Yes, entering into an intimate relationship with Aqshy is the sort of thing that inclines a person towards burning things. If they were already tilted that way it can get a bit disastrous.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Yes, entering into an intimate relationship with Aqshy is the sort of thing that inclines a person towards burning things. If they were already tilted that way it can get a bit disastrous.
xamaplak
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE @SOUP?
- Location
- the Soup Store
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Completely unrelated question, but are there any successful Bright Magisters who used to be engineers in Nuln?
Engineers tend to be either deeply suspicious of dephlogistication, or way too enthusiastic about it. The Brights can't sway the former and don't want the latter.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
There's the Second-Daughter-is-the-Lady theory:
There's also the Second-Daughter-Is-Lileath-or-Ladrielle theory:
And, of course, there's the theory where the Lady is either Ladrielle or Lileath, plus a Second-Daughter-is-an-unknown-goddess theory. Personally, I favor the Lady, because I think it fits very convincingly, and have no opinion on whether the Lady is secretly also Ladrielle or Lileath.
As for the Kurgan shrine, I have zero regrets about voting for it. When we voted to take it, we didn't know what testing AV with divine magic would get us, and if the Truth-Faith vote had broken the other way then it would have been extremely valuable for that project. As it is, it's a low-priority cultural piece instead of cutting-edge theology, but that's fine? We've studied and published random anthropological stuff before, like the Lizardmen material. Chalk it up as "fodder for neat worldbuilding for the people in this quest who like god stuff when we get around to it."
Regarding Wolf, as mentioned we chose not to enhance his battle prowess and enhancing the familiar bond seemed not worth it given that we already got the best familiar bonus, the +1 Magic, and while Lucky Charm and Voice of Reason would also be great, familiar obsession seems punishingly bad. We were planning to enhance his intelligence and teach him Praestantia so that he could serve as a doggie-talkie via our mental link, but "unfortunately" we liberated the entirety of Karak Eight Peaks before that could become relevant -- we then did so anyway so that we could use his senses for assistance with the scent components of Queekish, but we rolled low with Qrech and only got the stripped-down version with no scent components. Them's the breaks -- sometimes the dice just don't want a particular character to be relevant. I'm happy with him being a low-impact source of emotional support and characterization for Mathilde -- he doesn't need to be in the foreground to be awesome, when he shows up every now and then it's a fun treat. I really enjoyed the social rounds where we got to see him through other characters' eyes, and I have an omake I've been desultorily tinkering with for a long time that has him as the central character.
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- Location
- Hiding in the walls.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The sewers thing also gets interesting IC when you consider that the EIC wound up owning a very, very successful gunpowder production facility fed in large part by Wurtbad's sewage. As far as I remember this was largely unrelated, but I bet it doesn't look that way from the outside.
- Location
- Washington
Even skaven-less sewers are not exactly pictures of law and order if effort is not made to keep them that way. I feel like your average empire sewer has at least three out of Ranaldites, Gunndredites, Khainites, Regular Ol' Chaos Mutants, Vampire Pawns, and the occasional actual secular crime syndicate fighting for control between themselves and the skaven.
Speaking of artifacts, I'd like to poke the Kul weapons at some point. We know that the Empire can't mass produce magic items—each one is a unique artisanal craft that takes months to years to make. They are rare and unusual.
We took a dozen such weapons from the Kul, and left many more buried under the snow. How did a group of steppe barbarians have access to so much magic weaponry? Either they had a genius enchanter who could quickly bang them out one after the other, or they have a method for quickly slapping an enchantment onto a weapon.
Either way, we could potentially learn something important from studying them. And even if it doesn't improve our own enchanting abilities, having an up to date report on Kul weaponry will be valuable information for the Empire—it has, after all, been two hundred years since the Empire and the Kul have fought, and it's likely that some of their military knowledge would be out of date by now.
We took a dozen such weapons from the Kul, and left many more buried under the snow. How did a group of steppe barbarians have access to so much magic weaponry? Either they had a genius enchanter who could quickly bang them out one after the other, or they have a method for quickly slapping an enchantment onto a weapon.
Either way, we could potentially learn something important from studying them. And even if it doesn't improve our own enchanting abilities, having an up to date report on Kul weaponry will be valuable information for the Empire—it has, after all, been two hundred years since the Empire and the Kul have fought, and it's likely that some of their military knowledge would be out of date by now.
