#[ cr ies a lot ]

[ludinusdaleth]

"Did you just spritz the Spider Queen?!"

-Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 93, "Bittersweet Reunions"

#critteredit #criticalroleedit #cr spoilers #critical role #opal #lolth #aabria iyengar #aimee carrero #mine #campaign 3 #exandria unlimited #i have a lot i want to gif but look im exhausted with my health issues right now #let me sleep and then ill get back to it

[itseghost]

i almost want to do an expression sheet for him so i force myself to expand past his rbf. but its so easy and fun to draw him with one

#essek thelyss #the mighty nein #critical role #critical role fanart #mighty nein #m9 #cr fanart #i like the setup of these low stakes sketches same as the fearne one lol #i just get to do a chill sketch adn then color + blend mode until im bored yippie!! #gave him a lot of layers on his outfit bc of one of my favorite shadowgast fics i read recently that will affect how i draw essek forever #in the closet of our discretion by firefright on ao3 #REALLY cool worldbuilding through kryn fashion customs #im really excited to draw him in more outfits :] #itseart

[bastart13]

POV you are Deanna about to have the night of your monsterfucker dreams in the creepiest woods imaginable

#critical role #cr3 #cr spoilers #chetney pock o'pea #fearne calloway #deanna leimert #fearne x chetney #chetney x deanna #fearne x deanna #fearne x chetney x deanna #art #aabria knew what she wanted and got what she got #it was so funny #also i consciously ignored a lot of fearne's outfit so just imagine she threw most of it off already #also if chetney didn't have the tail i would have given him the 'juicy' trackies #critical role spoilers #cr3 spoilers

[playerkingsley]

polymorph therapy isn't for everyone

#sometimes I queue my silly posts & sometimes I draw them immediately—there is no in between #anyway here's caleb 'shows every ounce of affection with tactile animal forms' widogast & essek '?!?!' thelyss #critical role #critical role fanart #cr fanart #caleb widogast #essek thelyss #shadowgast #dancy draws #the mighty nein #also this is unofficially a tribute to reaching an insane and also visually pleasing follower count. boy there are a lot of you

[clar-a-m]

we'll see them again this week <3

#critical role #critical role c3 #laudna cr #imogen temult #fearne calloway #ashton greymoore #chetney pock o'pea #fcg critical role #orym of the air ashari #bells hells #originally i made this with just delilah #but the people at the imogen temult fanclub discord reminded me that these bitches can summon a whole lot of nightmares #anyway i love all of them #can't wait to see the witches date night at whitestone

[elzorton]

Carry your girlfriend

#critical role #critical role fanart #laudna #imogen temult #cr laudna #imodna #southern gothic #my art #c3e74 #cr spoilers #tried a new brush for lining again! like this one a lot better #concistency in my art style? i don't know her #been working on lighting too. i'm just playing around to try to figure out what works #gonna try to do art practice more concistently and see where it gets me

[ariadne-mouse]

Doodle prompt: Essek’s infographic on the optimal bowl of soup.

Today's flavor: blended zucchini soup with herbs, black pepper, lemon, and a splash of oat milk

#legitimately I made a batch of this soup IRL right before I got sick and i am feasting on it now #truly my fortune was favored in that very specific instance #thank you for this prompt I enjoyed making this a lot #essek thelyss #ariadne draws CR #critical role #asks #op

[sparring-spirals]

Still emotional about Fy'ra Rai and Opal, actually. Thought dump time bc i. dont have the energy to cut this down effectively.

Because at that point in the episode, Opal is doomed. Not in the fun little "oh things are getting worse ;)" kind of way we'd been experiencing leading up to the fight, or even IN the fight. At that point in the fight, Cyrus is dead. Dorian and Dariax have their minds twisted, bodies clambering away from the fight. Morrighan has felt, firsthand, just how far gone Opal is, holes in her mind, her friend broken. The heartbreaking sentence of. "You can always come back." understands that she is gone already. She's lost already. Opal has forgotten Ted. Opal has forgotten herself.

