1: Bravery
- Mathilde is willing to put her life and soul on the line to accomplish her goals, though she always tries to stack the deck when doing so.
- She's also got a daring sort of empathy, willing to and even eager to understand and connect to people that others would find too dangerous or too alien. She even describes "dangerous" as one of the traits that she's (romantically) attracted to.
- Very Gambler.
2: "We did it. We changed the world we live in."
- Mathilde wants to change the world into something better for the people living in it.
- She said this line to the memory of Abelhelm in a very book-endy moment, and later echoed it to Johann.
- This motivation probably comes heavily from her backstory in nearly being burnt as a child, and her survival only being made possible because Magnus changed the world into one where that didn't have to happen. But there's still so many wrongs to right...
- Very Protector.
3: Loyalty
- Mathilde is overwhelmingly loyal to people and institutions she believes in.
- This also probably stems from her backstory. Traumatic experience, rejected by her community and family, only saved by the grace of one authority figure and then taken in by the Grey College.
- The Grey College is also very good at instilling a strong sense of loyalty in its Wizards.
- It helps that she's been fairly successful in finding people worthy of her loyalty.
- Notably, Mathilde's loyalty is not only a powerful motivator, it is also the main thing that can stop her other powerful motivations in their tracks. See: The refusal to wield Dhar, admitting to humiliating mistakes like accidentally knocking out an ally with a magic dart, turning back at Karag Dum for the sake of the Expedition even though there was more to learn... but most notably of all, the sacrifice of the Divine AV, which was the greatest challenge of her loyalty that she has thus far encountered, and that vote's outcome firmly established that Mathilde's loyalty is the ultimate veto of her actions.
4: Worthiness
- In her backstory, Mathilde had the worth of her life violently and traumatically dismissed by her community and family, only to be saved by the grace of one authority figure and then through being taken in by the Grey College.
- Likely as a result of this, Mathilde has a very strong urge to prove her own worth. It feeds her ambition, makes her want to matter, for her life to mean something.
- Approval, praise, gratitude, and admiration all fulfill an emotional need for Mathilde, I reckon - especially from an authority figure she's loyal to. Meowthilde demands headpats for the latest Weird Thing she dragged in, and all that.
- This also probably contributes to how much satisfaction she gets from playing the impressive smug all-knowing Grey Wizard. "Ulgu makes mystics and showmen", indeed.
5: Curiosity
- Mathilde always wants to learn, to understand, to seek out mysteries - and she is not inclined towards closing her mind to possibilities unless they would come into conflict with her loyalties.
- This stems in part from Ulgu.("Is this a Grey Wizard thing? You just seek out the biggest question you can and bang yourself against it like a moth against a lantern so you have a constant source of confusion at hand?" "To Hysh, it is the moment of realization that is most satisfying, and the rest is simply the thrill of the hunt. To Ulgu, the seeking itself must energize.")
- Also, from being adopted by and in turn adopting the values of one of the Colleges of Magic.
- Plus her eagerness to prove herself... (look what i figured out, be proud of me!)
- Plus her desire to change the world... (look what i figured out, this is gonna save lives!)
- And likely, from the fact that her childhood trauma stems from people being close-minded.
6: Connections
- When kid Mathilde's magic was revealed, she became other, an outcast, and lost her connections to her family and community. Then the Grey College took her in and made her a part of something again, and she was taught to be an instrument of the Empire's will - a part of a greater whole.
- Mathilde believes strongly in the value and importance of the interconnectedness of various institutions/groups, both in strengthening those connections and creating new ones.
- This shapes her loyalty into something much broader. In her speech to the EIC she talked about how the Empire as a whole was vital to all institutions and people within it, and I think she similarly views the Empire as part of a greater whole that her loyalty to the Empire extends to. Hence, her easy willingness to help Dwarves, Kislev, and so on.
- This worldview is heavily reinforced by the fact that Mathilde has seen very many successes thanks to the connections between various institutions and groups and people, sometimes ones she has herself created or reinvigorated. Overpowered gear, valuable allies, many headpats, everything about K8P and its inhabitants, the Eye of Gazul, the We, the Duckling Club(and later WEB-MAT)... and now, the Waystone Project and the Library.
