Mighty Nein - Blog Posts

a quick redraw of a 2019 caleb (missing him hours)

They’re gonna kill off Molly in like ep 2 so they don’t have to animate that fucking coat

With the Mighty Nein animated series being in the works, there’s one thing I’m really hoping for and I don’t know if it’ll happen.

I want the little details of Caleb casting spells to be there, like how Liam describes the components and how he uses them. I would love it if we just had a zoomed in shot of him grabbing stuff out of his pouch and smooshing it together and then BOOM ✨magic✨

Because I swear Liam does it almost every time while everyone else is just like ‘imma cast this at this level’ so it would be so funny if everyone else casting spells was (unless it was a big moment) to just be BAM ✨magic✨

With the M9 being so close together to the point that jester reading smut out loud is like talking about the weather. (Slight nsfw ahead)

Do they go to sex shops together? How many times have they just fucked with some poor shop keep by being like.

“Oh yeah we’re all together, we each have two hands’’

“And one mouth”

“And one mouth”

Like I can see them all just happily going around a sex shop together, with Jester enjoying looking at all the dongs for ‘inspiration’ and everyone taste testing lubes like it’s fine wine, messing around with some stuff and one of them just being like.

“Well shit I’ve just learned something new about myself”

Veth, Jester and Beau giving Essek suggestions on toys and stuff for Caleb and he’s like.

“You know way to much about eachother”

With jester piping up.

“Yea and we’ve only seen him naked like twice!”

might I add

bold moves from both of them

is he...

you know,

more eloquent with his fingers?

bitches be like “I love my girl,” and the girl is every marisha ray character. it’s me, I’m bitches

Gorgeous boi!

blorbo!!!!

[jurassic park theme song plays]

Just new two more!!

Thank you @quinn-of-aebradore for suggesting yussa I love him sm

And @spottedenchants for Jester best girl

And @residentinsomniacartist for Astrid and Eadwulf they def do not get enough love

I’ve got mad art block so…..

–The Mighty Nein– Profile portrait series of M9 from Critical Role.

Mighty Nein as text posts 1/?

A redraw around 4-ish years apart (the second one is supposed be that scene in E39 where Nott gets suuuper high)

a little watercolor fjord meeting uk'otoa (uk'otoa, uk'otoa) from a bit ago

" It kind of feels different than I thought it would after all of the books that I read, you know? "

Little kisses 🤍

Kaffeepause in the study

Caleb and Essek from Critical Role C2

Not sure about Cad,but by the gods these are all fucking accurate

I got bored so I put the m9 into the random headcanon generator

They crave violence

I finished them all!

I did a watch-through of c2e1 a few months ago so I'm going off my memories of that, but I recall realizing that - during the Circus Performance - Caleb was clapping a little along w/ everyone else during each performance (which in itself felt more to me like he was blending in). . . Until the fire act.

I've seen others mention how still he gets when stuff from his past is brought up, and I forgot if he went fully still here, but it stood out to me that while the others were clapping, impressed, he wasn't clapping at all™

My Therapist: "American-Accent Caleb isn't real and cannot hurt you." Caleb c2e1:

My headcannon for the attendants at the Stone-Lavorre Destination Wedding (on the moon??)

Invited and showed up

Expositor Lionett of the Cobalt Soul (Best Man/ Maid of Honour/New Mother) her wife: The OrphanMakerTaker (renowned harpist and murderer stay at home mom) and an undisclosed number of recently amassed orphans.

Professor Widogast of the Soltryce Academy (Best Man/ Will-turn-into-a-TRex-and-walk-Jester-down-the-aisle) his partner: the Wanted War Criminal Cobalt Soul Archivist Essek Thelyss Seth Domade (designated driver teleporter) and his brother colleague idk man they just know each other stop asking questions: Taskhand Verin Thelyss (Commander of the Krynn Dynasty’s Umbra Watch and canonical Ashari weeb)

Veth Brenatto (Maid of Honour/ Founder and leader of the Wildemount Wildlings/ recovering? Alcoholic) her husband: Yeza Brenatto (owner of Brenatto’s Better Self Apothecary, doing Okay please don’t ask him about that time he was kidnapped and ate his own clothes. Or that time his son burnt alive. Or what’s going on with the current status of his marriage) and their son: Luc Brenatto (Flower Boy - too old to be a flower boy. Mad that he was asked to be a flower boy. Teenager.) Also Nugget the Dog (ring bearer. Ate the rings.)