So at that point in the fight, we know Opal is doomed. Us as the audience, the cast, the characters. Aabria is running through each of the other crownkeepers and it is more of a goodbye than a round of combat. Defying the Spider Queen invites death, with zero hesitation- Cyrus's body as physical evidence of that. The terms were very clearly set: You leave Opal, you let her be lost. Or you die. (Leaving Opal anyway).

and Fy'ra Rai then. Grasps the crown, understands intimately that she can break it off and it will kill Opal. (I will free you, if you want me to. We would lose you but you would not be taken). And asks, what do you want me to do. What do you want.

and Opal says, I want you to leave. (I want you to live.) and Fy'ra Rai functionally says. No. Sorry. That's not one of the options.

If you wanted to go. I will do that (your blood on my hands). If you want me to stay, I will. But I'm not going to leave you.

There was the point where Fy'ra Rai broke into the communication and I felt my insides sink because. Look. Lets be real, Aabria had already demonstrated the stakes here. The gesture would not be rewarded for the gesture alone. The Spider Queen's terms were: You leave Opal. Or you die.

And Fy'ra Rai said: no.

I don't think I'm overstepping to assume that if Fy'ra Rai had failed the intimidation check, she would have died. This entire thing hits me so hard because I think Anjali knew that too. I think Fy'ra Rai knew that too. Yes, Fy'ra Rai convinced a Betrayer God to negotiate. She carved a third option out of a non-negotiable situation. She knew what would happen if she failed and did it anyway, with no fear, no regret, no waver in her resolve. She had lost enough sisters. She wasn't going to lose anymore, no matter the personal cost. That's part of why it succeeded, I'm sure, but.

Just. Fuck me. The amount of resolve. The amount of love. The amount of conviction. "I am. A protector." You know your friend- your sister- is doomed. So no more negotiating away from that. You step to her side and you grasp her hand and say- doom me with her.

And in some, sideways way, this saves you both, at least for a little while.

Because this story is a tragedy. This ending is a sad one. We know this already. But think about- Opal, under Lolth's bidding, alone in the dark. Think about Fy'ra Rai, alive, intimately aware that she had failed to protect yet another sister.

And think about what we got, instead: the two of them, in deep darkness, danger encroaching- holding hands. Someone they love at their side. A champion. And her champion.

This is still a sad story. But it's not the same one. Fy'ra Rai stared down a Betrayer God and made her change her mind. She stared down a Betrayer God, and her love and conviction changed the nature of the story. It shouldn't have been able to. But she did.

Fy'ra Rai chose to doom 2 people instead of one, and the sheer strength of her love and will managed to save them both, at least for a little while. Isn't it funny how that works? Isn't it devastating? Isn't it. fucking incredible?

#critical role #cr spoilers #c3e93 #opal #EVERYONE CLAP FOR AABRIA AND ANJALI AND AIMEE BC I GO MORE FERAL THE LONGER I THINK ABOUT IT #character meta #fy'ra rai #fy'ra rai meta #opal meta #spar speaks #i had to get this out bc i cant Stop Thinking About it.... god..... she really Did That... #its not just about refusing to leave its understanding the consequence and facing it so unflinchingly that the narrative flinches first #UAHHHGGHH. #anjali bhimani do you know how much i respect you for this move. aabria iyengar do you know how much i respect you for setting up the stake #so clearly that this success(?) Hit the way it did. Aimee carrero do you know how much i respect you for how truly and devastatingly #you played opal while keeping the core of her character so poignant. #what the fucmkc. anyway im fine . #anyway this is why a lot of my devastated wailing is going to be reserved for dariax. and dorian. and cyrus. #my meta #FORGOT. I HAD THAT TAG. gotta go back and retag

