Remove ads

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
Fehu said:
Yaknow what would be good? Having a friendly sigmarite empress called Roswite.

Roswite for empress! Hail to the daughter of Abel! Saviour of Sylvania!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Honestly, I doubt she would want it. She has enough trouble just running Stirland. Hell, she's trying to push Sylvania off on us so she can get back to the job she actually signed up for. Trying to give her the rest of the Empire too would just be mean.

Also, while Mathilde is tolerant of Roswita and her faith, she would probably much prefer Sigmar lose the throne in general.
 
Another thing about the whole ranaldian emperor deal - remember how Mathilde knows to not put Ranald against her other loyalties.

Furthermore she knows that what Ranald enjoys might not always be the optimal for Mathilde so be ready for shenanigans, I'd say Ranald remind me alot of Sheogorath in that sometimes the dice will let you live but only after youve tripped and put your face in a pie.
 
Doing nothing about the emperor election seems like a good way to get what we want with the least amount of effort invested.

I mean, I'm not sure what do we even want from the emperor election. Epic amount of favors/gold (epic, for an advisor)? I think we are swimming in that stuff right now. For me, it's time to try catching a bigger fish.
 
I think i've come around to doing a long term research sabbatical tbh, even if it lasts for ten turns, there's so many good projects we could work on and the Boon or great Deeds can be used in furtherance of it.

Seviroscope, map project, Wind herder, AV, Ulgu Tongs, Codifying the masteries we know. Spell creation in general, revisiting Karag Dum.

@picklepikkl

You said earlier that we wouldn't be able to use half actions on research via employees that's actually not true. We have the Boon and great deed vote coming up next and if we choose research sabbatical that's the time to make the research institute to hire Johan and Max and any other wizard we can. Then we can have them doing research for us with half actions if we so choose.
 
Last edited:
fictionfan said:
Really that's busyness as usual. None dare call it treason therefore it isn't.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Indeed, the basic claims of unlanded nobility is enforced solely by the recognition of other nobility. The basic claims of landed nobility is enforced by the ability of said noble to keep the land via personal prowess or connections. The value of noble blood literally cannot be tested except by Act of God

And finally, given the kinds of weird coincidences playing around, she might indeed be a Haupt-Andersson byblow from the previous generation anyways. She's got a rejuvenation package after all.
 
@BoneyM
Will it be possible trying to convince the Light Patriarch so Egrimm can go with us to some of the assignments? And if yes, which ones?
 
fan_of_D_Andreev said:
I mean, I'm not sure what do we even want from the emperor election. Epic amount of favors/gold (epic, for an advisor)? I think we are swimming in that stuff right now. For me, it's time to try catching a bigger fish.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

For me? A stable imperial succession, the journey of doing our best to ensure a competent and effective next Emperor which in turn has knock on effects for the Forces of Order. One who is favorably dispose to the Colleges, to the Karaz Ankor and to our god.

Setting that aside, even the narrative potential of such a job is immense. Its both a setting shift, offers a chance to settle unfinished business such as Sylvania without being tied to it and more.

As for gold and favors and influence? Remember the discussion about funding the Waystone Project over the long term? A stronger Emperor definitely goes a long way in pursuing such projects.


Let me however devils advocate for the research sabaatical: it allows us to sink plenty of time into various self improvement projects

- It allows us to work on outstanding applications of AV - enchantment, rituals and more. Our Magnum Opus is not done.
- We need to work on mastering our Arcane Marks. This I sense brings in many fascinating insights into the nature of Ulgu and Mathilde's soul herself
- We have done basically next to nothing to improve our mastery of Bhranalune.
- Our diplomacy is still a dump stat which needs even more redressing given our new position.
- We bought those artifacts which just grew our backlogs still further.
- There are still masteries and transcendentals we can work into fields such as assasination, swordsmanship and marksmanship. All of which helps us reduce the odds of a quest end- may I remind the thread we almost died this very expedition?
- We have still have much to learn about our long neglected enchantment abilities
- We've done fuck all with researching into Windherder.
- Ulgu constructs are still on the backlog, we sold Skaven tech for this
- We still need to refine Fog Path
- Our new mastery for Substance of shadow deserves further investigations.
- There is some interest for progressing up another Battle Magic - I have seen Pit of Shades proposed
- We haven't probed the staff of Mistery - Fog paths is just the start.


I see plenty of things that easily can consume 12 whole turns to be honest.

As for those who are worried Research arcs are boring, may I direct you to Runrikki Strollokai? As for this quest, I have been very entertained with Mathilde's careful projects into AV so far, so I have faith it will be quite interesting.
 
