#AEOR OBVIOUSLY

[justalittlebluetiefling]

I think they should have the Fjord and Jester wedding oneshot this month and they should get married in Aeor.

[fjorests-of-wildemount]

Bell's Hells, who love their friend Laudna even though she's possessed by the spirit of a woman who wants her to murder the world for power.

Who love Chetney, even though he's lost control of his werewolf powers and attacked them with intent to kill.

Who loved FCG even though he was created *by Aeor itself* as a weapon designed to lose control over himself and slaughter everyone and murdered his former party.

Who love their friend Imogen even though she's struggling to let go of her mother who is part of Ludinus's murder cult.

Who love and respect and listen to and defend Fearne and Ashton and Dorian even though their views of socially constructed morality are best described as "eh???"

Who are loved and trusted by Orym, who knows they don't always see eye to eye but that they will have his back.

Watching a group of misfits forced from their home, trying to make the best choices they can in the midst of an impossible situation, as much a part of this world as any one of them, seriously weighing the costs of their choices and keenly feeling the responsibility on their shoulders . . .

Sorry, Ludinus, I'm not sure the Hells are seeing what you want them to see.

[breathalyzerfail]

Yes, the city got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.

-- Aeorian mages who captured a Grand Demon of Loathing to power their floating city, and then plugged in an Abyssal artifact to make sure that the demon went right back into the engine anytime the process actually killed it

[hoarding-stories]

Love this juxtaposition:

Caleb, talking about Essek: He's a good man

Essek, talking about Caleb: This one has my boyfriend on speed dial.

[burr-ell]

i have very little interest in watching c2 mostly because of the insufferable attitude of some parts of the fandom that's like "well you can like vox machina or bells hells i GUESS but can't you at least admit that m9 is objectively better in every way"

that being said—fjord, jester, and the aeor arc are carrying the appeal of the campaign on their backs and if i watch it, i will do it for them 🫡

[edelgarfield]

tattooing this on my fucking forehead @ anyone who thinks Aeor's culture isn't a direct consequence of the Calamity, and isn't driven in part by desperation.

[willowbirds]

Just like when The Crown Keepers returned, you know what this means!

TIME TO FINALLY WATCH CALAMITY!!

[firefrightfic]

Rules: In a new post, show the last line you wrote and tag as many people as there are words

Tagged by @kmackatie !

The danger is past and the clerics have made their stance on Caleb’s demand clear.

This is a bit ambiguous but enjoy the proof I am still writing (if slowly). Thanks for the tag, Katie, and extending tagging to anyone else who'd like to do this <3

[sky-scribbles]

I'm both amused and emotional about the idea of Beau turning to Essek one day and just saying, 'hey man, do you wanna be part of the Cobalt Soul?' And Essek asks, does she mean that one of his fake personas can pretend to be a Cobalt Soul member, and Beau says no. Come and actually join the Cobalt Soul. Under a fake name and face, obviously, but he'll be a real, official member.

'I mean, come on, man. You're already helping us take down Ludinus, you're doing a whole bunch of Aeor research. Why not just make it easier and... officially join? You've got the whole boner-for-knowledge thing down. And I'm an Expositor. If I want to show up and say 'here's my friend, Definitely-Not-Essek, just make him an archivist', they'll probably roll with it.'

'You don't think any of your superiors - the elite group of spies and investigators - might see through that? Or that it might risk the attention of those hunting me falling upon your order?'

And Beau shrugging and saying, 'If they do, I'll deal with it.' A quiet, deadly promise.

Idk, maybe 'Seth' was just a random identity made up on the fly, but I really like the idea that he might actually be Cobalt Soul. Just... something about Essek, who lived a century in isolation, getting to be part of something. Never being starved for intellectual peers again. Being around people who believe that knowledge is meant to be celebrated and shared.

And Beau knowing that the Cobalt Soul is about standing against corruption. About exposing lies. Finding the truth. And trusting completely that Essek, her friend, believes in those things too.

[ariadne-mouse]

This feels like both a statement of potential obviousness, but also a prediction because hey, we're only 2.5 hrs into Episode 1: I don't think Downfall will reveal either the gods or the Aeorians to somehow be uniquely evil, or that the desire on either part to destroy the other is somehow uniquely more justified or deserved.

