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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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I know I'm pretty late, but I just realized that I didn't really react to the non-Hedgewise related parts of the update, which is a shame because it was great. So in no particular order:

Sarvoi is an absolute delight. Honestly I wasn't that excited about talking to him this social turn so the conversation with him was a very pleasent surprise. The revelation that Councillor Isthien outmaneuvered Mathilde in what should have been a losing position makes me kind of sad we didn't get him on the project, since I think he could've been real helpful in dealing with the politics of the council, but what can you do. It does make me feel like we should really get more into Eonir politics before we recruit another Great House - if we ever recruit another Great House, I don't think we really currently need another one - but I don't know what sort of actions we can take in order to do that. 'Explore the wonders of the ancient and beautiful city of Tor Lithanel' seems like the kind of thing that would teach us more about the Cityborn, but I can't imagine we'll manage to spare the AP anytime soon.

The meeting with the Dean had one moment I thought was cute:
Boney said:
"The EIC, yes. I've encountered them a time or two in my other job, they're a nightmare to suborn. Was Eike named after the company?"

You blink. "I never noticed that, actually. I don't believe so, she was named by her mother, who wasn't involved with the EIC back then."

"Glad to hear it.
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Tomaso asks Mathilde if Eike is named after the EIC, and when he finds out that she isn't he is glad. I guess because Tomaso is happy to hear that Eike doesn't have the kind of parents that would name their children after their company? That's nice of him.

Zlata dropped one piece of Waystone lore in her conversation:
Boney said:
You frown as you consider that. "What happens when one of the four falls?" Praag did during the Great War Against Chaos, and both Erengrad and Kislev City came close.

"That is why Castle Alexandronov was built. There used to be only three, the old cities of Norvard and Dorogo and Srebrograd, but if you have three and lose one it collapses. If you have four, you can lose one and fall back to the others and retake and rebuild later."
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Norvard and Dorogo and Srebrograd are Erengrad, Kislev and Pragg, though the wiki uses the name Starograd rather than Srebrograd, not sure what that's about. We can deduce two things from this tidbit. One is that it seems that leylines are one directional, since Zlata says that if you want a cycle you need at least three points. But I think the more interesting thing is the revelation that Castle Alexandronov was built to support the Kislev network. That means that the Ice Witches know how to make Waystones, or at least knew how to at the time Castle Alexandronov was built, and that said Waystones can form networks with the original elf-made Waystones. I'm pretty sure this is new information? I considered adding it to the Waystone research avenues post, but maybe it's better to wait and see if Zlata is willing to share more information.
 
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mathymancer said:
Norvard and Dorogo and Srebrograd are Erengrad, Kislev and Pragg, though the wiki uses the name Starograd rather than Srebrograd, not sure what that's about.
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Starograd is the name of the Old Town district and it just means 'Old Town'. Srebrograd is a translation of the canonical nickname of 'Silver City', since I couldn't find any pre-Kislevite names for Praag or any confirmation that Praag is the original name.
 
infinityDivided said:
At this point, I'm starting to wonder if there's a secret KND crossover that I haven't been read into.
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I would say that everything started back when we had to give a name for the Matrix and we decided on Mathilde's Mystical Matrix. To people, it wasn't enough to put Mathilde's name on it, they wanted an even greater impact, so we started theorising ways to create initials that spell out something. The most famous, and possibly first example, of us doing this is with the Multidimensional Aethyric Projection, labelled MAP, which we patted ourselves on the back for (and it was pretty smart).

As with all long running jokes, it began to seep into everything, and I would say it culminated in the frankly way over the top and convoluted scheme of naming each of the Eight Rooms of Calamity in each of the Colleges after a letter in Mathilde's name. Such that only a person who has been to every Room of Calamity, knew their names, and connected the dots (likely because they knew Mathilde), would figure out that it spells M.A.T.H.I.L.D.E.

