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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Sparsebeard said:
I mean, we do have the Seed of Rebirth as a failsafe
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Being killed and then resurrected by the seed is a highly traumatic experience. We shouldn't treat it so casually, especially in the context of dragging our teenage apprentice into one of the most brutal war zones on the planet.

The seed is one of those things where I really, really wish we didn't need it, because using it means that something somewhere has gone horribly wrong.
 
Feim said:
I get the feeling eike is going to be so confused when we die and bequeath her the largest and most diverse selection of poor quality romance and smut novels on the planet.
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"Imperial, sure. Kislevite, Bretonnian, and from the rest of the Old World, sure. Dwarf and Eonir, a bit weird, but considering this is Mathilde I kinda expected it."
"Asur? Uuuh, I guess there's not much difference from the Eonir, at least when it comes to smut. Still, really unusual; I'll give it a look or two later for... research purposes. Yes, purely research, haha."
"Cathayan? Nehekharan? Wow, this is some collector level personal library. Did she get every single romance book the KAU could find in the Old World? This is seriously impressive."
"Druchii? What the... where did she even get them from?" *Reads a bit* By Shallya, this is the single weirdest piece of smut I've ever read! At least it can't possibly get weirder at this point"
*Looks at the next bookshelf, and finds the whole Extensive and Esoteric collection of Skaven romance, as well as the still Extensive collection of Overly Vulgar Skaven texts.*
 
Ergosum said:
"Imperial, sure. Kislevite, Bretonnian, and from the rest of the Old World, sure. Dwarf and Eonir, a bit weird, but considering this is Mathilde I kinda expected it."
"Asur? Uuuh, I guess there's not much difference from the Eonir, at least when it comes to smut. Still, really unusual; I'll give it a look or two later for... research purposes. Yes, purely research, haha."
"Cathayan? Nehekharan? Wow, this is some collector level personal library. Did she get every single romance book the KAU could find in the Old World? This is seriously impressive."
"Druchii? What the... where did she even get them from?" *Reads a bit* By Shallya, this is the single weirdest piece of smut I've ever read! At least it can't possibly get weirder at this point"
*Looks at the next bookshelf, and finds the whole Extensive and Esoteric collection of Skaven romance, as well as the still Extensive collection of Overly Vulgar Skaven texts.*
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I'm not a hundred per cent sure that Mathys will doesn't have a 'please burn everything in this bookcase' bit the same way some people have a 'please delate my browser history' friend.
 
I wanna bring Eike to Lothern because if we don't do it on the Elfcation when we're on the same continent, we never will otherwise, and Lothern is goddamn cool. Give her a task like "investigate trade opportunities for the EIC" or whatever, monies to spend, and let her enjoy the new experience. I don't really want to bring her to Nagarythe, she's not even a Journeywoman yet.
 
Usual reminder that 'romance' often just means 'has a woman as the protagonist' and that Mathilde doesn't just have a shelf full of smut.


Boney said:
Codex said:
I'm starting to question if Mathilde is even interested in trashy "romance novels" (read: erotica) considering her proclitives.
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An observation about genre fiction: there are a great deal of 'romance' books that would be described as fantasy or sci fi or thriller or crime or detective or one of a hundred other genres if the protagonist was a man.
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Tobtorp said:
Let's say it like this, we have interacted with kislevites for almost 5 years in quest now (I think I might be tallying wrong) and haven't managed to learn the language yet. For nehekharan we have impressive magical texts and we are still debating when to learn it.
It's hard to convince people to learn languages...
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and? that's no reason to not buy their smut.
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
I'm not a hundred per cent sure that Mathys will doesn't have a 'please burn everything in this bookcase' bit the same way some people have a 'please delate my browser history' friend.
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And the worst thing is, the "Extensive and esoteric collection of romance and smut of all kinds, up to and including Druchii and Skaven" isn't even in the top 5 weird/unexpected/"Oh Shit" things in Mathilde's home. Like, there's:

