#cr downfall spoilers

[hazelcephalopod]

RIP to Aeor. There are two men playing lesbian goddesses who are the only canonical divine couple of Exandria. This is the best day ever.

[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.

[vandersprodigy18]

Having now seen firsthand the vast difference in power between Level 20 Archmages and The Gods™️ (even while only at a fraction of their divinity), I am now even more perplexed and awestruck at the achievement of the mortal woman who became The Matron of Ravens.

Like how??

How did she do that?

We watched the brightest minds of the Age of Arcanum cast their most powerful magics that burnt away their very life essence, and it barely made a dent on the (avatars of the) Gods?? How??

The difference in power? The difference in hit points??? How did she get there? What did you do maam

[hoarding-stories]

Y'know, seeing how Ayden stands by Trist and, by extension, the closeness of the Dawnfather to Sarenrae, really makes Pike having the Plate of the Dawnmartyr as her vestige that much more fitting in hindsight

[blurrycriticalroleposts]

the characters of downfall

[elle-thereafter]

Brennan Lee Mulligan has a gift for taking a story whose tragic ending we already know — a story that should by rights lack all suspense and stakes — and breathing so much god-damned player agency into it. The setup of Downfall is that the Gods will destroy Aeor, a recipe for railroading. So he crafts into the inevitable a heart-wrenching choice: the players as the Prime Deities must choose between destroying Aeor or allowing Aeor to destroy the siblings who Betrayed them. There is no action or inaction that can be taken where the Prime Deities are not culpable in either the destruction of a mortal city or the destruction of their family. Even if they step back and let the Betrayers strike the blow that stepping back is no less a heart-wrenching choice, just the most cowardly one.

In this the Prime Deities must become Betrayers themselves: either betray the mortals whose value they have weighed higher than their relationship with their siblings, or betray their siblings by allowing their complete destruction.

It's an unavoidable yet impossible choice, with no answer more moral or righteous than the other. And the players must choose. We know that Aeor falls and the Betrayers survive, but even still what we don't yet know is who strikes the city down. Will it be the Prime Deities, protecting those who betrayed them? Will it be the Betrayers, with the Prime Deities watching or turned away, unable to take part in the felling of a mortal city? Or will it be the alliance of Primes and Betrayers together, one last act of unity acknowledging they are still in their own hearts a family of refugees? Will one make the choice for all? Will they make it together? Talk about fucking stakes.

I know how the last Downfall episode ends and yet I'm on the edge of my seat because I have absolutely no idea how the last Downfall episode ends. Brilliant.

[flowersunderawillow]

Watching the CR and D20 communities continue to merge over time is truly a joy because watching twitch chat for Downfall live last night during Noshir's character introduction being torn between the 2 chatter responses of "SQUEEM!" and "WHO THE FUCK IS SQUEEM!?!?"" would make an audience reaction highlight reel for me personally.

[nerdygingerandproud]

[conditionaljewel]

Tonight I'm not thinking about the Gods, or the Archmages, or the Weapon; I'm not even thinking about the bigger implications of it all...

No, tonight I'm sparing a thought for the Ars Elysia, and that couple who got engaged, who had just agreed to spent the rest of their lives together.

Did they know? Did they know it would only be an hour, two at the most? Did they get to share one last kiss before the city hit the ground? Did they die together, holding one another at least? How long did the Aeormaton last after the explosion, after the impact, after the destruction?

Of course not. You never know when it's going to end. You can never, ever know, even if you think you do. You can only hope, and wish that you do everything you hope to do in those moments before hand, but once it's done, it's done. So of course they didn't know. How could they know?

And how many other couples in Aeor met that same fate that night? How many were together in the end? How many were holding one another tight, wondering what had happened, what was going on? How many had a loved one by their side while the impossible became possible inside their fortress of a city? How could any of them know anything?

They all died that night, as did all of their stories. The nameless mages, the identities of the Divine mortals, all were seemingly lost to history, sure. But also, a great number also lost were people just looking for salvation and a new start on Exandria once the war was finally over.

Tonight though, I'm thinking about that couple in particular. I'm thinking about them, and I am hoping that when that fateful moment came that their last moments were spent together, and were full of love and peace, and they both had a chance to say goodbye. Gods, am I hoping.

I mean, that's all you can really hope for, right?

[hazelcephalopod]

Asha/Wildmother believes -or at least says- that Aeors weapon will destroy all life “on this rock” -seemingly to mean Exandria as a whole- in 3-4 generations. And she will not let this place die.

[fearnesnblerns]

loving the emotional whiplash between never stop blowing up’s “when you’re here, you’re la familia” and downfall’s “maybe we’ll be family after this”

the found family vs dysfunctional family dynamics are oh so delectable i’m eating them up

[vandersprodigy18]

Something poetic about how it was The Arch Heart who reigned chaos upon the greatest arcane achievement of mortals, The God Hammer, with meteors.

How He was the one who made the decision to redirect the energy blast into the city, the decision that the other Primes did not want on their shoulders.

The Arch Heart, who gifted mortals with magic, was the one to put an end to the Age of Arcanum.

[aparticularbandit]

As the you you choose lives, a multitude of yous - the yous you did not choose - are lost forever.

Thank you, Brennan Lee Mulligan, for putting it so simply. That's the multiverse, baby, and in its simplest form. The you here that you choose lives, while the you that you did not choose is lost.

The multiverse is where all those other yous exist. It's simple, and it is profound

Bless.

[hoarding-stories]

Noshir really was the quiet mvp of Downfall

The Emissary didn't do very much, but what they did, every interaction, was so informative and impactful, from talking to his mother and Asha to ending the Factorum Malleus.

The way Noshir embodied the Emissary both physically and with his almost grinding voice was masterful! Seeming for all the world like an 8-foot towering creature of stone and ice

And god, those last few scenes! The Emissary admitting he was scared! The switch to a child's voice after death where all he wished was to be reunited with his mother was to me legitimately the hardest hitting thing that happened, just instant tears. Noshir then stepping in finally as the Lawbearer and showing her perspective and reasoning, going in for that last shot with her asking the Wildmother, her wife, to tell her all about her son, *chefs kiss*

[sofigrace]

I woke up with something in my head that i don't know how to word (stupid bilingual brain) but i will try to explain it as best as i can.

This was the perfect thing to show the hells narrative wise.

Because it will greatly change the beliefs of all of them, no matter if they are pro or anti god.

Take the most anti god people of the group, for example, Ashton and Laudna. They believed the gods were these ethereal and unreachable beings, incapable to feel human emotions. And now they will see them as they are. Similar to them. Messy and desperate. But most of all, willing to do everything to save their family. And isn't that them? Wouldn't Laudna and Ash do anything to protect the ones they love? No matter the concequences?

This could make them actually side with the gods.

Now we got the other side. The most pro god of them.

Orym.

He believed the gods to be on their side, willing to trap themselves just to protect the word from them. Cause isn't that what he's trying to do? To try and protect everyone while still doing the right thing?

He loves his family, but he said multiple times he would destroy them if it was necessary. And now he'll (possibly) see the gods destroy a city full of civilians, just because the gods wanted to protect the betrayers, the incarnation of all evil.

Would this be enough to turn him towards Ludinus? No, of course not. But it would make him rethink everything he believed about the gods.

[elle-thereafter]

Also, finding out in 4SD that Matt told Laura secret Matron stuff makes me take that look back over her shoulder in the Downfall prologue as the predecessor to the Matron way, way more seriously. If I may borrow the immortal, ineffable words of Taliesin Jaffe: I have ideas.