History Roleplay / WarhammerFantasyDividedLoyalties

* LivingRelic: "Bok", an Earth Elemental made with ''five runes'' (for context, general wisdom amongst the Runelords is that it's impossible to have more than three active runes on any object) found in Karak Eight Peaks striking down Skaven. It got its name by approaching nearby humans and dwarves, informing them that there is danger within the Karak (during the fighting within), and asking them to proceed to safety at, inform Runelord, and inform [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Archmage]] "Bok: Not Found", all in Khazalid, Eltharin, Classical, Nehekaran, and another language Mathilde doesn't recognize. The fact that it automatically informs "visitors" of "danger within the Karak" means that it predates the fall of Karak Eight Peaks over three thousand years ago, but the fact that it asks people to inform ''Archmage'', an Elven title, means that Bok was made during the age of Dwarven and Elvish cooperation, many thousands of years before ''that''.

''[[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/warhammer-fantasy-divided-loyalties-an-advisors-quest.44838/ Divided Loyalties]]'' is a [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Warhammer Fantasy]] quest hosted by Sandbox/SufficientVelocityDotCom and run by [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/Boney.21872/ Boney]].

** In the results of Turn 22, Mathilde visits Algard, the Magister Patriarch of the Grey Order. When he asks what brings her to Altdorf, she replies, "the best kind of good news", which Algard quips would either be Malakith's death or a full-blown Skaven civil war. Mathilde says it's "The kind that would have been very bad news, except it ends with 'and I took care of it'," and presents him with proof of [[AcademyOfEvil the College of Necromancy]]. During the social of the next turn, however, she visits him again bringing "the best kind of good news", and when Algard wryly asks if it's "the kind that would be very bad news except [Mathilde] took care of it", she replies that it is in fact [[EnemyCivilWar a full-blown Skaven civil war]].

* MundaneUtility: Dwarves belive that every weapon should also be able to be used as a tool. Even the legendary ones.

** Mathilde is making one based off of the unique properties presented by Branulhune's ability to teleport.
** The followers of the Dwarven god of mining have a style of unarmed fighting called The Way of the Pick that relies on durability. Its training involves punching boulders.

** Canon Karak Azul fell to heavily armored Greenskins; the larger Karaz Ankor had developed gunpowder weapons specifically to deal with them, but Karak Azul, cut off for generations, never acquired them. Thanks to the aforementioned [[spoiler:successful conquest of Karak Eight Peaks]], Karak Azul is now reconnected to the larger Dwarven empire, and several times have been explicitly noted to be purchasing gunpowder weapons.

** Due to the butterflies resulting from in-quest events, [[spoiler:Karl Franz]] was never born in the first place, and [[spoiler:Skarsnik]] is killed by his subordinates before truly rising to power.

** A beastman warherd of [[spoiler:Khazrak One-Eye]] is mentioned to have been cornered by the forces of Middenland and the Eonir of Laurelorn and wiped out offscreen. [[spoiler:This provides the foundation for the Eonir to ally with Middenland as protection against encroachment into Laurelorn Forest by Nordland]].

** During Turn 41, Panoramia is assigned an Apprentice when she finally graduates to Magister: a woman named Sofia de Siernos, who was found wandering Sylvania shortly after Mathilde destroyed Alkharad's College of Necromancy. In canon, Sofia, the elder sister of Sienna Fuegonasus, did become a necromancer, implying that Mathilde's intervention prevented her from learning at Alkharad's school.

** She falls into the command seat again when [[EscalatingBrawl Karak Eight Peaks kicks off]] (see [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Breaking It Hero]] above) while Belegar is away dealing with pirates amongst the Border Princes and Dreng and Gotri are away at Karak Azul.

* BladeOnAStick: The Undumgi (Watchtower-men), the human garrison of Karak Eight Peaks, wield silversteel pikes that were forged before the fall of the Karak, and found in an armory during the reclamation.

* DivineIntervention: The gods are fairly active in this world, and Mathilde specifically often gets some help from Ranald.

