- Location
- Seattle
Is this society futile or feudal?
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.
Welcome to Warhammer, the big daddy of crapsack fantasy worlds.
As far as I'm aware grounding the magic is one of the few ways that won't blow up the mountain. Magic is surprisingly similar to lightning in that regard.
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The Grey Wizards have appointed themselves as the Empire's secret police. They're the people who watch the watchers, so if a chapter house of the Witch Hunters goes bad, they're the people who find it and purge it. If an Elector Count or the Emperor goes bad, they're the people who make sure they have an accident.
The vow of poverty is because the Grey Magisters have phenomenal power already, restricted only by their own internal procedures. They answer to no one but their own conception of the Empire's best interests. There would be very serious conflicts of interests with allowing your secret police to freely go into business or accumulate great wealth from another source.
Mathilde has also been an unusually public Grey Wizard. From most of the descriptions Grey Wizards seem to be expected to spend most of their time incognito, having assumed someone else's identity.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] You are a Magister of the Grey Order, and follow the traditions laid down by Teclis and Magnus the Pious. Try to ground the energies.
Because I'm a risk-averse voter at heart, and I try to vote away from disaster as my main goal, only going to the shiny if the risk is truly worth it. This is exactly the situation where I vote away from disaster. Mathilde is playing with a fuckton of hostile divine energy, this could end extremely badly for all involved, let's lean away from that disaster hard instead of trying to steal it because lol sounds fun. We don't need to accomplish more than we've already done, that's a nice bonus that we go for only if we can semi-reliably grab it safely.
Because I'm a risk-averse voter at heart, and I try to vote away from disaster as my main goal, only going to the shiny if the risk is truly worth it. This is exactly the situation where I vote away from disaster. Mathilde is playing with a fuckton of hostile divine energy, this could end extremely badly for all involved, let's lean away from that disaster hard instead of trying to steal it because lol sounds fun. We don't need to accomplish more than we've already done, that's a nice bonus that we go for only if we can semi-reliably grab it safely.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
Yeah, magic is. WAAAAGGHH energy wants to break things. There will be breaking.
- Location
- The underworld
i have no idea what was just happening. can someone explain what the black orc priest was doing before we knived him
[X] You are a Magister of the Grey Order, and follow the traditions laid down by Teclis and Magnus the Pious. Try to ground the energies.
Let's not emulate Hexensohn, it's a really bad idea imo. Destroying the energies would be better but I believe this is more likely to succeed.
Let's not emulate Hexensohn, it's a really bad idea imo. Destroying the energies would be better but I believe this is more likely to succeed.
In order to get everyone to stop debating something of which we have little control over, let me theorise what a good role will get us (and from any tally it's pretty obvious that Ranald will win in a landslide). I have a theory that offering him the divine power of another God, especially by outplaying the Orc-God-Of-Only-Cunning, Ranald may view us a priest of his faith, which could unlock several nice bonuses.
Divine Lore of Ranald
Ranald represents a variety of interests, both positive and negative. Whilst reviled as the God of Thieves, he is also prayed to as the God of Good Fortune. But Ranald can be a fickle patron. His priests know enough not to entreat their God too much, lest Ranald's blessings dry up. A sudden downturn in the priest's fortunes can be the price of over-reliance on Ranald's attentions. Aside from the typical thieves that venerate him, Ranald is also the patron of merchants and the God who shelters and supports those who fight for freedom.
Ranald represents a variety of interests, both positive and negative. Whilst reviled as the God of Thieves, he is also prayed to as the God of Good Fortune. But Ranald can be a fickle patron. His priests know enough not to entreat their God too much, lest Ranald's blessings dry up. A sudden downturn in the priest's fortunes can be the price of over-reliance on Ranald's attentions. Aside from the typical thieves that venerate him, Ranald is also the patron of merchants and the God who shelters and supports those who fight for freedom.
- Bamboozle: You fool one man-shaped creature (Human, Elf, Orc, Beastman, etc.) within range into doing your bidding. The affected creature does whatever you say short of actively harming itself. You could, however, instruct the creature to do something foolish that might result in its harm. Bamboozle does not work on Daemons or the Undead.
- Bargain Hunter: Ranald guides you to the cheapest source for a particular kind of good. When intoning this prayer, you decide the geographical area, type and quantity of good, and its quality. If such goods are unavailable, you learn that.
- Bountiful Fortune: You gift yourself and all your allies within range at the time of casting with the luck of Ranald.
- Eye of Ranald: Ranald blesses you with a fine eye for the value of things.
- Good Fortune: You gift one character with the luck of Ranald.
- Perfect Empathy: You perfectly understand the person to whom you are speaking. This overcomes any language barriers, but also means you know what he really thinks, as well as what he actually says. This gives a merchant an overwhelming advantage in negotiations. It is also very useful for interrogation, but priests of Ranald tend to be less interested in that sort of thing; in fact, they are less likely to use the spell for such a purpose lest someone get the idea to use a similar spell on them!