- Location
- Greece
Result not found. Did you mean: Grey wizard front?
WHAT AN EXCELLENT POINT! THAT DOES SEEM LIKE SOMETHING THAT EVERYONE SHOULD PAY A LOT MORE ATTENTION TO, DOESN'T IT?!
Let me reassure you, though the daughters haven't made many apperances in-quest, there are some in the thread who do care about this issue quite a bit. imho, It's difficult to force the thread to actually vote in that direction for three reasons:
1. Turning the coin to the Father means giving up on all other faces for a turn, and because the daughters aren't known for certain it's possible that there'll be no benefit at all.
2. The faith vs truth vote that lead to the daughters being discovered was extremely contentious, and some voters were and to some extent still are very upset that we gave up on truth. As a result there's a contigency of voters that can't summon much enthusiasm for the daughters.
3. Even disregarding point 2, some people think that the daughters are not the coolest thing, for reasons that I can't quite fathom.
As of now the sum total of actions taken in that direction have been:
1. A social action talking about divine children with Cython (this was motivated by Ranald having kids, and the narration at the end is Mathilde speculating specifically about that point):
2. Recruiting the Nordland Hedgewise to the project with the Father face active, which confirmed Halétha as a daughter:
3. A social action with Aksel on that same turn, getting some more lore about Halétha (the biggest of which is probably learning that the Kislevite God Kalita is an aspect of Halétha):
There was also some talk about sneaking some Haléthan symbolism into the Bokha Palace Accords (along with Ranaldian symbolism) that didn't pan out, but still made it into the text of the quest in the way that failed options that gained some traction sometimes do.
Outside of the text of the quest, plenty of discussion of the daughters has happened in thread. @picklepikkl linked my post on The Lady above (which also leads to another post on The Lady, which in turn links another post on the Lady written by Redshirt_Army, and also to a post on Halétha and also a post compiling some of the theories that the thread has floated) but there's also plenty of remarks about this issue scattered here and there made by various people. If you have some questions about any of this please ask. No, really, please ask. I am like a vampire standing at a threshold, except instead of sucking blood I post about the daughters, and instead of requiring premission to enter I require any excuse whatsoever.
Eh, a bunch of mundane Tileans (or was it Estalians?) read them without deleterious effects to their health. Just made them decide to make a dedicated anti-vampire organization.
Vlad Carstein's notes on his Ring's enchantments are either going to significantly increase Mathilde's understanding of enchanting or somehow be so advanced it goes over her head. Which I only entertain the possibility of due to the ring being a creation of Nagash.
Bonus point, if the weapons end up not being tainted, we get a whole bunch of magic weapons on our hands to distribute as we please. Even if they are low end, that is still better then just about any mundane weapon.
I bet there's a support group in the Bright college for people who properly enjoy fire, not like all those other cowards. Because occasionally, someone with the wrong inclination will unlock their magic and then be unwilling or unable to budge, and not letting them in isn't an option either. Can't even burn them properly, except as a warm welcome. Pun intended.
Come to think of it, that's probably just the Battle Wizards. Or more accurately, those all get shoved into the battle wizards, where they get to productively live out their pyromania with the biggest booms, but are also kept under close supervision.
- Location
- New Zealand
Or there were several such people making them, and/or they spent decades doing so? If they took three months each, once person could make fifty in twelve years or so. There could have been a bunch of people making them.
This is quite plausible. The composite bows used by IRL steppe nomads took months to make and needed constant care thereafter. After all, a good weapon is something that someone keeps for years or decades, so a few months of craftsmanship is time well spent.
Plus, it was a pretty successful warband. They'd be raiding other tribes all the time, and take their stuff. Magic weapons would be a prime target, since it's easy to move (compare to a cow), and lets you take more stuff in the future. And it's a sign of prestige for the warrior who has it.
So to get thirty magic weapons as a warlord, you don't need tribes to have thirty each. You just need each tribe to have three (quite doable; chief, heir, second-in-command, or maybe the shaman makes one for themselves), and then raid ten tribes. That's not accounting for daemonic gifts, which would also be a thing, or what you trade from the chaos dwarfs. Or tribute, which is just raiding but with less effort for everyone involved.
Like, those guys were not representative of the typical (hopefully). They had a boss with a pet daemon, multiple shamans, and a pretty beefy Khorne champion. The guy in charge probably wasn't in the Everbowl, but he was heading that way (since he had blessings/support from multiple gods). They got strong, in part by making everyone around them weaker.
