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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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The Sixteen-Book Saga of Markus Kehlmann
  • Apocrypha
    • Help I got carried away



    From the pen that brought you the tragic doomed loves of the Hunter Count-

    From the publishing house that gave you The Magister-Knight and her Druidess-

    From the very PRINTING PRESSES that are even now feeding your need for the further adventures of EKIE HOTHSCHILDE-

    A brand new series bringing you all the thrills, chills, gasps, and sighs the discerning literati of trashy romance have come to expect-

    ANNOUNCING!

    Our New Hero,

    MARKUS KEHLMANN!

    Planned as a sixteen book series, these heart pounding adventures will trace the long path of MARKUS KEHLMANN from his humble beginnings as a stablemaster's son in Altdorf, through his early days as an apprentice to the GREY WIZARDS, to his eventual fated DESTINY a half a world away.


    The Apprentice Arc:

    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the PLAGUE THAT WASN'T

    MARKUS was having a very bad night. He had been asleep, the traveller was rude, it was raining, and the horse had bit him. But it got very much worse when the traveller was brutally murdered in front of him, the horse stolen, and he was left hiding with the saddlebags he had been coming to return.

    Now, everyone from crazy prophetesses to one-eyed mercs to treacherous guardsmen wants a piece of him, and the secret that was in those bags.

    Somewhere under Altdorf lies a terrible concoction of poison and plague, aimed like a dagger at the heart of an unknowing city, and no less than three different dark cults want it badly enough to kill in the streets.

    Now this stableboy's only chance is in a race down into the depths of the undercity, striving to save not only his own life but every life in Altdorf!



    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the WELL-HOOKED BAIT

    Fresh off his induction into the GREY WIZARDS, the former stableboy is sent to explore the city and learn how to look when looking with magic. What he sees instead is a kidnapping, and not just one. The docks of Altdorf are growing dangerous, and once the pleas of heartbroken relatives reach his ears MARKUS KEHLMANN knows he has no choice but to act.

    But the vicious HOOK GANG is fishing for bigger prizes than nobles daughters and petty merchants, and if he isn't careful, he might get snagged himself.

    Even with new comrades like fellow apprentice EKIE HOTHSCHILDE and Jeffrey, a BRETTONIAN SQUIRE seeking word of his brother-squire, the mystery of where the victims are being sent and why won't be easily solved.

    Are new magic and new friends make enough to save everyone, or will MARKUS KEHLMANN join them in a FATE WORSE THAN DEATH?



    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the PURPLE SUBMARINE

    The newest apprentice of the GREY WIZARDS is falling in love with the college. It has everything a growing man could want- deep libraries full of everything he never knew he wanted to know, beautiful fellow apprentices who can almost go a day without getting under his skin, secret entrances all over the city to learn and get lost with, and wonderful teachers with amazing stories and terrible enemies.

    OK, that last one might not be so hot.

    When a massive metal contraption heaves its way to the surface of the river within the very City of Altdorf and disgorges HOBGOBLIN KILLSQUADS, the class's excursion is thoroughly disrupted.

    Now, with hours yet remaining before the army can respond with enough force to destroy the intruders, MARKUS KEHLMANN is hunted through the streets in a deadly game of cat and mouse. And with one side having the numbers, the weapons, the training, and the strength, while the other has only a local's knowledge and a weak grasp of grey magic. It should be obvious who is the cat and who is the mouse. Right?



    The Journeyman Arc:

    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the REFOUNDED FOUNDRY

    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the PRINCESS OF SKULLS

    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the SPIDER'S RIDDLE


    Check back soon for The Mastery Arc and The Grandmaster's War Arc announcements!
     
  • Apocrypha
    • I wonder if writing vampire romances gets you burned as a lahmian plant? It probably would get you shanked by any stirlanders that found out.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Most people think a vampire is a kind of demon that inhabits corpses so yeah the cults will burn you if they get yo you, but they probably won't because your neighbors will get you first.
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    Vampire romances are actually rather popular in canon.

    Lot of playwrights that write those sort of stories.

