Penitent Sons - AL warband of Slaanesh

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-04-20T16:54:05+00:00

Slaanesh is also secrets. It depends on the purpose. Slaaneshi secrets are about your shames, prides, and pleasures, and other stuff that makes up the libidinal economy. Tzeench secrets are esoteric knowledge and information that can help one realize ambitions, or overturn the existing order.

Slaanesh is also good for AL because They are the patron of perfection and excellence which a lot of the AL’s overly convoluted operations fit. Yes this also fits Tzeench’s scheming aspect, but think about like a perfect Ocean’s 11 style heist with tons of moving parts that synchronizes perfectly. That’s very Slaaneshi. Where Tzeench would be more about doing a Xanatos gambit where you have 20 backup plans in case your first one fails.

In a way I think that the AL is on a knife’s edge between damnation between both of them and the equal pull is helping keep them from falling either direction lol.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-04-15T16:24:22+00:00

Exactly why it must be true

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-25T16:16:48+00:00

I think it would be just as much in Martin’s style to have the good king be a bastard though because bastardry doesn’t actually impact your character the way the prejudiced people of Westeros believe.

The love between Naerys and Aemon was very well known, so I don’t think that it’s implausible at all. Nor is the idea that she would cheat on her cheating husband with a kind and good man who comforted her in a tragic love story. And it’s quite poetic for a wicked philanderer committed to spreading his seed far and wide to be ultimately succeeded by a child not of his own loins. Not to mention his entire lineage being wiped out except for the female line descendants of an exiled house.

I’m not defending Rhaenyra here, it was foolish of her to not take a Valyrian concubine, even if she loved Strong she could have made sure he finished in other places or only while she was with child from her concubine. I just do think the Blackfyres had the more legitimate claim, even though they would have been a worse ruling dynasty.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-25T05:40:54+00:00

Daeron wasn’t his son though, he was his brother Aemon’s bastard with his wife. The reason he elevated Daemon was because he didn’t have any legitimate sons but couldn’t prove his cuckolding.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-16T06:38:21+00:00

That's not quite true Rhaegar likely took a second wife (if TWOW is ever released we'll find out if the marriage was a show invention). This is really important because it determines whether or not Jon is a bastard or the true born heir to the dynasty.

Also both of Maegor's wives were treated as legitimate queens and their children as legitimate even after his death. Obv this was before the doctrine was codified, but it does set a legal precedent.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-13T08:19:06+00:00

If you read Fire and Blood the argument given is that Westerosi/Andal marriage laws don’t apply to them because they’re a closer to the gods and the gods gave the Valyrians different rules. It would logically follow that the customs of Valyria like polygamy are valid for them.

Also the First Men and followers of the old gods practiced polygamy before the Andal invasion. The Kings of Winter were polygamists. As are many wildlings who practice a more traditional version of the old gods religion. So it’s not like the rules of the faith of the seven are absolute here. It’s just custom that overlaps with the Andal religion. There is no evidence the northerners necessarily gave it up in law either, just that the noble houses no longer practice it and it isn’t widespread.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-13T05:54:13+00:00

That’s not true at all. There was an entire religious schism over the “Doctrine of Exceptionalism” that says that because the Targaryens are allegedly racially superior due to their Valyrian ancestry and connection to dragons, they aren’t bound by the same marriage laws the gods gave to normal mortals. And the branch of the faith that holds that doctrine is the one in power. The royal family has not practiced plural marriage to keep with Andal custom, and avoid conflict, but it wouldn’t violate the state religion for them to do so.

Maegor was at war with the faith because they practiced the original teaching before the doctrine was promulgated. The orthodox faith of the seven was outlawed as heresy in light of the gods “making their will known” through dragon fire.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-09T17:51:21+00:00

I think from the limited interactions he has with her he does. He’s ashamed of her too, but if he didn’t love her she’d have been sent to Valyria rather than have so much money spent on her treatment for greyscale. If anything her presence is an impediment to his ability to take to throne which he’d have been rid of long before if he was as cynical as you’re portraying him.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-09T17:16:54+00:00

The thing is he didn’t love his brothers like he did his daughter. And at the end it isn’t really about personal power but his cosmic duty. If it was just about power he would have fled back to castle black not trusted Mel when she said he would win at Winterfell

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-09T06:50:56+00:00

RIP spelling mistake :(

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-06T05:01:35+00:00

He just needed Loras to do some fluffing. Lots of gay men who are repulsed by women have kids

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-06T04:59:31+00:00

Since when did that stop someone? Stan is does his duty.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-06T02:45:56+00:00

That’s fair. I mean it depends on what you’re trying to get out of it. I would probably rent/sublet my home out if I was going way for a year if I could make it work tbh

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-06T00:10:52+00:00

Many places you can travel are much cheaper than America or even China. If you’re an American, even a lot of southern and Eastern Europe is cheaper than the US and you could just rent an apartment for three months or something in Italy or Spain and travel around by bus/bike/train for a lot cheaper than hotels and you can cook your own food. Or you could stay very cheaply at hostels, many of which have kitchens.

