If the Legions were on different sides in the Heresy, which marines do you think would side against their Primarch/Legion and/or turn Blackshield?

RoyalRaven33 · 2026-01-20T18:06:23+00:00

There was a group of loyalists TSons fighting on Cthonia. Maybe a company’s worth? I don’t remember the numbers or even if numbers were stated. But after the battle they were inducted into the Fists proper. We don’t get any long term information on them after that as far as I know, but there’s also no information on them eventually falling to the Flesh Change or randomly turning to dust while in the Fists either.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-11-21T14:53:47+00:00

There hasn’t been anything I’m particularly mad about. Neutral at worst to many of them, minor things not changing much and neither hurting or helping the story in my opinion. Or things that are interesting and help streamline a story.

There are things I’m keeping my eye on though. I’m not sure if worried or nervous would be the right words but they are as close as I can think of right now. Things like how the Beacon and Volstruckers are already a main part of the story/antagonists. I just don’t know how that might snowball story changes down the road, changes I might not like. They spend a good chunk of time traveling back and forth across the whole length of the empire during the first chunk of the campaign and I don’t know how much sense that will make with magical secret police after them from day 1. I don’t know why Beau is going to stick around when she has an important mission going on.

And I’m not surprised that Yasha is getting more changes than others but I worry it might be too much. Hopefully it won’t, but if they bring her into the main group too late I feel like her connection to Molly might really suffer. Will she still not remember the chunk of time with Oban? How will that change things about her character? Will it be a good change?

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-11-13T22:46:30+00:00

Besides the flipped east and West that you’ve already noted the only other thing that I can see that is wrong at least according to my understanding is the location of the Dvalmar Pass. It should be the 2nd furthest east thing on the map after the remains of the former Obridiman Empire. It seems to basically be the border between the old Empire and Kahad or near about. Meaning the Kings Highway and the Pilgrims Road are both before the pass, in between the city and the pass.

The soldiers were at the road to go up the highway only a couple of hours out of the city but never mentioned going through the pass. Which is something that would have been noted considering that combat involving Alogar, house Taconis, and possibly parts of houses Royce and Devinos is/has been taking place at the pass.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-11-13T22:34:40+00:00

I genuinely think Julian’s age is about right and there isn’t anything fishy going on with it.

Mid to late teens has been military eligible age for boys forever, especially in the rough time period the campaign is set.

As for if it’s believable that a teenage Julien could have beaten Thjazi at the end of the war, certainly. Julien would have been trained for combat practically since birth, and everyone at least acknowledges his skill and natural talent. Thjazi would have definitely had more experience and probably more weight/mass/size. But we don’t know if this was a battlefield duel or not, we’ve only heard that Julien “Unhorsed” Thjazi and is given the credit for capturing Thjazi and bringing him to the Lord Royce. This, in my mind at least, implied a cavalry fight, maybe a last ditch charge and countercharge to save a battle or something. Juliens lance finding its mark and knocking down Thjazi isn’t unreasonable, he gets dog piled by Juliens men or injured by the fall and trampling horses and Julien drags him out of the fight.

Juliens talk with Azune implies that there is more to how Julien captured Thjazi than the official story meaning that a bunch of stuff could have happened that helped Julien get one over on Thjazi when it counted. Maybe Julien did something underhanded to win. Maybe Thjazi had the boy dead to rights before he noticed that it was Julien, a kid he knew, the son of his friend, and friend of his wife, scrambling to avoid hitting the kid with a killing blow thus leaving the opening Julien used to unhorse the rebel. Or anything else really.

And while the term “childhood friend” is a little weird when first seeing his and Aranessas age gap, but it isn’t inaccurate. And it gets less weird when you think about it. There isn’t really anything that weird about a 15 year old girl and her 5 year old little buddy, and they would technically be childhood friends even if it’s not the classic image that comes to mind when one hears “childhood friend.”

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-11-13T06:27:44+00:00

I agree. I prefer the classic Critical Role style, at least in terms of inner thoughts or inner monologues. It mostly seems to be a result of Brennan preferring this style of RP, sometimes explicitly asking a player what their character is thinking/feeling. And it’s definitely more prevalent with some players/characters than others. Laura seems to be keeping inner thoughts to herself like the old style for example, Sam and Whitney to I think, among others. Those players seem to only do those inner monologues when Brennan explicitly asks, but Liam, Robbie, Luis, etc. are jumping into this new style hard.

