Fireside Chat for WWW ep26 "The Conclave of the Witches of the Coven of Elders""

Aabria does such a good job at creating and playing a character I increasingly cannot stand. 10/10 character building (a very multidimensional character even if, if not particularly because, I cannot stand said character), storytelling, and performance.

Vera Lynn ftw!! 😍

If any harm comes to Niamh (I assume it's Niamh, because Ireland? Haven't looked at the transcript), I will fight Brennan Lee Mulligan verbally and maybe physically

I am so glad Lou is around to ask “huh?” questions for me when I can’t 😂

aabria loves Renee rapp’s performance in mean girls, iktr

The music during the entrance of Hakea and Gramora made my hair stand on end in the best way! Iv never been so impacted by story or music before this podcast

Relistening - in the fight/convo between Eurselon and Suvi on MiB, what I heard was the difference in words of Suvi saying, "Do you trust him?" And getting the response, "I believe him." Which to me is not quite the same thing, whether it was conscious or not on Eurselon's part

brennan is obviously gretchen. also why did richard oklahoma talk about his lou brain? something isnt adding up…

Smarshmellows, brought to you by smarsh, SMARSH IS KING!!!! 2 CREW INVASION!!!!!!!!

I think that she's going to steal neifs youth personally

Oklahoma mention!!🫶

Yall are just so insane together in the best of ways.

The captions on the firesides & the episodes never miss 😌 “we didnt even get to look at his teeth :(“

Erika got there with “grin & bear it” 👏

I love how unhinged the fireside is

I inferred that Neif's presentation combined with her saying "sorry for shivering," are intrinsic to her apprenticeship. Her exposure to elements feels like a sort of gauntlet to her hardening herself. The Elsa type of having to be cold and truly isolated through some mental and physical strain. Sprinkled in with the sorrow that all is only what you make of it.

Was Richard's mind wiped by the same jungle captives of Brennen and sent to finish the job as some sort of Alien-bursting Manchurian candidate???

This was a perfect fireside chat. Hats off to Taylor.

YOURE NOT MOMMY‼️ YOU DONT HAVE THE FIRST IDEA ABOUT MOMMY‼️

Brennan doing Gilbert Gottfried…hm check that off my vacillating ethereal bingo card

If Indri is a being with everything that anyone would Want, I interpreted Neef as the embodiment of Wanting. Who wants more than the little matchstick girl stuck in the snow? I could see Neef enduring all of this with the promise of inheriting Indri’s station.

We can’t keep letting them get away with this… ALL THE GUESTS ARE LOU. ALL OF THEM! He even refers to his “Lou brain” in the chat! Wake up friends! We are being deceived!

Hi there, I am very confused on what the dunk was that Brennan/Neef did, could someone please explain?

Happy to know erika Also would love for Grimore to utterly murder them ♡

So happy to have Erika proudly repping us bisexuals. Yes, we WOULD do whatever the scary animal lady covered in blood tells us to!

Suvi: why that baby aint got no coat on?! true aunty energy

i was gonna be so shocked if no one was thirsting for the bear lady in this 😂

How do we find those of you going to GenCon at GenCon?

Just came here to say that I watched the new Means Girls bc of this and I was already *very queer* but Renee Rapp's facial expressions unlocked an entire BONUS LEVEL of "oh... OH" 🌈💖

Actually sureal experience listing to this episode beacuse my name is niv, which is so close to nif, at points I felt like you were talking to me, I absolutely loved it though

even on a re-listen when I know it’s coming, the alarm blare when Richard breaks containment continues to trigger a real-life “oh shit what’s happening?!” response from me lol. like half a second of pure panic before I recollect myself and mutter “idiot” under my breath 😅

Drawing a connection between Real Housewives, Mean Girls, and WBN made my day complete.

The end song is UNHINGED Taylor

THE JUICE!! ☠️

Wow I fully misread the relationship between Indri and Neef. I fully thought the compulsion around Indri was a possible part of the station of Wind and Stars and that, like being unbothered by the cold, Neef could only inherit the station and its compulsion by first living in a destitute state. Like, being poor and lowly and freezing was an axis of metamorphosis for that station, and it was just a different kind of kinship and training than Ren or Hekaea use for their apprentices.

havent even heard the fireside chat yet, just came to say im in love with Suvi and Taylor Moore

Ricocheting from real housewives to mean girls to Suvi is my favourite thing rn

She's got to be absorbing the beauty and desire from the people around her

Since we are talkin about witches i just seen the trailer for wicked, and i cant stop thinking this is suvi if she multi classed as a witch.

