#exu laerryn

[janedoe297-art]

I'm. not ok!

[lizormianillustration]

there are a lot of stories in exandria of mortals who stumbled their way into feywild and fell in love with an enchanting fairy that they met there.

[alipopsie]

I was trying to go back to sleep but I couldn't rest til I made this

[rebe-draws]

EXU Calamity Fan-Art - Laerryn Coramar-Seelie

Another tarot inspired piece as part of the Calamity series I'm working on ✨

Couldn't shake the visual of Laerryn plucking at the strings of the leylines. Laerryn is also lit in red, as if lit by the light of Ruidus!

The Tower: Commonly interpreted as meaning danger, crisis, destruction, and liberation. It is associated with sudden unforseen change.

[twinklestarss]

“[…]A lot of it speaks of patterns of arcana across cultures, across time, across dates and you can see Exandrian calendar fragments. You can see notes on repetition and the shiftings of magic. You can see fonts of arcana and power that overlap with celestial events. There's a lot of noting where things continue to recur over long and short periods of time. […] With that, as you're doing this, you glance around and you can see there are other parts of this chamber where more of these notes are still somewhat present, haven't been taken entirely. So you begin to cut some of this away. You notice that in elements of these notes, it calls out historical specialists, people to reach out to in the world that might know this.”-Matt

Campaign 3 Episode 57: The Sorrow of Molaesmyr

[plantskiddo]

never not thinking about them

[thirtythree43]

to be fair to wizards if I gained the power to shoot fire out of my hands i would also become full of hubris 

[pengold]

Ladies of Critical Role cuz 💅

https://ko-fi.com/s/eb9c11647c

Individual icons of each of the ladies from critical role...👀👀💅

[hhartcandy]

Like literally everyone else, I too was fully decimated by this line

@criticalrole

[elissastillstands]

We will ensure it. This will work. Avalir be damned. // from “Fire and Ruin”

Further fantasies of an animated Exandria Unlimited in the style of Legend of Vox Machina, this time with me trying some shots of Laerryn Coramar-Seelie. I had a lot of fun with these!

[glorfy-the-bright-haired-ellon]

I've been thinking about Laerryn and Loquatius a normal amount

[kiiratart]

I cast Blight

it’s been months and I still can’t get her out of my head... Laerryn ......

[bubblyernie]

Gonna redraw this as Loquatious and Laerynn

[demartinidesigns]

I cast Blight.

The Architect Arcane herself.

EXU: Calamity shook me to my core. Everyone knocked it out of the park. But damn if Aabria isn't pure joy to watch, even when making me cry.

[twinklestarss]

“The language of command, of bending powerful institutions to your will. Many masks cover the inner truth of what you are trying to do in this moment.”- Brennan

EXU Calamity Episode 3: Blood and Shadow

Bonus Aabria:

[rowanyx]

There is something so deep about Laerryn's choice in the finale, and Brennan's phrasing of the decision to be made.

To clarify, this scene (copied and pasted from the CR wiki transcripts):

BRENNAN: On a 16, you must make a tough decision. Do you want to further limit the release of energy and make the release of energy safer for the physical environs of Avalir and Cathmoíra, or do you want to ensure that Rau'shan and Ka'Mort will be permanently banished from Exandria?

TRAVIS: Impossible.

AABRIA: Laerryn's little joke to herself was always that the Heart of Avalir was the thing she inherited, but it was too small. She made it bigger, she improved it. She improved the Etheric Net and built this and that she was the Heart of Avalir, and she gave everything to this city. But I know what people are fighting to protect and I remember what Quay said about going down with the ship. So we will ensure it. This will work. Avalir be damned.

or this timestamp of the episode (in case the link doesn't work for the timestamp, the first comment's list has it labelled Laerryn's Tough Decision):

As we were first introduced to her, Laerryn Coramar-Seelie is the Architect Arcane. As Aabria herself even put, her whole life, all her work, is about taking the city and making it better. Building more. Expansion is the name of the game. So when Brennan specifies that the limiting of energy output will save the physical environs rather than the people, that holds weight.

Just, in a mechanics aspect, there is the fact she is an Abjurer. The whole point of her magic is exactly this choice. To stop things from being destroyed. Her wards that take the damage so that she or others will not. She is not built to bring destruction, leave the fight to others. She will be there to soften the blows that come her allies' ways. She is the one one deciding this, and it feels right, because she's spent her studies dedicated to figuring out how she will prevent the destruction that comes her way.

But that isn't all.

Because any other hero, any other party member, every other soul faced with this question could so easily think that it is a useless decision. A city can be rebuilt, but only if the Betrayer Gods are stopped before they kill all the people that can do so.

But Laerryn, who has dedicated her years to this, the position of Architect Arcane, knows this city and her structures far more intimately. She has been there, step by step, as she forged them. Designed them. Watched over their construction. It is by her hand it was built.

Asking her, specifically, is asking her to choose between everything she's done, or let it all burn. Asking her to make this decision is asking her to decide her legacy. Will she live on as the maker of the land that survived such devastation, but not the people, or will she go down as the one who helped stop the Calamity?

Her choice boiled down to this: Limiting the energy, their work, the libraries and churches, the colleges, grand towers and hallowed halls, stone and mortar, it all can go on unshattered. Or, stopping the Betrayers, the people may continue on.

Was her work more important than the lives she was surrounded by?

Aabria mentions Laerryn was given the Heart of Avalir, jokes how she improved it. But the Heart of Avalir, while magical, is only an engine. It was made, and can be again. So in this moment, I think Laerryn maybe realizes that the true heart of a city comes from the people. Always thinking, thoughts speed by her, whether or not she ever had time to really process the revelations before her demise.

Evandrin is already gone due her hubris. Who else would she lose? Would it have felt like home, without Loqautious there by her side? Would it truly feel like her city, without Patia keeping up with her? What would she cause, without Nydas to hold her back? What is Avalir, without her Brass Ring?

Her assistant, probably still waiting for her, in their offices, and the choice of which will see tomorrow?

How many will feel the heat of Rau'shan's flames as they die? How many will fall to Ka'Mort's earth?

None, she decides. Her friends and neighbors, the kinsmen of her home, will not feel these pains.

I think it is also a moment that beautifully showcases her accepting her death. She will not be here to heal her city. She's going down with the ship. Maybe her blueprints will be found and used, and Avalir will be as it once was. Maybe they won't, and they'll construct it all anew. But she won't see it, so it is their turn to take what was given and build on.

Of course, Rau'shan and Ka'Mort were not the only assets of the Calamity, and damage and destruction was still wrought across Exandria. But there are enough hands to clear the ruins and make their own stories. And that is because of the greatest Architect of them all.

She gave them a chance indeed.