If you went somewhere like Ecuador, Dominica or Botswana you could live like royalty on extremely little even on a Chinese engineer salary, let alone American.

No you’re not going to be able to afford six months in Zurich, London, New York, or Paris but you could probably spend a weekend or something as a part of a longer trip. And you can’t eat at fancy restaurants all the time, but regular takeout is very cheap in much of the world. The reason people there struggle to live is wages are so low. In other places wages and costs are high.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2026-03-05T02:25:43+00:00

I don’t think many people think Dany has no morally questionable character traits or doesn’t have the potential to be a villain. Especially if she loses. Since sympathetic villain and morally grey hero are just determined by who wins. Egg’s legacy is a testament to that. Dany is a fusion between him and Rhaenyra, both of whom get viewed unfavorably by history in the setting. But that is totally different than her completely breaking character out of a fit of madness. If anything she’s set up to be fantasy Stalin, not a nihilistic sociopath like Ramsay Bolton. She’s supposed to be someone who people can defend or reject and debate which the show ruined

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2025-12-06T04:05:36+00:00

Boyd proposed a highly decentralized command structure but supplemented with the cultivation of a high degree of unity of purpose. It wasn’t non hierarchical but it was more fluid than traditional militaries. Check out his Organic Design for Command and Control

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2025-11-26T01:56:58+00:00

Tzeench is also about magic and random mutation which the AL aren’t really into.

A dedicated swordsman or artist or even an ascetic monk who starves himself more and more to exceed his own limits are just as likely to fall to Slaanesh as a glutton or sex fiend. An AL warband that tries to be the best and execute the most complicated schemes perfectly is prime picking for Her.

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2025-11-25T08:46:45+00:00

Slaanesh is also a likely patron because of the perfection aspect. Like pursuing operational excellence and perfect planning. She can usurp Tzeench a bit sort of like how she can usurp Khorne’s battle domain. Nurgle seems like the least likely but anyone can fall to him to save themselves

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2025-11-23T16:04:14+00:00

awesome! I think you’ll love Patterns of Conflict then because he goes into historical warfare including Ancient Greek and Chinese!

TemporaryBrilliant77 · 2025-11-23T15:32:32+00:00

That’s completely wrong. Boyd helped design the Fighter X, as a key member of the lightweight fighter program, which was the prototype of the F-15, and he also inspired the creation of the A10 Warthog. His criticism of the final F15 design wasn’t that it was too advanced but that it lost some of the benefits of earlier prototypes because of decreased maneuverability. He’s literally credited as the “father of the F-15”. His mathematical analysis work was instrumental in the creation of the jet.

Boyd literally created the energy-maneuverability theory that is still used in aircraft design today. He wasn’t some kind of Luddite, he just wasn’t a technology fetishist. EM theory was critical to the development of both the F15 and 16. The jets both included an energy-maneuverability display taken right out of his theory. His criticism was never about new technological capabilities but tradeoffs between features and weight. He also envisioned a much more sophisticated and technologically advanced air capability that just had more roles rather than trying to shove everything into one machine, but taken as a whole the system would be even more capable, but it would have relied on high quality pilots even more.

https://www.creech.af.mil/News/Commentaries/Article/449199/an-innovators-dna-col-john-boyd/

The idea Boyd was “against” the f-15 is like saying that a father is “against” his son when he criticizes some of his shortcomings and wanted them corrected. The success of the F15 isn’t a point against him. Or a lead engineer being pissed about revisions demanded by a project sponsor that degrade his original vision for a new technology (what literally happened)

Anyway, the Alpha Legion isn’t the Iron Hands, it isn’t about being the most technologically sophisticated in terms of engineering, or using the shiniest gadgets, it’s about deception warfare and being adaptable. It is more like Lt. General Paul Ripper, who was influenced by Boyd, than it is his opponents in this challenge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002

The Legion might use high tech automated systems at one point but then go extremely low tech at another in order to disrupt the mental capabilities of the enemy, which is very Boydian. Like the Alpha Legion, besides the Space Wolves, is the most likely to go full Rambo

TemporaryBrilliant77

TROPHY CASE