[leafspiritz]

good dog 🦴

#thinking about laudna’s hound of ill omen again #he’s part of the family To Me! #i also based his design a lot on maned wolves who are so lanky and goofy looking #which feels right to me for a laudna creature #but it also means he’d be taller than orym #which is funny to me #anyway i’m still calling him spare ribs until marisha gives him a name #critical role #critical role fanart #orym of the air ashari #hound of ill omen #cr fanart #campaign 3 #bells hells #cr c3 #d&d #dungeons and dragons #cr #dnd #fanart #digital art

[essektheylyss]

One thing that I feel is really interesting and often forgotten about Essek is that fundamentally, his characterization has been from the start based upon his desperation for external perspectives and connection, which, along with much of his narrative and mechanical positioning, means that he actually has an extraordinary and almost (but not actually, as I'll show) counterintuitive capacity for both growth and trust.

(Buckle in. This is a long one.)

In particular, I would argue, knowing now that many places where the plot touches Ludinus have long been marked for connecting back into the current plot, that he was quite possibly built as a prime candidate for radicalization by the Ruby Vanguard. He felt isolated from his culture, he was desperate for other connection, and he was certainly of the type to believe he was too smart to be drawn into such a thing, given his initial belief that he could control the situation and the fallout. If things had gone any other way, he easily could've been on the other side by now.

As such, he has been hallmarked by being fairly open to suggestion, perhaps for this reason, but the thing about that kind of trait is that it is both how people are radicalized and deradicalized. This is certainly true of Essek, who experienced genuine kindness and quite frankly strangeness from the Nein and was able to move from the isolation the Assembly had engendered to meaningful and genuine connection, largely propelled by his own internal reflection. By the time Nein are aware of his crimes, he's already begun to express regret to an extent and, furthermore, doubt in the Assembly, including explicitly drawing a line against Ludinus, even in a position where he was on his own and probably quite vulnerable.

Similarly, when the Nein reach the Vurmas Outpost some weeks later, he has moved from regret for the position he's ended up carrying a heavy remorse. This makes sense! He's fairly introspective, seems used to spending a lot of time in his own head, and was left with plenty to mull over. It's not some kind of retcon for him to have progressed well past where the Nein left him; it just means he's an active participant in the world who has done his own work in the meantime.

This is another interesting aspect to him. I've talked about this a bit before but I cannot find the post so I'll recap here: antagonists in D&D have significantly more agency than allied NPCs. Antagonists are active forces, against which the party is meant to struggle; allies are meant to support the PCs, which means they tend to be more passive in both their actions and their character growth. Essek was both built as an antagonist, in a position that gives him significant agency, and also was then given significant opportunity to grow specifically to act as a narrative mirror for Caleb's arc. Even when he becomes a more traditional D&D ally, he still retains much of that, though he occupies a supporting role.

I believe that this is especially true because of the nature of Caleb's arc, which I've already written on; the tl;dr of this post is that Caleb is both convinced that he is permanently ruined and also desperate to prove that change is possible. Essek is that proof, because he is simply the character in a position to do so. But this also means that his propensity for introspection and openness is accentuated! He has to do the legwork on his own, for the most part, because that's where he is in the meantime.

But he still ends the campaign necessarily constricted; he is under significant scrutiny, he's at risk from the Assembly, and he goes on the run fairly soon after the story ends. He spends most of the final arc anxious and paranoid, which is valid given the crushing reality of his situation. It would be very easy to extrapolate that seven years into this reality, he would be insular, closed off, and suspicious of strangers, even in spite of the lessons he's learned from the Nein and their long term exposure.

So seeing his openness and lightness now is surprising, but at the same time, given this combination of factors in his position in the narrative over time and his defining traits, it's not by any means unreasonable.

But one thing that I found so delightful is how much trust he exhibits, which is obviously a wild thing to say about Essek in particular, given much of what he learns is both earning and offering trust, which was something he says explicitly in 2x124 that he's never really experienced: "I've never really been trusted and so I did not trust." It makes up much of the progression of his relationship with Caleb, and the trust that he is offered by the Nein in walking off the ship is the impetus he needs to grow.

