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Aaravos, Leola, and the Entire History of Human Magic

ALL RIGHT, BUCKLE THE FUCK UP:

So after my "Leola and Laurelion might be the same person" crazy, I was looking shit up to write a post about alternately Laurelion possibly being Aaravos, as in Laurelion was the immortal Aaravos, and Aaravos is the fallen Laurelion, because of this:

White as the star's heart it pierced, as in "Novablade is white, and the star's heart was also white."

Who... had the white heart of a star...

... and now... doesn't?

hmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

However, the problem with this is that Aaravos at least appears to go from powered/heart-ed version:

To de-powered, heart...less? version:

...when he's imprisoned. At least, according to the way Zubeia tells it.

Meanwhile, in Ripples, we see what is presumably Aaravos's actual "fall," as the "Fallen Star"—a literal descent from the heavens. This occurs long, long before the events of Aaravos's imprisonment, before dark magic, before Elarion.

I'll note that part of what I'm taking into account here is a note from the artbook on Aaravos's designs:

As a "fallen" Startouch elf, Aaravos can only access a fraction of his former power.

So it seems like the assumption to make would be that Aaravos lost his powers and status when he was cast from the heavens, which is also where I would assume Laurelion dies and Aaravos is "born" if the Laurelion/Aaravos as the same being dichotomy was in play. Then why is his heart not blackened until he's imprisoned?

One possibility is that his empowered appearance is an illusion he's maintaining—another manipulation, that's dropped when he's imprisoned.

Another possibility is this is all bullshit, and everything is as generally assumed before: when Aaravos was imprisoned, the majority of his power was somehow stripped.

Leaving that aside for a moment, let's take a look at the order of operations here, historically.

Humanity looks to the stars to save them, but the stars do not respond:

— Patience

At some point, humanity is granted some kind of blessing from the heavens, long before humans built cities and became powerful:

— Patience

ALSO at some point, humanity is granted the power of primal magic. By tradition this was from the unicorns, in particular Leola:

— Tales of Xadia

However, this magic is forbidden them:

— Ripples

Aaravos is cast from the heavens in a calamity that creates the Sea of the Castout—again, long before dark magic:

— Ripples

Further, in the retelling of this story, Aaravos notes that the stars apparently were satisfied with the results of casting him out. It scarred the land, and frightened the humans—and their claim on primal magic—into submission:

— Ripples

I'll add another note from the artbook here on Aaravos's design:

Some designs had a strong, authoritative vibe that suited other Startouch elves, but not our "fallen star."

Finally, let's look at this again:

Aaravos, obviously, on his knees and in despair. A feminine-appearing elf who is almost certainly another Startouch elf, by the horn shape and the design of the crown on her brow.

I've seen at least one person cast this as a rendition of Aaravos's punishment, in that she represents the other stars and gestures as if to say "behold how far our brother has fallen."

But y'all. Y'ALL. Please.

We have seen this gesture FAR too many times for it to be something else, at this point. This is mercy, and love, and the passing of a torch.

So, let me clean this up into what I think happened:

The stars are largely absent gods, indifferent to the fate of humans and interested in only their design/prophecy of the world.

Leola, another Startouch elf (or else we're gonna stretch the definition of "unicorn" pretty far), takes pity on humanity and grants them the secret of primal magic.

Leola is somehow punished for this transgression. If Laurelion is Leola, she is killed. (The Celestial elves, in this case, are the guardians of the stars' order and power in Xadia. They are the last line of defense against this sort of thing.)

Aaravos, who loved Leola, either speaks on her behalf or otherwise rebels against the order of the stars. Aaravos is cast out. If Laurelion is Aaravos, he is robbed of his heart and his power.

"Leola's Last Wish" is to continue to be a guide to humanity, through the darkness.

Aaravos, meanwhile, fucking loses his mind and decides to burn down everything. He will destroy everything the stars put in place in all of Xadia, and he will leverage humans to do it.

Aaravos begins to spin up dark magic, and when the time is right, gifts it to humanity as the inciting action of his plan to tear all of Xadia apart. More on that here.

ADDENDUM: Chatting with @raayllum immediately after writing this and they raised the possibility of Leola being Aaravos’s mother, given the parallel to Sarai in the statue, and YES that makes so much sense. Particularly regarding the star-child constellation, him adopting her crown, and why he might be punished along with her. I like this explanation better than them being lovers, even if it means TDP gains yet another goddamn martyr mother.

