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There also needs to be a button for “this is the 5000th time I’ve read your fic because I’m having a horrible day and this is the only thing in the world that always brings me happiness.”

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One thing about Orym saying that he can't put down the lens he sees the world with is that he's completely correct, he's always going to be viewing the moon plot and the conflict with the Ruby Vanguard from the perspective of "a guy whose husband and father were murdered by the Vanguard", but the same could be said about the rest of the party. They all have pre-existing experiences and attitudes that have shaped their perspective on things. Orym isn't uniquely biased in this sense.

The most obvious one is of course Imogen, as her long-absent mother is a Vanguard general. She heard Liliana's voice in her Ruidusborn nightmares telling her to run as long as she had those nightmares, and she came to associate that with her mother trying to protect her from whatever the red storm was. It resulted in Imogen giving a lot of grace to Liliana once she found out she was alive and with the Vanguard, a grace that more recent experiences are now making Imogen start to believe was misplaced, but a grace that was born over what she considered her mother's voice to be for years.

Fearne was raised in relative isolation in the Feywild by Nana Morri, and as result her approach to a lot of the events she's now embroiled in has an oddly naive slant to it. The whole would is new to her and she's approaching it like someone who is new to it; there's a lack of understanding of implications that she has that goes beyond her simply being fey. This is best seen in how she's grappling with the reveal that Sorrowlord Zathuda is her biological father. She's aware that Zathuda is terrible and that the circumstances that led up to her birth are dubious but there's also a large part of her that desires a connection with him as her parent and feels like they could have a relationship. She's naive to what exactly she is to him, and also influenced by having grown up longing for the parents that left her with Morri.

Ashton lost their parents and found themself blown halfway across the world after a cult ritual went wrong, and had a spectacularly shitty life that he often found himself begging the gods to fix without answer, and as a result he's very down on the idea of gods and even more down on the idea of letting a cult do whatever they want in order to achieve the perfect world that is just beyond reach by whatever means they must. Especially after the entire shard debacle in which Ashton learned that their parents were definitely wrong to do what they did and there were no good ends for the means that they engaged in he's fallen even harder onto the line of, as he said himself, "I hope her ends are fucking great because these means are just not forgivable."

Laudna's sole experience with anything resembling a higher power for much of her 50-odd-years of life has been Delilah Briarwood, the woman who had her horrifically murdered and is still rather explicitly using her as a means to some unknowable-to-Laudna end. This has both made her one of the members of Bells Hells most open to the idea of there being no gods (no more puppet masters) but also the most broadly sympathetic towards Liliana's view of the Ruidusborn (that they are creations of Predathos with no choice but to be slaves to his whims). Her ardent belief that her lift ended on the Sun Tree thirty years ago also means that she often refuses to advocate for herself or her own needs, resulting in moments where she openly wonders if it's Imogen's destiny to join the Vanguard, despite having herself been at one point brutally murdered by a Vanguard general.

FCG made it his mission in life to help people; that desire drove a lot of what he did up to and including his final act of sacrifice for the Hells. They saw the people struggling against the Vanguard and with the world that the Vanguard created and chose to do what they could to help them. Their desire to help even extended towards the gods, as one of the first things they asked of the Changbringer upon gaining the ability to cast Commune was, "Do you need help?". FCG was also a character driven by a desperate desire to find purpose and to understand the "why" of their own existence, a desire that ultimately drove them towards religion as a means of shaping the meaning of his life, and made him the most openly religious member of the group up to the moment of his death.

Chetney, while the most able to look beyond his own biases by virtue of being the oldest and most emotionally mature member of the party, still carries with him the perspective of having been someone who ultimately made little impact on the world up until, in his twilight years, random chance granted him the power to affect change. He gained lycanthrophy, he met other adventurers in the Hells, and got caught up in an end of the world plot and is finally making a true difference in the world. It's made him, arguably, the most enthusiastic adventurer in the party because he views that adventure itself as a gift, and as a way to create a legacy. The desire of legacy is also the reason he made the bargain that he did with Nana Morri; to secure a legacy as a famous toymaker that would persist after he is gone.

