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quiddie · 2 years

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Okay, I see a lot of people talking about Laerryn’s work in terms of the spell Plane Shift. Now I know that’s ultimately my fault because of how I spoke about the remains of the solar bow, but that isn’t what she’s attempting.

Now let me say all this with the grain of salt that I’m not trying to remove all blame from LCS - I know who she is and what I built into her and what she’s capable of and willing to do - but I do think it’s inaccurate to call her uncaring (in terms of the citizens of Avalir) and despotic in her single-mindedness.

First, the Astral Leywright. Simply put, it builds a new leyline road through other planes. Now, Laerryn runs and maintains the engines & batteries, but she doesn’t steer the city. That’s Helmswoman Akami Rowe’s job. That’s the Navigator’s Guild’s choice. *That* is why LCS thinks of it as a gift to the city and to history - it’s an opportunity, not an obligation (or worse, a coercion like Plane Shift would be.) Yes, she’s taken a lion’s share of the energy stored for this Replenishment - but just this once (and what are 7 years to an elf, really?) and the thing she gives back is a new leyline that goes not North or East or South but OUT. (And the solar bow’s planar attunement was primarily to help the AL know the directionality of building a leyline in a new axis.) And Avalir could (not MUST) use it. Anyone can use it.

And sure, maybe the Septarion and the citizens will be too confused or scared to use it at first but that’s fine - the point wasn’t that we have to go NOW, only that this was her one chance to make the leyline at ALL (or at least until the next apogee solstice). So her thought is that the city doesn’t have to understand right now, but eventually they’ll get it and history will remember her fondly for making the road to the next big discoveries a little easier.

Keep in mind, Laerryn is one of the smartest people in the city (e1 “often the most cerebral”) that took a vital but understated job (e1 “no one understands exactly what you do to ask you for anything”) with no laurels attached (e2 her envy when walking through the Magisterium and seeing the resources allocated on their behalf vs. the Court of Workings) so if she wanted glory she could just pick a different job and immediately get the praise her talents would garner. Instead, she dedicated her life to quietly and dutifully protecting the Heart of Avalir, and expanding on the city’s mission statement (travel the leylines collecting knowledge and magic to share with the world).

With all that said, please continue raging at Laerryn’s choices because that’s fun and good and fine and honestly I love watching it. I just wanted to clear up that one fuzzy area.

#critical role #exandria unlimited #critical role spoilers #exu #cr spoilers #exu spoilers #exu calamity #laerryn coramar seelie #don’t get me wrong #she’s ambitious as fuck #but she thinks she’s doing it for the people of avalir #and the future of Exandria #and isn’t that so much worse #now that you see where it led and what she’s done #she broke the world for them. ALL OF THEM.#(but mostly for him)#and she’d do it again #because she still thinks she could win #she doesn’t know what kind of story she’s in

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honourablejester · 2 years

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Okay, okay. As a girl who grew up on the old swashbuckler films. Can I talk about the fucking romance of Nydas Okiro. Betrayed and backstabbed by his crew. Holding his wound. Panting in effort and grief. Telling his traitorous underling that gold means nothing if you do not use it to lift people up. That gold is a resource by which mortaldom climbs. That they are going to save the people of Avalir, and that cause goes above any oath he ever made in a past life.

You can picture so clearly in this moment the kid who joined a pirate crew to climb the skies. The dream he must have had. The dream he shared with Laerryn.

And it’s the end, and he’s betrayed, and he’s standing on what has to be one or two fucking hit points remaining, and he stabs that traitor in the front, and uses every resource he still possesses to get as many people as possible out and to defend them in the process.

And he’s … he’s not only betrayed, he’s rewarded. For the man he’s been. Because Alessander steps up, Alessander thinks to save the sorcerer school, this other piece of Nydas’ dream. When Nydas and his conjured dragon are standing alone and surrounded by devil puppets, the fucking sphinx from earlier, the sphinx from the parade, busts in and rescues him, and has been protecting them the whole time from further tampering of the constructs. Nydas was the first to step up, to try and protect the tree, to try and avert catastrophe, to try and hold the line, and that ripples out. His people stand up around him.

And an entire army of constructs, on Nydas’ word, burst out of the Golden Scythe to defend Avalir as she dies. His ships fly to evacuate her people. The world might be damned, he might be nearly dead, but by Avalir, he and this city will go down fucking swinging, and saving everyone they can.

The romance of this man. I can’t even.

#exu calamity #exandria unlimited calamity #episode 4 #spoilers #nydas okiro #i can't #i grew up on pirate movies #my childhood heart sings for this goddamned man

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rowanyx · 7 months

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There is something so deep about Laerryn's choice in the finale, and Brennan's phrasing of the decision to be made.

To clarify, this scene (copied and pasted from the CR wiki transcripts):

BRENNAN: On a 16, you must make a tough decision. Do you want to further limit the release of energy and make the release of energy safer for the physical environs of Avalir and Cathmoíra, or do you want to ensure that Rau'shan and Ka'Mort will be permanently banished from Exandria?

TRAVIS: Impossible.

AABRIA: Laerryn's little joke to herself was always that the Heart of Avalir was the thing she inherited, but it was too small. She made it bigger, she improved it. She improved the Etheric Net and built this and that she was the Heart of Avalir, and she gave everything to this city. But I know what people are fighting to protect and I remember what Quay said about going down with the ship. So we will ensure it. This will work. Avalir be damned.

or this timestamp of the episode (in case the link doesn't work for the timestamp, the first comment's list has it labelled Laerryn's Tough Decision):

youtube

As we were first introduced to her, Laerryn Coramar-Seelie is the Architect Arcane. As Aabria herself even put, her whole life, all her work, is about taking the city and making it better. Building more. Expansion is the name of the game. So when Brennan specifies that the limiting of energy output will save the physical environs rather than the people, that holds weight.

Just, in a mechanics aspect, there is the fact she is an Abjurer. The whole point of her magic is exactly this choice. To stop things from being destroyed. Her wards that take the damage so that she or others will not. She is not built to bring destruction, leave the fight to others. She will be there to soften the blows that come her allies' ways. She is the one one deciding this, and it feels right, because she's spent her studies dedicated to figuring out how she will prevent the destruction that comes her way.

But that isn't all.

Because any other hero, any other party member, every other soul faced with this question could so easily think that it is a useless decision. A city can be rebuilt, but only if the Betrayer Gods are stopped before they kill all the people that can do so.

But Laerryn, who has dedicated her years to this, the position of Architect Arcane, knows this city and her structures far more intimately. She has been there, step by step, as she forged them. Designed them. Watched over their construction. It is by her hand it was built.

Asking her, specifically, is asking her to choose between everything she's done, or let it all burn. Asking her to make this decision is asking her to decide her legacy. Will she live on as the maker of the land that survived such devastation, but not the people, or will she go down as the one who helped stop the Calamity?

Her choice boiled down to this: Limiting the energy, their work, the libraries and churches, the colleges, grand towers and hallowed halls, stone and mortar, it all can go on unshattered. Or, stopping the Betrayers, the people may continue on.

Was her work more important than the lives she was surrounded by?

Aabria mentions Laerryn was given the Heart of Avalir, jokes how she improved it. But the Heart of Avalir, while magical, is only an engine. It was made, and can be again. So in this moment, I think Laerryn maybe realizes that the true heart of a city comes from the people. Always thinking, thoughts speed by her, whether or not she ever had time to really process the revelations before her demise.

Evandrin is already gone due her hubris. Who else would she lose? Would it have felt like home, without Loqautious there by her side? Would it truly feel like her city, without Patia keeping up with her? What would she cause, without Nydas to hold her back? What is Avalir, without her Brass Ring?

Her assistant, probably still waiting for her, in their offices, and the choice of which will see tomorrow?

How many will feel the heat of Rau'shan's flames as they die? How many will fall to Ka'Mort's earth?

None, she decides. Her friends and neighbors, the kinsmen of her home, will not feel these pains.

