#Lord of Calamity

[92darkdragon]

I’m looking for a manga.

I found these 2 pages on Pinterest. I gotta know more bout it even if I have to Google translate it.

From my guess, it’s a fan comic of tales of zestiria featuring a “tainted” Sorey (or fractured world) ((I never got to play tales of asteria so I don’t know the whole story there))

Bottom line, does anyone know the title of the manga, or where I can read it? ((Seriously send a link in the comments))

[xxdoubledaisyxx]

Don't take it personally Sorey and friends...

But... I am always happiest when Velvet takes the stage.

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

leave it to exu to really remind me that some actors are just made to play certain gods

[shellem15]

Can I just say, I really appreciate how Critical Role plays the Devil trope straight. There's been this phenomena in a lot of modern media (I'm not going to mention specifics but I'm sure a few examples pop up in people's minds) where Hell and the Devil aren't scary or malevolent forces. Hell is portrayed as being basically the same as our world just "edgier", and the Devil is a pretty decent guy actually. Heaven are secretly the real bad guys!

But Critical Role doesn't do that. In Exandria, Asmodeus *feels* like the Devil. He's malevolent and manipulative and terrifyingly powerful and he hates you, personally. We never see that type of portrayal anymore! And it's amazing! And he still manages to be sympathetic and tragic without losing his edge!

And the "Good Gods" are portrayed as flawed without being secretly evil or something! Like, actual nuance? In my Heaven/Hell dichotomy? What!?

It's just such a breath of fresh air after so many "The Devil was right, actually" stories. So props to Matt and Brennan and the cast.

[kimbapchan]

The three MXTX Shou’s (Shen Yuan/SQQ, Xie Lian, and Wei Wuxian) but reversed 🤭 should I also do the Gongs? Hehe 😉

[winterpinetrees]

Rereading the hobbit after reading Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion for the first time is unlocking special new emotions that I cannot describe. They’re close to EXU Calamity emotions, but so much stronger.

The Hobbit introduces Elrond like this. “The master of the house was an elf-friend—one of those people whose fathers came into the strange stories before the beginning of History, the wars of the evil goblins and the elves and the first men in the North. In those days of our tale there were still some people who had both elves and heroes of the North for ancestors, and Elrond the master of the house was their chief.”

It’s vague and it sets the scene. It’s enough.

But like, that’s the Silmarillion right there! “wars of the evil goblins”, you mean the war against Morgoth? The battle of sudden flame, the fall of Gondolin, Fingolfin’s duel, every high king and kinslaying and death contained in a line. Elrond’s ancestors aren’t just some “elves and heroes of the north”, they are Beren and Luthien and Melian and Earendil! No one but Tolkien knew back then, but they did happen and they did matter!

The Silmarillion is out there now though, and so many people have read it. I read it. Maedhros and Maglor’s kidnap family mattered. Elros and Numenor mattered. There used to be a continent called Beleriand and a dog that talked three times and entirely too many grandchildren of Finwe. And it’s all gone now.

What’s left? Well, there’s two swords in a troll cave. There’s a wandering Maia with a fun hat. There’s a shiny stone that feels suspicious now, even though I know Tolkien wouldn’t have put a silmaril into a story so casually. Lastly, there’s Elrond, and he’s as kind as summer.

Elrond is as kind as summer.

[iwantmasterkohga]

I see them everywhere……

[asmodeus-cock]

This is about Vespin and Zerxus

[starrymoonsoup]

bringing back amphibia art is 2025 real quick

[xfulcrumx]

I cannot stop thinking about Asmodeus, Sarenrae, and Zerxus

Zerxus, in Luis’s own words, is a redemption paladin played to the max. His belief in redemption is so unshaking that he not only believes Asmodeus can be redeemed, but declines Nydas’s salvation and submits to Asmodeus because to do otherwise would be to admit that he himself would be beyond saving if he went down that path. He cannot and will not let go of his faith in redemption and it costs him his soul.

In this way, Zerxus truly was meant to be Sarenrae’s champion. They share an unwavering faith in redemption to the point of fault. But, Zerxus grew up in a culture that scoffed at the Prime Deities. The hubris of that time did not allow for Zerxus to see how the Everlight was the embodiment of his most sacred ideals. It is this hubris that Asmodeus takes advantage of.

Every chance he gets Asmodeus slaughters the followers of Sarenrae. He does this because he cannot allow hope to exist. His domination must be so pure that the thought of an alternative is not an option. The Everlight must be snuffed out, for she represents everything he despises.

Asmodeus, the god of domination, who cannot accept that he could be beneath anyone, even for a second, as they raise a hand to lift him up, sees this perfect redemption paladin and sees a delicious way to prove that Sarenrae is weak. That hope is a flaw to be extorted and crushed. And even better, brings a powerful threat that would have likely fought in Sarenrae’s name under his control.

