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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Boney said:
and his sheer indifference to the subtler elements of how nations interact makes you wince.
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Boney said:
Dame Mathilde Weber, as seen through the eyes of the others present, is the Empire's foremost diplomat to both the Dwarves and the Elves, having won the favour of the former through her participation in the reconquest of Karak Eight Peaks and the Karak Vlag Expedition
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Boney said:
You don't, however, mention how he's been unconsciously shaping an Ulgu enchantment for years now.
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He has magical affinity for Ulgu and its more mundane lessons are exactly what he needs to round him out as Prince and possibly Emperor. Grey is the best option in my opinion.
 
Boney said:
"Everyone knows us," she says. "Those that don't like us respect us, and rulers definitely respect the taxes and materiel we help their cities generate. When it comes to faith, steel, and gunpowder, we're experts in two of the three. I doubt any of you can do better. As for the kid, I've only ever encountered one more suited for the manipulation of elemental Chamon than he is. An Elector Count that can harden his own armour and empower his own blade is one that will go down in history."
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I tend to lean towards the Golds:
  • The argument that magically empowering his equipment will work well with a warrior's disposition makes sense
  • The way he tried to sort the Ranaldian stories between "real" and "just stories" seems in-line with Chamonish thinking
  • The Gold Wind would be useful to a ruler in times of peace and times of war
  • We've seen just how badass gilding can be
buuuut

The Brights have a very good point and we know the boy isn't much for book learning (which is a major part of the Gold college)
 
mastigos said:
I tend to lean towards the Golds:
  • The argument that magically empowering his equipment will work well with a warrior's disposition makes sense
  • The way he tried to sort the Ranaldian stories between "real" and "just stories" seems in-line with Chamonish thinking
  • The Gold Wind would be useful to a ruler in times of peace and times of war
  • We've seen just how badass gilding can be
buuuut

The Brights have a very good point and we know the boy isn't much for book learning (which is a major part of the Gold college)
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We've also seen just how risky gilding can be. It's not the sorta thing a ruler should be doing.
 
horngeek said:
We've also seen just how risky gilding can be. It's not the sorta thing a ruler should be doing.
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I would like to point out that all of the winds have a lot of risks involved. I think what kind of Arcane Marks could occur would be a good idea to keep in mind.

For instance the Ulgu marks that make you unrecognizable would be horrific for a leader to have.
 
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I'm leaning towards Golds and Brights, with no favor extraction. I'm going off of vibes here tbh. If he leads from the front, being either one of those will look hard as fuck.
 
I like Jade, Grey, and Gold myself. Grey for obvious reasons, and because I've never really been the type of person to get narratively bored by two apprentice greys or something—which is a valid point, just not one affecting me and it's the biggest argument against that I recall—Jade because Jades are just cool in general and I feel would mesh well with his mostly diplomatic nature while also meshing well with martial. We all remember how scary Pan Pan could be, after all.

Gold I find interesting because Gehenna seems to be implying that Mandred would fit fairly well into the same sort of specialties and paradigms Johann did, and I think it would be really funny if Johann ended up as his master.
 
The trouble with the comparison to mathilde's martial is that, well, she's a player character with all the silly growth that implies. But also the focused attention of a playerbase whose motivations aren't determined by dice roll.

Base stats aren't everything, but we can't presume the holes will be patched quite as well as mathilde has done for herself.
horngeek said:
We've also seen just how risky gilding can be. It's not the sorta thing a ruler should be doing.
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...That was years ago at this point, lol. Notably, what Johann went through wasn't a typical failure - he wrote a paper on it, I believe, and this is talking about the eyes which are one of the harder parts to do.

For the rest of his body? Well, Johann had a talent especially for gilding, but the emperor has the power of huge loads of money that don't have to be saved up. Might even things out a bit, depending.
 
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AsuraAtlas said:
The Brights, who have a reputation as magical artillery and only one or two spells involving leadership, would be an autopick if they were more Indic, but they're just not. They're my second choice, but only because it offers few concrete disadvantages. He would be the perfectly spherical in a vacuum Wizard Count Fighty McFightman.
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Investigating and teaching the Indic paradigm of Aqshy would be the sort of thing you could get them to agree to for Mathilde's support. Mathilde knows of a library that could get them started.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Honestly, I think he needs more book learning whatever College he goes to. His low Learning isn't something he's destined to always possess, but it is something we want him to overcome rather than lean into.
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True, but way to get someone interested in education is not to throw them into a classroom where they have to study.
Better to give them something they are already interested in, and gently guide them into seeing how studying helps them with that.
 
horngeek said:
We've also seen just how risky gilding can be. It's not the sorta thing a ruler should be doing.
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Even if true, Gilding is entirely voluntary rather than something everyone in the Gold College does.

