doodlesanddrabbles - Tumblr blog

doodlesanddrabbles · 1 year ago

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@dalishious made a pretty dope character sheet for BG3, which I decided to turn my hand to.

Here's others I've done before!

Arcandoria's character sheet

Moodboard

Relationship dynamic

Leshana's backstory under the cut. It's a doozy and not even all of the story I have written out.

Leshana Tavaris (Formerly Greene), her parents are Professor Abeline Greene and Count Aneirien Tavaris, the pair met in college in their respective youths, introduced by Aneirien's childhood friend and Abeline's future party member, Ze'ev Lavellan.

The pair hit it off with a small casual fling sprung between the two during their time in college, but just as Aneirien came to the realization that he actually prefers the company of men over women, Abeline came to the realization that she was pregnant. Her announcement to Aneirien had him on one knee instantly, and her laughing in his face for it. He just told her that while he loved her as a friend, he actually couldn't be in love with her despite trying, why would he think she'd want to marry him?!

Awkwardly, the pair tried their best to co-parent, despite Aneirien's parents' (Count Zathrien and Countess Iossa Tavaris of Berdusk) disapproval of the situation. Abeline's parents' (bakers Kevin and Mavis Greene) were more supportive and Leshana's earliest years were spent in the bakery with Aneirien supporting and visiting them. When Leshana was a little older, and Abeline had graduated college, Abeline set out exploring dungeons, with Leshana often waiting for her mother back in camp with a party member babysitting/waiting outside the dungeon as backup, Leshana had a very varied education in her earliest years (Hence her bardic "Jack-of-all trades" skill) but one skill she truly shined in was music, her godfather Ze'ev was a bard skilled in the lute, but Leshana found her passion in the violin and fiddle and the camp welcomed her interest in music, since it meant she was less likely to wander off in search of her own adventures. When Abeline wasn't in a dungeon, her home bases were either Candlekeep--where she would donate a number of artifacts she found or publish books on her findings--or Berdusk, where Aneirien resided.

Aneirien openly worried about Abeline taking Leshana out dungeon crawling with her, even if Leshana was never allowed further than the doorstep of the dungeon, and the pair would argue about it. Abeline seemed to think she could have it both ways, be a daring tomb raiding adventurer and a mother, while Aneirien would stress about one day getting a letter that Leshana had been skewered by a bandit or eaten by a bear. His fears became reality when at aged 9, Leshana was finally allowed inside a dungeon--one Abeline and her team had made sure to clear out beforehand, sadly, the team had failed a roll and missed a trap to disarm, meaning poor Leshana set it off. It was thanks to a teammates' quick reflexes that all Leshana lost that day was a couple of toes but the incident rattled Abeline and strengthened Aneiriens' resolve, Leshana would have a more permanent home in Berdusk with him and Abeline could be the one to visit them in her downtime. Initially, they sold the idea to Leshana as her just staying with her father until her foot healed up, Abeline having to go back out to the field for research, the parents' treated it as a trial period to see how Leshana settled in, and as much as Abeline hated to say it, Leshana flourished in a more stable environment, where she was finally able to make friends' her own age without having to leave them behind in a weeks time and so, Leshana became a permanent resident of the Tavaris household.

It was around this time that Leshana’s paternal grandfather died, leading her father to take up the mantle of Count and while the transition of power for Aneirien was smooth, things were a little odd for Leshana. She was a bastard child, one that Aneirien had taken into his home but officially speaking she wasn't a lady, or really in possession of any title, really, but Aneirien brought her to court, she was sent to the good schools and rubbed shoulders with children who did have titles. Leshana had to adapt quick to survive, gossip among the gentry can be vicious if not deadly and so she became very skilled at cold reading others and shaping herself to be the most palatable to them. Aneirien would worry about this for years, seeing it as his daughter stifling herself or even "cutting off parts of herself" to make others like her, he struggled to discourage this behaviour in her because her acting meant it was not only hard for him to call her out on it (She's just being polite/having an educated conversation about so-and-so's interest/etc) and with her social chameleon abilities, there would be times Leshana would convince her father that she was listening to his concerns. Any time she would let the mask slip, and it would be like blood in the water for sharks, any failure from her was never a surprise, considering what she is and her mothers' growing unsavoury reputation among the nobility (Some see Abeline as a gold digger who entrapped Aneirien with a child in exchange for gold, some see her as a hedonist having gotten pregnant so young and out gallivanting who knows where instead of living with her mistake and being a mother etc etc), so any attempt to be genuine from her was quickly snuffed out in favour for being the Golden Child instead.

Despite what people say about Abeline, a part of her always dreamed of being able to finally, finally go on an adventure with her, or even go on adventures herself! That's why she threw herself into her music, gaining a knack for bardic skills so as to be useful on her first quest, but then the accident happened.

When Leshana was 14 years old, Aneirien got into an accident, he himself had a fondness for arcane instruments and artifacts, he enjoyed studying them as a hobby and as part of his duties as Count to help investigate odd happenings for the Harpers in the area--it's why he hit it off with Abeline in the first place--but one such item that came across his desk was cursed or booby trapped, either way it ended in disaster the first time he picked it up, the explosion of necrotic energy left him in critical condition and clerics and doctors alike worked on him for hours to keep him alive while a young teenaged Leshana paced outside of his room, working herself up into a meltdown with worry over her father, her feelings only became more confused when a cleric was sent out of the room to grab Aneiriens' family solicitor of all things, Leshana felt hurt to be barred from her fathers' side as he lay dying but was relieved when it was decided that he would pull through, though permanently disabled, it was believed that Aneirien would be unable to have any more children due to the necrotic damage to his body.

