#yes this is about taliesin

[miraakulous-cloud-district]

My laptop, burning as if it just crawled out of the fiery pits of hell: Please, stop! I can't take it anymore...

Me, downloading yet another Skyrim custom follower: hehe, new member of the fellowship :)

[shorthaltsjester]

watching the sdcc panel and i am just very :) about how sweet their answers to “what are some of the micro moments from the game that have stuck with you the most over the years?” are. taliesin saying what the fuck is up with that which was the first like The Party Gets To Know Each Other moments of c3. travis saying asking his wife if he could kiss her in campaign. marisha going way back to the cannonball competition in campaign one. ashley choosing the beauyasha date but also just the silly goat noise matt made. liam adding onto that to compliment matt roleplaying grass so well and then saying his favourite moment was writing a story for laura and reading it to her as caleb for jester. and then matt saying that was his answer, and that his favourite moments of the game are when they find ways to give gifts to each other whether tangible or not. and sam saying his favourite moments have less to do with the story and is more so when he can just. see his friends across the table from him. when marisha perches and when laura and ashley are (badly) drawing dicks and liam saying he loves when sam sneezes and ashley tells him to stop it and just. yeah. they Are an extremely popular online powerhouse, but i’m so happy that they’re also friends building a world together out of gifts to and love for one another.

like i Am so enamoured with the characters and the world of exandria but the moments when you can feel the love that those people have for each other reach out from behind the stained glass of their performances (to steal a metaphor from brennan lee mulligan) are so extremely special and i am endlessly grateful that they decided to share their silly little home game with the world.

[danwhobrowses]

I'm not sure how much good this vent will do, I'm not even sure I want to post this vent after my last one, but I'm writing it just so it's out of my head and into words because it seems once again fandom has chosen to send vitriol Ashton Greymoore's way.

What for? They talked to a 'specter' of the primordial titan within them, through their connection to the earth, the natural flow of creation and destruction. They ask what will happen to the world, it responds that it'll endure, they ask what of the people, it responds that the strong will survive and the weak will be remade into something stronger, to which Ashton replies they think they understand. To fandom this means that Ashton is becoming a fascist, that they have a 'Make Exandria Great Again' attitude for wanting the Primordials back, that they need to be beaten up or 'get what's coming to them' in order to change their mind, and I can only sit here and stew and wonder if this hate is really well-founded? Ashton is among my favourite characters in C3, I get frustrated by them at times too but if I think about it a big percentage of my frustrations is more towards people disliking them than me disliking things they do, or Matt setting up scenarios that doesn't do them any favours towards the fandom that hates them. Some of these are knee-jerk reactions of course, but for others it does feel like they have it out for Ashton, and I don't wanna engage with that, which makes it quite lonely when most of the fandom hones in on it.

For the most part I can understand how the whole 'the weak will be remade' bit can be taken badly; it's definitely iffy, but every other plan we have is also very iffy. The Release Predathos option literally involves unleashing an entity that wants to genocide the gods, the Maintain Status Quo option ('option' the status quo imo is impossible, in my mind the Gods can stay but the dynamic will still have to change) maintains a relationship where the gods pick and choose who they feel deserves help, using their power to covet more power, strongarm and demand loyalty, and overall choose fellow gods over mortals when the chips are down and not owning up to it. We should also remember that entities can speak in riddles, 'remade into something stronger' doesn't necessarily mean death; it could mean to adapt and grow, to become strong enough to bear and overcome it as many of the PCs of Critical Role have done with their hardships and trauma. It's worth reminding that the sad truth is that people will die whatever outcome happens - the aim is always to lessen the amount but if the Gods leave it's a power vacuum, if we linger too long it's a Calamity, and if the Gods stay it's a holy war on a more wild and less organized scale - and that Ashton isn't saying they approve of such death, merely that they think they understand. The commune doesn't tell Ashton which way to go; it only tells them that the world will endure, there will be change and it will change people, trees will still grow, the wind will still blow, the waves will still flow along the coasts of the sea, and people will survive. I know the interpretation can differ from people thanks to Matt's patented vague or riddle-mounted choices in phrase, but I also think if it was the Wildmother who told Orym or some other follower that 'nature is a cycle, everything must adapt to change or else it'll die - this world will change, but it will also survive' nobody would be calling Orym a fascist, people would accept it because the Wildmother's domain is nature, and nature is not always kind.