I think it is also a moment that beautifully showcases her accepting her death. She will not be here to heal her city. She's going down with the ship. Maybe her blueprints will be found and used, and Avalir will be as it once was. Maybe they won't, and they'll construct it all anew. But she won't see it, so it is their turn to take what was given and build on.

Of course, Rau'shan and Ka'Mort were not the only assets of the Calamity, and damage and destruction was still wrought across Exandria. But there are enough hands to clear the ruins and make their own stories. And that is because of the greatest Architect of them all.

She gave them a chance indeed.

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beedreamscape · 1 year

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Evandrin laughs increases and so does Zerxus' worry.

His amber eyes follow as he paces their living room. "Is everything alright?"

Evandrin nods, unable to stop his laughing. "Perfect, this is... this is wonderful."

Zerxus takes a deep breath and leans back on the armchair, the invitation pinched between his fingers, allowing his husband the time to settle down. It was one piece of the most luxurious invitation box both had ever seen, parts now layed out over their dinner table.

The nervous laughter settles into a pained sound, deep dimple between his fair brows. "Oh my, I'm a terrible person."

"No, you're not." Zerxus leans forward, elbows to his knees, that look so close to the one he makes when Elias is misbehaving. "What is worrying you?"

"I'm not... worried, per se. I- I'm not ready to let go of Laerryn."

"She'll still be your best friend. She's just getting married, Van, she's not leaving for war. She's not even leaving the neighborhood!"

"That lucky bastard Loquatius. You know how long she and I had to hunt for even the crappiest apartment when we first got here? We almost slept on the streets cause everything was too expensive but we would've done it if it meant staying in Avalir..."

His smile slowly fades as the wave of nostalgia recedes, leaving just the memories on the sand.

Zerxus offers a kind smile. "You never told me that."

"Didn't I? I guess it just never came up before this." He casts his eyes upon the now empty velvet and gold invitation box.

"This is worrying me, you haven't had these doubts about them before."

"Because I didn't comprehend the depths of her feelings for him. I thought he was just a fun pastime, a spice to her life, a trinket of a friend. Yes, they've spent so much time together that even I started to get a little jealous, but I had imagined sooner or later she'd get sick of him. Laerryn is my twin soul but she doesn't talk to me about those big feelings. When she tried to explain it to me last week, when she told me they were getting married, I genuinely thought she was joking."

"Is Loquatius the cause of your worry?"

"No. Well, not exactly. I trust Laerryn's judgment. Even though he's quite the character... not to mention his newspaper thing is growing crazy fast and you know how these people in big media are! It was their own hubris that toppled the Zenith News before him."

"And you think it's a bad thing that he's successful?"

"Of course not. So long as he doesn't let it go to his head! Zerxus, I swear if he steps out of line and hurts Laerryn, I don't know what I'm capable of."

Zerxus gets up, towering over Evandrin by a few good inches, and places those heavy hands of his over his shoulders.

"I don't know Laerryn as much as you do, I never will, but if I know one thing about her is that she's a force to be reckoned with. She's also a really smart woman. It's takes a man of character and courage to claim her heart. Loquatius apparently has both."

"I wonder if he knows what he's getting into. She's a wonderful woman, but she's a challenge. I've told her as much many times before."

"They are quite different people but I don't think that's news to anybody."

Evandrin looks deep into his husband's eyes. "Love makes fools out of us."

Zerxus gives a hearty laugh. "Yes, you married me after all."

After a long laugh, he makes an exasperated sound, throwing his hands up. "Who would've thought!? Laerryn Coramar falling in love! Loving that person enough to get married! And so young..."

"Isn't she 130 something?"

"142. Which is quite young for a high-elf, not immature by any means but with centuries ahead of her. She's a sturdy one, I wouldn't be surprised if she lived well beyond a millennia. Which changelings certainly don't."

"Won't that mean she'll then be free to pursue other people in the future?"

"But she'll carry the grief of his loss with her. If he doesn't decide to whisk her away to the Fey realm, that is. Oh Zerxus, I don't even like thinking about it."

"I think it'd take more than an army to drag Laerryn away from the city she calls hers. I'm glad someone could find home here." Before Evandrin can comment on that, he continues. "I think the best way to put your soul at rest would be to talk to Laerryn herself. No one will be more straightforward about this."

"Maybe later, this is probably already enough pressure over her. Her first replenishment as Architect Arcane and now this, she doesn't need the added weight of me questioning the complex puzzle of her feelings."

Zerxus offers his hand which Evandrin takes readily.

"Do you trust her?"

Evandrin doesn't hesitate, not even for half a second.

"With my life."

"Then you can trust, whatever the either very simple or extremely convoluted explanation to this decision might be, that she knows what she's doing."

#evandrin alterra #zerxus ilerez #laerryn x loquatius #loquaerryn #exu calamity #writing #cause I doubt anyone reacted normally to the news of their engagement #Evandrin does like Loquatius very much but to think of him as Laerryn's husband was such a wild concept #nothing will go wrong. what possibly could?

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luckthebard · 2 years

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Ok so we talk a lot about wizard hubris, and I'm a big fan of fuck around and find out, BUT

I think the idea of "the Raven Queen was once a mage in the age of arcanum (who, frankly, some of these other wizards we're seeing in Calamity might have known, if they're older elves) and she managed to ascend to godhood, so what does that mean for our understanding of and relationship to godhood?" is actually really interesting and at the very least explains a lot of the wizard hubris and attitude that leads to someone like Vespin foolishly unleashing the Betrayer Gods and causing the Calamity.

Never mind that once the Raven Queen ascended she clearly thought "wow, that was something NO ONE SHOULD EVER DO AGAIN" (and boy isn't she an interesting figure because of that), the mages in places like Avalir and Aeor are now living with the knowledge that that's possible, that people like them could, in fact, gain the power of gods.

(For what it's worth, I think Purvon's perspective on this is very interesting, as he calls the Raven Queen's ascension "knowledge won by her and her alone" and emphasizes that it made sense for the old god of death to die to truly embody the idea, so the Raven Queen's place was intended all along - an interesting religious perspective!)

But Brennan plays the Arcanum wizards so well with Dean Hollow, who says: "She is still one of us though, is she not? She was one of us. She does remember from whence she came. It is not their world any longer. Why would she not welcome us behind her?"

And I love this because from their perspective it makes sense, even as we can see the seeds of hubris and downfall in it. The wizard hubris is grounded in really understandable world-building, I guess, is all I'm saying.

#cr spoilers #critical role #exandria unlimited: calamity #meta #long post #the raven queen

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utilitycaster · 22 days

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I’m not sure if you have seen this theory but what’s your thoughts on “the raven queen could be Ludinus’s mother”? I’ve seen it float around on twitter and honestly, to me, it seems a little far fetched.

I have, and I agree with you.

I guess the best way to put it is that there's a lot of theories about Ludinus, and that's extremely valid, but I've found that people are extremely weird about these theories in a way I haven't really seen elswhere.

Personally, I find the idea that Ludinus is lying about most of his past - that he is just a guy from immediately-post-Divergence Issylra who moved to Molaesmyr, destroyed it in an attempt to commune with Ruidus, and established himself as a permanent fixture in the relatively young Dwendalian Empire in order to further his ultimate goals - is by far the most compelling. It feels extremely real for someone with grandiose designs to deliberately invoke an idealized version of the Age of Arcanum that was destroyed; we see this all the time in real life appeals to classical Western antiquity from would-be dictators. I also think he is, in many ways, not sympathetic per se but very...human (well, elven) for being frustrated at having to gather information of this time he believes to be lost and far better than today piecemeal, from whatever scraps remain. I think if he had firsthand knowledge but still took 800 years to figure out what the fuck to do? He's less clever and less heartbreaking and somehow, despite not lying about his age, far more of a windbag.

However, this is just my preference! It's also entirely possible he is from pre-Calamity. And here's where I start to get less generous. Because pre-Calamity? Totally fine. He insinuates that he is. He does so in the same conversation in which he insinuates he is Ruidusborn, which we know he isn't, and it's implied that not many people have caught on to his age (indicating that he probably appeared pretty young when he arrived in Molaesmyr) and since his device appears to have possibly been invented in Molaesmyr my gut feeling is that he was either a child during the final years of Calamity or immediately after. That's just a gut feeling. He easily could be older.

The thing is, literally all we have is "might have been around pre-Calamity" and it feels like people treat two very common specific theories - that he is from Aeor, and that he is the son of the Raven Queen - as fact, when all of the Ludinus theories are purely vibes-based. All we can say with any confidence is "older than he looks, definitively over 500 and almost certainly over an elf's natural lifespan of 750."

Re: The Raven Queen theory, what personally strikes me as far-fetched is that the Raven Queen's original name is lost, but who she was was not lost. She taught Patia. Wouldn't people...know that Ludinus was her child? Like, I suppose the answer can be "Matt didn't want to give spoilers away" but it feels like it raises questions about EXU Calamity that in all the discussion of people interested in ascension, the fact that the Raven Queen had a son doesn't ever once come up. And if he were a secret? That's also a question! And if he were the child of the now forgotten deity of death? What does that mean for him? Wouldn't he be a demigod, probably, of sorts? Can the gods reproduce? Was he the Raven Queen's child with some random guy? It's not that it's not possible, but I feel like boiling his stuff about the gods down to "Mommy issues" is reductive, far less interesting, and it raises more questions than it answers which is always in my mind a sign to steer clear of a theory.

And then there's the Aeor part, which just...I don't actually know where this comes from because if he were the Raven Queen's son it's pretty clear he'd be from Avalir, as she was all but stated to be, but people seem to treat these two things as both true sometimes. I feel Aeor feels far-fetched specifically because I think he'd have been far more able to rebuild Aeorian tech if he was from there. I suppose it's possible he was just a mediocre schmo while Aeor still existed, and has taken on a last survivor, must reclaim the glory of "city that was about to nuke another city simply as a weapon's test" mentality; but also, Aeor expeditions are relatively recent in the timeline of Post-Divergence Exandria. You think this man couldn't have popped up there and taken a leisurely look at the ruin of the Malleus Factorum any time before the past 60-ish years, before Uthodurn started poking around? Why didn't he mention Aeor in his notes in Molaesmyr? Again, more questions are raised than answered, and that casts doubt for me.

So it's hard for me to be objective here just because I find so much of the "Ludinus is pre-Calamity" theorizing to be just...really humorless and brittle and presumptive, and often not terribly interesting. Obviously if we get a definitive answer, and he is the child of the Raven Queen or is Aeorian (if he's both I'm going to roll my eyes because that's just sloppy, Matthew) or even if he was just a guy from pre-Calamity and not terribly important, I'll incorporate that into my understanding! But there's this childish demand that everyone treat what is ultimately an unconfirmed theory as immutable fact. I've seen people act like shitposting about Ludinus is somehow offensive because it violates their personal headcanons, and that's just peak main character behavior on their part. The idea that Ludinus is 800 and deliberately building a cult of personality rooted in the idealization of the Age of Arcanum (while conveniently ignoring that this age was when the Prime Deities -and only the Prime Deities - walked the earth; and that life outside the flying cities was rather less idyllic and wizard-run, and that the titans were still sealed away) is no less valid than the idea that he's 1200 and the son of the Raven Queen and/or from Aeor. All we know for certain is "definitely has been active and accounted for for over 500 years, almost certainly more, is definitely extending his lifespan through eating fey souls."

#answered #Anonymous #critical role #ludinus da'leth

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unicyclehippo · 8 months

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top 5 moments of your fave character from each cr campaign

oh u DO think my memory is better than it is but i will give it a go

1. c1 - everything vex has ever done. when vex rises up out of the ocean on her wedding day, furious, & summons a bow made of light & pike gives her a golden arrow to shoot sylas……h-hot. woman hot. delilah WAS a bitch. i am a twin myself & that whole deal was..a lot for me. do not go far from me. there’s a kind of loneliness that only twins get to feel & vex&vax nailed that.

2. c2 - beau with her shitty strength steps back into the room w the laughing hand & hauls her BROTHR her CAPTAIN her FRIEND onto her shoulders & gets him out of there she goes BACK for him she has no MAGIC she LOVES him she risks everything to get her hands on him & pull him away she risks an awful death she would die for any of them she means it she proves it she loves so hard her hands are in fists all the time she can’t let people see what she wants she can’t let people see that she wants she takes her bloodied hands& picks up her FRIEND & gets him OUT she LOVES him.

3. also c2 jester cupcake moment. i think it’s the only moment in cr where everything just….clicked. to me, that’s THE jester moment. everything stripped away. that’s CHARACTER baby that’s the good shit.

4. c3 laudna in the tree matt giving up his seat for her to speak to imogen for the most brutal like. ten seconds ever. laudna hunger of the shadow the first time. Marisha does this thing where she like. visibly dissociates for like. i don’t rmbr. i want to say fully forty minutes but that might just be me having felt it so powerfully. ten minutes ? the way she diminishes her presence, hides at the table, sits SO perfectly still. my heart aches.

5. exu calamity laerryn BLIGHT. who has done more in the history of exandria? who has changed the world more than her? NO ONE. NO. ONE. who had the power the skill the vision the LOVE to do what she did, to see avalir move not only over the face of the world but between every world? That ALONE would put her into top tier. & then yeah ok with a single spell she broke the pen that wrote the runes of protection across the world & shattered the ancient tree but who hasn’t wanted to kill a tree that was killing their friends? everyone would do that. it hurt her friend it hurt her husband (ex) it KEPT her BEST FRIEND in its BRANCHES who she has tried EVERYTHING to save. so yeah FUCK that tree! & then when everything went to shit she SAVED the world. she SAVED THE WORLD. laerryn literally has done the most anyone has ever done. & in some ways she did succeed in making it so that people could travel between realms im just saying she very much did succeed at that even if there were a few consequences

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tiredqueermushroom · 2 years

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Something that I loved about how both Zerxus and Cerrit, despite loving their kids they were bad fathers. Both choose their work, the city over their kids. As well as how the city demands so much but gives very little back.

Zerxus hadn't seen Eilas in 7 years, his son had to mourn and deal with the death of his father relatively by himself because the city pressured Zerxus. Which I think adds a layer as to why Zerxus is somewhat resentful of Avalir and why he doesn't consider it his home. This city being so opulent and has some of the most powerful people on Exandria, they literally don't experience weather, couldn't help his husband who dedicated his life in service of the city. The same city, while he was still mourning his husband, pressured him into taking up a mantel that stripped him away from his son and a living breathing reminder of Evandrin's existence.

Avalir demanded his servitude. And he had no other option but to feed the broken system.

The same thing happens with Cerrit. So much of his work consumed his life, his eyes were everywhere apart from inside his home. It was all consuming, to the point in which when his wife left, it seems like Cerrit didn't put up much of a fight. It was so bad that he didn't even know where she was, he had to learn who his children were as people quite literally during the end of the world. Cerrit making it out was a promise to do better. A promise that Zerxus didn't get to fulfil.

Patia is another example of Avalir's constant demand to be better, do better, how it eats away at a person. She dedicated her entire life, hundreds of years to Avalir, and all she could return to was a statue of her Grandfather. The same person who set Avalir on this path of destruction, people like Vespin were merely a symptom of a larger issue. Patia didn't have a lover, didn't have kids because the city would have consumed her, like it did Cerrit and Zerxus. The Ring of Brass was Patia only family, and in her final moment, she for the first time placed her family above the demands of Avalir.

Avilr in a sense was what Aeor eventually became. A living city, that feeds off the misery of its inhabitants.

