By holding the walls of Middenheim until attrition, infighting, and Sylvania bled the Skaven dry.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
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By holding the walls of Middenheim until attrition, infighting, and Sylvania bled the Skaven dry.
Yes but since Mathilde can not really do much to help the empire baring the EIC we should find ways to get more wizards, make wizards more powerful or super weapon.
A super weapon that will not get her banished or executed.
Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mean, AFAICT that is why and the rest is basically just a propaganda campaign to make it domestically palatable?
- Location
- Somewhere on Earth
I want you to consider for a hot second what publicly admitting what the Skaven are to the general public, then saying the Empire won't be fighting them because they're too scary, would seem like to most Empire citizens. The Skaven are fucking monsters, every second their entire toxic system isn't torn down and their god killed is another moral atrocity commited, but the Empire can't do that without almost certainly being erased themselves. The issue is that a lot of people wouldn't see the reasoning behind leaving them alone, because, reasonably speaking, they're kind of one of the worst evils on the planet, beating several Chaos-following factions on the atrocitometer.
The same thing for the Skaven. The Empire is that dangerous to them, and yet none of them are going to admit that they're not going to war because the leadership is scared of them, because that's the kind of shit that gets the leadership to commit suicide via several dozen knives in the back that none of their aides noticed.
If it's a superweapon good enough to affect a whole war then im pretty sure we still would get locked away. Just to protect us...
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Okay, but how does this apply to the Skaven and not the Orks, Vampires, Chaos cults, Chaos raiders, Norscans, Druuchi, Chaos Dwarves, or Beastmen?
- Location
- USA
That doesn't mean her enchantment attempts can't suck, though. The horn she wanted to make on the way to K8P. The saddle she tried with Egrimm. She's had more successes than failures, but, yes, she can Do It Wrong at times.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
None of those number in the millions right beneath the Empire's streets.
I have no idea what that has to do with my statement. I'm not saying 'Mathilde can't fail', I'm saying 'Go for the Doom-Mountain'.
- Location
- Earth
Probably because those are either too hard to seek out (whether being hidden inside the Empire or outside of its borders entirely) or can be dealt with in a series of skirmishes/a few battles that won't bleed the Empire dry.
Unless it's the Sylvania issue, which is, err, was mostly treated on a defensive footing.
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- Location
- Somewhere on Earth
Because none of those are willing to step back, and, also importantly, none of them are as scary. If an Everchosen rolls into the scene, they're not going to back off because some dude kicks a bunch of Chaos ass, the Everchosen needs to be killed and their army broken. Same with Orks and Beastmen, especially them, really. None of the other factions are willing to make those agreements because they're either too arrogant, too far away to actually be threatened by the full force of the Empire, or just plain don't care.
- Pronouns
- They
@Boney quick question: what exactly does the "Allies of Man" college lesson cover? Do they refer to the Empire's allies in general like Kislev, Karaz Ankor, etc?
Also, would Mathilde still find the "Intrigue and Tradecraft" College lessons useful at her level? Kinda bummed we Nat1'd the requisite class with Regimand there.
Also, would Mathilde still find the "Intrigue and Tradecraft" College lessons useful at her level? Kinda bummed we Nat1'd the requisite class with Regimand there.
You can't even attempt to keep orcs or beastmen a secret like you can with the Skaven. And the rest is small fry to the Empire. The Druuchi are literally just raiding not marching armies through nuln, the vampires are not numerous enough most of the time, most chaos cults are small fries. Chaos raiders are, as the name implies, raiders and not full armies, and chaos dwarfs are literally a mountain chain away.
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- Great Khanate of Scotland
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- She/Her
See but my argument is that you CAN'T keep the Skaven a secret, not realistically. So many people know and the Skaven are already raiding and kidnapping and fighting conflicts with parts of the Empire and its allies that keeping it a secret is beyond the abilities of any state, even with magic.
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The skaven are the only enemy the empire faces that is smart enough and/or has enough self-preservation to back off, and since the empire does, as you mentioned, have all those other problems, keeping one front at what amounts to a cold war of proxies and raids is much preferable to having that massive front going to the hilt
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- Location
- Somewhere on Earth
That's… why it's an unspoken agreement, and not an actual secret???
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Conspiracy of Silence wouldn't be, you know, a conspiracy, if some people didn't know about it and, eh, conspire to keep it secret.
There are a lot of people in the know, and I mean, a lot. A random thief Mathilde hired that one time knew. I'm pretty sure ratcatchers in all the provinces with the undercities know.
As for why it isn't open knowledge, tbh, that part is the most realistic thing about it. When the printing press is considered the avant-garde innovation in the spread of information and fluent literacy is a luxury not available to most people, keeping the general population in the dark is even easier. How would a peasant living in Stirland even find out about weird rat-men who supposedly live deep underground, rarely fight openly, only in the big cities, only once a few years? Or, fine, how would a nobleman with no military ties and no interest in the subject, no access to any of the restricted books on the subject, how would he find out?