But I think it's easy to talk about trust when it comes to people who have proven themselves to you or to whom you've ingratiated yourself, and that's really the most we can say about Essek by the time he leaves the Blooming Grove. There is this sense in a lot of discussion of trust (not solely in this fandom) that it is only related to either naivete or love, but there's far more to it. Trust at its best is deliberate—cultivating an openness to the world at large is a great way to combat cynicism and beget connection instead. It allows a person to maintain curiosity and be open to experience, but it can be incredibly difficult to hold onto.

It is clear that the Essek we meet now is a very pointedly and intentionally trusting individual. He trusts Caleb and by extension Caleb's trust in Keyleth, as he shows up and picks up a group of strangers from a foreign military encampment and walks in without issue. He trusts the Hells to follow his lead moving through Zadash and to exhibit enough discretion so as to avoid bringing suspicion upon all of them. He trusts that Astrid will respond well to his entrance, but he also trusts himself and the Hells enough to execute a back-up plan in the case that she doesn't. In the end, he even trusts them enough to give them his name and identity.

He doesn't scan as someone who has spent half a dozen years living like a prey animal, afraid of any shadow he runs across in an alley, withdrawn into himself and an insular family, which would've been an easy route for him to take. He scans as someone who has learned the kind of trust borne of learned confidence and a trained eye for good will and kindness, which are crucial weapons one would need for staving off cynicism in his circumstances—as if he has survived thanks more to connection and kindness than paranoia and isolation. (If we want to be saccharine about it, he scans quite poignantly as a member of the Mighty Nein.)

So it is easy to imagine this trust and openness as a natural progression of his initial search for perspectives external to his own cultural knowledge. Though he makes those first connections with the Assembly to try to vindicate his personal hypotheses, he finds in them exposure to the deepest corruption among Exandrian mortals, which could've—and did, for a time—turned him further down that same dark path.

But it's also this same openness to exposure from the wider world that allows the Nein to influence him for the better, and in spite of the challenges he's certainly faced simply surviving over the past seven years, he seems to have held onto this openness enough to move through the world with self-assurance and a willingness to extend the kinds of trust and good will that he has been shown.

(I would be remiss not to mention that I was reminded about my thoughts on this by this lovely post from sky-scribbles and their use in the tags of 'light' to describe Essek's demeanor this episode, which is really such an apt word for it.)

#something something hope is a weapon hope is a discipline hope is a garden to cultivate!!! #HE'S SO GOOD HE IS TRULY EXEMPLAR OF THE WHOLE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEIN AND I DO NOT THINK THAT'S AN ACCIDENT #truly just like. enormous proponent of letting trust and curiosity into your heart regardless of the horrors. #it's hard and it makes you more vulnerable and sometimes it hurts so so much but it will also save your fucking life! #cr spoilers #critical role #essek thelyss #cr meta #I was gonna apologize for the length but I'm not sorry. I'm also not sorry for being insane about him but he's so special to me. #head in my hands he's so GOOD HE'S BEST BOI! GUIDING LIGHT NORTH STAR!!! LOOK AT HIM!!! #also truly if i had two nickels for a span of time with no essek sightings where I wrote a lot of fic #with deliberate personal acknowledgment that I was writing some pretty maximal arcs for him in terms of character growth #and then end up getting essek for half an episode and having to go OH WE'RE GOING THAT FAR ACTUALLY. FUCKING INCREDIBLE. #yanno. two nickels. but good lord I am thriving that it's happened twice #augh this is ONE of the pieces I need to write this week. we're not gonna talk about it

[itseghost]

im really liking campaign 3 so far !!! i was doodling fearne as a break from my homework but ended up spending a bit longer cleaning the sketch up a bit and adding a few simple colors lol