Half a dozen skulls of Vampires she's either directly killed or contributed to kill (of different kinds, even! We only lack a Lahmian!)
A room specifically designed for a Dragon
The still cold mask of the Warboss whose half-a-million-orcs-strong Waagh Mathilde personally annihilated
The anti-glowing Dwarf-Wizard superweapon harnessing the power of a God which she used to annihilate the aforementioned half a million orcs
The bottom half of Drycha. Yes, that Drycha.
A small wooden figure of herself, for some reason
A complete collection of coins from Tylos, Strygos and Nehekhara which would make your average numismatician start frothing at the mouth
Doctor Quirin Waramunt himself, who also turns out to be a former Skaven commander
As of right now, eight brand new Orbs of Sorcery (one of each Wind) which nobody knew existed
And last but certainly not least, the original Liber Mortis. As well as the Scrolls of Zandri. And handwritten notes by Vlad von Carstein on his Ring, which apparently was made by Nagash himself. Yeeah.
 
BagFullOfLizards said:
Ooo, that gives me an idea for what to do after the Waystone Project: ALL THE ROMANCE. Journey to far Cathey to raid the emperor's library. Plunder Nehekkaran tombs and toss back anything that isn't sexy. Bring down the lizardmen so we can search their golden tablets for the legendary Smut of the Old Ones.
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The true reason to reassemble the tongue of the Old Ones: To find out where exactly that tongue has been and what it's been up to.
 
You know, the difference between a hobby and research is if you write a thesis in the end.

So Mathilde just need to write a paper about the psychological difference between various cultures and species based on their ...Overly Vulgar Romance genre and she should have a rock solid alibi on why she has the books.

Truly this course of action has no downsides.
 
Boney said:
Flensed skull of the 'Singing King', a Strigoi Vampire that ruled over an army of ghouls encountered during the Purge of the Haunted Hills, slain by you, Kasmir, and Abelhelm.

Flensed skull of Alkharad, a Necrarch Vampire who was operating a necromancer college in Teufelheim and trying to assassinate Elector Countess Roswita Van Hal.

Flensed skull of a Bretonnian Blood Dragon, one of the dozens who infested Tempelhof before a tidal wave of Battle Wizards arrived.

Flensed skull of the Ghoul King Druthor, a Strigoi Vampire that had taken up resident in the ruins of Castle Drakenhof.

Flensed skull of a varghulf that was part of the court of Druthor.
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Our current vampire skull collection. Two Strigoi, and one each of Blood Dragon, Necrarch, and Vargulf. Of the Old World bloodlines, we're missing Von Carstien and Lahamian.

I would very much like to complete our collection, study them, and then write a book on. I think it'll be very cool and give us some mad rep with all the vampire hunters (they throw the best parties).
 
Nerdasaurus Rex said:
Our current vampire skull collection. Two Strigoi, and one each of Blood Dragon, Necrarch, and Vargulf. Of the Old World bloodlines, we're missing Von Carstien and Lahamian.

I would very much like to complete our collection, study them, and then write a book on. I think it'll be very cool and give us some mad rep with all the vampire hunters (they throw the best parties).
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I think that the study of skulls would be a bit controversial. I remember asking if we could do it with Sarvoi and the answer was something to the effect of that making it too obvious that we were dabbling in frowned upon studies
 
DragonParadox said:
I think that the study of skulls would be a bit controversial. I remember asking if we could do it with Sarvoi and the answer was something to the effect of that making it too obvious that we were dabbling in frowned upon studies
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Specifically:

Boney said:
What Mathilde does with Vampire skulls in the privacy of her own home is her own business, but it stops being that if she invites anyone else in. And either Sarvoi has no idea about Article 7 and thus has no reason not to blithely tell any of the seven other Wizards in Tor Lithanel about it, or he does and so you might want to think twice before you invite him to breach it with you.
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So Mathilde can write a monograph on the skulls based on her own studies if she likes, but it'd be one of those "Only publish posthumously" things.