As a side note, perhaps my favorite instance of this is Rite of Way or RoW, although I'm not sure that the in setting vocabulary fully encapsulates the nature of the pun. I don't know if Right of Way existed as that specific wording back then.
 
The legacy I want Mathilde to leave is one where scholars for many years to come will be groaning at her wordplay and the presence of her name everywhere.

"M... A... Oh, gods damn it, this is going to spell out fucking Mathilde again, isn't it?"
 
Codex said:
As a side note, perhaps my favorite instance of this is Rite of Way or RoW, although I'm not sure that the in setting vocabulary fully encapsulates the nature of the pun. I don't know if Right of Way existed as that specific wording back then.
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It seems like the earliest form of the concept dates back at least to the 1180s:

Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie said:
It follows that we speak concerning Purprestures. A Purpresture, or more properly speaking, a Porpresture, is when any thing is unjustly encroached upon; against the King; as in (...) obstructing public ways, (...) or when any one has built an Edifice in a City upon the King's Street. And, generally speaking, whenever a nuisance is committed affecting the King's Lands, or the King's High Way, or a City, the suit concerning it belongs to the King's Crown. (...) And if, by such Jury, a man be convicted of having made any Purpresture of this kind, he shall be amerced to the King to the extent of the whole Fee that he holds of him, and shall restore that which he has encroached upon; and, if convicted of having encroached by building in a City upon the King's Street, the Edifices shall belong to the King.
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In short, if you block the King's HIghway or a public way, the King has the right to either force you to unblock it or seize what you blocked it with. In written records it does not use the wording 'Right of Way' because they wrote it in Latin, as was the norm for legal matters back then, so we don't know what Middle English phrase was used to refer to it. But I see no reason why it wouldn't have been 'Right of Way', and therefore no reason why the Empire would not have an equivalent concept and phrase.
 
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Codex said:
Snip "On the art of naming"
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I want to name something very very impressive, or ever so slightly less impressive in such a way that it is an acronym that is almost but not entierly "Mathilde" or "Weber".

Just the slightest bit off, to fuck with people.
Of course, it has to be something that would more easily be labled with an acronym that's Mathilde's name because otherwise; what's the point?

---

Also, "Rite of Way" is a work of art. *chef's kiss* I can't recall who came up with it, but they should be damm pleased with themselves.

Edit: Assuming ReImagined is correct, and I expect he is; your mind is a beautiful thing @Alliterate and I am grateful for the art you brought into my life.

Edit edit: Fuck! Now I'm in another bloody reread starting from the bit where Mathilde gets tutoring on the Miasma. 'Cheers' for linking me back to a really funny moment of inthread interactions, ReImagined.

(I jest. :p I'm in no way annoyed. I do in fact have self control and can stop this reread any time I want to. Whenever I want.)
 
