rowanyx

[rowanyx]

So in the Adventuring Party, Brennan asked Beardsley whether there is a world in which Kristen gives up being a Cleric.

Mechanics-wise, I understand why the response was a no. That kind of big change would have a lot of restructuring to do, from the character sheet to minis to even plot changes, which would be difficult mid-season like this. (See Riz's sub-class change from Inquisitor to Arcane Trickster happening now, rather than when we actually met Pok)

Story-wise, though, I respectfully disagree. In fact, I posit there is many a world in which Kristen could change her class.

The big one, I think, would be Paladin. Especially either Redemption or Oathbreaker. After all, you could easily argue that this whole situation (i.e. Cassandra seeing Kristen not putting her priesthood first, dying, and the new mysterious voice that taunted the party with the rotting corpse of the god Kristen already failed) cumulates into exactly the type of description for an Oathbreaker (going back on their word and then joining up with some evil entity instead). And, well, after two gods dying, one you've very much stated to want to be good for but can't get yourself to do so, sounds very much like the type of person that would seek Redemption. If not for themselves, at least for others.

And this could also work to show sort of backslide into the Applebee's family drama. After all, we know Bucky just started as a Paladin himself. He's probably not high enough leveled to have a sub-class of his own, but doesn't Redemption fit? The kid who was forced into Kristen's old role, who is already going around trying to save his classmates from Hell? If Kristen did switch to Paladin, they would most likely share classes (something like Gorgug's Artificier track, school-wise). A perfect opportunity to flesh out the relationship there, either to save Bucky from Mac and Donna or have him 'save' Kristen.

Of course, these are just two of the easier paths to see.

Porter did want another Bad Kid in his classes, didn't he?

Maybe Kristen finds she desires a guide and becomes a Totem Warrior Barbarian.

Maybe Kristen decides that just because her parents suck, doesn't mean the whole bloodline did. This causes her to delve into old records and come out of it as a Path of the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian.

Another idea, given the Buff Kristen movement, is a Fighter. Especially the training and power describing a Champion or the fighting spirit of a Samurai, to lose so many gods and keep going.

Or maybe she finds the issue is the evangelizing. That she cannot dedicate herself to bringing others into her path, but still desiring a higher being to help her. There are many to make a Warlock Contract with. She's even living with one, technically, by way of Fig's Archdevil job.

You could even argue for an Eloquence Bard, with all the speeches and now the Presidency campaign.

Or hey, Cassandra was a moon goddess, wasn't she? Maybe even a Lunar Sorcerer.

Unlikely but theoretically possible, she's just desperate to fix something and takes up Artificing. After all, how different can a Battle Smith really be? It's still healing and protecting, right?

Or, let's revisit an old topic. At the top of the game, Kristen was called the Chosen One. We saw that title following her even after leaving Helio. Sol treated her kindly for it, she invented YES! and even reinvented it into YES?. An argument can even be made that that's part of why Cassandra was fixed so easily after clinging to her. But what is that? Where is that power from? Perhaps some new magic awakens in Kristen. That of a Divine Soul Sorcerer.

Just, Kristen, taking a hard look at religion and Clericdom and deciding maybe it wasn't right for her.

#dimension 20 #brennan lee mulligan #ally beardsley #kristen applebees #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #fh meta #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #d20 fhjy #cassandra fantasy high #when he asked that question i got sent through the astral plane #thinking of all kinds of possibilities #and the flat no #the shutdown?? #what do you mean no????? #not a world? even one? #shaking crying screaming

[rowanyx]

Finale mood be like *intense fear of the art team*

Shoulda learned after the Bear

#dimension 20 #aabria iyengar #burrow's end #dr wenabocker #pheobe first stoat

[rowanyx]

#mentopolis #dimension 20 #brennan lee mulligan #the big guy #elias hodge

[rowanyx]

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):

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.

#exu calamity #exu laerryn #laerryn coramar seelie #architect arcane #aabria iyengar #these thoughts refused to leave my head so long they owe rent #but they couldn't pay up so now i'm kicking them out #aka posting it so other people can deal with it #lowkey teared up the entire time i was writing this #which is better than when i'm trying to sleep and it shows up as a late night thought #and then i go to sleep fucking sobbing #because it's so beautiful #this is the shit #that i love #i don't even know like anything else about exandria #i watched calamity for #aabria my beloved #and brennan lee mulligan #was surprised when i saw lou wilson was part of it #Youtube

[rowanyx]

something something the moment you stop fighting is the moment you die something something Karna in the disposal something something death is a release something something Karna letting go

#dimension 20 #aabria iyengar #acoc: the ravening war #the ravening war #karna solara #i don't know where the first quote is from #but it's been in my head for the last hour #i tried to look it up and the closest i got was john wayne wikipedia page #but it's also giving buddy from baby driver #i don't know man #but there is definitely something to be said about karna spending her whole life fighting #making a pact just to keep going #cutting pieces of herself to sacrifice for one more spell #one more day #and just being so tired by her death #that she does not go down swinging #that it was as simple as loosening her grip

[rowanyx]

I am too indecisive

Even with online menus, where I can narrow it down to like, 3 options? Still am the last one to decide after being seated.

