[COURT OF SWORDS // E83 // Q&A] Maru Bavati

[grahamtugwell]

I’ve not encountered a piece of media with such formidable depth, with such tragedy and humour, joy and despair, filled with moments that could swing from tender intimacy to great upheaval and change and world-cracking awe, with so many vivid, complex and imperishable characters, since I first picked up Final Fantasy VI all those years ago. The City of Brass arc of CoS is an absolutely monumental achievement and I was moved, captivated and thrilled by every second of it. Max, Dan, Zeke, JP, Adam, thank you.

[AdamKoebel]

And the question that’s been bugging me the most. The episode after Salihafu died. You narrated a guy eating a meal or something and then killing himself almost ritualistically. What was up with that guy/scene?

Oh yeah! That was definitely Mara Shit In Action

[AdamKoebel]

I don’t know if you know how much FFVI means to me and so this is a huge compliment thank you!

[AdamKoebel]

1 that black orb did that farang manage somehow to acquire a soul / is that why it rose up into the sky was it going to the fountain or did heaven its self want that object to study or something?

2 when considering berg dragging nameless it the pit would that have effected his darma or whatever and make it so he’d maybe would have reincarnated as a genasi/human/or angel or would little brother just end up pulling him from the cycle of reincarnation again?

3 this is a what if but if the characters ether 1 had died fighting nameless or 2 died trying to escape the city would little brother pull them from the cycle of reincarnation like he did with berg or might big brother pull them from the cycle instead?

4 what would have happened if yoji soccesfully shot nameless with the arrow?

5 you might not be able to answer this but is maru pavati kalimats great great great great ancestor ? is maru pavati a rock/earth dragon?

6 so with that sacrifice did that make ramus a cleric of Agni?

7 does ramus still have that divining mirror shield I rember him being given it awhile ago?

8 do you think the heveans will grant them a boon or something for there service in helping with getting rid of the farang and corrupted nameless?

9 Was dark berg killed and or permently injured when maru pavati woke up?

10 mod had green eyes does that mean shes possessed by the mara or is she died from maru pavati waking up and now the mara are just using her body? Also was she permatly injured from maru pavati?

11 with the farang having had significantly lost both troops moral and the city does that mean we might see more of the blue farang again wether it be the escaped from the farang when maru pavati woke up or just came out of hiding sencing the farangs defeat?

12 do you have anything planed for kalimats half orc kids?

13 If they end up going with a time skip with the same characters or new characters and don’t do anything with agnis ruby will that effect the world at all?

1. the orb was a special artifact, summoned at the death of the immortals, sacred to Death

2. self-sacrifice is generally considered a saintly virtue, so yeah, maybe his soul would escape orc-hood

3. if they didn’t stop nameless, he would probably have ended up corrupted by the mara and they’d fight a war with the faring over the city

4. I guess we’ll NEVER KNOW

5. maru bavati is a primordial earth god, what relationships that has to the dragons will have to be explored in a future arc

6. yeah, I think it qualifies

7. I do not remember, maybe the bag ate it.

8. heaven is really really pissed off that they woke up Maru Bavati.

9. nope

10. have to wait and see!

11. that’s possible - there are other Farang, less ostentatious. this was blow to the Gold Faction.

12. yes!

13. it’ll depend on the players’ choices

[profnesbitt]

I think the easiest way to do the party split is something pertaining to Yoji directly calling him away from the group that’s in a direction Kalimat wants to go. That way there is a reason he doesn’t join Ramus and Berg for their primordial Agni arc. I will point out though Berg is aware of a mechanical brass dragon that is in the last place that Agnis brother was seen and that seems like a draw for all of them.

[Ventus24]

@AdamKoebel
if the group decides to do the thing you sugested and have a episode for there specific things they each want to get down (if they dont bring it up/ remember will you remind them about the ruby)

also you said the party waking up pissed off heaven i have 3 questions about that

1 didnt hazan have a meeting in heaven in whitch they agreed that waking up maru bavati needed to happen so why are they pissed?

2 how did nameless actions effect hazans darma if at all is nameless still considered apart of hazan?

3 was little brother also mad that maru bavati woke up and does that effect his and bergs relationship

[Mr_Undergr0und]

I believe Hazzan’s plan with Maru Bavati was secret among the Tower. The Tower was just doing it’s job in razing the city in order to destroy the invaders. The logic being better to have a primordial God reawaken now that we are already familiar with than to have these completely unknown invaders that are invisible to Heaven continue to run rampant.

