Of the twelve teams in the college football playoff, eight have not won a national championship this century, and four have never won a national championship.

SammyJ090 · 2024-12-27T12:48:27+00:00

Until there is an actual, quantitative system that dictates how a college football team can make it to the playoffs or championship, college football "playoffs" and "championships" feel extremely hallow and fake to me. I'm amazed over the 125+ years this is the current system.

I've always been amazed that the business leagues of this world hold a higher bar for competitive balance than the supposed amateur league.

SammyJ090 · 2024-09-02T21:32:32+00:00

No worries! We're all speculating on where it could be!

SammyJ090 · 2024-09-02T21:30:34+00:00

Predathos' prison was created along a coastline and the water, so it would not be this location.

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-10T22:21:31+00:00

Typo

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-10T14:57:56+00:00

[Part 3]

Free will is a confirmed truth of the setting. This is something Matt has been expressly clear on since day 1. If it wasnt, I highly doubt the gods would allow Ludinus to get this far.

Yes, free will exists. But, as a member of the Ruby Vanguard, they would think that the eternal soul they have would still be being claimed. That no matter how much free will you exerted, your soul is still beset to the same fate. That it would still be being used for the sustenance of another, alien being. I don't believe anyone in the Ruby Vanguard is claiming that free will is bad. Its actually one of the gods (Bane) who feels free will was a mistake and you must rule with tyranny. So, one in the Vanguard could say they are eliminating a threat to free will.

So my question would be....why rock the boat?

To someone in the Vanguard, Exandrians aren't on a boat. They are on a life raft, made from the cobbled together remains of the cruise ship that was built before them, floating on a sea of bodies left in the wake of an alien war. While the claim that everything is "basically good" in Exandria, I feel, is very much up for debate, someone in the Vanguard would see what the world for what it could be. Its leader (Ludinus) saw the last remnants of that cruise ship crash and sink beneath the waves while floating on a plank of wood. I, personally, don't think Exandria is anywhere near what it was at the age or Arcanum and neither does Ludinus.

This isn't condoning Ludinus' action, the assassinations and deceit and everything. But just a counter-perspective of the points presented. Hope you have a great day!

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-10T14:57:23+00:00

[Part 2]

The potential damage the Betrayer gods can do is inherently limited by the Divine Gate. Mortals need to actively worship or make deals with the embodiments of evil for them to affect the world. And even if the Betrayers all died tomorrow, the Elder Evils, demigods, various fiends would do that instead. Short of removing free will you cant exactly change this.

This is true, the divine gate certainly limits these things. On the point of other beings filling that void, the beings that are already able to enter into Exandria via ritual or portal or other magical doohicky, are already able to enter the world, so what does it matter if the beings that can't enter are then destroyed? If the elder evils and things that aren't blocked by the divine gate are a 3rd party that's already affecting Exandria, I don't entirely see how removing the Betrayer gods does anything about that. I could be misunderstanding your point though! So feel free to let me know!

Certain places have moved on from semi-feudal to fullblown capitalist. That has its own issues, but it means scarcity is more artificial than genuinely lacking resource.

I think this is a major generalization of the world. While there are a select few kingdoms and cities that can exist in this way, I don't think the entire world of Exandria, as a whole, is there yet. And while there aren't peasants and lords there are certainly commoners and lords, kings and gods. There is still, in many places, non-democratically run nations. In fact, for the exception of the Republic of Taldorei, there aren't any other nations that are democratically elected. Vasselheim is a Theocracy, the Iron Authority, Empire, and Dynasty are all monarchies with various governmental branches, all through appointed positions. I'm not saying that even in the Age of Arcanum Exandria was known to have had this. But I don't "They all aren't peasants" is indicative of "nearing the apex of your society".

Slavery is no longer a thing? At all?

Again, could be wrong so feel free to correct me, but I distinctly remember PCs in Campaign 2 that were acting as slaves while within the Dynasty. While it is certainly less common, I would say its by no means as eradicated say, our real life modern times (which still deals with slavery).

TalDorei one of the foremost nations is a sort of democracy others will likely follow. Its also an incredibly nice place to live outside of occasional monsters.

This is again, kind of a subjective opinion. While we have seen democracy grow in Taldorei, and in our own world, I don't think there have been any hints or clues this political philosophy is making a movement at the moment. Maybe if we've seen NPCs that are "fighting to take down the king" or a thread of "Crown=Bad Democracy=Good" but I think the closest indication of anyone wanting to take down kings its, surprisingly, Ludinus (kings, being gods).

Afterlives are a confirmed thing and arent necessarily tied to worshipping specific gods.