So, if your restaurant has an online menu, bless you and I love you.

this is a point of contention between me and my mother and im desperate to know if there's a trend.

[rowanyx]

Headcanon that Laerryn never changed her name to remove Loquatious' surname because she was too busy girl bossing to file the damn paperwork.

At least, that's what she tells herself every time she spends the extra second to write it out.

#exu laerryn #laerryn coramar seelie #loquatius seelie #loquaerryn #laerryn x loquatius #divorseelies #aabria iyengar #part of me desperately wants to @ aabriya to see if this is canon to her #unfortunately i don't think i can handle the mortifying ordeal of being known

[rowanyx]

I realized this might look like I think a villain of Carmelinda, rather than the tragedy that I really do, so time to do a POV swap.

Carmelinda is not raised knowing she will one day be a royal. She is born a duchess and married in war, partially for love and partially for politics. And what a love it was, to have been taught magic that she carries with her more than a score after the tragedy that split them, for her marriage to Lazuli is set in stone during the same war that ends it.

A war that only lasted 5 years.

How long of that before they met? How long before it ended? How much of that time did they truly have together when Lazuli was, by the end of her life, losing track of time due to her visions and losing time to spend due to her duties?

How crushing, to be married to your love and still be left so alone.

How cruel to, so soon after, be married of to your brother-in-law.

A man that, though raised as a royal, never expected to get the crown, and was obviously neither trained nor prepared for it.

And so, in her grief, she finds something she can devote herself to. The kingdom her wife left her. The home she cannot leave behind. The land her husband will ruin, if she does not step up.

She cannot have Lazuli back, but maybe, in those quiet nights in the study, she can pretend. Can act like she is not so, so alone. Can reminisce of nights long past. Can imagine any presence to be there, to lean on or comfort her.

Eventually, she has her daughters. Candia has its heirs. Carmelinda still has yet to truly grieve. After all, there is so much to do and so little help to do it.

As time passes, the duties pile on, never ending, rather growing. In addition to the meetings and policies, she must keep track of her husband, who shirks even simple responsibilities, and her daughters, neither of whom care for the role Carmelinda has held onto for so long. That she tries and tries to prepare them for, and they continously turn their backs on.

What does she have, truly? A dead wife, a neglectful husband? What friends surround her, and what enemies hide among them? She keeps up the study of the magic that is demonized outside the country she cannot leave.

If she does, after all, who can she trust to actually run it? To protect the home of the life she never got to live?

And so, Carmelinda melts away, and the Queen of Candia takes her place little by little, as she keeps giving and giving.

And then the heirs are 18. It is their Saint's day, and they should be crowned. Granted new authority, and responsibility. But they are so clearly not ready. Look how fast they jump at the chance to leave, after all.

In another life, her and Lazuli's child would be ruling. In another life, she could rest easy.

But this is not that life, and she must stay behind as her whole family leaves her behind without a spare thought.

And when they return, it is with danger imminent. She has lost what is dear to her once again.

Her daughter, assassinated. Her home, taken. Her crown, revoked. Her husband? No, an oathbreaker and a secret finally told.

And how could they not trust her? Had she not devoted enough? Had she not given everything to House Rocks?

Amethar, never ready to rule, she could understand. A political marriage neither truly wanted. But Lazuli? Her precious wife? The woman she loves with all her heart, that she still has not spent a day without missing ardently?

All that is left is pain as her world crashes around her. The past 20 years of labor, for what? For who?

And now they desperately lead her around to new schemes and plots, but, what keeps her here?

She has no husband, no title, no love.

One daughter dead and the other lashing at her.

She goes along for a love she has just been told did not trust her.

House Rocks gets its victory.

The Queen becomes the Empress.

Carmelinda lives and dies by a life she never wanted.

Saw a comment the other day that said something along the lines of Carmelinda being right, and if Jet and Ruby had grown up and listened, Jet would be alive. The ironic thing is, they did.

When they reunite, Jet and Ruby have gone through one betrayal after the other. Their father barely escaping being murdered by so many different people they'd made nice with in Comida. By knives they had no idea existed.

They finally come home, to a castle that is no longer theirs, and find a suspicious note to their mother.

Their mother, who they are consistently at odds with. Their mother, who constantly emphasized their duty as royals, rather than her love as family. Their mother, who was not meant to marry their father, but one of their dead aunts instead. And indeed, apparently did not marry their father, resulting in them being bastards and their mother losing the throne she's been dedicated to for their whole lives.