If there were any actionable results to be had from the study like some trick of morphology giving them a shared blindspot or area of softer bone or whatever, the Hunters would likely be happy to read the findings, but it's best that Mathilde's not around to answer any pointed follow-up questions they might have about the whole "No Magister may ever study [...] the unholy ways of Necromancy. Any Magister found disregarding this Article is guilty of an Abominable Act and is both Heretic and Traitor and will be put to sword and fire immediately." thing.
 
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Gavin Prince said:
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So Mathilde can write a monograph on the skulls based on her own studies if she likes, but it'd be one of those "Only publish posthumously" things.

If there were any actionable results to be had from the study like some trick of morphology giving them a shared blindspot or area of softer bone or whatever, the Hunters would likely be happy to read the findings, but it's best that Mathilde's not around to answer any pointed follow-up questions they might have about the whole "No Magister may ever study [...] the unholy ways of Necromancy. Any Magister found disregarding this Article is guilty of an Abominable Act and is both Heretic and Traitor and will be put to sword and fire immediately." thing.
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Plus, there have probably been a lot of vampire hunters and quite a few wizards who studied those skulls for weaknesses, with access to a lot more skulls. The obvious will have been noticed already. Mathilde is sufficiently powerful and skilled, as well as knowledgeable in Necromancy that she might contribute something new, but it's not a given.
 
I'm with BurnNote on this one. Vampires have been a problem for millennia and while Mathilde's Magesight is pretty top-tier, I feel like there's an upper limit to how much insight or new knowledge you can derive out of mere skulls without delving into some real sketchy territory, the results of which likely cannot be published.

Like, if we limit ourselves to staring hard at the differences between flensed skulls and don't do anything really blasphemous? It'd probably be fine, but a paper like "Hands-Off Observations on Anatomical Differences between the Skulls of the Vampiric Bloodlines and their Transformations" isn't likely to add anything unique to the accumulated libraries of the Witch Hunters, Cult of Morr and the Amethyst College.

...But if we do want to get into sketchy (one might say grey) territory and don't worry about whether the results are publishable or not, there is one thing that may well give Mathilde more insight on vampire skulls without needing to do something stupid like trying to feed them Dhar or reviving them or whatever: reading Vlad's notes on the Carstein Ring.

It's been previously speculated by people in the thread that the way the Carstein Ring works is by super-boosting a Vampire's normal regeneration, hence why Vlad could regenerate in a single day from just about anything. If that's the case (and mind you, that's just an if), then studying the notes may indirectly tell Mathilde a key part of how Vampires (and by extension their skulls) tick.
 
If Cython or Deathfang were to write books would we get a new Dragon category in our library, or do they not have enough of an extant culture to count?
 
While I doubt any single author writing books can be enough to count as a bonus, and that most of their knowledge comes from other cultures already counted, This does raise the possibility of convincing Cython to recite some of the books he read in the past from other cultures, The dragon is a bookwyrm after all, and between dragon and Hysh attunement I won't be surprised if he got some sort of eidetic memory.

Of course, that leave convincing him to put effort in books that won't directly benefit him, and also depend if Boney feels like opening the can of worms that is access to Cython's book report club.

Oh, and actually translating the many varied languages he no doubt will use.
 
Wiggy said:
If Cython or Deathfang were to write books would we get a new Dragon category in our library, or do they not have enough of an extant culture to count?
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It's a little moot because Cython's opinion on books is that they exist to be read by Cython, and writing one of their own seems pointless when they'd already know what's in it.

seekingflame said:
While I doubt any single author writing books can be enough to count as a bonus, and that most of their knowledge comes from other cultures already counted
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The Grey Lords come close. Only twelve of them and their writings constitute enough insight to represent the final points of the +5 Eonir on multiple magical topics that we can't get from the Library of Mournings alone.
 
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We do have that web-mat Egrimm action to try to wrangle knowledge out of Cython, although I suspect that's less "Cython writes a book" and more "Mathilde and Egrimm hurriedly try to write down any lore that slips out from between Cython's teeth".
 
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