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Took a little time to update some of my character profiles. I didn't know some key players were missing an entry. Niedzwenka had almost nothing and I didn't even put Sarvoi in.
Codex said:
Dean Tomaso Mugnaio: Magister and Dean of the Grey College, he is better known as Tomas Muller of Altdorf, a man earning a good name in the Guild of Stevedores for supposedly serving a prison sentence in Mundsen Keep on behalf of a crime done by the Guildmaster. He only spends part of his time being seen looking appropriately miserable in one of the prison's work gangs, but spends most of his time serving as head of educational and recruitment services within the Grey College. Tomaso's name is indicative of a man of Tilean discent. He only recently gained his position when the previous Dean retired a "few years back" from 2488 IC. He speaks in an impeccable dockyard Altdorfer accent, out of place in an academic setting, but presents a professional and clear, to the point demeanour.
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Tomaso is now in Magisters of the Grey College in College Rolodex
Codex said:
Ranald and Shallya's Daughter 1 (Haletha): Looks like Her father with a hint of Her mother. Haletha has been confirmed to be a Daughter of Ranald's through the use of the Father coin, which worked on Aksel, Nordlander Hedgewise and follower of Haletha. Haletha is the Goddess of the Forest of Shadows who protect its inhabitants from the Forest's dangers, and is primarily worshipped by the Forest's inhabitants, primarily the Ostlander and Nordlander Hedgefolk. According to Aksel, Halethan worship has spread far and wide under different names, where she's revered as a Goddess of the Hunt in the North as Haleth, a Fertility Goddess in the South and West also as Haleth, or as a God of Journeys in the West as Kalita. Aksel's defensiveness over mention of a sibling of Haletha despite the Coin indicates a possibility that she has informed some of her followers of her situation and that they would like it to be a secret.
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I've taken the liberty of making an assumption that Daughter 1 is Haletha. Will correct if necessary. I've got what I considered to be the most salient facts.
Codex said:
Senior Lecturer Emeritus Sarvoi: Lead magical theorist of House Tindomiel and member of the Waystone Project as part of Tindomiel's contribution. He is a short (for an Elf) and bookish man of indeterminite but advanced age, wearing pristine white silks trimmed with gold. Mathilde's first impression of him is "that at any given time there's a dozen stamped from the same mold as him in the halls of the University of Altdorf, the type that would give a lecture to a half dozen with the same enthusiasm as he would a thousand if they seemed like they were paying attention." Sarvoi is a lecturer for the Library of Mournings, and his mannerisms clearly indicates an individual who is used to and enjoys teaching, and absolutely loves the subject matter that he speaks of. In fact, Mathilde notes that he speaks of magic as a lover to be wooed rather than an impersonal force to be studied, and that he is quite popular with the artists who romanticise the Forestborn. He is open-minded and not quite so condescending as one might expect, and is willing to learn and understand other viewpoints and perspectives. He holds an open curiosity, a wry sense of humor, and a desire to enlighten others. He is the one to inform Mathilde on the theoretical mechanics behind the movement of magical energy through leylines using Dhar as a dynamic force.
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Bloated more than I would have liked, but here's Sarvoi in his entirety.
Codex said:
Zlataone: Young and dressed in a loose white sundress more suited to a Tilean summer than a Kislevite autumn. Translates Reikspiel for Milica and interrupts to point out Mathilde doesn't look like a dwarf, indicating a sense of humor. Ice Maiden, not yet a full Witch. Has been chosen as the candidate to represent the Ice Court in the Waystone Project. As an Ice Maiden, she has sworn a vow of chastity to understand the Widow, and quick to express regret at the notion when she notes that she's been "sent to the land of beautiful men". Has been observed ogling shirtless Elven athletes in a local park in Laurelorn. She is the daughter of traders, which makes her one of the few Ice Witches who can read, and she didn't expect to become an Ice Witch. She was primarily chosen for the project for her ability to read, her proficiency in Reikspiel, and possibly the fact that she is eager to prove herself yet unlikely to cause trouble. Mathilde's impression is that "you see is what you get - she's fairly competent, fairly scholarly, and fairly out of her depth." Niedzwenka thinks she's a vulnerable target for manipulation if necessary. Zlata wants the project to end in good terms so she can graduate to Ice Witch and come back for some Elven action.
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Zlata's entry was pretty small before I updated it here.
Codex said:
Baba Niedzwenka: The Hag Witch Representative for the Waystone Project. Boney original (?). She is from Erengrad. She is an plump old woman in a black frock with short white hair, and her first appearance showed her sailing a pinnance up the River Schaukel into Laurelorn alone through the Sea of Claws. She speaks in a deep, rich voice with only a hint of an accent, and seems to speak Gospodarinyi, Reikspiel and Eltharin at a minimum. Her personality is that of a jovial, carefree yet sinister figure, casually mentioning problematic subject and using inflammatory language, often not caring for the boundaries set by others such as the Elves or the Ice Witches. Mathilde's Windsight spots no magical ability that indicates if she has used anything recently, and yet she sees dozens of ephemeral attachments to her soul in regards to the boat she uses and several items concealed on her person.

