#oc: merith coborel

[thee-morrigan]

“𝑵𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆. 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒅.”

Wanted to do a lil collage for Merith, my bard/paladin durge 🖤

[thee-morrigan]

Hi! Darjeeling and Chamomile for Merith and Faeryl? 💕

Hi hi! Thank you for asking about them! 🥰

Darjeeling: Where does your OC feel most at home?

Okay, so, full disclosure, this one depends so much on how I'm feeling about what constitutes their "canon" routes/ending at any given moment lol BUT—

In general—regardless of route, regardless of ending—neither of them feels truly "at home" anywhere; the major difference is that this feeling of displacement is always a little uncomfortable, a little bittersweet and unsettling, for Faeryl, whereas Merith feels at worst neutrally about this and considers it a positive, hopeful feeling most of the time.

So, if you asked either of them, particularly during the events of BG3, their short answers would be something like "nowhere" or a halting "I...don't know" from Faeryl; Merith, on the other hand, would give a much more chipper "haven't found it yet!" or "on the road" as her answer.

(The route/ending-dependent answers would change a little in terms of specific answer, but the core feeling would still be there in some capacity, even on Faeryl's "happiest" ending, because she's too serious and broody by half 😢)

Chamomile: What does your OC do to relax?

Merith gravitates towards music to relax, always; at camp or when taking breaks along the road, she's almost always found lyre in hand, plucking out an idle tune. If she's not playing something, or she's occupied with another task, such as when she's sharpening and oiling her sword in the evenings (another thing she generally finds relaxing/meditative), she'll still often be singing or humming along to some song in her head.

I'm not convinced Faeryl actually knows how to relax to be totally honest! I think the closest she comes—like if she's trying to calm down intentionally, say—is probably running through a series of exercises to settle her magic (and often by extension her body) in her head. Little things she might have learned while still in the Underdark with her adoptive family, perhaps rote practices from her years studying at Arach-Tinilith.

tea-themed asks

[thee-morrigan]

Hi hi ^^ I came to ask about Merith! Would love to know more about her, anything really, but what made me curious was her combination of bard and paladin--and durge. What made you decide on that? (Is it common to combine those first two in DnD?)

Hiiii, Seren, thank you so much for asking about her! I honestly haven't played enough dnd to know what class combos are more or less prevalent, but my sense (at least from the bg3 subreddit lol) is that it's a fairly popular build, with a fair amount of flexibility in terms of how you choose to spec it in terms of subclass choice/level division/potential for adding in 1-2 levels of a third class/etc.

As for why *I* chose that combo, especially with a durge: I knew I wanted to do another durge (after I did my initial durge playthrough with Faeryl, I haven't been able to tear myself away from that role!). I also wanted to try at least one class I wouldn't normally go for; in this case: paladin (not that I'd done a bard yet, either, but it was more likely I'd run a bard at some point than I would a more martial class) to branch out a little.

Pally is especially good for multiclassing if, like me, you tend to favor charisma-forward characters (I could very happily run all sorcerers all the time), since they also rely on that stat for their casting, rather than strength, which let me explore another kind of play while staying close to my skill-monkey/party-face comfort zone with the bard combo -- and bard is a *really* fun class to play in bg3 in terms of dialogue options, etc.

Also, bard was a perfect fit for Merith and how I wanted to play after my first durge run. Faeryl is such a fundamentally serious, often-melancholy creature (and because her canon is largely just a much more angsty, heavier story, even for the dark urge because I apparently really like to suffer), and I wanted to see how a slightly-less-angsty durge might play out -- enter Merith :D

I'll admit I was a little on the fence about doing a durge as a paladin (even going for another redemption route), because I wasn't sure how to square her having been a paladin and also being...well, her lol. (Aside from the obvious oathbreaker option, though that's not something you can technically start the game as).

But it turns out even non-oathbreaker paladins get some really juicy unique interactions, and it ended up being a way more immersive/lore-rich route than I'd anticipated, and added some unexpected depth and heft to Merith's character, since so much of her personality is rooted in her playful irreverence. And giving her Oath of Ancients was a beautiful way to blend her love of music and poetry into both classes, as well as offer some delicious symbolism to her redemption arc: my headcanon for her is that she took that oath initially (pre-tadpole) as a way to try resisting the urge early on in life. She spends most of the events of the game as an oathbreaker, finally recommitting herself to the OoA in Act 3 after facing Orin, thereby preserving her own light, which is one of the four Tenets of the Ancients: "delight in song and laughter, in beauty and art. if you allow the light to die in your own heart, you can't preserve it in the world." (And yes I *did* pull out my dnd player's handbook to confirm the oath's wording xD)

[thee-morrigan]

Shadowheart might be god’s favorite princess but Merith is god’s bloodiest