#Sarenrae

[ludinusdaleth]

the first touch of godflesh: imri asmodeus & luz sarenrae

-Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 99, "Downfall Part One"

[johnnyspells]

Downfall: Part Two

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

There's just something so fascinating about the way the Exandrian pantheon has decided to handle the Aeor Situation™ - by electing a few of their kind to be born as mortals in order to infiltrate the city.

The first to bring herself low was Ioun, and I can only imagine how lonely that must have been for her. To feel infinite wisdom creeping into her adolescent mind? To rise through Aeor's ranks knowing what they'd do to her if the authorities discovered the truth of her existence? Waiting, hoping, perhaps even praying that the other gods would follow through with the plan.

Sarenrae has a husband and children as Trist. I can't help but consider the parallels to Liliana Temult, with a 'higher calling' pulling a mother away from her family. The conversations in the temple suggest that she would have been aware of what she was by the time she started her family. Yet she loves them, cherishes them, even knowing that she might not see them again. Will Amaris, Haylie, and Topher learn that Trist is a goddess? Or will that only be discovered when they find their way to her realm in Elysium?

The Matron was once mortal, and she willingly returned to that form in order to help her newfound siblings dismantle the Aeorian threat. Her steward since childhood was Purvan, helping raise and guide her despite his old age. Imagine being a little girl, guarded by the Champion of Ravens himself and his wolven companion, completely unaware of your own divinity until later in life. Imagine the night she woke up, remembering her ascendency, seeing Purvan and recognising him.

And what of the families that gave birth to and raised the four Betrayer Gods? What of the halfling family who watched their precocious daughter scale a fence with far too much ease than it should be? The day the tortle's parents found him crying in pain and tearing at his skin to distract himself from a memory so distant and yet so real? Or Milo, who became a priest, not to follow in the light of the Dawnfather (like his parents may have thought), but to mock his brother even as a mortal?

These gods spent entire childhoods with families and friends, taking refuge from the skirmishes caused by their other siblings. Who, despite those similarities, have very different opinions of humanity, of Aeor, and themselves.

[toaarcan]

Molaesmyr, or "Why wiping out a city is okay if you're me", by Ludinus Da'leth.

I was waiting for a drop like that, to be honest. To find out that Ludinus has already done what was, for the gods, their darkest moment, and for him it was Tuesday.

The gods destroyed Aeor because Aeor was pointing a gun at their heads, for them it was self-defence and they still tried to find other options first. Ludinus destroyed Molaesmyr to try and reach the moon, and wrote it off as an acceptable loss.

And the thing is, the people of Molaesmyr were just as, if not more helpless against Ludinus than Aeor was against the gods! Aeor had a god-killing weapon in their basement that they were gearing up to use! And when the gods did attack Aeor, they had to do so in mortal form, which rendered them much weaker. For the first half of the battle in the Factorum Malleus, Aeor is winning, the gods are losing HP and falling to bad saving throws and getting interrupted at every turn. It's only once SILAHA gets free of the stun and manages to drop his Meteor Swarm on the wards that the tide turns.

There was no such chance for Molaesmyr. They probably didn't even know what he was doing until he'd already exploded their homes. They weren't pointing a gun at him. They were just in the way.

But it's okay when Ludinus has vastly more power than anyone else and throws their lives away to achieve his goals.

I think gods like the Dawnfather, the Everlight, the Arch Heart, the Lawbearer, the Knowing Mistress, and the Matron of Ravens care vastly more about the mortals that Ludinus claims to champion than he does. I think it broke their hearts to kill as many as they did, while for Ludinus, it was easy.

[gorgynei]

post asmodeus betrayal went like this

[undead-knick-knack]

Father Milo: *looks in Trist's general direction*

Ayden:

[definitionofacritter]

Trist ||| Sarenrae the Everlight

[floweroflaurelin]

Please, please, please. If anything is possible, let this be possible.

—

The whole hospital sequence last week broke my heart, and now I can’t believe it’s almost over 😭😭 I was so busy this week but I finished this just in time! Now I can clear my brain and have room for all the paintings I’ll want to do of tonight’s episode :D

[marvelousbelladonna]

Divine faces revealed!

S. I. L. A. H. A. aka the Arch Heart

Trist aka the Everlight

Ayden aka the Dawn Father

Asha aka the Wildmother

Emhira aka THE RAVEN QUEEN!!!

[forgetriestowrite]

hey is the fact that Pike, champion of the Everlight and carrier of a vestige of the Dawnfather, stands up for and defends Braius Doomseed, secret follower of Asmodeus, haunting anyone else? Because it is haunting me incessantly. I fear I won't be getting any sleep tonight

[immult]

like what do you MEAN both pelor and sarenrae are the god of light but pelor was of light because he lit up the entire vessel to chase the darkness away and sarenrae was of light because asmodeus was of flame. he was burning and he was burning so brightly that the light from his flames clung onto her for eternity. his pain informed her existence. her light mocked him at every step. whose light do you think lit the nine hells forevermore?

[shellem15]

Horrible idea just popped into my brain that I must share with all of you:

The lord of the hells looks like the most beautiful person you've ever seen. So, who does he see when he looks at himself?

My guess is the Everlight, and isn't that fucked?

[johnnyspells]

just sisters being sisters

[smilelikeawolf]

Ayden openly weeps.

Ayden: "I didn't want Father to be right. I wanted to save them."

Sarenrae: "I did, too."

He looks at Asmodeus' form on the floor.

Ayden: "Why must it always be like this?"

Asmodeus: "Don't shed your tears. Don't shed your tears. I wanted us to be together and you chose them. You think you're a little boy, but you are a scrap of skin. You had a chance for us to be family and now we're something else. I HATE YOU AND I ALWAYS WILL. From now until the stars twinkle out of the sky into darkness! Forever."

Pelor: "Do not lie to me!"

Asmodeus vanishes.

[ihaveatypeanditstrickstergods]

God(s, haha), the Pelor-Asmodeus-Sarenrae dynamic is so juicy. Sarenrae's the goddess of mercy and right now Asmo is probably the only person she doesn't think is redeemable because she just tried and he massacred her followers. Then you've got Pelor, whose human form is a cleric of Sarenrae so he can help keep her alive and, you know, the way Asmo portrayed Pelor in that vision to Zerxus in Calamity. And this Pelor is such a sweet lamb. It's so, so interesting and I can't wait to see where it goes.

[yeehawpim]

Thinking about gods since watching Critical Role: Downfall