She is a "Koldunja", a type of spirit specialist form of Hag Witch, and while most Hag Witches grow weaker outside their territory and far from the spirits' homes, she personally mentions that she has taught many spirits in her time that it is better to be on her good side, and that she still retains much of her powers if necessary. She has demonstrated the ability to tie a rope from her boat in an "unsettlingly serpentine motion" by simply waving her hand, and has demonstrated that he boat sails without need of wind and current through the use of a spirit around the hull that can materialise the foaming waters into an old man who moans in an agonised and bubbly voice before Niedzwenka dunks him again. She claims that he has drowned too many people to claim to be innocent, which implies that the Spirit is a Vodianoi.

Zlata says that Niedzwenka is older than Kislev, and that "she has always been this way, but she's better than she used to be". Combining Niedzwenka's age with her dislike of the Ice Witches with her affinity for water and specifically the Sea of Claws, and it is highly likely she is the Sea Hag of legend. An ancient Hag Witch who advised Khan Wieran in his defence of Norvard (currently Erengrad) against the Gospodar before Kislev was formed, and whose curses couldn't match up to the Ice Witches so she disappeared into the Sea of Claws and cursed the Gospodar, becoming the Sea Hag.
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This might just be the longest description I've made for a character in my posts. What can I say, there's a lot worthy of note here. Excuse my speculation, but I felt it too significant not to include. I blame Boney for teasing me :p
Codex said:
The Karak-We: The We are a race of sapient eusocial giant cave spiders adapted to an underground environment and typically feed off Skaven in the Under-Empire. They communicate with each other through sound and while they're not individually intelligent/sapient, combined they count as one individual who counts each spider as a part of the whole. Their venom is paralytic, they have a caste system split between the reproductive caste, web weaving caste and the hunter caste, and they have a number of webs for different functions from building and scaffolding to holding and binding. The Karak We are fitted with an artifact allowing one of them to speak in Reikspiel, and they understand written Reikspiel as well as the basics of society and economics. They feed off Red Fang Orcs in the Karagril Gauntlet as well as hunting and being provided livestock, and provide their webs to Karak Eight Peaks as payment. The webs are being worked on to create silk. The Karak We wish to know more about the outside world, and maybe to integrate themselves more deeply in the future.

The Karak-We have become far more prosperous as part of their joining with the Karaz Ankor and K8P specifically, signified by the solidifcation of their Echo memory where they no longer have to worry about starvation or migration. Their food is sufficient through a mixture of hunting and selling their silk for monetary value in the form of livestock. The Karak-We are so prosperous that they have considered splitting, a process of creating an entirely new We that would start as the same but grow more independent and individual with time. Mathilde has convinced the Karak-We to send their offshoot into Kvinn-Wyr to serve as the Library's staff, becoming the Library-We. The arrangement is still tentative and the results remain to be seen.
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Bolded section is the addition. Renamed them to Karak-We for ease of reference compared to Library-We.
Codex said:
Library-We: An offshoot of the Karak-We, who are becoming more prosperous with time within K8P. They are set to be formed and ready towards the end of 2488 IC to serve as the primary staff for Kron-Azril-Ungol, with a Book Nest and accomodations being prepared for them.
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Primary base for the Library-We section which is likely to expand in the future.

That's about it for now. I might need to do further updating soon.
 
mathymancer said:
You have a typo where Zlata is referred to as Zlataone.
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This is very weird. For a long time now, I was under the impression that Zlataone was her full first name, but searching for it I can't find any mention of that. It was 100% intentional of me to write that, it's not a typo, but I have no idea where I got it from. Did I just make it up? That can't be right.
 
Codex said:
This is very weird. For a long time now, I was under the impression that Zlataone was her full first name, but searching for it I can't find any mention of that. It was 100% intentional of me to write that, it's not a typo, but I have no idea where I got it from. Did I just make it up? That can't be right.
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When I read it in your post I was like "ah, yes, her full first name".

...But I don't actually recall reading it anywhere. I just assumed I must've missed it somewhere, and immediately took your word for it.

