Clay family

Clay family
Organizational information
TypeFamily
BaseBlooming Grove, Savalirwood
Favored deity
GoalsTend the Blooming Grove
History
EstablishedShortly after the Calamity
Membership
Total members7 (in 835 PD)
Notable membersCaduceus Clay
Relationships
Allies

The Clay family is one of three ancient clans, along with the Stone family and Dust family, who descend from champions of The Matron of Ravens. The Clay family protects the Blooming Grove from the cursed blight that has overtaken the Savalirwood and has been encroaching on the Blooming Grove for the last hundred years.

Known members[edit | edit source]

Family tree[edit | edit source]

CorrinConstanceCornelius
ColtonCalliopeCaduceusClarabelle

History[edit | edit source]

Before Campaign 2[edit | edit source]

The Clay family are descended from one of the three champions of The Matron of Ravens named Clay, Stone, and Dust. The day after The Matron of Ravens completed the Ritual of Seeding, the three champions debated what to do with the body of a hero that could not be kept within a city for unknown reasons. Stone believed they should leave the body for wildlife to consume, Clay believed they should use the body to grow from, and Dust believed they should burn it. The Matron of Ravens told them to seek instruction from The Wildmother, saying she had taken what was hers already, and that she had no domain over what remained. The Wildmother instructed Clay to take the head of the hero to a spring deep in the Savalirwood, and a beautiful grove would grow as a gift to the Archeart. The other two champions took parts of the body as gifts for the Changebringer and The Allhammer, creating a garden menagerie (Stone) and a kiln (Dust).[1]

The descendants of these heroes protect and care for their sacred locations to this day, occasionally making pilgrimages to the other families when the need is dire. All three families assist the families of those who have died with funeral rites, each burying the bodies in their own way: the Clay family buries the dead in the Blooming Grove[2], the Stones leave the bodies in the woods for animals to consume,[3] and the Dust family cremate the dead.[4]

In 827 PD, Corrin Clay and her sister Constance Clay[5][6] left the Blooming Grove to visit the temples at Kravaraad and the Whitedawn Lagoon in search of a way to stop the corruption of the Savalirwood from progressing into the Grove, the first pair of the family to attempt this journey.[7] They arrived at the Cinderrest Sanctum at Kravaraad unable to communicate to the Dust family that they needed crystalized residuum, and they left frustrated and without the materials they sought.[8][9] A few months after leaving home, the sisters were petrified by a gorgon at the Whitedawn Lagoon, where they remained for nine years.[7]

Not long after the sister's departure, Cornelius Clay and Clarabelle Clay decided to set off after them, arguing who should be chosen to pursue them. However, Cornelius left alone, despite Clarabelle's protests, and ordered his children to perform a burial ritual for a halfling woman. Caduceus Clay and Clarabelle prepared the body together, and Caduceus then journeyed to the Grove's mountain temple, where the halfling would be buried. When Caduceus returned to the Blooming Grove, it was empty with a note and beetle carapace left by Clarabelle. She promptly left the Grove to catch up with their dad.[10]

Caduceus remained in the Blooming Grove as its only guardian for many more seasons, watching the corruption grow stronger, until one day. He got a premonition of someone soon arriving at the temple. Caduceus visited the grove's spring and collected a purple crystal from its bottom, shaping it into his staff.[10]

Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein[edit | edit source]

Caduceus believed that the arrival of the Mighty Nein was a sign from The Wildmother that he needed to leave to discover the source of the corruption. This caused him to join the Mighty Nein and leave the grove to Nila, who promised that her clan would look after the temple in absence of a Clay.[11]

During his journey with the Mighty Nein, Caleb Widogast found a book on plant corruption in Halas's library inside the Happy Fun Ball of Tricks. He gave the book to Caduceus to read.[12]

After dying while battling a minotaur, Caduceus was revived by Jester Lavorre. This caused him to have a vision of a soft wind pushing far to the east and the Wildmother telling him that he was on the right path.[13]