While we're mentioning Orym - and because this is gonna come off as critical I must preface that I like and enjoy All of the Hells, that's not changed - I also gotta call it out here because it does very much feel like the people who hate Ashton hate them for the reasons they love Orym. Both are stubborn, they're diligent in their personal code, they care deeply for their friends and would give their whole being just to keep them safe, they believe in the Hells' power and greatness more than each member does and more than they believe in their own, but Ashton gets the hate mainly because these fans agree more with Orym on the god stuff. What confuses me though is how these same haters can despise Ashton for being consistent but love Braius, the literal Devil Worshipper who secretly is on board with the Chase Away plan only so he can help the Devil rule the world, the compulsive liar. Where's Braius' scrutiny? A world under Asmodeus will be a far worse 'survival of the fittest' scenario, why does Braius get a pass in all this stuff huh? Because he's funny? Seems people ignore the whole morality talk when they're discussing Braius' dedication to Exandrian Satan.

I find it irksome too that even the group seem to criticize Ashton reaching out to Primordials too - as if that wasn't what we wanted them and Fearne to do anyway. They don't dislike the gods simply because they're a 'great entity', it's because they're a great entity that holds power and doesn't use it equally or fairly; they pick and choose who to help, a lot of the time in Ashton's experience for their own self-service, but they won't prioritize mortals over another god no matter who cruel or heinous the god is being, and the following of these gods are so intertwined with politics that most religious motivation also ends up being political. Ashton has no connection to the gods, they reached out and got nothing, an Angel looked at them and made them feel like nothing, but they do have a connection to the Primordials; from the Earth Golem to the Titan Empress they're literally a vessel of, they experienced something significant in their connection to the Earth, so I don't like how that they're almost mocked for having it. In addition, Ashton's behaviour during this commune differs because of that connection, but also because the titans are a natural flow; they don't demand or test or politic or prejudice, and despite being a Great Entity in its own right it never made sure Ashton felt small for their own satisfaction, they asked a question and got an answer, it's the same reason Ashton has disdain for most political leaders but likes and respects Keyleth, Allura, Kima, Pike, and (eventually) Percy despite also being people in power. To call on Orym and the Wildmother as an example again; Orym's an Air Ashari, the Ashari are guardians of the Elemental Planes - made from the Primordials - not tied to a god, but nobody criticizes his connection to the Wildmother despite both not being a follower and his culture being more tethered to Primordials and their descendants. I'm not saying it's all correct for Ashton to want things to go back to how Primordials ruled, but we must remind ourselves also that we only know a story written by victors when it comes to the Schism - a story which could very easily have been altered and edited to make it feel more justified for the Primes and mortals to actively genocide all the Primordials, the native species and creators of this world, and desecrate their remains to make weapons, soul anchors, and cities - the specter didn't say 'fuck em, all mortals should die' after all, if they believe mortals would survive then they must be at the least tolerant of mortal existence. Why is it okay for god followers to say they wanna keep the world with the gods they have a connection to (and I'm not saying they aren't) but Ashton is out of line for wanting to have a world which has something active that they also have a connection to? It seems rather unfair to allow one side to have and the other to have not, picking and choosing because our audience's bias has spent more time with the gods, Ashton wanting something they can connect to doesn't feel all wrong either, the Eidolons still exist with faint worship hiding away so they're not smited by the gods, why can't faith exist so they're not in hiding? I sincerely doubt the Punk Rock that is Ashton is asking for the Primordials to fill the Gods' roles the same way the Gods have been running things either, they want to break the throne remember? There needs to be a balance in ideals and practice of course, and in an ideal world there could even be a more fluid and all-inclusive Exandria where gods and Eidolons live harmoniously with mortals without hierarchy and class systems, I think Ashton could happily live with something like that, they did say the world needs 'a little chaos' to call back to Matt hinting that the current world doesn't have enough.

Which leads us to those wishing violence upon Ashton - and I really don't like that. People who say 'hitting them over the head is the only language they understand' seem to misinterpret Ashton as if everyone around them have been on their hands and knees begging Ashton to reconsider and them ignoring valid points and pulling a Leroy Jenkins. In reality, nobody is actually talking to Ashton about it, a lot of the frustration with Bells Hells right now is that they aren't talking to each other, even about the end goal! Ashton has valid reasons for their thinking, so being violent isn't gonna change their mind; undermining, dehumanizing and trying to effectively bully anyone let alone someone with chronic pain and low self worth will never truly convince them to your way of thinking. All people understand the language of violence, but that language is not used justly, those who truly wish violence upon Ashton don't want it in hopes it'll force Ashton to change their mind, they want it for their own satisfaction of seeing them in pain; so they can further push them away from the rest of the group and go 'that guy's not one of us', make it so the people Ashton calls family after a lifetime of loneliness, confusion and abandonment - the people they promised they won't abandon, and have kept true on that promise even at their lowest - make them feel small and worthless, and force them into box where they can't be themselves, and I hate that people would want to treat them that way. Ashton IS capable of listening; they've stepped back and trusted the other Hells to do their own thing even when it's ridiculous like staging a play where they pretend to be Ludinus to trick Unseelie emissaries into thinking that he attacked them, they listened to the gods even when they didn't have to like they promised they would and despite it being very personal they held themselves back for the benefit of the group, and if the group talked to them calmly where they were all allowed to healthily discuss the pros and cons, the ideals and compromises, and the risk and reward of all plans that have been proposed then they would listen, and they would try - you don't need to slice bread with a broadsword.

Will Ashton 'get what's coming to them'? Maybe, but what is that exactly? We only assume to know the full vision of what Ashton wants to act on. All of Bells Hells are gonna face the consequences of the choice they make on Ruidus - when they finally make one that is - in and out of the world they live in, so won't that apply to everyone? So what for Ashton? do people want Fractures 2.0? Does everything Ashton wants in life have to blow up violently in their face? Family, Closure, their best friend's safety, why does 'what's coming to them' have to be something aggressive and harmful? People change through positive reinforcement and good experiences too! Caduceus Clay would remind you that it's love that makes people. Don't mistake this rant as me wanting Ashton to be exactly as they are now, I too want to see growth from Ashton and we ARE seeing it happen; I see it in small instances where they think twice about rash actions and try not to fly off the handle, when they sit just to listen or understand or to defuse tension, and that when they're going somewhere or doing something they let the group know in advance, those who think Ashton hasn't changed since ep. 1 aren't paying close attention, but that doesn't mean that they don't still have more ground to cover. I believe that Ashton grows the most through kindness; when they're treated like a person and not a blunt instrument or a nuisance, and I hope what's 'coming' for Ashton isn't rejection, bitterness, and isolation, but acceptance, empathy, and for someone - if you know me you'd know who I'd want it to be - to convince them that they are worthy of living, that they're special not because of their powers or blood or because they have died and been put back together again (honestly, it does irk me a little that both Keyleth and Imogen chose that for titles and to brag to the Matron, I know it isn't intended this way but sometimes it feels like saying 'your best defining quality is that you've died a lot') but because while they have every reason to hate everything they still chose to be kind to those who deserve kindness, they have a good heart and they mean well. Are they perfect? No! They're in their 20s very few people irl have their lives together at even twice that age, but I want them to have good things in their life; things that help them feel happy and safe and like they can still feel comfortable in their own skin without having to appear more 'palatable' for people who've already decided that they don't like them. I want them to know that they've always deserved to live and they still deserve it now, I want that not just for Ashton but for all the Hells, and hopefully they'll all live to have it.

And most of all I want the people who hate them to be wrong about Ashton Greymoore, and I want Taliesin to prove them wrong.

[jinlian]

ashley: i don't think i want it. fearne doesn't want it. i think ashton should have it, i think it belongs to ashton

taliesin: i'm curious about the big red button but you (ashley) get a say in it. we'll talk about it

fearne, in game: if i have a say in it, i think you should have it, i don't want it

ashton: okay, i'll take it then. are you okay with this plan?

internet: ashton was manipulative and took it from fearne

???????????????????????????

[annemarieyeretzian]

fresh cut grass shouting “you don’t deserve this!” at fearne and fearne shouting “fresh cut grass, not now!” and nana morri casting silence 🙌 (bonus: taliesin holding up a potion bottle and asking “is this insane?” and travis saying “I think last time it–” and sam finishing “it fizzled.” and then adding “maybe if you took the potion and kissed it into her. just sort of tongued it into her.” and liam asking “aren’t you silenced?” 😂)

[rabnerd28]

Getting back into CR after a few years away and boy does it remind me how much the fandom bothers me, but I can finally put into words why:

Taliesin Jaffe is an LGBT+ artist, and Liam O'Brien is Taylor Swift.

