#playing a dangerous game posting fanart for a show I’m not entirely caught up with

[wizard-legs]

Hey god!! 😁 I just wanted to say that like, I see what you’ve done for Bean, and I wanted you to know that like. If you have any more sexy mermaids who want to take ME away to a little seaside cottage… my schedule is pretty open…. No pressure! Just letting you know ☺️☺️🪓😁😀☺️

[thedinanshiral]

On Ghilan’nain

When dealing with her name we all think of the halla. Maybe imagine she and Andruil were ancient elvhen girlfriends. And we might remember there could be mysterious giant sea monsters molded by her hands still lurking in the deep that she never got rid of.

As with the rest of the Evanuris we barely have a handful of codex entries on her, so there’s plenty to speculate. Recently, however, there have been a couple of ...developments.

First things first though, what is her origin story? There are a couple of differing versions.   On The Ascension it’s said Ghilan’nain kept herself away from the People and spent her time creating monsters, and when Andruil tired of hunting the wild creatures she approached Ghilan’nain with a proposition: to stop, destroy her creations and join them in their godhood. Ghilan’nain accepted and began ending her creatures but spared a few -some of the air offered to Andruil as gifts,  those in deep sea that Pride stopped her from killing, and the halla that she was very fond of. This implies Ghilan’nain created the halla herself.

However, in Mother of the Halla, it was Andruil who created the halla, by turning Ghilan’nain into one to help her find her way home after the attack of a resented hunter she had cursed. In this story Ghilan’nain was already one of the People, and didn’t spend her time creating monsters but being a huntress dedicated to Andruil’s Way being a devout follower.

In the Halla codex, Ghilan’nain is referred to as “first halla and mother of them all” but there’s no clarification of how she became the first halla.

So either she created the halla herself, or she was turned into the first halla by Andruil. The latter could be a metaphorical reading, as Andruil being the one inviting Ghilan’nain to join the Evanuris could be interpreted as her being the “creator” of Ghilan’nain. I’m partial to the first take, that Ghilan’nain created all those creatures and the story from Mother of Halla just take a few liberties to illustrate Andruil answering her prayers.

What of her character? Most of what we know of the Evanuris comes from myths and biased sources, there’s not enough for a full picture but we do get some small glimpses. As Solas mentioned at the temple of Mythal, the Evanuris were not as the elves like to portray them. They were flawed, violent, war-hungry, abusive, and could have destroyed the entire world had he not locked them away. We see the halla and maybe think it’s cute and such an innocent-looking creature, and may had thought similarly of Ghilan’nain, as this ancient elvhen girl who crafted a variety of creatures with her magic and was so good at it she received the favour of her gods. Thing is, as it turns out, her gods were not particularly good, so what exactly would the kind of gods who promoted war to enjoy their worship valued and found of interest in Ghilan’nain? Were her monsters a threat they didn’t wish to deal with so they wanted her on their side instead? It’s possible, but so is that they saw part of themselves in her, and I think it’s no small detail that we’re introduced to Ghilan’nain through Andruil. 

It’s evident from what stories have survived time that Andruil was impulsive and prone to violence. As the Huntress she undulged in the practice to the point of losing herself in it. The thrill for the hunt led her to go after bigger and more dangerous game until she descended into the Void to go after blighted creatures, tainting herself in the process and spreading disease onto the land on her return. Mythal had to intervene, deceiving her and essentially whiping her memory so Andruil wouldn’t remember how to reach the Void, making her stop using it as hunting ground.

In relation to Ghilan’nain , this is also how they may have met. We can’t separate this two, it’s like they come in a set: the huntress and the monsters maker. The two put together make this vicious, wild loop were both can indulge endlessly; it hasn’t been mentioned yet that Ghilan’nain resented Andruil for killing her creations or that she was devastated at all at having to kill them herself. In fact, she seems to have agreed without protest to destroying her work in exchange for a seat at the big table. This, and that Andruil made the offer to begin with, says plenty of what sort of person Ghilan’nain may have been.

It’s kind of implied the two were together, although we don’t really know enough about ancient elvhen relationships. On one of Fen’Harel’s stories told by Felassan in The Masked Empire, it’s said Andruil once caught him for hunting halla without her permission and her punishment for it was to keep him as a sex slave for a year and a day. He escaped but it’s strange that Andruil would demand such a thing. Either she and Ghilan’nain weren’t really partners, were in an open relationship, or she’s just an opportunistic cheater.