---> "[[spoiler:Do you know how much effort it normally takes to craft a platter of truth and lies that will so haunt a mortal that they will spend the rest of their days trying their best to decorticate it? But you and yours who have so wonderfully usurped the [[CastingAShadow Sword of Tlanxla]] have so twisted your own minds that I could say anything or nothing and you will dwell obligingly on it forever. [[NiceHat If I said 'I like your hat' - and I really, really do]] - you will wonder, is this an example of the pettiest of statements for you to nevertheless obsess over, to demonstrate that I can command your mind through only your ears? Or am I making a deeper statement about how truly it pleases the Lord of Sorcery [[TheWitchHunter for a witch to wear the garb of those that would hunt her]]? Am I masking truth in lies, or lies in truth? Would it only be a truth if you decide it a lie, or only a lie if you decide it a truth? Or is eternal indecision that which I seek?]]"

* NiceHat: Following the Stirland arc, Mathilde leaves behind the grey hat she had been wearing since becoming an apprentice, and wears [[spoiler:Abelhelm's spare witch hunter hat]], as a memento.

** However, as time went on and the voter base consistently voted to prioritize the well-being of the Empire and the Empire’s allies over her own personal gain, the more blatant options to benefit Mathilde over the Empire or its allies were gradually phased out, because it was felt that they no longer would be in-character for her to do.

* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: Happens almost literally after Mathilde interrupts the Black Orc Priests’ ritual. [[spoiler:Of the many options presented on how to survive the ensuing maelstrom of energies, the voter base decided on praying to Ranald for help. Being a god of luck and cunning, associated with theft and trickery, he literally steals Mork and Gork’s energies, empowering himself in the process, and sharing some of that newfound power with Mathilde in the form of a divine relic]].

* HumanityIsInsane: Kragg the Grim expresses this opinion shortly after Mathilde reveals to him and Belegar the circumstances of how she interrupted the Black Orc Priests’ ritual (detailed above under AchievementsInIgnorance).

* LivingShadow: Following a particularly good roll after casting Dread Aspect (a spell for appearing utterly terrifying to foes), Mathilde’s shadow gains a mind of its own, independently moving around and inspecting things around her; under the effects of this spell, it becomes empowered enough to harm foes around her.
* MagicMisfire: As in canon, miscasting is a common threat for all magic-users. Mathilde ''starts'' the quest having miscast something so badly in the past that she accidentally summoned a Wisdom Asp, an Apparition (hostile warp entity that technically isn’t a daemon) which hungered to kill her. Many other miscasts happen throughout the quest, but due to luck and circumstance, Mathilde has been able to escape suffering most of the damaging ones.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mathilde’s spy network is managed by a junior Grey Wizard referred to only as The Hochlander. Mathilde knows his name, she just thinks it sounds much more impressive to only refer to him as The Hochlander.

* PhlebotinumBomb: In Turn 23, Mathilde organizes the creation of a tower that can unleash a massively upscaled Burning Shadows spell from one of Karak Eight Peaks' titular peaks. With Algard and Kragg’s help, the end result is a superweapon that channels the power of the dwarven underworld to burn away the souls of designated victims and turn their bodies to ash from the inside out - the Eye of Gazul. [[spoiler:Turns into a ChekhovsGun when the Eye is used against WAAAGH Birdmuncha.]]

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: During Mathilde’s time in Stirland, Abelhelm asks [[TheFace Anton]] to seek out some mercenary companies for the campaign against the Haunted Hills. By a miracle of luck, he manages to convince not some generic mercenary companies, but among the most notable of the Old World (the Regiments of Renown). Then by a ''second'' miracle of luck, he manages to snag easily the most dangerous of the bunch: [[DragonRider Asarnil the Dragonlord]], an exiled Elven prince of Caledor who roams the Old World atop his dragon mount [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Deathfang]]. The rest of the council is flabbergasted, and this amount of firepower is one of the factors convinces Abelhelm to extend the campaign to include attacking into Sylvania.
** Later, during Mathilde’s time in Karak Eight Peaks, Anton tries and fails to convince Asarnil to join King Belegar’s forces, but he does manage to sway Braganza’s Besiegers, a Tilean group of heavily-armored pavise crossbowmen. It is noted that for the particular circumstances of Karak Eight Peaks (being involved in warfare both above and below ground against multiple enemy factions that hate each other), perhaps the Besiegers would make more difference than a dragon (who could possibly attract too much attention and have every single faction direct their forces towards Belegar’s).

