- Location
- Earth
We've already seen her carry a weapon, and training is still useful even if you only use it in self defense. All of this arguing about Shallya and pacifism doesn't really make sense to me.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
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- warhammer warhammer fantasy fantasy be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist pansexual protagonist ck2 quest divided loyalties mountain vietnam ranald is real this is a dwarf quest (dwarfs) this is maybe an elf quest this is not a vampire quest this is not an empire quest try it and find out open voting
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
I am really not, I am channeling the position of the Colleges of Magic, an institution founded by Volans. They do not care about one's relationship to the gods, unless you worship the bad ones in which case they will kill you for it.
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
... Honestly, my participation in this debate is 80% driven by the fact that the Pacifist Swordmaster who beats scores of enemies without drawing a single drop of blood trope is just plain cool and anything I can do to increase the odds of it appearing in this Quest is worth doing.
Technically speaking, the 8 Winds count as Gods.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
I mean, there is.
There are multiple cities in the Empire that have never been razed or their walls breached, there are plenty of people in them who live lives without having to become trained.
Yes, it's a dangerous grim deathworld, but that doesn't actually mean that every citizen of every location has to constantly be armed and armored. The Dwarfs do that, and that's specifically something Mathilde had to explain to Eike why. It's not the default.
- Location
- Greece
As a political science major, that is NOT what soft power means. What you describe is what is colloquially known as gunboat diplomacy.
Soft power is subtly affecting the amicability of other countries (usually via art affecting the culture, e.g. Hollywood, but any non coercive method is technically soft power) so that they become more amenable to your way of doing things.
Using threats, even soft and understated threats, even threats you do not bring to the table for moral reason but which are nevertheless known to others can never be considered soft power because it is inherently coercive.
We also do not know how powerful a god is. A king or state are not necessarily all responsible for everyone that serves under them, for various reasons, even if they are to be assumed as purely benevolent.
examples: 1) lack of knowledge of the problem, which could be a thing if gods are too big picture to notice everything, 2) picking one's battles to maximize results for maximum benefit, which in a world with chaos gods could be very reasonable, the god could stop benefitting offenders, but actually using the energy to smite anyone but the most heinous or those who seem to be gaining too much influence while wrong could be too much. 3) Having very sharply defined red lines acting as laws, and only going after someone who crosses them outright rather than just those who displease them because that is how a society is supposed to function. Unlikely to be the case with a god like Ranald, but could be true for other gods, especially law gods.
Empire diplomats aren't expected to go around hunting for Black Magisters.
Mathilde was the gal for kicking down the doors of Evil Hogwarts because she's the Fantasy counterpart of a particularly combat focused 40K Inquisitor. She had an anti-dark magic amulet, awesome sword and the martial skill to properly use it, divinely blessed sneaking and a lot of combat magic - all skills geared towards rapidly mowing down magic inclined combatants.
A Grey Wizard geared towards diplomacy or a spymaster type just isn't going to do all that because they haven't trained themselves nor even aspired towards generally being the deadliest person in whatever room they're in.
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
As an aside, I find it pretty funny that we call the Black College "Evil Hogwarts" considering that (before Mathilde) it probably had a way better history of not maiming its students than the real thing.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
They probably could protect humans from mutation with the same sort of magic-resistance runes they use.
But humans with those runes would not be capable of wind-magic. They'd be 100% resistant to gaining arcane marks, just like anyone who gets Sealed.
If you are a chaos worshiping Kurgan maybe, the Colleges at large to not take that position
Which does not keep the Black Magisters from ever entering their reach, and with the EIC Eike's reach will be far indeed.
- Location
- Alaska
Regimand didn't teach her to fight , and seems to have let her pick what she wanted to study, but he might have thought she needed a wizard dad more than a wizard mentor. She could stop by and chat with him at some point, he has a ton of experience with this situation.
Although I think Eike would have a better time even without a patron. Mathilde grew up in the aftermath of the colleges getting outlawed for years, and everyone she trained under had probably lost friends/apprentices during the that whole thing. I'm sure it was a completely different atmosphere compared to the modern colleges, where wizard stuff is a hot fashion accessory and they're getting credit for fighting the necromancers/vampires in Sylvania.
Although I think Eike would have a better time even without a patron. Mathilde grew up in the aftermath of the colleges getting outlawed for years, and everyone she trained under had probably lost friends/apprentices during the that whole thing. I'm sure it was a completely different atmosphere compared to the modern colleges, where wizard stuff is a hot fashion accessory and they're getting credit for fighting the necromancers/vampires in Sylvania.
- Location
- Leeds
Lol, context you make dwarves sound like the most untrustworthy people
This is a world where those gods go around dishing out smitings. They may care less, but they won't do anything that risks leaving them with a pissed off deity.
Keep in mind Good vs Evil aren't the only spectrum institutions exist on. Theres also OSHA compliant and not. We can use that one if you prefer.
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
Look, Hogwarts threw 11-year old students into werewolf-infested woods with the only adult supervision coming from a dog as a punishment, I feel comfortable saying that Alkharad wouldn't have done that... Even if it's mostly because it's a pretty inefficient way of punishing people.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Nah, Dharmstrang is heavily implied to have involved a system of Alkharad murdering his own students for fucking up.
Probably turning them into test subjects for the rest of the class.