Last edited:
K von Carstein said:
@BoneyM
Will it be possible trying to convince the Light Patriarch so Egrimm can go with us to some of the assignments? And if yes, which ones?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Try it and find out. :)

I think common sense applies here - trying to get Egrimm to help out in Sylvania is quite possible because 1) it's in the Empire, 2) it plays to his strengths, 3) the Light College approves. Trying to get him to Swamp Town, not so much.
 
I think taking the Elfcation would be a good idea? It's a short thing in quest-time, and it's probably the best chance we'll have to do it. We also stand to gain some pretty good skills by working alongside the guerilla fighters that wage war against the druuchi for a living. And, well...the potential for Elf Favor, perhaps?
 
Andmeuths said:
For me? A stable imperial succession, the journey of doing our best to ensure a competent and effective next Emperor which in turn has knock on effects for the Forces of Order. One who is favorably dispose to the Colleges, to the Karaz Ankor and to our god.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's great! Thing is, I am not sure that Mandred would be that much better than other candidates, if better at all, considering, well, a child-emperor thing. It would be a certain thing if we knew more about other possible candidates and found some possible or actual bad stuff about them.

In my opinion, Emperor doesn't have that much power in the Empire, with the combined power of Elector counts outweighing him, so if we get a very bad Emperor, we as colleges of magic plus elector-counts could be able to do a coup. And we don't know yet if other candidates would be worse.

Granted, a truly epic emperor like Mandred Skavenslayer would be great, but I'm not sure how much we could influence that if we could at all. I'd like to think more about that option.

Andmeuths said:
As for gold and favors and influence? Remember the discussion about funding the Waystone Project over the long term? A stronger Emperor definitely goes a long way in pursuing such projects.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I guess, but for me that would be the least of our problem, the dawi and elgi being convinced being the biggest problem. And, if they are convinced, I think they would provide gold enough and we would be able to convince the Emperor to support that, whoever that is.
 
Andmeuths said:
As for gold and favors and influence? Remember the discussion about funding the Waystone Project over the long term? A stronger Emperor definitely goes a long way in pursuing such projects.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I like the Bodyguard job personally, but this really isn't the way to argue for it. If someone wants Waystones, voting Waystones will get them more of what they want than voting Bodyguard.
 
If we are asking what we would get out of helping Mandred get the throne. The real prize is should be what Ranald pays the debt back with. Likely a coin upgrade. Although I suppose he might create a custom divine servent appetition for us to bind.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, all the talk about how great a position we'd be in to do waystones later, really seem to skim over the obvious fact we're also in an excellent position to do it right now. And actually working at the task would do a far better job of pointing out any areas of deficiency we might need to patch than some unrelated task would.

If people find other stuff more interesting that's fine, but claims about how it would be a great fit in 10 years or something (When the total run time of the quest so far is around 16 years) feel pretty empty.

fictionfan said:
If we are asking what we would get out of helping Mandred get the throne. The real prize is likely to be what Ranald pays the debt back with. Likely a coin upgrade. Imagine if we could always use all 4 faces.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

He pays out only if our help actually makes a difference though, if Luitpold lives long enough Mandred inheriting is just the expected thing, then there's probably not a big godly payday expected. There's other more reliable payoffs to the job, but the Ranald possibility is fittingly, a significant gamble.
 
Last edited:
Firstly, I have to echo the others, exemplary writing in showcasing the positions in an interesting and engaging manner.

For me, I've been wanting the Elfcation for a while, and the break-between-jobs would seem the ideal time for Mathilde to take the trip... but I can see why on the back of Karag Dum there could be an appetite all round for 'normal non expedition' turns for a while, whatever they turn in to.

Of those, Loremaster At Large seems engaging, and as importantly it seems like Boney has some ideas for Content(TM) in that path.
I'd rather fuel Belegar's ambitions than Heidis, as he's a far nobler and worthier individual to serve. I have probably negative interest in the child-minding part of her offer.

Swamp Town is a terrible job offer for all the reasons outlined in the update and more. Governors don't seem to last too long either if what Heidi says can be trusted.

I agree with others that Waystones can wait- maybe that's the next job Mathilde takes, perhaps having spent time building knowledge, experience, political capital and a reputation of her own in this position.

Spymaster... been there, done that, fought the Ratties. Also, from the tenor of his comments, I don't think the Wissenland Grand Count is a huge fan of wizards- certainly he has the typical run of the mill prejudices- or terribly intellectual, and that'll be something of a letdown for Mathilde after her previous bosses.

I'm convinced that rulership jobs will curtail project and research opportunities enormously.
Rulership, especially in brand new or frontier states will expand to fill all available time, and beyond. No more 'One personal action and a subordinates action (just) satisfies the boss'- we'll be the boss, and we won't be satisfied.

I'll probably vote Loremaster at Large, and Elfcation.
 
Last edited:
[X] Loremaster-at-Large of Karak Eight Peaks
[X] Markgraf of Eastern Stirland
[X] Spymaster of Wissenland
[X] Bodyguard and Tutor to Prince Mandred
[X] Nagarythe
 
Last edited:
Alliterate said:
Of those, Loremaster At Large seems engaging, and as importantly it seems like Boney has some ideas for Content(TM) in that path.
I'd rather fuel Belegar's ambitions than Heidis, as he's a far nobler and worthier individual to serve. I have probably negative interest in the child-minding part of her offer.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Agreed. If I didn't vote for Waystones, I'd vote for helping Belegar. Helping him seems to be more certain and more beneficial than helping Heidi with a child-emperor thing. Belegar's actual power/resources seem to offer much more for the Waystones project, and potential power also, maybe. In general, dwarven kings last longer, seem to have more individual power in their society and have less chance to be deposed. And Belegar in particular is our best friend, I guess.

By the way, I didn't vote before, is it possible to vote for two options? I'd like Waystones, but Loremaster at Large is also very fine by me.
 
Last edited:
fan_of_D_Andreev said:
By the way, I didn't vote before, is it possible to vote for two options? I'd like Waystones, but Loremaster at Large is also very fine by me.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes, this quest in (almost?) all votes allows preference voting, so you can vote for as many jobs as you like here.

Xepheria said:
The Waystone Project offers the highest chance of Mathilde getting Teclis headpats, so I know what I'm voting for.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Only if we succeed... and make no mistake, the (as yet very ill defined) Waystone project will be on Hard Mode.
 
Last edited:
fan_of_D_Andreev said:
Agreed. If I didn't vote for Waystones, I'd vote for helping Belegar. Helping him seems to be more certain and more beneficial than helping Heidi with a child-emperor thing. Belegar's actual power/resources seem to offer much more for the Waystones project, and potential power also, maybe. In general, dwarven kings last longer, seem to have more individual power in their society and have less chance to be deposed. And Belegar in particular is our best friend, I guess.

By the way, I didn't vote before, is it possible to vote for two options? I'd like Waystones, but Loremaster at Large is also very fine by me.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Vote for everything you want, all votes in your latest post count and the one with most votes wins.
 
fan_of_D_Andreev said:
That's great! Thing is, I am not sure that Mandred would be that much better than other candidates, if better at all, considering, well, a child-emperor thing. It would be a certain thing if we knew more about other possible candidates and found some possible or actual bad stuff about them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Child Emperor is a worst case scenario. Luitpold is unlikely to die so soon, but its not a safe assumption, the Empire has plenty of enemies likely to assassinate him(which is one of the reasons why Mathilde makes a decent bodyguard for events where his location is known and the area cannot be secured to satisfaction).

However, overall, we've seen plenty of bad adult emperors elected as part of some political compromise - Mandred is the candidate we can be assured of comparatively - as we've significant investment in his upbringing should we take that option, while others are complete unknowns save for very unreliable public reputations, and unlike a democracy, an Empire is usually worst served by close contests for the votes, because that brings out the compromise candidates whose main merit is that they would interfere the least with the plans of other electors.

So the TLDR of it
-If we take the role as tutor, Mandred would then be the best emperor for our purposes. As a wizard, as a ranaldite, as a dwarf friend, and a former stirlander.
-If we don't take the role as tutor, Mandred would PROBABLY still be a pretty good emperor for our religious purposes, but he might not be, because Ranald's tenets on their own don't tend to make good dwarf friends, and he's left to develop his own opinions on magic.
-If we don't take the role as tutor AND everything goes to shit as Luitpold karks it a decade ahead of schedule, THEN Mandred may be a bad emperor, simply because he's thrown to the political sharks before he's able to stand up to them.
 
Last edited:
I'd like to put it this way:
1) Who has more resources for the Waystones project? The potential combined might of Empire or the potential combined might of the Karaz Ankor? I think it's either Karaz Ankor or a tie.
2) Who is closer to be able to utilize the potential combined might of their realm? Right now and later? Heidi and Mandred for the Empire or Belegar for Karaz Ankor? I think Belegar is much, much closer, right now. And potentially too, maybe. Sure, Mandred might be an epic emperor rallying the Empire towards a unified goal... But Belegar might become the High King, maybe...
3) Who do we like best, Heldi and Mandred or Belegar? Might be a tie there.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top