Like in Episode 1 here we're getting a very strong dose of the shitty things Aeorians are doing to other mortals in their pursuit of control and power - we already knew they were a warmongering surveillance state, and as things get worse on Exandria it's grimly unsurprising that the people on the ground are increasingly treated as disposable. But Aeor is still a city full of people seeking safety in a land torn open by the gods' battles, desperate to survive by any (increasingly ugly and sinister) means. And the gods in turn are afraid for their survival, and are acting accordingly in seeking Aeor's Downfall (immense collateral damage) - all while and the versions of them in the party here have lived mortal lives & hardships, have families, communities. They have lived in the desolation their own godly battles have created. We don't see them portrayed as lofty divine abstracts, not even necessarily in the intro, where they are confused, afraid, and seeking safety from danger.

For Ludinus to think this "footage" is in his favor against the gods, and the complexity of the lore being what it is and the cast being the storytellers that they are, I think it must be the kind of series of events you can look at and see the humanity (using that word deliberately) for good and ill in all parties involved - and leave again with your biases if they're strong enough. Very curious what we will learn. I expect to weep. I can't wait.

[essektheylyss]

I have to wonder about the order of the arrival of the gods' avatars in Exandria, in particular Ayden. Because he's so young. He feels older than his years, but he also feels young in the sense that he is still experiencing the world—he intervenes as often as he is able and is not shy about ending with the small community that they are soon leaving, he is most affected by suffering and injustice. There is a pity borne of his divine point of view, yes, but even comparing him to Trist, who has obviously embraced the mortal world and ingrained herself within it, or S.I.L.A.H.A., who has gone out of his way to experience the wonders of the city that has driven them to such drastic lengths but who seems distantly resigned to its destruction, Ayden feels impressed upon by the circumstances of the world in a way that is much more youthful.

It seems that there was some amount of plan around who arrived when, but it wasn't all that specific beyond Ioun scouting ahead in Aeor, and was otherwise based on their own decision or whim. Why did Pelor wait so long to go? Had he hoped that perhaps the issue would be resolved before it became necessary—before the light of Exandria was sequestered away in a mortal form? Was he wary of growing too used to being mortal, to becoming attached to his life even beyond Trist, who leaves her family ruefully but resolutely all the same?

Ayden walks as though he cannot help but let the world touch him, but he doesn't seem to have companions of his own, instead traveling with Trist's family. They have left their home recently enough that Trist is still wearing her husband's overcoat rather than her own, and he goes without, suggesting that they have fled recently and with haste. In contrast, Ayden makes no mention of parents or a family, though he is young enough that he should still be with them. In this time of war, it is simple to wonder if they've been killed in its path, perhaps before Ayden was aware of the hand he'd had in its making. He carries little, and the shield he has seems to be—at least looks—worn and broken. It's quite likely that it too was created in response to this war, as much as Ayden himself. He looks to his sister and her mercy like a north star.

He feels both new to and impressed upon by the world, and I have to wonder how forcefully he is holding himself apart from its suffering, even as he intervenes often enough that he risks giving himself and his family away—not because he is afraid to experience it, but because he already has. He understands that he is fighting for this world even as he and his family is the cause of its strife. Aeor may offer the gods the mechanism by which to separate themselves from the world they've shaped, but I wonder if having the perspective of Ayden will give Pelor the resolve and the reason to choose it.

[gorgynei]

aeor taking in refugees is so cool because it seems so out of character for aeor. heres a couple of my ideas about why they might extend resources:

aeor genuinely became a stronghold for mortals at some point during the calamity. very possible! if the calamity started making other flying cities drop like flies, they mightve realized that the rivalries they had going with other cities were less important than getting as many mortals as they can to team up against the gods

aeor wanted bodies for experimentation. also very possible. could explain why aeor was so successful in testing dangerous tech, they had a lot of desperate people they could exploit

aeor did become a real safe haven for refugees, but because they were using the refugees as a meat shield. maybe they thought the gods (or at least the prime gods) wouldn't strike down a city full of so many innocents. they were wrong, obviously, but the logic is sound in theory