* RunningGag: A somewhat unintentional example. Due to Mathilde’s efforts, Karak Eight Peaks is in a long process of trying to create their own silk from their resident population of sentient giant spiders, the We. Because of this, she decided to hold out on buying silk from the caravans that stop at Karak Eight Peaks (it being one of the stops along a route of the Warhammer world’s [[UsefulNotes/TheSilkRoad (Old) Silk Road]]). But ironically, in many of her adventures she has found several enemies that have at some point had silken sheets, a true sign of luxury. Each time, she has had the opportunity to take them, and each time she has decided to pass on them, as their provenance is doubtful and We-silk would presumably be better. It is a constant source of narrative amusement.

* TomeOfEldritchLore: The Liber Mortis, arguably the most infamous tome of necromancy, is mentioned in passing early on when Mathilde seeks to inform herself better on how to fight undead forces, given that Abelhelm Van Hal is descended from one of the men who wrote it, Frederick Van Hal, and also given that there is an 'Extremely Redacted Version' that is safe to read. [[spoiler:Abelhelm’s mention of it, and of the Grand Theogonist who used its power to end the Third Vampire War, ends up being {{Foreshadowing}} that he himself held possession of the original copy, which he passes on to Mathilde upon his death]].

** Interestingly, the same seems to apply for the position of Supreme Patriarch over the Empire’s Orders of Magic: every eight years the Lord and Lady Magisters convene in a special obsidian arena, where any who wish may step forth in a one-to-one duel for the position of Supreme Patriarch/Matriarch. As Mathilde got to see for herself, the current Supreme Patriarch, Dragomas of the Amber Order, has won against all challenges partially thanks to his ability to transform into a Cathayan dragon.

* CunningLinguist: A subverted example: Asarnil the Dragonlord agrees to Anton's suggestion to dictate his memiors, but only if the account could be written in Eltharin. A scholar from the University of Altdorf arrives to do so, but the man's understanding of Eltharin is stilted and formal and Asarnil sends the scholar away in disgust. The University of Altdorf having a rivalry with the Colleges of Magic, Mathilde can't help a feeling of schadenfreude watching the humiliated scholar flee back to Altdorf.
** Fortunately, a straight example follows right afterward: Mathilde herself learned Eltharin at the Grey College, and steps in to offer her own services. [[InstantBookDeal The memior is hugely successful]] and Asarnil himself is so grateful to finally converse in his native language that he and Mathilde become fast friends.

* TheDreaded: Mathilde's tenure as Spymistress of Stirland involved a fair amount of traveling about on her ''Uglu'' spell "Shadowsteed", usually with very unhappy results for her targets. She is shocked to discover that her activities have gained her quite the reputation amongst Stirland's citizenry.

The Elector-Count of Stirland has died, the last of his family line. The position now lies empty, so the powers that be have selected a new Elector to hold it. With him comes his council of advisors - including the protagonist, Mathilde Weber, freshly-promoted Journeywoman of the Grey Order, selected to his council not by him, but by a mysterious conspiracy that holds power over her.

* GodIsFlawed: Just like all the characters Boney writes, gods are people too, even if they are very different to humans. For Ranald specifically, even though He is good overall and Mathilde has mostly only had positive interactions with Him, they are still a god of thieves, lying, gambling, and revolutionaries.

* PalsWithJesus: Mathilde's way of worshiping Ranald is highly unusual, treating him like a close friend. But Ranald seems to agree with that, and later on is basically always watching what she is doing.
* ParanormalGamblingAdvantage: There are several ways magic can assist when gambling, especially for celestials and greys. Or you could just get in the favor of the God of Luck.

--> You blink in surprise at him. "The what now?" You had been prepared for all sorts of reactions, but not calling you that.

** On the helpful side, Mathilde is able to precisely relay to Belegar the exact words Borek said regarding [[spoiler:the leylines connecting Karak Eight Peaks to Karaz-A-Karak]] and avert a growing schism between Belegar and High King Thorgrimm Grudgebearer.

** The followers of the dwarven god of mining have a style of unarmed fighting called The Way of the Pick that relies on durability. Its training involves punching boulders.

