#cr sarenrae

[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.

[screechingfromthevoid]

Matron: *tears open a metal monstrosity of wizard hubris and shreds it to a point where the only thing that needs to be done is to pull the beacon out*

Sarenrae: *literally circumvents "natural orders" and "domains" and "fates strings" to bring back someone who has died four times before*

Matron: you're making me look bad

Sarenrae: love you baby sis 😘

[criticalbeauregard]

sarenrae has been WAITING for this opportunity

[dreaming-of-hope]

LISTEN, i know erathis and melora are married, i know lolth may or may not be corellon's ex, but OF COURSE MY BRAIN WAS GONNA HYPERFIXATE IN WHATEVER TOXIC CODEPENDENT ANGSTY RELATIONSHIP ASMODEUS AND SARENRAE HAVE.

... have you seen them?! they are tailored for my tastes.

[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:

[villadiodatis]

pike's in full gremlin monstah mode til that acolyte shows up at her door

[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!!!

[dreaming-of-hope]

post the schism, pelor reflect about his closest siblings.

Light.

You’ve known light since before you even existed, since before you were real. Your home used to be a palace of light. Fractals upon fractals, shaping and reshaping you, all of you— your siblings, your family— in a myriad of forms and feelings and sensations.

It used to be fun to be light, when it didn’t have to have a meaning, where it only was, and you and Imri and Luz were allowed to be one light, divided into three separate beings.

(maybe you still are, maybe that’s why it hurts)

In the real, light cannot longer be a single fractal. In the real, the sun warms the day, the hearth warms the night and fire, if left uncontrolled, just burns you, until there’s nothing left. The sun is not a hearth is not a wildfire, or so you say to yourself as you seal away your siblings and watch the fire of hatred grow on Asmodeus’ eyes, as the darkness swallows him.

(“maybe away was better”, the echo of the words of other of your siblings catches you from the distant past, but you still do what you must and convince yourself they were wrong)

You all know it was the right choice, to protect your children, to protect your siblings from themselves, perhaps, but you can feel Raei’s doubt as if it was your own. “Maybe we could’ve have convinced them; maybe they were not that far gone”, even now, she pleads without using words and as your resolve intensifies, the fear that your closest sister’s giving heart might be one day her undoing takes root at the bottom of you heart.

Suddenly you’re back on the deck of a ship, that’s a star, that’s just light and you see them, tangled in an embrace that is killing them and saving them and hurting them and creating them, all at the same time and you know, you know it will come a time in which you will have to step up for her, because the sun might not be a hearth, but the difference between hearth and wildfire is just a tiny spark.

[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