#exu calamity #exu calmity spoilers #exu calamity wrap up #critical role spoilers #zerxus ilerez #cerrit agrupnin #patia por'co #Avilr #this city ate people up metaphorical #the ruling class of avilr waeee the real enemy #i have soo many thoughts #i have so many feels right now #cr meta #my meta

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rosemarydisaster · 2 years

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That joke Brennan made about how "we all take turns causing the calamity" got me thinking how all of the characters make for a perfectly balanced view of the Age of Arcana Society. It makes perfect sense that Zerxus hatred of the Gods and the wizard bunch's hubris are causing doomsday. Because sure, they make extremely personal decisions, but those decisions only make sense in the Age of Arcanum.

Meta incoming, spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of EXU: Calamity, the entirety of Campaign 2 And very minor spoilers of Campaign 1

Keyleth always doubted the Gods intentions in campaign one, but she was massively outnumbered by holy champions, paladins and clerics. Some characters debated her, but most thought that it was really dumb to question the Gods. Besides, her distrust extended to the betrayers and she would have most definitely doubted anything from Asmodeus mouth. She has knowledge of the betrayers that the people in Avalir has forgotten.

Essek is good example of a person in current time with Age of Arcanum mentality. He stole a part of God to do his funky little experiments with...and his hubris caused a huge fucking war. The fact that him and the Cerberus assembly were just a handful of wizards and not an entire civilization of them explains why it was only a normal war between to countries and not the apocalypse. But also, he sees redemption through a group that has two clerics and a paladin, helping them put to end a civilization of the Age of Arcanum. The fact that Essek completely redeems himself fighting the hive mind of a civilization that though itself above Gods it's quite poetic.

Even the fact that Fjord knew better than to try to pursue more power through Ukotoa indicates how everyone in modern day is pretty fucking aware of the "Stranger Betrayer danger". They know, even without being super educated in history, that there's stuff you shouldn't fuck with. You know who tried to ascend to Godhood (using a fucking city from the Age of Arcanum)? Fucking Lucien, and he dies! Why? Because our good guys and every ally they can call upon know that that is very bad.

This is the reason why the Calamity group works so well, because they truly represent the Age of Arcanum attitude. That is why they are causing the End of The World As They Know It. Not because they are Zerxus, Patia or Nydas specifically; but because they are Zerxus, Patia and Nydas from the Age of Arcanum.

They hate the Gods, they genuinely think they can be better, they are incapable of seeing their own faults and they are completely sure that they are the ones in control in every conversation.

Why does Zerxus trust the motherfucking Lord Of The Hells? Because he has a confirmation bias. He hates the Gods and Asmodeus pretty much tells him that he is right. Hell, Zerxus even prompts him! He is the one saying "the others mistreated you" (the others are bad, he meant). And Asmodeus is over there like "...yeah, sure, that works for me". It's not so much that he needs to lie, but that Zerxus wants to believe his own version so much that he ends up trusting the Master of Lies without even a fucking insight check. And he probably doesn't even worry about his friends because they've been trash talking the Gods the whole time. He also doesn't seem to need approval. He thinks he has the right to decide in the name of all Exandria because He Is Right. He may hate Avalir, but he is just as self important as the rest os them.

That's also very present in Laerryn's investigation. She just assumed it was the best thing ever, and when Loquacious asked why, she was shocked. She surrounded herself with people that saw things exactly as she did, creating an echo chamber. And when someone from outside that chamber disagreed, they all shut down the criticism. They think freedom and knowledge justify anything, and they immediately started working on how to shut down the Arboreal Cortex the second it interfered. They did not think for one second "oh, this must be important!", No. Laerryn went "I hate this thing I did not built and that I don't understand so I'm going to try to bypass it because it must not be that important". Once again, if it doesn't revolve around them, it must not be that critical.

Patia (I love her) is Mrs Nepotism I-am-better-than-all-of-you. She works hard, I'm sure, but she also expect things to be handed to her. She is owed greatness, so if she works hard she deserves to best the Gods themselves, don't you think? She is the most Cutthroat when it comes to Hubris while Nydas may disguise his under a childlike wonder for the unknown. But let's remember how he did not care at all about how dehumanizing it was for the Sphinx to be in the parade. He simply put on a charming face and convinced them of going on with the show. In fact, his first scene was a masterclass on how not to care about reality, only about maintaining an image. Selling The Dream.

Loquacious is just (from what we know) a shady vacuous man that enjoys being the center of attention. He reminds me of Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman, but with a hint of duplicity and hidden intentions. One can only guess what his secrets are, but I doubt that he is as innocent as he sells himself to be. But even so, he represents the vast majority of people. The one's that don't care enough about the Gods to truly hate them. The ones that give for granted the wealth and commodities this Age gives them

Cerrit is also there, congratulating his friend on her "we are basically Gods" machine, not seeing a problem with it (mind you, Loquacious saw no problem either. He just not that interested). He disdains the people that try to copy the Matron of Ravens, and he is an extremely capable detective machine at the service of Avalir. He's a cop, never trust a cop. They work for the system and (as I've been saying this whole post) the entire system, not only of Avalir but of the Age if Arcanum, is corrupt.

They will all take turns causing the Calamity because the Calamity is not just doomsday, it's the colapse of a civilization all by itself. Asmodeus and interplanar travel are just nukes, it's the people that push the button.

#critical role #spoilers critical role #spoilers exu calamity episode 2 #spoilers exu calamity #exu calamity #spoilers exandria unlimited #zerxus ilerez #laerryn coramar seelie #loquacious seelie #nydas okiro #patia por'co #cerrit agrupnin #brennan lee mulligan #Asmodeus exu #critcal role meta #cr #spoilers cr

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thisisnotthenerd · 1 year

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i’m having exu calamity thoughts at midnight.

when the ring of brass meets at the ivy table in the palazzo por’co, it’s mentioned that this is the first replenishment for the ring of brass as a whole. when you consider the age differential of the pcs, this becomes way more interesting

patia was the first--’middle-aged’ for a member of a species that can live over 700 years is probably around 300-400. given patia’s general avalir native energy, i’m going to put her on at the younger side of things. avalir was raised from toramunda 292 years prior to the calamity--i don’t think she would be old enough to remember that. this is a woman who has lived her entire life on avalir, and given it to the city that birthed her. the memory erasure and removal of patia’s parents could have happened within the first 100 years or so of patia’s life, and any alignments with apogee solstices pin it to around her 50-60s. it’s still feasible for patia to have known the raven queen pre-ascension, though i’d put it at young adulthood more than childhood. there really isn’t a good way to give an exact estimate of her age as compared to a human lifespan given that she’s probably been the keeper of scrolls for the city for probably a good century, and the granddaughter of an archmage, the archmage who brought avalir to the skies. it tracks for her to be a member of the ring of silver from her position alone. she’s maintaining the city’s google archives, and setting records (ha!) while doing it.

patia’s theoretical age: 300ish

patia’s human lifespan equivalent: late 30s early 40s. feels older than her peers by a wide margin, for good reason. armed with knowledge, money, and her family’s good name, this kennedy equivalent can only go up from here.

laerryn’s listed age is around 100-150. this is a woman born in the sky with a brain that kept her city there. funnily enough, she could have been born around the last apogee solstice. i’m not saying it happened. i’m just saying that a woman who’s spent her life searching for a way beyond the stars, being born during a confluence of leylines, a major celestial event? maybe not a coincidence. when compared to patia, she’s so young. it’s crazy for her to be both the architect arcane and hierophant abjura. it is unbelievable to me that people could overlook her, but i guess that’s how she cultivated her work. hats off to aabria iyengar for making an extreme prodigy CON wizard who can square up with primordials and win. laerryn is doing an extreme amount of work maintaining the spell engines that keep that city afloat. I’m unsurprised that she gets mad enough to kill the speaker of the fourth, magister micah cormorant, in a single round of fireball and construct slam attacks.

laerryn’s theoretical age: 120ish for apogee solstice lineup. probably older--closer to 130-140.

