Thread by @MichaelGalvis

Reading through Tal'dorei Reborn and revisiting the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, I'm struck by a peculiar question: What the fuck is up with Exandria's second moon, Ruidus? Allow me to explain... #CriticalRole #TalDoreiReborn 1/17

Despite being, you know, A MOON, there's a lot of mystery surrounding this celestial body. Where Catha (the larger moon) is closely tied to the chaotic good god Sehanine and has a predictable moon cycle, Ruidus kind of does its own thing. 2/17

Tal'dorei Reborn says Ruidus has an "unexplainable tendency to simply not appear in the sky... or glow with unknown light, creating an unexpected full moon." The latter is important because—among other things—some believe making deals or plans under a full Ruidus are doomed. 3/17

We also now know that while Ruidus is believed by some to be under Sehanine's domain, lots of folks disagree, believing the moon is ruled by another god... or something else. Sehanine is chaotic good, which doesn't fit the bill for a moon of ill omens. 4/17

Superstitious folk believe being born under a full Ruidus dooms you to a life of misfortune. Such children are occasionally sacrificed to spare them from this curse. (Imagine a character who survived a moon-sacrifice and is now hunted by their kin!) 5/17

Pg. 105 of Tal'dorei Reborn shows us what happens when a town is founded under a full Ruidus. A LOT of people die. An adventure hook set in that town, Wittebak, teases something more about Ruidus: 6/17

SPOILER FOR THE ADVENTURE HOOK: "Was it truly by chance that Wittebak was destroyed? ...the aboleth and its aberrant servitors know... a secret that dates back to the Founding itself." 7/17

The Founding is when the gods and the first races clashed with the Primordials. Abyssal monsters also made an entrance and were backed by the Betrayer Gods. Magic was gifted to mortals during this period to banish the Primordials and the Betrayer Gods. 8/17

This period is when the Abyss, Nine Hells, and the Elemental Planes came into existence. And EGTW reveals that a double eclipse causes the planes to "collide." In an adventure hook, this collision leads to an invasion by the Nine Hells. See: dndbeyond.com/sources/egtw/w… 9/17

It's unclear how Ruidus ties into the Founding and this first war in Exandria; there's a secret here that's undisclosed in either book. And for whatever reason, an aboleth knows this secret. But Ruidus seems to have some funky effect on the planes. 10/17

Now, I want to go back to the fact that Ruidus is unpredictable. It has a habit of disappearing. It's randomly full. This doesn't make sense if Exandria's moons are meant to function like our own. Is something moving the moon? Lighting it? Where is Ruidus going? 11/17

I'm not convinced Ruidus is a moon. If it is, something is fucking with it. Could it be a Betrayer God? That wouldn't make sense with the Divine Gate. Could it be a Primordial? Nope, they were banished to the Elemental Planes. What if Ruidus is a prison or a creature? 12/17

I'm reminded of Emrakul from Magic: The Gathering. She's an eldritch horror that was imprisoned inside a moon. Her presence disrupted the day/night cycle. Crops suffered. Werewolves ran rampant. mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Eternal_N… 13/17

We also have Kaguya from Naruto. She's a godlike being that ruled over Earth with an iron fist. She was sealed away into the moon by her sons and was later a world-ending threat. 14/17

I don't know where I'm going with this. I don't have any evidence that something BIG is trapped in Ruidus or that it's a creature. Call me a conspiracy theorist, a man on the corner of the street in Whitestone shouting, "The moon is a lie!" But there's SOMETHING wrong here. 15/17

@matthewmercer mentioned Ruidus and superstitions around it a couple episodes ago in Critical Role. And I've been trying to predict what's coming in C3. Could it involve the moon? Or was that just some passing lore? 16/17

What I do know is that Mercer is a master of dropping hints, and there's something he isn't telling us about Ruidus in these books. I can't help but feel it's something disastrous for Exandria... 17/17

Shoutout to @jamesjhaeck and @wildrosemage, because I'm convinced they're in on what I'm dubbing The False Moon Conspiracy. 18/17