How does one prepare to see something that will be very faint and very temporary? The Colleges have a few answers, but most must be discarded as they are focused on seeing only one of the Winds and do so at the expense of the others. There are meditative techniques that Teclis tried to teach the Colleges which were duly recorded, but as these were intended to sharpen Elven Magesight - a full-fledged and almost universal sense in its own right, rather than the individual adaptations of the human soul that are filtered through the body's senses - they have proven to be useful only for those seeking insights into Elven spellcasting.
I find it interesting how Mathilde describes the differences between human and Elven magical sense. If those meditative techniques were taught to the Colleges, then I suppose Mathilde is aware in general terms of the standard methods of magical sensing employed by Sapherian/Hoethian Mages. She describes it as a "universal sense" rather than a sense that's been filtered through human soul adaptations through the body's senses. Does that mean that Elves don't have the whole dichotomy of different sensing paradigms? Like one seeing Winds, another hearing them, another smelling them, another tasting them etc.? Or perhaps it's still diverse, but they can shape the method from which they view the Winds. It seems like Elves have a more direct way of sensing the Winds than the many adaptations employed by the human body.
Although I'm willing to guess those sensing lessons are probably years long in comparison to how quickly humans pick it up. Elves are very sharp and precies, but humans take shortcuts.
I also find the idea of a bunch of "Elven enthusiasts" to be quite funny. Maybe there's the equivalent of the "Anime Club" in the Colleges but it's dedicated to obsessing over Elves and Ulthuan and how they do things.
So instead the Colleges use the teachings of Volans, the first Magister Patriarch of the Order of Light, who when summoned by Teclis had already spent decades honing his ability to see each of the individual Winds. For that reason, when it comes time to make preparations for the research of the Leylines you propose to Elrisse that the two of you make your preparations together. It's perhaps not the most effective of bonding experiences as it simply involves the two of you consulting Volans' writings on the subject and then spending a great deal of time in quiet meditation in a magically-neutral environment, but it's a gesture of acknowledgement towards the Light Order and it hopefully gets the standoffish-seeming woman a bit more used to your company.
I dunno, two nerds nerding out over shared interests is a great icebreaker. It's really dependent on how nerdy they were getting. I wonder if Elrisse seems to be more stand-offish than she actually is because of her presumed neurodivergence. I know people who don't show what they're feeling and that can cause problems with relating to others, but they feel quite strongly and they just struggle to express it. Elrisse is already the type of person who seems to take some type before saying anything so she wouldn't be misunderstood, so perhaps adapting to social interactions is just an exhausting ordeal rather than something that is welcome.
From my experience with people like that (myself included of course), I can say that sitting in comfortable and companionable silence is a pleasant experience. You don't need to fill the air with words, you can just sit and learn things together and it can be pleasant. Some of my most enjoyable interactions were with people who shared my interests, because it led to some of the most engaging conversations I've ever had.
The Waystones you've selected for your observation and experimentation are a chain in the Howling Hills of southern Middenland. It cannot be described as entirely safe as the plentiful caves in the region hide their fair share of bandits and creatures, but the area is ruled over by the Knights Panther in Middenstag, making it very unlikely there would be anything in the area that could pose anything like a threat to the five of you. The others have made their own ways here from whatever preparations of their own they had been making, and the group convenes by the chosen Waystone at the appointed hour.
Hey! Another chain of Waystones in Middenland. Mathilde noted no particular nexuses in her search of the Waystones, but it's still chock full of regular ol' Waystones I suppose. The Howling Hills is a good place to put it, considering it's about west of Hergig (a known Nexus). It's also east of Midden Moors (another probably location imo) and south of Middenheim.
Overall it's pretty well placed geographically, and coincidentally it supplies about three tributaries down to the River Talabec. To the west of the Hills is the River Delb and Delberz, one of the most important geographical locations in Middenland (midway point between Middenheim and Altdorf in the Middenheim-Altdorf road and a ferry town for shipping down the Delb into the Talabec). To the east of the Hills is Untergard and Grimminhagen, lying across the River Taub and serving as important waypoints across the Old Forest Road (northern section of the Old Dwarf Road) leading to Middenheim. In the middle is Middenstag, stationed by the Knights Panther as stated in the excerpt above. It's an important geographical position and it's hwhere Mandred von Zelt defeated the Skaven and ended the Rat Wars.
Anyways, impromptu infodump over. Let's continue.
