Tumgik
#egtw
burningsuitfire · 1 year
Text
Essek and religious trauma
Saw this post from @balleater here and having been meaning to write a meta on the subject, theorizing about what we know.
Essek admits to being seriously traumatized when Caleb talks to him in the Grove.
(141) Caleb: Somewhat hypocritical coming from me, but try to be kind to yourself.  Essek: You, more than anyone, showed me that trauma doesn't define you.
The simplest conclusion is religious trauma, along with neglect and abandonment.
In the wrap-up Matt puts serious emphasis on Essek's parents and family being "very deeply steeped" in the religious culture alongside how Essek has "very much eschewed" the religious culture, that no one has ever genuinely cared about Essek beyond his influence and talent, that his family didn't understand or support his focus on dunamantic research (or his career), and draws clear lines about the negative aspects of Dynasty's theocratic authoritarianism and uncompromising cultural zealotry, at points Mercer even compares it to evangelicalism and doomsday cults.
He also gives us hints that it's a bad situation for anyone who doesn't follow the official faith, like in Eiselcross when Caleb asks questions about the mandated religion and Kryn theories on the beacons:
(124) Essek: It is an interesting idea, though I would caution to keep it close to the chest. Such conversations might be considered sacrilege in some circles of the Dynasty.
Which as word of god tells us Essek had a very bad relationship with his powerful authoritarian den family that didn't understand him or his goals, and he grew up in the Bastion (which is a temple to the Luxon), when the Dynasty laws are founded on the faith and enforced by the military:
(EGtW) The laws of the dynasty, which stem from the faith of the Luxon, are enforced by a network of trusted Aurora Watch captains and soldiers
To the point where Matt emphasized how even petty criminals in the prison were systematically "beaten and emaciated", sacrilege could have ugly consequences, even growing up.
Especially considering that all we know of his father is that he seemed to have a temper to the point of extremely self-destructive tendencies, and that he was possibly military and thus law enforcement (warriors function as both in the Dynasty).
Even in the dinner conversation when he was being outstandingly open, Essek was very careful not to tell the nein anything that could allow other Kryn to question his faith:
Marisha: So his lying about it [consecution] was just about going along with the zealotry and not- Matt: Exactly, because he didn't want people to think that there was something up.
And then there's Essek's massive trust problems, which are specifically focused on the word "trust":
(131) Caleb: We feel we can trust you more than my old teacher. (You see, when you say the word "trust". It's simultaneously like seeing a small hit to the heart... and whatever icy bit that cracked melts away for a minute. There's a moment of him hearing the word and letting it wash over him.) Essek: I'm thankful for the trust you put in me. And I hope to make this up to you.
(124) Essek: I've never really been trusted and so I did not trust. When I- when you gave me trust, it gave me a perspective that was so agonizingly striking. So easy to see that I refused to acknowledge it at first, even. (135) Essek: The more I begin to see Beauregard, yourself return with these markings- I've only just recently learned to trust. It's hard to begin to mistrust so quickly.
Where there's a theory that it might stem from the Dynasty's training for echo knights and dunamancers (when we've heard Essek tell Caleb that the training is comparable to that of scourgers), and we even see the echo knight in Zadash react very strongly to the word "trust":
(13) Mollymauk: We just need to know who we can trust and who we can't.  Thuron: You cannot trust anybody in this city. You cannot trust yourselves. Anyone who has not bound themselves. They are the enemy.
Other context and info gives us that consecution and worshipping the Luxon and following the umavi-written "system of pure faith" created from their interpretation of the beacons (as EGtW dictates the Luxon is canonically silent and unconscious) is required for people to hold Dynasty political/spiritual/military office and influence, to work for the theocratic government (comprised of the 12 noble religious den families), and that dunamancy and the Dynasty's dunamis research is only accessible to those working for the government.
And it seems like Essek hints at unattractive consequences to others discovering he's been lying about his faith (and/or the dangerous nature of his career):
(131) Essek: I just know that I've also survived this long, weaving the intricacies of deceit like I have, by knowing how best to keep myself out of the complications as best as I can.
