The Astral Leywright was a powerful arcane device meant to allow the floating city of Avalir to travel between Planes of Existence. Its inventor was Laerryn Coramar-Seelie, the Arcane Architect of the City of Crowns.
Description[]
This machine looks like a big pendulum under a stone dome.[2] It is powered by magical batteries and, while it is swinging, it is able to hold and generate magical energy. Below the pendulum itself there is a platform with runes, marking different attempts and configurations trying to use the Astral Leywright.[3]
Location[]
The Astral Leywright is within the Meridian Labyrinth. The place is beautifully adorned with stained glass windows.
History[]
More than seven years before the beginning of the Calamity Laerryn Coramar-Seelie began to experiment on how to allow Avalir access to other planes with greater resources, and thus gain more freedom and prosperity than the rest of the floating cities of Exandria. Eventually Evandrin Alterra, First Knight of Avalir and one of Laerryn's closest friends, became aware of her early experiments with the Astral Leywright. He told her that as First Knight, he should be its first test subject. He was transported to another realm of existence and in the process, became anchored to it. This fundamentally altered his being enough so that the Tree of Names (whose magic and functions Laerryn was unaware of) no longer recognized him as native to Exandria, and its protective forces slowly pushed him from the Material Plane into the Astral Plane,[4] although for the rest of the world (including his husband and son) when Evandrin disappeared he was declared dead.[5]
While this event left Laerryn heartbroken and partially led to her divorce (since her job and those secrets kept putting distance between her and Loquatius Seelie), she continued her research, tracking an imminent apogee solstice using the Grand Geometer she had built for the purpose,[6] and discovering the approaching ideal circumstances for her to use the Astral Leywright: when the ley lines were flexible and prone to shifting, and when the barriers between the planes themselves were thinner.[7]
During the eve of the Replenishment, when the apogee solstice was imminent, Laerryn gained access to a fragment of a solar's bow (a piece of evidence from Vespin Chloras' chambers), and she took it as the final piece for her device.[8] In the presence of her friend Nydas Okiro and her assistant Dweomer, Laerryn activated the Astral Leywright (a process that not only emitted a lot of light, but also caused the Arboreal Calix that protected the Tree of Names]] to drain a large amount of the energy used in activation), making the ley lines visible for them,[9] and allowing the Arquitect Arcane to send a small device (a miniature version of the Ley-Rudder, the room connected to the Astral Leywright) to a different realm.[10]
While initially Laerryn thought that her invention was a full success and that her toy was in another plane, later that night, as she and the Ring of Brass discovered the strange things happening in their city and started revealing information and secrets connected to it (including what had happened to Evandrin), they entered the chamber of the Arboreal Calix to inspect the Tree of Names. Quay noticed a small devices caught in its branches, and when his ex-wife realized that the Tree was interfering with planar travel she tried to destroy it, and though they tried to stop her, when she caught a glimpse of Evandrin's face and realized that the Tree of Names had harmed him as well, she cast Blight, sundering it,[11] which led to Asmodeus entering Exandria.
Fan art of Laerryn working while protected by her friends, by Lap Pun Cheung.[art 2]
The Ring of Brass discovered that the newly freed Betrayer Gods intended to destroy the Prime Deities by ally themselves with the Emperor of Fire and the Empress of Earth, two primordial titans sealed under what was now Cathmoíra; to avoid this apocalyptic scenario[12] Laerryn decided to use the Astral Leywright so that instead of using a ley line to move the city, she would connect that energy with that of the two elemental titans to send them to another plane. During the process she and her friends were being attack by sabotaged taxmen under the command of a fiendish Vespin Chloras, but they managed to protect the device while Laerryn made the proper adjustments (prioritizing saving the world over the safety of the city itself) while Patia Por'co, who had received a lot of information from the Tree of Names before its destruction, inscribed in the Astral Leywright the many names of Rau'shan and Ka'Mort, the titans they intended to destroy. The device worked as intended, firing the primordials away from the Material Plane, scattering them across as many realms as possible, thereby disenchanting and undoing them.[13] However, the massive release of magical and elemental energy (and possibly a divine retaliation added by the Lord of the Hells, furious because his plans had been ruined) caused not only the destruction of Avalir and the Astral Leywright, but also the complete annihilation of Domunas, leaving in the place of the continent an archipelago of islands now known as the Shattered Teeth.[14]
Trivia[]
- There has only been one Astral Leywright in the history of Exandria, the one invented by Laerryn, and it is unknown if any of the knowledge connected to its creation survived the destruction of Avalir.
- In the smuggling of ether and its diversion as a resource of magical energy Laerryn was involved in taking part of that energy for her research with the Astral Leywright.[15]
- Laerryn created the Astral Leywright and intended to use it during the apogee solstice in order to create a new path for her city to use whenever they wanted, as a new option and opportunity for Avalir instead of an imposition. It was Helmswoman Akami Rowe's job to steer the city, not Laerryn's, and the Architect Arcane was aware that the government and citizens of the City of Crowns wouldn't be ready to use her gift for them at first.[16]
References[]
- ↑ Aabria on Tumblr.
- ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 0:53:20.
- ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 0:43:27.
- ↑ See "Fire and Ruin" (E3x04) at 1:47:20.
- ↑ See "Hype! Exandria Unlimited: Calamity Q&A with Luis Carazo" on critrole.com.
- ↑ See "Excelsior" (E3x01) at 58:51.
- ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 2:22:56.
- ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 0:52:50.
- ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) from 0:53:20 through 0:55:34.
- ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 0:58:29.
- ↑ See "Blood and Shadow" (E3x03) at 5:05:34.
- ↑ See "Fire and Ruin" (E3x04) at 2:34:41.
- ↑ See "Fire and Ruin" (E3x04) at 6:01:28. See 2:30:18 and 4:03:01 for how Laerryn came up with and executed the idea.
- ↑ See "Fire and Ruin" (E3x04) at 6:00:01.
- ↑ Twitter Post-finale Chat with the Exandria Unlimited: Calamity Cast, Twitter Spaces Q&A session held 22 June 2022. Full transcript here.
- ↑ About Laerryn's plan.
Art:
- ↑ Photograph of the Astral Leywright, with art by Joanna Johnen and @iamjasonchadwick on Instagram, from Critical Role's Tweet.
- ↑ Fan art of Laerryn working while protected by her friends, by Lap Pun Cheung (source). Used with permission.
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