#wildemount but beau and caleb are the children of the empire. beau's dad's hatred and disregard for her (and remember kamordah is said to

[wizardnuke]

i love the empire kids so so much i feel like i am losing my gfuckinf mind. ohh my god empire kids

#do you ever think about the concept behind wildemount. it was the calamity's the final battleground it's half-ruined and scarred over #the savalirwood is mutating. the barbed fields are barren. there are ancient ruins scattered all around the continent #they weren't left on purpose but they are a warning. something something this is not a place of honor. #and the people of wildemount reflect the landscape they're suspicious and rough. the leaders of the empire and the dynasty #(meaning the cerberus assembly and leylas kryn) are both vying for war and/or power - ikithon doesn't seem to care about the war but he #is throwing children into it like logs in a bonfire. leylas is going mad. da'leth remembers the calamity! and he still wants to take down #the gods! he was at ground zero and he wants to build it up again! not to mention that delilah briarwood is also an offshoot of the #assembly. the empire! with its archmages! delilah and ikithon and da'leth! they're the rotten core of it! and all of the m9 are from #wildemount but beau and caleb are the children of the empire. beau's dad's hatred and disregard for her (and remember kamordah is said to #be dreary and largely barren and her dad had to make that deal with the hag in order to make the ground fertile enough to grow grapes in #the country in the continent of barren ground) echoes the larger problem within the empire the assembly and ikithon and how he ruined #caleb's life. the empire kids. the children of the country that encapsulates wildemount's worst parts. the savalirwood is separate from #the empire as are the barbed fields but the people who symbolize the cause and effect of the calamity are in the empire's assembly it #starts and ends with them. they're the epicenter. they're ground zero. they're the poison into the drinking water. and beau and caleb are #the victims of that. of course beau is angry of course she was cast out. of course caleb is haunted of course he was left to die. that's #what wildemount and the empire does to its children. they are two out of two million. we just happened to follow their stories #AND THAT IS WHY BEAU AND CALEB FIGHT WITH EACH OTHER LIKE THEY DO. YOU CAN'T EXPECT CHILDREN OF THE EMPIRE TO TRUST EASILY. #they were both raised on ruined ground! beau was never loved and she was thrown out. caleb was incredibly loved and he killed his parents. #that is what the empire does. and. to see them in the end. raising hell and tearing the assembly down brick by brick #it's personal for caleb and it's meaningful for beau - what happened to them will not happen to any other child within the empire #they're breaking the cycle that's been spinning on and on for nearly two thousand years #and (caleb voice) it takes time. nearly a decade down the line they'll be trudging thru a desert on another continent in search of da'leth #but. my god. they're gonna do it. you know the chernobyl sarcophagus. the structure they built to hold the radiation in. that's them #that's why they read luciens book btw. that's what they're made to do. they r both so full of hubris - beau absolutely is btw. she would #icarus herself up to the sun in a heartbeat if she was given that level of freedom you know she would and that's the kind of hubris I #mean for both of them - the stubborn desperate confidence they have that they will prove everyone wrong and break free of the cycle (they #can do it. they just can't do it alone. they need each other and a whole support system to hold them back if need be. no wax wings for you #that's why they push each other so hard. that's why they lean on each other so much. they can't do it alone. and then they do it together #and end up rocketing towards almost near-certain death together. they just wanted to know more. those two always want so much more #that's why theyve always had that 'i'll watch you if you watch me' pact. together or not at all. and it still isn't enough. empire hubris