[disasterpurplebois]

decisions decisions

photo ops and autographs are on sale for NYCC and i need to figure out what I can (should) afford

[dent-de-leon]

help i am once again thinking of ways the animated nein could avoid killing molly off so early--

[commander-vas-normandy]

Why do people feel the need to be like "I'm not a fan of X, but-"???? Like, you can share a positive opinion or feeling about something without having to preface that you just absolutely hate the thing otherwise.

[xfindingtrouble]

thinking very specifically about the phrase ' the scar orthax left on your [percy's] mind' & then the following line ' percy's hate lives'

[moltensmusings]

Honestly, I don't actually want to imagine a world in which Molly survived. Not because I hate Molly, but because it's not only one of the times where a characters death was treated with respect and weight it deserved that spanned the entire rest of the campaign and actively pushed the nein to be better than they were. But also because I genuinely can't imagine the nein without Caduceus.

Caduceus for the longest time was my favorite character of the nein, he and yasha still alternate between the top two spot. Everything from his quest to find his family, growth as a person, and the positive impact he had on the nein is just irreplaceable to me.

Yes it's tragic that Molly's life was so short, but Taliesin's unrelenting decision to let Molly rest leads to such a beautiful story about grief, loss, moving on, and change. Their passing was sudden but it never stopped mattering. I think if Molly lived the yeah it could've been interesting, but they would not be the nein we know anymore. They'd be vastly different people.

It's because I don't know who those people feasibly are that I won't ever mourn what could've been.

[mareastrorum]

Sam: [mentions he thought about coming back as Percy de Rolo]

Taliesin: We had this idle conversation.

Matt: Yes.

Travis: Oh, shit, okay.

Sam: If I came back as a grizzled, old Percy de Rolo who's suiting up for just one more mission.

Matt: And then Taliesin said...

Sam: "No." (laughs)

Taliesin: I said--

Matt: Absolutely not.

Taliesin: Well, I said, "No." I did -- I did think about it 'cause it seemed like-- because, honestly-- 'cause I couldn't quite say no to you yet, I had to like-- you know, you were in that place--

Sam: I had cancer.

All: [BOISTEROUS LAUGHTER]

[quipxotic]

Yes, Percy's back-to-back Action Surges were cool, despite the crap damage rolls, but my favorite things about that sequence were:

Percy palming a random attacker's face and pushing him out of his way when the guy got in between Percy and Ozo Cruth.

Taliesin's cold intensity - so different from Ashton's passionate anger - in this older version of Percy.

Sam's repeated jokes about how many attacks Percy was getting. ("They say he's attacking still...")

Taliesin apologizing to everyone for how much time his many attacks are taking and Ashley replying, "He attacked your baby mama."

[vexing-imogen]

Now that Critical Role has dropped an entire album, and not just an EP, I thought I’d do a short & sweet review. Nothing crazy, no ratings or anything, just for fun

Overall Impressions: it’s a fun, if incredibly niche, holiday album. They know their audience, and they’re playing directly to them. I feel like they struck a good balance between parodies and original compositions. I love that each cast member got their own song, even those that may not be as confident in their singing. The ballads really stand out, and end up being 3 of my top 4 songs

Track 1: Winter’s Crest Welcome (spoken word by Matt Mercer): a nice little intro/lore dump. I think it’s cool that Winter’s Crest is going international (likely thanks to Taste of Tal’Dorei lbr)

Track 2: Winter’s Crest Festival Time (Matt Mercer as Pumat Sol): when I tell you this song has been in my head for weeks. Fun and catchy and a little silly. Matt sounds great even in a goofy character voice. The bridge where he’s in (I think) four part harmony with himself? Wild

Track 3: Silent Mind (Laura Bailey as Imogen Temult): my favorite song off the album, to the surprise of absolutely no one. I knew Laura could sing, but goddamn. Chills

Track 4: Naughty & Nice (Sam Riegel as Scanlan Shorthalt): Sam has such a great voice for a jazzy, sexy song like this. And they really nailed the vibe, I knew it was a Scanlan song immediately

Track 5: Nothin’ Under the Tree (Taliesin Jaffe as Ashton Greymoore): this song rocks, pun fully intended. I never knew I needed a Christmas song I could headbang to until now. And Taliesin sounds fantastic. I fucking love it