Champion of the Wildmother Caduceus Clay (Best Man/ designated cleric ‘will cast lesser restoration after you throw up’ / caterer it’s ok there will also be non-vegan options) and an unknown number of his parents and siblings that have never been to a wedding before and probably shouldn’t have started with this one)

Current Plank King Kingsley Tealeaf (Best Man/Fjord invited him here so he could steal back his boat) and a handful of miscellaneous pirates here for the free booze

That group of weirdos they met on the moon and didn’t expect to actually survive show up, including Lesbian (Purple / Beau and Yasha wanna fuck her ), Bisexual (Dead / Beau and Yasha wanna fuck her), Short Guy (Gay Sad Fighter) , Blue Guy (heading up the wedding band), Fire Lady (Hot, Wants to fuck Beau and Yasha), The Minotaur (Evil? Veth is gonna ruin her marriage tonight for sure Officiant???), Rocks (Rocks. free light feature.) and Strange Old Man (Caleb wanted him here. They hoped he might have passed in his sleep by now)

The Ruby of the Sea, Marion Lavorre (Mother of the Bride. Semi-retired courtesan. Agoraphobic. Wishes her daughter would’ve please just thrown an indoor wedding.) her husband? boyfriend? paramour? They’re not putting a label on it yet: The Gentleman, Babenon Dosal (Father of the Bride. Semi-retired crime lord mob boss human smuggler (repented) man of ill repute, kinda mad he wasn’t asked to walk his daughter down the aisle but whatever. Getting slammed down Big Style tonight and every night by Exandria’s Wet Dream)

Vandran (Father ‘Old Guy Who Was Nice To Him At A Pivotal Age’ of the Groom. Is having a number of rather concerning Tusk Love flashbacks. Thinks he probably should’ve stayed on his island. Jester keeps trying to set him up with Captain Adella (formally of the Drensala Vis. Now of Stone’s Throw Shipping) … there might be something there.

Marius LePual (pirate sailor, still not a murderer, immediately hammered)

Seafaring legend Orly Skiffback (pirate tattooist, is not tattooing for free. Is not in charge of Marius tonight)

Dwarven explorer Dagen Underthorn (no one’s sure he’s definitely here tonight. Beau thinks she saw him by the magic portapotty. Beau is drunk)

Enchanter Pumat Sol. And also Enchanter Pumat Sol. And also Enchanter Pumat Sol. The fourth one couldn’t get the time off work (half of the enchanted party decorations here are rentals from the Invulnerable Vagrant. They are not giving jester her deposit back)

Kiri (Flower girl. A more age appropriate choice. Luc is teaching her how to Crossbow uncle Fjord when he’s not looking) also the entire Schuster family is here too.

The Lightbringer of Uthodurn, Reanmimere (Flower girl back up ring bearer after Caduceus retrieved the rings from inside nugget it was super gross she bears the rings as a giant snake)

Professor Eadwulf Grieve of the Soltryce Academy (former-government-spy-assassin-wizard, currently the Cerberus Assembly’s equivalent of the gym teacher who also covers sex ed. Was startled by a Jester-Sending in the middle of the night and RSVP’d yes on impulse. Astrid wouldn’t help him get out of it. She kept laughing at him and it was mean)

The Traveler (Officiant / not a god / sometimes a weasel)

Sprinkle (always a weasel / dreams of a cosmic death / dyed blue to be Jester’s something blue even though… Jester… is blue?? Sprinkle is not having it)

Invited but did not show up:

Expositor Dairon of the Cobalt Soul (said to Beau ‘dear gods don’t make me go, I’ll do whatever you want.’ Is now covering Beau’s paperwork until she’s back from vacation)

Calianna (still hunting bowls. Sends her love.)

The Bright Queen (returned an official notice flanked by two armed guards to please not contact her by message spell again unless there is a war.)

Archmage of Civil Influence Astrid Becke of the Cerberus Assembly (absolutely thrilled that Eadwulf accidentally agreed to this shit. Would rather submerge herself in hot oil than be at this wedding herself. Said so to Jester’s face. Also the Soltryce Academy is currently down two faculty members and somehow that’s her problem and you have no idea how hard it is to find a good substitute who isn’t gonna teach the kids evil.)

Vilya of the air ashari (the second that Rumblecusp was floated as a location she decided she was actually super busy that week.)

Jamedi Cosko (said ‘I don’t know you’. Is sticking by that.)

Allura Vysoren (sent a very expensive gift. Is making the conscious decision to separate herself from the Mighty Nein for the sake of her blood pressure. One adventuring party to babysit is more than enough) and Kima of Vord (barely remembers who these people are except the tall one and her hot wife)

Keg (currently a centaur. It’s awkward seeing the girl you once fucked be happily married with stolen orphan children while you’re currently a centaur)

Yussa Errenis (missing in action. They’ll figure out what mess he’s gotten himself into after the honeymoon. At this point it’s on him when this shit happens)

Not invited but showed up anyway

Gelidon, The Nightmare in ivory (angry)

Avantika (dead. angry.)

