Cerkonos

Cerkonos
Official art of Cerkonos in 843 PD, cropped from a larger image, by GalacticJonah.
Screenshot of Cerkonos from "Pass Through Fire" (LVM2x05).
Type	Non-Player Character (C1) Player Character (C3)
Actor	Matthew Mercer (C1) Robbie Daymond (C3/TLoVM)
Character Information
Name	Cerkonos
Pronouns	he/him
Also known as	The Flamespeaker
Creature type	Humanoid
Race	Human
Class	Druid (Circle of the Moon)
Age	Unknown; the Aramente greatly increases lifespan.
Languages	Common, Druidic[presumed]
Place	Pyrah
Connections	Ashari (Head of the Fire Ashari) Keyleth (Aramente guide for fire trial) Vox Machina (ally)
Status
Status	Alive (in 843 PD)
Stats
Level	20 (in 843 PD)
HP	164
AC	19
DC
Str	25
Dex	14
Con	16
Int	11
Wis	20
Cha	9
Appearances
First seen	"Aramente to Pyrah" (1x22) (stream) "Pass Through Fire" (LVM2x05) (animated)
Last seen	"A New Age Begins" (3x121) (stream) "To the Ends of the World" (LVM3x10) (animated)
Stream	Campaign One (6 episodes) Campaign Three (5 episodes)
Television	The Legend of Vox Machina (2 episodes)

Cerkonos is the headmaster of the Fire Ashari in Pyrah, and one of the guardians of the portal from the Material Plane to the Elemental Plane of Fire. As an NPC, he is portrayed by Matthew Mercer in Campaign One: Vox Machina, and as a PC in Campaign Three: Bells Hells by Robbie Daymond, who also voices him in The Legend of Vox Machina.

Description

Appearance

Fan art of Cerkonos, by Kileigh Gallagher.

Cerkonos is a human with a thick, sturdy build, very dark skin, long jet black hair, a square jaw, and coal-black eyes. He stands about a foot-and-a-half taller than Keyleth, who is about 5'10". When he first appeared he was shirtless, with brass-colored bracers and long, billowing maroon pants bearing gold trim and designs.

At some point around when Thordak escaped from the Elemental Plane of Fire, Cerkonos lost his right arm, but it was growing back as of "The Family Business" (1x47). In "Path of Brass" (1x74), when Vox Machina asked Cerkonos for help, his arm had fully reformed.

When he was recruited to aid Vox Machina in their assault on the Malleus Key, Cerkonos was deceptively youthful-looking for his age, but was beginning to show signs of his maturity. He was bare-chested and wore a large bracer belt over his midsection.

Personality

In 843 PD, Cerkonos' tent was calm and orderly, with every item having a purpose and being in its proper place. It contained a quiet meditation area. He himself was described as calm, quiet, stoic, and resonating peace, and his sense of humor was extremely stiff. Despite this, however, Cerkonos has stated that he is a fan of "sexual jokes", meaning his is surprisingly a fan of Scanlan. He is also a terrible womanizer, as all of his stoicness seems to go away when he is in front of a person he is attracted to, causing him to act nervous and more vulnerable than usual.

Biography

Fan art of Cerkonos, by Andrew Keller.

Background

As headmaster of the Fire Ashari, Cerkonos likely completed an Aramente earlier in his life and may now have a greatly extended lifespan as a result.

Campaign One: Vox Machina

Cerkonos guided Keyleth through the fire trial of her Aramente. He and two other druids were waiting to test her in the Elemental Plane of Fire, turning into fire elementals and challenging Vox Machina to a battle. Upon Keyleth's completion of the trial, Cerkonos gifted her with a spark stone, to use as she saw fit.

At some point after Vox Machina had left, Raishan - who had infiltrated the Fire Ashari disguised as a child - opened a rift to the Elemental Plane of Fire and freed Thordak. The two dragons and the rift dealt massive amounts of damage to the Fire Ashari and in the ensuing chaos, Cerkonos lost an arm. Cerkonos led the Fire Ashari's efforts to close the rift to the Elemental Plane of Fire, which they did with the help of Vox Machina and Gern Blanston. The next evening, while staying in Scanlan's Magnificent Mansion, Cerkonos visited Keyleth, revealing that it was Raishan who had opened the portal to the fire plane and had released Thordak from his prison. Raishan had managed this by disguising herself as a human female orphan, adopted out of generosity by the Fire Ashari. Cerkonos warned Keyleth not to trust all of their allies going forward.

Later, Vox Machina traveled to Pyrah to use the elemental rift there to go to the Elemental Plane of Fire. There, they met Cerkonos and brought him up to speed on everything that had happened since they last met. He told them that their destination, the City of Brass, was three days' travel from the rift and expressed distaste and fear of the city's denizens. Vox Machina decided to avoid the journey and Plane Shift directly to the city. Before they departed, Cerkonos pledged to lend the aid of the Fire Ashari to the coming battle and agreed to contact Korrin to ask for the Air Ashari's aid as well.

Over a year later when The Whispered One arose, Vox Machina traveled to Pyrah and warned them of Thar Amphala's approach. Keyleth told Cerkonos to light the crisis orbs and he agreed to do so, as well as to inform Korrin and the other leaders.

Between Campaign One and Campaign Three

Cerkonos was able to spend quality time with Keyleth once or twice a year.

Campaign Three: Bells Hells

Official art of Cerkonos in 843 PD, by GalacticJonah.