#critical role #critical role campaign 3 #cr3 #fearne calloway #bells hells #critical role fanart #cr fanart #critrole #itseart #i love her lots #shes so charming + i adore her design. ashley does a really great job roleplaying her lol #shes also deeply hilarious to me #im obsessed with her and orym's friendship also #the most earnest little guy youve ever met #and his best friend who is 6 ft tall a pickpocket and lies for fun every day about anything

[shmaba]

I’m going to assume that at this point you’ve all seen Critical Role’s new show Candela Obscura and at least skimmed through the Quickstart Guide (you have done all that riiiight??) So I wanted to compile all the things I’ve done that have been shown so far. Its long so read below the line!

I’m going to try to avoid spoilers. So feel free to read without worry. I’m also going to try and avoid breaking any NDA like a good professional. So I will not be doing some deep dive behind the scenes thing. Only visuals that have already been publicly shared are going to be on here

The very first thing I did on this show was the concepts for the main set. Everything is practical. Nothing is green screen or cg or whatever. Some people think it’s just good cg but nope that's all real. You could touch it! (don’t touch it, there are ghosts)

There were multiple iterations on the design, each with their own vibe and statement piece. CR narrowed it down to what you see in the show: a sort of storage hall with an odd clock contraption behind the GM. I think I called this design version the “Abyssal Hall” or something like that (I gave the different versions names to better keep track of which design was being discussed)

The company Flip This Bitch built the physical set. They turned my silly little art into a real thing. So they did all the actual magic of making this set come together in the end! They deserve a lot of the credit for it looking so good in the end.

Also that little piece of art in the bottom left of the preshow is a section from the final concept art of the set.

That contraption behind Matt is based on astrolabes and clocks. This isn’t really meant to be a literal astrolabe or a clock as we would use them in our world. Narratively this isn’t a device that measures either of the things that a traditional astrolabe or clock does. This is a special magickal tool that does a secret third thing.

Also I did concepts for the GM screen. You don't really see it besides in the fancy-shmancy preshow. There were a number of more intricate designs for it but CR went with the simpler option since the only part that would be visible on stream is the top, so that's where I put the most detail.

I should also note that I did not design the logo! It’s pretty prominent on the GM screen but I was supplied an already existing logo for this.

NEXT is the Taliesin enclosure set that you see in the trailer. This is actually meant to be like the lantern room on the top of a lighthouse, minus the big light beacon (You could say Taliesin is the beacon).

Also in the trailer you see a couple brief sketches I did for some world building concepts:

Speaking of sketches there are a number of art pieces of mine in the Quickstart guide

A lot of my art is sketches. They’re all meant to be like notes and drawings from members of Candela as they travel and notate their findings. Most of the notes on these sketches are my actually my notes when I was doing world building concepts, but they replaced my handwriting with a font because my handwriting sucks lmao (also likely for ease of future localization).

Also the cover of the Quickstart guide uses line art of a part of that astrolabe clock set piece. This line art was part of the deliverables that was sent over to Flip This Bitch for construction. They’re just using pieces of those set concepts everywhere!

As you can see I’ve done a lot of art for this project. I was part of this project when it was still early in development. It’s changed quite a bit from where we started. 

I wasn’t the only one that made all this art happen though. Other artists, writers, and designers got to add their own vision to this. It was very much a collaborative effort that took a long time to happen. It’s very exciting to see everyone’s hard work come to fruition and there is a lot more to come!

#candela obscura #critical role #my art #ttrpg #illustration #art #cr #candela spoilers #I could say a lot about what went into each thing #but that would be too long #this is already too long #more art is coming #you’ll see it in the final release of the rules/setting book #also it’s very likely a significant amount of art won’t ever be show to the public #such is the life of a concept artist

[meanderingpenguin]

Final Ashton thought. Once again they died a painful death and survived against all odds.

But the Hells stayed. They didn't give up on their reckless self-sacrificing friend. Ashton didn't wake up abandoned.

