Work Text:
Welcome to my wonderful world! A disclaimer about this series- this is a purely self-indulgent AU brought to you by a deep and abiding love for a book series known as The Dragonkeeper Chronicles. It’s a five book series I read in my childhood (and re-read for nostalgia’s sake every few years) that is a poorly concealed Christian allegory, but with dragons. The story isn’t very fleshed-out, and the characters don’t have much depth, but it was one of the first stories that ever felt like home to me. Critical Role is like that for me now, and I wrote this as a way to explore what it would be like if those two worlds collided. This series is pretty OC heavy, as I wanted to take a character born and raised in Amara (the setting for Dragonkeeper chronicles) and drop them into the very different world of Exandria.
It's important to me that this is a character is sent to Exandria to learn, not to teach. Liliana is an OC based off of that fated book series, and is the lens I have chosen to view the world of Exandria through. There are religious themes all throughout this series, but please note that it is mainly Liliana questioning the religion she was raised with, and coming to know the very different, very diverse world of Exandria. The last thing I want to do is have her sit and preach the gospel at everything. Her religion will govern her choices and opinions, and will as such be very present in this series, but in the way I wish Christianity was in our world, where we are called to love our neighbor and help the needy. Liliana will not be on a mission to spread the good news about Wulder (God) but rather live out her life as He would command and through that spread love and help others.
This will not be a canon-compliant series for either of the two source materials, because I have chosen fun. I have a deep respect for the story and world the cast and crew of CR have built over the years, and will attempt to stay at least close to the established canon to an extent, but this series will go far beyond the canon ending of campaign three and follow the Mighty Nein through their lives and deaths. Lifespan angst is near and dear to me as a widow and I will be exploring not only the grief of losing a loved one but also the joy that can be found after they are gone. Essek Thelyss my beloved you will find happiness.
This work will serve as an intro into the universe I have created and a reference that will be updated as the series progresses.
Warning! Liliana is a bit of a mary-sue and I could not actually care less. I find it much more interesting to throw interpersonal conflicts and internal struggles at her than have constant fighting (I hate fight scenes and will only include them if there is meaningful character work involved).