In the recorded Annals of Heaven in the far future this was probably seem as a time of temporary resurgence among the old gods. This will be taken care of in time. That is, unless Heaven destroys itself from within.

[Olf_Himself]

If they’re splitting the party for the mini-arcs I hope Berg sticks with Ramus. You can’t break up the dynamic duo.

[Deastin]

It would be an interesting twist if the party became, essentially, the four horsemen.

[Thrishmal]

Is group quest xp not going to be a thing? I remember you wanting to give xp for completing arcs/quests when the system was changed up. Did xp for working towards a goal end up taking its place since it is more consistent?

[notNOTjack]

I would say it did.
Adding quest XP to all the XP they already get, assuming they chose goals wisely as they have lately, would possibly be overcompensating for not giving combat XP.

[notNOTjack]

It would make sense that Berg and Ramus would keep going together. Their goals can sort of align.

They seemed to be struggling a bit with the issue of some of them really wanting to play a new character and the others either not being super into playing another new character or being just cool with playing one.

Since Dan seemed to be the most enthusiastic about playing a new character and Max has been playing Berg for so long and has always said he relishes playing new characters, it would make sense for the Yoji and Kalimat arc to be the first to happen.

The issue comes from Ramus’ quest being time sensitive and thus not making a lot of sense to have it happen only after Yoji and Kalimat’s adventure. They could always have the two arcs (or however many arcs) be concurrent in time but JP didn’t seem too jazzed to play yet another character for that to be possible. A solution for that could be guests. It’s a perfect time to bring on guests if the main cast is busy or wants a little break.

Anyway I’m glad they don’t seem too inclined towards a time skip cause it makes no fictional sense to have time skips and there being no mechanical change to the characters, as it happened with the 10 year skip. (Unless, of course, it’s like it happened in the vault and with Berg’s Heaven adventure, where time passed for everyone but the characters) If they were all up to playing new characters I would love to see a new group of characters on a completely different part of the world but have those events happen concurrent to the Brass City arc so that they can always come back to playing Berg, Ramus, Kali and Yoji with no time skip necessary.

[DarkenedLite]

Couldn’t the two sequences just be happening concurrently, even if they do Yoji/Kalimat first? They could just time skip backward to Berg/Ramus afterward.

[Olf_Himself]

This. Also, I’m sure they could fudge the timeline a bit if JP wants to play Yoji in both arcs.

[AdamKoebel]

Is group quest xp not going to be a thing? I remember you wanting to give xp for completing arcs/quests when the system was changed up. Did xp for working towards a goal end up taking its place since it is more consistent?

They waffled a lot on whether or not this was like, a party quest. I think the award XP for the arc is good. We’ll officially name quests for whatever comes after, and award accordingly.

[profnesbitt]

I know the groups keen on splitting up and they can go wherever they want to but I’m going to throw out there. Imix quest would possibly take them back towards the valley which could lead back to going underground to find Agnis brother. I’m going to bet the mechanical brass dragon has some sort of tie in with real dragons. This would lead to the dragon arc. And then all they would need was a reason to go to the court of swords to face the necro king and at the rate they are leveling that would place them near level 20. Bringing the show full circle for a conclusion. Before a rebrand of the show that starts from scratch with all new level 1 characters taking place after all this. Court of Swords and court of wands are rebuilding or rebuilt at that point. The other courts are possibly rebuilding after the group inevitably destroys them by accident as well. Just saying full circle.

[notNOTjack]

The only thing that would prevent the two from being concurrent would be if JP and Zeke are more inclined to play their current characters. JP specially is tired of changing characters. I might have not been too clear on that. Otherwise, if they don’t mind playing different characters they can be concurrent with no issue at all. They might fudge the timeline a bit to accommodate everyone, as Olf said, but that just muddles things in my opinion.

[DarkenedLite]

That’s a good point. I know it probably won’t happen, but I kind of want some really focused interactions between Kalimat/Yoji and Berg/Ramus without any other characters. I really love those character pairings and would enjoy some more 1 on 1 stuff.

[Olf_Himself]

Damn, it didn’t occur to me until now because we were so focused on this episode being the end of the 30 episode long City of Brass arc but this episode was pretty much the end of the 80 episode long Hassan arc as well.
He was there from almost the very beginning. Mind blowing.

[Zenesectling]

Take the land that must be taken
Can’t wait for more to come you are awesome @AdamKoebel