Prime 2.0 said:
The trouble with the comparison to mathilde's martial is that, well, she's a player character with all the silly growth that implies. But also the focused attention of a playerbase whose motivations aren't determined by dice roll.

Base stats aren't everything, but we can't presume the holes will be patched quite as well as mathilde has done for herself.
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No, but I'd expect the Colleges to put some effort into upping his Learning. Probably not to Mathilde's degree, but I'd expect significant improvement.

Valmond said:
True, but way to get someone interested in education is not to throw them into a classroom where they have to study.
Better to give them something they are already interested in, and gently guide them into seeing how studying helps them with that.
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I mean, sure, but any College can do that as well. My point was 'needs book learning' shouldn't be a detriment on any College than anything else.
 
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I really want to emphasise how unique of an opportunity magical infrastructure, stewardship breadbasket opportunities could be. Yes, metal and flame are badass in the hindbrain, but its important to consider slow, boring, methodical good in the world, and-
Boney said:
Investigating and teaching the Indic paradigm of Aqshy would be the sort of thing you could get them to agree to for Mathilde's support. Mathilde knows of a library that could get them started.
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WOOOOHH YEAAAHHHH BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT THROUGH THE FIRE AND FLAME HOORAH
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
I mean, sure, but any College can do that as well. My point was 'needs book learning' shouldn't be a detriment on any College than anything else.
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Needs book learning, sure.
But heavily focuses on it, is, when talking of a kid fundamentally uninterested in it.
Brights are not only a good fit for what the Empire needs, but also what Mandred is interested in.
And the one flaw (not including arcane marks) people come back to can be heavily mitigated via indic view of aqshy, which Boney said we could make a condition for out support.
 
Honestly, I'm thinking Gold here as well.

Redshirt Army said:
My immediate first thought is that it would be very reasonable to argue for the Grey College to give Mandred some lessons on diplomacy and spycraft even if he isn't a member - they're the undisputed champions of those disciplines among the colleges.
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And in line with that diplomatic bent, I'd recommend Mathidle ask that all Colleges help teach him in their non-magic specialties.
 
Asking the Brights to look into the uses of Bright Magic for a leader, not just a warrior or artillerist, seems like the perfect compromise for me.

Bright for the win.
 
Valmond said:
Needs book learning, sure.
But heavily focuses on it, is, when talking of a kid fundamentally uninterested in it.
Brights are not only a good fit for what the Empire needs, but also what Mandred is interested in.
And the one flaw (not including arcane marks) people come back to can be heavily mitigated via indic view of aqshy, which Boney said we could make a condition for out support.
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I'm pretty sure the other Colleges can shape their curriculum to his interests. The Indic book possibility makes Brights less of a bad choice, but I remain unconvinced it's the best one. The Arcane Marks remain more problematic than the Gold ones, IMO, for one thing, and even more importantly he has an actual affinity for Chamon and Ulgu and not for Aqshy. The Bright College consider that a plus because they don't want people with an affinity for Aqshy, but I think he should go somewhere his actual magic tends towards.
 
This is a very tough choice. I dont think there will be a wrong answer exactly here, or at least not one we could know without seeing the future of the quest. but figuring out which one is most likely to give the best result is going to produce many pages of arguments.

Also, I always enjoy seeing new wizards, the amount of characterization Boney can fit in just a few paragraphs is amazing.
 
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Boney said:
Investigating and teaching the Indic paradigm of Aqshy would be the sort of thing you could get them to agree to for Mathilde's support. Mathilde knows of a library that could get them started.
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...And just like that, the Bright college jumps up to being one of my top picks. Boney's already specifically called out "angy leader" as an issue that can be worked with, and Heidi seems rather at peace with a paradigm of military/diplomatic focus with advisors on everything else.

Combine that with a new corpus of mental-focused fire magic lore and it's looking pretty great.
 
After this update I again think the Grays would help Mandred fill in any weaknesses in intrigue. He could be very much like Mathilde a diplo-swording intriger.
 
AsuraAtlas said:
I'm probably gong to be busy/sleeping for most of the discussion period, but I'm going to list why I think he should go to the Jades while I have the chance.
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That, and there's how Jade would benefit any combat prowess he would have: Regen, tackiness, Jade Magic is all about making sure that the user or whoever they are targeting survives. The less risk of permanent injuries from fighting, the better.

Bright is also a good synergistic option, but I prefer Jade in this case.
 
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