Back to Ghilan’nain, it’s in Tevinter Nights, specifically The Horror of Hormak, where it’s heavily implied she was nothing like her precious halla. In this story a couple of Grey Wardens on a rescue mission find underground ruins seemingly dwarven at first that turned out to be actually elvhen. A series of mosaics decorating the walls at first glance show gracious rulers helping and healing people but the images soon twist into showing the rulers as cruel and the people subjected to harm, and what at first looked like halla pulling on aravels soon became insectoid creatures pulling on caged cargo headed to different destinations resembling different mountain locations. The one where the Wardens found themselves at held a chamber of horrors, with odd coloured lyrium pending over a pool of a strange sustance that mutated everything that came close enough. Having been told time and time again that Ghilan’nain created beings so monstrous the other elvhen gods asked her to stop and kill them, this is the first time we get an idea of how she went through her creative process.

Throughout the story there are mentions of a terrible “She” and the persistent smell of brine, and all these put together point to this chamber -and potentially many others – being where Ghilan’nain played god, or as I put it in a previous post “gene-splicing anything that moved”. Could it be Andruil’s madness got to her as well? It’s a possibility, just as likely as her being awful on her own. One of the Wardens survived the horror they found there and we know his concern was the other locations depicted in the mosaics and warning the others about it, so there’s a possibility we get to visit at the very least one of these locations.. maybe the dwarven place we got from the BTS video could be one.

Another mention of her in the lore is the Ancient Elven Writing, where it’s said it was Ghilan’nain who “urged” a servant or follower of Dirthamen to commit treason by taking on a form reserved for the gods. There’s no idication as to why she’d do such a thing, why specifically to one who belonged to a different Creator or even, if that wasn’t the case, why this person would include her name in their lie as if to frame her somehow. I can only make sense of it within my previous theory of the Evanuris, where I propose June, Sylaise and Dirthamen may have been not too awful and even secretely aided Fen’Harel somewhow. Maybe. 

While Elgar’nan, Falon’din and Andruil were definitiely the bad guys that most likely plotted to kill Mythal, Ghilan’nain would have sided with Andruil, and there we have potential motivation. Pushing a follower of Dirthamen into commiting a most offensive crime would compromise Dirthamen as well, but if he was with them why do it? For so long we’ve been led to believe the Evanuris were at war with the Forgotten Ones, but it’s likely they also fought each other. We can’t know for sure if Mythal still lived when that episode took place, as the codex says “she will not show him favour and will let Elgar’nan judge him”, which can also be read as “she didn’t show up so Elgar’nan will judge instead”and i find that weird considering Mythal cared for the people and one would assume took her role as judge seriously. She may have decided to pass on that one for whatever reason, but there’s still a possibility she may had already been murdered by then and this was Elgar’nan taking over to execute those who served his enemies, in this case with the aid of Ghilan’nain. I’m definitely adding her to my Evanuris who suck list for now.

Considering some of the concept art we got in the BTS video, specifically these

..i think  it’s about, hmm, 70% safe to expect some Ghilan’nain nonsense in DA4. Monstruous sea creatures? Check. Monstruous creatures with miss-matched parts and insectoid features? Check. Solas threatening to lift the Veil which would free the Evanuris? Double check. 

She might show up. I like that some really good fanarts are popping up, and now i’m very curious how Ghilan’nain’s canon look would be like. 

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E29 (August 7, 2018)

Tonight’s preshow: favorite moments from the live show at GenCon last week. Y’all, Dani is so short in real life, I can’t even. Less adorably, I’ve burned my popcorn. Why must life be so cruel?

Music fades out, then hard smashcut to Brian passed out in his chair. Bless, he looks tired. Smashcut to Marisha and Liam also sleeping on the couch. Get these kids some rest, I tell you what. Tonight’s guests: Liam & Marisha.

Announcements: Tonight’s sponsor is Dwarven Forge, who’ve recently launched their kickstarter for the Cavern’s Deep set. See more at critrole.com/dwarvenforge. Honey Heist 2: Electric Beargaloo airs this Friday at 7:00pm PST (on top of the regular episode on Thursday). They actually shot it last night, and it’ll air unedited on Friday. Liam: “No audience, no fucks left to give.” Marisha and some of the others will hang out in the chat Friday night to share the experience, and Brian will be posting some behind-the-scenes photos and videos at the break. The Mighty Nein shirt is back in stock and available at critrole.com. 