Brennan really just came out and said the thing we've all been thinking since we met Aelwyn Abernant, which is that he would have been the world's most devastating Heather. Like, finally. Like, truly, there's never been a better time to say "so you admit it." It's like, instead of a Dungeon Lord we would have had a queen bee? Not dark but like beautiful and terrible as the dawn, tempestuous as the sea? We'd like love her and despair or whatever.

Screaming at the ending music!!!!!!

"In another life, I could have been a mean girl." 🤣🤣🤣

The last few minutes of this episode feel like this arc's Crazy Frog and that's all I'll say about that

Sometimes it’s so hard to recommend this show to people. “Do you like heartfelt improvised roleplay and heavily committed Dr Strangelove references?” This is not a criticism, keep it up you lovely maniacs.

That last 90 seconds of the episode

Sous vide and Um-Ame were inspired. As was the heart eating trashtalk. Fireside chats are packed with value.

Erika: in some cultures, a show of dominance is looking inside of someone’s mouth Me with a completely logical and sane followup question: so dentists are all dommy mommies

That ending song always gets me, it is so dang good! Taylor, your sound design and musical selection is so spot on. It is truly its own character in the beautiful world our players are in. Cheers to you!

I am just going to keep thanking all of you for what you are doing. It is amazing. Shout out to Taylor. So many times in podcasts and videocasts I dread the sound design. But OMG Taylor your sound is one of the things that I look forward to so much each time I see a episode drop. It helps tell the story so well. You are incredible. So listening to this fireside helped me solidify some thoughts I have been having. Urselon: There is something to the way his breath is related to Honor that is developing in a way that feels really important to the story. It is like his breath being honor is a mirror reflecting in a mirror. Does the collective unconscious of the mortals of Umora shine Honor into the world of spirits or is the mortal idea of Honor a world of forms spirit idea that is poured into Umora? Or both? Either way it feels like with the passing of an age of knights and honor, that something is wrong with the connection between Umora and the Spirit Worlds. Can Ureslon be a bridge whose breath becomes a return of this pure thing to both Umora and the Spirit world. Intended or no I imagine that as this develops I am going to feel really drawn to what and how that speaks to something profoundly pure and I love it. Suvi: To everyone giving Suvi crap, I think perhaps you might be missing just how much her Trauma is being kicked. Nope its not healthy, but man is it pretty moving and real. I do hope that in the end the story takes her to a place of healthy healing, at least with Ame and Urselon. I love a good tragedy or a moving poignant character arc. Here though I hope for the character who values knowledge so deeply to come eventually to the revelation that understanding herself, despite the pain of her losses, is the most powerful kind of knowledge. I hope for an arc where insight and understanding come around how her trauma is creating a lack of clarity and strings that the machinery of Empire can use to puppet her or blind her or force upon her a manipulative ignorance of her deepest self. What I love about Suvi’s story is how I keep seeing new facets of it and how central her fear of and desire for connection shape all of them. Amazing. Ame: Oh Ame. I feel like we are catching oblique glimpse of some of the deeper reasons Grandmother Wren chose her. Much time was spent talking about why the other apprentice was chosen. It sparked me to consider more deeply why Ame was chosen. Fact is that we know that Wren was definitely refusing to agree to the rest of the collective will of her Coven. The sense is that that was happening long before Ame was chosen. We know Wren was trying to solve a riddle and had not been able to. But maybe, just maybe she did, or at least she planted the solution in the world by training Ame. What did she see of the worlds heart in Ame? What deep secrets did Wren read upon the heart of this dear child she was given care of? Ame is at work. Is Ame also the hope for fulfillment of Wren at work? Human hearts are different that the other forces represented on the Coven and one of those differences is the way human hearts pass on legacy. Yep. I don’t think we have yet even scratched the surface of who Ame is and who she might become. Brennan: OK sir! I feel like you are trying to pull a stage magician trick on this Fireside and I am calling it here and now. You took the time to play up how big and scary the forces represented on the Coven are. And I think you are being real. However it strikes me that these witches are mortals. They are bridges. Thus in part, no matter how subsumed they are by the forces they represent, under all of it they are still mortals with hearts, and all that that implies. This is perhaps why we see Wren able to defy her Coven. Is this the why Wren can, with dignity and grace, deliver to her sister Marrara(sp) a threat that seems clearly one taken almost as fact that she can deliver on it? I think they were scared of her. Hence all the hints of mean girl BS directed not just at Wren but at the station of the witch of the worlds heart. Did one or more of them come to the realization that ultimately the station of the worlds heart can pull on their humanity in a way no witch can ever truly escape or shield herself from? So now Wren is gone they have decided to try to strike now that the current holder of the station is young and does not fully understand the Coven's susceptibility to the power of her station? Yep. I am calling it here. Your emphasis on how her station is not much to them or how they see it feels like a Trojan horse. At least some of them are clocking this I am guessing. Finally, this Fireside made me really want Ame to find a way to or look into finding a way restore the lost stations of the Coven. Is the loss creating an imbalance at least in Umora? Seems possible. Could the witch of the worlds heart see into the truest selves of those she meets and seek out mortals who are the ideal bridges to the ideals that are not longer represented? I think she just might be. One wonders if Wren ever considered doing this as a way to find a solution to the problem she was posed. I love how much this story makes me think and how much your firesides inspire this humble listener. Thanks all of you. Keep at it. Incredible stuff.

