[NR] [07a Settling Disputes] Lich commanding White Mages/Mages of Light

[FyiurAmron]

Game and System Information

• Version: 1.17.26
• Downloaded from: SF
• Build info: N/A
• OS: any

Description of the bug

Due to being able to recruit Mages, Ro'Arthian can (and will) later promote them to White Mages etc. Lore-wise, this is problematic - while it is implied e.g. Ro'Sothian & Ro'Arthian were Mages recently and are thus still able to recruit Mages probably for that reason, the composition of his army is Neutral/Chaotic units otherwise. The descriptions for WM/MoL are:

These men and women give up the life of a mage, and join monastic orders, dedicating the skills they have been given to the good of all. After their ordination, they often travel the world, ministering to sickness and injury.

By strict devotion to the path of the light, they can call upon its aid to chase away the shadows of the night.
Following a strict code of piety and honor, these men and women work tirelessly to bring life and order to the troubled world in which they live.

That doesn't really fit someone working for a Lich TBH :)

Also, I can't recall any other situation a non-"good" Lich (by "good" I mean "fighting as an ally of the good guys killing the bad guys") would be able to recruit Lawful units (maybe there is one, I just can't recall or find it anywhere - after checking all the mainline campaigns, Liches and Ancient Liches never have anything outside undead & "evil" creatures (i.e. bats) in direct recruit lists - even Neutral units doesn't appear there, but arguably we can say it's possible and understandable for Ogres and Gryphons to be in their armies).

It also happens in 13a_Showdown, but there at least it can be handwaved due to story reasons - in 07a however, IMVHO it can't.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. start the scenario,
2. have the enemy level-up a Mage to White Mage

Expected behavior

No White Mages nor Mages of Light in Lich's army.

Additional context

Without a compelling reason, Liches shouldn't use Lawful units at all in general, I think.

Possible solutions

The simplest solution would be to just disallow Mage recruitment (they are just cannon fodder in this scenario anyway) and leave the Red Mages only in the AI recruitment pool. OTOH, it might be reasonable to just use the "common" Chaotic Lich sidekicks, i.e. Dark Adepts and Dark Sorcerers instead of Mage/Red Mage combo here (we could still have Mage/Red Mage again in 13a_Showdown anyway), tactially that should be of little to no difference here.

[cooljeanius]

Alternatively, add an event that triggers on recruitment that sets the advances_to= key to Red Mage for any plain Mages that Ro'Arthian recruits

[HolyPaladin1]

I would also mention another confusing fact about NR that is white mages from our team without any hesistations just support two liches. That's competely not on place and unfitting rest of canon.