Finally, we have Essek's relationship with punishment and pain, alongside the Dynasty's systematic religious corporal punishment:
(57) In the shadows there look to be multiple figures. Some human, some ogre-ish with more reinforced bars, drow. Emaciated, beaten. Not looking happy and healthy, but then again, what good Dungeon of Penance would?
(77) ...days of chosen sunlight in which the nightfall is dispelled and the people of Rosohna and Xhorhas bask in the sun. Even those who find pain and challenge in its presence, as it is part of the worship. (EGtW) The Kryn drow who emerged from the shadowed depths of the caverns beneath Xhorhas now endure periods of sunlight as part of their worship. Periods of days, sometimes weeks, will transpire in a state of perpetual evening, enabling the darkness-bound denizens to go about their work. Such periods briefly come to an end to usher in periods of scheduled, mass worship under the sunlight.
(99) Essek: I will take my leave for the night. Thank you for not throwing me into the water. (97) Essek: The pain is somewhat comforting because I am my own punishment. (91) Essek: I have seen those far older than you that have experienced maybe half the pain I see in your eyes. Age isn't everything. Experience is what hardens you, prepares you for the worst. (138) Beau: My essence will haunt you. Essek: And I would deserve it, like I deserve all of the things that haunt me. Jester: Aw, Essek... Essek: Don't- offer me any solace. (141) Essek: Maybe it's time I just found my way. Really began my penance. I've procrastinated long enough in dealing with my sins. I convinced myself I'd be alone for so much of my life. It's hard to say goodbye when I don't feel alone anymore, but… I understand. I understand and accept what I've done.
498 notes · View notes
luolands · 1 year
Text
Essek's Powers
EGtW: Essek is a prodigy who displays an unprecedented talent for the manipulation of dunamis energy
c2e57: You follow Essek and as you do, you feel like your pace is quickened. People pass by, other guards, but they blur past like you're unable to necessarily focus. Something is subtly influencing you to make it difficult to really trace the path you take to where you're going. ... Fjord: Do you not feel the same effects? Essek: No. Time is one of my specialties.
Essek, c2e57: Don't deal much in blacksmithing, not my specialty. [His hand rises out of the curtains that is his cloak and his hand passes. These trails of somewhat translucent, gray energy drift off his fingertips for a second and float there before dissipating.]
Essek, c2e57: While we do have periods of worship in which we give ourselves to the sunlight as part of our means of showing our faith, it does impede our day-to-day business. So as part of our craft, we've found a way to keep it at bay, for as long as we'd like.
EGtW: Twelve hours of daylight each day can become painful and physically detrimental to those beings adapted to subterranean life. To mitigate this problem, powerful dunamancers have woven arcane shields to temporarily block out the sun above Rosohna.
c2e61: The rain seems to fall, but you never see it scatter across the Shadowhand. It seems to drift around and he stays dry amongst the storm.
c2e61: Following below, it's hard to see because the cloak almost meets the ground, but looking below: his feet aren't touching the ground. He's just drifting.
Essek, c2e71: It seems you have made your preparations and are ready to leave? Beau: Yes, you may enter and cross into the threshold. Essek: Thank you. [He glides in. You watch the ball bearings actually separating out around his form. Like there is some invisible force that is pushing them outward, and just generating this strange force that keeps them at bay.]
Jester, c2e74: [I pull out a cupcake] It's fresh, I swear! Essek: [Extends his hand and the cupcake lifts out of your hand and drifts over. He sniffs it.] Thank you. [It vanishes beneath the cloak.]
c2e77: At which point, you watch as she begins to lift up off the ground from the chains and you see Essek, his hand out of his cloak, lifting her off the ground. ... You watch as her entire central torso crushes inward, the chains go taut and you hear the metal bend as some of the chains begin to pull and break in places before she is dropped to the ground limply.
c2e91: And he just drifts off, the gate opens on its own (creak, slam) and he heads up to the interior.
c2e91: Essek approaches, waves a hand, and the gate (creaks) opens and lets you guys in.
Essek, c2e91: Allow me to take care of this for you. [He waves his hand for a second and you watch as the chairs, the furniture (scraping) scoots from the edges into the center, forming a little seating area, table scoots in.]