How is the Sea Doo repair going?

My take on Nief is that it's a little-known secret about the station of the Wind & Stars that they always start as pathetic little dorks, and get glammed up gradually over the course of their apprenticeship like Devil Wears Prada. For a Witch of the World's Heart, your coming-of-age moment is a Kiki's Delivery Service flight sequence where you get a broom at the end. For a Witch of the Wind & Stars, it's a closet step-out makeover montage, where you get your first good haircut and a pair of Chanel boots.

The song at the end gave me big horror energy and I wasnt prepared 😂

Someone help me... this might be a cultural thing. But WTF is "Auntie Energy?" My aunts have almost nothing in common and I rarely saw them and didn't really have a deep connection with them. So... what does that ter m mean to people who understand it?

Brennan watches figure skating: confirmed

I think it would be a cool idea to play the tracks in the background when they're talking about certain music from the show. Sometimes I don't remember what they sounded like while I'm distracted lol

The witch parade was so phenomenal and the music was the cherry on top truly it reminds me of like a fast waltz! Taylor is doing amazing! Only critique this episode: not enough soup talk :)

Erika casually sighting Saint-Saëns is EVERYTHING to me

Oh Richard We had so little time 🥺 (at least it wasn't cosmic horror, I heard Aabria mention Akira)

Is this the first character death on a commentary about an episode?

I know there's a lot of other stuff but when Nief came on the scene, I started judging Indry differently. She's got big villain energy and okay that's cool and expected but as soon as you show me an underclothed apprentice in Ice Hell, it's too real life. It emphasizes that Indry is an ice cold bitch and has no problem doing this to even this tiny pitiful thing. No mercy. But also, Nief is gonna fill icy shoes one day and these are probably actions that weed out the "unworthy." Something like Urselon's dad saying Urselon should have been allowed to die if he couldn't survive the water. Also, the sounds of the coven entrance brought me "entrance of Prince Ali in Aladdin" vibes. But sinister. :3 I really love the nonhuman aspects of the witches. When you are an entity that represents something not involving humans, I think it fits well.

I’m so glad Richard Oklahoma was here to help with the Iago Fiasco, cause I could not stop thinking about the damn parrot.

"Always star in your own movie." - Ken Kesey

Taylor bringing the Strange love homage. *Chef's Kiss*

I've been thinking about this for the past week about taylor moore but i just wanna say "that man is nooooon stop"

Wow.

"Not the mama. Not the mama. Not the mama. NOT THE MAMA!" -Suvi

AAAAA THANK YOU FOR ANSWERING MY QUESTION! I truly loved Niamph as a tension-cutting "edit" character (bc the one thing that will unite Suvi and Ame faster than anything is a sad little girl who needs help) but YEAH I loved the implications of her being Indri's apprentice, just... I think it says something VERY important when you compare how someone treats peers to how they treat subordinates. This. Story. Is. So. JUICY!!!! AAAAAA <3

Please release the cut where Suvi gets into the bathtub and just waits

Before I even listen to this I just have to say that the descriptions of the witches was one of the coolest thing I’ve ever heard I couldn’t stop smiling and gasping. So visceral and beautiful! Witches are so sick. That was so sick. This podcast is so sick.

