, I would say modern AoS is very might NobleDark that occasionally shifts to NobleBright. This quest is also probably a very good representation of it.
The Warhammer World as presented in DL is pretty bad and out of shape, but it's not unsalvagable. Through honest, hard work from good people, it can change for the better, and I think that makes the victories so much more satisfying than normal.
Definitely, when compared to say 40K is is like night and day, you really cannot even have a faction working to a good end there, just various forms of supposedly 'necessary evil' which are in truth just evil.
Zedman7054
Eternally 3rd
- Location
- United States
I suppose that's a fair point. I didn't really consider that. If it's any consolation I think it would be fairly plausible that Mathilde just thought it would be fun to write a romance between a Witch Hunter and a Wizard and just used her own life experiences as a base. And if she wrote one book it's feasible there are more written about a pair of Wizards, of differing temperaments and winds, who grow to respect and love each other. It's just not relevant to this. One of my main thoughts going into this was making it a bit of a tribute to Abelhelm, who kind of defined the Stirland Spymaster arc as much as Mathilde herself did. That's why the final puzzle led up to the books written by him and Roswita. A tribute to the Van Hals who she knew dedicated their lives to protecting the Empire from necromancers and vampires.
I tried to keep the time frame of the Omake vague, and even the cause of death isn't addressed. The implication of course was old age, but my headcanon is that Pan and Wolf are both dead, and that the Liber Mortis, for all it's stable, possesses inherent draw to it. A promise to 'right the wrongs of death'. A weight of the terrible power that could be drawn forth that rests on one's mind and shoulders. A corruption, not literal but no less real, and a test of one's integrity and morals. Mathilde, in this end, would rather die, passing on torch, without succumbing to temptation.
It was very convoluted, possibly of a consequence of me making it up in sections, but I think it works for a handful of reasons. One, as you said, it's very in-character for Mathilde, and arguably any Grey Wizard. Two, it's a tribute to Abelhelm as mentioned above, as well as the Van Hals in general. Three, the Liber Mortis is in essence a magic superweapon, capable of turning almost anyone with a hint of magic power into a terrifying and powerful necromancer. To protect it from potentially every faction of dubious enough morals that would use it in one way or another means going beyond the realms of normal security. Mathilde gives a lot of important information to Eike in her final words, and I went into a bit of detail showing how useful they were in helping her get started, but also throughout the entire gauntlet. Further the test was two-fold, challenge Eike, see if she can figure it out or if she fails protect the Liber Mortis eternally within the walls of the magic superweapon of Gazul in reclaimed K8Ps. Without the hints, without the special decryption tool, without Eike's specialized and generalized knowledge of books, decryption, magic, and dwarven know-how, the Liber Mortis was hidden behind an almost impossible challenge. Even just getting to it would involve sneaking in 8 Peaks and squatting in Mathilde's Towers for who knows how long, and the alternative to that would be taking over the Karak to give you all the time you need to break the puzzle, a challenge in and of itself.
The only way truly around the purposefully convoluted mess would be if a God just revealed the whole thing to a servant of theirs, and if they did that then nothing was going to stop them in the first place.
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Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
1d4chan had an article on it I liked.
It basically argued for viewing Noble-Grim as a measure of the ability of the protagonist to affect the world, and Bright-Dark as a measure of how punishing and horrible the world itself is.
So a Bright setting would be something like a classic DND game- there's dangers in the world, but resurrection is possible and the world itself is an adventure to explore.
It made the point that Lord of the Rings would be NobleDark in this framing- the world is dangerous, Sauron's forces seem poised to win, but victory is possible and the effort of even as small a creature as a Hobbit can make a difference.