Essek, c2e91: [He goes ahead and lifts a hand towards the hunk of clay] If I could have some help? [You lift it and it's half the weight it was before you grabbed it.]
EGtW, 2nd Lv. Graviturgy Wizard: Adjust Density. As an action, you can magically alter the weight of one object or creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target's weight is halved or doubled for up to 1 minute or until your concentration ends.
c2e97: He moves his hand this way and one of the crates (scraping) scoots and he sits on it. Jester: Still cool, still fucking cool.
Essek, c2e97: My entire life, I've been propped up to be perhaps worthy of being one to break those boundaries.
Essek, c2e124: [And he rises and begins to head towards the door. The door opens on its own.]
Essek, c2e131: You are led to the familiar exterior of Essek's chambers. And, as you approach, the door (whooshing) opens on its own. ... As you all enter, the door closes behind you as he curls his hand towards him. And, with his other hand, he drifts out, a chair scooches forward and he drifts down into the chair, one leg crossed over the other.
Caleb, c2e131: Come on in. Jester: Wait, we're naked! Essek: [The doorway opens, stops. And slowly opens. (he sighs) The door opens the rest of its way on its own. ]
Essek, c2e132: Hold on to that, we have our means of drifting carefully. Or we could try to climb- well, you could try to climb. I'll be fine. Veth: Oh, yeah, you can drift. Essek: I can.
c2e132: Partway in your descent, you have this shadow drift by as Essek just drifts over the edge and just glides down past you, like an elevator, and just looks over at you each as he slowly descends towards the bottom.
c2e134: You see, as he starts putting his hands out in front like this, like he's soft throwing objects forward. You watch as rocks start coming out as he's just plucking them, as he pulls the gravity from them, aiding you as you guys go along.
c2e135: You see Essek puts his hand out and begins to concentrate, his eyes narrowing. As he does, you watch as the smooth, relatively untouched stone base of this glass tube device (stone cracking) begin to crack and crumble. You see it get pulled away and dragged under the ground behind, scattering. The glass breaking, and as opposed to shattering around you, being shunted off to the backside of the wall, scattering on the ground.
c2e135: As it all falls away, he turns his hand up, and as he does, it's like an invisible hand digging into clay and lifting through as it sifts past the fingers. You see the rock lift and then crumble, and then there in the center, you see this diamond-shaped gem, of faint dark purple coloration, that was now released. He lifts it and drifts it over into your hand.
c2e135: You guys all were all prepping and doing this space, as this was happening, Essek, you see him begin to cast something and then condense it into his hand. He hands you this small bead, Veth. This is like a marble. And just goes, "Follow my lead." ... A bolt of black lightning arcs out from it, across the way towards the creature. It's a level four Lightning Bolt.
EGtW, 14th Lv. Chronurgy Wizard: Arcane Abeyance. When you cast a spell using a spell slot of 4th level or lower, you can condense the spell's magic into a mote. The spell is frozen in time at the moment of casting and held within a gray bead for 1 hour.
c2e136: [He's wading through the water and he's like] Don't forget to return the favor! Sam: He can't float on the water? Liam: It's a three-inch spell. Matt: It doesn't quite work like that. It keeps him off of solid ground, but it doesn't put him over fluid surfaces. It's not a levitate type spell.
c2e138: He pulls out a piece of dark chalk and finds a section of the floor, and begins to draw different dunamantic symbols in this patterned array, making you progressively more and more uncomfortable as the designs begin to come together. Some of them are little more intricate for even your understanding, but you begin to pick up the basics of it, using this stone as a focus, not unlike how residuum is used as an amplifier device in a number of other laboratories.
c2e138: There's that brief moment where you see Essek, sweat beginning to form on his forehead as he's concentrating, and as you're focusing your spell energy towards this crystal, you see it begin to glow brighter and brighter and brighter, not unlike the way that the threshold crest was taking on that filament-like brightness, but this itself has a deep, deep purplish hue, and you see it begin to flicker, not unlike the symbol that you were seeing, which makes you extremely uncomfortable.  In a moment, you feel this urge to just rush in and stop it, but as you do, Essek twitches his arms around it and then draws his fingers in two different directions, and you see this small tear in reality, a break in reality, if you will. And with that, you can see, in a brief moment, in this sliver, hundreds of realities just brushing by at an endless speed. He begins to take and fold that tear around, like if the tear in space time became a thread, and wrap it around this stone, and as soon as it begins to close on it, (sizzling, shattering) it shatters... and we're going to go to break.