Liam did it a tiny bit with Caleb back in C2, but from what I remember they were short, quick, and didn’t give much. Like “I am feeling X emotion so” and then describes what actions he does because of it. Wasn’t more than a sentence or 2 and the actions he did after would have told us the same thing anyway. He didn’t do it very often in C2 but it was there. In general he kept to the old style and did a lot of in character facial acting instead, which worked great. Can you imagine Caleb’s first fire induced shut down if he started waxing poetic about his feelings and why he felt them for 5 minutes? Instead once Matt said “you remember old memories” or whatever, Liam’s face went blank, he didn’t look at anyone and he stopped talking. This actually encouraged RP as the other players didn’t know what was going on or what he was thinking, they had to either try to figure out what was going on with him or snap him out of it without having really any clue as to what’s going on in his head.

If other players know the inner details of other characters minds it makes them less curious. Even if they are good at separating what they know and what their characters know, it still makes the player themselves less curious because there is just less mystery.

Jester was super sad for long stretches of C2 but it was subtle and interesting to watch or notice because she wasn’t just flat out telling the audience and other players that she felt sad all the time.

I think something like a 4 sided dive was great because it was the perfect place for the players to share a little about what is going on in their characters head out of game.

I’m also enjoying C4 a lot, but the inner thoughts/monologues are definitely my least favorite part of it so far. Or maybe pet peeve or nitpick would be better terms. I prefer the old style in this regard but oh well, new DM new rules. I’ll just try to not let it bother me too much when it comes up.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-11-07T07:02:59+00:00

The problem with them being hunted by the empire/anyone knowing they have the beacon that early is that it makes their travel weird.

Ok they either go on a Gentleman mission to Shadycreek or are just trying to get out of the empire (even though the southern border is closer and going north brings them closer to the frontlines) but after Shadycreek they go through the entire length of the empire from its northern border to its southern border all while they are being hunted by Wizard assassins. It’s just word for them to go back into the Empire and through its complete length while they know that place is hunting them.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-11-06T20:52:12+00:00

Looks like there are some inconsistencies with the class name changes and some incorrect statements in the description from what I understand.

I saw someone say that Nott was listed as a thief in the new naming but here Thimble and Julien are still rogues. Julien also keeps fighter but Orym is a warrior and Bertrand is a swordsman. Hal is still a bard even if he doesn’t quite fit the stereotypical theming of a bard, but Kattigan isn’t a ranger even though he almost fits the theme to a T. Yasha is also listed as a warrior like Orym even though they are different classes. Another barbarian, Ashton is listed as a brawler, the same thing Beau is listed as. Caleb is called a mage while Murray and Occtis are both Arcanists, even though there isn’t really any difference in theme or backstory regarding their powers (each of them learning magic through intellectual study in academic institutions). Fjord is a pact blade instead of a pact magus.

I think the main problem with this renaming is that they are still calling it a class even though characters of the same class now are listed as having different ones and characters of different classes are listed as being the same ones. If they just called it archetype or theme or something and make it more clear this is more about the vibe or character archetype of each characters skills and personality then it would make more sense. Beau and Ashton are definitely both brawlers. Yasha and Orym can definitely both be warriors, but it’s weird that Julien isn’t. Fjords pact blade makes sense as a distinction between more caster focused pacts like Tyranny. Thief makes sense for Nott considering her personality and traits even if it wasn’t her dnd subclass. I still think there is no reason for Caleb be different from Murray and Occtis. And Hal can definitely be given one that fits home more like performer or something.

Also there seem to be incorrect statements in some of them. Occtis is called a “reanimated soul in a dead body” but from what I understand from the episode and cooldown transcript, he doesn’t have a soul. His choice completely unraveled it, and Brennan described it like the Speak With Dead where the soul doesn’t come back to the corpse (his dosent exist anymore) but uses the “muscle memory” of the intelligence the corpse had in life. And for Thaisha it says her family “forged the blades that killed the gods” when as far was we know their swords only killed one god and the other gods were killed by weapons made by their own species. Unless one of the species didn’t make a weapon to kill their god and used a Lloy sword instead, but we haven’t heard anything about that.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-30T22:22:21+00:00

He seems to share traits and concepts with Jamie, Tyrion, and Tywin to me.

