#AABRIA THANK YOU FOR MY LIFE

[thewizardsarcasm]

Suvi at the end of EP22:

[irisbaggins]

In the light of my discovery, I just have to say, Aabria, thank you. Your storytelling, your world-building, it sparked to life something I had sorely missed. It sparked the analytical in me, gave me a fire I haven't seen in years. You and the other wonderful players gave me inspiration, and helped me write an essay I thought would be out of my reach. Thank you so much for this gift of Burrow's End. I am so grateful.

[sittinginsunflowers]

I never thought the piece of art that would most perfectly capture the complicated, loving, and fraught relationship between mothers and daughters with generational trauma would be a fucking d&d campaign about stoats and nuclear power plants.

Like at it’s core this is the story of exile, filled with all the generational trauma and grief that comes with it. In just seconds, they lost everything they’ve ever known but each other. They lost their childhood homes, their community, and their way of life. All to find that the thing they were taught to respect and thought was an offer of safety, was just secrets, control, and more danger than they’ve ever known.

People joked for years that Brennan made capitalism the big bad, and then Aabria turned around and went “what if we give communism a turn?”

[starrid]

I’m gonna be annoying for a moment but I have to talk about how good of a choice Nessun Dorma was as a Laerryn song.

So in the opera that it’s from - Turandot - the main character is a traveling prince who is trying to win a princess’s hand in marriage. The princess has declared that she will only marry a man who can solve three riddles. Anyone who fails is executed. The prince succeeds, but the princess is furious, so the prince suggests a new challenge. If the princess can guess his name by the morning, she can execute him. If she fails, they will be married. The princess declares to her kingdom that no one will sleep (“Nessun Dorma”) until the prince’s name is found. Furthermore, if it isn’t found, she’ll execute everyone in the kingdom.

Nessun Dorma is the song sung by the prince after that declaration. He is essentially celebrating his victory, insisting that by the morning, he will have won. But there’s one (incredibly eerie) line of the song, sung by the chorus of townspeople: “Il nome suo nessun saprá, e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!” - “No one will know his name, and we must, alas, die.”

In other words, it is a song sung by a man bent on victory, with complete disregard for the lives of the ordinary people whose fates he has also sealed.

Obviously, Laerryn’s motives are a bit more complex and not as blatantly selfish, but I thought it was fitting.

[captainswan618]

So we had to write sonnets for my poetry workshop class a while ago and of course I had to write mine about Sesdinikhil. It's just over 100 words of pure sappiness, please enjoy!

[annemarieyeretzian]

zerxus patiently waiting for laerryn and loquatius kissing to end 😂 (bonus: “it’s longer than you want it to be.”)

[utilitycaster]

Ah high investigation and arcana checks, I've missed you

[moss-on-a-rock]

watching misfits and magic scratched the itch of seeing brennan lee mulligan be put in a situation <3

[chungledown-bimothy]

damn fucking right he's the goodest boy!! i'd do anything for him.

also the fact that he's the Wolf of Theseus and his name is MeatWolf added 15 years to my life thank you Aabria

[starkju0]

Dear Aabria, your work as the DM for Burrow's End has been absolutely incredible. As a newcomer to Dimension 20, this experience became the highlight of my week. Your storytelling, creativity and the way you brought the whole stoat world to life were unbelievable to me. I anxiously waited for each new episode, making theories and discussing every detail with friends as I am right now lol. I've made this artwork as a token of my appreciation to the entire crew, cast, and everyone involved, but especially to you and I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for giving me a fantastic end to my year.

[ludinusdaleth]

AABRIA GETTING MATT TO SAY LUD WAS A HANDSOME YOUTH BUT THOUGHT INTERCOURSE WAS BENEATH HIM AND HE WAS TOO TRAUMATIZED BY THE CALAMITY FOR IT (CONFIRMING HE WITNESSED IT). THANK YOU . AABRIA. FOR MY LIFE

[neuronary]

so this season of dimension 20 has been. well. interesting on multiple levels. but as an animal scientist (of a very different curiosity than stoats, but a conservationist nonetheless), one of the most fascinating things has been the attitude towards humans from the stoats. because if i, or anyone i have ever worked with, discovered that there were intelligent stoats living in a nuclear power plant? you bet we'd be trying to set up inter-species communication on the double. and seeing the stoats think "hey maybe these humans are... not necessarily completely the bad guys" is so exciting because like!!! yeah! in so many stories from the perspectives of animals, humans are evil, scary monsters that are trying to kill these things because they fear what they don't understand. but every single person in my life is the polar opposite of that, and we all are dedicating our entire lives to the protection and understanding of these animals out of unabiding, ceaseless love. and it's just. it's really nice just to see that recognised as a possibility in burrow's end. so. uh. thanks aabria. i (and a few other less terminally online scottish conservationists) really appreciate it. thank you for allowing this narrative to be complex and nuances. thank you for acknowledging the care and love in our lives, however unintentionally.

[xombigirl]

Thank you Aabria for my LIFE.

It's the 💖 that really sells it for me.