    (And if they're working for vampires they're playwights)
     
    [X] [LIBRARY] Library of Mournings: Linguistics, Ladrielle
    [X] [DWARF] No purchase.
    [X] [COLLEGE] A translation of the Indic Aqshy books obtained from the Elementalists (1 CF)
    [X] [PURCHASE] No purchase.
     
    Wiggy said:
    Sounds like it's *definitely* a lahmian plot to make people more okay with being seduced by sexy vampire ladies.
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    I mean, yes, psyops to make people think vampires aren't actually scary, and are very cool and mysterious and intriguing you guys, is canonically something they engage in. Right alongside manipulating the Cults of the Old World into fighting with each other so that when Neferata makes her move (which is totally going to happen any day now, ignore that she's spent four thousand years lounging with a bunch of cats) humanity won't have any of those pesky holy powers or other supernatural idols to oppose them.
     
    [x] [COLLEGE] A translation of the Indic Aqshy books obtained from the Elementalists (1 CF)
    [x] [LIBRARY] Back-fill: Social sciences
     
    Glau said:
    ANNOUNCING!

    Our New Hero,

    MARKUS KEHLMANN!

    Planned as a sixteen book series, these heart pounding adventures will trace the long path of MARKUS KEHLMANN from his humble beginnings as a stablemaster's son in Altdorf, through his early days as an apprentice to the GREY WIZARDS, to his eventual fated DESTINY a half a world away.


    The Apprentice Arc:

    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the PLAGUE THAT WASN'T


    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the WELL-HOOKED BAIT


    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the PURPLE SUBMARINE


    The Journeyman Arc:

    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the REFOUNDED FOUNDRY

    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the PRINCESS OF SKULLS

    MARKUS KEHLMANN and the SPIDER'S RIDDLE


    Check back soon for The Mastery Arc and The Grandmaster's War Arc announcements!
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    "Qrech? Are you...really writing all these?"
    "Mm. Yes and no. It's your little one, actually."
    "What?"
    "Your apprentice, yes? She comes with ideas, with outlines, with synopses. I merely fill them out so they turn into actual books."
    "What."
     
    deathofrats0808 said:
    Marienburg doesn't have exclusive rights to Elven trade, it has exclusive rights to be the port in the Old World where Ulthuan trades. Even setting aside the fact that the Asur seem to ignore that anyway (they have a whole district in Erengrad), the treaty doesn't cover people travelling to Lothern to trade, and the Empire does have other ports. Marienburg probably slaps a hefty tarriff on bringing in goods from Lothern, but they can't really stop it. Especially as the reason Lothern is such a powerful trading port is that you can find stuff from all over the world there, which means it's hard to prove someone bought something in Lothern and not elsewhere.
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    It doesn't even have that. The treaty says Marienberg has exclusive rights to be the only port that the High Elves trade goods from the New World with the Old World.

    That means stuff from Lustria and Naggaroth, as there's no way that the high elves would call their own lands the New World, and the Far East, Araby, and the Southlands aren't the New World either.
     
    Alratan said:
    It doesn't even have that. The treaty says Marienberg has exclusive rights to be the only port that the High Elves trade goods from the New World with the Old World.

    That means stuff from Lustria and Naggaroth, as there's no way that the high elves would call their own lands the New World, and the Far East, Araby, and the Southlands aren't the New World either.
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    The problem I see with this assertion is that it might be right on what's written in the contract... But we also know that they do keep to It with regard to the empire. We can not buy books from the asur without either going through lothern or Marienburg, this has been made clear to us and books are definitely not a lustrian exclusive. So even if they don't have to the Asur do hold to not selling to the empire.
     