Everything Asmodeus does is done to hurt Sarenrae specifically. His sister, who showed him mercy and compassion in his very first moment of reality, as he chose to use his power to force a path for his kin. This one, well-intended choice forever cementing his fate as a god known for imposing his violent will, and her fate as a god known to provide safety and light to all who seek it no matter the cost.

Sarenrae will always go back to Asmodeus. Sarenrae will always try to heal him. And he will always push away, more violently each time, for his chosen path /must/ continue. Those were the choices that made them real, they are the center of their very being.

[mareastrorum]

I love villains, and I especially enjoy Brennan Lee Mulligan’s take on them. His version of Asmodeus in EXU Calamity and Downfall really highlights the reasons why.

A villain is the embodiment of the wrong conclusion. They aren’t always an antagonist; they aren’t necessarily meant to obstruct the protagonist of a story. Hell, they might even be helpful. Villains don’t even have to be evil, per se, they just have to be on the wrong path in the context of the story.

Asmodeus is a brilliant villain and as evil as it gets. He’s the Father of Lies, and he indulges in it deliciously. The lies are always half truths so that the protagonist fills in the blanks with assumptions and gets it wrong. He matches their energy to give them what they want to hear. He plays along with naivety and hope. He doesn’t take anything from people other than lives; they give the rest willingly because they want to believe him. Asmodeus finally reveals his deception when he has someone cornered because he wants them to know they did it to themselves. Asmodeus wants everyone he hurt to come to the realization that “I knew better and let this happen anyway.” He did it to Vespin Chloras, Zerxus Ilerez, and Sarenrae.

From EXU Calamity episode 4, after Zerxus realizes he’s been had:

Asmodeus is the embodiment of the desire to punish, and he’s the villain because he’s wrong. That mentality is rooted in hatred. He is convinced that everyone deserves eternal torment, and he wants everyone to agree with that conclusion.

The purpose of Asmodeus is that we shouldn’t inflict punishment based on some idea that the person deserved it. Yes, revenge and victory feel good. Yes, there are often valid reasons to be angry or defensive. Yes, we can come up with a reason to justify punishment. But hurting people because they deserve it is exactly what Asmodeus does. There is always a way to rationalize that someone deserves punishment—so the right answer is that this feeling cannot be a sufficient reason to do harm. That isn’t good enough.

It’s so easy to say “they deserve it” when we know the end result is that Aeor will be destroyed and the surviving legacy is ruins full of monsters. It feels good when we think people deserve to suffer and then we get to see it happen. It feels righteous.

Vespin Chloras deserved to be remembered as a traitor because he was arrogant enough to think he could replace Asmodeus—in an age where another mage already replaced the god of death and yet another mage created a machine that killed two primordials. Zerxus Ilerez deserved to be a thrall of Asmodeus because he chose to take up the mace and contributed to the problems that got him in that dilemma—because he so fervently believed that under all that hatred was a person who needed a chance to change his mind. Sarenrae deserved to lose her followers because she decided to trust the Father of Lies—because she loved her brother and offered him mercy.

It’s so easy to conclude that someone deserves pain. Asmodeus is here to remind us specifically that it’s not the right way to handle anything.

Asmodeus is also a rather effective villain because he is supposed to be irredeemable. Archetypal villains are wonderful tools for setting audience expectations. Whether Brennan plays that straight or decides to subvert it, there isn’t as much work needed to persuade us that Asmodeus is that evil or cruel. We already believe that he’s capable of doing the worst things imaginable. Toying with those expectations is a great storytelling exercise.

Asmodeus didn’t shock us in EXU Calamity because we didn’t expect him to be evil. He was shocking because he is such a skillful liar that we wanted to believe him. It would be such a satisfying story that a well-meaning paladin was the first person to show kindness to the Father of Lies and managed to atone him. Brennan’s portrayal made us want that subversion so badly even though we knew better. Asmodeus lured us into the same trap as the characters, and then we saw the outcome: punishment—because Asmodeus will use any reason to justify it and every opportunity to inflict it.

In Downfall, Brennan could have easily rationalized that the protagonists wouldn’t agree to the truce if Asmodeus was on the infiltration team. The audience would have absolutely found that plausible. He didn’t have to be here. The decision to include Asmodeus on the side of the protagonists gives us a heads up that the story will grapple with questions about punishment.

What do I need to see before I am justified in destroying a city with no survivors? Do I have to concern myself with bystanders? Do the fearful deserve to die for choosing to oppose me? Don’t they deserve it for creating such objectionable technology and magic? Don’t I deserve the chance to live without fear of those lesser than myself? Don’t they deserve to die for corrupting those I loved? Don’t they deserve it for being loved more than me?

Why isn’t hatred a good enough reason to hurt someone?

Again, villains are tools to highlight the wrong conclusions. Asmodeus is involved to highlight that the desire for punishment isn’t a sufficient reason to destroy Aeor. The other characters, villains or not, are here to show us what other justifications there might be. Their interactions are going to brush across these themes over and over again.

I fucking love villains, and no one plays a villain quite like Brennan does.