CR Stats! The MN reached 159 “9″s this episode, which includes all rolls ever. The 150th 9 goes to Beau--dex save against the fire trap. Beau dealt 147 damage this episode, the most for anyone in any episode in C2 so far. Liam: “This is the class you were born to play.” Marisha: “I’ve never been a Grog before. I’m so excited, you guys.” In Episode 7, the Bust of Estelle Getty attacked twice and hit both times. In Episode 29, the Bust of Nefertiti attacked four times and missed all four. Lorenzo’s last action was Cone of Cold; after that, the party dealt 117 of their total 146 damage. The 6 rounds of this fight is the longest fight of this campaign.

Sam’s outfit? Liam: “What are you going to do next year?” Sam’s panicking. Xenomorph? Cthulhu? Matt Mercer costume? Marisha: “What, are we talking prosthetics? Long hair and a henley aren’t really amping it up.” Liam: “He could wear a vest.”

Liam likes both the intimacy of being around the table and the live theater’s energy. Seeing people cosplay as their characters chanting and screaming is unreal. It feels like a bottle rocket going up next to them. Brian always cries at live shows because of the impact that it has on people--reading tweets is one thing, but seeing the love in person is beyond words.

Liam wasn’t surprised at all at how useful Frumpkin was as a spider. “I don’t know why anyone would think it would be a bad idea.” Marisha: “I got shit for the things I turned into for THREE YEARS! It’s my turn to make fun of other people’s animal choices!” Liam: “#thankskeyleth.”

Beau’s newfound confidence with ladies is both luck and Molly’s influence; she’s always been a bit of a flirt, but Marisha thinks “disaster lesbian” is totally accurate. Liam pitches a 70s exploitation-style spy movie on the spot. Marisha talks about a few times that she almost pursued something with Yasha/Ashley, but then she left and Marisha didn’t get the chance. Brian commiserates. 

Beau waited until Keg could walk off into the sunset to avoid morning-after awkwardness.

Caleb’s first impression of Caduceus is “he’s really ready to put his life in danger. There’s that. I mean, he wanted to get out, so he could have taken a train ride through Alaska, but instead we invaded a compound.” Beau doesn’t have impressions yet. She’s been so desperate for help that any help was a win.

Caleb doesn’t enjoy having power over others. He has an ability to think critically and get things done, but hasn’t been in that position for a long time; he has big plans but no ability to achieve them. He wants to just start getting comfortable again. “Caleb is a mess of contradictions. I change my mind as to what he thinks or I think any given moment.” He wars with liking people and needing to walk away from people because what he’s doing is “more important.” He isn’t sure which part is lying to himself--he just knows that as he lies to himself, he’s still doing something completely different.

To an excellent question about character development by Brian, Marisha talks about finding ideals for a character that you have to go all in on, while still knowing that the world is going to go in on you at the same time and that you’ll change whether you like it or not. Some characters are more stubborn (Caleb); Beau is a little more vulnerable to outside forces of change, such as the death of Molly--she’s never had someone die that she cared about before.

Liam talks about how Caleb has that ability to bring back some fundamental aspects of the person he used to be, in part because he’s now forming connections with people he doesn’t want to admit to even himself. However, what happened with the Shepherds made him angry in a way he never anticipated, plus losing so much of the party... ”I want to do the impossible. If I can’t do this?” The Caleb at the beginning of the campaign was happy to sit back and skulk; this new Caleb, who has been angry, and who is now one of a very small party, cannot skulk. “There was no hanging back. Decisions had to be made.” He doesn’t want to be a leader, but he’ll get things done if he has to.

Beau doesn’t and will never feel vindicated for Molly’s death. BWF: “Revenge and closure aren’t always the same.”

After the live show and Keg, Taliesin told Marisha, “Molly would be so proud.” One of the things that lingers with Beau is that she put on a front in her last conversation with Molly while he was trying to be totally genuine, and then he died before she ever opened up. She’s processing the fact that she missed that opportunity, which is why she jumped on that opportunity with Keg. Marisha also talks about the documentary about Glow on Netflix, where the woman who played the “heart” of Glow talks about her regrets of being in love with the producer but never telling him, and now twenty years have gone by and she’s still in love.