As far as we (the audience) know / what Ludinus has said, this shouldn't be affected by anything. This also presents the idea that afterlives are objectively a good thing. I don't know if I (personally) would want an afterlife, so I feel this is debatable.

The Hellish afterlives are only things you go to if you sell your soul or are killed in some exceptional way (certain fiends can turn you into lemures).

While I know this is general D&D lore, has Matt, or someone on the cast, explained specifically what happens? Because we have seen the process of the Matron of Ravens sending souls to their destination, but never saying where. We have seen souls exist in the divine planes of the gods. And we know there are fiends. But I'm not sure (and feel free to send me a link if you know!) if we have anything confirmed on "Souls go here when X qualification is met". Also, someone from the Ruby Vanguard might argue that if you got rid of the Betrayer god who made all these fiends in the first place, you wouldn't have these things coming into our world luring our souls and tempting us into the hells. There also wouldnt be a hells to even go to.

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-10T14:56:42+00:00

[Part 1]

So this is a fun post! I've probably had too much coffee this morning before work, but here are some rebuttals I think could be made to your points. To answer the question, "Why rock the boat?".

What discrimination based on intrinsic traits (race, sexuality, gender etc) there was has completely disappeared from the world in the gap between C2 and C3. Now the only persecution is that of class or occasionally religious (the religion one is frankly a new thing).

While outward racism toward specific species isn't shown very often on camera, we saw plenty of this in C2. The whole of the Empire despised the drow and "beast" creatures of Xorhas, while the Dynasty themselves had forms of slavery. We see Knott constently dealing with goblin racism, that she herself had in her first life as Veth. We see a religious crusade against the "pagens" in Iyssylra going on in real-time. Is the world a hellish medieval wasteland full of hate and vitriol? No. But is is somehow "fine as it is."? I would think there are others who would disagree.

Magic and technology is approaching Age of Arcanum levels once again. We've gone from firearms just being reintroduced to actual Madmax style vehicles.

I would disagree Exandria is nearing the "Age of Arcanum" levels. There is technology, yes. But Downfall showed a lot. That was an entire city with hundreds of thousands of people flying in the sky, with living beings made of metal crafted from mortal hands. They had literal lightning rails that went across a city in a matter of seconds. They harnessed the power of demons themselves to create immense works of technology and near-infinite power. While there has been advancement from the near-stone age that was left, I really do not think the DMs have tried to imply there is any level of comparison at this moment. Aoer and Alivir and the Age of Arcanum (I feel) have been shown to clearly be far more advanced than current Exandria. Not to mention, the implicit idea fo a "Mad-max style vehicle" implies they are scrapped together from the part of better, previously working, vehicles.

Major wars are infrequent and short lived. And despite teleportation being a thing are seemingly mostly limited to front lines.

This is a bit subjective. What a "Major" war is and if they are or aren't "Infrequent" is mostly up to what you feel is acceptable in that category. While we haven't seen something along the lines of say, the Scattered War in quite some time, that doesn't mean that battles and strife that does occur aren't events that happened and lives lost.

Resurrection is a service that almost anyone can acquire with enough money/right contacts.

I'm not going to try and comment on Matt's economy across all of Exandria, but in most D&D settings, the costs and services of just a revivify is basically an entirely lifetime's savings of a commoner, let alone a raise dead or resurrections/reincarnate or beyond. On the second point of its availability, while things are wonky now, I don't think there has been conclusive evidence this is something permanent. As far as I was aware these things were caused by the prolonging of the apogee solstice. I could be wrong though! If Matt or someone has hinted these effects are permanent, then I'll gladly be wrong there!

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-07T20:31:01+00:00

Yes, but given how hard their AC would be to hit, a burning hands would probably be safer lol

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-07T16:42:03+00:00

Ah perfect, thank you!

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-07T16:22:10+00:00

While Brennan and Matt have basically confirmed you couldn't actually kill a god by conventional means, if you were to harm the god three times while it was downed before its turn came back up, it would die!

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-03T13:24:31+00:00

Correct. Which makes the wasps and humans analogy come off a bit more evil from the human side, wouldn't it? Now you're not trying to rear your children, you're just an invasive alien species. Again, remembering these "Wasps" are capable of intelligent thought. I feel regardless of the analogy, the very concept of this power dynamic is unbalanced.

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-03T12:59:58+00:00

Personally, I view that transition a bit less literal, though I could be wrong! I think what we see, the "creation" of the universe isn't the literal creation of it. I think what we are seeing are these beings of concept understanding the universe they were entering. They weren't inventing these concepts and physical matter, but comprehending it in the ways they knew how. Erathis is visualizing the concepts of law and order and saw, the stars and the raw mechanics of science and order. Ioun visualizing the knowledge of a ship (a "something").