Anyway, that's it! Mystery of Aaravos solved.

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I hope they somehow translate Marisha falling off her chair into the animated show

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Critical Role Gif Challenge: 7/10 Campaign 1 Quotes Episode 81: I thought he’d never leave

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here’s Laura Bailey inventing romance.

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The Legend of Vox Machina receives a prequel comics trilogy

The Legend of Vox Machina receives a prequel comics trilogy #comics #comicbooks #graphicnovel #criticalrole #voxmachina

Learn more about beloved characters from Critical Role and Amazon Studios’ The Legend of Vox Machina animated series in the newest graphic novel trilogy from Dark Horse Books, The Legend of Vox Machina: The Whitestone Chronicles! The first volume in the series, focusing on Ripley, serves as a prequel to Prime Video’s hit animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina. The graphic novel is written by…

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Chibis I did a while back for a CR event in my city 8)

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caught taliesin scheming in 4k featuring marisha

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Hello Ladies 🥵

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We’re all on the emotional rollercoaster together

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From Table to Screen: Percy’s first act of love

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OH, YEAH. That's absolutely what I thought.

Do you ever see a few episodes of a show and just go “well, I should clear my schedule because this was obviously designed to make me specifically obsess over it indefinitely"?

It took exactly three episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina for me to realize it has pretty much everything a show could possibly need.

Massively traumatized characters, siblings who live incredibly dangerous lives so they get to worry about each other constantly, characters getting beat up and bloodied on a regular basis…

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Somehow, my gut tells me Aaravos and Leola are connected in some way?

Leola was an unicorn who gifted humans primal stones, together with the knowledge of Ancient Draconic, the language of the dragons, and the runes necessary to cast spells.

Aaron did reveal that what we thought was baby Aaravos, was in fact actually Leola. This suggests that Leola was an Startouch elf, and not an unicorn.

This confuses me a lot.. Did the writers changed it? Perhaps Leola was an unicorn, but can shape-shift into a Startouch elf? Or vice versa?

A while back, Aaron mention that there was an important someone in Aaravos’ life. And how everything that he is doing; past, present and future stems from that relationship. This seems to me that this relationship that Aaravos had with that person was rather a positive one.

This person had a big influence on Aaravos’ life, and I’m inclined to believe that Leola was that important someone to Aaravos.

Think about it, both Leola and Aaravos were benefactors for humanity. There must be a reason why Aaravos rebelled against the other stars, and Xadia for their treatment against humanity. I think Leola’s positive views towards humanity might have influenced Aaravos views towards humanity as well.

I think something happened to Leola later down the line, and it hurt Aaravos deeply. So deeply, that he probably went to extreme lengths for humanity in Leola’s name such as giving them dark magic. So extreme, that his love for Leola and humanity caused him to be were he is today… In prison.

If that’s the case, and i’m right. Then I have no doubt that Aaravos’ current plans, whatever it is, still involves Leola as well. Remember, Aaravos motivations comes from the relationship he had with someone important to him.

I wonder though what Leola’s last wish was. Did they wish something regarding humanity? Maybe the last wish was to create Aaravos, the star they are holding?

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no one me making and deleting a twitter account within a 7 minute span just for show info ANYWAY

fuck you

GOD IS NON BINARY

FUCK GOD AAA. also YES GRACIE bro knows rayla hasn't had nearly enough restful nights throughout the course of her life the Only boyfriend

i am still loyal to the concept of rayla's tats starting to fade and bein kinda sad bc she can't go home to redo them and callum doing a bunch of research on moonshadow markings and surprising her and doing them for her and this is further solidifying that idea in my head and and and an

canon

NO /POS. FURTHERMORE NO /NEG shits gonna FUCK me up

mhm

IM CRYING THE FACT THAT OFFICIAL SCRIPTS LOOK LIKE THIS MAKES MY LIFE SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER

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Hey, guys! Let's support this TDP Lego project! The set contains Rayla, Zym, Phoe-Phoe, Callum, Ezran and Bait! With our help it may become a real!

#the dragon prince

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New album dropping next week!

#the dragon prince

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Come on, no news today¿!!!?

#the dragon prince