[quote=@Letter Bee] Venedig is 1000 years old and has been part of the Reich since its founding. The Reich itself is 2000 - 3000 years old. The tribal peoples who came before the Reich revered 'Gods' who were in fact Mortals empowered by Magic. Hatred for Magic is not a major thing in the world and would be seen as a form of madness. It's all implied or even stated in the OOC OP, in the 'Reich des Goldenen Grahles' hider. Edit: Okay, it's implied that the Reich lasted for a few centuries and not a millenium before the formation of the Great Inland Sea and the founding of Venedig. But there was still a full millennium after those events. [/quote] What you said specifically about a form of madness is very fitting for Louise's family traditions. It took the kindness of her mother to literally break the cycle they have been going on for basically 115 years since the creation of the traditions. Basically a mother outright wanting to protect her daughter to stop the crazy shit that's happening in the family so they would go back to their roots more or less. However, the dissolution of the traditions altogether will take two to three years with assistance of making sure this doesn't happen again. The traditions before the 115 year mark in the von Hammerwhirl Family was basically similarly based around worshiping craftsmanship and how well they can make weapons/armor. But they slowly transited into something a bit different, which ended with Steven's departure ala, Mage Killers. Since he no longer wants to wield his great maul against a family member again, no matter if they are a mage or not. However, his children aren't corrupted by the traditions of the old since they were paying lip service to him. It didn't help the traditions primarily hurt the growth of Louise as a mage. All her magic abilities are a bit uncontrollable because of her upbringing. Her elder brother Ethan and younger sister Fiona were definitely empathic to her plight of what their father put the family through. A literal madness amongst one of the family members. It shows that the von Hammerwhirl family is changing for the better and no longer going to use those traditions of madness. Since Raina didn't like them anyway. However, all family's have bad eggs? It just showed that Steven was a bit more stuck on the tradition without looking passed it. Even though the battle to the death was a thing back then but it was mainly for the son or daughter who could do a better job than the Father in terms of Leadership. It was a challenge basically to replace the father by battle to the death, which turned into that specific overwhelmingly cruel thing towards Magi. Edit: The family traditions basically broke on Louise's 8th birthday because of her mother's kindness. Since that's when it was 115 years, however, her father tried to keep them going but failed pretty badly. Which is why he used the last resort of disownedment of his daughter, which is a 3 years wait.