#prime deities

"Exandria is in good hands, ever loved and cherished by all who will come from this day until the final days of creation. May they be far, far removed. Stories abound. Adventures unfold. The watchful gaze of the gods giving light to those who use their stories to find the way."

Happy 10 years Critical Role!

Gorgeous all over. But what are they connected to?

Possibly the Dahapshanee Wood? The edge of Hawthorne's Glade? Or something more in the Seekers' way? There's a semi-luminescent quality to the flowers, maybe growing near the edge of Eternal Night. I hope the big beast shows up in coming episodes.

CITY IN A MOUNTAIN CITY IN A MOUNTAIN

There's just enough rosy dappling on it that it makes me think it's in the Sunset Mountains, Murray Mag'Nesson's original home. Fingers crossed that she gets to visit there for a decompression moment, but I won't hold my breath.

Not sure about this one yet. It looks very floral and overgrown. The stuff in the background is drawing my eye the most. Structures that look oddly incomplete, like they're ruins left to get covered in greenery. Beyond them, some jagged mountains--juts of stone and frost looming over a verdant place. Perhaps the edge of some god's death site. Speaking of!

This has to be the ruins of the Obridimian Empire under the Eternal Night. They had Sphinxes! And sand! And now the land just has a great view of the stars and, presumably, only a smattering of people left who somehow cannot feasibly depart. Or else they simply prefer to camp out in endless gloom with the company of solar lamps and bonfires rather than mingling with wider post-Shaper civilization. Interesting details in the graffiti:

Gate doors, a flying city with a hazy question scrawled overhead, a crowned skull, massive swords, a giant with a sun behind their head. Things lost? Things hated or mourned? Or things dreamed?

Ohhh, this is a fancy-fancy locale. Possibly Dol-Makjar? I doubt it, considering the stained glass we see in the windows. They seem to correspond to divine domains. The Shapers only had seven gods to their pantheon, but the symbology seems to line up with 'This is the stuff we're in charge of/worshiped for' imagery. Not a design that seems likely for a city made legendary for housing the family who forged god-killing swords. A different city? Nation? Maybe even a flashback! But also, ZOOM IN:

Books in shelves. Carvings of an astronomer's telescope.

Sun and stars in the floor.

Carvings of forest and mountains. A shelf of bottles. A globe, more astronomical tools. Someplace to do with observing the stars--the place beyond Aramán's sky. And really look at the symbols in the windows.

Justice. Storm. Death. Swords. Fortune. Wilderness. Wolf. Sea. Anvil. Arrow. Sun. Night. Twelve icons.

And how many Prime deities are there in Exandria?

Big Theory: This place is dedicated to researchers who have become aware of Exandria and the novelty of gods who lean more on benevolence to mortals than the Shapers ever did. Perhaps they’re even working to make contact with them.

It's fine. They're fine. They all totally worship and pray to a prime deity a normal amount

The end of the Calamity was only 840 something years ago. With Elves and dragons running around, some of them are definitely old enough where, if they didn't live during the Age of Arcanum themselves, their parents or grandparents would have and they would have been told a thousand stories of the fuck heads in flying cities who destroyed the world and were super annoying and dangerous long before they did that. Many more would be born during the latter part of the Calamity or raised by people who survived the Calamity who passes on those stories. Depending on the race we are talking anywhere from direct witnesses (Like the Bright Queen and Ludinus) to like 2-5 generations removed. Even humans with our short lifespans, it's really not THAT long, especially if you've got a bunch of old ass elves around teaching history class from a first person pov for like 500 years lol.

Intellectually people know that Critical Role, the world of Exandria is a post apocalypse story. Exandria is a scarred landscape that is just beginning to bounce back from the brink. But because it is recovering, it's easy to forget sometimes that it IS POST APOCALYPTIC. So people looking at Vasselheim in the modern day are like, 'bro, you really need to chill, everything's fine.' And Vasselheim is like... 'Chill? I do not understand the meaning of this word. And everything is fine... for now. We will be a bastion of civilization when the end times come once more. Fare thee well traveler.'

Then everyone rolls their eyes and moves on with their day. But if you really think about Vasselheim's isolationism and strength and distain for arcane magic in historical context, you can't really blame them. Are they over the top about their dislike of arcane magic? Sure. Is it quite possibly the most understandable over reaction in the history of over reactions? Also yes! They haven't made it illegal, they are just going to keep an eye on you, so you don't pull a Vespin Chloras and doom the planet to another few centuries of choked skies and sundered landscapes, that's all. Vespin was IN Vasselheim! Of COURSE they have strong feelings about it. The (Almost) End of the World began in Vasselheim due to arcane magic. If they had been stricter, maybe it wouldn't have happened at all!

And it really does paint their actions in Campaign 1 in a different light as well. Their isolationism can come across as shortsighted and selfish, until you view it from their point of view. Which is that they are constantly under threat, they know for a fact that Asmodeus wants their city destroyed, they are a bastion for the Prime Deities in a world filled with many heathens (lol that's where the dickishness comes in) and the Betrayer Gods would take any sign of weakness in their defenses and attack with glee. Hearing it in C1 it sounds like an excuse not to help against the Chroma Conclave, but it is literally just the truth from what I can tell. In BOTH Calamity and Downfall they have mentioned destroying Vasselheim being on the Betrayer God's to do list lol. If I was on a Betrayer God's to do list specifically, by name, I too would be somewhat paranoid and would not really want to disarm any portion of the city to go do something else. No matter how important the something else might be.

Vasselheim was basically like; Look, I'm very sorry to hear about your Dragon problem, that sucks, truly, but if we go out all willy nilly and leave this city undefended, it'll be fucked when we get back. When you have a real plan, come back and get us and we'll join you for the big fight. Until then, it's up to you, here you can have Kima as well, she's been desperate to get out of here anyway, and here's some supplies. We have larger concerns than one continent being attacked by four ancient Dragons. We are the seed bank for civilization for when shit inevitably hits the fan. We are the doomsday bunker for the Apocalypse, four Ancient Dragons are terrible, but they are not the Apocalypse. And they are right. Looking at it all in context, The Chroma Conclave are small potatoes. Horrific, monstrous, life destroying, but compared to the threat Vasselheim is preparing for, nothing.

Whether because you think it'd be a good idea or for the bit (assume this is somehow compatible with established things like Pike tracking down the Everlight)

And then Bahamut and Tiamat stood over to the side and just: