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.
- Location
- Earth
You know, if Mat does become the Head Librarian of the (checks vote) The Archive of the Silvery Depths / World's Memory she is going to have some unique opportunities to ask the Elves to share some ancient culture with another Grand Library. Who knows what kind of prestige/reputation the new Library will have, if it can boast having 3000year+ old elven tales/poetry in it. And Mat can assign/pay some people to maybe translate them so more people can hear the songs.
Maybe even publish the best as a collection, as diplomatic outreach to the Empire Nobility.
Maybe even publish the best as a collection, as diplomatic outreach to the Empire Nobility.
- Location
- Utrecht
Elven poetry is probably something that does not translate well.
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
I noticed that you dropped your vote for Library name. Is that on purpose?
If we aren't shooting for an acronym, why are we calling out august institution of wizardry and wonders a "Branch"? It should be an Institute or Scholastic Order or Academy or something else with oomph and pomp. The only reason I am okay with "Branch" in the official name is that it is the perfect fit as a B in WEBER.
If you replace "head" with "founder" it works just as well for all the involvement options.
Then I'm curious about how and when that's supposed to be used. Because English isn't my first language and I can't discern the difference in dramaticallity between the varying usages in that paragraph.
- Location
- Staring into the void
[X] (LIBRARY) High-level policy
[X] (BRANCH NAME) World's Edge Branch of Intersectional Research
[X] (LIBRARY NAME) Bibliographical Order Of Karak-8-Peaks
[X] (BRANCH NAME) World's Edge Branch of Intersectional Research
[X] (LIBRARY NAME) Bibliographical Order Of Karak-8-Peaks
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
What my issue with head librarian boils down to is that I want to be doing the actual job of an actual head librarian, not with all the other stuff we have going on. But I also don't want to be head librarian in name only, as some of the proponents have portrayed as being "the best of both worlds" where we hire someone else to do our actual job. I know that that's very fitting in a medieval setting, with "cup bearers" never actually pouring drinks except maybe ceremonially and "masters of the horse" having better things to do than looking after stables, but this Library is being built on Dwarven soil and even if we can easily get away with it I still don't like the image.
And I really don't get the enthusiasm, beyond a year's accumulation of B O O K hype. Like, what interesting per turn actions do y'all imagine to come out of that organization, five years down the line? After we have set the policy, what do you want to be doing with it? And I don't mean in general strokes, because that's what high-level policy is for. I mean the nitty gritty stuff that makes head librarian worth it. The routine expenditure of action for result.
So seeing how it is likely to win, someone please sell me on that.
And I really don't get the enthusiasm, beyond a year's accumulation of B O O K hype. Like, what interesting per turn actions do y'all imagine to come out of that organization, five years down the line? After we have set the policy, what do you want to be doing with it? And I don't mean in general strokes, because that's what high-level policy is for. I mean the nitty gritty stuff that makes head librarian worth it. The routine expenditure of action for result.
So seeing how it is likely to win, someone please sell me on that.
When a story is being told, there's a 'now' in that story - the point in time that the story has currently reached. Dramatic present tense is using present tense to refer to events happening at that point. "After ten thousand years ... The great machines begin to fail". It's used for dramatic effect to give events a sense of immediacy, or to indicate that the teller is vividly reliving the events. When it's used selectively instead of throughout the entire telling it's more for narrative emphasis than something that has hard grammatical rules - a deliberate stylistic breaking of normal grammatical rules.
Charles Dickens is often cited as being particularly good at it, but a more contemporary example would be the Joker in The Dark Knight, telling the 'why so serious' story - he uses present tense throughout it even though he's clearly referring to something that happened in the past.
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- Location
- Earth
Sure. So you know how Duckling club is about several Wizards from different Colledges?
Well, running the Library will be sort of like that except Mat will be trying to create a staff of halflings, dwarves and humans, to run the Library, while also choosing stuff like how it's built, what the security is, negotiating contracts for new or ancient books, setting up terms and conditions for visiting scholars, universities, organizing books exchanges and so on.
Some of that will quite possibly involve books on otherwise forbidden subjects, or magic, or religion, and will bring Mat in contact with other Wizards, Witches and various priests, not to mention the other Colleges.