GIF of the Week: @seraphinedreams, which is a Star Wars-style scroller about the Anti-Wheaton Ashly Burch and all her 20s/19s/18s from the live show.

BWF talks about one of the theatre workers recognizing Brian and pointing out the Tal outfit was “worse than last year’s.”

The Nefertiti lamp was a loan from the Egyptian Room of the Murat Theatre.  Khary saw the lamp and went off about how much he needed the empowered figure. Liam: “Thank God we had her, though. Really turned the tide of the battle.”

Going into this fight, Caleb was still furious at the Iron Shepherds. Even so, even during the fight, Caleb was telling himself, “You need this, you need this,” so that he can go to the next thing.

Marisha likes Matt’s revision to the Cobalt Soul class. She’s still figuring out the right things to ask but is liking it much better in terms of expertise costs.

Liam: “I don’t think many moments in my life will rival the impossible moment of that motherfucker dying, on stage, with so many people watching. It was bewildering [to have so many people watching] and it made that moment of blind luck so much more amazing.” Marisha’s not sad at all that he’s dead. Everyone talks about the crazy energy of the HDYWTDT in front of 2500 people.

Brian isn’t apologizing in advance for or after the Honey Heist. Consider me piqued.

Beau cares about Caleb’s mental health. She’s sympathetic, especially since she’s starting to care for the rest of their group. She still believes in the importance of keeping teammates healthy out of both care for them and selfish concern for herself in a fight.

Marisha talks about how emotional she got when Shakaste talked about them being good people doing good things, leaving places better than they found him, especially since Khary’s not caught up on the campaign. Now Beau has to think about the themes that keep cropping up. Caleb knows what they’ve done here is good, but still thinks that the universe is pretty random & that even if they saved an entire orphanage, Caleb will still find himself unforgivable and terrible. “Nothing will erase what he’s done.” BWF: “Nothing?” Liam: “Nothing.”

They hid Khary the whole weekend to keep him from the critter crowd. “It was like telling a 12-year-old in Las Vegas that they had to stay in the hotel.”

Fanart of the Week: this lovely piece by @emtousi12 on twitter, featuring all the guests of the campaign so far.

Caleb/Liam regretted the invisibility scroll casting even before he cast it. He was stressed, the haste was a dud, and he was almost totally out of spells. Liam commiserates with Marisha about having planned very badly on selecting his first level spells for this fight-- “I had a bunch of spells I couldn’t do dick with.” However, he really, really, really didn’t want to die, so even though he desperately wanted to save the scroll, he wanted to live more. 

Neither Beau nor Keg think they plan to make this a recurring thing. “Hit it and quit it.”

Liam’s asked again about why he dedicated the kill to Frumpkin & not Molly (same question as was asked at Gencon). Liam starts talking about how Caleb had a girl cat as a child (also named Frumpkin); later, he recreated his cat using magic, except this one was male (oops?). This--boy, this is a lot very quickly. Marisha: “Is this something you worked out? Is that a narrative beat you thought of in your head?” Liam: “That was a ‘yes/and’ improv thing because Liam also had a cat named Frumpkin as a little boy, and that cat was a girl. But I decided when I was creating my character that Frumpkin was a boy. But because I have real memories as Liam of the cat as a girl, I kept messing up the gender of the fucking cat in the game, so then I retooled my story. So the first part of my answer is that Frumpkin is more important than a magic spell. Frumpkin is a piece of his lovely childhood, his wonderful childhood, and he wanted to have a piece of that in his miserable existence. The second half of that answer is that [the kill] wasn’t dedicated to Frumpkin. Caleb was exhausted and bleeding out, on the verge of death; that line was the equivalent of ‘fuck this day,’ and to say [points emphatically] ‘That was for Molly’ is too--on the nose! I mean, they were all thinking it. They’re all weighed down by it. There’s no need to say it--the day is awful, and what’s more, Molly’s dead--for all they knew in that moment, the other three are dead too, they don’t know! This is a torture chamber! They’re in a Saw movie. They don’t know how the other three are. So maybe they’re all dead. Certainly Molly’s dead. So no, it was not dedicated to the cat.”

