#i mean A Game Of Crones? Loose Threads? A Tangled Web? I am Extremely Suspicious of the sisters

[keyleth-clay]

Venture Maidens Fate Campaign Speculation

Here there be spoilers for Venture Maidens: Fate, episodes 83-86 (and also pretty much everything before that)! Read ahead at your own risk!

Man, Celeste is such a good fucking DM.

And that goes for, y’know, everything she does in every episode of the show, but even more than that – I’m currently on episode 86 of Fate, and despite the fact that the end of the campaign is so close, I have no idea what’s going to happen. I don’t know who the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are. Which, when there’s 13 episodes left in a campaign and you’re firmly in the home stretch? Is usually something that’s pretty obvious.

This is mostly just going to be rambling to get my thoughts in order at this point in the campaign, and also because it’s fun to speculate even though I’m Very Far Behind.

I’m firmly of the opinion that Rem isn’t a bad guy. Yes, she took the Avatar, but then in episode 85 Kara said that she hired the drow to dig it up, which, unless I managed to miss that part, isn’t actually true and is just an assumption (either on the player’s part or the character’s, or both). Yes, she killed Nerull, but she specifically only killed one god, her father, and I imagine that she had a very good reason to do so. She probably could have killed more, many more, but she didn’t, and I don’t think she killed this one particular god coincidentally.

(There’s also the fact that, according to DnD lore, Nerull is technically already canonically dead, as he is the predecessor to the Raven Queen. I wonder if that’s part of her motivation in killing him…)

Celeste also managed to make me very suspicious of the Sisters of Sorrow (the gods, not the organization) with a single conversation. Why Fera? Why would she be leader, even though she showed no desire to lead? Why pull her away in the middle of a mission and say, specifically, “Anyone who spends time under the influence of an evil god cannot be trusted.” (ep 83)

Really? Like Arrnodel, whose patron was fucking Dendar, who the very person/people saying this helped to facilitate her getting a different patron, and who were apparently fine with giving her their gift initially? Like Sawyeh, who freed Olhydra and took her into her body and who Isolde said that they would have to kill if it turned out that she was being controlled by Olhydra’s influence? And they’re saying that “Anyone who spends time under the influence of an evil god cannot be trusted” about ISOLDE TRISTANE, who is a CLERIC OF THE SISTERS OF SORROW and who has been nothing but faithful to them? Because she cared about Rem, I guess?

(The fact that Katie/Fera didn’t bring this up in the conversation later with the rest of the party is driving me up the fucking WALL, but anyways.)

And also, the whole assumption from the players – and from the NPCs, which is almost certainly intentional on Celeste’s part to sow doubt – that Rem is trying to destroy the world?

Why? Why would they assume that she wants to destroy everything? What possible motivation could she have for that?

And this is the same Rem that was furious with Kristoph and Isolde for not wanting to open the Elysium Keep to the refugees from Bastard’s Breach – including the children, which was her main argument, that those innocent children and innocent citizens did nothing wrong and didn’t deserve to be turned away. The same Rem that was furious with the carillons for putting the Maidens through their trials and their part in Arrnodel’s death.

AND the supposed damage that Rem was doing to the fabric of reality, the one that the Sisters (again, the gods) were so concerned about? When Celeste describes it to Fera/Katie, she says that “You would never have seen this if she hadn’t pointed it out to you – this tiny flaw in the fabric”. That’s the world-ending damage to reality that they’re so concerned about? That’s the tear in the universe that the Maidens must protect, and that they must stop Rem from doing, and also that the Sisters are just… claiming is Rem’s fault? If that was the case, wouldn’t she have just attacked them directly, instead of killing Nerull?(ep 83)

In episode 77, in the message that Rem gave to Sawyeh’s water elemental (Persahna? Idk how to spell it), she said “I seek to unshackle us all”. Taking the damage to the weave of reality into account – my best guess at this point is that we’re dealing with a Fate vs. Free Will argument. Especially because of how many members of the Sisters of Sorrow (an organization named after the goddesses of fate) owe their allegiance to Rem, and her steadfast belief in second chances and redemption, and how many of those people she brought into the organization don’t even follow the Sisters.

Also, there’s the fact that this campaign & its world-building takes a lot of inspiration from Greek mythology - you know, the Greek mythology where the gods are often vengeful, and petty, and deeply flawed, and also aren’t all-knowing and frequently only care about protecting themselves and their own domains?