- Poor Man's Face: Any valuables you or your allies carry become impossible to find by any search that is against your will or without your knowledge; even if a bag full of gold coins is turned inside-out, the inspectors find only a few crumbs and half a biscuit, or similar worthless items. Priests believe Ranald keeps the valuables for you for the duration, and teach that the Trickster God may not give back items that he likes overmuch.
- Rumour of Bounty, Rumour of Dearth: You beseech Ranald to manipulate the prices of a particular object or commodity in a settlement. Rumour of bounty, rumour of dearth instils a vague sense in the locals that something is about to become more common, reducing the prices, or that something is about to become more scarce, increasing the prices. As an unexpected consequence of this spell, the rumours tend to remain in the minds of those affected and excessive use of this spell has been known to cause riots—especially when word spreads of food shortages.
- Open: You cause any one lock, bolt, or latch to unlock, unbolt, or lift. The object cannot be forced shut in that time (though you, as the caster, may shut it if you wish).
- Stealth of Ranald: Ranald blesses you with incredible stealth.
- Trapsense: Your prayers allow you to magically sense all traps within range. Trapsense does not disarm these traps, it only alerts you to their presence and location.
- Unremembered Face: Upon intoning your prayers, you make it harder for people to recall details about you, only able to recall two (accurate) facts about your appearance. Most users of this spell wear a flamboyant and distinctive hat and cloak, or something similar, which can easily be removed and hidden. This allows a priest of Ranald to gain a reputation without risking his identity.
[X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
Because Ranald.
[X] You are the justice of Mork, delivering swift death upon the heresy of Only Gork. Try to accept the energies.
Cuz it's Da Orkiest Choice!
Because Ranald.
[X] You are the justice of Mork, delivering swift death upon the heresy of Only Gork. Try to accept the energies.
Cuz it's Da Orkiest Choice!
Kornet
Quite possibly a sloth abomination
- Location
- Mother Russia
[X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
On all levels except physical we are a chosen priest of Ranald. Let's act like this.
But Gods, do I regret we can't save game and try all the options.
On all levels except physical we are a chosen priest of Ranald. Let's act like this.
But Gods, do I regret we can't save game and try all the options.
[X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
Asheram
Not quite altogether
- Location
- Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground
[X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
I think it quite appropriate as well. Reckon even Mork would like it. "Wot? Ya 'umie nabbin' mah Waaagh!? Dat propa cunnin' dat is."
Okay the orcs and goblins worship two twin deities Gork and Mork the gods of cunning brutality and brutal cunning respectively. Chaos Dwarves made black orcs, orcs++ who don't respect goblins backstabby shit at all, these black orcs we are fighting are creating a heretical version of Gork as the god of only brutality which is essentially a betrayal of/declaring Mork its mortal enemy, Mork was pissed. Also because of symmetry if it worked it would also create Mork the god of only cunning.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
The vision was a look at how this came to be. The Black Orcs are a designed "superior" Greenskin race developed by the Chaos Dwarves, who rebelled and left to enter Greenskin culture... but never really quite fit in. They were, here, attempting something previously unthinkable to Greenskins - splitting the brother-gods Gork and Mork, to worship Only Gork, god of (cunning) Brutality. Mork, god of (brutal) Cunning was instinctively reacting to this by raising up a Prophet of Only Mork, Skarsnik. Instead, Mathilde snuck in and started murdering the Black Orc priests attempting to do this, and in this act of great sneakiness and brutal Cunning in this most critical of places, usurped Mork's attention from little Skarsnik, who got shanked as soon as his Mork-bestowed plot armour disappeared.
Unfortunately, from what we know Collegiate arcane magical practice is incompatible with channeling a divine Lore, as humans can't safely channel two different Lores over the long term. Mathilde would have to invent sorcery (which appears to be using divine magic to manipulate a Wind of Magic), or more likely the inverse as she's already Arcane Marked, using Ulgu to manipulate divine energy (Which may have similarities to using Ugu to manipulate snake juice).
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Notice how we're just about to go from smacking greenskins with molten iron to smacking them with molten tungsten?
- Location
- France
The other effects were all nice enough, but this one is the real gem. A spell mighty enough to defeat the might of Wizard Chic? Incredible!
And Mathilde will quite possibly pray exactly that in Thieves' Cant, which makes me smile.
I shall concede, those are the rules... but when has Ranald ever cared about rules?
- Location
- Singapore
We will laugh as Mathilde ends up making enormous sums of money having a share in the trade-in Wizard Chic via EIC dividends. That naturally goes back to repaying her EIC debt, and sunk into her estate
You know, I bet the Grey Order does have a contingency plan in place on taking control of the EIC shares if anything was to happen to Mathilde, in "trust".
Also, we are so close to 1000 pages! May this conversation and quest continue for a thousand more!
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