The grand theogonist had access to Vlad's unredacted notes for several decades. I'd hardly call that quick. Specifically, they gained access to Vlad's notes in 2051 and used them to cast the second secret in 2132, nearly 80 years after they gained access
For Mathilde's reputation, the Liber Mortis would do more immediate damage because people already know and fear it. Other wizards would recognize how dangerous Mathilde's knowledge is once they read her hypothetical book, but it wouldn't have the name recognition
I mean yes. But the GT canonically brought the book with him and was reading from it. Which is not a great indicator of much study prior to that moment.
While I'm not necesarily for the idea of a Liber Morthilde, I feel the need to point out that the same could be said of Waagh and peace (Orcs, can read after all), Winning the war Beneath and basically every other piece of knowledge we've passed to the Colleges and written down about our enemies
It was mentioned that it was the notes of Vlad Von Carstein that the grand theogonist used to lay Mandred low.
It's not quite as bad as the Liber Mortis, because knowing Dhar alone doesn't tell you how to raise up an army on demand, but it would be a pretty good reason for any would-be Black Magister or sorcerer that knows it to be bumped up to 'high priority death' levels of threat. Mathilde wielding Dhar would be doing so with a +49 - it's part of the reason why every so often we look at her and say she'd be a great Dark Lady.
When Mathilde was researching murder rituals during the Alberich incident, she noted to herself that the Grey Order's librarian for things like that is not only extremely vetted but also cannot leave the Grey College. For something like this, it's possible that even LMs or the Patriarch wouldn't be able to fully read it, just given specific pages or paragraphs for when they wish to try to come up with countermeasures to Dhar magics.
That's one or two turns' worth of writing a romance novel, which I think has a lot more worth than knowing how to wield Dhar.
Aa far as I'm aware, Mathilde has Frederick's copy by way of the Van Hal bloodline, while the Cult of Sigmar, after killing Vlad, picked up a copy that he was using. These represent the only two known 'fully intact' copies of the book, compared to the butchered copies that have found their way into the hands of countless lesser Necromancers.
They had some time to look through the book before Manfred's army arrived, considering he;d been in several prior battles and villagers had been fleeing before him.
Article: Then the Grand Theogonist, Kurt III, appeared on the battlements. The Sigmarite high priest had brought forth the evil Liber Mortis from the deepest locked vaults of his temple, and he began to recite the Great Spell of Unbinding from its pages.
Why would Vlad need a copy? He was there when it was being written, and he learned Necromancy from Neferata and Nagash. It doesn't really matter though, because either way, it's not Vlad's notes that were used, it'd still be a copy of Frederick's diary.
Also, there's a chance Mathilde gets further insights down the road. Writing the book now would then necessitate rewriting it later. Why not wait a decade or two to see if she picks up anything more than she did in the last two decades?
How I Destroyed a Very Laughable Castle and then Looted its Ruins, L.M. Weber, Grey. Posthumous*.
Literally a person with no training at all in wind magic was able to use the second secret after maybe a day of reading.
Again, that's not who gets the liber mortis. You give the Liber Mortis to someone without magic training on purpose. More, we don't want them to be good at casting. We want them to be as bad as possible at wind casting, lest they go bad. That's why the Theoginist casting is a good idea.
Had access is not the same as read. The Grand Theoginist is not reading restricted books all the time, or we'd have bigger problems.
It took us a year or more to slowly go through the entire book and understand it, while being as safe as possible with a potential memetic hazard. That's different than "I need the one spell from this book, oh, it's bookmarked from the last guy who needed it."
That person "with no training at all" was the Grand Theogonist of his time, wasn't he ? He was an expert in Divine magic. Someone of his station must have already been very good at channeling/wielding his god's miracles - the Liber Mortis just told him where to aim.
Divine Magic is not wind magic. That's why I specified wind.
Have you read the when we discovered the second secret? It literally is an automatic "Dhar-explode, and explode nearby dhar".
I think there's an important qualitative difference: no graduates of the Imperial colleges of magic have become Orc Shamans or Skaven Sorcerers, while at least a few have become Necromancers.
...Can they?
Meh, Ranald can take them.
Personally interested in learning Nehekharan in order to study the scrolls and the notes on Vlad's ring. Honestly see little appeal in Elfcation.
I'd say "Elfcation with Father" is an actually pretty fringe position and that Elfcation with any of the other faces of the Coin have more support.
That's basically what I'm advising. A pamphlet that tells you what pages to read in case of upcoming undead horde that you won't be able to deal with