Beau felt the same thing, especially since Nott already went into the cage and had the moment with Jester. They were all feeling it and thinking it--it was there--and no one felt the need to say it aloud. “To quote Scarlett O’Hara, ‘I can’t think about that right now. I’ll think about it tomorrow.’“ Liam: “The bottom line is that Caleb is in love with his cat, and the shippers need to focus on that. Send me fiction about that.”

Everyone dreads telling Jester, Yasha, and Fjord what’s happened to Molly. Marisha thinks Fjord will be pragmatic, Yasha will be angry, and Jester will blame herself.

Marisha hypothesizes that since Lorenzo seemed interested in capable fighters, he might have been creating almost Winter Soldier-type slaves that he could use to fight for him.

Everyone’s relieved Sam didn’t fall off the stage in the rollerblades. Apparently he had a dry run out of costume that...did not go well.

Marisha loved the stunning strike moment and the HDYWTDT moment for each of them. Liam loved Nott’s kissing Caleb while he was invisible. BWF does NOT encourage this behavior and we should NEVER DO IT AGAIN and he does NOT WANT THIS IN THE FUTURE but he laughed pretty hard at whoever yelled “It’s High Noon” at Matt towards the beginning of the show.

Liam had a great time playing exhausted--yes, it’s awesome to have the amazing moments, but he loves the fun of the failures too. 

Travis made it to the actual studio today and got a round of applause. “It’s like seeing a hologram of Tupac.”

After Dark: They’re So Tired I’m Tired For Them Edition

Oh, God. Twenty minutes in I realize my video froze during the break and I had no idea. I wondered why it was taking so long. Where are we? I’ll fill it in in a second.

Would BWF ever allow Sam to pick his outfit? He doesn’t know if he has the guts. Sam’s closet is full of ties and sneakers according to Liam.

Liam loved two critters cosplaying as gelatinous cubes at GenCon this year--he recognized one of them as one who came as a beholder last year and applauds her creativity. Marisha loved how their swords were floating around them.  Liam swoons over all the Vaxes with functioning wings; Marisha loved Opening Title Sequence Matt; BWF gushes about the pair who came as him from Signal Boost and Liam Las Vegas; Marisha loved the Percy with the Orthax shadow. There was also a pair of little girls who did the twins one day and Yasha and Beau the next; all three get a little fluttery.

Most of the panel from GenCon is up on Critical Scope.

Marisha would prefer to face a party of wizards over a party of monks. Liam would prefer avoiding both, but if forced would take the monks since they have range requirements.

Thanks, broadcasting.

Liam isn’t bitter the two clerics didn’t heal him. Not at all. Not bitter at all. He was at two hit points before he healed himself with the potion.

Marisha started tearing up when they found the party members in part because the game is very real to them, and they miss Laura, Travis, and Ashley so much. Sometimes the very real reactions catch them off guard. Liam points out that they’re family and it never feels good with part of the family gone.

Live show was the best thing they did at GenCon, but seeing the booth was pretty cool too. Everyone was “cranky” Sunday morning. BWF: “Oh my God, you’re being so nice right now.” Marisha was annoyed from the moment the makeup artist knocked on their door the next morning to get Matt ready to be Pumat. The entire group didn’t say a word to each other over breakfast except to snipe at each other. “Do you know what time it is?” “You’re looking at your phone.”

Liam talks about some cool oversized minis he got for his daughter’s Ravenloft game at the Privateer Press booth. BWF got some new dice (as did Marisha for both her and Matt at the Level Up booth), a Wyrmwood box, and some Iron Kingdoms books.

BWF admits he is a deep nerd and loves Warmachine; he could have talked to the Privateer Press people for hours about the lore if he didn’t think they’d have chased him off.

Did Vax take Molly to the other side? Liam doesn’t know. He has his own ideas--Ariana, their official artist, did a picture of Vax on an obsidian throne & surrounded by obsidian, with white antlers growing out of his shoulder & holding a raven skull, and that’s what he feels his afterlife is like. He does like to think that Vax took Molly to the other side. “He was so colorful and full of life. I’d like to think so.”

The VOD of Matt’s Fireside Chat is up on the critrole Twitch! BWF: “He’s so articulate.” Marisha: “A living bard.”

That’s all for today! Is it Thursday yet?