#cr headcanons – @shellem15 on Tumblr

Finally decided to just compile a list of my headcanons for cr gods here, because their insane dynamics have infected my brain and made it physically impossible for me to get any of my own worldbuilding/writing stuff done. This is for the gods in general, I'm doing a separate post for just my favorite trio (Asmodeus/Sarenrae/Pelor) later.

So the Raven Queen's predecessor helping her succeed him and them being in love has been made canon, but I'm just gonna say here that that was basically my theory beforehand and I made an entire goddamn post about it (before downfall even aired, mind you) then deleted it because I thought it was dumb. Anyways. Just getting that off my chest.
On that topic, I think that the Old God of Death (whom I will, from here on, refer to as OGOD) had a very "pagan-woods deity" vibe going on before he was axed. I think it contrasts nicely with the Raven Queen being a god "of wizards" and of mortals in general. It could also explain why he was seen as a "tyrant", cause maybe he had a big "no resurrection. Ever." policy, which drove wizards to necromancy as a loophole. As an extension, I think he would have had some strong wolf symbolism, cause wolves = death is a tale as old as time (Again complimenting the Matron's Ravens). Think Neverafter's Big Bad Wolf and Puss in Boots 2's Wolf/Death. I also imagine OGOD was very close with the Wildmother and the Crawling King (before the betrayers got locked up).
OGOD, as the god of fate, knew ahead of time that the mortal who became the Raven Queen would seek him out and, eventually, be his demise.
The Moonweaver, as the goddess of love and protector of lovers' trysts, on some level knew about their relationship and what was to come. She's never told anyone this.
The Changebringer and the Stormlord are best friends. Freedom and challenge, storms and the wind, they come hand in hand. Bet they would rock up to a protest in sick leather jackets waving flags and punching cops in the face.
The Changebringer and the Everlight are very, very close. Avandra was the one to find her after Asmodeus' betrayal. Something something the unbreakable bond between freedom and redemption. In addition to Kord they form their own little trio.
The Changebringer has a plethora of myths and folklore about her, a lot about her screwing over Asmodeus' plots (and just being a trickster god in general).
I imagine that they were rivals while in Tengar, but it was more a playful, childish thing than any true animosity. This changes, obviously.
Speaking of screwing, she and Asmodeus have definitely hate-fuck3d before. Both of them refuse to acknowledge it, but it totally haunts him at night.
On this note, Avandra's vestige "the Kiss of the Changebringer" (canonically stolen from her by the Lord of the Hells), was given that name because he distracted her with a kiss while stealing it. She beat his ass for that later.
Avandra couch-hops in the other gods domains. They tolerate this to varying degrees.
Upon Vordo the fateshaper's death (or whoever Ihana, the Weaver of Time became but my theory is Vordo), Ioun (Knowing Mistress) became the eldest of the gods, followed by the Scaled Tyrant (Tiamat) and the Platinum Dragon (Bahamut). They are old and act like it. Meemaws and peepaw.
Ioun, being the eldest of the gods, has witnessed most of her (surviving) siblings' original spawning into existence within Tengar. I wonder if they were "born" from the trees in the Orchard of Possibility?
The Ruiner (aka Gruumsh aka Shosti) is younger than Ioun, Tiamat, and Bahamut, but older than most of the other gods. He gives older brother vibes not gonna lie.
The Ruiner and the Stormlord were bros before the Schism. They definitely got into huge battles with each other and had a lot of fun. Gym bro energy.
The Ruiner didn’t join the Betrayer's side out of malice for mortals, he just thought destroying Exandria would be a fun time.
The Ruiner really likes breaking the All-Hammer (Moradin)'s stuff. Actively goes out of his way to do so.
The Crawling King (Torog) is disliked by most of the gods. The Betrayers especially hate him. He's a living reminder of their pain and all they have lost.
The Lawbearer and the Strife Emperor were close before the Schism, but afterwords became bitter enemies.
The Platinum Dragon and the Scaled Tyrant are basically an old divorced couple. The bickering and shade throwing is a sight to behold. Especially since they're dragons.
Tiamat is basically an over-glorified guard dog for the gates of Hell in Avernus. This her way of paying rent to Asmodeus for technically living within the Nine Hells. She hates this, and they tend to avoid each other.
The Moonweaver, the Archheart, and the Spider Queen were a polycule before the Schism. Lolth has definitely tried to eat them before, to little success.
They're all super into weaving, for obvious reasons. And all can play string instruments.
Lolth and Zehir are in constant competition to murder as much of each other's followers as possible. (This isn't even headcanon its literally just true)
All the Betrayer Gods (minus Asmodeus and vecna) have a group-chat where they just trash their brother. Just pure complaining.
The betrayer gods are constantly ragging on Asmo for fumbling the Primoridal bag. Whenever they bring it up he gets so mad.
All the Betrayers bully Vecna. He is not invited to the Betrayer God lunch table. They give him swirlies in the bathroom whenever they catch him.
Prime Deities have a group chat where they trash the Dawnfather. The Everlight isn't on it because it'd upset her. Asmodeus has absolutely infiltrated the group chat.
Primes can recite the Dawnfather's spiels word by word. They lip-sync it when he's not looking.
The Betrayers do this exact same thing with Asmodeus' rants.
A big celebration was thrown for the Wildmother and the Lawbearer's wedding. Corellon decorated and was super bridezilla about it (despite not being the bride).
Can't decide whether its pre-schism for the fluff or post-schism for the angst. If its pre-schism then torog walked melora down the aisle (or whatever the equivalent is) and cried about it.
It was a super awkward moment for everyone else.
Either way the wedding quickly descended into godly revelry and then lots of unspeakable violence.
Corellon definitely hosted a lot of orgies. Both pre and post schism. And just parties in general. They also tended to end in a lot of violence.

