In case anyone's wondering, "Oriour" is an elven word meaning 'Blood' or 'birth'. I don't think there's any known elven word that has 'Loc' in it, even partially, so Mathilde's assessment is reasonable - something about how his birthright was lost, maybe?
At this moment, though it would be down to us, I definitely think it would be Roswita. Mandred is still a child and Mathilde doesn't really know him that well, while she knows and respects Roswita (plus she considered dating Roswita many moons ago). After Mandred is a fully grown wizard, it might be that this would be vastly different, but I would be surprised if we opted for trying to elect a boy emperor right now, particularly with what we know is coming in the shape of an Everchosen.
I think Roswita has spent quite a bit of time contemplating the family Legacy (motivated by the incoming child or not) and concluded that she would rather not shackle it to Sylvania and Stirland for all of eternity.
She talked about victories in Sylvania only paying off shame debt instead of actually buying glory, but yeah if people look at her victories in Sylvania and respond by making her empress, that's basically the most important people in the Empire declaring "shame has totally been paid off, it's all glory from here on out."
Come on Mathilde, you're a Ranaldite.
Cytharai
Queen?
Empress?
Yeah but how many of those vampires will remain hiding as the waystones are rolled out? They'll fundamentally shift the environment from their favor to the favor of the Empire. They have to respond to it. Any who stay after that will just be at the normal level of vampire infiltration that affects the whole Empire. And even now, it's already garrisoned by the army. There's not going to be major problems for Mathilde to deal with. I'd rather poke the Iron Orcs or something.
Do you mind elaborating more please?
Well, I'm not exactly expecting Luitpold to drop dead IMMEDIATELY. Best health care in the Empire, him.
A valid point, but it'd be better to take out some of those vampires while they still think that they're safe rather than when they're on the attack.
Is Filuan is not the Queen's own House, right? Does the Queen's House have a name and a role/pastime? I assume so, since she's bound to have siblings and cousins and maybe also aunts/uncles and her own children.
I'm not quite sure I understand Roswita's initial plan. Was it to seem childless and hand the Electorship of Stirland to a new dynast that passes her muster (or the muster of whoever she placed in a good position to make such a choice should she have an untimely death)? What would happen to her kid in such a case? Adopted without knowing their mother? Groomed somewhere else to be this heir?
Does this mean that she still plans on hiding her child? Or at least disown them? Else one could say that the marriage wouldn't really be a dynastic marriage, since the resulting children would not be expected to inherit, should everything go well for her firstborn. It might also paint a target on said firstborn's back. But marrying and then revealing her firstborn later would be a serious betrayal to her husband and his House.
Inherit the Empire and have their seat where? Not that someone who is not an EC themselves can't be elected Emperor, but it would still mean that they have a far smaller powerbase than seems necessary for an Emperor to not be fully beholden to the Electors. Or are you imagining that she marries someone of the same rank as herself, with her firstborn allowing such a marriage without it resulting in a personal union of two Provinces?
I'm pretty sure she didn't. Wilhelmina stayed on for a bit after Mathilde got fired to not completely leave Roswita in a lurch, but iirc she left on her own accord after getting Roswita situated. Only then did Roswita replace her with that exciseman who she collaborated with to strangle the vampire economy.
I get the impression would be maybe to "retire" the Van Hal name and let kiddo grow up completely free of the ancestral baggage. Maybe a bit romantic vs practical but stuff regarding children and legacy tends to bring that out in people
The difference between the two is BJJ instead of just BJ.
House Filuan, originally from Avelorn, is a house of boatwrights - we visited their facilities as they're being refurbished. They're the ones that are going to supply the stone from Vlag that will be used to erect Tor Lithanel's new city blocks. The notes we have say they follow Isha and are possibly loyalists to the Queen.
And nothing new has been learned.