My take on Niamph was that she was a level 0 witch, like Ame in the children's adventure. Just truly no resources, spells, constitution score. But she's in the domain of the wind and stars, not the world's heart, and she just can't keep up. It kind of read as carelessness on Indri's part, like she's centuries into being this ancient powerful witch who can't feel the cold and she's forgotten what it's like to be a child. But I do have to wonder if Indri thinks she's never going to die or something, because I don't understand making someone your apprentice to such a prestigious and difficult station and then not investing in them? Like, that's just poor planning. Favorite music was definitely the witches entrance. It reminded me of the Great Bear's parade, but spooky and invoking that twisty cackle of witches

We love to Eursulon-ch on some Suvi'd Um-Ame flavor. So much love for y'all's stew-like collaborative magic.

There's something special about getting high level production bits in the Fireside. I love this series.

I wonder how the cast feels knowing that this will be new generations' LotR or Dune. This show is just SO FUCKING GOOD, every tiny detail slaps.

One thing I fully agree on: There is no Mommy who is Mommier than Steel. Steel is the Mommiest Mommy.

If I could do art, Suvi, Ame & Eursulon at Children’s Adventure age, each doing the Marmallow Test would be happening. In my head it’s adorable.

There is an episode of Real house wives of Potomac where they stayed st the Windsor Court Hotel. I was the desk agent that checked them in.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was incredibly down bad for the scary wild hunt lady 🙂

So glad that I wasn’t the only one whose imagination ran wild with The Witch of the Wild Hunt

Did Richard Oklahoma have a Netherese Orb in his chest? 😮

The ending though! I laughed so hard. Taylor that was inspired!

Omg was that Erica singing the song in the end???

Queen of the Second Marshmallow is CRAZYYYY

Taylor once again pulling out the banger of a track for the credit roll. Perfect, no notes.

Where to begin? 1st to Um Actually the comment section and myself: Niamph 😊 2nd I live for Lou's befuddlement whenever Aabria and Erika let their freak flag fly 1😅 3rd unreasomably stoked that Brennan's titles for my favorite tracks in this ep match the ones I made up in my head 🥳

The intro of the other witches gave me CHILLS - it was PHENOMENAL. Definitely made me start drawing The Witch of the Wild Hunt and she is SO intense

"pop me like a squeeze it" howling and the whole neighbourhood can hear it omfg

"I liked the sounds when the witches came." -Aabria She didn't come Aabria, you walked away from the tub.

Just listened to the movie version of Meet the Plastics for the first time. Yeah, that definitely belongs on Suvi’s playlist 🤣

"in another life I could have been a mean girl, I could have had that" Brennan Lee Mulligan 💜

Queen of the Second Marshmallow is the BEST title I’ve ever heard.

Crazy that the gang brought along the SCP formerly known as Richard Oklahoma onto the fireside

“Queen of the Second Marshmallow” is my new favorite title, thank you!

These fireside chats are so sleepover coded to me im so excited for the next ones

Just Breathtaking Soundscapes once again Taylor! Thank You for the incredible work you continue to do!

That officially brings our guest count to one bankrupt, and two dead out of 21 total. Not bad odds, but not great either 😂

Yay discussion of Nief that makes Indri into a Real Housewife! Boo the old "I'm sorry you feel that way," line in arguments! Yay realizing that the gang is getting dunked on by "imaginary people"! Boo forgetting to tell your friend that witches are trying to kill her whole culture! Triple yay the talk about different layers of personality making people do things that they aren't even aware of. (Suvi getting to the library before she gets to her crush. Ame being too scared of Suvi being mad and therefore withholding information which will, when it comes out, justifiably make Suvi even more mad.) The music is amazing. One thing this podcast is doing is making me aware of how people who actually think about music in media do their work. I've never considered how that happens.

There are other covens, right? Maybe of “lesser” witches? When they were doing their walkabout in arc 1, some people were so excited to have dealings with a witch. Witches are sometimes respected and revered but I didn’t get the impression they were scary-supernatural. And I can’t imagine your average human having a positive interaction with anyone of this coven, except Ame. So what are other witches/covens like? More/less unhinged? More/less powerful?

“Nous allons maintenant à Le Beurre Salon, où nous apprendons à flamber avec Ame et cuissonons sous-vide avec Suvi. Je suis votre hôte, Eursalon. Beaucoup Naram-nom-noms pour vous.” - this intro to the French cooking spin-off show brought to you by Aabria and Brennan’s Duolingo competition. 👩🏾‍🍳💋

I got the sense that the witches choose apprentices who are like them, or like they *were*. There’s a clear path from Ame to Wren, I think, and from Grimore(?)’s apprentice to her final clawed form. I’m fascinated though by the idea of “how do you get from Neif to Indri?”