Before that, when his life still hung in the balance, did he call for his solicitor, and with the healers as witnesses, had the paperwork made up to legitimize and formally recognize Leshana Greene and Lady Leshana Tavaris, future Countess of Berdusk. The nobility were in a tizzy following this, people scrambled to get into Leshana's good graces, others openly mocked her as simply "a pretender who got lucky", second and third sons were sent to court the future Countess and others were more concerned with what tf happened to Aneirien.

Leshana's biggest foe in the following years, was her paternal aunt, Saelasa Tavaris, who would've been Aneiriens' heir had he not brought in a solicitor, felt like this was a personal attack on her, why did he feel such a need to block her birthright while on his deathbed? She couldn't blame her brother in his state, so she blamed Leshana and let the girl know it.

Saelasa was behind most of the gossip and orchestrated scandals set out to undermine Leshana's legitimacy as an heir or any faith in her as a future Countess. Meanwhile, Leshana's own world was turning upside down, after almost losing her father, it was overnight that the world openly treated her like a completely different person all together, already a massive problem when one is barely into puberty but further exacerbated by the simple fact that Leshana's life wasn't her own anymore.

Countesses don't go on daring adventures across Faerun.

For her fathers' sake, Leshana put her hopes and dreams in a box and locked them away, throwing herself further into learning how to be a proper countess, learning about politics and management of the county, sitting in on political meetings with the Grand Duke Ravengard and such. This went on for years, as Leshana cut off more and more of herself to play politics and keep her father happy as well as take the stress of off his now frail shoulders. By elven standards, Aneirien's still very, very young, but the incident has aged him greatly. When she was 18, Aneirien sent Leshana to his alum college, officially as a "finishing school" setting, but had her enrolled in a Bardic college, hoping to keep some of her hopes alive for her, she wasn't quite sure what to make of this decision, she wouldn't really need this when she's a Countess after all, but took it as a "last hurrah" of her passions before throwing herself into politics permanently. Leshana enjoyed a level of popularity whilst at college, naturally there were the remora's hoping to gain something from hanging of off her, but many others were simply drawn to her genuine kindness, the only part of her that was real, and that she would let shine even if others side-eyed her for it. Inviting even social outcasts to sit with her at the table to chat.

Leshana enjoyed a level of popularity while at college and actually loved the course, learning history and bardic skills and acting etc etc. It was fun. Meanwhile, Aneirien was in talks about a marriage alliance with a young elven transman named Kemalen Tinúviel --a son of a wealthy merchant family, boosting both Berdusk's economy and the Tavaris' coffers. It was understood that this marriage would be sterile, simply an excuse for the Tinúviel family to put an heir of legitimacy on their shipping orders with the Tavaris family seal and the Tavaris family would benefit from the economy boost with trading. Leshana performed the violin at her father and step-fathers' wedding and was a lovely groomsmaid.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Kemalen became pregnant. Many fingers were pointed, most initially believing that there could be no way that the child could be Aneiriens' child. The Necrotic damage! But assuming Araj Oblodra isn't the only person messing with things like blood, a Faerun paternity test was issued and lo and behold, a miracle had happened and Aneirien had managed to conceive a second child! All eyes were on Leshana to see her reaction to the news, but she was busy finishing off her college courses, having extended her studies to actually cover politics and the like "while she was still young". Leshana tried hard not to think about her baby sibling until they were born. In isolation, Leshana loved her little sister Hanina dearly. But with everything else outside of that bubble, uhhhh........

There was suddenly pressure from Kemalen, Kemalen's family and other members of the nobility for Aneirien to declare his legal child as his heir, setting Leshana aside, others who had invested time and money into courting Leshana's favour didn't want that to be all for nothing, put pressure on Aneirien not to be so wishy-washy and to stay the course. Leshana tried to stay out of it, not sure what she wanted. She had spent the last 16 years shaping herself to be the perfect Countess, not allowing herself to dream of being free to do what she wants, to just be...put aside as if all of it meant nothing, was crushing for her. She felt listless and lethargic over this situation, compounded with the growing guilt as her father stressed more and more from the stress being piled up on him by all sides. Now graduated from college, Leshana was en route back to Baldurs Gate to make her way to Berdusk from Neverwinter before her ship was sunk by a nautiloid and you know the story ;P

After the events of BG3, Leshana forgoes the 2 month trip to Berdusk to see her family and headed straight south to her mothers' apartment in Candlekeep to research for a way to help Astarion with the whole "Can't go in sunlight" problem. (It's only when talking to him about her home life does she realize that they probably think she died at sea when her ship went down did she send a letter home to let him know what's up)

She grew very good at cold reading others (She got a lot of passed perception checks when interacting with the party) as a survival mechanism on how to interact with others. Honestly the tadpole group are probably the first people whove seen her without her masks since she was 9.

It's during her time in BG3 and to an extent, Astarion's influence, does Leshana learn to be a little bit more selfish and embrace her inner gremlin a little, and when she finally reunites with her father, she summons the family solicitor to formally abdicate herself from the line of succession (Part of why Aneirien dithered about it so much was because it would've killed him if he broke Leshana's heart by abandoning her like that, so part of her is still putting him first by taking that burden of off him, but she's finally free to become an adventurer like she dreamed of).

#oc #doodles and drabbles #leshana tavaris #tav #baldurs gate 3 #bg 3 #dnd #bard #half elf #character bio #i love my ocs

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