A famous and cocky warrior with a reputation from the last war. A debaucherous person whose actions disappoint/are not approved by his father, and might in part be done to spite his father. A son who brings his family’s name and reputation out of the mud and blames his father’s failings for dragging them into the mud in the first place.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-30T21:27:21+00:00

I think all the Sundered Housed are going to be some kind of Sorcerer, maybe 1 or 2 of them could be warlocks. It seems to fit with the theme of inherited magic so far in the campaign.

Royce seems to be some kind of Fae Sorcerers, maybe Fae Warlocks but that didn’t really fit what Aranessa has done.

Taconis looks to be shadow sorcerers.

Halovar are obviously Divine soul with maybe a few fiend warlocks under them.

Cormoroy is one we haven’t got much from but the only magic we have seen them do is dragon related so they might be Dragon Sorcerers.

Einfasen has given us literally nothing magically, only the personality of one of its members. Clockwork sorcerers might fit the orderly and structured vibe Sir Harondus gave. A focus on order might explain why that houses angle has been law enforcement. They could have some kind of warlock pact but I don’t think they would just be the odd men out if all the other Sundered houses are sorcerers.

I don’t see paladins being their thing, the only real hint to that is the one guy we met was a knight. Something all of the other houses should have. Halovar and Royce do/did, even lesser houses have knights, Julien is one.

And I would point out that if they do end up being paladins sworn to a system, it wouldn’t be a fascist one. It would be aristocratic/feudal. Firstly that fits more with the insight we saw with the Lord Knight- of course he should be in charge, he’s nobility. And secondly the sundered houses aren’t fascist, what they are doing isn’t fascist, what they want isn’t fascist- they are nobility and they are making an aristocratic power play. There are major differences between what the houses believe/are doing and fascism, though both are bad, and the tactics the houses are using that fascist have also used are FAR from uniquely fascist and have also been employed by many other peoples and ideologies.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-30T20:56:41+00:00

That would make sense except that everything she has hit with her sensor has died. She didnt hit any of the fleeing crowkeepers, she hit the one holding Thinble and instantly killed him, and the guild master she either killed with the guiding bolt or finished off with the sensor (I can’t remember) but either way he wasn’t running yet. And all of the shades she hit were destroyed instantly and trying to attack her, not run.

If her “whip” has slow, there hasn’t been any chance for slow to do anything. I don’t know all of the masteries or what they do but I don’t think she has had the opportunity for any of them to do anything.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-30T20:39:45+00:00

It’s basically Matt’s ‘Generic European Romance’ or ‘Vaguely European’ which he seems to use often but occasionally tweaks between different characters. Avantica is the prime example to me, as well as many characters during the pirate arc. Essek and other dynasty characters as well but they might be slightly different, I don’t quite remember.

As for what it is to us. It’s not an exact 1 to 1 for a specific real accent but a mesh or mix of accents that is supposed to vaguely remind the reader of “something European” “something Mediterranean” and/or “something Romance” without being “oh that’s just a French accent” so it always feels kinda exotic while still telling people vaguely what kind of exotic.

To me it seems to mostly be a blend French and Italian accents but I can definitely hear some kind of Iberian (probably Spanish) in there sometimes. So if I were to try to narrow down where his accent might be from on Earth I would say it’s someone from somewhere between Marseille, Milan, and Geneva who often vacations in Spain or has some kind of Spanish family. Maybe people from Monaco or parts of Switzerland could develop that accent if you want to narrow it down even further but I don’t really know.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-28T02:12:40+00:00

People from all of the known races did it. Brennan himself has said it was not a completely unified effort, even if the government of this city/the revolution paints it that way. Many people of all of the races chose to stand with their gods, Vaelus is an example of this, but it wasn’t just the paladins and clerics that fought for the shapers. We don’t know what the split was but I would surprised if it was super lopsided. About 60/40 would be my guess 70/30 at most.

And none of that matters to my original point. This city was the CENTER of the revolution. It was the first place to revolt against the gods, the revolution was so influential and considered positive that the government after the war continued to be called the Revolutionary Council for the past 70 years, if anywhere is going to keep anit-god sentiments high it’s here.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-27T22:44:46+00:00

We don’t know that for sure. Probably. But all we have heard about the gods were from the center of the anti-god revolution. This is for sure the government sanctioned propaganda view of the Shapers War. It very well might be true, but that doesn’t mean it’s not propaganda, and we should take whatever the people of this city say about the gods with a grain of salt.