#Critical Role #cr spoilers #Also weren't the two titans Ashton absorbed a couple? #Their primordial love lives on in a twisted way #This episode gave a lot of prompts to consider #Like I know four if them backed up #And hesitated #But tgey didn't fully run out if the bubble #And Fearne and FCG stayed the whole way

[ohsotragical]

i keep saying the same thing but i’m insane over dorian’s silver to gold, stepping into the responsibility he didn’t want, but immediately making the choice to take a higher risk than ever with the gambler’s blade stuff. you lose your brother and become the next in line and immediately are like yeah you know what the best choice is? to make it easier for me to die. i love him, he needs help ❤️

#they all need therapy #but instead we go to aeor bc that’s what heroes do #i dont disagree with his choices i just cant stop thinking about that being mmmmmmmmmmm #im just. i have a lot of feelings and have been thinking traumatic thoughts about him since he left #like when i tell you he joined our campaign after he left the show so i have not stopped thinking about him im telling the truth #i need to talk to someone about him 100% of the time someone discuss him with me #dorian storm #cr3 #critical role #cr spoilers

[all-made-of-stardust]

okay but here’s why I actually straight up started crying towards the end there.

when the Hells first arrived in Uthodern, the atmosphere was fear.  the city was dark.  temples were closing their doors.  the center for knowledge, where so many people came for answers, did not have knowledge.  did not have answers.  people were scared.  scared that they couldn’t find help, scared that they couldn’t reach out to loved ones, ask if they are okay.

and suddenly, within their very walls, within their homes, a horrible beast sprouted forth from the heart of the city.  there was death, there was destruction.  there was despair.  because if their own home wasn’t safe, then nowhere was.

the darkness was winning.

then a woman with purple hair and odd markings spoke into the captain of the guard’s mind and told him that things were better.  things were okay.  and he believed her.  because what else could he do but to cling to hope?

because that’s what the Hells brought with them, as this terrifying celestial beast that once brought death now steps out, wearing a peach bow, surrounded by the radiance and light that the city so sorely needed.  he is guarded by such an odd group, but they all exude calm.  there is a small gnome wearing a pink handknit sweater riding on its back.

they guide this noble, beautiful beast through an entire city, and the whole time they are showcasing to everyone that the darkness is not winning.  not now.  not while there is still hope kindling in our hearts.  not while ancient beasts can once again see the stars.

the world may be ending, but it hasn’t ended yet.

not if Bells Hells can help it.

#cr spoilers #umudara the sentinel beast #umudara #critical role #bells hells #i have a lot of emotions about this scene okay #aabria is right it was such a nice metaphor #i was reminded of that scene towards the end of Children of Men #where all the fighting and all the death stops for one blessed moment #because there is a child #because there is hope #as someone who eternally considers herself a dogged optimist #even in times of absolute heartache and sorrow #i know the absolute bulwark that hope can be #it's cheesy and silly and absolutely ridiculous #but the power of friendship truly can be the most magical thing in the world

[eyeshadowandcaffeine]

I was thinking about how Laudna’s choice to cast Wither and Bloom saved Ashton’s ass and gave him the chance to escape while drawing Otohan’s attention to herself and its funny cause in C2 Molly chose to make himself an easier target for Lorenzo in order to keep Beau from dropping in what would have been a full round of attacks coming her way and why am I crying lol

#if I had a nickel for every time Taliesin and Marisha’s characters had a heart to heart right before one dies trying to help the other #i’d have two nickels #which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice #cinematic parallels #taliesin jaffe #marisha ray #Taliesin and Marisha #critical role #critical role spoilers #critical role memes #cr memes #cr cast #bells hells #bells hells spoilers #ashton greymoore #laudna #critical role ashton #critical role laudna #cr ashton #cr laudna #mollymauk tealeaf #beauregard lionett #cr mollymauk #cr beauregard #otohan thull #cr campaign 2 spoilers #campaign 3 spoilers #episode 34 #episode 26