[conschintz]

You obviously don't have to respond, feel free to delete my question entirely if you're not up to it, but I would love if you could talk about some ways the D20 fandom is being disrespectful about cults and how it could be better?

hi! thank you for asking this so respectfully. i want to be clear that this is not the whole of the d20 fandom, but only a very small minority of people!

for anyone new to my blog, wondering why i care about this, i grew up as a 4th generation jehovah's witness and escaped last year. i lost 20 years of my life and my entire family to the watchtower bible and tract society. educating people about cults and high-control groups is something that i'm very passionate about

the most common thing i've seen, across tumblr, reddit, and discord, is people making insensitive jokes/statements. anything that trivialises the cult, and/or thorn and viola's role in it. calling them your favourite cult couple is not cool. saying that you'd join the cult because of xyz reason (especially anything regarding "thorn/viola/jasper/rashawn is hot!") is not cool. making jokes at olliver and teedles' expense is not cool. this might seem nitpicky and harmless to most people, and in no way do i think that anyone is doing this maliciously—i want to make that really, really clear—but this kind of stuff is harmful to cult survivors. in general, it minimalises the impact of cults, of their leaders, of their victims etc. i think this is a flaw with the portrayal of cults in media at large, where they are generally sensationalised. the lukura doesn't seem like much of a cult when put up against others, especially if you're comparing it to real-life ones. but that's what's so scary; aabria and jasper are so subtle. they're really, really good at what they're doing

i'm rambling. but all of this is to ask to just be mindful of what you're posting/saying. it might not seem harmful to you, but it is exhausting to scroll through posts making light of something that is affecting my day-to-day. i am not getting shunned by my entire family for someone to joke around about joining a "cool" stoat cult, with little regard to the actual real-life consequences of actual cults that are far more prevalent in modern-day society than most people think

[sparxemberflame]

Fuckin'... Aabria Iyengar.

I am... In awe. I am delerious. I am chomping at the bit. I just... Fuck!!

So. Past two weeks/episodes Especially. Watching/listening to Burrow's End and Worlds Beyond Number back to back is an Experience. Having 2 seperate shows that contain Brennan Lee Mulligan, Erika Ishii and Aabria, in my ears telling me different stories 2 eps at a time is an absolute blast (shoutout to Lou, Jasper, Isabella, Rashawn, Siobhan and rest of cast and crew on both shows too you're awesome! Not the focus of this little outburst.)

Anyway it's GREAT. Highly recommend both shows and there are parallels I'll get into elsewhere, elsewhen. But.

This is an Aabria Iyengar specifically fucking Stan post.

You have made me feel so many overwhelmingly cool, awesome and intimate emotions and ideas that I can hardly begin to explain them. For some reason the only fucking thing that comes close is this. Silly but sorta deep thing about my favorite snack (shout out to snack gang) a Ferrero Rocher:

Aabria,

Shall I compare thee intricate weaving of characters and narratives to a Ferrero Rocher?

I shall. For this is no poem or any such writing of iambic pentameter. It is at best a floundering simile.

You have a way of creating characters and stories which much like a certain confectionary treat when unwrapped contains such an immense blend of texture and flavor. Each instance containing a wholly unique configuration of features bound together in perfectly imperfect unity. Not wholly smooth round but spherical oozing with points of uniqueness sticking out all over.

But yet if you dig just a bit deeper. There's this. Shell. Not a Barrier as it might first seem. But an Obstacle. A Challenge of sorts. Put there not to deter you but to provoke a moment of reflection. I think of Suvi and her refusal to process or be truly vulnerable in most situations. I think of the intricate power-structures of Last Bast and the Hint of this Wall that something Richer. More interesting, more honest and lovingly crafted lies Just Beneath.

This shell. Which you'll find is litterally Wafer-Thin. Should you ask the right question. Follow the right narrative thread. Bite into it with your teeth.

That curiosity is. Always and forever rewarded. With a richness of flavour and care that feels like a hug, like understanding, like being, at last: Home.

It is easy to get lost in that and yet even in this sea of what I can only call love. You find it. The Core. The hazelnut. A moral. Or a question, or a consequence. Something to once again think about and bite into.

And you realise. Once you've finally reach it that this core. This secret. Was Always Obvious. It was Sprinkled. All atop the very first layer. Litterally poking out. Each and every goddamn feature sticking out. Every chopped up uniquely distinct feature.

Was made up of the same material. Was the Core The Whole Time. Visible to the naked eye. But now having experienced the whole show. The whole treat. It is gone.

But its nourished you. The treat nourishes my body. The way Aabria tells stories nourishes my very soul.

Thinking back on many stories told that core in plain sight is often about Family or Love and the relationships between. Far from an uncommon subject in stories. But something about it. Something about the unique way Aabria does it in not just one but seemingly every story and character she creates. Its fantastic, its familiar and it... I can't describe it any other way than that it fills me with elation, jubilation and a deep sense of belonging and the implications therein drives me absolutely insane.

It's with my hat off, eyes sparkling in adoration and my heart full that I say:

Thank you Aabria Iyengar for telling these stories, for bringing these characters to life. They have changed me and many others forever and have and continue to drive me to create my own stories and campaigns for many years to come.

[annemarieyeretzian]

‘get dorian wherever he needs to go’ thank you aabria iyengar for my fucking life