    LadySerpentine said:
    Hasn't Boney repeatedly said that if Mathilde isn't concerned, we don't need to be?
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    About the Vow of Poverty specifically, yes. There are, however, other things to be concerned about.
    And also clarified that the Ithilimar trade isn't really a meaningful increase in the Eonir's military power?
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    This, however, I have found no source for. Here is every comment Boney has made involving ithilmar since this option became available.
    Boney said:
    The first answer you stumble across is one of the most obvious: Ithilmar, the sky-silver of Ulthuan, found only in the occasional eruptions from the volcano of Vaul's Anvil in Caledor. Light as silk and hard as steel, it allows the lightest and most delicate of weapons to retain an edge throughout an entire battle, and for the swiftest and most graceful of warriors to be armoured without encumberment. It is often described as priceless, but that is because the ones doing the describing are the sort of adventurers and mercenaries who come away with that impression after finding themselves unable to acquire it at the local blacksmith. Pieces of it do circulate throughout the Empire, either sold through Marienburg, dug up from former Elven settlements, or acquired from unscrupulous traders who barter with the Norscans or the Fire Dwarves for their plunder, and though the price asked for them is always exorbitant, the price that Laurelorn would pay to acquire some more would be greater still, as the amount available to them has only dwindled since they were cut off from Ulthuan. This would require a huge amount of liquid capital to act upon and would likely draw a lot of attention as astronomic offers are made for various items within private collections, but would greatly enrich whoever is first to act upon the opportunity.
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    "would likely draw a lot of attention" is a little alarming, especially since we know tensions are high (cf the growing schism in the Cult of Ulric).
    Nurgle said:
    @Boney how much are we talking about for huge amount of capital to buy Ithilmar? A estimate if you can please?
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    Boney said:
    Thousands per item.
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    Codex said:
    Also, on the topic of only Caledor producing Ithilmar. I'm pretty sure I've seen and internalised that piece of lore before, but I'm also mildly certain that it wasn't from an Army Book. I want to say that piece of lore comes from a novel? Although I haven't read every part of every Asur army book and internalised it, so I could have missed it. I am not an expert on Asur lore. I frankly find them a bit boring.
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    Boney said:
    5th Edition, I believe.
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    Boney said:
    Ithilmar? Surely you mean the bones and scales of the dragon Taal killed at the site of what would become Talabheim, which was absolutely never inhabited by any other people before it was discovered by Taal's chosen, so there's no other explanation for why farmers inside the Taalbaston keep finding it. I don't really see a reason why Elves would be especially interested in it.
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    Boney said:
    You're going to want a trip hammer or something to save your arms, but yes, that's just how physics works. When the canon materials say that only Elves know how to work Ithilmar and only Dwarves know how to work Gromril, the actual meaning is something like that they're the only ones that can get useful and reliable results on anything like a practical timescale, they're not saying that the materials are completely immutable in the hands of any other race.
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    Boney said:
    Caledor is centered around the Dragonspine Mountains, the caverns under which are filled with ores and dragons, and Vaul's Anvil, the world's only source of Ithilmar. They leave raw acreage of arable land to the likes of Eataine and Ellyrion.
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    Boney said:
    Any Dwarven techniques to work Ithilmar that might have once existed have been lost. The only source of Ithilmar is on Ulthuan and the last time the two were on speaking terms was 4500 years ago, so there's been no way to keep that information alive in the Dwarven master-apprentice paradigm. You might be able to find someone willing to experiment with entirely new techniques to try to make something of them, or to try to recreate ancient techniques from only written sources and surviving examples, but that would be a process of centuries.
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    None of these are really relevant to the question of whether this would meaningfully increase the Eonir's military capabilities, or whether (even more importantly) it would be perceived as increasing the Eonir's military capabilities. As I said before:
    picklepikkl said:
    Now, I still don't think it's a great idea, because I don't like how visible it is. I'm not worried about Mathilde personally getting in trouble with the Order for her vows, I'm worried about the EIC drawing heat as it makes a big public move; I feel like there are a lot of people who would take exception to that, especially Nordland. Making a ton of money by arbitraging rare magical materials to a neighbor polity with whom we are not in fact allied feels like the sort of thing that would provoke both mercantile and political backlash. But we really don't need to worry about the Bursar getting shirty with us over it.
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    This feels to me like a case where the answer is going to be along the lines of "the potential risks of this action are the thread's job to evaluate" if we start pressing for details about the political fallout. In any case, I am reasonably confident no such WoQM already exists.
     
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