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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Codex said:
It should also be noted that Sigmar did not create a calendar that includes every ceremony and cultural festival. He created a position by the name of the Master of the Calendars or whatever that was in charge of that stuff, but the Calendar was taken from the Dwarves. All he did was separate the Calendar into months and create a weekly cycle, because Dwarves didn't have a concept of months or weeks. They would go "the 279th day of year 4457" or whatever.
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I think he might've been remembering the tremendously overly-ostentatiously named Palace of Time from WFRP 4e: Altdorf - Crown of the Empire, page 202:
The Palace of Time
The Palace of Time is a secretive underground installation, the office of the minister of calendars. Its location is shown on no map. From behind a guarded entrance in the Palastfeld, a spiral stair leads to a stone corridor and a tiny square room, no bigger than the bedroom in a cheap boarding house. The plain but watertight stonework suggests that this may once have been a Dwarf installation.

Rumour has it that Sigmar himself instituted the office of minister of calendars, to log all the various festivals of different cultural groups in the Empire. In Sigmar's day, keeping track of various tribal celebrations was a difficult diplomatic necessity. These days, the increasing diversity of communities in the Empire makes the job even harder, just as their degree of cooperation makes it less important.

The minister of calendars also has a secondary role, to act as an early warning to the Sigmarite Cult of any evidence suggesting that a particular festival might involve forbidden rites or heretical messages. The current minister of calendars is an elderly man called Gaspar von Derberg. He spends most of his days in the office, passing through his ledgers, making updates, and interviewing the agents that he sends throughout the Empire to report the details of local festivals and traditions.
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alvus said:
Somehow, to this day the Cult is still trying to fulfill Sigmar´s original orders. Unfortunately for everyone, it seems that every new calendar and combination of days they try, ends up with a new Daemon being summoned.
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I always knew Calendar Man from DC comics was the Changer of Ways.
 
alvus said:
Somehow, to this day the Cult is still trying to fulfill Sigmar´s original orders. Unfortunately for everyone, it seems that every new calendar and combination of days they try, ends up with a new Daemon being summoned.
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I think the daemon summoning is a feature, not a bug at this point. How else would they decide which one is best than with a fight to the death?
 
Was it this quest that had a discussion about centaurs (not centigors) in southern Naggaroth? Trying to remember if it was canon or not
 
In the very unlikely but also exciting scenario where Mathilde has lived to four hundred years of age, would she be accorded the perks of status of being a living ancestor, since she is a dwarf? :V
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
(wish C7 was better at saying when the pdfs are out)
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Speaking of, a Lustria book was announced, but that's not the next book coming out. One of C7's creative directors said on the WFRP Discord that Archives of the Empire 3's coming out next, but they didn't announce it because they forgot to do so.

So hurray! New book! And here's information from the guy about what'll be in it:
Behold! Word from beyond (i.e. from Dave Allen)

"The next edition of Archives of the Empire focuses on some of the more esoteric beliefs of folk in the Old World, with attention given to the practices of those who venerate Rhya, Handrich, and Solkan. Whether seeking to improve one's fortunes in business, ensure the vitality of the growing crop, or wreck terrible vengeance on the corrupt and wrongful, there is a faith for you. Other articles include running a business in the Empire, an update to the rules for armour, options for starting characters from the different districts of Altdorf, and more options for magic users."
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It just looks excellent for me. Not much interested in Solkan and Handrich, but hell yeah, Rhya! Agriculture's the best, and Rhya is criminally underrepresented in Warhammer despite having the divine portfolio she has. And of course looking forward to those options for magic users.
 
pucflek said:
In the very unlikely but also exciting scenario where Mathilde has lived to four hundred years of age, would she be accorded the perks of status of being a living ancestor, since she is a dwarf? :V
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The Dwarfs won't play silly buggers with that; particularly as Mathilde would have proven a Dwarfy nature by living for 400 years.

That said she's probably equal in prestige to a living ancestor due to all the stuff she's done so far; in 400 years her only rival would be Kragg.
 
The other question is having lived for 400 years, how dwarf-like will Mathilde be? Off the top of my head, she already refers to men as manlings and braids her hair in dwarf fashion.
 
We already had an option of "indistinguishable from a dwarf" trait. It's quite possible we might take it.
 
I wouldn't mind seeing Mathilde get a little "elfy". It would be a cool indication of her status in two very different cultures.

We'd have to invest in a lot more Eonir diplomacy for that to happen, however.
 
The more places you see, the more things you see that appeal to you, but no one place has them all. In fact, each place has a smaller and smaller percentage of the things you love, the more things you see. It drives you, even subconsciously, to keep looking, for a place not that's perfect (we all know there's no Shangri-La), but just for a place that's "just right for you."

But the curse is that the odds of finding "just right" get smaller, not larger, the more you experience. So you keep looking even more, but it always gets worse the more you see.
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Alectai said:
Fuck, I'll help, I've been mulling over the idea for a while, and if you're willing to do the research and keeping things straight so I don't run into an Increasing Complexity Problem that breaks my ability to proceed, I'll do the writing and idea stuff.
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You see, the great thing about Age of Sigmar (which some might find a weakness) is that you have near unlimited creative freedom. You aren't limited to strict rules and concepts. You can decide that something exists, and somewhere in the Mortal Realms, there is somewhere that accomodates it. The range of possibilities is impossibly vast. That being said, there's plenty of primers for where to look and where to focus on if you prefer having some sort of rail to work on. It's not nearly as nebulous as it used to be.