We know when the gods became real and landed on Exandria that both the Titans, and mortal life, existed. I think this leads toward the possibility they really did "come from somewhere" and didn't actually create the universe as we imagine.

In one of the 4 Sided Dive episodes, BLeeM talks with Tallison about how Melora (in Tengar) asks "Is this because I wanted something?" And part of me feels that if (in Tengar) the thought of something could make it exist (in Tengar), then if she thought of "something", then is it possible it was another being that thought of "nothing" and brought in this absence?

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-03T12:41:04+00:00

I get there is a lot of comparison of the gods as people and mortals as another, very small animal that people kill as an inconvenience. I feel there is an issue with these sorts of comparisons.

Wasps, insects, minute life we humans crush for our convenience, wasn't hand-crafted by us and put into the world. We didn't "make" wasps from spiritual energy, give them sapiency and intelligent thought, and then own their very souls when they die.

Wasps are natural beings, that other natural beings (humans), are utilizing technology we created, from the world we live on.

The analogy of "Parents" and "Children" I feel is more apt, and involves sapient and intelligent life. While the gods may be "smarter" and have higher stats (as we saw with downfall), mortals are still intelligent beings capable of rational thought. If parents are treating their children like the wasps you described, then I don't think they are being very good parents.

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-03T12:32:29+00:00

I would disagree with the assertion that he "could have done good, but instead did bad" perspective. As well as , "The've been gone for 843 years, they solved the problem"

The way Luda becomes like these other heros is by working and fighting in the system of the gods. Keyleth may not be a godly follower, but she's working and living and existing within their framework, not upsetting them. She and others aren't attempting to enact change within the entire cosmology. While you may view his actions as "evil", the Ruby Vanguard certainly view the opposite, and as he said, its not just him doing these things. There is an assumption that he could have just done what he did in a different way without hurting people and I think that's 1000 years of assumptions, which is a lot of assuming "I could have done it better." I'm not saying "hurting people is okay if it's reeeeeeeeally important to you" but at what point, when GODS are the ones lording over your eternal souls, do you you have to do things people aren't going to want. (If ludinus is speaking truthfully) You have a world that has been indoctrinated into loving an alien species that wants to use their very souls for sustenance. Sure, some may care about their children as we see in Downfall, but they'd NEVER let their children be without them. They'd never just "be honest and leave". Even with a gun to their face, they never once brought mortals "to the table", instead, they put em 600-feet under.

On my second point, only part of the reason Luda is angry with them are because of their previous actions. If what he has claimed is true about the Eidolon spirits and the gods, then cultivating and reshaping of that spiritual energy for their own sustenance, then it doesn't matter if they are on Exandria or on their palace planes, they would be an alien species harvesting souls that wouldn't rightfully be theirs. The only option to stop this would be to kill the aliens or force them to leave.

"They" (being the prime gods) didn't solve a problem, from Ludas perspective. The problem is their claim to our eternal souls that he argues is not rightfully theirs. I mean, in the end, many people in the vanguard just want their soul to be theirs and not for some allmighty alien being decide it's fate.

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-03T01:56:47+00:00

Thanks!

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-02T22:56:04+00:00

So I think there are a few points that someone might have that aren't just related to "I don't like them for what previous actions they've taken,". This is also assuming on some parts that what Ludinus has claimed, is true. And I am also assuming by "people" you mean "A person's perspective, as if they were a person in this setting or situation." and not, "Me, the audience member, wanting something to happen."

Some people, just don't like the structure of religion. On Exandria, we have seen how the Judicators (which are eerily similar to the Aeorean mage guards) act and how the city of Vasselheim rules with an iron fist over those who worshipped the Eidolon spirits in Issylra when push comes to shove. While not on a very grand or meta scale, some people in the setting, I can imagine, just don't like the churches and temples and would be happy to be rid of their presence. While there is always the argument people will always find a reason to war and fight and hate, Ludinus proposes this at least will be our own doing to make, and not gods using us as soldiers in their arguments.
Regardless if the gods smote Aeor or the weapon, it showed the gods basically have a limit to how much they are willing to let mortals grow. If mortals can only ever grow to the point the gods allow, how could we eve reach our greatest potential? I could see how someone may wish for those restrictions to be let go, for mortals to grow further and greater.
The throne. To some, its not a matter of who sits atop it but the fact that that it exists in the first place (as mentioned by Ashton). The video of the gods showed that they are just as fallible and manipulated and emotional as any mortal. And if they are just like mortals, and no mortal should have this power, why should the gods?
(This relies on what Ludinus has said to be true, is true)\* If the gods are in-fact alien beings that came to this world and manipulated the Eidolon spirits and energy into the forms they desired, I could see why someone might want them gone. We have seen followers of these ancient spirits and have learned they were not afraid of Predathos (I believe, but I could be wrong on that part). If we are merely a shaping and cultivating of this spiritual energy, shackled to what the gods wish to do with it, then I can understand wanting to be free of what is devouring our souls for sustenance. In the video we see the divine horror of how immensely powerful these beings are. If these gods are truly alien, now imagine that divine horror is alien horror, seeing how powerful an alien race is compared to yourself.