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Strictly speaking, "the teacher murderized me because I failed the practical too many times" is not an OSHA violation, which puts alkharads institute in the lead
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
I'm not so sure. The rune belt manages to be more selective than that about what magic it affects, for example. It might not be an all or nothing thing.
I could see something that protected a wizard's soul and body preventing them from using certain kinds of magic, like shape or form shifting, but magics that focused on altering the external only might be distinguishable by runecraft or divine magic. If channeling through the body became impossible, alternative external channeling instruments might even be possible, although developing them would be a monumental effort and almost certainly require runecraft or something like it.
Another point of evidence is that we know that something magic-ey is up with runes and the process of creating them, based on windsight observations of the process. It's a mostly or fully externalized magic, but dwarves are still doing it somehow despite their bodies being locked down by Valaya to protect them.
Another approach might be to devise some portable alternative to the rooms that instantly drain all the Winds in them. Something like a grounding rod, but more effective, so that when miscasts happened the Winds were carried away before they could cause a mark. Manually activated devices would be the default, but if a device could be given some primitive logic that let it recognize and react to miscasts then even better.
It's all just speculation, of course.
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Gods to not randomly smite people for demanding that their adepts fulfill other vows and even if they did (or indeed could) Shayla would be a very poor candidate for that. You do not get an exemption from killing the enemies of the empire as a Shaylan anymore than a Ranaldite would get an exemption from helping to put down a peasant rebellion that threatens the empire's stability.
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
In my defense, Dumbledore did
- Pronouns
- She/Her
He didn't promise it would be quick actually.
Just, "a most painful death".
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NavySeel
"I don't know what I'm doing."
- Location
- Places
The werewolves at hogwarts aren't actual werewolves, they're regular wolves with human level intelligence and try to avoid humans, atleast according to a brief wiki search.
Should probably stop the whole is hogwarts that dangerous thing here anyway dont want to derail too hard.
Manipulating the weather can also be a game-changer if smaller than divination.
Also on the point of Gods smitting people it should be noted that Mathilde has pissed off a particular god a lot by foiling his plans, banishing his divine servitors and just generally being mean to his adepts. That God is Slaanesh, a being vastly more powerful and more violent than the Dove of Peace. Yet there are no pink lightning bolts killing us because of course gods can't do that, they cannot act of their ow power outside of very specific circumstances. The Colleges are indeed weary of upsetting certain gods in the Empire like Ulric or Sigmar, but that is far more so because of their political and institutional power not because they fear being harmed by divine retribution.
Yet even there you will find limits when it comes to wizards who are first and foremost under the authority of the Colleges and not their Gods. A wizard is perfectly within his or her rights to seek out a way of fulfilling their obligations that fits with their conception of their god. I mean look at Hubert, far more an Ulrican than the typical celestial, but he would not get to ignore some of his Article prescribed duties because of it
Article Nine from the Articles of Imperial Magic: The Colleges must be ready to render service to the armies of the Emperor and the Electors of the Empire upon request, unless such service aids in the seceding of an Imperial province from the Empire, or unless such service is intended to cause overt harm to the Electoral System, or to the authority of the Emperor who resides upon Sigmar's Throne, or to the unity of purpose and identity that marks Sigmar's Holy Empire, as indeed it was so sorely afflicted throughout the dark centuries of the False Emperors.
Article Ten: The Colleges must grant upon request protection for all such diplomatic missions and any other tasks of defence or warfare as are required by the duly elected Emperor of Sigmar's Holy Empire.
Note the repeated mention of War, that is because it is the foundational duty of the Colleges of Magic.
Yet even there you will find limits when it comes to wizards who are first and foremost under the authority of the Colleges and not their Gods. A wizard is perfectly within his or her rights to seek out a way of fulfilling their obligations that fits with their conception of their god. I mean look at Hubert, far more an Ulrican than the typical celestial, but he would not get to ignore some of his Article prescribed duties because of it
Article Nine from the Articles of Imperial Magic: The Colleges must be ready to render service to the armies of the Emperor and the Electors of the Empire upon request, unless such service aids in the seceding of an Imperial province from the Empire, or unless such service is intended to cause overt harm to the Electoral System, or to the authority of the Emperor who resides upon Sigmar's Throne, or to the unity of purpose and identity that marks Sigmar's Holy Empire, as indeed it was so sorely afflicted throughout the dark centuries of the False Emperors.
Article Ten: The Colleges must grant upon request protection for all such diplomatic missions and any other tasks of defence or warfare as are required by the duly elected Emperor of Sigmar's Holy Empire.
Note the repeated mention of War, that is because it is the foundational duty of the Colleges of Magic.
- Location
- England, unfortunately.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Yep, they didn't even divide one quarter of their students into "asshols who wouldn't help us if magic hitler attacked". Smh
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
-IGMAR!
Oh...
To be fair, we did banish his Servants from serving under us, foil his plans of letting Von Carnsteins' keep Sylvania under their thumb and have generally been mean to his followers who aren't Kasmir or Roswita. So really, what I'm saying is that Sigmar and Slaanesh are basically the same.
See, the gods can smite their own followers, but not the followers of others. Presumably because of the increased connection between god and follower. After all, Tzeentch bless-smites his followers with mutations all the time.
consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
Without a handy conduit to work through, a god would probably have to overextend significantly to engage in targeted Pratchettian Smiting. And even if Slaanesh could get Khorne and Tzeentch to not backstab them due to shared interest in vengeance, Nurgle is still ready and waiting to deliver an unwanted hug.