the-wizard-slay

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a win for queer dropout fans everywhere tbh

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Ame the Witch, her Fox familiar, and the Ink Demons Enzo and Cyril in pursuit of The Wizard Sky.

@worldsbeyondpod

_

On BSKY

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i cannot overstate how impressed and amazed i am with this finale episode of worlds beyond number and book 1 overall. beyond being the most beautifully crafted actual-play story i have ever seen, with the most compelling player characters, complex and textured NPCs, and unbelievable wordlbuilding and settings –

beyond all of this, i think worlds beyond number's greatest strength is that it makes me feel better about being a person. it often feels so difficult to exist as a person within all of the political, economic, and societal systems that make up our world. worlds beyond number gives voice to that tension and hope to those resisting them. it is truly inspiring, provoking, and joyous, and i am so thankful to be experiencing it as it happens, and being on here with all of you enjoying it together 💕

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supporting your running mate <3

Game Changer 7x10 "Outvoted"

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see no aioli, hear no aioli, speak no aioli

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Cant wait for Critical Role Campaign 4 as the cast learns to make American Girl Doll Shoes with Brennan Lee Mulligan.

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oh so when aabria and erika hijack the fireside chat to talk about banging monsters it's "off-topic" and "emotionally distressing" but when brennan does the exact same thing on adventuring party, it's fine???

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So Steel has been trying to remove the witch of the worlds heart

First the curse on Wren and Ame, which ultimately killed Wren and prevented Ame from rising to that station. We know that a lack of a valid apprentice can dissolve the position as happened with one of the other witches I forget which

Second, trying to delay the removal of the curse until Ame was in the citadel under Steels careful watch. I'm sure the curse would not have been removed but swapped or changed or adjusted?

Third, trying to delay Ame from attending the coven, the constant word to wait for confirmation about Slys prophecy.

I just can't figure out why.

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If Worlds Beyond Number ever becomes an animated show, I will weep giant Miyazaki-like happy tears of joy. Until then, I'll make character turnarounds starting with everyone's fav witch 🌎❤️🦊 Because let’s be real, IF this ever became an animated show, can you just IMAGINE how incredible it would be?!

(Inspo art from Lorena Lammer, Jack Jones, Danica Dickison, and Mari Costa)

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Thinking about the spirit realm and the mortal realm with the near spirit in between. If one of them is dreaming and the other is waking, how does the near spirit fit into that? To me the near spirit could represent imagination, aka daydreaming. A sort of half way between being awake and dreaming where weird transitions are possible.

I think that would be very beautiful from a storytelling perspective, especially for a fantasy ttrpg context. There's that thing where if you have memories of playing in a campaign, people tend to think of the in game imagined things, rather than sitting round a table with character sheets, making the imagined all the more real.

Feels like a nice parallel, with WBN transporting us all into a sort of real life version of the near spirit :)

I wonder what bard magic looks like in Umora..

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Listen to the first prelude again.

Listen to how Soft casts the teleportation spell.

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Intro of the very first WBN episode (main campaign):

"Snow falling over endless white sand and a tower made of glass, [Thunder rolls] in the image of night and day, as spells fire across the sky. For a moment the sun, captured against the horizon while stars gleam as the heavens cannot seem to agree, in the face of endless magic what the truth of this world should be. These images are captured in the mind's eye as memory, perhaps of dream, or perhaps of waking life, or perhaps of something in between. By Suvi."

AAAAAAAA HOT THEORY

Ok so the most recent episode and listening to the prelude again got me thinking: When Soft and Stone discover the free magic, we see the sun and it turns into snow and music and lots of stuff. This seems somewhat similar to the description above where we also get sun and snow and endless magic.

Also "the heavens cannot seem to agree what the truth of the world should be". The heavens as in the sky, or maybe more like the Sky. I feel like we already lost our minds over this line when it got called back to in an episode a few weeks ago with that bit about the world having a hard time remembering the truth. But this makes it specifically tied to Suvi, and it would sort of metaphorically line up with Suvi having a hard time finding her way back to who she was and what she liked before the citadel.