laerryn’s human lifespan equivalent: around 25, maybe a little older. she’s an elf, but holy shit. this is someone who became an adult a few replenishments ago. she’s girlbossed her way into the heart of this city with a finesse that few can match.

it’s easy to think that for a while it’s just the two of them, but realistically, the ring of brass probably starts being a thing within the last two decades. laerryn would not have been old enough or important enough to rub shoulders with patia socially at least until adulthood. i’m imagining a young laerryn going to the librarium incantatum to find obscure references for her research often enough that they get introduced and strike up a mentorship/friendship.

loquatius is a little tricky. we know he’s around 150 as of exu:c, based on the average fey lifespan of around 300 and the fact that laerryn doesn’t know if he would be alive to see the next apogee solstice. we don’t know when he left the feywild to chase the truth in avalir. but the herald’s tome is well established, and so is he, as the herald of avalir, voice of the council, scribe of crowns. so either he came like 50 years ago and had the time to set it all up himself, or the herald’s tome was already an existing institution. i’m leaning towards the former--he seems like he would have started elsewhere, gotten frustrated, started his own publication, outcompeted everyone else, then turned into the exact thing he didn’t want to become. anyway. this puts him around middle-aged, like patia, so that’s where i’m going to put him. also this gives a nice window of time where he’s working his way up, and a way for him to get introduced to laerryn in a work context where both of them are revolutionaries in their fields.

loquatius’ theoretical age: 150ish.

loquatius’ human lifespan equivalent: late 30s early 40s. this doesn’t matter as much for him either--he’s fey, and wasn’t really operating on human standards anyway.

evandrin is even more difficult, given how much we just don’t know about him. he’s a half elf, so he’s running a little slower than the humans of the party, but not by much. i’d say he’s in his late teens/early 20s when he first meets laerryn, while she’s around 110. this gives them a good window of friendship pre-zerxus & ring of brass. if he was working his way up though the ranks, i could see them becoming friends while she’s working on a spell engine keyed to an alarm system for the chancellor’s guards in her capacity as hierophant abjura. or maybe the chancellor’s guards cause some destruction that she has to deal with as the architect arcane. this would put him at mid-late 20s when he has elias and meets zerxus in cathmoira, and mid-30s when he dies.

evandrin’s theoretical age: late 30s.

evandrin’s human lifespan equivalent: still late 30s as of the eve of the replenishment while he’s in the astral sea. not a huge difference, because half-elves basically just double a human lifespan, but mature at the same rate apparently.

zerxus is canonically 37, so i don’t need to put in any work to know that about him. zerxus, in his early adulthood, is on cathmoira doing some kind of paladin/oracle training that gets him to a level where he’s the runner-up to evandrin for the position of first knight when evandrin passes. maybe the position’s at least a little hereditary. something to think about later. doing a lot of work in terms of physical protection of the city--who needs an army when you’ve got a widowed paladin with a belt of storm giant strength? just let the guy get his grief out and enjoy having a principled first knight instead of fucking kevin.

zerxus’ theoretical age: early 20s when he meets evandrin and elias, ~30 when evandrin dies, and 37 at the eve of the calamity. no need for human lifespan equivalent.

nydas is around the same age, given that they grew up together in cathmoira. we know nydas goes off to be a pirate for a while before coming to the golden scythe and becoming the guildmaster--late teens through early 20s at the very least, and he’s commanding power and respect by the time he properly makes it to the skies. this tracks for when the nasty trifecta would start to meet, and sets a solid foundation for his role as the bank roll for the city of avalir. also someone doing a fuckton of work, but getting more credit for it.

nydas’ theoretical age: mid-late 20s when he gets to avalir and becomes the guildmaster, late 30s by the eve of the calamity. no need for human lifespan equivalent.

cerrit is the last of the bunch to turn up, and for good reason: he’s probably in his early 20s, no older than 25. eisfuura seem to exhibit a marginally different growth pattern than aarakocra--maya and kir are 7 and 5, but for human equivalency, like 14 and 10. a rough doubling makes sense, especially because they do say maya is 14 at one point. so, cerrit is probably like 20-25. rose up through the ranks of the eyes of avalir super quickly because of his keen sense and ability to catch things that others couldn’t. i think it tracks for him and wrayne to have gotten married a little earlier than laerryn and loquatius. also the fact that his lifespan is shorter just makes his absence from his family life more depressing. it’s less time, sure, but more to miss. also it’s very funny that maturity wise he could be older than everyone except for patia but chronologically closer to laerryn’s equivalent age. it’s so funny that laerryn is afraid of a bird that literally just showed up less than a decade ago. and then you see that the bird is terrifying in a fiercely competent kind of way.

also, i think this lends credence to the fact that cerrit has been a little separate from the friendship dynamic of the rest of the group: laerryn & patia are best friends, the seelies have romantic nonsense all the time, laerryn & evandrin were friends, which brought zerxus into the fold, and nydas had connections to both the trouble trio and zerxus. cerrit probably made a connection through patia, and immediately became a moral force. also this sets him up to join post-evandrin, making his friendship with zerxus all the more interesting. anyway.

cerrit’s theoretical age: early 20s--i’ll say 22 for now

cerrit’s human lifespan equivalent: early 40s. this man instantly became the handler for all of these people. my god.

anyway to be at that table is to simultaneously be an extremely overworked millennial and also maybe older than god and/or just old enough to graduate college. very fun and spicy age dynamics that could have been explored more, but i’m happy where they are, as you can see.

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thewickedkat · 2 years

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i can't help but think that some folks were expecting...less humane more hubristic PCs here. not that the hubris isn't present (because it very much is; all of our characters see events in terms of themselves first and foremost and think of how the world affects them; yes, even Zerxus), but i think some were expecting to see the grandiose, sweeping arrogance emblematic of many wizards in d&d.

instead, they're just folk. granted, they're incredibly powerful, inherently magical and wondrous folk, with the equivalent of bottomless money at their fingertips, but still. just...people. who have no idea of what is coming. and why should they? everyone's focus is narrowed to the realm of their own experience and interpretation: Laerryn is cock-a-hoop with glee at the possibility of...doing whatever she's been faffing about with? Loquatius is focused on branding and networking and keeping his monopoly on news locked down. Patia is neck-deep in wizard guild dramacide. Nydas is busy being a hypercapitalist. Cerrit and Zerxus, to be honest, are the only two of the party who can start to see how pieces of this Rube Goldberg Apocalypse Engine go together--but even then, they don't see what we the audience sees (esp those of us who have been picking up on the lil easter eggs laid out). they don't know that they don't have all the pieces, they don't know what they don't know--and why should they? when a catastrophe is unfolding, we only see all the pieces in the aftermath. and we point and say 'o noes how could they not See' well because when you're so close to it, it looks just like any other day. a day with quirks, sure, but just another day ending in -Y.

and we did not expect the families of our players. sure, there's a shared history amongst them all, but families? loved ones? kids? i remember when people were shocked in C2 when Veth revealed she had a husband and a child. suddenly the stakes are more real. actions will have consequences outside of the party.

all of those children bouncing through Avalir will die. all of them. Brennan knows this and is reminding us every chance he gets. that man does not fuck around. he understands the stakes, what can happen in catastrophes and wars, and he sure as shit groks what a god is to a mortal.

i do not think our PCs understand what a god really is--look at how their society views the Matron of Ravens! as if ascension to godhood, divinity, apotheosis is just something you do before afternoon tea! like it ain't no thang! and their society, like it or not, does influence how they perceive things around them: exhibit A, how Purvan was 'welcomed' and treated. i mean--fuck, i am a dyed-in-the-wool Agnostic to hell and back, but if someone came round and was introduced to be a Champion-with-a-capital-C of a god? i might not believe but i sure as shit wouldn't be rude about it! at least have some fucking manners, rich tit wizards! cos that's just tempting fate!