And what does that note say? What do Ruby and Jet learn?

They have been spied on, and they have no idea how long for. Waiting in town is a mysterious object.

A very dark implication here that is not stated is this: When you can be betrayed by your allies, what is the position closest to you? Who can hurt you most? The woman in your family, raised as a political tool, and already running the country on her own.

So they see yet another spy. Another possible attempt coming for their land or their lives. They see someone who never seemed happy in the life she was living, and the change on the horizon that, one way or another, is going to change hers.

So they go to investigate. Because if their mother has chosen to attack, then perhaps they can prevent the worst. And if their mother has chosen to help, then they will be assured of her loyalty.

They have lost one life, and they will not lose another, they think. And in doing so, a self-fullfilling prophecy is realized.

#dimension 20 #a crown of candy #acoc spoilers #carmelinda rocks #archmage lazuli #lazuli rocks #king amethar #amethar rocks #brennan lee mulligan #lou wilson #if you think about her backstory and how they treat her #carmelinda could have been a major villain #if she ever hit that bad bitch era

[rowanyx]

Ok but like, I can't be the only one who thought the sword guard looks like an old timey mustache right?

This thing. I don't know if it has a name yet.

Like, all I could think was

#acoc: the ravening war #the ravening war #dimension 20 #matt mercer

[rowanyx]

Saw a comment the other day that said something along the lines of Carmelinda being right, and if Jet and Ruby had grown up and listened, Jet would be alive. The ironic thing is, they did.

When they reunite, Jet and Ruby have gone through one betrayal after the other. Their father barely escaping being murdered by so many different people they'd made nice with in Comida. By knives they had no idea existed.

They finally come home, to a castle that is no longer theirs, and find a suspicious note to their mother.

Their mother, who they are consistently at odds with. Their mother, who constantly emphasized their duty as royals, rather than her love as family. Their mother, who was not meant to marry their father, but one of their dead aunts instead. And indeed, apparently did not marry their father, resulting in them being bastards and their mother losing the throne she's been dedicated to for their whole lives.

And what does that note say? What do Ruby and Jet learn?

They have been spied on, and they have no idea how long for. Waiting in town is a mysterious object.

A very dark implication here that is not stated is this: When you can be betrayed by your allies, what is the position closest to you? Who can hurt you most? The woman in your family, raised as a political tool, and already running the country on her own.

So they see yet another spy. Another possible attempt coming for their land or their lives. They see someone who never seemed happy in the life she was living, and the change on the horizon that, one way or another, is going to change hers.

So they go to investigate. Because if their mother has chosen to attack, then perhaps they can prevent the worst. And if their mother has chosen to help, then they will be assured of her loyalty.

They have lost one life, and they will not lose another, they think. And in doing so, a self-fullfilling prophecy is realized.

#dimension 20 #a crown of candy #acoc spoilers #jet rocks #ruby rocks #carmelinda rocks

[rowanyx]

Apparently, by almost done, I meant will finish and post right after making this post. Anyway, here's a link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45462286

Me, doing literally anything: *vibing*

A tiny Brennan in the back of my head: You are Antiope Jones, and you are always on time.

[rowanyx]

Me, doing literally anything: *vibing*

A tiny Brennan in the back of my head: You are Antiope Jones, and you are always on time.

#d20 the seven #antiope jones #aabria iyengar #brennan lee mulligan #i am this close to making a fic about it #and by that i mean it is almost done #also i looked it up and apparently that is not the line #and yet

[rowanyx]

Finally got a dropout subscription to watch more than the first season of Fantasy High and episode 1 of The Seven, then hear about EXU: Calamity? The watchlist is LONG, my guys, but boy am I glad!

#dimension 20 #antiope jones #exu laerryn #laerryn coramar seelie #fantasy high #brennan lee mulligan #aabria iyengar #aabria you wanna be a patron? #i'm a warlock now baby #this meme has been rattling around in my head for days

[rowanyx]

Given BOTW allows you to both hunt birds and gather honey by parrying bees, I'd say more like

birds n bees except both twilight and time are actual children

[rowanyx]

Yo, where ma boi quicksand at?

does anyone else remember reading about spontaneous human combustion in a book of weird and unexplained facts and phenomena when you were like, ten years old or something and being convinced for like a week that you were going to suddenly burst into flames out of nowhere and that this was something actually worth worrying about before never thinking about it ever again or was i just fucked in the head as a kid

[rowanyx]

Cross your fingers that it don’t go like this:

So fucked up that Chris Pratt is voicing Danny Fenton in the Danny Phantom Reboot :/

[rowanyx]

it was Fate’s apology for all the other stuff

i am NOT fucking letting tiktok teens be nostalgic for fucking aeropostle, skinnybrow, mandatory hair straightening 2007-2010 fashion, we literally rock bottomed in every fucking regard in those years