You know, I do have to wonder if the reason the gods of Exandria are panicking so much about the release of Predathos isn't solely the threat of being eaten, but also that they can't seal it again.

Like, what you can achieve once can be done again. And you've had thousands of years to look back and consider how to do it better, how you could have maybe prevented Vordo and Ethedok from being eaten by sealing sooner. What happened to their two siblings, the struggle to survive where they landed, has to weigh in the gods' minds at times.

And yet, the gods don't seem to be doing any prep work to stuff Predathos back into Ruidus (or a new prison), and instead are going all in on the fight to stop the seals from releasing in the first place.

Sure, preparation for resealing should the worst happen could be happening in the background where we can't see it. But it doesn't particularly feel that way. Everything we've seen is "All hands on deck so that this thing never gets out, period" with seemingly no back up if that directive is failed.

So I would posit that the gods can't seal Predathos again, because they got rid of the titans.

We know that the titans helped the gods seal Predathos away. We know that Predathos resists the divine power of the gods. We know that an enormous hunk of Exandria was turned into the prison-turned-moon Ruidus.

So it really makes sense to me if the titans were instrumental to the sealing process.

As best I can tell, elemental power is separate from divine power in the cosmos of Exandria. Which means that the titans did not face penalties as the gods did in using their powers against Predathos. So if/when they needed to pin it in place for whatever sealing rituals/ceremonies, the titans would be best suited to it with gods being bait to draw Predathos in.

Next is carving up Exandria. Who could better do that than titans of earth? The earth of Exandria is their element, their birthplace, and their home. If anyone could easily rip up a continent (as the theory of Ruidus's origin on Exandria is), it would be the titans of earth.

I will also point out that glass, like what we've been recently led to believe is what Predathos's form is in its sealed state, is a result of fire and earth, melting sand into a cohesive whole. So the titans might have helped with that part too.

What we know the gods did in the sealing of Predathos seems to be mostly outer bindings. Divine seals on the layers of glass to keep people from cracking it open, the Divine Gate-like cage around Ruidus itself.

So it seems to me that there's a good chance the titans contributed a lot to the sealing of Predathos.

And now they're all gone. The gods killed them

...And maybe sealed a few in other Planes? It's a bit unclear, but Vox Machina did encounter what was called a Dust Titan in Pandmonium in The Search For Bob, and Errevon the Rimelord is thought to be some sort of Ice Titan. Still, the killing and sealing isn't going to do the gods any favors in getting help again. Especially since such surviving titans don't really have a stake in Exandria anymore and probably aren't on Predathos's menu (but may be on it's revenge list).

The closest things the gods have these days to allied titans are Ashton and Fearne, who both only hold tiny fragments of a full titan's power. Even if those fragments are from two of the most powerful titans to walk Exandria.

So yeah, the gods sort of accidentally fucked themselves over in being able to reseal Predathos by wiping out the titans, I think.

wait wait wait guys have you ever thought about how the Mighty Nein are everything they shouldn’t be upon first glance

no no guys guys listen to me they’re all the antithesis of what they’re meant to be and that’s why they’re such amazing and heartfelt characters

like, Caleb is a wizard who’s afraid of his own fire magic. his own power causes him to falter in battle. his strongest spells are his most dangerous to himself. wizards are supposed to be prideful of their magic, but Caleb’s is the reason he hates himself

Beau is a monk who never wanted to be. her job is one that people normally associate with being calm and collected and Beau was a wild rebellious kid who got dragged into this line of work against her will. she never wanted to be this!! but now she is and she’s gotta deal with it!!

Fjord is a warlock who never wanted power from his pact, which is why you’d think a warlock would make their pact at all. but no. Fjord made his pact because he wanted to live, not because he wanted power. he was a scared orphan who hated his tusks, not a buff, muscled, angry half-orc like people assumed

Nott is NOT, that’s the whole crux of her narrative! she wasn’t pretty, like a halfling girl was supposed to be. she wasn’t a goblin, she was just transformed into one. and not only that, but despite being a three-foot-tall alcoholic kleptomaniac, she’s the mom of the group!

