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Rauric wrote:

I would like to see House Vadalis influence more in the new book Hellcow.
We see Lyrandar and Canniths touch on EBs economics but I would like to see more of Vadalis' beats competing with Cannith in the heavy machinery buisness and would like to see their beasts competing for the airship, seafaring and stagecoach business that the other Houses dominate.

There's certainly interesting Vadalis material in the new books, which you'll see when it comes out. With that said, I'll note that I've always seen Vadalis as the house least interested in competition (as compared to Tharashk aggressively competing with Deneith, the increasing tension between Lyrandar and Orien, the Thuranni-Phiarlan split, and the Cannith troubles). What's always been said about Vadalis is that it's a family first and a business second; that they are more interested in their work than in squeezing out all possible profits. As such, as opposed to competing with Orien in the stagecoach business, I see them as being close, valued Orien allies... in the same way that there are strong ties between Kundarak and Sivis, and the same way that Orien and Lyrandar both rely on Cannith to create their elemental vehicles. Orien relies on Vadalis to produce the beasts it uses with its coaches, and employs Vadalis handlers for its caravans. But I don't see Vadalis as having a great interest in trying to build up its own network of competing caravans, which would take a lot of infrastructure; as is, they get to focus on breeding and handling, the things they love, and leave managing caravans and warehousing goods to Orien.

It's also worth noting that even before the lightning rail, Orien has always had ways to make caravans travel more swiftly, something that should hopefully be covered in these books (because the mechanics actually work better for what I've had in mind in 4E than they did in 3E). So they aren't completely dependent on Vadalis; the two are just stronger together than they are apart.

But basically, I've always seen some houses as having strong rivalries, and others as having strong alliances; in the case of Vadalis and Orien, I've seen them as being closely allied as opposed to being enemies. I do see Vadalis as filling gaps in places where other services aren't available (using animal messenger to help a community without a Sivis message stone, for example) - but that doesn't mean that they are trying to undermine the other houses on a global scale.

Hellcow wrote:

I'll just say that I see it as a house of many layers and leave it at that. My original point was solely directed towards their business practices - that they're generally more interested in breeding the perfect horse and then selling it to House Orien so they can get back to breeding the even more perfect horse than in creating a nationwide caravan business to compete with Orien, which takes time and resources away from the horses.

Ok then. In the newer books and articles I would like to see Orien, Lyrandar and even Cannith using Vadalis animals for their buisnesses. I think the wealthy of certain lands should be seen more using more unique Vadalis mounts. I think this visual in the new books will add even more to the campaign world.