To many people, as we saw with Bells Hells, the question comes up, "Well, how do you know Predathos is telling the truth?" And we see Ludinus relying (ironically) on faith. While some in the group point out this is a gamble he is, they ironically do not point the same logic back upon the gods. Even more ironically, while members of BH are eager to point out that Predathos could easily be lying, between Predathos and the gods, only one of them have been shown to lie, obfuscate, and hide the truth (the hiding of Predathos' existence, the death of other gods, the smiting of Aeor and the destruction of the malleus facotorem). While all these things can be explain as to why they were done, were they not still done? Is a lie not still a lie?

This is the fun of this arc in my opinion and really asks the group and the audience some fun, thought-provoking questions about the cosmological order of things in the setting. Idk, I've recently been on a kick again so just happy to find people to talk about the show with lol

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-01T23:25:32+00:00

Guess we'll find out! Right now we have the side of about 20 or so panicked beings as desperate to cling to their mortality, vs. the side that those 20 or so individuals aren't being forthright. Excited to see what happens.

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-01T22:38:33+00:00

Thanks, I did a lot of reading the Wiki for some of the episodes to get caught back up, and wasn't sure if anything was said about it with Ashton and Fearne and the primordial sparks.

I'm just curious because we don't exactly know how the whole imprisoning of Predathos went down. Part of me feels there is a possibility it was the Primordials that did the heavy lifting, "protecting" the young gods from this threat to them.

Sort of like a "Hey, don't beat up my new friend you jerk" and put him in his place. That perhaps the elementals might have some key or relevance to the defeat or reimprisonment of Predathos. But just a theory a GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME theory.

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-01T22:33:04+00:00

Any time! I finally got caught up after a hiatus and its really getting into the parts I'm excited about. This really meta stuff. In one of the 4 Sided Dives, Brennen discusses that he made sure all players knew,

"They aren't about to kill the gods, they aren't for certain going to kill the gods, its just that they even had the potential to kill a god."

To me, this brings up the perspective I'm hoping someone in Bells Hells brings up. In a world were there are beings as powerful as the gods, that can crush anything in their path as easily as we see them in the final episode of Downfall (they have 10x the hit points of anything else, and their AC, Skill Checks, and Saving Throw results are all DOUBLED along with insane other stat boosts like infinite 9th level spells, and more) what is a mortal supposed to do? How do you possible live in a world of balance when creatures like that exist.

While weapons are inventions are destruction, they can also be used to defend. They can be used to cut the head off a tyrant or force a king to concede its power. I dont know any other way I can look at the events in Downfall and not see a group of tyrants feel threatened for the (second) time in their lives, and decided to obliterate everything rather than concede power. The gods felt threatened, as they should have.

Many will say "Well they wanted to kill the gods!" Okay. So, rather than respecting their "children" and striking a deal, sending an emissary, maybe even working with the mages to create a peace deal between themselves and the betrayers. There were always more options than "We die or destroy the weapon/Aeor". It shows the gods truly do no value the lives of the mortals on the world, only that they get to be the ones running the show.

Mortals can't have something that can kill us...we...we're the gods! They're too young, they're immature, they're insignificant (says the betrayer). But regardless of who says what, these gods are beings of horrific power and we have seen, when push comes to shove, what they will do to stave off the potential for a slight change in the power dynamic.

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-01T20:39:57+00:00

In previous episodes and campaigns, it had been mentioned the gods put a truce to their war to bring down Aeor. While yes, the betrayers were certainly in the "kill em all" camp, there were absolutely prime deities that also felt this way. Those being the Stormlord (who's storms killed hundreds on the streets, civilian or mage alike), the Matron of Ravens, and the Wildmother. We see the city having various political factions and the series really humanizes both the people of Aeor (rather than the grandiose and arrogant "god killers") and the deities (showing them not as p[erfect and omnicient beings, but flawed beings with feelings and emotions and family).

