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I have talked quite a bit about this in the past, but given where we are in the campaign now and what has just happened, I wanted to put down some thoughts in a maybe, hopefully coherent kind of way. Mostly the thoughts chase each other around in my head going “brrrrr” so here’s hoping they cooperate.

Since we have known him, Orym has been on a Mission. When he first linked up with the Crown Keepers he had been on the road, presumably on his own, for at least four years, possibly five. At some time during those years, Keyleth charged him with finding out information on the attack that killed Will and Derrig to make sense of what happened that day. Early on he’s quiet, thoughtful, reluctant to take the lead, and honorable to a fault. Even as he opens himself up to create connections with this motley crew, he still guards part of himself. In fact, in the time we see them together he never tells the Crown Keepers about his family. The only mention we get is when he is asked by the Wildmother if he will continue on and Orym says, “For him, I will.”

None of this is to say he doesn’t feel connected to his friends, who manage to take him on a journey away from his primary directive, and–given the fact that Orym was alone at the beginning of ExU–it’s safe to say these are the first people he’s connected with in a long time. It was while he was with them that he started practicing the Zeph’aeratam again. Being part of the group with Opal and Dariax and Fearne and Dorian and Fy’ra showed Orym that the world was bigger than his grief.

But still, he kept it to himself.

After the events of ExU Prime, Orym and his two best friends from the Crown Keepers, Dorian and Fearne, went back to Zephrah. A place that I would argue Orym probably had returned to seldom, if not never, since Will and Derrig’s deaths. It was sometime during this journey that Orym told them both about his family, likely the first people from outside of Zephrah to know their names and what they meant to him. These friends went with him to continue his Mission, to try to help him get closure. And when Dorian left, Orym kept hold of the means to keep in touch, because Orym had gotten closer to Fearne and Dorian than he had gotten to anyone since he lost his family.

I would love to know what, if any, kind of conversations Orym had with Dorian and Fearne about Will and Derrig, especially Will. Because as the weeks went on, Orym did forge bonds with Bell’s Hells, he did start to tell more people about the ones he’d lost, but always at a distance. He kept the memories of who Will and Derrig were to himself, even as he was honest about how much he missed them. Did Orym take the chance to tell Dorian and Fearne about what they were like when they were alive? Because it’s clear that Orym is bereft, and angry, and lonely, and goes to sleep every night with them in his thoughts. Is there anyone else alive who knows the secrets of what Will and Orym were like when they were together, just the two of them?

There is nothing secret about the pain and anger he feels, but what about the joy?

The Mission as it was originally put to Orym is over now. They know everything about how and why Zephrah was attacked. That doesn’t mean Orym is stopping, because Orym isn’t the kind of person who could stop when someone is in danger. But the single-minded drive toward Otohan, toward answers and justice or whatever Orym thinks Will and Derrig would have wanted from him in this, was the mortar Orym used to build up his walls. He’s standing on a precipice of a vast future and he’s alone because he has made himself alone. His grief has made him alone. And there are so many complicated reasons why Dorian is the one he is finally, actually reaching out to now that there is no more path to shuffle down. 

I’m not sure if Orym even knows who he is anymore without this grief, without this Mission. In his mid-thirties his whole adult life has been spent married to Will, or grieving Will, or searching for answers for Will’s death. In the middle of the world ending, how do you decide what comes next?

A million episodes ago Orym offered to be the one Imogen could lean on, and then, after she walked away, he reached out to Dorian on the Sending Stone. I think Dorian has been the one Orym thought that he could lean on for a long while now. And I think that is intrinsically tied to his Mission, this journey, and his grief.

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nothing will ever top c2’s moment of sam slipping in “bren” as foreshadowing for veth and liam desperately panicking thinking he’d somehow learned caleb’s backstory

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when liliana was talking about how ludinus started out being a nice and helpful teacher before like… indoctrinating her, I was just picturing the stand-off inside of Liam’s brain between Caleb “I am just like her I am a horrible person I believed a horrible teacher and did horrible things we both deserve to feel terrible and be punished and destroyed” Widogast and Orym “she was literally complicit in the murder of my family. she is trying to release an all-powerful being. she has HAD her chance to walk and she has REFUSED. she deserves all the rage I have to give” of the Air Ashari

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All the forehead kissies for these two!

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Making this the thumbnail is so unhinged. Orym in a sense as the force that is going to bring these two groups of people together. Orym reaching out to Dorian with such fervor and pain, begging him, begging the universe to bring him back because he needs Dorian’s comfort so badly that narratively we have no choice but to turn toward the crown keepers and watch their journey (hopefully) back to him.

I’m unwell

#you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me #orym of the air ashari #Dorian storm #critical role #bells hells #crown keepers

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Dariax: I guess I’m just too tough to cry

Opal: you were crying about Dorian literally an hour ago

Dariax, tearing up: I just love him so much

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by talos this can’t be happening is a mandela effect because the actual phrase is by the gods this can’t be happening and i’ve never heard anyone say the former in game

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I wonder if during his Aeorian excursions Ludinus has ever been wildmagicked into a potted plant

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"is she a fiend?"

"she is not."

"NO??"