I think Indri has an apprentice because she’s The Witch of Wind and Stars and Neif is just the latest. They die and she just keeps going on and plucks another apprentice as needed.

Loved it when the cast sealed the bag and Suvi’d the tension. Do I want more? Hell yeah, put it Ame! I’ll H’Eursulon down to the kitchen to fill up another bowl of that stew.

THE ENDDD 🤣🤣

“I’m gonna Eursulon down to the kitchen and have some” … After two stellar puns, the effort had to be made, and it seemed an impossible task. The result is utterly preposterous, yet… parfait.

IN THE UR-SALON!

The “You think you are mommy, you aren’t mommy” bit at the end has me on the floor laughing

I loved the puns! Also, I cannot tell you how much it made my day that they answered my question, because I really wanted to know the answer ... but also because ... eeee!!!! They answered my question!!!!!

I feel like Taylor has this motif in his productions of using this swingy 50's 60's music. Rude Tales had a lot of it and I love it man, its always had such a warm sound to me and he just kills it.

the bit evolving from “lou plays eursulon and guests do the talkbacks because he’s in panama” to “a different guest played eursulon every episode” after brennan came back has been very fun to witness

It’s such a music-based conversation I neeeed reference clips. My goldfish brain doesn’t remember

I work at a school and that alarm at the end had me take my ear buds out so quickly to make sure it wasn't something here.

My take Neif: there’s something about the witch of the wind and stars that suggests imperviousness. She has the largest wardrobe known to man and is immediately willing to give Suvi her choice of a dozen beautiful scarves so she is not really hoarding that wardrobe either. Offering her the scarves felt like a show of power in and of itself. She’s directly showing us that she could easily clothe her apprentice properly and it would be nothing to her, but she is choosing not to. That suggests to me that the state of Neif’s dress is a very intentional part of her training. In order to become the ice queen you must become ice yourself. You get the distinct impression that she could walk the North Pole in a thin evening gown as comfortably as anything else and that any shows of warmth have more to do with fashion than necessity. There’s also a cycle of abuse suggested here. Perhaps the ice queen always abuses her apprentice. She works the emotion and the warmth out of her until she too is a cold outward beauty. What throws me off the most about the state of Neif is that this is a person who cares very deeply about outward appearances. It was interesting that Brennan mentioned Neif was not present at the conclave itself. In some ways having Neif tend to Ame may be a manipulation or a slight, but there’s also a sense of comfort there. Ame is someone who has been allowed to see the room with the dirty laundry, if you will. It’s incredibly interesting that she would drop her guard to such a degree for her.

Are we ever getting a 12 Brooks part 2?

That Iago impression almost had me spit coffee all over my drawing assignment 🤣 “Being dunked on by imagination people” is practically a pastime of creatives and people with adhd 😜

Should've known Oklahoma was an SCP all along.

I love hearing about all the subtle jabs (and not so subtle with the frozen garden of people and eating a literal heart) that are getting thrown the parties way. The thought that Nief was being sent to get the world's heart contingent because it reflects how Indri feels is just *chef's kiss*

My favorite witch is also Ame ☺️

Loved the talkback, very funny. Making a sincere plea to not put in unexpected alarm sounds, i work in a place where emergency signals actually sound like that and freaked out at the top of a tall ladder.

I always thought the whole Indri (can't remember the spelling) deal was an ugly duckling type situation. But darker. The isolation of being "ugly" and then the isolation of "beauty".

"I keep getting dunked on by the imagination people" They should really put this on the back cover of every Tabletop Module Book like one of those paid-for-book reviews from the Citadel Post

I will pay any amount of money for backstory one-shots, or also just well produced lore-dumps on the witches and how they met/aquired their apprentices and familiars. 😭

I can't help but wonder if back when she was an apprentice, Indri was treated the same way she treats her own apprentice

You gotta eat that um-ame sousvide in the Er-salon

IRL Brennan would make the best Witch of the World's Heart

I've been listening to the fireside on Patreon. I've now worked out getting them on pocket casts. Does it get you more money if I listen on pocket casts? Even if marginal?

A hoo-hoo!!

'Hey, are you kelp? Because when you touch my foot I freak out' - Things I never expected to hear Brennan say.

Crackle crackle!