Track 6: O Mighty Nein (Liam O’Brien as Caleb Widogast): oh, Liam, my heart. This song is so sweet and beautiful, and I was almost in tears by the end

Track 7: Twelve Days of Grogmas (Travis Willingham as Grog, feat. Ashley Johnson as Pike): it’s fun, it’s stupid, it’s catchy as hell. Another earworm that’s been in my head since it dropped. It is so perfectly Grog, and Pike’s little asides are the icing on the cake

Track 8: Cold Inside (Marisha Ray as Laudna, feat. Matt Mercer as Pate, Sam Riegel as FCG, Travis Willingham as Chetney, and Laura Bailey as Imogen): knowing that Marisha is likely the cast member that is least confident in their singing abilities, I’m so glad she did this song. Laudna is the perfect vehicle too, her character voice is more distinct than Keyleth or Beau, and she has a flair for the dramatic that Marisha can really lean into without worrying about how she sounds. For a song that people were advertising as an Imodna song, I wasn’t expecting it to be so funny. I think my favorite bit was the deadpan “I think that’s just arson, Chetney”. And then Imogen coming in at the end, you can just hear the eye roll and the fond smile

Track 9: Winter Anymore (Ashley Johnson as Yasha Nydoorin): this song is so achingly tender and yearning. Ashley has such a gorgeous voice, I’m in awe. I was initially unsure if she was singing as Yasha or Pike, but I love that the lyrics could apply to both. I love that despite the overall sadness of the song, there’s still an air of hope

Track 10: Deck the Bear (Liam O’Brien as Vax’ildan and Laura Bailey as Vex’ahlia, feat. the rest of the cast as Vox Machina and Matt Mercer as Trinket): another silly, goofy one, though admittedly this one is my least favorite from the album. I do like the ensemble song, and Matt’s bear noises are incredible as always (will he ever feature in a song not in a character voice? spoiler alert: yes lol)

Track 11: It’s Critmas (Critical Role cast as themselves): yet another earworm. This was tied with Silent Mind for my favorite song from the EP, and it’s still definitively in the top 4. Again, I love the ensemble, and everyone getting their moment. It’s catchy, it’s fun. It’s Critmas

[your-enby-antihero]

based on the 4 sided dive escape room question here is my take:

Liam’s PCs- Yes 100% they would escape not only because of their skill sets but also all of them are very team oriented. They would all work well together, getting out at record time and it would be a good experience for all of them they’d be friends upon escape.

Laura’s PCs- No only because they would do really well at the start but eventually Jester would get distracted and start to annoy Vex then it would devolve into following a red herring until time runs out. They would have a good time though, but it is contentious if they come out of the room friends.

Marisha’s PCs- Yes they could do it purely based on the fact that I think Beau could pull the team together. Her competitive energy would get Keyleth and Laudna fired up and they would get out. They would have a decent time (Beau might get intense) but they’d come out friends.

Ashely’s PCs- No they would not get out of the escape room. Yasha wouldn’t get the point of the activity, Pike would eventually get frustrated and she would have to be stopped so she wouldn’t smash stuff, Fearne would try to take the set dress. They would not even get past the first room but they’d come out friends.

Travis’ PCs-No I don’t believe they could purely because Grog as best as he would try he would be much help, Bertrand Bell and Chetney would have beef on who is in charge and Chetney snuck in a real knife, Fjord is low key a push over so despite him probably being good enough at doing the puzzles but he doesn’t speak up. They would not get out and Chetney would kill someone.

Taliesin’s PCs- I think they’d get out. With the amount of obscure knowledge and a general intelligence they could get out in the nick of time. However they would not be friends at the end of the escape. Percy and Ashton and Molly would all end up yelling and insulting each other. Kingsley and Caduceus would chill but Kingsley would be laughing so fucking hard at the end. They would get out but they’d kill each other if it happened again.

Sam’s PCs-They could do it, but it would depend on if Veth/Nott got distracted or not. If she figured it out they would be fine but let’s be real FCG and Tary would be just a little useless despite genuine effort. Scanlan would help but I think he’d be kind of a dick about it. They would get out but not end up being besties after very neutral.

[utilitycaster]

I like that the Raven Queen, who made the decision to take on an immense and (at least to her understanding at the time) unending responsibility is the one who calls Bells Hells out on their endless indecision.