Orym's right that he's biased, but it's fallacious to assume that an unbiased perspective exists, because everyone in the story has their lens through which they view the world that they can't put down, not just Orym.

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sketchin

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You know, I do have to wonder if the reason the gods of Exandria are panicking so much about the release of Predathos isn't solely the threat of being eaten, but also that they can't seal it again.

Like, what you can achieve once can be done again. And you've had thousands of years to look back and consider how to do it better, how you could have maybe prevented Vordo and Ethedok from being eaten by sealing sooner. What happened to their two siblings, the struggle to survive where they landed, has to weigh in the gods' minds at times.

And yet, the gods don't seem to be doing any prep work to stuff Predathos back into Ruidus (or a new prison), and instead are going all in on the fight to stop the seals from releasing in the first place.

Sure, preparation for resealing should the worst happen could be happening in the background where we can't see it. But it doesn't particularly feel that way. Everything we've seen is "All hands on deck so that this thing never gets out, period" with seemingly no back up if that directive is failed.

So I would posit that the gods can't seal Predathos again, because they got rid of the titans.

We know that the titans helped the gods seal Predathos away. We know that Predathos resists the divine power of the gods. We know that an enormous hunk of Exandria was turned into the prison-turned-moon Ruidus.

So it really makes sense to me if the titans were instrumental to the sealing process.

As best I can tell, elemental power is separate from divine power in the cosmos of Exandria. Which means that the titans did not face penalties as the gods did in using their powers against Predathos. So if/when they needed to pin it in place for whatever sealing rituals/ceremonies, the titans would be best suited to it with gods being bait to draw Predathos in.

Next is carving up Exandria. Who could better do that than titans of earth? The earth of Exandria is their element, their birthplace, and their home. If anyone could easily rip up a continent (as the theory of Ruidus's origin on Exandria is), it would be the titans of earth.

I will also point out that glass, like what we've been recently led to believe is what Predathos's form is in its sealed state, is a result of fire and earth, melting sand into a cohesive whole. So the titans might have helped with that part too.

What we know the gods did in the sealing of Predathos seems to be mostly outer bindings. Divine seals on the layers of glass to keep people from cracking it open, the Divine Gate-like cage around Ruidus itself.

So it seems to me that there's a good chance the titans contributed a lot to the sealing of Predathos.

And now they're all gone. The gods killed them

...And maybe sealed a few in other Planes? It's a bit unclear, but Vox Machina did encounter what was called a Dust Titan in Pandmonium in The Search For Bob, and Errevon the Rimelord is thought to be some sort of Ice Titan. Still, the killing and sealing isn't going to do the gods any favors in getting help again. Especially since such surviving titans don't really have a stake in Exandria anymore and probably aren't on Predathos's menu (but may be on it's revenge list).

The closest things the gods have these days to allied titans are Ashton and Fearne, who both only hold tiny fragments of a full titan's power. Even if those fragments are from two of the most powerful titans to walk Exandria.

So yeah, the gods sort of accidentally fucked themselves over in being able to reseal Predathos by wiping out the titans, I think.

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not a Candela post but I was actually thinking about The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin w/r/t Liliana. Spoilers for a 50+ year old book, but it centers around a man who unwillingly has the power to alter reality to match his dreams and who retains the memory of the world before he changed it. He is required to see a psychiatrist due to his drug abuse, since that suppresses the ability, and the psychiatrist believes him - but uses him to try to fix the various ills of the world. This becomes a monkey's paw-like exploration of various dystopias - to solve overpopulation (really popular theme in the early 70s) his dreams create a world where most people died of a plague; racism is eliminated by the concept of race being eliminated thus eliminating a number of people and a good deal of art and history; world peace is achieved via an alien invasion that unites the people of the world against an external threat rather than each other (a la Watchmen). The man (Orr) who has the dreams becomes more and more insistent that this is wrong, but the psychiatrist does not listen, and things spiral out from there.