Isharnai the Prism Sage (angry. wants her promised hands)

Professor Thaddeus (bird. angry.)

look man. look

essek saying "bren" out loud, claiming a position on caleb's side as the mouthpiece of his regards to astrid, did something to me. i can't tell if it opened a wound or punched me or gave me a hug. all i know is that i am feeling so many emotions right now

more under the cut because i'm about to get rambly:

"bren aldric ermendrud" is a separate character from caleb widogast. he's a young boy learning how to make magic. he's a deeply traumatized and indoctrinated teenager. he's the boy who curled up with astrid and eadwulf in a freezing tower for warmth all night.

essek never met bren. he met caleb and he's never known him as anyone else. if i'm remembering correctly, caleb never even said the name "bren" to him during the campaign, and neither did any of the nein.

essek knows caleb widogast. he knows the man who held up the object of his worst crime and then kissed him in the bowels of a ship and made a floor of infinite stars for them to walk through together. he knows the person who healed over bren's wounds—thinly, but enough. he knows the man that the boy has become.

astrid knows bren. she barely knows who caleb is. she still calls him bren after hearing him referred to as caleb repeatedly. she can't know him as the man he is, she only knows the boy. there's some of bren in caleb, but there is no caleb in bren.

essek saying "bren sends his regards" is him gauging astrid's reaction, on one level—if she freaks out, which she did, she's in opposition to caleb's cause and thus a threat. on another level, it's essek delivering a very different subtextual message from caleb: "the boy who loved you is giving you one final warning."

because essek is a threat to astrid. their last meaningful interaction was slinging spells at each other in the blooming grove. and that's funny in a "current boyfriend vs ex girlfriend exclusively fight each other" kind of way, but it's also deeply tied to caleb's recurring theme of transformation. "bren sends his regards" also means "i have healed enough to love enough for someone else to know this name and use it with my consent. and this someone else is your enemy. what does that make you think i've become?"

it also does a fantastic job of communicating subtle offscreen discussions that have happened over the years since the end of c2. we don't have the details of when or how caleb told essek his birth name, but we know that he did, and we know from all of c2 that the name bren occupies a place of immense emotional weight for caleb. it functions similarly to a deadname in terms of who uses it and for what purpose. trent exclusively calls caleb bren to wound him and place himself in a position of power. astrid calls him bren to remind both him and herself of who they used to be—same with eadwulf, though obviously he's not here.

the first time we hear essek say "bren" is on caleb's behalf and confronting one of the narrative representations of caleb's trauma. it's four words that manage to communicate "i, your enemy on a hundred levels, can speak for both the man i love and the boy who loved you, because i know him in his entirety."

astrid knows bren and essek knows caleb, but only essek can speak for both. because at some point, caleb gave bren to essek. and we know this from four words. four IMPROVISED words.

god. this moment is just so fucking good

Fitting in the rest of the romance/bromance of the M9 and NPCs just makes the whole situation better:

Nott canonically is in love with Caleb and everyone knows it and is kind of cool with it (Yeza, who drinks his respect women juice and knows what kind of woman his wife is, supports it and actually kind of gets it cause who knew self-destructing anxious wrecks hiding absolute chaotic dumbassery was his type??? Not him!). So sometimes Nott will just. kiss Caleb on the mouth in greeting and goodnight and all that happens is Caleb gets flustered and Jester demands one as well

“Nott we run a detective agency together everyone knows that fulfils the homoerotic quota for mouth kisses now lay one on me”

Fjord is good. He’s fine with no mouth kisses from Nott (but sometimes their bantering/arguing just gets.,,,,,,real intense,,,oh boy)

It also means Luke is brought up knowing who his biological parents are but since he is born from the trickster womb of Nott and grew up with the M9, as years go by he sometimes introduces other M9 members as his parents. Fellow friends and other parents are bewildered by the tirade of powerful and influential figures who all apparently sired this little halfing Luke please this giant goth woman with wings is not your mother,,,,,please,,,stop calling her Ma Yash

No one in the M9 really knows what weird connection Caduceus and Fjord have with the Wild Mother and each other, and Ducey doesn’t swing any way, but there is something very married in their morning meditation sessions, week-long “discover yourself” trips and the fact that Fjord may love Jester and Caleb but he is most vulnerable with the other cleric. They are often mistaken for husbands by any religious faction they encounter and honestly they keep getting free shit out of it so who cares???