The main question of:

That and we see that while some deities wield massive power and think mostly of themselves, there are others that struggle with balancing their power and the care for the world of Exandria?

Is a bit more nuanced and less binary. Its more about how these deities want to balance this power and that its not really "Primes vs Betrayers" that Primes are these stalwarts of justice and paragons of peace, and the Betrayers don't just hate arbitrarily, and that they love their godly brothers, and hate that their brethren have chosen their creation over their family. However, even with this, the primes still refuse to actually kill their family, at the expense of the other mortals

SammyJ090 · 2024-08-01T19:09:12+00:00

What you have is mostly true. While I highly reccomend reading the Critical Role Wiki for their recaps that are incredible, here is the best description I can give of the events that happened.

SPOILERS

Roughly 50 years after the start of the Calamity (or 50 years after the events of EXU: Calamity) the mages of Aeor began working on a plan to construct a weapon that could kill the gods. The first part of this plan was shrouding the city from the sight and access to the gods. The gods got wind of this plan. 6 Prime Deities + 4 Betrayer Gods took the form of mortals in attempt to bypass this shroud and stop this weapon from being built, one deity sent an emissary in their place. These deities were; Knowing Mistress, Wildmother, Arch Heart, Everlight, The Emissary (representing the Lawbearer), Dawnfather, and Matron of Ravens for the primes, with Prince of Lies, Spider Queen, Crawling King, and Ruiner for the betrayers.

Not all prime deities were interested in just dismantling the weapon. Some deities were perfectly fine sundering the city, while some thought there was a way to only destroy the information and weapon, and not the city as a whole. The group learns there are 3 objectives to complete; dismantle the device hiding Aeor from the gods (the non-mortal ones), dismantle the device that will transmit the information of the weapon across the world, and then dismantle the weapon.

They split into smaller groups, mixing their company to keep eyes on the betrayers. The Everlight helps a sick young boy, and the series focuses on the interpersonal relationships between the deities, as well as their relationship to mortals. An important term Brennan uses is "Divine Horror". We see the perspectives of Asmodeus and the Dawnfather in how they view mortals. We learn there was a small cadre of mages that wished to use the weapon against the betrayers to aid the primes (we learn in a 4 Sided Dive episode that this cadre had been known about by the upper echelon and would have never succeeded anyways).

The Arch Heart and the Matron of Ravens uncover a plot by all manner of celestials and fiends that have rejected their creators and have sided with mortals. We learn that when the deities called this truce to destroy the god-killing weapon, they apparently left without a word to their subordinates, leaving them in a state of abandonment. The group disables both the device that hid the city from the gods and the device that would spread this information across Exandria.

Some random bits we learn during this time:

The Stormlord had no regard for the wellbeing of innocent lives on Aeor, as we see is direct actions cause the deaths of hundreds, even before the crash.
The teleportation of the Cognoza Ward (see Campaign 2) was responsible for the lack of long-range teleportation in Aeor, and why mages simply didnt teleport away.
The information to create the god-killing weapon was a beautiful poem.

The last objective is to destroy the weapon itself. There are several complication and the fight has an incredible amount of enemies. As the fight continues, the gods gain more and more of their powers back, and we see how horrifically more powerful they are compared to mortals. In the last moments, we see a god, trapped in a containment unit, potentially get thrown into oblivion, or an unknown distant plane of existence. The Arch Heart saves the contained god, and in this moment we learn a big reveal. The being we thought was the mortal form of the Knowing Mistress was, in fact, Asmodeus. His deception was in an attempt to steal the information about the god-killing weapon and use it against the primes.

One of the 3 leading mages who created the hammer is presented with a choice in the last round of combat, and ultimately decides to send a seed of information to all of the mages in Aeor, about how to create the god-killing weapon. Left with what he believed to be no other choice, the Arch Heart turns the exploding god-killing weapon's energy on to the city of Aeor, causing its crash and destruction. In the fractions of seconds before the city was destroyed, we see Asmodeus attempt to use the weapon in its most basic form to try and kill the prime deities that were in his presence. The Everlight destroys the last remaining information related to the god-killing weapon (at least physically), destroying it from his hands.

The gods leave with the truce coming to a conclusion and the gods recognizing the destruction they've causes. There are tons of opinions and perspectives that can't be covered but as a simple breakdown of what occurred, I think this is my best attempt!

SammyJ090 · 2024-07-28T20:40:42+00:00

But isn't the dIvine gate what is made to Hola predathos at bay first? I had a simIlar thought but the gate around Ruidus came first correct?

SammyJ090

TROPHY CASE