The easiest concept you can work on is to go for a "Free City" quest where your character, whoever they turn out to be, lives in a Free City. Another concept that appeals more to the Empire Builders is to go for a "Dawnbringer Crusade" quest, where you attempt to establish an outpost in the wilderness, survive and slowly but surely build up your forces until you get supplies from the Free Cities to expand your outpost, hopefully into a bigger settlement and maybe eventually a new Free City. Lots of freedom in how to construct things.
 
Codex said:
Another concept that appeals more to the Empire Builders is to go for a "Dawnbringer Crusade" quest, where you attempt to establish an outpost in the wilderness, survive and slowly but surely build up your forces until you get supplies from the Free Cities to expand your outpost, hopefully into a bigger settlement and maybe eventually a new Free City.
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Ok, so I promise not make a debate out of it, just a question: how relevant Free Cities and mortals in general are in AoS? Because what little I know seems to indicate power levels have been set up to eleven, and a free city will get stomped the moment any big shots look at it funny, unless a friendly bigshot happens to be around to save them. Is that the case, or is it my lack of knowledge talking again?
 
Codex said:
Another concept that appeals more to the Empire Builders is to go for a "Dawnbringer Crusade" quest, where you attempt to establish an outpost in the wilderness, survive and slowly but surely build up your forces until you get supplies from the Free Cities to expand your outpost, hopefully into a bigger settlement and maybe eventually a new Free City.
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Glances over at folder called "Quest Ideas"
 
Altom said:
Ok, so I promise not make a debate out of it, just a question: how relevant Free Cities and mortals in general are in AoS? Because what little I know seems to indicate power levels have been set up to eleven, and a free city will get stomped the moment any big shots look at it funny, unless a friendly bigshot happens to be around to save them. Is that the case, or is it my lack of knowledge talking again?
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Free Cities are pretty big, and a large part of it is mortals. Aelves, Duardin and Humans work together, and they survive through a mixture of ingenuity and cooperation. There are dozens of different organisations that form up together to create a mixed arms fighting style. There's the Free Guild (Empire equivalent), Dispossesed (Dwarf Empire equivalent), Ironweld Arsenal (Both Dwarf and Human artillery), Collegiate Arcane (Colleges equivalent), Eldritch Council (Tower of Hoeth equivalent), Phoenix Temple (Phoenix Guard equivalent), Lion Rangers (Chrace equivalent), Swifthawk Agents (Elven Cavalry), Order Draconis (Caledor equivalent), Darkling Covens (Druchii Sorceresses and a bunch of Dark Elf foot soldiers), Order Serpentis (Beastmaster equivalents), Scourge Privateers (Black Ark Pirates), Shadowblades (Assassins and Shadow Warriors), and Wanderers (Wood Elves+ Sisters of Avelorn).

They also form pacts and alliances and their gimmick is that they can cooperate with other people to a greater extent than most armies. They can ally in Stormcast Eternals, and in specific Cities they can ally in Kharadron Overlords, Sylvaneth, Lumineth and Daughters of Khaine. Also, depending on what you view as mortals, Kharadron are just regular Dwarves with power suits who use intelligence and ingenuity, and Idoneth are literally godless. Everything they have they struggled to get.

Yes Free Cities are going to be demolished if a God attackes it, but that's relatively rare. When that happens, you better hope a God or Demigod is there to help you out.
 
Altom said:
I see. The follow up question would be, just how much prominence they have narrative-wise? How common are stories of mortals achiebing something on their own vs stories where they exist only to be saved by Stormcast/ Sylvaneth/ Gods etc?
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Free Cities? Depends on the book you're reading. If you're reading Stormcast, they're the ones who save the day. If you're reading Free CIties, they're the ones who save the day. If you're reading Kharadron, they're the ones who save the day. Standard fare for GW. Mortals haven't been a huge focus because their sculpts are positively ancient. That's why they're having a model refresh. It's important to note that models are important, and whenever a new model is being sold, some cool shit is happening.
 
Codex said:
Yes Free Cities are going to be demolished if a God attackes it, but that's relatively rare. When that happens, you better hope a God or Demigod is there to help you out.
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It's wild to me that gods personally actually do stuff in Age of Sigmar unlike in Fantasy where they're more like the Force in how they act, and I really like it. Age of Sigmar's a really cool setting.

EDIT: To be clear, I like and prefer Fantasy's way of doing it within the context of Fantasy. I like what AoS does when considering it from its own context.
 
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Codex said:
You see, the great thing about Age of Sigmar (which some might find a weakness) is that you have near unlimited creative freedom. You aren't limited to strict rules and concepts. You can decide that something exists, and somewhere in the Mortal Realms, there is somewhere that accomodates it. The range of possibilities is impossibly vast. That being said, there's plenty of primers for where to look and where to focus on if you prefer having some sort of rail to work on. It's not nearly as nebulous as it used to be.

The easiest concept you can work on is to go for a "Free City" quest where your character, whoever they turn out to be, lives in a Free City. Another concept that appeals more to the Empire Builders is to go for a "Dawnbringer Crusade" quest, where you attempt to establish an outpost in the wilderness, survive and slowly but surely build up your forces until you get supplies from the Free Cities to expand your outpost, hopefully into a bigger settlement and maybe eventually a new Free City. Lots of freedom in how to construct things.
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I've had vague ideas of a late stage outpost/new city on the back of a big ass size godbeast(think lionturtle from avatar) that has 'mostly' predictable migration patterns throughout the realms. So there is a core game loop of using the time the city is in 'safe/friendly' places to get ready for when they are going to be deep in hostile/remote places.

But considering that my last try at a quest died on the birthbed, (work drop kicked me.) I'm reluctant to try again.
 
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