I Was Wrong.

MANIFEST

MANIFEST

A quick doodle because they’re hopelessly in love 💜

Maybe I am a minority here but I really don't want the world to view BH as villains. They genuinely do not deserve that and in my eyes, it would be both unfair and unwarranted. This group of outcasts, who are made up of their pain and trauma and have barely been making it through life, lost or left alone. This group that claws itself through life, day after day, feeling unaccepted. Nobodies, all of a sudden pushed into the spotlight of the world. A group that continues to sacrifice and worry and hope and fight and a group that just wants the best for the world in a complicated situation with no perfect answers. It wouldn't be right at all to say they are betraying Exandria, in my opinion. They are trying to subdue the threat of Predathos permanently, at the cost of their own lives, their own safety and sanity. They are trying to bargain, with fate, with gods. For people and the gods themselves. They stopped Ludinus, but there is no stopping the change he has brought. No stopping the fact that the world knows and looks to the moon and the cage and the godeater inside.

They are just trying. They are tired, they were chosen and pushed and pulled and they are trying.

Ludinus: why are you here?

Orym: BECAUSE I DON’T FUCKING LIKE YOU

There won't be another Aeor now, because Aeor was a very specific kind of tragedy, wherein the gods prioritized their own survival over the survival of huge swathes of mortals. They had choice after choice after choice where they could have diverted to a more merciful path. Even in the very last moments, they could have just destroyed the Factorum Malleus and spared the rest of the city, and found another way to deal with the knowledge that had been disseminated. But they chose their own immediate security over the lives of every regular person in Aeor, every refugee and civilian and child. The Primes may love mortals, may work to protect them, but when it comes down to it, they will choose themselves (and their Betrayer kin!) every time. It is love with a very big caveat.

Two thirds of the world's population died in the Calamity because the Betrayers were initially banished, not destroyed. The gods say they cannot let any of the Betrayers die because they might need them if a bigger threat arises, but what good does that potential possible protection do Exandria if their warring wipes the world out now? Why should anyone, god or mortal, expect that the Betrayers would help fend off such a threat anyway, when they very clearly want the Primes and all mortals dead? There was so much emphasis in Downfall on how, despite it all, the Primes and Betrayers are family and the Primes cannot let that go. It's hard to take Ayden at face value when he says that they need the Betrayers, in the light of that. SILAHA says "That's all our problem. It's all about ourselves. At least I have the, well, confidence to actually accept it." And that's the truth of their motivation that their actions indicate in Downfall.

The Arch Heart and the Matron explicitly told the Hells that the world was on the cusp of another Calamity. Except for those two, when confronted with the possibility of Predathos, the gods wanted to chose, once again, to sacrifice the lives of countless mortals in order to protect themselves. The Divine Gate is meant to stop another Calamity, but now we know that they are willing to tear it down to save themselves. So Calamity is the threat that hangs over the world much more immediately than potential cosmic horrors.

I don't think anyone is out here saying that this plan with the gods becoming mortal means that there will never be any danger to Exandria again. There ARE terrible threats that exist, like the Chained Oblivion and there are almost certainly more that exist out is the cosmos that are currently unknown. Predathos might eat those or it might not, we don't actually know. There absolutely will be more evil mortals, just as there will be mortal heroes to stop them, as they always have. This is not the creation of utopia. It's the aversion of another apocalypse.

But something that struck me, at least, about Aeor, something that I think often get lost underneath all the other debate, under the focus on hubris, is the stark fact that mortal understanding grew to the point where they could create a weapon that could kill a god. That's incredible. If the gods saw mortal understanding reach so far and instead of saying "you are children and cannot comprehend and so we will strike your knowledge from the world because it is too dangerous for you," said "you are our children and you are growing up, perhaps we should help you understand" what might mortal innovation have accomplished? What solutions would mortal creativity come up with that might have surprised their creators? If the gods chose to treat mortal attempts to understand with encouragement instead of condescension, what might the Cassida Previns of the world built?

You say that level of power has to exist to fight off the next eldritch horror that arrives. Why does that power have to be concentrated in a small handful of gods above any sort of accountability? Why can't it be power distributed amongst a larger number of mortals, defending themselves? Why can't it be mortals, no longer children to be shielded but instead come into their ascendancy to fully inherit the world and its responsibilities? Why can't mortals be equal to the gods, not in the sense sought by those power-hungry mages, but as a collective, with the gods reborn among them and treating them, as it were, as adults, who might come to understand?

In the final narration for Downfall, Brennan says:

"In short, brief life can even the infinite change, realize, recognize, commit to something new, singular. To move forward on the paths of destiny and fate, changed."

And I think this choice being given to the gods to become mortal again, beyond just giving them the ability to survive at the cost of their power, is also offering them the chance to learn and grow the way mortals do again. Being mortal in their quest to destroy Aeor, ending even as it did in something horrific, did actually change them enough that they created the Divine Gate. That was a sacrifice and it was better than what was before it. But it was not enough and now that the flaws in that approach have become clear, it's time to look for another path. Mortality offers that. And I think seeing how mortality could change them further will be a hell of a story, and I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, I don't particularly think this is going to convince you or anything, you seem pretty mad, but it's fun to talk about this stuff, and you gave me an excuse, so thanks.

matthew….

מעניין כמה אנשים הולכים להתעצבן על זה. תרגישו חופשי לתרגם את זה. Didn't make this

Obviously it'll be a lot easier to convince the Prime deities(unsure about Kord though) but let's consider SOME of the betrayer gods like Torog-

He can potentially finally have an existence free from the pain that his divinity brought him, and i think he'd choose to die permanently instead of being reincarnated from the fear of feeling it again.

Lolth could try and make amends with her children,she still somewhat cares, albeit in an obsessive controlling way.

Dunno why people even think about Tharizdun,it isn't a god,and both primes and betrayers fear and hate it.

Bane could lead a mighty empire,but as a mortal king

Asmodeus is too prideful to give up on the one thing that in his mind makes him so much better than the glorified meat puppets he calls mortals. He's too resentful,too caught up in his own pain to let go.

Tiamat and Zehir are uh....well Tiamat is still a giant ass five headed dragon whether she's a goddess or not, plus nobody likes Zehir.

Power of friendship...

Thinking about Asmodeus being reborn as Jester and Fjord's kid. A red skinned tiefling who everyone says takes after his grandmother.

Asmodeus totally having all the plans to regain his powers and destroy all the prime deities. But... well no plan survives contact with Jester.

Him delaying plans just because... what in the hells is she going to do next... he kinda wants to find out.

Jester being the most loving and chaotic parent. Because of course Jester would 1000% still go off on adventures bringing the baby along. Him just watching the pure chaos and expert trickery.

Having Fjord as a dad who is the most caring and excited dad, and trying to balance out Jester's insanity 'No Jester we cannot take the baby to the fae realm I know Beau is opening a new Beau bar but we also shouldn't be taking a baby to a bar opening'. Also who was in a deal with darkness but found his way out.

Him just being along with the mighty nein as extended family who are all chaotic and loving and not what he's used to with adventures he's dealt with. He's stuck with emotions for them and he hates it.

First time he pulls tricks and lies Jester just hugs him she's so proud of him and so his uncle Artie. His trickery and lies becoming far more Jester adjacent.

Also him pulling pranks just to freak Braius out when he visits

Bonus: Beau and Yasha end up unknowingly adopting one of the other gods and the first time Asmodeus and the other see each other it just being that always sunny scene in the restaurant. (Neither saying anything or blowing cover because they like this family not that either will ever admit this)