Lack of Life

[ID: A digital illustration of Thimble and Occtis Tachonis from Critical Role. Thimble is the size of a human and grinning as she hugs Occtis, lifting him slightly off the ground so his feet dangle just above the floor. Occtis is hugging Thimble back and looking very surprised to be in the air. End description.]

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-07/holy-see-decrees-excommunication-lefebrians-consecrations.html

Then Primus Tachonis walks in and slams out instantly-recognizable 9th level spell Power Word Kill, which can only be cast by a character level 17 or higher.

Zebani Halovar.

Her nitwit little brother comes back after going awol for nearly 2 weeks, and manages to get back into their grandmother's good graces almost immediately.

Her nitwit little brother is invited to the meeting of the Sundered Houses

At the meeting of the Sundered Houses, her grandmother publicly reinforces to all the Lords present that she is getting passed over as heir in favour of her nitwit little brother.

After she comes to report that Halandil Fang isn't going ahead with her grandmother's revision, her nitwit little brother asserts his authority over her by telling her not to do anything without the authorities of her masters (aka him). Because he is the heir to the House, she can't do anything other than agree.

She goes with her uncle and some mercenaries & city soldiers to arrest Halandil, relying on word that he stole the Pariah Blades (presumably from Lady Dacen Cormoray) as a front to arrest him.

The excuse falls apart in 2 seconds because Thaisha Lloy is there and oops it turns out that the Pariah Blades to the Lloy family and they can take them back whenever they want.

Thaisha Lloy summons a storm to threaten the mercenaries and forces her to admit this is about the play. She and the mercenaries quickly realize how many people are there.

She then has to march home to tell her grandmother that she completely failed.

A wind blows out the candles they brought and she has to go home in the dark.

Yes, we must throw the One Ring into Mordor, but we also have to set up food banks and run volunteer drives and organize neighborhood watches.

One thing the Einfasen Carriage Discussion cemented is that the problem of the Undead also affects the Rebel Houses. They allied with the Tachonis out of need to fix the Barrowdell issues in their domain. So, even if the Afterlives hurt the Halovar and Tachonis bottom line (and that is a Big If), we would still be left with the banal Big Bad of Wealth (Cormoray) and Military Might (Einfasen)

Sure, maybe fixing the Afterlives will help with the arcane issues. But let's not pull a Nullus here and think that fixing the arcane issues will automatically solve the political problems. Those two quandaries intersect, ofc, but throwing the Ring to Mordor isn't going to change laws or establish democracy, and establishing a democracy isn't going to stop Sauron from raining hellfire (or whatever Sauron does).

It sure would help to not have hellfire raining so people can establish a democracy, and it sure would help to have a democracy to destroy Sauron. In short, there's overlap. The solution for the High Fantasy problem will help with the Civil Rights problem, and vice versa. But we must have two solutions.

This was never going to be a One Solution campaign. In the same way, the threats the Houses represent are divided in largely the same lines. Surprise, the Priestly Houses have arcana based "higher" power, putting their eggs in fake religions and the occult. Whereas, the Einfasen and the Cormoray have more "earthly" powers, trade and armies, full plate and farms.

My nephew is very allergic to eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and sesame. Last year my sister discovered all hot dogs and hamburger buns now contain sesame. Not "may contain", but listed in the ingredients. This year basically every brand of sliced bread also now contains sesame, making it very difficult to find bread items he can eat.

They're just adding it to their products, so they can just list it as an ingredient and not bother with worrying about cross contamination. And they aren't even bothering with telling anyone. Capitalism is going to kill us all.

"Which brings us back to Kellogg’s. Back in 2016, the company found a way around the added burden and expense of complying with the FSMA: they simply began adding trace amounts of peanut flour to their cracker products. Doing so allowed them to list peanuts as an ingredient of the product, freeing them from having to prevent cross-contact.

"NO! He's going to hurt the cat! Don't let him hurt the cat!"

In light of today's page, I'd like to update my assessment to:

"The cat is going to hurt everyone else."

I've been thinking about how the Pariah blades were made into plowshares by being repurposed as theater props, and how that logic might be applied to Bolaire for him to become part of an afterlife ritual. My theory is that it isn't just about Bolaire choosing to be a museum curator, or even choosing to be a person (though I think it is about that, too.) It's about how he chooses to relate to his hosts.

Think about it. What made the Pariah blades into plowshares wasn't about their physical form. It was about the purpose they were being used for, and about their relationship to their wielders. It was about Shadia looking at the blades and thinking of herself as an artist and the blade as her artistic medium.

Thus far, almost all of Bolaire's relationships with his hosts have either been his wielder as the enslaver/abuser and himself as the victim (the way the soldiers wielded him for decades, as we saw in the cold open of episode 13), or with himself as the enslaver/abuser and his host as the victim (Aubrus Drime, Lux Adora, Rulius Mercanaud, etc.) We've now seen what the experience of wearing him is like when he is in abuser mode: he keeps them imprisoned in the audience of a theater, controls how much access they have to their bodies and senses, and can use the lighting and architecture of the mind theater to torment them.

However, we have also seen glimpses of what wearing Bolaire might be like when he is neither the abuser nor the victim.

When Tyranny put on Bolaire, he was a voice at the back of her mind, and could cast spells to supplement her own magic. When Misha Undragore put on Bolaire, he got the kid glove treatment. Bolaire recreated ancient and long-forgotten plays for him, while discussing their artistic merit. He served him great wine, which had the same effects and taste that real wine would have had. He was able to do all of this while simultaneously navigating a complex discussion externally about what had just happened in the city and what plans to pursue next.

I also think that Bolaire can do even better than that, because we know from the Schemers' Tale Gate interview that Taliesin has a specific concept in mind for what would happen if Hal were to wear Bolaire. Given how much Bolaire loves Hal, I think we have to assume that he would experience something even more special than Misha did.

For Bolaire to become a plowshare, I believe he is going to have to imagine new concepts of who he could be for the people who wear him. So, based on what we know about Bolaire's capabilities, here are some of my thoughts about the good things he could do for his hosts, not just Misha or Hal, after he has some character development:

Given his virtual reality-like capabilities in the mind theater, and all of the knowledge he has, Bolaire could be the ultimate teacher, giving his wearers a sandbox in which they can try out sparring techniques, magic, or anything else risk-free.

For someone like Azune who has experienced a great deal of loss, he could provide his mind theater as a space to recreate and remember the past.

Given all of the illusion magic Bolaire wields, he could even allow his wearers to externally project as artistic illusion all of the things they can possibly stage and imagine inside his mind theater.

He could be a protector, worn by the weak and vulnerable, providing them magic and cover to survive in difficult circumstances.

Bolaire said of Misha: "His heart rate is very stable." He is also capable of getting his hosts mind-drunk. If he has a lot of insight and/or control into the bodily workings and mental states of his wearers, he could potentially help diagnose illness, numb pain, or heal in other ways.

Given that Bolaire is a warlock patron (currently his own patron), and we know that warlock patronage can prevent the Tachonises from taking people's souls, he could protect people against the Tachonises specifically.