I really do think Liliana believes she is doing the right thing, but the fact is, waving away people's legitimate question of "what will happen if you get rid of the gods" - particularly since pretty much everyone not directly within the Ruby Vanguard, including one of the major representatives of planar stability from the natural side (Keyleth) and her wizard counterpart (Ryn) and like, every other wizard who isn't directly under Ludinus's sphere of influence is like "I think that ends in disaster" - is such a massive red flag. Treating geopolitical problems as neatly fixable by One Change that definitely won't make everything worse (source: trust me) is, even in fantasy, a fantasy.

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They really are covering the full spectrum of phobias in this one, huh?

- Confined Spaces

- Falling

- Creepy Crawlies

- Fungus

- Elevators

- Drugs

- Creepy Children

- Betrayal

- Ghosts

- Body Horror

- Liam's Terrible Mouth Sounds

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I could listen to Liam's ASMR voice forever if only he wasn't describing The Horrors. 😂😬

Me every 5 minutes during this Candela episode: HEY LIAM, THAT'S FUCKED UP.

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Me every 5 minutes during this Candela episode: HEY LIAM, THAT'S FUCKED UP.

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Me: *stares into the episode*

The episode: *stares back*

Me:

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oh man i missed dorian and dariax

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"I don't like being angry" is such a fucked up and evil thing for a barbarian to say

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I love all the art depicting characters hugging Orym that can basically be summed up as “Secure your hands under that halfling’s butt and lift him to your chest 🥰”

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when you're 'just a little guy'-sized, you can be a clothes thief with every single person you date. they can't even do it back. it's the perfect crime.

(sometimes i like to relax while thinking about a modern au where Will is alive and Orym has a husband AND two boyfriends.)

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I think there's also the fact that... Orym is not a Make-the-First-Move type of guy.

Every time he’s opened up to anyone in this campaign, going back to pretty much the beginning, was because he was prompted to. Either because he has to (like with Nana Morri’s Truth Trial), or in conversation with other characters. Like, we didn't find out basically anything about Will until Chet asked Orym about his tattoos, and that wasn't until E17!

This holds up when you look at his 3 major convos with Ashton. The Airship Convo (E40), and the Issylra Convo (E62) were both initiated by Ashton. They only got Orym to open up by putting their own vulnerability out there first and waiting for Orym reciprocate. The Fey Realm Convo (E79) WAS initiated by Orym, but was also precipitated by the Shard Incident, so it feels a little more like crisis remediation (which I feel like Orym is better at - he wants to help his friends, he's just very bad at asking for help for himself).

I've said before that getting Orym to open up about his feelings is like pilling a cat - you can wrap it in cheese and hope he takes it willingly (the Ashton method), or you can pry his mouth open, shove it down his throat, and hope he swallows (the Nana Morri method). Either way, there's no guarantee you won't find a soggy pill abandoned under the couch later. 😂

I also wouldn't be surprised if Orym walls up with Dorian, if/when Dorian rejoins BH. The limits of the Sending Stone mean that:

A) Orym doesn’t have to do the hard work of actually opening up to someone else face-to-face.

B) Only having 25 words per day means he can't (read: doesn’t have to) get into the real nitty-gritty of his issues.

Functionally this means Orym can let out a little of the pressure he's feeling - which gives him enough relief to get back up and keep going - without ACTUALLY having to deal with his problems.

For that matter, I wouldn't be surprised if Orym actually starts to regret asking Dorian to come back. I think once he's had a chance to properly process everything that happened on the moon, he'll feel like he's dragging Dorian into even greater danger by asking him to come back. He probably already feels like he's failed to protect his friends, even after making a deal with the Fatestitcher. At least when Dorian was far away, he wasn't in the thick of what BH is involved in.