[song-of-baldy-ron]

Brennan: has played Asmodeus pulling off a long con turn against the players every time he’s DMed Critical Role

Me when it happens again in Divergence:

[cordership]

They finally got her there! 🥺💖💞

[masterqwertster]

The idea that Asmodeus is fine with being mortal because of Timothy the Prepared Vessel and hates the Rites of Catatheosis simply because he was threatened into it misses a lot of his characterization.

As Matt said in his fireside, Asmodeus hates being mortal. As Brennan showed in Calamity and Downfall, Asmodeus hates mortals and looks down on them.

But Asmodeus is also the kind of entity that will use the tools at hand to achieve his goals, whether he likes those tools or not.

The big goal of the Lord of the Hells is essentially to wipe out all the mortals so he can have the Prime Deities love him again, because he blames mortals for the entirety of the Schism that split the gods into Prime and Betrayer. And Asmodeus also wants to torture/punish everyone for forever because he hates them all.

You did this to me! You and your kin.  You think my enemy are the Prime Deities? (spits) Those are my siblings! We were happy once together. We traveled here together. Has it never dawned on you that before the Schism, all was well between us? We came here to make something.  And then, one of our puppets, one of our foolish paper dolls mattered so much to them that they threw us into the pit.  You think that my quarrel is with them? No. All of you did something to them. You made them turn their back on us.  My greatest heartbreak is that when I have collected every last mortal soul and all of my siblings into my pit, that I will only have eternity to punish them. -to Zerxus in Calamity Ep4

So becoming Father Milo, trying to become Timothy, were in service of that goal.

Aeor had to be stopped from killing his siblings (zapped from existence means he can't punish them for eternity). And Asmodeus took the extra time as Father Milo (roughly 50 years while most of the others were in their 30s) to plan and pull strings to ensure that all of Aeor would die, to control the plan. He even tried to snag the blueprints to the Factorum Malleus, possibly to kill his siblings (or just threaten them into compliance with his will), possibly to adjust to wipe out mortals. And a little bit of fucking with Pelor by pretending to be one of his priests/clerics. Asmodeus was milking his time as Milo to the best of his ability.

Timothy was a backdoor to the mortal side of the Divine Gate. Once everyone else was locked out: Surprise, bitch! And then Asmodeus gets to run free within the Gate, killing all mortals. Or the Primes have to tear the Gate down to stop him, releasing all the other Betrayers once more to really start killing mortals again in Calamity 2.0.

Also, both Father Milo and Timothy were/would be temporary. A hundred years, maximum, for an entity millennia old. No time at all. After all mortals "die like mayflies."

Meanwhile, the Rites of Catatheosis do not allow Asmodeus to return to his godly state once a smaller goal is achieved (not unless he wants to be on Predathos's radar again. and he can create new Rites of Ascension). He'll forever be a mortal, reborn again and again.

Asmodeus hates that. After all:

You have referred to yourself and your fellow mortals as our children. You are not our children. You are... a bad first draft. ... I'll tell you why I loathe your redemption. To reach a hand down to somebody, they need to be beneath you! And I'm beneath nobody. You wanted to understand me. Then you should have accepted that I was right! -to Zerxus in Calamity Ep4

And the thing is, to survive being a mortal baby, a child, you have to have someone reach a hand down to help you. A baby is simply incapable of surviving without a caretaker above them, providing for them. And Asmodeus believes himself to be below no one.

How humiliating, how mortifying. And it's not even a one time thing like Father Milo was. Time and again under Catatheosis, Asmodeus will be a mortal baby.

At least as Timothy he wouldn't need to rely on someone else to take care of him. It would be rough as hell for a young kid like Timothy to take care of himself, but doable. But a baby? Dead without a caretaker. And then Asmodeus gets to do it again. And again. And again. And again.

And even without the whole baby-phase, Asmodeus will have to spend time, again and again, building up his power. Rising up from whatever new beginning he gets in each mortal life. Sure, some lives he may be born into a family that has/grants power, but until he rules the world, has everyone under his boot, it will not be enough. (Not unless he truly changes for the better)

Now certainly being threatened into Catatheosis doesn't help Asmodeus feel better about becoming forever mortal. After all, the fact that a group of mortals could threaten him into it runs up against "I'm beneath nobody!" Or at the very least brings the "little play things" that "aren't real" up to an equal standing.

But the threat is definitely not the only reason Asmodeus hates Catatheosis.

It just rolled out that Asmodeus doesn't want to deal with Predathos ever again and would rather continue pursuing his siblings enough to do something he loathes.

[shellem15]

I'm not caught up yet, but I find it very funny how, apparently, in Zerxus' retelling of calamity events Asmodeus is depicted as this big hulking monster-type demon.

Like, Zerxus, babe. He did *not* look like that and you know it.

Do you think he's embarrassed to admit that Asmo looked like his husband and he projected a lot of weird feelings onto him? Cause that's like, objectively hilarious.

[lunarthing159]

CHAT I DON'T THINK I SHOULD HAVE THIS MANY NICKELS (I Need More)