Remove ads

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Voting is open
Reader mode
Imrix said:
Fun fact: Romance is one of the biggest literary genres in the world. Reading about that stuff is fun for a lot of people.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So? I don't want to live it in a Fantasy world as a woman who does so many secret/government agent magic things and a major theme is loyalty, and certainly not with someone we cannot for many reasons OOC and IC devote ourselves to.

Not only will it not be fun, but it will shake the thread itself with the saltfests and arguments.
 
Imrix said:
Fun fact: Romance is one of the biggest literary genres in the world. Reading about that stuff is fun for a lot of people.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I recall that quote floating around about how SB is Disney princesses underneath the love of biggatons.

Angelform said:
Regarding the 'marry him' vote I will say only this: Marriage is about spending your life with someone. And there is no chance, none whatsoever at this point, that Mathilde will spend her life with Anton. He has his lands and she has her Karak. Saying they can visit on weekends is just another way of saying they will spend the vast majority of their time apart.
If you want to argue that Mathilde wants someone to love (in whatever sense of the word) then a man who will be a thousand miles away far more often than not is a poor choice indeed.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Indeed. It'd be one thing if they were already involved and we wanted to make it work. As it stands, it's only an obstacle to even getting it to start working in the first place.
 
Stranger1950 said:
We gotta have backups in the really off chance of Mathilde kicking the bucket or becoming a rat.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
A Wizards backup save is frequently called an "Apprentice" and serves the role of protege. :)
See: Regimand, Mathilde.

EVA-Saiyajin said:
Hey I legitimately can't remember, why did we get/is there any use for the Helldrake scales?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
IIRC, When (if!) we get much, much better at Enchanting, we can make something Really Good from the parts of so powerful a beast.
 
Last edited:
Chlof said:
It's what she's contemplating. If it was what she wanted, there wouldn't be a vote.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This vote is about whether to marry Anton or not. It's not about deciding whether or not Mathilde wants to get married in general; she does evidently want that from her inner monologue. In that inner monologue she's also contemplated about not getting married, but not because she doesn't want to get married, but because she's thinking she might not find someone to marry.
 
Honestly the main established character trait for Max is that he seemingly inevitably pisses people off at random. Sure, he's useful for writing papers and the like, but that's not exactly what I'd be looking for in lifelong commitments.
 
Here's my take on Mathilde's motivation right now. This:

Maybe romance just isn't in the cards for you. Abstinence isn't mandatory for the Grey College, but nor is it discouraged, and many a Grey Wizard goes through life without romantic entanglement. Some say that eventually, becoming sufficiently attuned to Ulgu would steal those desires away. Even if that's not the case, it could definitely get in the way - it's easy enough to say that anyone scared off by a few flickery candles and a wandering shadow wasn't worth having anyhow, but could the same be said if you sink deeper into Ulgu's embrace and they forgot your face every time they looked away?

So maybe a bird in the hand was worth any number in the bush. Maybe a marriage of understanding with Anton would be mutually beneficial. He may not be an intellectual juggernaut, but he's kind and he's likeable and he is, at times, shockingly competent. Maybe Baroness Weber would be a suitable addition to your growing list of titles.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Is something I've seen a lot of. There was a pervading thought in the recent history of our society (And it'd be 10 times stronger in the setting because of the era it's set in.) that marriage is for convenience, not love, and that any other form of relationship (Casual dating, friendship or otherwise.) is lesser in comparison. Mathilde is afraid she won't be able to the level of companionship she would without a marriage and that's simply not true. Her relationship and level of companionship wouldn't fundamentally change with Anton if she married him, but she wouldn't feel that societal pressure to marry any more (It'd instead be replaced by a societal pressure to pump out babies, but that's a whole other can of worms.). To be frank, I think the best route for Mathilde's love life would be try a less serious with one of the settlers at K8Ps, without that pressure and judging gaze from the citizens of the empire. I'm sure there's at least some Undumgi or halflings out there who aren't awful and are willing to give it a shot.
 
Last edited:
[x] Marry me...
- [x] Soon.

I think having a family gives Mathilde the safety blanket and feeling of belonging that she desperately needs - and while the College does offer it, and Mathilde definitely feels like part of it, it also has demands and expectations of her. Just because many Grey Magisters don't have relationships or marry doesn't mean anything. Most Grey Magisters don't assassinate warbosses, steal the power of the gods and become integral to an effect to seize a quarter of a dwarf fortress lost for thousands of years in a week, either. And neither do they become trusted enough to win the ear, respect, and even friendship of a Dwarf King. Besides, weekends with Anton's cheerfulness and optimism will do Mathilde some good for all the time she spends with grouchy, grumbly dwarfs.

Mathilde wants love. Well, love, like anything else Mathilde has earned, is something she'll have to grab with her two hands. Frankly speaking, this has better odds than most things she's done.

[x] Court Wizard

I think the wide remit of being a magical troubleshooter would do Mathilde good. She excels with having the freedom to do her work without committing to a ridiculous work ethic. She's done a lot for the expedition; she can relax a bit for the Karak, while still maintaining the ability to deepen her commitment when it is required.
 