I hate that we have to wait another week to see what happens next. There's so much potential for drama. 🙃

Anywho Ashton has always agreed with Orym that the ruby vanguard is bad even though he doesn’t like the gods and has frequently opened himself to Orym as a support if he needs one and idk why we’re acting like he hasn’t been on Orym’s side or vocally anti vanguard this whole time? Like yeah they’ve got low charisma and Orym may think Ashton wouldn’t be there for him for whatever reason, but I thought we as an audience knew that Ashton is 100% on Orym side. Idk man I’ve seen so many Orym and Ashton takes I deeply disagree with over the past few days I may need to just ignore them cause wtf man

I again think that the reason Orym isn’t reaching out to the hells (specifically fearne and Ashton) and is instead reaching out to Dorian is cause he doesn’t know if he’ll get a response and its safer that way, and if he does get a response he doesn’t need to reply for 24 hours and that gives him time to compartmentalize. Also cause sometimes you just need to talk to someone who isn’t around you 24/7 to not go crazy. I think it’d be so juicy if Dorian showed up and joins the hells again and suddenly Orym shells up with him as well. Cause with Dorian in it, Orym would have to be strong for him now too. And suddenly he won’t have anyone to turn to cause he has to be the strong pillar (even if Ashton tells him he’s gets that its hard and he’s allowed not to be the strong one.) And to him being the strong one means being silent and holding it in to protect those around you.

I feel like holding this all in isn’t gonna make him explode but it will make him crumble. Hell, its already making him crumble.

Edit: I just… why can’t we allow the avoidant attachment style to be an unhealthy thing Orym’s doing as an avoidance technique instead of saying “well actually bells hells have all been horrible to him in these specific ways so he shouldn’t talk to them they don’t deserve it”

I see why orym’s doing it! I just think people are defending it too hard instead of allowing it to be an unhealthy coping mechanism

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No, but it's literally the exact same costume! Look at where the line of ketchup ends next to the face! 😂😂😂

something something two nickels

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Orym's argument against Ludinus Da'leth and the Ruby Vanguard is essentially "The purpose of a system is what it does."

This is a systems theory coined by Stafford Beer around 2001. He posited there is "no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do." It does not matter what someone tells you a system does if it does not reliably do that. The things it does consistently do are the actual purpose of the system.

Ludinus (and Liliana) claim the purpose of the Ruby Vanguard's violence is to free Exandria of oppression from the gods. Orym's point is that they have not consistently protected anyone from oppression. They consistently murder innocent people, indoctrinate vulnerable people into doing terrible violence (including children), support a ruling class that dominates the population through mind control and eugenics, and seek to release a predator so terrifying that the warring alien gods and native primordials worked together to seal it away as a threat to both of them.

So the logical conclusion is that the purpose of Ludinus' system is not to free anyone from tyranny, it's to install himself as the tyrant. And it does not matter what Ludinus says it's for or even what he believes it's for. The purpose of a system is what it does. And Orym has been personally and repeatedly victimized by what it does. Why wouldn't he keep reminding them of that?

Add onto that, the Ruby Vanguard is a death cult. They lure people in with believable lies. They use propaganda to control how people view them and to convince people to support them. Liliana has been groomed into a true believer who genuinely thinks what she has been told is true and that Ludinus' system does what he says it will. She has been convincing other people of this for years. Not because she's an inherently bad person but because everyone generally tries to convince others that what we believe is true. It is actually dangerous to let a cultist try to talk you into the cult's perspective. That's why Orym shuts it down.

Orym was already on edge but it's fully in a breakdown after FCG's sacrifice. One more iteration of Ludinus' system consistently murdering the people he loves. But he still told Imogen he wants her to have a good relationship with her mom again. He wants Liliana to make it through the other side of this. But that has to involve consistently stating the reality of what's happening against what she believes.

Ludinus believes in the rapture of the revolution. Burn everything to the ground on a fundamental level and a new perfect society will grow, with him to guide it. The reality is that kind of power vacuum consistently leads to horrific violence and conditions often get much, much worse. Especially for vulnerable people, who often do not survive. A lot about the gods' relationships to mortals probably needs to change, but this an incredibly dangerous gamble to fix it.

The purpose of a system is what it does. Any suggestion otherwise is cold comfort to Orym's family in the ground.

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just wanted to give my big gay green rock some hugs