Everyone who needs to know is generally in the know, not because the Empire is particularly good at disseminating and guarding the information in specific, tightly controlled rivulets, but because everyone who knows has immediate concerns with fighting Skaven for any kind of reason.
If nothing else, this is something like a guild secret, only instead of crafters and apprentices, it's everyone who knows and people who find out after a battle or a skirmish. And, like, there are probably natural levels of available information. The grunts might know there are weird rat-like beastmen living under the city, and killing all of them is more trouble than it's worth, the Chancellor of the Empire knows there is a huge world-spanning empire that behaves more like unstable confederation with a lot of infighting most of the time when they don't have a common enemy and much of the time when they do.
The only things the Empire has to do to regulate this is not to spread the knowledge freely and kill anyone who tries to, which is easy when most of the presses are state-owned and shouting about it in the street will quickly get you branded as a madman and quietly disappeared after the guards arrest you for disturbing the peace.
There are a lot of people in the know, and I mean, a lot. A random thief Mathilde hired that one time knew. I'm pretty sure ratcatchers in all the provinces with the undercities know.
As for why it isn't open knowledge, tbh, that part is the most realistic thing about it. When the printing press is considered the avant-garde innovation in the spread of information and fluent literacy is a luxury not available to most people, keeping the general population in the dark is even easier. How would a peasant living in Stirland even find out about weird rat-men who supposedly live deep underground, rarely fight openly, only in the big cities, only once a few years? Or, fine, how would a nobleman with no military ties and no interest in the subject, no access to any of the restricted books on the subject, how would he find out?
Everyone who needs to know is generally in the know, not because the Empire is particularly good at disseminating and guarding the information in specific, tightly controlled rivulets, but because everyone who knows has immediate concerns with fighting Skaven for any kind of reason.
If nothing else, this is something like a guild secret, only instead of crafters and apprentices, it's everyone who knows and people who find out after a battle or a skirmish. And, like, there are probably natural levels of available information. The grunts might know there are weird rat-like beastmen living under the city, and killing all of them is more trouble than it's worth, the Chancellor of the Empire knows there is a huge world-spanning empire that behaves more like unstable confederation with a lot of infighting most of the time when they don't have a common enemy and much of the time when they do.
The only things the Empire has to do to regulate this is not to spread the knowledge freely and kill anyone who tries to, which is easy when most of the presses are state-owned and shouting about it in the street will quickly get you branded as a madman and quietly disappeared after the guards arrest you for disturbing the peace.
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The fact that I'm getting conflicting answers as to the actual extent of the Conspiracy of Silence suggests there's some confusion as to what it actually is.
I feel like using WEBMAT actions to recruit was discussed and shot down somewhere but a search doesn't immediately reveal anything. Does anyone else remember this?
I was thinking about it because Johann between his Diplo and Guest of Tor Lithanel trait would otherwise seem like a very solid person to put onto recruiting house Tindomiel if it was possible.
I was thinking about it because Johann between his Diplo and Guest of Tor Lithanel trait would otherwise seem like a very solid person to put onto recruiting house Tindomiel if it was possible.
Zedman7054
Eternally 3rd
- Location
- United States
This is probably the first time I've ever seen the conspiracy portrayed this way. Even the best I have seen and come up with myself is that the Conspiracy is an acknowledgement that the Skaven are too numerous and dangerous to be treated the same as all of the the Empire's other enemies. So to avoid the destruction of the Empire, it's just best to turn a blind eye to all but the most severe courses of action.
The idea that the Skaven don't want to truly fight the Empire again is kind of shocking. Bit does make sense when put this way.
- Location
- Canada
Hah!
Did Mathilde forget that Baba Brzeginias said she was going to sit back and wait for the warhost to leave on its own, or is she getting self-aware enough to refer to herself as a 'dangerous interloper'?
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
It was possible for the Lights because we were approaching with Horstmann. While Johann gives us a bit of an in, I don't think it's enough of an in that he would be doing a significant amount of the diplomatic heavy lifting the way Egrimm did, which is what the AP savings of WEBMAT actions represents. Though I would be delighted to be wrong, and it's a great idea.
Also, random question for Boney when you have time because I haven't been tracking our character sheet closely: how much did the dwarf axe gift cost?
- Pronouns
- They
@Boney How long does the average Apprentice with Magister potential take to graduate into Journeyman? Sorry if this has been asked, tried searching and could only find that Junior apprentices take 3-5 years to receive a Master after becoming a "regular" Apprentice.
Edit:
In regards to Pickle's post, is it possible to use WEBMAT to recruit the Gold Order with the help of Max or Johann?
Edit:
In regards to Pickle's post, is it possible to use WEBMAT to recruit the Gold Order with the help of Max or Johann?
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- Location
- Earth
I think it might be that, or it might be that while Drycha would eventually leave on her own, there'd constantly be issues like other Imperial Magisters running in and investigating the disturbances, so she figured better to help one of the more agreeable ones fix it now so that no more Magisters show up.
The Hedgewise like to keep the peace in the local area and resent it when nasties pop up and threaten to draw official attention, after all.