someone else here on tumblr (forgive me, i read much good cronchy meta last night before sleep and i can't remember who wrote it, apologies) mentioned that disconnect between the gods and the citizenry of Avalir. that (and i'm paraphrasing) the gods are just basically seen as...mortal plus. mortal with spice. and i think that person was bang-on accurate in that assessment: there's anthropomorphising your deities in order to make them seem less Awesome, less terrifying; and then there's making them more like us so that we could tear them from the heavens. to make them killable. both aspects can be dangerous. especially in d&d because the gods have teeth (so to speak), and actively participate in the Prime Material plane. member that whole parable about being welcoming to strangers, in case they're an angel or god in disguise? d&d gods are like that but moreso. and i think the citizens of Avalir do not see that. at all.

as for the Betrayer Gods and the whole 'whom were they betraying?' well. we do know that history is indeed written by the winners--or, in this case, those on the ground who survived and had any context whatsoever for what City life was like--and we also know that villains seldom see themselves as the Bad Guys. they might know that others see them as Bad and Not-Good and Big Big Meany Dookyheads--but themselves? seldom. they have reasons, justifications, through-lines of logic to explain why they are doing what they do (monster-logic but logic nonetheless). it doesn't matter if their contemporaries agree with them, much less mortals. i do not think there's going to be a woobification of the Betrayer Gods (and i wouldn't want one, either; sometimes we just need villains who are villains and we don't always need to soften their jagged edges, thanks), but if we get a supplemental narrative for what their angle is on this whole CalamityFest is? i'm down.

i will probably have more pointless rambles as this miniseries progresses, but so far i am enjoying the ever-loving shit out of it. last night was a roller coaster of me being riveted, flapping around like a wounded duck, and screeching gleefully into cushions so as not to wake my partner. and i can't wait for more.

#critical role #cr spoilers #exu spoilers #exu: calamity

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angelsndragons · 2 years

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love how life keeps getting in the way of my control party post but anyway-

the thing, the thing that i love about last night’s episode is:

matt and the rest of cr has always played fast and loose with alignments. sure, there are characters we can map to particular alignments (ie ikithon is definitely CE) and sure, they sometimes use alignments to help demonstrate a character’s growth over the course of a campaign (vex and caleb) but.

but.

it’s mostly been with the understanding that alignment is itself is bullshit. no one person is one or two singular ideals all the time. even if there are general trends which is what alignment can embody, the exceptions to said trends matter just as much if not more so than the trends themselves. after all, should jester be more defined by her chaotic, go with the flow self or should she be defined by the moments she buckled down and said, ‘no, we’re doing this’? do her moments of amazing selflessness better define her than her moments of selfishness and, sometimes, which is even which?

aabria’s time as DM played into this questioning of alignment masterfully. sure, she explicitly called out and used characters’ alignment in a way we hadn’t really seen before. but she’s also the person who introduced and reinforced time and time again that power is power and it’s how you use it that matters. (also let’s take a minute to mourn the fact that calamity is what aabria was gunning for in terms of the lore department but she had to contend with level 3 dumbasses who did not care in the slightest what their place in the world was or how they intersected with the larger history).

all of this is to say: gracious that asmodeus scene last night was amazing. the sheer discomfort of that scene, for me, is how you can’t shove asmodeus or zerxus into neat little boxes and understand what precisely is at play from both of them. it doesn’t work; they both zig and zag too much. asmodeus isn’t even playing into a classic paradise lost interpretation of the devil because unlike the devil even there, he has legitimate reasons and grievances with his fellow gods. this isn’t ‘dad made new toys and now i’m not as special, i’m going to go wreck shit,’ this is ‘we had an agreement, with rules and terms, and they broke them.’

and i know what people are going to say, that we can’t trust a single solitary word out of asmodeus’ mouth. and sure, i agree with you to a certain point. but here’s the kicker, his interpretation of events isn’t wrong. we know that there was a war between the primordials, who, again, were on exandria before anything else, and the prime deities, which the books say occurred because the gods were tired of having to remake their mortals and so sought to make the world more inhabitable for them. we also know that sometime before the schism, the gods taught mortals arcane magic. we know that the efforts of mortals and gods would banish the primordials to specially created planes, or prisons, if you want to call them that, forever.

given the parallels that brennan is weaving into story, how it’s druids, with their connection to nature magic, that wizards have a pact with, to only take so much and to give back so much, given that the wizards resent the hell out of this pact, that they think it beneath them...

i don’t think asmodeus is lying here. spinning, certainly, framing himself in the best light possible, yeah, no shit, trying to play on zerxus’ desires to protect and to avenge, absolutely. but i don’t think he’s lying or playing up his injuries or trying to break down zerxus’ defenses directly. zerxus already doesn’t believe in or worship the prime deities. the whole city of avalir has moved away from that. all asmodeus is doing is confirming what zerxus has believed and known to be true all along: that gods are just other beings and they’re not necessarily worthy of worship nor are they working from an objective good or truth.

part of the scene’s tension comes from audience knowledge and anticipation. we know that asmodeus will pull this same ‘trick’ on raei the everlight and damn near destroy her and her followers in one swoop. but that’s the thing, isn’t it? the calamity was a war and both sides did terrible things. we noticed that asmodeus promised zerxus nothing save to remember him, even as he wound zerxus up and sent him back to avalir like a laser-guided missile.

but the major kicker of the scene for me is: zerxus is trying to play asmodeus just as much as he is being played. he asks asmodeus to remember the mortals on the material plane, to not take his wrath out on them now that he’s free. he tries to heal and form a bond with this man, this being, and he talks about evandrin. he talks about how much he loves him still, how he couldn’t do anything to save evandrin, how he doesn’t buy that nothing could be done for him, in this, the great city of wonders. mechanically speaking, zerxus doesn’t yet have access to 5th level spells like greater restoration or raise dead. he will never have access to true resurrection, which is what he requires to bring evandrin back without his body. and yet. and yet.

there are oracles in this city. clerics. clerics only need to be 9th level characters to gain access to those 5th level miracles. and they didn’t do it. for whatever reason, zerxus believes that someone intentionally withheld potentially life-saving treatment from his husband. and then when he was gone, zerxus believes that the city continued to withhold that power, that 9th level spell to attempt to bring evandrin back. evandrin was first knight, he was the front line defense for the entire city and served honorably, is remembered fondly and painfully even five to ten years on. zerxus still doesn’t know what happened to his husband. and looking at how this city functions, yeah, i get it. this city has the wealth and power to work this miracle, this one act that would mean the world and more to zerxus and their son elias. but it’s so panache, so pedestrian, so boring. bringing people back from the dead is old hat, darling. godhood is where it’s at and even then, why would you want to try that when it’s already been done?

zerxus has been looking for a target, someone he can blame, and, potentially, someone he can force to fix this injustice. who better to ask for this information than the father of lies, the being who encompasses lies and deceit? so when asmodeus points him back at his friends - friends that we the audience know are actively lying to him about what happened to his husband (laerryn carries the guilt of his loss and convinces herself that the interplanar travel she gained is worth his loss, quay actively removed something from that reporter’s records about evandrin, and isn’t it interesting that this guilt, of all things, might be what drove them apart in the first place) - well.

it’s called the calamity for a reason. and we’re watching it play out in miniature in front of us.

#cr spoilers #exu #exu: calamity #calamity meta #cr meta #exu meta #exu spoilers #zerxus #lord of the hells #long post #my meta #zerxus wasn't being tricked #he was walking in ready to make a deal

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honourablejester · 2 years

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Oh. Oh, I’ve just reached Patia in the Archsept (yes, I’m still only 3 hours in, I’m taking my time with this episode). And. Oh. I’ve so many feelings on this scene.

Patia: Hello Grandfather. Happy Replenishment. I saw the choice that you made, and henceforth an entire civilisation of people have been implicated in your decision. The Gau Drashari … could have been more forthcoming. They should have shared their knowledge. But it seems these selfish choices have been reverberating through all of us. Grandfather, I have dedicated my entire life to Avalir. I bore no children, I took no spouse. Only the umbilical connection that I have to this city, and the legacy of the Por’cos. And … the cycle of selfishness. I do not know if we will ever be rid of it. But I hope I can do my part in ending it here for now. For Avalir.