Jester is a Cleric whose god isn’t actually a god and who would much rather bash bad guys over the head with her lollipop than have to stop and heal her friends!! she’s a bubbly, optimistic ray-of-sunshine, but you know when she says she’s gonna change the world with friendship she means it as a threat

Mollymauk is an amnesiac, but he doesn’t want to remember who he was. if you ask him, that wasn’t him! he might be a flirtatious hedonistic carnie, but he’s also single-mindedly devoted to making the world a better and more loved place than it was when he found it. he’s a liar, but he means well. he’s an arrogant fool, yes, but he’s right! he did it! he left it better!

Caduceus seems like he’d be creepy and grim from growing up in a graveyard, but he’s actually the most chill out of the entire Nein by far. he’s calm, he’s sweet, and he’s comforting, more than anything else. you’d think he’d be amazed by seeing the outside world for the first time, but he spends the whole time knowing that one day he’ll return home, that he wasn’t supposed to be the one to leave

Yasha is a barbarian with skeletal wings and a dramatic, monochromatic look, but she’s a complete sweetheart. she’s Molly’s best friend, she was a carnival bouncer, she’s a lesbian disaster who collects pressed flowers in a book out of love for the wife she lost. those black wings were actually hiding soft white feathers

Essek was born straight into the den of politics, he was a spymaster, he literally started a war for his own gain, and yet. he’s sounds irredeemable on paper, but. he’s not!! sure, the Nein kind of have to drag his alignment kicking and screaming into neutral, but they manage it. Essek learns and grows and he overcomes his nature. he becomes good, against all odds

guys guys guys don’t you see it!! look at them!!they’re such compelling characters!! they’re everything they’re not supposed to be!! dude y’all how didn’t I realize this earlier!! they subvert their narratives in the most interesting ways ever and I justhshsbhshshsjnsmshsnhsfn!!

C1E60 || C3E88

After the conversation with Liliana this last episode, it is so obvious that the 'the gods are bad! we're getting rid of them!' argument has absolutely nothing going for it. We now have confirmation that Predathos is doing EVERYTHING that people criticize the gods for doing. He directly communicates with his chosen and not others, he directs those people to do violence to achieve his ends, and he has the ability to possess the bodies of any and all of his chosen. He is already doing all this. What makes you think he will stop once he destroys all the other gods?

There is no freedom in their plans; just a sole tyrant and the delusion that he's one of the good ones.

ok so i clarified otohan's build for myself

she's a 20th level psi warrior fighter base, and the backpack lets her use echo knight abilities. this all tracks--4 attacks, 2 action surges, 12 psionic power dice (+1 if regained on a bonus action) at a d12, and the ability to manifest two echoes at once. i'm going to guess that she uses two-weapon fighting based on the damage rolls from her offhand weapon. plus 3 legendary actions that she could use to attack with either weapon, dash, psi-powered leap (80 ft), telekinetic control (2 actions, move target 30 ft in a direction of her choice), and 3 legendary resistances.

if they hadn't immediately dealt with the backpack she could have been flashing all over the battlefield, 10 attacks each in the turns that she used action surge, 6 otherwise, split across multiple opponents or targeted to one. given her place in initiative, this could have been a full massacre before she went exaltant if she had hit the casters and healers first, instead of chetney. she had the movement for it.

speaking of that: she regained both action surges and presumably all of her psi power dice, gained resistance to all damage, and a +3 bonus to AC. I'm guessing the state was triggered by a damage threshold. i'm willing to bet that if she didn't have the health potion they might have gotten her down within the round, assuming the threshold is 1/4 of the total or something like that, and the 66 she got back brought her back over half.

on the other hand, even given the multiple deaths and 1 permadeath, bell's hells really worked hard on this one. ashton and fearne using the shards and doing big damage. fcg keeping the party up with 2 mass cure wounds and a revivify. laudna debuffing with bane and getting damage in with the eldritch blasts. imogen getting the backpack off. orym using bait and switch to defend imogen and overall being a tiny tank. chet dying, coming back, and still going around to get imogen up. so many crits. fcg's hail mary.

they got her now, so there's no more shadow assassinations, and they won't be splitting attention when they come back to kill ludinus.

good riddance.

