there are combats where you celebrate winning. and there are combats where winning just means you're in for more shit later. c4ep25 is a combat where you fully dissociate after "winning" because of yanessa halovar. and also, mayali nayar.
I don't know what ridiculous story the dice are trying to tell about the relationship between Kora and Murray is but I am HERE FOR IT because a nat 20 persuasion on a nat 1 forgery document is SO STUPID it is good
After this most recent episode, I am starting to view the sundered houses in a new light. When trying to think about the houses in the past, I have tried to puzzle them out as how "good" are they based on Royce being on one end and Tachonis being on the other. Where on the spectrum do they all fall? It has been difficult to say.
Spoilers through Campaign 4 Episode 23
I had an epiphany with this last episode and seeing more of the Lady Cormoray that I don't think its a spectrum from "good" to "bad", but rather the sundered houses represent, and in their core move from an archetype based in one of the seven deadly sins. Now you may say but there is only five sundered houses which is correct, but we also learned in episode 16 that in the Obradimian Empire, there were two other sorcerous houses, Memnari and Kalystra that are believed to be lost to history, bringing the total number of houses to seven that all operated under the ruling House Obradai: Tachonis, Halovar, Royce, Einfasen, Cormoray, Memnari and Kalystra.
Spoilers through Campaign 4 Episode 23
What triggered this thought in my mind was the confirmation we had of Lady Cormoray's sinister nature. It doesn't track for me then that we have one seemingly "good" house and four (that we see and are around) that are do such horrendous things and are acting in ways that don't seem to be easily explained with just "power corrupts people" because then why would the Royce be spared when until very recently they were on equal footing and power as the others? This is how I found things slotting into place:
Greed/Avarice - Cormoray:
The Lady Cormoray has been described as being "bejeweled" and dressed in finery. The Cormoray make wines and give the air of being wealthy even amongst the wealthy. This greed was also signaled with them using their immense wealth to abuse the Hucklewind tradition, something meant to provide a public service, to enrich their private property with a fountain crafted by renown dwarves. In this last episode, Lady Cormoray's greed was exemplified in her desire to take and accumulate more in the form of the Priaha Blade that took down Azgra, and seemingly everything in the museum that she saw as belonging to her/her family now.
Envy - Halovar:
Yanessa cited the Royce having the Golden Orchard, the Tachonis having "whatever they did", the Halovar having nothing, and wanting power again in her justification for trapping Aetheon, making Goddard, and subsequently the Candecent Creed. This showed an air of envy that their house had nothing to fall back on and that she coveted the power of the others that did. Going back and seeing the scenes with Yanessa and really listening to what she says, this reads very strongly for me even though we don't have further textual evidence yet from other people in the family fully "in the know" about the truth.
I won't be surprised if Wick's sister Zambani ends up being envious of him and his position as Scion. We have heard little about her, but Wick believes she hates him. She is the older sibling and was given the true knowledge and yet was left to tend the angel in the basement while her little brother got to be the literal golden boy.
Wrath/Anger - Einfasen:
I think this one is very clear in the day to day operation in how they can be extremely hair-trigger, have no "yellow light", and treat any sense of violation of a rule/order or betrayal with swift immediate violence. Also, having seen Otto in action and what we've learned through the Seekers, it illustrates how even if they exemplify this archetype, they are simply fatal flaws, and not inherently evil. Otto Einfasen killed a woman in an instant of believing her to have lied and betrayed the house before even considering it important to ask or try to acquire information on who she sent the message to. That is a serious character flaw that could in many situations have serious consequences. At the same time, we are coming to know Otto appears to be trying to call for a meeting of the heads of houses and find out what is going on and seemingly not part of some larger mustache twirling evil plot.
Pride - Tachonis:
Time and time again, everything we have learned about Primus points to a man so full of pride in his station and bloodline that it does pass over into mustache twirling evil in pursuit of what he believe is theirs by right. It makes sense as to why pride is seen often to be the most serious and "evil" sin. He was so proud of being a sorcerer that his son Occtis didn't mean a thing to him when he couldn't manifest any sorcerous ability. They look down their noses at everyone and everything. Also their whole plan to play fast and loose with the ritual with the angel making from the Palazzo Davinos reeks to high heaven of hubris. They did not believe they could fail.
Sloth - Royce:
Recognizing how the house Royce and Aranessa could fit in with the seven deadly sins is really what solidified this for me. This is often seen as a "lesser evil" among the sins because its not often seen in actions, but rather in the absence of action, and thus the accountability for what comes from that often slides off those responsible or rather lands with less weight on them. We do not know much about the broader movements of the house outside of her grandfather siding with the houses in the rebellion, but considering they were in a spot where they were open to being taken down and weakened significantly, its not too hard to imagine how a possible flaw of staying in a comfortable place and failing to move quickly could put one in a bad position when tides are turning. Imagine having a home in a fairytale come to life filled with immortal ageless fae and the kind of idleness that might lead one to embody.
But specifically looking at Aranessa, we hear it from her own mouth. She has a flaw of not acting and being unsure of how and what to do when the pressure is on. She admits despite her deep, true, and ever persisting love for Thjazi, she did not act on it. She simply let him go and regrets it terribly. In her parting from Julien, she was still asking him "what do I do?". Some ways sloth can be exemplified by failure to act because one is too comfortable that they are blindsided and move too slow too late or through not having a clear enough, sure enough answer as to what a next move should be so they chose too late or not at all.
Lust - TBD - Kalystra:
We really don't know anything about these last houses beyond their names, but I did find this bit from the CritRole Wiki interesting: "House Kalystra's surname could derive from the Ancient Greek kallistos (the most beautiful)."
Gluttony - TBD - Memnari:
Again, all we know is their name and that they were a warrior house.
"how do you do it? how do you stay in character?" - said to the girl still desperately trying to find a sense of identity outside of what she was created for….because it's easy to play a part when you don't feel like you’re even fully a person in your own right, isn't it?
need a compilation of Lou Wilson, Ally Beardsley, and Luis Carazo all pacing around and saying "I NEED TO GO HOME" while brennan runs a high stress roleplay encounter
blakekathryn
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