Of all the pieces she could break off the model Avalir in the statue’s hand, she takes the library

Patia/Marisha: I take the library. And I take my sphere of power that I have inscripted, every scroll, every text, every memory of mine, every conversation, every backhand deal, every happy memory, that I have possessed in my power. I take both of them in my hand, and I cast Teleport to Maya. Cerrit’s children.

She comes out of the Tree of Names with the knowledge of everything that went wrong because of what they didn’t know. She comes out of the deathbed realisation that knowledge means nothing if it dies with you. She comes out of the cavalcade of consequences for secrecy and deceit that have been the last three hours. And she decides to break the cycle of selfishness. She decides to preserve knowledge. She decides to share knowledge. Everything she has. Before Avalir can be destroyed and she can die again, she sends everything she has away.

And it’s everything she has. Not just the knowledge in the library, but her memories. Her unedited memories, at least as best she can. Every conversation, every backhand deal. Not just the dream of Avalir, the perfect city, the Age of Arcanum with all its arcane knowledge, but the dirty reality of it that she was instrumental in keeping. Every backhand deal. She’s trying to send the truth of what they were, not just the dream of it.

And that, I think, is why Brennan decided to add the bit with her parents. This last secret of the dream of Avalir that was kept from her. Her grandfather making her forget them because they’d somehow failed the city.

Brennan: A question for you. We’ve often heard Patia speak of her grandfather, and never of her parents. Do you think your memories of them were in that orb, or were they taken away? And if they were taken away, do you think they were taken away by you yourself, or by your grandfather when he was alive?

Memory, as the orb teleports away, of a young girl looking at an old and bitter Imyr: Granddaughter, where your mother and father failed, you will succeed. I know it in my heart to be true. It will be easier, I think, for us both to forget. Don’t you?

The dream of Avalir needs to be perfect.

And when she hears that, feels that, some fragment of something that might have been kept from her, Patia reaches out as if to interrupt the teleport, take her orb back and see what was kept from her, but then:

Patia/Marisha: But I think there’s nothing else I need to know. I think I know it all already.

Brennan: How much have you changed, how many memories have you erased, how perfect have you made this dream?

Somewhere in the world, someone is holding the work of her life.

Patia: It’s all on you, smart girl.

She’s … She’s doing the same thing and the opposite thing to Maya that her grandfather did to her. It’s all on you, smart girl. But this time, instead of taking your memories, I’m going to send you everything. Everything I can. No more secrets. No more hiding the dirty truth.

And she … This whole time, Patia’s driving desire has been to know. To know what the Raven Queen did, to know what’s beyond the material plane, just to know. She’s been the one holding the key this entire time. And in this final moment, this last temptation, she resists the urge to take and hold and keep knowledge for herself, to satisfy her own curiosity, and lets it go to someone else instead.

She truly is doing everything she can to undo the selfish things she’s done. Giving memories instead of taking them. Sharing knowledge instead of hoarding it. Letting someone else know before she does. Letting someone else know when she maybe never will.

And … speaking purely as a lover of knowledge:

Alexandria is about to burn. But this time its library, of all of it, will not.

There is an artefact, somewhere in the world, that holds the entire knowledge of an Age of Arcanum city, and not just its library and scrolls, but the knowledge of a woman who was integral to the workings and dirty deals and doom of the city. A woman who chose to share all of it, because she’d seen the consequences of keeping secrets. A woman who wanted to die knowing that the knowledge didn’t die with her.

Now that … is how you play a Keeper of Scrolls.

#exu calamity #exandria unlimited calamity #episode 4 #spoilers #patia por'co #keeper of scrolls #with everything that entails

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tieflingthots · 1 year

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Exandria Unlimited: Calamity starters

A mix of both cast and character quotes. Feel free to change any pronouns to fit!

❝ Fire. ❞

❝ Of course I'm safe. You'd never let anything happen to me. ❞

❝ I think I'm in the wrong class. ❞

❝ Are you weakest at your shoulder or elbow? ❞

❝ Is this a magical effect? ❞

❝ No, this is physics. ❞

❝ It's all on you, smart girl. ❞

❝ What’s goin’ on with this tree? ❞

❝ Can we have some for the homies? ❞

❝ Who is the most proud man here? ❞

❝ To reach a hand down to somebody, they need to be beneath you! ❞

❝ And I am beneath nobody. ❞

❝ Then you must admit that I was RIGHT! ❞

❝ I feel you are going to be a very good champion for me. ❞

*passes you gummy bears of sorrow*

❝ That was buck nasty dog. ❞

❝ This is why we don’t trust dick! ❞

❝ Amazing. ❞

❝ This your house? ❞

❝ I don't pay attention to people dumber than me. ❞

❝ That is incredibly fair. ❞

❝ You’re leaving me, just like always. ❞

❝ Don’t worry, my wife will be right here to get us. ❞

❝ I just want to sully this whole image you’ve painstakingly made with a bunch of DICKS! ❞

❝ I don’t think I’ve ever heard you be mean. ❞

❝ This is the true betrayal. ❞

❝ People think I’m nice but I just conform to the genre. ❞

❝ Don’t come over here. ❞

❝ Why are you like this? ❞

❝ She was my dearest friend and I love her with all my heart. ❞

❝ It was a beautiful dream. ❞

❝ The age of Arcanum is dead. ❞

❝ If any of them are to be saved, then I know what must be done. ❞

❝ I don’t know how deeply you’ve sacrificed to do what must be done. ❞

❝ There is no god that strides this world that I worship more than I worship your heart. ❞

❝ There is a power beyond the stars that you alone could find. ❞

❝ Bad contract. ❞

❝ I don’t have enough power to help you! ❞

❝ I thought I could do it. ❞

❝ The world will remember me as it’s greatest’s villain. ❞

❝ I have it, baby. ❞

❝ That’s so dumb. ❞

❝ Has it even been a second yet?! ❞

❝ That should have never of happened. ❞

❝ It’s the power of love. ❞

❝ What happened to you? What’s on your face?! ❞

❝ Do not bother with my name. ❞

❝ I asked beyond all the things not to be forgotten. ❞

❝ I brought ruin to the world. ❞

❝ Hope that you are forgotten. ❞

❝ It'd be a pretty crazy show to watch. ❞

❝ I’m so sorry. ❞

❝ What have I done? ❞

❝ I’m gonna hit him…I’m going to punch him real hard. ❞

❝ Don’t look away from me! ❞

❝ I played a part in him. ❞

❝ We don’t have time for self-flagellation. ❞

❝ There’s nothing else but this. ❞

❝ I don’t know how to read anymore. ❞

❝ I hope it was worth the risk. ❞

❝ Help me think good. ❞

❝ You had to be nice. ❞

❝ I’m beginning to have a very bad idea. ❞

❝ That’s the best I’ve got. ❞

❝ It was all for this. ❞

❝ I’ll say something to you that I’ve never said before; Please ignore me and go get to work. ❞

❝ I think I have a duty to report what’s happening. ❞

❝ Aww, fuck you both. ❞

❝ You’re just Donald Ducking it? ❞

❝ We don’t have time– Shut the fuck up! ❞

❝ I am the last dragon of Avalir and you will do as I command. ❞

❝ As you say. As you say. ❞

❝ That’s right that’s the fuck I say! ❞

❝ I forgive you for anything you think you’ve done. I forgive you. ❞

❝ He looks different… ❞

❝ Doom has come. ❞

❝ The Betrayers walk the world. ❞

❝ I didn’t get to say my thing. ❞

❝ At the beginning of time the gods made all the gold there will ever be. There will always be more people. ❞

