by I.M Gibney ( Twitter )

If you look down and see the stars, what will you see when you look up?

I finally got to watch the first episode!

“Redemption.”

Zerxus Ilerez, First Knight of Avalir, and Asmodeus, Lord of the Nine Hells.

brennan starting off the new campaign with pain

+ bonus reactions from aabria and marisha bc SAME

If you look down and see the stars, what will you see when you look up?

[ID: digital fanart of Zerxus Ilerez from Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. He stands in the palm of a giant, clawed, bloodstained red hand. Beneath him is a plaza; its tiles form the rays of a sun, but where the centre should be is a void in which a dark, stary sky can be seen. End ID]

The Invitation of Asmodeus into Exandria (cir. 189 Pre Divergence)

Huge thank you to everyone who made EXU Calamity for making me feral enough to do this, and huge thank you also to @saturdaysky​ for teaching me things about colors so that this could turn out the way it did.

Closeups under the cut!

Zerxus didn’t damn his soul to save a city, or his friends. Redeeming Asmodeus was the greatest challenge Zerxus was ever—would ever be—faced with. And in his supreme arrogance he was convinced he would succeed, even against a god. The greatest achievement of his life offered to him on a silver platter.

Zerxus damned his soul for his own ambition. Nothing else was important enough to turn him from that—husband, son, friends, humanity. There were so many other choices he could have made, but every time he chose the path that got him closer to what he truly wanted. What Zerxus did wasn’t a sacrifice. He got everything he hoped for.

The redemption paladin is, ironically, the only one whose hubris wasn’t redeemed before the end.

Lou reenacting Lord of Hells and Zerxus’ talk with a gummy bear

“I would rather hope, and have been wrong for hoping, rather than let go of hope because I thought it was wrong.”

-Luis Carazo, on playing Zerxus Ilerez in Exandria Unlimted: Calamity and exploring a character with unrelenting hope

Turns out when you tell the Lord of the Hells to find you later he tells everyone you’re his chosen within the next 30 minutes.

zerxus’ passionate speech about his husband’s son, “I have a son that’s not of my blood but that is my son. I met evandrin when he was just an infant, and I held that boy in my arms and I fell in love with him. I am his father.” has,,, fundamentally changed me as a person

Who am I?!

on god we thought Calamity was going to be all about wizard hubris but forgot about the only thing that can top it: PALADIN hubris

his kid is way cooler than my kid

god, and patia - patia, whose Peak Rich Heiress Entitlement is matched only by her Peak Wizardly Hubris - has been living with this crushing knowledge of this incredibly selfless thing she has done that no one must ever know.

Because Zerxus has been quietly angry at her, along with the rest of the city!  He didn’t specifically call out Patia or Laerryn, but he said “this city full of wizards, someone could have helped,” and she let him believe that.  She let him resent her for not doing enough because the knowledge that they’d done everything and failed anyway was destroying him with grief.  She resigned herself to be forever the only person who knew just what she was willing to do for her friends, because the only other person who knew asked her to take that knowledge away from him because it hurt too much. 

it’s almost the same sacrifice as Loquatius, honestly. “I love you so much I’m willing to let you hate me, in order to protect you.”

When Asmodeus said to Zerxus he'd protect him from fae this *points to Fearne getting her hand kissed by Teven* is what he meant

Not (just) because they're dangerous, but because they charming--- Stop flirting with the changeling! No, do not kiss the satyr's hand--- Don't let that eladrin touch your cheek, this is my last warning! Oh they're taking off their pants, I'm gonna rip their face off...