Orym picking up that chunk of breastplate, thinking about how many people he lost fighting Otohan Thull

The moon, and sun, and sword, and shield, and now armour

This little robot that rolled into his life only a few months ago, who'd only known consciousness for a few years longer than that - sacrificed themself for the cause

So stupid as to ignore the proof that Exandria is round, but so wise to know truth and love, gone.

He needs another tattoo...

I was thinking about that post about redemption I just reblogged, and I think it’s worth pointing out just how difficult and time consuming it would to de-radicalize or “redeem” Lilliana. And I think Essek’s redemption in campaign 2 is actually a really good example of what I’m talking about.

First of all, what the Nein did to redeem Essek was not slowly and politely talk him through why what he did was wrong. They didn’t even know he did anything wrong. What they did was continually reach out to him and give him a support system of friends he did not have before. Notably, friends who he could be comfortable sharing his worldview around: he was an atheist* in a theocratic society who had to hide his worldview in order to have any social, academic, or governmental standing. The mighty nein were probably the first people he could be himself around, and creating a change in his personal life is what led to a change in his ideology. Notably, he did most of the actual deconstructing of his ideology on his own, some before the big betrayal reveal and a lot after. The Nein helped with that directly a little, but the main thing they did was offer him a personal connection he had stakes in, and a people in his life with different world views he hadn’t seen up close before.

This is pretty true to life, in the real world, most people who leave radical or bigoted groups leave at least partially because of a change in their personal life. Even if they do leave because of someone directly challenging their worldview, it’s usually someone they care about who challenges them in a non-aggressive way. It’s still personal.

Secondly, this took a lot of time. I can’t remember exactly how long they spent in the Dynasty, but they befriended Essek over a really long period of in game and out of game time. The cast spent actual real world hours talking pretty much one on one with Essek, and the party spent weeks, maybe even months slowly getting to know him and bringing this support structure into his life. Essek spent even longer actually thinking through and deconstructing on his own. The change in his worldview between the ship and the outpost really shows this, he did a lot of the thinking that led him to change by himself over a lot of time we weren’t there for. They could not have gotten him to actually change his mindset, fully realize what he did was wrong of his own free will, in anything approaching a short amount of time. This was a time consuming process.

All this to say: this is the kind of effort it would take to legitimately de-radicalize Lilliana. She has been in the Vanguard for ~25 years, she most likely joined when she was in her early to mid 20s, and she gave up all personal connections, even her daughter and her husband to join. Not only has her entire ideology been built around this being the right thing to do, her entire personal life is contained within the Vanguard. It’s most likely where she gets any housing or money or really anything from. It is her whole life, and she believes wholeheartedly in it. The level of time and effort it took to get Essek to organically change his mind is most likely the level it would take to get Lilliana to change hers, if not more.

And they don’t have that time. Lilliana is actively doing harm now, she is helping the Vanguard release Predathos right now, they simply do not have the time to redeem her. It sucks, but pragmatically speaking, it is simply not worth the time and effort. Essek gave away the beacons in the past, but also, the Nein did not know he did that for their early friendship. If the Nein had known, they probably would not have put in all the work it took to get him to change. They probably couldn’t have. Lilliana might be able to be redeemed in theory, but so can a lot of people who do very bad things. Focusing on that redemption process is prioritizing Imogen’s complicated feelings over the harsh reality that this is a war, and Lilliana is a key figure in that war doing a great deal of harm. It sucks, but I do think it’s time to move on, and I think Imogen is now leaning that way.

