random thoughts

bcs the description hannan gives about what he does is that he (and im paraphrasing obv) goes out into the darkest parts of the world and puts 110% of himself into fighting undead to the point where hes okay (and to a point wants to) dying to rid the world of evil undead because he's lost everything already.

whereas thaisha leaves to heal the world because she's inspired by hal's art and wants to continue the work of her ancestors to create a better, and safer, world for her family/her children. and even though she leaves dol makjar she returns to visit her family, obviously often enough that she's familiar with elodie and hero (as well as aranessa and thjazi, assuming they got married around the time hal and elodie met based on when hero was born in the cold open) and swaps teams to stay at the theatre to see hal and shadia's show.

and it makes perfect sense that hannan would be the one to help vaelus realize that sylandri was wrong, because they're both elves and both lived during the time of the shapers while thaisha, no matter how much she may know/learn, will never have the same experiences.

but I personally don't think that hannan is the person (elf? is person just for humans or is that universal?) to help vaelus heal from that realization, because they've suffered the same losses and are actually already very similar (throwing themselves into combat not considering personal risk because a part of them welcomes death bcs it means being with those they lost)

also thaisha has (seemingly) what vaelus wants out of her life, and i especially think it would be interesting, since blended families seems normalized in orcish culture in araman, for vaelus to be welcomed into a (thaisha's) family in a way that hannan can't offer.

anyway the tldr is that thaisha probably couldn't have helped vaelus accept the reality of who sylandri was, particularly as quickly as hannan did, but hannan likely isnt capable of offering the healing that vaelus would want that comes after the realization in the way thaisha can based on their priorities/experiences

“copper” wire for population support in so good

also warren peace even tho it had been mentioned in the adventuring party

i’ve realized part of why i love the schemers table so much is that they’re kind of narrative foils for exu:calamity

like murray is similar to nydas, they both have influence in the local school/university, both obviously care about the futures of the children/students attending the schools, and (importantly, to me at least) came from v little/no money

but murray is a wizard who teaches and (implied) embezzles funds and lies bcs she has a teacher’s salary, whereas nydas was a sorcerer who turned away from sorcery and towards being a bard because it was easier for him, so instead he sponsored the school with his enormous wealth

and hal is similar to loquatious bcs they both are the foremost “arts” (i say in quotes bcs loquacious was a news broadcaster, but a performer nonetheless) influence at the time and are (maybe were, in hal’s case, since we don’t rly know yet how being thjazi’s brother will impact him) beloved by everyone they know in their city

but hal works directly with the people to show off the truth and more importantly the history of the land to inspire people, whereas loquatious was an untouchable celebrity figure who announced the present/future and lied to (in his justification) protect people

and bolaire is kind of a combination of patia and laerynn, where he has a profound magical knowledge and a very important “family” history

but he/it prioritizes history and memory and stories while laerynn and patia did the exact opposite and focused on dreams of the future and [the illusion of] greatness

bolaire doesn’t need to pretend he can become god-like by achieving something bcs he helped killed a god, why would he want to become one, and if anything he just wants to feel and be treated like a regular person

and funny enough luis’s characters kind of mirror each other, except azune has none of zerxus’ ego and is closer in job ranking to cerrit since he has bosses and the ability to detect/monitor magic usage (and he seems to try to be like cerrit, not intentionally but as a character trope as an investigator, and he fails at that immediately and his friend dies because of it)

but azune (at least theoretically) protects the city and is (unlike zerxus) in the loop with the other schemers and shows up with a plan and wants to help and trust others

and he is also the first one to suggest hiring a militia, and even if its just to keep them out of the hands of the tachonis/halovar, its a v aggressive stance to take and he (like zerxus) doesnt seem to know moderation and is very much all in

so basically the schemers (to me) are the ring of brass if the ring of brass had v little (or no, in reference to the most powerful ppl/the tachonis & halovar) influence, v little money (comparatively), & limited access to magic and still had to save the city/world

anyway if anyone reads this thx ig and if not oh well thx anyway