** Thanks to Mathilde's efforts as Spymaster of Stirland, a major [[spoiler:Lamian]] conspiracy is unraveled and Stirland united quite firmly under its Elector Count Abelhelm Van Hal.
** With a Stirland united against the vampire threat, Abelheim is able to go on the offensive into Sylvania, which culminates in [[spoiler:large swathes of the haunted land cleared out, the occupation of many of Sylania's larger towns, and even ''leveling Castle Drakenhof'']].

** Meanwhile, Belegar Ironhammer has petitioned the Empire for assistance to help him [[FightingForAHomeland reclaim his ancestral home of Karak Eight Peaks]]. In WHF canon after Belegar struck out at the Elector Count meeting he returned to the Karaz Ankor in disgust before striking out with Clan Angrund alone. In-quest, on the other hand, even though the Elector's meeting went as it did, the large amount of Stirlandian forces wishing to join the expedition surprises the Dwarf, and rather than leave immediately Belegar decides to stay in the Empire a little longer to see if he can drum up more forces. It succeeds incredibly, allowing Belegar to recruit not just the Stirlanders, but also a force of halflings from The Moot, two orders of Empire Knights, and several wizards including Mathilde herself.

* GodIsInept: Mathilde loses almost any respect she has for Sigmar after [[spoiler:He fails to save Abelhelm Van Hal at Drakenhof]].
* GondorCallsForAid: When the fighting in Karak Eight Peaks goes sideways very quickly and kickstarts the Battle of the Caldera, Mathilde calls for Karaz-a-Karak's aid, knowing that there's a massive Waaagh on the way and that they could use all the help they can get. Unfortunately, she gets a very blunt CavalryRefusal.

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: During Mathilde’s time in Stirland, Abelhelm asks [[TheFace Anton]] to seek out some mercenary companies for the campaign against the Haunted Hills. By a miracle of luck, he manages to convince not some generic mercenary companies, but among the most notable of the Old World (the Regiments of Renown). Then by a ''second'' miracle of luck, he manages to snag easily the most dangerous of the bunch: [[DragonRider Asarnil the Dragonlord]], an exiled elven prince of Caledor who roams the Old World atop his dragon mount [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Deathfang]]. The rest of the council is flabbergasted, and this amount of firepower is one of the factors convinces Abelhelm to extend the campaign to include fighting

* CitadelCity: Nuln is a ''very'' well defended city. There's the hilltop palace that used to house the emperor, two major temples dedicated to martial gods (Sigmar and the Goddess of War Myrmidia) that are built to match Their domains, The College of Engineering which is dedicated to teaching how to build defences and is built to show off those skills, and the Imperial Gunnery School which is [[MoreDakka absolutely bristling with artillery]]. To top it off the whole city is surrounded by 20 foot walls patrolled by professional soldiers.

** Happens numerous times during the Karag Dum expedition. First, [[spoiler:during the Battle of High Pass, Mathilde destroys an enemy illusion overlaid on top of their enemy troops, revealing a group of Slaaneshi-corrupted Slayers]]. It is noted that basically everyone stops and stares in incomprehension at what they see. Later, [[spoiler:a freak landslide takes down one of the steam wagons, in the process killing Gotrek Gurnisson, lead engineer of the Expedition]]. This was doubly shocking OOC because [[spoiler:Gotrek in canon survives beyond the End Times themselves, partly because he found the Axe of Grimnir; but Gotrek within the quest never shamed himself so much that he ever became a Slayer and found that Axe]]. Then finally and the biggest example, [[spoiler:upon arriving at Karag Dum, the entire expedition is shocked to discover that it is surrounded by a primeval forest that was definitely not there before, and also protected by Morghur the Shadowgave, a Beastman of such power that he is generally considered a demigod]].

* RareMoney: Upon rediscovering the vaults of the Grand Urbaz Bank, King Belegar reveals to Mathilde its sealed contents: the stored wealth of numerous polities that across the centuries fell before Karak Eight Peaks did. Mathilde is not so much impressed by the quantity of money so much as its rarity: among the stored wealth there are complete sets of coins from Tylos, Strygos, and from all the post-Nagash dynasties of Nehekhara. As these were of historical value, Mathilde saves examples of these and records them for posterity, while the rest are smelted by Belegar with no one being the wiser as to their provenance, as there is no true party upon which the wealth would be returned

* [[TemptingFate Tempting Ranald]]: A meta example - it is a running joke in the quest that whenever Boney would least expect or prefer it, the dice used to determine the results of actions will come up as the highest possible (and thus usually positive) result. Several of Mathilde’s more outlandish feats and coincidences surrounding her are a result of [[CriticalHit natural 100s, or rolling straight sixes]].