While Jester may have the curse of accidentally seducing any WLW who comes her way (Yasha and Beau both have accepted themselves as the foundation of said curse and love it), Fjord is bisexual bait and has his own curse of seducing any Dom/Top within a mile radius, usually by getting his ass beat in the process. Avantika was not a fluke when Darrow and his duel Fight Pit/Spa date shows otherwise

Honestly though, it’s Caleb who happens to incidentally seduce the most people, and it is usually other wizard twinks with crippling issues with authority. Essek is always welcome in the tower and often in the bed as well if he’s up for it :))))

*Meanwhile, two thirds of the triad, Fjord and Caleb, grabbing onto Beau* sir, ma’am, people who know better, this is my emotional support lesbian

*Jester, grabbing the other arm* And this is my occasional bed partner and blue bestie

*grabs onto Yasha* and this is her wife and my other female friend who I occasionally kiss on the mouth

Jester’s mum is delighted by her daughter’s many and wonderful partners but her father is A Gentleman and has had Enough of his daughter crashing his places to throw impromptu “sleepovers” we cant keep replace the furniture Jessie we just cant

Honestly, people from outside the group has given up on figuring out what the fuck in happening in the M9 and chalk it up to the kind of shit that happens when you live co-dependently with people you saved the world with

(The fact that there’s been rumours of a similar group on a different continent just cements the fact. It’s been decades and some of them are important political figures,,,,,and one is apparently dead??? But sometimes he shows up on the wings of ravens or some shit and people have to accept him and his antlered wife and their purple bf starting some shit in public almost immediately,,,gross)

y’all are missing out on the funniest relationship dynamic of CR2

Forget about the tangled web of love that stretches between the M9 (barring Caduceus our aroace king of staying out of drama), I would love if the love triangle between Fjord, Jester and Caleb just somehow naturally fell into a little triad all on its own.

Like no dramatic love confessions, they do that shit constantly with each other in secret little ways, but just Jester coming home to her mother like

Jester: mama I want to introduce my partners to you

The Ruby: ah yes that handsome orc boy that you kept going on about, he was so–

The Ruby: wait, partners???

Jester: lmao yeah I have Fjord, who rejected an eldritch monster he was accidentally raising to get close with Mother Nature herself, but that hobo wizard who eventually cleaned himself up and became one of the most powerful casters around is also my bf.

The Ruby, the actual sex god on this plane of existence and all others: hell yeah my daughter deserves the best, get ‘em my baby girl.

The dynamics of it are so funny as well. Like, Caleb is a highly respected wizard now under the tutelage of several powerful figures, so any time he goes to some sort of elbow-rubbing-fancy-pancy wizard event he of course brings his beaus.

And people are like??? “Ah yes, members of the iconic and world-saving group you are part of Mr Widogast, they must be of such high pedigree.”

And then someone recognises Fjord as Captain Tusktooth who had some sort of fake accent going on for years at a time (and didn’t he sleep with that Captain lady who was horny for water or something??? And then get her killed by the pirate king? There was something about a forbidden eldritch god?) and is praying that Mr Widogast’s other partner is normal–

but the first thing that Jester tells anyone is: “have y’all heard about my mother, best lay in the land? I am the daughter of the greastest sexer around and my childhood imaginary friend is my personal god, anyway how are you?”

Even better, out of the three, the tiny blue tiefling is the only one who can pick up and hoist their partners around, making the comical sight of long-cat and long-suffering Caleb being slung bonelessly over one shoulder, while a blushing Fjord is held like a football under the other as Jester parades them down the street in her cute frilly dresses.

Fucking FjordxJesterxCaleb is where the good shit is at wake up sheeple

I know this is super late but is there anything cuter than everyone in the party immediately trying to heal/buff Fjord up after he got all his health sucked away by the Freaky Demon Mosquito??? Everyone respects Fjord as the only party member with enough charisma to cover their bullshit, but they are so aware of his fleshy body and tennis wrists that they can’t help but try and frantically protect him whenever possible. Big mood is Caleb sadly attempting Mage Armour to give Fjord more AC and saying softly, “sorry big guy” :(((

Hey so this might be the late night and caffeine talking but here goes the crazy conspiracy train. Buckle up y’all. So we know that prior to the rise of Molly, his bastard og form was making a deal with a “magic woman” that may or may not have had something to do with his death. Crazy thought, but what if the woman that Lucien was making a deal with is the same woman that resurrected Nott??? Like both of them were resurrected by a “mysterious magic woman” but with major complications? Or I guess Lucien losing his memory was a complication that may have been due to it being one of the first times this experiment was done. Later on, Nott’s transformation was maybe an experiment to see if memories could be retained even if the body was altered. And this could be a reach, but what if these experiments had ties to Lucien’s desire to gain immortality, and that could potentially be done by getting new bodies every time you die?? Or changing to a long-lived race?? Or a more powerful one? We know dunamancy had to do with entropy and time, this could be the Empire’s bastardisation of the Xhorhasian concept of “birth” that comes from the beacons, and a means of gaining soldiers that can perhaps never be killed??

Mighty NEIN!

A Caduceus Doodle of him falling asleep while leaning on his staff. For the prompt Headcanon. :D

Yes, I am behind, don't say anything about that please

Just a goat and some cows eating fruits and veggies. A doodle for today's prompt food!

Fast doodle of my favourite dirty wizard and goblin rogue for the prompt "friends".