"Time?" you ask after your arrangements are set up.
Elrisse consults a pocket watch. "One minute until the downstream Waystone is deactivated," she reports. The five of you wait in silence for what feels like at least three before Elrisse says "now," and all of your attentions turn to the leyline below.
Mathilde carried a compass with her when she was checking out tributaries in Middenland, so one would have to wonder why she didn't bring her own watch. My theory is that she's drunk with power and reveling in the fact that she can ask someone to tell her the time.
The first change you notice is that some outer layer to the leyline seems to freeze in place, and them melt into the rest of the stream as it begins to slow. Moments later the flow downstream of this Waystone halts entirely, and energies begin to intermingle and disperse into the stone. The flow upstream seems to have more momentum and the energy arriving at this Waystone are absorbed by it. But not cleanly, you note - there's something of a pile-up at the Waystone that interrupts the careful dance of Winds orbiting Dhar, and by the time the Waystone absorbs them only Dhar remains.
Waystones don't absorb Dhar, they simply store and use them as a transportation mechanism for the Winds. Perhaps that's why Mathilde didn't sense the Dhar back in Fort Brackensbh8hrworn. The Dhar was gathered and then immediately shunted as part of a transportation mechanism with Winds orbiting it, so the Winds could have masked the Dhar because Mathilde wasn't aware of how things worked back then. The Dhar only becomes super noticable when it starts piling up, which only occurs when the Waystone is at capacity and can't trasport the Winds out at a fast enough rate.
"The Waystones themselves seem to have no mechanism to reverse the creation of the energy packets," you note aloud. "It's reabsorbing the energy as only Dhar."
"No wonder Necromancers and Sorcerers love to clog the flow," Elrisse says. "It does all the work for them."
They didn't quite figure out how to Un-Dharify Dhar even back in the Golden Age. I assume this is part of the reason that Boney's been very insistent on the Kvinn-Wyr thing not being Dhar purification, it was just the Warpstone collapsing and the Trolls eating it. It's important from a lore perspective why Waystones can't clear Dhar without a direct connection to the Vortex.
"Did anyone else note the way the outer layer of the leyline reacted first?" you ask, and Hatalath, Sarvoi and Zlata nod.
This is interesting. Mathilde noticed, and of course Hatalath and Sarvoi noticed. That is to be expected. I'm impressed that Zlata noticed. Perhaps she simply rolled well behind the scenes, but from a narrative perspective, perhaps this means Zlata has sharp senses? For NPCs, their first rolls can help determine their capabilities.
I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention that I enjoy the interplay of characters presented in this chapter. Boney masterfully managed Mathilde, Thorek, Elrisse, Zlata, Hatalath and Sarvoi and made sure all of them had their moments and would contribute in one manner or another. Mathilde is of course the focal point, but Elrisse was included with the Volans and meditation section, acted as the person who would call out the time, and as the person pointing out that Dhar is not to be messed with. Zlata is turning out inquisitive, as the least experienced she's the one who asks questions or provides suggestions to contribute to the discussion despite not fully understanding it, but helping us the audience, understand and immerse ourselves in the discussion. We're closer to Zlata when it comes to some of the technicalities than the others, so she's the one asking stuff like how long would it take for the energy to fade. Sarvoi is extraordinarily intelligent and he shows it, providing a lot of theories and concepts and engaging in back and forth that furthers the discussion in a positive manner and willing to engage with other people's suggestions. He shows his abilities quite frequently here.
Hatalath does so too, although his discussions seem to be primarily playing off Sarvoi since he doesn't seem to view anyone else as positively to engage with them. Thorek is struggling with his internal desire to clam up and considering exactly what he could say and how to say it, but still providing an interest in the process that shows the researcher in him. And there Mathilde is, in the middle, acting as control and bringing all the components together in a cohesive whole. This update was quite excellent in its portrayal of information and discussion, which is impressive considering how many distinct characters had to be juggled. Maybe it wasn't as meaty as Boney wanted, but it was more than satisfactory.
"Would the outermost layer of a stream be the first to react?" Zlata asks.
Thorek looks intrigued. "A helical energy stream?"
"There was a distinct layer that reacted differently," Sarvoi says. "And then it melted into the rest of the energies. A control mechanism, I'd wager, and when it was cut off from wherever the strings are being pulled it collapsed into ambient energies and joined the rest of the stream."