The Kul no doubt have a much higher rate of mages. But in part you're seeing dozens of magic weapons here and not in the empire (or other big organized groups), because they'd normally spread them out to do the most good.
So to get thirty magic weapons as a warlord, you don't need tribes to have thirty each. You just need each tribe to have three (quite doable; chief, heir, second-in-command, or maybe the shaman makes one for themselves), and then raid ten tribes. That's not accounting for daemonic gifts, which would also be a thing, or what you trade from the chaos dwarfs. Or tribute, which is just raiding but with less effort for everyone involved.
Like, those guys were not representative of the typical (hopefully). They had a boss with a pet daemon, multiple shamans, and a pretty beefy Khorne champion. The guy in charge probably wasn't in the Everbowl, but he was heading that way (since he had blessings/support from multiple gods). They got strong, in part by making everyone around them weaker.
The Kul no doubt have a much higher rate of mages. But in part you're seeing dozens of magic weapons here and not in the empire (or other big organized groups), because they'd normally spread them out to do the most good.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
With the exception of Strigoi, I don't think any vampire's willing to dwell in sewers, or put up with minions who smell like raw sewage, barring the circumstance that their cover's already been blown and they're fleeing the city.
Now, a mortal necromancer setting up a lab there, on the other hand...
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Vampire Pawns, not Pawn Vampires. They'd be perfectly willing to send minions into the sewers (probably separated by further minion layers) to get things done, like murder, spying, smuggling, grocery shopping, or other neferious deeds.
Voikirium
SV's Estalia Guy
- Location
- Ruritania Illinois
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Rodrigo seethes in the void.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's not just the Skaven, though. Waste management and resulting smell/health concerns in a medeival city are no joke. Diseases often came from cities for a reason, after all, and reducing the stench of a city is a notable and widely appreciated achievement.
That big sewers could also hide stuff like Chaos cultists and such is a realistic concern in the setting, too.
But yeah, it's once you learn about the Skaven that it actually makes perfect sense.
I just spent 30 bucks to befuddled by this division of provinces in the wfrp4th edition.
Middenheim independent but is Nordland?
Talabheim is independent but is Hochland?
Sudenland indpendent (this makes some what sense).
Talabecland contains Ostermark?
Apparently most of those territorial changes are made by Magnus the pious.
Enemy within is so wack
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Rivers in the empire are truly a marvel: almost universally navigable human factors notwithstanding with huge ships and little mention of sediment and flood management. flooding is also not a constant theme. You would think tzeentch (or some god of change, and moon) would have flooding and tidal waves as his domain. The river spirits do a good job prevent
Ing that.
More interestingly, they are stationary. "Conceptually solid" in a manner that allows riverine transmission, as opposed to roads. Irl humans tamed rivers, made them more linear and held them still.
My guess is that the magical concept of the river, that can create gods (grandfather Reik), or leylines, hold rivers in place.
Ing that.
More interestingly, they are stationary. "Conceptually solid" in a manner that allows riverine transmission, as opposed to roads. Irl humans tamed rivers, made them more linear and held them still.
My guess is that the magical concept of the river, that can create gods (grandfather Reik), or leylines, hold rivers in place.
And yet there are no tensions or political silly buggers originating in that, even though much earlier fall of Solland still has a whole bunch of people refusing to accept the changes. Add to that the whole "fake Ghal Maraz" garbage and well... Enemy Within should have eother stayed in 1st ed or be reworked to mesh with more modern canon IMO.
I suspect Old One terraforming had something to do with all this.
Old one : "Forefrog Mazdamundi! The rivers on this continent need to be able to sustain type 14a civilization for the next 1000000 years!"
Mazdamundi: " It will be done Tzunki kami-sama!"
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
These are basically all things that have been true for periods of the history of the Empire (Middenheim independent from Middenland, Nordland and Ostermark as vassals, etc), but not in the 'modern day'. The reason why 4e Roleplay has them that way is that the original Enemy Within campaign in 1e Roleplay in the 80s had that as the set-up.
The 4e Enemy Within campaign is basically trying to start with the original province political map and end with the modern version (the one that exists in this quest) which first appeared in the 4th edition Empire army book in the 90s.
Do our Eonir books on liminal realms describe anything like the sort of liminal realms that Mathilde can create with AV (that is, an empty and uniformly grey space of limited size)? If they do, what do they say about it?