anyway EXU: Calamity is everything I hoped it would be and I absolutely love it. some initial observations:
More solstices! Woo! So every 100-120 years, a celestial solstice aligns with some other celestial bodies and is therefore strong enough to change the layout of magical leylines. A device can measure the strength of a solstice, and if that measurement is more than 0.025, it could potentially be a apogee solstice; the celestial solstice right before the Calamity measured a 0.5.
Ghor Dranas lore! In the Schism, when the Betrayers split away from the Prime Deities, there was a threat made during one of the battles by the Betrayer Gods, attributed mostly to the Lord of the Hells (Asmodeus). The name is a very specific wording that Asmodeus said, "put me where you will. In darkness, I will gather my shadows to me." Ghor Dranas literally translates to "a gathering of shadows," giving the name very dark connotations. Asmodeus is the most likely contender for the Betrayer God that Zerxus saw in his dream, given the god's appearance as a red-skinned, horned being.
Zerxus has some really good items. In order to get a strength score of 29, he must have a belt of storm giant strength, and to get an AC of 25 his armor or shield must have a combined bonus of +4 (assuming that he's wearing plate armor and took the defense fighting style at level 2).
Also, Zerxus saying that he doesn't care much for gods as a paladin? Plus the fact that Luis' name was underneath the symbol of the Luxon during the intro? and that a searing light greater than that of the Dawnfather himself emitted from Zerxus' hand when he saved Asmodeus in his dream? and that Zerxus saw a starscape inside the well? and the talk about people deciding their own fate rather than having a destiny determined by the gods? my bet is on this guy being a paladin of the Luxon.
Brennan calling people from Cath Moira "terrestrials," marisha calling the broken bow an "extraterrestrial artifact," and all the other references to imply that people from the flying cities called people on the ground "terrestrials" and that people on the ground called them "extraterrestrials" â none of that feels like a coincidence.
"Zerxus" is very possibly related to King Xerxes. "Loquacious" literally means "talkative" and "Seelie" is one of the courts of the Feywild. "Nydas" is also very likely related to King Midas, a figure in Greek myth who could turn anything he touched to gold.
Loquacious' appearance is so incredibly gender. I love them so much.
Ooooh, Cerrit is an Inquisitive Rogue. I've never seen this archetype played before because its niches are so, so specific and very much not combat-oriented like most rogue archetypes, and it's great to see Travis finally play a character with incredibly high intelligence.
Very interesting that Vespin Chloras wasn't attempting to ascend to the place of a Prime Deity, but to the place of a Betrayer God. That leaves me with a couple questions, and gives some answers. That means that the previous god of death, who was usurped by the Raven Queen, was in fact a Prime Deity. It also implies either that the only way one can ascend is by replacing an existing god, or that the Raven Queen's rites were developed specifically to do that â meaning she would've had to have had some reason to want to usurp the previous god of death rather than just ascending and becoming an entirely new god.
Honestly, this setup makes so much sense and I love it. I can't wait to see where this goes. My guess is that what Chloras actually did was to achieve some kind of state between mortality and divinity, hence why he's infecting dreams and mirrors, and now he's going to go to the Betrayer Gods for help to finish the ritual in exchange for freeing them.
But what the fuck is Laerryn going to do with the bow fragment? She seemed to want to use it as a tuning fork for a Plane Shift spell, but if that bow belonged to a Solar, then the spell would likely take them to Elysium or Mount Celestia. Going to the engine that drives the entire city with it makes me think that she wants to bamf the entire city somewhere else, but why doesn't make sense, because she doesn't currently know that there is or believe that there could be a threat of war.
Anyway, very much looking forward to where this is going to go and I'm so glad that my term is over in time for me to actually pay attention to this <3
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