The Mighty Nein arrived at the kiln in Kravaraad within the Greying Wildlands, where Caduceus met the Dust family for the first time. He learned that his aunt, mother and sister had come through[9] and continued their quest in search for green glass at the home of the Stone family in the Menagerie.[14]

Arc 5: Family Ties[edit | edit source]

"Family Shatters" (2x96)[edit | edit source]

Arc 6: Weird Magic[edit | edit source]

Caduceus asked Jester to reach out to his sister Calliope, using Sending, and report that the Nein had planted the transformed refined residuum crystals[15] and they were taking root.[16]

Later, Caduceus asked Jester to contact his father, Cornelius via Sending, after a dream in which Caduceus saw visions of the horrific destruction of the Blooming Grove resembling the visions of the Cognouza. Cornelius told them that the woods were fine, but "the dreams have been weird".[17]

Before the Nein's return to Eiselcross, the party made a trip to the Blooming Grove. The crystals had been planted and grown into tall, beautiful tree-like structures, and the Grove was again lush and beautiful, although the corruption of the Savalirwood remained outside its bounds.[18] The whole family, however, had been having strange, dark dreams that warned of an oncoming threat and seemed to involve Caduceus. In a private conversation, Caduceus told Calliope that he knew it was meant to be her, not him, who was granted this quest, and she gave him a woven bracelet to remind him of home.[19]

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • The Cobalt Soul and others were aware of the Clay family and the Blooming Grove before Beauregard encountered them. A full study of the Clay family, along with the Dust and Stone families, is one of the subjects of a chapter entitled, "Relation and Communication Between Prime Deities" in Delando's Compendium of Pantheon and Hierarchy.[20]
  • All the known members of the family share the surname Clay, including Cornelius and his sister-in-law. This may mean that the Clay family line comes from Corrin and Constance's side (and therefore Cornelius would have taken his wife's surname), or that the Clay are (or were once) a clan of several families with the same surname, to which both Constance and her husband would belong.
  • Clay family has an inherent "talent speeding up the for natural entropic cycle".[20]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. "Causatum" (2x70) at 3:31:00.
  2. "Within the Nest" (2x28) at 1:01:25.
  3. "Family Shatters" (2x96) at 2:32:02.
  4. "Clay and Dust" (2x72) at 1:26:19.
  5. "Family Shatters" (2x96) at 3:43:44.
  6. The Cast of Critical Role Answer Questions from Fans at 11:20.
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Family Shatters" (2x96) at 2:23:15.
  8. "Clay and Dust" (2x72) at 1:25:07.
  9. 9.0 9.1 "Clay and Dust" (2x72) at 1:30:11.
  10. 10.0 10.1 The Mighty Nein Origins: Caduceus Clay.
  11. "Within the Nest" (2x28) at 3:51:03.
  12. "The Second Seal" (2x47) at 3:20:20.
  13. "Duplicity" (2x55) from 4:07:28 through 4:08:10.
  14. "Clay and Dust" (2x72) at 2:10:17.
  15. Refined residuum crystals were acquired by Caduceus in "Refjorged" (2x76) at 4:05:35, transformed by Kravaraad's lava in "Refjorged" (2x76) at 4:11:27, and further transformed at The Menagerie's pool in "Family Shatters" (2x96) at 3:04:21. Caduceus gave them to Calliope to return to the Blooming Grove in "Family Shatters" (2x96) at 3:08:21 per his vision from the Wildmother at the Arbor Exemplar in "Chases and Trees" (2x65) at 2:57:15.
  16. "Solace Between the Secrets" (2x118).
  17. "Worth Fighting For" (2x126) from 39:30 through 41:55.
  18. "The Calm Before the Storm" (2x130) at 2:22:00.
  19. "The Calm Before the Storm" (2x130).
  20. 20.0 20.1 The Chronicles of Exandria - The Mighty Nein, p. 152.

Art:

  1. Official art of the Clay family, by Selina Espiritu and Eren Angiolini from The Mighty Nein Origins: Caduceus Clay. This file is a copyrighted work. Its use in this article is asserted to qualify as fair use of the material under United States copyright law.