Sounds like some sort of modified Alarm spell. Maybe Caledor and his buddies aren't actually capable of looking at every single part of the Network at the same time, and the outer layer is an Alarm for the central system that says "something's wrong here" to attract the central system's attention.
What I'm not entirely sure of here is why Thorek says "helical energy stream". I know Helical means a spiral helix pattern, but I'm not very good with visual imaging so I don't understand why he came to that conclusion immediately. Did he assume that the pattern moved in a helix because helixes have both an external and internal line?
"The flow is still coming from upstream," Hatalath observes. "And likely would do so indefinitely. Eventually this Waystone would become filled to capacity, and then the energy will pile up and begin to radiate out, like a river breaking its banks. The disruption would flow upstream until it reaches that Waystone, and then it will reabsorb all the Dhar it releases until it too reaches its capacity. You would end up with a straight line of corruption between the two, with the Waystones turned into beacons of pure Dhar just waiting until a Storm of Magic forces more energy in and bursts the containment mechanisms."
"Which would happen everywhere there is a Waystone if the flow to Ulthuan was ever completely cut off," you note grimly. "Which so far seems to include every major population centre on the continent."
That would be bad.
I also assume that Hatalath's first thought was a Storm of Magic because of his generally reclusive lifestyle. There's plenty of people out there that would delight in bursting a Waystone without a Storm of Magic being involved. Beastmen foremost among them considering their Herdstones.
"Interesting that deactivating a Waystone stops the next Waystone upstream from sending it energy, but not anything further up the line," Sarvoi notes. "Optimistic, I'd say. It was built with the assumption that a Waystone would only need to be cut off from the network for long enough to maintain or replace it, so there would be no possibility of problems accumulating upstream. Having to permanently remove a Waystone from the network wasn't accounted for."
"The reign of Bel Shanaar was a heady time," Hatalath says distantly. "We all thought it would last forever."
As glorious as the Golden Age was to them back then, they might have needed an edge of cynicism for future-proofing the mechanism. With the way the Waystones look, it feels like an actual "Waystone Maintenance Team" might have to be formed to keep track of and maintain the network.
"So far it seems like halfway between our two hypotheses," you observe. "There's some sort of central control mechanism, but the flow can continue when cut off from the greater network, up until the Waystones reach capacity." You look to Zlata. "And if the flow was maintained instead of being dammed, and energy was being taken out at least as fast as it is being added, then it could last indefinitely." Zlata returns your gaze, gives it some thought, and nods.
Use it up as quickly as you store it. Considering Kislev's position, that's not a hard job. They're always in need of a little something up north.
"So if we had a way to spend the energies..." Sarvoi begins.
"Including the Dhar?" Elrisse asks pointedly.
Sarvoi considers that. "Ah. Yes, I see your point. There are arguments to be made about lesser evils in some circumstances, but scaling up to a size of a continent means rapidly running out of evils great enough to justify such widespread use of corruptive energies."
Sarvoi is quite the pleasant man. Elrisse clearly points out the Dhar issue and he addresses it properly instead of being an arrogant dick about. One could argue that Elrisse and Sarvoi are a possible fracture point because inquisitor vs a guy who doesn't mind Dhar as much, but I think their personalities don't clash that hard.
"Unless there was a way to convert Dhar into some other, more benign form of energy." You turn your look to Thorek.
"It is said," he says heavily after a long period of thought, "that the Ancestor Gods and those that learned from them could create Runes with that capability. Some of the very least of those techniques were rediscovered by the Runelord Alaric, but he drove himself mad seeking more than that. And only a very few Runelords are capable of reliably using them."
"Would they be at all scalable?" you ask.
"If Kragg had spent his entire long life doing nothing else, then he would perhaps have managed enough to protect a tenth of Altdorf."
It is reasonable to consider the Dwarves on this topic, since they turn the Winds into a neutral energy source, but Dhar is another issue altogether. It's a clumped up and powerful strand of corruptive magic and untangling it is difficult. I imagine the ordered nature of runes clash against the chaotic mess of Dhar, and it takes some truly complex runework to untangle the strands enough to convert them. Maybe some sort of adaptive rune matrix could do it, but something like that clashes with the general nature of Runes. Maybe a Bok-like alternative where there's some sort of elemental construct dedicated to untangling strands of Dhar, but that falls afoul of the whole issue in regards to replicating Bok, starting with the Sevirscope, moving into aetheric runes and then into how five runes could even work. It's a whole ordeal.