That's it. I can't think of anything else. Feel free to add on to this list if you want.

#critical role #cr gods #prime deities #betrayer gods #cr headcanons #cr downfall

shellem15

One of my favorite things to learn about while reading about cr gods is that the Changebringer "calls no domain in the planes her residence" and "wanders through the Outer Planes where serenity can be found." Which I can only interpret to mean she couchsurfs around the planes, randomly showing up at the other Prime Deities' doors and being like "heyyyy, so I'm gonna chill at your place for a bit, thxxxx :)"

#imagining the godly equivalent of like #the dawnfather waking up at 3am and going into his kitchen #and finding avandra picking through his fridge like a racoon #“how did you get in my house” “oh you left a window open! i took it as an invitation to let myself in :))”#“btw im gonna crash on your couch for like a week lol. thanks sooo muchhh”#and pelor's just like -_-#“...*fine*”#changebringer my couchsurfing queen #critical role #cr headcanons #the changebringer #avandra cr #cr gods #ramblings

shellem15

Thinking about the Dawnfather. A god of light, a god of harvest, a god of the sun itself. Good but not nice, kind but not soft. Life-giving but also scorching. Protective, warm, and kind, but also stern, harsh, and abrasive. His light can foster growth, can protect and guide, but it can also scorch and burn. The sun is warm and nurturing but don’t stare at it too long, child, it’ll blind you.

Was he always so hard? Did he always hide his face with the harsh light of the sun? Or was there a time when he smiled and laughed, let others see him as he truly was?

Thinking about the Schism. Was the Dawnfather close to the Betrayer Gods before they turned? He must have been, Asmodeus wouldn’t be so hung up on him if he wasn’t. Speaking of Asmodeus, he was once a being of light, like the Dawnfather and the Everlight are now. Were they closer than the others? When the Gods came to Exandria, did they come from the same place or were they scattered, a ragtag group of survivors fleeing from predators seeking to devour them? And if the latter is true, did these three beings of light come from the same place? Siblings, born from the same stuff, forever tied to one another?

If this was the case, then, what was their relationship before the Schism? Did they call each other “Brother” and “Sister”? Did they hold each other when they were scared, dry each other’s tears, laugh and joke and tease and fight and make up because they were siblings and they’d always be together, and they loved each other with every fiber of their being and they only had each other. When Predathos came, when it devoured two of their newfound siblings, did the Dawnfather hold them both and promise them that everything was going to be okay because he was their brother and he was going to protect them, all of them. The gods, mortals, the world itself, they would not be devoured, they would not be destroyed, because he was there and would fight until his very last breath to keep them safe.