❝ Gold? Gold means nothing if you do not use it to lift people up. ❞

❝ How hot was he when he said that? ❞

❝ That is some cursed shit. ❞

❝ I can’t take it anymore. ❞

❝ You cannot leave me now. ❞

*moonwalks out*

❝ I don't hate you. ❞

❝ Is this my baby? ❞

❝ Why did he rob the fashion district? ❞

❝ Weak. ❞

❝ Do I kill my best friend? Is that cool? ❞

❝ Put him out of his misery? ❞

❝ It’s been all for this and it. ❞

❝ Are you the woman who doomed the world or the woman who saved it? ❞

❝ What?! What have you done?! ❞

❝ My best. Finally. ❞

❝ Meeting you and being loved by you was a miracle. ❞

❝ I've been able to become anyone I want my whole life, but I just want to be with you. ❞

❝ And for whatever time we have left, I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you ❞

❝ I'm sorry, my lady. I love you, but I love another more. ❞

❝ My child, my heart breaks. But I would rather mine break and yours be kept whole. ❞

❝ Let's shatter her teeth! ❞

#rp meme #rp prompts #critical role #exandria unlimited #exandria unlimited calamity #exu calamity #all of these are so out of order #but eh if ya know ya know c:

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c-is-for-circinate · 2 years

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Yes, I'm still thinking about Laerryn, of course I'm still thinking about Laerryn, she frustrates me so much on the level where it very much says more about me than it does about her. In the way where the question is, "what about this character do you not like to see reflected from within yourself?"

And I think the answer is, god, I feel her goals so, so hard. I feel them in my soul.

I'm an academic! I'm a scientist. And I really do believe, deep down, core-deep, where logic has little enough to do with anything, that fundamentally, no knowledge is forbidden. There are things that it is so, so dangerous to try and learn. There is an absolute imperative to be ethical in pursuit of that knowledge, to be careful, to refrain utterly from doing others harm without their informed consent. There is proprietary knowledge, traditional knowledge, secrets that belong to specific people or cultures and doesn't affect anybody else, which is nobody else's business -- but somebody still holds that knowledge. The knowledge exists. The unthinking universe keeps no secrets. Ignorance is not a moral imperative.

People are allowed to want to know, people are allowed to work to find out. The desire to open the doors to other planes -- why shouldn't they be able to explore? Just to find out? Just to go there? Just to know? The goal is beautiful. To open the horizons of your traveling city in brand new directions where nobody ever thought it could go! To see the wonders of the universe laid out before you! How wonderful! How incredible! How beautifully, glowingly human, the curiosity, the desire to strive!

(After all -- why is it ethical for Vox Machina to traipse across half a dozen planes, scouring for weapons to claim as their own, and not a city? Who are they, except main characters, our vehicle for exploring all of these different places that we want to see just as much as Laerryn does?)

And so I get so frustrated! With myself, with the narrative, with her, with the inevitable tragedy of it all, with the way stories like this always get told -- with the fictional thirst for knowledge that goes so, so badly, because that's what makes the good story. Because the tragedy needs to happen. Because greed and haste and bad science always ends in this fictional disaster.

(The crime wasn't cloning dinosaurs. The crime was creating a poorly-appointed zoo of a theme park, trying to patent and milk your brilliant discovery for money, cloning dozens of species to adulthood all at once without bothering to watch and learn about the enrichment and welfare of the animals, to create safety protocols for the guests, backup plans, employee background checks. The crime was careless, selfish greed. But it wasn't wrong to want to see dinosaurs alive again.)

And yet we say: Hubris! It was wrong to want so much. It was wrong to ask these questions of the universe, to challenge the gods. It was wrong to try.

Laerryn wanted something beautiful, something dangerous to try and achieve but so, so wonderful to want to try. And that desire overcame her sense, overcame her caution, overcame her patience and ethics, and drove her to the same place that so many fictional (and far too many real-life) scientists have arrived at before her: poised to do so, so, so much harm, negligent of the welfare of those around her.

And it makes me so angry, it makes me so frustrated, it makes me so sad. It's infuriating, to see the yearning for freedom and discovery once again turned into a weapon of greed. I hate seeing it. I hate seeing Laerryn decide that this thing, this beautiful thing, the thing that I also fundamentally want to see succeed, is more important than actual living people around her.

I hate how the deck was stacked against her, against Avalir and the whole world, such that even if she had been cautious and careful and kind, they'd still all be doomed. I hate how much the finger on the trigger was hers and also how much it doesn't actually matter. I want to blame Laerryn. I want to blame the story. She makes so much sense (she's such a good, dense, layered, beautifully-rendered character), and it makes me so mad.

Which. Y'know. Art that can give you that many feelings is probably pretty good art.

#cr spoilers #exu calamity #not going to character-tag this because I don't even know if it counts as negativity or not #to be clear I am LOVING Calamity #so much! me being frustrated is not the same as dislike #very much the opposite

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natureismynature · 2 years

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I need to get this out of my mind so I'm gonna write a long ass post about it bdbdbs-

I'm not sure where I read the theory about the seed that Orym got from Niirdal-poc being the seed for a new Tree of Names, but yeah that theory is a thing and I love it.

I just wanted to add a few things based on the recent events in the campaign.

So, ya'll know how the Gray Assassins are killing off members of the Grim Verity? But like, the big question is why they attacked Zephra six years prior? Some people speculate that it's because Keyleth is a Ruidus born or maybe Will was actually the real target because he's a Ruidus born. But I don't think that's the case, because the Gray Assassins weren't killing Ruidus borns, they were killing Grim Verity members.

So why attack Zephra and try to harm the leader? Well! Here's where my theory comes in.

The Grim Verity is an organization that is trying to find out what the fuck is up with Ruidus, why would anyone kill them off? To keep a secret. To prevent people from trying to stop whatever is going to happen. If no one knows what's up, then why do anything about it? Right?

And now, we know that there's most likely a god or something in Ruidus. A veil that looked so much like the Divine Gate surrounds the moon, it's keeping something in that we all know it wants out. So, it's safe to assume that the Gray Assassins is on its side, they want it out, they're helping it try to get out by eliminating people who are threats. Which is why they tried the leader of the Ashari.

Why, you ask? Well, remember the Tree of Names? Remember who planted it in Avalir? Remember what it was for?

The Tree of Names was from the Gau Drashari, the Ashari's ancestors. It was a pen. What was the pen writing? Protection. From what? Primordials and gods.

The Gray Assassins attempted to kill of Keyleth because she was a big threat to their plans whether she knew it or not. She was the leader of the community that almost succeeded on protecting the Material Plane from primordials and gods physically coming into Exandria. They couldn't let someone like that live.

Then why didn't they try again you say? Well, maybe they realized they were outnumbered. Maybe they realized they needed to regroup and try again later. OR they realized that Keyleth trully did not know what was going on, thus, she would not be trying to stop their plans any time soon.

That's where Orym and his mysterious Niirdal-poc seed comes in. Yes, Keyleth wasn't aware about her people's connection to the history of Exandria, she didn't have what her ancestors had. The help of a god. Or should I say, godess.

Mt. Ygora, the mountain where Cathmoira is built on and where Avalir is from, is the mountain where two primordials were sealed. By who you ask? The Dawnfather and the Wildmother. You know who's secret city is Niirdal-poc? The Wildmother.

"You're an Ashari, aren't you?" - Thrascuur, the tetrarch of the city of Niirdal-poc after Orym asks why they would give him a seed. Why the hell does being an Ashari have to do anything with making mystery seeds from a prophet of a godess grow?

Unless that seed was the key to help save the world.

So yeah, Keyleth didn't have the key to ruin the Gray Assassins' plans. But Orym did.

Tl;dr: The Gray Assassins tried to kill Keyleth because they thought she was a threat, but they didn't think a small halfing widow would be the biggest threat to their plans instead.

#critical role #critical role campaign 3 #cr3 #critrole theory #timb talks #rambles #orym of the air ashari #keyleth of the air ashari #exandria unlimited

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