Exu Calamity - Blog Posts
As C3 ends tonight, I can’t stop thinking about Magister Hollow’s note to Patia in Calamity…
“All things end. Lives, stories, even ages.”
imagine this-- Liam and Matt are the only people on the main cast that haven't been DM-ed for a Calamity-era story by Brennan. What if we don't do another calamity series, but an arcanum series. What if we see the beginning of the Ring of Brass? The beginning of the political corruption with fewer members. Maybe Loquacious is off doing a press tour for some big drama in Vassalheim or Nydas is conducting a deal in Wildemount. Somehow there are two less members at the table and Matt and Liam come in. Liam could be Evandrin (because why not?) and Matt could play a younger version of Loras of the Weaver's Mask (maybe?) or someone in the higher rungs of the city so we can see that side of the corruption and how it started. We could even see the attempt to plane shift that "killed" Evandrin at the end of it. I just remember during the Calamity Wrap-Up Marisha said something about being at high level and not being able to play the "pick yourself up by your boot straps" archetype for Patia, but maybe we can see that era of her becoming the Keeper of Scrolls, or more of Zerxus's weird oracle powers that HE CAME TO AVALIR TO LEARN MORE ABOUT (that detail was dropped so nonchalantly and it keeps me up at night). Maybe we could see Laerryn and Quay's wedding, or their actual divorce! Who knows. This is just some silly idea I had.
spoilers e97
I have an idea for what that creature was that they fought at the beginning of the episode. During the fight, Matt said something interesting, the creature siphons magic. It did nothing against Orym, but he doesn’t have innate magic. I wonder— is that thing Aeor’s version of the Taxmen? Aeor was clever, it had spies everywhere and in EXU: Calamity it felt like Avalir and Aeor were direct rivals. What if someone saw the Taxmen that Nydas made and took that information back to Aeor? The taxmen siphoned magic and dealt damage “proportional to the highest spell slot a person is holding” in the Age of Arcanum that would be pretty helpful, and the fact that Matt specifically said that creature was trying to take something from Orym and said, “Well your a fighter, you’re fine.” Reminds me so much of the Taxmen. If that thing had hit someone like Imogen or Fearne, I could see Matt asking for their highest spell slot. I don’t know if I’m crazy or maybe it’s because EXU: Calamity is my Roman Empire but that creature had a bigger role in Aeor’s plan.
5 CR campaigns/mini-series/one-shots I wanna see
EXU: DIVERGENCE -- Specifically I think it would really rad if the cast wasn't playing Exandrians experiencing the divergence, but if they played the GODS. Like I could so see Travis as the Storm Lord and Marisha as the Matron of Raven, maybe even if they brought Brennan back to play Asmodeus. I think it would be just a really sick parallel to the Ring of Brass sacrificing themselves at the end of Calamity, with the Gods deciding to willingly (or maybe not willingly) lock themselves beyond the Divine Gate.
EXU: ARCANUM -- Pre- pre- Calamity so we get the full experience of the Age of Arcanum. ONE CONDITION: Marisha must play the woman that later become the Matron, and the finale must be her ascension. I just feel like Marisha is so connected to the Matron through Keyleth and Vax, Laudna, and Patia, so anything involving the Matron being a PC has to be Marisha in my mind.
WHITESTONE MINI-SERIES -- You all remember those movies on Netflix about like a town in like 1897 then 1995 and so on? I want that! But with Whitestone. Taliesin DM-ing a Whitestone Mini-series where every episode or every few episodes it switches time would be so sick. Like ep 1 could be the Dawnfather fight, then ep 2 is De Rolos coming to town, then the whole Von Musel fiasco, then it comes back around with the second-to-last episode being the death of the De Rolos and the Rise of the Briarwoods, then the finale could be them all playing Percy and Vex's kids modern day.
RUIDIAN ONE-SHOT -- I need a Cobalt Soul-esque one shot where it's like the resistance on Ruidus against the Imperium and the Mind-Weavers. Pre- Bloody Bridge, of course. But just getting to see more Ruidus would be so sick!!!
CALAMITY AFTERMATH -- I want to see Travis play an older Kir Argupnin so fucking badly. Like maybe they are in Vassalheim or Wildemount. I once saw this theory (I actually think it was in a fan fiction, but whatever) where Elias and Avandrin have a strained relationship when Elias gets older because he connects with the Wildmother, and Elias is actually the Unknown Champion in the lake in the Blooming Grove. Also we could see the start of the Cobalt Soul, if that VERY POPULAR theory is true.
Feel free to add more !!!
Just finished ep 3 of Exandria Unlimited : Calamity. I have Many Feelings, so I drew this last night. Sorry for the poor quality.
