- Location
- Somewhere between the stars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I was running on assumption of something akin to endtime, with the horned God becoming a 5th Chaos God, and thus uniting behind the rest.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
I was running on assumption of something akin to endtime, with the horned God becoming a 5th Chaos God, and thus uniting behind the rest.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Yorthilde is as glorious as I had hoped. Anyeike is amazing too, and Johoid is perfect.
Ugh, god dammit end times. They really just handed the entire skaven race to chaos like that?
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
The Horned Rat was always a Chaos God, he just wasn't one of the big four (and is treacherous even by Chaos God standards).
Much like Hashut except more popular.
The simple answer is the Queen. The more complicated answer is that 'Queen of Laurelorn' is actually kind of three separate titles. The most obvious is the leader of Tor Lithanel; the less obvious is the leader of the 'Eleventh Kingdom' of Elthin-Arvan that formed during the Sundering, of which only the forest of Laurelorn remains; and the least obvious is that the first Queen was originally a Handmaiden of the Everqueen and appointed to lead the research expedition that originally founded the city. It is argued that this responsibility, and thus authority over things like the Library of Mournings, is inherited along with the crown. Technically the Everqueen could dispatch a new Handmaiden to Laurelorn, and technically that Handmaiden could be argued to have a stronger legal claim to authority over the Library of Mournings and possibly even to rule over Tor Lithanel, but 'stronger' in this case is only in the fictional realm of pure legalism where arguments like 'you and what army' or 'come and have a go if you think you're hard enough' aren't allowed to be made.
Arriving back from her trip to Ulthuan (with Eike in tow), Mathilde returns to find Teclis had beaten her to it. The Waystone Project has been all but completed in her absence.
Time, then, to find a new task. Looking around at the Laurelorn-based facilities of the former Project and of WEB-MAT, and then down proudly at her apprentice, Mathilde cashes in her Great Deed to expand the remit of WEB-MAT to a full educational branch of the Colleges, focusing on interdisciplinary studies for elder Apprentices and fresh Journeyman. Principal Weber has a nice ring to it.
Before her request can be approved, however, she must first demonstrate her credentials as an educator. An interview with a cross-College panel of sitting Lord Magisters. The summons also names Eike Hochschild, as Mathilde's only current student. An assessment of her apprenticeship to date will form a large part of the judgment.
Johann volunteers to help them prepare for the interview.
(READ RIGHT TO LEFT)
Art (and most of the text) originally from Spy x Family vol. 1. I recognise that the character models are insufficently muscular for their respective Martial scores. I don't have access to a copy of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to pull a more accurate representation from, though.
This works bizarrely well, I love it.
- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
Oh that is delightful. Thank you.
[according to a 5 second google, season 2 of the anime of Spy X Family is either going to be released or have the first episode released on 7th October]
Settra for Everchosen 2494!
"If made a candidate I will not run, if elected I will not represent the interests of the Chaos Gods. I do not wish to be here."
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Glasses over a blindfold are the peak of fashion.
End Times 2: This time with good writing
While we are at it, could i perhaps interest you in a fine bridge?
Could Setra even BE everchosen? His undead state is similar Vamperism in that his soul should be severed from the immaterium. This is why he is immortal and why all the tomb kings go a little crazy.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
The Nehekharans still seem to have their connections with their gods.
So I'd say yes.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I have a hard time believing that there will ever be an equivalent in this quest. Boney's setting is fantastic, but because of the way he writes things, I have never felt threatened by Chaos. They're so unbelievably stupid and self-destructive that the only way for them to win is if the author is actively rooting for them.
Mathilde dying is possible, but I have a hard time believing humanity can lose at this point, if the best Chaos has to offer flaunt their sigils around in public.
- Location
- Europe
Vampire souls are bound to body permanently, that's why they keep coming bavk by themselves. Most udead don't have souls and are just puppets. Khemrians have their souls returned through divine magic, the souls can return to afterlife same as dying, so presumably they can still fall to chaos. Not Settra though. Settra was offered being not!Everchosen - blessings of all four chaos gods when he was at his lowest and told them all to eat dirt, so he's not gonna take the deal when he's still the undisputed daddy of all that is sand.