** Per WordOfGod the Chaos Gods are searching for their thirteenth Everchosen, a position won by Archaon in WHF canon. Mathilde herself has already slain one of the candidates, [[spoiler: former Elector Count of Stirland Albrecht Haupt-Anderssen, whose disappearance [[PlotTriggeringDeath kicked off the events of the quest]] in the first place]], but others including Archaon himself remain out there.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: After [[spoiler:Abelhelm's death]] in the Sieges of the Drakenhof, Mathilde is presented with increasingly brutal ways to take the town of Drakenhof proper, such as [[UnfriendlyFire treating all people in an area as enemies, even civilians]]; [[DeathFromAbove leveling the town hall and other pockets of resistance with cannons]]; setting fire to the entire town to “pacify” it, and ''[[KillItWithFire entirely razing it via dragon-fire]]''. Leveling the town hall won out, as it presented plenty of damage to the town without intentionally killing any innocents.
** Similarly, when tackling Castle Drakenhof itself, the proposed possible goals to consider the battle ‘won’ ranged from "The confirmed death of the Elector Countess" to "The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon". There was a further option of "The excavation of a pit on the site where the mountain that Castle Drakenhof was built upon used to stand", but it was crossed-out, presumably because it simply was not feasible.

** Much to the horror of many questers, [[spoiler:Gotrek Gurnisson]] dies an anticlimactic and sudden death to a freak accident from a series of unlucky dice rolls.

--> '''Johann''':“Got the arms done while I was in Altdorf," he tells you in between raids. "Last outside part I had left, except for the head, which, yeah.'Don't gild your head until you can take on arbitrary amounts of hungry peasants' is what they say.”

--->The Khazalid [the message] contains is brusque, and centres on a single point: 25,000 Dwarves. 500,000 greenskins.
--->''Die well'', it closes, and bears the signature of High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer.
--->''Die well''.
--->You stare at the gyrocopter as it approaches. Today you've made contact with an Emperor Dragon and hunted down a Clan Eshin sorcerer, and you'd rather do both all over again than face the next few minutes, and have to watch what it will do to your King when he reads the message from his.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: With five of the Eight Peaks occupied by various nasties, Mathilde and Johann team up to raid a [[MadScientistLaboratory Clan Skryre poison laboratory]] in Karag Ziflin to steal a globadier's gas mask, smashing large globes of poison to cover their escape in the chaos. Several days later, everyone in Karak Eight Peaks is alarmed when the ice dragon occupying the top third of Karag Ziflin suddenly roars in fury, because the poison released by Mathilde and Johann drifted up through the mountain enough to disturb it. [[EscalatingBrawl The result is a multi-way brouhaha]] where the Ice Dragon attacks Clan Skryre, Clan Mors attacks Clan Eshin, the cut-off Orcs attack ''everyone'', and the Orcs of Black Crag/Karak Drazh launch a full-blown WAAAGH against Karak Eight Peaks. Oh, and [[OhCrap the three main military leaders of the expedition are all elsewhere]], meaning [[YouAreInCommandNow Mathilde is in charge]].

* PhlebotinumBomb: In Turn 23, Mathilde organizes the creation of a tower that can unleash a massively upscaled Burning Shadows spell from one of Karak Eight Peaks' titular peaks. With Algard and Kragg’s help, the end result is a superweapon that channels the power of the dwarven underworld to burn away the souls of designated victims and turn their bodies to ash from the inside out - the Eye of Gazul. [[spoiler:Turns into a {{ChekovsGun}} when the Eye is used against WAAAGH Birdmuncha.]]

* CoolChair: one of the rewards Mathilde got for dismantling The College of Necromancy was a dragon skull that could only be used for aesthetic purposes, Which was used to make the best reading chair ever.