Yup, completely right, this specifically, we are in full agreement on.
That's still a deliverable. Deliverable, delivered. Everything else: completely extraneous to everything I have been saying. Deliverable, delivered.
Why exactly is how important or relevant the action is not relevant to a discussion about how Laurelorn will view the Project doing the action or not? I also fail to see why explanations that if Mathilde does not do the action, she will not get credit for doing the action is irrelevant. Or
We absolutely can return more to the original discussion if you wish. You know full well that my initial comment was about the deployed results. If the initial comment wasn't clear, and I think it was plenty clear, the past hours we've spent makes that obvious. You instead continue to ignore the fact that the tributaries are perfunctory. The effect they will have on Laurelorn's opinion of the Project is minimal. Especially if we do not actually implement them ourselves. Being generous this is just semantics.
And hell, if we're going to quibble about the wording of the initial comments, your initial comment mentioned that Laurelorn wanted a new tributary design out of the Project and that is entirely wrong. It is also entirely wrong to assume that waystones would not laughably overshadow tributaries in terms of importance.
I'm inclined to agree that the first new waystone being in Laurelorn may be the best option, if only because we first need to survey Sylvania and examine Kislev's network before rashly plugging things in. Laurelorn has probably surveyed their own network long before, too.
Ngl the biggest reason why I want to do Laurelorn first is that I want to minimize the number of Waystones that House Tindomiel makes in the Empire as possible. Just entirely out of spite for Mathilde getting played.
Oh I guess avoiding Hekarti-dedicated waystones being erected in places where loads of Imperials will live is a good idea.
to be clear, I'm not actually upset, I genuinely think trying to minimize the Hekarti-dedicated waystones that go up in the Empire is a good idea and the best way to do that is by arranging it so that House Tindomiel is busy with other orders so we can go to the other houses, Ulthuan, or the Colleges for the components. It won't have that much of an affect in the bigger picture, but being spiteful is fun.
I agree that we have some latitude in when we actually deploy the waystones. Deploying them to Praag first will probably be seen as fine, we can probably spin Sylvania or the Drakwald without annoying them too much. But if we're building them in Middenland, which is right next door, we had better be getting around to getting them waystones ASAP. You're going to have people in Laurelorn feel unhappy about not being first, but we can manage it unless we just drop the ball entirely.
Of the participants and feeling snubbed if they don't get waystones first, Laurelorn has just about all of the things that would make them feel snubbed. The Karaz Ankor doesn't need waystones, so their opinion about it doesn't matter too much. The Empire and Kislev need them more, but there's problems with that. The Empire is lead by people who only vaguely get that waystones are important. To them it's a wizard thing. The Colleges understand why there need to be more waystones, but they aren't even an Elector. Even Luitpold largely views it as an important wizard thing, but he's not particularly enthusiastic about it. That will change as more waystones get built, but that's true for just about everyone except Laurelorn, who already want waystones right now as much as they ever will.
Boris understands that waystones are important and he'll pave over people getting in the way of waystones. The Ice Witches also like to marry into the Boyars, so they'll be able to get the boyars approve of waystones. But Kislev has been abused and neglected for the past hundred and eighty-eight years. He wants waystones, but Kislev's government needs to be in a position to organize that first. If he drops everything to get waystones now, he'll end up with less waystones in the long-term because the central government needs to be rebuilt. He also probably needs the Ice Witches to recover. The Ice Witches and Hag Witches aren't making tributaries right now because they need to focus on rebuilding their, er, organizations. He'll put more effort into waystones than tributaries, but the underlying issues will slow full-implementation. We can definitely make a show of healing Praag, but beyond that gets difficult to say the least.
Laurelorn meanwhile, has a
lot more going for it. Laurelorn is lead by elves, knowing how important waystones should be a given for its leadership. It at least
ought to know where all of its waystones
aren't, so the lack of them is very much
felt by them. Less so for the Empire. It's not Kislev or the Empire so it's government functions aren't dysfunctional messes a day away from collapse. It's also the host, which means they think they ought to be first. The only thing mitigating all of this is that they're elves, but holy shit waystones are enough of a big deal to outweigh that.
Tilea and Estalia are a bunch of petty kings and republics who will want them if a rival gets them, or if they're built in the Empire and Bretonnia for that matter. But it won't really be because they feel
pressed. Bretonnia is actually similar to Laurelorn. With the exception of Mousillon, afaik their piece of the Network is fine. They're similar to the Empire in that their nobility largely doesn't understand waystones. However, unlike the Empire, the Fay Enchantress can simply decree that Bretonnia will get waystones and Bretonnia will get waystones.
I end this message with the statement that this message got away from me and that politics are fun.
