#ruidisborn

[skeine]

So the Tree of Atrophy's vision implies that Exandria will survive Predathos's release and abandonment as it chases the gods: "left below, the blue waters and green of the world lay bare". Implying left uncorrupted, but no longer protected by higher powers from greater threats. But what's to prevent new gods from sliding into the vacuum left behind? Or new elder evils from razing the world? Or other planar threats like mind flayers or githyanki or demon hordes?

I wonder if Ludinus accounted for this in his plan. Because according to Ira, the Malleus Key was designed to moor the moon. We're assuming that was for long enough to use the solstice to break the cage around Ruidus, but what if it was also designed to do exactly what it's doing now? Open a crack and just hold it?

The leyline disruption Keyleth and Imogen are sensing suggests that, much like Moleasmyr's spreading corruption, Predathos's power could be infecting the whole leyline network and spreading its influence across the world.

Ludinus's notes went on about his admiration of Ruidisborn and their power, its source something intrinsically antithetical to the gods. How many children have been born near a Ruidis-infected leyline or nexus in the last couple weeks? How many regular folks living their lives near a leyline or nexus have been continuously exposed to Ruidus's flare through it for days on end now? This could be creating a massive new cohort of Ruidis-touched, maybe even Exaltants, all across Exandria.

I wonder if this extended solstice isn't just due to the Bells Hells' interference, but was actually part of Ludinus's plan all along—his gift to the world. A massive part of the population now manifesting powers that brand them, willingly or not, as enemies of the gods. Who pass this inheritance on to their children and grandchildren. A new breed of mortals beholden to no divinity, with the power to defend their independence from any threat that comes in the wake of the gods' abandonment. With the power to challenge the dominance of the gods' chosen, should Ludinus's plans fail, or if he succeeds, to defend themselves against new gods and new planar threats that may rise from the void left behind.

After all, why rely on a capricious eldritch horror to save the people when you can give them the means to save themselves?

I love the possibilities this could open up for the future of Exandria. Ordinary people with these strange new abilities popping up across the land, challenging the social order, threatening vested interests fighting to hold onto their position and influence, being conscripted by the powers that be to prop up their rule, trying to just live their lives and realizing that power also means those who will try to exploit it...

Yeah, very interested what this could mean for campaign 4

[ruidisborn]

NEW URL

Leaning into the third campaign with a new URL! 

@NATTWENTY >>>> @RUIDISBORN

[samcarter34]

Also, Liliana saying 'take Ludinus out of the equation, is freeing Predathos so terrible?' is obviously bad for the reasons listed in the show, but also...ma'am, you can't take him out of the equation. He's the one who wrote it on the board.

And on some level, she clearly realizes this, because she also tried to argue that Ludinus is just following Predathos' plan, except that also doesn't work, because that implies that Predathos is okay with what Ludinus has done.

[ludinusdaleth]

the fact liliana is the vessel of predathos and not ludinus, and he bears no ill will toward her and in fact seems to revere her for it, is yet another sign he wasnt lying when he said he finds power to very simply be a tool, & detests it. i assume he now needs power tangibly as an addiction due to the harness and to survive long enough to see his goals through, and he has a subconscious need for his goals to go exactly as he plans, but he has never once in all the campaigns wanted to really be the Man. he's doing what he does because he feels he needs to. liliana is sacrificing, as he is.

[mistralrunner]

In another segment of I want Ludinus Da’leth to suffer all the indignities and humiliation and failure but do respect his conniving: My updated theory for the Duskmaven pendants for Paragon’s Call is that their purpose was two-fold. Superficially, they were a way to conceal the Call’s involvement in an anti-god scheme and probably acted as that to a degree, especially given Otohan’s history as a follower of the Duskmaven.  But you know, like Ludinus’s sudden sloppiness, kind of seems a hubris mistake to continue to wear the holy symbol out in the middle of the wastes when you’ve already beaten up Vasselheim folks, if you take the assumption that a large concentration of holy symbols might make it easier for a deity to focus their power, they surely wouldn’t want any focusing of power. ...definitely not via a faction known as Paragon’s Call.

[c-kiddo]

@joycrispy dont worry i love wild baseless speculation . this is why i stay silly and now think cad is ruidisborn (also because itd be cool). thing is though, is probably they're going to head to uthodurn, or try to, because chet knows it well and can try get help from there. and in uthodurn is reani, who's not exactly subtle and is an aasimar druid with a direct god connection, so she probably knows something is up. . and then if she was asked if she knows any direct other god connection, she knows tmn and also knows the clays and has been to the temple . so, basically its all connected. this is how clay fam cameo can still win .

(also a connection to the dusts would be fun lol . maybe he's mad because they have a forge and he thinks woodwork is superior)

[densitywell]

i don't actually think there is anyone that thinks the former unless they're being sarcastic? but yes, it was the latter. which still isn't great because it erases a good 50% of laudna's character development for the sake of "laudna should kill this character i hate"

but laudna has already regressed, already given back in to delilah when she killed bor'dor. and regression isn't an erasure of character as much as it is, like; if you thought of a character's development as a line, regression would be drawing the line so that it connects to a previous point on itself, and then moves in a different direction entirely. it's very true to life (healing isn't linear!) and also has the potential to be fascinating in what it reveals about a character (see: orym regressing heavily during the issylra arc and becoming the most compelling he's ever been).

and regardless of all this, there are many people in fandoms who just want to shove as much angst into everything as possible. not my thing, and i personally don't think laudna being compelled by delilah or tapping into her power to kill one of her friends would be an interesting direction, but i don't think it's the same as like, abuse apologism.

