I was going to vote Ranald, but after reading the thread
@Codex has talked me into going
[X] Wizard
I know it's not what I should be focusing on, but I find it nice that Heidi is easily calling Mathilde her friend, instead of just a friend of a friend. I suppose Mathilde is the only one who sees and knows the real Heidi, and there is a certain level of relief of just being herself. That's why she's able to come here and be so vulnerable. She has no one else to turn to, not even her god, for this sort of help.
I didn't read it this way at all. Heidi is probably the best liar/manipulator we've seen so far in the entire story : even if her feelings are entirely real, her calling Mathilde a friend as opposed to her previous "ally/friend of friend" status doesn't have to mean much. My first guess was "ah, now that you're asking for a favor we're friends!"
We barely know this woman outside of shared interests, and Mathilde's Diplomacy is probably so much lower than Heidi's that she can lie to us easily.
Yeah, the contrast between the two books on the subject is rather stark. For example, Stone and Steel says 'the bride is given the final decision on a marriage, and her favour is seen as a priceless gift rather than a commodity to be bought and sold', while Grudgelore says 'womenfolk are rare and thus quite sought after by amorous and ambitious dwarfs'. But Stone and Steel is written as factual whereas the section on 'Dwarf Womenfolk' in Grudgelore is explicitly the in-character writing of a human scholar who has 'gleaned a few scraps of information' from books, so it might be human projection rather than an outright lore inconsistency.
If we take the more positive tone of the dwarf-written book as a base, the facts you mention from the human-written book don't have to be wrong. "In Dawi culture men value being married but women get the last word on marriage" isn't impossible (or bad!).
And families trying to grab wealth of a marriage makes a lot of sense to me, especially when we consider the kind of society Dawi have (lots of emphasis on community, on Guilds/family, etc). The idea of your family trying to make a killing from the wedding isn't even incompatible with Dawi women marrying people chosen by personal preference.
Of course this is just my two cents, I haven't read the entire book and I'm just reacting to the above comment.
I don't think Emperors mind affairs as long as things are made clear. Lots of marriages are arranged and not done out of love, so I don't think it's extraordinary for the Empire to have had several Emperors and Empresses with known affairs. This is also putting aside the possibility of polyamory.
I mean, obviously it's the type of things people in court titter and gossip about, but it's not the kind of thing that can cause widespread trouble considering how easily Heidi dismisses it.
This doesn't make sense to me. Lineage is super important in this more or less feudal system, and Heidi specifically brings up these rumors as inevitable and damaging if there's a risk they could be believed and imperil the child's claim to the father's possessions.
This suggests that adultery could be a non-issue if there's no risk of childbirth (Heidi having a tryst with a fellow cis woman, for example) but also suggests that adultery with a man would be a big no-no.
Also, if your entire political power stems from having lots of access to the Emperor and his heirs, you probably don't want to have affairs unless he's fine with it (or you think you can hide it, or you don't care about the political power).
