ELABORATE!

So Yu’s half elf form was an ouch to my heart

Endless Bells Hells Roll for an attack

The episode 29 hits just keep on hitting

It just keeps going deeper and deeper man 😫

Matt: Apogee solstice! Leylines! References to EXU Calamity!

Travis and Marisha: 👀👀

Sam: I have literally never heard those words before in my entire life.

i mean this with affection but yu has them so deeply, fundamentally outclassed in how well they can control the conversation and twist words and sound reasonable and right, to the point that birdie's shitty actions aren't even the point, anymore. the way yu has continued yanking threads and then soothing egos and pressing into bruises and providing reasonable explanations is fucking masterful, and i hate it very, very, very much. erika is so talented, and I am Full Of Rage.

One of my favorite things about cr is watching Travis and Marisha yell at each other telepathically when Matt says things like APOGEE SOLSTICE

Laudna talks to Imogen

Laudna’s message whispers are getting a little wild

Saw this on Twitter and… just pain

Time is a weird soup.

lore alert! lore alert!

Plus Imogen and Orym cause I liked their reactions

Fearne is Ruidis born.

hey uh can someone please check in with orym?

This is gonna be a little jumbled, please bear with me: while I agree that Keyleth probably isn't part of the 🔴Super Secret Moon Club🔴 for academic reasons I think she isn't as far removed from the Moon Stuff as it looks at first glance

The Gau Drashari try to protect Exandria from threats from other planes by inscribing a giant invisible protection spell on/with the ley lines

Their descendants, the Ashari, have split up and settled at places where the veil to the Elemental Planes is especially thin, to protect Exandria from incursions

After a long time of the Ashari being very isolated - from the world and each other- Keyleth was the first leader to make strong connections to leadership outside of the Ashari and between the tribes, and make sure they have ways to contact each other

(Sidenote: possibly around the time the Ruidus Flare during Fearne's birth happened The Mighty Nein fought Cognouza in the astral plane - COINCIDENCE??? ...Idfk - but Allura and Kima definitely know about it?? So Keyleth might?? Idk what that has to do with anything though)

Ruidus starts showing in the Feywild - planes overlapping? There might be other symptoms that we don't know about yet - but Keyleth and Allura were among the people creating Artagan's portal from the Feywild to the Material Plane so it makes sense to me that she would just... keep an eye on that. Maybe she'd ask any of her connections across Exandria if they've noticed anything - one of which might have been part of the Super Secret Moon Club, who might have been the target of the attack - or maybe the Gray Assassins weren't even after a person but after... information, or a contact

Now comes the part I was yelling about here: the Unseelie are working on.... Something to gain even more power from Ruidus. They're coming after people who are actively working against them (Birdie and Olly), they're coming after the Lumis twins who are just researching Ruidus, they're coming after..... the Air Ashari working to strengthen the veil between Planes? working against Ruidus shining into the Feywild?

And their assassins, like Dusk, have magic hand mirrors that have- let me just quote Dusk: "Corrupted versions of my kind are trapped in that mirror. (...)Like shadows that are sent out to assassinate whoever that mirror is activated and pointed at." I am so sure those are the Gray Assassins. Bell's Hells literally have...! The assassins Orym is looking for...! Stashed with the rest of Fearne's stolen goods....! God, I wish he'd gotten to poke that sword a little deeper into Dusk

Anyway Keyleth opened that portal for Artagan, who hates the theatre, and Dusk from the Unseelie Court loooves the theatre so obviously they're mortal enemies. Probably.

The Calloway's, for the past decade, apparently

Dance of Deception

Started this one right after the Yu reveal. We love a face-changing assassin who is your friend until they aren’t. Or are they?

Image ID below:

[Image ID: A digital painting of Yu Suffiad from Critical Role. Yu stands against a dark grey background with their back towards us. The upper-right half of their face looks like Dusk’s. Yu looks to be in mid-movement with their hair and dark cloak blowing. They’re leaning back with arms outstretched and right hand resting on the pommel of their white-blue crystal encrusted rapier. They’ve turned their head over their right shoulder to look at the viewer with a sly, confident, grin. Yu’s face, save for the upper-right, is light grey with turquoise, blue, purple, and pink shadows. Their entire left eye is nearly black with just a hint of brown in the iris. Their hair is white with similarly colored shadows. It’s straight, shoulder-length and blows behind their head. Only the bangs near Yu’s right eye are dark brown, the color of Dusk’s hair. Their right eye is chestnut brown with black creeping into the sclera. Their right cheek and part of their nose are a warm tan. At the edge of that area, Dusk’s colors drift off Yu’s hair and face, becoming fading smoke drifting upwards. Yu wears a long dark purple-grey cloak that blows behind them. It has long sleeves and padded shoulder spikes with geometric gold embellishments on the spikes, down the back, and on the end of their sleeves. Watermark on painting reads “@ThreadcountArt” and “Do not repost/edit/trace”. End ID]