To be fair we've had fairly minimal exposure to the Chaos Gods in this quest thus far. I imagine that if we'd actually make fighting Chaos the main focus of the quest Boney would give them the same increase in depth that other factions we've researched have gotten.
Well, the scary thing about the Everchosen is that as long as he lives the selfdestructiveness is toned down greatly. Add to that the fact that he brings most chaos worshippers up north and all of a sudden you have to contend with entire armies of Chaos warriors, aka the 1 step below regular human Hero units dudes, increased demonic presense and all the other toys normally spread between thousands of small bands busy killing each other as much as they kill other factions and I can see a very dangerous army even without authorial bias.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If the Lord of Change was right, then we've already met at least two candidates in hostility, both Drycha and Alberich. Both of who were extremely stupid and got themselves killed (one temporarily) because of how self-absorbed they were. I hope other candidates are more promising, because those two were kind of boring.
I mean, that's sorta just the setting. Chaos is stupid and self destructive and the good guys inevitably win against them in the short term.
But Chaos doesn't care about losing. Every fight costs the good guys and Chaos has an unlimited reserve of stupid self destructive idiots to throw at them. It's not that chaos ever wins the battles. It is that Chaos will inevitably win the war because Chaos losing battles doesn't actually matter. Chaos can recover. Order cannot.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I don't mind the fact that the good guys win. I prefer that over "everyone dies, the end". From a lore viewpoint, I even understand and appreciate a setting that works like that.
I just don't find it compelling in a narrative setting to have the villains lose through incompetence, rather than the heroes winning through sheer effort. At least in a non-comedy setting, because Skaven losing through their incompetence is always viewed comedically and that sells it.
I don't want the villains to win, but I do think the possibility of them winning is important for narrative stakes. It just pains me to see these villains clowning themselves because it feels less satisfying to me to win a fight knowing that my enemy was a total doofus.
- Location
- Leeds
I think its more accurate to say that Drychas carefully designed scheme to eliminate the advantages of the horse archers she was expecting to fight got countered when a random Gray Wizard Lord from a different country showed up in a completely unpredictable way with a new unknown spell that just so happened to let her bring in the reinforcements and competent leadership that would have been too late otherwise and had the skill set for the forest battle that she was counting on them not having.
She didn't respond well to the unexpected circumstances however her plan was actually solid, and she lost due to unforeseeable circumstances rather than because she was incompetent.
She didn't respond well to the unexpected circumstances however her plan was actually solid, and she lost due to unforeseeable circumstances rather than because she was incompetent.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
She had scouts. She used them. She just decided to not heed the warning tha they got plucked out of the sky. She also didn't take note of the forest actively hating her and wanting to kick her out. There were a dozen warning signs that things weren't going well, and she still jumped into action. It was foolhardy and stupid, not a tactical move.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
Drycha didn't seem to know to expect horse archers, given that she wasn't sure if she was fighting 'Elf-puppets or Dwarf puppets'.
She stayed in the woods because she's a dryad, of course she did.
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'll agree that thematically Chaos is very self-defeating, but I don't think their threat can be underestimated. The few times we've seen Chaos' forces, luck was with us.
Karak Vlag's Slaaneshi demons tried to get support from Khornates and Tzeentchians and got backstabbed for their trouble, on top of the return of KV dealing an unknown amount of damage to them.
If they hadn't been fighting amongst themselves, I imagine their forces being boosted by either a Bloodthirster or a Lord of Change would have made things much more complicated.
At the Kul camp, with Ljiljana, I think it says a lot that we both very nearly died despite her channeling an entire pantheon's worth of power. Hell, that Khornate champion we faced very briefly had the highest Martial modifier we've seen in a fight - +50 due to him charging at us.
Alberich... Ok, he was a punk. I would have given him low odds against Alric. But he did briefly have Slaanesh empowering his every action while we were chasing him.
With Drycha, well, we know she really failed her scouting rolls and that a good chunk of her strength is being able to pick her fights to her advantage, a testament to the power of knowledge in warfare. And unlike Alberich she was not empowered perhaps we can attribute her failure just to her.
I think the overall point is this: to win, Chaos doesn't need competent leaders (although that helps), they just need unholy power and the attention of the Four. It is not very compelling, but it is what it is, and it is enough to drown worlds.