So in five years, a Head Librarian section might involve decinding what kind of protective measures we want on our Restricted Section of Books, navigating some kind of personal conflict between a dwarven and a human staff member, progress/negotiation reports on book acquisition, and so on. In this respect, a love of languages and Mat's xenophilia will serve her well, as will that she is a Laconic Buerocrat. Oh, and we might also get some Elves/Dwarves/Dragons rarer stuff, eventually coming around to see what all the fuss is about.
What I'm going to be really interested in is how Mat deals with her oaths as a Wizard, and sets policy on books that might have been fully banned under the Empire. Not the evil ones, but stuff that's politically inconvenient. That's going to create intrigue and diplomacy opportunities.
Basically, the Library will have a tangential impact on all the other work Mat is doing, much like the EIC has. And every once in a while, it will feature front and center, while doing it's own thing in the wider world all the while.
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
...Is that what that's called? Huh. I always wondered if there was a term for it.
- Location
- Red Blood on Golden Shield
Is no one worried about Mathilde being a Head librarian without having the Bibliothecography skill?
- Location
- Earth
No. She needs that to be a Librarian, not Head Librarian. One position is a job about books, the other is primarily administration and politics. It helps, to know and understand what the actual Librarians under her are doing, but it's neither the Primary qualification, nor a nessecity. It is good to have, so it's nice that Mat is close to it and will likely pick it up in time, soonish.
But by no means is it the primary.
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
First I want to head this off with affirming that this is your story and if you like it more that way then that's how it should be.
If you're willing to discuss it though, here's why I feel like it's not the same:
I don't know how Charles Dickens handles it (not having read any of his books in the original English), but the Joker, after introducing his father in the past tense, sticks to the present tense. Telling a story or even a part of a story in the present tense is normal and often sounds good. But when it switches back and forth without much rhyme to it, sometimes even in the same sentence, then it feels off.
Example:
"After ten thousand years of their insidious scratching, they finally found an opening. The great machines begin to fail and the energies they were supposed to harness began to pour into the world,"
Switching from "found an opening" to "begin to fail", while not my preference, seems fine enough. Something happened in the immediate past and then the story teller moves to present and urgent consequences for drama. But in that second sentence you have the dramatic and immediate event have past tense consequences in the very same sentence. Something begins to fail and therefore began to leak. It seems jarring and messes with the flow if one pays attention to it.
I've noticed multiple such elements in that particular part of Deathfang's story.
Again, this is a story that you write for your own enjoyment and without compensation. And this is a really minor issue in what is quite frankly a superbly written story. Especially when compared to other quests, but even when I compare it to a couple of printed fantasy books I've read. It is in fact currently my favorite online entertainment and engagement source. I am in no way invested in what I, maybe subjectively, perceive as a minor mistake multiple chapters ago, that I didn't even really pay attention to in my first read-through. So just take what I said as well meant constructive criticism.
Tl;dr ~ It's not the use of present tense in parts of a story. It's the rapid switch back and forth between tenses, sometimes in the same sentence.
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- Location
- Actually pretty lost
[x] (LIBRARY) High-level policy
[x] (LIBRARY NAME) World's Memory / Karaz Kron
[x] (LIBRARY NAME) World's Memory / Karaz Kron
I'm not.
SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
I must admit I'm super ambivalent on head librarian, part of me is super excited at the idea of trying to copy tomes and potentially hidden lore from collectors and the kind of cool knowledge we could learn, obtain and another part of me is dreading losing more AP and not having the chance to do research on cool stuff like ulgu tongs, AV etc.
I'm voting for it and I'm not sure if I do or don't want it to win.
I'm voting for it and I'm not sure if I do or don't want it to win.
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Yeah, but we would not be as good at it without the resources of the library
- Location
- Finland
I'm not so sure you are right.
You might be.
But duckling club sounds lot more like high level policy than head librarian to me.
I've no doubt that Mathilde would be an awesome, extremely qualified, very dedicated and exceptionally hard working head librarian.
Except we already have a fulltime job, and i wish the library would have a fulltime head librarian instead of someone doing it as basicly a hobby or a side gig.
edit-
If we do high level policy, we can direct the library to focus on that.
I am not sure we would be very hands on as a head librarian when it comes to hunting actual tomes.
Though i could see Mathilde being active in negotiations even as someone doing policy instead of day to day running, bringing prestige to the whole thing, because lot of rich collectors might be more interested in bragging rights than gold, and Mathilde is high profile enough now to be able to provide that.
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I do not want rare books in general, I want rare books on what we need that turn, and that will take a hand more specific than high level policy.