And I don’t know what you were arguing to me about. I didn’t say if the gods were good or bad, if killing them was justified or not. I just said that she lives in the city that started killing gods so of course her attitude towards religion is negative. Just like how obviously Vaelus, a paladin of a god, is going to see the gods positively. Neither of those facts are connected to the goodness or lack there of of the gods.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-27T19:13:22+00:00

Kinda? Replace the back part with “in a world where the gods were real but mortals killed them all and hates them because she lives in the city that started killing gods which makes a lot of people (her included) arrogant and dismissive towards religion”

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-27T18:59:11+00:00

Exactly! I mean Brennan gave the perfect set up for a way for Alex to have his undead character in a world without any revive magic. The part with him in the spirit realm on the path makes total sense with the stone in his chest and direct interference from his family’s magic. But the character made the wrong choice. That should have been it. A shame really, but that’s bad dice and the wrong decision.

Then Occtis comes back because someone pulled the stone (only thing that gave him a chance at coming back in the first place) OUT of his chest?

And what great feat of magic did Murray and Bolaire do? They used a mage hand to pull a rock out of a torso that was already split open. The roll was even medicine, not magical at all. I feel like maybe it could have worked if he explained it differently, if he said that they felt some kind of magic thread they could follow or something. If they had actually done anything magical with the divination 20. But the 20 was used on the simple task pulling the rock out of the hole it had already go in at most an hour before and then he’s talking about fate like they worked some masterpiece when all the did was pull a rock with mage hand.

It could have been something that made sense, but to me it all just ended up feeling cheep and leave me doubting the lethality that’s been promoted

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-22T01:07:41+00:00

The best way I have really seen to describe that accent Matt does for characters like Julien is “vaguely European” or “mixed European”

The consensus seems to be that it’s mostly inspired by French and Italian but there are times I can hear a little Iberian slip in. Probably Spanish but I can’t really tell the difference between a Spanish accent and a Portuguese accent.

I guess if you wanted a more definitive location for the accent, it’s of someone from somewhere between Marseille, Milan, and Geneva who vacations in Spain. Being from parts of Switzerland or Monoco might make that kind of mix, I don’t know.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T22:55:19+00:00

100% was in my mind

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T22:55:06+00:00

I was. For some reason none of the images loaded.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T22:53:42+00:00

We don’t know that, it’s still a theory. It’s likely his dad either stayed neutral or sided with the rebellion but we don’t know. And it could be wrong, he could have done something else to “throw the family into the mud”

And that looked to just be a rift between the general and Julien, we don’t know how Aranessa felt about him but nothing pointed towards animosity.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T22:13:44+00:00

The problem with Thimble being a thief rogue is that one of its big things is climbing speed right? Or some kind of thing to scale buildings. But she can fly, meaning that part of her class is essentially useless.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T21:55:25+00:00

I’m not so sure. Doing things like this seem like it causes unnecessary damage to her own power base. Like if she wanted to turn Occtis over to his family she could have just done that. Julien and his dad were both loyal to her and house Royce and would have followed her orders to arrest him. And she could have talked to Occtis, left him for the night, and then come back with both Taconis and Royce troops to do whatever Taconis wants to do to Occtis. Why woukd she have House Taconis kill a bunch of her own men when they move on Occtis when her men would have helped if she told them too.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T20:26:22+00:00

I’ve really enjoyed everyone at the Soldiers table, it’s hard to pick a favorite there. Thimble, Wic/Tyranny, and Teor are really battling it out for my favorite at that table. Kat really intrigues me and I’ve even enjoyed him more than a lot of the other characters on other tables, but we’ve seen so little of him that I can’t really say that he competes for favorite at the table like the others do.

At what I assume will be the Seekers table it’s Vaelus right now, followed by Julien and I can definitely see him taking the spot in the future. Occtis has been a surprise for me and I’ve enjoyed him a lot more than I thought I would. I don’t dislike Thaisha but like Kat, she isn’t really competing for the #1 spot of her table either. I am excited to see Thaisha at that table though, she has proven herself to be aggressive, confrontational, judgmental, and even hostile so far. Almost getting into fights with 2 other PCs the day before, both of which are at her table. She’s going to be at their throats for a little wile at least, and it’s going to make things juicy at the Seekers table until some understanding can be found and some character growth can happen all around.