Wondering then, was that the moment when Asmodeus truly grew to hate their creations? Seeing his brother and sister and siblings risk their lives just to protect some mewling mortal wretches when they could just leave it all behind and start somewhere new. Was that the moment when he realized that mortals had done something to them, changed them when they were not supposed to change. Why else would they risk being devoured by Predathos, why else would they suffer through war with the Primordials? Why else would they choose them over him!? Was this the moment when he decided to conspire with the Primordials and the other Betrayer Gods? To destroy this world and the mortals on it so they could finally leave. And they would leave, of course, because the Dawnfather was his brother and the Everlight was his sister and the Gods were a family, and at the end of the day, they would always be together, and once the corrupting influence of those mortals was gone, they would surely all see reason.

And when the Dawnfather discovered this betrayal, when all the Prime Deities did, he must have been furious. How could they!? His kin, his brother, who had always been by his side through everything, how could they turn around and destroy their creations, their children. And so he and the other Primes took up arms and fought against their own family to protect this world they had created, and their children who inhabited it. Those battles must have been brutal, bonds of comradery broken, kin clashing against kin, screaming curses as they tore each other apart.

During those final battles of the Schism, when the Dawnfather clashed against Asmodeus, did they scream at each other in rage? A twisted reflection of previous squabbles, different because this time it was real, this time there is no forgiveness, no making up. When the Dawnfather knocked Asmodeus down, crushed his throat under his foot and banished him to the Hells, was he yelling when he disowned him? Or was he quiet when he did it, his voice going into a low growl, deadly calm as he told him that he was not his brother anymore. And moments previously, when the Dawnfather could have easily killed him, did he look into Asmodeus’s eyes and see his brother? Scared and hurt by his hands, hands that once held him and swore to protect him. In that moment, did the Dawnfather realize he couldn’t kill him? Because that was his brother and despite everything, he still loved him, and hurting him brought him more grief and pain than he could ever imagine. So instead, he banished him, locked him and all the other Betrayers away because he and the other Primes couldn’t bring themselves to kill their family, but they also couldn’t let them free.

Was this when the Dawnfather obscured his face? Hardened his heart because otherwise he would break, and he cannot break, because the other gods need him to be strong, because Exandria needs him to be strong. And so he stayed strong, despite the grief, despite the guilt, despite the pain of heartbreak, of hurting the ones he loved to protect the ones he loved. And this hardening must have continued, running himself ragged during Calamity, beating back Tharizdun, protecting Ioun after she almost died, sheltering the Everlight after Asmodeus once again betrayed her, stabbed her in the back and left her broken and weak when all she wanted was to do was get her brother back, to save him from his own wrath. Failure after failure after failure to protect those he cared about, to protect his siblings and mortals and Exandria itself. The guilt of his failures must be overwhelming, and these are his failures: Predathos devoured his siblings under his watch, his siblings betrayed them under his watch, Calamity ravaged Exandria under his watch, and even now, the threat of Predathos has once again returned under his watch.

No wonder he is so harsh now, so controlling now: because every time he has failed in his vigilance the world has suffered for it. He can’t fail again; he can’t lose any more siblings. And so, he continues hardening his heart, continues fighting, because the sun must always rise again in the morning, no matter what.

#did i make my first post a 1000+ word essay about the dawnfather? yes #did i write this instead of doing my work? also yes #would i do it again? absolutely #i have so many thoughts about the gods of exandria #i want to shake them in a jar and examine them under a microscope #it is my foremost belief that pelor has eldest daughter syndrome #like surface pressure from encanto is literally the perfect pelor song tell me im wrong #he is so stressed. all the time #like pelor IS a dick. absolutely #he has definitely done some fucked up shit #but he's not malicious or evil. hes doing what he thinks will protect everyone #he is in desperate need of a nap. a hug. and a therapist #this definitely delves into headcanon territory but i dont care #critical role #cr spoilers #cr meta #cr headcanons #dawnfather #everlight #cr asmodeus #pelor the dawnfather #cr sarenrae #cr gods #shelley's overdramatic character analysis