Ok so that's one side of it. Then we have that room in the archive that Ame and Eursulon visit, that I feel ties into this. They go to this particular room because it contains the information on that massive interdisciplinary project of a plan to curse Grandma Wren and Ame, using Suvi to deliver it. (Huge. Wtf.) And in this room we have a bunch of special objects in the alarmed bubbles. The set of dream magic keys, creyon drawings, scrolls and that twirling ribbon wand are mentioned. What if these are all things taken from Suvi's home (or the apartment that we know was cleaned out):

Dream keys to the near-spirit that Soft would have had. Drawings that Suvi made, that are perhaps like the ones mentioned in the secret study in the apartment (maybe of things she saw in the near spirit or in her dreams?). Scrolls I suppose could be for all sorts of things, but maybe they are of non wizard or null clef spells. That twirling toy feels so whimsical, in my mind it would fit in well among the song and dance of the spirit world. (of course only guessing)

And we know Suvi is an unusually gifted wizard, from when she cast a 2nd level spell during the arith incident. Plus she was put on the leadership track immediately, in a very safe role away from combat and other risks to her. There is such an emphasis on keeping her in the citadel, they must know she is somehow very valuable to them.

So.

What if Suvi, in her connection to the Sky, has exceptional abilities to traverse the spirit world and the real world. What if the separation of which side is dreaming and which is dreamed of gets fuzzy with her:

"These images are captured in the mind's eye as memory, perhaps of dream, or perhaps of waking life, or perhaps of something in between. By Suvi."

I swear, if it's all right there in the first few minutes of the story.. idk.

(and I don't mean necessarily in a sort of chosen one way, I feel like if you grow up in a family where mingling and playing with magic in a free and curious and close to the near spirit way is normal, you may get attuned to magic in a very intuitive way, and then that forms part of your identity as you grow into yourself)

And I think this may explain Suvi's relevance to the Man in Black as well. If Suvi represents incredible connection between these realms, her stepping on the road may allow for a path for the Man in Black to travel out of the area that Grandma Wren trapped him in.

Anyways. The Sky is always there, day or night, dreaming or awake. I love this story so much.

(very curious to find out if any of this ends up being right, Brennan and Aabria spin a mysterious web) :)

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Omg you are so right. We're they going via the near-spirit?

Absolutely insane experience to listen to the first episode again now that we know so much more. Also that bit where Brennan describes Soft as having fire in his eyes from doing a particular kind of magic as they get ready to depart without Suvi! And when Stone gets the the horses to pull Suvi away in the carriage and we hear that description of so much wind kicking up, that's gotta be some sort of non standard wizardry as well.

Seems like Soft and Stone were up to their eyebrows in practicing free wizard magic. No wonder if they figured it out for the first time at 17.

Listen to the first prelude again.

Listen to how Soft casts the teleportation spell.

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Just occurred to me after a relisten: Stone got the inflict wounds spell from Grandma Wren and specifically modified it to be able to affect someone who is difficult to get skin contact with. Such as someone in full armor. Such as someone like Steel. Did Stone anticipate that she would need to fight Steel? Especially since Stone would have had plenty of wizard spells to fight with, but she specifically went and got a witch spell and tweaked it for her purposes. I'm guessing Stone was preparing to go up against powerful citadel magic, if not specifically Steel. So how much trust was there really between them?

Also to what extent was Grandma Wren sharing witch magic with them to fight the citadel?

(So exciting, so tasty, so terrifying.)

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So, are we thinking the dream related keys open doors to the near-spirit? With the whole "real world is a dream of the spirit world" seems like it could be?

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spirit of freedom

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I cannot get this scene out of my head That little T-Rex doesn't know what the fuck's going on!

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