It's also respectable of Thorek for him to use Kragg as an example of covering Altdorf. Yes part of it is his age, but I think Thorek full well knows he's not a match for Kragg in Runework. Thorek using himself as an example doesn't hit as hard as using Kragg, and he acknowledges that. Not that he'd ever outright admit it.
You grimace. "And it stands to reason that even if any logistical concerns were handwaved away, any still-existing examples of the greater Runes would have a finite capacity."
Thorek takes even longer to consider this answer. "It does stand to reason," he eventually concludes.
I'm not sure if Thorek is aware of the Great Runeworks of the Ancestors. I'm sure he's aware of the Eyes of Grimnir, but does he know that there's a Kingdom wide Waystone network feeding energy to fuel those works? I'm not so sure. However, he might be aware of the sorts of things that the Ancestors have done, and therefore could extrapolate that there might be something in the Dwarven vaults capable of doing something, but it's not a thing he would share. Maybe to Mathilde alone, and that's a hard maybe.
"The only other possibility would be divine," you observe. "A deity willing to dedicate Themselves to a land and take upon Them the burden of purifying a constant stream of Dhar within that land into divine energy."
All eyes turn to Zlata. "Kislev is land, land is Kislev, we are Kislev," she says simply, her voice only betraying a hint of nervousness.
"Through blood runs power of land. Yha? If concentrate, can feel Ancient Widow in every beat of heart, in every breath. Kislev is land. Land is Kislev. We are Kislev!" —Baba Doya, Hag Witch (Page 88 Realm of the Ice Queen)
If there is one thing Hag and Ice Witches can agree on, it is that they are Kislev, and Kislev is land.
"But even if we simply assume that it would even be possible to implementing the same approach in the Empire, the merest hint of the idea would instantly split the Empire into at least three parts."
Sigmar, Ulric and Taal. War of Three Emperors yet again. Not an approach that I'd be keen on.
"Bretonnia might be capable of it," Elrisse observes.
"Maybe so, but Bretonnia doesn't have the Grey Mountains between it and Ulthuan."
I don't fully understand this? I understand Elrisse saying that Bretonnia could dedicate the Network to the Lady, but what does Mathilde mean by the Grey Mountains thing? Does Mathilde mean that if Bretonnia dedicated their network to the Lady, the Empire wouldn't have any connection to Ulthuan? I suppose that's what makes the most sense, but I want to make sure. If I remember correctly, the Empire's connections to Ulthuan are entirely dependent on Bretonnia.
After you run out of observations to make, you fire off a second signal rocket to tell Max and Johann to reactivate their respective Waystones as you do the same to yours. Nothing immediately occurs in the Waystones so you sit and watch, and a few minutes later with shocking speed a hollow spool of energies flows upstream and latches on to the underground base of the Waystone like a talon around a fieldmouse, and moments later the Waystone begins to send energies downstream as though it was never interrupted. The grasping energy spool launches itself onwards towards the next Waystone, leaving the outermost layer of the leyline in place behind it and before long it fills with the rest of the energies flowing downwards.
"Well, that was abrupt," you comment. "I think we can safely say that there's some sort of centralization at play here, and not merely a passive attractant."
"Some sort of enchantment?" Hatalath suggests.
"If it is, then it must be modifiable, considering the Fort Solace reroute," Sarvoi says.
"Unless it sends those talons up any extant energy stream, then you could add a new junction to the network by sending power down it until the enchantment recognizes it as a pathway."
The initial theory was that the Vortex had an attractive quality to it that resulted in the Waystones drawing in energy because they were connected. Now we know that there is a central authority dedicated to maintaining the network. I wonder if the central system (AKA Caledor and friends) are still involved in private networks like Kislev or if they're cut off. I assume cut off, because they live in the Isle of the Dead in the middle of the Vortex. There needs to be a connection to the Vortex I assume.
"If it's predetermined then reactivating any old Waystone would let it reconnect to the network, whereas if it's adaptive then there's a time limit before the energies fade to a point where it's no longer recognized and you need to be able to blaze that trail manually," you say. "Considering the sheer amount of power that would take, I don't like the idea of having to trial-and-error that."
"What would that time limit be, though?" Zlata asks.
"Energy flow through bedrock? As a very rough rule of thumb, it won't fade entirely for at least a tenth of the time the energy flow had to establish itself, and if you want to actively keep track of it, check it every hundredth. So for most of the network, in the area of decades for there to be enough time for noticeable change."