Essek is the Luxon’s champion AU is from the amazing @foxqueen-katarian !
"What are my stats? They are a LOT lower than Patia's!"
Level,,,6!
all things end: a fanmix for the fall of avalir and the breaking of the world
“All things end: Lives, stories, even ages.“
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
SIDE A
everybody wants to rule the world · lorde | welcome to the show · britt nicole | the city is at war · cobra starship | glory and gore · lorde | knights of cydonia · muse | centuries · fall out boy | come along · cosmo sheldrake | the last of the real ones · fall out boy | cream and bastards rise · harvey danger | great vacation · dirt poor robins | 100 generations · thoushaltnot | watershed · vienna teng | pompeii · bastille | house of memories · panic! at the disco | you’re gonna go far, kid · the offspring
SIDE B
how villains are made · madelen duke | seven devils · florence + the machine | oblivion · patrick wolf | world on fire · les friction | four horsemen · audiomachine | guns for hire · woodkid | who will save you now · les friction | destruction of laputa · suginami junior chorus | the other side · woodkid | paper cities · other lives | goodbye · ramsey | the last snowfall · vienna teng | they are at rest · edward elgar | radio war · iron & wine | dark horse on the wind · susan mckeown | empire · dar williams
this is how ive been feeling all day
i mean are we gonna talk about the fact that canonically Patia Por’co had her arm blasted away from the elbow and her fingers obliterated by the ring of mind shielding before she died. a sister has two whole fingers to her name… or maybe five idk how to count
Quotes from EXU Calamity I'll Be Thinking About for the Rest of Time
"Of course I'm safe. You'd never let anything happen to me." / "I would never let anything happen to you."
"Dad. You know I won't look like this when you get home."
There are a lot of stories in Exandria of mortals who stumbled their way into Feywild and fell in love with an enchanting fairy that they met there. But there's one story of a fairy who stumbled into this world and fell in love.
And in that instant realizes you can hold all the knowledge in the world. But if it dies with you, it doesn't matter.
"I promised you I'd never forget." / "I promised you I wouldn't either."
You hear in your heart, "Darling, no."
Do I know? Do I feel it? That he's gone? / You do.
Laerryn's screams fill whatever secret hallway she's in.
"No, baby. I'll always have my eye on you." And I squeeze their hands.
"I don't know how deeply you have sacrificed to do what must be done, but I know this: There is no god that strides this world that I worship more than I worship your heart... I bear your name. I bear it on this stone. And one day, I will bring you home."
In the kiss, I'll cast Cure Wounds on you.
"It's all on you, smart girl."
And I'll just turn my back on the door and let it close. / No! No, you have to go.
"I'm sorry, my lady. I love you, but I love another more" / "My child, my heart breaks. But I would rather mine break and yours be kept whole."
"But our two cities are like a married couple. We may have our differences. But we are connected by love for eternity. We made a promise to each other, and it's one we must fulfill."
"...and remember the Architect Arcane, Laerryn, the most beautiful woman in the world."
"Yes, it's me. Just look at my eyes. Don't look at anything else. Just look at my eyes, please."
I've kept so many of my thoughts and dreams and wishes for him. I hand it to him. I set it on the ground because I don't expect him to actually take it from my hands. "This is for you. Everything you've ever wanted to know about me and your father, it's here."
"Dad, dad, wait. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." "You have nothing to be sorry about." / "I do." You see, you haven't even looked in his hands. He's holding a basket with a spell kite attached.
"I don't know why I didn't send it." / "I know why, and it's okay. It's okay. Elias, I love you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Everything that I wished for you to know about me, it's in this book. Take it with you. You'll always be five years old to me no matter how much you grow."
You know me. I would never have let my guard down like that. I took those blows.
As I go down, I make sure I don’t miss
"I know what you gave. You found a path beyond the stars. I do not know whence the gods came from, but I know that you found it in your heart. I promise you, Zerxus, I will find that place. I will find the secret of how these worlds were made, and I will come and find you and bring you home."
"Yes, brother. All will be well."
"You think we'll ever get there one day?" / "Of course we will. We're the Okiros."
When you think of the future and what people will say of this time, do you think anyone will talk about how beautiful your dream was? / No. But that's all right, because it was real for us. For those who survived, they will remember, and it will inspire them to dream of things far greater.
What are Patia's final thoughts? / Just that there are many more dreams to come.
"I've been able to become anyone I want my whole life, but I just want to be with you."
"And for whatever time we have left, I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you." / "I love you, too." I'll just kiss her.
"The Brass Ring endures. I want you to know you gave us a chance." / I don't think you hear anything back. Just, you feel relief.