- Location
- Somewhere between the stars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It should be noted the high-end chaos people we've meet have been really dangerous. The slannesh greater deamon casually dodging attacks which should practically been impossible to dodge.
The lord of change just straight up sending Mathilde into full shut-down panic mode, while marveling at the sheer level of skill the guy was doing with his magic.
Chaos guys are almost always on an extremly high threat level hold back by fact that more often then not they are more concerned about jocking amonst themself. Except that's the everchosen whole deal. That they stop doing that, that they start working together.
One can critique end times for a lot, but i do think that if Chaos did go full serious mode working together that yeah, the world as it currently stand would lose that fight. Maybe that answer would be different in a century or more but right now? I think them losing isn't perhaps guaranteed, but a very high chance
The lord of change just straight up sending Mathilde into full shut-down panic mode, while marveling at the sheer level of skill the guy was doing with his magic.
Chaos guys are almost always on an extremly high threat level hold back by fact that more often then not they are more concerned about jocking amonst themself. Except that's the everchosen whole deal. That they stop doing that, that they start working together.
One can critique end times for a lot, but i do think that if Chaos did go full serious mode working together that yeah, the world as it currently stand would lose that fight. Maybe that answer would be different in a century or more but right now? I think them losing isn't perhaps guaranteed, but a very high chance
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- Location
- Leeds
I took that as more of them not fitting into the boxes she was expecting. She notes that the scouts say they aren't riding horses like she'd expect Elf Puppets to do. Which does imply that actually she was expecting either horse archer elf puppets or gunpowder using dwarf puppets.
However I do admit, I'd forgotten she had expressed uncertainty before the information from the scouts rolls in, which does recontextualise it a bit as less "Wait I was expecting elf puppets to show up but what box do these go in?" and more that she wasn't sure who would respond to the peasants she let flee.
Given that all other evidence suggests this was a trap for a specific Boyar, I'm still inclined to assume it was the former and this is just awkward phrasing from Boney, however I do understand how people could come to the other conclusion.
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Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Anyways, it doesn't matter. This kind of discussion was already had beforehand, and from what I know and what Boney said, he prefers player agency and the will of the dice, and what makes sense for the setting as he writes it, over any form of narrative power. Boney is more than willing to write things that are narratively unsatsifying if it makes sense for what happens, like Gotrek dying anticlimactically.
I greatly respect that. It's a unique writing style that probably wouldn't work in many other mediums, and it's certainly interesting and can be very rewarding in a different sort of way. The way in which I consume DL these days is distinctly different from how I used to do so. I don't view DL as much of a game where I participate in it and try to find clever solutions, I look at it as a story that I consume excited for what's coming next. In this manner, certain things interest me more and other things interest me less.
For example, the experimentation segments are interesting and intriguing and all, but I'm not super into it outside of a worldbuilding lens. It's a whole lot of complicated stuff that would be interesting if I was the type to tinker with pathways that Mathilde could follow in the future, but all I care about is the narrative thoroughline that I like to pursue, which is why I'm so fascinated with Eike and focus on her relationship with Mathilde, because of how impactful that narrative is to me.
That is to say, at the end of the day my own personal frustrations with how certain things turned out doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Chaos isn't compelling to me at the moment, and I'm not sure if that will change, but I can always look forward to whatever plot elements are derived from future developments.
I greatly respect that. It's a unique writing style that probably wouldn't work in many other mediums, and it's certainly interesting and can be very rewarding in a different sort of way. The way in which I consume DL these days is distinctly different from how I used to do so. I don't view DL as much of a game where I participate in it and try to find clever solutions, I look at it as a story that I consume excited for what's coming next. In this manner, certain things interest me more and other things interest me less.
For example, the experimentation segments are interesting and intriguing and all, but I'm not super into it outside of a worldbuilding lens. It's a whole lot of complicated stuff that would be interesting if I was the type to tinker with pathways that Mathilde could follow in the future, but all I care about is the narrative thoroughline that I like to pursue, which is why I'm so fascinated with Eike and focus on her relationship with Mathilde, because of how impactful that narrative is to me.
That is to say, at the end of the day my own personal frustrations with how certain things turned out doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Chaos isn't compelling to me at the moment, and I'm not sure if that will change, but I can always look forward to whatever plot elements are derived from future developments.