*atheist is a loose term here, it’s hard to be an atheist in a world where gods are proven to exist, but it gets the point across

I do want to say, just in general, that I genuinely think the fandom sorely underestimates Essek in combat because of the specific types of combat we saw him in.

The Nein's caster contingent was so broken by the end that Matt had to build combats specifically designed to hinder a wide range of high level casters, which meant a lot of counterspells and anti-magic. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the reasons Aeor was the setting for the last arc. Essek also has a lot of AOE concentration spells, and that's just not a good move with that many people on the playing fields. On a meta level, DM's curse made him less effectual when using ranged attack spells, but his support casting is clutch. The dunamancy wizard schools are generally very strong subclass options, regardless of stats, and he's got features of both, for no goddamn reason, just because Matt could. He is still a glass cannon but between Mage Armor, Shield, a likely Mote of Possibility, and Chronal Shift he's probably not going down immediately.

In conclusion:

Terrible painful thought that I’m now obsessed with;

Vax is a full blown Champion of the Divine and something bad just happened to him. What if the other current Champions could… feel that?

Pike, Scanlan, and Vex feeling something tear in their chests, an indescribable heartache coursing through the bond they have with their deities.

Yasha, waiting anxiously at home for Beau to return, feeling Vax’s scream through her connection to the Stormlord and is suddenly angry in a way she can’t quite place.

Caduceus and Fjord being met by cold winds from Melora and a bone-deep sense of dread.

Opal and Zerxus, deep within the thralls of their gods, having moments of clarity as they feel Lolth and Asmodeus fear for the first time.

(Cad and Fjord aren’t canonically Champions of the Wildmother, I know, but I love the idea of them being such so I don’t care)

Something occurred to me earlier about Otohan's claim that Fearne was vital to the Ruby Vanguard's plans: that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

The night of the solstice, Ludinus's speech was a lot more "I'm about to kill the gods right now and you fuckers can't stop me!" than "I would be about to kill the gods if not for Zathuda's custody dispute!" He laid an elaborate trap for Vax, but not for Fearne, who was also right there? It doesn't add up.

But then it occurred to me: it does add up if Fearne was always intended to be plan B, and plan A is completely fucked because the Bells Hells sabotaged the Malleus Key.

Rewind in time to Ludinus starting to put the Ruby Vanguard together. He's figured out two potential ways to release Predathos: build a giant laser beam powered by dunamancy and a divine champion, or do some mystery thing involving a Ruidus-born fey. He's pretty sure the laser beam will work, but it's good to have a contingency plan, so he tells Zathuda to start working on making a baby while he works on the Key.

But then Birdie runs off with Fearne, and plan B is now on hold. Not great, but progress on the Key is going well, so they'll put some resources towards tracking her down, but if they can't find her, they'll just have to make sure plan A doesn't fail.

But then plan A does fail, because somebody blew up the secondary Keys and unplugged a bunch of wires from the main Key. Instead of firing with enough force to blow Ruidus apart (or whatever the plan was) it's just acting as a bridge and jamming everyone's Sending spells.

So now their only option is plan B, finding Zathuda's kid. They can't scry directly on her, because they don't know what she looks like or what name she goes by, but they can put more effort into finding Birdie and interrogating her. They find her hiding in a cave outside of Bassuras, but she's gone by the time they get there. (Remember that's why Birdie said she and Ollie were at Nana's, because Ollie foresaw Paragon's Call attacking the hideaway)

But then Otohan, in the course of tracking down those asshole adventurers who keep blowing up all her stuff, puts it together that the faun is the one they've been looking for this whole time. And then she fucks up and Fearne and FCG escape, now also knowing that Fearne is vital to the Vanguard's plans.

