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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Ergosum said:
Yes but, well, he's a Wizard. Even if you don't count 'shooting fireballs/lightning/etc out of your hands' as visible supposed mutations, he's probably going to develop obvious Arcane Mark(s) at some point regardless of which College he goes to. It's just something he's going to have to deal with either way, unless he specifically wants to not be a Wizard - at which point he just gets loaded with dampeners and this discussion is moot.
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Some Arcane Marks are worse for this than others, and having visible reminders he's a Wizard isn't gonna help. Yeah, it's a standard hazard of the job, but aiming for Colleges with fewer issues in this regard remains pretty reasonable, IMO.
 
If Roswita gets involoved in an official courtship that would both be a big enough deal economically and take long enough that we'd probably hear about it from the EIC at least a turn in advance of the wedding. Can't completely rule out a secret lover or a whirlwind romance though
 
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Boney said:
I don't think the thread is all that likely to turn around and vote to give all the books to sworn enemies of the Eonir or settle down and turn this into Bookseller Quest, so I don't see a problem with keeping all the minutiae of who is allowed access to what staying below the level of abstraction.
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That makes sense. Thanks for answering.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Some Arcane Marks are worse for this than others, and having visible reminders he's a Wizard isn't gonna help. Yeah, it's a standard hazard of the job, but aiming for Colleges with fewer issues in this regard remains pretty reasonable, IMO.
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You know what? Sure. I've added another category for 'purely aesthetic but obviously magic in origin' Arcane Mark effects, and leave up to the reader whether they would or wouldn't be a problem.
 
Nurgle said:
More than likely she is married and has a secret family. Because of her family history it seems to be the best thing to not tell anyone you have family.
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I don't think that's doable.

Abelhelm was just a Witch Hunter, he could go visit his family when he had time. If Roswita disappeared for weeks, people would talk.

Lammen Gorthaur said:
That being said, we have no actual idea how big the Van Hal family is, for all we know it could be gigantic. At the bare minimum there's Hertwig Van Hal to show up in a few decades in Lustria with Markus Wulfhart.
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There's also Johan van Hal, who's notable as the only Van Hal to get a tabletop entry and I think even a model- he's from a WD article where he's partnered with a Warrior Priest of Sigmar and they basically count as Dogs of War.

warhammerfantasy.fandom.com

Johan and Wilhelm

I say you can find out the servants of Death and tell them by their Mark. No man is born so unnatural that his body does not revolt at the foul pollution of Undead blood. And by these marks can you tell them. By the fangs of the predator, for their thirst for blood is the thirst of a fanged...
warhammerfantasy.fandom.com warhammerfantasy.fandom.com
 
It's also a lot easier for Abelhelm to hide a pregnancy then it is for Roswita for fairly obvious reasons, when it comes to hiding children.
 
Something to remark on- I think this year marks Roswita having been in charge for twice as long as Abelhelm was. 14 years to his 7.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Some Arcane Marks are worse for this than others, and having visible reminders he's a Wizard isn't gonna help. Yeah, it's a standard hazard of the job, but aiming for Colleges with fewer issues in this regard remains pretty reasonable, IMO.
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I do not think there is any College that does not come with at least some blatant Arcane Marks. If he does not want marks at all he would have to learn magic the way the elves do it and I do not think he has the time for that, not if he is also going to be an Elector Count. He is just going to have to take his soul mutations like everyone else.
 
DragonParadox said:
I do not think there is any College that does not come with at least some blatant Arcane Marks. If he does not want marks at all he would have to learn magic the way the elves do it and I do not think he has the time for that, not if he is also going to be an Elector Count. He is just going to have to take his soul mutations like everyone else.
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Some of them have more than others, which should be kept in mind, was all I was saying.
 
Valmond said:
Grey Wizards are feared and respected, but the respect is largely based on them being apart from politics, and that fear would be hindrance to governing.
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On the flip side Greys will absolutely shank nobles for a lot of reasons why an EC would blow a noble's brains out (like Van Hal did to the first military guy).

ECs engage in politics with other ECs and at that level things get a tad more flexible (for example the Bursar did keep Dieter from taking the crown). With lower nobility a neutral EC to act as an arbiter isn't that bad.

Valmond said:
And, while not exactly demanded of him, i suspect there will be every attempt made to make him excell, instead of merely manage.
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Well he's got the stats for it.

Like for a 10 year old he's legit impressive: 16 diplo and 15 martial is good for experience adults.