I guess my concern is that, even with a dedicated air force willing to take us back and forth, this is still going to be a long distance relationship. For the next several years Mathilde is going to be working with Belegar and on her own on projects that will take her attention and dedication to complete successfully. This will undoubtedly take time away from any personal time she may have to pursue a romantic relationship.

Anton deserves better than someone who is constantly split between her duties. Someone who can devote herself to him and the Barony he rules over for the betterment of its people. I just don't see Mathilde having the time to give it her greatest effort without it interfering with our responsibilities at K8P.
 
With Anton's marriage, I'm just...
That does mean you'll have time enough to decide what your answer to Anton will be. You don't love him that way, but nor did the other women; Reinhild was the closest, and the only attraction she held to Anton was that she'd talk about guns instead of all the other topics Anton's circling suiters would bring up, and Anton understood guns. Aristocracy normally means not marrying for love, and often never find it. Perhaps love could take care of itself between him and you, and even if it didn't, it wouldn't be the worst fate in the world to spend your life with someone you merely liked. Or perhaps Anton should hold out for a storybook ending... but he has proven very bad at holding out, and you know that storybook endings don't always, or even often, come true.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Look at this. The current vote involves Mathilde telling him that he should commit to spending his life with a woman even though the only thing he likes about her- not the most important thing or the most prominent thing, but the only thing- is that she is an enthusiast for a topic he understands. He doesn't find her interesting, or beautiful, or even particularly engaging, just... someone he can tolerate a conversation with. She also has a useful skillset (that he could probably also acquire by hiring someone similar for 50g/month as his advisor).

Why, as Anton's friend, are we telling him to marry a woman when that is all she has going for her? This isn't something that will bring him happiness. It's not even something that will bring him much money- indeed, she's marrying him for his money so that he can fund her ambitious projects, not because she cares for him at all. Are we really conceding that he can't do better, or that we aren't willing to help him do better? Even if Mathilde doesn't want to marry Anton herself, surely she can find him something superior to that.

Vote to tell him to stay single, and then put an action or two into finding him a woman who will bring him joy. It's the thing a good friend would do.
 
Last edited:
DarkLight140 said:
With Anton's marriage, I'm just...
Look at this. The current vote involves Mathilde telling him that he should commit to spending his life with a woman even though the only thing he likes about her- not the most important thing or the most prominent thing, but the only thing- is that she is an enthusiast for a topic he understands. He doesn't find her interesting, or beautiful, or even particularly engaging, just... someone he can tolerate a conversation with. She also has a useful skillset (that he could probably also acquire by hiring someone similar for 50g/month as his advisor).

Why, as Anton's friend, are we telling him to marry a woman when that is all she has going for her? This isn't something that will bring him happiness. It's not even something that will bring him much money. Are we really conceding that he can't do better, or that we aren't willing to help him do better? Even if Mathilde doesn't want to marry Anton herself, surely she can find him something superior to that.

Vote to tell him to stay single, guys, and then put an action or two into finding him a woman who will bring him joy. It's the thing a good friend would do.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That does seem a lot more bleak than it did the first time reading through it...

Hmm.
 
QuarkDS9 said:
I guess my concern is that, even with a dedicated air force willing to take us back and forth, this is still going to be a long distance relationship. For the next several years Mathilde is going to be working with Belegar and on her own on projects that will take her attention and dedication to complete successfully. This will undoubtedly take time away from any personal time she may have to pursue a romantic relationship.

Anton deserves better than someone who is constantly split between her duties. Someone who can devote herself to him and the Barony he rules over for the betterment of its people. I just don't see Mathilde having the time to give it her greatest effort without it interfering with our responsibilities at K8P.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Relationships take commitment. Not making the effort in the first place is just giving up.

Anton deserves the world. He's a good man. A lovely person. But the world isn't going to bend to make sure Anton is happy. Or that Mathilde is happy, for that matter.

At the end of the day, all we can do is try to make sure they have happy endings. And that means making it an active consideration if that is what is truly important to you.

...

Darklight brings up a good point.

Why would Mathilde advise Anton to marry someone he doesn't care about when Mathilde wants to marry someone she loves?

That's not very nice...
 
Last edited:
Andres110 said:
But Mathilde wants to get married. Children she's not sure about, but she certainly wants to make that commitment of marriage. She's contemplating a life without it not because that appeals to her, but because she's starting to think she'll never find someone to enjoy life with. It's painful to read.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Andres110 said:
It's what Mathilde wants.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There's a rhetorical move here that is really bugging me: Mathilde is thinking about romance and attraction and romantic entanglements. That =\= marriage. Marriage and a family is a very, very different thing than romance, though those things may come as a result.

I want romance, not marriage with someone "she doesn't love like that". And from the way I read her internal monologue, she does too.
 
[X] Stay single. Marry for love.

Yeah, alright. Trashy romance novel matchmaker go time.
As long as we make it an actual action to find him the perfect someone, we can get the Ranald's Coin blessing involved!
Now THAT I can get behind.

[X] Court Wizard

EDIT: Screw it, all aboard the love boat. I don't even know anymore. Maybe this'll all sound completely different after getting a night's sleep.
Also it just occurred to me how terrible an idea it would be to get Ranald involved in anything romance related, and now I want to try exactly that twice as much as before.

[X] Marry me...
- [X] Soon.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Voting is open
Remove ads
Back
Top