It's been...interesting, shall we say, tracking this "party of NPCs," and tracking the fandom response throughout. The initial reception to "party of NPCs" was actually a rather cold one. This took place early in the campaign, prior to the Gnarlrock fight, and at the time a lot of people who shipped Imogen and Laudna were actually extremely resistant to the idea that Imogen was the "main character" of the campaign (as seen in the fallout from the gnarlrock fight, in which the bulk of attacks from the fandom were on Imogen). I've had complicated feelings on Taliesin's reads of this campaign specifically - he tends to have a very good understanding of his own characters that doesn't necessarily expand beyond them - but that phrase was indeed pretty valid. I think about the WBN interludes, in fact, in which the cast plays using NPC statblocks, and what a true party of NPCs for Bells Hells would look like, since it would be quite simple to draw up.

Allied NPCs in TTRPGs rarely act without guidance from the PCs. I've cast a critical eye in the past towards certain meta (particularly romantic in nature, regarding Yeza or Essek or Gilmore not making moves) for this reason, because while villains and antagonists move throughout the world generating obstacles, allies exist to be directed. They have their limits, of course; they have their own priorities and motivations and cannot be persuaded against their nature, but they can be guided at oblique angles from the GMs initial intent given enough work from the PCs. They're still people with thoughts and feelings and dreams, to an extent, but rarely do they make decisions that would conflict with those of the PCs.

That's the problem with a party of NPCs. NPCs take direction. They serve as support, but they're not in the driver's seat. And the Raven Queen has noticed.

The attitude within the fandom towards "Party of NPCs" became far more positive over time, and I wonder if it should have. People began to lean perhaps too heavily on how Bells Hells were people from nothing and nowhere, discarded. This is of course objectively false when comparing across parties (can we really say Imogen had a worse childhood than Vex? Chetney to Caleb? Even Ashton to Fjord?) but were it true, that in and of itself wouldn't be a problem. D&D backstories are often tear-stained and blood-soaked, full of unjust accusations, dead or neglectful parents, failure and regret. D&D is a game about coming from very little but a disproportionately good stat block for a commoner. It is unavoidably about amassing power. Starting off as a party of NPCs is fine. You should not still be a party of NPCs at the endgame.

I mentioned the gnarlrock, and I've mentioned an emphasis (or overemphasis) on this party's lack of agency and I think that remains the problem. Ludinus's villainy is rich, complex, and multifaceted, but a consistent element of it is his eternal false insistence that he - Martinet, founder and head of the Cerberus Assembly, Archmage - is just a little guy, chaff in the wind of the will of the gods, without free will of his own (he says, as he places his thread outside the reach of the Matron). That too is a theme in fandom discourse: free will and intent. Is Imogen justified in being angry at Laudna for breaking the rock if that wasn't Laudna's intent? (yes.) Is Orym on a quest of vengeance, with a death wish? (no, but if he were it wouldn't matter.) Was it wrong to pressure Fearne to take the shard instead of letting her make her own choices? (yes.)

Did any of you, perhaps in preschool or kindergarten, since that's about the age when this happens, have someone pull your hair and for adults to say "it's because they like you?" I find this is a good way to convey the importance, or unimportance, or intent. Because when your hair is being pulled, at least if that is the extent of the problem, it doesn't matter if it comes from the misguided affections of a four-year-old admirer who doesn't know how to use their words, or a six-year-old who just grabbed the most obvious material with which to test the limits of the safety scissors, or an eleven-year-old bully. Your hair is being pulled and you want it to stop. It doesn't matter if the person secretly likes you or if they want to hurt you; it matters that no matter the intent behind it, they are doing so. And if you reject the affections of your fellow preschool classmate because you think they might pull your hair, that's a fair consequence.

Bells Hells' indecision is some sort of cosmic hair pulling. They have reasons for faltering, and some of those reasons are understandable balking at an immense weight placed upon them and some of those reasons come from a deeply self-centered place in which their individual pain is used to blot out the suffering of countless others. But in the end, even that doesn't matter. Their histories don't matter. We don't need another series of introductions of where they come from and what they've done. We need people who can make decisions and who will act.

The Raven Queen seems to have been convinced they will. I'm not sure. But I think we are in agreement that inaction is, regardless of the intent behind it, no different than active harm. It would be irresponsible to continue to be a party of NPCs; if they truly are lost and forgotten fuck-ups, they have a responsibility (as the god of death once did) to abdicate and find a replacement.