I should probably do something about that habit. What else could I be convinced of? xD
 
Codex said:
This is very weird. For a long time now, I was under the impression that Zlataone was her full first name, but searching for it I can't find any mention of that. It was 100% intentional of me to write that, it's not a typo, but I have no idea where I got it from. Did I just make it up? That can't be right.
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Could've been Boney once forgot a space between Zlata and one, and since corrected it?

[X] You
 
LadyLynn said:
When I read it in your post I was like "ah, yes, her full first name".

...But I don't actually recall reading it anywhere. I just assumed I must've missed it somewhere, and immediately took your word for it.

I should probably do something about that habit. What else could I be convinced of? xD
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I try my best to be accurate, but I've had difficulties with names. It's pretty hard to maintain an 18k word post that I often update.
 
mathymancer said:
Tomaso asks Mathilde if Eike is named after the EIC, and when he finds out that she isn't he is glad. I guess because Tomaso is happy to hear that Eike doesn't have the kind of parents that would name their children after their company? That's nice of him.
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He's just happy for one less pun in the world. A curmudgeon, in other words.
 
Rite of Way is one of the best, but I hold the Staff of Mistery as a great name as well.
Codex said:
I would say that everything started back when we had to give a name for the Matrix and we decided on Mathilde's Mystical Matrix. To people, it wasn't enough to put Mathilde's name on it, they wanted an even greater impact, so we started theorising ways to create initials that spell out something. The most famous, and possibly first example, of us doing this is with the Multidimensional Aethyric Projection, labelled MAP, which we patted ourselves on the back for (and it was pretty smart).

As with all long running jokes, it began to seep into everything, and I would say it culminated in the frankly way over the top and convoluted scheme of naming each of the Eight Rooms of Calamity in each of the Colleges after a letter in Mathilde's name. Such that only a person who has been to every Room of Calamity, knew their names, and connected the dots (likely because they knew Mathilde), would figure out that it spells M.A.T.H.I.L.D.E.

As a side note, perhaps my favorite instance of this is Rite of Way or RoW, although I'm not sure that the in setting vocabulary fully encapsulates the nature of the pun. I don't know if Right of Way existed as that specific wording back then.
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This is a pretty good summation of the Doylist reasons, but I like to think it makes sense for her character too.

It started with naming it after herself, because Mathilde, but especially young Mathilde, really wanted recognition from her peers (wizards) and superiors. That's why the naming started. In my interpretation, this has shifted to satisfaction at leaving a legacy, because she's gotten plenty of recognition, but sort of signing some of her deeds is still nice.

The second factor is that Mathilde enjoys dumb worldplay, and if it's clever dumb worldplay, all the better. 'The Vampire is sure to rampire' followed by mic drop is still one of my favorite moments. The third factor ties into that, which is that Mathilde likes to feel clever, especially through the creation of puzzles and mysteries. It's very Ulgu. And in a way, I imagine it's another way for her to leave something behind, just in a more personal way. It's a gift to some future discoverer, to puzzle over and be delighted by if they solve it. I'm sure young Mathilde would've loved to find something like that.

It was certainly driven by the thread initially, that's the nature of a quest. But because of the consistency (and quality!), and because how well Boney integrated it, it's a character trait by now, and following the naming scheme is a fully valid way of playing Mathilde as Mathilde.
(My personal biggest beef with AV as the name is that there's no clever hidden meaning, as far as I know, and I just don't think that's a Mathilde thing to do).
 
AV being what it is, I fully understand why we didn't go ham with it. Aethyric Vitae is a straight to the point and clear name for anyone with enough understanding of magic theory to realise how fitting it is. It's also quick and easy and a neat acronym, not something like MMM. The fact that we could easily hold it as one of our greatest discoveries probably made it more likely for it to receive a completely serious name rather than one of Mathilde's usual shenanigans.

I also believe that people had some difficulty making a name for it stick. Shoving Mathilde's name in there felt a bit gauche.
 
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