So yeah, I think that version of events fits all the evidence, but let me know if I missed or misremembered anything.

here’s a what should be a cold take but i know it’ll be taken as a scalding one: 

inter-party conflict is good for storytelling, tension, and characterization and growth. aversion to conflict just creates wet noodle characters that are uninteresting. a story without conflict or tension isn’t a good story. 

" I realize I'm not as good at lying as I thought. Which is weird because I do it all the time! " x

"Have you not realized that im a hypocrite?" This. For everyone unironically mad, please realize that this has been the core of ashton's character for eons. The moment he said "i need to be the hero" i knew hed be fucking toast. This is ashton, yall

We want to destroy my mother. (insp by @dadrielle)

Something I just noticed and really enjoy about Campaign 1 is how often their story involves becoming incredibly powerful and accomplishing so much and yet still not being able to do what's truly important to them. It's not only the gutpunch of the final episode, it's a thematic underpinning throughout the campaign.

Way back in their prestream adventures, the party was strong enough to defeat the Dread Emperor and save all the kidnapped children from Tal'Dorei—except one, a child Keyleth killed by accident, an act which haunts her through at least much of the early campaign. The party defeats the Briarwoods and reclaims Whitestone, but Ripley still escapes and 19 still misses, and the Chroma Conclave raze half the continent. Percy has great intellect and access to a powerful magical amplifier and forced out a demon through sheer force of will, but his carelessness still killed Vex and he only rolls a 6 to try to save her. The party has slain a dragon and is armed with four Vestiges of Divergence, but they couldn't save Tiberius and can't even give him the proper burial they want to. They brutally slaughter Ripley, but not before she gets the revenge she wants; she kills Percy, sending him to Orthax, and spreads guns throughout Exandria. The Conclave is slain, the whole party made it out alive, but Scanlan is forever scarred by the experience and leaves, tearing the party down as he goes. Even Vilya, prior to the campaign's beginning, was at the very end of her Aramente, likely a level 16-17 druid like Keyleth was, and still failed the trial of the Water Plane and was gone for almost 40 years.

And of course, Vox Machina became some of the most powerful people in the world, slayers of a god, legends to be immortalized for centuries...and none of their power could save their brother.

Percy points out to Bell's Hells, thirty years later, that fate isn't always kind and not everyone gets a second chance, and to me that's underscored by what we don't see. Elaina is still dead. Juniper is still dead. Percy's parents and five siblings are all still dead.

I mean, if any or all of their bodies are intact, it wouldn't even require True Resurrection to bring them back—not that Keyleth or Percy are averse to a little heresy, but hey, conserve your resources. If there are bodies, all they'd need is 7th-level Resurrection; none of those people have been dead for over a century, and if they need to find the bodies, well, Vex has Locate Object and Pike gets a Divine Intervention freebie once a week, right? Even if they did need True Resurrection, it's a heftier cost but probably not something too difficult to pay over time for one of the wealthiest families in the world.

But none of them have ever done that, nor do we get an indication that they've pursued it. Vox Machina is, probably more than any other CR party, defined by grief—how individual PCs respond to their own profound losses; how they succeed and fail to shoulder each others' burdens; and at the end of their story, how they deal with one of the most painful losses imaginable, and how they move forward and find peace in spite of it. Campaign 1 is just as much about how to deal with what you couldn't do as it is about what you now can do.

the fact that orym, chetney, and imogen primarily guided the communication exercise gives so much insight into the leadership structure of bell’s hells. even the ways that each of them did it—orym giving rapid fire instruction and adjusting the direction based on response. chetney sticking to one mode (clock system) and being direct and methodical. imogen holding pace with thought and encouraging with every step—keeping emotions calm. granted that’s also the players’ communication styles coming through, but still.

at this point, i would say that they form the base that bell’s hells revolves around. orym as the lookout, as the one on alert both in and out of the party. chetney observing and learning about the environment physically and personally. and imogen guiding decisions by calming emotions.