Archive:Laerryn's work - Aabria Iyengar on Tumblr

Aabria Iyengar on Tumblr (quiddie) — posted June 12, 2022 (link on blog, link in blog view, Wayback Machine) Okay, I see a lot of people talking about Laerryn’s work in terms of the spell Plane Shift. Now I know that’s ultimately my fault because of how I spoke about the remains of the solar bow, but that isn’t what she’s attempting.

Now let me say all this with the grain of salt that I’m not trying to remove all blame from LCS - I know who she is and what I built into her and what she’s capable of and willing to do - but I do think it’s inaccurate to call her uncaring (in terms of the citizens of Avalir) and despotic in her single-mindedness.

First, the Astral Leywright. Simply put, it builds a new leyline road through other planes. Now, Laerryn runs and maintains the engines & batteries, but she doesn’t steer the city. That’s Helmswoman Akami Rowe’s job. That’s the Navigator’s Guild’s choice. *That* is why LCS thinks of it as a gift to the city and to history - it’s an opportunity, not an obligation (or worse, a coercion like Plane Shift would be.) Yes, she’s taken a lion’s share of the energy stored for this Replenishment - but just this once (and what are 7 years to an elf, really?) and the thing she gives back is a new leyline that goes not North or East or South but OUT. (And the solar bow’s planar attunement was primarily to help the AL know the directionality of building a leyline in a new axis.) And Avalir could (not MUST) use it. Anyone can use it.

And sure, maybe the Septarion and the citizens will be too confused or scared to use it at first but that’s fine - the point wasn’t that we have to go NOW, only that this was her one chance to make the leyline at ALL (or at least until the next apogee solstice). So her thought is that the city doesn’t have to understand right now, but eventually they’ll get it and history will remember her fondly for making the road to the next big discoveries a little easier.

Keep in mind, Laerryn is one of the smartest people in the city (e1 “often the most cerebral”) that took a vital but understated job (e1 “no one understands exactly what you do to ask you for anything”) with no laurels attached (e2 her envy when walking through the Magisterium and seeing the resources allocated on their behalf vs. the Court of Workings) so if she wanted glory she could just pick a different job and immediately get the praise her talents would garner. Instead, she dedicated her life to quietly and dutifully protecting the Heart of Avalir, and expanding on the city’s mission statement (travel the leylines collecting knowledge and magic to share with the world).

With all that said, please continue raging at Laerryn’s choices because that’s fun and good and fine and honestly I love watching it. I just wanted to clear up that one fuzzy area.


 * 1) critical role #exandria unlimited #critical role spoilers #exu #cr spoilers #exu spoilers #exu calamity #laerryn coramar seelie #don’t get me wrong #she’s ambitious as fuck #but she thinks she’s doing it for the people of avalir #and the future of Exandria #and isn’t that so much worse #now that you see where it led and what she’s done #she broke the world for them. ALL OF THEM. #(but mostly for him) #and she’d do it again #because she still thinks she could win #she doesn’t know what kind of story she’s in

Additional reply from Aabria on this post — June 12, 2022 (most easily accessible in blog view) Totally! And of course she couldn’t explain herself properly because clarity is a thief of tragedy - so we make her a poor communicator (1) because she’s been the smartest kid in the room so much that she doesn’t expect people to understand her anyway and (2) because that sets her up as a better foil to Quay’s Eloquence Bard.

And I love having her not consider a road running both ways - I mean the love of her life came from another plane, so why would she be scared of interplanar travel? Oops.