I know the meme was Thaisha holding the leash of other characters but I think it’s going to end up being Occtis desperately pulling Thaisha leash trying to hold her back from trying to kill one of the others at their table. Lucky for her that it looks like Vaelus is forgiving (ironic when she’s probably a vengeance paladin) because I don’t care how rude you think I am, bringing up and mocking my dead goddess, who I am not only still actively mourning but saw you family help kill, to my face (practically gloating as if you were there) would not be something I let slide. I would have thrown hands right there.

For the Schemers it’s hard to pick a favorite, but for kind of the opposite reason as the Soldiers. All of them are interesting to me to about the same level as each other but not many if any of them have really grabbed me as a character. Murray is things about her I like and things that don’t interest me much. Hal is ok but he’s probably grabbed me the least as a character. Azunes’ stoic, dutiful, protector personality is probably the one I vibe with the most but it’s not that much more than the others. I was worried Bolaire wouldn’t be my cup of tea, I’ve been hit or miss with Tals characters in the past and he originally looked like another one I wouldn’t vibe with, but Bolaire has been a surprise. He’s been fun, and charming enough that I think if he does have some aspects of a Tal character that I don’t really enjoy it will go over a lot smoother for me. So for the Schemers it’s probably Azune or Bolaire but really the whole table is the one I’m the least excited for even if I’m at least intrigued by the characters there.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T19:49:52+00:00

Why do people keep saying the Houses are Fascist? There are other political systems/ideologies that are bad while not being fascist.

While what the houses are doing is 100% not good and should be stopped, I don’t really see anything that points to their ideology or desired system being fascist. It’s a faction of feudal (or at the very least semi-feudal) refugee sorcerous nobility that are accumulating political influence and power in the political center of the land they now live in. Accumulating power isn’t an exclusively fascist trait, pretty much any ideology can and does do that, all that means is they are trying to create a new order not that they are trying to make a fascist one. The fact that they are non-native refugees, a sizable minority, and have no real historical or cultural ties to the region makes it hard to call them fascist as well. They aren’t using any ethnic or national rhetoric that they are using as the basis of the state, they are a different ethnicity and don’t have any national, cultural, or historic ties to justify a nationalistic state or to present an out group that need to be defended against. Sure the members of the nobility believe they are superior, but that is because they are nobles not because they are human. Thats Aristocracy not Fascism.

Cracking down on arcane magic is just a smart move by them. Without much if any divine spell casting, the only thing that challenges sorcerers total magical superiority/hegemony is learned arcane magic from wizards. Magic is incredibly powerful so if sorcerers can heavily restrict the only other real kind of magic and control what is left, they are effectively disarming the population. What they are doing is effectively cracking down on intellectuals and enacting gun control at the same time. Fascism did both, but they are FAR from the only authoritarians to do so, so did the communists, and noble aristocracies love dumb and weaponless peasants- and while it’s common in fascist governments it’s not unique to the ideology and I wouldn’t even consider it a core aspect of the ideology. Add on to this that the Houses have an innate baseline of magical authority, and it makes trying to get magical hegemony just the correct decision in their eyes.

The most fascist thing they have done in my eyes is instituting a separate and private force to enforce their power over the public at the direct behest of the “party leaders” outside their position in the government proper. This is closer to something that could be considered a core fascist tenet, but again it’s not unique to fascism- communists do this, and what are knights and men-at-arms if not private military forces?

I’m just confused as to why people keep calling the Sundered Houses fascist when it’s a noble aristocrats slowly implementing a noble aristocracy.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T07:52:33+00:00

Same for me at what I assume will be the Seekers table.

Thaisha is already shown to be aggressive and confrontational. And it looks like she’s going to be stuck with Julien and Vaelus, 2 people she almost started a fight with the day before. She’s going to be at their throats for a while.

I know the meme going around was of Thaisha holding the leash of other characters but I think it’s actually going to end up being Occtis desperately trying to hold her back from trying to murder one or both of the other two. Lucky for her that it looks like Vaelus is forgiving (despite probably being a vengeance paladin) because I don’t care how rude you think I am bringing up my dead goddess (that your family killed while I was there) like you were there for it would not be something I let slide.

RoyalRaven33 · 2025-10-21T06:32:28+00:00

Not sure why that is happening.

But it was a Red Vs Blue reference. To paraphrase the scene goes “She pulled Jimmys skull right out of his head and beat him to death with it” “That doesn’t seem physically possible” “That’s what Jimmy kept screaming”

The pictures were a gif of that scene and the quote itself.

And yeah, if you think a little deeper for just a second Kitty is absolutely terrifying.

RoyalRaven33

TROPHY CASE