"that's your friend opal. she's just a little guy"

"oh she's just a little guy? oK aLrIgHt"

"all she did was go 'i'm gonna choke my friend a little bit and make jewels on the ground,' and then you decided to murder her :)"

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Endless Bells Hells

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Bent Not Broken

“Hey, Ashton! Can you open up the hole? Orym needs—”

“Yeah, I’m sure he fucking does.”

“Sorry… Is that a problem?” Dorian frowns but it sits weird on his face, his personality more suited to raised eyebrows or sad smiles. But Ashton supposes all of them are going through it at the moment.

“Of course not. I’m happy to make sure Orym gets whatever he needs.” They’ve already pulled the portable hole from their belt and they toss one end to Dorian to help lay it down. “Always have been.”

Dorian stands at the edge, looking at him for a long moment, then bites back whatever comment was on his tongue, plants a hand and swings down inside.

They’re happy to have Dorian back, truly. They might not have missed him as much as Orym did, and he certainly doesn’t fill the hole that F.C.G. left behind, but he fills his own space, and it’s good to see Orym’s mood improve in spite of the news that Dorian brought from their old group.

But Ashton’s been doing their fucking best. He knows he doesn’t always have the right words to improve the situation, and maybe that scares him to silence sometimes in those moments when everything seems too big for them. But they’ve tried reaching out, told Orym they see him, they’re willing to listen, help him up, help him through, with little more than half-hearted acknowledgment in response. So fuck him for wanting someone to notice that he gives a shit, Ashton supposes.

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#cries #orym of the air Ashari you are so loved

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Having a think about how if Dorian goes down in this fight just as that sending stone message comes through, it'll be just like when Orym was reaching for the stone as Otohan killed him in episode 33.

#FUCK #😭😭😭

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Your will is stronger than you give yourself credit for. You're so powerful! A better whole, Mama. -c3e91

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So, Dorian’s worst fear is people close to him being corrupted. Imagine his reaction when he sees Orym now, with his pact powers. Imagine the heartbreak

#and after the way orym tried so hard to stop Dorian from being corrupted???? #god #don’t mind me over here sobbing

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You know what's interesting to me? For all people keep claiming at every juncture that perhaps Bells Hells will come around on the gods and see the harm they do (which, as discussed extensively, is, half the time, simply not intervening) not only have they never done so, but also they never quite cross the line into saying the party should join the Ruby Vanguard or aid them - and indeed, they defend against it - so what does this achieve? It feels like they're asking for a story in which the party stands idly by, which isn't much of a story nor, if I may connect this briefly to the real world, a political stance anyone should be proud of.

That's honestly the frustration with the gods and the "what if the Vanguard has a point" conversations in-game. What do we do then? Do we allow the organization that will murder anyone for pretty much any reason that loosely ties into their goals run rampant? The group that (perhaps unwittingly, but then again, Otohan's blades had that poison) disrupted magic world-wide, and caused people who had the misfortune to live at nexus points to be teleported (most, as commoners, without means of return). While also fomenting worldwide unrest?

Those were the arguments before the trip to Ruidus; with the reveal of the Vanguard's goals to invade Exandria, the situation becomes even more dire. Do you let the Imperium take over the planet?

And do the arguments against the gods even hold up? If Ludinus is so angry at them for the Calamity, what does it say that he destroyed Western Wildemount's first post-Calamity society for entirely selfish means? (What does it say about the validity of vengeance as a motivator?) What does it say that Laudna told Imogen she could always just live in a cottage quietly without issue before the solstice even happened? (Would this still be true if the Imperium controls the world?) What does it say that when faced with a furious, grieving party and the daughter she keeps telling herself was her reason for all of this, Liliana can't provide an answer to the question of what the gods have done other than that their followers will retaliate...for, you know, the Vanguard's endless list of murders. (That is how the Vanguard and Imperium tend to think, huh? "How dare your face get in the way of my boot; how dare you hit me back when I strike you.") She can't even provide a positive answer - why is Predathos better - other than "I feel it", even though Imogen and Fearne know firsthand that Predathos can provide artificial feelings of elation. Given all the harm Ludinus has done in pursuit, why isn't the conclusion "the gods should have crashed Aeor in such a way that the tech was unrecoverable?"

Even as early as the first real discussion on what the party should do, the fandom always stopped short of saying "no, Imogen's right, they should join up with the people who killed half the party," it was always "no, she didn't really mean it, she just was trying to connect with her mother." Well, she's connected with her mother, and at this point the party doesn't even care about the gods particularly (their only divinely-connected party member having died to prevent the Vanguard from killing all of them). So they will stop the Vanguard; as Ashton says, the means are unforgiveable. As Laudna says, it's not safe to bet on Predathos's apathy. As Imogen says, she's done running; the voice that she used to think of as a lifeline belongs to someone she doesn't trust. So I guess my question is: if they're stopping the people who are trying to kill the gods (and defense of the gods isn't remotely their personal motivation)...do you think the next phase of the campaign is Bells Hells personally killing the gods? Reconstructing the Aeor tech and hoping none of their allies notice? How does this end? Does your ideology ever get enacted? Or is this entirely moot and pointless and the story ends with Bells Hells saying "well, I'm really glad we stopped the people who [insert list of Vanguard atrocities from above]; none of us follow the gods or plan to, but honestly, the status quo we return to is preferable to whatever nightmare Ludinus had concocted in his violent quest for power and revenge"?

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So episode 92 huh?