Essek, c2e140: I spent my entire life studying the intent to not let things like this happen to chance.
Essek, c2e141: I have spent my life in the pursuit of the ability to control one's future, and that path has led me to making many mistakes. And my shift begin to wander the possibility of fixing one's past, and since we found this, I've thought of it often.
EGtW, 14th Lv. Chronurgy Wizard: Convergent Future. You can peer through possible futures and magically pull one of them into events around you, ensuring a particular outcome.
294 notes · View notes
callowyn · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media
“it would be an honor to serve you” says the chick about to drain her lifeforce to forge a god’s weapon
62 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
For the Art Guild of Exandria’s Beyond the Divine Gate project:
Rendered flightless and blinded in the horrific battles of the Calamity, Xalicas, angel of the Arch Heart, wanders the Greying Wildlands of Wildemount, seeking to earn atonement by healing the lands devastated by the gods' wrath.
(I.D.: Stained glass-like digital artwork in shades of blue-grey and yellow-orange, depicting a winged, angelic being in a flowing robe. One of her wings is skeletal and burned, with only a handful of feathers remaining, and her eyes are hidden by a cloth blindfold. She stands with one arm and wing outstretched before a background of blue-grey clouds. In front of her are scrolled banners bearing a runic script. End I.D.)
21 notes · View notes
bebopsisyphus · 1 year
Text
Hey I have a question for my home game:
Is there such a thing as a news paper anywhere in Exandria? Like, I think Matt mentioned a paper boy back in C2, in Trostenwild maybe, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly. But basically I want to know if the books mention any type of information broadcast to the people or perhaps a news system
12 notes · View notes
tiefbeef · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
This is the apron that continuously bleeds in Marwa’s shop.
32 notes · View notes
pictura-obscura · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
Laucian Mirimm
The netherdeep calls for heroes and who else should join a gang of weird humans than a disgraced noble who hates himself.
12 notes · View notes
loekazz · 2 years
Photo
Tumblr media
"Suddenly the Withering Gaze of Fastidan comes upon you, and the breath just escapes you, as this green light surrounds you." Fastidan of the Somnovem, as he might have once looked long ago. My contribution to the @tgtw-project !
11 notes · View notes
saintdollyparton · 2 years
Text
Has anyone else here run the "Unwelcome Spirits" adventure in EGTW? Do some of the encounters seem a bit overwhelming for a group of 5 level 1 players or is it just me?
5 notes · View notes
astrid-beck · 6 months
Text
Every time I see something about verin thelyss that implies I should know who he is I relive that bit in 124 where essek mentions having a brother and the whole cast is like ?? You have a brother???? Did we know that???? Like who is this guy
92 notes · View notes
utilitycaster · 5 months
Text
I think a minor but valuable strength of Candela Obscura's chapter 2 is that it's run by the game designer who then proceeds to kill multiple characters from the Quickstart Guide and wreck several locations as well. Particularly given that Rowan and Spenser talked about wanting to leave room in the world for GMs to make a story for their table, this feels apt.
144 notes · View notes
gorgynei · 9 months
Text
the luxon is such an interesting god for so many reasons. it's fascinating. its the only god who's followers do not primarily wield divine magic. in fact, it's worship is defined by a school of arcane magic and some characters even say the luxon is the source of dunamis, which is distinctly arcane. it's also the only god other than tharizdun that has an amorphous/non-physical appearance. it is the only god to have such a large following but also have so little historical prevalence and not have a prime or betrayer title. it is the only god who's religion has a proper creation myth. the luxon beacons are totally unique and no other gods have anything like them. it is the only god that is connected to genuine rebirth and reincarnation rather than a more traditional afterlife. like what the fuck is up with that ? what is the luxon actually?