You frown at that. "Not the sort of thing that's feasibly testable even if we were willing to sacrifice a Waystone to do so, then. Still, we can try deactivating them for a day and then a week and see if there's any observable differences."
I think this conversation is confusing. The lines before this are a conversation between Hatalath and Sarvoi, or at least I assume it is because there is no "Sarvoi says" or "Hatalath says" at the end of the lines so I assume they're following up their conversation. Here, Mathilde comes in, and I realise this because there is the "you say" there. I then assume that the person who replies to Zlata there is also Mathilde, because it has no indication of who said it so it would be a follow up, but then immediately afterwards "You frown at that". Mathilde could be frowning at her own words, but the wording is vague enough that it could also be interpreted as someone coming in and interjecting and Mathilde frowning at what they're saying. It's a bit confusing to me. I spent a little while trying to tell if Sarvoi or Hatalath were interjecting here or if it's all Mathilde.
On another note, if it is Mathilde replying to Zlata, then I think this is a good touch to represent a certain dynamic. The Ice Witches are not an academic institution, but the Colleges definitely are. Zlata was sent here specifically because she's one of the rare ones with language and literacy capability, and despite that she is still not an academic. She wouldn't have been taught stuff like the speed of transmission of the Winds through different material and the rate of dissipation and all that nerd stuff, but Mathilde would have. This creates a dynamic between a person who's learnt the traditional magic of her culture without delving into the academic side because that's not part of her curriculum and the combination of theoretical and practical that Mathilde indulges in.
It is by no means a jab at the Kislevite system. Academics has a niche utility in a society like Kislev and their magic is in no way inferior for a lack of understanding the speed it moves. But it is a neat dynamic that could be further extrapolated on in the future.
There's general agreement, and the conversation shifts into lively debate about whether to spend the night at the spa village of Bad Hohne or the ferry town of Delberz.
I find this quite amusing. They spent a bunch of time having complex theoretical conversation and they immediately transition into arguing about accomodations, as any group of people would. If I were to guess, I would say Zlata, Hatalath and Mathilde would enjoy the spa town, and Sarvoi, Elrisse and Thorek would go for the ferry town. Zlata and Mathilde because they would enjoy the pampering, Hatalath so he could interact with less people since Delberz is crowded. I would assume Sarvoi is starving to learn more stuff so Delberz is more attractive, Thorek probably has Dwarven accomodations in Delberz and Elrisse can be more integrated in the local rumor mill in Delberz.
The results the next day seem to be more or less the same, so you deactivate the Waystones once more and arrange to reconvene next week. When that day comes around, everything seems to be as normal until the Waystones are reactivated again. You'd braced yourself for the speed that the reactivation had shown previously, but this time it was even faster and impacted the Waystone with enough metaphysical force to send up a nimbus of disturbed energies. There's a flicker of arcane energies and something within the Waystone shifts, its carvings glowing a sullen red for a moment, and then the regenerating network rampaged on upstream.
"Well," you say, as you fruitlessly try to blink away the afterimages that don't actually have anything to do with your eyes. "That was abrupt."
Central System is pissed. I find it interesting, because they've had to have stayed in the Vortex for thousands of years, yet a week of being cut off pissed them off. I assume they still experience time in a regular manner despite being a disembodied collective of spirits trapped for thousands of years? Muse be torture. I guess they don't have a lot of patience for silly buggers.
"Why would it be faster after a long wait?" Elrisse asks. "Does it build up the energy to restore the connection while it waits for it to be restored?"
"That might make sense to a much lesser degree, but not this dramatically," Hatalath says. "If we're in the realm of decades for any noticeable difference, such a drastic build-up of energies over merely a week would be completely disproportionate."
I suppose the Central System assumed that the Waystone was lost after a week of it being gone, and they got pretty pissed when they found out that it could have been restored at any point and that someone was playing around with it.
"It was the same amount of magical energy," Thorek says confidently. "The difference in effect must be down to how it was applied."
"I suspect..." Sarvoi begins, then speaks the deactivation phrase, to which the Waystone completely fails to respond. "Yes, see? We annoyed it, so it took away the clapper and slammed the door. Fascinating. I suppose it's at least somewhat encouraging that it didn't smite me for trying."
