Niedzwenka: You didn't think you could kill a Tzar and extract a Blood Debt to shape the fate of Kislev from the shadows without me did you!
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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.
Ulthuan are so damned lucky they sent Eltharion. He's... pretty much the only Elf I can think of Grandma might actually kind of like given he's such an earnest young man. Not gonna stop her wringing him for everything he's worth but...
At least he'll leave with lots of left overs to put some meat on his bones?
At least he'll leave with lots of left overs to put some meat on his bones?
I am pretty sure Eltharion is Grandma-proof, he would not let pride get in the way of doing his job so there is nothing to needle. Keep in mind she is used to dealing mostly with merchants not grim as hell warriors from a broken land. That is something she would have sympathy towards even if she does not personally hate orcs that much
The Bokha Palace Accords? More like the Babushka Accords.
K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He
Imagine if it was Thorek, then it would be truly hysterical.
Honestly, Eltharion might be perfect for this entirely because of how much of the opposite of a traditional elfish diplomat he is.
Eltharion is far too consumed by his obsessive determination to allow his pride to get in the way. He won't scoff at the idea of working with lesser races or waste time thinking about how their solutions are inferior to elves he has a job to do with single-minded focus. If he has to make some sacrifices to some ancient crone to get it done so be it, far from the worst choice he has made.
And given that Eltharion is grim ruler of a once great kingdom brought low by the greenskins with a determination to rebuild it and pursue vengeance of their entire kind for their very existence he would still have been the best choice for the elves.
Given him a beard and a mug of ale and Thorek might almost like him.
K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He
More seriously, if the Asurs knew the Dawi were part of the Project, it wouldn't surprised me if they send Eltharion on purpose, hoping his bluntness and hate for green skins would endear him to the stunties.
"Escalation" is proving to be a very apt title for this turn, because everything seems to be constantly escalating.
Thorek after a barrel of ale: "You know, elgi, I am starting to understand why the Ascestors thought allying with you was a good idea..."
Also Thorek after realising he said it out loud: "YOU DIDN'T HEAR THAT!!!"
Annd becoming worse for it.
Grimdark is fun because any improvement you make, however small, would make a postive impact.
Grimdark for the sense of lets make it darker....
We have enough of that shit at real live, i want my fantasy universe to be better.
Eh, 40k has always been a commentary on the self destructive and corrupting natures of fascism, fanaticism, and fatalism. It's never going to be better, because those three things destroy any good they might touch. We're watching the death throws of the Imperium—a bloated corpse of an empire—and there is naught to be done to save it.
- Location
- North Wales
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I've heard it explained that Grimdark comes in two parts:
- -dark, in that things in the setting are bad. The opposite being -bright.
- Grim, in that things are getting worse, and nothing the protagonists can do will change that. The opposite being Noble-
By that metric, it can't be a Grimdark setting if improvements actually happen in anything but a superficial way. And 40k is the originator of the term. "In the grim darkness of the far future..." and all that.
Tasoli
Life is for Living
- Location
- Behind the Keyboard.
The joke is 40k went too far and it is Grimderp now.
Thebigpieman
I've got this, I think.
- Location
- United States
As always Boney's dice give me the laughs I've been looking for. Well, Boney's and Snowfire's dice but they are two completely different phenomenon.
To be honest, I'm completely surprised that Blood vote was so onesided.
Somic
It's meow or never
- Pronouns
- She/Her
There was a Boneypost about the benefits of this option, it has a "fuck Marienburg" aspect so appeals to everyone who wants to screw Marienburg over and get elf knowledge, it's heavy enough to not feel meaningless yet beneficial enough to Kislev to not feel selfish...
NuclearConsensus
Herald of the Thorned One
- Location
- the Philippines
One canal opens, another begins. It's like poetry: it rhymes.
Here. The two possible routes for it are marked in purple.
View: https://imgur.com/Z3cxE9Y
- Location
- Greece
Under that definition, though, only W40K, Devilman and certain horror series are truly grimdark. Not even Berserk would truly qualify.
well, yes. there is a reason 40k was originally a completely comedic setting.
grimdark is antithetical to 'things get better'. heroes arn't a thing, just protagonists. it is the worst possible intepretation of human nature, and the inevitable path all things will follow.
'Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.' the whole grimdark phrase comes from the full quote. and it lists exactly what grimdark means. and also includes examples.
and that, is a problem if you want to make anything except a grim and dark story in the setting. if you want hope in your setting, true hope not tzeentch, it can't be grimdark.
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- Location
- Wherever I feel like being
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wait, wut?
- Location
- North Wales
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
You can tell positive stories even in a grimdark setting, on a more personal scale. Even if the protagonist's journey isn't fixing things they can still find some small joy themselves. Attack a problem without addressing the wider causes, so when you zoom out, the world remains as it was. Or you skip ahead a little after the end and it's reverted back, the awful status quo unmoved. 40K is the absolute far end of the scale, but even in the Imperium there are a whole bunch of agri-planets that haven't seen war. They're just vibing in a hell-universe.
Cormac McCarthy writes some. Frank Miller. Joe Abercrombie. In TV, the series Oz was pretty grimdark. A lot of classic Russian literature kinda qualifies, where the world is bleak and while the protagonists do things, they can't change that truth.
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