He's also not that terrible at learning and intrigue, just somewhat meh. Mathilde was worse at Martial when she was 20 and now she's heroic - there's no reason to believe that the next decade won't offer any boosts.
 
Mopman43 said:
Something to remark on- I think this year marks Roswita having been in charge for twice as long as Abelhelm was. 14 years to his 7.
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That's correct. Abelhelm took power at the start of T1 and died at the end of what would have been T14, for a total of seven years. Roswita took power at the end of T15/start of T16 (about midway through 2477), so the start of T44 marks fourteen years of her reign.

I don't recall if we ever got a hard age for Abelhelm -- we know his wife died in childbirth in 2466, and he had three living children of whom the eldest is Roswita (who is six years younger than Mathilde, and therefore born in 2456), so we know he had to be marriageable in 2455 or so at latest, so if he was twentyish when Roswita was born he was in his mid-late thirties when he became Elector Count, which means Roswita now is close to the same age her father was at the start of the quest.

EDIT: I found the following:
Boney said:
He's fifteen years older than Mathilde, to be exact.
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So Van Hal was born in 2435, was 35 when he took power, and Roswita is now 35 herself.
 
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Wonder if we'll ever run into Abelhelm's other kids...
I'd guess they're working as witch hunters probably.
 
Nurgle said:
More than likely she is married and has a secret family. Because of her family history it seems to be the best thing to not tell anyone you have family.
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She seemed awfully young for marriage and a family when she first took up the runefang. And afterwards, the demands and secrecy for the lifestyle of a witch hunter (and was she even one or just being watched over by one?) and an elector countess are completely different. The highest rank of nobility should have their children seen. If for no other reason that when they die, their underlings are actually willing to accept this person saying they're the new boss.
 
WestOrEast said:
She seemed awfully young for marriage and a family when she first took up the runefang. And afterwards, the demands and secrecy for the lifestyle of a witch hunter (and was she even one or just being watched over by one?) and an elector countess are completely different. The highest rank of nobility should have their children seen. If for no other reason that when they die, their underlings are actually willing to accept this person saying they're the new boss.
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Yeah, as funny a gag as it would be for every generation to just have a Van Hal materialize into existence at the castle a couple days after the last one died, that would be problematic for a bunch of reasons.
 
I wonder how the witch hunter action is gonna go? There's a whole bunch of angles and narrative beats that could take, from him (unsuccessfully) trying to pull rank while mathilde hands him rope, to him discussing what he's investigating only for most or all of it to be stuff even a mildly informed person would know is just a normal part of K8P, to it spiraling out into a buddy cop adventure.

Frankly it's entirely possible to weave together a scene that does all three.
 
Prime 2.0 said:
I wonder how the witch hunter action is gonna go? There's a whole bunch of angles and narrative beats that could take, from him (unsuccessfully) trying to pull rank while mathilde hands him rope, to him discussing what he's investigating only for most or all of it to be stuff even a mildly informed person would know is just a normal part of K8P, to it spiraling out into a buddy cop adventure.

Frankly it's entirely possible to weave together a scene that does all three.
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I feel like he should feel at least a little justified in his investigation- Gretel's kinda putting off that vibe, you know?
 
Mopman43 said:
I feel like he should feel at least a little justified in his investigation- Gretel's kinda putting off that vibe, you know?
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If he has just heard "lady with pale skin and skull aesthetic rules barony in the border princes." He'd probably come to a reasonable conclusion. Vampires fiefs in the border princes are a thing that happens somewhat regularly.
Having a barak varr sponsored principality ruled by an amethyst wizard is much more out there.
 
Tobtorp said:
If he has just heard "lady with pale skin and skull aesthetic rules barony in the border princes." He'd probably come to a reasonable conclusion. Vampires fiefs in the border princes are a thing that happens somewhat regularly.
Having a barak varr sponsored principality ruled by an amethyst wizard is much more out there.
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I mean that is a fair point, but I don't think it's asking the really important question. The important question of course is does he have anything worth looking off his corpse if we kill him? :V

(probably not or this would not be a social action)
 
DragonParadox said:
I mean that is a fair point, but I don't think it's asking the really important question. The important question of course is does he have anything worth looking off his corpse if we kill him? :V

(probably not or this would not be a social action)
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Sadly we have become to powerful to just "accidentally" kill a witch hunter. People would ask "but why didn't you incapacitate him?" And we'd have to mind hole them and it would be a whole thing.
 
Is the actually semi-decent Strigoi fief around? I think it was butterflied or never existed in the first place, no?
 
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