[definitionofacritter]

I want Orym to be Ruidisborn so immensely. What if Will called him his little moon because Derrig told him a story of how Orym was born under a red flare?

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

I'm really fascinated by Kord directly addressing Imogen because it feels like a direct response to her saying that she isn't sure she wants to save gods that don't love her

Because his message to her ISN'T loving; he's very stern and direct with her and he makes it clear he's watching her in part to ensure she doesn't fuck the scouting mission up and doom him and his brethren

But what his message is is respectful; he directly acknowledges that there is greatness in Imogen which is why she's being trusted in this by the gods, despite Imogen's belief that they might consider her tainted for being Ruidisborn

The Stormlord looked Imogen in the eyes and said, "I don't love you, but I respect you and am trusting you in this. This had better be enough to not fuck it up"

[magicalspit]

imogen: i've prayed to the gods and have never gotten a response, i think i'm tainted,

kord, who i assume has been waiting for years for One exaltant ruidisborn to understand: ok i give up i'm just going to you directly

[elle-thereafter]

I will bet all the money in my pockets that Ludinus needs Fearne — a fey creature who is also Ruidisborn, a creature who should not exist and his allies purposefully put effort into creating — he needs her because Ludinus wants to be or needs to be Ruidisborn himself but is not. This guy who has sucked out the power of fey creatures into himself for years, he 100% has another version of that harness and he’s hoping by sucking up a Ruidisborn fey he’ll become Ruidisborn himself.

This is the second time an agent of Ludinus has tried to take Fearne without killing her. There is only one obvious reason for him to do that.

All. The money. In my pockets. It’s on the table.

[saintdollyparton]

That was legitimately one of the best Critical Role episodes in a long while. And that ending gave me chills. I refuse to feel bad for Liliana, though. Imogen tried to reach her and she wouldn't listen. And her fury and horror at what probably happened to the Ruidisborn around her is a slap in the face to the daughter she abandoned. I hope Gaz is okay, but Imogen tried to warn the Volition about attempting an assassination against her mother, as well. Really, the lesson here is people should listen to Imogen.

[ludinusdaleth]

"In my mind, it seems that Ludinus and the Vanguard's interest involved creating as many Ruidisborn as possible in the hopes that the few odd children might be born special. ...You were halfway there. [...] All I know is, and I say this with absolute love and understanding of a disappointing father as Zathuda might be, he himself might be a little disappointed."

"For him to be disappointed, he would have to be present, so..."

[chuckling] "True."

-Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 89, "Divisive Portents"

[vethbrenatto]

okay imogen potentially being turned to the ruidis moon with the whole "they eventually forgot why they went" bit kind of does nothing for me but the idea of FEARNE getting ensnared by ruidis is really interesting to me.

like that's probably just because there's all this buildup for imogen potentially being overtaken by ruidis, where as the subtlety with which its been emphasized that fearne is ruidisborn is gonna make it feel like a slap in the face out of nowhere (in a good way) if she can't resist the pull of the moon. like, imogen is already tempted by ruidis. if fearne gets turned, though, you know the pull of the moon is ridiculously strong.

[astoriacolumnstaircase]

I really can’t stop thinking about the way Alma said there was a like, routine? A something? A way to ensure no babies are born to the Ashari while Ruidis is flaring. “Because kids can be cruel about superstition.” No! Disagree! Kids learn superstition from their parents! Cruelty isn’t something just inherent to children. If the Ashari have a whole thing about not having ruidisborn children, it’s not the children who created those ways to avoid them.

And Imogen and Fearne were just sitting there, listening to this sweet woman who went and got pastries for them all because she was worried Laudna looked gaunt, as she glossed over how a whole society developed a method to avoid every having anyone like them. That breaks my heart! When Bor’dor asked “was she born evil” about Imogen, I took it with a grain of salt. He was ruby vanguard, he was trying to get under Laudna’s skin. But Alma? Alma is Orym’s mother. She’s a kind woman who works with new mothers and delivers babies. And she’d rather complicate labor even further than it already is just to keep any kids from whatever she thinks Ruidis might do to them.

I’m going crazy.  Fearne and Imogen aren't inherently evil, but they were subject to the cruelties of those superstitions. Fearne's parents stashed her away and lost decades with her. And Imogen, maybe she didn't know she was ruidisborn, but with her obsessive need to weigh her actions as good or bad, desperately hoping to come out good, what do you want to bet the people in that small town knew what the moon was doing the night she was born? How often they shook their heads at any small misstep and said some kids were just born bad?

Was she born evil. smh

[greenteaandtattoos]

imogen saying fearne was "running from her power" by rejecting the shard, as if dark fearne is an inevitability... imogen, honey, you're very clearly projecting your desire for a connection with someone who understands more than anyone else what it's like to lose the agency of their own destiny.

you've spent so long running from your powers, struggling when you learned of the destiny the ruby vanguard forced upon you as a ruidisborn, fighting the urge to give into the power that you've seen corrupt others. and you crave the bond with someone else who experienced that journey, on a fundamental level.

but fearne has just as much every right to fear her dark self as imogen does. she hopes that maybe if fearne gives into her darker side... she can, too. after all, laudna already has. and imogen has been increasingly clear about how unsure she is of her place on the spectrum of pro-save the gods vs pro-let the gods be eaten.