The fire, as brightly as it may burn, does not burn so brightly as your love, which shines the brightest in your last moment, having given this world a chance. Ash, heat, rising faster than you can imagine from the earth. And on a 31, at the very top of that cloud, the last member of the Brass Ring gets to keep his promise to his family.
You fly for weeks over oceans choked by ash and soot. You don't get to give your kids the world that they deserve, but you get to give them the world that they can fight for with you.
In Exandria, I don't know that your story will long be known. I don't know who will remain to tell it. But it did happen and it did matter. And though Calamity is here, because of you, it will not be here forever.
the real question critters need to be asking themselves right now is whos gonna be the one to lose an arm next week
So, we've all seen the tweet from Aabria about Laerryn wanting kids right? That broke all of us?
Well, I made it worse.
Word Count: 2168
Rating: General Audiences
Archive Warnings: No Archive Warnings apply
Laerryn is not one to fantasize, not one to live in a future that may not come.
But sometimes, she allows her mind to wander beyond the horizon of her goal.
Fondly imagining that glorious pre-Evandrin’s death, pre-Seelie marriage but post-Seelie engagement period of time when the overwhelming impression of the (not-yet-named-such) Ring of Brass was “okay, so how many of them are sleeping with each other?”
Because Evandrin and the Architect Arcane were in each other’s pockets long before Evandrin’s husband showed up, and they still keep sitting in each other’s laps at parties. And Coramar keeps threatening to become Coramar-Seelie but that wedding’s been in the planning stages for years, and in the meantime her fiancé continues to be an automatic flirt. And Laerryn and Patia are whispery wizard besties, Patia and Nydas do conspiracies together and give extravagant gifts, Nydas and Zerxus once had an arm wrestling match at a gala, and Loquatius does the most glowing features on any and all of them… Cerrit is left out of some of the earlier scandalous gossip until, on one of the few occasions his wife shows up for a formal event, people notice that she perfectly bridges the gap between his gruffness and the rest of his friend groups’ cavalier curiosity and pride.
The Ring of Brass is my favourite narratively doomed polycule
JUST REALIZED THAT BECAUSE ZERXUS DECIDED TO GIVE VESPIN A CHANCE, BRENNAN WAS ONCE AGAIN CHEATED OUT OF A PVP FINAL BATTLE
Mr. Carazo you absolute TITAN of in-character acting
i understand we’re all crazy about laerryn and loquacious dying together after getting married again and the proposal and quay’s speech and the cure wounds kiss
but i see no one talking about laerryn screaming a la wanda in age of ultron when she felt quay die
Rewatching the ep 4 of calamity and damn with the state they're in at the break its impressive they lasted 18 seconds let alone one of them surviving!
like nydas is okish, patia is down to two (2) fingers, zerxus is trying to avoid becoming asmodeus' discord kitten, quay is mostly dead and fully naked except a questionable amount of leather armor, laerryn is girlbossing (as usual) but her husband was just dead and then alive again in the span of like 5 minutes, and cerrit is an emotional wreck
props to the players for managing to stay alive (somewhat) for a whole 18 seconds!!
We tell stories to understand, and in some small way to make sure that someone knows. The stories matter because they happened.
Thank you to everyone at critical role for such an amazing story of hope and love ❤️
Oh, and now that y’all know I’m here you should know that I read ALL the fanfic. All of it.
“The one who has dared Name me again. Please.” Got me fucked up all weekend 🥵
laerryn this is so "i broke the world for us!" of you ;)
The amount of training that Brennan keeps adding to the Eyes of Avalir because Travis keeps rolling stupidly high brings me so much joy
At the request of OP, and Ms. Aabria I’m very sorry if you’ve already been pinged @quiddie
Zerxus, after Nidas kills him and gives him a chance to be free of Asmodeus' control: "I believe I can help with that."
hot take, but laerryn and patia did nothing wrong ever in their entire lives
oh my gods.
CAPITALISM REALLY WAS THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG
Something something brennan's building up of, over the three Calamity series, an overarching story of how liberal capitalist institutions lay the foundations for fascist elements to infiltrate and take over society, preying on preexisting socioeconomic inequalities, exploitation, and dissatisfaction within those liberal institutions to install fascist dictatorships which push racial violence (up to and including genocide), theocratic justification and mass forced labor extraction in the form of literal concentration camps and perpetual war as a means to both maintain their existence and spread it past their current bounds. And how the only way to defeat these fascistic institutions is through local, grassroots, community-oriented efforts of resistence that slowly chip away at the powers of control until mass action can be taken that crumbles these institutions to the ground something something