Interesting that Sarvoi was the first to come to this conclusion. His general outlook and scholarly leaning is incredibly advantageous, and his general view of things is so non-standard that it really helps in figuring things out. Instead of assuming that the Network was some sort of enchantment, he connected the dots and figured out that the Waystone was acting disconcertingly sapient and came to the conclusion that it might be so.
This kind of reminds me about that one joke Boney made about the Damsels revealing that the Waystones were sapient and had names all along. That's some 5head foreshadowing from Boney, to disguise the truth as a joke. Boney's several steps ahead.
"If it's thinking and feeling, it can't be an enchantment, surely," you say.
"Normally so, but at a large enough scale the normal rules break down," Hatalath says. "And it would be hard to find anything larger than this."
"Anything that thinks and feels without a soul invites something to fill the void where a soul should be," Elrisse says. "Though the idea of something that could fill a void that large is a daunting one."
Thinks and feels without a soul. What does Elrisse mean by "feel". Does she refer to the hormonal movements that constitute human emotions and reactions, or is she referring to something more metaphysical? If so, is it even possible to "feel" without a soul? That line got my brain working in a very weird direciton.
"Could it be a God controlling it?" Zlata asks.
"Hoeth would be the obvious candidate, but by all accounts He doesn't get snappish quite that easily," Sarvoi says. "If you're looking for a thinking mind in the Vortex that's inclined to be cranky, why go past the one we know is there? Perhaps there he endures, drunk on power, bitter with impotence, curdling in the malefic nightmare of his own existence?"
How poetic. Sarvoi has a distinctly artistic flair to his wording. I suppose decades if not centuries of teaching the Mystical nature of the Winds and treating them as a lover to be wooed has made him quite verbose. If Caledor has truly developed an ego, then I have an idea on how to convince him to help us.
Sarvoi, do your thing. Write a poem and seduce Caledor Dragontamer's immortal spirit.
"Caledor Dragontamer?" you ask, and Sarvoi nods. "I thought he sacrificed himself to create the Vortex."
"Oh, by all accounts he did. But the most potent way to sacrifice your life has always been to do so one day at a time."
There's a long, quiet moment as everyone tries to digest that idea, and you find it sticks in the throat quite unpleasantly. Hatalath looks especially horrified.
Nice metaphor with the "digest, sticks to the throat" thing Boney. I don't usually notice when Boney does it, but this one was particularly poingnant. Those are some impactful words right there.
"Whichever it might be, it does answer our original question," you say, plowing determinedly forward. "I assume among the keyphrases Teclis didn't share with us, there's one to point the network towards a new Waystone and let it do the work. I don't suppose Laurelorn has that information?"
"Ulthuan was very willing to share the work of creating the network with the colonies, but not so much any meaningful information about it," Sarvoi says. "I'll round up some of my brighter students and examine the known keyphrases to see if there's some extrapolatable commonalities, but at best it would be a starting point for trial-and-error experimentation, and we just learned that it doesn't like that."
If there's anything a collective of bright students would be good at, it's wordplay. Sarvoi exploiting his students for free labor is truly maniacal however.
"What about the Grey Lords?" you ask.
"Those of us who were from Saphethion weren't considered trustworthy enough," Hatalath says with a sniff. "Considering some of those that were, I take it as an endorsement."
I've already covered this. On another note, the way Hatalath is portrayed here with the sniff and the jab is such a Max reaction. I think it's funny to compare Hatalath to Max's bratty teenager phase. At least Max learnt to respect Mathilde pretty quick.
"So we try to extract it from Ulthuan, try to extract it from Naggaroth, or try our luck prodding the enchantment further," you say dubiously, and you get the round of nods you expected but did not want in response. "Well, I suppose we knew going into it that it wasn't going to be easy."
Those options don't look that great. Maybe we should fall back to Rivers for the moment while we find a way to crack this problem.
Final conclusion is that Sarvoi is an MVP. I'm tempted to invite the GOAT to more actions. Zlata is like a cute mascot, following around and asking questions. Hatalath is old and moldy. Thorek is going through a hard time. Mathilde is doing a good job. I get the impression that Elrisse would make for a good Straight {Wo)Man in a comedy routine.
As a final note, I would like to standardise a name for when we're referring to the central authority of the Waystone network. It's not just Caledor Dragontamer, it would include a bunch of his fellow Archmages. Simple is fine, so I propose Central System, or CS for short.
I also use they/them pronouns for CS. Not because they're non-binary, but because they are literally multiple people.
