Huh. That's very good news, all told.

Well. She guesses the original timeline was, uh- sort of carefully in balance. The kind of place where you could realistically have centuries of slow conflict without anything like a victor, where Imperial technological progress was just slow enough not to tip the setting on its head. And you don't need much to tip things into slow upward motion instead.

Also, the arrival of the Draenei with their Naaru will hopefully set the stage well for the arrival of another new power relatively well. This is suddenly the kind of thing in recent history books, and thus probably more real-seeming.

Well, things having happened in the history books didn't stop people from thinking near-identical events were impossible and fundamentally unserious to even contemplate back home, so maybe that's a bit too hopeful.

Still, very very good news.

In relatively recent local history, an attempted campaign by a pretender claiming to be Mannfred von Carstein was turned back about 60 years ago. It seems to have been repelled by combined Empire force with the assistance of a detachment of the Order of Radiant Life, a draenei holy order devoted to the Light of Creation. 

Well, that is very interesting. And she guesses this "Mannfred" never actually did anything astonishingly impressive, magically speaking?

Indeed, he did not. Just the usual ghoulcalling and undead.

The issue is, launching a deliberately underpowered invasion to make the idea that he could actually be back completely preposterous is exactly the kind of galaxy brained scheme Mannfred would pull. Especially if he used it to actually kill off a lot of of the older vampires in the region and get rid of any substantial competition.

Does the book mention a lot of really old and scary vampires being confirmed dead? Bodies accounted for and under monitoring and everything?

This book has no such details.

A tragedy. Well, she supposes it makes sense if it was, well, kind of a side note. The actual historic Vampire Wars were massive Empire-threatening affairs that lasted generations. This was no such thing. She should ask Crin, it's, well, kind of important.

She doesn't want to interrupt though. It would be rude.

She looks up at Crin and Ishaza. And, uh, actually also tries to feel out how long it's been, there are no windows and she has no watch and her time sense sometimes drastically malfunctions.

Crin seems to be almost finished her cup of tea. 

"Anything in particular you're finding interesting?", she asks.

"Multiple, in fact. The way that the Exodar and O'ros don't straightforwardly look all that powerful on their own but there's a noticeable shift to things slowly getting more stable rather than less after their arrival is interesting.

But the immediate thing that caused me to look up is- well. Ishaza said the affair with the pretender Mannfred was- something you were around for?"

She's not going to straightforwardly ask the question she wants to here just in case both of them are secretly working for Mannfred. She doubts it, but she doesn't want the next plot arc to be about that and this is part of how she avoids that.

"Yes, I was. Though I didn't have this fief then. I was occupied doing intelligence work in Stirland as my sire had instructed me to. In the chaos of the war my sire was killed, and I saw an opportunity to escape - I had been turned involuntarily. I spent five years lying low in a village not far from here. Then the necromancer - his name was Hermann Gorst and he was a real piece of work - moved in and claimed the local ruin, and I realized it was him or me. So I practiced Shyish, hid, and eventually assassinated him and claimed the fief. He was powerful, but not very intelligent for all his magic. Too much Dhar in his soul."

"Ah. You mentioned that you weren't sure who all had actually been dealt with and who was perhaps just lying low. Did the Empire not make a big deal about the vampires whose bodies they'd recovered for safeguarding? I was vaguely under the impression that there was a risk of vampires returning even if "dead" if their remains weren't kept somewhere secure. Or is it that one generally can't trust reports like that? The history doesn't really cover things in tremendous detail."

"Details of what remains were secured where are kept quiet by the empire for reasons of security. They claim to have killed the pretender Mannfred but I'm not sure if that's just propaganda. I wasn't there to see him dead."

"Ah, I suppose it makes sense to keep even the fact that you have certain remains a secret. Just one more level of indirection. And- ah! If you report who you have, people know who you don't have. Which means anyone who is loyal to a specific person you don't have is suddenly more likely to look around old battleground and maybe find something you'd really rather they not. A sensible policy."

One that regrettably means she can't use the information on exactly who died as evidence for or against her idea that Mannfred showed up early and engaged in scheming.

"As the empire goes, it is one of its better ones, yes."

A little halfway wince.

"It could, uh, do with applying that competence more generally, admittedly."

She sighs.

"But that's a heavy topic. I'll let you get back to your reading."

"If you want details of the draenei history, Ishaza would have some understanding of it. It's her people you're talking about."

"I, ah, didn't want to bother her with questions while she was reading."

She looks over somewhat sheepishly at Ishaza.

"Would you mind? I really am quite curious, and the history takes a very- broad approach to things. Seems keen to touch on everything some, and as there is only so much paper to go around details inevitably fall by the wayside."

"Not at all," Ishaza says, setting down her teacup. "What would you like to know?"

"Well- it makes me feel a little like an enthusiastic child to ask about this, but I'm going to do it anyway. While the book mentions that O'ros and the Draenei scattered the host outside Praag, it doesn't say how beyond that it was done through "a great choral Light magick". Was it as simple as one massive spell like that implies?"

"Every Draenei is able to channel a little Hysh. Usually not enough to do much more than heal scratches. But if you put together enough Draenei who all want the same thing, with trained anchorites and vindicators channeling the masses, and a Naaru at the peak to manage all that power..."

She smiles slightly. "Then you make history. It was more than a spell, it was... an act of unifed faith from the Draenei in the Light of Creation, as we knew it then."

She blinks.

"My goodness. That's- incredibly impressive, and I have to admit the small child in me is pleased to learn this due to simple appreciation of Big Magic. So is the adult considering tactical applications. It's a shame the ship ended up immobile, the ability to direct that much power at one place- well. I think I now have a better understanding of why they've apparently not been particularly worried about invasion, and how their mere presence stopped the old pattern of orcish invasions sweeping half the Border Princes clean. I was a bit confused before I realized the- scale. It seemed like- well, it was just one city. And after the start not even a flying one."

"It's not just the draenei, it's also the dwarfs all through the southern mountains, and the results of the local spread of crystal technology. Massed orcs are easier to deal with when you have a steady supply of explosives, as well as field barriers and guardians."

"Ah, that makes more sense still. I was imagining that the orcs were doing as orcs often do and running straight at the biggest challenge obligingly. But I suppose they do tend to get bored if it's not a proper fight."

Did that history cover what guardians and field barriers and crystal technology in general are, or does she have to pester Ishaza with Many Questions?

Guardians seem to be some form of peacekeeping golems run off of Hysh infused crystals, and field barriers are solid wards, again from the same technology. Crystal technology is based on crystal-singing and gemcutting and involves socketing magically active gems into equipment to give it effects.

All of these mentions of singing are making her kind of wish she'd taken the ability to sing perfectly.

Also. She was definitely still underestimating the eventual scale of the changes here, that really changes things. Kislev is stronger, the Dwarfs are stronger, there's another major force in the world in the Draenei- would Archaon even still win, if he invaded?

Eventually, in the very long term, maybe this is enough to actually change the world's trajectory enduringly.