After the apogee solstice of 843 PD, Cerkonos attended a meeting in the Platinum Sanctuary of Vasselheim to talk about how to deal with Ludinus Da'leth and the Ruby Vanguard. When Bells Hells were presented as potential agents for one of the missions, Dorian Storm tried to deflect by praising his friends instead; Cerkonos noticed and pressured him to speak for himself, being satisfied when the bard showed more confidence and summoned the equine dragon Coriolis as a demonstration of his power. Later, Keyleth, Vex'ahlia, Grog, and Pike came to his tent to speak to him about joining Vox Machina in their mission against the Malleus Key in Marquet, and he agreed to do so. He left the final page of the book he had been reading unread, and Pike grabbed it to take with them.

Fan art of Cerkonos with Lieve'tel, by Elaine Tipping.

Cerkonos was very serious around the adventurers, only showing some excitement around Scanlan Shorthalt, even going as far as to wonder about his current relationship with Pike. He, however, forgot all of that when he met Lieve'tel Toluse, and focused on trying to impress her, accepting Scanlan's advice and complimenting her (somewhat awkwardly) on their way to their skyship, and being determined to prove his worth in front of her. During the attack against the Red Center the Flamespeaker proved his martial and magical prowess, attacking enemies with his spear, transforming into elementals to help the Key Breaker land and then attack his enemies, and casting spells as he and Vox Machina moved towards the Malleus Key. When they faced Ozo Cruth, Cerkonos (as a fire elemental) cast Conjure Animals, summoning peregrine falcons that he used to attack the Reiloran. Later, wanting to sound like Scanlan, he mocked Vorak the bane worm, comparing it to a diseased penis before attacking it with the assistance of his falcons; when Vex'ahlia killed the monster with one of her arrows the Flamespeaker assisted her with lightning.

After the group returned to Whitestone, Cerkonos sought out Scanlan for more advice and coaching on his courtship of Lieve'tel and they went together to fetch bear claws from the Slayer's Cake. To help loosen Cerkonos up, Scanlan suggested they could try some spice together some time-- he just happened to have some in his saddlebag. Cerkonos accepted eagerly. Cerkonos was present with Vox Machina in Vasselehim for the Rites of Catatheosis, and shortly afterwards Scanlan told Cerkonos to ignore everything he had told him about dealing with Lieve'tel and to just be himself and talk about what he was passionate about. Cerkonos eventually nerved himself to knock on her door and she pulled him inside, telling him, "You're overthinking it. Just bring the heat."

Character information

Notable items

• Blink spear, a simple obsidian-tipped spear with leather tassels that allows Cerkonos to teleport 30 feet.
• Belt of Fire Giant Strength
• A bracelet with the letters "WWSD" (What Would Scanlan Do?)

Abilities

• Apparent resistance or immunity to fire damage
• Cerkonos can transform into a particularly large fire elemental.
  • In this form, Cerkonos has a special ability that deals fire damage in a 20-foot radius, dealing half damage to those who succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC 16). Those who fail to make their save continue to take fire damage each turn until they use an action to put the flames out.
  • Also, in this form, melee attacks against Cerkonos deal fire damage to the attacker.
  • Cerkonos's fire elemental form can make three melee touch attacks per turn instead of the two attacks typical fire elementals can make.
• Druid Circle: Circle of the Moon
  • Circle Forms
  • Combat Wild Shape
  • Elemental Wild Shape (Circle of the Moon)
  • Primal Strike (Circle of the Moon) (Beast attacks count as magical)
  • Thousand Forms (Circle of the Moon) (Alter Self at will)

Spells

Cerkonos has displayed the following spells:

Spell level	Spell	Notes
1st	Goodberry
3rd	Conjure Animals	The 2024 version of the spell
4th	Wall of Fire

Appearances and mentions

• Campaign One
  • "Aramente to Pyrah" (1x22) (first appearance)
  • "Those Who Walk Away" (1x45)
  • "Cindergrove Revisited" (1x46)
  • "The Family Business" (1x47)
  • "Path of Brass" (1x74)
  • "Daring Days" (1x86), mentioned only
  • "The Fate-Touched" (1x103)
• Campaign Three
  • "Collecting Legends" (3x105) [DM]
  • "In the Shadow of War" (3x110), mentioned only
  • "The Assembling of Legends" (3x112)
  • "Assault on the Malleus Key" (3x113)
  • "Fight for the Bloody Bridge" (3x114)
  • "A New Age Begins" (3x121)
• The Legend of Vox Machina
  • "Pass Through Fire" (LVM2x05)
  • "The Siege of Emon (LoVM)" (LVM3x08)
  • "To the Ends of the World" (LVM3x10)

Quotations

• "That's the best part of life: coming back to finish things."
• "[Scanlan] was always my favorite. I remember him being very funny. Always with the sexual joke. I love a good sexual joke."
• "When you have time, I have a small list of jokes, puns, and quips I'd like to run by you for future endeavors. [...] I get it. I am not humorous."

Trivia

Fan art of Cerkonos giving Lieve'tel some goodberries, by Maddy Marshall.

• Robbie Daymond revealed that he rolled dice and leveled up Cerkonos one by one until 20th level instead of creating him directly at that level.
• According to Dani Carr, she asked Robbie about relevant information surrounding Cerkonos and his relationships, and the actor told her that he had never settled down (which she would later find ironic, since as soon as the Flamespeaker met Lieve'tel he was infatuated by her).
• Cerkonos is the second character featured in Critical Role who had lost a hand, preceded by Anna Ripley and followed by Tyriok Gadsworth, Shale, and Victor. Arkhan the Cruel also sacrificed his hand in the game.
• Even when he transforms into elementals other than the fire one, he retains some traits of this element: his air elemental form, for example, has some sparks and smoke.
• Taliesin Jaffe sees Cerkonos as the Caduceus Clay of Vox Machina.
• Scanlan Shorthalt is his personal hero.
• Cerkonos is the second NPC to later become a player character, the first being Luc Brenatto.

References

Art: