OK and also another advantage I just thought of when it comes to weaponizing Mockery of Substance, it is exactly the sort of wall-hacking jank that one would expect from a Collegiate enchantment. An elf who sees this thing might just get a nosebleed trying to figure out how it works (or explaining in detail why it shouldn't).
Reminds me of Belegar's reaction to the dragon stone. It's very impressive, but also just awful.
Maybe not as negative, but it's definitely very Mathilde.
I don't think they're entirely wrong in that, in fact I think they're entirely right. If the II had shaved the ambassador's beard after the Time of Woes has begun the Karaz Ankor would likely have either lost the war or not have engaged in it at all, sucking up their pride and settling for merely cutting off diplomatic relations rather than risk a probable loss of a war that could have led to their extinction if they lost bad enough. As it is the Karaz Ankor won the War of Vengeance, sure they lost some outlying settlements but the bulk of their Karaks survived and they got the vengeance they wanted through Caledor II's death, meanwhile Ulthuan lost all their colonies and their globe-spanning empire, they came off way worse in the war than the Karaz Ankor and the Dwarves would have likely remained the dominant major power at least in the Old World which is what they mainly cared about if it were not the Time of Woes utterly screwing them over right after and leaving them even more diminished than the Elves despite their victory in the war.
I think even in a timeline without the war of vengeance it would've been an issue. Say, Caledor 2 goes to war against Naggaroth instead, which is the more sensible option, and it's similarly bloody. But the elves probably wouldn't leave the colonies behind, because there aren't the hostile dwarfs burning it down. Maybe the order still comes, but in that case way fewer would follow. So the old world continues to be dominated by elves. Now the dwarfs get weakened. I don't think the elves wouldn't take advantage. Not all, but enough chunk. And even if they wouldn't, there'd also never be a big human empire, with a god of dwarf friendship, and the silver age that came with that.
There's no definites obviously, and it could easily go the other way too. But while the elves and dwarves cooperated well while they were both powerful and distant (at least the center of power in Ulthuan), I'm not so sure that still applies if they're suddenly neighbors (because the center of power of those/that newly independant elf state is a lot closer by), and then one gets weakened. There would be serious pride issues.
Like, the Empire is more powerful than the dwarfs, in terms of military might. A war between them would hurt the empire, but break the dwarfs. But there's a deeply ingrained gratitude towards the dwarfs, and an assumption that dwarfs
are better at quite a few things (which also goes towards elves, but things are only just getting to the point that the empire could soonish claim things they do especially well). So if a dwarf tells them "You only mildly suck" that's not an insult, that's a compliment and aspirational. I don't see the elves taking it that way, even if it's true. Humans being adjustable means they can mold to the harsh edges. Elves, might be more bendable, but that doesn't mean more adjustable, more a rod that eventually springs back.
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