50 notes · View notes
luolands · 2 years
Text
Kryn Fashion
Tumblr media
From left to right: A Rosohnan dunamancer [1], Essek Thelyss [2], a Kryn noble [3]
Tumblr media
Top: Drow ascend into Ghor Dranas [4] Bottom left to right: The Bright Queen [5], a Kryn bladesinger [6]
[1] Call of the Netherdeep - Galsariad Ardyth, a dunamancer in his two-hundredth year of life. A city-dweller blessed with sharp aesthetic sensibilities, from the Kryn capital of Rosohna. [2] Essek Thelyss, by Minttu Hynninen [3] Explorer's Guide to Wildemount - Example of Kryn Noble fashion. [4] Explorer's Guide to Wildemount - In the ruins of Ghor Dranas, drow face the sun for the first time. [5] Explorer's Guide to Wildemount - Inspired by the light of the Luxon, the Bright Queen and her court chart the destiny of a continent. [6] Explorer's Guide to Wildemount - A Kryn assassin.
385 notes · View notes
ghostofwhitestone · 5 months
Note
Potential AU where Cassandra escaped with Percy into the river and became a member of Vox Machina with her brother.
A classic, truly, but let me offer what I hope is a unique take. Here - have a warlock Cass AU
Less immediately revenge minded than her brother, Cassandra is primarily scared and desperately searching for something to live for in the chaos of the moment, wandering until something makes sense, encountering the spirit Naviask.
His emphasis on healing scarred lands and at times, scarred people, means he was not frightening to Cassandra, so they began a working relationship, with Cassandra beginning to learn magic.
She eventually ends up with Vox Machina as she’s imprisoned, having stolen to eat, and grows close to the group quickly as they travel.
Some fear her magical benefactor, thanks to his fiendish appearance, but he reveals himself to be useful and peaceful, a bit of sunlight for a girl who had lost so much of it.
Eventually, they go to Whitestone, and when she realizes her brother is still in there, she is motivated by her friends and patron that Whitestone can heal. And afterwards, as they celebrate, flowers grew through the scars the battle left, a gift to Cassandra from the patron who helped her and Whitestone grow from ash.
Send me an AU concept and I’ll give you five facts!
20 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
Final round of @tgtw-project !
The Buyer, of Uthodurn’s Syrinlya outpost in Eiselcross, & their faery dragon familiar, Dew. They haven’t actually gotten much screentime in my own campaign, but are kinda one of my favorite NPCs anyway lol (something something sketchy wizard something something 😬)
[I.d: Coloured pencil drawing of the Buyer, a light-skinned elf with chin-length straight brown hair and green eyes. They are wearing a fur-collared brown coat, and a bluish-green, snake-like dragon is perched on their shoulder. End I.d.]
7 notes · View notes
essektheylyss · 1 year
Note
What's dunamis, in your words? For the uninitiated
So, with apologies for watering down an already watered down scientific metaphor, there's an anecdote that comes up a lot if you read any sort of pop science books on quantum theory or physics, wherein a professor burns a sheet of paper and tells a class, "All of the information on the paper still exists in the ashes," because in theory, quantum information cannot be destroyed. This analogy is super metaphorical, generally referring to the idea that, for example, anything that gets pulled into a black hole is not in fact lost, it's just beyond our reach, with the understanding that "information" is a highly broad term applied to many, many things and in this realm of physics it has a very particular meaning that most people do not consider when they hear the word 'information,' but this isn't a semiotics lecture.
Anyway, as such, it gets completely misconstrued as the idea of quite literally being able to reconstruct whatever notes or ideas were recorded on that paper, which is not accurate in real world physics. Information as ideas and concepts are not recorded in subatomic particles, at least not in anyway we can access or reconstruct.
However... it could be true in an arcane system, if you wanted it to, cuz why not! And given dunamis's impact on probability, and pulling from alternate timelines and potential, as well as the fact that consecution suggests souls are held within a beacon and then put back into a newly-born body, I'm essentially of the mind that dunamis could take the place of those subatomic particles and, when manipulated in the arcane sense, can be used to essentially reconstruct conceptual information of the universe. (That's the very basic idea, anyway, and I'm just using this for fic fodder, but if you are interested in wading through a very introspective chunk of fic for more, it's mostly in here.)
Which is just slightly to the left (and essentially could be a next possible conjecture) of what Caleb described.
53 notes · View notes