[balleater]

something i've already posted about in the past but am thinking about again because of the conversations in this episode is that i still truly do not understand bells hells'(well, particularly ashton's) view on what is going to happen if the information about aeor gets sent out to the people of exandria. obviously, i'm not an average person living in that world and am instead a viewer of the media with fairly extensive knowledge of the lore, so i could definitely just be missing what the impact would actually be! but the insistence that it would be a world shattering revelation that completely turns everyone against the odds just... doesn't make sense to me?

unless ludinus has a way of editing the information he presents and can take away the context, which would basically make the "footage" even more strange, what they're going to be seeing is... the gods saving themselves from people with the active ability to murder them all and having a rather humanizing crisis of what they should do about it? i guess the working with the betrayer gods part could be considered the controversial aspect of it, but overall, considering everything else that was destroyed in the calamity, aeor really was the one instance that was closest to being "justified". i don't think anyone who cares enough about the gods for this to cause any sort of big disruption of faith would have as big of a problem with it as they are assuming, nor do i really think it's something that would cause mass revolts against the gods in people who aren't devout.

[bloodyshadow1]

downfall paints Deanna's conversation with Pelor in a different light to me now. It seems like he lashes out when she asks if he's worth saving. Obviously it would piss off anyone much less a powerful god like Pelor.

But now that we watched Downfall, the answer to him would be yes, because everyone deserves to be saved. The gods fail Aeor, I'm not denying that, but despite all of that, they tried to find another way. Things broke bad, some their fault some outside of their control in their mortal forms, but they tried so hard.

And He still loves the betrayer gods, and part of him knows that they still love the primes. Asmodeus for all the havoc he wrought couldn't stand to be in the same room as Pelor because he wouldn't be able to lie anymore about how much he 'hates' them.

Because even if it damages the world, Pelor and the other Primes love their betrayer siblings. They want nothing more than to save them and be a happy family again, but they won't sacrifice the world of mortals to do so.

yes, they'll put their siblings existence over the rest of the world, they're willing to destroy a city to keep them from killing the other gods they've been fighting for a century. But Pelor will still try to save everyone, even if he fails

The gods aren't perfect by any means, but despite what Ludinus thinks and proclaims, they aren't heartless being of pure power standing above everyone else. The reason for the divine gate is they realized they were just as culpible in the destruction of Aeor and the rest of Exandria and chose to leave to protect their children from them and their family.

[quipxotic]

Still astonished by the amount of people not taking the possibility of a second Calamity as a real threat despite a literal god, who has been in those discussions and should presumably know, saying it is very likely.

Do they think the Arch Heart is lying? If so, I mean fair.

Do they think Matt Mercer wouldn’t allow a second Calamity because of the damage it would do to Exandria? If so I think they’re wrong. He was going to allow Bell’s Hells to TPK in the Otohan fight and Downfall to rewrite known Exandrian history if the gods didn’t manage to destroy Aeor. A second Calamity, while bigger in-story, is not a bigger plot twist to work around than either of those things. Particularly since he must have known it was a possibility from the beginning of the campaign.

What do people think Downfall was if not foreshadowing a potential future risk? Obviously it was meant to accomplish several things but surely that was among them?

[pacificwaternymph]

Do you ever find it crazy how Empires SMP S1 had like... several gods just... walking around?

Like Empires s2 has Joel obviously but other than that no one else seems to really be a deity of any sort? I mean Sausage is there but he's not a god himself, just attracts them.

But s1? A solid third of the cast had some form of untapped divinity that they uncovered.

You had Lizzie, who turned out to be a ten foot tall goddess of the seas. Which means that Jimmy is at least a demigod just by nature of being her little brother. And the two of them are quite literally the oldest still living beings to ever walk the earth, predating civilization itself.

Then there's the whole situation with Scott and Xornoth. Reincarnations of vengeful gods, victims of an eternal cycle to perpetuate an endless grudge match. They may not be quite on the same level as Aeor and Exor but still!

And then on top of those four we also have Pearl??? Who is confirmed to have ascended after her death to a higher plane of existence? Who now has an entire religion surrounding her? Whose former best friend is now her most devout worshipper?

Does anyone else ever think about that?